#48 - BSU Champion Athlete to Real Estate Mogul – The Grit Behind the Grind w/Elliot Hoyte

Dive into the inspiring life of a former athlete who transformed his passion for sports into a thriving real estate career in Boise, Idaho. This engaging podcast episode tells the story of resilience and determination, beginning in the quaint town of Tavistock, England, where our guest's journey commenced.

Discover how he navigated the steep learning curve of transitioning from American football to real estate, overcoming nine months without a sale through sheer grit and adaptability. Our guest opens up about his early struggles, driving for Uber just to make ends meet, and the powerful lessons learned along the way.

With a strong emphasis on community, he elevates local small businesses. As he elaborates on his transition into real estate entrepreneurship, hear how he melded effective marketing techniques with a commitment to client success, developing a brokerage that stands out in the competitive landscape of Idaho's real estate market.

Through personal anecdotes and expertise, this episode offers not just a story of professional growth, but a valuable reminder that success is not an isolated journey, it's one built on support, community, and the unwavering spirit to overcome challenges. Whether you are in sports, business, or simply seeking inspiration, this dialogue is sure to resonate, encouraging you to embrace life's hurdles as stepping stones to greater heights. Don’t forget to follow our guest and stay tuned for more enlightening conversations!

Follow Elliot via Instagram: @elliot_hoyte

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 5:20 The Unique Journey from England to America
• 16:50 Sports: From Soccer to American Football
• 29:10 Overcoming Challenges in College Sports
• 44:20 Transitioning into Real Estate
• 55:00 Combining Marketing with Sales in Real Estate
• 1:12:15 Adapting to Market Changes and Building a Team
• 1:25:30 Lessons Learned and Success Stories
• 1:38:00 Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

cool. Thanks for joining man. Thanks for having me. I know it's so funny. We got connected the other day through mutual friend and what's hilarious.

Speaker 2: 0:16

I've seen your videos all you're pushing everything here idaho, which I'm against.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Yeah, sorry, man, I get it. You know the wife the wife's in real estate as well, so I understand that give-take. You know we love this area so much but at the same time I want to keep it as special as it is. But I understand the business side of things and the hustle. But it's funny.

Speaker 1: 0:37

I've watched a lot of your stuff and you're always pushing out the new trends and what's happening in the Valley and everything out the new trends and what's happening in the Valley and everything. And you have a pretty interesting story as far as where you're born, how you got to the States and the success that you've built up to now. So yeah, man, I guess we could, just before we jump into it, make sure I got to send you home. I do something cool. It's kind of a little bit different here. I offer any veteran or law enforcement small businesses to send me products, app anything, just to be able to promote them for free. It's something that I want to do to give back to the community. So we got the War Machine or Platoon Cigars.

Speaker 2: 1:13

I know we just had cigars the other night, so I know you're a cigar guy.

Speaker 1: 1:16

So I'll make sure to send him some of those. He was a Marine, got out, became a cop in Chicago and got shot in the line of duty Crazy story. We're going to have him on and so I want to be able to help any of these guys as we can. C-state Coffee is a local coffee guy. He's a Marine, recon Marine, hilarious guy. I've had him on the show before. We're going to have him back on, so I'll make sure to send you home with some coffee grounds and some cold brews which what's the note to that? Borderline meth? Some cold brews which borderline meth? Yeah, I guess you're cooking. Don't drink them past like 8 in the morning or you're wired all night One of those.

Speaker 2: 1:49

I like a nice little 2 pm pick-me-up, so maybe that's not a good idea.

Speaker 1: 1:52

These will be until the next day. Okay, yeah, but it's great. Actually, the first coffee I've ever drank was his. I've put it off for my whole entire life, but I had him on the episode and he called me out and made me try it. It was actually pretty good. So, yeah, but you know, I want to give a shout out to these guys, just because they're awesome companies and they're veteran owned or law enforcement owned, so we try to send every guest home with something. We normally have a loaf of bread for you, but our oven literally just shit the bed a couple days ago and we ordered a new one. We have a bakery. Go figure, that's awesome. Right now I'm trying to get tight. It actually works out pretty good. Perfect, ed, perfect. So, dude, why don't we just jump into it? Man, give me a little bit of background on where you are and then we'll just hop right into your life story because it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Yeah, you want to talk about where I'm at right now or where I came from. What do you?

Speaker 2: 2:33

want, we'll start where you came from, but a little bio about yourself A little bio so I was told I need to be more intentional with it. Okay, I am the founder and strategic leader of THG Real Estate. We're real estate brokers that work both business to business and business to customer here in the Treasure Valley. Got it and my team help people buy and sell real estate and we also help you hate this, I know we also represent developers on the construction and sale of their stuff too.

Speaker 1: 3:01

Someone's got to do it, so at least someone can do it. I get it, man, I understand. So it's just it's a tough pill to swallow.

Speaker 2: 3:07

It is, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 3:12

So, especially if you watch how much growth is this going here in the Valley, which is great, I mean you want it, you don't want to be in a dying community or area, but at the same time it's bringing the numbers.

Speaker 2: 3:19

The way I look at it is it's going to happen Someone's? Going to do it, so you might as well have people that didn't respond so what we try and do is bring some responsibility to the process.

Speaker 1: 3:26

So yeah, yeah, yeah. So where are you from, man? Let's just get right into it.

Speaker 2: 3:30

Born and raised in a small town called Tavistock in England in the UK. So that's that's where I was born and raised in swartham called taverstock in england. Uh, both my parents still together grew up with my parents and my little sister. Um, it was a great childhood. Okay, um, it wasn't always easy, like we had what we needed but didn't always have what we wanted. Yeah, um, it was relatively unremarkable in a good way, in the best way really and I was an athlete growing up my whole life. So I played sports from my earliest memories, from like three or four years old, kicking a soccer ball around.

Speaker 1: 4:14

I was going to say you guys are born with soccer balls.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter whether you are 5'2 and 100 pounds and a grown-ass man, or if you are seven foot tall and 400 pounds. You know how to kick a soccer ball so I can still do it. It's been a long time. But yeah, grew up playing soccer and rugby and then didn't actually start playing football american football till I was like 16, so I was a late bloomer there oh, really that's how I got to america.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Yeah, I got to america. I played football at boise state. That's how I got to america. And yeah, I didn't actually play a proper american football. I was 16 years old. I had no clue what I was doing, but I was not much smaller at 17, 16, 17 than I am now.

Speaker 1: 4:46

You're a massive. You're a massive human being.

Speaker 2: 4:48

I was not much smaller when I was 16, 17.

Speaker 1: 4:50

I was going to say either the rugby or American football. I feel traditional football was not your destiny. No, they just.

Speaker 2: 4:56

I never had. I always had fouls called against me, never had fouls, which was like I'm not sure if this is for you, not because you're not an athlete, but you're just too big. So I stuck with rugby, and then football naturally found its way into my life, and that was an even better fit.

Speaker 1: 5:11

So what your childhood, growing up? I mean, what was? What's the area? Like you know, the city, town, you're growing up in.

Speaker 2: 5:18

So Tavistock, the town I grew up in, is about 20 minutes, probably like more, like 35, 40 now because there's been growth there too, north of the next biggest city called Plymouth, which is a bigger naval city. But Tavistock is this small what they call a stannery town, so it was built on mining Traditionally back in the day more working class and it's a nicer. It's not upper end by any means. It's a nicer area but it's really small 10 000 uh population. Yet the my, my kind of middle school slash high school was over 2000, so 20 of the population was students and, yeah, they got bussed in from all different areas around what was that like?

Speaker 1: 5:54

I mean so if you're busting a bunch of people and then that brings a bunch of different characters yeah, we had different.

Speaker 2: 5:58

We had farmers and then city people. We had a big mix. Okay, a big big mix um. So yeah, it was kind of I actually got exposed to a lot of I wouldn't say it was like diverse culture, but I did get exposed a lot of different backgrounds kind of early on, um, and I was one of like maybe three or four black kids in the entire school so I learned pretty quick.

Speaker 1: 6:14

I was different. I learned pretty quick, I was different for sure. Yeah, how was that? Like I mean, you go, you're the one of three or four black kids of the whole school. So I mean, is it dealing like how it? How shit is here, or is it just everybody's kind?

Speaker 2: 6:28

of I I didn't. I didn't actually realize I wasn't. I don't think I realized I was different until probably it was like my I think it was third or fourth grade in elementary school. Actually, that was the first time I kind of experienced racism, and I won't even call it racism, it's just kids making fun of me because I look different. Okay, I didn't actually, I'll be 100. Honestly, I don't really experience that kind of prejudice or that kind of. You know, people may be judging you for the way you look. Until I move to america, believe it or not. Really, that was the first time where I there was definitely situations they're hard to explain, if you've been through it, you know okay um, where people kind of a little bit more standoffish maybe, or if you know, you know, um, but I never let that affect me or bother me. I try and I use those opportunities where people are uncomfortable to make them feel comfortable and be like hey, you know what? Maybe you don't have much experience with minorities, but I promise you I'm no different to anyone else.

Speaker 1: 7:13

Yeah, exactly, and that's I mean, that's the best outlook to look at that kind of stuff. So you're growing up playing soccer, rugby, which is the most manly sport, I feel like, besides UFC, fighting and shit. I wish rugby was bigger here in the States. So you did that, and then you started to play football at 16. Yeah, yeah. Now, when you got a little taste of American football, what was your thoughts on that compared to, obviously, rugby?

Speaker 2: 7:39

Completely different. So rugby, you have to carry it. You're playing imagine playing football to a degree, that level of intensity, but at the pace of soccer. So it's just nonstop. So rugby was tough and I had to be a lot lighter to carry myself around playing rugby. When I got to playing football, I played at a much lower level, obviously, in England playing club. It was fun because it was like a little bit more of a slower pace of rugby but a little bit more violent in a way. It wasn't actually till I moved to america and I played, you know, for boise state. There's a huge jump going from playing club american football to playing for a top 10 team in the country. That was when my mind really got. But I was like hang on a second, this is serious like this, this is not a joke.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Like oh, my mind is, I'm just baffled by. So american football is only in club sports yeah, there's, it's not.

Speaker 2: 8:25

There's two schools that now do it since I left. One's really that white one is called the uh, the uh south gloucester college like, and college in england means high school normally. So south gloucester college have their own little team that then they travel around europe and other different places to play really. And then there's the nfl academy. Now the nfl now have own academy in the UK which has been added since I left, and that academy basically trains guys, kind of IMG is here in Florida to kind of get ready to go out to the US. But none of that existed when I was no kidding.

Speaker 2: 8:52

I didn't make it on my own.

Speaker 1: 8:53

So it is growing over there though.

Speaker 2: 8:55

Yeah, it's definitely growing Really Interesting. The world's more globalized than it ever was lot easier to consume, view and watch football now, yeah so, so yeah, it's growing for sure, for sure so how did that transition from club football bring you to the us?

Speaker 2: 9:12

yeah, it was it. Long story short. I'll try and well, I'll try and make a long. I'll give you the whole story. It's a pretty, it's a pretty cool story.

Speaker 2: 9:19

So I was 13 or 14 years old playing club rugby back home, um, and this uh, american rugby team high school team came over for a tour of my area so they played against tavistock, which is where I'm from, and a bunch of different other um clubs in the area, and my dad was one of my youth coaches at the time and my head coach was asked to like kind of like guest coach this american team that were coming to stay, um, and my dad was asked by my head coach at the time hey, do you want to come and help out? So my dad was like sure, and uh, this is the night he actually asked him this question. We were driving back on a bus from our own tour of like the rest of the country playing some kind of travel games, and my dad asked me hey, do you want to come along and like watch? You know this american team? And it's funny because I was. I wasn't sure I was tired because we got back super late and I was like I don't know if I want to get up early. Dad and I managed to wake up early enough. We came in, I think he came and woke me up. He's like come on, let's go. So I put on my shorts and went out and he kind of used me to demonstrate drills and I got to hang out with this american team for the two weeks they were there and there was this guy they had playing for them who was a really good rugby player. His name was chase and he was also a really good football player. He was from rocklin, um in in northern california um, that's where this team came from, and chase was being recruited by a bunch of uh like pac-12 schools for football and was also a really good rugby player and had a bunch of like different kind of smaller officers from those california rugby schools. And uh, chase being recruited by all these teams, um, and he actually tore his acl in one of the games in england.

Speaker 2: 10:41

Um, big dude he was. He played, he played fullback and then played center in rugby. His job was to carry the ball and run people over. He tore his ACL and that was kind of it. I didn't really hear from him for years.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Obviously, they went back and I started playing football at 16, and my dad got the ESPN package in the UK and we turned on the TV, like three or four years later I think it was five years later, four or five years later and I, he turns on the TV and it was a Boise state, we're paying. I think it was Oregon at the time and I saw chase really on TV. I was like, wait, hang on, that's the chase that I knew from rugby. So we made it. He made it. Every other Pat 12 school pulls off when he tore his ACL.

Speaker 2: 11:26

But because, hey, do you remember me? He said, yeah, I remember you. Um, what are you doing now? I said why, funny enough, I just started playing football. He said, okay, send your film out. I want to take a look at it. So sent my film out some of my highlights, um, he shared it with the coaches at boris state. And the next year they invited me out to camp in 2011, really the summer camp. Um, I'd already graduated high school. I was about to graduate high school, yeah, um, and they invited me out to summer camp and, uh, they offered me a scholarship on my second day of camp, just like that, and they were like do you want to? Is there not a scholarship? I was Coach Pete at the time and I was like, yeah, I've got nothing else to do for the next.

Speaker 1: 11:49

I was working at a grocery store at the time actually Wait, wait, wait so you send video to a high school kid that you met years prior yeah, that happened to play at Boise State. That happened to play at Boise State. He shows the coaches and they fly you out and then they give you a full ride scholarship.

Speaker 2: 12:05

Yeah, I spent two days here and I was raw. That's incredible I was just throwing guys around and they were like all right, we can probably figure out how to make this work.

Speaker 1: 12:12

We could do this yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:14

So you know that's a whole other story. Getting to the point where I actually was good enough to play no-transcript camp, I was. I just graduated high school. I was just getting ready to graduate high school. Um and england high school is a little bit different. When you do your last two years the workload is a lot less because you're working on kind of like pre-grad or pre-college courses. I was working at a grocery store full-time. I was literally stacking shelves for Tesco, which is a grocery store, and if I didn't get a scholarship I wasn't ready to go to university. Back home I had everything lined up. I would have been literally stacking groceries. That was my future if I didn't figure out.

Speaker 1: 12:57

That's insane, man. Yeah, that is insane and so, okay, so you get a full-ride scholarship offered to you. You go back home, tell the parents hey, boise wants me to play for him. What was it? How do you, how do your parents take this? You know?

