Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Dan Gomer, Realtor and Team Lead with eXp Realty Dan’s Home Team

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Dan Gomer is a former middle school science teacher turned entrepreneur. In 2011, a few months after his son was born, his desire for a better lifestyle for his family found him moving his sights to real estate. Along with having sales in the top 3% of realtors in Denver for many years, Dan has also built a noteworthy portfolio of real estate renovations and investments. In 2019 Dan became the first of an elite group of agents in Colorado to hold the Certified Divorce Real Estate Expert designation. He currently leads Dan’s Home Team, which is composed of 15 realtors, and he now directs most of his time and attention to coaching and developing those agents. He published his first book in 2020 titled “I’m Full of It and So Are You”. In 2022 he wrote a chapter in an anthology with the legendary Les Brown, and in February of 2023 he published “The Sphere Marketing Handbook – for RE Agents”.Learn more:https://www.danshometeam.comElite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-dan-gomer-realtor-and-team-lead-with-exp-realty-dans-home-team

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with this Dan Goamer, who's a team lead with Dan's home team at EXP Realty. Dan, welcome to the program. Thank you very much.

I appreciate you having me on. You're welcome. So I want to learn all about how you serve your clients and make an impact in the community, but get us started first with what is your story? What is your background? And how did you get into the real estate industry in the beginning? All right. Well, we'll see how quickly I can get through this.

Yeah. We don't have a four-hour program, right? Right, right. So I'm actually a former middle school science teacher. I taught eighth grade science for about seven years coached high school basketball and got into real estate in 2011, early 2011 as an investor. And eventually the market started to shift and I transferred my skills to just being a traditional real estate agent at that point.

And built my career up, you know, really started to take off, I would say, in like 2015 or so, nearly doubled my income every year all the way up until about 2020. And so by 2020, I had a nice book of business going. I was making some good money. And truth be told, I was fried. I was burned out. You know, I felt like all I did was work. I didn't have the relationship that I wanted with my kids and my wife just because

I was just frustrated all the time. And so it was at that point that I started, you know, making a shift in my business from being a real estate agent. to more of a team leader. That's when I really started to dive into building out my team and supporting them again. Well, not again, but getting back into teaching again. That's what I'm really passionate about. And so when it comes to real estate, to be honest, I like real estate, man.

What a fantastic vehicle to create wealth and build relationships and all these kinds of things. But at the end of the day, what I'm really passionate about, though, is watching other people grow. helping other people grow, finding ways to help them improve their lives. That's just how I'm wired. And so now I've got Dan's home team and that's, you know, growing. And that is where most of my focus goes. I still do real estate. But I'm hoping within the next year. So I can really cut that down to almost nothing and just focus on the team completely. Nate. Well, kind of coming from that middle school science teacher background of teaching and education, that carries over to, have so many ramifications in a positive realm because your clients don't appreciate being pushed and sold. They want to be taught and educated. And then they can make an educated decision. And same with

the agents as you're building your team. They don't want to be flung the, you know, a CRM or an Excel file and say, go for it and build a business. Good luck. They want someone to come alongside them and teach them. So I think that is such a powerful approach. And I see on your website that you are one of the top 5% of realtors in Metro Denver, and that has to be because you're taking this caring, authentic teaching approach. Yeah, I mean, I would like to think so. You know, I've heard people say that teachers make really good real estate agents, and I've seen that kind of in my, just through my career and meeting with other people,

because teachers tend, you know, most people don't become teachers because they want the money. You know, they become teachers because they're relationship driven. and they want to help other people. And so I think that's part of what makes them so good. And so my entire business has been built on what I call sphere marketing. And in fact, I've got a book called the Sphere Marketing Handbook that I wrote as a tool originally just for my team. And then ended up publishing it on Amazon. And so now I've got that.

