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

S2E7 – From Nine Agents to a National Force: Dan Jacuzzi’s Real Estate Journey

• Coldwell Banker American Homes • Season 2 • Episode 7

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In this episode of Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back – A Real Estate Podcast, host Mike Litzner sits down with Dan Jacuzzi, President and Broker/Owner of The Select Group — one of the top 50 brokerages in the U.S. With over 70 offices spanning six states and both Century 21 and Coldwell Banker brands, Dan brings a wealth of insight into leadership, growth, luxury real estate, and the future of the industry.

From his start in a 9-agent office to managing over 1,700 agents, Dan shares strategies on training, culture, cross-branding, and adapting to trends like AI and clear cooperation. Plus, get a glimpse into his personal passions, community work, and the advice he’d give to his 25-year-old self.

🎙️ Don’t miss this thoughtful, inspiring, and information-packed episode.

Topics include:

  • How to lead across brands and regions
  • Insights into luxury markets like Aspen and Santa Fe
  • Thoughts on AI, agent development & MLS changes
  • Dan’s community philosophy and global impact
  • Travel, skiing, and what fuels his curiosity

👉 Stay for the Drop the Mic questions at the end!

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Speaker 1:

Hi, welcome to the Work Hard, Play Hard and Give Back a real estate podcast. I'm Mike Litzner, broker owner of CoWO Banker American Homes, and I'm here at the studio at American Homes in Franklin Square with none other than Dan Jacuzzi, president of the Select Group Realty right, Both co-branded as Century 21 and CoWall Banker, with 70 offices.

Speaker 2:

That's correct, Of course. How many states are we in?

Speaker 1:

Six, six states. So, dan, welcome to the show. First and foremost, so happy to have you here, especially since you're based in Reno, nevada. So he had a long commute here to sunny downtown Franklin Square, but glad you were able to make you here, especially since you're based in Reno Nevada. So he had a long commute here to sunny downtown Franklin Square. So but glad you were able to make the trip. Buddy, happy to be here, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Awesome.

Speaker 1:

So I just want to remind our audience if you like our episodes, don't forget to like, subscribe and stay around to the end for the drop the mic question. It's always a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

So Dan, let me jump right in here.

Speaker 1:

You've built an incredible legacy across both Century 21 and Coldwell Bankers. As a broker owner, how did your journey in real estate really begin?

Speaker 2:

Well, actually my father was a real estate broker and I got my real estate license at 18, started selling real estate at 19. Turned out that I loved the business and he didn't Really so quite a few years ago, when we were a nine-agent company. I acquired it from him in 1980.

Speaker 1:

Okay, just a couple of years ago, just a couple of years ago. Yeah, so you had nine agents at that time. How many agents in the company now? 1,700 today. Okay, there you go, and I know this puts you on the risk media rankings, which is a national rankings. Where does that rank? Where does the select group rank?

Speaker 2:

One of the top 50 companies nationwide on any brand.

Speaker 1:

Any brand exactly, which is incredible, because I know you also rank in both Century 21 and Coldwell Bankers. Are you in the top 10 in both? We are in the top 10 in both, which is a huge, huge statement when you're talking about the, you know, multinational corporations and stuff of operations. So I don't know if another broker out there has such a unique footprint as the select group. I think that's probably true. Yeah, yeah, so you started in Sacramento, California, and then was it? The Nevada. Reno was the second market that you really or area or state.

Speaker 2:

Yes, actually we started in a small farm town called Yuba City, california, which is about 40 miles north of Sacramento, and just really been incrementally expanding out from there, and then acquired a company and joined the Coldwell Banker brand in 1998. Okay, and so it's been growing up ever since then and we've just had a great run and enjoyed every minute of it.

Speaker 1:

As long as you're having fun right, absolutely Well, we all know there's good years and crazy years, so you have to enjoy the ride, both the good and the bad. Right, yes, you do. All right. So, as one of the largest independently owned real estate companies, what do you think has been key to sustaining that type of growth?

