And this is Real Estate Underground Readings and salutations . Real Estate Undergrounders . Thank you so much for joining us today . Today is a unique show in that one of the things that I'm always looking to understand is different perspectives of our market and the real estate world , and so , with that in mind , I'm always talking to mortgage brokers and bankers and insurance agents and realtors and brokers , and so the cool thing is , we have a gentleman by the name of Darrell Davis . Thank you so much , sir , for joining us . We are . You know , darrell is a world renowned realtor broker , based in Long Island out towards the Hamptons , I believe and you know not only that , but he's also a world-class coach , a best-selling author and a mentor to I would have , I imagine , thousands of realtors across the country , and so you know , I'm really excited about this episode because we're going to hear this from , you know , a partner's perspective in terms of Darrell's viewpoint on the market , where we're going and how we got here . So , darrell , welcome to the show . Thank you so much for your time today .
Darryl DavisThanks for having me , ed . I appreciate it and thanks for doing this for your underground folks . This is really valuable content and they're blessed to have this . Thank you kindly , I appreciate that .
Ed MathewsSo , darrell , for those of us out there that don't follow you necessarily on social media or the web , why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll get into the conversation ?
Darryl DavisSure , I started at Real Estate when I was 19 years old , long Island , new York , as a real estate agent , quickly rose the ranks and did really well . I became a manager of an office . We opened it up brand new became number one our first six months . Then I yeah . So then that claimed the fame . I decided I want to start doing some seminars enjoy live seminars , delivering them . And so I've been speaking now for 30 years . I'm not a real practicing realtor anymore . The majority of my clients are realtors and yep , but yeah , so I've been doing this for 30 years . I'm a CSP , which is a certified speaking professional . Less than 2% of all speakers in the world have that designation , so I'm honored that I have that . And here I am talking to Ed Matthews now .
Ed MathewsThere you go , and so I'll try to keep the ums and ahs to a minimum , given that I'm talking to him . But one of the things that I was just talking about this yesterday actually , with another real estate professional local here we were talking about the market and deal flow and all that , and you know there are so many commonalities with how a broker will hit the ground running . I come from the perspective of technology world and we think in terms of concentric circles In realtor world that is neighborhoods . In investor world that is neighborhoods . The whole idea is from a real estate investment perspective , is you want to create awareness , you want to build relationships and rapport and ultimately relationships become friends , create trust by serving that community to the point where when someone needs to sell their home or trade up or buy a property or whatever that you've sucked the oxygen out of that market , you're the obvious choice to pick up the phone or shoot an email to say , hey , I would like to hire you to help me buy my next house or sell this property .
Darryl DavisYes , absolutely , it's definitely when it comes to any business we were talking about this before we got on that you've got to promote yourself , promote your business . My definition is self-promotion , to have people know your name , face and what you do for a living .
Ed MathewsThat's for realtor , we replace , let's say , for a business , whether it's an investor , we would replace that face with the name of the company , the brand , the logo whatever , the fact is that in both cases , whether investor or broker agent , you're using your brand , whether that's your team or your office , or the logo sitting behind me or whatever , but ultimately it comes down to two human beings having a conversation and figuring out if they can work together .
Ed MathewsThat's everything , one of the things that you said when we were in the beginning and I know this from having read one of your books that the fact is that hitting the ground running for an investor , hitting the ground running for a realtor , really hard At last , I think . I remember seeing that the average first year realtor makes about 20 grand . If not mistaken , it may even be less . There's a lot of reasons for that . I'm curious what are your insights in terms of why so many professionals struggle in that first year and how did you do it ? How did you become the number one office in six months of launching your professional career ?
Darryl DavisThat's actually maybe a different answer for the first one . The first one how does somebody hit the ground running and not hit this ? Why somebody , so many failure , don't succeed ? I think , whether it's an investor or a real estate professional , is when they start doing something that they don't know how to do . The first phase of learning is learning all the stuff you don't know . So , instead of going like , so we'll think , let me learn how to do this , and when I go , learn that I'll have knowledge , I'll be educated , I'll be enlightened , I'll know how to do this . So they have an expectation they're going to get smarter , right .
