Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another episode of Ken and Ed's mini podcast. Today we have a very cool topic in line with some of our other conversations that we're having in the volume six of the Blueprint Shameless Plug.
We are going to be talking today about grit. Grit is a.
Is an important attribute. It's an important thing to define. You know the quote that I came up with today, Ed, first of all, Ed, how are you?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: I'm doing great, man.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: All right.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: I'm writing down notes. Things are. My. My neurons are just firing right now.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: That's what I love about you. All right, so here's a quote from Angela Duckworth. Grit is like living is. Is grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint. I love that quote because I think that most people can't even define what grit is, and they mislabel some behaviors and some actions, you know, some energy as grit, when it's not really that. That they're missing. They're missing the mark, man. So. So let's start with. How would you. How does Ed Fordyce define grit?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: I just wrote down, and a marathon is nothing more than a bunch of mini sprints.
Grit is a decision.
You know where you're going. So the decision's been made.
This is where I'm going like that. Just like if you set out to drive from Philadelphia to la, like, you know where you're going, you may have to detour, depending on what's going on, but you know where you're going. Grits also just standards.
It's. It's a standard of living.
You can't have grit.
Barry Keller said will, like, I look at grit, like willpower. Willpower is not on will call.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: That is a great line. Willpower is not on will call. It's a. It's a. It's a behavioral standard, and that's another word. I love standards.
I think that, you know, as we talk about grit in defined in our world and in the real estate, in the mortgage world, there's so much adversity, major adversity, minor adversity. Many adversities, like a lot of people think that getting a no is like this massive adversity, and it's not tough enough. Right? Get, get, get with it. But we do deal with adversity on a regular basis. And I think that, you know, you have to be so passionate about where you're going that you're willing to persevere around whatever detour, whether it's a minor detour, you know, A mini detour or a major detour. Like you got to be willing to persevere around that stuff.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: No doubt. And you, you, you mentioned the word like tough, toughen up or toughness. And it is a lot of times that can be looked at as like, oh, that's like a macho word. But it's a state of mind, emotional and mental toughness and all that, all that is is in my opinion, from my experience, you can't do it alone. Being surrounded by the right tribe, the right people that are going to lift you up.
But it's also a muscle that is built through putting ourselves in situations voluntarily that build that toughness. So I'll give you an example.
The situations and the tribe of the brotherhood, I'm constantly putting myself and them in situations where they should quit through workouts, through things like that. But because we simply don't quit, my mind right now has 20 years of that conditioning of life. And it's. It happens in the gym where Muhammad Ali said he starts counting sit ups when they start getting hard.
Like that's a mindset.
It is Ed Mylet the power of one more.
I never do 100 reps.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Always 101, 101.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: And the reason why I do that and this isn't, this is just me going on a ba builds confidence and self esteem. I know when I come up against someone, God forbid, if it's something on the street or it's in a training or I know they haven't done what I've done to prepare.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: You know what else it does, Ed? And this is something that I think a lot of real estate agents and mortgage people, okay, I always say this business rewards mediocrity heavily, okay? Meaning that you don't even have to be great at this business to make a good living. And that's a blessing and a curse in a lot of ways. But what happens is you get stuck with this mindset of what I call good enough mindset, right? Like, like you, you start the year off, I want to do 50 transactions this year. I want to do, you know, 25 buy sides this year, whatever, whatever your original goal was. And like, you start to like build this momentum and all of a sudden the activities that you're putting in and the effort you're putting in and starting to show some, some rewards and you start getting closer and closer to that goal and you're like, hey man, even if I don't get to 40, 50, 40 is good enough. And, and it's just that that's a Mentality, the good enough mentality is what separates good from great. It's, it's, it's what, it's what takes you from a mediocre good living to achieving things that you maybe never thought were possible 10 years ago. Doing one more and you're right, it that it takes grit and perseverance and standards. We're just throwing around buzzwords it seems like, but the, it's all true. To get to, to get one more to fight against the good enough mentality to achieve what you didn't think was even possible at one point in your life.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Can I throw in another word that anybody that's listening to this is going to go. I call it like the Scooby Doo thing.
That word is humility.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Humility.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: To have grit you have to have humility.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: That's great.
That's great.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: When I first started coaching Mike Cianci one on one, I said to him and he wouldn't mind me sharing this, what's the one thing you want to get out of our coaching relationship? And this is when he was only doing 15 million a year, maybe even 20 million.
Without hesitation he said, keep me humble.
Someone with grit. Especially in our business, dude. Like here's the deal. I love all of the top producers. I love all the leaders.
Let's get real.
