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REality
Welcome to the REality podcast--the best podcast for real estate agents. Join us each episode as we talk with industry experts and top producing real estate agents to peel back the curtain and reveal what it takes to make it in today's ultra competitive real estate business. This is real life, in real time, sharing real experiences of industry professionals to help both new and seasoned agents achieve their goals and realize their potential. Are you ready to take your real estate business to the next level? Let's get started now. Sign up for Gary's weekly FOCUS newsletter, delivered right to your inbox each Monday morning: https://mailchi.mp/e3771e6a2516/focus-email
REality
From Coast Guard to Real Estate: Justin Acosta's Journey
What does it take to build a thriving real estate business in just a few years? Justin Acosta, a 22-year Coast Guard veteran turned successful agent, reveals the authentic approach that catapulted his career in the Virginia Beach market.
At the heart of Justin's philosophy is a refreshing commitment to "service before sales." Unlike conventional sales training that might emphasize closing techniques, Justin believes deeply that authentic service naturally leads to business success. "If you treat the people around you, your clients, with the service they deserve, and you're authentic with it, the sale will follow," he explains with conviction born from experience.
Ready to transform your real estate practice with authentic service and military-grade discipline? Listen now to gain insights from an agent who has mastered the art of building a business that aligns with his values while delivering remarkable results.
Welcome to Reality Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Scott, and I am fired up today the first ever agent from Virginia on Reality Podcast, Justin Acosta. Justin, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing fine. Thanks, Gary.
Speaker 1:How are you doing? I'm doing great. It's great to see you again. I thoroughly enjoyed when we were on our trip and we got a chance to break a little bread and kind of get to know one another. I got to meet your bride, which was great Heard all about your kids, but I'm not sure our listeners are ready to hear all that. But it is great to have you, justin. We're going to ask a lot of questions and great level of success that you've had in the business and you know I was telling you a little bit earlier. You know our audience is real estate professionals and you know some of them are been in it a year, some are thinking about getting into it, some are in it 30 years and need to reinvent themselves and others probably just want to be a guest on reality and they figure, if they tune in enough, I'll call them. So let's get started.
Speaker 1:How long has Justin been in the real estate business?
Speaker 2:How long have I been in business? Good question, just started yesterday, got my first deal today. I've been in since 2018, right before I retired from the Coast Guard, so definitely a big transition where 22 years of military life right Got licensed as soon as I got my license. I absolutely actually did get my first listing the day after I got the physical hard copy. But I was also a little uncertain, coming from military life two paychecks a month and I did a contract job and was still desiring real estate for the nine months until I decided to jump in full time nine months after that. So that was. It was about 2019 when I went full-time I think March of 2019.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so interesting. I've interviewed I think I was just telling you we've done about 120 of these in three and a half years and I love finding out what people did prior to real estate, and you may be not sure you may be the first military. So just what? What did you learn? Obviously lots while you were in the military for 22 years. But what things did you learn that you've been able to transfer Justin immediately to your I would say instantaneous success? I would, I would have said that, whether you got a listing the first day or not, because you've had great success in a very short period of time. What kind of learnings came from your 22 years in the military that has just absolutely transferred to success in the real estate business?
Speaker 2:What has transferred. So, being the coach, I was a a coastie coast guard uh, the core values honor, respect, devotion to duty and I think that really, if you still I do, I still believe in that where you know, you honor those who've gone before. You honor the people who wear in the uniform in this real estate industry, you honor the people who have done real estate for 30 years, honor the process, respect those as well. And then there's devotion or duty, meaning you're always ready, right. So that's the Coast Guard motto is always ready.
