From Logistics to Listings: How Eric Meldrum Built a YouTube Powered Real Estate Machine

What happens when a former logistics expert burns out on corporate America and sets his sights on real estate? You get Eric Meldrum—a team leader, content creator, and visionary who turned YouTube videos into a multi-state lead magnet.

In this episode, Eric joins Shane and Duane to share:

• How he went from startup life and SaaS dreams to real estate success in Michigan and Florida
• The secrets behind his evergreen YouTube strategy that drives millions in production
• The mindset shift that helped him let go of control and build a real business, not just a job
• Lessons from Beats by Dre’s former VP of Ops and why being vulnerable matters more than acting like you have it all figured out

Plus: The conversation gets real on time freedom, team-building, subculture recruiting, ChatGPT referrals (!), and how a single video from two years ago keeps pulling in $30K–$60K commission opportunities.

If you’re tired of chasing and ready to attract, this one’s for you.

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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 (00:03)

every time. Welcome to another episode of Real Estate Agent Life. I'm Duane Murphy from Wisconsin. And that's Shane Kilby from

Shane Kilby (00:11)

Sweet home Alabama.

Duane Murphy (00:12)

We're at home Alabama and I tell you what, have another guest today from across the United States. So we're gonna dive right into that. Shane, who do we have today?

Shane Kilby (00:21)

Today we have a good friend of ours, Eric Meldrum. Is that how you pronounce it, Meldrum? Perfect, perfect, perfect. Eric Meldrum from Brighton, Michigan. Is that correct? I'm rockin' and rollin', rockin' and rollin'. So we recently met Eric at a, I guess it was a mastermind. Yeah, a mastermind. It wasn't really a supersized conference. It one of those small rooms with big players and.

Eric Meldrum (00:26)

Yes, that's correct.

You got it. Coming to you live.

Shane Kilby (00:48)

One of those spaces where you walk in and you go do a fit in this room, but before we get into that ⁓ Eric is based out of Brighton, Michigan. He is a team leader for a true living group of eXp Realty serving Michigan and Florida. That's interesting We'll have to dive into that ⁓ He is a former logistics pro. I hope I hope you pre you looked at all this right before and Eric I posted this with you

Eric Meldrum (01:13)

I did, I pre-vetted it. You guys are

good. You guys did your homework.

Shane Kilby (01:16)

For total disclosure, I've gone down that path off air and it's like, nope, that's not right. I've never been in logistics. That is not me. So if...

Eric Meldrum (01:23)

There

is another Eric Meldrum out of Colorado who is some sort of scientist that is not me.

Shane Kilby (01:29)

Okay, so we're good this Eric is not the scientist But as a former logistics pro I could see where that would play heavily into herding cats in the real estate industry Social media marketer he is we're gonna dive in a little bit insight He's built some pretty good remarkable groups out there, and we might get to dig into those VA Relocation specialists he helps veterans out-of-state buyers move with ease and I appreciate that we love a great USA

This is our, you know, well, we're shooting this the week of 4th of July. So hopefully we'll get it out right there shortly after. He's also known as a content creator. He shares real estate tips, marketing updates, and community spotlights. Eric, my friend, welcome to the podcast. So introduce yourself, kind of share with the audience a little bit about your backstory. Yeah, we met at a KFR John Chep Black event. He gets more plugs on this podcast than we get on this podcast, but.

Eric Meldrum (02:27)

a connector,

Shane Kilby (02:28)

⁓ Who is Eric Meldrum?

Eric Meldrum (02:30)

Yeah, no, we appreciate you guys having me. This is fun. I love this. Getting into real estate, I can go way back into my childhood, but I'll start when I got into real estate, not to take you guys down a long path. ⁓ Got into real estate in 2018, burnt out of corporate America and thought real estate would be funner and less demanding. Lo and behold, I think everyone knows where that story ends. Real estate agents now work in 24-7.

Shane Kilby (02:56)

That's the broke agent. That's the broke agent.

Eric Meldrum (03:01)

⁓ you know, and I got in mainly to grow a software company, you know, when I was, ⁓ coming off of logistics, I was really heavy into kind of the software side of, connecting shipping lanes. And I got, I got my beak wet, ⁓ you know, into the SaaS, you know, world. And I started looking at, ⁓ growing my own company and I quickly realized like, you know, I've been growing somebody else's company for the past 10 years.

You know, and I bounced around from startup to startup and that was fun, but I never really had anything to show for it. I had some stock options that didn't work out. Had some things that, you know, false promises made. I'm like, you know, I'm just kind of tired of building something for somebody else. You know, so I started looking a lot like most entrepreneurs who are trying to do their own thing. I looked at drop shipping. I looked at, you know, you name it. There was a program or a system out there that said,

⁓ you won't make money if you do this. I probably looked at it now and I kept coming back to the real estate for some reason. And I think it was because.

Duane Murphy (04:06)

So you went from like

trying to be the next FedEx to trying to like do real to all of a sudden doing real estate.

Eric Meldrum (04:15)

Yeah. Well, I was going to grow a, a real estate CRM. This was back in 2018 when, you know, Facebook advertising was really taken off. Facebook messenger was just starting to get some, some traction and the CRMs that were, were there. It was like lines desk. Um, there was a few like KB core was around. Um, there was a few more that were kind of doing, you know, unique things, but they didn't really integrate all the communication channels very well.

And so I was Facebook advertising to the masses. Like we were gaining probably a hundred leads, you know, every couple of days when we were, we were advertising. And we just noticed like I have all my Facebook messenger things over here. And then I had my CRM and then they're not talking to each other, which was absolutely wild. Still nobody's ever fixed that by the way. That's a huge, huge thing. And Facebook got their API kind of locked down. But it.

