Beyond The Trenches
"Beyond the Trenches" is your guide to navigating the messy middle and emerging victorious. Join host Jay Bunte as he sits down with successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and experts who have not only survived the trenches but thrived beyond them.
In each episode, you'll discover:
- Real-world strategies: Uncover the tactics, mindsets, and habits that have propelled successful individuals to the next level.
- Actionable insights: Gain practical advice and tools you can implement immediately to make progress in your own journey.
- Inspiring stories: Hear the raw and unfiltered accounts of overcoming obstacles, achieving breakthroughs, and building a life of purpose and impact.
- Motivational fuel: Ignite your passion and drive as you learn from those who have walked the path before you.
Beyond The Trenches
Beyond Boundaries: Building a $34M Real Estate Empire in Three Years
Eric Wilkins shares how he built a $34 million real estate business in just three years by leveraging marketing expertise, implementing systems, and staying consistent with content creation.
• Origin story of starting in church leadership and accidental entry into marketing
• The immediate implementation of delegation to avoid burnout
• Marketing as the ultimate leverage piece in any business
• Content creation strategy focused on consistency rather than perfection
• Getting creative with AI to build tools and resources for clients
• Using social media to land development deals as far as East Texas
• How to protect your time and create work-life balance while scaling
• The 90-day rule: Eric didn't get his first client until day 91
• Setting up systems from day one, including transaction coordinators
• Valuing your time at a specific dollar amount to make better decisions
If you're looking to build your business, remember that consistency trumps perfection. Post regularly, create systems that free your time, and delegate the tasks you either don't enjoy or aren't good at.
I've only been in real estate three years, not even three years. $34 million last year, $22 million a year before that, $11 million a year before that. You have the ability to do everything that I'm doing, everybody does.
Speaker 2:Eric Wilkins is a former pastor turned powerhouse entrepreneur. In just three years he's built a $34 million real estate business, founded a full-service media agency, launched multiple ventures and raised five kids along the way. If you think success demands chaos, eric proves it's all about systems, consistency and creativity.
Speaker 1:The number one thing I kept seeing over and over and over is like you got to hire the right Stuff that I either suck at or the stuff that I hate doing.
Speaker 3:Get that away from me, yeah no-transcript like the way they look or sound on on camera and dude. People already know how you look, so get over yourself.
Speaker 1:There's something about cold calling to me that just, oh man, dear chat GPT, I would love to go door knocking and cold calling, but I do not want to be salesy and I want to actually bring value to people. What can I do to do that? Give me five ideas, and that's what I would be doing if I would be cold calling.
Speaker 3:Tell me that story. Welcome back to Beyond the Trenches. Today we're here with Eric Wilkins. I appreciate you coming in. Like a lot of my friends that have come on the show, I met Eric for the first time in person today. We've been Facebook friends, we've DM'd and texted and all that, but nice to finally meet you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good to meet you too, man yeah appreciate you coming in.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot to talk about today. I know you through at least least learned about you through real estate. But then starting to like kind of get to know you, I'm like, wow, you got quite a history, you got a lot of companies going, you got a lot of things going on, and so that was one of like my first questions and I get this kind of too, cause I, you know, I'm in mortgages but I've kind of dabbled in some side projects and I've done Amazon companies and insurance companies, all this stuff. People are like man, how do you, how do you find the time? So, like, just looking at you, at first glance, you have five kids, you got multiple companies, you, you're, you know, trying to be a husband, trying to be a father. Like how do you handle all that and how did you get to that spot? So tell me that story.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So, um, initially I was never the guy who was going to be in business, ever. That wasn't part of my plan, wasn't a part of my even my family history. If you look at that, no one expected this guy to be the one who's doing businesses. I mean, I went to college for kinesiology, like to be a football coach or something. I had no intent in doing this, but I was working for a church. That's really what got me into. It's going to sound kind of odd, but that's what got me into.
Speaker 1:Business was working for a church because when I was in my 20s, started working for a church, that's what moved me to this area. And I was doing the music stuff and started dabbling in the. I mean, you get put in charge of everything when you're starting a church. So I was in charge of all the music and the lights and the sound and all the stuff. I had no idea what I was doing, but I just had to learn and luckily it was in the time that YouTube was becoming more and more of a thing. So I started learning school YouTube, how do we do all this stuff? And, uh, eventually I was doing, you know, social media stuff for the church and just really started getting into that world. And and anyway, long story short, uh started a company in 2016, um called. It was called green Fox marketing. Now it's called vibe marketing and media.
Speaker 1:But because of all of that, because of the church, because of the marketing company, all that I was doing the marketing company and the church at the same time and there was just no way I could do everything.
Speaker 1:And so I just immediately jumped into reading books and all kinds of stuff about leadership and business and all this stuff. And the number one thing I kept seeing over and over and over is like you, you got to hire the right people, you got to put people in the right place, put them on the right seat on the bus, and that's that's what I did. And I did it immediately when I started business because I just knew if I was going to do this for the long term, I could not burn myself out with doing everything. So the day I started a marketing company, kind of on accident, uh, I ended up hiring somebody because I was like I can't. I know I can't do all this. Right Delegation is the biggest thing that allows me to do all the things that I do and I and I really I don't want to get burned out by doing things that, uh, I don't want to do, and so the things that I do not enjoy in business, I, as fast as I can hand that off to somebody, I do.
Speaker 3:That. That is one of the biggest takeaways I've had from talking to a lot of friends and just kind of seeing hey, how did you rise to this level? And very similar there's. There's a lot of similarities there, but one of the biggest thing is, like the stuff that I either suck at or the stuff that I hate doing, get that away from me, get hired out because someone's going to do it better than me, faster than me, they're going to enjoy doing it.
Speaker 3:But it's hard, though, at first, especially when you're starting your own business, because, obviously, capital and all that You're like well, dude, this is a big leap of faith for me to hire an employee or two employees or whatever it is, and so you pretty much just have to bet on yourself that you know what the heck you're doing, and so that was kind of similar.
Speaker 3:But it's funny, there's something that must be in the water of being a pastor, because I don't know if you know Kyle Draper, but he was on here and he started as pastor and then went into roofing and then eventually went into marketing and social media coaching and et cetera, and now he's got multiple businesses, went into marketing and social media coaching and et cetera, and now he's got multiple businesses, and so I think the root of that though is you kind of hit on is is marketing. Yeah, I have found that the best people, whether they're in whatever, I mean sales is the kind of the backbone of mortgages, of real estate. Technically, we're in sales, right, it just happens to be, but the people that do really well are the people that understand marketing at its at its core people that do really well are the people that understand marketing at its at its core.
Speaker 1:To me, marketing is your. It is the ultimate leverage piece in anything, and that's that's why people are off all the time.
Speaker 2:Ask me like man, you're, you're, how are you doing? Like exactly what you said, like how are you doing all this stuff?
Speaker 1:how are you? And the biggest leverage piece that I have is the marketing company. I get asked often hey, would you be willing to sell your? You sell your business, sell your media company? And I'm just no. I mean, it is the, it is the leverage piece that I have to do all the other things around that I'm able to do, because that, at the end of the day, that's what I always use the 80% rule.
Speaker 1:It's 80% of all business is marketing. I mean, that's what it is. It's it's the marketing of your business that allows you to do what you can do. And so I feel like, um, it may sound kind of strange, but I feel like I can go into any. I can learn how to do a business pretty quickly. Right, learning how to do marketing is not that quick, it's it. It takes a little bit more time to really understand the psychology behind it and all that kind of stuff, but a business you can learn pretty quick, and that's why I feel like I'm able to just sure we can launch that kind of business. If there's a need there, let's go launch that business, because I can learn how to do the business pretty quick or put the right people in the right seat who know it well, and then we just bring this marketing hammer behind it, and that's, that's kind of been the strategy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's something that I'm quickly realizing that I need to work on and continue to work on. So similar past, like I jumped in from oil and gas engineer to mortgages. Like no, you know big jump, big shift. You know my wife is like, because you know I'm the only one that brings in income. She stays home with our boys.
Speaker 2:And she's like you know what you're doing right. Because that's a 100% commissioned job.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh yeah, I know what I'm doing and I did. I knew how to talk to people. I knew how to educate people around different loan programs. I knew that. I knew I was going to be but the marketing piece.
Speaker 2:I had no idea.
Speaker 3:And so that's something that I think is just trial and error at first, like hey, try video, I'm gonna try billboards or whatever it is. And then you quickly realize like what works and what doesn't work, or what you like and what doesn't, what you don't like. I think it's trial and error always.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, let's be honest, I don't know that it ever is. Let's be honest, this is it. This is the exact way to do it. It's more just like I'm gonna keep trying this and when this thing works, I can't't just hold onto that being the only thing. There's gotta be something else, because eventually this won't work anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, there's gotta be. You're right in in in different audiences that resonate with different ways, but there's gotta be kind of a core to it, to your marketing, and so talk to cause whoever's watching on here, whether you're in real estate, whether you're in sales, whether you're a teacher who's thinking about jumping into sales, like whatever it is, and you want to market yourself like talk to us about some of the core concepts that you built your company around, yep.
Speaker 1:Consistency is the number one. That's the. I know it sounds a little cliche at this point, probably with people saying it, but there is something in the boring. That is just the thing, and I know it's like people are always looking for this next new idea, this next new thing, and I am too. I'm one of those guys that do that. I'm like what can I do in this video? What can I do? I was talking to one of my builder clients this morning and he's built this really nice home. It's going to be awesome. And he even said something. He was just like oh man, that steam shower. I already see you making a video with the steam shower and you're coming out. That's your intro to the video, and I'm like that's actually not a bad idea. I think I might use that. But constantly looking for these ideas, but it's not those big ideas that are making the difference.
