← Stay Paid Podcast
Stay Paid Podcast
Forever Agent Mindset: Serving Clients Beyond Transactions
00:50:50
In this episode of Stay Paid, Luke & Josh sit down with Troy Reierson, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Arizona, California & Nevada Properties, and JT Thompson, industry veteran and general manager, to talk about the real fundamentals...
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign welcome to Stay Paid, your number one sales and marketing podcast on a mission to help you close more deals, keep more clients and build the life of freedom you are working towards. But that can only happen if you are willing to take action today. My name is Josh Dike, Chief Marketing Officer at Reminder Media and as always joined by Luke Acre, President of Reminder Media. And our guest today is Troy Ryerson. Troy is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Arizona County, California and Nevada Properties. With a career built on navigating and leading through the fast changing real estate landscape, Troy is equal parts strategist, mentor and growth champion. Known for helping agents unlock their full potential while driving innovation and performance across his organizations. Troy, welcome to Stay Paid. Thanks for being here.
- [00:48]
B
Awesome. Well, thank you both for reaching out. It's, it's a pleasure and an honor to, to hang with both you guys today.
- [00:55]
C
Yeah. Troy, I'm excited to have you on the show. You are truly a master in the space. You have a lot of experience. I want to come and ask you one of difficult questions that agents are dealing with right now or things that are happening to them, which is the interest rates and what's happening with inventory and all the pent up demand on the sideline. I think interest rates, you know, hovering around 6.8% or so and the struggle is, you know, that's driving, you know, prices higher, the inventory. You know, some markets it's more, some markets it's less. It's really confusing for people. The economists that NAR are saying if interest rates come down to 6%, there should be a wave of transactions coming onto the market is what they're predicting. So I'm just curious, what are you coaching because you manage, you know, some massive markets there with California and Arizona, Nevada. What are you trying to share with your agents of how to deal with this problem with interest rates and pricing and inventory?
- [01:53]
B
Well, great question, Luke. It's, it's, it's, it's the pandemic problem that we all have right now. And I think the biggest area that we're leaning into is simply this. Rates are what rates are. Okay? So many of our folks forget about how important it is to utilize their sphere and I call it their atm. I mean, that's really where everything sits, is inside their sphere. So a big area we focus on is just making sure that your database is up to date. I mean, is it clear? Are you logging your conversations in there? Do you know everything you need to know about those that are inside of your ATM or inside of Your sphere. And if they are fantastic, because your conversations are going to be much greater and they're going to add more. You're going to be able to add more value faster to those individuals, whether they're looking to buy or sell or do nothing. Your conversation can roll as it needs to roll. It's going to feel genuine, it's going to feel authentic, and most importantly, you're going to be able to touch more people faster. What we're finding is this. A lot of us do a very bad job of keeping our sphere up to where it needs to be. And if it's.
- [03:08]
C
You're telling me, man, it's why we're in business. I keep telling agents this. I'm like, yes, preach, you know, anyways, everybody, if we lost you, you come back, listen to Troy right now and remindermedia.com no, I'm just kidding.
- [03:21]
B
No, man, no, it's it, you know, and so much of it is, look, we look at it as it is an administrative task. And for those that are extremely successful, they shouldn't be doing it themselves. They should be paying somebody. They don't, they're not working a 15 or $20 an hour job. That's why they do what they do. So, so what we're talking is, look, get the help you need, even in a downtime, right? Because there's two things that we need to focus on. Interest rates are what they are. You can help people understand their why at a greater level. And oftentimes their why is simply because they're bored or they're tired of the home that they're in. That's a tough person to move right now. Their why may not be strong enough. We know that if there's, you know, death, baby, divorce, those types of things, then it's a little bit different. But what we're finding, and Luke and Josh, I know you guys are seeing the same thing. It's hard to leave a 3% mortgage rate to go into 6.8% mortgage rate and buy a lot less home for a lot more money. You know, one avenue we talk about is is there an opportunity for that, for those folks to perhaps rent their home at, with a 3% mortgage rate while they move into something different and perhaps they're earning some income with that property to help them with the new property until things stabilize or change. So what we want to do is dive in deeper, find out what's important to them. And if and when there is no level of importance at this time, you keep in touch, you touch that sphere Continuously. But you might touch that sphere a little more sporadic than others. So I mean for us, it's like make sure that sphere is tight. Now I want to give you one other tip on this. This is something we're really big in and our folks hear me say this all the time. We really have two jobs. Our first job is prospecting. You need to prospect to find people that are interested in purchasing a product that you have availability to. That's your number one job. When you find that person, you know what your second job is. You service that person better than anyone else in the world can service that person. And that's it. That two jobs. With those two jobs, if you're doing anything else outside of those two jobs that doesn't touch one of those two jobs, stop doing it. And with rates where they're at today, and this is critical, those two jobs, you can perform exponentially more. You've got a lot more time on your hands to make a lot more call calls. And I know this is an eye opener to people like, oh my gosh, I didn't think about that. I typically make 10 calls a day. Well, why aren't you making 40 calls a day right now? Because it's going to take a lot more effort today than it ever used to. So if you're not in. Yeah, I mean, Luke, you get it. If you're not changing with our environment, you're not going to get any better results. Matter of fact, you're going to get worse results.
