133: Who Moved My Commission?

If you’ve been in real estate for more than five minutes, you’ve probably had that moment where you’re like… “Wait. Who moved my cheese?!” 🫠

In this episode, we’re breaking down the classic book Who Moved My Cheese and how it perfectly mirrors what we experience in this industry. shifting markets, changing buyer behavior, and the uncomfortable (but necessary) need to adapt.

We’ll talk about:
 🧠 The different mindsets agents have when things change
 📉 What happens when you cling to “how it used to be”
 🏃‍♀️ Why the agents who move quickly win
 💬 How to recognize when it’s time to pivot your strategy
 ✨ And what “finding new cheese” actually looks like in your business

Because the market is always going to shift. The question is… are you going to stand there frustrated, or are you going to move with it?

If things have felt different lately, this episode will help you reframe, refocus, and maybe even laugh a little while you figure out where your next opportunity is hiding.

Like what you heard? Make sure to follow and review the podcast, and shoot us a message with your thoughts at 

contractsandchaos@gmail.com

@YourHomeGirl_CLT 

@Real.Life.Brenna

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

And we are recording. Yes, I hit the button. We are.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

It's only taken us two and a half hours to get here. So if you're listening, just know that Brennan and I have been having a debrief. For the last literally two and a half hours, which is cool. If my Adderall's worn off and I seem like a space cadet, it's because we used all of it.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

We used two and a half hours. Anyways, we are doing a, I mean, I guess kind of a book report um on who moved my commission check, which is not obviously that's not the title of the book, but I'm sure you've all heard the title of the book. If you haven't, what rock are you living under? Because I think I've heard about this book how many times? A million?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Right? Like, and I don't think I mean my parents have talked about it forever, and they've had my father, especially various careers where this would apply. Um, but even my mom, who was a high school teacher, she's like, Oh, I read that. That's a really good book. I was like, why would you have read? But it's Who Moved My Cheese is the actual title by Dr. Spencer Johnson. Um, and this is I was just looking, I wonder, I don't know what year. I feel like this is 1980s.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I was gonna say, I think it's from the 80s. Um, it is a very short, a very short read. Um, simple story about change and basically like blaming outside circumstances for the puddle that you find yourself in, essentially, right? So in real estate world, like we're seeing multiple offers, our listings are flying off the table, or all of these things, and then suddenly crickets. We're doing seller updates once a week now, and we're on week 436, and there's no offers in sight. Buyers are only picking up new construction because it's a 4% interest rate with$15,000 in closing costs and a move-in package, and we'll give you a washer and dryer, right? So the world feels heavy, it feels messy, and it's somebody else's fault. But that's where this book kind of changes that, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So, yeah, and like you're right, we work in an industry where one news article, one today show, quick 30-second, oh, rates have dropped, or houses aren't worth this. Like, I can totally change what we do or how we do it. Um, so yeah, Who Moved Your Cheese? It's just a short, I mean, this is is it even a hundred pages? It's 94 pages. Like it is, it's little, but it's a short, simple story about change and four characters in a maze who are looking for the cheese. The cheese represents what you want in life, like what you're searching for, what your goals are, what you want to achieve. Um, and I think it's like it's a good little gut punch. I think and I think this is one that like maybe read it more than once. Maybe this is when the market shifts, or when you're trying to figure out what your new goals are, or when life hands you something unexpected, and you're like, oh my god, okay, what do I do? I think this is a good one to come back to. Um, so there's four characters um Sniff, who senses change early, Scurry, who takes action quickly, Hem, who resists change, and Haw, who eventually adapts.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I love the names of these. I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

It's like, oh yeah, that that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

That tracks because in the beginning, all of them find the cheese, right? They're all life is good, they're living their best life off of the cheese in the station C or whatever. And then suddenly the cheese is gone, right? The market's cold, or whatever the circumstance that you're comparing it to is, right? It's not easy anymore. And then what happens is they all kind of look at each other, right? And two of them do something about it, and two of them wait. So Sniff and Scurry are immediately on the hunt. They are looking for new cheese, right? So for me, I've always been really listing heavy, always, because for sale by owner is what I've prospected the last few years, because of the work that I've done with for sale by owners, I have been very buyer heavy, right? But in the middle between those times, there have been times where like, wow, like these listings aren't moving, right? So what do you do? Do you just like wait? Do you keep sending those seller updates? Are you still obviously prospecting for new listings? But if you're seeing that the power is shifting to the buyers, maybe you start, maybe you start prospecting buyers, maybe you start working on your your value proposition for those buyers because somebody moved the cheese and now you have to go where the cheese is at. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

