What To Say Now

Smarter Not Harder with Mitch Ribak

• Dan Stewart • Episode 8

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Having a strategic mindset is crucial for success in real estate. 

In this episode, we explore practical approaches to streamline your efforts and maximize results. Get ready to rethink how you approach your business.

I chat with Mitch Ribak, a Real Estate Broker Associate at eXp Realty, and a true industry leader. We discuss the importance of leveraging relationships to drive success and the pivotal milestones in Mitch's journey from independent broker to a thriving organization leader. Mitch shares his insights on how to sustain a successful career in real estate while maintaining a fulfilling personal life.

Don't miss out on the valuable lessons Mitch shares in this episode. 

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

  • Effective lead generation strategies
  • The importance of personal relationships in real estate
  • Achieving work-life balance in a demanding industry

Links from this episode:

Happy Grasshopper helps real estate agents and brokerages grow sales and recruitment. To schedule a call and learn how we can help you, visit https://happygrasshopper.com/tour

Happy Grasshopper utilizes best practices to deliver emails, text messages, voicemail drops, and handwritten notes in order to help real estate professionals succeed and convert more leads to closings by building relationships through conversation.

Mitch Ribak [00:00:00]:
There's only one reason why someone will use you as a realtor. It's because you happen to be in front of them when they're thinking about buying or selling. That's it. There's no loyalty. Everybody knows 20 of you that are because we're like cockroaches. We're everywhere. Right? But the reality is one reason. Once you understand that concept, this becomes even an easier business to be successful at.

Dan Stewart  [00:00:26]:
You're listening to what to say now. A podcast dedicated to helping real estate professionals do a better job of communicating with the people they work with and serve. I'm Dan Stewart, and my guest today is the amazing Mitch Ribak.

Mitch Ribak [00:00:42]:
The crowd goes wild, right?

Dan Stewart  [00:00:44]:
So, Mitch, in all sincerity, you are one of my favorite people in real estate. And the reason for that is because you're one of my favorite people. Since meeting you at an Rew summit, probably 1012 1314 years ago, we have been at countless events together. And I've watched you go from being an independent broker owner to growing an amazing organization at exp, to dedicating more time to your passions, your family, to travel, to really enjoying life. And as we look around the real estate industry and we see a. A path that everybody gets to choose. I'd love to just have a chat with you today about what you feel the real milestones were that guided you to where you are today.

Mitch Ribak [00:01:33]:
Sure, sure. Yeah. It's been a really interesting ride. And being a chronic entrepreneur, real estate was the amazing business for me when I was in the doldrums of losing everything back in 2000, 2001 saved my family's lifestyle. I'll forever have a. A great heart for the real estate community in the real estate world because it's one of those businesses where literally for almost no money, you can build an amazing life.

Dan Stewart  [00:01:59]:
Well, that's. That is. We're going to dig into that because, I mean, that is just such a small statement, and yet it's like the tip of a massive iceberg, right? There is so much underneath that. One of my core beliefs is that people who are live, have to live somewhere, and therefore, they're going to need help with a professional at some point regarding real estate. They just will. We don't have to invent this. We don't have to make it up. When it comes to making decisions about buying and selling real estate, the general public is much better served by a qualified professional than by going it on their own.

Dan Stewart  [00:02:36]:
They just are.

Mitch Ribak [00:02:37]:
Yeah. No question. Most of your lawsuits you see in the real estate world are for sale by owners or people that didn't have a buyer's agent when bought. Somebody went to a listing agent, things like that. Not. Those are always bad because most agents are great, but that's where you see the trouble happening, right?

Dan Stewart  [00:02:55]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's so many pitfalls to avoid, right? So let's go back in time. 2000. 2001. Life served you a giant basket of lemons, right? It happens. And yet you didn't stop there. You didn't say, that's the end of the road. You pivoted, right? You made a change, and from there, you've gone on to grow quite a spectacular business.

Dan Stewart  [00:03:17]:
Tell us a little bit about the status of your real estate career today.

Mitch Ribak [00:03:21]:
Yeah. Well, today we started out being the first online dating service. Not my first gig, but that was the business that got me into real estate. That's how I ended up in Florida. And it's one of those things. The Internet bubble hit in 2000, and within six weeks, I went from really, really rich to really, really poor. By the time I closed down the online dating service, which is almost a year later, I had about $14,000 to my name. And my buddy Joe would be friends.

Mitch Ribak [00:03:46]:
He was the lead guitar playing my band when we were kids. He's like, Mitch, you got to get your real estate license. Should be graded. I'm like, I don't like realtors. Why would I do that? Because every realtor I ever had was terrible on the homes that I bought. But anyway, so it was the only thing I could do. I was desperate. And it's kind of brings you to a quick thing on that.

Mitch Ribak [00:04:06]:
I needed to be successful, so therefore I was. I hear a lot of people that want to be successful, and therefore they're not one thing and needing are two different things. Right? But anyway, so I got my license. I sold my first house in five days. I didn't understand the big deal. Sold 36 my first year. I didn't buy. I didn't know anybody here, so I hear that a lot as an excuse.

Mitch Ribak [00:04:27]:
Well, I don't know anybody where I live. I go. Neither did I. I knew my girlfriend, who's now my wife, who lived with me. She wasn't buying anything from me. But anyways. And then 80 my third year, 80, my fourth year, started my team, started my brokerage, grew that to 120 agents. And then in 2017, when I was 56, I looked at myself, actually, it was 2016, and said, what happens if I die? It was a really problem.

Mitch Ribak [00:04:52]:
My dad died at 58, my mother died at 59. Almost all my relatives died in their fifties, and I'm 63 now, for reference. I know I look like I'm 25 still. But anyways, I went to sell the company, and that's always interesting. If you've ever tried to sell your real estate company, what they offer you is kind of a joke because it's based over a three year period, the retention of your original agents. So I said to the guys that I won't mention the brand that was buying me several offers. I said, so let me get this straight. So if you guys aren't good, I'm making this so it's tv ready, so no swears involved.

Mitch Ribak [00:05:29]:
Unusual for me, right, dad, I think it's a podcast.

Dan Stewart  [00:05:31]:
I think you can go ahead and just be yourself, man.

