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School of Hard Knocks Podcast
Ryan Serhant | Luxury Real Estate Mogul & Influencer - How He Became the #1 Luxury Realtor in the World & Essential Keys to Success
00:19:02
Ryan Serhant is the Founder and CEO of SERHANT a vertically-integrated mega brokerage comprising an in-house film studio, education arm, marketing division, and technology platform. He's also a bestselling author, producer, and star of Bravo's Million...
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- [00:00]
A
What's going on, Hard Knocks family? And welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James here with Jack and Josh, and we have a very special guest today. We are out in New York City with the real estate legend Ryan Serhant. He's sold and generated billions of dollars worth of real estate throughout his career. One of the most renowned real estate figures of all time in the real estate game. Very happy to be out here in New York City.
- [00:22]
B
What's up, guys?
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C
How are we doing?
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B
Right? What's going on? Thanks for coming up. Thanks for bringing coats. I know it's cold compared to where you're coming from.
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A
Appreciate you, my friend. So thanks again for having us. We want to jump in and ask you some questions on what really takes to make it in entrepreneurship, the real estate game. But before we get into some questions, I'd love for you to. For newer viewers, people that may have not seen you before, give them a little bit of your backstory, some of your story, kind of really how you got to where you are now.
- [00:43]
B
Sure. So I was born in Texas. I was born in Houston. Let's go. I was born in Houston on a mattress, not in a hospital. Born in a house outside Houston. And then I bounced around a lot. I moved like eight times until I hit fourth grade. Went to lots of different schools. Wasn't really great at any one thing. The one thing I was good at, though, was theater. I was good at the school plays and school musicals, and that's just sort of where I would go, I think, just because I was so terrible at sports and my parents made me play every single sport, like, every sport, and I was just bad at all of them. And then I ended up going to college in upstate New York and then graduated in 2006 and came down to New York City from there and gave, like, the theater thing a shot. I tried to go to law school. Couldn't get in. And so I was just like, I guess I'm just gonna go and do theater and try to the acting thing. And that was also hard. And that didn't work out either. I totally ran out of money after two years. And when I ran out of money, I was telling you this story earlier, but my debit card was declined at a grocery store, and I had to go and get a job, right? And I wasn't gonna move home because I didn't want to give up. I didn't want to ask for money from anybody or ask friends. I always wanted to just earn my way forward. I felt like, that was the best. I don't want to ever owe anyone anything. And so I got my real estate license because I thought I could make my my own hours. And that's what I started doing in the fall of 2008, right as the stock market was crashing. You guys are super young, but that was a bad time in the world. It was what kicked off the Great Recession. And that's the market that I started to learn in. And then it's been up and up and up ever since. Most people know me from a TV show called Million Dollar Listing New York that was on TV for 10 years on a channel called Bravo or they follow me on, you know, YouTube or Instagram or TikTok or any of the other social channels now. And now we've built our own real estate brokerage. You know, we do somewhere between four and five billion dollars a year in sales. We've got agents across eight states. We have an education business called sellit.com that we have been working on since 2019. There it is. There you go, Brav. So we. That was called Sell It Like Sirhan for a long time, based off my first book. I've written three books now. First one was called Sell It Like Sirhan. We did a separate TV show for it and then created an education business out of it and really just started educating future salespeople across all sales industries. And that's been huge and awesome. And then we have a production company that creates all top of top of funnel content all day long. And so, so far so good.
- [03:22]
A
Incredible. So at an early age, early in your career, you possess that ability to evolve. Right. A lot of people, they'll have their mindset on something. As far as for you, for example, you were all in on acting going into theater. And I think of it as like an athlete. Right. They are set. I'm going to go to the NFL. I'm going to go to the NFL and it doesn't happen. And they end up losing that identity. How are you able to ultimately pivot and be okay with accepting that, hey, maybe this acting thing isn't for me, it's not going to work out, but I'm gonna go crush it somewhere else. Could you kind of talk a little bit about that ability that you had to evolve and change and adapt quickly?
