🎙️ “From Chiropractic to Closings: How Dr. Ben Spears Sold 30 Homes His First Year (Without Knowing a Single Person)”

This week on the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast, we’re diving deep with someone who proves that starting from scratch doesn’t mean starting small. Meet Dr. Ben Spears—chiropractor-turned-real estate powerhouse, speaker, podcaster, and co-founder of Brokerpreneur and Prime Real Estate Coaching.

In this honest, hilarious, and high-value episode, Dr. Ben shares how he:

• Moved to Tampa with zero sphere of influence and went under contract on Day One
• Closed 30 transactions his first year—all while learning real estate on the fly
• Built a reputation for running extreme open houses with 100+ signs and hot dogs at the ready 🍽️
• Turned personalized video follow-ups into listings, referrals, and raving fans
• Co-founded the Brokerpreneur Podcast and scaled it into a must-listen community for real estate leaders nationwide

We also explore: ✔️ Why open houses are hotter than ever post-NAR settlement
 ✔️ The difference between visionaries and integrators in business
 ✔️ How knowing your lane and trusting your gut changes everything
✔️ Why giving value before asking for the sale is the new standard of leadership

Whether you're a brand-new agent wondering how to get your first deal, a broker trying to grow your office, or just someone who loves a real-life underdog story—this one’s for you.

🔥 Tap in, laugh a little, and leave with action steps.

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

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Transcript

Duane Murphy (00:02)
Welcome to another episode of REAL Podcast Real Estate Agent Life. My name is Dwayne Murphy. co-host there with that beaming smile today is Shane Kilby. Look those dimples just shining. Looks good. We have another amazing guest today. I'm gonna let Shane do the intro. But I tell you what, if you want to pick up some nuggets of knowledge, move your brokerage forward. And if you're an agent,

Shane Kilby (00:06)
Thank

Duane Murphy (00:29)
Learn all kinds of cool stuff. Dr. Ben's your guy.

Shane Kilby (00:34)
Yeah, so we do have a distinguished guest. Dwayne and I happen to know Dr. Ben very well, but to give him his formal props and his formal introduction, we are introducing today's guest, Dr. Ben Spears, a distinguished real estate professional and entrepreneur based out of Tampa, Florida. He is the co-owner of the Brokerpreneur, and where Dr. Spears co-founded the Brokerpreneur as a platform that's dedicated to helping real estate brokers grow their business.

through insightful podcasts and other resources. He also co-hosts the Brokerpreneur podcast alongside his business partner Matt Vi. Matt Vi, pronounced that right? Yeah, I know Matt. He co-hosts with Ben on the Brokerpreneur podcast offering valuable insight strategies for real estate brokers and owners. Dr. Ben, as we like to call him, is also a public speaker and a trainer in the real estate space. He actively engages in public speaking.

Dr. Ben Spears (01:13)
That's right.

Shane Kilby (01:32)
Training sessions sharing his expertise to help others excel in the real estate industry. Dr Ben is multifaceted has a multifaceted career and dedication to real estate agents in real estate community Like making him a valuable guest for today's episode. So welcome. Dr. Ben. How are you?

Dr. Ben Spears (01:54)
I'm doing great. Man, I appreciate that intro. It's probably like, I felt like my mom wrote that.

Shane Kilby (02:00)
You know what I talked to her and she's wouldn't prove to me why I wouldn't Yeah, she just like it She sent me some pictures and that you know, I was gonna post them up here, but I figured out maybe next time maybe next time

Dr. Ben Spears (02:03)
Yeah, she's like, I'm so proud. I'm so proud of my baby.

Duane Murphy (02:14)
And there's nothing like a mother's love.

Dr. Ben Spears (02:14)
Yeah, we'll do it as a

download.

Shane Kilby (02:18)
Yeah, mothers even love ugly babies. Not that I was an ugly baby, you know, I guess, know, who knows? I don't remember. That's been a minute back. So, Dr. Ben, as we know you, give us a little backstory. myself and Dwayne know a lot about you, but we don't know your entire story. So, give us your backstory. What did you do before real estate and how did you end up in real estate?

Duane Murphy (02:20)
you

Dr. Ben Spears (02:42)
Yeah, for sure. So, um, I was a chiropractor for eight years, um, in Kentucky and I ended up, uh, uh, you know, growing a practice there and my wife, uh, love my life. She was offered her dream job down here in Tampa. And so, um, I sold my practice there. We moved to Tampa, had zero sphere of influence and I moved down here and I started, it was like, I was going to open it up to the chiropractic office, obviously. So I started looking around and I was like, we know.

I don't really want to start, you know, the same business over again, right? Cause that was, that was difficult enough. And so was like, well, what can I do? had six months before my license transferred anyway. So I got my real estate license in that time. And my first day that I, that I could be under contract as a licensed agent, I was. And so from that point on, you know, four or five weeks after, after being licensed, I had already had my first closing. was on my second brokerage.

And at that time either, I did not have a great experience in my first one, but I closed around $8 million in volume that year, which is around 30 transactions. wasn't like I sold like one $8 million property. My average sale price was like $330,000, something like that. And I just fell in love with it. And so, you know, from that, from that point on, you know, I I just, I just kind of started growing in real estate.

Shane Kilby (04:06)
So let me ask you this, so what I heard was you had a racehorse start in the real estate profession out the chute into a contract to a closing, but it sounded like you went live with your license, wrote a contract, went to the closing table, and left the brokerage that you were in. Is that correct?

Dr. Ben Spears (04:27)
Yes. Yeah. 100%. And so, um, we were, we hadn't even found a home to live in here. We were living in an apartment, trying to get an idea of where we wanted to live in Tampa. And in that apartment complex, I was at the pool and I was like grilling some hot dogs. And this little kid comes over and he's like, can I have a hot dog? And you guys know me. I'm like, of course you can have 10 hot dogs, whatever you want. And so, you know, I looked for his parents and they're like, I was like, can he have a hot dog? And I yes, I gave him one. And, turns out.