Speaker 2:

You know it boils down to two things honesty and integrity. Every time, you know, put the client's interests ahead of your own all the time, and recognize that we're in the business of helping agents be successful, helping agents grow their careers, and they're the ones that really deliver the service to the consumer, and so our job is to train them to the best possible way, give them the tools they need to succeed and support them. But it all goes back to honesty and dealing with the customer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that a lot. I like it a lot. You know, it's interesting because we often talk about what our training position is and some people think we get paid to sell things and I'm like, no, we get paid a lot of money to help people, essentially right.

Speaker 3:

It's a different completely different mindset when you come from a place of money to help people, essentially right. Yes, that's absolutely true.

Speaker 1:

It's a completely different mindset when you come from a place of helping and giving. It's a service business right instead of a sales business.

Speaker 2:

You know, one of the things that we say is actually we don't sell homes, sellers sell homes, buyers buy homes. We help facilitate the process. So we're not actually selling, we're facilitating.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well said. So you've successfully managed multiple brands under the select group umbrella. How do you maintain brand integrity while fostering collaboration across the company? You?

Speaker 2:

know it's really interesting Part of it is that we don't have the same brands in the same communities. So most of our offices in California are within the Century 21 family, and it works very well for us. And then, as you go, east Lake Tahoe, northern Nevada we're in northern New Mexico, colorado, idaho and Wyoming. Those are all Coldwell Banker offices and so we have strong brand identity in each of our markets. But we do do a lot of joint training together. And then once a year we have what we call our Select Summit, which is really our company convention, where 600, 700 of our agents will all come together for two days of fun and learning in Reno, nevada, and so we enjoy that and it helps bring the whole company together. But once again, with the brand cohesiveness, we're working in different markets. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So you're not competing head-to-head in a market you know coal and century across the street? Yes, absolutely not. Yeah, so completely adjacent. Now, how do you figure out which markets to put what brand in? Does the office kind of find you, does the brand find you, or do you strategically leverage each brand according to the marketplace you're going into?

Speaker 2:

Some of it's strategic but some of it's just geography. So we started within the Century 21 family and so within the Central Valley of California, we've just we started within the Century 21 family and so within the Central Valley of California, we've just kept growing within the Century 21 family, and now we have all of the Century 21 offices, from Fresno to Chico, for those people who know that geography. And so when we've had an opportunity for a merger and acquisition, it just made sense to keep it within the Century 21 family and acquisition, it just made sense to keep it within the Century 21 family. And then it's the opposite situation, where we have significant Coldwell Banker presence and so when we might have had the opportunity to do a merger and acquisition in those markets, then we just rolled them into the Coldwell Banker company.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So now, when we said six different states, we touched on Nevada and California. By the way, just for clarity, you mentioned New Mexico, colorado, idaho and Wyoming, and Wyoming also. Now, that's right, okay. So I wasn't sure. Is it a price point or is it a different type of, like a luxury market slash, second home market? Does a brand more resonate in a specific market at all?

Speaker 2:

So we do find that the Coldwell Banker brand tends to be viewed as more luxurious brand. The Century 21 brand is more of a middle market brand and actually, when you look at our footprint, where we have the Coldwell Banker offices tend to be some of the more expensive areas. You know, we're in a number of really fabulous ski towns Colorado, right, oh well, even Santa Fe, new Mexico, taos, new Mexico but Breckenridge, vail, aspen, colorado and so those are really high-end luxury markets.

Speaker 1:

What's your highest-end luxury market, which is, say, by average, by salesperson?

Speaker 2:

Oh, definitely Aspen Colorado. It is. There's a saying about Aspen that Aspen is where the truth is stranger than fiction and the prices are really very interesting in that marketplace.

Speaker 1:

What would you consider an average sale in Aspen, Colorado, just for our audience. I'm in real estate and I can't answer that off the top of my head, so I'm curious.

Speaker 2:

I think the median sale price is $8 million, but the average would be well over $10.