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B
Yeah. So acting was what I thought was gonna be the right road for me, but I always knew that there's probably a lot of roads ahead of me. I just don't know which one is gonna be the road that takes Me to the highway of life. But I chose success first. Like, first and foremost, I thought it was gonna be theater. Then I thought it was gonna be something else. Then I thought it was gonna be something else, Then I thought it was gonna be something else. And then I tried real estate. And that's where I kind of found what you would call, like, product market fit. Right? So I'm the product, you know, I'm the entrepreneur. I'm the. I'm the person who's running around without a normal job. Like, I'm the person who's. Who's, you know, building a personal brand. We all have personal brands, right? And so where do I. Where do I find product market fit for that? And I found it in real estate. But I didn't choose the career. I chose success. I want to be successful. Like, I want to not have to worry about money ever again. Like I used to. Like, that's a decision that I've made, right? I want to take control of my own life. That's a decision that I've made. I want to have a nice house and not worry about how much it cost me per month. Like, that's. That's a decision that I made. And so I chose success over everything. And so that's enabled me not to then have my life attached to one career goal and then to be able to pivot. Like, I. I didn't know that we were going to start a huge sales training business, right, for businesses and for individual salespeople. Like, that wasn't on the cards for me 10 years ago, but that's where we are now. And so I think you just have to paddle down that river, right, and go with where the waves move and how the world works. And, you know, even now, like, you're in a building that we have in Soho, right? It's a clubhouse. Had this been 2018, I don't think we would be here. Actually, we wouldn't be here because this building was built for Tommy Hilfiger and it was there. It was their flagship store in New York City. But who needs flagship stores anymore, right? We do, but that's not what the building was built for. So you move with life, right? And you pivot where needed.
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C
Yeah. Thousands of people get into real estate every single year. Just like you'd made that pivot to go into real estate. What was that key difference that you had that was able to get you started in real estate all the way up to now where you're working, where you have a brokerage and you're able to work with luxury real estate.
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B
So I looked around at the people that were selling a lot because I was selling zero, right? So I said, okay, well, what are those people that sell a lot? What do they have? 1. They have a lot of connections. Well, I don't have those yet, so I can work on those no problem. That's. That's. Future me has connections. Great. What else do they have? They. They have a lot of information, okay? So information is public. They don't need to look it up because they've just been doing it forever. So they have that experience. But I can go memorize information. That's what I did in theater all the time. So I can memorize information. And then they've got confidence. The confidence comes from knowing the information and then having the connection. So how can I manufacture that for myself right now? How can I have that? My second book was called Big Money Energy. So that's what I always used to call it. I was like, how do I have big money energy without having any money? Like, how can I have that level of confidence where I'm not faking it, right? I'm just acting like. Like future me. And so I saw that really what the best salespeople were doing was they would. They would tell a story, right? It's like, that's what we've all. That's what human beings have always done. Like the Bible is a story, right? We would tell these stories, right? That get people excited, that get them emotionally attached to, right? You follow stories, you don't follow facts, right? Facts tell. Stories sell. And so I saw that they were taking. Forget the connections. You had information and you had confidence. Both of those things together created a story. And so your question was, how did I differentiate myself to get into luxury real estate? So I realized that, wait a minute. I've actually been training my whole life to tell stories. That's what I did. That's what acting school is like. You get up on stage, you learn how to breathe, and you go and tell stories as somebody else, as yourself, whatever it might be. And so I'm going to align my core identity with real estate. Yes. But then storytelling, which then turned into, like, media, right? Like, we're telling stories right now, right on camera. And so I was able to really differentiate myself from people that just woke up every day and went and told facts all day long about properties. And I went and told stories about those facts without changing the facts. But I could tell those stories. And I started doing it on tv on. We did four TV shows on, you know, national network television. We're doing it now across social, telling stories about properties. We do property tours all day, every day. We sell things sight unseen. I just sold a house for $60 million over video. Never even met the buyer. So we do things in a different way now. And now we have a new TV show that comes out on Netflix in a couple months. That's all. Again, storytelling and just finding that niche. Like you asked me before, finding that niche is really diving into it.
- [08:56]
D
When people think of Ryan Sirhant today, they think of the star of Million Dollar Listing, the guy that closes billions of dollars of real estate every single year. But it didn't always start that way. And matter of fact, when you started and auditioned for Million Dollar Listing, you were nowhere near as successful as you are today. Could you give story of when you're first auditioning for Million Dollar Listing and how you're able to get that gig?
