Anything & Everything with Matt Reyna

Why Discipline Beats Talent Every Time

• Matt Reyna

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 19:26

In Part 2 of Episode 15, Anthony Alminger shares the story of how he got into real estate and why he believed he could build something bigger than just selling homes. From selling 81 homes in his first year to building a successful real estate team, this conversation dives deep into discipline, leadership, delayed gratification, and what separates the top producers from everyone else.

🎙️ In this episode:
 • How Anthony got into real estate
 • Why COVID changed the industry forever
 • Building a real estate team from the ground up
 • Selling 81 homes in his first year
 • Why most brokerages fail new agents
 • The importance of your network and reputation
 • Growing up around adversity while staying on the right path
 • The influence of Anthony's grandparents
 • Discipline, routines, and high performance
 • Delayed gratification and long-term success
 • Why only a small percentage of agents truly succeed

🧠 What you'll learn:
 • Why business experience matters more than experience in real estate
 • The biggest mistake new agents make
 • How reputation creates opportunity
 • Why discipline is the ultimate competitive advantage
 • How consistency separates top producers from everyone else

⏱️ CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS
 00:00 Getting Into Real Estate
 01:15 COVID's Impact on the Industry
 02:00 Starting a Real Estate Team
 03:20 Selling 81 Homes in Year One
 05:30 Why Most Brokerages Miss the Mark
 06:40 Your Network Is Your Net Worth
 08:00 Growing Up Around Bad Influences
 09:10 The Role of Anthony's Grandparents
 11:00 Family Reactions to Real Estate
 12:00 Matt's Journey Into Sales
 13:30 Building a Successful Team
 14:10 Discipline Creates Success
 16:00 Delayed Gratification
 18:30 Why Most People Never Make It

📢 About the Podcast

Anything & Everything with Matt Reyna is where real conversations happen. From real estate and entrepreneurship to sports, business, and life lessons, every episode is built around honest conversations that help people level up in every area of life.

📌 Connect With Matt Reyna

Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/mattreyna2023/

Facebook:
 https://www.facebook.com/matt.reyna.12

TikTok:
 https://www.tiktok.com/@mattreyna2023

#RealEstate #RealEstateAgent #Entrepreneur #Business #Leadership #Sales #MattReyna #AnthonyAlminger #Success #Mindset #Discipline #Motivation #AnythingAndEverythingPodcast #DelayedGratification #TopProducer

SPEAKER_00

Um, when did you first get the I guess inclination that you wanted to do real estate?

SPEAKER_01

Man, this that's it ever on your radar? Not necessarily.

SPEAKER_00

No, I it wasn't a thing when we were coming up, dude.

SPEAKER_01

Uh-uh. It wasn't something that I really even fully understood.

SPEAKER_00

It wasn't a thing, it wasn't the thing that it is now. Correct. You know what I'm saying? Now it's popular to be one, thing to do now. Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

So, like, which I have a take on that anyway. I mean COVID made a lot of people look at realtors while people were stuck in their house, can't leave their home. They're on Instagram, social media. TikTok just came out during that time, and so everybody saw successful realtors. Uh everybody saw successful uh realtors just making tons of sales and money. And I think a lot of people were like, I can do that, I can do that. And so the COVID. Yeah. Everybody's like, oh, you just posted a video and and this new TikTok platform and Instagram reels just came out. Yeah, you just post houses on there, and and that's how it works. So those folks are unfortunately the ones fading out right now because it wasn't that easy after all. They're already gone back. Yeah, a lot of them are gone. Uh traditional real estate still will always take over any kind of new fad because even as you collect new anyway, again, another tangent that we'll go over, but they just faded out. And so I think, yeah, like during that time, um I never really thought about it. It was my buddy Julian when I left Golds. It was my buddy Julian that hit me up one day. He's like, Hey, bro, you ever thought about getting your real estate license? And honestly, I thought about y'all because I was like, I think Drew was already in real estate, but he was selling for the builder. I think you were already a realtor, or maybe I think I don't remember if you were or not yet.

SPEAKER_00

But when I was with Armadillo, because I was with Armadillo, you might have been still with Armadillo, honestly.

