Building a Billion Dollar Empire with Ryan Serhant (SB1624)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Stacking Benjamins Show – "Building a Billion Dollar Empire with Ryan Serhant" (SB1624)

Release Date: December 30, 2024

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of The Stacking Benjamins Show, hosts Joe Saul-Sehy and OG welcome renowned real estate mogul Ryan Serhant. Recognized for his appearances on Million Dollar Listing New York and his bestselling book Sell It Like Sirhant, Ryan shares his journey from aspiring actor to building a billion-dollar real estate empire. The episode delves deep into Ryan's sales philosophy, the importance of structure and initiative in business, and actionable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and sales professionals.

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Ryan Serhant’s Journey and Career Path

Ryan Serhant begins by recounting his humble beginnings and the unexpected path that led him to real estate. Graduating from Hamilton College in 2006 with degrees in English literature and theater, Ryan initially pursued an acting career in New York City. However, facing financial constraints and living in a cramped apartment in Koreatown, he pivoted to real estate out of necessity.

“I never thought in a thousand years I would be a real estate broker in New York City of all places, selling a billion dollars worth of real estate a year. That's obscene to me even now to say it.” – [26:00]

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Overcoming Challenges and Building a Sales Empire

Ryan discusses the early struggles he faced in the competitive New York real estate market. Feeling lost and demotivated, he sought mentorship from Ben Kennedy, a successful agent whose disciplined approach inspired Ryan to adopt a structured routine.

“He had a structure. He would come into the office at the same time every day, work on his computer for two hours in the morning, and then come back in the afternoon. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off with no structure.” – [31:33]

This realization led Ryan to develop his own daily structure, breaking his day into sections he calls "Finder, Keeper, Doer." This system not only increased his productivity but also transformed his mindset, turning obstacles into opportunities.

“Once you realize that the word assure isn't a scary word, it's not a negative word. You assure people of eating the chocolate chip cookie versus the oatmeal cookie every day.” – [30:00]

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Sales Philosophy: Selling with Assurance and Initiative

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Ryan's unique approach to sales. Contrasting traditional pushy sales tactics, Ryan emphasizes the importance of "assuring" clients, which involves helping them make decisions they are already inclined to make.

“Selling isn't convincing. Selling isn't taking. Selling is, when you really look at it, assuring somebody of a choice that they should make or a choice that they were going to make anyway, and they should just be making it with you.” – [31:05]

Ryan also highlights the crucial role of initiative in sales. Drawing parallels to entrepreneurship, he explains that successful salespeople must be proactive, consistently reaching out to new prospects, and maintaining relentless activity to generate opportunities.

“If you have more balls in the air and you're not focused on one ball, then you're going to do better.” – [35:34]

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Training and Practice: The Role of Improv and Active Listening

Ryan shares his unconventional training methods, including role-playing and improv classes, to enhance his sales skills. These practices have honed his ability to think on his feet, respond authentically, and build genuine connections with clients.

“Improv classes teach you to think on your feet, make quick decisions, and the power of yes. Any good entrepreneur or salesperson needs to know and feel comfortable in saying yes and figuring it out.” – [38:12]

Additionally, active listening is emphasized as a differentiator in sales interactions. By genuinely listening and responding to clients' needs, Ryan builds stronger relationships and fosters trust.

“In acting, you have to listen and respond instead of just listening to reply. If you listen and respond, you'll get so much further with the person in front of you than you will if you just listen to reply.” – [39:32]

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Publishings and Further Contributions

Ryan’s book, Sell It Like Sirhant, is discussed as a comprehensive guide not only for real estate brokers but for anyone interested in improving their sales acumen. The book covers managing daily activities, setting and achieving goals, and connecting with people effectively.

“It's not about real estate. It's about connecting people and how to meet as many people as you possibly can.” – [28:30]

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Listener Questions and Practical Advice

The episode also features a segment where Ryan addresses listener questions, offering tailored financial and career advice. One notable question from Sarah involves establishing a 529 college savings plan. Ryan advises prioritizing retirement savings and ensuring a robust emergency fund before committing to education savings, emphasizing the importance of financial security.

“I would much rather have too much in retirement and then call my kids and say, hey, sport, mom and dad paid for your college. Also, we're out of money.” – [62:15]

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Conclusion

The Stacking Benjamins Show episode featuring Ryan Serhant is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to excel in sales, entrepreneurship, or personal finance. Ryan's candid discussion about his transformation, disciplined approach, and empathetic sales techniques provides listeners with practical strategies to build their own success stories.

Notable Quotes:

• “Assuring somebody of a choice that they should make or a choice that they were going to make anyway, and they should just be making it with you.” – Ryan Serhant [31:05]
• “Selling isn't convincing. Selling isn't taking. Selling is assuring.” – Ryan Serhant [31:05]
• “If you have more balls in the air and you're not focused on one ball, then you're going to do better.” – Ryan Serhant [35:34]
• “Improv classes teach you to think on your feet, make quick decisions, and the power of yes.” – Ryan Serhant [38:12]
• “It's not about real estate. It's about connecting people.” – Ryan Serhant [28:30]

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Takeaways:

1. Structure Your Day: Implementing a consistent daily routine enhances productivity and reduces stress.
2. Assure, Don’t Push: Focus on helping clients make decisions they are already inclined towards rather than pushing products.
3. Initiative is Key: Proactively reach out to new prospects and maintain high activity levels to generate opportunities.
4. Practice Makes Perfect: Engage in activities like role-playing and improv to improve sales interactions and responsiveness.
5. Listen Actively: Genuine listening fosters trust and stronger client relationships, setting you apart from competitors.
6. Prioritize Financial Security: Before committing to additional savings goals, ensure you have a solid emergency fund and retirement savings in place.

For listeners seeking to elevate their sales skills and financial acumen, Ryan Serhant’s insights offer a roadmap to building a successful and sustainable career.

Transcript

[Joe Salsihai]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[OG]

A debt can really take a toll on you. Between minimum payments, interest rates. It's really stressful and at times it just feels like you're swimming upstream. You can't get ahead. Navy Federal Credit Union understands debt is a huge stressor and they're here to help. Navy Federal Credit Union has all the financial tools and resources you need to dominate debt. So here's what you do. You put your strategy together, stackers and then start putting the tools in place. So one great option is to get your interest rates to zero. So you're socking more away. And right now, Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a 0% intro APR on credit card balance transfers for 12 months. Plus you can get 250 when you spend 2500 dollars on your first 90 days on a cash rewards or cash rewards plus credit card. Don't let debt drag you down. Visit Navy federal.org to start dominating debt today. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission Navy federals insured by NCUA. After the intro rate expires, variable APRs are 15.15% to 18% based on creditworthiness. Rates are subject to change. ATM fees for cash advances are up to $1. All non Navy Federal ATMs. Happy Monday everybody. Super happy that you're here with us. You know what we do on Mondays, guys? We celebrate those people that kept us safe during this whole holiday season. And I don't have any coffee today. Doug, you've got the mug man.

[Doug]

Water.

[Ryan Serhant]

I got water as well.

[Doug]

Specifically. Very intelligent water.

[OG]

Isn't this last weekend like the best.

[Ryan Serhant]

Weekend of the year though?

[OG]

Because it's totally the holiday season, yet responsibilities are over.

[Ryan Serhant]

Just completely over.

[Ethan]

Yes.

[OG]

And I love it when some people New Year's.

[Doug]

Not for everybody.

[OG]

Well, that's true. I love it when New Year's is on a Wednesday as well, because that means, hey, even Sunday, there's a little bit of play mode even though we're here Monday morning.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah.

[OG]

The behalf of the men and women making podcasts in Mom's Basement. And the men and women at Navy Federal Credit Union. Here's to our troops. Thank you for all of your service in 2024. Stacks more Benjamins after the new year. We're going to get back to partying as soon as we get done with this toast.

[Ethan]

Thanks, everybody.

[Doug]

Cheers.

[OG]

We have been giving you some of our best mentors of even years in recent history. 2024, 2022, 2020. That brings us back to 2018, our last of this great survey of the last few years. And are either of you guys watching the Netflix show Owning Manhattan?

[Ethan]

No.

[OG]

It's really good. It is really good. It's about Ryan Serhant, of course, the. The gentleman who is on another show about buying real estate in New York. It's his agency now that he's created and all the agents that work for him. And of course, the same drama that you get on any of these shows. But just looking at how much these penthouses cost, how much these apartments cost, from brownstones to high rises, buildings not finished yet, to buildings that have been around forever. It's a really neat show with a lot of personal interaction. Owning Manhattan. And it made me think, you know what, first time Ryan was on, he's been on Stacking Benjamin's twice was back in 2018. And a lot of people may not know Ryan's early days and the amount of hustle that it took for Ryan to get where he's at. So I thought this would be fitting.

[Ethan]

Are you sure that it took a lot of hustle? Have you seen how good looking this guy is?

[OG]

I know, right?

[Ethan]

I mean, the world just opens itself when you're that good looking. People are like, here, here's how much money I have. Take it.

[Doug]

And his happens to me all the time. So I, I can totally.