I really got into real estate to tell the founder story in that software company. And then I realized I was competing with giants like KV Core and Chime at the time, know, follow up boss came, you know, shortly after that. And I started looking into those companies like, man, they got a lot of, they got a lot of venture capital. that I'm over here trying to bootstrap this thing. Like that could be cool. ⁓ but it just kind of didn't work out. Funny story. I got to reach out to, ⁓ Randy Carroll with Rooster because.

Shane Kilby (05:32)

Thank

Eric Meldrum (05:41)

The name of our company was Roost. And if we go back and look at our old pitch decks, super similar. You guys familiar with that company, Rooster? Yeah. Like super similar to what they're building on the buyer journey and the seller journey. And that's just connecting it beyond just ⁓ the real estate CRM side. I've been meaning to connect with them. So if you guys know him, just let me know.

Duane Murphy (05:49)

Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Kilby (06:04)

Yeah, we both actually know those guys when they were wet behind the ears.

Duane Murphy (06:09)

Yeah,

a couple of them came from commission zinc background, from a zinc background. So they were with that CRM lead gen platform for a lot of years.

Shane Kilby (06:13)

Yeah, good day to good days

Yeah, that's where we met them. I guess they were right out of college then. Right out of college. you know, full disclosure, like we got, we have got to come back and do like an episode completely dedicated to everyone's history on their business ideas. And I mean, that would be like a Saturday night live skit.

Eric Meldrum (06:45)

Yeah, get the highlight reel going.

Shane Kilby (06:46)

Yeah, because it's funny because

one of these episodes we did with Kayla Leos from Arizona, if you don't know her, you need to look her up. She is an absolute phenomenal person, but they have a beast of a company. ⁓ we got to talking about Carlton Sheets. And I'm like, what'd you say? Carlton Sheets, like you heard? Wait, wait. And so I still, went and dug after that episode, I went and dug it up out of the.

out of the archives and the dust on those DVDs and DVDs. I don't know what the probably cassette tape cassette. I know, right? I know. So it's funny, funny, funny. So let me ask you this. So given the background that you've got, like you, it's, evident that you have that entrepreneurial spirit to the core. ⁓ And, you know, getting into real estate.

Duane Murphy (07:22)

Yeah, you just dated yourself.

Shane Kilby (07:42)

and staying in real estate, after going through the changes and the testing of the waters of what you tested in the beginning, what made you stick around in real estate? What made you say, no, this is it. think I'm going to pursue this for the next several years.

Eric Meldrum (08:02)

Yeah, it's really good, ⁓ man. that's a, I think there's a lot of personal stuff in packed in there. ⁓ I don't think it was one, one particular thing. You know, I think there was a combination of things that were happening in, my life. ⁓ how I wanted it designed, right? If that kind of makes any sense, like, you know, when I was going on that entrepreneurial journey, trying to get out from, you know, somebody else's company and start my own thing, the thing that

I really wanted out of all that was time freedom, right? And financial freedom can buy that, you know, but I really was chasing the time freedom to kind of like build my life to where it doesn't feel like work. All right. It doesn't feel like I am going into the office and I have to be there. Right. I always wanted something where like my kids were just born, you know, in 2016 I had my first daughter and that's when kind of the gear started turning like.

man, am I going to be, because I was traveling quite a bit in corporate America. And I kept asking myself, like, am I going to be the dad that like flies out on a, on a Monday and comes home on a Thursday evening and misses pretty much the whole entire week, you know, with my kids. And I just didn't want that at all. So I was chasing the time freedom and real estate seemed, you know, allured to, ⁓ to offer that. And, but as I got into more, more and more with

the real estate processes and the things that I was really working on back then, I started shifting away from thinking like, okay, this is just gonna be, I'm gonna be able to set up a company and kind of put it on autopilot. Like I started meeting people and I started hearing the stories of like, this is our first home. This is gonna mean, you know, we're gonna be able to move to Michigan or Florida. And this is a huge, huge opportunity for us. Like some people were jumping.

know, pay scales and getting promotions or, you know, moving closer to family because their, parents were, were not doing well. ⁓ so I started getting pulled into the, family stories. I'm like, man, like, this is pretty cool. Like when it, when it's all sudden done, like, and I started getting that, ⁓ I'm more of like addiction to that. And I stopped worrying about like all the stuff that I was working on. And I just kind of shifted away and like, you asked me today, I'm still the tech guy in our business, you know, and I'm still like,

Yeah, we can get it. can automate that, but I've literally gone completely away from a lot of the automation. Like anytime somebody brings up automation, ⁓ I think the Toyota way. Have you guys ever read that book?

Shane Kilby (10:40)

Mm-mm. I haven't, but I've heard of it.

Eric Meldrum (10:42)

Yeah. Like anybody in apps, you know, that's thinking systems and processes and tech. Um, I would suggest reading the Toyota way. It's a fantastic book and the principle I can distill it down in like 15 seconds. Principle behind it is Toyota implements software in their business to enable and bring efficiency to already established processes. All right. Processes don't solve the prob or systems and

tech don't solve the problems that people in processes do. The software allows and enables them to do it more efficiently or more cost effective. And so I really started bringing that into the real estate business because like, as you guys know, you can automate all the communication in the world, right? Emails go out, text messages go out, but you lose that human touch on it. And that's where I really started shifting. And like anytime somebody brings up, can we automate that? I always

push back and like, how are you going to actually connect with somebody? If you can't connect with somebody, and as we're growing our team, say this, like, if you can't connect with somebody, you know, and we're just going to send out emails and text messages, why do I need you as an agent?

If I could sell real estate from email and text message, I don't need any agents at all. None of us do.

Duane Murphy (12:00)

No, on an

electronic lock box and you can remote control and call it done.

Eric Meldrum (12:06)

That's it.

Shane Kilby (12:07)

Yeah.

