Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: You're listening to selling the dream. This isn't an interview, and we're not journalists. But each week we'll ask our guests to open up and share their secrets to business success. Let's have a conversation and have some fun.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: All right, everybody, welcome to selling the dream, where we discuss sales, motivation, success from a sales perspective, from an entrepreneurial perspective.
Our rules are be honest, be sincere, but don't take yourself too seriously. Speaking of someone who is great at not taking himself seriously at all, I'd like to introduce Joe Iredell from Carlsbad, coming to us from Carlsbad. I always have to preface that because you're from here, but you live. Know, you don't get the wrong, don't.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: I don't ever want to lose that distinction. I'm not from live.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: You probably remind people pretty often when you're out there, like, look, man, you don't know me. I ain't from here.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: Believe it or not, I don't have to do that very often out here. I think they kind of get the gist.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: They just hear you talk for a minute.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: It's a little different. The people out here, they're great people, but they're not like us, man.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: It's turkey week, my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving coming up.
Very excited. We're in a smaller thanksgiving than normal this year. Normally, my brother comes down with his family. He's staying home. So it's going to be a little quieter than normal. 13 people, though.
Wow.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: What happened?
Did it get political last year? And you got.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Ever since COVID man, my brother in law won't come around anymore.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Oh, man.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: What about you, Joe?
[00:02:01] Speaker C: What are you are. So we were going to travel, but we decided to just keep it local. So we got a couple some friends coming over. And we just redid a bunch of stuff at my house. So made it nice enough that we can have visitors now. So I'm going to cook. I'm deep frying a turkey.
It'll be my second attempt.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: With the first attempt, it went good.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: It went good. But I learned a couple of key tips that, number one, do a lot of research before you try to deep fry a turkey. Which I did, and I'm grateful for because you got to put the turkey and you got to fill it up with water. And then notch on the thing where it's going to fill to. And then when you take it out, that's where you put the oil to, because otherwise it'll spill over. So that's number one. And that's how it causes fires. And then the second thing is try to get the turkey as dry as possible because it's the water that makes it, like, go haywire. So other than that, it's pretty safe practice. And in my opinion, I think it's the best way to do a turkey. So I'm going to give it a go.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: I saw a recipe where you can break the turkey down before you cook it and you can cook a turkey in like an hour and 50 minutes if it's not whole. And I like that because I don't present a turkey at the table. Do they really even do that anymore? I don't know.
I don't bring it to the carving.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: I mean, I guess you could just put it in a microwave, too. That'll cook it real quick, too, man. But I don't know. My guests have higher expectations.
They come over, they expect want dinner in a show, bro.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Well, I am definitely looking forward to it.
It is my favorite holiday. And our guest today, we were just talking about thanksgiving and giving.
We why don't we welcome Maria Quattrone from Remax at home, Maria Quattrone and associates, broker, owner and leader and the queen of Philadelphia real estate. Maria, thanks for joining us today.
[00:04:16] Speaker D: Thanks for having me.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Are you excited about thanksgiving?
[00:04:20] Speaker D: I am, although it'll be very small, only five of us, but yeah, a little sad. However, I'm still grateful and it sure beats last thanksgiving.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: What was last thanksgiving?
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Ng not good.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: No.
[00:04:50] Speaker C: Well, you can't leave us hanging now. You got to give some details.
[00:04:54] Speaker D: Yeah, we're going to skip that for another day, another podcast. Good night.
Yeah.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: We usually have about 1516 people at our Thanksgiving. That's normal. I usually help my father in law cook on Wednesday, and then I used to go to my mom's on actual Thanksgiving. So I would cook for his 20 people, help him cook for his 20 people, and then I'd actually eat at my mom's. But we took over Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, so now I cook and prep and everything on Wednesday here. I usually go over to my father in law's house for a photo op and then come back and get back to work.
So it's definitely going to be a busy 24 hours.
He loves taking pictures and putting that shit on Facebook. So I have to go over, I got to put the apron on. He got a toast and take a picture.
Mason's a Facebook. I don't have to tell you.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: I know it. I call him on Facebook.
I enjoy his stories.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Do you know Mason Hudell? Maria does any ring a bell?
[00:06:00] Speaker D: I do been.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: He's the one who suckered me into this mortgage business.
[00:06:05] Speaker D: Oh, dear. You should shoot him.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: I love this business, though.
