Real Estate Happens
All things Real Estate! From the crazy things you see in real estate to better ways to do business. Thought provoking to get you fired up and ready to take on the day. Kenny Letner is the Broker and Owner of Aweigh Real Estate in Virginia Beach VA. Join us as we explore the different aspect of Real Estate as it pertains not only to the real estate professionals but also to the consumer and see what is changing in the real estate landscape.
Real Estate Happens
"From Navy Chief to Real Estate Broker: Michael Little's Unconventional Path to Success"
In this podcast episode, Kenny welcomes special guest Michael Little from Iron Valley Real Estate. They discuss Michael's background in the Navy and his journey in real estate. They also talk about Iron Valley Real Estate and why Michael decided to open a brokerage with them. They emphasize the importance of treating clients well and celebrating agents' individual goals and successes. They discuss the need for agents to prioritize their goals and identify their "why" in order to stay motivated. They also touch on the concept of accidental real estate and the importance of providing excellent service to clients. They highlight the value of collaboration, respect, and support within the real estate industry.
Hey guys, welcome to real estate happens. We are here today. We got our special guest, michael little from iron valley. With Mike, welcome to show thanks.
Speaker 2:Can you thanks for?
Speaker 1:having me man You know I've been Was looking at my text messages here not too long ago. I'm like man, who the fuck is this? Mike little guy? Right, you know he's a come on the scene. You know, three years and He's got this great company going, this great culture happening. I mean, you just went over 200 agents, which is Phenomenal. And I look back through my text messages and I say, oh shit, i've had in my text messages from like 2019. You were buying a house and I think my cellar screwed up the refrigerator order, so so from three years ago and you were you feel like I well, i can't come today because I'm deployed, i'm on the ship. I can't get off the ship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i was. I was out to see I. Actually My business partner, eric, came and viewed the house for me and helped me write the offer. I was going through a rough time and buying a second property to move into. And, yeah, you were listening, agent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a pretty amazing time. So I've kind of kind of been watching. You know iron valley and the progression and you know everybody wants to say, Well, he just popped up overnight. It's bullshit, How long have you been an agent?
Speaker 1:13 years right, and all of those 13 years you've been grinding it out and now here you are today. So I think it's just a great story. Give us a little bit about your background. I know you're within it was a chief in the Navy, so kind of in a goat locker here, so pretty much say whatever you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I joined the Navy out of Columbus Ohio back in 2005 and then, you know, i got married, had kids, did a few tours, a couple different ships end up making chief, and then Life happened, kind of like real estate happens right.
Speaker 1:And it does, and we substitute that word all the time. Was shit Sure, so I.
Speaker 2:I ended up going through a divorce and in that time I had a struggle with the Navy that I Didn't expect. But I ended everything on my terms and at the end of the day I decided to go home and do real estate full-time. So I was doing the real estate for a decade while in the Navy. So everyone's like already come from like Looking your files. You probably did a deal with me some time ago. You just didn't meet me or see me out in town because I wasn't home.
Speaker 1:Listen, that's the first thing I thought. I'm like all right, who's this? guy's been seen for about three years now. But then you get to look in deeper and you really have been doing real estate for a long time And it's a consummate professional. You do a great job, great to work with, thank you. You're really good to work with. And what really got my attention was, you know, i started asking a couple because I always want hey, how is that right there? So everybody knows, you know I'm. You know if you're on my show you're drinking an old-fashioned name. You got to rate it one through ten. What do you? what do you put that old-fashioned at? I'm gonna give you eight and a half. I like that. I like that's a good, solid number right solid.
Speaker 1:So remember I, i don't have my orange peel here today to have my cutter, so I'm gonna cut mine back to about a seven point two. Okay, seven point two, i think. but eight and a half I like that's a good number the flavor is definitely there.
Speaker 1:Well, i think part of that's the bourbon. It works out pretty good, got to use a good bourbon. But you know, like I said, you, you've been around for a minute, so I know a little bit about story, you, you, you got out of the Navy and decided to kind of go down this, this path. But what took you from? Hey, i'm an agent doing well, selling a lot of property 15 million a year, some shit, right, right, i mean, that's not a small number, that's great. What did took you from that? Hey, let's open up a brokerage.
