KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Burn the Boats

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Hello, and welcome to the global luxury real estate mastermind with me, your host, Michael Valdez. Today's guest, oh, my God, this one's going to be a fun one. This is someone who I absolutely adore. He's like my brother. Al Stasic is actually one of the top realtors in the entire state of Ohio, one of the top coaches, and one of the very top people at EXP. Al, how are you, my brother? Thank you, brother.

How are you? I am doing great right before. we came on, I was admiring your wall. You got a little bit of everything. You got Bob Marley. You've got by EXP. You've got your seven habits of life, seven rules of life. Look at you. What else is up there? You know what? I got that. I got my weeks in life. This this tells me how much time I got left right there. I'm going to leave every week till it's till it's and then over here, I got that reminder, burn the boats. I love burn the boats. We're going to get into that one because that one's a good one.

So just tell me how you actually got started in real estate, dude. So, you know, Michael, I grew up in a little town. Well, it's not actually that little of a suburb. It's kind of a larger suburb, blue collar called Parma, Ohio. And Parma's a city in Italy, which you probably know. I know it well. Where the ham comes from, Parma ham. That's right.

But that's not Parma, Ohio. Parma, Ohio is just, you know, you know, it's, Cleveland. It's really, it's, it's, it's a suburb of Cleveland, but it's, it spells Cleveland. It's a melting pot of Slovak, Ukrainian, Italians, Polish, just all walks life. It's a melting pot where, you know, it was a great place to be raised. But my dad, mom, you know, they both each work two jobs. And one of the jobs my dad worked was he was a part-time realtor. So he worked the docks, loading trucks during the day. He'd come home. He'd put his gold coat. Century 21 gold coat on and he'd go out and hustle real estate. And sometimes if he didn't have

appointments, he'd go up to the office. And just because I wanted to hang out with them, I would come up there with them. And I know that you've been in the industry a while. But if you remember back in the 80s, you know, the real estate office of the 80s is not what it is today. It was a very male dominated, you know, guys smoking in the office, swearing. It was a rough environment, you know, not what we're used to today. So I kind of grew up saying, you know, look, I think I want to be a lumberjack and I'm never going to be a realtor. That's for sure.

Seeing what my dad went, you know, cold calling a street a night, just grinding it out just so really just so we could have enough money to go on vacations and stuff. So that's kind of how I was raised. I wasn't raised as real estate agents in a positive light. Even though I looked at my dad in a positive light, I just saw an environment I wasn't interested in. So I ended up dropping out of Cleveland State University. I went into trucking and I drove truck over the road, saw the country, you got paid for it, you know, and at one point really discovered, you know what, there's something else out there for me.

But I didn't have a degree. I had nothing really to fall back on other than, you know, the fact that I knew I could speak to people, you know, I like talking to people. And so I said, okay, I'm going to sell something and it's going to have to be. be a large ticket item and something that everybody needs and obviously nothing bigger than real estate. So I decided to go get my license in 1998. I got licensed and rest is history. So how was that lumberjack career, short-lived? I never, I never went down there other than chopping wood my own yard. You know, I just wanted to do something outdoors, which is probably what led me to the whole, you know, over-the-road truck driver, that freedom of the road and this and that.

But, you know, I just knew that at one point, you know, I knew there was something more, you know, my folks didn't grow up with a lot of, you know, money or privilege, but we grew up around others who did. So I got a little taste of what the other side looked like. And I knew that that other side was not attainable if I continued in the trucking industry. Nothing wrong with that. We need truckers. I love trucker. I was a trucker for many years. And I know how. hard it is, you know, but I knew that for what I wanted to do and my, the vision for my life wasn't going to be that. So. And listen, you've built an amazing career, which we're going to break down in a little bit, but you also encourage a lot of people. But one of the things that

just struck me with the story you just shared with me is what you just alluded to when we were doing a pan of your, of your room there. And it was the story that you do of burn the boats. when you were all in. Share with the audience what burned the boats means. So for me, I guess when I got my real estate license, I didn't really have, I mean, great broker owners. I always sing the praises of the Dapiro's, but it was really the old, the old school way of doing things. And so I was a seeker and I was always just seeking and trying to find a better way. And really it was in 2009, 2008, when I met Mike Reese and Jay Kinder, and they started opening in my mind up to another way of, a better way of growing my

