Ep. #5: Authoring a Legacy Worth Leaving (ft. Janice Ryder)

In this episode of Keller Williams Realty Maine's Beyond the Sale, Team Leader Kevin Fletcher sits down with KW culture icon, Janice Ryder. From transitioning her business from one country to another, and then again from one state to another, Janice has held every role from solo agent to team leader, growing both her business and the businesses of those around her. But the most important title to her? Friend.

Having "done it all" in production, they share the raw truth about what it takes to pivot from success to significance. Whether you are in the first chapter of your career or looking toward your own finish line, this conversation is roadmap to building a business with a soul.

What We'll Tackle:

• Pioneering Your Path: How to build a high-level business when you’re starting with nothing but a vision and a work ethic.
• The Pivot to Significance: Recognizing the moment when your focus shifts from "counting closings" to measuring your impact on the community.
• The Architecture of Giving: Practical advice on how to integrate philanthropy into your business model, no matter what stage of your career you’re in.

Success is about what you accomplish, but a legacy is about what you leave behind. Tune in to discover how to move Beyond the Sale and start writing a story that people will tell long after you’ve left the room.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I wanted to really, really help help people realize that this this company changed my life. It changed my life. And each one of those steps was a reason for that.

SPEAKER_05 0:26

Welcome back to Beyond the Sale. Brad Knoll's here with Kevin Fletcher, and we've got a great guest today, Kevin. I am super excited for the show. Yeah, somebody who's really made a big impact on both of our lives, I know. Janice Ryder, welcome, welcome. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

You are more than welcome. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_05 0:42

Love it, love it. I know for me, as I was thinking about getting together this morning and our time together on the pod was um when I got into real estate, you and Steve Hammond, who most people in Maine are also familiar with, were clearly like the original impact, original mentors, people who really shaped my view of real estate, what could be possible in real estate, brought energy and focus to me for real estate. And what I realized was I didn't know who those people were for you. And I knew you got going in real estate up in Nova Scotia.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

So I'd love to hear your origin story just to get us going. Like, who are some early influences for you? What brought you into real estate? Sure. I'd love to hear that part.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Well, you know, it's funny because we moved to Nova Scotia when the kit when our kids were fairly little. And I knew I had to do something there, but I had to wait because it you know, I had to get my green card or whatever, all that. I was married to a Canadian. And um, so in that process, I volunteered and I did some things trying to figure that out. And one day my my um what would she be? My aunt, I guess, um said to me, she said, you know, you would be the best realtor ever. You why don't you just do and she lived here there in Nova Scotia and she kind of kind of took me under my wing and more than anything kicked me in the butt and said, You're gonna do this because you're gonna be really good. And um, so she was very, very influential. Um, I had a the head of our um office at the time was um her name was Rhonda, and she just believed in me and she pushed me and supported me and did all kinds of things. And then I we came back to the States, and then I have even more mentors. You know, um I one of the first things I the first person I met that brought me to Keller Williams and wanted me wanted to sit down, his name was Dick Allen. Oh yeah, and if you haven't known Dick Allen, he's got the most main voice to this day. I talked to him a little while ago, and he was the one who heard about Keller Williams. He got was talking to to um Dottie Bo at the time, and that was you know how I then became interested in this. And truly, there have been so many mentors at this company for me. Yeah, um, I've been at KW since oh three, I think, and I've been um have have done many, many, many other things in my lifetime, all real estate. It was 33 almost 34 years now, so that's amazing. Um so it really was an amazing kind of flow, it just happened. Yeah, and the minute it did, I knew I was in the right place.

SPEAKER_05 3:35

So your aunt was right. Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

I was rookie of the year in the whole province of Nova Scotia my first year.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

That's amazing. I I'm just curious when you go back to your getting started, yeah. Um, because obviously we've all helped new agents get started. How important was it for you to have somebody that believed in you when you're dealing with this new unknown type of thing? Where sometimes that lack of self-confidence can be there a little bit because it's new and and I find it's very important. But how how important was that for you?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Yeah, it it definitely one of the most important things I think when you're first getting into real estate is to find that person that's willing to give you the ideas, that's willing to support your craziness, that's willing to, you know, teach you the little things. Because if you get those little things early on, it it the sky's the limit.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

Yeah, that's it. It really starts to snowball from there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, and so and I one of one of the thrills for me more than anything in this business, it's never been about the sale, it's never been about the money, it's about the people that I helped. And that means in my case, I coached many, many, many, many, many agents over the years as well. And you can't find that like you can here at KW. Yeah, it's just not out there.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

Well, one of the things I also realized too was you coached people no matter what position you were in. Like there were times where you had positions where you're a coach.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 5:10

But there were other times where you were a member of a team, right? You were you were part of a team at one point. And I know you were coaching people then too. So where did that coaching piece first start with you?