But the whole point of that is building relationships. How do you get to know people? How do you provide value? staying in touch with them and just getting to know them. And as you build those relationships, you build that trust as they start to realize that you know what you're doing and those kinds of things. And then next thing you know, you have a business that it's hard to turn off, to be totally honest. You know, you brought up something, which is the R word, relationship. And so many times in real estate, you know, we hear the, hey, we've got a closing.

next week. You know, we'll meet you at the closing. Well, yeah, you're closing the transaction, but you're really opening that relationship. And it really should be that mindset. So talk a little bit about how you are developing that in your sphere, because I think the temptation is shotgun approach. Let's throw a bunch of money at name the technique, you know, ads, mailings, whatever. But when you can have a little bit of that, but balance it with developing true caring relationships, people can see right through that attempt to gain business and they resonate with relationships. Absolutely. And I'm sure you know a lot about this as well because it's probably a very similar thing that you see in your line of work and insurance as well. So kind of a loaded question.

You know, I think that one of the biggest pitfalls that a lot of early career real estate agents fall, into it, maybe even some that have been in it for 10 years and still just can't seem to get the ball rolling is that the problem is I'm not using the right tool. So let me try this tool. Okay, that didn't worry. Let me try this tool. Let me try this tool. And what ends up happening is they've got 50 tools, but they haven't really committed to anyone. And I'm a huge proponent for get rid of the tools. Simplify, simplify, simplify, pick one thing and just do it really, really, really well. Go find the experts, follow them, figure out how to do it.

And if you become an expert in that, you're going to get clients. Then going back to what you were saying is you get to the closing. I also know a lot of agents that they're like, hey, you know, I'm on this team or that team because they provide leads. And so they get a lead that comes in. They close it. And then they just go back to their team and they say, give me another lead. And it's one and done.

And I ask them, you know, do they have any referral business? and they're like, well, no, not really. The referral business comes from those relationships that you open up. And so, you know, maybe you're really good at making phone calls and getting people on the front end. That's great. Now, if you can develop that skill where you open up the relationship at the closing table and now they become a lifelong client, you only have to do the cold calls and the grinding and all that kind of stuff for a limited period of time. And then people begin to call you eventually.

You know, it's a huge point you bring about about being that expert in your field. And you might, and again, I know that different people carry different points of view, but not that you need to only focus on, you know, males from this age to this age who want to buy the first home in this one zip code. That's too targeted. But knowing your business. And when you can speak from confidence and you know the rules and regulations and the, industry and the trends and what's going on now with rates and appreciation and all of these things, that speaks volumes because it just comes out in your tone. Whereas if you're not really

confident, you're subconsciously kind of tentative and people can tell that. And it's almost like they kindly just kind of pat you on the shoulder and say, okay, thank you. We'll be in touch. And they never do. So what are you doing with your team to make sure they understand that and then to make sure that they are working towards that confident level of expertise? Well, A certain amount of it has to come from experience. Yeah. So part of it is just how do we get more deals under your belt, so to speak? But, you know, we do weekly meetings and we talk about what's happening in the market.

What are people saying? What do you need help with? You know, so anecdotally, you know, we kind of get together every week and we just talk about what we're seeing. But on top of that, it's about plugging into different resources, right? And so I'm also a kind of guy who believes in the concept of teaching a person to fish as opposed to handing them a fish. And so there's a lot of power in saying, hey, here's a resource. Go plug into it because then it's not dependent on me as the team leader.

I feel like one of the roles of a leader is to actually teach other people to not need me. I don't want to be the resource. I want to be somebody that teaches people how to fish on their own. And so I'm a huge proponent of there's a. a resource here and here and here and here go plug into them you know here's what you get on this one here's what you get on this one here's what you get on this one and get them to branch out and go find that information themselves because it's also going to be dependent on the person right do i want to know about commercial or do i want to know about open houses you know two very different things two very

different resources and so yeah i mean i i think it also just it comes down to motivation you know how motivated are they to go find the answer for themselves. I mean, I kind of look at my journey and I had really good resources when I first started in real estate, which was great. But nobody was coming to me saying, hey, Dan, hey, hey, hey, did you know that section 12 of the contract says blah, blah, blah, blah. Nobody's saying that. I had to go out, find the resources and say, hey, I've got a question about Section 12. Can you tell me about it? And that's where the power really is, is taking the initiative to go out and, you know, make ourselves better so that we can serve our clients better.

