KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Power Half Hour with Axel Ziba

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Everyone, welcome to the Power Half Hour. Today we have a very special guest. A big fan of this guy. Thank you. Maxit Realty, broker-owner, Mr. Axel Siba. Thank you for being here today and sharing your story. Thank you. It's my pleasure, John. Thank you for having me.

It's an honor to be here and part of your program. I've been watching it and I'm a big fan, that's for sure. Thank you. And we had a great opportunity to have some lunch together. we caught up and I was just blown away by your story. You don't mind sharing with the audience where you come from and how you've been able to, you know, escape and still be alive today. It's already a miracle.

So please do share with us. Absolutely. I'll be happy to. I usually keep these things private. But over lunch with you, I promise that I'm going to do this and it's no secret. Almost about 30 years ago, I was under 18 years old that I, I decided to migrate and come to Canada. So of course, during that, I encountered quite a bit of an ordeal,

and me being from Iran. And with a situation, of course, the news is covering it right now. We know how the regime of Iran is treating its people. So it hasn't changed for the past 40 and something years in Iran. I'm not a political person, but my family was and my grandfather was and hence my family was always under pressure with them. And no matter what I did in terms of studying or what, it was always oppressed. Decided at the age of 17 to skate the country, which at the time I didn't have an issue

passport and for that I had to attend the military based on the country's regulation. So I had to escape. And for that, I searched for smugglers and went through quite a bit of an ordeal, passing through mountains. It's a long, so it actually wrote a book, John, about this. And I will share that with you the link of it. Yeah, on the Facebook wall. Absolutely.

For sure. It's an experience that keep me always on my toes, being grateful of, life itself. Now I wrote the code somewhere it was saying life it's not only about happiness. Like who told us that life is about happiness. Life is about life. Life is about experience. And we're experiencing it the way we wanted, the way we built it. And this ordeal that I had to go through to get to Canada, I actually took about almost two years on the road with hunger, getting shot out in the mountain, almost died in my sleep because I didn't eat for almost a weekend couple of days in there, so almost nine days without food and practically getting survived by

that hustlers, workers in there. So long story, when I got to Canada, my ordeal didn't stop, and it wasn't a sunshine land so I had to make it happen. I had only $200 in my pocket at the time and I remember I told you this. I arrived mid-September and I knew Canada was very cold in winter and I went to Toronto at the time. So not the beautiful weather in West Coasting here. We could encounter minus 40 so I had to think ahead and with no jacket on the first thing in my mind was to keep myself warm just in case if I have to sleep on. streets because I have no residence. I have no real. And so I walked into the store. I saw a jacket from $99 and I had only $200 bill on me. So I saw the $99. I put the $100 bill. I had no idea what the taxes was. So the taxes at the time was 15% back in Toronto. And so additional $15 in there. I had no idea. So I just put the $100 in there and the guy looked and he says, my friend there is an addition of $15.15 you have to pay 15% taxes and added. So I looked at an imagine. It was so confused.

So this was a lesson of life. I end up with $85 in my pocket and then it just started my life. That's what it was. I worked two jobs at a minimum wage in cash practically because the owners that want to pay me cash to save the employment worker compensation, whatever. they had no idea why they were paying me in cash. So practically I had no insurance either if I got hurt and I didn't know. Later on in life, I learned that and I was thinking, oh my God, what a danger I was into.

So anyway, I built my life. I went to university, I studied computer science in York University. And meanwhile, I fell in love with hospitality business. also worked my and I had to pay for my expenses. So I worked most of my time and attended university at night. It wasn't easy. Of course, nothing in life to achieve. You have to work it. You have to work it smartly. And at the time, in my generation, we weren't used to work smart. We were taught to work hard physically. And the more you work, the better your life can get. And that was mentality we had. And I'm going to switch this around because in my mid-40s right now, John,

what I really experience is that I see the generation prior to me, the baby boomers. I see generations that after me. And I see there are totally different mentalities. And they see things differently, their attitude, their achievement in life. The one thing remains the same throughout these generations, even through the latest generation that we have now, is achieving success. And everybody is desiring that. So that hasn't changed, but the approach toward it has changed. I was actually scrolling through this motivational videos, and I came across to Jeff Bezos Code, owner of Amazon. What he said, it was like an aha moment, John, for me. It was spectacular. He said, stress does not come from hard work.

