Building a Business on Connection: Lessons from Laura Gillott

Summary

In this engaging interview, Laura Gillott shares her journey from a small-town real estate agent to a community-focused leader. Discover how she built a relational business through intentional events, systems, and a servant-hearted team, emphasizing the importance of purpose, connection, and continuous growth.

Key Topics
- Transition from organic to systematic event planning
- The role of purpose and community in business
- Building and leading a servant-hearted team
- The importance of systems and checklists
- Lessons learned from failures and successes

Reach Laura at - teamgillot.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Grind Design podcast along with Mandy Henriad, um Michael Walters, and we're here for another episode. And today we are welcoming Laura Jalot from Oregon.

unknown 0:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Salem? Did I Salem, Oregon?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Well, Lebanon is where our main bases, but we also have all uh offices in Albany and Kerbal, so we're in the mid-Willamette Valley.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Okay. That's south, obviously south of Portland.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yeah, south of Portland, about 80 miles south between Salem and Eugene and I Cive Corridor.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

There you go. And so um, like I know you and I've had uh dozens of interactions with you, but why don't you tell our audience um about you, who you are, and um we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Well, just a small town girl here. So we're a town of like 20,000. And I started out was a town of 10,000, so we have doubled in size. Uh started out selling real estate in 1992 at a age of 22 years old, and uh enjoyed the business a lot. Um, did it uh with one company for like four or five years, moved over to another maw and pa company, built a team of four, um, was the top agent in our area, probably the second or third year in, selling you know, 75 to 100 homes a year. Um, then built the team up, came over to Keller Williams in 2011, built a team up to 40 uh of team members that either uh admin support and agents. Uh, now we're a team of 30, about 15 agents and 15 admins. And we are heavily heavily invested in relational real estate. So we deal a lot with um being the community light and and creating unity and and events and everything together is kind of how what our brand is and and how how we practice real estate. It's like inviting people into our our world, into our fellowship, um, which is wonderful. Um been doing it again for 33 years, enjoy every day, enjoy getting up and coming to work every day. I know a lot of times people are like, I'm burnt out, but I'm like, I love this business. So it it's keeping the passion. Of course, you have to you have to intentionally find the joy, enjoy, enjoy the journey on this, because it can be a rough business, but um it is definitely um something that was meant for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, the one thing you just said is you're um, and I I can't remember all the words, but it it's you have gone basically, you're not you're anything but transactional, you and your team. It is uh you're relational, part of the community.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Like where did that where did that whole idea or the thought or just how did that evolve?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Well, you know, I was always one of those um people that loved having like a crock pot Christmas party and invite everyone to come over, bring their crock pots, and we would get together, we'd have a Halloween party when um Texas Hold'em was really big. We we had a big shop and we would host tournaments there, and we'd have everyone come together and and um do Texas Hold'em and we'd do potluck and things with that. Um and you know, I realized early on in my business that the majority of the people that were coming to these events were the huge referral sources for our business. They were our walking, talking billboards, people that would um, you know, get people and bring them into our world. And um, so I kind of just thought to myself, like, this is a great way for us to build our businesses through these events and and having community because it's a great way for us to deepen those relationships with, I mean, because our dentist was there, our city attorney was there. I mean, everyone was there, like from the person that changed your oil to everybody. I've always been an includer of everybody. So anybody and everybody was invited to come to these events. But I realized once they started coming to the events, they really did help supply our team with a lot of business. And so it was just, it was kind of organic at the beginning, and then we just put systems in place so we could make it more um more sustainable, where they would fill out like a link to come to the event or a link to register for a giveaway. Um, and they would fill that out. So I didn't have to talk about real estate there, but it I would have something that to know that they raised their hand and we could follow up with them with the business on with that.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, what I heard is you went from organic to intentional through systems and a model.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah. That never comes up ever. Well, I mean, when I when I hear this, I mean, knowing you and knowing about your events, because um it has made its way all the way to the CEO of Keller Williams, Gary Keller, or the founder, um, and made its way into our MREA playbooks. That's I mean, that is I mean, not only is that a um a huge honor, but now you got people that are following that organic to systems or maybe just going straight to systems.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Right? On just events.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah. And and and you start with being like, I'm just a small town girl, right? So fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Well, and I mean, think about I mean, we happen to be in real estate, but this this could and should apply to any business out there. Absolutely. So if you're listening, it's because I'm a realtor and Laura's a realtor and you're in lending. I mean, you can insert any business name.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