Speaker 1:It's a Wednesday today and I'm going to post on social media because it's a day of the week and that's just what I do. I just every day post something, continue. This morning I was like, hey, I'm going to do a podcast. This will be cool. I'm going to do a little day in the life. Started filming. I haven't posted anything yet, but I will by the end of the day.
Speaker 1:I've got a listing photo shoot, video shoot. After this I got a. I got a listing photo shoot, video shoot. After this, I'm heading straight to that and I I show up to every listing uh, video shoot and photo shoot, when a lot of agents aren't doing that these days. A lot of agents are just like, hey, my photographer will be there. I show up every time because I have two photographers, two videographers. They're they're both shooting everything. I'm also shooting things behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:Doing all that just because content is King. It just is. You get the more content you can get on a property or what you're doing. Uh, that's the thing that I think people don't do. That they should be doing is consistently posting content. That's one half of it, but the other half of it is just consistently getting content that you can use at any, any moment, every. If you only come in with one thing and you're like, okay, I'm paying my videographer to go make a video and that's what I'll use to sell that house, well, that's great for day one, when you list it. What about day eight, when it's still on the market, day 20, when it's still on the market, day 40, when it's still on the market, what content do you have to be able to do it without calling your people again and be like, hey, I need to come film another video because I don't have enough. So just constantly doing that and being consistent with that.
Speaker 3:So at the root of that is discipline and I tell similar loan officers that join the company and join my team. They're like, oh dude, you're crushing it. Like what are you doing? And I'm like I hate to like disappoint you. It's not rocket science. Like I hate to like disappoint you, it's not rocket science what we do it really isn't. But it's the discipline to being consistent and showing up Like hey, I know I should be making content, I know I should be doing videos, but it's hard to do it. Not a lot of people like the way they look or sound on camera. And Kyle Draper, who I mentioned before, this is like his whole pillar and he's like is like his whole pillar, yeah, and he's like dude people already know how you look.
Speaker 3:They already know how you sound. I'm I hate to break it to you, but you look the way you look, you sound the way you sound. So get it, get over yourself, yeah, and get out there, because you have an important message and you have your, you know education, or your master at your craft or whatever it is, and you need to share that with people, yeah. So get over yourself, and so he's really helped me, um, I mean, heck, there's a reason why I'm on camera right now talking to you.
Speaker 3:So consistency for sure, for sure is kind of like the the backbone of that and and it's funny because you got to figure out how to separate yourself too right and just not blend in. And so perfect example yesterday I made this really stupid video of like some ai effects freezing me, because it's like okay, really really, and my wife saw that.
Speaker 3:She was like please tell me you're not posting. I thought it was great. She's like that is so cringe. And she's right, it was cringe. But to my point and to your point, I can make a video like the best video on VA loans or whatever mortgage product, and I might get like maybe one person reach out to me and be like hey, can you talk to me about this, or whatever. Maybe, yeah, I got like six text messages instantly from you know with my friends, and like oh my God, you're an idiot or that's so cool, How'd you do that? So that just shows you anything that's different. No matter how dumb it might be, cringe it might be, you at least should try it. Yeah, so that that's a huge takeaway for anyone that's listening or watching is like get over yourself and don't be afraid to try something new. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:And and it's not the. The biggest thing for me with all of that is is the last thing you said? Is six people called you about this or context?
Speaker 1:you or whatever, and regardless if that had anything to do with what you're trying to sell, what you have, your product, your service, whatever it's people just being able to relate with you and that's what it comes down to is like. If you're a relatable person and you're able to put that relatability out to the masses via social media, that's what it's for. And people know that you're in a certain industry. That's where you gain the trust from. That's where it's like man, this guy's just a normal guy, a normal girl, whatever. And this is the person that I want to do business with.
Speaker 1:When it comes around to that, not everyone's selling a home every day. I mean, that's just not happening. You have people in your life that they're going to sell their house once every three, four, five. This is not happening. You have people in your life that they're going to sell their house once every three, four, five, six, seven years, and at some point you'll be the guy.
Speaker 1:But in the meantime, just how can you be relatable? Because right now, if I'm not interested in buying a house, I don't want to hear a thing about a loan product, I don't want to hear a thing about the housing market. I don't care about any of that. But what I do care about is like oh man, that was funny, that guy jumped in a pool like with his clothes on, like that was, that was hilarious. You know like whatever, even if it's just little things like that. But it's like man, when I sell my house, I'm gonna call that guy when I need a loan. I like that guy, he's funny, that is what matters, and so that's why, like me, I you'll you'll hardly ever see me post like a here's a market update and you need to do this, this, this, this, this. Like I'll maybe once a quarter bust out something like that. But for me it's just I'm marketing houses and people seeing me market houses. That's what people go.
Speaker 3:Oh, I need you to market my house one day, and that's it Because you're standing out. Yeah, you know you're not, and this is not a diss at people that give market updates. All right, there, there is a room for that in a certain audience. But, um, I'm with you, I like I especially loan officer. I'm sure you have no shortage of them calling you trying to trying to take you to coffee or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that ain't me. Yeah, like, I'm never going to cold call. Uh, really, that's just not how I do business. I want to gain their trust through video content or through, uh an actual transaction that when they get to the end of it, they're like dude, jay knows what's up. Like that was. That was actually a very easy process, like I, anytime I get another client, I'm going to talk to him, and so that's why I just try to uh do my business.
Speaker 3:But to your point about like standing out a perfect example. So I gotta give one of my guys on my team a shout out. His name is jd kameen. Um, he's uh, I won't hold it against me, he's a naval academy graduate. So, uh, you know, uh, we have a bunch of army guys on the team, but he's a navy guy, um, but anyways, he took a different approach. He built an Instagram channel. He quickly gained like 27,000 followers in like six months and you look at his content. He's not talking about mortgages, he's just being himself and just filming his life, whether he's like eating Chick-fil-A every day or pulling his hamstring, doing the splits at a wedding and his wife getting mad at him, Just all that type, but it makes him really like dude.
Speaker 3:This is a relatable guy and here we are talking about him on a podcast, not because he's the best mortgage lender in America or he knows the most guidelines or whatever. It's no, because he's relatable, he's funny and he stays top of mind with his audience. And so whenever yeah, you're right Whether it's six months down the road, 12 months down the road whenever they're in the market to actually hey, I want to buy a house and I need a, I need a loan, They'll think of him Absolutely. And so I think that is what's going to separate, especially now. So let's transition to kind of the future of real estate. As you know, interest rates are higher than what we want to be right now. Ai is in the picture, stuff's like rapidly changing, and so what are you kind of doing to help future-proof your business? And what is the next five years of vibe realty look like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So we are diving into AI big time, as much as we possibly can for all kinds of stuff. So like I work a lot in the new construction space and developments and things like that, and so we are just, we're currently building, uh, different things with ai and just trying, we're working on, we're learning, we're figuring it out, like everyone else. I mean, it's all just come, no, no one's.
Speaker 1:There's a few experts you could say, but it's all new to everybody you know, and so, locally, in these low like people like us, people that you run into, like, yeah, there's going to be some people who know it a little bit better than others because they've been spending a little bit more hours than the you, but it's all brand new. And so the world is wide open. But we're trying to figure out from a media perspective, because we partner our media company with real estate. But we're trying to figure out from a media perspective because we partner our media company with real estate. That's what we do. That's what got me into real estate.
Speaker 1:I had the marketing company. I was working with builders and developers to build their websites and run their social media and do all that kind of stuff. I was doing everything to make them money except for sell their houses, and I was like, man, I am missing out on a big piece of this by not being able to sell their houses. So that's what got me the real estate. And so we're we're trying to think. On the back end of that is like how can we be a tool, what can we create with ai that can be helpful to these builders, to these developers, to um, you know, and it could be there. There's lots of things we're building. I can't really talk about them at the moment but, there's.
Speaker 1:I'll give you another example. So, uh, speaking of starting businesses, I haven't even said this. I'm going to say this first time on your podcast we are, uh, I'm starting a pool company and so, uh, with a couple of guys and again same thing guy who's really skilled, been doing it for 30 years, uh, he's awesome, he's really the guy you know. Um, I'm still trying to like what's the name of that, uh, uh, oh yeah, saltwater pool, that's it. Like I'm still in that kind of phase, but this guy's the guy.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of on the business side and we have kelsey, she's awesome, she's running all the backing stuff, and so, um, we, we're, we're doing this, but like one of the things we're trying to do from a technology standpoint is I don't know how to. Uh, when I built my pool, I had no idea how much it cost. No clue, no clue how much pools cost. No concept, I mean. They could have said $40,000 or they could have said $400,000. I'd be like I don't know what's normal. And so, as I started looking into pool companies, everybody was like that Nobody puts their pricing front-facing. And I think it's because there's not really a technology Like a pool can be. It can be 60 000 or 600 000, it just depends on what you want. And so we I mean within 30 minutes of being on ai built a calculator out that is forward facing. That can you just click on. I want this size pool and I think I want these kind of bubblers and I want those kind of lights and whatever, and it's automatically building your thing out. And that was all built by AI literally in 30 minutes. And that's something we would have had to pay 15, 20 grand for to get a coder to do to code a calculator like that just a year ago and it's like man, that's crazy. And so there's something to that that we can also do with builders, developers, real estate in general.
