 In today's interview, I sat down with the powerful Jared James. This guy's been in the game for about as long as I have. He's been coaching for a lot longer than I have. But this guy is a true pioneer in the industry. And he's a true pillar of the industry. And he's done so much for real estate agents. So this is a really good conversation. I actually reached out to him back in 2017. When I first started coaching, he got on a call with me, which at the time I was like, wow, this is amazing. I saw him speak at a remix event about a year before that. That was our first song. And I was like, man, this guy is the man and just been friends ever since and just have a lot of respect for him. Great guy, owns a lot of different companies. This guy's a true entrepreneur. This is going to be one you really want to watch. He goes into how people choose an agent, his perspective on how people choose a real estate agent, which I found very interesting, which is kind of off the cuff, different than what you probably think he's going to say. I also talked about, we both talked about the fear making calls and this fear of rejection that people have when they get into the business. So I thought that part of the conversation was really cool. And then at the very end, I asked him to go into detail on ways to get deals right now in this market, really any market. But right now specifically, because there's so few transactions and he laid down three really great ideas when it comes to going out and getting more listings, finding more buyers. I thought that this one was a really, really good one. So you're going to enjoy it. Go ahead, click subscribe, smash the like button, all that good stuff. And shoot me a comment below. Let me know what you thought and let's get into it. Abundant mindset, man. You're always losing something. So one or the other, right? While I'm losing business. Well, the other side is I'm losing memories. I'm losing time. I got back in 08 and it was like, dude, it was like the easiest thing in the world. Houses were half price. You know, people were just loving it. It was the easiest time in the world to get back in the business. And I just brushed it. I'm just saying every once in a while, we need a little bit of context and we need to understand that happiness doesn't come from achieving your goals. Ultimately, it comes from the gratitude of understanding just how lucky we are to even set them. That's all that matters. Ricky, it's high school 101, man. It all comes back to rejection. It's like we would rather fail and rather be unsuccessful than be rejected. I don't want 100 employees. You know, I know guys that are doing like 30 million, 100 million a year, 60 million a year in poor sales and have businesses and millions of employees and stuff. I've got like three or four partnerships of companies that have 100, 200, 300 employees. And those employees do whatever I tell them to do. Yo. Yo, just seeing how I'm talking to my son. We're talking very important stuff. We're out of ramen and chocolate syrup. Oh, it's the end of the world. Yeah, exactly. Remind me of that later, okay? So what's happening, man? Oh, not much, bro. How are you doing? Really good. I'm my last official week before crazy travel season. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think I remember when we first talked to you you like dedicated just certain months to traveling, speaking and stuff. Dude, so since you and I spoke then, funny. So since you and I spoke, like that was way back, you know, my busy season became all year long and it just got nutty, man, because it was one of those things where it's like, oh, dates open, dates open, then all of a sudden you look up one day and you're like, I'm on the freaking road all the time. Like, I don't want to do that. And then I went through a divorce a couple years ago. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, which was not a terrible thing. I said I got my son right here. Her and I are still very friendly. She lives right down. Like, we're through that rough period. It was just one of those deals. You're with someone since you're 16, never really in love, you know? So that kind of happened. So this summer, man, I was just like, I just wanted to hang with my kids. I wanted to just kind of, you know, so we just said no to a lot of stuff in an effort to just kind of, and now I'm hitting the crazy season again. So it starts next week. Does it, does it, when you, when you take, when you say no and like you're, you know, you're like, that's messed up. We should, we should save this for the podcast, by the way. It is. This is, we're rolling. Oh, we are. I was going to say, we should say. I do, I do this every time. Like, I roll, I'm rolling. Oh, good. I was going to say, right? Yeah. Talk about all this stuff beforehand and like it doesn't, you know? I always catch everybody off-guard because the best stuff, what I realized was before I say, okay, let's start. Yeah, man. I'm going to open book too. Like I actually like it when we talk about things outside of what are your top three recommendations for the market or whatever. But what was the question you said? Like when you, when you're sitting down. Or it ticks people off. It ticks. Like everybody wants you, everybody wants to go to a class on balance. Everybody wants to tell you to learn how to say no until it's against them. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's kind of like you ever left an event and, and you have a, like a tight flight. Like literally you don't have a minute to spare. It's just like, I'm in, I'm out. I got to run out of here. A lot of times I'll, I'll tell people because that's not my fault. It's just like when the flight falls, it's like guys just, I warn them while I'm up there. Like I am not a jerk, but I'm just telling you guys when I leave here, like I'm out of here. Like I love to stay. I'm the guy that'll stay as long. I'll stay all through the day taking pictures doing, but like, I got a flight, you know, that I need to get back to my kids or I need to get back to whatever. And it's the syndrome where everybody's like, you know, just real quick, just real quick. So that you're walking to the, you know, to your car, you're rushing to a car, you have reserved, whatever. And everybody's like real quick, quick, just real quick. I was a question real quick. I said, pick, you add up all of those real quicks. Not get out of here quick. You know, it just shows you how much everybody lives in their own world where, you know, it's like, oh no, that makes sense. Good for you. Good for you. But for me real quick, no, you can't say no. And no to events. It was funny, man, because I would say, we say no to 90 plus percent of stuff that comes in, right? And the initial reaction from people is kind of like, all right, well, how much for this money? How about for this much money? Well, how many like, no, you're not understanding. It's not, it's not a money play. This wasn't like an investigation tactic. This is my kids are in high school. We've only got so many more years of games and sorry, I'm going to remember that, not another event, you know? Yeah. So yeah, man, people, it's like rejecting a girl, right? It's, you know, they're so used to not being rejected that if you do that, it's like they go to angry quick. You know, it's just like, well, what, what do you mean? No, no, no, like this is, and that's how event places are. And the ones I've dealt with, they tend to be pretty good. But yeah, man, we've had, my assistant will literally reach out and she'll just be like, you know, they're not happy. Like they're actually like, she'll show me the responses. And it's just, you know, that's why you got to do you. That's why. I mean, there's the only ones you're James, of course. But I mean, there are other, there are other great speakers out there as well. 100%, 100%. I think it's the rejection thing, man. I think, I think people, especially when they have their committees and they have selected, you know, they almost like, they're like crowning you like, hey, this much and we are going to allow you to come in. And then when you come back and you go, hey, I can't do it. They're like, well, do we need to move the dates? Do we, it's like, no, just that timeframe. I'm just not, not doing events. And it used to really affect me because I, I'm such a, I think like most people, the more we say we don't care, we really do. I'm such a rare, I'm a people pleaser on one side. I don't like people to be unhappy or I want to make people happy. And then the other side, I have another side that can go a completely different direction once I get to a certain point. But the one side of me that's such a people pleaser, you don't like to say no to people, especially in regards to something that is such a privilege. You know, it's like, I remember the beginning, man. I remember just like trying to figure out how to get an event. I remember just like begging people and like sending everything. Like having everything on hope and they pick me. And so that side of you always exists. But then there's another side that, that, you know, it's that whole hustle redefined thing, man. Like if you're going to hustle for events and hustle for work and hustle for whatever, you know, at the end of the day, none of that matters as much as my kids, you know, none of that. We all say that, but most people's actions don't align with that. You know, and I was literally just saying to my son, my son standing right over here. And I was literally just saying to him, like, you've got event inquiries coming in for beginning of November. And I'm just like, that's soccer state cup, like state final time. We don't know what that date's going to be. Well, if I feel comfortable booking an event. Yeah. Yeah. Because I just don't know. And I, you know, like how many times is, how many times your kid's going to play and, you know, once? Yeah. Like it's just like, you know, so it's anyway, all of that was just a long way of just basically saying, you know, you said, how do people respond? They're not happy. Yeah. They don't, they don't, they don't, they don't react well. So how do you deal with the conflict of like, you're losing business when you don't take these events, right? Sure. I mean, how do you balance the conflict within yourself of, you know, does it just, is it just like, I don't care. I'm going to watch my kid. Abundance mindset, man. You're always losing something. So, so one, one or the other, right? Well, I'm losing business. Well, the other side is I'm losing, I'm losing memories. I'm losing time, you know, and, and what do you value? And I'm not saying that there's not, there's not sacrifice. My kids have grown up with sacrifice. My kids stand right here. Like, I mean, it's just, you know, you know, you, you, you understand this maybe more than a lot of people listening right now. There's always a sacrifice. The idea that there's not, or that we're not built a certain way where there is sacrifice everywhere is insane. Of course there is. But there's always effort too, you know. Yeah. I can't deny who I am. I can't deny like, you know, how I'm built. I can't deny that. But I also need to, I can't also deny my responsibility, you know, to my children, you know. And so it's, it's, it's always, it's always a, I don't like the word balance because I don't even believe in balance. But for the sake of what we're talking about, it's always a balancing act of figuring out, you know, what's the right amount of throttle that doesn't throw you off the road. You know, how fast can you hit the corner? You know, without, without going off the cliff. Yeah. You know, that's always the balancing act, you know. And, and, you know, some people are evil, can evil and that's what they get their jollies on. And then there's like me and others that, that, you know, we're pushing the throttle in a different part of like, how do we get the most, you know, in all areas, which is always a, you know, you don't always do it, right? You don't always, but, you know, that's not the goal. The goal's not always to, you know, the goal's not perfection. Yeah. And my, my kids are at a stage now, it's okay to walk behind, but my son is like trying to figure out how to get back to his, his room because I'm really shooting this from home. But anyway, man, yeah, those are the questions, by the way, I love like it's, you know, you and I live, you know, I haven't gotten full in depth on your life, but I know you've, I know since you and I talked a long time ago, you're doing a lot more things now. We live non-traditional lives. We live non-traditional, and so it's weird because we live in a world where, you know, we give advice on things. People follow our voices. They follow, and yet there's a lot of things that, you know, in regards to our voice, in regards, my son standing behind the camera trying to make me laugh, there's a lot of things in regards to advice that, you know, there's certain areas that people just aren't going to be able to relate. