KGCI: Real Estate on Air - 3 Ways to Hedge Today's Market + Tips to Overcome Struggles with Ruben Garcia

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

And I'm so excited to dig into today, which we're going to talk about three ways to hedge this weird-ass market that we're in and normal struggles that every team leader, every broker owner out there is going through. And they know it to the core to their soul. I've lived it as well. And we're going to talk about how to overcome those struggles. This is the agent gold mine where you'll find real talk, and ambition. We're here to build real businesses and doing more than your average agent. We want to know what the killers are actually doing within their businesses.

The reality of it. All tactical, no fluff. So we're here to find out. Please share and hear it. Yo, welcome back to the agent gold mine. Today we have Ruben Garcia back in the house. For those of you, you might have heard him on episode five. Go check that out.

But Rubin is the man, the myth, the legend. Personally, love this guy. He really impacted my entire decision to get into real estate. He was the first real connection I made with someone who got it and shared the same mindset with me back in 2017 before I even joined Keller Williams as the first firm before moving to ESP. And Ruben has been a realtor for eight years. He was his association rookie of the year out of approximately 1300 agents. Then he moved to being the CEO of Keller Williams, Fayetteville, a productivity coach for two Keller Williams offices. He's been the vice president,

of business development for the locker room coaching program and is a current growth partner within that program. Rubin also does short-term rentals and long-term rentals. He has an RV rental business. He's in the top point three three, wait, that's 33 percent. Dude, numbers, it's fine. EXP influencers. And man, he spoke at EXPCon, at Shareholder Summit, at FinCon. He's did, I don't know, I could read forever, but like Rubin, regardless of your stats. I love you. You're the man. And I'm so excited to dig into today, which we're going to talk about three ways to hedge this weird market that we're in and normal struggles that every team leader, every broker owner out there is going through. And they know it to the core to

their soul. I've lived it as well. And we're going to talk about how to overcome those struggles. Reuben and Ali, what up, friends. What up? What up? Thank you for the intro, man. That's crazy. You know, selfishly, I just wanted to be the first returning guest. So I reached out to y'all. I was like, yo, do y'all take returning guests? I want to be number one, baby, so let's go. Number one in our hearts. Yeah. I'll live there. I'll care. In almost like every one of my YouTube videos and a lot of social media videos, I'm always giving both of you credit for the amount of success that I've had in the business. So I am stoked for today's episode where it's both of you. Let's jump right in, Rubin, the three ways to hedge

against this weird market. Let's start there. Yeah. And I'll say, you know, again, thank you for the intro. For people who hear that, I'm like, that seems like a lot of stuff. I credit you guys for and this is one of the reasons I'm rocking today's shirt. I credit you guys for having some of the agents tell their story at the retreat because a lot of people do see that top level, whatever, that conversation that you gave. And they're like, that's a lot. But there's a lot. But there's a lot. a struggle, a lot of headache, a lot of backstabbing, just a lot of stuff that goes before all that craziness and still to this day. So anyone who's listening, I am not an idol or anything like that. I struggle every single day. So I just wanted to humble myself on that. Yeah. So I started

looking at this and because the market is obviously wonky and it's going a little down, it's going a little south, it's going a little sideways. And it's, you know, what are the things that we've done a decently, a decently good job of hedging the market. Number one, at least for us, one thing we were looking at is RevShare. Now, I want to get into this a little bit because I don't want people to hear, swipe, done, I don't want to get into this. I don't want to talk about this. Well, let's do talk about this because I wanted to break down some numbers to see how this could hedge market. What do I mean? In our local market, we're down. And I'm guessing the viewers and the listeners in their local market, they're probably down as well.

Are you both down in your market, like in terms of market sales? Yes. Yeah. The market is down. Yes. Right. So you look at that and you're like, okay, so if I just looked at my business at a local level, my business is down. So I started breaking down and started looking at some numbers. Actually, before I get into that, what would you guys want to bring into a, bring into your business that you feel will elevate the overall business. What's the one system tool model? What do you think it might be for you guys? What would you guys bring into the business?

If you wanted to hedge the market, what would it be into the sales business? What would it be? Non-stop listings. Just keep them listings coming, automatic way of prospecting and just always getting leads. And not just listings, really.

I like buyers better, actually. Yeah, and your numbers say so too, right? What do you say, Shelby? Well, yeah, I think the answer that everyone is probably thinking is just like lead flow marketing the marketing strategy piece of their business rock solid pumping in new business every day i love that and that's something that you guys have been focusing on and you do a really good job just go to google and put in expe or anything and i'm telling you shelby's done a really good job of having her her and her husband have done a

really good job of having that your page pop up one of the first one thing that i've been looking at for years that i believe could be any market matter how low it goes, is talent. It's having talent on your team because it's talent who execute on the marketing. It's the talent who execute on the lead flow. It's always talent, talent first, right? So for us, that's one big thing I've been looking at. Are you looking at me? What are you smiling for? You're like, tricked me or what? No, I do this thing. Listeners by now, you definitely know that Ali and I have a Google sheet that we communicate on behind the scenes just to make sure we don't talk over each other, which we still do half the

time, but it's like, hey, you got a question, you got a question. And what I wrote to Allie, I was like, Rubin Pop Quiz does. And then I wrote, I think we failed. The answer was talent. And we said marketing. All that is a line. It's just, if you can imagine a tree being leaf flow, models and marketing, but the roots are the talent. That's the only way that stuff's going to grow, you know? So I didn't mean to throw you guys off, but you know, I'm going to be asking some questions. We should have been more prepared. No, it's all good. It's all good.

So that was what we, a big thing that I love to focus on, and surround myself with this talent, hints the tattoo, the X for multipliers and all the other things. So I looked at the national number. How down do you guys think we are nationally percent-wise? And closed units. Sorry, I could have been more specific. Well, we were talking about, okay.

Ali, Google it real quick. No, no Google. Just throw it out there. What do you think of it? down 40% in closings. Okay. What do you think? Shall we just throw it out there.

It's all good. It's 41%. Oh my God. $1. I love it. I'm just like that. $1. So no, no, no.

So this is, you know what I love about your answer is that you are obviously speaking from your viewpoint of your local market, right? And you're kind of applying that to the overall national average. down 15% nationally. Close units, all right? Oh my gosh. Okay. So, okay, never mind.

We can keep going. I got that number from a different, I got that number from a different source. But this was like a year ago. Okay, interesting. But I also never looked at that. Well, I do think it depends. It depends on the market too, because I was just interviewing a dude on rock stars the other day who said they were 40%

down in his market. So when Allie came in there, I was like, oh, yeah, that's it. you know. This is when your $1 would come in handy. And I'll tell you why. You know, the 15% was I got from the National Association of Realtors. All right. So that's realtor numbers, not necessarily overall, all real estate wholesalers and all the,

all the other fun things. Our local MLS, here's your $1, is down 31%. So almost double closed units here to date. So if you look at that, yeah, I mean, we are closer to that 40% or $31. percent, right? So I'm looking at them like, oh my gosh, okay, we're getting lower. We're getting not only nationally, but locally we're down. So how about my team, right? Because you know I do lead generation. I pass the leads, obviously, the two to three agents who execute these leads. How much down do you think even get more hyper-focused on the local market? How down

do you think we are? Guestimation, just don't. Dude, I always just wait. I'm like, Al, you can go first. No, because you know you're going to say $1.00. Just say it. No, Sheldit, you're going first. Well, knowing you, Rubin, and knowing our community, I would say that we are down less than the local or even national average. I hope you come in and you're like, we're up. You know, we're up 15% year over year. All right. So we are. You're failing. We're not up. We're not up. We are down too. So I'm going to keep it real. This is a real podcast, right? And we're down. We're outpacing our local market, but not the national average. We're down 22% year to date on.

