Latest / The Elite Real Estate Podcast / Dade DiMaggio | From Combat Sports Champion to Owner of Birmingham's Most Innovative Brokerage

Transcript

Dade DiMaggio | From Combat Sports Champion to Owner of Birmingham's Most Innovative Brokerage · The Elite Real Estate Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Elite Real Estate Podcast, where real estate meets mindset, marketing, and momentum.
0:08
SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Jimmy Nelson, and today we are coming to you live from the Royal Oath Insurance Group right here in Kitchen Township, Michigan.
0:14
SPEAKER_03: Big shout out to the entire team here.
0:16
SPEAKER_03: Royal Oath is more than just an insurance agent.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: They're your promise keepers, whether it's auto, home, business, life, or health insurance.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: They're here to protect what matters to you most.
0:24
SPEAKER_03: You can check them out at RoyalOathInsurance.com or give them a call at 586-238-3535.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: And of course, today's episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Connection, the CRM built for closers.
0:36
SPEAKER_03: If you're a real estate agent, entrepreneur, or small business owner looking to automate, follow up, and close more deals and stay top of mind, then Connection is your secret weapon.
0:43
SPEAKER_03: Go to yourconnection.com and take control of your pipeline today.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: Now, whether you're tuning in live on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch or X, catching the replay on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iRadio Revery Stream, we're glad you're here.
0:57
SPEAKER_03: Do me a favor, hit that like button, drop a comment, and share this with a friend, and make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode.
1:03
SPEAKER_03: Alright, guys, let's get locked in.
1:04
SPEAKER_03: We've got a powerhouse show lined up today.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: And if you're in business of real estate or just building something big, this one is for you.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: Good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody.
1:13
SPEAKER_03: Welcome into the Elite Real Estate Podcast, live on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, wherever else we're streaming this morning.
1:20
SPEAKER_03: And uh, if you are on the YouTube channel, go ahead, like it, subscribe to the channel.
1:23
SPEAKER_03: I appreciate it.
1:24
SPEAKER_03: But I am I have a guest in studio today, Mr.
1:28
SPEAKER_03: Dave DiMaggio.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: How are you, man?
1:29
SPEAKER_03: How are you, Jimmy?
1:30
SPEAKER_03: I'm good, brother.
1:31
SPEAKER_03: I'm good.
1:32
SPEAKER_03: The funny thing is, you know, we were trying to talk about getting you in here, and and uh, you know, we had spring showdown a few weeks ago, probably a month ago now, and you know, it was like we were like, I'm going on vacation and whatever else, and you literally drove 20 hours yesterday.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: You told me it was Rogan, but here I am.
1:50
SPEAKER_03: It's not Rogan.
1:51
SPEAKER_03: I lied.
1:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, it's just as good.
1:53
SPEAKER_03: Sales, buddy.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: I feel it.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: So now I drove uh 20 hours over the last day and a half to get back here because uh you know I I when we met, I think we clicked and I was excited to talk to you.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and look, you brought me a hat.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I brought you a hat.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to bring the beach back, so I think that would suck.
2:11
SPEAKER_03: I feel like an old fisherman now.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: There's that, yeah.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you know, it looks good on you.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thanks.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: We should go fishing after this.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh I would go fishing with you.
2:21
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, man, tell me about you.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: Like, how did how long you because you've done a ton of things.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I do a lot of things.
2:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've you in your lifetime.
2:30
SPEAKER_03: Like, I like you know, I did some research and I'm like, and this dude's done a lot of stuff.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm all over the place.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Go big or go home.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: My motto.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: So but yeah, I mean, definitely when it pertains to real estate, you know, I've done a lot there.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: I've been in the business for over 12, 13 years.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm 38 now.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: So I started relatively young.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, I started with one kid, I have six.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: That's another way I age it, right?
2:53
SPEAKER_00: So I've been through a lot there.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I I mean, I I just always looked at it like do as many things as you can well, right?
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think you're gonna enjoy life the most.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Balance is important, and you know, going to extremes is fun sometimes as well.
3:07
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, you know, when we met, like it was like one of those things we clicked and it was like, all right, this makes sense, right?
3:12
SPEAKER_03: Like we could hang out.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I I was like, that guy's funny.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Right, and so um, we had a lot to talk about.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: You did better than I did in the show.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: You did really well, actually.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I was very proud of that.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: I was happy that you represented us.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: We got our ass kicked by a bunch of girls in the end.
3:28
SPEAKER_03: We did, we did.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: They won the uh the war there.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: But um, I feel like you know, there'll be a time for us to shine again.
3:34
SPEAKER_03: There will there will be October, October, and then another spring show down next year.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, you know, Keith does a really good job of bringing those around.
3:41
SPEAKER_03: So he's a great guy.
3:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
3:42
SPEAKER_03: So it, you know, it was funny that that event, like the the pomp and circumstance of some of the contestants was hilarious.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Some wild characters, you know, ourselves included, but there there were many interesting, unique personalities.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what's cool about this area, yeah.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Oakland County is a huge county nationally, super competitive.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: To stand out here, I think is is hard to do, but it's important.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And I think the most successful people will be credentialed, unique, interesting.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Those those are who are gonna rise to the top.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and it's hard, it's it's not easy.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: It took me years to kind of find the groove and every year's starting over, so that's that's another hard thing, right?
4:29
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be really good at picking up and and and starting it over every year to get back to to um the success that you need to find in to stay relevant.
4:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and like I said, you've done a lot of things like so you're a bodybuilder, like you're doing to get into all that.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, like you did it, you've done soccer, like oh man, I mean, we don't have enough time to talk about everything I've done in the last three years, to be honest with you.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean, I've always been, and and we talked about this.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I like athletics, yeah to maintain um, you know, uh a mental sweat and a physical sweat at all times.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: I've done bodybuilding, I'm an undefeated NPC competitor, so I'm like seven and oh right now my bodybuilding shows.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I've yet to take it to to a national stage where I can get a pro card.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So I'm still hunting for that pro card.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: I think that in about two years, year and a half, I turn 40, which qualifies me for like a master's division.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I I think it takes the competition down a bunch.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: So I think I'm gonna hold out and build towards that to take that down when I turn 40.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I think I I started bodybuilding.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: The first show I did was on my 37th birthday.
5:39
SPEAKER_03: No kidding.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was it was simply just because I have a fear of getting older, and so I do things that make me feel younger.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is definitely something that that I think keeps me keeps me young and keeps me energized with all the kids I have and all the things I'm doing.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's an important part of life is to is to stay sharp.
5:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, and you got daughters.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: So you got all of it.
6:02
SPEAKER_03: I got everything you can imagine.
6:04
SPEAKER_03: Well, you got six.
6:05
SPEAKER_03: I have six kids.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, God bless my wife and my family.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: They've been uh you know a huge part of of all the things that I've done.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're uh motivating uh force behind everything, yeah for sure.
6:17
SPEAKER_03: You know what causes that, right?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I've heard I've heard things, you know, we've yet to fully figure out, but we're working towards it.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, people tell me that all the time.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: But you know, as as much as it's it's funny because I do have a lot of kids, I would say that like I get so many people that come up to me and they're like, I wish I had more kids.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so to anybody who's listening, right?