Speaker 2:So I would actually have to credit Eric Edwards. He's One of the original partners and founders of I valley real estate, hampton roads. We were running a team together and He would just push me personally for my sales, but it was always a bigger vision of Well, if we're doing this with a team, imagine, you know, what we could do with this. And we went to a conference in northern Virginia. We were not enjoying this conference, so we we went up to our hotel room and he found an ad. We were just scrolling you know social, the internet. We set up a call and We just fell in love with the concept on our valley. We talked with the guys that created it and it was energy.
Speaker 1:How big is Iron Valley in Pennsylvania, because that's where they're out of right originally originally out of Pennsylvania, yeah, but now they're in seven states with 47 locations. So nice, nice, you count for five of those five locations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they're over. They're closing in on 1700 agents doing over two billion a year. So Billionaires Club real trends, top 500, top 50 independent brokerages. One of the main reasons we bought in early was because we saw that coming, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't really know at this point if they can call themselves an independent brokerage anymore.
Speaker 2:So well, they're all independently owned and operated, correct, and they're not going public. So that that's, and I don't see them doing that. They, they want to stay true to themselves and and Within their brand and that, ultimately, that's why we're there, you know.
Speaker 1:So what was it about iron valley that appealed to you, that that made you go to a conference of where you weren't having fun Right and just randomly call up some real estate company, go, hey, what you got going on. What? what was it when you met with them that said you know what? This is a direction.
Speaker 2:So it was just I'm from Ohio. Well, i went to middle school, high school there, so just kind of that you're from Ohio via was it?
Speaker 1:was it Boston? yeah?
Speaker 2:so, first, nine years, did your research. But it's just. I'm all about the hard work, the authenticity, not Being afraid of being who you are. If you look at their core values Humility, fearlessness, integrity, independence, ingenuity It speaks to everything that I am and that my my business partners are. So That's why that's the real reason why it was just a Fit. The conversation wasn't just about money. It was about the future of real estate. It was about being successful, how you want to do it. The commission structure, obviously, was phenomenal. Adam, adam Gamble, the CEO. He created a Just a great machine man, you know. But they support you too. That's, that's the thing. It's not. They're there. I got an email right now for they want to do a national mastermind, you know. So they're always involved. The branding is great, it's just. It was. It was a total package.
Speaker 1:What kind of franchise fees does iron valley have?
Speaker 2:so To age and level, there isn't any, so correct. But to the owners, well, i, that's probably changed over the years They're growing. You know that that whole yesterday's prices and today's price thing. That's time to plan a tree is 20 years ago, so right. But initially that was another reason we bought in back in 2020 Was it was 10,000 bucks.
Speaker 1:We were like no problem, it's like I said no brainer if you're gonna go right the franchise in there, so that's good.
Speaker 2:I'm not. I don't know what they're at now. I haven't been sitting in on those committee meetings, but I'm sure I could find out If anybody wants to know.
Speaker 1:Well, i think it's a good brand. I think you you've really taken a long winters there. Some of the comments that I get from my agents is a look. I had a problem with a iron valley agent and Michael a little called me himself and I think that speaks volumes. I don't know if you're still doing that or not, but if it makes sure it was a problem.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a problem if, if it comes to me, i mean, which sometimes things do you know? but I don't shy away from Trying to solve it because, at the end of the day, that's what you and I do, right, as brokers We just solve problems, it's uh, i'm really just getting on the phone to let you know if you need an attorney or not.
Speaker 2:I kind of both down to if it's, if it's out of my hands, i'll point you in the right direction. And you know, hopefully both sides can end amicably and obviously sometimes they can't.