- [06:18]
C
So it's, it's so true. Because I find in business in general, like what you just did is simplicity drives clarity. Clarity allows you to execute. And the thing that we always do as people is we get paralysis by analysis. And the saying goes, if you confuse, you lose. And what's happening to agents right now is they're confused because they don't have clarity. And they don't have clarity because they're over complicating what the business really is about. And if you just, just rewind people for literally the last 30 seconds, you just got immense clarity. You only have two things you have to do. You have to prospect and you have to serve better than anybody else. And if you just know that it drives such ability to execute. We have found with Acre Brothers Real Estate, exactly what you're recommending when it comes to like your sphere. Like I am teaching people right now, you need to be educating now more than ever because I'll give you a real world scenario. I was at one of our church meetings the other Day we were doing like kind of this Bible study thing and John, one of the members at the church was there and he literally shared with me the exact thing that you just referenced. Him and his wife and family have a home. They have a really low interest rate in the threes, and they're thinking about buying another home and renting their current home because they, they don't want to lose that 3%. And so it's literally exactly what you're saying. But here's the catch for everybody. You'll never know that if you don't reach out to your sphere and have the combos around that strategy. So like, what's the action item? Hey, all you have to do is prospect. You need to make your calls. What call are you making? You need to call all your sphere this week and educate them on what's happening with interest rates. Educate them on what you're seeing some of your clients do. And even if the majority, 98% don't take advantage of it, guess what you just did though. You added value. You elevate it yourself as a subject matter expert. And ultimately, when the time comes where they're looking to buy, seller, invest in real estate, they'll choose you. So it's just, I want the audience to catch that the difference in the separator between really successful people in business and ones that aren't are the people that can take action. But you only take action if you have clarity, and you only have clarity if you have simplicity. And so you have to get down to the simple fundamentals in the business. You want to let. J.T.
- [08:39]
A
We'Re going to breaking news.
- [08:41]
C
We're bringing in the big guns right now.
- [08:43]
A
JT JT Thompson joining. We had a little Internet issue in the beginning, so we're bringing JT back on real quick. I want to introduce him as a 38 year old veteran of the real estate industry. He is the co founder of Interior and Taro Real Estate Services and now general manager of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. Arizona, California and Nevada properties. JT can you hear us? All right, there you are, brother.
- [09:07]
D
Five minutes in, the Internet just shuts off.
- [09:09]
C
That's okay. We, we were forgiving you, but Troy, man, he was ripping you a new one. We were like, we're ready to close out.
- [09:15]
B
It's not okay. It's not okay.
- [09:17]
C
And I like how you call me 38 years. Come on, man. Professionalism.
- [09:23]
D
Yeah, there you go.
- [09:24]
A
Well, 38 year veteran. Yeah, yeah, sure.
- [09:28]
C
I got a question for you, J.T. right. With nearly 40 years.
- [09:33]
D
What's wrong with me?
- [09:34]
C
What keeps real estate. Yeah, exactly. That literally is. That's the more appropriate way to say it. I was going to say, what keeps real estate exciting? And how do you instill, like, instill the same fire into your agents, you know, especially the ones who might be struggling or facing the burnout? I mean, we just got through talking with Troy about the problem right now with interest rates and, you know, agents are struggling. Like, you've been in it for almost 40 years. How do you keep that fire alive? And how do you teach agents who are feeling a little burned out?
- [10:04]
D
You know, the fun part about what we do is there's always somebody that's having their best year ever. In fact, Troy, you just. You went to lunch with one of our agents yesterday having his best year ever, right? And so, you know, making sure everyone understands that no matter what the market conditions, Right. You got to get it out of your head. This. This. This game, this business is so much in your head as well, you know, you know, how hard are you working at really enjoying what you're doing, having fun, you know, and growing and learning? Because I'm always having fun when I'm growing and learning. And this business is constantly shifting, constantly changing. You're needing to always develop new skills. Last year, of course, you know, the being able to develop a skill of talking to a buyer about your value, having them sign a contract, that was a new skill that you needed to learn and grow and develop on. So whenever I'm doing that and whenever I know the people around me are doing that in their business, never fails that they end up, no matter what the market conditions are, they're doing okay.
- [11:09]
C
Yeah, it's super. Well said. I'm curious, you know, especially for you, Troy, because your background, it was a little different coming up the ranks in the real estate industry. And, you know, you got to see it from the side of, like, the companies that sell to real estate agents and then, you know, getting in with the real estate agents. What do you see in yourself? And it's hard for people to brag about themselves. I get this. But I would ask you and JT to brag about yourself a little bit. Why is it that you've made it to becoming CEO of these three major areas and brand like, what. What has enabled you to do that? As you look at your skill set versus what other people maybe lack, what would you say is a separator for you that you would encourage others to have?