Yeah, it's so that's interesting that you say that. So, you know, time is that's my why. That's that's what I did is, you know, ask me 10 years ago, ask me 10 years from now. You know, my wise is time. Right. ⁓ You know, it's it's we have a finite number of days on this planet. And it's very it's very difficult to have that rare.

entrepreneurial spirit in you know ingrained in you to your core and and still be able to not put your hand into each and every opportunity comes your way because the more success you have and the better as an entrepreneur you become the more opportunities come your way it's opportunities to take that time away from those people and away from you right the things that you enjoy

So it's interesting that you put it like that. Dwayne and I have been connected for several years. We joke about it all the time being like fraternity brothers, like we've traveled together. We've went big hunt trips and stuff like that together. ⁓ But it is trying to make that seesaw work. A perfect example, Dwayne gives me grief all the time, but at the same time, he's also probably gonna fly down there and he'll be there.

You'll knock on the door one one day we go to the beach for about three weeks the last three to four weeks of summer for the kids summer before they go back to school and And we transition there in the middle of night the rest of world goes bumper-to-bumper traffic watch 17 fatalities Bless those souls will travel at night and we set up camp We got we have our workspace or work, you know Our computers or all of our things our printers all this stuff set up when the Sun comes up the next day and we don't work much, you

A couple hours for the kids to get up, a couple hours during the middle of the day when they're chilling, relaxing, recovering from the heat, and maybe a couple hours at night if we have to. If I need to work for a few hours, mom takes the kids out, but it's like a two-hour rule, like hard stop, hard stop. But we're able to stay extended lengths on those vacations and those trips because of the focus on time. Very interesting approach, very good choice for you, very good choice for you.

Eric Meldrum (14:30)

Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I, and you guys probably already know this, the more agents you talk to, you know, it's the, comes up more often than, than really anybody cares to admit. You know, when it comes down to it, people say, yeah, I want to, I want to make a lot of money, but why do you want to make a lot of money? What are you going to do if you, you can't spend it or go enjoy it.

Duane Murphy (14:32)

you

Shane Kilby (14:40)

yeah.

Yep. ⁓

Duane Murphy (14:49)

Yeah.

So, Eric, ⁓ give us a little, ⁓ glimpse at what your team structure is like. So, cause you mentioned you met, in the, in the bio and whatnot, you have, you have Michigan and then I don't blame anybody. by the way, I'm in Wisconsin. So any cold state, like if you have a real estate team or a real estate company in, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, you know, but it's Minnesota. So no one likes them anyway, but like North Dakota.

Like if you don't have a Southern branch or Southern office, like you're just doing something wrong because you got to escape for a while during the cold months. But ⁓ give us a glimpse into, into your real estate structure. So you have a team of agents in Michigan, I'm assuming. And then some also in Florida, or do you, are you flying back and forth on your private jet every day?

Eric Meldrum (15:40)

No, I would maybe one day, Dwayne. get there. But yeah, I'm waiting for John to sponsor that one. Yeah. No, so we started in Florida kind of out necessity during the pandemic. You know, when ⁓ my partner, I co-team lead our team with my partner, Juan. You know, we've been doing a lot of things just like you guys. know, we've been fraternity brothers, a great way to put it. Like we've been fraternity brothers and

Shane Kilby (15:41)

But a KFR jet KFR jet

That'd be long.

Eric Meldrum (16:08)

in life and, ⁓ you know, just marketing and in real estate and kind of bouncing ideas off each other. And he and his family moved down to Florida, you know, just before the pandemic. And, ⁓ he's basically down there where he was selling real estate from afar in Florida, Michigan. We were growing our team. And, ⁓ then as we all know, real estate shut down in Michigan, in most States, Florida was the one that was like, Hey, we're, we're still open. ⁓

come on, right? So, you know, we started taking advantage of that. like, Hey, like, let's, let's get, is our opportunity. Like we, always knew we wanted to start in Florida, but like we got to go, you know, so we started and, know, we took ⁓ a little bit, ⁓ unorthodox approach to building the team. know, most, most team leaders, you know, that I've studied over the past couple of years is, you know, they start as a listing agent. They grow out of a necessity because they took it, they take on too much business and they say, well, I got all these buyers by the wayside.

Let me start building the team and then slowly, you know, that top producer really starts handing off business. But it's always coming from the rainmaker. Well, we never started with listings. We started with buyers and we did that through our YouTube channels. So we started our YouTube channels in Michigan and Florida, living in, you know, explaining to what people need to know about moving and living in those states. And that's how we get people to reach out to us. Last year alone, you know, we did over 22 million.

You know, just from ⁓ Florida YouTube alone, and then another 6 million in, ⁓ in Michigan. And it's afforded us, you know, the opportunity to, to go out and build what we always envisioned was an attraction based business. All right. We have literally people dropping into our calendar and booking a call with us, you know, to, move to the state. We're not chasing people around or cold calling or door knocking or anything like that against those things. We, we do those too, for some of our listings.

However, we have like business coming to us, which is fantastic.

Duane Murphy (18:12)

And that's all based off of what can be deemed as hyper local videos that are hyper local like targeted videos, like community videos and neighborhood videos.

Eric Meldrum (18:27)

Yep. Yeah. The neighborhood videos. do a lot of community videos, answering questions. Like one of the bangers that always hits, we do it repeated every single year. Pros and cons of living in Michigan. All right. So somebody who's looking to move to Michigan, they're like, well, I want to know the cons. All right. I think I know the pros, but I want to know the cons too.

Duane Murphy (18:47)

Okay, so and that's interesting that you say that YouTube is such a driver of your business as so many that are in the business today would be like, oh, that's old school. Like that was 10 years ago, that was 15 years ago. And here you are today, you know, saying we're driving a ton of business from our YouTube channel.

