Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast

S1E5 - Sean Farley: From Wall Street to Real Estate Success

• Coldwell Banker American Homes • Season 1 • Episode 5

Share episode

In the fifth episode of "Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast," host Michael Litzner interviews Sean Farley, the team lead of the Novus Real Estate Group powered by Coldwell Banker American Homes. Sean shares his journey from being a gym teacher and Wall Street professional to becoming a successful real estate leader. Discover how Sean’s innovative marketing strategies and commitment to community engagement have set him apart in the competitive real estate industry.

Thank you for listening

Stay connected with us:

Visit our website:

Interested in a career in real estate?

Need to get licensed?

Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome to Work Hard, play Hard and Give Back a real estate podcast. I'm Mike Litzner, the broker owner of Cowell Banker, and today I'm here with Sean Farley, team lead of Novus Realty Group, powered by Cowell Banker American Homes. Sean brings a tremendous wealth of experience in the real estate industry to the table here. I'm so excited to have you here as a guest on the podcast there, sean. But before we get into any questions, I just want to remind our audience please wait to the end. We have the drop the mic questions always exciting, a little more interesting, hopefully a little bit funny. And please don't forget to like and subscribe. Hit the button there for us All. Right, so we got great things going on here, sean, michael.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, good to be here, buddy boy. I love it. Awesome what a setup we got here. I feel like I'm on the Boomer and Cotton show here. This is great.

Speaker 1:

Oh, come on, Don't lower our standards. We're way above that. Come on, don. I know, I know We've got to have some fun here. So look, real estate. You've been in real estate for a while now. You've had worn many hats. Well, maybe you can talk about your path. So, before real estate what does Sean Farley look like? Wow, what did I look like? Before real estate I look like before real estate.

Speaker 2:

I look like the guy from the Lucky Charms box who I still look like had a bunch of careers. I started as a school teacher in the early 90s. What grade I started with? I was a gym teacher. I started a grammar school in Queens Village, which was great, great first experience. Yeah. So the kids, they used to call me Jim because I was the gym teacher. I always got a kick out of that. The teacher said come on line up, we're going down to gym. And I, just as time went on, I wanted to change my career. I did go to St Francis Prep High School for another seven years, taught there Same job phys ed teacher and then did Wall Street for 10 years and for the past, whoa, whoa whoa.

Speaker 1:

How do you go from teaching gym to Wall Street and what does going to Wall Street mean?

Speaker 2:

Well, going to Wall Street, you know it was something I kind of always wanted to do and I loved being a teacher, and it was a tough decision, but also tough to go down there at 31 years old, because you know you got 22 year old kids out of college telling you to go fetch them coffee, so I had to go through all the hazing and stuff like that. I loved it, though. Great job.

Speaker 1:

So what tasks? What was your role in Wall Street? I'm curious how that really helped shape you as the real estate icon that you are today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, icon, I don't know about icon, but I like that, thank you. I was what's called an equity sales trader and I went from that into just. You know, I had kids late in life. You know, my first kid came at 41, 42 years old. Okay, so I didn't want to miss any time with them and I went out and started Novus right after that, in late 2012.

Speaker 2:

Well, when did you get your real estate license? My real estate license I actually got originally in 2003. I didn't do much with it, I kept it and I re-renewed it again in 2012. My experience was with real estate from a personal level. I had a house in Saratoga at the time and we had a couple of rental properties up there and it just wasn't great. I always felt like there could be more. Where Novus came from was the word new. It means new in latin. Right, I wanted things to be a little bit different. I mean, we came on the scene, mike. We did everything from sponsor block parties to to. I mean we sponsor every team under the sun. Really, that whole give back thing. I love that, you know, I I really do love that, and that's one of the things. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to come to colwell because it's a perfect match for us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah I think when you look at marketing and a lot of agents ask us this question what's the best way to market yourself? And connecting to the community is such a fundamental and easy way to not only contribute and be a positive influence but at the same time you're getting your name out there, you're getting known. So I think it's genius. It's so fundamentally simple, but yet genius because it's overlooked by so many agents.

Speaker 2:

I agree. Well, a couple of things. First of all. I mean I always I wouldn't, even we wouldn't be at the Caldwell stage where we're at now without Monique Baum and my partner. She has just been, you know, without her. She's the engine. You know I am the marketing guy and stuff like that, but she's the engine, no doubt about it. So absolutely nowhere without her. But I'll tell you a couple of things. If I was talking to a person who was getting into real estate right now, I would say a few things to them right away, please.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know what?

Speaker 2:

The first thing the first thing I would say, mike, is I'd say to them number one be different If you think that you're going to go into this business. Right, marketing couldn't be any different, but you got to remember, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, it's a little crazy and I know that, but I definitely would advise people be as different as you can give to the community, though, and when I say be different, what I'm really saying is do something that's going to make them look at your page, make them laugh a little bit. Maybe maybe you don't take yourself so seriously, seriously, but then they look at your page and then, at the end of your zany whatever you do you tell, hey, this is what's going on in real estate right now. This is what's happening, this is the teams we sponsored, stuff like that. Yeah, that would be the first thing I would tell them. The other thing I would tell them is make sure that, no matter what, you do not forget your community. We started in floripark. We originally started actually believe it or not in garden City South, then Franklin Square. We ended up in Floor Park. Floor Park's my hometown. They've been very good to us and I love them all.

