Throttlecast: Episode 13

In this episode of Throttlecast, Parker Smith shares how he built his real estate career from scratch, turning early uncertainty into a fast-growing business driven by passion, creativity, and relentless energy.

He talks about starting out with no clear direction—experimenting with content, learning how to generate leads, and eventually finding his lane in residential real estate. Parker emphasizes the importance of doing one thing well, building a personal brand, and letting authenticity stand out in a crowded market. 

A major differentiator in his approach is thinking outside the box—like using high-performance boats to give clients “speed tours” of Lake Lanier, turning unique experiences into business opportunities. 

Beyond business, Parker dives into his passion for cars, speed, and living life at full throttle, tying it all back to his mindset: success isn’t about playing it safe, but about chasing a life that’s exciting, challenging, and constantly evolving. 

At its core, the episode is about building a brand through authenticity, taking unconventional paths to stand out, and creating a life—and business—that reflects what you’re truly passionate about.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Well, Dave, we're back again. What's this episode 13 now? Yeah. And then uh we've got a great guest today who's actually a ride lounge member, Parker Smith.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Thank you for having me, guys. What's up, brother? How you doing? I cannot complain. It's Friday, the sun's shining, and uh I'm here with you guys.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Awesome, man. Glad to have you. Yeah. And uh, I mean, we go back a little bit, probably six, seven years, something like that. I think we met through either my buddy Matt Kossoff or through Merit Partners back in the year.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

2018 or 2019, something with Merit Partners or Kossoff or both at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

And then uh where were you driving at that time? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Uh gosh, before uh probably Mazda 6. Okay. Was it a Mazda 6? I thought it was like the Honda Cord or something. It was okay, so it was the Honda Cord, silver. Obviously, things have changed. We have this behind you, dude. I don't know, man. You tell me. Yeah. The bank owns it. I'm just kidding. It's just a different paint job, still a Honda. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yes. Yeah. Yes. Family car, right? Like great gas mileage.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Definitely family cars. Don't even pay attention to the mileage.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Don't even know what it is. And you were uh at that time, you were just getting started in real estate, I want to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I had my license in 2017. So yeah, if we met in 18, you can say just getting started. Definitely getting started out on my own when I met you.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

What did things look like for you during that time with business?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Well, I was very clueless on how to get business. It was the go call, you know, expired, go maybe door knock. I never door knocked, I knew that was dumb. Um, it was definitely very mindless activities of where do I set myself? Um, didn't know what a niche was, didn't know how to really get any business besides back in the day. I'll just record myself what I was doing on a day uh on a day-to-day. So that was like Snapchat back when that was popular, or maybe some stories back when that was new. So I just knew how to record myself.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

And for those that don't know, you're and for those that don't know, you're you're heavy into real estate, right? What's your specialty?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Uh so buying and selling residential is my specialty. I'm not gonna say I know how to do commercial. I feel like if you do both, you suck at both. So I stay on my land and do one. I help you buy, sell, or invest. Uh, and then land is uh right there by second.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

So and then cars are obviously a passion. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yeah, the cars, um, you know, at the end of the day, I love to go fast. Um, we'll get into that later. But I just always fell in love with being able to do one thing well, which is besides real estate, driving, uh, hence the name Parker, but that's talking about parking cars. But um, no, I I love to go fast. I love to be able to push the 99, you know, nine tenths and and find the limit of the car. And uh, you know, we'll get into it later of how I found that passion.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Cool. And for people that are just now meeting you through this show, you know, how do you describe yourself? Not the realtor version, but just Parker Smith in general.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Passionate.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Uh, you might hear that in my tonality, you might hear that in my excitement. Some people tell me to dial it down. I'm just me.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

I love it. Yeah. Authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I will tell you how it is. I'm I'm a little too authentic sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

And you grew up in the North Atlanta area, so like Gwinnett County, Duluth, that sort of thing. I mean, how did that upbringing shape the way that you see things and eventually the work you do today?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, so uh, you know, quick answer I grew up in a decently developed area, Duluth, um, sugarloaf uh parkway area. So got to see a lot pop up around me. Um at the end of the day, though, it was close to the lake and it was close to the city. So I got the best of everything. I wasn't stuck in one area. So that has actually always led me to say I've always had a house in Gwinnett County because it has everything. You're not out in the boonies, you're not in the city getting shot, you know. There's just some truth to this. So yeah, I I love where I live. So now I live in Beefford, so just north of where I used to live.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

So, what got you into the real estate part?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

So, yeah, I mean, it was my brother Mitchell. Um, he was working at Markspain Real Estate. I was washing trucks at the time when I had my own little detail business, and I was like, to hell with this. I'm not washing trucks anymore with the water freezing on the truck at four in the morning anymore. Oh, yeah. Uh, rest in peace, Jimmy Willard, he gave me uh my first detailing big gig. Um, and I just couldn't keep the people and they wanted more and they never would show up. And my brother's like, So what are you gonna do now that you sold the business? I was like, I have no idea. I was 23. He's like, You should come do real estate. I was like, What's real estate? And he said, Go for an interview at Mark Spain. And from there, I walked out of the interview and I was like, There is no limit to whatever I could do, whatever money I could make. And I'm very income motivated uh because that buys the cars, the planes, and the boats. So um I walked out of there going, I've got to figure this out. So I didn't even have my real estate license before that interview. I had to go get my license after the interview at Mark Spain.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

