The Brad Weisman Show

Skye Michiels' Journey to "With Heart Coaching"

Brad Weisman, Realtor

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Can genuine care for clients help Realtors stand out in a competitive market?  Discover Skye Michiels' transformative journey from history teacher to real estate expert and now a pioneering business and life coach.  Skye joins us to share insights from his impressive tenure with Keller Williams and Compass Real Estate and discuss the founding of his own coaching company, 'With Heart Coaching'. This episode reveals Skye's holistic coaching approach, which prioritizes personal and emotional well-being alongside business success. Understand how focusing on overall health and balancing technological advancements with human connection can help Realtors unlock their full potential.

Learn why self-care is essential for Realtors looking to forge lasting client relationships and elevate their professional game.  Skye explains the "with heart coaching philosophy," emphasizing happiness, health, and lifelong client partnerships.  We also explore the journey of building a business from scratch, the pivotal role of community, and how to turn challenges into opportunities. Get inspired by Skye's story of perseverance, the importance of genuine human connections in business, and the undeniable competitive edge that comes from truly caring for your clients.  Join us for an enriching discussion that offers more than just professional insights but also life lessons for personal growth.  #skyemichiels #withheartcoaching #bradweisman #thebradweismanshow #customercare

"Let's bring genuine caring  back into the conversation for those that work directly with customers.  One thing technology can't do (well at least not yet), is CARE.  We automate our Customer Relations to technology and then we expect referrals in return.  Let's be real, that is not effective anymore (or maybe never was).  People want People, they want interaction and they want to know someone CARES." - Brad Weisman   

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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show (formerly known as Real Estate and YOU), where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife #realestateandyou

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.

Speaker 1:

from real estate to real life and everything in between. The brad weisman show and now your host, brad weisman. All right, this is going to be a fun show. I'm really looking forward to this, hugo. I have to tell you it's going to be a good one yeah yeah, the guy traveled really far to get here too like an hour, at least an hour, happy about it.

Speaker 1:

It's always good to there's probably some kind of jet lag involved. I'm not sure. I don't know how that works out. We have a guy here who has been all over the place. He's been in real estate Actually, he started as a history teacher. He is now a coach for business for life, but he has a whole past of real estate. He was with Keller Williams at one point, went to Compass and I'm just excited to have him here. His name is Sky Michaels. The sky's the limit, right.

Speaker 2:

Is that one of the things you use for real estate? I do not. I actually thought about it in the beginning, but every time I hear it, yeah, it's too hokey, it's like a dad joke.

Speaker 1:

You know what those are like? Yeah, of course Dad jokes. Yeah, we all have those. So welcome to the show man. Thanks, brad, I appreciate you having me. Yeah, and what's funny is it's interesting how you can do all the studying online about somebody, and I've seen you on Instagram We've crossed paths in different areas, for sure, and your name has come up, and then I saw you, I think with David Krieger. You were on with David and David I've known for a long time back in my other Coldwell Banker days.

Speaker 2:

I was former Coldwell's owner. Oh, were you really? Yeah, dave was one of my first managers, that's so funny.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so he's a good guy. Yeah, great guy, great guy, Very knowledgeable, great guy. So that was the first time I saw your name and then it just kept coming up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you're doing let's go, let's talk about what you're doing now. Then we'll go backwards. So what are you doing? I made a leap, all right, good, and I left my role as the head of coaching for nationally for Compass Real Estate and I formed my own coaching company, and that coaching company is called With Heart Coaching. Basically, we are focusing on actually helping people, not just with real estate or business, but actually with their life.

Speaker 2:

My experience with coaching is that a lot of coaches are similar to like drug companies Like hey, I'm gonna tell to call a hundred people and if you don't if you do it, you're going to be okay, if you don't do it, you're sick. Yeah, like a drug company like hey, you have high blood pressure, here's a medication. Like, if you take it, you're good, if you don't take it, you're going to die. Yeah. And I think a big miss in coaching companies is we actually don't address the person and the human. And most realtors actually know what to do, right, like the vast majority of realtors. If you were to quiz them, they're like oh, yeah, I should reach out to my sphere.

