KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Jennifer Jones

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Hello, everybody. It's Michael Valdez. And here I am with another episode of Real Estate Mastermind with Michael Valdez. And today's guest, oh my gosh, this is a powerhouse in our industry. She is the team leader of one of the very, very top teams in all of Canada. And she's also a dear friend. I cannot wait to welcome the one and only Jennifer Jones. Come on in here. How are you? Wow. What an intro, Mike. This is so amazing. I'm so grateful to be here with Michael today and all of you and just looking to provide value and have you learn whatever it is that you need to learn from us today.

So Michael is a light in the company. He's an absolute late in the company. And I've told him that from the very beginning. He is an absolute start. Thank you for that. but it's right back at you. I have known you now a few years and really seeing how you are,

not just as a leader, but as a human being, to your folks, to your colleagues, to the people that are not a part of this organization, just who you are as an industry leader. You're an incredible human being, and I am so glad to have some time with you today.

No, thank you so much, Michael. All right. What? It's going to be great. It is going to be great. It is going to be great. Let's start from the very beginning. How did Jennifer Jones get started in this crazy business of ours? So I actually, I'd been single for five years post-a-divorce, and I met Keith.

And he was actually a fire captain, but working as a contractor as well, a high-end professional finisher. And I had said to him, hey, there's this power for sale, or power of sale, a cottage out at the slate. we're going to buy it. We're going to renovate it and flip it. And he's like, there's no way. We're not doing this. And I said, you can do it. You're amazing.

Let's go do it. So that's kind of how I got into real estate. We started flipping properties. Wow. Your own principal residence. And through that process, we realized, okay, we're paying these realtors to ultimately do everything that we were doing. And so I got licensed.

That's how I got in. Do you know that's the same way that I got in? Are you serious? Yep. I was buying real estate for my own portfolio after leaving a career in banking. And I was looking at the P&L and the majority of my hard costs were real estate commissions. And I thought, well, I've got the time. I only got licensed for my own portfolio at first.

Isn't that crazy? Almost 20 years ago. That's wild. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. But it makes sense, right? It does make sense. And that's the thing. If you're in that business of renovating and flipping, everyone should be calling us to potentially get licensed, right? Yeah. Now it makes a lot of sense as I was doing some more research for this podcast with you. And you really talked about how you owned in a lot of different sectors like, you know, storage units, multifamily homes. Talk to me a little bit about your portfolio now, your own real estate.

portfolio and really the power of diversification within asset classes because I think that's fascinating to me. Yeah, and a great, like something that happened, remember when COVID started and it was four years ago, I think today, but the amazing thing was commercial, because everyone started coming out of their work spaces was really hit hard. And that's an example of why it's important to be diversified in terms of your portfolio. Those spaces are being turned over and used for different purposes. But yes, we have, so single family, and then we moved into kind of mixed commercial. So some commercial with office spaces, we even own our own office building for our team

hub. And there's actually two residential units in that building as well. and then we moved into storage units, which we're invested more as a limited partner, and that's actually in Texas. And again, diversification, we're not all invested here. We're invested in different areas. And actually, in December, we purchased an Airbnb property to use as well, a waterfront, canal front right in Florida in Cape Coral.

So that's going to be super exciting. Well, I love that. And, you know, it is so important to have that. different diversification for those that are investors in our field as well. But let me bring it back to real estate brokerage. Now, you and Keith started flipping and you found success in it, obviously. You then diversified your portfolio. But then how did you get to EXP? How did you find all about this incredible company? Yeah. So I was with Keller Williams. It's a great company. I had a great experience there. And I was in Gary Keller's top 200. So you do these quarterly

meetings with Gary Keller. And we had this Facebook group. And I'm sorry, Gary, but I kept watching, right? It'd be like top team leads, top individual leaves. And I started, you know, going to see where they went. And it was like ex P, XP, EXP, EXP. So I started looking closer at the model. And for me, it really was a decision serving my team members because they were going

to be keeping. It was about $4,000 extra per year in their pocket each. And then they were also owners of having access to shares within the company. So building up a portfolio that way. And then on top of it, they were able to take a percentage of their commission and EXP takes that and it buys or purchases the stock at, I think it's a 5% discount now. And that also is set aside. So it could be something that you're building towards retirement or an emergency fund for, you know, something, an unexpected expense that comes up. And we've actually had agents that have done that with, oh, my gosh, I need 30,000 to close this

property. I didn't realize the cost were so high. And then they've been able to go in and cash at revshare. That was something in our organization and close the deal, which was just so cool. You know, what's so interesting is that, you know, I was born to raise in New York and you're really trained to doubt everything in life. And so it was the way that I was raised. And I remember when I met Glenn Zadford in 2019. And I joined this company in May of 2020. And when we started looking at this and the conversation started, you know, and I came from a very large real estate company before I joined DXP. And it was one of these things that my, my accountant, who I've known for 30 years, said to me, Michael, you're making the greatest mistake of your life.