That's what you wanted though.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

The second I walked out, Cindy Krampitz like totally couldn't corrupted me, and I was just like, Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah, yeah, talking with Mark Spain. That guy's that guy's a beast. Yeah, he's aggressive and goes and has no limit. He's everywhere you look in it.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

His marketing is his marketing is top tier, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Yeah, he's got the funding, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yeah, that's a place that's a good place to start and learn and look at it. So you started with Mark Spain, or did you then Yep, no, I started there.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I made uh $56,000 in 18 months when I did over 56 deals. I looked at my actual income I should have made. I should have made 350,000. I made 56, and I said goodbye. So, and uh, I'm not gonna say who, but my my boss at the time was like, Are you sure? I was like, Yes, I'm out of here. I know exactly what I'm doing, and I'm gonna go figure it out. Because the only way you figure it out is you lead the nest. I didn't have wings, I just knew what I was doing. So yeah, I left after 18 months. I was like, to hell with this, we're going.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah. I love it. So 18 months, and you're like, I'm I'm gonna do it. I'm taking the risk. Yeah, make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, Mark Spain's the best place to go get the at bats again. 56 deals in a single year. Like, where else can you do that?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

This is still top. I mean, that's a lot, that's a lot. That is like actually doing 50, actually doing 56 deals, not just talking about it.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

What's the statistic most real owners do between like one and two transactions a year?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, and they never get they never get that many at bats. So yeah, it's like one to two years. 90% of them fail in the first year, and if you're lucky to stay in the second, I would say another 80, 50 to 80. Gosh, that's a range, but they'll drop out for the second year because they just can't get the money coming in, and everybody's got bills to pay.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

That almost reminds me of like my first year in the car business working at Toyota, man. I made 45 grand. I thought I had all the money, dude. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

No, no, I thought places, but the Toyota one, you keep going back to the Toyota one.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

I think you might it's it's the very beginning, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Everything comes full circle.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, yeah. I thought I was the man too at 56, and I was like, I could have made 350, and I did the work of 350, but I made I was like, Oh, I'm out.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, yeah, I'm out. How many, how many uh transactions are you looking at doing? Like, what's your budget for 2026 on just number of transactions? Like how many deals do you think you can do in a year?

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So 2025, I did 17. I made more than I've ever made. So the goal, in my opinion, is to do less and make more. Yeah, so higher transact higher, you know, higher volume. Um, so last year we did 15 million, 17 deals. Uh, when I thought I was cooking, I was uh 2020, I did 36 deals and did like 7 million. So I double I doubled the income but cut half of the half of the problems out, if you will. Um so for 2026, it is gonna be something where I'm trying to make over, or not make over, but do over 20 million a year. Uh I'd really have to hit 30 million in volume a year, which is selling 30 million dollars worth of houses. I wish I was making 30 million dollars. That would be fantastic too. That would be amazing. Yeah, so um there's a lot in the pipeline, and there's a huge shift in my business coming because I as you if anybody hangs around me for the past six months, it's like I need to make more money. Yeah, I just have big aspirations and it's not for free.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

And you you just got like an award or something, weren't you like the top one or two producer in your group?

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, so at my office, Keller Williams First Atlanta, I was the top earner. I did make the most for gross income. Um, I was second in volume by like 400,000. So kudos to kudos to our first place. Uh I almost got you if that one deal went through, or those 10 deals that went through, whatever. Everybody, you know. No, yeah, I I got I got first uh in GCI, gross income. So that felt good, but that was a second year in the row. Last year I did both first in volume and first in GCI. Congrats, brother.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Snuck in there right. So you snuck in there.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

He snuck in there right before. Yeah, you're like I guess I slept one day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

And so uh I guess the majority of your properties now are in Lake Lanier area. That's what you specialize in?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Nah, man, I don't discriminate. Okay. All right. No, we can go, we go to Villarrecca, we go up to uh Cartersville, we'll go out to Lake Lanier. Uh, as I said, you know, some shifts are happening where I'm trying to really focus in on serving a certain clientele. Again, I still don't discriminate, but it's like, hey, how can we go get those, you know, two million dollar buyers that are whether they're at the lake or you know, they're in midtown, you know, where are the two million dollar selling and buyers, but sellers and buyers happening? It's not, you know, Johns Creek. I mean, maybe St. You know, you know, St. Marlowe or you know, Edinburgh, but it's it's very rare. Those neighborhoods are small. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

And I think the going trend over the last few years is people are migrating more north, what it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

COVID caused a lot of migration up north, yes. Yep. But they're coming back down south. North for us. Yeah. Yeah, north for you. You're already too north. Yeah. You're already too north for you, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

And then um, so when you are transacting or you've you've got buyers that are in that Lake Lanier area, you've got a a little special tool in your arsenal. Uh that's the same color as this. Let's talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, yeah. So we picked up a uh technically it's a power boat or a go fast boat as most would call it, but it's a 32-foot Doug right power boat. It's actually an X-race boat from 2005. Um, they made it into a pleasure boat. The only uh difference between what it was and what it is now is they chopped the top off. It was a full encapsulated with a hatch, and now I can peep my head out and look around, and everybody can stand up in the boat. But yeah, it's a full-blown race boat, just like the race car behind us. Oh race car.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Can you stand up at 100 miles an hour in a boat?