Speaker 1:

Wow, all right. What's the highest price property? An agent from Select Group has handled Over $50 million, wow, wow. So what would you say to our audience or agents who wanted to specialize in a global luxury marketplace? Is there any advice you can share with our agent populations out there that watch the show about how to position, or maybe how the brand helps you position, in those type of markets?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think the brand does position you type of markets. Well, I think the brand does position you and I think the very first thing to do is to take the luxury classes that the brands are offering, because they have really amazing classes. And I think it is different selling a luxury home as a discretionary purchase. It's not your typical family home that you're buying because you need a place to live. It's something you're buying. In many cases, many of our markets, they're second homes, so people are paying really significant amounts of money for second homes. It's also very important that you learn the actual products. Do you know the difference in appliances and windows and different floor coverings? So do you actually understand the luxury product? Because it's not the same as what you might find in a traditional home that someone's paying $500,000 for Right right.

Speaker 1:

So wall-to-wall carpeting is not exactly a luxury feature per se.

Speaker 2:

No, it's definitely not.

Speaker 1:

Is there anything unique you've seen in some of these luxury properties? What's one? You know helipads. You know what's the most unique thing you see on a real high-end property.

Speaker 2:

There are some helipads, but a number of the communities have banned the helipads because they're a little bit obnoxious for the neighbors. Oh yeah, when it comes in. But it is interesting when you go by the airport and you see all of the private jets parked on the runway, yeah and so. But great wine rooms, video rooms, um amazing built-in technology, yeah, so lots of um lots of really fun and interesting things that make those houses unique. Yeah, yeah, unique.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Just for context now, I know Tommy and I were excited a number of years back when we finally broke the billion dollar mark in sales, and you know. So now we've grown our company, we've broken the three billion dollar mark. But what is the select group's sales volume per se on average here the last couple of years? Sales volume per se on average here the last couple of years.

Speaker 2:

Well, we've actually grown through some significant acquisitions recently. So in 2025, we'll be above $6 billion $6 billion.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's significant, significant. That's a lot of real estate. I don't know if the average person realizes how significant it is. Do you ever think, when you started out with the nine agents, that you were going to be running a company and selling more than $6 billion of real estate a year? Absolutely not. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's a little mind-boggling, right. Our first full year in business we did about as much in commission volume as in a year, actually less than a year than now we do in a day, yeah, so that's a little insane.

Speaker 1:

That's a little insane. That's a little insane, but I guess that's inflation a little bit too. We'll chalk it up to both ways. So you've always been ahead of the curve when it comes to that innovation. So what changes in the industry are you most excited or concerned about right now?

Speaker 2:

You know, I think we're excited about what artificial intelligence is going to do and how that will impact real estate going forward. Yeah, and there'll be some interesting changes. Now we do not believe that artificial intelligence is ever going to replace the agent on the street. Yeah, this is still a personal service business. We feel it always has been, we feel it always will be. People only buy or sell, typically, you know, two to five houses in a lifetime. Yeah and so, and every time that you do that, it's different than the time it was before. Yeah and so having a professional guide you through that we think is always going to be important. Yeah, but artificial intelligence will certainly add a component to that. We're concerned about what's called clear cooperation and how that might change real estate in the future.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's been a big buzz lately, right In the headlines of real estate.

Speaker 2:

Big buzz in the headlines. You know, historically well, for probably the last 50 years really, the vast majority except super high-end houses may have been done on a private sale basis, but most homes were put into the multiple listing service and everybody could see them in a single location Right. And there is a move now toward breaking that apart and having a series of private networks where all of the listings might not be displayed in a single place, and it is interesting to see how that might impact on the whole industry and consumers who might be looking for their next.

Speaker 1:

I was gonna. I was gonna ask you about the consumer effect, more than the realtor effect at that. So consumers are used to being able to go online now and find properties and search and, you know, filter accordingly. So how do you think this is really going to impact consumers?

Speaker 2:

Well, if it breaks apart into a series of private networks, that means that the consumer is either going to have to take the time to search multiple places to be able to see all of the inventory, or they're going to engage with the professionals that are going to do all that work for them, but it will make the home search process more complicated.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, what do you feel like the biggest motivating factor? That's pushing that agenda.

