Outbound Strategies, Relationship Building, and Not Being Afraid to Ask for Help | Lindsey Johnson

Lindsey Johnson (@mrlindseyjohnson) is a former collegiate basketball player, captain, and personal trainer turned top-producing real estate agent with the Ludify Group in Charleston. In just a few years of building in a city where he knew almost no one, Lindsey has engineered one of the most disciplined, intentional business models in our market. His background in human optimization, coaching, and small business ownership didn't just prepare him for real estate. It gave him a framework most agents never develop.

In this conversation, Lindsay reveals:

• Why he runs two completely separate business engines — relentless outbound prospecting and deep organic relationship building — and why choosing just one is leaving money on the table
• How he structures his day from 4:45am to 4pm so that every hour has a job, including a sacred prospecting block where the phone goes on Do Not Disturb
• The exact five-call flow system he uses to work every listing from coming soon through closed — and why each listing should produce 1-3 more opportunities
• Why he believes 10% of your database will either transact or refer in any given year — and how he reverse-engineers his goals from that number
• The automated mail campaign that flopped hard and the lesson it taught him about shiny object syndrome
• What his personal definition of retirement is — and why "work becomes optional" is more powerful than any dollar number

This one is equal parts tactical blueprint and personal philosophy. If you're early in your career or feel like you're doing too many things averagely, this conversation will sharpen your focus fast.

About Charleston's Leading Producers: Weekly conversations with the highest-producing real estate agents in Charleston. No fluff. No theory. Just proven strategies from agents doing the work and getting the results.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I refuse to be the person who wakes up five years from now making a million bucks net and is overweight and his kids don't know him and his wife resents him. Like I just won't do it.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hey leaders, I'm Jake, a loan officer obsessed with business growth and finding out what's actually working in our market. If that sounds useful, hit follow. Now, this week's leader. Today, I'm sitting down with Lindsay Johnson. Lindsay is a former collegiate basketball player, captain, and small business owner. He is part of the Ludify group and has quickly risen to become one of the top producers in our community, all while keeping his faith forefront in his life along with his wife and two kids. Lindsay, welcome to Charleston's Leading Producers. Thanks for having me, man. This is awesome. So I want to go back to the beginning. So you have a background in small business and more specifically the health and wellness world, correct? That's right. So what did you do before real estate and how has that impacted, you know, your approach to what you do today?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah, so I have a degree in exercise science. So I went to school to study that. I played basketball at the collegiate level and always loved sports and um really like human optimization, like how do we be the best at whatever whatever we're doing? Um so that's what I studied. Uh quickly after college, I I got into coaching. So I was the assistant coach at uh my first college uh for the basketball team and then helped out in the weight room. Um and then from there I became a personal trainer. And so I did that uh for a couple of years. So really from um 2015 through like 2020 or so, I was in the health and fitness world. Um and it was great. Uh I think I kind of learned how to run a business, learned how to market myself, how to create a product, both physical and digital. Um, I learned how to price my services, I learned how to uh negotiate, um, and I learned how to serve clients well and put their needs first. So that was kind of how I cut my teeth in the business world. And then um from there, uh real estate kind of it it was an easy transition into the real estate world after that. And was that in Charleston? Because you're from Cali, right? I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina. From Raleigh, okay. I've lived all over. I give the the brief highlight. I grew up in Raleigh, uh, went to Wyoming for uh on a basketball system. Of course, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like you do, and then to Michigan, and then back to Wyoming to coach, and then to California. I was there six years, met my wife. Um, she was there 10. Um, and then when we wanted to start a family, we decided to move back to the Carolinas where my family had kind of gravitated. So now everybody's in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Charleston. So everybody's nearby. And Charleston of those three um was the one that felt the most resonant with me and my family, being close to the coast and also good business opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Well part of uh Cali, we we we crossed paths on a couple of different things there, actually. The coaching and the teaching aspect, which I love. You know, I I think some of the best real estate professionals come from education because they have that heart along with you know, that that education mindset, along with some sales shops that you mentioned there. But I was in Long Beach for uh yeah, for four years.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I don't know what part of Cali were you in. Cool, we were in San Diego. San Diego, yeah. So I I was in uh the northernmost city in San Diego called uh Oceanside, and then my wife, when we met, she was up in Newport Beach, and so we had this sort of like what I felt like growing up in the Carolinas. I felt like a real storybook uh dating process where we were basically uh meeting in Laguna Beach and going on these dates. And I had to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Laguna is the best, man.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I love the Laguna, it's so beautiful, and I had to tell her, I was like, you know, at the time, especially, I didn't have a whole lot of money, and I'm like, Yeah, I just want you to know this isn't like what's our future.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Like Laguna's not the place that you don't have a lot of money, like you can't really, yeah. As soon as you like enter the city limits, they're like, Yeah, that'll be a hundred bucks. Thanks, but thanks for coming by.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, for parking and everything. Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, don't expect this long term, please.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

