 The same ones that are complaining about no inventory last year. They're complaining about too much inventory this year. I, I've been saying that for a while. I'm like, Hey, so when is the right time to buy? You know, if, if like, it's too hot and it's too competitive, that's not the time to buy. And then now it's not competitive enough. Nobody's interested. All right. So I got Ricky Caruth on the show. What up, man? What up, dude? Happy to have you here. Yeah, good to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, dude. So beyond being on the podcast, what brings you to these parts of Vegas from Alabama? Dude, you know what? I'm actually out here. We're, we're at EXP kind of course. I'm doing a couple of breakout sessions and stuff, but something I didn't tell you while I go Wednesday is our five year anniversary. Me and my wife. Oh, nice. So it's kind of a, see, I bring my family of where I go. Okay. The 12 events I was telling you we did this year, brought my wife and three year old with me. Oh, just one kid? Mm hmm. Three year old. Wow. Yeah. So we make it a little mini bay, bay K every time. So, yeah, it's nice right now until she goes to school. But, uh, yeah, dude, I love it out here because I get two hours. Yeah. So I'm up at three. I'm reading. I'm working out. I'm doing on with social media stuff and the rest of the world still going to sleep. Oh yeah. In Vegas, we're about to go to sleep for sure. That's cool, man. So, dude, I mean, you're obviously killing it on social media. You're on the side that I could never figure out, which was being a realtor for those who don't know who you are. Give them a little feedback. Yeah. No, I, um, I grew up in Gulf Shores, Alabama. And people don't know that we have a beach in Alabama, but it's some of the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen. Have you ever seen pictures of it? No. Yeah. You should Google Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Alabama. It's right on the Florida line. So I got my Alabama license and Florida license. I do about 10% of my deals in Florida. And, uh, no, I grew up roofing houses with my dad. My dad had a roofing company. Yeah. Okay. My dad had a roofing business. And it was cool because he owned it and he was a laborer of it. Right. So it's like, I got to watch him run his own business and the work ethic behind running it and working in it. Right. Right. Same thing with my mom. She had a hair salon. She cut hair and owned the business. So I didn't realize it growing up. I kind of was brought up in this entrepreneurial, hard work, you know, dream big kind of scenario. So it was kind of cool, but he roofed houses and he got me and my brother out there when we were really, really little and we were cleaning job sites when we were eight, nine years old, laying shingles when I was 13. So I did that for a long time. And then I went to college, I had a football scholarship to Missouri Valley College, NAAA school. What'd you play in? What position? Linebacker, outside linebacker. And I, it was in Missouri, right? 18 hours. I was 17. So I played for a year. I came back. I went to a community college. I went to Alabama and I fell to history class. I went to another school that took my real estate license. So I went to four different colleges in two years, fell to history class and said college is just, this ain't for me. This ain't it for me. So in real estate, I was 20 and you take the class and they're like, okay, when you pass, you got to, you know, go take your test in a year. Then you got to find somewhere to work in 90 days. Then you got to take, then you got to take your post license and all this stuff. I was like, I don't know if I want to do this. I'm, this is way too much commitment for me at that time. Cause cause I knew that whatever, whatever I do, I'm all in on, right? You know, just all or nothing. And so I didn't, whenever I make a decision, I want to make sure that that's the decision that I really, cause I don't, I very rarely turn back once I make that decision. And so that's what got me in real estate. Cause I came back after that roofed houses for three days and I was like, I'm going to try real estate. I've done enough shingles and everything in my life. This is enough. Yeah, but I did a lot of different jobs, tons of different things growing up and everything. But when I got into real estate, it took me eight months to get my first deal. And, uh, you know, it was, uh, I, I tell you what happened. I got off the roof. I said, see you dad. I'm a retired dude. I'm going to sell houses and I worked full time for 30 days, didn't sell anything, went back to the roof and said, Hey dad, I'm back, did that for seven more months. They'd real estate on the side, finally got a deal and I started closing to a month and, you know, started really rolling. And that was 2003. So, you know, the market really started cranking like towards the end of 2003, 2004, 2004 was probably the craziest year. It was just like the year we just had last year, really. Um, and everything went nuts. And I made a lot of money just young to help young. I was 22, 23, yeah, 24. And, um, made all that money. It was a million bucks I had and I was buying and flipping properties left and right because you could buy anything, you could buy anything and turn around and make a ton of money. And I was borrowing to do it, you know, because I was going bigger and bigger, I would flip and then take that money and go down on something bigger or three or four homes. And I was just flipping and flopping. And that's what happens when the market does that, you know, the people that don't know what's going on. They flip all the way, put theirself on all that debt and then turn around when the market crashes and really have nowhere to run. So that all came crumbling down. And, you know, I mean, like my family was never rich or anything. So we, we really didn't, you know, like the golden role was buy real estate, but nobody told me there was a right and a wrong way to buy real estate. You know, I should have been buying rentals and just sitting on them. Mm hmm. Um, you know, then I would have been okay. So I learned that lesson. And, uh, but anyway, I went back to roofing. So here I am back again. Yeah. Yeah. In 2005, January, 2005, I saw my last condo and, uh, went back to roofing. But then I had my own brokerage. Well, okay. So let me, let's take a step back here. You know, I've thought about this too before of like, what happens if I end up losing, you know, all my money from whatever deals go bad and crap happens. You know, I got to declare bankruptcy or something. You know, I've thought about this, this scenario. And in my mind, I'm like, well, now I've got my content, my influence. I could build it back up really fast. But before that, I was like, well, you know, the only thing I was successful at before flipping houses was flipping couches and like side hustles, essentially roofing, you know, just labor and everything else. But I was never at the point where I was like so successful. And then like having to just go back to that. Like I couldn't imagine how was that? It was very humbling. Yeah. I mean, it was really humbling, but honestly, I lost everything. Like houses, cars, um, I was sleeping in my car. Wow. So one of my, one of my ex-girlfriends gave me her beat up car. Like it was beat, it was a four contour. And like, I, when I was driving it, I had to ride the, whenever I passed the cop, I had to ride the brakes a little to have, to have the tail lights on because the tail lights didn't work. I had to ride the brake lights so that they wouldn't see. I didn't have tail lights. That's how bad it was. The passenger door went open. We had a boom box in the back so we could listen to music. But I slept in that car, um, many different nights. I was eating out of people's Ridge Ragers and stuff. That's how bad it got during that time. Hmm. Um, so listen, like, and this is what I tell new agents too. A lot of time that are part-time agents, you know, because they want to go full-time so bad. I want to go full-time. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. If right now, when you wake up in the morning, you know, you wake up and you work your ass off all day long, right? Okay. When you go full-time real estate, okay, when you go full-time real estate, all right, you're going to wake your, wake up and you're going to work your ass off all day long, right? Your life is not going to change a bit from what it is right now, as far as your daily routine and what you're trying to do and what you're trying to accomplish. So when it went back the other way for me, I'm, I'm like, you know, like for me, I've got, it's such ingrained of a hard work ethic through my dad that it wasn't nothing to me. Like it doesn't matter to me if I woke up and was selling real estate or if I was waking up, playing shingles, like I didn't, you're going to put the work in. I could care less what I was doing. And honestly, during that time I was in my mid-20s. So there were guys that were 40, 50s and 60s and even 70s that were around me that went through the same thing. They were doing the same thing. They were flipping, flopping and lost everything, right? And they, they went through that and I was sitting there watching in my mid-20s, like, you know, thank God, because that I wasn't in my fifties losing everything, starting over, you know, in my fifties and sixties. You know, I was thanking God every day, like thank you for allowing this to happen to me in my mid-20s where I could take it, learn from it, figure out what I did wrong because that's the thing. Once you tell me something one time, that is it, it's over. You don't have to tell me again. So when I lost everything, I was like, okay, you know, I'll go roof houses, figure it out. And guess what I did? Dude, I went and worked on an oil rig. Like Alaska or something? No, I was actually in Mississippi. So they travel around, it was on land and they drill for natural gas all over the state of Mississippi, all over or whatever. And I went out there for a year. That was 2007. So I roofed houses and stuff. And I was actually serving tables too. I was roofing serving tables at night. And like, mind you, I didn't have any bills at this time. It was like, people were like, why are you doing this? But I just didn't care. You know, I'm just like, let me get as much money as I can. But why not just go sell more real estate as an agent? Because I didn't understand what I understand now. See, what I understand now is that closings happen every single day, forever, no matter what the market does. Like, like you look at right now, there's agents out there complaining about interest rates and buyers in the fence and stuff like that. Meanwhile, 80% of the same amount of deals are happening from last year, 80%. And last year was nuts. 6.1 million. We'll probably hit 4.8 million this year. And like in 2008, it was 4 million. But it's that mind shift of realizing that. And so that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks because I was on the oil rig and I was still trying to figure out where I went on real estate. And there was a guy that sold like 30 properties in 2007 or 2006. And he was my original mentor. And I was like, bro, how in the world did you do this? You know, back in the day in 2002, when he was mentoring me, you know, he taught me phone calls, emails, postcards, letters, you know, there was no social media, right? You know, he taught me all that stuff, how to get the numbers, what to say, scripts, postcards, letters, emails and all that stuff. 2007, I sit down with him like, OK, how did you do this? Everybody else is leaving the business, leaving town, doing other things. I'm out of business. How did you sell 30 properties when the market's basically nothing? And so I went to his house. He's like, I'll show you this big elaborate thing. Sit down. He made this whole production, everything. And basically it was emails, phone calls, letters, all the same stuff. Yeah. Right. So it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, wait a minute. And then I was looking at MLS and my county records. And I realized that some of my clients that I represented, you know, were still buying and selling stuff when I was on the oil rig. Hmm. And that's what hit me like a ton of bricks. And I realized it's about people. That was the moment that I was like, this is this is a people business, because if I would have maintained because see back then you could literally do that. I could make 15 phone calls and make like 20 grand because somebody wanted to sell and make 200,000 today. That's what was happening. Your prices were going up so much. I could make 10 phone calls and say he wants to make 100 grand, 150, 200. Somebody would take me up on it. Well, when they did, they would do the deal. It was selling a day we would close and I'd never hear from them. They're not going to buy back into that market at this entire price. This was a second home for them anyway. So I didn't have to build relationships. I could just go make 10 more phone calls and make another 20 or just trying to one and done it. Essentially like I wasn't trying to I got in the business to help people. But when I was thrown into that environment, that's the way it was. And so that's what I was born into. And that's the way I thought real estate was done. I didn't realize the long term, you know, approach and building these relationships and realizing it's about repeats and referrals and stuff like that. So fast forward to 2007. I realized that's where the mistake I made. Right. I was telling you about the weekly email and stuff. That's when I started doing that. Every single Wednesday since 2007, I've done a weekly email. So so when I came back in 2008, I got laid off from the old rig and I got back and I was already like trying to sell real estate and I actually had a couple of things under contract set to close. I remember a week before my first closing, which was actually two closings on the same day, I had a bar of 500 bucks from my dad just to make it through that neck that last week before those closings happened. And then it was over because the conversations I was having with my prospects and clients at that time was a totally different ball game because now I understood it was about people and like they could tell I cared about them and I wasn't trying to get a deal done or sell them or close them. I was just trying to listen to them about what they wanted and that's when everything changed. And I wrote when I realized it was more about kind of trying to like build extended family rather than just do deals and whatever. It was about like building lifelong relationships. You know what I mean? So yeah, that was the turning point for me. And then I blew up from that point. Yeah, it's funny, man, because in all business, right, take being a realtor out of it, right? You have multiple ways to generate revenue. You can generate revenue through new leads and new customers and clients. That's the most expensive way because you're trying to go get somebody who may not know who you are. You got to sell them on yourself or your company. And you know, hopefully you provide a great service and then later on down the road, you can hope for a referral. But you know, the second and third way is take the clients you already have, get referrals from them because you're already doing a great job for them, hopefully, or get them to buy more from you, right? Like they're already in your ecosystem. And you know, it's one thing I've thought about a lot with just running my ecosystem of businesses is like, OK, if I've already got this audience, these column leads and I give them a product that they want and need and I do such a good job, how do I then get them another product that they like and need? How do I get them to tell their friends about it? How do I incentivize them in the right way? Give them an affiliate, let them make money with me, right? And and also join in and helping their friends and family and everything else. And it's made me really reevaluate like our I don't want to say like customer support, but like our customer, I guess you would call it success. How do we generate more success for them and let them share their success with their friends and family? And you hear about this as a realtor all the time. But even for me, we were talking about my career as a realtor. It sucked. I was not like you where, you know, I kept going back to being a realtor. I just was like, yep, I'm done. This is it for me. I didn't do it the way I want it. I'm out and I remember everyone would always tell me, hey, you need you need referrals, you need this. And I'm like, how do I get a referral if I have nobody? Right. But you had mentioned prior to the podcast like, look, I haven't done prospecting since 2017, but I cold called and did everything for 10 years straight. I built up my client base and from there, now all I got to do is just a weekly email, just do follow ups. I'll never have to prospect a new client again to continue to just make the money and, you know, sell the amount of homes I want to sell. Yeah, no, it's that's that's the age old problem, too, is most even just salespeople outside of real estate. They either focus on just the new clients or just the old clients. Right. Right. They don't they don't focus on both and why I was so dangerous and built, you know, so quickly as is I did both. I was like, OK, how do I go out and get new clients and how do I take care of my existing clients? And most agents only do one or the other and they end up being average, right? Because once you build your database up as an agent to a certain income level and you stop prospecting, then you plateau right there. Like, and that's why you see a lot of agents that make one hundred fifty two hundred fifty all the time. All they make is to they never break that that next level. And it's because they did they did great work in the beginning to get there. But then they figured they thought, oh, I made it, you know, and it'll keep growing without me having to do all this hard labor to get there. But that's just not the case. And it's a mirage because you're closing deals and you feel like, oh, it's fixing to break out, but it never happens. So you've got to continue pushing the prospecting envelope until you've hit that level of income. Like, really need to kind of go past it just a little bit, like continue prospecting. You hit the income you want. Let's say it's a million dollars. You keep prospecting a little more, right? Maybe another year and then you can literally live off your database and hit that same million. I mean, that's what happened to me. I've seen it happen to many other agents. But the