Speaker 2:

Well, one particular company, I think, is trying to do more in-house sales rather than broadening the market. We don't feel that that's actually in the best interest of consumers. They think it's in their best interest, but we don't believe it's in the consumer's best interest, Right?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's one of the things I think our audience because some of our audience is licensed, so to speak.

Speaker 2:

We track a pretty big agent population, but some of it is just consumers interested in real estate and we have an obligation when we work with somebody fiduciary responsibility, right, I think we have a fiduciary responsibility to do the best job we can for our seller and I think that anytime we might limit the exposure of a listing, we might not be actually doing the best possible job we could do on behalf of that seller.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we have to balance good business practices with fiduciary responsibility. So it's a little bit of a slippery slope this whole private network agenda. Would you agree with that thought process?

Speaker 2:

I think it's very much a slippery slope, and we also believe it can have a fair housing component. We want to make sure that, regardless of who you are or what you are, that you have access to any house that's for sale, so that there's no question that everyone is being treated equally and fairly.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely no. I like that For our audience. Do you want to describe what we're part of? A brainstorming group called the PAC? Do you want to describe what that organization is?

Speaker 2:

Well, that actually is why I'm here in New York today, because I've been a member of what's called the Century 21 PAC group since 19,. Well, 23 years. So we'll just have to do the math. Yeah, 19, well, 23 years. So we'll just have to do the math. But now it's not just Century 21, because we have American Homes. Who was Century? 21, but now Coldwell Banker. And then, of course, we're a dual branded company, so two of us are different. The rest of the members of the group are Century 21.

Speaker 1:

D'Amico is now co-branded also.

Speaker 2:

Oh, there's a third one. Yeah, so, but this is a group that came together 23 years ago to brainstorm together, to learn best practices and help every one of us grow by learning from each other, and it's been a fabulous 23 years of learning and growing together.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and just again for our audience, it's a brainstorming group with best practices, not run by the brands, but all the members are branded as franchise operations, multi-office operations. I think the best and strongest component tell me if you agree with this is that we're in non-competing markets so we could get together and share best practices without feeling threatened.

Speaker 2:

The various companies that are members are from across the entire United States, from the West Coast to the East Coast, but, as Mike just said, we're not in the same market so we're not on top of each other, so that if we are sharing something that might help us be a stronger and more competitive company, it doesn't make us feel like we're helping our next-door neighbor competitor.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So having been part of the PAC group for 23 years, I really have to ask what's something you've learned from your peers that has helped you grow your business?

Speaker 2:

You know it's hard to pinpoint one individual thing. There's a lot, Because it's been hundreds and hundreds of small things. Yeah. So I don't know if any one particular thing stands out, but one of the things perhaps that does stand out is everyone likes to say well, in our town it's different and there are always small differences, but the similarities across the country of people. We're dealing with humans, we're dealing with families, and so there's more similarities than differences.

Speaker 1:

We're dealing with agents and their challenges. Yes, you know training issues, so there's so many similarities when you really get into it, I think there's more similarities than differences, Absolutely. You know, one might be selling a $500,000 house and one might be selling a $52 million house, but even in that the product's slightly, obviously noticeably different. But the process.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot. Well, you're still dealing with human emotion. Yeah, and buying and selling a home definitely can be an emotional situation.

Speaker 1:

You're preaching. You're preaching. So you've been a vocal advocate for agent support and development. So what does serving agents at a high level really mean to you and development.

Speaker 2:

So what does serving agents at a high level really mean to you? Well, first it's making sure that they have all the knowledge to be able to truly serve their clientele in a positive way. And then it's helping them with their marketing, with their outreach, with client follow-up, staying in touch so that over time they're able to just grow their career. We're in a people business. So once again I want to say it starts with knowledge. You have to have the knowledge to serve people, but once you know what you're doing, you need to have somebody who'd want you to serve them. So it's a combination of knowledge and marketing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now with such a diverse Now, with such a diverse geography where your agents are, how do you handle training agents? You know 1,700 agents across. How many hundreds of miles are they apart?

