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Key Factors RealEstateAF
Educational Podcast for Consumers, Mortgage & Real Estate Industry Professionals. We'll Talk About It All! Key Factors podcast, powered by https://ReviewMyMortgage.com . Your Host Mark Jones invites Industry Pros to help uncover & educate on the key factors of various topics. There’s something for everyone so let us be your guides and get educated. Subscribe & Follow on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Facebook, Instagram, & all other podcasting platforms. Host : Mark A Jones Founder of ReviewMyMortgage.comProducing Branch MangerSr. Loan Officer. NMLS ID# 513437NMLS Consumer Access: http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Key Factors RealEstateAF
Transforming Financial Struggles into Real Estate Triumphs with Whitney Robinson
What if you could turn your financial struggles into a triumphant success story? Join us on the Key Factors Podcast as we chat with Whitney Robinson, a realtor who has navigated a winding road from a small Virginia town to a thriving career in real estate. Whitney's journey is a testament to perseverance and the power of financial literacy, shaped by early experiences in a single-parent household and an eclectic career path that spans from waitressing to wealth management at Wells Fargo.
Whitney opens up about the emotional and financial challenges she faced, sharing poignant moments that reveal the depth of her resilience. From childhood curiosities about money to the harsh realities of being judged by appearances, her story underscores the importance of managing limited resources and finding hope through biblical lessons. Whitney also delves into the complexities of co-parenting post-divorce, the significance of emotional intelligence, and how maintaining authenticity can foster genuine relationships both personally and professionally.
But the wisdom doesn't stop there. Whitney dishes out invaluable advice for real estate professionals, from strategic marketing tactics to financial planning for those living on commission. Whether you're inspired by stories of house-flipping triumphs or looking for tips on emotional check-ins with your kids, this episode is packed with insights. Whitney's narrative is a powerful reminder that success isn't just about financial gain; it's about emotional growth, genuine connections, and staying true to yourself along the way. Don't miss out on this episode packed with heart and strategy!
Topics Covered:
Introduction and Background: Mark introduces Whitney Robinson, highlighting her faith-based approach to overcoming life's challenges and her journey from a small town in Virginia to a thriving career in Texas.
Early Life and Financial Trauma: Whitney opens up about her upbringing in a small town, the financial struggles her family faced, and how these experiences shaped her understanding of money and financial literacy.
Career Before Real Estate: Whitney discusses her diverse career path, including waitressing, retail, and working in wealth management and business banking. She shares her experience working for Wells Fargo and the pivotal moments that led her to real estate.
Transition to Real Estate: Whitney describes the significant life changes she faced, including moving to Texas, the death of her father, and becoming a new mother. She explains how these events led her to pursue a career in real estate and the challenges she overcame in her first year.
Emotional Intelligence and Forgiveness: The conversation delves into the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) and relational intelligence (RQ). Whitney shares her journey of forgiving her father and maintaining a positive relationship with her ex-husband for the sake of her son.
Building a Real Estate Career: Whitney offers practical advice for new real estate agents, emphasizing the importance of asking questions, shadowing professionals, and putting in the extra work without expecting immediate returns. She stresses the value of authenticity and building relationships based on trust.
Marketing and Personal Branding: The discussion highlights the significance of marketing, social media presence, and staying true to oneself. Whitney shares her strategies for leveraging social media and creating engaging content to build her bra
Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.
And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast and me you knew this, you wouldn't be listening otherwise.
Speaker 2:And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast. I'm your host, mark Jones, and we are powered by ReviewMyMortgagecom, the largest index of mortgage programs in the nation, and you're listening to Real Estate AF, and the AF stands for and finance. The last couple of episodes, guys, we had a guest, moses Thatcher, which turned into a two-part episode, kind of talking about his life and the struggles and how he had overcome them. And then recently you got to educate yourself about EQ emotional intelligence and I wanted to continue down the road of getting additional realtors on here to share their stories so that more of you can relate and understand where they come from, where they're at and where they're going. So today I'm joined by Whitney Robinson. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 2:Doing very well.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course. So first time on a podcast.
Speaker 3:Second.
Speaker 2:Okay, first time on a cool podcast like this, oh for sure, okay, cool, I'm like dang it. Who is this other person? My broker? Okay, good deal, good deal. Yes, he has a great podcast too. Aj's been on here a couple of times. Yeah, so, whitney, to start this thing off, if you could. There's folks out there listening, tuning in for the first time. This show is intended to inspire, shed light on many situations, showcase experts in your situation, but also talk about where we came from, showing them that them, too, is kind of sitting in your shoes in many cases and how that ends up for you. So, if you could, why should people start listening to you in this case scenario? If you could just kind of take us back to what are you about Before you got into the industry? All that good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who's Whitney, who's Whitney? So great question. It's actually one. I really love sharing this story, and the biggest reason why is because I feel I'm very faith-based. So I will start with that is God does not put you through multiple mountains that have to be climbed if you're not meant to show someone else that it can be done.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I like that yeah.
Speaker 3:And I just I truly believe that it took me a long time to really realize that I used to be a very angry person that just I'm like why me Again? Why another battle? Why another struggle? Why abuse? Why trauma? Why does this keep happening? And for me just to really start back where I was born, where I was raised I am born in a very small town in Virginia. My graduating class was only 85 of us. So when I say small town, I mean everyone knows your business, they know your parents' business, they know your business, they know your family.
Speaker 2:What was the small town?
Speaker 3:It's a very small town called Waynesboro, virginia, so in between like Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.
Speaker 2:Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 3:I lived in the Shenandoah Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Speaker 2:It sounds cool.
Speaker 3:I mean there's not much to do there. It's beautiful, obviously, being surrounded by the mountains, but it is one of those towns where it's definitely like the grunt workers of America A lot of factory Definitely blue collar, oh for sure. Very factory line workers Walmart, gas station, retail, bank, hospital and then factory, like that was it.
Speaker 2:That was really so, like the eight mile of Virginia.
Speaker 3:For sure. Gotcha Like, just not where I really saw myself like progressing and moving forward. I always knew, just sitting, even in high school, looking out the window, going my God, there's got to be something else to this world besides cornfields and cows.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Just need it out. But something I just really want to talk about that I don't feel a lot of people ever talk about is, yes, we talk about childhood trauma, maybe things that we've been through, but what is financial trauma Right, and how does that? How did that have an effect on me, and I'm sure it's had an effect on a lot of people, because what you don't know, you just don't know, you don't know how to get out of it. Our education system sure doesn't teach you anything about financial literacy, and financial literacy either taught well or not taught at all, or just shown into debt is typically by the family that you're coming from.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree with that. So what I want to do, I want to put that on a shelf for just a moment so that I can ask what did you do prior to real estate? Career-wise, job-wise, things of that nature? We're almost the same age so I know real estate wasn't your whole life. And before we get into the good stuff, essentially, what was it that you did before Many things? One thing I did.
Speaker 3:I was like a jack of all trades. I liked to. Maybe it was just trying to find myself and know what I was interested in and what I was passionate about. Whenever I was in grade school or as soon as I could, always started waitressing. So talk about service, right, Like I feel if you're going to be in any sales or service position, you should always waitress. Even if you're not, you should just go and do it because it's going to build tough skin and a good work ethic. So always waitressed Retail. As far as after college, I actually was a wealth management and business banker, so always been intrigued Who'd you work for.
Speaker 2:On that.
Speaker 3:I was with Wells Fargo.
Speaker 2:Okay, good deal. I did almost the same thing, but with Chase back in the day, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so very corporate. Nine to five yeah, like just very mundane. Liked my job, loved the benefits, but other than that it was, like, I mean, still not very fulfilling, like I like what I'm doing, it's okay and it is stable, but I still felt very bored. Yeah, not challenged.