SPEAKER_01

Uh-huh. And he was just like, Hey man, do you want to get your license? You go to this place called Champions, they give you the answers. You pay a thousand bucks, but you know, they make it easy. And I'm like, sure. You know, I guess like that's fine. So sure enough, I go, and that was a life-changing moment is going to those classes. I already in my mind, unfortunately, you know, I guess like in a in a weird way, was already thinking like high level. I was accountability coach. I was somebody that would, you know, build in people to be better and things like that. So then when I saw those little brokers that would do the lunches when you go to champions, right? They'd want to give you pizza and say, hey, you should join my office. They were uh, I just feel like I can run circles around these dudes. This is who is in our mind, we thought a broker means money somehow. I maybe some people still think that. Sure. I mean, it's an accolade that you know there's a certain level requirement to be one, but not every broker necessarily is the most successful. Not all best players know how to be the best coach. Not every best salesperson knows how to be a good manager. It is not, I mean, I was seeing a lot of them. I'm like, man, you don't know anything about building people up, right? So when I saw that that was my chip on my shoulder motivation, I was like, is this the level that San Antonio has? That's a broker, that's who's trying to recruit me to work for him.

SPEAKER_00

No way. You did things, I remember doing things which was I was like, you hit the ground running, not only as obviously your own, like as a running numbers, your your yourself as a solo agent, but it was just a team like immediately.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And why did you want to go that route? Obviously, I mean everything that you've set up to this point, you can kind of say obvious. It's obvious why you wanted to, because yeah, that was basically your background. So if you had to do it all over again, you would still do it the same way that you did it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, probably. I I mean, obviously, I I learned a lot of mistakes, and we have the trial and error things when it comes to managing realtors is different than managing a lot of other people. That's different. Real quick, your first year, tell me about it. Um, say again, I guess leading from the the school of real estate. I got my license, went to a small little uh brokerage. It was a Remax brokerage, but it was a small office, I think like 30 agents. I liked it better because I thought, oh, you know, maybe I have more uh tailored information to me. And again, no offense to them, but I realized very quickly exactly what I was worried about, that there's not a lot I could be taught on business professionalism marketing. I noticed that they weren't doing a lot of that. They were teaching a lot of the at these offices still law and history and what not to do so you don't get sued or be in compliance. And that is important, but when you get out of real estate school, you want to learn how to make your first dollar. Correct. And that was my problem in today in San Antonio's market that I was like, you know what? I'm gonna sell a whole bunch of show homes, show people that I can do it, and then I'm gonna start a team and I'm gonna say my team is oriented toward how to make money. I'm gonna be the money team that you know how to make money when you get your license, not just keep learning this traditional style of a brokerage, which means like compliance, compliance, compliance. That's all they really did. And so uh that's what happened. I think the average agent sells six to 12 homes a year. I sold 81 my first year as an agent and made life-changing money. And you know, the IRS still trying to collect from me, or I don't know. Like, you know, like they I'm hiding everything. Uh no, no, I'm not. Take that off. Um, I mean, I'm I'm writing everything off. There was a cost of doing business. I wrote everything off. Uh, it was marketing. But no, like it was a life-changing money, a life-changing part, and that was a good tipping point too. But I did register a team with Trek officially six months into having my license because I already saw I was taking off. I needed help. And I think the original reason I started a team was to help uh do some duties around me that I needed help with. And some people just wanted to learn what I was doing because they're like, How's this new guy selling six to eight homes a month? He's brand new. It's like, yeah, I'm brand new to real estate, but I'm not brand new to business. Gotcha. And I think a lot of that is where people clinged on to me for knowledge, and that's where the team started.