[OG]

So this is our episode from 2018. Of course, it's a variety show. So there's a lot of other stuff that we have for you today. But Ryan Sirhant is the star of the show on his first appearance on Stacking Benjamins. Enjoy, everybody. Happy New Year and we'll see you on the other side. January 1st, we're breaking our format. Alex Harmozi is going to teach us how, how to earn $100 million in 2025. Doug, you ready? Because that's, that's. Well, you make like what, $4 in 2024. It's going to be a big change.

[Ethan]

I'm going to have to learn how to handle all of that influx of gold.

[OG]

Happy New Year to you guys. Seriously love our recording sessions. OG Doug, thank you so much for a great 2024. Love you guys.

[Ryan Serhant]

Love you too, man.

[OG]

Here we go. Let's hit record. Hit record. Hit play. We recorded this in 2018. Hit play.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Ignition sequence start. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engine running. Liftoff.

[Ethan]

Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug, and today we're going to help you improve your career. Please help us welcome star of the hit reality series Million Dollar Listing New York and sell it like Sirhant Ryan Serhant. Plus, in our headline segment, one bank is offering some of its customers credit card like perks. Could you qualify? We'll share the details. And we'll also throw out today's Haven lifeline to Ethan, who wonders about opening a college savings plan. Should he open one in his home state or choose another? As always, we'll also answer another question from the mailbag and wash it all down with my incredible trivia. And now, two guys who couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag. Joe and O J J J J.

[Ryan Serhant]

We sell directions.

[Doug]

I don't ever get that joke. Do you like sell your way because a paper bag's pretty easy to rip out of.

[Ryan Serhant]

I, I, I have no idea. Yeah, but it's Doug, so there you go.

[Doug]

I mean, what do you want thing people say is like wooden nickels?

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes. Right. Welcome to the the Bad Platitudes podcast. My name is Joe Salsihai. I'm Average Joe. Money on Twitter. And across the card table from me today, again, the man who is not the fake OG on Twitter. He's the real OG sitting right in front of me.

[Doug]

I'm real, but I'm not the fake one.

[Ryan Serhant]

But you're not the fake. Yeah, that was kind of convoluted, wasn't it?

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Good luck figuring that out.

[Ryan Serhant]

Good luck figuring out any of this show. Actually, we got a great Ryan Sirhant. Do you watch Million Dollar Listing?

[Doug]

I do, absolutely.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's funny. I'm not a reality TV guy, but that's my kind of reality tv. I love watching them go back and.

[Doug]

Know what he's getting himself into.

[Ryan Serhant]

Did he's upstairs talking to mom and he's probably already figuring it out, right?

[Doug]

This is like the Today show. Is that what you said?

[Ryan Serhant]

It's just like it. Similar audience size and everything. We are not slacking today. We got Ryan Sirhant coming up. We got some great headlines. So let's get this party started.

[OG]

Well, debt can really take a toll on you between minimum payments and interest rates. It's really stressful and I've been there stackers. And at times it feels like you just can't get ahead. Well, Navy Federal Credit Union understands that's a huge stressor and they're here to help. Navy Federal Credit Union has all the financial tools and resources you need to dominate debt. Here's what you do. Put together your strategy. One piece of a strategy might be to lower those interest rates as much as possible so you can sock even more toward those principal payments, right? And right now, Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a percent intro APR on credit card balance transfers for up to 12 months. Plus you can get $250 when you spend 2, $500 in your first 90 days on a cash rewards or cash rewards plus credit card. Don't let that drag you down. Visit Navy federal.org to start dominating debt today. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission Navy federals insured by NCUA. After the intro rate expires, variable APRs are 15.15 to 18% based on creditworthiness.

[Ryan Serhant]

Rates are subject to change.

[OG]

ATM fees for cash advances are up to $1 at non Navy Federal ATMs.

[Joe Salsihai]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situation.

[Ryan Serhant]

Hello darlings.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

And now it's time for your favorite part of the show, our stacking Benjamin's headlines.

[Ryan Serhant]

I'm fairly certain og I think this every time that we do headlines, but today's headlines are awesome.

[Doug]

Oh, okay.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes.

[Doug]

Good to know.

[Ryan Serhant]

That's my commentary before we start. And now I just set the bar really impossibly high.

[Doug]

Is super high.

[Ryan Serhant]

And I should have said these headlines are.

[OG]

I don't know.

[Ryan Serhant]

First headline comes to us from USA Today. Adam Schell wrote this piece. Chase Sapphire, familiar with that credit card. A lot of people like it. Lots of perks. New checking account offers credit card like perks. Have you seen this?

[Doug]

Yes, I saw the article. Yes sir.

[Ryan Serhant]

Perks and rewards normally associated with credit cards, the piece says, such as VIP treatment at Big events are now available in a checking account offered by the nation's largest bank. JPMorgan Chase is doubling down on its popular Sapphire credit card reward program by launching a premium checking account dubbed Sapphire Banking. The new checking account gives customers with a minimum balance of $75,000 access to Sapphire lounges at concerts and sporting events, as well as an early crack at tickets before they go on sale to the general public and the opportunity to purchase premium seats. Customers also benefit from wave fees and get commission free online trades. A U.S. listed stocks and exchange traded funds on J.P. morgan's new digital investment platform. You invest. It's not unusual for banks to try to lure new checking customers with things such as fee waivers, cash back offers, fee free ATMs, airline miles and signup bonuses. But it's uncommon for them to offer perks such as VIP treatment at events to customers other than premium credit card holders. Quote the new aspect is attaching non banking perks to the relationship outside of credit cards, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, access to concerts and lounges. That's the new part. What do you think, man?

[Doug]

Yeah, I'm going to sign up for this as soon as I get my checking account balance to 75.

[Ryan Serhant]

At first I thought you got to.

[Doug]

Spend some money to get it down there.

[Ryan Serhant]

At first I thought this is pretty cool, this is awesome. And then I saw your checking account balance, which, hey, it's great. It's a no fee checking account which also comes with no interest.

[Doug]

Yes. Well, the other thing too is, you know, it's kind of interesting because this comes on the heels of bank of America six months ago, a year ago, they kind of launched a premium checking account that was linked to their relationship size of credit card and banking. And actually what they did I like better, frankly, was that they tied your banking relationship to your credit card and gave you like more points based on banking size of your credit card, you know, and spending there. So this is just another way for banks to increase wallet share. I think the biggest thing with all of these, whether it's Chase or Bank of America or American Express or any of these companies that have these tiered service levels, you got to understand what you're giving up by having extra money there. But at the end of the day, if you take advantage of these things, it's fantastic. Benefits.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, but 75,000 bucks, you got to get a lot of benefit to have $75,000 sitting earning nothing.

[Doug]

Well, it's going to earn 0.01. Well, I mean Think about it. So it should be earning 2%, give or take. Is that the kind of going rate right now? So 1500 bucks?

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. The top we've seen on magnified money just last week was 2.25. So you're right, 2%. You've got several banks in that range now.

[Doug]

So you got $1,500 worth of benefits you got to get. And in all reality, you're not going to have all of your money in savings. You're going to have some in a little bit more liquid checking. So somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 of benefits a year to break even. It all depends on how you use them.

[Ryan Serhant]

The frustrating thing for me is you see the number of people in the United States who are unbanked, who don't use bank accounts and instead use payday loans and use some of these horrible services, keep a bunch of cash in their house. And it's partially, I think programs like this are to blame. OG We've, we've heard from experts before that the banking system in America is built on the backs of a little guy who's getting just hammered with fees so they can give discounts to the big guy. Like, this is another reason why you want to be the big guy. You want to be the big guy because they're discounting again. I mean, really, these are discounts. They're discounting again stuff for them. And the little guy sitting there worried about how they're going to keep enough money in their account to avoid the.

[Doug]

Next transaction, $9 fee or whatever. Well, and this is. I mean, frankly, like I said, if you're going to do this, you have to go in eyes wide open of what you're getting. But for me and mine and you and yours, I know I'm sticking to community banks anyway. I just think that I get a better experience every time I walk in there. I had to do a transaction the other day. I have very few transactions you have to do in the bank. But I walked in, the gal helped me very quickly. Pleasant experience. And I contrast that to the last time that I went into one of the big banks and it was like, stand here, please. You know, follow this line. They're little footprints on the thing. So you like, follow the thing. Take your hat off. I'm like, take my hat off?

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes.

[Doug]

We don't allow hats in the bank. Really, Church?

[OG]

Really?

[Doug]

Well, I get it. A little security thing. It's not like I had a hooded sweatshirt on a hat. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Serhant]

Sir, take the Ski mask off.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Sir, we're gonna.

[Doug]

Why are you holding a shotgun? Please, please put the shotgun back in your car. Anyway, so it just, it feels very robotic.

[Ryan Serhant]

Me too. I'm in a community bank here. When we move back to Detroit, I'm going right back to my credit union that I love there. Same. Same thing. Yeah, great stuff. We'll link to this, but you won't.

[Doug]

Get your 60,000 Sapphire points, so I'm.

[Ryan Serhant]

Going to have to go shock. There's a trade off. I understand there's a trade off. Our second piece comes to us from the Daily Dot. This one's a little old. This was before I went to Germany. Did I tell you I went to Germany?

