We are so grateful to have Carl Carter join us for this second episode focusing on additional tactical advice and best practices for safety. We dive deeper into how to handle showings, listing appointments and open houses where you will be exposed to possible danger. Carl gives lots of different best practices and systems that other agents use to stay safe. Carl started the Beverly Carter Foundation dedicated to the ideal that every agent goes home safe every day by providing scientifically based research, information, consulting, training, and support at no charge to every MLS, association, brokerage, and agent.

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

0:05
Hi, y’all welcome to hustle humbly.

0:06
It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market working for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcast is to show you hustle can be healthy when you have the humility to do it your way. So stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.

0:31
Okay, so this is Episode Seven. Yes. is part two of our interview with Carl Carter? Yes. And Episode Part one was our last episode where he shared his mother’s story and how it happened and how it all played out. Yeah, so today, we’re gonna talk about the foundation and give practical tips to realtors and things that they can be looking out for when they’re on the job. So the first question that we have is, hold on before we go there. Okay,

1:05
I have got to cut in. Carl, I know you saw me at the end of last one, I was a disaster. I mean, I’m so thankful and grateful to you for telling us the story and giving us your time and reliving that. And it really is impactful and important. And I just wanted you to know that we really appreciated that. And it was, it was really, it was good to hear it from your perspective. And I think that’s gonna be helpful to people who hear it, and I’m not trying to make you cry. I just was so thankful. So I wanted to say that before we ask you the questions.

1:39
Thank you very much. I have to admit, like after we spoke, like it kind of got me in my head a little bit, because it was like, you know, I’ve told the story a number of times, but for whatever reason, wherever we spoken, I’ll be don’t walk away from our conversation. I’m just like, why is it that you know, almost five years after mom was taken that this story still resonates? And it was for a lot of the reasons that you just said, so I’m very thankful for the opportunity you guys are giving me?

2:07
Yeah, absolutely. We’re so happy to have you. So today, it’ll be not light, but lighter. And that will ask you questions and kind of get some more tactical advice from you.

2:18
I love it. Yes. And also be thinking because we do think we’ll be able to toast at the end of this episode. If you have anybody that you want to toast to, that has helped you or a success story or someone that just deserves encouragement, we’re going to ask you at the end, who that person is for you. And we’ll toast to them.

2:38
Well, fantastic. Yeah, I already know exactly. Who will toast to

2:41
awesome. Okay, good. All right. So you founded the Beverly Carter foundation a couple of years ago. Can you talk a bit about why you chose to start the foundation and share more about the mission?

2:55
Yeah, so we officially started the nonprofit in January of 2017. And I am the first to admit that, you know, having this this little nonprofit that that actually has a pretty ambitious mission, you know, to serve, you know, the million and a half realtors out there. You know, it’s but also being a nonprofit nestled within a very for profit industry is it’s a little tricky to build and to navigate. But I’ll tell you, simply, you know, the reason why we did it was to to keep what happened and to my sweet mom, her kidnapping and murder from ever happening again. And, you know, I’ve spoken to hundreds of agents that had been victimized and, you know, the victimization, like it’s pretty eye opening because there’s so many different scenarios, everybody’s story is different. But I’ll tell you There have been a lot of repeat a lot of trends that I’ve seen in the, in the stories that are shared, and they they say they kind of surround you know, the topics of theft, harassment, assault, sexual assault, you know, and then those those horrible situations that I’ve learned of agents and heard from agents that had been raped while showing property so you know, simply we we’ve got, we’ve got to stop seeing and hearing about these stories they need to stop and they’re certainly more that can be done. And so we have a pretty good group of us at the Foundation, an entirely volunteer based organization that is just completely deeply committed to keeping these bad things from happening again.

4:45
And one of your videos online you mentioned that realtor safety is often a hard message to deliver. Why do you think that is?

