📞 LIVE CALL-INS: How to Survive When Savings Hits Zero, Use 25 Hours Wisely & Recruit Agents

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast – Live Call-In Special

Episode Title: How to Survive When Savings Hits Zero, Use 25 Hours Wisely & Recruit Agents
Release Date: January 5, 2026
Hosts: Luke Acree (President, ReminderMedia) & Josh Stike (Chief Marketing Officer, ReminderMedia)

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Episode Overview

This lively live-call-in edition of the Stay Paid Podcast features hosts Luke Acree and Josh Stike tackling real-world challenges from agents and entrepreneurs across the country. The episode focuses on overcoming growth obstacles in real estate brokerages, maximizing productivity with limited work hours, and surviving the financial squeeze when savings run out. The hosts deliver tailored advice rooted in experience, emphasizing tangible actions, relationship-driven business, and the importance of volume in both prospecting and recruiting.

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Key Segment Summaries & Insights

1. Recruiting Agents as a Small Brokerage (Gene from Texas)

Timestamps: 00:42 – 12:44

Gene's Situation

• Small, growth-minded Houston brokerage: Four agents, ~21 transactions totaling $6M YTD.
• Key challenge: Difficulty attracting new agents; relies on close mentorship and relationship value as selling points.

Hosts' Advice

Why Standard 'Mentorship and Attention' Isn't Enough

• Luke Acree:
  “Everybody can say [they offer mentorship and attention]. It’s very hard to prove that one person is going to be better than the next... you’re really looking for a unique value proposition.” (04:06)

• Urges Gene to reframe her brokerage’s value through her personal story and specific results (“What has been Gene’s experience and why should they want you as a mentor?”).

Database & Funnel Thinking for Recruiting

• Emphasize the importance of building a targeted database of potential recruits, just as with client lead generation.

• Recommendation: Drip meaningful, relationship-based content (education, entertainment, endearment) to agents, focusing especially on those with 2–3 years’ experience who aren’t yet fully successful.

  “The number one way you are going to recruit agents over is through relationships … you got to get people to know, like, and trust you.” – Luke Acree (06:10)

Building Recruiting Events / Masterminds

• Strong suggestion: Host brand-agnostic agent masterminds featuring local top producers (08:45).
• Gene positions herself as a connector and knowledge resource, not a recruiter, which builds long-term trust and visibility.

Volume is the Real Game-Changer

• Activity level needs to scale up: “You actually just need to increase your volume of activity because … you’re not doing enough volume. Two a month is not nearly enough.” (12:03)
• Quantify and increase touchpoints: More calls, more coffee, more consistent outreach.

Notable Quotes

• “Volume creates visibility. And if you do the two Vs – volume and value – all of a sudden you get known, liked, and trusted.” – Luke Acree (12:03)
• “Recruiting is marketing.” – Josh Stike (10:08)

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2. Making Part-Time Hours Count for Real Results (Naquata from California)

Timestamps: 13:45 – 29:29

Naquata's Situation

• Military wife, new in town, working 20–25 hours/week.
• Brand new database (~100 people), goal is $116k GCI to net ~$74k for the year.
• Concerned about effective use of limited hours and how to maximize growth in the lead-up to going full-time later.

Hosts' Advice

Prioritizing Prospecting & Relational Marketing

• Luke Acree: "All 25 of those hours really should be prospecting." (21:50)
• Focus first on sphere of influence: 65% of listings and 56% of buyers come from repeat and referral business. Calls, events, personalized outreach are key.

Layering Lead Generation Pillars

• Open houses: Especially high-value for new agents/new areas as a fast way to create leads and relationships (18:46).
• Suggests asking team for any “old” or unworked leads; prospect through these if available.

The Power of Consistent, Measured Outreach

• Phone work wins, but texts can supplement. Actual conversations (aim for 20+ per day if possible) are the metric that matters most (24:36).

• Track activity through a CRM and set quantitative conversation/appointment goals.

  “If you can set a goal for yourself to set four to five appointments a week, you will be a rock star.” – Luke Acree (25:59)

Building for the Referral-Based Future

• Each new relationship goes into the drip campaign for ongoing nurture; goal is eventually to have a big enough sphere so referrals alone drive the business.

Notable Moments

• “I am a part-time agent, not a sometime agent.” – Naquata (14:24)
• “The best CRM is the one you use.” – Luke Acree (25:26)
• “You need to be measuring, well, how many combos did I have? Because combos is the outcome you really want that turns into an appointment.” (24:36)
• “Stay focused in those 25 hours, you’ll kick their butt.” (29:19)

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3. Surviving the Savings Crunch While Building Momentum (Stefan)

Timestamps: 30:22 – 49:52

Stefan's Situation

• Agent in 3rd year, facing the end of his savings; has $1.5M pending (closes in Jan), $1M listed, but needs ~$5,000 now to survive another month.
• Strong anti-debt, “Ramsey fan” mindset; wants strategies to bridge the gap and not give up just short of the breakthrough.

Hosts' Advice

Ultra-Transparent Reality Check and Action

• Stefan’s activity level (5 convos/day) isn’t enough: “That needs to be 20.” (39:19)
• Luke Acree: “You’re not putting in the level of work with intensity that you need to... that's so normal, and we all face that.” (48:06)

Short-Term Survival Tactics

• If strictly opposed to debt, seek support from friends/family or find items to sell; if considering small debt, do so only as a bridge with clear plan to pay back from upcoming closings.
• Run open houses for others: Fastest route to possible immediate buyers/sellers. (47:12)

Mindset & Self-Awareness

• Discusses the emotional battle with call reluctance, “the self-worthiness issue,” and encourages pushing through.

  “The difference between mediocre producers and top producers is top producers take action.” – Luke Acree (51:38)

• Use personal and family ‘why’ as the drive. Referenced John Wetmore’s tough-love motivation tactic: “If my kid got kidnapped and I had to call 200 people, would I have a problem making those calls?” (41:15)

Practical Steps

• Structure every day with a full schedule of outreach (e.g., four hours of calls or 20 conversations).
• Maintain faith, stay focused on the mission, and refuse to yield to discouragement or analysis paralysis.