Mitch Ribak [00:05:34]:
I always try.

Dan Stewart  [00:05:34]:
Totally fine.

Mitch Ribak [00:05:35]:
I try to be.

Dan Stewart  [00:05:36]:
And I mean, you're from Boston. You can't help it.

Mitch Ribak [00:05:38]:
Come on, then. I'll give you. So I said, let me get this face. If you guys suck at what you do and have my agents leave my 3.5 million, they're up and goes down to 1.75. They say yes. And again, c two gave me permission. I said, that's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life. And I got up and walked out of the room.

Mitch Ribak [00:05:56]:
And I'd been studying the ExP model for about two years. I loved the concept you leverage. Because that's why, if you're a broker, although you started your brokerage for leverage and freedom and you got babysitting in prison, that's just the reality. And there's no offense to realtors, by the way. That's just the reality. That's every broker I talk to every day of the week. But anyways, when they said I could keep my brand and still beat tropical realty, just be tropical realty, broken by Exp, I get it. I was the biggest broker at the time to switch to exp in June of 2017, and now we got 2200 agents in 49 states in eight countries.

Mitch Ribak [00:06:37]:
It's been a life changing opportunity. So that's where I'm at today. But here's what it gave me. More than money, which is great, because you had to have money. It gave me a chance to look back at the business with a different perspective, because I don't sell anymore. Stop selling in 2021. Completely. And my new book, The Big Lie is out, which I'm really excited about.

Mitch Ribak [00:06:56]:
We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But let me look at the businesses. A couple of things that are really interesting in this business number one. There's only one reason why someone will use you as a realtor. And this, by the way, ties exactly to what happy grasshopper does. There's only one reason. It's because you happen to be in front of them when they're thinking about buying or selling. That's it.

Mitch Ribak [00:07:14]:
There's no loyalty. Everybody knows 20 of you that are because we're like cockroaches. We're everywhere. Right? But the reality is one reason, once you understand that concept, this becomes even an easier business to be successful at.

Dan Stewart  [00:07:27]:
That is so interesting. I want to unpack a few things here along the way. You said something I think was very important a moment ago. Right, right. You shared that there are a lot of people who don't want. Right. Or who just want. They don't need to be successful.

Dan Stewart  [00:07:46]:
And so, you know, you have that early success. You got things closed quickly. You found the, like, there's some natural breakpoints here. As we grow, there's a point where you're doing, I think you said, 80 ish your second year. That is really hard. It's really hard to keep all those plates spinning, right. At some point, you go, well, I gotta have a team. And then the team isn't enough anymore.

Dan Stewart  [00:08:08]:
Well, I have to go bigger than that. Right. And then, well, how do you go bigger? How do you keep growing? How do you do it over and over and over again? There's no one right answer to that, but there's probably one right answer for each of us. So where I'd like to really focus is that moment where you said, oh, I got my first sale in five days. Cause I just didn't know any better. Right. You never. It never occurred to you to say, well, I don't know anybody here, so it's gonna take a while.

Dan Stewart  [00:08:34]:
I hear that all the time from real estate. I just moved here. I don't know anyone. So what was it, tactically, that you were doing to get you past that?

Mitch Ribak [00:08:42]:
The benefit of my life is I've owned a lot of companies prior to real estate. Right. So there's one thing involved with every single company. There's only one constant in every company. Besides, you know, my good looks, my charm is. Yes, there's always going to be bad jokes. That just has to happen. In my bad jokes is the foundation.

Mitch Ribak [00:09:01]:
And this is where I try to help agents. Every business has a. If you do a business correctly, you have to build the foundation first. If you build a house, what's the first thing you do after you, Clay? The land. You build the foundation. Right? What is the foundation? Real estate. Who's my customer and where are they? When you started happy grasshopper, what was the first thing you said yourself? Who's my customer? Where are they? Right.

Dan Stewart  [00:09:20]:
Yep.

Mitch Ribak [00:09:20]:
Because you're a business guy, like I am. Unfortunately for realtors, notice I don't say realtors. Unfortunately for realtors, most people don't have a business background. So the day one, this is day one, I sat down, by the way, day one for me was September 10. The next day was 911. So it was a different thing. But there's two things that I knew. I knew.

Mitch Ribak [00:09:44]:
I knew I had to generate leads, because every business I've ever owned is a lead generation company first, because without any leads, you have no business. And every product has the exact same life cycle. I knew this. Capture leads, nurture leads closely, create a customer, and then create a customer for life. That's every product in the world. I knew that, and I knew I had a business plan. And so I sat down my first day, I wrote a little two page business plan, very simple, and said, everybody told me not to do open houses, so everybody told me not to do Internet. Well, my background was Internet, obviously, being the first online dating service in open houses, people were coming to me, and back then, we actually had floor time, which nobody has anymore.

Mitch Ribak [00:10:24]:
But so all those things where people told me not to, those are the three things everybody told me not to do. Being an entrepreneur, I says, well, that's probably because you suck at it. So I said, there's nothing. If people are coming to me, that's the best business model ever. And so that was my mindset. The first thing. So it wasn't like if I bought into what everybody told me. I remember my broker saying, well, if you sell six homes your first year, you did really good.

Mitch Ribak [00:10:48]:
I said, if I only sell six homes my first year, I'm gonna go bankrupt. I literally just lost $82 million, and I had three months worth of money I needed to be successful. And so I created a business plan, which is very simple. How am I gonna generate leads? And then what happens when I generate these leads? What do I do? Is turn those into customers, into sales. And so I did. I remember driving to my first open house, my fifth day in the business, and kind of cracking up. Cause I was doing a, I don't know, eleven to one or twelve to two. I don't remember, 23 years ago, and kind of laughing because I had no idea what I'm doing.

Mitch Ribak [00:11:21]:
Like, well, in the Holiday Inn express commercial hadn't come out yet, I would have said that. But I said, I said, well, I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to be like all the realtors I've used in the past. And I go, I'm just going to be me. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to pretend like I'm a realtor and I'm going to talk to people. And my last couple that came in, Joe and Diane, and this is before I created my open house system. I say my shift ends in 15 minutes.

