Quality, Service, Price + Resiliency with Steve Rupp (Part 2)

Steve Rupp shares his remarkable journey from a 25-year real estate career to becoming a sought-after business coach, revealing the pivotal moment when he realized he needed to completely "burn the bridge" to his past profession to fully commit to his new path.

With refreshing candor, Steve explains how his background in banking and business development created the perfect foundation for success in real estate and later in coaching. His systematic approach to business contrasts with many entrepreneurs who operate without clear plans or models. "If you don't know where you're going," Steve reminds us, quoting the Cheshire Cat, "it doesn't matter which path you take."

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Steve reveals his observation that "teachers make better real estate agents than real estate agents do." This unexpected insight stems from the natural ability of teachers to put others first – the essence of being a fiduciary in real estate. This perspective offers valuable guidance for anyone considering a career transition, highlighting how seemingly unrelated skills often become your greatest strengths in new ventures.

Perhaps most valuable is Steve's distinction between teaching and coaching: "Teaching is telling, coaching is asking and leading." While he admits to struggling with the urge to immediately provide answers rather than guide clients to their own solutions, he's discovered that coaching creates deeper ownership and better results. This wisdom applies not just to formal coaching relationships but to leadership in any context.

 Visit steveruppcoaching.com to learn more about his Premier Connect program and coaching opportunities.

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Transcript

Sponsor Shoutout: Jessica Glazer

Speaker 1 0:00

Before we dive in, we want to give a big shout out to our amazing sponsor for today's episode, jessica Glazer. Mortgage Loan Officer with Elevations Credit Union. If you are looking for a calm, confident guide through the mortgage process, you're going to want low stress Jess in your corner. With 25 years of experience helping people reach their goals, jessica brings a whole new level of care and clarity to the lending process. Her system is built around proactive communication and thoughtful guidance, so you never feel lost or overwhelmed. What makes Jessica stand out, it's not just her professionalism, it's her heart. She's a foster mom, a community organizer, a dog rescue advocate and someone who truly shows up for people, whether it's through Big Bones Canine Rescue or the Cruise Foster Children's Charity. If you're ready to make your next move with less stress and more support, reach out to Jessica Glazer at Elevations Credit Union. Find her information in the show notes below.

Burning Bridges to Move Forward

Speaker 2 1:02

Now let's dive into today's episode her information in the show notes below. Now let's dive into today's episode. All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

Speaker 1 1:45

You said something that you went over pretty quickly that I think is really good to go back to just for a second is that you had to burn the bridge. I think there's so many people and I'm guilty of that, you know when I was like okay, I'm going to get into coaching and speaking, I still have my real estate business, and so now I'm doing real estate, coaching, speaking, training, podcasting, blah. So it's like and it's you, hang on to it because you're like no, I'm afraid if I let go of that because I know how to do that, I could do it in my sleep until we burn the bridge.

Speaker 3 2:13

Yeah, it's hard, very hard, and there's no one right way. You know, the way that I did it isn't right, it's not wrong, it's just it was my way, and I know that with my personality is I have to do that because I go deep, I don't go wide. And so I knew that if I went wide, all I would do is do a shotgun approach and I'm just not going to be effective. And so and we all like to go back to what we know best it's comfortable, right, and you have to have that pain, the uncomfortableness, to move you forward. And so that uncomfortableness was the burning, the bridge and that forced me to move forward, because I didn't have an option, I didn't have a choice. I only got so much time with, you know, my wife was willing to support me before, you know, I had to start paying my bills, you know.

Speaker 4 2:54

Or getting a real job, or getting a real job.

Speaker 1 3:00

Entrepreneurs. We don't like to do that.

Speaker 4 3:02

No, no, no no.

Speaker 3 3:04

Not at all.

Speaker 1 3:07

So terrible entrepreneurs we don't like to do that. No, no, no, no, not at all. You want me to work for who? He also is going to tell me what to do, and I got to get up at a certain time.

Corporate Life vs. Entrepreneurship

Speaker 3 3:13

Thanks, I mean, when I worked at the bank I had maybe ladies can relate to, so I had to work in commercial credit. So when I worked there, I worked it was a management training program, so which was great because it exposed me to all the different parts of the bank and one of the rotations was commercial credit. That might as well have been hell Sounds terrible. I hated that. And all you do is you analyze a commercial lender's, client's financial documents and portfolios for whatever it is that they were trying to do Usually it was a loan or a line of credit or something like that and you just had to crunch numbers and you had to be in your seat by 8.30.

