We nearly shook our heads right off agreeing with so much of what this guest said. In today’s episode we welcome James Harris of Million Dollar Listing LA fame to the show. James’ infectious energy, propensity for hard work, and desire to give back to agents is apparent in our chat. After moving from England to California, James dove into real estate where he was truly starting from scratch. He shares with us his path to success and how he ended up on real estate reality TV for over 7 years. James and his business partner, David Parnes, have sold over 3 billion dollars in luxury real estate since 2017. Hearing his stories was truly fascinating and we loved finding out what he is doing now and where he thinks the industry is going. Don’t miss this inspiring must hear conversation with James! You can find James Harris on social media @jamesbondst or sharing his free real estate newsletter, The Blueprint(sign up here, https://www.readtheblueprint.com/subscribe?ref=TCnni7aoJI) @readtheblueprint

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

0:01
Yeah, so I built myself a non existent resume. But over the next three months, little did we know, we were going to close 160 million in transaction volume. Like don’t let fear get in the way of going after the luxury and the high end properties no matter what market or price. You’re gonna continue to learn until the day you die in the moment you think you’re too good and you can’t learn and you know everything. That’s the day your career’s over. translate that information to them on a consistent basis so that they think of you and remember you.

0:36
Hi, y’all. Welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie, and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.

0:42
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition.

0:47
The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop

0:51
comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, Alyssa. Hey, Katie. It is episode 173.

0:58
I’m really excited about

0:59
this one. It is the James Harris interview.

1:03
If y’all don’t know who James Harris is he was on Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. Yes. We were not sure what to expect with this interview at all. They reached out to us Yes. And they weren’t someone we weren’t even sure would be a good fit. So we were like, let’s just do the interview. And if it’s good, we’ll share it and it was so good

1:23
is like high energy. But his philosophies on real estate were very much in line with ours. I was I will not lie a little bit nervous. Because just from the little bit I read and knew I knew that he was a big door knocker. And that is not something that we talk about. But when you listen to the episode and hear how he describes it, you will be like, ah, that

1:48
makes sense. And that’s not creepy at

1:50
all. That’s like a weird so he had strategy. So I want you to listen because the strategy was actually quite brilliant and market specific to him. Yes, yeah. Okay. But anyway, I thought that and we just sat there. If you’re a YouTube watcher, we’re like, gaping and we just sat there nodding our heads the whole time and he really is a talker so we did not need to do much right. He just sat there and nodded

2:16
our heads but it was so good. Yeah, and you’re really getting I enjoyed it immensely.

2:21
He was a real it was a treat. I kind of

2:23
feel like it’s a good one to have right after Thanksgiving because it kind of gives you that little boost of motivation before Christmas. Yes. Like don’t forget about you know what

2:33
Gary Vee always says he loves times like August or holidays, because that’s when everyone else is sleeping as he calls it. And it’s like you can actually like yeah, get some things done. Oh good weeks work of you know, work in and like make some headway.

2:49
And to top it off. He’s British British. Oh my god was at your fun. His accent was good to have an accent.

2:56
Oh my god. So fun. Tell us a little bit about James. Anything else you want to share before we start? So his bio is on the Bravo website. Right? He was on? I think he’ll tell us eight seasons.

3:06
Yeah. Oh 11. I can’t remember a lot of seasons. A lot of seasons of Million Dollar Listing is no longer on the show. And we talked about that too. In the episode. Yes, but his bio reads the perfect blend of British style and American drive. I would agree that is perfect. James Harris brings his charisma and wit to Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles born and raised in London, England. His entrepreneur entrepreneurial drive started at the age of 16. Today he is living the American dream working in a city he loves with an incredibly talented group of people. His business partner David Parnes specializes in high end real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air Sunset Strip in the Hollywood Hills, etc.

3:52
They’ve sold 2 billion in real estate in the last five years.

3:57
billion be with a bee Yes. Wild. It was so funny because I was looking at his real estate website. Yeah. And I was like, Wow, this condo is only $120,000 Like what is still so nice. I get that it’s small, but I mean, I would buy it, y’all. It was the monthly rent rent rent $120,000 I cannot believe it anyways, okay. You will love this episode. Yeah, here it comes.

4:26
Get ready for James enjoy. Bye. Hey, well,

4:30
welcome

4:34
we’re recording an ad right before we had to meet you and we were trying to do it a few minutes and then next thing you know, we were like,

4:41
oh gosh, it’s

4:44
we’ve been so excited about it all day to get to chat

4:46
with you. Oh, and we do like we only record on Thursdays we put everything back to that tabac like a batch recorder when you do yours.