Speaker 2: 13:12

my dad came. My dad just came out with me for that week and a bit that I was out here, so he's super proud he knew and my dad. Actually, I didn't tell you the full story because my dad actually did play college football. He's from england too. Okay, he played for the university of akron back in the 80s. Really, he played in the first year of the world league of american football, which was the first year of nfl europe, essentially so I did have some pedigree it was.

Speaker 2: 13:30

It was you know, 20 plus years before. How big's your dad? Uh, my dad's not as tall as me, my dad's only 6'3, but he's twice as white. I mean straight african genes, like, and I was like like he's old now but I still wouldn't fight him, still he's just like a grizzly bear. Like that's how my dad's built basically Okay, all right yeah. You wouldn't mess with him. You got to respect that. He's a little bit, you know, a little bit different. Hey, they were raised different back then.

Speaker 2: 14:02

Yeah, it was the stuff you can't the stuff if. But also kind of sad because, wait, my son I've had in the house for 18 years is going to get shipped off. But yeah, everyone was happy for me and there was actually a lot of people that said I couldn't do it, which was great because I've always been motivated. But people said I couldn't do stuff, so it was really nice to come and give them the middle finger and say fuck you I.

Speaker 2: 14:20

The offer I mean the next step was a lot more, but I got that offer that I was looking for, so yeah, good for you, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:25

So then then the work begins. Yeah, because now it just got real. I mean, you weren't training to go to college no, no, I was, and nothing, nothing prepares you.

Speaker 2: 14:34

So I actually I gray shirted, so I got the offer in. Um, it would have been july, june or july of 2011. I gray shirted, which means you don't you kind of sign or commit, but you don't come until the following kind of winter and then if you sat that, that would be a red shirt.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Yeah and I redshirted too. So so bear with me on this I, I, I. I graduated high school, um, and then gray-shirted, so I got my offer in like july. I committed within a couple of weeks for sure. I sat out that whole season because I didn't sign for that period. So 2011, I missed that season um. 2012 was when I actually officially signed. I came to campus january of 2012 and then I redshirted all of 2012 season. So I went almost three years without playing game football between the last one and the next one I played in. But yeah, I, I had to gray shirt and red shirt. I came out january of 2012 and was I wouldn't say I was in bad shape. I wasn't in football ready shape and that was a shock to the system.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Not only was I learning a new culture? I mean, don't get me wrong, we speak the same language by and large. The culture is different. I was learning a new culture. I was learning about football, like, truly about football. It was really tough. So, in that amount of time I mean, you weren't was did you stay over? Um, so did you come back? No, I I went. So I got the offer in july and I was in england from july until that january. Like, I came out to boise in january 2012. I watched, obviously, every single game of the season at home, yeah, but I came out in january 2012. Um, it was cold as hell, with nothing. It was just me on my own and what?

Speaker 1: 16:03

okay, so. So when you finally came here, what did your parents ship you off with? I?

Speaker 2: 16:07

mean how do you?

Speaker 1: 16:08

prepare a child to leave the country and I don't know.

Speaker 2: 16:10

I don't know if they were ready. I don't know if I was ready. They gave me I had two duffel bags at two black. I remember two black shut you know the helmet maker shut. Okay, these two bags I got, they were like gifts with some football equipment I bought years ago. So these two black, shut mesh bags and they gave me 600 bucks in a brown paper envelope and that was it. I had no bank account. I had a phone. I had my phone, I had my wallet and my id and my passport, some papers that said I was supposed to be there, allowed to be there, two bags of clothes and some little mementos. My grandma gave me like a blanket and some other stuff, uh, and 600 bucks in the brown envelope. That was literally at 18 years old. They said off you go really oh, that was it.

Speaker 2: 16:43

I was just no family, nothing, just yeah, at the time I was like I mean, I wasn't nervous at the time, I don't think I don't think I realized how deep of shit I was in until a couple weeks after I was. Oh no, this is it. Like I'm not going home. This is I'm here, like I'm committed now.

Speaker 1: 16:58

This is big boy league, so literally yeah so what you? I mean, how was the culture? Obviously, besides speaking, you know, same late, what was? What did you find to be the most culture shocking part of coming to the us?

Speaker 2: 17:10

there's a couple of things. I mean, how pg do I have to be?

Speaker 1: 17:14

don't have to work. Yeah, there's wow, chaos.

Speaker 2: 17:17

There's two things. First one um a couple humor. American humor is different to english or british humor I can make. I can self self deprecate, or I can make fun of you in England, having not known, not having not having that much background with you out here, you can't do that Like people people people get offended a lot more easily.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Even the toughest people get more friendly. That was kind of a tough one to kind of figure out. Um, the other one that was kind of positive in a way. School is a lot easier here. Really there's not a single class I took in college that was harder than the moderate classes I took in high school in my last years of high school. The schooling is a lot easier here. Culturally it's a different thing. I think a lot of people would say that they've been to other schools, for sure, other countries. That's why we homeschool. Yes, you teach them what they need to know right, Exactly exactly.

Speaker 2: 18:04

Obviously the football. That was the biggest cultural adjustment and just understanding how big college football was up here I kind of knew because I'd watched college football. But until you're actually immersed in the environments, understand that people live and breathe this. And still, boise is a big college town, but not compared to the SEC or any other places that I've kind of been to or played at or seen.

Speaker 1: 18:26

The last one was the women. That was Really how so? How do American women differ from across the pond, I guess?

Speaker 2: 18:31

It's too easy, man. It was too easy Really, it didn't make sense. I'm like wait what? Like in my head I'm like I'm a 5 out of 10 attractiveness and you think I'm like a 10? Like what? And it was the accent like right away, they were like oh. They were like oh, you sound different. And I'm like, okay, I guess that's exotic. Like not only am I not white, I sound different too.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Like yeah, it was shoot fish in a barrel. Oh yeah, it was, it was. It was a great time. Now, if american men go over, is it the opposite for them or they don't.

Speaker 2: 18:56

I'm america, I'm an american citizen. Now I'm both. I'm dual american and uk. So I feel like I can say this yeah, most of the rest of the world hate Americans. Oh for sure we're assholes dude English women are not infatuated. I don't think by American men. I think it takes someone very special to break that barrier.

Speaker 1: 19:12

I can see that I've been fortunate enough to travel all over the world. And it's where are you from? Canada, Right on the US border. Yeah, exactly, it's interesting. Interesting for sure. We're definitely not loved everywhere, and I could see why we're kind of assholes. But yeah, we're fucking America, right? Oh yeah, it is what it is.

Speaker 2: 19:33

You're the cousin that everyone has to give a pass to. So yeah, that's just America.

Speaker 1: 19:37

We're the drunk cousin or the uncle in every family function there's got to be a belligerent asshole. It's usually us.

Speaker 2: 19:42

Hey, you said it, man, I mean, I can say it too now. But you said it.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Hey, you're flying the flag, so you get all settled in. You come here with two duffel bags, 600 bucks in your pocket and you're learning Boise. So now you're learning college football, but I mean then again UK soccer. Those fans are some of the craziest.

Speaker 2: 20:04

It's a different type of fandom. A lot of it was to do with the monetary resources too. So the fandom for soccer in the UK and Europe and even South America to an extent, that level of fanatic is obviously that's where fan comes from is fanatic, that level of fanaticism is unrivaled. I mean don't get me wrong, you can get college stadiums allowed and whatnot, but the level like soccer in England for a lot of people that are, you know, regular jobs or working class, like soccer is they live for the weekend Like that soccer match is the biggest thing. That's their escape. So that's it. That's their escape. That's everything they put their week towards. So that's a different type.

Speaker 2: 20:38

What was the biggest shock culturally here was just the sheer financial backing that the schools have, like the amount of money and resources. Like boise state have better facilities than most premier league soccer um stadiums or facilities, for example. So that was one of the biggest things was like seeing just how much money was circulated and invested in what we were doing. And that was, you know, when I moved here. That was 13 years ago at this point. So that's tripled since then, you know. I went back to the facility a few weeks ago actually just to catch up with a few people and just the amount of resources they've had now since I've left is even crazier. So that's the biggest thing. Just this american society in general is very much, um, about capitalism, obviously, and making money and economy, and you couple that with sports, um, sports are kind of the epitome of that. So, yeah, it was just a new world of of money and resources I wasn't used to and wasn't expecting so where you're from, do you?

Speaker 1: 21:28

did they tailgate?

Speaker 2: 21:30

no, they, it's straight to the stadium they go to the pub, drink beer, fight, stab each other, sing some songs, literally, and then go to the stadium and then do it on the way home and then do it again on the way home, so was tailgating interesting yeah, yeah, tailgating was like. I mean I obviously read about it, seen it and seen videos and stuff. I mean this was before social media really blew up, so a lot of wide consume was on television.

Speaker 2: 21:51

But yeah, it was crazy. People would actually get to the stadium six, seven hours before the game, watch two or three football games and they're drinking beer in the parking lot at 10. Like it was just a different. I mean, you drink vodka at 2 am in England before you go to a soccer game, but it was just different seeing it Americans doing it in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 1: 22:07

And they go all out.

Speaker 2: 22:08

I mean, if you've never truly experienced real tailgating parties, and that's the thing I don't even know if I I mean I went. I was fortunate enough to go to a friend's wedding in Arkansas last year and it wasn't football season. But the SEC is even different, like their level of tailgate and their level of like. It's just a different level. So I don't even know if I've truly seen real tailgating yet.

Speaker 1: 22:32

Yeah, it's impressive, I you know. Are you familiar with modern day? The high school team.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:41

I mean, they're like top dog. When I was in Marine Corps I had to do the. We got asked to present the colors for the game there. So we show up super early and I'm from upstate New York, so Syracuse is that's home for us. And I remember going to tailgating parties and you'd see your teacher. Just, completely just shit-faced.

Speaker 2: 22:57

You know like oh, I got you, you can't I see your true colors.

Speaker 1: 23:01

So I grew up tailgating Syracuse and things like that. But then when I went to a modern day event, uh, when I was in the Marine Corps to do the colors, I mean those parents they had like a wagon wheel of of their own mobile kitchens in all in a circle.

Speaker 2: 23:16

This is high school, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 23:17

Yeah, so I mean, I'm talking a hundred thousand dollars like trailer, just for barbecue pits. That's a private school, though, right, isn't it? Yeah, they got that money. Oh, the alumni just funds every. Yeah, I mean, that school's on a whole other level, but I remember walking around like this is high and the players were your size.

Speaker 2: 23:32

Yeah, oh yeah, because it's private, you know they can recruit.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Yeah, they can grow them they can do whatever they need. And I remember like god, this is high school. There's a whole other level. I mean it's just, it's insane. So I can only imagine you coming here and go and walk it out and be like what?

Speaker 2: 23:44

No, it was. Yeah, we did, we started. It's just a different culture, man. It was just. I wish I'd been prepared but, nothing prepares you until you're actually in the environment.

Speaker 1: 23:52

So what you started training? Yeah, wow, how, how much was the intensity or the tempo going straight into a college program?

Speaker 2: 24:01

I remember, like the first workouts I did. So anyone that knows DeMarcus Lawrence DeMarcus Lawrence pays for Dallas Cowboys DeMarcus and I actually came in at the same time. He's a different class to me. He came in from junior college and I came in as a freshman. But I remember I went through workouts with DeMarcus and a bunch of other guys. They're kind of assimilating us that first couple of weeks before we got in and I I mean that was truly, believe it or not the first times I properly thrown up during a workout and it wasn't even that hard of a stuff.

Speaker 2: 24:25

When I look back at it, I just wasn't ready for it. It's crazy. I mean I've chatted to people about this before. I don't have any military experience myself per se, but I think there's some similarities and crossovers in the way that they trained us. It was very much psychological.

Speaker 2: 24:40

They did a lot of really fucked up shit to make you. I mean just to push you. They wanted to push you to your limit so that when it came to game day, which was like the battlefield for us, nothing fazed you because you were you. You've been through it, through it all and there's very few games I played in where I felt like I was pushed the same way I did during some of the training, which is like some of the conditioning, some stuff you did. I mean until you've literally laid the top of camel's back park, that big hill we have down there in Boise, and you're laid on your side and you're throwing up on yourself. You don't know what it's like to be pushed. Until you get to that point. That's a true story. Throwing up, throwing up. I almost shit my pants one time, like I mean, everyone's been through it, it's done it. Like, if you haven't pissed yourself, shit yourself, throwing up on yourself at some you have not done it enough.

Speaker 2: 25:20

It's a true story, facts, bro. Hey, there ain't no shame.

Speaker 1: 25:26

No, it's what it is, man, it's what it really is, and anybody that wants to knock it has never pushed themselves this far. I mean, I've pushed her where, we've walked out of the gym before and she pukes everywhere. I'm like welcome. Oh yeah, I see Especially working out with.

Speaker 2: 25:40

I was close, I had to do. I did like there was that guy. The other day we did that bike interval where it's 45 seconds on 50, sorry, 45 seconds off 15 on, then hit the lunges, then back and do that three times and yeah, I was starting to see the wizard at some point.

Speaker 1: 25:52

I thought I was going to meet him for a second.

Speaker 2: 25:54

Yeah, he'll bring the evil out of you real quick.

Speaker 1: 25:59

Yeah, training day that you could remember. I mean, I know you probably have a ton, but what's? There's gotta be one training session that stands out above them all.

Speaker 2: 26:12

So there's every. We would. It depended on the coaching staff. We did a coaching staff change halfway through my career but I remember that we'd normally have either a Tuesday and Thursday or like a Tuesday and Friday. Workout were the hardest ones in the off season and you used to get a pit in your stomach before you'd hit those. Um, and you kind of got used to after a while but still sucked. And I remember one one day I think it was a thursday, wednesday or thursday all right, we've got a special one for you tomorrow and we're like what do you mean? And then I meet me to meet in the. We need to meet in the uh, in the team meeting room at kind of the auditorium at x o'clock, wherever it was like 1400, whatever the hell it was, and we're going to have a special one. So we get there that next day. I kind of go to bed at night and I'm like I don't know what this is, but it doesn't it's pretty shitty on a normal week.

Speaker 2: 26:51

This isn't going to be good. This is in the summer. So we roll up, we get in and then they start filing in these guys that are missing arms and legs at the front shit. You know, I mean when I say that these guys were missing limbs and they were big as shit, they were tattooed and they were wearing military stuff and I'm like, oh, we're fucked. We are fucked and it was. It was a bunch of former um, it was a bunch of vets that were either like they were army rangers or, um, navy seals. Just all these these guys were just completely fucked in the head, absolutely nuts. And essentially what our coach said was hey, these guys are going to train you for the next two days and we're all looking at each other and I got teammates that are like from the hood, like from the hood I remember distinctly two guys turning around look at you.