Speaker 2:I do include that in my business cards, but I also include always with Aloha too, being from Hawaii, so, um, that, right there, I think, is just kind of those core values. But then, as you're in it, you realize it's people first, then the mission. So if you take care of the people, the people around you, your team, whether it's lenders, insurance, uh, contractors will get the mission done right. That also includes your broker, your managing broker, uh, other colleagues on the other side. So people first, and then, um, yeah, I think respect is a big thing and, uh, you know, um, I do tend to say service before sales. So if you treat the people around you, your clients, with the service they deserve and you're authentic with it, that sale will follow. So sorry, I didn't come from a sales job, I came from service, so I know that's my foundation, so I love it.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think that when people hold true to their core values, whether their core values were created or strengthened in their previous work but you use the word that is really a word that I've been hearing more and more and more as it describes successful people, and the word is authentic. And you use the word authentic in our first seven minutes and you know authenticity is I'm going to be who I am, I'm going to be the best version of me and I think that's going to be good enough. Right, and again, not that I'm not going to learn and not that I'm not going to make mistakes and grow from it, but you know, I do think. Uh, you know, one of the things you said that just hit me is a real great respect for the industry and and I think our industry sometimes gets great respect and other times doesn't get great respect but you know you came into it with cause, cause your core values, built for 22 years of a great appreciation for those that came before you, and I think that's I think that's really important.
Speaker 1:You know we're in an industry where, you know, there's a lot of agents that have been in it 25 been doing this 39 years. That is before you, but I'm as excited to learn from you as, hopefully, you are as excited to learn from myself and others with some experience. So I love the fact you transitioned your 22 years Real quick. You made a mention that you also have Aloha on your business card being from Hawaii. When did you move from Hawaii into the I'm not going to say the United States, because Hawaii is the United States, but into I don't know one of the other 49 states?
Speaker 2:We moved to the mainland in there you go, in 2013. So we, you know, a family of five or a party of five. I had, uh, at that time I think my son was eight, my daughter was six, our youngest one, our youngest daughter was two wife and kids, born and raised in hawaii. I was born, I raised in Massachusetts and California and Hawaii, so I've kind of all three coasts and the Island, um, so that was a big move, right? Uh, tearing I wouldn't say tearing um the opportunity to live somewhere else. But then also the distance between family, because you know, hawaii is such a very family culture and friends become family greater than, I think, any other place in the US. Really, it's just very family driven. So having that move was a big challenge for us. We were the only ones here. Move was a big challenge for us. We were the only ones here, so we had to make our friends quickly and make those friends family, because that's the only way I believe we were gonna make it um and it, it.
Speaker 2:And they say, people say it takes about three years right to kind of a place to to grow on you and you establish roots and they realize, oh, you're military, you're going to be gone in three to four years, so I don't want to invest that time, but I saw something very special in Virginia Virginia Beach area. It is location. If I lived anywhere else besides Virginia Beach maybe it would have been different, but this is where we were called to be and belong to be and we started establishing roots and it is home. Hard to say that, but it is home and kids love it and so 2013, answer your question. Sorry, I like to go on tangents.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, it's all good. So I think what's important here is you move the mainland in 2013. In 2019, you get in the real estate business. Fast forward six, seven years. Obviously, you live through covid. You already shared. You got your first listing. One of the main things that I want to hear from you, and I know that our listeners want to hear from you, is how did you grow your business pretty quickly, very successfully. You didn't have 30 years living in Virginia Beach. You didn't grow up in a real estate family like I did. So you move to the mainland in 2013. Then 2019, you get in the real estate business. 2023 is when you and I met for the first time. You know you've just had great success. Like, how did you build and grow your business? Like, what's the? There's never a magic recipe or a formula, but there's certainly some pillars that you fundamentally use to grow your business. Just share with us a little bit what those pillars are.
Speaker 2:The business, I think, and so we had been here for about six years, right. So we kind of had kids in school age, um, you know, school age kids, and I really went back on what my sphere was and it was the military, the coast guard, um network that just the, the people that I, I was there, I'd led or I was under a command of some sort and I just used that as my network. Really it was the Coast Guard, it was military. I mean, we bought our house, sight unseen. We bought three homes over those period of times of 22 years. So I was familiar with that, so I was able to relate with the challenges of PCSing, the move for military personnel families, and I think I believe we were here long enough that I had a good familiarization with the local area and, um, and I treat it as such an extension to my military career where, you know, I, I would you talk to my, my broker, and he would say I asked a lot of questions in the beginning and then at one point not one point from the beginning he'd say, hey, you should reference this part of the contract, this one, over and over again and finally it dawned on me I'm like that's exactly what I would say to my junior members Don't just come to me with a question.
