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TheUPside Podcast
Leading Through Disruption: Smokey Garrett on Speed, Culture & the Future of Real Estate
00:40:10
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Upside Podcast, where we help you get unstuck in life and business by elevating your thinking and provoking meaningful change from the inside out. And today I have a guest with me, Mr. Smokey Garrett. And I'm so very excited to introduce him to you or to share a conversation with you and Smokey. So, Smokey, you are the founder of the GO Network?
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B
I am, yes. Yes.
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A
You are my boss. That.
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B
I've never actually. I've never actually heard you say those words before. So actually. So that is being recorded, right? She has a boss. So I love that. I'm kidding.
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A
I'm kidding. Okay, so. And today, I don't have my fancy little Upside postcards. I have to do it on my phone. So we went totally tech, because I caught them, but people love it. It's all good. Okay, so tell everybody you are.
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B
Kind.
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A
Of a big deal at Keller Williams. Yeah, you kind of are.
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B
I know about that, but thank you.
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A
And you own the largest franchise brokerage in all of the US We've done some pretty amazing things with the Go Network, but how'd you get here? Just tell everybody. We're actually filming this at Studio USA in East Plano. You and I are both east side east side Plano grads.
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B
We are Plano east grass substantially before.
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A
Me, but we won't talk about that. So, anyway, so you can't. You were. You were born here locally, so just tell us a little bit about your story.
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B
All right, well, I love that. First of all, thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to get to be a part of. Of the journey. And. And I've never looked at it as anyone really worked for me. I've gotten the opportunity to work together with you, with your husband, and we've been on this journey for actually several years in one capacity, the other. So thank you for that. As far as me, I did grow up here. Plano. Plano East. Grew up out in Parker, Texas, actually. Although we grew up in Plano, I kind of grew up more in the horse business. We had a place up in. In McKinney, and so. But I did. I graduated, graduated Plano east, and went to college, actually. I showed cutting horses throughout the. Throughout most of my high school career and college career. And so actually, what I was going to do, but I went to school, had a couple of changes that happened in that part of my life because I was winning, I was competing. I was actually making a lot of money for my age back then. When I was in college. I was doing about 100, 125,000 a year in winnings, showing cutting horses.
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A
And what do you love about that? Never, I've never asked you that before. I'm curious. What did you love about cutting horses?
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B
Goodness, that is actually a great question. It's, it's what my family did. I was, I had a lot of opportunities. I'm, I'm a guy that's been around a lot of mentors and my, my, I was, I had a lot of mentors in my life, but we were raised by really strong women and horses was kind of what we, what I had done and I kind of had a passion for lots of things. What did I love about cutting horses or what did I love about the event? You know, being a cowboy and cutting horses is, is something that is, that is, it's very, it's a very solo position because it's a. More of a lifestyle, I think, is what I've, what I kind of found as I was growing up. And it was something you enjoy. It's not really about the showing off part of this. Then when you move into the competition piece, which is what I really liked about it now it's competitive and it's something you just can't get on and do. It's something that is actually. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of time. And those are all skill sets that think. I was raised with, you know, my parents raised me with the, with, you know, a work ethic that I had to get up and go to work. Horses and animals need to be fed every day. If you want to be, if you want to be good at something, you've got to put the time in to go, to go be successful at that. You've got to put the time in to know your horses and know what's happening because it's very much of a relationship as you go through that. And so for me, you know, it was. I love the life. I loved what it represented and I loved the, the history that I got to, to experience as we went through it. And so, so that was fun for me. It was a fun way to grow up. It was a fun way to, to go through college. I get to travel all around. I was rookie of the year, went to Australia, had all kinds of, had all kinds of fun that we got to go have around, around and that was the way I was going. And that's really what I would, what I, what I was going to go do and Then I actually hurt my back. Had a couple of big things happen. I had hurt my back and I'd had some. Some of my horses that had passed away and had some really unfortunate incidents at one point in my life. And I felt like that was God really, because I'd actually. That was the pulled moment that I sat out of school. So I wasn't actually. I had sat out one semester and I'm like, all right, I got to decide this what I want to keep doing or do I want to go do something else. And for me, I think that was God telling me. I said, all right, so I hurt my back. He couldn't do things. Horse passed away and colleague as they sometimes do. And. And those things happened. And I thought that was God telling me, all right, this is. This is probably not your path. I always used a lot of signs with that. And I went back to school at that moment and got back in school, took the summer semester, changed my. Change my majors from the agriculture and horses to business and marketing and changed kind of my path in life. And so that's.