[Doug]

Nope. You said something about Bavaria, but I'm not sure.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, wherever Bavaria is. This comes to us from the Daily Dot. A lot of people may have already seen this already, but this is such a great financial article. Bridezilla Saga Sends Her Fiance and Friends Fleeing did you see this? For those of us with partners who wouldn't mind a Kwik Lock Vegas wedding, we should thank our lucky stars today, the piece reads. Whoever was engaged to the Bridezilla in this recent viral story isn't so fortunate. Planning a wedding is a hellish nightmare that most people would rather just toss to their spouse or relatives to plan. But not this self centered bride story comes courtesy of Twitter user Olspicykeychain. Yeah, ol spicy keychain.

[Doug]

There you go.

[Ryan Serhant]

Who says they found the status in a wedding shaming group they're part of on Facebook? There's a Facebook group for everything. For the uninitiated, Wedding shaming is basically a gathering of folks who love to rag on overly gaudy, elaborate or otherwise totally bonkers weddings. Don't you have something better to do?

[Doug]

You would think so, but.

[Ryan Serhant]

But of course then people are wondering.

[Doug]

Teach his own don't we have something.

[Ryan Serhant]

Better to do than even talk about this? But this is good stuff. Our tale begins innocently enough. There's a charming woman from modest means in a fairy tale journey of young love. Our heroine and her partner met each other working on her parents farm, quickly bonding and falling in love as youths and becoming engaged at 18 with, as the poster points out, a ring worth nearly $5,000. They took their commitment all the way to community college and had their first child at the age of 20. Our two ill fated lovebirds managed to save up $15,000 for their wedding, according to our author. As all wise and sane people do, though, the couple consulted a psychic for help choosing between Two possible venues.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Okay.

[Ryan Serhant]

For the first time the story gets brilliant.

[Doug]

Yeah, I mean, you got to do that. How else are you going to know which one to pick from?

[Ryan Serhant]

The psychic told them to go for the most expensive option in Aruba, totaling an estimated 60,000 bucks.

[Doug]

The psychic was also a travel agent and owned shares in Marriott.

[Ryan Serhant]

Do you think they had to disclose that at the end of the psychic.

[Doug]

Reading they were not a fiduciary. Not a fiduciary psychic. You will not act at your best interest.

[Ryan Serhant]

Then the P says you have to sign a form. Yeah, that you understand that this psychic may or may not recommend products and services where they also get paid. Then the piece says, strap in folks. It's all downhill from here. Oh yes it is. Our author requested some cash gifts from attendees, which isn't all that unusual. It's certainly easier than hauling a crock pot out of Target. Unfortunately, our author also asked for a not so standard donation of $1,500 per guest. Naturally, naturally, only eight guests RSVP with their check signaling the beginning of the end of the relationship. Okay. Eight guests said yes. Like they say, naturally. Only eight. And I went eight. Like eight people fell for that. If, if you're in commission sales people, if anybody's listening and you're in commission.

[Doug]

Sales, go to this website and find these people that buy this stuff. Because. Because whatever you're selling vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias, you have a built in audience thrown away.

[Ryan Serhant]

1500 bucks for nothing. Sign me up. What's wrong with that? Martha, I can't. I can't not follow the logic in that.

[Doug]

Can't miss the trip to Aruba.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, well, I was going to say that if you're in commission sales and you don't realize it's just a numbers game, you need to read this piece. It is just a numbers game. Just find that those people are out there. Okay. The exasperated fiance asked if it would be a bad idea to get a much cheaper wedding in Vegas. Which our faulty bride to be just would not have. Unfortunately for her, this was the end of the engagement. Our tragic tale ends with some choice words for the bride to be supposed bridesmaids, and plenty of bewilderment that our starry eyed brincess turned into a 50 story Bridezilla. Just absolutely amazing.

[Doug]

I always thought it was funny getting invitations to weddings and other kind of quasi family events and the expectation of drop everything and come to our party. You know, I've had a number of family people who have been married on holidays and it Blows my mind why somebody would do that. And the rationale that I always heard was, oh, well, you're traveling anyway. Well, yeah, dude, that's my vacation. I don't want to spend my vacation at your wedding somewhere, you know, in the middle of nowhere. That's the weekend I have off. It's Thanksgiving. Of course I'm gonna be traveling to see my family. You know what I mean? And then there's that awkward. You kind of got to look at the menu to see how much money you're supposed to give them.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Doug]

You know, because you're like, oh, beef tips and au jus sauce. Okay. You know, that's worth 75 bucks a person. But then sometimes you're like, ah, Subway sandwiches. Roger that. $10 a person, you know? No. Is that not how you sort out your.

[OG]

I have never.

[Ryan Serhant]

I have never done it that way before.

[Doug]

You don't wait till you get to the buffet to decide how much the wedding gift is.

[Ryan Serhant]

Like, just paying it back for your share. That's horrible.

[Doug]

Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

[Ryan Serhant]

Minus a little bit. Because they're friends and family. You figure friends and family get a discount.

[Doug]

Minus. Minus 10% friends and family discount. Exactly.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, and plus, you gotta. You gotta rebate the amount of, like, the physical gift. So if you got them a toaster, you take that off the cash portion too.

[Doug]

Oh, no, no, I don't. Yeah, we don't get people toaster.

[Ryan Serhant]

Oh, you don't do both?

[Doug]

No, we do. We. I just bring my checkbook and the card that I'm gonna put in, and then, like I said, we just find our table. Depends on what kind of table you have. So there's like, first tier, second tier, third tier. And so if you're in the number.

[Ryan Serhant]

If you're in the back.

[Doug]

I've got a number in mind. And it gets changed on each section of the. Or the seating arrangement. And then the food is obviously the deciding factor. And if my daughter decides to throw all her food on the floor, I'm not paying for that. You know, she didn't need any of it.

[Ryan Serhant]

No, that's right. That's. That's even a discount right there. That's. Yeah. No, Remind me not to thank God I'm already married and I'm not. Don't gonna invite you to anything that's going on. This is crazy. $1,500 to go to Aruba and then blowing up when people don't hand her money. And by the way, I would quote.

[Doug]

When I First parenting fail. By the way, when I first pulled.

[Ryan Serhant]

This piece, I saw all the Twitter links, and all the Twitter links are gone. So they've erased every single piece of this except the story that I have. But the original stuff that you read from this bride, she was amazing. She goes, listen, this was our dream. I can't believe that you guys can't pony up like 1500 bucks for somebody's dream. What's wrong with you? Like, what the hell is wrong with you? For not. And it's not like it's a ton of money. It's only $1,500.

[Doug]

Duh. Yeah. Like I said, this is a parenting fail. Easy.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. Lesson number one, I guess, don't bring up your kids this way so that they become Bridezilla. And lesson number two is those banking account features may or may not be worth the $75,000 you have to leave in cash to get your upgrade. Not even the free ticket to get the upgraded ticket to go to that Taylor Swift concert that OG's been trying to get to.

[Doug]

Only front row tickets for me, though.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, upstairs talking to mom is our new bff, Ryan Sirhant. I can't wait to talk to this guy og. You know him as one of the stars of two different reality TV series. He has his new selling like Sirhant series, but he. He's probably better known still for his role as himself on the popular reality TV show Million Dollar Listing New York. But a lot of people don't know where Ryan came from. We're going to ask him a lot about that today. After graduating Hamilton College in 2006 with twin degrees in English literature and theater, of course, because all the cool people are English majors. Sirhant headed to New York City to pursue an acting career before becoming a successful real estate broker. He currently lives in New York City with his wife Amelia. If you watch the show, you also know who she is as a real estate expert, of course. He's a frequent contributor to 20 20, CNN, CNBC, the Today Show, Bloomberg TV, and now, of course, stacking Benjamins. I'm sure that's going to make this page. His team at Nest Seekers International sold over 830 million in real estate in 2017. 2018. They're on pace for well over a billion. Billion. I gotta ask him about that. And was ranked a big number billion with a B. Was ranked the number one sales team in New York City and the number two sales team nationwide by Wall Street Journal. Real trends for 2017. Currently, the Sirhant teams ranked number one for closed deals in Manhattan and ranks number five for closed sales in Brooklyn by the Real Deal magazine. Even if you don't watch Million Dollar Listing New York or sell it like Sirhand, if you work at all, Ryan's gonna have some great advice for you. So buckle up, everybody. Ryan Serhant coming down to the basement and walking down the stairs to the basement, it's Ryan Serhant. How are you, man?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Good, dude, thanks for having me.

[OG]

Hey, so here's the question.

[Ryan Serhant]

You can sell almost anything. Do you think you can sell a.

[OG]

Basement apartment in Texarkana, Texas?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Absolutely. You know, I was born in Texas. Texas is in my blood. And basement apartments are the best. They're cool. Sometimes you don't even need air conditioning. They're a great place. I love it.

[OG]

I swear to God. You can put a spin on anything, man.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

That's the goal, right? How to turn a negative into a positive?

[Ryan Serhant]

Absolutely.

[OG]

Well, you seem like such a natural on Sell it like Sirhan and the Million Dollar Listing shows, but really reading the start of your book, it was kind of shocking to me. Ryan, that's anything but the truth about you. You really weren't a natural at all.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

No, actually at the beginning of the book, you know, I really wanted to put out there that I was the anti salesman. I was very, very shy, introverted, overweight, insecure little kid that just wanted to do theater because I sucked at sports. If you had put me into a room talking to strangers, I would have had a total panic attack and broken out in hives. Now I'm not that person anymore. So, you know, I wrote it for people to know that the person they are when they're 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 is not the same person that they have to be when they grow up. And that anything can change if you put your mind to it. And I never thought in a thousand years I would be a real estate broker in New York City of all places, selling a billion dollars worth of real estate a year. I mean, that's, that's obscene to me even now to say it.

