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People Before Property · Death Before Decay

• Speaker 3: Welcome everyone to the Death Before Decay podcast. I am Dr. Elliott Hummuston. I'm here with my usual co-host, John Erline. Speaker 2: thanks for having me again. Speaker 3: Thanks for coming on the podcast, John. Speaker 2: You're very welcome. Speaker 3: We're in our temporary studio right now because John's studio is very hot and his AC is very loud. Yes. Speaker 2: Correct. Speaker 3: So we set up this nice little space in my office and it's been nice work out of. Speaker 2: Love it. Yeah. Thank you. You're Speaker 3: Welcome. Speaker 2: we got options. We do Speaker 3: Our backgrounds might be changing, but the people stay the same. Speaker 2: That's right. Speaker 3: today we're here with Michelle Hayward. Yep. Speaker 1: How are ya? I'm great. I'm excited to be here. This is my first podcast, so it's Yeah. Speaker 2: Perfect. Excited. What better people to do your first podcast with? Speaker 1: Literally what I've been saying all week to everybody I know. Speaker 3: I like it. I like it. John will take the compliments as long as you're laying them out. but yeah, our guest today, Michelle, is somebody that John's worked with professionally and I've worked with through both of my businesses. And then I found out we have ties through her grandparents and stuff like that. So it just seems like I went to school with your sister. Like it's just full circle moment. Speaker 2: Totally Sheboygan. It is. You don't believe Speaker 1: Totally sure. Why gonna let you have all those connections? Speaker 3: just tell us about a little bit about yourself. What do you do? Like what what's life like right now? Speaker 1: Life's a little crazy. Yeah. Real estate, we're in the busy seasons, so Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: everything is moving constantly. Buyers are wanting to be out looking at houses, finding ways to negotiate really creatively. Cool. The market is still really hot, which has been really fun. So I get to be creative in how I write offers, which I thrive on. Okay. The negotiating piece is really fun. so I sell real estate. That's what I do on a day to day basis. Yeah. Speaker 2: And and just like residential, do you do any commercial? Speaker 1: I will do all of it. Okay. Outside of leases, I will do commercial, residential, vacant land, anything. Speaker 2: And how much commercial to residential do you do? Speaker 1: I would say ninety-five percent residential and maybe five percent commercial. There's Speaker 2: Okay, so an opportunity there. Speaker 1: a huge opportunity there. Yes. And I have a he a team and I've got Jenna on my team who has been really hot into commercial. She's gotten some really good deals going and we're having fun with that too. So we're learning, which is amazing. Speaker 2: And Jenna is very cool, by the way. Speaker 1: Yes, she is. Yes. Speaker 3: Right on. Michelle, one thing I've admired about you to like since I met you is like your energy. This probably like translates really well into real estate that you yeah. You don't seem to wait around for a good opportunity. Like if it comes up you're jumping on it. Speaker 1: So something I love doing is if I'm out and about, which I do all the time, dinner, drinks, whatever that looks like, if I overhear someone just in a little bit talking about real estate, my business card is out so fast and I'm saying, hi, I'm Michelle and I sell real estate. Let's talk about what you're doing right now. I Speaker 2: I'm gonna be your new best friend. Speaker 1: am that awkward person at a bar or a restaurant and I will interrupt your conversation. Speaker 2: And she's fun. She's got a great icebreaker because she's like, I either have coffee or diochoke running through my veins. Always. Speaker 1: Always. It's literally hooked up every day. Speaker 3: But that's awesome because I think too many people wait for things to happen. And that's not you can't Speaker 1: Yeah, no. No waiting in this business. It moves too. Speaker 3: nope. yeah, I think p there are people who like spend years making decisions and then there are people who like prepare themselves for decisions for years, so when that the opportunity comes up, you're ready to make it. Speaker 1: Yes. When I think in real estate, it's not even about selling the house, it's about building that relationship with someone. So if I can go up to someone in a random spot, don't even know they can see how outgoing I am. They can see that I wanna get to know them. It's really about that connection and it's not even about the house or the sale. I don't care about that piece of it. It's meeting that person, it's connecting with them, it's getting to know them. It's being friends with them and meeting their relatives and their family and the people that make their lives really fun. That's that is my business. Yeah, it's the relationships. Speaker 3: Well that's how you get referrals too and get other people to work on and work with you. Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I mean, like you are facilitating what I call a BFP. Big fucking purchase. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 2: You know what I mean? So like it's the biggest thing someone's gonna Exactly. You know, so the BFP, right? Like especially with real estate, like people need their handheld and trust. Speaker 1: Absolutely. The trust is the biggest piece. Right. I mean, I am I'm asking people on a daily basis to trust me by signing a contract that they didn't have to read through. They have to sit with me and say, Okay, we're trusting you. Like you wrote this correctly and we're like we're we're listening to you and the biggest purchase of their life. What an honor. Like what an honor to actually sit with. What an Speaker 3: I love how you put it that way. Speaker 1: honor. I think it's so cool. Like I get to sign documents with people and then help them buy a house to create a home for their families. Speaker 2: They're life changing moments. Speaker 1: Huge. And it's such an honor and I'm so humbled every day by it. Like it's it has nothing to do with the paycheck at the end of it. I love the day-to-day hustle of it and meeting those people. Amazing. Speaker 2: That's awesome. Speaker 3: Sweet. I like I like it. Like you strike when the iron's hot. Like I think it's about like for me, like the re like some people think I make like split second decisions. It's usually 'cause I've been thinking about this like opportunity coming up for so long. Yeah. like when you first came to see me, you're like, I want to miss a line. I'm like Speaker 1: Just do it. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we can do that. Like that's how much it's gonna cost. You're like, Yeah, I already know. We're d we're ready to go. Speaker 2: Is this the part where we talk about our experiences and working with her? Okay, you go first. Speaker 3: So like I was like, this is great because she's already thought about it. I don't have to sit here like explaining it. Like I can just go through this is what it's gonna take to happen, this is what it's gonna cost. what questions do you have? And you had a few, but like you'd already thought about it. Speaker 1: Done. Like, I already knew my sister has been here to do it. Yeah. I went through that whole process with her of watching her love it, and I was like, why would I not do this? Sweet. Speaker 3: Yeah. I love that. those are like a lot of the times the easiest patients to work with. Like don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the process of like sitting down and like explaining the explaining things to people. But like at the end of the day, it's kinda nice to just sit down and be like, Okay, what are you looking for? Great, I can we can make that happen. Yeah. Yeah. And the same thing when you came up here, like you like, I want this and that, and like you Kayla is like I mean, Kayla's really awesome about her job. Yeah, and yeah, like we were happy. Speaker 1: Can I open another syringe of filler? And I like, Go for it if I need it. Open it and let's do it. Speaker 3: She's good yeah, I mean she is she is like Kayla is the epitome of our like own your glow sig absolutely Speaker 1: Is the biggest hype woman. She's gonna like my god. Love that. Speaker 3: great person I like that Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 3: she can drive me I think insane sometimes but Speaker 2: But your friends are supposed to. Speaker 3: yeah and and and like I always say I have the greatest team on the planet. They don't like maybe there are days when I like I I'm a little overwhelmed. But Kayla owns that part of our brand so well Speaker 1: I trusted her and I loved loved the results. It