 It's super hard right like one of the things I've been realizing the last couple years something I don't talk a lot about is I mention it, but I'm really starting to tap into it is Boy, do I leave a lot of money on the table like every year and like you know like a lot And I'm like and you just ask yourself why like you know why is important and like it makes so much sense It's just because I'm going for bigger and better and legacy and more money like it's all of it So today's the day Get excited about to go down and eat some breakfast And jump in the cab ahead to VaynerMedia Nothing cool. I'm Ricky Carruth. I'm from Orange Beach, Alabama I've been in real estate since 2002 What was your name ward? Yeah, I'm a lot like Ward in terms of I just started social media about a year ago I built my entire business on email and phone calls and I totally focused on real estate for 15 years did nothing else built a million dollar a year business number one remix agent in Alabama last year and Since then I've decided I wanted I feel like I Like accomplished that and and beat real estate, you know number one And so now kind of I guess I kind of got bored and now I wanted to Explore just totally different things and challenge myself And so over the past year like I like I started watching Gary about a year ago, right about the same time I started social media and thought about writing a book and doing speeches and stuff So over the past year has been a little crazy because you know, I hit number one during the same year I write two books. I started a vlog a podcast. I started Instagram daily YouTube videos You know the whole nine yards, so I've done maybe 10 or 15 speeches During that time, so I'm really I'm starting to get a lot of momentum I started coaching so a year ago. I started coaching realtors And so my whole goal is I want to reduce the failure rate in the real estate industry I think too many agents are judging their business on how many appointments they get And I think it should be more about how many people you're talking to and out of those people How many you're connecting with long-term and so I teach agents how to communicate who they are as a person with how they're Communicating with their clients as opposed to the cookie cutter Scripts that are out there that really just make you feel like you're just make your client feel like you're just going after a deal Or just you want the listing you're trying to close up and instead actually trying to help them And so that's kind of the path that I've taken but I started charging for my coaching and Over the past year I was charging and then about a month ago I decided to go totally free because what would happen is is I would have 300 people sign up for a webinar a hundred of them show up and one sign up and So I'm losing 99 people of people that really Put forth the time and effort to learn something and wanted to get something out of it But at the end they say I knew it. He was going to try to charge me And so now for the past month I went totally free the 200 paying members not a single one of them wanted any money back because of how much value I've given them Compared to how much they paid and so that that's kind of the path I'm on so my goal And what I'm here for is I want to build my personal brand in that real estate niche and I literally I Know that I'm going to be the number one real estate speaker in the world over the next two three four five years I'm on that path. And so I'm here to really just take it take every little piece That I can get out of this and just run with Alabama I'm also on real estate remakes on beach So I've been selling real estate for 16 years in the past year Started social media like I didn't do it before right business on you like that's not gonna sell shit for me Right is how you thought about it, right? It's it's the mindset But so I started speaking coaching and now do a blog YouTube. What made you do that? like what what really well I had a passion for the fact that value relationships over transactions and Like like my mission is to reduce the failure rate. Yeah, I watch agents come in and out Yeah, and the problem is they The cookie cutter system doesn't really the way that they teach you communicate I know it teaches them to go after the deal. And so what I'm doing is I'm I'm teaching agents how to communicate who they are as a person like that They care about people with how they're you know who they are with how they communicate Which is often their truth and they're taught out of it It's super hard right like one of things I've been realizing last couple years something I don't talk a lot about is I mentioned it, but I'm really starting to tap into it is Boy, do I leave a lot of money on the table like every year and like, you know like a lot And I'm like and you just ask yourself why like, you know why is important and like it makes so much sense It's just because I'm going for bigger and better and legacy and more money like it's all of it and it's super counterintuitive It's just not and especially if you're in sales But it's but all the actions in the reverse. It's cool. Awesome. So thanks to you I'm gonna be I'm on the path to be the number one real estate speaker in the world through Your you're giving away the free content like that's what I was missing And so now I was I was charging for coaching and I went free and now I give away all those deepest secrets and content for nothing And all of a sudden miraculously you make more money amazing things are happening So fucking basic