Navigating the Challenges and Triumphs of a Real Estate Career

Thinking about getting into real estate? Not so fast – there's more to it than meets the eye! 

In this episode, Manny engages in a thought-provoking discussion with guests Victoria and Candida about the realities of the real estate industry. 

The conversation delves into the challenges faced by new agents, the importance of proper training and mentorship, and the need for transparency and accountability within the profession. 

Victoria and Candida share personal experiences and insights, highlighting the significant work, costs, and emotional pressures involved in building a successful real estate career, while also addressing the misleading portrayals and false promises that often attract aspiring agents to the field. 

Listen For:
12:05 - The Importance of Honest Training and Mentorship
16:38 - Accountability in the Brokerage Industry
27:14 - Ego as a Hindrance to Coachability 

GUESTS:
Candida Silva
Website  

Victoria Koekkoek
Website  

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Transcript

Candida Silva [00:00:00]:

Brokers and realtors are to blame. They come in with a perception of luxurious lifestyle, and then they come in with a perception of what's in it for me. On the flip side, brokers know that somebody fresh out of school has no idea about what to expect and what this so called game entails. So they shouldn't be promising that what they should be doing is telling them how much work it's gonna be. And maybe they're gonna scare off some, but they're also gonna attract the wants that are meant, meant to be in this industry.

Manny Andrade [00:00:49]:

Welcome to another episode of Coffee Beans and real estate. We are on the eve of our first anniversary, and I'm always excited to do these episodes. Never know what's gonna come out of my mouth or our guest's mouth. Today. Today I'm joined by two amazing guests. One is a defending rookie of the year at our brokerage. The other is one of our leadership. So I have Victoria Koekkoek and Candida Silva.

Manny Andrade [00:01:21]:

You're joining me today. Today we're going to sort of go back. So the premise or the theme of this podcast, Coco, is the, you know, the pursuit of it. All right, so what is it that identifies you? Why did you win rookie of the year? What was your it? What made you stand out? What made you perform or outperform the rest of the candidates who were in the running? So what? Is that it? And we're going to review some of the. Some of the language for our previous interviews. You know, words like passion. You know, people, you need passion. You need knowledge.

Manny Andrade [00:01:56]:

You need drive. You need shift. Courage. Fear. My. It was fear. And we're going to maybe ask you what your it is. Don't.

Manny Andrade [00:02:04]:

Don't come up. But it's a one word answer, Candida, in Victoria. Okay, what is your it? And don't. Don't give it to me. I'll give you some time, fairly, to think about it. And then I'm going to ask maybe for us to consider if we're being misled institutionally, and maybe all of this is not our fault. Maybe some of the failure isn't ours to hold or known entirely. Maybe there's some responsibility on our regulators.

Manny Andrade [00:02:37]:

Maybe there's some responsibility and accountability on our educators, the people that. That keep us coming, you know, lining up at our colleges to register and pay, you know, some fairly hefty fees and commit to this career. And knowing that there's, let's say, arguably an 80% fail rate, could you imagine any other business? Victoria? And I'll ask you this question. Do you know any other business? Retail, wholesale, car wash, hair salon, barber? Grocery store? Any business that fails at an 80% rate and customers are lining up to go in?

Candida Silva [00:03:12]:

No.

Manny Andrade [00:03:13]:

It's shocking. Not that I can think of Candida, like anything. Like can you? Can you? 80% fail rate or lining up to spend four or $5,000 just to register.

Candida Silva [00:03:24]:

I think this is really the only industry that people line up to get a license and very well know how many drop off every given year.

Manny Andrade [00:03:35]:

What's the drug? What's the addiction? What's the dealer? What brings so many people lighting up? Knowing that you turn to your left, you turn to your right and you know, one in four are going to succeed.

Candida Silva [00:03:49]:

The perception of how much money they can make. Yeah. The ones who portray themselves to have such a luxurious lifestyle don't portray the struggles, don't portray the challenges. All they portray is the paycheck that they get at the end of a trade. Not really showcasing that. That paycheck took x, y, z and more to get.