Darryl DavisBut actually , in the beginning , the first thing you will learn is all that you don't know , all the stuff you have to learn , and so if this is even a word , you actually feel stupider in the beginning , and that that takes a lot of people out . Yeah , they become overwhelmed , they , they , um , they don't have the patience . So , so it's important . So what I tell agents which , again , I'd say this would be true for investors too is you've got to give yourself permission to fail , you've got to be patient , because that first phase of learning all that you need to learn , all that you don't know is actually a good thing . Right , and not have that overwhelm you , right ? Not have that overwhelm you . Once you see all that you have to learn , I'll give you for instance , like just with me , I'd said to you that you know , I wish I had bought more property when I was younger . You know , I started real estate 19 years old . I'm 55 years old now . Imagine if I had bought a one house every year since I was 19 , where would I be now ?
Ed Mathewsyou wouldn't be sorry to say it .
Darryl DavisI was just gonna say that and you took the words right out of my mouth not to , not to insult you , baby , but you know , you know realities , reality , so so , um so .
Darryl DavisSo now I'm starting to . You know , I've got , you know , bigger pockets . There's these places , resources . I go for the investing and I'm like , all right , I need , I need , now that I've gotten some more properties , I need a better way to manage it , right ? So we're doing a rehab and I'm like , I'm sure there's an excel file for this , but wouldn't be cool if there was a software that could help me keep track of expenses and projections and stuff on on a flip . But we're not flipping it , but anyway . So , uh , and there's a bunch of choices out there , sure , and so just just to figure out that software , which is the best software ? I mean , I'm like comparing , I'm looking , I'm taking time and I feel like the time that I'm taking is kind of waste . Wasteful because I'm not really going anywhere , I'm just learning software that it seems so unimportant , but it is it's part of the process ?
Ed Mathewsyep , it is , and uh , offline , I'm happy to tell you what we use and uh and uh , it's actually really , really good . So love to hear . They're not a sponsor . So you know , um , the got it . So , uh , you know , as far as um , you know , systems go , you know that is one of the ways to consistency is to create a repeatable process . That's simple , right , and so you know , in in terms of your business , whether that's as a realtor , as an investor or whatever , you know what are some of the things that you look to put in place um to be able to stay consistent and and manage your business well , it's .
Darryl DavisYou just gave the answer there it's . It's systemized . You know , having systems being being organized , um , the , uh , the one of the first books . You know , when I started my profession , uh , as a real estate agent , 19 years old , I didn't know so much . I didn't know , and um , but I was always a student , like I always wanted to . I embraced education , and so when I decided to open up my own training business , I was in my 20s and I , so I was , oh , I've always read a lot of books , and one of the books that was pivotal for me was E-Meth , revisited by Michael Gerber . Yes and um , it's a great book and actually , um , uh , the his firm coaches me personally , okay , and so this , uh , this concept of this book basically means you know , you should have a business that's not people-dependent but system-dependent and uh , and there's so many great examples in that book .
Darryl DavisSo since an early age , I've always been about system and how we run our business very systemized . We've got a system for just about anything , and so that's how you create predictable results . I'll give you , for instance , so in in our business , for in speaking and training , one of the lead gens that we'll do is free training , free webinars right , where people attend , they learn and at the end , they want to become a power agent , which is what we call our coaching members . They sign up . Now I don't know what the I don't remember what the industry average like to do free seminars , what that , what that is . But we but I know we break records consistently every week and we do this every week . We have over 800 , 900 reservations , sometimes 1500 every week .
Darryl DavisNow , from what I think I hear , if you get 100 , you're lucky . Yes , now the . The reason why we do that is because what we're talking about here I got a system . Yep , we figured it out . How to promote it , what's the email ? What time ? I mean down to the time of when we send it , and if we're now , we're late , I get twisted with the team . It matters , it's got to be . That's the system .
