Redefining Real Estate: Cyrus Mohseni and the Value of Integrity

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Escaping the Drift with John Gafford

Episode: “Redefining Real Estate: Cyrus Mohseni and the Value of Integrity”

Date: December 2, 2025
Guest: Cyrus Mohseni
Host: John Gafford

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Episode Overview

In this impactful episode, John Gafford sits down with Cyrus Mohseni, CEO of the Keystone Team and former professional soccer player, to dive deep into the personal story and future-focused insights of a real estate leader who exemplifies resilience and integrity. Together, they dissect the evolving landscape of real estate, the crucial role of personal accountability, the changing utility of technology (especially AI), and discuss how adversity shaped Cyrus’s outlook on life and business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Adversity and Resilience

[03:03–10:43]

• Cyrus shares how losing his grandmother, uncle, and father within one year at age 11 forced him to grow up quickly, change his mindset, and put others before himself.
  • “My whole mindset shifted when this happened… it was the first time in my life that I started thinking about other people before myself.” (Cyrus, 04:13)
• Soccer became his escape and driving motivation. The relentless pursuit to play professionally—despite early setbacks—instilled his “irrational belief” that any goal is attainable with hard work and discipline.
• His family’s hardships bred a deep sense of gratitude, awareness of time with loved ones, and a lifelong commitment to accountability.

2. Mindset and Extreme Accountability

[13:49–20:09]

• Honest self-reflection is a prerequisite for true growth and progress.
  • John: “Unless you’re totally honest about where you are… unless you’re willing to do that, man, you’re just going to be stuck.” (17:14)
• Both John and Cyrus challenge the notion that systemic issues can be a permanent excuse for failure, pushing for “radical honesty” in personal and business settings.
  • “[Other people] want to make excuses—it’s way easier to say ‘I can’t do it because of this’ than to bang your head against the wall 20 times…” (Cyrus, 17:17)
• They underscore the rarity of extreme accountability in real estate—pointing out it’s essential for building a high-performing team and a career.

3. Real Estate: Then and Now

[22:19–27:19]

• The duo discusses the tectonic shifts in real estate business models, especially the impact of platforms like Zillow.
• Only a small elite—perhaps 1%—of agents are willing to put in the sustained effort (cold calling, door knocking, open houses) necessary for lasting success.
  • Cyrus outlines his original blueprint: “Four hours of cold calling a day, 8AM–12PM, lunch, knock doors 1-3, follow ups, two open houses a week…” (23:27)
• Most agents now look for convenience over grind, gravitating toward low-value, low-commitment transactional work—risking being replaced by technology.

4. Technology, AI, and the Coming Gold Rush

[30:33–49:40]

• The discussion pivots to industry consolidation and the significance of recent massive deals (Rocket buying Redfin, Mr. Cooper; Compass acquiring Anywhere) and their likely ripple effects.
  • “That’s the bigger move for me—Rocket buying Mr. Cooper… That’s a closed-loop system from beginning to end now.” (John, 36:36)
• AI’s rapid progression is turning search, communication, and relationship management upside down.
  • John: “SEO is dead. You need to be AEO [AI Engine Optimization]. You need to understand how to feed the robots…” (45:29)
• Agents who adopt AI and understand how to create human-centric touchpoints (even as tech automates other tasks) will surge ahead; those who do not risk irrelevance.
  • “I don’t believe that AI will ever take my job. I believe that I will take other people’s jobs while utilizing AI.” (Cyrus, 44:45)

5. The Enduring Value of Basics: Human Connection

[50:20–54:29]

• No tech stack can replace core sales skills or connection—the basics are still the foundation.
• Cold calling and open houses remain vital training grounds for conversation, rejection management, and relationship-building.
  • “Open houses are a great place… at least you’re face to face with people. That ability… to connect with people and understand what they’re doing is going to be such a lost cause.” (John, 52:31)
• Both stress reading the room, understanding nuance, and purposefully practicing personal communication.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Adversity and Growth:

  • “I truly believe if you want to do anything, you can just do it if you put your mind to it.” (Cyrus, 15:11)
  • “What did I do to contribute? What did I do—where’s my fault in all this?” (John, 17:06)

• On Tech and the Future:

  • “The job of a real estate agent is going to become… more of a transaction manager and less hands on.” (Cyrus, 30:55)
  • “Deal making is becoming a lost art in our business…” (John, 31:12)
  • “If you understand how to utilize AI… you’ll absolutely crush.” (Cyrus, 47:27)

• On Commitment and Consistency:

  • “Consistency plus discipline over time equals success.” (Cyrus, 20:31)
  • “It’s a 16-year overnight success… People only see what it is now.” (John, 20:48)

• On Lasting Relationships:

  • “Realtors are terrible at staying in touch with their clients… 80% of people don’t use the same realtor twice.” (John, 40:05)
  • “Learn how to read the room, learn how to watch, learn body language… That’s where sales and true connection happen.” (John, 53:32)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:03 — Cyrus’s life-altering losses as a child
• 07:58 — Setting professional goals after major adversity
• 13:49 — Valuing time with loved ones: the “time spent” graph
• 17:04 — The necessity of radical personal honesty for change
• 22:19 — The work ethic gap in real estate: only 1% grind
• 23:27 — Cyrus’s daily blueprint for solo agent success
• 36:36 — The significance of Rocket buying Mr. Cooper
• 45:29 — Google search decline, rise of AI Engine Optimization
• 44:45 — AI won’t take great agents’ jobs; other agents will lose theirs to AI
• 50:20 — Back to basics: Why sales skills and personal touch matter more than ever
• 53:32 — The lost art of “reading the room” and building rapport

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Conclusion

Cyrus Mohseni’s story is more than a study in resilience—it’s a call to action for anyone drifting through their career (and life). The future of real estate—and all business—lies in balancing gritty fundamentals and next-gen technology, but the value of humanity, disciplined consistency, and radical honesty endures.
To keep up with Cyrus, follow him on Instagram: @cyrusandre.

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Resources

• Learn more at EscapingtheDrift.com
• Follow Cyrus Mohseni: Instagram @cyrusandre

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If you’re ready to stop drifting and want to level up, this episode is your wake-up call—packed with authenticity, hard-won wisdom, and actionable insight for a changing world.

Transcript

[Cyrus Mossaney]

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[John Gafford]

Go ahead. Because I think the bigger move is not necessarily that stuff. I think. I think the bigger move for me in the last three months has debt was definitely rocket buying. Mr. Cooper.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, yeah, this is correct. This is no one, no one's talking about.

[John Gafford]

That's the bigger move. And we. We've got something coming out to counter it. But explain. Go ahead.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So no one's. Yeah, no one's talking about this. This.