Mitch Ribak [00:11:48]:
You guys want to look at more homes? And like, sure. So back then you had to go back to the office because we didn't have wireless and looked at more homes. And I sold my first house that day.

Dan Stewart  [00:11:56]:
Perfect. So cool. Yeah. So, I mean, that's it, right? If you have more conversations with people about real estate, you will close more deals, you will earn more commission, period.

Mitch Ribak [00:12:07]:
And these days, these days with regard to customers, I wanted to put this out there. That's really important. You have more business sitting right here than you'll ever need. Your entire life. Your entire life. And yet nobody, and I trained, I did 300 coaching calls last year for free because I just want to help people. Right. And almost all newer, newer agents reaching out to me and I'm glad to help anybody.

Mitch Ribak [00:12:31]:
And the reality is five of them did the work.

Dan Stewart  [00:12:34]:
Yes.

Mitch Ribak [00:12:35]:
I can't fix that. But of the five that did the work, and I'll give you one example, she only had 400 people in her phone in her first four months. She had six listings and two buyers.

Dan Stewart  [00:12:44]:
All right.

Mitch Ribak [00:12:46]:
From 400 people in her. Fine selling, easy.

Dan Stewart  [00:12:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. The math is interesting there. I have the privilege of looking over about almost 40 million contacts today across all our members in the US and Canada. So we're measuring just about everything that can be measured. And the way we figure it is there's really two kinds of people in a database. They recognize you at the grocery store and they say hello, or they have no clue who you are. There's very little in between.

Dan Stewart  [00:13:18]:
Agents, I think, make the mistake of going, oh, they visited my open house a year ago. They'll remember who I am. Oh, yeah, I talked to them two years ago. I met them. Door knocking they'll remember who I am. They won't. They just won't. It's literally they're going to walk up and hug you at the grocery store, happy to see you.

Dan Stewart  [00:13:36]:
Or they have no clue who you are. Yep. So. So let's, let's bring the tactics that worked then into today's present market. It would still work today, wouldn't it?

Mitch Ribak [00:13:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, open houses today. And I teach that to all my agents. Open houses is still our number one business driver.

Dan Stewart  [00:13:55]:
Yeah, right. And yet I talk to agents all the time who say, oh, yeah, no, they just dance.

Mitch Ribak [00:14:01]:
Wouldn't work because they want instant gratification. Right. So I'm a big believer and, you know, this philosophy is what you plant today will cultivate in 90 days. So I never did open houses expecting a sale that day. I expected a new relationship. And as long as I created a new relationship, I had a successful open house. Now I later developed that into a lot more streamlined process of how I did my open houses. And I told you, 36 sales my first year, 28 open houses.

Mitch Ribak [00:14:31]:
Even when I was selling 80 homes a year, I did an open house every week and I never had less than 24 transactions in a year from open houses.

Dan Stewart  [00:14:39]:
I'm thinking of all the different ways there are to be successful in real estate. And so many agents, they have a misconception. Like they really feel like it's up to them to figure out how to do it, when really it's already been figured out. They just have to observe it and then really commit to consistently doing the activities that work. So open houses are definitely on that list. What do you think about doorknocking today?

Mitch Ribak [00:15:06]:
It's the same thing. So it's all a matter of door knocking. Me, you doorknock. But you doorknock with a message. A message. Don't say, hey, I'm the best realtor in the world, use me. Nobody wants to hear that crap. Right? When you do it on, like, I teach this to my agents.

Mitch Ribak [00:15:20]:
House goes on the, goes on the contract. 555 main street. Now you doorknock and say, hey, did you know 555 main street went under contract? It was listed for x amount of dollars. You know, you lead in with that or you carry around like I do in my, on my, on my postcard mailings or what I do my, my email mailings is a market update. You know, what's, what's under contract, what's so, hey, I just want to keep the neighborhood updated. What's going on in the market here? And by the way, do you know anybody looking to buy or sell?

Dan Stewart  [00:15:48]:
I love that question, Mitch, because people can answer that question. Do you know anyone looking to buy yourself? Hmm. My brain has to give an answer to that. There's no dodge in it where if you said, hey, by the way, do you know anyone who might need help with anyone you might be able to refer me? Our brains don't know how to answer that question.

Mitch Ribak [00:16:05]:
No. And it's just not, nothing is difficult. Right. And we all know, again, one of the reasons I love talking to you, Dan, you're one of the few people in this business that have been a business person with multiple businesses over your lifetime. So we know every business is exactly the same. There's a little tweak here and a little tweak there in messaging, but the business, and it starts with foundation, and also, most importantly, is work ethic. We did a study watch. You'll appreciate this, I think I had 20 agents at the time before I really busted up my brokerage, to 120 agents.

Mitch Ribak [00:16:39]:
And we made everybody track. And I implore anybody listening to this, because it'll really change your life. We tracked every minute of every day for seven days. And all of my agents who thought they were working full time were averaging three and a half hours a day.

Dan Stewart  [00:16:54]:
Wow.

Mitch Ribak [00:16:54]:
My agents that said they might be working full time were averaging one to 2 hours a day of actual work. So this is the only business I know, you can work three, 4 hours a day and make two $300,000 a year.

Dan Stewart  [00:17:06]:
That's astounding. That is astounding.

Mitch Ribak [00:17:08]:
I think that was why I wrote my book, by the way. I wrote my book because, you know, I did everything you were told to do. That's why the book's called The Big Lie. I was told, you know, sell a lot of homes. I sold 80 homes. I was missing one thing, which I won't tell you yet. So I needed leverage, so I started a team. My personal production went down about 25, 30%, and I became a professional babysitter.

Mitch Ribak [00:17:30]:
Moved from my brokerage I work for to my own brokerage because I needed that split that I was giving my brokerage to bill me and grew my agents. When I had twelve agents, I go, just not making any money, I got to go to 20 agents. When I went to 20, I go, I'm just not making any money. I went to 50, blah, blah, blah. And so The Big Lie is that doesn't work. And the one thing you missed, along with all that, is life.

Dan Stewart  [00:17:53]:
Oh, yeah. Blank.

Mitch Ribak [00:17:55]:
So when I turned 60, because you know, when you hit in certain years.

Dan Stewart  [00:17:59]:
You reflect those milestone birthdays. Don't I know it?