You have to figure out or figure out how do I get to where the cheese is? Like I'm here in the maze, but the cheese is now on this route.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Like so, I think that that's a good example for people who uh fought or are fighting social media, right? Like they really wanted to still stick to that door knocking. And they're listening there are people that still build their business this way. But I think that if you ask people who have kind of embraced more of the social media or things like that, that they'll they'll tell you that their business did change for the better because they let go of things that they were just like holding on to for no reason that weren't working anymore, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Right. Yep. And that's kind of that's what Hem was. Hem complained, he blamed, refused to leave, like refused to change. If if you just completely refuse change, it reminds me of my hometown, actually. Like they've always been an industrial town, and the industry started leaving. And so people went, Oh my god, what are we doing? Like, oh, they didn't know what to do. Well, now they've kind of shifted focus on tourism. We have a beautiful lake, we have this downtown that's been revitalized, we have like an indoor water park, and so you need to you you have to adapt. Um, and that's a massive change, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

It's a massive change from industrial to tourism, that's right. That goes from the printed MLS book to social media, right? Like it's a massive 180. But because of that, like for your town, right? It's saving that town, it's allowing them back to life, right?

unknown 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

So I think like the thing to remember in this book is the core message is that change is inevitable. But if you adapt early, you can win. Yes. And and I think that's a lesson Sharon teaches a lot too. Like, you have to keep your eye on what's happening and you need to adapt with it. Like, kind of like Chat GPT or AI. As much as I'm not a huge fan because of what it does environmentally, if you're not using some level of AI in in your business, you're probably gonna fall behind right now because AI is the thing. And like, and I mean more than just like rewriting a nasty email to make you sound polite. I mean I the one thing I will use it for is like to pull info of like local news and events so I don't have to go dig for it. So I have a a GPT I built and it it pulls it for me whenever I want it to, and then I use that to know what's happening in the area. But like you can use it for so much, and I think that's I would say you've probably missed the social media train. I hate to say it unless you really dive in right now. But if you're not on the AI train at least a little bit, that's I think that's the new social media. So I think what's if we were equating this to real estate, what is the cheese in real estate? I think it was the low interest rates of COVID that we've seen change. Like now under 5% seems mind-blowing when we were seeing twos and threes.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Right, and along with that, I think that that goes with the seller's market too, right? Like that was you've got two sides of the coin there the low interest rates for the buyers and the hot sellers market with the listings, they kind of go hand in hand, but those were both big cheesy items with the multiple offers and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Right, and the investor buyers, like investors were hot in that market too, because if they didn't have a ton of cash, they could mortgage at a low rate that made it worth it.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Investors, if they're back in the cash game right now. Um, and it gave you like maybe if you had like a steady referral pipeline, that probably dried up a little bit because things changed. Um, or a specific lead source. I mean, Zillow is changing a lot right now. So if you were a Zillow agent, you may not be anymore. Yeah, or may not want to be anymore with what's going on. So though like that was those were the big changes. Um maybe it was your brokerage model changing. I mean, there's all sorts of, but that's how to me that would be the cheese in our industry, and it's moving in in our industry. I mean, it can move weekly, right? With especially if you're talking about like rates. Um, and I think it moves differently in different markets as well. So maybe some of the things we've mentioned here hasn't affected your market. Maybe it has, or maybe there's something we didn't mention.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

The idea is not that the cheese is one thing, che the cheese can be applied to whatever it is. Maybe it's a life circumstance, right? Like maybe you were a single person, right? Running your business, just taking care of yourself, and now you're married and have a baby. Right. Things change, like that's a big change.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