That's huge. And then once you know that thing, then you're being proactive and bringing it up to the next transaction relationship. And then now that really sets you on the right course. So I think that's just huge. You know, Tony Robbins talks about Knai, constant and never ending improvement. And that's what we have to do. Absolutely. So you had an experience in Costa Rica. Talk a little bit about how that has changed your business. Yeah, so I'm actually going to, and I didn't even tell you this yet, Mike, but on October 25th, we've got a big event coming up called Back to Basics Boot Camp. And I don't know if you remember Mark Jackson, he was a receiver for the Denver Broncos. Yeah. He'll be keynoting that. And I'll be speaking there as well. And this is kind of what I'm going to be talking about is this trip to Costa Rica. And basically what happened in Costa Rica was, well, leading up to Costa Rica.

I was fried. I was fried. I was fried. I was doing everything in my business. And I was, you know, I held every role. I was writing a book. I was coaching my son's basketball. I was leading a team. I was facilitating transactions. I could go on and on and on of all of these things that I had on my plate. And so Costa Rica was meant to be an escape. You know, I just got to get away. I got to reset. I got to see what's, you know, figure out what's going on with my life. And so me and the family went out there for almost six weeks. And four of those weeks were spent in a small town called Tarkalase, which is really poor fishing community in Costa Rica, one of the poorest communities in the country. And I just did nothing. It was amazing. And, you know, there's a,

there's a few things that I learned from that experience out in Costa Rica. And, you know, these are the things that I talk about in the back to basics presentation that I'll be doing is number one, we don't have to do anything. You know, I don't know if you fall into this trap, but I've still fall into this trap on a nearly daily basis. Oh, man, I have to do this and I have to do that. I was just talking with my wife the other day and I was getting into my have to rant, oh, I got to do this and this and this and she's like, you don't have to do anything.

Like this is your own words. You don't have to do anything. And I was like, fine. You're right. The reality is I choose to do these things. I choose to do things that are hard. I choose to push myself in my business, you know, and finding new opportunities to help my team grow.

I choose to do these things. Nobody's got a gun to my head. And so I learned that in Costa Rica because I got everything cleared off of my plate. And I had an opportunity to look and go, oh, I actually don't have to do anything. I could go back and work at 7-Eleven if I wanted to and I would be fine, you know, but that's not what I want to do. So it really helped me shift my perspective on what was, what was really important to me. The second thing that I learned was that simplicity is key. like there was a guy who who took care of the grounds out in Costa Rica.

His name was Dogo. And every day he'd come over. Everybody wakes up at the sunrise. Everybody goes to bed about 9, 9.30, not really watching TV. Most of them don't even have TVs. And so every morning, Doggo comes over and he has a job, raked leaves, clean the pool, you know, whatever it was. and every morning I'd come up, hey, hey, dogo, how's ta?

Por a vida, puro vira, every day. Just this huge smile on his face, you know, just such a great guy. And his life was so simple. And he was so happy. And it wasn't just him. This is how this whole community lived. They didn't have a lot, but man, they were nice. They were happy.

And so what I took away from that was that I am a champion. over-complicating things, you know? Yeah. I want to grow my team. Okay, great. Let's do a thousand things to try to grow my team. How about we do one, maybe two things, but we do them really well, which is kind of what I was talking about earlier, just simplifying.

And then the third thing that I learned while I was out there was that life happens in the space. And what I mean by that is it had been. I don't know, 12, 13 years probably. I mean, the last time I can remember doing this was before my kids were born. And that's just sitting on the couch, turning on some music and just kind of zoning out and just kind of just chilling. Once my kids were born and it's not their fault, but once they were born, that stuff kind of went away. And when I was in Costa Rica, I had time to do that to just sit and relax and think and just be in the space.

there was nothing to do. So you just had to, I just had to just relax. And all of a sudden, my creativity started turning back on. My enjoyment of life started turning back on. My clarity started to turn back. Like all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, my goodness, I see everything so much more clear. This makes sense. I know the direction that I need to go.