Speaker 1:But well, i think there's so many agents nowadays that want to fight right off the bat, right, they, they hit a problem, they hit a lump bumping road and they go immediately. They're go to is let's fight, and Without really kind of stopping together all the information that they need together. And I'll be the first one to tell you, you know, sometimes my agents are right, sometimes they're wrong, and When they're wrong, you know, we just have to look at it and say, hey, well, what's the contract? say What's what's an? what can everybody live with? and let's kind of move forward.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's a hard concept for some people to be professional, not personal so There's several reasons behind that, but the biggest one is usually It's a younger agent not young in years, but young in experience, right. Or They're hurting financially Tough market for those that haven't been in the game for a few years, right. If you're just now getting in, interest rates are high. You don't have a book of business, there's no Repeat clients, like you're probably not listing homes, there's a lack of inventory and only those that have sold homes are more than likely listening most of homes, right. So I think those all kind of drive that Personal animosity you're talking about. They may not even be upset with the other side, but they're just so focused on closing It makes them struggle on getting there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they, they. It doesn't matter at that point to them how it gets closed, they just want to close and they start to lose some integrity And they start to lose a lot of things focusing on that dollar bill. See it all the time. See it all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i mean that I tell all of our agents that's number one to me. If you're, if you're doing this for money, it's gonna be long road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't get me wrong, We're not Red Cross.
Speaker 2:We all want to make a living, of course, but at the same time, you can't put the paycheck before the client correct because Ultimately, they're the ones they're gonna pay you for the rest of your life. If you're not treating them right and making them feel like you actually care because you should actually care It's the biggest investment in most of their lives. That's mistake number one, i tell you. Know every agent that comes over here.
Speaker 1:I sat down with them and have a conversation Oh hey, where do you want to be? What do you want to achieve? What does success look like to you? And I think it kind of really rings home with some of these people because we, you go to some of these kinds of You, go to some of these companies and they have these, these leaderboards. And there's nothing wrong with a leaderboard, except it's a top. It's the same three people to top the leaderboard in there, always celebrating the same three people. And I'm saying they shouldn't be Celebrated. But if somebody wants to do ten deals a year and that's their goal, and somebody wants to do 50, i'm gonna celebrate the 10 as much as I am the 50, because they both Exceeded or they both reach the goals that they set, and I think that's so important. I think we forget that in our industry.
Speaker 2:I would agree. That's another thing. You know, our motto is do your thing, so Mine is run your business your way. Yeah, so the way that we do it is we do Annual, semi-annual one-on-ones. I offer Thursday morning one-on-ones with our agents, and so do several of the other owners and leadership. And it's really what are your goals? Here's the plan to get to those goals Exactly, and if you meet your goals, then you should celebrate your success, because that's your success, it's your version of success, it's your definition of it, not anybody else's agents around here trying to keep up with the Joneses and Why. You don't know what that person's life looks like on the other side. You have no idea and you don't know what it took for them to get Where they are either. So stop trying to chase shadows that aren't yours.
Speaker 1:Well, i think so many brokerages are so focused on their success that they try to drive the agents to be what they want Agents to be what they need them to be, instead of what that agent wants to be, and that leads to burnout and disappointment and you know, just complete frustration and everything else, because they're always driving them. Oh, you need to be doing this many a month, you need to be doing this. Who am I to tell anybody what success is for them?
Speaker 2:You're no one's qualified to do that, thank you exactly, you know.
Speaker 1:And then I get the agents that come in and they go Well, i want to do this, this and this, and this and this, and I want to accomplish this and I go. That's not a problem for you to do that, but you might have to adjust the priorities in your life in order to accomplish it, and I find that the biggest, the biggest obstacle you tell me, if you find this to be true for an agent to reach their goals is they haven't made their goal a priority.
Speaker 2:Without question, number one reason. But we can dig a little deeper. Why isn't it a priority yet? because they don't know why. You can't set these goals without knowing why. Whatever your why is that's on you to identify. Yep my why is my family's legacy, my children, them, carrying on my family name? That's my why.
Speaker 1:You have to find yours. Yeah, mine is the best bourbon I can know. I'm just Now. I tell everybody look, if you make something a priority, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse. It's just that simple.
Speaker 2:I Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:So many agents. they get upset when I say that, though They say well, i use this example. I also say this one. I try not to say it in public too much could have been chastised for it, but I don't go, fuck, i'm gonna say it anyways.