I was gonna say, I think any business, right? Our very favorite business is referred to business, right? Yes. It's not the ones that, you know, we got click leads off of Facebook or you know, something like that. Our very favorite clients are always the clients referred by our clients. And how better to create that open door for those relationships to be really strong.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah. And it the nice thing too about putting some systems into place is that you just have an easy way to process all that without feeling overloaded. So having um, you know, checklists on every event that you have, you know, having a follow-up system with every event that you have, um, having systems to um collect data is a way one that opens up your door so you can serve more clients.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

We had just a moment here because you just said checklist, and we both have just finished a book called The Checklist Manifesto.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

And it is um and we've leaned in very heavy heavily to checklists, Laura. That's good. I love the checklist.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

They're in my closet, they're in my bathroom. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah, I mean how like how do you well I think the better question would be is okay, you don't let's say you're not doing events. Like what would your business look like if you didn't have the events? If you didn't start organically and move into systematically, if you didn't have that, like do you have any idea of like what your business would look like?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, if if I didn't have that, then I'd probably be looking for new business every day. So I'd probably be out door knocking and holding open houses and doing all the other things that you do, calling for sale by owners and expireds. I mean, yes, I still should be doing that because that all that does help get your business. But my personality type is I'd much rather have an event and softly ask them if they have real estate needs at the event and then service them afterwards than going out and getting rejected so much by doing the other the other items, which I know it's not me, it's not them rejecting me, but it's it's I just wouldn't have that much joy in the business. Like I'm doing the things that I enjoy and I enjoy serving people and I enjoy taking care of their real estate needs, their family's real estate needs, and providing them, you know, laughter and and and community and and you know, and great times.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

So, how often are you hosting an event?

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah, so that and that gets a little complicated. So we do some online events and we do some in-person events, we do some events that just just our team puts on by itself. Like we have an event called Pork and Tunes, which is just uh like a barbecue that we host for our clients, and that's just done by ourselves and our team puts that on. But we'll do things like we'll pair up with National Night Out in our town. National Night Out has a band that plays. Um, we have a booth there. We we sponsor, um, we're key sponsor on it. I think it cost me like$200. We give away some otter pops, we have uh a basket or drawing there, we have our you know, our booth all set up, we invite our whole database to come down and enjoy National Night Out, and then people sign up when they're there on an injury form sheet to win the prize that we're giving away, and at the bottom has like three real estate questions. And so that type of event doesn't take as much work. We could show up, set up, tear down, be done with it. Um, you know, it's a very short period of time that we have to put investment, but we invite our whole database to it. And you know, over the years we've grown our database to about 70,000 people. So we invite everybody, but I couldn't invite 70,000 people to my barbecue, you know what I mean, because that would be too much.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

So okay. I I've got I've I we just have to time out, we have to back up for a second. You just said 70,000 people are getting invited to your event, and you live in a town of 20,000 people.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, 20,000, but it also includes the surrounding towns, you know, and community. Our our our uh our let's see, our county is a hundred like 110,000.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So yeah, I mean that's stunning. Yeah, well it yes, and it's proof. I mean, Laura knows this, but we're we're taught in our business that your business is your database, right? And the quality is in the quantity. That's another phrase, but it they're both true. And the the bigger the the the amount of people that you have to speak to, invite to events, offer value, right? The more the more you're gonna get in a relationship with as it relates to their real estate needs. What I really loved is you're doing these events, but you're doing these events with a purpose behind them. It's not just to do an event to check off. I mean, yes, there's checklists and there's follow-ups and there's systems, yet there's still that that small town feel, you know, sort of hand holding uh care and purpose behind these events.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, definitely. I definitely think it's a bigger vision than just for business. You know, I mean, and you know, if you guys want to get, you know, biblical, I mean, they God wants us to be have unity, He wants us to gather together, He wants us to have a good time and to have fellowship. And I feel like that's kind of our calling. It's more than just selling a house, it's being able to offer people that that community and that fellowship and and to get together and have good times together. Um, because I don't know, in today's world it's hard to find that. I think people are longing for being to to having that that fellowship with one another.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