That cheese moved that's that cheese moved a lot, right? Or maybe it's you know, you've been in one market for forever, and life is lifing, and all of a sudden, maybe a spouse is being relocated, or you have to move home to take care of a parent because they're not able to move to where you are, and you have to learn a new market. That's a big piece of cheese, too. Like that's or maybe you're gonna juggle both markets and build a team or something when you've been a solo agent for forever. Yep. So if realtors were the four characters, this is this is how they would handle these things. So Sniff, and if we go back to the description in the book, Sniff senses change early. So Sniff is gonna be watching the market, they're gonna be in their MLS looking at everything every day, tracking those stats. Um, they will sense the slowdown coming before it hits, before it, before it's a headline. Um, you know, they'll they'll know what's happening. They're talking to the other agents, they're at the broker opens. Like I said, they're in the MLS looking at the data.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I think with SNF too, they'll feel it in the pipeline, right? Like so somebody who's constantly watching the market and tracking those things, they're not just working the deals that they're working right now. They can feel that slowdown coming by, because they track, looking at their pipeline, seeing, feeling and hearing the conversations that they're having and knowing that there's a there's a shift, right? That there's a change in those conversations and that maybe their pipeline is a little bit light.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Right. Yeah, and they'll and the other thing they will do is because they see this coming, they adjust their messaging early. So instead of sticking with you have to buy now before it's too late, they're already switching to here's how to win in a balanced market, here's how to be the top offer, or to get the most for your house when it feels like every other house is sitting, you know, for too long. They don't panic, they prepare. I think that's the biggest thing. Right? Sniff's a prepper. Sniff is like, I think the nuclear war is coming, so I built a bunker and I filled it.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

That's funny. Then there's I can see you like picturing four little mice. I know. I love them, I love the idea of little mice because like the the next one's scurry, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

So that's the prepared one as far as like they jump quickly, they make decisions quickly. So the rates are going up, you're creating rate buy down content. How you can still get a 5% interest rate on your house, right? Um, open houses aren't working anymore. So they're in their database, they're calling their sphere of influence, they're changing what maybe their lead source was originally, and now like that's not working. I'm doing the same thing and it's not working. It's time to pivot. Listings are sitting longer, so they're discussing pricing strategy, an eight-week listing strategy, right? Right from the get-go, here's what we're seeing. We're no longer seeing multiple offers in the first 30 days, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. So here is my eight-week plan to get us off the ground, right? The the thing about Scurry is, I mean, and I wish I was a little bit more because I do overthink a lot. They don't overthink, they just move, they make the decision, okay, this isn't working anymore, on to the next thing, and they implement it. That's the biggest thing. We can think about, oh yeah, I could do this. But if you're not moving, if you're not making the change, then nothing. Like, it makes no difference.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Right. Like when that day that Facebook went down, they weren't sitting there texting their friends or putting a post, hey, is anyone else's Facebook working? They were outdoor knocking. They've already, they're like, oh, social media's dead, on to the next. Like, I know, let's go back to old school. I'm gonna go knock some doors today to see if I can get a listing.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Then there's him, and him, the original description, is someone who resists change. And this is gonna sound so mean, but I picture him as like the 70-year-old realtor who's like, I don't have a Facebook, and I only work my sphere of influence, and I can't figure out why I don't have business anymore. And oh, I don't love the digital MLS. I still print a book out every day. I don't know if you can even do that.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That's a lot of paper. That's a lot of trees.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

A tree lady. Um, I'm not gonna ask you to go use Chat GPT, but can we at least get into a digital MLS? But they're the ones that's like this market is stupid, or buyers are ridiculous, sellers are delusional. I'll go back to how it was.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah. And they wake and they wait for it to happen, but then it it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Right, it doesn't. And those are the agents that I think we're seeing leaving the market. Those are the ones, you know, and again, I don't want to harp on Zillow. If you're getting Zillow leads, cool, run your business the way you want to. But they're the ones when the Zilla leads dry up, or their team lead got kicked out of that Zillow program and can't get into the new one, are jumping shipped to a new team to be like, Do you have Zillow leads? Do you know a team where I can get leads? Like, that's they're waiting for that. They're not going, okay, well, those paid leads dried up. I need to now create my own leads. I need to go network. I need to be, maybe it is door knocking if you're in a new market, or I need to be pushing social media ads. They're like, Well, I need to find a new team. That's that's their idea of pivoting, and it's like, that may not be what works. And then there's little Haw. Um Haw is they eventually adapt. They kind of resist it. Um, they resist, they complain, but eventually they come around. So if like maybe cold calling was their thing, they're gonna learn a new script, but they're not gonna give up cold calling. Um, they might try new lead source, so maybe they were cold calling and that's not working. So they're gonna switch eventually to okay, well, someone said I needed to try Facebook, so I downloaded a just sold template. Um eventually they'll be like, oh, someone said I have to do video. They're gonna so they'll and and no shade. Uh all my videos most of the time are cell phone unless I it's like it's for listing. But they might be that agent where you think it's like their grandparent, and it'd be like, Why are you holding the phone down here? Bring bring it up, right? But they will eventually get uncomfortable and grow, and that's the agent I feel like I get I get sometimes where they reach out, what microphone do you use? And I'm like, just pin it. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, get one. Um, and I think I'll be honest, most of us are haw at some point. I think we've all been ha at some point. Like I think the big one is like I'm ha right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Like, listen, I love a listing, so and I love my buyers too, but I gotta tell you, when I started working with a lot, it's a lot different it's completely different than listings, right? So I'm like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