[John Gafford]

I talk about it all the time. And now, escaping the drift. The 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 podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today in studio, one of the cool things about living in Vegas is there's a lot of conventions here. A lot of things happen. And a lot of your baller friends come rolling through and give you a shout last minute. And they say, hey, dude, about that podcast, I got 15 minutes in the next 30 minutes. You want to do it? And I'm like, yeah, let's go. So today, live in studio man, we have one of my friends from Orange county that is a real estate baller. I mean, just has done so much, started his. His career early playing professional soccer and has gone on to just awesome things in the real estate. He's the CEO of a firm called the Keystone Team, and he does some really cool stuff and he has some really great insight into the future of where real estate is heading. So if you are a real estate agent or some of you think you might get a real estate or if you're just interested in the real estate business, today is something you're probably going to want to listen to. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Program, this is Cyrus Mossaney. Cyrus.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Hell yeah, dude. Appreciate you, man. You know, stoked to be here. This is such a cool spot.

[John Gafford]

I know, dude. I'm so glad to see you. I'm glad to see you here. I do, I do. I'll be in. I'll be back at my house in December for one day, and we'll one day next month and that's it. Too cold for being out there right now. I can't hang out there right now, but. No, but it's good. I'm glad you came in. So you came in for the big Zillow deal. Yeah. Obviously they bring in all the big swingers from around the country for that, and that's going on right now in Vegas down in Fountain Blue or Fontainebleau.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I know, exactly.

[John Gafford]

Not fountain Blue. Fontaineble. Whatever it is. So my thing, man, is let's talk a little bit about soccer first. Right? Because I think that the reason I talk about it is because it's such a precursor to who you are. And that first time we met, we talked about it. I thought it was really interesting. So tell me about the soccer stuff.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, I mean, so actually here I'm going to rewind a little bit more behind soccer because I think this is interest. I think this is important to understand my whole story. I'm going to rewind to. Wow, 21 years from last week. Okay. You're like, why do you know 21 years? Because my grandma in 2004, my uncle in 2004, and my dad in 2005 all passed away.

[John Gafford]

Oh, wow.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So my mom's mom, my mom's brother, October 29, 2004, passed away at 28 years old. My. My mom's mom, my grandma was 62. 62, 28. And then my dad, October 29, 2005, went into the hospital and passed away November 1, 2005. And the reason that I, you know, yeah, it's a big moment in my life, but the reason is, is my. My whole mindset shifted when this happened. My uncle was my favorite person in the world to this day, it's like, I. I can't. I always. I. I talked to my wife about this is like, this is like the person that, like, I felt, like, unconditionally loved me more than anything. Right. Like, that was my uncle, how I felt with my uncle. And then. And then, you know, my dad. So my two biggest male figures in my life, gone. And my mom. I'm the last of five kids. My mom worked, but she never really had to Work when my dad was around.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Then when my dad passed away, we lost everything. So my mom started working six jobs to keep the house over our head. So it was the first time in my life that I started thinking about other people. I was 11 years old, and it was the first time in my life that I started thinking about other people before myself, and I started thinking how to come. I make my mom's life easier. You know, how could I make sure that, you know, instead of. Instead of me complaining about getting out of bed, little things like that, I was just like, no, I got to do this because I don't want my mom's life to be harder because it's already so hard. And the only thing that took my mind off of going. Of everything was soccer. Right. Everything that was going on in my life, I just wanted to play soccer. I wanted to do that because it was the only thing that took my mind off of what I was going through.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And so I was playing. I trained before school. I'd go train. I'd walk to school. I'd train after school. And then. And then I was like, I want to play club soccer. I was in, like, sixth grade. I want to play club soccer. So I go to play this. I go to play club soccer. I start calling. You'll appreciate this. I. I go online. I'm 11 years old. I go online, start researching club soccer teams, and I start calling these coaches, finding their phone numbers, calling these coaches.

[John Gafford]

Hey, you're already playing, like, rec soccer.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, I was playing AY So I was playing aysl.

[John Gafford]

Got it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Played all stars. Okay, Big deal.

[John Gafford]

Got it. Okay, sure, sure.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So I start calling these club coaches, and I'm like, hey, I want to play for your team. Like, I want to. I want to come play for your team. And they're like, okay, well, you know, put your dad on the phone. Like, well, my dad's dead. Put your mom on the phone. Well, she's at work. Okay, we'll have your mom call us later. Okay, cool. Over and over and over again until one person was like, okay, yeah, come to practice. This is what time we play. I like that you called me, and I was like, all right, perfect. So then I'm like, how do I get to practice?

[John Gafford]

11.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

You know, I'm 11 years old. So I call my friend. I'm like, hey, you want to try out for club? I got us a tryout.

[John Gafford]

Smart.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Tell your mom to bring us. So we go, we go. I make this club team. And then, like, six months later, I get cut. And it was the worst thing that happened to me in my life. You know, I was like, what is going on? Like, I just made this team. I was so happy. I was so stoked. It was like, everything I wanted to do. And at that. During that six months, I decided I want to play professional soccer. And the reason I decided I wanted to play professional soccer is because before that, I never really understood that you could just play professional soccer. I don't know what I thought, but I thought, like, you had to be, like, this gifted person, this gift from God. Like, you're there, and now you're playing pro. And when I played for that team, that coach had said I played pro in Argentina. And it was like, a guy I could touch. I could feel him. I could see him. I'm like, this guy isn't that special. Like, why can't I do this? So I decided I was going to play professional soccer, and then, like, two months later, got cut from my club team, you know what I mean? And. And then. But I decided I was going to play professional soccer, so that's what I wanted to do. So then I did the same thing, Called a bunch of clubs, went to a tryout, tried out, played for this team. I was the goal. I was. I played goalkeeper. Just to kind of put in perspective when I decided how good I was, when I decided I wanted to play pro, is I played goalkeeper. I was on bronze team, which is the lowest level of club, and we lost every game, 5 to 0.

[John Gafford]

You were the goalkeeper, and I was the goalkeeper.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. And so I was like, I want to play pro.

[John Gafford]

I'm gonna do this.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Okay. And so. But one thing that my mom, like, my dad used to say all the time when I was younger and my mom kept, like, really strong after my dad passed away, was, you can do anything you put your mind to. Like, my mom would always tell me that, like, I was like, you know, I want to do this. She's like, you could do anything you put your mind to. You just got to do it.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Your dad always said that. Your dad always said that. And. And so I truly believe that, like, growing up, like, I was like, if I just train hard enough, I could do it. Like, what's the difference between me and that person? That person just trained harder.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, right.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So I made this thought process. I was just like, there's always someone out there getting better than you by working harder than you. I'm gonna work harder than everybody else. And so that's what I did. So I Just trained more. I, I went again before school, after school, after, after school, went to, before practice. I went and found another coach. I just, I just trained as much as possible. When I was 18 years old, two days after I graduated high school, I moved to Europe and I played professional special soccer. I ended up playing in Switzerland, I ended up playing in Costa Rica. I ended up playing for Chivas usa, San Jose Earthquakes and mls. Played for some of the biggest clubs in the world. And it was all from me just like realizing that you can do it if you just work.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, but that's so you. I mean, 11 years old, that's so unique.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, I think it's again, you know, and people told me this when I was, when I was younger. I remember specifically like people telling me, like, you know, well, now you're gonna have to grow up. I remember being in 11 years old and people saying that like when my dad passed away.