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Uh I would not. There, there's no reason to in my boat. You might take a seagull to the face. Yeah. Don't ask me that question. There, they're we we you know, we took a seagull out the other day, it is everywhere. Blood everywhere. It's crazy. Oh yeah. So I think casualties along the way, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

So, what kind of engine does that boat have in it?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

So they're outboards. Uh, they're the most reliable. Uh anybody that's inboards, you're seeing their butt more than their face. They're upside down in their place trying to figure it out. Uh so they're 450 power, uh, four two four hundred and fifty power. Oh my gosh. Two 450 horsepower supercharged outboards. So they're Mercury 450R racing.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So they're they're stupid fast. But then it's like, what props do you have on there? And I'm still learning, you know, I've only had it since last August. It's like you gotta have two different sets of props. One's like gear one, one's gear seven. It's you know, it's like a bicycle, like you can go really fast in gear seven or even obviously a car. So we got the seven gears on now, as I call them, and it just goes 132 miles an hour after.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Is that the top speed?

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I've only hit 128. Suppose they go 138. I'm gonna go to Lotto and and do the shootout, and we'll find out the shootout. That's super fast. Well, I'm trying to run my boat in what's called a shootout, which is pretty much an on-the-water drag race at this big uh lake called Lake of the Ozarks up in Missouri. Yeah, it's really really world famous for the shootout. So guys will go and try to hit over 200. Some guys might catch flight and hit a helicopter, uh, which almost did happen. There's a crazy story, but beside the point, I'm trying to get trained up for that. So we might go out this year, see how fast it actually can go. Lake Lanier is a little too small, and you gotta be really highly trained for this. So we mean we need more ballast. The boat only weighs 1500 pounds.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Holy cow. It's only 1,500 pounds without the motors. Oh, so it's like all carbon?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Is it is a carbon layup? Yeah. Yep. Wow. I need sandbags in the front to keep the nose down, or Fiona in the front, just you know, sit on the front. Sit all the way out on the front. Go out, go out there and hold on. Watch the goals. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 11:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

So you're uh so you're running clients on these boats, right? You're doing lake tours?

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah, so we're I call them speed tours. Um, we just started it. As again, I got this boat in August and just did three poker runs, and by the time I got it, the season was over on Lake Lanier. So now that the season's starting to come back around, we're gonna start trying to take some buyer clients out that have no idea what Lake Lanier is, or they might, but they don't know where they want to live. And what better way to tour the lake than on a power boat that can get you from the dam to Gainesville in 10 minutes? Yeah. So we're gonna take you in the coves, take you up to six mile, four mile, go up to the restaurants and just show you hey, this is what this area looks like. This is the type of traffic of waves you're gonna be having, and this is uh, you know, this is what it feels like, versus on land, you just see the lake. It's totally different on water, very different, and it's a lot quicker. Yeah, a lot quicker. Not no pun intended with the boat, it's just you know, you got all these back roads and hills and 20 mile-an hour roads on Lake Lanier. You can I can get up to Lula in 15 minutes from the dam. Yeah, which somehow takes me an hour on or on water, but somehow takes me an hour on land. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

I mean, every time I've ever been to Lake Lanier, I mean it's been just a beautiful experience, super nice. The lake's just stunning. But I can't help to hear. Oh God, I already know what you're gonna talk about. With with what it's what's all this hysteria around people um saying that the lakes curse and all this and that. Is there any merit to that at all?

SPEAKER_01 13:07

I mean, they filled in a bunch of towns in the lake's just filling a bunch of towns and graveyards, old churches and stuff underneath there, but you can see the bridges and towns, or sorry, the the some of the stuff on on sonar, um, if you really look hard enough. But at the end of the day, in my opinion, it's people that come on the lake that are too drunk and don't know how to drive. And then they just get it just gets amplified by someone trying to jump from one boat to another, plastered, and he's gonna slip upside down, and the first thing he's gonna do when his head hits the water first, he's gonna go and then he drinks water and he drowns. Yeah. I mean, it it's a terrible scenario, but it's definitely just straight up ignorance, in my opinion. It's a safe lake if you know what you're doing. If you're not knowing what you're doing, 400 is unsafe. I mean, you could say 485 accursed or midtown. Yeah, if that's true, midtown or 04W, I mean, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

So I don't see the logo on the side of the car, but you've had it on there for a while. Parker Smith Real Estate. You've got the boat to match it. I'm sure we'll show a photo um just so people can get the idea. And naturally, you you just started these boat tours. Uh, how long have you been doing them for?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

We literally just posted the boat tour two weeks ago. Okay. Again, we we bought the boat out of season last year. It was too cold to even go run the lake. So now that we're finally an 80-degree day, which you know I'm excited about. If you don't know me, I just love it. But yeah, we just started these like just two weeks ago. I already got one client from it. They did not do boat tours. She's like, I don't care. I'm in Florida, just find me an Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

So sweet. Yeah. Well, you have to let me know once the boat actually translates to like an actual sale. I'm yeah, I'm anxious to hear about that.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So is this the first boat?