Speaker 3:No, definitely not, Like I could do that job with my eyes closed. And then also, coming into motherhood, I did not want to be this nine to five rat race all the time. I wanted to spend time with my son and so made that pivot into real estate from there. But I've always been intrigued from a very young age. I remember for sure around 10 is when I really started having questions about debit cards, credit cards, checks, money. What does that look like? Why and I know we put it on the shelf so we'll come back to that but kind of leading into why money and finance just triggered me and was a very big interest. So I actually went to college for fashion, buying, merchandising and international sales. So that blend of financing mixed with the real estate side staging, architecture, design, swatches, colors, palettes, just all of it I feel like now real estate takes everything that I learned in college and it's just all of it. I feel like now real estate takes everything that I learned in college and it's just a beautiful blend.
Speaker 2:And that's a good point. So let's grab that off of the shelf. And you mentioned something that caught my attention regarding the Bible, and I'm very familiar with the Bible in itself, and it is a collaboration of categorized lessons, stories that each person goes through, the struggles, the overcoming of them, giving the hope, things of that nature. And if folks reading the Bible don't get any of those stories and how they apply and whatnot, read it again because it's very, uh, very, uh, um, uh, very clear in my opinion. That being the case, what are some struggles that you went through growing up, and I know you mentioned you started getting curious around 10. I'll be honest, I wasn't curious at 10. I had no clue at that time. I don't even know. At 10, I was like video games no clue at that time, I don't even know, at 10,.
Speaker 3:I was like video games football basketball girls?
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe even yeah. So it's funny that you say that because, um, I now have a seven-year-old and this little boy cause I thought 10, I mean 10 is young, yeah, and go like hey, mom, so what's that card and what does that do and why do you use it? And now I have, like my little twin personality wise, and he's very intrigued about money. He absolutely knows. He asked me about ARV when I do investments and flips, and then he's even nosy sometimes and even asked my neighbor like so how much is your truck payment?
Speaker 2:And like, how much do you make your job? And I'm like, oh my God, shut up, you can't ask strangers that. Not asking those questions and allowing him to shape what his future looks like according to these new set of not necessarily guidelines. But we are what we experience and what we go through.
Speaker 3:And that's 100 percent, because I say Wes like you can't ask people that, and he goes well, you ask people about their finances all the time and I'm like, right, because I'm a realtor and I do very detailed buyer consultations, I need to so I can, you know, relay it back to the lender. But anyways, he's like well, I just figured, if you always ask, I can ask.
Speaker 2:There you go. It's a good point. It's a good point. You tell him Mark Jones said you can ask anything, just don't talk politics or religion with people you don't know.
Speaker 3:For sure, a hundred percent, but yeah. So starting back the biggest thing that I just remember in grade school and always standing out and I think where my curiosity about money and how that just makes the world tick and people's judgment on others when it comes to money just really triggered me because personally I've always been prejudged by the way I look, the way I carry myself, the things I have. Now you know the business that I have and from the surface a lot of people kind of prejudge me like oh, she probably comes from a great family, her parents are probably still married, she probably had, you know, things given to her. Just this persona of how people think my life was is a hundred percent wrong. One hundred percent I come from. Let's set the record straight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm like, let's set it straight. And it's not that I ever I would. I don't mind. It's okay if people feel that way, but when you don't know someone and you think things have just been handed to them, your persona of them is completely different. And that's not how life was. I remember my parents being divorced when I was three. When I was three, that happened because my dad was very physically, emotionally, verbally abusive, not only to my mother but to me as well, so we both went through that. They divorced. When I was three, my mom was a single mom who just relentlessly worked and I didn't know this until about last week, but I think even me growing up the most money she ever made was $11.50 an hour and I'm like-.
Speaker 2:How did you do it? How?
Speaker 3:did you do that? And we never had food stamps. She never took subsidies from the government because she was like, well, if I have a body that can work and I can get up and go, whether it's making me a lot of money or not, I just learned how to manage what I had. So she steward money. Well, she never. I definitely felt it. We did not have a lot. I do remember sometimes that we didn't have lights on. I sometimes remember, more times than not, casseroles in the South were a big thing.
Speaker 2:I didn't eat off of it for several days, exactly.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that until I was more, you know, like 16, and realized why I'm like. Why every single week are we having another casserole?
Speaker 2:In my household it was enchiladas. You roll them up on a whole dish and you can eat on them for a couple days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for a couple of days. Yeah, for a couple of days, but I remember eating the same meal like Monday through Friday, and just, very, just, very Incremental. Yeah, very incremental. And then another thing which I thought some of the things were cute, but there was one you just never remember, like when children say things that can be so hurtful. And I had no idea because, yes, I knew we didn't have a lot of money, but if my mom would bring me home like a brand new shirt or something, I remember this one moment, and I think I was in middle school, my mom brought me home a new shirt and I was like, oh, it's cute, I'm going to wear it to school. I didn't know where it came from, I didn't ask, I didn't really care, but I wore it to school and I got made fun of and someone goes really you're wearing a shirt from Dollar General.
Speaker 2:And I was like how the hell did they even know that Number one?
Speaker 3:I have no idea. First of all, I'm like I didn't even know Dollar General sold clothes and I remember crying at school. I was so embarrassed I was made fun of for wearing like very cheap clothes when everyone else is wearing American Eagle, abercrombie, hollister, like these brands. My mom could never afford a $40 t-shirt and an $80 pair of jeans Like that. Just wasn't happening.
Speaker 2:I totally remember what that was like, and me being me kind of growing up in the same era as you we didn't have the means to spend the extra to get the abercrombie and all that stuff. So what I did was bartered and traded and made the not so cool stuff cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah that the kids would literally trade me for the not cool, for the abercrombie stuff I wasn't as cool as you then because or, uh, that could have been negotiator at that point, got out to all of you from back in the day that I gotcha Like gotcha Joke's on you and that's how I feel now. But I mean, kids are just cruel.
Speaker 2:Kids are cruel.
Speaker 3:Like they just are. And then it was also like, oh well, I see your mom drives this. Or, oh, you don't have that. And yes, materialistic food, no lights, that, whatever it might have been. It was just tough and I remember just feeling like man. I never get to see my mom that much.
Speaker 3:I've always since I was seven years old, which is mind blowing to me because my kid is now seven and I'm like I can't imagine making my child yes, but since I was seven, my mom had to be at work very early.
Speaker 3:So I have been waking myself up with an alarm. I would hop in the shower, I would give myself cereal, I would brush my teeth and get on the school bus If I did that every single day and also got off the school bus and back into the house, because she would leave before I had to get on the bus and she would come home after I already got home from school. So it was very. I would only probably see my mom, even since I was seven, maybe two to three hours a day, and I was really the one raising myself Right, and my mom couldn't afford a babysitter, so she would pay me a dollar a day if I would get myself on the bus and get myself off the bus. At that time I thought like, oh my gosh, I'm making $5 a week. This is awesome. Every Saturday she would take me to the bank. I would deposit my money.
Speaker 2:What a smart lady, because, at the same time as you earning the skills and experiencing what it takes to actually become self-sufficient, for sure, you were also getting rewarded for doing so. Yes, and almost didn't. You didn't even take it. I don't know, it was just something that you had to do, but she turned it into something that was totally a lesson.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent, yeah, because I remember one day I missed the bus to get to school. Well, I did. I only made $4 that week. Oh my God, I just woke up five minutes late and I missed the bus. Like, if I'm even a minute late, I miss out on money. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so it was that lesson that she had already instilled in me, out of pure desperation for her not being able to afford it. But she turned it around to one empower me. I was able to do it. Now, mind you, way different time. We're talking about like early 90s rural town in virginia, super safe neighborhoods. I would never suggest any parent doing this, even if you live in virginia. Like, don't do that, we just live in a way different day and age.
