KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Middy Matthews

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

You have to have a plan and you have to have this core messaging that you're sending out to the world. You have to make a bunch of terrible videos and you have to put them out there immediately. I thought, when was the last time you were happy? Because you're not happy now. You have to be your own motivator. Are you fascinated by stories of reinvention? Do you often think about your life? In this episode of The Reveal podcast, I'm having a conversation with a friend who embodies the entrepreneur spirit in everything that she does, combined with grit and integrity. Middy Matthews' journey begins in an advertising job where she realizes that she could not find

fulfillment within the confines of her boss's limitations. She busted down the door for the opportunity as a professional tennis coach, eventually coaching celebrities such as Stedman Graham. This episode is a masterclass of living to your potential and creating a business around exactly who you are and what you enjoy doing in life. If you're looking for inspiration, practical advice, and real life insights into adapting, staying authentic and innovating in your entrepreneurial journey, particularly in real estate, Midi's story is invaluable. Let's jump in. Midi, Matthews, welcome to the Reveal Podcast Studio. I'm so glad you're here. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And we have had the chance we met on

Facebook and one of the reasons why I wanted to connect with you was actually your sense of humor. And you were just as, what's the right term for our sense of humor? How would you describe it? That's a loaded question. I'm just going to stop. I'm just going to tell you but there. We'll slide into first base here and clean it. How long? Okay. That sounds fair. We'll circle back to this topic. But no, I just, I love the way that you engage with people online. It's definitely, it's kind, it's caring, it's genuine, it's authentic. It's so powerful to be able to create meaningful conversations and threads versus the culture of likes and awesome and good job. And you really have this great talent

and ability to create more meaningful conversations where there are opportunities. So I just wanted to commend you for that. And tell us a little bit, Middy, who are you? Where are you at? What do people know you for in the real estate industry? Interesting. That's a lot of questions all in one. Who am I? I still ask myself that once in a while. Who am I?

It's all this big journey. Sometimes I reflect back on like these things that I did in my attempt to grow up that actually have helped me now in my real estate journey. I'm like, why was I doing this job? When I came out of college, I came out in, I was in advertising. and it was 1987 to give you a little reference as to how old I am. And absolutely like 80% of the people who graduated from college were going into advertising. It was the new cool thing, I guess.

I have no idea. But I know that like my McDonald's wages that I was getting were not making me feel very valued. And I was in a small office about the same size that I have now working with this small ad agency. and this it was brutal. They were just rude. They were paying you dimes. Like, here's your big paycheck of $100 for the week. And you know that they could just off you and pick up somebody else at this in a moment's notice.

So you were on ads. You were making nothing. You were struggling. I was in Chicago learning stuff. I was learning at the time how to engage with all these people and get this stuff done on short timelines. Here's your ad. It's got to be in the paper tomorrow. And everything was like, oh.

So I didn't mind that. I didn't like the fact that I was dispensable and wasn't making any money. At some point, me and my boss decided we hate each other because that's what you do when you're like 24. And I just walked up the door one day. And I said, I don't have to go work here anymore. And he's fine, I hate you. That was basically it.

And so I went back to my tiny garbage apartment and I thought, what was the last time you were happy? Because you're not happy now. That was literally the question I asked myself, when were you happy? And I was like, I was happy when I was teaching tennis before I decided to be an adult, right? So I'm like, why don't you go back and do that for a hot second? Go be a tennis pro. I was a tennis pro.