You know, we kind of became friends with them, still friends with them to this day. And they were like, you know, we're, you know, I was like, I'm getting, getting my real estate license. They're like, well, we're looking for a home. Let's, let's do that. And so literally it was the next week, like everything was official. I took them, I showed them one property and we were, uh, we wrote an offer. We wrote an offer that day, my first property ever, my first showing ever. Um, I know joke, um, had issues like figuring out supra.

Right. The super key, even trying to get in. So that's how new, that's how new I was. And, and yeah, was, I was with the brokerage I was with for two weeks. I didn't, didn't get a tremendous amount of support that I was looking for. Now I won't name names or anything like that, but, the broker or the, the cell, listing agent on the home that I wrote the offer on was a broker. He kept in touch with me and recruited me. And, you know, I was there, I was there for a long time and he's, he's.

Duane Murphy (05:34)
Please.

Cool.

Dr. Ben Spears (05:52)
Awesome, awesome guy. Still friends with him and and you know would recommend him to anybody.

Shane Kilby (05:58)
the old co-broke recruit

Dr. Ben Spears (06:00)
Yeah, exactly.

Duane Murphy (06:02)
I like that. So just I'm gonna go off script a little bit and just going into that story. So and two things that that really kind of stuck out to me on that is in the intro you've been in real estate or related with real estate had your license now right for nine years.

Dr. Ben Spears (06:22)
Yep, about nine years.

Duane Murphy (06:25)
So if I try to use my fingers to do the math, that'd be like 2016, 20.

Dr. Ben Spears (06:31)
Yeah, yeah,

2017, that kind of thing. was toward the end of that year.

Duane Murphy (06:34)
2016-2017 when you got

your license, got into the business. You said in that first year, you sold 30 homes.

Dr. Ben Spears (06:42)
Yeah, mostly buyer side, obviously, because I was a, I was a newer agent, but yeah, 30 or 30 transact.

Duane Murphy (06:45)
newer agent and you were

in so two things on that with we'll hold on to that 2016 date being a new agent. A did you join a team or were you an independent agent?

Dr. Ben Spears (06:57)
Yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't independent agent. had a friend who was a real estate agent in Kentucky and he was like, he's like, man, I think you'd be great at this. It's part of the reason that I kind of got into it. And, uh, he's like, man, I think you'd be great at this. If you ever decided, you know, to switch professions, I was like, okay, I'll give a shot. And, so I just joined the same, you know, the same essentially brand that he was part of, cause I didn't know anything about it. And, uh, and I was literally, was, I was through the, through the test, um, or through the class, through the test in, in no time.

I had learned how to study and take tests in the nine years of school that I had taken before then. And so I was kind of blazed through that. yeah, that time frame, that all matches up. But I ended up at that brand and it work out.

Duane Murphy (07:47)
But with

that, because we have a variety of listeners, We have people that own businesses, own brokerages, A multitude of companies, all the way to the brand new agent or someone even looking to get their license, right? They're tuning in and trying to pick up nuggets and going, okay, is real estate the career I want? Is real estate the profession I want? Is that the path I want in order to create another life for my family? I'm still going back to this 2016. I remember, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

Dr. Ben Spears (08:17)
No.

Duane Murphy (08:17)
But I can

remember time moments in the market. And oh, by the way, in 2016, like the real estate market wasn't on fire. We're not talking like it was 2021, right? The biggest year ever in real estate, residential sales. I mean, we're talking 2016. still, it's on the upside of the recovery from the Great Recession and from the housing correction, but nothing completely unconscious. You're coming in into a brand new market, no sphere, no, don't know anyone.

Dr. Ben Spears (08:46)
I didn't know anybody. Anybody.

Duane Murphy (08:47)
in a brand new

profession that you had, I mean you have transferable skills, because you gotta smile and like people, but not really a career that would be like, okay, yeah, that makes sense to go straight into real estate from chiropractic. To do 30 sales as an individual agent, no team. How did you do 30 sales and what can you share with that, with our listeners?

going how do you sell 30 homes in the first, I sold 21 homes in my first year in a brand new market knowing no one and now you just told me you did 30 and I'm just going wow, I thought mine was cool. Mine was nothing compared to 30.

Dr. Ben Spears (09:27)
No, yours is cool too, It's Shane's that wasn't cool.

Duane Murphy (09:29)
Thanks.

Shane Kilby (09:31)
Everybody's story

is cool. I'm gonna stop right there. just caught myself. Carry on. Carry on.

Dr. Ben Spears (09:37)
Yeah.

Duane Murphy (09:39)
I'm

Dr. Ben Spears (09:41)
So, that being, so that being said, you know, how did it, the, broker, the second broker that I was with, he was a, a tremendous listing agent, right? So he's competing broker, but, always, you know, always there to help the agents, that kind of thing. That being said, he always carried like 15, 16, 17 listings at any time. And so, you know, for me, I just said, okay, well,

Duane Murphy (10:00)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Ben Spears (10:06)
I'm not putting a tremendous amount of money into this because I'm essentially going to be a chiropractor in six months. Right. So what can I do for free to generate, to generate business? And so I said, can I do open houses for you? And I would do an open house every Saturday. I do an open house every Sunday from his listings. and he offered this to all the agents. wasn't like something special to me, but, what happened and I would sometimes do them even through the week, but what I would do, and then, you know, I got this from something on online. It wasn't something, you know, that I came up with.

But I would put out anywhere from 60 to 100 open house signs per open house. Okay. And so what I would do is I would go to, I would go to target and I would go to Walmart and I would go to Publix and I would go to any place where there was traffic and I would put my first sign out open house this way, right. With an arrow and my name on it that kind of thing. And then I would sign from there to my open house. Sometimes it'd be like four or five miles of signs.