SPEAKER_00

You know what I was watching the other day? You're gonna be like, this dude. I was watching Owen Manhattan because uh I'm a Ryan uh Sarhan fan. Sure. And um, I've never seen it, you know. I was just like, let me let me see what it's all about or whatnot, right? And um, I was noticing that a lot of people on his team had a certain niche or a certain type of demographic that already brought to the team. How important is it, man, your sphere jumping into real estate? Kind of like um yourself or like a Scott, like that already has um, you know, uh a reputation before you jump in. Because, like you said, you're not new to this, now you're just doing kind of something different. Right. But your network has always been pretty badass. I think so.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, and I think rightfully show rightfully so, sorry, I should reap those benefits because up to this point I treated everybody the right way. People respected me. I was always honest, I was always straightforward, I was always fun. I never tried to like turn away a friend in a sense. Like, if you needed help, I was there for you. So I think rightfully so, when I jumped into real estate, I already had a big network of people that might have been cool with me or, you know, like vibed with me. So yeah, I mean, you you learn how to tap into that and they say your network is your net worth. I mean, it exactly is that.

SPEAKER_00

That's a great one, man. Um, also, too, man, like if it's Anthony can help me out with XYZ and he's a dependable person. Well, maybe I want him to sell my house too. Maybe I want him to help me find a house for my daughter or whatever the case may be. And I think that that speaks volumes about people. Yeah, I'm saying, and sometimes, man, you know, sometimes people may not have like the best network or the best relationships with people, is what I should say. And people are like, oh, you're a realtor now? Like, okay, cool. Like, I don't know if I would trust you in a transaction. Right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

I think I've always been straight edge, but I've been around bad people. So because I can grow up around speak on it, son.

SPEAKER_00

Go for it.

SPEAKER_01

It's I can be around folks that unfortunately took the wrong road in life, maybe with drugs, you know, distribution even of drugs, um, you know, stealing theft, like bad, you know, it and unfortunately, you grow up in bad neighborhoods, which I did. You your friends, like sometimes you just don't know what is considered normal and not. And so some folks go a certain route. And as a young age, I was already starting to be responsible for even finances at the house sometimes. Like I was already responsible for working early. I was already responsible for grinding, but I just never wanted to do it the bad way because I knew that was still wrong. And so I think growing up, even since that sphere, people always respected me because they're like, oh, he he's around the hood, but he doesn't do things wrong. So there's that trust factor of, you know, I can talk to him and relate to him because he won't judge me. Sure. But I know if he's like, if there's a way to do it right, I'm gonna call Anthony because he's gonna know, he's gonna research it, he's gonna figure it out. So I had that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. I mean, of course, you know, me, I'm from the South Side. I love the South Side. I always like kind of like big big it up. And one of the things that I loved about it, and Xavier can kind of um, you know, comment on um as well. When they see or the people in my neighborhood saw people with potential, they were like, hey man, stay away from this. You know what I'm saying? Like, you got something good going on. I'm assuming they told you, dude, you're gonna go to AM, you're gonna be doing this and that. Keep your hands clean, man, and just keep on going straight. You know what I'm saying? So, like, obviously, everybody can go in whichever direction that they kind of want to go, but at the same time, too, I guess it just kind of depends on your upbringing, your ambitions, and kind of what you uh more, you know, like see for yourself, in other words, you know what I'm saying? And where did you get that from?

SPEAKER_01

Um, my grandparents for sure. I mean, my grandparents have always been more of like the rock of the family tree. And I was born very young, or I guess my parents are very young when they had me. So maybe they didn't know how to be. I think I think 20.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. My parents were 20 when they had Xavier.

SPEAKER_01

Which shoot, I I mean, I'm hearing kids having kids younger now, which is crazy. But at the time, they I mean that was considered young, right? And not not correct in the traditional times. Like, you know, you don't have kids that young and barely out of high school and stuff like that. So my parents obviously were maybe learning how to be a parent versus my grandparents were the rock. And so little small things like I wasn't allowed to have a free summer. I always had to have summer school. I would have to go to an enrichment program. I always had to go learn how to, you know, build an electrical circuit. I had to go to doctor school, I had to go for like elementary kids. Like it was like programs that were built to get people's minds to want to think more. Yeah. And uh I wouldn't have never known that. I mean, there's people probably parents now that don't know where to put their kids in. My grandparents knew all that stuff and they knew how to put me in all these all-star rock star programs.

SPEAKER_00

But it was your grandparents that did that.