magic that that really makes it happen, though, it's how you're remarketing to that database. Right. Right. And so for me, like the weekly email was everything. And that's what the guy told me when I went to his house in 2007. He was like, or he showed me these emails he was doing. I was like, oh, my God, this is genius. Because it was like, you know, prices on the beach are half off and it was really good at crafting these emails. And that sparked me to create my own email. And honestly, back then there were so many foreclosures. So many clients said, send me a weekly list of foreclosures. This out started, they said, send me a weekly list of foreclosures. Like, I don't know, like 20 or 30 people said that. I started sending weekly list of foreclosures. Like, shit, everybody probably wants to see this. So I sent it to my whole database. And then as the foreclosures went away, and I would always have other market statistics in there, it eventually morphed into just a market update kind of thing. But where agents make a big mistake with this is they hire a company to do like really generic emails or they don't put any personality behind the content. They just like, it's just cold, hard numbers or facts or listings or whatever. And they don't do anything to tell any stories or, you know, to give their two cents or opinions on stuff. And that's where a lot of agents are putting in the work, but they're not seeing the results, is they're not... I wouldn't even say they're putting in the work, to be honest. Some of them are. So that's like, there is a percentage of agents who work extremely hard that don't see the results. And it's one little tweak here and there. There's plenty of agents that don't work. You got me there, but there are a lot of agents who do spend their wills, but they don't want to spend the time on the things that matter. And this is, let me say this, so, you know, because we're talking about an email, which is content, right? And that's one thing for me. I've been creating content now, like video content, social media content for the past about two and a half years. And I wasn't sending any emails until like this year. Dude. And then you decided to just let the wolves out, dude. I get one like every hour. Exactly. It's just like my content. Like it's pure just shotgun all day. But no, what happened was I was like, dude, email doesn't work. And, you know, I ended up golfing with a guy. He paid me to golf. He was an email marketer and his company was doing 10 million a year in emails, like as far as their affiliates and how much revenue they're generating from just email. He goes, Ryan, you don't get it, dude. You're I don't get how you're this smart and you don't understand what email is. He's like email is content. He's like, if you like, he's like, you may not like reading emails, Ryan, but lots of people like getting their newsletters, offers, other things. They love reading emails. He's like, you're leaving millions on the table, not emailing people. And I was like, all right, you email people for me then and we'll do a Rev Split and let's go. And then, dude, sure enough, that first month of doing emails, six figures was attracted just from his emails. I was like, dang, that's crazy. But the reason I bring that up is because I've seen the agents have those templates and stuff and they're super generic. Here's the market update. Or you'll have literally like four emails or five with the same subject line, different agents at the same time. I don't know if you've seen that. Yep, yep. It's the same email from the same generic company about how to cook shrimp etouffée or. Well, and it goes back to your point of like, this was my point is they're not working because obviously they're doing like an automated service with that. But you see the same thing with social media content where somebody will just make like some generic post that sucks. And they're like, dude, I'm posting. Why am I not going because you're not you're not putting in the work and to kind of like the point of content and why it's important, right? You're talking about you nurtured your list for so many years. You wrote these great emails, you provided value and people were staying up to date with you and converting, whether it's from the email or just from emails you sent years ago, right? And for me, contents, the same thing. Like if I make videos, people are getting value every single day. They're staying up to speed. And then, you know, when the time is right, they're going to buy whatever it is they're going to buy. Email is a social media platform. Yeah, like that. I view it as a social media platform. It's a place where you you post original, consistent content. Right. And the more consistent it is, it's an extension of you. So people are like, like I did it every Wednesday, right? So it's just like social media. But when people see the consistency, right, then they start to realize this person is consistent. They're dependable, they're hardworking, they're knowledgeable, professional. This is somebody I want to do some business with. Same thing with social media. They see you post so many times a day. They're like, this is a hard worker. This is somebody who has integrity. But yeah, it's the time that you spend. What I found is the more time I waste on people investing into people, the more money I made and people don't want to spend the time to sit down and actually craft an email or a piece of social media content around their opinions, right? And that means they have to think, you know, about something long enough and then put it on paper or put it in a piece of content. And that's literally the difference in people following them and and wanting to do business with them and not when they see you know, when people see generic content, you know, it's almost like they run away. Yeah, there's no value in this. No. When you were learning to write emails, this was something new for me, too. Like for years, you know, I'd hear people talk about copywriting and they copyright like, what are they talking about? Like a trademark or something? First time I heard that, I was like, OK, tell me tell me what this is. Yeah. And they're like, no, you copywriting, you know, and I'm like, well, what is it? Right. Copy. Yeah. And I'm like, I still don't get it. They're like, you know, they sat me down like this, you know, you see any kind of sales page or email that's trying to persuade somebody to take some kind of action. That's what copywriting is. And I'm like, oh, OK. And I quickly learned how to like start writing copy. And, you know, I don't write my emails today, but, you know, I learned how to write blogs and post and, you know, give value, but still kind of lead the reader in a way at which whatever I was trying to lead them, right, whether it was for a sale sales pitch or whether there was no called action at all. I was just like, hey, if you like this, subscribe to the email list, whatever, right. It's funny because my email guy, he was like, OK, so I kind of know your style for your emails. Like I can write them because you speak copywriting. He's like, that's what your your videos are. You speak in that way. Anyway, I'm like, all right, whatever, like, let's roll. How did you learn? Dude, it was literally just listening to my clients like like I is the same thing with you, right? You you read the comments. Yeah. Right. And you kind of get a gauge of what's working, what's not working and then makes you want to do more of what's working. And it's a it's a long process. And again, that's something nobody wants to go through. They don't want to go through, you know, like we were talking earlier, you know, really to hit the algorithm of these platforms, you got to post a lot of consistent content for lots of months where really you have zero traction and people think it's not working and they kind of quit doing it. But that's literally given the platform a chance to figure you out enough to put you in front of the right people. It's the same thing here. You know, just doing it enough repetitions over time and just listening to my clients what they wanted, you know, when they would email me back, that was feedback, you know, when they would say, Oh, you know, can I will you show me some we will you send me this information or show me more of this or, you know, I want to know about that. I would just take all that in consideration. So it took a while and I write all my emails for my coaching business. You know, I do about about one a day. I write those myself. Yeah. I write the copy for those. I mean, I'll I'll sit down to come up with an idea, write it out, send it out right then. So I operate a little bit differently. But it's just trial and error. Man, I mean, there is a gift to it. Yeah, like there is a little bit of DNA in there, right? You have this knack, this little bit of it factor. But more so, it's just listening and then putting in the time to get the feedback, you know, to and then continue doing the things that give them what they want. Yeah, we I read a book this year called Copywriting Secrets. I forget who wrote it, but he's like Russell Brunson's copywriter. So if anybody's trying to figure out how to write copy and become more persuasive and how you write, it's actually going to help you become a better salesperson, too. Because yeah, for me, if I'm trying to think about how I'm