Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - From $8 to Real Estate Maven: Lailan Bento’s Journey

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Hawaiian real estate maven Lailan Bento joins us to uncover the secrets behind a thriving career in one of the industry's most unique landscapes. With just $8 and a background rich in cultural diversity and political savviness, Lailan's story is a testament to the power of perseverance and organization. Join us as we explore the gritty reality of real estate, challenging common industry practices like who really should be buying that coffee, and debating if the key traits for success are innate or learned.    Confidence and trust are cornerstone themes as we navigate real estate's challenging waters, from leveraging personal networks to mastering emotional intelligence. Industry insights, including those from the renowned Ryan Serhant, illuminate the complex journey of managing client relationships and the ever-controversial "fake it until you make it" strategy. We bring a human touch with a compelling personal story about managing a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, reminding us of the personal battles faced even while climbing the ladder of success.   Adaptability in marketing and the critical art of networking take center stage as we dive into effective strategies tailored for Hawaii's distinctive market. From luxury magazines to social media platforms, discover how tracking advertising ROI is essential for any agent's success. Networking isn't just about mingling—it's about forging real connections that open doors to large-scale projects and exciting developments. Whether you're new to the game or looking to scale up, this episode offers a roadmap filled with practical tips and hard-earned wisdom to navigate the competitive world of real estate.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) Real Estate Success (06:56) Trust in Real Estate (15:38) Marketing Strategies in Real Estate (21:31) Networking for Real Estate Success (29:14) Development and Scaling Real Estate Business (38:46) Entering Real Estate   💬 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 #lailanbento #realestate #hawaii #success #trust #marketingstrategies #networking #development #scaling #career #industryinsights #personalstory #luxurymagazines #socialmedia #adaptability #roi #teamplayer #confidence #emotionalintelligence #politicalsavviness #grit #organization #personalrelationships #humantouch #advertising #zillow #redfin #alexhormozi #youtube #tiktok #politicalcircles #reputation #relationshipbuilding #bigisland #workforcehousing #affordableliving #jobcenters #government #industrysectors #financialsupport #fulltimecommitment #mentor #commissionsplit #establishedteams

But you were buying you were buying coffee and mortgage people. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Okay, listen, if you're listening to this, and you're an agent, you don't buy coffee for the mortgage people in the title people, they buy you coffee. They should buy you dinner. To be honest. Yeah, there you are their client. Don't go buy them coffee. That doesn't make any sense. And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another episode of Like It Says in the Opening Man, the show that gets you from where you are to where you want to be.

And today, kids, live in the studio, I got somebody. She's a baller. And, you know, being here in Las Vegas, we are considered little. People don't understand this, but we are considered the Ninth Island. And what I mean by that is we have a massive migration of Hawaiians that have moved to Las Vegas over the years, henceforth the ninth island. So it's always good to have somebody from one of the actual islands come to the studio.

This guest today, she is an absolute baller, realtor in Hawaii. She was voted one of the top 20 Hawaiian realtors on social media. She is the co-founder of the Hawaiian development of Hawaii development group, which we'll talk about in a minute. She's been featured in entrepreneur and man she's got a cool story to tell.

So welcome to the program ladies and gentlemen, this is Laila Nbento. Laila. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. How are you? Are you fired up from that intro? You just fired up right now?

That's awesome. So you are somebody that much like me, you are in the real estate business. And I'm always kind of curious. So I think you mentioned when we talked in my office or the mom's in the business. So obviously that's how you got into it. So tell me about you growing up in Hawaii because I always like to see, cause obviously highly successful people, right. They leave clues. And I like to see, is, was it, was it, was it a, was it like, was there a major problem that happened in your life? Is it like I overcame something

or was it just nurture straight up that made you a baller? Tell me about growing up in Hawaii. Growing up in Hawaii is beautiful. I think what makes it different is we're all mixed ethnicities, right? So you grow up and you don't really see, I don't know, skin color. It is, you know, you have the Japanese friend

and the redhead friend, and that goes back to the plantation days. And if you're familiar with Hawaii, you'll have like those mixed plates. So there's food from all of the ethnicities, but growing up there, I think that's what makes Hawaii different is we all grow up together. We all know each other. We all take care of each other. So that I think is the beauty that I haven't seen anywhere else. I lived in California, then moved back to Hawaii. And I think that was great. It was a great childhood.

Um, grew up in a place called Hawaiian homelands. You have to be at least half Hawaiian to grow up there. So it was a little bit of a rough neighborhood. Um, then went into my grandfather was a Senator for 30 years. And he, you know, I was in hotel sales and then went into working for a former governor for eight years, which was a blast. And then ventured off into real estate, $8 to my sales and then went into working for a former governor for eight years, which was a blast. And then ventured off into real estate, $8 to my name and just took the leap.

And yeah, wasn't sure if I was going off a cliff with the $8. Well, let's, let's talk about that, dude. There's so many people, so many people like jump into, into real estate sales and they see that and it has a 90% failure rate. Like people don't like 90%. I always tell people, you know, I used to go and speak to new agents and do like a new agent symposium. And I used to say, Hey, take a look around the room. Cause 90% of the people in this room ain't going to be doing this in 12 months. Right. Right. And so what do you think is the difference and what makes people successful with this and not successful with this?

I think you have to be organized. You have to have that grit of and then you also have to have, you know, anything is possible and whatever it takes right in real estate sales. I mean, you're pounding in a sign or I'm mopping or, you know, sweeping. I mean, you are all of that in real estate sales. So if you I always say there's no divas in real estate, right? It's a hard industry to be in.

There's so many little details, but I think if you just have that grit and you are just driven, you have to be self-motivated for sure to make it in real estate. Yeah, that's what I see. It's that people see the glitz and glam of it, but it's a lot of background work, right?

For your clients and pushing the nest girl through. Well, let's talk about this. You said grit is a requirement. And again, this goes back to the, I literally did a podcast, you can go back and find it in resilience, where I talked about how to build resilience and how to build grit, those things.