Eric Meldrum (19:09)

Oh, it's crushing. You know, there's, there's, there's so many different ways to generate business online these days. know, you got tick tock, Instagram, you know, a lot of short form. Um, I'm a millennial, so I, you know, I'm like, I'm kind of the in between, like I grew up on technology, but I also grew up without it. You know, and I'm like, I, I don't want to be a chain to my phone. All right. Like if I have to post a video every single day, um,

Shane Kilby (19:15)

you

Eric Meldrum (19:37)

I don't know. It it feels like that hamster wheel, right? But if it's more natural, like we can get clips from our long form, right? And I'm not saying don't go on Instagram and TikTok. I've just taken a, like, that was my heart. Some people are like the complete opposite. Like, well, I can't do a 30 minute YouTube video. like, I've been doing it for four years. No problem. All right. But if I was to go build that muscle on Instagram or TikTok, I'm sure I'd be saying the same thing.

Shane Kilby (20:03)

Yeah, the thing about though, you know going the YouTube route I mean that's that is the holy grail of long form video And it's like if you if you if you pull if you create that 30-minute value ad That's evergreen. Oh, I mean in there there's there's 50 30 40 50 great clips in there

Right? They can be used again and again and again on the TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. you know, so it's like, that's the best place to create that long form content. And then, you know, do the clips and stuff everywhere else.

Duane Murphy (20:42)

And I don't want that, but I was gonna say that. Oh, sorry, go ahead, Yeah.

Eric Meldrum (20:42)

Well, the fact that you said the evergreen part is really it.

That's the thing that most people miss because like short form videos and like the TikToks and Instagram once 24 hours, know, maybe 36 hours or whatever, you know, like then that videos, if it doesn't go viral, it's basically gone. Right. It's like, ⁓ what's that Snapchat, right? If you don't, if you watch the video, it's gone with like a day or the stories, you know, on Instagram, they're gone.

But here's a really cool story. I have a video that is over two years old on my channel. And if anybody looked at this video and they saw right now it sits at 470 views two years ago. So in YouTube world, anybody like, that's not a really good performing video. Right. I got to reach out about 90 days after I posted that video.

It was sitting at 118 views and somebody reached out and they were interested in the community. did a tour around. It was a neighborhood here in Brighton called High Hill Arbor. And the homes are beautiful. Great, great attraction. Everything looks nice. And ⁓ the buyer reached out and they said, Hey, we're interested in that community. Well, they didn't end up buying in that community. They ended up renting in another community that year. So I got rental income from that.

And then they turned around after that year and they bought a million dollar home in Novi. All right. So there's a $30,000 commission check out of that. That same video just got another reach out yesterday, tied directly to that video two years old. And I know, I know it because that's the only video I've ever done in that community. And the guy mentioned it. He said, Hey, I saw your video on high Hill Arbor. And I said, okay. You know, I'm thinking to myself like that's two years old, man. Like you're really going deep back on the.

I'm a YouTube channel and he goes, well, I'm looking for a ranch home with a pool. Do know if he could put a pool back there? And he's, he's asking all these questions. You know, it turns out, um, he's a 800 to $850,000 buyer, you know, here and he lives right down the road from where I'm at. He has a house to sell. And then he also wants to buy a new ranch home and either put a pool in or find one with an existing pool.

and make that transition. So I don't know what his house is worth yet. I have an appointment with him on Tuesday of next week, but that could be a close to a 60 to, I don't know, just call it $70,000 swing off of that one video.

Duane Murphy (23:20)

Yeah, the one thing that a lot of people forget is, I think is the power that that YouTube has on the search engine. And when you're, you know, if you're Googling or looking for that certain specific neighborhood and you have your keywords and not with AI being able to scrape the, you know, what you say so they can scrape the wording now and then all of sudden match that to searches that are coming up. I mean, it makes all those

all those videos that you did before, even more powerful now, because you already had that conversation, you already talked about the neighborhood, it's already there. Now AI is pulling that out of this speech and now all of a indexing that on searches. with Google and YouTube essentially being owned by Google, I think it's going to become, as you're finding out and as you know, I think it's going to become more more powerful all the time.

Eric Meldrum (24:15)

Yeah, and I think it already is too. We occasionally play around and mess with ChatGPT, as I'm sure you guys do as well. And we asked ChatGPT, ⁓ who's the best local real estate agent? And then it gives you a list of some agents. And then we asked it, well, how are you ranking those? Because there were some agents in there that I really didn't even think were notarizable to put on the list.

And they said, well, ranking it by Google reviews. Um, there was Zillow reviews in there. They were kind of scraping all the review sites. Plus they added in YouTube videos. They added in Tik Tok videos, which are now indexable on, on search. And if you've ever been Googling something, you can get short form videos on the first page of Google. And now a lot of people too, like Google's on

on its back heels with search because most people are going over to chat GBT and just asking the questions directly.

Duane Murphy (25:17)

Yeah, without doubt. It's funny that you bring that up. Someone sent a screenshot this morning ⁓ of asking, asking, chat GPT, who's the best this in the area, who's the best that. And I just, I myself, I don't do a lot of real estate. It's myself, anymore with running the brokerage and running, you know, all the operations, but I still dabble just a bit. And it's usually friends, family members, someone I know, but I received a call just last week.

And you know, and we're chit chatting and she's got some property she wants to sell. And I just asked, like, okay, I'm like, shoot, don't know. I don't know if I know this person. Like maybe tonight for you, like she chatted with me like she knows me. And I'm like, by the way, I said, you know, it's always important to know. said, how'd you get my name and number? Like who referred you? She's like, oh, I was on the internet. Like, okay, well, do you know where on the internet? She goes.

Shane Kilby (26:12)

a little bit

more specific.

Duane Murphy (26:14)

Yeah, a bit. Right. And she's like, well, I, I just went to chat GPT and I just typed in who's the best local real estate agent. And she goes, and you're in the top three and you're the first guy that was listed. So she goes, I don't want to work with a woman. So I called you and I'm like, I'll take them both as a compliment, I guess. But, again, it all of got me thinking. like, wow. That was just a, you know, a listing opportunity above our average price point that literally just came from chat GPT. And I was like,

Eric Meldrum (26:30)

That's awesome.

