The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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The Alimond Show
Matthew Whitmore - From Physical Therapy Aspirant to Real Estate Leader: Educational Outreach, Personal Passions, and Community Impact
Can a former aspiring physical therapist find his true calling in real estate? Join us in this inspiring episode as we explore the remarkable journey of Matthew James Whitmore, a dedicated real estate professional with Weikert Realtors, and the leader of the Capital Landings Team in Virginia. Matthew opens up about the transformative power of his mother's American dream and how it ignited his passion for real estate. Discover how his team is committed to making homeownership accessible through educational initiatives like their VHDA seminar for Spanish speakers, and the creative marketing strategies that set them apart in a competitive market.
Matthew's life isn't all about real estate. Listen as he shares his unique hobbies and interests that include Warhammer, martial arts, and military history. Hear how he maintains a balanced life by outsourcing tasks like voice acting and graphic design, and the joy he finds in spending quality time with his dog, Marlo. Matthew's volunteer work with organizations such as the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation and the American Suicide Prevention Organization highlights his dedication to giving back to the community. Learn about his career ambitions, including his goal of obtaining dual licenses and achieving financial freedom within the next decade.
Forming genuine relationships is at the heart of Matthew's real estate philosophy. He discusses the importance of building strong emotional connections with clients, sharing touching personal stories that illustrate the compassion and strength required in the industry. From being invited to clients' weddings and birthdays to supporting a cancer survivor who continued working during treatment, Matthew's experiences underscore the value of treating others with kindness and respect. Tune in for a heartfelt reflection on the golden rule in business and life, and be inspired by the powerful message of mutual respect and understanding that Matthew leaves with us.
My name is Matthew James Whitmore. I work for Weikert Realtors and last year I formed a team called the Capital Landings Team. We service the Virginia area, so basically from Winchester to Arlington you can find us, and south we do buyers, sellers, renters. We also like to hold seminars. We recently helped hold a VHDA seminar in our office. That was for Spanish speakers, exclusively Cool, and our goal is to just open the doors to homeownership. It's not that accessible in the United States. They don't teach classes on that in school, so we like to find ways to make it accessible.
Speaker 2:I love that. No, I especially love the educational part where you can, like spread that knowledge to others. That's great. Can you tell me a little bit of a backstory about yourself, how you got to this point and what made you dip your feet into real estate?
Speaker 1:Sure, and a lot of it does kind of tie back to my mom with why I want to be in real estate.
Speaker 1:One of her biggest accomplishments was being able to buy her first condo in America. She came over from Mexico when she was 16 and had to start from scratch and it was the American dream and I wanted to help other people get that American dream. And she grew up in Mexico and when she moved to the United States education was really important to her. So she spent a lot of time studying and learning English and then getting to college and then getting a bachelor's in business and a master's in business. So her whole life she's been in business and I think she's a role model for me. For me I've definitely bounced ideas off of her for business and practiced contract reading to her and had her critique me, which was really kind of great to see this other side of my sweet mom be kind of harsh and critique-ish and cold, but she's great. So she kind of influenced me. When I was in a transitionary period of my life during the pandemic Before real estate, I was on the path to be a physical therapist.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:I was doing internships and going to clinics and found that the work that I thought I loved because I had so much exposure to it being like a lifelong athlete and an out of PT realized the job wasn't exactly what I wanted. I was kind of freaking out because my whole life I'm like, oh, I'm going to be a physical therapist and learn about the body, get paid to help people to be perfect, and then the actual job wasn't what I wanted.
Speaker 2:But that's how you learn when you like, dip your feet into it and get into it. You will never know if you don't try.
Speaker 1:No exactly, and so I spent some time just sort of bouncing ideas off my friends people I respect my mom like mentors and real estate sort of kept coming around and I thankfully knew a couple of realtors at the time so I asked them about the job and how they like it and they gave me the good, the bad and the ugly and it was very alluring and I think a big part of it was I wanted a job where I could get paid more. If I work more hours, like if I spend more time researching and marketing and doing all the stuff, I can make more money, which was very appealing and sort of just dove head first and it's been awesome, awesome, I love that for you.
Speaker 2:That's great. Sometimes it's hard for people to try to Awesome. I love that for you. That's great. Sometimes it's hard for people to try to find what they want to do and it takes time, so that's a great thing that you were able to do that in. I don't want to say like diminishing, like such a short amount's test, which is like the next level. I'm putting that off for now because running a team is already a lot, but I'm very thankful, are you running? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm one of the heads. I'm one of the heads. I'm not the team leader.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but still, you help and that's it's good training. But I'm sure it's like whoa, I get this responsibility. Sometimes I feel like I'd be like, wait, I can't. Sometimes I need help. But okay, I got this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got this, so I have someone above me directly my team, someone right next to me in my team and someone that we just hired yeah uh, so I've been able to actually learn a lot by training her and it's been just awesome.