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just, it just is what it is. And so for me, always that balancing act of making sure that, you know, my head works a certain way, which is why people will even listen to me to begin with, is because my head works a certain way, and there's, and that's a good thing, and it helps and whatever. But then also balancing the idea and making sure that I'm aware of the fact that in some areas, I live a very non-conventional, I mean, my girl lives in California. I'm across the country. Okay. Where are you? At, you know. Where are you? I live in Connecticut. I'm about an hour outside of New York City. Oh, now? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm about as far away as you can get. And a lot of flights, a lot of meeting up, you know, come here, a lot of, you know, just not always very non-traditional. And yeah, that's not, it's not right or wrong. That's, that's, you know, we get these, we get this, it's just like being an entrepreneur. It's like anything outside of nine to five, it was like, you're not prioritizing family. You're not, you know, it's just because normal people don't understand that. And so from the audience's perspective, they understand that they're entrepreneur, like they're, they're entrepreneur. They always have stuff in their mind. They're always doing things. They're always, it doesn't fit their parents, you know, union life that they live. Yeah. You know, so that's where I find the places to relate is while my life is non-conventional. At the same time, entrepreneurs understand what I'm talking about from that perspective, because they have people around them their whole lives who are trying to tell them to get back in the box. You know, this isn't normal. This isn't, well, what the heck is normal? You know, and normal doesn't make a lot of people happy. It makes normal people happy. Yeah. So. But what he said, what's normal anymore, you know, like more and more and more people are living these non-conventional lives now. You know, my dad, he, he took over the sales business, you know, for me. So he handles all the day-to-day listings and sales so I can do that. Is that how you did it? Now your dad is doing that? Yeah. Yeah. So my dad, so I got in an O2 and then he got in an O5. So I grew up roofing houses with him. And then when I got in real estate for a couple of years and found some success, I'm like, dad, get off the roof and come, come do real estate. So he got in and like O5 right before it crashed, you know. And then we both went and worked on an oil rig for a while. We roofed some houses, kind of got through that whole rough patch. And then I got back in 08 and it was like, dude, it was like the easiest thing in the world. Houses were half price. You know, people were just loving it. It was the easiest time in the world to get back in the business. And I just crushed it. That was my best year ever. It was 08. Yeah. It was my best year ever. But it was my comeback year. It was my first year coming back after losing everything. But yeah, he stayed on the oil rig until about 2010. And then again, I got him back into real estate. And then we kind of had separate businesses up till last year. You know, we're kind of two separate agents kind of doing our own thing, helping each other, consulting, but kind of having our own clients and everything. And then I decided I was, you know, just burn out on the sales part. There's no way, because I saw what you were doing. I'm going, there's no way. I don't care how much he's going to tell everybody I'm going to stay in this and do whatever you can't. Dude, it's just not, no matter what new app they come up with, they're not going to discover more than 60 seconds in a minute. Yeah. It gel, it's just not going to happen. I did 100 deals a year for eight years in a row as a single agent, with one assistant. And then those last, the last maybe three of those years, I was doing coaching and stuff like 50% of my time on this and 50% of my time on my business. I just got to the point where I just was cringing every time a client was calling. And I was like, okay, it's time to just let this go. Because at that point. Your interest went elsewhere. Like for me, at least, I saw, not to make this all whatever, but I saw a higher purpose. And I want to be clear when I say that, because if you're an agent out there selling houses, that does not mean that my purpose is higher than yours. What it means is that on a chessboard, there are different pieces and that no piece is going to be as happy doing somebody else's moves. They're not even allowed to do it. Whether it's upon a king or something in between, it doesn't matter because you're never going to be as happy trying to make the moves that are somebody else's moves. And that's really how I looked at it. I'm like, this is how we got here. This is how, whatever, but ultimately I just felt like I could have more impact. I felt like I'd stepped into my calling. I stepped into my gifts. I stepped into all those things. It wasn't a shot against the real student. I love, I still miss it sometimes and what's going on and still working with people and all of that stuff. You're never going to be as happy doing what it is you're meant to do. That's it. Yeah. When I got to that point, I realized, OK, there's different chapters here because every agent I talk to is like, I love sales. I'm going to do sales forever. And I'm like, yeah, you will until you're not, until you get to the point where you just don't want to do it anymore. You need to be setting yourself up long before that to be able to transition out to where, OK, now you're selling because you want to not because you have to. Anyway, we got to that point and we worked out a deal. He handles the day-to-day now and we were talking the other day. We go to the gym every morning together and we still do the marketing. We're working real side-by-side really more now than ever. Yeah. Before it was two separate businesses and now it's, you know, was one. But, you know, I had that's when, you know, that's the the Vietnamese investor, real estate investor type guy. He's got a million followers on Instagram. I don't know if you've seen him. He's he's really cool. But he came from from Vietnam when he was five. His father was in the U.S. military there as a translator and they tip this. They tipped him off that the country is going to be invaded and got him out of there and his family and they went to San Diego when he was five and now he's got over a hundred million bucks with a real estate. He became an agent in 1990, you know, and crushed it and then started buying properties and stuff. Yeah. But we were we were talking about like our year he was he was like your worst day. People's worst day in America is a million times better than people's best day in some of the villages and stuff around the world. Yeah. And me and dad were talking and he was he was like son because he grew up roofing houses and like just poor right north Alabama. He was like he he was like man I never imagine living like this. You know he lives in a nice house. You know he makes money just selling properties. You know just tons of money. Yeah. And he was like man this is like more than I ever imagined. You know it would be. Yeah. I mean not only that it's just where where we are as a world you know where we are as a country like people complain about U.S. and stuff but I mean bro I think we're sitting here. You know what you're thinking about the U.S. I think it's absolutely not you. I know you don't. That's my point though the U.S. is freaking amazing like there's a lot of problems a lot of whatever but yeah go somewhere else and you'll see. We just live in this like dream life. You know I mean our biggest issue is you know our laptops not charging you know it was I said this I said this at an event a couple years ago I should probably bring this back actually but you know I said happiness doesn't come from achieving your goals. Happiness comes from the gratitude of understanding how freaking lucky you are to even set goals to begin with and and and and what I meant by that was you know we have all these agents for working with and all of these people who are you know getting depressed because a deal fell apart and then one happened or whatever but at the end of the day like think about it like there's some kid working for thirty cents an hour in some country that he didn't choose to be born in didn't choose this life didn't choose anything we're over here doing business planning sessions to try to figure out how many hundreds of thousands of millions we should put as a goal and you know I know I hate to laugh but it's fun like think about it we have the audacity to you know I always say there's a big difference between busyness and business right busyness BUSY business BUSI and you know we are a we're a society a culture of agents and we could go even much broader but we're just talking agents right now we're a society of agents culture of agents that you know we're all busy but we're all getting different results because you know many of them don't want to prospect they don't want to do this they don't want to do that like just the fact that you get to choose to not something and then complain about what you're not is just mind blowing like there is a there's a woman right now laying on her deathbed knowing that she has 60 seconds left to live and hoping that her son gets there in time so she can say goodbye and kiss him on the forehead and then there's an agent sitting around searching Facebook just looking at the next meme for the next 60 seconds yeah well different people are handling time right now way different and I'm not saying that we need to look at it like the person I'm just saying every once in a while we need we need a little bit of context and we need to understand that happiness doesn't come from achieving your goals ultimately it comes from the gratitude of understanding just how lucky we are to even set them like that's all that matters well we still win we already won that's it yeah that's good I people are like or brokers will come to me and say how do I get my agents to make calls and I'm like tell me go get a job tell me go work at McDonald's or serve tables or roof houses or paint houses or frame or do landscaping or do something like that because you're out there in the hot sun doing hard labor yeah and on one hand and the other hand literally the most physical thing you're doing is just lifting your arm up to your or you don't even do that anymore with auto drivers and stuff you're literally just sitting like this every night man your finger muscles are the only things growing yeah Ricky it's high school 101 man it all comes back to rejection it's like we would rather fail we would rather be unsuccessful than be rejected you know like we we like my new thing I've been the last year I have certain things that are like my cornerstones like throughout the year I'll just kind of come up with these are my bullet points my main cornerstones and one of them