So I'm going to repeat this again. Strits does not come from hard work. Stress comes from the things that you can control for or have a control over, but you're procrastinating it. So the thing is that you have to find a medium in there and find those procrastination, find those stress. The things that you have control over and you're not performing it. if it's making phone calls, if it's door knocking, if it's follow-up emails.

And those are the procrastinating things that it actually provides stress in our life. And I promise you, the first phone call you make, the first email follow-up that you sent, the first door knock you do, even if they shut the door on you, even if they hung up on you, you feel cheerful and super productive. So because you've done it, right? So that stress is gone. It's like something left out of your shoulders. And practically, one of the biggest things that I found out, it's the factor to the failure

of the realtors in any industry, in any area, is that they don't want to be realtors. They don't want to be real estate agents. And I would say, wow, did you say they don't want to be an agent and they are agents? Yes, that's correct. they don't want to be a real estate agent. They fall in love with sexiness of real estate agents. The sexiness of real estate is what they fall in love with. Yeah.

They sign up, they feel like, oh my God, this is so boring. It's practically what they fall in love with. It's driving a nice car, dressing well, showing luxury homes and a dream that they have in their mind what the real estate agents are. But the actual hustle and behind the work that we have to do, the phone calls, the follow-up, the marketing strategies, the constant, constant outside of the box marketing that we have to go through, it's the job of a real estate. And that's what we do. And that's not what they like to do. So that's the reason of their factor. And for me, it was an aha moment. When I came across and I said, wow, this is. something amazing. And interesting part is that when you when you understand these things, you can start taking care of those procrastination. And as Jeff Bezos said, you can get without that stress. I remember when I was very young at the beginning. I also worked for

cellular industries back in the days at future shop. They're not in the business anymore. I had this manager. His name was Kenny. I never forget him. Such a an amazing guy. He's such a super attitude. I was grumpy every day. I hated my job. I hated to sell and I wasn't coming up with a good number. We were on commission and I wasn't making good commission and every day I was frowning and not happy. And I wasn't making money to be honest with you at the time. So one day as I was walking in the store, complaining as always, he came to me and said, Axel, can I have a child with you? I said, yeah, sure, am I in trouble? He said, no, no, I just want to give you a pointer.

I go, yeah, sure. Kenny, what's up? He said, Axel, you know what your problem is? So I was like, defensive. I put my guard, like, what do you mean? I got a problem. So you know what your problem is? Your problem is you.

I go, whoa, what are you talking about? What do you mean the problem is me? He said, Axel, the easy thing is that you have to mold yourself and understand. And the day that you understand that you're a salesperson, then everything is resolved. The day we accept what you do, everything else rolls for you. And I said to him, but Kenny, I got motivation.

This is not good enough for me. I got better things in my mind. And he said, I understand. But do not let your motivation to interfere with your now moment. If you screw your now moment, you're never going to get to those motivation. You have to be appreciative. You have to be grateful for what you do now,

If you can make the simple salesperson things that you don't like, make it shine and mold into it, then you can mold into anything. And trust me, John, that little conversation that he had with me, it just changed me for my entire aspect of thinking. And that is, every time I hate picking up a call and calling somebody, I remember that. I said, whoa, wait a minute. Okay, it's my now moment. and I'm not going to be looking at that person practically. I'm not a telemarketer. I'm not a solicitor.

I am a competent. I am a knowledgeable, I am skilled agent that I can help that person. But unfortunately, in our industry, we call it cold calling. There is no cold calling. You know, back in 90s, the brokerage, they had a big, thick book right in front of them, stuck calling people around them. That was cold calling. Right.

Now with the technology that we have, people actually coming into our websites, they register, they give you their phone number, they give you their email, they're trusting you with that information, meaning that the first level of trust is already there. Their name, their contact number, you have it right at your hand. They trust in you. They like your website. They trusted and they're going to next step. Now it's your turn to pick another call and that will. It's not a cold call. Don't forget it because they gave you that information. It's a warm call and don't think that you're bothering their time. Don't think that you're hustling them or trying to be a cell person. You're not. You're doing them a favor. You're picking of a call to help them. You're picking of a call to look after them because they gave you their information to be helped and you have a knowledge for it. And that's the reverse psychology that I work with myself. I work with quite a bit of online leads. and they're coming to my website.