- [09:18]
B
Yeah. So I moved to New York to do theater. It didn't work out and I ran out of all my money. And it was move home to Colorado or get a job. And I didn't want a job that just stuck me at a desk all day because I didn't know what I would do. Like, I didn't have skills, right? But I, but I could tell stories all day. And so I got my real estate license and as long as I can make $2,000 a day, that's what I do. So that's what happened September 2008. Got my license and started renting apartments. I'd meet people on Craigslist, I'd meet them at Starbucks. I'd meet pregnant women and just tell them they look great and looks like they need more space. Right? So you had a baby of joy coming. You need a two bedroom. Like that's what you would do, right? And some of them did. They were like, you know what? We've been procrastinating. Can you show us some two bedrooms? And then boom, I can make $1,000 or 500 bucks or whatever it would be to pay my own rent, you know, and start building a life. And so I put theater and acting completely to the side. But I knew how to do it. I'd done it for 20 years. And so I got into real estate and I started taking it more seriously and I started doing sales. And then there was an open casting call that said that Bravo TV was looking for the New York cast of a show they already had called Million Dollar Listing, which is based in Los Angeles. And so they Were holding open call auditions, kind of like, you know, like the Voice or American Idol or something. It's just like thousands of people can show up and they're going to see you all for 15 seconds apiece. And so I went to the Hudson Hotel in Times Square in March of 2010 with 3,000 real estate agents in New York City. There's a lot. I mean, there was at that time, there were like 50,000 agents. I think there's something like 80,000 real estate agents in New York now. And so I went to that open casting call, and I'd only been doing it for a little over a year, but they were looking for the best of the best. And so I told them I was the best of the best. Like, you know, I've always been a big believer in positioning myself as future Ryan. Like, I'm not going to show you who I am today. I'm showing you who I know I'm going to be a year from now, right? Or two years from now, because that's who I work for. Especially when you're a solo entrepreneur, like, you work for you in the future, that person really, really, really hopes that you do your job today, right? And that you showed up today. And so that's why we do things. That's why you make sacrifice, right? That's why you watch what you eat. That's why you make sure you sleep and you do things, like, because future you is going to be thankful versus future you being like, fuck my life. What do we do? And so at that audition, I went in and it was a casting crew out of la, and so they were sitting in New York and they asked me, like, you know, so how do you get around New York City? And so Ryan, at the time, got around New York City using us on a subway, right? I had, like, my Metro card, but I knew that that's not what they were looking for. So I said black car by day, Range Rover by night. Because I just. I knew that one day I would. I would be successful enough to be able to afford both of those things. There's just no. There was no Uber back then. And they were like, oh, okay, cool, cool, cool. I was like, if I need to, I can find a Range Rover. I don't have one right now, but I could go get one, no problem. And they were like, how much do you sell? I was like, a lot, a lot. Just move the conversation on. I'm not going to give them a number. I'd only just started selling, but I sell a lot. So I never lie. You never lie. Lying is awful. But you always project. You project your future. It's the same way businesses like the stock market, they're not valued on what their revenue is today. They're valued on the next quarter's revenue. They're valued on the future revenue. They're valued on the growth. You buy a share of Apple, not because of the iPhone that they made 12 years ago, but because of where that company's going in the future, because you want to make a return. So, same thing when it comes to casting for a reality TV show. They're not casting you as you are today. They're casting the person that's going to be able to show up on camera every day for a year once you start that process. They asked me why they should cast me, and I was like, because I'm the greatest fucking real estate broker in the history of the known universe. And they were like, we've never even heard of him. But okay, got it perfect, you know, and then a lot of other questions. And then they disappeared and they came back. Then it disappeared for a while. And like, nine months later, they cast me. And they cast four of us on that show the first season, and there was only three of us who were on it because they said, we're gonna film the whole season with four of you. The three best will make the final edit. So good luck. Super stressful. And we shot for all of 2011 and it came out in 2012. Yeah.
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A
A lot of ultra successful people in real estate may argue that the money is still to be made in the traditional advertising and marketing, whether it be billboards, whether it be, you know, commercials, whether it be, you know, radio. You beg to differ though, right? You built a massive online presence, in particular on social media. What would you say to those people that think that, you know, you can't sell homes or luxury estate through, you know, social media like you have.