Is that something that you think was innate in you or is that something that you think was developed over time? Probably developed over time. I've pretty much been driven or tried to like do my best in whatever I'm doing in my entire life, whether it's playing sports or in school, something. And I just feel like I always have to be doing something like being motivated. So I just think probably developed probably over time, I would say, but, think probably developed probably over time, I would say, but, you know, jump, leaving a nine to five job, no paycheck, $8. I had to make it right. Yeah. How did you even pull

that out? Because seriously, like I tell people, if you're going to get into real estate, you better have three months of your bills in the back. Like how did you manage that? My husband, who he, you know, he had taken a job in California. So he were able to, you know, a lot of you make sale. That's fine if not, but it was still like, OK, I'm leaving this for me. I'm like, I got to make it right. So he was like, I'm giving you one shot and that's it. So I was like, OK. I was a soccer mom at that time.

I was like, you know, all the sporting events, right. My friends, family, I was selling to I was like to everyone. And I with that eight dollars, all I could afford were business cards, I think off of Vistaprint. And I went around, because Hawaii is so small, Hawaii's like one big small town. I went to like all my family businesses and would put my cards at the reception desk.

With the perforated edges on them. My sister's salon, my cousin's car dealing business. I mean, it was funny because people would come in and actually grab the card. Because I would put my cards in front of their business cards. So they would think it was their card. I just like went from there my first year. I think I sold 24 homes. Your first year you did 24.

And I had a previous boss at least. Okay, stop for a second. Because if you're listening, that is an anomaly. That is not how this normally works. That's amazing. So let's, you did that strictly just from glad handing no marketing budget just straight grassroots shaking hands kissing babies What would you say so other than obviously you've tricking people into picking up your business card, right?

Let's talk about those first couple sales because that's a lot of people Have challenged with any industry they get into without having a track record. So how did you convince those first couple people to work with you with zero track record? I think just my relationship with them, they knew who I was, I started with my sphere of influence, right? Of people that actually know me, so they trust you, right? Those are usually your first sales. So it was like an uncle, not an aunt,

and then a couple of the soccer and basketball families, right, that were interested in buying. But yeah, that's pretty much how I started, just with the people that know me instead of, and then as I would do each sale, I would put a little bit into marketing, into marketing, which I think people just- Oh, there you go.

Takes the commission check, and we're in a vacation in Europe, right? Yeah. Yeah. The real estate roller coaster. I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm poor, into marketing, which I think people just, there you go. Takes the commission check and we're in a vacation in Europe, right? Yeah. Yeah. The real estate roller coaster. I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm poor, I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm poor. Yeah.

Right. Exactly. So, but let's talk about this. You skipped over a little bit, but I want to get granular if we can. Granular. Let's get in there. So when you had your first couple of sales, you say people trusted you. Now I find that what people trust is confidence.

So there's two ways to do this as a newbie. And this is not just real estate specific. This is any industry if you're getting into it. You can either go the, hey, look, I don't know, but I'm gonna find out, or you can just exude confidence that you know what you're talking about. Which way do you think you went?

Which way was it? Probably the latter. Yeah, I was just exude confidence and go for it. And you're gonna laugh at this story. And all I could afford, when I got into the industry, I'm like, I don't know what a surveyor does. I don't know what a contractor does. I would meet at this one small coffee shop

and the staff in there would laugh all the time. It was like a joke. Cause I would, all they could afford was for them, you know, I would meet with the contractor or me with the title and ask her out. Cause I want to understand. Cause I thought to myself they could afford was for them, you know, I would meet with the contractor or me with title and escrow. Cause I want to understand. Cause I thought to myself, I don't understand. My clients are sure as hell not going to understand.

Right? So I, all I could afford was to get them coffee. So I would have like these little coffee, like morning, you know, meetings with these people, but individually so that I could really grasp what real estate entails, right? From the start to finish, what were all these people? What did they do? Yeah. You were buying coffee and mortgage people?

No, no, no, no. Okay, listen, if you're listening to this and you're an agent, you don't buy coffee for the mortgage people and the title people. They buy you coffee. They should buy you dinner, to be honest. Yeah. You are their client.

Don't go buy them coffee. That doesn't make any know. There you are. They're a client. Don't go buy them coffee. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. That's funny. So you spent time trying to educate yourself through the process, but there was a little bit of fake until you make it on the front end, right? Right.

And I realized quickly was the first job I ever had where my broker was nowhere to be found. It was, it was like they're on the other side of the island or they're actually in Vegas in a club and I'm trying to write a contract. But I did have the next broker that I did have was incredible. And she explained to me, if you go into a sale thinking I'm the listing agent, that's all I'm going to do.

That sale will never close. You have to be a team player sometimes. You may have to go meet the appraiser. You have to just be flexible. Some people go in and like, I'm the buyer's agent. I did my job. Yeah, I think I got a corral, everyone. Yeah, no, no.

I think probably the best way I ever heard anybody say it was Ryan Serham was on the podcast. And he said, when we were talking about deals and your involvement in the deal, he said, my loyalty is to the deal. Because I know my client wants the deal. So a lot of people think their loyalty is to the client, but your loyalty is to getting the deal done,

whatever it takes. And sometimes, you know, that means acting in the interest of the deal, because you know, in the heat of the moment, your client may be adverse to whatever you're saying, but they do want the deal. So I thought that was an interesting way to put that, when you said that.

And I think, you know, as in being in real estate, I think sometimes we have to take our clients out of the emotion, right? Cause then they get all us all ruffled too. But then like you just said, they really want the home. Yeah. You have to kind of step back, let them cool off. That's what I do. And then, you know, give them a few hours and I'll respond.

Cause if it's like right there in the heated, you know, emotional, I don't know, tantrum of a client and you know, at the end of the day, like you said, the objective is they want the house to kind of get them off the ledge. How do you calm them down? How do you calm people? What do you do? I just what I do is I just remind them. Okay, this is the home you wanted right and has a big backyard There's a you know right across from the great school for your kids Just try to remind them why they're even in the deal And it usually calms them down. But you know, it's sometimes they think the seller's coming after them, the seller thinks the buyer's,

you know, and it's really not, we're all on the same team. Yeah. I used to- It's hard. Yeah. So yeah, sorry if I keep touching my nose, I gotta explain why. People who listen to the show know, but you don't know. So I have this awesome thing called trimal genital neuralgia and essentially you have a nerve that runs to your face.