Speaker 3 3:47

You took lunch from 12 to 1. You couldn't leave until at least five o'clock and you had to report to the manager and, oh my God, it was awful. So I got into so much trouble. I actually got that's a funny story I actually got sent to the HR director's office. Oh wow, because I actually got sent to the HR director's office. Oh wow, because I was talking on the phone too much.

Speaker 1 4:08

I wasn't doing my work. Talking to clients is what you're saying.

Speaker 3 4:12

So at the time I was the president of the JC's, the Junior Chamber of Commerce here, and we are one of the largest JC chapters in the United States and we had this big event called Fourth Fest, which is we had an event it was the second largest event in the city, second to the Indianapolis 500. And we would get 200,000 people downtown and there are vendors and food that we brought in talent. So, like Richard Marks performed the year that I was in charge of it, we partnered with a radio station. You had fireworks that was shot off. Those were the city's fireworks.

Speaker 3 4:44

We were brought in in 1976 by the mayor to the JC's were to create a bicentennial celebration and so we just we managed it. So you had to do. It was a great leadership experience because you had to work with, like the mayor, the police, all these vendors, the city, the war memorial where it was held, all these different stakeholders and then he had to manage the manpower to do it, which was hard. So I was. You know this was back in the late 90s, so we didn't really have cell phones a whole lot back then. So I had a pager and so because I moved around all the time and I didn't, because of my management training position. I didn't have a consistent phone number for people to call, so I would have a pager and that's the number that I would give out for managing this, and so you know my pager would go off a lot and so all the time.

Speaker 4 5:30

Yeah, I can only imagine your pager just going off all day long.

Speaker 3 5:36

So I still remember Alan, who is the assistant manager of commercial credit. He sent me down to Mr Corbett's office, who was the executive director of HR for the bank, or executive VP or whatever his title was, and I walk in there and Mr Korba is like Mr Rupp, are you a drug dealer?

Speaker 4 5:54

I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming.

Speaker 3 5:59

I was like. I'm sorry, Mr Korba, what? We have a pager and I know drug dealers use pagers.

Speaker 2 6:06

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 6:07

So I'm like Mr Korba, no, I'm not, and I told him when I was doing it and I'm like listen, sir, this is a really good thing for the bank because this is the second largest event in the city's history all year and your employee is the one who's running it. It's kind of a big deal for exposure for you and they all know what I do, you know who I work for and everything. And so it was anyway, he was like well, just try and do a little less of that and do more of your job.

Speaker 4 6:38

More analyzing, less talking.

Speaker 3 6:41

I couldn't God, it was just awful. And then when that phone rang, I was like, yeah, I want to talk to somebody Because I was in my little cubicle with a bunch of you know numbers and like this is awful.

Speaker 1 6:52

How long did you last? Like I wouldn't last very long.

Speaker 3 6:55

Well, no, it was in a management training program so. I think that was one of the longest rotations, unfortunately like three months, so I had to deal with it for 90 days and then I got to move on to something else. So right after that was, I think, business development, which I got at plan events, and that was my jam.

Speaker 1 7:14

I was.

Speaker 3 7:15

I was all down with that.

Speaker 4 7:17

More appropriate for your pager to go off at all hours of the day hours of the day.

Speaker 3 7:29

Yes, that's right, that was my jam.

Speaker 1 7:29

That was a lot more fun to do that than analyze credit applications, all that management, training and all those things that you did leading up to getting into real estate. I mean, all of those things benefit you and have shown in what you've done with your real estate business and being able to build a business that you could sell. And so not everybody has that background in real estate. A lot of people are coming from what? School teacher, nurse, you know things like that.

Speaker 4 7:51

Nothing.

Speaker 3 7:53

Everyone's story is different, everyone's background is different and it's great. I mean, you ladies know this. The number one profession for real estate agents prior to real estate is teaching right and they make the best real estate agents. They make better real estate agents than real estate agents prior to. Real estate is teaching right and they make the best real estate agents.

Speaker 4 8:05

They make better real estate agents than real estate agents actually.

Speaker 3 8:08

Yes, that's what I always say.