Speaker 2: 27:32

I was going oh hell, no, and that's how I knew like we were fun. No-transcript. Come in hard as shit. Our coach basically hands us over, the strength coach hands us over and these guys basically tell us the rules of engagement for the next two days and they say all right, go down to the, go down to your locker room, get changed into your workout stuff and they take us out to our practice field and proceed to fuck us up royally for about three hours straight.

Speaker 2: 28:09

They have us doing like butterfly kicks and stuff. They're having us do stuff that maybe to military people doesn't sound that tough, but as an almost 300-pound football player, our bodies aren't used to moving the way they were trying to make us move. So we're doing like flutter kicks and all kinds of stuff and it was like if you stop doing what you're doing, like 105 guys are there right, if one of you fucks up, you have to start again, start over again. And we got guys almost fighting each other because, like someone's fucking up, we've got these massive dudes with missing limbs screaming in our face you piece of fucking shit. We're sat there like dude. I'm like I mean I wasn't going to really rethinking my life at this point. I'm like, should I just get up and fucking walk out, like should I just get?

Speaker 2: 28:43

I mean, I'm a senior, I mean I've already been through the whole shit like I've redone.

Speaker 2: 28:47

You're about ready I've redone four years like I'm. This is my, this is like my, this is my swan song. I'm like this is just before the season. I'm like, should I just fucking call it quits? I mean, that's not the mentality, but it crossed my mind for a second. So they got us laying down there and we're, and I tell you how I knew it was bad. So you've got these guys screaming in your face just telling you you know, you're the softest motherfuckers I've ever seen. And behind us are our strength coaches, now our strength coach, coach Pittman. At the time, coach Pitt was fucked up in his own way, like dude was he used to enjoy seeing pain.

Speaker 2: 29:18

I remember the very first workout he did with us my sophomore year when this coaching staff took over. Sophomore year, when this coaching staff took over, guys were running around throwing up and I mean, he was, he was trying to break us. Guys were running around just throwing up everywhere and I remember a dude was throwing up in front of me and he goes yeah, yeah, yeah, boys, crow's gotta eat too. But that's how fucked up the guy was. So coach pitt stood behind these guys that are training us. Coach pitt's a tough motherfucker. These guys are screaming at us. And I remember guys were like all messed up and coach pitt stood behind and he was kind of adjusting his cap, looking concerned. When he looks concerned, you know shit's about to get squirrely.

Speaker 1: 29:50

When the sadistic training coach looks squirrely.

Speaker 2: 29:53

When the devil himself is scared. You know you've met. I thought I might have met Jesus at some point that night.

Speaker 2: 30:00

Then we start doing these log carries. Now there's probably people watching that know what that is. I don't know what the hell this thing was. I'm six foot five so I'm one of the taller guys. I got dang shane williams roads behind me, or whoever it was. It's like five foot six or five foot seven and he's just holding on to the top of this log and I'm pushing up and down and so not only are you holding the log, you're holding the little guy and I'm pushing him yeah, hanging him up and down, and then we'd do the tosses and the carries and you'd beat guys and if you lose you had to start again.

Speaker 2: 30:27

And I remember parts of it, but not a lot, because it was that messed up. It was that traumatic. I remember going and chugging four Gatorades after this pissing brown that night and I'm like man. And then we have tomorrow as well. No-transcript. Wake up, we're good. But I woke up, unfortunately, um and we get in the next day. We get down to facilities the next day and they're all right, boys, grab your swimmers, swimmers, what?

Speaker 1: 31:00

do you mean?

Speaker 2: 31:00

swimmers. So we don't really have swimmers. So we had to wear our compression shorts. So we put on our compression shorts and we had to meet at the swimming pool at the wreck, and I mean.

Speaker 1: 31:09

Navy SEALs. The water's a different world.

Speaker 2: 31:10

And we're not built like. This build is not meant for the pool or any of that stuff. And you've got guys that can barely even swim. I've got teammates that haven't seen. The only body of water they've seen is like like I mean, I even know, maybe lucky peak on a boat at some point, not to swim in, at least especially you get some dude from the hood.

Speaker 2: 31:26

Yeah, oh you guys were heard like you know, like we okay that I'm gonna go on record like here's what it is. We talked a little bit about the race thing. It's not a myth. It's two things most black people were not the best swimmers, most of us and we don't float, we sink, so that's not the best recipe.

Speaker 2: 31:43

So I'm in the pool and they got us doing this fucked up stuff we're wearing, we do the swimmers and we do this like like the aquatic workout. We're running and jumping and like half drowning, getting in and out doing push-ups, like guys are exhausted. And then the finisher was I think you know what this is you. We were wearing like sweats, like full sweatsuit, like well, I kind of what I'm wearing now, where it's like take them off in the pool and wade the water for 10 minutes, tie it and like blow it up, make a float. And I got a bald ass head too, so that shit sticks to your head when you try and pull it off. I almost drowned in a swimming pool, like I almost I thought of all the shit I went through playing college football.

Speaker 1: 32:14

I didn't think.

Speaker 2: 32:14

I was going to drown in a swimming pool. Anyway, we made it through and I can wholeheartedly say that was the worst experience I've had in all my football training and it was the last one. More towards the end, I would not wish the military upon anyone. If that's normal, if that's what you're supposed to do as a Navy SEAL or whatever the hell it is, I want no part of that.

Speaker 1: 32:35

They can have that title, if we have a draft and we have to go to war. Don't rely on me, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 32:42

I'm no good. I'm no good, I can barely swim. Yeah, I'm good man.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Oh God, that is absolutely hilarious.

Speaker 2: 32:52

That was the worst experience of my conditioning life.

Speaker 1: 32:54

I know every athlete's got one. That's a good one. We weren't ready for it, no you can't be ready for that.

Speaker 2: 33:00

It's probably somewhat not normal, but you get used to that stuff right, especially in the military. There's certain stuff you train for your suck level. You get used to it. You build up that resistance. It's like callous.

Speaker 2: 33:10

You build up the same way that you know I could, I could, you know squat 600 plus pounds and bench 400 plus yeah, you get those guys on it because we were used to doing that, yeah, but, but doing that type of aquatic workout like swimming, like you got to build up for that, so to be dropped into that level of intensity right away, man, that was a shock. So, yeah, to answer your question in a long-ass story, that was my worst experience. That was holy shit bro.

Speaker 1: 33:27

That was absolutely hilarious. Yeah, I was. I was fucked. Oh my god, it's so funny about the swimming thing too, like when I I'm from upstate new york, so I had like two black kids in my our whole school you know I'm on the canadian border, in a village like just probably not not the best place you know and I get to boot camp and we get to our aquatic week where you're swimming, and I'll never forget we had this little black drill instructor.

Speaker 1: 33:52

This guy was tiny and he had the biggest chiclet teeth you've ever seen. This dude fucking hated me, but I'll never forget. He comes walking out and he gives this speech like because they call them dark marines, you know a black marina, dark marine. He's like he's and I'll never forget him explaining. He's like all right, I don't need y'all lying to me. He's like I know a lot of you dark marines. We can't swim and I'm like you're dead. I'm like looking around, what the fuck's this guy talking about? Like what, you can't swim, like what? I don't even know what a dark marine was at the time.

Speaker 2: 34:23

I didn't know that until you told me.

Speaker 1: 34:25

Yeah, and I'm just like what is this guy talking about? He's like so we need you to be honest, like I know some of y'all from the hood and y'all can't swim. He's like I'm not saving you tomorrow and I'm like what is he talking about? And we get to the time. My rack mate he's one of my best friends to this day. He's from Orlando, florida, and I'm like black people can't swim.

Speaker 1: 34:49

He's like yeah, dude, it's a thing and I'm like I had no idea and I made a comment on a post not too long ago and this one guy he was like you know, stereotypes exist. It was a black dude making fun of all these black people jumping in a pool and dude I made it I got roasted for. I was like I had no idea this is a thing till I joined the marine corps. Yeah, oh my god, I got called every name in the book.

Speaker 2: 35:08

I'm like I was just making a comment, but it was hilarious that you know, and it's just, it's a thing like it's I mean I, for the record, I can swim. I'm not the best swimmer because of life skill? Yeah, I had teammates that, yeah, they were just stones in the water just oh yeah, I mean, I've seen a lot of white dudes do it too.

Speaker 1: 35:22

They're drowning, they're saving their asses oh my god, bro, that's hilarious.

Speaker 1: 35:26

So okay, let's backtrack a little bit. Your first day, yeah, your first game, I should say what's what's it feel like. You know, I grew up an athlete. I could have gone the college route, but the war broke out and that was my out instead of taking that football route. I've played with some pretty big games and you know, I got to go to a championship. We made it to the playoffs our my senior year, but anyways, I had a game-winning touchdown, one in when I was a junior. So I mean, I've got to experience some of that. What does it feel like walking out of the tunnel for your very first suited-up day playing at that college stadium?

Speaker 2: 36:10

The thing was, as a freshman at least, boise State have always been good, so we were deep. I mean you had at least two deep guys that would rotate at any given time on the defensive line. I played defensive line. You have your three and four and even fifth, sometimes with kind of of your scout team. So if you were further down which I was starting out you didn't know when your first game was going to be. Okay, um, my red shirt year, though, that I red shirted guys for the first half of the season. At least they dress you, you go through warm-ups even even though you weren't playing, because they kind of want you to get used to that okay, the environment?

Speaker 2: 36:39

yeah, absolutely. So. I remember, like the first game it would have been I can't, it was a day game. I can't remember exactly who it was. Then that was the first game I was.

Speaker 2: 36:47

I was, at least, like you know, in the in the suit, for not my first game playing. I can tell you that story in a minute. But I remember kind of going out there doing the warmups and stuff and the stadium was starting to get full, but not a whole lot of people in there and you kind of a cool environment. It wasn't you know healing yet. And then I remember coming back out again, now you got your helmet and your shoulder pads on and then the stadium starting to get full. Now you're going through actual contact and I was like oh shit. And and for the record, I'd never seen a college football game, never, I'd never, ever seen one in person, I'd never been part of that environment. And all of a sudden I'm in this environment, suited up, and even though I knew I wasn't gonna play that game, I'm still in it. I'm like, oh shit, so it was, yeah, it was, it was.

Speaker 2: 37:27

I don't remember it that well Cause. Again, I won't say it's trauma, it's not, it's just one of those pointy moments where you're like shit, like you just kind of take it, boise, stay Kind of coming up the tunnel. I remember I was towards the back of the tunnel because you're a freshman, they're not really trying to, you know, they're not trying to push you all the way to the front. And I remember you have the smoke come up and everyone's chanting it. So Seven Nation Army is a song that we always come out the tunnel to and we have for the last, I think, like 15 or so years, and all the guys start chanting that we'll stop humming it. And I remember faraji, right, faraji's from oakland. I remember faraji's at the front and I hear him say it doesn't go quiet, but I hear it loud enough. We get ready to run. He goes this ain't a movie dog. I remember that I was like it really wasn't like a movie it was real life.

Speaker 2: 38:13

Real life we ran out and I was like, oh shit, this is crazy, that's gotta be such an incredible feeling it was awesome.

Speaker 2: 38:19

That was incredible. It was incredible. And then fast forward to the next year, my redshirt, freshman. Years after I redshirted, you didn't really know when your first game was going to be, because I was in the reserves, I wasn't really part of the rotation, but you knew the basic kind of playbook and I remember we were playing Tennessee Martin, so they're like a division, one FCS team. I think we're blowing them up like 50 points and my number got called like halfway through the fourth quarter and I was like, oh shit. I remember running out there. I was kind of ready, I was like all right.

Speaker 1: 38:47

I'm up.

Speaker 2: 38:47

I remember running out there, getting to my position, turning back and looking to the sideline because you get your signals for the play call from the sideline and even though we were blowing them out, the crowd was still there and it starts getting loud and I remember turning oh shit, this is real, like I'm actually here now. All the practice in the world doesn't pay for the first game.

Speaker 2: 39:07

I remember my first ever play was a quick shared in the tackle. So I think I'll be honest, like from that point on I was just not scared. But that first play I was so scared.

Speaker 1: 39:27

I was just like, ah, just brute strength.

Speaker 2: 39:28

You know when you stand on a field in those stadium they're so steep, yeah, and it's on top of you almost, and the crowd and the noise. I mean there's nothing that can prepare you for that and there's nothing. There's nothing since, too, there's nothing prepares you for it. There's nothing like it. And I've achieved some, some, I, I think, cool things, business-wise and other stuff outside of a bit of business, in my personal life too, even. But as far as that feeling, there is no feeling like it. You, that's something you have to come to terms with as an athlete. Once that last, you know, once that day comes, is you're never going to be able to get that feeling again.

Speaker 1: 39:50

You'll find it in other ways, you know, in a way, and you'll try and find a substitute, but that's a very special feeling, like if you've been through this, you know there's a frater of guys get out and then they chase that and then they spend a lifetime chasing it and get you in trouble and lead you down some dark, dark areas. Because it's, it's hard, you know especially you go from such a high in those situations and it's like a senior, your senior game game.

Speaker 2: 40:25

You know you're the last game. It's like I remember that we played. Uh, it was my senior year, it would have been 2016. Uh, we played against um baylor in the cactus ball, okay, down in arizona. So we played at chase. Chase field is where the diamondbacks place. They transform the field into the football field for that bowl game. Um, and I remember I, I there was. There was a couple moments where it kind of hit me, I think before I'd left, because I knew if that was my first time packing my bags and ready to go down there for the week, it kind of hit me, but it didn't actually hit me. So after the game, it literally didn't hit me until that final whistle. Um, I remember just breaking down, just going back to the locker room and just breaking down. It wasn't because we'd lost, we'd lost, we lost like three touchdowns.

Speaker 2: 40:57

It wasn't because we lost, it's because that was the end of my life as I knew it it wasn't the end of my life like forever, but it was the end of my identity, of what, everything I'd worked towards, the last my I mean really my whole life, my whole sporting career, to get to that point I knew that I didn't want to play football past that point, which is kind of a weird dichotomy, because you love it but you don't want to make it your career. I knew that that was me in the last game and I remember I was just. You realize, you're free, so to speak, and I had the last five plus years I had someone telling me what to do, where and when, what to wear and when to shop. So there's a little level of uh, you know liberty that you find for sure, and also a level of sadness because everything that your identity was that period of time is just stripped from you in an instant well, and it's not like you're just closing a chapter and fading it out and starting a new one.

Speaker 1: 41:40

I mean it's gone. Yeah, they blow the whistles. That chapter's done. You go back to school the next day, or you know when you get back.

Speaker 2: 41:47

I went to work, dude, I went to have. I had a week off, uh, so I I'd already graduated um a few weeks before playing that game and then, um, got home, had my wisdom teeth taken out.