is that you're number three at one of the largest real estate companies. This is pretty much a startup. And why would you even do this? And I said, because I could phone in my old job. And the moment that you're not growing, you're dying. Yeah, no kidding. Then it took me a long time, even after that, to read through everything because I thought, where is the hole in this model?

Like, I wanted to figure that out. Yes. I didn't figure it out. And then I realized there isn't one. And that's been the amazing. thing with the company is it just keeps getting better, right? Yes. All right. Now, you're also a very accomplished author. I didn't even know this about you, Ms. Jones. I've only written one book so far, Michael. There would be more, but there's just one right now. But I thought there were some e-books

that you've gotten out there. Oh, yes, yes. But you're so you're an author. It doesn't matter the length of the book. But tell me about your book that you did focus on, which was million dollar magic. Tell me a bit about that. So for me, it was the helping agents, because we bring on so many new agents, I'm actually a fan of new agents. I believe that's where the industry leaders are of the future. They're in the new agents. And the unicorns, right? We already know from existing agents generally how they're doing, right? But we don't know what the new realtors coming in. So for me, it was the focus on where, what do they really have to get over first?

And it's the fear, right? It's that fear. It's the visualization so they can achieve their success. And when I was a new agent had moved up to this community, we were new in that pocket. I, you know, didn't know anyone. And there was three dominators in that pocket. So I would drive the lakefront every day. I know this sounds crazy, Michael.

I would drink my Canadian Tim Horton's coffee, dried in the lake, 30 minutes one way, 30 minutes the other. And I would literally declare, I am so grateful all these buyers and sellers are mine, right? I would see the signs. I could picture it, feel it. And the next year you drove along the lakefront and almost every single sign was mine.

It was like dominant. So I do believe that success starts up here. and the ability to regulate emotion, realizing emotions are just, you know, it's fear, false evidence appearing real most of the time. And just that importance of learning to regulate and not react. So that's what I train and coach my agents on. Clients upset, listen, mirror back, repeat what they're saying, make sure you fully understand, talk calmly, slowly, bring it all back down.

to a place of calm, right? And that's the difference. That's a difference between being, you know, an amazing realtor and achieving everything you want to achieve and just being average, right? And being driven by fear. I want to stay on this because this is powerful what you're saying, which is sharing with everyone today. And it is all about mindset.

You know, my very first sale in real estate was $6.8 million. Holy mackerel. It was the penthouse of the Fountain Blue Hotel in Miami Beach. And in 2004, by the way, 20 years ago. And the only way that I could have done that is because I believed that I could. I came from banking. I was used to those high net worth individuals. And I didn't know, literally did not know how to sell a $300,000 condo.

Had no idea how to do that. But I felt more comfortable in trying to jump in there. And it was that thing. this was the ultra luxury of Miami Beach. And it was like, I never sold anything. And it was similar to your story. You're on that waterfront and you're declaring, I'm going to have these homes,

which is probably the highest priced homes in your area. They were. So it's that idea of mindset, right? And I want you to do the acronym again for me for fear, because I think that's powerful and you went by it. False evidence appearing real, right? And that's what it is. False evidence.

It's what we tell ourselves. It's the story that we tell ourselves in our head. How do you break through that? So for me, it's going into a quiet place and just calming, you know, calming my whole self, just bringing my energy back down into my heart and remembering who I am, what I am, which is a spiritual being having a human experience. And I look at this like, this isn't real. This is temporary.

And then I'll go to listening to, you know, lots of different podcasts that focus on mindset. Like if I'm having a struggle, getting myself out of it, that's where I go. I'll go to Ed Milette, Tony Robbins, you know, Mel Robbins. There's so many amazing, incredible people. And actually you're, you are, and that's why I always call you the light of the company.

because that's what I see. Whenever you're around, you are 100% focused on positive, incredible, amazing. Nothing rattles you. That is the way that you present yourself. And I believe all of these incredible positive experiences that you have and things keep getting better and better and the company keeps growing like crazy is so much based on what you're believing and the way that you show up. And that is literally filtering down to all of us. You know, why do I want to beat all these EXP conferences, Michael? It's because of you.