Notable Quotes

• “Your goal is bigger than your embarrassment. Your goal is bigger than the pain of being rejected.” – Luke Acree (43:14)
• “Environment matters. The flower in the desert dies. The flower in good soil blossoms.” (50:44)
• "Call them all today and ask them for referrals. If that gives a sinking feeling in your gut … that's the difference between making it and not making it.” (45:39)

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• “The riches are in the niches, but really zero down the type of agents you want on your team.” – Josh Stike (10:08)
• “Give your sphere a chance to give to you.” – Luke Acree (30:01)
• “You gotta rethink how you share your value prop through the lens of your story.” – Luke Acree (09:20)
• “You’re in this stage where you essentially are doing the right things but not enough of them.” – Luke Acree (12:27)
• “I am a part-time agent, not a sometime agent.” – Naquata (14:24)
• “The best CRM is the one you use.” – Luke Acree (25:26)
• “You have it. You're just not doing enough of it. Your day is too unstructured.” – Luke Acree (45:39)

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Key Takeaways & Calls-to-Action

• For Recruiting: More visibility and volume in outreach, unique storytelling, and hosting 'value-first' events (like masterminds) trump generic value props.
• For Part-Time Agents: Highly focused prospecting with consistent, measurable metrics beats fragmented effort. Open houses and sphere work are foundational.
• For Financial Survival: When savings hit zero, the answer is radical action, maximum structure, and leveraging every possible warm connection—while considering short-term sacrifices that don’t violate your core values.

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Final Thoughts

(51:38)
Luke: “The difference between top producers [and] mediocre producers is top producers take action … You can't overthink it. You’ve got to do the thing. Do the thing. As Tom Ferry says, 'Have the power.' ... Go take action on that today.”

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Today, we are answering your burning questions in real estate, business, marketing and more. On these episodes, we take live callers from. Sorry. Live calls from. And live callers of people listen to. Stay paid. If you want to have your question answered, you can go to remindermedia.com ask. Submit your question there. We will get you scheduled here on the show. You can also follow us on Instagram. We're Aypaid podcast. My name is Josh Dyke, chief marketing officer at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acrey, president of Reminder Media. And our first guest today is Gene. Gene calling in from Texas. How you doing, Gene?

[A]

I'm doing great. How are you?

[B]

Awesome.

[C]

Yeah, we're doing fantastic, Gene, welcome to the show. Hey, I know you. I think I've been on your podcast, Gene.

[A]

You were on my podcast, right? The real in Real Estate. Thanks again for doing that. That was great.

[C]

Yeah, I remember that, though. You were awesome. I remember. So when you came on and, you know, forgive me, I wasn't. When I was looking at the name and Josh was mentioning, I was like, I didn't recognize. And then when you came on, I was like, oh, I know, I know, Gene. I've talked to Gene before, so. Well, what can we help you with, Gene? Like, what's your question? What's going on with the. The business? How can we help you break through your next kind of challenge?

[A]

Well, my next challenge, I. I have a brokerage. It's fairly new. I'm trying to grow it, and I'm having. I'm not having a lot of luck with that, and I'm not sure why that is. I know some people are wanting to do commercial real estate, which I don't do. I've done this podcast. Obviously, I get involved in the local har. Our local real estate school has job fairs, which I go to also. And I'm wondering how, if you have any suggestions how a small beginning brokerage can attract talent.

[C]

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Attracting a talent in this industry is the desire. How do you do it? Can you give me an idea of how big the brokerage is right now? I know you're small, but how many agents do you have? And then give me an idea of kind of like your volume or success so far in 2025.

[A]

Yes. So I have four agents right now. One is brand new, one was out of the business and came back, and one is just doing really, really well. She really has.

[D]

My.

[A]

My agent, Cloudy has really grabbed a hold of the reins and taken off. And we've done so far about 6 million with 21 transactions and we've got several to close before the end of the year, believe it or not, which is good.

[C]

Awesome. Yeah, congrats. Okay, so what is the, the value prop in your mind, you know, that would attract people over to your brokerage? Like what would, what, what are you telling them right now?

[A]

We are small, therefore attention. You will get 100% of my attention. I'm a 247 broker. I'm not a broker that if you need help, I'm not available. I'm always available unless I don't hear the phone ring. And then I'll get back to you as soon as I see the missed call. So I think that's number one because there are a lot of big brokerages out there and the brokers don't always work nights and weekends and that's when we do a lot of our business. So that's an advantage. You also get one on one training and attention with me. I'm not going to tell you to go watch a video. There are videos I could recommend for certain aspects. But I sit down with you and I go over it one on one. And we have classes and we, I mean I take you by the hand and go through the whole thing. You can shadow me or one of the other agents. You know, if I'm going to an inspection, come with me. If I'm going to a closing, come with me. If I'm going to a listing appointment, I let's see how it's really done. And I provide. Not everybody does this, believe it or not. But I also have listing brochures and booklets and buyer booklets and presentations that I customize for each agent with their name and information and their favorite lenders, et cetera. So it's a lot of custom personalized one on one service which I find value. But maybe I'm wrong.

[C]

Now it's good for me to hear and obviously I have, I feel like a million questions off of that question. But the biggest thing that I see you're leaning on is this mentorship and education and one on one attention, which is relationships, which is awesome. The downside always to that in my mind is that everybody can say it. And it's very hard to prove that one person is going to be better than the next. Right. So if you think about value props, you're really looking for a unique value proposition. And you are unique. So when you say, hey, I'm going to be around for you 24 7, well, every broker owner can say that. That doesn't mean they will, but they can say that. So it's not unique. Hey, we're going to give you mentorship and training. Every brokerage is going to say that it's not unique. So you've really got to almost share it in the lens of your story. What has been Gene's experience and why should they want you as a mentor? What have you accomplished? Because ultimately, right, you want to follow someone who has accomplished what you want to accompl. And so I don't know your total history and track record there, then if I kind of switch gears a little bit on you. The way I think about it is this is we know how to try to help agents or coach agents to go get buyers and sellers. They need to look at their, what I call marketing and how are they marketing to their different lead pillars. And the biggest lead pillar should be your sphere. And how do you set up a funnel for your sphere? And we would coach agents on, hey, you got to be in front of your sphere. Whether it's email, print, you got to be on social media. The same applies to recruiting. The number one way you're going to recruit agents over is through relationships. So Acre Brothers Realty, for instance, I'll tell you guys, we just recruited the number one agent in Lynchburg, Virginia to come over to the team. So this agent number one in Virginia, I'm sorry, Lynchburg, Virginia, solo agent. We're the number one team. She was the number one solo agent. She does like 120 deals a year, her and her husband. And we just recruited her over. But that took years. That took years to get her over because it was a relationship. Right. And the relationship is built on trust, right? You got to get people to know, like, and trust you. So the way I would think about it, Gene, is what's your database look like for the agents you're trying to recruit? And who is that ideal target audience that you have picked? I've heard from other broker owners that the real ideal target audience is the agent that's been in the business a couple years and they're not quite succeeding. And so they have been through the ringer a little bit, but they're not having the success they want. This fits into your value prop because your value prop is what mentorship. Your value prop is I'm going to be there for you and you can seat ride with me and you can, you know, I'll coach you. So, you know, if your ideal target audience would be that agent that's been in the business for two to three years, they aren't having the success they want and you're going to help them get to the next level. And then what you build that database and then my challenge to you is what's your funnel for that database of agents? How often are you dripping on them? When you drip on them, what are you sending them? Think of it through the three E's of content education. Most critical, how are you educating and adding value to their life and what you're sending them entertainment, meaning what are you doing to grab coffee with them, to invite them to different things in the community. And then number three would be Endearment. How are you showcasing? You know how we got Stacy on the team and I say we, it's really a Steven thing. He's just not here today. Stacy came to the team because of the values that are represented. So our team like, you know, I'm a believer in Jesus and stuff like that and so is Stephen and we're a faith based team and all this stuff. And it's like Stacy shares very common values to the Acree Brothers Realty team. And so showcasing through the final E, which is endearment, your values, what you stand for, how you support people, how you support the community. So you need to build the database of agents that you're trying to recruit and you need a drip on them just like you would teach an agent. And then, you know, a big tip that I see right now is huge for broker owners is kind of the exp. REAL is probably even doing it better in exp. Sorry to all my EXP agents out there but REAL is probably doing it even better is the masterminds. So Sharon, right Sarato, who really blew up REAL over the past couple of years when they have interviewed him, I think it was Alex Ramosi who talked about this, which is asking Shiram what was your most high value activity to recruit agents to real. And he said it was these masterminds. And so Sharon literally in a year was doing like 260 plus events all around the country. You don't have to do 260 but how can. Gene, where are you located again? Gene, you're in Texas.

