Navigating the Real Estate Landscape with Eric Lowry

Summary

In this episode, Eric Lowry shares his journey in real estate, discussing the challenges and successes he has faced over 26 years.

He emphasizes the importance of helping others, the mindset of an entrepreneur, and the necessity of having systems and processes in place to ensure long-term success.

The conversation also touches on lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis, the current market dynamics, and the value of networking and building relationships.

Eric reflects on his greatest successes and failures, providing insights for both new and experienced agents.

Takeaways

Real estate is about helping people and making a difference.

The entrepreneurial mindset is crucial for success.

You must roll up your sleeves and work hard, especially in tough markets.

Building a team requires knowledge and preparation.

Success is not just about awards but about personal growth.

The 2008 financial crisis taught valuable lessons about resilience.

Current market challenges require more effort and strategy.

Systems and processes are essential for sustainable growth.

Networking with successful individuals can accelerate your learning.

Time is more valuable than money; prioritize it wisely.

Sound Bites

"What got you here won't get you there."

"You can't get time back."

"No one succeeds alone."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Technical Difficulties

03:45 Eric Lowry's Journey to Real Estate

08:33 The Market Does Not Determine Success

16:00 The Rewards of Helping People

18:16 Surviving and Succeeding in the Financial Crisis

24:31 The Value of Comfortable Quality T-Shirts and Peaks and Valleys in Business

26:49 This Year's Market and the Changing Seasons

29:39 Being a Leader and Learning from Failures

31:46 The Importance of Being in the Right Room with the Right People

37:18 Building a Successful Business with Systems and Processes

44:11 The Impact of Systems and Processes on Personal and Family Life

46:56 The Significance of Time Management and Prioritizing Relationships

50:43 The Power of Leverage in Business

52:26 R.E.A.L. Podcast outro.mp3

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Transcript

Eric Lowry (00:00)
producer.

Shane Kilby (00:01)
This coming from the guy, Eric, swear, he can never hear when he comes on here. If Mike's messed up, his lighting's messed up, his computer is not plugged up, it's just always, I missed out by not being on here earlier because it's always a shit show. It's comic relief watching Dwayne.

Duane Murphy (00:24)
He took away my 30 minutes of

trial and error today. To all of sudden just throw the guest on the screen in front of me. Like, hey, here we go.

Shane Kilby (00:34)
Well, so...

Eric Lowry (00:34)
It looks like a good setup

though, man. Look, I mean, he looks good. He's got the backdrop, right? Like it looks, but yeah, come on.

Shane Kilby (00:44)
So we shoot these every Wednesday morning and we do jump on about 30 meters or so ahead and just work out any technical difficulties. Because when you're doing a virtual podcast, it's a few more technical aspects to it. But the flexibility of it, it allows you to tap into a huge network of guests and in not being so cost prohibitive to do so.

Eric Lowry (01:01)
Sure. Yep.

Shane Kilby (01:14)
And, and so this was, this kind of threw us off because, know, I tried to book you last week, double book you last week and this week, and then, and then trying to accommodate, trying to make it work your schedule too. no, that's fine. Actually, Duane was supposed to have an AM guest as well. And he dropped the ball on that because he's ass grabbing, putting sheetrock up or them insulating some shed or something.

Eric Lowry (01:26)
Sorry about that.

Duane Murphy (01:38)
I

asked for a written proof of that conversation and...

Eric Lowry (01:42)
He's changing out lighting fixtures in his bare feet.

Shane Kilby (01:46)
Yes, yeah, what he fails to remember.

Duane Murphy (01:48)
That wasn't that

was not a wise move

Eric Lowry (01:51)
No.

Duane Murphy (01:54)
That was not a wise move. I escaped that pretty good though. One gash on the foot, couple of glass shards.

Shane Kilby (01:56)
Did you get any glass in your feet?

Were you in those damn Nike slides or whatever?

Duane Murphy (02:07)
No, I wasn't on in anything. was legit barefoot.

Shane Kilby (02:13)
Man, you're OSHA's worst nightmare. Our greatest meal ticket. One or the other. Or both. All right, so we're going to get started today. So we are here on the Real Podcast, Real Estate Agent Life Podcast. We are shooting with a good friend in the business, our guest today, Mr. Eric Lowry. Welcome brother, how are you?

Duane Murphy (02:21)
More golf.

Eric Lowry (02:40)
Great, thanks. It's great to see both of you guys. I'm thrilled to be here. Don't get to see you guys often enough or talk often enough. It's a real pleasure. I'm thrilled to be here.

Shane Kilby (02:49)
Yeah, likewise, likewise. you know, we finally, kind of, know, had, Duane had a little bit of technical difficulties. It wasn't his fault, never is, but we got him here. That's all that matters. And that's all that matters. So for our guests that will be watching this and downloading this in due time. So, so give us a little bit of backstory about Eric Lowry. Like when did you, when did you get started in the business? Where are from? What market you serve?

Eric Lowry (03:12)
Sure, absolutely. Started in real estate in 1998, June of 98. So 26 years ago, give or take. Before that, I was in the supermarket business and a variety of operational roles, retail, I hated it. Had a chance to escape that world. I'd always wanted to do real estate. I was actually telling someone just a week or so ago, I actually wanted to do real estate from the moment I got out of high school. While I was in high school, I managed a convenience store.

I mean, literally, they gave me the keys to a store when I was 17 years old and let me manage it. Can you imagine? But anyway, I digress. But I'm working in the store. I've just graduated high school. I want to do real estate. I had an uncle who was a real estate agent, a real successful one. And, you know, I mean, I was just inspired by what he was doing. And I wanted to do that. And a teacher that I respected came into that store.

There's a frequent customer recommended by cigarettes. And literally, he says as he's buying a cigarette. So what are you going to do now that I graduated? I said, I'm going to be a real estate agent. And he said to me, you can't do that. You're too young. No one would ever buy a house from you. And I believed him. And so for the next.