4:53
You know, I think it can be best kind of explained in that you know, I’m I’m fortunate to travel across the country and spread this message. And this can kind of be best, you know, demonstrated through a conversation on an airplane. And you know, you’re kind of getting, you know, you haven’t yet had time to get your earbuds in so that you can get in your own zone and not be. Which sounds horrible. But, um, but you know, so that your seatmate is like trying to get to know you. And I’m just, you know, I always keep it high level, you know, I’m in I work in real estate, Oh, really? What do you do in real estate? Well, residential sales for where and then you know, it always leads? And I’m like, well, actually, it’s a nonprofit. And then, and then I dread that next question, because the question becomes, will, what is your nonprofit for, and this is what I’ve been kind of really illustrates why it’s so hard to deliver. The second I tell someone, my mom was murdered it, it makes things weird. And it makes us cringe on the inside, and it makes us, you know, hopefully feel sadness and empathy. And question, how did this happen? And so it’s that uncomfortability, of, of kind of recognizing that bad things have happened, bad things could happen to us personally, that really kind of make it a hard message to deliver. I’ll also say this, and I think this is important, as I’ve talked to brokers across the country about implementing safety policies, you know, they say, you know, Carl, you know, we want to bring you in, or we want to do more, but, but agents feel as though a safety topic is, you know, the stuff that their mom and dad caught taught them. And it’s kind of basic, they already know it. And even though they might admit that they’re a little sloppy on it, it’s things they already know, so, so between being Uber uncomfortable with, you know, acknowledging some of the realities of the world we live in, it’s also, yeah, it can feel a little basic at times to kind of get back to some of these fundamental, So long answer there, but it is quite a tricky message to deliver.

7:07
Yeah, people think it’ll never happen to them. And then also, just the realistic side of it, you can’t always have someone with you, you can’t always, you know, we’re in the business of internet leads and meeting new people constantly. And you can’t always be on your best behavior and the safety aspect of it, how realistic is it to implement some of these things, and so I can see where the message would definitely be hard to receive even.

7:36
Yeah, you know, and I’m embarrassed to admit this, but you know, I, I lost my brother when I was much younger, to an automobile accident. And for whatever reason, you kind of feel like if you go through a tragedy, you met your quota, you know, like this, this horrible thing happened, and surely our family’s good. And then this super weird thing happens where my mom gets kidnapped and murdered. It’s like, okay, now surely, we’re good. Like, should you know, I found myself in that thing? Like, okay, surely nothing would ever happen again to our family. But I tell you, yeah, just in case, yeah, I’m taking every measure that I can to reduce the risk to myself and my families.

8:16
So just like on a day to day realtor, the things that we do if you’re a realtor, and you’re at an open house, and someone is making you feel uncomfortable, but they aren’t technically doing anything wrong. What should you do? What kind of stories have you heard about, you know, open houses.

8:34
So I’ll just, you guys, no, like, brevity is not my strong suit, but just quickly bust down through some things. One, I heard a story just last week in Louisiana, that an agent said that she was told she was retelling a story of a time that she was made to feel super uncomfortable in an open house and she said that she you know, fake that she was getting a phone call, she stood on the porch. And then this guy was pretty insistent that she come back inside but and his insistence kind of confirmed her, you know, her her instinctual fear. And so she didn’t go back into the property as she said, you know, she made up a reason that that phone call, you know, escalated to her needing to leave the property immediately. So I love that, that taking a phone call excuse another one that I’ve heard from agents, and I haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet. But you know, we’re in the we’re in the day and age of Alexa and these, you know, super secret like nanny cams and you know, it’s so easy for us to be under surveillance and not even know it. And so I’ve I’ve heard these agents tell these stories about they’re like, all of a sudden, like, everything’s going great, but then just like Spidey Sense kicks in, I feel uncomfortable. And so they say that they’re like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know as a courtesy I read in the property in the you know, Agent remarks of this property that they’re getting into They have devices that can, you know, kind of be recording at all times. So if, you know, if we’re interested at all in negotiating, you know this property, just be mindful that they can hear everything we’re saying. And then all of a sudden, it kind of flips it like, oh, well, the anonymity and the possibility of me getting away with a crime has just kind of gone out the window. So I think that’s pretty. It was pretty clever, pretty quick thinking on the part of that agent. And then, of course, like, you know, I use I use a cloud based camera. So hi, mine, I’m not just kind of bluffing in the moment, I actually have a camera sitting right there. That’s live streaming straight up into the cloud at all my open houses. And so it’s kind of like, oh, you’re on camera. So you

10:48
do anything stupid to the open house.

