KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Return On Life - From Farming to Real Estate Ted Cawkwell's Journey and Insights

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.SummaryThis episode provides a powerful exploration of one man's journey from a fourth-generation farmer to a top-producing real estate expert. Featured guest Ted Cawkwell shares his unique perspective on how the values of discipline, resilience, and hard work cultivated on the farm are the same qualities needed for success in real estate. The discussion delves into the emotional side of selling a family farm, the importance of a strategic mindset, and the future of agricultural real estate.Key TakeawaysResilience Built on the Farm: Understand that the hardships of farming cultivate an unbreakable mindset. Ted explains that he learned to handle setbacks, trust the process, and stay disciplined—all of which are critical for navigating the unpredictable real estate market.Empathy as a Strategic Advantage: Discover that empathy is your greatest asset, especially when dealing with agricultural real estate. The episode highlights that selling a multi-generational farm involves a lot of emotion, and that by leading with empathy, you can build a deeper level of trust with clients.The Power of Systems: Learn that a successful business is built on repeatable systems, not just hard work. Ted emphasizes the importance of having a unique marketing plan, a seamless communication system, and a disciplined approach to every part of your business.Balance Your Return on Investment with Your Return on Life: The episode challenges the notion that success is only measured by a bank account. Ted shares how he has achieved a harmonious balance between a successful career and a fulfilling personal life, and how his adventurous pursuits outside of work fuel his professional success.TopicsTed CawkwellFarmland real estateAgricultural propertiesReal estate mindsetResilienceCall-to-ActionReady to learn the keys to success from a fourth-generation farmer? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building a business with purpose! Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

What actually works. What will you do next? Here's the breakdown from this week's Friday Focus on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Welcome back to the show. This is Randy Dick here on the Return on Life podcast, and I have such a cool guest. At least I think he's really, really cool. Ted Cockwell. Now, that name might not ring a bell, or it may ring a bell,

but Ted was a fourth generation farmer in a little town called Nut Mountain. Where is Nut Mountain? Well, we're going to find out where Nut Mountain is and how much is in Nut Mountain. But from there, after having a farming career, he moved on in 2000 to build and operate and run one of the most luxurious fly-in fishing resorts. Yes, fishing resorts in Saskatchewan. And then from there, he said, hey, I'm going to go and help people and consult, strategize, and help them or help them with succession planning. Believe that. Succession planning.

Well, from there, it turned into a real estate career, and Ted's become one of the premier, if not the agent when it comes to ag sales. And I know he's worked on sales that are 26, 50 million, 60 million, so we've got some really exciting things to share. And I just want to thank and welcome Ted to our show. Welcome here. Yeah, thank you, Randy. No, I really appreciate it.

This is going to be a lot of fun. Yes. Yes. We're going to dance around a few things we're going to talk a little bit about real estate, of course, because that's what we do. We're going to talk a little bit about maybe what's motivated you. And I call it the underdog, but everybody has a different version of that. So we can talk a little bit about that. Then how you maybe have done these different businesses and learned some things about sales and relationships.

And, of course, finish off with return on life. So let's kick it off here with real estate. Tell us a little bit about your real estate. business and what does that look like because many of my listeners are not ag agents they're selling residential homes two three four five six hundred thousand dollar homes tell us about the egg business yeah you know we're we're like you said very unknown sector in real estate you know 95% people are thinking of residential real estate and then every once in a while someone throws out well there's those commercial guys you know not sure what they do and

And, you know, farm agriculture is a subsector of commercial real estate. So I support people who are either buying or selling farmland. Typically, those are businesses. Often they're just little chunks of a farm that are not the complete business. So, yeah, we're, you know, I'm highly specialized in this one area. And I don't know much about many things. I know an awful lot about this one thing. That's cool.

Now, did you, like, say right out of the gate when you got your license, I'm going to operate in this niche? This is who I am. This is what I'm going to do. Or did you kind of fumble around and then eventually find it? There was some fumbling. There was definitely fumbling. So, you know, took my licensing and farm and residential and commercial and thought that

I was going to move into commercial actually. Because I thought, well, that's where the money is, you know, these bigger transactions. And I'd owned multiple businesses. And so in my first week, there was a commercial agent at our brokerage said, Ted, why don't you come to this listing with me? I'm listing this hotel. Great. So I jump in his car and we rip out there.

It's, you know, a couple hour drive to this town where this little hotel is. And I left that meeting completely. deflated. Like I had no idea what they were talking about in the room. And I thought, well, I guess I'm going down the wrong avenue. Real estate isn't for me, to be honest. And, you know, a few days later, I heard that there was this woman in our town that was selling some farmland. And she had a little health store in town. So I went in the store and there was customers there. So I waited until they were all gone. And then I approached her. And I'd never had a list. or a sale anything and I said, hey, I heard you're thinking of selling some farmland.