[A]

Houston, Texas.

[C]

Houston, Texas. So how can you create a local mastermind that right there in Houston, Texas, brand agnostic, not about your company but about helping agents and invite the top producers in that area to be on a panel and you invite all of the agents in the area to come learn from the top producers of how they can grow in 2026 of what's working or not. Guess who gets Associated with all that goodwill Jean does because she put that on. And by natural gist connection, face to face, you can put them in your database, you can start tripping on them. And the people who do this the best are the people who are just about relationship and value. They're not selling their brand, you're not trying to recruit them right there at that mastermind. You're just trying to give value because you know, when that agent goes home and they are not supported by their broker and they're have only, you know, they're only doing three deals and they want to get to, you know, 10 deals, it's in that moment that your value prop will actually resonate now where you're saying, hey, I'm around for you 24 7, hey, I will let you seat, ride with me and mentor you. But if you just lead with that value prop, no offense, it's not sexy at all and it's not unique and I don't think it's going to resonate. You. You really have to. You really need to rethink how you share your value prop through the lens of your story. And then more importantly, you really need to focus on the funnel. So that's my tips for you. I don't know, Josh, if you have stuff to add there on what I've.

[B]

Missed, but there's not much that you miss. I mean, I would just look at your past success. Where have you recruited agents from in the past? What type of agent do you have? This specific person that you're trying to work with, we've seen it over and over and over again. You know the cliche that the riches are in the niches but you know, really zero down the type of agents that you want on your team. And then everything that Luke just said there, you know, really kind of narrow that down and focus on that. That it's marketing. You know, recruiting is marketing. So that that marketing funnel for them.

[C]

How often are you hitting like how. How many recruiting activities are you doing per week right now, Gene?

[A]

I would say it's more like two a month, quite frankly, because we've been really busy.

[C]

Yeah, there you go. So. And I know it's. It's difficult because you have, you know, you're growing your actual business right now and this is part of it. But yeah, you gotta really. That you need way more activity.

[A]

Way more.

[C]

Way more activity. Yeah.

[A]

I love the mastermind class idea. That's something that's right up my alley. I would love to do that. So thank you. That's. I Think that's very valuable for me.

[E]

Yep.

[C]

And your podcast is fantastic. So you already have the content to drip on. Are you interviewing the local agents on your podcast?

[A]

I do. I, I. Yeah.

[C]

Okay. Beautiful. That's an incredible way to build a relationship.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. So. So I think you're gonna have success, but I don't think. I think you're in the stage, and this is important for the audience to hear, and I suffer from this too. You're in this stage where you essentially are doing the right things but not enough of them. So instead of focusing on I'm doing the wrong. Wait, what am I doing wrong, or should I do something else? You actually just need to increase your volume of activity because it feels like. And, you know, all, you know, advice you got to take with a grain of salt. Because I don't know the nuances of your business, but I can tell in just what I'm hearing. Oh, wait, I see same red flags that I've seen before. You're not doing enough volume. Do more volume. Two a month is not nearly enough. How many calls are you making a week to agents? How many cups of coffee are you going on with agents? It's the same as if you were trying to build your share. What does your email drip, number of touches look like? It's volume, volume, volume. Because volume creates visibility. And if you do the two Vs volume and value, all of a sudden, you get known, like, and trusted. So I love it. Gene, you're amazing.

[A]

Thank you. Thank you for the time and the input and value and volume. I like that. I got it. And the mastermind thing is wonderful. Thank you, guys.

[C]

Yeah, thank you. Gene, go get them. Thanks for coming on the show. Bye.

[A]

Thank you. Bye.

[C]

Yeah, she was awesome. I. I didn't recognize. I saw her face. I was like, oh, yeah, she's amazing. She's a great client of ours too, so she's an amazing person.

[B]

Oh, she's 100 set up with the podcast already.

[C]

The problem is it's so. It's so hard to brag.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

About your value proposition. I suffer from this. It's been hard. You've known me over the years. It's hard to be transparent about your story, to be transparent in, like, your accolades or all these things. And so we end up. All of us end up going to these, like, generic things, like, we want to be the best marketing company in the world. You should use us because we're the best marketing company. It's like, okay, that doesn't mean anything because everybody claims.

[B]

Yeah, and she has a fantastic vibe. She's going to attract the people that she's going to want to work with. Make sure to get your questions asked or answered here on Stay paid. Go to remindermedia.com/ask and you can submit your questions there. Our next caller here, Naquata, calling from California, I believe. Did I say that right?

[C]

Oh, we're getting the headphones on. Sorry.

[B]

We brought you on about four minutes early.

[C]

So I hear something.

[D]

Why is it not in my ears? Oh, wait, it's down here.