That's awesome. Um, but yeah, so we're recording right now and we're covered in pollen. Yeah, and uh, it's about to be like 150 degrees in a month. When that happens, I'm like, man, I miss Southern California. Yeah, too. Yeah. Um, I couldn't imagine the real estate out there, actually. I wasn't in real estate working out there, but you know, you just see the prices of the homes and Laguna and all that. It's got to be a different ball game. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

It's a different ballgame. I I had my license briefly out there. I thought I sold two houses, it wasn't anything crazy, but um, but yeah, no, it's a different ball game. Um, marketing's super important, who you know is super important. It's the same here, but I think it's just um uh on steroids out there. It's yeah, it's a tough market to be in. But I know some really successful people who have done uh amazing things in their career. Older folks who have been doing it for you know 30, 40 years, started out door knocking, and I know some younger guys who have built their business doing some of the things that I do now in Charleston.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

So well, let's talk about that. Let's let's get into the meat. I could talk about California in education all day. But um, so you're with the Ludify group. How long have you been with them?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Coming on two years.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Okay. Um, and we were talking, just kind of leading up to this, and I thought you you phrased it really well in that you tackle kind of two different areas as far as generating business. And I thought this was really cool. And I want to break down each of them individually. So the first one is like, you know, the traditional outbound prospecting, hammering the phones, right? We all love that. And then there's this other relationship building side. Yeah. And we were talking and saying, like, a lot of people pick one or one or the other, right? But you but you try to go all in on both. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, I was talking to a friend about this yesterday, actually. I know people who are savagely good on the phone um and and have no true, deep, long-lasting relationships. And then I know people who are incredibly relational and have deep ties, they know all the big names in Charleston, but they uh can't even spell CRM. Like they they have no record keeping, no systems, nothing. My goal is to be like right down the middle, be incredibly good as a salesman. My value be so disproportionate to what I charge that it's just a no-brainer to work with me. Um, but then on the relationship side, be incredibly tied in, relationship oriented. That's really what like sings to my heart the most. If I could just do that, I would. But uh, we don't have that luxury of um when you're newer to town and you're growing those relationships, those don't, those don't uh necessarily return day one. And it makes people feel icky if you expect them to. You meet somebody and immediately trust try to start closing them as a as a sale. My goal um is to have the the outbound be sort of today business, and then the relationships be something that ultimately people know like and trust me, and then want to either transact or refer to me year over year. And I've seen a variety of numbers on it. The numbers I function off of is that in any given year, 10% of your database will either transact or refer with you. So my goal for this year is 50 transactions or$30 million in in uh volume closed. Um, so my database is about 220 people. So I'm I'm expecting 220 either transactions or referrals from that lead source right there. I'm also in a networking group. I'm expecting some from that. And then the rest from my outbound prospecting. So again, just want to be savagely good at both.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah. Well, I mean, and just even here hearing you describe those numbers is like such a breath of fresh air, you know. Like you you mentioned the person that does it that can't spell CRM. Is that what you said? Yeah, yeah, can't spell CRM. But there's a part of me because I'm wired the other way. You know, maybe it's like the loan officer brain, like I like things in tight boxes and knowing exact numbers. And like, you know, I have the sales tracker on my desk and I love checking the little boxes and doing all this stuff. Um, but I almost wish that I was just wired the other way, where it was just like build relationships, just do everything you can, and like let the pieces fall where they may. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Well, to your point, I actually think you're in a better boat because I think you can learn, and you already are relational, but I think you can lean into the relational piece. The folks who are super relational hate hard. Yeah, your phone weighs a thousand pounds, right? Yeah, it's much easier, I think, to be like, hey, every now and then grab a coffee with a friend. It's like it's not that just take a breath, yeah. Right. Versus the versus the guy who only does that and would never even consider calling a FISBO or an expired or door on somebody, anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