Speaker 2:It's a different time and, matter of fact, the bullying is different, everything is different and has evolved.
Speaker 3:I'm like I'm over here complaining about how someone made me feel with a T-shirt and there's people over, you know, on social media, just eating people alive that don't even know you Right About your character, your values, how you dress, how you look, what nationality you are, what sexual orientation you define by Like. There are so many things. I can't even imagine our youth and what they go through.
Speaker 2:I believe it's a tough world for them to be living in, because our cruelty was a face-to-face cruelty, so to speak, that we can see it coming. We can see the threat overcome, the threat, essentially fearful of words versus actions, if that makes sense, and their hardships or their adversities are very minute compared to the adversities that you went through and can tell the story of how you have succeeded despite that. And for them I mean it's tough. I mean I like that you actually keep your kid in the loop on these things, because once he gets older, I would imagine that when he sees the bullying because it doesn't matter who you are you can see something as bullying from a different perspective any which way you look at it. Even the bully at times get bullied in different situations, but hopefully he'll be able to see that and go eh, that's nothing compared to what you know what I mean. Yeah, continue, go ahead, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I agree with that and even with my son, we've already talked about a few things one day and I always do like a mental check-in. I think it's really important. So even when I pick him up from school, I'm like, hey, how was your day? Yeah, Great. Now how's your heart feel today? How was your heart and then how was your mind? And we rate them on like one to 10 because I want to know, like you have to ask. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And there was one day I do remember I picked him up from school and he's like my day was about a seven, it was okay. But my heart today is a two I'm like oh, my God Breaks your heart too.
Speaker 3:I'm like, well then, how's your mind? And he's like also like a two, and I'm like, oh my God, what happened, you know? But we're having these discussions already. And he's like mom, I'm just so nice and I'm so kind and I was just trying to help and then they turned it around on me and made me, you know, did this and went and told the teacher and all of this stuff and I'm, you know, just talking through with him. But I want to always have that open conversation.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Even if he's seven, like there's no time too early to already start having these conversations, because something that obviously OK can't be that hard of a bullying situation, but if your kid is already, their heart feels sad or mind feels sad, it's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to add to your point number one, I believe it is never too young to teach them that concept. It is never too young to teach them that concept. I have to add to it that, as you teach that concept, it's also important to keep certain let's call it number ranges into perspective, because there is this overall thing called growth and overcoming things that tends to allow you to experience new highs and new lows. So your two today, I promise you a year from now, with all the experiences that you go through, that same two is only going to be a seven moving forward. Uh, if, if we're on a scale from one to 10 and 10 is, I feel, great, type Um, and they will, uh, I guess, drag you down less as you experience more. And what's happening these days is people aren't experiencing things. They're kind of selling themselves short of taking the jump or the next step because they're scared of failure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know 100%, it's a good concept, it is.
Speaker 2:It really is. So. That being the case, with trauma, the abuse that you went through moving forward, at what point did you migrate this way to Texas?
Speaker 3:So my move to Texas was actually for my ex-husband's job. Okay and great company. He's still there, obviously. Just life kind of happened, which it always does or it doesn't, yeah, or it just doesn't happen and you just stay stagnant and complacent, get busy doing nothing. Yeah, that's true too. With that being said, we moved here for his job. I was with Wells Fargo, so I had a pretty smooth, easy transfer just into a wealth management role down in Alamo Heights. I was the lead business banker and wealth management banker there.
Speaker 2:I did the same thing business banking, but for Chase. That's so awesome, I had no idea. I wish I had Alamo Heights. My goodness, I was actually off San Pedro and Fresno, so right down the street from Alamo Heights. Yeah, yeah, not Alamo Heights.
Speaker 3:But not Alamo Heights. It was a good place to be. I mean, I didn't know. I was like man. I hit the jackpot with this transfer. Thank God, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for those of you listening out there that are not from San Antonio, and tuning in Alamo Heights is a historic, wealthy part of San Antonio, kind of right in the heart of very sought out for their schools, very sought out for their property community, et cetera. I mean you've got homes that you'll have, a rickety shack that's worth 200 grand and right next to it is a million dollar property.
Speaker 3:Yeah, multi-million dollar property now, oh my word, it's insane. So, yeah, it is a million dollar property. Yeah, multimillion dollar property Now, oh my word, it's insane. So, yeah, it was a great transfer and met a lot of amazing people there and one of my clients that I actually was their banker for. They were flipping houses all the time and we would name all of their LLCs A through. I think I did with them. I started LLC A all the way through H and that's how many houses they had, and so each LLC we would name it like just nickname it on the bank accounts LLC A, b, C, d, e, a, f, g, you know, all the way down and as I was talking to them and I will tell you like I just loved being a part of their journey and how excited they were, they were a young couple, family. I'm like man, they're really doing this, they it just started bringing this, I guess, trigger for me of going well, if they can do it, maybe I could. But at that time, like I said, I was just very comfortable with knowing I had a 401k, knowing I had PTO, knowing that I had my health insurance, my dental insurance, my vision insurance. I just felt good Going back to school.
Speaker 3:What do we learn? We don't learn about finances, but we learn calculus that we never use. Maybe you do in your job, I don't in mine, but we learn calculus that we never use. Maybe you do in your job, I don't mind. I use addition, subtraction.
Speaker 2:Go to school and get good grades. Yeah, good job, live a good life that's what they teach you. And then go to corporate yeah.
Speaker 3:And then go to corporate, make sure that you have good benefits, work nine to five, come home and do it again yeah. And so I did all of that and I still felt super under filled with everything I was doing. Well, life happened to me, but now I know it actually happened for me at that time.
Speaker 2:Different on the bus that you're looking.
Speaker 3:For sure, and it's all about the mindset which I know we'll get into later, which I'm super passionate about. But when I moved here, I moved here for my ex-husband's job, worked at Wells Fargo within my timeframe, so moved here December 29th 2015.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I got a phone call on January 1st 2016,. Within less than 48 hours after moving here that my father passed away, had to go all the way back to Virginia and handle everything.
Speaker 2:Now, did you guys have a decent relationship after the fallout? No, no Okay.
Speaker 3:I would say yes and no, Not necessarily like a relationship Sure when someone has hurt you so physically. The core yeah. To the core and then also was just gone for so many years in prison and just other things. I never had this deep sense of fatherly love. And it's not that I do feel bad saying this. I just didn't have respect for my father. But how can you have respect for someone that's hurt you so deeply?
Speaker 2:I don't blame you for that at all. Matter of fact, respect should be earned, for sure, um, and if he lost that privilege, to do so like.
Speaker 3:I didn't, I didn't make you do that, you did that right choices.
Speaker 3:Um, and how people say, sometimes the best family are the family members that you get to choose, not the family members that you have, and I think for me. I'm very grateful for my close girlfriends that I have, because they're definitely my chosen family, sure, and no one. Everybody else in my family, wonderful and my dad. I have a lot of grace and forgiveness for him, but it took a long time for me to even forgive the hurt that he put me through. But forgiveness, I also found out, was more for me, not necessarily for you. I just had to relinquish the pain that you caused me so I could move on.