Speaker 2:

Oh, over 1,000. Oh yeah, there you go. So well. We certainly do a lot of Zoom training. You know, certainly the COVID situation changed. Zoom was already a company before COVID, but the adoption just truly happened at that and it has continued ever since. We still do a lot of live training, so our trainers actually will fly to various locations and we do a lot of one-on-one, because people learn in different ways and not everybody really learns well, you know, watching a tv screen yeah and so putting an instructor in a room with people we find is still very, very important yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 1:

I always say this. The challenge with training agents, or really any type of learning for our audience is we tend to look at one side of learning and skip the other side. So I will look at it this way Always the information where can I go? I kind of go to a training class and get information, but what's really missed is what did I learn and how I'm going to apply it, application, it's implementation absolutely yeah, so that's that to me is this is more of the secret sauce.

Speaker 1:

So half the time I'm trying to get agents to show off for the information and then, you know, I always find that they come out of the the session and they're, they go back, they whip the phone out, that you know and they're go back to doing what they always did. And it's like, how do you get them to stop Stop?

Speaker 2:

you know, and they say you know what did you learn?

Speaker 1:

How are you going to change your business model?

Speaker 2:

How are you going to implement it? You know I have an analogy. I say that a lot of real estate training is like teaching children how to swim on the side of the pool, and then the instructor says, okay, kids jump in and swim. And I'm going to go get a cup of coffee. And if we taught our children how to swim that way we'd have a lot fewer children. But I think so actually getting out and field training, I think, is important, really helping people be able to implement what they're learning. I can't remember the individual who made the quote, but he said that knowledge without application is worse than ignorance, and so application is what matters.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's where the rubber hits the road, as they say right. So what advice would you give to someone who wants to build a business culture that balances success and service?

Speaker 2:

You know, it really starts with service. No one's going to refer you or recommend you if you didn't do a great job of taking care of them. And service is interesting because quality services is not defined by the agent, it's defined by the recipient of that service. You know, one of the things that we say is you know how can you tell when your client doesn't think you're updating them frequently enough? And the answer is when they're calling you and asking for an update. Right, right. And so building a business really starts with delivering really great quality service. And it's not just achieving expectations, it's exceeding expectations, so that people aren't just happy with your service or satisfied with your service, but they're thrilled with your service.

Speaker 2:

And that's what leads to them recommending you to their friends and relatives.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there was a book that was going around a couple of years ago and talked about the difference between what businesses actually measure the most common metric they're using is customer satisfaction and he was saying that we're measuring the wrong thing. As business people, we should be talking about, or measuring, customer true success, like, as you said, exceeding their expectations, because if you can get raving fans of your business and your work style, you know they will build your business for you and Mike.

Speaker 2:

I think that was the name of the book Raving Fans.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, we'll have to Google this afterwards, but maybe we get a plug for the author of that book. So it was a good read. I do remember. It's definitely several years ago, but it was a really good read. So, Dan, I just want to remind our audience real quickly. If you like the podcast we'd love to have you like subscribe hit that button and again, don't forget to stay around for the drop the mic question at the end. So, Dan, I want to pivot a little bit. Like you know, we we always like to play hard. I mean, you know real estate is super serious and sometimes it's hard to shut it off. But you know there's, there's a human side to us. Um, so you run a massive real estate enterprise enterprise. When you're not working, what do you do to unwind or recharge you?

Speaker 2:

You know, actually I love to work, so I have to say that real estate is my number one hobby in life, and so that works really well for me because I love what I do. But my two other things are traveling and I'm snow skiing, and so wintertime I love to be out on the mountain and the rest of the year I love to be traveling.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, where's the most interesting place you've traveled to?

Speaker 2:

Oh, last year we did a safari in Africa and I have to say for anybody, if you have the opportunity to go on a safari in Africa, take it. Yeah. It was awesome, it is awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I've never been to Africa was awesome. It is awesome. Yeah, I've never been to africa, so I am going to the greek islands this summer, though, so, although I've been to the greek islands and they're fabulous too yeah, good, good, I'm excited about it. So I know california, nevada, are beautiful places, as some of the other places in carter as well. Do you have a favorite spot that helps you reconnect it?