That's really interesting. So in I I love this story. So we were setting this up, and I called you, and you texted me and said, bro, I'm prospecting right now. I'll call you, I'll call you back in like two hours. And I was like, yes, that that that's it. That's the mindset. So um, what does your schedule look like then for that prospecting? Are you carving that out in the mornings? Are you like intentionally putting that on your Outlook calendar or whatever? What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Absolutely. Yeah. So this is probably a part of my life where I'm very type A and my wife just thinks it's hilarious. Um, same.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

She just my wife makes fun of me for all this.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

She just remembers things like months out, and I'm just not that way. If it's not on the calendar, it literally won't happen. Um, and so for me, and and what the caveat to this I'll say is like people work differently. So this is what works for me. It's not prescriptive, but for me, I got two young kids. Um, the afternoons and the evenings with them are sacred. So I'm up at 4 45, I'm at the gym by five. Um, like you mentioned, uh, I'm a man of faith and I'm a Christian. So I mean, for me, from six to seven, I'm in prayer and I'm in in scripture. 7 a.m., I'm doing my morning routine. That's business related. So um I check the hot sheet, I log my KPIs from yesterday, um, and then I look at my goals. And then by 7:30, I'm on the phone. Okay. Um, again, check, check your local rules, uh, but that's when I start hopping on the phone. Um, from there, I'm calling uh new expireds, uh, new expired and canceled listings, old expired and canceled listings, um, and then I'm calling for sale by owners, and then I'm getting into some circle prospect now around listings that I want to duplicate that I uh listings that I have that I want to duplicate. So I do a five call flow system. So I'll call when it's coming soon, I'll call when it's active, I'll call when there's an open house, I'll call in a pandemic, I'll call in a close. And each I look at it as like ringing out a rag. Each time you call through that, you're you're ringing out a couple more opportunities. And each listing you get should, in my opinion, produce one to three more opportunities at minimum, if not listings. So I do that from about 7:30 to 10. And I say about because sometimes I have a killer morning and the first call I make, I book an appointment. Sometimes it's crickets for two hours. It it's it's variable data. So what I tell people is you have to do it long enough and often enough to get lucky. You don't get lucky day one. And if you do it for a week, you it won't work. Well, you work out the averages, you work out the averages till 10:30. Then I work on meet with my team. Um, I have a TC and uh uh showing partner, full-time licensed assistant. Meet with them, I work on active transactions in the afternoon is all appointments. Um, if I have one. My goal is to have one a day. So from basically noon to four, I'm in appointments. Sometimes it's two or three, sometimes it's none. And this is where um I'm getting to this point in my business where I've I've allowed myself, if I've done all of the inputs well, and I don't have an appointment, it's out of my control. Um, I'll go home and hang with my kids. Yeah, I've given myself that permission. But by by 4 p.m., I'm usually home hanging with them. Phone's back on do not disturb. It's on do not disturb during the prospecting block, which is when you got me. Um I'm prospecting. Catch you later. And in the evening, it's it's on do not disturb. And then I'll usually check back in maybe around seven or eight when the kids go to bed, just make sure nothing's on fire. And then uh I'm usually in bed behind 9:30 or so.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

8:30. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's early. Yeah. Well, I'm sure like any team leader who just heard what you just described is like, man, I'm calling Lindsay, like right now, like recruiting him. Because to have that level of discipline, at least from what I've seen in our industry, because there's some heavy hitters that we've had on this podcast and everything. And like not everybody's wired like that, you know. So to have that structure in your day, oh my gosh, that's gonna pay dividends for so long. Thank you, as well. Too, you know, like that's how you set up a long career. Yeah, thank you. Not just, you know, uh, I don't know, flash in the pan for a couple of years and then somebody either, you know, burns out or you know, I can't juggle all of the balls that are in the air. Like, that's how you get it done.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Thanks, man. Yeah, and I've had people say, like, I could never do that, but they're doing they're doing 30, 40, 50 million dollars of volume. And I'm like, don't. Like if you're where you want to be, why would you? Like, right, right. Do you think I want to wake up at 440 o'clock and do like I don't. I'm doing it because this is what I need to do, right? And uh at the point where the pipeline starts to mature and we've got repeat and referral carrying the heavy load, and maybe I'll pop in for half an hour, three times a week, and hit kind of cherry pick some opportunities, I'll do that. But for right now, sort of in that first five years building phase, big goals. Um, yeah, I'm on it and I'll be on it till uh I can take a step back.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