[OG]

You write about going to New York initially to become an actor. Is my understanding why the obsession with real estate? I mean, you said that. Listen, I could have been working at TGI Fridays.

[Ryan Serhant]

I thought that was pretty funny.

[OG]

I could have been a waiter, could have done these things. I just had to get my real estate license so I could work whenever I wanted to. But you must, you must though, Ryan, have had some passion around real estate.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Absolutely not. I wish I did. Maybe it would make my story better. But also, at the same time, I like the idea that I had no interest in real estate. I didn't want to be a real estate broker. When I moved to New York City, I didn't want to. I didn't know anything about apartments. I didn't know the difference between a condo, a co op, a townhouse. You know, I didn't know. I literally knew nothing about the process or the product. What I knew was I had run out of money. I lived in Koreatown. I had a tiny apartment. I shared a bathroom with a hallway full of people, and I didn't want to move home, and my back was up against a wall. So, like you just said, I could have worked at TGI Fridays, could have been a bartender, waited tables, But I thought my passion was acting, but really my passion was interacting with new people every day. And I just didn't know that at the time. And I learned that after I got into real estate because that's really what I love doing in a real estate brokerage. Has nothing to do really with real estate. Architects, contractors, plumbers, developers. Those trades deal with real estate. I connect a buyer to a seller and a seller to a buyer every day, which is the same thing I was doing as an actor. I just get paid for it now.

[OG]

Well, that's the interesting thing about your.

[Ryan Serhant]

Book, is it really isn't about real estate.

[OG]

It's about this idea of connecting. I mean, really more than anything. Real estate, like you just said, is irrelevant. It's about connecting people.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Absolutely. And how to meet as many people as you possibly can. Because there are millions of people in New York City every day. There is billions of people in the world. The more of those people that you know, the more of them that you can connect, the better it is for you. And I wrote the book not just for real estate brokers. I mean, obviously, that's what I know the most. And so it'll be great. If anyone's interested in real estate or flipping real estate or selling real estate if they want to read it. But for anybody that wants to have sales as a side hustle, if you're in school and you want to sell shoes on ebay, you can learn something from this book to help you do that and help you do that better and to help you sell more shoes than anybody else. And it's all about how you manage your day, how you handle the trajectory of kind of your dreams, goals, and desires and how you connect the dots in the middle.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, I was going to say, I.

[OG]

Think it's even wider than you're giving.

[Ryan Serhant]

It credit for, Ryan, because people say they hate sales, but I think we're all selling.

[OG]

We're either selling our significant other, our.

[Ryan Serhant]

Spouse, or a friend on where we.

[OG]

Go on vacation next, or our boss on how valuable our project might be.

[Ryan Serhant]

To the overall team.

[OG]

Like, I think all of that is.

[Ryan Serhant]

A piece of that. But everybody says they hate selling.

[OG]

Selling. How do you get around this fact that people say they hate selling and you turn it into this thing that's so damn fun?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

It's a funny thing that you bring up, because when I did sell it like Sirhant on Bravo for the first season, that's the biggest issue that I kept running into. Everybody wants to make money. They all want to make a living. They all want to be able to go home and relax and not have bills on their mind and be stressed. But they hate the idea of taking money from people. They hate the idea of going up to somebody and saying, hi, can I help you? What are you looking for? Can I show you something else? We have a two for one sale. Like, no one likes doing that, which is okay because that's not what good salespeople do anyway. Selling isn't convincing. Selling isn't taking. Selling is, when you really look at it, assuring. It's assuring somebody of a choice that they should make or a choice that they were going to make anyway, and they should just be making it with you. And once you realize that the word assure isn't a scary word, it's not a negative word. You. You assure people of eating the chocolate chip cookie versus the oatmeal cookie every day. You assure people that you're the person to go on a date with versus that other guy every day. I mean, assuring is comfortable. Doctors assure you that everything's going to be okay. Salespeople, in the negative sense of the word are used car salesmen that are pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing on you. And that's not what this book is about. That's not what being a great salesperson is about.

[Ryan Serhant]

You talk a lot about initiative in.

[OG]

Your book, and you learn this early on from this guy. I think his name was Ben Kennedy. Is that his name? Because he's like your arch nemesis.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, Ben Kennedy.

[OG]

I think this guy. You say there's no aha moment in your book, but obviously when you lead.

[Ryan Serhant]

Off with it and you talk about.

[OG]

How you're failing and then Ben Kennedy comes in your life and you kind of look at what he's doing. And it seemed like you've made one switch that as long as I've been doing sales, Ryan, it seems like, was a huge, important switch.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah. I say there was no aha moment because you don't know you're having an aha moment until you look back at it in retrospect. So I meet a lot of people who are waiting for that aha moment, and they either already had it or it just hasn't happened yet. But you can't wait for it, because a watched pot never boils. But looking back at it, when I was sitting and writing the book and really trying to think about it, Ben Kennedy was an agent from a very different background than I was from a tough guy. And I wasn't doing a single deal and really depressed about it, wanted to quit every day. And here's this guy, Ben Kennedy, walking in by himself every day, who was just bringing in new leases, new deals, cashing checks, like, every day. And it really pissed me off. And I went out and I called my older brother. I wanted my older brother to make me feel better. I wanted to quit. So I was like, this real estate thing sucks. New York sucks. Everything sucks. And my older brother cut me off, and he said, stop crying, you little. If Ben Kennedy can do it, so can you just go talk to him? And that really pissed me off, too, because I wanted to just, like, make me feel better, and he just didn't. I said, okay, fine. So I went and talked to him. I was like, hey, man, you seem really great at this. I'm new at this. I suck. You know? How can I be better? Can you just teach me your ways? And he looked at me and he said, nah, man, I ain't telling you yet.

[OG]

Which is not, by the way, Ryan. Which is not what I expected. As I'm turning that page, I did not. I thought Ben was going to take you under his arm. He was going to show Ryan exactly the ropes, the kind of the stuff he did.

[Ryan Serhant]

Instead, he gave you the finger.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah, exactly. It's New York City. You got to remember, okay? So everyone here is out for themselves, and they'll work with you only if you're able to leverage their own current business. That's how friendships are built in the concrete jungle here. So, yeah, Ben, that's what he said to me and walked away. And instead of being even more depressed or more sad or more discouraged, I was like, you know what? There's something to be taken from that. He somehow feels intimidated by me. That's weird. He does all the deals. I do zero of the deals. I'm going to figure out how to do this then on my own. And what I did notice from him was that he had, like, a structure. He would come into the office at the same time every day. He would leave at the same time. He would deposit his checks at around the same time. He would work on his computer for two hours in the morning and then come back in the afternoon. He had this structure, whereas I was kind of running around with a. Like a chicken with his head cut off with no structure. And I felt that that was kind of leading and feeding my negative attitude because I felt lost every day. And I realized that as a good salesperson, a salesperson is an entrepreneur. No one's ever going to tell you to sell less. Right? No one's ever going to tell you to sell more. No one's ever going to come up to me and say, you know what, Ryan? I think you sold too much this year. You need to take it down a notch. So how do I sell the most? Well, being the happiest. And human beings are creatures of habit. So I developed a structure to my day, and I talk a lot about it in the book because no other sales book I've ever read has talked about how to logistically and realistically structure your day. I came up with a system, I think it was like in 2011, called Finder, Keeper, Doer. I broke down my day into three separate sections, and I really started being a worker towards the structure and towards the habit, and it changed my whole life. And here I am talking to you.

[OG]

And I'm going to leave that structure.

[Ryan Serhant]

By the way, for people that buy the book, Ryan, because that is way.

[OG]

Longer than we have time for. But there was tomorrow. Absolutely tune in. But there was another even simpler lesson that we do have time for, which was this idea of initiative, which I loved about having balls in the air. And it's funny that just balls change your life. Like, hey, if I have more balls in the air and I'm not focused on one ball, then I'm going to do better. When I first started as a financial advisor, and of course in the beginning days, like in real estate, it's all about initiative. I was that guy that clung on one ball, clung on one deal. And if this, if this a hole doesn't call me back today, my family's not going to eat. And like you say in the book, that's completely the wrong approach.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yes. Funny side story to this. When I initially wrote the book proposal and sold it there's a bidding war between seven publishers, and the title of the book was Balls Up. Because that's my business theory for sales and for being an entrepreneur, is to have as many balls in the air as possible. And if you know how to control that chaos, okay? Because balls up isn't about throwing against a wall. Having as many balls in the air is about controlling the chaos so that no matter what you know, balls are going to fall and you're not going to catch them because you can't catch them all. But that's okay because you're going to catch more than anybody else. That's my sales theory. And that's how you build a strong sales career that can grow and grow and grow and grow and grow over time. And to do that, you need to take initiative. And that's what Ben Kennedy also told me. To take the initiative to go up to someone and open your mouth and ask them how they do it, no matter what they say. To take initiative. To go to the streets, to meet three to five new people every day, to put them into your contact list, to follow up with them over and over and over. To take that initiative, to wake up an hour earlier every morning to jumpstart your day, because no one else is going to do it for you. Like that. Initiative is my favorite word.