The connection.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah, the connection. You know, they get to come to our events, even if it's like pie day and we serve, you know, apple pie with hot dogs and and um chips and and we do you know, breaking bread together, and everyone comes in during lunchtime and and they sit and they chat with community people. And Jesus, this is someone I like I this one gal came up and I said, Um, well, that gentleman over there, he's sitting by himself. I'm like, he's super nice. You should go sit with him because she came by herself and and she's like, Is that Alan? And I'm like, Yeah, that's Alan. She goes, I think I went to high school with him. You know, I mean, like, and I reintroduced them to together because they had gone to high school and she and he remembered her and she remembered him, but they hadn't seen each other since high school, but they recognized each other. So it's just the way, you know, and I think to myself, well, that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for a pie day, you know, like they could then retalk about all their good times in high school. But, you know, that's one good thing about small community is that there is that connection and people kind of know each other, but they also keep connected to each other at at the events that we're we are hosting.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

That's beautiful. You know, we in Utah we have we call it the seven layers of seven levels of Kevin Bacon or Seven Circles. Do you know this thing? I've heard of it. Yeah. Like if you live in Utah, if you go seven people deep, somebody knows Kevin Bacon. You heard that?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

No, this is the first time hearing it.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Totally a thing here. But it's exactly what you're doing, right? Is even if you're in a big place, people know people, right? And they get if people get chatting, they find their connections or their thing that they have in common. You know, uh so that that is just beautiful that you're creating an opportunity for people to connect outside of a device, not on social media.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Well, belly-to-belly, yeah. Yeah, and and having having a purpose behind it, because I mean, I've I've seen it in my own uh industry here locally, where people do things just going back, they you know, to check a mark off of a list, or um they do it over compliance, right? Because they think it's the thing to do. Yet if you don't have the purpose and you're not committed behind that, you you show up differently. And the results um it shows. It it shows. People can tell when you're there because you want to be there versus because you're there because you you know just you're doing it because you have to or you're checking a list.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, and I kind of had a re-like I had my team this year said, okay, what is the purpose of pork and news again? Because sometimes you can get lost in it. In this business, you can get lost in all the details and all the hard work, and is it worth it? And like, is there good our ROI on this event? Like, you know, all those things come into play. And um, you know, I did have to take a step back. And and when I came back with them, and I'll just I'll read you what I wrote. It says, you know, when we host events like Pi Day and Porka tombs, it's more than just giving back to our clients. These are about uh moments that are creating community, building unity, showing love, exactly what God calls us to do. This isn't just a business, it's a community. Every pie we hand out, every smile at pork and tombs, every handshake, every home we sell, we encourage fellowship, and that's exactly what God wants us to do. So I just kind of again, just going back to the foundation of this, it's it's more important to me to be a good steward of uh our funds and be um creating this community for our community, just so that when people have a good spot in the year, so joyful um when when they're coming to these events. It's just it's so much more than just just the ROI, which there's a great ROI on these events. Like there's there's a lot of people raising their hands saying they want like to do business. So that part is great. I love I love that. But I just feel like it's more than that. Like people are longing for this and and it fills my love bucket too.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

This is probably why you like going to work. Is that you know at the very beginning you said, you know, people get burnt out or they say they're burnt out, and I never feel that way because I love my business. Probably because you are leaning into all the things that light you up and and bring you joy, and that's connecting with people.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah. I also heard, you know, you had to repeat or you had to get better clarity and and communicate that vision of okay, what these events are about. And you know, we on a recent guest, we talked about one of the jobs, one of the things that we as business owners need to do is convey that vision and communicate it often because regardless of how well-oiled a system, a process is, without that clarity or that um uh uh reaffirmation of of what that vision is, sometimes a purpose gets lost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah. And I think that did happen to us. I think that purpose got more into the boy, this is a lot of work. Like this is is it worth giving up, you know, like for the big pork and tons event, it takes about a week, you know, of setup and getting everything ready. It's like, is it worth all this work? And I know, and is there enough return on investment and all this stuff? And I just had to sit back and think about like why is it important for us to do this? And I just had to re recast the vision today is that you know, it's it this is about community. This is more than just selling a house. You know, this is us providing that um platform for all of our clients to connect and to have that fellowship and how important that is, and how how much our clients do appreciate that, which is, you know, which is a good thing. And I do think you do have to capture that vision more more often than not. You get new people on the team, they don't know, you know, they're they don't know the whole reason why this all started. Um, and so definitely I would say go do that often and think about it because your vision over the years changes too.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Do you have on your team, are you do you have staff that is specifically geared towards these tasks, or does your general staff all lean in together to make an event happen?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