- [11:57]
B
You know, Luke, I'll just. I'll Just say it simply, work works. You. You work hard every single day. You leave it all in the field. I'm sure, Luke, you and your team do the same thing. It's. If you're going to bed at night exhausted, it means you did what you were supposed to do, you know, go. Working my way through all the different things that I've done, from mortgage to Zillow to. I'm sorry. We're not supposed to swear. I know that. Sorry about that, guys. But, you know, to all the things right to. To where I am today, it's. It's really no different than how a real estate professional works their sphere. My sphere was different. My sphere was working with a lot of executives throughout the years and helping them with their business. As a matter of fact, the company I'm running today is a gentleman. He was a client of mine back in the day, and he literally tapped me on the shoulder. I told him I was looking to perhaps move on from what I was doing. I was in mergers and acquisitions with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, running, you know, the western half of the country. And I said, hey, man, I need to be home more. And he's like, troy, don't do anything. I got something for you. And, you know, we talked it through, and he brought me in as his general manager at the time, and then very quickly decided he wanted to retire after that. But, you know, is there. Look, there's no magic pill at the end of the day, I'd love to say, here's what you can do to become successful in life. There's no magic pill other than putting the time in. And those that know me know that I'm a time management junkie. If there's anything that I probably do okay in life, it's managing my time and making sure that I'm extremely efficient with every minute of the day. The last thing I want to do, Luke and Josh, is look back and go, oh, my gosh, there was this big gap in my calendar. What did I do during that time? Because that's one thing I'll never be able to purchase more of or buy back, and that never leaves my mind. Am I making every minute of the day count? Just like right now with your podcast, there's nothing more important in my day than to making sure that I am 100% present with the two of you. Three of you with JT here, if JT drops again, it'll just be the two of you again. But with all of you, there's. There's nothing more important to me right now than doing this because I want to make a difference wherever I can. And again, to simplify it, guys, work works. Never go half in. And never ever look at a plan B because there is no plan B if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing.
- [14:34]
C
Yeah, it's funny because you said you wanted to get off the road and have more time and they literally brought you into real estate, which is historically known for not getting your hours back. So can you dive a little bit more in the practicality of the time management? Like what does, how do you manage your calendar? How are you encouraging agents to manage their calendar to be masters of time management?
- [15:01]
B
Yeah, again, great question. And part of that is, you know the old adage, and I think most of us understand what time blocking is. And if you don't, it's very simple. In your calendar, you have specific things that you're doing at specific times every day. And look, in real estate, I know it can get a little haphazard at times, but it doesn't mean that your prospecting hours can't be from 8am to 10am every single day. And that's what you do. It doesn't mean that you don't show homes from noon to five every day. And that's what you do. Again, you create your calendar. You own your calendar because it's your time, it's no one else's. What we do, where we struggle perhaps a little bit in our industry is setting boundaries because we always need to be available for clients. Which is which, you're right. We do need to be available for our clients, but you also need to be available for your family. And when I transitioned over from working for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services on the mergers and acquisition side, I was traveling 99% of the time. I was running 13 states. And that's what I need. That's what I wanted to get away from, was traveling every single week. I don't mind traveling from time to time. I still travel in this job. We have three states that we work in. But I didn't want to travel, you know, nearly 100 of the time. And by doing that, I now have structured my day accordingly. I start early, I'm using the office by 6:30, and I usually try to get out of the office about 4, 4:30, but it doesn't mean my phone. What time do you get up? I, I, I'm a little later guy, I get up about 5:30 and I, and I know others are getting up.
- [16:39]
A
So you literally, you're really sleeping in.
- [16:41]
C
Yeah, if you get up and you're right to the office right away.
- [16:45]
B
But. But to me, again, I go to bed early too, you guys. I mean, I'm in bed by 8:30, lights out, probably typically no later than 9, 9:15, lights are out and I'm asleep. So sleep is so critical to managing your time because if you're groggy, I'm realizing that.
- [17:00]
C
Right? Yeah, I'm realizing that same thing right now is that, oh gosh, I really got to be as intentional about my quality of sleep. I'm starting to wear my Apple watch at night just to try to track similar. Yeah, because you realize how much it's like an athlete, Right. It affects everything you do and your ability to perform. You know, I'm curious because I'm starting to lean in, you know, because I'm less in my journey than you guys have, not as long in it. And I'm starting to realize the calendar is almost the most important thing in your business. Like how, like I used to start with agents when I was, you know, working with them all on their marketing strategies, and now I'm backing it all the way up even to the why, you know, of a. I need to know your motivation. That's core. But it's like, okay, let's look at how you're spending your time and your money because that tells us everything we need to know about your belief system in your life. But I still struggle. Like the big pain point. And maybe jt, you chime in on this too. The big pain point is because I have two agents I can think of right now that I'm trying to get their. Tim, his biggest problem is time management. We say it every call we have on Thursdays. And Noah, his biggest problem is being able to stick to what he put on his calendar because something pops up and then it's like, okay, I said I was going to do prospecting between these hours, something popped up. So now he's no longer doing the prospecting, but now he's off on his commitment. So how do you, as a leader, should I hold him accountable and say, hey, you didn't do what you said you were going to do. Right. Should I call him out? Or like, do you give grace and say you, you should have a flexible shift? Like, what's your guys thoughts on this? This is a huge problem that I'm seeing.
