Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
Ep. 24- Colby Culbertson!!!
Imagine juggling a viral social media moment and the life-changing news of an upcoming bundle of joy. That's exactly where Kaelee finds herself, sharing the ups and downs of pregnancy and the hilarity of keeping such monumental secrets. As the conversation shifts from the joys of impending motherhood to professional triumphs, we're joined by Colby Culbertson, whose journey from Granite Bay High School to a tech-infused real estate career offers inspiration and insight. Colby's story, sparked by a football injury and a nudge from his dad, unfolds with tales of resilience during the 2008 financial crisis and an unexpected leap into the world of Zillow.
Journey with us as Colby reveals the growing pains and exhilarating leaps within the fast-paced world of real estate technology. From his early days tackling skepticism at Zillow to the game-changing role of AI in streamlining processes, Colby's experiences shed light on the evolving landscape of buying and selling homes. We dissect Zillow's strategic movements, such as acquiring Follow Up Boss, and how these decisions aim to empower agents with cutting-edge tools and data-driven insights. The dialogue is peppered with laughter and learning, as we explore the delicate balance of embracing innovation while maintaining personal touches in real estate.
Stepping back from the business grind, we reflect on the art of balancing professional ambitions with personal life. Colby's transition from corporate life to a family-run brokerage is a testament to prioritizing what truly matters. We touch on the importance of community, the colorful dynamics of family business, and the comforting embrace of favorite local haunts. As the episode wraps up with lighthearted reflections and a nod to classic comedy, it leaves listeners eager for more stories of resilience, leadership, and the joy of shared experiences.
Yo, let's do this. Kaley, huge announcement. Last week you almost broke social media with all those comments and likes and shares.
Speaker 2:I was surprised. I had a lot of people with some feedback on that that was very good. Who would?
Speaker 1:have known? Who would have known, yeah, who would have ever guessed?
Speaker 2:You and your wife, you had no idea, certainly.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I'm the worst at keeping secrets too. When you told me you were like I almost screwed up and blew the secret so many times I was like, oh, fuck me too, it's not even, it's not even my news to share and I almost, and I almost, screwed up.
Speaker 2:You get to a point where you've known for so long that you forget who you've told, who you haven't.
Speaker 1:So then you just start speaking freely about like shit. We got to get this news out because I can't yeah, yeah, I'm a strike while the iron's hot kind of guy to rip the band-aid off. I, I just prefer especially like stuff, like that's super fun. You're excited about it. I mean, obviously wouldn't. Um, I didn't. You know, we've I've got a couple kids of my own, so like, yeah, you do have to kind of play the game and slow play it for a little while. Make sure everything's healthy and in line, um, but it's, it's super exciting, it's one of the most exciting. Um, it's one of the most exciting things I think anybody ever experiences in their life, and being able to share that is super cool. So I was, uh, I was just happy to be on the front end, you know.
Speaker 2:I was in the know, I was in the circle. Yeah, it doesn't feel that exciting right now, it's actually pretty brutal, but I am very excited for the baby to be here. I feel like pregnancy is a lie. It's not beautiful guys, I mean, maybe some people love it, but, like for me, I just want to talk about pregnancy brain very quickly. This has been a topic of conversation. I know we're all like you both have wives, you both have children, and so you're familiar with that pregnancy brain. I had to break down the science, cause there's actually science on it now. So there is an a real reduction of gray matter during pregnancy which is responsible for your thought processing, your emotional processing, and it reduces significantly and lasts for up to two years after the baby is born. Oh, that's explained so much yeah.
Speaker 1:Marina's going to kill me. If she listens to this and heard me, She'll be validated, you know.
Speaker 2:But in the white matter actually maintains which is responsible for, like focus, fine motor skills, and so the theory behind it. Of course, there's still a lot of research to be done, but the theory behind it is that our, our physiology is changing to be able to adapt to care for the needs of a newborn baby, which are so primal. You know, the the things like thought processing, emotions, stuff like that are not as pertinent when we need to make another life survive and thrive. So all these times when I'm like talking and I forget a word, or I'm just so brain dead and exhausted that I can't even think, like no thoughts are coming in my brain and I feel like a zombie.
Speaker 1:I think I'm pregnant. I think this explains it all, because I have zero focus. I forget shit all the time. So I am an anomaly and thank you for explaining.
Speaker 2:We've confirmed a lot of suspicions just now.
Speaker 1:Oh, so good. Well, I think that, um, I think obviously we're going to have some time for you to share your experiences of going through this. Um, I know for me the one thing that stuck out with with Marina when she was pregnant with both kids, and I feel like, uh, she had like this super heightened smell.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was like. So now to the point where, like she'll smell something and I'll be like you, better not be pregnant because we are too far down this road to start over again, and if you've got like super sniffer going, I am very worried.
Speaker 2:I'm a hound dog? Yeah, I'm literally. I pick up sunset.
Speaker 3:It's a real thing. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So well enough about enough about you and um and your experiences, because there's going to be plenty more of that to come, but, uh, we do have, we do have a guest. It's a, it's actually a second generation guest.
Speaker 3:We had his dad on here.
Speaker 1:Full disclosure, though we we probably will have to invite somebody from another brokerage on the podcast at some point. We are definitely not in bed with the EXP or this team. I can assure you that.
Speaker 2:Submit your suggestions on our podcast. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Please like comment, tell us you want to come on. You got some good stuff to talk about. We would love to. We would love to have you on, and we do have a pretty good time here. But today's guest is a Bay Area sports fan, much like myself. He's got a background in technology and quite a bit of years experience in the real estate space with one of the larger platforms here in the industry. That we will touch on over the course of the next few minutes, and let's see what else. He's got two kids. He grew up here locally, went to Granite Bay High School and then college down in San Diego. Usd, I believe, not the UCSD. Usd, I believe, is the one on the hill in La Jolla where everybody really wants to be. So, without further ado, let's play this dude in and introduce Mr Colby Colbertson. Yes, colby, highly appreciated Welcome. Thank you, welcome.
Speaker 2:Mr Colby Culbertson, I feel like we need the formal announcement.
Speaker 3:Man, what a name my dad gave me.
Speaker 1:C squared CC.
Speaker 2:It's a memorable name, you know it lands, it makes an impact.
Speaker 1:It does, it does.
Speaker 2:I mean, your personality certainly does too. Sure, yeah, I've heard that once or twice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep, I 100%. And I have two middle names, so my name doesn't even fit on the license Wait what are they? Uh, Alton Warren Cause my parents couldn't agree on which grandfather I'd be named after.
Speaker 2:That's a very strong name. I've got both.
Speaker 3:That's like an East coast private school boys name like yeah, they did not uh foresee tsa, pre-check when they did that, and it's an absolute issue for me every single time c-a-w-c.
Speaker 1:We won't, we won't, we won't, we won't. Read that out loud. My dad loved to tell my dad. But yeah, so funny. So my mom, my, my middle middle name is Christopher and my mom wanted to, wanted to call me DC, that that was what she wanted my nickname to be and apparently, like as soon as I could talk, I was like, stop calling me that. Yeah, which is weird, cause now I'm nine, 44. So it's probably not that cool, but I'm like that'd be a cool nickname.