SPEAKER_03 14:37

This is my first ever boat I've ever bought.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

And you just went with base to the rocket.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, I mean, I told I mean from from when we met, he knew me at the Honda Cord. That got totaled. I bought a Mazda 6, and then a year later I bought the GT3. So I don't do, I don't go, I I just go to what I want. Yeah. So I mean, those boats are crazy.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

So you had the GT3, which was racing yellow. Yep. And then now the GT3RS also racing yellow. Yep. I myself, I've had a racing yellow Porsche. My third Porsche, I had a 14K Man S proper back when I was at Motor Cars of Atlanta. But I I didn't set out to buy a yellow car. I I actually missed out on a manual, uh, what was it, a 991, just Carrera, cards red, um, and then it sold out from under me. And then Jay Light here in Atlanta at Momentum Motor Cars, he had this yellow Cayman S. But again, it wasn't the fact that it was yellow. I wanted something really unique. So it had like the yellow tack, it had the yellow sport chrono, it had yellow seat belts, yellow key. I'm like, that looks like I built it. I'm gonna buy that. So props to you. What what made you go with racing yellow on your cars?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

So uh Merit Partners uh is where I got both my cars from, and I will talk about that later. But I said, guys, I'm ready for my first car. And they go, Well, what do you want? I was like, Well, you corrupted me. I want a Porsche. They're like, Well, which one? I was like, GT model. They're like, What's your budget? And I said, you know, 150. They're like, Well, we have a GT3 here, and we only have one. And I'm like, that doesn't make sense. Y'all typically have a lot of GT cards there. So, God willing, they only had one and it was yellow. I walked in, I was like, I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna inquire, like I'm about to buy this card today. I'm gonna ask all the questions, I want to be a serious buyer. I walked in, I had a yellow roll cage, I was like, I got no questions. Like, where do I sign? Like, this thing is awesome, and I hated yellow. I'd never bought a yellow anything, I've never bought a yellow car.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Did it make yellow Honda cords?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Uh, you know what? I thought about wrapping it. I'm just kidding, no. Yeah, no, it uh it spoke to me the second I walked in. I was like, paint to match roll cage. Uh it had the yellow belts, nothing else yellow besides the the the the calipers, but yeah, I mean it just I was like, that's it. That's it. How many miles did you put on that? So the GT3 I paid, or gosh, it was a dot one and it had 19,000. I sold it with 56,000. Oh my gosh. In two years. That's awesome. Abused it. Yeah, yeah. Used it and abused it. It's the right thing. It's the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah. It really is. It's the right thing to do. You know, you talk about depreciation, but you know, what is the cost of enjoyment? Right? What is that? How does that value the guys that talk about the scheme of things?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah, the guys that talk about, oh, I got low miles this, low miles that, I just laugh. Yeah. I'm like, you don't even use your car. And you've got this thing and you're worried about what depreciation or cost of maintenance. Like, who cares? Why did you buy the car? Like, if you're buying the car, I get it. If you're gonna buy a car, like a cutting zeg, and again, I'll destroy cutting zeg. Do not give me a cutting zeg. Um, uh you know, it maybe hold your value, and you're you know, you got too much money in the bank and you gotta go put it somewhere else. Sure. But at the end of the day, it's a Porsche, it's meant to be driven. Exactly. This isn't a McLaren, it's gonna break down on you. You can go. I've again I've done this twice now. Like these things are reliable.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

They are.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

It's I mean, I've done uh I got 50, I just hit 50 on this and I bought it with 9,000.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

I think the last time we spoke was a few weeks ago and you were at 45,000. You're ripping it.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

It's not even my daily. I just take it.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

I drive it, I don't care. And you've driven it through like you've done a lot of the events here in Atlanta, but uh rallying is something that you've done a ton of, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

That's why we bought the car, brother.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

There we go. Talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

So uh the big, biggest, longest rally uh or sorry, the longest running rally I've done is Corsa Rally. Uh thank you, Thomas, for putting on such a great rally. Uh Thomas Heinrich, that is the CEO of uh Corsa America Rally. Uh we've done, gosh, I would say eight or nine. Um we have done West Coast, East Coast in the mountains, Florida. Um, he's got even Europe rallies. Uh we just had to sell the Tokyo rally, even though that was not gonna go with me, but we just had to sell to Tokyo because we're family trip beside the point. Very annoyed. Um family first. Um, so yeah, we did uh like Vegas to Vale over 10 days, and then the next following year we did Vale to Santa Barbara, and it's just epic. You get to see God's creation uh in your car. So, what better way to travel than in the car you love and seeing places that you've never been before and seeing roads that you see in movies, like roads that are on like the cartoon Roadrunner, where you're just like, if I floor it, will this car eventually take off because we're going so fast? Or will we just blow up? I don't know. So, yeah, no. We're gonna find out. Yeah. I mean, again, it's 10 days, it's it's uh it's an amazing situation. Like if you never like people always like, I do rallies like, no, you've done a Bucky's rally, you've gone a BP with your friends. Like, spend the money, go have the exotic experience of a five-star hotel, going out to dinners, creating these relationships, and drive your car across the country. I didn't drive it to Vale, I shipped it, but from there we drove it for 10 days.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Yeah, I would never do that.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