10:51
Oh, my gosh. So this is this is kind of fun. So I personally, so you know, there are a million brands out there. But I use an Amazon Cloud cam, it costs like 100 bucks. And at a no additional fee. So like with the base model, you get the past 24 hours of activity. And so what it does is I take it to my open house, I set it right by my sign and you know, my sign in, and which I typically try to get as close to the front door as I can. And I also important to note that where I live, it’s important that we disclose that the property is under surveillance, especially if you know as the agent that I’m doing it. So it’s always important for us to be mindful of laws related to surveillance. But the cool thing about those cameras is one, it’s cloud based. So it’s automatically shooting that video up into the cloud. So in case you know, a bad guy were to snatch the camera, we’ve got him on camera, the next like other things that I love, it has two way communication. So if my wife, you know, I couldn’t get a buddy to go with me to the open house, you know, kind of back to your point about, you know, let’s be realistic about what we can do. From a safety perspective. Sometimes we can’t always get somebody to sit there with us. It has two way communication. So she can not only she could just have her laptop up at home, be watching the live stream to make sure that I’m safe. And then she can also if she wants to. And we’ve actually tested it, which was pretty hysterical. I was like, Look, I want you to a let’s test this functionality and be made me look super fancy. And so I had my wife Sheikh, so her voice comes over the camera. And she says, you know, hey, Mr. Carter, this is your assistant, Kim. And, you know, just checking to make sure that your open house is going well. You know, the people in the house, they have no idea that that’s not my assistant, that’s just my wife. But it’s kind of cool. And then from you know, I My Favorite Things. And maybe I should admit this, I love it when safety is integrated with other things. Yes. So when I talk to agents about I’m like, okay, yes, your safety is important. But here’s another benefit of using like these cameras. And it’s that I and I’ve done it a couple times, and I cringe, you can go back and review the footage of how you are greeting people as they come to the property and you realize, no wonder these people didn’t want to talk to me. So I’m like the biggest goob or, you know, I sent it like I wasn’t interested or knowledgeable about the property. So there’s some learning that you can do kind of by, you know, replaying your performance. So, anyway, I love that I’m pretty passionate about using that. Another disclaimer I’ll give is that, you know, cloud based means that you need internet to hit the cloud. And I would never want to unless I’m like super good friends with my seller, ask them for their Wi Fi. So I just either use my phone’s hotspot or I also have a separate device one of these little my five bricks that. So I always have internet with me.

13:46
Okay, you mentioned that you put the sign in sheet close to the entrance or near the front, I want to hear about that. And then when someone doesn’t want to sign in and leave their name and number, how do you handle that. So what I lose