And what I realized was in my life, I was like, oh, I've got an extra five minutes. What can I cram in there? you know, so that I don't have any empty space. And I've learned that that is a huge, huge misstep that a lot of us fall into is just let's, let's fill up the space with as much as we can because if we're not doing something, we must be, we must be doing something wrong. And I found that that's actually, if we don't do that, it's, it's very detrimental to our happiness and our ability to create a better future for ourselves.

Boy, we should just take that last little response there and sell it for thousands of dollars because that was some nuggets of knowledge there. That's amazing. So here it makes me think of something, Dan, if someone is listening to that going, okay, I need to slow down and find joy in my work and still meet my financial goal. Where do they start? Because here's one thing that I feel like some people would come back to you and say, yeah, but. I've got this bill and that bill on this bill. And I got to work and grind. And I know you're not saying just chill out and not do anything ever, but there needs to be

that balance. But where do you start to make sure you can pull back just a little so that you have that enjoyment and still meet your financial goals? Yeah, I love that question. It's such a good question. And in fact, when I was complaining to my wife the other day, that's what I was saying. Well, we have this bill and that bill and I have to do these things. And the reality is we don't.

We're choosing to take on these responsibilities. I could sell my house and downsize, right? I can minimize my bills. I can minimize my spending. There's lots of things that I could do, right? So I'm not saying that that's what needs to happen. I'm not saying we need to be minimalists and we have to shut everything down or we have to, you know, meditate 10 hours a day or anything like that.

What I'm saying is that it's about intention. It's about bringing intention to the way we want to live our lives. So like I said, I could go get a job at 7-Eleven and I would find a way to make it work, but that's not what I want. So what it comes down to is it's about intention. Like, this is the life that I want to live. So if this is the life that I want to live and having that clarity of where you're going and why that's important to you, like that's the intention right there.

Like, I know why I'm going to the bathroom. Therefore, I'm going to go to the bathroom, right? You know, and the same is true in our business. If we know why we're doing something, we will do it. So that's where the intention is born. what starts to screw that up is then we lose perspective. This is what happened to me. Oh, I have to.

I have to. I have to. I have to. And my wife brought me back to my perspective. And my perspective went from, I have to do all this stuff because I have to provide this lifestyle to, oh, wait, I'm choosing this lifestyle. And therefore, I want to do these things so that I can create this lifestyle for myself and my family. Two totally different mindsets, two totally different ways to look at the exact same

situation. And so number one, it's about setting the intention very clearly of where you want to go and why, even more importantly, why. And then the second part is continually reframing the perspective so that we can stay on track and remember, you know, why we're going this way. So if this is the kind of mindset training that your team members get where they come onto your team, that is exactly what I was saying previously, which is this is why people are succeeding because you're not cracking the whip saying sell 14 houses a day. You're saying, here's the tools you need. I'm here to help you, but here's one way to make sure that you avoid this hurdle, roadblock, landmine, and I think that is spectacular. Yeah, thank you.

That's a great synopsis. That's exactly how I would say it. Thank you. Well, and you know, if we had a microphone, we could just drop it right there because that you've just really tied it up with a bow and said, here's what I do, why I do it, how I do it. And if someone is interested in reaching out and learning more about joining Dan's Home Team, what's the best way they can learn more and also reach out and connect with you? Yeah. So I know you'll put a link in there for Dan's Home Team.com, but the easiest way to reach out to me would probably be it Daniel Goomer 1 at gmail.com, my email and my phone number 303-261-5278. Very accessible, easy to talk to.

So, you know, if any of this is resonating, I'd love to just connect and talk a little bit more about it. Excellent. Well, Dan, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity. So thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.