Speaker 3:Now, if you wanted to accept that forgiveness, which he did and I'm glad that we at least had a good conversation before he passed and that we did come to a mutual understanding of hey, yes, you are my, you're my biological dad. Now, were you ever really a father? No, but I don't hate you, I do forgive you. I don't condone what you did, but I can at least let you know that, by the grace of God, I do relinquish that and however you feel like you need to move forward. That's not for me to judge. That's between you and somebody else in a higher power, whatever you believe in, but that's kind of the conversation I had with him. Whatever you believe in, but that's kind of the conversation I had with him. So, with that being said, because I am an only child, because my parents are divorced, I'm still next in kin, so I had to still deal with everything.
Speaker 2:Still playing, mom.
Speaker 3:Yep Still doing all of that. So came back I hadn't even started my new job yet. Like this all happened with 48 hours. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:No, like my transfer happened. We had just moved in. We were still sleeping on like the floor because our bed and boxes and everything still weren't put together. Get that phone call January 1st, on New Year's Day. Take care of everything. Start my job. I think about four weeks later, because then I took bereavement. Before I even started I took bereavement and then six months later I got pregnant with my son. This was a planned pregnancy. It wasn't like oh, just oops.
Speaker 2:I was in oops, so it's okay. Good things come better.
Speaker 3:And I'm going to kind of circle back and tell you why it was like. Oh well, it was planned because growing up in Virginia and just this very, you know, like Baptist Sure, just very, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just like very.
Speaker 2:Straight and narrow.
Speaker 3:Thanks how your parents tell you to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so we did that and. But things still just sometimes don't work out, and that's OK. But things still just sometimes don't work out, and that's okay. But with that I got pregnant.
Speaker 3:Six months later, when I was on maternity leave I think around like month four, because I had a four-month maternity leave I was handed divorce papers. So, standing in a brand new house with no friends, no family in Texas, because we have no friends and family in Texas, I do now. Well, I don't have family, family in Texas because we have no friends and family in Texas. I do now. Well, I don't have family still in Texas, but I have friends now and holding a four-month-old. At that time I was a breadwinner and I'm like there is no way, because, being a child from physical abuse, there was no way on planet earth that I was going to put my infant, who can't speak, who can't do anything, in strangers hands in a state, in a city that I'm not from and that I don't have an auntie or a cousin or a friend that can go pick him up. God forbid something happens. And I was like, well, well, since everything just hit the fan, let's just go ahead and quit my job too. Wow.
Speaker 3:I did I was like all right, we're just going to knock it out all at once. We're going to be a new mom, we're going to sell the house, we're going to go through a divorce and we're going to quit my job and go get my real estate license.
Speaker 2:Just after your dad passed away.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean everything and and all of these things that I went through within a year, 12 month period. Okay, so moved across the country. No friends, no family, death of a parent started not necessarily a new job, but new city of clients. Getting pregnant, becoming a new mom, postpartum, then divorce, sell the, the house, quit my job, go get my real estate license and start a new business.
Speaker 2:So is that how it literally changed? Bam, bam, bam, bam 100%.
Speaker 3:So let me ask you then, within 12 months, why?
Speaker 2:what kept you so? Number one, I guess what kept you here versus the alternative moving back home?
Speaker 3:Sure, so one how I told you I just the thought of there has to be more to life than cornfields and cows. That's never going to leave my mind. You can't pay me. I love my family, I do love you guys. You can't pay me to go back and live in Virginia. You will not. If it wasn't Texas it would be somewhere else.
Speaker 2:Well, you want to know something cool? Yeah, they probably couldn't afford you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they couldn't. They couldn't afford to bring me back, unless maybe, like Washington DC, but I also don't want to live there either. I'm like, I'm not a politics person. I always vote, but I don't want to live in the mix of that. Yeah, and I don't want to live in DC.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe that was the reason. Maybe that was the reason why, essentially, you pushed yourself to stay here and tough it out, because you didn't want to go backwards. And maybe everything happened for a reason within that chain of events that said you know what, if the shit's hitting the fan, I'm just not going to stand under it, I'm going to go get it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%. So with that whole transition for me making sure. Well, let me kind of go back a little bit. I also cared. Coming from a divorced family, I saw that even if you have to be divorced, I wanted something better for my son than what I had for myself.
Speaker 3:That makes sense, and I do not Because our divorce wasn't ugly, it was Abrupt. It was just shocking how fast everything happened and at the time that it did, but we didn't end on bad terms, honestly, and this might shock people. No, granted, we've done a lot of healing, a lot of counseling and we're in a much better spot. But I'm helping him buy a house for my son and we close August 5th.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 3:How many people do you know that's helping their ex-spouse buy a home and doing what's best for them and their kids? But for me it was, even if we're not going to be together, this is not how I thought life was going to pan out, but I still want my child to have a relationship with their dad because I know not having a relationship with my dad.
Speaker 3:How much I missed out on, and I never wanted to rob my child of that. I'm not a bitter ex-wife, never asked for alimony, never asked for child support. I still don't to this day. We have a very cordial relationship 50-50 with my son and at the end of the day we did have a very deep discussion, like going through the whole divorce care. At the end of the day, we have no family here. You don't have family here, I don't have family here. Even if we're not together, we technically will always still be family. If an emergency happens to you, call me. If something happens to me, I'm going to call you. Well, now I always call my boyfriend, because now he's here too, and like, obviously that's going to be my first line of defense. Right.
Speaker 3:But that's how it should be Like. I want my child to have joy in his life. I want him to have both parents. So that was my biggest why of why I stayed. In the mix of all of it, I absolutely wanted to run back home. Yeah, Not that I want to grow and have a business in Virginia, that wasn't a thing. But I'm like man, I could really use a hug right now yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I could actually really use a casserole and a hug but it also shows a great deal about your emotional intelligence and our last discussion that I had in here last week was about emotional intelligence and the idea behind you forgiving your dad despite the trauma that he put you through, the life that you lead today, yeah, but the forgiving of his situation also, not necessarily the forgiving of your ex-husband, but the level of communication and understanding that you guys came up with to be able to have a greater good or a bigger why or reason within y'all's lives, which is obviously your son, and it's working to that extent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything comes back to emotional intelligence. And another thing and I think I even sent you the book, which is a new one so we have IQ, eq, and now there's RQ, so relational intelligence as well, and what does that look like? But EQ and RQ really go hand in hand with communication and just an awareness. Like there's so many people I'm like, do you not even catch your thoughts? Like do you even know how fast a negative thought can affect your entire day or a positive thought and how that can affect your day? And then when I hate when people say like, oh, words don't have meaning, words have a sense of pride or arrogance or entitlement.
Speaker 3:Sure, you have to know where to meet people, and I think the best people in sales. But in anything, whether it's your relationship with your partner, whether it's the relationship with your family, the relationship with your kids, the relationship with a stranger, how you just treat people in society If you're not emotionally aware not only of yourself but your surroundings and other people's body language, their tonality, maybe something that they said, and if you can't meet people where they're at, how do you ever expect to have a deep emotional connection with anyone?
Speaker 2:Right, and that's the idea of building the relationship. You would have loved the presentation that we did last week where we talked about EQ and emotional intelligence, and the idea of utilizing that concept which it is a big concept in a very deep rabbit hole that you can go down, which is why there's IQ, eq and now RQ, which I think RQ is kind of a spinoff of.
Speaker 3:EQ, eq, for sure.
Speaker 2:For sure, you know. Yeah, but the idea is being self-aware but also being aware of your surroundings and how your reactions, your input affects others to the point that they're either going to want to move forward in building that relationship or they're going to steer away, even based on a shrug in many situations.