units. Units. This isn't volume. We've done a really, we've done a decent job with volume, but not necessarily units, okay? Down 22 percent. MLS is down 31 percent. So we're outpacing our market. If you look at it like that, we are, but we're still down. Okay, let's keep it going. If I look at that and I'm like, oh my gosh, and we're talking hedge, we're down, although we're outpacing our market, our local team is, we're still down. So how can we hedge the market, we can collectively bring in our team of over 200 agents in like 30 some odd states, now in Portugal, Alley, and we could hedge our units closed, not just by our local market down 31%, but we can start tapping into that down 15%. So we can actually, you know,

raise up our average about 15%. Does that make sense? Yes, that makes sense. So not only being focused and only getting the revenue from a local market standpoint. If I was a local team, not using a company like EXP where I can do expansion and hedge my units closed, from local to a national, even world average, what do you think our rev share, our organization is in terms of year-to-date percentage and units closed? Remember, national average being 15 percent, MLS being down 31%, our local team down 22%. Where do you think we're at? Now, this is going to be an interesting one.

Because this one is our community then, right? That's y'all's teams y'all brought on. That's people that you were coaching that are building teams. That's our whole organization. Over 200 agents. Dude, I don't know. I'm too scared to make a guess. Dude, same.

I'm like over here. I'm like literally should have put on more deodorant this morning because I'm sweating. Sweat. Hey, I am too. I didn't even get to take a shower. I got him straight from the gym. I thought I'd have time. I'm a sweaty mess. You have no idea. Oh, we're the smelliest. I love it. Okay. A hundred percent. Which by the way, side note, everyone at the retreat, Shelby wanted to smell everyone at the retreat. So anyone who's listening. Smelling's a big deal.

I'm into it. She's into it. Anyway, that's a totally other podcast. So I looked at the numbers, you know, and I haven't had EXP send me 22, 22, 22 numbers, the whole thing. This is interesting, but we're flat. We're not up and we're not down. So what does that say? By us being down 22% if I was just a local team or I had a team at a franchise, my business would be down 22%. But if I look at the whole overall organization, we've done a good job of outpacing the market, if you look at nationally, by 15%. My own team, because we've done a good job of kind of spreading it out versus just staying in one single area, we're up 22% MLS, we're up 31%.

Is this making sense? This is pure numbers. This isn't me saying, oh, by the way, it's a good job to spread your wings and start to work with other agents across different markets to hedge against your individual market. I think I get it.

Maybe. Talk to me. Let me try. No, I love it. Because people who are listening, maybe in the same vote. Go ahead. Okay.

So, because the first way to hedge in this weird ass market you mentioned was revenue share. And to tie that in, we're saying that nationally we're down 15%. Our specific, well, your specific market is down 31%. So the fact that we were able to have a team that's nationwide, it hedges because some markets are doing better, some dark markets are doing worse, so it like evens out. Yes. Did I? Oh, my God. We are doing the same bit. Now, the market's down.

Like the numbers are saying. So a matter of fact, at EXPCon, they were saying, if you're, they said this approximately, if you're down 30% or 20% down 20 or 30%, you're doing, you're doing great. You're outpacing the market, which is so interesting to think that way, right? But if you're above the national or local MLS presence of units closed average, even though it's still a negative, you're still outpacing the market. For us to be able to spread our wings. and to kind of average it out in different markets up, down, sideways, we have been doing the

same business. If you look at it since 2022, we have not been affected by the market. We're still doing the same thing. Does this make sense? To make sure, I just need to say it out of a lot to make sure I get it to. So it's not just counting, you know, what you're doing in your local market. Because what you're saying is that by having people in different markets who are doing hypothetically better, the income from.

the revenue share for those people is essentially helping as a buffer like a compensation to keep your own business at a certain level. Yes. Thank you for listening. Out of respect for your time, we want to make this show as valuable as possible for you. So if you have any feedback on how we can improve, please let us know. DM us at Allie the agent and The Shelby Show. The income from the revenue share for those people is essentially helping as a buffer like a comprehensive. compensation to keep your own business at a certain level. Yes. By giving, by the way, right?

Like as long as you're helping, what you're doing for your team locally, this is me speaking as if I'm talking to someone else, by what you're doing for your team locally and helping them grow, you doing that for other team leaders and other markets and helping them grow could easily hedge the market since your team may be doing lower or maybe outpacing your local market, but still in the negatives, by helping other people, you can absolutely use it as an average as the overall revenue coming into your business.

This clicks for me now because we are in those 30 states, two countries, which, by the way, I want to explain that. Miguel reached out to me on, I think it was Instagram from a podcast that I was on. He was like, hey, I hear that you guys are giving way the checklist, the scripts, everything, the playbook for free just by joining. I'm in. And I was like, holy crap, oh, you're out in Portugal. This is amazing.

I eventually want to have them on this podcast. And of course, other states, other cities are having their own struggles, like just because Arizona is down now doesn't mean that DC is down. I know for fact, D.C. is not down. But Portugal might, they definitely do have their own different circumstances and legislation, which affect their own thing too. Also, fun fact that I very randomly want to share is in Portugal, there is no really such thing as exclusive listings. So it does not benefit anybody to, any listing agent to be the first one to put a house in the market because it's not exclusive. So as soon as you put a house in the market, all the agents at that point just then tack. Hey, I can sell your house for hire. I can sell your house for

higher. And then the listing goes from person to person. It's insane. I'm like, wow, we actually have a good here in the States. Anyway, totally that's to be a good podcast with, just knowing. Yeah, perspective's huge and I think sometimes we need to change our perspective to know what we have and appreciate it and I think that'd be a great podcast for that. So, okay, so RevShare, yeah, the hedging against the different inflate, different inflations, different markets with RevShare. What's next? Well, what did, does that make sense? Is it locked in? I know I went straight, numbers heavy as soon as I jumped in, but where are y'all at? Yeah, no, it makes sense. It took me a minute for sure, definitely had, I had to say it out loud before it like actually clicked. But I do get that if,

if the intent is, of course, revenue for your business, then by having your team spread across the world and the countries and them doing better based on their applicable markets and helping them grow their businesses can bring in additional revenue streams into your business to compensate. Yeah, exactly. That's the last I have to repeat it. Sorry. No, that may, yeah, exactly. And I'm glad that you guys got would be interesting and I would love and even if we talk like on a back channel I'd love to know y'all's numbers what does that look like and is it is it helping as a hedge in your overall business I'll say there's three legs to to what we do here at expe and one is revshare obviously one is the referral based business which is the team my password for and the

third one's mentorship so I'm a certified mentor and there's ways you could leverage this too that also helps with income coming into your business so there are truly three ways but if you look at the rev share game, it's a lot easier because you get to spread your wings in different markets. Again, they could be down, but just down 5%, which is still outpaced in the national average by 10%. You know what I mean? So it's a very good average as it brings it across. Am I on this too much? Shall I move to, go ahead. Just to jump on the revenue share thing, because like I almost never talk. Like I'm not one who's joining EXP. Like I, you know, people who I meet online, they're like, I didn't even know that you were with the XP. So, but just to.