[E]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

No, that's great. Welcome to the show. Is it Naquata? Is that how you pronounce your name? No. Quaida Naquaita. Well, welcome to Stay Paid. Thanks for calling in. What is the question or challenge you're facing in your business that we can help you with?

[D]

Okay, so the challenge that I am faced with currently is I am a part time agent. I am not a sometime agent. I am a part time agent. That means I work.

[C]

I love that. I've never heard that before.

[D]

Yeah, I actually work hours and I want my business to grow. So I roughly work about 20 to 25 hours per week. And that's because I'm a military wife. I just had a baby actually five weeks ago.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

Congrats on that and thank you for the service. So love it. Awesome. Yes.

[D]

And so because of that, my husband works full time. They need me at home and that is where I need to be. But I also want to grow. And so I have about 20 to 25 hours per week to make a certain GCI and a certain amount. And I wanted to know if that's even possible. And then how, how can I be spending those 20, 25 hours per week to like move the needle, make it effective, make it impactful and then eventually grow in the next, you know, three to five years when my husband retires and I can do this full time.

[C]

Love it. And love how your priority is home because that is ultimately what matters. I think too many people get on the rat race, chase accolades and money that doesn't really matter and it's fleeting and people won't talk about that at the end of their lives. But that's a different question altogether. Let me ask you this, what's the GCI goal and where are you currently at towards that goal?

[D]

Okay. So to be very honest with you, I am zero towards that goal because I just move. We just PCs. We're back in an area that I was in before. So I'm just starting to get up and running. And like I said, I just had a baby in October, so I'm giving myself room there. GCI goal is about 116,000. And then because I only make technically 64% of my pay, because I'm a part of a team, I'll pretty much need to make about $74,000 in the next year. So December 2026, I need to make that goal.

[C]

Love it. So 25 hours you can work and focus a week, you want to make 116,000 GCI to bring home about 74,000. So I love it. You're already doing one of the pieces of advice I was going to recommend, which is great, which is join a team. Because the thing is, the team normally has processes that can give you leverage and it would be well worth the commission split to get access to their transaction coordinator, to get access to their leads. Do they provide. Does this team provide you leads?

[D]

No, they do not provide me leads. But what they did provide, I thought it, it kind of offset the lead generation part. So like I said, they do. Well, like you just said, they do provide a transaction coordinator. They provide some social media aspects that I don't really want to dive into. That's not where my main relation is going to come from. So I do it, but it's not my main.

[C]

Okay, so if they don't provide you leads, I mean, that's okay. Not every team has to provide leads. I know just a lot do. I will tell you this. They probably are sitting on a ton of leads that they don't even realize, which is people who have over the years they've gotten leads, but they're not calling anymore. I see this with teams often. I don't know how big your team is, but I see with teams often that over the years maybe they tried Google or Facebook or whatever and they got leads, but those leads and then closed, but nobody's calling them right now. So just a sub point for anybody listening to this, yourself included. If you're on a team, go to that team and say, hey, do we have a bucket of leads that at some point in time we're interested in real estate, but we never close them and see if you can get access to call those leads. The real thing, though is, and this is really where your focus should be, is 65% of all listings last year, 56% of all buyers. They used a relationship that they already knew, referral and repeat business. So it's really your sphere. So you need to be extremely focused in the 25 hours that you have to build relationships with your sphere and build up that database. And then if you can, I don't know if your schedule will allow this. You've got to add a second pillar to build that sphere. And the probably best second pillar for someone like you, especially on a team, would be like, open houses. Does your team run a lot of open houses?

[D]

So actually I have three pillars right now that I'm already working. I can nix that third pillar if that's the case. But right now I am doing face to face is what you're pretty much talking about. So, like, open houses, those kind of things.

[C]

Beautiful.

[D]

I already have one actually coming up this Saturday, so there you go.

[E]

Awesome.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Because it's one of the best ways, especially for a newer agent in a newer area, to get to leads that are bottom of funnel. Like, not all open house leads are bottom of funnel. A lot are middle of funnel. But it's people that are actually interested in buying a home. And oftentimes I. I don't know the exact stats, if it's 50% or not, but buyers 50% of the time have to sell in order to buy. So there's listings there too. But how big is your sphere database? How big is it?

[D]

Okay, I am growing it right now. I have about a hundred people in my database. Beautiful. But I am growing my B2B database more because that's what I want.

[C]

Work. You want to work B2B. What do you mean by that? You want to do commercial real estate or you want to like.

[D]

No business to business? I'm getting actually more leads when I connect with other businesses and then we promote each other. So that's what I've been.

[C]

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Okay, so you're doing like partnerships for promotion and stuff like that. Okay, so if you have a hundred people in your database, the question would be, well, when was the last time you called through all of them and asked them for a referral? And that really is the activity where a lot of people lack is like, everybody listening to this is like, luke, I have a sphere. But, you know, it's great. I know it's all sphere, but how do I go get business from them? You gotta call and ask them. You gotta call them up and literally say, like, you know, one of the easy ways to do it is, hey, a lot of people. Right now I'm working with a lot of people who are interested in buying and selling. And I just wanted to make sure you knew I was available to you. Did you ever think about buying or selling? Did you know, someone who was thinking about buying and selling that I could help right now? And a lot. Most of those people are going to tell you no. But the beautiful thing about that pitch is that you're planting the seed in all of their minds that you want to help people who are looking right now to buy or sell. And now all of the other marketing that I'm going to encourage you to do to them will just reinforce that message. So I would encourage you. First activity that you need to make sure you're doing at least probably once every two months is reaching out to that sphere. And you need to ask them for referrals. Do they know anybody that's looking to buy or sell? And the way you do that always is through value. And so what is the valuable things that you're sending your sphere right now that will keep you top of mind that you can call behind? So a lot of people who listen to our show know that Josh and I run Reminder Media. So our main product is, like, American Lifestyle magazine, Good to Be Home magazine. The whole purpose behind sending a magazine to your clients, yes, it's a great piece to send them. They enjoy it. It stays on their coffee table. But the real goal is I want to be able to call Josh up and use the magazine as my reason to call. Hey, Josh was thinking about you today, man. You popped into my mind because I got my latest issue, and it's a way for me to call. So other agents at Acre Brothers, we do this. We do the magazine, but we also do four client events a year. So maybe one thing for you to think about is doing a client event, because you can then invite your people to that client event. But what I would tell you is I would go, hey, you got 25 hours, which is more than what most agents will put in in a week to prospecting. Okay, take that, 25. No offense to the agents listening to this, but it's just the truth. Take that 25 hours, okay? And right now, you're doing zero deals. So you know what? All 25 of those hours really should be? Prospecting.