Ed MathewsIt's proven . Anyway , yeah , right on . Well , that's really impressive . The fact is , is that that consistency , that robust consistency of what you're talking about ? You know , nothing happens until someone raises their hand and says , hey , I need a problem solved , or hey , I'd like to take care of an opportunity , and so you know the things that the themes I'm hearing as you're talking through how you operate are things that really resonate with me in terms of consistency , but also education , right , I mean utilizing education as a tool to kind of bring people into your world . And so you know , I'm curious about that . You know there's always that , that balance between providing strategy and providing tactics , right , and I'm curious what your philosophy is on that . And when you do the trainings and you know the upfront webinars and whatnot ?
Darryl DavisWell , I'll tell you . You know , the strategy for these free webinars industry-wide is you tell people this is what you need to learn in order to be successful , but it doesn't matter what the success is . It could be to be a realtor and investor . I was on a webinar about learning how to master the piano . I was the attendee , and so they'll tell you this is what you have to learn , but they don't tell you how to do it Right , so the whole hour is basically a tease job . If you want to know how to do it , you got to take my course . Now that's fine , but it feels like you ate Chinese .
Ed MathewsYou're hungry an hour later , or you feel a little less fulfilling right .
Darryl DavisIt's not fulfilling . So we've never done to me . I just can't . I would feel out of integrity doing that . I've never done that . I mean my 30 years . If I do a live seminar , I don't tease people , I teach them because here's my thinking . So our hour seminars is content . It's like if it's a matter of if you just attend the webinar and do what I tell you to do , you're going to have results . You're going to have . My philosophy is if I , if I , if , because , if I can win your heart , if you love what I just taught in an hour I mean I got 30 years over here . I'm not giving you everything I know in an hour , right ? So if I helped you , if I didn't help you , then you know sorry . If I helped you , then why would you not want to continue with me ? So I invite you to participate and become our coach , remember , so that way you can have access to all of me .
Ed MathewsSo that's how the approach . Yeah , I mean , if you , if you got value out of the 1% of the things I just talked to you about in great depth , you know , where do you see the other 99% ? Right ?
Darryl DavisYeah , I may be doing it . I may be doing it wrong . There's a lot of these gurus , but this is how I do because it's again , for me , it's an integrity issue 100% you .
Ed MathewsYou and I come from a similar approach in that you know , my job as a webinar host or a speaker is to make the folks that are listening a little bit smarter than they were when they walked in the door . And you know , if you buy from me , great . If you don't , man , let's find them . Going back to my life , my life's pretty good .
Darryl DavisYeah , we'll continue to help the people who want us and say live via to the others . Yeah , wish you well .
Ed MathewsSo in terms of I'm curious about your system , your marketing system . So to get , when you said 800 , I had lights going off in my head like , ooh , this is interesting . Okay , let's , let's , let's drill into that . So , so in . You know , obviously a huge piece of that is probably a really robust list management capability and you're probably have a pretty good idea of who the realtors are anywhere in the country . So that's got to help . But you know , I'm curious how you create desire to you know the be able to attend those webinars . You know how do you , how do you pull people into
your , your world ? Is it direct mail ? Is it digital ? Is it a whole bunch of others ?
Darryl Davisyou know stuff that we want to make you tell us about right now , or you know , I wish , I wish , I wish I could share , ed , that it was some that , some magical formula and no missile secret . It really isn't . I'll tell you why . I think , in the simplicity works like if there is a secret ingredient . I'll get to that in just one second . But strategically , we do have our list . It's an op , you know . People have opted in participate with the list . We email them basically five days after the seven , so the webinars every Wednesday , right ? So we'll email them on Friday , on Saturday , on Sunday , actually six days , so we mail them once a day for that next upcoming webinar with the titles . So there's that . The emails are crafted really well . So we have an opt-in list , crafted email very well . We used to try Facebook advertising , paid advertisement . That didn't work for us . It was a waste of money , I . So I honestly think that if there is a weapon to , it is that we started doing it during the pandemic . Ok , and and and .