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B
Right.
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A
Because there are those people out there that may argue that they think the wealthy people, they're still looking for traditional advertising. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, we.
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B
The proof is in the pudding now. Like, we just. We just done it. I don't remember the last time we did a print ad. I know. We do them. Our agents do do them. There are certain markets, like Palm Beach, Hamptons, like, where we do do them. Our developers do run print ads. We do digital banner ads. We do do newspaper stuff sometimes, but the dollars are best used digitally. I can hit somebody on TikTok or on YouTube or on Instagram. So much faster and control that audience compared to who's going to read a newspaper. I don't even remember the last time I saw a newspaper, to be honest. I honestly don't know. We don't get them at this office. And so the world has to move and you have to move with it. That doesn't mean that everything goes away. Billboards are super powerful. They're also super expensive. The billboard on top of this building I think is like $45,000 a month for the billboard, right? Like, I don't know. That has to be a good investment for you. Some billboards are a million dollars. You know, they can be expensive. But I also am not necessarily trying to reach the buyer of a $50 million penthouse on social. Right. I think people are confused. Is my buyer on social media? Yeah, they all are. You know, even my dad goes on Facebook. He's like 75 years old. But the buyer's kids are on social. You guys are on social. Your little brothers and sisters are on social. And the first time I saw it happen was like seven years ago. Oh, no. I guess at this time it's like eight years ago or longer. We had a house in Chelsea, $15 million, really tough sell. We made a great property tour. We cut it up completely vertically. We found those nuggets and we put it out across social. A 13 year old girl saw it, showed it to her mom. Her mom only wanted to be on the east side of the city, didn't want to be on the west side, didn't even want a townhouse. Mom came through, they bought it for $13 million. Now, did the deal get done in DM? No. There's paperwork, there's legal, right. You have attorneys and all that. But that point of first contact happened through an advertising medium that my traditional competition would say is stupid. We just launched Mercedes Benz in Miami. The first Mercedes Benz brand of residences in the western hemisphere, right? All of North America, et cetera. We sold 100 apartments in the first four days through social and through digital awareness. We still have not taken out an ad anywhere. It's all been organic. And that's a big reason that people also hire us, you know, and hire our firm. I will say caveat. We have a huge following and so we use it. A lot of my competition does not, which is why they should come and work for us.
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A
So I know we could ask you questions all day, but I'll ask you one more. So somebody starting out in the real estate game today, give them the blueprint to becoming a Real estate multimillionaire like Ryan Serhan. In today's world, if you could leave them with kind of the blueprint on what it really takes, right, you're part of the top 1% in this industry. What are you doing that 99% of other people just aren't doing? And that's preventing them from getting to that success.
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B
So, I mean, the first thing I'm doing is I'm learning all day, every day. It's the whole reason we started sell it.com. like I learn all day, every day. There's always better ways to learn. There's always better ways to close. There's always better ways to meet new clients, build pipeline, generate leads, do ads, build your personal brand, all of that stuff, right? There's always new ways. And the world is changing every single day. So if you're not investing into learning and being a part of that kind of learning community, the way we have it at Sell it, then I don't know what you're doing. If you look at the top athletes in the world, 95% of their life they spend practicing, 5% in the game. And yet people in real estate, people in sales of any industry spend 95% of their time in the game and 5% practicing. Doesn't make any sense to me. And then I would align myself with a strong brand partner, somebody who's going to help you that you're going to be a mentor with. If you're brand new in the business, the first three years are graduate school. Like that is school. If you make money, you're lucky. Everything else, you're just there to learn. So do not be swipe happy, right? And then make sure too, that if you're getting into real estate, that you have some passion about the process. You don't have to love crown molding, but you have to love making deals, right? You have to love the life that that career could buy you and really find that passion. Commerce. I think that's really important.
- [18:43]
A
I love it. Perfect, guys. That's a wrap on today's podcast episode at the School of Hard Knocks. Be sure to like and subscribe. Subscribe because we've got amazing collaborations and content on the way. Click the link in the description to subscribe to the Hard Knocks newsletter. Right now we're sending out weekly updates and insights from the world's top entrepreneurs. Ryan, thank you so much for being with us here today.
- [19:00]
B
Where can everybody find you at Ryan Serhant?