We're in the real estate business. Business. No one is going to name a park after us, right? We're just in the real estate business, right? So let's stay humble. Let's operate with humility. And to put that into context, one of the well known coaches that coached all the megas and they were like this guy is unbelievable. I won't get into the details but it's public knowledge. He's just so good.
He just got locked up for like in bizarre situation.
And we put people in our business that sell 500 homes a year or have recruited 10,000 agents on this pedestal. Like they're something and they think they're something.
Humility, man. Humility. Get up every day and serve our clients, serve the agents. Let's do it in a very humble way where more than likely, dude. And I know I get up on my soapbox, probably not going to be any parks named after Ed Fordy spent all.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: I don't know if that's 100% true, Ed. I'm not, we're not going to argue about it now. But, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna reserve my opinion on that topic. But, but humility is a funny thing because you know this business is a humbling business. As you're. As you just pointed out, someone who thinks that they're on top of the world one minute can be humbled the next. And we're humble on a regular basis. And I think that, you know, as we get focusing on resilience, focusing on grit as a real estate age, almost humility is the willingness to be humbled. Think about the amount of people out there that get humbled and immediately start blaming and pointing the finger and all the external forces that caused you to lose that transaction, lose that deal. Instead of being willing to say, okay, I'm going to take on whatever, whatever this lesson is, and I'm going to learn from it. I'm going to step back up again. It's that, that willingness to accept, reflect, analyze, and then step back up again. That's the perseverance piece. That's the grip piece. And the beauty of it is I heard this today. It's not the first time I've heard it, but I heard it today and it just jumped out at me. Pain is a very efficient teacher.
And success is a terrible drug, you know, so you can be at the top of the top. Just remember, you might just be riding the high of success, but. But if you're not willing to accept the pain that comes with rejection, the pain that comes with failure, the pain with, you know, loss.
How many, how many leaders out there ed in the real estate business have recruited someone, trained someone, built someone up, and then that someone moves on and they hold this, like, resentment, this, like, you know, that. This animosity or this, this, this anger. The reality is like loss is a part of the business. And loss, like, what. What can you learn from that? What can you take from that experience that's gonna. That. What. What's that pain trying to teach you right now? Get minor adversity, mini adversity, major adversity, regardless, all of the pain that you're feeling, those many pains, minor pains and major pains, they're all lessons, very efficient lessons, too. Financial pain, especially success being a drug.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: We must have read or watched or maybe you sent something to me because I read or watched the same exact thing.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: I think I know what it was.
I think it was the most recent one of your favorite podcast, Real Estate Unfiltered.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Oh, you're right. Yes, yes, yes.
So grit. And I could go on a tangent about every. I put that on my b5 real estate tribe Facebook page.
Everyone needs to. Just a quick, quick clip. Everybody has to listen to that. And I think it starts at minute 30 where they talk about days on market, there's a lot of.
And, and as one of the real estate commissioners calls it, it's fraud when a seller signs a contract to sell their home through us and it's not on the mls, it may not be out there. It may be just quiet. Once they sign that day one starts the next day.
If you put it in the MLS a week later, days on market one. This is their words, not mine.
You're committing fraud and you will have your real estate license revoked.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I do remember hearing that part of it. I remember them talking about the days on market starts the day that you start telling anyone that the house is for sale. Right. Not just the people that are on the mls. It's an interesting podcast. We do. We, you know, I know you've promoted it and I've been listening to it and I do, you know, I also promote it as well. I think it's a, it's a great for, especially for real estate agents. They bring on some top notch guests and, and someday, who knows, Ed, maybe we'll be as awesome as they are.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So grit, man, like, what do you think of, like, who, who can you think of?
Whether it's in our local real estate world or it's out there in the, the superstar celebrity world? Like, is there somebody that comes. I know who comes to my mind. It's a story. But who comes to your mind as far as this is what under grit in the dictionary should be a picture of this person.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's a tough one to answer without prep, but, but without naming names, I'm going to say that there's a, there's a person in our industry who has suffered an unimaginable loss. And, and this person has been public with their loss and, and part of their grieving process has been, you know, talking about it regularly, but has maintained an extremely high level of, of production. And production is a cold word when we're talking about life and loss and family. But at the end of the day, the knowing that this business is about help, knowing that this business is a vehicle to help bring not just my family, but generations to come, hopefully of my family, my kids, my kids, kids, and my kids, kids, kids. You know, I'm looking to serve all of those people that I haven't even met and maybe never will.