Speaker 1:

It's a great village over there. It really is. It's a very cool vibe downtown and the train station.

Speaker 2:

No, it is, and I think that they've been very, very good to us. I think, in return, we have to get involved as much as we can, and we try to get involved as much as we can because it's very, very important. It's important that people see your name, and it's also important that you let them know that you're there for them right when they need, whether it's a contribution to a charity or or to play in a golf outing or whatever you know.

Speaker 1:

So let me just ask you I want to go back just a little bit so you have this license, your license as an agent. I guess you're doing it part-time. Do you go full-time first and then become a broker, or is kind of like this advent? Like you know, I'm going full-time so I might as well jump into brokerage. What was the thought process for you?

Speaker 2:

no, I was all in. I was all in, I wanted to. I wanted to do things differently. Um, our marketing is is, is so, and I'm not just talking about me jumping out of windows into pools. That's a little crazy. It doesn't make them look, though, that's for sure. Yes, it does it gets his eyeballs it definitely gets the eyeballs on you.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think for us it's what could be different. I've been told by people and it's a compliment you don't want to say, oh great, I am, I know I'm a great marketer I've been told by people, man, you market so well. It's so different. Yeah, one of the things we did just to give you one example is you know, um, I have a very good relationship with dylan davis, who's a jockey. Yeah, uh, up in saratoga. I also have a very good relationship with mike luzzy and with with his son, lane luzzy. They're all jockeys.

Speaker 2:

Dylan's been wearing our, our novice letters on his leg up racing around saratoga and belmont and aqueduct for a lot of years. Yeah, I cannot tell you how many times people text me from up in saratoga they're on vacation saying you know what? I just saw dylan davis, he just won a race. It just reminded me I need to call you because I'd like to sell my you know, my folks house or my grandpa and before you know it, that that bit of marketing it gets, it brings you into a hold. It's a reminder. Yeah, that's what's good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you give back it's helpful right when you do stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

It's a reminder to people of what you do and how you market exactly because the worst thing you could do as a realtor, agent or anything, is be overlooked or forgotten.

Speaker 2:

You know don't need to be a secret agent. Right exactly, you never want to be a secret. You need to. I've heard that term a while, yeah, a while ago.

Speaker 1:

You need to own the forefront of their mind when it comes to that real estate space, which is really what you're telling me is the secret sauce, and it works, it works, it works for you, it works for a lot of good people out there. So you jumped in if I'm hearing you correctly into the brokerage space because you had your own vision for how you wanted to shape your business and how you wanted to promote it and market. Is that correct? That is correct.

Speaker 2:

And you know as the years went on. You know there's always bumps in the road and things you're learning. You work for yourself. There's a lot of sleepless nights. The grass isn't always greener, don't? I know it, I don't have to tell you but I would say, probably right around 2018, 2019, Monique and I kind of kicked it up a notch with our marketing how we were going to structure this whole social media thing. I didn't have Instagram to 2018.

Speaker 2:

I didn't have it yeah, and you know we yell out let's go all the time. It just means let's go, like you get a lot of people who need to be pushed when you're sitting in that kitchen and they're not sure yet. That being said, it's a fine line because you also have to have a lot of patience. It's an emotional thing for people and we like to understand it. We don't like to just push them, but sometimes it's like hey, you're there, you're close, let's go, it's time.

Speaker 1:

Well, I always say that to agents. It's like you can't be selling all the time, because if people don't need our services today, you can't sales pitch them into buying or selling a home space in their brain, so that when the life changes or which which affects all of us, you know and the need to buy or sell a property comes into play, it's like who am I going to use it's?

Speaker 1:

it's already almost pre-preordained, so to speak so you got to put the work in up front, absolutely to be in that conversation and to you to your point.

Speaker 2:

There's the expression ABC always be closing, yeah, Not so fast. Abkw always be kind and working Okay. And what I mean by that is you have to treat your client. This is like I said. It's an emotional thing for them to sell a house, Right, you have to kind of go through it with them.

Speaker 1:

You do? You have to show them. Hey, I got you.

Speaker 2:

Right, you know, I know that piano is important to you. We're going to figure it out Right, take it easy and you have to. When I say always be kind, always be working, you know every single situation you get. Don't forget your clients, right. If you sell a house for them, take them out to a nice restaurant, right, or take them to a Yankee game. Don't forget their kids' birthdays. Don't forget.