Speaker 4 8:10

I say, teachers make better real estate agents than real estate agents.

Speaker 3 8:14

They do, because that's what we do. We teach, yeah, and if you're a teacher, you just kind of you take and you know most real estate agents, yeah, you get into it. And yes, there's unlimited income, both positive and negative. But the thing is that you got to have a servant's heart, right. If you're going to be a successful real estate agent, you really truly have to care about your clients. I mean, think about just legally, you know, we are fiduciaries for our clients, which naturally means we have to put our clients first. What do teachers do? They put their pupils first, and so it's easy to see why teachers are so successful in real estate.

Teachers Make Better Real Estate Agents

Speaker 3 8:46

And that's something that wasn't lost on me. And being able to teach and educate people to feel comfortable with such a big transaction and then being detail-oriented to handle all the details and the myriad people and things that you have to keep up with and deadlines and everything like that, and you're right, I mean that helped 100% and that was, you know, right up my alley with the prep work of being organized and having systems and models, and it led up into coaching. And that's, to be very frank with you, when I onboard a new client, one of the first things, you know. They say what do I need to do to prepare? And I'm like do you have a business plan? Do you have a marketing plan? Do you have a budget? Do you have an economic model that you follow? Do you know what your mission statement is, your vision, your value statement, do? What is your five-year vision, what are your non-negotiables?

Speaker 1 9:33

Because you're asking those questions? Because they're like what yeah?

Speaker 3 9:37

It's usually what happens because they don't have them. And so you're the chief, cook and bottle washer until you fire yourself as the bottle washer and hire somebody else. Then you're just chief and cook until you fire yourself as cook and then you hire somebody else and you're the chief. But the problem is, if you don't know where you're going and how you're going to get there, how are you going to do it? Which path are you going to take? Just like the chef's cat told Alice, if you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which path you take, and that's the problem. And so you know.

Speaker 3 10:17

That's why I tell people if you resonate with me as a coach, the way you're going to best resonate with me is if you need some structure, and I would advocate that most real estate agents need more structure. So I'll provide the structure for you and let's get a good strong foundation so we know what we have to work with, and then we can kind of go from there and see where it takes us and start with an empty sheet of paper every time. But until then, let's at least get a good strong foundation and let's make sure that you're starting off on a good foot so that we can do some other things.

Speaker 1 10:46

Wow, excellent. So now you made this transition last April, april 1st. How is the coaching and the teaching and how's that going?

Speaker 3 11:50

It's going well, it's not as expected, like anything. You know, I had this whole idea of how I wanted to go and what I wanted to do and who I wanted to do it with and how I was going to get there, and I had my business plan and, you know, had all this stuff, and let's just say it didn't happen that way. You know, surprise, surprise, it's the way businesses are and I think that was good because, you know, when I work with agents, I can relate to it better because you know, when I've been in the business for so long, you kind of forget them. It's kind of like, as a real estate agent, you don't move every so often. You kind of forget what you're putting your clients through. Yes, you know, and I'm sure you've heard the joke. You know, as a real estate agent, you should force yourself to move every five years, just so you understand what you're making your clients go through.

Creating Structure in Real Estate

Speaker 3 12:34

So it's kind of the same thing and starting over, you know I can tell people I get it. I understand what you're going through, because I'm going through the same thing. I've been through it, I'm going through it now, and so the journey is part of the experience. It's what carbonates an entrepreneur's new venture, and you can be as regimented as you want and it's not going to go the way you want it to or the way that you expect it to, and that's just part of the fun. You know, has it been all sunshine and roses? Absolutely not, and anybody who starts a business, who tells you that it is, are lying to you because it are, because it isn't.

Speaker 3 13:11

It's hard work, you know, and at the same time I have seen a lot of success that I love, and I've got a full book of business for one-on-one coaching and I got a program that I taught and that was, you know, kind of my. In the pre-show we were talking about the program or whatever, and that is one of the things that catapulted me into what I'm doing now. And the thing that you ladies know, I'm sure, is that there is a distinct difference between teaching and coaching. Teaching is telling, coaching is asking and leading in something. The easier it is to be the teacher, because it's really hard when somebody comes up to you with a challenge and you're like I know exactly what you need to do.

Speaker 1 13:57

Let me just tell you, you just want to jump all over it.