Speaker 2: 41:59

Um, because I delayed, it actually got me affected during the season, but I didn't want to take have the surgery because it would have taken me out for a week or two. Had my wisdom teeth out, took a week off and then I went straight to work. Man, I didn't. I knew that if I allowed myself to kind of have that downtime and a lot of guys do do it that would have been good for me. I had to go straight to purpose. I had to go straight to work and find a new, new identity, which was what, how did how did you? So? I, I, uh, I. Actually they were stupid enough to give me a job.

Speaker 2: 42:23

The local dealership shout out to Lyle Pearson. They sell Mercedes, porsche, ineos, volvo, acura, land Rover and Jaguar. I got a job at the local dealership, really. So, yeah, I actually had lined up before I graduated. So I sold Porsche and Mercedes for their brands for two years out of college and I went straight to work because I knew that I needed to get something rolling. Um, I got the job in part, uh, cause I love cars. The cars are my passion. Outside of um, you know work and football or whatever it was. Um. So yeah, I went straight to work and I, I, I got into sales right away. I knew that was my, my thing.

Speaker 1: 42:57

So do you see a lot of guys get in trouble during that period, like in their finding themselves stage yeah, yeah, unfortunately you do.

Speaker 2: 43:04

um, some guys, we guys, even during football we had one guy in particular, um, who had actually gone out of the hood, was kind of I had been gang affiliated or involved, I think before went back during football. Um, he's quit, um, he quit and went back to the hood and he's he's alive, or was alive and got shot. He's been arrested several times since, seen plenty of guys get arrested in between. Unfortunately, I did lose one teammate after football. I think he really struggled in between and he had some mental health stuff going on and that was, I think, part of his struggle, trying to find his identity and he died, got in an incident with some police and died at like 22, 23 years old, I think at the time. So, yeah, a lot of guys, they struggle because it's their entire identity and they just don't know how to assimilate Like. I know it sounds crazy. I would never want to compare it to the military, because what you guys have done is, I mean, it's life and death, but identity is similar.

Speaker 1: 43:57

I mean I get what you're saying, it's apples and oranges military, but I mean you have to take the human mind, though that should have been your world. And the same thing with the military. It's your world. You're woken up, marched to chow, told when to eat, told to shave shit, everything, and then all of a sudden, one day you're out and you're gone.

Speaker 2: 44:15

It's taken from you and that's, yeah, it's tough. And I think the thing is you have those shared experiences when you play football, tra those shared experiences when you, when you play football, trauma bonded yeah, it's trauma bonded. It's that locker room stuff, like you can't the things you talk about in the locker room, you can't talk about in the workplace because you get fired, like I know it sounds crazy. I'm not promoting necessarily what is spoken about there but it's just.

Speaker 2: 44:34

It's just. That's that camaraderie you have and if you've been through it, you know what I'm talking about. And a lot of guys they struggle to assimilate to what is expected from them for people that don't understand where they came from.

Speaker 1: 44:53

I'm surprised schools haven't started to I mean maybe they do is implementing, especially for athletes. I get a normal college kid that's you're going, and they're usually setting themselves up beforehand. I feel a lot of these athletes they don't, they're not really thinking too much that because they're, I mean their next, their next level is hopefully pro, yeah, yeah. And if that doesn't happen, I mean they, they.

Speaker 2: 45:13

I'm sure there's so many guys that are just left yeah, they never kind of reach their full potential outside of football because they don't necessarily know what their other passions are, because that's what they focus on. Yeah, and I know it's even different now with the whole nil stuff where guys are getting paid. I would actually hazard that it's probably gonna get even worse. Some guys, because if you're not one of those top guys where you're making some money, um, you're gonna get kicked around a lot because coaching staff, especially the division one, those top tier, top 25 they need people that can produce. So I think you probably lose your identity even more there.

Speaker 2: 45:42

So, yeah, I I I hope that different, every different school has it. Every school has a different way of dealing with it and I hope that they continue to make that kind of a thing because, at the end of the day, you're dealing with human beings. Yes, it's a job, especially now it really is a job, and when I played, yes, I wasn't being paid, but it was a job, it was a full-time job you have to have. I think they need to have things in place to help guys kind of assimilate, because there's some brilliant human beings that have other skill sets, that played football and played sports, that never get to contribute the same way they could, because then they're never empowered to understand that you're not, you're bigger than just that. You know you have other skill sets, um, so there's a lot of people I think they never actually get to reach their full potential because they think football was the it's not well, that's been your program from pop warner.

Speaker 1: 46:23

I mean, especially if you're here in the states, yeah, well, you, it's the thing.

Speaker 2: 46:26

You're gassed up. You hold like so I play rugby, obviously from the age like four. So that was my pop warner, essentially. So I've seen it on the others, on the on, you know, in in the uk and I've also heard it from my own teammates that played, you know, pop warner. Here you get these guys or these kids are superstars as kids and they get gassed up their whole lives how great they are. Yeah, you're going to be the next, so and so you're going to be the next painting man and you're going to be the next uh von miller, the next aaron donald, whatever it is, and that messes your psyche because you, you put your worth behind what you're told you're going to be and what your you know the outcome could be at the end of the day. We know, especially as adults, you go through these ups and downs in life and it doesn't quite go the way it's going to go. It can be tough to make that realization, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1: 47:10

Which is crazy, you know. You think how much technology and how much science that they're putting into studying these kids on all the different levels. You think that would be something that's like, hey, we need to start building for their end point, you know. But it's the same with the military. It's like, did you do eight, four, eight, twelve, twenty years? And then you're like, hey, I want to get out. And they're like, hey, take this one week class and this will teach you how to be a functioning human being in society. And then you're like, yeah, that's not, it's just.

Speaker 2: 47:37

It's just. It's a sad thing. Um, one of the things we spoke about earlier about culture difference, and the UK hasn't got it figured out at all, not even slightly. Every country has its own issues, but the one thing I've learned in America, sadly and I try to be the opposite of this whenever I can is that most people and this goes for the government, I think, to an extent too, especially with the military stuff same with athletics. It's kind of almost a magnified version of it with you know, with that but most people don't care about you, they just care about what you can do for them and that's one of the once you can figure out how to kind of get around that. It's different, but that's the with the military. With football it's very similar. It's like these programs only really care about us when they can when they can get stuff, typically speaking.

Speaker 2: 48:21

Now, that's not the case with everything. I had some really good coaches that did care about me and some academic advisors that cared and all kinds of stuff. When you look at it fundamentally, your lifetime is short as far as your usability to different organizations and programs. And, yeah, I wish there were more programs in place, especially for vets too, to be able to help them, because that's a different. I can't. There is crossover between football and the military, but the vets, especially combat vets, it's a different story, you know.

Speaker 1: 48:45

It's sad, you know, and it's like why aren't we putting more effort into that stuff? Veterans, athletes, whatever I mean people that are transitioning, that have worked for somebody for so long and then, all of a sudden, I mean you just don't know what to do with your life. So what do you think of these kids now that are getting just paid so much money to play? How do you think that's going to change the game?

Speaker 2: 49:06

I'm happy for them. I'm happy for them because there's a lot of guys like me and others that crawled in our own way so they could run, so I'm happy for them. There's a lot of old heads that are like, oh, they shouldn't get this, and just because I didn't get it or someone else didn't, I'm a proponent of it. The thing I think is tough, though it's scientifically proven, from the age of 18 to 21, 22, 23, you're not fully mentally developed yet, which means your decision-making processes aren't always the best. If you gave me even 100 grand, I mean that's a lot of money, but even if you gave me 100 grand, somebody's got to make millions.

Speaker 1: 49:38

If I had 100K, I would be doing stupid things, 40-year-old kid or hungry.

Speaker 2: 49:40

Yeah, you can't make sound decisions. So what I'd love to see I mean I might get hate for this is I wish it would kind of go into some kind of trust fund, so they do get some money monthly but it goes into some kind of trust fund that you don't get until you graduate, so that way you've got something to work towards and you're not doing crazy stuff. But at the end of the day, I mean it right now from a an administration perspective and a rules perspective, is kind of the wild west at the moment. So I think they need to get some more regulation, the ncaa, to make this a little bit more sustainable, because we're seeing some weird stuff happen right now it's very interesting to me.

Speaker 1: 50:11

I mean you, you take the statistic of how many pros are broke within the first five years or three years of getting out of whatever sports program that they're in. I mean these are professional grown men, women, athletes With families sometimes.

Speaker 1: 50:26

With families and businesses that are losing everything because they're used to that contract, the bonuses and all that stuff. But now you're giving it to some 18, 19-year-old kid that's walking around on the field flashing a half a million dollar watch. It's like granted. I mean not just throwing a jab at Sanders and kid and all that, I mean he's building an incredible program, but these kids I mean especially. You get some kids that come from a lot of athletes, come from poverty. This is their way out.

Speaker 2: 50:53

Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't. I met kids from all different. I played football with all different backgrounds white, black, hispanic whatever, Just in general, come from come from they.

Speaker 2: 51:01

They either a lot of guys I was really fortunate I had I had a good home life. Like things weren't always easy, you know, as far as maybe money went, but I had a good, solid home life. I sent teammates that came for some some backgrounds that were tough. They maybe didn't have all that. Some of them that no kid should probably see I can imagine giving them money and then maybe acting out their traumas on that money.

Speaker 1: 51:24

Like that's not a great recipe, so it's interesting to see where it goes and it evolves, and I just, I don't know, man. I always love college so much more than any professional sports is because they're still building that resume. But now it's like these kids are getting signed for millions and it's like you know. And it's like you know, I don't know if they're going to play not as hard or have to, or if that puts any more pressure on them, because now they're getting paid and they have to feel like they've got to perform even more. I don't know what that's going to do to these college athletes, but I don't know. That's why I always love college football over any professional team, just because of how hard these dudes are trying.

Speaker 2: 52:03

I barely watch the NFL myself. I consider myself a football fan, of course.

Speaker 1: 52:10

I barely watch the NFL until it gets to either a marquee game or a high stakes or playoffs.

Speaker 2: 52:14

Because in the NFL you can be barely 500 at the playoffs nowadays At college still to an extent a little bit different with the college football players. Maybe this year every game for the most part counts and it just a different, different level of yeah.

Speaker 1: 52:25

I much prefer college to nfl what the fuck has happened to the nfl. I I'm not. I used to be hardcore then once the whole kneeling shit and politics got brought in sports. That's when I, honestly, I was checked out because I just want to watch. If I want to watch, to watch god. I try to watch with my kids every now and then, and there's so many new rules.

Speaker 2: 52:45

They've softened it, they've changed the kickoffs now.

Speaker 1: 52:49

So kickoffs, like you don't, there's no running back.

Speaker 2: 52:51

Yeah, I mean, it's so tough because at the time when you play football you don't really care about your own health and safety. You don't care because you're like I'm going to go out there, sacrifice my body, glory for my soul and do what I need to do. But looking back now I sound like an old head. It kind of makes sense because I watch football. I'm like there's no way in hell. How did I used to do this? This is crazy, but it's changed entirely and it's not.

Speaker 2: 53:13

I think a lot of the progress is good, but there's also some stuff that like the defensive player stuff. I know what their intention is with it, but unfortunately it's so disadvantageous to the defensive players. Now it's really hard. Like I'm seeing guys get ejected and they never had a chance. You know they're committing to a tackle and then all of a sudden they're already committed to a tackle. The trajectory's at a certain point Akubi lowers his head and then they do. They hit him. What they're trying to do? They're trying to safe in the game for the players and I think it's good overall. But that rule is tough.

Speaker 1: 53:43

You know when it comes to that, there's more players getting hurt now I think guys, guys getting bigger, faster, stronger yeah, it's.

Speaker 2: 53:49

Yeah, I guys getting bigger, faster, stronger it's not.

Speaker 1: 53:51

I don't think human beings are ever meant to be this big and this fast hitting each other no no, and at the same time you watch it, you hear what you're hearing about these head injuries and all the tbis also, I swear to god, I don't see one highlight real, real video, anything without a mouse cart hanging out of their helmet. It's like they're. They have the most tech, the best technology and helmets and the pads and the sensors and they're reading everything now, but then these dudes are running down the field without a mouth guard.

Speaker 2: 54:19

I'm like back in you put it in some. Some guys. Some guys wear two mouth pieces now they have like fashion accessories. Some guys have two different colors. They have like a black one and a white one, but so obviously I. So my background is rugby. I played rugby growing up. All you had in rugby was a mouth guard, so you had to wear it because that's all you had. You didn't have any padding, yeah, and that actually absorbs a lot of impact from like tbi. So, yeah, my guys run around without mouth guards. I'm like you can have the helmet, but like that jaw moving up and down, that's what gets you a lot of the time yeah, you've been hitting the ground.

Speaker 2: 54:44

I mean, you're just rattling your teeth I always. I always wore a mouth guard I mean fascinating. It was just burning my brain. For rugby, I'd say, if I didn't wear a mouth guard.

Speaker 1: 54:51

I felt like, yeah, no there was times I'd run out and be like yeah, if you catch it, yeah like oh, I think you're like going over to try to find it. It's like you that missing piece. Like you go to panic like where's my wallet when you're gone it's ingrained in you that I see these guys run down the field and I'm like it's always a skinny, it's always a little skinny guy, it's a little skinny dvs and receivers fullbacks, you kind of you pound in the linebackers a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 55:18

You're in the trenches, you're wearing them for sure these skinny guys. They run around with all their accessories every five, six plays, they might be involved in it and they put it back in.

Speaker 2: 55:26

I look at, I look at like how tough my job was, because I see DBs, sometimes even linebackers, sometimes they kind of run it a little bit and they never actually hit anyone. You know on every other play just hitting your head against the net.

Speaker 1: 55:39

You were defensive end. What did you?

Speaker 2: 55:40

play. So I played defensive tackle and D-end, depending on the formation. So we used to play a 4-3 and a 3-4. So I'd play anywhere from a 3 technique all the way up to like a 5 or sometimes 7.

Speaker 1: 55:49

So you had to be pretty versatile actually. Yeah, that's pretty interesting by itself. I mean to be a versatile player like that.

Speaker 2: 55:56

Yeah, you'll be fast enough pass rush or contain anything back inside, and then obviously the size wise, if you're, yeah, I mean at six five, I was at the edge of the height you can really be to play inside. I mean oh, yeah, if you, if you're, if you're six, five, six, six and you're, you know, 320, not as big of a deal, but I really played in the 285 to 290 ish range most of the time, which is still big, but it's six, five. I got long legs, long arms. You gotta stay low, otherwise Otherwise they get underneath you.

Speaker 1: 56:26

Such a fascinating sport when you break it down and the science behind it and everything. So transitioning out I guess of I almost said the military, and transitioning out of football how was that? Was that a weird stage? Oh yeah, that was tough, trying to figure life out now.