Speaker 1:I'm working on some things right now and I'll share these, but, like with my own stuff of like, how can people move to Granbury a lot the town that I live in and I focus on a lot because it's a tourist town and they come and they visit, but it's very much split into developments, so there's neighborhoods all over the place, there are big chunks of neighborhoods but no one really knows, like, well, what's that neighborhood like? Is it kid-friendly, is it this? And so having one of those calculators where it's not just a calculator, it's more of a questionnaire of like hey, what type of neighborhood are you interested in? What do you want these? Questionnaire of like hey, what type of neighborhood are you interested in? What do you want? These amenities, do you not want amenities? You want land, do you not want land? You want a big house, you want a small house? You know, you just answer these questions and then, via AI, it pulls up here's the three top neighborhoods that you might enjoy, and then it's like boom, you might like this neighborhood, this neighborhood, this neighborhood. Click here for listings in that neighborhood. Click on that pulls up the listings for that neighborhood. So that's like, again, that's all built with AI within minutes. It's not even something that you know. It's just crazy what AI can do.
Speaker 1:And so I think that, being creative on that side, that front of thinking, how can I use this technology that's in front of us to help my business? Not necessarily people always think like leads. How can I get more leads? How can I use this technology that's in front of us to help my business? Not necessarily People always think like leads. How can I?
Speaker 3:get more leads. How can I get more leads? How can you be a resource to people, is the question that I would be asking. The leads will come. Yeah, if you can provide a valuable resource and make it easy to digest and easy to understand, then that helps with the trustability scale which, at the end of the day is what people do business with who they know, like and trust.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely and so I'm not an AI. It sounds like you're ahead of me by far, but I'm trying something new as well, because I think it's right. People are like, oh, ai is going to replace you. I'm like AI is not going to replace a realtor or a loan officer. It will replace the loan officers who are not using it. Correct, the loan officers that are utilizing it are going to replace them. And so you're familiar with house hacking.
Speaker 3:For the audience that doesn't know, house hacking in the mortgage world is essentially buying a two, three, four unit property, living in one of the units, renting out the others, and that, basically, the revenue from that pretty much offsets most of your mortgage. I wish I could go back and do that. Yes, like five times, oh my gosh. Especially when and I had the greatest tool when I was active duty army I had the VA loan, yep. And so when I got down to Fort Hood, one of my buddies bought a fourplex and he lived in one and rented out of it. You know what I bought? I bought a freaking BMW three series. Bmw 3 Series that would be my problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I was 22, 23, whatever. I was Like my first cool car and if I could go back in time, so what I'm doing is scraping, you know, zillow or Realtor listings for house hacking candidates. Okay, pulling that in to an email and it automatically analyzes hey, based on your BAH, based on potential rent, like here's what those numbers look like and putting it into a daily email that people can sign up for Love it. And I'm like, dude, that's cool. That is cool, you know, and it's normally you and I would have to go on there and do all that. It would take hours to like scour it and it's literally doing it behind the scenes and putting seeing some of the developers. He's like, oh, we're going to, oh, I can easily do that, and I'm like I didn't even know this was he was like oh, and I was like what about a dashboard that the listings come in and I can check it out and kind of preview?
Speaker 3:He was like, yeah, I can do that. He had it built in like 30 minutes using. Ai and I was like this is wild, it is wild and that's the thing with, like all of that.
Speaker 1:You know we talk about this a lot too, because marketing media companies, those are the ones that are at risk, you know, for losing clients. You know just getting smaller because all these people I mean before you had to hire, before Canva you had to hire other Adobe, different things that are a little bit more user-friendly come around and people start using those, but they still didn't get to what they're trying to do.
Speaker 1:But now, when you can just type in the words please create me this please. I'm always nice to my AI, you never know man, you've got to be nice to those guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please.
Speaker 1:So you're typing in your prompts and you're like, hey, this is what I need you to create. I was just hilarious. We went on a mission trip overseas and we're there and this guy that lives there, he's awesome, he goes to our church and he has a property there and he kept saying something about like starting these businesses. So every time he would mention something that he's whatever. His wife was like oh yeah, he loves making salsa. And his name was like oh yeah, he loves making salsa. And his name was thomas.
Speaker 1:And I was like, yeah, make me a graphic for, make me a logo for, uh, his name, uh, what was it? Oh, it was like a really hot salsa. So I was like I was like, make me, I need a name for a business for a really hot salsa made by thomas. And it said, no, we were in a spanish country, no mas to mas. And I was like that's genius, this is good, this is like no mas, like it a Spanish country, no mas to mas. And I was like that's genius, that's good. Because it was like no mas, like it's too hot, like no mas to mas. And then so I was like make me a graphic based on this. And then. So it pulls up this graphic and it's like, literally, I took a picture of him real quick.
Speaker 1:I said make me a graphic. You should have seen him, like running around the house, like, oh my gosh, I just created a business. This is incredible. I'm going to make this salsa, put this on the thing. I mean and this was just for fun, you know, I mean much less what can you do to like really move the needle? It's there, it's coming and it will exactly what you said it will. Ai won't replace the people, necessarily. People using AI will replace people not using AI, and I think it's going to come in a way that we are not expecting it to, and so I'm almost I'm not. People are. You know, a lot of people are scared. I'm not scared, I'm just concerned that I'm going to be behind the ball if I don't stay up with it. I mean, it's like I have to listen to stuff about it every day, or else I'm going to be, behind.
Speaker 1:I the ball if I don't stay up with it. It's like I have to listen to stuff about it every day or else I'm going to be behind. I was listening to Gary Vee. You're familiar with Gary Vee, so I was listening to him and he was talking about AI and all the things and he's like people got to stop saying that AI is not going to take jobs.
Speaker 1:He goes do you know how many people in New York used to be hired? Their job there's tens of thousands of them over time to pick up horse poop on the streets of new york, because that's how they, yeah, traveled was via horse, and people had to clean that up. That was their job, that was what they had. And then the car got invented. And so when the car got invented, think of all the jobs that were lost because the vehicle right and and you would have never those people thought they would have had a job forever, ever they would have had that job forever. And then the vehicle was invented. That was not even a thought to anyone.
Speaker 1:And so that's the part of like all of this stuff with ai that I I am very interested to see where it goes, because even even real estate. I'm like man, what is going to happen to realtors? What is going to happen to mortgage loan officer? Like, what is the? What is the transition there? You know he talked about tractors too, like tractors that when tractors came around, I mean all these people that were working on farms, 80 of the world, as what he said again just going off what he said 80 of the world was in farming. And then the tractor came around and each tractor replaces like 20 people and or more. You know, I mean like just by doing that, and so we don't know. I mean, we don't know what this is going to look like, but there's still going to be people that run the thing you know, the tractor came around and somebody had to learn how to run that tractor.
Speaker 1:The vehicle came around and someone had to learn how to drive it, how to continue to build it, how to continue to evolve it and do all that kind of stuff and so that's where I'm at is like what does? What is this going to look like in the future and how can I be on the forefront of it?
Speaker 3:whatever it is, yeah, you're right, nobody truly knows, and so, in the meantime, I'm trying to use it as like a tool to. I don't know if you're familiar with Dan Martell. You know he has a book called Buy Back your Time. So that's what I'm trying to do with AI. I'm like stuff that would normally have taken me 30 minutes or an hour or whatever, like how can I buy back my time, whether it's a research project or whatever, and it can do it within seconds.
Speaker 1:We better all be 10 times more efficient this year than we were last year. Yeah, I mean we should be.
Speaker 3:The slippery slope, though, is it's so good and so fun, I find myself going down rabbit holes, oh for sure. Making no mas tomas. Like my wife walked in and I was researching like a micro resort Airbnb cabin, I think I actually like text you about it, yeah, and she's like is this a thing? Or like you're just going down a rabbit hole?
Speaker 2:I'm like right now I'm just going down a rabbit hole, but it could be.
Speaker 3:I'm like she's like when are you just get back?
Speaker 2:to mortgages.
Speaker 3:I'm like, okay, your listings are amazing, and then you've also done a development. You've also done a development. So, in Granberry, talk to me about like how did that? Did you like go search, like hey, I want to do a development, or did it land in your lap because of like the marketing that you? Do like how did? How do you transition into that?
Speaker 1:yeah for sure. So we've got, we've got a couple of developments, um, we've got Granberry, godley, toler, um, and then, oddly enough, all the way out in East Texas, uh, cedar, cedar, cedar Creek Lake and so, um, but yeah, so when I got into development stuff, it was one of those. Uh, the first one I was working with was, uh, this guy in Toler. He, he was a client of mine at the marketing company. He worked for a different company and then all of a sudden he got into building and so he told me about it one day and was like hey, we're doing a development thing and we're going to build our own houses and it's gonna be really cool.
Speaker 1:And I just, I mean, just got into real estate. I was fresh and he was like, man, you think you can do some of your marketing stuff, but like for the development, for you know, for our houses and all that no-transcript Um, and so that's that's kind of what got me into. It was just like this all makes sense, like if we can just be the team, cause that's the thing it's like. I don't like if I can work with just a few people.
Speaker 1:It just makes it easier. If I've got my go-to, like, okay, these guys got all that and I don't have to talk to 10 different people. I can talk to one person and they can do all those things. I'm gonna prefer that, right, and so that's the. That's what we did.
Speaker 1:Going into, the developments was hey, we can manage all of this for you, we can manage your, your builds, your builds, your website, your blah, blah, blah, blah. And um, the way we worked it out was like hey, if you just make us your people, I've got the team that can do it. So just make me your your main sales guy, you know, the, the one who does all the listings, all the everything out here. And as long as we can work out some sort of a commission deal where it's like hey, we get commission on every deal, then we'll, we'll do all this at no extra cost to you. We'll just make it a part of what we bring to the table. So that's what we did there in in Toler. And then after that, you know, somebody saw that one and was like hey, I see you doing all this work for this development?