Mitch Ribak [00:18:03]:
Yeah. And 60 was a big one for me because I beat my parents. My parents were dead before they were 60, right? People, my uncles and I reflected in my life and I cannot tell you. This is very embarrassing for me to say. I can't tell you five things that I do with my kids growing up.

Dan Stewart  [00:18:16]:
Oh, wow. Mandez.

Mitch Ribak [00:18:18]:
Wow. I've worked 80 to 100 hours a week since I was born, since I was 19, right. And I'm writing a new book starting shortly called the same thing, The Big Lie, but for entrepreneurs. But realtors are my passion. I have so many friends of mine working 100 hours a week right now making a ton of money. They think their life is good. They think. They say they're doing it for their family, which they're full of crap.

Mitch Ribak [00:18:38]:
They're doing it to feed their ego.

Dan Stewart  [00:18:40]:
Yeah.

Mitch Ribak [00:18:40]:
Which, when I really am honest with myself, that was my thing. I was feeding my ego all the time. Like, when I was on stage being mister Internet for the radio industry, talking to a thousand, that wasn't for my family. That was for my ego. Even when I was selling houses and doing all the stuff and being on stage around the country as mister Internet was the Godfather league conversion with real estate for Internet, that wasn't for my family. That was for my ego. And when you can block your ego out of the way and say, wait a minute, I'm missing the most important thing in my life, which, by the way, is being a mom or a dad or in my case, a grandfather. I mean, that's the most important thing.

Mitch Ribak [00:19:16]:
Also the crap, when you get to be my age, all you youngins out there, when you get to be my age and you look back at your life, you're going to regret it, and that's the only thing you'll regret. I don't regret losing $82 million at all. Could care less about that. I don't regret losing everything. When I was 30 years old, I lost my restaurant. I don't regret any of that. I regret not seeing my kids grow up. And so that was why I wrote the book.

Mitch Ribak [00:19:40]:
I wrote it because I wanted to show people a different way of doing the model. And you could sell literally 100 homes a year now working 30 hours a week.

Dan Stewart  [00:19:48]:
It does feel like success requires sacrifice. We get this in our brains that we got to keep our nose to the grindstone, right? We got to sacrifice. We got to pay our dues. We got to grind, grind, grind. It's hustle, culture. We need to do that. What is the purpose of all that success we create if it's not to live a meaningful life? I mean, we get to determine what it is that's meaningful. So I have to ask.

Dan Stewart  [00:20:18]:
It's not every conversation where someone openly shares their great regret in life. So I'm curious, how's your relationship with your kids now?

Mitch Ribak [00:20:27]:
Unbelievable, actually. So here's what. I'm a pretty awesome husband. You know, my wife, I have to because she's only four nine. I hope she doesn't watch that. I'm a pretty good father. I'll tell you know what, I'm wicked astronaut. Being a grandfather.

Dan Stewart  [00:20:41]:
Yeah, don't I know it. I've seen the videos.

Mitch Ribak [00:20:46]:
You see my videos? Band with my kids, my grandkids. And I. Part of the reason I moved to exp and chose the path I've chosen the last seven years was because I saw myself doing exactly what to my grandkids, doing exactly what I did to my kids. I was there. I don't. I'm not saying I was never there with my kids. I was always there with my kids. I was never present.

Dan Stewart  [00:21:07]:
Yeah, I can relate to that. You know, as a, as an entrepreneur, I'm sure there are a lot of people listening who can relate to this. Like, you intentionally carve out the time to be with your kids and yet your mind is completely somewhere else.

Mitch Ribak [00:21:22]:
Well, the thing, and the thing is, I tell you the quick story by that. I was with my wife talking one day, you know, and like, I came home from work and after a 1415 hours day, and she's talking to me and she's ten minutes, and I'm doing what I did every day. Just stared at her smile and shook my head, right? And she goes, you don't hear a word I'm saying to you. And I go, honestly, no. And that was my first moment. And I went from there, working 80 hours a week, I cut down to 35 hours a week within two weeks.

Dan Stewart  [00:21:50]:
Wow.

Mitch Ribak [00:21:51]:
And I. So I work my ass off 35 miles a week.

Dan Stewart  [00:21:56]:
God. You know, it's interesting. I'm going to fess up a little bit here. I have been entirely guilty of what you're describing here. And my wife and kids know it for sure. There's a running joke in our family that my wife can rearrange the furniture or like, get something entirely new in the house. And it might be a month or more until I actually noticed. It's just like, it's not what I'm choosing to pay attention to and therefore it doesn't click.

Dan Stewart  [00:22:25]:
It's not there now, every gymnastics meet, every soccer game, every equestrian event, like, I'm absolutely going to be there and be fully present during those moments. But where I struggled is that we booked this special date night. We've got this weekend event that we're doing together as a family, and there's something that's just caught my fascination, and I personally have trouble letting it go. Like, it's that itch. You just have to scratch this idea that you want to toy around with. How did you learn to control that?

Mitch Ribak [00:23:00]:
Well, started with that with my wife, and then I read a book called die with Zero, and that really helped a lot, because when you're sitting on your deathbed, the last thing you're thinking about is, I have $10 million in the bank. You think about your memories with your family. That's really what it comes down to. And then really looking at this business and saying, I did it wrong. I bought into what everybody taught you and everybody teach you. Be successful. Start a team, start a brokerage. And that's 100% lie.

Mitch Ribak [00:23:31]:
When I teach people how to build a team now, there are no agents on my team. My team consists of a assistant, an inside salesperson, and transaction coordinator. Everybody else is contracted out.

Dan Stewart  [00:23:44]:
That makes a lot of sense to me.

Mitch Ribak [00:23:45]:
What happens if something happens to you? Like, every realtor out there right now is watching this. If you get. I'm not talking about dying because that's the easy way out. If you get incapacitated and you can't work, what happens to your business? I can run my business. I'm not doing this anymore. I stopped selling completely. Too busy helping people. Right.

Mitch Ribak [00:24:04]:
But, um. But I pay people hourly to show property. For me, the biggest time suck of real estate is showing property. Right. It's the biggest time suck. So I part with a company called showing team, which is amazing company. It's like a show army. Yeah, show army, the app.