I'm just going to give you a quick timeline, really fast. I was a tennis pro in 1987 when I graduated from college for the summer and a little country. And now I'm in Chicago. Between this time frame, it's been about four years. I've had a bad car accident. I had a bunch of surgery and it took me like a good year to recover. And I haven't hit a tennis ball in four years. years because I don't know any tennis players and I'm barely back up on my feet again. So I walk into this

club because this is who I am and I said I would like a tennis job and I called him or whatever and he's great. Show up on Monday and we'll have an on court interview. At this point, Jessica, I didn't have any tennis rackets or closed or the ability to hit a ball. I had none of this. I was not qualified for this job at all other than what was going on in my head. And I said, it's fine. So I went and I bought a tennis racket. I bought some clothing. The last money that I had in my account. And it was raining. All the courts were outside. It was this clay court, highly exclusive. I didn't even know what I had called. And it was just the closest one to me. Highly exclusive club. You couldn't just get a membership there. You had to know somebody and be invited in the kind of club, right? It was raining cats

and dogs. I show up there. I just looked the part and we couldn't have an on-court interview. And he's fine, you're hired. And I'm like, that went well, right? Yeah. Let me show up there. It's your job, which I managed to figure out. So I taught tennis for the next 12 years. I love it. Very good. Just to work my way back into real life. But it was like at a different level than it was when I had taught before. These are, I taught doctors and lawyers. And by the

that I was exiting the tennis world, I, I was. I had taught, Dedman was one of my main clients, Dedman Graham, Oprah's significant other. And I was starting to teach her high-end staff and Dr. Phil and all these other people.

So I was like, they're like, you have to stay in this. I'm like, no, I'm done. This is it. 12 years is plenty. I'd like to be the best I can possibly be at whatever I do. That's what I take to the next job, right?

So then I was a photographer because that was a natural. I was an art major and I was in advertising and I went into photography. And I thought this and I started to do photographs and virtual tours for Google and for realtors. And the realtors were like, I was starting to school them on how to market your listings. And all those other stuff. Couple things started clicking. Yeah.

How much do you get paid? I don't get dirt compared to what you guys are getting. I'm like, I wanted to do a little bit of math. And the realtors I was working with were like, well, you know all this and you know my job better. And I do. Why aren't you just doing this job? And I was asking myself, why am I not just doing that job?

I have the people's skills. I have the marketing skills. I have the photography skills. I know how to ask for the job. Love that part. I have, I, there's no amount of moxie that I'm not coming to the table with. So I'm like, okay, fine. So I went and I got my license.

And here I am 10 years. later. Here you are 10 years later. I want to jump in or jump back a little bit to something that you said that is one of the most powerful, most transformational things that can happen, I believe, in someone's life. And you articulated it so perfectly to yourself, which is when is the last time that you were truly happy? Like, when did you feel, I get goosebumps when I said it, because it could have been when you were four and you were at the roller skating rink. I can't remember the book or story I read recently, but it was the same question that she had said, she said, I went back and asked myself, when is the last time that I was truly happy? And then the second piece was

not waiting for permission to tell yourself, I'll go ask for the tennis job now. Like, I obviously need the racket and I need the clothes and I looked apart. But you banged down the door, you went in and said, I'm ready. You didn't prepare to get ready. You were ready. So that was too. So what advice could you give someone that is on their entrepreneurial journey or maybe they're at a job? Because this podcast is not just for people that are on the entrepreneurial journey. It's about the entrepreneurial spirit, right? It's about finding a way to build a life around what you love doing. So you set us up for this perfectly. Let's go back to that and unpack it a little bit. What other advice could you give the audience. Gosh, I think that the happiness thing was key for me. Like it was pivotal. It brought me

to the tennis. And I loved it. I loved it. I loved every minute of tennis. It was great to be helping people all the time. And it's all the jobs I've ever had other than that first one where I was at the ad agency where really I've been, I'm an independent contractor on everything I've done. Tennis is independent contracting. It's just like this is. The photography was. So everything I've done up until this point was been an independent contractor position where I am in charge of making my own income, which can be daunting, but it also means I'm in control of that. I find that somebody else being able to take away my income on a drop of the hat is really frightening for me, right? But on the flip side, I've worked for myself for my entire life, which is great.

but it also tells me, I also tell other people that I'm unemployable at this point. Because I want this working for the man, right? Yeah, it's interesting. I think that you have to be your own motivator. If you can't do that, you can't be in charge of your income. And you have to treat yourself like your own employee to a certain degree. It's a different mindset. And you have to wrap your head around this.