Manny Andrade [00:04:15]:

Whose fault is that, Victoria?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:04:17]:

I would say it's on us as realtors too. Like, it's not just institutionalized or our teachers or our broker of records, but it's us putting out on the Internet or on websites, whatever it may be, that we're these hot shot realtors. We have fancy cars and we have nice suits and this and that. But reality of is that a lot of us are in debt. A lot of those people that are driving these super fancy cars and have all these nice things, it's not even theirs and they don't. It's. The money's not coming, but it's the perception that this industry gives you that. And you can attain that super easily.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:04:52]:

And I think it comes from a lot of realtors.

Manny Andrade [00:04:54]:

I agree. I agree. You watch some of these, these television shows, these half hour sitcoms, wherever I, you know, selling Toronto, where you have a couple of hot shots, driving maseratis and selling houses on a bridle path for $20 million. That's not reality, is it?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:05:10]:

No, no.

Manny Andrade [00:05:11]:

I mean, we don't have time, Victoria. But maybe you want to. Just a quick insight on what it's like showing a house in Toronto or rental in downtown Toronto where you have to navigate through traffic and park your car, risk getting towed and tagged and, you know, getting stuck in elevators like you did two days ago. Yesterday you got stuck.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:05:29]:

Yesterday I got stuck in an elevator. And the amount of parking tickets that come with showing downtown is crazy.

Manny Andrade [00:05:36]:

So that there isn't so you're right. I think we're partly responsible for our own sort of. We portray this, this glamour and, you know, pomp and circum. But. But really, the reality is that a lot of us struggle. We know statistically the numbers bear that. Look, last year, Treb sold 65,000 homes. You have 75,000 realtors.

Manny Andrade [00:06:02]:

Do the math. Do the math. Right. So it is. And it's tough. It's tough to, you know that the whole client getting clients, how to get clients. So the institutional lie, I'm going to ask you, are brokers like myself lying to you saying, like, hey, Coco, come in out of, out of Humber, come in and register with me. I'll give you 110% commission on your trades and I'm going to give you a funnel of leads coming out of TikTok.

Manny Andrade [00:06:27]:

Is it TikTok or ticket? TikTok and Facebook. So you're just going to have a funnel of leads. I'm going to just fill you with leads. You're going to make copious amounts of money. Are we lying to you guys, do you think?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:06:39]:

Yes, to an extent. I think it's setting up a lot of people for failure. I think telling everybody, like, hey, I'm going to give you all of these leads. You're going to have 100% of your commission and you can work from home and I'm just going to provide everything for you. And then they get into it and I feel like it's not that. And then they're disappointed in the industry, they're disappointed in our regulators, they're disappointed in broker of records because they were promised or told that you're going to get all of these things. It's going to be so easy to do. And in reality of it, it's not easy.

Candida Silva [00:07:11]:

It's work.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:07:11]:

And I don't think that's what's being told to people is how much work is needed.

Manny Andrade [00:07:16]:

Is there a culpability, Candida, on the institutional side, now you're in admin, so you're in the leadership side, so you see things a little bit differently. You see the struggles that agents go through on a daily. You hear the stories, the horror stories, you see the successes, too. What are your insights on this and the struggles and who's to blame?

Candida Silva [00:07:35]:

I'm going to be a bit provocative here, but I don't think putting the blame on any one person is fair simply because it is a dog eat dog world. And blaming an entire industry for anyone's lack of research on their part is unfair to everybody. Involved. Sure, you have brokers that will promise the world that some, but then you have brokers who are very forthright and honest. But classifying everybody in that sort of realm is not just, I think brokers and realtors are part to blame. They come in with a perception of luxurious lifestyle, and then they come in with a perception of what's in it. For me. On the flip side, brokers know that somebody fresh out of school has no idea about what to expect and what this so called game entails.

Candida Silva [00:08:32]:

So they shouldn't be promising that what they should be doing is telling them how much work it's gonna be. And maybe they're gonna scare off some, but they're also gonna attract the wants that are meant to be in this industry.