But that's killer. Um, the one thing that jumped out at me that I made a little note of is actually the prayer time, an hour of mourning. So your faith is really important to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah, super important.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

And you do that in the morning. I'm guessing that that's intentional, intentionally there in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, it is. I mean, from a biblical perspective, we would call that your first fruits, your your best energy that is a sacrifice to the rest of the day as far as time and productivity, but ultimately it's like sharpening your sword. It makes the rest of the day more productive. And so for me, it's it's absolutely critical. And in the um, I'm not perfect, but in the rare occasion that I do miss it, I feel it, man. I miss it. Um, and so you know, people have different mentalities on it. Um, if you're not a person of faith and it's just even a couple minutes of just silence and solitude, I find it super critical because if you wake up and first thing in the morning, look at your email or your phone or socials, you're in fight or flight all day, you're putting out fires all day, and you haven't taken care of what's most important, and that's your personal health. So for me, exercise and faith, then I get into how do I serve? But if I don't do those, I feel like I'm I'm much more like needy. I'm trying to take. Um, so I take care of those, and then I feel like I can, I can kind of breathe. I remember what's most important. I'm in more of a flow state and and I'm receptive to opportunity instead of trying to grasp and and um and and strive. Um, I'm out to create and receive.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Yeah. Yeah, that's huge. Um, I I've been, I was just listening. I can't remember. I would like to give credit to the person that I was just listening to about it, but they said exactly what you were saying. Like if the first input into your brain is scrolling social media, it just like flips your brain into a different mode the entire day. So we, you know, we should be, we should all be intentional about wiring our brains, you know, in a in a state of abundance. Yeah, not as they as you described, fight or flight, or scarcity, yes, or just triggering, you know, these quick hit videos in our in our brains right off the bat.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

It can't be good for your brain chemistry. I think the first hour and the last hour are super important. And if you're scrolling social, for me, at least I'll speak for myself, it's comparison, lack, um uh uh I'm covetous, right? I'm like wanting what someone else has. Um, it's just not a good headspace to be in. So I'm like real, I'm on a little uh fast from social media for Lent, so 40 days off it, and it's been great. I'll be back, I will be back on, I believe. But um for me, it's just it's super important to it feels like a drug. It feels like or like alcohol, like it can be enjoyed responsibly, but irresponsibly, it's really dangerous. That's how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, and well, you mentioned the kids, like having the little kids. Oh my goodness, it's so scary. Because I've got kids, you know, young kids too, six and three, and like they're gonna be in a completely different world than we're in. Um, yeah, it's scary.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, who knows? Who knows what'll be happening by then with it.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

What I struggle with too is the you mentioned the last hour of the day. Yeah, I do all right in the morning, like I do a very similar routine with the prayer, you know, like that's really important to me, you know, trying to get those workouts. And but like when eight o'clock hits and I'm gassed, yeah, like that's when I sit down. It's like so nice to scroll through the phone. And uh yeah, that's hard. It is hard.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

No, I 100% agree with you. I I um I have often said that morning Lindsay and evening Lindsay are like two different people. Like me getting up early, um, again, everybody's different, but that's hard, but it flows better for me. Um, some people would be like, some people haven't seen a six on the alarm clock in a decade. Yeah, but for me that comes easier. But yeah, the evening time, that's when I like want ice cream and quick hits, and like I want to just veg a little bit. And of course, you know, you you have fun, you're a human, but I try to um just kind of keep those in in their proper context.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I also I put right on my home screen, I put the screen time timer. I do so every time I open up my phone now, it shows me how long I've been, I've had my phone open during the day, and sometimes it's like jarring. Yeah, that's it. It's like, oh geez, you know, and I think I'm like, you know, yeah, I talked to my kids for like 20 minutes today, and I look at my phone screen and it's like however many hours, and it's like, oh my God, dude, this is out of whack. Yeah, yeah, this is completely out of whack. But let's get let's get back to um the two pillars here. So we talked about the the outbound prospecting, but then relationship building is the other one, and I think that's so cool too. So I think there's so many different items that could go into relationship building, you know. And you mentioned, and I'm kind of in a similar boat where neither one of us are from Charleston, you know, so we might not have this kind of built-in, you know, SOI that that a lot of people are kind of used to. But what have you found to be the best relationship building activities from everything that you've tried?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