Mitch Ribak [00:24:20]:
But it's actually more.

Dan Stewart  [00:24:21]:
It's Matt and Josh. Yep. Those are good guys over there.

Mitch Ribak [00:24:25]:
Yep. I'll give you an example. I met with a 62 year old guy the other day. Remax guy. Super nice. Been in the business 35 years, sells 80 homes a year and has for his entire life, never got married, never had kids. I go, what are you waiting for? He goes, well, I'm busy. I go, busy doing what? You're dying soon.

Mitch Ribak [00:24:43]:
You're 62 years old. You're gonna be dead soon, and you're gonna lay in your deathbed and have no memories of anything except selling houses. And he was. He started crying. He realized he missed his entire life.

Dan Stewart  [00:24:55]:
Wow.

Mitch Ribak [00:24:56]:
Because he was taught, just like I was. Especially people in my age group, right. We were taught, work 80 hours a week. You'll be successful. It's a lie. It's not true. You're not successful if you've not lived your life. You did not.

Mitch Ribak [00:25:08]:
Money is not success, my friends. Yeah, money's great. You have to have money. And I show people how to make a lot of money working 30, 35 hours a week.

Dan Stewart  [00:25:15]:
Yeah, well, I'll share a mistake that I made earlier in my life. The lesson I got growing up was retire early. And I felt like that was the thing that was just going to. Once I did that, I could finally feel successful. That was my own internal rationale here. And I got to the point where just as I was turning 40, I achieved financial independence. And I thought, wow, this is great. So, you know, I bought a sailboat, I joined a country club, and the first, I'll say, 30, 60 days were pretty awesome.

Dan Stewart  [00:25:54]:
It was, well, gosh, should I go to the dock or should I go to the tee box? Where am I going to go? Today I made friends with all these people who were retirement aged. I felt like this internal shift where I just had the realization that I didn't need to retire, I needed to take a vacation. I was really crispy. I needed time to just step away, take a few breaths, and then get back in the game. And that's when I started. Happy grasshopper. It was the idea of, okay, I'm not done yet. What have I learned? What can I pay forward? How can I help people with these experiences that I've had? And for the longest time now, I've always run the company with the attitude of, I wanna build real, meaningful relationships with the people I serve.

Dan Stewart  [00:26:45]:
And, you know, Mitch, I'm grateful for ours. Right? Whether it's having breakfast at the Rosen Shingle Creek for an FA R event or it's seeing each other in Canada at an rew event, like, wherever it is, we're always gonna have that friendship. And I think that's like, you set the money aside, right? You set the ego aside. It's that personal interaction that I always find so much more fascinating and satisfying and, you know, segueing this back to what you've chosen to do at this phase of your life. You coached 300 people last year without asking them to pay you. I mean, that is an incredibly meaningful thing, to take what you've given and pay it forward. So I want to thank you for that personally. Even though it was such a small number of people actually applied what they learned.

Mitch Ribak [00:27:36]:
Well, you know, the thing is, and this is my awakening this year and the reason why, again, I wrote the book, and I want to hop on the book that much. And this is going to sound mean, and I don't want it to, but it's going to. I can't help those people anymore. Yeah, because they suck the life out of me. And when I realized being an entrepreneur, I just opened my 27th company in my life in the past 45 years. What I realized the past 20 years, I was chasing people to be successful. So I didn't write this book for new agents at all. I wrote this book for people that are selling 40, 50, 6100 homes a year.

Mitch Ribak [00:28:15]:
Their lives suck. And once they lower the ego, like this guy that I talked to a few minutes ago did, once you lower that ego and realize that you're not really happy, you're on a hamster wheel, it's horrible. Being a successful realtor is not fun. And you could tell yourself that all you want, but if you look in the mirror, which I encourage people to do all the time, and look into your eyes and be honest with yourself, you're doing it because the ego keeps you going, but the regret later on is going to be terrible. So what I've devoted the rest of my life for, and I'm planning on living to 142. So I got a lot of years left, is I want to help people that are successful chase freedom and stop chasing money. Because, and you know this, when I made my first million at 23, it was, how do I get to two? How do I get to four? How do I get to eight? And I got there. I got to $82 million.

Mitch Ribak [00:29:08]:
I'm like, I've reached it. I've reached it. And then within six weeks, I was broke, and I realized that chasing money is nothing. I still didn't learn my lesson. It still took me 20 years after that to learn my lesson. But what I've learned now, what I'm teaching, and I am charging now, by the way, because I've learned my coach. I hired a coach because the coach sometimes needs a coach, right? And when my coach said, the biggest mistake you're making is not charging people, because if there's no financial pain involved, there's no growth involved, and he's 100% right. If you look at 300 coaching students last year that I did for absolutely free, five did the work.

Mitch Ribak [00:29:45]:
That's 295 hours away from my family, away from my friends, away from my guitar, away from the golf course that I could have done with my life.

Dan Stewart  [00:29:54]:
Yeah. I don't have any qualms about charging.

Mitch Ribak [00:29:57]:
Yeah.

Dan Stewart  [00:29:58]:
I mean, there, there's a. What is that line from one of the Batman movies. I think it's the dark knight, something like, if you're good at something, never do it for free.

Mitch Ribak [00:30:10]:
Well, you know, I've always had the heart bubble, you know, of a sucker. And, I mean, I've always just. I just want to change people's lives and that, you know, so, you know, Pat, my general manager, and she's like, can I ask you a question? Because I'm all about chasing freedom, right? And she's like, why are you doing this? I mean, I'm building out a new community. I'm building my coaching platform, spending a fortune doing all this. She goes, why are you doing this? I said, you know, I'm just not done impacting people's lives. And I don't care about money. I'm charging. I'm charging a lot of money, by the way.

Mitch Ribak [00:30:42]:
It is a lot of money, but if that's what it takes to actually impact people's lives, and that's what I've got to do. And it's not about the money. I get plenty of money. It's about the commitment, their commitment to the process. And when you and you know this, if you gave all your stuff away for free, nobody would use it, right?