SPEAKER_01

It helped kind of guide and coach probably my parents, like that again, we're a little bit workaholics, lost of how to be a, you know, what's the right way. So I think I kind of got more my structure and stability from my grandparents more. And at the time, you think of them being like kind of rough or strict on you, because again, who doesn't want a free summer? I want to play PlayStation all day and eat pizza, leave me alone. But I never had that. I grew up, unfortunately, where they always had to put me in some kind of extracurricular activity. It was always like that. So it's how I got molded, right? Like I can be the firm fun guy for a reason that I've seen it all. I've seen the firm structure and I've seen the fun with the friends around me. What did your grandparents do?

SPEAKER_00

One was a teacher and one was a salesman. Really? So you've had sales in your blood the whole time. Gotcha, man. That's that's awesome. And during this time, dude, like your your family or whatnot, whenever you're kind of taking the steps into real estate, what are they saying?

SPEAKER_01

Um, unknown too. Like you said, I mean, how who who uh was really interested in becoming an agent or in real estate? I don't know if anybody was really looking at it as like this big thing. I think they thought of it as, yeah, like sales commission. You might sell, you might not, because they you see reports, right? And it still is to this day. The average agent doesn't make any money across the nation. It is very bad. So they were more probably like nervous for me, but supported me. Like, hey, I know you'll be great, but just watch out because it's not a great industry.

SPEAKER_00

Dude, my Tia Sylvia was a uh a real estate agent, you know? And X, what how old was she when she was a real estate agent? Maybe now she was a real estate agent. Oh yeah, yeah. She was uh okay. I would assume she was like in her 30s or 40s, you know what I'm saying? So when I was growing up, 18 years old, 20 years old, I was like, that's like an older person's profession. And that's how we grew up. And I told somebody the other day that we were still in the era that you go to school, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like it was still of that thing, yeah. I'm saying, like that conventional thinking. And if if you're not going to school, you're a bum. You're a bum. And whatever job you have, it ain't gonna be as good as getting a degree. Yeah. You're still of that old school mentality. Correct. So, dude, I've never said this a lot, but remember I told you that I was in all the AP classes. I was in those classes ever since I was in middle school, right? And then on and into high school. Then when I veered off the path, I saw all my friends and my girlfriend at the time, she got accepted to Texas. All of my friends got uh accepted to AM, Texas Tech. Some of them, one of them even went to MIT. I spoke with them the other day. Um, yeah, and and out of state and all of that stuff, and I just was just chilling out, playing ball, playing playing ball in the summers and this and that. And I felt a lot of shame. And I felt just like man, I I I fucked up. You know what I'm saying? And I would just I didn't know what the hell to do. You know what I'm saying? So when I finally got like some of these just regular, like, you know, working at Bill Miller's and then I w worked at um Chili's at South Park for a little bit, then I got my first commission job. I was like, whoa, like I I can make some money. You know what I'm saying? Going to you, like I know that you've always, you know, kind of done well, but what made you kind of shift your thinking during real estate and see that, dude, this can be like a life-changing thing as far as like a team is concerned or whatnot. I guess just just the general success.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, if I'm if I'm selling 81 homes, if I teach people how to do even a quarter or half of that, but you get 10 more people, it was just the math of it. I was just thinking like purely math. Like, if I can do this, I can teach people how to do this. I don't think what I was doing was anything crazy. Um, I think again it goes back to like self-discipline, self-awareness, a schedule, time management. You know, it starts there and then it turns into conversion. Like, can you talk?

SPEAKER_00

You said that it starts there, all of that stuff. Unpack what you just said because people skip that step. Yeah, me and Xavier were just talking about on the way over here. I was saying that uh Ryan Sarhan, he waited and everybody wakes up at 4 a.m. What time do you wake up? 7. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Not a 4 a.m.er.

