← Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
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- [00:01]
Lylan Bento
The kind of burgers you get today tells you a lot about yourself.
- [00:05]
John Gafford
You're either someone who settles for sad, same old, same old burgers, or you're Edit Carl's Jr. Obsessed with a tangy OG Western bacon cheeseburger, demanding a house made guacamole, loaded guac bacon fired up for the insanely hot El Diablo or craving a classic Charbold famous star. Give in to your flavored cravings. Do your mouth to Carl's junior Big burger, good burger. You were buying, you were buying coffee and mortgage people. No, no, no, no. Okay, listen. If you're listening to this and you're an agent, you don't buy coffee for the mortgage people and the title people, they buy you coffee. They should buy you dinner. To be honest with you, I know you are their client. Don't go buy them coffee. That doesn't make any sense. And now, escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another episode of. Like it says in the opening, man, the show that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today kids live in the studio. I got somebody, she's a baller. And you know, being here in Las Vegas, we are considered little very. People don't understand this, but we are considered the ninth island. And what I mean by that is we have a massive migration of Hawaiians that have moved to Las Vegas over the years, henceforth the ninth island. So it's always good to have somebody from one of the actual islands come to the studio. This guest today, she is an absolute baller realtor in Hawaii. She was voted one of the top 20 Hawaiian realtors on social media. She is the co founder of the Hawaiian Development of Hawaii Development Group, which we'll talk about in a minute. She's been featured in Entrepreneur and man, she's got a cool story to tell. So welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen. This is Laylan Bento. Lylan.
- [02:06]
Lylan Bento
Thank you, thank you for having me on.
- [02:08]
John Gafford
How are you? Are you fired up from that intro? You just fired up right now. That's awesome. So you are somebody that much like me. You are in the real estate business and I'm always kind of curious. So I think you mentioned when we talked in my office earlier that mom's in the business. So obviously that's how you got into it.
- [02:23]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [02:23]
John Gafford
So tell me about you growing up in Hawaii. Because I always like to see. Because obviously highly successful people, right. They leave clues. And I like to see, was it, was it a. Was it. Is it like, was there a major problem that happened in your life? Is it like I overcame something or was it just nurture straight up that made you a baller? Tell me about growing up in Hawaii.
- [02:41]
Lylan Bento
Growing up in Hawaii is beautiful. I think what makes it different is we're all mixed ethnicities, right. So you grow up and you don't really see a know skin color. It is, you know, you have the Japanese friend and the redhead friend, and that goes back to the plantation days. And if you familiar with Hawaii, you'll have like those mixed plates. So there's food from all of the ethnicities. But growing up there, I think that's what makes Hawaii different is we all grow up together, we all know each other, we all take care of each other. So that, I think is the beauty that I haven't seen anywhere else. I lived in California, then moved back to Hawaii, and I think that was great. It was a great childhood. Grew up in a place called Hawaiian Homelands. You have to be at least half Hawaiian to grow up there. So it was a little bit of a rough neighborhood. Then went into. My grandfather was a senator for 30 years. Oh, wow. And he, you know, I was in hotel sales and then went into working for a former governor for eight years, which was a blast. And then ventured off into real estate, $8 to my name, and just took the leap and. Yeah. Wasn't sure if I was going off a cliff with the $8 or.
- [03:46]
John Gafford
All right, well, let's, let's talk about that, dude. Because so many people, so many people, like, jump into, into real estate sales and they see that and it has a 90% failure rate. Like, people don't like 90%. I always tell people, you know, I used to go and speak to new agents and do like a new agent symposium. And I used to say, hey, take a look around the room.
- [04:07]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [04:07]
John Gafford
Because 90% of the people in this room ain't going to be doing this in 12 months.
- [04:11]
Lylan Bento
Right, right.
- [04:12]
John Gafford
And so what do you think is the difference in what makes people successful with this and not successful with this?
- [04:18]
Lylan Bento
I think you have to be organized. You have to have that grit of. And then you also have to have, you know, anything is possible and whatever it takes. Right. In real estate sales, I mean, you're pounding in a sign or I'm mopping or, you know, sweeping. I mean, you are all of that in real estate sales. So if you. I always say there's no divas in real estate. Right. It's a hard industry to be in. There's so many little details. But I think if you just have that grit and you are just driven, you have to be self motivated for sure to make it in real estate. But yeah, that's what I see. It's that people see the glitz and glam of it, but it's a lot of background work. Right. For your clients and pushing the nest girl through.
- [04:57]
John Gafford
Well, let's talk about this. You said grit is a requirement.
- [05:01]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [05:01]
John Gafford
And again, this goes back to the. I literally did a podcast, you can go back and find it on Resilience where I talked about how to build resilience and how to build grit. Those things. Is that something that you think was innate in you or is that something that you think was developed over time?
- [05:16]
Lylan Bento
Probably developed over time. I've pretty much been driven or tried to like do my best in whatever I'm doing my entire life, whether it's playing sports or, you know, in school, something. And I just feel like I always have to be doing something like being motivated. So I just think probably developed probably over time, I would say. But, you know, leaving a 9 to 5 job, no paycheck, $8, I had to make it right. Survival.
- [05:44]
John Gafford
How did you even pull that out? Because seriously, like I tell people, if you're going to get into real estate, you better have three months of your bills in the bank. Like, how did you manage that?
- [05:51]
Lylan Bento
My husband, he had taken a job in California. So we were able to, you know, Lylan, if you make sale, that's fine, if not. But it was still like, okay, I'm leaving this for me. I'm like, I got to make it right. So he was like, I'm giving you one shot and that's it. So I was like, okay. I was a soccer mom at that time. I was like, you know, all the sporting events, right? My friends, family I was selling to, I was linked to everyone. And I. With that $8, all I could afford were business cards, I think off of vistaprint. And I went around because Hawaii is so small. Hawaii is like one big small town. I went to like all my family businesses and would put my cards at the reception with the perforated edges on them. My cousin's salon, my cousin's car dealing business. I mean, there it was funny because people would come in and accidentally grab the card. Because I would put my cards in front of their business cards so they.
- [06:41]
John Gafford
Would think it was their card and.
- [06:42]
Lylan Bento
Just, like, went from there. My first year, I think I sold 24 homes.
- [06:47]
John Gafford
Your first year, you did 24?
- [06:48]
Lylan Bento
And I had a previous boss that was.
- [06:50]
John Gafford
Okay, stop for a second, because if you're listening, that is an anomaly. That is not how this normally works. That's amazing. So you did that strictly just from glad handing, no market budget, just straight grassroots shaking hands, kissing babies. What would you say? So other than obviously tricking people into picking up your business card. Right. Let's talk about those first couple sales, because that's a lot of people have challenged with any industry they get into without having a track record. So how did you convince those first couple people to work with you with zero track record?
- [07:24]
Lylan Bento
I think just my relationship with them. They knew who I was. I started with my sphere of influence. Right. Of people that actually know me. So they trust you. Right. Those are usually your first sales. So it was like an uncle and then an aunt and then a couple of the soccer and basketball families. Right. That were interested in buying. But, yeah, that's pretty much how I started. Just with the people that know me instead of. And then as I would do each sale, I would put a little bit into marketing. Into marketing, which I think people just.
- [07:53]
John Gafford
Oh, there you go.
- [07:54]
Lylan Bento
Takes the commission check, and we're in a vacation Europe, right? Yeah, yeah.
- [07:57]
John Gafford
The real estate world. Roller coaster. I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm poor. I'm poor. I'm rich. I'm rich. I'm poor, I'm poor.
- [08:03]
Lylan Bento
Yeah, right, exactly.