Speaker 1:It it's been fun. I mean I get paid to wear what I want and work with who I want, and it's weird hours, but I'm still helping people and her kids aren't around and she's got decades worth of stuff and she's just doing it all alone on top of taking care of all of her stuff, getting rid of that, which is, you know, emotional and tough. Her husband has dementia and is in assisted living so she's worried about him like taking falls and getting injured and she's just overwhelmed. So my team and I are all of like the same mindset where we try to help however we can. So we've been helping her have estate sales and like we've been clearing out boxes and just being a safe space for her to be overwhelmed, and she's come to tears a couple times, just not at us, but just over the whole situation yeah, yeah so it's been really gratifying to be able to help people like that.
Speaker 2:I'm sure, and she most definitely probably appreciates that it's not easy her situation. It sounds like and I'm sure she appreciates some caring and helping hands to be around her.
Speaker 1:And at the same time, I get to be creative. I'm a very creative guy. Part of what I loved about real estate was the marketing aspect just being able to be unique and break patterns and be creative. And so I've been able to market her estate sales and I've marketed different properties and different listings. And I just get to be on Canva and Capcom and social media. I'm on social media all the time, working as I'm researching, and it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure it shows you got a little smile, like, yeah, I love as I'm researching and it's, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm sure it just shows like you got a little smile, like, yeah, I love what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:I totally do love that.
Speaker 2:And on that note of social media, tell me what you're doing, what else you're doing to market yourself. Are you big on TikTok, instagram, facebook, what? What are the other medias that you like?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm glad you asked. That's kind of like the big three that I use TikTok, instagram and Facebook and what I'm trying to do is figure out who my target audiences are and create content for them. I recently did a seminar that talked about the different generations across, like the silent generation all the way to Gen Z and where they are proportion, proportions of home ownership and potential buyers. And millennials are the biggest potential buying market. So I've been making content to get them as buyers uh, stuff that millennials find funny, like David Attenborough voiceovers, like a nature documentary of a real estate agent yeah, that's clever and it's fun.
Speaker 1:And for sellers, it's mostly the baby boomer generation, like this woman I'm working with right now. She lives in a community that is full of people that are in similar situations. So our team is putting together a packet of like what you should do when you start to get ready for assisted living, then that life and you know it's another way to be creative but also help people. So it's less social media for them, but we're using apps like Canva, and mostly Canva, to create these kinds of booklets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think that is such a cool way to spread knowledge, especially using like the technologies that we have now that maybe others didn't have before and implementing it in a way where it can help that generation who maybe didn't have that, and it can still help them today.
Speaker 1:YouTube is another big one that I'm starting to try on starting to like get a channel and do stuff on there too, because that's another popular media platform, yeah, but it's ironic.
Speaker 1:So I've never been big at being into social media. Uh, I very much get wrapped up in the moment, like I love to go hiking, I love to go to concerts and do things. I've always keep my phone in my pocket, I just never remember to bring it out, and so it's been an active effort to make that change and to like start recording things live and start taking videos and making stories. But it's been fun, you know, slightly challenging because it's not inherently who I am but it's been fun.
Speaker 2:So do you edit them all and like film it Did you learn on the job? Did you go to school for that? Like, how do you have that history of editing and filming?
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's a good question. I took a real estate as soon as I started getting licensed and like thinking about it. I took a real estate marketing class that went in depth in different levels of marketing, from, you know, mailers to social media editing, so like a wide range of topics. That gave me a lot of good insights. And I mean I edit it all myself. I have a couple of people I outsource different things to, Like I've used I use a voice actor, Nice, and he's phenomenal. He's also my dungeon master Shout out Adam. He's fantastic and just a cool dude. And I've outsourced different jobs on like Fiverr to graphic designers for like logos and things. So I know I can't do everything, so I try to get people that know more than me and have them get that ball rolling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I do a lot on CapCut.
Speaker 2:Cool. Yeah, that's a nice app. I've used it before. It's pretty user-friendly.
Speaker 1:It is. It is pretty user-friendly.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that's a nice app. I've used it before. It's pretty user-friendly. It is it is pretty user-friendly. And who are you outside of real estate Like? What do you enjoy doing? How do you like to unwind and relax?