SPEAKER_00

Uh I used to be, and I'm more of like a 7, 7 a.m.er too. Um, but either way, get your workout done early and all of that. And I was saying that people can't be burning the candle at both ends and it just doesn't exist. You can if you want, but you're not going to be at I mean, of course, there's outliers and there's just weird people. You know what I'm saying? But they get it done in the morning, not only to be disciplined and and whatnot, and to get their work out done, but to prime their body to be able to fulfill what they need to do throughout the day. Eating right, exercising, priming their body, all of that, all of that stuff. Then they go to sleep at nine and 10 o'clock. So therefore, and I was saying, Xavier, there's nothing productive that you can do. I mean, you can, but you might as well get your sleep in from 10 to 5 in the morning, and that's what they've kind of tapped into and figured out. That's why they're 5 a.m.ers and they get all their shit done in the morning and then do their work. They crush it at work, like throughout the whole thing, have their dinner and whatever their social life from six to nine, and then they're in bed by 10. You know how much of that discipline in your daily activities like that is what what percentage is it? Would you say?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's all of it. I mean, you just don't and how many people do it? Not many. No, maybe you have to put a percentage on it. I mean, I our uh two percent. I think I heard somebody tell me one time, um, one of our coaches from the one of the coaching programs, and there was a big seminar, a thousand people for a thousand bucks you had to pay to go hear this man talk, right? And he gives you the formula, like the full script of how he made millions of dollars. He's like, I'm gonna give it to you for free. Well, not for free, a thousand bucks to get in here, but you're gonna have this manuscript and it's all my trade secrets and everything. And I don't mind giving it to you because you're only 2% of people actually do anything about what I just gave you. The other 98%, you all just wasted a thousand dollars to listen to me speak, and you're gonna go about your day. You're not competition to me. And it's true, I do see that because even in our market, you know, you used to see it well, at least when I was getting my license, right? They were saying top 20% brings in 80% of the business. Then it started going crazy during the COVID years when it got tough. 90% bring or 10% brings in 90% of the business. I'm like, holy crap. Started looking this stuff up and it, they're right. And then now it's like the top 5% bring in 95% of the business. It's pretty sad. And again, look it up. If you look at MLS stats and you look at the sales, at least the way it looks, it looks like it's the same names over and over again the last five years that keep bringing it in. Because again, people quit, they don't have self-discipline, they don't understand. Everybody's this microwave society these days, especially in our industry. Everybody wants to get their license, immediately be successful, because all I heard is you have to just post the video and that's it.

SPEAKER_00

What was I just saying to uh right now on the way over here? What was the phrase I used? Remember? Uh delayed gratification. I was like, if you could tap into delayed gratification, which nobody has, then you can invest better, you can lose weight, you can do whatever. Now, of course, everybody wants six-minute abs, but the delayed gratification is telling you that it's gonna take three to six months of eating clean and just not seeing any results. You know what I'm saying? Not seeing any results, same thing with work, same thing with investing, same thing with saving money, same thing with everything, bro. And the and I was I was saying, and that I this is where I get real philosophical about things. I'm like, isn't it weird that God made the universe that way? Isn't it like not convenient, but it's like not of course not convenient, but the other way, like he would, you know what I'm saying? He would make it like to where it's not like oh god got me this. Now you know what I'm saying? It's you gotta take the long route, and he knows or the universe was built on the on the um premise that nobody's gonna do it. And I was like, it's like Adam and Eve, you know what I'm saying? Like it's like the the lust of something right here, right now, as opposed to working your way forward, grinding it out, and then having the faith that it's gonna happen. Everybody just quits. You know what I'm saying? And I think that that cannot be stated enough because do you think, man, the people that have quit in anything, not not necessarily just real estate, but do you think they'd make it if they stuck to it? Or do you think that they just it's not for them and just get out? Yeah, no, there's not, I don't think there's a right answer to that.

SPEAKER_01

Because I think there are some. Yeah, because I think there's some people that could try their hardest the way that they try hard, and it still wasn't good enough of what is needed in today's market. The market determines success, not the agent. The market is determining who can play ball here. You know, again, rates, interest rates, loans, you know, like contract, like there's just a lot that people, how people change, how buyers and sellers change, the agent has to change. Well, what if the agent only has a certain capacity to change? They don't, they're not willing to adapt, then they're gonna fade. Uh and so the person that's very fluid and hybrid and can understand what's opening, they're gonna be successful. But you can be a you can have a hard worker that just never wanted to increase beyond their limit. And unfortunately, their limit is still just not enough.