Speaker 1:Can you do our development? You know, I was like sure I'd love to. Actually, the next one was already branded and everything, which kind of makes it interesting because, uh, it's really hard for me to sell a brand when I don't love the look of the brand. So it's like can we redo your brand? Is that okay, you know? But uh, but anyway. So we got in that one, jumped in um, sold that one. It's been great that one's got one lot left literally just yesterday. Uh, we, we had the last one. So, uh, and then we got the stewart ranch deal.
Speaker 1:That was another builder client. I was selling his homes and he was like, hey, we're gonna be doing this development in granbury. It's called stewart ranch. We don't have anything. We need website, logos, signs. I mean, we need everything. What can y'all do? And I'm same thing. It's like, man, just just make me your guy and and we'll do all that in the background at no additional upfront cost. It's not going to cost you anything, right? Whereas normally, if you go and you're just starting a development, you're like, okay, I've got to go get a website built, I've got to go get this done, I've got to get this done and it just costs a lot of money up front when we just make it a part of our integration to what we do.
Speaker 3:That's really cool and I love that you stated like, hey, if I'm going to do this like, I want to do it my way. Yeah, you know, because that's the reason why we're talking, we're having this conversation anyways, because you obviously trust me or you like me, so let me do it my way and just let me let the results prove themselves, which they obviously had. So that's pretty cool. So, out of like developments and then like single family, like residential listings, and then commercial listings. Those are obviously three kind of different categories. Is there one that you like more than others, or I?
Speaker 1:think new construction homes is probably my favorite thing. Um, that's probably probably my favorite just because people just like new. I mean they like the way new technology in houses, new, um, just new things that they're not used to seeing. Yeah, you know a lot of homes that we see are, uh, they're just kind of the same thing over and over and over, but new construction, especially out in the areas that I sell in, they can be really cool. I mean really cool, especially the one like uh, we got the one I was talking about in cedar creek lake. Those are awesome new construction homes. That's litchfield and taylor's. The builder out there, and those it's called the groves is the development on the groves of Cedar Creek and they are $3 million houses. I mean new construction, like they are on the water, beautiful, like I just want to go out there and just sit and make videos, cause it's like man, this place is so cool.
Speaker 3:You know, I think you were out there a couple of weeks ago, I was right.
Speaker 1:Okay, I remember seeing that and I remember thinking like where the heck is. Yeah, we did a big grand opening thing. It was awesome that is cool.
Speaker 3:So that's a testament. I mean the fact that obviously there's probably people locally, or at least closer to the development, that they could have reached out to you. Yeah, but they reached all the way out to you and granbury yeah.
Speaker 1:So the one in cedar creek lake, that one was awesome. They, they reached out to me. So I actually get this message, uh, from this guy, john, and like, hey, I got this development. It might be kind of far away from you, it's in East Texas. I want to see if you want to come talk to me about this development. And you know we're a builder and blah, blah, blah, and I was anytime. I see that and it's like you know, something far away like that.
Speaker 1:First of all, there's a lot of sketchiness that happens in real estate and so I constantly, as a real estate I mean I have, I have walked away from so many deals, so many builders, so many developments like just like I can't be a part of it because it's just I just don't like the way it's being done, you know, like it's just not, it doesn't align with me and my values, and so, uh. So anyway, I see this and I'm like, oh man, I gotta look this guy up. I don't know, you know, and of course I go to his website. It's like the first house on there is literally a house that caught the property. He built this house and it was 16 million dollars, and I'm like there's no there, this, this is. This is a fraud. Like what are we doing?
Speaker 1:that's exactly what I'm like, man I'm on mtv, it's not good, uh. And so I end up I end up looking a little bit more, looking deeper, and I'm like, nope, this. I mean this guy's on the school board of the the Maybank, texas, down there. I'm like I guess it's legit. So I go down to meet with them and and he's like, yeah, I don't know how we got connected on social media, but I always see your, your stuff, like you're always working with new construction builders and you're you're doing developments and stuff, and it just seems like that would work with what we're doing.
Speaker 1:We're trying to grow our building side more. We're trying to grow these developments and, long story short, they ended up, you know, hiring us to come in and do this and uh, and it's, it's been awesome. It's a really, really cool new development that we would not have gotten the opportunity to be a part of without social media. I mean, it's literally just, and again, I don't have any ads running that say please hire me as your real estate agent. It's just consistently posting every day and and just sharing like this is what I do in real estate, like this is what I do. But you're not even, I'm not even saying like this is what I do. It's just literally marketing for my clients and other people see that marketing and they're like, man, we got it.
Speaker 3:We gotta call this guy you know, I hope people watching this like are truly listening and it's resonating and hitting home, because this is the common theme throughout this is marketing yourself and just being consistent, because you'd never know, look at this opportunity that landed in your lap. It was so good that you had to like second and triple guess, like yourself.
Speaker 3:They're like wait a minute, because this seems way too. And it happened because of your social media strategy, because you're putting out content, and I was a victim of that myself. I'm like, always delaying, always giving me myself a reason why to like, oh well, I don't have the right camera yet, I don't have the right camera yet, I don't have the right microphone yet, I don't have the right setup yet, I don't know what to talk like, and so you just keep kicking the can down the road. Yep, when, as you know, imperfect action is better than any action. Absolutely Dude, it can be just you on your cell phone.
Speaker 3:If you're providing value, if people are resonating with what you're saying and you don't come off just salesy and like, if people are resonating with what you're saying and you don't come off just salesy, it doesn't have to be perfect. And so I try to tell my team that, especially the newer ones that are just getting started, I'm like guys, just get on social media, get on video, and so I'll. Actually Kyle Draper gave me this idea. I think there's an app called Marco Polo, the ones that are not comfortable on camera as me, as their, as they're like, uh, as their boss, I'm like hey, if you have a question. You can't text me. You have to record yourself asking the question, you know, and then, and then, text me that video and I'll respond back, and so eventually, over time, it becomes like muscle memory.
Speaker 1:They get used to talking to you.
Speaker 3:And so, uh, it's, uh, it's uh. They're like you serious, I'm like I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious because I'm not perfect on camera either. So it gives me a chance to practice. I really love that. I'm writing that I did it. Yeah, I think there's an actual app, because right now we're just texting it and so obviously I'm like it can be like 720p or 1080p.
Speaker 2:Then it'll be 4K and you're sending me like a two gigabyte freaking text message or 1080p. Then it'd be 4K and you're sending me a 2 gigabyte text message.
Speaker 3:I just want people if you're listening. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. Marketing is the backbone and it doesn't have to be paid ads, it doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to resonate and provide value and be authentic. I couldn't do what you do, because that's just not me and vice versa, like be yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and that's that's the thing is, people with you know it's been interesting being owning my own brokerage, okay, so one of the hardest parts has been, uh, I've talked to a lot of agents about, you know, being a part of our team and what I hear often is like I can't, I can't do what you do. Like I can't, I can't do that and I'm like I don't want you to do that. If you tried to do that, yeah, you'd like you probably wouldn't work. Like, that's just not. There's different people do different things. We do have a guy on our team that is a cold calling son of a gun and he has his book out with like the if they say this then you say that and like, and he and it works.
Speaker 1:It works for him. I would die if I had to do. I mean literally I would. I would. There's something about cold calling to me that just oh man.
Speaker 1:Or cold walking door knocking or whatever, this guy yesterday, oh, this guy yesterday comes to our office. This is incredible. So at our office I'm just gonna go ahead and just get it all out there at our office we have a huge window in the front and in that huge window we can see anytime somebody pulls up and we're, you know, and one of the spaces is like a, is a big co-working space, so there's, you know, one, two, three, eight, nine desk right there, whatever. But when someone comes up that we know is trying to sell somebody something, we all go into the mode of like, uh, not it. Uh, I'm looking at this water, somebody else has to get it. Like, I mean, just like it can we?
Speaker 1:just know what this is gonna be you know, and this guy, he walks in, poor guy, and he, and of course, jordan, she's awesome, she's all. She's like our bubbly office person. She's always the one that ends up taking it because she's just that. She's just like hello, how are you? You know, whatever the guy goes, literally he goes. I brought you some papers and he's turning out the door to walk out and handing her papers and walks out the door and that was. It was sales papers for, like a neighborhood or whatever, but that was.
Speaker 1:It was like what just happened. What was that? Like what do you think is gonna be the result of? First of all, we're already dying. Like we're already like, oh no, here comes someone to sell us something and it just I don't. I guess that works with some people. Uh, maybe, but there's just a better way. And like, to me, it's like I would rather face this camera when no one else is in the room with me and uh, and just get over the fact that, like, we're not in high school anymore. Like no, I can't remember the last time I saw a video and I'm like, oh, they look stupid, like I just don't do that no one does that.
Speaker 1:It's just like, hey, they made a video, like what, whatever you know it's. But in our minds we have this whole like I'm gonna look awful, my hair isn't right, my chin is doubling my whatever it is. That's like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I made a comment before we started I was like hey, make sure you know.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, like I'm just like you know everybody's got these things, but it's like you gotta just get over it, just go with it. Like you said at the beginning, everyone knows what you look like already.
Speaker 3:Like you're just everyone knows, and anybody that slings the hate in the comments or trolls you, whatever at the root of the reason why they're doing that? Because they're insecure with themselves. Absolutely, they got something going on.
Speaker 1:Yep on yep, or they're mad that they're not doing it exactly.
Speaker 3:They're like I should be, but I'm not. That is oh and y'all's. I was in some of the real estate groups on facebook. I had to get out of there.