Speaker 2:

And I think that I would tell, like I said, I go back to what I would tell people. What I would tell people getting into this business is um, make sure you're different, right, and make sure you do not forget your community, because what happens is we do a few listings in your community and you forget, they don't forget, right, and they forget you and they and they'll forget you and you're back to being that secret agent again, yeah, and you really can't rest on your laurels in this business because you get, you'll get smoked. So you have to always be kind, yes, consider it. And you always have to be working. Wherever you are, you should be working. Yes, you shouldn't be pitching, you should be working, working on knowing, uh, the names of your clients, children, how they did in the lacrosse tournament. It's's not an act. It should just come naturally Right. Once it becomes an act, they're going to see right through it, correct, and then they're not going to use you.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly. So walk us through. You built your brokerage. You know the Novus Realty Group and this past, you know year, you know three. Me go back a little bit and so far as you've built a pretty impressive group of people and who I've met and some great agents on your team I think we played golf together. We had a good time. They're good salt of the earth people. But you had 23 people in your brokerage and you know you're doing. You know about $80 million a year in sales transactions, which is pretty impressive and growing and even through some bad years.

Speaker 2:

We've done that. Look, I mean, there's probably not enough time in the show to tell you what my team means to me. And in our negotiations, of course, we spoke about that and we spoke about how close we are a family. You know, I can honestly say this prior to becoming Caldwell and even now that we are Caldwell, yeah, we never once had another. I know people are going to listen to this and say no chance. We've never once had another agent, had one agent stab another in the back. Yes, everybody's worked together. Yeah, hey, you know that person. You know what that guy was my little league coach. I had been talking to him a few months ago. We'll share it. Like, do you know what I mean? Like a listing came along that was in question. We've never can you imagine never having an issue in 12 years of a business in this?

Speaker 1:

industry. It's almost impossible. It's a highly competitive business and it's you know. You have type eight personalities that are out there working in the field. It's not so much that they run into each other, it's how they handle themselves when they do. That's the important part.

Speaker 2:

And look, when everything was going down with Colville, we started our negotiations in March. There's always going to be like, oh you know, changes, I don't like change. Yeah, that's been a race so quickly. Your staff I mean everybody over in East Meadow, lori, in Franklin Square, I mean I can't even. You know, you and Tom, you know it's funny. When I first met Tom, your partner, he talked about giving back and how, when he was looking over our numbers, he said, wow, it really impressed me what you give back to your, you know, in Rockville Center and Florida Park and places where we have offices. It really really impressed him and that impressed me.

Speaker 2:

And I have to say anybody listening right now, if you're that guy who's got that small business, who you're fine anyway, even if you're a good salesperson, now you were abc on me that day, this all happened after golf, standing on a patio overlooking the 18th hole, I mean I remember this, you know so, yeah, um, to me it was, it was, it was a great match made in heaven and um you know everybody's happy.

Speaker 1:

Everybody's very happy. Let me ask you a question, so can you walk our audience Sure Through the whole concept of the difference between running a brokerage and the benefits of of running a team and repositioning Novus Realty Group as the Novus Realty team? You know so you obviously saw what we were doing and you're looking towards the future. Ok, so how has it impacted you as well as your team?

Speaker 2:

well, you know I could say this, and you know there's no way I can even answer this question without mentioning monique one more time. Yeah, monique bowman's my, my partner, by the way. Monique is awesome, she's incredible she is.

Speaker 1:

I mean, we know that, everybody knows that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know she's like it's unbelievable because she's like a partner, but but she's also like mommy to everybody, and everybody calls Willow and look, that enables me to do what I do to market, to go to games. I mean, I'm going to a restaurant on Monday night with some clients. We're going to the Yankee game. A week later I have a client I'm taking out today. And I'm not saying that not every other brokerage and team leader doesn't do that. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, when you think you do it a lot, double it. Yeah, because that's where the business comes from.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, to answer your question, having a good dynamic duo so you're not in two places at one time, as you want, correct, all right. Also for us, you know there are stresses that go away with having a team behind you like that, and one of them is you know, we're able to have all of our open houses prepped really, really well. Gail, who was with us originally, who's now going to be becoming an agent, she did an amazing job for us and to have her do that for so many years was so helpful. We've had a bunch over the years that have done that stuff. So now that she's going to become an agent, she'll see how helpful it is in using your team Applying.

Speaker 1:

Applying, applying all the experience that she was exposed to.

Speaker 2:

And I think that we were a little limited in our time that we had to spend on social media in terms of I mean, I don't think there's a deal that goes up that we don't know what everybody at Coldwell Bank is doing all over this area. So it's always nice to see that we can see what everybody else is doing. Even something like this, this podcast, I think it's great. Anybody who's listening right now they have to believe me, None of these answers were pre-rehearsed. This is all coming from the heart. I am so happy we are where we are. You guys were very fair to us and we're to try to give you everything we've got. We know we will. I think it's been a tumultuous rate level that we're at right now, yeah, and I think that's going to get fixed eventually hopefully.

Speaker 1:

You know, I'm kind of curious, like because when we were talking about how the synergies would line up, you know, one of the things that I know we really delved into is the redundancy of trying to duplicate things. Well, whether it's payroll compliance, you know, uh, training, you know. So, having that centralized and being able to plug into those resources, how does?

Speaker 2:

that help you. You know it helps you because every single time we think we need to go over a topic, we'll get an email that says oh, by the way, we're going over this topic tomorrow. It's like you're ahead of the game. Yeah, I'm going to tell you right now. That's where I lacked. Yeah, I wasn't ahead of the game within the, the, the um, I don't say the admin part of it, but more of the, because it's such a good job. I would say the confines of the business, within the confines of the business. It's hard to pay attention because things are changing all the time. We've seen the changes.

