KGCI: Real Estate on Air - PHH with Trung Bien and John Tsai

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Hey guys, good morning, good morning, good morning, and good afternoon wherever you are in terms of time zones. Today we have a very special guest, a very big fan of this young young man from Calgary, Alberta, Mr. Trongbian, EXP Realty. Welcome. Thank you for being here today, sir. Thank you for the warm introduction. Happy to be here. Man, I got to tell you, like, you're 40 this year, right? Yeah, I turned 40. You turned 40 already? No, I turned 40 in May.

In May. Okay. Okay, got it. You know, you look 20. So that's... As well as you. You also look like a young blood. Yeah, I'm hoping to keep it that way. So, no, this is good.

Trong, I'm a very big fan. Heard of you even before you join us. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in the business. So I was in, I was born and raised in the city, had a little bit of real estate background before I got my realtor's license. I was a big driver to kind of get my realtor's license. You know, in 2015, I was dating a girl, and I realized I was going to propose to her. And I realized that the next steps really had to fall on me.

When it came to the wedding, engagement ring, honeymoon, having a matrimonial home. And I realized that it just needed some more stability. So I decided to get my real estate license, which would be stable for some, maybe not for others. And that's how I got my start. Interviewed a lot of brick and mortar brokerages, went to the remax brand for just for as a security blanket. I really excelled there quickly, realized it didn't take much to be a top producer as an individual agent

and just quickly moved up the ranks. When I had my first kid, I lost a lot of work-life balance and I was okay with it because my son was going to be too young for him to remember anything. And then once I had my second son, that's when my wife really put her foot down. It's like, I need your help. I got some coaching on how to scale my business and changing my priorities to family first, work second. And with that coaching, really kind of restructured my business and changed my priorities to family, happiness, and health. And with the foundation

of a solid career base. So I'm pretty, very happy at EXP. The Rev Share has been a good, I would say, side hustle for me, and then still focusing pretty heavily on production. Amazing, amazing. So really, it's just about coming down on 2015, so nine years in real estate this year. Yeah, yeah. And EXP for three years or four years?

For three years, yeah. So 2021 you had written down. But before that, you were investing in real estate already. Tell us a bit about that. How did you get your start in investing? Real estate investing. When I was in university, I took a degree in entrepreneurship and innovation. My parents were small business owners.

So that kind of was probably a big turning point for me to decide to get into commerce. And then I read a quote that really resonated with me. That said 90% of all millionaires become sold through real estate. And when I was working at an internship, there was a guy that worked in IT that invested in rental properties on the side with his wife. And then with that quote in mind, I just asked him, I was like, hey, can we go for a coffee and can I pick your brain? And then from that coffee, he encouraged me to take a seminar on how to buy cash flow rental

properties. And then I was pretty much as lackey for the first couple where he, we did a JV. He did the qualification. My seed money was my student loan and bursaries that I received because I was pretty low income when I was in university and that's how I got my start in cashful rents property. So I was really coachable. I applied myself and This guy really kind of opened the door for me and kind of like taught me how to invest in real estate with like a lot of integrity. So the main thing is like to kind of have a high quality property to attract a good tenant and then not be a slum load.

So it really kind of changed the direction of my life. And that was in 2006. Oh, amazing. So you and I are almost the same age. So you were 22 years old when you were already investing in real estate. And then you took another maybe 10 years to get into real estate sales. Yep, yeah. Another 10 years to get to real estate sales from owning those cash flow rent to properties,

I did a couple, did a little bit of property management, worked for a home builder for a couple of years. Right. And then after working for it, the home builder, I decided to get licensed. Amazing. Amazing. So, you know, coming in, you almost were just crushing it right away. Did you have a sales background before the custom home builder job? Or it was just like you knew how to sell it naturally?

It was more of a customer service background. Okay. It was customer service for sure. So when I was at an intern, I worked at Enterprise Runner Car. And then the first month, they said, get this guy out of here. He's going to kill my customer service numbers. The second month, they said this guy's really turning around. And they said that I woke up one day and figured out what they were looking for.