Speaker 1:They're brutal they are I thought loan officers were bad.
Speaker 3:Y'all are like take it to the next level. It's the worst pettiness, oh man and hate, and it's usually that. It's usually they're like somebody's crushing it and they're just trying to knock them down to make them feel better about themselves. So I try to limit that. Facebook and social media and instagram it's great, but at the same time it's also horrible.
Speaker 1:Absolutely you gotta, you gotta pick your yeah pick your lanes and figure out what, what is working for you and what's not? And yeah, it could be rough, for sure, yeah and so that that's that.
Speaker 3:well, that you gave that story about somebody coming in and trying to to market themselves, trying to do something. So I don't want to like just totally bash on that, because there are people out there that that especially newer agents or newer loan officers. So if they're going to go down that route, if they're going to stop in and cold call and stop in an office what is something that does work, or at least like hey, if you're going to go down this route, do this For sure.
Speaker 1:Bringing value is always going to be the thing that moves the needle. You know what I'm saying, like right now. So you're right, lenders reach out all the time. Title companies reach out all the time. They do the whole. Hey, man, let me take you to coffee. Title companies leech out all the time, they do the whole. Hey, man, let me take you to coffee. And it's really it puts us in a weird position, because here's the position it puts us in.
Speaker 1:I know that when that person reaches out to me, they're trying to get my business, which is I get it. I mean, that's right, that's what you're trying to do. But I also know that, like, my schedule's slam packed and to go meet with someone for an hour over coffee or a lunch or whatever it is it, it's not the best use of my time. Yeah, especially when you're somebody I've never met, never seen, never heard of, never. You just randomly calling me Can I take you to coffee? And I'm like man, I, I got a lot of other things I could be doing with that hour. But when you reach out and you're like hey, you want to be on a podcast, that that immediately brings value to me. Like, because it gets a content opportunity for me. That's. It's like man, I can content, great, I love content, you know. So it's not. You haven't asked me, you haven't. You haven't said a word about hey, you know, like, call me if you have a loan that needs to be done. You didn't do it before.
Speaker 1:You haven't done it now, I assume, when we're walking out, you're gonna be like hey just don't forget, I do loans like I know, like you know I. But what I will remember is like man.
Speaker 1:I like that guy. He brought me value. There was, we had great conversation. He's a normal guy. I don't feel like he's trying to sell me something like.
Speaker 1:All of those things matter, you know, and uh, and so the the, the door knocking piece, the cold, cold calling, whatever is, I would be figuring out, and the best way to figure it out is, dear chat, gpt, I would love to go door knocking and cold calling, but I do not want to be salesy and I want to actually bring value to people. What can I do to do that? Give me five ideas. I guarantee you it's going to be. At least one of those ideas is going to be something you haven't tried, yep, and it's going to be better than anything you've ever thought of. And that's what I would be doing if I would be cold calling. So it's again. It's using AI to figure out how to get better at this, because if you're going to do it, fine, figure out how to get better. And that's me. It doesn't matter what space you're in, whatever marketing you're doing, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:We started making videos and some of my first videos were like these long, you know, like four or four and a half minutes. They were awesome, though, like high quality. We're using, uh, you know, we're here in a studio, the marketing company here, uh, we're using red cameras. You guys know what that means. Like we're using these awesome cameras. Like all my guys were like just bringing all this super cool stuff and I was like man, why are these videos only getting like 800 views? Like what? What is up with this? You know, I'm making great videos here. You know, like I'm like really thinking I'm doing something great and then it's like, yeah, there's there's more to it than just that. Though you, there's, now, there's reels, now there's all these other things that came out after that that were like, hey, people don't care about your great quality video quality matters but what they want is something they can take in in 30 seconds, you know or less, and that wasn't creating that space.
Speaker 1:It was creating long form content which still has its place, but it wasn't the way I was trying to do it, so I I had to. I had to continue to learn. I'm still continuing to learn. Now you see all these videos where the houses are slamming down on the thing and the smoke's coming up and the transitions are crazy, and so I'm like all right, we got to start changing our editing style. So we started changing our editing style to be more of those, and I mean it's. There's never a finishing point to marketing or to sales or to anything. There's just waking up and going is there something new I need to try? Is there something different while consistently doing something? And that's that's been the key.
Speaker 3:And it's funny. Those are some great points and it's funny. There it's almost like a pendulum that once it swings too far like, so there for a while the Mr Beast style edits and the graphics and the colors and all that was like the trend right.
Speaker 3:And I've noticed a swing back to just old school. Hey, I'm presenting something on pen and paper or whiteboard or just basic style, and that's crushing it now, because I think people just get too oversaturated so fast, so fast, and so that, to your point like, yeah, the, the house slamming and all that, that's probably going to be a thing for a while, yep, and then people will get tired of it, oh for sure, and they'll swing back to the way it was before or whatever it is. Yep and so, uh that. But the video and I'm guilty of it too, and you probably are Well, I already know you are, because you mentioned how many views you got Yep, yep, the vanity metrics, no matter how many people say, oh, I don't care, you care, you're checking, you post something, you check an hour later how many comments did I get, how many views I got. But I will say it's really, really weird with video content in particular. I'll post a video that I think is like I was like this video is the best and it really is
Speaker 3:in my opinion, no comments. You know, 500 views, 50 views, whatever it is. But the weird thing about this is the number of times that people whether it's a month down the road, six months down the road, whatever it is they reach out to me eventually because when they're ready to purchase or whatever they're like. Dude, I love your videos, I love that one on xyz or whatever I'm like and I'm sorry, I'm like. You never even engage, not at all, with me. Yeah, you never comment, you never like, but they're, they're consuming your material. So the takeaway to this is you never know, yep, who's watching. And just because they don't engage with your stuff or comment or whatever, doesn't mean they're not sitting there keeping you top of mind, and I'm sure you've got stories like this as well yeah, my biggest perspective change that I encourage people with is uh, because most people you know and you even see these pop-up where it's like you're getting stuck in 300 jail, like where it's like man, I got 300 views my video, you know whatever.
Speaker 1:Uh, it happens to people all the time. It's it's kind of the common number for some reason like 300 views. You know, uh, my big percept perception change is if I can get in front of people and I can talk to them, it's a win, right? So if I can, if I can go and have invite people into, into my house, you've got a house, you're there and you have an audience that is watching you and listening to you. And let's say there's 20 people.
Speaker 2:That's great right.
Speaker 1:If there's 20 people that saw me talk, that's great. Now put 100 people in your living room Literally picture. I want everybody to picture your living room and picture 100 people in your living room. Like literally picture. I want everybody to picture your living room and picture 100 people in your living room. That is a. There's not enough room in your living room. There's not enough parking in your driveway. There's not anything.
Speaker 1:Now, times that, times three and put 300 people, they will, you will not be able to fit them. To have an audience of 300 people every single day is amazing and it's a big shift in our mind because we're used to just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Oh, million views there, 100 000 views there, you know, on all these people's videos. But there's also the other videos that just joe schmoe down the street saw, that is yours, that has the you know these little, these little clips and views and all that kind of stuff, and that's the biggest thing that like. For me when teaching people, the value of video is, you know, I made the comment or about 800 views or whatever. That's just because I'm in the details and the numbers and the nitty gritty.
Speaker 1:You need to know Absolutely, because, yeah, I'd rather have 800 people in my living room than 300 people, so, yeah, it'd be great, but still, if you have that mindset of like I talked to 300 people today, that's crazy. I mean, that's a whole different mindset shift that we can do that. And so, yeah, you want to keep getting better, keep getting better to where you're not stuck in 300 land, you're stuck in 1,000 land or you're stuck in 3,000 land or whatever it might be, or find other ways to get you know my new recent plug and I'll just share it. I don't care, I'm always an open book.
Speaker 1:Dream Homes Texas. It's an Instagram page. It's awesome. They post dream homes and stuff. And I start seeing all these homes and one day I just reached out and I just sent him a DM and I was like man, I see this dream homes Texas thing. Like, how, how are these people? Are you just picking houses and putting them on there? Are people paying for this? Like, how does this work? Guys like man, seven, 75 bucks a post and I and I post your Dude every time I post on there. I get 10,000 views every time and it's $75 for 10,000 views. That are real people that follow this Dream Homes deal, and so then I started working out a deal with them where I'm like I'm just paying them monthly and I have a certain amount of views or videos that I get to post. If you look at my Instagram now, compared to what it was, I get a whole lot more views a whole lot more followers, all this stuff for super.
Speaker 1:I mean like, when you think about marketing stuff, I can't, I there's nothing else I can pay right now that I can think of that. I can get 10 000 views for 75 bucks. That are a real audience to look at this.
Speaker 3:You know, dude, I mean hell, you got a large family. You spend more than that at chick-fil-a. Golly, yeah, absolutely shout out? Yeah, for sure um, but I mean, yeah, the cost per impression or whatever metric you want.
Speaker 3:I mean that's wild, absolutely that is wild yeah, man, instagram, that's one of the things where I slept on for a while. Yeah, I don't know why, I just got on it like recent, like a few months ago. Yeah, it's, I love it. Yep, it's a different. You know, I, I built my business primarily through facebook. I know they kind of like bro, you're a boomer or whatever.
Speaker 2:I did the same thing.
Speaker 3:I'm like well, yeah, I mean, my target audience is kind of like the 30 to 50-year-old and we grew up on that, and so I was like man JD, the guy I was talking about earlier. He's like man, you got to get on Instagram. So I got on Instagram. I like it. Yeah, it's a different style of posting. I think, dude, you're already going through the process of making content. You know. No, I'm not saying that you should be on every single platform, because I do think that your time is better, but maybe one, two or three, and just dominate those. Don't try to be the jack of all trades. Yeah, for those that are out there, they're like oh, I just, I'm just going to pick one platform. I don't know that's the smartest move.