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Did that start in Nova Scotia or I think it started in Nova Scotia when that my my cousin or she other cousin or aunt, I forget which one she is, but um, when she first told me and just believed in me to the core, I knew I could make it.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Um I am gifted with the just I go with the flow. I'm very easy. I've never had, you know, I'll tell say anything, you ask me anything. And I think that helps a lot, but there's a whole lot of people I've known, some of the greatest realtors I've known, are some of the the least outgoing and the least. So it's not about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

It's about having someone that supports you.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

It's it's being around people that are positive, that believe in the system, that believe it's well, you also you have that that personality that you just described, but I also feel like you know, you care. You're a very passionate person that cares an enormous amount. Yeah. And I think you know, that's the part that carries through to your brokerage business, your coaching business, your, you know, operating, you owned your own company for a while. I mean, if you didn't care, you wouldn't be making all the impact on the lives. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

And and I think that to me is more important than any any house I ever sold. I have so many clients now that I'm getting goosebumps. I have so many clients that I take pies to personally every Thanksgiving, and they start calling me three months ahead to make sure I'm coming. You know, I mean it's uh it's not just your family coming to visit.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Yeah. That's what you are.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Well somebody said to me the other day, they heard me, it was in a it was in a bunch of people that know me, but not they weren't real to people or anything. And they said, Do you tell everyone you love them? Because I hung up on one of somebody on the team, on the lifestyle properties team. I had just hung up with them and I I I just I love it. I love I just love these people. And you know, and if you really care to the core, you can be good at anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:34

Anything. It does so directly apply to real estate, I find. I don't know, you know, I I I'm sure it applies to engineering and other stuff too, but within the real estate world, if you really come from that place in your heart where you put other people first, whether it be the agent on the other side of the transaction or somebody else in your office or your client, or or helping somebody not be your client because you're guiding them to go in a different direction, right? Um I just think it's so central to success in real estate. Um you've worn a bunch of different hats within the real estate business, owning a brokerage, running, helping run brokerages, having a mega team. What were some of the differences for you? Um obviously there's a bunch of through lines, but what were some of the things that were different for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I was gonna say it's the people.

SPEAKER_05 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

It's the people. Yep. Um the reason that I opened my own company was because I wanted a certain kind of people. Right. And I found those people. I had I could if I gave off names now, you wouldn't believe some of the wonderful people that are now not even in real estate, and some have passed, that were so they were the kind of people I wanted to surround myself with.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

And so that that gave me the opportunity, number one, to realize who I did want to be around and be in come, you know, in business with. Um, and it then gives you the ability to to use that knowledge of that's the kind of person I want to live around. And then you can build.

unknown 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Did that did that carry over through to your clients as well? Oh my gosh. Like the um the the type of person that you want to help, the type of clients that you want to work with. Because I I I see the similarities there, not just on the you know, the brokerage and the people you affiliate with, but also in the in the clients. I think I think we've all if you've been in business for a while, you've all fired somebody as a client. Yeah. Because you don't want to be in business with them.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Oh geez, you don't even want to hear that story.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

And uh you know, but I do think like, you know, for the listeners here, it might be a challenge for them to realize they can shape their business over time to work with the people that they want to work with. And if you're struggling, like that can be a challenge, right? Because you're just looking for I mean, you're struggling. You you you you want a client and you want to help somebody so you can get a commission. And I understand that, but you do have the ability to form a business where you're working with some wonderful people that can be repeat.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Yeah. And I think, you know, I think the thing is, is that even if this person that you believed you could help and that you've taken them through this whole path, sometimes it just doesn't. And I I in 30 almost 34 years, I have only fired one person. I've wanted to fire a whole lot of other ones, but somehow we got a house in time. But I mean, there was only one, and it was because of the tremendous disrespect she showed me. And I it you know, it's it's one of those stories. I mean, I'd had a surgery not three weeks prior, and she was demanding and demanding it, and I finally said, I'm so very sorry, but I am not the right person to work with you.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

So, you know, it and only one time, and believe me, uh when I have teams or when I have my agents, when I was a productivity coach, and they would move on because they didn't need me anymore. I mean, that's like ripped my heart out. Oh, yeah. God forbid I have somebody leave a team. I gotta get good people because I don't want to lose them.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

So and that's kind of how it plays out.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

It's it's interesting to me that I never would have put it that way, knowing your story, but you really did at each step find ways to find your people being on a team, being at a brokerage, owning a brokerage, running a Kellow Williams office, you know, launching a team. Like, that's a total through line of like and and I think it's also I think it's a great testimony to you to be able to look back on all of those years and go, hey, I only ever fired one of them. And what that says to me is we're all gonna fire somebody, even somebody like Janice who can connect with a hundred percent of the population of the world, that not all of us are that gifted, but we're all gonna have that. We're all gonna have those moments where I'm not the best person for you. And I also love how you said that from an ownership perspective of it, of like, I have to own that I now know I'm not the person who can best help them. And I gotta be willing to let that go. And that's that's another way to serve them.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

Right? Oh, we're honest like that.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

And especially when when I'm helping new agents in this business, it is so easy for them to hear things from a million different places and to try to actually figure out what works.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

And so my my goal has always been when I'm coaching is to help them create the the knowledge, the belief in themselves enough so that they can get through anything. Yeah. Because that's you're gonna see anything. Oh yeah, and everything.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

So, you know, let's let's let's dive a little bit deeper into that because somebody listening to this right now is listening to this and they're questioning their choices. They're you know, they're questioning real estate, they're questioning something. What do you say to them?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

I think first of all, you you start with the beginning. What why did what got you into real estate in the first place? What was it that you came to find that you're not finding? Or have you looked in the right places? And so it's it's about self-knowledge, getting them to really buy back into the why and you know, because let's face it, the the world shows realtors as being these multi-bazillion dollar people. And honestly, you know, most of us, the real good ones, have mud under our fingernails because that's it's not it, you know, it isn't, it's about really knowing that that's what you're doing. And I think the biggest piece for me is if you can do this business because you're gonna change lives, you're gonna change lives. And if you don't do it that way, you're not. And then it's not gonna feel right.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And if it does, you better get out because you're in the wrong place.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Yeah, it'll it'll it'll creep up and find you if you're not if you're not having that kind of focus, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Well, life has a way of doing that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it exposes you over time.