And then the third month, I was there. I had the highest sales numbers and customer service numbers in Alberta. So it's pretty cool. No kidding. Yeah. It comes with being coachable. You did talk about that. How did you become coachable?

Is that something that is coachable being coachable? Or just naturally, you just listen to people and you apply yourself? I read an audiobook a long time ago where it said coachable is probably one of the number one skills you can have. And attitude determines your altitude. And like, you know, in that whole audiobook, like those are kind of like, the two high-level things that took away from it. So, yeah, I listen to people who have walked the walk that I want to take. And even though I may disagree with it or I don't want to do it, I will at least give it a try.

And then just to kind of not be so resistant to doing things my own way. But the key component was making sure that I took advice from people who had the experience and had the life that I wanted. Amazing. So really looking at people who have walked a walk, like you said. And when they tell you something that how they did it, you don't question it. You apply it. You listen. I listened and I did it. Yeah, I did it. Yeah. So in my, when I was working for a home builder, I had two options to be a host at the show home or to go find land.

And to go find inner city land. And without a license, the main. The main tool to do that is with my door knocking. So I knocked on doors. I had a little bit of a script. And I knocked down 50 doors a day. Wow. Four days a week. So 200 doors a day.

And I didn't get my first deal for six months. So that reached out to about like 2,000 door knocks before I got my first deal. Wait, hang on. Listen to this, guys. 2,000 doors before Chong got his first deal for the custom hall. builder, how did you not quit during those 2000 homes? You were just like, okay, no, no, no, 50 doors a day, no, no, no, no. So what I observed during that process was when I knocked on a door and they said no to me,

a couple months later I noticed I saw the house sold. So I knew that this was an opportunity because I actually did see that they were selling. and then I just got better at it. And then I just kind of honed my craft. I got organized. I did my follow-ups. And then I started converting. And there was people that used to yell at me,

yell at me saying, don't come back. And then I remember this one guy, he saw me the next day. And then he said, I'm sorry, I yelled at you, keep up the good work. Wow. Yeah, but he apologized. That's amazing. Yeah. So I think in the end I didn't have a lot going for me.

I didn't have a lot of options at that age. And I had a lot of drive. So I just stuck with it. And then from there, I just got better with my script, my dialogue. I got more comfortable. And then I started like me connecting with the builders in the community that built, built homes there. And then that's how I kind of built my database for builders.

So in Calgary, I do work with a lot of inner city development. And what I did was I sold the B grade lots to builders and then I secured the AAA lots in the communities that were desirable. And then rather than taking a fee, like an assignment fee, I did a JV with them. And in turn, doing the JV, the exchange was to teach me the development process. Oh, my goodness. So is that something that you're working towards as well, you know, in conjunction with real estate sales, you're developing on the side also? Since 2012, I do one development a year as a joint venture.

Nice. Mostly as a pretty silent partner. And so for the most part, with real estate commissions, after paying expenses, paying taxes, I partly most of those commissions into investments. I love that. You're so disciplined, man. I mean, you are 40 years old. You have the wisdom and the discipline and just a common.

of 60 year old, I gotta say. Like just talking to you, you are so mature, man. How how can you become so mature? Are you the oldest in the family? Youngest. Youngest? Youngest? Youngest, yeah, youngest in the family? Really? Yeah. I think I came from just like having a low income background or childhood, where you have to, where hard work was like everywhere, everyone was struggling. And I just had a, I just didn't have a lot of entitlement when I grew up. And it just molded me to a better person today. So, but in the end, like, you know, I think it's the key is to be coachable, still learning.

And then just stay, stay grounded. Comes up again, being coachable. And you said this, being coachable is one of the highest level skills that you can have. Most people aren't. Why do you think most people aren't? Because they're not taught. Yeah. Yeah, because they never learned that.

that was a key skill in my opinion. Because I never knew it before I listened to that podcast. I never knew. If you guys are listening to this right now, being coachable is actually one of the highest level skills you can have. It's not the skill of prospecting. It's not the skill of listening. It's not the skill of door knocking.

