Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Eric Gorton, a top real estate agent in Las Vegas, takes center stage as he shares the remarkable story behind his seven-figure success. Once a firefighter in New York, Eric's path was not linear, transitioning from the casino floors of Las Vegas to the challenging luxury real estate market. His journey is a testament to the power of resilience, showing how adversity, like a cancer diagnosis, can become a catalyst for transformation. Eric's story offers more than just real estate advice; it's a masterclass in life lessons, perseverance, and the art of thriving against the odds.   Throughout our conversation, Eric opens up about his strategic approach to mastering the real estate market, especially during turbulent times like the 2008 financial crisis. From community engagement to pioneering marketing techniques, he reveals the keys to his sustained success. Eric highlights the importance of building genuine relationships and how authenticity in business is crucial, particularly in niche markets where appearances can be deceiving. His insights extend beyond real estate, providing valuable takeaways for anyone seeking to excel in their respective industries.   The episode isn't just about Eric's successes but also the strategic shifts and growth required to thrive in a competitive market. We explore the significance of storytelling in real estate, the delicate balance between building connections and executing innovative marketing strategies, and the essential nature of authenticity in high-end markets. As we wrap up, listeners are encouraged to reflect on the insights shared and consider how these lessons can apply to their own paths. Whether you're in real estate or simply looking for inspiration to escape the drift, Eric's journey is sure to leave a lasting impression.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Successful Real Estate Agent Shares Secrets (07:58) - Firefighter to Real Estate Career Shift (19:00) - Overcoming Adversity to Success (23:44) - Cancer Diagnosis --> Real Estate Success (34:33) - Mastering Real Estate Through Community Engagement (45:01) - Transitioning to Bigger Real Estate Market (50:47) - Building Genuine Relationships for Business Success (01:00:30) - Escaping the Drift - Episode Updates   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #ericgorton #realestate #success #adversity #resilience #transformation #luxuryhomes #marketingstrategies #authenticity #nichemarkets #communityengagement #sales #management #financialcrisis #adaptability #opportunities #relationships #networking #businessgrowth #clientengagement

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And now, escaping the drift. I knew very early on that, you know, your confidence from head to toe, try Mando. And now escaping the drift. I knew very early on that, you know, if you work an honest stays work, you're going to get paid for it. Right. And, and, uh, that transmitted into doing janitorial work and, and, you know, going and, and delivering pizzas and being a pizza man and just everything up and down the line. I went, I've, I've pretty much had every job

that you can imagine. And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you wanna be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you want to pad the greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift,

and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again, from like a sesame. Open, man, another episode of the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today in the studio, something a little different than we've been doing, and I couldn't be more happy about it. So, you know, we've had so many incredible people come through the studio in the last couple months from the likes of Chris Voss and, you know, just all these incredible people that have just come through and shared in some incredible knowledge.

And sometimes, man, you forget the just wealth of great information you have that's right underneath your nose. And as some of you probably know, and most of you should, I actually own the largest luxury real estate brokerage here in Las Vegas. And it's an incredible firm that we own. We've got about 585 great, unbelievable agents at work. And somebody that has consistently finished in the top one, two or three for the last several years, he will find out Thursday where he finishes. Not gonna tell him on here, gotta wait till Thursday.

But this is a dude that has accomplished something that literally I'm gonna guess, if I had to guess, I'm gonna say 0.2% of all real estate, now less than that, I'm gonna say 0.094% of everybody that gets a real estate license achieves what this dude does year in and year out, and that is earn seven figures selling houses.

Now, some of you guys may watch Million Dollar Listing and you say, oh, these dudes are selling the average sales price of a house in, you know, Breville Hills is $3.85 million. Every time they sell one, they're making, you know, 80 grand, 90 grand. You only gotta sell 10 of them and there you are. Dude, keep in mind, yeah, my man sells a bunch

of expensive houses, but our average sales price here in Vegas is like 500K. It's a lot of work to get to where we are. But this is a guy that's been doing it for a long, long time. And I wanted to get him to come on today and share some of his secrets to success with you, whether in real estate or not. These are business lessons, man. I've lessons going to get you where you want to be. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Eric Gordon. Thanks, John. Thank you buddy should be here. That was a quad That's a quality intro quality intro a quality intro and I love it So dude, you know the hardest thing about doing a podcast with somebody that is one of my great friends is

You never want to talk about It's like we could sit here and tell inside jokes that get real old for people So it's real difficult. I know so much about you, but they don't know anything. So first of all, you know, let's talk about being such a high achiever. You know, I always like to start off with the nature versus nurture kind of idea. So tell us about you as a kid and tell us about young Eric. Oh, man, way different than what you see now. Yeah, way different. Well, maybe not way different than what you're

accustomed to. Yeah, because when, well, maybe not way different than what you're accustomed to. Yeah. Because when the lights go down and we're chilling and doing our own thing, it turns into the old Eric Bortle. Yeah. Which is an understatement. Strong Island comes right through.

Strong Island definitely comes through. But me as a kid, I was definitely a little bit high maintenance, right? I was definitely a little bit high maintenance, right? I was definitely a, um, a hyperactive and very rambunctious child, to say the least. I, I, I gave, I, I don't want to say my, I gave my mother a hard time. Um, my mother was a single parent raised us raised me and my brother from My mother was a single parent, raised us, raised me and my brother from literally rags to, I always say from welfare to the White House

and then back, right? Like it's, my mother really achieved a lot of greatness and it was because of her that she enabled me to do a lot of the things that I did that really transmit and resonate with the rest of my life growing up. So me as a kid, I was very intense and very Long Island and very outspoken, rambunctious, hyperactive, ADHD, everything and anything you can think of.

I did never let a moment go by when you didn't know that I was in the room. Yeah, for sure. What was the first hustle to make money as a kid? Ooh, I don't know if I could say that. Well, you know, I think the statute of limitations is over now. I did. So as a very small child, I had the very fortunate experience of growing up with a gentleman by the name of Michael Massone. He was the guy that I named my first child after and he was a World War II vet.

I mean, he was the quintessential man that you wanted to be a mentor. And he literally did not allow me to be lazy. You would get me up at the age of eight and literally put a rake in my hand and say, okay, we live on this street, you're gonna rake the leaves in the gutter. And at the end, I'd just be thinking I was doing it for nothing.