I'm going to be at the office at eight every morning. So you're not, but I'm happily here. I run to the office in the morning because I've got things I need to get done off my plate. And if I get everything done early, I can go ride my bike in the afternoon or whatever else it is that I want to do. So I get to control my day and what that looks like. And that brings me joy. It's all about this thing. What makes me happy?

And it's okay to be happy to working. It is. I think a lot of people take work and happiness and think they're on the other side of the table from one another and they're just not. You just, this whole thing, you have to put it all together and figure out what pieces fit where and how it's all going to make you happy. I love that. And you are great at putting that message out. So you create a lot of content. What's interesting as you're telling your story, you're not giving enough credit. Like, it's part of your story, but I didn't hear enough credit go to the marketing and ad agency. But when you then spoke about, oh, these realtors, I was doing their photography and they didn't quite understand. how to market the property, I was giving them advice.

It's funny, I see a lot of realtors that have a background in creating content from the beginning, the concepts and working at ad agencies or just having experience in that field. So you really had all these building blocks leading up to being this cutting edge realtor because it must seem more innate for you to create content. But for some realtors, they're not creating marketing. So therefore, they're not having success in their business. Let's talk a little bit about that and just the fundamentals in your perspective of how marketing plays into a successful real estate business. Or any business, honestly.

If you have to have an online presence at this point in time, you can't just open your doors and expect people to call you there and it's not going to. It's just you have to have. And I was just on the phone this morning talking about marketing. I work with people about marketing and increasing mine. I've done a lot of work myself. there are people who are more professional and more do this 100% of the time. My marketing is now 20% of my business may be. But you have to have a plan and you have to have this core messaging that you're sending out to the world that is like your business has to have a voice,

but it has to have a presence of, it has to have a personality and near yours. But you need to have a personality out there for your business. And you can't do that by sitting back and not opening up all the. the channels. And I think of, you have to think of the social media this way, is that, oh, I like Facebook, so I'm going to go on Facebook. You can't because you have to think about Facebook as English. Not everybody speaks English. So Instagram is Spanish. You've got to go get your Spanish people and make sure that you're sending your message to them. And then French over here and TikTok, you've got to, you've got to speak all the languages. You can't just stay in your lane and hope.

Yeah, you can, but you don't build as fast that way. You really want to, it's layers. Yeah, it's funny. when I have a TikTok account and I figured, okay, I'm doing quite a few reels now. I should jump into TikTok. And every time I go into TikTok, it's immediately overwhelming to me. I'm like, what's going on? Stuff is playing. How do I turn it off? Look at the inbox. Who is this? Oh, what? It's a whole new language. They want to shove down their throat. So I want. Yeah. I can't even open TikTok without everybody in the room knowing. You just open TikTok, right? Right. People are like, is there a setting to say,

just don't start up the videos right away, just shut up for a minute. Is there's, yeah, like on Netflix, please don't play a preview. Just quietly want to preview. Right. And you got to be on YouTube, by the way. You have to be on YouTube.

If you don't have a YouTube channel, just go make one. And whatever you put everywhere else, also put it on YouTube. It doesn't matter. You have 60 seconds work that you go over to here. Stick it on you. YouTube because people are going to YouTube for all sorts of things. I wanted to read what I had

read on your LinkedIn, which is modern marketing meets classic relationships. That is fabulous. Thank you. So this is obviously ties to your values and who you are and how you developed your business, how you operate your business. Tell us more about how modern marketing meets classic relationships in your real estate business? I think that's almost self-explanatory in that like the marketing is outbound, right? Your marketing is generally outbound that you're hoping to open conversations. If you think about marketing, it's just the worst line of a conversation always, right? It's the only point of doing it, right?