- [18:43]
D
I had a fun game I would play with agents and I still will to this day. One of the hard parts is they, you know, I asked for just, can you give me one day? I'll let you screw up the other four or five, however many you're working in the week, but give me one day. Give me an Excel spreadsheet. If it was perfect, if it was ideal, what would you do from the second you woke up to the second you went to bed? And I want it down to the half hour, the entire day spelled out. And then I want you to pick one day next week. You know, tell your family, tell your friends that you're going to be stupidly obsessed about following this schedule. Literally. Like, if this podcast. If I had something else scheduled at 8:30, I'd be telling you guys right now, guys, it's 8:29. I got to go at 8:30, right? You. You just. You stop everything just for one day. Give it to me for one day. Then give that to your coach, give that to your manager. Give that to anybody that cares for you. And then I would get it, I would usually revise it. But then five, six times throughout the day, I would just call. If they said they were going to get up at 4:30, at 4:31, I would call them and go, are you up? Okay, bye. Boom. And I'd hang up. I'd hold them accountable for just that one day to exactly doing what they said they were going to do. And then the next day, we analyze how they felt about what they got done in that day. And everybody is always blown away about, oh, my God, the day. I had time for everything. The day seemed to last forever. I wasn't rushed because they moved right through their schedule and they had somebody holding them accountable to it. I just would call them all. They're like, are you doing this? Are you having lunch with your wife? Because that's what you said you were supposed to be doing. Yep. Okay, bye. Boom. And then I would hang up. And it's a great exercise to run with, with agents.
- [20:33]
C
Yeah, I'll jump on that reminder. Media too. Yeah, please do jump on.
- [20:37]
B
Yeah, I'll jump on that as well. Look, if you're pushing things aside and other things are getting in the way, all you're telling me is this is not your priority. If prospecting is not your priority, that's okay. But you're just telling me real estate's not your priority either. And again, that's okay. This job is not for everybody. You know, those two individuals that you're working with currently, Luke, they're just telling you it's not as important as, you know, Johnny calling me about going to lunch Right now, it's just not. And again, own that. Just be okay with it, but also be okay not succeeding in real estate or just be okay doing a couple deals a year. I don't know if that's okay with you and your team and your code of honor on your team. Maybe not.
- [21:21]
C
It's not.
- [21:22]
B
Well, there you go. So then what you are. I'll tell you this, by keeping them, if they're not willing to make the change and you working with them and maybe holding them a little bit more accountable, like JT was saying, hold them heavily accountable for a couple of weeks and they may self select and say, this is not the team for me. Well, it's okay, you're not really losing anything. Or they might say, thank you, Luke. That's exactly what I needed to be all in. And I think, I don't think what I, what I, what I know is people think they can't be 100% all in with real estate because then they can't be 100% all in with the fun that they want to do or 100% all in with their family. And I'll tell you this, you can be 100% all in, in everything that you do if you block the time to do it. And that's what I don't think. I think that's what you're not getting with this, with these couple of folks on your team.
- [22:17]
C
Yeah, it's a, it applies so much with Reminder Media, our business here. You know, we have, I don't know, almost 300 team members. And no matter how we try to structure things strategy wise, everything, it literally comes down to checking in on the people to verify did they do what they said they were going to do. And no leader, every leader wants the, to give their people autonomy. But the more experience you have in true leadership, your job is deceptive vision. But get their commitment of what they say, working together, what they say they want, what they say they're going to do. And then you must religiously check in on that. And I've just, it's kind of the Robert Herjavec I heard at a conference say one time that he got the chance to sit down with Elon Musk. And he was saying, elon, a lot of my people are telling me that I'm a micromanager. And he said, Elon looked at him and said, you're a micromanager? I'm a nano manager. And I go, that stuck with me because nobody wants to hear that. But all the greatest, at least for Me, because, I mean, it's probably arrogant, but I consider myself to be an A player. I want the nano management. Like, if I was on your team, Troy, I would want you to be, like, basically on me, like, right on. Right. Just. Just picking apart everything that I'm doing to try to make me better. That has been my experience. I don't know if you guys find the same, but not a lot of people want that. And it's hard because. Do you put up with the. I call him Thomas the Tank Engines. Do you know what I mean? Do you put up with the people? It's like, yeah, they're. They're producing a couple of deals in here and there. They're. They're doing, I think.
- [24:00]
B
Do you put up with those people?
- [24:01]
C
How do you make that call with what you guys?