Manny Andrade [00:08:46]:

Yeah, you touched on a really good point, I'm gonna say. So as a broker of record, what do I stand to gain by telling 100 pupils that just graduated? What do I stand to gain as a business owner wanting more registrants, wanting to write registrants? What do I sent to gain by telling him the truth? Saying, hey, this is hard. You're going to struggle. You're going to go two, three, four months without making any money and then two months further to that before you get paid versus the guy or girl next door that says, hey, I'm going to give you a shitload of leads. Right. And you're going to make a lot of money just sitting at home, Victoria, working from home, which is an oxymoron on its own, in my humble opinion. What do I know and what do I stand to gain by being honest.

Candida Silva [00:09:32]:

Candida, that you stand to gain reputable people, people who are honest, who are hardworking, and who understand that nothing comes free. There's always a cost to something involved. Well, most people don't understand that it also costs to have an agent, part of a brokerage who isn't producing either. So it's. It's hard to dictate exactly how much time and what you stand to gain on somebody who isn't producing versus somebody who is.

Manny Andrade [00:10:08]:

I want to come back to that on cost, hard costs per head, per cap. Right. It. Right now we're at over $13,500 to house ahead here in this brokerage. Yeah, Coco, 13 five. So come and renegotiate your commission split tomorrow with me and I'll tell you what reality is all about. That's what it costs to have staff and the wonderful staff and the support and the square footage and the infrastructure, whether it be hard or soft. And that's how much it costs.

Manny Andrade [00:10:40]:

But they don't tell you that in school, do they, Victoria?

Candida Silva [00:10:43]:

No, no.

Manny Andrade [00:10:45]:

What do they tell you? They'll go interview 20 brokers and see what they can do for you.

Candida Silva [00:10:49]:

Yeah.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:10:49]:

Yeah. It's basically legislation and reading up on laws and rules of real estate. And then at the end it's here, go interview as many people as you can and you're in real estate now. How exciting. But it's not like you have to then go through all of this extra stuff that they don't teach you about in school and then until you have these conversations with brokers and staff and admin and find out, really, like, what am I doing and what do I have to do?

Manny Andrade [00:11:18]:

Did you cry in the first three months?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:11:19]:

I still cry. I absolutely cried probably every day the first year. And I still cry every now and then because it's a stressful job, it's a stressful business, and it's a lot of work.

Manny Andrade [00:11:37]:

I know you cried yesterday over the last two days because you were celebrating an acquisition, which is really exciting. You're young, you're still in your rookie phase and we're all really proud of you. And it's, and it's exciting and you see and be, frankly, and since we're on topic, I think you have it.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:11:55]:

Wow, that's great.

Manny Andrade [00:11:58]:

I think it, I think you have it. But, but it is, it is not why our regulators or institutions are portraying it to be.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:12:09]:

Yeah.

Manny Andrade [00:12:09]:

And I think, I think, I think if you ask me who's culpable, what would you do? Would you change anything? You know, we have arguments that, look, we have, let's say arguably a trip Toronto original real estate board here in Toronto and, and surrounding members, we have, say 80,000 members. Aurea, Ontario Real Estate association in the province of Ontario alone, you have 102,000 real estate. In Canada wide, I think we're 160,000 realtors. There's just not enough to go around. But if somebody said, well, there are way too many realtors, and you hear this argument all the time, there are too many realtors. You know what, you should just increase the fees. You should increase the fees. And then the argument here on topic as well, you change the courses that realtors take, make it more difficult.

Manny Andrade [00:13:03]:

I think if you increase the fees, you would have eliminated people like myself when I came in in 19, 87, 37 years ago. I'm celebrating my 37th anniversary this Saturday.

Candida Silva [00:13:16]:

Congratulations.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:13:16]:

Amazing.

Manny Andrade [00:13:18]:

Yeah, it's definitely. Don't, don't. I'm a lot older. I've been older, longer in the business than you, both of you. If somebody had said, well, because the argument was also, it would have applied back in 1987, right. There was a bit of a boom. If somebody said, well, price the agents out. Right.

Manny Andrade [00:13:40]:

So many agents price them out, I wouldn't have had a chance. I was an immigrant coming in very little disposable cash. Maybe the same applies to you, Victoria. If somebody said, well, just make the fees $5,000, eliminate the excess, and make it easier for those that can, can afford it, then you would be disqualifying or not providing an opportunity for people like yourself or myself to succeed.