They're not right away. Of course, most of them, they're not ready to purchase right away. It's a matter of getting to know them and put yourself out there and show them who you are. And creating that second step of trust, because they already gave you the first step. And also want to cover this as well. When it comes to online leads, that's a beautiful thing. You know, when it comes to real estate, real estate is. intangible. It is not like you're going to, let's say, I don't know, call it a retail store

and touch something and you like it, you experiencing it, you feel the fabric, and you feel like, okay, I can see that, you see the price tag, you know the quality, and you commit yourself with purchase of it. Real estate and as an agent, you're not, or services, or knowledge is intangible. And practically people don't know who we are. what kind of value we can offer. And the way we can establish that is gradual by showing them the value, by showing them how much you can help them.

And the first step is to be there. When you are procrastinating that, you're showing that you don't want to be there for them. For every lead is different. Of course, there's no booklet in there that can tell you how it is, but average base of every lead, to be worked on.

How can you give up so easily as real estate sales agents? And that's the interesting part because that's where the follow-up comes from. So you have to have a system in place. You have to have that CRM. They can alert you of what stages or that lease. So of course, for the first conversation that you're going to have with them, you know what their motivations are. And based on that motivation, you have to build that relationship.

If they're telling you honestly that, hey, wait a minute, I got to work. And based on that relationship, you're working with them, making sure they are achieving their goals. You're providing them with the value that you know how to save the money. You put them in the hands of financial advisors. And that's how you show the value to different motivations. You have to mold yourself toward their motivation. And that's the key. Not everybody's the same.

I remember I attended Richard Robbins when I got licensed quite a while ago, almost nine years ago. And it was a suggestion that actually my managing broker made to me and he said, go see that person. You know, even if you learn one thing, that's valuable. And I totally agree. So I attended Richard Robbins. One thing that I actually came out with quite a bit of learning. But one of those points was the characteristic of people that you're talking to and matching it toward yourself. And so if they are a green character, if they are orange, or the coloration of a character he was saying, it was actually a psychological thing, which was amazing.

And you can also judge yourself based on those color and see what kind of character you are. Can you change and be between the characters and be acceptable by certain colors? So I always said that real estate is like a marriage. And when you're getting into a commitment with somebody, you have to really commit it. Now, there is ups and downs. There is points that you don't agree with each other. But it's like a marriage. You have to understand.

your partner you have to get along with them and you have to see them as a long term that this is not a one-time thing it's it's a long-term relationship and that's what we're in we're in real estate marriage whether we want it or not and every client that i meet shake their hands and whether it's it's it's not a transactional for me i i welcome them to my family i say hey you're like a brother to me right now Like we have a relationship that is going to last forever. It's not me coming to your home for lunch or anything. That's not kind of a relation we're looking for. We're looking for a relationship that is trustworthy.

That you can call me anytime. I can call you anytime and just chat about anything we want. And that's a level of comfort you have to have with some. You know, the first step is that they're sharing their very private information with you, and that's the financial things. nobody wants to share your I don't want to share with anybody my financial situation how much money I owe or how much money I have but they do that with you and if they do that with you that's like your wife talking to you or your husband's talking to you because they're aware of your financial situation I think you need to take it to heart where you know people simply come and register on your website it it takes a lot for them to put in their personal information yeah and I would always be a lot for them to put in their personal information yeah and I would think agents should take it to heart like listen this is the biggest right one of the biggest is not the biggest investment of their life yeah but we need to treat it as such we need to treat it as you know

with care and really follow up with them and provide them that knowledge and value that they need absolutely that's where you build that relationship and trust so then they'll come back to you six months later when you're they're ready to buy you know i hear this a lot axle oh john these uh online leads, they're not serious, they're never looking to buy right now. What do you say to that? Well, look at it that way. I feel that if you're looking at the real estate business as a short term and you want to just make money right now and get out, then yeah, maybe they're right. But real estate is a career. It's not a job that pays you nine to five. It's something that you have to have a passion for. And as I said, not many people they like to be a real estate agent. They're just

in love with the situation or the outcome of it. Yes. And the processes that these relationships are very long term. And specifically, the online lease. If something gets referred to you or if a family member brings somebody to you that these people are ready to purchase, that's a different category. But we're talking about people that they never met you. They've never got to know your value. They have no idea what kind of capacity of knowledge you have. And they just on your website, it seemed professional, enough for them to give you that information. And that's the biggest step, because that's a prospect, that's a lead that can at one point becomes your family member, which is your client.