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Anybody out there, just have more kids.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just have more kids.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: That's my advice.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I always thought that kids would take the time away, take the money away, and it's been the total opposite in my life.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they they've given me more than I could have ever imagined.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, me too.
6:58
SPEAKER_03: And I I only I only have two, but uh those are rookie numbers.
7:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
7:03
SPEAKER_03: I need to step up my game a little bit, but I'll teach you how it starts too long.
7:08
SPEAKER_03: I'm 53, man.
7:09
SPEAKER_03: I'm glad my dad's at 53, man.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: That's a young chicken.
7:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: When you add up 38 plus six kids, you gotta add at least five to ten years per kid.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm in my nineties, right?
7:20
SPEAKER_03: Per se like dog years, yeah, dog years, yeah, yeah.
7:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so and then real estate years on top of that.
7:25
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I'm over 100 years.
7:26
SPEAKER_03: You're like 75.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: But no, man, and I think you know, again, it goes back to like what you're talking about.
7:34
SPEAKER_03: Like, people always try to go, well, I need a work-life balance and and all that stuff.
7:38
SPEAKER_03: And and how do you figure that?
7:40
SPEAKER_03: Because I know your kids are active too, they're hockey and softball and all the things.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Doing lots of things.
7:44
SPEAKER_03: I don't plan, to be honest with you.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, people are gonna be shocked to hear that, but I take the day as it comes, right?
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, last night I was driving through five states to get here this morning.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: I barely made it, but I made it, you know, and I think that that's that's how I've lived my life, how I've kind of run my business to a point.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And as the business grew and as things developed and more people became involved, I've had to tighten the ship on you know how I approach things and being a little more organized and have a little more direction with stuff.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Right.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: But but yeah, I mean, balance is a big, big part of staying sane.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: I think today, too many real estate agents or people that are involved in the business focus solely on just the job.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the job is tough, it's inconsistent, no matter how good you are.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, things go in, things go out all the time, and it can drain you.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And if it's your only focus and you're losing and you're down, it's hard and and it can keep you down.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: So there's little things in life, whether it's your training, your relationships, just your side projects that can pull you out of a big hole sometimes in business.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: And and it's that's happened to me numerous times throughout my career.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Where other things, you know, I found success in, which taught me and motivated me to then bring that back into the workshop.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: And it it is this business can be tough.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: Right.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: And uh, some of it we don't have any control over.
9:13
SPEAKER_03: The market's the market, it's gonna do what it's gonna do.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: You can only recommend, right?
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Good to advise.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: And the you know, the other piece is like it's but it's the consistency, right?
9:24
SPEAKER_03: And but and and the funny thing is like we were talking about before we went live, you're not a morning guy.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: No, I can't believe I'm up right now.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Am I up?
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm dreaming, right?
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:37
SPEAKER_03: Well, it it's funny because like when I when we first talked, and you're like, I'm not a morning guy, and like you're a workout guy, and I'm like, well, for sure he's gotta be a morning guy.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I think it's all relative, right?
9:46
SPEAKER_00: You hear a lot of guys, especially newer agents, talk about how they're up at like 5 a.m.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, that's okay if you uh if you went to bed at 10 a.m., who cares?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Right and you still slept for seven hours.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I go to bed at 2, 3 in the morning.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I wake up at 9.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, you know, it's it's all relative, is all I'm saying.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'm I'm definitely not a more morning person, and I tend to find that my best thoughts come afternoon and six coffees.
10:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there was something to be said about caffeine and nicotine, right?
10:18
SPEAKER_03: Like there's something to be said about those things.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: They work, that's that's number one.
10:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh the views of this show are not relative or whatever else.
10:28
SPEAKER_03: But no, man, but you've built a really strong big business in a very tough market in Oakland County.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, Oakland County's tough, Michigan's tough, real estate's tough, it's all tough, but you know, that's what you want.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: You want to succeed in tough markets.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: It's it's something where guys like maybe we could go and live in you know, podunk wherever, yeah, and and put a bunch of billboards up and become number one, and that's that's great, but I think to do it amongst the killers, amongst the best of the best, yeah.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Going back to like the showcase event that we did and stuff like that, you want to put yourself up against the best in life and business, and it makes you better.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And then obviously that translates towards uh benefits for your clients, partners, all that kind of stuff.
11:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so yeah.
11:56
SPEAKER_03: And and again, you're in Birmingham, so it's I mean, you're in you've got a bougie, yeah.
12:01
SPEAKER_03: Bougie, like yeah, yeah.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: It's a club and you're not in it, right?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what they say.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, when I when I started House of May, which is my brokerage, um, I thought Birmingham was ideal because of the geographic location.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Sure, right?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: In real estate, you know, what's number one?
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Location, location, location.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what they say, right?
12:22
SPEAKER_00: That's what they say.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: There's other things, but but but so so by putting it in Birmingham, I felt like I was center point, had the ability to reach out to different counties around it and and and put them all in a spot where I also feel like Birmingham carries a certain aura about it, sure, especially for businesses, you know, it's established, a lot of money there.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So it bodes well for anybody that's putting their brand, but it was a huge risk, you know, big risk.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: A lot of money at the beginning, it was weird because I started it and nobody followed.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, where is everybody?
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And uh that was tough because you're still paying Birmingham rent every month.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: So it was a lot of a lot of days of staring at four empty walls with hopes and dreams and and all that stuff, and and and it does it, it brings you to your knees.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I think any successful business has to find the bottom before it really starts moving.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: We found that I think relatively sooner than most, we we grew from three to maybe about like 18, 19 agents now within the first two years of being open, and two years is kind of that window of where you're gonna make it or not.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, it was a tough market, tough area, hard to break into.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: I think now, being where we're at, the agents that we're we're bringing on and the type of business that we're doing, I would say we've made it to that point, you know, uh, but now it's about going to the next level.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's why I call you in the morning and say, What am I supposed to do?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I made it, but I need to you need to go further now.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh bringing in some more life coaches and getting some more advice to I I feel like in a lot of ways I've taken my business from nothing, just something I thought of on a couch one day.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I want to do this, this is what I know.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: And then days like today, I'll wake up and I'll be like, Wow, we're here now.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: What is next?
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's next?
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Because you as an individual, whether you're an agent or a broker, you'll get to a point in your business where you'll be sitting there saying, like, wow, I'm I'm maxed out.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: And you know, we've talked about the other stuff.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: I have kids, the life, the balance and stuff.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And so you start to say, like, the most important thing is to find other people that can help carry that for you.
14:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:38
SPEAKER_03: Who you surround yourself with matters.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's huge.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: And I I don't I don't necessarily have any um uh co-owners or partners or anything like that.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Everything I've done with the company has been on on my own uh due diligence.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I I'm the janitor, the broker, the invoicer, the financier, the you know, whatever whatever part of it, it's been all me.
15:00
SPEAKER_03: And the glamorous part.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, no, I yeah, the super glamorous part.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't even get to be like on the face of it anymore because I have these like superiles clogged again.
15:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the toilets clogged, yeah, yeah.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And all the all the superstar agents that I have now are taking all the ads and the volume rankings and the the marketing posts and stuff like that.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: So it's been an interesting dynamic to shift from being like the front and center of your real estate business to taking a step back and building the understructure of everything, right?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: But I've learned so much from it, and it's made me obviously a better business person, it's made me a stronger marketer, advertiser.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm doing edits, I do all the video, I do all the social media, all that stuff.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think uh pertaining to like real estate agents, I'm a broker now, but pertaining to real estate agents, when you're somebody who is that Swiss Army knife in your business, even if you're not the the main person, like obviously you're not the one shooting and editing your own videos, but you have the ability to maybe make small edits or cut things up and different stories, posts of the source content that you have, huge ad to your business, especially in today's today's age.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and that's the thing, like you're a great marketer, right?
16:12
SPEAKER_03: Like that's one of the things that yeah, yeah.
16:15
SPEAKER_03: So left side to the camera, so you can see.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: I should have put a website, and you threw the hat right there, so the hat's right on camera.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: Mysteriously, this hat shows up.
16:25
SPEAKER_03: I thought that was yours.
16:26
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it is.
16:28
SPEAKER_03: It is, actually.
16:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
16:31
SPEAKER_03: So where did House of May Uh oh Yeah, you're connected?
16:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh-oh.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: There it is.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: All right, perfect.
16:41
SPEAKER_03: I have a big head.
16:45
SPEAKER_03: Where did House of May come from?
16:47
SPEAKER_03: Like, where did that the the brand Yeah, so when I quick backstory.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: So when I look good?
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it looks really good.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Frames your face, actually.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: They they might not yeah, there you go.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll give them a shot.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: House of May came from I was at, I was a real estate agent for I think eight or nine years.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: I got involved in a in a business relationship where we had left KW as like the top team.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: We decided to take some partnership in a like a remax.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: And the remax deal, it just when we did it, it didn't feel right.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: I've I'm kind of outside of the box and obviously going from like KW, Remax, these are very big box companies, great businesses in their own, yeah, just different from my style.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't really fit in that box when I looked into like becoming an owner partner in these type of businesses.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: So it kind of spurred the idea of what if I did this on my own?
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And so when I started it, I was very ambitious, almost delusional.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, in hindsight, it was delusion.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I wasn't the biggest agent, right?
17:54
SPEAKER_00: I I mean, it wasn't like I was doing 25-50 million in sales and said, Hey, I should be a broker.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was good for five to ten a year individual top producer.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: I always said, and some people say this, but nobody made more per hour than I did.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: I promise you that.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was very, very good and efficient at getting deals done in due time.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: And and so I took that that concept of like, you know, what do I like about these businesses, some of these brokerages that I came from?
18:22
SPEAKER_00: And I I did come from like real estate one, then KW, and then a small stint at Remax.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: So I'd field it and seen some different variations of how brokerages are run and how businesses are done.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Took what I liked and then started to say, hey, let's try this.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Super ambitious, opened up in Birmingham, thought that that would be enough.
18:44
SPEAKER_03: That's gonna be easy.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, magic wand, boom, Birmingham, you're here.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Like really expensive, high rent, and everybody likes me, so they're gonna come.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that was not the case.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: So it was something where you know, I I wanted to do this, I wanted to open up my own brokerage, I did it, and what was interesting was the core concepts of what I thought House of May would be still stand today.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: But when people ask me what is House of May, I say it's to be determined because we started as this blank canvas.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And the cool part about it is that every time I go through another week or another quarter, or I add another agent, or I do events and I meet people, it gets painted and colored differently.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's not yet defined because it's so new.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: But back to your question about like House of May, House of May was named after the fact that every one of my grandparents was born in May.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of an homage, if you will, an H O M homage to them, right?
19:49
SPEAKER_00: My mother was in real estate, she was somebody that got me into the business when I was in my early 20s.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: And so I've always felt like real estate has provided, you know, a great foundation to my life.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: It's provided obviously great financial, you know, add ad to me and my kids and all that stuff.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: So I always feel like it's a tribute, you know.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: House of May is a tribute to the people that came before me and got me into this.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you know, H O M doesn't do bad for branding.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: No, so it worked.
20:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I then I was like, well, he's missing the E.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: Should it be home?
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Gets you talking about it though, doesn't it?
20:26
SPEAKER_00: It does.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: I know I used to I ran into the issue where Welcome Home is our tagline without the E, right?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was putting it on all of our listing signs, and I'd get some people over 50 who would call me and they'd say, Hey, take it easy.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: They'd say yeah, 60, yeah, that would say, uh, you know, hey, hey, Sonny, you spelled it wrong.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: I just want to let you know.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: And and I thought it was funny because you know, we were trying to be cool and cultured and you know, edgy.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh well, you're in Birmingham.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, these signs were other places too, yeah.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: But people would call me and just be like, Yeah, you spelled your sign wrong.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, I got them to call, so I might be up to something here, yeah.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, so that's another marketing trick, right?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Again, I stumbled into that success as well, I guess.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:11
SPEAKER_03: No, that's awesome, man.
21:12
SPEAKER_03: And again, it's that family feel, right?
21:14
SPEAKER_03: Like that's the thing.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: It's it's got a good meaning behind it.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: For a boutique brokerage, it's really founded on you know, uh a family business in a sense, and and having you know, substance behind behind the brand.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, not that others don't, but mine just maybe a little bit more than others.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: Not that my brand's better than everybody else's, but it might be.
21:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:38
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's so funny.
21:39
SPEAKER_03: And it's it's it's amazing because what you're what you're building, right, is is you you've crafted this thing, like you said.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: This is the the hard part where people are starting a business, right?
21:49
SPEAKER_03: Whether you're just a real estate agent just trying to figure it out, or now you're starting your own brokerage, right?
21:54
SPEAKER_03: Or you're starting your own team or whatever it is.
21:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's that valley of despair.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Huge valley of despair.
22:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
22:02
SPEAKER_03: I just got out of it last week.
22:04
SPEAKER_03: You did that down in Florida, right?
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's when I went on vacation, came back ready to ready to restart.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think it's very relative to being a broker, being our real estate agent.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: It's the same concept, same process.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're gonna have super, super deep lows.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have some highs.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's the reality of it.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the majority of this business is in the trenches, is in the valleys.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: So so so it to heed that advice, it it it it you you need to, right?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not something it's a it's a glorified business.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a glamorous business.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: This part of it, you know, the showing, the showcasing of it, that that's fun.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: That's also earned, right?
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to do the fun part unless you've grinded it out for many years.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: There's it's like social media when when people look at other people, whether it's their bodies or their money or all this stuff, agents look at other agents and they they they want that.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's still an earned process.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Even in today's age, there's very few people who can get that instant success.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And it can happen.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Just like you could go viral on a post or become super popular on social media.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: You could become a high sales volume agent within your first year or two.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: But it's very unlikely.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Consistency is key.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: And you really got to give yourself, I think, five to seven years to define who you are as an agent and what your style is, because you're going to go through ebb and flow.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: You're going to try different things.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And uh I think we've talked about this before.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Like we have totally different styles in how we approach our business and stuff like that.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: And that's just learned over the years.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've tried things that you've probably succeeded at, and and vice versa.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, like the market talks, right?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: So you're going to see what works for you, and you're going to see when you start getting listing appointments, when you start getting calls, text messages, hey, I'd like to list my house, stuff like that.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: You never know.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, so so my advice to anybody who is listening or is you know trying to develop some sort of technique or style, be true to yourself, you know, try different things and see what see what works best for you.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: But also at the end of the day, like see what actually works.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: I think too many people get caught up in trying to do something that has been proven by somebody else.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: And they they just run with it nonstop.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna post every day.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna it's like, yeah, but you're not interesting, right?