Candida Silva [00:14:02]:

Yeah.

Manny Andrade [00:14:04]:

Similarly, can you make the argument that if you make it harder at school, you are going to preclude or prevent people that, okay, maybe I'm not that academic, but, you know, I can get along with people. I can nurture clients. I can meet, greet people, retain business, and, and have a successful sort of business long term without really being that good at academics or writing exams or studying some of the content. So my question is, I guess it's a rhetorical question. Do you change the courses to make it tougher or you leave it like it is, Candida, who's to blame for all this?

Candida Silva [00:14:41]:

I think the solution is not making it more expensive, because, like you mentioned, you do price out people who are very intelligent, who genuinely like the industry, and by making it more expensive, just doesn't give them an opportunity to say, that's manageable. That's something that I can do. On the flip side, by making the courses harder, I believe that the real estate industry, to get a license in this industry is probably one of the easiest things to do. Yet you're dealing with some of these people's biggest purchases of their lifetime. It can't be that easy to get a license educationally. It needs to be. There needs to be better facilitators. It needs to be treated like an actual degree.

Candida Silva [00:15:29]:

A doctor won't just go online, do some courses online, call it a pass through an exam, and, hey, I've got a license to practice. There's schooling that's involved. And if they treated the real estate industry the way that they do most professions, I feel like it would benefit everybody, because not only would you be able to ween out those ones that are in it just for personal gain, maybe monetary value, but you're able to then see those that are genuinely in it, but making it accessible to those that can't afford it either.

Manny Andrade [00:16:04]:

Good answer. It's complicated, though. It's that it's not easy, straightforward, because either way, you can make the courses really tough and it could eliminate somebody who could potentially have been a success in having good skills at being with people or being, you know, one on one with people and being personable. Coco, you've been, so how long? Let me just qualify you. You've been in the business now or in the industry. How long?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:16:30]:

Two and a half years.

Manny Andrade [00:16:31]:

How many brokerages have you been?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:16:34]:

Um, two.

Manny Andrade [00:16:35]:

No names. So the first stint lasted how long?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:16:43]:

I would say a good three weeks.

Manny Andrade [00:16:46]:

Oh, good job. So, but good on you. It took you three weeks to figure out, okay, this isn't for me. Yeah, there's a question that's going to come back to me. Do you think broker owners, brokerages managers, broker of records, should be accountable and held to a higher standard of accountability and integrity and industry professionalism in saying what they mean and meaning what they say? That is not promising newcomers the moon and the stars, but maybe presenting the truth and the reality behind it all. How would you, if you, it was just two and a half years ago, how would you have responded to that? Or how did you respond to that two and a half years ago?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:17:34]:

Well, I feel like, so when I started with brokerage, a at the beginning, I was on the hunt for hands on training. Mentorship is the biggest thing because you come out of school and again, it's like, where do I start? Like, what do I do? Maybe I know all the rules, but I don't know how to get leads and I don't know how to start transactions or relationships. So I was on the hunt for that more personable side and more, you could say, like, hand holding side. The beginning stages of my search with brokerages and the first one that I did agree to stay with was very talkative in the sense of like, yes, you'll be getting leads and we're so here for you and very positive in the sense that there's nothing that can go wrong and it's super easy. So I was like, oh, this is amazing. Like, this is kind of what I thought would happen. So I started there and I quickly, quickly realized that I'm not getting anything in person. I'm not getting training, I'm not getting these leads that they told me that I would and specifically, like, I'm not getting what I needed out of it.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:18:43]:

So shopping around, otherwise, I came here and I'm not here to, you know, boost up the brokerage or anything.

Manny Andrade [00:18:49]:

Go ahead, go ahead. It's my show.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:18:52]:

And I spoke with Candida and Raquel, and it was honesty. It was, here's who we are, here's what we do, here's what we offer. And the biggest thing that I took from the first day that I came here was our boots on the ground program because I was looking for something physical to be doing with people. And I got the truth here and I got what I needed to, like, hear from it. And what, you know, felt right for me.