Slip me a $10 bill or a $20 bill. So I knew very early on that, if you work and honest stays work, you're gonna get paid for it, right? And that transmitted into doing, if you work and honest stays work, you're going to get paid for it. Right. And, and, uh, that transmitted into doing janitorial work and, and, you know, going and, and delivering pizzas and being a pizza man and just everything up and down the line. I went, I've, I've pretty much had every job that you can

imagine. Cause mom, I know you're single mom, but mom wound up working for the Reagans in the White House. So she was off to Washington with you and your brother, Garrett, just kind of meandering to your own devices back in Long Island. During that time, was it like, you know, even though mom had a good job

and was doing the best she could, I'm sure, was it like if Eric wants something that Eric wants, Eric's got to buy it. Yes and no. My mother was very, very loving and giving. She didn't, she wasn't always able to afford what Eric wanted, but she always found a way to make me, not, let's put it this way.

I did not want for anything, but I was not spoiled. I did not have a silver spoon. I did not drive the fancy cars or have the high end everything, but I had. What I needed, what you needed. Right. All right. It was, um, it was a, uh, it was a lesson in, you know, making sure you live within your means.

Okay. And that's kind of, that's carried me through my entire life. I mean, you know, it's, it's very easy to make a little bit of money and then live way beyond your means. Yeah. I never got to that point.

Yeah. So when you first became an adult, quote unquote, as you would say, what was the first gig that you picked up, like really, you're like, this is gonna be my career? So, you know, after a short stint as being a fireman in New York, I realized that I did not wanna stay in New York anymore.

And I wanted to get married and move away from New York. Right, so. Why'd you become a fireman? Well, it was kind of in my blood. My uncle Mike was a fireman. My brother was a fireman. A lot of guys within my, uh, inner circle, a lot of the guys that kind of. From afar stepped in and, and gave me the tools that I needed to become a man. We're all firemen or cops, right?

So it was like, you know, going through life, I always really just wanted to be a, a, a fireman, my brother became a cop. I always really just wanted to be a fireman. My brother became a cop and, you know, very soon after, you know, kind of realizing where we were in that scope, I knew that that wasn't the scope. Well, what's really interesting about that, right, is cause I always talk about places like Detroit, right?

Where they're like, you're born and dad works at the plants. You're gonna grow up and you're gonna work at Ford and you're gonna do this. Kind of the same thing, but it was just, there was no plant, but you're gonna be a fireman or a policeman. That's just kind of what was expected of you growing up a little bit.

Yeah, and when I came out here, the truth is I took the fire department and test, but we learned very early on, right after I got married, within three months, I was gonna have my first child. And we had no idea how long that, that was going to take. So I got into the casino business and went and became a dice dealer. Okay.

So I went and worked downtown. I worked at the Plaza working on what they call the cheap table, um, which is basically quarter crafts and, uh, worked there for nine months, quarter crafts, they call it the bird table, but it's because it's cheap, cheap, cheap, right? So I worked at the Plaza and then opened up the Monte Carlo and finished off my career in the casino business. After going through being a floor boss and a boxman and assistant pit boss,

I hung it up and basically became a real estate agent. So what, okay, so you're, and again, you went from one career, which is kind of, you get, being a fireman is kind of a lifetime career. A lot of people come to Vegas and they get in the casinos and it's very hard to get out, which is why you can go to the union properties and you'll ask for a cocktail and a lady with a walker

will bring it to you. Sometimes exactly right. Yeah. Well, Dolly's been here for 65 years serving drinks. And it was hard because you got used to making that steady money. Right. And it was, they fed you three times a day. It was steady work.

Right. And, you know, I kind of thrived in the, in the, um, casino business because I was, I was a good dice dealer. I really was. I, I, you know, commanded my, my table and had a crew and we made money and it was a lot of fun. And, but, you know, after a while, it just was like, what am I doing? I'm watching this dice go by and everybody's passing me. I'd see guys come to the table with, you know, 10, 12, 15 grand.

It's like, where do you get that? More money I've ever seen in my entire life. Well, dude, I think that the casinoinos here, God bless them, man. It's the industry here in Vegas, but I think it's kind of like the Ford plant a little bit, right? It's like, people always ask me like, well, why is Nevada, why is the education so crappy? Yeah. I'm like,

cause so many people that live and work in this town in the hospitality industry, it's like, no, no, no, don't worry about school. You know, you just get a job, a job with dad, parking cars at the hospitality industry, it's like, no, no, no, don't worry about school. You know, you just get a job, a job with dad parking cars at the MGM, just like I've always done. And those are great jobs and they make good money. But that's why it's like, I tell people, you know, everything about the world is upside down in Vegas. Like, you know, there's some, some girl right now in Topeka, Kansas, and she's in school for elementary education. And she's got a dream, buddy. I want to be a teacher. It's all I ever want to do. I want to be a teacher. And she graduates with her degree from the University

of Kansas. And then she thinks she gets an offer. If you move to Vegas and become a teacher will help you out with giving the incentive. She's like, I'm gonna go to Vegas and be a teacher. And then she comes to Vegas and she's teaches one year and live in her dream. Summertime comes around. And she meets Kim. And Kim is a bottle girl on Gore Beach Club making 300 grand a year walking around with a sparkler and a bottle of a great goose over it. So true.

And then all of a sudden guess who ain't a teacher anymore. That's exactly right. And that just happens so much. So I always find that interesting that dude, you've not only extrapolated yourself from one situation, which was the lifetime fireman job. Yeah. You extrapolate yourself from lifetime job number two,

which was the casino to really place a bet on yourself. I was a fireman, not to be confused. I was a fireman on Long Island. It wasn't a New York City job. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I was a fireman on Long Island. It was great. And I wanted to go through the whole system.

Yeah. Took the fire department test in New York. Right. It was just you had to be a legacy to get into that. Yeah. It had to be a job opening for you to get in there. And you had to know people. Although I knew people, it was those jobs weren't

available at that point. Yeah. Right. So, so you had a ceiling where you were. Exactly. And, and, you know, quite honestly, it was always a dream of becoming a stockbroker. I always loved wall street, you know You could have been Jordan Pell for buddy boiler room is one of my favorite movies growing up, right? So it was like I really felt like I was gordon gecko

I really did like but in my own little head because I had no finance experience I barely graduated high school. I did go to college, but luckily I did go to college because that's where I met my beautiful wife of 30 years today. Um, and you know, you got something you're using out of that college. It was worth the tuition. But you know, it was in the back of my mind, my mother exposed me to, as you said, she was in the white house, always exposed me to heads of state and dignitaries and powerful people where I admired them from afar.