Shane Kilby (04:28)
Really?

Eric Lowry (04:30)
18 years I spent in retail, supermarkets, all kinds of jobs. They were fine. Like I was making good money and rose up pretty high, moved around the country a couple of times, but I always wanted to do real estate. And so I had this opportunity to escape that world in 19 June of 98. And I did. I ran like a bat out of hell and I just resolved that I was never going back. And I just worked my ass off for the next 26 years. I feel like I'm still working my ass off 26 years later.

Shane Kilby (04:59)
You mean it's not a cakewalk? You mean it's not like just, you know, the realtor commercials in the Super Bowl?

Eric Lowry (05:02)
It is not,

it is not interestingly enough. And you know that, but you know, part of it is, I was also thinking about this recently, it's self -imposed because I'm always trying to do better, be better, do more, build a bigger team, all those things. And if you have that mindset, like it doesn't get

Easy or anywhere along the way because getting better and going to the next level and really trying to excel is it easy Maybe if I could I could make it easy starting today Just be happy I could go back to selling home sell a couple three homes a month and I'd be fine price point to be all right like that, but I'm not No, I'm not like that. Are you guys know?

Shane Kilby (05:45)
Hmm. Not challenging enough.

Duane Murphy (05:48)
Yeah. You had said

it's a mindset and another word I probably would use instead of mindset would maybe be an affliction. mean, you get that entrepreneur bug, right? And my gosh, right? And it's always that drive to build it bigger, impact more people, and just do more. And that's...

Shane Kilby (06:00)
Yeah.

Eric Lowry (06:03)
Yep.

That's right.

Duane Murphy (06:16)
That's an affliction as much as it is a

Shane Kilby (06:22)
It's kind of like, but it's kind

of like golf, right? So you can be magnificent at golf and then screw it all up on one hole. And then it's, you know what saying? But, you know, and I've played in the past, of course, it seems like the more real estate success you have, the less golf you play. You kind of think like if you're successful, you should have more time to play golf, but I guess it really doesn't work that way in our business. But it's like, you know, when you are playing golf, it's like you're just

Eric Lowry (06:31)
Yeah, I don't know anything about that. I'm terrible at golf.

That's right.

Shane Kilby (06:51)
you're just crushing it, right? And you're teeing off long drive and then you're three putt, it's like back in the gutter again. it's like this business, it's just all, you sometimes everything you touch turns to gold. It's like, bam, good, good, good. And then train wreck that goes off the rails. And a lot of times the variables you don't have any control over, you know?

Eric Lowry (07:14)
No, for

sure. Like there are always those outside influences. But what I've always just what I like about real estate, number one, I always say this to new people come on our team or whatever. It's the best business because the only way to make a lot of money in it is to help a lot of people. If they're like completely attached at the hip or whatever you're saying, you can't make a lot of money in this business if you're not helping people, at least in the residential real estate side that we work in. You've got to help people. And so that's really good. But it's also for me.

Like it's a self -improvement business. it's, I'm obsessed with that part of it and you know, I can, I just keep working to make myself better. I'm reading more books than I ever have and just pushing myself harder. Thus, it's not getting easier, but I don't want it to be easy.

Shane Kilby (08:01)
Yeah, you're, you're, you nailed it. You know, go ahead, go ahead, Dwayne.

Duane Murphy (08:01)
Thank you.

I was going say, you had stated before we hit the button to start recording, you were talking about the impact to the market and or the lack of the impact on the market, Not allowing it should allow you to resay it, but not allowing the market to dictate your success and not succumbing to it, right?

Eric Lowry (08:23)
Yeah.

Yeah. There's way more than enough business for any of us, any of us, no matter what market we work in. And the three of us are obviously in quite different markets geographically and, you know, whatever. But there's way more enough business for all of us to hit our goals if we just do the work and we hone our skills and we work on ourselves and grow and get better.

Like there's never, you wake up every day in this business, largely unemployed, right? You've got to go find somebody to hire you every day. And if that freaks you out, it's probably not the best business for you. But if it challenges you and you love that feeling of the hunt, if you will, like it's a great business. there is like, there's nothing, no one on the outside, I don't believe can keep us from hitting our goals. It's, it's, we determine where we're going to go. It's what we do. And the more we just.

Duane Murphy (08:53)
you

Eric Lowry (09:17)
dive in and make things happen, like we can get anywhere and do anything we want to do.

Shane Kilby (09:23)
What's that? What's that quote? What you're exactly, we're exactly where we are today from the decisions we made yesterday. You know, I should have had that, that little nugget in the back of my head a long time ago. That would answer a lot of questions for me. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it, you know, it's, it's, it's funny. I had, I spoke to, an individual, last week about getting into the business.

Eric Lowry (09:28)
Yeah, that's right.

26 years ago, Like I shouldn't. Yeah. Yep. No, for real. Nope.

Shane Kilby (09:53)
And we have real estate schools, stuff like this. We're having a conversation about whether that was the right move for them. you know, and it comes up quite often and the response was, well, you know, I've got, I've got to, I've got to have a salary. I've got to, you know, I mean, I've got to keep my, you know, I can't go unemployed. And, you know, and it's funny you said that you were unemployed all the time. Like that was my, I looked at them directly in the face and I said, let me go ahead and let you know this piece of information right here. You are unemployed.

Every transaction that you close, you are now gainfully unemployed, excited with a check in your hand, your last check from that employer, you know, for some time anyway. They may hire you back in the future, but it's probably going to be a while. And it just, does come back to that circle. But also the best thing about that is the other side of the coin is you are limitless on what that ceiling looks like.

Eric Lowry (10:33)
Yep.

Yep.

Shane Kilby (10:51)
what that ceiling looks like, looks like, you know, and, I do think if you notice through the years, it's like, can, you can work with a lot of buyers. You work with a lot of sellers in the back of your mind is scale, scale, scale, nail it and scale it, nail it and scale it. And that's where, you know, the, the mega listing agent comes to play, then the team leader, then the mega team, then the, you know, the brokerage mindset. And then, you know, I'm going to take over the world. And at the end of the day, nobody ever takes over the world. And there's always tons and tons of opportunity out there.