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A
Glad you did well.
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B
Absolutely. Thank you.
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A
So then you got into real estate.
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B
Yep.
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A
You were rookie of the year, your first year in real estate.
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B
I was.
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A
And you met your beautiful wife Sarah in real estate. What year did y'.
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B
All.
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A
Did y' all started together, right? Did I get it right?
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B
We didn't know each other, but yeah, we did start together.
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A
Okay.
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B
She was a. She was a year. Year or two ahead of me in terms of the process, but I did, yes. So I graduated into what I was going to do. Real estate was what I had as a. As a. As a major or as a. As some of my options there. And so real estate was kind of horses. Horse. Horses didn't translate onto a resume to say, hey, anybody wanted to hire me or anything that really worked. And so real estate was something. I graduated and. And got my real estate license. That's where I happened to meet. Meet. My wife was an actually real estate school. Two very different people. We didn't end up. We ended up just being friends. Ended up not really knowing or getting started dating for a couple, three years down the road after that. But that is where I met my wife and did go into real estate. Very, very offhanded. I didn't. Didn't know if I was going to like it or not. I was a traditional story. I spent the first six months of my career not selling any houses and not doing a lot. I was working, working a whole lot. And for some reason didn't quit, wanted to quit. Was always planning on quitting and transitioning out of there. But I did.
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A
What else will I do?
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B
Well, I. Yeah, there was, there was that. It was. There was a. Pharmaceutical sales in some different parts of the industry was really where I was looking to go. And yeah, but I remember very clearly my 6 month, 10 closings and how.
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A
Did, how did you have those? What'd you do?
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B
It was just back then it was a. The average marketing time was about four months and took 30 days to close after that. And it was actually I'd learned from that. It was just kind of a numbers game. I had, I had had a lot of business and listings. I just didn't sell any properties. And so I think it was the accumulation of all of the work and numbers. If you. It's where I learned, got confidence with actually if you do the work and you invest the time in there's going to be a result. And that was just how the numbers worked out. It would have been better if it would have happened, you know, a couple a month every single month. But that's not how it worked out the market back then and what numbers and stats were. And it said if you do the work, which I always did the work. And I was fortunate enough to get into an organization to where they taught me how to go lead generate and that was what they kind of promoted. And so it was lead generation and going and getting the business and going and being involved in and all the different ways of prospecting from open houses to gold calling to door knocking, all those things we started doing. And it just kind of worked out at the end with the numbers. And so the tenth month, the sixth month, I had ten closings and I'm like, all right. Because I was selling horses and selling everything I had just to kind of make it through that six months. And then from that point on my committed to myself. I would never go another month with. With not having it closing. That's awesome. And I did. So there you go.
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A
So then. Okay, so tell us. Just, just kind of go through what your evolution was. You know, rookie of the year really to building a team, a top team. To leadership in Keller Williams Arlington. Just, just kind of go through that journey. What got you today to being the number one franchise brokerage owner.