- [24:03]
D
For me, you know, I say yes, you put up with them because running a big, you know, company like we have, you know, not everybody's ready for that type of accountability at every given spot in their life, but you have to be there and be ready when they're ready to jump in and go, I'm here for you. You're not clearly demonstrating that you want it right now, but when you do and when you're ready to have somebody hold you accountable to what you really want, I'm here for you and I'll support it and I'll be there. But in the meantime, if they're not going to participate, there's nothing a good coach can do.
- [24:43]
C
Yeah, that's super. Well said. That's a great way to think about it. When you're ready, I'm here for you. When you're ready.
- [24:47]
B
Yeah.
- [24:48]
C
When you're ready, I'm here for you. Because it has the right tone to it, too. And it's also, you know, what true leadership's about is, you know, being there for people.
- [24:57]
D
Okay.
- [24:58]
C
I would love to switch gears a little bit and talk, you know, kind of how the industry is changing with AI and technically how you guys are thinking about your brand and how you differentiate yourself in the marketplace, not just with, like, AI and tech, but in general. Like, how does a real estate agent stand out today? Because there's so many agents. The average consumer knows what four agents right now that they're connected to is what some of the stats are saying. So how do you separate yourself from the competition and how are you guys thinking about AI and all of that?
- [25:31]
D
Troy, that's right up your alley with what you've been working on, so.
- [25:36]
C
Sure, sure.
- [25:37]
B
Well, you know what Separates us. It's not fair to say that anything has separated us in AI yet. You know, I'd love to say, you know, we're making all these massive strides. We're right in the thick of it, Luke. We are, literally. But we're all in with everything we've done over the last few months. I myself have gotten pretty well versed in it. I would say I'm still, you know, pretty amateur also, at the end of the day, because it's changing so quickly. But what we're doing as an organization, we're leaning in heavy, but we're leaning in a little bit differently than other companies. Our focus is on how to use AI responsibly. And you'll hear us talk about that word in our company continually. It's very easy to plug something into artificial intelligence, have it spit something out, grab it, throw it in there and run. And as you know, it may not be factual at the end of the day.
- [26:33]
C
Well, what's interesting on that point, the New York Post said about 24% of listings were flagged as AI authored this year, raising major trust issues in the industry. And that's funny, I didn't even know you were going to bring this up, but I had that down in another question for you guys. So it is, it's like you don't want to get caught in this area where you've had it all written by AI and then all of a sudden now you're revealed that all your stuff has been AI.
- [27:01]
B
Correct. So, so where we're. Here's where we're leaning in. One is we're going to educate on AI to, to an extent. You know, Rajeev Saja is actually building an academy for this for all of Home Services of America. And so we'll have a certification that everyone will go through that wants to use AI responsibly and become slightly educated. But the bigger area that we're working in, Luke, is to create systems and processes so people don't necessarily have to understand how the sausage is made. They just get the sausage at the end of the day. And by doing that, we want, not we want, we are going to give our agents back two hours a day, every day through the week. So Our goal is 40 hours a month, giving them back by the end of this year through the use of systems, processes, and giving them the ability to allow AI to handle a lot of those 15 and $20 an hour tasks for them so they don't have to, so they can do what they want to do, which is sell homes, meet people, get in relationships, earn a nice income, help people and change their lives. That's our goal. And they can't do that when they're caught in all the administrative tasks. So our focus really is on, we said it earlier today, how do I help simplify the process? How do I give more clarity to allow them to do what they love to do the most? And this is something we're leaning heavily and it's one of my top three priorities right now. And behind the scenes there's actionable items taking place. We've actually hired someone for our company specifically. That's all he does right now is working on systems, processes and automation.
- [28:44]
C
I don't know if you guys feel the same. I feel like the team ridge is taking over the industry and the reason why is because you have all these top producers that can get themselves on teams and basically yeah, they're giving up a portion of their split but they're gaining all the leverage administration wise that they hate to do and they can only focus on the things they love to do. And that's the value prop. So the brokerage has been suffering, right? Because essentially the team has now started to give what the brokerage used to give. But you're on the right track of there still hasn't been for the solo agent out there, at least I haven't seen it where the brokerage is basically giving almost like the team type infrastructure to a solo agent. So if you can pull off what you're saying, where you're going to take on all this administration, then you might have the solo agent really come back in full force and from a production standpoint because they're able to focus on just what they love. Because I have agents on our team, it's like the reason they're on the team is they, they love being able to just work and do as much work as possible, but only on the things they love, not on the administrative task, not on the other stuff because we have obviously transaction coordinators, the ops people. And that's what I think is missing right now for the solo agent. And if you guys could bring that to solo agent, you know, that actually changes the, in the industry in my mind from a directional standpoint because it's all headed towards teams is how it feels from the people who are producing.
- [30:16]
D
Well and especially towards teams and you know, any of the top. Whenever the market shifts and gets, you know, gets tougher, the better agents, you know, basically it becomes harder and harder to compete with the better and bigger teams and Agents when the market is like what we've been in in the last two years for sure.