put it out there, revenue share has really, really changed my life personally through, like, passive income because I, you know, before when I had the traditional team, that's a whole different type of revenue. But it's 100% not passive and there's so much, which we're going to talk about later about there's so much overhead and so much responsibility and frustrations. And it's like this hamster wheel of problems. And the revenue was high. but also my expenses were high and my lifestyle wasn't what I wanted. And so I was like, well, how do I get to keep the things that I love and all these systems that I built and all of the good parts, but then just get rid of the bad parts. And that's when I was like, you know what,

for the first time ever, let's look at this. This is after I'd been at EXP for years. Like this was summer of 2021. We came to EXP in May of 2019. So I like had not been paying attention, could not care less. And then I decided I was like, well, maybe this is the answer, how I can like have my cake and eat it to and all the things. And since then, it's, and you all know I have rentals. Like I have a shit ton of rentals. I've done the whole acquisition, the whole investor game. And there is nothing more life changing financially for me than revenue share because it actually is what it looks like. Whereas the rental income, it comes in and you're like, oh, I'm so excited.

but then holy shit, the pity alone, you know, the mortgage payment and then what you're paying the property managers and then turnover. And then this year alone, I've replaced all of the, I've placed a roof on a quad that was like over 20 grand, all of the plumbing underneath that same quad. I've had multiple turnovers, huge expensive turnovers. And it's like that cash flow, that passive income in that world is not the same as beautiful, perfect, lovely revenue share. Totally. And you're setting me up nicely for my next hedge, though, which for us has been good, which is why I wanted to talk about it too. And Ali, I know you are added, I believe completely out of this game or just got one toe in this game, but it's investing. I know, I know we just got off

rev shares like, like, yo, it's nothing like this. But I went back and looked at the numbers again, right? If our sales, local, if I was just a local person, local presence, at a franchise, whatever, we're down 22%, which is apparently pretty good compared to our whole MLS. But if I look at our rentals, remember, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, I didn't count the RV on this one. How much do you think we're up year-to-date and revenue? Because remember, if inventory is low, you're going to have buyers now renting, or at least

waiting for the market or the interest rates to come down so the demand is getting shoved towards the investing side, right? So for us, how much... Look, I know y'all are talking about it. I know y'all are talking. How much do you think the percentage is up in terms of the investing side, which is our second hedge? Okay. And I was going to make a comment and then you actually beat me to it as far as my investing experience in rental properties, you know, versus investing in people with the revenue share, which is why I stopped investing in real estate, period, and I stopped talking about it. Like, I still have my rental properties. I'll keep

them, but I'm not talking about that on social media at all because just the ROI and the ROT on time is so much better with revenue share. But so, but that's because also I had a lot of short-term rentals in Tucson, which took a dump, 50% decrease in occupancy. So when you say how much do you think it's up, I have no idea because majority of mine went down, which is why we moved to mids and mids to longs. I will say this. do obviously an assessment on our rentals, which we brought Mike Glasby in. I was like, Mike, yo, I looked at the numbers, but come on, dude, you know, tell me the real deal. And we had to get rid of some short-term rentals and turn them into long-term rentals because the same market,

it turned to crap. Just didn't make sense. But we did keep a few short-term rentals. So there are a few short-term rentals, but I would say majority long-term rentals at this point. How much would you say, Shelby, just quit, just throwing it out there, getting some engagement? What? No. I'll come back in on the next one. Coming back on the next one. So we're up. We're not flat. We're up 43% year to date over last year.

So that's been an amazing hedge. Again, if the inventory is low, and here's the deal, how many franchises are having conversations with their agents about investing? Or does it not make sense to have that conversation because they need to keep them in the office for the company dollar to keep paying the salaries, the bonuses, the events, the overhead, and everything else that comes along with it. I've never heard this. Like, you know, Shelby, Mike and the rest of the crew

started to have these conversations and then moved over to EXP. That's when I really started to dive into this. But that hasn't been, I started at Coldwell, then KW, that was not a conversation, right? So coming over here, getting involved with that stuff, that's been a great hedge for us because inventory is low.

Supply and demand is pretty dang simple, right? What do you guys think? What do you guys think? Is that too? Oh, okay, that's pretty simple. 100% yeah like the reason I shifted is because we have accountability pods like with with our crew as you know so meeting with them and talking about everything right like our life what's our sleep like what is our eating like what is our investments like you know revenue expenses all that when we when we spoke about rental properties at that point that's why I decided to pay them off using the shred methods or paid off one of them in four months I paid off my car in one month and I was like you know what let me just get rid of the hassle and let me just pivot. So it's having those higher level of conversations about investing within our real estate agent community. Like you said, no one else

really talks about. That's the reason I joined this. Well, it's not the only reason, but that's one of the reasons why I joined this community is because of the investing side of it first where a lot of a lot of people aren't having. I talked to a lot of other real estate agents. And they're like, oh yeah, one day, one day I'll buy a property. One day I'll buy an investment. I'm like, oh my gosh, that one day could be now. You know, like, it's crazy how the difference within the culture and people are like, oh, but I love them, you know, like they're my family. But are they actually bettering you?

You know, or are they telling you to go get a rental property this year, you know, like in the next six months? Anyway, so having those conversations, that's what made me pivot from short term to mid, term to long. Yeah, and just I just decided to self-manage because after firing two property managers, I just managed myself. Yeah. And I'll say, you know, for my.

KW people out there, especially if you were a team leader, the revenue that we're making is more than the salary that I was getting paid as CEO, right? So if you look at that, it's, I could step out of real estate and be sick, or if I got a family member who's sick, I could actually stop doing sales. I'm not going to freak out when the last sign is in the last yard, right? I'm not going to freak out when the next pending. These are these nice little hedges that go against sales. Once sales are down, rental prices go up. By the way, one of our, one of our agents, Horton, manages our long-term rentals, and I constantly, like he'll say a number, I'll say plus 200, right? Today, I'm going to go pick up a money from a renter.

Fuck, I can't even think of the name of it. But these are all-time records in these neighborhoods because we're pushing the market because the demands there, and they're getting rented out like this. It's a super easy hedge. I will say, we have brought in our short-term rentals. We no longer use a manager to do it. My wife now is taken over that stuff. So there is something different that happens when it's your investment that you're going to do above and beyond stuff. And she has knocked it out of the park. So I'll give her 100% credit on that. We've hit nothing but all time records out of our short term rentals as well.

Amanda Garcia shout out. She's a gangster. She's a gangster. She has something. Allie in the front. Raise your hand. You said this in such like a very nonchalant way, but I want you to repeat it. What was it that line about your, the revenue was.

is that the revenue share was more than what you're paid as CEO? No, the revenue share is double, if not more. But no, this is on the rentals alone. Again, great hedges, right? These are the rentals alone. Yeah, rentals alone have beat what I was making as a CEO this year. And I have two notes. Love all of that.

Two notes. First, shout out to Allie for the, she mentioned the shred method. And she's actually teaching, we within five pillars we do, a monthly investor mastermind because like she said, we talk about this shit all the time. It's not just, you know, the agent stuff. It's like life and how are you setting yourself up for the future, whatever. But once a month we do our investor mastermind and Ali is talking about it this upcoming month and she's going over how she shredded the shit out of all of her mortgages, car payment, all that stuff. So if you are listening and you want to check that out,

we're going to report it. So if Ali agrees, I haven't asked her. We can. share it with you you go to check it out i really really i love the shred method and i'm friends with the founder now like adam carroll was like what a good guy i became an affiliate um and he sent me a hat so i'm gonna wear his hats one of you i love i love white white hats anyway doesn't matter we'd love to share my secrets with you which are not so much secrets there yes they're on they're on they're on youtube i made a youtube video about it and it works you know like it sounds too crazy how can you pay off you know 140k in four months it wasn't because i made a hundred 40K it was using the shred method. So yeah, reach out to either one of us for access to that.