4:56
Yes, we do actually yes, we do. We knock out for I got six in in a morning or afternoon and then we’re done. And it’s great.

5:05
Yeah. On your game, if you’re gonna do,

5:09
you really do, but but it’s better than trying to do it on six days much.

5:16
Because it can really suck up a lot of your time just shut up and the whole situation. Yes. Well, we’re so happy to have you. So we’re just gonna get right into it. Will you? Okay, will you tell our listeners a little bit about you? And kind of like your history and your story, just in case we have anyone that doesn’t know who you are? I think it would be helpful to get a little background.

5:40
Yeah, of course. So I am born and raised in London. I was a very troubled child, to say the least, suffered with extreme extreme ADHD. I was kicked out of nine schools. And it was a disaster growing up in London because all of my friends were naughty like me. But they had normal childhoods, and they didn’t get kicked out of school. And they didn’t get caught for everything they did. I on the other hand, was just a disaster. And it was at age 12. I realized, I just want to work, I want to get out. I love people, I want to make money. And I want to become successful. And that’s exactly what I did. I quit school at 16 I landed my first real estate job. And the rest is history. And we can get into that later, I suppose. Yeah. So

6:40
what did you do as a 16 year old? Like, what was your first taste of real estate?

6:45
Yeah, so I built myself a non existent resume. Obviously, I didn’t have one. So I went and I went and took a photograph of myself in a telephone box in London. I remember it was pouring down with rain, I had one blazer that I owned, that didn’t fit me, as wearing sweatpants down below, I had an umbrella. And my mom’s friend took a photo of me in a payphone box. And that was going to be my resume. And I decided I was going to blow up the photo. And I was going to walk into each agency that I wanted to interview at, and leave them a photo of myself and asked to meet with the owner of the company. And that’s exactly what I did. I highlighted all the companies I wanted to interview with. And it went through alphabetical order. And the first one on the list was a company called Dutch and Dutch. I walked in, I asked to speak with the CEO of the company, he said, That’s me, I showed him my photo, and I pitched him for an hour on the spot of why I’d be a great assistant candidate. And he hired me on the spot. And I ended up doing five years at that company, I did two and a half or two years in residential, then they pushed me over to commercial I did another two and a half years in the commercial side. So it gave me a great understanding of the overall business. And it was then when I realized that in London, when you finish school before you go to university, you do a gap year where you travel the world and you go backpacking, I never got to do any of that, because I went straight to work. So it wasn’t until after five years of work, I realized, I need to travel, I need to see the world. I came to LA for three months where my father lived at the time. And that was about 18 and a half years ago. So that’s where the journey in LA began, which we can get into.

8:39
Wow, okay, first, I want to say the gap year is one of my big things that I think is wrong with America, like we know, oh, you must hurry through high school and then go straight to college and know what you want to do. And nobody learns about themselves. So I think that’s interesting that you missed it. But honestly, you knew enough about yourself to leave school and just start working. But I wish I wish we would do that. And it’s you know, yeah, I know, you have daughters, will you include those types of things and how you raise them, even though you are in the United States? Now? Of course.

9:12
Yes, absolutely. I mean, how I’ve raised my children is, is always an interesting topic of conversation. Because when you think of LA, it’s not really the place you think about raising children, right? And then when you think about wanting to keep your children as grounded as possible, and then you end up on a TV show for eight years. There’s that sort of very thin line of I don’t want to ruin my children. I don’t want them to think life’s one big TV show. So how do you kind of divide the two and we’ve always done our best to keep our children grounded and teach them values and make sure that my wife and I take time out of our day to spend with them. And parenting is interesting because it’s not something you can just learn. It’s something that evolves, as your children get older and wiser. And I now have a teenager, which nobody prepared me for that. And I can assure you even if they did, there ain’t no book you can read to prepare you for a teenager. So, you know, it’s a learning curve every day with your children, but ultimately, the more time you can spend with them, and put into them, the better it will always be.

10:28
Can you give us sort of like the PowerPoint version of how you went from? Okay, so you took some time off to do your gap year at a later date? And then when you finish that, where did you start? And how did you land in TV? Like, how did that evolve?