So we used to live a very, it was almost the imposter syndrome because you'd put on a beautiful blazer or a nice suit. You'd go out and go to the DeSavirsky Center and hobnob and rub elbows with all of these heads of state and powerful people. And then I'd come back to Island park and my two bedroom, you know, two bedroom house. And literally we had to pull together a couple of bucks out of the sofa to get a pizza. Yeah. And so it was, it was tough for a while, man. It really was. Yeah. That's, that's an interesting dynamic. I mean,

I kind of experienced some of that same dynamic growing up, right? Cause when my parents got divorced, right? You know, it's like one of the things, if you're listening to this, if you live in a small Southern town and you're a woman and you're thinking of getting divorced and your husband currently is a small town attorney in that tree, don't get divorced in that town.

You're not gonna, not gonna bode well for you. So, you know, when my parents got divorced, we got the house and like the country club, which was the Ritz, you know, the Ritziest part of town. Dude, we were broke. Cause my dad country club, which was the Ritz, you know, the Ritziest part of town. We were broke cause my dad had like no child support of that settlement. And like my mom was really struggling. So I get it. And it creates a really weird dynamic in your head of like

not being enough overcompensating doing those totally. And, and there's a certain, you know, there's a certain feeling that you got to keep up with friends, right? You don't want to be the odd man out. No. You want to kind of put that brave face on. You don't want anybody to know what's going on at home. Right.

Yeah. So you got to be out there and like, just be that guy. And I relied on my personality that that's carried me through my entire life to kind of just fake it. Yeah. As I was going through it. And it wasn't until I got older that, you know, sometimes you just can't fake it. And the closest friends that you have to you know what you was going through it and it wasn't until I got older that you know, sometimes you just can't fake it and the closest friends that you have to you know, what you're going through, but you still want to just kind of like be a normal guy.

Yeah, you just want to you just want to slide in the middle. Exactly. You know, what's funny man that I find now is growing up wanting all of those things and now having kids kind of have all those things. You think their lives would be so much easier because they have it, but I find, I find I see my kids downplaying their life for sure, because they just want to be, you know, they don't want to be up here. They don't want to be down here. They just want to be right in the middle, right? They just want to fit in exactly as all kids do such a,

such a weird dynamic, but like the real estate, how did you decide you wanted to be a real estate agent? Well, it was funny. Well, a couple of things kind of played into it. 9 11 happened and I was working as a dice dealer and it, it, it kind of was the triple storm, right? It was kind of like the perfect storm that came together, which

wasn't really the perfect storm. So 9 11 happened and I knew that hospitality could probably not work out very well. Yeah. And the writing was on the wall. I didn't get fired or anything like that, but you know, as you know, the city shut down for a couple of, you know, two, three weeks. So I'm kind of freaking out because you rely on tips to keep your life going as a dice dealer. Right. Um, so I,

I kind of pivoted real quick. There was a guy that lived like two doors down from me, his name is Dave Strauss. Never forget him. And he was working for a company called ZEP, ZEP manufacturing where they sell specialty maintenance. Yeah. The chemicals for the bag. So it's, you know, they have over 2000, 2400 products in their catalog that you can literally sell to anybody, whether it be B and B or, you know, even the individual who's running

a small garage in their backyard, any parts, cleaners, lubricants, cleaning products, hand soaps, you know, even paper towels, toilet paper, everything. So I can sell everything from restaurant to automotive garage or anything like that. And basically he got me an interview and within a matter of days, now I found myself training to become a ZEP rep. A ZEP rep. So that was kind of cool in the very beginning because all through my entire life growing

up, people always told me the old and the new. You should be in sales. You should be in sales. You are missing the boat. You're always going to be in sales. Just go and work in sales. And I didn't want to be in sales. I didn't.

I never thought of myself as a salesman, but I always had that personality where it was just in your face all the time. I'm on all the time. And, you know, and that's kind of the way I grew up, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent. That's the way it was. Yeah. So going to work for Zep, um, within about two or three months crushed it right out to the gate, right? Grab my two briefcases filled with, you know, my demo products would walk to every single business that I possibly could

walk in, introduce myself to the manager. Hi, how you doing? My name is Eric Gordon. I see that you have this, this, this, this. I could probably save you money, not only on dilution, but you know, paper towels and hand towels and mops and buckets and shit like that. Right. So I crushed it right out the gate.

And then like two or three, like four months after that, I was diagnosed with cancer and I had a very come to Jesus moment. Right. Well, let me go back for a quick second before I go into that story. While I was doing ZEP, now I had my access to cleaning products and stuff. I got a job cleaning the school when my kids went to school at night. So I'd go and work at the casino during the day, right? I'd get off at like two o'clock in the afternoon.

I'd go and work and sell cleaning products from two o'clock until six o'clock at night. And then I'd go and clean the school from like eight 30 until like 11, 12 o'clock. See, okay. I'd go and clean the school from like 830 until like 11, 12 o'clock. See, okay. So that story right there is why so many people now,

I think you look at people trying to come up and they're like, I don't have enough hours in the day. Let me give you all the excuses on why I can't pull it together. Why can't you get this done? And bro, you're working, I mean, that's, that's three jobs. Right. And that was obviously in a necessity because you had two young kids. And sometimes the necessity is, you know, what forces you to do what you got to do. Right. So what do you think the difference is in you that you're willing to do that and the people

that aren't, you know, I didn't even think about that, John. I really just, I knew what I had to do. And I knew there was no other option. I knew that there was a young boy that was looking up to me, right? That needed a guy that I didn't have as a kid, right? And I knew I made a promise to myself at a very early age. I must've been 11 or 12, that number one, I wanted to be a father immediately. I couldn't wait to get married and be a father. That was my goal at a very early age. But as soon as I knew I was having a boy,

I promised that he will never look at me the way I looked at my dad, right? And whatever his story was when he exited my life, that's neither here or there, right? But I knew that I just wanted to set a better example. So I knew that I just needed to provide. At the very least, I just needed to provide, right? I didn't know what I was gonna do.