Wow. And if I touch certain places on my face, I get electrocuted like a taser. And currently it is on the left side of my nose. So I have a really hard time like flung my nose. And on some days it just kind of runs and I can't touch it. Oh my gosh. Forgive me if I keep sort of touching around it

because I'm trying to do that without touching it. Anyway, the fun fact, fun facts today on the old podcast. We do Joe Rogan style where we just go straight up just raw here, which is good. See, but back to calming people down. Um, what I like to do and what I do and, and, and some of what you just said, yes, like for example, I'll do the Chris Voss method where if somebody's mad, I'll go right mad with them. I'm so mad, me too, I'm mad with you, blah, blah, blah.

I'm mad too. And then I'll go like, well, but maybe this and then maybe this and maybe this and I can kind of step them down. But I find if they're really mad, it's like, for example, you're married, right? Have you ever calmed down in the history of calming down when your husband told you to calm down?

No. Never, it does not work, right? It's the same way with clients. You just can't do that. So I'll go that method. But also, like you just said, and I agree with it totally, which is I never let anybody cancel a contract on a house unless they're standing in it.

Like if people are like, oh, I don't wanna deal with this as to me or Paris. Cool, let's go take one more look and then see if that's what you really want to do. Cause if they fell in love with the house in the first place, it'll help their emotions a little bit as far as getting them back down to earth, which I like. Right. And so, yeah, I agree with that. Totally. So I do the same thing with counseling. I will. I think maybe because I played sports my whole life, I will go down fighting

until it's like, we have to cancel. Like I will try to see like, is it the lender? Is it, you know, what is it? Yeah, which way is it? Right before we're canceling. So here's the thing. I'm gonna go back to you about the fake it till you make it or the learn stuff.

If you ever taken a disc test, is that something you've ever taken a personality test? I did. And I was like, Hey, don't tell me I'm going to tell you what you are just being in here in 10 minutes. Cause I love to try to do this. I'm going to guess your high I was one of your indicators.

And then the second one, I can't quite figure it out. It's either going to be S because you said you wanted to go sit down and learn everything with people, which would be S. You'd really want to understand that. Or there's some D in you too, which is that driver disc, which is what makes you go out and hand stuff out. So what was it ID or IS? It was actually in like,

I think it was actually like a little bit of all four. The teacher was trying to, it's like, I can be bossy. I can be, you know, a team player. I can be, it was kind of interesting on a little bit. All of it. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. See like a leader, but then you can, you know, a little bit of everything like type A personality,

but then. Yeah. So what you're definitely type a cause cause cause real estate. I don't know. Yeah, dude. But now when I look at people, if you're thinking about getting real estate, or I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a heads up real quick. Go take the desk, go take it. If your desk comes back DC, that means you should be an accountant because you hate people. You like numbers, you like things to be right, but you're not gonna have the empathy you need

to get through somebody through a dangerous time. If your disc is SC, right? High security, high conscientious, you may be able to do this job. You'd probably be happier as an assistant. I was just gonna say that. You'd be much happier as an assistant. But if you get this job, you should probably be an assistant first so you can learn everything

about this job because you're not going to feel comfortable talking to anybody about it until it's done. If you are high D high I just go do it. Yeah. If you are D and I in some combinations to that is like less than 2% of the population has that desk and it's like natural ability for sales. You're like Michael Jordan of sales if you have that. So go do it, go do it. Get into, if you're not doing this, go sell something you should be.

Well, let's pivot a little bit because you started selling real estate and obviously 24 your first year, that's huge. I'm guessing those numbers stayed pretty consistent, right? Yeah. How long you been doing, how long you been selling, Rosa? 10 years now. So 10 years now.

But you've kind of pivoted now because you went from handing out cards and running, well, you know know what I'm gonna hit back on one thing because I skipped something very important that you said. You made an investment in marketing and we skipped by it and we didn't talk about it and I want to get into that. So talk to me about making that investment. I think at the time in 2014 which business is always changing right and I feel like one thing I could recommend would be you have to be able to pivot, right? In real estate, because Zillow at that time was really, really strong, strong lead. So it's Redfin before they had their own Redfin agents. So I would, uh, did Zillow.

I mean, I actually did it all. So I try to help new agents from luxury magazines, videos, too. I just would take a portion of my paycheck and then put it into different types of marketing. And then at the end of the month, I was, would see like, okay, this one was working. This one isn't working. Cause that's great. I love that. All right. Sorry. When you make a great point, I'm going to stop. I'll stop. It's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. So when you talked about, you knew what was working.

This is a huge mistake that people make in any business, right in any business when it comes to advertising is they they put all of these hooks out that all in the same boat. And that's a mistake because then you don't know which hook is actually catching the fish. So if you're going to do advertising, and you're going to put stuff out, there needs to be different landing pages, different QR codes, different phone numbers, different everything on everything you put out

so you understand where things are coming from. And so many people, I'll never forget this, dude. I walked, this is way before your time, right? Back in the day, 2006, 2007, there was a book here in Las Vegas called The Real Estate Book, and it was about this big. And it was like that thick. And every agent advertised in The Real Estate Book.

It was just a sea of agents. And when I first got here, And it was like that thick and every agent advertised in the real estate book. It was just a sea of agents. And when I first got here, I asked the guys across the hall from me, their team, I said, uh, I saw the book and I saw their ad and I said, Hey, what's, what's your ROI on this? And they said, what? So what's your return on investment on this ad? They said, I don't know. So what do you mean you don't know? They go, well, we just, we just do it. And I go, why? And they go, cause everybody else know. So what do you mean you don't know? They go, well, we just do it. And I go, why? And they go, because everybody else does.

And I was like, oh my gosh, that's terrible. So obviously you said you knew what was working. Right. Whether it was Yelp or Zillow. When I started years ago, Zillow was actually really good. And then my best leads I've ever had were with Redfin, but now they're on the island with their own agent. So it's kind of diluted. Bastards. Sorry.