I really would rather do this than anything else in the world. Just the thought of doing something else, especially because we get to do stuff like this, which is know indeed.
We're going to start with two truths and a lie, and then at the end, Joe's going to try and pick which one was the lie. So have added, what are your two truths? Three facts.
[00:06:36] Speaker D: Okay, so I've been to Europe over 20 times.
I'm 100% italian, and I've been to burning man before.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Joe, you got your work cut out for you, bro.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: I think I got it.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: All right.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: The more specific they get, the more likely that that's inaccurate.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: But save it for the end.
I don't know the answers. Last guest, I knew the answers and I blew it. Like halfway through, I made a comment that kind of teed up what the lie was, but I don't know the answer to those three questions, so I'm looking forward to it. So, Maria, we were talking the other day, and of course I'm following a lot of your content, and you're like the queen of content. How much content do you put out on a daily basis?
[00:07:38] Speaker D: Well, I do one video live streamed every day, which goes to eight different places. And then the team, marketing team puts out three reels a day on Facebook and Instagram and all the places, and then additional post, so I don't know.
And then on Saturdays, I do a Q and a Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. I have a subject expert guest on, and I do the podcast gets launched on Friday morning. So just brought that back to life. It was a little bit on a hiatus for a minute, but I've on episode 138, and I've done, in the last week or two, I've done another four. So we'll have 150 before year end.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: 150 before year end.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Do you love doing this, or is it something you deem necessary?
[00:08:46] Speaker D: Well, first of all, my goal is to be in contribution and to give back to the real estate community and make sure that our clients, or potential clients, sellers, buyers, investors, know what's going on in the industry. So I feel it's my duty to bring that know. I was reminded of this yesterday in mass when Father Jeremy talked about people wasting their talents or about not sharing your talent with other people. And it's our responsibility to share our talents, to share our information, to be in abundance and so that's what awesome.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: And it is.
I have the book here, but there is a quote. Did you ever read the miracle morning by Hal Elrod?
[00:09:39] Speaker D: Yes, sir.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: And I know that he took this from another book. I can't remember, but it's something along the lines, bright, don't dim your light for other people.
Shine bright. Do your thing. Bring your talents, because not only do you contribute to the world, but also you encourage and you give people courage so that they go out and contribute as well. And I think that's one of those ancillary benefits that is not often talked about enough when we're out here trying to share with whatever wisdom, whatever knowledge that we have that we think someone might benefit from, hopefully it encourages and boldens people to do the same thing, which I think is absolutely.
[00:10:24] Speaker D: I started out my day today on social about I'm going to write my list of gratitude and I'm going to share it on Thursday, on Thanksgiving. And so I'm going to challenge myself to come up with 100 things. And you had said you did this before.
I did do this, actually, several years ago. And then I gave that piece of paper to somebody and I never received that piece of paper back, which is why I hate giving away pieces of paper I write things on.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:10:53] Speaker D: So I'm going to write the list, starting it tonight and then I have to be done by Wednesday night. Put it down on Thursday.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: It starts to flow. I can tell you that.
Once you get grooving, you know what I mean? You really start to. I have my hundred here now. I wrote this list a very long time ago, but it's interesting. I have people, coaches that I coached with back then on here, loan officers that I worked with.
I'm grateful for audiobooks. That's still real. I was joking earlier that number 86 was rum and coke. And I think it's kind of a weird thing to be grateful for, but it was on there.
[00:11:35] Speaker D: I think I had wine on my last list.
[00:11:38] Speaker C: So do you start with number one and go to 100 or do you start with 100 and get to one?
[00:11:45] Speaker B: I will tell you, number one of mine is Amy.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: All right.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: My wife Amy.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: So she beat out rum and coke. That's good.
[00:11:56] Speaker D: I think I'm going to start with one.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: So the most important is going to be number one for you.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: Indeed.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: But you're not going to share that with us because then that would take away the surprise this week. So I won't ask you who or what number one is, but number 100 is my sisters in law and I don't think that that is indicative of their value in my life. So, yes, I did start with Amy, but definitely my sister in laws are way more important than ramen coke as well. So for the rest, well, that's okay.
[00:12:38] Speaker D: You think about things and they're just going to be on the list. Doesn't matter, although the first couple probably do.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Maria, how long you been in the real estate business?
[00:12:49] Speaker D: In two months will be 20 years.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Congratulations.