So I think I haven't done yet as a rally, but I'm looking forward to doing hopefully next year. Open seat. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Well, you might have to fight Fiona. Did she drive it at all? Uh, I tried to get her to drive it. She did have to drive it on one rally because I was like, I'm falling asleep. We had two days of eight and a half hour stents, and I was just like, look, the bucket seat, the thank god the bucket seats don't recline because if they recline, I would probably fall asleep. But you're just dancing, you're you're I say dancing, you're kind of dancing, you're having to dance, you're having to put on all this hype music to keep yourself going, like death metal rock and roll to club music, just to be like, I mean, don't get me wrong, the scenery's cool, but you're like it's falling out as tiring. You're out in the middle of freaking desert. So it's just it's not like you got actually literally I ran out of words to say, I was like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. Wow, look at that, wow, wow, wow. I was like, I need a better vocabulary.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

What's uh described to us maybe like one of the I don't know, most extreme moments you've seen on a rally, whether it be something that was frightening or exciting, or like just maybe a really good story that you could share with the the guests that maybe haven't been on a rally, like myself.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Yeah, I mean, there's obviously different different companies that do different rallies, different rallies bring different experiences. Obviously, the routes are gonna bring different experiences, but the coolest one after doing all 10 of them was definitely having my buddy's helicopter follow us and scout ahead. Um that's all I'm gonna say. Yeah, he was just he literally was right above us, scouting ahead. I'm not gonna say what state or what rally or what date.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Mexico, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah. I mean, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe Europe, I don't know. Uh nowhere close to America. Yeah, so that was uh that that one has never happened out of the 10 where we had a helicopter scouting for us. So, you know, you're in direct communication with the pilot um through WhatsApp or radios, and that was very convenient. You know, jammers and lasers only go so far and radar, but uh we never got a call from many blue lights coming after us. So yeah, yeah. Awesome. But definitely the West Coast. The West Coast scenery is just you crest one hill, and then it's like, oh, there's 50 miles ahead of us, and there's a nice rock formation. Oh, there's the Grand Canyon, and then it's like you got 50 plus cars that all at the same time see that view, and then you just hear a thousand downshifts. Yeah. And then they just take off. So that w that was I got a video, like a very burnt in my mind video of cresting a hill. And it's like, what did we just see? I'm getting chills telling you this. It was just like, what is this scenery we are looking at? You're just drink you're you're coming down into the valley and it's just wide open.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

You can see forever.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

You can see forever. You could, yeah, yeah. Your eye, your eyes can't take in what's what is in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

I can just imagine here. Like you go around a turn, you can only see around, you can barely even see around that turn.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Georgia's cool, you know. Yeah, we we love the dragon, but I mean, Cherola, they got it's got nothing, that's got nothing on the West Coast. Yeah. Nothing. And it's not mountain driving out there. I mean, it is. We hit snow. We Fiona hates this one road, million-dollar highway or whatever it's called. Thank God there is an oil tanker in front of us because my dumb ass would have just floored it through this, because you know, GT3 vibes or GT3RS, it gives you all of the confidence. So uh Million Dollar Highway, it is a mountain pass with a sheer drop-off, like 90 degrees. Not like, uh, it's like boom, boom, and there's no guardrail. And it's on Fiona's side. And this is how, like, you know, you sit in a chair like this, this was her. Looking at me. I'm like, what's wrong, honey? She's like, look over there. I'm like, yeah, while you're driving. I'm like, that looks fun. Like, how close can we get? Yeah. How used to the track?

SPEAKER_03 23:25

So, yeah, that was one of the craziest roads for sure. Any of the guys you rally with have any close calls or breakdowns, mechanical failures?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I'm not gonna say a name. He knows who he is right when I say this, but he drove through a he drove through a gate and went off the mountain. Oh gosh. And I'm not gonna say the manufacturer of car, but he knows exactly who I'm talking about. He's he's my rally brother. Love him to death. But yeah, we were on the Georgia side and he just, you know, missed that turn and went right through a farmer's gate and went right down the mountain of a hill, and we were able to back him up. But you know, you hear on the walkie-talkies, your heart drops because you know something wrong, something happened to one of your friends. Yeah, you're friends with everybody in the rally, whether you were before or not. It's that was one of the one one of the worst moments I've had to fear for one of my friends' lives. Yeah. So you're safe though? Oh, yeah. Car's safe, kept driving.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Ready to go. Rally life, brother.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Rally life, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Um, I mean, you're in a business built entirely out of relationships. Um you think the card world, the car world, you know, has kind of carried you through this a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 24:27