Speaker 1:You can make money or you can make excuses, but you can't do both, and that's it right. So a lady goes well, what do you mean? I said well, let me ask you a question. Your kid breaks your his arm and you got a choice Going to listing appointment or take your child to the emergency room. What do you do? Well, i take my child to the emergency room. I said absolutely, that's the right decision, that's the right priority. But now you have an excuse for not going to the listing appointment. It's just a truism in life. You can't do both. Now, that's an extreme situation. So let's break it back to okay, i want to have dinner with my family every night. Well, if you want to make a million dollars a year, you're probably not going to have dinner with your family every night.
Speaker 2:Not even probably you're not going to Correct. That's why a lot of people preach a balance, and that works to a point, preach time blocking and scheduling, and that works to a point. But when you set certain goals and you expect yourself to meet or exceed those goals, you're going to miss a couple of meals, you might miss a workout, you might double book and miss a meeting because you're not perfect, but you're going to have to do things that weren't in the plan. That's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Every day, every day. I think that you have to pivot, you have to be able to make these shifts, you have to be able to do those things. Oh yeah, do you still meet with every agent that comes on board?
Speaker 2:So I try very hard, man, I do. We've had some months where we signed so many. It's like I can't make every meeting, but typically they sign on with an owner or myself personally in person. If for any reason I didn't meet them, I try to stop by the onboarding class just to meet and greet. But regardless, if I sign a package, add new on social media, reaching out via text welcome to the team, stuff like that. So try to keep it as personal as possible. It has become harder, I don't know, man. I try to stay pretty humble about everything that we do, not just in sales but in the community too. We do a lot. We've put on a lot of events and have a lot of different avenues that we support, and it becomes a lot.
Speaker 1:Well, look you're doing. are you still doing it? You're still in production. Yep, your production is right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i'm over 7 million already this year, so you're over 7 million already this year.
Speaker 1:So you're 14 to 15 million a year in production. You have five offices, 200 agents and you still answer the phone when someone calls.
Speaker 2:Whenever I can.
Speaker 1:No, i mean so you've got yourself Within reason, absolutely. But you've got your cell phone out there, right, that you carry with you and you call, and there's agents that run much, much smaller things and won't answer their damn phone or won't put their phone out there for anybody to have.
Speaker 2:So I think it's about boundaries in that time blocking, because I actually have two phones And there's a certain time of day when my business phone goes bye bye And I don't care how anybody feels about it.
Speaker 1:That you should it should.
Speaker 2:I'll be back up tomorrow and you'll get your answer. I promise I'm not leaving anybody on red for a week. But and even if communication is lacking or say a client isn't responding, like I still try to tell everybody like, hey, this is why you don't have a response. Nobody's sandbagging or a prairie dog, and you know what I mean. Like it's a, i try to do it all transparent. As a leader, as a salesperson, as a man in general, everybody kind of gets the same mic. You know what I mean. I try to be fair. The good order and discipline execution guy, the one that's up early in the morning talking crap to everybody, you know like that's my motor.
Speaker 1:I get drives and agents crazy because I'm up at 530 every day, right, that's about when I get up by 615, 630. We've got a company chat that we use so we don't blow up everybody's text messages, but, yeah, i'm always on there first thing in the morning. There's some agents that forget to turn their ding off, right, so they're getting dinged early in the morning. But I try to get, i try to communicate. I find that communication, my company door near the size of yours and we've got 35 agents right now, which is great for me. I'm not trying to be huge, i'm 56, 57. I'm on the backside of all this, but even with that, you know you just, you still try to keep everybody in the loop, try to keep everybody going. How do you manage that with 200ators? I would imagine military chief, you got a good chain of command.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Management leadership levels.
Speaker 2:For sure, to your point, we've hired well And the ownership partners that we made were were, you know, vetted. They were performers, they had a proven track record of sales and leading other agents and the military background and the ability to deal with a lot of different types of people, not just their people, but everybody. You know we're also a very diverse company And a lot of that is attributed to the military. But just putting the right people in the right positions I have my partners or admin staff.
Speaker 2:Like I don't do any of this alone. You know a lot of people look at it because they just see the amount of content that I put out on behalf of the company and everything. But, like I'm one of many people in this village, you know we have some really good key players in key places And we kind of structured it based on what we knew about the military but also how we envisioned a company that. You know this is not my first company. I didn't come from nowhere. No, i was at three other firms four different times before I opened my own. So it's a.