I know you said you had a desire to be in the business since a young age. So where did that thought process come from?

Eric Lowry (11:33)
I think it came from watching my uncle who I said was a very successful real estate agent where I lived and just seeing how we were pretty close as a family. I saw him a lot and I would just see the lifestyle he had. He was doing well. He wasn't wealthy, but he was doing well for himself in the area that we lived in at the time. I just think that I saw what he was doing, how he was helping people and I just...

I don't know, for whatever reason it connected with me. And I think from a pretty early age, as I think back on it, I don't know that I didn't have this awareness back then, but I do now looking back at it, I was always going to be best suited to work for myself. I spent 18 years working for other people, bosses and all, By the way, I had some bosses.

Shane Kilby (12:13)
Okay.

Eric Lowry (12:33)
I had a couple that were amazing, right? I learned so much from. And I had some that, you know, made me question everything. You know what mean? Like, there's just, I'm not suited for that. I don't necessarily want to be the boss. I don't think of myself that way, even in leading my team, but.

Duane Murphy (12:46)
Yeah

Yeah, I think I went through about...

Shane Kilby (12:57)
Easy. You may be an employee looking for a job one of these days.

Duane Murphy (13:02)
If you

yeah, I might be 50 or 60 Debbie right 50 or 60 W 2 50 or 60 W 2 before I figured out I couldn't work for anybody else like alright this ain't

Eric Lowry (13:05)
We might all be, like, we don't know, like hell, we might all be. I'm not, I'm not sure that I'm a lawyer.

Shane Kilby (13:14)
I was about to make that statement and I saw you take and run with it. So I I'm a back up just in case I do. Someone does see this one day and I need it. I need a job. go like, the time you had all those, you said you weren't designed, you weren't built to be an employee. Yeah, I was this, just forget that every place I need a job. No, it is.

Eric Lowry (13:14)
Yeah.

Duane Murphy (13:31)
I went through that 50

or 60 in like a 10 year period, but yeah, very condensed 10 year period. think my highest year was like 24 W -2s, but hey, I mean, I was pulling three jobs at a time. So I mean, the math balance is a little better then.

Shane Kilby (13:35)
Yeah.

I was counting.

Yeah, that's not that bad, not that bad. Well...

Eric Lowry (13:46)
Yeah, it's just

for me, that entrepreneurial part of it, being a business for myself is something like I always, I think it was always there. I just may not have had the awareness around it early, early on, Ching, to answer your question.

Duane Murphy (14:00)
Yeah.

Shane Kilby (14:00)
Yeah, I think a

Duane Murphy (14:00)
So now.

Shane Kilby (14:01)
lot of it has to be that the challenge it's like, you know, it's just, this business is unique because if you, if you stay hungry for a challenge, is all jokes aside. mean, we know this would be a challenging business every day, but that's the winds outweigh the losses. It's that 80 -20 rule, you know, you know, and it's, and it goes all the way back.

to your early days in the business. We've all got them. We have note cards, we have Christmas cards, have sticky notes, we have photographs, we have just hugs just from the single parent that you took out of a rental apartment and put them into a home that they were able to create equity and appreciation in that property and some type of investment to call their own. We've seen it with the families that we expand from a newlywed.

family a couple of years ago to now welcoming twins. We've seen the other side of that coin when there's a level of loss and there's an income reduction in the household and we have to shift and move to plan B and find something that's alternative and still more affordable for them. So you see it and you feel those connections all along the way. you nailed it when it's about helping others. It's kind of like

What's the Zig Ziglar quote? Help enough other people get what they want out of life and everything you want out of life will be taken care of. Eric, I got on my notes here to ask you, so we've all got successes and failures in business, but let's take a dive into what you would call your greatest success, your biggest success in business thus far. What would you credit that to? What would it be?

Eric Lowry (15:32)
That's it. Yeah, that's it. That's it.

That's a great question. And I think a lot of people in real estate might answer it by some award they won or the number of trophies they collected. Like I used to have a bunch of them. I threw them away a long time ago. I literally there's one trophy. You can see it back there. Right. And that one's kind of special because of a different reason. But I don't collect that stuff. I'm in it for I genuinely say I'm in it.

I genuinely mean it when I say I'm in it for the personal pursuit of being just the next step better, the next best version of myself. But when I think about it in terms of purely to answer your question, one of the things that comes to my mind right away is I was on a podcast about a week or so ago and the guy was asking me about the market today and how it compared to the financial crash of 2008, 2009 and 2010.

If I saw any similarities or it was talking about it from the aspect of how it affected real estate agents, right? We know this isn't that and that wasn't this, but it was the last 18 months or so kind of been a shit show in real estate, right? Yeah. Sorry. I don't know if I'm allowed to cuss on here. should ask you. So it was a shit show.

Shane Kilby (17:04)
yeah.

Duane Murphy (17:05)
I think we can safely say that.

Shane Kilby (17:07)
Absolutely. Be real.

Eric Lowry (17:14)
When I look back and he said, what was it like for you in 2008, nine and 10? Because I clearly had been in business since 98. And I said, well, the lead into those few years, it was super hot. That was similar, right? Like to what we're kind of up against now. And then all of sudden the financial crisis happened, but it wasn't real estate caused. It was more banking and mortgage cause, which blew up the real estate market. But for me as a real estate agent, still goes back to my belief on this, but

I just rolled my sleeves up. said, I just rolled my sleeves and got my ass back to work. I mean, in a hardcore way, it's not that it wasn't working, but it took more. And I started doing short sales. The brokerage I was with at the time told me not to. By the way, thank God I didn't take that advice because doing short sales basically saved my business for a year or two. And by the way, that... Yeah, well, I never did those.

Shane Kilby (18:05)
Mm -hmm. BPO's.