[John Gafford]

Oh yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And me being like, what are you talking about? Like, you know, in my mind it wasn't processing, like, you know, people would say like, well, you're gonna, you're not gonna have the same childhood, blah, blah. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, in my mind, it wasn't this something different. It was just, hey, this is what's happening.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I'm dealing with it and this is what I have to do. You know what I mean? And. But it's very true. When I was 11 years old, now I look, I see my niece, she's. She turns nine in a week.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And I'm like, I was basically this age.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Like, it's crazy.

[John Gafford]

She's got not a care in the world.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct.

[John Gafford]

Not a care in the world.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Not a care in the world. So now it, like, actually it's really interesting when I think about it now because I put myself like in her shoes, you know. And so let me fast forward. It's very interesting because my niece and I are really close. Like super close. That's like my, my girl, her dad passed away eight years ago from pancreatic cancer.

[John Gafford]

The same thing, same deal.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So my sister had. So it's three nephews and a niece. And so my nephew, one of my nephews was my age when my dad passed away. You know, yada yada. And like, my niece was only one. So like my, I was with my. I've been since she was a baby. I'm. Yeah, she's with me. I, you know, I take her to all her stuff. I coat and so. But it makes me now, now that I think about it, it's like this weird like person. It's this weird thing that like I realize what it was. Do you get what I'm saying?

[John Gafford]

Like, well, it's almost like. Yes, it's a, it's obviously a tragedy that your wife lost her husband. That's. That's a tragedy.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Cancer is terrible, but it's almost like the universe gave you the opportunity to pay it back.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

For what your uncle did for you.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. It's kind of a trip.

[John Gafford]

You know what I mean? It's, it's like really weird, karmic kind of way.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right. 100. I was literally talking to someone about this earlier. I was like. Because I have these different opportunities to do different things and, and one of them involves me moving away from home for a little while. Six months. And I'm like, I don't think that that's worth it to me. You could pay me a lot of. You could pay me all the money in the world, but like, if I'm away from my family, that's the thing that matters the most.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

You know what I mean? Like, that's like. So I, I'm missing my niece is like. And by the way, I also realize there's this. Have you ever seen that graph that like, it shows like time with your loved ones. It's a really interesting graph.

[John Gafford]

What is it?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So it's time with your loved ones. So it's like, it's like, it starts with like, it's like a bunch of. It's a bunch of different lines. So. Different colored lines. It's a line graph.

[John Gafford]

Right.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And it like goes up where it's like time with your parents.

[John Gafford]

Oh yeah. And then it hits. By the time you're 18, you spent 90 something percent of the time.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

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[John Gafford]

I have seen that graph.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

That, that right there is like when I saw that. I saw it one time and I talk about it all the time. I've only seen the freaking thing once. I can't find it again. I gotta look for it.

[John Gafford]

No, no. I know exactly what you're talking about.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And that completely changed my Perspective on life. Because it's like I, I know my niece, for instance, I have this, this much time with her window.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Like, like why would I give up any time for that?

[John Gafford]

Yeah. My, my have a 17 year old to south college next year.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's crazy.

[John Gafford]

He's sitting in the office back there working because I want him working here for that very reason. Because I understand that once he leaves the house at 18, that will be the 95% of the time on earth that I've spent I will spend with him. And I get 5% rep for the rest of his life. Yeah, I get that. Because he's gonna have his own family and his own thing and, and I get that. Yeah. So I think about that all the time.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's nuts daily.

[John Gafford]

It's terrible.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

So let me ask you this, because when you have something like that, that's such a tragedy with you that's happened. Like, do you have the ability to be empathetic with people when they start talking about nonsense, like adversity in their life? Like, like, how could you, well, use Your father at 11?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Like, you know, you guys almost lose everything. Like when people want to start whining about, you know, oh, the leads are weak or why, you know, why this, why the world is against them. I mean, do you even have like.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I. Yeah, it's super hard. So it's, it's pretty interesting with me because like, like what I also realize is that, that every single person we walk by, I was in New York a couple of weeks ago and I was sitting there with my videographer. We're sitting there and we're just chilling, waiting for a taxi. And I go, you know what, Frank? You know what's crazy, bro? And he's like, what? I said, every one of these people that walks by, you know, there's like hundreds of people, we're just sitting there walking, driving by. I'm like, every one of them is someone's having the best day of their life and someone's having the worst day of their life. And every one of them is dealing with something. And to me, that something might not mean as much as it means to them.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

You know, and so I think that's an important like, like thing that is important to remember, but like, no, 100%, like, I truly believe if you want to do anything, you could just, you can do it if you truly put your mind to it.

[John Gafford]

Just an irrational belief in yourself to doing it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Exactly.

[John Gafford]

Well, it's funny, dude, because I was talking literally, I was On a, on somebody else's podcast. Because I'm promoting my book right now, which by the time you hear this, will be out buy it everywhere. Escaping the drift. Everywhere books are sold. But I was talking about, my publisher called me and when you publish a book through normal channels, you get reviews.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right?

[John Gafford]

Like, and they're like, not like reader reviews, but they're like reviews for bookstores are buying books.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And my publisher calls me, goes, okay, we're getting a review tomorrow from Publishers Weekly, which is a big, kind of a big deal. He goes, don't get too excited. They're really not kind normally to self help books at all. They're just not kind. I said, I mean, because, I mean, this point, my publisher put this through focus group and it crushed the focus group and everybody loved it and it was great. And I'm like, I'm not worried about it. So it came out and the, the review was not complimentary. Right. And I, and I was. And I know people listen. It's like, this dude's trying to sell books. Why is he telling us this? And I'm gonna tell you why in a minute. Stay with me. Right? So I was kind of bummed about it and I woke up the next day and I reread the review. And now keep in mind, everybody has their own point of view and their own lens of from which they see the world. This was one singular person that read my book and then they had an opinion on it based on their single review of the world. And this was the sentence that made me love this. I love it. Which was, this person wrote that my advice can come off as trite because I refuse to acknowledge the myriad systemic issues and I present all problems as solvable. And I was like, you bet your ass I do, 1000%. Because. Because I've sat in this room 300 times with dudes that came here on a refugee boat from Vietnam that now own a thousand doors. Guys that lost their father when they were 11, their mom had to take six jobs, keep a roof of their head, and went on play pro soccer because they just decide 11, 11 years old do that.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

What about the systemic issues? That myriad of issues should have held you back. Yeah, of course. That's what, that's a thousand percent what I believe.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

100%. This is the thing is like, I think that. And, and this is. Goes to what you were saying is like, I think most of people just want to make excuses like, like, it's easier. It's way easier.

[John Gafford]

It's easier.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Way Easier to say I can't do it because of this.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Than to sit there and say, you know what? I'm gonna go bang my head against the wall for 20 times before I figure out how to get through the wall.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

But I'm gonna go work my ass off to get there.