10:45
Yeah, so I came to LA when I was 21, reckless, young, ready to have fun and party. And that’s exactly what I did. Little did I know, that was a self destroying path to nothing short of a complete disaster. You know, when you’re young, and you think you’re having fun, and you’re partying, what you’re really doing is just wasting days that turn into months that turn into years, you’re not growing spiritually, you’re not growing in any way at all. You’re just living day by day. And that’s what I did for the first four or five years of living in Los Angeles. I landed myself a job trading commodities. This was during the recession. And I was doing very well. But what I didn’t realize was that I was actually miserable. I was partying, my years away, I was blowing all of my money, I wasn’t saving, I wasn’t setting myself up for the future. And then I met this woman who quite literally changed my whole entire life. My perspective, the way I think the way I live the way everything happens, and long and behold, that lady got pregnant very, very quickly. Thereafter, I’m 25, she’s 22. We’re two children that are about to have a child. And when that child is going to be born, our lives are about to change overnight. Because there is nothing like having a child to give you a wake up call that it’s time to grow up and take your life very seriously. And when my now wife at the time was 11 months pregnant, I actually decided to get sober. And I quit drinking, I quit partying, I quit absolutely everything. Because I wanted my daughter to come into the world and not see her father, as someone that I wanted my daughter to look at me and look up to me not look down to me that, sadly, is how I look at my own father. And so I did I quit absolutely everything. We had our daughter, August 29 2009. And that’s where life got real. It got serious. And that’s sort of at the time. Well, I started real estate a little before that. But yeah, I sorry, I didn’t start real estate before that. That was when my daughter was born. It wasn’t until my second daughter was born, that I actually started in the real estate industry, which we can get to next. Okay. This is

13:24
just, this is already so wonderfully helpful and real. And I mean, I’m familiar with you, I’ve watched your shows and like seeing you and this is my first time to ever hear this side of it. Like I don’t know if you’ve shared it. Yeah, and it’s a

13:44
story. But listen, you know, I think there’s so many people out there struggling, and people out there that feel as though they’re less than, or they can achieve this or that, or they’re struggling in so many different ways. And the truth is, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it doesn’t matter what your background is, it doesn’t matter how you were raised, we each have a chance to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. And I think we all have a path to take, I could have taken the path of carrying on the way I was, and it would have been a really sad ending, or I wake up and take life seriously clean up my act and make make the best version of myself that I could fast forward three years, and my wife and I then having our second daughter, who’s now nine years old, Chloe. It wasn’t until only a few months before Chloe was born that I came home one day and told my wife, I’m quitting my job. And David and I are setting up our real estate business. And I’ll never forget my wife looking at because I made great income at the time. You’re quitting your walk, I’m quitting my job. We’re setting up a real estate business, but we’re having a child in a month. What do you mean? And I was miserable doing what I was doing and I loved real estate and David loved Real Estate and we’ve made this decision that this is what we were going to do. And we weren’t going to stop until we could make a success out of ourselves. And that’s honestly exactly what we did. We didn’t have a contact in our phonebook. We didn’t know our way around the city. But we knew that we had to roll up our sleeves and work harder than everybody else, because we were already at a disadvantage. And that’s really how it all began. We went out and door knocks 10 hours a day, we sat open houses every single Sunday, we connected with every agent in the business so people knew who we were. And after one year of being in business, we got the call from a casting agency saying that they were casting for Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. They had heard about David and I, and I thought the whole thing was a joke. I thought we were being pranked. Dave, because this is why I thought it was a prank. I remember the call, the lady said to me, so and so has told us we need to reach out to you, whoever so and so was I didn’t know that person. I’d never heard of that person’s name. Having said that Dave and I had had an extraordinary not first year. But last three months, we had a terrible first six months, nine months. But over the next three months, little did we know, we were going to close 160 million in transaction volume.

16:27
To make that happen.

16:30
A lot of hustling a lot of door knocking a lot of rolling up our sleeves. And to cut a very long story short, we had one lead from London, someone that was relocating from London. And this individual leased a house in Bel Air that we got told about a $40,000 a month lease, we stayed in contact with the lady who own the house. Fast forward, that lady calls me and says hey, I’m getting divorced, we own a building, we want to sell it the price is $30 million, it’s non negotiable, we then went out and found the buyer for that building, we double ended that building, which means that was 60 million of transaction volume. Simultaneously, the same person we sold that building to Little did we know was going to buy a tear down look, we had door knocked in Bel Air for another six and a half million. And the moral of the story is, if you throw enough mud at the wall, and you keep throwing and you keep throwing and you don’t give up and you keep throwing, the reason they say something’s got to stick is because something’s got to stick, right? You throw enough work into something you’re gonna get back, you’re consistent in your work, you’re gonna get back. And I think so many people think that success happens overnight, or they’ll do something once a week or once a month, or they put out one Instagram video, or they do not once a week that they’re gonna get results. They’re not. But if you keep doing it over and over and over and over and over again, you will be blown away by the results. And that’s really what happened. And that literally led to someone hearing about us and a casting agency to cast us for a show called Million Dollar Listing. And that was nine years ago, we ended up shooting over 100 episodes across eight seasons or eight years. And it’s been an unbelievable journey. Really.