Speaker 3:I was speaking with a gentleman in your office before we started, yeah, and we were talking about people want to do business with people that they feel like they know, yep, or that they trust, and there's I know we're kind of going off on a tangent, but it's.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest thing that people just miss in this business is I'm like dude, you're so cool outside of whatever this weird persona is that you're putting on for business Like that's not you, and then you're complaining that you don't have business or that you aren't attracting clients that are like-minded. Well, no, duh, because you're one person this and then you're someone else when it comes to business. Right, when people meet me and it's the biggest compliment I can ever receive is even if I've known people from a follower or whoever on social media and then when I finally meet them in person and they're like oh my God, I feel like I've known you forever because I've been following you for three years, four years, five years, two years, six months, two months, whatever it might be, but they're like. You are so genuinely authentic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're the same person.
Speaker 3:The same person who you are when you filmed Alive, or who I'm hugging right now Like you are the same, there's nothing different, and that took a lot of confidence.
Speaker 2:It absolutely is confidence in, because there's a lot of folks out there that are in sales or any position, but we're talking about sales specifically that don't get that concept of be your authentic self and you attract those that are attracted to your personality. And if your personality that is your true self isn't attracting people, then it's time to maybe make some changes in your life that then change the course of your life and the people that you meet in the rooms that you get into.
Speaker 3:For sure. Does that make sense, A hundred percent? And to me it feels like it's not rocket science that it should be. I know. Or is it. I'm like maybe it is and I was like, oh God, no pun intended, no, but the idea behind this is it's not intended to be rocket science.
Speaker 2:I'm obviously not a rocket scientist. Let's not make whatever it is that we are doing today or within this hour, this minute, too hard. It doesn't need to be that.
Speaker 3:I've never had any idea until I actually started opening up and talking to people. I met with an agent yesterday and she's like, girl, you just push me so much anytime we talk, you should be a business coach. And I'm like, oh my God, why I can't even imagine doing that. And she's like, no, but the things that you're saying make sense, like why? Cause I was giving out marketing ideas, cause I do a group coaching business call every week, and someone was mentioning you know, struggling with business, but I have this other side business and how do I pick up a client instead of B and C? And I said, well, you own a photo booth.
Speaker 3:Like, why not leverage? You know, leverage that Like you don't have to get paid for it because you're collecting data. If someone wants that photo, they're putting their phone number, they're putting their email. So why don't you go to a companies, a hospitals, a attorney offices, a wherever, wherever people are that you want to attract those clients and leverage and say, hey, for a week I want to donate my photo booth to you guys. I just hope that you have fun and enjoy it and capture some awesome memories for your business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Why don't you do that? And she's like oh my God, that's genius, like it's that so good?
Speaker 2:It's that little thing called extra that makes somebody extraordinary.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They tend to just stay with. Oh well, this just isn't working. You've got all of the levers. Start pulling on the levers.
Speaker 3:Start doing it and I'm like dude, now I might go buy a photo booth. Like my idea was really great, I could pick up some more A clients. That would be awesome. Like, if you're not going to do it, shoot I will. Clients that would be like, if you're not going to do it, shoot I will. Right. But it comes back to those concepts of you just have to be authentically yourself or into other people the way you would like to be poured into. I think sheltering knowledge and ideas from people. Why, like if, if you have something that could help someone else succeed, there's so much business in this city or any city for multiple people share that?
Speaker 2:I agree. There's nothing wrong with sharing good ideas. Behind it is I made or created them or utilize them in a way that is so difficult that if you are able to duplicate it, more power to you. At the end of the day, we have different spheres, and that's okay too. So if my messages are radiating over here, great, it's not going to affect me, and I mentioned this on the last discussion. It was one man's success. One woman's success does not rob you of anything at all.
Speaker 3:No at all. I love that you said that last week and what you just said now. And the main reason, because I have two different types of people. I have two. I have one that's like, dude, you should also do business coaching, like you would be so good at it. You pump us up, you make us think outside the box, go in also do that. And then I also have another side of my friends that are like don't tell everyone your secrets, don't do that.
Speaker 3:Like you know, watch out, what if someone takes it. I go, but they here's the other thing and I know you're going to be like, oh, a hundred percent, no one. What's the percentage of people that I could have just given you an idea? You have given people ideas and they're like man, that's such a good idea. I'm going to go out and do that.
Speaker 2:It's less than 3%.
Speaker 3:They never do it Correct. So I'm like, so, even if and I hate that question too of like, well, how do you have so many listings or how do you have so many buyers and how are you doing this? And I tell them, but then they don't do it. Or I tell them and also go hey, I'm telling you how you could do it At the end of the day, though, you're never going to be me.
Speaker 3:Boom, that's strong and it's not to be me. It's not because I'm so nice. You are right, but you can't do. I can tell you what I do, but just because it works for me doesn't mean it's going to work for you. Amen, don't come back at me and tell me oh well, I did what you said and it didn't work for me. Right.
Speaker 3:Right, but you're also not Whitney Robinson, boom. You also aren't Mark Jones, like we have very different personalities, but I know. Also coming back to EQ, if you and I had a client together, you're definitely more. Vocal Is boisterous the right word.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but it sounds great.
Speaker 3:It sounds like someone's going to have a comment, but that's not a word. Okay, well, if it's not, guess what? I'm a great realtor. I'm not good at English.
Speaker 2:I am authentically myself from the get-go, From the initial text message. Sometimes I'll send it direct.
Speaker 3:I know if I'm going to work with you, because I like to personality match my clients to who I know can get the job done. If I have someone who's like I just want, straight to the point, high energy. Keep me on my toes, tell me how it's going to be, whether it's good or bad, I know I'm going to call you.
Speaker 2:I'll be your hooker, yeah.
Speaker 3:And if I know someone's like oh, I'm a little intimidated, I might need some handholding. I'm just really nervous. I've just heard all these things because my family thinks they're also a mortgage loan officer, inspector and appraiser and all in one, and they've scared me half to death about the whole process. I know who I'm also going to send them to, who's a really good handholder. But I know personality-wise I can adjust. I know so can you If I would call you also and go hey, I do have somebody that like needs some handholding.
Speaker 2:Mark, you need to activate your EQ.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like activate your EQ a little bit. You're going to be like cool, okay, so I don't have to change who I am, but maybe I just need to bring it down Absolutely New levels. Instead of being at 10, maybe I just need to be at eight. Doesn't mean my greatness is going to be at eight, because I'm still going to be great, but I just need to meet somebody where they're at. And when you have that EQ of how you can meet people where they're at, your business is always going to flourish.
Speaker 2:That's right. Matter of fact, that adaptation piece that you're talking about right now specifically is a part of EQ. I mean now specifically is a part of EQ. I mean it's that self-awareness and being able to adapt because you're a person has a specific behavioral style, but then they also have an adaptive style that they can shift if necessary, if they have developed that enough within their EQ to be able to see the signals that say, hey, you can't talk to that borrower this way, or this person is better to have a phone call with them, yeah, etc. Yeah, those are all good points that that people should be listening to and honing in on working on those things, because it's not kind of like a doctor. They wouldn't call them, it wouldn't be a doctor practice, it would be a doctor perfect, and there are doctor perfects out there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely not.
Speaker 2:I know I see billboards for what's the doctor's name, with all the sculpture whatever.
Speaker 3:Boom Boom Pow guy. Yes, he's like I can make you look boom boom pow wow, or something they're all over the place.
Speaker 2:Great marketing if you know what you can.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's who we're working with today jc.
Speaker 2:How are we on time? 47 minutes and 57, 47 minutes, okay, so that be in the case. Um, what I would like to do is briefly talk about your first year into the industry as a new agent. But just briefly, because then I want to shift over to today's market, what you're experiencing. Give people kind of some insight to that.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Go for it.