Super excited about that. The other thing that I was going to say is I know that when we were talking about revenue share, I was talking about the difference between revenue share and having my rentals and the cash flow there. But I do want to mention now that we're on like number two, which is investing the second hedge, even when cash flow per an LLC, because I, you know, the rentals are spread out in different LLCs. But across the board, it's, it's also. taking into consideration the appreciation that happened. Like, it's insane. Drake and I were talking about the other day. It's if everything, you know, went to shit, we could always just sell off a rental property and get, you know, enough money to cover us for the next multiple years. So it's,

it's really cool to have put in the work. And by the way, there's no way I would have acquired nearly as many properties as I did as quickly as I did if I didn't have Rubin and Mike and Dan Kidd back in the day, like hustling because it was like you know when you're shoulder to shoulder with people and that's what ali was talking about with the pods it really does push you because you're not going to be the one left behind so acquiring those rentals and now having it as such a safety net is like the coolest thing i think yeah and you know raise your hand if you check your net worth right right right cool and then checking it once a month and what what you'll find you know someone could say they're a millionaire, right?

Or they make millions every year, but their expenses are $990,000 a year. Not necessarily net worth a millionaire. But what does help is real estate. I was going to write down appreciation. I was going to write down tax write off to depreciations and credits and everything else that comes with real estate. But I decided not to is more of just like the hedge conversation. But you're exactly right. There's nothing like it.

Listen, dude, if you want to do a whole podcast on this one. If you look out, I met with an agent yesterday. By the way, I don't, well, yeah, okay. So I met with her. broker owner. She has a good amount of cash. I won't say the number just in case you can make the puzzle pieces fit. A good amount of cash sitting in the bank account and we're chatting. And I'm like, yo, your money's dying. We did the math at 7% because of inflation. Dying. Thousands and thousands year to date. Just dying. I was like, I want you to change your mindset.

Of every property is, yes, it's an investment, but look at it as a bank account. Why do you think there's billionaires row in New York in New York that got billionaires row, but they have these condos that aren't that no one's really occupying, right? Because these billionaires are putting their money into real estate because it's the greatest bank account you could have. Not only does it appreciate way better, the yields on it are way better. It cash flows. Not only does it cash flow, it's got a but load of tax benefits to it. Also increases your net worth through the appreciation. I mean, it just goes on and on and on and on. So that was a great conversation. And this is a broker owner. We had that conversation yesterday. I did a training. One of our agents, she was like, yo, I'm about to go on this listing appointment. Here's the price point. I said, mindset check. When you go on this listing appointment, I want you to break down numbers to see if you could buy it before you can list it. And I need all the agents to get into this mindset.

Numbers first, right? Let the numbers point you in that direction. But every property that you feel that maybe you could buy it be a great investment, you need to have that mindset first because of all the greatness that Shelby just said. I have one other thing on this topic. I know we, dude, we're like off-roading hardcore. We kind of knew that was going to happen. But like the buy it before you list it mentality, that's another thing that like we talk about a lot where it's like when you're going into a conversation, do you have multiple tools, not just, hey, this is how I can list it? It's I can offer you cash at this price. You know, you could have a seller financing proposal, which we've done trainings on all of these when you go to listing appointments and you're listening for the

clues and the pain points. And of course, you know, you always want to do what's in the best of interest of everyone, but sometimes it works out like that. And you end up acquiring a property through seller financing or you end up having a great deal because they're headed into foreclosure or someone died and whatever the case may be. And so just understanding the possibilities of what is out there in all the different ways you can help people and thinking, how can I possibly acquire this? Yeah, what you said, love it times a million. We're all about that. And would you agree it's a great hedge too against a low inventory market. I love it. You bring it back.

Perfect. We're back on road here. Yes, I would agree. Right. Exactly. And I will say for anybody who wants to write this down real quick, here goes an acronym O. Anytime you feel like you hear some of this and you just shake your head, right? And it's SMH. Damn, you know, shake my head, SMH. Because you're hearing this, you're like, ain't no way I'm going to get to that point. The S is skills. So go back and look at some of the trainings that Ali and Shelby have put on. Start to sharpen some of your skills. Go out there in the field.

deal, start to rub elbows with someone like us, right? That kind of pushes you and teaches you a few things. The M is mindset, which is the biggest one, right? Like, you're in there and you're like, there's no way I can. You need to start surrounding yourself. Shelby said, you know, elbow to elbow. There's going to be a different mindset when you don't want to be last and you're surrounding yourself with these people and you're having a different conversation with your psyche and everything else. That's going to be the biggest one. Check up from the neck up mindset. And then the H is a habit. So you need to start getting in the habit of what, you know, can I buy it? it instead of listing. Start getting in the habit by having those conversations by building your

skills, but first check up from the neck up your mindset. So SMH, anytime you're like shaking your head because it ain't a way, run that formula. SMH. All right, third one, third one. Now you two just got me wondering what are y'all saying back or forth or unless you just type of notes. Oh, you don't want to know. Oh, I do though. But I kind of want to. So the third one is this one, not only controversial, but now legally is getting weirder. You ready for this? All right. Now I got up to attention.

I will start off by saying negotiable. Everything's negotiable. Commissions are negotiable, buyer agency agreements, and commissions are negotiable on who pays listing. Negotiable, negotiable, negotiable, negotiable. If you can just put that in all caps in your notes, negotiable. All right. So one thing we've been doing for a few years, not necessarily looking at it as a

but it has worked out to be a great hedge is we decided our value is probably worth more. I've been in the business for nine years. I've seen a few things. The agents I've passed my deals to, we've seen a few things. I would agree that our value and the way that we can negotiate and the problems that we could solve are probably at a higher level than a brand new agent who started today. Would you agree? Okay.

And then say this brand new agent joins a firm, but now this brand new agent today has a listing that they're going to go on. What is the firm going to ask them, all negotiable, might ask them what would be a good percentage to take this listing at? What would you say? All negotiable. But what's the number you hear the most? Brand new agent today. Going to go get a listing.

6%. 6%. 6%. We hear it all the time. That's right. Yeah. Oh, dude, I met with a, screw it. A co-well banker agent.

And their firm is telling them, take them at less. Take them at less. Take them at less. This chick's been in the business for years. And she's discounting her. We had that conversation. But anyways, backing up. So one thing, so since we know that, and we know that that brand new agent doesn't know nearly as much as we know, correct, why aren't we valuing ourselves just like every other profession more than someone who just

entered the business today? Well, I'm here to say we're changing the market here in Fayette. I'll say that because we've been taken for years now, 8% listings. But we do it something a little bit better. We do 4.5 on our side, all negotiable. 3.5% on the buyer agent side on negotiable. And what is doing is we have some of the largest teams, the largest firms in our market, well, the numbers, anyway, some of the largest, let's say teams in our market are giving 2% to the buyers, 1.5, 2.2. And we're changing that game, man.