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B
Okay, well, so journey. So path and journey is I did start in real estate after, after that first year, that first year came and went, I never looked back. I saw there was a big enough opportunity in the company that not the company in the Industry that I picked, it was, it was pretty much wide open in real estate. So I loved all of those, all of those parts of this industry and I'm like, all right, I can see myself and have a big enough life here. So I did end up, it took me six months to have my first closing, but we did end up being rookie of the year. Co rookie of the year actually with Sarah, my wife, My wife. Later on my wife, we were co rookies of the year. And it kind of launched from, from there with the real estate industry. But I love the real estate business and so we started selling and, and I got fairly quickly the understanding of leverage. I knew what I like to do and didn't like to do and, and I just grew a business and so it just kind of took step by step. I've always been a guy who had the mentors and when, when it was time for something to happen in my life, I went and found the best people around. We had lives and businesses like I wanted to have. And so, but I went, I went, I went. Year one was rookie of the year. Year two kind of built the business. Year three, I think we had about 70 closings. Year four, I had about 110 closings and started building the team around that. And, and, and honestly by that, by the fifth year, I was burnt out on real estate. I was ready to quit this industry and I started looking again and saying, all right, this can't be it. I was working all the time and there was, wasn't any answers. Only answers were to go work harder or go spend more time. And I couldn't, I was redlining my business and I couldn't, I couldn't go any farther. And so that's when I started looking. I, you know, I found, that's where I found Keller Williams. I heard them talking about having a life worth living and bigger lives and careers. And it was actually a couple of really key relationships that I had with inside of this company that we're willing to kind of pour in and, and, but I was looking, it was that moment I either get in business or I go do something else. And so I actually, my wife and I moved. We had a, we started a team at that point and they were talking about team and business and which was.
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A
Really revolutionary in the industry. Nobody else was talking about that. That was a fairly new concept of you could do something besides just month to month sell a house. Yep, it was, yeah, 100.
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B
Well, it wasn't being done yet. Yes, they had ton of teams or kind of that. And so it applied some business. Some business structure around and real business skills that they brought to this. And so that was. That was very intriguing to me. And so, so I. We got. I got married and joined switched companies Within a month of each other. Wow. And so, so move companies. We kind of took a step back from there and really just built a team, Built a fairly large team, Had a. About a 13, 14 person team that. That we kind of grew into. And then after I had my first child, which was katie, and so we had our first baby, My wife kind of moved home and started taking care of the family and doing that. And it really kind of started to change my. My paths of where I wanted to be and how I wanted to go create and what life wanted to, what kind of life I wanted to have. And then two years later, I had my second child. My wife had my second child, which was colton. And so that's actually when it really kind of took off for me. I'm like, all right, I want to go do something else. We had sold real estate. I built the team. We'd done that. Now how do I have a bigger life? And I looked around the organization and the companies and people who were doing and had the lives that I wanted to have, and that all been through a leadership process in some way, shape or form. And had been in team leader. They had done something in leadership. And I wanted to go understand how to really grow businesses and. And impact people in a different way. And so team leader. I stepped into the team leader role and 2000 into 2006, first of 2007, I stepped into the team leader role. And. And that kind of launched my career. I really found what I was passionate about.
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A
So you took over the arlington market center. At the time you took it over, Probably a lot of people would not have looked at that as an opportunity because it was a struggling market center. You could probably talk more about that. But you took it and built it to the number one office in all of Keller Williams, you know, over 700 market centers. What made you say yes, though, to that opportunity when it was certainly an uphill climb?
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B
Yeah.
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A
So why'd you say yes?
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B
You know, I wish I had really great answers. I think there was. There was two things. Number one, it was just. It was the next opportunity when I was ready. And so I have always. I've never. I've. When I'm ready to do something, I look around and try to figure out what is the best opportunity. And I, I. I was looking for two things Number one, I was not looking for a job. I did not want a job. I did not want to really go to work for anybody or do that. I was looking for what is an opportunity that I could go build something. What is an opportunity that I could go take something and do something large with it. And so that was. And those two things. Those two things happened. But again, and it's been a theme in my life as I look back and get to, you know, think back through, there was. There was the right who that was there. There was a who that was willing to pour in, who had done it at a very high level. And. And so there was a who attached, and the opportunity was big enough. And when those two things happened, you know, fear. Fear kind of goes away.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So, you know, you're not worried about what's going to happen next. Now you just get to go, all right, what do I need to do? Yeah, teach me.
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A
So then your success there.
