Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
S2 EP 12- Jake DaRosa
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Cold Open And Super Bowl Takes
SPEAKER_04All right, let's get it.
SPEAKER_02Round two.
SPEAKER_04Round two. Try it again.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna take responsibility for that one. That's my arena.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's all right.
unknownThat's all right.
SPEAKER_02Kaylee had a technical faux pas today, guys.
SPEAKER_04That's Kaylee won Dan 96. So for those keeping score.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you were telling me about your friend who worked for the Broncos.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I got a buddy. Uh works for the Broncos, pretty high up. Uh he's got he's got like the key to the whole stadium. So um started out as like overnight watch guard.
SPEAKER_01I love when they work their way up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so pretty, pretty cool story. Uh one of my favorite people. But uh, anyways, they came back to Levi's the following year and played. And I asked him and I was like, How is it? And he's like, well, the sh you know, the locker room still smells like champagne. I was like, that's a great answer. It's a such a great answer, you know. Like come back in. So anyways, uh yeah, I thought the Super Bowl was underwhelming. Yeah. I don't even I mean, I don't know. I think people have their I don't have an opinion much of Bad Bunny, so the halftime show was eh.
SPEAKER_02I loved him. I thought personally liked it. I thought it was such a brilliant display of culture.
Culture, Halftime, And “One‑Up” Spectacle
SPEAKER_02Like he they included everything. I mean, there were young kids, there were older people, and just like it to me, it was everything. You got a taste of like what it's like to walk by the mom and pop little corner store there and be in a village. And I just thought it was so adorable. I loved it. Yeah, I didn't I didn't have a problem with it. And there was a real life wedding.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that was crazy. I was crazy.
SPEAKER_02I was like, we were everybody, you know, everybody was like, was that real? Did that remain?
SPEAKER_04At some point, at some point I do say, okay, like enough with the one-upsmanship trying to do the, you know, the next crazy job. No one's ever gonna top Janet, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the nip slip, the epic nip slip, the epic accidental on-purpose nip slip.
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_04Um well, anyways, pretty quick turnaround since our last show. Um, you know, you and I, I I got a massive uh outpouring of people just contacting me, and it was it was really nice. Uh you know, a lot of but a lot of people like again, like touching on like what what I feel like we really want to do with this platform is is provide somebody with something to take away from each episode. Yeah. And uh you know, there was there were there were quite a few people that reached out and said, yeah, thank you. And I was like just super appreciative for that, you know. And you know, to those of you, you're welcome. Hopefully uh we bring you some more.
SPEAKER_02See, Dan, you should you should let me interview you more often. Yeah, no. That's you you make an impact in people's lives.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I have to have like a catastrophic event in order to like, you know, really somewhat open up.
SPEAKER_02That's computer age. It makes for a good podcast.
SPEAKER_04So we've got a uh we've got uh you know a a relatively local icon here in the uh I would say so. Residential real estate space. Dude's been doing it a long time. Um I was texting, we were texting with him on our group text this morning. I said, hey dude, need your walk-up song. He sent it over, and uh I was like, oh hell yeah. It's a good one. So let's play it in and we'll be off and running.
unknownI'm going to find a money.
SPEAKER_04Welcome, Jake. Mr. Jake DeRosa.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here today.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely stoked to
Audience Feedback And Purpose Of The Show
SPEAKER_04have you. So um, all right, so let's let's just get right in, man. So Seven Nation Army. Tell us why. Why? Why did you why is that your walk-up song?
SPEAKER_03Well, um, actually the the lyrics of it, I'm gonna fight him off. He actually wrote that song when they were getting big, and there was a lot of outside noise that was happening. And that's kind of what the what the um lyrics that that particular part of the song that he continues to sing about is is I'm gonna fight him off. I'm gonna fight the outside
Meet Jake DeRosa And Seven Nation Army
SPEAKER_03side noise. And I feel like that's so relevant to our world of real estate and just kind of life in general, right? It's is you know who you are and and you know you gotta fight out the noise. So that's that's why I like that song a lot.
SPEAKER_04So you've got kind of this uh like you're always in a fight mentality.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if I'd say fight mentality. Obviously, you know, do the things that are you know that I know they'll move things forward, but you know, just just block out the noise because there's so much of it. There's so much of it.
SPEAKER_04Especially nowadays. I just I just stumbled across something as I was scrolling social media this morning, and it was like uh the current generation is actually the first generation in history to show a lower IQ predicated on reliance on um AT. I saw that same video. I was like, whoa, or we're not getting smarter.
SPEAKER_02It's finally happening. Are we devolving? This is where this is where it turns.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's not coming.
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, I mean, I feel like there's a handful of movies that told us it was coming.
SPEAKER_02This is not new news.
SPEAKER_04I mean, and it but it's it's it's so relevant. I also had a you know, I was in a meeting this morning talking with our team, and we were talking about like, you know, like that that point where
Blocking Out Noise In Real Estate
SPEAKER_04people can smell your AI and they they just kind of have a desire or a wanting for personal touch. Yeah. So it's like we're looking at our business now going, okay, where can we utilize the AI, obviously, to increase efficiencies and you know, probably eliminate some redundancies. But at what point do we need to jump in and go, hey, you know? Like when you're screaming at the phone because you're caught up in the AI thing with your bank. Yeah. With your bank, right? And you just need you just need a person. You don't you can't go to the teller. The tellers are gonna tell you to call anyways. Yeah. But it's like, at what point when you're screaming at the phone, you're like, let me talk to a fucking person. Like, does it just cut off and puts you on the line with a live person?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think it's also I I think AI, we we haven't even really begun to see the effects of that. I think that technology in general has created a dependency for children and it's taken away their ability to have deductive
AI, Personal Touch, And Customer Frustration
SPEAKER_02reasoning and critical thinking and also the ability to just like speak to strangers. But I think in line with what Jake is saying on blocking out the noise, it creates such a distraction that we get so easily caught up in the scroll on what other people are doing, and then we compare ourselves, we think, oh, I should be doing more, or we you know, look how good they're doing, and then you self-deprecate. It's just uh all of it. Yeah. All of it is the noise. Yeah. I think.
SPEAKER_04We've we've absolutely digressed. I think Jake's gonna touch on some AI stuff a little down the road, but let's get back on. Let's we we did promise Jake we'd do our best to stay on track. So move so so Jake. First question, we're already here. So Jake is uh so Jake is a residential realtor, he runs a team with place. Yes. Um So Jake, talk to us, tell us how you got started in real estate, kind of give us that that real estate journey and how you got to where you are.
SPEAKER_02Um how long have you been doing it now?
SPEAKER_04Uh 23 years.
SPEAKER_0223 years.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Hayley was like four years old.
SPEAKER_02I uh plus some, but thank you. I've as long as I look that young. Okay, so 23 years.
SPEAKER_03And they're like, yeah, I wasn't born yet. Like, thanks, dude. That's a weird. Thanks, bro.
SPEAKER_04You're like, well, I'm a wealth of knowledge. That's it. That's it. I've failed many more
Jake’s Origin: Mortgage To Real Estate
SPEAKER_04times.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I started in 02 in actually the mortgage industry. So I I worked for a private lender, um, kind of worked my way up, became a leadership in that place. Um we went and my business partner and I decided to go out and start our own mortgage company. So we in 2007, we got incorporated. And at that point in time, it was me, him, and 25 uh loan partners. So we had loan officers and we had a couple of processors. And our first transaction, of course, this is under your own flag, not brokering? That's under it was Synergy Capital and I was the broker record. Okay. We were business partners under that. Good question. Yeah. And we started at the perfect time, late 2007. So literally, I hope anybody I hope everybody else picked up on that joke. Oh my gosh, it was perfect time. Our first transaction actually happened in March of 2008. And for those of us who don't know, March of 2008 is when the first official company was New Century Mortgage, actually had their books looked at by the federal government. There was all this stuff happening behind the scenes. This isn't right, this isn't right. And then finally, yeah, exactly. The feds came in and opened it up. And it was crazy. Um, we would walk in and we had this uh loan processor who she was incredible. And she would come up to us every single morning and say, Hey, uh this bank shut down. We had five loans submitted to them. Where do you want me to put them? And we're like, uh well, who's open? Right? And we're like, which ones are still around?