Manny Andrade [00:19:21]:

Really good answer. We're not. So nobody knows who we are, our name of our brokers, we don't care. We're not recruiting, but I appreciate the kind words. What, what lesson would you tell, you know, teach a broker like myself? You went to the shiny object syndrome initially. Did you not know? Were you not aware that 80% of you and the people that you graduated with would be out of the business within two years? So you thought everybody was just going to succeed? Everybody was going to become a rockstar?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:19:52]:

Yeah. I was like, okay, you get into this and they're going to put your name on a website and all these leads are going to call you. All these people are going to just find you. You don't have to go look for them because you're a new realtor. Like, this is it. It's so exciting. Wrong. It was not like that.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:20:10]:

And I'm happy that I learned that quick enough or else I don't think I would blame it.

Manny Andrade [00:20:14]:

Who's to blame for today? Is there a blame? Can you fix it? I'll give you both a shot.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:20:19]:

I would say a lot of it's on the schooling. I do think more in person or hands on. Education is important, especially in this industry, when that's what this is. It's personable, it's contacts, it's making relationships. I think if we're able to set up our students a better way of coming out and kind of having that understanding that it's not easy and things don't just come to you, that would be a better solution. And I think also having interviews with brokerages and them not fluffing up the industry so much and saying it's amazing and you're going to get leads this and that would help as well. But I do think it's school and it's a broker of records and admins and recruiters.

Manny Andrade [00:21:01]:

This month, Candida from the administrative side, how do you respond to that? Or how would you address that?

Candida Silva [00:21:08]:

I think the blame needs to be shared amongst every party involved. You can't just place the blame on the broker. You can't just place the blame on schooling. You can't place the blame just on the realtor. And I'm going to go back to a saying where they say, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. It comes down to the point of educating people and I think that we need to place a little more emphasis on the people who have been in the industry long enough, who are experienced in industry to teach those that are coming out of school as well as the educators teaching this program that there is work involved. And it's not just empty promises, it's not just you're going to get leads because yes, you may come across a brokerage who gives you all, all and more, but you'll never learn how to do it for yourself.

Candida Silva [00:22:06]:

You'll never be independent enough to be like, I'm a business owner and that's naturally what these people are, that's what realtors are. They're business owners. And by not helping their mindset become business owners, they're then stuck in a independent contractor mindset. And I feel like that that is the Ralgridges part to blame for not placing an emphasis on that.

Manny Andrade [00:22:30]:

Yeah, good, I like it. But it's a catch 22. It's the, it's the chicken or the egg. Somebody like Coco comes to me and I look at her and okay, I see promise. But I'm going to be hard and fast with her. I'm going to tell her the reality of things and how difficult this business is. But then she's going to go to 20 other brokerages and they're going to give her the, the shiny object. This is a sales pitch or speech and she's going to sign up with them and I lose any.

Manny Andrade [00:22:54]:

So, you know, what do I do, Coco? What do I do? How do I retain somebody like yourself? And then listen, let me clarify. I'm going to answer, allow you to answer the question, but many, many wonderful, throughout, I know hundreds of wonderful broker owners, colleagues, friends, and if not friends, respectable and respected business owners. I'm not trashing anybody in here, but I do know in Coco, as you said here, they promised you the moment, the stars and you got nothing and you saw the light in three, three weeks. What do you say to somebody like me who's sitting in front of a room of people like yourself? How do I get you?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:23:36]:

I think you just keep doing how you're doing it, with being honest with it and saying, like, listen, it's work and if the people that you're interviewing are not wanting to put in that work, why would we want them to? That's what I'm saying. Without being harsh, it's like, okay, if you're not willing to put in the work and the time, then what are you doing?

