Latest / Go Big with Gib Podcast / Pioneering Paths: Mary Cheatham King on Empowerment and Innovation in Real Estate

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Pioneering Paths: Mary Cheatham King on Empowerment and Innovation in Real Estate · Go Big with Gib Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Go Big with Gibb podcast, where we talk to professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs about their big wins.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Go Big with Gibb podcast.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Today I've got a very special guest here with me.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Today I've got Mary Cheatham.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: King Mary Cheatham, how are you today?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, gib Gib, I hope you are, and thank you for having me.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely no.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It's wonderful to have you on.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: For all the listeners that don't know, Mary Cheatham is the owner and founder of Mary Cheatham King Real Estate, and Mary Cheatham King Real Estate has been the number one real estate team in Carteret County and the Crystal Coast for several years.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Mary Cheatham, if you could briefly introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Gosh Gibb, absolutely.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: So I grew up in Greensboro, north Carolina.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I went to Chapel Hill and I married my high school sweetheart, who was already established down here in Carteret County, and so we got married young, I got married at 23.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And came down here and thought what in the world am I going to do with my double major in Spanish and Southern Studies from Chapel Hill?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So I decided to get my real estate license and I worked at a little boutique firm called Cannon and Groover here on the causeway While I was, you know, I was an hourly employee there taking pictures, just you know, just do whatever they needed me to do while I was getting my real estate license.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: And so that was just a great experience ended up just kind of loving it and really enjoying starting my own kind of real estate business within that boutique firm.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: And I was there for a long time.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And then it wasn't until seven or eight years ago, when I was approached about opening a Keller Williams office here in in Carteret County, that I really that was kind of the.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: The way that I launched into opening Mary Cheatham King real estate was because you know that that's kind of what they encourage you to do is to build a team and kind of follow their models to have your own business.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: You know there are certain parameters that they encourage you to follow, but you can really be as entrepreneurial as you want.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of how the whole thing started.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: You've been with Keller Williams then from the inception, is that correct?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: From the inception of Mary Cheatham King Real Estate and you know how real estate works.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, essentially you are your own business from the moment that you start selling real estate.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So I was really my own business even when I was at Cannon Gruber, but it was only that.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I started a team and had this name and that sort of thing has only been exactly about seven or eight years.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about our history and the history of our families.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Going back a little ways.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear you tell that story.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, so I know, I love I was thinking about this actually leading up to this interview.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: That's the one thing I've really been thinking about because from my perspective, you know, you and I talked about the fact that I have this team.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: That's all women, you know, and I know we'll get to that in a little while, but you know what I think about my earliest exposure to strong women, kim, it was our grandmothers, it was, it was your grandmother, malene, and it was my grandmother, lib.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And let me tell you something they were badasses.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, they just were, you know, they were just the most amazing.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I mean they just were, you know, they were just the most amazing.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean my grandmother went to Duke and you know, and then ended up.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: She ended up not working for a long time until her kids, my dad and his siblings, were out of the house, and then, of course, malene was this pediatrician, I mean just this incredible force, and they were best friends.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: And so you know, what I remember from growing up was going to Grandma Duncan's, and Grandma Duncan did not take any pushback on anything.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, she was in charge of her household.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: She was such a strong, smart, I mean just you know, but fun and creative.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And then we would always go down to Dr Malene's, your grandmother's, and we would have little tea parties.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: She would always serve Flanner's cheese balls and Welch's white grape juice.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: We would go down there.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Our grandmothers were back at a time where, you know, women had more limited opportunity, right, and you know I remember my grandmother, moline, was the the.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: She was the first female to attend the College of Virginia, which is now, you know, UVA, and she was the first female to you know, to graduate from there, first, first one to attend the school, first one to graduate from there.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And then she was able to come to eastern North Carolina and be a physician and she was, I think, the first female physician in Greenville and the second female physician ever in Eastern North Carolina.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And so you know that they really broke through a lot of barriers back then.