Darryl DavisIn the real estate industry for realtors , there was a panic , right , how the hell do you show a house without physically showing the house ? And so there was a lot of like the feeling of oh my gosh , we've got to learn a new way to do things like fly an airplane and build it at the same time , and so the fact that we stepped up as a company , trying to help realtors navigate this new real estate reality and and doing once a week . That's that's why we did it , because , all right , let's figure this out together . I think that just planted a tremendous credibility Plus . I've been doing this 30 years . I mean , if a realtor is an active realtor if they haven't heard of me , then they're probably not an active realtor . Not to sound arrogant , it's just that , I'm longevity .
Darryl DavisI've been around . I've been around and been in the business for that long . That and and people know me All right , so so I have that credibility , that respect in the industry , the weekly proven myself . I'm committed to you , building value . So now , here it is . You know , three years later , I think we've trained the community to say , oh , darrell's got his Wednesday webinar . It's valuable , he cares , let's see . So I think that's what it was . I've been overnight success . It took three years .
Ed MathewsOf course . Well , actually , I would submit 27 to 30 years . Right , that's right . Ok , you know , it's sealed .
Ed MathewsIt's the old Pablo Picasso story where , you know , this couple walks up on a older gentleman and he's you know they're in Madrid and he's , he's painting . And the husband realizes only cow , that's Pablo Picasso . And and so , you know , the couple goes up . You know , master , I would be honored if he would paint my wife . The Picasso says sure , let have a seat , I'll sketch her out and come back in an hour . And so that happens . The couple comes back and Pablo says OK , well , you know that'll be 5000 euros . And he said you know , the husband says 5000 euros , you only took an hour to do it . He said , no , no , no , no , I took a lifetime to learn how to do this , right , and you know , I think that webinars and books and you know , anything else you can use to educate , is a time compression , right , in terms of you know , when , when I , when I read a book of yours or I attend a seminar , what you're doing is distilling a large block of your life and life experience into that period of time that that we're interacting , whether that's the written page or an hour or whatever , and you know the goal is always it sounds like that you know you're going to help me take that leapfrog , or leapfrog that time , so that I don't have to spin my wheels where you got hung up or where you know the folks that you're studying got hung up , so that I can , you know , walk in the door as a 19 year old potential , you know , go toward a realtor and benefit from the advice of a 30 , you know , a 30 year veteran day one .
Darryl DavisThat's what we tell our kids . Right , it's like listen , I got , I got years on you , you know , let's save yourself some time . Why don't you listen ? You know so .
Ed MathewsYeah , good luck with that . I have teenage
daughters , so I'm still in the . I'm still in the phase of eye rolls and , dad , you don't know what you're talking about .
Ed MathewsOkay , cool , yeah well , teenage , teenage girls are there , they're awesome , they're fantastic , so so , so you know , kind of building on the theme of the book , you know , one of the things that I've always found is that you know leaders , whether that's you know executives running businesses , or coaches and mentors or you know anything else , leaders are always readers , right , and ? But these days that is different in that it doesn't have to be a physical book . It can be webinars , conferences , podcasts , videos on YouTube , whatever . So I'm curious , you know audible books , you know . I'm curious how you you know how you consume information when you're looking to sharpen the saw , so to speak , and , and I'm also very interested in to learn who you pay attention to these days- Well , as I said earlier , so I have my own personal coach that coaches me , yep , but I tap into .
Darryl DavisI'll be honest , I become less of a reader . That in my old age .
Ed MathewsBut I'm only a year and a half behind you , so that you're not . You're not that old , yeah , I yeah , well .
Darryl DavisWell , you know , when you start , when you listen , I feel older because , a little bit more of my history I became an emancipated minor at 16 . My , when my dad passed , my mother and I weren't doing well , so I basically had been living on my own since I was 16 . And so I feel older because I had to grow up sooner , but anyway . So I'm sorry my team is bothering me here , but , to answer your question , really how I tap into resources is is my team and , honestly , my wife . My wife is brilliant , so she's my consularity , so I run things by her . When I don't trust my decision and or I need to get another objective because she can be critical and which is great , and so she'll look at it from a real critical eye Then my president and vice president they're just brilliant folks as well . Now that's my support structure that I tap into . Yeah , you know it's interesting .