SPEAKER_05 14:30

Yeah. Um, I guess I'd love to hear, you know, I'm somebody who's somewhat similar. You know, I sold for a while, I helped run some offices, I've worn some different hats, had some coaching background as well. What were some of the decision points for you to move from one version of real estate into another version of real estate? Like what were um, because sometimes I find that people will they'll get very comfortable in what they're doing, but also maybe not satisfied. Yeah. And they're also a little scared to make a change. And you've made some great, like betting on you changes, um changing countries, changing brokerages, changing roles, changing, right? Like all of that. States. Yeah, changing states. And um what were some of those decision points for you that you went like, yep, I need to, I need to be willing to let go of this so that I can reach for that?

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah, it it often came down to in the beginning, there was the light at the end of the tunnel kind of thing. You know, there's something better out there, there's something, and then you realize that what is better out there is what exactly what you're doing. You just gotta get better at it. And so I think every time that I, you know, I started out as an agent, and then I opened my own company, and then I all those different steps were okay, I'm ready for something more, something bigger. Most of what I've done in my entire life is because I can help the most people. Um, you may not know, I traveled around the world singing for a year with up with people when I was 24 years old, over 40 years ago. And that that experience absolutely created the person I am today. I had a lot of it already because my whole family's just like this. There's a whole herd of girls like this. Um and so I definitely, you know, I I had a lot of that, but that that moment was another moment before the real estate process that set me up. And and and that's kind of how it every single time it came. I went to North Carolina to run um that company back a number of years ago. I went there because it was close to where some family members were, and I went there because I wanted to help bring more people to this company. I wanted to really, really help help people realize that this this company changed my life. You know, I've been with two, I've been with on one other, well, no, two others, I guess, and then my own.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

And never, never will I, I will die a member of this company because it just has changed my life, it's changed my kids' lives. Um, both of my kids got licenses, my daughter is is coaching and teaching all of them. Changing the world's world. Um, you know, it's it's changed my life. And each one of those steps was a reason for that. Now I ended up going to North Carolina where there were 52 agents in the in the in the office in the market center. And when I left three and a half years later, there was 257. From 52, there's 257. So that was changing lives.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

That was changing lives.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Hundreds. Hundreds. I I want to go back to the mic drop moment that I don't know if anybody caught it. But you you mentioned that every step along the way, you realized that the journey was the steps. And now I've heard it more of like, you know, in in order to get, you know, you find success in in appreciating the journey. Right? Like we're on this journey. And if we always think like success is when we get to a place, we're never gonna get there. And you said it a little bit differently, but that to me was just an absolute mic job moment that every step along the way you were just enjoying the journey. And it was at the core changing lives, but you were enjoying the journey.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

And I think something that you in you saying that, one of the things is that because I was enjoying the journey because the the people I was doing it with were enjoying it. And so that's where it's you know, it that's why you have to move up or you have to move to a little different spot. Because, you know, at one point I just wanted to sell houses and I sold a lot of them. And then at another point, I wanted to help other people sell houses. And then at another point, I wanted to grow a group of people so that they could all be like-minded, all the kind of people, and I could help them build boy, you know, and that and that's that's why the stepping it really is a process.

SPEAKER_05 19:36

Yeah. I also like the awareness that you had too of I'm gonna state it differently. I think you probably said it better, so we can go and edit that. But um that sometimes where you are and you're kind of looking at other opportunities that maybe it's out there, but sometimes the realization is no, I just have to get better at this. That thing that I'm stretching for is not gonna be with a zip code change. It's actually gonna be me committing to growing in the thing that I'm doing. So I can create more of an impact, you know, work with a different group of clientele, whatever it might be. And um that can be really hard for people to recognize that that maybe you're exactly where you need to be right now, and again, stating it a different way, maybe the work you're avoiding or the growth you're avoiding is the breakthrough, not pack up and go somewhere else, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Well, I think Jim Rohn said it best, right? In order for things to change, you have to change. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Exactly. Yeah. You know, I had uh one of probably one of the most talented young people that I ever coached in um this business. They there was no way that that person could move fast enough because they were constantly needed to move up and to do something.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

That's too much. And it got to be too much. And I was constantly putting it down a little and saying, come on, now wait, wait. Right. You yes, you're good at this, right? But you're not great at this.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Let's get great at this and add a little, you know, and and it really worked out in the end because somebody was able to slow her down. Yeah. Because sometimes slowing down in this business is more important than speeding up.