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: That you know, it's just is it's really a timeless tale, you know it, it's such a special thing and and uh, I'm sure you get this too you know it's, the more time that passes, the less people know who those folks are that have been gone for a period of time, you know, but I still get approached regularly with people saying like, hey, your grandmother delivered me, you know, and some, you know it could have been.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: My grandfather was a physician too, you know.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: So they both were physicians and a delightful man.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I was about to say let's not forget about Dr Fred, I mean, cause he was always, you know, in the wings and just so sweet, like I don't know, I just man, both of your great friends.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: But you're exactly right, gib, you're exactly right.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And You're exactly right, gib, you're exactly right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: And you know, what I'm really struck by too, is I'm struck by the way they supported each other.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, here your grandmother is running around with this really important full-time job, my grandmother is raising her kids at home.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: You know, I feel like we're so pulled by that, as women in particular.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: You've got the women who work, the women who don't, and there's this divide, you know, and I think for some people, and in some cases, and in some cases there aren't, and it works together so seamlessly.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And I felt like they were such a great example of that.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: They empowered a lot of women to to be able to break through barriers and do things that had never been done before.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And I know my grandmother was not only, you know, on the cutting edge of, you know, the gender equality type stuff, but also with racial equality.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I remember a lot of stories.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: My grandmother treated a lot of children that were African-American children that she would treat in the white hospital, and that was strictly forbidden back then.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Matter of fact, you could, you know, lose your medical license, you could be, you could get in big, big trouble for serving a different, you know, different anybody other than the white people at the hospital, and so my grandmother would regularly do those kinds of things and it flew in the face of everything that society was, you know, supposed to do at the time.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But she just didn't care and she told me that.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: You know, many times she said, gib, if there's somebody that needs help, if I've got to break a rule to help them, so be it.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I'll deal with the consequences, whatever they may be.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: And that that was, um, I mean, those are big shoes to fill, right, I don't know about you, but I don't ever think about I'm trying to fill, you know, anybody's shoes.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm my own person and I think of it that way.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Like you know, for me the challenge is to be the very best version of myself that I can be right.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be Dr Fred or Dr Malene, and I'm sure you're not trying to be your grandmother, but they definitely set a precedent and paved a good path for us.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: My overriding sense was that neither one of them cared at all what people thought they cared about doing the right thing.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I can remember countless times when we broke a rule or, you know, did something that you weren't supposed to do.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, they just they.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: They just they did the right thing and anybody who didn't agree.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: That was just too bad.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I do want to talk more about your, your business and whatnot, but before we do that, could you give me an update on, you know, real estate in Carteret County and the Crystal Coast?
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: So you know I love this question and I also love that you're asking specifically about the Crystal Coast, because you know the market in Carteret County is different than the market in Greenville, you know is different than the market anywhere else, and I think people talk about the real estate market as though there's, you know, a national real estate market, which is simply not true.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And so you know, just to back up a little bit, to give you some context, what we found down here was that at the end of COVID you know, the second half of COVID and then moving forward from that there was a huge rush of people that were moving down here full time, right First there were people who were going to be, who are typically would travel and go out of the outside of the country for their vacations during and then during COVID.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: They couldn't, so they were buying second homes here.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So that was a huge rush.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: And then after that, people realized they couldn't work anywhere.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: So then there was a huge full-time group of folks that were either transitioning from having a second home here to now being full-time, or they hadn't even been here at all, but they wanted to move here full-time.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: We have great schools, our hospital is incredible, schools, our hospital is incredible, you know all these things that are attracting people.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: So our market really broke wide open there towards the end of COVID, and so I think the big thing that we've seen is we saw an astronomical rise in values and because inventory has been pretty limited.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: We've really been able to hang on to that growth.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: So property values haven't plummeted like they have in other areas and you've seen this, this COVID peak, and then it's gone back down in other parts of the country and other parts of the state.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: But we really haven't seen that because inventory has still been pretty tight.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: So you know, when I first got into real estate Gib, it would take six months to sell a house.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Their average days on market was six months, right.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: And so during.