Speaker 1:

I should do an open house.

Speaker 2:

I should do this, but then they're so messed up in their personal lives or their financial lives, or when you use that word health and wellness, right, most of them are not there. So if we address some of those things, it actually opens them up to do the things they actually know how to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so true, and the more books I read about different things about business, and we're kind of going back to the roots of who we are as humans. As much as we get automated and technical on things, I think it also is making us look back and go okay, we're also human beings, we're not just technology, we're not just the realtor, we're not just the husband or the father. There's a lot to it and I think the more you develop yourself, everything you do will be better.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Right, brad. And think of this as technology continues to grow, as all the NAR settlement. Yeah, when you think about if we, as realtors, are competing against third-party internet aggregators or other companies that are providing the consumer with information, with all the stuff like that, well, what do we have as realtors as a competitive edge? Yeah, it's actually caring. Yeah, for the first time in maybe the history of real estate, caring is a competitive edge. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? That's sad. Actually, it's a little sad.

Speaker 1:

It's a little sad.

Speaker 2:

But at the end of the day, as realtors, we can actually lean into that. But to do that, we actually have to care about ourselves first, absolutely. If we don't care about ourselves, we can't take care of other people at a high level. Yeah, and I think a lot of people get into this mindset that all I'm going to do is people please. Yeah, and I'm a recovering people pleaser, by the way, hi, my name is Sky, I'm a people pleaser.

Speaker 2:

And where are the donuts? Now? The coffee? But all joking aside, the reality for most people that are good at real estate is they are very good at helping other people and in that process they often forget about the number one person that they need to help, which is themselves. So a lot of the with heart coaching philosophy goes back to three things is we focus on how you, how you become happier, how you become healthier and how do you lean into the human side of business? Wow, right, and there's a lot of companies out there that are going to teach you how to cold call and how to do expireds and Fizbo's, and that's not really our, our jam, so to speak. Which?

Speaker 1:

I like yeah, because there's a gazillion of those. Yeah, so really there's a ton of those and, like you said, and that's all about just account, that's accountability on numbers. And you know, michelle McCartney was just on here. I don't know if you know her. You should get to know her. She has a course called Beyond the Script. Yeah, because we always talk about scripts. You know, in sales we talk about scripts and things like that. Michelle is all about what you're saying. She talks about turning handshakes into hugs. So at settlement, instead of you saying goodbye to somebody by the time you get to settlement, you should have influenced, you should have a relationship there that deserves and is right for a hug as opposed to a handshake, right, isn't that cool?

Speaker 2:

And let's go beyond that too, brad. We need to. Actually, the future of real estate goes back to us. Actually, the day of settlement is at the. That's the beginning of our relationship, absolutely. And of course, we are launching uh is going to be called the forever real estate client Excellent and our goal is basically, you know, buying and selling real estate. It's just a small thing of what I do for you as a client, and once you're my client, it's not this like hokey, you're a client for life. Yeah, I'm going to send you a pie and Thanksgiving. Yeah, that's not treating someone like the client, I do like the pies though Just pies are good.

Speaker 1:

Let's just get that out. Apple pumpkin actually for me, just in case you're wondering uh, making notes, Um, but the?

Speaker 2:

at the end of the day, we need to actually treat people like clients, no matter what they're doing. And you think, think of a high end financial advisor. That person they're not on Instagram or TikTok or sending out mailers. What are they doing? They're taking care of their clients all day, every day. Those clients, then, what do they do? They take care of their financial advisor. So, as realtors, let's adopt this mindset that we are high-end financial advisors which we are and let's actually start acting like it. Let's actually act like it. Let's elevate what we do to provide value to people beyond the transaction.