Duane Murphy (10:43)
Mmm.

Shane Kilby (10:44)
Mm.

Dr. Ben Spears (11:03)
But then when you got to the neighborhood of my open house, I had 10 to 20 in one direction about every four steps. And then I had 10 to 20 in the other direction, every four steps. You can imagine how fun this was in the rain. it rains every day here in the summer in Florida, but so I would have anywhere from, from 60 to a hundred open house signs. And, you know, I kind of got

I kind of got known known for that. And of course, you know, sometimes they just get picked up and stolen or whatever. And I've just costed doing business. But doing that, and then kind of working on my, vocabulary and my conversations that I was having inside of those open houses, that was that was invaluable, because as people would come in, they would, they'd be asking me questions. I mean, like, well, I don't know, I don't know the answer to that. Right. But I go to my broker and I would say, you know, go to the listing agent, I'll make sure I get that that answered for you.

And I would say, what's the answer to this question? What's the answer to this question? What's the answer to this question? And I would just kind of catalog all those things in my head. And then by the time all that was said and done with, right, I had a wonderful open house platform that I had kind of built on how to generate a tremendous amount of traffic to the open house. And then when they got there, I knew exactly the conversations that I was going to have. I knew that I knew as they were walking through the, through the, through the house, whatever room they were walking in.

Um, I knew what conversation I was going to start with them walking into that room and coming out of it. Everything was done with a purpose. And then as soon as they would leave, and this is so valuable, this isn't what you're asking me for, but this is some nuggets for some of her, a realtor out there asking. Um, wait a sec. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as they would leave, I grabbed my phone and I would pick and I would pick it up before they got to the car. This is like a challenge that I have for myself. I pick up my phone and I would say,

Duane Murphy (12:34)
Go ahead.

Shane Kilby (12:36)
Yeah, so go ahead, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Dr. Ben Spears (12:48)
Hey Shane, I'm so glad that you came by the open house today. I just wanted to let you know that I am super grateful that you took your time to spend some time with me viewing this property. If this property is the one for you, gosh, I'd love to be the one that helps you get it. But if it's not, that's okay too. I can bring the keys to another one, right? If there's anything I can ever do for you or anybody that you know, I'd really appreciate that. And hope you have a great rest of your day. And I would send that. And that got me so much business because it was personalized to them and it was before they got to the car, right?

I got listings from that. Like people just saying, listen, I can tell you know how to market property, right?

Shane Kilby (13:22)
Yeah,

so that's, you when this episode comes out, my agents that listen to this are going to say, you three rehearsed that and scripted that. It's funny you say that because that's something I stay on a soapbox about. Just in our brokerage and in our classes and stuff like that, because it's so, you know, were, you know, our brokerage has been open 12 years now and we,

That's we've never done print advertising. Now we've done postcards, you know, but never like newsprint stuff like that just because we couldn't quantify it. And we've always done social media stuff, the videos and the closing photos and stuff like that. over the years, it's, you know, went through the order taking cycles like agents have not had to market themselves. And so now the market has gobbled up and spit out a lot of agents and the agents that hung around are having to become

in those areas of marketing themselves. And so I shared with some agents this morning. said, I sent it to them. said, you know, look, I know you guys think that I'm just trying to drive this down your throat to make you do it. said, I don't, doesn't matter. don't care if you do it or not. I'm just gonna give you some current statistics. And these were NAR statistics. And those statistics were that 73 agents who use video

in their day-to-day marketing practices convert 73 % better their buyers and sellers than without it. for the listing agents out there, it also had the statistic that agents who use video and social media on their listings get 403 % more views and exposure than without.

Dr. Ben Spears (14:58)
Absolutely.

Shane Kilby (15:18)
using video every week in their business practice. was like, I could not help but share that. this is also funny too, because we used to do, and I say used to, because the market just exploded. It was like, we don't have time for this. There was a time where an open house, what a joke, like it wouldn't be here. Like you'll put it in, you'll market it and be like, no, we canceled it because it sold. But we used to do what we called extreme open houses.

We didn't put that many because everybody thought I was obnoxious But but now you just took it to another level but we would use now This is what we would use anywhere from 25 to 50 Open house signs and I had them printed up in in the construct the construction caution yellow Right and just black The black text on it because it really popped and it really you know You know for all the right reasons weren't trying to chaos and

Dr. Ben Spears (16:02)
nice.

Shane Kilby (16:12)
But it drew a lot of attention like what's going on over yellow and black signs are everywhere And when we turned into the street or the subdivision, then we would use the big ten foot tall win-win flags

Dr. Ben Spears (16:25)
Yeah, yeah, I have those. I had those too.

Shane Kilby (16:27)
Yeah, and then in the driveway we would we put up an easy up tent and have a little small little small grill and we do the hot dog but we would do hot dogs out there bottle water whatever and so we'd have an agent in the driveway, you know mangling would have an agent or two inside, know for giving the tour of the home and Answering all the questions and then of course if it was a nice enough area where we had a couple of probably even if even if they weren't our Listings we would get other agents from other companies and say hey, we're gonna go up in house

Duane Murphy (16:27)
yeah.

Shane Kilby (16:56)
Why don't you guys do it and one of us to do the hot dog one of us to do a dessert or something like that You know afterwards and we'll send them down your way and vice versa so it's funny you say that because in our office like we I bet we still have 400 500 of those, know caution they would like caution signs

Dr. Ben Spears (17:14)
Yeah.