So we all lean in together. So we do have like two people at the front desk and they'll help. They have parts of the checklists they do. We have a director of operations, there's parts that she does, our marketing director does the parts that she does. We try to keep all the admin and setup duties, and my husband is a very big part of this, and he helps out a ton. We try to keep that all off the agent's plate because we really need them connecting with their clients and and serving them in a high, high way and not having to worry about set putting up pop-up tents and putting up flyers. Like we don't want them at the beginning. Everyone pitched in until we got big enough that we could afford admin. Um the admin do help out a ton, and then when the event is on, then the the agents, you know, they'll come in and work the event and and you know, love on people and get them to fill up those forums and talk about real estate. You know, it's just natural that real estate comes up because they you know we're real estate office. So they'll they'll um you know help help the clients that are there, and then afterwards we take all the information and and put it into the database and tag it all properly and get the leads back to the agents to to follow up on and we put away all the all the stuff from the event.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Do you do your agents help with the getting attendance? I know that is one of the things, right? If you can do all of the checklist items to create the event, yes, but actually promoting and getting people to attend is its own monster.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah, yeah. So we have um three different labels in our in our database, and either they get a weekly touch, a monthly touch, or a quarterly touch. And so each agent is in charge of their own database in our in that$70,000 or$70,000, 70,000 people database, they all have their amount. And they may have like some may have$300, some may have$600, some may have$900, depending on how long they've been in the business. But they're they're the ones that are inviting them to come to these events. And on the back end, when they fill out the form, the RSVPs come in. I can say, hey, Marianne, you have 24 people coming, and she can look and see which ones have registered. Hey, you know, Mackenzie, you have 11 people coming. Hey, Bill, you have none coming. So I can kind of see who's working and who's inviting people to come to these events and who is not. So it is very transparent in the database. But it, like I told him, I said, if you send out a blanket like flyer to everybody, you're probably not gonna get that great of attendance. You need to personally connect with these people and they need to feel like they're personally invited by you. And so I'm really trying to help them understand that you know, it it has to be more of a personal invite. Like, you know, send them a text, give them a call, send them a picture of you and your wife and your baby and say, hey, we're gonna be working the cornhole event, come see us, we're at the front of the property, like you know, like like a personal invite from you to them, not like it's a mass flyer to everybody, because us as team owners, like we could send a mass flyer to everybody, and we probably have, but they really want to hear from their agent, not just a mass flyer. They want to be personally invited.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

I've had a theory, and so you have to tell me if you think that this is true, because when you talk about, you know, it's your agents have this opportunity, really, they have an opportunity to reach out and connect with their client. Um, I've had a theory that it's not even the event that matters, it's all of the communication before and after that creates the connection. So even if the client can't come, right, the the fact that you reached out to invite them matters, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah, yeah. That's and they love to be invited. And they feel, you know, when someone there's just so much appreciation of you being invited. One, you get to stay top of mind on their on their mind for a little bit because they're so excited that you know you reached out to them to invite them to an event. But if you give to a giver, they normally give back. So that's really good nice thing about you know loving on your database is that that your database will love back on you.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

So we've spent the portion so far talking about events. And I know you're much more than that because um you have built a team from you know yourself to five to now over what 30, I think you said.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

30, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

And you know, I find that fascinating in this space of being a business owner of all of the um all of the the the headaches or the uh the noise or the setbacks or the the struggles. I mean, continue to answer it any adjective you want, of hiring, training, and retaining. How how have you been able to build your team to where it is and have a team that not only executes doing what they're doing but has bought into your vision of like where you've where you've led and where you're going.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