Speaker 3 14:01

Right, I can help you. I can do that and I tried that. You know, at first I still fall into that from time to time. I think it's natural to want to do that and it's taken. You know, it's kind of like weight training you got to build the muscle. There is no shortcut. You just have to get the reps in literally and you'll build the muscle and you get muscle memory. And so I've gotten better at asking questions instead of just blurting out the answers. You know, teaching is more like checkers and coaching is more like chess. You got to stay a few steps ahead and know where you're leading your coaching client or where they want to go. And that's been fascinating to me with that and it's been interesting, it's been fun, it's been exciting, it's been unpredictable, it's been a cool experience. And you know, someone asked me one time she said, what do you like better, teaching or coaching? And I was like you know, I like parts of both of them because they both feed my soul in different ways. If I had to pick one, it would probably be teaching.

Speaker 3 14:56

I love being in front of people and you know, someone asked me last week it's like what gives you the most energy? And I'm like teaching in front of people. Put me in front of a room. I'm happy. If I can get up there and teach people, the more the I'm happy. I don't know it's weird, but Pam, you do. Speaking too right, all right, so you both do, so you get it. We're weird. We're that weird percentage of that. Speaking isn't one of the top fears that we have. You're like, put me in front of a group of people and I'm totally cool with that when most people are like, oh God, no way, shoot me now, kind of a thing, and but it's just fun. You know, you get that exhilaration and you see the light bulbs go off and people and and it's just it's fun to be able to just share, share what you learned and share your experiences. And you know the coaching too is is fun as well when you get to do that and help people and let them self-discover, to take ownership of the answers instead of you just giving it to them. And that was something that I learned.

Speaker 3 15:57

So you know, part of this journey was like four years ago when I was still an actively producing agent and we were in COVID and my coach at the time gave us this very basic system for kind of doing some care calls, and I ended up seeing an opportunity in it and turned it into this Premier Connect program that I wrote. And I ended up doing it on my own and I was in this class if you're in the KW ecosystem, it's called BOLD and the instructor, scott Toombs, very well known in the real estate world I was towards the end of it was, I think it was like step six out of seven or something, and so we're talking about referrals. And he was like, so who in this room has a system for predictably producing referrals? Nobody raises their hand. There's like 80 people in the room and so I kind of sheepishly raised my hand. I'm like I don't know, maybe, mr Rob, what you got.

Coaching vs. Teaching

Speaker 3 16:42

And so I told him about my this Premier Connect program. I'm like, hey, I think I've got a system to leverage vendor partner relationships into a predictable referral stream. They'll produce 27 referrals a year. Multiplied times your average GCI and you know my formula produces a quarter of a million dollars a year. Is that what you're looking for? And he was like, uh, yeah, I wasn't expecting that.

Speaker 1 17:06

He was wanting, like wait, what is this Door knocking? Yes, not a system.

Speaker 3 17:14

Like no, yes, he was like. You need to see me after class.

Speaker 4 17:18

Exactly.

Speaker 3 17:19

So I was like all right, so we talk. And he had said, steve, that was the best answer to that question I've ever heard and I have taught thousands of agents all over the country. I'm like really he said, yeah, you need to teach this. I'm not there yet, scott, I'm still producing and I go deep, not wide, so I don't want to water things down, so give it about a year. And I'm starting to feel I start to implement this even more in my business.

Speaker 3 17:45

I have a marketing director who kind of takes ownership of this and we start to see some success out of it. And it takes ownership of this and we start to see some success out of it. And so I'm getting to the point where I'm getting out of the business and I call Scott up and I'm like Scott, you remember me. He said you, betcha, you got that program. He said I've taught every one of my bowl classes I tell about this program Not too much, though, I tell them just enough and he said I, still, I am.

Speaker 3 18:08

And he said let me run this up the flagpole to Jen Davis, who was in charge of she was a VP of education for KW at the time and he said I want to ask her if there's any other program that she knows of like this before we go any further.

Speaker 3 18:20

Great. So he did my research for me and so he talks to Jen and she was like no, there's nothing else like this in the country for any brand that I'm aware of. You need to encourage him to teach this. And so when we start talking about that, and he gives me the flow chart and everything for how to get a course approved through KW and I'm sure all the brands have similar things, and so I'm looking at it and I talked to a mentor of mine who has done something like this through KW Natalie, you know exactly who this is and he was like you need to be careful about doing this, you need to be very. And so I turned it down and that could have been initially a big windfall for me monetarily, but I would have lost control of my program and I would have only been able to teach it within the KW ecosystem. So I ended up not following that path and copywriting it and getting it patented, trademarked and copyrighted.