We're like, yo, we're not going to discount anybody, especially our own people within our, within our ecosystem. And so we're offering 3.5 to the buyer agent, which is only increasing more views, more showings on the seller, which is only increasing more eyeballs, more offers put in a multiple offer situation, which is increasing the price once we finally go under contract. And oh, by the way, we're getting paid for the value that we have. There are things that we do that we believe that adds value to that will, you know, price is only an issue in the absence of value. That will equate the value at 8%. We believe we're doing it. But now with the market going south, you better believe

that extra revenue has been a great hedge and just the value that we've added to price when units are going down. Where are you guys at? What do you guys want to say? Questions, concerns? Within our community, I mean, this is what we know, right? So it's hard to like even think from my perspective of an outsider's view, aside from the fact that majority of people are happy to get three percent for them. And then on top of that, they discount the buyer's side with it's so short-sighted thinking because you're in that community, unless you plan on moving and, you know, screwing over the buyer's agents, which will become seller's agents, you know, like listing agents, you're going to work with them again.

Like, why would you then want to not give the other person even more? I love, I mean, it's what we do here is we offer the buyer's agents more than the most common, which is 3% here in Tucson, and it's a lot of other areas. It's 2.5%. So for them to see 3.5% for the buyer, you bet your ass. They're bringing all their f***res. They're emailing their entire database about it. I want to play devil's advocate.

Let's go, because I get this a lot. Yeah, because so I'm pretending if I'm listening. Because, you know, this 8% thing has, it, you know, has started after I have finished most of my production. You know, at this point, I'm not in production. I'll do it occasionally. And so I'm thinking from the perspective of the seller, but also from the agent who's trying to communicate this value. And I would love to go through this from one or both of those perspectives, whatever you think is most valuable.

Yo, real quick, this podcast is not free. Cost of admission is sharing with a buddy who benefit or throwing it on your Instagram story. I guess we'll reshare that. So SMH, again, again, if you're listening to this and you'll feel like you could do it, The M is going to stick out the most on the SMH. It's a mindset thing. Although we have these conversations, I will say it's still 80, 20, 20 percent of our agents are running this play. You know, so it is a mindset thing.

And I will preface by saying this, two things. One, our clients that go through this, they will be at the end of the transaction, at the end of the transaction saying, are we done? Is that it? It was so completely smooth. They don't even realize how smooth and how we handle the craziness on the back. in, but that comes with experience, right? The second thing is go to my Proven by Rubin Facebook page. Go look at our reviews, right? Five. There's 100, some, like 190 reviews. Not all our real estate sales, but scroll down. There's a great portion of that, that are real estate sales, five stars.

So why is that happening, right? Although we do have that, which is helping my mindset in that. So we have the conversation first and foremost, I don't even go out to the house. It's a phone call. I want their payoff and, you know, we do a needs analysis why they need to sell all the things. We set up a call and I break down a net proceeds on the call with them. The trigger for most people is the actual percentage number, 5%, 4%, 6%, whatever it is. That's the trigger. That's where people are like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. Although they don't know the value that's coming with it.

So all you got to do is say the number that the percentage represents on the net proceeds. You break it down. end, you put how much they're going to net. So once you get to the point is, yeah, this is, this is a pure example, but let's say $20,000 in commissions that you see here, that's not me, right? It's the same conversation we always have. That's not me. There's a buyer's agent on negotiable. There's a buyer's agent on the other side. Then it split with firms. Then it split with our team. And by the way, we put two agents on these listings. So it's myself and the other agent that I passed the lead to. So it's split between this. And then, oh, by the way,

taxes, photographer, you know the whole thing. And they're like, oh, that makes sense. But what do you think most sellers want to know? You can have this full-on conversation. What did they want to know? What's the main thing? Money. Money.

How much money they're getting. Yep. And how it's going to fund their why, whatever their why is on the reason they're moving. That's it. That's it. So we say, oh, by the way, you know, you're still going to be netting. So we break down the numbers. You're going to be netting 30, 40, 50, whatever, $1,000.

We got one right now over $100,000. So they're like, okay, cool. how soon can we list? Then I send the agent out there. We make sure that the price is right, you know, and all the other things. And then we get to listing it. So these first initial listing appointments are happening over the phone, right? Because we're looking at it as more as we are the professionals. And we're going to make sure that we're both a good fit for each other before even walking out there. And we probably, I don't know of another listing we've lost. We do a really good job of delivering the value in the conversation. Does that help? Okay. So that is essentially the

conversation the way to maneuver the 8% in there without shocking and X, Y, C, which I know there's listeners who are, there's some who are horrified. They think it's immoral by not whatever. I know that there is full disclosure on the exact amount, which is in some ways more clear than if you just do the percentage. A hundred percent. A hundred percent, dude. Say someone's going to pay 30,000 over saying six percent or seven percent. That's way more of a sticker shock. But the trigger, just because we have been conditioned as the world, the trigger is the percent, which they're going to see in the agreement anyways.

And we're going to have that conversation. Go ahead. Sorry. And, man, I don't want to turn this into a listing presentation thing because my next question is, what is the value over what would normally be offered to justify compensation? Or is it just the quality of the human? Well, I'll just say this first, right? is that you are going, you're not paying,

there there that says basically something that you're not paying for how fast and how smooth this was. You're paying for the, the, all, everything that I've been through in the real estate game that you're getting along with this price. So you're going to get a better product, a better service. Not only that, like we put two agents on it. We're all in a group text as well. So communication we have found,

we have found has been the highest thing that people complain about when it comes to their agent. We make sure that communication is 100% all the time. If I'm busy, the other agent can answer the question. If the other agent's busy, I can answer a question. There is no stop in communication and updates throughout the whole thing. But also, EXP has, like, ways that people could buy homes with Cash Express offers. They also have where we have, what's it has a virtual currency.

Now my mind's all over the place. Basically, buy homes. Yeah, Bitcoin and stuff like that. They could buy homes like that. It was going down on the West Coast. So, like, we have many other ways that we could bring buyers into this. this world as well of that listing. But more importantly, you're paying for the knowledge of collectively what, 9, 10, 11,

11, I don't listen, 15 plus years of real estate, just as much as you want a badass lawyer and not a lawyer who just joined today, right? You could get the cheap price and get that type of service, or you could pay for the one that you know has a lot of knowledge and get the result you're looking for. Yeah. When I first joined the crew, I was like, holy shit, they're doing 8% listings. That is insane. in an area where I'm at where people always, not always, a majority of the time choose the discount

one. Flat fee, you know, who cares, the house is going to be sold. Of course, it was a different market then. But I found that my, this is what I do now with every agent that joins me. They have the entire package because options, I think, are a limited amount of options are, make the seller feel like they're a little bit more in control instead of a yes or no. So first of all, it's like we spoke about before, the option for me to purchase it. if it works out for the both of us. The options for me to list it, if it works out for the both of us. So we have like the bronze, silver and platinum package. And in each, it outlines I, you know, because I love my checklist. It outlines exactly what goes in each package at what point, the value

props in that way. The sellers are choosing, hey, I want this one. Okay, great. Then this is how much you're going to be netting because this is what we are providing. It's all about worth. And then if for some reason, it didn't come out as a listing. And for example, like the seller wanted to rent it instead, the other option there is connect them to Home River, which EXP has partnered with, and we get $750 by referring them. And we are guaranteed the listing within the next 10 years. There are so many options, like options within, yeah, options within like me buying it, us listing it, or if you want to rent it out, excellent. We also suggest renting it out because we're investors too. So it's like a win-win in any of the things, but definitely like diving into those like pricing

packages, I found that that's what helped me get started in getting those 8% listings. I did a whole video on, I'm the worst realtor that's ever been on planet Earth or something like that because I told the seller don't sell. We could have made a good amount, because this was a condo downtown Fayetteville. All right, it's downtown Fayetteville for someone's shit. That's big price money for us. So, but he, he still sold, but I almost begged him not to. It'd be a great investment. He was in his late 20s, but this is what, we're not coming out of place of scarcity. We're going to be. completely a thousand percent transparent. We've got a reputation to hold. All that's going to come with

that. So I want to switch gears a little bit and go to the second portion of this podcast, which is about the struggles, the normal everyday struggles that team leaders have, the broker owners have, and how you help team leaders, broker owners overcome them. Let's start with, I don't know, pick, I guess any normal struggle that you see is like a constant. Apple listeners, this short pause is to ask you for a review. Here's how to do it. Back out of the specific episode. Go to the page where you see all the episodes.