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B
And we did. I mean, to go back, not to interrupt. We did. I'm very. I'm very proud of the people we got to go on the journey with, because, you know, there was. There was a lot of people there, and I got to learn a lot, and it was really tough, but I found my passion. And I still remember a couple. There's moments in your life to remember, and, you know, I remember when. When I'd been there six, seven months, and leadership's a tough journey. You have to be willing to go through with it because it's. You got to take everything, you know and think, you know, about humans and life and. And leading yourself, and. And you pretty much get exposed very quickly. You don't have any idea what you're doing. But. But I realized there was a point there when I'm handing somebody an award and I really got to impact that, had an opportunity to be a part of their life and a part of their journey. And. And. And that's where I knew my passions, because I was way more excited about giving this person the award than I'd ever been about getting an award myself, and I was more excited about doing that. And that was. That was. That was a moment in my life. I'm like, all right, this is. This is where we go. And so I'm. I'm passionate about this now. Fill me in more. I'm not just here as a passenger. I'm here to. All right, how can I go do this better than it's ever been done? And. And we got to be on that journey. It wasn't A, it was a tough time in real estate because 2007 was a great year in real estate. But then to end of 2007, 2008, the market crashed and I think we had a, we had a huge crash. And that, that, that got me really clear on the business spots of this. And we ended up taking it. It was, you know, on the bottom side of Keller Williams and the market centers. That's why the opportunity was there. And within five years we took it from, you know, being, you know, in the bottom of Keller Williams to being the number one market center and, and number one business in all of Keller Williams.
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A
Yeah, pretty awesome.
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B
It was, it was a, it was a fun ride. I got to, it wasn't just me. I had a whole lot of great people that I got to go on this journey with and, and one of.
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A
Them still in business with you and on the journey.
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B
And a lot of those people are still on the journey with this. And I used to get to be in business with people. I've stopped off and they've all been, they've all been a blessing in my life as a certain.
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A
Yeah, it's about seasons.
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B
It is.
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A
So, so you took taking over. I'm just going to take us kind of to current day because you, you took over the Arlington Market center when it was a challenging time in real estate and really led through a lot of market disruption. We have had multiple disruptions now in the industry and they're happening and they're going to continue to happen. And I think it's not just real estate, it's. Every industry is being disrupted by technology and by competition and it's just a fast moving game. Um, and I see you definitely as a leader who leads well in change, leads well in disruption. You're thinking not just, you know, three days from now, you're thinking five years from now, and you're, you're three steps ahead of, of everybody else and that makes you a great leader for a visionary organization. But what have you learned about. Most people don't like change? Let's be real.
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B
Sure.
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A
So the most of the time when we're leading the people that we're leading and then the people that they're leading are going to be adverse to change. What have you learned about helping people and organizations adapt to change and to do it quickly enough? Because I know speed is a core value in your life.
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B
Speed is a core value in your life. That is for sure. Well, I don't think anybody really likes change. Change always comes with resistance by nature, anything you're going to change is going to take resistance to happen. And so I think, you know, there's two ways and you can, we could spend the next three days talking about change and how you take, how you take advantage of that or how you get people to change. You know, I think there's only two ways people ever really change. And you're either moving towards pleasure or you're moving away from pain. I mean, those are, those are the moving towards what you want and the goals that you have or you're moving away from some immediate pain that you, that you have to have and go through. And so anytime you're in challenging times like, like to go back and you have to define what challenging times are, because I've been in the real estate business for a long time, almost 30 years. And so there's always, every, every, every year there's been something challenging about the year. There's been something challenging about the market. Even when the market was incredibly hot, it was challenging because you couldn't find homes to sell.
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A
Everybody was exhausted.
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B
Everybody was exhausted. If it's good, if it's, if it's bad, if it's changing, so, so there's always that piece of it. And I think you go back to the individual in terms of which is, which is about leadership because as you, as you go up in leadership, there's leading individuals and there's leading companies. And those are two different, two different leadership sets leading an individual. And you have to actually have both.
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A
Yeah.