SPEAKER_04Who's who's still got an email address? Right.
SPEAKER_03Right. So we'd say, go put them over here. And then the next day, hey, this this bank shut down. It was literally there was a website called mortgageimplode.com, and it just kept banks and banks and banks. So that's where we started our mortgage company, and then probably about within the next year we went well, in the next three months, we went from 25 loan officers, myself and my partner, to just me and him and this guy who was dumb enough to stick around. I still remember his great guy.
SPEAKER_04But it was he was so in 12 months you go from 25 to 3. It was three months. Yeah. Okay, in three months, 25 to 3. Um Okay, so cool. So keep going. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, and and then we look up and it's like we still had all the bills, the same bills as 25. So we're like, hey, we need to bring on some type of ancillary income. And so one of our old loan officers, his mom was a legend in the game, and we're like, hey, can you come us come out and show us how to write up a contract? She's like, Yeah. So she brought out carbon copy.
Surviving 2008 And Short Sales 101
SPEAKER_03For those of you who don't know what carbon copy is, you write, and it goes through three pages they don't use anymore. So she left it with us, and that's how I got into real estate. And my first transaction, um, a family friend came out, called me up, and she's like, Hey, we need to sell our house, and by the way, we owe more than homes worth. Can you help us? And so I went out there and never done a short sale in my life. And she's like, Can you help us? I'm like, sure. So we talked to him, signed the paperwork, came back to the office, and I'm like, All right, well, we gotta figure out how to do a short sale.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So that's so, I mean, so the the resourcefulness, the resilience, and kind of the ingenuity all kind of have you had you did you always kind of have that kind of like um, all right, this didn't work, I gotta figure out how to make it work mentality.
SPEAKER_03Well, life doesn't slow down for you. It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04Like you said, your bills don't stop.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like, hey, let's figure it out and figure out how we can get through this.
SPEAKER_04How old were you at the time?
SPEAKER_032002, I was 25. So 2008, what 30? Yeah. 31? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you kind of just crossed that you're you're no longer you're not in your 20s anymore, right? Like your parents look at you different when you're not in your 20s anymore, right? Yeah, they like the the expectations change no matter what anybody says. Like when you were when you go from 29 to 30, your parents look at you different.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. The world looks at you different. Like you're expected to have your shit together at that point.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Even though I felt like I was 20 again, because I was like, what's happening? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You're back in that world where you're like, oh God, this is a big scary place. Yeah. Yeah. Things are happening.
SPEAKER_02How long was it in the real estate world going through the short sale and the market coming back to a place where it felt normal again before you started growing a team and pouring into other people?
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell Yeah, that's a good question. So to kind of like I t I share with people all the time is, you know, you hear the, hey, this market's harder, it's different, whatever, you hear, and I'm like, well, the crazy thing is that market was crazy because you felt like you were winning. You'd have six, seven, eight in contract, and but you didn't know if they were A gonna close or when they were closed. So you felt like you're winning because you're putting people in contract, but I don't know if they're gonna close. So fast forward to 2012, I sold my interests of the business to my partner, and then I moved over to where I'm at currently, KW. And um I actually probably I I I was successful at the gates. I think my first year I closed 30-ish deals and then kept growing and kept growing. And then um I
Solo Success, Team-Building Missteps
SPEAKER_03actually That was so as a solo agent. Yeah, just just myself. Yeah. Yeah. And then essentially I had this great idea to to to build a team, and I went into it in the beginning with the the absolute wrong idea. I was like, I want to work less and make more money. And that was my reasoning for j building a team, which doesn't work for me.
SPEAKER_04Usually you work more. The team members, the team, the team will usually snuff that one out pretty quick, like, oh, this guy, you know.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Absolutely. So uh then now my whole trajectory has changed, and and what I find joy in now is very different than what I find joy in when I first started the team.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02What do you find joy in now?
SPEAKER_03I actually love seeing people win. That's like my jam, is if watching people you know come in, whether it's with no experience or maybe they're struggling, and then seeing those buttons kind of or those those those things kind of click and then they start just stacking wins, changing their lives, and that's what excites me. That's what gets me going.
SPEAKER_04So how big is your your so currently how big is your team?
SPEAKER_03We have eight partners right now. Okay, nice and two full-time operations plus a transaction coordinator, so what, 11-ish?
SPEAKER_02That's that's a good size.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I think I think actually I I want to digress a little bit because we can spin off here, and I and I want to lean into it because you have so much experience with it. So like can you talk about like the benefits compared to the disadvantages of being on a team?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely.
Why Teams Work And When They Don’t
SPEAKER_03I mean I think there's a a lot of benefits, and it just really depends on the person, right? So when I say that, I see a team is kind of like it's it's paint by number. They give you the book, all you have to do is follow the numbers. Here's here's how to here's how to do this, here's how to talk to people, here's a proven uh model and way of doing something, here's um a proven uh piece of literature that you can present to people instead of uh having to figure out on your own. And even so, what I also find is that a lot of times some people, you know, they're they're awesome, amazing people. They just don't have the right direction. I've had partners that come in and they're like, hey, I'm not having success. And I'm like, okay, well, let's just point you this way. Let's give you these tools and just go. And then they crush it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Do you find that that person like comes for a year or two and then they're like, all right, I got it.
SPEAKER_03And then they're off on their way, or it depends on the team, I would say. I think we have a our organization has a lot of value. Um I have partners that have been with me for eight years, uh six years, and going on five years. Um and then you know, just continuing to partner up. And actually, we finished the year last year with four partners in total, including myself. And we had a per agent productivity of of 19, which was pretty awesome. That's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's that's huge. I mean, when we all saw the stats earlier this year of like 75 percent of agents nationally didn't even do one deal last year. So I would say that's pretty incredible. Yeah. Well done. Testament to leadership, too.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell It's text testament to the hard work, just following the Trevor Burrus.
SPEAKER_02All around.
SPEAKER_04All around, you know, like a little persistence, a little work ethic, you know, you'd be amazed.
unknownI think.
SPEAKER_02Wouldn't we all? That's true.
SPEAKER_05That is true.
Place Platform And Broker-Agnostic Support
SPEAKER_02Okay. So talk a little bit about place. Um for people who don't really understand, you're with KW and place is more of like a platform, or describe the difference for us. Aaron Powell Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So Place is a broker agnostic platform. So essentially what we do is it's it's for partners and clients. So it's all one place. So we have coaching, training for team lead type people. It's uh the back-end things, the uh accounting, all those things. And then what I'd probably say is one of my favorite things about place is the great minds that come together. It's a community of people, because we have over 500 teams across the U.S. Um and then on the flip side of it, for consumers, we have our we own our own mortgage company, we have Title, we're continuing to add layers onto the backside because eventually we just want to be able to say, hey, um Kaylee, you know, you're looking to buy a house? We have everything you need within our world, and it just makes it easy. That's making the piece easy. And then on the backside of it, too, is what our our founder, Ben Kinney, one of the founders, uh, him and Chris Suarez are incredible leaders, and they've they're still in the trenches. They still you know help people buy and sell real estate. So they're true agent people, and they're really made it for the agent and for the for the agent partners in our world.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell That's amazing. That's amazing. When did you become an official partner for with place?
SPEAKER_03I think it was nine years ago. They sent me like happy anniversaries, and I just I don't speaking of AI. Yeah. Nine years?
SPEAKER_02Okay. So being that you have been in the business for so long, you've successfully helped new agents, experienced agents, what would be your piece of advice for yourself
Advice: Take Action, Fail Fast, R&D
SPEAKER_02or you know, if you had to start over or for anybody who's starting over or even been in it for a while and wanting some fresh perspective?