[00:12:52] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: You've accomplished some really cool things in following your stuff. One of the things I noticed is that you really do kind of enjoy and lean into being a leader and leading people and coaching and helping and training.
In one of your interviews, you had mentioned that you consider yourself the rainmaker.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Now.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: As opposed to, I guess your job is to go out there and generate the business. And you have people now that a team that's going to work on the business.
I want you to share with us your thoughts on, and this is not controversial, but I have heard it from a couple of different people that in order to become a CEO, the hustler must die. Have you ever heard that phrase?
[00:13:43] Speaker D: I have not.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Okay. The idea being is that you can't be doing the grinding and the hard work if you're going to be the CEO. And I know that that's something a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with and even salespeople. I struggle with it, Maria, because I'm building a team. Know, where do I want to be? Do I want to be taking applications or do I want to know? Growing a branch of loan officers. And I'm kind of always deciding whether to hold on to those vines or let go and become a sales leader instead of a salesperson. Do you struggle with that at all, or have you decided this is my role. How do you describe your business from that perspective?
[00:14:28] Speaker D: I think you have to go by what's going on. So if you need to pivot based on the current state of affairs, meaning get back in, roll your sleeves up, do the work just like the agents are doing, showing them, modeling what's required today, I think sitting behind a desk and just hoping that something will change. And you really need today, in today's environment, today's marketplace, to be the model. Show them how it's done. And so you're not sitting in an ivory.
I guess I don't agree with that thought about, you can't do the hustle and all it. If you're not doing it and they're not doing it, who the hell is doing it, right?
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Joe what do you mean? You're, from an entrepreneur standpoint, still kind of in a position where you're still doing both, right?
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that at this.
[00:15:37] Speaker D: And.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: It depends on the business, but meaning depending upon which business I'm speaking of, of mine. But I look at it that number one, to that point, you have to be the engine, you have to drive the business. And what that looks like a lot of times, especially in the beginning as you're growing it out, is you're doing the work. And so you're setting in the example. You're running through the walls and you're hoping that the people around you, the people you're bringing up are seeing that you're willing to work hard and you're willing to do it. So what I like to look at it, I kind of think of it as like, you know how out here with the forest fires, they do what are called controlled burns, so they'll burn like a portion of the forest, so they know that it won't catch and burn down. And so I do this with the people that work for me, and you give them just enough freedom or leeway to do something. And if you can see, like they're doing it wrong or it's not going to work, you give them the luxury of doing it their way until you get the result. And sometimes you learn that, like, hey, maybe that's a better way. They figured it out. It's different from me. But nine times out of ten, they falter. And then you have to step in and say, okay, this is how we do it, and this is why we do it. So it's really just managing from above and then stepping in when necessary and leading by example. So you're never really out of the hustle game. You're more of a guardian angel, if you will, that comes in and says, okay, this is how we do it when someone isn't stepping up. So all efforts need to go in the right direction or in the same direction. And that's what's been successful for me, is just letting people fail in a controlled environment where we can correct it and then help them grow from that failure.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: How hard is that? Maria, when you're working with a young agent or a newer agent, and you kind of know, you know what they should be doing, but do you let them kind of make their mistakes, like as a parent would let their kid kind of mess up, just not because you want them to mess up, but if they don't face some adversity, if they don't have those failures, they won't learn from it. Is there a balancing act there as a trainer, as a leader?
[00:18:05] Speaker D: To a degree, I think that number one thing is you have to do the work. And I don't see enough people really wanting to do the work.
Biggest, that's the biggest thing. If you do the work, you can fail yourself right forward. I don't care. We're here. We oversee the contracts, we oversee the pricing on listings.
We make sure that they're getting BAC signed by our agency.
So we have a very much more of a controlled process than probably 99% of the other people out there.
We actually have a daily huddle every day on conference called 830. So we're going over what you got going on today. Do you have any closings? Do you have any listings? Are you writing any offers? Do you have any offers out for negotiation? Do you have any buyer's appointments? Do you have any listing appointments, how many conversations you're going to have and how many appointments you're going to set from those conversations.
So we had a cadence to the call. We have weekly meetings, so the rope isn't too far. There's a little bit of rope there, but it's not a long rope.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It can't be in this business. I don't think it can be. I guess in some respects, I get it. You want them to learn, but especially when it's your reputation, it's your business that's on the line, it's your referrals, it's your testimonials. You do have to make sure you got to hold everybody to a pretty high standard to make sure that things are getting done the right way every time. And I think systems, you mentioned it. Systems are so important. Right? I mean, just the fact when I asked earlier, you do a lot of content and you're like, yeah, I do this on this day, this on this.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Day, this on this.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Talk a little bit more about how important systems are to any business, not just a real estate business.