Speaker 3:I think you kind of need to diversify. Which platform do you see the most success? With which one do you enjoy being on the most? Facebook?
Speaker 1:is my most successful currently and it's just I got the most followers on it. I've got the most. I got the biggest audience on that one. Just all of that followers on it, I've got the most. I got the biggest audience on that one. Like, just all of that, uh, and it's the most like actual people that are near me, around me. You know, it's just more. It's more your friends.
Speaker 1:I mean like, like, truly like people that you've come in contact with and and I started this a long time ago my wife laughs at me. She's always like you're hilarious. But, like, if I meet somebody, I add them on facebook.
Speaker 1:Like I just, it's just like boom, I'm adding you on facebook, like it's interesting, because they got the cap at 5 000. You're 5 000 friends and so I have to uh go back and be like okay, who do I not ever interact with? Because you can look up by least interacted with, have to delete them, have to add a person. You know. It's kind of annoying right now. I wish they would change that.
Speaker 3:But why zuckerberg I know you're watching, you're probably one of our absolutely. Why do you limit that? I mean, obviously you can have more followers if you, you know, have the professional account, but your friends are capped at 5 000, which does not make sense.
Speaker 1:Zuck, I don't know. Dude, you gotta come on fix this, yeah, anyway they don't limit you on instagram they don't, you know, so it's the same company.
Speaker 3:So that's interesting that they limit you on one but they don't limit you on the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Facebook, the whole man, it's the constant like you're never done. Learning You're never like, especially in this world with AI coming out, all that. I'm wondering what's going to happen with social media and AI as well, because things are just so. I've got a group Small Town, granberry, that's the name of the group um, there's like 16 000 people on it. You know I own the group and I don't know what button I pressed or something. But I mean, I'm pretty technologically you know I can't say the word technologically, is that the word savvy?
Speaker 1:whatever, I understood you, yeah, you do what I meant uh, but uh, somehow some ai thing got turned on and it asked questions every day. So it's like about Granberry. So it's like yesterday it asked a question about what's been the toughest part of your move to Granberry, or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was like who keeps that? I literally was like who keeps asking all these questions? Because it said Granby is what it said, like Granby guide is what it said, or something, and it's like some ai picture or whatever. And then I looked at it. I was like oh, this is like. This is built into the page that I, the group that I own, and so it's really interesting that it was like leading the charge and people are answering it like it's a person. They're like oh, this is. This was my hardest part. If you, if you're having a hard time, you should talk to so-and-so, and I'm like this isn't a real person like. And then you got other people. They're like this is an ai, I'm not answering this question you know, they're just like you guys, uh, but it's just interesting to see where social media is going, what the differences are.
Speaker 1:So like for me, facebook is my number one. I mean I gotta post on there if I'm doing a listing or videos or whatever. It's got to go on there, for sure, uh. Instagram I'm a little more choosy about what I put on there. And then tiktok I'm all over the place. I don't know, I don't know what to put. I love tiktok. Tiktok is my favorite to take in to digest it's. It is my news outlet, it is my, I mean, it's my every. It's the one that I'm on the most, for sure. But posting it's like I can't do a house video for 30 seconds. No one cares. Like literally, it's like no one cares on tiktok because I don't care. All I do is like if I'm getting ready in the mornings or I'm doing whatever I'm looking for, like the ones that are like three or four minutes worth some story about something, or somebody talking or what.
Speaker 1:Those are the ones that I just stop on while I'm doing something and so, like just these last couple of posts, I know it's kind of weird, but like I went to walmart for the first time in maybe a year the other day and it was, I don't know, I'm in a different. I don't know. I feel like I'm in a different country. I don't know what's happening, but like I'm in there, people are yelling. This child was screaming the entire time I was in there, I mean the whole time. Like just at the top of her lungs. This one guy comes over at while I'm checking out and he's talking about demons and, uh, I go to as soon as I get there, somebody's flipping somebody off in the parking lot. I'm like dude, this place. This is why I don't come here.
Speaker 1:I don't know what I'm doing, anyway. So I was just like you know what? This is what I like to listen to on TikTok. So I just was like I'm just going to make a video about Walmart on TikTok. I've got 800 followers on TikTok. It's just my lease because I don't know what to do. I'm like I haven't figured out the real estate thing on there. 14,000 views on my Walmart video, at least as of yesterday, and that's what. So I'm like I got to figure this out. Like how can I just be myself, cause I'm just being funny, you know, just talking funny about Walmart or whatever. Uh, but it's, it's, it's connecting with people. Like people are like yeah, me too. Like me too with Walmart I had the same experience. I hate that place.
Speaker 1:you know, whatever it is but, we have to go there, cause it's the only place that has this stuff, and so, like that's the kind of thing that I'm still trying to figure out, it's like what, what? What do I do on these different platforms? I?
Speaker 2:know how to do facebook. That's easy, that's the easy one instagram.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of figuring it out a little bit, you know, with the help of like other pages like this dream dream homes, texas and stuff like that, but tiktok, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm trying I have a t TikTok account. I'm similar to you. I post on there a few times and now I've kind of just consumed rather than post. But yeah, you're right, that is, in my opinion, the hardest one to figure out, as far as it being like worth your time. Now, if you just, want to go on there and get entertained or whatever, that's fine.
Speaker 1:I mean, heck, that's the whole reason, because people go on there to either learn something or be entertained. That's me learning youtube is. I mean I I basically have my whole feed set to this like podcast podcast that come up. That's like I think I mean the literally the last probably two weeks, I've listened to 15 ai podcast or training teachings, whatever it is, and just go on YouTube and I click on whatever pops up first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's wild how good the algorithm is. Wild, Wild. I do the same thing in the morning. I have a little home gym in our garage and rather than listen to music, I just turn on YouTube, see whatever video and then just listen to that while working out, and it's a lot of it's podcast. Diary of a CEO is like one of the kind of inspirations for this podcast.
Speaker 3:I mean it's just, it's fascinating you learn so much, you do, you do, you learn so much. And so, with that, though, like so, where do you kind of set the? You know you're, you have a larger family than me, I have two boys and I already, between businesses and family and sports and schools and and running multiple businesses like you are, obviously there's always something to do always, and so I I. That was one of the hardest things for me, especially since I work from home. You know, I have an office, but I'm always at home. Yeah, where do you set the boundary? Yep, like what? So what does that look like for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So for me, I knew immediately my gig was not driving buyers around on the weekends and trying to find a home, taking all day, taking three days, taking three months whatever that is. I knew after the second or third time I did that I was like this isn't sustainable. It's not sustainable for my family, my situation. I mean nothing, it's just not. This is not sustainable.
Speaker 1:So I knew that like I had to go heavy on the listings and that kind of stuff, and so for me the good part is, with listings, most of the people I've only had a few that like aren't available for at minimum a Zoom call or something I've got some pretty good processes down to where I meet with these people. Once I give them video CMAs, I'm even doing AI stuff to give them their numbers on the houses they should look at or different things like that, and so just being able to do that kind of stuff has been really helpful. But I just don't spend a lot of time outside of during the work hours working on real estate. If I do, it's our family is just set up in a way. That's like the best way to explain. It is like the work life balance thing that people bring up often. I don't, I don't. When you own your own business, I don't know that there is a work-life balance.
Speaker 1:It's bullshit, it's a it's a life balance, like, yeah, like, how am I balancing the, the life part of it? Because I can get wrapped up into anything. I love it. I love I'm not a guy who's like man, I need a nap. I'm gonna go take a nap like you ain't catching me taking a nap like I'm.
Speaker 1:I I'd rather be working on something, or, uh, if we're, if I'm watching something on netflix, I'm probably on my computer at the same time, like just, you know, like just doing the thing, like that, um, but I basically don't. I, at some point at night time, you know five, six o'clock, I'm able to turn it off because I'm focusing on the part that I know is sustainable for our family, and that's during the day, as much as possible. Very rarely on weekends do I have something. I mean very rarely, because I would rather take a cut in the pay on the weekend and give that as a referral to another agent on our team, then go drive around and do all that Just because you know the best, the I keep saying the best, it's not the best.
Speaker 1:One of the best things I ever learned was to truly value your time, like all the way down to the dollar, like how much is your time worth and the best way to do it. You find out how much do you want to make a year. Let's start there, then divide that down all the way down to what does that mean hourly? So, whatever that number is, for some people it might be $100 an hour.
Speaker 1:For some people it might be $5,000 an hour, what's your goal, what's your dreams, what's your aspirations? And when you do that and you get down to like, okay, if I want to make that much money, I have to be serious about my hour and what that hour is valued at. Man, that's a big deal. When you're looking at okay, yeah, I'll go show you this house, whatever, when I know you're probably not going to buy it.
Speaker 3:You've already told me you're not going to you just want to go check it out, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:And you look at that and you go man, that's an expensive hour. That's a real expensive hour right there, then if you can just look at that and go, or I could just spend five minutes calling another agent, give them the referral. If it works out, great, I get paid something on the back end and I made more than what I was going to make in that one hour.
Speaker 3:You're still helping them out. Absolutely, I agree, and so that makes it a lot easier for when you get those. Hey, can I take you to coffee.
Speaker 2:You're like, well, my time is worth it. No, you can't, so it makes it a little easier.
Speaker 3:But, I have found that too, especially on got to make money. I get it. But, man, you're doing yourself a disservice. If a certain loan type or certain scenario comes in that I'm not an expert on or I don't feel comfortable on, I don't take it on because it's setting the buyer up for failure, setting me up, setting you up if you're the agent where it's just a horrible experience. But I have people on my team that know that and so I just pass it on to them.