Duane Murphy (17:15)
But the part with all that, right, I had made almost the majority of my business my first year, right, and I joined during the crash. Like I got my real estate license and I still I apologize to everybody that lost their home and lost their job and lost all their money because I feel like I personally caused the housing collapse of 2008.

because I got my license like three months earlier, four months earlier, and then literally like the market crashed. I, so I take, I'll take blame for that. I'm sorry. Yeah. So I'm, yeah. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry for that. But, but I did right in the middle of the crash and you couldn't give homes away. mean, it was open houses, right? And, I was heard, you know, with open houses, much like, right. Working full-time opportunity time, taking opportunities, taking leads, right? It's like,

Dr. Ben Spears (17:47)
Yeah, I think you were in the movie.

Shane Kilby (17:50)
He had hair then though.

Duane Murphy (18:08)
I can remember a mentor way back in the day, Marge Stammer. And she said, Dwayne, she goes, because I'd be like, man, I just had this open house. just had four open houses. I didn't have anybody show up, right? man, I only had one show up, right? And she'd be like, Dwayne, open houses and sitting there on that opportunity time and taking those shifts and doing those types of things is just like playing a slot machine. She goes, you just never know which quarter is going to pay off. She goes, and sometimes you got to just keep feeding it.

but sooner or later you're gonna pull that handle and it's gonna spit out payday. She goes, and you're gonna land buyers, you're land sellers. she was true. And what I find on this, and we got a little off subject, but yet it's still a great subject. Open houses today, especially with the change in buyer agency and so many buyers, like, do I commit to one agent on a buyer agency? Do I gotta sign forms now in order to go see a house?

Shane Kilby (18:54)
Mm-hmm.

Duane Murphy (19:08)
And have a written piece of paper and I don't know if I want to commit to an agent yet So right we're seeing at least in our market. We're seeing the open house traffic just soar Soar because right there's no commitment right? It's it's like Right, it's there's no strings attached come see the home. So I'm seeing open house traffic even though home sales are moderate Open house traffic is through the roof because there's no commitment there

But yet I also see the majority of agents today, right? And I'm not a bash on today's agent. The majority of them aren't taking advantage of any of those of the open house possibilities, right? The extreme open house we had, right? We did the brats and hot dogs and I can remember having a suitcase I dragged. I did five open houses every weekend, right? I tried to do two on Saturdays. I do three on Sundays, running between homes.

Shane Kilby (19:53)
Mm-hmm.

Duane Murphy (20:02)
I'd run in the house, turn on the oven quick, right? So run around, turn on all the lights, light a couple candles, right? Try to spray some potpourri to try to make it smell good, because you never knew what the hell you're run into, right? And then I'd bake some cookies quick, so the cookies would be coming out when the first person came through the door. by the way, just a note for anybody. Check the oven before you turn on someone else's oven. I may or may not have melted dishes.

Shane Kilby (20:23)
Ha ha.

Duane Murphy (20:30)
And one time started pre-cooking a roast for someone. But it's so basic. It's so basic.

Dr. Ben Spears (20:31)
the

Shane Kilby (20:36)
But part of that too is I don't I don't

I don't think all I mean you got to think about the agents There's tons of times awesome agents and they're way way more experienced than I am way more successful I learned from them every day But you know, we have a lot of agents that have been in the businesses, you know 2020, you know, we're in 2025, you know, it's been in the business four or five six years and They've met they've had they don't know how to do them. They you know, they weren't

They didn't have to know how to properly do them. And let's face it, like in every office there's an agent that says, doesn't work. That doesn't work. I tried that. That doesn't work. That doesn't work. I'm, and me, I've always been like, so tell me more. So explain to me how you verify and you prove that theory did not be effective. Like was it with the system would then work or was it you didn't work the system. And it's always the agent that didn't properly do it and didn't properly do it consistently long enough to get those results.

So on that topic, everybody here in our market wanted to do them on Sunday afternoons. Well, we just flipped the script. We said, OK, when is the bulk of people out and about in nice subdivisions? Saturday mornings, garage sales, yard sales. So we flipped the script and we started doing our open houses from 9 to 11 on Saturday morning.

So once we canvass the neighborhoods and let everybody know that, we're going to be doing open house. And they'll oh yeah, we got a garage sale going. That'd be great. So all of the folks coming through for the garage sales were naturally coming to get a hot dog, whatever. Did some of these people buy those houses? Maybe, maybe not. can't remember. But they got the word out. And it got traction. And it got traffic. And you know what? If we were still working at 1 or 2 o'clock on Saturday,

On open house, we were working with clients, new clients, fresh clients, fresh business. Otherwise, we were catching ball games Saturday night and still had our Sunday. But so we just changed it up a little bit. We used to do those three weeks a month, three weeks a month like clockwork. And it was great. Ben, let me ask you this. And as you can tell, we're all talkers. We have all been successful in sales because we completely left the script, ladies and gentlemen. But I hope that we brought you some value.

Dr. Ben Spears (22:57)
I like that.

Shane Kilby (22:58)
You know, it's mad Lib around here all the time. When you first started with this brokerage, I clamped onto something right there because you said, know, I went in and I had early traction and I did not get the assistance, the help that I needed to be successful. And my words got to turn there because of what you guys have built in the brokerpreneur.

Is that, when this was a conversation between you and Matt, was that part of what fueled that is because you realized that there needed to be more of a community, even if it was for leadership, so that that leadership could better influence the agents, or was that a different thought process?

Duane Murphy (23:48)
Not to interject on that, but I want to quick. Can you explain, because not everybody knows, doesn't have a personal relationship with a brokerpreneur and know what it is or understand what it is. So could we, before you go into like why you created it and the questions that Shane had on that, which are phenomenal, but can you explain what that is, how we came into contact with you and what.

What is this right at Broker's Open podcast to see it behind you and broker printer? What for our listeners, what is that?