You're like, you're so amazing. But that's it, right? People want to be around people that light. And I really believe that's why the company grows as quickly and amazingly as it has. Well, our company is made up of you and everyone like you. And it is, where we work for you. Yes. Who are our clients? We work for you. And anything that we can do to support that is just what's so beautiful to me because you're the one that's in the front lines changing people's lives by giving them the opportunity for home ownership, by giving the agents that join your team and join the XP under you,

the opportunity for financial freedom. You're the ones that are on the front line. So thank you for that compliment, but it's right back at you because you're the one that's there every single day. And so this is not going to be a love fest because it's going to turn everyone off. Yeah, exactly. No more love us. No more love us. It's so good. You mentioned your dear husband, Keith, who is also incredible.

And you guys have built such an amazing empire. And you also help so many people. You're so accomplished now. So you mentioned that you're at every EXP conference. But why? Why are you sort of like, why do you want to be in that room? Why do you continue to be in those rooms? Because proximity is power. And I always, I always feel like honestly, like this is what I know, right? And I said this to Glenn one day. I'm like, Glenn, I'm where I am. That's great. Right. And like, I've achieved like this much. So, so my knowledge base is here. And I said to him, what am I not? seeing like how could you have built this company from 2009 to present and be where you are how do you think that this has been what you've been able to create right and that's the difference the people at the

who rise up the cremos rises to the top right and those people are the ones that i choose to spend more of my time with so i can learn more grow more and then lead up the people that are not quite there yet with me, right? So it's just, and you know what, it's so amazing. Like, just the inspiration that I get and the energy that I come home with is absolutely worth the investment. I love that you just said,

proximity is power. And you just mentioned people like Ed Milet and Tony Robbins and Mel Robbins and others. And it's that, isn't it? Because you go to those, too. You go to those conferences as well. And it's not just exclusive to our company. It's where we learn from as well.

We learn from everything and everyone. That's really what humanity is. You learn from everyone. And the moment that you don't learn anymore is when you start to fail. Well, I think it's a rare thing, though. I think EXP reality, like by bringing people like Ed Milet, by bringing people, even Brent Gove's event for Bill two years ago with Tony Robbins, by bringing, oh, who's the life wellness guy that I've lost his name, Gary Brecker,

right, by bringing all these people and inspiring, but not only in areas of business, also in personal development and health, right, mindset, like so many other areas. I just think that's, you know, that's such a critical piece to attracting people that really want to grow and want to build. Wait until you hear about our keynote speakers this year. That's a piece. Can't tell you yet. Tell me what drives you, Jennifer, at this point. You've accomplished so much. What drives you know?

So it's more, it's a bit serving other people always. And that's why I've had that success, right? Even waking up every day and saying, how do I serve? And I also, I have this weird perspective on the world, which is this is just a giant experiment, right? So if I have no fear, I don't care what people think about me. I don't care about the judgment. Then how big am I going to show up? How big can I build this thing?

How many lives can I really impact? And so it's a constant journey to just keep leveling up, leveling up, leveling up. It's not about money because I don't actually care about things. I love giving things to Keith. Keith loves things, right? He loves cars. He loves just whatever. I like experiences. So for me, I love to give him what he loves. And he wants that manifestation of a physical thing to represent his work, right? Which is absolutely fine. by my books. But yeah, it's just, it's different, right? What about you? What drives you? You know, it's at this point pretty similar, right? It's the idea of serving others. And, you know, I mentioned this to someone recently. About two years ago, I changed the name of my family foundation from my name to Edentia, which in Spanish means legacy. Wow. And it's, because everything that that I own, you know, is retitled under the name of that new trust. And so you see it so often, right? You see it in pieces of correspondence or, you know, now when it's tax season, when you're paying

your taxes, everything that is associated to it. But it's a reminder that the legacy is what you leave others. And the legacy is the impact that you have for others. And it's so beautiful that you just sort of said that I consider life and experiments. And I'm not attached to anything. And so I can't fail because I have no fear. So you're not attached to the outcome. And it just probably gave the secret to your success is not being attached to that outcome. Yeah, that's so true. And I heard this morning on a podcast, he was Ed Militz this morning.

He had on a spiritual leader. And he was saying, our lives are like a pop-up on the screen. You know, how like you're just like a pop-up. Yeah. You're on a website and you get a pop-up. And then you're gone. Like, it's a flash. So, yeah, it's fascinating.

Our lives are like a pop-up on a screen. Okay. I think you need another book. You got to write another. Yeah, there you go. Or you can write it. We can write it together. That's right.