Duane Murphy (26:44)

Well, there might be there might be something to that.

Eric Meldrum (26:48)

Yep.

Shane Kilby (26:48)

Well, it's like,

Eric Meldrum (26:49)

there definitely is. We've been...

Shane Kilby (26:52)

you know, the statement you made a few minutes ago about some saying, I just can't do a 30 minute video. I can't do a 20 minute video. You're putting in a lot more time with the one and done short 30 second minute and a half videos. You're to do a lot more of those 30 minutes. And like you said, they're not evergreen, right? You can't create new content from that later on. So.

Eric Meldrum (27:17)

Yeah, well, they also get to know you too. And that's a big component of it. You know, everyone says like, you know, who, who are you in new business with people, you know, like, and trust, you know, so that that's our way, you know, of really getting, um, those initial conversations going, you know, with people. It's like, can, you can do cold calling, you can do door knocking, but you still have that, you know, introduction phase that you got to build that rapport and

Shane Kilby (27:27)

Yep, that's a fact.

Duane Murphy (27:42)

Mm-hmm.

Eric Meldrum (27:46)

YouTube just allows us to do that much quicker, you know, which is, which is beneficial. And we get on the zoom call, you know, with them, we drive everybody to a consultation and that's our buyer consult. You know, so we bring them in, we walk them through. And the first thing we say is I'm not here to sell you anything. All right. We're to focus on lifestyle and communities. Houses are going to take care of themselves, but we're also going to cover, you know, how we work together. You moving forward and that's a, it's usually like you see them on zoom and the shoulders just kind of like drop.

Like, ⁓ cool. Like I wasn't really sure what to expect, you know, but I saw you on YouTube and you booked the call. ⁓ and then everyone just kind of takes a breath of like, great. You're not here to sell me anything. No, no pushy real estate tactics. Awesome.

Shane Kilby (28:30)

Boy, the

way you have positioned that is fantastic because they're already conditioned for the video, which makes the roll into the Zoom that much easier. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. ⁓ How nice would it be? I don't know. Sometimes you get so many Zoom videos, like, my God, you're squeezing four days into one and you just become this Zoom zombie.

But no, that's great, great approach. Let me ask you this, Eric, though. So you've had an interesting career thus far, a successful career thus far, and going to continue to be successful. I know the rooms you hang out in. I'm blessed to hang out in some of those rooms as well. To this point, and we're just getting started, what would you say has been your biggest success in business till now?

Eric Meldrum (29:28)

biggest success in business. am like the last person that wants to talk about my, ⁓ my accomplishments and like, ⁓ my, my head's down. I'm just like charging forward and, I'm sure you guys are wired the same way as entrepreneurs. Like nothing's ever, nothing's ever enough, you know, but, ⁓ we do got to slow down and realize that like, you know, my partner and I just did this, ⁓ cause we're coaching the hard to coach. So that was a, that was a big step, you know, this year.

Shane Kilby (29:48)

Thank

Duane Murphy (29:57)

Congrats.

Eric Meldrum (29:58)

⁓ thank you. And so we, we hired a coach, and, know, they kind of put it in a perspective for us, you know, cause we see what we see and, we try to compare ourselves to some of the people that are in those same rooms that you and I met in, you know, and, ⁓ we're not the biggest or we're certainly not the smallest, you know, so we're trying to learn and figure out, okay, what's the next leap for us? All How do we go from where we're at to the next step, you know, where we want to be on our journey?

Shane Kilby (29:58)

Yeah. Hurrah.

Eric Meldrum (30:27)

And, ⁓ the, the cool thing about this year was it was just a time of reflection, you know, for us on what we've built and every year we've, we've doubled as we brought more agents on. ⁓ we've seen our income, you know, go up. but we never, we never feel like we got it figured out. And our, our coach kind of put into perspective for us. Like guys, you guys are way too hard on yourselves and what you've accomplished and like what you've built. ⁓ I can.

tell you from other coaching clients, like they're grinding harder than you guys are. And it's not a comparison of like who's grinding harder. It's you're squeezing, you know, a cup of lemonade out of four lemons, and they're trying to squeeze a couple of lemonade out of like 20 lemons. All right. Like that's a lot more work over there. So be proud of what you guys have built because you now have the ability to, to scale this up.

Shane Kilby (31:18)

Mm-hmm.

Eric Meldrum (31:25)

even further. So just giving you that comparison. that was kind of a refreshing kind of moment, you know, and success of like, we didn't go about it the way most teams did with being the listing agent and kind of growing the team out of necessity there. ⁓ We built it. And there's a reason that mine and my partner's name is not on the real estate, you know, masthead or a letterhead. ⁓ We just never had that mindset that we wanted to be the figure point.

Shane Kilby (31:29)

you

Eric Meldrum (31:54)

You know, sort of speak and there's nothing wrong with that. It was just, we've always wanted to grow the team that didn't really rely on us. We wanted to build that engine that was perpetual outside of it. So was, was nice to hear that, you know, we've, ⁓ somebody else is recognizing our accomplishments, whether it was one person or, you know, 10 people. So that was cool.

Shane Kilby (32:14)

Yeah, you know what? It's a... You've been in this business 20 years. You typically don't make the same mistake. You make a lot of mistakes, but you typically don't make the same mistake multiple times. But what I've seen, you know, hanging around the right people, you know, being vulnerable, being in those tight spaces where you can't hide in the back, you sit on the front.