Duane Murphy (18:09)
Yeah, that BPO BPO BPO's

and drive -bys for 25 to $40 apiece and how many could I know? Man, I tell you what? Yeah.

Eric Lowry (18:14)
I never did those. I've never done one of those. I've never done one of those, but I've done a lot of short sales and literally they saved

Shane Kilby (18:20)
Thank you.

Eric Lowry (18:22)
my business. But when I think about you said, what's my greatest success or one of my bigger successes, the thing that comes to my mind is those people in particular that I helped who are in trouble financially, right? They owned homes are upside down in, they had to sell them. Maybe they had lost their job. The whole economy was a mess back then.

Like there would be people at closings, I can remember very specific people who at the end of the closing would give me a hug and they'd be crying, thanking me for getting them out of the bind they were in. And so, you know, I've helped in 26 years, I've helped a ton of people, but that probably was the most rewarding time in terms of helping those people. When like you knew you genuinely got them out of some shit they didn't have a handle on their own. Right?

Shane Kilby (18:55)
Mm

Yeah.

Eric Lowry (19:13)
There's a lot of great stories about, I sold this or, remember when we sold the 1 .495 million? mean, there's a lot of great stuff in this business. But when it comes down to, if you think about, for me, if I think about what are some of the biggest victories, it was that helping those people.

Shane Kilby (19:29)
Money comes and money goes, you know?

Duane Murphy (19:32)
Yeah. mean, like you said, was a dual win. It helped you survive that transitional market, helped you survive that market crash, the resetting of it. And it also along the way, how did you get there? How did you survive that? How did you succeed in that? Right back to what we were originally talking about several times throughout this podcast, helping others.

Eric Lowry (19:39)
Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. And work. Work. Yeah.

Duane Murphy (20:03)
sincerely helping others. you, you could, yeah, I didn't a lot of work,

right? Cause I mean, there's, there's so many agents nowadays. Like I could, I could stand up in front of 60 of my agents tomorrow and, and, you know, and ask how many have done a short sale and I might have one or two hands. Maybe. Right. And, and, I don't think you understand, you know, I don't think anyone understands the amount of work that goes into a short, a true short sale, back in the day.

Eric Lowry (20:18)
Yep.

They call it a short sale because

it's... not short.

Shane Kilby (20:31)
So...

Duane Murphy (20:33)
And short sale is such an oxymoron because it should have been called the sale that you're going to do all the work on that you may never get paid on. And even right before you get paid, they're going to reduce your commission and you're going to get paid less than you thought. by the way, six to eight months later.

Shane Kilby (20:33)
Yeah.

Thank

Eric Lowry (20:47)
Yeah. And it almost always ended up, the one thing I think about

when you say that is it always ended up the second buyer ended up getting the house. You do all the work for the first buyer. And then before it got approved, because it would take forever, that buyer would bug out. They go, nevermind. I'm not waiting to go buy another house. And then the approval sometimes would come in before you even had the The second buyer almost always got the house. It was really good old days.

Duane Murphy (20:57)
Yes.

Yeah, would agree. We

had the same philosophy. We just needed a guinea pig. Like, I don't care. Like, yep, the house is listed at a half million. Offer me 20 grand. I don't care. I need something to be able to start processing paperwork legitimately. I hope you get it for 20 grand. I really do. But if you don't, at least I got the paperwork moving and maybe I could figure out what this process is going to be, who I need to talk to, and what ultimately what the price is that they're going to take.

Eric Lowry (21:28)
Yeah.

It's not gonna happen, but yeah.

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (21:41)
I just need a damn guinea pig, please pull the trigger. Right? And to get that going.

Eric Lowry (21:43)
Yeah. And so if you look,

so then if you fast forward to today, like in our market, you know, our team covers West Central and Southwest Ohio, about a third of the state of Ohio. And in that market, it's pretty large geographically. Like there aren't short sales. I don't say like I could go in there my lesson. There's probably one in there or something, but like there, literally just aren't any because everyone has equity. You would not do a short sale when you have equity. And so.

Shane Kilby (22:10)
Hmm.

Eric Lowry (22:11)
That part's no, it's nothing like that, but the market for sure turned, right? We know it turned on us. It turned fast and quite dramatically, some more than others. But the thing that's still similar is I said back then, I rolled up my sleeves and got my ass back to work. Not that it wasn't, but I...

Duane Murphy (22:19)
Fast.

Shane Kilby (22:30)
Yeah.

Dwayne, do you remember like the BPO? I was like, if you do the BPO, then we might use you for the listing. Right.

Duane Murphy (22:39)
Might,

might, yeah.

Eric Lowry (22:40)
Right? Right.

Good luck. Probably not, but we'll tease you with that. But today, what do you have to do? It is similar in this way, this market to that one way back then is get your ass back to work. It takes more conversations. It takes more leads. It takes more follow -up. It takes more grinding. It takes more getting up early. But what's alternative?

Shane Kilby (22:54)
That's it.

Yeah, exactly. What are you going to do? Fold up?

Duane Murphy (23:08)
Yeah.

Eric Lowry (23:08)
Going to Walmart, I mean,

no disrespect to Walmart, you know, I mean, that's not a good option for people. It's get to work. It's get to work.

Shane Kilby (23:16)
Nah.

I remember too, you know, I'm an ID. I'm an ID. So they would want a new CMA like every three days. And I just, couldn't understand. I was like, no, this is not for me. I cannot do these BPOs. This is, know, I've already earned my money. I'm not doing anything else. know, new CMA, new CMA. like.

I promise you there hasn't been that many units to sell in the last week that justifies a new CMA every two every week to 10 days.

Eric Lowry (23:50)
For a while there, there might not have been enough comps change in two months to change the scene.

Shane Kilby (23:54)
Yeah.

Duane Murphy (23:55)
Everything was everything was active with no sales exactly

Eric Lowry (23:58)
Yeah, good old days.