Speaker 2:Read the resource. What is our what? What do we use the contract? Okay, I don't need to start. I need to stop asking questions and go to the source and then come to, uh, you know, with my broker with the question. I read this I don't understand it, but this is where I found it, and so I built that knowledge base pretty quickly and I just felt like I could provide that to clients and it really was the Coast Guard network that I would really circle myself around.
Speaker 1:So the Coast Guard network, which was the network of people you knew here, is that continues to be a predominance of your business, or that's kind of how you got started and then repeat referral. So you took that, that niche network, that was yours and you you worked it. Tell me how you worked it. You worked it. Did your mail work it? Did your social media work it? Did you call work it? Did you fire away text messages? How'd you work the sphere?
Speaker 2:I'm pretty direct. I just send a text message, I just send a text how you doing? Or social media, facebook or Instagram. I only have those two. I'm proud to say I still don't have TikTok, or I might have Twitter, but I don't think I've ever logged into that thing, I don't know. So it's really Facebook and Instagram and that's enough that I can handle. I don't want to handle anymore. So it was really just networking on that and simply asking If you don't ask, you don't get, and you might get a no, or at least you get that answer. So it's really simply a text message just saying hey, look, you got anyone coming in Love to help them. If not, I can point them in the right direction. I always say, look, if I'm not the right person, I can recommend someone else. It's a two-way street. I want to make sure I work with you just as much as you want to work with me. So text messages or phone calls. So text messages or phone calls.
Speaker 1:I don't mailers or anything really directly, unless I'm trying to farm a specific neighborhood or something. Yeah, so you know, one of the things we love about our guests is that you know this business. You know it's kind of an art, not a science, like there's no one way. And you know, I think about one of the first comments you made and I wrote it down here service before sales. That's the first time I've heard that on any of these podcasts. And then you just said something that's awesome and that is, if I'm not the right one for you, I can still help you, like I think that's that authenticity and my guess Justin and I could tell just you and I interacting is that authenticity is is natural, not forced. You know, I think you know I am who I am and you know, and I and I subscribe to my core values.
Speaker 1:So let me ask a couple other questions. Let's let's talk a little bit about and again maybe put you on the spot and it's okay if the answer is whatever the answer is. So how do you now stay connected with your clients that you've had closings with? You've had successful closings? Do you have a CRM? Are you still staying true to the text, the phone, the social. Have you adopted a CRM to be more consistent?
Speaker 2:I do have a CRM. Is it polished? No, it's always a work in progress. Is it a love-hate relationship? Yes, I'm an operator at heart, so I usually try to figure out the bugs and how the end user is going to see it. And if the functionality is not there, I'm like gosh, how do I get behind it? The answer is yes, I do, but I really am still.
Speaker 2:It's about knowing your people too. A lot of my folks say we say you're the, you know, we bought many a times this. You're the best agent. And then if I set them on some little drip campaign, it's they've. Uh, what is it called? Unsubscribe really quick, right, so it's knowing your people, and I kind of know that, but I'm like, let me test it, right. And then it's like I think that's even worse is when you see them unsubscribe, but then they'll answer your text or call you just like that, and they just like just call me directly. You know you're, you're, you're our guy, right, and and I'm sharing everything. So it's you just got to know your people. Um, and we use, so I use social media, but I don't necessarily tag people in it, right, because they don't want their feed to have that, and it's about the style too I want to put out. So I do have stuff to keep in touch with people.
Speaker 2:I've done little things. I think the best result was over COVID, I really did have a lot of sales and that was a blessing. You know, over COVID I really did have a lot of sales and that was a blessing. And I'm like all right, I'm going to drop off Christmas wrapping paper to every house that you know, everyone's that's still here, and then friends as well. Well then, once I started looking at the numbers and the distances, I was like, oh, my goodness, that's like you know, just under 200 homes and I'm trying to do this in three days.