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: COVID, I mean three weeks.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: You know two weeks I mean in the average.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: It just got to be so tight.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: We are now back up to more in the two, two and a half month range that it takes to sell a house, which is still pretty darn fast yeah that is fast.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So I mean, what I would say is our market has cooled a little bit since COVID in terms of that.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: You used to be able to just slap something on the market and it would sell.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: You didn't need a strategy, you didn't need to price it properly, you didn't really need to know what you were doing.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: You could just put it out there and I would say those days are done and that's been the pendulum that's swung back in the other direction a little bit, but still with a really smart strategy and with really understanding value as it relates to our local market.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: The market's still incredibly strong.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I have appraisals done from time to time as part of my law practice.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: We'll get appraisals on properties and I was looking at a little property over in Newport and I think it was three beds, two baths.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It's not a large property, maybe 1500 square feet tops.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: A couple of years ago it had appraised at like 270.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And then we had it appraised in October of last year and it was at 310.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: And then we were looking at comps just over the past six months since October and there were comps in that neighborhood selling for $345.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: There was another comp that sold at $365, which led me to believe I mean, those two comps were in the same neighborhood, you know and that led me to believe that if we were to get a third appraisal on that property it could appraise for $340.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I think what you're seeing is more sustainable growth.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, there was a relatively short period of time where, particularly for waterfront homes, we saw maybe a 30% increase in value, which is just mind boggling, you know.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: That's huge.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And it's not sustainable.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Right right, you know.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: But so what we've seen year over year is, yes, we've continued to see appreciation, and of course that depends on are you talking about an oceanfront home or are you talking about an interior home in Newport?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: to your point, you know it's across the board, getting more in that five to 6% range, which is sustainable, you know, and is kind of more what you would expect, but we had a huge jump, you know.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I think, gib, one thing that everybody needs to remember is, you know, think about property values in Wilmington, or, oh my gosh, I have so much room to grow.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: If you think about the fact that we're just, you know, relatively close to that Wilmington rights full figure eight market, you just see how much runway we have in front of us.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: We haven't talked about interest rates and I think you know it's kind of like you stated earlier.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: You know people think about real estate as if it's just like the US real estate market, and there's parts of the US that are very, very hot right now, like with my multifamily investing.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: For example, we're hyper-focused on the DFW market, which is fantastic, and we're hyper-focused on the Phoenix Arizona market, which is fantastic, and with interest rates, you know, climbing at an unprecedented rate, it's affected different asset classes within real estate, it's affected different types of real estate in different ways and it seems to me that it hasn't really discouraged your buyers down on the Crystal Coast.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Is that fair to say?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I do think that's fair to say.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I think the people that it's discouraging are folks who have homes where they got into them at 2%, 2.5% and they're thinking, gosh, I'd love to have that extra bedroom or I'd love to have a little bit of a different location, but is it really worth it to give up that rate to then buy something in a much higher rate?
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: And so I think for some folks it's not, but for a lot of folks it absolutely is.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: And I think that if you're talking about somebody who it's been their dream to own a property on the coast, I don't think it's going to deter them, you know.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think a conversation that we have a lot is.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: You know, we don't know what interest rates are going to do, but we have a lot is.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: You know, we don't know what interest rates are going to do, but we talk a lot about you know marrying the property and dating the rate.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: you know just that.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: You know that we yeah, we don't, we don't know, and if rates go back down, then by all means you can refinance.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: But you're in the house that you wanted to be in, right, and it's and frankly it's those rising rates that have kept values, you know, from continuing to skyrocket right, and so you know, from being here, I've been selling real estate in Carter County for 20 years, you know so.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: So, at 20 years, in what I can tell you is I mean I kick myself thinking about you know the things that I, that I used to sell that I mean you know there's one million things I should have bought, right.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: But but what I can tell you is, if you look at the trajectory that we're on, if you look at neighboring counties and their property values, we've got nowhere to go but up Right Then you take into account how much easier it's getting to get to Carteret County.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: So I think, and I think people understand that, I think people are educated enough to understand if they sit on the sidelines they may get a better interest rate.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: But how is that?