14:03
my personal experience is that I had the open house sign in sheet historically, like the way I was taught the way my mama did it, you know, type thing was, you know, put it on the kitchen counter, you have your water, your cookies are good. It’s just the place. That makes sense. But my experience was that I wasn’t I especially if it got a little bit busy, I wasn’t able to properly engage with those people. So they’ve already been in the property for you know, maybe three or four minutes before then I’m looping in, I’m like, Hey, guys, you know, can I get you to sign in, you know, and then we go through our spiel of, you know, we’d like to let the sellers know that they’re, you know, buyers interested in their property and also keeping record of the people that are accessing their property today. So I’ve found that if, you know, and this will sound a little bit more aggressive than I mean for it to, but I found if I can even like I have a little table with a a tablecloth. And it’s like a collapsible table that I keep in a nice tablecloth that I keep in my, in the back of my vehicle that’s kind of with my realtor, all my realtor stuff and a rubber mallet and flashlight and all that stuff. So I found like, I can just bust like if their living room or so whatever it is by the front door, the four year is not really conducive to the sign in sheet, then I can just do like an, like an auto, my realtor setup, and then I’m catching them right there. And I’m like, Hey, welcome. And then they’re so overwhelmed by like, whoa, here’s this, this realtor, the salesperson, and if I want to get past him, I’m going to need to, to, you know, just go and sign in. And as with most safety things, I think that the fewer the words, the better. And I personally don’t use language that, you know, like I’m having you sign in because this is for the safety and the security of myself and the sellers belongings, I don’t use that kind of verbiage, because I think it puts people on the defense. But you know, more makes it you know, just about, you know, we want to let the sellers know that, that you were here today. And then sometimes, you know, if you can tell their hesitancy because they’re like, oh, here we go, another salesperson is going to be hounding me from until the end of time. You know, I can either you know, at that point, find out if they’re working with a realtor and quickly mark them off, or I can, you know, just, you know, just give them the assurance that I’ll just, you know, reach out, reach out one time or something after to see if I can be of assistance. So, yeah, it’s really changed my strategy. And it’s to be more of an active agent and an open house rather than, because what I would find is that for whatever reason, like the kitchen became Command Central. And so I’ve got my son and cheetah got my camera, I’m there, and I don’t want to be an agent that hovers too much. So then I find myself you know, and just this is just true talk here, like, you know, you’re scrolling Instagram before you know it and you’re not selling you know, you’re not doing what’s best for your seller. So yeah, having it right there is has been a game changer for me because it forces me to keep my head in the game.

17:15
It’s funny that you mentioned like you don’t want to jump into like this is for safety, we need to document you and like scare people. But this weekend, I got someone that responded to one of my listings on Zillow. And they just emailed to my unit and said, Hey, can we see this property? Sunday at 1230. And they didn’t say anything else. And it just said, like his name. And I haven’t just come off the interview with you. I was pretty sensitive about it. And so I just responded and said, Absolutely. I’d love to set that up for you. I do have a few questions. Did you have a Realtor you were working with? Where are you in this process? And he responded like two days later annoyed, sort of just kind of like, look, we just want to see the house, we don’t have an agent, can you show us or not? And I thought, you know, I don’t know this person. I’m gonna just and this is all via email, I’m just going to be honest. And I responded and said, Absolutely, I can help you. You know, like any job, I just tell my sellers that anybody that I’m bringing into their home has been checked out. Per our licensing law, we uphold a level of professionalism. And so I just have a few questions. And I’d be happy to show you the house after we get those questions answered. And it seemed like he responded well to that, like just being like, I guess, you know, that makes sense. The realtor brand as a whole isn’t always taken professionally. They think that we’re just door openers, they just want us to be on demand on call be there when they say they don’t want us to actually have paperwork, an actual like, what if you went into they see the doctor, and they give you the you know, sign in sheet that’s eight pages, like what they do with all your information and you’re like, look, I don’t really want to fill this out, can I just see the doctor and we should be as Realtors upholding some professionalism as as well, before we just jump in the car and go meet them at their beck and call, you know. So I liked that you’re implementing that.

19:26
Yeah, and I just have to say that was so beautifully said you really need to make a transcript from from this, this podcast and really get those kind of build that out into an article. And it’s funny that you said that too because I had an opportunity last night to just kind of sit down I was asked to write an article that will be released by rismedia on the anniversary my mom’s death that’s coming up and and in my closing statements within that, that that article I just I pointed out on how there is such a, there’s such a call for internally within our industry, we recognize the need for us to not only increase the public’s perception of our professionalism, but also once been real as a whole. We all there, there’s just some things that we can do to avoid it. And so I, I encouraged agents to consider safe practices being a part of professionalism. So sure, so you just kind of gave me a high five on that without even knowing so thank you. You gave me some validation, I needed

20:33
safety really go hand in hand, right? Absolutely. Really, truly.

20:37
Okay. So tell us about you. We know in your courses that you talk about the importance of screening and verifying the identity. So it would apply to what Alyssa has just said, you’re getting a new client? How do you screen and verify those people?