Create opportunities. So the conversation, that's the marketing. But that also translates to if I'm going to list your house, know that you're going to get every bell and whistle there is, partly because I love it. And secondly, it's about getting your house into everybody's computer and in front of every possible buyer. I have no other goals when I'm listing a house than to get it in front of every possible buyer before the door opens. Everybody maybe that. And not just that. I want them to see a video of it.

I want them to walk through a virtual tour. I want them to consume this house in any way there. If they're looking for information on it, I want it to be available. I want floor plans. I want drone videos. You can see with the neighborhood. Anything. If it's available, I want to do it.

So that's about giving people as much reason to stay on your property, your page, and see it and look at it. I also want it so that when people walk into that house, They know what they're getting. If they've all, if they've gone to that house, they've already, it's already theirs in their head. I want to have fed them so much content about that house that they already see themselves in it. They're already figuring out where their furniture goes and they've already written the offer, right, in their heads or they walk in the door. So then I've got purposeful people coming into that house with a mission and a want. My houses are gone by Monday. They go on the market on Thursdays and they're gone by Monday. So it's about having this. plan in place as far as the marketing goes. Now, when it comes to all classic relationships and values, that's at the root level. I want to get to know my clients. I want to make sure that you tell me that you've got this little tiny dog and you need a fenced-in yard. We're going to find you the fenced-in yard or we're going to find a way to get this. Or we're going to build one, yeah.

And make sure your HOA doesn't not allow it. All the things. So on the ground level, I want to get to know my clients so I know what they're looking for and why because the why. So many people will run around without the why. You have to know the motivation because the words that always match that motivation. So I need to know more than my clients initially want to tell me, really receptive and open. I don't care what your situation is. Tell me what it is so I can help you manage it and make it easier. I guess that's the classic part of it. When it's all said and done, we should leave here knowing each other pretty well. And you should be invited to my house for dinner at some point. It's like that.

Or not. If you're moving out of state, maybe you're not coming to my house for dinner. You should want to. And I should want to have you there. With people we work for, we want to work with people that we would introduce to our family, that we would be okay being around or talking to it. We want to stay in touch, right? Right, right.

I want to be personal. So tell us, let's go. This is the Reveal podcast. So I know you came ready. You're always ready. You're ready. I don't have anything that I can't reveal. But maybe you don't reveal often, right?

So let's reveal to people something about, yeah, that's going back to our sense of humor, the sense of humor characteristics that I think we share some of. I love to get into conversation with people that are, it's like a combination of fun and serious, right? I stand for what I stand for, and I do not waver from that. I'm not going to play. Some people may know me as a very diplomatic, but I'm only putting any effort into bridging the gap and bridging people together that I care about, that I care about somebody on one side of it. But otherwise, I'm going to stand behind only one. Let's talk a little bit about your core values and who you are an ally for and an ambassador of what you stand for and how you can build a business without ever giving up your integrity.

Let's go there. I think you have to maintain your integrity. You don't. There's a lot of, we know there's plenty of shady people out there who are actually doing pretty well. They're doing pretty well. But I could not live with myself if that was my thing. So I'll tell you what. I'm a bike racer now.

I race bike races. And this just tells you my integrity. If there are race directors out there who won't have the same races for women as they have for men. And if you're like, why don't you have a single speed women? If you can get together 10 women who want to do it, I'll put it up for you. And I will say, cancel my race. Entry, please. I won't do that.

So I won't race your races if you're not equal races for women and men. Cost them no more, but it's still happening. It's still happening. And the women are ready to race. I don't understand. So if I find out that a race director is either not great to his people or using nothing but volunteers because he's greedy. So there's a number of things that I just, I'm not going to tolerate.

If you're not there for the people as well as for yourself, I can't put money in your pocket. I can't be part of your event. And I'm the same when it comes to my business. If you're not on the level, if you're trying to do something that's, I wouldn't stand behind. I don't want you as a client. I can't, I can definitely afford not to have that client. And I'm straight up when it comes to other realtors in my business. The greatest things I value is my relationships with those other estate agents.