- [30:36]
C
Right.
- [30:36]
D
So this is. Will help an individual agent compete more efficiently in the marketplace.
- [30:46]
B
And Luke, on top of that, it's going to help our teams grow bigger as well. I mean, the whole goal is how do I help our teams with administrative tasks that they might be paying for if I can help alleviate some of the pressure points. We're one of the few brokerages that's a very team friendly company. About 20 years ago at this brokerage was being going through an innovation. That was one of the areas that Mark Stark, who owned the company at the time, that's one thing that he leaned into and got feedback from is we need a team friendly environment. So, you know, the term was coined back in the day. We allow brokerages inside of our brokerage. So we're a business services company is how we look at ourselves over a brokerage. So as much as we love working with individual agents, we love equally as much working with teams and helping them become the best version of themselves and building an actual sellable asset someday so they can too build that business and maybe someday retire.
- [31:48]
C
That's a great point because the huge pain point in the industry is lack of retirement. And you guys might know him because I know he was big within Berkshire Hathaway, but Alan Dalton, he's been one of my mentors and he basically drilled into my head this idea of you're not a past agent. Right. And you shouldn't have past clients. And what I love about the Berkshire Hathaway brand and what you guys are doing there with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services is this forever agent concept that you have. Can you guys speak a little bit to this kind of forever agent concept and being in touch with the client? Because I think that's a huge separator. Like two separators I see for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. One is that forever agent, you know, mentality, and then two is your brand and what it stands for from a trustworthiness standpoint. The quality of the brand is significant in the mind of the consumer, at least in my interactions with people.
- [32:50]
B
Yeah. So first we'll just touch on the quality of the brand. You hit it spot on. You know, the brand stands for integrity. The gentleman I was having lunch with yesterday, one of our top agents here in Las Vegas, I always ask him, I'm like, man, you've been with me for almost nine years now. You've been here longer than I've been here. And you Know what keeps you here? It's always the same thing. It's like, Troy, this brand built me. This brand eliminated so many objections. When I was a new agent, there were so many things that I didn't even have to answer because of the implied credibility that I had working with this brand. Where Alan has done, you know, such a great job over the years, and he did a lot of consulting with the brands, and he's a brilliant, brilliant guy and a dear friend. Alan stepped in, and he is so. He is so great with systems and processes and. And the Forever Agent concept. And you're exactly right. You know, you don't have past clients. You know, you don't have a database. You got a database. You know, you. You don't have.
- [33:53]
C
Yeah, he's so great.
- [33:55]
B
I mean, he's a wordsmith too. Right? He's just a brilliant guy and just a lot.
- [33:59]
C
He's like a madman. Agency is what it is. It's like madman the agency. That's how Alan Dalton is.
- [34:05]
B
Yeah, yeah. And. And. But that concept and the Forever Pledge and everything that he did with that, it's got tremendous legs. And it really helps with what JT and I work on all the time is mindset. You know, when you go in with that mindset and just ask the simple question, hey, I'd like to be your forever Agent. Are you interested in that? That's. That's a pattern interrupt that. That. That client wasn't even looking for to go, well, yeah, well, now you've just coined yourself their forever Agent. So there's. There's tremendous amount behind that with all the marketing and, you know, the journey. The journey that the clients go down and. And, you know, quite frankly, we can do a much better job than that than what we've been doing. We've had some distractions over the last two to three years with industry and market and everything else, and. And it's just a great reminder of us getting back to, you know, our core DNA as to who we are.
- [34:57]
D
And that all that falls flat if you don't actually have the organization behind you. That does stand up to the posters on the wall. And that's what is fun about working with Berkshire Hathaway and Home Services. They aren't just sayings on walls and posters. They live to them and they show it constantly. To leadership and to the agents in the organization.
- [35:21]
C
Yeah, that's where I think it's like. And this is, I think, applicable to any agent out there, whatever brand you're in, that's listening to this is this forever agen concept of just the pattern interrupt of you know, the dentist is able to sell their practice, the financial advisor is able to sell their practice, the doctor is able to sell their practice. The insurance company, because we work in insurance too, they can sell their business. And the, the differentiator between why they can sell and an agent can't is because they're selling their client base, they're selling their patient base and then some systems and operations that have gone around that. But the real net worth is that residual of that client base. And what you guys are doing there at Berkshire Hathaway, which I love, is that you're trying to basically implement that same concept of you as a real estate agent. Your most important thing is building that client base and nurturing it. And you even have your like what I call is like the financial planner side. It's like the real estate planner side where you're able to sit down annually with the, you know, consumer that you have and walk them through their biggest asset and which is usually their home from a financial perspective. And that's just such a different concept than what most agents do. And I'm trying to implement that at Acre Brothers is going, hey, we do annual reviews with our clients in regards to their, you know, financial situation with their home and what they want to do. Buying, seller, investing. And it's so critical too because like right now I want to remodel our kitchen in our bathroom. And I had Tim, a real estate agent here that I'm connected with, Tim Garrity, shout out to him. He's been on our podcast before, come out to our home to look at our home and tell me how much money should I spend budget wise on the kitchen or on the bathroom? Like what should my limit be based upon where I'm at? And that's such value to me because you could spend ten grand on a bathroom, you could spend fifty grand on a bathroom. But getting. But I don't think real estate agents are leaning into that. Why, why do you guys see that? Why is there a struggle for agents to really lean into guys like you need to be the advisor for the home and that's why you need to sing content that's more than just the just listed, just sold. Like where, where's the disconnect in you guys minds why agents don't just pick that up?