That's a good question. I would, I would honestly say, um, and this probably goes against the grain, but just not really trying so hard. I think people can just read through it. Like if you are in your neighborhood or at your gym or going to church or going to restaurants or bars, and you're like, you got your little KPI tracker and you're like trying to meet people and how hold on, let me pull this out of my pocket real quick.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

What's your name again? Yeah, let me shut this down.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Pass out business cards and stuff. I just feel it feels inauthentic, it feels thirsty, it feels salesy. So for me, I just try to be kind, be myself, be open and warm and again receptive to opportunities. So the SOI piece is really fun for me. So, like um, people in my neighborhood, Riverland Terrace, know me. I ride around on my bike every afternoon with my daughter. Again, I didn't like vision cast that, like, I'm gonna do that every day and meet two people. I just do it because I enjoy it. And I come home and relieve my wife for an hour or two. We go on a bike ride, we go to the park. Sometimes we'll go get some food. And um, I love that time. And I have probably met over half my neighborhood doing that. Um, but again, that wasn't why I started doing it. Um, same thing with church. Like, I'm involved in my church, and um, we uh historically have led a community group. We're backing off right now with uh the second kid kind of taking some time.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

But second kid will do that. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

We're like still cut into things, yeah, scruining a lot. Love you, Benny. But uh yeah, I know. Yeah, it's a lot. So yeah, man, I would say honestly, the answer for me is is not trying so hard. And it just happens organically. Uh, but that's why I think personally, when you're getting started, you need both. You need to be doing the quantifiable, scalable outbound, and it's infinitely scalable. I mean, you could call every single person in the tri counties, it'd probably take you two years to do it, and then start over, and the first person already forgot you called. So it's like you can literally do that infinitely. And I know my numbers well enough that every X amount of calls I make, I book X amount of appointments, every X amount of appointments, this many happen, this many that happen, I sign this many and that many close, right? So you can literally reverse engineer it, and then SOI is just a is just a fun way to uh build ultimately like the longer term business.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

And it's almost like gravy on top of the things that you're already doing.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

It is they're bonus. Yeah. They're bonus. You don't, I don't expect them. They're wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

And then you're not putting that pressure on that piece of it too, which leads to exactly what you were saying. Yeah, that kind of like salesy relationship and coming off that way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

You know, I mean, people need to know what you do. Um, the way I look at it, you I'm sure you've heard this acronym before, but it's uh Ford questions, family, occupation, recreation, and dreams. I think whether you're in sales or not, that's just a good way to get to know people. Um so you're not just staying on the surface level, like, tell me about your family. What do you do for work? What do you do for fun? What are you dreaming about? What are you thinking about? What would be fun for you? Um, I ask those questions a lot. And uh, someone that you want in your SOI, you ask those questions, what's the first thing they do? They they reciprocate it, right? And so now you have the opportunity to say, yeah, I'm in real estate, like this is what I do, here's my goals. Um, yeah, if I can ever be of service, but I don't lead with that because again, it just feels thirsty and grabby, and it's just not, it's not the way I want to like live my life. I don't want to be known as when I walk in the room, people are like kind of like a little clinched, like this dude's about to ask me if I'm buying or selling again. Like, I just don't want to be that guy.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, yeah. And we could come off that way, you know, all of us.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

We all can, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Um, so you started so move to Charleston and What year? 22. 22. Yeah. And jumped right into real estate then. You were licensed in California. Yep. What in the few years that you've been working here as a real estate agent, what is the hardest truth about this business that you feel like people don't want to hear?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I mean, we've already basically talked about it. Um, people think and younger agents on our team are learning it. Um, and I try to help educate, but like you, you don't just get your license and automatically people start wanting to transact with you. Um, and and my question, even for myself, sometimes when I interview for a bigger listing, is like, why would this person trust you with the sale or the purchase of very likely their largest asset and um compensate you well for it? Why the heck would they do that? So, number one, you have to be competent enough that you can articulate your value confidently and with authority. Um, but that's hard-earned, right? And so that's probably the biggest misnomer that I think people walk into the business with is oh, I got my license. That was the hard part. It's like, no, that gave you permission to step on the field. That's it. And and like you literally know nothing. Like my first transaction, I knew nothing. Poor guys. I mean, shout out Alex if you're out there like for bearing with me. Like I knew Jack. Yeah. And um, you just don't unless you have someone mentoring you. There are some schools I think where they walk you through transactions while you're while you're getting a license, but mine did not. And so um, yeah, learning how to generate opportunities and then um sharpening your skills so that you're proficient enough to earn those opportunities, that's probably the biggest thing that I would say you need to be prepared for.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