Speaker 3:Now, looking back, and I would have been a cool nickname I don't know why. I was so dad's nickname in high school, and so, and then Michael went to Lincoln high school, my cousin Kyle, his brother went to Lincoln high school, and all their friends called him Colby, so it's very confusing.
Speaker 2:I'm like I'm actually Colby. Teachers felt seeing another Culbertson name come through and being like how many are there of you guys?
Speaker 3:I'm sure they're tired of it. I think we've had six generations in Lincoln or something along that line.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1:So before we get too far away from it, that was a fantastic, fantastic walk-up song. Walk-up songs for me and this show are so important because they just really kind of pull the curtain back For the guests. Oftentimes they serve as kind of an icebreaker. But when we get a song like my prerogative from Bobby Brown, like there's got to be some backstory, so so so tell us about why that was the choice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I mean, you know, people love to talk about other people and that's just the truth of the matter.
Speaker 3:I know it's weird, I don't get it. But yeah, you know, I I think a lot of people like to talk about as you're getting more success, right. It's just a natural thing. People will like to talk good or bad, and for me, you know, I've never really cared too much about what people think about me. Think about me and the, the song is just a good indication of kind of how I go about life. You know, I'm I'm pursuing happiness and not it's not always, uh, what I think the cliche life looks like.
Speaker 1:I would definitely say that it's not always what you tell people on Instagram. My life is certainly not boring.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's that's really what it comes down to is just really honestly focusing on what's going to create happiness for me, my family, you know, my kids, my wife, the whole thing.
Speaker 1:So nice, love it, love it, love it. And it was a super fun song, right? Oh, I love it. It doesn't always have to be this deep motivate, like I think people come on this podcast and they like want to have this like super deep meaning song and we're like no, like we're just we're just cutting rug over here, like just shooting this shit, like we're here to have fun and kind of share some experiences.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's what open the gate is all about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so all right. So, colby, let's jump right in and talk about kind of your real estate journey, because it's it's a wild one. So so talk to us about how'd you get started and where is it. Where's it taking you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually it's a long story. I've been a licensed realtor since I was 18. And so I had a football scholarship to play football at Sac State originally and tore my patella tendon for the second time, and so well, yeah, I had to wear a straight leg brace for eight months. It was a lot of fun that second time I had to do it. And so while I was doing that, my dad was like, why don't you just get your real estate license? And so during my downtime I did that, and so I just had it to have it. And then, while I was at USD, so I ended up going down to school in San Diego and football was done after that one.
Speaker 1:I was like no, I'm good I think I want to walk when I'm like 50.
Speaker 3:And so I went down to San Diego and my grandmother my mom's mom ended up getting terminal cancer, so I moved back and the intention was just to be here for six months, and our families are all super tight. Clearly, I work with my dad, michael right, and so while I was here, I needed to work and make money. I wasn't in school, so I started selling real estate and ran away. Just on, I think, my second day, I went and showed a house and ended up putting it into contract.
Speaker 1:It's pretty wild, it's like the first door your dad knocked right. Didn't he land the first door he knocked, or something crazy. His story's great.
Speaker 3:I mean the guy dropping him off in the middle of nowhere and making them knock doors for an hour and then coming to get him after he went to the bar for a couple hours. It's a good story. Mine's not as interesting, unfortunately, but um, yeah, so I, you know I ended up getting a deal on the contract and then, um, you know, I I just never really looked back after that. I I started to actually fall in love with the business and, um, the irony of it is I swore up and down I would never get into real estate, because, as a child of two real estate brokers, we grew up in the real estate office.
Speaker 3:That's how it was, and so I swore I was never going to do that to my kids. But here we are. The good news is they don't have to come in the real estate office all that often, so there is that side of it, but yeah. So then from there, I ended up getting REOs in 2008, 2009, 2010, and all the way through really 2012,. They started to obviously slow down and randomly I get a call from a guy that used to work at Coal Banker down in Southern California and he had taken a job at Zillow and he was their chief, I think, think, strategy officer or something like that, and he's like hey, I have a job that I think you would be perfect for. And then he told me the company and I was like, absolutely not, this is like 2012, 2013, 2012.
Speaker 1:So, coming out of the short sale REO kind of era that was when Zillow was kind of first being known.
Speaker 2:Right, it was coming on the map. People had a really negative connotation of it. They didn't like it. Yep, okay, yeah, great time to join that company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got a lot of stories, but right before that I had taken a job as an assistant manager with one of the offices for Coal Banker in Roseville, and then they quickly promoted me to become the field marketing manager for the region, and so I think I did that for like three months and then this phone call came through and so the Zillow call, the Zillow call.
Speaker 3:And he was like hey, I want you to fly up to Seattle, I want you to just see it and check out the office. I think it's, it's a young culture, you're really going to love it. It's a tech company. And, um, I was like, ah, maybe, I don't know. Christie was literally, I think cash was due in a matter of days, and so, um, I ended up talking to her after cash was born and I flew up, I think two days after cash was born.
Speaker 1:So let me, let me jump in, because this is actually a really interesting dynamic. Um, so many people hesitate to leave a career with a, with a, with a 10 night or a W2 job and go into a 1099 independent contractor, right? So you're actually looking, you're being positioned with an opportunity to get out of that world where you don't have a paycheck unless you've got something that's going to close and go into something that's that's got a salary, probably some benefits. Um, a startup tech company in the 2013s. I mean, they probably raised quite a bit of money and doing some things. So talk to me a little bit of that. You said your first is on the way, or your second, first versus on the way.
Speaker 3:So literally he was. He was literally born, I think two days after this phone call. And then I flew up, I think literally two or three days later, and when met with the leadership there the company was super small. So I interviewed with Greg Schwartz who was the chief revenue officer at the time. Didn't even know who he was, I just kind of just didn't even care.
Speaker 1:to be honest, with me, with this guy pay for me to fly up to Seattle.
Speaker 3:It sounds super arrogant. Now I think about it, but I didn't really want the job and I was like no-transcript, then watch the growth of employees afterwards, and so I ended up accepting it and I started a month later and so I was flying back and forth every week, so cash.
Speaker 1:This is before the days of remote work being like an actual thing outside of the traveling salesman Right, yep, and I'm actually curious, I want to ask.
Speaker 2:So, coming from the other side, when the sentiment about this company was very negative, what did you fall in love with? What was so inspiring and motivating to you to actually make the jump and get in the boat with this company?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the culture, a hundred percent. It was everything there. Everybody there was moving fast. They were thinking bigger. The way the conversations that were happening were like invigorating, right it was. I felt alive again, like, rather than being at. This is no slight to Cold Banker, it's just, it's an old company, it's a big company and it's it's not the same, right, there's not this massive growth that's happening, it's super exciting to be a part of right. You're just more in a management mode.
Speaker 1:Were your peers. Were your peers at Zillow? Were they heavy background in real estate? Or were you kind of like. You were kind of like the. You were the dude to go to with real estate related questions, cause these were a bunch of techies, right?
Speaker 3:Correct, yep. So when I went there, techies right, right, yep. So when I went there, um, I think my title if you don't know much about small startup tech companies, your titles are kind of bullshit, Um, but the CEO slash janitor you got to have a title.
Speaker 1:I have all those titles, right now I'm still a partner in a really small company. I've known to take on a lot of traction.