Dr. Ben Spears (24:22)
Yeah, for sure. so broker brokerpreneur, I'll give you kind of a little bit of a rundown, right? So, as I was an agent, the last brokerage that I was with, Matt, my business partner was one of the brokers there. Right. So he was the, was like the, the manager over several different brokerages. had like an actual just single broker at, at, the office I was at, but, Matt was kind of over all those brokers and

You know, I, uh, the more I would talk to him as like, man, this guy is like a genius when it comes to growing real estate brokers, uh, brokerages. Um, and at the same time, like all the agents, like in his office would just crush it. Right. And so was like, I'm just going to pick this guy's brain as much as I possibly can. Um, so that's just how my brain works. I'm a learner. so I so much time, so much time with him. And I was like, man, it's like, you got too much information in your head to be just keeping this inside, like this one company. Right. And,

Cause you guys know, like you can just say anything about real estate and Matt can just like, it's, and it's super smart and it's super intelligent. And it seems as though like he knew the question was coming. Right. And so I said, I was like, let's do a podcast. He's like, nah, I don't want to do a podcast. What's the podcast? Okay. Let's do a podcast. Eventually I was like, okay, let's do a podcast. He's like, all right, I'll do a podcast. Right. And with some expletives, but you know, but not many.

Shane Kilby (25:26)
hehe

Dr. Ben Spears (25:41)
And so we started doing brokers, a brokerpreneur podcast at the, at the time it was, we didn't know the name of it. we didn't have a name for it. I just said, man, this needs to be something sexy. It was going to be all about how to grow brokerages with, know, through recruiting and that kind of thing. So the podcast actually started as sexy real estate recruiting podcast. Right. And it was only audio and it's kind of funny and you know, that kind of thing. had some great conversations there. those aren't even on, but man, I shouldn't get, I'm going to go back to the audio and grab some of those clips.

Duane Murphy (26:08)
We're gonna have to find the archives.

Dr. Ben Spears (26:10)
Right. And so it like the first hundred episodes, but we

coined the term on that, on that podcast, brokerpreneur. it's kind of like, you know, you know, this, this is for people who are brokers, but also entrepreneurs. And so we, we coined brokerpreneur. Then it just became the name of the podcast and the company that we have moving forward. And we had no intentions of starting a company, but our listeners were like, man, this is really good. Like, what else you got? And we're like, we only have anything else. So we started a group. Right. And then it was like, okay, this group is awesome. And we love everybody. And.

What else you got? And it was like, we don't have anything else. I was like, okay, so well, let's have some tech. So we started, you know, we, we, mess with just some different different platforms, you know, throughout, but to where we finally, you know, finished on an amazing recruiting platform that we have, called the brokerpreneur hub, but it's all centered around the community. Right. And so we are not a tech company that says like, Hey, here's some tech, go figure out how to use it see you later. Right. We are very much hands on.

more of a community of like, let's grow our, let's grow our real estate brokerages together. By the way, happen to have some, some amazing tech that will support that. Right. And so the reason that is, cause Matt said, you know, brokers and agents both, we have, agent facing, agent facing sides of all this as, as, as well. and that's prime real estate coaching, but he's like, you know, it's, he's like throughout all my experience with growing a brokerage or growing real estate business, was here's some stuff, go learn how to use it.

And it was like, go get them tiger. And so he said, you know, if we're going to do this, we're just going to have amazing support. And I'm like, I'm right there with you. Right. Cause I did that with, know, with my chiropractic office, I did that with my real estate clients. And, I'm even getting texts from brokerpreneurs as we're sitting here asking, asking questions. And I'm going to get to those as soon as I, as soon as I get off this. Yeah.

Shane Kilby (27:53)
That one wasn't me. That one wasn't me.

Duane Murphy (27:57)
I actually had timed it was supposed to go off afterward. Sorry.

Dr. Ben Spears (28:00)
Okay, gotcha, gotcha. I

appreciate that. It's time zones or something. But with that being said, so that's what Brokerpreneur is. We're a community of real estate broker owners who are entrepreneurial faced and focused. And we have amazing tech that allows for recruiting, retention, agent productivity. And if you're an agent...

Right. We do have Prime Real Estate Coaching. We have a Prime Hub as well. It's going to help you grow your business, generate leads, do all those things as well. But I'm imagining links will be in the description below and if not, it's okay.

Shane Kilby (28:37)
Well, and full

disclosure too, so, know, I I don't even know if you know this, Ben, but full disclosure for all the listeners and viewers now and later on, like this isn't sponsored podcast, they didn't pay for, you know, we didn't get a free service or any of stuff, like, yeah, well, the check did not clear, so let's work on that, the check did not clear.

Duane Murphy (28:55)
Wait, Dr. Ben said he paid you.

Shane Kilby (29:03)
But in all honesty, like we've been working together now for a couple years and it's just, I believe wholeheartedly in leading with value and give it all away. And if you can make a positive impact on someone else's life, that's great. Good things, the rest takes care of itself. Do what you need to do when you need to do it and the rest will take care of itself. That being said, I'm not gonna lie, like, Dwayne and I send stuff back and forth each other ideas and.

You know, stuff like that all the time. And, and, uh, it was in a conversation that Dwayne said, you know, having, you know, listen to this podcast, you know, check it out. That's pretty good stuff on there. And so I did, you know, I started listening to it every day, working out or whatever, dry time. And, um, and, and every episode, all the way back to when you guys were in COVID and each other's house or whatever. I was like, I remember the conversations about sexy broker, open podcast, preneur thing or something like.

Duane Murphy (29:51)
us.

Dr. Ben Spears (29:51)
Yeah.

Shane Kilby (29:58)
What is this? This is kind of sketch. What does the Wayne sent me? But it's funny because you you guys live by that principle to lead with value give give give give and you know, if I can help you in other ways fine like if not still take the value and run with it because it was probably I was probably a year nine months to a year just consuming the podcast and taking nuggets of value away and implementing

those into my day-to-day business. lot of the stuff was things that I already knew that I'd gotten away from. We talked about this in another episode, just getting away from those core basics and making things way more complicated and complex than it needed to be. But I say this, that because of that podcast and because of you guys giving so much, I'm like, okay, if these guys are gonna give all this knowledge and how-to away, then...