Manny Andrade [00:23:57]:

Well, sorry, we have mute buttons for that.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:24:02]:

But I think. I think being honest, because just take it back to my experience. I had somebody who wasn't upfront and honest with me. I learned the hard way. I fell on my ass. I had somebody like you say, listen, you're going to fall on your ass, but we're here to help. And then there's ways to do it. You just have to work.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:24:22]:

And then I'm like, okay, I can get out of it. I know what I have to do. So I think it's just tell people how it really is and then they'll make the decisions for themselves if they want. Still, after hearing that you have to put in all this time and effort and they still want to go, and I see how it's like over there because they think the grass is greener, then let them. They'll figure it out on their own.

Manny Andrade [00:24:41]:

Excellent. Do you think that when you come out of school, or even now at year two and a half, in my, in my calculations, I qualify zero to five as rookie, five plus a day to ten as a sophomore, and then junior and senior, and I'm looking at somebody 20 plus years as is just getting up to fourth gear and being a true senior. Do you find that two and a half years in or even coming out of school, do you think you're ready? Do you think you have it all? You know it all.

Candida Silva [00:25:12]:

No.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:25:13]:

No, I don't think I still am. Like, I don't know anything. Like, I know a lot from when I first started. I feel like I'm ahead of my curve, but at the same time, I'm like, there's so much to learn. You're constantly learning. You're constantly picking up new things and I. There's things that come up on offers or deals that you've never even heard of before you didn't know could happen.

Manny Andrade [00:25:34]:

And how important do you think ongoing. We talk about training and training, and the ironic is that you provide training and coaching and you have a high absentee rate. Candida, how important is ongoing coaching and training and adopting? See, now we have realm, we have Tressa, we have all of these digital platforms coming on board, and there's resistance to all of this change. How important is ongoing training. For people like Victoria to continue to support and promote her growth and evolution.

Candida Silva [00:26:08]:

As a business owner, training is probably the most vital skill when it comes to something like this profession. It's the exact same thing as a knife. You keep using it, keep using it. But if you don't sharpen it, it will become dull. It won't cut anymore, it won't go through. It won't go through things. So by training, you're sharpening your skills, you're honing the skills, you're learning new things. And if you stop learning, you stop growing, which means you become resentful to the change going on around you when you can really just get in front of it.

Candida Silva [00:26:43]:

By being open to all the possibilities that come with change and with training and coaching, and I mean, not to mention by being around like minded individuals as well, you can lean on them. Not everybody's gonna be in a very happy mood. You're gonna have rough dates, you're gonna have rough weeks. Hell, rough months. But by keeping yourself in positive environments and the people in training are there for a reason, you're then able to pull yourself out of it quicker. You're able to lean on your colleagues, you're able to lean on your coaches. You know, it's a season, and with seasons, seasons pass. And it's not the be all, end all.

Candida Silva [00:27:21]:

So training is probably the one skill that most don't put emphasis on. They don't think it says as important.

Manny Andrade [00:27:29]:

As it is because they think they know it all. They come out of Humber. Listen, I asked, I asked somebody yesterday, I said, look, I'll give you an analogy and I did some research into this. And if I'm a little off, I'll be off by 100. I'm still close to, I'm in the ballpark. A plumber needs a five year apprenticeship. You need a certain amount of theoretic and you need practical, right? So I think it's 8000 hours. It's a five year show, right? A plumber.

Manny Andrade [00:27:54]:

With all due respect to plumbers, okay, it's, it's, it's, it's big, it's intricate, it's, it's complex, it's complicated. You have commercial plumbing, residential plumbing. You have single family, you have multiplexed, you realtors, you have, you come out of Humber now and before Rhea College and in my days, I think it was just like a little stone. One of those like Moses in the Bible. We have residential Tenancies act. We have the Income Tax act, we have family law act. We have the condominium act. We have, help me, so many different acts, so many different complexities.

Manny Andrade [00:28:36]:

We have contract law, we have so much to do and we come out, you know, a lot, a lot feel that they know it all and then they're able to put together an offer and negotiate it and take it to closing successfully. With six months of school, the ongoing is most vital. And respectfully, Coco, I think up to year five, your mentor, I call them rookie until year ten and I think now that he's like year 15 or year 13 or whatever, he almost wishes that I call him rookie because he's no longer that young man that he was twelve years ago. But it's a lot. It's a lot, it's a lot of responsibilities. It's a big onus on us to know everything and it's impossible to know everything. But ironically, when agents come and they want training, when you offer training, they don't come and it's really, it's complicated. It's not as simple as our regulators portray.