going to sell something or have somebody take an action that I'd like them to take, I first start thinking about it. And then I'll write it down, write like some scripting and some bullet points. And then I'll be like, OK, sequentially, this would take somebody through the progression to get them ready to take this action. And so that book does a really good job of kind of breaking it down and giving you ideas of how to start writing, which then turns into speaking as well. Right. Right. It's called what? Copywriting Secrets. Copywriting Secrets. Yeah. Yeah. Check it out. So you were telling me before the podcast, you know, you've got four different million dollar businesses now. What are they again? So I've got real estate investing. Yeah. I've got real estate coaching for real estate agents. I've got my traditional sales and brokerage. Yeah. Yeah. And you got a new one coming out soon, too. Mortgage mortgage. Yeah. That's going to be the that's the home run. It's going to be the home run. That's that's. Why do you think mortgage is so much bigger than all those? Well, I don't necessarily. I just think it's bigger for me personally. OK. I just feel that the connections I've made, you know, so far through the coaching, I mean, I know so many big, massive brokers around the country and team leaders and stuff like that. Just the connections that I've made that I could parlay into this business, whereas I don't know anything else to sell those guys right now. Right. You know, how do you get one of those guys because they all already have their own lender, their own title? How do you get people to convert? I mean, I mean, if you want to dig into the the, you know, dissected just a tad, I mean, when you look at the options they have, OK, they've got MSA where the mortgage guy pays them a fee, a flat fee every month. And then the mortgage guys is hoping they send them business. But there's no incentive to send the business. The mortgage guy is going to pay that fee. Maybe the broker sends a couple of deals or whatever, but it's nothing to speak of, right? You know, there's a lot of MSA deals out there with real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Then you've got JV. The problem with JV is that a professional for a real estate broker, right? I don't know what you know about mortgages, but the compliance on the mortgage side is horrendous. Yeah. If you go from if you can go from a mortgage, you know, run on a mortgage company to a real estate brokerage, easy because it's so lax, right, compared to mortgage. But mortgage is crazy. Right? It's a jungle. It's way above the pay grade. And so when you have a JV, it's like now that real estate broker has all those compliance situations they have to deal with as the owner of that company, right? As a part owner of that company, along with all the liability expenses, all the crazy stuff. So that option for me is not really an option. So so our option like our value proposition is go get licensed and we can pay you half a percent on all the mortgage business that you bring our way and we handle everything on the back end where you don't have to worry about any of that stuff, right? We take on all that stuff for you. You just sit back. All you have to do is put the application in, right? And then that was the deal we cut with ours. With the do it. My good license. Yeah, 50 percent. I mean, 50 basis points. Yeah, deal. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's the best scenario for all parties because the mortgage got more. Everybody's incentives are aligned. Exactly. Exactly. The JV for me doesn't work. The MSA doesn't work. So now I can go out and take these relationships with these billing dollar, you know, guys. And and we are we already have people ready, you know. So we're going to attack Florida, New Jersey and Texas first. And then we'll it'll take us about two years to get 50 states. Get off 50 states. You're going to have to get an office out here. It's the only state that it's one of the only states that makes you have an office for mortgage. Yeah, there's a couple. Yeah, actually, there's a there after the pandemic, there was a lot of states that that went away. Yeah, but there's still there's still a couple states that they want you to like in Florida, you have to live within 100 miles of an office. So once we get three or four different offices, then we'll have the whole state covered. Got it. But yeah, the mortgage is a mortgage is wild. There's a lot of twists and turns and compliance and regulations over there that, you know, coming from the real estate world. You know, it's a whole different ballgame. That's why I want to really dig in and learn this from the position that I'm at with this company. And, you know, the end game is to own the servicing company. You know, why the servicing company? You own the assets like you own the houses, right? You own the paper, you own the houses and that's where the money's at. That's where you can really own something. You can really own something that you could do whatever you want in terms of, you know, IPO, sell. I mean, you've really got something when you own the assets. So, you know, I'm also looking at insurance. Yeah. You know, it really intrigues me, the cash flow on insurance, you know, to go out and acquire insurance companies, the right deals and stuff. Funny story, you bring up insurance. I was telling you about the email guy I golfed with. Ironically, so, for those who don't know, I don't talk about it a ton on the podcast, but the only one-on-one consulting I do is Golf With Me Day. So, people pay five grand to go spend, you know, around golfing, we eat lunch. And I swear to you, it's booked. Like, anytime it's available, it's booked. And I don't even talk about it. You go with just one person? Two. Yeah. So, yeah, someone arrived with me for nine holes, then I'll arrive with the other guy for nine. I mean, we're playing the whole round together. Everybody's chilling. Yeah. We have lunch and all that stuff. But I make the joke that I'm a professional golfer because I've been paid. Like, I get paid a lot more than most pros. So, I've made at least a few hundred thousand golfing. But actually, I've made millions golfing because of the people- The relationships. Yeah. Like, email guys, just one guy, right? Right. So, he paid five grand to come golf with you and then struck a deal with you to do school. Yeah. So, he's made a lot from his five grand investment. Five grand investment, yeah. But the cool thing is, I- So, when I first started, it was 2,500 bucks. I just put an Instagram story out. I was like, I don't know if people are going to do this or not, but let's throw it out there. You do it once a month? No. So, well, when I first did it, 20 people signed up in the first day. I was like, holy crap, people really want to do this. So, he raised the price because it was just so much demand. So, I had to fill all those 20 in the next couple of months and then took a few months off because I'm like, this is too much golf. And then, the only time I promote it is the day that I do it. I'm like, hey, I just golf with this guy, hit him up because I give him a little shout out, too, to help him out. And from there, it just always gets leads from that, one post. So, long story short, insurance. That was what made me bring this up. An insurance guy came to golf with me and we started talking about health insurance and whole life and all these different forms of insurance, property insurance. And really liked the guy. He sponsored a couple of my events. He's gotten a ton of clients from everything. But we were in talks and he was like, dude, what's it going to take for you to become an owner in our insurance company? And I start just thinking about it and digging into the numbers and everything else. This would be like, I wouldn't have to buy in. This would be putting me into it. And not even a JV deal, but everything. And the more I looked at it, the more I was like, I think at some point I'll do insurance because you need it on everything. But right now, I have too many things at work. I couldn't give it the right amount of attention. Yeah, it's like Warren Buffett. Yeah, as I said, he's like, you are going to have insurance. I mean, it's interesting because you can't go, you had a brokerage, a real estate brokerage. You can't go sell that. Right. The agents could leave tomorrow. A real mortgage brokerage, balance is zero. All LOs could leave. Those companies on a smaller scale, I mean, once you franchise, make a corporation, you've got something. But insurance, there's cash flow there. Right? Right. And it can sell for a multiple. That's why I, you know, and I've got some, I'm dabbling in that to see if I can't put something together to build a board of directors to go acquire insurance companies. Because I know a guy that does it, right? Mm-hmm. And he's really successful with it. And he's taught me a lot about it. So, would you stay in the real estate space with property insurance? Or would you be going like everything? Anything, whatever, like he just bought one that all they insure 18 willers. Right? And so, like, he looks at every deal, I mean, every deal, every company, it just depends on what they do and how they're set up. And, you know, it could be anything. So, um... Yeah, I interviewed Patrick Bedavin a few months ago. And he had just sold his