That's the meat and potatoes of my business, is being a good communicator and somebody who's good to work with. I've had other, there's a lot of brokerages around here, but I've had people from other brokerages say, in my brokerage, your name is gold. People love working with you. And they've openly said that to me without any reason. And I thought, that's fantastic. That's what I want. but I didn't know there was a recognized thing. If another realtor struggling with something, I'm like, I'll help you out.

I'll get to that for you or I can do that or want me to push that paperwork around. But I'll tell you where that helps me is when I'm up against 15 other contracts trying to get. And we know that like on 15 contracts, probably 10 of them can be thrown into the garbage right away. They're obviously unfortunate. Yeah. And that realtor hasn't called or made any communication. They just shot the contract off. That deal is...

How about the one that won't send the contract until they get to talk to you or get feedback on what the highest offer is? That drives me nuts. Submit the offer. Get in the game. Right. Then follow up. Play the game.

That one drives me nuts. Yeah. But I think that your modern marketing meets classic relationships also applies to being an effective buyer agent. Yeah. Yes. Building relationships within the industry is so important. I was talking to a galley.

yesterday. We're having a little meetup tomorrow. I was going to say at the end of this week, which would be tomorrow, Friday. And she blasted it out to some agents, and one agent says, you're going to have to give me a better value proposition than getting together with

a bunch of random people. So she said, I looked him up and he's done about two transactions. He's a new realtor. And I always think, sometimes when you're young and you're career, you need a prescription handed to you in the form of, like, basic concepts of networking and the value of connections.

Right. Like, here's your prescription. Please don't go all in. Pace yourself with this one. Take notes. Read them aloud. Like, you really need to dive into some basic fundamentals. But if you were to take those 15 offers, you're the listing agent.

You get the 15 offers. Ten are in the garbage. Okay, let's talk about the 10 first. So the first 10 are there's no form of communication or building rapport with you, combination of an offer that's not cleanly written. It doesn't even probably put the borrower's best qualities forward. Like you might have forgotten to check a box or it's upside down or just poorly presented. There's no context.

And then three is there's no follow. There was no initial contact to begin with. No even did you get. No courtesy. Right. No. Those are three. What would you add?

what would you add to that or any one of those? There's always some low balls, just some like they, it's almost like the realtor knows that it's not going to make it and they just did it because they had to. But that should never happen. You should still make the call. You should still do the work. Oh, fiduciary duty.

I think they call it. It's about building relationships. You should call me. You should call me. This is an opportunity to have a relationship with me, right? I'm not a hard person to talk to. I don't know. Yeah, I think a lot of people think that you come out of the gate and you have to fight for your clients.

But you're not. We're negotiating for our clients. We're the middlemen in this exchange. I'm not there to throw the gloves down with you if we're in a relation. If we're getting, we're there to smooth out the bumps. And this business in particular doesn't have much training. So I think we end up with a lot of people jumping. in who just have ideas and they just didn't come from anywhere, but in here.

Yeah. So I think if we go a little bit deeper into solving the smoothing the bump, one thing that works great for me is collaborating, inviting the other agent when something comes up, hey, I wanted to get our heads together and see what we could come up with to solve this. We have a lot of credits being requested for repairs. We have some appraisal items. that need to be cured. Look, I'm not local in that specific area. Do you have a vendor where we can maybe get an opinion? Getting creative, hey, what can you do? What can I do? How can we? And then let's circle back up and let's solve the problem together. I've found that it's very effective when you lead as the inviter to the collaboration. And if you have an agent with a bad attitude, you can change that

too. And I think you're frozen, Middy. So I'm just carrying on here. There you are. You're back. Perfect time. Yeah, we had a little video issue there. We had a glitch, but we're good. It's technology. So yeah, being the inviter, I think even with an agent with a bad attitude, you don't know what kind of day they're having, right? Right.