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B
To lead large companies because you have to have the ability to lead individuals who are in your inner circle. But you have to make sure you're choosing the best individuals do then help teach them the skill set and mindset to actually go lead the large organization. The more effective you are at individual leading, the more successful your organization is going to be because you're allowing people to, to open up their potential and, and, and what is next. And so as you're talking about change changes from an individual standpoint, we've got to understand where somebody's going and help someone understand the whys they're going to be moving and the why the, and the why the change is important and help them tap in. I'm never going to be able to tell you what to do. I'm never going to be able to force you to do something. But I can help, I can help show you the way. And you know, we talk a lot about leadership and what is leadership. And you know, one of the things leaders do very effectively is help teach People how to think and then so they can get what they want when they want it. That's, that's, that's how I was taught teaching you how to think. So putting you in a scenario not to worst my idea to help you reach your goals and how you need to think in order to do it. I've always been that guy who is who I like setting big goals, I like working with inside of really large goals because I'm not concerned about accomplishing it because I'm not the guy when I said them. We can accomplish it. But I'm excited to go on the journey and that journey has to be changed to I can't reach my goals until I become the human being can go accomplish it. And that's all change and that's just moving towards and throughout different seasons and chapters of our lives.
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A
Yeah, well, you mentioned, you know, people move because of pain or pleasure. And I think one of the challenges when you're a visionary leader and you're seen five years down the road. Let's just say, for example, we know that future pain is coming if we don't change now, but there's not always an immediate pain. And so to get people on board and to change how they think about something when they're not feeling the pain. They'll change once they're completely disrupted and they have to. But what you want is a competitive organization who's going to make the change before they have to. Sure. Um, how do you help people think about change so that they're willing to move before it becomes a painful situation?
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B
Um, it's a great question. And when you figure that out, because I, I, I, I don't know, I don't think anybody can do. I think as the organization, my job, you know, when I was an agent, my job was to go do transactions and, and help people buy and sell real estate. And I'm looking kind of at a, at a, at a, at a 30 day, 60 day and 90 day cycle of what's happening and how my business is working. When I, when I became a leader, you're really looking one year down the road almost because you're looking, I can't fix this month, but I can fix, you know, 90 days down the road and a year from now I can fix this.
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A
Right.
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B
And you move into, to having, to having to do more vision and the higher you move up, the less connection you have with people. And that's, that's, that's the tough part of it. But what happens is you now have to Be able to look one year, three years and five years down the road and how are you doing things? And so it comes back to who you're in business with matters. And it really does because you can't do all of those things at the same time. It's hard to look at today and then look, look 30 days or 90 days, one year, five years down the road. You have to have people that are going to do that. You have to, you have to be in business. And so you're not here to change everybody today, but you're here to build a, build a place of how we see the future, working out and build an organization that's going to allow people to accomplish their goals both today and the key is with being in business with talent is you've got to build a business big enough for the future where you have plenty of opportunities and you can continue to build the big business that way everybody gets to be on the level when they're ready to accomplish what's next. Because you don't have, you're not going to. Forcing someone to go change is when they don't want to is not going to happen. Well, it's almost violent. It's not good because I'm forcing you to do something you don't want to do. But when you're ready to change as a leader, I can help build an organization, be part of an organization that when you're ready, I'm going to have the answers for you and I'm going to help teaching you to think as we go. But we're in an organization because we're on a journey together.
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A
Yeah, I love that. So what do you think as far as disruption? Let's talk specifically about the real estate industry. What do you think right now is the most disruptive force in the real estate industry that we need to be focused on? I think from the many.