That's what I want this business to be for me. And that's what I drive. That's what I strive for from a success standpoint. And I believe this person is Doing just that. You know, they are. They are maintaining their focus on the fact that this isn't just a paycheck. This is about them hopefully building generational wealth, you know, for their family, in spite of what would knock all of us down to our knees.
So that's the person I'm thinking of. I apologize for being anonymous with it, but. But I. I know exactly who I'm thinking of.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: That's cool. I think of a few things. Number one, I think of the true story about Sylvester Stallone, him making Rocky. If you Google or YouTube, Rocky, Tony Robbins tells it the best. Talk about grit. Holy smokes. I also think about anyone. Grit is someone who has overcome. And I think of my brothers and sisters in recovery. Like, it. It takes grit to continue that journey. And then I think of since it's right in our A.J. brown, number 11, without a doubt, Eagles, right? You listen to his story.
Look, none of us. None of us, like, we think we're unique in these struggles. It doesn't matter, you know, who you are.
And this is where we need the. The biggest thing I believe with grit is we need to have the tribe around us that reminds us who we are.
Right? And that's, like, when I think of that times in my life where, like, my grit was, like, digging into, like, the dirt, just holding on. And I remember my. My oldest sister said, and this was in a very trying time of my life, she said to me, gina, how many people that I run into? And. And they say to her, they say to me, this is my sister talking. Your brother Ed saved my life, dude. Like that. And I'm saying that 100% humility. And the reason why I'm saying I'm laughing, 100% humility is just because I've been to the dark side a few times, and physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and. And it's My grit is. I'm glad that I've been given those lessons. You know, grit in the real estate world is let's get up every day and serve our clients, serve each other, lift each other up. We can't lose when we do that.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: I'm reminded of a mantra that I use when. When I need to find a little bit of grit. And you're in that phase where you're trying to introduce yourself to people, you're trying to find.
You're not out looking for a paycheck. You're out looking for people to help. Okay. And if you think about it that way, it changes the mindset a little bit. Right? And that's an important thing to remember. You're not out looking for a paycheck. You're out looking for people to help. And that's what prospecting is all about in our business. And my first coach taught me, some will, some won't. So what? Someone's waiting. SWSWSW and that's helped me a lot of times in my prospecting when, yes, you're going to get people to hang up on. You're going to get people that doubt. You're going to get people that don't value you. You're going to get. All kinds of things are going to happen to you when you're out there looking for people to help. Some will, some won't. So what? Someone's waiting. Someone's waiting for your help. And I can tell you right now, Ed, just to touch on what you were just saying, for those of you that are listening, God bless you again. Anybody gets to minute 17, you're our favorite. We, you and I are here for those people, too. Like, if you guys are out there, if you are struggling with something at business, if you're struggling with something in your personal life, you know what I mean? You don't have anybody to talk to or bounce an idea off of or bounce you up off the mat, then obviously that's a big part of what we do and the serving that we do with our community.
All right, so here's what we're going to do. We got calls to action here. Okay? I'm gonna. I'm gonna say from a call to action standpoint, the first call to action, again, if you haven't gotten volume six of the blueprint, give me a call. I promise you it doesn't cost you anything. I'm just gonna give it to you. It's a phenomenal edition. I think I use that word phenomenal way too many times, but I just can't come up with another word.
And then what else. What else could someone do for the next seven days? What, what, what. What habit or what action can they take to help them with the development of their own grit?
[00:18:35] Speaker B: You know what? And only because I know you're sort of used to it. I'm not used to it, but the blueprint, the. The two or three that I've been a part of seeing.
Dude, the call to action is to reach out to you to get the blueprint.
And this is why. It has everything. It's. It's one of the most brilliant publications that I've seen. Like, that has everything we need in.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Does.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: And I mean that, like it's.
I've got one here and when I open it up, I'm like, the way this is orchestrated and put together, it is a blueprint, it is a playbook. It is real.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: And it works for agents and loan officers too. Even though it's agent centric, it's directed to agents. It works with, with, with anyone out there that has a big goal, that has something they want to accomplish, that has meaning and wants to make progress towards that meaningful goal. This is a. Is a huge tool.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean that. And if for some reason somebody's shy and doesn't want to reach out to you, the other go to. And I'm going to be specific with this coming from my Fitness World, YouTube wall squat. W A L L squat.
And do a wall squat as long as you can. I want you to put yourself in a position where you should quit. And when you feel like quitting, hang on five more seconds.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: And then five more seconds. You never know. I love that, man. Awesome time today. Hey, we ran a little bit long, but I think that's going to become a trend and it's okay. Enjoy your week, my friend, and we will chat soon.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: See you, brother.