⁓ an hour early before you're supposed to be there like Dwayne and I we help set up breakfast but Is is that it's that standard like the mistakes that I've made in business I look back and It's because either a I didn't have a standard because I felt no one in the room At that time was willing to run at the pace that I was running So I couldn't set up my standard for others that

didn't, you couldn't live up to that expectation and they were all always going to fail. Or, set that standard and then keep moving the standard back or changing the standard. And that's not really a standard, right? What I have learned through all of that is that at the end of the day, you know, when you've got the standard and you know it's right, like you had the right outside people look at that and go, that's

That's perfect. Drive. Drive with that. That's rock solid. When you get to that point, it's like you don't back off of it. And we've heard it. We've all heard it. You hire and fire based on your core values and principles.

Yeah, I haven't always done that. I have failed miserably at that in another life. In another life. But when you do do that, scaling is limitless. Scaling is limitless. When you know you've got that standard, it's got to be in the sand and it can't be moved. Magic happens.

You know, I moved that standard and changed that standard around so many different times. And you know, the outcome was still the same for those individuals, right? They're still gonna pass on, move through your organization, right? But when you stand firm on that standard and go, hey, you know what? You know, I appreciate you. We're still friends, right? This standard apparently is not your standard. I get that.

Duane Murphy (34:46)

I'm just gonna appreciate

you more if you're at a different location.

Shane Kilby (34:50)

Yes, I'm gonna we're gonna be closer We're gonna remain closer with with us being in two separate standards two separate organizations ⁓ I mean and wrong or right no way we we laugh because that's a sick the minute like yeah burn it down Yeah, walk away and shoot some great content from it ⁓ mindset but Being with guys like y'all you two guys and being in the spaces with those just you know milestone

heavy hitters just like KFR and And just in different Maverick events and in Tahoe what have you? And even looking around the room like everybody's in the seats next to us, right? It's like That's when you know, that's when you know your standards are right and You don't have to go back to your camp and question your standards You got to go back to your camp and you got to enforce your standards, right? And it's probably that's

I probably dropped the ball a lot there more than what I should have because I kept trying to make everybody fit in the standard. Should have never had them. Should have never had them.

Eric Meldrum (35:58)

It's so real. I've learned more about growing a team probably in last six months than I have the whole entire time I've been in real estate because that really wasn't our focus. It was just ⁓ make our YouTube videos, close the business, and everything's fine. Making a great living. ⁓ No complaints. We're grinding. But as we started growing the team and set that goal,

Right. That's why like that week of KFR, I was actually supposed to be in San Antonio and my, my partner and I were going to San Antonio because there was a ⁓ video conference that we wanted to both be at. Right. And something was calling me, ⁓ away and I just said like, Hey, I think I'm going to, ⁓ go to Louisiana instead. He's like, the heck is in Louisiana. Yeah.

Shane Kilby (36:38)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (36:50)

B-B-F-E, Louisiana.

Eric Meldrum (36:53)

He's like, Baton Rouge is like the conference of like no Covington, Louisiana, like on a farm. He goes, dude, you lost me. Like what is going on? Like I explained to him like, all right, there's this coaching program that I've really been kind of following for a while. And I think if we want to grow our team, like we've been talking about, I got to go over here and check it out. I got to see what's happening. And a couple of weeks before that, I met with a, another team leader here in Michigan.

who also coaches with the Chevrolet organization and had lunch with them. And we sat down and he's he's the type of guy that just you instantly kind of open up to him. He's just super nice, super friendly, know, kind of relates. And he's like, hit me with it. It's like, what's your problems right now? Like, tell me, tell me what's going on with your team. Like what's the good, the bad, the ugly. And so I just word vomited on him. I'm like, you know, here's all of our struggles that we're going through. like, here's where we're at.

He goes, all right, man, can I be honest with you? I'm like, well, I don't want you to lie to me. So yes, please. Yeah. He goes, well, you kind of sound like a dictator. And I'm like, Like tell me more. He goes, well, not, not in like the, Hitler way, like in the fact that you think you can tell people what to do and they're going to do it. And he goes, you got it all backwards. He goes,

Shane Kilby (37:56)

Such a baited question.

Eric Meldrum (38:19)

Nobody wants to be told what to do. You're not, you're never going to be able to tell any agent what to do and they're going to do it. You got to keep enrolling them into the processes and showing them the path to success. And that was the light bulb. And then when I went to KFR, you know, it was pounded like enroll, enroll, right? Enroll your agents into recruit to the subculture, recruit to the subculture. And so, you know, we've been on this journey now and we've failed forward.

Shane Kilby (38:39)

Yeah, Marvin Demostrate.

Eric Meldrum (38:48)

Right. Even in the past, you know, 180 days, we hired a sales manager, failed forward and found out she wasn't the right fit for the organization. Right. And we made that correction really quick. Like, Nope, we're cutting that. That's bad for culture. Boom. Set the standard for our agents. Even top leadership will be removed. Done. Right. If it's not a good fit for our culture, they're gone. Right. And it was like a whole entire shift happened. And now we're like, we're on this, this next journey of

we're not replacing her. We're just going to keep bringing in, you know, the subculture and just do more of it. So we're right there. Like that is like, you know, we're right at that, that, call it cusp or whatever, but, now we've gotten that, that turning point and we're going to dial it in.

Duane Murphy (39:28)

you

And the thing is, is you might, you know, with, bringing in ones to again, what we're calling the subculture and the culture that you want to, that you want to have, you may ultimately have some of that will rise up through the ranks from that, that will, you know, potentially all of a sudden fill one of those leadership positions that you need. you know, you just, if you're, if you're recruiting the right ones, bringing in the right ones, they're that right one that's, that you may need to run it or to lead it.

is probably among one of those new hires that you're going to have coming in the future.

Eric Meldrum (40:09)

Yep, that's great, that's great. I hope so, that's the fun part.

Shane Kilby (40:14)

Yeah, yeah, it's, know, we would kind of go through those same, we're in that same kind of transition.

Duane Murphy (40:21)

Wait,

does any of us ever get out of that transition? Like, I've been through it like multiple times just saying.

Shane Kilby (40:25)

Hello. ⁓

Eric Meldrum (40:26)

I was gonna say it was like, wait.