Scroll down, keep scrolling. Perfect. Now, tap those five stars. Thank you so much. Back to the show. Yeah, you know what's interesting that you even asked this question because I started looking at the market

with the market being down right now. And I, although I know agents are struggling, I believe team leaders and broker owners are struggling more. I think they are hurting a lot more, but they're hurting in silence. So I put something out on Facebook probably two weeks ago maybe at this point. And I said, hey, who would be interested in meeting up and having a mastermind on how we can get in front of this wonky market broker owners only? So agents reached out and all the things, but I'm telling you, man, I think that they're struggling more and here's why. Yes, agents are leaving the business.

Yes, agents are getting jobs right now because the market's down. They're not being a right if i just looked at my local team we're down 22 percent that means 22 percent down on company dollar that broker owner's making just for me so imagine that across the board so i think there's suffering and silence dude and i was like you know we're abundant minds right and i was like let's just meet man let's meet let's have this conversation and i had a good amount reach out we call it the bomb we're going to be meeting next next week next thursday we'll call it the bomb or the broker owner mastermind right another acronym and we're going to have these conversations but you some reached out through DMs because they were they didn't want to say it through comments like it's a real i'm getting goosebumps

because i feel so bad for these broker owners that no one's paying attention to and sometimes they have to uphold this image that it that isn't real you know yeah i don't really talk about this often because it's it's been so long ago that it happened but when i first joined the military i'll bring this back. When I first run the military, I had a pilot slot and I made it all the way to the very, very end. I was two weeks out away from graduating. And at the time, it was like super intense to graduate. And I had my civilian pilot license. So like, I already knew how to fly plane. I failed. And I failed because I didn't ask for help. And at that point, I told myself I would never put myself in a position like that again. Any single time I realized I was internally struggling, I was going to

ask someone for help, no matter how. And that was like, so I'm from New York, you know, like, I don't ask for help, you know? And after that, it was such like a life change for me that I always think about that now. Every single time I struggle, first I try to Google it and find the answer myself. But if I realize that the answer is just too far out, like realistically for me to answer myself, there are so many people. That's why I surround myself with you guys. You know, like I ask you for help a lot. I ask Shelby for help and just the crew, hey, what are your feedback, anything like that. So I totally can see how these team leaders, broker owners, are suffering in silence with the agents leaving. You know, like agents leaving, therefore, it's all numbers, you know,

like the more agents you have, it's pretty much the more profitable you'll be. So if agents are taking on part-time jobs and leaving, that that automatically means fewer transactions. Yeah, exactly. And not saying that they won't come back in the market, you know, as it starts to pick up, but it's a real thing right now, and it's been happening for almost 12 months, if not more, you know, and we're just not having these conversations. But side note, now I'm just curious, did you fail because that was on the test? Did she ask for help? Or just you just personally didn't ask for help and didn't get the answer you needed, and that's why you felt? I personally did not ask for help. It's, I knew that I was struggling

and it was my ego. Ego is not your am ego. And, you know, and, you know, and, you know, I'm just going to wear that shirt today. That's so funny. Yeah, I felt like I could just, I could, I could do it. I looked around myself and I thought that everyone else was, you know, like doing super well. And it was the lack of, I don't want to say community, but just a lot of, it's definitely was a me problem, an internal struggle of me just not wanting to admit that I was struggling. And that, I will never let that happen to me again. Like I will shout it from the rooftops that I'm struggling. So that way, because people want to help. You know, especially if you align yourself in the right community. 100%. Yeah. What have those meetings been like? Yeah. So, well, we have the big meeting next week.

And I shot one out for team leaders too. But I think it's interesting because these broker owners are asking if their team leaders could come. Because I think they're starting to have conversations with those team leaders now and not faking the funk like everything's okay. So the meetings right now, the biggest one is the one that the, agents that are on the team or on the brokerage aren't doing as much production. However, because that revenue is not coming in. Now, who's carrying the fixed cost? The cost that has to be paid, the bills that have to be paid, no matter what, I don't care. Like, your bill collector could care less if it's an up or down market. They have to get paid. They will get paid.

Taxes, the whole thing, right? So if you look at that with fixed costs being steady, if not pumped up a little bit. But the revenue coming down, that's been the biggest one. We just had a brokerage come over, and that was one thing that they weighed. And not this isn't an EXP sale or anything like that. But when they looked at the cost of brick and mortar, salary positions, them holding their broker-in-charge license here, which is there has to be a broker-in-charge in each office in North Carolina

that oversees agents, the compliance that they had to pay for, and just helping newer agents, the productivity coaching and the percentages that come off of that thing. All of that starts to add up, man. And so what they did is, and I didn't approach them. They actually came to me, but they broke down all the numbers. And how much do you think they're paying right now as a fixed cost every single month is $85 with EXP, not an EXP big push? But if you look at that, they saved their business.

The agents stayed, right? So there's many legs, and I'm already thinking of the other ones. but to me that's been the biggest one is the fixed cost is going to be there no matter what and the agents on the team or in the brokers aren't producing as much so they're hurting yeah and even though i would imagine that it hurts even worse if an agent goes part-time as opposed to just leaving completely because they still have to pay for you know they still have to pay for all the overhead for a body and that body's going to be reducing the income by 50%ish you know like that hurts even worse. Yeah. And they're also, which I didn't realize was a cost, they're also paying for

a spot within all their CRMs and lead generation systems. They're still there, but they're part-time now. But they have to pay for these extra bodies to be a part of these systems as well. You're exactly right. The part-timer is definitely pulling on that cost a lot more than the one who leaves the business. So that group that reached out to you, or you can just maybe talk more generally to not out them or anything like that. We mentioned E-XP is $85 a month. And that's it. Like that's literally it.

But sometimes people don't realize that. They're like, no, there has to be more. $85 a month, okay, starting point. But like, how are you having those conversations with them that helps them click in their head? Yeah. So, you know, it does, it is specific per person. But if you look at the broker owner, excuse me, yeah, the broker owner, the broker in charge position alone automatically replaced.

Right? So the cost there is gone. The liability, which is huge, gone. Also from that, we start breaking down the numbers and just exactly what you just said. Now we look at the E&O. We can erase that. That was one of the biggest costs as E&O. It was crazy for the broker-owner.

For someone who's on a team at a franchise, maybe not so much. But that was one of them. Another thing is those positions within the CRM that we were saying, which was the cost, which they got rid of as well. The coaching side, they got rid of. of, right? They hired a whole coaching company. Now they don't have to. I'm not the world's best, but now I'm in there working with their agents. They got rid of that too. So their revenue has gone up, although units closed are down. Here's another big thing that they made the move for.

They were having some of their agents looking for more opportunity into things that they couldn't provide. So they were leaving and going to different companies. That was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. A lot more of these conversations, you are seeing agents, I would say one of the top ones is they want to be a coach. And so how can you bring that into your world with, while still, and that's essentially still gaining some revenue from that because you coached that agent up. That was a big one. You're seeing people that are wanting to get into lending. There's still a way, there's 13-ish ways you can get paid at EXP. And each one of those is allowing that agent to have more opportunity to build cool things, including you're going to see agents do this.