is you know I tell people that it is our responsibility it's our job to give people the chance to know us K and OW so they have a chance to know us and oh yeah that's our job you got to give people a chance to know you can't K and OW so they have a chance to know you and oh our jobs get notes and in the meantime we are missing out on and not making calls not doing whatever it is we need to do because somebody who's never thought of us doesn't know who we are won't know who we are three seconds from now is going to say no and never think of us again and in the meantime we give up on every bit of potential every bit of ability to take care of our families every bit of ability to save and be able to make good decisions every bit of ability because of rejection from somebody who we don't know doesn't know us and will never think of us again when you start to put it in perspective just like what what are we doing you know we live in the gold mine and yet most agents live paycheck to paycheck like well it's sad me the entire business is predicated on you talking to someone you don't know to help them buy and sell real estate yeah and the one thing that the business is predicated on you don't want to do it's wild and we we so so I always say visibility Trump's ability right and we've got an event coming up where I'm going to I'm going to kind of go a little bit further with that I'm going to talk about how visibility not only Trump's ability visibility is our responsibility like let's not over complicate this business it's not that difficult you know I see one more session 90 apps in 90 minutes I'm going to throw open my mouth you know at the end of the day yeah there's good strategies yeah there's a lot of different things we can teach yes things change no doubt about it but at the end of the day certain number of people sell certain number of people buy the only question is who's going to be on that contract whose name is going to be on it who's representing them how do you get in front of people how do you know them that's our responsibility visibility so whether it's through calls whether it's through the content you create whether it's through the networking you do whether it's through whatever you're going to do doesn't happen by sitting back and hoping your phone rings that's never going to work yeah no no no I always say they give yourself as a volunteer worker you know community outreach to see what you can do to help the people in the community you know using your services that's it so true by the way if you believe you're the best option you're doing them a disservice by not being an option you know if you say I'm better than this person and they're about to buy and someone in your area is about to buy the largest asset they're ever going to own during the third most stressful time in their life death, divorce and moving and you're doing anything outside of being available and being an option for that person to during their most stressful time of their life whether you're doing a disservice letting them work with someone who you yourself are saying they're not going to do as good a job as me right you know what I used to do man I used to actually go and take this was what I would do to motivate myself right when I was selling right and I look at the coaching world like this right now too is I would actually go and I would look at how many how many I would look up in the MLS I would look up how many transactions have happened in the last 12 months in my market area whatever that market area the cities that whatever it was I would look it up and I would look up the total number of sales in the last 12 months right and then I would subtract the total number of sales that I did right and then I would look at that number leftover and I would go why why did all of those people buy and sell and didn't use me and there's a certain number of them that yeah they had a brother in the business they had a friend they had a whatever but you know the reason the majority of the time they just didn't know you wasn't an option I didn't give them a chance to know me K-N-O-W so they had a chance to say no to me N-O right and so ultimately that's what it came down to and that's the matter what business you're in whether you're in real estate whether you're in coaching training whether you're in a tech business whatever at the end of the day man visibility that's it yeah yeah what do you think the number one reason people choose and age it is well to me people aren't going to like this answer because it doesn't fit the you know they kind of like you trust you and know you and by the way all this does very true but I think the number one reason or the number one factor of why people make decisions ease of use it's the same reason why referrals are number one because it's easy to use it's the same reason why Uber beats taxi yeah it was more expensive than taxi right but it's ease of use you're not standing outside going next you vacant not vacant what's going on now you get a thing that goes your driver has arrived right hey everybody see ya we're good to go right and so I know that everybody wants me to do the whole like you trust you whatever look that stuff matters there's no doubt about it but the reason anybody makes any decisions ease of use you know the reason the reason why we go in for you know milk and bread in a store and it's at the back of the store is because they know that along the way you're going to see a bunch of other things and because it's available and in front of you you're going to buy those other things you didn't even need of a moment it's just ease of use right easier you can make it for people to work with you know I use I was just joking with my son beforehand not Instacart have the groceries delivered I'm not going grocery store you know like I want my whole life is ease of use and everybody on some level subscribes to that you know whether they do it at my level where I try to leverage everything or whether they do it on the level of you know a single mom trying to whatever we're all just looking for ease of use right so how does that put that in the context for choosing an agent is ability you got to be an officer just to trace all you they saw an advertisement a postcard got an email or something like that you just happen to be there at the right time or here you go okay another principle another thing that I've taught since the beginning of time right you got to marry the principal date the model and what does that mean you know principles are tried and true they don't end you know back when my mother was an agent and I was her unpaid assistant the principal the idea that of getting in front of someone at the time that they need you before a competitor okay that's the principle that lasts then and it lasts now you you date the model you date the the strategy meaning how you get in front of them whether it was the phone book back then and now it's whatever it is right but when you say well how do you do that and I say well it's visibility what I say in the beginning you say you marry the principal get in front of someone at the time they need you before a competitor ease of use so what does that mean people just like kernels a popcorn throughout the year we don't talk people into buying or selling that's not how it works okay like they're gonna do it they're not gonna do it it's just a matter of who they're gonna use when they pop and they're ready now the question becomes who's the easiest option who's in front of me who's showing up on my phone who did my friends use what showed up at the right time in the mail who called me at the right time who was standing at that open house everything is about visibility at the right time whether it comes down to if I'm looking for like any product any service if I'm looking for a I'm looking for a chiropractor and I run into a chiropractor at some family gathering more than like I'm gonna use that chiropractor but I'm not looking for a chiropractor we're just gonna have a very boring conversation about in doing chiropractic stuff yeah but the timing mattered with when you blend that with the visibility so what happens is you put out enough visibility that other people's timing matches the visibility right and that's 99% of your visibility that doesn't matter at that moment and guess what that's called it still works that's called branding okay and so the part that people miss when I talk about visibility or let's just talk marketing 101 there's two main purposes of marketing right one is direct call to action that's the one that all agents love that's a direct lead immediately give me your name give me your whatever that's one form or one purpose marketing is branding and that's the one that people don't love enough yeah but the point of branding even though it might not immediately deliver something right now is that everything else that you everybody else you come in contact with from that point on becomes an easier sale you know when I get in front of an audience like I did last week that was my first event I had done in months whatever and at the beginning of the event I'm like how many of you are familiar with me almost every single hand goes up I know you I watch you I get you I like you like we're good to go you walk into a listing presentation and they go oh you I watch your videos like you you've got to win already right yeah branding is just as effective if not more effective it's just not as immediate it's to lay gratification in that sense right yeah and so yeah visibility man our job is to plaster our worlds to plaster our local markets with visibility you know it's a matter of their timing matching up with that but we're going to supply the option for it so is that another word for omnipresent sure sure man you've got to here's the deal man like so you and I man like my my market is the world that's much more difficult a local agent yeah their market not only is it so freaking small just surrounded by a bunch of people who don't want to do it you know you're surrounded by a bunch of people who are afraid of video afraid of saying yeah don't deliver enough afraid of screwing up what's everybody going to say what's everybody going to you know being perfect 27 different angles what filter works what what microphone do I use what lighting do I use what kind of camera you're surrounded by all these people like that that if you would just take this freaking thing and be consistent yeah consistency is undefeated consistency is undefeated it's so easy to dominate a local marketplace it really is if you doubt consistent and that's the part where it's just most agents just don't it's the thing that scares them is what scares everyone else and rather than that turning them on and going this is where I get ahead because this is where everybody else got afraid too instead of having that mindset they're like oh let me just go back into let me just try what I was doing let me just I'm kind of happy with my life kind of I've kind of done it consistent but if I just stick with that I'm okay there's that's the safer place you know it's like going back to a bad relationship it's not the worst thing in the world it's not great but at least I know what it is it's comfortable this fear of rejection and you know procrastination and are you empathetic through this of course is the epidemic yeah okay so here's the difference here's the difference between what you and I have to be the differences I believe the reason that you and I are so effective is because we do understand so the only reason I can talk as strongly as I do and that I can be as upright and forthright as I am with people is because I understand their struggle so there's empathy in understanding how difficult it is to be consistent there's empathy in understanding how difficult it is to come up with what you want to say or what's the repercussions going to be or caring about what other people are going to think or struggling with you know your health or struggling with you know your local reputation like the only