Shane Kilby (40:30)

Yeah,

but here's the thing though, mean, COVID was different. COVID is the reason that we're all going through these evolutions of our teams and brokerages and operations, right? Because I've been in the business 20 years. I'm not bad at reading economics. I'm not bad at following the right people, right? The writing was on the wall. The billboards were up. The hot air balloons were up. We saw it all coming.

Duane Murphy (40:33)

you

Shane Kilby (40:59)

Right? You just you can't You can't create money and it lasts forever and without the you know, the recovery interest and everything else so what in mention this before like My agents that were ready to shift gears and get down in the trenches and focus and grind were ready I didn't realize how many bond bond agents I had And if they any if any of you ever watch this it is what it is, right?

⁓ That you know the three unit a year agent the four unit a year agent I love these people these people have been in my home like I've been to their home like they've been some of these been on vacation me I've been on vacation with them, right but I Didn't realize how much order taken they had done right you see you know that agents that were 18 24 units there now 36 years We know that order taken we order took right you didn't figure your six and eight unit agents were order taken

Right? So really, you know, having taken them calculation for those. we had, mean, I guess every organization's got their share of those agents that produce those very small number of units. Well, when that water went out, you know, better get them britches. They didn't go all the way down, but they were starting to fall off them hips. Right? So it's a, but COVID shifted all that. It's like even, you know, you know, pouring back into your organization, you know, walking them and, you know, reconnecting them, reintroducing them to the processes.

⁓ It's been an experience. It's been an experience nonetheless. So you've tiptoed around some of those conversations and I picked up what you're laying down and I know DeWayne has too. We've all been through this. If you've been in this business the last 10 years, seven years, eight years, like you've seen all of this stuff, ⁓ what would you say your biggest failure's been in business?

Eric Meldrum (42:57)

So if you had asked me that probably six months ago, I probably would gave you a ⁓ specific example of a failure. But I think my biggest failure to date has really been realizing that ⁓ I can't control or thinking I can control everything. And coming to the realization over the past six or so months of like lot of stuff's outside of my control.

And I've seen the mental shift. think my wife ⁓ has definitely seen like a little bit more pep in the step and like, hey, no worries, right? Things will happen. And guess what? Business has grown as a result of it. And I'm a lot more happier. And that was ⁓ just a not necessarily a failure, but a realization. Call it a failure, call it a win. But I was failing before and now I'm on the other side of it.

you know, thinking, why, why didn't I do this sooner? Right. Why didn't I have that mental shift a little bit sooner, ⁓ to free myself from thinking like I gotta be everything to everybody. Right. And, and you said in the beginning of the podcast, like once you get in that, that zone where you got, you got your standards and you're just like, you're, you're grooving. Like it doesn't matter. Like you, you can come, you can go, but I'm over here doing the thing. All right. And that's, that's kind of the.

the pocket I've slid into now and it feels good. Like riding in that captain chair a little bit. Like, no worries, man. You want to do your thing? There's a great organization over here.

Shane Kilby (44:34)

Yeah,

I think what has to happen, you know, if it's not broke, we don't want to fix it. We want to keep at it. We have to have pain, you know, some type, some pain and pain tolerance until we get to the point in that process where we're like, okay, the pain to fix this, the way I need it to be fixed is only going to be mildly more painful than than what I'm having to endure without fixing that.

without fixing that one key aspect. And you're right, you can't control everything. know, it's, you know, we, a lot of times we're like, can you control it? Can you control it? Can you, if I have three of me, I can control it, but there's not, there's only one of you, one of me, one of Dwayne.

We all come up through the ranks. We look at our grandparents, our parents, or ⁓ motivational influence, preacher, teacher, scholar. Someone in our life has been a great influence and probably many great influences. What would you say or who would you say has been your greatest influence that's kind of given you that wisdom, that Jedi instinct in life and business?

Eric Meldrum (45:51)

Yeah. I had a couple of great, ⁓ great mentors early on in business. ⁓ I wouldn't say it's one, one particular one, one definitely stands out amongst, ⁓ all of them. name is Dave McKeon and, he was, he was the VP of ops at, beats by Dre, you know, and then he came over to the company that I was at, ⁓ called Mofi at the time when we out in California. And he was really the first person outside of, ⁓ kind of this like wild.

wild startup land that, you know, I felt very grounded in like he had a shit together. Right. And it was, it was one of those things like when you live in discombobulation and just like high growth, a lot of problems get masked, you know, just because like you're taking off like a rocket ship, you know, and, Dave, Dave came over and he had just this, this, ⁓ semblance of, of sanity.

You know, around everything that he did, it was methodical. It was really thought out. was like the five year plan, three year plan backing into the one year plan. And that really kind of gave me a little bit more insight into how to start looking down the road, right? Instead of just really focusing on the now, which is what we were, we were just basically holding on. And the company I was with, Mophie, this was, you know, back in like 2013, 14, 15 when

⁓ cell phone case manufacturers were taking off and this was the first battery ⁓ power banks for your phone.

Duane Murphy (47:21)

Mm-hmm.

Shane Kilby (47:26)

I had one. I think you had to have one if you're successful in business.

Eric Meldrum (47:30)

Right. Yeah. So you guys know what I'm talking about. And we went from 30 million when I joined the company to 250 million in a three year period. Right. I was flying all over the place, going to the Netherlands, setting up logistic centers, going to China, setting up logistic centers. We were working with FedEx, UPS to develop logistic routes that have never been done before. People were used to chartering planes. When Apple launched their iPhone, they just chartered planes.

Duane Murphy (47:32)

Alright.

Eric Meldrum (47:59)

we make enough money to charter planes. Well, we weren't that company, so we had to go out and get creative. So we developed all these things, but I'm going back to Dave. Like it was, I think that was the, the one mentor in my life that really kind of came in and gave me a little bit more business knowledge rather than me trying to just kind of figure it out. All right. And that was really my, my work ethic was just, I'm going to go figure it out. Like that was, I was the guy, like he gave me a problem.