Speaker 3:My salary- when I started did not match the title. Let's put it like that. That was the thing it's a lot of stock, it's a lot of upside, and then the salary is going to start small right. And so I took that leap of faith. But my title, I think, was Director of Industry Relations for the Western United States, and so quickly that became not the Western United States, it was literally anywhere and everywhere they needed me to go to solve problems and so every major market right.
Speaker 1:Almost immediately.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so basically there's. There's like this could be literally an hour's long podcast by itself, this Zillow conversation. But, um, you know, when I started, the biggest problems Zillow had was data right, and I don't even know if how long you've been in the business, but like when, when I started, everybody hated Zillow, not because they were going to put real estate agents out of business, but because literally you'd have six listings on there that are the same property sometimes, or the house literally sold years ago and it's still showing for sale. So we're getting calls about this property, Right, I recall that and I always loved it when I got those calls because I turned it a sale. Just because this one's not for sale doesn't mean there's not one like it.
Speaker 1:You're obviously. If you're calling about this house, you're looking for a house.
Speaker 3:And so it always baffled me when I would hear agents complain about it when I'd go on the road after I started working there. But that was the job. So we needed to go secure clean data, and so we went and actually built relationships with all the brokers around the country. Bigger, bigger brokers already had their massive data feeds, but they had the money to build them. The smaller independence and the midsize companies did not, and the MLS is, at the time, only a handful of them syndicated the data directly.
Speaker 1:So now I was told to to ask a question specifically around that experience. So you're walking into these brokerages with, uh, with brokers who probably don't necessarily love you at this time because they just don't they right, they don't understand what you're doing, um, and they probably fear that you're trying to put them out of business. Yet here you are trying to sell them something, right? So any good stories around around those experiences.
Speaker 3:I have a lot, but I have one that I think you're referencing. Um, yeah, so in in the very beginning it was like probably I think I was five months in at the job and I was kind of getting the hang of it. I knew what I needed to do, what we needed to solve, and so I was going into Austin, texas, and they had the Austin Board of Realtors, control the data feed there and so, and they're they're made up of basically a board of a lot of the independent brokers, and Austin prides itself on its small independence and you know that's the flavor there. So one of them, specifically, um, invited me to his office, set the appointment with me, and so I show up and, um, I'm sitting across in this massive conference room and I'm on the very end of it makes me wait for like almost 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:This is like the Christmas vacation scene, where he drops off the gift at the end of the boardroom table.
Speaker 3:It's like 30 feet long 100% yeah, except for I wasn't the one, like you know, trying to get somebody on the phone.
Speaker 1:Well, it's probably good for him. I mean, you're built like a brick shithouse, so I'm sure this guy was probably cool with the space. I was a lot younger then too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right. So he left me there for 45 minutes and, and um, I, literally I, when he came in, I went to go shake his hand and he literally got in my face and started yelling and screaming at me to the point where he was like spitting on me. I was like, all right. I was like, look, clearly you're taking all this very personally, as his business. I'm like I just I work for this company. My job is to come in and try to build a relationship with you.
Speaker 3:You're literally talking about stuff that actually is not fact. And if you're not going to let me have a conversation with you, I'll just leave, it's okay. And so I'm leaving, I'm grabbing my bag and he's following me out to the car and he's literally on my heels just yelling at me Right, and I open the car door my rental car and he kicks my door shut. And he kicks my door shut and I, like you said, I'm larger than a lot of people not everybody, but definitely was larger than him and I just turned around and I just looked him and I was like I'm going to open this one more time and the next time you kick it we're going to have a different problem. And then he like cause I, he like.
Speaker 3:It like flashed on him Like he like came out of whatever this craze was. He was like I'm going to go, and he just like went back inside, and so that was the only time.
Speaker 1:That was his come to Jesus moment. Right, he's like wait a minute.
Speaker 3:I was no longer the Zillow employee.
Speaker 2:I was just like all right, we're going to have this moment and you're asking for that.
Speaker 3:Like, I'm going to give it to you, all right, but let's just not do that. We go Right. So, um, that was the off. I've had people yell at me, I mean people chew me out, they wouldn't take meetings because they hated Zillow. But you know, we got the job done.
Speaker 1:Even those themes are still common and probably guys like I mean I'm I'm not a small person either, so like I don't have a lot of confrontational issues just because I mean physically I'm bigger than the majority of people, but like someone gets you on the phone or something and our poor girls in the office deal with it all the time, they just get berated, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's like you know those internet gangsters and you know the people on the other end of the phone. It's like would you really talk to me like this? If I was standing right in front of kudos to that guy, he actually might've had the stones to do it.
Speaker 3:He was fighting above his weight class.
Speaker 1:He was out he was out of his class for sure.
Speaker 3:100, yeah, so yeah, um a lot, of, a lot of wild stories from that time, but it was um, it was an incredible time well, not to mention real estate in general, and I mean, you're at the forefront with with zillow at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was going crazy. Yeah, it was my what. We had just moved back from kansas city and then we bought our for our second, well, our third or fourth house, whatever, but it was my what. We had just moved back from kansas city and then we bought our for our second, well, our third or fourth house, whatever, but it was back here in this area, like in 2013, and so we were kind of catching the up up up slope, going, okay, like we're gonna probably live in this thing for a few years and we'll at least break even and be fine. And then I mean, it was just like it just kept going. Yeah, I'm going, and we sold that and we bought another one in 2019, like at the end of 2019, like months before COVID, and that one's been going crazy. And I'm like, okay, like there's got to be some sort of leveling off here at some point.
Speaker 2:Well, we we see today the mega presence that Zillow is in our industry and our market. It's it's the new Google for all of the layman, home buyers and home sellers. So we know how good you did of a job working for them.
Speaker 3:We certainly put a lot of work. I'm curious.
Speaker 2:So you, uh, just went to the Zillow conference in Vegas and obviously we're still a very big partner to them. Um, I am excited to understand what they're working on, what they, what you know, the tech that they have that is going to continue to revolutionize the industry in the next six to 12 months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, one. You know, it's no secret, they spent half a billion dollars on follow-up boss. Right, you don't buy a CRM for half a billion dollars If you don't have some major plans for what that's going to do to really change the structure of how they can actually manage their flex program. Cause that's that's the reason for the purchase, right, Agents that pay up front for the leads. They're going to still put those leads wherever they want, and Zillow loves the credit card swipe, but they love to have the control over the actual experience for the consumer more, and that cause, at the end of the day, what they the consumer has been the North star always at Zillow.
Speaker 3:It's one thing I really did love about working there. It wasn't about the dollar. We never put the dollar first, which was crazy to me. I was like what startup company that's publicly traded can walk around and not put the dollar first? Because we would make decisions that definitely wouldn't make more money, that were not consumer first. And so they really put their back behind that and they meant it. And so when they bought Follow Up Boss because obviously we're a huge flex partner we're one of the largest in the country we get, like, I think 600 live connections a month from Zillow and I knew right when they bought it, because we're already Follow Up Boss users, which is great that they did it, because they want to have a deeper level of insight into agents' effort. It's no longer going to just be about conversion, it's going to be about the effort, right from the start of the lead received.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're not willing to make this phone call within the first five or 12 seconds or however long they give you, like you're not, you're not showing us that you're worthy of this lead in the first place and also maintain you know how how diligent are you going to be, how disciplined are you going to be to work with this lead when you talk to them and realize, oh, there's six to 12 months out, are you going to actually follow up with them, which is our job?