reason that it works for me and I can talk like I do is because I've I experience it and not only do I experience it all the time but I overcome it so so for me to look at someone and say hey that's bull crap we gotta we gotta do this because because I've faced it today you know what I mean like I today didn't want to go for a run I had the same feelings everybody else had you know it really breaks it down to that that little that small like I feel it every day but I overcome it every day and sometimes I don't you know sometimes I screw up and that doesn't end up as an Instagram post or a whatever but that's what gives me empathy is that guys we're all we're all traveling you know down the same highway we're just getting in different lanes you know based on decisions you know what about the the fear and procrastination that never leads anything right that they they allow it to consume them so much that they end up just never doing anything and just quitting completely quitting yeah right I mean in a world where okay they're gonna have to go back to a nine to five they're gonna have to go back to serving tables roofing houses something like that it's almost like you're okay with that that's it man right let this misdirected fear because we all have fear we all have absolutely right but the only thing we recognize is what we focus on you know and so what I try to do when you have people with that what I call misdirected fear right it's like let's go back to your original example fear of rejection don't want to make calls don't want to make whatever awesome well let's look at the alternative here's the alternative um you're gonna be embarrassed uh because you're gonna go into debt you're not gonna do well you're gonna have to get another job your family's gonna not be able to go on vacation or if they do you're gonna have to be in extreme debt and do you know like that should be more fearful to you so so we have a thing right now my whole thing right now is pros vs amateurs right as the whole theme of our conference that's all I've been talking about at events is just pros vs amateurs and my whole thing is like a lot of people right now they don't want to practice because they feel stupid and they don't want to practice in the mirror they don't want to practice with their coach they don't want to because they're gonna feel stupid and and my whole thing is there's only one thing I feel more stupid than that and that's underperforming in this industry so you gotta choose your stupid I can either feel stupid practicing practicing in front of my coach practice or I can get the stupid that comes with underperforming in the greatest industry that ever was the one that produces more millionaires more financial security than any other industry ever I can underperform in that industry so one or the other you're gonna get one of these stupid you just gotta choose which stupid it is that you're gonna feel and I know which one gives you a better result yeah sometimes agents will come to me and they'll say I'm about to get foreclosed on and all this stuff and you know win like in the next 30 days and I'm like well you should have called me six months ago number one but are you making calls are you posting videos are you doing anything and they're like no and I'm like you're about to lose your house you know and then some agents they'll ask me this and I'm like okay well do you have kids do you have a family you know and if not it's like do you have a dog do you have anything do you have a mom a dad anybody yeah like how are you gonna go home every day and look at your look your kids in the eyes knowing that you didn't you know because of a little uncomfort that you didn't do what you needed to do to provide the best possible life for them because of what the answer is rejection what they say I don't know I'm like what are you so scared of I don't know literally nine out of ten times they say I don't know and then I say well is it rejection they're like well yeah I guess so but they don't even know what they're scared of yeah that's the crazy thing going back to your traveling and speaking and kids and stuff I'm real lucky right now because my daughter's three as I say you had a kid right yeah and we go like two or three times a month and they come with me nice so they've been coming with me and we've been going two or three times a month just how do you worry so you can do that because she's not in I can do that now yeah I don't know what that looks like like two years cool yeah like it's yeah yeah that's why I say I'm super fortunate right now I was gonna say you're coming up like you're gonna have to figure that out even look man even if you're not like okay my schedule's like nutty right it's nutty like whatever but even if it wasn't that nutty just do and even if you were just doing I don't know like I don't know what's normal but if you're doing I don't know four to eight not even let's just say four events a month I don't know what normal is I'm just trying to so like four events a month we book these things out so far in advance and you can do everything or to try to figure out like okay that's when that happens here's the first day of school here's this here's that here's always stuff that comes up you know and so it's definitely something you're gonna have to figure out because you either don't do it or you know you get on the same page with your spouse and you're like this is part of what I this is part of my calling this is part of whatever and like I said sacrifice is part of anything like well you're either sacrificing that act and you know whatever you gotta get on the same page about that because there's always gonna be sacrifice and if you're not on the same page for that sacrifice that causes a big riff you know it's oh yeah especially once especially once you got her home taking care of the kid while you're out there looks clamorous like you're out there living it out everybody loves you and you know have fun with that you know that that's you know which there's some of that there's no doubt there's a lot of you know when you're traveling then which I don't mind it's a lonely road it's oh yeah love being in my hotel room I like I go to dinner places away from the vent I don't like hmm my friends are all like who isn't it great you're running to all these people and everybody wants to come over and see you and whatever I'm like this sounds so bad by the way but it's just I'm just being honest it's like no no it's I know how to turn it on whatever but I just like I love going places where nobody knows me nobody nothing just sit at a bar banter with the bartender have nothing going on just chill like that's my favorite world you know yeah you're going to have to figure that out cause that's that is coming what would they say game of the day yeah we're pretty good we're on the same page of stuff I have no problem turning turning events down honestly I mean I mean dude I'm getting more views on my social than most national you know you're making the argument you're making the argument that I was so I agree with you to an extend cause I almost stopped doing events um our so I went I talked to our director of coaching and I was like hey I'm gonna stop doing live events whatever cause I was just I don't live for the road I'm also not a like an ego in the everybody has to have an ego you can't succeed without an ego I don't like the audience of like I need I don't like attention in public I don't like whatever so like I don't need the stage it's not like I'm not up there because you know someone didn't love me enough or something like I I don't I don't need the stage at all right love what I do I love you know having an effect I love all that stuff I don't need it and so I went and I was like she's like you can't do that like it's just you know when you go there it's different lives and you're seeing our students in person in relationships and I didn't I didn't disagree with her which is why I didn't stop doing it and I also I think if COVID taught us anything there's a difference between going to a concert and watching a YouTube video you know there's something about that live component you know that it's not the energy yeah man it's different like when you see someone and you hear them you to shake that hand and you're like they's the place and it's just different you know they see how tall they are and you realize they're shorter than me it's just this guy it's just different man it's like I said I mean I can I can watch a concert on YouTube all day long man but when you're at a concert it's just a different thing you know point to like leave that open is like a thing that we do but I limited it from where it was going a couple years ago because it was getting just more selective more strategic on which ones you know like I'm going to Sarasota to speak what did you say Sarasota what I'm going to Sarasota in a couple weeks to speak at the board of realtors I don't know maybe a couple hundred agents 300 350 or something they're paying my travel and all that and it's awesome I've never been there we'll hang out again like stuff like that I won't be doing those kind of events you know well you're going if you want to talk about that here or not so you're going just for travel like travel expense dang on that on that on that one yeah on that one there's some kind of offshoot whatever they join your stuff they do your like yeah exactly exactly exactly so a lot of my stuff right now it's fine because it's not just me I make them pay for my whole family for several days you know or three or four days hotel and everything like they're paying for the whole family vacation not just me in and out right so it's a little bit different but I always get all the contacts you know of everybody that goes yeah and then I get them in my thing and then you know got a breeze is where it's at all that more on but like look I love doing right like if I'm at you know most recent one I was at with remax right you got 10,000 people in an arena right awesome great and love it like it's fantastic there's a different it's different energy no doubt about it but it's a performance like it's different right I love like my favorite thing in the world is going and doing like what I did last week which was I don't know man there's no big stage there's no bright light you can't see anybody you just get to kind of walk around and rift like kind of like that's my favorite thing in the world because that is where you get the full like how my head works like like that's where I feel like I'm made for it like I can go there yeah yeah your little roots or you just not a performance it's not a I've got 37 minutes you got two and a half hours and yeah the general topic and now I can kind of read everybody and be like no go in that direction hey go you know whatever that's my favorite thing to do the only problem is again from a scalability standpoint and I'm talking about things I don't yeah it's just true like from a scalability standpoint you can't do I don't want to do a million of it's almost like a stand up well those are like I like to call those the Ricky events right the Ricky the Ricky the Ricky events because it's like they're all Ricky followers right like every single person has been following me for a long time three or four hundred agents in a room and it's just lit like they're just screaming can't believe you're here and it's like and then you can really just let go I'm like the only speaker let me talk for two hours do Q&A yeah those are my favorite too like you say it's just like shit you leave for a week you know you talk to three hundred fifty agents who already knew you it's awesome I was about to say you know my favorite audiences my favorite favorite audience and I mean this is one with a high percentage who don't follow you or don't have great context or don't have you know whatever it is like those those are my favorite audiences because those types of audiences are just it's all new if there's there's no preconceived notions there's so much