18:21
Okay, I want to know, so then you were so early in your in your career there when you got on the show. Do you feel obviously it had to impact your business? Were all of the impacts positive? Were some of the negative was being on the show a detriment to your business at times? Or was it always helping your business grow?

18:40
In life, there are always going to be pros and cons, right. And as long as the pros outweigh the cons, usually it’s the right thing to do. The show was never detrimental to our business, so to speak. But I would say the show took away from family time and took away from being able to focus 100% on my business The show takes 11 months a year to shoot which is one of the longest shows on reality television to shoot period. And we only shoot 12 episodes you take the housewives for example and they’re shooting 22 episodes and I want to say maybe half the time so yes, it was detrimental in the sense that I didn’t spend as much time with my family

19:27
now you’re leaving like your your child your time right no more records

19:31
on and I’m done and I’m done and it was eight years that I will be eternally grateful for for the rest of my life. But I decided here that if I’m going to do a TV show, it needs to be my own. That’s not being cocky or arrogant because Million Dollar Listing was hands down a one of the funnest things I’ve ever got to do. Be I learned so much through the process. But I just feel as though you know, I gave it everything I cook for eight years, we filmed over 100 episodes, and life goes on and life moves on. And there’s new opportunity. And if you stay on one opportunity, how you’re gonna get a new opportunity. And so there’s lots of exciting things to come. And lots of exciting things in the pipeline.

20:17
Okay, so tell us how it’s gonna change your family life? Is that one of the biggest bonuses to not filming now 11 months of the year, like, what what are you looking forward to? Now? What are the biggest things you’re excited about?

20:30
I haven’t been filming since the beginning of this year. And I don’t think it’s any secret. We’ve done more business this year, than we’ve done in our entire career. I want to say we’re at around 800 million this year in sales. And on top of that, I do spend a lot more time with my family. I do now work from home a lot more my lifestyle has, I don’t want to say it’s improved, because as I said, I loved doing the show I absolutely I miss it. I love by the way, there’s a lot of that I miss tremendously. But there’s been so many huge positives that have come out of not doing it anymore. But again, if I really think about it, I just had a great time you become friends with the production team. Up, it’s just an it’s a really fun experience. Now,

21:26
can you give us a peek into the luxury market at the level that you are? I mean, on the show, we see the the things that y’all do for marketing and the marketing budget, like how do you even budget for those things and, and market products at that level?

21:46
Yeah, I don’t think luxury is a thing you can be taught or, or you can budget for, or you can really think about. And the reason for that is no two properties are ever going to be the same. No two sellers are ever going to be the same. And that’s one of the reasons I love this business is every day is fresh every day is new. And no two sales are ever going to be the same. In luxury, you need to identify a who you are, what your message is, and what your brand is and who you’re going after within your luxury market. But I think each property is so different that you need to identify what the property is, who’s going to buy the property, who’s your seller, identify what that seller thrives off or enjoys or wants to see. And you build everything else around that you build it around the property and around the seller. A lot of these large events we do. They’re fantastic. They’re the glitz and the glam. Maybe you’re going to find a buyer out of them. But it’s also a reason to keep your client very happy. Certain clients just want these big, luxurious events. So you’re doing it for multipurpose reasons. But I think in luxury, you have to really identify the situation that you’re in, read it, understand it and then build your campaign around that property specific to that property. And that client, if that makes sense.