And practically, that's going to take, as I said, six months to a year and a half. Even maybe longer than, sometimes I have a conversation with it. They're telling me, I'm not ready to purchase for the next two years. And I said, absolutely. That's you're not the only one out there because you're planning and you're smart enough. You're two-step out of any other people out there that you're planning and strategizing for purchasing something. And not many people are even strategizing. and they're just jumping to it.

Or doing their strategies in last minute, and that's where they're shooting in of what comes in from. And I think this is a process that you can show your value. Because within that six months to 18 months that they are getting ready to purchase, you can share your knowledge with them. That's the time that you are that retail store. They're coming and they're touching the fabric to understand whether they like that fabric or not,

whether they can have that long-term, relationship with you or not, whether they can buy that sweater and they put it on pretty much throughout the season and is not just a sweater that's going to rash their skin. So you, sorry for giving you this kind of a comparison, but it's just, it's a best way of sorting out and understanding what the relationship you can set up for. I think so. And I think it comes back to, you know, seeing this as a long game instead of short-term. term gratification. Absolutely. So how do you, if you were to talk to an agent, what would you say to them to have them focus more on the long game instead of just what works today? Because if

they ain't buying today, I'm going to throw them away. Like that's the mentality these days, right? Yeah. Yeah. What would you tell them? Well, again, it depends on the motivation of that agent. That agent, patience in our business that goes a long way. And we know we have invested our time and money and we're going above and beyond to bring in these leads into our websites and when they're telling us oh I'm not ready for purchasing for a month and a half or I'm not even serious at this I'm just curious I'm just watching the watching the market the key point is that as I said you have to establish that relationship and if you're not ready to establish that relationship maybe you want to change the aspect of your marketing maybe you want to focus

on bringing more referrals to you. If you want to have prospect that you're unpatient and you want to close them faster, maybe you want to work and strategize differently. Maybe online marketing, it's not something you want to focus in. Maybe you want to focus on your circle of influences. And that's the key. That's the beauty of this business. I think most agents have this idea backwards is that,

online leads are supposedly they're going to buy today. Whereas most people, if they want to buy or sell today, it's probably the expire. It's probably for sale by owners, probably a referral. They're already ready to buy. It just needs an introduction. So that's my biggest takeaway from that. Online leave, you guys, six months to 18 months. Never mind if you want to make a sale today, you've got to build that pipeline with these guys.

Absolutely. I totally agree with you. And one of the beautiful thing about real estate is that, it's versatile toward any taste and you have different ways and avenues to market yourself. If you're patient, then deal with first-time homebuyers, seniors. If you're impatient, deal with people that they're investors because they're impatient as well. They don't need too much of information. They already have the information.

They're savvy. They're investors. They want somebody that is on the ball. If you want to approach it as a doorknock and your personal, attitude matches it to bring more prospect in, go for it. If you think that a referral is the one that is matching your criteria in addition to anything else that you do, focus on that. So it depends on your character or business in real estate, it's quite versatile. Comparing to a retail business is just 9 to 5 and opens indoors and bringing inventory of certain colors of sweaters,

we are versatile. We have pre-sell, pre-construction. We have We have resale, we have condominiums, we have townhouses, they have commercial, we have property management. They have quite a bit of an avenue that you can find your character and match it to work. And that's the best. I think you need to know thyself. Know what you're good at. Know what you want to do in this business. It might not be online leads.

You might be a networking guy or you might be, you know, expired listing guy or for sale by owner guy. Absolutely. You know thyself. But that's why I always recommend new agents. you got to do everything and then find out what you're good at what you can convert and keep doing that. Yeah. Right.

80% is your bread and butter and 20% you can go outside of it. That's what I see for agents. So that's a huge takeaway as well. It's really to know yourself, know what kind of salesperson you are and do that. It might not be your thing to do online leads and that's okay. Yes, absolutely. And that's going to actually bring me into two, I hate to say advice. I'm nobody to give anybody an advice.