I didn't know where I was gonna end up. I knew I had the opportunity, I knew I had the potential, but I just didn't know where I was gonna end up. And I remember my wife and I used to just sit down and she would just reinforce my wife is just, you know, she's just my biggest fan. She's always been just such a great proponent of my, my life, right. And encouragement in my life that she always just gave me, you know, the tools

that I needed to make sure that I didn't go out of my mind. Well, I think, you know, front of the show, Mikey Searock said on here one time, but you got a choice with trauma. You can put it in the tank or you can put it in the trunk. Right. And that's your choice. You really lug that shit around or it can be gasoline. Drive the engine. And that's a choice. And I think you making that conscious choice is just what did that. So it's so, you know,

all these little things that go into who you are. Yeah, and And adversity adversity just builds champions sometimes and it is what it is So again, how'd you get it real safe? We're selling that we're working at night the kids cool Okay, so that leads me to my cancer I got I was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and It was the scariest thing ever, right? And here I am working three jobs. I was diagnosed. I went through several doctors appointments. They couldn't find what was going on. I knew that I didn't feel

right. I knew there was something going on. Normally I was very high-energy and very lethargic and I was just tired all the time. I was grumpy. My attitude changed and I knew there was something wrong. They tried to put me on mood, altering drugs. They tried to put me on, you know, different things and they thought it was my, you know, just my stress level and stuff. I said, listen, there's something going on. And luckily I went to this one doctor and he sent me out. He tried to put me on this, this, uh, it was called a fix or I don't know if

you've ever heard of it. You know, it's like, uh, you know, I don't even know what you call it. It's motor altering drug, right? So it's supposed to get you back to normal. It's an antidepressant. I took one pill and I was just like, this is not right. I'm totally never taking this again. So about three, four days later, I made an appointment to go back and see him.

Luckily, this guy called in sick the day that I went. And there was like a first year resident or maybe she just became a doctor that was in his office and saw me instead of him. She basically said, okay, I'm going to send you for a sonogram, right? Because you know, if you're telling me that you don't feel right. And there was this little tiny lump that I felt that basically, you know, I, I don't, I didn't even think it was different, but I pointed it out to her. She said, I'm going to send you for a sonogram.

And the very next day I went and saw a specialist who did the sonogram and he said, you have an encapsulated tumor that needs to come out immediately. And I can almost predict that it's cancer. Oh Jesus. And literally my life changed in an instant. I mean, within a matter of minutes, now all of a sudden in my mind, I'm dying. How old are you at this point? 30. Oh gosh. 30. Yep.

So here we are. My father-in-law took me to that doctor's appointment the whole way home. I'm crying. I get home, my wife and I, you know, we're like, Oh my God. The very next day I'm on an operating table getting this tumor. Right. So I wake up, you know, of course there was things involved, but I wake up the next day. They were like, okay, good news is we got the tumor out. You know, we could tell that there was something going on in there. We're going to send it out for a dissection to see if it was malignant or not. And it turned out to be malignant. I caught it very early on stage one. Um, but

then they said you have to go through radiation, which is, you know, it's not as bad as chemo. I'm certainly not, you know, I'm not downplaying. You're not looking for a ticker tape. No, no, no, no, no. But radiation is no picnic, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, And he took me to lunch and he knew what I had been going through. Very good friend leading up to that point. And he was in real estate. And you know, just like everybody else, he goes, man, when are you just going to give it up and get in the sales? You should be in sales. Even going through that tough time, I still had the personality.

I was back, right? And I had that sales personality. He was like, dude, you're wasting your time. Just go do it. So funny story is, and I don't think I've ever told you this three years prior to that, I thought I was going to get in a real estate, right? So I went and enrolled myself in real estate. I went to two classes, looked around me. I said, this is a, no, it was, you know,

just different people than me at that point. And I said, you know what? This isn't for me. I'm going to go back and be in the casino business. See if I can grow through the ranks and become an executive which I could have very easily done at that point I made very good contacts. They loved me. One of my best friends was the president of the Paris at that point He wasn't my best friend at that point It wasn't until after and I got in a real estate that he became my best friend or one of my best friends But I said, you know what? this is just what I'm gonna do. But he took me out to lunch and I was like, you know what?

I'm just gonna try it. So I went out, I didn't have any money, no money at all, nothing. And at that point we were on a very, very strict and tight budget. My wife was working full-time as a kindergarten teacher. And I said, you know what, I gotta do something. I don't wanna, you know, kind of let her know that I'm doing this so I went

out and got a discover card on my own unbeknownst to my wife and I said I'm just gonna go for it I went out and charged at Century 21 over on Eastern Road and I just put it on there I said you know I'm just gonna go guns blazing she's at work all day. At that point, I, I took a FMLA family medical leave absence from the casino. So I wasn't working during the days I was still doing the janitorial and, and ZEP. Um, but I had my days to myself. So she'd leave and think I was just kind of like laying on the couch and,

and recovering recovering from cancer surgery. And as soon as she would leave, I'd get dressed, I'd go to surgery 21 and study all day, come home, put the books away and she never even knew. Right? Here we are fast forward about six weeks later. She woke up the day I was going to take my test. And I said, you know, I've been doing real estate for about six weeks now. and I didn't let you know But I feel really good about it and I feel like I'm I'm ready to take my test little did She know I was taking my test in about an hour. Yeah, so she had that day off for some reason or another

She was home that day. She was like Okay, you know she was a little apprehensive. I told her that I had gotten a discover car. We have $330 worth of debt that I probably needed six weeks to pay off. Um, and I came home within about an hour and a half. I was like, pass both of them. Good. Right. She was like, wow, that was really impressive.

And what are you going to do? And I met with century 21 because they kind of groomed me and I went there. And you know, the one thing that didn't make sense to me, they told me everything that I had to pay. And I was like, well, what do you mean? Like I'm in real estate now. I got my own license. I don't, but you know, it's franchise fees and everything like that.

So I came home and I was like, all right, well, if this is what everybody does, I'm going to do that because I don't know of anything different. Luckily I didn't. The very next day I got called by, um, one of my cousins who had a part-time real estate license at that point. And he introduced me to the owners of a company called merit realty at that time, very small boutique. Um, it was almost like the movie boiler room, right?

And I walked in and met with this, um, good friend of mine still to this day, Rob Yamaguchi. And he basically sold me. He told me everything that I wanted to hear at that point. The gooch, the gooch. And he, uh, he basically laid it out. And first month out the gate, I did five transactions. Second month I did six. What year? 2002. Yeah. 2002. It was like at the end of 2002 into 2000. So 2002. Yeah.