Speaker 3:Okay, so my first year in real estate was 2017. Okay, october 31st, so on Halloween, yeah, I had my first listing by the first week of January 2018. Okay.
Speaker 3:So for the first I would say four months, it was just a lot of marketing getting my name out there, figuring out how to market for free Okay, because I had no money, that's right, like getting in. Social media has always been my best asset. I've always been 100% authentic on my content. If I could pull up an old video, it's embarrassing, but I can't even believe that. That's how I started, but it really came back to just hey, I don't have extra money to spend on marketing. I don't know anyone here. I want them to fall in love with who I am, because if they can fall in love with me and trust me, I know I can help them with real estate, and I knew that from the very beginning.
Speaker 2:And that again is the emotional intelligence having the confidence, not the cockiness. I am confident in who I've become, what I've learned and what I can offer someone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. I thank God. Just knew that about myself at that time and, you know, maybe it's just because of the counseling I went through and the therapy and just like rebuilding that. But that was just how I started, whether it was picking up the phone and going on a tour to see new builds. Then I would also shadow at least two inspectors a week, not even on houses of my own. I would just pick up the phone and say, hey, do you have a home I can go and shadow you on? I would shadow appraisers. I wanted to see how they were appraising houses. I'm new to San Antonio so I would pick builders twice a week and I would go to the Far East side, I would go to New Brothels, I would go to Alamo Ranch, I would go to Bernie, I would. I just would go everywhere so that I also knew what San Antonio had to offer, what price points, what was around everywhere.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this and this is something that many of the experts that I've had in this room in different discussions, different topics, seem to always relate, and that is you did the extra work at no pay to make yourself better or to shape yourself into the expert that you are today in regards to real estate. Yes, and I also believe that that's something that the new agents and I can't say all new agents, but a bulk of A handful for sure, absolutely that are going where's the business? Where's the business Are not doing. They're not catching the idea of okay, I've got to put in several months, years of doing this and going through the motions and acquiring all the knowledge, because you're not going through it. You at least can see about it, you can shadow somebody, you can go and ask questions, things of that nature, but it's just not happening.
Speaker 3:No, I have told this story multiple times, not only to agents in our office, other agents that call me. How did you get started? How did you get your first deal? What did you do? How did your week look? How do I time block? What should I do?
Speaker 3:I've told them go call up home inspectors, call up appraisers, call up new builds. Go get a whole map of the city and go and look at all four sides of it and everything in between. That's between Make a drive all the way up to New Groffles and then I get met with, but I don't even have money for gas. Well, you know what? Then, honestly, you're in the wrong business. Like, go get a nine to five, do this on the side, build up six months of your savings and then come and do it. I just you can't make someone do it, but you have to. Like if you actually want this business and you want it, bad enough, you're going to learn and you're going to go and take the drive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you think I had an extra $50 to go fill up my tank every week. No, I'm a brand new mom going through a divorce and selling my house and you found a way. I don't. I'm just the wrong person to come to and say I want to be on your team, can you feed me leeks? No, I'm absolutely not that type of person. Like you come to me and they're like oh, I just couldn't do it today, I just didn't have the drive. Don't bring excuse. Find a solution. If you really have a problem, I will help you solve it. But if you just don't want to get up and go work and do something that is free, yes, you have to pay for gas. Trust me, that's the cheapest thing in this business that you got to pay for.
Speaker 2:Good point, good point.
Speaker 3:Like, if you can't pay for gas, you are in the wrong business.
Speaker 2:Well, that and lessons if the magnitude of them is worth learning. Typically they cost money. Yeah, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. And also I always tell agents they're like oh, I don't want to ask the question, I don't want to feel dumb or embarrassed. I'm like, if you have any questions, I asked when I was brand new getting into this business. I felt like the kid in middle school that was like I have a question. I have a question. I have a question why, why, why, but how?
Speaker 2:And what's funny about that is I was the same way when I first got into the industry. Call it naivete or lack of filter, but I asked a ton of questions. The loan officers in my office at the time, in 2012, were probably annoyed with me until I passed them all up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's how I was. I knew agents were irritated with me in the very first office I was at. They're like my God, you have so many questions.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I'm like I want to be at the expert. I want to be an expert in what I do. I need this business. My why is so big? I can't fail. So if I, if I? The other thing I asked, which I think a lot of agents don't even ask their broker this, my very first question I even asked my broker is what's the highest, what's your average average price point that you sell and what's the highest house you've ever sold? And when he told me that now, granted, I'm coming from wealth management and business, sure, so I'm already thinking I want to work smarter, not harder.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not a downfall. That's a leverage that you've acquired and you're taking the experiences, the communication and understanding with those type of people Right and leveraged it to being able to relate to those people, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it took a lot for me to get into that business already, and then how to relate to them, because I never, ever even saw a thousand dollars in my life in my mom's bank account, let alone mine, and I'm over here telling people how to manage $25 million that's sitting in an investment fund, like I know the knowledge. I just wanted to get there myself.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:But when I got into real estate I'm like man, y'all have to sell. Okay, so if I want a million-dollar property, you know, if I want a $30,000 commission check, I could sell one house, or I'm going to have to sell like five other houses to maybe meet that.
Speaker 2:And that reverse engineering that you're doing right now. To come up with a goal, you've got to start with the end in sight. That's what you just did. Nobody wants to reverse engineer.
Speaker 3:Nobody wants to. No one ever wants to reverse engineer. They just want to get there, yeah, and they're like how do I get there? And I'm like, don't think about what you actually want. Yep, how are you going to get it from there? Yeah. So obviously, if I did that, I didn't just go from oh I need to sell five houses to I'm just going to sell $1 million house. No, of course not, especially in 2017, our average price point was what? 180?.
Speaker 3:If that If. But I was like I'd be damned if I'm going to have to work that hard because I got out of banking so that I can be with my son and I want more time. So I just worked my way up. I'm like, all right, well, if I sell a $300,000 house, it's a $9,000 commission. And then when the price point exceeds, okay, so if I do 450, okay if I do 500, and then it was that reverse engineering of okay, well, I know, if I go and try and find two $500,000 clients and if I can close two of them in a month, that's a $30,000 paycheck. But reverse engineering that way. And the other thing that no one ever wants to talk about, definitely from my banking side, I guarantee you and we should run a poll how many realtors actually know their monthly overhead living expenses.
Speaker 2:We talked about that with who was it? Martin Toretto, and the honest truth is many don't. Yeah, they have no idea. They don't even know that they've got to pay taxes on what they earned at the end of the year.
Speaker 3:And then they're like, oh, I'm still paying taxes from 2020. I'm like, oh, that sucks. I'm like, well, the IRS might be coming and knocking on your door soon, but it's so crazy. So that's really where the reverse engineering happened for me. And it does come from the financial planning side. But I said, okay, everything is a bill at this point. So when you're 100% commission everything, so your rent, your mortgage, your car, your car insurance, health insurance, groceries, gas, cell phone, netflix, amazon, everything I wrote all of it down.
Speaker 2:It's very methodical.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, okay, this is how much I have to make. And when I saw that my monthly overhead was at least five to six thousand dollars a month with my son's private school tuition, you know, mortgage costs, card costs, mls, just everything, is this number I have to sell.
Speaker 2:You know what they call that number in many cases, what your nut? Oh, you've got to get to that nut in order to crack it. Now everything else is potential profit, so to speak, or savings that allows you to then grow, to invest and to leverage and to invest back into your business. So that way, hopefully, your nut stays lower and your profit starts to exceed that. Now, mind you, what we've discovered is that the more you make, the more you spend. So therefore, your nut gets increased.