20:52
You know, you know, kind of thinking back to the last time we talked, you know, about my sweet mom. And I will tell you, you know, maybe it’s a little short sighted, but so many things that, that I’ve tried to build out related to safety and opinions that have formed about safe practices. Go back to my mom’s story. And I think through before I recommend anything, I think through would this have saved my mom’s life. And so I feel wholeheartedly that my mom would have made different decisions had she known the true identity of these people, and been able to verify that they weren’t coming from out of state, they were just coming from across town, had she been able to find out that the husband was a seventh time felon. And so whenever I think about screening, you know, I know the example that you just gave, and the way you worded that with that client was so, so eloquent, I can’t promise that my that I am nearly as skilled as that at doing it. But I do encourage agents to, to think about the screening process. And some agents are perfectly fine. If someone sends them a copy of their driver’s license via text, they’re like, hey, if I’ve got they say their name is John Smith, they send me a copy of their driver’s license via text, it says John Smith, they’re fun. There are others that go to their state, you may or may not know that there are state resources that exist, you know, you think of like, it’s all good for all bartenders to know how to spot a fake ID. And so there’s state resources for each each driver’s license anyway, that will show you the components of a real deal. And so that’s another layer. And then if you kind of keep thinking about the layers that you can add on, like insisting that you meet it in a public place, or some agents, you know, and my hat is off to them, because I haven’t been able to take this hard line in the sand. It’s not just a public place, they insist upon the office. And the and they do that so that their other agents, a they know that there’s surveillance in the buildings that can catch them on camera, and they know that other agents can meet them. But I’ll say, I don’t know about how you all’s experiences, but it’s like 90% of the time, unfortunately, my office is just not convenient to that first property.

23:19
So logistically, it just doesn’t make sense.

23:22
You know, it’s just yeah, it’s just a sad fact. Um, so so so there’s that and I love all those different layers that we can add. You know, we have on on our on our website in our has it on there, as you know, there are different versions floating all around of a client profile form that can be used whenever for that initial consult. And so it not only makes sure that that you’re capturing kind of their their background and bow, but also that your cap, you’re asking the right questions and in a consistent, appropriate way on how you can serve them and what they’re looking for in a home. I love, love, love that. And, you know, I don’t know if we touched on it last time. But you know, one of the most damning pieces of evidence of my mom’s trial was that client file that she had. And although, you know, most of the information that had been provided by the bad guys was was, you know, fiction. They once they figured out who the people on the other side of those lies, were there was actually a really powerful piece of evidence. One last point I’ll make on this is technology related. You know, I know we talked last time about how the bad guys use Google and Facebook and property records against my mom to profile her. And of course, we can reverse that. And we can do that for the people that we’re working with. accesses public records, but I use a piece a smartphone app. So a bit of technology, in addition to that, so I don’t know if you guys have heard of the app called forewarn it’s fo r e w AR N and it is as simple as I mean, it’s the most simple software and what it’s really like this simple interface that goes out and hits all these databases. And so how it works is that you get a call from a new, a new lead possible client, and you have their phone number, of course, they give you their name and information, whatever, but even basic information, if it’s just their name, and so you, this app works with that phone number. And so you take that phone number and you copy paste it into this app, and it goes out and it searches this database, all these databases to see if, if the name matches that phone number, at any point in time. And so they’ll that’s not going to tell you if now there are things like if I were to pull it up right now, you would see my name, every car I’ve ever owned, every place I’ve ever lived. If I had a criminal record, you’d see that there and also some financial records, such as like bankruptcies that, that that will live there. So it’s pretty robust. And interesting, you know, really, really helpful information. One thing that I’ll say is, it’s, it’s, it’s a cool tool. So back to our point about, Gosh, I’m getting excited about DMC, I get all fired up about it. But one thing that’s cool back to that point of it, a resource, not just being safe, but also helping our business be more efficient. What I do is that if I get like all of us do nowadays, we get these calls from these telemarketers that are calling us from what it looks like a local number, but in fact, it’s who knows where you know, for some reason, I take that phone number, and I copy paste it into this app. And if it returns results with names, I know that that that’s probably worth a call back just to see if it could be a potential client. But if it doesn’t return any results, I know that it’s a spoof number being used by a telemarketer. So I not only have something that’s helping me verify the identity of client, but I also have something that’s helping me kind of, you know, filter out the spam. Yeah. And so I stinking love that app. You know, just one thing, just that last point on that it is important to note and people are have given me feedback, and it’s absolutely spot on. You know, simply verifying a person’s identity alone isn’t isn’t enough to, you know, give you this calm assurance that this, this person couldn’t have mal intent. So it really goes to show how we have to continue to build out these layers. And go ahead and try to assess intent through those initial consults.