real estate business. And I'm definitely somebody that's okay learning from someone who's done it. Jay was selling 500 plus homes a year, number two with Caldwell Banker. I'm like, if I model what he's doing, you know, but then it came time to make a decision on having to pay for coaching. And I didn't have the money. I had a little room on the credit card, but I didn't have the money. You know, there was just several times in my life where I've had to make decisions on, you know, in burning the boats. And so, you know, the story, I don't know if I should go into the story. Yeah, please do. I think it's fascinating.

Yeah. So the story of burn the boats and I'll try to do the brief version of it. But Hernando Cortez was a back in 1519. Hernando Cortez was a conqueror. He decided he was going to recruit a bunch of sailors and soldiers together and sailor. across, you know, the ocean and steal the richest treasure in the world. And this was, you know, literally conqueror after conqueror, army after army tried to take this treasure and failed. Never, they were actually murdered and killed. And so there was this, this treasure out there for

literally over 600 years. Nobody can take it. And, and Hernando came, came in, gathered his army up, spoke the vision to them, got them across the sea. And right when they got to the beach, everyone started freaking out and they were like, Hernando, I'm not sure about this. I think I made a bad decision. And they were really just scared. They were squirreling out. Fernando got him to the beach,

gather them all around. They had the ships out there anchored in. And he said three words to them that changed everything. And they thought that he was going to say, hey, go this way, go that way. He didn't say any of that. He said, burn the boats. And these men looked at him like he was crazy.

They're like, excuse me, burn the boats. He said, burn the ships. Because if we're leaving this island, we're leaving on their ships, we're not leaving on our ships. And he made him torch all 11 boats. And then something magical happened. They fought really, really, really well. And they took the treasure because what they did, Michael, is they burned any possibility of plan B. There was no plan B.

It was plan A or die. It was fight and win or die. There was no going back. Those ships were burned. So, you know, I looked back and I, you know, when I heard that story, it was actually a friend of mine, Haas Pratt, at my first Kinder Reese conference in 2010 who told that story. And for me, I went back and I knew I had to make some major decisions on who I needed to become, shedding the old me and finding the new me, that new energy to,

to really take what I thought, felt was my potential that was being held back by some beliefs. And I had to burn those beliefs because they were, they were BS anyway. So that's kind of, you know, I use that story framework whenever I come across a big decision that I have to make. And I believe that it's in the big decisions where people's destiny starts being shaped, but a lot of people are afraid to make those big decisions. There's some fear being, you know, because when, you know, you've made some big decisions, Michael, you made a big decision, thank the Lord about three years ago. And it was, I don't know if it was scary or not, but like for me, those big decisions can be

scary for a lot of people. So we use that story to help them along. You know, and that's such a powerful story because it actually resonates with so many people. when you basically are telling somebody to burn the fear, there is no plan B. I love that, plan A or die. That's it. You're going to succeed because that's what you have to do.

And remember when I joined the EXP, my accountant said to me, you're crazy. And this is somebody that's been a friend of mine for 30 years. And he said, you're insane. And so he said, maybe so. Yeah. I didn't know that. You know, it was a great decision, right?

And so tell me a little bit about this. So what you just said was so inspiring. And you're a great coach. How do you go about motivating somebody? Well, I think, you know, in fact, I was just spending some time with Mike Reese and I had my notes here somewhere because I was just going through an exercise of, you know, finding what your superpower is. And sometimes I think everybody should do that. It's kind of a tough thing to do. Like if I were to ask you, my.