[John Gafford]

But the problem is most people can't ever get there because they don't want to have that radical honesty with themselves and figure out where they are. I talk about all the time. It's like, think about, like when you're trying to get. You're on your phone and you got to go somewhere near the parking deck and you put the, you go to the map and you put the address in and you're waiting and it's spinning because the satellite can't find you. And like, you can't get direction, you know where you're trying to go, but you still can't get the directions there because it doesn't know where you are. And unless you're totally honest about where you are. And those are the people that say, not this outside force is why I'm not where I want to be. But what did I do to contribute 100? What did I do? Like, where's my fault in all of this? And until you're willing to do that, man, you're just going to be stuck.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And that and that, I hate to say it, we're both in real estate industry. That is rampant part of what we do here.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Well, 100%. And that's, that's with, I mean, that's with everything in life though, right? Like, like, that's like, you know, in your relationship, in your personal relationships, in your business, relationships in your, in your business in general. Right? Like, it's like, I mean, I'll give an example. It's like your employees, right? Like you, you own a business, you own a company. It's like, you know, sometimes we can turn around and say, okay, hey, I don't understand why this person doesn't get it. They're stupid. They're this, this. Or I can turn around and say, okay, wait, did I give them the exact formula to be able to get that done?

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Now, does that position specifically. Right. Like, like, does that position require that, does it require more critical thinking, so on and so forth, but then that person can turn around and say, they didn't give me that. Well, why didn't you create that and have the critical thinking to do so?

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right. So it goes both ways. And it's so interesting when you start Taking like this, this extreme accountability.

[John Gafford]

Well, I think you can't take it personally though, because I think you've also got to remember when dealing with other people and I have to remind myself of this a lot and maybe this sounds egotistical, I don't know, but you know, I remind myself like they're the main character in their movie. Like I'm supporting actor or background noise at best. In the movie of their life, they're the main character. Right. So, you know. Yeah. The fact that they maybe didn't take exactly what I said or told them to heart or, you know, they needed to do that, you got to remember that people are going to do what they're going to do and until they take responsibility for where they are, they just can't get there. And for me, you know, you talk about, especially in like real estate or really in anything, man. You know, it's like what makes somebody super successful. And it's honesty with where they are. It's absolute clarity of goal, knowing where they want to go. It's the sickness of plan and frequency of execution.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

And as long as you have that workflow, right, I don't care if it's trying to lose weight, I don't care if it's trying to win the spelling bee, I don't care if it's trying to sell houses. I don't care what it is. If you have that workflow, it's going to be really hard to not succeed.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

Really hard.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Well, it's, it's, I say the same day, it's, it's consistency plus discipline over time equals success.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Like, as long as you're consistent, as long as you're disciplined with your plan and you do it over time, you will win.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

The thing is, is most people want to win now and they don't realize that like what you've built. What I've built has taken years. Yeah.

[John Gafford]

It's a 16 year overnight success because.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

People only see what it is now. It's like this crazy thing. It's like, and I'm, you know, I love social media, right? Like, I'm like, I love social, I love like connecting. I love all of this. But it's like this is the issue because social media gives us all this instant gratification. You know, it was funny. My, I, you know, I felt like the, the old man in the room the other day when my nephew's like, dude, this takes forever to load. And I'm like, you don't know dial up.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I'm. I'm a little older than you, bro. So I'm of the school of, like, if you wanted to watch cartoons, you had to catch them on Saturday morning. That was it. If you didn't miss some. If you didn't catch them Saturday morning, you weren't watching cartoons for the week. And it's just the idea of that. The idea of that whatever you want, you push a button that shows up at your door within 24 hours is crazy. It's crazy.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

And you're right. That instant gratification, people aren't willing to do the long, hard thing.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

In most cases, you're just not willing to do it because it's too slow.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

But the consistent thing that you see with most successful people in any. Anything in life is, is it's taken time. You know what I mean? Like, it takes time, it takes work.

[John Gafford]

Unless you win the lottery and then those people wind up broke. Because it didn't take time.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct. Exactly.

[John Gafford]

Because there was no effort.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

100.

[John Gafford]

Because they didn't earn it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's because it goes up and then it's like right out. Because they don't know how to deal with it.

[John Gafford]

I mean, you can probably go on ebay right now and buy a gold medal, but it's not going to mean anything because you didn't earn it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

100.

[John Gafford]

Right. Well, let's shift gears, man. Let's talk about real estate. So, you know, where do you think. I mean, what do you think the biggest changes in real. In real estate is right now? I mean, where do you think we're headed? I mean, there's been such a debacle in the last. We'll talk about all of it. I mean, you're here with Zillow, but we'll talk about their little.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's crazy, last week, they're getting slaughtered for that Zillow. I mean, you can name, you name the company, whatever the company, they just don't care. Like it's, It's a whole. It's a. I think the model that Zillow has is the future of real estate for the masses, for the agents. And I'll explain why.

[John Gafford]

Okay.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Because I think it's super important to understand guys like you and I can go create business by having conversations, by doing the work, by showing up. If you told me when I got in the business, I have to give up this huge percentage, let's say 40%, right off the top of all my business that I get in.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Or I could go do an open house and not have to do that.

[John Gafford]

Yeah. You're gonna go to the.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I'm gonna go do the open house.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I built my business off of four hours of cold calling a day. So I called my first two years. This is all I did straight every single day like a madman. Four hours of cold calling. 8am to 12 noon, 12 to 1. I did lunch slash get ready for door knocking. One to three, I door knocked. And then after that I declined. Follow up. And then every single week I did two open houses like clockwork. Now that completely changed my life.

[John Gafford]

Well, no, but you do that again. That's clarity of plan and frequency of execution. You do that. But okay, but honestly, right now, what percentage of agents that are licensed right now do you think are willing to do that?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

No less than 10%.

[John Gafford]

10. This is, I'm talking about the masses. We're talking about every licensed real estate agent. Half of them sold nothing in the last 12 years. You can wipe them completely off the board. They just have a business card to say that they do something. I don't know why they paid the dues. Half of them sold nothing. So you got half.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's probably less than 1%.

[John Gafford]

It's less than 1% of all agents nationwide will do that. And it's so funny, I have a couple of those people that work for us. I mean we have a lot of great, great people here. I would venture to say that we have more seven figure agents than any brokerage in Vegas.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And I just know that based on our numbers. But I have a couple people that, you know, once you reach a certain point in this business, you have big dollars for marketing and you can put a lot of things in a lot of people's hands and leverage a lot of dollars into other dollars. But when you're starting out, you don't have that. So you gotta grind like that. And I have some people that do incredibly well that probably could turn on a giant money marketing machine, but. But still do business just like that.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

A hundred calls a day, open house every day.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It works every day.

[John Gafford]

Every day.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It works every day.