You know and not everyone does. I I'll let you know that over the years we've had people are like I'd rather stick an ice pick in my eye than do another another event you know they're like it's not their cup of tea. But we try to first find people that have like a servant's heart and that are giving and that are volunteering and that like I could teach anybody how to sell real estate. Like that is not the hard part. The hard part is finding the the people that have the personality that love to give and serve. Because some people just don't like it. They just rather just I'm going to do my thing and I'm going to clock out and I'm going to go home and I don't really want to to serve. So I we found that is like for us to hire they need to have some history that they love to volunteer and give and and be part of the community. Those people fit really well in our world and then we can tell them how to sell real estate we can help them. We have plenty of people in our database they can go you know we can help them get transactions and lead them along on how to be a great agent. So there's that and then I think it's important too as as the leader is that I know I'm I'm the first one in the office. Like I'm here at six like I I put my head down and work. I'm not just saying here you guys do all the work and I'm in the Bahamas and just send me my checks you know um I yes I do take some vacations and I do have some fun. So but I do that but I am I'm here for them. So if they hit a bump in the road if they need help with their CMA if they need anything you know I'm I'm here to help and the whole team has that same lift each other up and and help each other. I know our theme this year of our um advance was we lift as we climb and it had some you know real estate agents kind of lifting down and holding each other up because it's been a little tough market and Oregon's been hit hard with with the real estate recession. And um you know we did have to you know every year we'd love doing more transactions we did the year before and we've been on fire and then we've had a few years of going backwards in numbers and that doesn't feel as good and and um you know that we do have to continue to lift each other up and to stay positive and and be joyful. I just I would I would say too is that you know you really got to teach your team around you that you know don't take things personal you know that you got to give people grace. It's normally a miscommunication you know you got to have a little thick skin in this business um and and you know when you do that you just realize that most of the issues that people have in real estate or most times they get frustrated it's it's nothing it's it's just a miscommunication. You gotta give grace and work through it. Most people don't mean to to be mean or disrespectful. It just kind of can come across that way.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

You know what I love is I mean you've got a team I've had a team what I love what you just said is you're not trying to um or you can teach anybody real estate and I I do believe that that's just tackling blocking X's and O's for the most part. You cannot teach um people to want to you know serve or to give in I mean that's a and and so you know your avatar. Yeah and I wasn't I wasn't naive enough to think that it's all perfect and everybody stays because as being a business owner we're gonna we're gonna have people where it's just not a fit and that's okay. Yet you have your avatar and you're working almost inside versus inside out versus outside to in when you're looking for talent.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yeah I mean it and it's totally true right like you can you can teach a I we have a Spanish speaking loan officer who's a prime example I actually met her as a referred client and at the end of the appointment she said what does it take to be a loan officer and having spent some time with her was like oh my lord let's figure that out because right her her she was such a genuine kind inquisitive curious human right who wanted to serve the Spanish community.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

She had the heart for it and you can't create that you can't teach that no and you know there are others that book I can't remember the givers and takers but there are people that are just takers which is fine that's just who they are you know you realize who that is but a taker doesn't work well on our team because because they take too much and then everyone's such a giver around here that it it doesn't it doesn't work well. So we definitely need people that have that giver type of attitude like when we're at a client event and it's hard sometimes these younger people is it's been more difficult because they're used to texting they're not used to having like I don't know that person I don't want to go and talk to someone a strange area now. But if we could just even teach them like go and pick up their plates and offer them some water and you know serve them. It's easier for them to serve than it is to start up a communication of like a you know how's the weather and you know what brings you here today like they don't it's just a little uncomfortable for them. But they can go around and help serve them and then normally a conversation will come up from that. But yeah it's it's um you know we definitely have sometimes you know over the years that the people that think the party's for them on the team like this is not your party like we're here to work the party for our clients um and so we've had that over the years and and sometimes I've just had to re rephrase it to them saying hey you know until eight o'clock you know no one's gonna have an alcoholic beverage and uh and and we're here to work until eight after eight when the clients are starting to leave we can sit and relax and and do our thing. But again there's plenty other times we can have gatherings for us but this is a gathering for our clients. So you do have to teach it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