Yeah. But if I could recommend anything, I always tell people this. I'm a stickler and I'm a firm believer of marketing and any company I've ever worked for, it's like, that's the first thing, even the developments I'm on. Yeah. They're, oh, it's expensive. It's like, well, everything's online. Where are your buyers coming from? You know, they're not driving around, right? How are they going to find us in the middle of the Pacific ocean with these developments? You have to have a strong, I feel marketing campaign. I mean, all different types of channels, whether it's a YouTube, email newsletter, blog, anything, I feel like more, you know,

channels you have of marketing elite will come in, you know, from one of the 10 versus, Oh, I'm just going to be in Zillow. Well, you're, you're huge on social. I know that. So which channel do you have that you think generates the most revenue into close sales? Cause I'm curious what you have to say. My phone in here. I did go ahead. I'm curious what you have to say. Cause I'm going to compare it to something somebody else said. Keep going. Yes. Which one of your social media channels generates the most revenue for you? Which I'm slacking. I should be even more on social media, but I feel like this and I, this is what I do

because I've been in sales. I always ask somebody wouldn't by the time they email me or call me, you know that they have already clicked, right? They're clicking on all your social accounts and they're clicking on your, your website. Then they're reading your reviews. Then they're going to contact you. Yep. So as long as those are done nicely, what that's the thing about social media,

it's hard to track leads. Which one it comes from? Leads, because they're bouncing all over and then they'll reach out to you. Well then you're gonna love this piece of information because I thought this was fascinating to the point where I screenshot it the other day. Do you get me to watch like an hour long YouTube video?

It's gotta be really interesting. And Alex Ramozzi put one out the other day that I wanted to see because it's his data. And he put it up, right? I just thought this was really interesting. It'd be great for you with what the film we're good to, which is he has all of his YouTube, he has all of his channels, right?

And I took screenshots of all of it. And he talked about which ones generate the most revenue. So where you should focus your attention. And I thought this was really interesting cause it was not what I thought. Right. So he talks about the channels that number one, households are on them that the household is worth

over a hundred thousand dollars a year. Which these are our clients, right? This is who we want, right? So number one in that aspect was YouTube. So number one is YouTube. You know what the worst one was? Instagram? No, no, tick tock.

Tick tock is the worst. Wow. Only 28% of household, only 28% of households that are over a thousand dollars a year on tick tock. It's the younger generation. You're marketing to much kids. Yeah. That's what you're doing.

Right? Yeah. Number two, or even tied with, as far as results driven, where people are, is Instagram. And then right below that was Facebook. Wow. So he said, yeah, he focuses almost all of his online now. He's like, look, we were spending equal amount of time

on all of these channels. And now, yeah, it's good to be omnipresent, but he goes, now all of our attention is going really to Instagram and YouTube, because that's where the fish are. Wow. That's where the high dollar clients are. So if you're some, I thought that was super interesting because I see all these agents that are dancing

in front of the camera for clicks and that is not turning into money, apparently. It just don't turn into cash. So on that basis, it's kind of like, all right, you might as well figure that out. So I know that, you know, you spend a lot of time on Instagram, huh? Yep.

So what content do you think is working for you, for your client base? What do you make that works? Well, I do a combination of real estate and then like a lifestyle. Okay. Right. Which I think I need to do more real estate related. More real estate related.

Yeah. And more educational, like Hawaii, the different areas, what are the people looking for? I definitely need to grow on that content. Very cool. So let's talk about development. Let's shift gears here a little bit and talk about developing stuff. So you are now turning into with Hawaii development group, which is your agency, which represents large developers in Hawaii, which, like there's two ways to do this business or actually there's many ways to do this business.

But as far as residential goes, you can go out and put business cards in front of all of your friends cards at their businesses and do one off houses, which there's nothing wrong with that, man. That's, you know, we grind out 4,000 of those deals a year or you can get hooked up with a major developer and wants to build a lot of stuff and hire you to sell it all. Yeah. So that's kind of a quantum leap in sales, I guess. Yes. So talk to me about first, before we get into the nuts and bolts of this, these developments you got going in Hawaii,

talk to me about how that those deals got done. How do you, how do you go from, how do you go from here to there? How do you do that? Networking business networking. We were a part of several political campaigns. How do you go from here to there? How do you do that? Networking, business networking. We were a part of several political campaigns. I come from a political family, so that was the way I'm raised. But business networking, over the years of just meeting different people, networking, you just, yeah.

Definitely you want to network, because that's what took us there. Hawaii is just, business is all relationship based, right? And so once you have a great reputation of, okay, they can do this development, people just start approaching you because they know in Hawaii, right, connections goes a long way. That development will stall if you don't have the right players in place. So we went, my mom was approached to help a developer and she interviewed him first because we have developers that come through Hawaii all the time.

I wanna make sure that they're really doing what they're really saying they're gonna do and not build luxury homes and then forget about the parks for the kids and go back to Utah or wherever they came from, right? Yeah, so she started that 10 years ago. Utah, these, you know, they just, they just, they just made Utah scammer central, like more scams and Pon just, they just, they just think Utah, scammer central,

like more scams and Ponzi scams and stuff come out of Utah than any other state. So look at you Utah, look at you. Somebody, somebody said they should name their new hockey team, the Utah Ponzi scheme. I don't know, anyway. Anyway, so networking, I'm gonna talk about that because I think I see a big problem

that real estate agents make and that is this. Realtors spend way too much time networking with other real estate agents. Exactly. I don't understand it. Right. It's like, here's the thing, I talked to one of my people yesterday

and God bless this person. She's all gung ho for one of the realtor groups she's in. She's like, it's really helped me, it's done this. And I'm like, that's wonderful for you. She's like, would you support something we're doing? And I said, no. I said, just cause I don't believe in it. I said, I think, look, if I'm gonna spend time away

from my family, right? If I'm gonna spend time away from my family, you know, it's going to be something that's going to help my family and hanging out with a bunch of realtors. They're never going to buy a house for me. It's never going to happen. And I like, I own the company. Like they would come and work here. But my thing was, you know, this person said something like to the effect of, you know, well, I want to meet, it's important to know all these other realtors. Cause when I send an offer over, I want them to know this. I'm like,

and I just asked him, I said, do you think anybody in this town doesn't know who I am? And they said no. I said, I've never been to one event ever. Because I built my reputation on business. You're right, because the biggest producers, they're never at any real estate networking classes. They're out selling. Now, I do believe that it's nice and important to build camaraderie with the agents in your office. I think that's important. Right.

But wasting your day going all these realtor events makes no sense to me at all. But I love that you're like, no, I'm networking in a political circle. I'm going in a circle. I'm going to where my potential clients are. And I think so many people don't network with intention that way. I know. So when you when you go to a networking event, yeah, and you're walking up to somebody cold, what do you do? Introduce myself. I started networking when I was a teenager, my mom would force me, I can't even believe I'm in sales. I'm naturally shy. And she would force me to go to these things. That's the S. That's the S. Okay.