This is back when leads would come in barely on a website, barely rich. No website. Oh, you were just hammering the phone back? There were signs in the front. Oh, you were just hammering that. Just signs. So funny thing is, when I first got in real estate, everybody you were tamering that. Just signs. So funny thing is when I when

I first got in real estate everybody was like alright I remember sitting at the table a gentleman who owned the company at that point very very intense guy his name's Aaron and he went around this table with all the new agents and it was me and probably six or seven 20 year olds and he went around how old are you what are you gonna do what's your goals for that? So he came to me, he goes, what's your name? How old are you? I said 30, he goes, you'll never make it in real estate.

I said, okay, challenge accepted. So they, at that point there was no website. Like buddy, I've had adversity my whole life. Yeah, this doesn't scare me. But at that point, there was no websites. They just had leads that came in. In the morning, they would have a answering machine that they'd write down all the leads. It have 15 to 20 pieces of paper that had phone numbers on them of people that

called. And if it, the Glen Gary leads. Oh my God, the Glen Garys, Mitch and Murray. So every night if, if so every night you would have these leads, but if you didn't get in touch with them, most agents were like, ah, they didn't answer and they put them on this pile in the corner. And this pile grew from two feet to three feet to four feet. By the time I got there, the pile was about three and a half feet. Right. So I came in and they were like, you know, what kind of skills you got? I said, I've never made a real estate call in my entire life. And you you've heard this too.

When you get in a real estate, the one thing they want you to do is tap into your sphere of influence, call your aunts, your uncles, your friends. And yeah, I didn't know shit about real estate. The last thing I'm going to do is drag these people that I know and love into real estate and then be my guinea pig. So I was like, forget it. So I walked to that pile and I grabbed from the bottom, the oldest leads that were like six months old.

And I just wanted to get the marbles moving. I wanted to get the cotton out of my mouth. I came down with such a canned pitch that I can say to my sleep backwards. Right. Every single morning I would come out. Well, like I said, first month out there to gate from the bottom of that pile, five transactions. I remember my first transaction, I had, I didn't even know I was supposed to get an SRPD. Right. So we went through the whole transaction. It was like three days before closing. I'm like, ready to close. He was like, wait, wasn't I supposed to get disclosures or, you know, at least a prelim

or something? I had no idea. This. This is a good time during the story today for me to make a little advocacy pitch to you, to all of you out there, if you're thinking about getting into real estate. I'm gonna tell you a little story. Actually, I'm not gonna tell you a story. I'm just gonna finish my advocacy, which is this. Like we have the largest company,

we're consistently number one or number two in the entire marketplace as far as volume. I do not have a new agent training program. I do not have a classroom for which people can come in like Eric did and sit at these tables and figure it out. I don't have that situation because to me, the only way you should ever get into this business is working on someone's team,

where they are making an investment in you in leads and they are standing right over your shoulder and coaching you how to do all this stuff hand in hand. And yet you're going to pay a split to them. You're going to split these deals 50 50 with whoever your team leader is. But that is how you learn this business. Go into a classroom and sitting there and thinking you're going to learn anything. Nope. Nope. You learn anything. Anyway, back to your story. When I went through my first transactions, it was just all about getting people through the door, right? And once you got them

through the door, it was almost like, all right, now you got them in the tank. I almost thought someone else was taking care of it where no one really held my hand. It was trial and error. was taking care of it where no one really held my hand. It was, it was trial and error. Yeah. Right. So don't do that. Like after about five or six months, it was very clear that I was, I was going to succeed in real estate from the managers at Merit Realty. So what did they do?

They tapped me into being a manager as opposed to trying to sell real estate. I don't love that either, man. I don't, I don't, I don't love that. And if you're listening to this, and you got a business, or you're thinking of running a business, you want to scale up, your best salespeople are almost never your best managers.

It is a completely different skillset. And that is one of the biggest mistakes I see companies make, is they tap their best salespeople and try to move them up. Bro, if this guy's killing sales, just work it out where you can make more money. Yeah.

Like you don't have to promote that person. Don't take, don't delegate out their best skillset. Well, I had, it was lucky for me because you, as you know, in 2004, five, six, and Yeah, it was a zoo. It was a zoo. So I was, I was, I was cutting my teeth and becoming a manager and making my mistakes.

But I was managing 70 agents at that point, which was amazing. Um, some of which I'm still in contact with. And I was also being able to sell my own real estate. So I was, I was actually doing pretty well. Right. And, and it was a fun time. Um, but then as you know, 2008, nine, 10, and 11 happened as I call them, the glory, and that was a stark reality in, um, um, how to shift in real estate.

Yeah. And that was my first life lesson in either give up, put up or shut up. Yeah. And for those of you that are younger and don't understand what happened in 2008 the great financial crisis Happened in 2007 here in Las Vegas was ground zero for the real estate market implosion Property values dropped about 60% from where they were We were the number one foreclosure market in the country for years absolutely and people got killed and A handful of us

had those contracts to sell houses for banks who did very well. Yep, me included. So it was all good. Yeah, it was all good. Right? Because you pivoted to it. We pivoted right into it.

When people didn't even know what the word short sell meant, we were already immersed in it. We were knocking doors, offering people to buy them out or give them cash for keys and negotiating things like that. But me, internally, I said, this is a perfect opportunity offering people to buy them out or give them cash for keys and negotiating things like that. But me internally, I said, this is a perfect opportunity to try and go after a market that everybody just forgot. So I always admired the big players in real estate. Probably remember Jeannie Sutherland. Yeah. You probably remember Frank Napoli, senior, right? And there was a lot of a few others that I really admired in the way they did

business. But as that crisis happened, their TV commercials went away. Their marketing went away. Their pretty magazines went from 40 pages to four to remember the real estate. Okay. And where the real estate book went from this to that. Yeah. It was like a flyer at the real estate book to the real estate pamphlet. It's exactly right. In the in the supermarkets remember, it was this big and then all of a sudden it became like a flyer. It was a flyer. So in my mind I said this is a perfect opportunity to try and get in front of these people that are being forgotten about because

the budget's not there right. Everybody was hunkering down. They didn't want to spend any money on advertising. Well, I didn't have any money at that point. And I was, I was raising two children. I had, you know, bills of my own, you know, the, the, the money that we were used to making in 2003, four and five, swindled away and you know, five transactions went to one transaction a month. Right. And then I thought to myself, well, there's gotta be a way that I can get

in these people's lives, right? And I basically took it upon myself to just put my words on copy paper, print on Merit Realty's free copy, fold it myself, put a piece of tape on it, and walk neighborhoods at night because I couldn't afford postage, right? That was my way of trying to get in front of people and let them

know I'm still working. I'm not going anywhere. I'm still going to be in your life. Although you're not going to get a pretty flyer or a color brochure, it's going to be what's happening in real estate. And I'm going to become more of a friend as opposed to someone that's just trying to sell you a home. I tried to build a community around me where I had the answer to anything. You wanted a, you wanted a good Italian restaurant recommendation. Call me.