Speaker 1:It's a lot of different kinds of stuff. I Right now I'm doing a lot of Warhammer stuff and nerd kind of culture. It's basically it's a universe in which there's like 50-some books that describe war and a futuristic cyberpunk Earth and there's a game you can play on top of a table with miniatures. That is a military simulation so you'll have like snipers or shotgun troopers and move them across the table and turns rolling dice to see who kills how many.
Speaker 1:I'm a big so I'm also into martial arts and like history, military, uh, history in general. So it's a fun game where you can take like what normally used to be played 100 years ago with Revolutionary War characters, but now you have aliens and demons.
Speaker 2:Demons Love it.
Speaker 1:So that's relaxing. The demons and the aliens are very relaxing.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's going to be some people like perfect.
Speaker 1:But there's aspects of it where you paint the miniature so you have to put them all together and it's time consuming. But outside of that, I spend a lot of time with my dog. Her name is Marlo, she's turning 12. And I play hide and seek with her and she is just phenomenal. I love her so much and I volunteer with dogs. Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation is a great organization.
Speaker 2:How do you find time to do that? I guess you did say you have like weird hours, so you can find ways to like put it in here and there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no part of. Again, the reason I love real estate is I get to choose my hours and choose when I work. Unfortunately, I work mostly when people aren't working, so like after 5 pm on the weekdays and all holidays Saturday, sunday, like all weekends I've got open houses. I show houses when people are available, so on their free time is when I work. And the same goes with this Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation. They have events every weekend where you walk dogs at like Petco's and sometimes at cool places.
Speaker 1:We just did one at A La Grange Winery in Haymarket so we got to walk dogs outside and partnered with another event they had going on and it's just trying to get them exposure because you can foster them or adopt them. But I've been trying to break into the Monday through Friday volunteering aspect of that. You have to be a little more established with them. Yes, because, again, weekends are when I show houses, so it's tough to do all of that, but I love it. It's really fun. Good, and I volunteer with a couple of different places, like I do soup kitchens when I can and my whole brokerage. But my team particularly is working with American Suicide Prevention Organization and September 14th, juan Loudon's having a walk, you know, to raise money to end suicide.
Speaker 1:It's a topic that I feel like touches kind of everybody in some way, shape or form you either know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody, and you know, it's a blessing to be able to make this kind of time to volunteer and that's a big reason why my team works so well together. We all have the same kind of values and want to give back however we can, and we're excited to find new ways to volunteer.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. That is such a hard topic but it's very relatable and I'm glad that you and your whole team can find time to other ways not just with suicide prevention and awareness, but with animals and everything and find time to just give back to the community. I think that is really important. So I'm glad that you guys are all on the same page with that. That's really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our values line up and that's very important to all of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you're going to see each other most of the days and it's important to have like right. And then, where do you see yourself in five years?
Speaker 1:You can think, in the area still my family's, close by my family's, very important to me Working in Northern Virginia at higher and higher levels, maybe assistant broker I might have that accolade and those responsibilities too Cool, but definitely still in real estate, still helping people. Well, I'd like to be doing it in Maryland as well. Right now we have partners in different states, but I'd like to get dual license because I have a lot of family in that area and I have a lot of people that move into this area, are looking at Maryland and ask me about Maryland. I'm like I'd love to help you. I can't legally help you. I can answer general questions but, yeah, so probably just being more qualified, more licensed, but still working in this area. I do have a goal of retiring in 10 years.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow and by retiring I mean simply just being financially free, like having enough income coming in that where I can vacation when I want, where I want and live how I want and free up time to Well, do other big plans I've got.
Speaker 2:Cool. I kind of want to ask. But maybe do you want to share those big plans or you're not ready for that?
Speaker 1:yet I mean, if I speak into the universe, hopefully it puts more energy into it. Yeah, I would love to have a charity that simply puts food, medicine, clothes and essential needs onto the tables and into the homes of our most disenfranchised communities. In our immediate communities DC, virginia, maryland a lot of communities are still affected by the redlining policies that are now illegal. I'm not here with that. Yeah, Essentially, banks would draw red lines around neighborhoods and only give loans to certain communities, oh whoa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and housing, like I said, is the American dream and it's historically the number one way people would rise up to the socioeconomic classes. You would buy a property. If you were given a loan, then you would stay in that property and improve it and then sell it after a decade or two or three, or even hold it and give it to your families. And the way I see it is if I can retire and become financially free, I can have more time to just volunteer. And my biggest goal I would like to like have trucks that work with like Aldi and Panera Bread, and like buy bulk stuff Like Panera Bread throws away tons and tons of food at the end of the day, like when the shift goes.