Michael, what is your superpower? What are you better at than anybody else said differently is what talent, skill, or superpower that you have would make people want to follow you? You know, and I try to really get people, it's not so much really coaching them, but it's really kind of talking them through a framework of awareness of figuring out why would somebody, the first question is, why would I follow me? and if I wouldn't follow me, you know, then maybe you have some other work that you got to get done, you know. Right. But if you would follow you, then why would you follow you? What are the aspects that attract talent,

you know, to what, why do people follow leaders? And there's various different reasons. Some are really great problem solvers. Some have this, this it factor, you know, like that, that factor that's like, yeah, I just don't know what it's about them. but I just like them, you know, or her, you know, that attracts people, that charisma. Yeah. And so for, for me, I think that one of my superpowers and, you know, I had to ask someone else. Oftentimes you have to ask, ask someone else. It's your ability to, you know, my ability to be able to deconstruct a problem,

a problem that someone has and lead them to their own solution just by, by breaking it up into pieces. It's, you know, I think it's a lot. lot easier for me to solve other people's problems than my own. It always is. It always is. I love that idea about superpower because I think for me it's it's visionary. It's sort of like it's seeing what is existing in the future already and working through that. Right. So like with us, when we start talking about EXP, we start talking about 50 countries and half a million agents, you know, this year we're moving to a stadium because were too large. I already know that in three years time, it's going to be several stadiums

around the world that are going to be satellite one to another. I see it already, right? So that's the future I'm living in. We're just going to need, we're just traveling there together. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, I believe everyone's coming. And, and, you know, patience is not something that I was born with at all. Me either, actually. Yeah. And that's a blessing and a curse, you know? Absolutely. Just ask my team. Oh, I bet. And it's, you know, people like you and I were not the easiest to work with,

you know, sometimes. But I know you, I know you well. And I know you, you have a deep care for people. But you also have a drive to the goal. And I think that it's a, it's an even balance or not an even balance, but somewhat of a balance. between, you know, having an ability to have that patience and the drive to keep to keep going toward the goal. And I know that I know that you're blessed with that. That was something for me I had to learn, you know, I'm a negotiator. And sometimes I hung my hat so hard on that when I was actually, you know, in the trenches selling and negotiating. Like that was my thing. Like, I'm a great negotiate. You should hire me because I'm going to negotiate. I found myself sometimes,

negotiating a little too hard, a little too hard, a little more than what my clients wanted me to. And I had to like step back a minute and say, this is about them. This is in my competition. Right. It's about them. And that was hard for me to do. Yeah. So I don't know if that answer.

So this actually might be the answer to my next question. What's the greatest lesson you've learned in your career thus far? The first thing that comes to my mind, and I may change my mind in two minutes, I will deserve the right to change my mind, is being open, having an awareness to being open to being wrong or having an awareness of my really, really strong beliefs about something and having the ability of saying, you know, am I wrong about that? you know and and look i'm i have not perfected that by any by any means but when you talk about the greatest lesson i've learned it's it's an exercise it's it's a practice it's like meditating

you don't just you don't you know what i mean like meditating it's not somewhere you get it's something you do and i think something i do is i try to have the awareness of when i'm having a really strong belief. It could be about a person, an individual. It could be about an idea. It could be political. It could be religious. Because one thing I can know, I'm going to be 49, you know, in about four or five months or whatever. And I know I can look back and think about all the strong beliefs that I had about certain things where I was wrong. Right. And I look back and like, man, I was a fool. But, you know, I think just moving into the last. half of my trips around this earth at this point. I would say that, you know, having an awareness

of when I could be wrong. I might not be wrong, but being open. And I think that's what we need more in our world right now. We have such a divisive political environment where it's either your left or you're right. And now that's even the cool thing that I'm seeing is that even that's now starting to get mixed into, you know, with with some people that felt that they were way left and now they're right or some people that were right and they're feeling that they're left. And what that's telling me is, is that there's hope. There's, there's hope that there's some, maybe there's some compromise out there, you know, and with regard to just people with strong beliefs like me, feeling that there might be a better

way. There might be a different way. If I didn't feel that way, I'd still be an independent broker in Cleveland, Ohio with maybe a two dozen agents or so and not have an organization that's global right now. Thanks to you. That's right. Thanks to all of us. So it's the idea that we keep growing together. So tell me this. You grew up in the real estate industry with your dad. You were telling the story from the 80s and how it was. And then you got into it in the late 90s. So you've been in this for quite a bit of time. And so tell me three pieces of advice. You would give somebody entering the business today. You know, it's the idea that most people that are in the industry now, we've been in an up market for many years, right? And so many people have never seen a down

market that are in the business today. So what sort of advice would you give somebody entering the business today? The first bit of advice I would give. is to focus on the right habits. And, you know, in order to do that, I think the most important thing you can do is get in the right environment of other people who have those habits that you want to acquire. Because environment is 10x more powerful than your willpower. So because that's just a principle of truth, if you get around a bunch of whiners, then you're going to become a whiner.