Speaker 2:And and then I'm like, oh, you know what, there's this. You know, I don't want to really give it to the single guys, right, I'm like here's this, I'm dropping off wrapping paper. And then my wife's like, uh, those are the exact people that you want to drop it off. They probably haven't got wrapping paper for their girlfriends or their moms or whatnot. And sure enough, it was like hey, man, thanks a lot, I didn't have any. So I did that, but it was very time consuming. So there's just little things. I'm not very consistent with my touches of my strategy. It's you don't know what you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Really sometimes, yeah, no, I, I love your, uh, your, your authenticity. I love your transparency, I love you gave an answer that every single person I talked to should give. My CRM is not polished and it's a love hate relationship, like I I'm saying to myself. You're the only person that I've interviewed that actually gave an honest answer, you know. And here's the other thing that's interesting to me.
Speaker 1:I did a podcast with two of our two agents that have been here 30, 35 years, and one of them will swear that her key to success is the 400 calendar she gives out at Christmas, and the other guy delivers 20 cookies to 200 homes, and so the title of the podcast was called From Calendars to Cookies. Yeah, whatever, gary, being as creative as he can possibly be, but what I think about, what you think about, what you did I took wrapping paper. Think about what you did. I took wrapping paper. You know, one of the things that we have to do in our business is set ourselves apart in a sea of sameness, like my guess. Again, so far, on our call there, on our, on our conversation, justin, there's been four or five things that you've answered. That are the first you know and, and I appreciate that are the first. You know, and and I appreciate that, and I think that, as our listeners listen to you and I listen to you, what I know is how I'm feeling comfortable, and they're feeling comfortable is exactly how your people feel, right, and you know.
Speaker 1:I think that you said another thing and I it's one of my. I don't know if this is a good feature or a good strategy of mine or characteristic of mine or not, but I like to repeat what I hear that's so good from my guests, because you said something else Know your people. You know customize and personalize the experience. Know your people. Don't like to your point. Yeah, drip mailers work and I'll be the first guy to promote.
Speaker 1:You know, connect with your people X, y, z, but it's about finding a system, albeit inconsistent, but that works and generates business, and that's the number one thing I'll ask of every listener, and that's the number one thing I'll ask of every listener Just find it that works for you, whatever it is. So, anyway, let's jump around a little bit, let's talk about the market a little bit. So, again, you're the first guest from Virginia, and so why don't you just take a minute and kind of give a sense of what is your market? How broad do you go? You stay pretty close in, so when you talk about you know I'll call it Virginia Beach. You know Southern Virginia. Tell me the marketplace that you cover predominantly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Virginia Beach it's I predominantly serve. Well, let's just say I live in southeast Virginia Beach. Do I own that part of town? No, do I own that neighborhood? No. But again, I have the bases for the Coast Guard in Portsmouth, in Chesapeake, in Norfolk, up in Yorktown. So again, I go where the people need me.
Speaker 2:But the market itself is still strong here. I think the backbone is military. So if you, you understand, it could be a three to four year tour, it could be as short as two. So there's always a turnover, there's always a demand, right? Is it something? Where are the school ratings in certain parts of Virginia beach higher than other areas that they're coming from? So that strong desire to live in a neighborhood, in certain schools that they're wanting, is the jobs strong with military to contracting to government or public private sectors, it's strong as well.
Speaker 2:So I would say our market is strong and the inventory is ticking up a little bit. But there's still a lack of inventory and there's still a strong demand and we do have a pretty good range of real estate price ranges. We have waterfronts, we have small townhouses, condos, single family. We have waterfronts, we have small townhouses, condos, single family. So it's pretty diverse in what the real estate's out there and what you're looking for and location, really, you go a couple miles in and you could be in some farmlands of Chesapeake to Southern Virginia Beach, to all the way up to Suffolk. So it's a good little area. So everybody should move here, everybody should. Just, you know, give me a call.
Speaker 1:It is definitely a good area and it definitely offers all opportunities to your point. Like I can be on the ocean multimillion dollar, and then I can travel to your point, be in some farmland. So inventory, so number one, I think your market is pretty strong. I get to compare it to some of the other markets that I deal with each and every day and it's kind of funny, it seems to be stronger today than it was a year ago. Clearly, inventory across the country and across your market is growing, not to the degree that we need it.