I've got to imagine just going back to you know the givers and the takers I've got to imagine that those givers on your team which probably outnumbers uh where it comprises a majority I gotta imagine that if you have somebody come in that is naturally a taker like they're gonna um the culture is going to either um help change them or help um modify or or uh adapt or it's going to push them out.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah and it kind of sometimes tri causes the team to be resentful of somebody because they ask all the time for help and but they never reciprocate it back. You know it everyone doesn't mind helping because they I help you, you help me, everything just works great, you know, it's good harmony but when you have someone that's always asking for help but never never wants to help out when somebody else needs help, you know, that that can sometimes can cause some resentment.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

The signs of a really um cohesive team is when the locker room takes care of the culture. Yeah it's not coming from the coach or the general manager in your case the business owner I mean yeah we have to provide vision but culture culture is best when it's formed within the team. Right when when the the majority kind of rules yeah cool um so you've gotten this far in you know what 30 plus years of real estate what's next for you ah that's a good question I know I I not too long ago I'm like what do I need to do?

SPEAKER_01 29:25

I'm like I really need to write out my five year vision like I really need to redo that and I thought I had like all like hammered out what I wanted to do. And then my husband got some throat cancer this year and he's never smoked, doesn't drink you know not even took a chew or nothing he's like one of these they didn't drink coffee he's one of those goody two shoes. And it it luckily they got some surgery and they got it all out of his throat but he they had to take out his um vocal cords and some other things out of his throat so he's now learning how to re-swallow and doesn't have much of a voice so he's learning to retalk. But when that kind of happened I thought okay do I really want real estate in my life 247 like is is you know if Dave said you only had five years left you know what would we want to do? And so we're you know we're looking at kind of some big picture things like you know what can we do in the future to to still have the team and still guide and help do that but maybe have a partner have somebody else that wants to take more of the reins so you know Dave's going to be 60 this coming year that we could go and and do some more fun things in life too and maybe you know that's for the five year vision needs to come in there what we want to do. We have to kind of decide that we enjoy real estate so much that it's like and he enjoys it too and he really is a server and loves community and loves um putting on events and things he's he's great so it's it's a great marriage um with that but we have to decide is that you know is that to our last dying day or do we or do we want to do a little something more uh than that or or maybe dabble in some other some other resources.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

It's always fun getting older and you we start thinking what's next or exit strategy or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yes and nothing like a life changing event to make you go oh maybe I should think about this real estate's unusual I think in that it is so interwoven in our lives right because it is not an eight to five job it does have a tendency to become such a large part of our day to day that I could see being like oh wait a minute would we change maybe the percentage of our day spent in this moment right maybe it's not that we do it don't do it at all maybe it's that we we buy a little more time off.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah I know we got the Starlink and Dave's like we could travel more now we have the Starlink and like we could go camping and you could you could jump on and do like a few hours of zooming and things during the day and and not be in the office all day and we could go out and see things and I'm like yeah that would be that would be good too but I also know it's important for me to be here. So you know so that's the hard part of you know trying to find someone that will help pick up the vision and run with it.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Well that's just it I was I was gonna just follow that up by because usually the what is followed by who.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

And you know you said it and and I think that's so important. We've we talked about talent and leverage so much with the guests that come on here. And I don't think that'll ever go out of style. I don't think it'll ever get old because that is um when we solve for that it tends to make everything easier.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Yeah what's interesting I uh because I partnered my my mortgage business with somebody much younger than me. Right. And I I mean I just kind of chuckle and laugh some days when we're but part of it was that vision right of like I he's a really good human. He's way more techie than me which is fantastic for all of us because right at 50 I'm coming into that late. But part of it was that like could he carry that vision as he ages into that role you know takes the right people.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah it does it does.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Okay so we always like to and we've talked about your history we've talked about events quite a bit and people now last couple questions we always want to tee this up because as a business owner we didn't get where we're at and you didn't get where you're at without having events or um roadblocks whatever that really defined and it helped you have the most growth for so for you is there one that comes to mind whether it be an event or a roadblock or a a situation that really um gave you that growth or that runway for growth?