Speaker 1:

We were not embodying it anymore. That's the. That's the thing that's happened. And I remember growing up my parents had one realtor. Yeah, I mean she's not around anymore, which stinks, but uh, what's actually good for me in a way, cause they're on their realtor now, but no, but she was amazing. She became best friends with my parents. They leaned on her for everything that had to do with real estate, whether it be property tax questions or or homeowners insurance questions or how do we get the roof fixed. You know what I mean. She totally was their, their go-to, and today you don't see those relationships as much, and I think that's it's, and it's it's not good, because we have a lot of knowledge to share.

Speaker 2:

We can help people through from not just settlement the whole time, cause a house needs things always yeah, and and the key thing for the realtors listening right now is you need to challenge yourself to find non-Googleable information. At the end of the day, if the consumer can Google it, it's not a value for them. Absolutely Right, so I can't.

Speaker 2:

I can maybe Google top plumbers in, you know why, it's right, but at the end of the day, I don't really know these people and they could be manipulating the the and that's very true, they can.

Speaker 1:

you can definitely pay more money, you get higher, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

But if I call my realtor, who is my, once again I'm their client and I say hey, who do you recommend? They're recommending me something because they want that person to take care of me at the level they took care of, and that's, I think, this mindset we need to adopt. What can I provide people that is not on Google?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cause people will pay for that, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. But if I can just take my phone out and type something in and find it, it's not really valuable, yeah referrals are everything, everything, any kind of a referral.

Speaker 1:

You know, and I and one step further, you know. When you do give that information, you know what I do. If they ask me that question, I said you know what. Text me what you're looking for. So if I'm in my car, so I don't forget, yep, I will get them the number or the cell phone number of the person that they're looking for. I'm not going to just tell them the name so they can look it up. I'm going to do one step further. I'm going to give them information and say hey, by the way, make sure you mention my name so that they know that I'm giving them referrals.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly right, exactly right. Yeah, it's amazing, it's changing.

Speaker 1:

We're going back to some basics, I think I I think it's a good thing, it's a really good thing. It's personal touch, so so now you have it's called with heart coaching. So where did you come up with that name? Great question, did you have that name, or?

Speaker 2:

was it something you? It's a good question. So my real estate team so I sold real estate got my license in 2002. I was a high school history teacher and I, you know I was needed a little extra income, so I got my real estate license. Um, when I started my team, which was in 2013, it was called Real Estate With Heart.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

What I did is I basically dropped the real estate side of it, used the with heart because of the fact that this company is not just about real estate. Yes, we have specific real estate programs, but the reality is relationship-based selling. You could use that with mortgage people, anything, title insurance, lawyer, lawyers, you name it anything anyone that deals with a relationship-based selling. Did you know most loan originators don't have a CRM? Oh my gosh Right, that's amazing. Let's be real.

Speaker 1:

Most realtors don't have a CRM. And let's be real, real. So up until Keller Williams, I didn't have a CRM. Oh, I can tell you one thing I bought top producer like five times. I spent all this money, never used it. But what's funny is you're right. And when we're saying CRM, just so that the people know it's a contact relationship, relationships. The other was retention. See, I'm learning something new and so we need to use it. Yeah, absolutely, Relationships.

Speaker 2:

Well, we call it our database Exactly new, and so we need to use it yeah absolutely Relationships.

Speaker 1:

Well, we call it our database.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, but you have to cultivate that database, you do. You got to create relationships. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

That's in May, so that's where With Heart Coaching came from, correct. Let's talk about the breakaway from real estate into this coaching. That has to be scary.

Speaker 2:

Oh man. Well, it's really scary to go from. I was. I was an employee at compass. I was the head of coaching. Yeah, so traveling traveling around the country is an incredible position and I love the company. Yeah, Um so, but at the end of the day, I'm an entrepreneur at heart and I at the.

Speaker 2:

I was so excited to launch the company Um and the fear in the beginning was not there and it was probably after that first week of excitement. Was it the first time you need to get a paycheck? No Cause I. The first time in about six years.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, this is real, this is real.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that is funny. Yeah, so that fear is something that, hey, you lean into it.