was so good. Speaker 3: Has this always been your like personality of just making that split second? yeah. Speaker 2: So you know it's funny the first so the first time I met you, so my wife and I have this girlfriend that was looking for a house, so we were looking at homes. So we we go to the home and there's Michelle and the lender, Gretchen, our mutual friend Gretchen, and who I adore, she's an amazing human being, and she's like she introduced us. Yes. And it Speaker 1: had your sunglasses on the whole time and I was like, is this guy? Speaker 2: Prescription But anyway, so like we met and you were like, dude, I need new photos, whatever. Blah blah blah I was like, Yeah, man, like let's connect. And then like we connected, you came to the studio. First thing out of your mouth was, I'm a decision maker. Right? Like, yeah. I'm not gonna sit there and stall, I'm a decision maker, right? And then like as we started to build our professional relationship, right? And with my process where I take the photo, you see it right away, you know, you're like, yes, no, yes, no. And now like when we do our sessions, she's in there, like I get to do the buttons. She's she's working on the buttons, she's like knows what's going on. my god. Like we talk about what works, not what you like, right? Like what works for your brand. Speaker 1: It's the brand piece of it. And that's where you pull me back a lot in those is 'cause I'm like, that photo's really good and like it's kind of fun, but does it fit the brand? And that's what we're we're looking for. Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean marketing's so obsessive. like when I put together my billboards, I put my face on them because that's what all the real estate agents were doing. And you have to build a personal relationship with your real estate. Hundred percent. The whoever's putting their hands in your mouth, you want to have some sort of Speaker 2: You know, when you say it like that, man, that's actually I never thought about like so Dr. Ellie puts his hands in my mouth. Speaker 1: True though. Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it it it so like that that was my goal from the beginning was to build like trust through that. And like I mean that's been like a I that's kind of like a like a hallmark of like advertising for real estate agents is using photos. Yeah. Like so they yeah you get a f who am I working with like Speaker 1: And then add the social media piece to it and the photos that you can do with, you know, Canva and adding everything to it. We've had so much fun doing that. I mean our photos are not just that standard we sit here and smile. Like we're using our arms, we're pointing at things and we're finding fun ways to use them. Speaker 2: You guys are showing personality. yeah. Like and I think that that's what Speaker 3: Super important. Yeah. Yeah. That we do it in our social media for the dental office right now. Like we do goofy stuff just as much as we do like our professional things. Because people want to know that we're still like we're still just human beings. We s enjoy our jobs. Have fun. Go do it. Yeah, because then people know that. my team enjoys their job, like that kind of thing. It's it's super important. Speaker 1: It's the relatable piece. It's that if you can watch a video of someone being goofy or I actually I think one of my favorite things to watch are outtake of reels and stuff. Because you see the real person. Speaker 3: god. Speaker 1: Like you actually get to see the human being behind the camera and they're being themselves and I think that's so much fun. Speaker 3: How did you end up in real estate? Speaker 1: gosh. my mom. My mom's been a realtor for over twenty years. Okay. And I had found myself unemployed and in a situation I I've done a few things. I worked at Color Credit Union. I was a branch manager. I've run a gym for a couple years. I was an insurance for a couple of years. I kind of have a pulse on a bunch of different stuff. Speaker 2: You were trying things out. Speaker 1: I was young. Who what eighteen year old wants to figure out what she wants to do? Speaker 3: Yeah, Speaker 1: Right. Like I tried college. I dropped out. Speaker 3: So did I honestly Speaker 2: You are a doctor. Unless there's like an online certificate program. Speaker 3: No Speaker 1: Dentistry like Speaker 3: no no no no no. Accredited university. Speaker 1: Put your hands in my mouth on Mondays. Speaker 3: So But yeah, I I get it. Like yeah. Speaker 2: Okay, so so then so you let let's talk about how you got into real estate then. So your mom she did for over twenty years Speaker 1: Been in it for over 20 years at this point. she was with a firm. It was just a natural fit for me. so I started there. I did three years with them, and then I just I grew out of it a little bit in terms of I wanted to be with a bigger company that offered more tools and platforms to be on. Sure. So I landed at Keller Williams and I started with a team, the bross group. Trisha is one of my best friends and one of my best mentors I've ever had in real estate. And even just as a a woman owning a business, she has been just profound in how I do things. It's been amazing. so I actually did that for three years and then I got the itch to do more, which was the birth of Hearthstone Realty Group. I knew I wanted to have my own team and have agents that report to me and I get to guide them and teach them and Speaker 3: The mentoring aspect. Speaker 1: Me too. I love it. I was literally on the phone with an agent on the way here. Yeah. She got an accepted offer on a new property. teaching her how to do those the back side of it. I love it. Speaker 3: Yeah. When I love it. When I was looking to hire another dentist at the office last year, like that was the big thing is like, do you want someone established who can like crank out production, blah blah blah? I'm like, no, I want somebody who wants to be mentored. Like teach them. Yeah. Teach them how to do it right. Yeah. So they're like, Do you you'll take a new grad, which is like in the dental business world, if you're not like a corporation, if you're like a private practice, they you don't usually look for new grads because they're not fast. Speaker 1: They have to establish patients and Speaker 3: Establish patience, establish speed, establish confidence. And I'm like, I can give them all that. Like that you can teach that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a better thing. Speaker 1: Find the right personality the person that you could that's teachable and then teach Speaker 3: Right. And we'll sit to the standards that I have set for the practice too. I'm not just hiring an employer. Yeah. Speaker 1: You've created your brand, your standards. Yep. Find someone that can like raise to that. Speaker 3: And Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Speaker 1: That's my day to day. Speaker 3: what was the biggest surprise when it came to like getting into real estate then? Like for you? Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Strictly commission based. you have to plan. You people think real estate agents make so much money that we just bring in boatloads of money by the truck. Absolutely not. We pay so much in splits and insurance. I mean we don't have health insurance. Yeah. I we gotta pay for that separately than it just coming off your paycheck automatically. Like taxes As a Speaker 3: Yeah, separately. Speaker 1: business owner, you get that. There's you don't get that standard paycheck where you have all the deductions and just get this dollar month that's yours to spend every month. Like you have to plan for that. And as a commission base, if you don't have deals coming in, you're not getting paid. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: There's no money. Speaker 3: What's the thing you love most about the profession then? Is it the mentoring aspect of things right now or is it Speaker 1: It's twofold. If you take it from the team lead part of it, it's the mentoring. I absolutely love helping my team grow. Cool. from a client perspective, it's definitely the relationships. I've had clients that I have one actually it's a few clients. this is probably the best story out of my entire real estate career. my eye doctor referred me to her friends, they're twins. Sold them both houses, have sold their houses and sold them other houses. Now I've sold their parents' house, got them into land, they've built a house, I've sold their grandparents' condo, got them into condo, sold a condo. Like all of a sudden one connection becomes a dozen. And then you're getting a standard or a constant like two to three transactions just from that initial conversation. So like that relationship that started it, it just continues to grow. That's one of my favorite things about it. And now these the twins are my best friends. So like we see each other every week. Speaker 2: So from like a mentorship leadership standpoint, have is this does this just come naturally to you or have you invested in any sort of like training? Has Keller Williams like provided any like cause you said like you were looking for, you know, like platforms and tools like Speaker 1: we have Keller Williams, our specific market center in our office. We have an amazing leadership team that is there for me no matter what. If I have questions around how should I handle this with someone, I can reach out to it. So even though I'm a I'm self-employed, I'm my own business owner, I still have this huge array of people I can reach out to, which is amazing. Speaker 3: So the mentor has mentors. Yes. I think that's always Speaker 1: That's so amazing. Speaker 2: I mean you always gotta have a guy. Today. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. You said you called yours. Speaker 2: I did. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. Speaker 1: I mean I have a every two weeks I have a one on one with mine. Yeah. With my my market center team leader. Speaker 2: we pause on that for a sec? Like just the whole mentor thing. And at what point in your life are you kind of like, Okay, like I'm doing good, I'm making good decisions, but I need that reassurance that like I'm heading in the right direction? Speaker 3: That happens with me pretty n not s as often as it used to, but occasionally like when a procedure goes like doesn't go the way I planned it or you know, hey, there was some sort of complication that came up and I handled it. Sometimes I just need to like call someone and be like, I did good, right? Like Yeah. Speaker 1: I did it and it was okay. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah, like I know that like my decision was clinically sound, Speaker 2: That is okay. And you know what, man, mildly today, like that's how it was for me. Yeah. You know, because like I I think we're all pretty hard on ourselves. Yeah. Right. Like we're always like we could do better, right? Like we can always do better. You know, good enough is not an option. Speaker 1: As a business owner, when you're running everything, how often are you told good job? Given that pat on the back. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Like, even though they're we're the ones running everything, that pat on the back is still really important. Because Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: more than likely all of us were the top of everything we've always done. That's when we got to this point. You're good at what you did. And you always had a pat on the back from a teacher or someone who was in your life helping you grow. Speaker 2: I didn't get any from my teachers. I was not doing well there. Thanks. But when I started focusing on what I liked, then you know, it was different. But yeah. Speaker 1: Well that's why I don't think eighteen year olds should have to decide what they're doing. Agreed. As an adult, try a few things. Speaker 3: So let's talk about BFP. Like, so buying a house is like one of the biggest decisions you make. I bought my first house when I went to dental school. So I decided I was like I I lived in Milwaukee for three years. I'm like my rent got increased like two weeks before we get noticed two weeks before finals every final exams every time. Like I cannot take time to stop studying to look for an apartment right now. So I did not want that to happen to me again. yeah. Like why shouldn't you someone else? Put someone's mortgage. Yeah. Pay your own. Right. So for you, you say the client relationship is really important. Tell us about a client you'll never forget, whether it be a good one or a bad one, and you can use you can use I I kind of want to hear about Speaker 2: Go with the the juicy one. She might not be able to say anything. Speaker 1: Honestly, I like I don't run across too many of them. Really? Speaker 3: That's good. Speaker 1: I'm really good in the front. Speaker 2: I'm gonna say like I feel like you take control. I do. Speaker 3: And you filter out the ones that you can't help? Speaker 1: Sometimes, yes. And like I hate saying no to business, but at some like at some point you don't really know what you want in a house, you shouldn't be buying one. If you're Speaker 3: You have to be Speaker 1: not willing to listen to the professional, like go think about it more. Like go talk to your financial advisor, talk to the lender, see what you can actually do. Like, yeah, it just Speaker 2: Separate your needs from your wants. Yeah. Speaker 1: So I take pride in my buyer consult. I love doing a buyer consult, especially with first time home buyers, because they're usually younger. Yeah. They don't have a clue. They're so green. And I get to take understand Speaker 3: No they don't know what any of the loans are. Speaker 1: the programs. They don't understand what an offer purchase looks like Speaker 3: Yeah, what's an FA? Speaker 1: by your agency. Like right. They don't know any of it. And it's so fun. I like to sit down and it usually takes an hour and a half, two hours sometimes. Speaker 3: That's so awesome that you did that 'cause I really didn't have that. Like Yeah, Speaker 1: A lot of agents don't do it. They just go on the phone. When I do this, you know everything that's happening. I I always say if I can do it and figure it out I will without your an answer from you. But if I need you, you're gonna hear from me. Yeah. And you'll never be in the dark. If you're in the dark I didn't do my job. Speaker 3: That's awesome. We have that with patients every once in a while. Like our new patient exam where you go through the doctor instead of the hygienist, like a lot of dental offices, is for like me and or Dr. Butler to develop the relationship with the patient. Yeah. but also to figure out if that person's gonna be a right fit. And we don't turn a lot of people away, but it happens every yeah. Speaker 1: It's okay to do that. I mean you're creating an environment that you like to be in, right. Your team likes to be in. Yeah. Speaker 3: 'Cause if they're a nightmare for my staff, I'm gonna hear about it. Speaker 1: Well that's just it. Then it's a nightmare for you. Speaker 2: I got a story. I Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: got a story. You ready for it? Speaker 1: This lady from Carstone Realtor came in and she always Speaker 3: No. Speaker 2: No, but like this kind of goes back to when like, you know, when we're all fortunate enough to have like a good amount of work and sometimes it does feel good to say no. So and unfortunately, like I had a situation where I there was a, you know, I was gonna go do a branding shoot. I go there, Speaker 3: yeah. Speaker 2: I go there and I do the scout, I take reference photos, everything, and I do like to meet people when I know I'm going to be photographing them. I'm okay if I don't get to, but like in this particular case, like I just wanted to say hi. So my key point of contact was like, I'm gonna go get one of the people you're gonna photograph. And then she comes back, she's like, Well, she didn't want to meet you. And she also said that when you come back, don't wear the cologne that you were wearing because she doesn't like the way it smells. And I was like and you know what? And I I know, and I was just like, you know what? I don't need to do this. Speaker 1: Then I'm I'm out. Speaker 2: You know, and there were a lot of times where I would have been like, I'll just deal with it because like, you know, you need the work, right? But fortunately, I didn't have to say yes to it. But to be a Speaker 1: That level where you don't have to say yes to everything is so it's freeing. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Speaker 3: It's freeing. But there's also like pride in like learning how to work with difficult people too. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you can get through like like if I can get through a procedure with a patient who like had a panic attack at their last dentist, like that feels good. Like Speaker 1: I didn't go to the dentist for ten years. Really? I hated it. Hated it. I mean, I've been back. Speaker 3: Hopefully you had a good experience here. Right on. what is helping like so like is there anything helping people buy houses has really taught you like pinpoint something like this was a big thing that I learned about like working with people. Speaker 1: Let them talk. Speaker 3: But Speaker 1: My own mouth, because that's hard out a talker. But Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: listen and let them talk about what they really want, what they need, hear it. Don't just you have to digest it and let them really keep talking and kind of go into that awkwardness sometimes where people get all the silence and it's like, okay, what are doing here? Let it happen. Speaker 3: And I That can help with like difficult people too. Because like we'll get somebody on the phone who's like upset about something and I tell my front desk, I'm like, let them talk. You don't talk because they're looking for you to say something that gives them a window to argue. Speaker 1: ammunition yes and then a way to argue more. Yeah absolutely just go silent listen Speaker 3: You know, it's a powerful thing to try when somebody's like really disgruntled or up upset. What would you like me to do? Speaker 1: I want you to give me the solution, but I'm mad. Speaker 3: I want I want this this to have never happened. I'm like, Well I can't do that. What would you like me to do now? And they just It's really disarming and I always laugh at Speaker 1: satisfying. Speaker 2: know, you don't you know, yeah, but I know you, right? Like like you want to help, right? Like you know and you both do. You both generally like hey you're in an upset state. What's it gonna take for us to get this in the right direction? Speaker 1: We're also human too. Yeah. Love Speaker 3: With with the housing market, like it boomed and everyone's waiting for a bubble to pop that will never pop. Right. like do you run into people waiting too long too often stuff? Speaker 1: Absolutely. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: If you say I wanna wait two years 'cause I think the prices are gonna go down or interest rates might come down, sorry, it's not gonna happen. Interest Speaker 3: Interest rates maybe, but like Speaker 1: rates, yeah, but prices may level out, but they're not gonna come back down. Right. They're waiting Speaker 3: Like any Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna pay more eventually. Ridiculous. Speaker 2: You know, this leads into something I live by. There is never a right time, dot dot dot. Right? Never right time to get married, never right time to start a family, never right time to buy a house, never right time to buy a car. You know, like if you're gonna sit there and wait for interest rates or financial reasons or whatever. Nope. Yeah. No. Like you Speaker 1: That's one of the biggest questions people ask is should I wait? No. Just if you want to buy a house, buy a house. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: Like start building your own equity. Yeah. Stop paying someone else's mortgage. Yeah. Right. Like show up for yourself and and do it. If you can afford to do it, do it. Speaker 3: I think that ties into a lot of things. Like if you want yeah, you want Botox? when's the right time? Well, if you you're concerned about the lines on your face, that's when the right time goes. Speaker 2: What is that barrier to execution then, right? Does it always come down to time and money? Speaker 1: Probably money Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say so. Speaker 1: drives a lot of decisions. Speaker 2: Well but that kind of those are the two things people want in life is time and money. Yeah. Speaker 3: Right. And sometimes it's I think it's but there's a lot of people who don't like look at it as an investment either. Like, are you investing in yourself? Are you investing in your property? Are you investing in other people? Like how are you moving your money? I like I I've had patients tell me I want to die with my money, and I'm like, Okay, why? What are you gonna do with it? Yeah. It's awful. Yeah, like like why don't you live a little bit? Enjoy your life. Speaker 1: If you worked your whole life, go and you retire, go enjoy it. Speaker 2: So hey, there's something on here that I'm actually really excited to get to. like if houses have personalities. So like how houses have personalities. If houses were people, who's the so we have options here the Victorian, mid century modern, farmhouse, downtown loft, lake house, or cookie cutter subdivision. If houses were people This is great. Speaker 3: Yeah, you and I have had several conversations about awful cookie cutter subdivision. okay, Speaker 1: I Speaker 3: okay, so let's do it. Like a Victorian, like to me that would be somebody who's like like a h more of a history buff, maybe. Speaker 1: History. I would even go towards just like an older man that's got like character built into his face and like worked his life and you know just anyway. Speaker 3: And that that house has to emulate that he wants his princess Speaker 2: A little rough around the edges. Speaker 1: From the edges, yeah. Speaker 3: Maybe yeah. Too much paint on the woodwork. Ready to sh Speaker 2: yes, yes, yes. The windows are painted the windows are painted shot. The house freaking reek. Speaker 3: This guy's like ready with a can of paint stripper in the truck when he purchased mid-century Speaker 2: my god. That's me. I'm so sorry. I'm saying it right now. Yeah, I would Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: I showed a beautiful one this week. Speaker 2: Mid century modern, right? Like everything is cyclical, right? So like mid-century, what the last what probably five years has really kind of resurfaced and become just more Yeah. It's clean, it's simple, it's sophisticated, it feels there's a level of premium there, right? It's like everything has a purpose, it's open. Speaker 1: those characteristics don't go out style. You can modernize them. You can make, you know, if you don't like the wood beams, you can paint them. Like you can modernize a lot of it. But so much of it is just a staple and it sticks with it. That's awesome. Speaker 3: I love it. Yeah. that was like one of the things we we really wanted that or just like a really solid old home and we got this beautiful brick Georgian, but love yeah farmhouse, man, that went through a huge fat. Yeah. Speaker 2: I'm glad it's over. Well to a point Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we did yeah, but Farmhouse I think was do you still get a lot of people looking for it? Okay. Speaker 1: I actually wrote an offer today, sight unseen on an old farmhouse. They want to buy it and restore it. That's amazing Speaker 3: Okay, that's cool. Yeah, that I like. Speaker 1: they don't come up that often. Okay. And a lot of times they've been rehabbed in a really crappy way. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: Where people didn't do it correctly and you still have the wonky floors from you know, a hundred years of settlement and things. But like Speaker 3: So that's somebody who's willing to put in the word. Yeah. If we're talking true farmhouse. Not Speaker 1: Yeah. You have if you're buying an old farmhouse buying a true farmhouse, yeah. Speaker 3: talking farmhouse aesthetic that you slapped on here. Yeah. Speaker 1: I decorate in a farmhouse style. Yeah. I mean that's just I've got cows all over my house. I love a good cow. Speaker 3: Yeah, hey. Own own your cows. Yeah. What about downtown loft? Who's a downtown loft? I think that's a yuppie. Speaker 1: That's a yeah, business Some with a small dog. Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know. Speaker 2: Young professional, right? Like well no, but like young professional, they don't want responsibility. They don't want to cut the lawn, they don't want to do any of the the the shoveling. You know, like they don't want to do any maintenance. They just wanna have a roof over the head that's nice with little maintenance. Right. But then like Speaker 1: Yes. That's the biggest piece of it. Speaker 2: that stuff's cool because like there's always something to do around those areas, right? There's this Absolutely. Speaker 1: All the entertainment and restaurants. Speaker 2: And that's like my son right now. Like he's living downtown on Eighth Street. He's got a really cool spot. He's literally r kitty corner from the park. Speaker 1: I loved living downtown. I lived at High Point for four years. really? I loved it. I was on the fourth floor lakeside. Speaker 3: My buddy just lived there on the fourth floor. It was a great view. I loved it. Speaker 1: Did I had the lake view, I could walk, I would go up to El Rotrovo on Mondays and have a pizza and two glasses of wine. Speaker 2: No, you could go to Slow Foods. Speaker 1: it's Speaker 3: That's awesome. Speaker 1: fantastic. Speaker 2: Alright, so then Lake House. Speaker 3: Is that the old retired person who's sharing the house with all of their their s kids? Speaker 2: I don't think so. No. No, I don't. Speaker 1: I think it's a variety actually. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: You've probably got the lawyers, the doctors, the people making, you know, good money young in life that can afford to buy a lake house, starting a family. Sure. Kids are getting really good memories growing up on the lake and all that fun stuff. I think you also have your retirees that have decided to downsize into a ranch on the lake or something from their original family home. Speaker 3: Cookie Cutter Subdivision, I feel like I can get we this might get mean. Do it. Speaker 2: Get mean. Get nasty. Speaker 1: They're terrible. Not the people. They're terrible. I Speaker 3: I know. Yeah. No. Speaker 1: don't like a cookie cutter house. My sister built one. It's beautiful. It's just not my I Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: get to say I don't like it. Speaker 2: So so like are you saying that's like the neighborhood where everyone's got the same layout? Speaker 1: Like three colors that are in it. The one that's going up by you. Speaker 3: Yeah, the one that's going up by me is terrible. They're all single tight. Speaker 1: Story. Speaker 3: Yeah, they're really tight against each other. Yeah. I mean, like when you get into cookie cutter stuff, I think HD T V probably doesn't help. I don't got I Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: Good Bones was filmed in my neighborhood in Indianapolis. really? Yeah, they were our neighbors. cool people. Speaker 2: my god, I watched that with my wife. Speaker 3: Yeah, they lived two and a half blocks from us. And no kidding. Yeah, yeah. That's we didn't like know them, but like we run into them every once in a while and like, Hi, how you doing? That kind of thing, or walk past with the dog. but I think what I learned from like purchase and like remodeling a house is like like you doing it yourself just because you saw it on HTTP does not mean that like the biggest thing is is all these ancient home these old houses are not squares. Speaker 1: Nothing's even. Speaker 3: No. And like trying to like fix up an old house by yourself is not like Speaker 2: my god, you guys, I just thought about this. Like HGTV is a total push marketing scam to like Home Depot and Menards and Long. Yeah, Speaker 3: Specifically. Speaker 2: yeah. No, like totally, man, because like, you know, they make it look so easy because like within 30 like yeah yeah. Yes, of course, like furniture. But like yeah, I mean it's a total push thing. Right. Speaker 3: Do you do you see like the impact of it, like in your day to day, like working with people? Like they Is anyone Speaker 1: You get I yeah but you Speaker 3: asking like can we knock out this wall? Like Speaker 1: Well, my first thing is probably but get a contractor in I mean when I bought my first house, which was only two and a half years ago, I was like, you know what, we're gonna put new floors in, we're gonna paint, we're gonna paint the cabinets, we're gonna do all these fun things, we'll have it done in the first two weeks. Yeah, we were months. And we did all ourselves. Months we still didn't have floors. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: So HTTV gives you that like false reality of like you can finish this in a weekend. Cool. Speaker 3: I like realized like very quickly like I'd see a house on an episode like ye like like the next year or something like that. And I'm like, that house sat there looking like shit for months and they make it look like it happened the next day. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: You guys, the property brothers. Give me a break. Blah blah blah blah blah. We'll be in and out in six weeks. I call bullshit. Speaker 1: I really don't think so. Yeah. Speaker 2: No way. Speaker 1: I also think H G T V has given first time homebuy a false sense of what they really should be buying as their first house. Yeah. They want your stuff what you what should be your second and third home that you're buying for a family kind of a thing. They want that as their first house. Whether the majority of people bought a first house that was a two bedroom Cape Cod that was nine hundred square feet, you know, speaking in Sheboygan, it's very popular. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 1: And they fixed it up or they replaced things as it came up and whatnot. The first time homebuyer now wants perfect. And only spend two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the not reality. Speaker 2: So you're coming at it from like build equity, right? Yeah. Buy the smaller home, make it better, get a better return, put it into the next one. Speaker 1: If Buy a fixer upper. Put the sweat equity into it. Or buy something that's livable but only needs to have some lipstick put on it. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 2: I like this kind of like the the planning part of it, right? Because like you brought up something interesting that like people want perfect right out of the gate. However, th it's kind of like your financial plan, right? Like there's your real estate plan. Like if you want perfect, be patient. Speaker 3: This could be frustrating for you though at the same time because as a realtor who s likes this relationship side of things, you want to find the perfect house for them. And it's probably not possible. Speaker 1: I absolutely do. A lot of times it's hard. I actually, when I worked at my first firm, I thrived on working with buyers over sellers. And most agents want to work with sellers because you can, you know, do the pictures, list the house, let the showings happen. Everyone else is doing the chasing, they're writing an offer, you're getting it. You can be on vacation and getting an accepted offer and making a paycheck. Buyers, you have to be on the ground with them. You're chasing around, you're opening doors, you're showing them houses, you're I mean, when you've got almost ten years of experience, I can tell you exactly what the home inspector's gonna point out in the house. You're not supposed to, but I do because I look out for my people. Right. Speaker 3: But especially in old homes. Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean and and if you're if you're doing this for the first time sometimes you just don't know what you're looking at. So I think I think it's fun to be able to point out those things to people and teach them. Speaker 2: Yeah, there's an edge like the education aspect of everything that we have going on out there, it's such a huge market. like an education educational platform and now with AI and like all the assistance that you can get from that, because you know, like AI will do eighty percent of the heavy lifting. Take that last twenty percent where you really put your brain power and focus, and like you'll come up with a with a good Speaker 1: Yep. So I'm kind of testing it out right now in that in the education piece. we built a community guide. It's on my website. There are QR codes you can scan, there's links that you can click on, and it takes you to so if you're moving, what who should I call to like switch over my address and things like that? I have all these different links that are set up. I have an assistant, which is also very important because I can't I can't do that all that stuff. But I'm see we're testing to see how well that's received and then we're gonna head down the road of creating some educational platforms and being able to do first time homebuyer seminars and seller seminars. Come and learn before you have to commit to doing something or wanna commit to it. Let's just talk through it. Speaker 3: Yeah. would you rather have a home full of character that needs a lot of work or would you rather have a new build with absolutely no personality? Yeah. Speaker 1: An old house with a lot of characters. Speaker 3: And why? Speaker 1: There's so much potential to it. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 1: You can literally go room by room, figure out what you want to do in it, and then as soon as you start peeling back the layers, you're gonna find ten more layers that have to get peeled back and figure out. Speaker 2: Mm. Speaker 1: but it's the same as working with a with a buyer or a seller. You get to go through that whole process with that. Speaker 3: Right. Are you finding that some of the older homes are much better built too? yeah. yeah. See I need an answer to that question too. I think that needs to be educated too. It's like Speaker 1: I'm not even saying this out loud. I'm going to, but excuse me. I would rather sell a hundred year home than a brand new built home. Speaker 3: Right now. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. I sold a brand new house to someone before we even closed. There was a crack in the foundation already. Speaker 3: So am I right in saying like well if you're talking to a like a buyer like and they're like, I don't want an old house, I want a a new house, you're gonna the the message is gonna be with an old house you know it's gonna have issues, but it's still standing a hundred years late. Yeah. Speaker 1: That's the best thing right there. The house is still standing after a hundred years. There's nothing wrong with it. Like it is solid. To Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: be maintenance. That's what you get with the homeowner, us being a homeowner. There's always gonna be maintenance. But like and I'll never sway someone from not buying a new home. I mean, if that's what they truly want, I'm gonna listen to them and we're gonna find the right house for them. Right. But I'm just someone who cares so deeply that I want them to have all the information and make a truly educated decision. Speaker 2: And that's like guided selling. Right. Speaker 1: It's the education. Education. That's what it comes down. Speaker 2: It is. And people want it. They really do. They and but how you deliver that information, I think you have to adapt to your personalities. Cause I think we're all very similar, right? Like we have all these different personalities that we end up working with and we have to kind of chameleon like match them. Speaker 1: You're gonna say that we had the multi personalities. No no Speaker 2: No, no, no. No, no, no. But like, no, but we have to we have to match that personality. Cause like, you know, when I'm working with an engineer, right, like they're very inquisitive, right? But then when I'm working with someone who's more of like a friend maker, right? Like you guys, like just super going, very easy to work with, very more casual, a little more loose. But it's like, man, that must and I know, I know how exhausting it can be. Speaker 1: yeah. I mean it's I have a lot of people that a lot of my clients are past clients or referrals from friends. So I I it's a little bit more casual usually than meeting a first time brand new relationship. Right. I mean if I'm showing up to a brand new, I've never met you, you called 'cause you Googled me or something, I'm gonna show up looking like this. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 1: If it's my friend, I'm in yoga pants and a tank top. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: And that's it's just people don't care. Like that almost that's almost a different conversation. Like the mentality of like dressing up for work and showing up in a full business suit. Yeah. Like that's not reality anymore. Like you don't have to Speaker 3: No, but I think there's like value in being like multifaceted with your fashion too. Like feeling just as comfortable in that like professional wear as you do in your casual wear. Right. Speaker 2: A fashionable man. Speaker 3: Thank you. I I put a lot of work. You are too. Speaker 2: Yeah. Not like Mr. Elliott over here. No he is. He's Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it was a flag that he wrapped Speaker 3: We're wearing a skirt, John. Speaker 2: Bring Speaker 1: around the room. Speaker 2: Was a sash and it was a wrap and it was wrapped around my waist. I was being patriotic. It was the American flag. Speaker 1: That's great. Speaker 3: Thank you. Speaker 2: And I had my Ron Swanson shirt of greatness on. It was a total drip. Thank you. I appreciate that. Speaker 1: You are a whole vibe. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Speaker 3: what made you like so you moved back to She Boy you moved to She Boy again in the late nineties? Okay, but your family's like I grew up Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: I grew up down Yeah, I grew up four houses down from your grandfather. Their house was really cool by the way. I always loved it. It was falling into the lake, but they always pushed it back up. Speaker 1: There's ten feet between the edge of the house and the bank. So death Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1: It was so cool. They built it out of cinder blocks. Such a cool house. and it just sold in the last couple years. They're renovating it. My mom did. Speaker 3: It yeah. really? Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Speaker 1: Mary did, yes. Speaker 2: She's very cool. Speaker 3: What made you want to like so you didn't you you grew up in this community but you also didn't. What made you like kinda just set your roots down then? Like when what made like I'm gonna be a realtor in Cheboyga, not a realtor in Milwaukee? Speaker 1: Yeah. I love Sheboygan. Do you? Like I went away. I went away to college. as I grew up in Tennessee. I really grew up in Sheboygan. I was going into fourth grade when I moved here. Speaker 3: I was about to say you were we were young. Yeah. Speaker 1: So I really grew up in Sheboygan. And with my family being from here, I just fell in love with it. I think we have so much to offer that people just forget about or don't take advantage of. I mean it's just like when you live on the lake, you take advantage of living on the lake. You don't go to it as Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't think about it. Speaker 1: think about it, it's just like an everyday thing. Right. I went away to college, dropped out, absolutely hated being away from my mom. I hated it. Okay. She is one of my best friends. We work together now, she joined my team. I hated it. So I dropped out. I literally showed up on her front doorstep one night with a friend that packed up my dorm room and I was like I'm home, hi. Part way Speaker 3: Well, Speaker 1: through the semester, packed up my dorm, showed up. I just Speaker 3: And you've just been invested in the Speaker 1: I got super involved. Yes. I like it. I started working full time right away in service, switched a couple different careers, figured it out, went back to school a little bit, finished my associates at one point. That's as far as I went. Yeah. Realized I didn't need a degree to do what I do. To build relationships with people, I I that just comes naturally. I mean, if you don't have that built into you, I don't think I don't know, that's just my personal opinion. I think it's like built into you to be able to do that. Speaker 2: Yeah. So okay, so school wasn't working out. Yep. Right. And you found a new way to kind of like bet on yourself. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about that. Right. So like you were like, okay, I got a buckle down. School's not for me. Yep. So how did you bet on yourself? Speaker 1: I decided school was not gonna get me where I wanted to in life, so I just dove into my community. I picked a job, I worked up an arts for a while actually. I just worked full time, until I switched to banking and insurance and all these different things. But I figured out what drove me. Speaker 3: Those are all like team focused careers though, too. Like this wasn't an it like Speaker 1: very I was always like f focused on the people in front of me. Like when I was a checker at Menards, there were people that would specifically come through my lane because it was just fun to talk to Okay. Like all the different contractors that would come in, you got used to them. You see them every day. They in to pick up Yeah. You build Speaker 3: Okay, Speaker 1: relationships with those people when they're coming through Speaker 2: They're there at six in the morning to grab their materials. Speaker 1: They are and if you're there every day, yeah. You just you talk to and you get to know a little bit. Speaker 2: But now do you think like the different opportunities you had and like like you said, like, you know, working with inventory right at Minards or working in banking, so like there's more platforms and logistics and you know, like information passing and then insurance, where it's like now you have to start to understand risk and how it impacts policies. Like, how did that stuff transfer over to real estate? There had to have been Speaker 1: There's just so much overlap between the lending side of it. I mean, I was a teller, I was a lending processor, I was a service center manager, I ran a whole branch. So you're learning all of the different pieces from start to finish. especially in like so with real estate, starting a loan. So you do a loan application and you're learning about the different backsides of a mortgage. Well, now I can confidently talk to a buyer about mortgages. without being in that industry. Yeah. I can help them, I can guide them. Speaker 3: think diversity in like our in people's backgrounds makes you better at any job, period. Like like I'm not trying to knock on anyone who went through dental school, but there's a lot of them that go right like you go high school, college, dental school, and they haven't done anything else with their lives. I was fortunate not to have been in that situation, but then they get out and it's like their first real job and they don't know who they are. They don't have any background to lean on to people with. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 3: Kindergarten. Yeah. All the way through that's a perfectly acceptable path to things. But it also makes your job a lot harder. And I think like what you're saying right now is like having that diversity in your background of doing different things. I mean you've talked about it a million times. You had a skill that was not marketable. Speaker 2: Absolutely. Speaker 3: As a a really good guy really good at polishing brass Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 3: but you also like probably learned to talk to people at the level that they were at all the time because you were working with a bunch of different dudes. Speaker 2: Yeah, it was i it was interesting. Yeah. I I think my best takeaway from that part of my life was just a work ethic. Yeah. You know, like and that, you know, Speaker 3: But you also learned like what that type of person was. Like like Speaker 2: Right, yeah. Speaker 3: you can relate to that. Speaker 2: Absolutely. Right. And a lot of respect for people that are working manufacturing just like I did, man. Yeah. You know, like it's a hard job. And it it is a hard job, but I will share with you what I miss about it is coming into work, knowing what you're gonna do, and then like you leave. There's no email, there's no meetings, there's none of that. It's like, hey, I'm showing up Speaker 1: Shut off your brain at some point. Twenty four seven? Speaker 2: You know, but like Right. But it's like but now like I I like working. Like I like what I do. Do you like your Speaker 3: Career. Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I like my career, you know. Speaker 1: How it become a career then? It's more of a lifestyle. Yeah. To a point. I mean that's what real estate is for me. I don't go to work. I wake up and I figure out what my day is gonna look like and I just mesh that into what my day is gonna be. Speaker 2: You what I think that's fun. I'm really into right now is embracing the uncomfortable nature of when I'm uncomfortable, meaning that I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm going, I'm trying new things. And I every time I do go into it, and I was just talking my wife about this last night. I was just like, I'm in an uncomfortable state right now with where I'm at my job. Because there are things that I know I need to learn and I will learn it, but like it makes me uncomfortable. And like I shared on a different episode, it's because I want it done now. I wanna be good at it now. Yeah. And it's that patience thing. Yeah. You know? Speaker 3: Sitting back and and learning and not talking. Speaker 1: Well and when you're you're running your own company you're kind of the master of all that stuff right away. You don't have to relearn something usually. Speaker 3: gosh. Yeah. It's it's f frustrating when people will come to me with like, yeah, I need help with something. I'm like, I don't know how to do your job. But they think as the owner I have to know how to do everyone's job. And I'm like, I I I don't like I have there's like parts of the job I have to focus on. Speaker 2: Letting go. Speaker 3: it's hard. Speaker 1: That's a really hard piece. Speaker 2: Let's let's unpack. Speaker 3: Delegating is the str the hardest th hardest thing about being a leader and it's also the biggest strength once you learn how to do it. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Once you can do it, I so I've always said it if you ever say I need an assistant, you're already past needing an assistant. Speaker 3: That is I love that. Speaker 1: You're saying I need an assistant, you're already past it. So and then actually hiring someone that you trust that can be in your brain and when you Speaker 3: You tell people that you need an assistant, they're like, What do you need an assistant for? What what what you can't do your thing? I'm like, No, I can't Speaker 1: No, I need help. Yeah. And you know, there's with in my job, so you're you're showing houses, you're writing contracts, you're meeting new people, you're networking, you've got social media. There's all these different pieces you have to do. Compliance, accounting. I mean, you could sit here forever. I need help. I can't do it all. Right. And social media is the biggest challenge for me. So when I fire finally hired someone for social media, wow. Was that a breath of fresh air? And just like a weight off my shoulders where I don't have to I don't have to worry about it. I just know it's being taken care of. It's huge. Speaker 3: That's awesome. And that's Speaker 2: That was one of the biggest things that like after I left my old job that I after I like after six months had a lot of clarity and it was like I was not delegating appropriately. I was holding on to work because I felt like if I didn't do it, I would be looked at as lazy lazy or like, you know, they couldn't count on me anymore. They could count on count on someone else. But then, you know, really there is high value in managing the work getting done efficiently. Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the big things that's happened at the practice recently is we brought in a new office manager slash chief operating officer to help me. Yeah, Speaker 2: Mr. Ryan. Speaker 3: Ryan has been awesome. He's come in and he's helping me oversee both businesses a little bit better. and I don't have to do as much. In fact, Desiree made the joke the other day. She was in my my wife is in the office, and people are walking past my door to get to his door to complain or to bring up like a problem that came up. And she's like, Wow, is that wild for you? And I'm like, Yeah. Speaker 1: They become into you and Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't have time to f troubleshoot the computer system right now. There's somebody who needs a tooth taken out and three ha people need a hygiene check right now. Speaker 2: And and we've had so many conversations, I think three of us collec o sorry, collectively, that like if you don't let go of that stuff, you're not focusing on what matters. Speaker 3: And what's changed for me is I get to spend more time on marketing and like system developing, which is the stuff I like doing. That's probably the thing that I'm the strongest at because I know my team, I know what they need, what needs to be written out, how it needs to be written out. And we couldn't do that because I never had time before. Right. And now I do. Speaker 1: When you get to pick out the pieces you like and that you can focus on, the things that you're really passionate about, you should be Speaker 3: That's not strong at that's those are things you're doing. Yeah, and that's not selfish. That means you have some strength that y that should be being should be leveraged. Yeah. And the stuff that other people have strengths in is it's very Speaker 1: Hire the person that can do those things. You should be doing the h the high dollar things that matter for your business or really passionate about. Speaker 3: Or what you're Speaker 2: Hundred percent. Speaker 3: No one can do the dentistry. I'm the only one who can do that. So that's what I've been focused on mostly lately. Speaker 2: How many times did you and I talk and I was like, You need to focus on being the best dentist, not the best marketer, not the best operations person, right? Like all that stuff. Speaker 3: I thought you were wrong. So Speaker 2: I mean like it was Speaker 3: that was the problem is my my dad was so hands off and then hands on and hands off when I took over the business is that the the leadership was like diluted in a way. So that like it took a lot of like building it to where I I needed to get and delegating couldn't always happen because I didn't we didn't have the right team members all the time. Like getting social media done with the team that I had when I first started would not have happened. I've hired younger people And people that are interested in social media a and they help me do it now. Like and like Yeah. Speaker 1: think hiring the right people. And that that's hard in itself is finding the right people. And it's okay to hire someone and have to part ways and hire someone the hardest part of the job Speaker 3: Yeah, I hate like but Speaker 1: you have to have the right people in. You know what your brand is, you know what you want your business to look like. They have to fit into that. Speaker 3: And if it and it's okay to admit, hey, this was the wrong hire, we need to go in in different directions. Yep, it happens. It happens all the time. Speaker 2: Well, and social media, since