Speaker 2:

Oh, man, and then keep getting changing at a faster and faster pace and they are, and I think you know, educating the, educating the agents the way you do, yeah, and for us to be able to educate the clients is a really, really good thing. Our clients never question us yeah, and now that I think with the colwell name behind us, it's going to get even easier. Yeah, when I say never question us, our clients trust us, implicit yeah. And I'll go back to what I said before Nobody ever stabbed each other in the back.

Speaker 2:

Number one, number two we really haven't had a lot of clients who've said no, no, you're wrong, right, do you know? One of the best this is going to sound like an unusual thing for a real estate thing One of the best recommendations we get are from people who didn't hire us. Do you know that? Oh, yeah, I know that sounds crazy. No, I feel you on this. And I've had people call me and say oh, you know what. You sat in front of me, you told me the truth on where we should price it. Yeah, okay, yeah. And we hired somebody else because they came in and told us we were worth a billion dollars and now we've changed the price 15 times. We've had 27 open houses and guess where we sold it Exactly where you said we should have sold it. We would have told them to put it there and price it right and let them fight. We probably would have gotten more money.

Speaker 1:

One of the biggest challenges every realtor faces is that they call it in the industry buying listings right, and you want to be forthright and honest and true and yet you know, sometimes honesty can cost you. So it takes a lot of guts to look a client in the eyes and just stick to the truth, even though you know you're competing against somebody who's throwing numbers out, because they're, yes, people. And then it's hard for a consumer to turn around and say, wow, this other person's telling me a hundred grand more. I really like Sean and I think he's telling the truth, but if he's wrong, he's costing me a hundred grand Exactly right, and it's human nature, by the way, yeah absolutely it doesn't make him a bad person.

Speaker 1:

It's a lot of money to lose if you're wrong, and then what happens is many times it's exactly what you just said.

Speaker 2:

It's a fine a lot to make sure you tell them the truth and you're honest with them. Yeah, it takes a lot more to walk when they don't listen. Yes, because now you got to see the other guy down the road list it, yeah, and you're like all right I lost.

Speaker 1:

I lost market share, exactly. But you know what you didn't, you really didn't, but we've all we've all made.

Speaker 2:

We've all made the mistake right. We've all taken the ones that are too high, exactly, and you end up. You know you're getting burnt. You know you're spending money on marketing. You know you're driving around. I'll be doing a drone video for something.

Speaker 1:

It's just it's and you get this. I've had had this a while back, obviously, and like, these people look at you and it's like well, if you're that good at marketing, what do you mean? You can't get my price. I'm like, look, if I could sell houses for a hundred thousand dollars more than the worth, I wouldn't be in brokerage. I'd just be buying houses at market value and reselling them for a hundred thousand more than the work. Exactly, exactly so it's what I think, but they don't know. People don't understand how our business works, and that's the tricky part. So it's so. It's a matter of operating in that environment and continue to communicate, which is what you well, I love what you really were saying.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's connection and communication to the client. It is true, you have to communicate it to them and, like I said, all times out of 100, they're going to sit and say you know what? We just do what you do. We see what you do. You're getting results. Now, you know, I have several thousand people who follow me on Instagram and Facebook and stuff like that, which, for one person, is a lot. It's fantastic, it's good, and people do know who I am. I've been this crazy my whole life.

Speaker 1:

I mean you know, me too.

Speaker 2:

I mean who I am. I've been this crazy my whole life.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you know me too.

Speaker 2:

I mean right, so like so for me it's almost like, oh, he's just connected from the beginning. Plus, we got the same color hair. So you know, you know it's, it's a um uh. When they know you it's a little bit easier. But I gotta tell you I got a lot of phone calls and, and you know, dms on. I don't even know what a dm was until got Instagram. Now I know my daughter's helped me with that stuff. But I'll tell you what. You get a DM, you get a private message or you get a text message that says, hey, you know, I've seen what you do and I love it. Yeah, we had a guy who was a client of ours a while ago. This was in Wontore and he had this giant pool and we put a big sold sign in big sold sign and I dove through the sold sign. So people might be like, well, what's this guy selling tools? No, but you're looking, aren't you looking?

Speaker 1:

Because when you look oh, by the way, you got about 10 houses for sale down the block when did you get this idea?

Speaker 1:

from One of the things I think is your gift, and we talked about this is that is your focus on marketing your creativity, if I may, and again, when we talked about putting this deal together and you joining the team is taking stuff that drain your hours, like payroll and compliance, because they are just drains of your resources, and like letting with removing that off you, letting you flower and focus on your gift. And now, as you're doing this, where do you come up with an idea that the house has a pool? I'm jumping in? Were you wearing a suit or something? No, I was wearing a bathing suit. Oh yeah, I was definitely wearing a bathing suit.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and, by the way, you got to remember something To make it fun and right. It's only one take. Yeah, you can't be the guy in a wet bathing suit jumping into a pool. That's not fun. You got to look dry.

Speaker 1:

So, it's.