Keep going. And yeah, she would force me on these tables and I was forced to speak to people. And I just started, you know, introducing myself to people and yeah, it's gone a long way. So let's pretend that we're at a networking event. You don't know me.

I'm staying. Yeah, no, no. Dude, you're getting some baller stuff out of this. So let's do it. So I'm gonna network you met you walk up to me. What do you say? Well, my name is Lylon. How's it going? I'm John. It's going good, Lylon. And then I say, what are you doing? What are you just gonna say?

That you asked what you asked what they do? Yes. All right. How do you answer that question? For me? Yeah. What do you do? That I own a real estate company. You own a real estate company, that's what you go with. Okay, cool. For me, right, I do two things when I network. All right, this dude, and again. I'm gonna copy it.

Please, please, please do this, right? So I got this, the first part, I'll give full credit to my dude, Brad Lee, for this one. His concept, I love it so much, and I've heard it years ago ago and I still hang onto it and I still do it, right? Which is if somebody asks you what you do, they're not really, they don't care what you do.

They're asking, what can you do for me? Is what they're asking. So your answer needs to be given in a way that I'm explaining to you what you do for people. Like for example, if somebody asks me what I do, I say, oh, an end to end real estate conglomerate that takes all the friction out of a real estate process for buyers and sellers.

Wow. And I go, what does that mean? And then I can say, well, we're in a very large real estate brokerage with 585 agents. We're fully vertically integrated with mortgage title and everything. Now your concierge service handles the move.

I mean, everything that has to do with that whole transaction, we handle in-house for our clients. So it just makes the process so much easier for people. And now it's like, okay, cool. That sounds intriguing to me. So like for you, if I'm in that circle, what do you do is I help developers smash their projections

and sales. How do you do that? Talk to me about that. So that's number one. Okay. The second thing that I always do, especially in a busy room, right? A busy, busy room is I never ask people what they do.

I say, tell me about you. Okay. And then as soon as they start saying, they're all in an elevator pitch of, well, you know, I work for this company and we do this and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't ask what you do.

I said, tell me about you. Are you married? Do you have kids? Are you from here? Because they just spent, they're on, no, no, no. I didn't ask what you do. I said, tell me about you. Are you married? You have kids. Are you from here? Because they just spent there on this hamster wheel of what do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? Right. In a networking, in networking scenario for me anyway, it's more important to be memorable than it is to have a good memory. And by asking about them personally, they will remember you. I love that.

So anyway, but obviously, dude, you're killing it with this networking game because being able to flex those, that political muscle that the family has and get this done. So you got a big, big, big development. You got a couple of things that are working right now. Let's talk about them. I'm starting actually a property management company,

property management company, and my end goal is to become a developer. So the first development, we were just anticipating just doing one development, right? What I was saying earlier, but now we may be doing three developments, which we were scheduled to just do one. And then a developer approached us that we had sold his first phase, which sold quickly. So that's the second one. And then the third one we were approached about two weeks ago.

So I've had a couple of meetings with this company out of California that's looking to build about 2000 homes. Yeah. So you've got the first guy, the first development, you were telling them about my office, they're building an entire town in Hawaii, like a whole city is happening on the big island of Hawaii. So when you walk into that meeting and they're like, yeah, we want to, we want to hire you guys to sell an entire town. How does, like, I can't even get my head around that. I mean,

are you guys handling the commercial space leasing or you're handling just the re- all of it? Oh my God. Yeah. And my mom has been on that project for 10 years. Hawaii has, as I was mentioning, the strictest building regulations in the country. So to get, you know, between the county and the state zoning, it takes a while there. Where somebody else probably would have given up in real estate. Is this ever going to go? Who else? What else meeting? Would you have to go to the state capital? Do you have what title company?

Oh, now we don't title insurance. Now we have title insurance. Just all of these things where somebody would wanna get paid and you know, or they're just gonna quit, right? Cause they're not getting paid. So we've been on that project 10 years, no pay. You know, consulting. I mean, it has taken a long time,

but we just were like, okay, pushing each other. My mom and I. And you're finally at the finish line there now. I'm at the finish line. When are they gonna start breaking ground or have they already started? December. December, you break ground. And what is they gonna start breaking ground or have they already started? December. December. December, you break ground.

And what is getting built first? Housing or the infrastructure or the commercial or what's gonna build first? The commercial with housing is gonna be the first portion of this development. But what I love about it is being from Hawaii, being a Hawaiian girl, it's gonna start with workforce housing.

Workforce housing is much needed on that side of the island where all the jobs are. People are traveling from the other side of the island because where the development is located is the perfect location to have housing for all those hotel workers, policemen, school teachers, all of that. Because right now they're driving from one side.

How far is that drive on Hawaii? About two hours each way. Holy crap. So people are driving two hours to go to work and two hours to go home. Right. We just did a report. 12,000 people drive every day to that one area. Oh my gosh. 12,000. So when you guys built, so okay, let's talk about, because it's such a fishbowl, right? It's such a, it's such a, it is a consolidated thing. So when you start, when you start relocating all of these people to the other side of the island

Does that create a glut of inventory on this side of the island or does some do other people move in? What happens to that? We're having on the other side of the island You're having people that are on the other islands moving there because on the east side of our island You can buy a brand new home wanna it's water catchment But a custom home on an acre for like three four 400,000. So people from like Honolulu or Oahu, where it's really expensive, 1.3 for a median home there, they'll sell their old home and then move to our island on that side.

And retire over there. Yes, so we are seeing a lot more inventory on that side of the island, a lot of more spec homes, more flipping homes, just because it's lower cost compared to the west side of the island where this development is. They call it the gold coast. It's all of these resort communities,

high-end homes on that side. But there's not really housing for the middle class. Yeah, for the workers. For the workers. And you guys are building that first. So they're breaking ground in December. How many units are they gonna build? How quickly?

They're gonna eventually, I think it's gonna be about 5,000 homes. Eventually. What's the first phase you guys are building? The first phase right now is 432 homes. Okay. And you guys already have a sales office open. You're already. No, we're working on our sales office. It's like a dirt road right now. They have to put in the two intersections and then the infrastructure. Okay. So the undergrounds, that stuff would improve.