[John Gafford]

Because it's just what they like to do.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. And so like, so like I think it's important to understand, like there's, there's those people that can and will and, and will always want to do that and will rather do that than this. But the masses of the agents, right, we say under 1% are willing to do that. So the masses of the agents who would rather sit here on this couch, wait for A Zillow call to come in, answer it. And the script is very simple with Zillow calls.

[John Gafford]

Where are you? I'll be there in 10 minutes.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Literally, it's, hey, John, how's it going? This is Cyrus. When would you like to see the problem?

[John Gafford]

Just makes me sad. It just makes me so sad.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

That is the script. That is a script that we teach is a script.

[John Gafford]

So sad.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And all they do is. Then they go, we'd like to see it at 12:30 on Thursday. Okay, cool. Meet you at 12:30 on Thursday. They show up. They open the door. The goal is, now what?

[John Gafford]

I'm a chimp. It doesn't make you a professional. You're literally a chimp. It.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It depends.

[John Gafford]

Chimp could do that job.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I don't. I don't. I don't believe that.

[John Gafford]

What?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Completely. Now you don't think you could teach.

[John Gafford]

A chimp to open a lockbox? Seriously?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

No, no, no, no. The reason is.

[John Gafford]

And then do like this in front of a fireplace. You don't think that's possible?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Come on. Look.

[John Gafford]

That's not being a professional.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Create value. Create rapport. And then you close. Those are three steps to close the deal, right? So. So. So they still have to create rapport.

[John Gafford]

Create value for people. When you jump, when they. Every time they snap their fingers, how is that creating value?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So what I tell my Uber driver. So, yeah, so what I tell my agents is, I tell my agents is, look, when you're showing up to these houses, your job is to operate as if it's an open house. Your job is not to operate as if you're opening the door. You have to still show them why you're the best agent. You have to still explain what our process is. You have to still sit down with them. Now, again, I've realized this is a bunch of my agents closing a bunch of deals, doing without this. And I'm like, you should utilize this for more business, but don't usually utilize it for all of your business.

[John Gafford]

Okay?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right now, there are a bunch of companies that utilize it for only their business. It's like the guy I was telling you about earlier, right?

[John Gafford]

Like Siegfried and Roy, dude.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct.

[John Gafford]

Siegfried. What about Siegfried and Rod? This is why I compare. I compare Zillow and real estate agents to Siegfried and Roy all the single time. You know why?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Why?

[John Gafford]

Because they love that tiger. They fed that tiger. They fed it. They fed it. They fed it. They took care of that tiger. They. They got in show business with that tiger, and then what the tiger do? Eight Siegfried And Roy.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

So just waiting around. So this is waiting around.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct. So I have. So going back to this thought process of where real estate's going. Right. Like, I have a theory that. I think that, look, with tech, we. I'm sure we can both agree on the. There's going to be 30 to 40% more dropout from the industry. Massive reduction over the next couple years.

[John Gafford]

Yes. The. The good people are going to get more of the business. The people that. This is gonna. This is less and less. Is this becoming a business of. I have my license just in case my aunt sister's friend wants to buy a house.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And this is, I think, which is good. Correct. This is a big piece of why the whole Compass and Anywhere acquisition happened. Because Compass realizes, like, they're so agent heavy, like they have to acquire a bigger company because they're going to have a huge loss of agents. I think just overall. Yeah, we see that. That's just, that's just what's going to happen. So they're going to buy into this. This side over here.

[John Gafford]

A lot of debt with Anywhere though, man.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's crazy. This, this, this is. Most people don't understand what that deal actually entails.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And when you start looking at it.

[John Gafford]

You'Re like, heavy lift.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's insane.

[John Gafford]

It's a heavy.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's insane. And then also like to, like, this is a whole different conversation. But to roll out the tech to that many agents is going to be nearly impossible when you're operating on 33. Like, people don't realize it's 33,000 agents with the tech that they have to operate to roll out tech to 330,000 agents. You don't understand what nightmare that's going to happen.

[John Gafford]

I try to roll stuff out to 585 agents and it's kind of. And it can be correct. Like still, like, we rolled out Reach out, you know, five weeks ago, did it really hard and really heavy and really heavy. And to this day, people walk in and I'm like, hey, are you using Reach Out? Like good agents, they're like, what's Reach?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

Like, like we said, you text. We've literally. I could not go. I couldn't skyride it over your house, dude. It's insane.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And that's not even. That's just called agent. That's just Agent adoption.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Now what if all your agents adopt it and Reach out? Wasn't ready for that much adoption, Broke.

[John Gafford]

The bandwidth, snapped it. Yeah, that's a good point.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's a whole different thing. That I don't think anyone's talking about yet. Right. And. And so this is a whole different deal. But my point is, is that I think that where we're going with the real estate industry is you're gonna see this real estate concierge. It's not gonna be a real estate agent anymore. That real estate concierge is gonna probably have their hands in making sure that, okay, hey, you got the right property, you got the paperwork done. But you also, here's your, here's your mortgage over here, here's your title over here. And they're probably going to get pieces.

[John Gafford]

Already what we do.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct. But they're probably going to get smaller pieces of every. Everything around it.

[John Gafford]

But resp is not going to really allow that because you can't pay. You cannot pay. Real estate agents based on title mortgage. Can't do that per deal. You can't.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct.

[John Gafford]

Can't do that.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Unless. Unless the, the real estate professional gets licensed as a lo.

[John Gafford]

As an elo or it's a bank and that it can just hire you.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Because banks can just hire employees.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. So it'll be. I think that the industries, I mean the job of a real estate agent is going to become even more. With tech is going to be less hands on, so they're going to be doing more of the transaction.

[John Gafford]

I think that for me, I think that deal making is becoming a lost art in our business.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, 100%.

[John Gafford]

And you know, it's funny, when I talk to a client and I tell a story during my listing presentation, I'll share, I'll tell you what it is. You know, when people are like, oh, what's different about you than this other guy? If they're talking about multiple people, I tell a story, I tell this story, I say, and it's stories in my book. And I go, listen, when I was a kid, when I was in eighth grade, I wrote it, I wrote a, I wrote a check that my mouth. With my mouth that my body wasn't willing to cash. Right. It's mouthy kid. And this guy ended up turning and wanted to like get fist fight. And I was not in a position, I thought so to get a fist away with this guy. And as a result, all of my good friends were growing up like ostracized me like my whole eighth grade year. And it was, it was really hard on me.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, super hard.

[John Gafford]

And it, and it was like hardcore bullying that whole year. And it, it turned me into like a people pleaser. And I realized this became like a weakness in my 20s. Right?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

It was like, I was always a people pleaser, would say whatever to please people. But what I realized was I kind of flipped that into. Into a little bit different. And I said, my EQ is through the roof. I know exactly when I have people. I know exactly when I'm losing people. I know exactly how far I can push people and exactly when to pull back.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

I. That weakness. I. I'm the best deal maker that will ever sit at a table with you.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

I know exactly how to make a deal and how to get it closed. And that is an art that is. Is being lost 100%. You know, I think that part of that is because of, like, million dollar listing. You know, these guys get on the phone and, you know, they watched that show and they saw those guys yell at each other on the phone for the drama of the show, and they think this is how real estate gets done. And it's like, dude, I'm trying to help you get with your client, get this finished. Like, I'm trying to get this across the finish line so we can both make money here. And it's just crazy. And it's become like, almost like if you send an aggressive offer, a houseman on the market for a long time, you send an aggressive offer, you know, the other agent wants to respond to you. Like, they're Civil War General. It's like, I am deeply offended by the ludicrousness of this offer. I will not be presented this to my client, as they will be most upset with my ingenuity. It's like, what are you talking about, dude?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Pretty good.