Speaker 2:I think I've seen TikToks about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's sad and why, you know, I just have thoughts of like maybe being able to like buy up that bread and then just deliver it to houses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's still good. It's just like it's not one day fresh.
Speaker 1:Oh no, let's throw it away, I know exactly, and so it's something like that, and I have the dream of it being called Mana Supply, mana being like energy or fuel in video games, and it's also the initials of my siblings, matthew, alexander, nicholas and Ashley, so I feel like that would be kind of cool.
Speaker 2:That is such a lovely little goal. It's not little, but like I don't know, I call everything little.
Speaker 1:Sorry, but that is such a great goal. It's kind of part of the brand.
Speaker 2:I think that is so great and I think that it shows how much you want to give back to the community. Can I ask why that is so important to you or where that stems from?
Speaker 1:I think I'm this is going to be really corny, but I think I'm blessed with my life and I want to do everything I can to help other people with it. Not to the detriment of myself, because, of course, you have to be able to help people from a healthy position and a place of strength, but sometimes helping others can help us. I don't know, I've just always been. I've loved to volunteer, like when I was a little kid. In elementary school there were earthquakes that hit Haiti really, really hard, so I went door to door and said, hey this Sunday I'm going to pick up clothes to donate clothes and ended up getting like a dozen trash bags worth of clothes.
Speaker 1:I donated and I've you know it's just, it sounds like yeah, I think so, uh, but I've have great parents that have really like put in great virtues and values into me, so I've I've been very lucky in that way.
Speaker 2:Thanks for sharing that and thanks for opening up a little bit more, because you were just like I've got some big plans and I kind of was like being nosy.
Speaker 1:Well, it's also like I don't know Big they are big plans, but also I don't want to jinx anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, that's why I was like maybe I shouldn't ask, or let me ask permission. So I did ask, and speaking it into the universe doesn't hurt. So, yeah, cool. And then, um, if you could give anybody some tips from what you've learned so far, um, as far as real estate, what kind of insights or wisdom would you like to share?
Speaker 1:so I get a lot. I've seen a lot of people come and go in my brokerage and I tell them all the same thing, and this sometimes discourages people but also encourages people because it reinforces what they've heard. This is a long-term industry. This isn't a get-rich-quick kind of thing. If you're thinking of being in this job for a couple years or investing in real estate for just a couple years, you're thinking stocks. You're not thinking real estate. You should be thinking 10, 20 years. This is a career you're joining and it's hard. You work hours when people aren't working. So my I guess, biggest pieces of advice could be to find a mentor, find a coach and find a colleague. Find someone who is like your north star.
Speaker 1:aspire to be like them, uh, but in an obtainable way yeah someone who you want to emulate but doesn't give you direct daily advice. Someone who's like a deity of sorts oh my gosh, someone who's a coach, someone who holds your hand and walks you through processes, who's closer to your level, in that sort of way? And then find a colleague to like get drinks with after work and like shoot the shit and branch off together and bounce ideas off of.
Speaker 1:But, who's more on your speed, and finding those three kind of people are going to be really, really helpful for staying in the industry. There's so much turnover.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:People drop off so quickly because they don't have those kinds of people that have their back and help them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great tip there. I haven't heard that one yet. I've heard a lot of people when I asked them for tips. I haven't heard this one yet. So that's cool to have those three types of people in your circle to just help ground you and help you to just grow yourself and get more experience.
Speaker 1:I know you talk to a lot of realtors. Can I ask what? Maybe one of your favorite tips is One of my?
Speaker 2:favorite tips. I think, in general, it's just when people tell me that it's not about the sale, it's about retaining those relationships with people, and that it always comes back to you retaining those relationships with people and that it always comes back to you. It's not just about like okay, okay, we made it, so have a good life bye. Like they'll reach out to them, they'll send them little gifts like hey, this is your one year anniversary to your house. Like they don't there's, it wasn't just a sale to them. They're not like chasing the next person. They they're not chasing the next person, but they're still thinking about you even after that, and I think that's really nice.
Speaker 1:It is definitely a relationship you build. I don't want to say her name because we're still exclusive, but with my seller, she and our team, she's cried to us and when we're done with the transaction we're not going to be done with her. That's so true. It's definitely a relationship you form.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, for sure. And some people have told me, some realtors have told me, that they get invited to like the wedding. They get invited to birthday parties because of how close and how just genuine they were with them, they, they. The fact that the client felt so comfortable to have them over, like hey, meet my family. Like that's pretty huge to be invited like that. Like I'm your realtor, like what I was, that great.