Manny Andrade [00:29:42]:

It's not as simple as some of the brokers in terms of acquiring new business. Would you change anything right now, Coco, two and a half years in, would you change, what would you change to your whole, from day one, going to school, first three weeks, the last two and a half years, what would you change?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:30:01]:

I probably would have taken more time interviewing other brokerages and not just jump on the first one. That gave me like a good opportunity and the training. I agree that it's the biggest thing and it's the most attractive. That was for me, at least for what I was looking for, because you get your humber like schooling, but it doesn't teach you anything after you don't get to keep any of those notes, after you don't get to know genuinely how to speak to people or do too much once you're out. So I think that having the training and the education afterwards is huge and I would continue doing it. I don't want to stop learning because there's still so much to learn.

Manny Andrade [00:30:44]:

We won't let you. Candida, what advice would you, you know, or if you had to go and go through this process and again you wear the management's hat, what advice would you tell somebody so those, the 80% that are going to fail in the next year, what would you tell that.

Candida Silva [00:31:02]:

Training, listening and being coachable will get them ten steps ahead of the biggest, top producer that they can find?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:31:12]:

Yeah.

Candida Silva [00:31:15]:

With status, with awards, with reputation comes a little bit of ego. And sometimes that ego jades their openness to being coachable. And if they can remain coachable for the entire length of their career, they'll surpass even the most producing. Top produce. Yeah.

Manny Andrade [00:31:42]:

Their wildest expectations. It's, it's funny. It's right. It becomes an obstacle, you know, a little bit of ego. Listen, you sell the average house in Toronto and, you know, you're making a hefty listen. I'm not dismissing the amount of work and, and everything that. The responsibility and the liability, and there's so many, so many different things attached to. And I have a tremendous amount of respect.

Manny Andrade [00:32:06]:

I sold, I don't sell respectfully. I don't like selling. I lost that edge. I love what I do now and seeing young rock stars coming through now and becoming leaders like Victoria and others that we have in the brokerage. But there's a lot of responsibility and there's a lot associated with it, but also a fairly, you know, nobody's going to cry a river for us, coco, and say, like, I feel free because we make a fairly good living. And then with that comes a little bit of ego. And then there's the talking paradox where we have two ears in one mouth and we can listen twice as much as we speak, and we don't. We stop listening.

Manny Andrade [00:32:48]:

We stop listening, we stop learning, we stop growing. Which is a shame. Which is a shame. And I think there's a responsibility on professionals like you when you go forth. You have a responsibility to learn, to listen, to teach others. That will take your place down the road at some point and that are going to represent the consumers and the profession overall. It is a wonderful career. Parting.

Manny Andrade [00:33:15]:

I'm going to get your it. Candida, you want to go first? What is your it? And then Victoria, I'll give you 30 seconds to come up. One word answer. Noun, pronoun, adjective.

Candida Silva [00:33:26]:

Why?

Manny Andrade [00:33:28]:

So your it is? Yeah. Okay, that's deep. You want to. You want to explain? I get it.

Candida Silva [00:33:35]:

Without your. Without a y period, you have, you really have nothing to fight for, right?

Manny Andrade [00:33:42]:

Right. So you need a big y. Coco.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:33:45]:

Mine is hunger. I find that I have big goals, and if I wanted it to be more than one word, but I know your one word is what you're looking for. Mine originally would be to break the cycle, but it's hunger at the end of it. It's what I'm wanting. Different for myself and for my future.

Manny Andrade [00:34:06]:

Bumper sticker I o I o.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:34:09]:

Off to work I go.

Manny Andrade [00:34:11]:

Feel like a theme song. Are you afraid, Coco?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:34:16]:

Yes.

Manny Andrade [00:34:17]:

Of what?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:34:18]:

Always. Failure, mistakes everything. I think it's a scary business for sure. There's positives to it. Absolutely. But I think there's a lot of stakes on the table for these transactions that we're doing.