It's a skill of being coachable. What do you know? Yeah, I never knew that. That's crazy. Yeah. I just heard it a long time ago and I just, that having a good attitude were just some of the things that I really struck with me and that's the things I'm trying to teach my kids now. I love that. Because I think with those two skills, you can adapt and just build grit and then get by and flourish.

I'm blown away. I'm just super inspired. And it just tells me how you are able to succeed in such a short amount of time because you can, you can. came in 2015 and you're a remax Hall of Fame in a very short time. Not many people do that. Some people take 20 years to do that. And then you come in, crush, you know, the EXP. 2022, you sold 200 homes. How big is a team? I think it was, I don't think it was 200 homes, but it was 100 plus homes. 100 plus, okay. But it's just myself and one associate. And then admin support.

That's massive. Wow. So do you still go out and take buyers or you focus on listings now? Listings and then I provide like that final layer of due diligence with buyers. So I'm present during the initial buyer consult. And then I participate closely on the final layer of due diligence and negotiations. I like to, most of my businesses based on spear, repeat, and referral. And they came to me. So I want to make sure that I'm still present.

with them. Our business isn't really based on lead gen. I mean, like internet lead and stuff like that. I just focus on the, yeah, I just focus on the low hanging fruit and just focus on high conversion. I love that. And that comes back to, you said you're only taking stuff that comes right now. You're not going out and, you know, hustling to get that business because you want more time with family. How old are the kids, by the way? One turns six tomorrow and the other one is three and a half. So happy birthday. Yeah, I'll let Henry know. Perfect, perfect.

Yeah, I'm a Capricorn, too, January 6th. So he's going to become a hard worker, I hope. Yeah. I hope so. Dude, this is amazing. So, but when you started, though, you said you'd knock the 50 doors a day. Once you get into resale, did you start by door knocking? Did you start by cold calling?

Or was it straight up just sphere from the start? When I got my license, in hindsight, I realized how hard door knocking was. And then as a realtor, then there's other opportunities to do lead it. So I pivoted to open houses, used the same approach, actively listened, and then I started working my sphere. I took a couple, I took a couple courses that were based on marketing to your database. I applied about 80% of it. And it worked. And it worked.

And it worked. Yeah. And it worked. But again, that comes to being coachable too, because I actually applied myself. Like, I actually took a couple nuggets out of the program and actually incorporated into my business. So rather than taking courses and not doing anything with it, I actually incorporated the business model. How many times are agents going to seminars and taking courses and, uh, spend thousands of dollars and actually not do anything that they teach.

Most. Most, yeah. So would you believe that any sort of program works if you work it? 100%. All types of prospecting work. I believe one of the things that I learned when I was a new agent at Remax was that don't have reinvent the wheel. Success leaves clues.

And then ask advice for the people. whose career you want to emulate. And so I asked questions and listened and applied myself. And I did not reinvent the wheel. I love that. I didn't focus on trying to innovate. I just try to keep it simple and just really hone my craft and the really simple things. And a lot of it was actually like follow up and prospect.

A lot of follow up. So that comes back to your background in customer service. I believe in 2024 here with all the AI. social media. We need to go even deeper with people and more personal with people. Tell us a little bit about how important customer service is to your business. It's everything. It's the backbone of the operation because for me, I don't think I'm doing anything different from the realtor that sells just as much houses or any other realtor. I don't think I'm doing anything different at all. So I think the customer service and looking for their best interest first is probably the backbone of this operation where they see the trust.

They know that I'm genuine, authentic, and then I come prepared to meetings, so then it shows that I'm capable. And then a lot of people would say that this guy's hungry. Yeah, because you come prepared. And the one word that came up when we first started the interview, you said, investing with integrity. And I think you brought that into your real estate sales business as well, dealing with everything with integrity. Tell us how you implement integrity then right now in your business.

I think the easiest analogy is that I try to, if I'm helping someone buy or sell a house, it's as if I'm helping my grandma. So it's genuinely looking out for that person and doing what's best for them. and doing it intuitively. Like, it's just such a no-brainer to help someone when they need it more than a commission check for me.