She said, yeah, I am. And I said, well, I can help you with that. I'm a realtor. And oh, great, come on out to my house. So I went out to her house and, you know, got this listed and had no idea what I was doing other than I understood farming because I used to farm. And I knew all the farmers in the area who'd be interested. And I stayed up that night until after 10 o'clock phoning them all.

And, you know, I look back in hindsight. I probably shouldn't have been phoning people 10 p.m. But I was so excited to get this sold for her. And, yeah, I sold it. And that was my first sale. And I said, you know, this is my niche. Like, I know these people. I know this business.

And I never looked back. I became a farm agent. Hmm. You know, you're bringing back memories of my first deal. And again, I'm, I have zero clue what I'm doing. Like, no clue. And somehow you fumbled through and you walked out with a paperwork signing, you go, how did that just happen, right? But we all find our way at some point, which is really incredible.

And that's such a, that's a great, great story. You know, one of the things I think is so unique about egg land and farms is that it is just not a piece of property. It's an entire business. And it's very in depth. did that take a long time to kind of understand that but yet you came from a farm fourth generation I'm a farmer deep down as well but was that something very easy to bring forward and help the buyer understand the business side of the farm yeah absolutely I mean buyers and sellers I had instant rapport because I had street cred with them you know I'd operated a farm and not just

a farm. I was operating on a really high level. You know, like we were doing back in the day, you know, and this is back my, when I started in 1996, you know, we were doing business plans and we had accountants and lawyers and no, you know, we had agronomists and nobody had that. So we were really cutting edge. And so I understood the business at a higher level than, you know, as high level or higher than most of the people I was dealing with. And I think that was part of my secret sauce where I could add the value. Not only could I understand them and their business, but I could explain that to others as well. If they were investors or someone from other province or country coming in, I could really add that extra

value through my knowledge of the business. Yeah. And just thinking of farms, you know, many, many people farmed a section. And for all those that don't even know what a section is, it's 640 acres. And for all those that don't know what an acre is, it's 43,560 or is a 460 square feet. Anyways, it's, you know, so they were very small farms back in the day, but today you're selling farms that are how many sections?

Well, I mean, you're right. I mean, the industry has changed. Like my grandpa, when he started farming, they homesteaded the land. So the government gave them this land if they would improve it, and they had to clear 10 acres of trees every year that they would farm, and if they didn't, the government would take the land back. So the government said, you improve the land, build agriculture in this area, and we'll give you this land.

So, I mean, they cleared the land by hand and with horses and saws, hand saws, They'd burn some in their fireplaces and they'd sell some to neighbors and then they'd work that land the next year. So, you know, that's where things started in my lineage with just grandparents. And then to my dad who was, you know, expanding, you know, where grandpa would have started with this 160 acre corridor that was mostly for us. To my dad, he had three quarters that he, when my grandpa passed away, he was 21 years old. So he started farming the three quarters that my grandpa owned. And then my dad got up to like 14,000 acres, which was one of the largest farms in the province. Right.

You know, around in the 1990s. But now there's, you know, there's farms that are like 125, 130,000 acres. So it's just, it's growing exponentially. And it's, you know, it's a massive, massive business feeding the world. it's serious work and it's and it's very very high tech. I don't think people realize that, you know, there's no overalls and straw hats. I mean, these people are running businesses that are worth even the small farms, tens of millions of dollars and, you know, and, you know, we have drones that are spraying

fields in the U.S. already, an autonomous machinery and you get in the cab and it's hands off, satellites are driving it, there's computer screens everywhere and even in, seed technology. Like there's just biotech. There's so much technology. Yeah, yeah. You know, one piece of machinery can cost you half a million dollars, right? Oh, well over a million. Yeah. One piece of machinery that you might use for three weeks. Yeah. Many, many, many pieces. So that's why the economy is a scale are the way they are. It's like, it's kind of like go big or go home in this industry. So you've had all this success prior to becoming a real estate agent. you know, farming, large, large farm running, you know, your flying in fishing lodge,

all that kind of thing, and your consulting. What did you take from those that you then incorporated into your real estate business? Yeah, well, you know, I'd grown some impressive businesses from scratch with nothing, like not a dollar to my name and sort of carved my way into, you know, some of them, like the fishing resorts were, you know, multi-million dollar businesses, but I didn't really ever have success financially. I built these great businesses. I was on TV shows, the cover of magazines, but I didn't have a lot of cash left over for me because all of those businesses were just cash intensive where you just kept putting it back in the business. So when I came to

real estate, that changed. You know, you just started getting these checks and it's up to you to do what you want with it. But your question was a great one because all of that past experience actually gave me a PhD in real estate. So I ground it out for, you know, 25 years in these other businesses working 80 plus hours a week, just going for it, really having no cash for myself. And when I got to real estate, it just took off like a rocket. And I actually didn't even know what was happening for a few years.

people would ask me, like, what's your secret? And then I looked back after a certain amount of time in the industry and said, you know, I farm, I understand this business. I've done business plans and strategic plans for other companies. I understand the business aspect. You know, I've done, you know, international sales and marketing programs with the fishing lodges. I understand customer service. I know how to build a team.