Shane Kilby (23:58)
I tell you what

though, you know, and I, I saw this on a T -shirt the other day and I'm a, I'm a comfortable quality T -shirt. I have an obsession with that. So I'll probably have more bad ass T -shirts in the head. Yeah. You know what? If it's comfortable at this point in life, I'm justified to have it and I'm going to have it. So that's, you know, that's what wakes me up in the morning. My bills are paid.

Eric Lowry (24:00)
Good old days.

Duane Murphy (24:11)
He's a lulu man.

Eric Lowry (24:19)
It's all good.

Shane Kilby (24:24)
Knock on wood, knock on wood. I'm going to enjoy some of finer things in life, even if it is a quality t -shirt. But the t -shirt said, peaks lead to valleys and valleys lead to peaks. And I was like, we use that reference so much in our business, peaks and valleys. I'm like, you're never going to avoid the valleys.

the, and you never get to the peak without the valley. So it's like you going through that valley is what developed you to have the, the capability and ability to climb that mountain, to get to that peak and knowing that there is going to be a valley on the other side of that mountain, you're better prepared for it. And I look at this market and you know, I I've in the business 20 years.

And so this market did do and a major, had a major pivot when you, mean, I guess a lot of those attributed to the, the interest rates and what have you so severely taking a right turn, hard term. But then I look back at even the point like our market that we serve 20 years of market sales experience in real estate alone, not to mention other sales experience, you know, selling season has always been, you know, for hours it's March.

you know, warming up April, warmer May, June, July peak, you know, starts cooling back off in August, right. And then start contracting in for the winter. This year was different. All these years, man, it was, was, it was totally different. Like, you know, I'm like, all right, where is it? Where is it at? Right. We're at the starting gate. Everybody's ready to go. The horses are ready to go. They're ready to go. And it just, it never popped, but it popped in August.

It's crazy. know, typically August is in our part of the country, and, Alabama is, is kids going back to school. It's, you know, a thousand dollars a child to get them back in school, get them back up on their feet. Everybody distracted. Everybody's broke from vacation in July. And then you start seeing the leveling out of the contraction in September, but, this is completely just opposite of the way that these seasons have rolled out this year. in a good way, in a good way, but what it has made us do.

Every season that we have in this business, and I guess every business is being uncomfortable makes you look around you to see, I have to have high -end t -shirts? No, I don't. Do I have to have the next tech gadget in this business? No, I don't. Do the gadgets, the tools, the Legion, all of those fun little buzzwords that we use in the industry.

not only do we need the next one, does what we have already produce its own ROI, right? And so when you go back and look, it's like every year the grass is green. I think we all get a little heavy, 10%, 5%, 20%, you know, and because of that scale mindset, it's like I conquered this with that, I need to get to conquer this, I need with that.

And we do reference, you know, John Chepilack a lot on these calls, but you know, it takes a guy like that to speak my language. He's a Gen Xer as well, but work works, right? Simple solves the complex. Tiny hinges swing big doors. It doesn't resonate when you first say, that's fun. That sounds fun right there. And he's

Duane Murphy (28:03)
Tiny hinges swing big doors.

Shane Kilby (28:10)
He's looking at everybody in face, but it's like when you start to let that sink in, like, yep, work works. you know, how many times have we heard, what got you here won't get you there? Not so true. What got you here, the blood, sweat, tears and grit, it will get you there. Matter of fact, it's the only way to get there, right? So I've looked back at our business, our model, our expenses, our overhead, you know, and you know what?

Just taking a lot of outside influence like that and turning that inward and taking ownership of like, we can point fingers and do this and blame the market, blame politics, blame all these things. But a lot of times, just like you said, Eric, sometimes you just got to take an internal look and go, wait a minute, am I being the leader that I need to be? Am I being the best leader to my people, providing them with the quality time, the quality instruction, and most of all, the accountability to do so? Because most agents won't make a decision.

They just stand at the crossroads. Maybe it's just me. What do you guys think?

Eric Lowry (29:12)
No, I think that's true. think that's true. I mean, that that's that saying of shut likes work works is like, I mean, that's so overly simplistic, but it's so true. 100 percent it is. And I remember the first time I heard him say tiny hinges swing big doors. It was a long time ago. And I actually got exposed to him. The first time I'd ever even heard of the guy was my buddy, Kevin Kaufman, was coaching with him for a while and talking about him. And so that's you you

Shane Kilby (29:30)
Mm -hmm.

Eric Lowry (29:42)
You usually learn about people through other people a lot, right? Like I've exposed a lot to, you know, being around you guys, especially we were around each other a lot. We all were, you know, we started, we probably sounded a lot alike sometimes where people were.

Shane Kilby (29:45)
Asmosis.

Duane Murphy (29:55)
I was gonna say, the three of us go

Shane Kilby (29:56)
.

Duane Murphy (29:57)
way, the three of us, didn't hit on that in the beginning mostly because the statue limitations isn't up on most things yet that we probably have done together, but we, the three of us go back a lot, a long time in this industry. A long time in this industry.

Eric Lowry (30:03)
Well, yeah, right, for real.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, we do.

Shane Kilby (30:19)
There was a day when Dwayne had hair. I remember. It wasn't a lot, but he was still holding on to some of it.

Eric Lowry (30:22)
Right? No, a little bit. little bit. Yep. Yep.

Duane Murphy (30:25)
I got little bit of it.

Eric Lowry (30:29)
Yep. No, for sure. For sure. No, you're right. No, no, that's right. But the statute of limitations probably has not expired. Yep. Yep.

Duane Murphy (30:32)
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off on that but I just also I've I've had flashback of a few memories that we we shall not share on this podcast

Offline only but but yes, it's been a long time

Eric Lowry (30:44)
Great for real

good times, but we learned a lot from each other. think have learned a lot from each other and you know that exposure to that's a big thing, right? Like when you think about what are the big influences? I don't know if you asked me that or some version of that or something, but it's the people you get around like those masterminds that we were going to for the longest time, right? Like those were game changers. I hate when people use that word because everything's a game changer, right?