Speaker 2:

You know it's one. Take on that. One Can't mess that one up. No, Look, you know I don't know. The answer is I don't know. Like I said, I've been like this my whole life.

Speaker 1:

You know I've been doing impersonations of people and I do all these. You know I've been a guy breaking chops on everybody. Wait, you do impersonations.

Speaker 2:

I just learned something new I do I do a bunch how much you got any bourbon in this thing. I'll tell you what. There's no bourbon here. Okay, that's my Rodney there we go. That's pretty much it for me. Justin's laughing back there. Justin, I've been doing Rodney Dangerfield since I was about nine years old. My father's like you're not eating Thanksgiving dinner tonight unless you do, Rodney, for the whole table.

Speaker 1:

I say things like hey, hey-old with a running.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my voice is part of it. My point is all you're doing is you have to be yourself in this business, but you have to. I said it 50 times You've got to be different, Be yourself and be different. And if you're the type of person who's scared to step out of that shell, give me a call. I'll help you. If you're from Caldwell the firm, don't call me.

Speaker 1:

Call somebody else. Well, are you entertaining additional recruits? Are you looking to build your team?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, I mean our team, our team that we started with, and of course, I would, you know, and I anybody who's like I said, anybody who's listening, who wants to. You know, just let your hair down, you, just you let it all out the best. This is what I tell people too. There's many people scared to get in front of a video, even their own phone, right, but I tell them, the good news is you're by yourself. So if you screw it up, do it again, right, exactly.

Speaker 2:

You know how many times I have to do a bunch of takes because you know, like, the other day, I was doing this thing. I was, I was doing this thing. I saw this picture on a wall. You'll see it if you look me. So all I did was stick my head in front of him and go. Like the people were cracking up laughing. It got, like, you know, 2,500 views, two listings out of that. Really, well, yeah, because people oh, by the way, again it's back to oh, I thought about you, I was thinking about you, I got to give you a call. I know you're in the business the house too.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, I recently bought a. I had seen this Jeep that I had fixed up. It's got the American flag.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen it. I love it. It's cool, right, yeah, it's. What year is that Jeep? It's a 1991. It's been pretty much fully refurbished and again it's back to that type of stuff. It's a constant reminder. But Wait, the wrap. Tell them about the wrap. Well, the wrap. So the wrap's all American flag day. I got it. It has been. I made sure I had the Novus logo on the back. It's. We were just Novus at the time and I drive to a red light. This is the first day, so I got it at 12 o'clock. By two o'clock I'm at a red light in Valley stream. I get a guy come over. He's got a Marine tattoo on. He goes. I love that Jeep. Follow me. I want you to sell my grandmother's house which we did no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

The lacrosse there's a big lacrosse tournament every year so you help out with that help. Multi-equip yeah, they take the Nets. Booy four is a big company that that sells all the equipment at these things. So the company Buoy Four, these guys borrow our van In Floral Park. If I can mention the Hans Family Foundation, okay, please. We hold them near and dear to our hearts. This is the iconic accident that happened 15 years ago today ironically oh, is it Really?

Speaker 1:

With the three little girls who lost their?

Speaker 2:

lives, yeah, and we're so close with the family, with the Hans family and with Warren and Jackie and their daughter Casey yeah, and everybody involved in the foundation, and they have a huge event every year. They borrow our van for all their events. We actually got the van so we could help out with stuff like that. You know Perfect.

Speaker 1:

It means got the vent so we could help out with stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

You know it means a lot to us. Yeah, it really really does so. Yeah, and they're just wonderful, wonderful people. So, uh, it's just, it's a charity that's so near and dear to us. Ironically, it's 15 years today. I didn't realize that.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, we just started to talk. No, that's awesome, that's awesome. I'm glad you shared that. Um, I want to kind of go backwards a little bit to something. So, um, I'm hearing all about the unique marketing and you can. It's, it's apparent and obvious your personality jumps out off the screen. I'm sure and I'm going back to the nine-year-old Sean who's doing Rodney impersonations and I'm thinking there's a rumor out here that you did commercials when you were a youngster.

Speaker 2:

I did good rumor too. That rumor is true by the way, it's a true rumor.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so it's not just BS.

Speaker 2:

No, it's true, Did you?

Speaker 1:

do more than one commercial or just one commercial.

Speaker 2:

Well, I got a couple of crazy stories. This is great. So I had a very short-lived career. You have to understand something. I was about eight, yeah, but I'm doing the part of a four-year-old, okay.

Speaker 1:

So I could read.

Speaker 2:

I'm like all right, no problem, I was the sizzling bacon kid. Remember that bacon? Yeah, hey.

Speaker 1:

Ma, did you bring home the bacon? Uh-uh, brought home the sizzling. Don't bring home the bacon, think lean. Bring home the sizzling.

Speaker 2:

Evidently they took it off the shelves because it was bad for people's health. So if anybody got sick from that I apologize. I was only seven or eight. I don't think you're culpable. I don't think so. So, yes, I did Sizzling Bacon Ruffles, potato Chips. I did a bunch of commercials, but again, it was easy for the directors that I looked so young. Yeah, you know, I was eight years old and I'm doing these commercials where I'm playing a part of a four or five year old. Yeah, guess what the kids I was auditioning against.