If you get around a bunch of people who make excuses and who don't want to, you know, get up and they're not driven to be better, you know, and it's not just be better. You can't be better in business until you're better personally. Like, so you've got to work on your personal development right along with your business savvy. And I believe if you work on the personal side,

harder, the business side will come. But you have to develop, great habits. And it's real easy in the real estate agent world to develop bad habits because, you know, I hate to say this, Michael, it may be like off, you know, off limits for your show here. And I hope it's not. But most real estate agents, they just live a mediocre life. Oh, absolutely. They settle for okay. Absolutely. You know, and, you know, I believe that we live in a world.

to mediocrity. And, you know, mediocrity is defined as a slow, slow decline into a comfortable place, like your little, a slow decline right into your comfort zone. And what I know is that when I found myself coasting and in my comfort zone, no growth happens there. Yeah, you might be comfortable. You know, I've spoken to several people this week on, um, on three way zooms and calls. agents that are considering coming and joining us. And a couple of them were super, super sharp people. One was an engineer who has a full-time nine to five job that's not fulfilling him, but it pays his bills. So it pays his house payment, utilities, his car payment, it puts food on the table. But what he really wants to do is he wants to get his businesses entrepreneurial real estate business cranking so that he can

he can say goodbye to that that job you know and I think again it boils down to his environment and and there's there's a point that he's going to have to come to where he's going to have to burn the boats so you know first step get in the right environment where where we're the right habits where it's going to be easier for you I'm about easy too man I'm lazy like don't don't put me in the wrong environment expect me to I mean I guess it could be done It could be done. Yeah. Could I finish a marathon if I hung out with a bunch of guys that drank and smoke in a bar every day?

Eh, maybe, maybe. But would it be a lot easier if I put myself in an environment where other people were trying to achieve, you know, they were prepared. And if you just finish an Iron Man? Did you just finish an Iron Man? Yeah, yeah, I finished the Iron Man. And I can tell you this, like, it was really, really hard. even though the fact that I put myself in an environment of accountability, we hired a code, I had, you know, a dozen guys all doing it with us and they were all training together.

And it was still really, really hard, you know, but if I hadn't done that, if I hadn't had a group of people that had really good habits, they got on the bike when they didn't want to get on the bike, they got in the pool when they didn't want to get in the pool, who ran in the cold when they didn't want to run in the cold, but they motivated me to do it. it was the environment that got me through that. And, you know, of course, I don't like losing. So, you know, I had two goals with the Iron Man. Don't end up in the hospital and finish. There you go. It's good. In that order. You did both. You did both. In that order. I like it. I like it. That was good.

But I don't know if I hit on all three, but the number one is the habits, get in the right environment, you know, and, you know, I don't know that you can like talk someone into or coach someone or motivate them to to want to grow. That's true. And this may be bad news for some people listening, but if you don't have that fire in your belly to want to grow, it's got to come from here. I ain't going to motivate you. There ain't nobody going to motivate you. That's right. Okay.

It's got to come from here. and, you know, one of my coaches talks about because goals. So maybe you want to think about write down what your because goals were, you know, and I'll give you an example. So one of my because goals, so because I grew up with, you know, in a very humble blue collar, both parents working, my mom worked night shift at the hospital. She'd be coming home at seven.