Speaker 3:but shockingly depressing how little people do that. It's wild actually, and it's one of, as you know, one of my largest frustrations, as it's any team leaders largest frustration, and it's a constant battle to try to fix and solve that, right?
Speaker 1:I ask the question all the time. I'm like did you pick up the phone call or did you pick up the phone to make the call, or are we just relying on an email or a text or whatever? Right, like, because I like to do it both ways, like if I don't know the person really well, like, I'll shoot them a text. Hey, this is who I am, I'm gonna plan on giving you a call and I know they're not gonna answer, I'll leave. Do you follow up again the following week or do you just punt Right, because a lot of people are going to qualify you on your actual followup and it's like yeah.
Speaker 1:So what, like it was? Like we said, even if they're on the other end of the phone, they tell you to fuck off. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Thanks for my time back. Yeah, yeah, that's how I feel, no, I?
Speaker 1:do you mind if I follow up with that? Fuck you to another one in three weeks. I mean, you hear that you hear the best persistence stories about the guy who shows up to a job interview that he's nowhere near qualified for but he shows up every day and the guy's like you know the. Finally, the hiring manager's like we're gonna find something for you, obviously want to work here. Yeah, there's something for that. Like the. The consumer on the other end is gonna obviously the light will go off at some point, going oh this, this guy obviously wants to help me out. Maybe there's some self-serving, he's got to pay his bills, but this person honestly can follow up and has proven to do that.
Speaker 2:There's tenacity there, discipline, discipline outworks talent. Every single time, every single time.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think, if you trace it back, there's two reasons why agents don't make the call, and one of them is sheer laziness, right? And then the other one is they don't know what to say, right confidence.
Speaker 3:It's the confidence, but it's also just what subject matter should I be having this conversation about at this moment in time in their journey, right? So if they just came in and they're six months out next time, I follow up, what's the conversation about, right? What do I actually bring up on this call? I don't want to just call to call just to remind them of my name, right? So which they should do that, because that's general.
Speaker 1:Give them something of value but anything.
Speaker 3:Give them anything, anything right so where I'm excited about what they're doing with follow boss, and this is what they really unveiled and and um, we knew ai was going to be a big part of it and anything that's going forward, it doesn't really matter what it is, I mean AI to edit podcasts now, right, it's crazy so where.
Speaker 3:Where I got excited when we were there was they were showing how they're going to use AI and their data that they already have, cause they have massive amounts of data on every single consumer, all of us, right, there's been moments where how many times have we looked at our own houses and the worth of it? Right, right, um, so it has. They have so much data and then they can track you across the internet through cookies and see what else you're doing, right, which is somewhat terrifying to some degree, but that's the world we live in disturbing a little disturbing right, that's so wild.
Speaker 1:So so that exact situation like I remember when, when cell phones I mean we're just kind of getting like smartphones, we're just and my mom used to be like I'm not turning my location on, I don't want to, and I go on, the coffee shop just wants to give you an offer for cheaper coffee as you walk by. I said eventually you'll get used to it. And and I think that's where we are now and I want to. You mentioned AI, so I wanted to dig into that a little bit, because I feel like we're in this space right now where there's actually almost a little bit of AI fatigue, where people are almost a little bit of AI fatigue, where people are.
Speaker 2:People are recognizing really really quickly AI created content conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's. Um, so it's. It's going to be interesting to see, for me to see, the next five years of of where, cause the consumer has obviously figured that out and there's going to be a happy medium where obviously AI can offset so much stuff. Um, you know, it's the uh's, the virtual assistant of the future. I mean, I'd be curious to know if the virtual assistant has a long shelf life with the capabilities of AI, because now you can actually still have somebody in-house who's representing your brand and familiar with your company and your company's culture, and you can literally train that freaking AI component to speak like one of your employees. Train that fricking AI component to speak like one of your employees, and now you're not worried about you know I mean, maybe it's wrong to say but an accent or, you know, a translation issue when a call's going overseas. It's going to be really really interesting to see where that goes, and you're seeing major companies like Zillow. I've already identified that. Will there be a point, do you think, where we can't tell it's ai anymore?
Speaker 3:yeah, 100, and I I think what zillow's doing, which is where I'm excited about it, but you know how agents are, that everybody comes into and freaks out about literally every yeah any change the world is ending.
Speaker 2:We're like the dodos of the world. It's ridiculous, crazy but what they're?
Speaker 3:they're definitely still agent centric. Um, they're putting the agents still at the center of everything, and so what they're trying to do is make it so one team leaders like us that are huge flex partners and obviously for their own purposes, cause they only get paid if they, if we close a transaction, cause it's on a referral basis Um, they want to make it so the agents are more efficient with their time and and they want to make it so that we can actually see who's putting in effort and who's not. And that comes down to not just the first phone call, but it comes down to the follow-up, right, it's the consistency like we're talking about. Like I'm going to call you again in three weeks, just so you know, right? So what they're doing with AI is a lot of different things in Fubb, but one of them is call Paul summaries. So every time a conversation happens inside of FUB and one they're pushing, they're going to start pushing all the leads through FUB. Now it will no longer come through the premier agent app.
Speaker 3:So that's, that's awesome, because now it's amazing, because the biggest problem we have with FUB is half of our agents use their FUB numbers and half of them don't, and if you're not using your FUB number, it breaks the whole system. Because all the smart lists don't work. They don't update properly, right, because all the smart lists are based off of when was the last call, when's the last text or when's the last outreach, right? And so what they're doing is they're going to start making it come immediately through the actual follow boss app, so the agent will answer the phone, take the lead right there, and then it immediately initiates on their phone number, so texting everything goes through it right from the start, which is amazing. And then it summarizes all their calls so, whether they're making the call or the actual consumer called them back, it summarizes and gives them their notes right there, which is absolutely incredible oh, these podcasts get summarized by ai right, yeah it spits out the whole talking points.
Speaker 1:It breaks them into chapters.
Speaker 3:It's phenomenal, I'm like it's, it's amazing, and then that's that's. That's cool, but what's exciting is that they're using AI now to start in their data. They're going to have AI built smart list. So, like you know, we have 10 different smart lists based off of like if it's a new lead or was it an appointment set that hasn't been called for two days, or whatever. They're actually going to have AI built smart list that it's going to start putting the best opportunities in front of the agents right there in these lists. And it's going to be different, based off of is it a buyer lead or is it a seller lead? And then, is this person probably more likely three months away from buying or selling or are they right now? Based off of just their activity that they're doing across the internet that Zillow can track right, and so it's going to make the agents and not to mention, by the way, they're going to be able to push an actual summary of what they should talk about.
Speaker 3:So when you go to make the call, let's just say you get the lead. You need to follow up. In two weeks, that person's all of a sudden doing all kinds of stuff across the internet. Zillow is going to push that person to you and your smart list that you should call right now, today, and they're going to literally say this is what you talk about. These are the houses that they've been looking at. This is the one that they've looked at baths. They really like what we can see, any homes that they have, like white granite countertops and white cabinetry. They'll be able to see that, right, and they'll push that in front of you and say, hey, this house looks like exactly what you're looking for. Let's set an appointment for this weekend. It has white cabinetry, white granite countertops. Now the agent actually has something to talk about, which is taking away that excuse.