we're on that topic, you do a fantastic job with your social media. But it's like it's a beast though, right? It's like a huge beast. I mean you both do. You both are posting multiple times. Speaker 3: like I just took like five days off of posting last week and it like I was like shocked It felt so good and as I'm like trying to go through my calendar that I like completely abandoned for five days and pick which ones I maybe need to like just date later like I also if like the whole like the the stressful part came back all of a sudden. Speaker 1: So I had luck 'cause I've I really struggle with it. And then it's the consistency that is so important. So when I started, I mean, when I became a realtor, I didn't realize I was gonna have to be a social media specialist too. Like that was Speaker 3: That's probably way bigger for your job than it is for mine. That's Speaker 1: I think it's big for all of us. I think it can help us all in a huge way. But I I started by just hiring a simple company. It's twenty-two bucks a month, and I could post whatever out of their pre-made stuff. None of it was unique, but it was educational. Okay. It was you could tailor it to the area that you live. So I could at least create a platform that was consistent and something was going out there. Then I hired someone finally and she got the ball rolling with creating constant stuff where you could easily customize content and be able to just plug and play. Speaker 3: Yeah. Every day. I've got a really awesome person doing that right now. She's got this like she had a background in communications and she had done like video marketing and a lot of video editing. And I'm like, You wanna come work here? And she's like, Well, you're doing a lot with your brand and I see like an opportunity to do more stuff. Speaker 2: Between your two businesses, like having that internal marketing coordinator, right? Like, dude, you you gotta have it, especially for as much as you're putting out there. Speaker 3: And having the right people on the team to do that stuff. Have to the right and she l loves doing it. Speaker 2: But also like knowing like what it takes to show up, right? Like you've made a lot of investment, you know, with me in assets, right? Because you're like, I need this stuff, right? So you're you're very tactical and so are you. You're like, I need these things. I can't just do it on the Speaker 1: And just have it ready to go. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 3: And being afraid be being not afraid to put things out there that okay, this video was a little cringy or maybe we weren't as ready to film this video. But I'm gonna put it out, I'm gonna save that script and maybe we'll reshoot it one day, like make it a little better. Speaker 1: I have more luck with likes and views on videos when I just go live quick and Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: post it randomly without doing any editing. I'll be in my car and I just quick do something and I'll throw it on my story and those are the ones that pop on. Speaker 3: Yeah, we used to do that a lot. Then it declined. Then we did other things. That skyrocked it. Now that declines. I think there's like a balance of like Yeah. Speaker 1: You have to do it all. Speaker 3: And be willing to like hey, step away from that kind of stuff for a little bit. I'm gonna go back to what I was working and You know, you've invested in yourself in a lot of ways through you're getting awesome photography, the assets like you was talking about. Yep. Your visal on your photox, your fillings, whatever you want to say. But like And then it's like people are investing in their houses. What's like the difference between for you, like in your experience and building your own confidence? What's been the difference between spending money and investing in yourself? Speaker 1: I have no problem spending money. You Speaker 3: Ha ha. Speaker 1: can ask anyone. Speaker 3: Right on. Speaker 1: My the constant is just swipe. Michelle just likes to swipe. so it's investing in myself is more challenging. finding the time to step away from actually working and go vacation. And just like even take that step back and have some personal time. Like I went to Hawaii for two weeks and I only wrote one offer. Normally I'd probably write like six, but I was able to step away because I had a team. Yeah. So almost for me, investing in myself was growing my team. And now I have a support system. Speaker 3: A lot Speaker 1: So I can actually step away and do other things and I can still survive and be good to go. Speaker 3: So it'll be okay. Like I'm getting ready to take paternity leave and I'm having panic attacks about Speaker 1: It's hard to step away. Speaker 2: This is your baby though. Speaker 1: So cool. And you like when you go to work and you don't dread getting up and going to the office, like it's fun to go. Yeah. It's really hard to step away. Speaker 3: Yeah. Having the awesome like an awesome other doctor here has been like really valuable. But when one one of my friends decided she was only gonna work part time for the next couple of about year, I was like, Do you wanna come and cover my practice? And when she said yes, that's when that like anxiety went. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little coverage. Yeah. I mean, I think like taking moments for yourself, that's like huge. I don't think you John and I have talked about that enough. It's like it's okay to take a vacation, it's okay to take a break. Speaker 1: Yeah. Well it's okay to Speaker 3: It's good. Speaker 1: it's okay to go on vacation and unplug. Yeah. Like that's the piece for like in real estate is really hard to unplug when you're on vacation. I can still Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 1: set up showings. I can still write an offer. I Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 1: can still support a closing. Like I can still do my whole job from anywhere. Speaker 2: I have a really hard time unplugging because I just wanna learn. You know, like I don't play video games anymore, I don't really watch a lot of T V. I'm like constantly learning. Speaker 1: hard to pull away from something like and it and when you love it, like that's I think that's the piece of it is when you enjoy what you're doing, it's hard to pull away. Speaker 3: I I started taking my Apple Watch off when I go to weddings. Or to other things. I have a bunch of like really nice watches that I wasn't wearing and I'm like, I'm gonna take it off, put on a a Speaker 1: Do a nice Speaker 3: dumb watch. And now it doesn't buzz. Yeah. And even like turning the notifications almost completely off on my watch was really, really nice. Speaker 1: It's been kinda nice not listening to it for the last hour. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: And Speaker 1: It's like a freaking Speaker 2: I'm sure those nine text messages, maybe one is important. Yeah. I knew it. Speaker 1: Probably. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 3: I mean think about like like we survived before we like the immediate response of text messaging was Speaker 1: 'Cause we weren't on our phone. Speaker 3: d text messaging was like a thing my junior and senior years, so maybe just when you were getting out at Probably Like Speaker 1: Sophomore year. Well it was it's probably about the same Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. you're a year a b ahead of yeah. Yeah, so yeah, it was probably right at the end. Speaker 1: Right sisters. Speaker 3: Yeah, so we were also Speaker 2: I am so much older than both of you. Speaker 3: You know what? Speaker 2: I'm an old man. Speaker 1: No. Get out of here. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 3: But on that note thanks for coming on the podcast. Speaker 1: This was really Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun, right? Speaker 1: I did. This was great. Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean this is this is what we're going for. We're we want to talk about what people are passionate about, how we got here, why we do what we do. I I loved tying in this parts about the community, especially. Yeah. So thanks for everyone listening. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Death Before Decay podcast with Dr. Elliott. I'm here with John Erline, and Michelle Hayward. Do you have social me like John talked about your social media? What are the social medias people can check you out on? Speaker 1: We are on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok as Hearthstone Realty Group. Speaker 2: Like and follow and sharing is caring. Speaker 3: Appreciate it. And if you want to support this podcast, please follow and rate and review. but thanks, everyone, have a good day.