I'll go figure it out. All right. That was my, my job previously worked for Red Bull and we had a, ⁓ distribution center in Michigan and these guys own this distribution centers and they hired me to load trucks. Next thing you know, I'm designing the, the routes, getting inventory optimization for, for their trucks, telling them when they need to come back and load. And these guys are like, who is this kid? Like, how's he doing all this? You know, and then I went to Mofi and same thing, right? My, I always joke about it because

My title back then ⁓ was inventory control slash import export specialist. You just try to say that 10 times fast. Yeah. And I was like, well, what's the job description on this? Like, well, basically you got to take care of all the inventory that's in North America, China, Europe, and then also work with the manufacturers to exit those goods from the supplier.

Shane Kilby (49:08)

Wapping hats.

Duane Murphy (49:09)

You heard me?

Eric Meldrum (49:27)

and get the right amount of inventory in the right location at the right time to service all of the distributors and retailers globally. And I said, ⁓ okay, we'll figure that out, right? Yeah.

Shane Kilby (49:40)

Low stress, low stress.

Duane Murphy (49:42)

Give me a whiteboard, let's go!

Eric Meldrum (49:44)

Yeah.

So we got it done and I quickly learned how to import things into the U S you know, right? I was actually took that job. I was still a senior in college. I was still a senior.

Shane Kilby (49:45)

And Red Bull.

Duane Murphy (49:55)

was going to say

you and Sammy Knight would have a lot to talk about. Yeah, he did that with, I think it was Realtree back in the day, all from overseas and when they were up and coming in the camel hunting industry and he had a lot to do with the behind the scenes part of that. So if you go to another one of those KFR events and he's smoking up some brisket or ribs, that's who was smoking up brisket and ribs.

Eric Meldrum (50:00)

was he in the logistics world before?

nice. Yeah.

That's fantastic stuff.

Duane Murphy (50:26)

Maybe

you could probably swap some stories on that end of the business.

Eric Meldrum (50:32)

Yeah, I'll definitely definitely chat him up. You know, go there. ⁓ but yeah, that was, that was it. And then like Dave came in and really kind of helped me make heads or tails of like what was happening in, in the business world. Cause I was just like, I don't know. I'll figure it out. It's like, this is just normal. He's like, dude, what you're doing is not normal. We're going to fix all this.

Shane Kilby (50:32)

wealth, wealth, knowledge.

Duane Murphy (50:36)

Yeah. ⁓

Shane Kilby (50:52)

Haha

Duane Murphy (50:52)

Yeah.

So we're running close to our time here, but we do want to finish on this.

What's the one thing that you would tell your younger self or possibly someone coming up through your route, but maybe more importantly that you would have told yourself when you were younger that you wish somebody would have told you.

Eric Meldrum (51:17)

⁓ That's a simple one for me. Like it's be more vulnerable. Be more vulnerable early on. ⁓ Open yourself up. You know, learn. You know, look, look to people for real connections, not just transactional. ⁓ Everybody has, you know, things that they want to accomplish in life. But, you know, we can we can definitely accomplish a lot more together. But that real connection and the vulnerability of just, you know, being real with yourself.

You know, like I just shared the story with you guys of me just trying to figure it out. But there was also a, uh, uh, more of a, a shell, you know, around that of like, well, you know, I'm not going to let anybody know. I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm just kind of like figuring it out. You know? So there was a, there was always this, I had people tell me that, um, like you're the worst, you're the worst person to negotiate with because you have no poker face. Like you are, have the best poker face. You have no tell. You know, it was really what, what they told me. I'm like,

That's not by design. Like that's just because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Like it's like, I'm just holding on. Yeah. Like, well, I'll, I'll figure it out. Um, but it'd be more vulnerable, man. Like that, that was really something I wish I would have, uh, somebody would have told me back in my, you know, early to mid twenties, you know, when my career was really starting and, it really would have been helpful, you know, for me to just kind of sink back in and.

Shane Kilby (52:19)

It's really a deer in the headlights

Eric Meldrum (52:40)

and kind of soak in some of the relationships. And I think those probably would have flourished into a lot more. Who knows if I would have been in real estate at that point. Everything happens for a reason, but I'm sure I would have been somewhere with a lot more stories and a lot more connections with people that ⁓ truly made a lasting impact on my life.

Shane Kilby (53:00)

Well said, well said. Folks, this is Eric Meldrum. If you would like to connect with him, Eric, can viewers, listeners connect with you to send referrals, to talk about real estate, to talk about buying, selling, or just to connect?

Eric Meldrum (53:18)

Yeah, you can go to my Instagram. It's Eric Meldrum, RE on Instagram. Same on Facebook. Just direct message me. Happy to help. We can go to our website, thatdetroitlife.com. All my contact information is on there as well.

Duane Murphy (53:33)

What's that YouTube channel?

Eric Meldrum (53:35)

We have a living in Michigan and living in Tampa, Florida.

Shane Kilby (53:40)

Awesome awesome. It's been a pleasure my friend Thanks so much for taking time out of your hectic schedule your busy life to meet us today and have this discussion has been very ⁓ Very interesting very appreciative and always very eye-opening to connect Yeah, man, appreciate you. Give us one second. We'll wrap up here ⁓ for you guys listening out there like subscribe smash that ⁓

Eric Meldrum (53:54)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're gonna have me guys. It's fun.

Shane Kilby (54:03)

Like that thumbs up button give us a review if you don't mind if you know somebody wants to ⁓ speak on the podcast or you yourself want to speak on the podcast Just connect with us. We'd love to sit down and talk with you and possibly have you on the show

Duane Murphy (54:17)

Peace!

Shane Kilby (54:17)

All right.

See you guys.