- [08:04]
John Gafford
So, but let's talk about this. And I skipped over a little bit, but I want to get granular, if we can. Granular. Let's get. Let's get in there. So when you had your first couple sales, you say people trusted you. Now, I find that what people trust is confidence. So there's two ways to do this as a newbie, and this is not just real estate specific. This is any industry for getting into it. You can either go the hey, look, I don't know, but I'm gonna find out, or you can just exude confidence that you know what you're talking about. Which way do you think you went? Which way was it?
- [08:34]
Lylan Bento
Probably the latter.
- [08:36]
John Gafford
Yeah, Just exude confidence and go for it.
- [08:38]
Lylan Bento
And you're gonna laugh at this story. And all I could afford when I got into the industry, I'm like, I don't Know what a surveyor does? I don't know what a contractor does. I would meet at this one small coffee shop, and the staff in there would laugh all the time. It was like a joke. Cause all they could afford was for them. I would meet with the contractor or meet with title and escrow. Cause I wanted to understand. Cause I thought to myself, if I don't understand, my clients are sure as hell not gonna understand. Right. So I. All I could afford was to get them coffee. So I would have, like, these little coffee, like, morning, you know, meetings with these people, but individually, so that I could really grasp what real estate entails right from the start to finish. Who are all these people? What do they do?
- [09:19]
John Gafford
Wait, you were buying. You were buying coffee and mortgage people? No, no, no, no. Okay, listen. If you're listening to this and you're an agent, you don't buy coffee for the mortgage people and the title people, they buy you coffee. They should buy you dinner. To be honest with you. I know you are their client. Don't go buy them coffee. That doesn't make any sense. That's funny. So you spent time trying to educate yourself through the process, but there was a little bit of fake until you make it on the front end.
- [09:46]
Lylan Bento
Right, right. And I realized quickly was the first job I ever had where my broker was nowhere to be found. It was. It was like they're on the other side of the island or they're actually in Vegas in a club. And I'm trying to, you know, write a contract. But I did have the next broker. That I did have was incredible. And she explained to me, if you go into a sale thinking I'm the listing agent, that's all I'm gonna do. That sale will never close. You have to be a team player. Sometimes you may have to go meet the appraiser. You have to just be flexible. You know, some people go in and, like, I'm the buyer's agent. I did my job.
- [10:18]
John Gafford
Yeah.
- [10:19]
Lylan Bento
I think kind of got to corral everyone.
- [10:20]
John Gafford
Yeah. No, no. I think probably the best way I ever heard anybody say it was was Ryan Serhant was on the podcast, and he said when we were talking about deals and your involvement in the deal, he said, my loyalty is to the deal because I know my client wants the deal. So a lot of people think their loyalty is to the client, but your loyalty is to getting the deal done, whatever it takes. And sometimes, you know, that means acting in the interest of the deal because, you know, in the heat of the moment, your client may Be adverse to whatever you're saying. But they do want the deal.
- [10:48]
Lylan Bento
Right?
- [10:49]
John Gafford
So I thought that was a. Was an interesting way to put that when you said that.
- [10:52]
Lylan Bento
And I think, you know, as in being in real estate, I think sometimes we have to take our clients out of the emotion. Right. Because then they get all Us all ruffled, too. But then, like you just said, they really want the home. You have to kind of step back, let them cool off. That's what I do. And then, you know, give them a few hours and I'll respond. Because if it's like right there in the heated, you know, emotional, I don't know, tantrum of a client, you know, at the end of the day, like you said, the objective is they want the house to kind of get them off the ledge.
- [11:18]
John Gafford
How do you calm them down? How do you calm people when they freak out? What do you do?
- [11:22]
Lylan Bento
I just. What I do is I just remind them, okay, this is the home you wanted. Right. And it has a big backyard. There's, you know, right across from the great school for your kids. Just try to remind them why they're even in the deal. And it usually calms them down. But, you know, it's. Sometimes they think the seller's coming after them. The seller thinks the buyers, you know, and it's really not. We're all on the same team.
- [11:43]
John Gafford
Yeah. I used to is. It's hard.
- [11:45]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [11:45]
John Gafford
So, yeah. Sorry. If I keep touching my nose, I gotta explain why people listen to the show know, but you don't know. So I have this awesome thing called tramogenial neuralgia and essentially have a nerve that runs through your face.
- [11:56]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [11:57]
John Gafford
And if I touch certain places on my face, I get electrocuted like a taser. And currently. And currently it is on the left side of my nose. So I have a really hard time, like, blowing my nose, and on some days, it just kind of runs and I can't touch it.
- [12:12]
Lylan Bento
Oh, my gosh.
- [12:13]
John Gafford
Forgive me if I. If I keep sort of touching around it, because I'm trying to do that without touching it. Anyway, the fun fact. Fun facts today on the. On the old podcast is that we do a Joe Rogan style where we just go straight up, just raw here, which is good.
- [12:26]
Lylan Bento
See?
- [12:27]
John Gafford
But back to calming people down. What I like to do and what I do, and some of what you just said. Yes. Like, for example, I'll do the Chris Voss method, where if somebody's mad, I'll go right mad with them. I'm so mad. Me too. I'm mad with you, blah, blah, blah. I'm mad, too. And then. And then. And then I'll go like, well, but maybe this, and then maybe this and maybe this. And I can kind of step them down. But I find if they're really mad, it's like, for example, you're married. Right. Have you ever calmed down in the history of calming down when your husband told you to calm down? No, never. It does not work. Right. It's the same way with clients. You just can't do that. So I'll go that method. But also, like you just said, and I agree with it totally, which is I never let anybody cancel a contract on a house unless they're standing in it. Like, if people are like, oh, I don't want to deal with this as to me repairs. Cool, let's go take one more look.
- [13:17]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [13:18]
John Gafford
And then see if that's what you really want to do. Because if they fell in love with the house in the first place.
- [13:22]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [13:22]
John Gafford
It'll help their emotions a little bit as far as getting them back down to earth, which I like.
- [13:27]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [13:28]
John Gafford
And so, yeah, I agree with that totally.
- [13:30]
Lylan Bento
So I do the same thing with canceling. I will. Because I play. I think maybe because I played sports my whole life. I will go down fighting until it's like, layla, we have to cancel. Like, I will try to see, like, is. Is it the lender? Is it. You know, what is it?
- [13:43]
John Gafford
Yeah. Which one?
- [13:44]
Lylan Bento
Right before we're canceling.
- [13:46]
John Gafford
So here's the thing. I'm going to go back to you about the fake it till you make it or the learn stuff. If you ever taken a disc test, Is that something you've ever taken a personality test?
- [13:54]
Lylan Bento
I did. And I was like, don't tell me.
- [13:56]
John Gafford
I'm going to. I'm going to tell you what you are just being in here in 10 minutes because I love to try to do this. I'm going to guess your high. I was one of your indicators. And then the second one, I can't quite figure it out. It's either going to be S because you said you wanted to go sit down and learn everything with people, which would be S. Yeah, you'd really want to understand that. Or. But there's some D in you, too, which is that driver disc, which is what makes you go out and hand stuff out. So what was it?
- [14:18]
Lylan Bento
Id or is it was actually in like. I think it was actually like a little bit of all four. The teacher was trying to. It's like, I can be bossy, I can be you Know, a team player I can be. It was kind of interesting.
- [14:28]
John Gafford
A little bit of all of it.
- [14:29]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [14:30]
John Gafford
Yeah, I love that.
- [14:30]
Lylan Bento
See, like a leader, but then you can, you know.
- [14:33]
John Gafford
Yeah.
- [14:33]
Lylan Bento
A little bit of everything. Like type A personality, but then.
- [14:37]
John Gafford
Yeah, well, you're definitely type A because.
- [14:40]
Lylan Bento
You gotta be in real estate. I don't know.
- [14:42]
John Gafford
Yeah. Dude, when I. When I look at people, if you're thinking about getting real estate. All right, I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you a heads up real quick. Go take the disc test. Go take it. If your disc comes back, dc, that means you should be an accountant because you hate people. You like numbers, you like things to be right, but you're not going to have the empathy you need to get through somebody, through a dangerous time.