Speaker 3:Like this is yours, yep, like I know my target segment and I'm not getting, I'm not getting out of it. Yeah, and so I've started to do that on weekends as well. Uh is protect family time, and so I, I get it. I this is not a diss at the loan officers that take any phone call, call me 24, 7. Yeah, I tell my clients, like, if they call me at six o'clock or whatever evening, seven o'clock, iclock, I text them back. I'm like dude, I'll see you in the morning. There's nothing that important right now unless you're closing tomorrow morning or something. That's a one-off scenario.
Speaker 3:But I have found, especially on the weekends, that if say it's a brand new person, they reach out to you and they're like, hey, man, I need a pre-approval.
Speaker 1:Eh nah.
Speaker 3:They will leave you in a heartbeat. They're just looking for a piece of paper and they're not. And so if one of my existing clients reaches out and they are already pre-approved and like, hey, I need you to modify the pre-approval letter to match this, that's easy, that takes 30 seconds. But if you want to do a full on application on Saturday night at nine 30, when I'm at a party, me, uh, I. I've been in this scenario where I literally tell my wife, hey, I gotta go, uh, I gotta go do this pre-approval. And then did that client stay with?
Speaker 1:me hell no they didn't.
Speaker 3:They left me for one guy down the road is 50 a less, so you know, so I just don't take those on anymore.
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure that that protecting your time. So so yeah, I mean to answer your question overall is I do know what my time's worth and that man. It's a hard balance because that's what I was trying to say earlier is like with the coffee thing. It's a hard balance because you don't want to come off as a jerk or as pretentious or as like who do you think you are your time's more valuable? I'm not saying my time's more valuable than someone else's, I'm just saying I know what my time is worth and there are certain things that are not. It's not worth it.
Speaker 2:I mean literally.
Speaker 1:It's the one commodity that you don't have more. You're not making more of it, and most people understand that too.
Speaker 3:I found maybe I'm a little bit too transparent with people and it sounds like you might be too. Like we're in the wholesale lending side. Account executives, aes, will call me like hey, I'm with XYZ company, we're not partnered with your company yet, do you want to? And I just tell them I'm like no, like why? Yeah, I'm never gonna send no. Like you don't. You're not in my target segment. Like you're your non-QM. This is like I'm never gonna use. It's just going to be a time suck for you. It's going to be a time suck for me. Like I'm just want to be up front with you right now. Yeah, this is not going to work.
Speaker 2:And most of them they're like thanks man, hey man, I appreciate that, because they sure they don't want their time wasted either.
Speaker 3:No, it's, they're like dude. Thank you for like being real with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so the ones that actually take offense to that will then probably not the person you want to partner with anyways, and so I, because, at the end of the day and people are so right You've heard this before Like hey, you know, 30 years from now, 40 years, 50 years from now, whenever our times come right, are you going to look back and be like man, I'm so glad I sold 500 listings or 1,000 listings? Are you going to be like? I really appreciate the time I spent with my family.
Speaker 2:And what are they going?
Speaker 3:to remember. Your kids are not going to remember how many listings you had. They're going to remember the time that you spent with them, and so that is so hard. As you're trying to grow your business, grow multiple businesses.
Speaker 3:For me, that's the hardest part is trying to Is like trying to like completely segment that and just like, when's it enough, enough, when is it time to walk away? Yeah, and so I've definitely. Especially in the weekday evenings and on weekends, I'm like, nope, I don't care, and if I lose a client because of it, then I lose a client?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's certain times where you know obviously it makes sense to take this one or that one. You do this, you do that, or you got these for me. I got builders that I work with or whatever. And I mean, if a deal's that's the hard part with us is like on the weekends if I get an offer, I mean I got to do something with that.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I can't just sit back and not do it. But that's why I do the listing side, because I can also uh choose to not leave the house yesterday and just work from home and just, you know, do do my thing at at home or just stop, stop working in the middle of the day, because it's just working for my schedules. I mean, there's that. That's really the work. Work life balance for me is just. I will keep control of my schedule.
Speaker 1:That's the biggest thing is, I know lots of people that their calendar runs their day and mine does too, to an extent of like I know what I've got at what time I've got to be here at this time, but I also won't book a full day solid, I just won't do it. I've got to have these times in between to take phone calls, emails, so I don't get behind to where I feel like I have to be working all weekend, you know, and so it's a lot of. It is just discipline in that as well, of like, like someone calling like hey, can you meet with me on Thursday at 10 o'clock, I was like I can, but let's move it to Friday at three o'clock, you'clock, because I need to protect that time, whatever that might be.
Speaker 3:Everyone's different with their time. I think if you're listening to this, you need to have some type of time window which is your power hours. Some people are night owls and they like to stay up late. I'm the complete opposite. I like to go to bed early, but from like 4 am to 7 am, those are my power hours 4 am.
Speaker 1:Those are my power hours. 4 am. I didn't even know they made a 4 am. It's on your watch.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that would exist Well yeah, obviously, if I'm going to bed at midnight, that's going to be tougher, but I'm not going to bed at midnight. But you know what's beautiful about 4 am, other than it's completely dark and quiet outside. No one's calling you, there's nobody calling you, there's no appraisers, there's no titillators, there's no buyers. There's nobody. My kids aren't. My wife's still asleep, like nobody's messing with. That is your time, yep, and so that is where I feel I'm most creative. That's where I do research, uh, that's where I lay out marketing ideas or video ideas, or it's when I record my videos. Yeah, um, I would love to do that. I would love. Well, what's stopping you?
Speaker 1:I know I've had this thing before. I. I did a uh, I read this whole thing on on the power of 5am. It was like this whole. It wasn't a book, it was something I was doing, but anyway, it was basically like the average American wakes up at seven and if you can wake up at 5am, that's two hours a day. Two hours a day over a year's period turns out to be a whole month, so you gain a month. You have a 13th month that no one else has or other people don't. You know the average american doesn't have. If you can wake up at 5 am and do 5 to7 and I'm like I'd rather do 5 to 7 pm, like I, just that, I don't know man, like it's. It's been interesting because I'm trying to, uh, I'm, I'm working out more, I'm trying get a little more scheduled, but my like workout time is like 4 PM, like I, just that's, I know it's so hard.
Speaker 3:For a lot of people that's like peak craziness hour.
Speaker 1:I know you know kids are out of school going to school. It's, it's the ideal time for me, and how we work at like, just how our family is and everything, and so I don't know am I would love to do it.
Speaker 1:I just I think the way our schedule works with our family, it's like we all stay up pretty late you know and so it just makes it hard, and if I were the one to go to bed early then I'd miss out on that time, and so it's just kind of like it's what's worked out.
Speaker 3:There's certain, there's definitely certain times where you're going in there you want to go sleep early? Your ass can go in that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, fair enough but I mean just think about to our point earlier about the power of social media and video and how you've landed great opportunities and now I have two just because of some of the content we produce. So think about, if you woke up an hour early, you can knock out an entire marketing concept or video in an hour. Yep, what if you did that five days a week and had five extra things out, and you just do that and have that discipline, and that started compounding the amount of opportunities that's going to open up. Yeah, absolutely so. The danger, though, is like well, where do you stop? Do you go to 4 am? Do you go to 3?
Speaker 2:a you stop. Do you go to 4am? Do you go to?
Speaker 3:3am. Do you go to 2am, like where do you stop, right? Uh, but that's my. So during that four to seven is, uh, my workout time and then also my, my creativity time or any important tasks that has to be done that day, especially if it's painful and you're like you don't want to do it.
Speaker 3:you don't want to do it, I knock it out first, because if I don't knock it out first, I'm going to be thinking about that thing all dang day. I'm like oh, I got to do this thing, I got to do this dang pre-approval and this buyer's a jerk. They won't send me their document, whatever it is, if you can knock that out first and get it out of the way.
Speaker 2:That's great man.
Speaker 3:Because the rest of the day, as you know, you can try to like schedule stuff, but you're reactive. You can't control when people are going to call, you can't control if something goes sideways with a purchase or whatever, so you gotta like have all that stuff already knocked out.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, yeah, no, for sure that that reactiveness. I had to get control of that because definitely when I started real estate I was like man, this, you're just react.
Speaker 1:You are reacting to everything it's like you're getting an offer coming in, you're getting a phone call coming in, Can you go show me this, Can you? You know? And it's just like oh, yep, I can do it. Yep, Got to do it, Got to do it. You know, and and speed is one of my like highest, most important things is speed are not fast when they, when they're trying to like get something done and there's, I mean it's time kills deals for sure. I mean like that's, that's just period, it is what it is. But just, I think, figuring out processes to respond or fast ways to do things, you know, like that, to me that's the. That's been the number one thing us part marketing is how can I figure out better ways to do this? How can I have better systems?
Speaker 3:How can I just do all that kind of stuff. Systems is the backbone of any top producer. High-performing, whatever.
Speaker 3:And so that's what I'm trying to work on next, and it's really just hiring the right people, whether it's transaction coordinators, whether it's production managers, whether it's assistant, whatever is like dude. Yeah, it's. It's scary. Now you're bringing on more salary, you're bringing in more expenses, but if I truly want to free up my time and not care if there's a fire that happens in the afternoon and we have to react to it, it's not just on me now, like previously it was just on Eric or just on Jay yeah.