Dan Stewart  [00:31:00]:
Well, sometimes people pay us handsomely and they still don't use it, which is, you know, it is a little crazy. But, you know, my daughter did something several years ago. She got certified as a lifeguard. And one of the things they teach lifeguards is you've got to save the people swimming towards you, right? You can't get, I mean, in a situation when you can't just save everyone, you have to save the ones who want to save themselves. And I kind of like that phrase here because, you know, if you're an agent listening to this, you have a choice right now. What are you going to do with the rest of your time today? I promise you that if you reach out to people and you actually have a conversation with them, it's going to move you closer to your goals, where if you just hop on social media and you burn an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, pretending to work, telling yourself you're going to work, like, there's a point where you have to get out of that mental space of the, oh, what if I owe it? But this could happen. You got to shut up that voice and just go take action. Go get in front of people.

Mitch Ribak [00:32:07]:
Yeah, I did. I'll tell you a quick story. And that's pretty, because you and I are so much on the same page, which we knew that anyways, except I have a better hairpiece. The girl come up, this is a year ago, comes out of my office and little mopey, you know, I haven't had any success. I've been doing this four months and I'm not getting any business. And I'm a huge believer. And you have to be in front of people, right? Always. That should be your job every day.

Mitch Ribak [00:32:32]:
And so I said, well, what are you doing? She goes, well, I'm on social media. I'm getting my social media campaign done. I go, you're doing this for four months? Like, how's that working so far? You haven't shown a property yet. I go, here's what I want you to do. There's a place called Cocoa Village near where we live, and they have a really cool coffee shop in there. And it's always a line, I want you to go to that coffee shop and I want you to do this. And by the way, everybody out there, I want you to do this today, whether it's coffee shop or grocery. I did this at the grocery shop.

Mitch Ribak [00:32:57]:
I've sold over three dozen homes at the grocery store, at Publix. So I said, I want you to go in the store, and whoever's sitting in front of you, I want you to say, hey, how's your day going today? Just do that. And here's what they're going to say back to you. They're going to say, it's going either good or great. Now, once in a while, you'll say their life sucks, but very seldom. And then that's the end of that conversation because I don't talk to negative people. And then I said, then they're going to say back to you, how's your day? And you're going to go just like this. I'm in the real estate business, a little bit crazy right now.

Mitch Ribak [00:33:25]:
And they're going to say exactly this every time, oh, you're in the real estate business. How's the market? And you're going to say back to them, oh, it's an interesting market. Now. You know, one of the things I do for my friends and family is I send them an email every month with the market update. Keeps them update, what's going on the market. Let me add you to my list. 80% say yes.

Dan Stewart  [00:33:43]:
Yep.

Mitch Ribak [00:33:44]:
They happen. If you do that once a day, three to 65 times a year, that's an additional 21 sale potential sales in your pocketbook. Yeah.

Dan Stewart  [00:33:54]:
And it's so darn easy to do. It just is.

Mitch Ribak [00:33:57]:
So go. So she leaves my office. She goes, I said, call me when you get. I have to do this once. Calls me back, it's 3 hours later. So I figured she didn't come. She just didn't do it. She calls me back, all excited.

Mitch Ribak [00:34:09]:
She got a listing. She goes, the guy in front of me. We end up having coffee. Spoke for two and a half hours, and he's listing right now. I'm doing the operating.

Dan Stewart  [00:34:17]:
Yeah, imagine that. Talk to people. It leads to contracts and closings and commissions. Come on, let's go, let's go. You're reminding me of a story. I have a member. I'm struggling with his name right now, but he does about 60 transactions per year from the coffee shop. Strategy, it's like, brokered by Starbucks is what his business card should stay.

Dan Stewart  [00:34:40]:
He goes in there and he has a little sign that he sets up on the table he sits at. It says, agent on duty. That's all the sign says. It creates curiosity, right? So people are like, what is this? What kind of agent are you? A Starbucks agent? What's going on? He's, oh, no, I'm in real estate. How you doing? Blah, blah, blah. And that's it. He ops them in, he grabs their information. We stay in touch with them.

Dan Stewart  [00:35:05]:
It's not rocket science, folks. You just have to do it.

Mitch Ribak [00:35:08]:
I have an agent in California, Saint, a little bit different. Starbucks. He's there eight to eleven, Monday through Friday. That's his gig. It's all about consistency, right? He's there every day. On the back of his laptop, it says, real estate question. Ask me. Yeah, same concept.

Dan Stewart  [00:35:22]:
Yep. Yeah, same concept. Exactly.

Mitch Ribak [00:35:24]:
Right? Transactions a year. He does about $40 billion a year in sales.

Dan Stewart  [00:35:27]:
Yeah. Not too shabby. Not too shabby. One of my other favorites is the t shirt strategy. I have a client with a shirt that says, say nay if you love horses. Right? Her first listing ever came from that t shirt. It was a $1.6 million equestrian property.

Mitch Ribak [00:35:45]:
It's crazy. Great.

Dan Stewart  [00:35:46]:
Yeah. Because what are people going to do? They're going to go, oh, my God, I love your shirt. Right? And she's like, oh, thank you. Wow. Do you ride? Yeah, I ride. Where do you ride? Who do you know? What kind of ride do you do? Hey, by the way, I'm in real estate. Do you know anyone thinking of buying or selling?

Mitch Ribak [00:36:00]:
Not, not. I had a guy recently, he had a guest shirt on because I have to be a wise ass. It's a big, big, tall guy, big, bulky guy. Had to be like six'five. So I walked up, I said, bill, tom, how are you? He's like, what are you doing? I go, I'm guessing. I thought it was funny.

Dan Stewart  [00:36:21]:
So you know what? If you're just listening to this, you can't see Mitch's face, which is, he's got the kind of face all of us should want to have. It's. Stop. Stop right there. I know what you're going to say, mitch, but seriously, you have a face that's been shaped by years of laughter and smile, and that is a tremendous way to like, for me, aging with energy is my goal. Right. I want to not feel a sense of, oh, I'm too tired today. Oh, I'm too sore, you know, so I work on that.

Dan Stewart  [00:36:54]:
I work on my health. I work on diet and fitness. It matters to me to do this because I want to have a vibrant life, to be able to share that vibrancy with other people. People. I'm curious, do you have any sort of.