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell Yeah, I think with newer agents, so I'll go two, because I think there's two pieces of advice here. Um for newer agents, stop getting ready to get ready. And when I say that, it's like, hey, you know, you're I I've seen it so many times. Well, what are you doing? Well, I'm I'm working on my website. Okay, cool. So you're working on your website, you're working on your presentation, you're working on the all these things, and there's a piece of confidence you need to have to I think effectively be able to talk to people or at least feel comfortable. But the thing is, is you don't have anybody to look at your website. So go do the things that are gonna move your business forward, right? To get those folks, whether it's open houses. And the other piece of advice, too, for a new partner is be expect to fail. Just fail as much as you can, because all those pieces, it depends on how you take it. If you take it as a failure, it's not gonna help you out. But if if it's a learning moment, then uh go ahead and do that. And then from experience, um I guarantee there's whatever you want to do, whatever I'd say get out of your own way, find a model, find a system that works because somebody's already figured it out for you. So why not RD as we call it, rip off and duplicate?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I just that's pretty much real estate in a nutshell. Yeah. Everything that everybody has.
SPEAKER_04Well, the whole success leaves clues things, right? Like learn from others. Like, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. You don't need to re-reinvent the wheel. When I was living in Kansas City, there was a um there was a bar that opened and it was called the Flying Saucer. And in the Flying Saucer, they had this shirt, and I can't believe I didn't buy it because I would I would still wear this shirt if I owned it. And it said it's not rocket surgery. And I was like, it's the best shirt ever.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_03That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04So but it but it speaks exactly to that, right? Like don't make things harder than they are. Like just look around, maybe read a book, maybe get some advice, maybe listen to a podcast or something. But people have been succeeding all over the place. Yeah. Find someone who's similar to you or has a you know a likely you know, a similar goal and emulate.
SPEAKER_02That's actually how Dan and I got connected. I was brand new in the industry. I was doing business development, I didn't know anybody, but I saw
Gain Vs Gap And Stacking Wins
SPEAKER_02Dan and I was like, okay, he's doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and I need to figure out how to do this. I didn't come from this industry. I just relocated from down south. And so he was one of the people I reached out to and I was like, And then we got coffee and I told her what I did, and she's like, that's it. That's not true. Simple mind.
SPEAKER_04Like you were just such a simple man. The best plans are simple.
SPEAKER_03The best plans are simple. That's it.
SPEAKER_02That's it. Yeah, simple doesn't always mean easy, though.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_02And I it's very interesting that you say that, get out of your own way. I think that's one of the hardest um parts about being a human. And somebody recently actually made this distinction about the difference between most entrepreneurs, they make decisions, they do it, and then they adjust accordingly after. The 99 other percent of the population spend all this time trying to get ready and be perfect.
SPEAKER_04Perfect plan.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then they don't end up actually executing and doing anything. So while the entrepreneur is already enacting and and taking action, this person is still working on their website.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's the action piece that that impacts it.
SPEAKER_02Just do it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I have a I have a YouTube channel and I and I I just started doing it. And like one guy, you know, they get trolls all the time. He's like, fix your voice. I'm like, well, fix your voice. I have a uh I don't know, it sounds kind of raspy. And he goes, fix your voice. I go, well, I tried to change the channel.
SPEAKER_02Change the channel. Who's the fix your voice? What does that mean? Go deeper. All I can think of is Austin Powers in that scene.
SPEAKER_04Deeper. He wants a filter for your voice.
SPEAKER_03But who cares, right? Just no matter people are gonna hate and we're not gonna love it. Just just move it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. If if your brand is not Their brand hung up. Yeah. Plenty of options. Don't be attached to the outcome. Just do it.
SPEAKER_02Can't control the outcome. You can only control your actions. That's it. I love that advice. Okay. So what's next? What what is something that you are working on right now that
Social Strategy: YouTube And TikTok
SPEAKER_02you're really excited about?
SPEAKER_03Well, growth. Last year was a really hard year for me personally, so I didn't focus at all on that. I lost my mom. So sh you know, that piece and just that whole year, you know, it was I was grateful to spend those time that time with her and and all the things. But this year is I feel, you know, it's it's this word isn't real, I don't think. Funner. It's funner to win with more people. So that's what I'm focused on is growing our partnerships within our organization, our team.
SPEAKER_04Having more fun. Having more fun. I mean, that's that's one of the greatest goals ever, right? Yeah. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02I want to have more fun.
SPEAKER_04I love that.
SPEAKER_02I used to have a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04Well, you got to get back to it.
SPEAKER_02I'm working on it. Yeah. Yeah. It's easy to get caught up in life.
SPEAKER_04Yep. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02But it's just so much fun to be had in every in the it's like in the simple moments that we could have a lot more fun if we're just a little bit more present and care a little bit less and aren't attached to the yoga.
SPEAKER_03There's a book we're uh currently reading called Gap in the Game. I don't know if you've ever read it.
SPEAKER_02I have not.
SPEAKER_03Fantastic book. And they talk about living in the game instead of the gap.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_03We're actually we're eating it as a team.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Check it out.
SPEAKER_02Okay, first of all, you guys have a team book club too. That's exciting. Okay. That's something my team doesn't have. I'm gonna go to my office and be like, what the hell, guys? We don't even have a book club.
SPEAKER_04You you want to have more fun? You start the book, take it on.
SPEAKER_02So game in the gap.
SPEAKER_03Uh gain in the gap, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Gain in the gap.
SPEAKER_03Doctor Benjamin Hardy.
SPEAKER_02What is the gap?
SPEAKER_03So in the book, he starts off with three levels of yourself. So there's the ideal self, there's where you're at now, and there's your past. What most people live into is comparing their now to their ideal instead of looking at their now versus their past. So living in the gain is celebrating your successes, celebrating what you did, as small as it might be, because when you live in the gain,
Hyperlocal Content And Lead Capture
SPEAKER_03you start stacking up wins. And when you start stacking up wins, it kind of just flows into everywhere else and you start stacking up wins in life.
SPEAKER_02It builds momentum. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Stacking stacking wins was a huge piece or still is a huge piece of my recovery. We talked about it on the last on the last episode. And it's amazing how when you set those little goals and go attain them, and they don't have to be massive. But when you look back and you're like, damn, I accomplished 10 things that I set out to do in a short period of time. That's massively powerful. And you know, you talk about we haven't talked about a lot about building momentum, but obviously I think that you know I think your your career can obviously, you know, ebb the tides of momentum and has. So very cool. Very, very cool. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02I think that that ties back to what we've been told is success is supposed to look like too, right? And like we've created this picture, the ideal self or whatever. And every day we're comparing what we think success is supposed to look like to where we're currently at. Well, and you have algorithms that perpetuate it.
SPEAKER_04Ugh. And and look, like I've said it, like that it shows you what it thinks you want to see. Well, guess what? It fucking knows what you want to see. I know. Right?
SPEAKER_02Like that's crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's yeah, it's so toxic.
SPEAKER_04So while we're we've kind of we've kind of we've kind of transitioned back over to the ice. Let's talk about are there any trends like you know, let's start with social any social media trends that you're into right now? Like that you're they talk let talk about about some of that.
SPEAKER_03So we've been so I've been uh doing a YouTube channel. So I have a company that does it. I just record myself in the studio. Excuse me. And uh we've been doing really great on that. So working on building that. I'm excited about that.
SPEAKER_02What is the YouTube channel focused on?
SPEAKER_03It's focused on the greater Sacramento area.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So like lifestyle events, right?