And then when you build that trust, good things happen because then they suddenly become an advocate. And then suddenly they're preaching your name to their friends and family. And when the referral comes and the introduction made, like I always make sure that they get acknowledged. Amazing. Wow. Okay. So acknowledging people for sending referrals and when you are serving the client, serve them as if they were your grandma. To come from that heart of truly caring about the person.

And if you have that intention in mind, everything just is better service because of that. What do you do above and beyond to make sure that they're raving fans in your sales business? I don't even think it's above and beyond. It was from the course. I send handwritten notes. I send a birthday card, a one-year anniversary gift, and a five-year anniversary gift.

If I hear that they're having a baby on social media, I'll send them a gift. And a lot of it is delegated to an advent. So it doesn't actually take up a lot of bandwidth when you're got a base, it actually grows organically. So again, like, that's, I don't think that's even going above and beyond.

Those are just the fundamentals. But people don't do it. it. People don't do it. Wow. People don't do it. So then when they get that thank you card or that birthday card, it really resonates with them because no one else has done that, even though we're all taught at the most like rudimentary real course.

So again, like it's like, are you coachable? Did you apply yourself? This comes back to the biggest question. I just, I'm mind boggled by it because the business is very simple. but I don't think the business is easy because nobody listens, especially most agents. If you were to answer that question of how do you get people to listen? How would you answer it? I think if you talk to my wife, I think I can always work on better listening skills.

I think in the end, you've got to come from a place of caring because if you care, you would actually listen. and if you cared about that person you would give them undivided attention and then you would give them the best advice you can give them and then you back that up with a good service and expertise you've got to back it up with good service and expertise yeah always and it's so simple and you said that when you first came in it didn't take you long to become very productive to become one of the best and it's because of doing these small little simple things along with being coachable and with a great attitude. So we talked about coachable, but how about attitude?

How do you work on your attitude daily? Definitely when the days are hard, I write, I have a gratitude journal. I just try to focus on the simple things. Like, you know, when things are great, the gratitude journal kind of goes on the wayside. Yeah. But when it's when I have hard days, I got to really focus on. what I'm grateful for and then that just keeps my head on straight and then I just start having that kind of positive self-talk throughout the day where I even tell my wife like a couple days ago like I'm

grateful for this printer like this is a reliable printer this is a great printer no network issues it's reliable it prints fast and then and then I just kind of start thinking about the positives right like even the stepbacks like you got to see what the opportunity is and again like that That's something I'm just trying to teach my kids because I think this generation, these kids don't have enough grit. So you've got to really kind of help them pre-frame their mind that when there's setbacks or when there's a challenge, it's an opportunity. There's an opportunity there. Does developing grit come from going through setback after setback or can it be something you just said, practice gratitude first? I think developing grit comes from having struggle.

I think and struggle for my kids can be manufactured through outdoor activities and sport because I don't think they will have the grit that I had when my family was low-income new immigrants to Canada. So I think you need to kind of really challenge yourself and put yourself in positions to cease at and make sure that life is too comfortable. And then a lot of it too right now can be through exercise. Yeah. In terms of like how hard you can push yourself at the gym and are you really going to give it your all for that, for that 45 minutes to an hour that you're there.

And then that really just applies, then that really carries over to your day. Wow. It's so true. You know, my coach has been telling me you got a train till failure. Every single day, every single set, you got a train till you got nothing left. That last rep is what matters. That's growth right there. So I really appreciate what you're saying.

Yeah. You're super ultra-focused on family right now. Tell us a little bit about who you were before you focused on family. Because you said family was you're out of balance. So what did that schedule look like versus what the schedule looked like today? I think before kids, I was focused on the wrong things. I was focused on external achievements. awards

Yeah Accolades that didn't matter That were empty after one day My workload Prior to having kids was Up at 8 Work till 8 With buyers and sellers

And And I It was good But I realized that the achievements Don't really mean much Especially if your relationships, health, and your marriage are not being focused on. After my second kid, I had to reframe my schedule where I'm up at five.