Speaker 2: 56:47

It got harder before it got easier. Honestly, I got that job, um, at lyle pearson love cars. I was good with people. I've always been pretty good at like, making friends and people to you know, like and trust me, um, so I felt good going into it. But that january that I started was that snowmageddon year in 2016, and anyone that remembers that lived in idaho. The whole state was damn shut down like the snow was that bad? So I'm sat at this dealership at 23 years old I'm selling and I was.

Speaker 2: 57:08

No one was coming on the lot, the cars were literally buried. I'm just doing was training to figure out what the cars are. And I'm sat here and I get like a little. You get like a little um like a guarantee. Basically. I think it was like 1500 bucks a month was like the guarantee you get paid in case you didn't sell anything and I didn't say anything the first month. And I remember, like driving home one night and I was, I was like what have I done, man? Like like I, like I didn't. I should have like gone back and play rugby or at least try to continue playing football. Like I'm stuck at dealership, I'm a salesman and I don't sell anything.

Speaker 1: 57:38

Um, first couple months there.

Speaker 2: 57:39

It really was a reality. It was like hang on a second, then things start to pick up in march and and by that first year I was one of the top sales people at the dealership yeah, within that first year. So it turned around good, but it was a little bit dark for those couple of months leading up to that, you know you never had any thoughts on going back.

Speaker 1: 57:54

You'd love the us I I didn't I.

Speaker 2: 57:57

I had opportunities to go back um, but I just there's more opportunity in this country. I felt like there's more for me and I had, to an extent, a little bit more presence in the community and I just felt there's more opportunities here yeah, I mean, especially coming from you know as an athlete, for I would say a generally, generally good program.

Speaker 1: 58:14

Yeah, I mean, and there's a lot of alumni here, oh yeah, in the valley, that want to support the athletes.

Speaker 2: 58:20

I was never like a superstar. I was a good football, good football player. I was never a superstar. I never had the name that Ashton Gentry has, for example, but the name of the Boise State, broncos, and being a part of that was enough to open up a few doors for me where people were like, okay, out of the goodness of that charity, hey, here's a chance. They gave me a Lyle Pearson Travis the. We'll give you a chance. So that's how I ended up there and, yeah, it helped. I never led with the Boise State thing, but naturally you're dealing with a lot of higher-end clients. Mercedes and Porsche, I mean that's two expensive brands. We've got a lot of higher-end clients that happen to end up being Boise State boosters and they're not stupid. So Idaho especially, I mean white regular place. So when you see a large black person there's questions. All right. So what? Like you know when are you from?

Speaker 1: 59:07

Where are you from? What are you doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 59:09

And that would always lead up to me being able to say, yeah, I got here because I played football at Boise State.

Speaker 1: 59:20

And the minute I remember, you know the whole used car. Yeah, exactly, I hate it, everybody does.

Speaker 2: 59:26

So people are always, like you know, kind of standoffish. I'd open up a little bit and we'd get talking to that and I'd say you know, I played football at Boise State. And then immediately just the guard went down because, oh, you played at Boise State, yeah. And then I would just genuine. So here's my story, here's how I got here from the uk, this is what I did, and then all of a sudden people trust you. So that was definitely advantage.

Speaker 2: 59:44

I won't pretend like I was the best ever, but that you know I was a good salesperson, yeah, but that definitely helped break down that better as soon as you get someone's trust, I mean it's you're in. Yeah, they say. If someone knows likes and trusts you, that is 99 of what it takes to get someone to work and you got the gift of gab.

Speaker 1: 59:59

You know you can talk to people and that makes that's, that's half the battle for most people oh, it is, yeah, being able to just have a conversation I sound like an old head again, especially the generation below me, like I.

Speaker 2: 1:00:08

I got some really good employees that are in that generation below and they do a great job, but they're the exception to the rule. Um, I bet you've gone through a lot. The final, just verbal communication. I just when I talk to younger, younger people, like it's very different, it's a skill coming through now if you know how to hold a good conversation.

Speaker 1: 1:00:24

As crazy as it sounds, that's, that's sad it is, yeah, it's just isn't that sad that, like, we're even having this conversation, that, hey, if a kid and in this new generation can carry a conversation, you're ahead of the game yeah, yeah, I think I think there's two sides of it, like I guess, maybe, maybe in their defense, if I'm looking at kind of devil's, they have like certain skills that we don't have, maybe when it comes to technology.

Speaker 2: 1:00:46

So maybe there's a crossover there, but yeah, it's just. It's just, I guess, basic life skills, yeah, every generation. Just, I think we go through different changes and I think you know, getting older and hold a good conversation, at this point in time you're ahead of your peers.

Speaker 1: 1:01:02

And we do it with our kids. I mean, I tell my daughters all the time like if you guys the path, we're on the path.

Speaker 2: 1:01:27

You guys shake their hand, have a conversation where you're not staring and looking all over on the phone.

Speaker 1: 1:01:30

Yeah, and that and that's a lot that has everything to do with it. I mean, we were just out of dinner the other night and we look over and there's a young couple I want to say they're, you know early college kids 1920s. Both of them sat, had a full dinner and never even acknowledged each other. It was so bad. The guy's holding his phone and his chick propped her phone against his, when she's just like watching a movie and they're at a restaurant and even when they're eating, they're, they're and that's a skill to be able to and it's that's, that's the dating pool.

Speaker 1: 1:02:00

Now, yeah, and it's insane. And then you start dealing with these guys and they all want to complain that they can't get a job or anything. And it's basic life skills, it's not hard. And then they want to sit here and judge well, you're a boomer or you're this or that Everything's a boomer.

Speaker 2: 1:02:14

Now I'm a millennial man.

Speaker 1: 1:02:15

Come on yeah right, but it's fascinating, it, it's fascinating. It's fascinating especially when you have employees and you try to be able to talk to them. At the same time, you have to learn us being I'm 40. You're 30s, early 30s, right.

Speaker 2: 1:02:32

Here, young guy, I'm 32 in a couple months, yeah and so it's.

Speaker 1: 1:02:35

I even have to learn okay, I can't, just can't be so direct, oh, you can't approach. You have to find a completely different path to approach a situation, or you lose them, yeah, and you're just like shit sandwich good news, bad news, good news, yeah build them up, break them down, build it back up again and then pray to god they don't, they don't leave and it's just that's what it's come to so but okay, so you do the car thing for a while, which is probably pretty cool because you're obviously a car fanatic.

Speaker 2: 1:03:05

Yeah, yeah, it was awesome actually.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

Did you get a hookup? Did you get to buy anything?

Speaker 2: 1:03:10

Yeah, I got my very first brand new car. We got the Porsche employee discount, so you got 20% back of MSRP and then we got to lease it, so I had like a got some hookup. I bought a few cars while I was there.

Speaker 1: 1:03:26

She perks up Porsche.

Speaker 2: 1:03:27

I've had like five or six now I think at this point yeah, I got to drive some really cool cars, some very expensive cars, met some really really cool people as well.

Speaker 1: 1:03:35

And so did that open up any doors for moving, transitioning out of there.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

So essentially my transition. So I did that whole year of 2017, half the year of 2018, and halfway through the year of 2018, it was starting to get mundane, it was starting to get a little bit boring. I was like I'm struggling to see the end goal here, like, all right, I kind of mastered the art of like okay, meet someone new, get your ceiling. Exactly, I figured out the challenge.

Speaker 2: 1:04:02

As an athlete, like I need a challenge, right, I figured out, okay, it's pretty easy, you just meet someone, get them to know and like and trust you, explain the product, close them, move on, and it became a little repetitive. I was like, okay, well, what's my trajectory? And I met with our GM and I was like, hey, you know, I kind of want to figure out what that is. And he said, well, you know, if you do another five to maybe 10 here, we can get you to be like a sales manager Years, yeah, years. And if you do like another five there, you can maybe look at like a general manager role or a brand, like sales manager role. And then you can look at like being like a principal, like a more C-level in your 25 years, 20, 25 years from now. And I'm like, no, fuck this man, like I was only 24 at the time. I'm like I just I need, I can't just do the same thing over and over again for the next 10 years and and feel fulfilled.

Speaker 2: 1:04:52

And that's when I decided to get into real estate. I met a lot of really cool real estate developers, real estate agents. Even I'd met, obviously, surgeons, doctors, attorneys. I'd met, obviously, surgeons, doctors, attorneys, because of the type of product we were selling. But the one thing that we all in common is they all ran their own business, or a version of it, at least, my contract is to an extent. So I in July of 2018, got my real estate license. How was that? That was? It was pretty easy to get my license. It's actually scary how easy it is. That's a whole other story.

Speaker 1: 1:05:17

But yeah, it's scary that people trust, oh yeah, people trust, oh yeah, just anyone. Yeah, not just anyone. But, like a majority of people are trusting somebody with the biggest purchase of their life and it's scary yeah, it's nuts, like it is fucking scary.

Speaker 2: 1:05:33

We'll go over some stories I can't wait, I met some idiots, sadly.

Speaker 1: 1:05:36

I can't wait I love real estate stories just because I have to hear everything from the wife, because you know with her, yeah, fascinating yeah, it's a real estate market or real estate industry is a fascinating place.

Speaker 2: 1:05:50

It's very, it's very. It can be any, it can be all of something and all of nothing. It's kind of what you want to be and what you get involved. Definitely make it to your own, oh yeah, whatever you fail most.

Speaker 2: 1:05:59

Most people fail, at least on the agency side, the selling side most people fail, fail. So I got my license in July 2018, quit cold turkey. At the dealership, I was like, I'm done, I'm out, got my license and I was like, all right, well, I got my license. Now I got a decent network of people. People know me. I'm sure we're making a million dollars a month. Right, I'm going. Not the case. No, I went nine months without selling a single thing. Nine months.

Speaker 2: 1:06:24

Really that's tough I didn't have much saved up. I did really well my first year out, my first two years of dealership. I didn't have much saved up and I ran out of savings quick. It was like three or four months. I was like, oh shit.

Speaker 1: 1:06:34

So what were you doing to make up for anything?

Speaker 2: 1:06:38

So I drove Uber.

Speaker 2: 1:06:39

Really drove uber. I drove, yeah, I drove uber. I I took out like a thirteen thousand dollar loan through goldman sachs, a personal loan, just to kind of pay bills here and there. Really went to debt and uh, and I drove uber. So I would, I would do real estate in the day kind of, you know, like typical nine to five ish, and then I would do uber late at night and sometimes early in the morning on the airport runs, just to get the money together to be able to just keep paying the bills. Um, so I went from a six-figure job right out of college, took a risk and went to Nothing. It was bad man. It was a very dark time.

Speaker 1: 1:07:08

Are you married at this point?

Speaker 2: 1:07:09

Yeah, I am. Yeah, my wife's in law school and no one's making any money.

Speaker 1: 1:07:15

How was that? I mean that's pretty stressful times.

Speaker 2: 1:07:19

Yeah, it was stressful, for sure man. It was stressful for sure man, it was stressful for sure um, yeah, 17 bucks to my in my bank account in october of 2018, driving uber, trying to make things, try to make ends meet. Um, and I remember that like the darkest day was a dude threw up in my, in my car, in my uber um he was. I picked him up from downtown. He seemed okay and he just throws up all over my car, in my car on the seat belt. I kick him out, I go home. I had to clean it all up. I remember going to bed, dude, and just crying. I was just broke.

Speaker 2: 1:07:47

I'm a grown-ass man at this point, but I'm like I've kind of looked at some of the dealership thing. That phase I went through. I remember I'm just like shit, I fucked this up. Man. I had a really good. Another like month or so goes by. I managed to just scrape by somehow and I'm a week away from quitting. I'm like I either need to go back to the dealership or find something else, because this ain't working out. Um, and I was like I was literally a week. I said, okay, if I don't get something figured out by next monday, I'm meeting with the owner of the brokerage at the time and the designated brokerage saying hey, I really appreciate you guys supporting me, but but I'm going to have to go back to doing whatever.

Speaker 2: 1:08:23

And that next day after I made that decision I'm not kidding that next day after I made that decision, I got a phone call from someone who, believe it or not, it was the very first guest from my very first open house. In that July I got licensed. They called me up and said hey, and, funny enough, he was a military guy too. The husband. He was on his way back from a tour and the wife called me, said hey, look, he's coming back. Um, we remembered you from the open house. I sent him like a hammering card and like a starbucks gift card, saying, hey, you know, I'd love to help you in the time he's right. And they said, hey, can you show us this house? Um, and we put one offer and didn't get accepted. I'm like crap, we need to figure this out because I need to get a check soon. Anyway, put an offer, another one got it listed. Their house managed to get closed by march. I managed to get through and and so you had a buyer seller, buyer and seller.

Speaker 2: 1:09:10

Yeah right, it was nice yeah got another one in march as well. Um, okay, well, this is, this is doable. All that money basically disappeared. I had to pay off the loan and pay the next bills, yep, and then it just took off. That year though I mean that's 2019, that's before the real estate market really boomed I sold 27 homes in my first in that, nine months actually. So from march good for you to december, I sold 27 homes, um, for almost 10 mil, and I was how, how, networking I have a course actually that I'm teaching other agents now actually, on how I kind of went through that process but yeah, I actually I do some. I do real estate coaching as well with other agents Got it okay, but it was just through networking. It was through. It was through four things I actually did.

Speaker 2: 1:09:48

I would make a habit of adding contacts with people to my CRM. I would send them handwritten cards, I would have phone calls with them on a regular basis and I meet them for coffee. I used to try and sell. Hey, I got a cousin or whatever. So I had a kind of a system, because if you don't, if you're not, you're not top of mind. They move to the next person. Yeah, I mean, that's the way real estate typically is, until you get to the point where unfortunately I've gotten to my career now where you're sought out for different reasons, when you're just a kind of a regular agent, so to speak. If if you're not top of mind, people will go to the next person. That's's the way it is, but it is. But I managed to stay top of mind, managed to bring value. I sold 27 homes that first year. I got to the end of that year I was like how the hell am I going to do this again? Like that was kind of felt like a fluke and I actually sat down and I looked, all the different activities I did that led to those opportunities and I doubled down on those and I ended up selling 57 homes the next year. So I over doubled. I was like 111, I literally just went over the numbers yesterday for this thing I was doing for some students and yeah, so I over doubled those numbers. That next year Almost doubled again.

Speaker 2: 1:10:50

That year after I started my own team, essentially A real estate team within the brokerage I was at. And then the year after that I just started my own brokerage entirely. So I left the brokerage I was at. I started my own brokerage and the only reason I redid it was to have the autonomy I wanted and needed. I became I became an actual broker with a broker's license, and then our team grew and I hired a coo and I was like I needed to actually become a real business. We grew again. We like doubled in size, um, to the point where we're at now, um, where I have a coo that deals with like all day today and our staff. I have a designated broker that just took over my role as broker. I have a chief marketing officer. I have my agents. I have a marketing team Like we. It's kind of it's crazy. It's been a crazy experience.