Let me see what these guys are like working hand in hand. So that's how we got to the relationship that we are today. But Ben brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise and he's a pretty good comedian. I don't know if he could make a living at it, but my wife says he tells funny jokes and that's just Ben. So let me ask you this though. So you may have already defined this.

Dr. Ben Spears (31:15)
She's right. She's right.

Duane Murphy (31:17)
You

Shane Kilby (31:21)
Because you guys have had some really good success in helping brokers and agents and leadership in general to be more successful in real estate. What would you say to this point has been your biggest success in business?

Dr. Ben Spears (31:37)
Yeah. So that's an easy, that's an easy question. it's the people. Right. And so, from a success standpoint, right, you can look, you can look at dollar amounts, you can look at, you know, the sizes of companies and I've started and sold, you know, multiple companies, but, there's not been one company that I've worked with or started or been part of where, gosh, I didn't just didn't love the people that I was working with. And then in turn, you know, the same thing as those, as, as we build community, right. Cause everything we do is based around community.

That's why value is so important, just like you were talking about. I don't know that you can provide value without having some sense of community. That's a different conversation, a different day. But it's the people, right? The relationships and everybody that I've been able to come in contact with. And then as a result, those people introduced me because birds of a feather flock together. Those people introduced me just like Shane was introduced to us by Duane, right? Like we grow.

the network and the community and the relationships, in a way of someone saying, Hey, like this is, this is cool. Come check this out. Hey, you need to meet, meet this person because there's a lot of like synergy between what you do and they do, check this out. I know for a fact, like Dwayne's not going to send me like to somebody that is not going to be a good, a good fit or somebody who's going to be a jerk and Shane wouldn't do the same either. And neither would Courtney and neither would Didi. you know, none of those people kind of in that, that ecosphere.

we would, do that. And so for me, it's like, yes, I'm just, I'm surrounded by amazing people, who do amazing things. And I just get to be part of that win, which is pretty cool.

Shane Kilby (33:19)
Yeah, and I will attest to that. Like the level of service that you guys have always been like, I mean, there's times I've, I have been the one had the question. I'm like, man, I do not need to text him this question on Friday afternoon at 6 45 PM central time. And he's an East coast time zone at center. One is rude of me, but two, I know he's about to call me. So it's seven o'clock on Friday night, my time. And it's.

Duane Murphy (33:22)
We'll

Dr. Ben Spears (33:47)
You know it.

Shane Kilby (33:48)
And it's been a question I had, I've texted and I'd say, I would say, don't call me. You don't have to call me right now. like, have 15 minutes later, they even call and say, Hey, let's dive into this. So to me, that's, that is somebody that knows what it takes in this business and the hurdles and the obstacles that are in fact in our paths. A lot of, a lot of days, um, you know, brokers, entrepreneurs, real estate leaders, team leaders, agents too, like.

We all came in as business for the same reason. We wanted to build some type of freedom through real estate. None of us came into real estate to be Elon Musk or to be any type of tech team in the back room, putting all these technologies together and then making them all work. then when you're 40, 50 ages deep, then you're the one that they're always calling. So that means a lot. That means a lot.

And it's not something that's been on again, off again. That wasn't in the first 30 day trial period. It's like to this day, it's the same level of service with these guys, absolutely.

Dr. Ben Spears (35:01)
Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that a lot. That's a, you know, support support is, kind of like missing sometimes in lot of companies. And, um, and that's, that's kind of like the foundation of what we have, you know, our, our brokerpreneurs, they get our, they get our cell phones, right? They have our, they have our mobile numbers and we don't, we don't want to hide behind, you know, some tech support, you know, uh, sex support, third party, anything like that. Like if you have an issue, I mean, we have masterminds every day from 12 to one.

Like there's, if, there's anything that somebody wants to come and talk to us and they get, they get us, the owners of the company and, and we just want to make sure everybody wins. And, that's how we all win together.

Shane Kilby (35:41)
Five days a week they're there like clockwork like clockwork

Duane Murphy (35:45)
In a moment of transparency, vulnerability, what would you deem your biggest failure in business?

Dr. Ben Spears (35:56)
Yeah, my biggest failure. That's,

Probably, probably not understanding like what my strengths are, right? Like in trying to do everything, right? Like a combination of those two. So, you guys know, like Matt is visionary, big ideas guy, that kind of thing. I used to think that I was, I used to think that I was that guy. I was like, you know, I'm visionary and I'm leading this. I've owned these companies and that kind of thing. And, and, you know, I can have big picture, conversations and that kind of thing, but I'm not going to really going to look at, I'm not really going to look at.

a group of

tools and say, well, here are all the things that we can do with these tools or these skillsets. Right. That's, that's not my jam. But one thing that I'm amazing at is if someone comes to me and says, Hey, I got an idea and I'm thinking this and I have no idea how to do it. And I'm like, okay, well, I'll go learn how to do that. Right. And so, cause I just enjoy learning. Like I love learning about anything and everything and it doesn't matter what it is, but it's, it's, it's.

It's not being, it's realizing that I'm not the ideas guy. I am very much the guy who partners with people who have amazing ideas and help bring those across the finish line. because I'm willing to do anything to learn how to do it.

Duane Murphy (37:17)
Yeah, so you've been able to take that as almost a success and as a huge launching board because realizing, to stick in those same words, am I a visionary or am I an integrator? And truly learning, visionaries are sexy. It's just to stay in that terminology. Everybody wants to be a visionary, but if any...

Dr. Ben Spears (37:34)
Mm-hmm.