[OG]

I was surprised to read that if I dropped by your office on a random day, that I might see your entire team doing improv.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

You know, you think about practice, and I think about a sports team. Like, think about the NFL, okay? Some of the top athletes in the world, they get paid a lot of money. A sports team has to work together. No individual quarterback or running back or wide receiver is going to win a game on their own. And they practice all the time. They practice. The games that they actually play that mean anything are like 5% of their actual workload. But as salespeople, we never practice. No one ever practices. So what is the actual practice? If Tom Brady and if Nick Bowles and all the other top players in the world and soccer players and tennis players practice every single day for that one game, why are salespeople any different? So our practice, the way I found it, is two parts. One part is role playing, which is important so that you can walk through situations. The other part is through improv classes, because improv classes teach you to think on your feet, teach you to make quick decisions, and teach you the power of yes. Because any good entrepreneur or salesperson needs to know and feel comfortable in saying yes and figuring it out. Those that cannot do that are the people that will set up office and then file for bankruptcy or the people that will just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Have analysis paralysis and never actually get anything done and blame everybody else for their struggles.

[OG]

But what else is funny about improv too specifically is this idea of intense listening. Because you and I have both been to these crappy and you've been to probably far more than I have, Ryan. These, these crappy networking events. Nobody's listening. Everybody's just waiting to blast you with whatever the hell it is that they're selling. And this idea of you have to listen intently to ask the next question I think is also a huge piece of your success.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah, that's not even just from improv. You know, that's something I learned in acting classes my whole life, which, you know, you never would have thought that acting classes will teach you how to be a good salesperson. But the most important thing in acting is breathing. Right? Breathing and two is listening. So people, I think because we're so self obsessed and so, you know, we're so into ourselves, everybody loves talking. Everyone loves talking about themselves. Even people who say they don't. You get them to talk about something they like and they won't shut up. So everybody talks so that they can hear themselves talk and they ask questions so that they can give their own response. That's why people start conversations. But in acting, you have to listen and respond instead of just listening to reply. If you listen and you respond, you'll get so much further with the person in front of you than you will if you just listen to reply.

[OG]

Is that just differentiation because you're the one person who's actually listening instead of just waiting to reply?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah, I think it's differentiation. I think it's also the words that you use in the conversation. There are people who say, man, you know, I had a really day yesterday, I'm having a hard time making this decision. The person who's listening to reply is going to go right into, oh, okay, well here's what we need to talk about. And here are the comparable sales. And this is why, you know, we should go through it. The person who's listening to respond is going to say, wow, I understand what you're going through. What was yesterday? Like, you know, you, you don't just reply with what you come into the conversation with. Keep that in your playbook for when it's appropriate, but respond to what was just said to you. Don't just reply with what you want to say. Respond with what we just said. Someone said they had a day. Respond to that as if it was the only thing that was ever said in that moment.

[Ryan Serhant]

Which also connect better well, which also.

[OG]

Makes selling more fun. Ryan, I think, because now you've built a connection instead of trying to shove your crap down their throat, now you're.

[Ryan Serhant]

Actually, I don't know, this communion with.

[OG]

The person that you're talking to.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah, I just wrote an article for LinkedIn that took me forever to write. I'm not, like, I'm not a born writer, but I have all these thoughts in my head about that. It's important in any business to be able to make a friend in 120 seconds. You have two minutes to make a friend with somebody. And that friend can then be a client slash friend for life. And there are certain ways that you do that. There's certain questions that you ask, there's certain ways that you respond that you connect to them and think about your best friend. Like your best friend in the world at one point in time was a stranger. Your partner, your wife, your husband, your boyfriend was at one point in time a stranger. So why can't we make more strangers our friends? And it only takes two minutes. That two minutes creates a connection that.

[Ryan Serhant]

Can change your life that's so powerful. I love the way you talk about that in the book too, about some.

[OG]

Of the connections you made in line at Starbucks. The woman who's pregnant, you asked her if she needs more room.

[Ryan Serhant]

I thought that was hilarious.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Pregnant women were a huge source of business when I first started.

[Ryan Serhant]

The book is called Sell It Like Sirhan. It comes out tomorrow.

[OG]

And by the way, you can buy.

[Ryan Serhant]

The book everywhere, right?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yes, everywhere.

[Ryan Serhant]

I would be remiss because some people are listening to this purely because they're.

[OG]

Fans of either of your shows. I have never heard the story and I didn't read it here.

[Ryan Serhant]

How did you actually take this idea? You're already uber successful.

[OG]

A billion dollars of real estate a year. How do you get on a show like Million Dollar Listing?

[Ryan Serhant]

I would love to hear if you've.

[OG]

Got a 30 second version of that story. I'm sure there's something there.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Well, I was not successful at the time. I'd only been doing real estate for just under two years because I got into the business in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Million Dollar Listings started casting in March of 2010. So I was in it for less than two years. I got onto it because I've been doing it for. I kind of knew what real estate was for a year and a half. I had an idea. I had spent my whole life preparing to be on camera and to be on stage. And I thought that I'd put that life behind me to get a real job and just to sell real estate. And there was a casting notice in kind of like the real estate trade magazines in New York City that said that the LA version of Million Dollar Listing, which had been on the air for some time in on Bravo, was going to branch out and franchise in New York City. And they're looking for the best brokers in New York City to come to an open casting call at the Hudson Hotel in March of 2010. And I showed up because why not with 3,000 other real estate agents? And they whittled it down over the course of eight months.

[OG]

Eight months.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah. I just sold myself, man. I sold myself hard.

[OG]

I was going to say at every step. You must have said this. You know, I'm. You've been through enough casting calls, Ryan. You must have been like, okay, I'm done after this round.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yeah. And I also been through it enough, and I didn't really know if I wanted to do the show. I just kind of went and showed up for it. But I had mentally put acting and TV and all that stuff behind me because it didn't work out and I didn't want to depress myself. And I was kind of excited about this whole real estate thing that I had just started. So I think probably the big difference, honestly, was every casting call that I'd gone to as a quote unquote actor, full time, I took very seriously and I really, really prepared. And I went into it like it was the last casting call in the world. And I think that that shows. When I went into the casting call for Million Dollar Listing, I sold myself, gave him what I want. But I had places to go, man. I don't know. Stupid reality show. Like, I. I didn't care. And then when they called me back, I was like, really? And then when they called me back again, I was like, really? And I think that that confidence, which is really what it is, played a huge role in it, I think. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes ever, which I think is important for any salesperson, any entrepreneur, anyone going into a new situation, which might be a little bit scary, either a job pitch or a new client meeting. Tiger woods playing golf, I can't remember which tournament was. I think it was one of the masters early on in his career. Final putt huge putt, lots of money on the line, and he sinks it and does his classic tiger arm, you know, pump and everything. Everyone's excited. And they asked him in the interview after, how did you keep your cool? How'd you hit that one putt? Everything was riding on it. How'd you do it? How'd you calm your nerves? And he said, I played like I already had the money in my pocket. And that said it. That says everything to me.

[OG]

Ryan, thanks a ton for spending a few minutes with us.

[Ryan Serhant]

The book again is Sell It Like Sirhant.

[OG]

We'll have a link in our show notes [e-mail] by the way, thanks for not being the Ben Kennedy R show, although I think it might have been funnier if I had said, hey, Ryan, how you doing? You said, I'm not going to share with you. That would have been awesome.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Next time, let me know. I'll do that. No problem.

[Ryan Serhant]

Absolutely. Thanks for hanging out.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

All right.

[Ethan]

Hey there, trivia mavens. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Did you notice how I said trivia mavens and not trivia fans? There's no way I'm gonna help you fill out your basement bingo card by saying trivia fans. Son of a. Oh, just that one doesn't count. You can't mark your card off. That one doesn't count. Anyway, this is what the fans of the show call the primetime trivia segment. You may have heard of another conflicting show happening tonight, the Primetime Emmy Awards. Yeah, I'm sure they were thinking about sending me an invite, maybe even a royalty check. Probably gonna ask me to emcee. But being the gentleman that I am, I proactively wrote and let him know that Monday night is Sizzler night. So I'll have to regretfully pass on that one. Still, it got me thinking about today's trivia question. What TV show currently holds the title for most Emmy awards? I'll be back with your answer right after the break.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Foreign.

[OG]

Many of you may remember that metpro founder Angelo Poly is on our show a ton. And the reason we have Angelo back is because he is such an expert on the science of diet and exercise. You may know or you may not know that a few years ago when I asked about metpro, they agreed to furnish me with a coach for a while named Jesse. And to this day, I still work with Jesse because diet and exercise are such an important part of my regime. And they should be, frankly, of years, too, in 2025, if you want to achieve big things. You need some big health to go with that fat wallet that we're trying to help you create. The team at metpro has just helped me. They've helped thousands of individuals help perform their bodies by hacking their metabolism. If you're looking for a high touch experience working with a metabolic expert or you want access to the tools their industry leading coaches use, visit MetPro Co SB. You'll get a complimentary assessment like I had and then speak to their team to learn which option is is best for you. Here's what I like. Whenever I'm eating stuff that shouldn't go in my mouth, whenever I'm avoiding working out, which is something that I aspire to always do, I think of Jesse and I think about I don't want to let myself down and Jesse's going to hold me accountable. We all need accountability coaches in our corner. But even better, Jesse's not just holding me accountable, she's holding me accountable to a more scientific approach. And if you haven't heard Angela Poli on our show, not only should you sign up for the assessment with MetPro, but you should also go back and listen because you'll hear the science. One of my favorite Angela Poly lines. Everything works until it doesn't. All those fad diets work until they don't. And when they don't, the boomerang effect is pretty horrible. So to take advantage of this opportunity to get a complimentary assessment from MetPro, go to MetPro co. It's not.com it's.co MetPro co SB and you're going to get a complimentary metabolic profiling assessment. A one on one consultation with a Met Pro coach like my coach Jesse to help you achieve your goals this year. Course results may vary. MetPro is not a medical organization. The service is not intended to treat any illness, disease or adverse medical condition.