110%.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

All right. It's the only thing carrying me through this. Give us some examples. You, I mean, you've met a lot of people through cars. Like, how did that transpire to turning into, let's say, a real estate transaction? You got any good stories about that?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Every client has come from the car. Every single client I have has come from the car. Whether it is an in-person or someone's like, hey, my entire Instagram Explorer pages, Porsche's, and yours came up, and I looked at your bio and it said real estate agent. So I DM'd you at 1:30 in the morning, and then that guy buys a house with me 12 days later, connects me with icebox jewelry, and then I sell this house two years later. I mean, love that guy. You know who you are. I'm not gonna name names today, but uh, that's just one thing from Instagram where I never even met the guy in person, he just saw the car, and people want to be tied to success. Yeah, and that's just the blunt truth. So if you're pulling up in a Honda Cord, someone's gonna think one thing, and if you pull up in a whatever that's nicer than a Honda Cord, they're gonna think something else. So it's just perception is reality at the end of the day. But obviously, you have to have you have to be really good at what you do. You can't just get the client, you actually have to execute and finish excellent. I mean, that's the problem that no one can figure out I'm finding in this industry. It's poorly, poorly, poorly executed.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah, lead gen and execution are two different things, but you gotta have both of those. Yeah. For it to work.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah. I would say you probably have to be better at actually execution because you get one lead, you better be able to get it closed, versus you get a hundred leads and you can't close one. Like, what the hell are you doing? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Yeah, we got a problem.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

A big problem.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Uh I mean, what does success look like to you personally now? Like, not just in transactions or production numbers, but in terms of the life you're building or that you want to be building.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

So definitely for Fiona and I, we it's family-based, right? We we want to have our family set, just like my father had our family set up, you know. Uh, you know, God willing, or not god willing, well, god willing for me, but uh, we're very blessed uh that my dad was entrepreneurial. So, you know, I kind of saw what a successful marriage, family, business looked like. And I just want to crush him on that. I want to beat him. So uh for me, it is obviously very financially based. You know, you can't have fun without funds. But at the end of the day, I also want my family to be happy for dad to be there when God, you know, not God forbid, when God willing we have kids. Um and you know, I I want to very I want to live a very prosperous life. I don't want to be stuck in Beauford. I want to go explore. That's why we got the car, that's why we got the boat. Now, again, they both make money for me, but it's I want to go and explore this world. I don't want to be stuck somewhere. So for me, success looks like being able to take life by the horns and ride that bull. Yeah. It's always gonna be hard. But you know, the stupid phrase, choose your heart, choose your pain, whatever. It's just that's true. Like, yeah, it's not supposed to be easy. I don't want a boring life. I want a very crazy life that involves triple digits.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Well, you got number 21 on that thing. Uh, so that was uh, you know, you go to the track, you have to have a number, and then one of our buddies, Cameron, started creating these style numbers, that type of font, and we all kind of did it. And I'm pretty sure that was like my first, you know, you got to have a number and an email. My first email was like ParkerSmith21 at Yahoo or something back in the day. So I was like, what number? I was like, 21. So there we go. Yeah. Nothing good behind that story besides a Yahoo. Yeah. That email's not around anymore. Don't email it.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

So tell us a little bit about this car. I mean, I I see that it's yellow. It's obviously a 991.2 GT3RS. I mean, what kind of options do we have here? How's it? How's it fitted out? Looks like you get some stitching.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, non-VISOC. I get it. It still has carbon fiber, it's just painted. Um, so we got the yellow deviated stitching, we got the carbon fiber inserts on the inside. It's got the front axle lift, it's got the PCCBs. I took those off. We put the Steely's on and did the whole system for the track because who wants to go blow what is it? 20,000, 8, 16, 24, $32,000 in PCCBs once you destroy them. Yeah. So uh other than the brakes, aftermarket cage, we have done um oh, sorry, uh GMG uh center pipe exhaust. Great exhaust system for a Porsche. And it's just the midpipe. I still have the cats and side buffers. Okay, and everybody's like always complimenting me. You know, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but it could be louder. Sounds great. And you pass emissions. I pass, well, again, road trips. Yeah, people are like, my buddy with a crack pipe. I'm like, you're a crackhead. And I hate being behind you. Love you, Joe. But you can't travel with that. Yeah, like we take phone calls. We we we're negotiating in this car on rallies, like we're working. Like, yeah, the drone, shoot me. That would that would just be ridiculous. And I've been in them before when I was driving Merritt Partners cars. Like, this is so loud. I'm like, and I can't hear. Yeah, especially with Porsche Bluetooth. It's like yeah, it's like halfway decent. We gave up on the Porsche Bluetooth. It's hand, you know, it's you know, not even AirPods. Like, it is strictly no, no, no speakerphone, just this classic. That can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, sorry. So, yeah, no, it's a it's a decent spec. Um, it's got everything besides the Vice Soc, in my opinion. Uh full leather, full leather on the front. Uh Sport Chrono, obviously. Uh, carbon buckets. I should have said all that before. I ADD, I skipped between. Um I love this spec. I'll always do buckets. If you got sofas, you're lame. Um, Danny. Shots fired, and I don't care. The the buckets keep me in. They they they I mean, again, for what we do on the track, I mean, I would I'll be sloshed around. I'm so skinny, I wouldn't be this would be what a bucket looks like to me.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