Manny Andrade [00:34:35]:

No, 100%. 100%. I mean, there's so much. There's a lot of risk. There's tremendous amount of reward and adrenaline associated with it. Do you guys watch Netflix? I was watching that recent addition to Netflix, toppers, rooftoppers or something, where these kids are climbing buildings and skyscrapers in Malaysia and Singapore, New York, and whatever, cross Niagara falls on a high wire. And there's this russian girl named Angela. I think she says, the best version of yourself, Coco, is on the other side of fear.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:35:11]:

Mm hmm.

Manny Andrade [00:35:11]:

So you break through it? You punch through fear and you do it.

Candida Silva [00:35:14]:

Yep.

Manny Andrade [00:35:15]:

And you just do it and just keep doing it.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:35:17]:

Well, it's like, today I was so scared to do this, and now I'm like, oh, this is fun.

Manny Andrade [00:35:22]:

To do what? To do this. To talk frankly about whatever. Listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But fear paralyzes us sometimes. And listen, I just. I want to say, look, outside of whatever, I thought today, today was. I think today was fun.

Manny Andrade [00:35:40]:

But I think you're young, business owner, business minded. You're respectful and respected by your peers and colleagues here at the office and staff. What do you say coming into the office versus working from home?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:35:59]:

So I tried both. I started with coming in here, there part time and doing stuff from home. And you cannot. I cannot, I should say, work from home. I have so many distractions. If I see, like, my cat walk by, I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna go, like, hang out over there. There's a new tv show on or something. Or I hear I'm in an apartment building, so sometimes I can hear my neighbors fighting, and I'll go out and listen.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:36:24]:

There's distractions everywhere. But in office, the distractions that you're getting are knowledgeable ones. Like, you're hearing other people talk about transactions. You're hearing other people talk about real estate in general. And I think putting yourself where you can uplift in a situation is way better than isolating yourself.

Manny Andrade [00:36:43]:

More is caught than taught. What does your broker of record say when you leave at 430 in the afternoon?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:36:50]:

That I'm a part timer.

Manny Andrade [00:36:52]:

Where the is. Where the fuck are you going?

Victoria Koekkoek [00:36:55]:

Where the fuck am I going? Sometimes I just want to go home, but no, then he'll bring me back and make sure that I'm leaving satisfied with what I did today.

Manny Andrade [00:37:04]:

Good. Candida, can you identify the it as on the management side, when somebody like a young Coco can you like, okay, I think she's got it.

Candida Silva [00:37:18]:

I think so. I think it comes down to how real they are. If you don't see somebody, and I'm going to use Coco as an example, if you don't see somebody break down, question why she's in it? What am I doing with my life? You know, they're not going to make it because they have this unrealistic expectation when they start questioning, am I meant for this? What am I doing? And you start seeing them fall and get back up. Fall and get back up. You know, they have it. You know that they're gonna get off the bike, they're gonna fall off the bike and they're gonna get right back on, and they're gonna keep doing it until they can ride that bike for kilometers on end. So I think being, you know, essentially a fail in their first couple of months.

Manny Andrade [00:38:11]:

Right.

Candida Silva [00:38:12]:

Exemplified that. They have it.

Manny Andrade [00:38:14]:

So it is true. No pain, no gain. If I have one word to add, and we got all the adjectives early on, all of the, you know, the fear, the courage, the drive, the people, the passion, the knowledge. And it's hard. It is hard. Would you disagree with that? This is a hard business.

Victoria Koekkoek [00:38:35]:

It's very hard. But it's very rewarding.

Manny Andrade [00:38:38]:

Very rewarding. Listen, and you get to meet people like yourself and working with Candida. There's a story about Candida, and I won't share today, but, like, I almost, almost lost her, and I'm forever grateful to be, to be working with people like her and Yukoc. I want to thank you guys for having fun with me on this today. I hope we make the airwaves because you guys are potty mouths and, you know, I can't control. I can't control all that. But I want to thank everybody for listening at home. If you enjoy, if you find it provocative, if you find it entertaining, amusing, or educational, please share it, like it, and follow us.

Manny Andrade [00:39:13]:

And until next time, peace.