Speaker 1:It's going to give you the most efficient route, what order you should hit them in.
Speaker 3:which one it's going to tell you which one they're going to buy, I mean yes, and what an incredible experience for the consumer to think about that, like the agent that's actually talking to me and knows what I'm looking at and knows what I'm looking for and they're not just calling me to bullshit and try to actually have a random conversation, to just stay in front of me. It's a it's a productive conversation.
Speaker 1:So so I'm really curious. So you touched on this and maybe we don't go too deep into it, but obviously it it sounds like like this program is is creating such a massive ease of operation and there's been so much talk around commissions and everything and how you get paid. And obviously paying for Zillow leads is going to. It's not cheap, it's going to cost you some money. You're giving it. Do you feel like that trade-off is fair? The amount of work that Zillow is doing on the back end to provide that closable lead is a good trade-off, because your agents that are participating in those programs are probably selling three to four houses for everyone for the agents that are not and they're probably ultimately making more money and ultimately, at the same time, doing about as much work.
Speaker 3:Sure, it's actually a great question and I think it's a very simple answer. To be honest with you, I think Zillow provides an opportunity for consistency where consistency lacks in our business period and it's not for every agent, that's the truth but if one, we've got agents that are literally top agents anywhere else that still receive these leads because they want to be able to backfill and the value that they really see it as is its ability to build my book of business much faster, right?
Speaker 3:So, while, yeah, I might pay out quite a bit in referral fees and team fees on this lead that I get today, the reality of it is that lead should turn into five referrals over the course of a lifetime if you do it right. And that's the other thing. Zillow is building in with AI, they're going to start actually putting in the followups on your past clients that you should be making these touch points right.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's their birthday. Hey, it's their anniversary. Hey, it's the closing day anniversary Five years ago. They've been in their house for five years. Oh, by the way, five years is about when they start getting ready to look for the new one.
Speaker 3:Right. Or, and on top of that, they're also actually showing selling activity because we have the data on it, right.
Speaker 3:So, there's just one, I think. The other thing too is I think it's easy to say oh yeah, look how much of my commission is getting taken out because I have to pay Zillow on this. What most agents don't realize is what it costs to build the machine that they've built. Oh yeah, it is insane the amount of money that's gone into that and I started out with a half a billion like that's been spent. Yes.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent, x, x amount, exponentially Right. So yeah, for sure. And, and like I said, I mean Zillow is a business. It drives me crazy when people forget that people are in business to make money. And you know, even when doing doing business with your friends, like, yeah, I'm going to try and take the best care of you I can, but at the end of the day, like I've got to pay my guy, I've got to pay my office, I got to pay my staff and we staff and we're trying to make some profit, at the end of the day, I want to hook you up and I want to take care of you because you're my friend, but at the same time, if you want me to be able to do that 10 years from now, I got to be able to make some money.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say something that's probably going to be super unpopular with our real estate agent population. 90% of the agents are shit business people.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they don't get it. The oh yeah, they don't get it. The people who? Get upset about hearing that are the ones who are shit.
Speaker 3:And the truth of the matter is, I don't care what business you go into, it doesn't matter what vertical. If you're going to start a business, there's going to be operational costs. That includes the systems that you need to run it, the advertising and marketing to build your branding, and everything else, employees and all the other stuff that comes along with it. And Zillow is, of course, needing to get paid. Why would they just give these leads away for free, right? And they still also, by the way, have to do this thing called turn a profit at some point, right? So, there, there to be, like the agents that get it, just get it. And, um, we're the thing that's different about running a team, too that, um, you know, I, I personally like about it we're very picky about who we bring in, like we, we don't sit there and just say, hey, you fogged the mirror.
Speaker 2:Let's sign you up today, because I want to have a body count here, right?
Speaker 3:No, we, we hired a culture and we hired a people that want to put in the effort. Do we get it right every time? No, but at the same time it's it's about the agent, and we're just very clear and communicative about what the expectations are when they come to our company. And so we're looking for people that want to operate in a space like this. They don't have to do Zillow flex, but they want to build. We want people that want to build a business.
Speaker 1:We'd talked a little bit before, before the podcast, but you guys run on the on the EOS system and so do we, which is just a fantastic model to to follow your business around, because it's just based on honesty and transparency and structure. You know, and you hit those three things. You should be, you should be, you should be doing pretty good, I mean I can speak as an agent on the team.
Speaker 2:It's really incredible to have the opportunity to supplement my business with Zillow, and something that you guys said when, when I was first joining, was um, you can't lose something that you never had. You know, those leads aren't mine, so once I convert them, once I close the sale, then that's mine, and I know that I can do enough of a great job, leave a great impression and also stay in front of them that I can leverage them to get my own stuff. So I don't look at it as like, oh, they're taking my money. It was never my money.
Speaker 3:To begin with, I didn't source that, so you never had to pay for it out of pocket, exactly.
Speaker 1:It's more, it's more competition, right, and? And obviously I mean I've got an athletic background as well, so yeah, I welcome competition. It's like yeah the more the merrier like, but I think you run into some of those people that you know that sense you so pissed off about it. It's more competition.
Speaker 1:You should be welcome to it and you should get invigorated and excited If you want to go get it, or or or just go find a nine to five that'll pay you a flat fee or salary and and and be happy with that. But if you want to go make money, you're going to have to go earn it.
Speaker 2:You have to work weekends.
Speaker 1:Pay your dues anywhere you go, it doesn't matter what industry it is 100%. Okay, so we took a pretty deep dive down the rabbit hole there.
Speaker 2:But I feel like we've covered quite a bit of the question we have.
Speaker 1:We've ruined the board, which now I have to operate sequentially. So now I'm going to be a fucking mess the rest of this thing, just because we're so off track. But okay, so you're at Zillow, zillow, zillow, starting to take off and grow, grow, pretty, pretty crazy.
Speaker 3:This is the word 2014, 2015 area, yeah, so I started there in 2013.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, so. So walk us kind of through the, the, the the last couple of years at Zillow, and then how you got to to, to where you are today with the team and and um so, uh, I I'll probably start with the fact that I had this team on the side the whole time okay, side hustle got it.
Speaker 3:Um, samantha gray was my business partner for many years and, um, it was just kind of so I, when I went to zillow, I was traveling all the time. I'm literally a lifetime matinum or marriott platinum member, or whatever they call it now, literally for life, because I literally lived in their hotels for eight years. Right, and it sounds, it sounds great to everybody else and you're like no, it actually sucks it's awful when you can recognize the Marriott things oh yeah, I mean when you're showing up to hotels and they remember you.
Speaker 2:That's when you know it's bad and people take for granted the blessing of being able to sleep in your own bed, have the comfort of your own home, Like being on the road all the time is. It's very exhausting, it's very lonely.
Speaker 1:It's not this like and you haven't even had to experience like what it's like leaving kids at home because that's that's what got me out of restaurant. I was traveling a lot opening restaurants and having to leave, and uh, it's, it's rough man, when, when, when you're two year olds, like, oh you know daddy don't go and it's like a movie scene.