Speaker 1: 1:11:33

Good for you, man.

Speaker 2: 1:11:34

That's, and that's a lot of growth really fast. Yeah, it was. It was 2021, that was when I actually started to get employees. My first employees really were 2021, like real full-time employees. In that way, it's only been four years really 21, 22, 23, 24.

Speaker 1: 1:11:54

Good for you.

Speaker 2: 1:11:55

Yeah, it's been wild. That's a rollercoaster ride right, there's been, there's been other, you know highs and lows since then, and and, and and. It's yeah, it's a lot of responsibility. I wouldn't change it, but it's, it doesn't. Certain aspects have gotten easier.

Speaker 1: 1:12:09

Certain aspects have's going to crash. The market's going to explode again. Interest rates are going to go even higher, I mean. So it's scary for buyers right now.

Speaker 2: 1:12:28

The biggest thing right now, more than anything, the inventories. At this moment in time, inventory is still quite low. Prices are very stable actually, they dip from 22 to 23 in our market in Idaho Very stable at the moment. Inter interest rates are the thing that's kind of that cork, um, the higher interest rates are actually, to an extent, holding things together because people aren't as willing to sell and give away their interest rate and because of that, um, there's not much inventory in the market. Therefore, prices can't adjust, because prices only really change when something sells to get that new comparable. So we're kind of, at this, like I always thought. We're behind the dam right now, waiting for it to break loose, because there's only so long, from a residential perspective, people can live in their houses that don't work for them anymore. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see an uptick in the next year, regardless of interest rates. Really, just because people don't want to be in situations that don't work from day to day from a residential perspective.

Speaker 2: 1:13:20

What do you mean? Well, put it this way, there's five reasons that people, typically speaking, buy and sell real estate. Okay, so it's family retraction, normally. So you know, downsizing, upsizing because of kids, um, uh, there's marital um, so getting divorced happens. Um, death or aging, so people either die because they die or age means they can't look after their property anymore.

Speaker 2: 1:13:43

Um, the other one is, uh, like promotion, occupational if you work and you get more money, you got more means to buy. You might need to relocate. And then the other one. The fifth one is lifestyle change. People are always gonna all those five things are always gonna be happening people's lives. What's the average move date three years, um, five is the average. Okay, um, when I look at the data last time it's five on average.

Speaker 2: 1:14:03

Idaho's market is actually historically in the last 10 years, been less because of the appreciation. It's allowed people to make more money. But those five things are happening in our lives all the time. Yeah, so as long as those continue to be a thing, people are going to need to buy and sell, regardless of the market Interest rates. Yeah, they do help they do. If people are moving electively, then, yeah, that's going to be kind of a damper, but people are going to keep dying, they're going to keep getting divorced, they're going to keep getting promotions, they're going to keep getting older, all these different things that play into this. They're not going to change. So real estate is always going to be. When you look at, if you look at it from year one to year 10, it's always up. It might do this in the middle, but if you look at the point it's slowly climbing every time.

Speaker 2: 1:14:47

There's no period in history, when you look at it, where it's going to be the significant dip below that.

Speaker 1: 1:14:51

It's a crazy market. Yeah, it's a crazy industry.

Speaker 2: 1:14:54

Oh it's, it's, yeah, the industry's, and I'm supposed to be ethical and be as ethical as I can. There are a lot of stupid real estate agents, and it's crazy how many people are out there that really shouldn't be doing their job because they're either not ethical or they don't have the basic skill set to protect people's best interests.

Speaker 1: 1:15:12

It's actually sad, it's not only sad, it is scary. My wife says it all the time. She's like not all agents are not created equal. That's the reason we even got in the real estate we this is a crazy story, I'll just give you cliff notes Got a job offer. We're moving here. We find this home up north in by Crouch, put an offer on this log cabin Beautiful, my dream home. It was built by a hunter. Dream home man cave. He had his own loading room, walking safe. It was when I say my fucking dream house. It was my dream house. We put the offer in, offer gets accepted, we pack our house, we move here to. We left everything. Two little u-haul trailers, one behind each truck and off we come to idaho. On the way here, oh, hey, our agent calls us. Hey, by the way, dealer pulled the whole entire contract. They don't want to deal with a VA loan. And we're like what? We don't know any different. We're young.

Speaker 2: 1:16:10

You can't really do it. If it's signed, you can't even do that. I think no, you can't.

Speaker 1: 1:16:15

Unless the VA doesn't pass inspection, then that's their.

Speaker 2: 1:16:17

Yeah, if there's an appraisal issue.

Speaker 1: 1:16:19

Exactly no, didn't even get to that. So they pull our contract. We don't know. So now we end up homeless. When we moved here, we were homeless for like three months. I had two pitbulls, even though there's one as a service dog, nobody's going to rent. Anyways, we end up finding out everything that went down, how illegal it was, and my wife's like it'll never happen to us again. She's like I will never trust anybody again with this large of a purchase ever. And she became an agent and that's our origin story.

Speaker 2: 1:16:49

That's it.

Speaker 1: 1:16:49

And that we ended up buying this house. She bought it, bought it off market, saved us a ton. I mean it was perfect timing and everything. But listening to her deal and talk with other agents, it's scary. Oh, it's scary, oh, it's, it is. It's the ethical part to me, that's, I've heard stories when you're dealing with a guy and how these agents won't like material. What's the Adverse material?

Speaker 2: 1:17:17

facts Adverse material facts.

Speaker 1: 1:17:18

Yeah, when we moved in California literally we're under contract and we had this huge windstorm come through and it shifted one of our tiles on our roof and I wake up in the middle of the night to water dripping in our room and I sit up like the fuck. It's ceilings leaking and there's water coming out of the vent. We call our agent. We're literally like two weeks away from moving. Yeah, he's like hey, patch it up, clean it up. Don't say anything.

Speaker 1: 1:17:41

We're like okay, we don't know if you get sued if we have no idea we patched up the spray paint covered it up like seal patch this thing up. But he was like don't say anything, you're good. And when she becomes, she's like you have no idea how much shit we could be in if that ever came back out and just things like that these agents are finding and they just, oh, flooded crawl space to get it pumped out, you're good, there's no mold, don't worry about it, you know we don't need to get the vapor the vapor barrier redone it's shit like that.

Speaker 1: 1:18:18

It's scary. I'm sure you got some crazy ass stories.

Speaker 2: 1:18:22

I have so many that sometimes it's hard like I have to kind of like go through the road after, like you know, my eyes have to go black.

Speaker 2: 1:18:27

I have to start thinking that it's just the biggest thing. The biggest concern that I have when I deal with like other agents, typically speaking, is when I have to basically do their job for them and they don't know how to communicate certain stuff. We have to explain to them how paperwork works. Like, most agents don't know the paperwork. Um, I have to be careful what names I use and stuff when I kind of say this stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:18:47

But, um, some places, like some brokerages, don't really teach their agents the nuances of paperwork and they don't necessarily teach them to understand that if you don't tick one particular box it can change the implication of an entire contract, literally, literally, like someone's earnest money they put on the table, which can be tens of thousands of dollars, can only be lost because you didn't take the time to learn to read the contract. And there's been situations where I've had verbal conversations with agents and even though I'm obviously advocating for for my seller or my buyer in that situation, there's certain stuff I kind of go through with them to make sure they fully understand what it is we're presenting, because when their seller or buyer signs it, that's a legally binding contract. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the craziest thing. Most of the crazy things I've seen actually tend to be more with buyers and sellers than with other agents.

Speaker 1: 1:19:32

Oh really, how so.

Speaker 2: 1:19:34

There's just weird and funny stories. There was one. One of these sticks up my mind. It's kind of funny. I call this agent up one time, uh, to go and show a home this is years ago in like a rural area, it's kind of in the middleton area and uh, he said uh, yeah, you can go and check out the home whenever you want. I'm actually getting a divorce. I don't live in the house anymore. It's my, uh, it's my. My wife is there and the kids still live there. I don't know if the house is ready or not, but you can go through whenever you want. I'm a little bit cautious with this anyway. Yeah, so I'm like, well, that's a tough dynamic. So I get there early and I go and turn the lights on it's a bigger home to get the showing ready for the, for the client.

Speaker 2: 1:20:27

I go into the bedroom and the nightstands open and the stuff just hanging out everywhere. And you know I mean when I say stuff there was, there was. There were some good old toys just hanging around and I was just like. I was like how am I gonna deal with this? So I have to go and get some. Like I think I want some toilet paper or some kitchen like you know, roll stuff and like put it all in, shut the drawer, move away and and so my clients get. Then they don't think anything of it, walk around, nothing to worry about they don't nothing to worry about.

Speaker 2: 1:20:42

They're no worse for the wives, they're good. And I got in the car and I'm like shit. I feel bad for the wife because she's going to come back, probably knowing that that stuff was out and someone had to put it away. So yeah, that's that. I've seen dead animals and floorboards before, so this was my first year. I remember going out with an agent I was shadowing to look at a flip. He had a client who was interested in a flip. It was way out in the boonies in Caldwell and the house was run down. I remember walking kind of past this floorboard plank. It was kind of like half broken. I was like what the hell Almost tripped. I look there's this dead cat just hanging out in the, as some extreme ones you see in like the hoarder.

Speaker 1: 1:21:29

Yeah, that stuff fascinates me.

Speaker 2: 1:21:30

But I've been to houses that have been cleaned out since then or had the clutter removed and the smell is horrific, like the smell of like dead things and like cat pee. You can never get that out Drug dens. I've been to all kinds of off-market stuff needles everywhere and yeah, that smell like like. I can assure you, as someone who's seen flips, like make sure you do your research and figure out what the house was. Before I've been, I've, I've, I've seen a house where someone you know took their life in the house. Um, just crazy stuff really. Yeah, that's all the stuff you don't see as the general public If you're not kind of involved in the preparation of getting a house ready for the market or, you know, for in Idaho, for example. Um, it depends on the circumstance, um, but 99% of the time you don't have to declare if someone dies in a house. That's wild to me.

Speaker 1: 1:22:16

Yeah, my buddy bought a year later he had his home gym and he's benching. And he's looking at the ceiling in his garage and he's like what the fuck is that? And he's like looking at it and it looked familiar but it was kind of strange. And his neighbor, he's talking to his neighbor, down the road time passed and he's like, yeah, man, crazy story about how that kid killed himself in the garage. Shock and blast. And it was still, oh, in the, in the dry wall, all in the, in the in the drywall, on in the ceiling of it. And he, it's still there. He left it still still to this day. It's still there, somebody's benching.

Speaker 2: 1:22:58

He just sees this I mean, I don't mean to be laughing about it.

Speaker 1: 1:23:01

But yeah, nobody told him, but he ended up buying it and that's yeah, you don't have to say anything.

Speaker 2: 1:23:05

Yeah, if it was, if it's a meth den or whatever, then you do, but not if it's uh, not someone off themselves in it have you dealt with any crazy divorces?

Speaker 1: 1:23:14

I feel like they're the worst I haven't.

Speaker 2: 1:23:17

Even so I haven't dealt with. I've. I've had buyers have bought listings that were okay, crazy divorces I don't have. I've never actually had to do like a crazy divorce, like it's been amicable on this thing, however I do. I have had dynamics where they probably are close to getting divorced. That's part of the reason they're leaving. Yeah, and navigating that is so hard because you've got two people that do not see eye to eye on certain stuff and you have to be the media.

Speaker 1: 1:23:45

Yeah, you're like a counselor, you're like a counselor.

Speaker 2: 1:23:47

I won't use any names, but yeah, I've had situations where a client has called me and basically asked me to lie about certain things that they are doing, so their wife doesn't find out, and that is that's a dilemma. That is a dilemma.

Speaker 1: 1:24:02

Well, okay. So how do you have? I mean, are you, is it like okay, home, is it a homey thing, or is this just a client where.

Speaker 2: 1:24:09

So I treat it very much like a business. I do have friends and family that I've worked with, of course, but most of the people I work with they're not really friends and family. They've sought us out and my team out myself for business reasons like, okay, well, this is the best team, the best person to get the job done. So it's a little bit different, typically speaking. I had this one client and, uh, they basically said, hey, um, so I don't deal with the financing side. As far as loans, I'm not doing the loan, so what I know about the loans is limited to what the loan officer is willing for sure to talk about, of course, um and I just one client a few years back and he's like, hey, don't let the uh, don't let the wife know about my extra credit card.

Speaker 2: 1:24:45

I'm like what the hell? Um, and he opened up a little bit and I think he, you know, like to have fun, party a little bit with other people in other places. Uh and uh, it never came up during the transaction because it wasn't, you know, adverse to the transaction itself, it wasn't adverse to the loan. And I was just thinking, damn, like it's not my, I can't say anything, it's not my place. And he didn't explicitly say necessarily what it's for, but the it was implied and I'm like man, people really are out here doing that stuff, like really like hiding that type of stuff. I'm like I can't, crazy, I can't really say anything because it's not my place. So, yeah, it, it's just that's. Yeah, that's what it's just, it's not. It's not that the stories themselves like there's one nutso story, it's more just like people do some weird shit, basically Weird.

Speaker 1: 1:25:33

Yeah, I mean I've heard the wife talk. There's been people that got when she had a guy going by, a boat trailer, oh, before they closed. Yeah, I had one of those Right before closing, yeah, and the whole deal fell apart and she was like it was a deal because it changes your debt to income ratio, which means you can't get a loan.

Speaker 2: 1:25:48

I had one client. He's a few weeks away from closing and it was our dream to get this home and pick out the finishes, even if it's actually a new construction. And this again was a few years back, or several years back, and she sends me a picture of her new boat like brand new boat, two weeks away from closing. I'm like what, like what, and it was like a $300,000 boat. But the crazy thing was she was fine with it.

Speaker 2: 1:26:11

She's like I don't want to buy the house anyway and I'm like what the hell? So, yeah, how do you buy a boat over a house? I mean, I don't know, maybe that's the problem in general with society, but yeah, just just, I mean part of me is, as the agent was like was it on? Was it my responsibility to tell him not to do that? But when you're buying a house of that magnitude this wasn't a cheap house back in the day yeah, like, I almost feel like it's common sense. So, yeah, I don't like don't, don't buy, don't buy damn boats and other houses when you're trying to buy a house.

Speaker 1: 1:26:38

It doesn't make sense yeah, people's mindset, or because they sell their home and they're like I got all all this money now.

Speaker 2: 1:26:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:26:44

Go and like get new furniture and they take a loan out for furniture like a couch.

Speaker 2: 1:26:49

The one rule when you're buying a property, whether it's commercial, whether it's residential, whatever happens to be, the one rule is if your credit is involved, don't buy anything until the deal is closed.

Speaker 1: 1:26:57

Don't even look at it, don't even get your credit checked.