There's something to be said about both seats, I'll say. Because I'm I kind of fit my size, I'm kind of in between both. Sure. You know, when I do get in a bucket now, I'm a little lackluster on shoulder room.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

But well, you're Jack, so well I don't fit in this little seat anymore.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

But I will say this there's something about the way that the the chassis vibrations and the feedback of the car translate through that just hard-mounted seat that you're just sewn into. You feel more of the car, I will say. It definitely amplifies the experience.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

I didn't know that sofas took away from that. I've only had buckets in both the dot one and dot two. Oh, yeah. I've never experienced sofas. Yeah, there's definitely a little bit more of a regular feel. Hmm. At least for my opinion. I like trying to struggle to get out of my car. It makes me feel better about my life.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah, date night with the with the lady is not an issue quite yet with the buckets.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

As long as you can get in and out of it, it's like she works.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, she's got her her passenger seat to get out of down, and I got mine, but when I sit passenger, I'm like, how the how do you get out of it?

SPEAKER_03 31:16

I gotta relearn it. I I remember back in the day when I first got in the exotic car industry, like everybody had an art, oh, here's how I get in. And they got the you know, they whether it's the backward step or you know, the butt first or you know, right, right leg, right cheek in first.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

That's it, and then just fall in.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

That's it. Yep. The butt one just looks so weird. I don't understand. The what? When you're when people are like getting in butt first.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

That's like you're I don't even know. That's just it, it's a it looks too proper. Yeah. And a little silly. And I think it actually probably messes your seats up because you're twisting your butt on the seat. On the side, yeah. Yeah, I'm just saying. Yeah, I don't know. Again, who cares? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

What's uh anything next after this car? Anything that you've been eyeing for maybe a little while. I mean, you know, miles are racking up. I mean, I know you got your sight set on something down the road.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Is it gonna be another Porsche? Everybody asks me what's next, and it's not Ferrari, it's not Lamborghini, it's not McLaren, it's another Porsche. It's just gonna be a lower mileage dot two, 991. Uh 992s are trash, in my opinion. They're too computerized. This is the last best Porsche, in my opinion, besides a 997. But, you know, I'm probably gonna get flacked for that in the comments.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

There's some validity to that. I would I would agree to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

You you can't rally anything else with the reliability or the storage. I throw my suitcase in the front. You can't do that in the 992 anymore.

SPEAKER_03 32:29

You can't. There's nothing there.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

All my Lambo brethren, they have to have a U-Haul following them with their luggage. Oh, a little suit with all their Gucci luggage. It's crazy. Maybe a suit in the back, but that's it. I mean, you can't do that. Maybe Ferrari, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

And then if you go STO, you got nothing.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Same thing, yeah, with the 992 RS.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

You really need like a little dinghy trailer on the back of your or it's like the motorcycle to travel with the trailer, it's like the gold legs. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

And again, they're just not reliable for the lifestyle I live with this car. Like, I'll go throw my car into a parking deck and just ram it right into the curb for some reason. That is, you know, not a curb, but it felt like a curb. And I blew my front splitter out. Yeah. 800 bucks versus a McLaren or a Lambo. I'm out 10 grand. Yeah. Yeah. I can't do that. My bank would hate me. Then I can't boat. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Uh, anything else you want to cover to the audience about what you're doing, car lifestyle, rallying, the boat, real estate.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I would say go drive your car and go on a rally if you never have. And if you want to come for a ride on my boat, let me know. Because that's even cooler than rallying or cars.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Oh, you think it's bet yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

100%, brother.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Once people get to boats, then it's like they they're like, yeah, these are the greatest thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

It well, when you when you get a go fast boat, like you can go buy a you know a million dollar center console and maybe hit 70 with quints on the back, right? Five motors on the back, and each of those costs 80 grand. Beside the point, 70 miles an hour is boring. When you get over 100, 120, 130. On the water. On the water, which everybody's like, on the water. It is actually the same at 80 that is it is at 120. It feels fast.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

John, he has a performance shop in town, and I went on his uh 45-foot all-carbon Donzi X race boat. Yeah. V-hole. Yep, and then they they cut they cut the top off. And then the windscreen frame was actually like F-18 fuselages. Yep. Like the glass was thick and it was like it was yellow looking down on it. Clear when you look through it. That's kind of what mine is. And we got that thing up to 93 miles an hour, and dude, I'm telling you, it felt like 150 on tarmac.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

So V-holes are very different than cats. V-holes are sitting in the water, they're like 15,000 pounds. So when you're going 90, your 90 feels like my 130. Ah. When I'm going 90, you're like, are we gonna go? Yeah. No, I'm serious. Like I play, I stopped porpoising at eight, uh, 75. Like, I just get going at 75. Wow. So I mean you get up on plane at 25, but you get 25 to 65, it starts doing this. And then once you get, every boat has a porpoise period. And then once you get past the porpoise period of 75, then it planes out, and you're literally on top of the water. The only thing in there is the props. And then, you know, if you anna starts freaking out about 99, she's like, put her life jackets on. All right. Um, so yeah, she's like, Don't turn so fast. I'm like, honey, this boat can handle it. It's the RS of the water.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