SPEAKER_03Lifestyle, safety in different areas, neighborhoods, Folsom versus Roseville, you know, different,
Authenticity Beats Automation
SPEAKER_03different points that somebody could find some value in. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04Well, especially in this market, with I mean, that's spot on. Yeah. People move to the Sacramento area, they have no clue how all the little micro areas. Wildly different. Yeah. Even like I'll say Folsom and Rockland. Very, very similar, super different. Very different at the same time, right? Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And then so doing that, um, Robert on our team, he's been having a lot of success with TikTok. And I'm he finally got on it, which I'm so proud of that guy. Um, because I'm like, dude, you're you're like 25. That's where your people live. But what's fascinating to me is I've learned that TikTok's not just young people. I think uh I go on it. Uh but he's I've not crossed that.
SPEAKER_04There's some ambigu there's some ambiguity in TikTok. Um we talked about a little bit of I'll use my daughter as an example because she doesn't listen to the podcast and won't get mad at me. Um but uh perfect you know, she's like I call her a Tik Stalker. Like she has an account and she follows all kinds of things, but she doesn't post she posts very little. Yeah. You know, if if anything. Um you know, and I think that's potentially part of the rabbit hole, but there is good stuff on there. There's good content. Like there's days when when the algorithm will be lined up with your mood, and yeah, you can go down that rabbit hole, but you you're getting good value out of it. Like there's a lot of stuff. I'll bookmark stuff and and save it or forward it, even just to share. And it's not all just, you know, off-color jokes and not all of it, but it's stupid shit that I share with my friends. There is plenty of stuff that's just complete blank brain rot out there, as the kids call it. But yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's what my dad used to describe music as. Brain rot. Such a fun term. I love it.
SPEAKER_03So we're running that. We're running uh I've created a um across all channels, um,
Personal Touches That Convert
SPEAKER_03kind of a news reporting type shorts that I'm gonna be starting in two weeks once our our team gets up and running with the short editing. So that's exciting. I'm I'm excited for that.
SPEAKER_04So is that gonna be like specific real estate type news or general news? A little bit of both. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you know, you're gonna touch on politics?
SPEAKER_03I stay away from that. Um religion.
SPEAKER_01That's the taboo. That's the most taboo topic.
SPEAKER_04Well done, Jake. That was that was good. Good job. If I want something to go viral, I will.
SPEAKER_02There are just some things that are not meant to be talked about publicly.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Oh, so good. So good.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So uh a news reporting short. So like 30 seconds or less?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, probably about 60 seconds or less. So just essentially I mean uh max 60. I mean it's probably about 30-ish, and just uh giving updates around the the area, whether it's uh a cool restaurant opening, um uh different laws that came into place, um, you know, different things like that.
SPEAKER_04Just uh And you said you're gonna go like hyperlocal on this, like local to Reserve.
SPEAKER_03Roosevelt Place or YOLO, or not YOLO, uh Roseville Place or Eldo.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. All right. That covers most of the Sac Valley pretty
AI In Practice: Scripts, Edits, Packets
SPEAKER_02much. So there's a lot happening too. I think all the time. And it's so funny to be so focused on, you know, oh, this is happening over here that we do not see all the other things that are happening too. So that'll be fun.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I think the cool thing, there's an underlying there's an underlying value in that, in that um if or when it grows. Right? Like we like looking at the podcast, like just looking at our downloads as they grow and they go up and stuff like that. That's exciting. Like it feels like, hey, we know we're providing something that that that means something that's worth people hitting the space. People want to listen to. Yeah. And I think that's that's a lot of a lot of the social media stuff, you know. I mean, I have zero aspirations to be an influencer or influential, you know, in that. Yeah, and you have the face for it. Unshaven. Great.
SPEAKER_01I didn't say you have the feet for it. So there's that. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. We've got we've done it for about eight months now. We've got uh on that YouTube uh 91 leads off of it.
SPEAKER_02So 91 leads.
SPEAKER_03Wow. Wow. We just picked up a million dollar buyer last week.
SPEAKER_02Now, do you as far as leads, do you guys have like a AI flow intake system that gets their information, or are you physically reaching out? Like how do you capture and then follow up?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we have a landing page. There's a couple ways. We have a landing page. I also shoot my information on it. If anybody wants to go see it's uh greater sacramento living on YouTube. Um and if they click into the landing page, they fill out their information. The coolest part about it is that essentially with YouTube is the more you know if you're consistent on it, that's the biggest thing is stay consistent. Yeah. People know you before they even talk to you because they see what your style is, they see your mannerisms on TV, heard your voice, heard my voice, told me to fix it.
SPEAKER_02We got all the awkward stuff out of the way. It'd be awesome if that guy called, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I hate your voice, but I want to work with you.
SPEAKER_04Well, what was what was so funny? So we've had we've had Corey McKinney's been on this, and Corey and I met Corey when he was on Jake's team. And uh Corey shared a story about like a guy that basically told him to fuck off, and you told him to call him back, and he turned him into a client. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I always think about those kind of stories. But it's just so I'm I think that there's a lot of people who have had on that list of you know, things I need to get done, right? Websites and a lot of people who have wanted to do the YouTube avenue, but don't really know where to start, what to do, how to leverage it so that it actually turns into something that's valuable, not just for them, but for the people who are visiting and watching.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So
Sacramento Life, Cars, And Barrett-Jackson
SPEAKER_02I love that you're sharing on that because I think that's it's one of the ones that it's a platform that's been around longer than like the TikTok and stuff, but it still seems like it's a platform that not a lot of people are leveraging as well as we could.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. The the fear I had to get through on that was I think most people don't, because you got to be on there for 15 to 25 minutes and you have to talk for 15 to 25 minutes. Yeah. And I just for that long? That's all my my videos are usually around uh 13 to 20 minutes, depending on topic. And I think my biggest fear was what are people gonna think? And then last year was kind of like my I don't give a shit what people think about me. Perfect. As long as you know, as long as they see me positively, I don't want people to be sick as a uh a douche, right? Yeah. But you know, people like you said earlier, people like me, great. If they don't, they'll work with someone else.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think, yeah, right. Like people people work with people they want to work with and they like. I mean, it's very seldom. I mean, it's very seldom that someone goes, yeah, I just work with this guy, but he's a complete asshole.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_04Or I work with her and she's a total bitch. She's a terrible mother, like you know. Yeah. But I God, I just can't stop working with her.
SPEAKER_02I know. Okay. So being that you do these reports, you have the news, you're really plugged into local, what is one of your favorite things about living in Sacramento?
SPEAKER_03I'd say uh for me, it's always been is proximity, proximity to Tahoe, proximity to something like there's incredible, and I haven't been to nearly a quarter of them. There's incredible hiking areas up the foothills. You've got Napa if you wanted to go there. You've got the coast, the coast, Monterey, um, all the coastlines. I mean, we're in a really pretty amazing location as far as proximity goes, in my opinion. I think that's probably the best my favorite thing about her.
SPEAKER_04And you're born and you're born and raised. Born and raised 50.
SPEAKER_03I turned F 50 this month.
SPEAKER_045'0.
SPEAKER_025'0. What are you doing? Well, happy early birthday. Yeah. That's gonna be big.
SPEAKER_03Going to spring training.
SPEAKER_02Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because you're a big Giants fan. Yeah. Niner fan. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_04Uh you know what I'm super jealous. I I stalk Jake a little bit on social media. He goes to the uh the big car show. Barrett Jackson. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What is what is that? For those of us who don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'll let I'll let Jake talk about it. But it's a massive auction in Scottsdale. Uh the one we go to is in Scottsdale,
Dream Builds, Breakdowns, And Family Heirlooms
SPEAKER_03Arizona. Okay. So we usually get a group of 15, 20, 20, I mean 25 buddies that go up there. Wow. And you go in and you get to see some really incredible cars talking. There's some cars that sell for north of a million, north of two million, north of three million. Crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_02And people like drive these cars, or do they just collect them?
SPEAKER_03I think they collect them and maybe drive them once in a blue moon.
SPEAKER_02Once every decade. If the weather and the conditions are just right. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: It's great.
SPEAKER_04You can get into that world, and I mean there's there's there's cars. I mean, even like in the new realm, like with the supercars, there's ones that appreciate. Cars are technic typically a depreciate. Right.