[D]

Prospecting. That's what I'm doing.

[C]

And so. Exactly. So you need to. Okay, my seer, Did I reach out to them and ask them all for referrals? Okay, Open houses. How many open houses can I get? All right, if I can't get open houses, does my team have any buckets of leads that I can call through if my team doesn't have anybody? Well, where's the next place I could go? You could go Circle prospecting by choosing a farm like Noah on our team, he'll do 20 to 24 deals this year on the team. Hopefully hits the 24 because that's what we need in it. But 24 deals, he has basically three lead pillars, referrals, which is seer open houses. And circle prospecting. And circle prospecting. He calls the neighbors around the open house that he's doing and he's just, you know, introducing himself and he's calling the neighbors door knocking too. He doesn't do the door knocking. He prefers the phone calls. Other members of the team will do the door knocking, but he's calling the circle prospecting. Or you could go to FSBOs or expired, but you need a bucket. Like how many hours are you spending on the phone a day?

[D]

Okay, that's what I was going to ask you. So I am spending about, I would say about an hour a day on the phone.

[C]

But okay, it's not bad. It's not bad.

[D]

I was going to ask you does it.

[C]

But how many, how many people are.

[D]

You hitting between phone calls and text messages?

[C]

Because let me see if Tim, he should have texted me this morning but like here was. Tim is one of our top producers on the team. Now you don't have full time, but this is Tim's today. So he's going to do one post on social, three stories, two hours of legion, complete 3:30 follow up tasks, set one appointment and then he has some specifics on like sign the Binghams and follow up with Patel and stuff like that. But the, the idea is Tim is always doing, Tim is always doing two to three hours of Legion every single day. And that is producing for him. 70 to 100 deals a year is. Is that's what's producing now. He's also obviously doing the posts on social and stuff like that. I would encourage you like Noah. Let's see if I find Noah's text to me. Noah does a little less than Tim, but he's not, his goal is not the same as Tim and he usually will. He sets his goal at 120 calls a day and he's hoping on those 120 calls he can have like five good conversations and turn one of those conversations into an appointment is what he's hoping for. So for you it's like an hour is great, but you need to be measuring, well, how many combos did I have? Because combos is the outcome you really want that turns into an appointment. And so you should be setting a goal to go, hey, can I have 20 conversations about real estate today.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Because if you're doing 20 conversations, you're going to crush your goal. You should see. Okay. How close am I getting to those 20 conversations? That's what I would encourage you to do. Okay. You're doing all the right things, really. You're just. You're. You're probably. This is what I just told Gene.

[B]

And you're in a new area.

[C]

Yeah. Who called in before you? And she's trying to recruit agents. But I'm going to give you a similar advice. Is like, when I talk to agents like you, you're focused. You know your numbers, you know the GCI you want. What you're not probably doing enough of is the actual prospecting activities. And so an hour is not bad, but I have a strong suspicion you're probably not hitting enough people and having enough combos within that hour.

[B]

Yeah. Measurement, calls, measuring.

[C]

Do you have a CRM you're using?

[D]

Measure it in calls. Okay, I could do that.

[C]

Do you have. Do you have a CRM you're using?

[D]

Okay. I'm in between two, because I don't know one.

[C]

Well, the best one's the one you use, so the best one's the one you use. So what. What two are you using? Is it.

[D]

Okay, so I have HubSpot or whatever that's called.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

So I'm using that one. It's a little confusing, to be honest with you.

[C]

What does the team use? What does the team use?

[D]

So the team uses, I think, Salesforce.

[C]

Oh, wow. Okay. So they might. Are they using the real estate version of it? What is that company called? Property something. I can't remember. But okay, so the best CRM is the one you use. Get in and commit to a CRM like Josh said. Track your calls.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

But set a goal for your conversations every day. Conversations. Turn to appointments. If you can set a goal for yourself to set four to five appointments a week, you will be a rock star. And you can do that in the 25 hours. And if you build your sphere well and you nurture that sphere. Sphere, you'll get to a point where you have 300 people in your database. You will not have to do anything but work off of referrals. Like, that's it. You won't have to do the cold calls anymore. You won't have to do the grinding. But in the building, you got to build your sphere up. And so when you run the open house, everybody who comes through is a relationship, not just a lead. When you. When you make the calls and you have the conversation. That's a relationship, not a lead. Put that now into the relationship bucket and go. How am I going to drip on this person for the rest of the time to become their real estate agent?

[D]

Got it.

[C]

Okay, so I little on it. Hopefully not, not too overwhelming. Any questions or clarifying things you need on that?

[D]

Just one more clarifying thing. Yeah, I am sending a lot of text messages rather than phone calls. Do you think phone calls are better than the texting option?

[C]

Have you ever sold a house to text?

[D]

Actually, yes, I have.

[C]

Well, okay, you prove me wrong there. I was gonna say, well, I've never sold a house through email or text. I mean, I have, you know, communicated with people, but I've never sold. I always think you have to.

[D]

Granted it was 2020, so I can't count that.

[C]

It was. Okay, well, during COVID maybe we'll give you a comment. But it's still good. It's still good. I wouldn't have believed it. But my point with that is saying is like text is not a bad piece to hit people with. Of course you can do tax, but you gotta talk to people.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Like, I'm not an ad, I'm a relationship guy. I think you should work by referral is honestly where I push every agent. It's what the majority of our even marketing is geared towards. But I'm not foolish to realize that you have to build the relationships in order to build relate. It's like if you were going to go dating, you, you don't have a, you know, like you have to go on even to the apps or go to the bar and you have to introduce yourself to, to people that you don't know. Do you know what I mean? Like, you have to actually go up and introduce yourself and see, can I form a relationship here? And so that's what cold calling in essence is, is you're not calling because of anything other than going, hey, I want to see if I can help you and see if I can build a relationship with you. And Ricky Carruth is really good on this where he just makes so many cold calls. But he's a relationship guy, right? And he's just like, I'm just calling every homeowner because I want to build a relationship with them. And if I can have a relationship with the most homeowners, then I'm going to do the most deals. And he's so right in that. And we have a great advocate and client, Garrett maroon. He has 300 people in his database. We'll do 80 plus deals every year. And he has a balanced life. Yeah. No Legion. Go listen to his podcast with us. Stay Paid. Go listen to his podcast. He has a great book coming out and Garrett's awesome because he's purely relationship driven. I can think of so many. Tim.

[D]

I think I listened to his podcast, actually.