- [15:02]
Lylan Bento
Right? Right.
- [15:02]
John Gafford
If your disc is sc. Right, high security, high conscientiousness, you may be able to do this job. You'd probably be happier as an assistant.
- [15:12]
Lylan Bento
I was just going to say that.
- [15:14]
John Gafford
You'D be much happier as an assistant, but if you get this job, you should probably be an assistant first so you can learn everything about this job because you're not going to feel comfortable talking to anybody about it until it's done. If you are high D high, I just go do it.
- [15:28]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [15:28]
John Gafford
If you are D and I in some combination of those two, that is like less than 2% of the population has that desk. And it's like natural ability for sales. You're like Michael Jordan of sales if you have that. So go do it. Go do it. Get into. If you're not doing this, go sell something. You should be. But let's pivot a little bit because you started selling real estate and obviously 24 your first year. That's huge. I'm guessing those numbers stayed pretty consistent, right?
- [15:49]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [15:50]
John Gafford
How long you been doing? How long been selling, Rosa?
- [15:51]
Lylan Bento
10 years now.
- [15:52]
John Gafford
So 10 years now, but you've kind of pivoted now because you went from handing out cards and running. Well, you know what? I'm going to hit back on one thing because I skipped something very important. You said you made an investment. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money. When you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Getting engaged can be stressful. Getting the right ring won't be@bluenile.com the jewelers@bluenile.com have sparkled down to a science with beautiful lab grown diamonds worthy of your most brilliant moments. Their lab grown diamonds are independently graded and guaranteed identical to natural diamonds and ready to ship to your door or get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code pod@bluenile.com that's bluenile.com code pod for $50 off.
- [17:03]
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- [17:35]
John Gafford
In marketing and we skipped by it and we didn't talk about it and I want to get into that. So talk to me about making that investment.
- [17:42]
Lylan Bento
I think at the time in 2014, which business is always changing, right? And I feel like one thing I could recommend would be you have to be able to pivot right in real estate because Zillow at that time was really, really strong, strong leads. So was Redfin before they had their own Redfin agents. So I would did Zillow. I mean I actually did it all. So I try to help new agents from luxury magazines, videos to I just would take a portion of my paycheck and then put it into different types of marketing. And then at the end of the month I was, would see like, okay, this one was working. This one isn't working.
- [18:14]
John Gafford
Okay, stop, stop. Because that's great. I love that. All right, sorry. When you make a great point, I'm going to stop.
- [18:19]
Lylan Bento
Yeah, that's something else. Stop.
- [18:21]
John Gafford
It's a good thing, it's not a bad thing. So when you talked about you knew what was working. This is a huge mistake that people make in any business, right? In any business when it comes to advertising is they, they put all of these hooks out that all land in the same boat. And that's a mistake because then you don't know which hook is actually catching the fish. So if you're going to do advertising and you're going to put Stuff out there needs to be different landing pages, different QR codes, different phone numbers, different everything on everything you put out so you understand where things are coming from.
- [18:52]
Lylan Bento
Right? Right.
- [18:53]
John Gafford
And so many people. I'll never forget this. Dude, I walked. This is way before your time, right? Back in the day, 2006, 2007, there was a book here in Las Vegas called the Real Estate Book. And it was about this big.
- [19:03]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [19:04]
John Gafford
And it was like that thick. And every agent advertised in the Real Estate Book. It was just a sea of agents. And when I first got here, I asked the guys across the hall for me, their team. I said, I saw the book and I saw their ad and I said, hey, what's your ROI on this? And they said, what? I said, what's your return on investment on this ad?
- [19:22]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [19:23]
John Gafford
They said, I don't know. So what do you mean you don't know? They go, well, we just do it. And I go, why? And they go, because everybody else does. And I was like, oh, my gosh, that's terrible. So obviously you said you knew what was working, right?
- [19:37]
Lylan Bento
Whether it was Yelp or Zillow. When I started years ago, Zillow was actually really good. And then my best leads I've ever had were with Redfin, but now they're on the island with their own agent, so it's kind of diluted.
- [19:48]
John Gafford
Bastards. Sorry.
- [19:49]
Lylan Bento
Yeah. But if I could recommend anything, I always tell people this. I'm a stickler, and I'm a firm believer of marketing, and any company I've ever worked for, it's like, that's the first thing. Even the developments I'm on, yeah, they're, oh, it's expensive. It's like, well, everything's online. Where are your buyers coming from? You know, they're not driving around. Right. They. How are they going to find us in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with these developments? You have to have a strong, I feel, marketing campaign. I mean, all different types of channels, whether it's a YouTube, email, newsletter, blog, anything. I feel like the more, you know, channels you have of marketing, a lead will come in, you know, from one of the ten versus. Oh, I'm just going to be in Zillow.
- [20:27]
John Gafford
Well, you're huge on social. I know that. So which channel do you have that you think generates the most revenue into closed sales? Because I'm curious what you have to say. My phone in here. Oh, I did. Go ahead. I'm curious what you have to say, because I'm going to compare it to something somebody else said. Keep going.
- [20:42]
Lylan Bento
Marketing.
- [20:42]
John Gafford
Yes. Which one of your social media channels generates the most revenue for you?
- [20:48]
Lylan Bento
Which I'm slacking. I should be even more on social media. But I feel like this, and this is what I do because I've been in sales, I always ask somebody, by the time they email me or call me, you know that they have clicked. Right. They're clicking on all your social accounts, then they're clicking on your website, then they're reading your reviews, then they're going to contact you.
- [21:07]
John Gafford
Yep.
- [21:07]
Lylan Bento
So as long as those are, you know, done nicely. What? That's the thing about social media. It's hard to track which one it comes from leads because they're bouncing all over. And then they'll reach out to you.
- [21:18]
John Gafford
Well, then you're going to love this piece of information. Because I thought this was fascinating to the point where I screenshot it the other day to get me to watch like an hour long YouTube video. It's got to be really interesting.
- [21:27]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [21:27]
John Gafford
And Alex Ramosi put one out the other day that I wanted to see because it's his data and he put it up. Right. I just thought this is really interesting. It'd be great for you. With what the film we'll get to, which is. He has all of his YouTube channel. He has all of his channels. Right. And I took screenshots of all of it and he talked about which ones generate the most revenue so where you should focus your attention. And I thought this was really interesting because it was not what I thought.
- [21:51]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [21:52]
John Gafford
So he talks about the channels that number one households are on them. That the household is worth over $100,000 a year.
- [22:00]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [22:00]
John Gafford
Which. These are our clients. Right. This is who we want. Right. So number one in that aspect was YouTube. So number one is YouTube.
- [22:07]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [22:08]
John Gafford
You know what the worst one was?
- [22:10]
Lylan Bento
Instagram.
- [22:10]
John Gafford
No, no. Tick Tock. Tick Tock is the worst.
- [22:14]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [22:14]
John Gafford
Only 28 of household. Only 28 of households that are over a thousand dollars a year on Tick Tock.
- [22:19]
Lylan Bento
It's the younger generation.
- [22:20]
John Gafford
You're marketing too much kids. Yeah. That's what you're doing, right?
- [22:22]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [22:23]
John Gafford
Number two or even tied with as far as, as far as results driven, where people are is Instagram and then right below that was Facebook.
- [22:32]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [22:32]
John Gafford
So he said, yeah, he generated. He, he focuses almost all of his online now. He's like, look, we were spending equal amount of time on all of these channels and now, yeah, it's good to be omnipresent. But he goes, now all of our attention is going really to Instagram and YouTube, because that's where the fish are.