Duane Murphy (37:46)
Anybody who knows anything knows it's the integrators that get this shit done. Right? I mean, it truly is. I mean, because the visionaries can run themselves in circles chasing all these ideas and all this stuff, but it's the integrators that get stuff done and move everything truly forward, right? And a good integrator, right, is also the one that will grab ahold of that visionary occasionally, right? And be like, wait, like we've...

Shane Kilby (37:50)
Hehe.

Dr. Ben Spears (37:51)
Right.

Duane Murphy (38:14)
We've got these ten things to do before we hit the next ten.

Dr. Ben Spears (38:18)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And so, you know, Matt's really good at like spending like a million plates, right? You know, a million plates spending at the same time. And you can just do that. Right. My brain, my brain doesn't, was working like that. Right. I'm, I'm extremely like to a fault, very singular focused, right? If I'm working on something, don't ask me to work on anything else until I've finished this one thing. But when I get done with that thing, it's going to be a thing, right? That thing is going to be a thing. And so I'm saying, I'm be like halfway in this and that. So, um,

So yeah, 100 % the visionaries are necessary. Like where's the company going to go, right? Using Gina Wickman and traction, like you're talking about the integrator. Now that integrator, it's kind of like, well, how are we going to get there? And so, but yeah, I used to try and do both. think a lot of business owners try and do both, right? It's almost kind of like being part, being sales and delivery, you know, inside of a company. it's like, no, like you,

You can't, you can't be sales and delivery for long anyway. And, and you have to realize like this, this is your role. This is what you're good at. And it may not be what you thought it was, but gosh, like, work business and everything scales so much faster when everybody's sitting in the right seat and everybody's really bought into, yeah, that is, that is my seat. And I'm, have a good time. I'm smiling all the time because I'm, I'm going to work doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Every single day instead of trying to be something that I'm not

Shane Kilby (39:49)
Yeah, it doesn't matter how great a bus you have and what a great destination you're headed towards. If you have the wrong butts in the wrong seat, it's like you're never going to get there. And I mean, you may have the right people on the bus in the wrong seats. You may work absolutely perfect with the same people on the bus, but they may be in the wrong seats. that's something that's, you know, I think and this is talking about faults.

Like I think a lot of times we, know me, I have too many times tried to make people's strengths mold into other things to do other, because we're used to, as entrepreneur, we're used to juggling a lot of things and seeing a lot of things and just managing a lot of those systems, processes, and thoughts, typically in a decisive manner, even if we don't express those out loud.

Processing them in our head and I think a lot of times for me I've tried to take someone that was good at great at this and In trying like I just I don't need a whole one of these Can you just can can you just make can be great at this thing this couple other tasks? And it's like that has always worked against me that has always worked against me and it's it's been I've learned it over the last 20 years, but It's been it's not been easy because I'm like, well, why why can't everybody manage six different?

job descriptions instead of one. And I'm like, now I know I'm like, that's why it takes you six times long to finish one project because you're working on 16 different projects. So that's a detriment to me, detriment to me. But you know, getting there, you live and you learn. So let me ask you, is going in a different direction from, you know, failure and success in business. We all have a

an influence in life and business, sometimes it's relatives, friends, family members, sometimes it's people, places, different things. What would you say has been your greatest influence in life and in business?

Dr. Ben Spears (42:01)
Gosh, that's a loaded question for sure. Yeah, I would just go back and I would say like, my mom and my dad, like I have amazing parents, right? And if I could give grace to the Lord above, right? I'm for sure gonna say that's an amazing influence in my life as well. But my parents, I was an only child, right? So I got a tremendous amount of attention. That's part of the reason that I'm crazy like I am.

But my parents were just, my parents were just amazing and they were both extremely hard workers. you know, advanced, advanced, very, very, very well in the fields that they chose, despite, know, only, having, you know, high school diplomas, that kind of thing. And, and they showed me like, this is what hard works. This is what hard works all about. And this is how, you know, if you do what needs to be done, you know, we've all heard like.

You know, hard now, easy later, easy now, hard later. It's very, very, very much, you know, kind of put that in, into my path. But the same things, like if I'm washing, if I'm, you know, 14 and I'm out and I'm washing my dad's truck and you know, I miss a spot. Well, guess what? I got to watch that whole truck all over again. Right. I can't just fix that spot. Right. And so, you know, he really taught me, okay, well, this is how, this is, this is how you do the work and you take a lot of pride in what you do and your finished product needs to be something that you are like, you're excited to show.

somebody else. On the flip side, my mom, she can talk to anybody, right? And she has, I very much get my personality from her. She's friends with literally everybody that she meets, but she showed me the, the, the compassion that, you know, you should, you should give, give to people, right? She's that person that, you know, my mom actually it's, it's kind of like a weird conversation, but my mom actually lost her finger. It had since been reattached.

lost her finger because she pulled over on the side of the road to help this elderly couple change a flat tire. Right. And for those of you who know, my mom's 4'11 and like ways, like not like she's, I don't even know if she knows how to change flat tire, but she's not going to go past while those people really need my help. And so everybody in my community knows, knows who she is because of her acts, not just because of, you know, any, any other reason. And so

Those two are just amazing influencers inside my life and I would not be even remotely the person that am today if it wasn't for the two of them.

Shane Kilby (44:38)
We hear that a lot. We hear that a lot and that's that is absolutely amazing. You know, a lot of the guests we have on here attribute a lot of their success, you know, directly from, you know, mom, dad, grandparents, discipline, you know, stuff like that. and that empathy and compassion. Very, very important, you know, and it shows like the length of time that I've known you. It shows like I have I have.