27:53
Interesting. So sometimes, like we get calls, where you’re going into a client’s home for a listing interview, so maybe it’s not buyers, maybe you’re not meeting them to show houses, you’re going to their house, any specific precautions you would recommend for that.

28:09
So just quickly, um, one, always let people know, you know, do the background checks as best you can let people know exactly where you’re going even for listing appointments and listing presentations. And if possible, when you’re there, bring another agent, or someone, anyone. And back to my example earlier, where I had my wife pose as my assistant, you know, we’re not trying to have them pose as an agent and break all kinds of rules, but they just sit there, maybe they note take, and, you know, to say they’re, they’re an apprentice or an assistant, whatever it is. That’s a great way and it kind of makes you look, you know, back to my mess, my fancy word there. look fancy. I’ll say, I’ve heard stories about and I’m really glad that you raised the point because although rare, there have been some really crazy stories of agents being lured into these listing appointments. That you really would think that that would be a safe zone, because the people own the property, obviously they’re going to with their anonymity is stripped why would they why would they do crazy things, but some of these people are off the rockers, or, you know, or they just have criminal intent. Or they have just quick quick other stories to get your mind thinking about listing appointment safety. They have I know a horrible story about an agent that they either you know there for a listing appointment appointment, and there was an an adult child lived there with with disabilities, and they had mental disabilities and so they, they really, they were afraid when they saw a new face and so They really lashed out at the at the agent, it was a pretty scary situation. And then another one. And this is one of the craziest stories that that I’ve heard is that they so imagine you get a call, and it’s someone and they say, Hey, you know, we live here we also we, we want to sell, but we want to stay in the same neighborhood, like we love this neighborhood, we just want a different house. We’ve been eyeballing that one down the street, would you go and just see if they would be interested in selling that to us. And we will, you know, we’ll use use the realtor, you’ll get both sides. Like, it’ll just be like, and you sell our house. I mean, it sounds like a dream come true. If you can get this set, you know, this homeowner to sell. But the agent didn’t know that the intention of these these people to get her to go to this house to see if this person was interested in selling was not what they said at all, these homeowners had found out that a sexual predator had moved into the neighborhood. And so once they found that out, they wanted to buy them out and get them out of the neighborhood. But they sent without giving her the heads up at all, they sent an agent right in to have that conversation with a person that had just recently gotten out of prison for rape. And so it’s like, you know, uh, you know, I don’t want to ever make anyone think that, you know, some of these, you know, it’s like, sometimes we get overwhelmed by safety, you know, all that could happen. And so we kind of throw our hands up, and we’re just like, you know, what, if it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go. And I don’t want us to encourage that kind of that kind of reaction at all. But we do have to be mindful?

31:51
Well, I think we have a long way to go. Because one of the main reasons, for example, asking someone for their driver’s license, I would I have done that before. And a lot of the kickback from the public is none of the other agents asked me for that. It’s hard when I say, hey, as a licensed Realtor, it’s my duty and my responsibility to vet everybody that comes into my sellers home, make sure that if they liked the house, they’re able to purchase it before they pack up the dog and the kids and leave the house. And they go, Well, the other realtor said they would just show it to me. And they are not asking any questions. And that I think is a problem within the realtor brand. Is that there are is a new agents, you know, you’re so hungry for it. You don’t want to lose the client, you’re just you’ll do anything. But it has to get to a point where as a group, we’re all consistent with asking for the same things. And maybe at some point, we can get the commission or NAR to implement that sort of like the blue, can we replace the blue pamphlet, the blue agency pamphlet with making it a requirement to get a driver’s license, right, you know, something that is a requirement by law, that if you don’t do you could be fined. So that way, there’s some consistency and that that would be something in the future to fight for. But yeah, the problem is, is that we’re not doing any of it. Most of us, most of us are just what we call Pop Tart agents, you get a call you run and go, you don’t want to miss the sale, you’re so hungry, you just go. And there are no precautions being taken at all really. Right.