- [22:47]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [22:47]
John Gafford
That's where the high dollar clients are. So if you're some. I thought that was super interesting because I see all these agents that are dancing in front of the camera for clicks, and that is not turning into money, apparently. It just don't. It just don't turn into cash. So on that basis, it's kind of like, all right, you might as well figure that out.
- [23:06]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [23:06]
John Gafford
So I know that, you know, you spend a lot of time on Instagram. Yeah.
- [23:09]
Lylan Bento
Yep.
- [23:10]
John Gafford
So what content do you think is working for you, for your client base? What do you. What do you make that works?
- [23:16]
Lylan Bento
Well, I do a combination of real estate and then like a lifestyle.
- [23:20]
John Gafford
Okay.
- [23:20]
Lylan Bento
Right. Which I think I need to do more real estate related.
- [23:24]
John Gafford
More real estate related.
- [23:25]
Lylan Bento
Yeah. And more educational. Like Hawaii. The different areas, what are the people looking for? I definitely need to grow on that content.
- [23:33]
John Gafford
Very cool. So let's talk about development. Let's shift gears here a little bit and talk about developing stuff.
- [23:39]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [23:40]
John Gafford
So you are now turning into. With Hawaii Development Group, which is your agency, which represents large developers in Hawaii, which, like, there's two ways to do this business. Or actually there's many ways to do this business. But as far as residential goes, you can go out and put business cards in front of all of your friends, cards at their businesses, and do one off houses, which there's nothing wrong with that, man. That's, you know, we grind out 4,000 of those deals a year. Or you can get hooked up with a major developer that wants to build a lot of stuff and hire you to sell it all.
- [24:09]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [24:09]
John Gafford
So that's kind of a quantum leap in sales, I guess.
- [24:13]
Lylan Bento
Yes.
- [24:13]
John Gafford
So talk to me about first before we get into the nuts and bolts of these developments you got going in Hawaii. Talk to me about how those deals got done. How do you go from here to there? How do you do that?
- [24:28]
Lylan Bento
Networking. Business networking. We were part of several political campaigns. I come from a political family, so that was the way I'm raised. But business networking, over the years of just meeting different people, networking, you just. Yeah, you definitely want to network because that's what took us there. Hawaii is just business. It's all relationship based.
- [24:49]
John Gafford
Right.
- [24:49]
Lylan Bento
And so once you have a great reputation of, okay, they can do this development, people just start approaching you because they. They know in Hawaii. Right. Connections goes a long way. That development will stall if you don't have the right players in place. So we went. My mom was approached to help a developer and she interviewed him first because we have developers that come through Hawaii all the time, want to make sure that they're really doing what they're really saying they're going to do and not build luxury homes and then forget about the parks for the kids and go back to Utah or wherever they came from. Right? Yeah. So she started that 10 years ago.
- [25:23]
John Gafford
Utah. These, you know, they just, they just, they just named Utah Scammer Central. Like, more scams and Ponzi scams and stuff come out of Utah than any other state.
- [25:33]
Lylan Bento
So fascinating.
- [25:35]
John Gafford
Looking at you, you talking somebody, somebody said they should name their new hockey team the Utah Ponzi Scheme. I don't know. Anyway, anyway, so networking. I want to talk about that because I think I see a big problem that real estate agents make and is this Realtors spend way too much time networking with other real estate agents.
- [25:58]
Lylan Bento
Exactly.
- [25:59]
John Gafford
I don't understand it. It's like, here's the thing. I talked to one of my people yesterday, and God bless this person. She's all gung ho for one of the realtor groups she's in. She's like, it's really helped me. It's done this. And I'm like, that's wonderful for you. She's like, would you support something we're doing? And I said, no. I said, just because I don't believe in it. I said, I think, look, if I'm going to spend time away from my family, right? If I'm going to spend time away from my family, you know, it's going to be something that's going to help my family, right? And hanging out with a bunch of realtors, they're never going to buy a house for me. No, it's never going to happen. And I, like, I own the company. Like, so they would come and work here. But my thing was, you know, this person said something like to the effect of, you know, well, I want to meet. It's important to know all these other realtors because when I send an offer over, I want them to know this. I'm like. And I just asked my said, do you think anybody in this town doesn't know who I am? And they said, no. And I said, I've never been to one event ever because I built my reputation on business.
- [26:57]
Lylan Bento
You're right. Because the biggest producers, they're never at any real estate networking ever classes ever. They're outselling.
- [27:05]
John Gafford
Now, I do believe that it's nice and important to build camaraderie with the agents in your office. I think that's Important.
- [27:10]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [27:11]
John Gafford
But wasting your day going all these realtor events makes no sense to me at all. But I love that you're like, no, I'm networking in a political circle. I'm going business circle.
- [27:20]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [27:20]
John Gafford
I'm going to where my potential clients are. And I think so many people don't network with intention that way.
- [27:28]
Lylan Bento
I know. Yep.
- [27:29]
John Gafford
So when you. When you go to a networking event.
- [27:32]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [27:32]
John Gafford
And you're walking up to somebody cold, what do you do?
- [27:36]
Lylan Bento
Introduce myself. I started networking when I was a teenager. My mom would force me. I can't even believe him. In sales, I'm naturally shy, and she would force me to go to these things.
- [27:46]
John Gafford
That's the s. That's the S. Okay.
- [27:49]
Lylan Bento
And, yeah, she would force me on these tables, and I was forced to speak to people, and I just started, you know, introducing myself to people. And, yeah, it's. It's gone a long way.
- [28:00]
John Gafford
So let's. Let's pretend. Let's pretend that we're at a networking event. You don't know me. I'm still. Yeah, no, no, dude, dude, you're getting some. Some baller stuff out of this. So let's. Let's. Let's do it. So I'm at a network event. You walk up to me. What do you say?
- [28:13]
Lylan Bento
My name is Lylon. How's it going?
- [28:15]
John Gafford
Hi, Lylon. Hi, I'm John. It's going good. Lion. And then I say, what do you do? And what do you say?
- [28:19]
Lylan Bento
I'm just going to say that you ask.
- [28:21]
John Gafford
What do you ask what they do?
- [28:23]
Lylan Bento
Yes.
- [28:23]
John Gafford
All right. How do you answer that question for me? Yeah, what do you do that.
- [28:27]
Lylan Bento
I own a real estate company.
- [28:28]
John Gafford
You own a real estate company. That's what you go with. Okay, cool. For me, right. I do two things when I network. All right? This dude.
- [28:35]
Lylan Bento
And again, I want to copy it.
- [28:37]
John Gafford
Please, please, please do this right. So. So I got this, the first part. I'll give full credit to my dude, Brad Lee, for this one. His concept. I love it so much, and I've heard it years ago, and I still hang onto it, and I still do it. Right. Which is if somebody asks you what you do, they're not really. They don't care what you do. They're asking, what can you do for me? Is what they're asking. So your answer needs to be given in a way that I'm explaining to you what you do for people. Like, for example, if somebody asked me what I do.
- [29:06]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [29:06]
John Gafford
I say, oh, in the end. An end to End real estate conglomerate that takes all the friction out of a real estate process for buyers and sellers.
- [29:13]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [29:13]
John Gafford
They go, what does that mean? And I can say, well, we're in a very large real estate brokerage with 505 agents. We have. We're fully vertically integrated with mortgage title and everything. Our concierge service handles the move. I mean, everything that has to do with that whole transaction we handle in house for our clients. So it just makes the process so much easier for people.
- [29:32]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [29:32]
John Gafford
And now it's like, okay, cool. That sounds intriguing to me.
- [29:35]
Lylan Bento
Right?
- [29:36]
John Gafford
So, like, for you, if I'm in that circle.
- [29:38]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [29:39]
John Gafford
What do you do is I help developers smash their. Smash their projections and sales. How do you do that? Yeah, talk to me about that. So that's number one.