[00:19:57] Speaker D: I don't know how you can run a business without having processes and systems. Otherwise you're wasting a lot of time. You're going to leave things a chance, which means the outcome probably isn't going to be good for either party. And that's when mistakes happen and things fall through the cracks. And even with systems and processes, you need the people to people process systems without the people doing the process in the system.
Forget it. We had a meeting this morning. We meet every Monday at 08:00 a.m. As a back office. Okay. I said I want every single thing documented in follow up. So client calls in. It's documented that this client called this day and this time.
What's the next steps on the listing? It's documented. The pictures are being done tomorrow morning, the 21 November at 10:00 a.m. I want every single thing documented. We have to make sure and over communicate with people, over communicate with the client, over communicate with the other side. Our biggest difficulties in this industry is dealing with the other side of the transaction.
When we do our own deals, we have less problems and more money.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Right, because you're controlling the whole thing.
[00:21:20] Speaker D: And we're a listing office. We do work with buyers too, but we focus 100% on generating listing opportunities and then signing those clients up with us.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Do you think that systems and business development gets overlooked in sales where it's like, okay, it's easier to come up with a system when the transaction comes in the door. Like there are certain trigger points and there's timelines, and these are urgent things that have to get done. But what about the important but not urgent things like prospecting and business development?
[00:21:56] Speaker D: Well, prospecting is at the top of my list. Nothing else should happen unless prospecting happens.
So you could say there's a fire. Okay, well, can the fire wait for 2 hours?
[00:22:13] Speaker B: That's the level of priority prospecting gets for you.
[00:22:17] Speaker D: Follow up.
And when you do that, this is our priority list. Right? This is our priority. Okay, so if I say there's an offer coming in, we have to get an offer out, or we're sending a listing contract out.
What's one, two, and three? What do you think?
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Say it again.
[00:22:39] Speaker D: Okay, we receive an offer in one of our listings, we have to send an offer out to somebody else's listing, and we are getting a new listing, and we have to send out a listing contract.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: I would say sending an offer out is the most important.
[00:23:01] Speaker D: Then what?
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Then presenting the listing to the seller.
Is that one of them?
[00:23:12] Speaker D: No. Yeah. That is presenting the offer?
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Yes. You mean presenting an offer to the seller? Yes. That would be number two.
Is that how you would rank it?
[00:23:23] Speaker D: So one, two, three is sending the offer out, getting a listing contract out, and then presenting the offer.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So listing contract comes in before presenting the offer?
[00:23:34] Speaker D: Yeah, because I control presenting the offer.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: Okay, interesting.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: And then rum and coke is number five.
[00:23:47] Speaker D: I don't drink rum and I don't drink coke.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: So with regard to time, does time play a role in how you prioritize those activities?
[00:24:05] Speaker D: I'm time blocked every day, I work by a schedule. I work off a calendar.
Even my personal things are in my calendar.
Like yesterday, I got up, I cooked breakfast, I went to church, I went to espositos to pick up turkey. And we go to the butcher shop every Sunday. And then we go to the produce place. We get a butcher shop, produce place. Then we went to church, concert. Then I came home, we had cooking to do, and then dinner. But everything, even that is in my schedule.
Saturday morning, get up, 10:00 a.m.. Q and a 11:00 a.m. Conference call with back office. Twelve noon, getting a facial. 01:00 husband picks me up, go to Friggin Costco, came back, cooked dinner, had guest over. 07:00. Everything's in schedule. It's not in schedule. I don't do it.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: So you surrendered to the schedule?
[00:25:13] Speaker D: I follow a calendar.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Why doesn't everybody? I have no idea.
Why doesn't everybody?
[00:25:21] Speaker D: I don't understand. I don't know. Can't answer the question. I follow a calendar.
[00:25:28] Speaker C: I found that the people who don't are, I call it, they're the busiest, non busy people in the world. If you don't have a schedule and you talk to, oh, can you do this?
And I was guilty of it for years. I just kind of flew by the seat of my pants. And then in the past couple of years, I just really started waking up at 430 in the morning and training and then gym and all this stuff. And I've found so much more time and I've been able to enjoy the things that I'm doing because I know that there's a start and an end to it and then what's next. So, yeah, it's pretty amazing the freedom that you have when you go by a schedule because you know what you're doing.