I feel like there's so much good I can do meaning like even when it comes to the to the basis or the foundation of the things I believe and the things I can impart and the things that they don't even have that that there yet they don't have that as like as contextually yet and so I love that man like I love an audience where it's just new it's just I joke around a lot with the audience like that I'll joke around about how I'm hurt and I'll keep going back to it and have fun with it and whatever but it's honestly my favorite it's it's preferable actually I love it I saw you first the very first time was at Remax it was a breakout session back in 2017-ish or so it was this big room there was no stage there was like what? you were with Remax I forgot yeah I was there for ten years I was the number one Remax agent in Alabama for like three or four years and I finally went to an R4 yeah I didn't go I only went because I was getting into coaching and trying to learn like speaking and how it all worked I never went to I never had coaches I never went to seminars or any of that stuff yeah which is probably a fault a weakness of mine I should have went to stuff I probably would have progressed a lot quicker but anyway I didn't and I started going when I wanted to start coaching and started to learn that side of the game and stuff and so you were there and I was there because I think the next speaker was like video or something I can't remember how the whole thing played out but your talk was on um I don't know if you remember the the talk but it was there was like a room of 500 agents there was no stage you were literally standing on the floor I like that right that's in this room yeah and your talk was like what I got out of was that you know X amount percentage of people are you know searching online for agents basically like more and more percentage or you know this this online thing you even had to cover that but yeah what's that I said it's crazy we even had to cover that because it's just but like think about it like 5, 6, 7 years ago like that was hey guys this is where they're coming from guys this is what they're and you would see people in the audience like what they're doing in this space well I think too like even right now isn't it like well I saw a stat that like 10% of agents actually use social media I think I was just looking at a slide because we have all these we were just going over all these stats on what percent actually are on so there's stats on how many are on there and then there's even when you take those stats now you got to get even deeper into your social for example I think it was something like 48% of agents you know have a YouTube channel or something like that right that does not mean that they're using YouTube you know right they're just there watching content most of the time they're just going to oh you know if I want to listen to Jared I've got to go sign up on YouTube or I've got to you know whatever like actually leveraging it you start getting incredibly impressed I was like oh man Jared's the man kind of deal and then then I got into you know that started to progress in the coaching world I think I had a book written at that time whatever and then that's when I reached out to you I reached out to you at some point and then I was like can we hop on a call or something and we just hopped on a call and you just like gave me some advice from like you know from like you know here's some coaching advice type stuff which was which I remember and it was really cool you know like wow this guy you know that was I remember I remember that and the truth is you probably get a lot of this now like I don't jump on with everybody who reaches out that's not possible not positive you're probably better with that than I am I'm for a lot of reasons part of it is just my solo nature um I really don't I don't talk to a lot like I got my kids I got my girl I got my my team like whatever but like I'm very like solo right but every once in a while I'll do that when I feel like you reached out a couple times I'd look to your stuff and I looked like it looked like you were actually like you were legit like you wanted this like this was like you know whatever because the last thing you want to do is meet with someone and find out talking about a lot of things we talked about talking about how do you get in front of events how do you get in front of this how do you get in front of whatever and quite honestly the reason I still do that to this day with some people is because um it was what I wish someone would have done with me in the beginning because I can remember when I first started out and it was just all a blur I knew that I wanted I knew where I wanted to go I knew that I had the wherewithal and that you know I have what it took to be effective um but what I didn't know was the practical of how you actually get there and everybody I would reach out to had nothing just like they wouldn't reach back out I wasn't big enough to talk to me I wasn't you know whatever and so I always promised myself that if and when that day came um I would uh in the right situation you can't go to everybody but I would try to be to someone else what what yeah well yeah I remember that conversation man that was it was longer ago than I thought yeah it was like five years ago because I started doing all this back in 17 and um I uh and I was just trying to figure out how to get on stage I thought like I thought that was my thing yeah so it was posting on social and doing that and I figured and you you actually had a hand with with um somewhat I can't remember like uh reference type type basis but I got in with Matt Figlioli oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and like I did like I did like 20 explodes like I did like I traveled with them and did like 20 explodes I completely forgot about that that yeah with Matt that's too funny man yeah that's yeah like your first kind of like getting out and like actually explode was like the one that like cause like I would go to those and there would be like 500 agents one event and then like 100 agents the next and then 300 the next how did you react the first time because everybody reacts different like the first time you're in front of like 500 people was it did it take you a moment you did this okay if you if you want to know that story so what happened was is remax my very first talk was in Biloxi, Mississippi and it was for a region or whatever and there was like there was like nine speakers alright and they asked me to speak and I'm like yeah cause this was right when I was like thinking about really doing this and I was like sure I just said yes dude I never wear a suit at all right I showed up in a suit right I was the last speaker they had me the last speaker of like an eight hour event with like a spot just so you know they think that their favorite I hate that spot it was the worst spot for my first one I love it now but like I'm sitting there all day just listen to these speakers and like I mean it was very nerve wracking I'm sitting there all day just watching like was it like scaring you like from the perspective oh crap that and I didn't know how good it was going to be or was it but I was listening this is how I honestly felt when I was listening to other speakers I was like they haven't said anything I can't tell you how often I think that by the way like and again I'm not going to name anybody and I don't want to come off as whatever but like I listen to some people and there's like there's no substance like you might as well be getting up there and say you know well think about how weird it is for a group of adults to sit there silent and listen to another adult like that's weird on a level that we never paid it's just like how weird is that right but if you're gonna do that like can I get something substantive that you didn't just read from a book or here on YouTube where you're just gurgitating some motivational thing that you heard and you know you're Matt Foley up there they think it all the time and then our industry went to a big push where they started taking at events they would do okay every speaker now we're doing 15 minutes 15 minutes because because you know the audience's attention isn't that great and I'm thinking Matt going it has nothing to do with the audience's attention has to do with the fact you're hiring sucky speakers the same audio we're watching Avengers movie three and a half yeah deep anyway right right so I get up there and speak and I was just nervous and I had the sniffles I was like half sick you know I was nervous I was sick it was wild but afterwards bro people stood in line to talk to me and that that moment was like okay like I'm really gonna do this I'm gonna finish this book I'm gonna start trying to help people and make content I'm gonna coach I'm gonna do this that was the moment right there so that was the first one and there was like 400 people in the room you know so dude you wanted something funny you wanted something funny the first one the first one I had ever done like as far as like on a level of you know whatever was at the Westport Playhouse I think what it was called and I do what I do whatever I had made this product here's what's funny if you think the audience gets mad when you sell from the stage watch how mad they get when you have nothing to sell and so I would go to events and then they'd be like so do you have coaching do you have training do you have whatever and I'm like no no and people get mad but I created way back I created a five CD set called the Success Legit right like the Success Elite five CD set and it's so bad man it's so embarrassing I can't believe people have it you know anywhere I got off stage and I'm still very new at this I don't know what's going on I don't whatever and I get bombarded and people are coming over and they're like doing whatever and I'm just trying to get back to my table because I had I hired some people that could come work the table and I was like gonna instruct them on to make sure how to sell the Successful Agit and everything else and as I start getting closer I'm moving closer to the table trying to move people over there I look over and there's no what's called on my table none of the product and now I'm starting to get so mad I'm like are you kidding me we're wasting this opportunity we have all these people we have all this we're not even selling this freaking thing like I'm trying to figure out how to monetize this business like we at least I created so I get over there and I finally get over the table I'm smiling at people and they're like whatever and then I kind of look over the first time oh where's the course okay and I'm smiling whatever and she goes she goes they're all gone and I went oh like what do you mean they're all gone like and now I start thinking because again this isn't a direct conversation this is smile smile one sentence smile smile one sentence so now I'm the whole time while I go back to the conversation with people that I'm talking to thinking someone freaking stole our product like I had tested money I missed like I did you know I'm trying to really make it here right and so I tell this all whatever and I look over I'm like what do you mean they're all gone someone stole them and that was the wake-up call to me I was like that was the moment because I was still selling real estate and that was the moment when I was like shoot there's something here you know like I don't know if I gotta figure this all out I gotta you know whatever but there's something here like they're they're responding you know to what I'm saying they're responding and I wasn't even that good I don't think I don't I'm still figuring out my message you know whatever but that was a wake-up call to me and then shortly after that I think we were the first ones in the industry to create like a virtual coaching or a virtual training model right because we have our one-on-one and we have our our virtual coaching a virtual training model and my God man when we created it