- [29:49]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [29:49]
John Gafford
The second thing that I always do, especially in a busy room, right. A busy, busy room, is I never ask people what they do. I say, tell me about you.
- [29:57]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [29:58]
John Gafford
And then as soon as they start saying they're elevator pitch of, well, you know, I work for this company and we do this and blah, blah. I'm like, well, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't ask what you do. I said, tell me about you. Are you married? Do you have kids? Are you from here? Because they just spent. They're on this hamster wheel of what do you do? What do you do, what do you do, what do you do? What do you do?
- [30:14]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [30:15]
John Gafford
In a networking. In a networking scenario for me, anyway, it's more important to be memorable than it is to have a good memory. And by asking about them personally. Yeah. They will remember you. I love that.
- [30:27]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [30:28]
John Gafford
So anyway, but obviously, dude, you're killing it with this networking game because being able to flex those. Those. That political muscle that the family has and get this done. So you got a big, big, big development. You got a couple things that are working right now.
- [30:42]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [30:43]
John Gafford
Let's talk about them.
- [30:44]
Lylan Bento
We. I'm starting, actually a property management company. Property management company. And my end goal is to become a developer. So the first development, we were just anticipating just doing one development. Right. What. As I was saying earlier, but now we may be doing three developments, which we were scheduled to just do one. And then a developer approached us that we had sold his first phase, which sold quickly. So that's the second one. And then the third one we were approached about two weeks ago. So I've had a couple of meetings with this company out of California that's looking to build about 2,000 homes.
- [31:18]
John Gafford
Yes. So you've got the first Guy, the first development, you were telling them in my office, they're building an entire town in Hawaii. Like a whole city is happening on the big island, Hawaii. So when you walk into that meeting and they're like, yeah, we want to, we want to hire you guys to sell an entire town. How does like I can't get my head around that. I mean, are you guys handling the commercial space leasing? Are you handling just the. All of it?
- [31:42]
Lylan Bento
All of it.
- [31:42]
John Gafford
Oh my God.
- [31:43]
Lylan Bento
Yeah. And my mom has been on that project for 10 years. He has, as I was mentioning, the strictest building regulation in the countries. So to get, you know, between the county and the state zoning, it takes a while there where somebody else probably would have given up in real estate. Right. Is this ever going to go? Who, who else do. What else meeting would we have to go to the state capitol? Do we have what title company? Oh no, we don't. Title insurance. Now we have title insurance. Just all of these things where somebody would want to get paid and you know, or they're just going to quit, right? Because they're not getting.
- [32:14]
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- [34:14]
Lylan Bento
Eduardo paid so we've been on that project 10 years, no pay. Yeah, you know, consulting, I mean, it has taken a long time, but we just were like, okay, pushing each other. My mom.
- [34:26]
John Gafford
And you're finally at the finish line there.
- [34:27]
Lylan Bento
Finally at the finish line.
- [34:28]
John Gafford
When are they going to start breaking ground or have they already started?
- [34:30]
Lylan Bento
December.
- [34:30]
John Gafford
December. You break ground. And what, what is getting built first? Housing or the infrastructure or the commercial or what's going to build first?
- [34:37]
Lylan Bento
The commercial with housing is going to be the first portion of this development. But what I love about it is being from Hawaii, being a Hawaiian girl. It's going to start with workforce housing. Workforce housing is much needed on that side of the island where all the jobs are. People are traveling from the other side of the island because where the development is located. It's the perfect location to have housing for all those hotel workers, policemen, school teachers, all of that.
- [35:02]
John Gafford
Because right now they're driving from one side. How far is that drive on Hawaii?
- [35:05]
Lylan Bento
About two hours each way.
- [35:07]
John Gafford
Holy crap. So people are driving two hours to go to work and two hours to go home, right?
- [35:13]
Lylan Bento
We just did a report.
- [35:15]
John Gafford
Yes.
- [35:15]
Lylan Bento
12,000 people drive every day to that one area.
- [35:19]
John Gafford
Oh my gosh. So when you guys built. So okay, let's talk about. Because it's such a fishbowl, right? It's such a. It's such a. It is a consolidated thing. So when you start, when you start relocating all of these people to the other side of the island, does that create a glut of inventory on this side of the island or does some. Do other people move in? What happens to that?
- [35:38]
Lylan Bento
We're having. On the other side of the island, you're having people that are on the other islands moving there because on the east side of our island, you can buy a brand new home on a. It's water catchment, but a custom home on an acre for like 3, 400,000.
- [35:51]
John Gafford
Oh, wow.
- [35:51]
Lylan Bento
So people from like Honolulu or Oahu, where it's really expensive, 1.3 for a median home there. They'll sell their old home and then move to our island on that side.
- [36:01]
John Gafford
And retire over there.
- [36:02]
Lylan Bento
Yes. So I, we are seeing a lot more inventory on that side of the island. A lot of more spec homes. People are flipping homes just because it's lower cost compared to the west side of the island where this development is. They call it the Gold Coast. It's all of these resort communities, high end homes on that side.
- [36:18]
John Gafford
On that side.
- [36:18]
Lylan Bento
It's not really housing for the middle class. Yeah. For the workers.
- [36:21]
John Gafford
For the workers. And you guys are building that first. So. Yes, they're breaking ground in December. How many units are they going to build? How quickly they're going to.
- [36:29]
Lylan Bento
Eventually, I think it's going to be about 5,000 homes eventually.
- [36:32]
John Gafford
What's the first phase you guys are building?
- [36:34]
Lylan Bento
The first phase right now is 432 homes.
- [36:37]
John Gafford
Okay. And you guys already have a sales office open. You're already.
- [36:40]
Lylan Bento
No, we're working on our sales office.
- [36:41]
John Gafford
Sales office.
- [36:42]
Lylan Bento
It's like a dirt road right now. They have to put in the two intersections and then the infrastructure first.
- [36:46]
John Gafford
Okay. So the undergrounds, that, that stuff will improve.
- [36:49]
Lylan Bento
Trailer somewhere.
- [36:51]
John Gafford
Awesome.
- [36:51]
Lylan Bento
I'm thinking, right.
- [36:52]
John Gafford
Moving up, moving on up in the world.
- [36:54]
Lylan Bento
I'm gonna have to park my escalator and probably get, I don't know, a truck.
- [37:00]
John Gafford
Escalade can go in the dirt. That's not a problem. Escalating, go there. So when people are coming through these, these, you know, the workers that are over there. Right, right. These are, this is middle, these are middle America folks as far as income. These are not high dollar folks.
- [37:13]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [37:14]
John Gafford
Which is good. And so are you guys going to also now, now you want to get into developing. I know that yourself. We talked about that. But are you guys going to kind of go around? Obviously the developer probably has a lender partner, they probably have a title partner. All of those things.
- [37:28]
Lylan Bento
Yes.
- [37:28]
John Gafford
Have you helped facilitate those relationships? Okay.
- [37:31]
Lylan Bento
And even though it took us 10 years for that first development, the connections that we have are just gold. With my mom and I, my family, throughout the state, at all levels of government, even though we weren't, you know, free 99 for 10 years, we were able to establish all the different connections over the years, which I find is A huge plus. Right. Because then now it's not one developments three. So then you're working with the same people in the government. Right, right. Or inspectors or appraisers or banks. It's all the same.
- [38:02]
John Gafford
So as things start to move along, it's just once you've paved the road that you guys have been going for 10 years.
- [38:06]
Lylan Bento
Yes.
- [38:07]
John Gafford
You get to drive on it as often as you like is a good way to put it, I guess. And people now see that, that you guys have gotten this project to the finish line or help with your connections get it there. So now more and more people are showing up.
- [38:17]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [38:18]
John Gafford
So we talked about scale earlier. Yes, right, we talked about scale, which seems like you got to get going quickly. So what is your plan for scaling that business effectively quickly without losing the quality of what you guys have built?