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B
I mean, there's a lot of things going on in our real estate industry right now. It's a, it's a very interesting time because I think we're not just dealing with a, with a market shift. You have a, you have a consumer shift. Consumers all of a sudden have a lot more power in this world. And not power, it's just, hey, they got a lot more options out there. I mean, you've had all of these new models and new ways of doing business and new ways of trying to sell homes and new ways of attracting customers. I mean, the technology business alone has spent tens of billions of dollars in this space just to use the Word disruption. And so, and, and to disrupt the industry. I think, you know, you have the technology side of this, but no matter what's happened and how much money has been spent in that space, people are still using agents at or at a higher rate than they ever have. So what we do as an organization is still very important, what our job is. And so as you look down, down the road to say, all right, what is the biggest challenge with and the biggest opportunity where you have a consumer shift, you have a market shift and you have kind of an industry shift all kind of happening at the same time. And that what that allows is the industry is adapting, the industry is changing, consumers are saying, I want something different. And so I think the biggest, biggest obstacle or fear as we move down our industry of what's going to happen has to do with us, the real estate agents. Are we, as the real estate professionals willing to understand where we are and are positioned at this point in time? And are we willing to actually adapt and change into the future? Are we willing to become what is necessary? Are we willing to move from a transactional type agent to that true consumer advocate to that, to that, that person that's really going to offer something in a very different way? Not just opening a door, not just selling a house, but, but now you get the opportunity to be able to be a part of, you know, an entire home journey with their people. Being able to help, being able to help the industry in terms of, you know, of not just this home, but help them with mortgage, help them on the title side, help them with insurance, help them making the best choices, that, helping advise them in the future, not just on how to get into the house, but what is the best strategy and plan for the rest of their life and for the rest of their rest of their journey? Throughout their, throughout the home buying process, you know, they've said, and I think you have to worry about this and look at this a little bit as what is the behaviors of the buyer right now? Is home ownership still important? Has home ownership gotten out of reach for people? You know, where, where does this in, in the journey, in the process. And so what we do as, as is important. What we do is helping them to obtain that, but also being that conduit to help them get there and to help build the future for that?
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A
Yeah, well, I think that, I think it was seven years was the average length of time that homeowners are going to home. I think it's up to 10 now. So people are staying longer, which means that transactional Cycle is longer.
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B
Well, I also think the average person 24 to 34, I think 79%, let's raise that to 80%. People are living at home with their, with their, with their family.
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A
Right.
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B
That is a, that is a, that is an amazing stat.
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A
It is an amazing stat.
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B
And so, and there's, there's lots of, there's lots of conversation around that, but that's an amazing stat.
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A
Yeah, the game is, is definitely changing. So we had, we had focus groups at Dallas Press and Road this morning and they're happening all over the Go network for a new platform that we've, we're releasing to our agents for our off market solution, private collection, and then also a whole platform for them to negotiate offers in a completely different and disruptive way.
- [28:06]
B
Right.
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A
Um, and what I love is, so we, we had three focus groups this morning and it was top agents at all of those groups. But it was, it was fun to see the ones that are so willing to jump on board quickly to change and to do things differently and started thinking strategically. Not just okay, how do I have this and use it, but how do I take this as a competitive tool, Think strategically and go out there and dominate in the market. And when you get into business with those kind of people that want to think strategically and competitively, then the disruption becomes fun because then you get to be the disruptor.
- [28:44]
B
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you find the, you find the group and that is when it gets fun. Is when you, is, is as you go through the process. There's always goods and bads, there's always hard times and, and really great times. But you know, you're at that spot to where the people start to show up when you're actually showing, you know, when you're actually doing the right things. The people who want to go on the journey with you and those are the ones that start bringing you energy because they're like, all right, there is a different way. That's when, that's when, that's when culture is kind of rebuilt. That's when energy starts to come and you start to have creativity that now that now is circling around an idea and, and the belief. And then once that happens now you start to create momentum in the organization and you start to create momentum with inside of the people as you have success and as things go. And that's how you begin to change the market. That's how you do something that's never been done before.
- [29:37]
A
Well, and I love that you said the word culture because I think sometimes we think of culture as warm fuzzy community and you know, chicken noodle soup community and all of that's good culture.
- [29:49]
B
Absolutely.
- [29:49]
A
That is culture. But there's also, it's a result of. Right, it's Right. But there's also a culture of productivity, there's a culture of disruption, there's a culture of competition. And that is, that is something too, that when, when you can have the, the tools and you're creating the culture through that by attracting the right kind of people that want to grow and do something different and think differently. It does create a certain kind of culture too within your organization.