first it was so bad like I mean when I say bad there wasn't the technology we have today you know is where we like create these platforms or like do a plug-in or do whatever we have people that are still in our virtual program that are still there today all these years later that are paying $9 a month because they're they're grandfather okay like they are and I will never cut anything off from them because if there was a way that $9 could have been wasted or it was overpaying whatever it was we created it was probably should have been should have been $9 is probably too much you know that all clean well from those early days man like trying to figure it out or like just you know here what do we do there like you know everybody sees you now and it's just like well man there was a what was the what was the I was talking to someone the other day and I said you know every farmer knows to create a great harvest it takes a whole lot of crap you know and you know while we're all trying to do everything screw up certain amount of manure you know easily fired and so you know when you look at screwing up when you look at whatever no harvest is ever built with a whole lot of crap and so not only is crap inevitable it's necessary you know so don't don't be afraid to screw it up crap is part of the harvest hmm yeah the more crap the better that's it man that's it when I was a kid that was the best in the world driving by a farm when did you originally become an agent when did you start this I'm so I'm gonna be very I'm so bad with timeframes it gets me in trouble in relationships and otherwise I'm so bad after 2000 agree 2000 or pose late 90s it was after it was after because okay I'm 41 now so I grew up I grew up in the industry my mother was an agent I was her unpaid assistant okay hmm and so I think I officially got my license I want to say probably just after 2000 hmm probably right around there hmm I was doing hmm I was I was working a job where I was in line to take over eventually actually it was a really good job but I just didn't love it and having seen my mother do real estate I knew I loved real estate and I was also starting to get into like investments and stuff and I got my license literally just to save on commissions and have access to the MLS and and then I started getting one of the like you know ask me questions and see things and you know whatever and you know I realized that I really loved the business I mean I'd been a part of it my whole life and I'm just like I got one chance here do I really want to look back and say hey I didn't do the thing that I loved right I mean hey I was successful in this other career that's great that's whatever but you know I'm really going to look back with regret all six months to really try this at it you know try the real estate being an agent yeah I'm going to give it the real I'm going to go full-time because I got the license and then I tried to do it part-time while I was working my other job and you know I found out that even my best friends didn't want a part-time agent they didn't want to hear that they couldn't get into a house because I was working my other job you know and that was a real wake-up call for me you know they need to and so I just said you know what I had a certain amount of savings and whatever from my job and I said I am going to give this a real go I'm going to give it six months and you know how cyclical it is I mean the first three months you know you're looking at hot sheets and just trying to show things and I mean I can go into if you want to like what I did you know to actually start creating deals but like at that moment it was just I said I'm going to give you know as they say is history and then you started crushing it what was your biggest year simple so first off when you say like how do you crush it like when I talk about visiting no no no no I said then you started crushing it yeah but that took that took so let me think about this so before I went team so to say I went those first you know three to six months you don't really have anything right and I'll give you kind of the progression right because I'm young I'm very young I'm brand new you know the whole thing and the same stuff we teach today from a visibility standpoint is the same stuff that I was teaching you know that I was doing back then only that's when I was learning the principles I teach today so back then the newspaper was a big deal and when I say visibility Trump's ability when I say communication 101 it's not what you say that matters it's what people actually went I know a lot of your people listening around what newspaper ads that's where everybody went for real estate okay and I started putting in newspaper ads that I realized that I didn't need to actually have listings in order to draw buyers two listings so I would put in ads that would say things like condo up to 250,000 up to two-bedroom up to two baths you know two-bedroom I said that there were condos available up to two-bedroom and they were in our market and so then I would generate hundreds of phone calls and those hundreds of phone calls would would start coming in and would they'd be like well where is it what's whatever like what are you looking for and then I would just start scouring well I got seven of them I can show you and I just started leveraging as a buyer's agent you know these other people's property right I think I did I was actually with remax and I did platinum right which was over 250k right my average price point I think was 200 to 25 in the area we weren't Connecticut like people riding around on horses you know doing whatever you were like you know normal you know whatever right and so I went platinum on my my first year in the business and then my second year in the business I quadrupled and then my third year in the team building and I was like hmm can't do this and a team building wasn't really a thing back then like we were learning right that's where our constant come from now because I was like it wasn't a thing like first off there weren't teams and if there was you just built a brokerage under a brokerage that was a T you're right right right agents of hiring and whatever and yeah that was the beginning of figuring out how do I leverage myself to have freedom of schedule just like every agent but then you have no time for anything but you chose it and it was still freedom and I got to a point where I'm like okay my kids were young and I'm like okay or actually we're about to have kids I shouldn't say kids were young we're about to have kids and I'm like okay if this continues like this I'm never going to a game I'm never going to get to spending I'm never going to be able to I'm like but I have an insatiable need to grow so what do we do here you know and there wasn't people like me that could teach team building there was none of that and so I just started to figure it out and in many cases the wrong way you know and and then we went you know and I started to figure it out and make mistakes and figure out better and make mistakes and figure out better and that's where a lot of the things I teach today came from is just been there done that you know yeah that's crazy so so you so you got into it because you were investing in real estate and you kind of wanted commissions on your own deals yeah right I want to touch on that before we get out of here you know as far as like real estate investing most agents don't own investment property like you know the horizon is like to be the top agent whereas in my mind the horizon should be be the top agent so that you can buy a bunch of rental properties and sell it to the sunset but everything else like yeah that's it but the coaching part right like when did you start that how did you transition that do you still have a team in place that you make a percentage out of or you just completely out of that business all together yeah lay that out for me all right so I'll lay it all out for you so first off investment side I mean I was on flip this house if you remember that show on A&E you know like those those guys are good friends of mine to this day they run probably the largest real estate investment coaching and training probably in the world at least in the US but those are still good friends of mine but yeah I started getting heavily involved in that because my theory my idea and the things I teach agents today is that we're not just sales agents we are sales agents but we're entrepreneurs and when you're an entrepreneur you understand that multiple streams of income is part of your job like that's how you're healthy that's how it works right so I never looked at it as number of transactions I looked at it what can I use this for to leverage it to other things because you're the center of the transaction for everything you do your database can grow larger than anybody your reach you're the source of everything right and I don't think enough agents really look at it like that and in my opinion like I've said this before and gets me a little bit of trouble but people will remember it if the only thing you're making money on if your only source of income as an agent is you know the only time you get paid is if you get a commission well you're a highly paid Las Vegas stripper you gotta do the deal and get the money like that's you know if you get paid well that's a problem right and so I started looking at it that way and I started looking at what else can I do and what else can I leverage this to and what else can I you know and so you know investments were the next the next level because I wasn't even using my own money you know I had access to properties I had the relationships I had all of those things I leveraged somebody else's money who didn't have the time to do it and we split 50-50 right and so I grew and grew and won awards and was selling and built my team and was selling you know at a very high level and that's when I started when I started winning the awards that's when I started getting asked you know when I was in realtor magazines the first edition of 30 under 30 and you know back on that kind of stuff so I started getting asked to come and do events would you come speak to our whatever like asked we have no you know and so I started doing that and then when I started doing the events that's what I was telling you before you think people are mad when you have something to sell from the stage we'll try having nothing to sell then they get even more you know they're like that's it you just teased me and there's nothing more you know now you're really a lost taken stripper and so you know like it was like one of those things like I got nothing like so I was like oh I got to create that's when I you know and people are like well one on one no we want one on one and that almost became one of the biggest mistakes of my life because I got into the one on one game but I was one on one coaching and this is the mistake that many people in my position run into is that in order to monetize they spend all of their time traveling around speaking and then one on one coaching people and there's what I actually work on or do the thing that makes you who you are to work on actually think to allow your brain to do what it does to actually like no time to do that because you're just traveling and coaching and you know speaking and coaching and so three years from now you're saying the exact same thing because you haven't had time to actually so I booked out my schedule doing one on one coaching with people and to be honest I don't love that that's not what I'm great we have a great program we have a great director we have great that's not I'm the content I'm the you know whatever and so then I started realizing shoot I gotta I gotta scale this guy scaled my team I've got to I've got to create leverage here so I started hiring coaches and I came with the pitfalls that come with that we hired a lot of bad coaches that weren't fantastic who represented me and made me look yeah and then I got a few that were great and then I didn't know how to