SPEAKER_05 21:23

Well, and I think too, it's it's the difference between having like an awareness of something or some knowledge about it, or having a skill set that has that thing become a foundation stone of like, oh no, I have done enough of this to know that I know that I know, and now we can start adding other things on top of it. Um, I know for me, I it it took doing, you know, I don't have nearly the commercial experience that Kevin has or anything like that, but doing a handful of commercial experiences was so important for me before I ever started leading a real estate office. And at the time I never looked at it that way. But man, after running real estate offices for 16 years now, I look back and I go, thank God I did a handful of those. Because I can at least bring some experience, some wounds. You know, it's it's what I'm seeing like in the Patriots coach right now. Like you can see, oh, he's been on the field, he's taken those hits, so he can speak the language with them. And that was something that you just poured into me day one, month one, year one was this isn't somebody who's reading it in a book and trying to pass it on, like, no, no, no. I think you listed a hundred houses, your first year in Maine, right? Like who does that? Yeah, I mean, so it's when you have that foundational experience, I think you're you just become the well that people can draw from, you know, kind of just endlessly.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

So that's that's a hundred percent true. And you and but but it's a process and it takes some time, and that's one of the biggest pitfalls that I've found in some of the agents that I've coached. The really great agents want to move too fast too soon. And so, you know, if you're out there listening to this and you're one of those agents, slow down a little. Yeah, back up, think about it again, do it again, and then go, okay, now I can step up, you know, because if you run up the stairs, you're gonna trip. You know?

SPEAKER_05 23:21

Right. I like that.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Well, and and and you know, it's hard because like to your point, Brad, like I had to dust off and remember when I moved into the role where there was this uh, you know, the coaching and the helping new agents come on board, I had to dust off my memory banks of my first listing appointment. Oh, yeah. Right? Like I had to remember how nervous I was for so long to put myself into a perspective where I could understand where they were coming from. And yeah, like that's like it's a challenge to remember that and to coach to like a lot of young people now on social media makes it a lot worse. Oh yeah, because it, you know, to your point, like everybody's seeing all of these successes and wins, which are likely not all real. Yeah. And so you get this comparison syndrome type of thing. And the reality is, is like, you know, a lot of people in this business they don't realize exactly how much time they have. I mean, like, 10 years is an enormous amount of time. And yet you've been for 35 years, I've been for 30 years, you've been for 25 years. Like, you know, and the reality is, is like you you're building a career.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Yeah. And that's absolutely true. And I think the the social media thing does, there's no question that it makes things look a lot prettier and fluffier and all that than than really this business is. But if you go into it believing that you're going into it to help people, it's it's not hard. It's not hard at all. It's it's consistent, it's persistent, you know, it's it's not easy, but it's not hard.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Well, it and it's worth it. And you know, and and now we've got a blueprint for rookie agents to make a hundred thousand dollars their first year, right? Like it's a blueprint. We don't like it it's duplicatable, it's it's you know, we don't have to second guess. You just follow the blueprint, and a rookie agent can make a hundred thousand dollars the first year. And you know, and and we're coming to you from Maine, but in Maine, that's a really good living.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

Yeah, yeah, that's that's uh 150% of the median household income or something like that. So yeah, and what's cool is we've seen people in our own our own brokerage do that at 19 years old.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:40

You know, you can do it at 19 and you can do it at 69, like you know, and everything in between. So um yeah, that I think that's the other thing too, I guess I would say. I mean, you were coming back to Maine, you know, having been in another country for years, um the opportunity that real estate presents for people and how unique that is. I'd love to hear how that's had impacted your life, just the opportunity of real estate in general.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

And you know it's funny because I'm I'm not one of those that was smart enough to jump right in and buy stuff and buy buildings and all those things because I had grown up on a dairy farm, I'd worked 364 days a year. I'd had March 19th off, it's my birthday, and we worked every other day for years I did that. And so when I got into to doing the real estate piece, it definitely there were so many little lessons that you had to learn to be able to really be able to make those steps and to really to to kind of come up on, you know, to get to that next level. Um and I I don't think I'm answering your question very well. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 26:58

Well, no, I think I think No, no, no, and I'm glad you shared that because to me I think it is one of the gifts and the opportunities of real estate that if you bring, whether it be a farmer's work ethic or a military background, like whatever that hard work ethic that you can bring to this business, it allows you to magnify the results of it. That dairy farming really doesn't let you do. Like you can survive, but that's about all that's ever gonna happen. But with real estate, you can kind of break through to other other levels, other opportunities. And so I think that was kind of the heart of the question is how has real estate as an opportunity been a life changer thing?

SPEAKER_02 27:40

I can't uh that's like blows my mind every single day because I went through a lot in my life and I lost a lot of money twice for a variety of reasons that we won't talk about, it doesn't matter. But you know, I've been through a lot, and I never ever dreamt that at 65 years old I would buy a 39-foot RV and get in it and go across the country for the rest of my life until we can't drive it anymore. And that's what real estate did for me.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

My parents both died at 62 and 64 years old, and I said, I am not going out without doing this. And so did I did I have a lot of help with the finances? No, my dad died when I was a little young, you know. I mean, so when you I didn't have a good basis of it, and then somewhere along the line talking to people like you guys that have done well with it a little bit at a time, and then finally getting to a place where I kind of m got to the top step where it's where I wanted to be, and and all of a sudden I was able to, with the help of the team and doing the right thing, all of a sudden now I I can live happily for the rest of my life. And I think that's amazing. That's amazing. I never dreamt that.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

Right. I think that's that's the uh the gift of um maturity is the ability to realize that life is a journey. Right? Like it I certainly in my 30s I didn't say oh life is a journey. And I was but as you get older, you get to look back and be like, yeah, okay, you realize kind of life is a journey, and and you know, having lost a lot of money myself and then go through like but the consistent for me, and it sounds like the consistent for you was the opportunity that real estate was there. And and you know, we have the the the the six personal perspectives at KW, and one of them is always be learning based. And I think that aspect of the journey and the knowledge and the education, you're always picking up nuggets from somebody and somebody else's journey and somebody else's mistakes, and I think that creates the opportunity of of of learning. And and I think one of the opportunities that I want to hear from you, besides just the monetary, it sounds to me like you've built uh the opportunity in real estate also built your family. Oh, yeah. And I mean beyond your two kids. Well right, like I mean the family that Janice has when she walks in and is hugging everybody.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Well, you know, it's funny because there's there's two parts to that. You're very much right that I do have a tendency to build families. And I went down two weeks, a month ago, maybe now, time flies, to Hendersonville, North Carolina. And I about four days before I got there, I called, I have a whole list of my people, and I said, we're gonna be at the the Irish pub at from four to seven. I'm here, come see me.