I think people get scared of it. Well, to answer, why don't people do it? I think because they get scared of it. And it's like, it seems like a lot of work and it's very committal. When you have a schedule, you're like, I'm going to do this. And I think a lot of people are just non committal to that discipline and kind of feel like, well, what if I don't stick to it?
[00:26:31] Speaker D: Then you can recommit tomorrow.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Exactly.
Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker D: If the sun rises for you tomorrow, you can recommit tomorrow.
[00:26:40] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:26:43] Speaker D: We train on this, focus on today only, what's in front of you.
We can't change yesterday. Tomorrow is not promised. The only thing we have is today the present. Twice called a present.
Focus on what you can do today. Have your top six things that you need to get done. Focus on micro commitments.
What are my micro commitments? Okay, I have 2 hours of calling in the database. 3 hours of calling in the database. Did 20 hours of talk time last week. People are like, what, people can't do 1 hour death.
Now I'm very different than most people. And guess what? I was tired. I did the week before, too. I was tired, like Saturday. I could barely get up to do my q and A at ten. I slept till last possible minute. I didn't go to bed super early either. Probably like 1130, which is not bad on a Friday, but still, when I have to get up, it's probably a little too late.
I'm obsessed with the show on Netflix, so I got to watch it.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Which show is it?
[00:28:01] Speaker D: It's so dumb. Manifest.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Manifest. Is that the airplane one?
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: I was addicted to that show, Maria.
[00:28:11] Speaker D: You were what?
[00:28:12] Speaker B: I was addicted to that show. And what season are you on?
[00:28:17] Speaker D: I am. When the mother died and they still didn't find Eden stone. But now we know that she's with that nut job.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: You're past where I was.
I stopped watching it. I don't know what it was.
It got so out there for me. And I was like, well, it is out there.
[00:28:40] Speaker D: And that's my little daily escape, going out there. My husband goes up to bed around ten, and I sail for another hour and watch whatever I want.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: I'll tell you the first couple.
[00:28:56] Speaker D: What?
[00:28:57] Speaker B: The first couple of seasons. I got goosebumps from watching some of these episodes.
[00:29:00] Speaker D: Good. Now we're also watching the light you cannot see.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: The light you cannot see. I haven't heard of that one.
[00:29:09] Speaker D: It's about World War II. It's a story, I think it's just four episodes.
It's really good.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: You said something in passing. I want to go back to your six most important things.
Why six?
[00:29:29] Speaker D: Well, if you put an hour to each thing or a half hour to each thing, then you have prospect follow up. To me, that's part of six.
Most people can't do more than that many things in a day.
On top of other things like listing, appointment or. You have to know what they are. Another thing I do is that I have made decisions on what the food is happening for the week on Sunday.
So I try to eliminate having to make any stupid decisions, like more than once.
Meaning before all that, I did start doing all this every night. 04:00 or whatever time my husband called. What are we having for dinner tonight? I don't know. What do you want to have for dinner? Well, I don't know. What do you want to have for dinner? Or where do you want to go to eat? I don't know. How about here? No, I don't want that. Whatever you want. How about here? No, I don't want that. Have you had these conversations?
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:30:36] Speaker D: I don't have them anymore. There is no more conversation. We have a menu laid out for the week, and I cook all of our food, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unless we go out to dinner, which now we're only down to, like, one day a week. Going out because it's too expensive and it's really not that good.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: No, it's not.
Food at the restaurant, they're terrible for you.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: I don't think.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: What's that?
There was a study that the human brain can really only make a certain amount of decisions in the day.
[00:31:18] Speaker D: And that's correct.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: You've experienced a decision fatigue. You get to the end of the day and you're exhausted, and you can't make that last one. Where do we eat? Because you've made so many decisions throughout the course of the day. I think that's a great skill and a great habit to build is to eliminate those decisions. In fact, I think it was. Know, you look at people like Steve Jobs. He wore the same thing every day. He wore the let's go.
[00:31:44] Speaker D: Let's go to that.
Depending on the day and if I'm going anywhere after work or like a work meeting or like an event, I have pretty much know what I'm going to wear. For the most part, I'm not trying to figure out what I'm wearing. These are the things I have, and I'm just going to mix, match, whatever. Like, today, I'm having a nice sweater on and a pair of slacks and a pair of boots. I'm not leaving the office.