[John Gafford]

Yeah. Solid Civil War general right there. Like, just like, dude, beside the offer. So, you know, I think the responsibility of that lies within the people that run our companies. I think everybody is. You know, I think we really try to balance that here, which is like, yes, we want you to have the best tech. We wanted to do things, and we're building AI without all of that stuff to help you. But at the same time, you still got to understand the people side of the business, because that's what people are losing, I think, the fastest in this.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Everything. It's fast, fast, just like you said, you know, send me the offer. Send me this. Okay. No, there's no context to it. Everybody wants to text.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, this pisses me off.

[John Gafford]

Oh, God. There's no context to it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. Correct.

[John Gafford]

I love that key appeal.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's not negotiating.

[John Gafford]

No, I love the key appeal sketch where he's like, do you even want to go anymore? And he's like, oh, do you want to go anymore? That's thoughtful. He's like. Like, no context. So. Yeah. So how do you think. I mean, do you think that the big players are falling behind there or.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I think. Yeah, I think that big players is in Compass and anywhere. Yeah, I think they're definitely falling behind. I mean, you talk about the debt, you talk about what, what, like, the company, they have anywhere has to make some sort of move in order to continue their. And, you know, again, people will look at me and think I'm crazy because I don't operate a company like, anywhere. Right. But if you just look at the company as anywhere, and you look at, like, their financials and you look at, like, the debt that they had, it's horrible. Right. So what do they do? They say, hey, what's a great thing? Let's get rid of our debt. And Compass came around and said, we'll take all your debt and we'll take more debt to take your debt.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Which is insane. Right?

[John Gafford]

Quite the bet.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Which is. Exactly. But I think they have to make that bet because strategically, right, they need that market share where it is right now in order to. To push the agenda that they need.

[John Gafford]

Well, that's what I say. I think. I think Refkin did it really just so he could muscle Zillow on the. On the. On the. Muscle the nar. On clear cooperation.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. Which is. Which is.

[John Gafford]

If you're listening to this, you don't know what that is, and you're not in real estate, so. So we have a deal if you're a member of the board, and we have a rule with as being a Realtor, which says that if we have a listing, it has to go in the MLS within, like, 24 hours.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

It has to be syndicated everywhere, including Zillow. Well, Robert Refkin, who is the CEO of Compass that we're talking about, kind of is at war with Zillow because he wants to be able to do office exclusive listings where they're not feeding to Zillow. Yeah. And of course, Zillow's business model, 100% is dependent on getting everyone's listings.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And so now Ref can is with the purchase of anywhere. Now, I think, what is it, like, 62% or something? They control of the entire market. Is that right here?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I think it's a little less, but yes. Let's say it's 62%.

[John Gafford]

Yeah. But it's definitely beyond. It's beyond.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's huge. Yeah.

[John Gafford]

So now they controlled that much of the listings and it puts a lot of, a lot of pressure on Zillow to do that. So let's talk about. Go ahead. Because I think the bigger move is not necessarily that stuff. I think, I think the bigger move for me in the last three months has debt was definitely rocket buying Mr. Cooper.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, yeah, this is correct. This is no one talking.

[John Gafford]

No one's talking about that's the bigger move. And we, we've got something coming out to counter it. But explain. Go ahead.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So no one. Yeah, no one's talking about this. This.

[John Gafford]

I talk about it all the time.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Rocket buying, buying Mr. Cooper. Like this.

[John Gafford]

Redfin and Redfin, a funnel.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Do you understand what that does?

[John Gafford]

Like very well. I understand.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

This is insane. When you talk about they're controlling the transaction there.

[John Gafford]

It's a closed loop system from beginning to end now. Yeah. So for those of you again that don't know, we're talking.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Which is way scarier than Zillow to me.

[John Gafford]

Wait, well, because Zillow super app has never really gotten to where they are.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Although the move of Fallout Boss. And we talk about that in a second because that's insanity. Last week. But. So Rocket bought Redfin, which is an online search portal, second busiest traffic, I think behind Zillow. And they did that because they want to get up funnel. Traditionally, mortgage people are dependent on real estate agents to refer them the business because people start by looking at houses and they start with a real estate agent. Now our Rocket mortgage figures they can get up funnel because now when you look at a property, they can put the mortgage people right on you. So now what they've done is they've gone out and bought Mr. Cooper, which is the third largest mortgage service in the United States. And why is that important? Well, it used to get a. You get a piece of mail every month that says, here's your mortgage statement, here's your escrow account, here's all your stuff and here's where your payment goes. Now most of that is digital. So because now they own this digital thing in your inbox. Now what's going to start to see, and you'll start to see it very soon, is your Mr. Cooper statement isn't just going to say here's your escrow account. It's going to say, hey, by the way, here's some houses that sold around you. Here's what we think your estimated value is. Here's what you. Here's the equity amount you have if you wanted to sell. Here's what you could get if you refi'd click this button and here's all of the stuff. So it's gonna become this, this portal for homeowners every month to look at. And then now they figure if you are even thinking about something, you'll just stay in their ecosystem. Because when you click one of those buttons, you go right back to them. Yeah, that's what they're doing.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Think about the data that they have. They, they, they know exactly what's happening, when it's happening, how to hit you, you're late on your mortgage, hey, here's a solution. I mean, it's a lot of it.

[John Gafford]

Is, and people think that, oh, it's not a big deal. You know, for us, what we've done is we've partnered with a company that's building us a white label product that we can go out with that is going to create a similar homeowner hub for people. But on something I thought was really, really smart and much more practical, which is you've got appliances you like. Your hot water heater is going to break.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Your ice maker is going to break. Something's going to happen in your house. So this creates a hub within your house that's powered by AI, has 90,000 different appliances from hot water heaters to H Vac to everything that you could go wrong with your house. And all you gotta do is take a picture of whatever's happening in your house and it will pull up the user's manual, the warranty information, it'll pull up the troubleshooting for whatever you have. And then if it doesn't, if it can't be, if you can't figure it out, it's got, these are the three people that in your area that are approved to work on that thing. So it solves the problem. And also included on that hub is, hey, here's some stuff that's sold around your house. You can also set it up to like tell you when to change the smoke, the smoke batteries, and then change the filters. But it's things you're actually going to use and it'll track all that stuff in one place. Kind of like a Carfax.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

So you have all of that warranty information, all that stuff. And so we're creating a hub to put people in there. But now as many people we put in every time you, if you're, if your freezer breaks and I was your agent, now I'm calling you up like, hey, what happened to the freezer? It's a touch point. Now I'm Continuing to stay involved in your life. And the reason this is happening with these closed loop systems is because notoriously, realtors are terrible at staying in touch with their clients.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, they're the worst.