Speaker 3 19:15

And just got that approved last month, which was awesome, you know, and teaching it. So now I can teach it wherever I want to whomever I want, and it's a game changer for agents, because I don't want this to be a whole selling advertising thing for this program. It's part of who I am and what my journey is, because this is something that resonates with me, because I've never made a cold call, I've never called a FISBO and expired, I have never paid for leads, I've never done a FISBO and expired, I have never paid for leads, I've never done any of that Like a lot of the traditional stuff that agents do, and this is all based on referrals and that's what most agents resonate with and it's the least expensive and highest conversion rate for business. We know this and so that's what I believe in the system so much and I want to help agents and so I teach them this and it's a 10 week program and we do it over, zoom and so forth.

Speaker 3 20:04

So anyway, they learn how to do this on their own so that they can do exactly what I did, and I and I tell them. I said this isn't some theory, I did this, I know it works, I've been where you are, and then I wrote a program to teach you exactly how to do it. You are, and then I wrote a program to teach you exactly how to do it, and it's very detailed, and so I will walk you down exactly what to do and how to do it, bite by bite, step by step, in small chunks, because we know all real estate agents are ADD and they chase squirrels left and right, so you got to feed it to them in small, small bits and pieces. So anyway, so that's why, so I do that.

Speaker 4 21:01

I teach that and I do some one-on on one coaching as well and I kind of feed both sides of that with his coaching business over the last year. And for me, I too, steve, I'm a lifelong learner. So when we were in our coaching setting and I immediately realized and recognized you know the opposite of me, right, if you have two of me in one setting it's a lot. So, steve, you are like the balance of, you're like the yin to my yang, right, where you talk about coaching from a tactical standpoint, I am very clear with my clients. I am not that person. I'm your strategic person. Like I will talk about it from strategy. We're not getting tactical, I don't go into that space. And I'm the opposite side of the disc assessment. I'm the ID.

Speaker 4 21:32

I don't think I have any C at all, but you know, here it is, and I saw you and how you were structuring your business and I was like I've got to connect with him. So we've had the opportunity to mastermind, to coach together, to learn together, and it has been fabulous to watch you grow this business and to witness and see the success that you've experienced, because you're not just coaching one-offs, right, I mean, you've also had the opportunity of doing some enterprise training, which is huge in the space. So kudos to you on what you've done and what you've built. It's been beautiful to watch. So congratulations all around. If someone wants to learn more about your program, where do they find you, steve?

Speaker 3 22:11

Go to steveruppcoachingcom.

Speaker 4 22:14

Perfect About as easy as you can get.

Speaker 3 22:17

So website. There you can learn more about me, you can learn about my program, my one-on-one coaching, and there's videos and testimonials and you can learn exactly how it works. And I told people straight up and I do this in my real estate business I'm not the right fit for everybody and my most important thing is finding out right away, up front, if we're a good fit, and if we are, I'll tell you, and if we're not, I'll tell you that too, and it's just that simple. And so, yeah, if someone resonates with this and they're like, hey, that's me, I want some of that Great. And if they're like I need more, natalie, then that's fine.

Speaker 3 22:49

You know I can refer to people and and that's the beauty just like real estate agents. You know there's no one right way to sell real estate and there's no one right way to coach. Different people need different things at different points in their life and it's a beautiful thing. You've got all these different coaches out there who can fill whatever niche you're trying to fill, whatever bucket you need to fill whatever need you have, and there's all these different ways to do it and not one is the right way or the wrong way. It is the way that you need at that point in time.

Speaker 3 23:15

And so, like, my tagline is taking you from where you are to where you want to go, and I truly believe in that. Where you know, I will get on my knees with you and we will start down on the floor together and I'm going to take you up to where you want to go. We're going to do that through systems and models and proven tactics. Because I've been doing this for so freaking long, I know what you need to do in order to get there and I know the tactics to do it, and so some agents need that, some agents don't need that and don't want that, and that's totally cool. I'm not for you and I'm okay with that. So you just find the right people. That's a good fit for you.