I go to my office every day. That's another thing. I do not work from home. I do not like working from home.
I require people, so I want to be around my people, and I don't want to have to make decisions that I don't need to make that they're easy to make on Sunday for the rest of the week.
It does take a lot of time and energy to be like, what am I eating for lunch today?
Okay, I got to go to the store and go get the salad. Forget it. I bring the stuff. Either I make the salad at home or I bring the ingredients and I chop the tomato, cucumbers, lettuce, chicken. Put it. Avocado needs a dressing. I make it right on the salad. Lunch was ready in ten minutes. My husband's here. I called him. He was downstairs. Like, lunch is ready.
He gets lunch at all. Cooked meals.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: That's a pretty good deal right there.
[00:33:18] Speaker D: Yeah. Right.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Another thing is it goes back to your schedule, right? And you decide you already created your schedule for the week. Because if we're left to make a decision based on how we feel in the moment, chances are we're going to make bad decisions, chances are we're going.
[00:33:34] Speaker D: To feel like shit. We don't feel like calling people. Oh, I'm not going to do this today. Like, I started off this morning on a GPAr. They had some guy on about your business plan, whatever. I wanted to hear what he had to say, see if I learned anything or not.
I did get a little nugget about a book. Fierce conversations. I'm going to get that book and I'm going to read it.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: What's it called?
[00:33:57] Speaker D: Fierce conversations.
So after that, I got on the phone and I just called people until I eat lunch.
Then I had a 01:00 call, and now I'm on with you guys. But if I don't have a listing appointment in my schedule, and I do a lot of my appointments on the phone, then I'm on the phone calling people. Unless I have time blocked to do some marketing things, which I really do, limited amount. I have three people on a marketing team and two, plus my ea, who oversees it and who drives the bus on it. So I try to stay out of it as much as possible and just focus on bringing listings into the company and working with the agents.
I hold the team meeting and the training during that time.
But look, in this environment, proximity is everything. If you're not in a room with the right people, leave the room. You're not a tree you can move. So leave and go to a place where people are going to help hold you accountable to what you agreed to do. Accountability is the highest form of love you can give a human.
And people say they want to be accountable, but then they don't want to do the stuff. And you have to keep drilling in and saying, okay, you didn't do it yesterday, do you want to recommit today? As long as they keep saying yes, and we will give them a borrowed belief. So their colleague got the listing or got something under contract or made the calls, they can do the same thing.
So borrowing that belief, like, I borrow the belief from others that are doing more than I am. And I want to mention something, guys, because I think it's really important for people to hear this. You're not going to be able to do all these little things at once.
And if you're not using the calendar, I know this sounds really basic, people, but it will change your life. When you start holding yourself accountable to your schedule, you put it in there, you follow it. Because I can say that the more that you stay committed to what you said you're going to do, you will be in integrity. And it builds confidence. And the more that you do, the more that you're going to want to do because you have more confidence and you're winning. Everybody wants to win. So that's why I say only six things. Only focus on today. Find a win in today. Find a personal win. Find a professional win. We all have them borrow belief from somebody else's win in your organization.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: That's gold right there. I love that.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: Powerful stuff for sure.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: You know what else I noticed too, Maria, about time blocking and calendar. When you're on your a game and you are honoring your calendar. I remember before I was in the practice of time blocking, before I focused on my calendar the way, and it's a practice, trust me, I'm not perfect. I'm still trying to get better at honoring and not.
That's what I'm supposed to be doing right now. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. And I'm certainly getting better at it. But I always felt like I was on borrowed time. I always felt like if I was doing this, I should be doing that. If I was doing this, I should be doing that. I never really felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing in the moment, even if it came to spending time with my family. I felt like if I was upstairs spending time with my family, I should be out prospecting, I should be out doing these things. And when you time block and you schedule, it frees you up to stop feeling that way. Because if you're supposed to be spending time with your family, it's in your calendar. Everything else is already taken care of. So enjoy that time with your family. If you're supposed to be prospecting, don't worry about following up on your transactions that are in the pipeline because there's already time in the schedule for that. And it actually allowed me to be better at each thing because I didn't feel like I should be doing something else. And that was a huge eye opener for me. When I started time blocking and putting everything into the calendar. And I keep track of my activities as well. I try and make sure I'm hitting all the productive, important, but not urgent activities. And I'm a fanatic about tracking. I don't know how you feel about writing down and keeping track of all the things you're doing a day.