- [37:48]
B
I, I think there's a few levers to pull here and I, you know, one of them is just look, our industry can be a highly lucrative industry and you can get there one of two ways. One is through Sphere, and the other one is just dialing for dollars, knocking on door, doing whatever it is, buying leads, whatever it is that you want to do. I think what we forget is. I don't think I know what's forgotten is nurturing those relationships. And I think I said it early on was you need to serve your client better than anyone else can serve that client. And part of that is doing exactly what you just said. But it takes effort, it takes work, it takes blocking your time. You've got to be thoughtful, you've got to be intentional. You've got to have a database that's loaded with all the information on that person so you know where they're heading, not just tomorrow, but in five years from now. If you truly understand your client, who should be your friend at this point, not just a client, but if you have a true relationship with that person. You're grabbing dinner, sometimes you're grabbing a beer, you're going to breakfast, whatever it might be, then you know all these things. When you know all these things, it's automatic where they're going to come to you and say, hey, look, I'm looking to remodel my bathroom. I don't know how much money I should put into it. Let me help you with that. It's all conversational. Where I think we struggle a lot in this industry is we keep it transactional. And you got to move past the transaction. Great agents, great teams. Luke, you're already doing this. Clearly they understand that it's a different level of relationship that you must build into, and they need to be part of your family. At the end of the day, these people trusted you and you gave them great advice, hopefully. And you helped them buy what they were looking for, hopefully. And there should be a very tight bond between you and that family. You've already created the foundation, you need to build on that foundation. And part of that becoming a forever agent, helping them with their planning, looking at where they want to go. It's just you leaning deeper in with your goals. You don't have to be a coach, you don't have to want to coach. Just ask a few great questions and they will coach themselves as to where they need to go. And if you can be the facilitator, that helps that happen. And I highly recommend just facilitating. You don't ever want to give legal advice, you don't want to give financial advice, but if you can facilitate them and their thoughts, you are part of that fabric. And they'll Never leave you, so. You're so right, Luke. As an industry, I think we do a terrible job of this. It's why there's so few top producers in the country and a lot of folks that are doing one and two and three deals a year.
- [40:39]
C
Yep, exactly.
- [40:43]
D
The one thing.
- [40:45]
C
Go ahead, Jake.
- [40:45]
D
You try and teach is that to be a great client to an agent, they. They don't even have to transact with you. And once you get through that process, I, I can. I'll leave their name off this podcast just in case, but I got into this business 38 years ago. They still live in the same house in Mountain View that they had when I got into this business. And yet that one particular client is responsible for about 14 transactions in my real estate career because I did business with their family, their neighbors, their colleagues at work, and then those people referred others, and the client that initiated all those sales never sold or bought a house with me. And so having agents understand that concept, which is exactly what you're talking about, this forever agent concept, and what Troy talked about not being transactional, once you understand that piece of this business, your business is going to take off.
- [41:52]
C
Yeah, super. Well said. A top producer trait is ability to delay gratification. Is your ability to delay gratification and put in the work for long periods of time. Two rapid fire questions for you guys and then we have to wrap up. I feel like I'm just getting started, though. I really want to pick your brains and learn from you from the leadership side. But what's the greatest leadership book that you would recommend to the audience? And if it's not leadership, maybe it's another book. But if you can give me the greatest leadership book you would recommend, jt, go ahead, buddy.
- [42:24]
D
I don't have one. There's no way I could even say one. There's just too many of them depending also on what I needed at that time in my growth process. Different books at different time periods have all impacted, you know, me, you know, so I, you know, I've got a, I've got a big book, you know, list of, you know, that I give to agents. Like, if you want a, you know, a library to start reading, you know, here's a list or books to start listening to. Here's the list. I mean, you know, of course there's, you know.
- [43:05]
C
Jt, would you send me that list and I can plug it in the show notes? Yeah, that'd be awesome. I'll plug that list in the show notes so people can read that. But that would be awesome. What about you, Troy? Greatest book or book that's impacted you similar to jt.
- [43:22]
B
But I'll tell you one I read, you know, in the last year that is always in my mind. It's called buy back your time by Dan Martell. There's just so many great, easy things to implement that I walked away with going, why aren't I doing all of these things? And again, that probably leads into me being that time junkie I was telling you about.
- [43:50]
C
Love it now. That's awesome. Okay, last question for you. Knowing what you know now, after the 40, you know, plus years type experience, what would you go back and tell your younger self in high school? What advice would you give to that kid?