Speaker 3:You have to keep, hopefully, your fixed expenses stay low, stay low, yeah, and you have to always do a financial check-in with yourself and your family as well, because that obviously oh yeah, I mean I had to do that too. I mean it was like, oh well, shoot. People say like what do they say Like more money, more problem.
Speaker 2:More money, more problem. It's like that it really is.
Speaker 3:I'm like oh man. And then people come out of the woodworks. I'm like dude. I've never talked to you since I was like 10. And what do you need? It happens, it happens. I get weird questions sometimes, but reverse engineering, so knowing what my monthly expenses were and going from there and knowing what I had to hit. Yeah. And that's the other thing where people go. You never seem really stressed out in your business. Well, yes, because I pay myself like corporate, I know my monthly living expenses is this. So all of my commission checks?
Speaker 3:go into my money market. I know on the first of every month I need to pay myself at least 5,500. So I pay myself on the first of the month. All my bills get paid. Whatever is still here stays. So if I do have a really good month where I might bring in 30,000 or more for the month, I know, if I had to, that at least at minimum pays for five months of my living expenses.
Speaker 3:So, I'm not stressed out Now. Of course, yes, I want to close every month, but we also know in this business that paycheck is not guaranteed until it's actually in your bank account and maybe 24 hours later, is how I always feel about it. I'm not counting it until it's already sat there, but when you do that it relieves a lot of stress from going that feeling of why I left corporate in the first place. I never wanted to feel oh, I've got to live, paycheck to paycheck, right, why are you living commission to commission?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the same concept. It is the same concept.
Speaker 3:You're right, if I, I will take a vacation because I know I have five months of my living expenses covered, Right. But if I don't, I'm not taking that vacation. Just because I got paid $15,000 today, Like that.
Speaker 2:I'm not doing that, but so many people do Well that being said, that's a good segue for this last topic that we're going to discuss, and essentially, it is realtors taking these unforeseen and unexpected vacations just due to the lack of transactions that are going on, and whatever the case may be. But I want to use a reference and we'll talk about this to get your take on it. Uh, jc, if you can throw that bad boy up there. So I saw this post and this, mind you, on a humor, real estate humor, uh, social media group, and I'm not hiding anybody's names or nothing like that. You're on social media, so you're public anyway. Um, but in this realtor, uh, or real estate humor, estate humor group, you normally would see funny memes, you would normally see things that get you to laugh, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I've been seeing a trend of posts like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too what are the best ways a struggling agent can close deals quickly. I need to pay my mortgage and some of the responses to this. It's almost elementary, but it's like these people maybe need to be told this. I don't know. But for example, Sarah says here don't be ashamed to get a side hustle to make ends meet If you have the resources. I would look into some lead sources, like whoever this lead company is. This is my first year I've ever bought leads in my entire career and it's helped me double my production previous year from the previous year. Let's go to the next one. A tip is to not ignore the people that inquire that they say that they want to rent. My initial reaction when I started was to ignore these leads, but what I found is that a lot of these people are uneducated. On the market, the media is saying things like homes and rates all times high, which is not true, and then people think that they can't buy. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's look at the next one here. Grace says pick up the phone.
Speaker 3:That's great, Just pick up the phone, guys, seriously, pick up the phone and make calls. Yeah, like actually call them. Yeah, put in the work. And if you don't want to call them because I was telling your colleague as well, yeah, if you don't want to pick up the phone, for God's sakes send a voice memo, send something that people can hear that you are a real person and your tonality. But coming back to EQ people, they just don't want to. It's fine.
Speaker 2:This one here that she put, I think, is huge. How many real estate conversations are you having each day? For sure Get some leads, and the idea behind that is how many conversations are you having related to real estate? Because if you're not talking about real estate, other than to say, hey, how do you guys get leads? You're talking to the wrong people. Yeah, you need to be talking to the people that need to buy homes or sell homes in order to make money, not other people that are buying, that are selling them and, uh, helping others buy them. If that makes sense, yeah, uh, let me see.
Speaker 3:That's why I don't know. That's why I personally don't attend um too many like real estate mixers same I always joke with. Yeah, I'm like I'm sorry. Why am I gonna come and sit here when I, if I ever even have two hours by myself? Trust me, it's either gonna be at a really nice restaurant with me and my family or it's gonna be me cuddled up with my dog and a glass of wine and going to bed early. I promise you it's not going to be hanging out with you guys that don't send. We don't send each other deals, right.
Speaker 2:That's the. That's the idea is, why are you going to makers If there's no business to be had, then you will come in contact with those agents when you are on the other side of the deal.
Speaker 3:Just treat them well. You know when you're on the other side.
Speaker 2:So this one I actually love, and I have heard this same thing.
Speaker 3:But in a different way.
Speaker 2:People buy and sell real estate for the same reasons every time and it's death, divorce diamonds. I had never heard that.
Speaker 3:I haven't heard that one either, and diapers Sure.
Speaker 2:I like that A hundred percent and let me go through this often. So death. Often probates are good for this. Many people who are inherent in homes are either out of state or don't want the home and have to sell it. Divorce, work with divorce attorney how many divorce attorneys do you have in your Rolodex, so to speak? Uh, diamonds. I like that. Marriage, people moving in together and upsizing uh, hang out with wedding planners and network with them. And the idea behind all of these is birds of a feather feather flock together. And the concept of okay, I'm going to buy a red car. As soon as I drive off the lot, what do you see? Bunch of red car. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If somebody is having a baby. It's odd, but your friend is having a baby now. Something's in the water.
Speaker 2:The same concept applies with real estate. So this last one here diapers, kids means people often need more space. There are data brokers that sell data on people's shopping habits. If someone is starting to buy certain items that may be pregnant and those people that are likely to sell, that's pretty smart and it's super. I like that. Amen, I'm going to do that one. You know what I mean? Yeah, so let me get your take on that. What are your thoughts on number one, the question that is being asked, and then number two, the responses that are being given?
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing I'm going to say and I mean it with the most utmost just respect is you need to, whatever money you do ever come in contact with, you really need to steward it well. It's very important you have to in this business. So steward your money well. But then how do you get business? You actually need to put in the work. You do need to get out and film content, educate people, ask people. I mean, if you have enough time to make this post, you have enough time to make a post going.
Speaker 3:Hey guys, so my name is Cassandra and I just wanted to let you guys I remind you today I am a real estate agent. I know there is a lot of media and marketing that is going around, kind of putting some fear out there about interest rates or what the market's going to do, what the election's going to do and where housing market might, you know, might go or that or that the equity is dropped. But ask me, I am your real estate expert. Be the expert, ask people to ask you questions, but get engaged with other people. It doesn't take a lot of rocket science and money, it's true. Just ask questions, just ask your audience, and my audience started with five people. I mean my audience was not big. I'm up to almost 6,000. But it's like you build as you also grow. But then you also need to add a value and do other things as well. Do maybe a tip Tuesday, where you're talking about homeowner tips.
Speaker 2:You don't always have to be asking for business.
Speaker 3:You can lead with value. Lead with value in a servant's heart and I feel like the business is actually going to come. You lead with sales and it's never going to come. Absolutely Because. I hate being sold to. Don't you hate being sold to?
Speaker 2:I'll be honest, I like it no-transcript to give you feedback on where you went wrong.
Speaker 3:That's awesome If that makes sense, maybe I'll do that and it'll become more of like a fun game. Yeah, like hey, can I give?
Speaker 2:you some feedback. The other thing that you mentioned here without mentioning it was essentially the idea behind if you build it, they will come. Just because you're a realtor doesn't mean you're going to inherently get customers, clients, etc. Right. So the idea is if you build it, they will come. No, only if they know about it, and the only way for them to know about it is taking the advice that you're giving For sure. Put content out there, even if the content sucks, at least they can see that you're a real person. That's who you are genuinely, and you're trying.