insurance company for, I forgot what the reported figure was, but it was multi-nine figures. A lot of money in insurance. Yeah. No, he's something, dude. Honestly, I don't think he really believes, like, you can tell me if you're right. I don't think he actually believes that the real estate market is going to crash as hard as he says. I just do not believe. I mean, he was really smart to play it out like he did. Did you go to the vault? Mm-hmm. How was it? Well, I interviewed him for my show. Right. But I mean, his... Yeah, but I went to his... Oh, I didn't go to his event. No, I went to his office for the actual vault podcast. Right. Yeah. No, I saw that you interviewed him and stuff right after that, right after he did that big webinar and stuff. I don't know. And his thing about that is inventory, right? Mm-hmm. Inventory just went down. Yeah. From July to August, National Association of Realtors, it went down about 2%. Right. It went up for several months in a row. But now it's starting to flatten out and come down. And honestly, I think it went up just because interest rates, of course, but people were asking too much. The market cooled off a little bit. I mean, it was bound to happen. Yeah. You know, when I interviewed him, I played obviously devil's advocate a lot. And I'm like, Pat, I mean, did. Look, how's it going to fall? Like, you know the government's going to do something to bail us out. You know that, you know, there's still no inventory. All these people got 2% mortgages. They're selling. You know, like where's the inventory coming from? They can't build. Supplies are too expensive. Explain to me how it's going to hit the market. And you know, that's kind of, I think where we're at is like, yeah, there are people who would sell if rates were the same. But they can't, what are they going to do? We're not really building any houses either. Right. You know, like the inventory is not coming. There's no rentals. I mean, it's just like, okay, it's got to crash. But then you look at the data and you're like, well, how? I mean, I get it that we're in a recession and interest rates are shooting up and, you know, the stock market is down and all that stuff. But I mean, even when you look at, did you watch Dave Ramsey's take on that? A few months ago, I saw a clip that he said. I mean, if you look at when interest rates shot up back in the early 80s, whatever, prices didn't go down during that time, during that crazy time. I mean, there was a couple of little flattening moments, but nothing, it didn't decline. You know, in 2008 was the only time that prices went down. Now, right now prices are down, but that's kind of seasonal, right? So now I'm sitting back saying, okay, you know, and it's been more than seasonal, like they're down a little bit more than your regular down. And of course, last year and year before, it didn't go down at all. But now we're seeing inventory come back down, right? And it's kind of balancing out. So that makes me very interested to see, you know, moving forward into next year and, you know, Q2, what real estate prices are going to do, you know, or how far, like, are we at the bottom? You know, because I think we're somewhere close, if you ask me. Yeah, if you ask me, the moment they start lowering rates again, which has to be within the next, my guess, six months, they're just, everybody's going to go back to being happy. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll still have hardly anything to sell because they're not going to lower them back to what they were. No, no. And those people that are sitting there in a house that they love for, you know, 3.2, they're still not going to sell. No. And if I say down, I mean, it might go to the sixes, the fives. Yeah. Might touch high fours or something. That's it. It's not going to go back where it was. So it creates a very interesting place. And, you know, last year, we had 6.1 million transactions. I mean, that was near an all-time high as far as transactions in a year. And it's, you know, for a year like that, where there was no inventory, you know, and buyers were fighting over properties and stuff. And hardly anybody wanted to sell. You know, there was really no, like, still had 6.1 million transactions, 4.8 this year. I just, I think that we've got a really great run, you know. I think people's perspectives are just so skewed from the last two years. They're like, oh, man, this market sucks. Too much Patrick Beck David. Like too much social media headlines. Yeah. People trying to, you know, make it seem a certain way. And, you know, I'm like, OK, transactions are down 20%. That means 80% of the same amount of people are buying this year. That's massive. Yeah. You know, I'm more of a 80% full than a 20%. Yeah. Well, to your point too, right, if you are a long-term investor, you know, flipping will have its risk during times like this. But if you're going to keep a rental for the long haul, it doesn't really matter what happens, right? Whatever you buy today, as long as you know that you can sustain the mortgage however you choose, you're fine. OK. You got a house, right? You're like, I don't want to buy interest rates. OK. Well, this is a house you love. You're probably going to live there three to five years to 10 years. What does it matter? Right. Right? If interest rates go down, you can re-fi. Yep. Right? If you're buying this to invest, you look at your monthly payment, your expenses, your top line, and it looks good on your cash on cash return, who cares? Right? That cash flow is going to stay the same no matter if prices go down, interest rates fluctuate. You know, you've got a solid investment there as low risk as possible. What does it matter if prices go down or interest rates go down or it doesn't matter, right? And that's the point I'm trying to make to real estate agents right now, you know, or even buyers. Right? But what does it matter? You know, I'm trying to put two and two together like, what's worst case scenario here? You know, and like you said, the only downfall is if you're trying to sell it in six months. Yeah. Or you're trying to sell it in a year. But who's trying to do that? Right? There's such a small percentage of people are doing that. Now, if you're flipping, that's another thing. But if you're flipping, you're getting deals way under. Yeah. You know, so, like, I mean, I'm in the middle of three or four flips right now. I'm always flipping, flipping houses. And, you know, I always buy them way under market. Yeah. So even if it drops, it's all right. Break even. And I'm okay. And I'm also okay with keeping that property and using it as a rental in doomsday scenarios. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I just, I don't get the pandemonium out there amongst buyers and some of these agents. Honestly. I think a lot of it's just excuses and fear. And like you said, a lot of social media. The same ones that are complaining about no inventory last year. They're complaining about too much inventory this year. I've been saying that for a while. I'm like, hey, so when is the right time to buy? You know, if, like, it's too hot and it's too competitive, that's not the time to buy. And then now it's not competitive enough. Nobody's interested. Is there the sweet neutral spot where it's like, yeah, there's people interested, but it's not too crazy. The market's incredible right now. Oh yeah. If you're an investor, it's great. For anybody. Yeah. Agents, buyers, sellers, everybody. Dude, the market is incredible. Right. In my opinion, this is like as good as it gets because last year was too much of a seller's market. The buyers had zero leverage. It was too much out of whack. This year it's like, this is the way it's supposed to be. And sellers are still getting a really high price, you know, historically. I hadn't went down that much. You know, there's still plenty of demand. Agents are still, I mean, it's, to me, this is the perfect scenario, honestly, right now for everybody, you know. Yeah, no 100%. So as a guy who's going to start a mortgage company, you know, I can't help but think like mortgage companies right now are just taking a beating because, you know, they can't refi. Nobody wants to refi right now. Like, and that was a huge percentage of their volume the last two years. Like, what are you thinking about? No, this, we like that because, you know, we're, you know, a lot of these mortgage companies overstaffed. Yeah. To take care of the refi boom. Right. And we're coming in and we're not overstaffed. Yeah, they're going to, they're going to feel the pain. You guys are coming in. Right. We're coming in starting from this point. Yeah. And we're able to look at it for what it is and not build our company around what it, you know, what it was, which is what every other company had to do. They had to staff up to take care of all the business. You know, it's, it's the way, it's the way of the world, man. But no, I'm happy about the timing on this because I was telling you this is two years in the making, you know, for, you know, launching this company. And for me, you know, thank God that we didn't because we, because, you know, me and some of our partners were like, wanted to do it two years ago, you know, while the boom was happening. Right. But it's almost like now looking back, thank God, because now the, our business model is something that we feel so great about. And we've already went through, now we're starting, you know, at this starting point where it's only up from here. Right. You know, so we're in a good position. You know, that's another reason why I'm really excited about it is because of the timing in the market. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I've been wondering that a lot for these current lenders. I'm like, man, dude, that's rough. Transactions are down. No more refis. But, you know, this is the same thing. I tell all of our students housekeeping to go, look guys, the last two years have been insane. Like if you didn't stash money away, I don't know what to tell you. Right. Like you can't get mad when you make, you know, 40, 50 grand extra on these flips every time because the market was so crazy. And then all of a sudden now, you know, you might have to break even or take a loss or like that's part of the game of just investing. Like once things get reset, you got to kind of pay the price and then you reset again and you start buying accordingly now how the market is today. Right. And hopefully they learn from that, you know, because that was like me when I got in real estate and the boom was happening, made that money, lost it, didn't know, you know, why me kind of deal same thing. They got in when the boom was happening, you know, and they thought, well, this is how this is how flipping works. 50 grand per hour and and now the reality is kind of hitting them. But hopefully they learn from it and they they adjust their business model and their mindset around it and and they don't quit. That's the same. That's because honestly, this is the best time, you know, for flip flippers, everyone. So, you know, hopefully if any of those guys, if any of your guys wants to quit, tell them to call me. For sure. You guys hear that? Ricky says, call them if you're scared. You want to quit? Yeah. I answer every single message on Instagram. It's been like three hours a day. Dang. I know it's not. Dude, I do the I do the strangest things, man. I do the strangest things. They're DM and having fun. I do. But it's people like crying out, man. Yeah. Like they have situations and I can't give it to somebody else because, you know, like, you know, the answer. Yeah. You know, so I feel obligated. But yeah. That's awesome. I'm getting flipping or real estate, like because my mission as a free real estate coach from day one is to reduce the value rate in the real estate industry one agent at a time. That's our mission statement. So I've got like 22 certified coaches, zero diamond coaches. We coach one on one for free. Like it's it's something, right? It's it's not just, you know, go do this thing, this course or whatever, you know, for free. We I've got an entire team behind it. And, you know, we're trying to make a real difference, you know. So what made you want to do that? Because of everything I went through, you know, everything I went through, bro. It was, you know, going through everything, going back to roofing, working on Ulrich, like, and then realizing that if I would have just known it was about people from day one. Yeah. That that I wouldn't have went through all that. And so, I mean, I have so many agents that say, you know, they would have quit if it wasn't for, you know, my content and stuff. And and honestly, I lost $100,000 a year for two years when I first started coaching. So here I have this million dollar real estate business losing a couple, losing $100,000 a year, spending probably half my time on this business I'm losing money on. Right. But every mess I would get messages from people telling me how much it was helping and stuff. And that's what kind of kept me going. And thank God I didn't quit because, you know, now I'm able to, you know, take that brand and go do way bigger things and impact, you know, way more people. And, you know, you know, have a good financial, you know, life on my end. Yeah. It's that's what I was telling you kind of my mission statement with the wealthy way is like, you know, do everything for free. And, you know, I've spent, man. I mean, it's hitting one year mark and we've spent like hundreds of thousands developing the software, the studio. We got a book coming out, all the staff. We send newsletters and it doesn't. I mean, people obviously come in through and then they end up buying stuff from getting, I guess, acclimated and everything. But like the wealthy way itself doesn't sell anything, you know, and I've created free courses and other things too. And like, I just have this vision similar to you have like, you saw all those realtors struggling and you were once there, you know, for me, I see all these entrepreneurs struggling with work life balance and, you know, they're just like work, work, work. And then they're out of shape. They have no faith. Their relationship sucks. And I'm like, dude, it ain't all about how much money you make guys. Like I'm telling you, there's way more to life than that. Right. That's the message I'm trying to get out because it's not a message. A lot of people are really like talking about very often. Yeah. Yeah. And that's something I talk a lot about is lifestyle, quality of life. We did a survey. 75% get more listings close morning. 7 out of 10. Close more list. Get more listings, close more deals. 75% read more. 87% have better time management. And 98.8% say they enjoy being an agent more since going through my program. Wow. And then 98.8, that was the big one. And when I hear 87% better time management, because the whole thing was, dude, when I was selling 100 properties a year after I quit prospecting, I was literally working like five, 10 hours a week on my real estate business, closing 100 deals a year. Right. And, you know, one assistant, she's doing everything on the back end. And I'm just kind of managing the clients and service and stuff. Yep. Doing the deals, showing the property. Didn't take up a whole lot of time. And so, you know, 100 deals a year, million a year, 5, 10 hours a week in that business that I figured some systems out. I figured out how to live a great quality of life while still maintaining this great business. And so I really try to, you know, implement that in the program. And that's really big for us is quality of life, like knocking off at five, spending time with your family, weekend, stuff like that, but still accomplishing more, right? And being more efficient and putting systems in place and stuff like that. Right. So we're on the same page there. I want to see people not only be super successful, but live a great quality of life, man, that you're proud of, that you, you know, you're not with your daughter thinking about work or, you know, whatever, you know, you're really present and enjoying the moment because those moments are here and gone. You know? Yeah, I'm with you a hundred percent. You know, it's tough as an entrepreneur to turn it off, right? Like we always want to just dominate. You could work 24 seven, you know, 365 and never even scratch the surface. Yeah. If nobody forced you, most entrepreneurs would just keep it rolling. Oh yeah. What made you start doing content? Like where did the light bulb switch there? I wrote, well, what happened was Remax asked me to speak. Well, I'd already been kind of writing a book for years. I would write it. I would throw it away. It would start over and it was better the second time. I would throw it away, start over, did that like eight times and it was, it got to where it was pretty good because I wanted to tell my story, you know, losing it all homeless, coming back, you know, all that stuff. And I was in the middle of writing it and Remax asked me to speak. So I go to Biloxi, Mississippi. I'm in a suit. I never wear a suit. I'm in a suit. You know, I'm trying to look like a speaker. They got me speaking last. Never spoke before. There's like eight speakers all day. I'm trembling. Yeah. Yeah. And I get up there. I'm sniffly. I'm kind of sick and everything, but I lay out this talk and explain everything I do and everything like that afterwards, bro. So many people came up to me saying how much they loved it and appreciated it and asking questions and stuff. And I was like, dude, I have something here. I need to finish the book. So I finished the book, gave it to the editor and I gave it to the editor and I was like, wait a minute. I forgot all this stuff. I wanted to put in the book. So I literally wrote a second book while he was editing the first and I traded them when he gave me the first. I'm like, OK, thanks. Go edit this. And he went edited the second one. So I put out two books in 2017, zero diamond and then list the last and how to survive every real estate market crash. And those books kind of took off. And then I was like, I want a coach. And so I just started trying to figure it out and believe it or not, I started out charging. So I was charging like, you know, 20 bucks a month, 150. I did a thousand bucks. I did all kinds of different things trying to figure it all out. And it hit me because two things is the reason why I went free. I would have there was two, there was two big, you know, moments. One was, you know, I was looking at like my webinars where I'd have 300 people that register, 100 would show up and like one or two would sign up. Right. That's on me. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. Okay. But in my mind, I'm sitting here thinking 300 agents won't help. 100 really won't help. They spent time to come and one or two are kind of getting, you know, picking up what I'm put like they're going deeper into what I have. I want to help all 300. I was like, I needed to just open up everything. And two plus I was going on stage and like people that were paying me, I didn't want them to get mad because I would accidentally say something that they were paying for. Right. Right. And it was just, it just wasn't me. I wanted to be able to just tell everybody everything. And so that and plus that was about the time I started following Gary V. Yep. And I weren't really deep with his content. I just put it all together and one day it hit me. I was like, dude, free, you know, build the brand, have massive brand, build big businesses, help a lot of people. Done. I was making like 20 grand a month on the coaching. I told all those like 200 students like, I'm cutting you off. I'm not charging anymore. I'm getting everything way for free. I brought them so much value. They were like, yes. They were like, go, go do it. You know, we're proud of you. You've helped us so much. You know, you know, go share it with the world or whatever. So, so that's, I forget the question, but it was a good story. Yeah. No, I was just asking like what made you get into content, but yeah. Well, that's what kind of led to it was just and so when I started coaching doing like weekly sessions and stuff, that was like, let me figure out Facebook. I took like three months and really tried to figure it out groups, posting all that Facebook page. And I was like, let me figure out Instagram. So I did it in stages and YouTube's really the one I think that really helped me grow the most at that time. I don't think a lot of guys were doing YouTube back then. No, there was far as real estate coach there was Joshua Smith. There was Brian Cassella. The guy was talking about Kevin Ward. There was a couple, but not a whole lot. Right. Then a lot of us kind of came on the scene. But, you know, for me, like one of my value props is like all these real estate coaching programs and stuff. Right. They've got this script and basically the script is like, hey, Mr. Miller, right. You don't know me. I don't know you, but will you sell your house today so I can make some money? Right. Yeah. And if you don't, then go ahead and give me all the names and numbers of your friends and family. You know, anybody you know that might want to buy or sell and so I can go and make me some money. And so for me, I saw that happening because in 2015, I made 600K, 14, I made 600K and 15. I was like, I'm going to do a mill. So I put together this plan. I was like, I'm going to make this many calls, get this many listings, make a million, right? So I started working the plan and come March, it looks like I'm going to make 600 again. And I was like, what is wrong with me? Like, why can't I do this? So I started like, researching, reading, developing, and I hired a coach, ended up hiring a coach and went through like a standard coaching program. Yeah. Like that's like, you know, the old school, you know, the way it's done, the once a week call and here's your scripts and here's your game plan and all that. And through that, I was like, I'm so messed up, man. Like, they're charging so much money to agents, teaching them stuff that you could learn on YouTube right over here, number one, right? Number two, the strategy is, hey, Mr. Seller, will you sell your house so I can make money even though you don't know me? And so my whole philosophy is around, hey, you know, I'm not here to see what I can do for me. I'm here to see what I can do for you. Right? Like, how are you? Right? I'm enjoying the days around the corner just soul. Something, is there anything I can do for you? Right? Right? And try to really let them know that I'm here for them. Right? Right? And so my program is focused on communication, right? How to talk to people because at the end of the day, I don't care where you get your leads or how you get your leads. I just want you to learn how to communicate with them in a manner that you're trying to figure out exactly what it is they're trying to do, what they want to do. Not, oh, well, you don't want to sell. Well, what if I could do this? Would you sell now? Right? I'm not trying to handle objections. I'm trying to take that objection and say, okay, this is what they want to do. Let me go deeper here with that and try to understand why that's what they're trying to do. Like, oh, you want to sell in six months? Great. What's got you thinking about selling in six months? Right? Well, what if I could do this? Would you sell now? Right? You know what I mean? And so I had to bring that. I wanted to bring my philosophy's mainstream. And so that's what I've been working towards, you know, this whole time is just all of my, my stuff is a 180 of what they're going to tell you, of what the mainstream coaches, trainers, brokers are telling agents. Everything I say is the exact opposite. Right? And so that, that's one reason why I kind of took steam is because I was bringing a different, it was totally different, a different spin on how to build your real estate business and give agents an option where they can actually be their self. Because that's the next thing that they're teaching them how to create these awkward conversations. It's not even them. And they, they did everything their broker and their coach told them and they don't succeed. They don't know why. Well, it's because you're not communicating with these people in a way that they can relate to you. And you sound like every other agent just trying to do a deal. Yeah. No, I think what you said about asking the right questions is applicable because I, you know, I, I tried to train our sales team for, you know, my first successful business house flipping, you know, when I would go on appointments with sellers, it was never like, hey, let me make you a low ball offer right here. You know, so I can win. It's always, hey, what's got you wanting to sell, right? Hey, six months, like you said, why six months? What's happening? Why is that significant to you? Right? I don't want to go like, what would happen if you don't sell? You know, all these things of just trying to understand the framework for what they're going through and who they are before you can really even offer them the best solution, which may not be you, right? Every, every situation with the props because, because agents are like, well, how do I follow up and how do I, what if they want to do this or that? Why don't know? Because I don't know why they're wanting to do that. I don't know if their daughters graduate in college or high school in three months and they want to downgrade or I don't, I don't know their situation. Yeah. And until I do, then I can't create that custom game plan around them. Yeah. Around what's best for them and how I can help them through that situation. Every single prospect and follow-up situation to me, that's another 180 thing with the mainstream coaching. They've got, here's how you follow up, right? Here's how you follow up. You call you Texas so many times and do this and that. How do you know that? Right. Every prospect situation is different, right? So you've got to walk into every situation like a blank slate. Like, let me understand what you have going on so that then I can put together a plan to help you and put you ahead of every, you know, put you in the best position possible. Yeah. It's funny because we had our big event a couple of weeks ago and I had the VIP day here at the office and, you know, they would ask me questions. That's part of the day. And so many of the questions I just could not answer because I'm like, look, I don't know your situation. I don't know anything about your talent, your skills, how much time you have, what your end goal is with why you want to do this. Like it's impossible for me to say this is what you should do. My thing is though is how do you know this? How do you know that at your age? How did I learn that skill? Like, how do you realize that? Like, I'm just now learning this. I honestly, I don't know how I learned that skill, but I think it comes down from truly wanting to give the best advice, right? And because to your point, there's no blanket advice for anything. There's no proper way to prospect, right? You might be good at cold calling for hours a day and that might be your deal whereas somebody like me might just go make social media videos and that's the best way for me to prospect because people be like, I'm not a real estate agent. I'm like, I don't know. There's a million ways to do it. Now, speaking of real estate agents, right? Yeah. Now, let's think about that scenario. When you use social media to build your real estate business, the end goal of social media, the gatekeeper between you and a transaction with this human being is a real life conversation, right? Yep. And so, you know, there's plenty of businesses you don't talk to anyone. There's all kinds of stuff you can go out and, you know, not talking to anybody, but in real estate, for a real estate agent, that's totally different, yeah, right? And so, a lot of agents build their business on social media and that's awesome. And I highly suggest doing the same thing I do on social media for your