- [38:34]
Lylan Bento
I have a business partner. He's actually with my husband in the parking lot, but. Exactly. We have an entire strategy because we need to like we were talking about hire producing agents. You need, you know, there's all these standards. I have service. I'm a stickler on service. So just image all of it of what I'm looking for in a perfect. Not. Not everyone's perfect. But, you know, your avatar, if you will. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Because I come from strict, you know, background of work, so I'm, you know, working for a governor. I couldn't even have these kind of nails. But, you know, I couldn't dye your hair. But yeah, so that's what we're looking at.
- [39:10]
John Gafford
Gosh.
- [39:10]
Lylan Bento
So there's a team of us.
- [39:11]
John Gafford
It's almost worth going on the YouTube just to look at these nails. That is dangerous.
- [39:15]
Lylan Bento
I mean, Maribelian nails.
- [39:17]
John Gafford
Yeah. Dude. I would stab myself in the face constantly. I got enough face problems. I don't myself.
- [39:23]
Lylan Bento
That's what we're. So that's what we're working on. There's a team of us that are going to be doing the interviewing process, not just myself, but to hire top producing agents that are self driven because, you know, and developers, they're going to ask, what is your production? Right. Somebody sitting there in an office not producing, you're costing them money. Costing money. Right. You're costing us as owners money.
- [39:44]
John Gafford
How many? Well, like how? Because here's my thing. How many transactions get done on that island a year? Like in a year, how many get done, would you guess?
- [39:52]
Lylan Bento
Just a couple thousand, I would think.
- [39:53]
John Gafford
A couple thousand.
- [39:54]
Lylan Bento
I should go and look at it. Not that much. I think it's like 1500 everyone is a realtor. Yeah, because how many, like, probably here.
- [40:00]
John Gafford
Yeah, because how many agents are there?
- [40:02]
Lylan Bento
1500 on the island.
- [40:03]
John Gafford
Okay.
- [40:04]
Lylan Bento
Population is about 200,000.
- [40:06]
John Gafford
So 200,000. You got 1500 agents. So, yeah, you can pretty much, like, here, you can hit a seven iron any direction, hit an agent head, you.
- [40:12]
Lylan Bento
Just answer the phone, and you're going to succeed.
- [40:13]
John Gafford
Pretty much how it is. Well, it's so funny, dude. Well, well, here's my thing. Like, and this is something that I always like to talk to powerful female agents about, which I love talking about. Right. Which is you said something earlier, which was, you said, you know, I was a soccer mom when I started out. Real estate, dude. If you look at our mls, especially here, and it's nationwide, it's the same thing. Half of the realtors in America have something in common.
- [40:35]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [40:36]
John Gafford
They didn't sell a house last year. And because this is a job that a lot of, like you said, soccer mom, soccer dads, whatever, whoever is the person at home that doesn't necessarily have to get it done likes to get this to say, this is what they do. Right. So that's what's part of the problem with the image. But on the flip side of that, I don't know of any other profession that is really dominated at the top by women.
- [41:00]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [41:01]
John Gafford
Like, you got. You guys are killing. Like, I gotta work. I gotta work hard to keep up with you guys. Right. Like, I gotta work hard. You guys are crushing.
- [41:07]
Lylan Bento
Right. And there's no ceiling. Right. In real estate.
- [41:09]
John Gafford
No.
- [41:10]
Lylan Bento
Which I love, because before real estate, I was selling Hawaii in the hospitality industry.
- [41:14]
John Gafford
Yeah.
- [41:15]
Lylan Bento
On salary. That's how they get you. Right. Working seven days a week, working the same crazy hours. And then one day I was like, I can do this for a corporation. I think I can go into real estate. So that's what made me start thinking, you know, getting stuck at the salary and, you know, for years. So I thought, you know what? Let me just try and see if I could make it.
- [41:34]
John Gafford
Why. Why do you think women are so good at this job?
- [41:38]
Lylan Bento
Because especially if you're a mom, you have to be able to multitask. Multitasking.
- [41:43]
John Gafford
Mom. Mom. Mom cultasking. Yeah, we'll go with that. Word coined a new phrase today on the podcast. Mom cultasting. I like that. No, that's good. I have always. Or I would have thought that the answer would have been something like, well, I think we have a higher level of empathy than most people do or whatever it is. But I think the mom cult asking is actually a better answer.
- [42:01]
Lylan Bento
You do. I mean the text messages and emails and all of the people you have to juggle. It's almost like having toddlers, right? Being a mom in the kitchen making breakfast with a team of toddlers.
- [42:11]
John Gafford
Yes, it is.
- [42:11]
Lylan Bento
Everyone like nugging at, you know, tugging on your nightgown. Right. For breakfast.
- [42:16]
John Gafford
And trust me, the more money they have, the bigger toddlers they are. No, don't, don't stick the, don't stick the fork in the electrical socket is.
- [42:24]
Lylan Bento
Essentially what you're doing, right.
- [42:26]
John Gafford
It's your deal. Don't kill it, you're going to kill your own deal. So no, I love that. What percentage of would you say the agency in Hawaii are female? Is it like is about the same.
- [42:38]
Lylan Bento
Or is it maybe about 70%? There's quite a bit of males. There's more men getting into real estate. I would say they do it probably part time because of a family at home.
- [42:49]
John Gafford
I'm thinking, yeah, it is part time. So let me ask you this. You had, and it was a luxury and to be honest with you, when I relocated my business out here from Florida, I had the same luxury. So this is like my wife like was working and carried me while I got the business started out here. When I first moved out here from, from Florida, she supported us for probably that first six months. So God bless. Thank you. High five. To my wife. I'm not, I am not ashamed to say that I was a kept man, which I think that makes me man candy a little bit. So I'm okay with it.
- [43:21]
Lylan Bento
But it makes me real. Yeah, dude, we got started and yes.
- [43:25]
John Gafford
I had that advantage which was lovely. But what advice would, what advice would you give to somebody doesn't have that advantage?
- [43:30]
Lylan Bento
Manage, maybe start off. But see, I don't think people should go into real estate part time because I feel like you're, if you're not in the trenches with us, you're not going to understand and you know how to make the deals work, how to, you know, the proper training. But if I started off, if I had to still have my full time job, I would go into it slowly and part time, I think sitting open houses on the weekends, I mean there's a lot of things you can do when you're not doing your nine to five.
- [43:56]
John Gafford
Yeah.
- [43:56]
Lylan Bento
And team up. I would, I suggested this to agents. Team up with someone like if you work full time, maybe team up with someone that is in real estate full time. You know, if you have, if you have leads coming through or something, you both can work as a team instead of. And then slowly get into real estate.
- [44:11]
John Gafford
And slow the move over. I see.
- [44:12]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [44:12]
John Gafford
I think for me, I think the only way anybody should ever get in this business is on a team.
- [44:18]
Lylan Bento
On a team.
- [44:18]
John Gafford
Exactly 100. I don't think.
- [44:20]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [44:20]
John Gafford
I think having owned a, owned a, a large big box brokerage before.
- [44:25]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [44:25]
John Gafford
Of a big name that you would know and teaching those classes to new agents and watching that 90% failure rate happen again and again and again and again and again. I can tell you anybody ever calls me that's new. I'm always like the only way to start this business on team. That's how I started.
- [44:40]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [44:40]
John Gafford
I started working for one of my good friends that charged me a 50% split. Yeah. Like she's the one that got to it.
- [44:47]
Lylan Bento
Sotheby's. Right.