Ed MathewsYou say that because you know , having a someone who's always going to tell you the truth and hopefully , multiple people that will always tell you the truth unvarnished is invaluable , regardless of the business right . You know you need somebody to be able to . You know , when you ask an honest question , you need , you need the unvarnished truth in order to make the decisions you have to make Right . And so you know , whether that's as a you know , whether you have mentors or a coach or team members that you rely on or you like you , you married very well . I would submit that my wife is , you know , a solid 30 to 50 IQ points smarter than me . So I , too , married well .
Ed MathewsBut you know , the fact is is that the you know , having those people who will always tell you the truth is invaluable , and I always tell people it's . You know I have plenty of cheerleaders in my life , right ? You know , if I want to , if I want to , you know , feel good and hear how awesome I am . I'll go have breakfast with my mom , right ? You know she thinks I'm great , and so , in fact , I'm having breakfast with her mom , and you know , the fact is is that , while I certainly value that , and I adore my mom , you know . The fact is that in business , I just need you to tell me what the straight dope is . Right , right .
Darryl DavisRight , yeah , that's true , having that good support system that everybody brings different skill sets and if you can pay attention to you know to like , like some of the people I'll reach out to , may have great business skills but not as creative . And you've got I've got some that are really creative but maybe not strong in the business skills . So sometimes you may have to tap into two or three different perspectives to then come up with your own strong , collective one .
Ed MathewsYeah , so right , and you know it's interesting , there was a . There's a story , and I'm not a butcher but I'm going to , I'm going to try and tell it anyway . You know , there was a general who was deciding on , you know , a particular strategy and you know Basically what he did was he brought in captains and colonels and listened , and majors , and listened to them debate the various aspects of the strategy and what would work and what wouldn't , and didn't say a word and then said okay , guys , thank you very much , I know what we're going to do , here's what we're going to do . And you know , the private sitting on the side of the room said how did you figure that out ? Like , how did you understand that ? And he said you know , my job is not to figure it out , my job is to put really smart people in place to be able to tell me their perspective so that I can then have . You know , you're never going to know everything , but I can have as much good information as possible to then base a decision upon Right .
Ed MathewsAnd you just described the same thing in terms of the way your business works Absolutely , Yep , yep , yep . So so , so I'm curious , you know , in terms of your personal life , your non coaching , non mentor , non real estate life . How do you like to spend your time ? What do you do for fun ?
Darryl DavisWell , I'm an avid theater goer , and so I try to get to theater whenever I can , and of course , I love fine dining to boot . Usually those two go well together . I'm actually going to New York City this Saturday with my son to see Hamilton . I've seen Hamilton , I've seen it twice . I'm going a third time , just him and I . My wife's not going because she's seen it twice with me , so he hasn't seen it and I want him to see it , and he's a theater goer because he's always gone with me growing up . So , yeah , so it's a boys night out .
Ed MathewsThat's fine , excellent , excellent . And so , darrell , if someone wants to learn , you know , I know there are real estate agents out in the audience and or if some investors are thinking about you know getting their license , you know what is the best way to reach you , get in touch , learn about you , know what you do and and how you can add value and help them .
Darryl DavisYeah , just go to my website . Darrell speakscom D-A-R-R-Y-L . Two hours . This is the right way to spell it Darrell speakscom , and yeah , that's where I'm at .
Ed MathewsFantastic . Well , Darrell Davis , thank you so much for your wisdom and your time today , and I'm grateful for for you spending a little bit of time to give our , our folks , a whole bunch of gold nuggets .
Darryl DavisSo thanks , thanks , ted . Thanks again . Appreciate it . Good to see you , darrell .
Ed MathewsAll right , bye-bye , but this has been the real estate underground podcast . Thank you so much for listening . Don't forget to rate , review and subscribe . It helps us grow . Until next time , happy investing .