23:11
That makes it makes total sense. Yeah, we don’t know our market. At best. There’s a $4 million. That’s the highest, that’s probably the highest price that’s ever sold in Baton Rouge. Yeah, like, it’s not. It’s not where you’re like this stack is $4 million. We’re like

23:34
hey, Alyssa PKT. What do we mentioned almost every episode, email template, you’re right, we sure do. And after every time, we mentioned an email template, do you know what we get

23:46
emails asking if I can have copies of the email template, send

23:49
me a copy of that template? I would like that. That sounds great. And you know what the good news is, you can get all of our email templates from our course, email templates, one on one, tell the people about it,

24:01
our course has all of the email templates you would need to send to your buyers and your sellers and your clients that are buying and selling at the same time. Exactly. To get through every step of the transaction and giving them information that they need for where they are in the transaction. It’s great because you never forget to tell them something. Yeah. So we’ve already done all the work for you. Yeah, we wrote them and you can personalize them. Yes. And just feel organized, knowing that you have all the information where it needs to

24:29
be. And if you purchase email templates, 101. You do get lifetime access. So occasionally, we like to go in and make updates based on the market or if we find a new best practice. So we put that right into the template and you get that updated straightaway.

24:43
It just goes straight to your core. Yes.

24:46
It’s already there. It’s just already on the air. You don’t have to worry about it. Well, email I will say updated. That’s great. Where can they find these email templates? You can find the email templates at email templates with an S one Oh one.com Email Templates. One Oh, one.com Yes, head over for reviews and all of the specifics. Wonderful. Okay, enjoy. Yeah, but

25:11
by the way, a $4 million sale is great. And if that’s luxury in your local market, then you have to treat that the same way that I would treat a 20 year 50 $100 million sale, nothing changes, you’re still dealing with luxury within your local market. And if you can sell one $4 million home and impress the seller, then there’s no reason you can’t sell 50 of those $4 million houses. I think fear stands in the way of so many of us as agents that we don’t want to go after the highest highest listing in our area, when actually, if 4 million is the highest. That’s all I’d be going after in Louisiana, that’s all I’d be targeting. That’s all I’d be branding myself towards. And if that meant driving an hour away to get to those houses, I’d be in my car at 7am. Getting to those areas by 8am. So that I was ahead of everybody else. Like don’t let fear get in the way of going off to the luxury and the high end properties no matter what market or price point you’re in.

26:07
Okay, how did you get through the fear? Like what? What was it that made you get through that part where you feel like I don’t know if I’m qualified for this?

26:16
I am always qualified for anything. Because if, if no, see, no, no, no, but but but seriously, if if if you are your own competition, if you are it fear, okay, false evidence appearing real. We’ve, we’ve heard it from so many different people, okay, if you let a fear get in the way of your success, the longer you leave that fear, the bigger that fear is going to become just a fact. The quicker you jump in front of that fear and tackle that fear, the quicker that fear is going to be minimized in size and become smaller. So one rule of thumb I live by is if something scares the shit out of me, I’m going to jump in front of it, immediately. I’m going to tackle it, we’re going to get in front of it. And that fear is gone. It’s literally gone. And the truth of the matter is when we started in the business, we didn’t know anything. We didn’t know Bellaire. We didn’t know Beverly Hills. But we did know that we could Dornoch and for us instead of door knocking 500 600 $700,000 homes we went into or not 1020 $30 million homes because we realized very early on, nothing changes, except the commission check goes up by 50 times. So why are we going to short change ourselves if we don’t have to? And then people would say, Well, you know, in those study million dollar homes, you can’t just walk up to the door course you can. But there’s a doorbell at the gate. And that doorbell at the gate goes to the front door that’s inside of the house, someone’s gonna answer it. And that’s exactly what we did. And I think people want to talk about what they’re going to do. And they’re going to talk about prospecting, and they’re going to have a meeting about how to do it. Just get out there and do it. The more you sit, the more you talk. The more you think about it, the more fearful you become, instead of just getting in your car, going out and doing it and you will be amazed by the results.

28:16
So okay, you knock on the door, someone answers. What do you say? What was your