There you go. So good. Speaking of books, tell me what your favorite business book is. So for me, it would be think and grow rich. Oh, yeah. But right back to the basics. Yeah, back to the basics. and even at 12, I read Win Friends and Influence People.

Of course you did. In my teenage years, read all like the Tony Robbins books, right? I feel like, yeah, if you want to grow, those are the ones to start with. Yes. I think those are like the starter books that then lead you to everything else. What about you? What's your favorite? Well, you know what's so funny?

We did our executive sort of. book choices for the month. And mine was outwitting the devil, also by Napoleon Hill. And it was read by Sharon Lecter. And what's really interesting is that the Napoleon Hill Foundation has kept this book for decades because they never wanted to release it. And it was only released recently, a few years ago.

But there was a re-release of it recently. And reading it or, and I do a lot of my books on audio, on Audible, because I actually like to go the gym and listen to a podcast and get through a podcast or a few chapters of a book as while I'm working out so I can multitask. And it's, it's one of those things where I really enjoy it, but sort of having Sharon Lecter, who was the co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dead and ran the Rich Dad Poor Dad Foundation for a World War Date, having her read it. It's really impactful because it also has her viewpoints of it

as she's then dissecting the author and the granddaddy of it all with Napoleon Hill to have that sort of perspective was actually another layer of interest for me. Oh, yeah. That would be so amazing. Well, I've written that one down, outwitting the devil. Oh, you're going to love it.

No, no, I'll do that one next. So tell me, as I mentioned in the intro, You are one of the top teams in the entire country of Canada. How do you, A, build that, but more importantly, knowing who you are the last 25, 30 minutes that we've just been talking, everyone who's new to you understands your essence already. How do you protect that as you grow your own team and create culture? So I think it's for us it's about a hiring the right people from the beginning. So they have to have a culture of serving first.

I believe if they have the right heart, they're at a stage in their life where they have the right heart and desire to serve. That's kind of where you're starting. Then it becomes culture of productivity, right? Because if people aren't productive, they're generally not happy. And now I'm not like other team. where I say you have to hit a minimum and if you don't hit it, you're gone. Okay.

That's not the way we operate. We believe that people are on a life journey and sometimes it's taken our agents to three years, no joke, to get to a place of maybe working through some mindset challenges, maybe sorting some things out in their personal life to get the growth to where they actually start to do well. So we just love and support on them. And if they, you know, they have to show up. So we have morning meetings Monday to Friday, 9 to 9.30.

We do statistics, script and roll play accountability. And then another training. We do 930 to 1030 is a live dial for any agents that want to lead gen that way. And then we do multiple trainings. Plus I built out a Canadian training calendar with like all different organizations within EXP. So Carrie Sovey does the AI tech. Sean Getty does the social media, Agent DK, John Sy, do the script and role play. So we've created this amazing energy of people, not even just using our team, but utilizing all the incredible people that we have, particularly in Canada

for Canadian-based training. So I feel like with team, you have to provide that and then have that culture, productivity, and then we're really big on celebrating wins, right? We celebrate everybody's wins, every amazing thing that someone's doing on the team. We have an in-person team meeting. We do awards every month. You know, we're playing music. We have that vibe. You know, we keep the energy up.

And I think that's a lot of it, right? Someone calls when they're having a bad day and they've got a negative perspective on a client. It's helping put them in the client's shoes. in order for them to be able to empathize with where the client is at and then helping them understand, you know, this person is stressed and that's why they're behaving this way. So how do we, A, do we have any DNA on it, right? Because that can cause a lot of anxiety in the agent. If they know deep down, they actually contributed to why it is the way it is.

Sure. And then teach them to make things right. But, yeah, culture, I think it's important to love people. And we all create this culture of loving, winning, sharing, collaborating community. And then you definitely have to have a culture of productivity. Because it's not enough just to, you know, show up and feel awful because you didn't do anything, right? So we work through that as well. But you have to be patient with people.

I think this idea of, and don't give me wrong, there's a lot of amazing teams that are very nimble. They clip quickly, right? That's awesome, and that's the way they run. It's so good. And we're creating something different. We're creating literally a culture of love and acceptance and high standards serving the client first. And, you know, and it shows because I'm hearing you say that you give 90 minutes of your day, every single day to your team. And that's how you start your day.