It's the RS of the water. It is. It is.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

All right, so we'll uh we'll start with some rapid fire here. Dream three car garage right now. Go.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Hawaiira. Because I'll drive it. They're all hyper cars. Okay. I uh anything that's a hybrid or just a V12 screaming car. So I'll take, you know, obviously maybe a Holy Trinity, but I'll do my personal favorites would be a CGT. That's not a hyper or sorry, hybrid. CGT, Pagani, and then something just ridiculously fast. I don't know. Maybe like, I don't even know. Maybe a remick. Okay. Just something dumb, fat like throw my brain into the back of my head and never forget it. I'm not passionate about anything other than just pure experience. I'm not like uh I love the 997 GT2.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Like, nah. And then the best I feel like you'd want to have like a Ricky Bobby NASCAR thing that just says, I want to go fast on the side of it.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

I'll just put that on the side of the Bagani. There you go. That'll be the livery for the rally.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

The cougar me on the side. All yellow, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Uh yellow with Wonderbred sponsors. Come on. Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

I'll dress up with the suit and everything. I got a white suit ready to roll. If you eventually get like a massive collection, you need to get like one of those Oscar Meyer Wiener mobiles. Oh gosh. Because they're yellow too, right? Yeah. With the exception of the dog. The dog? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

I I held myself off, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Uh, you've been on a lot of rallies, so that you'll be able to answer this question. Best road you've ever driven. For me, it's PCH, some maybe the dragon, but you've you've got a lot more experience on like some of these just mesmerizing pieces of road.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

I can't name the road because I'll I would kill myself on that one, or uh I'm just not gonna throw it out there. Uh mainly because it's a route that we use, but it's one of the West Coast roads where it's wide open for over a hundred miles straight. A hundred miles straight. Maybe a divot or two. Maybe someone's launched a turbo S or two and lost their life on that road, but that road all day long.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

Doing the speed limit, of course. 65. Uh if you if you could only keep one, the GT3RS or the boat. Uh which one would it be? The boat.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

There's no speed limit, man. It's the last true American freedom. Can't go to jail.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Uh, one thing about Lake Linear that outsiders consistently get wrong.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Ooh, thinking they can chop down trees. Core's involved, buddy. So the whole ask for uh permission or ask for forgiveness. It's you can lose your dock permit, then all your value goes away on your lake house. If you chop down a tree, they'll charge you $10,000, and if they really hate you, they'll take your uh dock permit away, and now you got no dock. You can't resell it with dock, it's not grandfathered in, someone else can't come get it again. Wow. Your entire, you know, call it $1.5 million value because you have a dock and it's double slip and yada yada yada, and now you just have a house that has a lake view. And how I would say 25 to 30 percent of your value just goes Man, that would be a sad story for a homeowner. I had a client ask me from Florida, great guy, I love him, he's hilarious. He's like, so you're telling me there's a fine per tree, but what's the value add if those trees are bye-bye and I can see the lake now? I'm like, well, it'd probably add about $700,000. He's like, so how much is a tree? I'm like, well, it depends on how pissed they're at you. You could start at $10,000 a trunk, or you could just lose your permit, then it doesn't even matter what it is. He's like, say less. I'm not gonna do anything. No more overnight beavers.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Yeah. Uh best piece of advice you've ever received about business, cars, or life. Ooh, all right. This is from my father.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Hire slowly, fire quickly. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

That's a really good one.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

That goes for anybody that has a single person that they're bringing onto their team. Or yourself, fire yourself too, quickly. Yeah. And bring in someone else.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

Um, what's next? Anything that you want to put out there for the people that are listening?

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah. Um, you know, look, I'm just trying to continue to serve people at the highest level. Um, there's a lot of amateurs in this uh real estate world. So whether it's, you know, in town, on the lake, or anything in between, I serve all major, five major counties. Um, and if I can serve you outside of state, I've got a massive network of agents that can help you. But at the end of the day, I'm just trying to continue to grow my business. And uh, you know, I love to serve people at the highest level. So if I can serve you and your family, uh, that you know helps me and helps you.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Awesome. And then last one, if someone's watching this and they want to get a house on Lake Lanier, what do they do first? Call an agent. Who should they call?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Me.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

There we go.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Anything you want to plug? Um, you know, Ride Lounge for hosting always great events. If you're not a member, please come out. Um, thanks for having me on the podcast. Um other plugs would be my wonderful executive assistant, Fiona, that helps me behind the scenes. And then uh Germany for creating a great car.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

There we go. And I'm sure we'll see you at the next the next uh RS collective that we put on as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

I love Elvin. I love, love, love, love those guys over there. Yeah, Cody and Evan are amazing.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

That was awesome. Like over 90 amazing Porsches. It was, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Yeah, good too. Only only one yellow though. I'm just saying. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Parker, thanks so much for coming on, brother. Thank you both.