Definitely giving you giving you enough tests to prove that fact And and we've and we've got we've become really good friends because of because in my world I mean, I know how brutal it can be day in and day out 12 hours 18 hours a day. You know what and Every person that needs me or needs something for me. They're just one person one need I don't have a right to to to be

Fractures are in a bad mood because that happens to be the 18th fire. I put out today That individual asked for one fire one need that's all they asked for so You know, I've put a lot of fires and a lot of needs in your lap So I definitely appreciate that but it does show through that you had some good raisin

Dr. Ben Spears (45:54)
I appreciate that.

Duane Murphy (45:55)
Yeah, you can without a doubt just hit on that as well. mean, you can just you can feel the love and and all that they meant to you and and what you're right, what you're what your dad and what your mom mean to you. I mean, in the story you shared and just giving that a little bit of testimony or you can just you can you can mop up every bit of that and you can feel it. So that's

Dr. Ben Spears (46:22)
Yeah, yeah, they're amazing. They're amazing.

Duane Murphy (46:24)
That's

the sincerity is is is there for sure. So. Looking at the.

What's one thing if you could go back in time, right? And or tell yourself, right? So go back in time and tell yourself, you know, something that you wish somebody would have told you, right? Or possibly someone that's on the same journey right now, right? And you're like a little bird on their shoulder and you're gonna whisper something in their ear and share something that you wish somebody would have told you.

What would that be?

Dr. Ben Spears (47:07)
Yeah, trust your gut. Right. Trust your gut because, again, I've, I've had a lot of, influential people in my life and they've, in, good ways, in good ways and, and, and otherwise never in business, right. In business, I've always had, you know, amazing, amazing things. But like, for example, when, when I became, when I, when I decided to go from chiropractic to real estate, right. Like you can imagine the conversations.

I was having of like, what, why would you do that? And that kind of thing. And, and that was just, you know, that was a chapter that just, that was, that chapter was written. It was time to move on that to the next chapter. And, and I just, trusted my gut and I said, no, this feels right. Like this feels good. I like this. I like where this is going. It just feels good. And, and just know that you can always change. Right. There's no, you can always change. That's part of like, you know, that gut. And so if there's something that you're like, man, like

I've always wanted to do this. I've always wanted to do that. Then do that. Right? Like if you're miserable, don't do that. And, and, and, but if you're not, and you know, and you're like, this would make me happy, then do that. And so, that's probably the biggest thing that I would tell everybody is just, you know, trust your gut because for me, it was a very long time that I really questioned, like, what is it that I should be doing? And I let, and I let.

mothers, fathers, teachers, preachers, all those, know, whatever they call them. let all those people in that sphere of influence be like, no, this is the path. This is the path. This is the path. Stay on that path. This is the path. And that's great. And that took me. have a tremendous amount of, um, uh, a great skillset and a tremendous amount of knowledge, uh, from, from that path that I took. But at the same time, it was like, well, gosh, you know, where, where would I be if I did this 20 years earlier?

Right? You know, and not necessarily real estate, but anything right? Like where would I be if I started working out 20 years ago? You know what mean? Like those, those types of things. And so I just don't let, just don't let those, those outside influencers, right? Take, take everything with a grain of salt and say, okay, that's cool. But this is the direction that I really feel like I want to go. And then just, just go that way. Right? Just go that way.

Duane Murphy (49:25)
That's such phenomenal

advice. Because like you said, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? It doesn't work out and you can go back to being miserable. Like, right? Like, I don't know. Like, what's the worst that could happen? Like, A, it works out and you all of a sudden love life and love the path and enjoy what's going on, right? Or it doesn't work out.

Shane Kilby (49:28)
Yeah.

Duane Murphy (49:52)
Congrats, you can go back to being you can go back to being miserable. It's like it's not gonna be more miserable You're just go back to your miserable you were before right? So, you know, that's that's That's rockstar. I like that

Shane Kilby (50:01)
You

Dr. Ben Spears (50:08)
Yeah, like like starting, like for example, starting my chiropractic practice in 2009. Right? Like with zero patients and taking out a loan to do that. Right? Like there's a lot of like, man, you shouldn't be doing this. Right? Everything's crashing, right? Crashing around us right now. And I'm like, no, like I want to help these people. I want to do these things. And so, you know, you just, yeah, it's, it's just pretty cool. Like look at looking back, you know, these are great questions. looking back, there's a lot of.

A lot of lessons learned along the way, the easy way and the hard way.

Shane Kilby (50:41)
Yeah, making mistakes has a way if you're if you pay close enough attention it has Lifelong value and the lessons that you take away from them So so Ben in respect of your time and not to to go over too long here For all of the listeners out there that are listening and consuming this podcast and content or later date time if anyone here wants to get more information about brokerpreneur or just reach out to

to Dr. Ben and just connect with you, how would they go about that?

Dr. Ben Spears (51:12)
Yeah, that's super easy. Just send me an email. It's ben at prospect boomerang.com. Ben at prospect boomerang.com. That's you too, Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can follow, you can follow a broker, pro podcast. and, you know, check us out on our YouTube channel. we had, you know, a broker, pro podcast or prime real estate coaching, you, you name it. we're, we're all over those places, but,

Shane Kilby (51:20)
Okay. Any social handles?

Dr. Ben Spears (51:38)
you I'm very much a one to one type person. So if you guys want to, if you guys want to connect with me personally, you can leave comments and all those kinds of things. Those places are sending me a DM, but you want to talk to me, been a prospect boomerangs, best way to do it.

Shane Kilby (51:51)
That's awesome. So that rule that'll put it into put a bow on it as dr Ben says all the time on his episodes We'll put a bow on it with that right there But in the meantime folks if if you found value in this whatsoever Please do us a huge favor and give us a five-star review on this podcast and give us that thumbs up like it and share it if you don't mind subscribe and Until next time we will see you soon. Take care

Duane Murphy (52:19)
Peace.

Shane Kilby (52:21)
Hmm