You know, that's a lot of love. when you start building from love. Yes. Now I have people that leaders that I've built up into these roles. Yeah, understood. Yeah, so I'm not in there all the time anymore, right? Yeah, but they're representing you. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And they're amazing, Michael. These people are amazing and incredible. And I think that's part of it too. As you lead, you have to build leaders, right? That's right. And you have to make the opportunity big enough for them and even having that opportunity for them to build teams within teams, which is amazing with revenue share, right? This is a very rare kind of model where we can actually do this.

That's right. It's just so much fun. It really is. Now tell me the greatest lesson you might have learned from one of your failures. I would say it would be when I first started the team. Because again, like a lot of agents fall into starting team. It's not a choice. They fall into it because their production is so high. They start dropping the ball with their own client. They can't provide that high level of service, which is what happened to me just after third year.

And so I had agents starting to come to me wanting to have a team. So I built it out. I was very generous with the splits. Yeah. Right? Not fully understanding how to properly run a business. business and the first year we did we made a ton of money and I lost 150 grand. Wow.

Yeah. So again, like also not doing a monthly P&L, not understanding what's going on, just being in it, not ever looking at it or working on it. So at the end of the year, I was like, this is bad. This is bad. Right? And so I had to go to everyone and say, I have completely. completely screwed up. I apologize. This is what's happened and I'm going to have to adjust

these splits or it doesn't make sense for us to run a team anymore. We did lose a couple of people at that time who decided they would go somewhere else. And again, we wish them well, right? I believe everyone that's meant to be with you will be with you and people that aren't will go elsewhere. So the cool thing was at that time, I went, okay, why reinvent the wheel? Right. There are high producing teams that are profitable. So I actually went to, it was the most profitable team at that time. They were in Austin, Texas. They were called the Loken Group, a great group of people. And they opened up their doors lovingly to anyone that wanted to spend time, looking at their processes, their systems, they shared everything. You just had to actually make a donation to their

charity. So I did that. And then we brought everything back. And I implemented. at all. So we're, yeah. And then just from there, it just becomes like systems and processes, level up, hire the best people for roles based on, like, even their disc profile. Yes. My listening coordinator is seven, she's seven years post-secondary education. She was a vice principal for a private school.

And she's extremely detailed and also not highly social. So she just wants to spend her time. you know, going over details and being careful. That's a perfect person for that role. So I don't want her to change and become this, you know, crazy social person. I don't need her show up like that. Sure. Because she's so good at her role.

I love that. Yeah. So I think just you learn when you make mistakes like that, you have to grow from it. You admit you made a mistake, right? What's my DNA on it? You work to. And also the culture that you built, right? Because then it's also someone saying, okay, I accept that.

And I believe in the greater picture that you have built for them, the greater future. And I'm all in. Yeah. And it's it's been so great. We have so many of the originals still with us. Actually, my first agent ever hired, she was already earning over $250,000 on her own joint team. And has been with me now for seven years. So,

Amazing. Shout out to you, Anna. All right. I've got one final question, which is how I always love to end these interviews. And this one's a question that, you know, it allows you to think a little bit.

So in your book of life, what is this chapter called and why? Yeah, that's a great one. I think it's like follow EXP all over the world. I'm just kidding. I would say expand because it's been a really big focus on expanding business, expanding relationships and love with people.

Yes. Expanding in communication skills, everything. And then ultimately at the forefront of that is expansion of mind and thinking, right? Wow. I'm going with expand, Michael. I love the why. What's yours? Oh, gosh, it's my podcast, so you don't get to know.

It's terrible. It's terrible. No, I think mine is legacy. Mine is, you know, I'm now on that chapter of trying to figure out, how do I make a greater impact on the world? How do I figure that out? What do I do there? You know, I'm even looking at different things that I can think about for doing a 501C3

and creating a charity. So those are things that I'm now playing with in my mind. I love that. And what kind of charity is it? I haven't gotten there yet. I haven't gotten there because a lot of things interest me. And a lot of things that I want to help leave the world a lot of. little bit better than when I found it, right? And so that's, that's really what, what is my impetus.

But you got to interview me last week. I was going to say, actually, I'd like to get you on our podcast. So I do a podcast with Carrie Sovey. Oh, I'd love that. Yeah. Because I feel like I need to put you, there's so many things that I want to know about you. And I believe there's so many people that want to know about you and your world and how you think. So yeah, let's set that up. Anytime you want. But for this, Jennifer Jones, thank you so much for sharing so freely of what you've built, of who you are, and in helping others. This has been a great conversation. Oh, it's a pleasure, Michael, and I truly appreciate you having me on today. Super exciting. I loved it. Thanks so much. And thank you all of you for watching. Thank you.