33:28
Yeah, and you know, to completely agree with you, I want to share kind of another, another angle that hopefully we can come out with just that particular scenario. And I see it in the I don’t you guys may be familiar with this. But in the de Moines, Iowa market, and for their board, they have a form that is, you know, it’s not like just some person made it up. Like it’s literally like their their association created, it worked with legal, you know, so they have this form, that as part of when you sit down and you’re you’re writing, you know, you’re you’re listing a house with the seller, there’s an additional form, and it gives the seller, the ability to essentially require that any person that walks through that property has been verified, that their identity has been verified. And so coming at it from that way. It’s we’re in like in your scenario, you you’re advocating for your client, and you’re showing your professionalism. This form kind of forces it. Now finding, you know, you know, policing that is probably, you know, a challenge, but I think that that’s a really cool step, and a pretty powerful leadership that they’re showing there in Des Moines.

34:46
That’s awesome. Well, at least puts it on the radar for the agents where this is a common form, you know, as a new agent, sometimes you don’t even think all that through until it’s too late. But if they said these are the forms and here oh yeah, I shouldn’t be At these people before they, you know, come in most of us come into the industry blindly. And we don’t have a clue how it’s going to work and, and having someone say, This is what our office does. And really, I do think this is something that brokers can instill safety in their agents, and I use my broker as an excuse all the time when I want to put a policy in place for me, whatever that policy is, I’ll just say, my broker requires me to do X, and then I’ve got someone that I’m pushing an awful

35:31
Great, yeah, Carl, what do you feel are the top five safety tips that every realtor should? What would you top five?

35:41
So we’ve hit on some of them already. One, you know, to, to screen consistently. And, and by screen consistently, I think that, you know, we should screen and with the same consistency that we apply fair housing, I found and I’ve heard stories of, you know, and I’ve seen it happen, where we only require ID or we only require meeting at the office, if, if it’s a you know, a person with a deep voice or a person of color, and that is just not okay. So can and inconsistency, just make sure a it just makes sure that we get everyone. And it’s just the right thing to do. So, from there, you know, and, and, gosh, you know, even when we talk about my mom’s story, you know, we we know that when she was when she had to make the decision outside that house that day, do I go in? Or do I not? We know she had that sinking feeling in her stomach. And related to you know, just that, that instinctual, this isn’t what we agreed to, gosh, Should I do it. And so I know the you know, agents don’t come to safety training, because they don’t want to hear somebody tell them yet again, to trust their gut, but my goodness, trust your gut. So those are big, I would say to something that would really encourage is to I’ll say it high level, and then I’ll drill it down really quickly to make sense of it, is to set up a buddy system. And so you know, I is my hope for every person listening to this, that you have a you have a small circle of people in your life that you are absolutely, you are so close to them that you are absolutely okay with taking your phone out and sharing, you know, having that share location turned on at all times. So you’ve had you’ve sat down and you’ve had the conversation, like, you know, I’m not turning this on, because, you know, for what, you know, I just want you if you ever need to know where I am, I trust you. And I trust that you won’t abuse my privacy through that. But it’s my hope that everyone has that. Yeah. And I also it’s my hope, you know, I one thing that I love, is that there, there’s this, this team out in Colorado Springs that I met. And so they, they have this, this system setup, which is so funny to me, but it’s they, like have these emojis and each emoji they’ve set like a like, you know, it means something. And it’s like random emojis. It’s not like, you know, like, a person, you know, like fire for trouble, like, you would literally never know, it’s like the Apple emoji means I’m doing great. And what they do is that they just like, and they say they don’t even have a formal process, but it’s become so ingrained that they do it all the time. Like if I were to sit here right now. And you know, I’m thinking about you guys. And so I’m like, you know, I’m just going to send them the, you know, whatever that the emoji is, is that is it the thumbs up emoji, whatever it is, that we agree to. And that emoji just means Hey, I just needed to know you’re okay. And so if you reply back something a little shady, you know, the shady emoji, then I know that I need to come after you. So to that point of, of a buddy system is that it’s not that you necessarily follow me around physically, because we know that’s not realistic. It’s that we have developed such a great communications process that and trust that I’m cool with you, knowing my business and I trust you with my business. So yeah, but those I don’t know that that’s five but that’s I think that’s a good list.