Speaker 2:

or and or reset well, I love being up in my mountain house, so I have to say that that's particularly nice, but otherwise, when is? That it's Truckee, california, which is near Lake Tahoe. Okay, but I never feel really overwhelmed just because this is what I love to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Let me ask you this you have deep roots in the business, obviously, but what's something you've tried recently that was totally outside your comfort zone?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's interesting. I think some of it is really getting into AI and how that's actually working and in some ways, it's a little bit scary how knowledgeable if you will chat, gbt actually is. If you will chat GBT actually is it can make mistakes. It still needs some human intervention, but it is actually phenomenal how you could actually talk to chat GBT and have it talking back to you as if you were speaking with a human, and it's a little bit scary how knowledgeable it actually can be, yeah, intimidating, right, oh, it can be intimidating.

Speaker 1:

So, dan, if you weren't in real estate, if there was a completely different career or path you would have taken. What would Dan Jacuzzi be doing these days?

Speaker 2:

We know it probably just ties into real estate because it might have been financial planning, and I think a great realtor actually should be part of your professional set A realtor, financial planner, an insurance agent, maybe an attorney and so we're part of that and I love being part of that.

Speaker 2:

You like being part of that professional planning, you know you know, when we look at america, for most americans their greatest wealth is their home yeah and one of the things that I've believed my entire career is for many americans, the difference between a really nice retirement and a rather stressful retirement financially is do you have a paid-for house? Yeah. And I've believed for years that every American should have a goal of getting their house paid for during their working years and having a paid-for house in retirement.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's great advice. There's trends that come and go and maybe it fluctuates with interest rates. There's trends that come and go and maybe it fluctuates with interest rates, but when rates drop down, the refinance boom starts. But I think the dangerous part refinancing economically, you're improving your payment slash. Interest rate positioning is one thing, but when they start with these cash-out refis, I feel like too many people use their equity, their home equity, as like an ATM machine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they turn their home equity into a boat or a motorhome. You know I used to say that if you take a second mortgage to buy a car, buy a big car, because if it doesn't work out you might be sleeping in it.

Speaker 1:

In some ways that's funny as hell funny. But in some ways it's not funny because it might hit a little too close to home for some people. No pun intended. So you have a bucket list experience. Um, Is there something that you're still hoping to check off that list?

Speaker 2:

You know I've done some really fun bucket list things. You know, 12-day raft trip down the Grand Canyon Africa was definitely, you know, a bucket list thing and I've traveled quite a bit in Southeast Asia, but I haven't been to China or Japan, so those are very much still on my list.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, those are very different cultures. What's something most people wouldn't know about you or would be surprised to learn, like maybe that or maybe. What hidden talent does Dan Jacuzzi have?

Speaker 2:

You know, I think my hidden talent might be just absolute curiosity, you know, so, um, I like everything from you know the ballet to um monster trucks, okay, and uh, and things like you know um the trip down the grand canyon. Or I went to um burning man in nevada and really people say, really you went to Burning man and I said it's interesting and I think everyone should go one year, yeah. But so I'm just curious about everything having to do with the world we live in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what I like that it's. It's probably like this burning desire to learn you know uh huh. So which is that's it? That's a really healthy way to channel that inner energy that we have sometimes in a really positive way, we should never stop learning, because the world around us never stops evolving. Oh yeah, they say that as soon as you think you know everything. When you stop learning, that's when you're in trouble.

Speaker 2:

Of course I do worry that, since I did know everything when I was 17, so the amount of stuff I've forgotten since then is really rough. But other than that things are good.