Speaker 1:So one of the big questions that I think is on everybody's mind is there remains a challenge, I believe, in pricing. So just talk to us a little bit about going out on a listing and Justin has done his homework and seller has forgotten to do the homework from the last six months and they're going back 18 months. And what we do know and what we've learned here in the first four and a half months of this year is homes properly priced and in great condition still sell and ones that aren't aren't. I know that sounds like a blinding flash of the obvious, but pricing has probably become more and more and more important. Walk us through kind of your strategy on pricing, in kind of today's. I'll call it a normalizing market. We also call it kind of a softening seller's market, albeit it's still a seller's market. What are some any kind of strategies you can share that you have found to be useful in getting the price right?
Speaker 2:good question. Uh, the pricing, absolutely I agree with that. I think it's more uh evident now in this year with the inventory increase than the last year or the COVID years. Right, if it had a roof and had a floor, you know multiple offers, no matter what condition. Now you know sellers are still having that delayed information that the market's changing, market's. So local it's you, local, my market's different than your market down there. So having someone that's active in deck plate level of knowing what's happening in just the last two months really dictates where we should be for pricing.
Speaker 2:And what I'm seeing is you can still push the price a little bit on the higher end. If it's a complete turnkey, it's been renovated. It hits everything where a buyer says I can move in and not do any renovations. Those years of the COVID years were like I want to get out, I want to. You know I don't mind a little piece of property, a house that I can do some work in. Well, guess what? I feel like everyone's exhausted from trying to do some work to their house. We want to move in and just have it ready. And if the price is going to be at where it's at, with the rates where they're at, then it just needs to be ready to go and you can settle and just live your life and not be spending time renovating.
Speaker 2:So, uh, guiding and advising sellers of just you know, basically educating, right? I always say I want to educate either buyers or sellers. You make the most informed decision at the end of the day. If you want to price it higher, okay, that's fine, but let's have a plan. When we have 30 showings and no offers, let's have a plan at whatever time period to adjust. So, um, I say, take every listing yeah, don't, don't, don't pass it up, right, just have a plan and and and have a, a good, solid plan, or at least communicate that they're willing to hear you out on it, and and then adjust accordingly once the market talks to you I love.
Speaker 1:I love that phrase. Let's let the market talk to us. Like you's interesting, you talk about the turnkey and I don't know. About two years ago I made a statement to somebody. I said I think today's buyers have lost all their creativity. Now they haven't lost their creativity, they've lost their desire to do the work. It's not the creativity, but where in the old day or not too long ago, you'd walk into a house and say, geez, I can get this and I get my kitchen and I get my and I get my. Well, they want to walk in and have somebody else have picked out their kitchen and their floors. So I agree with you and I think that's fairly universal, justin, I just I think more and more we talked today. You know, convenience is king in today's world. People want simplicity and convenience in a complicated world. Would you? I mean, do you agree with that? Like people just want you and I got to make it easy for them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think we're still coming out of those 20 to the years of whatever it was 19 or 2020, 2020 to 23 where we were spending time in the houses. It just was like, okay, what's what's happening, we're getting back, we're finally getting back to hanging out with folks and being out and about, but then, once that switched, it was I don't know what happened since 23 to 25, but I feel like five, ten years has gone by and I'm like let's just, let's hold on to some time, and it feels like it's going a much, much faster pace. So if that's what majority you know, others are feeling like when do I have time to work on my house? And uh, I want these things to be completed. So that is you.
Speaker 2:You know, that's what we're seeing, and sellers are still kind of holding their ground. Buyers are hearing some other information out in the news of like it's turning. So here's some. It's an ebb and it's a changing tide right, and the currents are kind of ebbing and flowing against each other. So you're just seeing which one kind of gives a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you're right. I think we're finding headwinds and tailwinds coming at the same time, which creates, you know, creates the sea to navigate right. I mean, I'm telling the Coast Guard it's just, you know, I do think it's such an interesting and so much part of your job and my job is to help educate. I love educate and I have to believe, justin, that your clients absolutely feel that you guys are partners, whether it's in pricing, whether it's in like that. You're partners and I got to believe that that's kind of the confidence and relationship that you build, you know, clearly with sellers, but with buyers in today's world, you know we've got to expound and expand on our value proposition for a buyer in the world we live today. So one of the things I like to ask is you know you've had great success, incredibly valuable. You know part of our team.