Two hours without two hours of work done without anyone awake. My days are less reactive. And then I do my best to finish work by three. I do my best. And then now I'm more focused and more grounded on enjoying the ride. Because before I was obsessed with early retirement, but what I learned from other people is that your life will feel empty. You have no purpose. So I got to keep myself busy before 3 o'clock.

And being a listening agent is something that I enjoy doing. I'll enjoy that right. And then now I've realized that have big goals. climb big mountains, achieve, but no deep dive inside that doesn't mean anything. I love that. Know that it's the relationships, my positive self-talk, and enjoying the riders what's the most important. Wow. So I've gone through a big mind-shed shift a lot and just focused mostly on happiness.

But again, that just comes from like listening to blogs and podcasts about happiness and then just realizing what should be my priorities. Right. I think a career is important. I think having financial stability is important, but it means nothing if your kids don't like you, your wife is, your marriage is struggling, and your health is shit. It's true. It's very similar for a lot of agents, but they never get out of chasing the ego, never get out of chasing the awards. And then, you know, 20 years later, the kids don't even know them. So you're definitely going towards the right direction. Now, that least, leads me to, I know a little bit about your why, but what do you think is the bigger why behind all this for you, driving force? My why now or my purpose now is just to kind of have happiness. My why for work is that, you know, real estate investing is cool.

It feels good. But I find that was I making a positive difference providing housing? selling someone and infill, it felt good, but what gives me the warm and fuzzy is when I sit down at someone's coffee table, I'm a complete stranger to them. They look like they're twice my age, and they're interviewing realtors and I let them know, like, I think I can be the facilitator and be the solution to your situation. and then when we get a firm sale and on possession day and then we've actually achieved it with the intent of flawless execution that's what gives me the warm and fuzzy to go into someone's house and they don't have they don't even know me

they don't trust me and then and then become prepared and then with the game plan and we execute and then we reach their goals that that that's cocaine I'm I kind of know what you're talking about with no hangover I love that man

I love that you focus on happiness and it sounds like Chung you bottom line you love real estate and you are fulfilling your calling right now and we are so happy to be a partner with you

I'm so honored to be in the same conversation with you at EXP. And man, I'm just excited for the future. What's next for you? I think if I scale organically, it's good, but it comes with the dead time frames of 5 a.m. till 3 p.m. Yeah. Evening the weekends off.

It's my 40th birthday. It's my, like, I turned 40 this year, and this year I want my word of the year is like lifelong memories. So I'm going to enjoy this year. I'm going to enjoy this year because I don't really celebrate birthdays so I want this year to be memorable but for things with my family and friends

and the people I care about and honestly bro like the respect goes both ways man like you're a great leader the way you treat everyone is just so authentic so you rub off upon me too thank you thank you brother and man

I'm just so happy for you you that, you know, we're very similar in many ways. We got two kids. Mine are five and two, just right behind you here. And, you know, now I'm ultra focused on family as well. So I definitely appreciate that. Chung, you've spit out a lot of fire today. I got to tell you, this has been a crazy interview. I really, really, thank you for sharing with us, everything that you've already shared. If there was one more insight that you can give to the audience today, what would it be for 2024. For agents in 2024 where there's so many new agents coming in those competition is steep,

I would say focus on the fundamentals. Prospect is your highest priority. If you're not prospecting your, you got your priority as a dot on straight. And I got genuinely a health service client. And then again, like you got to be coachable man. You got to like, I just like learn from people, uh, copy what they do. do and then implement to your business. Thank you for that.

I love that you brought that up full circle here. Being coachable is the highest level of skill that you can never have. Guys, go back to the basics and listen to Trong. Listen to this interview over and over and over, please. And you will be successful if you implement what Trong said today. It's a whole coaching program in 30 minutes. Tron, thank you so much for today, man. I look forward to seeing you in May, if not before.

I'm hoping for, I'm looking forward to connecting with you. You're a good dude. Sounds good, man. All right. Have a good day. Bye.