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: But how is that going to?
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: How is that?
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Where's that going to intersect with what property values are at that time.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't have a crystal ball, but I would assume that if interest rates were to decline rapidly, that would probably cause prices to increase.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: There's no doubt.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: There's no doubt.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Now could be the time to buy.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: You know, with multifamily real estate, you know a lot of multifamily properties are on a discount right now.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: So it's a different, it's a totally different analysis.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: We're buying a 30 million dollar property right now at like a 20 percent discount from what it was sold for just a couple of years ago, and there's there's, you know.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: So you really do have to hyper focus on your market and how you know things are going within your market, and that's one of the things I love about you, you know.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: It seems like you've really focused on Carteret County during this entire time.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: One of the big advantages of working with you is that you don't only just know what's on the market now, you also know what's coming to market.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: How is it that you constantly stay on top of that?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: So, gib, I think you hit on something that's really important.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I would not come to Greenville and help a buyer or a seller because I would be so afraid of not having every single piece of every single detail that I would need to have to do the very best job for them.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I feel in my heart that somebody local is exactly the person that they should use.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So we are very much focused on Carteret County and I think that the answer to your question is we've been so lucky, and I've been so lucky in a lot of ways.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Number one, because I have this, these people that I get to work with this, these the you know, these women, this team of these.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: They're just, they're incredible, just the people, the people that I've been lucky enough to align with.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: And so I think, you know, we've got all these folks who are really focused on providing the best possible client experience, but also on having real relationships with our clients.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: So we know what's going on with them, we know what they're looking for, we know who's thinking about selling.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: You know, we know all of those things.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: So I think having that many tentacles you know what I mean, I mean having that.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: You know, having that sort of a reach is really invaluable and we do love that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: We love being able to match and say, oh my gosh, well, so-and-so is looking for this, well so-and-so is thinking about selling.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: You know, I think the thing about that Gibb in this market in particular is, you know, those matched off-market sales.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: They work out sometimes, but by and large, a lot of times it's not in our seller's best interest to do that, because we found that with a really smart marketing plan and with a lot of exposure to the market, if we do what we do best really well, we end up with multiple offers and they can sell for over asking price.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: If you limit exposure, then you limit what you're going to get for them, right?
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: So, with our seller's best interest at heart, we certainly love to keep our buyer clients in the know and make sure that they've got what they need to strike while the iron's hot, but we are finding the market's hot, and so those, those marketing plans and really aggressively handling our sellers and their needs is important.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: This episode of Go Big with Gibb is brought to you by Irons Equity.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: At Irons Equity, we specialize in helping investors like you create long-term generational wealth and save money on taxes through recession-resistant real estate investments that create passive income for you and your family.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: If you want to secure your financial future, go to investwithgibbcom to schedule a 30-minute introductory meeting with me.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Gibb Irons Again, that's investwithgibcom.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: To schedule a 30-minute introductory meeting with me Gib Irons Again, that's investwithgibcom.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: How do you nurture relationships within the community, in particularly as it relates to referrals and things like that?
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: It's so simple.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I think we want to overcomplicate it, but I think that the bottom line is that you know, if you just take really good care of people, and if you know that's that's the key to everything is, if you take really good care of one person, then they tell three people Right, I mean, that says that's it, and then, and then you know the trick, of course, is scaling it, that's the trick of figuring it out.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I knew how to do that when it was just me, and that's what I'm saying that I've been so blessed by is having this team of people who are just as dedicated to doing that, to fulfilling our promise, to not only making you know the purchase or the sale, exactly what they want, but also just to taking really, just taking really good care of them.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: And I think that carries through with the community too.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: You know, as far as you asked about community referrals, I mean, to me I think it's just, you know, we have a big, we are big proponents of local small business and what we found I mean you know this, gib, owning a small business in a small town it is hard, it's tough, it's really tough, and those are the people that make Carteret County.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: So special are these people who are hustling, you know, and trying to make it work with their coffee shop or their bookstore or their surf shop or their restaurant or whatever it is.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: And so the more we can help to support those people.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Not only by doing that we let anybody who's considering moving to Carteret County know how awesome this place is.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: You know, I love that when someone says, oh my gosh, I get your emails and it makes me want to move there, but it's all about you know things like this, you know what's happening here, and then of course, it helps those businesses, which makes you feel so great.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: And then what happens is those people you know appreciate the help.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: And then you know it ends up becoming a relationship where they'll say you know, gosh, well, we're actually considering selling, you know, would you?