- [44:48]
John Gafford
Dude. It was. No, this was, this was Kendra Todd that won my, won my season of the Apprentice when I was on that show. And after the show was over we had sold out of my tech firm and she was like, what are you doing? I'm sitting on my boat doing nothing. She was like, get a real estate license. Come sell real estate with me. It'll be fun. She said and yeah, come work with me on a 50% split. But here's the thing. She. I get it now. I mean then I was like, okay, whatever. But she was paying for the leads. She was setting up seminar stuff. She was, she had an expense to all that stuff. But I also. Now look, I would have figured it out regardless. I think I'm probably. Everybody likes to think they're special. I think I'm special. I would have figured it out. But I think that being in that experience with her.
- [45:28]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [45:28]
John Gafford
Definitely because she had a financial investment in me of if I didn't do well, she was going to lose money.
- [45:34]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [45:34]
John Gafford
That's the difference. Yeah, that is totally the difference. And I think here's the problem. Here's the catch 22 though. Nobody that has a team that wants to make an investment in somebody else wants to do that part time.
- [45:44]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [45:45]
John Gafford
Like I'm not going to make an investment like just my team. I 0 chance I would hire somebody that's part time.
- [45:49]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [45:50]
John Gafford
Just can't. Right.
- [45:51]
Lylan Bento
So I'm right there with you. Part time and agent.
- [45:53]
John Gafford
You just can't.
- [45:54]
Lylan Bento
Can't do it because it's time consuming. You have to stop, you know what you're doing and then try and train somebody and then you know they're working the next day at work and yeah.
- [46:03]
John Gafford
It'S just so time consuming. So. So what I would always say in that, in that minute or that, that moment, that time is save money, work, save money, get a side hustle. Do what you got to do.
- [46:15]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [46:15]
John Gafford
Put three months, you know, figure out what a month of your life calls. Or what I call a mole. Mol. Month of life. Figure out what a month of life is. Save three months and then burn the boats.
- [46:24]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [46:24]
John Gafford
Because if you go to work for the. For a team, you should be able to close something in 90 days. And guess what? If you can't do it in 90 days, working on a team that's giving you leads and teaching you what you need to do, this might not be for you.
- [46:35]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [46:36]
John Gafford
I think go get another job.
- [46:37]
Lylan Bento
Yeah, I agree.
- [46:39]
John Gafford
But that is. That is the pathway to giving you the highest chance of success, and the highest probability of success is. That's the roadmap.
- [46:45]
Lylan Bento
Right. You just got to jump in.
- [46:46]
John Gafford
That's what you got to do.
- [46:47]
Lylan Bento
Give it. Yeah.
- [46:49]
John Gafford
How big do you want to scale your business? I mean, how big do you want this company? What do you want? What's the goals?
- [46:53]
Lylan Bento
I probably will have to have a couple hundred agents eventually, as the, you know, different phases of the development go through. I think the first development I need to scale up probably about 150 eventually. And then the other.
- [47:04]
John Gafford
That's 10% of your total agent count.
- [47:06]
Lylan Bento
Yeah, I know.
- [47:08]
John Gafford
So how do you reconcile that?
- [47:10]
Lylan Bento
That's the thing about Hawaii, right?
- [47:11]
John Gafford
Yeah. Like, I need this style.
- [47:14]
Lylan Bento
But yeah, I'm going to go to the beach on the weekend instead of sitting in your open houses. So it's much harder because, you know, to find labor in Hawaii. That's for sure.
- [47:22]
John Gafford
Is that does it?
- [47:23]
Lylan Bento
Nobody wants to work.
- [47:24]
John Gafford
Okay, listen, I wasn't going to throw. There's a stereotype out there, but that was going to be a question. Is the island lifestyle. Yes. Is that real? Is it? Is it? It is.
- [47:33]
Lylan Bento
It's absolutely real. And people will say, oh, this. We're. We're late. We're on Hawaiian time. Or that's because it's Hawaiian time. And I'm like, well, actually, I'm the one that's Hawaiian. And no, this isn't Hawaiian time. We got to show up on time. And. And it's, It's. It's crazy. The amount of money of poke bowls I've had to deliver to construction sites, to cookies, to just to get people to show up and get going. Yeah.
- [47:53]
John Gafford
So a question.
- [47:54]
Lylan Bento
Surf's up. The construction crew is gone.
- [47:56]
John Gafford
You know, Wait, so when, when people from, let's say the mainland come to Hawaii to look for a second home, do they pull the I'm on Hawaii time and then they're late because they're there?
- [48:03]
Lylan Bento
They do.
- [48:04]
John Gafford
Shut up.
- [48:04]
Lylan Bento
It's funny because I was thinking visiting here in Vegas, you probably have the same thing in real estate that I do in Hawaii. You plan everything. You're going to be organized, okay? This family is coming in, we're going to show homes for the whole week. They get to Hawaii and they basically lose their mind. They go to a luau, they've had one too many Mai tais. And then I'm trying to call them the next morning and they're like showing up late. Do I have breakfast?
- [48:27]
John Gafford
I'm going to give you a gift if you want it, right? And it's so important, especially here in Vegas, because you want to talk about people showing up and losing their minds. We are in the losing your damn mind capital of the world. If you're not from here, right? This is where we are. The life we have chosen is here. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a nug, if you will. And all of my people are taught to do this. And it's so imperative in Vegas, especially when somebody is coming. And we do this for every appointment we ever make, right? But you have to tie them down. And what I mean by that is you make an appointment at the last thing you say on the call, the last thing I say to the call to you, like if we may have an appointment for tomorrow at 9am and you just got to Vegas. I'm going to say, Lylan, before we get off the call, let me ask you one more question. I can ask you a question. Are you good about keeping appointments?
- [49:18]
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- [50:15]
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- [51:05]
John Gafford
Are you good about it?
- [51:06]
Lylan Bento
That's a really good question.
- [51:08]
John Gafford
Because here's the thing. Nobody's ever going to tell you, no, I suck about keeping. No, I'm completely irresponsible.
- [51:12]
Lylan Bento
I'm going to use that.
- [51:13]
John Gafford
Everybody's going to be like, yes, I am great about keeping appointments. And you say, okay, cool. Because as you can see, my time. Right. My time runs really tight. And I'm setting this time aside just for you. Right, right. That statement.
- [51:24]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [51:25]
John Gafford
Has probably gotten more people off the craps table at 1:00 in the morning than anything else because they're sitting there like, dude, I gotta meet this guy at 9:00. I don't want to go. I want to stay here. I'm on a roll. But I told him I was good about keeping appointments. Damn it. And it'll get them here. It gets them here. Yeah, you got a time down. Especially if they're going to get that, that pig in the ground thing and the mai tais like you said. Exactly, man.
- [51:50]
Lylan Bento
And the beach and the sunset.
- [51:52]
John Gafford
Come on.
- [51:52]
Lylan Bento
You know the appointment was at 8.
- [51:54]
John Gafford
I might.
- [51:54]
Lylan Bento
You're showing up at 10.
- [51:55]
John Gafford
I might not show up for a week. Yeah, you put me in that situation.
- [51:57]
Lylan Bento
Especially if they come from a city. Right? Yeah, dude, it's just. Yeah, it's paradise.
- [52:01]
John Gafford
Cleveland to that. Come on no, you're not. You're not showing up. Yeah. You're getting on island time as quickly as you can.
- [52:06]
Lylan Bento
Absolutely.
- [52:06]
John Gafford
So it also. You were also. One more thing. I just, I saw this and I didn't get to it. We talked about it. So you were featured an entrepreneur.
- [52:13]
Lylan Bento
Yes, yes.
- [52:14]
John Gafford
What was the article about? An entrepreneur. Talk about that.
- [52:16]
Lylan Bento
That.
- [52:17]
John Gafford
That's a big deal, dude.
- [52:18]
Lylan Bento
I just did a podcast, actually, and then they did a write up for entrepreneur. And then I just was in modern luxury. Hawaii's business went for women this past month.
- [52:27]
John Gafford
I love that. Congratulations.
- [52:28]
Lylan Bento
Incredible.
- [52:29]
John Gafford
That's awesome.