Speaker 4 23:51

Absolutely. That's amazing, amazing. Anything else new that's on the horizon that I don't know of that you want to share with our?

Speaker 3 23:57

listeners. Well, I just did my first enterprise coaching program today. So I did that and that was super successful. So partnering with mortgage companies is what I found. So you know, this thing takes you through all these different twists and turns and paths that you didn't think about and I thought. When I got into the business I was like shoot, everybody knows me in the city and I've been around for such a long time.

Speaker 4 24:25

They're just going to come flocking to me and everybody wants to be coached by. Steve, yeah, yeah, that's not at all what happened, and that's okay. Were you not a celebrity in your own backyard? Is that what happened? Because sometimes that's.

Speaker 4 24:32

I think I'm my own celebrity apparently so okay so anyway, they always say like the rock band is not like as famous in their own backyard as when they go on the road right like when the band goes on tour like everyone wants to see them, but back at home we know that's exactly right that not a true statement could be spoken.

The Premier Connect Program

Speaker 3 24:54

Yes, so I've kind of found you the premier connect perm. I didn't know where that was going to go. I was going to go but it was like the one-off. So it's kind of like my thing at my advertising marketing company was, you know, starting, you know all the little small stuff or whatever. And that's kind of what this is is it's hard if you've got to pull or sell this program that you're selling every single month and this is true for anybody, whether you're in our space or another space. If you've got a program that you're selling it's, you're just constantly pushing it.

Speaker 3 25:20

So I was like there's got to be a better way and finding out that you know what there's massive value to lenders. And so what I found was that you go to lenders. The lenders have money to spend for marketing and relationships Real estate agents don't, real estate companies don't. So the lenders, you invite them, and the whole thing was it's an enterprise solution where you say, hey, listen, you bring me, you take your loan officers and you pay me for these seats, these 10 seats in this program, and I will pour into your real estate partners and help them grow their business, and when their business grows, so does your business, and you are going to be providing them something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, and they're going to be thankful and grateful for you for doing this, and no other lender partner is doing this, so you're going to be doing something. You know you're always fighting for real estate agents, and why don't you in the hardest, the highest fruit to get is your mega agent, so why don't you be invited a mega agent here? Let me show them how I can improve their business, and you're the one who started that. And that's magic. That's your end. That's how you get into these guys, cause it's hard to get into a mega agent. If you know that, you know team leaders will tell you that too. You can't get into mega new agents Easy. I can recruit a new, a new agent all day long, low hanging fruit, but your mega agents, that's not so easy. Same thing with lenders you can get in with a new agent, but a mega agent, that's tough, that could take you years, and so what I found was doing this it's very symbiotic Partnering with a lender partner. They just say I'll buy 10 seats from you. Fantastic, it's sold out and you find all the people for me. You bring them in and I'll train them. I find all the people for me. You bring them in and I'll train them. I'll coach them up and they're like this is great. You mean we don't have to train? Nope, I'll take care of the training. You just get me the people and your loan officers have them.

Speaker 3 27:10

Every loan officer has one or two agents. You ask them who their top 10 real estate partners are and you say think about this for a second. Tell me two names of two agents that used to be in your top 10 that are no longer in your top 10. They're struggling. Give me those people, send them to me. I will put them back in your top 10. So it's a benefit for them and you don't have to do anything. In fact, bring your loan officers on the call with them, with a realtor partner, and I'm going to get you FaceTime for 10 hours with this realtor partner and provide value, pour into them. You don't have to do a thing. Let me provide the value, and so that's worked great.

Speaker 3 27:43

So now I'm working with a national mortgage company on doing that. They've got 310 loan officers that they want to do this for, and so that's what I'm kind of working on now is these mortgage companies. I'm like partner with me, I will help grow your business, but I'm going to grow it through people and I'm going to grow it through the real estate partners, provide value to them, pour into them and they're going to return the business to you and that's how it works. So that's the big thing that I've got on my plate, that I'm working on and doing that. So my first training was today, which is awesome. So this is kind of a beta and we're going to work out any kinks with it and then, you know, we're going to keep rolling it out around the country. So that's the exciting part. And I've got three more spots for one-on-one coaching that I'm looking to fill. The rest of them are all full up. So if anybody is like, hey, I like that dork Steve, with all those designations and those practice trainings, then bring it baby.