Mitch Ribak [00:37:07]:
Health is so important, you know, people downplay. One of my agents, this is really sad. We actually were doing fundraising from now 28 years old. Just got diagnosed end of last week with leukemia, and they gave him 60 days, two little kids, wife, and now he's fighting. He's in the hospital for a month right now, fighting. And they said he's got. Based on how quickly he reacted to treatment they gave him, they went from being dead in six days to 50 50, shot down and. But these are the things you've got to take care of, by the way.

Mitch Ribak [00:37:42]:
He's been for ten years on monster drinks, everything on health that you can do, which we all did when we were younger, but between the crap that's in the food these days, the lack of exercise, the alcohol, I mean, and God knows I probably not. That's why I look like this at 28 years old. But all that stuff that you do, I have a very strict regimen. I'm an intermittent fasting guy. I only eat between four and six during the week. Between noon and six on the weekends, I drink a concoction every morning. It's my energy drink. It's olive oil, chia seeds, flax seed, cayenne pepper, turmeric and cumin.

Mitch Ribak [00:38:20]:
A little bit of black pepper. That's my energy drink every morning. I do. I'm a diabetic with high blood pressure, which I control with diet, not pills. And I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying that to say, if you are not healthy, everything else is a waste. And here's what we see, with retirement, that's why I'll never retire either, Dan. I mean, I'll slow down a little bit.

Mitch Ribak [00:38:43]:
Maybe in a couple of years when I turn 65, I might go to 25 hours a week instead of 35. Everybody I know that stops working dies. They die within five years because they lost their purpose.

Dan Stewart  [00:38:55]:
Yeah, it's really cliche. That was a mistake I made, is I hadn't really thought about what I wanted to do. It was that need to just rest that was so strong, I had to pay attention to that. But, yeah, I think for both of us, we share that life is really a lot more fun when it's invested in others. Right? We can't get through this alone. Why do we pretend we can? It's just too much fun to have these conversations, Mitch, I really super enjoy and I'm thankful and grateful that you've been my friend now as long as you have been.

Mitch Ribak [00:39:30]:
Yeah, we've had a good time. And it's funny because, you know, real friends of those, like, we saw each other the last week or two weeks ago at the expo, right? We haven't seen each other for a couple years.

Dan Stewart  [00:39:39]:
We stand there hugging each other and saying, I love you.

Mitch Ribak [00:39:44]:
This is my buddy.

Dan Stewart  [00:39:45]:
Yeah.

Mitch Ribak [00:39:45]:
And that's an old friend. Like my best friend of 257 years. We talk twice a year. We go to one. Red sex gave a year. But if I called him right now and said, john, I need you, he would be here.

Dan Stewart  [00:39:56]:
Yeah. You know, the older I get, the more precious those long term relationships are. My best friend from high school, like, we rarely go more than a week without talking to each other all these years later. Like, that is the treasure. I mean, that is an absolute priceless thing to have. So there's so much that I want to continue here, and yet I'm paying attention to the clock as well. Mitch, is your book The Big Lie out yet?

Mitch Ribak [00:40:22]:
Yeah, it's on Amazon.

Dan Stewart  [00:40:23]:
Okay.

Mitch Ribak [00:40:24]:
Just type in my name on Amazon. They'll come up.

Dan Stewart  [00:40:26]:
Okay. And that's Mitch Ribak. Ribak. And, like, first time I met you, you said, my last name is Ribak. Like Rib back. And I never forgot that. I never did. It's funny, I have people who say things like, oh, yeah.

Dan Stewart  [00:40:42]:
I mean, I know a lot of people, and then they mispronounce your last name and I'm like, okay, yep. I wonder if they.

Mitch Ribak [00:40:51]:
Everybody calls me Ryback. Rebecca Ribbock. Rebecca.

Dan Stewart  [00:40:54]:
We hear it all. We hear it. All right, so we'll look for you on Amazon for sure, and order that book. And in editing, I want my team to make sure we drop a link there so it's easy for everyone to do that if we want to reach out to you. How can we do that, Mitch?

Mitch Ribak [00:41:09]:
Yeah. Easiest way is just my email is mitchrealty.com.

Dan Stewart  [00:41:12]:
Dot mitch@mitchrealty.com. awesome.

Mitch Ribak [00:41:15]:
Yeah. Really simple. Yeah. And really, you know, by the way, I'm not here to sell anybody anything at all, if you want to just get on. So I'll do my first conversation. I'm not going to charge you for that, but you won't have a conversation. Just let's look at your business. And I'm going to be brutally honest, by the way.

Mitch Ribak [00:41:33]:
I'm not. That's what I tell you. The best thing with getting older is no bullshit. It's just, I'm going to tell you like it is, and you may cry, you may not like it, but I'm going to be honest, you know, because that's what you learn when you get a little bit older, is if I, and I used to do that with agents all the time. I mean, don't worry, you can still do this. I'm brutally honest with people now. If I don't think they're going to make it the business, I'm going to tell them. Just tell them that you really should get a job.

Mitch Ribak [00:41:59]:
I've done, I've coached thousands and thousands and thousands of agents, team leaders and brokers over the last 20 years. Now I know who's going to make it. Who's not going to make it.

Dan Stewart  [00:42:08]:
Yeah. So cool to hear you say that. So take him up on that, folks. Go to mitchrealty.com, send him an email, and I'm sure it'd be a worthwhile conversation for you to have. Now, Mitch, as we come to the end here, there's a question I always love to ask. And someone with your experience and your background, I can't wait to hear your answer. Let's create a hypothetical scenario. Life on earth ends in 24 hours unless you go out and get a listing signed today.

Dan Stewart  [00:42:39]:
What do you do?

Mitch Ribak [00:42:41]:
I get three of them.

Dan Stewart  [00:42:42]:
Okay, but what do you do to get it?

Mitch Ribak [00:42:45]:
Well, I do whatever it takes. I knock on doors, I pick up the phone, start calling everybody that I know. I mean, the reality is, here's the reason why people fail in this business. It's too cheap to get in. So this is what I would have. The mindset I would have is I invested $250,000 to stop my real estate business. I need a sale today. And that was my mindset when I started that day, I sat down and did my business plan.