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: You know, would you guys be interested in working with us, or you know.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: So it just ends up it just comes back to you tenfold without an actual structure per se, just with knowing that what you're trying to do is to to help everybody around you succeed.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: You know you can put a lot of money into marketing, right?
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: You know marketing is one of those things that you can dump as much money into it as you want to, right, like I've.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I've personally with the law firm done.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You know pretty much every different kind of marketing you could think of yeah, billboards, buses, you know and you can dump a bunch of money.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: But the best referrals are word of mouth referrals, because those people already have a certain level of trust in you.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: They've already heard from somebody that you're not only competent but that you're very skilled and that you're going to treat them with respect and build a relationship with them.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So it just makes it so much easier.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I saw that your company has donated over $400,000 to the community to different causes.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Is that right, right?
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: it's been really fun.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: We started an arm of the company that's.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: We call it mckre mary, cheatham king real estate.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: It's it's a mouthful, you know, I mean I know well, and you know we can circle back to this, but you know, I didn't, I didn't set out to, you know, to build this business.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: It was just you know.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: So it was just called my name because it was just me.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: And so here we are, but anyway so we have this arm that's called MCKRE Gives, and so, yes, that is true, but with one correction some of that money was actually donated by other folks at events that we've put on.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So it's money that we've raised or donated.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: So we do, we give $100 from every closing to a local charity, and then, of course, we do a lot of other stuff beyond that.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: But it's fun to have a system around it where we know and our team's excited about it, and we talk about where we're going to direct those funds and we report back out hey guys, here's who we've helped this month, here's what we've done, and so that's a great thing, certainly for our community, but it's such a great thing for our team, for everybody who's on it, to feel like that they're making an impact.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: How did you decide to have a company with all women?
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: How did that come about?
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: So really by accident is the answer.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: I think what's interesting is residential real estate, of course is, by and large, if you looked at the residential real estate world, you know the majority of folks who are a part of that world are female.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: But what I think we end up seeing is that a lot of the big teams, a lot of the successful companies, a lot of the leaders are male, you know.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know that makes sense, yeah, and so I think what happens is, I think, that the men go into it with a business plan.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: They go into it and say this is what I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to build this team and this is where I'm headed and they have a roadmap.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: They just approach it like a business.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: This is a gross overgeneralization, of course, right.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: No, I understand yeah.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Anecdotally.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: This is then with women, just like with me.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: You know you get into it and then all of a sudden you think, well, gosh, I can't provide the level of service I want to to all these buyers.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: There are too many of them at this moment.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I need help.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: And so then you hire somebody, right.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden you think, oh my gosh, it's happened again.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I need help, right.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: And so that's that's the way we built our business, and what's been really fun about it is everybody is kind of specializes in a different part of things, right.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: So we have a, we have listing agents who focus solely on sellers and the marketing piece.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: And you know, get, when you have a seller, a lot of times certainly there's emotion involved, but they're pretty black and white.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: They have a clear goal you're going to help them.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: You reach that goal or exceed it.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: It's a whole different skill set than when you're working with buyers, which can be very emotionally charged, especially when you're talking about a second home purchase.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I mean it's fun, I mean emotionally charged.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: In a great way you know where their emotions is.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: What making is what's making them act, right.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So that's a different skill set in people.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: So that is what's making them act right.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: So that's a different skill set in people.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: So that's what's been really fun on our team is everybody doesn't do the same thing, everybody has specializations and things that they're great in.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Our administrative team is just absolutely unbelievable at making sure that we can deliver and you've got agents out in the field showing things and and you know doing what you picture on the hgtv.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: You know part of things, but then you've got to have somebody keeping the home fires burning and you know doing what you picture on the HGTV.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: You know part of things, but then you've got to have somebody keeping the home fires burning and you know keeping the contracts moving forward and lining up inspections and you know letting our buyers and sellers know what's going on.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: So it's really that whole symbiotic, you know, kind of relationship.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: That's been really fun.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: And and give, to answer your question, we have hired a man before we've actually had had answer your question.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: We have hired a man before we've actually had had.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Um, I know, and you know what's funny it just, it just didn't really work out, and so now I think it's become kind of a, a self.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: You know it's, it's certainly absolutely.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Or, you know, anytime we hire, we absolutely love to see applications for men and and, um, you know it, just just at this point, we're all women, but that's not necessarily, it's cool, but it's not.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it's not something where we say we would never hire a man.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: How big is your team right now?