Maybe two take away that I can bring in here and maybe is useful to somebody that's studying their business. Or maybe they're in the middle of it and they're feeling to grow. The first factor and the first possible things that I can suggest is to create a business plan. It's a perfect time right now. It's beginning of the year. It's a timing that you want to put the seed in to get that big three at the end of the year. and creating a business plan that's like a psyche value. Sit down and be honest and be truthful to yourself.

Go through a questionnaire of who I am. What do I offer? What kind of value I can put on the table and what makes me different. I came up with a business plan with a 5 W's of when, why, who, where, what, when. And, you know, you can answer the when was practically by, by when am I going to start doing that, by answering why, is that why am I in this business to begin with? Be truthful, answering those questions by true honestly to yourself. It's you and you. There's no stranger in there. If you cannot be honest with yourself, then I have no other

world. Forget about it. And for where is that where you want to be active in? We have quite a bit of beautiful areas in Vancouver, beautiful neighborhood, you want to be specific, you want to be a bit broader, you can be active in, let's say, in Vancouver West, and be only active in Catalano per se, then I kudos you. If you are focusing in a particular area, just a quick note, I learned this from one of the brokerages. When you're part of a brokerage, you have every listings that they share with you. It's not only the other agent's listing. It's a brokerage listing. And you can use that kind of advantage to gain a listing for yourself. And practically, if you are focusing on a particular area like Catalanu, assuming,

and that brokerage is active, there are quite a bit of an agent active from that brokerage in that area, when you're door knocking, when you are sitting down at the listing presentation, you can say that you have seen or sign everywhere in your area. So you know we're superactive. are expecting this area, you can use that. And that's fantastic avenue to go for. And many agents miss that, especially new agents. When they were asked, what kind of experience do you have? I remember the first thing I said to that question was, I know the other agents that is active in the area, maybe has 20 other listings. And your listing will be my crown. I'm going to put right here and I'm going to take care of it because it's my only listing and I'm going to put my

160% attention to it rather than me splitting my attention toward 20 listings and I never forget as a new agent the guy was actually kind of shaking my hand and said no I like that answer because I need the attention that I deserve and going forward the second thing honestly I want to I want to put out there is to, and I made that mistake I didn't, so don't make my mistake. I came to this business all single-handedly, and practically I learned as I went. I learned as I went. It's a hustling game. And real estate, like any other business, if the wheel is turning, don't change the size

or don't change the shape of the wheel. Use the experience of the other agents, use them as a coach, and learn from it. them and one of the biggest thing and biggest advantages in new agents or even an existing agent like myself and I'm still learning is to have a coach is to have somebody as a role model they've done something right so use their experience analyze it and see what works for you I never forget it I remember at the beginning I sat at the office of I'm gonna say his name I'm still a good friend with him great guy he's a role model

He's super successful, still in Victoria. His name is Jason Bnop. And he runs a couple of great luxury brokerages called The Agency right now. And his life was turned around when he recognized himself as well. And when I sat in his office and I practically analyzed the way he talked to people, the way he follows up, those are the things that practically learned from him. and learned from him. Do the same. Have a coach and have a role model and I think that's the best

way to learn. Really, it's it's having a coach, having a mentor, having a role model to follow. And, um, man, Axel, you are a gift. Thank you so much for sharing all your experience. My pleasure. Coming to this country with $200 in his pocket and, you know, dominating the Kitslano and greater Vancouver real estate market today. Uh, what a feat. I feel like I could chat with you forever but we only have it half an hour today. I understand. If we wanted to join your brokerage or follow you, where do we find you? Well, joining brokerage, it's not the choice at this time, but following me on the

Instagram, follow me on my Facebook. And I do have a YouTube channel. I started almost about five months ago. And I'm putting videos out there every Thursday. Join my YouTube channel. Please follow me in there. In a period of four months, organically, it gained about 106 followers. So I'm super stoked about that.

I know it takes about two years for YouTube to kick off, but I'm patient. Remember, it's like a lead that it comes in online. You have to be patient and consistent and offer value. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. This is the key. Axel, happy belated birthday, sir, and I look more. All the success to you.

I appreciate it. Thank you, John. Thanks for having me here. It was an honor. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good one.