It's a lot more time. You're driving, you're going to houses. Like it's it's different to be a buyer's agent.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, and it's managing expectations, but in a completely different way, right? So I you have to re-y have to learn a different way to speak to people for speaking to a buyer versus a seller. But having that flexibility is a can be a make it or break it situation in this business.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

So you have to be. I think one of the big haw moments was like the NAR settlement where people were like, okay, I like you were forced to change, and a lot of people did not want to. And some people I know haven't, and I'm just like, oh, you were looking for a lawsuit, but anyway, so those that's how I think it applies to realtors and describes who we are. So how do we, as realtors, take what we've learned and apply it? What are some tactical things we can do? I think number one, the most important is you've got to monitor your cheese.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Keep track of that cheese.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Right? You've got to be looking at your pipeline. You've got to know where your closings come from so you know where to lean into or where to pivot from. Maybe two years ago most of your business came from your sphere of influence, and now last year it wasn't. And you're like, okay, what where did it? You need to know where it's coming from. Um, or like if 60% of your business is coming from one source, that's kind of fragile because you well, you don't have all your eggs in one basket, you have most of them in one. So maybe we need to diversify. Like we need to switch to okay, we're not only looking for cheddar cheese, but we also need to learn to like Swiss cheese.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yep. You need to focus on your social media, but build up your email list, right? So if Facebook does crash, you still have a way to.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

And one of my goals is to meet more strain or get more strangers, people who don't know me, to figure out who I am. And so, yeah, while I'm still using social media, now I'm using like downloads to get email addresses so I can my email list will grow and things will change there.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yep. Because the idea is to expect like the second thing, right? To expect that change. Like know that the only thing for certain is that nothing is certain, right? Like be flexible, make and when I say pivot, like we were talking about the um from social media to building an email list, right? It's still kind of it's still a social platform, if you think about it. But it's not a 180, right? We're not like social media, like to the world, and now I'm gonna knock four doors down this dark street that I've never prospected before. What you when you shift, you don't have sometimes the shifts that you make do have to be drastic, but sometimes they don't. You just have to be willing to move even a little bit to find maybe your cheese didn't move across town, maybe your cheese moved just a little bit, but you just have to be willing to make that change. Maybe it's you know, picking up a new technology, maybe it's um compensation. Listen, when I first started, I was like, I'm not doing anything for less than XYZ because like you can't say anything about compensation anymore. But right, I had it in my head, like, no way. But there's something about a flexibility that says let them choose the representation that they're looking for, right? Right and that allows you to serve more people that maybe that person would work for you, work with you, but they can't do XYZ. But they would take your services minus five things at this price.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Exactly. And it could be like talking about compensation, it could be realizing, okay, well, if I'm I'm charging this, but my firm has changed things, maybe it's time to switch firms. Or maybe it's a well, my firm doesn't believe in letting us do this. So maybe it's okay, well, if they're not supporting, like I remember my first firm, they did not want me doing video. That broker was like, you can mail postcards, but I really don't think video is ever gonna be a thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

And that was not very many years ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