Duane Murphy (30:47)
Well, we did.

Shane Kilby (31:07)
Mm

Ha

Eric Lowry (31:14)
But those truly were game changers, not because even, you know, the content of whatever, but was the people that were there. Think about those groups when that mastermind was flying high. Think about the people that were in those rooms.

Shane Kilby (31:29)
yeah, some serious players, serious talent, great people inside and out, inside and out. It's funny, was... Go ahead, Dwayne.

Duane Murphy (31:36)
Yeah, and that is where

we've all, where we all met each other in the past, right? Was putting ourselves in those rooms, right? Getting uncomfortable, right? Putting yourself in rooms with people that had businesses that just dwarfed yours, right? Or they're on, really on another level, right? And some of the ones that were in those rooms in the early days.

Shane Kilby (31:48)
honorable.

Duane Murphy (32:04)
as we were all building our businesses and building what we do and just sharing ideas and rising shifts and just helping and sharing and growing our business. And even today, Eric and I were on a call just a week ago and sharing ideas and thoughts and Shane and I are...

Eric Lowry (32:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Duane Murphy (32:30)
Weekly a couple times a week if not daily on some text messages and whatnot Sometimes he sends me up some you know some snail mail and and whatnot to try to try to connect but but but yeah

Shane Kilby (32:44)
He's on

a droid. He has to snail mail.

Eric Lowry (32:48)
Hey, I'm a joint here, but I think about that I think about that though and that I remember the first time I went doing you weren't even there to that very first mastermind was in Dallas But I still remember you talk about getting comfortable or getting getting comfortable being uncomfortable or whatever you said I remember going there. I got there that day and I still remember walking across the lobby of that hotel where the event where the mastermind was and

Duane Murphy (32:49)
You know, yeah, exactly.

Dallas.

Shane Kilby (32:59)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Eric Lowry (33:15)
They were having a little meet and greet in the bar, the lobby bar that night before it was getting started. I remember walking across that lobby going, what the hell am I even doing here? I didn't know anybody there, no one. And I'm like, I remember thinking, I should be at home working. What am I doing here? Well, yeah, I I'm not the biggest people person in the world. I mean, I'm not social in the way that some of you guys are.

Duane Murphy (33:33)
Imposter syndrome, right?

Eric Lowry (33:45)
I'm a little more reserved, introverted or whatever. mean, like, once I get to know people, totally cool, but...

Shane Kilby (33:50)
I kind of take that as little offensive myself, but.

Eric Lowry (33:53)
But I remember walking through there going, it was just bad as you heard it. But I just, I was like, what the hell am I doing there? But that was game changing. The people that were in that room that day and the people that were in the room the next time. then that went on for, gosh guys, don't know, till COVID hit, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Kilby (34:18)
Yeah, it did. You

know, it's what, but it's, it's, it's, you know, it's what they, they say all the time. It's like, if you want to take your business and life to another level, you got to get into a greater room. You got to be in a, in a bigger room. If you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room. You know, you're bringing value to others, but I mean, you're, if you want to keep bringing value to them, you have to keep raising your level.

Eric Lowry (34:37)
Yeah, all for sure.

Shane Kilby (34:46)
of the room and the quality of the people that are in that room. And it's not anything to say about the people in the room that you're in that you need to move on from. You can actually bring those people with you, right? You move up a level and get what you need so that you can come back and take those people to the next level. And so it's one key, know, everybody keeps helping everybody get to that, to that next level. And, and I think it's that, you know, I think everybody's been in that position walking through that lobby going, what am I doing here? Like,

I mean, I've done the same thing. I've, I've, I've, I've went for the knowledge and, and, and the networking and the growth and development, but I've, I've landed. I've went, I've went to the room. I've worked in, in, you know, somebody's like blowing your phone or, we're doing this, doing that. And like, I need to work. I don't need to, you know, you know, and like, well, I just come hang out for an hour that turns into eight hours too much to way too much fun. But those are, those are partnerships.

I refer to as more than friendships, they're partnerships for life. Partnerships for life. you nailed it. That is a great impact. A great impact on everybody that's experienced that. Let me ask you this. We've kind of talked about how you got in the business. We've talked about some success in the business and some influences in the business. But everything's not a bed of roses.

Everything's not always perfect. Elaborate on one of your greatest failures in business. Because the reason is like, we want people to take away from this podcast, people that have been where we're at, that are going where we're at, or maybe they're beyond where we're at. Maybe they just want to connect with other folks. Because we've all had struggles and strife and we've all been to peaks and we've all been to valleys.

Share a failure with us. Take us through that.

Eric Lowry (36:46)
would sell dude. probably could write a book on those first or foremost. I, I'm certain I could, you know, much time. this podcast like, is this like a four hour podcast or like, right? This is a, this is a extended play movie or so. don't know they call it. but one that comes to mind is when I initially set out to start to build a team, go from.

Shane Kilby (36:53)
you

It's a podcast -a -thon.

Duane Murphy (36:57)
Yeah.

Eric Lowry (37:13)
I was a top agent, right? wasn't never the top agent in Cincinnati, but I was up there pretty far, right? In a pretty large city. I was doing a lot of business. And this was in a time where we didn't have all these lead gen things. I think sometimes I think now and I go, damn, if I had all this stuff. But when I decided I was going to build a team, take Eric out of production and build a team, that was an epic failure the first time. I didn't know.

And weren't a lot of people doing it, guess then, so I can maybe make the excuse, well, there weren't a lot of examples to go look at of how you did that, made that transition. But I sure as hell flunked it, man. mean, I had to go right back in pretty quickly because it was, you I mean, you don't just throw a bunch of people in a room and go, got a team. You just don't do.

Shane Kilby (38:03)
Everybody's

got a purpose. Everybody has a specific value.