Speaker 3:You're like, yeah, that sucks, it's the worst, it really is and um, yeah, I missed a lot of moments, you know, and that that that's something that you know. Zillow can pay me enough now to get that back Right. So, um, but you know, at proud of until the day I die, hopefully you still have some of those stocks.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you didn't cash them all out. Well, I did get a divorce, Dan.
Speaker 3:I can also blame that on that traveling fellow. She got a lot of that, but that's all right. I remarried her, so I got some of it back. You came back a little bit.
Speaker 1:I love the full circle, oh man.
Speaker 2:That's again, maybe another podcast.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so, yeah, it's, it's 2013,. You know, I take that job and and we we at the time, like I said, we were trying to fix the data where it ended, and I and I had the team on the side and Sam was kind of just taking all cause. I had a bunch of old past clients that would just call me and I would send them off to Sam and Sam would go run down and do her job. And then, you know, in 2020, in the middle of COVID, we I just had an epiphany. I was like I'm pretty sure I'm done with this and I want to just double down on actually taking the team and doing.
Speaker 3:My dad and I've always talked about doing our own brokerage or doing our own thing, and Michael had joined my team and so he's really showed his ability to be a really good salesperson, but now he's a great leader of our sales team too, and so at the time I approached them and I just said, hey look, I'm going to leave Zillow at some point and it's hopefully sooner than later and I want to take the team and actually do something with it, not just this. And so I'd always talk to Sam, um, that if I was going to do that. You know I would have my dad buy her out of her shares and because I always wanted to do the family business and at that point were you guys still with Caldwell banker or had you moved to okay yeah we were, um, and so Sam, you know, understood that and graciously, you know, did do that because she wanted to sell, and that's what she's.
Speaker 3:I mean, she's an incredible salesperson, obviously. We, a lot of people, know her and she's done a great job building her brand. So, um, we my dad and Michael ended up buying out her shares and so, um, that's really where it started, and that was in April, I think, of 2020.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, powder cake time, baby.
Speaker 2:Oh man, what a roller coaster Right and um.
Speaker 3:So and then randomly, the office that we're in now, um, it was presented to us and it was fully furnished. The guy that had um had the office at the time is his commercial insurance company had gotten bought out, so and they bought out the lease, so they literally paid him for the lease. He was just hanging out in there for two more years and so he was like yeah, I'll sub lease it to you guys and it was pretty, pretty affordable at the time. Obviously it's COVID.
Speaker 1:He's double dipping too.
Speaker 3:And yeah, none of these offices are open, Right, and so we opened up that office and the fountains, and really that's kind of where it all took off. But, yeah, we're. I was still working for Zillow for probably the first um God, I think I left in August of 2020. So what happened was I ended up having a mini stroke, oh yeah, At 36 years old and um, you know, that's an eye opener. Maybe a little too much stress, maybe taking on a little too much at the time, and um, so I I took a month off at Zillow and just eventually called him and was like I'm done, Not coming back, Not coming back. And so I've done that a couple of times there and they always just kind of threw more money at it. We're like why don't you come back here?
Speaker 3:you go, Like you know the carrot, and I usually did because it was worth it and then. But this time it was like no, I'm fully in on this. And so, and we were already starting to do really well with recruiting and bringing good people in that fit the culture and kind of building out the model, because when we left Colbeck we only had nine agents and I think we did 69 million in sales that year and so, and then fast forward and you get almost 10 million a year out of each.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's pretty incredible, and so fast forward to now. I think we're going to eclipse 430 million this year, which is wild to me, Like it's.
Speaker 1:It's crazy and it's almost a half a billion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the goal was a half a billion. We fell a little short. That was our stretch goal about. So, um, but you know the the world is, uh, there's a lot of headwinds that our industry is facing just a few like interest rates and you know RBCs and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:But did you, um, did you always kind of know in the back of your head that you were going to be able to incorporate the Zillow thing into your team, had it been kind of happening alongside each other?
Speaker 3:Through our company, we had bought Zillow leads I mean, at the time you can't buy that many because it's so damn expensive and so we were buying as much as we could and trying to grow the company. And at the time when my dad, michael, and I took it over, we continued to expand on the spend as much as we could and trying to grow the company. And at the time when my dad, michael, and I took it over, we continue to expand on the spend as much as we could.
Speaker 1:What'd your old man feel about this Cause he's old school, but he's also not. He's not stuck in the mud, he's. He's cutting edge. He's not afraid of change or technology. I don't think.
Speaker 3:I've had to drag him around a little bit. No-transcript, that's, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's his other favorite thing their business too, though their ride-offs, of course, right everything's business right.
Speaker 2:We're going to cruise it's business it's what we talk about when we're sitting by the pool just so everybody, everybody knows when you see us, that's literally what we're talking about.
Speaker 3:Right and um, but yeah, he's the one that told me to take the job, and so, um, a lot of that credit should go to him, because otherwise I wasn't going to do it. And he was like you're an idiot If you don't. They're like one of the fastest growing tech companies in race, because at the time, zillow didn't own Trulia yet, so so I was there when we went through that acquisition, like a year and a half after I joined two years later, whatever it was and um, but, yeah, so he, I gotta give him some credit for that.
Speaker 3:But yeah and so, yeah, fast forward to 2020. And you know, um quit and we just really I threw everything behind this, you know, and um it was, it's been um a journey. We'll say that, like, in between there I went through a divorce. You know I had some other things that you know we'll leave out of the podcast, but we, you know, we just it was, it was a journey of um. You know, like people talk about, when you want to build a company, it is a fricking grind and it really is, and it's not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 3:And you know we've. You know I had bills and children and we've had months where I literally had to tap into my retirement from Zillow and pull money out and throw stuff on credit cards just to really make this work. And, um, you know, now it's it's it's going well, which is great, but at the same time, you know it's it's it's definitely not always been what everybody sees Right.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's essentially the struggle that every 1099 independent contractor, realtor, everyone in this industry is facing. But it's. It's always inspiring and a great reminder to see somebody who can come through on the other end of it, be a Testament, and say I struggled to, but look how successful I've turned it into because I didn't give up. I showed up every single day, I did what it took. I made sacrifices, and not all of them are pleasant. A lot of them affect your personal life in very deep ways. But if you keep showing up every single day, if you're disciplined enough, sure it's going to work out.
Speaker 1:I've always been a believer, too of of you know, the work life balance thing is always going to be a very trivial topic. I don't think it is. I really don't think it's a fallacy. I feel like. I feel like it's what you make of it.
Speaker 1:So if you let, if you let your job take over your life, then it will. If, if, if. If you need your family to be the number one most important thing, then it is. But if if the cost of that is work, then then you're kind of on the hook for that too. Right, you don't necessarily have to eat your cake and have it too, but you have to make the two work Like that's the way that I've always viewed it too.
Speaker 2:It's like I don't see life as a scale balance. I see it as a pendulum, and the pendulum swings towards the area that it needs your attention the most. Sometimes, that's business, sometimes that's family. And whichever direction that pendulum is swinging is getting most of your attention, with the knowledge that everything else is not, but when it needs to, it'll swing back in the other direction, and that's to me really what the work-life, or just life balance looks like.