Speaker 3:Absolutely you want to work with people that try, aren't scared of failure, not scared of messing up. How many times I can't even tell you how many times I've been on Perfect example. I did a live at one of my broker opens recently. Because I have eight listings up right now I can't remember all of their addresses and there was just one and I just drew a blank and of course I'm on live and I'm like, yeah, so we'll see you here at the address one seven, two, seven, two, one one seven, eight. And I said I don't know, I don't know what the address is, but I'm walking out to the street. Anyways, I'm going to look on the mailbox. I'll tell you in a second.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:People don't care, they just want to know. They're like oh she's at least funny and can laugh at herself. I don't know. I can't remember everything.
Speaker 2:Well, you showed them more about your personality, which resonates further than the information on the open house, because I will tell you nobody is going to see your post on the open house and go. You know what? Let's go, drive by that house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not how I see that, but they're going to be like oh well, at least I can pick up the phone and she's going to be fun to work with. You know, she at least knew the stats and the things about the house address. Come on, that's irrelevant, Like you just need to know it's in Timberwood park. I need you to be here, I'll get you the actual address. It's on it, you know, but it's it's just being authentically you, and then I do like what else? Um, what some of the other people said as well just marketing ideas Like why are you not, if you need to make money quickly, go out and talk to people?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think the idea is or if, if you've gotten to the point that you don't have a deal in the pipeline, money quick and real estate don't go hand in hand.
Speaker 3:No, you need like a three month gap for sure.
Speaker 2:At minimum you need 30 days because you got a contract and then it closes For sure. At minimum you need 30 days because you got a contract and then it closes. But a way to avoid that that I can give as in way of a tip is when I first started in the industry January, march, may of 2012,. From my first paycheck that I received, I always put 20% back into the business itself in marketing, in training, in coaching, any of those things that, I will be honest, I live on residual to this day because it resonated so far. I mean, people still talk to me about my trucks that I had wrapped that kind of stuff. You still have that truck wrap. I know you from that. I haven't heard that in years. Yeah, but it still strikes conversation. Yeah, you know that's awesome.
Speaker 3:No, I agree. I think it's just very important like to think outside the box. I also tell people and maybe this is another one Now, granted quickly. I always say three months because I'm like, unless they're just like cash ready to go, or their credit is just excellent, yeah, like cash ready to go, or their credit is just excellent, yeah, 30 days from like meeting with you, getting approved, finding a house that same day and then going under contract. Right.
Speaker 3:Three months just give or take. But another thing that people I feel like don't think about is what do you actually love to do and then go market there? So, for example, if you're like a big pet lover and just love animals and then maybe you also like to cook, why are you not going to the dog park every single Saturday or every other day? If you don't have business, then go to the dog park, go somewhere, but make little dog biscuits. Put the recipe, put your business, you know business sticker on the back of it. That's right.
Speaker 3:What are you doing, like, take 10 of those and go talk to people? Sticker on the back of it, that's right. What are you doing, like, take 10 of those and go talk to people. Even if they're not going to buy with you, you're at least touching enough people and creating raving fans that will advocate for you. That go. You know what? There was this really awesome lady, or there was this really awesome gentleman that was at the dog park and they made me this biscuit. If you're looking, yeah, like call them.
Speaker 2:They were super helpful. That's a good point, because there are still people that get into real estate and then post nothing but real estate on social media when we all know well you would. Every person has at least 10 people that are realtors on their friends list, so how are you separating yourself from the others? And that's kind of what this person in the post didn't do, which is why they found themselves in the situation that they're in.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would go to say yeah.
Speaker 2:Whitney. It's been a great discussion. Jc, what are we at time wise? One minute 13 seconds, oh, on the money. So, that being said, whitney, there's been some great discussions within this one chat. We learned a lot about your upbringing. We learned that you've gone through plenty of adversity and succeeded. Come on the other side, utilize that to better yourself and become the lady that you are today. Yeah, and it speaks volumes. It is a message and an example for many out there that are, who knows, trying to figure it out when they trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up. Still, you know.
Speaker 3:But, that being the case, is there anything that no one not your spouse, not your family, not your child, not your boss? The only person that is ever, truly 100%, that's going to show up for you, is you. Boom.
Speaker 3:And you have to be self-disciplined in this business. Honestly, with anything in life, it doesn't matter where you are. If you want a better job promotion at where you're at, you're not going to get there just by showing up. You have to put in the extra work, you have to believe in yourself, you have to outdo what someone else is not doing. But the only person that can ever do that for you is you. Stop looking for someone else to do it for you.
Speaker 3:And then the other thing, which I heard this like a week ago, and it was an agent, you know, just sitting in a mastermind class that I was in and she was struggling. She's been in the business for about two years and just struggling and she's like I really do think the main reason why I'm struggling to just like have passion and wake up and, you know, go out and do these things that you're mentioning, is because I just don't have a big enough. Why Like I don't have that a big enough, why Like I don't have that? If you don't know your why and if you don't have a value proposition in this business especially after August 17th when everything is about to change nationwide if you don't have and I heard it this morning on my podcast I was listening to if you don't even have a value proposition that's going to make you different than someone else, you will likely not make it in this business.
Speaker 3:But if you are good and they said this and it made me think about you and it was Tom Ferry but he said if you don't have good communication skills, so let's go back to EQ again. It all goes back to that. If you don't have good communication skills, the agents that are going to outshine, outdominate, outperform, become millionaires in this business and know how to explain to the buyers and the sellers with the changes that are happening. If you don't know how to explain that clearly, you will fail. That's right.
Speaker 3:So for the agents that already have really good communication and are not fearful about just answering the hard questions, we're going to be okay. We're definitely still going to feel the pain points, that's right. I'm not saying that I haven't already felt it. I felt it, yeah. But I am very confident in what the new regulations mean. Sure, I've always been doing that, since day one. When I found out that people weren't doing buyer rep agreements, I was like wait, what? Like I was told you just had to. Like I've been doing that since 2017. So I just didn't.
Speaker 3:I don't really feel like I'm changing anything in my business, but I will run circles around people that don't have a big enough why or that don't have the good communication skills and there's nothing wrong with, I think, anyone in this business that already is comfortable in their own skin, that knows why they are in this business and believes that every single day, they have to wake up for themselves because no one else is going to do it for them. They're going to be the ones that kind of take over for a while, and I just pray and hope that everybody else catches up too. But you have to put in the work, you just have to. No one's going to do it for you, you're going to do it for yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, those are some powerful words there from Whitney Robinson and those of you out there listening. I'm sure there was plenty of nuggets that you gained from this discussion. I know that I did, and if you are getting something, make sure to like, subscribe and share with a friend. But one thing that I do want to end on that I actually wrote down and then you reiterated it, so I know that it was definitely a key factor and something that I preach to my loan officer, something that I 100%, wholeheartedly believe in, and that is the idea behind. You need to have a why so big that you can't fail. There is no plan B, um, and if you want success, as bad as you want to breathe, chances are you'll succeed a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:So, that being the case, uh, whitney, thank you again for joining me Absolutely. Those of you out there listening, thanks for continued support. Hopefully we will have a next week or the following week, a discussion about some of those changes that are going to be taking place for realtors and those alike, but until then, we will catch you on the next one.
Speaker 1:Someone has already done and is already doing what you want to do. And no, they didn't fall into a rich family to do so. They were not born lucky. You know you can be more, you can have more, do more, can be more. You know this. You wouldn't be listening otherwise.