So you're in the middle of a transaction and they're melting down. It may be because, unfortunately, that deal doesn't close and they don't pay their mortgage. You don't know what they're faced with. So you have to find a way to protect yourself from that energy and carry on with your integrity and your problem-solving skills. tell us a story. Just give us a quick, you have a favorite story where you're able to solve a problem. It could be business related or contractional related, client related. You've got so many great stories. So many stories. When we solved a problem, there's problems. Every single one. Yeah.

There's one. I think the key is call up the other agent and go, hey, we've got a problem. Let's see if we can figure this out. Yeah, that's a great. That just takes them off there. She's not here to fight. with me right out of the gate. You just come out of it's like, hey, let's see if we can come up with a solution for this problem. And because it's both of our solution, it's not. Yes. You're giving them a little ownership, right? Of the success. We have it. We do. So let's just. I love that. And sometimes that agent comes up with some brilliant ideas because they know their side of the story and they know their client and they're like, hey, my client might be willing to do this or what What do you think of this idea and something I didn't think about at all?

And that could, it's great. I just, I love it when the other agent just comes to the table and says, I think we can figure this out. We're not so far apart. And that's basically about a gap. But you wanted a story. And I can't come up with anything right now. That's okay.

I'll, I'll get you warmed up now. Maybe I'll come up and some of the people. Yeah, I've got plenty of stories, right? I wanted to thank you. You've joined Mastermind on Mondays that we've been, I felt like we've been hosting it because you've been there in several of the agents. have spoken to them afterwards and they've said, Midi is just awesome.

Everything she says is just gold. And she said this and I looked it up and I've been studying it and it's amazing and just love what she does. I know because I've experienced that you're always coming to the table to contribute and also to learn through your contributions and what you share. You're definitely like in that learning mode as well, which I think is such a great balance to always be as an entrepreneur, be learning, applying, tweaking, like it's this constant journey.

You like to test stuff, right? You've told me that. So tell me a little bit about as an entrepreneur, what are the top tips you can give to someone as relates to video and content creation of how to get started and then go from there. Make adjustments as you go. What are your tips? I think the key to understanding being an entrepreneur or in any business at all is to understand that this isn't static. This isn't static.

You can work with the greatest pipeline and process and everything. And it's going to change in another year. You're going to have to change to adapt. There's no way that you're this, whatever you're going to have, whatever process you're going to put in place is going to be fine in 10 years. Not if you plan to be on top of it and stay ahead of everybody, which is what I'm trying to do. And it's just because I need to be the best I can possibly be anything I do.

It's who I am. So I'm like, gosh, if that's out there and I don't know about it, I better get on that. So I think the key is to stay ahead of the processes and you wanted something about video. Okay, so I'm going to tell you that the number one thing you can be doing as an entrepreneur is putting your message out there with video. Period. It doesn't matter. And people do not want a polished, perfect video.

That just looks like an ad. They want to hear about you. They want, think about where we are right now. We were isolated for three years with a pandemic, right? We're all a little bit hungry for the human interaction and to be doing things again. And we have been for a while. We have been. But I think people want to get to know people again.

I think we're so far from each other and that we just need even on a one way street. In a video, I'm having half of a conversation, right? I'm talking to you through a video, telling you something. I'm not going to get a response. So that's the thing that I think is funny to people. But if you can get away from the part where you're on a video, and you care at all, you can't. You just have to make a bunch of terrible videos

and you have to put them out there immediately and just say, nothing's going to be any worse than that. True. Yeah. The first video I ever did, I remember watching them and thinking, God, not just that I think they were terrible, but it was, I just, I didn't think they were great.

But what happened was I felt myself smiling. And I thought, why are you smiling? And I realized it was because I felt great about getting that, done. Okay. It's out like it's over. The Band-Aid is ripped off. Yeah. Let me try again now. Rematch. You can upload it to YouTube and nobody's going to slam you. It's just going to sit there and nobody's even going to see it. We'll watch it. Yeah.