[John Gafford]

80% of people don't use the same realtor twice. It's insane how terrible they are. And you know, what do they send? They send a stupid, like Thanksgiving cards and turkeys. Here's some recipes, Pot pie recipe or some garbage. Right. So by creating something of value that works is gonna be huge. I think that's a huge change. And I think if you don't move now, like, I think you're gonna see Zillow counter that. They already are starting by trying to get everybody in America to claim their house on Zillow. Yeah, same idea. So now you give them your day, they can market to you.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Well, and that's so. So this is the thing is like, now we take that a step further with where AI is going. And this is why I think you're going to see a huge fall off of agents. Right. Is because of this technology. Because of this.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's not because that exists. Meaning that technology exists, meaning this portal that you're building, this AI, but now take that portal. And now when they do, click it. Now, as an agent, you don't respond.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

But your AI sends a message, says, yeah, hey, what happened with the freezer? Now, as a whole conversation from you, has a whole conversation, and then they say, oh, yeah, blah, blah. And you say, hey, do you want an update on your home value? Blah, blah, blah. Oh, yeah, sure. Now your AI sends a cma already done. Blah, blah, blah, and sets and books the appointment online.

[John Gafford]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Like that exists. Yeah, right. And so it's going to make agents like you and I way more productive. So I will take more market share than the agents that don't utilize the technology.

[John Gafford]

I will say this about that. It has got to only be a matter of time. The clock has got to be ticking on AI outbound calling. Oh, the clock has got to be ticking on that. Like I. There's no way the government's not going to regulate that because I don't know anybody that gets that. Hi, is this John? Yeah. Okay. No, I hate this.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

They're.

[John Gafford]

I hate it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I, I actually earlier today. So, you know, a big reason everyone's always like, you go to every conference. You know, I speak at a lot of the conferences. Yeah, I do. You know, it's. I do podcasts, I interview people, yada, yada, I run masterminds. When I'm there, why I really go is because I want to meet the people that are doing that are building the next tech.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

As soon as possible.

[John Gafford]

Well, it's like Inman, that Startup alley is the only place I ever go in. Literally, I want to walk down Startup alley. It's all I care.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Literally, that's it. And the little table, not the big booth, the little ones. And I want to see what's happening. Yeah, right. I want to connect with maybe one or two people. I mean like us, we connected at Inman, right?

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And I want to, I want to connect with one or two people, build a good relationship, build something that you know and then, and then I want to see what's coming. I sat down with the tech company earlier. Yo, you would not be able to tell that that was an AI.

[John Gafford]

See, but here's the problem.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Insane.

[John Gafford]

I'm telling you. Here's the, here's the problem.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Insane.

[John Gafford]

One of my good friends is a change agent for major corporations. He flies around the world when they're doing a major thing. He's like the Bob's from office space who doesn't really fire people, but he's just there to implement change.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And he said all of these companies, here's one of the problems. Right. All of these companies are implementing AI at the lowest level. Hanging jobs, which a lot of places are the most customer facing. It's where you touch your customer the most. That's what's being replaced. And the problem is with AI is AI starts with logic and is trying to get to reason.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

We're trying to get to emotion. We as humans start with emotion and then we try to get the logic. So there's this disconnect in the conversation and he goes, the best way I can explain it is it's like Spock talking to Kirk.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And you can just kind of tell that it's, that it's there. And there was the drop offs, the pauses, it's just not quite there. Not saying it won't get there because it absolutely will. But I think again, that's the difference. I like, for example, we just, for my team that works for me, we generate a lot of leads through Google and just online in general, through SEO and everything else. And we were, you know, we had our smart plan set up to like text and power and do all that stuff. And the TCP TCP compliance changes with, you know, texting anymore. The first text has got that, that opt out and we're not texting anymore at all. We're just making calls. And I'm telling you, I. My team is more successful now making calls and having better conversations with people because I think, you know, anytime somebody starts looking for a house, they sign up on, like, five different.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah, exactly.

[John Gafford]

And because I think they're getting pounded with AI bots when they get a real person. It's refreshing.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[John Gafford]

But again, who's willing to. Who's willing to do four hours of cold calling and sit an open house and go door knock for three hours?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Correct. I think it's. I think, like, I don't, I don't believe that AI will ever take my job. No, I believe that I will take other people's jobs while utilizing AI. I think that's the most.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, that's a great way to put it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Like, like, like, like, I don't believe that AI is going to be like, oh, now I don't. You know, I just know I'm going to be way more productive than most agents, so I'm just going to take on 100 clients instead of 10.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Whatever it is. You know what I mean? Like, I think that's the important piece to know. And so, like, it goes back to what we were talking about is, like, who's implementing it and utilizing it. And, like, are you studying it? Do you understand it? And if you don't, like, you're way behind already.

[John Gafford]

Well, right now is the greatest gold rush in real estate. Hang on. Saying the greatest gold rush in, like 10 years. And nobody's talking about it, which is this. Nobody's talking about this. And there's a gold rush going on. The agents in the know are doing well. And look, if you listen to this podcast and you deserve to know because you're listening to me, which is great.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So.

[John Gafford]

Right. I don't. People don't realize this. Google search is down 30%. It's off 30% in a year, 12 months. Where did that 30% of Google search go? It's all in chat, GBT and OpenAI. People think that ChatGPT is like the end all be all. Like, like, if it says, hey, man, call Bob, I gotta call Bob, Right? They believe that. So if you understand how to, like, SEO is dead. You need to be aeo. You need to understand how to feed the robots. So when somebody goes in and has a conversation with them about who is the best listing agent in Orange County, California, your name gets spit out. Because it is not extrapolating that information from any data set that makes sense. Nope, there is no, like, Let me look at all of the data, analyze the data sets that I'm getting fed from Zillow, who is now hooked to OpenAI. It's. That's not how this works. This is being fed from places like Reddit. It's being fed from blogs on your individual website. And the more stuff that you have that is heavy. AI keyword dense. I use the word AI keyword dense, meaning it's built for conversational AI. So when you ask a very specific question in plain English, are you built for that? You have the opportunity. Because I do. I test a lot. Luckily, we have established a beachhead that I'm very proud of. So you start throwing around luxury realtors in Henderson. I'm always at the top and I, you know, I think I've established that beachhead and we fight very hard to protect it. But I think that you have the. There's some names that pop up in different markets or different neighborhoods. I've never heard of these people. I don't know who these people are. And I know they don't have any sales. I could go and court it and pull them up and I know they don't do any business, but yet there they are.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

Because they're feeding the machines from the back end. And again, people still think this is the end all, be all. Which.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Which is 100. 100.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

This is. My point is like if you understand how to utilize AI and you utilize it to the right way, like you'll absolutely crush. Because now again, that's what people are doing is people are going into chat GPT and saying, who's the best agent in this area? Hey, I need a real or hey, I need some advice on buying a house. What's the process? And then if you set it up the right way, you set your blog posts up, you set your stuff on you out. It's going to.