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's listening or watching.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: So I would I would go actually go shake somebody's hand or go out to an event and socialize or something.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, try something else.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's the fun part about it too.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: I think that uh you you get to find out it's a mirror in a lot of ways.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: You get to see who you are in business and in life, and and and people respond to that.
24:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I find that a lot, especially with social media now, right?
25:01
SPEAKER_03: Like social media is such a big, big thing for for us, business, you know, whatever else.
25:07
SPEAKER_03: Like it's it and you said, like, just you can't just post every day and hope it's gonna work your business.
25:12
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't like if it's not interesting, one, and two, if it's not any value, right?
25:17
SPEAKER_03: Right, like if it's just me out to dinner every night, like nobody cares.
25:21
unknown: Nobody cares.
25:22
SPEAKER_03: And if it's just me in front of a house just sold, nobody cares.
25:26
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
25:26
SPEAKER_03: Like, what it's like, and I always reference this too.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm not a three-piece suit guy, like I'll throw a sports jacket on or whatever, I'll wear a suit, but for the most maybe.
25:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for the most part, I'm I'm gonna show I got appointments this afternoon.
25:40
SPEAKER_03: This is this is a shorts guy, or do you wear I I still I'll still go pants.
25:45
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I'll say a little wild for me.
25:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, I still go pants, right?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but I've got a couple appointments this afternoon, and this is because shorts, shorts for an appointment is wild.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you if you're at that level, that's beyond I think both of us.
25:58
SPEAKER_03: If you can wear shorts and you know, there's and there's a couple agents that I know that'll do it.
26:02
SPEAKER_03: They'll do it, yeah.
26:03
SPEAKER_03: Wow, and like they're like, Oh, I I've show them shorts and flip-flops, and I'm like, I that's nuts.
26:08
SPEAKER_03: Not at my house to sell my house.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I would fire you immediately.
26:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, like you wouldn't have a shot.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Your leg came out the car, yeah, I'd fire you.
26:16
SPEAKER_03: I just get back in.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because there is still some sort of professionalism, right?
26:21
SPEAKER_03: Like there has to be there has to be.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: I think that okay, so we're talking about it.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: The way I got away with wearing hats was I branded the hats, yeah, right?
26:31
SPEAKER_00: And and that works because it's like, hey, I'm promoting my business, I want to wear a t-shirt.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, I put House of May on it, and right all of a sudden it's legit, right?
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, and and then I'll go rent a Rolex and a Porsche, and you know, just problem solved.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And then it looks great, it looks great, yeah.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Nobody questioning it.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: No, but I I think that, and you'll know this is the most successful agents, the truly successful ones, are the ones that are gonna be that hybrid of you know, they're not overselling the look, they're not overselling the social media, they're just good at who they are, what they're talking about, what they wear.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: It just it all clicks, yeah.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: The best of the best, they got it down, yeah.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Right?
27:14
SPEAKER_03: They do, and I think I mean, I I I'm showing up with tennis shoes.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: No, you look really good today.
27:19
SPEAKER_03: That's just what I do.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Like that was where I was going with it.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: I was basically saying your outfit epitomizes success.
27:26
SPEAKER_03: I have tennis shoes on, like in that event.
27:28
SPEAKER_03: I had I I so now did have tennis shoes.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, now it becomes it now.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: The tennis shoes have just become my thing.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: And so it's way more comfortable than dress shoes.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I stole uh I stole Eric Wright's look, you know, with the hats and stuff.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: He was he would always wear hats, and I was like, man, that guy's so cool.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, like he's a broker, he's uh he doesn't care.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's got his own brokerage about what he wears.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And and then yeah, then I then I was like, you know what, I'm gonna start wearing hats.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And and I wear a lot of hats now.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
27:56
SPEAKER_03: I I probably literally and figuratively, right?
28:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: So I I do feel like I I I just don't have my hair cut right now, so I I think I'm gonna go back to wearing my hair.
28:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I need a break.
28:11
SPEAKER_03: Well, and it's funny because Eric Wright is one of those guys, right?
28:14
SPEAKER_03: Like it's a hat and a hoodie, and it's yeah, he's like, I list houses and hoodies, man.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Like because at the end of the day, uh it's it's it's almost like a flex.
28:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: It is a flex.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I don't have to dress up for you, right, is what you're saying.
28:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: I think people respect that.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh to a sense of you don't come in too audacious.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, like would I love to be sleeveless?
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
28:41
SPEAKER_03: But it's you know, it just I kind of was surprised you weren't sleeveless for today.
28:45
SPEAKER_03: I was close.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: I was close.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: Because in the event you were sleeveless in the event, for sure.
28:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was.
28:51
SPEAKER_03: Actually, it was a tank top.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a tank top.
28:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I remember that.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: Do you still have one with my face on it?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: I got uh I got you know what's funny is I I would have worn it, but I wasn't at home.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: So we just we just came here and uh yeah.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: I'll send it to you.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: I'll sign it and send it.
29:09
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we'll frame it, just hang it up.
29:11
SPEAKER_03: We'll just hang it up right up here.
29:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll hang it up right up here.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh it's unfortunate we we didn't get our we didn't get our meeting.
29:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:18
SPEAKER_03: But I, you know, hopefully, hopefully we had a chance to go up there and argue.
29:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, remember when remember remember in Rocky, when Apollo trained Rocky.
29:26
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's right.
29:27
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly maybe that's what we do.
29:28
unknown: Yeah.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Am I Apollo or are you Rocky?
29:31
SPEAKER_03: I think I'm Apollo because I'm older.
29:32
unknown: Oh, all right, all right.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: They both had good movie series, so at the end of the day, yeah, we're both kind of the star there.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: That works.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:42
SPEAKER_03: You're still going though, and Apollo's dead, but it's fine.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
29:46
SPEAKER_03: It's okay.
29:47
SPEAKER_03: There's that too.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just won't, I just won't face off against a giant Russian.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: Right.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'll be okay.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: I've faced off a couple of Russians in the board, so nothing.
29:58
SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
29:59
SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, the the funny thing is like the the one thing I enjoy in and watching you do the things that you're doing is like you're enjoying it.
30:09
unknown: Yeah.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, there's those days.
30:12
SPEAKER_03: We all have that day.
30:13
SPEAKER_03: There's always those days where we're like, do I why am I doing this today?
30:19
SPEAKER_00: That was this morning.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: I was driving from Florida to do my seven o'clock podcast.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But but I felt a certain way, I came and did it, and I'm happy I did it.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it, right?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: And and that's how you gotta attack life is uh go for it, do the things that are outside of the box a little bit, be comfortable in the uncomfortability of stuff, and and see what happens.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: I've I've lived my life in business by what do they say?
30:50
SPEAKER_00: Cutting first and measuring after.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: You cut first, measure second.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Don't do as many cuts as I did, right?