SPEAKER_01 33:54

I'm gonna say well one we do track every event everything we do because if there's one that's that is um doesn't have a good return on investment let's say uh per se that we'll decide next year maybe not to host or not to do that again. So we do learn um moving forward if things are are um working or not with the public because sometimes like we did Bark in the park we thought that would go off great and it was a wonderful event but it was a lot of work for not a lot of people to attend. So it's like okay maybe we won't run Bark in the park again. So you know definitely knowing some numbers around things that you're doing does does help out with those things. And then over the years realizing that um to host um different things that those checklists have to be you know in tune down to you know if you're if we're doing homecoming game or give away free popcorn that on the on the list says you know order your popcorn bags from this distributor but if you don't put down what popcorn bags they are if you order the popcorn bags you're going to get the little teeny popcorn bags like the six inchers and it really what we use is the prescription bags and they weren't they look like popcorn bags but the prescription bags. So you know we've got there to the event and you get the popcorn bags out and they're like little teeny baby you know like not even one scoop of popcorn and they're like okay this is really embarrassing that we're giving these little micro things of popcorn away that you know those kind of things we just learn over time that like we have to fail forward you know on on everything. And um and when you have those failures like that you just learn to put another layer on to protect yourself so it doesn't happen again next year. You know if you get there and you're like oh my gosh you know we need an extension cord you know it's dark right now it's eight o'clock we have no lights it's like okay next year we make certain we put lights and and the extension cord on there. So the failure things that happen with clients, with with the team members if everything is happening it just makes us stronger and it feels like failing makes our team better than winning like the failures that we have really does help um build anything from um our client experience to our our agent experience to our admin experience you know to everything it's it's a little failure. So don't be afraid of failing you know it's messy nothing's gonna be perfect we we throw a lot out there we run kind of fast um but we always try to make people whole if we do make a mistake which is good and then we put a system in place so it doesn't happen again.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

I love that that's I mean isn't that the epitome like we we in our team have what we call fail abrasions.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yes it usually involves a few of us at like a good lunch going okay well that was a mess yes what are we gonna do next time right and you're so right like nothing growth never happens in easy so because our listeners most of them are avid readers or they listen to podcasts or audio books um is there a book that you're currently reading right now that or a podcast for that matter um that is really sticking with you or or is there one historically that has been like yep this is this is the one um I love like multipliers I don't know if you've read that book but that one's a really good one um I have this one right here just starting to read that I think is great.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Oh I don't know if you can see it's called uh pick me by Robbie Emery he's on the Michigan team he's one of the gentlemen that's a that's a good one I don't know I like a lot of different things I kind of bounce around a little bit with it I do love love Audible my Audible's always going and there's always lots of great things in there I can't even remember her name right now I'm blanking out the but the blonde haired gal she's come to a couple Keller Williams events. Uh yes yeah that's the one yeah she's always good us girls we know yes yes yeah she is she is excellent I just love the way she looks at the world and the way that she partakes things so it just makes me think about being better you know uh on on you know looking at the way you outlook on things and and how you let things affect you.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

So that's um okay so for our audience and listeners who want to know more about you where can they find you?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Yeah so we're here well again we have three offices but you just can um Google the Jalat home team and uh you'll find our phone number there the 541 451211 and you can call here anytime and we're our we have a we have an office here that can anybody can stop in and say hi and we've had people agents come in shadow we've had agents come and stay um you know it's it's it's really great here um if you call ahead enough ahead of time we can take you fishing my husband's got a little drift boat we love taking people fishing down the Sandy Am River so we love that so let us know you're gonna be in town we'll take you give you a river ride there's not as much fish in that river as it used to be used to be we take you fishing now we might be able to catch you a trout there's not many the salmon and steelhead have slowed down on our river so um but it's still it's still a good ride on there and yeah you just look me up anytime look look at our Facebook we do a lot on our Facebook page okay so and tell us your Facebook page yeah so it's just the gelat home team love that okay well there you know how to find Laura and her team she's awesome at events has built a real estate empire um and she is an avid reader I love it I love it um thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day because there's a lot of things you could have been doing but you chose to spend it with us um we're grateful for it I know our listeners will be too so thank you so much thank you thank you