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: There are about 20 of us.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sure when you first started I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you probably didn't know how big it was going to grow or if it was just going to be you for the rest of time.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: How have you scaled your business to the size that you scaled it to, and have you had any kind of mentors that have helped you, or is it something that you've done through your own research and trial and error?
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: I've had lots of mentors and lots of help.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I've learned so much and lots of help.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: I've learned so much.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: I certainly did not set out to have this team and it's really humbling the way people have trusted me and the way they've been willing to work with me to build this, and I've been shown a lot of grace.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: What I would say, gib, is, I think if there were someone else that were starting something similar to this, I think what I would say is I don't think there's, I don't think you can look to one mentor or one.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: You know, what I've discovered is, I think the businesses that really work, they have the stamp of the person who started them.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: You know it's just, it permeates the person that they are, permeates the entire business, and so you can't copy what someone else has done because it's inauthentic and it won't work.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: So I think the reason that we've been successful is because I think that what, what I started out doing, I found other people who are, who are, are all all in on that same vision, and I think that the other piece of advice I would give someone is just asking really good questions of people who've come before you.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Earlier you said you know you've been very fortunate.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: You know you might've even used the word lucky.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I would have to argue against that a little bit.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you've been.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Everybody has a certain degree of luck, right.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: But this has happened for a reason, right, because you've worked really hard and you had a clear vision and I think you have a very strategic vision for your team.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I get the impression that you all do a lot of things together, that you spend at time and do activities with your team and that y'all do things that are not only work related but have fun together.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I just can't imagine the level of investment that I you know because I know quite a few of your team members and I've had the pleasure of working.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: That I you know because I know quite a few of your team members and I've had the pleasure of working with them and just had it's been delightful.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: You know, like Laura Montocchio, for example, you know she helped me find my first office in Moorhead City just by giving me an introduction to Trace Cooper, who had an office share that was available at the time.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: But the level of investment of your people doesn't just happen by chance or out of luck.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I think it's because of that strategic vision.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: How important is it to you to do things like that, have all those activities, those group activities and things like that.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: You know, I think it's really important.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: We actually have core values on our team and I can tell you what they are.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to hear those.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Okay, we all have these on our desk.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: So I won't read the descriptors, but our core values.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: The women that I work with are gritty, they're excellent communicators.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: They're intelligent.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: They're excellent communicators.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: They're intelligent, they over deliver.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: They're proactive versus reactive.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: They have impeccable character and they're enhancers enhancers meaning that we're constantly we laugh.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: The only concept on our team is change, because we're always like how well, how could we do that better?
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Well, what could we?