Here's another thing. And tell me if I'm talking too much or if you have a question, just raise your hand. We're seeing agents. Okay, we're seeing agents leave teams or brokerages for three reasons, a lot of reasons, but three main ones. Number one, they start to look at the split that they're paying on the team and they're like, I bet I could do this, right? And I could get paid this extra 50% or whatever it is.

The traditional team's still there at EXP and other brokerages. but that's the biggest one that we're seeing that people leave teams and brokerages for, right? We're seeing that. So how do you fix that? I'll tell you here in a second. The second one is I want to brand myself. I love working with this team. I love working with this brokerage.

But there's a difference between loyalty and alignment. And a lot of people need to get that in their head, right? And it's like, yes, I could still be loyal to that brand, but it no longer aligns with what I want to create. And so that's another thing where this brokerage that move it over, their agents can brand themselves now. Matter of fact, we're encouraging it because now they're going to have more ownership on their business, which is only going to increase them more units and more focus they have on their business. Number three is buyers and sellers, right? Old model, you can only work with buyers and you can only work with sellers. This is what we've seen in the old market, especially in my KW days.

You're a buyer's agent, you're a listing specialist. Well, someday their friends, family is going to want to list a home, but they're a buyer's agent, and now they've got to pass the lead to a listing agent on the team gets weird, right? So they start to leave the team for that. The way that we have, when I was talking to this brokerage, number one, we can get rid of those splits. There's ways you could build this thing without having any splits at all. And revenue share is a great game to that, along with the stock that you get. Now, if you want to get some revenue, you could do referral fees.

But no longer do you have to be tied into any team agreements. and arguments when an agent leaves and whose name was in whose CRM and the whole thing, you could just scratch that. You can just have relationships with people. And as long as they handle those leads, great. Cool, that's a referral fee. The second one is definitely brand. Help that agent brand themselves.

Please. EXP welcomes it, right? I'm wearing a Five Pillars Nation T-shirt today, right? You're wearing the Alaska team shirt. You can brand yourself, guys, and I want you to brand yourself because here's the deal. when I was talking about short-term rentals, we have a brand for short-term rentals that we push, but we also sell merchandise in our short-term rentals. You could do that with your real estate sales.

You could start selling merchandise, which this is merchandise of this company. ExP don't make money on this. Five Pillars makes money on this. And you guys should be doing the same. You should be looking at that. And in the third, of course, you can work with buyer-sellers. You could do commercial. You could do investing.

You could help the wholesale side, which is Express offers. with EXP. You could go into coaching, which we have Success Magazine for that. You can go into coaching. I mean, there is so many things that you could do. Those are the three reasons, the three big reasons, and those were the kind of combative conversations that we've had to address those challenges that they were having. Oh, and last one, last one, last one, last one, last one, last one, sorry. Broker owners and teams, life happens. You do see agents move. You do see agents move for all types of reasons. PCS is big in our market, obviously, but maybe they want to live next to their family because now they're pregnant, right? Maybe they want to just get out of this community and go

closer to home for whatever reason. Maybe it's a job offer because they are a part-time agent, but they do kill it, right? Both you and I were part-time agents when we first started, right? So there's all these things that are going to happen and all the time that you broker-owner or team leader poured into that agent, not that you're only doing it for money, but that time and energy gone in terms of revenue. You did what you did, but now they're gone. Again, big move for this brokerage that is here in Fayetteville. They have a lot of agents, spouses that are veteran, active duty, whatever, and they, especially

active duty, obviously they're going to PCS. Their agent count is like this, you know, constantly. So how can you expand? And they were talking about expansion for their brokerage into another market. And you're talking about the cost. They were like, there's no way we could do this. There is absolutely no way we could do this. It's going to be too much of a headache.

Even coming from my KW world, you're talking about dealing with different franchises and different caps and different SOPs and different leadership. It is an absolute headache. Gone. And I know that might be hard to like take it. It's gone. Now this brokerage does this. People PCS. Cool, cool, cool being still with the XP.

we're still going to support them. We're still going to help them. We're going to help them grow their own team, their own brand in that market. And by the way, if they move again, it starts up. We could keep that process going. No change. No change in caps or anything like that. No extra cost.

And so that was a huge move for them too. And we're meeting, we're doing a GPS. We're revisiting their GPS, which you know what that is. We're revisiting that next week with them. But that's going to be a part of it is those expansion moves. and no longer have to worry about the overhead, the liability, and the headache if they were doing it on their own. No, this is awesome. And so even though you talked a lot, you mentioned a lot, that still doesn't even cover, like, all the benefits of ESP.

You know, like, we didn't even touch on health care. We didn't even touch on the fact that stocks, really, like the fact that that's a retirement plan for your spouse. Like, revenue share is willable. So if you pass and maybe you want to get out of production, you want to stop slinging homes, you can. And you can live off of revenue share. it's so we we covered like a fraction of the benefits of it but i i agree with like the split on the split on the team i talked to a lot of agents who which does okay expe doesn't mean no team splits there are formal teams like you mentioned within expe that still want to keep their

team splits cool be mindful of that make sure you know what kind of crew you're joining because we don't have we don't have we don't have anything splits we literally give you everything for free and for free like there is no reason for you to ever leave. Like, you will not find a better spot. I say that very confidently. You will not find a better, financially better spot. So the, the, the, with agents PCSing, that was another reason why I joined is because I knew that I'm not going to be in Tucson forever. I'm moving, you know, and, and I don't want to have to pick up my business, leave, say goodbye to my franchise office and hope that in my next spot, the company culture was the same. Because there, it's not going to be the same. You'll never find the same company culture ever. Each office is so

different. So the fact that I can just pick up my business, all I have to do is just get license in Minnesota. If I even want to, I don't even have to, and I can still make money as an agent working in Minnesota or really working in Thailand, which is my goal, and slinging homes in Tucson. That's it. Like the crew remains the same. And it's a win-win all around. Now, a lot of people might think, like, how is the brokerage even profitable then? You know, like, how if agents are able to brand themselves, if the team leaders no longer have to have, or broker owners that are moving over to EXP, if they no longer have to have a team split, you know, and with expansion, like I mentioned before, Miguel, that reached out to me from

Portugal saying, hey, I want your checklist, I want your canned emails, I want your processes to make my life easier. I want to join you. Like the global expansion, because we're in, what, like 26 countries now, EXP is? Yeah. The point is, we didn't even touch. on everything. No, 100%. I was just talking to Miguel this morning, too, about a training that we're going to put on. So, I mean, the support never ever stops. I will say another, and you're right about the stock, too. I didn't even touch on that, but I just looked it up real quick. We're up 10% year to date, which is outpacing inflation. We're not going to have any issue at EXP because of we have no debt. We have zero debt as a company. Go back to, I think both of ours, we both

touch on this, our EXP con video of take a picture of slides and like making sure that, cool, let's not hear all the fluff about expe. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. And we did and we talk about it. And so you'll see that there. So the stock is, you're right. I mean, being up 10%, we're doing pretty good with that. But another broker owner and they were talking about what you just said, which is like the support and all that, they have agents begging to join them and they're turning them away. Because they want to give a high service to the agents who do come on board. They're just not able to. They can't spread their self so thin. They can't do it.