It's even better. But why isn't anybody watching that? Why aren't you? I'll tell him how terrible I am. They won't. It's a blessing here. It's almost uneventful. Closing day that you didn't get any balloons and there was no champagne and you just sign documents. And I have to tell people this. Closing day is. uneventful. Don't be excited. We're not throwing you a party. There's no big reveal. Oprah's not going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. The big exciting part is these. You get kids. Yeah. I always tell people I say, every part of this process, we're going to work to make as smooth as possible, but it will not be enjoyable until a few months later when you are barbecuing and you're sitting down doing nothing and you

realize, thank God that chapter's over. But I don't know. What is my real? What was my real name again. It's right. Samsonite. It's right on the briefcase. No, it's the magnet on the fridge. No, but so back to, back to that is staying top of mind. What are a couple tips that you can give to some entrepreneurs out there to stay top of mind without being salesy, right? Giveaways. People love giveaways. You have any way to brand anything and quit it with the pens and shit. Who doesn't have a Zon? Nobody wants that. So we give away. Actually, if it's a bad pen, there's nothing worse than that. Oh, actually, I want like 10,000 bad pens.

They looked really pretty. And I drop them off in handfuls at the post office. Because you know what people do at a post office? They steal pens. So I'll give them what I call rat poison, which now they're going to take back to their house or put in their purse. And my branding is with them all the time. Poison, I really love that.

So that actually makes sense because it wasn't like, You're saying it was you stole a pen. So they're thinking about, they're not tying you to how bad the pen is, really. They just seem to depend right in for one second. And then they've got more advertising in their house. What? The people I really like, we have lots of. We made sports last year.

Like how fun that is. Oh, this is great. Wait. I can even put these in like envelopes and send them to people. They're fun. And you have to think that my crowd is like this sporty bike. riding crowds. So they love this stuff because they can carry it with them or they can put your lunch to go to work. They're great little things. People grab those all the time

if I've got them on a table. We also have mugs. We have metal camping mugs. We have buffs that go on your neck. So I had a rush order on these buffs that I made for a bike race. And we make buffs all the time because people are like, this is my favorite thing. So then bike race was called Mad Anthony. So we put the bike race name on the buffs. And we put my branding, said something like move with MIDI. And I sent them the artwork that they didn't need to touch it, but they thought, no, she did something wrong that's supposed to say, Mindy. So then they changed it for me. You're like there was no auto correct. No, it wasn't like I even asked them to make the artwork. I gave them the art. It was ready to go. They just had this block on this thing.

And they changed it without even talking to me. They changed it. So the day, the night. before the bike race, I get this enormous box. No. Move with Mindy buffs. And I'm like, you've got it. Kidding me? So it is going, so we took those buffs and we handed them out to,

I don't know, the next 500 people. And people still post this stuff on social media because they're like, I think of Mindy, she's riding with me. And it because it's not going to joke, right? This doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Just give it away. Just keep giving stuff away because remember it's the rat poison.

And you want your rat poison in their house. Oh, I love that. It's so true. There's this fine line of to put out quality work and to be intentional, really about your message. But don't spend two weeks not getting your newsletter out because it's not the way you want it. You need to get another one out. So there's that fine balance. Just do it.

And then same thing with video, right? So get the videos out there. And I heard something the other day that I really loved, which is when you're watching content, to watch it with the purpose of learning what you love about it, like what's interesting about it, what made you want to watch more of it, what could you apply and then get to work to putting that into action? What can I do here that I love about this? So rather than watching content to consume it, it's really watching it with curiosity.