Speaker 1:I know, I think that's awesome. We do more than just open doors. We do a lot to really help people. And I mean, if you look at like any kind of community event or charity event, there's usually a realtor or five behind it helping boost it up. Yes, absolutely, and it's not just for like self-serving purposes.
Speaker 1:Like most people I meet in this industry genuinely care about others, like there is an older realtor who's going through bone cancer treatment at the time and myself and another realtor like made like a gift basket of things that it would make her life easier and drop it off on her door. And you know we work in completely different areas and never run into each other, but we heard about this and try to help. I know my story isn't the only one. I know I'm not like the, it's not exclusive to me. I think that's the energy that most people that do well in this industry have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely. And while I have you here, I have to ask if there's anything maybe that I have not touched on that maybe you would like to share. Since I have you here, I want to make sure that we hit all those key points.
Speaker 1:I mean, how much time do you have? I mean, I could do another like 10 minutes. I'm going to get a sip of water yeah say, water at Sprite?
Speaker 1:no, there's a lot. There's a lot. I've been very blessed to have this career and have the people behind my back that I do. I am also very open about this. So I am a cancer survivor. I've recently had one year in remission, this past May oh wow, and that was just a crazy experience I can't even imagine. I mean because I kept working, I kept selling houses.
Speaker 2:Oh, during that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I tried to keep it under wraps too, because I didn't want to like scare my clients. Yeah, oh my god, um. But there came a point where I was like guys, this isn't just a new hairstyle, this is, this is a little more low and um. So I think it's important to like be transparent about those kinds of things because, again, it's something that like touches everybody, especially in the united states.
Speaker 2:There's so much cancer and it's kind of taboo because there's this aura of like, oh, you're sick yeah, I have to admit that sometimes I'm not like sick like that with cancer, but if like, for example, like maybe dulce will come in and she's like, I'm like whoa, I'm not trying to get sick, I have stuff to do, so I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:But yeah, sometimes I am like Well, I definitely had people that like avoided me, what? But that's crazy for cancer. Yeah, it's not contagious. Hello no not from what I've heard, what I? I'm not an expert on it, oh my.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, okay, yeah, wow, whoa, I'm sorry you had those experiences, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but again I think it's not. It's still. It hasn't been destigmatized yet, it's still stigmatized.
Speaker 2:Wow, I wasn't aware of that.
Speaker 1:Holy moly, I don't want to judge it or like earned like it's. Yeah, I mean sure you should wear sunscreen, but also like life just happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, things just happen, absolutely. Yeah, and sometimes it's genetic, like there's literally nothing you can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I think that's another big reason why I so I think volunteering is so important to me is because we don't know when we're going to go. So it's important to make peace with ourselves and try to help others, because you never know what people are going through Like. You never know what kind of struggles they have to endure. So I think it's important to always try to. I've got five virtues I live by. I try to live finding truth, being compassionate, being generous, being humble and living with love. And even when people are angry at you or like trying to preach their own values to you and they don't align with yours, be patient and try to. You know, see, maybe they're going through things that you can't see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, thank you for sharing that. That was very….
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, it's not easy. No, no, no, that's good and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:It's not easy, and thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that with us today.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been important for me because I'm a single guy, I try to date and I've got some major scars, so when it comes time for those kinds of things, it's like, hey, by the way, I'm cool, everything's good. But it's also been a good uh, source of strength to like be insecure and be like you know what. This is fine, this is my body. I've got these scars, this whatnot, and I'm okay to become okay with it. It was definitely a lot of therapy, it's been a journey, but it's been a good one yeah, no, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate that. Um, and then for my final question Definitely a lot of therapy. It's been a journey, but it's been a good one. Yeah, no, thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate that. And then for my final question is if you, could leave our audience with a message.
Speaker 1:What message would that be? It?
Speaker 2:can be in regards. I feel like I've been just dropping my message. Your wisdom, I know I'm sorry. A final message or maybe, if you feel like you've dropped like so much wisdom, do you want to bring it back to maybe something business related no, I mean at the core of it.
Speaker 1:Treat others the way you want to be treated. That's the best, the overall core of it in business and life. And just as you walk through the world, treat others with patience, because it'd be nice to be treated with patience.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's my final message. If I were to be like hit by a meteor right now. Those are my last words. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's a good one Can't go wrong with that ever. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate you taking the time to be here and sharing your story and your experiences with us.
Speaker 1:Thanks for inviting me. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.