28:23
thing? That the first thing is, when you go out doing them? Can you better have a strategy? Okay? Because you’re not just door knocking random doors. So for us back then we were door knocking tear downs, okay. We were only door knocking tear downs. It was at a time in Los Angeles, where developers were just piling up, tearing down these old houses built in the 30s 40s 50s 60s. And they were rebuilding 20 3050 $60 million homes. So our strategy was very simple, we would show up with a high level of energy, a high level of excitement, we already knew we could get to the developers, we already had a couple of developers that were looking, and we would knock on these tear downs. And we would tell the sellers, hey, we’ve got this unbelievable client. They are incredibly motivated by this property’s location. They don’t need to see the inside of the house, but they’ve been looking for this location and the street for so long. Would you just consider selling? And they’d usually say no. And then the job is to pull a number out of them. That makes sense, because everybody has that number. Some of them were completely unrealistic. Some of them thought they were being unrealistic. But to a developer, it actually made complete sense. Once you start the engaging and you’re talking and you’re asking questions, and the more and more you’re talking, the more and more you’re getting information. And long and behold, you turn around and say, Well, look, if I could get you that number, would you let my client just walk around the exterior of the property? I’d consider it. Great. Can I just take your number? Think about it, sleep on it. Speak to the family. I’ll call you tomorrow. I’ll call you next week. Now you start to build your pipeline. Now you go from one person to five people to 50 people to 300 people on the pipeline. Before you know it, sellers are saying, yes, you’re taking developers. And then what’s beautiful about this whole process is nine times out of 10. If you sell a developer a piece of dirt, three, four or five years later, they’re going to build a house, they’re gonna use you to then sell that house. And that’s really how we founded our business. We sold our first property for six and a half million from a door knock in Bel Air. Fast forward nine years, about six months ago, we just closed on that house for $38 million dollars. So And we’ve done this 50 times in the last 10 years, 50, literally, so it works. That’s proven. Is it tedious? Is it boring? Is it annoying at times, of course, but if you weren’t getting your work it hard and you throw enough mud at the wall, it will stick you will become successful period.

30:56
I have always found that just when it’s about to be annoying enough to call it quits like you get that when breakthrough. You’re like,

31:04
oh my gosh, I have to keep going. It’s so good.

31:08
Well, absolutely. is the most

31:10
humbling thing, though, early in your career Early in the door, knock, what is the most humbling thing or even the most scary thing? Like what’s something that happened while you were trying these techniques that you’re like, oh, I don’t know, maybe I need to rethink this. You know,

31:25
I think for me, early on, it was being asked questions that I truly had no idea of the answer. And and this is an interesting one here. When you’re new in a business, and you’re all excited and pumped up and someone throws a question at you, and you haven’t got a clue of the answer, in that moment, you shake your pants, and you freeze up and you get scared. And your reaction is to answer with what you think the answer is, which is probably wrong. Well, in real estate, you can’t afford to be wrong, because that will lead to getting sued. What I’ve learned in my career over the years, is there is nothing more powerful than turning around to somebody and saying, I don’t know, let me get back to you. Or I’d rather not answer that. Because I’d hate to be wrong. Let me check, verify and come back to you. That is a very powerful objection to give back to someone. And by the way, if it’s a new clients, it just gives you another reason to call them back anyway. But I think at the moment of when I was new in the business, and naive, I wanted to answer everything. I wanted to be an expert, but I’m not I wasn’t. And even today, you’re never going to stop learning in this business. You’re going to continue to learn until the day you die in the moment that you think you’re too good and you can’t learn and you know everything. That’s the day your career’s over, in my opinion. So always be open to listening and learning.

32:50
Right, right. I think that’s a great lead in though to the blueprint, I want you to tell me about the blueprint, what the blueprint is, why would you do this? I want because I’ve been reading it. And it’s really good. And I love I love to absorb real estate information. Like I think we both do, like we just want to learn more, we want to see what’s going on in other places. But what would make you say, I’m going to I’m going to create a real estate news outlet, if you will.

33:16
Yeah, it’s a great question. The Blueprint is a real passion project, both for David and I. And I think it goes back to everything we’ve been speaking about today. Like I never had a blueprint, when I started, I never had somebody giving me information every day that I could go out and use in my everyday Korea. And so the blueprint is our newsletter that we really just put out to give back to agents because our whole idea is Tuesdays and Fridays is when we release the the news, the newsletter, and we wanted it to be short, concise information, the agents no matter where you are, which city, which state, which county, if you’re reading this newsletter, there should be 123 of the three things you can take away out of that newsletter that are going to better you in that day that are going to help you improve your sales skills, sharpen your sales skills, give you talking points to talk to sellers about answer rebuttals. And that really is it was like no one did it for us. So let’s do it for others. And that’s really what the blueprint is about is I think 1,000,008 agents around America. And we want to serve this every single one of them. We want to be able to help every single one of them. We also just started a podcast rise above the ranks, again, not an hour, 15 minutes segments where we can just spit out quick pieces of information. And as long as you can hear one thing from one newsletter or one podcast, or you hear one thing from what we’ve discussed today that helps you better your day, your career, your life, it was worth listening to. And that’s how I always looked at things. Look for the similarities, not the differences in these types of things and think about how they can help you build and grow and become better

35:00
them. So what is your team? Do you have a team right now? How does your admin look, you have your hands in a few different things all real estate related. So how do you structure that in a business format as far as the number of people helping you?