No, that was 2020, guys. And so I very quickly realized this is not where I need to be because they're not looking forward. So maybe that's something you have to change. Um, I think that brings us to number three is like you need to move before you're forced to. You don't want to wait until you have no closings in your pipeline, you don't want to wait until your savings are gone or your phone stops ringing. You've got to acknowledge this before that, or you really are gonna be SOL. Like I hate to say it. And I think we've all been there. I know when I was a baby agent, I didn't have the skill or the systems to be working a deal and prospecting. Like I couldn't find that balance for a while. So you got to where it's like, okay, this one closed, now I have to find the next one. But now that I'm more experienced, I'm like, okay, I know how to keep everything moving at once for the most part. Um so you have to adjust while you're still comfortable. And so, like, what do I mean by that? It's like build your database during your busy seasons. Like, I'm still, even though business is steady right now, I'm still putting out that Facebook ad that has the link to the download that gets people into my email. You know, I'm still posting other things, like What's going on in the community so that people are reaching out or saying, Hey, thanks for sharing this. I didn't know that was happening. Um I'm strength trying to strengthen my referral relationships, you know, reaching out, sending gifts, sending agent emails so that they know what's happening in my market so they think of me when they have a referral here. Um or I think one of the more most important ones is like learning the pricing strategy for what your current market is so that your listings don't sit. And so that you're not don't make the mistake I made recently, taking a listing you shouldn't have. Because if you I think what I think of here is like if the average or median days on market is 54, but your listings are selling in 32, that's something you can market with to be like, here's the average, but here's what I'm currently doing with mine, so that clients a lot of people don't have two or three months, they need their house sold, like it might be two or three months from list to close, but they don't have that list to under contract time. So you need like what can you do to stay ahead of that curve. And I think four is the most important one. It's fear, fear is normal. Like, I I relate this to just being an adult in general. I still feel like I'm a dumb 16-year-old who has a lot of questions, but I'm 40 and I almost 41.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

But what's funny what's funny is, and I know as we get older, we're like, oh, but I remember being that 16-year-old and being like terrified and also looking at the 35 or the 40-year-old and be like, wow, I can't wait to have my crap all together and just be an adult and make all these big decisions and do what I want with my money and like all of this stuff that is a lie.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Right. Or like as a baby agent, same thing. I was like, oh my god, they're so organized. Look how successful. I can't wait. Like, I had a threshold of what I thought was successful. Well, now I'm there and I'm like, I want more. And I'm I'm still fearful of not necessarily making a mistake, but not doing enough. I think that's my big fear is like I'm not I'm not doing all the things, I should be doing all the things. And so, and then I'd, you know, I'd hit that$8 million, that$14 million, whatever it is that you like you have in your brain. But I think like Haw, Haw would say, What would you do if you weren't afraid? And that's what you have to remember is just do it. Like, if you weren't afraid and you weren't hesitant, what would you do to keep your business going?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

I think that for people that would be something like video, just a posted video, or going live, or calling past clients that maybe they haven't kept a relationship up with, and they and I've shared this story before. I texted a past client for Thanksgiving and we've closed three deals since that. You know what I mean? Like, they're afraid to look stupid, they're afraid to look like they're afraid of what other people think. And here's the thing, you guys, people are so worried about themselves that they are not worried about the color that you used to put on your post that you put on Facebook about the neighborhood yard sale this week. There people are afraid of changing their commission structure. People are afraid of switching brokerages for what people might think of that. They're afraid to niche down. I think this is the big one. This is something that I'm I'm struggling with right now, to be honest. Nishing down to um market specifically to that person, right? Because they're afraid that, well, if I'm only speaking to first-time home buyers or I'm only speaking to relocation buyers or retirees or whatever your niche is, that that means that it excludes all of this other business that you'd want to work with. And you can't, you can't specialize in everything. A brain surgeon doesn't remove, you know, an appendix. That's not that's not his area of expertise. He makes very good, and I'm saying he figuratively, he or she makes very good.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Explain what Gray's anatomy tells you. Unless, like, literally the hospital, like half of it's been blown up. The brain surgeon is not jumping in on appendectomies for the bummer. They're just not.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

They're not. They are specialized in what they are specialized in. So stick to I think that that's a huge thing. Picking who you're marketing to, especially in like the shifting things, you need to dial it in. I feel like that's something that people get wrong a lot. That in these markets where things, business is harder to get, that they just like spread out. They make everything really like just trying to speak to everyone, you speak to no one. We've said that on the podcast before, too. Like, they are just like, okay, yeah, I'll work with the investor. Okay, yeah, I'll sell the$15,000 land law. Okay, yep, I'll help you move from Florida. And I have no idea how to do a virtual showing.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Like, right. Or like the I think the big one I'm seeing right now is, and I'm slightly guilty of it, but I think the Charlotte market, just because it's so geographically large, um, like I I picked up a referral in one area, but then when I met the clients, they're like, oh, we're actually 40 miles out further. And I was like, uh, oh, okay. Oops. But, you know, you live and you learn, or like I'm getting pushed into a market I didn't really want to be in, but my clients keep coming back and saying we want to move, okay, then I need to learn that market. But the biggest one I'm seeing right now is oh yeah, I'm licensed in North Carolina, I'll do the whole state. Excuse me. And like, well, I just I and I directly asked an agent the other day, I was like, Don't you feel like like you don't know? You don't know how do you represent well? And she's like, Well, that doesn't really matter. Like, I just call and get the information, it's all in the paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