SPEAKER_02And if you like drive them, it depreciates them. Like they have to remain pristine. So if what's your dream car?
SPEAKER_03I'd say probably a Camaro, like a 60s Camaro is like one of my American muscles.
SPEAKER_04Early or late? Like you want the square or the rounder version? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.: Uh the square. The square. So the early 60s.
SPEAKER_03Just I'd be like completely s souped up. Oh yeah. I wouldn't be able to decide if I'd go resto mod, which means that they've redone it to like newer standards, new transmission. Or new motor, new new brakes, new transmission, like air conditioning, or you just go fully rebuilt, like old classic style.
SPEAKER_04Like the way it the way it came off the lot.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I would want to go old school classic.
SPEAKER_04They're nice.
SPEAKER_02Maintain.
SPEAKER_04If I was parking it in the garage, never driving it, sure. If I'm driving, I want all the modern shit. Well, yeah. I want my but a car like that, you're not driving every day.
SPEAKER_02Like you're I might. I do stupid shit.
SPEAKER_04I do stupid shit.
SPEAKER_02You would be like the Dukes of Hazard type of guy.
SPEAKER_03That would be a cool car. Yeah. They actually sold one.
SPEAKER_04I get sucked into like the reels of like the guys who find the Dukes of Hazard car, like well that yeah, they find it. It's been in a field in frickin' Tennessee for 30 years. It's got all this dirt, and they like fast forward the video and it's like hyper, you know, hyper fast, and and they show you the whole thing in like 40 seconds. Oh, so quick.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but it took like months of their lives.
SPEAKER_04Years.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it's incredible. I I wish that was a skill that I had, not just in the like acumen of how to restore a car, but also the financial money to be able to restore a car.
SPEAKER_04It's expensive. It's expensive. Well we didn't we didn't talk about this, so this might come out of left field and you probably might brush me off a push. You you've been working on an El Camino, if I'm not mistaken.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. 67
Data Centers, Cooling, And Big Tech
SPEAKER_03El Camino.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So you know Where are we at in that process?
SPEAKER_03We finished it. Done. Yeah. And then I blew the motor.
unknownOh. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So I'm part of a the the guys who go to the this uh event, we created a uh car club called Broken Motor Motor Call uh Broken Motor Car Club.
SPEAKER_02Does that come with like a vest that you guys all get to wear?
SPEAKER_04We got sweatshirts, swag. You might have set yourself up for failure in the naming of this part. I love it.
SPEAKER_03To join, you have to have a classic that's broken down, which is something you can't avoid with those cars. They're always worth having work. So yeah, 67 blew the motor, so I put a you know, of course I didn't want to just replace it with likes, so I put a 383 stroker in there, um four-speed overdrive new transmission, rewired the whole car and put pose traction in the back.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_04Brother Layman, that's really fast with a lot of power. Thank you. And both rear wheels spin at the same time. Okay, thank you for the translation there.
SPEAKER_02I was waiting for somebody to break that down.
SPEAKER_04So Jake was leaving two leggers when he blew his motor. That means two rubber stains on the phone pretty quick. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So that's where we're at. What kind of final touches I've got my uh mechanics?
SPEAKER_04Now you'd been working on it for a while. I think I think God, it may have been before COVID, but we were talking about you had gotten it painted and it was not good and got ripped off for like 10 grand.
SPEAKER_03Whoa! Yeah. And I had to take it in and get it redone, which was even more expensive because they had to take it back down
Sobriety, Relearning Fun, And Growth
SPEAKER_03to the metal. So yeah. It's been a but it's been in the coolest part. Here, I'll tell the story. The story is the coolest part on it. So it's been in my family since 1970. When my mom and dad got married, my mom's mom passed away, left all the kids $4,000. At that point in time, they used 3,000 of the four to purchase and put down 20% on their first house, which means they bought the house for $15,000 and used $1,000 to buy the truck.
SPEAKER_02What a story. And way to keep like keep it in the family. A lot of people would give up on that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's insane. That gives me a new- There's a person that lives like five houses down from me. They have this old car in the driveway. It's one of those like never been driven. It's been sitting there collecting dust and leaves for twenty years ago.
SPEAKER_04Jake is also Jake is also a member of the Ryan Lundquist pool club.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Do you do classic cars appear in that club a lot too? Not so much.
SPEAKER_03I don't I've talked to a few guys who have some in there.
SPEAKER_02You mean maybe you can convert them to the Broken Motors Club. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_03Might happen. They have to buy a car first. They have to buy a classic.
SPEAKER_04They got to prove they got a busted classic car.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I'm going to uh hop around a bit again. Perfect. Because I know that Dan had many Because we're nimble. I want to talk about the AI part a little bit because I know that you had some stuff to talk about. And place utilizes a lot of AI. So what do you use AI for specifically? How does it help you in your business?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think to preface it is going back to what Dan talked about earlier. Some of it might even be in my business with, because I have our operations partners create these posts of the solds and whatnot. But being careful of sounding too AI, right? So how do I use it in our business? There's a couple ways.
SPEAKER_04Did you have to pour a lot into that, like on the front end of that AI to teach it what you wanted, or is it is it kind of giving you what it thinks you need?
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell Well it's a good question.
Cooking, Tri-Tip Lore, And BBQ Craft
SPEAKER_03But a lot of the states they don't. So there's calls that are recorded. So they've been uploading actual conversations and making this thing super smart. Like when I talk to them, I'm like, dude, you're you're pretty good. So so there's a lot of uh training that goes into place. But I have other AIs that I use. I do use AI to help me come up with topics and and uh kind of a framework of my YouTube videos. I've trained those as well. Um there's ways you can make bots and things like that. Um we use it we use it to cut up longer uh longer videos to put into shorts, um different things like that.
SPEAKER_02So we've lost our video here. We lost it. This is technical faux pas part two, but we still got our sound. So don't worry, everybody, all seven of our listeners, we're gonna keep talking here for you. Um okay. If you what would you say AI is where is it the most helpful for your business? Like and how is it helpful? Is it saving time? Is it uh staying in front of your clients? So dig into that a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, probably I mean So one of the things I didn't love the most, I mean, and you could probably attest to this is like putting together listing descriptions.
SPEAKER_02Like oh that thing is I've been using AI for that the whole time. I have no pride or ego about like making my own words. I'm like, let me just there's no reason, you know, my description isn't gonna be what sells a house. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it isn't. It's price, right? Like let's be realistic. Price of photos are different things. Um we've done that. We've used AI to make like uh uh city uh packets. So uh basically all about Fair Oaks, right? There's certain AI programs that will actually create this PDF downloadable and then taking those and kind of putting it into a lead capture type situation for buyers uh that are coming through. Um we've used AI, gosh, to come to come up with ideas for planning um of social media type things. There's so much you can use it, you just really got to kind of dig into it and figure out how to use it to to what your business, what you want it to look like, right?
SPEAKER_02Right. Right. I think that there's a lot of people who are circling it and want to use it but don't know how to implement it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Having a place or a team or a leader that can say, this is the best way to set it up for your business. We've tested it, we've implemented it, we've seen how it works, but also like provide it to you so that you're not figuring it out on your own. That I think it all goes back to like don't what did you call it? The R and D?
SPEAKER_03Rip off and duplicate.
SPEAKER_02Rip off and duplicate.
SPEAKER_03So actually, and going back to what Dan said earlier about the staying as or not making it too AI, people value the human touch. In fact, Robert uh kind of talked a little bit, he's been crushing on TikTok, and he does a very simple uh you know deal-of-the-day type of uh thing. He just stays consistent with it.