Speaker 1:And the old thing. If you don't like it, do something about it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. I'm at the point right now and I think we've talked about on the pod like I have a freshman high school and everyone tells me it's going to go by so fast, go by so fast. I've listened to all those people and I now prioritize the stuff that we're going to do with her and those experiences, and sometimes it does cost me a work thing, and I've actually found, though, that when I say people tell people, hey, I'm doing this because it's really important, I've only got a short amount of time they're like oh, hell, yeah, like we can, we can, we can do this tomorrow morning. This is not a big deal, like no problem, and but it took me, you know, 15 years in business to to get to that point too. Um, so, but it's it's. It's always interesting because I do think. I think work life balance is not something that works harmoniously, but it exists no matter what. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ceremoniously, but it exists, no matter what, for sure. Yeah, I think to your point.
Speaker 3:It is what you make of it, yeah, and it's, it's what you prioritize. And um, and I think quickly, um, the moment you do start your own company and you are responsible for all your own bills and you don't have a the W2, you know thing to fall back on that security blanket um, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you have to prioritize work over everything else. It just is, and you know, I think everybody makes that mistake at some point.
Speaker 3:And you know, I've certainly done that at times, but now, like I, you know, I will say like, where we have great staff and I can lean on Michael to do his part of his job, and having great people is so underrated, like I think if you want to build a good company, you don't do it without the right people.
Speaker 1:The hardest times in our business are when, when we're having people issues.
Speaker 3:Yep A hundred percent. The business is the business.
Speaker 1:We know how to do that, like we know to answer phones, be nice to people, execute what you say you're going to do. But man, when you start having people issues, terminations, hiring, training, processing, all that stuff, it's just, it's so heavy and for me, I mean I just I'm. I think I'm such a people person and I want to see the good in people and see them succeed and me not have to be the bad guy, like that's. That's the stuff that just weighs on me so heavily when we're dealing with that stuff Nobody gets in business because they want to fire people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, that's just not right.
Speaker 3:Right, like you're there to grow, and sometimes it just get the wrong people in the wrong spot and you got to make those changes.
Speaker 1:A little EOS speak there. I like that wrong person wrong seat, right person, right seat. I love it, love it Okay.
Speaker 2:I feel like we've had a very amazing like high dense conversation about real estate we have. We're almost cresting an hour now and I want to talk about some of the fun stuff that we get into this podcast. Let's talk about Sacramento living in Sacramento and you're you're in Newcastle, right? So we call this the greater Sacramento Valley right. Yep, what are some of your favorite things about living in Sacramento?
Speaker 3:Oh man, how many golf courses do we have around here now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, I think there's nine in just Placer County or just yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's one Um I. We just entered the dude cave.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kaylee, just breathe a little louder so we know you're here while while Colby and I go in this deep dive about something that you should care about coming up, which I think is our schools. I think the thing that does not actually ever really get talked about enough is our public school systems here is some of the best in the country, and I grew up in San Jose before I moved back here to grant. I went to high school, but I grew up in South San Jose area and we, the schools down there, weren't good to go to private, to private school. If you wanted to actually get into like a college or like a good education, we had to be in the gate programs, you know, like at the schools and so, which are hard to get into. There's only so many spots, right, so our schools here are absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3:I think that's one thing that, um, I love the fact that my kids have their community. Um, we have a little small town in newcastle, which I absolutely Some of my best friends now are literally my kids' friends' parents, and so every weekend my kids are with their best friends, we're with our best friends, and it's freaking amazing.
Speaker 2:I couldn't ask for anything better.
Speaker 3:And so there's that. And then I mean, I'd be remiss if I said we're literally an hour and a half from Napa, we're an hour from Truckee, really two hours from South Lake, tahoe. Right, I'm not going to throw Reno in there, but Reno's two hours away. My dad loves Reno. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Wait till you, wait till your kids are in travel sports. You'll be in Reno plenty, I know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there, but I think that's the other thing too, like the sports programs around here, the common, the common thread of people.
Speaker 1:I mean you just, you're just remiss to run it. You just don't meet a lot of people. You're like, ah, nah, not that person.
Speaker 3:Okay, so food is historically my favorite topic Um what, what?
Speaker 2:tell me a favorite spot that you guys like to go.
Speaker 3:Oh man, Um Lafayette in Newcastle is Okay.
Speaker 2:I haven't been there yet. I've had so many people tell me about it.
Speaker 3:It is amazing it's the best time in the area.
Speaker 2:Guaranteed After I close my next deal?
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm in Done.
Speaker 2:Great Twist my arm. I can do a lot of damage right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then we have mccooney up here, right? I mean, that's who doesn't love that right?
Speaker 2:sacramento staple yeah, absolutely class, yeah, 100.
Speaker 3:I mean people around the country actually have heard of it at this point.
Speaker 1:That's incredible oh yeah, when you're traveling, if you meet someone and you get to talk in and they've been to sacramento, they're like oh you, you guys have mccooney, yeah, like, yeah, yeah exactly, and it's sacramento is not a spot that you would typically think of when it comes to good sushi. Yeah, but we have one of the best chain restaurants here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's incredible, yep. And then um I, if you haven't been um the rat trap in Newcastle, oh, yeah, oh yeah, taking notes over here, yeah. Tad Zagulinski is the owner of it. He's one of our best sandwiches you'll have around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yep Rat, uh the rat trap roadhouse deli. And is it? Uh, it's Dominic's on Folsom, auburn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not willing to admit how many times I've like stopped at roundhouse to stuff my face with their smoke. Try to talk.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I mean yeah, stuff my face with their smoke, try to talk. Oh yeah, yeah, josh on our team, his family owns that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do we get like a?
Speaker 1:team, maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3:Just kidding. Throw it out there to him, though We'll get you a QR code, or something Any unusual talents?
Speaker 1:Oh man when you guys sent me this. I was like that's a tough one. It's usually just tough to admit. We all have them.
Speaker 3:I'm happy to admit something, something cool, like I can't juggle or, like you know, breathe fire or anything like that, but I think it comes back to business, which is, I mean, sad I guess, but I think it's Not if it's your passion, yeah, it is my passion.
Speaker 1:I don't hold it. I don't ever hold that against people when they're like, oh like, if you've got exceptional business savvy and you're good at it and you enjoy it?
Speaker 3:hell yeah, lean in a hundred percent, and I think mine is my ability to understand my weaknesses and find the right people to fill in the gaps for those.
Speaker 2:I would say that's an incredible talent.
Speaker 1:We're all so blind to our weaknesses or at least indignant to them.
Speaker 3:It's hard to remove our ego from it. To be honest with you, we all want to be great at everything or tell ourselves we are, and the reality of it is. I learned a while ago that you have to learn to step back in certain places and just really and that's to me, that's why I think I've been successful in recent years is my ability to lean into that, with letting go of things.
Speaker 1:Delegate to elevate yeah, Delegate to elevate man.
Speaker 3:Honestly, michael will tell you that because he's like a control freak. He loves to hold on to everything, and so the hardest thing for him has been to learn to delegate to staff, and now that he's figured out the power of that, he might over-delegate sometimes. Kitty's probably going to laugh when she hears that, but the truth is.
Speaker 2:It is a powerful thing.