[John Gafford]

You're the source.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And then. And then all of a sudden, who are they when they click the thing, it goes to you.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, we've gotten several. Several. We're already getting lots of listings from people that. How'd you find us? As charity beauty. That's why.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

That's why we're so sick.

[John Gafford]

Because you asked that. Right? So yeah, times, man, they are a changing.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's so, so cool, dude.

[John Gafford]

If you're an agent out in today's world, what's the number one thing you're doing right now? Are you. So are you? Because you can swing the pendulum either way.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Because blunt force, like you said, still works oh, 100%. Going to knock on the doors over here trying to get super techy. I mean, what are you, what are you doing?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

I think, I think that. So the reason I did so well in the business is not just from the blunt force, but because I brought like a lot of the new school stuff in. Right. Like, I brought the tech. I, I wanted the right tech behind it. I think that the most successful agents that I see, and what I would say for an agent to do right now is you should be listening to every single podcast and book and any information on AI that you can at any given moment. Not just about real estate AI, not just from the big real estate coach. Right. But from, from actual, you know, AI developers listening and watching OpenAI stuff and, and like really studying this and becoming a student of this. Because this is what our future is in general. Our kids, that's what they're gonna operate on. I mean, even when you open your iPhone now, you click the button and it freaking opens a image so that you take a picture and ask ChatGPT what it is. Yeah. This is our world.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

We're going to have, I think everybody in the next two years, three years is going to have listening devices on them at any given moment.

[John Gafford]

You see, the Neo Bot came out.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yes.

[John Gafford]

I mean, literally, you can have a slave in your house now for 500 bucks a month, do all your work.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. So this is my point, right? Like, we're here, we're going to have, everyone's going to have listening devices on them. It's going to, I think that, that what's going to end up happening is we're going to have all these listening devices on us. We're going to be having conversations, going to be taking notes. It's going to tell me what to do, how to do it. It's going to optimize my meals, it's going to order my meals. For me, this is where our world is going. Right. And if you don't truly understand it or you don't, you're going to fight it, you're going to fall behind.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

So I think that's, this is very important, but I do really, truly believe that it's about the basics in this industry. Like, I don't think that I think you could get all fancy and, oh, social media this and AI this, but I think that if you don't know and understand how to do the basics, you'll never do extremely well in this business. Right. And you know, the cold calling got me business, but the cold Calling did more than getting me business. It taught me how to talk in the business.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right. And so if you don't do. If you don't like cold calling because you're like, I don't get anything. Well, that's probably because you're not good at it. So you need to do more of it.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And as you do more of it, you're going to get better at it. So use it as training. Right. Like as an athlete, as a professional athlete, you show up to training every day and you have an off season and you still train. And then you go into your season and you're training six days a week to have one game for 90 minutes as a soccer player.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Right. And most soccer players don't play 90 minutes. Maybe. Maybe you got 30 minutes. So you trained all week, two hours a day minimum, to go play 30 minutes on the weekend.

[John Gafford]

That was it.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

And that was it. And so this is business. Like, if you're not training on a daily basis.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Then you're. How do you expect to win in the games? How do you expect to get more minutes? How do you expect to go from 30 to 40 minutes to 90 minutes? You know what I mean?

[John Gafford]

It's one of things I always preach is there's no such thing as a bad appointment.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

No.

[John Gafford]

Like, I love the. I love agents that get on the phone or whatever, they're calling leads or cold calling, whatever they're doing, and they're trying to sift so hard to. That person wants to buy a house today that has perfect credit, that wants to qualify. Well, dude, if you only sat in front of those people, how many people you sit in front of a month? Like, exactly. Like, I don't care if you have a 500 credit score. I want to meet with you because at least then I can do my presentation. I'm sharpening my skills. At the end of it, I go, look, I don't care if you can buy a house today or if. But if it's a dream of yours, we're going to work with you and get this fixed and we're going to accomplish this dream. And in the meantime, if you know anybody, refer me 100%, and they love you because you treat them with respect, it's fine. But it gets you better. Right. So, you know, take as many appointments as you can. That's why open houses are a great place to do that, because at least you're face to face with people.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

And that ability, I'm telling you, in this new age, like, I tell My kids, this all the time, the ability to look and connect with other people and understand what they're doing is going to be such a lost cause because everybody's walking around right now with their phone in front of their face.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Oh, yeah. I mean, you see it, you see it. I mean, probably with. Yeah. Your, your. Your son's age and like this age, you know, 20, probably 23 and under. Right. Where Covid was really a big thing. And during their, like, these kids don't.

[John Gafford]

Talk to each other number on them.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah. Like, they don't talk to each other. They. They're sitting here and texting each other. You know what I mean? And it's like, it's like these, you know, you. If you want to get in this business, especially like being a young agent, getting into this business, like, you're going to have to learn how to have conversations with people, how to put yourself out there, how to get rejected over and over and over and over again. Right. And the best way to do that is by doing the basics is by cold calling, freaking door knocking, and open houses. Like, just get as many at bats as you can.

[John Gafford]

But I think it's also like, again, I said earlier, my superpower is being able to read the room. Yeah. I mean, how many times you been in a room with people and they're telling some long, drawn out, stupid story? And everybody at the table, here's a little tip for you people. This is how you know if you're telling a terrible story. If everybody at the table just starts going, that's crazy. Yeah. If anybody ever says that's crazy to me, I just, I just stop mid sentence and I'm done talking about whatever I was talking about. Because everybody's like, that's crazy. Yeah, they're bored. All right. They're bored. That is new human language for I am bored. Stop talking. So just do that. But learn how to read the room. Learn how to watch. Learn body language. Like, read Chris Voss's stuff. Understand how to, like, pick up on those subtle cues that let you know how you're impacting somebody in that moment.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

Because that's where this, that's where the real sales is happening. That's where the real relationship building is happening. It's where the real rapport is happening.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

100%.

[John Gafford]

Yeah. The script can be as good as you want, but if. If you're not connected with them on that level, you're not getting there.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

It's not going to work.

[John Gafford]

Not going to work. Well, dude, if they want to find you how do they find you?

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Best way to find me Instagram. It's at Cyrusandre. C Y R U S A N D R E. Best way to find me, connect with me, message me, so on and so forth.

[John Gafford]

Cool. Well, brother, I appreciate you coming in, man. I appreciate you welcome every time you're here.

[Cyrus Mossaney]

Hell yeah, dude.

[John Gafford]

All right, well, listen, if you listen to that, the world is changing. Especially, look, even if you're not in real estate, the world's changing. Keep your eyes up. Learn as much as you can. Stay focused, keep control of your life. We'll see you next time. 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 escaping the drift.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.