Speaker 2: 1:27:03

Don't do anything unless you're getting it's got anything to do with the loan. Just don't even bother doing it because you'll kick yourself and the tiniest little things can can screw you up, so yeah so how did you get into commercial?

Speaker 2: 1:27:13

I mean, because you're doing some big stuff and you got some really awesome clients yeah, so so commercial kind of happened not not by accident, because obviously everything you do leads to it. Um, we, our team, has two massive storage, uh condominium facilities that are representing which is like special use commercial. Okay, never really had much of a vision to get into that commercial side and that's really the only main commercial that we've been involved in. Um, but storage condos actually end up becoming a natural fit. We have a very, very good marketing team in-house which means that we're able to be very targeted with how we market that demographic that'd be interested in them. But it became a natural fit because I'm a car guy, I'm a car enthusiast and a lot of people that utilize these storage condos are kind that worth individual car enthusiasts. It actually became a natural fit in a way. So, yeah, that's been a big focus of ours this last year.

Speaker 1: 1:28:01

What is a?

Speaker 2: 1:28:01

storage condo. Okay, so a storage condo okay, so storage condo. The best way I can put it is like imagine your own rv garage isn't on your property. Imagine a tripped out rv garage that is somewhere in your neighborhood or in the immediate area that you go to and you can hang out with the boys or the girls, whatever it is. You can set up a golf sim, you can park your collectible cars in there, you can make it into a workshop.

Speaker 1: 1:28:21

That's really what it is okay, though I think the wife just she just moved a couple of these and she we were looking. She's like we need to. You need to go check these out. Yeah, I guess the guy was picking it up for his rv, but you can build them out, oh yeah, and they have like upstairs and they're all plumbed and everything okay.

Speaker 2: 1:28:36

So, okay, different, different facilities have different amenities. Um, the more, the more sought after ones are the ones with plumbing, because they're harder to get with, you know, water and sewer. Yeah, um yeah, we have two projects that we represent, um, one that's in in the on the nampa meridian border, that's 140 storage condos, and then one on state street and highway 16, that's 347. And these storage condos, they range in price anywhere from, you know, around about 100 000 all the way up to like 400, 500, 000 like you can trick out one and really, really nice, and they're desirable because space is a premium. As this Valley fills up, it's becoming increasingly harder to find land or to find the space to store your stuff, to store your cars, your collectibles, to have your workshop. So the next best thing is to have something offsite which is purpose made for what you're looking for. So they're, they're huge in popularity now and they're only continuing to grow, and they can be leased out and rented. If you want to rent it to a buddy or someone else, they're a really solid investment.

Speaker 1: 1:29:29

No, kidding, those are cool. Yeah, I haven't seen one yet, but she was telling me about it and how.

Speaker 2: 1:29:34

After you come through and take a look at these ones, you know either of the projects that we have. They're pretty cool?

Speaker 1: 1:29:39

Yeah, it'd be cool. So what you? I mean you've had a ton of growth and you have I mean, you got keller williams here, you got the lacy bish, or is she, she's under keller williams, yeah, yeah, falls under and all that stuff but, like you, you've exploded in the last couple years. What's separating you from the rest of these brokerages and everybody? That's these little pop-ups that seem to be a dime, a dozen like what's what has taken you to that level where you're at now?

Speaker 2: 1:30:01

there's a lot of really good brokerages out there. I've got a lot of colleagues that do a really really good job, and there's I've got people that I'm friends with other agents and done lots of deals with other other brokerages and they do a good job, um, and there's a different brokerage for everyone. So there's a different agent for everyone, whether it's commercial or residential. So, just to kind of set the set the level there, what's different for us is we have other than myself as an agent, a broker, um, the agents I have on my team, the agents we have, they're independent. They've joined our brokerage independently as well, because we do offer that.

Speaker 2: 1:30:32

Um, we have a really solid marketing team. I have a cmo who, um has a very heavy background in digital marketing. That's helped build our team, which means that we're able to do a lot more with marketing than most other agents, especially in our market, are able to do, and teams are able to do so. When you have not just the sales side but the marketing side, it means that you're a lot more attractive, not just to home sellers that have more resources, but to developers too, and builders, because we're able to we're in-house, our marketing and our sales speak together. Most builders and developers, for example, they'll go and hire out someone through the marketing side of their stuff and they get the collateral and they get their ads, maybe, and then they go and hire an agent With us.

Speaker 2: 1:31:10

As a one-stop shop, we speak to each other and the reason that's important is because we have to be accountable to one another, because that's how we're getting paid between each other. We have to be accountable to those deliverables, both from sales side and from a marketing side. No one in town is able to, no one in the state, to my knowledge, is able to simultaneously in-house offer the exact same services that we are able to.

Speaker 1: 1:31:28

So it would take a normal client to come to you let's say some big developer or whatever you can market, build all the content out for it. You're pushing the content and you're also selling, buying, doing everything all under one roof.

Speaker 2: 1:31:43

Yeah, we have everything. It's a one-stop shop, buying, doing everything all under one roof. Yeah, we have everything. It's a one-stop shop. If a developer comes with a concept and they have the plat and they have everything ready to roll, we can say, okay, here's the timeframe for the project as far as our marketing and for the sales, here's how we're going to put stuff together, here's who we're going to assign to this project. And, most importantly and this can't be understated, above all else, forget even the fact that we're doing the marketing, we're doing the sales is that communication piece, we're able to deliver to them updates as far as? Okay, this is what is performing marketing-wise and this is what we're seeing on the sales side Numbers-wise absorption, down to the very text messages that our team is sending out to prospective buyers and sellers, or other buyers or sellers, other agents, sorry that are being represented.

Speaker 2: 1:32:26

They're representing buyers. We can literally show them the conversation. So, hey, this was how many minutes we spoke on the phone for incoming phone calls this last week, and that's what developers in particular crave is, or long for, is the ability to get up to date communication where it's not just a case of checking in with your agent, that's on the project every other week and being like, hey, yeah, we're getting lots of phone calls. It's like, no, here are the measurables, here's what the marketing is doing and here are the conversations we're having, so they have feedback to be able to understand how their product is performing in the market, so you're able to back up everything. Yeah, it's not just.

Speaker 2: 1:33:10

I'm not going to sit by and say, yeah, this is performing, this isn't performing, and and you've seen, you've seen a drastic increase with clients and just yeah we at this juncture, excluding the projects we're working on, we are meeting with a developer every other week at this point, um, and most in almost all every situation, bar one, they've actually reached out to us. They kind of heard okay, we've heard you've been doing this about that. So really, yeah, that's, that's really where our team, you know, and what I do, we do do residential, we still do the residential resale, yeah, and we do that as well as anyone. But where we really start to see that traction is with that development and that new construction. And the biggest thing I explain to the developers too and it's something I've had to really drive home to them, even the more experienced ones and builders too is a lot of the time builders and developers they look for the agent, the team, the brokerage that can do it, and that's the operative word do it for the cheapest. So, oh, I got someone that's doing it for 1% or 5%, whatever that number happens to be commission fees and negotiable. Let's take a round number. I'm doing it for 1%. I got this team that's doing it for 1% right now and we would love to work with you or we can see some value there, but they only cost us 1%, so we're saving money.

Speaker 2: 1:34:24

And what people fundamentally don't understand and this goes for developers and even just regular people out there with real estate, real estate doesn't sell for a fixed price. It sells a range of prices and that's based on your agent, your and their team's ability to market and negotiate on your behalf, whether it's a project or an individual listing. So therefore, surely you want to pick the agency, the brokerage, the team, the individual that can maximize your exposure, for you to get the best return, knowing that it's on a range and it's not on a fixed price. If it was a commodity like a fixed price, then 100%, like Sony say, you can only sell a TV for a minimum of 900, then of course you go for the cheapest option.

Speaker 2: 1:34:58

But when it comes to real estate, not every agent is created equal. So just because you think you're saving money on a fee doesn't mean you actually are. Because what if there's a team, there's an agency, a brokerage out there that can maximize exposure, which means you can sell it for more? You know, would you rather get paid? For example, would you rather have to pay six percent on a million, or do you rather have to pay four percent on 950. If you do the math, you'll figure out the million.

Speaker 2: 1:35:20

You get more money so surely you go with the person that could sell it or the team that can sell it for the most. So that's part of that conversation I have with people all the time, and when I paint it that way, they're like oh okay, hang on, that makes sense. And then I back it up by actually going okay, well, this is where we're going to deliver. Yeah, so it's just approaching it taking. We've retaken it from that next level of just that affinity of just being a good agent and getting hey, this is a business and this is how we're able to deliver a product for you and actually have metrics to back up what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 1:35:46

Nice, and obviously it speaks for itself with how much business is obviously coming.

Speaker 2: 1:35:52

Yeah, we just this year alone from projects that are going to be ready and in completion. This year we have over $82 million of inventory just this year.

Speaker 1: 1:36:02

Good for you. Long term, but yeah, so as far as these courses that you mentioned, I don't know if you want to go over them or not, as, let's say, there's agents out there that are looking or wanting to learn. I mean, what are? What are you providing?

Speaker 2: 1:36:15

Cause you've obviously accomplished a lot in the last four years or better, and I mean I feel like you got the numbers, the back end and you're, you're doing, you're making leaps and bounds as far as marketing, social, putting out the content, I mean what than where a lot of agents are at this point, um, so, yeah, agent by design is a program, a coaching program that we've put together, um, within our own brokerage that we offer to other agents. That essentially teaches them and gives them the resource and opportunities in the community to basically grow their skills. And I'm I've basically let people know exactly what I did and how I did it. Um, and yeah, I spoke to you from that transition from where I went from 27 properties in one year to 57, um sales, um, I really walked through that in in that course for agent by design, on exactly how I did it and how they can replicate the and get you know not exact results. So you're not going to go if I talk about. You know there's four different things. I told you about how I was able to actually kind of double down and get more business. We call those things the four Cs and that's the predictable pipeline process and that's a very specific way for agents to get more exposure, to get more opportunities and intertwine within that.

Speaker 2: 1:37:47

I really go into the, to the, to the real nuts and bolts of of multiple parts of how I did what I did, from how to conduct a very, very thorough by consultation to set expectations for buyers so they don't kind of go haywire on you and do their own thing, um, which happens, yeah, it happens all the time if you don't set the expectations up front.

Speaker 2: 1:38:05

I go over how you conduct a proper listing presentation and go through all the different metrics on that to really link those different things together. So some of that stuff I discussed with you with developers, yeah, there's a, there's a more nuanced way in a smaller kind of way of doing it. But with sellers. So I really I just break down everything, like I share everything I've done for the most part and how to do it. Yeah, I mean, I want our industry to be better, like I want our industry to be better, and if I can have just a small part to play in that by giving people the resources to be a better agent, then that's a good thing in my my opinion.

Speaker 1: 1:38:33

So I mean, why not?

Speaker 2: 1:38:34

Yeah, Sharing, sharing, sharing is caring right.

Speaker 1: 1:38:40

I mean these cool growth spurts and they learn a lot really quick, which I'm sure you have. Yeah, dealing with the numbers dealing with the numbers and the money and and just people in general, and they feel like I, like they want a pigeonhole or they they hang on to it because they gatekeep yeah, they gatekeep exactly gatekeep.

Speaker 2: 1:38:59

Yeah, people, people gatekeep information and I mean, obviously you're paying for this, um, so it's not like it's not like it's voluntary at all. But even some agents out there yeah, they were even for the money they won't share it because they think it's like the magic sauce. And I'll be 100 honest with you when I say this I have that plan. It's not the magic pill by any means. You still have to do the work, but that's the thing you have to do the work. And I can share. I can share with you exactly what I did and give it to you play by play.

Speaker 2: 1:39:24

But most people they won't execute because it's too far out their comfort zone. Like I, literally have the ability to say to you hey, bam, this is the playbook. If you follow this, you will have success. And you, as an average person out there no, you're an average person. If you were the average person out there, you would look at it and be like you start and do some of it and then decide it's too much hard work. So, even if I do share, I'm not going to be replaced, taken over, because the cold, hard reality is a lot of people aren't willing to do the work required to get to where their dreams are.

Speaker 1: 1:39:51

Their dreams are bigger than the work they're willing to do when people just see the cars, the homes, the lifestyle and they're like, oh, it must be nice yeah, yeah, and that's and that's our own, that's our own fault as agents.

Speaker 2: 1:40:02

Um, if you like, I won't name any names at all because everyone has their own kind of thing, their own their own stick, their own personality.

Speaker 2: 1:40:09

If you look at a lot of real estate agents and there's some in our market, even in Idaho they very much glamorize the business and they glamorize the industry and there's G wagons, there's massive houses, there's events, there's like watches and all the kind of material things, and I think it unfortunately sometimes really diminishes the hard work we do as agents from behind the scenes, but especially, as you know, higher producing agents, because the public think that we have an easy job anyway.

Speaker 2: 1:40:33

They watch netflix, selling sunset and all this stuff and they think, oh, it's a really really easy job and a really really easy career and they get paid all these massive commissions. But the reality is there's a lot of hard work and everything that precedes your ability to be able to afford these cars, homes, watches and stuff is a body of very, very hard work which gets discounted by people, because all the public see is the flashiness which is. I mean, I have some nice stuff and I got a nice home and things like that. But I'm not bragging those where they'll put in people's faces because I think it gives people, uh, sometimes a misconception of the work I had to put in to get to where I got to.

Speaker 1: 1:41:04

Absolutely, and it's hilarious because I mean you, it's there's so many people that you can just hear success just follow it and the amount of people that will just give up. I just I saw some guy talking the other day how they were. They they got a group of individuals and they broke them down Like if you can finish like these 75 days, you're guaranteed X. And then in that 75 days I think it was like four or five people out of a hundred that ended up actually finishing the complete in there. And it wasn't even anything. That was just crazy. It was just some basics like get up and they wanted them to just follow a routine and they're telling them what to do, literally, yeah, and they couldn't even do that.

Speaker 2: 1:41:42

And you know people that are successful with that type of stuff typically is making it full circle. Really is military and athletes.

Speaker 2: 1:41:47

And that's what I attribute most of my professional success to is just sticking at it, doing the boring shit people don't want to do and that I really didn't want to do over and over and over again.

Speaker 2: 1:41:56

That's what got me through that nine months where I didn't sell anything, for that first nine months was the fact. I look back at the times I was throwing up on myself at Camelsback Park, running agilities, doing that crazy shit with those guys with their arms blown off and stuff. I look back at those times when things were hard, when I was first kind of coming through, and it just reminded me now you've been through this before. It's different, but you've been through this before and I think you have to truly go through adversity. I truly believe this. Unless you're a nepo baby, which is nothing wrong with that If you handle stuff great, I mean I'm sure we'll take it if we're given to us. But unless you go through some form of adversity in life, you are going to be limited in your ability to deal with uncomfortable situations and it's going to limit your ability to be successful to an extent.