Hobbies To Businesses: Sports Cards
SPEAKER_03And where it changed for him is um I had learned this from another influencer in a different area. What he did was anytime someone would follow him, he would record a quick short video. Hey Kaylee, thanks for following me. Super uh thankful for you to supporting our channel. Hey, if you have any questions, if you know of anything or or want some help on anything, don't feel uh don't be afraid to reach out. And he'd send him a video. And so when he got done, I actually went and said, um I wonder if this guy's for real or if you know what I'm saying. So I followed him, and sure enough, 10 minutes later I got a video. Robert started doing that, and I think he's pulled in and put like 30 to 40 leads into his database and he signed multiple um buyers from TikTok, which is pretty interesting. Wow.
SPEAKER_02That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03Just by that little personal touch. Yeah. And even some people respond back with, like, you know what, we have a real estate agent we work with, but I absolutely love that personal touch. So yeah, you've got to make that personal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think that there's already a standoff feel from a lot of people about that AI bot response, especially on social media. Like you can tell when it's instant, you know, if I f if I add somebody and then right away I get a DM, thanks for the follow. And it's just such a canned response. And I've also been noticing um, you know, the trend on social media right now, especially for realtors, are the home tours. Everybody's doing the home tours. And I'm sure we're gonna see some rules and regulations for that because people aren't asking for permission, they're just doing it. A lot of listing agents are, you know, but I digress. I think that the personal touch stands out because it's uh it's always automatically so authentic and people know it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they even though we're on a place that breeds inauthenticity in inauthenticity, people want it more than ever. They want you to stand out.
SPEAKER_04I was actually going through I was it I was down in Oakland for three days last week at a conference and uh I got a bunch of business cards and was connecting with people like this morning, when I got here this morning, and you know, shoot them a text message and then like a LinkedIn connection,
Rarity, Stories, And Collectibles
SPEAKER_04you know, like and uh on my LinkedIn like requests I was basically putting like, hey, this is Dan, like and I put in parentheses like not AI. So like it's me. You know, like so if if you respond to this, I will get back to you as quickly as I possibly can, but it's not gonna be instantaneous most likely unless I'm actually on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because I'm actually responding to you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I thought it was kind of fun. I'm like, ah, you know, I'll have some fun with it. So see how the response is. Yeah. And it did. I got I got you know, pretty good acceptance rate and people going, ha ha, you know, LOL. Yeah, you know, hey, yeah, let's connect. And so it was perfect. You know, I really was really proud of kind of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I do the same thing with my mailers. I hand write them. And then I also write, like, this is not a mass blast. I'm actually handwriting to you because I know our community, and that's why I'm reaching out by hand to my community. And people love it. I get comments all the time. Every single time I send them out, I get a response.
SPEAKER_04I think people respect and appreciate that that personal touch. When because we have so many tools at our disposal that we can utilize to facilitate ease of operation.
SPEAKER_02For sure.
SPEAKER_04You know, like the the the small tasks though, like they mean a lot.
SPEAKER_03Especially knowing your demographics, too.
SPEAKER_04I wanted to touch on this before I had to fix the camera. Sorry. When we were on the AI thing, have you guys heard about like the plan for where for where AI store where all this data storage is going? No. Space.
SPEAKER_02What? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like in Mars or just on like a data centers in space, in orbit, being fueled by the sun power.
SPEAKER_02Huh. I guess that's better than all the like mining centers that they have for right now.
SPEAKER_04It's crazy. Well, because I mean that you start if you start digging into like the demands that that all this is going to be putting on, and now all the heat that these that these CPUs are putting off and everything, it's it's pretty wild. Trevor Burrus, Jr. It's a lot. Um it's it's massive. I mean, I've we were
Think Different: Jobs, Musk, And Bias For Action
SPEAKER_04talking a you know, a couple months ago, someone was talking about building one in the ocean. You know? So like so now like so now you have the ocean keeping it cool. Right? I mean, just genius, just genius level stuff, right? So far beyond me. I'm like so amazed by these things. But I thought that was really, really interesting.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell I'm just waiting for the Terminator guy to come back and say I'm from Skynet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03John Connor. John Connor.
SPEAKER_04John Connor, he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals for a couple years. He was a running back and he was indestructible. He'd break and he'd show up and kick people's asses again. It was great. Full circle. Full circle.
SPEAKER_02Life has a way of doing that. Okay. So there's a note on the board and it says sober.
SPEAKER_03Oh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I'd love to talk about that because especially in our industry, sobriety is not very prevalent. There's a lot of ways to deal with the stress of our everyday, and most people share a glass or two or 17. And so um talk about your journey with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh I still remember vividly too. Um gosh, May was it April 12th, 20 This is actually year 11. Yeah. So I just passed 10 last year. So so uh what would that be? I don't know. Uh 2014-ish? Is that right? 25. Yeah. So um yeah, I woke up, I had uh an incredible weekend. Uh most guys would probably be proud of. Um, but uh it was a bender of a weekend. I walked my buddy out who had come up and stayed crashed at my house to um you know, go back to his car and take off back to Napa. And I looked up and I still remember it was like windy, it was overcast, the
Closing Reflections And Sign-Off
SPEAKER_03leaves were flowing, and and I'm like, I just thought to myself, I said, I'm living in an apartment complex. I owe the IRS $125,000 or $130,000. I have no assets to my name, didn't own a house, didn't have anything, and uh had credit card debt, and the only thing I actually owned, which was this Honda that I was driving, which had a lean against it. So I just decided that day. Um at first it was I'm gonna take a break, and then fast forward it just I never picked it back up. And I've been sober for 11 years, and it's the if you know how there's that defining moment in your life? That's probably mine. And that's the time. And everything's just changed from that point.
SPEAKER_04What were I mean, I get were there were there like struggles, like hard, hard days where you had to like put your foot down and go, nope, I'm not doing it? Um, or was it pretty simple like my grandfather quit smoking because he had cancer and he literally went home that day after smoking for 40 years and ripped his pack of Marlboro reds in half and never touched a cigarette again for 20 years. Um but you know, that's obviously that's not everybody.
SPEAKER_02Like and I'm sure he had his days that had struck.
SPEAKER_04There was grip for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. The ability to say no to things that you know are bad for you or you don't want to do is is is crazy. So does it is it kind of like that for you? Is it kind of like you just say no, or or are there days, were there days? I I would imagine now you're probably it's pretty pretty simple.
SPEAKER_03It's just pretty normal now. Yeah, back in the day, I mean, for the first year I hermited. So I had to I had to relearn fun. Disassociate, yeah. I had to relearn fun because everything pre-not drinking had to do with drinking. And that was the crowd I ran in. I didn't run in the best crowd. I mean, they were good people, but they love to party, right? And I'm talking, you know, alcohol and and drugs. So we won't say any names. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So but we all know that.
SPEAKER_03So I ran in that crowd and I was just if I look back, I was kind of an asshole back in those days. And um, you know, I just had to rearrange what like my friendships look like, how I had fun. Because I remember we went to one time we went to a movie. It was like uh one of the war movies opening day. And it was I think it was Saving Private Prime. Private Ryan was in the house. Oh, it's saving private private Ryan. And we went with a bunch of buddies. Well, we bought like 40s and 22s, and like I mean, you're going to a movie and we're associated with alcohol. And I still remember in the quietest part of the movie, I had actually kicked my bottle, my empty one, and so it just all you heard was tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink down the down the thing. But it's like, dude, like you all everything I associated life with had to do with drinking, right? You go into the movie, let's go get some. You were gonna have fun, you had to have a couple drinks. So I had to re-relearn fun. That was probably the biggest challenge. And I herbed it for a year. I didn't do anything. I just engulfed myself in work.
SPEAKER_04And uh So you did you replace it with like work and personal Yeah, first definitely personal.
SPEAKER_03Personal development.
SPEAKER_02What do you do now for fun?
SPEAKER_03I love my cars, so I'll drive those when they're running. Um like I drove my El Camido this this weekend. I'm like, oh, it's leaking gas, sweet.
SPEAKER_02So I gotta put it back in the What a great weekend. God, it was so nice out. It's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_04So it's windy. We're gonna get rain tomorrow. We need it. We need it.