SPEAKER_05 30:46

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

34 people showed up.

SPEAKER_05 30:48

Yeah, so that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

And that was wonderful. And it wasn't about me. It's about the fact that I made a difference to them. Yeah. And they showed up because of it.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

You know, and and that's you're doing that every single day in this business. You're touching someone that's never gonna forget you.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

Yeah. You know, and it's the nature of the thing, you know what I mean? When you talk about real estate as a thing, no one's doing that lightly. Like, even if it's their tenth house purchase, it's a big deal. Like, there's I've never met anybody that a real estate transaction wasn't a significant thing. And because there's so much riding on it, there's so much emotion riding on it. And so when it goes well, you've created this high beyond a high kind of a thing. And when people struggle, like, yeah, they're gonna remember that too. So if you're the solution, if you keep showing up as the person who's solving the problem, you know, giving them the opportunity to break through or whatever it is, like it's real estate just has that at its heart. It's just such a bigger thing than selling a widget or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

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SPEAKER_04 32:20

All right, so it's it's kind of clear we're all three very pro real estate. Right? So, you know, but but again, I want to come back to the idea of of somebody listening to this right now. Um let's go into some of the coaching moments, if we can. Um, what are some of the biggest takeaways that you've learned in the brokerage business as well as in your coaching and teaching agents that you would instill upon somebody listening to this?

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Um there's so many. Um there's so so many that books that I've read that have changed how I see things. Um so there's it's it's like almost overwhelming to think about all the different things that have changed and and you know made me be the person that I became in this business. And so, you know, it's hard for me to pinpoint it because it's it's it's all part of what I'm doing every day, all the time. So I got I got to a point where I realized that I was going to be like this, and I am going to try to surround myself with people who look and act and want to be like this, and welcome those who want to learn how to. Because as long as you are in this real estate business with the attitude of helping and not about the money and not about none of it, not about the foo-foo car. You know, I drove a dirty Subaru my whole life, you know, it means like so it I I feel like I feel like so many of those things changed me. You know, there were just so many different times. I I spent uh when I was in North Carolina, I used to go to John Maxwell things twice a year. You listen to John Maxwell, whether you are religious, you're not religious, you're what doesn't matter, man, that man has some good things to say. You know? And and I think Andy Andrews, oh, my favorite book person in the world. I love that guy. And I saw him on stage with Keller Williams the first or second year that I was at this company. And he's now a world name. And it's because I stopped to to pay attention and to to really take it in. And I think that's what a lot of people don't do enough of.

SPEAKER_05 34:58

Yeah. Well, I think that goes back to what you were saying, the learning-based, you know, just an embodiment of that. I if I could throw it out there, one of the things that I I've always watched from afar that Janice has done is you inspire people by modeling the very things that they should be doing. You know, so yes, that's the learning-based piece, but if I had to name the top five tech adopters in real estate that I'm really close with, you'd be on that list. You know, and Isaiah, who's you know running our sound and our cameras right now, he'd also be on that list.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

He's a couple years younger than you. He's just a couple years younger than you.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So but that's a mindset. You know, that's a mindset, but it's more than a mindset, it's a modeling of the mindset, right? It's not just, hey, it's up here, now you go do it. It's like, no, no, no, no. Like, yeah, sit next to Janice, she's calling her database. Sit next to Janice, she's using tech tools to develop her business. Sit next to Janice, she's putting the client first.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

And if you're if you're out there now and you're starting a team or you're running a team or you're running a small company, whatever that is, you you have got to always make everyone that's around you believe that you care just as much as they care about what they're doing.

SPEAKER_03 36:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

And and I think that's why I'm like, you know, the little Pied Piper thing, and I have a lot of followers, is because I took time to hear who they were. I I listened to them. I am flying out to my I have to leave my house at 1 a.m. tomorrow, um, going to Boston to get on a plane, because one my HBFF, my Hendersonville best friend forever, um, has who that's how she declared I am, and uh she is turning 80. So I am gonna go down, I'm gonna take an Uber to her house. She doesn't know I'm coming. I'm gonna knock on the door. I'm hopefully she doesn't like drop on me. That's right. Um and then her whole family and everything is doing a big thing for her. And they had no idea that she has no idea that I'm gonna show up.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

And those are so we won't release this until we'll hold the recording for a couple extra days. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Um yeah, you'll need to tomorrow morning as long as you can put it out tomorrow morning in the because I'll be there by nine. Um but you know, you if you're an owner of something and you're running the show, don't be running your show. Run our show. You know, everything everything's better with more people around you or but or people that believe in you around you. And and if you're if you're running a team and you're you're not looking out for their best interests ahead of yours, you're probably not gonna make it. Well, and I'm sorry to tell you.