[C]

Okay, awesome. Right before. Yeah, yeah, Beautiful. So Tim Garrity is another one. He's based out of here in Philly. Total relationship guy. And you'll find that the relationship driven agents, they're able to have success with 25 hours a week. Now, granted, it's going to be harder for you because you've got to be really focused in that 25 hours. I don't want to fool you that, yeah, the person who's working 40 is probably going to beat you because they have 40 hours if they're focused. But most agents are not focused. So if you stay focused in those 25 hours, you'll kick their butt.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Okay. Yeah. Go get them. Crush it and go to your team and ask them for all the old leads.

[D]

I will do that. I don't even think about that. I will do that.

[C]

Thank you. Go get them. Love it.

[B]

Thank you so much.

[C]

Bye.

[D]

Bye.

[C]

I love it. She's going to do amazing. Yeah, she. She's going to do incredible. Yeah. It's just so hard because real estate is one of those games where it's a relationship game, but relationships are not instant. And so you're like, well, I got to do a deal. I haven't done any deals. And how am I supposed to focus on my sphere? And it's just like, well, you gotta. You kind of gotta do both. You focus on your sphere, but you ask your sphere to help you find a relationship. I should have told her this. It's better to give than receive. Give your sphere a chance to give to you.

[B]

Awesome.

[C]

Give your sphere a chance to give to you.

[B]

Make sure to get your questions answered here live on Stay paid. Go to remindermedia.com ask or you can follow us on Instagram. We are at Stay Paid podcast. Shoot us a dm. We'll get you scheduled here on the show. All right, our next caller is Stefan. Stefan, welcome to Stay Paid. How you doing?

[E]

Very glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

[C]

Yeah, man, we're. We're excited to have you on the show. Welcome to Stay Paid.

[E]

What.

[C]

What question can we help you with? What challenge are you facing in the business? How can we help you grow?

[E]

Yeah, sounds good. So I am going into my third year as an agent selling real estate, Buying and selling. And I am essentially reaching the end of my rope of savings. I am coming up on a breakthrough. I've. I've got my stats here, so I'll share those with you as well. But the thing is, I just. I'm looking for ideas on how to stretch my budget, stretch my finances so that I can stay in the business. What, what are some methods that I can employ now in order to, to prevent myself from losing out on, on all my savings and bridging the gap. Because I can. I can tell that the business is, Is going to take a turn here very shortly. So. Last year I did 2.9 million seven units. In this year, okay, I've done 2.6 million so far with nine units, and I have 1.5 million pending, 1 million currently listed. I've had six listing appointments in the last eight weeks and two active buyers. So I've got this business on horizon. But I've. But I'm reaching the end of my savings and it's not. I don't have any closings coming up that's gonna bridge that gap. I'm a man of faith and I am a huge Ramsey fan. So I'm anti debt. I don't have credit cards, and I'm setting a boundary around my, my investments. So it's like, I don't want to touch my, my investments. I don't want to do debt, but I'm coming down to the end. And what would you guys suggest?

[C]

Yeah, great question and love it. I mean, you are doing well. It's just not quite where you need to be. What, what is the goal? Like, where do you need to be in order for it to work financially for you? What's the GCI goal or the unit goal? Have you mapped?

[E]

Yeah, I've set goals for myself for next year to do 16 to 24 units. To do, say, 6 to 8, maybe 10 million in. In total sales volume.

[C]

Okay. That's a big range, though. 16 to 24 and 6 to 10 million. But what do you need? Maybe shrink it down a little bit and maybe this is the advice, you know, for you. Like, obviously you're coming to the end of your savings. What's the burn rate? Meaning, like, how many more months do you have before you have to get a job?

[E]

In terms of money, we're probably looking at one month.

[C]

Okay, one month. Okay. So limited amount of time and obviously real estate, unfortunately, usually takes a little bit of time in terms of contract to close and stuff like that. But you Said you have a list. One million in listings on the market.

[E]

One million currently listed. One and a half currently pending.

[C]

Okay, one and a half. Will that one and a half come through to give you more run rate?

[E]

I won't see either of those close until January.

[C]

Okay. Till January. Okay. So you're a little bit limited, so you're in a little bit of a pickle. Okay, so then if you're. You really need. How many. How much money do you need in order to actually continue in the business? Have you done that math? How much money you need to make it to where you can continue going? Because it really does feel like, okay, you're gonna make it. I know you are a Dave Ramsey fan, which I respect, and I love that. And you don't want to put, like, in essence, you don't want to put on credit cards to help you get to that next place. But how much money do you need in order to. To keep going? So you can get that one million, you know, or 1.5 million in January?

[E]

Right. I probably need about five grand to keep. Keep everything afloat.

[C]

Okay. Five grand to keep everything afloat. Okay. Because, you know, I want to, like, obviously give you the best advice I. I can for you. You're. You're in a tough place because it does feel like you're doing well. And it feels like, in a way, you know, it's unfortunate because it feels like, oh, man, you've come to us a little bit too late. I wish you to come to me 90 days ago because, you know, my advice to you is essentially how you like. If you look at the business, right? Business is essentially math. And you've got to get down to the math of the business and go, okay, I need to get listings. Where have I got my listings from? Listings come from these certain pillars. Well, how do I get listings out of these pillars? I have to do this certain activity. Okay? This activity then translates to these daily routines and these daily habits. I don't know what your daily routines or daily habits are. You have a month left. It is still very possible for you to do a deal, you know, within the month. But it's like, if I'm you man, are you spending at least four hours on the phone every single day prospecting? Are you actually calling everybody in your sphere right now and asking them for referrals? Like, what's your level of activity and intensity in the activity to drive the result? That is really where you need to, you know, that that's what you can control. You can wake up Today. And you can control, like, how many people are you going to reach out to today to. To go and actually get, you know, the next deal? That's really where I would focus. The problem that you're in, though, and this is where I'm like, is because even if you found the deal, it's probably still going to take 30 days to 45 days to close. And that's a commission thing, you know, in terms of like, like, here's. And I know this is not a Dave Ramsey fan, but if I'm you, You have the pipeline of deals. You have the pipeline where you've, you have a proven track record. You've done 2 million of volume. I would find a way, whether it's to. Do you have any family that would support you or any. Any of that or.

[A]

No?

[E]

Yeah, of course.

[C]

Because I know you don't want to go into debt, but, you know, I go it. I literally go, man, but you're gonna. You have it. It's right there. 1.5. I'm just not. I, I just don't want to. I don't want to make you go against your values, because that's never a good thing. But if it's me and I'm in your shoes, man, I would find a way to get the five grand either from a friend or family member to support me and pay them off in January and keep trucking in and out from January. I would literally. It's like Dave says, right? The borrower becomes a slave to the lender. So you do become a slave to that person, in essence. But you literally. You have 1.5 million that's going to close in January. How much commission will you get from that? With your.