35:16
Yeah, we’ve always kept our team very lean. And mean, we never wanted to have a three 400 person team. Now, that is soon to change, because we are scaling and growing our team very quickly now, but not too quickly. But the way we’ve run it now is we have the most unbelievable infrastructure back office that works on our team. And without that infrastructure, there’s no way we could operate. We have a Director of Operations who sits right here at the top, and is our lifeline. Without her, Michelle, there’s no way we could survive. We have an in house marketing director who handles all of our marketing assets and handles everyone on our teams marketing assets, we have an in house transaction coordinator, we have a listings coordinator, we have an assistant and the team there is there to support everyone. And then we’ve always kept it small, lean and mean on our team. We’ve got five incredible salespeople on the team. And the way I look at our team is like a well oiled machine. Everybody knows what they have to do. Everyone knows how they can help the other person. Communication is key, we have a group text message that everybody is on so we can keep each other up to date. We empower each other to be successful. We congratulate each other. And and we all succeed from each other’s success. I think that is the key to a dream team, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, that sounds just like,

36:42
if anyone so we put our videos on YouTube, right, so the podcast comes out, you can listen, but you can also watch the video on YouTube. If anyone is watching. We’re just sitting here nodding.

36:53
That’s good. I hope it’s I hope it’s I hope it’s a good segment and that people get something from it.

36:59
Yeah, but these are all the same things that we are always advocates for and teaching community over competition, and you know, really taking something valuable from each thing you learn and just all of these

37:10
embracing the strength that you have while honoring the strength that she has that they’re decoded.

37:17
Yeah, sure. Okay. So tell us about, I guess, where do you see things going? What

37:24
What would you like to share with our audience? What how do you want I know, like, what is it that you want to see happen within your business?

37:33
You know, I always look at growth. I’m always trying to think outside of the box, be creative, do things a little differently, disrupt the market. And remember and understand in each respective business, you’re always growing, you’re always learning. So for us, the only thing I would say is we’re entering a very rough market, okay, interest rates have tripled since the pandemic. And you know, I think a lot of agents will weather the storm and come out of it stronger than ever, and a lot of market sadly, a lot of agents won’t make it. This is a time as agents that I hate to say it, but you either swim or you sing. And so to the agents out there, the one at swim, that want to succeed that want to come out of this stronger, be prepared and ready to go at this 110%. You know, what we experienced through COVID wasn’t normal. That wasn’t normal at all. And I felt like we were given everything on a silver platter through COVID as real estate agents, what’s about to happen is times where you need to trim the fat from teams, you need to get smart, you need to think outside of the box, and you need to work harder than all of the competition out there. If you want to succeed, and if you’re willing and prepared to do that, you will come out stronger and better for it. And if you’re not, then it may be a time to think about a new career.

39:06
Absolutely. Have you been through

39:08
a recession type period in your years in real estate? Or do you think this will be kind of unlike anything else?

39:16
No, I do not think so. Yes, I have in London. I do not think and obviously I’ve been in America through the 2008 recession. I do not think we’re entering a 2008 recession. Oh eight was based around a subprime mortgage crisis. I always say the movie, The Big Short was the best explanation of what that really looked like. There is real money in America today. The banks are not loaning to anybody today. This is a recession due to inflation. It’s the cost of goods and services and living and the reason interest rates are rising is to try and curb the inflation rate that doing that this had to happen. rates aren’t crazy today. If you look back at So when they were 1617 18%, people think they’re crazy, because we’ve just experienced several years in the twos and the threes. So, readjust, recalibrate, re strategize, and go out and be successful.

40:16
I love that. Okay, I have one, I think last question that our, our listeners of our community was curious about, Oh, can you provide excellent customer service to your real estate clients? That seems like it’s paramount on what you’re doing? What are some of the things that you do now? And did in the beginning or still do that provides that service to your clients? Like, how would you describe, I guess the experience you’re giving your clients?