So they're turning agents away. And I was like, dude, I was like, this is what we do. Like, we are the support hub. We got you, you know? And I was like, you don't ever have to turn around, turn away anybody. Local or not. Never, ever, ever, never, ever. And that obviously was huge for them because, yes, we talk about it.

But then I show them like our calendar, which, by the way, proven by Rubin.com, You can go to, I think it's how we support you tab, right? You can check that out. You can check out our calendar. It's all there for you to see. That is all that they're going to get and they're not going to pay anything extra for it. They're actually going to be in the green by making the move financially because of the overhead and liability that they're going to save on. But now they get to do what their number one thing is, is support their agents and no longer turn anyone else away.

Yeah. I love that we're touching on this, especially at this time where, like you said, broker owners are, and I have. talk to team leaders, broker owners that are suffering. I went to, I spoke on Monday. I was a guest speaker for AI for the Tucson Association, like women's council of realtors. And my one hour that I was there, I was asked to be on several teams. They asked a little bit about me. And I told them a little bit about like my production. They're like, hey, do you, are you looking for a team? Like, no, I'm definitely not. And I found that it keeps happening more now. And maybe it's just because it's, you know, with more time, you know, two and a half years in the business, I've done 80 transactions. But it's,

I find it more now. Hey, are you looking for a team? I went to an event last night. Looking for a team? No, dude. I have, I have a crew of my own, you know. So I don't, I forget where I was even going with that. But they may have their eye on talent. I'm telling you, like we start off this podcast and your talent. Your talent. So, you know, I believe bringing talent into your business. is the number one thing that you could do because they don't care what the market looks like. And I bet they see that in you. They're like, she don't care. She's going to make it happen no matter what.

And that's the people that you need surround yourself with. And I'll say that's what we do a really good job of doing. Yeah. If people wanted to find out more, where can they get a hold of you? Proven by Rubin on all social media platforms. And I am completely transparent. I will tell you anything and everything. I've seen the ugly side of things.

I've seen the good side of things. It's EXP too. Ugly side of EXP, good side of EXP. There's nothing we're going to hold back here because I think by, you know, just telling the truth and being transparent is going to hold our reputation a lot longer than trying to sell something that you don't truly believe in. So just ask questions, man. Hit us up on Proven by Rubin. Definitely hit Ali up.

Hit us and Shelby. Hit us all up. Hit up the podcast. But just reach out, Proven by Rubin. I'll answer any question that you have. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And I actually just fixed my website. I'm transitioning over. So you can now find me on AllieGarsed.com. Woohoo. So there I have a couple of videos that explain basics about EXP. You know, just so that way when we when we have that call, when we have that call, Zoom call, phone call, whatever it is. Or in person, if you're in Tucson or soon to be in Minneapolis, we can have a higher level of conversation. Like, where is your business actually at? Let's run numbers. And you and I do this all time. Like we have three way calls with agents of other. brokerages looking to make more money. That's all like really it comes down to. Hey, I want to make more

money in this like market that's decreasing. Like you mentioned at the beginning of this episode, I want to make more money and you can definitely make more money, a lot more money with us. So I want to ask before I close out the show, what, what's next for you? What does 2024 look like? Well, we're looking at RV plays oddly enough right now, but it's also going to help in the larger goal, which is travel to go see our agents. Like our biggest, so, and I think I might say this on the other podcast, but to travel, to not only the EXP cons, the BPs, the FN cons, the cons, cons, like, definitely still meeting up with everybody, the retreats and having a blast that that will always be on my list to do.

But I want to be also a little bit more intentional. So using the RV rental that we have to also travel and see our agents, master mind with them in person. Like, I love the in-person thing too. So doing that, but also going to brokerages and teaching. Like, brand agnostic and just helping agents get in front of this walky, crazy, dumb market that we can all get through if you're having the right conversation. I had someone tell me a long time ago, they said, conversations equal results. So what type of conversations you're having around you? And I want to deliver more of that. And the RV is going to be the play. We're just written it out right now. Like we do.

any other investment, make sure it cash flows first. And then that's going to be the big focus, a lot more traveling in 2024, but with family and meeting our agents and broker owners. Sweet. Yes. Well, I'm excited to see more of you, Rubin, because you've been, like I said, in the beginning of the show, dude, you have been so instrumental in my business. Anybody in your, and I hate using the word expe downline, but like anybody in your downline benefits, no matter how low, like seven levels, whatever the level, like you are there to help as much as if, someone join you directly. So huge, man.

I mean, I just, you're welcome. I'll say this last thing. I met with a dude who just came over, a former team leader with Keller Williams. He just came over. Not with us, by the way, but he did come over. And I sat down with him and I talked to them.

I said two things, man. I said, no matter where they're at in your downline, help them as if they are your number one, always and forever. And number two, stay authentic. Please stay authentic. That's going to be the biggest thing that you have is just truly being you and not caring, being completely unapologetic about who you are.

Please do those two things and you'll be fine. And you've done such a good job of that. We've all done a really good job of that. And I'll just say thank you to you because you are always taking action. You don't care if you fall forward and like mess up your teeth and like you bloody up. It doesn't matter. You took action and I appreciate that. And I know a lot of other people do too. Yeah. Yeah. And not to end on like a kind of sour note, but it's, I had a lot of people reach out to me that I helped them, like taking the time out of my day and I'm helping them and then they don't take the action. And there's no bigger slap in the face than to ask, like, book a call on my calendar and I'm giving you an hour or even 45 minutes

of my time. And then I follow back up and nothing was taken when there was ample time to do so. So it got to the point where I made a video of like agents that would not be good on our crew. because not all agents would be going to accrue. You know, like we only really want the best of the best, those that will take action. Those that are not scared to take the action and go because that's the team that we have, the culture that we have is like the accountability pods,

like Shelby mentioned earlier, where it's like, hey, if everyone else is investing and you're not investing, you don't want to be the lowest one. Yeah, that's the people that like we surround ourselves with or like those that take action. It's not results. Like results are awesome, by the way, and they're going to happen.

but it's truly just did you stick your foot out there? Like at EXPCon, I was like, yo, come in this room, write your name on a piece of paper. You're like, what the a lot of this? Didn't even know you got picked, but you ended up on stage. You got this little like fan following, but it all happened because you were willing to take the risk.

And that's all we're looking for. If you didn't get picked that day and we just went on about, I would have been just as freaking proud. Well, I can't say that. I was super proud when you hit the stage. But that's all it is. So anybody who's listening, it's just action. The result's awesome, but I'm telling you, it's just action. That's really all it is, man.

Yeah. And so for those that don't know, when I took the stage, I was teaching on, like, the beginning of how to set up your YouTube channel. YouTube 101 for real estate agents, because that's been successful for me so far. So I made an entire YouTube video on that. So you can check it out, Allie the agent on YouTube, Allie the agent on Instagram. Again, like anybody that joins our crew, my crew, you have access to Shelby. You have access to Rubin. you then have access to me too with all of the resources that I provide, like that silver, you know, the gold, bronze packages for the listing agents to get that 8% listing and show your value. So Rubin, thank you so much for jumping on our show, being our first repeat guests. Love you and especially on your your day, Y day, because you took the day off. Like you teach everyone to take the day of one day off a month just to recharge and to catch up

on your calendar. So thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Can I just say one thing? Of course, Rubin. Be a bro. And share this show, Ruben. Awesome.

Thanks so much for listening, dude. If you want the golden nugget that this guest provided, see the show notes or just go straight to the agent goldmine.com. That's where we keep all our resources for you. Until next time.