There will probably be a trailer somewhere awesome thinking right I'm gonna have to park my escalator probably get I don't know When people are coming through these these You know the workers that are over there, right? Right. These are this is middle these are middle America folks as far as income. These are not high dollar folks, right, which is good. And so Are you guys gonna also know now you're you want to get in developing? I know that yourself we talked about that But are you guys gonna kind of go around the obviously the developer probably has a lender partner? They probably have a title partner all of those things. Yes. Have you helped facilitate those relationships? Yes

Okay they probably have a title partner, all of those things. Yes. Have you helped facilitate those relationships? Yes. Okay. Even though it took us 10 years for that first development, the connections that we have are just gold with my mom and I and my family throughout the state at all levels of government. Even though we weren't, you know, 399 for 10 years, we were able to establish all the different connections over the years, which I find is a huge plus, right? Because then now it's not one development, it's three. So then you're, you're working with the same people in the government, right? Right. Or inspectors or appraisers or banks. It's all the same. So as things start to move along, it's just, once you've paved the road that you guys have been going for 10 years,

you get to drive on it as often as you like. It's a good way to put it. People now see that that you guys have gotten this project to the finish line or help with your connections, get it there. So now more and more people are showing up. So we talked about scale earlier, right? We talked about scale, which seems like you gotta get going quickly.

So what is your plan for scaling that business effectively, quickly without losing the quality of what you guys built? I have a business partner. He's actually with my husband in the parking lot, but exactly. We have an entire strategy because we need to, like we were talking about higher producing agents. You need, you know, there's all these standards I have service. I'm a stickler on service. Just image all of it of what I'm looking for

in a perfect, not everyone's perfect, but you know. Your avatar, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, cause I come from like strict background of work. So I'm working for a governor. I couldn't even have these kinds of nails, but you know, I couldn't dye your hair, but yeah, so that's what we're looking at.

So there's a team of us. It's almost worth going on the YouTube just to look at these nails. That is dangerous. My rebellion nails. Yeah, dude, I would stab myself in the face if I had nails like that, constantly. I got enough face problems, I don't need to stab myself.

So that's what we're working on. There's a team of us that are gonna be doing the interviewing process, not just myself, but to hire top producing agents that are self-driven because, you process, not just myself, but to hire top producing agents that are self-driven because developers, they're going to ask, what is your production? 100%. Right?

Somebody sitting there in an office, not producing, you're costing them money, costing me money, right? You're costing us as far as money. How many, well, like, because here's my thing. How many transactions get done on that island a year? Like in a year, how many get done would you guess? Just a couple thousand I would think. Couple thousand.

I should go and look at it. Not that much, I think it's like 1500, everyone is a realtor. Yeah, cause how many- Just like probably here, everyone's a realtor. Yeah, cause how many agents are there? 1500 on the island. Okay.

Population's about 200,000. So 200,000, you got 1500 agents. So yeah, you can pretty much like here, you can hit a seven iron in any direction, hit an agent in the head. You just answer the phone and you're gonna succeed. Pretty much how it is. Well, it's you got 1500 agents. So yeah, you can pretty much like here, you can hit a seven iron in any direction, hit an agent in the head. You just answer the phone and you're gonna succeed. Pretty much how it is. Well, it's so funny, dude.

Well, here's my thing. Like, and this is something that I always like to talk to powerful female agents about, which I love talking about, right? Which is, you said something earlier, which was you said, you know, I was a soccer mom when I started out real estate. Dude, if you look at RMLS, especially here,

it's nationwide, it's the same thing. Half of the realtors in America have something in common. They didn't sell a house last year. And because this is a job that a lot of, like you said, soccer moms, soccer dads, whatever, whoever is the person at home that doesn't necessarily have to get it done, likes to get this to say, this is what they do. Right? So that's what's more probably part of the problem with the image. But on the flip side of that,

I don't know of any other profession that is really dominated at the top by women. Like you guys are killing, like I gotta work hard to keep up with you guys, right? Like I gotta work hard, you guys are crushing. Right, and there's no ceiling, right, in real estate. No. Which I love, because before real estate, which I love

because before real estate, I was selling Hawaii in the hospitality industry on salary. That's how they get you right. Working seven days a week, working the same crazy hours. And then one day I was like, I can use for a corporation. I think I can go into real estate. So that's what made me start thinking, you know, getting stuck at the salary and, you know, for years, I thought, you know what, let me just try and see if I could make it. Why do you think women are so good at this job? Because especially for your mom, you have to be able to multitask.

Multitasking. Mom, mom, mom, mom cultasking. Yeah, mom. We'll go with that word. We just coined a new phrase today on the podcast. Mom cultasting. I like that. No, that's good.

I have always, or I would have thought that the answer would have been something like, well, I think we have a higher level of empathy than most people do. That's true. Or whatever it is. But I think the mom cult-testing is actually a better answer. You do.

I mean, the text messages and emails and all of the people you have to juggle, it's almost like having toddlers, right? Being a mom in the kitchen, making breakfast with a team of toddlers. Yes, it is. Everyone like tugging on your nightgown, right, for breakfast.

And trust me, the more money they have, the bigger toddlers they are. Yes. No, don't stick the fork in the electrical socket is essentially what you're doing. Right, right. It's your deal, don't kill it. You're gonna kill your own deal.

So no, I love that. What percentage of, would love that. Um, what percentage of Would you say the agency in Hawaii or female? Is it like is about same or is it? Um, Maybe about 70% there's a lot of males. There's more men getting into real estate. I Would say yeah, they do it probably part-time because of a family at home I'm thinking. Yeah, it is part-time. So let me ask you this, you had, and it was a luxury and to be honest with you, when I relocated my business out here from Florida, I had the same luxury.

So this is like, my wife like was working and carried me while I got the business started out here. When I first moved out here from Florida, she supported us for probably that first six months. So God bless. Thank you. High five to my wife. I'm not, I'm not ashamed to say that I was a kept man, which I think that makes me man candy a little bit. So I'm okay with it, but it makes me real. Yeah, dude. We got started. And yes, I had that advantage, which was lovely, but what advice would,

what advice would you give to me? It doesn't have that advantage. Maybe start off but see I don't think people should go into real estate part-time because I feel like you're if you're not in the trenches with us you're not gonna understand and you know how to make the deals work how to you know the proper training but if I started off if I had to still have my full-time job I would go into it slowly in part-time, I think. Sitting open houses on the weekends, I mean, there's a lot of things you can do when you're not doing your nine to five job.