Speaker 1:

And I always ask myself.

Speaker 2:

What's the worst case? What's the worst case? You're exactly right. All right, I jump off this cliff. And the worst case scenarios? I'm a little embarrassed that the company didn't work out. I can go back to selling real estate. I can go back to being head of coaching for a company, whatever it might be. What's the worst case? And for anyone out there I think this applies to life as well what's the worst case scenario? And we get hung up by. We create stories in our mind about what, if right, well, what could happen? And the key to overcoming fear is evaluating the worst case scenarios and then realizing that probably none of them will ever come true. And when we look back in our life, our greatest growth moments came in the most fearful moments. Absolutely so when we lean back in our life, our greatest growth moments came in the most fearful moments. Absolutely so, when we lean into fear, we lean into growth. So um, it's, you know, those two months of no paychecks was a little bit.

Speaker 2:

You know you may like at night and 3am the eyes open. You're like okay, uh but it's also exciting.

Speaker 1:

Ah, it's very exciting Cause you're pioneering, you're, you're on new ground, new ground, and there's nothing like creativity that happens in those moments. Because when you, when you are in that position, when we started this, this office right here, uh, my partner Susan and I it's amazing, if somebody would have told me looking, if they was, if I would have been told what I was going to go through to get to where we are, on like a piece of paper, I'd be like, nah, you know, I'm not into it, I'm not into, I'm not going to do this. But the fact that you don't know what you're going to have to put up with or what you're going to do, is it worth it now? Absolutely, but it's. The growth moments were so amazing. It's so amazing.

Speaker 1:

If you look at the book, you know, 10 times is better than two times that book, great book. And it's true. We took a company from nothing, which was this company here, started scratch and we became number two in the marketplace in a five-year period. So, and not to pat on our backs, but we didn't know we were gonna get there, we didn't know how to get there, correct, but we were creating, we had faith, we created and we know, okay, we, we can do this. So that's what you're going to do, and that's what you're doing now.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. I think you, too, you have to have that belief that, even though, even though you don't know the exact path, the path is going to emerge as you take a step and take a step and I think that's a key thing for anyone that's starting a business or in a business have your vision of the future, but then realize the real power is in the moment, absolutely, and the real power is what is this small step that I'm going to take today, or what are you doing tomorrow Exactly?

Speaker 1:

What are you doing tomorrow?

Speaker 2:

This show is a great example, right Like ease. How easily could I? I could have said, hey, let's do this virtually, but no, for me. I don't know where this may bring me, brad, but I do know that I'm going to take an opportunity to meet you as a person, be on your podcast live, and this was a great example of knowing. I just know I need to take a step today, and this is a great example.

Speaker 1:

Very cool and you know it's funny. I was going to let you go. I know you were. I was actually. It's interesting when he texted me this morning is this virtual or not I was going to let you go. I was going to go. I was in my first inclination was all right. You, I was in my first inclination was all right. You know, it's no problem, we'll just stream. We'll just stream. It's fine and a lot of people do, we do, we just don't. It's just not as good. Exactly, it's not as good as this right here. And I didn't let you go. I left it open a little bit, I gave you an opportunity, but then you came, you know.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think you've got to go back into this world of like action creates results, right, and at the end of the day, the difference for me was I drove an hour and 20 minutes or so, and we appreciate that, and what I did is I just made a list of all the people I'm going to call in that car ride. So, rather than look at it as a negative, I just-.

Speaker 1:

You got a lot done.

Speaker 2:

Great yeah, all these phone calls I've been procrastinating on and I got. I knocked them all out and good, good, good. So I think it's the kind of thing that we always look for the easy way when sometimes the the reality is like a little bit of a hurdle, so to speak. How can we actually turn that hurdle and make it an asset, right? So the hour and 20 minutes in the car was a huge asset for me. That's really cool.