Speaker 1:So how many? you've mentioned a couple of times now owner partners. How many owner partners are there at Iron Valley right now? There's five owners, Okay, So that kind of matches the number of offers you had. Is that coincidental or is that Imagine that?
Speaker 2:Let's go see How does that work. Yeah, So the way that boiled down was last summer. Well, last spring we had some ownership changes that I won't bring up here. Let's just say that My my, we are.
Speaker 1:we are a no drama firm.
Speaker 2:We should wash that So but my path to principal broker. There were some speed bumps required and you know that's another thing People out here talking about things they don't really know about, and I think it's cute. Hopefully they're listening. If you ever have questions, you can just call me. That's all Kenny did. He hit me up, said you want to do a podcast. Yeah, man, what's up? Because I answer my phone.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I said so, if you have questions, we can have lunch.
Speaker 1:But I mean really, you just jumped off on something I want to I want to touch on for a second. Anytime anybody sees a model of success, somebody will try to tear it down.
Speaker 2:They have to.
Speaker 1:They have. I don't know why that is, but they have to try and tear it down And I've always been to the opinion that I don't. I am. I applaud you for where you're at, what you're doing, your vision. I think it's awesome, And if anybody's trying to tear you down, it's because I don't know why. But they should just be like fucking happy for you, Jesus, Right, I mean, look at this guy, He's doing great. Look at this you know.
Speaker 2:The reality is they're just not happy with themselves.
Speaker 1:That's true, right.
Speaker 2:Because I don't. You'll never see me hating on somebody that's succeeding. That's ridiculous. I agree Because successful people don't have time to do that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I mean successful people know that you surround yourself with other successful people and you lift other people up, and that's how you get there.
Speaker 1:That was a few people I just don't like in general. That's. that's a different animal, Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, that's. That's definitely a different animal.
Speaker 1:There's caveat to everything.
Speaker 2:For sure. There's a few people that everybody don't like. You know what I mean, right? So?
Speaker 1:let's throw it out there. We're talking about it. You know what? They don't have to come and call you and ask you. Let's talk about those speed bumps to get to principal broker.
Speaker 2:Listen what happened, well so let's just put it out. I'm not going to throw any names, but I'll just say that. Fine, just give the situation. Eric and I had a broker initially with us. Some things took place. That broker had to be removed.
Speaker 1:Happens.
Speaker 2:Never made it to court. No buyouts, gentlemen's handshake, we settled everything And you know I got the email change to prove all. So it's just because that's the thing about our industry, kenny, and you know this about this area, a lot of people run their mouths out here. You don't know me or my people. You need to be real careful about what you're saying about people you don't know 100%. That's insanity to me.
Speaker 2:Listen there was because everybody has a story, right? Yeah, there's one side, there's your side, their side, and then there's the real side.
Speaker 1:There's this side, that side, and the truth is somewhere in the middle, because I don't care who you are including you, including me when you tell the story, you're going to spin it to your side.
Speaker 2:By nature by nature.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you going to do? Talk shit about yourself. Nope, she's not going to happen, right?
Speaker 2:It's not your best interest, exactly, but regardless, like we don't. There's no bitterness there, there's no targets there, there's no vindictive, malicious intent.
Speaker 1:Did you already have your broker's license when this happened? Absolutely Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:I got it a year prior because I saw it coming.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So that's the thing where you know, people can say whatever they want, but you weren't living our life. And let's be real if things went down the way people are portraying them, do you think it would be where we are today? No, so that's why. but see, I am, i am fortunate enough. That's why I never speak on it, you know so.
Speaker 1:I'm fortunate enough to have clues of what you're talking about. I have no idea as far as I see from the outside and from what I hear. Well, here comes Mike and he's got a company and he's doing great. He's got his 200 things, he's got five of us, awesome, great, wonderful, azen, elizabeth City, north Carolina. So the thing is awesome. Right, that's what I know about your company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, so well, that's because you and I aren't drama queens in the industry.