That's awesome. Um that's a question that all of us could ask on every transaction, no matter how long you've been doing this. Why should this person work with me?

SPEAKER_00 23:51

It's a great, it's a great thing to be thinking about because if you're not, um, you can come off as entitled or uh you can forget how wonderful it is that these people are trusting you on this level. You know, you're not you're not like, no offense to uh someone bagging groceries, all jobs are valuable, but you're not like doing something, you're not bagging groceries or you know, whatever. You're you're helping them broker a very large transaction with significant long-lasting financial repercussions and impact. So it should, it should be taken um with respect. It shouldn't be taken lightly, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

You have a lot of these systems built and put in place. What is something that you tried to put in place, whether it's a system, a way of prospecting, anything like that that didn't work for you?

SPEAKER_00 24:42

I tried once to create a um fully automated mail campaign that would uh where I had a VA Email or snail mail. Fit snail where a VA would pull a list, I love this aggregate the data, um, use an algorithm to price the data, and then send a um basically a listing solicitation with a uh an algorithm-based uh price to ask for a listing appointment.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Can't imagine why this didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Well, there's no holes in work. They were so off. And mail's like a dollar a piece now. So it was like a super expensive campaign for for nothing. Plus, I was paying for the BA. So yeah, don't do that. I think I I have a mentor um that I talk to frequently, and he's like, Man, I think my my thing is I try to um I get at these ideas, and then sometimes I introduce unnecess necessary complexity. And he's like, Your thing is not so much working hard and doing the hard things, it's saying no to the other things. And so I see that in me. I gotta fight the shiny object syndrome.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I I'm 100% guilty of that as well. I want to jump to the next thing, jump to the next thing, jump to the it's like, dude, you haven't finished, you've barely even started this other thing. Gotta make it one. Yeah, yeah. Stick with it. That's a that's a good one, though. I like the the the male just chucking them out there. Um, along those lines, what's the biggest mistake you see other agents making in our market today?

SPEAKER_00 26:17

I would say probably the biggest mistake that I see folks making um would be, and I don't know, I I try not to focus too much on what others are doing, but I would I would probably say um around uh probably again around lead generation, just doing a bunch of things poorly or kind of averagely instead of doing like one to three things really well. That would probably be the biggest thing that I see. And and I again I don't um I don't know a whole lot about the way others do business outside of my team, and then maybe a couple, couple other folks that I stay in contact with um in the community. But yeah, that that'd be one thing that I'd probably point to.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

How how big is the team that you're on?

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Uh so we have um three basically team leaders, um, and then we have um 18 to 20 agents that fluctuates, you know, it's a high turnover in our business. But I would say our our like stick rate is pretty good. Um so 18 to 20, um generally speaking. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