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: You know it gets.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: It's a lot harder to turn a cruise ship than it is to turn a skiff right.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: So as we get bigger, you know it becomes a little bit harder.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: You know to do that, but we're constantly trying to figure that out.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: And so where I'm going with that is, first you've got to find somebody who has these characteristics right, and you've got to find somebody who's willing to work that hard, somebody who really gets it and understands why we're doing it right, and somebody who's willing to make it all about the clients and the people that we serve.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: And then, once you do that, it's hard.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I think any business is hard, gib.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: And so what we found is, yeah, that having time for us to be together and talk about things and be together as people is a big deal.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: So, for example, every Thursday morning, our team meeting is at my house.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: So everybody comes to my house on Thursday mornings, we have a big breakfast and we sit around my living room and we run through an agenda you know, where the different departments and different folks present on what's happening in their world, so so that we're really all aware of, hey, who, what listings are signed but haven't launched yet.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: So we can be thinking, oh, what buyers do we need to let them know this is coming right.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: What is marketing?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: What's our marketing team working on, and how can we help make sure that that we're?
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: You know, we did something last week, for example.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: That was the five best margaritas in Carveret County.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: What are they?
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean a lot of times it's really fun stuff like that, but it's just a constant collaboration.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: And then, of course, the giving back piece.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: We all we had a volunteer week a few weeks ago where we volunteered at a different organization every day for a week, and so that was fun for you know, and everybody didn't do every day, but whoever, you know, we had a group that went out every day and then at the end of the week to say y'all, look at the impact we've had.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: You know, those are the things that that really, I think, bring you together.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: One of the things we love to do, of course, on our Thursday meetings is to look, look at the new reviews that we've gotten, you know, and just to look at each other and say, man, check that out, they referenced you specifically in that review because you knocked their socks off Like, look at that.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: So it's those things where we stop and really celebrate each other that, I think, make a huge difference and make what we're doing sustainable and fun.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: How did you come up with your core values?
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Was that something that you sat down and had like a strategic plan?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: We did it, but we all did it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Together.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Yep, which is what's so fun.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Every once in a while we'll do things like this.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: You know we have these established now and everybody feels great about them, but we workshopped it, you know, over time, to figure out what.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: What is the common thread?
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Those of us who really thrive in this role and on this team, you know what, what's the common thread?
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: And so we've, you know, figured that out.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: But you know we'll do different things.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: We've done some different personality testing and some different.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: You know all kinds of things where you figure out who are we as individuals and then how do we come together as a team, and that's really fun.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: What are the guiding principles of the agency?
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know they're in line with your core values.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: These core values, I think just really kind of go back to who we are, and I think the guiding principle is that we always put our clients first, right, that we always make sure that we are educating them and helping them to get what they want.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's so funny sometimes people come into this process without really understanding.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: They know they have an end goal in mind.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: But stopping and clarifying and really being great listeners so that we really understand what is their goal and what's important to them about that sale or that purchase because it's not always the same thing Treating each other really well is a huge part of it.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Being great communicators and being proactive.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: We always say if somebody calls and asks you a question, it's too late.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I mean of course that happens all the time.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: But that's our goal.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Our goal is to answer the questions before it comes to that.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: So I think that's it.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: I think it's just really honoring the relationships.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I mean people buying or selling a property, buying or selling a home like it's a huge deal financially and it's also a huge deal to me emotionally.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I mean we end up right in the middle of these folks' lives.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: You know, no matter what they're doing.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Sure, you do, yes, and in the most wonderful way, and so I think it's taking that really seriously.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: You've forged some really strong relationships with people.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Going through that with them, and there's just nothing, nothing better than, at the end, knowing that they got exactly what they wanted.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Look, it has been awesome to have you on the podcast today.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed it.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: And I'm just.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I'm so impressed with what you've done with your business and how you do treat people, and you know the relationships that you've built.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I wish you the best of success in the future and thank you so much for coming on.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Well, gibbs, thank you and listen.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your ongoing support of our team and all the people that are on it.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you how much we appreciate it, and I'm honored to have been here today, so thank you for having me.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: You got it, thank you.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Gib.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode of Go Big with Gib.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: If you haven't already, go follow us on social media at Gib Irons.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.