- [30:13]
B
Oh, 100%. I mean organization to some extent always looks like his leader.
- [30:19]
A
Yeah.
- [30:20]
B
After, after a while the organization always starts to look like its leader and takes on the beliefs of its leadership. Culture becomes the important part because you know, there's, there's culture is always changing. There is a, there is a belief system in the culture. But you have new human beings every time 10 to 15 people come into your organization. Right. It changes the culture of your organization depending upon the size. You're a five person organization. One person coming in changes the organization. Your job as the leader to help help hold that culture. Is this person coming in going to fit the standards of your expectations of how you treat and how you, how we behave around each other. And that's, that's become a, that's become a tough thing over the last several years just in terms of how you, how you lead through that and, and what is leadership? It's, it's, you know, it's not been easy to be a leader for the last, for. It's never easy, but it's been super tough, you know, for the last five or six years just to, just to understand and navigate the world as it's gone through to help to understand. And so, but a culture, you know, for my neighborhood culture, it always starts with, you know, you gotta be able to make a living. This is still a business. You gotta help. You know, we're, we are here to help our agents become the best version of their self and reach their goals. We're here to work with, help, help people through home ownership to the biggest transaction in their life. Most people, and that's a, that's an honor. It's an honor. We get to do this every day. And so, you know, the culture of how you build things and who you attract begins with who you are and how you believe. But then the people that show up around you or what's going to attract your tribe and, and, and what kind of what kind of what, what, what journey you're going to be on, where you're going. And that's why we talk so much about vision and why, as a leader, laying out a vision for today and into the future is what's going to attract the people on the journey. And that in many ways helps to shape the culture. Yeah, culture gets really wonky when you stop growing and you have a whole bunch of people just kind of slam into you right then you may have had a great culture, but because the organization stopped moving, everyone slammed into it. There's no more opportunity for people. So now, all of a sudden, even though they're same great people, the culture now feels different. And so culture has to be a culture of growth and productivity. But then in the people you hire is how you treat each other. Yeah.
- [32:44]
A
After those things happen, vision attracts, culture retains.
- [32:48]
B
Absolutely.
- [32:49]
A
Okay, so top four, three character traits for realtors and leaders of the future. You mean, what are the top three. Who do we have to become the top three things for success as we navigate, let's say, just say the next five to ten years.
- [33:08]
B
Yeah, the next five to ten years. I think, you know, I think, I think in our organization, five to ten years from now on, our organization just in our industry, it's, it's, it's currently being fought for and, and, and trying to figure out, you know, what the future is going to be. And that's why to predict the future, that's where I draw my energy. Best way to predict the future is to go create it and the vision and people to kind of help create what the future is going to be. So, and then your question to your question exactly was what traits do people need to have into the future? Well, you have AI, you have technology, you have all of these things that are going, that are, that are coming into our industry. We've been in a very, you know, industry that's been very aggressive and it's used aggression in terms of its growth. And so I'm not sure how much that character trait follows through into the future, because now it's going to be how you're, how you're giving the best service, but it's service through AI, service through all of these tools, not to replace what you're doing, but to come alongside you with, inside of this. And so there's a certain amount of understanding, because the biggest challenge right now is understanding how to communicate as, as a leader and as a professional, because the leaders you have to communicate, you got baby boomers, you got Gen Xers, you got millennials, you got Gen Z's, and you got all of these different. We're in that, we're in that world where everybody communicates very differently and has different needs. And so how you're able to, how you're able to either get really clear on who you're working with and what you want or that is one, that is one solution. Second solution then is how you're able to communicate and have different ways of communicating through multiple different levels of age and multiple different levels. And so the ability to communicate at a high level, the ability to work with inside of the system, because I think the rugged individualist that we have all become is going to be. It's going to be tough in the future because go to win. To go. There's so many outside forces to go and say, hey, we can go win against the world is a tough thing. Yeah, sounds good. But it's, it's, that's, that's a, that's a tough, that's a tough task right now. So it's who you're going to be on this journey with and who you're going to be working with. So, so that ability, ability from a partnership to bring energy is going to be important and, and then be able to be adaptable. We talked about speed. Speed is, speed is 100%. Because what's, what's interesting about this world, what's interesting about our industry right now is it doesn't matter whether you've done this for, for 30 days, 30 months or 30 years, it's all new. There are new skill sets. It is changing. And so either you're going to adapt to the future and adapt to what's happened, or you're truly going to be left behind. And, and, and it's starting to speed up quicker and quicker. It's going to be slowly and suddenly, but that is, I mean, we're currently in those decisions right now where we're going. So it doesn't matter how long you have been doing this industry, starting, starting new in this industry, you have plenty of opportunity as even over the people that are doing it for years, because things are being done differently. And that's what we're getting to rewrite the rules and rewrite how things are done. And that's exciting.