[E]

After your split, That'll be probably around 30,000.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. So then that pays off the five grand that you need it to get to that point. And from now until January. Now, let's talk about what you can control today. And go, dude, you have it. And I, I don't know all the nuances of your business, but to encourage you, you have it like, you're, you're doing it. You have 2 million in sales to show for it. You have 1.5 million closing. You have a million. Listen, you have it. You're just not probably. This is the theme of today's show. I just think the way you're running your day, you're not doing enough outreach, like, you're not having enough combos, and, and your results aren't coming in because this is a hard market. Like, compared To Reminder Media. I'll give you two comparisons. Acre Brothers and Reminder Media. So Reminder Media, you know, we used to be able to close a deal within, like, nine calls. Now it's taking us like, 18 to 20 calls to get that same deal. So it's like, oh, we've got to increase our activity twofold in order to get the same business that we were getting. Now, you compare that to Remind or to Acre Brothers to get a real estate agent's perspective. Tim Bushnell, our top producer on the team, did like 70 deals last year. He's trying to do a hundred deals this year. He's saying, luke, it's like, this market is twice as hard. Like, I'm having to work so much harder to try to get to these hundred deals because of just this, the where the market's at. So I just think you're not like, what's your outreach every day? Like, how much combos are you having a day in real estate?

[E]

I try to have at least five effective conversations a day, whether that be in person, Bible study, church, on the phone. I try and mix it up. I've had some early pains with expireds and for sale by owners. Not entirely discouraged yet, but. 5 effective real estate conversations a day is what I aim for.

[C]

Okay, yeah, that needs to be 20. How bad. How bad do you, like, what's the why behind doing this? What's the why? Like, how bad do you want to be in real estate?

[E]

Well, I. I want to serve the Lord and I want to expand his glory and his kingdom. And I know that being excellent and doing things with honor and integrity is going to accomplish that. And then. And then also, yeah, I've got kids at home that need to. That need to eat. So awesome.

[C]

Yeah, that's a great why. And I mean, that's literally similar to my why, brother. So I love it. So, okay, awesome. It's like, whatever you do, do it as you're doing it unto the Lord with excellence. Right. And so what you need to look at. And you have a great why in your kids. You know, John Wetmore, this is kind of a brutal example, but I'm going to quote, John Wetmore is a top producer in insurance, and if you listen to his podcast with us, like, this guy crushed it in insurance, but he did not want to make the calls. He was an accountant before he became an insurance agent. He didn't want to make the calls. And you know what he would say to himself? He would give himself the example, his kids. He would say, if my kid got Kidnapped today. And I had to call. You know what? I Forget the number. 200, 300 people. Would I have any problem making those calls? And he goes, I make those calls every day. He's like. So I just had to put myself in a frame of mind that. That put me there, that said, hey, would you make the calls if you're. If your kid was abducted and you had to. Now that's a brutal analogy, but the point I'm making is going, hey, man, you're having five conversations a day. And by the way you answered it, and I mean this so respectfully, I just want to affirm you the way you answered, you're not really even hitting five every day. You have got to go, hey, if I want to be excellent in this and I want to build a career in this, am I willing to structure my day? Like, if I was working for someone, like, if you worked for me, my salespeople have to do four hours of phone time a day or three deals, or 200 dials. If you don't hit one of those metrics, you're not on the team. Right. So that's someone who works for me, that's a W2 employee. So if, if, like, you work for yourself, are you willing to at least give that to yourself? Four hours of phone time a day, or 200 dials or three closed deals. Real estate's different than reminder media. So I'm challenging you to go, hey, brother, I think you can do this. I think you're on a breakthrough. You have 30,000 closing in commission in January. You know, I definitely don't think you should go against your values. So I don't know if you have friends, family, if you can even. I mean, Uber might be not able to generate the five grand, but I know you can do this. But you got to put in more activity than what you're doing today. That's where my gut goes immediately. Does that resonate with you? Like, what do you. What are you feeling with that?

[E]

Of course, it's one of those things where I imagine that you'd say that I've been listening long enough that if I'm not taking action, making the calls, and I mean, really just confronting the. The self worthiness issue. It's like, of course, like, I'm hearing, like, oh, people don't want to hear from me. People don't want to be advertised to. Of course I'm believing some of those. Negative. That negative thought. So. So hearing it directly from the horse's mouth is highly encouraging. I did think about, you know, just like maybe some. Selling some stuff or. Or if I did drive Uber, just have conversations with people working my car while I'm waiting for rides or something. Yep. Literally just hustle a little bit. But it's.

[C]

Go, go listen to Renee Burke's Go listen to Renee Burke's episode. She, you know, had a tough year last year, I think it was.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Had to drive Uber and now she's in. I forget if it's called the President's club at no ReMax. But she had to drive Uber and she was embarrassed by it and hated.

[B]

It, but came back, gave a ride to their cto.

[C]

Yeah. Gave a ride to the cto. It was really quite the story. She didn't realize it was the CTO and then. Yeah. Of her company. And the CTO ended up telling the CEO and the CEO called her just to encourage her. I didn't give. It wasn't a magic formula out, but just encourage her that, hey, you're the type of agent we want. So you're finding yourself in a similar place. The lies that you're experiencing of like the narrative that is insanely normal. It never goes away. Even when you have success in money, it never goes away. Even me making calls, it's still the same feeling every. I don't like rejection. I don't like making the calls. But my goal is bigger than my embarrassment. My goal is bigger than the pain of being rejected. And the way I try you. Everybody's got to find different coping mechanisms to play the game. You know, there's a great book out there called Embracing the no. So you're not looking for a yes, you're looking for no's. Because if you get no's, then that leads you closer to the yes. And ultimately you didn't have them to begin with. You have zero deals right now. In essence, when you start calling, if you end the day with zero, you ended that net even. You didn't go down. You're not even right. And so it's. You got to figure out the tricks. Like Ethan, who's our CRO, and he's an incredible salesman. He likes to imagine it's just a video game. When he's in the calls, it's like he. It's just a video game. Like it's. I'm playing a game here and it's not real. It's like these people, I might never see them again. I might. If they say no to me, it's not defining of who I am. And this game is 98 rejection now, the key is, and we don't have time to get into all the details and nuance of it, but you seem to strike me as a guy that really should work off of relationship and work off referrals like every agent. So the key is, how do you get that database big enough to where 7% of them move every year? So you need the database to be big enough because you're probably not going to get all 7%. So if it's a hundred people in your database, that's seven deals moving a year. Well, you're not going to get all seven. So maybe you'll get two of the seven. So how do you get up to a thousand people, right? And now all of a sudden you realize how you can start working by referral. You know, we just quoted Garrett Maroon earlier to another caller. He's a great episode that you can listen to where he has 300 people in his database. But they're real relationships. And so start with your activity of how big is your database?