SPEAKER_02We need it. It's been a dry January, but that sun, I hope we all got a little bit vitamin D on the skin. Yeah, my wife was like, uh, it's cold. We should put a sweater on Rourke. And I was like, let the boy get some sun. He's so white, he's like translucent. I'm like, this boy needs some sun to not put a shirt on him.
SPEAKER_03That reminds me of my legs.
SPEAKER_02Um we all we all know a guy who's like that.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03So uh just uh go out, you know, hang out with friends. I like to read, I like to uh hang out with the pup, a little Boston terrier. Yeah, you got a brown and white Boston. I didn't know she's full Boston, but uh she was a COVID dog and she's fantastic.
SPEAKER_04Bostons are great. We've had a couple.
SPEAKER_02And you recently joined you recently joined the club, so you play golf.
SPEAKER_03Are you golf? Oh, yeah. Uh no, I I joined that club for my mom, but uh I didn't I was more of the social. She liked all the events over there. And so I joined up and would take her to we went to a Luau and a bunch of different stuff, but uh I don't I don't golf much. I used to golf. I was actually on the high school golf team.
SPEAKER_02Oh okay. It's a it's fun. I know you're a big golfer. Have have you been able to play?
SPEAKER_04No, no, no, no. I'm I'm I'm at least a few months from from being able to scratch the are you gonna have to like learn how to swing and everything again?
SPEAKER_02No. No.
SPEAKER_04I mean my uh you're you're yeah, you're referencing my my left ankle is gonna have to make some progress as far as flexibility and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03Had you had asked me that question, I'd probably would have said I have to learn how to swing before I have to relearn. Learn how to swing before I can relearn. Yeah, what is your handicap?
SPEAKER_02That's how I feel about it. I'm like anytime I get something in my hands that is supposed to be swung or propelled, like it's really just a hazard for anybody else around me. Fair, fair. But it's fun.
SPEAKER_04You like the mayhem commercials.
SPEAKER_02I am. I am the mayhem guy. If you need me to throw or s hit or swing anything, let's just say my wife regrets it every time she asks me to. But I am to the point now where I make contact with the ball and it does go forward. That's perfect. So I'll say that.
SPEAKER_04Progress.
SPEAKER_02Not always straight, but it does go forward.
SPEAKER_04You're just like the most of us. You're in the game.
SPEAKER_02I'm in the game. It's fun. I'm a fair weather golfer though, so now that like we're kind of getting back into spring, I'll I'll get out there. Plus, I couldn't do it when I was pregnant. Yeah. So it's been a while.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the the uh yesterday, I think it was like I think I saw 72 degrees or something. I was like, ooh, today would be and Marie and I went up to to to um to Whitney Oaks and had brunch and saw there was a Super Bowl scramble that I've played in for years and saw a bunch of the guys. I was like, oh man. It was the first time like in three months that I that I really did miss being out there. So it's all right. I mean, I'll just use as just use as motivation. Yeah. It's just you know, I mean, it's something I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do. You'll be you'll be back in a couple months for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So that's exciting.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, what else do we have? I I can't see the board. Oh, and this is we haven't asked this one in a while. Oh my gosh. Okay, this is actually one of my favorite questions to ask. Do you have any unusual talents?
SPEAKER_03This long of a thought process kind of rose to a no.
SPEAKER_02Well, let me tell you, it actually took me several months to come to the realization that I even had one. But I feel like there's more. There's more. I just haven't thought of it. It's not something that people think about very often.
SPEAKER_04This is why we send the prep sheet, Jim.
SPEAKER_02I know.
SPEAKER_04Was that on there? I missed that question.
SPEAKER_02It's like cognitive dissidence. You're like, there's no talents here.
SPEAKER_03Here we are. I don't know if it's unusual. I don't really have any unusual talents. Um I love to cook. That's like I can I can cook pretty damn good. What's your favorite thing to cook? I'm a big barbecue guy.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, I would say that's a talent. Like it's a skill to be able to grill. Otherwise, you burn shit, you overcook it.
SPEAKER_04Like, smoker or grill? Both. Both. Ooh. Favorite thing to grill?
SPEAKER_03Yesterday at Super Bowl. What's that?
SPEAKER_04Favorite thing to grill?
SPEAKER_03Tri-tip. Yeah, I mean, I actually learned uh and if you haven't tried it, I'll have to tell you about it. But uh Su V. Oh yeah. And then throwing it on the cereal. Oh, dude, it's the best thing.
SPEAKER_02Did you know that they don't even have a tri-tip cut in Texas?
SPEAKER_04Uh correct. It's um so the original name of the tri-tip is a Santa Maria. It's it's actually born in Bra it's it's a it's from the Santa Barbara area, is where that is where that cut. I mean, it used to be a throwaway piece. I know this because my I'm the son of a butcher. Ah what? Yep, yep. So uh what was wild is that um when we had moved to Kansas City, you were you could get a tri-tip in Kansas City.
SPEAKER_02Interesting.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, but you can't get you. You can't get it in Texas. Yeah. That's crazy. Well, you know, I mean, in Texas is probably a little different. They're big brisket people, which is another kind of which is another pretty tough.
SPEAKER_02I would take a tri-tip over a brisket if you had to.
SPEAKER_04Unless you could smoke it. I mean, if you if you can get them to comparable like tenderness levels, you know, but but I mean brisket takes twelve to eighteen hours of smoke, slow cooking, to get it to break down and be, you know, and be edible. So that's why a lot of people don't care for and tri-tip, like you have to slice it a certain way, otherwise it's impossible.
SPEAKER_03Well, as a kid, we moved to Reading. They had tri-tips up there. They didn't have them out in our area out here in Sacramento. And then when my dad came back, he asked the butcher for tri-tips. They had no clue what he was talking about. So he might be seriously, he might be the reason that they started hitting tri-tip cuts.
SPEAKER_02They're like, we gotta we gotta figure out what that is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like what is that?
SPEAKER_02I love that unusual talent. And you know, it's funny. I think that part of the reason that this is such a hard question for people is because we don't talk about things as talents anymore. It's true. Like, do schools even have talent shows?
SPEAKER_04Uh not likely. I think they do.
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_02We used to have talent shows every year at ours. Like that was a fun thing that you got to go upstage and do the thing that you were good at, but now I don't know, do we call them something else? Like everybody has talents.
SPEAKER_04I feel like I feel like now in in that in that culture if you're like showing off a talent, you might actually be putting yourself in the wrong light. Like they, you know, like shame you. I have a funny one from years ago.
SPEAKER_02Okay, let's hear it.
SPEAKER_03So when in my drinking days, out of all anybody I knew, I was the fastest 40. They called me the 40 killer.
SPEAKER_02I would you could chug a 40.
SPEAKER_03I would chug a 40. Wow.
SPEAKER_02That's impressive.
SPEAKER_03It's unusual.
SPEAKER_02That is unusual. It's unusual. I would I would place that in the falls under a top.
SPEAKER_04Now he's doing it with his hydro flask. He's just pounding water at world record pace. Just Oh my god. Gulp. So funny. Gulp. Done.
SPEAKER_02That's uh what was that movie called? Beerfest. Beerfest. Oh, why did I just Das Boot? Das Boot. You'd be the boot. You'd be the boot guy. Wow. Impressive. That is okay. I would put that in the unusual category for sure. 40s, man. That brings it back. So yeah. Close to the day. Yeah, the Mickeys.
SPEAKER_04Big mouth. Big mouth. I cannot.
SPEAKER_02My my unusual talent is that I cannot chug carbonation. I like even if I try, it just it makes me cry. Like it brings tears to my eye. Not that I'm sad, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Because you're trying so hard, it's not going so well.
SPEAKER_02It's like it's the effect of the carbonation, I think.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like I can't drink sodas or anything too quickly because it just makes my eyes water.
SPEAKER_04It took me the longest time to come around to the uh the carbonated waters. Like the um and now I do kind of like them just because I I need to drink less calories as I've you know freaking metabolism slowing down. I've been I was laying on my back for two months.