Speaker 1:You know not every day in our business is like the greatest day, like not every transaction is the greatest transaction. You know, and you know, I know you know this from your 22 years in the Coast Guard and probably before is that so often the greatest lessons we learn come from a failure, come from something that didn't go my way? As you reflect on your seven year career, can you share a time or two? Where you can, you can put the, the other agent or the consumer in the witness protection program, but where you, you know something happened and might've felt in the moment to be a failure, but you levered that leverage, that to be a better Justin. Anything come to mind, justin that you can go back on and say, geez, I'd handle this situation this way and boy that. What a great learning opportunity.
Speaker 2:I would, I would opportunity. I would say, well, first I'm going to say I took everything like I have to do everything. Right, I have to jump for someone, I have to. Basically let's just say I have to, right there there the phrase I have to, whatever that is. And then I was told you can't be everything to everyone all the time. So I'm like, okay, I get that. And then the more transactions I had, there always becomes an aha moment of like, okay, I really still haven't seen everything under the sun, but I have enough experience to know that there is a solution for something. Even the solution is, if it's to terminate the contract, right, that is a solution and that might be the path. Right, we don't always have to close the deal because it just.
Speaker 2:I think I might've explained to you about that my little puzzle analogy or something. I think I used to be very reactive when I was in a command position and little fires everywhere trying to put out fires. Well, in real estate. Now I don't look at little fires, I look at, okay, we're building a puzzle and there's a missing piece, and sure, this could be crumbling, but someone's holding that missing piece to this puzzle. And once you find that person who holds it, you complete that puzzle. And that puzzle might be to terminate that deal and move on to the next one, or it might be like, okay, there's a solution. Okay, let's find the next missing puzzle piece, um.
Speaker 2:But I think the things I've learned the most is how to keep cool and just to communicate. Uh, you can't control how someone might uh communicate to you in a way that I have it in me, you know you get, you get me fired up, um. But I learned in the first two years, um, that I was like I'm not going to make someone cry, uh, on the other side of the phone and I might've um the first two years, only because it was a um. You know, I wasn't, it wasn't uh, it was just me being stirred, you know kind of stern and just kind of what my thought of how they handled it, um, and you know. But I ended up calling back those people the next day and say, hey, you know what have you know said the things I said, right? So I I take ownership on on the way I talk to people, even though you got to take time sometimes to formulate your thoughts, but when you're kind of getting a little attacked maybe, uh, through the process, because someone might not have the experience or knowledge or they. They tend to go to the side of, uh, maybe anger or something, right, so then you just start feeding that with anger, with anger. So, um, I think that's really, I learned a lot.
Speaker 2:I can't even think of what I have, but I do. I can say, every year, there's always going to be one deal or one person that sets your path for the next year that you're going to learn from, and it's usually about this time of year. And and uh, yeah, so far, I am going to think I'm going on my eighth year, so, yeah, I'm eight for eight that there's someone that says something or there's a deal that happens that I'm like, okay, I need to tighten up my, my business a little bit for next year, or I need to, um, change this. Right, it's, it's just a learning point. It's not necessarily I, anyone's, in the wrong. It's just like, oh, okay, I need to have a response for this If someone says this to me next time and let's, let's, let's grow from this.
Speaker 1:So I remember now the puzzle. I love the puzzle analogy and you know, one of the things that I just took from that segment, justin, is every situation has a solution and at times it is a puzzle and my job is to find the puzzle pieces. You know could be a negotiation strategy, could be any number of things right Financing, we can, negotiating home inspection but you know to think about it in terms of everything we come and come across as a solution. My job is is to put the puzzle together, and you said it twice. It might mean we terminate the deal, like sometimes that's what's supposed to happen, right? So I love that. And then I'm going to. I'm going to test your memory, Cause I think when we were at dinner that night, you made a comment about time Time is time.