I'm fanatical about it. Is that something that you teach?
[00:38:39] Speaker D: So I print my calendar. I have my calendar printed out every morning.
So I'm looking at the piece of paper and I'm writing on the piece of paper other things that need to get done as well.
And also I use the CRM to make my calls so I can track how many dials are made, how many attempts people answered, how many conversations, how many appointments were set, and all that kind of stuff. So that also gives you real data to see if you're on track to see what you need to step up on. What did you do last month? What did you do last quarter? What did you do in the first half of the year?
We've done brought more listings in from July 1 till October 31 than we did from January through June.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: And what do you attribute that to?
[00:39:44] Speaker D: Activity.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Action. Action. Action.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: Action.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:39:51] Speaker C: That's what they say.
[00:39:53] Speaker D: Yeah. I want to mention something, Ken, you said, reminded me of something so you said about being with your family. You think you should be doing this or doing this, you think you should be doing that. And it reminded me of, I used to go to all these different. And I still go to some events, but I used to go to a lot of events, and it's like you're talking to one person and then you're looking over there.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:18] Speaker D: And then you're looking over there and you're like, am I missing. It's like, oh, no. Right. Fear missing out. Fear missing out on whatever that is.
Right.
[00:40:28] Speaker C: Like me at the bars when I was.
[00:40:31] Speaker D: You're at the bar.
You guys are all old enough to have been clubbing, I think.
So we're clubbing. The clubbing was the best in the eat and then the early 2000.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Anyway, did you go to Egypt? What was your nightclub? Was it Egypt shampoo.
[00:40:52] Speaker C: You hang out at shampoo?
[00:40:54] Speaker D: I went to Egypt shampoo. Aztec, a floor, Maui. Francine's networks.
Enchante. West la cafe. I'm really dating myself.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Listen, that was the golden era of clubs in Philadelphia without a. I was.
[00:41:13] Speaker D: Going out like five nights a week.
I don't know if it was normal or not. Probably wasn't normal, but that's what I did. It was fun nonetheless. So I'd have this be at events, and I would have this fear of, like, should I be over there? Should I be over there? So once I stopped that and I just was present with the moment and whoever I was with, I started to actually enjoy my life more.
I actually started to really enjoy just the time instead of thinking I'm missing out on something. And so I went to this event about a month ago or so. They had this woman speak about luxury real estate.
I mean, she's in Tahoe. So for the billionaire, people buy houses.
Billionaires row, it's called. So we actually wrote the bike down. Billionaires row. But she spoke about how luxury real estate, it's about slowing down, enjoying life, enjoying people, loving everything, not being in judgment. It's very, very interesting information that she shared. Her name is Sherry.
Christ.
Think that's what it was? Anyway, phenomenal woman.
And there was a lot there, like, really thinking about it, talking about leading from your heart, showing your heart, showing who you truly are, being your most at the authentic.
And that's what I work on, try to emulate when I do my videos, and people will know, the way I'm on the video is the way I am in life. The way I am at the office is the way I am at the house.
I've always been like that. I don't have a different Persona.
And I think that's one of the reasons that when you can do that and be authentic, you have the capability of connecting with many people and really listening to them and their needs and what it is. And not even listening to what they don't say as much as what they do say.
What aren't they saying?
So that's something. I think that, one, you need to be present. Two, it takes time and it.
And it's a whole nother level. There's no script involved with it. See, the script is, I already know the questions to ask, so I don't need to have a script verbatim. We do use scripts, but they're not scripts because they're dialogue. It's like if you're going to the doctor, the nurse is going to ask you these questions, right? They're going to take your blood pressure. They're going to weigh you. They're going to do all these things. It's the same thing in our industry. We have to do these things. You have to run the credit.
You have to know what the DTI is. You have to get the income statements, the w two or whatever those things are, requirements. Just like I need to know the answers to certain questions so that I can best help somebody or not. It's not a script. We happen to put it that way so that you don't forget to ask a question, like, are you being sued right now by anybody? How about that one?
[00:44:58] Speaker B: I've never asked that question.
[00:45:00] Speaker D: Well, we have to ask that question. We have to ask if there's any liens on the property, right?
[00:45:05] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:45:06] Speaker D: You should know. What if they have an IRS lien, they can't buy the house.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: Well, in the application, we do involved.