[Ethan]

How high is the interest rate for.

[Ryan Serhant]

The new Laurel Road High Yield Savings account? This high. The air is really, really thin up here. The Laurel Road Very High Yield Savings Account.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Variable annual percentage yield APY is subject to change at any time. No minimum balance required. Fees may reduce earnings on the account. For full terms and conditions, see laurelroad.com savings. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank Member FDIC.

[Doug]

If you need three new reasons to love Jack wraps at Jack in the Box even more, here they are. Chicken fajita, Chicken Caesar and delicious starting at $3. Coincidentally, those are the same three reasons you should come to Jack in the Box right now at Jack every Bite a big deal.

[Ethan]

Welcome back, trivia aficionados. That time I did it right. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Quick question for you. Do you think they'll play the award show at the Sizzler tonight? I don't want to miss out on the dinner special, but I still want to hone in on the type of speeches people give when they win their award. Got to be prepared for my soon to come limelight, right? I'm nothing but prepared. But let's get to your trivia answer. Before the break, I asked you this question. Which TV show currently holds the title for most Emmy awards? The answer clocking in at an amazing 71 wins. It isn't Seinfeld. It isn't Modern Family. It isn't even mash. The big winner for Emmys is Saturday Night Live. Even more crazy, they've been nominated for 252 trophies. Let's do some mental math on that one. I gotta subtract the seven and I'm gonna carry over the five and then use the square root of. Anyway, that's about a 28% win rate. If and when I finally receive the recognition I deserve, I'll be at a 100% win rate. Saturday Night Live. You better get ready because I'm coming for you, man.

[Ryan Serhant]

Big thanks to Ryan for coming down down to the basement. You know, I love this idea. Oh, gee. That when things aren't going your way.

[Doug]

In your career pivot, make it happen.

[Ryan Serhant]

He totally is a guy that makes it happen. And he believes that this idea that if you just have more balls in the air, just get more balls in the air. So you're not focusing on one thing such a great idea. Because when I see people fail in business, it's because they're just focused on that one deal. And if that deal doesn't happen, everything else blows up. Yeah, not great. Hey, let's start with Haven Lifeline and we'll tackle some of life's most important questions. Our friends at Haven Life Insurance Agency put what you value most.

[Doug]

Sapphire bonus points. And my checking account being at 75K.

[Ryan Serhant]

And you know how you got the way you got your checking account to 75K was by minimizing your wedding gifts. Yes, yes.

[Doug]

That and taking a whole bunch of cash advances from bank of America credit card to put in Chase so I can get my bonus points.

[Ryan Serhant]

How could you lose with that strategy?

[Ethan]

Zero percent.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's your loved ones and your time. And that's why they've made buying quality Term Life Insurance, actually super unbelievably simple. Head to stackybenjamins.com havenlifenow to get a free quote. I also like by the way, their site. You can figure out how much life insurance is the right amount for you. And they show you two different methods so you can pick much better what fits you instead of some of the rule of thumb sites where one size fits all. Today we're throwing out the lifeline to our new bff, Ethan. Say hi, Ethan.

[Sarah]

Hey, Joe and Og. I am a resident of the great state of Delaware and I'm thinking about opening up a 529 plan. There's no tax deduction for 529 contributions in my state, but it's run through Fidelity and I was thinking about opening an account now that they have zero fees and just tying it to the Fidelity 2% cash back card. And not directly contribute anything but just using the rewards to fund it. As of this moment, I don't have any kids. I'm about to get married and we plan to have kids. So I figured why not start a little early. Don't know if you guys have any thoughts or anything I might be missing.

[Doug]

Thanks. Bye.

[Ryan Serhant]

Great question, Ethan.

[OG]

I like the idea.

[Ryan Serhant]

Oh gee. That he's starting early because college is expensive.

[Doug]

Yeah, sure is. A couple of thoughts here. First of all, with 529s, you're not required to use your state plan. That rule went away years and years and years ago. And so as long as your state doesn't offer a tax deduction for using their state plan, there's really no advantage to using yours unless it's the best. Tons of resources there. The one that I like to use is savingforcollege.com and rates kind of all the plans and you can kind of sort through them that way. I do like the idea of using the 2% rewards to fund the 529. I'm not sure tactically how that works. I don't have a Fidelity account, so I'm not sure how the credit card reward system feeds into the 529. But if you can do that, that's great. Another service for that is Upromise. I don't know if you ever used Upromise, Joe, but that was kind of the first one of those way back when where you got points for you buying stuff and that sort of thing. And it actually added up for us to probably about 4 or 500 bucks.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, upromise is one of our accounts and then we used another plan. So just to Diversify our plans because we had two going at the same time. We used two different states, but upromise was one of them. The cool thing about Upromise, they have their own credit card. You don't have to sign up for theirs. You can just sign up your debit card. If you're somebody that doesn't use credit cards. And you will still get the. You promise points and points. Yeah. And now you Promise has expanded that to not just be a college fund. Paula uses it for other types of rewards. So you promise. It's a letter. You promise. We have no affiliation with uproimise, by the way. But I use them and you use them.

[Doug]

So yep. As it relates to Fidelity's zero fee options for their few index funds there that they launched, I'm not entirely sure whether or not that's going to be offered in the 529 plan. 529s are kind of a weird, funky creation of. They're actually state municipality products. And it's not. It's not as clean and simple as it's an etf. I mean it looks like it on paper, but because there's so many people with their fingers in the pie, namely state government, that I would find it pretty amazing if they zero costed those. You can find them really low cost. But my guess is is that Fidelity is not going to offer the zero fee ones without some sort of back end, you know, charge or something like that.

[Ryan Serhant]

No, but when we have Fidelity on the show, just after their announcement, they did announce that they lowered the fees on their 529 products.

[Doug]

Yeah, that's common. So just kind of read the fine print with that. This is a great way. Kind of just kind of the big picture here, Ethan, that he's. That you're talking about. Use something that you're already doing. You're already putting money on your charge card. Hopefully you're paying it off every month. You might as well get a 2% one. You might as well use that 2%. If it's fidelity to put into your brokerage account or to your 529 or whatever. You know, just stack those benefits on top of one another. Whether it's a 529 or a brokerage account or anything else. This is the way to do those things, those reward programs in general. Back to kind of what we were talking about with the Chase deal. If you're gonna do it anyway and you can get something out of it, make sure it's something that you're gonna use. If you're never gonna fly United. It doesn't make any sense to have a million United miles, you know, just because a credit card is gonna offer them to you. But this is an example of something that Ethan's got planned to use for a specific purpose, and I love it, you know?

[Ryan Serhant]

What's your thought, though, about a 529 plan? Before he has a kid, there's part of me that thinks that maybe he should put that money just in a brokerage account so it's more flexible, and then when the baby's born, then move it over toward a 529 plan.

[Doug]

Yeah, could be. I don't mind having the money in the 529 early. Again, it kind of depends on some of these other financial goals like retirement and cash reserve and debt payoff and that sort of thing, and integration with your future spouse's plans. But, you know, assuming that you've checked all those boxes already, you're saving in your retirement plans and your Roths and your bride to be is doing the same thing, and, you know, that sort of thing, this is a fine place for it. If it's your first dollar saved, I don't know that I would put it in college. I would have that be for something else. My rule of thumb is fund your retirement first, because your kids aren't going to pay for your retirement. But you can always have extra money in retirement that you can pay back your kids with.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, good stuff. Thanks for the question, Ethan. We also get letters down here in the basement, and today's no exception. Doug just brought down the mailbag, and we've got this letter from Sarah. Sarah says I'm homesick. My voice is shot. So I thought I'd not horrify you by trying to leave a voicemail. My husband and I went nuts on attacking debt. In 2017, we paid off about $66,000.

[Doug]

Holy smokies, that is going cray cray. Nice work, you cray cray.

[Ryan Serhant]

We're building up an emergency fund and just realized that our bank converted what I thought was our savings account to checking. I don't think I ever misused the account with too many withdrawals. It's made me wonder where I should be parking our emergency fund while we build it up and how much we should be putting aside. We have about $6,000 now. Scarily low, I know. And about $140,000 salary. We have four kids, one at a state university, one community college, one applying to colleges this fall, and one blissfully enjoying teenagerhood completely Oblivious to the pending reality of adulthood. Yep, hole at two in college now one getting ready to go.