Speaker 1:We're not looking for that Generally, when somebody and all the agents will tell you here I have a couple of rules. So if you come to work here, right, some rule number one here are my core values. They are non-negotiable and they are unforgivable And they go, what do you mean? I'm like, i'm not changing them, so you'll come work here. And if you come work here and you don't align, well, no harm, no foul, have a nice day. I'll send your license back to the board. That's it. Period. End of conversation. And the second one is do whatever you want. Moral, legal and ethical. Moral, legal and ethical. Treat everybody fair, right, and don't bring any drama to the table. Don't start nothing. It won't be nothing. Right, and that's it.
Speaker 2:That's good rules man.
Speaker 1:You know well, you and I come from the same military background. You're from look, you're from Boston. I am from from, from Appalachia Mountain, tennessee. Right, we were so poor growing up. I mean, we used to steal the neighbor's trash. It looked like they had something to throw away.
Speaker 1:Right, but you and I come from these different backgrounds, right, you come from parents intact background. You had foster families growing up and all of those things, and you know she had a very tough upbringing. Right, i didn't have that Hell. I didn't even know I was poor. My dad decided to move to Florida for a job And before we got down, when we got down there, before we took the new job, we went on vacation for like a month and we were in the San Sprint National Park Never forget it Greatest time of my life. I didn't find out to like five, six years ago. It's because when he got down and the job was gone and we were fucking homeless, right, so I had no idea. Right, so you don't know how bad you have it unless somebody tells you how bad you have it, and then you have to listen to them. Right, so you just be happy in your, in your situation and always try to move more. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You do the best with what you have, where you are right now.
Speaker 1:At every day, every day. If you had some advice for a new agent, an experienced agent, any agent in this market, what would be best piece of advice you could give them? What would it be?
Speaker 2:Can I do a couple?
Speaker 1:You ask, you can do as many as you want. I got nothing but time.
Speaker 2:For me, number one is take control of the narrative. Stop spinning everything in a negative light. Right, you're the reason the market is hurting, because you are literally training the consumer to think that this is the worst time in real estate history, and that's a lie. It just is. It's not true. We're not going through a recession. There's not a housing bubble, the the the most you might see is some of the forbearance stuff biting some people in the behind, but it's not because the mortgages were built without good structure. You know, it's a different. It's a different thing. Go watch the big short. You'll learn a lot about the last great movie battle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. The other piece, I think, is you touched on earlier the communication with the other side and being respectful and professional is going to get you a long way in this market. It's not going to be your offer price, it's going to be your reputation, it's going to be the offer structure and it's going to be, you know, can they close? Are they closers? Do they work at a reputable company? Do they do decent work? Do they have good contractors? that assist in? you know is this do they have good relationships throughout the area? Like? there's a lot of factors in this business. And then the last one learn how to generate your own leads.
Speaker 1:Oh, god, thank you.
Speaker 2:Learn how to generate your own leads, learn how to feed yourself, and because if you're always just working somebody else's leads, you're always going to have a crutch. If you're always looking for the new deal, you're running your business the wrong way. If you sold a house, you should have three other transactions related to that.
Speaker 1:You're not wrong, i'm actually doing a class tomorrow called Generating Business Through Referrals. And look, there's several companies. Brian Bafini does a great job. He's amazing. Ninja selling is a great job, is a great process. They're very, very similar. They've got some nuances, little differences. Bafini is a little bit more in your face about Hey, give me a referral, and ninjas, in flow with your, with your clients. I've kind of taken the best of both and kind of put in a short four hour class together that allows people to kind of get a taste of what it means to work by referral.
Speaker 1:And I termed a phrase about six months ago with one of my, one of my just comes to me, mike, and they're like you know, i don't understand. you know, my, my, everything's like a roller coaster with me and it's kind of everything's up and down. I'm like, okay, let's talk about what. Do you get your business? Well, you know I bartend. So you know I talked to everybody and you know I just talked to everybody and I get all this business. Well, you know what that kind of real estate that's called And like what? I'm like that is accidental real estate. And they go, excuse me, i'm like it's accidental real estate. You are passionate about what you're doing So you just run your mouth every chance you get. And it just so happened to somebody who needed a house, was listening at the point, but you're not doing anything so systematically or consistently to nurture and grow that business. But if you can, if you're doing accidental real estate, then you got the passion, you got the ability to do, take that and turn it into a very sustainable and wonderful life.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more. That's definitely accidental real estate for sure, and you know what I did that for a while.