SPEAKER_04 37:51

I th I think that's so true in the uh the the where we are right now in society, right? Post-COVID, right? Like post-COVID, oh my god, that was still five or six years ago, but we're still clinging to that. It's still there, right? Like we're still clinging to the the the distance, we're still clinging to the Zooms and the Google Meetings, which I am not debating with that has a value. Yeah. And and and it's a wonderful product that we all implement, but you miss the connection.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

And and I think what you just said is like there's so much uh energy and and um you know takeaway from being around like-minded people that that we all can come back to. Yeah, right? Come back into the office, come back into like and if you're struggling, uh I've coached this, I coached this uh uh two days ago. Like, if you're struggling, okay, maybe you have to get out of your house to do your lead generation. Yeah, maybe your house is not the appropriate place to lead generate.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

Yeah, you know, put down the phone, open up the door, walk outside, spend time with other people, like yeah, yeah. Look them in the eye. Yeah, it's amazing how quick that can shift things, you know. Um, but I also what I'm also hearing you say is if you choose to move into a place where you're leading, whether it's one person on your team or you're a mentor in an office or you're running a business, like you have to put the other people first.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

And I think there's a lot of people who view leadership nowadays as like, oh, I want to do that because now it's gonna be all about me and I get to tell everybody what to do, and it's like, yeah. You won't blaster my bookbacks. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. But if you take the time to really know people, you take the time to care about them, um, and then how can we partner together? How can we work together? How can we both kind of by getting what we want, kind of get there maybe a little bit quicker through the partnership, you know?

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Yeah, because I'm not saying they should make all the money and you shouldn't make any. I'm not saying they I'm saying when when you'd make a decision to be a an entity over people, it's gotta be about the people.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

You know, because I I see it. I seen, you know, the people on teams down in Hendersonville even where they they couldn't make it because they couldn't give away enough, they couldn't let people do the their jobs. They had to be like on them, number one. And and that all started with trust.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

If you've got people on your team you can't trust, don't keep them.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Because it's gonna ruin you and them. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 40:38

Yeah, it's funny you say that because for me when I got into business with uh Daniel, who works with me in one of our companies, that I remember giving him my license and my debit card to that business and having him take copies of it and then immediately go like this is all day one, like access to the banking, access to this, access to that. Because for me, it's a if I'm not willing to do that, that exposes me to me saying I there isn't full trust there. And if there isn't full trust, like what am I doing? Why are we even in business together? And it also, in retrospect, I never thought this at the time, but was also like, oh well, this is also how I can model the trust. Like, here's everything. Here's everything, you know, and then that way when you start getting into a conversation, they feel more comfortable to really share everything. And everything's not just work, everything's all of life, right? I mean, how many times have you been coaching somebody in a real estate kind of under the real estate umbrella, and the whole conversation had nothing to do with real estate?

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Oh, yeah. I mean, is that what percentage of the conversations do you think fall into the I mean I when when as I as a coach, I bet it wasn't more than 60% real estate, 40% helping them be the person they need to be, or figure out what person they are that fits what they're you know, I we have a perfect example. Um, when I was very first the PC coach here, there's a young lady that came into my coaching program, and I would get everybody to pick up a phone and just call one person, you know, and then we'd call and I'd call somebody and we'd put Bruce Kaplan in the middle and make him call because he could talk to he could talk a fish out of its gills, I swear. And so, um, and so this one person could never pick up that phone. Never, never, she just wouldn't. I think she's no matter what I did, no matter how hard I worked, we are polar opposites at that point in our life. And but I just kept with her and I kept with her. Well, about I don't know, three years, four years later, when I opened another, you know, I went out of that and opened up um a team. That person was the is to this day the single greatest transaction broker, administrator person that I ever saw. But she was on the wrong seat on the bus.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

And you gotta pay attention to that. That's something that and I knew it, but I didn't know what to do with it until all of a sudden we came along, and Heather is the single greatest thing probably that ever happened to Lifestyle Properties. I mean, we couldn't, it would be hard to live without her. She's so good. And she was awful on the phone. She'd call her mother every time, no matter what's up. So, yeah. So know the people, because if you know the people, you know they're in the right seat on the bus. Right.

SPEAKER_05 43:40

But that I mean, that's such a huge part of your story. I mean, you know, from being a productivity coach, being owner of a team, being lead listing specialist on a team, running brokerage, owning a brokerage, like all of those hats, I think to me it's a great captivating story of there's so many ways. That somebody can thrive in this industry. They don't have to necessarily be a Bruce or a Janice who has the ability to connect with any human that walks through a door. There are so many other facets and there's other ways to go about it. And what I loved what you just said was like, you know, not giving up and continuing to work to find, well, what's the version for you? Like what's your version of this? How do we help you succeed with the skill sets that you have? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 44:28

And you know, for the people out there that are the more introverted and do have a little, you know, obviously I can talk to walls, but you know, there if if you're if you are that person, I want you to know right now that the single best realtor I had in North Carolina for multiple years running, could barely hold a cause a conversation with us at work. She was so shy and she was she is to the she's still selling and amazing. So it isn't it just because you're shy, just because you don't, doesn't mean you can't find your way.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

I'm sure she puts a presentation together a whole lot different than I do because I go like this and she is very meticulous. You know, and so that's a big piece for anybody watching this is don't think you can't do it because you're not like that person you see on TV, or you're not like that person on social media, or you're not like that really great person in the office that you just joined.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

Because they were all nothing at one point too.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