39:42
I really think that’s, that’s all we have are questions. Is there anything else that you didn’t get to touch on that you want to touch on? Are you feeling like we’ve kind of got a good overview of what you do and especially what the foundation does

40:00
Um, you know, I, I only thing I would add is that, you know, we talked as we’ve talked earlier about safety kind of being, you know, in layers, and I hope that everyone will just really think of it that way. Because I have seen many agents that they have one resource, and they put all of their confidence for their personal safety in that resource. So that resource may be an app, it may be the fact that they’re, you know, their husband is a police officer, and he accompanies them most of the time, or it may be that they carry a handgun. And so you see, a lot of people just kind of throw caution to the wind, because they’re like, Well, I have this one thing, right. And I really hope that in some way, you know, my words today in our conversation, that, that it kind of gets you thinking about how multifaceted safety really needs to

40:58
be. Yeah, and I know that you have so many resources on your website, and through the foundation, if anybody wants to get in touch with you ask more questions, look at your resources, what’s the best way for them to reach you? Or where should they go?

41:13
Yeah, so just a couple of things quickly. So to the point of our website, it’s Beverly Carter foundation dot o RG. And if if I were to tell someone that never been to the website, where to go, I promise, I’m not going to send you to the donate part of the website. That where I would go, if I were you is click on the training tab, and then click on downloadable resources. There you will find one page resources that you can literally just print off, and you can take it to your sales meeting or whatever. There’s actually one that will help you help guide a conversation with a seller about their safety. Those are really great, they’re really quick, and they’re packed full of really good sided information, no fluff. And then if you want to get in touch with me, my email addresses Carl at Beverly corner foundation dot o RG and I will just say that I’m not only a resource for for all things safety and you know, kind of being a co victim. But you know, a lot of realtors have a passion for doing more in their communities. So there are realtors that want to start nonprofits or get involved in nonprofits. You know, having built this from scratch, knowing nothing. I would love to spare anyone that’s interested, you know, some some growing pains by sharing some lessons learned and they’re so happy to be a resource for anyone.

42:45
That’s awesome. Well, who would you like to toast to at the end of this episode? Yes, it was your person.

42:52
So so my toast as I sit here holding my my sugar free Monster energy drink, which means I won’t sleep for two days. My toast goes to a board member from our Beverly Carter foundation. She’s also a realtor. Her name is Jen stanbro. And she lost her best friend. Her name was Ashley Oakland. And Ashley was sitting in a model home selling in April of 2011. And someone came in and murdered her and they have never there’s never been justice for Ashley. But her friend Jin has now like linked like locked arms with me. And I mean, she is feisty and brilliant and fired up about safety and I will toast to her every day.

43:49
Okay, let’s toast to gems to her. Yes, thank you so much, Carl. We can’t wait for your episode to air. And I think it’s totally fine to say if you learn something from these two episodes and have it in your heart to donate to the Beverly Carson nation. I think that you should and I think that it was a great calls and it’s realtor safety masks and that’s what this is all about. So thank you so much for coming. Yes.

44:15
It was awesome.

44:16
Oh my pleasure. I feel like we’re like old friends now. We need to do this every week.

44:24
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44:32
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44:40
Don’t forget to send in your wins See you next week.

44:58
This is the goodbye

45:07
This is the goodbye