[00:45:15] Speaker D: We don't have the application, so we ask. Right. Anyway, that was a lot of stuff I just said.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: But you know what? It was all good, and it was a great way. As we're getting ready to wrap up here, it was a great way to bring it all full circle, too. So I appreciate that, but we covered a lot of ground today. But there's so much more that I want to talk with you about, and I'm hoping that you'd be willing to join us again on another date. But we can absolutely dig in even further.
[00:45:41] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: All right, now, Joe, two truths in a lie. Maria has been to Europe 20 times.
Maria is 100% italian. Or Maria has been to burning man.
Which one is it?
[00:46:01] Speaker C: I believe the lie is she has not been to Europe 20 times. And given the length of her career, with some Covid years in there, it would be very difficult to get to Europe 20 times. So burning man is, like, where you would pull that out of the blue.
That couldn't just be off your head. So my guess is 20 times to Europe.
Maybe you've been there 1012 Max. But not 20.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: All right, Maria, what's the truth?
[00:46:41] Speaker D: What's the lie? Or what's the truth?
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Tell us which ones are true and which one's the lie.
[00:46:46] Speaker D: Okay, so, yes, I have been to burning man. I was there in 2008, and I have been to Europe over 20 times.
[00:46:57] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:46:59] Speaker D: What?
[00:47:00] Speaker C: No way.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:47:01] Speaker D: My first year I went was 1999.
And some years we hit it twice. We went twice.
[00:47:09] Speaker C: No way. Wow. That is awesome.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Not 100% italian.
Just blew your mind, Joe.
[00:47:22] Speaker C: I got tricked. How about that?
That's what you do. You don't assume. I just assumed. Italian, last name, South Philly. Hey, that's it. But, no, I was 100% on guessing correctly, and you just broke my streak.
If I had known about club and too burning man, that was a lock. Like, she's definitely been the burning man.
[00:47:57] Speaker D: I thought I would get you on the burning man thing.
[00:48:01] Speaker C: Obscure? It's way too obscure. So, I don't know. I was actually hoping you were going to give a shout out to Bahama Bay in Philadelphia.
[00:48:11] Speaker D: Bahama Bay? No, I didn't like that one.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: Maria, I texted you a sample. Two truths and a lie. One was I was born in Hawaii. One was I ran a marathon and the other was giving it away. Now, what was the other one?
[00:48:30] Speaker C: Could have been true.
[00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I was going to ask if you had a guess as to which one of those was the lie.
The other one was, oh, I graduated top of my class in high school. So which one of those three is the lie?
[00:48:43] Speaker D: Maria, I forget what you said already.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: I was born in Hawaii, I ran a marathon, and I was top in my class in high school.
[00:48:55] Speaker D: I'm gonna say you. I'm gonna say the lie is the marathon.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: I was not my class in high school.
November 2021. 2022. When was it? Last year. Last year, actually.
[00:49:14] Speaker D: 26 miles.
[00:49:16] Speaker B: 26.2 miles.
[00:49:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: It was crazy. It was nuts.
[00:49:21] Speaker D: Did you train for it?
[00:49:23] Speaker B: I did.
That training was very difficult, but I think the most I ran during my training was 16 miles. That was my longest run prior to the actual race. But from there, it's just a matter of.
[00:49:38] Speaker D: I saw a guy yesterday and it was about. We came out of the church concerts, it was around three and looked like he was just getting done and he couldn't walk. He was like.
He looked bad.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: Yeah. The Philly marathon was this weekend.
I think it was this weekend.
[00:49:58] Speaker D: Yeah, it was yesterday. Yeah.
[00:50:00] Speaker C: No chance. I don't know why people do that, man.
[00:50:03] Speaker D: I have no desire to run a marathon.
[00:50:06] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:50:08] Speaker D: None whatsoever. Well, this is great, guys. Thanks so much for having me on.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: Well, we appreciate. Thank you for making the time and enjoy the rest of your week. Have a happy, happy Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to hearing. Are you going to give the whole list of 100?
[00:50:23] Speaker D: I'm going to do my damnedest right?
[00:50:25] Speaker B: I can't wait. I can't wait.
All right, guys, will we see everybody later at our next podcast, selling the dream. Have a great day.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to selling the dream. We know you don't want to miss a single episode, so go subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts, and then make sure to share the show with your friends and leave us a review.
Bye.