Mitch Ribak [00:43:09]:
That was it. So I would knock on doors, I'd go, you should not be working out of an office or your house. You should be sitting in a vacant house doing an open house every single day right now. You should not be sitting home doing social media, doing an open house. If you're sitting home doing nothing right now, that's what you're going to get.

Dan Stewart  [00:43:26]:
Nothing. Yeah. All right.

Mitch Ribak [00:43:28]:
But, Billy, I guarantee you that if I had to make a sale today, in fact, I would guess it's 10:00 right now. I would have a sale by 11:00.

Dan Stewart  [00:43:36]:
Yeah. Wow. Okay. And so I want to be more tactical here. The first thing you said was door knocking. You do whatever it takes. You call everyone you know. Let's create this recipe.

Dan Stewart  [00:43:47]:
Like, literally, it just turned 10:00. Now, you've even ramped up the pressure. You have 1 hour to get a listing signed. What are you doing during this hour?

Mitch Ribak [00:43:56]:
I'm gonna take my phone, I'm gonna go into my car. Do you have an iPhone?

Dan Stewart  [00:43:59]:
I do.

Mitch Ribak [00:44:00]:
Let's do this together.

Dan Stewart  [00:44:02]:
All right.

Mitch Ribak [00:44:02]:
I'm not gonna make you do it, but let's show everybody I love doing this. Right? Go to, go to your contacts, open your. Go up the top corner says list and tell me how many contacts you have in your phone.

Dan Stewart  [00:44:18]:
1481.

Mitch Ribak [00:44:21]:
I'm just going to use 1000 for easy math. 1070 sales the next twelve months. So you've got probably 100 sales sitting there the next twelve months. So here's the challenge. Here's what I would do. I'd get on my phone, and by the way, I do this with agents all the time. Last time I did this exercise in front of 100 agents, we generated 185 leads in eight minutes.

Dan Stewart  [00:44:44]:
Wow.

Mitch Ribak [00:44:45]:
I would text them, say, I'm in a class right now, we're having a contest, and I can really, really use your help. Do you know someone looking to buy a seller home right now? Could you send me their contact info? You know, I text every single person in my database. Last time I did this with a friend of mine at the bar, he was whining because he had no business. He, um, we. I made him do that. He did 50 people. He got two people respond and he got two sales in two weeks.

Dan Stewart  [00:45:09]:
Beautiful. That's, that's. It's beautiful. There's a. A thing here I want to magnify a little bit because that strategy works in so many different media. What you really did there was, you asked for help. And we're all hardwired. When we hear someone ask us for help, our natural inclination is to help them.

Dan Stewart  [00:45:29]:
And when we have a relationship with that person, that's amplified. It's really hard for us to resist.

Mitch Ribak [00:45:36]:
It's very important to use, I mean, the line I use, I'll say it again so they can write this down. I end every email. I don't anymore because I don't sell, but I advise all my agents do. It is as you know, as a realtor, I work by referral only. And I could really, really use your help. If you know someone looking to buy or sell a home, could you send me their contact info? Now? Where most people do it is they might even say, as you know, as a realtor only. And I could really use your help only. One really, really is very potent, by the way.

Mitch Ribak [00:46:04]:
And they say, could you send them my contact info, get their contact, because they're not going to do that. Right. So that's very, very powerful. When I talked about that girl in business, four months with 400 contacts or six months before contact was, she did that. That's how she ends every email and she's in front of them twice a month. Because you have to be in. People find out, people twice a month consistently, or you will not, they won't know you. They know 20 other people they love and trust, just like you.

Dan Stewart  [00:46:34]:
There really is no magic here, folks. All you have to do is show up in a way that people can understand what it is you're asking for. Like resolve the mystery for them. Right? Don't, don't make it a mystery. If you want to have conversations with people who are buying, selling, investing in real estate, ask for them. Your friends, your family, people who regard you highly will make those connections. Everybody knows people, right? And people have to live somewhere. You have a massive market, right? It's just ridiculous how much opportunity there is.

Mitch Ribak [00:47:07]:
And the thing is, just with your thousand, just for easy math, the numbers, from what I'm told, that I did not make these numbers up. So I've read everybody knows 250 people. So your thousand people is a 250,000 person contact.

Dan Stewart  [00:47:20]:
That's right. Yeah. It goes crazy. And what I would say is tracking this, for every hundred that would come up and say hi at the grocery store, there's a minimum of twelve transactions per year. Year in those hundred, right. So the 70 could grow to 120 based on the strength of those relationships.

Mitch Ribak [00:47:40]:
It's not hard, it's just, by the way, I've been told 12% is the number I use, seven because I don't like to, I like, I'm an expectation guy, you know, I like to keep my expectations low and they exceed them, then they win. Right? Promise less, deliver more. But the reality is, you know, if you're listening to this out there, which I know you probably have 245 million listeners, just do the work. This is not hard. Do the work. And again, I'm glad to help you. And look, I don't need the money. So it's not about a money thing for me.

Mitch Ribak [00:48:10]:
I'm going to charge you to hire me as a coach because that will help you do the work. But I won't charge you for an hour conversation about your life and how to make it better. And I'm not going to try to sell you anything. I don't care. I mean, I care. Should I say, okay, I care to help people, but like you said, I want to work with people.

Dan Stewart  [00:48:26]:
You don't care about the money. The money is required because it's attached to commitment. It's easy to say, hey, I'll do this thing. But when you say you'll do that and it's attached to an ongoing credit card payment, well, you actually show my.

Mitch Ribak [00:48:40]:
Coach I just hired is ridiculously expensive, like, you know, pushed me way, be, way out of my comfort zone. But I said to myself, I sat down, looked at the money and said, it's a lot of money, but he's done what I've done, I'm doing and he's going to save me two years of my life.

Dan Stewart  [00:49:00]:
Well, fantastic. I mean, that's what we do, right? We've got to learn. We apply, we share with others. So, Mitch, thank you very much for joining me today. I'm really grateful for the time we got to spend together and audience paying attention to this. You need more Mitch in your life. So hit him up. Right, Mitch@Mitchrealty.com.

Dan Stewart  [00:49:20]:
and go order The Big Lie on Amazon.

Mitch Ribak [00:49:23]:
Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it, man.

Dan Stewart  [00:49:25]:
Thanks, everybody. Bye.