Speaker 1:

They couldn't to this. Yeah, of course my hair's not so red anymore, but yeah, so you know. So how do you get?

Speaker 2:

into commercials at eight years old. I was with my mom. We went into the city with our friend Edie Collins. Her son was doing them, her nephew Ryan was doing them, and the guy goes I heard this kid talking out there, bring him in here. So I went in there, so we start talking and he goes you want to do commercials? I'm like, yeah, do I get paid? That's the first thing I asked. Of course they did pay me a couple bucks and then it just kind of snowballed. We did a lot. I did get this is true, I did get the part for Kramer vs Kramer the movie. Oh really, yeah, my mother wouldn't let me do the movie because we're Roman Catholic and there was a nude scene. So she pulled me the part. They gave it to some other kid, but I don't know, maybe he's got his own real estate company too somewhere else I doubt it though.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, um, so that's true, and then that was kind of, you know, that was again. It's just, you just got to be yourself.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome yeah, that's pretty funny. All right, so before I go any further, um, I just want to remind our viewers again stay for the drop the mic question at the very end and don't forget to like and subscribe. So we talk a lot about playing hard and we've actually touched on this a little bit. Tell us about the. You know the personal life of Sean falling, you know so like well, I'm so.

Speaker 2:

I have a lovely wife. Her name is Kristen. I have three beautiful girls Gracie, katie and Lexi. Yeah, they are, they're incredible and we, you know, we live for them, you know. And again, I think I'll go back to what I said before I I had a great job working in the city. I just didn't want to do it anymore, I didn't want to be. You know, texting was just becoming popular at the time. I remember when I left, like it was it was around but it wasn't as prevalent as it is now.

Speaker 2:

Right, and I I remember being on the train and I'd see all these guys texting like they're so miserable at six o'clock in the morning on the train and I'm like I don't want this, I don't want to do this anymore. So when I left I had all intentions of never, ever, missing anything of theirs and as a father I can honestly say I've never missed a thing. Never missed a softball game, never missed. You know, I have my older one and my younger one. They're dancers. I've never missed anything Great. You know, they dance at Miss Colleen's Elite Dance Studio in Rockville Center and they love it and I've never missed anything of theirs because I know it's important to them and I couldn't do that, I couldn't say that my middle daughter, katie, she's an artist and she's an actress, really so that ham business runs in the family, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Come on getting commercials. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Let's see, she's getting all the. She's getting a lot of the lead, I shouldn't say all the leads. She gets a lot of the leads and she's a great team player.

Speaker 2:

She doesn't get a lead in the park. She's, she's good, you know. So, so, so proud of her, and my wife's just an unbelievable. She's actually, ironically, working at St Francis prep, where I used to work really hard at everything, right, so having a family, making sure you allow enough time for them. I'm the one who gets yelled at for being on the cell phone too much, instead of me yelling at the kids. Unfortunately, just our business doesn't sleep, but it's something that they've grown to sort of understand. But we do a lot. We do a lot with them.

Speaker 1:

We try to make as many memories as possible memories as possible now, with the sheer demand of being in real estate. It's a seven day a week, 24-hour job, as it seems like, and then, of course, the full-time job of being husband, dad, yeah, you know. Um, what does sean foley do for relaxation?

Speaker 2:

you know um, I guess I guess sleep for relaxation right now I'm only kidding. Um, look, I love, uh know, I'm fortunate enough to belong to Hempstead Golf and Country Club where I met you. Yes, which to me, you know that's been, it's been a it's hard to explain because it's such a home. I mean, you know we hold the place near and dear to our hearts both of us. Yes, yeah, and you know that's like another family, you know, and it's been great.

Speaker 2:

I've been fortunate up there to meet so many people who have become such good friends. There was never the real estate pitch. I never bring up real estate there ever. They come to me because they kind of know that I'm very, very in tune with it. But I've had, like Floral Park and Rockville Center, all those friends that were so good to me. I think the clients really appreciate that. They know it's a long day, they know it's sometimes an expensive day and they appreciate that. They look and say you brought me out for a great day, I'm not going to forget you. And again it just comes naturally. What's your handicap down to? Well, now it's up to. I did have my hip replaced last year so I slowed it down a little bit, but I'm up to about an 11.

Speaker 1:

So that's okay, I'll take that All right. Well, you're not working hard enough, because my handicap is way higher than that.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'll be 55 years old on Sunday, so I said if I could business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean what the heck? Blue skies, green grass you can't complain about much, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Hit a bad shot move on.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, you know Exactly. I don't call a bad shot if I hit a bad tree.

Speaker 2:

You hit a bad tree. Yeah, I haven't seen you play yet because we were in different groups the last time.