- [36:33]
A
Okay, so maybe that's the answer to my next question, but let's kind of wrap with this. What gives you the most amount of hope for the future?
- [36:40]
B
Ah, that's a great question. And so what gives me the most amount of hope for the Future. I think, I think I had to decide four or five years ago, actually, I had to decide. I'm like, all right, what do I want to be when I grow up? What do, what do you know, do I have enough energy to change? As you start seeing the world changing and everything changing, what is it that I want to be? And do I have enough energy to go, to go be a part of this? And can I just. Can. I had to make the decision, do I have to go show up and be able to show up with inside of this business and have enough energy to help create and fulfill the promises of all the people that we're in business with and help create the promises of this business and what's new and being able to go change. And so, you know, obviously we made, I made the decision, yes, because that is what brings energy to me. There is a, there is a change and an opportunity that is, that is, that is. Here we get to decide if our profession and our industry is going to be valid into the future and is going to be the leader and, and lead into the future with homeowners and home ownership and what role we're going to play. And so I've always got an energy about getting to recreate things. I always think in my own head, as, you know, what do I have to be to be the best in the world? What is it? What is that? You know, whatever those things are, and those are always my standards that I step out with. But, you know, going and actually changing the industry and being a part of this change and being a part of the future of this industry and how the real estate agent of the future is actually going to be the most essential part of the transaction and the most essential part of, of someone's life. Just like you would have, you're going to have your doctors, you're going to have your financial planners, and you're going to have your real estate professionals that are helping to maintain, manage everything about your home, including your wealth. And there's going to be a large group of people that come on that journey with us. The most exciting part is I get to get. It's not individual anymore. Yeah, it's, it's definitely going to be a team sport and how we're going to win together in the future. And so that's, that's the, that's what opportunity is, is at all of our feet right now with inside of this industry. And industry is very much pushing in every aspect in this industry. It's, it's changing and it's and you can feel it kind of breaking apart and recreating into. Into something better. And so we get to be a part of that now. We get to be a part of that. And that's what gets me excited because it's about creating opportunities. It's back when I was first team leader, for me, because when I was first teen leader, I got excited when someone else had success. I got excited more over someone else's success in creating that than anything else. And we're at that moment again in history to get to go recreate that and recreate where we are.
- [39:32]
A
Well, I'm incredibly proud to be part of the Go network.
- [39:35]
B
I am incredibly proud to be in business with you.
- [39:37]
A
And I believe we are doing some cutting edge things and some exciting things, some disruptive things. I'm proud of the people we have on our bus that we get to do this journey with. No doubt.
- [39:46]
B
Absolutely.
- [39:47]
A
Um, and like you said, it is all about who we get to become in the journey. So thank you. Thank you for joining me today, everybody.
- [39:55]
B
Happy to be here.
- [39:56]
A
Thank you for listening. And as always, when you invest in your growth every single day, it will yield you great returns. Be sure to subscribe to YouTube for me and drop Smokey. Lots of love in the comments. Thank you always for being an upsider and we'll see you next week.