[Doug]

I'm generally blissfully unaware of adulthood, so I know the feeling.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, I can vouch for that. How much is too much emergency fund when you're doing FAFSA and hoping for real financial aid? That's a good question. She says. My kids have mostly been offered loans as their financial aid, but thought with a third kid headed to college we might qualify for some help. They aren't taking the loans but are working, applying for scholarships and cutting living costs. We're cash flowing the difference. We've put off repairs on the house, vacations, et cetera, while getting out of debt. We've got a lot of non frivolous things we could do with funds if they're not an emergency fund. New roof, house repairs. I try not to learn anything listening to your show, but I have to say it's one of the things that kept us motivated and upbeat while plowing through our debt. That's great to read Sarah. Thanks for listening. And I love this idea of paying attention to the FAFSA and paying attention to expected family contribution because oh gee, people just by having money in the wrong place, they could lose tons of money.

[Doug]

You know, generally speaking, with the fafsa, the more that the child has in their name, the more it's going to count for college. The government assumes that any money that's in a kid's name is fair game for college. Basically, you can use a quarter of it or more for each year of school for mom and dad, if they have money, it's considerably less. Maybe 10 or 15% is what they assume can be used. But I don't think that you let that tail wag the dog, so to speak, because when it comes to financial planning, when it comes to your own personal safety and security, we don't want to risk it against the hope or potential of getting a few dollars extra on some Pell Grants or something like that.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, and the good news is Sarah, $6,000 in your savings account isn't going to be enough money to trigger the FAFSA anyway. They give you a certain amount of money and it changes every year, but but they give you a certain amount of money. That is they realize that you have to have an emergency fund and 6,000 is less than that. So I'm not going to worry about making sure that that's not considered or is considered in your expected family contribution. The thing I think about the expected family contribution, though, I'm wondering about those loans, because here's where I might disagree with og. If they're being offered subsidized student loans right now, that means they're qualifying for need based aid. But not enough to get the Pell Grants or to get.

[Doug]

Yeah, not enough to get it free.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes. But that third kid in college, Sarah, to your point, Boom. John, take another drink. The other shot. Yeah. For those of you new to the show, John's playing a game at home.

[Doug]

And he's hammered by 30 minute mark.

[Ryan Serhant]

But with that third child in college, there is a piece of the expected family contribution that revolves around how many kids you have in school at one time and how much you're paying out. So if those are unsubsidized loans like OG said, I don't know that I let the tail wag the dog. If those are subsidized loans right now, I might make sure you're very careful about how that expected family contribution works because things might be a change in next year.

[Doug]

So would you take. Because she's cash flow in college right now, would you take the subsidized loan to forego writing checks to build the cash reserve? It's zero interest for the next four years, and then say, hey, in four years from now, I'll just write the check.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, this is.

[Doug]

Give yourself a little cushion. Or is that too risky?

[Ryan Serhant]

This is a family by family issue. Because here's what this comes down to. And it's exactly what you just told Ethan. My feeling is. And your feeling is, which might not be Sarah's feeling or her husband's feeling, you should focus on your own retirement. And my gut says if you're dealing with 66,000. If you paid off $66,000 in credit card debt and you still have more to go, that your retirement might not be what it should be. I would take the subsidized loans, tell the kids, congratulations, welcome to adulthood. Yes, you have some loans. I'm sorry? The average person out of college has student loans. So if they have some student loans, then they have some student loans. But which would they rather have? A few student loans, or would they rather have mom and dad living with them in the spare bedroom because they have no retirement funds?

[Doug]

Yeah, this is probably a more complicated discussion than we'll get the correct answer to today. I do like the idea of focusing on the order of operation to get everything back on track. Too many of us, and I hear it when I talk to people on the phone every day. There's this very linear process of financial planning. And there's some different divergencies along the way, but they kind of work the same way. And a lot of times people look at it and go, okay, I understand that I got to do steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. But I really like step 7, 8, 9, and 10. Also. Those are the ones where my $2 million investment accounts paying me $100,000 in dividends.

[Ryan Serhant]

You got $75,000 in your checking account.

[Doug]

75 grand. And Chase is throwing sapphire points at me like, those are the fun things. But if you try to do that stuff and still have consumer debt or try to do that stuff and not have a cash reserve, you're going to get constantly sucked back into this malaise of no control sensation that you'll have. Yes, the sensation that you'll have when you have that fully funded cash reserve is unmeasurable. And for those of us that have it, you know what it feels like. For those of us that have had it and lost it, we know how that feels. And those of us who have never had it, we know how it feels. But trust me, when you have that fully funded cash reserve, you will sleep better at night. So I would move heaven and earth to get that accomplished and follow the process in the right order. You've got the debt paid off, or at least it sounds like a whole bunch of it. Let's get that cash reserve. You said, how much should I have? I don't know. It depends on how much you spend. But if you're making 140,000 a year after taxes and that sort of thing, you're probably bringing home 10, $11,000 a month after benefits and taxes. So I might want 30. So if you're at 6, you might have a year to get to that 30. You might have to take 2018. 2017 was the year of paying off the debt. It might be 2018. And 19 is the year of funding the cash reserve, getting reserves to the point and then go back to how do we fund retirement? Juxtapose sending the kids to college and that sort of thing. I hate student loans. They are terrible and it sucks to have them. But to your point, Joe Boom, you know, what would you rather have? Do you want your kids to have? I mean, I've had that discussion with clients. I'm sure you have. I distinctly remember a client walking in at age 70 and going, Hey, I want to retire in five years. He owned his own business. And I said, are you going to sell a business or anything? He said, well, no, it's just me you know, there's nothing to sell it for. And I said, what's the plan? His name was Ed. And I said, what's the plan, Ed? And he says, well, I don't know. I just, you know, I could figure I'd save like 20 or 30 grand a year. He had no money saved. He was 70. But he paid for his four kids to go to college and they all had master's degrees in cash. He paid for it. And when it hit him that he screwed that up, and he looked at me and he says, did I screw myself by paying cash for my kids college? I went, I don't know, are they super rich and can send you the money back because that's what you're gonna need. So I would much rather have too much in retirement and then call my kids and say, hey, sport, mom and dad weren't able to make it happen when you were in college, but just met with our financial planner and we've got enough. So I'm gonna cut you a check to pay off your student loans now. Yeah, I would rather do that at 65 and just, it just sucks for the next 10 years than get to 65 and go, hey, son, mom and dad paid for your college. Also, we're out of money.

[OG]

So I like that idea because it's.

[Ryan Serhant]

Easier for you to help others when you're already on stable footing.

[Doug]

Absolutely.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Sarah. If you've got a question for us, head to stackingbenjamins.com and at the top of the page, you will see the questions for the show link. Click that link and it'll tell you all the ways that you can interface with us. That's going to do it for today.

[Doug]

Y'all come back and see us now, you hear? You hear?

[Ryan Serhant]

Coming up on Wednesday show, we got our good friend Doug Goldstein, my co host from the Money Tree investing podcast, joining us to talk estate planning, which is always a fun topic. Either getting inheritances or giving inheritances. We'll talk about those things on Wednesday. Lastly, if you're somebody looking for good financial help in your corner, OG's financial planning firm is taking new clients. Head to stackybenjamins.com letter O, letter G. That's OG. And that will get you on the calendar and you could talk to them more about making your financial situation better. All right, that's going to do it for today. Doug, what should we have learned today, man?

[Ethan]

So what should you have learned today? First, is your career not going the way you want? Maybe you need as Ryan Serhant said today, more balls in the air. By focusing less on that one big deal and more on massive activity, you'll find find opportunities come walking towards you much more often. Second, thinking about adding the reward point game to your checking account? Maybe you should check out what strings are attached before jumping in the deep end of that pool. But the big lesson, don't invite Joe's mom to watch the Emmys with you at the Sizzler. Not only is she going, it turns out that because I invited her, I'm driving and I'm buying. Time to go clean out the El Camino.

[Ryan Serhant]

Geez.

[Ethan]

Special thanks to Joe's mom for explaining to me how the Emmy nomination process works. Looks like I'll be sticking to my own award show for a while. Big thanks to my best friend Ryan Serhant for stopping by. I'm sure he's gonna have me on either million dollar listing or selling. Sell it like Sirhant real soon. But until then, if you want to sell like both Ryan and me, pick up his book. Sell it like Sirhant wherever books are sold. This show was created by Joe Salsihai, produced by Richie Rudder Reese and engineered by the amazing Steve Stewart Online. Visit us on Twitter @sBenjaminscast or on our Facebook page. Page I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and if you could only know what it really smells like down here. SB Podcasts may receive payment on the show from sponsors and guests in the form of books, giveaway items, discounts, or other remuneration. There's no way you would take advice from these dorks. But like Joe's mom always says, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

And before.

[Ethan]

Before making any financial moves, consult with a real financial advisor.

[Ryan Serhant]

I don't know if I told you this, but. But I went to.

[Doug]

I knew where this was headed.

[Ryan Serhant]

I went to Germany. Did you know that?

[Doug]

Can tell. So I think you're supposed to leave the lederhosen there. Though I'm not sure you're supposed to wear it around Tucksarkana. It does look a little funny.

[Ryan Serhant]

Is it a little uncomfortable? Do you know how much lederhosen costs?

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Yes, that stuff is.

[Ryan Serhant]

My next question is why? But I'm afraid to ask. I'm looking at the leader hose in 400, 500, 600, $800.

[Doug]

I mean, but those are in euros. It's fake money.

[Ryan Serhant]

Oh, yeah, that's right.