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Try to try to be a little more scheduled and a little more focused on the measurements before you go and just start whacking.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: But it worked for me thus far.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: And I am happy in in in what I do.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: The happiness is never derived from the business, it's derived from success and effort, right?
31:25
SPEAKER_00: So when you are doing something that you're either passionate about or have a means to a goal, I think the success in achieving these things or learning from the journey and trying to achieve these things is super rewarding, whether that's as a as a parent, as as a as a business owner, as an athlete, that's what it's about.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh the the reward of purpose.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: So I've always looked at and and this was a big shift for me was having some success as a as an individual real estate agent.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: I felt like had a ceiling in the sense of it was a monetary transaction.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I to be honest with you, I know a lot of people talk about hey, I I do it because I just I love my clients so much, and I love the reward of the key turning to a brand new home.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And there is, there's a huge part of that.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: But I'll be the first to say that I think it's a job, right?
32:21
SPEAKER_00: And and you do a job for the money that it provides so that you can do other things in life.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it was for me, I looked at it like I'm a creative guy, I'm somebody who wanted to explore different avenues and add.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And being an agent had somewhat of a ceiling for me, and it was very transactional.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Whereas now I get to free flow as a as an independent broker to where I get to create that artistic content, I get to do different things creatively with other people.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: It does have some not much, you know, not much, some financial benefit to it.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Sure at the cost of Birmingham rent, it it tends to evaporate rather quickly.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: But that's also the uh, you know, that's business, that's the best thing, right?
33:10
SPEAKER_00: You're you're gonna keep pouring back into the business before you pull out, pull out profits and and run with it.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so so it's just it's it's it's cool to have a more open pasture to to run with.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Whereas when I was just an agent, it ended up just being like, hey, like I'll work for you to make money.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: I love doing it, but this gives me a whole new platform to to help also see other agents who I and I see in a lot of especially the people that work at House of May, is we tend to have eye to eye on a lot of stuff.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: I I find them, they find me, however, it works, right?
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh we get pulled in the same direction.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And everybody that I currently work with seems to really uh bond well with with my process, with the way we do things.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it's rewarding to see people grow outside of that box that I'm talking about.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Being a transactional agent, somebody who's like, I just need to get listings and I just need to sell buyers.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: It's it'll wear on you.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: I know it's nice in the first couple of years, it does.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, sometimes like it you want more.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: And and I think if you're a creative person, if you're somebody who demands multiple layers of of reward systems, uh you got to find outside ways of doing it.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: It can't just be like get another get another listing, sell the house, cash the check.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: But you know, it works for some people too.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: It does.
34:37
SPEAKER_03: It does.
34:38
SPEAKER_03: And Tara Chody just said date is the best.
34:41
SPEAKER_03: So thank you.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: You are also the best.
34:46
SPEAKER_03: But I think I think Tara really is the best.
34:49
SPEAKER_03: Tara is she's awesome.
34:50
SPEAKER_03: How she puts events on that much, I don't let's talk about Tara.
34:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because she said that.
34:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, how she puts these events on two, three times a month, four times a month.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: So, okay, so what I was just talking about, or Tara would be an amazing agent.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she knows it.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: I keep telling her well, I'm telling her that too.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: Hey, easy, but but she'd be an amazing agent, but what she's doing is like what I was talking about.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: I think I went off on a tangent there, but what I was talking about is like she gets to a creative output, she gets to bring people up in this business, and that's an amazing thing to have like that touch of where like you can touch somebody and make them more, yeah.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Right?
35:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in the same sense, like that's what your show does, and and and other people that are in our business.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: But Tara's a great example of that.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I remember when we got picked to do the cover of Real Producers magazine.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: It was like whether it was like this visceral effect in the business community, I don't know.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Cause I don't, but but how it what it did in my head and what it did in my heart in the business, it was very rewarding.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: It made me feel really accomplished in a sense, and it's something that's like you know, you you always look at it, yeah, it's like, yeah, like I was on I was on the cover, like I was recognized, and and so I've been I've been in Oakland and Macomb County just throwing that off there.
36:09
SPEAKER_03: I just had to do that.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: There's a few months left this year, isn't there?
36:14
SPEAKER_00: There is a few months.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get busy in Macomb County though.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: I I well, you know what's funny is I'm from Macomb originally.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm original East Side Italian kid, but we moved over to commerce early on.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: So moved up in the world, but I'll be back.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: I actually just I think, and don't quote me, but I think I just broke the record per square foot in Shelby.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:36
unknown: I think.
36:37
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
36:37
SPEAKER_03: You can whoever does numbers, I yeah, I'm not super organized, but you can run numbers on that and see if uh you need to find somebody to run numbers for you.
36:44
SPEAKER_03: So if anybody can run numbers for Dave.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, call me.
36:49
SPEAKER_03: Call Dave at Aussume, not till after twelve.
36:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:55
SPEAKER_03: Today, especially, right?
36:56
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm going to go.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's gonna say there's a nap involved today.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: No, it's crazy.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: I have to uh I have some appointments after this, which are actually on this side of town, which worked out great.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: And then I gotta go do a new agent shoot.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, we got a new one.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: So we gotta go shoot that in Birmingham today.
37:14
SPEAKER_03: So House of May is growing today.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's growing today.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay for sure.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll put out a little teaser.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: I always uh I love doing this.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: I always like take the pictures, you know, and then I pixelate the case and I post it.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: People go nuts up.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: Trying to guess who it is.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Right, trying to fit the person in the chat.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: But when they guess wrong, I'm like, oh, so that person's interested in leaving too.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a setup.
37:35
SPEAKER_03: No, I don't do that.
37:36
SPEAKER_03: I don't do that.
37:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, it's incredible though, man.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: And and it's funny because like what we talked about earlier was it's what you put out is what you attract.
37:46
SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what you're doing with with the agents that you're building with.
37:49
SPEAKER_03: They're agents that are they're going the house of May because of you.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it's it's I guess it's okay for me to agree to that now because you you're adding agents now, like early on.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: I was like, no one's well, it's because when when people weren't coming, I thought it they they were gonna come because of other things.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: And and then when you look in hindsight, you realize that you as a broker hasn't even grown in that position yet.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: And so I've earned my two, two and a half years now as a broker, as somebody who's worked with agents, helped agents go from you know the one, two million range to the four, five million range, the three, four million range to the six, seven range.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the point.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: That's why you would invest in working with a certain broker is that they're gonna help grow your individual business, I think is the tagline there, the main the main point, right?
38:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go here because it helps me individually sell more houses, do better in my business.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: The people that came and have come and are coming tend to be in a certain period in their career where I've always looked at myself as an agent's broker in the sense that I've been an agent for a long time.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: I've experienced some really quality brokerages, and then I've kind of copied and pasted a lot of those things into my brokerage, which it ends up being like more of a polishing tool.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: So I look at I'm not a handholding broker, right?
39:11
SPEAKER_00: There, there's a lot of agents who and it's true.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I've done this as like a lot of agents who call me that are newer, super new, say it's not the place, right?
39:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's other brokerages, you know, exp, KW, these are great starting points for a lot of agents.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh House of May isn't necessarily that type of brokerage.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for more agents who are two, three years in the business, two, three million in sales.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: We actually have a you can't come unless you're at that range.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: And what that does is that allows me to focus on the things that I am good at and help agents grow in that sense, polish their business in that sense.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to change your business, I'm here to polish it, enhance it, make it better, create more of a brand individually and help you market that.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, that's playing to your strong points.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: I look at the brokerage very similar, and you're an athletic guy.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: I build it like a team, right?
40:06
SPEAKER_00: And so it it's very hard in today's market and today's business world to have a brokerage actually, I would say, elevate the individual agent.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: I I feel like it's vice versa in a lot of things, like the agents that come elevate the brokerage in terms of branding and who's there and and all that kind of stuff.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: So I always thought it was important to be an ad value in that sense to say, hey, this is where you are weak, and this is where we can add.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, I'm providing the value and the equity that I feel like is necessary for anybody to to make that kind of switch at that point in their career to come and and and try different things because we're very different in what we do.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: And by creating a kind of a niche little pocket for myself, we we've found success in that.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily compete or fight with any you know other entity.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, we do our own thing and we found our own tribe.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, every once in a while we find another person that's that seems to be interested in in in joining the the movement.
41:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
41:11
SPEAKER_03: And there are there are those agents, right?
41:13
SPEAKER_03: That are doing Tara just said too, you're a great build, you're great at building your people up, which attracts more people to be part of what you're doing.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're all attractive people, so it helps, right?
41:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's Birmingham, right?
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, we uh have a good looking roster, that's for sure.
41:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, and you know, the thing is, like you said, like a lot of times it's not it's the brokerage, it's I I tell this to newer agents all the time, and especially those agents that are doing one to three, they're trying, right?
41:41
SPEAKER_00: They're they're just that's success in today's today's world, right?
41:45
SPEAKER_00: One to three.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: What was the statue you posted the other day?
41:47
SPEAKER_00: Like 70% sold zero, zero.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: I'll take one to three anyway.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: You give me one to three, I'll show you a real real estate agent.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because that's the hard part.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, breaking the cusp, right?
41:58
SPEAKER_00: To to get any traction is right is the real battle.
42:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 70% sold zero.
42:04
SPEAKER_03: Nuts, which is crazy.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: It's but it's true.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's very true.
42:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
42:10
SPEAKER_03: But those agents that are doing one to three that are that are feeling that like, and I tell this to agents all the time, too.
42:16
SPEAKER_03: You need to interview the brokerage.
42:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we get into this idea of like, oh, I hope they hire me.
42:22
SPEAKER_03: I don't care who you walk into today, they're gonna hire you.
42:25
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
42:26
SPEAKER_03: If I walk down the street going to a different brokerage, they're bringing me in.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, not us.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's why I think I thought about that too.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to like reveal all my cards here, but yeah, it's the same sense of like when you walk up to a nightclub, right?
42:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're like, you can't get in.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, you want to get in.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to get in, yeah.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Right, I want to get in.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: And and I always said too, it's important, and and I'm I wouldn't I wouldn't claim that I'm there yet, but I felt like it's important as a brokerage to establish some sort of atmosphere, aura, or kind of air about, which is like if you work there, you're good.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: And because if I asked you and I said, Hey uh Jimmy, oh, you play for the Pistons.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, then I know you're good at basketball.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: I use basketball for you.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't I usually say Red Vingt.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
43:13
SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say Pistons.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: Well, Dylan Larkin asked for a trade, so I mean he is great on USA, yeah.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, but back to what I was saying, right?
43:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't wanna I like Dylan Larkin, I think he's a great guy.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: What was I saying about oh about yeah, about oh why you just don't take everybody, yeah.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: If you do that and you build a brokerage where not everybody gets in, right?
43:40
SPEAKER_00: And it starts to create a culture, starts to create an echelon similar to like I was saying, the Detroit Pistons.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: If you tell me you're on the Pistons, I don't need to question whether you're good at basketball.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I already know you're very good.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: I would like to build the same type of structure at our real estate brokerage.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, where if you're there, it's because you've earned it, you're worth it, and then people can recognize that.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting because like you're exp, I've worked at KW and stuff like that, and these are they're in a different position because they're so big, right?
44:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can only do that on a small scale, right?
44:18
SPEAKER_00: So, and that's what I meant.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, I can't like I don't compete against certain because once you get to a certain point, it's like you can't just you know pocket yourself.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, we're a high echelon broker with only top salesman.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, no, we have a whole new recruit division, a whole middle ground.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: So it's like I said, find your lane.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: We're building that lane to be suited as needed.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's what you want, yeah.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, there's always gonna be somebody you talk about every Year things restarting, setting over.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could be a top producer, and then the like I think in my third year I sold like three and a half, four, five million, whatever it was, and then next year I sold like five hundred thousand.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what happened, right?
44:58
SPEAKER_00: I know I stopped focusing, yeah, whatever it is, but everybody does it, and uh so yeah, so so you never you can define yourself as like, oh, I'm just a top producer who does luxury, right?
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Right.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, what happens next year when everybody's just you know ordering up 200k, 150 is like, do it all, be good at it.
45:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, that's the thing too, right?
45:17
SPEAKER_03: And it's it people uh you know, I had the a client ask me one time that was if I could sell a house, it was her mom's, and it was not a nice house, and it was it was gonna be it's when it was an investor special, right?
45:28
SPEAKER_03: And at the same point, she she didn't really want to ask me that because I had a 700,000 listing at the same time.
45:34
SPEAKER_03: Don't you hate that?
45:34
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, no, no, I'm good.
45:35
SPEAKER_03: I'll list whatever I'll take anything, I'll put the far yeah, you I want my face in the front yard.
45:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, but the you but you have to get over that because some people like, well, you're just a luxury agent.
45:43
SPEAKER_03: Hell no, I'll sell everything.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like it's crazy because people, you know, Facebook, social media, you you obviously are posting highlight reels of yourself, yeah, right.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: And then it it you're thinking, hey, this is like gonna be great because people see how I'm succeeding and I'm the best, right?
46:01
SPEAKER_00: And then you realize that like it kind of pushes people away sometimes too.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: I've realized over the many years that I've done this, I've been, you know, you it never ceases to amaze you the deals you don't get sometimes.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: Because I think real estate's uh it's built on the ones happening you didn't expect to happen, and then the ones that you thought were gonna happen, yeah.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Like that's been my pattern for many years.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: And and it's weird because I I did, I I realized that when I was posting like non-stop, like, oh look at this, look what I did.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh sometimes like you have friends and you have family who's like, Well, I don't know if I want you to see my house, or I don't, you know, yeah, I see that you sell like expensive stuff, and I I would be, you know, it's probably you're just sitting there like, Oh my god, yeah, that's not exact that's not at all what I was saying, yeah.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: But it happens, and and that's why going back to like branding or marketing, putting yourself out there as a for a real estate agent, be yourself, right?
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Yep, nothing's wrong with polishing, slight embellishment, adding light to things, you know, call it a filter to your life, whatever it is.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with that, right?
47:13
SPEAKER_00: You want to see yourself in a good light, but you got to be careful too.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: I think going back to when we were joking about like Rolexes and renting cars and stuff like that, you can you can you bury yourself with stuff like that.
47:24
SPEAKER_03: People don't realize that that happens all the time, all the time, all the time, yeah, all the time.
47:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
47:30
SPEAKER_03: All the time.
47:30
SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna take a picture of my Dodge Ram.
47:32
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
47:33
SPEAKER_00: Like that's I'm just gonna make shirts that say we're all broke, we should come together, right?
47:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean that's a thing, right?
47:41
SPEAKER_03: Like that it there there is that.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Optics, you know, optics, impressions, you know, in person on social media, they're very important.
47:48
SPEAKER_00: They're very important in this business that you that you're able to.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if like chameleon likes the word, but just like malleable, like you want to be able to ebb and flow in different personalities, in different situations, in different optics because you never know where you're gonna catch that client from in terms of relatability or somebody who decides that, like, yeah, that person impressed on me in a way where I now feel comfortable with using them as a real estate agent.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Al just said you got to get closer to the mic.
48:18
SPEAKER_03: How's that?
48:18
SPEAKER_03: That's better.
48:19
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: That's I can hear myself better.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
48:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to eat it.
48:24
SPEAKER_03: I think it could be worse.
48:25
SPEAKER_03: Funny when I get when I get when when I we get these things, right?
48:27
SPEAKER_03: So be the so my phone's over here, but people will text me.
48:29
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I I don't I'm not watching my phone right now.
48:31
SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks for the update 50 minutes into the show.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
48:34
SPEAKER_03: 4830.
48:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 48 minutes, yeah.
48:37
SPEAKER_03: But I think I think the the I this idea though, like where does your mind how does your mind stay straight on like I know you just said you kind of wing things, right?
48:46
SPEAKER_03: Like, but where does it say that to be funny?
48:48
unknown: I mean I do.
48:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but right.
48:50
SPEAKER_03: I yeah, I get that.
48:51
SPEAKER_03: But but at the same point, it is there people operate like that.
48:55
SPEAKER_03: You have to be able to operate in chaos.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:58
SPEAKER_03: And I think that comes from from the sports background.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: I did individual sports.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was a wrestler in high school.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: I played soccer as well.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: I played that in college.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: I I did jujitsu at a really high level in my 20s, which are these are individual combat sports.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: So when you've been through stuff like that, you tend to wrestle with the unclean.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: A listing appointment's like oh yeah.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's you'd think it'd be that way, and then you realize how tough listing appointments are.
49:25
SPEAKER_03: So you just start doing jujitsu on the guy across the table.
49:27
SPEAKER_03: I've choked a client out before.
49:29
SPEAKER_03: No.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
49:33
SPEAKER_03: Is that a story we can talk about?
49:35
SPEAKER_03: Or is there still charges?
49:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, there might be no.
49:41
SPEAKER_00: I've listed clients that I did jujitsu with.
49:44
SPEAKER_03: So I say that I've choked.
49:46
SPEAKER_03: We'll clear that.
49:46
SPEAKER_03: We'll clarify that.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was willingly or they accepted the the challenge.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: The change, yeah, yeah.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: It was it was it was duly met.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like we we agreed.
49:57
SPEAKER_03: Well, see, like these are interesting stories.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got, yeah, we got a lot.
50:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got a lot of stories.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a whole nother side quest thing.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want a pan-american title doing jujitsu.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: I've meddled in the world a couple different times in gi, no gi, all this stuff.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: But the point of what we were talking about, getting into that is like, yeah, like wrestling with being uncomfortable, you know, getting getting yourself out there, you know, the spotlights on you.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: Showcase is a great example.
50:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you think jujitsu is hard.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: Try, you know, off the dome arguing with other top professionals over real estate, you know, rebuttals and questions and stuff that you can't ask questions on.
50:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's tough.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: Like they took that out from you.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, you can't ask a question back.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do?
50:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what am I supposed to do back?
50:48
SPEAKER_00: That's a question.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: You can't say it.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it's uh real estate life, sports, it's it's all about how you perform under the pressure, in the light, you know, on your own, and what you do in the shadows when nobody's watching.
51:03
SPEAKER_00: That's when you're gonna perform the best, is when you've done the work.
51:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and I I I think that's a very interesting point.
51:11
SPEAKER_03: And it's it's that phase of just to keep going.
51:14
unknown: Yeah.
51:15
SPEAKER_03: Right?
51:15
SPEAKER_03: It just yeah, today's self-fall forward, yeah.
51:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
51:19
SPEAKER_03: And I I always relate it back to like babies, right?
51:21
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
51:22
SPEAKER_03: You know a lot about babies.
51:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
51:24
SPEAKER_03: But babies don't when they start walking, they don't just walk.
51:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they fall down, they get up, they fall down, they get up.
51:30
SPEAKER_03: They don't just one day go, you know what, I'm done with that.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: I'm not, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna sit here.
51:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, you you gotta keep on keeping on.
51:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
51:40
SPEAKER_03: Keep on keeping on.
51:41
SPEAKER_03: That's what I tell my kids.
51:44
SPEAKER_03: That's great fatherly advice.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: That's what my dad told me.
51:47
SPEAKER_00: So I just cast it off.
51:48
SPEAKER_00: That's all you ever said, right?
51:49
SPEAKER_00: Keep on keeping on.
51:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I'm here.
51:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think it's funny, like our our our dads were a different breed.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
51:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, you okay?
51:59
SPEAKER_00: No, that was it.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: I think it's better in that sense.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: I I tend to find that my kids are getting soft, just it's just a generational thing.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: It's just based on like every parent tries to provide a more comfortable lifestyle for their kids.
52:15
SPEAKER_00: And so by the time you're three, four generations removed from the hard days, it's they're soft.
52:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, it is what it is.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think sports are somewhat very important, yes.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, to create that uh fictitious challenge, you know, that life challenge that you know you're not really gonna l live or die by it, but you can kind of prep and prepare and perform according to that mantra.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: And you you played professional soccer.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: No, uh, so kind of okay.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: It's a funny story, it's a long story, but uh when I was when I was in my high school years, I was recruited softly.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: I didn't go D1, I basically quit.
52:53
SPEAKER_00: Three years removed, I decided to walk on to Oakland, which was the D D1 program.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, got cut after two weeks for smoking cigarettes, doing what I don't know what I was doing, right?
53:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, you knew what you were doing.
53:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was super out of shape, got kicked out of the team.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: I was done.
53:07
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't play soccer until I was like 33 years old.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: I started playing in an over 30 men's league, and I'm like, damn, I'm still kind of good.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: Super out of shape, but I'm pretty good.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: So I so I keep playing, I hire a personal trainer, professional soccer trainer.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: His name's Aaron Byrd.
53:24
SPEAKER_00: He's out of NLT and Michigan.
53:27
SPEAKER_00: There is great for kids and has like the top girls program in the country, Olympians, national players, all that stuff.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: So I get into this group, I start playing with these college kids because they have like this college prep, you know, Michigan, Michigan State thing.
53:40
SPEAKER_00: So I'm playing over 30, I'm getting better, better, better.
53:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm training, I'm training, I'm training.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: Going back to like, you know, the mental training that I did with like jujitsu because that was all through my 20s, wasn't playing soccer.
53:50
SPEAKER_00: So I start playing soccer.
53:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm all of a sudden I'm too good for over 30.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: So then I go to a semi-pro right league.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: I play pretty damn good at the semi-pro league.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm still training, I'm still working, I'm working with Aaron.