Speaker 3:And understanding the things that are your weaknesses and letting other people handle them allow you to put so much more time and energy behind the things that you are actually good at Well, and beyond being a great business person.
Speaker 2:I think that that makes you an exceptional leader as well being able to identify that and then build the people around you to say, hey, I know, I'm not great at this and I need somebody who is, and that's what's going to help. Great, you know, create success on the team, but also show people what it looks like to win right.
Speaker 2:Because it's not. It's not weakness to say hey, I know I'm not good here. It's actually powerful to admit that and then build it in so that somebody else is really great at it. And you guys are working together to create this beautiful, successful thing.
Speaker 3:So a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, One of the it's fun we kind of, we kind of in our, in our, in our diatribe of just blowing through just a fantastic conversation, but one of the questions that we over, that we that we passed over had to deal with, um, with a, maybe a regret or failure or really it's. It's what, if you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, um I, you've probably got a fantastic.
Speaker 3:A couple examples or something like that, I mean man, I've got a few Um I think I'll give. I'll give you two. One, um, listen to people that have done it and don't try to actually prove them wrong. That's one. And then two um, spend all the money right when you're when you're young like if you're getting into real estate and you're just starting out stop worrying about how much money it costs to go buy a lead. What you should do is, when you buy that lead, actually call it right and then it'll turn into something great. Right, spending 25 bucks on a lead from Google that could turn into $10,000 commission, right, so that'd be a good investment. That would be a good investment, right, yeah, and you've got to buy more than the one $25 lead, so it adds up. But the point is is, if you start doing it right and you're doing your followup and you're actually consistently prospecting um, the return on investment, if you're actually putting in the effort, is is pretty significant.
Speaker 3:And I think my business when I was younger I didn't want to spend the money because I didn't want to put myself into debt and the reality I was scared to do that because that's what you're taught as a kid, right, and I I I definitely would have gone and racked up all my credit cards to buy all the leads. I 100% would have done it and I know I would have actually paid them off and I would have made a lot more money. So, um, that that would be my. My other thing to any new agent is stop worrying. Either join a team that has leads or you better literally be knocking doors every single day, doing an open house every single weekend. Better be finding ways to prospect every single day until you have something actually in contract. And then here's the last thing Once you get something in the contract, don't stop prospecting.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:I see it all the time, and then they're like three months later they're like shit.
Speaker 3:I have nothing going on. I just closed three deals it's like well you're not prospecting Like well. I was busy dealing with my escrows. It's like no hire your transaction coordinator, you let them deal with as much money as you can.
Speaker 1:That's going to cost you a couple hundred bucks. You can go generate $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's money you can spend. Transaction coordinator.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more with that.
Speaker 1:Very cool, is there?
Speaker 2:anything that you wanted to bring to the table today to talk about that we didn't really touch on.
Speaker 3:Is there is there anything there before we, before we hit you with the last famous question oh man, I, I don't know. I think we covered a lot. I mean, obviously, the stories could go on forever but um you know um it's 20 years now, so it's, it's great I just turned 40 last month, and I was, and of course, when you turn 40, you like start. You don't have to worry about this yet, but you start to reflect on a lot of different things and you're like man, it's like I've done a lot.
Speaker 2:You have.
Speaker 3:I've been a lot of places, and this business has taken me to places that I never would have even thought imaginable, right. So you know I I would just say that I'm grateful for this business.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 3:And I'm I'm grateful for you know the people on my team like you and and trusting us with your business. It's, it's.
Speaker 2:I'm grateful for you too.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you I appreciate that Easy.
Speaker 1:This is not a soft hearted podcast, guys. Okay.
Speaker 2:I feel like we had a moment.
Speaker 1:You're not going to make me cry, you're crying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, dan is pretty mad, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, I told you, I told you shit.
Speaker 3:Oh man, this is going to be really weird. Oh man, well, no, I don't think. I think we touched on so much.
Speaker 1:So I mean, unless you guys have more questions for me I mean the last one we've got, and this is the one that this is the only one we ever really give any of our guests preparation Say, hey, make sure you think about this question, cause we don't want to stump you with it, but if you could be anyone for a day, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you do?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I see, this is the thing. I thought about it, and then I have so many people and I this is going to be controversial, but it, I, I think Donald Trump, I mean, I was hoping you were going to say look at the life that guy's living. Like yesterday when he was working at McDonald's. Yeah, the simplicity of that. I mean, like I want to go flip some fricking fries sometimes, Like I mean you know, that sounds like actually a good time to do maybe after a couple of drinks.
Speaker 2:You know who owns a restaurant actually. Yeah, right, maybe.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, maybe let me do it but I I just think the you know the politics aside um, I think he's just lived this incredible life. He's a very interesting person. I mean never had a sip of alcohol in his life because his brother was an alcoholic and passed away from that like yeah and I, I think to me like, I'm just like wow, that's some serious discipline yeah, you know, and clearly you don't get to where he's at in life without a significant amount of discipline.
Speaker 3:But I just think his life has been so interesting, not just now, I mean think about it.
Speaker 2:Does he have a biography out? I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm sure somebody's got, I would imagine I would imagine there's one or two.
Speaker 1:I mean he's got stages of his life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that answer it is controversial, but fuck it. That's what this is about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't care. I mean, you know me well enough, it's your prerogative. Colby, hey, whatever, maybe a few less mean tweets when you were him for a day.
Speaker 2:Whatever have you met, colby Just?
Speaker 1:say it how it is right.
Speaker 3:Very New Jersey of him.
Speaker 1:Well, Colby, this has been a blast man. An hour flew by, um. We really appreciate you making time and coming in and joining us um drop some serious nuggets absolutely so appreciate you guys having me yeah well, maybe we'll, maybe we'll do it again soon. Um, you know, we've been talking about getting a fourth mic and maybe inviting, uh, some, some, some pairs in for some of these interviews, so we can get you and your cousin or you and your dad in here. And that would be that cause.
Speaker 3:that could be pretty fun so yeah, you're going to have to what you know how you like bleep it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, That'd be a prepare the popcorn.
Speaker 1:No, no, what we do is no what we do is we actually check the box, that this.
Speaker 3:I put this podcast is not, is not made for kids. We let her rip.
Speaker 1:That's good, I mean I talk like a sailor. I played baseball my whole life.
Speaker 2:And it's something it must be, like the, I don't know some type of effect. Every time I get around here I just want to drop F bombs Like it's nobody's business.
Speaker 1:I mean they it's freeing. It'll free your they say, the most honest people you meet swear openly.
Speaker 3:He tries to correct me, but it's one of my favorite words. I use it well and I feel like it's kind of artistic, almost it is.
Speaker 1:Have you seen the original Kings of Comedy? Yes, Bernie Mac at the end does his definition of MF-er. Oh my God, if you haven't seen it it's the best I'll be listening to that on my drive-thru.
Speaker 3:You need to go like oh it's so good. The Entertainer listening to that on my drive, you need to get like oh it's so good. Entertainer. Yeah, uh, ernie mack, um, what's his name?
Speaker 1:dl hugley and steve harvey harvey yeah, that that that that was on. It was on repeat on when I was in college oh, yeah, so good all five years such a good one all right, guys, let's get out of here all right, thank you, I'm out.
.jpg)