Speaker 1:I don't know how I forgot that we were having so to our listeners. We were having dinner. It was great, you know, just sitting there just enjoying learning about each other, and and which was the minute I knew that I wanted him to be, to be a guest, cause I could just tell you know the authenticity and just this genuine good person, right and uh, so we're sitting there and we're we're talking about something he just said. You know, time is time, and like that just struck me. So take a minute and like, when you say time is time, like from justin's perspective, like what does that mean for you? When you say it, what, what, what calming influence? Like, does it calm you, does it reset you, does it give you perspective?
Speaker 2:Time is time, and I had a feeling when I said that I'm like I don't know. I remember you saying, wow, that's. I remember you grabbing onto that. And then I realized I don't's. I remember you grabbing onto that and then I realized I don't know what the heck I meant by that. But I had a feeling you were going to bring it up and I'm like, okay, what does that really mean to me? And it's really. I mean we have no control over it, we can't wrangle it. It's going to keep ticking no matter what we do.
Speaker 2:So we use our time wisely and it's really just nothing we can do about it. So either you spend it with the people you love, you spend it with giving that person that you're with that your undivided attention. And if my wife listens to this, she's like you shouldn't listen to yourself. You're not. So you know, I don't really have a deep, I don't know. I just felt like it was the right thing to say. I felt like I knew what I meant when I said it and I knew you were going to ask me and I don't really have a great answer for it. It's just something that you know. This 45 minutes I get to spend with you and talk and I think it's just something that, um, you know this, these, this, this 45 minutes I get to spend with you and talk and I think it's great, and off to do the next thing. And time is still ticking and, um, it goes by quick and you can't be everything to everyone all the time. So spend it with those. Spend your time wisely, I guess.
Speaker 1:So I love time is time. The other piece of it that I found you know I love, you know when you hear something. So what resonated with me was a reminder that you know the one constant is we all have the same amount of time, like that. That is not a variable in a Petri dish, like it's just not right. There are very few fixed. There's very few constants in the world Like time is one of them. Right Time is one of them. And you know, I think you know we can talk about time blocking and time management and energy management and resource management, but we only have so much time and what we do with that time. And I think the other piece of it is you know, and I think you do a really good job of it, and that is you know control the controllables. And you know for the, for the consistent listener, they're going to say gosh, gary said that you know if he's done 120 podcasts, I've heard control the controllables 90 times. Well, it's probably because I believe it that you know the time people have a tendency to spend on things out of their control. That's what causes the stress and the anxiety and the uncertainty and the unrest. When I control what I, like you just said, I control who I spend time with. I to some degree I control my clientele. I don't have to work with everybody Like I can control to the best of my inner disciplined capability. I can control how I respond to the situation. Right?
Speaker 1:One of my favorite equations, it's funny. I shared it with my 16 year old grandson. He probably didn't appreciate it. He will someday. You know E plus R equals L. You know event plus your response equals the outcome. And when we can control the R.
Speaker 1:And what I was explaining to him is the importance of a pause button and you know the importance of. You know a rapid response to a question often is not nearly as good as taking a big deep breath and thinking about it. Right, and again, I'm not sure. Granddad did a great job with grandson. I get an A for effort. I'm not sure what the outcome is, but I had this conversation with him. But I think, whether you're 16 or 46 or 66, right, I think those are all important, particularly in our business. The other thing about our business that I thought about was you know, there are consumers that will take advantage of our time and I think it's critical to control that time is time and if I've got a, you know, one of the things I can tell about you Justin is, you know, great family man.
Speaker 2:And I can tell love your wife, love your it.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things I can tell about you, justin, is, you know, great family Matt and I can tell Love your wife, Love your kids. You know you can feel it and you know we don't want to miss. There are certain things we don't want to miss and you know, if I miss a show, I miss a show, and this is particularly for brand new people listening.