Speaker 1:We all did, we all did.
Speaker 2:We first got into business, especially because I was in the Navy right Part time man. If I was doing 10 or 15 deals, that's extra. You know 14 deals at 300. I was six figures on the side, so you get kind of comfortable with. Well, that is my marketplace. Well, my business had to change dramatically when I left the Navy behind without a pension. I left it almost 14 years, yeah, just because I knew this is what I was gonna do. But several years prior to that I knew in my heart one day I was gonna leave the Navy and do this. So it was.
Speaker 2:Let me figure out how to get those reviews. Let me figure out how to get the referral business. Let me make sure that the product that I'm providing, which isn't the house, it's my service, my level of service. How did I make that client feel? And if they didn't get a five-star experience, that's your fault. Take ownership of it and stop being scared to ask for business and implement those things. But the reality is this is what it really boils down to All of those systems. Okay, any of them. Name any of them. Name the four hour class that you just made. Name what I do every day. Name what we train our agents to do. All you have to do is care.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:Pretend they're real people because they are. Treat them like you want it to be treated and everything is gonna be okay If you wouldn't put yourself in that situation. don't put your client in that situation If you don't think it's gonna be fruitful for their goals, just like we talk about agents. is their goal to resale? is their goal to rent? is this forever home? Set the proper expectation, meet those expectations and everything else will work itself out.
Speaker 1:In part of the class I talk about. You need to be staying in touch with your clients. You need to reach out to them, ask them how they're doing, how's your job, how's your kids, how's your family. However, if you don't care how their job is and if you don't care how their family is, you don't care how any of that is, don't ask, because then you're just fake. You genuinely need to care about those people that are in your inside sphere of influence and you're not asking those questions to get business. You're asking those questions because you genuinely have care for those individuals. The business will come just because of that. But I tell them look, you need to ask, but if you don't care, don't ask, because it's just some fake-ass shit.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more. I think I'm pretty well known for being straightforward, cut and drive, no BS kind of person, i think you and I both have that reputation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so And sometimes you're a detriment which I'm okay with.
Speaker 2:Me too, because it's who I am, And I'm not changing. For what, for you, for who, for no? I'm good, yeah, same here.
Speaker 1:Same here. No, i get it completely, mike. it has been great having you on the show. I've been trying to get you in here and I'm glad I appreciate you coming over.
Speaker 2:Listen, i almost forgot and I'm gonna lie.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know.
Speaker 2:Your assistant sent the message. I said I'm on my way. No, i'm aware. I'm aware.
Speaker 1:That's why I had her call you And as soon as it was so funny, you say that because I wouldn't have called you out. She got the phone, she goes. She looked at me, she goes. He's on his way, he's leaving Redmail. I'm like I don't know what. Yeah, he forgot.
Speaker 2:And I made it on time.
Speaker 1:You did, you did. You were here plenty of time. So I keep this podcast room, which is kind of nice. I keep it up and running and stocked and staffed all the time, because there'll be times when people just walk in the door I'm like, and we're having a great conversation, i'm like, hey, come on back, just put your headphones on. Let's just get this recorded, because it's kind of nice to get some of this stuff laid out. Did you hear the podcast? I don't know if you I mean, we're not super popular podcast Had Christian Phillips and Eric Martinez in here. I didn't hear that. Did you crash or not to crash? It was hilarious.
Speaker 1:It was cracking me up Well ago. You said we're not crashing. I almost looked at you and went. You can argue with Christian Phillips about that. So well, mike's been great. Anything else you'd like to add before we sign off?
Speaker 2:No man, just thanks for having me. And I made an effort to come here today because I think it's important for the people in our marketplace to understand that we're all human, Like I'm here to collaborate, I'm here to educate, I'm here to do this together. A lot of people have that like me versus you mentality And let me tell you something In this game, it's you versus you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that And it has nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with you, it has nothing to do with that other person. If you see me winning, it's because I'm working.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So don't be mad at me, you know. Don't be out here running your mouth about people you don't know. That's just completely unprofessional and unethical, by the way. So do your job, do it well. Treat people fairly.