Eric Lowry (38:09)
When I look

back at that now, I laugh, right? Like I just laugh because I go like, there's no resemblance to what my team looks like today to what I tried to start building back in the day. it was just literally, yeah, well, yeah, for sure. My advice to that person would be, get your ass in the rooms where people have already done that. Don't figure it out yourself.

Shane Kilby (38:23)
But you don't know what you don't know, right? You don't know what you don't know. You got to...

Nailed it.

Eric Lowry (38:36)
I'll press so much time by simply getting yourself in relationship or in some kind of a friendship or partnership, like you said, Shane, with people that have already done what you're trying to do. And I didn't, I didn't do that then. I tried to just throw it together. I'm smart. I'll figure this out. I read that red book thing and like, I'm just going to go for it. Well, okay. Except for I don't know how much money that cost me. Whatever.

Shane Kilby (38:50)
So powerful.

Eric Lowry (39:06)
You can always get more money. But the bigger thing is how much time did it cost? And you can't get that back. You can't get that back.

Shane Kilby (39:15)
That's one thing you can withdraw as much as you withdraw, but you cannot put anything back. You can't put anything back.

Eric Lowry (39:21)
And so I think

his failure there I think would then that I literally just kind of winged it and jumped into it instead of really knowing, you know, I should have had a coach for that or I should have been, you know, communicating. didn't know you guys at the time, but with Shane and Dwayne who've already done that or like I should have found those people and said, tell me what I don't know and what I need to know. And I didn't do it.

Shane Kilby (39:48)
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, know, and, and that's, that's something I'm always passionate about is helping agents scale their business. you know, as new agent, as, as an agent, you know, it's up and doing some good transactions and, know, because it's agents, most of the time you're in the business, you're hustling, you're grinding, you're going to make it. You're, you're doing a lot of transactions. You're burning the candle at both ends. Now you're beginning to burn relationships with friends.

family members, and then it gets even worse inside your household. And now all of a sudden you lose track and lose sight of all the many reasons that you got in the business and had limitless opportunity to grow your wealth and income to begin with. And so that's where we try to help agents do that is because most of time it happens because systems and processes. And systems and processes, it's not a sexy, there's not sexy words when you get in the business like.

Duane Murphy (40:27)
you

Shane Kilby (40:41)
You put some money back if you're smart, if you've made it, if you make it into the game, you had some money put back, you had a business plan, you had some goals, you had some vision and you had some fight in you, right? But you technically don't have system processes because you're just coming into the business, right? So you go out there and you grind out and you get traction, you get some business. And I hear this all the time, I'm to talk to him like, let me help you put some systems and processes in place.

Eric Lowry (40:56)
Yep. Yep.

Shane Kilby (41:09)
And if they're a new agent, it's in, you'd see where they're headed. And the new agents, they're like, well, you know, as soon as I, as soon as I get up on my feet, good in, you know, and get some good bit, you know, get a pipeline of business, then I'll need it. don't need it right now. I'm like, you have no idea. Right. You need it more than now than ever. And it's the other side of the coin is that is the mega, mega, mega agent slash parentheses about the burnout agent. You know, they're so

top heavy with forward momentum with no process and systems in place. I mean, you see it, they go through divorces, know, the kids grew up. don't, mean, they just, you know, they lose all that time, like you said. And their response to that question is as soon as I get a break, as soon as, as soon as I get time, I will gladly help let you help me put in some system and process that I'm like, you don't, you don't have time.

to do that. You are so overdue for that, that you are about to crash and burn.

Eric Lowry (42:15)
Real estate's weird in that way. People don't look at, let's be super clear, this is today, Eric, saying this, in 1998, I didn't think this way either. But you get in real estate and you're essentially a startup business. If you're really going to approach it, if you're on the plan of, I'm getting in this to sell my uncle a house and my cousin out, you don't need any of this. You shouldn't be watching this podcast if you're just waiting on your uncle to sell his house.

They don't need this. But for the people who want long -term success and growth and making money and helping people, you've got to approach it like you're starting a business. you're, you know, if you were going to start a sub shop, you probably wouldn't just start Shane's sub shop. You'd go buy a franchise that already has all.

Shane Kilby (43:05)
Mm -hmm.

Eric Lowry (43:07)
map laid out for you. You'd be a Jimmy Johns or a Subway or like, you'd have those systems and processes. You'd have a business. People get into real estate though and just go, hey, I'm going to wing it see if I make it. It's just a weird way to start. And like I said, I I had a good business background before I got in real estate. So I didn't completely come unprepared with that kind of mindset, but I still don't know that it was as good as it could have been that way. That mindset of going, hey, look, I'm going to...

I'm going to take a real systematic approach to this thing and build something bigger. You're never going to get to bigger. Never going to get to big.

Shane Kilby (43:46)
Yeah, it's,

what's Dwayne I give this credit to you. Well, no, mean, I think Eric, sent it to Dwayne and then of course I saw in his world and snatched it up too. It was on, it was on my list, but it hadn't made it to my desk yet, but I went and moved it to my desk and that's the, you know, back your time with Dan Martell. And it's that same, it's that same thought process. It's like, we think that like I'm a grinder. I'm a hustler.

Like I'm going to, can, I can do it all myself. I can say, can't do it. can do it. Yeah. mean, yeah. For a short period of time, you know, now Grizzly bear can move what 35 miles an hour for short period of time. Thank God. No, not very far because we've been out there close. That's too close.

Eric Lowry (44:20)
Right? Yeah.

Yeah, you guys

have to worry about that stuff. I don't know about that.

Duane Murphy (44:31)
That's

just in our world.

Eric Lowry (44:35)
But it's,

but, by the way, that that's a great point, Shane. I think you, that can be, and I've always thought that was a big attribute. have a good characteristic. can out, dude, I can outwork anybody. I'm certain of it. Like I, I don't have the give up gene. I don't have it anywhere in me. Like it's just, I'm going to keep going and going and going and going to matter what there is just no, like there's nothing. If they, if they issued an edict.

that you couldn't be paid as a real estate agent to sell homes anymore is illegal. I just keep going to find a different way. I mean, that's extreme. I mean, I just don't have that give up gene, if you will. And that's admirable to a point. But it can also be the thing that actually puts you in the ditch too. If you aren't willing to realize that at some point it's not just about you busting it.