And I was like, Here's a fun thing. And I think, was this last night? There was a referral post in a group that we are both a part of looking for an agent in an area that that I service, right? And listen, I got some shit going on right now. Not gonna lie. And I almost like I was I would most of the time I would comment on there and be like, hey, give me a call, right? Like I service that area. And I do, but guess what? I was like, Alyssa is a much better fit for this situation right now. So I tagged Alyssa and I was like, hey, Alyssa lives in that town because some of the agents that were on there, I know for a fact, are very, very, very far away from that town. And I do believe that there is a level of service that you cannot provide somebody if you're not like intimately familiar with that area. Because because in our and I'm sure it happens everywhere, but our market changes zip code to zip code, town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Even in the small town I live in, it's neighborhood to neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Much less an hour and 45 minutes from where you call home.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Right. Yeah. And and like the the one thing I'm facing right now is because I did join a new MLS, it's only 40 minutes away. It's 40 minutes, but it's a whole different world of how they operate. Whole like different I mean, we're still same, well, yeah, we're still same state, but the amounts I'm seeing for like due diligence significantly different. The timeline's different. Like it can be a completely and that's my big thing right now. I'm like, I'm seeing agents who just if you don't want to niche to a client, and you need to maybe niche to an area. But I think that's one of the things, like well, we do growth comes outside your comfort zone, it doesn't, it shouldn't come outside your knowledge zone, maybe, or unless you're like really sitting down to learn whatever that new growth is. Sure. Like, yes, I do believe in failing forward, but also be very careful because like if you live three hours from something, you don't know that market unless, like, I do know an agent, she lives here, her mom lives at the beach, she's at the beach all the time. That makes sense. She knows both markets. That totally that I get. I live 40 minutes, like I go to this outlet mall more than I go to the Charlotte outlet mall because it's you know slower pace. So I know that area. It it but like yeah. Anyway, so the bigger message for agents is the agents that survive the longest in this industry are not necessarily the loudest, and they're not probably the flashiest. They're the most adaptable. They are the people who pivot when the couch gets stuck in the chairs or in the stairs. They, you know, and I think it's Roth maybe not be the best example because he didn't pivot on other things very quickly, but that situation, like they are the ones that can change as real estate cycles because real estate is cyclical.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Yeah, I think that's what I was just gonna say is that that this there are ups and downs. You can track it back 10, 20, 30, 40 years, right? It is cyclical. So the maze will change again and again. The cheese will move, right? Yes, and you need to be able to run your business no matter where the cheese is at, right? And be flexible with that. Um, because I mean ultimately, like there are people, like you said, that aren't are no longer in this business, right? The cheese moved and they didn't move with it. So if your cheese moves, are you gonna are you gonna go? Are you gonna go find your cheese? Or are you gonna was it ham was it ham or haw that sat there and didn't do anything?

SPEAKER_00 31:53

I think it's haw. Hem does it eventually, ha doesn't don't sit there, don't wait for the cheese to come back.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

You're gonna get hungry. Um Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

It literally, not disfiguratively, literally, you're gonna be like, ooh, beans and rice. But I think I think that's your last point of the cheese will move, will you? I think that's the perfect place to end because it's like it's always gonna move. It's always gonna even outside of real estate, like it changes. So are you gonna move or are you gonna not have any cheese?

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yeah. And if you know a real estate agent, listen, we love to grow, and we are so grateful for everybody who continues to listen to this podcast. It makes me so happy to see our downloads and listens every week. But if you know an agent that needs a little reminder that they need to go find their cheese, share this. Yeah, like, like, like the rate it's like the part of the proper share. Yes. We do appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Even if it's just on our social media to help that algorithm to push it a little more. Like please, we would love it. But on that note, go find your cheese.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

We'll see you guys next week.