And what's to come, let's say the next two, three, five years for either you personally as an agent or for the team that you're on?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Yeah, so my really my goal, um I have I have a lot of different goals. I mean, I think about um, I think about my my fitness, my finances, my family, my faith, um, my business. The that's the way I think about my goals. But on on the on the business and finance side of things, I mean, one year goal is$30 million of closed volume. Um, based on last year's numbers, that's probably about 50 deals. I'm tracking a little bit better my price points risen. So this year it might be closer to like 40 to 46 last time I looked at the numbers, which honestly that'd be great. I I if I don't have to do 50, I won't, you know, higher volumes better. Um, so that's that's year one. Um, year, year really year two through probably two through five. Um, I have like these personal goals tied to those. So um we we've got some uh real estate investment we want to do, and then also we have some student loans we want to pay off. So that's really what'll happen kind of as a result of those goals being met this year. And then from there, um I'm thinking about reinvesting into my business such that um we do have some more inbound opportunities, uh, that the sphere of influence continues to grow, that we're able to give our clients the highest level of experience, that I'm able to introduce some more leverage into my business so that I'm not having to work uh 40, 50, 60 hours a week in order to serve my clients. In fact, I would love to work 20 hours a week and be and be even more productive and my clients have a better experience because I've introduced the right leverage. So that's really what I'm thinking about. Um, one of my big goals is to um stay in real estate until I'm 40. I'm 33, until I'm 40, or I make a million bucks in a year, whichever comes first. Now, I don't think I'm gonna like make a million bucks at 35 and then just piece out, but that's sort of like a sort of a midterm accountability metric that I've introduced. And then, and then kind of the third tier of that is um I've heard it spoken about retirement sort of being like a sort of mystical number that you achieve when you turn 65 and you know, people are like, oh, I need five million bucks or two million bucks or whatever it is. My thought behind that is retirement, I'll never stop working, but retirement is when work becomes optional. Okay. And so once I've uh my my mindset is go make massive, um, make massive income and then make passive income. So I'm on the massive train right now. Passive will be next. And then once I've created a portfolio of assets that are making me, I won't say it on here, but a certain amount of money monthly, then work becomes optional. And then I get to pick and choose the opportunities that I do in the real estate space. And that to me is the ultimate level of freedom. I get to serve only the people that are a perfect match for the energy I bring. Not I'm not for everybody. Um, those are the folks that I serve. My assets support my lifestyle, and then everything else is supplementary, and I get to spend time with my kids and my family.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

That's so killer, man. And I think you're gonna get there faster than you think. Thank you. You're even gonna get there. And what I heard in there too, that was so cool is you you mentioned the goals, you know, you mentioned the volume number and all that, but immediately went to the reason why. You know, I think it's so easy in our industry, and you actually mentioned it earlier, you know, with social media, it's so easy to just get caught up in this leaderboard. Yeah, you know, and it's like, well, why why are we doing this? You know, like why are we grinding so hard? Answering the phone at whatever time, you know, if that's your thing, and doing all these things. But to be able to be like, this is why I want to accomplish these goals, and I'm not gonna burn down this side uh of my life doing it, because that's the whole reason that I'm doing it in the first place, you know, like to have those things tied together, I think is special.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

It's the most important thing to me. Yeah. Um, I refuse to be the person who wakes up five years from now making a million bucks net and is overweight and his kids don't know him and his wife resents him. Like, I just won't do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

I love that. Well, we're gonna wrap it up on that one because if if you know somebody's listening and that's the only thing they take away, that's plenty. But move to Charleston in 2022, started this real estate career. I want you to think back to that person. And if you could tell that version of Lindsay, you didn't think, you know, that things were gonna progress the way they did, but now we're here. We have the super rising career, we have a very detailed plan of how to get there. If you could talk to the 2022 version of Lindsay, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

I would tell him, don't be afraid to ask for help. I think I was so prideful and I didn't want people to know that I was struggling. And um I just floundered for a while because of that. And I think the folks that come in and are willing to admit that they what they don't know, and then that they don't even know what they don't know are the ones who are successful much, much quicker. And so I would say, dude, put your pride aside, wait tables if you need to, like make some money and build for the long term. Don't, don't. I I when I was getting started, I I kind of I burned a couple people. Um, at least in my mind, I did. I don't know if they feel that way, but um, I've I've just got much more perspective now. So I would say take your time, ask for help, humble yourself, and you'll probably be more successful than you thought was possible, quicker than you thought was possible. Um, and yeah, it wasn't that long ago, but man, I feel for that guy. It's like I'm like, man, poor guy. I wish I could go back and tell him that.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Well, Lindsay, you've got incredible advice. This has been a tremendous episode. So if any listeners want to reach out to you, uh just ask follow-up questions, you know, something you mentioned today connect further. How can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Well, after Lent, you can reach me on social media um on Instagram. It's Mr. Lindsay Johnson. Um, and then my email address is Lindsay at Ludifygroup.com. That's L-U-D-I-F-Y Group.com. Awesome. Appreciate your time today. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. All right.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Thanks for listening to Charleston's Leading Producers Podcast. Could you take a moment to hit subscribe on the platform that you're currently listening on? That allows this show to grow and bring you more of the top of the line producers and business leaders. And if you think these stories will help someone you know, please share this with them. New episodes every Wednesday. I'm Jake Cummings. See you next week.