And team up, I would, I suggested this to agents, team up with someone. Like if you work full-time, maybe team up with someone that is in real estate full-time. You know, if you have, if you have leads coming through or something, you both can work as a team instead of, and then slowly get into real estate. And slowly move over. I see, I think for me, I think the only way anybody should ever get in this business is on a team.

On a team, exactly. 100%. I don't think, I think having owned a large big box brokerage before, of a big name that you would know, and teaching those classes to new agents and watching that 90% failure rate happen again and again and again and again and again. I can tell you anybody ever calls me and it's new. I'm always like the only way to start this business on team. It's how I started.

I started working for one of my good friends that charged me a 50% split. Yeah. Like she's the one that got to it. So these right dude, it was, you know, this was, this was Kendra Todd that won my, won my season of the apprentice when I was on that show. And after the show was over, we had sold out of my tech firm. And she was like, what are you doing? I'm sitting on my boat doing nothing.

She was like, get a real estate license, come sell real estate with me. It'll be fun. She said, and, and, and yeah, come work with me on a 50% split. But here's the thing she. I get it now. I mean, then I was like, okay, whatever. But she was paying for the leads.

She was setting up some of our stuff. She had an expense to all that stuff. But I also, now look, I would have figured it out regardless. I think I'm probably, everybody likes to think they're special. I think I'm special. I would have figured it out. But I think that being in that experience with her, definitely because she had a financial investment in me

of if I didn't do well, she was gonna lose money. That's the difference. That is totally the difference. And I think here's the problem. Here's the catch-22 though. Nobody that has a team that wants to make an investment in somebody else wants to do that part-time. Like I'm not gonna make an investment,

just my team, zero chance I would hire somebody that's part-time. Just can't. Right, so. I'm right there with you. Part-time and new agents. You just can't, I zero chance I would hire somebody that's part time, right? Right. Right. So I'm right there with you. You just can't can't do it. So time consuming. You have to stop you know, what you're doing and then try and train somebody and then you know, they're working the next day. Yeah, so time consuming. So So what I would

always say in that in that minute or that that moment that time is save money. Work, work save money get a side hustle do what you got to do right put three months you know figure out what a month of your life calls or what i call a mole mol month of life figure out a month of life is save three months and then burn the boats right because if you go to work for the for a team you should be able to close something in 90 days and guess what if you can't do it in 90 days working on a team that you should be able to close something in 90 days. And guess what? If you can't do it in 90 days, working on a team that's giving you leads and teaching you what you need to do, this might not pay for you.

Right. And then go get another job. Yeah, I agree. But that is the pathway to giving you the highest chance of success and the highest probability of success is that's the roadmap. Right, you just gotta jump in.

That's what you gotta do. Give it your all. How big do you wanna scale your business? I mean, how big do you want this company? What do you want? What's the goals? I probably will have to have a couple of hundred agents eventually as the different phases of the development go through.

I think the first development I needed to scale probably about 150 eventually, and then the other two. That's 10% of your total agent count. Yeah. I know. So how do you reconcile that? That's the thing about Hawaii, right? Yeah. Like I need this.

Lifestyle, but yeah, I'm going to go to the beach on the weekends instead of sitting in your open houses. So it's much harder because, you know, you find labor in Hawaii, that's for sure. Does it? Nobody wants to work. Okay, listen, I wasn't going to throw this stereotype out there, but that was going to be a question. Is the island lifestyle? Yes. Is that

real? Is it? It is absolutely real. And people will say, Oh, this work we're late. We're on Hawaiian time or that's because it's Hawaiian time. And I'm like, well, actually I'm the one that's Hawaiian. And no, this isn't a Hawaiian time. We've got to show up on time. And it's, it's crazy. The amount of money of Poke bowls I've had to deliver to construction sites, the cookies to just to get people to show up and get going. Yeah. So a question. Serves up, the construction crew is gone. So wait, so when, when people from,

let's say the mainland come to Hawaii to look for a second home, do they pull the, I'm on Hawaii time and then they're late cause they're there. They don't pull that. They do. Well, it's funny because I was thinking visiting here in Vegas, you probably have the same thing in real estate that I do in Hawaii. You plan everything, you're gonna be organized. Okay, this family is coming in,

we're gonna show homes for the whole week. They get to Hawaii and they basically lose their mind. They go to a luau, they've had one too many mawai ties, and then I'm trying to call them the next morning and they're like, showing up late, do I have breakfast? I'm gonna give you a gift if you want it, right? And it's so important, especially here in Vegas, because you wanna talk about people

showing up to lose their minds. We are in the losing your damn mind capital of the world if you're not from here, right? But this is where we are. The life we have chosen is here. I'm gonna give you a nug, if you will. And all of my people are taught to do this. And it's so imperative in Vegas, especially

when somebody is coming, we do this for every appointment we ever make, right? But you have to tie them down. And what I mean by that is this, make an appointment. At the last thing you say on the call, the last thing I say to the call to you, like if we may have an appointment for tomorrow

at 9 a.m. and you just got to Vegas, I'm gonna say, Lylan, before we get off the call, you, like if we may have an appointment for tomorrow at 9 a.m. and you just got to Vegas, I'm gonna say, Lylan, before we get off the call, let me ask you one more question. I can ask you a question. Are you good about keeping appointments? Are you good about it? That's a really good question.

Because here's the thing. Yeah. Nobody's ever gonna tell you, no, I suck about keeping. No, I'm completely irresponsible. I'm gonna use that now. Everybody's gonna be like, yes, I am great about keeping appointments. And you say, okay, cool.

Cause as you can see, my time, my time runs really tight. And I'm setting this time aside just for you. Right? Right. That statement has probably gotten more people off the crap stable at one o'clock in the morning than anything else. Cause they're sitting there like, dude, I kind of meet this guy at nine o'clock. I don't want to go. I want to stay here. I'm on a roll.