Right. You need a landscaper. Call me someone to clean your house. Call me. I know someone great. Yeah. And here's the thing. If you feel there's just into this also, and you're thinking, well, that's

everything on social media, dude, this is before social media. This was just way before you're, you're thinking, well, that's everything on social media. Dude, this is before social media. This was just, you're, you're glad handing people becoming their life concierge, but you really focused in on one neighborhood here in Las Vegas. And I got to tell you, I, to this day, I'm doing this now for 20 years, whatever it is. I've never seen anybody dominate a neighborhood the way that you dominate that one. It is, it is a textbook lesson in that. So let's walk through Eric Gordon takes over the fountains. Dude, It is, it is a textbook lesson in that. So let's walk through. Eric Gordon takes over the

fountains. Yeah. Dude, this is, this is one-on-one right here. So the fountains is still considered my baby. I lived there for 10 years, luckily after I've established a, a voice and a, and a presence in there. But in the very early on, I was, I was basically a guy that knew that there was something missing and I knew there was a beautiful neighborhood that consisted of 198 homes. They were bigger homes than I've ever laid eyes on at that point in my life. And it was the neighborhood that really reminded me most of home. It was green, it was lush. I remember going in there one time to drop something off and my wife with it was with me and we drove through the neighborhood

I said baby, we're gonna live in here. It's just so beautiful. And of course, you know, Shelley. Yeah She she believed in me but you know, it was it was hard to believe at that point It's always so hard when they look and they go. Yeah. Okay, whatever buddy The mouth is saying yes, the eyes are saying, okay they look and they go, yeah, okay, whatever, buddy. So I'm still saying yes. The eyes are saying, okay. I'm still working for merit reality and I'm printing off, you know, the, uh, the pages and, and trying to get my story out, but then they wouldn't let me in

the neighborhood. It's a guard gated neighborhood and you know, there's guards 24 hours a day and, and every time I'd pull up, if I didn't have business there, they turned me away. Um, so I had to figure out a way to try and infiltrate the neighborhood. And my best line was every night I'd pass by and I'd see the same guard. And every once in a while I'd pull up just to say hello to them and ask them questions about the neighborhood and you know, what's going on in here? Do they have any Christmas type festivities and what's it like in Halloween around here and stuff like that. So he was actually a retired, um, Jersey cop that had pretty much the same.

Accent mentality and, and look on life that I did. So we made a friendship. His name is Dan. And after about a week or two of stopping in and forming this friendship with Dan Every single night I'd come home. I'd stop at McDonald's. I'd get him a cup of coffee every single night, right? 99 cents, right? So he really appreciated that especially in the in the colder months and

That turned into a really good friendship to whereas now I had a way to get in the neighborhood. He'd look the other way, press the button. He'd press the button, he'd let me in. Or I remember one night they were cracking down on people coming through the neighborhood, the HOA. So Dan, it was before cameras and stuff like that, Dan told me that at the end of the neighborhood there was a gate, right? With a pedestrian entrance and gave me the code to the pedestrian entrance. So I went to, my son at that point had a letter carrier. It was almost like a mail carrier that he used for school. And I filled it up with 200 pieces

of what Eric Gorton's marketing was at that point. And I brought my seven-year-old son and we would walk the neighborhood and just stick the little pieces of paper in everybody's mailbox to try and get my story out, to let them know that this house is available. I was promoting other people's listings just to let them, people know that

this is what's on the market, this is what's sold. I wasn't claiming they were my listings. It was just- And again, pre-internet. Pre-internet, way pre-internet. This information wasn't readily available. No, not at all. And especially all of the marketing went away. So now people are starving for information

about their homes and their neighborhood, and they weren't getting it because nothing was coming in. You really had to go scope it out or call somebody. And then once you call somebody, you're on their radar and they become a stalker, right? But that's exactly what I did. I was a stalker, right? I went out and I tried to make relationships

and friendships with all of these people. So, you know, every three, four, five nights, my son and I used to just go into this neighborhood. I, you know, because I was working all day at that point, it was my time to spend with my son. My daughter was still younger. So, you know, I couldn't take her. And by the time I got home,

she was probably either in bed or in her pajamas. But Michael used to wait for me all the time. Yeah. As soon as I got home, we going tonight? Yep, let's go. Jump in the car, we'd walk around and we'd play a game because I never knew if the HOA was driving the neighborhood. So I'd play hide and seek behind the trees. Right? So I play hide-and-seek behind the trees. I car comes come on Mike get behind a tree

He'd run to one side of this road. I'd run to the other and we'd kind of hide from the car That's passing by and every once in a while. I'd get a phone call from either. Yeah, Michael's doing five to ten for car So right after that, then the H.O.A. used to call me up and say, listen, it's a federal offense to open up people's mailboxes without putting postage on it.

So me thinking of a way around it, I went to the post office and I bought one penny stamp and I just stick it on a piece of paper without an envelope and stick it in the mailbox. And it got to the point where it become a joke. Right.

I made friends with all the HOA guys. Every once in a while, I'd try to bring some information to the HOA when they had a meeting in the neighborhood. And I'd stop by Vons or there was a pizzeria called Giovanni's Pizza. They made the best cannolis. And I'd stop in with a dozen cannolis that I got from the guy, cause he knew me.

Rather than pay three bucks a piece, he'd give them to me for two bucks a piece because they were made yesterday, they weren't the first ones. So I'd bring cannolis to the HOA meeting and these people would just, you know, like, who is this guy, right? So it took me two and a half years to get a listing in there.

So you, but you spent two and a half years becoming part of the fabric of that community. I did. Without even living there. Nope. Took two and a half years to get a listing in there. So you, but you spent two and a half years becoming part of the fabric of that community. I did. Without even living there. Nope. Took two and a half years. Two and a half years to get my first phone call for someone to say, okay, I've seen you working in here.

You know, at that point, Cheryl Davis was the biggest name in the fountain. She owned a home in there. I'm not sure if she was living in there at that point but she sold a home that she owned to the guy who delivered my children, Dr. Torres. And he was one of my one main guys that, I made friends with him because he delivered my kids.