program where we leveraged the info I'm doing you know disperse information or how do we just all these growing things you know and then and then little by little by little we grew and grew and grew mistake mistake mistake grow some more mistake grow some more mistake grow some more just like any business and you know we're finally at the point now in the last couple of years where like we have a great director our director of coaching sold her real estate business so the things we teach people to do she just did you know even while she was still selling and being our director she had a house in Mexico she moved to like the things we tell people we want them to learn to do we're doing right and I'm finally at the point in the structure we know how to disseminate information we know what makes a great coach what doesn't we know how to switch people off when they're not we know the difference between our virtual program and our one-on-one who belongs where and what that difference is we're finally kind of but this is over 10 years or more you know it just took and probably right about when I missed that point right before I did the one-on-one coaching myself like actually getting on calls with people and doing I think it was actually calls back then is when I had to sell the team my real estate team because I I couldn't do it I couldn't not only could I not do it all but even moving forward now when it comes to all of the brands I work with and all of the I can't be a competitor and then they're not going to put me up on their main stage but I have my license with you know yeah here's a really quick story for you you are now with EXP and okay so Glenn's been a friend of mine for years Glenn came to me back when he was starting the company to talk about them potentially be a figurehead potentially like you know push the brand promote the brand and stuff and showed me the whole concept it was him and Brad Anderson at the time show me the whole concept show me the whole thing and I had to say no because I'm like for me my vision of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do which was different than other people that was career suicide for me because every other brand was going to go boop no thanks yeah and so what I what I did from there was and this is why we stopped selling on the stage I don't sell on the stage at all we just give people an email training we just build our database because the idea to me every event I do it's about building our database you can be direct to consumer where we're not relying on anybody else meaning if any brand says we're not working with Jared James big whoop my database is bigger than yours you know what I mean like so now I've spent the last five years six years just building that building that and changing our course a little bit but in the beginning we had that opportunity with EXP I remember that and just had to kind of go hey can do it while we're still but we didn't really figure out the coaching game till probably we got serious about it probably like I don't know and again I'm bad with time brands maybe six years ago something like that but we got really good at it probably a couple years ago you know because of certain leadership and structure and you know it's just all figured it out man like every good business so that's the kind of look back over the place but yeah yeah do you look back at the EXP decision do you regret that at this point not the least bit no I love I love what they're doing like I said Glenn's a friend like it's no for me for my for my path for my course no it's a right decision you know I can't be beholden to any brand I can't be yeah you know it's like like I've seen what you're doing and that's fantastic and I've got other friends that are doing things that you know they're now building their network within I think it's fantastic I just have a little different path you know a little different a little different a little different destiny I guess as far as the place that I'm going yeah and I'm keeping it open so we the thing that's not focused on a lot is we've got I don't know five or six companies within our portfolio we've gotten one just acquired I can't even talk about yet and so I'm viewing things a little bit differently like I really do I'm pure bread entrepreneur like I am like I'm the face of coaching training for our business and speaking and I do a ton of that but a lot of it is a funnel not only to get people into our coaching and training but it's also a funnel for our offset companies of the other things that we do because we're kind of building a little little empire over here you know mm-hmm what I love doing man it's and it's what I'm trying to train everybody else to do it's like you all can do this on some level you know this ability when you have the practical consumer nobody tells you can do the options are yours yeah yeah I was a little worried about that when I moved over um you're worried about the connection with EXP yeah just the brand you know being brand agnostic versus you know being tied to a brand or whatever but I don't really talk about it a lot online so it's kind of a lot of people don't even realize I'm there and yeah um you know it's like there's so many different streams and platforms of different things like EXP is like a very small piece of what I'm doing yeah um you know there's a lot of stuff independently too right like yeah a lot of streams you'll do your own event you'll do your so you don't really I'm in a real investing world did you go into this line business I didn't know that well no not necessarily we have a really good one and we're we're you know we're bringing on customers and we're playing around with it it's connected to chat GPT and it's really cool and we're selling it left and right and so now we're just like okay because we're doing it because like I had this company a while back and we grew too fast and then we got up and we were overstepped with all this uh overhead and it just crashed and burned and everybody was mad well you know we're not gonna this was a different partner but but you know this guy saw the whole thing happen and we're just like we're just doing it right are you white what are you doing are you white labing you just acting with this and that's you know releasing this software because as you should by the way so like we built one from scratch and like I don't think you realize what a game of Jenga building a CRM is every time you fix something something breaks so I invested literally millions man and we built this thing over the course of years and uh by the end it was a great system great whatever but I just made a decision at the end we actually scrapped it we used it internally but we took customers off of it because of I had to decide what to do and what I probably do is I'll take that source code from that because it's a great CRM and I'll probably end up taking it and go into one of our large brokerage clients or something and selling it to them and saying hey you don't need to use this you don't need whatever here you have your own CRM that's probably what we'll eventually do but in the short term I scrapped it um just because it wasn't the amount of focus it was taking every day wasn't worth what I was in that business for it just was yeah see the thing with this is like the overhead is nothing you know like it right and everything is set up on you know production base so like we've got like we've got like onboarding fulfillment sales uh you know um everything you're not paying developers and stuff no oh god man I had I had two developers uh uh uh working on this I mean uh one um that we launched because of the failure of a parent company from another thing but it's called first up F Y R S T U P and that one we've got developers but it's nowhere near what the CRM was and it's so much easier to deal with because I just realized how convoluted a CRM is but we've got one now that I learned a lot from that process we launched this company first up it so much easier like holy crap um just just a lot easier but once you start getting to that world though developers and everything man they're expensive you know what you know what you know what's so funny is that I never used a CRM in my business yeah you know what it's amazing to me because people will say that to me like a lot of a lot of top producers will say that to me and they'll say and my response my what's going through my head whenever I hear that from any top producer when they're like you know I didn't use one and they look at that as evidence that they don't need one my response in my head is always thinking how much further you could have gone you know it's not that doesn't that's not proof of concept you know like now if I go right now and I run five miles with no shoes on you know guys I run I don't even wear shoes you know what I mean I don't ever be like hey that's awesome man hey maybe try out these nikes you know what I'm saying like maybe maybe this is what we should look at right now you know like maybe that's a good idea and so whenever I hear that it's so common because it just wasn't the culture to be using one it goes against the personality profile of top producing people to be that organized and to be that you know whatever but I never look at it as proof of concept I always look at this oh my god look how well like that speaks to the talent it speaks to the drive it speaks to all of that but it also speaks to how much more there was if I'm that's what I hear yeah yeah well I figured for me I was like I can only handle so many deals I'm one age it yeah I didn't do the team thing so I know it took a while by the way I was going to tell you man I thought that was a mistake for a while but it became your brand it was like maybe you can make the argument that you make it up in other ways right like yeah in a normal situation yeah you can do more with leverage no doubt about it but your brand kind of became that thing of like you know doing 100 plus you know solo agent the whole thing to where I was sitting back and I'm going so how's he going to transition you know because you're going to have to you're going to want to do like self is going to have to give here you know what I kept selling way longer than I should have to I could have walked the way along a lot earlier but I was still like in it I was still loving it I was still making fun of it like what was the reason was it fear of losing that income or was it it was that was a big part of it but I still I still didn't mind it I was still having fun you know I'm still loving the fringe when my clients were calling you know I was like this is it and that I mean that that was 2022 or the end of 2021 yeah and I mean I was already making more coaching than selling at that point yeah so I replaced the income and I took a hit on the income with leaving the sales behind but more I thought you don't charge what are you doing off like that affiliate you're promoting a product you don't have to service like it's dude look at this I use their employees as if they're mine see I don't want I don't want 100 employees you know I know guys that are doing like 30 million 100 million a year 60 million a year and core sales and have businesses and millions of employees and stuff I've got like three or four partnerships of companies that have employees and those employees do whatever I tell them to do like those are my salespeople those are my fulfillment team affiliate for the affiliate agreement yeah that makes that's I mean that was and then guess what I get a cut right off the top I get a cut right off the top no expenses see they deal with all the expenses and the day to day and all the all the people they just get a cut there is a flipside because I'm thinking of this in my head right now the real issue with that is that you're not going to end up with a saleable asset meaning meaning the trade off see the thing is is well there's a couple things right I'll tell you the meat of it at the end the front end of it is I make all this income so I can go buy