[Doug]

You let American Express sort it out.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

You're like Euros.

[Ryan Serhant]

That's not really. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. As much as possible.

[Doug]

Is that a Kenneth Cole shirt? I think I have that same shirt.

[Ryan Serhant]

I think it is, yes.

[Doug]

I had that same shirt, I think. Oh, did I leave it at your house one time? Did I walk home without my shirt one day? Did you hear all that? That's what all that whistling was.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

All those cat calls.

[Doug]

I was wondering what happened.

[Ryan Serhant]

So.

[Doug]

So anyway, you went to Germany.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, I just want to tell you.

[Doug]

With your stories of.

[Ryan Serhant]

I just want to tell you a little bit about my trip.

[Doug]

Please. I can't wait.

[Ryan Serhant]

So that then I don't have to talk about it anymore.

[Doug]

Bullshee Nikes. You're going to talk about it a lot.

[Ryan Serhant]

I will not. But this was cool. So usually I'm a guy who goes for the least expensive rental car available. We get to the Frankfurt airport, and in this particular case, because it was our 25th wedding anniversary, I just went and went for the most expensive car that I could find. I wanted to get a sports car, but they didn't have any on the website, on the rental car website. So I went with the Mercedes E Class, which was the best car they'd let me have. But listen to this. We get there and the guy, no idea that it's our wedding anniversary, just looks up and goes, you know, usually we charge extra for this, but I'm going to give you guys the convertible. So I was. I was driving through the Alps in a Mercedes E Class convertible with the top down. That was so great. Fantastic.

[Doug]

Pretty cool.

[Ryan Serhant]

But. So I'll just tell one little story, which is that we.

[Doug]

Oh, this is the second story, but go ahead.

[Ryan Serhant]

Which is.

[Doug]

Nobody's counting.

[Ryan Serhant]

Which is. We went to. We went down what's called the romantic road in Germany and thanks, everybody. By the way, who wrote telling me I should do that? It's a fantastic trip. Just little medieval town one after another, but then across the Alps. But every day, because we don't know the restaurants in these towns and the guidebook recommendations were kind of sketchy. We relied on TripAdvisor. Usually Trip Advisor gives us great recommendations. We've had a ton of success looking at TripAdvisor restaurants.

[Doug]

Didn't we have the story a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago about the TripAdvisor restaurant that really wasn't a restaurant. That the guy gamed the system in the uk Got to be the number one rated restaurant and. Are you kidding me?

[Ryan Serhant]

No, that wasn't.

[Doug]

We talked about this.

[OG]

Did we?

[Doug]

Must have been My other podcast that I'm on all the time. Yeah. So this guy decided that he wanted to figure out if he could scam TripAdvisor. So he blew it up. You know, however those, however them crazy hackers do it. And so he made his restaurant the number one restaurant in the UK on TripAdvisor.

[Ryan Serhant]

And it didn't exist.

[Doug]

It didn't exist. It was like his backyard. So then people, he started taking reservations and people would show up and he like microwaved spam and Mac and cheese and he had like, he had.

[Ryan Serhant]

We didn't talk about this at all.

[Doug]

Oh, my gosh. I'll find it. We'll have to talk about it some other time then.

[Ryan Serhant]

Oh, that's fantastic.

[Doug]

Okay. Anyway, so you went to TripAdvisor.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. So usually when I go to TripAdvisor, you know, it's. It's once. What? I travel maybe once every six weeks, eight weeks to some place I haven't gone before. So I don't use TripAdvisor. I use it a fair amount, but not, but not a ton.

[Doug]

You know what, Every six weeks or something, I'm in a new place. I mean, I don't travel that much, but. Go on.

[Ryan Serhant]

Okay, maybe less.

[Doug]

Only 15 times a year am I in a new place.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. But anyway, anywho, as mom says, I was in Germany, so we're back in Germany. I'm looking through TripAdvisor and when you use it for at least one or two meals a day, and you always go look at the best reviews, you look at the recent ones to make sure the place is still operating. Learn that lesson. And then you go to the recent reviews to see what's happened lately. But then you go look for the worst reviews and see what the people that hate it, what they really think. And over the course of the first week of this two week vacation, we read so many baloney TripAdvisor reviews. Like, these people have way too much.

[Doug]

How much baloney did you have?

[Ryan Serhant]

They have so much time on their hands. They have so much time on their hands. I will say this, I won't answer your baloney question, but I will say that I have had my fill of German sausage. I've, I've, I've met my. I, I met my quota for 20, 18, 19, and I'm well into 2020 in terms of my overall quota.

[OG]

And sauerkraut.

[Ryan Serhant]

I'm working on like mid-2019. Well, mid-2027, because I have sauerkraut once every 18 years, whether I need a Helping or not.

[Doug]

Once, once in my life. And I was like, I'm never eating that again.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's actually way better in Germany than it. Than the times I had it here. It's. It's less sour.

[Doug]

Not surprising.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. It's much more smooth.

[Doug]

It's more crowdy.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's more crowdy. Less sour. Yeah.

[Joe's Mom's Neighbor Doug]

Got it.

[Ryan Serhant]

Halfway through the trip, though, we start laughing and we became really good the second week of coming up with our own one star reviews for every damn thing. We did everything. Like we went on the Frolei Maria bike tour of Salzburg where they did the Sound of Music. And so we're, by the way, we're biking around this beautiful city of Salzburg.

[Doug]

And you're singing with.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, the dude leading it has a boombox and has. It's a Bluetooth boombox and he's playing the Sound of Music. And we're biking around town with the sounds. A deer, a female deer ray. A drop of golden sun. Yeah. Just blaring as we. And people looking at it was.

[Doug]

People are going, oh, God. Dumb American.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's pretty awesome. It was so bad.

[Doug]

Who is the star in that? Julie Andrews.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes.

[Doug]

You know, must be like the most hated person in Germany.

[Ryan Serhant]

Well, you know what they said? What the guy said? The movie never got big there. The movie never got big in Austria.

[Doug]

Because they're like, yeah. So like it was a videotape. Some dudes Tuesday pass.

[Ryan Serhant]

No. Yeah. Really? All these sites from our hometown. Okay. But we're biking along and I said recently we had the opportunity to visit Salzburg and we went on the so called Fraulein Maria bike tour. I never realized on this Frolein Maria bike tour that it wasn't a motorbike. We had to pedal the whole way. One star.

[Doug]

One star.

[Ryan Serhant]

Like, that was horrible. In Vienna.

[Doug]

You didn't really do this, but you guys were thinking of it. Oh, oh.

[Ryan Serhant]

We just, we got really good at quoting these back and forth to each other when we're in Vienna. Recently on a trip to Vienna, Austria. The wife and I. By the way, that's my favorite. Like the wife. So he says the wife. And I'm like, oh, my, this is just somebody from 1971. The wife and I had the opportunity to go visit a composer's house. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We get halfway through the house and I realize this guy's not even alive. He's been dead for a long time. Save your money. Don't go. Because he's not really there. One star. We visited King Ludwig's castles and King Ludwig. They stopped this work on Neuschwanstein, this big, beautiful castle that's built on a rock up in the mountain. It's gorgeous. But they only got a portion of the castle finished before the dude was murdered. And when he was murdered, they immediately stopped work on the castle. We're halfway through that tour. One star. Turns out dude didn't even finish the place. You'd think when I'm paying full price for this thing, they would have a finished castle for us to visit. I walked around and realized that this is only a half finished piece of dirt. Now I understand why the fee is so high because they're using my money to finish it. So buyer beware. This is just a big tourist trap. Stay away. One star.

[Doug]

One star.

[Ryan Serhant]

But you see, you know, I was talking to Paula Pant about this from Afford Anything and she was telling me that on TripAdvisor. There's people who review Taco Bell. Who reviews Taco Bell? Recently, on a trip to Texarkana, Texas, I happened upon this little Mexican establishment called Taco Bell. Lovely place. I met the manager, Stan, who had some of the best tattoos I've ever seen.

[Doug]

Seriously, if you're in nearly all of.

[Ryan Serhant]

His teeth, if you're driving through Texarkana, stop and say hi to Stan and have him show you his right forearm. But while my wife ordered the gordito, which was delightful, I went for the number one.

[Doug]

She paired it with a side of cinna twist.

[Ryan Serhant]

And a Diet Pepsi, which I highly recommend. I went with the number one in a Diet Coke. Imagine my surprise when, as I'm furling the bag, I see that not only is there a burrito supreme, but there also is a hard shell taco. And on top of the nearly realistic meat, they spread evenly both tomatoes and lettuce. And because I got it with the cheese, they had just perfectly shredded cheese across the top of my taco. One warning, though. I told Stan to tell the chef, whoever makes that salsa packet, it could be heartier. Five stars.

[Doug]

Five stars.

[Joe Salsihai]

Hey, it's Rich Eisen here. Join me and my compadre Chris Brockman every Monday on the Overreaction Monday podcast.

[Ryan Serhant]

Also saying the record's gonna go down.

[Ethan]

I'm saying the record's going down. Anyway, the guy.

[Joe Salsihai]

I don't think you're off on this at all. Like, you're spot on here. I don't think this is an overreaction because we have no idea what we're reacting to.

[Ryan Serhant]

Come react or overreact with us. Overreaction Monday.

[OG]

Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

[Ryan Serhant]

It'S game over, over, man.