Speaker 1:

Trees yeah, because I'm find a way to hey this guy's gonna need a tree wood.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean? Yes, uh. So, look, you know, I, as far as me, as what I like to do, I love to do that. I love spending time with my kids and we do a lot of that. Uh, we, every time we do something cool. We call it making a memory. Yeah, I mean. So. My daughter was sick last week. The other two were down in in pennsylvania at a dance competition. She got better and she looked at me "'Can we make a memory and just go right now' I said, let's go. So four hours later I was eating more chocolate bars than the Reese's peanut butter guy. Forget about it. I came home about 20 pounds heavier, but it was great. It was a great time.

Speaker 1:

So let me ask you a different question. Sure, who would you consider has been, like, the biggest influence on your life?

Speaker 2:

I have to say by far my parents. Okay, you know, they you know I gotta tell you, when I was starting to be you know, I started to become an adult. So you call it whatever you know, 19, 20, whatever the real adult is 21,. When you get out of college and you're thinking about what you're gonna do, my father just asked me. He said just do me one favor. Just, you know, and I'm not knocking, coming to police officer.

Speaker 2:

He just didn't want me to do that, you know, cause he was a policeman for so many years and I'm so appreciative of his job, Tough job. And he asked me not to do that and he said but I'll support you in anything you do. My father wanted me to go to wall street when I was 18 years old. I know he is the one who, if I have to sit down and have some sound advice, I know I can sit down with her and I can trust what she's going to give it to me straight and I'm going to trust her. So my parents were absolutely the biggest influences on my life Now.

Speaker 1:

I met your father and he seems to be quite the character also.

Speaker 2:

He's a character. Is that where you get that energy from?

Speaker 1:

I guess so he. I guess so he is a character. I'll tell you that he must have been a wild man in his youth. Call it instinct. I don't know if that's fact, I don't know. I'm louder than he is.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, If you're on the golf course, if you're on the tent pole, you'll hear me on the third hole.

Speaker 1:

That's a fact, by the way.

Speaker 2:

Last Saturday I heard you.

Speaker 2:

That's definitely folly. No, I heard, let's go, let's go. Well, I say that after every ball goes in the hole, so you're going to hear that about 18 times around. But my father is not as loud or wild, but there's an episode. I always compare my father to somebody. There's an episode of Gilligan's Island. Poor Justin probably never even heard of the show he's too young, but he probably has Gilligan's Island. There's an episode where the guy is called Simon the Likeable and every time you meet him you like him. My father is like Simon the Likeable. Yeah, he's a guy who the second you meet him, as soon as you hear his laugh, you instantly love him Contagious.

Speaker 2:

It's contagious, you can see it, he's got like that smile, his body language. Exactly, he just cracks up, there's an aura about him. That's just fun, and my mother is his biggest fan so she laughs right behind them because you know, so it's, it's nice and I'm very blessed. You know, my father's 85 years old, my mother's 79, um. So I'm very blessed to have them both um and I, and I treasure it. I try to, I try to spend as much time with them as I can that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

That's good. I'm glad to hear that. Otherwise I have to, you know, sit you down for a good time you put me in a different color jersey that was another match made in heaven, same color. Yeah, that's pretty good. We're almost the same blue, you know?

Speaker 2:

yes, exactly exactly um very happy, everybody's happy, they really are so good.

Speaker 1:

So let's come back to the charity, because obviously we talk about work hard, play hard and give back and that's the you know real focus. I think we've tried to build a well-rounded agent career and obviously hard work is at the fundamental, but not losing focus on family and personal and who you are personally is important, because with seven day a week job you can lose yourself a little bit and then trying to keep that time with giving back and I know you talked about the Hands Foundation but I know you do a lot of other charity work and stuff Anything else near and dear to your heart.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean I like to share a story about you know. There's a basketball coach named Rick Pitino. He coaches St John's now. Rick's had an incredible pedigree in the game of basketball. Absolutely it's funny. I met Rick at a. It's actually a really great story. If I may, please, please, I met.

Speaker 2:

Rick at a Yankee game in 2003 or 2004. I don't remember the exact year. So we were talking and he took a liking to me and he said you know it's something about you. I took a liking to you. I don't know what it is about you, but you know. So we started talking, we became friends.

Speaker 2:

But I've never done in my life and I went alone because I was supposed to go with my friend, Tommy, who sadly lost his son to SIDS Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Now, I had been telling Coach Patino about this. That night we were just talking. I said that's why I'm alone at the game and I was lucky enough to get up there during a rain delay because my friend, a friend of mine named JJ, got me through there. Long story short, we became friends and he said to me you know, I lost a son to sids. Now, I had forgotten that and I'll never forget the way he treated me. And he said we have a foundation in my son's name, the daniel patino foundation. So I did not know this. Yeah, so they actually pulled the bus over to tell him the bad news in 1987 when he was the coach of providence, right?

Speaker 2:

So that's the other one that I always hold near and dear to my heart and there's always a few. Yes, there's so many, and St Baldrick's and all these, there's just so many. But when you ask me near and dear to my heart, I always think of the Hans family, yeah, and I think of the Patino family, yeah, and there's been some tragedy in my hometown. There's been the Malone girls who passed away. They have a nice thing that they do for them every year. Recently we had this kid, Christopher Pataglia, who passed away. He was a Kellenberg kid. So anytime you hear stuff like and there's so many more, and if I'm leaving anybody out, I really apologize, obviously, but you know we don't rehearse any of these questions, so I'm just giving you what's on the top of mind at the moment. But you know you can't. You have to always make sure that you don't overstep, but you try to help out as much as you can and contribute as much as you can, and sometimes you can't. You know I've had conversations with my friend, Warren Hanson.