assets right okay but on the back end on the back end though a lot of these affiliates give me equity right so like for example EXP I've got several several several hundred of equity that gave me right um the CRM I'm an affiliate of this company but we have already worked out a deal that if and when this company is big and it sells then I've already got my piece of that equity already carved out of that company it's like I get all the upside but none of the downside you know that's honestly man like that is I was literally going to say that next that a lot of the companies that will reach out to me now would you promote this would you promote that would you promote whatever a lot of times we're coming back depending on what the depending on what the impact is going to be and how much of a push we know we can have well we'll say hey we want percent equity we want you know whatever like we're I'm not interested in you know you giving me I want equity like that's that you know if you wanted that bad that's where it's at so but you gotta be careful with that too because if you get if you own equity of a company that's why I kind of like playing it like this no employees possible upside take the income buy assets yeah you know that's a good way to flip it if you're taking that income and then you're going to buy an asset that's a good way to flip it because to me that was as I'm sitting here listening to you that's the one thing I was thinking was okay so you've got those people you're sending over you've got but then you don't have a saleable asset at some point which potentially could be a downside there but if you're using it and you're saying that the believe me I know that world so I get it it's another way to do it without it dude I go I knock off at five I go to bed at night just and sleep like a baby right that'll have any problems alright so I wish I could tell you I'd never have any problems please man we do have to deal with people and whatever but that's part of the reason again why you leverage usually if something gets to me by that point it's a bigger issue than I want to deal with that's just part of it you know as we as we wrap it up here what's the best way to for an agent to go out and just build inventory right now and how do they win those listings oh god there's a load of question alright so it depends on their their personality because we teach a couple of different techniques right but it really depends on their personality if you want to ask me the easiest thing number one is just to leverage listings that are already in your area and they don't have to be your listings okay okay so when you start looking at listings that come on the market right we know statistically when a listing hits a market within 30 days another listing hits that neighborhood within six months two to three more hit that neighborhood right so if I was a brand new agent right now it's thought of another way to in the MLS as if I was a buyer okay because the greatest way to get listings is to have buyers right so I would be saving a criteria for whatever neighborhoods that I want to have listings in I'd be saving searches as if I was a buyer right because what's going to happen now every time a listing comes up in that area who's going to be notified I am right now we just said that within 30 days of a listing coming on what happens another one comes on every time that search criteria every time that listing gets sent to me a blank neighborhood where you want one just came on what do I now know is going to happen within 30 days another one's coming on so I would hit a multi-pronged number one I would we have a letter called new listing prospecting letter letter goes out and it says hi so and so just wanted to let you know your neighbor's listing your neighbor's property just got listed over at blank not sure if you're aware but your neighbor's property being listed may have changed your value if you like to know whatever right that's communication 101 when I say your neighbor's property being listed may have changed the value of yours they heard their value went up I didn't say that so I would just literally every single listing that comes on that's in my area that I want listings I would either mail that out but I would also go take the publicly listed MLS sheets for that listing not my listing by the way not saying it's my listing it's publicly available information I would take that publicly available MLS sheet and I would go walk that neighborhood immediately before the flyers of the listing agent can get there and I would just go to each store and say hey don't want to bother I know people hate that but your neighbor's property was just listed over at blank and I thought you might want more information and I would put my hand because they always want more information okay I'd say start a little bit they're like what can't you sign on the internet right they're going to start looking oh yeah we were wondering about that we saw and they're going to start talking to you because as much as people don't want somebody knocking on their door even more so they want to know about their neighbor's listing okay and so now while I'm talking to them we're starting to familiarize we're becoming friends now they think I'm normal they're normal I'm going to have two closes very simple one is going to be the answer to that question is exactly what I wrote in the letter I'm going to say hey not sure if you're aware but your neighbor's property being listed may have changed the value of yours would you like to know how it may have changed and I'm and I'm going to do that house after house after house after house in addition to the stuff that's going to be mailed out okay for a for a new agent or somebody just trying to create inventory there's no better more quickly effective they don't have to be excuse the dog they don't have to be your listing okay like it doesn't like you're not saying it's yours it's publicly listed now it's just a matter of who gets to the to the neighbors first because that neighbor's property is not owned by the listing agent okay there's one let me give you another one yeah okay why not I'll give you two quickies the other quickest way right now to to get potential sellers potential whatever it is potential buyers potential sellers which isn't leveraged enough which I leveraged like crazy when I was an agent is investors investors don't care who their agent is all they care about is quick they've got you're calling cash is hard money lines of credit okay they close in 15 days with no contingencies they do these kinds of things right so I would go to my local RIA I would I would attend all those monthly meetings filled with people who have lines of credit and I would go to them and just meet one after another after another and build my list of investors and just say hey what do you do what kind of properties you into and they'd be like I'm a buy and hold or I'm a flip or I'm a this or I'm a that and I'd say great I'm an agent what I specialize in is finding great deals for investors like yourself you know would you like me to add you to my list like whatever approval sold as is handyman like all those words that all come in and every time those properties hit the market I'd be reaching out to those people within my database and those investors are saying hey got one now do you want to go see it the only rule is they buy it they sell it I'm the one who sells right last but not least the last thing I do is I would absolutely leverage video and and this is the one I would do every buyer I worked with I was aware of in my office even it wasn't my buyer if I got the approval of the person in my office to do this I would do it and I would make this video I'd hold up the phone and I'd say hey everybody in so and so area I've got a buyer looking for an up to three bedroom up to two bath 1500 to 2000 square foot home in the so and so area if you or anyone you know is even considering selling could you please let me know right away I may be able to sell their home without it ever hitting the market I would take that video right there Facebook, Instagram and YouTube twenty bucks fifty bucks whatever you got I would moat that in my area so that all these people in my area who don't know me who do know me whatever I'm coming up on their phone on their computer saying I've got a buyer in this low inventory market but if you or anyone you know is even considering selling in this up to three bedroom up to two bath please let me know right away I may be able to sell their house in the market I would then take that video and promote it on say every buyer in my office or that I work with and watch what happens people will start DMing you my mom is over in blank what price range are they looking you know they'll start reaching out notice I didn't talk about you know price or anything yeah qualifying factors I don't want to disqualify them before they ever get to me I want them to talk to me and then find out my people are outside I might notice hey what do you now I've got an opportunity right so I would do things like that on a regular basis that actually are proactive in getting people to see me know me know what's going on and potentially work that's great man so so doorknock and the new listings throw in something in the mail video mail out all out there looking for investors that might want to grew a great deal on a rental property and doing the video promote the video all investors care about is first come first served guys go on I put this on Instagram the other day go on go on YouTube go on Google go type into Google you know best agent in blank best way to sell your house in blank don't care about the results but scroll halfway down the page you know what's going to say on the Google results people also searched and it's going to give you about eight suggestions right go make videos make eight videos with those exact titles because Google just gave you their algorithm they're like this is what we're going to return right this is what we're going to show other people that anything in this world anything like the type of client you want the type of whatever it is type it into Google don't worry about the results go halfway down look at what they're telling you to put in they're going people also search make videos with those exact titles they're telling you here's our algorithm go for it have at it it's an absolute like that's gold for the right people they actually have now that is gold man so where can people find all your stuff bro all your coaching and all that good stuff simple man so I was you know like you I just tell people connect online so if you go to connectwithjared.com just go to connectwithjared.com you can connect on all the social platforms like you man I answer the DMs long as they're not weirdos I answer the DMs I think it's important I think it gives us context of what's going on and you know you know I think there's a lot of reasons why you and I both do that so follow on all the platforms obviously our website jaredjamestoday.com jaredjamestoday.com we got a conference coming up in October in Nashville that you know really looking forward to put a lot of work into there's a lot of other things always going on but yeah man reach out anytime you know listen to you listen to me go check it out my guy jaredjames here jaredjamestoday.com connectwithjared.com and if you guys were around Nashville in October go out and check out his event it's gonna be really really good man thanks for spending so much time with us today bro that was great man it was nice to actually talk about something you know other than the whole time you know what I was thinking this is how I like to do it man if you have any questions ready or anything let's just have a conversation so I don't do a lot of I do my own podcast but I don't do a lot of podcasts just for that reason the same questions over and over just like I'm bored you know like it's just having your answers ready and stuff cool man hey again thanks bro appreciate it man see you bud