It's really fucking intense man. By the way, it's completely evergreen Even for like, you know, like I don't know like spec work Like all we don't like it's just crazy even this like we have we have agencies that we want I don't know you're you're I want your business like I want a hotel client like like we don't have one like like, you know Like but you know to me I never get scared when I hear that not because they're small Because I was small like small is where everyone starts. It's just that doing the right thing always plays itself out They don't understand the abundance of reality My question is Cortez was in there earlier and I gave him my story, you know, a roofed house He's got no state made money lost everything went back to Rufi Morphine already came back number one of the remix agent Alabama so I told him the story I told him my message which was to line up who Agents are with how they're communicating and value relationships ever transactions in my whole spiel He said he's losing the connection between my story and my message and my question is how do I? Connect the two well first of all and this is and this is not a dig at Cortez is dig at me too The number one that all thing you all have to do is recognize these are very short engagements And you have to make sure if you agree with him You know like I'm worried to be at the vulnerability of Cortez's subjectiveness Just because Cortez is wearing a vainer jersey and sits here like he may be wrong or me. He may be right Do you think he's right? I think that's a more maybe think about it And so here's what I would say when I think about things and it could be somebody who I've never met before or something Dennis says Who I've known for a long time? I always make sure that I fully think it through before I act on it So a lot of you are gonna get a lot of different thoughts and angles here and Expansions on thoughts you've had intuitive or crossed a tee that you needed or not Or I am desperately scared that my word would be gospel I think what why I win a lot and people that follow my stuff win is I keep ship Basic as fuck Right, and then I'm very good at spending a lot of time and understanding the current state of attention and culture Like everything that the reason you failed was because you did the wrong things you did short-term behavior Now you're feeling this insanity because you're on ultimate long-term behavior As far as the story connecting that makes sense from a strategist standpoint I just want to make sure it's true because you can lose a lot between strategy and execution You can get the Cortez part really right and then the Babcock part really wrong So like there's a lot of variables here. So I don't want to dwell on anything too too much. I Think it's very easy to not lose your story. I think you just tell it over and over Like you guys probably know this bike to my content you look at the oh, you know I've started to finally not do this Right, but like I don't know only probably about a year ago year and a half ago Did I two years ago? Did I stop not taking the first 20 minutes of my keynote to tell you I was born in Belarus And I gave a fuck about lemonade and right like, you know finally I was like, okay Maybe there's enough awareness that I I'm not doing any value for the audience anymore And I just did but you should be in heavy store like if Cortez wants that and you want your full story Fucking tell it a lot more Like go back to the fucking oil rig like like tell it So to me like I I would argue is this what's the value of the story? What are the important parts of the story? I think listen, I think there's no better story than what you have I'll be very honest with you. I wish I had a loss of Significance that I could point to It makes me more, you know, you can associate more like it's hard right people always like what's your you know You guys probably think they're like I thought about today. I was like fuck man. I wonder how many people think I'm secretly super depressed This is literally what I thought today Because if I was consuming me I'd like no way No fucking way. You're this So it's like, you know what I mean, so like I'm like fuck man I really wish I had a bit, you know, I've had losses like that too, but they were side projects They weren't the I've only run two businesses, you know, and when you run three you've got side. They're not you're running none right I Don't know but it's very easy to tell that story if you think it's easy to tell Just the way he yeah, again, this is where I have cynicism to My own employees because I don't want them to get too deep in the discipline and strip out the practicality You know Like you know and even even looking at Dennis and Mark Evans, you know I don't by the way because Dennis had a peanut a nut business in the Ukraine doesn't make me automatically say I like his point of view on this issue more than mark who's grown up in the game That that's not the point of it, but the point is you do have to keep that in mind Like the reason I think VaynerMedia is gonna win in marketing is unlike all my clients I've always marketed for the health and well-being of my family Like like my you know when you're an entrepreneur, it's you right Right it was you now it feels different now that you're in that company no matter what you have it Maybe that's exciting and what you need at this point and maybe you're gonna miss it being on the hook And you'll go through that we'll all go through that You know I secretly like fuck man I hope somebody doesn't comment