Speaker 1:

I said look, you know this year I got to tone understanding. But when you can you do, that's it. Yes, yeah, I, I like that. That's that, I think, is the fundamental truth when you can you do, when you can you do and that's the at the heart of what giving back really is right, absolutely so, that's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate that. All right, good, um, so what I want to do is I want to pivot to the drop the mic question, all right. So here's the drop the mic question. So we, we had a little insight ahead of time about your commercial success as a youth, and so, and we see your marketing today and we say, okay, sean Farley has the opportunity to represent any product on TV in a commercial today. What product are you gonna represent?

Speaker 2:

Hmm, wow, that's definitely a drop the mic question. So I have the opportunity to represent any product. Does it have to be real estate related?

Speaker 1:

No, huh Um that's a drop the mic question for sure. I know it wouldn't be sizzling, it wouldn't be sizzling.

Speaker 2:

I'd get in trouble for that. I don't think it'd be ruffles either. I think I've moved on to the chips that don't get you as heavy. Well, you know what? I'll tell you what. Not that he needs it, because he's already done so. Well, but there's a guy named Mike Rapoli who I went to college with. Mike is the original vitamin water guy and he's gone on to be a success. I think my passion because I'm watching him with his passion it's horse racing. Probably horse racing in some respect.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I lived in an apartment in Floral Park. When I first moved out of my parents' house, I was about 22, I guess 23. I bought a place in Floral Park and every day these old ladies would sit in the courtyard and they'd see me going in and out of the apartment and they were like how'd you do today? I'm like good, great. I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. How was today Good? Then they'd say, like, did you have a lot of mounts today? I'm like mounts. I'm like yeah, I guess. Yeah, a lot of mounts. I had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

Speaker 2:

I know where this is I said yeah, I'm going to go to Saratoga on vacation. So like well, how many horses are you going to be riding? I'm like wait a minute. Do you people think I'm a jockey? They thought I was a jockey. From that moment forward, I fell in love with horse racing. I always wanted to be one by that time, believe it or not, and I'll never say this. By that time I was too tall.

Speaker 1:

I was like 5'7" and I in some capacity. All right, so we'll put your uh name in the hat for belmont park or for the national racing uh nyra is it myr, yeah, I'm in all those hats.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, I'm on all those gambling websites. I love them, um, but yeah, so I guess. Yeah, naira bets. I mean, if I'm up here, brandy, they better pass you know what? Go over to get a check here I mean these guys.

Speaker 1:

Why not? Why not?

Speaker 2:

I'll be your agent uh, if they make bigger horses, maybe I can get up on one. But yeah, that was my dream so I figured I would answer that. So I'm sorry, I stayed so speechless for so long I wasn't.

Speaker 1:

No, I'm glad I didn't think I would ever find you speechless, so I'm amused by that already. So that was worth. It was worth the wait. Good, I'm glad it was worth the wait so okay, I think we're in a good spot here.

Speaker 1:

I just really want to thank our audience for joining us today at the work hard, play hard and give back a real estate podcast. Um, again, please like, subscribe and uh, tune in to our next episode in in, uh, two weeks it drops. Okay, sean, it was great having you on the show today.

Speaker 1:

I really appreciate it yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to be here and share your experience and uh stories with our audience here, and so if anyone our audience wants to reach out and and work with or reach Sean Farley or the Novus Realty team at Coldwell Banker American Homes, where do they find you Well?

Speaker 2:

I mean, we use Instagram, such a great platform, so I'd say just, you know, shoot me a message on Instagram. We're Sean Farley, underscore Novus, underscore Realty. Novus is N-O-V-U-S and it's pronounced Novus, not novice. If you call me novice, just call somebody else. Uh, it just makes it sound like I don't know what we're doing and we know everything that we do. Um, so it's yeah, so it's sean foley, underscore novice, underscore realty, and then you can call our main line is monique's line, it's 914-608-3939, and uh, yeah, I mean, look if anybody's out there and if anybody's out there that's going to get into real estate and you want to be part of a really really good and a really good winning team. I mean, I have to say that with the acquisition, our market share in that area has gone up tremendously right away so it's great, great for you, great for us.

Speaker 2:

No-transcript place. Half of them come back anyway because they're unhappy. So it's, you know so, and we don't lose a lot of people. We've had the same team for great group, really really nice. I mean, you've been out with them. Yeah, you know, it's just a great, great group of people. It really is. And again, I apologize, I couldn't name everybody on the team.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, it's good, it just came to my head. Anyone have a call. You got the office number.

Speaker 2:

Do you want to give it? Yeah, I there. You go there. You have it Surprised. Nobody took that one. We tried for sold. It wasn't available, so we settled for home. Perfect Great day today, though I appreciate being on the show. It was great yes.

Speaker 1:

So great to have you here, buddy. Thank you, mike. All right awesome.