54:04
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I'm I'm I'm playing with all the guys on Michigan, Michigan State, you know, Western, uh not Akron, what's it, Fort Wayne, Indiana's team, all this stuff.
54:14
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, uh man, uh like I call I call my buddy who ends up being one of the coaches to a a team called Oakland County FC, which is like USL2, which is I would say it's like tier four American, okay, right?
54:27
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's like the top semi-professional slash, you know, I think some pros come in.
54:32
SPEAKER_00: Some or whatever.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: So I played in that.
54:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm 34 years old.
54:36
SPEAKER_00: I got I'm lugging my kids to the game, all the other kids, all the other guys are like 19, 20.
54:40
SPEAKER_00: They didn't at the bar.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: But but I I work really hard, you know, crazy period of my life.
54:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm also like opened up a brokerage at the same time.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: So just talk about like so why not?
54:51
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
54:51
SPEAKER_00: So I end up, I end up, I end up making the team, this, this Oakland County team.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't play very much, but I make like the top 18 roster against like I said, all the Michigan guys, all the state guys and stuff.
55:03
SPEAKER_00: So I kind of so I play, I score the oldest goal in USL2 history.
55:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm 34 and a half, and I score a goal.
55:10
SPEAKER_00: It's it's legendary stuff, right?
55:12
SPEAKER_00: So I got a big like picture of that and the the shoe that I scored it with.
55:15
SPEAKER_00: I put that on the mantle.
55:17
SPEAKER_00: Season's over.
55:18
SPEAKER_00: I did it.
55:19
SPEAKER_00: I actually get a call to set up a professional trial.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: So I did go to a professional trial.
55:27
SPEAKER_00: I played, I ended up like three or four days before I went on that trial, I tore my groin like completely at a training session.
55:35
SPEAKER_00: But I wasn't gonna cancel the trial.
55:36
SPEAKER_00: No, but the whole point was like, and I was doing it for like Instagram, was like, I'm gonna take a bunch of pictures and again like show that I retired on a professional field.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: And that that's kind of my soccer story.
55:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, years of like putting it away.
55:47
SPEAKER_00: I did end up like retiring and being finished on a professional field, but you know, a little short.
55:54
SPEAKER_03: And is it like the wrestling thing?
55:55
SPEAKER_03: You took the shoes off, even with yeah, a little bit, yeah.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that was, but it was just for me.
55:59
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like they acknowledge it.
56:00
SPEAKER_00: They were like, Yeah, you didn't make it, like, get out of here.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: It was it was for you though, yeah.
56:03
SPEAKER_00: It's for me.
56:03
SPEAKER_00: It's for me.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, we put the sometimes the little demons to rest of unaccomplished goals or things you uh you wanted to do as a kid.
56:10
SPEAKER_00: And and for me, it was just a big lesson in terms of like how I relate that to my life, right?
56:15
SPEAKER_00: Like unfinished business and then applying and doing things when you are ready to do it.
56:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I learned a lot about how my 18 to 25 year old brain wasn't capable, even though maybe my body was.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, as I got older and as I learned more and as I had been through more things, what I was mentally capable of doing was well beyond obviously what my body could maybe take at the time.
56:39
SPEAKER_00: Right.
56:39
SPEAKER_00: But it just shows that I think in life, in business, in athletics, like it's the meaning of those two things, yeah.
56:45
SPEAKER_00: Where you can operate mentally, high level, and physically at a high level, and I think that's where you'll you'll find the most success.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think that uh it's it says a lot about you to to take that on.
56:58
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
56:58
SPEAKER_00: Like that was crazy.
56:59
SPEAKER_00: My wife was like, What are you doing?
57:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this was after the whole jujitsu period, right?
57:04
SPEAKER_00: She's like, this is crazy.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: So your wife's a saint, she's awesome, yeah.
57:09
SPEAKER_00: She's a saint.
57:10
SPEAKER_00: We've grown up together, so she's gotten used to it.
57:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she's used to like there goes Date again.
57:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, she's just I distract her with pregnancy, right?
57:18
SPEAKER_00: So while she's while she's making the kids, I'm off doing side quests, and that's made it this way.
57:24
SPEAKER_03: That's how it's worked out.
57:26
SPEAKER_03: No, I love it, man.
57:27
SPEAKER_03: And it's you know, and then thinking about like people could say semi-pro, whatever, but I played semi-pro basketball.
57:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a different that's a different beast.
57:34
SPEAKER_03: Like it's you've got college guys, you got guys that never made it in college that are that should have.
57:39
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, sports are really political too.
57:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
57:43
SPEAKER_00: It's not like you're gonna get like a huge contract at 34 and a half rookie, right?
57:46
SPEAKER_03: No.
57:47
SPEAKER_03: And again, it's a lot of who you know.
57:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
57:49
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of who's your agent and this, that.
57:52
SPEAKER_03: There's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into that.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, semi-pro is that's that's cool in basketball because it's even harder in basketball.
57:58
SPEAKER_00: There's more, there's more semi-pro leagues for soccer than there are for basketball.
58:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a movie about it.
58:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I had I was living in Atlanta, so I had to go to Atlanta to do that.
58:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I could see that you lived in Atlanta before.
58:10
SPEAKER_00: You got some sweat.
58:11
SPEAKER_00: I just drove through Atlanta 12 hours ago.
58:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
58:14
SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
58:15
SPEAKER_03: Well, we got about two minutes left.
58:18
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
58:18
SPEAKER_03: Where can everybody find you?
58:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh hopefully nobody can find me, to be honest.
58:24
SPEAKER_00: At least for the next six, seven hours.
58:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
58:26
SPEAKER_00: I try to lay low, but my brokerage is House of May.
58:30
SPEAKER_00: We're in Birmingham.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: We're off Old Woodward, downtown, can't miss it.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: Biggest sign in Birmingham because they gave me the allotted signage and I made it three inches bigger.
58:39
SPEAKER_00: Because I knew they'd never go back up there and measure it, right?
58:42
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I can say I have the biggest sign in Birmingham, so you can't miss it.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: But you can follow us on Instagram at move home no e.
58:50
SPEAKER_00: So M O V E H O M, as it is on Jimmy's hat there.
58:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and I mean, you know, we'd love to meet more people.
58:58
SPEAKER_00: I think since we've met, we have a you know, nice network of people that we've been associating with through the business and stuff like that.
59:03
SPEAKER_00: It's been fun.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you having me on the show.
59:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:07
SPEAKER_00: Even this early.
59:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
59:08
SPEAKER_00: Even though you got up this early.
59:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: It was, it was, it's been it's been a great, it's been a great experience.
59:13
SPEAKER_03: So we're good, man.
59:14
SPEAKER_03: I appreciate you driving 20 hours to get back.
59:17
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you having just to be honest.
59:18
SPEAKER_00: I did it for you.
59:19
SPEAKER_03: If anybody asks, I did it for you.
59:21
SPEAKER_03: Well, I appreciate it.
59:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, guys, you can find the Elite Real Estate Podcast wherever you find podcasts.
59:26
SPEAKER_03: When you find the Elite Edge Network on YouTube, like and subscribe to the channel and join us again next week when we'll be back with another in studio guest next week.