But I told him I was good about keeping appointments. Damn it. And it, and it'll get them here. It gets them here. Yeah. You got a time down, especially if they're going to get that, that pig in the ground thing and the mites like you said, man, and the beach and the sunset, you know, the appointment was at eight. They're showing up at 10. I might not show up for a week. You put me in that situation. Especially if they come from a city, right?

It's just, it's paradise. Cleveland to that? Come on. No, you're not, you're not showing up. Yeah, you're getting on island time as quickly as you can. Absolutely. So it also, you were also, one more thing, I just, I saw this and I didn't get to it.

We talked about it. So you were featured in an entrepreneur, yes? Yes. What was the article about an entrepreneur? Talk about that. That's a big deal, dude. I just did a podcast actually, dude. That's huge. I just did a podcast actually,

and then they did a write up for entrepreneur. And then I just was in modern luxury Hawaii business went for women this past month. I love that. Congratulations. That's awesome. I thought that was a spam, you know, cause we, people call us all the time, right?

In real estate. So you don't know what's real, what's not real. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Right. Well, dude, like I said, ninth island, here we are in Vegas.

So, and I'll do the same for you. If you ever had people move and listen to this, if you're a realtor and you're listening to this, I tell you what I'll do. And I do this for everybody, which is you send me, you can, if you, anybody in your office, or anybody you know that's near you needs to buy something or sell something in Vegas and you send them to us

and our team, I'll pay them 30% for their referral and I'll pay you 10% just for sending them. Just for connect, like literally, you connect me on a text message. We're all in this together. I'll give you 10% just for connecting me with whatever agent has their referral to come to me. I mean, dude, Zillow Flex is 40%.

Why not pay 40% amongst ourselves? I don't care. Especially doing here in Hawaii, right? Because you have the same- Totally. We have the same- Everybody from Hawaii's moving here. Yes, and we have a flux.

We have a lot of Hawaiian realtors that work here at Simply Vegas, which I love, which I love one of my dudes. He's my hero. I'm going to tell a story because you'll appreciate this. His name is Gabe Harvey. Okay. And when the fires happened in Maui, Gabe's from Maui, right? So the Haina, right? You had family there. We did. He came to me and look, I'm not taking any credit for this whatsoever. I made a handful of phone calls. That's the extent of what I did. Okay.

Right. He said, can you get me some places to do some fundraisers where people can drop stuff off? And I said, sure. So I literally just made a couple of phone calls to some friends of mine that own Barts and blah, blah. And we did this. They got, it was insane.

He went to Delta and got Delta to pack it all up and fly it for free on their cargo stuff to Lahaina. Like three airplanes, cargo planes, full of stuff. Wow. He did all that himself. Right. All of that. He did himself. It was amazing. And that's the beauty of Hawaii, right? Amazing. The people, I think that's what draws people to our islands too, is there's just the beauty, the culture, people are genuine. I'm sad that a lot of them have moved here. I think we have more Hawaiians here than we have in Hawaii.

So one more question that's off the cuff before we wrap this up, just cause I'm curious. What do Hawaiians think about Mark Zuckerberg? Not very happy. Not very happy. He bought, I don't even know, we're in real estate. I didn't look this up, but who sold him that? Because there are old Hawaiian families that have ties and are on title that he's trying to pay off and doing a quiet title, right? Which takes years in Hawaii because of the

Hawaiian Kingdom and all the Hawaiian families. I thought you couldn't buy land like that as a howly, if you will. They can. I mean, Larry Ellison owns Lana'i. And I just had a client that has an oceanfront home and Moloko'i bought on our island, moved from Arizona. She was explaining that Moloko'i Ranch on that island is owned by some Singapore investment company that's doing nothing with it and laid off. That was their biggest employer on that island.

So it's fascinating how, I kind of agree. What is everyone buying, right? Because they're able to buy a whole island. So here's the question as somebody that's in real estate in Hawaii. I mean, are you like power to the people? Are you like, you're obviously in politics. Are you doing anything to try to hang on to the homeland and stop this outside billionaire investment? Yeah, absolutely.

So that's why kept my mom and I going on the first, that biggest development because of the workforce housing, small businesses, right? Those are my people at the end of the day. And so I don't want them all moving away. And I feel like as a Hawaiian, you have what's called a kuleana. So the kuleana is your responsibility to give to like next generation, the next generation. So this year I've, I created a college fund scholarship fund for local kids. And I didn't care what their grades were. I didn't care what their financial gain was because I was a middle-class Hawaiian kid and we got not even a free pencil, right?

My dad was blue collar worker. You get nothing. So I created that this year and I'm also creating a nonprofit to help local kids because they're such a disadvantage. There's no trade schools, schools, all of that for private school and for college. I saw my daughter go to private school her whole life and now she's at USC. Would she have had that opportunity going to a public school

and probably not. Dude, out of state tuition to USC, you are balling. Look at that. More expensive than Harvard. Yeah, it is. Trust me, it is. I got a kid with IV leg aspirations.

And yeah, man. Oh, us good. Good for good. I'm. It's incredible. USC. It's, you know, it is. And it's somebody on their board directors must love Hawaii. I know Mr. Benioff sits on the board directors. He owns Salesforce. He lives on the same Island that has homes on the same Island that I do, but they're letting a lot of kids. So maybe the billionaire thing's working out a little bit. Maybe it's working out. Yeah, he's doing a lot of things on the Island.

He just gave 150 million to hospitals, our medical services, all of that. So they're right. They are moving there and- Give them back a little bit. A little bit, yeah. A bit, a bit. And letting local kids in.

How about that? Well, dude, congrats having your daughter at USC. That's amazing. Congratulations on that. That's great. Well, Lylan, if they want to find more about you, see more about the developments, learn more about you. How do they find you?

Where do they love? My Instagram is my name at Lylan Bento or lilanbento.com is my website. And then we'll be able to provide our cell phone information too. Lovely. Call me anytime. Cool. You need property in Hawaii. You call LylanBento.com is my website, and then we'll be able to provide my cell phone information to call me anytime. Cool. You need property in Hawaii, you call Lylan, you call her.

You wanna look at some of these new developments there, call her as well. All right, or if you want, even better, if you're a baller realtor on the island of Hawaii, somebody needs some help trying to scale. So call Lylan, let's make a move. All right, guys. Well, Lylan, thank you so much for joining us, guys.

Just kidding. Yes, I hope you got as much out of this as I did. 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.