Speaker 4 28:43

And listen, you have quite a few transferable skills that carry over to the coaching space as well.

Speaker 3 28:45

None of your designations or certifications necessarily do that.

Speaker 4 28:47

Yeah, it's all good. Yes, it's okay, it's okay, yes, exactly I love it.

Speaker 4 28:52

Well, congratulations. That is a huge win and in just a short 12, 13 months, here we are. 13 months in, yeah, congratulations. It's been beautiful to watch the laser focus and discipline that you've had and making sure that it is just right. That's the analytical side of your brain, right? That's like I need it to flow. I need it to actually provide value and I think it speaks to your purpose of being able to pour into people. So this all goes back full circle when you're figuring out like who you are, that identity being connected to your purpose. You've still been able to do that. And, stepping out of that, what still fulfilled your purpose in the 25 year career in real estate, now you're able to do that from the coaching standpoint. So kudos to you, yeah.

Speaker 3 29:34

Yeah, and thank you, natalie, for your part in the journey too. So you've been awesome to collaborate with and talk to and coach, and it's been. You've coached me up and given me insight, and I can't thank you enough for that too. So you've absolutely played a part in all of this, and you know I love talking with you.

Speaker 4 29:50

Exactly yeah.

Speaker 3 29:51

I've got a ton of respect for you. So, yeah, you and Pam just make such a great team.

Speaker 4 29:56

Thank you, we appreciate that. Oh my gosh, it has been an absolute honor having you.

Speaker 3 30:02

This has been fun. The only thing we're missing was a drink while we're on a Friday night.

Speaker 4 30:10

Oh well, we're the only thing standing between you and your lawn getting cut.

Speaker 3 30:13

So the torrential rain comes right Exactly.

Speaker 4 30:19

Steve, we want to thank you so much for taking the time out to visit with us and sharing your story and so many principles that can apply to any business. I know, just for our listeners out there listening in. Today we spoke specifically about the real estate industry, but if you have any product or service that you're providing, everything that we talked about today applies to that. So making sure that you're extracting Everything that we talked about today applies to that. So making sure that you're extracting those nuggets and applying that to your business, especially if you're an entrepreneur that's listening, or you have the desire to be an entrepreneur in the near future. So many takeaways, steve. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you Sharing your expertise.

Enterprise Coaching Solutions

Speaker 3 30:54

I'll leave you with one thing that I was taught when I was at my promotional products company if I may, please, that relates to everybody and that is that I was taught long ago that there are three things that you can compete on. Okay, everybody has this. You can compete on quality, you can compete on service and you can compete on price. You pick which two you're going to focus on. You can pick two, but you can never have all three, and what I mean by this is think of a company that has provided the highest quality product with the highest service, with the lowest price. Doesn't exist and it's not supportable.

Speaker 3 31:29

So when I was doing promotional marketing and advertising, that was one of the things that the owner taught us at that time. She said you know, you've got a three-legged stool. I've chosen the two legs you're going to stand on. It's quality and service. We're going to be competitive, but we're not going to be the lowest, and so that's something that I teach a lot of the agents is be very careful about how you choose to price your services.

Speaker 3 31:52

If you're going to be the lowest, there's always a race to the bottom. There's always going to be someone who will do it for less. But if you can provide value, then the price is not going to be part of the conversation, right? In the absence of value, price becomes a conversation, and so it all comes back to that three-legged stool. And you can. If you want to compete on price, that's fine, but you're going to have to give up something. It's not either going to be a lower quality service or a lower quality product, but you can never have all three, and I've never forgotten that. That's been something that has resonated with me for 30 years, and I believe it applies to every single business owner, regardless of what you sell.

Speaker 4 32:27

Huge, that's huge. Quality service, price. Pick two, beautiful. I think that's a perfect place for us to end. This has been amazing For our listeners. We will make sure to tag all of steve's contact information, the show notes, as well as a link to his website. If you are looking for that information, and if you're looking for additional information about reignite resilience, make sure that you head on over to reigniteresiliencecom if you have not already done so. Subscribe to our weekly think letter. It is released every saturday where we go a little bit deeper into our episodes and discussion with our guests, and then you can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. Until next time, we will see you all soon. Bye, everyone.

Speaker 2 33:08

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas. To fuel the flames of passion, please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes and, of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.