Speaker 3:But what if I have a whole team behind me that this is their job, because they realize that our best use of our time is doing things like this? And for you to go have your meetings, for you to go make your content, to go shoot your listing video, for me to do that stuff, that's what. Because I am a lone originator, right, I'm supposed to originate business. Yep, I'm not supposed to manage a pipeline and processors and all this stuff, and so that is the trap. Yep, that is the trap, because you're like well, I'll just do it myself, because I don't want to hire a person, because it takes time and money to hire people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I think I love making up percentages I think 95 percent of people, uh, are, are, are stuck in that, especially in our industry, because that is, uh, the the most agents. I mean you know the average agent does like nine deals a year or something. I mean it's got getting worse.
Speaker 1:You tell me yeah, it's getting worse for that and uh and and so like. But they feed no, like I talk to those agents all the time, you know, and they feel like they are so busy, so slammed, and I'm just over here like if I only did nine deals I would be so mad, I would be twiddling my thumbs because I started with a transaction coordinator. I started with a transaction coordinator. I know immediately, paperwork is not my thing.
Speaker 1:Not even connecting this and uploading that and making sure this document's here, all that, yes, it's a part of real estate, but for some reason, a lot of agents feel like they're bringing themselves and their clients value if they're filling out forms and it's like, well, this is part of the gig. You know like I had one agent one time she could not get over uh, she'd been an agent for quite a while. She could not get over the fact that I had not written my own contract. Like she couldn't do it. She was like she was like I just can't believe. You've met Now I, I Now I know every blank, I know every paragraph, I know everything in there. I just don't physically take my fingers and hit the this is how I type, so I just physically don't do that.
Speaker 1:And so she was so like what do you mean? You don't do that. I'm like what good is that doing to any of my clients, myself, my marketing, my future? Anything by being the one who types in words as long as I review it before it gets sent and as long as I review it when it gets sent back, what does it matter? And I truly believe that's how people get stuck. They get stuck because their systems are just out of whack, maybe based on personal pride or something. That's the number one thing I hear with real estate agents that get stuck in that is that, oh, I have to do my own contracts, I have to be able to make sure. It's da-da-da-da-da. I'm like you can make sure by reading it when it comes back to you.
Speaker 1:To me, it's so freeing. My process is literally if I'm working with a buyer which is rare but if I work with a buyer and they they're like hey, we want to put an offer on this house, I'm like great, I'm going to text you the highlights of what goes into an offer. And I text every single blank that would be there. Here's this, here's this, here's this, here's this, here's this, here's this. Text it over to them and then I call them hey, I want to go over this with you. Does this look good? Here's what this means. Here's what this means. Here's what this means. Here's where we're at. Here's what my suggestion. Boom. And then it comes back to me and I just copy paste that text to my transaction coordinator.
Speaker 2:Be y'all whenever we're in the option period Like that's.
Speaker 1:I mean that kind of thing because I don't need to be a part of any of the paperwork side. So those systems are so important and there's no way you can be a top producer without having them. There's just no way.
Speaker 3:No, and that's any industry, I don't care who. If you don't have a system and a team behind you, you're never you're going to plateau Eventually. You're never you're going to plateau Eventually you're going to plateau. And so well, let's wrap up here, so like. So. If anybody let's say there's a new agent and they're like dude, I get it, but I don't even have enough transactions to justify a transaction coordinator, cause I don't have any transactions, what would you say to them? Like somebody in 2025, in this current market, in this current game, what is your kind of tips for them?
Speaker 1:So here's what I would be doing. You might not even know this. I've only been in real estate three years, not even three years, so I've only been an agent for that long, did $34 million last year, $22 million a year before that, $11 million a year for that. It's not normal. It's not a normal thing. I get it, yep, but you have the ability to do everything that I'm doing, everybody does. It's just a matter of the consistency in which you're going to do it, the systems that you set up in order to keep that consistency, and how effective and efficient you can be in this industry by learning things like negotiating, things like sales, all that kind of stuff. And so the big part of this for me has been what do you do at the beginning? What do you do when you first start?
Speaker 1:When I first started real estate, I remember going. I was like, well, I'm going to crush this industry, it's going to be incredible. I'm going. I was like, well, I'm going to crush this industry, it's going to be incredible, like I'm going to do awesome. And I was like I'll have a client in five days. You watch this. Nope, sure, did not have a client in five days. I get all the way to day. It was like 87, somewhere in there, and I go to my broker and I'm like Pamela, I thought I was going to be able to really crush this and I'm spending a lot of time and a lot of money right out of the gates. I'm not even a billboard guy, but I got five billboards right out of the gates. I was like I'm signing this contract in faith that I will sell enough to pay for it.
Speaker 1:Because, it was like $22,000 for these five billboards for the year. You know, in our small town that's pretty cheap, depending on where you're at yeah, depending on where. Yeah, it was expensive there you know, and so I get these billboards and I'm like they say stupid stuff, like not your typical realtor, and it's like a picture of me like sitting there with my Jordans on my tattoos showing and I'm just like I'm just going to be different.
Speaker 3:You just started too right in the industry. Oh yeah, yeah okay. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, of course you're not my typical realtor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, I'm like I'm not your typical realtor man, and so then I'm like, doing all this, I'm trying everything I can, I make this video where it's like and and I'm acting like it's my house, I'm like hey guys, I'm new to real estate.
Speaker 1:I want to welcome you to my home and then there's this guy outside and he's like beating on the door, he's like get out of my house, you know Anyway. So I'm like man, I'm like trying to be funny and all that. I'm like man, I'm going to crush this. Can I post your listing on social media, Would you mind? Can I either go film a video at your house? Can I use your pictures? Do you mind if I share your stuff and I'll obviously give you credit.
Speaker 1:The listing agent is this person? Yada, yada yada. But I would love to go show you this home. You know like I'm, just because I know that content is king and if I can use content with other people's products, I can figure this out all the time. I mean when I say all the time, I mean like five times a day, not over. Exaggerating. People are like dude you. The way you're crushing it in real estate is incredible and I'm like I don't have a freaking client, not one, not one single client, but the perception.
Speaker 1:The perception is that I am Mr Real Estate, but I'm over here just like but day 87, I'm like man, I'm getting tired of this. This is not working. My broker, pamela, who is incredible. She says, eric, just keep, you're doing everything right. I promise if you'll just keep going you're right there, like you are on the you will have a client. Just give it 90 days. She said 90 days and I'm like day 87.
Speaker 3:You're like I got three more days. I'm almost there.
Speaker 1:Day 91, I get a phone call hey, we want to go buy this house. Can you come show it to us? Would love to seven thousand dollars I was like I got one I got one and you better believe I contented the crap out of that house of like and it wasn't. It wasn't my listing, they were buying it but I'm like showing this house today.
Speaker 1:You know, making all these videos on my phone, doing everything I can and it was just like oh, three days later's somebody else, hey, we want to go look at this house. Oh, a couple of days later, can you list our house? A couple of days later, that builder calls me like hey, we're going to be doing this.
Speaker 3:So the first one hasn't even closed yet? Probably Nope, and you're, but they're coming. Yeah, absolutely, which is wild.
Speaker 1:It was wild, but it was just because people saw that I was doing real estate like in whatever way it is and there's obviously there's ways like there were some real estate agents that I called and they were like you absolutely cannot share my listings. And I'm like wow.
Speaker 3:How dare you?
Speaker 1:No, I'm like, oh, I'm so offended, but what bothered me about it was that, like it's like man, you have someone who's willing to share with their platform a house that you have for sale. Wouldn't that be the best thing for your clients if that house gets showed to more people and all I'm trying to do is bring a buyer Like I'm very clear that I am not the listing agent, like this is not my listing, I'm. I want to take someone to go see it. You know, and and it's funny, cause like all those people are the one that they just they don't do very much business. And it's like there's so much protection of like this is mine and you know whatever in this industry.
Speaker 3:And it's like guys, if you will just realize how much business is out there, you there's no way that you're going to have 100 market share or anywhere close to it not even close, not even remotely close literally in hood county I think they're the county that I live in there's 900 real estate agents, something like that.
Speaker 1:In a small little town of grandberry I mean there's 900. And the last time I looked at sales a couple weeks ago, like I think I had like four percent of the market share, like I'm in the top three, but that's like four percent is in the top three. It's like what, how does that? There's so many houses that get sold, so many like down there, just onesie, twosies, all the way down, and so like yeah, there's, there's business for everybody and it's there's a lot. And it's just to me it's one of those what you put in the world, you'll get back. You know, like, just put good things out there, put good vibes out there. That's why I have vibe realty I love it.
Speaker 1:You know like we really wanted to bring a new vibe to real estate. That's why I called it that. And uh and man, I really think that that if you do that and like you, are consistent and you set up systems from the get-go, that very first deal, I reached out to someone and said hey, can I pay you to write this contract? I'm new to this. Can I pay you to do it? Absolutely, that's what I've done ever since then.
Speaker 1:I have a transaction coordinator that I pay her per transaction. It's not a monthly cost, it doesn't cost me anything if we're not doing any deals. And she's incredible. She doesn't mind it being a Saturday at 6 pm and I say can you send over this contract? We got an offer and it's just a text message for me and it's like an hour and a half for her. It's, but she doesn't mind it, she likes it because she's getting paid to do it. So there's so many ways to make this work. But consistency, going back to how we started this whole thing consistency, systems, creativity you know those are the things, but creativity even is is one of the lower.
Speaker 1:you know of those right you can just do it and do it well, over and over and over. That's what's going to sell it for you.
Speaker 3:It goes back to the way we started this At the pillar of your business, no matter what it is that you're doing, is consistent marketing. Absolutely. You're going to dominate and you're going to eventually win yeah for sure. It's a great thing to end on, eric. I appreciate you Absolutely, man. It's fun to be here.