Speaker 1: 1:42:35

Facts man. You see, those types of you know you mentioned veterans or military and athletes I mean you're so pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed to these breaking points and then these guys get out some of them. I mean it's the mundane, boring thing that breaks them. But I, and if I feel like if you just get past, and it could be a year, it could be two years, it could be three years, but that once that ball starts just slowly getting momentum, I feel like that's what so many people give up too.

Speaker 2: 1:43:06

You see that meme where there's two miners right and the guy's digging. They're digging through dirt for gold and one guy turns around with his pickaxe. You can see he was just a few more hits away from hitting the gold and another guy just keeps digging and that's it. Sometimes we're so close, like I was that week away from quitting real estate and it turned around. You just never know.

Speaker 1: 1:43:26

Like that's what it comes down to. And I feel you know you hear all these success stories and it's and yeah, you hear the guys oh, you just can't quit, but that's. I mean honestly, this podcast is a perfect example. I mean, there's times where it's great and there's other times like fuck, like I don't, we don't make money off of this, we just. I do it because I want to grow and I want to have conversations with people and I think the future is going to this type of stuff, especially as AI grows and people are getting pushed away from AI Cause you're not going to know what's real, and they want to see human interaction, just genuine conversations. So I feel down the road, but like this is one of those things. Like this doesn't pay anything. I mean, it cost me money to pay her to run this shit, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:44:05

So you know it's like fuck, you know, are we doing the right thing? But I feel like this is one of those things that you know we have the momentum, but then there's times where there's zero momentum. It's like didn't you want to get to those stages where you get fed up and you're just like God, do we have to put more money into this? Is put more money into this? Is this going to keep costing us this? But I feel it's like once you have that little ball rolling, you just keep pushing and keep and then it's just once it goes over the ledge and you just got to hang on, oh yeah, and then you end up. You know beautiful home, beautiful family, you got building a. You know your dream jeep in the garage, yeah, yeah but that's what it takes.

Speaker 1: 1:44:40

It was that week away from. I can't do this anymore, but it's just that little bit of hope and sticking to it is all it takes.

Speaker 2: 1:44:47

It can be a dangerous drug, that kind of like that balance, almost, so you seek that discomfort. It can be dangerous because you have to. I've always found in my life the closer you get to that dark point, the deeper you're in it, the closer you are to find that success. But it's a risky business because you kind of figure out just how far you can push it and you know, like I said, we've had a lot of growth the last couple years and the last year the market hasn't been that great. We did incredibly well for ourselves. It hasn't been that great and there's been some dark times to try and navigate certain challenges within that. Um, and I'd say I don't want to have to do it again after this next roll around this, this, this, this. We're on this ascension right now. Yeah, I, you're good.

Speaker 2: 1:45:24

I say I say that, but I mean there's the market man, yeah, you just kind of you, just you just hold on and and do the best you can. Yeah, risk is, risk is fun.

Speaker 1: 1:45:34

But well, that's, I guess, probably a really fun part of being an agent. It's all risk and then you work. You know we have a great, a great deal here. The wife she's built very, very loyal clientele from the start out of those referrals. She's never had to go like procure and thorn, but she's not doing this to, you know, to get us out. She's just she got licensed, obviously to help us, yeah, and then she doesn't help and it just grew into what it is. So she cruises at like her pace and cool. She wants to be home with the kids all day, fucking perfect with me. She's never even been into her broker. To be honest with you at once, I don't even think she's met her broker.

Speaker 2: 1:46:13

She has to come and join ours, in that case, she can see me whenever she wants.

Speaker 1: 1:46:16

She's a solo, just leave me alone. She deals her deals cool, she's happy with it, right. But then you feel like there's these other agents, that they they get the commission breath. They try so hard and nothing ever works because they're. I feel like if you're going in and chasing money, you're in it for the wrong reason and that's how you're gonna get yourself in trouble.

Speaker 2: 1:46:34

I think I've seen guys and girls get burned out that were selling a lot of real estate when things were easier, like kind of middle pandemic and pandemic time you'll burn themselves out that they either aren't selling anything at all, they're not selling much because they were in it for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 2: 1:46:47

Like I don't get me wrong, I go to work to make money and I always went to work so I could at least make a living. But money is always, for me, been secondary to purpose and purpose. For me, we've been building things. It's always been building something that was worth something, and when I say worse, I mean like worth something intrinsically, not just financially. Yeah, if you chase money in anything and that's the only thing you chase the chances of you being successful and having sustainability are going to be slim.

Speaker 1: 1:47:09

I feel a lot of people and it's taken me a long time to realize the same thing that if you, if you're, I got to grow, I got to do this, I got to make more, I got to make more, I got to make more. When is that? When do you hit that happy point?

Speaker 2: 1:47:22

It's tough's tough man, it's tough, I don't know. I don't, I don't even know if there's an answer for that, because everyone's kind of in. Everyone has an individual idea of what success is where they want to be exactly individual idea. But it is dangerous because sometimes you may have had everything you wanted and you needed in the beginning, and more than you ever thought you would have, and you try and push for more and then all of a sudden you lose it all or you just kind of get all jacked up and it reframes, kind of what the purpose is.

Speaker 1: 1:47:44

You hear that phrase, you know he's got everything. He's got nothing but money. Yeah, and they're they're not happy.

Speaker 2: 1:47:48

That's true. I, I, I've got yeah, I've got examples of guys that and girls, um, that have some wild success, some success that most people would kill to have, are terrible people because their life is miserable in every other aspect. They got a lot of money and they got some material things, but their ability to help, hold relationships, to take care of people around them and to be that kind of that force I think people should be as leaders when they have influence like that. They don't have it. They're wild, yeah, yeah. I just I think and I've always thought it's bit me in the ass several times and I'm okay with it because I think I'm doing the right thing.

Speaker 2: 1:48:25

I've always felt that if you get to somewhere you want to get to, that is a that is considered prestigious, or you've achieved something that brings gain or brings experiences, you should take the people that helped you along the way with you always. But that doesn't. That's not as common as I thought it would be. Actually, I've had a lot of people that found success, that just use people. They just, they, just, they, just, they just, yeah, stepping stone to get to the next place. But I've always loved to bring people with me that the ones that want to stay around. I've always loved to bring them with me on the journey, because none of us are self-made. Self-made is the most bullshit fucking phrase I've ever heard in my life. No one's self-made, we're a the people we surround ourselves with, so you should bring those people with you. In my opinion.

Speaker 1: 1:49:05

Interesting. I've never heard anybody say it like that.

Speaker 2: 1:49:07

Yeah yeah, self-made is not. It's not. It's not a real like, it's a phrase Makes sense. Yeah, no completely.

Speaker 1: 1:49:13

You have to do the work, but For sure, completely makes sense. But I mean to it, I I mean, I completely agree with you. I've, I have a guy that he was big, everything self-made, self-made, but he was, he was an agent as well, and I always think like well you're, you got a bunch of agents running around working for you, like those motherfuckers that are closing deals, and you're getting a percentage of their percent yeah, yeah, you gotta be grateful for yeah, that's, that's, yeah, the the real estate agents can be.

Speaker 2: 1:49:42

Some of those arrogant people ever meet like there's not many, that there's not many out there that don't have some level of ego issues. I mean a lot of people do, but I feel like it's almost hyper inflated sometimes for them. But yeah, I mean, if that, if those people that show up and trust that that agent and trust that that team leader, yeah, um, if they don't show up, then how are you going to get to where you want to get to? You know you have to be appreciative, don't get me wrong. You can't lose sight of the fact. Sometimes in a leadership position, you are the boss, so to speak, but you can't abuse that. You have to be cognizant of people giving their life to your life in a roundabout way.

Speaker 1: 1:50:14

Well then, if you're bringing the people with you, that's what builds that loyalty. Oh yeah, and it have your crew. That started when you're all grinding in the trenches and then you could sit there one day you're like, fuck, dude, we got an office now, and then that office grows and you do, we're bringing on another employees. That that, to me, I feel is part of success, is bringing that team with you. Yeah, it bring you.

Speaker 1: 1:50:39

All came out of the crawling out of the trenches together, no matter, you know where your lifestyles came from. And then you, but then you start seeing it and everybody one guy gets a little bit more than he's. Okay, I don't need them anymore. And then then you get that division and then, before you know it, you're making the money, but you don't have that team or your boys anymore backing you. I mean, I've seen it a bunch, I've been part of it.

Speaker 1: 1:50:58

It's just like okay, like I see you, yeah, you know like who was there with those nights when shit needed to get packed and needed to get done and driven across three states. You know, to get it delivered in time so you can make your. You know your quotas and stuff. So it's cool to see that, like you, especially you, you're dealing with guys and girls on these clients that are probably, I mean, the house above you. Yeah, you know guys of that caliber worth lots of money and you get to see them and get to know them on a personal level. And the fact you're like, hey, this guy's worth hundreds of millions, but he's miserable no, he's not.

Speaker 1: 1:51:33

That particular guy isn't no no, I'm not saying yeah, yeah, no, no, he's awesome that particular. That's awesome, yeah, yeah I'm just saying in general. I mean you're dealing with some of these guys and you know they could have, they can buy all the houses, the biggest property they want, but I mean who's standing beside them? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 1:51:48

yeah, that's. Yeah, there's. Yeah, it's weird, it's like wealth and money. So I've been fortunate, or maybe unfortunate enough, to be around a lot of people that have a lot of means and they're actually no different than any other regular person. It's just money seems to hyper inflate, whatever is, you know, pre-existing. So if you, if they are an asshole person, they're a really big fucking asshole person. I've got a ton of money. If they're really generous they were if they're really generous before, they are even more generous when they get money. So money's just an amplifier of kind of the underlying pre-existing stuff. Typically speaking, it doesn't. It doesn't really change people. People say, oh, he got money and he changed, he didn't reach like I got athletes, I know that got money and people say, oh, he changed when he got money, he didn't change. He was always a fucking asshole. You didn't see it. Money allowed him money, gave him uh, money, gave him the platform, the right to be a dick.

Speaker 1: 1:52:34

I mean in his own mind. I can see that 100, 100. You always hear that, yeah, he changed, he changed.

Speaker 2: 1:52:40

No, he was always a dick, you just didn't see it okay, you can't argue that.

Speaker 1: 1:52:45

I mean, it's true, that's how it works. Well, dude, I appreciate. Thanks, man, you're coming on. Yeah. Um, if people want to reach out, yep, coaching wise or developers nobody watches the show anyways, but anybody that's moving to the valley, yeah. If you're not gonna use my wife, I guess I would recommend elliot here, um, we're gonna get you off my brokers.

Speaker 2: 1:53:08

Anyway, let's go, let's do it let's do it.

Speaker 1: 1:53:10

She loves where she's at because she's never fucked with that yeah yeah, she started, I'll, I'll say it. She started with keller williams, yeah, and I told her all the time. I'm like what the fuck are you doing? I go one. This looks like a cult to me, very cultish.

Speaker 2: 1:53:26

Two I can't say, I'm not saying anything.

Speaker 1: 1:53:30

I'm speaking my opinion. Okay, and no offense if you're following under color Williams or anything, but I and I was watching all of this and I'm watching how, how much money and the dues and all this shit and she's just like she, just she was crushing. And then they were if you, they were giving things to these newer agents because they're in the office and she's just not. She's one of those agents. Leave me alone. Here's my deal if I have questions, I might reach out to you. If I can't figure it out. That's my deal. If I have questions, I might reach out to you if I can't figure it out. That's my type of agent.

Speaker 1: 1:54:06

And so I went through to get my license and do everything and I met with a brokerage and the guy was like dude, we would love to because he's found out I had social media following. He's like bro, come work for us, all this stuff. So I went and talked to him and I went back to the wife. I'm like this makes way more sense than where you're at now. I'm like he's charging this like barely anything. He doesn't even want to see you. And so she ended up phone interview. She's still, and I think she's been with him for it's been like four years, maybe more. She's never even been in to the office and he, he loves her because he doesn't have to deal with her. If there's something that she can't figure out, she'll call her tech. He blows her immediately. Here's the answer. Yep, this is good, do that, and then that's it. And so I run into him at the gym every now and then.

Speaker 1: 1:54:49

Low maintenance, high output, exactly. And he's like man, it'd be nice to meet your wife one of these days. That's great, that's a dream. She's my favorite agent. Never have to deal with her. So, yeah, it's fascinating to see how. But what I mean? But some people like that, they like the team aspect and they love being a part of something and and I get it to each their own man. But you know, you got to find that right place that works for you and yeah, yeah it's, it's pretty, it's interesting. So well, I appreciate. Oh, anyways, back to you. Oh, yeah, where, if somebody's looking to get a course learn, just connect, hit me connect.

Speaker 2: 1:55:23

Where do we? Where do we find you? So? So instagram's my most. That's the really the main place public facing. So my instagram user is elliot, underscore white, so it's at e-r-l-i-o-t underscore h-o-y-t-e. I'm pretty responsive on there.

Speaker 1: 1:55:38

I'll cool get back to anyone so yeah, and you'll see all the videos and the updates on boise and I just watched the burger one the other day I was like that, ruffled a few feathers did it yeah, yeah that was crazy here when anytime.

Speaker 2: 1:55:50

Anytime you bring up california in and out, you're gonna you're gonna have a heated debate in the comments that's when you get a texan and a california together, dude, it's what a burger can't touch in and out. Dude. Okay, the milkshakes, the milkshakes. The milkshakes in a whataburger are solid. Yeah, the fries at whataburger are better, the cheeseburger it's not.

Speaker 1: 1:56:10

It's not even comparable, man we all know, feel that they're not in the same category because whataburger is drunk messy. Eat that like you like yes, yeah, I feel I love both, but I don't categorize them as the same because I feel like In-N-Out. That's a tough one for me. I don't know what I'd have to pick Shake Shacks.

Speaker 2: 1:56:31

See Shake Shacks, Shake Shacks yeah, Depends on what I'm feeling, but Five Guys Shake Shack, In-N-Out Whataburger. Depending on the day, they could all take the crown, it just depends on the day.

Speaker 1: 1:56:41

That is a valid statement. I get it, but yeah, you mix up.

Speaker 1: 1:56:44

Californians and you talk shit on In-N-Out. Oh my God, you got a fight on your hands. Well, dude, I appreciate your time. Man, this is a great conversation. It was hilarious listening to you guys almost get murdered by a bunch of disabled vets on the field. But yeah, anything that we could do to help and and send people the way, I appreciate the conversation and if I could repay it anyway, please let me know. But yeah, this is a, it was fun to get you on here and shoot the shit. Thanks brother, appreciate it, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:57:16

Yeah, that was awesome, man. Sweet, appreciate it, man. Thank you for having me on. That was hilarious. That was really.