Speaker 1:

There you go. Let's say we were going to turn Dan Jacuzzi's career into a Netflix docuseries. What's the title and what's the opening scene?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's a really tough question. Yeah, you know it's interesting. I don't know, the opening scene might be when I started my career in real estate with shoulder-length hair and you really wonder who bought a house from this 19-year-old with shoulder-length hair, and so it's been a long evolution of the years. But sometimes, you know, everyone in America seems to want to get rich quick today. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I'm a believer that getting rich in America is actually not that difficult if you're willing to spend a lifetime working on it, and most people are not spending a lifetime working on it. Yeah, lifetime working on it. Yeah. And you know, there's the old fable about the tortoise and the hare. And the tortoise won the race because they just kept moving forward continuously and in the end they won yeah, no, it's, it's uh great advice, great advice.

Speaker 1:

So I I don't know we got that. I'm uh the answer on that, so come on so what's? What's the title of the movie? What movie most would resemble you? Oh, the truman show. It would be dirty harry no, it wouldn't be.

Speaker 2:

It wouldn't be either one of those and and it wouldn't be the godfather either, although I have to say I love those movies when they first came out exactly. But, um, I just don't know that one pops into mind of what that title might be all right.

Speaker 1:

So what actor? What actor plays Dan Jacuzzi?

Speaker 2:

It's not going to be Brad Pitt for sure, probably somebody who's not that famous.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

So it's more like a documentary.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm always happy to be in the background doing the work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's all right. Look, there's a lot of value in that that's. You know, it's in the grind where results come from. All right, so the Select Group has a strong culture of community involvement. What causes or initiatives are you personally passionate about? You know?

Speaker 2:

so we focus all of our community involvement on being very, very local. You know so we focus all of our community involvement on being very, very local. The people of our local communities helping disadvantaged children have the advantages that they're missing out on. You know, one of the things that I read some time ago and you have to stop to think about it it's very true is that with middle class, maybe wealthier families, the learning never stops because maybe on a school holiday they're traveling.

Speaker 2:

But for um children in um of lesser means, yeah they're don't have those same opportunities and their world can be very small. Um, I had a friend of mine who was teaching high school in San Diego, three miles inland from the ocean, to children in high school who had never seen the ocean. Really, that's surprising. It's surprising and a little scary at some level.

Speaker 2:

And so you know, exposing everyone to the opportunities of this world so that you don't think that you can't be successful yourself yeah you know, and then we do some work overseas simply because we, as americans are, are particularly, you know, lucky to be americans, and I can tell you, traveling in africa, yeah, you know, you see poverty that you will never see anywhere in America growing up. And so we do work with two overseas groups Heifer International, which helps people build sustainable farming communities, and Doctors Without Borders, which is helping people across many, many countries around the world, and so we do need to remember that we are lucky to be Americans.

Speaker 1:

That's great advice and sometimes in society you know that gets drowned out and we need to remind ourselves how lucky we really are. So how do you instill a spirit of giving back across all the offices and teams that you lead, especially with the vast differences?

Speaker 2:

You know, I think it's just people observing. Most people actually, I think, have a charitable you know bone in them somewhere, and so you just try to find ways to enhance that. You know, as we have grown as a company and in many cases we have acquired other companies, other companies, yeah, and one of the things that I always do is I ask what has that office been supporting what? What do they like to do? And we try to sustain in the those communities that we may be new to the things that that company has been sustaining in the past, and so everything from, you know, scholarship funds to buying band uniforms, whatever it takes to help our communities.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. So what's one moment in your career where you saw the impact of your leadership ripple out to the lives of others?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's an interesting question, you know. I don't know that I could again describe a particular moment, but what we have talked about in our company is recognizing, you know, your individual potential, but also recognizing you know my comment about it taking time to grow actual security and wealth to grow actual security and wealth and you have to work on it, and so I've taught that for years is to help people to understand that it's a process, it's not an event. You know, everybody wants to get rich quick. Forbes magazine many years ago came out with a book series that just didn't sell, which was something like Get Rich Slowly. But that's the reality. Older Americans have more money than young Americans, partly because they've had a lifetime to build on it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so the question is are you actually working on being successful? That's interesting.

Speaker 1:

So what's your vision for how real estate companies can make a bigger impact beyond just sales and service? Is there any advice you can give other brokers out there who wanted to make a bigger impact in charitable endeavors?