Speaker 1:You know you can say to to somebody, I've got an appointment 11 to 3, even if it was a birthday party, and I'll show you how it's at 330 and 99 percent of people will go with you.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely, I think so, yes, I think so. No, well, I did a high percentage, you know? No, yeah, I definitely agree with that. Um, as soon as you're confident in your time of your time is just as valuable as as as theirs, and, uh, you'll, you'll be able to manage it and still provide the service that your clients are needing.
Speaker 1:So we're going to wrap a bow around this and so, uh, I used to do a. I used to do something that I'm not going to do. I used to do, meet Justin and I. I do these rapid fire questions and you know, some people liked it, Some people didn't like it, so I killed it. But my one question and remember, your audience could span from I'm in pre-licensing to I'm getting ready to retire think back on eight years and you think forward to the next eight years what's your one piece of advice for everybody listening, as it relates to something they can do to either impact either one of two things either impact the amount of the business, or improve and increase the quality of the business, or improve and increase the quality of life doing the same business. You know, give us one, give us one thing.
Speaker 2:Uh, one thing. I've got a lot of things, but I probably can't come up with one, but I think you did say something, um, which being going back to being authentic, or authenticity you don't want to chase, you want to. I think you said something. I can't remember what you said, but you don't want to chase, but you want to. Um, uh, I guess you want to draw, or, uh, I can't remember what you said.
Speaker 2:Um, I think that's true, right, if there's a lot of you know, just be yourself. It really is just be yourself and master your craft is what I would say. So if your craft is real estate, then you need to what I would say. So, if your craft is real estate, then you need to know the contract. You should memorize a few things. You should be able to recite what paragraphs of the contract or addendums or contingency documents that you can refer to, so you can just build that that you can refer to, so you can just build that experience and not just get complacent of, you know, pulling up the document and looking at it, and I think you know there's always opportunity to learn and lead up as well. When I say lead up as well, when I say lead up. It means you might be a junior agent, but, depending on what your background is, you can still lead up to those who have been in the industry a lot longer than you.
Speaker 2:Obviously, you're leading up and down, up and down through that levels of experience. So I don't know if I answered that question correctly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, for sure you did. But I think the interesting thing, justin, is I actually think you answered it throughout our time, I think, from service above sales, which I love. I love this great appreciation for you know, kind of the industry, right, and those. I love the transition from going in and talking to Brady right, brady is your leader, right and Brady asking all the questions to you know what, let me try to find the answer and then ask the question and then you know. I think the other thing is be your own authentic, and then I think the other thing is be your own authentic, genuine self, find what works for you and do more of it. I think it's that simple. Know your client.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing that you mentioned I didn't highlight is know your market. I go everywhere. There's four bases. I know that the Coast Guard's my deal, like that's, that's my that's, that's initially my primary client, acquire acquisition mode, but it's it's not. It's not always so. Anyway, well, I appreciate it. It's good to see you. I hope all is well with with everybody in virginia. The numbers uh, feel pretty good. So we appreciate it and, uh, I'm excited that you are the first reality podcast guest from the commonwealth hopefully not the last right.
Speaker 1:I hope that just I got three more planned already. Beautiful, I got. We got mike grogan, we got, uh, tony gerrard and we got robin robin de bono, okay so at least I didn't get one.
Speaker 2:Hey, one thing I did learn uh, I just want to say I didn't get it wrong. I didn't get it wrong. No, you did not. Um, tons of respect for robin and her team and how long she's been doing it, and those are some of my goals is I don't look for numbers to do, I look at, okay, which. Which agent do I really would like to do a deal with this year and that'll be my goal, you know, and it doesn't always happen, but uh, robin was one of them in the beginning of my, my career and and and I I hit that goal right. I don't have like a lot of agents I want to work with as like this goal, just to kind of keep it manageable, but that's a real estate goal. Each year that I have is specific agents that I would love to do deals with.
Speaker 1:So cool. Well, there's a lot of them there on our squad in the Commonwealth and in nearby North Carolina. So, justin, take care. I look forward to seeing you again soon, my friend All right, gary, take care. Thanks bud.