- [44:06]
B
Go become a plumber. Get a trade. No, I'm kidding.
- [44:09]
D
Real estate.
- [44:14]
B
Oh, man. Buddy, that's a. That's a great, great question, jt. Why don't you take the first one?
- [44:20]
D
One thing I tell my kids is to. To just always try and keep your emotions between the lines through life, all right? Never get too excited when things are going great, because I hate to say, I don't mean to sound negative, but they don't stay great forever. Be prepared. Be ready for when things dip, when things don't go your way, but also know when they don't go your way, that's also temporary. You have more control to turn the corner, you know, in time. So as long as you don't let your emotions get too high or too low when things are going great or when things are not going great, you're able to manage through the ups and downs of not only real estate, but life a lot easier.
- [45:09]
C
Yeah. So good.
- [45:10]
B
Yeah, for me, it's. It's. A good friend of mine said this to me years ago, and it was control, the controllables. And there's a story behind it. Maybe if we do this again sometime, I'll share that story behind when that came out and how that affected my life. But boy, I wish I would have heard that long time ago. And I wish I would focus more on that. When this company was handed over to me when Mark retired, the market was already starting to dip. So new guy shows up from Home services of America from an independently owned company before, and the market's not doing well. And to this date, we haven't really recovered from that. So if I was looking back as a young man, I would say, hey, Troy, you know what? You'll get through it. Don't stress so hard about the day to day. You know, keep in mind that you can only control so much. You can only control your controllables because I'll tell you, the first six months being in this brokerage, tremendous amount of sleepless nights, heart palpitations, more gray hair in the last three years than I've ever had in my life. There was a tremendous learning curve for me personally facing an industry that had been on a run up for almost 12 years. And then I step into the seat and it's on its way down. So it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do professionally was to take on this challenge. And again, I wish I would have been a better coach to myself, understanding that there are many things outside of my control that didn't need to put me in such a tailspin or allow me to focus solely on the business. I'd come home, you guys are going to appreciate this. I've got a young daughter, actually she's 15 now. But I'd come home the first six months of the business and in this, in this brokerage and I'd sit down on the couch about 7 o' clock at night. We were working crazy hours at the time. I was always on the phone just trying to re, stabilize and rebalance this company. And as I'd sit down, she got used to looking at me. Her or my wife would say, are you out of words today, dad? And I said, I'm out of words today. And that went for a few months with not a lot of talking around the house, just purely focused on the business. So take things, take things a little less seriously. Really focus on your own personal growth because that will get you through anything else that you need to get through in life.
- [47:41]
A
Well said. Love it. Troy, jt, thank you so much for joining us today. It was an honor to get to spend some time with you guys before we close out. You want to let people know how they can connect with you.
- [47:52]
B
Absolutely. My cell phone is all over the Internet, guys. I make it a pat not to use my. Yeah, yeah, I, I make it a pact not to use a desk phone. So on my business card is my cell phone. You can always reach out to me on my cell phone. You can reach out to me via email if you have any questions. Troy r t r o y r@bh hhsnv.com always happy to help and be of assistance.
- [48:23]
D
Yep, same JT hhsnv.com We might have.
- [48:28]
C
Lost him there, but we got it. Yeah, we got the email recording.
- [48:31]
A
We'll put those in the show notes. Thank you all so much for Listening, you can dive deeper into this episode. Get the video, the show notes, all of the links that we mentioned here on today's episode. Over@staypaidpodcast.com make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel, YouTube.com reminder media, and follow along our Stay Paid podcast playlist there. And if you enjoyed this episode and want to show your support, simply we ask you to share this with somebody that you know. If you thought this was a good conversation, you got as much value out of it as we do. Make sure that you are sharing the love and sharing those with others. If you want to get hold of me or Luke, you can email us@podcastemindermedia.com and you can find us on Instagram. We are Aypaid podcast for this episode of Stay Paid. I'm Joshua Stike.
- [49:12]
C
Guys. I'm Luke Acre. Troy. Jt, Pleasure. I want to have you back. I feel like, you know, I'm super excited to keep building a relationship with you guys because I feel I can learn a ton from you. I always try to give an action item for everybody who listens because, you know, words are great, but action is better. So you can't just be a hearer. You got to be a doer. And so, guys, I think back on this episode and, man, you got such a great golden nugget, right? Troy was sharing about the simplicity of this business, and that gives you clarity to be able to execute. And then JT gave you an amazing exercise that you can do to give you immense clarity. Go and write down your perfect day of what it would look like in real estate. And then your action item after you write it down is go to your team lead broke, you know, brokerage manager, whoever it is that could hold you accountable to running that perfect day and just run it one time. And that will help you tremendously in this business. Because like Troy has said, man, when you make it simple, you make it clear. You make. And when you have clarity, you can execute. Remember the difference between top producers and mediocre producers. In every business, it's top producers. Take action. Take action on that today.