real estate business, same thing you do on social media for your real estate business. Huge advocate of it. But at the end of the day, a lot of agents are taking it and, you know, they're just putting out content and then they're just kind of waiting for things to happen whereas like, the whole, the entire goal is a real-life conversation. Right? So when I realized that, I was like, and this is why I didn't use social media in my real estate business when I was building it, is because I knew the end result was a conversation anyway. Mm-hmm. Let me just work on my communication skills and then just go talk to every single property owner who owns the exact property I want to do business with, you know what I mean? And for me, that was a hack. Yeah. You know, around open houses, social media, networking events, buying Zillow leads. Yeah. All that stuff comes right back to just calling a list of people the next day. Yeah, just talking to people. Right? Right. And so I'm like, I can only have so many conversations in a day but I agree with you. Go build your business on social media but realize that the goal of it is to get into a conversation with someone. Show them who you are. They can see your video and love you online but until they talk to you, they're not sold on you yet. Yeah. And if you can't get that warm and fuzzy, well, and I think that's why it's important too to talk to as many people as you can because you don't develop those communication skills overnight, right? No. You've gotten good at asking questions and you know, understanding people's situations, learning how to be empathetic, learning how to serve them and also because you are talking to so many people every day, you're not chasing the one client, right? You see people do that all the time. But this guy, he's like, you're not. Don't get to the next person. Get to the next person, right? And the more lines you have cast out there, it gives you the ability to turn down and work with the people you want to work with. Not even turn down but walk in every situation, not caring if you get the deal or not. See that's where the communication thing opens up because when you walk in, not caring because you're talking to so many people and you don't care if this person buys or says, now you're listening I don't care if you do in three years, two years, six months because 3% of these other people are going to do stuff today. And so when you're working the, I call it the law of averages, but it's actually technically the law of large numbers, which means that the more of a random action that has just a random result, the more of that action you take over time, the more predictable the results are, right? I showed somebody actually was in a presentation I made for one company's called content empire and it was basically showing my growth on social media and it's just like there's no like viral moment. It's just like there was a couple of viral moments. There was, but if you look at the last year, it's just been like yeah, the last year. Yeah, steady growth. You can see that. It's, it hasn't been any yeah, massive movement movements. It's just the same actions every day. Just freaking we're making videos every day. So boom. Right. And so people ask me, they're like, Hey, what do you do when a video flops? Right. And you actually asked me, you said, do you like release them at specific times? Like what's the deal? I'm like, I don't do any just massive and you've got videos that get a hundred likes. Yep. Right. And it's like, wow, that's a lot. That's a really low number, you know, to your following. Then you got, then you've got, you know, it's the law of large numbers. Yep. You know where you're going to be over time. You can predict it if you're taking that action enough times. But if you're just putting out a few videos or making a couple phone calls or whatever, you will not, you can't predict with it. That's why And you're chasing it. You're just praying that that one time works because you don't have enough lines out there. And, you know, I remember I haven't been on seller appointments in a long time. But when I would go there, I was already like, I don't really give a crap whether I get the deal or not. Right. And so I'd walk in with a totally different attitude than somebody who's super hungry. Yeah. And sellers and prospects can feel that like to this guy just really wants a deal. Whereas I'm like, Hey, so tell me about the house. Okay, cool. You know, well, I mean, here's our situation where house flipping company, we are not going to be the best offer. Let me tell you that first four months, you could go hire Ricky. He's going to get you way more for your house than I will. I straight up lead with that. Yeah. I'm like, I'll buy it right here. I see it with my own eyes. You know, if you're cool taking less and you want no headache or anything, you want to rent back. I'm cool with any of it. Right. This is the offer. And if you don't want it, that's cool too. It's not going to hurt my feelings. Yeah. And that gets you more deals, right? Way more. That attitude. Way more. Walking in without any expectations, just trying to figure out, explain to them what's going on. That's why a lot of agents and this is, you know, long term thinking, you know, like, well, like, I've got an agent right now. He's like, how can you, you know, I need a plan to make $60,000 this year. Like, that's my goal is to make 60 grand and get out of this and do that. And I'm like, dude, I don't care what kind of plan we put together. I cannot predict that you're going to make 60 grand this year. Right. I said, but I can tell you based on what we're doing where you're going to be in three years. Yeah. In five years, I can predict on the money. I can tell you exactly where you're going to be. People can't, you know, what they're doing on a daily basis now, you know, and how that's going to multiply to where they're going to be. But that, that's how you, you're where you are right now. Well, you had, you brought this up before the show. You were like, I see what you're doing. Like I can see where it's going. I go, where's it going? You're like, you're going to be a billionaire. He's like, I'm going to be a billionaire too. And you're like, I can just see the long term of it by taking the consistent actions, the hard work, the innovating and not just it's massive. Yeah. It's massive. You know, Mr. Beast, did you see he turned down a bill? Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, you know, and honestly, his stuff is probably, you know, there's no telling what his companies are worth. Right. But, yeah, I see the long tell of this, you know, for guys like you and I, who understand, you know, the consistent actions over time, we're not getting 10,000 likes of video, like, 10,000 likes. Right. But that's another problem with social media. People don't understand what the real reach is. You know, like right now, like I get anywhere from, say, 200 to 1,000 likes per Instagram post. Right. I can go anywhere in the country and have 500 agents in an event for free. Right. And it's way harder to get people there for free than if they're paying. Right. I could go anywhere. We've done it. We did 12 of them this year. Right. We have 500 agents in that room, ready to see me, tell me how much I've changed their life. And so when agents or, you know, smaller time entrepreneurs, you know, they're posting on social and they have 50 to 100 likes or whatever, that's massive. Yeah. Like they don't, they don't understand. They're comparing themselves to the 10,000 like person or whatever. And they don't understand how massive, especially real estate agents, like, like our, you know, your niche is larger than mine. You know, real estate agents, around the world, that's a small, that's a pretty small niche. When you narrow it down all the way to a local market. Oh, man. And that's your niche. You don't need many followers. That's what real estate agents have, right? This look, like their audience is so, like, if you're getting 30 likes of video, you're doing something. Well, I'll tell you, before I started going heavy on social media, I had about 10,000 Instagram followers, you know, right before the pandemic. That was it. TikTok, podcast, nothing. And with just that 10,000, which was to me, I'm like, I got a lot of followers. Like people know me, at least here in Las Vegas, they send me deals. They want to do JVs with me. You know, they'll lend me money. That 10,000, I was making seven figures a year with just that 10,000. Like, so you do not need a million followers like you're saying. And no, my posts weren't getting all these likes or anything, but people knew me. Right. No, I'm just so proud of it. And I hope somebody maybe you listening to this or watching this like realizes, you know that you don't have to be this massive influencer celebrity to build a really incredible business. Yeah. On the back of these platforms. 100%. Well, bro, I appreciate you coming on the podcast, man. It's been a lot of fun. It's good to finally meet you in person. Yeah, I love the office. We had a good time, guys. Make sure you follow Ricky, especially if you're a realtor. Go join all of his free trainings, where can they find those? Zero to diamond.com. Zero to diamond.com. We will link to that down below. Check it out. And we'll catch you on the next episode. We're out. Peace.