off for me five billion dollars for Vayner because I'm gonna have to take because I want to buy The Jets and then I'm gonna be an employee for three years fuck me, you know like I don't know like you know like you know You think about all these things. I wouldn't get too hung up Click I would say you're getting hung up on the right thing. That's why you're feeling Which is keep fuck like fuck your origin story to keep bringing value. I don't give a fuck about my origin story It's an immigrant story. It's cool. There's a lot of fucking immigrants, right? And there's a hell a lot of people that had it worse or different or what have you I'm I'm not what I mean. It's funny one of my pieces of content when a world stars Instagram account and like Like just reading all the comments of all these 15 year old kids who have no idea who I am and like He makes all this like it's just funny. It's funny to know why I'm winning I'm only only only only winning because I'm providing you guys more value than the alternatives Through two core things the mindset shit that I put out every day And then reminding you to keep watching me and copying me. I'm not gonna make a how-to video to post a fucking Snapchat story, but you've got to ask yourself. Why am I making so many animated gift pieces of content on my instagram stories? Why did I make up a swipe up piece of content and why am I continuing to I promise you If my swipe up animated gift and my instagram stories wasn't working. I wouldn't keep using it I'm the easiest tell of all time Everything I'm doing is either egg. I'm trying to figure out if it's working or b. It's working Very simply if you haven't seen it a whole lot I'm trying to figure it out. If you see me keep doing it. It's fucking working In addition what open table understood brilliantly in 2002 and 3 is they could buy that lead on google for 50 cents Game over understand That's why I give that's basically in a nutshell The black and white reason why I do what I do I do what I do because I give away the most value for free because that's the leverage point of the things that I do This is the most dangerous. This is why I hate writing books It's why it's why I keep telling people but I day trade attention It's I I literally like I will never give better advice than to watch what I do You go look at my last 70 fucking posts on instagram right now. I don't have hashtags But when I was doing it that was the right thing to do I'm being serious. I don't know what to say got it. That's why this game is so tough This is why I changed it to day trading attention It's day trading I don't know how they fuck, you know, I don't know day trading super well And I don't know how people bought stocks back in the day, but here's what I know. It's faster now Like I don't know my literally my opinion on snapchat could change tonight, but like access This is something to just think about Definitely for you Access is what people want I'm giving away content for free for access Music is free the show isn't Dinner with Kanye I would give away a lot of free music To be able to get to place in my life where I could have people pay $400,000 to have dinner with me And guess what in that picture? I just painted you both win The thing you don't know is the amount of volume of content needed to really win when you're done with the butts. You're ready thank you The last year question was actually my question in page 41 if you're asked carry people I love it So which was you know, if you don't want to go into something you My question was do you go into some full full bore and say do I have a plan B? I can back up on if you're thinking about the plan B already Are you setting yourself up for failure and the answer you gave was pretty much the same thing spot on you got to be sure You know you have to think about the background But you definitely are going a little bit more full into What the jump is but you don't want to hinder yourself either 100% people think some things are just much more It's not you know, like I don't I think it's practical to always know about B and C Like this whole notion there is no like the rah rah of an instagram post of like you don't have a plan A If you have a plan B or whatever fucking that I see it like cool, but Like yes, I do think it's binary go all in but like for me. It's like ambitious practicality Right. I'm on full fucking offense What the capability of going to defense if shit gets fucked up? I get it I would say this How good I'm doing for my client for all of you is subjective And too many of us make that judgment for our client Some of my happiest clients. I hate what we do for them. Some of my most unhappy clients. We do the best for them From my point of view and I think I'm a good point of view but Never make the judgment for the other person Let the results speak if everybody starts firing you you were right My dad didn't even you know how I got trained real well. My dad didn't even have a credit line That's some good shit Like that's some gangster shit. That's for real real You having a good day just starting or fixing to be done. Yeah, just stop So you do the night shift. Yes, cool You see some interesting characters. Yes, that's good. You like it, huh? I'm a speaker a real estate speaker all third coach And I just it's just had a big meeting with at VaynerMedia Are we traveling back? What's that? We're traveling back tomorrow. Oh, we're trying Uh flights at nine Yeah, yeah, so I'll I'll have to get there about seven so I'll leave my room about six Yeah, six or seven