I already said like you got to roll your sleeves up sometimes and just get in the trenches again. But long term, you won't. don't believe any way that that just that grinder mentality won't get you where you want to go. You got to bring other people, other leverage, other systems. It's not a one man. No one succeeds alone. I don't know who said that. I've heard it a hundred times and it's so true. No one's alone.

Shane Kilby (45:45)
Right.

No.

Well, it

say? You want to go far, you know, go together, go fast, go alone. You know, it's and really like, and I know we got to wrap up for the sake of time, but when you think about this without systems and processes in your business is a solo agent team, know, mega team, you know, brokerage, franchise, you know, independent without systems and processes. You're really cheating your family. You, you are cheating.

Eric Lowry (46:20)
Yep. No, that's not right.

Shane Kilby (46:23)
your family, the people that you care about, that you have relationships that mean something to you. You're cheating them out of time with you at the end of the day.

Eric Lowry (46:34)
Yep, that's right. See,

people think that it's just about them. I'll cheat myself. Like I will. Like I've done it. I could tell you stories about it. We all have. Where you just go, no, I'm just going to go full war, full blazes. It doesn't matter. It's just my time. And it's actually the time that if you weren't doing the thing, if I wasn't showing buyers Friday night at eight o 'clock, I'd have been where?

with my family. That's a really good point you make, Shane. And you gotta realize it's not all about you and time's not free and you're never getting it back. And that comes from an old dude who, you know, I've been doing this a while.

Duane Murphy (47:15)
Ha

Shane Kilby (47:15)
And even from

the income standpoint, time is way more valuable than money. But even at that, if you get incapacitated for 10 days, 20 days, 30 days, what does that look like for the household income? Now, maybe you got deals coming down the pipeline and stuff, but you as the creator of that momentum are now out of momentum for 10, 20, 30 days or even longer, hopefully not permanently.

Eric Lowry (47:20)
100%.

Shane Kilby (47:40)
But what does that do to the household income in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days down the road? What's the fallback? What's the plan B?

Eric Lowry (47:47)
Yep.

build the systematic, building a business, build on systems and processes. And, you know, I think some of the lead generation stuff, I think of them as like machines that we have turned on, right? Like there, you have to have that stuff if you're going to keep consistency. It don't have to be like, you know, six bigger things running. Like you don't have to spend that kind of crazy money. Depends on what you're trying to accomplish, but you've got to have some kind of

systems, processes, automation, machine, whatever word you want to use, funnels, like whatever you want to call it, right? You got to have some of that for sure. Yep.

Shane Kilby (48:22)
Sure. Well,

Eric, if anybody wanted to connect with you, send business your way, refer business or reach out to you in any way, what's the best platforms and ways to get in touch with you?

Eric Lowry (48:35)
The easiest platform probably is Facebook. I'm super easy to find there. I got one of those profiles that's open to the world. It's not private where you can't see my pictures in my posts until you get to be my friend. Like I'm an open book man. It's all there for the box and everybody. It's all there. So that's I'm just facebook .com slash Eric Lowry zero, the number zero at the end. Email is good too. Eric at Lowry team .com. It's Lowry no E.

It's L -O -W -R -Y, team .com. Either of those are best probably, yeah.

Shane Kilby (49:10)
Awesome man, awesome. Any closing remarks there, Dwayne?

Duane Murphy (49:14)
I tell you what, every time I'm together with you, whether it's in person, which unfortunately hasn't been quite as frequent over the past few years as it was in the past, whether it's a call, a text, jumping on Zoom, you're always a wealth of knowledge. You're a breath of air, and it's always, always, always good catching back up with you and to be able to...

to now get you on a podcast and share you a little bit with the rest of the world is a great thing as well. it's always a pleasure. We appreciate your knowledge, your insight, the stories, even some of those stories we can't share. fight the urge, Dwayne, fight the urge. Don't do it.

Shane Kilby (50:01)
suppress those.

Eric Lowry (50:10)
Right. Right.

Shane Kilby (50:11)
Go with

the good guy on the good shoulder.

Duane Murphy (50:14)
But yes, it is always, always a pleasure. maybe next time we'll get you to bring that beautiful wife of yours. We all know that behind the scenes she makes everything go round. And all the praise, Lisa, right? So we know that as well. maybe on the next go round, we can have her join us and talk to both of you.

Eric Lowry (50:14)
Bye.

All the braids.

good good

so as thanks for the kind words I appreciate that you're too nice but it's always good to see you guys right we got it we have to figure out a way soon to do like a in real life how they you know that's a new word right they go it's in real life now now we need to find a way to do it in real life at some kind of event or something we have to

Shane Kilby (50:44)
Likewise, likewise.

Duane Murphy (50:59)
Hey, I tell you what, we've got flights to Tahoe end of this week, so I mean, you just gotta get a flight to Tahoe quick and...

Shane Kilby (50:59)
Nah, I'm game.

Eric Lowry (51:08)
end of the week yeah it's probably not gonna happen but soon no I didn't say I think I didn't say the word can't I didn't say that word I suppose probably not gonna happen but we do like seriously though we got to figure out a way to do that soon that would be you know that would be off the charts right

Duane Murphy (51:11)
Hey, there's no such thing as can't.

Shane Kilby (51:13)
That's it.

Duane Murphy (51:22)
Yes.

Shane Kilby (51:26)
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is Eric Lowry. We're so glad to have borrowed some time out of his busy schedule. Again, you guys can find him on Facebook. We'll post up his contact information as well with this podcast. In the meantime, please like and share this podcast and we will see you real soon with a new episode. Take care, guys. Thanks so much for watching and listening and downloading. See ya.

Eric Lowry (51:51)
Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Duane Murphy (51:51)
Thanks, Eric.