- [52:29]
Lylan Bento
I thought that was a spam, you know, because we. People call us all the time. Right. In real estate. So you don't know what's real, what's not real.
- [52:35]
John Gafford
I love that. Yeah, I love that.
- [52:36]
Lylan Bento
Right?
- [52:37]
John Gafford
Well, dude, like I said, ninth island. Here we are in Vegas. So.
- [52:41]
Lylan Bento
Yes.
- [52:41]
John Gafford
And I'll do the same for you if you ever have people move and listen to this. If you're a realtor, you're listening to this. I tell you what I'll do. And I do this for everybody, which is you send me. You can. If you. Anybody in your office or anybody you know that's near you needs to buy something or sell something in Vegas and you send them to us and our team, I'll pay them 30% for their referral and I'll pay you 10% just for sending them.
- [52:59]
Lylan Bento
Well, thank you.
- [53:00]
John Gafford
Just for connect. Like literally, you connect me on text message.
- [53:02]
Lylan Bento
We're all in this together.
- [53:03]
John Gafford
I'll give you 10% just for connecting me with whatever agent has referral to come to me. I mean, Duper. Give Zillow Flex is 40%. Why not pay 40% amongst ourselves? I don't care.
- [53:12]
Lylan Bento
Especially doing here in Hawaii. Right. Because you're at the same.
- [53:15]
John Gafford
Totally.
- [53:15]
Lylan Bento
We have the same from Hawaii moving here.
- [53:17]
John Gafford
Yes. And we have. And we have. We have a lot of Hawaiian realtors that work here at Simply Vegas, which I love.
- [53:22]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [53:23]
John Gafford
Which I love. One of my dudes, he's my hero. I'm going to tell a story because you'll appreciate this.
- [53:27]
Lylan Bento
Yeah.
- [53:28]
John Gafford
His name is Gabe Harvey.
- [53:29]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [53:30]
John Gafford
And when the, the fires happened in Maui. Gabe's from Maui.
- [53:34]
Lylan Bento
Right.
- [53:34]
John Gafford
So Lahaina. Right. He had family there. We did. He came to me and look, I'm not taking any credit for this whatsoever. I made a handful of phone calls. That's the extent of what I did.
- [53:44]
Lylan Bento
Okay.
- [53:45]
John Gafford
Right. He said, can you get me some places to do some fundraisers where people can drop stuff Off. And I said, sure. So I literally just made a couple phone calls to some friends of mine that own Barts and blah, blah, and we did this. They got. It was insane. He went to Delta and got Delta to pack it all up and fly it for free on their cargo stuff to Lahaina. Like three airplanes, cargo planes full of stuff.
- [54:07]
Lylan Bento
Wow.
- [54:08]
John Gafford
He did all that himself, right? All of that he did himself. It was amazing.
- [54:12]
Lylan Bento
And that's the beauty of Hawaii, right?
- [54:14]
John Gafford
Amazing.
- [54:14]
Lylan Bento
The people. I think that's what draws people to our islands, too, is there's just the beauty, the culture. People are genuine.
- [54:21]
John Gafford
Yeah.
- [54:21]
Lylan Bento
I'm sad that a lot of them have moved here. I think we have more Hawaiians here than we have in Hawaii.
- [54:26]
John Gafford
So one more question that's off the cuff before we wrap this up, just because I'm curious. What do Hawaiians think about Mark Zuckerberg?
- [54:34]
Lylan Bento
Not very happy.
- [54:35]
John Gafford
Not very happy.
- [54:36]
Lylan Bento
He bought. I don't even know we're in real estate. I didn't look this up. But who sold him that? Because there are old Hawaiian families that have ties and are on title that he's trying to pay off in doing a quiet title. Right. Which takes years in Hawaii because of the Hawaiian Kingdom and all the Hawaiian families.
- [54:51]
John Gafford
I thought you couldn't buy land like that as a haole, if you will.
- [54:55]
Lylan Bento
They can. I mean, Larry Ellison owns Lanai. And I just had a client that has an oceanfront home in Molokai bought on our island, moved from Arizona. She was explaining that Molokai ranch on that island is owned by some Singapore investment company that's doing nothing with it and laid off. That was. They're the biggest employer on that island. So it's fascinating how I kind of agree what is everyone buying, Right. Because they're able to buy a whole island.
- [55:20]
John Gafford
So here's the question. As somebody that's in real estate in Hawaii, I mean, are you, like, power to the people or you, like. And you're obviously in politics. Are you doing anything to try to hang on to the homeland and stop this? I am outside billionaire investment.
- [55:34]
Lylan Bento
Yeah, absolutely. So that's what kept my mom and I going on. The first. The biggest development because of the workforce, housing, small businesses. Right. Those are my people at the end of the day. And so I don't want them all moving away. And I feel like, as a Hawaiian, you have what's called a kuleana. So the kuleana is your responsibility to give to, like, next generation. The next generation. So this year I've. I created a College fund, scholarship fund for local kids. And I didn't care what their grades were. I didn't care what their financial gain was because I was a middle class Hawaiian kid and we got not even a free pencil. Right. My dad was blue collar worker. You get nothing. So I created that this year and I'm also creating a non profit to help local kids because they're such a disadvantage. There's no trade schools, schools, all of that for private school and for college. You know, I saw my daughter go to private school her whole life and now she's at usc. Would she have had that opera opportunity going to a public school in Hawaii? Probably not, dude.
- [56:29]
John Gafford
Out of state tuition to usc. You are ball.
- [56:32]
Lylan Bento
More expensive than Harvard.
- [56:33]
John Gafford
You're ball. Yeah, it is. Trust me, it is. I got it. I got a kid, I got a kid with Ivy league aspirations and yeah, man. Oh, us. Good. Good for. Good for you.
- [56:46]
Lylan Bento
It's incredible. Usc, it's, you know, ruthless. It is. And it's. Somebody on their board of directors must love Hawaii. I know Mr. Benioff sits on the board directors. He owns Salesforce. He lives on the same island that has homes on the same island that I do. But they are letting a lot of kids.
- [57:02]
John Gafford
So maybe the billionaire things working out a little bit? Maybe it's working out.
- [57:06]
Lylan Bento
Yeah. He's doing a lot of things on the island. He just gave 150 million to hospitals, you know, our medical services, all of that. So.
- [57:13]
John Gafford
Okay.
- [57:13]
C
Right.
- [57:13]
Lylan Bento
They are moving there and give them.
- [57:15]
John Gafford
Back a little bit.
- [57:15]
Lylan Bento
A little bit, yeah. Letting local kids in, helping out.
- [57:19]
John Gafford
Well, dude, congrats. Having your daughter at usc, that's amazing. Congratulations on that. That's great. Well, Lylan, if they want to find more about you, see more about the developments, learn more about you, how do they find you? Where do they look?
- [57:30]
Lylan Bento
My Instagram is my name at Lion Bento or Lylon. Bento.com is my website and then we'll be able to provide our. My cell phone information too.
- [57:39]
John Gafford
Lovely.
- [57:39]
Lylan Bento
Call me anytime.
- [57:40]
John Gafford
Cool. You need property in Hawaii, you call Lylan. You call her. You want to, you want to look at some of these new developments there? Call her as well. All right. Or if you want, even better, if you're a baller realtor on the island of the island of Hawaii. Somebody needs some help trying to scale. So call island. Let's make a move. All right, guys. Well, island, thank you so much for joining us, guys. Yes. I hope you got as much out of this as I did. We'll see you next week. What's up everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com you can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review. Give us a share. Do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.
- [58:34]
C
Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life at Capella University. Our game changing flexpath learning format lets you set your own deadline so you can learn at a time and pace that works for you. It's an education you can tailor to your schedule. That means you don't have to put your life on hold to pursue your professional goals. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more@capella.edu.