Speaker 1:We say this all the time, cooperation over competition, and we say that not only within our company but with everybody outside of our company. There's enough real estate for all of us. I could take a class The class I'm gonna do tomorrow. If you did everything I tell you to do in that class, you'd close 50 or 60 deals a year. Nobody will do everything I'm gonna tell them to do in that class. Okay, who? you are Not gonna do it. You're not gonna do it. I'm gonna lay it out tomorrow and like look, this is how you do it, this is how you can make it happen.
Speaker 1:But agents will come to me and they'll be like I don't understand why I'm not this and I understand why this, i understand why this, i understand why that And I go, okay. So you have no listings and you told me you're not doing any well with your call calls. What neighborhood did you do, or not? Well, i'm not doing that. Okay, all right. So you're telling me you're not doing everything that you could possibly do to get business. So it's not a priority, because if everything you're doing is not leading to success, you better do something different. You better change what you're doing. You got to. if you want to grow, you got to get out of the box and be uncomfortable, right, because the seconds you get uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:I mean That's the next level.
Speaker 1:Right, that's the next level. Right, There was a song I heard not too long ago freaking love this song. And it said and we've all heard this, right, If it doesn't scare the hell out of you, it's not a big enough dream.
Speaker 2:It's a viral on TikTok. I know exactly what you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:She was on The Voice or whatever. America's Got Talent, I think.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:I listened to that song and I looked it up on Spotify and I sent it to every agent in my office Because she's right If it doesn't scare the hell out of you, it's not big enough, and if it's uncomfortable, then it's worth doing.
Speaker 2:But that's to your point too. a lot of people, as you've said, oh, they came out of nowhere. look at them. No, no, no, no, no, no. I made decisions that you weren't willing to make Correct. I took risks that normal people don't take. I opened a company in the middle of COVID because I believed and I had faith, and my partners did, And then the people that came after that kept that faith and built the culture and kept moving forward. You don't open three offices in 90 days because you're not crazy, you know. You know, like, think about that. No, no, that was all a risk. We make it look easy, but it is not. No, We work our butts off, you know. So it's just. people need to get back to respecting each other instead of hating on each other. That's what it is. I couldn't agree with you more. I say it all the time. That's my number one piece of advice for the day Start respecting each other and stop hating on each other.
Speaker 1:I love it. With that, we're gonna get out of here. We're gonna go back to doing whatever the hell it is we gotta do, because I'm sure after being in here there'll be a billion and one things for us to do when we walk out the door, guaranteed, oh, be blowing up. Look, i left my phone in the other office. I took my. God, i hate to admit this. I'm so fucking old. How old are you, mike? I'm 35. Fuck you. Right, i'm 56, right, i'll be 57 in September.
Speaker 1:Been in a lot of combat so I do not hear very well. So I took my hearing aids out for these things, right? So I always get a little louder. You know, it's funny. I'll tell you this real quick. My wife I'll not wear, i won't wear my hearing aids for like six months or whatever, right, because I don't like it, right. And so she makes her have to talk louder And then. So now I went and got them updated and kind of got everything back in line. I put them on. I'll go home tonight and I'll bet you that they'll be at least five or six times a night where I will look at her and go would you stop yelling at me? And she's like this is my normal voice. put your hearing aids in So it always kind of gets me in trouble. So, guys, listen, we're gonna get back on here, probably here in the next week, just waiting for the fly trap to grab somebody else as they walk by the office, and we'll hook them in here for an event, don't forget, october 13th and 14th at the KOA Campground.
Speaker 1:This is my charity event that I do every year. Usually have three or 4,000 people come through. It is the Cornhole Tournament. It's become the largest, really regional Cornhole Tournament on the East Coast. We have usually have probably 125 people for a blind draw on Friday night, 127 teams on Saturday, live music bands, just something for the whole family. It's KOA Campgrounds in Virginia Beach. So Invite Your Friends, is gonna be a great time. We've got beekeepers playing on Friday night. We've got Lewis McGee on Saturday night Just a great time. So come out and support a great cause The Shriners and Shriners Hospital. So we really do a lot with that. So, guys, have a great one. We'll catch y'all very soon and we'll see you on Real Estate Appens.