So then he introduced me to his neighbors and so on and so forth. So two and a half years later, this guy gave me a chance to sell his home. But he said, you know what? I know you've never sold a home before in here. And you know, I know that you've dealt with real estate, but you're going to need something to break in in here. And I'm going to give you this listing for 30 days and I'm going to give you 4%. And at that point, everybody was

charging 6%. I like that was the days of 6% and it was nothing like that. I said, I'll do whatever I have to. Right. Because you got 30 days because at that point, no, I got a relationship with somebody else. Yeah. The other thing is it's 30 days, but you can't put it on the MLS. Oh man.

30 days. Is it, Oh man. Put a sign in the front if you want to. You do all the marketing anyway. So and my whole philosophy was I was always just trying to get people to say, well, you know, most people who live in the fountains know

people who want to live in the fountain. Sure. Right. So I immediately went to work. I planted a sign in his front yard. I basically handed out flyers every single day. Anybody who came and went got a flyer

or got a piece of paper that said Eric Gordon I have this listing if you or anybody you know wants to either scale up scale down or bring somebody to live in the fountains Yeah, this is you know, we're having an open house this weekend There's a gentleman in there. He's no longer with us really great guy Keith and He walked in and basically said, my son just graduated from college in USC, and I want him to live in here. This is where he grew up.

He ended up buying a house. I double ended it. And literally that was the beginning of it. All you need is one thing. Cause now you're going to show everybody, hey, I sold this house, not even on the MLS, off market in 20 something days. And that was my marketing, right?

You promote everything that you do. Everything. I just had one open house, you know, first week on the market or first week exposed that it's not even on the market. A guy walked in, we negotiated a deal, he closed literally within two weeks. Dude, it's so funny that you say that is, dude, if you are a real estate agent, this is something you need to do. You need to learn from this.

And it's something that I'm starting to do now is rather than just send out the just solds or whatever else, right? Like you have to send that stuff out. It's fine. But on the cure, like I just sold a house up the hill, up the hill from us is very expensive for us to stay in. When I say out the hill, I just sold a house up the hill and we did it really, really quickly. And I, and it was a, it was a strange situation where it was a home, the builder is still building homes up there.

So you're competing with the builder on custom spec. The streets aren't even really done yet where this house was. And I went up selling it about 20 days and I did it because I geo fenced the sales office for the new home builder. So every single person that walked into that office got pounded with my house online, right? And that's how we wound up selling it. And so we're making a video right now explaining

that process and then when we send out the just solds, they'll have the QR code. Like they don't care that you just sold the house. Tell me how you did it. Tell me what you did that's different than everybody else that got the job done. And when we send that out, you click the QR code for more details on this house.

It's gonna be me talking about, this is what we were up against, this is what we did. And this is how it worked. And people will see that stuff and it's like, oh, that's good. So yeah, I love that you were selling the story of how you sold it, not just that you sold it. Cause I think that's something that so many people are missing. I'm still selling the story out of that neighborhood at 198 homes. I've sold,

I've sold 140, 154 of them is, is, do you have a life goal to sell them all before you die? Oh yeah. And I'll do it before, well, not before I die, before I retire. I think, I think it's, it's so interesting because when I met you, you were just dominating that neighborhood and you were so focused on just doing that, that it was, um, hyper-focused on that. Sure. And then you came here to work with us. And when you first came over, you, you partnered up with another great agent we have here.

And even though that partnership was short-lived, it was like a year. I thought you guys, I thought it was a good partnership for both of you for the time that you had it for that, for that year, because I thought that, I thought that Anthony at the time was trying to break into another level and you had the clout of that level working in the fountains. But what he did for you was got you thinking bigger than these hundred and 92 houses and got you out of that. And so for that year, you helped him level up to where he can do what he wants.

And he got you out of that neighborhood. Absolutely. Yeah. And cause now you guys are all over the place. I mean, you know, when you look at what you sell or you're selling and the ridges you're selling, I mean all over town, so on the summit, I mean, you're all over the place now. So how did you transition? Now, obviously you've got to make a transition a little bit from that neighborhood fabric that's except like that. They always say that what got here won't get you there.

Sure. Right, they always say that. And you had to make a transition from, I'm part of this community, the cannoli guy at the HOA to scale into a bigger market. You can't be at every HOA meeting. You can't be, you can't do what you did. So what are the differences that you had to change

in your business to scale that up? Well, you know, there was a lot of things you have to adapt to where you want to be and how to get there, right? And you need to, you need to basically, you know, I hate to use this cliche because I hate when people say to me, but it's so true. You almost got to fake it till you make it, man. You got to put it out there and say, I'm the best and I want to prove it to you.

Give me a shot, right? But to go into different neighborhoods, I think the fact that I knew so many people in town at that point, I rubbed elbows with all of the right people. You know, my kids at that point, when I transitioned and started to go into different neighborhoods, my kids were in Bishop Gorman. And I started, you know, knowing different people that lived in different neighborhoods, social events turned more plentiful to where I can shake hands with different people. And they gave me a shot, introduced me to other people. So, you know, for those of you- Do you think it was the relationships more than the marketing?

I think it was a good 50-50. Because at that point, you know, when I started to immerse myself in the luxury market, obviously you make a little bit more money. I had a little bit more of a marketing budget, right? To whereas, you know, I couldn't scale the fence and bring coffee to every HOA, right? But, you know, you start to identify where your core audience is. And then once you establish,

let's just say you get a listing in one neighborhood, now you can geofence where before the internet or during the internet, before the geofence became popular, you had to almost go to the title company and do your own manual geo fence. Well, you know, it's so interesting. You say the 50 50 with the relationship or with the marketing, because you look at some of the marketing that some of these guys are putting out now. I mean, there's like, there's like full blown magazines like restoration hardware that hit these houses. And if you don't have some relationships,

you can't go. Some people think you just go all in on marketing and it's going to be enough. So let's talk about the relationships. I guess I think, you know, we can, we can talk about what makes a good ad, but I think it's boring. What you send to mailboxes. I think it's more interesting. How do you make an impression on somebody when you meet them? Like, how does Eric Gordon, when you, when you walk into one of the social events and you see somebody, how does Eric make an impression on somebody when you meet him. Like how does Eric Gordon, when you, when you walk into one of the social events and you see somebody,

how does Eric make an impression on somebody without looking like you're trading? Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's funny. You, you, you first have to evaluate or, or kind of, you know, you have to know your audience, right? You can't go up with an Eric Gordon attitude and, and talk to somebody that's completely inverted, right? You can't go up with an Eric Wharton attitude and, and talk to somebody that's completely inverted, right? You can't speak to somebody that has a shy attitude and come out of like guns ablazing. You have to adapt to what they're up. They are.