What could I apply? What made me watch this whole video? And I think one of the, I think the biggest mistake people make is not being you, be 100% you. Just bring your stuff to the table. People want the reason I'm different than everybody else is the reason people want to work with me. I'm straight forward. I'm going to tell you how it is. I'm going to say I like this or don't like this for you. I'm going to give you my opinion whether you want it or not. And you don't leave this all the way. I don't care, but that's what they want to work with me because I'm not going to be like, I'm just, I'm not going to walk in a house and say, oh, yes, do you want to buy this? Should we write an offer? Me and my clipboard, you're not going to see me with a clipboard.

No, you can't see me in my boots because you're probably going to want me to hike out that outbuilding that's old dog crap. I don't know, but I've got to be prepared for whatever. You're going to make me do it for the basement. Oh, my God, Michigan basements are something amazing sometimes. So anyway, so be 100% authentic. Don't be like, oh, this is what people want. in a real estate professional. Actually, they don't.

There's too much out there. That's just, it's just homogenized. It's boring. It's blah. You don't need that. I want someone that's going to go to work for me, right? If I were hiring a real estate. I had an actual friend say to me the other day,

you could be more normal. And I'm like, I'm sorry. You mean to use the word average, right? Because whatever that is that you think I could be more of, I don't want to. I don't want to. What's the point? Right? People can project their own fears, right, upon you.

I'm afraid of being that outrageously authentic. Then just don't be me. Don't be me. It's fine. Good with that. Yeah. I feel that it is my mission to find that point at which someone cannot take any more of me and they leave the room sooner than later.

So if we can get there now, let's get there now. Then we, I stop bothering you and I don't have to waste my energy. Smitty, where are you going? We're going on a field trip. Like where I left the room. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Bye.

I'm worried. I've had enough of you. You know, people who are interesting and have something to bring the table, those are the people I want to be with, right? Yeah. I actually love, there's this couple that I know they don't like me because I've absolutely with 100% certainty know that they don't like my values are very different than theirs. And it's funny to me because I,

when I see them in events, I've never met them in person. I've never had a conversation with them and I talked to them. They've only seen me on platforms. And anyway, the point is that when I see, when I saw them for the first time in an event, they said, hi, Jessica, and kept walking. And that's not what people do when they see people that they like. But it's so hilarious to me because they've never met me. There's no reason why they would think I know that they know me. But it's the fun part that they think I don't know that they don't like me and they I don't care. Right. And I think it's amazing that to me that's a win.

It means they absolutely know what I stand for. And who you are. Right. They don't like it. That's fine. But the point is my message is clear. Winning. It's super clear.

Yeah. Like winning. People don't like me all the time and I'm fine with that. So don't hire me. It's fine. And it's great. It means my message is crystal. In fact, I'll have a little handful of people who don't like me right now, but they actually can't afford to buy a house. So I'm free and clear of that problem.

Yeah. Problem is done. No problem. You're off the table. Middy, thank you so much for being here. I had a blast and getting to know you better. So thank you for sharing so much wisdom with the audience. I look forward to having you back sometime. And we'll have some links below where you can find out how to connect with Middy, especially to hire her as your realtor in Michigan. And also just to connect, you've got to pick up the phone and reach out to the people that have accomplished what you're looking to accomplish so you can get there faster. And I know Middy, she's a giver and would love to connect with you. So thank you, Middy. We'll see you soon. Look forward to connecting soon. Absolutely. Thank you, Jessica. It was so much fun.

Okay. Talk to you. Bye. As we close out another engaging episode of the Reveal podcast, I'm reminded of a great quote by Steve Jobs. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Middy Matthews' journey is a living example of this philosophy. Her passion and dedication to her work have not just shaped us. successful career, but also an inspiring narrative for all of us. Remember, each story we share

and every nugget of wisdom we uncover in this podcast takes us deeper into the incredible world of entrepreneurship. And these stories are not just tales of success, but roadmaps to our own potential. Make sure you don't miss out on our ongoing exploration of these transformative journeys. Hit that subscribe button and let's keep growing and learning together. I'm Jessica Nieto. And I'm already looking forward to diving deep into more empowering stories with you in our next episode. Stay curious, stay motivated, and stay connected.