Well, and I think you know, well, you said it earlier. I mean, you can build your your business based upon your the right people, yeah. And and clients included, and you know, I mean, uh I like to joke around. Um, you know, like we all have dealt with an engineer. We all have dealt with an engineer, right? Like no offense to engineers, but we know like the engineer is asking 25 questions and they're gonna deep dive into everything. And and like it takes a special person to deal to do with that, yeah. Right? It takes a special person to deal with a high D that wants to, you know, your listing presentation done in two minutes. Yeah, yeah. And you can like you can find that no matter what your personality is. We talk a lot about the disk assessment.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

No matter what your personality is, you can find your people.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:19

I promise you can find your people.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

And when you get good enough at people, you can make yourself fit those people much more often. I I had a situation, if you don't mind, I had a situation in Raymond, Maine. This guy called me and said, I um want to sell my house, I uh but I'm gonna interview four different four people. I said, No problem. When would you like me? I went over. I was the third one in, I think, out of the four. And he said to me point blank, I'm not listening this house tonight. I'm not listening it tonight. I'm I'm gonna process everybody it up. So because of Keller Williams and teaching us things like the disc assessment and all the different, you know, personality type things, I knew from the very beginning this guy was like a uh an accountant, a lawyer. He was checking his boxes, he did a market analysis off of um like Zillow to try to figure out and had done all the adjustments.

SPEAKER_03 47:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

He had made crazy adjustments for like rocks in the front yard and all these crazy things. And I was big enough and strong enough to be straightforward with him and say, I understand why you're looking at all these things. I understand. Let me tell you why this CMA that you have isn't actually uh valid because of da-da-da. And so we had this conversation, and he said, Okay, when we were when I was leaving, I was there quite a while, I was getting ready to leave. He I said, you know, what so I'll hear in a couple days. If you have any more questions, let me know. Um I no no sooner got out of the car, got in the car, turned around, and he says, Hey, can you come back? And I said, Sure. I listed the house that night.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Because I was honest with him, because I talked his language.

SPEAKER_05 48:10

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Um I let him be the boss, I let him tell me, and then I asked permission to correct him. I gained so much respect from that guy that day. I mean, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

So And very different personality type than your natural gear. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

I had to put the old, I had to put the protractor in my head. You know, yeah, because very, very different. Yeah. And and that's something, that's a skill that every realtor should should have. They should all be able to learn who, what type of people people are, because how are you going to serve them best if you don't even have a clue?

SPEAKER_05 48:48

Well, that's exactly it. If you're really putting them first, then you have to understand how are they going to hear? How do they prefer to communicate, and how can I chameleon long enough for them to understand what it is that I'm trying to convey. It's not a forever thing. You didn't have to stay in that gear for the entirety of the transaction, but you had to visit it throughout the transaction. At key decision points, I'm sure, you had to help him see the detail and the numbers throughout the transaction.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

So you have to go visit it from the nickels and dimes.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

He wasn't a rounded up kind of guy.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

That's right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

And and because we at this, you know, hip since I've been at Kelly we've learned so much about what a D is and an I is, and you know, um it helped me with my kids. I mean, for anybody who doesn't know about the disc, if you're a C, C's are calculated. This guy of mine, he was a C.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

And very calculated, organized, all this kind of stuff. My son is a 98, 98. He has zero anything else. He is just, everything is always gonna be right. Well, if if something has to go one, two, three, four and you're helping somebody sell a house, don't go two, three, four, one.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Learn it. Learn how to be with the people. Get in their minds enough to be able to really give them good guidance and not say things that'll embarrass them or, you know, it's it's funny, it's something we did with my daughter after she turned 18.

SPEAKER_05 50:21

It's like, okay, we're probably getting things are starting to get formed enough that, you know, something like a disc assessment is probably worth taking a look at. Not that it won't morph a little, change a little. And uh myself, my wife, and her all took it again together. Um and of course, they're like peas in a pod, and I'm the weirdo in the group, but um but it was great. It was, you know, it's all of those things lead to a self-awareness. Yeah um and again, that that that speaks to kind of the gifts that have nothing to do with real estate. Maybe they have more to do with the company that we're attached to, but um I mean imagine just you know 20 years at a company where you're spending all of this time learning more and more and more about you, right? Like I retook the disc in the last six in the last six weeks.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

Oh, you guys think.

SPEAKER_05 51:12

Yeah, because I was with a different team that I'm involved in. It's like, all right, let's all take the disc again. Let's see how we're complementary with each other. And every time I open one of those things, I learn a different nugget, a different thing. It hits me a different way, and I go, Oh, right, I gotta keep that in mind now.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

Well, you know, it was a big deal when I did my son's. My daughter, she's her own anomaly, so but when I had my son take it and it came back in 98C, it changed my whole world on how I have to adapt to him. Right. I, you know, I realized that if you say you're gonna leave the house at 1201, you're going at 1201 or at 12. You're not going at 12.02.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

I mean, it's so uh someone in that really high C is just can't. He has spreadsheets from when he was in the fourth, the second grade of every goal he ever scored in hockey. I swear to gosh, I don't know how he started it way back then, but he was young and he had it on paper, and now he copied it over to graph paper, and yeah, he's 35 years old. He still has all this stuff. So, but that but the funny part about that is you're gonna get a husband and a wife. The the husband is me, though, you know, the wife is me, and the husband is my son.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 52:31

And they get along fine, but you as an as the the leader of the pack, you gotta juggle that baby. Correct. And you're gonna learn how to juggle it. And so if you're gonna do that, you've got to be around people who know how to teach you that stuff.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

Well, I I talk all the time that real estate is, you know, when we're we're doing anything, it's just a real it's just a conversation. Yeah. Right? Like you, you know, we put the pressure on our, you know, agents put pressure on themselves to be phenomenal at da da da da da da. And really at the end of the day, it's just a conversation.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

They just want you to have a lot of people. Right?