My dad'd be going out. They crisscrossed each other. because I saw them work in their hands of the bone and we still didn't really have really great things, I decided I was going to go, I wasn't going to go amateur with my desires. I was going to pro. I was going to make sure that my family had, you know, the ability. So because of that, because I saw people across the street who could afford to buy their kids new hockey equipment when I wanted to play and I couldn't, because of that, I was going to build a business that financially we didn't have to worry about money, where it wasn't going to be.

a stressor. So like I would say to your audience, you know, go through what are your because goals? People talk about the why and that's fine. You know, you can, if that's your thing, great. But I think what's more powerful than that are because why because why do you want that? And dig into that. Because so, yeah, that's what I would I would tell your people. I love that. All right. So the other side of you is the fact that you also give back tremendously. I know you. I know your heart. You have been involved with agents act. You've been involved with the Cleveland Food Bank. Tell me about your philanthropic efforts. Why is that important? It became important when I joined Remax back in 2007. I met two people who were in inspiration,

people that I looked up, which were my broker's owners. And that was Dennis Mary Luce Steed. and they made it kind of a requirement. If you worked for them, you had to donate $25 to the Children's Miracle Network from every transaction. That was one of the reasons why I joined. I was like, man, that's really cool. I don't think I've ever, because at the time, I never had enough money to donate anything. So I'm like, well, they're going to take it right out of the check and I won't even see it.

And so just through the time I was working with them, they showed me, you know, what it was like I got an experience to feel what it was like to change lives and give back. Then it was the children miracle network. I ended up opening my own brokerage. What I notice is what the children's miracle network is very, very well funded. I'm not telling you to back out of that charity. Don't listen. That's not what I'm saying.

But for me, I had a decision to make. And that decision was if we were going to donate something where, you know, who needed the money, what I felt was the most. And what would I be passionate about? And for me, it was, you know, one and six people in Cleveland, you know, are considered hungry, meaning they don't, you know, there's a food deficiency, one out of six. I didn't know that statistic. I was like, oh, my gosh.

So if I could do something about that, I'm in. So for every home that we sell with Stacey Group, we feed 100 families. And so, you know, one of our metrics was how many meals can we provide? You know, how many meals? So it's like 100 meals per sale. So that translated into I love music. I love to party, as you know. We've met you and I a couple times in Nashville and close some place.

We have. Yeah. And so. Like last week. Just last week. And so. Yes. And you know what? You're going to have to come to our rock and rescue. So we do a rock concert every year.

It started out in 2015 called Rock. and restock where we restocked, we rocked, partied, and then restocked the shelves of the food bank. That was called rock and reisserie. Wow. And so that's that one right there. That's our reggae concert. And so that was filter. We had filter one year, rock and restock.

And then a couple years ago, when we found out, you know, again, I like to be able to pivot. I'm able to pivot. And I found out that Northeast Ohio and many places around the country. country have a human trafficking problem. And it's a bad. Really? Wow. In Ohio. Oh, Ohio's a big on it. Yeah. And it's the ugly problem that no one wants to talk about. It gets brushed up underneath the rug. And it's even a bigger problem overseas, which is what Agent Mack and Nikki, Nikki Gregory has been tackling. And so she's the one that brought it to my attention from the overseas. I mean, I kind of knew, but did know, you know, she brought it to light. It was an easy

decision. We're changing from rock and rescue, or rock and restock to rock and rescue to rescue more women and children from human trafficking. So we changed our theme to that a couple years ago and we're still rocking it out and having fun and raise the money and, you know, just trying to do our small part and making a dent in the community. Oh, wow, that's amazing. I definitely want to come. When's the next concert? September 8th. I'm there. I'm there. I'm there. I'm there. Let's do it. I love that. I'll save you a seat up front. I love that. I love that. Right next to you. Yes, right next to me. Absolutely. There you go. So a couple of more questions for you. Define success for me now. For you? No, for you. Oh, for me. I thought you said define success for me. And I'm like, I don't know. What is it for you, Michael Valdez?

If I was asking you, you'd be like, hmm, opening 20 more countries in the next 12 months. So, you know, it's, it's a, it's a great question because I think different, you know, depending on who you ask, you're going to get different answers. And you might get a different, you know, for me, you know, if you were to ask me that question like 15 years ago, it was about relieving success would have been relieving financial pressure of a roller coaster that goes like this in our business. and, you know, getting to a point where we were in a comfortable position financially, meaning it never was about millions of dollars.