40:40
Yes. So I’m gonna keep it very simple because I look at this business like this. A lot of people want to complicate this business, even though it’s very, very simple. The most important thing you can do with a client is communication. Okay, communication is the key to your success. A client is a homeowner that is selling or renting. That’s it, it’s very simple. They want to know what’s happening in the market. They want to know what’s happening in their local market. They want to know what’s happening in the interest rate world, they want to know the comps they want to know what’s sold. They want to know what’s pending what’s in escrow people that you are working with, want to know relevant information in your key market because they’re out doing their job. You should be here doing yours. And yours is being a wealth of information to your clients. Can you send them Christmas gifts? Hanukkah gifts? Easter gifts? Absolutely. Can you be creative in the things that you do for them or get them a nice closing gift? Absolutely. But the one thing we should all be doing as agents is staying front and center with our clients being a wealth of information, providing relevant information, and making sure that you translate that information to them on a consistent basis, so that they think of you and remember you anytime they want to buy or sell, or they’re sitting at that dinner party and talking to one of their friends. So information is key, stay relevant, and make sure you stay in contact with your client always.

42:09
You are just delightful.

42:12
Thank you. I appreciate that.

42:15
I feel like everything. validated everything. We have been teaching for three years on our podcast. So it wasn’t like that. That’s exactly right. That’s what we’ve been saying. So I feel like you were such a great fit for our audience. I know they’re gonna take a lot away from your energy and from your tips and from your like, overall story.

42:36
I have a question. You have a question you work with buyers? Do you have agents that handle your buyers are what is your buyers situation?

42:44
So I absolutely work with buyers. And we do have a team. So it depends on the circumstance, right but will often give buyers out to members of our team. But of course this is such a specific business there’s going to be certain buyers that want to work with you. But yes, I will never discount business or turn business away. Never.

43:08
In a market like yours when you have a buyer Do you find it is hard to find what they are looking for? Like how long do you feel? Is there an average time that you spend tell them until they find the house that fits their needs?

43:25
No, not really. I think in our market it could be literally a day and it could literally be 10 years I mean my longest client to date was eight years of looking and they ended up nearly buying $100 million house so it was very worth it. Having said that I’ve been out with certain clients and we’ve been out once and they found that their home right everybody’s different right but buyers are a buyers are a dream as long as they’re loyal and you know they’re going to buy so I think you have to take remember Time is money in this business. Okay? If you have a buyer that’s unrealistic that is going to just take up all your time and then find a $2 million house and write an offer of 800,000 That’s probably not the buyer you want to work with. This is a listings driven business. It just is okay you have the listing you have the control, so go after listings but again, if you can find a great buyer there’s nothing

44:23
okay, if this is the listings business and that is true and I feel like this market this these these cases the stuff that’s going on with the DOJ like things are going to shift were going to change right like I feel like what are your thoughts? Do you think the structure is going to change it’s going to I think it’s going to change at some point

44:42
are you using nobody knows

44:45
Am I using bio what sorry?

44:47
By our contract now? Oh,

44:51
no, we I know certain markets do we just don’t we never Yeah, we don’t know. It’s the market. gonna change because tech is going to come in, of course, there’s going to be a percentage of the market that changes where people can save money and use a tech platform. But generally speaking, if you’re doing your job, if you’re providing a service, if you’re a wealth of information, if you communicate with your clients, they need us. They’re going to use us. They’re going to work with us. And I think we’ll leave it at that. But yeah, I think work hard focus. Don’t get caught up in anything out there. Stay in your lane, stay focused, go build your business.

45:27
I think the most pleasant surprise of this interview is that you come off as having like all the bells and whistles and shiny things yet you like to keep it so simple and basic. And don’t overcomplicate it, and just put that work hard and treat your clients well.

45:47
And you will succeed. Right? That’s it. This was great. You want to share, tell us how to find you tell our audience how they can find the blueprint, all of this?

45:59
Yes, just go download it or sorry, subscribe. It’s read the blueprint.com definitely subscribe and it’s free. You know, we’re not we’re not charging, so it’s completely free. And give us your feedback. Let us know what you think. Tell us the stories that you want to see. We’re all about feedback. And it’s been a pleasure talking with you both awesome.

46:22
Oh, do you have a toast? Did you bring a toast?

46:25
Do you remember a

46:26
toast probably has a toast and was supposed to tell you at the end of every episode our guests are we toast to someone so like a cheers to someone who’s maybe you know how to recent success or helped you

46:40
in your business like I want to cheers.

46:44
Cheers to my wife that puts up with me every day. Amen.

46:51
by James Thank you.

46:53
Thank you for your time. Have a lovely day.

46:57
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Let us know who we should toast to for the next episode.

47:03
Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com Be sure

47:13
to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. See you next week. Bye. This is the goodbye