SPEAKER_04 53:02

Like you go back, you said Heather, Heather would always call her mom. Like it was because it was an easy to have a conversation with mom. Right. And and so I just coached to the idea of just how do we get comfortable with just having a conversation but it's with a client? How do we get comfortable in just having a conversation but it's with a prospect? Yeah, right? And and and learning how people are, human nature, like that self-discovery of yourself, Brad, to your point, and understanding that there are different personality types with the people we're having conversations with, make having the conversations easier. Yeah, well I you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

That's the thing, the conversation, you you know, when if you know them, then you can create the conversation to one that you know they'll enjoy. Yeah, you're not telling them anything different than you're telling this person, but this person you're saying, all right, shut the door and we're gonna put turn the lights off. Right. And the other one is that well, when we go out, if you're ready, we'll go ahead and shut that off. But I'll you know what you do, it's a whole different conversation to the exact same group. And so you have to be able to know that. You know, it's it's especially when opposites attract.

SPEAKER_05 54:07

Yeah, so you're almost always dealing with two pretty different personality types. Um, and that doesn't even begin to enter into the like, well, what's the personality type of the co-broke? Yeah, what's the personality type of the lender? Like we're making the whole thing happen, and we're probably involved with 15 or 20 different people just to get from take a listing to a closing day. You know, so yeah, yeah, yeah. I yeah, I love it. I love it. What did what did we not ask that we should have asked, I guess would be the question I'd want to wrap up on.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Um that's a good question. Um didn't you ask? Uh I mean, I think you covered a lot of great, you know, great stuff. And I but I think the the one question that it it's not you didn't really miss asking it, but one thing I'd like to kind of add in is that when you've especially if you're getting into this business in the 30s or the 40s, you know, a little later, not not right out of high school kind of thing, because then you still got a lot to learn then. But you know, you've got to allow all of those things that you've learned through all of the parts of your life because they all have to come with you. Just because I couldn't ever have made it as successful as I've been in this business if I didn't find a way for this person to always be the same person you saw. Yeah, that I that there was no choice I was gonna do anything differently.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:41

Because it's really hard. You have they have to know who you are. And if you can show them who you are, even if it's not quite matching what they are, if they know who that you are, the the whole thing just flows better. Everything about it does. And that's when you're coaching, that's that's in lots of different places in real estate.

SPEAKER_05 56:03

I mean it's it's about being authentic, is what I'm hearing. Like you've got to, yes, find ways to communicate with them so that they're more likely to hear. That's that whole disc conversation, but that's not you changing who you are at your core. That's you're still there, you're still I yeah, I I I it must have been one of the people who helped me with that because I think initially I got into real estate and thought, oh well, I've got to be a certain way, I've got to be, you know, and and then I was like, no, yeah, I'm gonna be me. And as long as I'm putting them first, you're gonna get to trust so quickly. Yeah you know, or they're gonna realize, like, hey, that's not the person for us, and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:42

Like that's okay too. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Well, and I think that's you know, that's one of the things that bothers me. If if there's something that bothers me about real estate, it's all the people who aren't being honest. And they're and I and I don't mean, you know, I mean they're putting, you know, using AI to make their face look better. And that this do you think people really care? Okay, I got my hair cut. Oh well. Yeah, you know, it's not, and and I think so often, especially, and I'm gonna say this more on the younger side, they have this idea that we have to always wear white and we have this, then whatever the thing is.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

Whatever the thing is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

And and they become a fake, yeah, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

And and that nobody wants that for the city.

SPEAKER_04 57:29

Well, and I just want to point out that you said you can list a hundred homes a year in a dirty Subaru. Right. Right? Like it doesn't have to be an eighty or ninety thousand dollar BMW or Mercedes, right?

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Like Right. Right. Oh yeah, and that and that's the kind of stuff that's bothered me is that people can't just feel like they can do this because it's they're doing a good thing for people. You know, I it they it bothers me that they're making it so glitzy, and you know what, I got my hiking boots on, my L-O-B's baby. You know, I mean and and nobody cared.

SPEAKER_04 58:03

Well, you stick around long enough, the tide will reveal who's swimming naked. That's true. That's true, that's true. Janice, uh, thank you so much for for being here today and and taking your time out of your day. And I can't imagine getting up at 1 a.m. and I'm glad that I don't have to do that, but I'm sure you're gonna have a wonderful time tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 58:21

Well, I am and there she's gonna be so shocked. I'm telling you, it's worth it. That's that's like uh I I was in Florida two weeks ago, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 58:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

Only because my older sister was cares for her um her husband, and she's lonely as heck down there because she's really doing and they're wonderful and everything fine, but oh my gosh, she just thought it was the greatest thing that her little sister came down to see her. That's what I do, that's why I do things. So, and I think if we all paid a little more attention to that kind of stuff and didn't worry about whether or not we had, you know, silver hearings earrings or whatever, it's like it nobody cares. Yeah. So thank you.

SPEAKER_04 59:03

All right. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

My pleasure. Thank you.