Speaker 2:

You know, I think it's just you want to involve your whole organization in the process, because oftentimes we see that it's a small group of people perhaps who take the lead. And I think that just getting trying to get the whole organization involved in the process of giving back to the community and recognizing that this is the community in which we live, and so are we helping that community be a better place to live and a more prosperous place to live, you know, by helping those people who maybe don't have the advantages that our children might have yeah, yeah, it's one of the things I've always noticed and that I was find it, you know, almost interesting.

Speaker 1:

But exciting is that many times our most successful fundraisers or events are because a larger group of people come together. So it's never anything that's super difficult or heavy lifting, so to speak, but because of the collective group it has a more major economic impact and usually it's doing something fun. Major economic impact and usually it's doing something fun, like we do things like night at the races or the horse racing, you know, or casino night, we've done, and all of these type of things, and I always find myself a little surprised. I'm like people are walking out that door going man, we had so much fun tonight. It was like, oh yeah, and we raised $40,000. Right, it's a great combination. Yes, exactly, exactly. Dollars for right, it's a great combination. Yes, exactly, exactly. So I always like to share that because sometimes, if we think about a charitable endeavor as a singular event, it's, it's almost overwhelming. But when you can get the collective behind it, all of a sudden you can move mountains, so to speak absolutely.

Speaker 2:

You know there's this um saying that team is anachronism, for together everyone achieves more yeah and that's very true with charitable work.

Speaker 1:

It's true in life yes, absolutely great, great stuff. I just want to remind our audience to please like and subscribe to our channel and remember we have some upcoming interviews that are really incredible, that you really want to be here for. So it's time for the drop the mic question. We always like to have a little bit of fun come out a little bit different, so let me ask you this If you could go back and give 25-year-old Dan one piece of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 2:

Actually it would be have more fun. I spent a lot of time working in those years and I think I have developed a saying that says you know you get old and you die, whether you had fun along the way or not, so have more fun.

Speaker 1:

That's a great answer. I like that. I like that and my crew really wrote this. I swear I didn't write this. Other questions. It's a part two that dropped the mic question.

Speaker 2:

It says and finally, what's one thing about Mike Glitzner that you've always admired but never told him until now? You know Mike is a really fun guy and he enjoys life all the time. Every time I've been around you and watched you just interact with people. You love people. You love life.

Speaker 1:

You have a lot of fun, so you want me to be the mentor for 25-year-old Dan, is what you're saying? That wouldn't be a bad thing. 25-year-old Dan and 25-year-old Mike would have a lot of fun together. Oh, I think we would have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly. We've had a lot of fun being older than 25.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly, exactly so that one time in Vegas, but no, we can't go there. So, dan, if anyone's interested in you know, either a career in real estate or talking to Dan Jacuzzi.

Speaker 2:

How do they find Dan Jacuzzi? You know my email is djacuzzi J-A-C-U-Z-Z-I at selectgrouprecom. I'd be happy to give someone advice on real estate. I might just take a second and say just remember that this is a career, it's a job. It takes effort and work. I think too many people feel like real estate is easy. I do say that it's not easy, but it's also not rocket science. If you work hard you can be successful. But don't think it's not a job, because it really is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is absolutely great advice. And what's the website too? If they want to check out homes in Aspen, colorado, they can find them on the Select Group website.

Speaker 2:

You can find them on selectgroupcom, but in that particular one, the name of our company, there is Coldwell Banker, mason Morriscom. Okay, okay. All right, great, and the Select Group URL is Well, actually it's all individual urls, so century21selectgroupcom, coldwellbankerselectcom, um coldwellbankermountainpropertiescom and coldwellbankermasonmorriscom, you know if I had 70 offices.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if I could remember all the urls either, so it seemed like that was the only question you struggled on today, so it's all good. So, dan, I Dan I want to thank you for being part of the Work Hard, play Hard and Give Back a real estate podcast. You've been a great interview and an inspiration Again. A lot of years of experience here and some real great nuggets of wisdom here for anyone who's interested in real estate. So thank you so much for being here. Well, mike, it's been fun. Thank you Awesome.