It was always about a level of comfort, which said differently would relieve stress. I grew up in a financially stressful household. It was full of love. I have an amazing mom and dad. You know, there's no cut out, but it was stressful. There was financial stress that, you know, was. was, you know, and everybody feels it. So if there was something I could do to relieve that, so that was, that was success then. Today, success is different. It kind of translated into

doing what I want with who I want whenever I want to do it, which I, I've achieved. But now the new success is, is helping others achieve that. If that's something that they want. So if someone aligns with me and what my beliefs are about success, my new success is helping them a hundred people become financially free. And so that's kind of the new, the new B-Hag that we're shooting at. Yeah, there you go. I'd have one last question for you. So almost similar. So in your book of life, what is this chapter called? This chapter right now? Yep. this chapter is called building the legacy.

Love that one. Yeah, because it's not about making more money for me. It's not about buying more stuff, although it's fun. It's about seeing other people win bigger and faster and getting text messages from, you know, I got a text message last. week from my friend Andrew right here in Ohio and he's like he's like out my my stock holdings just hit $2.7 million. You know, when I was an independent broker, I never got a message like that from any of my agents ever. Nor would I only think I ever would have. You know, but when you're able to, you know, facilitate a path for an agent, a team leader or a broker.

that is other than, hey, man, I can help you sell 500 houses a year. I don't, you know, I heard a quote somewhere, and I don't remember, it might have actually been in this book right here. I don't know if you've gotten this one. This is a great book. You have this? Yep. So Bill Perkins, we actually saw him in the BVI's with Mike and Jay.

I didn't know who he was. He walked up on the soggy Dollar Beach. Yeah. And we had Sogy Dollar and Jay and Mike ran over to get a picture with them. And I didn't even know why. This was probably five years ago. But, you know, it was somewhere in that book that I read and I highlighted it. And it was it was this. It was when you're on your deathbed and you only have a few hours left, the only thing, it ain't going to be about how much money you have or how much money you made or how much, how many, homes you sold, it's going to be about memories. That's right.

That's it. The only thing that you're going to be thinking about in those last few hours are your memories. So for me, and this is what I teach my kids, is that build memories. They're in high school right now. I tell them build memories. Hopefully they're not memories, you know, in the back of a cop car. I'm talking about, you know, good memories.

Good memories. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Good, healthy memories, you know. And so. Right. On the beach, not behind bars. Yeah.

Right. It's about memories. So like if your goals surround around building more memories and experiences for the people that you know love and trust, like the people you're in your circle, I think that's the best advice I could give someone is that, you know, focus on building memories. Focus on building magical moments like the one that we did last Thursday in Nashville. I just have to say that. Yeah. You know, I can't believe that you did it twice, by the way. you did it twice and you found you found you put magic in a bottle two times in a row

year over year which was amazing well that that goes back to the circle right i could not have done that 100 percent could not have done that without you know surrounding myself in the right environment dust and black jay k junior mike i wouldn't have met dustin had i had not met mike and j and so that boils down to the beginning of what we were talking about with decisions I made decisions to surround myself with people that are smarter than me. And I believe that everybody should do that. And if you look down and you look around and you're like, man, I think I might be the smartest one in the room. You're in the wrong room.

You need to get out. Burn those boats. Get in. Yep. You're the common denominator or the five people you spend the most time with. Yep. I agree, man. That's why I love spending time with you.

You inspire me to think bigger. Right back at you, brother. right back at you. Al Stasic, thank you, my brother. I love your heart. I love who you are as a leader. I love who you are as a human being, always giving back to others and elevating others.

And really, you are such a ray of sunshine. I love spending time with you. You care so much about other people. Your heart is huge. Thank you for this conversation. And thank you for spending time with me. And I love this, my brother. I appreciate you, man.

You know, I'm better off, and this company is better off for having you in our lives. So appreciate you. And hey, we're just getting started, right? We're just getting started. That's a moon. That's it. I love it. And thank you all of you for listening.

This has been the global luxury, real estate mastermind. With me, your host, Michael Valdez.