SPEAKER_02That'll do it. It's the laying on your back thing.
SPEAKER_04But I didn't, but yeah, like even and I still don't know if I really like them, but they're kind of a you know an acceptable evil.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So Jake, what's on the horizon for you looking forward? Like, do we want to keep growing a team in real estate? Do you want to kind of transcend real estate and do something else? Like what's calling to you like in the next five years?
SPEAKER_03Next five years, I still see myself um in real estate growing, growing the team, growing partnerships. Um I I truly believe in my heart that what what we do and how we run, I uh I owe it to people to put them into that world if they choose to. So that's a big piece of my piece. Um and then there's some other side hobbies that I have that um we'll eventually probably get into. But uh for the most part, yeah, I'd say really.
SPEAKER_04You try to monetize those hobbies or just lean into them on a deeper hobby? Monetize them. Okay. Very cool. Could be a retirement.
SPEAKER_02Am I the only person who feels like sometimes when you monetize a hobby it becomes less fun?
SPEAKER_04It becomes a job.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that's it.
SPEAKER_04I think that's everybody, but you know, it's like, you know, what do they you know, it's like the saying, like, you know, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. Um I think it just depends, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04I guess it'll probably it'll probably tell you how much you love it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04I think if you you know, if you if you really if it becomes a grind and becomes a job, then maybe you or you can fall out of love with things too, right?
SPEAKER_03So we so that hobby uh back in COVID, and I I'm gonna sound really nerdy here, so um, but it's actually pretty awesome. So I don't care. Um got back into sports cards. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Cool. Oh, they're blowing. I know a lot of people who do that actually, yeah.
SPEAKER_03In fact, we have a um if anybody ever wants to listen, it's called Cardboard Wars. We have a podcast that we do. And I was looking at the other day because we put the podcast on YouTube. There's a we got like a hundred and forty-five thousand followers on that podcast. And we have two point three point two million views on that channel. So Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you guys just talk about cards? We talked about cards.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's why it's it's a whole scene.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm sure it's like Pokemon cards. Okay, don't take that as an exact comparison.
SPEAKER_04No, they're they're part of it. Yeah. We were in Cooperstown last summer for my son's 12-year-old uh big hurrah final send-off of like small diamond baseball, right? There's a and thousands of kids go every summer. Um and one we go to downtown, like old legit Cooperstown, like where Abner Doubleday Field is, like the birthplace of baseball. And one of the we went into a card shop and they were doing like this live box break. And it's a guy sitting in a essentially like a podcast room like this, it's being filmed, it's live, and he's literally just he people will bypass buy boxes of cards and he'll open them right there on top. And people get genuinely excited. Like if you hit like there's all kinds of these rare cards now. Yeah, and it's it's a whole culture. Huh? Yep.
SPEAKER_03We talk about the history of the company, the history of like the team, and um then the actual player themselves and how that card that's that's our podcast coverage.
SPEAKER_02I would say that's an unusual talent in itself, like to know individual players, their stats, why the cards are rare.
SPEAKER_04Like that's correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the most value the most valuable trading card on the planet is a Pokemon card. Is it not?
SPEAKER_03The most valuable one just sold. It's a uh it was a Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan 101. Uh actually Mr. Wonderful's uh uh I think their investment fund uh bought it for 12.6. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01For a card.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's autograph, 101, dual, dual logo.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy.
SPEAKER_04They do some cool stuff. I mean, now they cut pieces of jerseys from games, like from important games, and they incorporate them into the card.
SPEAKER_03It's a whole lot It's a whole thing. It's blown up, ridiculous. It's a billion billion multi-billion dollar company.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Or hobby.
SPEAKER_04Well. Kayleigh, go watch um oh, what's it called? King of Collectibles on uh Netflix. It's pretty good. King of Collectibles. Two s two two two seasons. Okay. Six or eight episodes, about an hour.
SPEAKER_02People like bring in their stuff.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but these guys chase down cards to broker them. Yeah, and wow. And they've and they've expanded into more memorabilia and stuff like that. It's but it's it's it's fascinating. I mean, if if if it piques your interest, it's really fascinating. It does.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I've always been like antique roadshow, finding Things understanding their value.
SPEAKER_04The way that people connect their nostalgia to these pieces is wild. It's like Jake's story about his car, like staying in the family. It's all about the story. Yeah. And that's what it is. And if you got buckets of money, you'll pay. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, there's some of them that are super rare. Like the back at years of 19, was it 1912, there's a Honus Wagner card that's a Toly Grail 209 or something like that. And the reason it's so rare is because when he they made this card, they actually put them in the cigarettes packs back in that time. And Honus Wagner was against putting in cigarette packs because he didn't want kids opening cigarette packs. So there was a very limited run. And so it became a super it's like he said, it's the holy grail. But it's like stuff like that, the story behind it, that's actually super interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think you're buying the story of it more than the card itself. That's yeah, you're buying a piece of history. That's cool. Okay. I I mean I get it. I totally get it. It's just, you know, 12.6 for a yeah.
SPEAKER_04All right. So we've been talking about nostalgia and we're and we and we are coming up on time. We want to be respectful for Jake's time. We're super appreciative of you coming in and joining us and shooting the shit, really. You know, but uh so last one we have, we ask every guest this. If you could be anyone for a day, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you do?
SPEAKER_03I would probably want to be an incredible like uh business owner, like a uh jobs.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um and I would just want to sit through a day of his, whether it's like going through board meetings or something having to do where he's having conversations with um high, high-level people in his in his world. Um because I'm just I'm fascinated by business and how it works. Um that I would be curious to just even if I could just be the fly that was on the wall in the one of those meetings and just hear, that's that would be my thing. Like Steve Jobs. Um just to see how they think because they just think differently. Those people think differently. And then Elon Musk. That'd be kind of cool to just see what he's about.
SPEAKER_02It would be fascinating, I think, to hear how many conversations a day they have too. Like not just the meetings, but the passing conversations, the oh, you need to get back to these conversations. Like it's constant all day long.
SPEAKER_04Aaron Powell Just to see like what those guys prioritize as actually important. Because I'm sure that things make it up their list that we would look overlook and be like, no way, that's important. And they're like, oh yeah, well they see the whole and they're like, no, this is probably the most important thing in my day. And you're like, oh, I would have probably not responded to that email.
SPEAKER_03I was uh Elon, I was listening or reading a book called Scale uh Science of Scaling. And in that book, they talked about Elon when he took over X and he made all those cuts. They had at that point in time three um data centers, and actually two of them were in Sacramento, which I had no clue that they were. But so he asked his people, how long would it take to we only need one, how long would it take to get rid of the other two? And they're like, uh, six months. He's like, why is it gonna take that long? Why is that? And um they gave him some you know BS answer. Well, Christmas Eve comes, he's flying to Dallas, he tells the pilot to turn it around, he lands in Sacramento, has his driver take him to the two data centers in Sacramento, and he said, Where's the power cord? And the guy, or the power, and he just cut the power on both of them, and he said, It's done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like who like talking about That was when he was like walking into headquarters with the sink. Yeah. Let that sink in. Yeah. I mean, but it's like the thought process of someone like that.
SPEAKER_03He's like, why does it take so long when we could just go make it happen? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, I think that's the what we should all take away. Just like just stop thinking about it and just make it happen.
SPEAKER_03That's a good point. That's actually pretty darn good lesson.
SPEAKER_02I'm here to make your long story short. Perfect.
SPEAKER_03I love it.
SPEAKER_02Dan, I think you disabled. Turn on your Bluetooth, turn off your airplane.
SPEAKER_04Supposed to be set up. We're gonna play him out eventually. Is your airplane mode on?
SPEAKER_03Well, you were humming it really well earlier, so.
SPEAKER_04Got it. Yeah. I may not be perfect.
SPEAKER_00We'll get it done. But I'm okay. Pretty great.
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