So you have to almost evaluate, you know, how you're going to approach somebody. Right. And I think that's been a big, um, a big attribute of my own that, that I'm a very good adapter. I can walk into a room and I can, I can sum somebody up within a matter of minutes. I know it, obviously I don't know your whole life story, but I can tell the type of person you are before I even say two words to you, right? I can listen to you say a couple of things and I can know how I can mirror the way you're speaking to make us have something in common. Is that something innate with

you or is there other skills you've learned? I think probably there's a certain level of that it's in my core. Yeah. But I also think that over the years that I've been able to hone in and sharpen that skill See I would say before I even ever heard the phrase matching and mirroring before I knew that existed as a thing My wife would always say I can tell which one of your friends you're talking to on the phone by how you're talking Oh, yeah, because you just I just do it. I think it's just one of those things When you're out, and let's say you're creating a relationship with somebody, and you want this to be to continue as a business, how do you be memorable

for that person at the end of the interaction? I think, and I'm the same way, because people constantly approach me now. They're always trying to sell me something. With success in real estate, everybody's always trying to sell you something that they want from you in real estate. So everybody's always trying to sell you something that they want from you in real estate. And it's nothing bad.

I appreciate the sales and I appreciate the hustle. I appreciate when people come at me and I love to hear or to see people try and better themselves, right? That's all well and good, but you know, to stay memorable, you can't be fake. Man can't be fake. You got to be real with people. Well, I find that I find that one of the things that, some advice that I got from a mentor years ago,

which was if you wanna break into the higher end clientele, you can't try to compete. Like, you're not gonna meet somebody that has $500 million and try to flex with what you got. No way. Because they don't give a shit. Not at all. And I find it's so weird now when you see people doing that to you,

cause you know, you're like, bro, like, I don't give a shit. Like, like it's just really strange. So how do you connect? You connect with people the same way you like them to connect with you. Like how do you like, what do you want to get to when you talk to somebody? Well, the first thing I always try to remember, and it was it took a little bit of time to realize this, but don't focus on what you think people have. Everybody's got their own story,

man. Right? You never know. There's a guy probably, you know, out there that you may think is flexing. He's got the great car and the great house and it wears every beautiful watch. You don't know what his bills look like. You don't know that the amount of money he's bringing in. You may perceive that he's got a lot of money, right? But you don't know where he's at. If you stay true and become a friend. Now I always try to like mesh with people

just from a friendly standpoint, even when I was a kid, right? It wasn't always, it wasn't always just trying to one up somebody or, or, you know, trying to, to, to be the, the, the most powerful voice in a conversation, right? You genuinely have to care about what people say as opposed to what you're saying all the time. Dude, that's such an interesting point about not knowing what people's bills are. Cause you probably had people call you that you thought were pretty successful.

Oh, for sure. That all of a sudden are like, Hey dude, I'm a deep shit. I got to sell this house. Oh yeah. Without a doubt. Yeah. Both you and I know that at face value. Welcome to Vegas. And, and, and I try not to judge people. I really do. It's hard. You know, coming from New York, it's kind of bred into your soul. You gotta, you gotta kind of, it's, it's, you gotta make sure that you keep people at arm's length because growing up in New York was no picnic, right?

There's a lot of great people, but there's a lot of shitty people there. There really are, right? Especially when you interact with people in the city, in Brooklyn, it's not fun all the time. Dude, we were watching, because they just re-released my season, The Apprentice on Amazon,

and we were watching it last night. Kids have just never seen it. The kids never seen it. They've cut away. Yeah. There's never. Yeah. Never watched it. Yeah. It just never watched it. I'm always like, spoiler alert. I got fired. And it was so funny because it cut away to me talking, giving an interview and I'm sitting on the stoop and I always say, I love that. It's my favorite moment of the whole show. And you don't even know why. And it's because literally we were sitting there for like four hours doing this interview. And this little old lady kept popping up. We were just on a stoop in like some neighborhood.

She kept popping up. Eventually, like the producer's like, man, I'm really sorry. Like we're going almost done. We're going to be here. This little sweet old lady opens the door and goes, you've been here for hours. Fuck off already. That was like, I just met my first real New Yorker. There was a woman in my hometown, Mrs. Arlott, and literally would scream at the kids coming by every single day, knew all our names.

I'm gonna tell your mother, I'm gonna tell her. Right, throwing shit at us out the window. So. That's so funny. Well, let's wrap this up by saying, dude, it's like new person right now. It's like, I'm excited. I'm gonna get a real estate license.

What advice would you give for a new person starting out in this industry? Find the right team. Yeah. Find the person that's going to take a genuine interest with you. That is not thinking of you as a dollar sign. Right. Really? And someone that really wants to see you succeed and also remember, you know, you

get on a team, a team is not forever. This is basically a training experience and a training portion of your real estate career. You get paid to go to school. That's exactly right. Now there will be a split, don't get me wrong, but you know, if you have a good team leader, they want you to succeed and go out on my own.

I never want my agents to stay with me. There's only one agent that I ever want to stay with me for the life of my career. And that's your son. And that's my son. He's got the last name, Gorton. He's gonna take on, you know, he's gonna get the keys to the kingdom.

Take it over. But you know, at the end of the day, if they don't, if they are not showing a genuine interest and showing you the things that you need to succeed, find a new team leader. Because there's people out there that are really, really good. Yeah.

Well, brother, look, man, your success continues to keep us all at all We are we are so happy to have you and appreciate that bless for the information to share everybody in this year Just everybody knows you finished. I'm gonna tell you It don't matter. I was being with you John. It's It's good enough. Well, dude, if you listen to this today Hopefully, you know you learned a couple things number one. I would say day. Hopefully, you know, you learned a couple of things. Number one, I would say don't make excuses for your diversity.

Turn that fuel into fire, man, because you can kind of get it done. Also, success in real estate lies in the knowledge of others. And by others, I don't mean people stand in front of a classroom. I mean people that are willing to take an investment in you and it's talk about people taking an investment in you, dude, rich people, recognize people that hustle. So if you want to's talk about people taking investment in you dude rich people recognize people that hustle so if you want to press some rich people hustle we'll see you next week what's up everybody thanks for joining us for another episode of escaping the

drift hope you got a bunch out of it or at least as much as I did out of it anyway if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully, you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.