Speaker 1:

And we'll have to mention his program. What you're doing there, your coaching thing, We'll have to bring that up on here just because you made the ride. We'll do some pushing for you out there. Yeah, absolutely yeah. So tell me about this 6am-er thing. You know that's an early time to be getting together to do brainstorming or masterminding.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, well, so I'll give you the original story began actually in the five Amherst, which was that one.

Speaker 1:

There you can just take me off the list. I am not doing it, although it's before kids get up.

Speaker 2:

It is before kids get up, so that's the bonus, so that was years ago, so 2017, one of my best friends, Jake Dreyfuss we actually at the time we're at Keller Williams together.

Speaker 1:

I was a founding partner.

Speaker 2:

KW Philly and. I was going through a divorce. So Jake just started waking me up and he's like hey, yeah, I was in a bad space. Yeah, got it Overweight bad depressed.

Speaker 2:

Like you know, it was an amicable divorce and I have a great, I have a beautiful divorce now, yeah, great co parent and everything like that. But in the moment it was a big transition. So he just started waking me up at 5am and I'd wake up and I'd text him my alarm clock Right. And uh, it just started with the two of us waking up early and then we were like you know what, I wonder if anyone else wants to do this.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's great, kicked it out A little support group in a way, right, I mean the community, the community, that's it.

Speaker 2:

Wow. And then, just slowly, each month, grew and grew and grew. But what were the topics? Was it always business? No, actually, the irony is, at 5am, the last thing you want to talk about is real estate, right?

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Real estate. You want to talk about life and struggles and wins and health and all the good stuff that make us happy. Right, more of a gratitude time. It's dude. It's so much more powerful to have those conversations when things are quiet. If you try to do that at one o'clock in the afternoon, when you have, you know too many interruptions, too many interruptions, so we would get together on Tuesday, Thursday mornings.

Speaker 2:

Make a long story short Uh, Jake moved to Colorado, I moved to compass we. We did maintain it for a couple of months after that, but then it sort of faded. So then, if I don't know, if you remember March of 2020, there's this little thing called COVID.

Speaker 1:

Let me think. Can I look it up? Yeah, yeah, google it. No, just Google it. Do you remember that Hugo? Is it vid? Yeah, yeah, oh man, talk about a break in our lives, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Anyways, you remember, you know, all got shut down and we were at home and happy hours and you know virtual Too much. Too much. So I got into this mode where I was sort of going back to that time when I was divorced like a lot of fear, right, a lot of unknown and a lot of frustration with myself, in some ways Like all right, like this is. You know, this is ridiculous.

Speaker 1:

Can I curse on here? Yeah, of course this is bullshit. Yeah, you can say bullshit, just don't say the F word.

Speaker 2:

That's all. We try to stay away from that. We're polite.

Speaker 1:

Because my kids listen to us sometimes. That's all right, but you're fine with bullshit. Okay, totally.

Speaker 2:

Anyways, I was like this is ridiculous. I am a grown human being and I can yeah, I can control what's happening inside. I can still go for a run, I can still eat healthy. I can still not drink, you know. Yeah, at four o'clock in the afternoon they zoom happy hours.

Speaker 1:

Oh my god, remember those. Yeah, it's crazy yeah, anyway.

Speaker 2:

So the the reality is, I was like frustrated so I said all right, april, I'm starting the six ammers because it's covid. So okay, yeah, exactly, there's a reason exactly the nice thing with 6am it's early enough that it's a push for most people, but it's not 5am.

Speaker 1:

Which is almost 5am is very difficult for most people, because you're getting up to do a 5am or I think it's. You're getting up at 430. 430. Yeah, to function yeah.

Speaker 2:

So 6am was a great avenue and basically every month I would open it up through people to join um. It started in philadelphia and, to make a long story short, it just grew and grew and grew and uh, we, when I left compass, it's still at compass because, you know, intellectual property created it there. It's their their program um, and it was about 6 000 compass agents had participated in at least one month, that's incredible.