[E]

150.

[C]

150. So call them all today and ask them for referrals. Like, call them all today. And if that gives a sinking feeling in your gut, like, oh, I don't really want to do that. That's it, man. That's the difference between making it and not making it. That's the difference between top producers and mediocre producers. I feel that same feeling. I'm having to call all of our key relationships right now because one of our VPs of corporate sales left us in a. You know, it's. Maybe I'll do another podcast on it some other time, but heartbreaking. So he left us and all that stuff. So I'm having to call all our key relationships because there's also some. He's trying to kind of steal those clients, but that's another thing. But I hate making these calls. Like, I don't want to make these calls and tell my clients, oh, I lost this person. And I just want to tell you I appreciate you and, you know, I want to make sure we keep your business all stuff. But I'm making them, but I'm making the calls because that's the difference. Like, the difference is I'm going to do it anyways and I'm going to fumble my way through it because I don't know the perfect way to do this pitch to these people, to present to them the value. But I'm going to do it because I know that's the difference. That's what you need, the encouragement is this man, dude, you can do this. You're already doing it. You're just not doing enough of it because your day is too unstructured. You need to be really structured in your day. 4 hours of prospecting time. Set a goal for 20 conversations. Set a goal for at least one appointment a day. Start with your sphere of 150. Then. Then if you don't have a lot of money right. You don't have a lot of money right now. Start circle prospecting. Are you running any open houses for other agents in your brokerage?

[E]

Yeah. Good.

[B]

Awesome.

[C]

Run open houses every weekend, man, because open houses will be the closest to getting a deal real fast. Because imagine someone walks in and they want to buy that house, and you can represent them because they're unrepresented. And you're a man of faith, right? Don't worry about what tomorrow will bring. God will take care of that. He will provide for you. He just wants you to lean on him in all your ways. Acknowledge him and put in the work. Do whatever you do, do it as if you're doing it unto the Lord with excellence. And if you do that, I believe you will make it. But right now, you're in a little bit of paralysis by analysis. That's my. That's my take.

[E]

Yeah, yeah, you summed it up very well. And I think that's where I know that the breakthrough is coming, because I'm finally getting past that. It's. It's. It hasn't been a necessity. It hasn't. It hasn't gotten to a point where I have to. So now that the savings are at the end, it's like, well, either I do this or I don't.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't. Don't give in, man. Don't give in. You can sell something for the five grand. You can. You can find the five grand. You can do this. Now ask yourself, do you really want to be in real estate? That's another question altogether. How do you define success? Because that matters, right? Because success is defined differently for people. You. You seem to have a good take on it. Define success for yourself. But realize, be real with yourself. You're not putting in the level of work with intensity that you need to. And that is so normal. And we all face that. And so, like, today, I would ask you, what time is it where you're at today? Are you East Coast?

[E]

Yeah, I'm on East.

[C]

Okay, so you're. Yeah, it's 11:55 right now, right as we're talking. What time did you wake up this morning. What did you read when you woke up? Perfect, right? And then what have you done since then? To 12 o' clock to move your business? And you got to get really intentional. The best athletes, they care about the small little details, the small nuances and get your head in the game. And the best way to do that is get an accountability partner, man. Get an accountability partner. I just want to come through the Riverside right now and give you a hug and say, let's go, baby. Come on, get on that phone today. Make those calls. There you go. Exactly. He's holding out his hands, ladies and gentlemen. Here's a, here's a Riverside hug. But no, I appreciate you calling in. Connect with me on social, man. I wanna, I wanna hear how you're doing and try to encourage you, but you're not doing. There's a lot people doing worse than you are doing. You're doing good. You just gotta up the intensity. Up this intensity, brother. You've got it.

[E]

I appreciate that. Thank you guys very much.

[C]

Yep. Yeah. Thank you, man. Yep. Connect on Instagram.

[B]

Thanks.

[C]

See ya. All right, bye. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough because also the, the no debt I totally get. I respect, you know, I think there's healthy debt. I mean, Dave and I disagree on the types of debt, but I know why he says it, because for the normal person, and this is so true for all of us, and this is not a judgment, it's just the truth. The normal person doesn't have the discipline and the ability to not let us know, not let it snowball. Right? So it's like, don't tempt yourself, you know, in that way by giving yourself access to debt and then all of a sudden it gets out of hand. So I can appreciate that, but it's like, oh, he's so close. He has 30,000 coming in. He needs five grand. It's hard too when you don't have the motivation. I should have told him. I didn't have clarity of thought. Hopefully he listens to this. Maybe I'll send it to him. He's. He's not putting himself in the right environment either. So he's there in his room. It's like, I want to ask him, hey, where are you going to work every day? Like I should have asked him that. Like, who are you surrounding yourselves with? Have you got another agent in the office that you're going to go show up and make calls together? Like, I guarantee. Because you could see so much self doubt there and he couldn't even get words out because he was, you know, you know, struggling. And so environment matters, right? The flower in the desert dies. The flowering good soil blossoms. So who are you surrounding yourself with?

[B]

Love it. There you go. Thank you so much to everyone who called in today. Make sure to get your questions answered here live on Stay Paid. You can go to remindermedia.com ask. We will reach out and get you scheduled here on the show. Or of course, you can follow us on Instagram. We are at staypaid podcast Shoot as a dm. If you like this episode and want to show you support, go to our YouTube channel, YouTube.comreminder media. Make sure that you're subscribed to the channel. Give this episode a thumbs up. And the best way to help out the show is to share this episode with somebody that you know. For this episode of Stay Paid, I'm Josh Dyke.

[C]

Guys, I'm Luke Acre. Remember, the difference between top producers, mediocre producers is top producers take action. And hopefully you. You guys listening to this show, you realize that, hey, look, all, there's so many people out there, ourselves included. Like, I mean, I just shared, you know, we lost, you know, a VP of sales type idea. Like, everybody's going through their different adversity and their different challenge and their different thing that they need to overcome. And the key is you can't overthink it. You've got to do the thing. Do the thing. As Tom Ferry says, have the power. The difference between mediocre producers and top producers in every industry, top producers take action. Go take action on that today.