Speaker 1:

yeah and yeah, and that was, that was a community, a definite uh word of mouth, community. Cause I'm telling you Susan brought it up, I remember it coming around Keller Williams.

Speaker 2:

It was the 5am, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so uh, well, you know, Keller Williams is always trying to get one up on everybody.

Speaker 2:

So they get up earlier.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, I had to.

Speaker 2:

I had to, I had to go there. Come on.

Speaker 1:

So what is funny is that? So your last place you were was Compass, correct, but you were Keller Williams, yep. And I have to tell you now you're not with any of those right now. You're completely independent. So that means you can help anybody, no matter what the franchise. If it's an independent. Actually it doesn't have to be real estate you.

Speaker 2:

So that's the cool part. I did that by design Mainly. Hey, I sort of had that burn the boat mentality, like I originally the fear I was debating selling real estate and doing the coaching company. But at the end of the day, any minute I spent selling real estate was a minute I wasn't investing in my dream, love it. And I knew, if I go all in on this, that I'm gonna make it successful.

Speaker 2:

So I actually and the other thing in real estate it's sort of like high school, like there's always that little bias that oh, you're a compensation or you're a KW or you're an XP or you're oh, absolutely. So I really wanted to create a world where no one would come up with a reason that they wouldn't want to work with me. Gotcha and I still have my database, my referrals going and everything like that. So at the end of the day I made that decision to just become a referral agent on the real estate side. If I ever needed to, I can go back to it. But you know I'm all in on this coaching company and on helping people.

Speaker 1:

That is so cool, you know, and that takes a lot. That takes a lot, I mean, to pivot to a totally different direction Because we tend to be creatures of comfort. Pivot to a totally different direction because we tend to be creatures of comfort. We like comfort you know and so when you go outside that box it's a little scary.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very scary. Yeah, well, you're doing it, man. Thanks. Any books in the plans? So I started writing a book about teams.

Speaker 1:

It was called and I didn't know this. By the way, I'm just, I'm just off the cuff, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, and it was one of those things. I actually started it about three years ago, yeah, and then, obviously, life business, working for Compass. I started traveling around the country, but it's still in the manuscript phase of writing it, because I don't believe there's a lot of good literature out there around running a real estate team, gotcha.

Speaker 1:

And I think you're right.

Speaker 2:

That's on its way.

Speaker 1:

So, I had to deprioritize it in the short term, but that'll be, that I had to deprioritize it in the short term, but that'll, that'll get interesting on the priority list. That's good, and I think you're going to probably come up with other things as you're doing your coaching. You're going to come up with other topics that you're going to go. Man, this is something that needs to be out there, definitely needs to be out there, for sure. So, thanks so much for coming on the show, believe it or not. 22 minutes yes, we did, so we're gonna have to have you come back as you as you keep going on with your dream here, which would be awesome.

Speaker 1:

We're gonna have to have you come back, cause I think this is great stuff, love it. Yeah, it's very cool, so thanks a lot for coming on. Where can we find you?

Speaker 2:

Good Uh with heart coachingcom. Easiest spot, best place.

Speaker 1:

And you still have your, your sky, michaelscom. Are you updating that?

Speaker 2:

sky, my website and Instagram is probably the other nice place to find me, and it's at SkyMichaels on Instagram and Michaels is spelled a little different.

Speaker 1:

It's actually S-K-Y-E-M-I-C-H-I-E-L-S.

Speaker 1:

There you go. It's spelled a little different, but that's good. I found you Awesome. All you got to do is put in SkyMichaels. You'll find him him up, all right, thanks so much. There we go. Wow, so much information in a very short period of time. You got to check him out, sky Michaels. You heard that he's a coach for business, for real estate, for any kind of business, and he's really lightened it up. It's going to be great. I'm anxious to watch his career keep moving forward. That's about it. Thanks for seeing us here at Thursdays at 7 pm. We're on Facebook, instagram, pretty much anywhere you want to find us, you'll find us. Just look up the Brad Wiseman Show. Thank you.

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