I had 22 employees when I was 32 years old. the fishing resorts. You know, I know how to create systems and procedures and checklists for people. So the culmination of all of my successes and failures, actually a lot of failures too, prior to real estate, were all the reason for my success in real estate. Yeah. You know, I run scientific scaling systems as a coaching program, and that's the one thing I always try and flush out from the agent or the entrepreneur that I'm coaching. what are your passion lanes? What are your value graphics?

Where have you played in what fields? Because then we can then work with you in those areas. And that's where you're going to have success. And you're going to have fun because it's going to be in your passion lane. So good on you for recognizing that and just going full throttle on it. I really, really appreciate that. One last question on the real estate side of things. What are some of the trends in ag business or fun?

farmland sales that you see coming in the next one, three, five years? Well, no crystal ball, of course. You know, we always get asked these questions. I get called by, you know, TV radio and print media. Like, what's going to happen tomorrow? And it's like, well, I could only know that. You know, it's been an interesting time. I've been an agent for 13 years.

In the past 13 years has been probably 95% of sellers, market, maybe 5% of the time a balanced market. Farmland values have appreciated at an astronomical rate in this time frame, and farming has been extremely profitable in this time frame. That all seems to be coming to an end, at least for short term right now. So there's a shift that we're in the middle of right now. profitability on grain farms specifically are, you know, quite narrow, like a half or third of what they were last year. Interest rates are trending higher, you know, 40% of the loans are still to come due.

So that pinch is hitting every day. And so I think we're kind of into a soft landing right now where we're going to start where we're probably already shifted or shifting into a balance. market and I think in weather pressured areas where profitability is low, you know, we're probably on the cusp of like a buyer's market in some of those areas. So in short, the buyers are going to have a few opportunities that they haven't had for a while. The large will get larger. Yeah. And that's that's, you know, it doesn't matter if you're Joe's hardware selling to Home Depot or if it's farming or if you're a car dealership. That's just the way of the right now. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. Well, hey, listeners, if you like what you're hearing and this is

value for you, hit the subscribe button. Click that link below and let's get you as a subscriber. Okay, the next section we're going to move on into, which I love, by the way, because this is where I'm spending a lot of my energy these days, the underdog DNA or being an underdog. And you've built a ton of businesses and you've had, I'm sure, some failures along the way. that have propelled you to be a winner in other areas. When you think of that, and maybe I'll take it away from the word underdog, I'll use the word resilience, because I'm sure you've got a ton of resilience from what you've done. Share with us some of those resilience stories or what helped you become who you are today.

Yeah, you know, I was thinking about that actually last night because I knew that question was going to be asked. And my first response is, well, I'm not an underdog. I've had all these, like, because I'm so grateful for my life, you know, like everything. Like, I'm just, I'm such a positive person. I'm just, have so much gratitude. But once I started contemplating the question, there was some very obvious things that put me in an underdog mindset at a very, very young age. And I don't want to get too personal into too many specifics.

But, you know, I think as a child, there was. a young child, there was some problems and stuff around my life situation. And I think that helped make me mentally and emotionally tough. And it made me a really good problem solver. And it made me be someone that's proactive that can take charge and get stuff done. And I think that stuff, you know, that would have been early installed me, maybe two, three years old kind of thing. It just carried on through my life.

And I just, and it was a different time then too, right? Like growing up in the 80s and stuff. Like it was just a tougher time. And I just grew up tough and resilient and you just get a done attitude kind of thing. Right. Well, I always say, you know, show me a hero today. And they've gone through some really difficult times because they've been able to manage and learn from those times. and then they manage their new whatever comes at them.

You know, it's great that you say, well, am I an underdog? But underdogs rise up. Think of the Kurt Warner's, the Rockies, the Rooties, you know. Hollywood loves making these movies about the underdog, and it is the struggle that makes them who they are today. And they're often incredible people in today's world, but at one point they had some stop that just wasn't coming their way. So I really appreciate your response to that.

Farmland real estate requires building a lot of trust with your landowners. So we're still talking a little bit about real estate. But is there situations where that underdog spirit came forward where maybe people were doubting what you were bringing to the table or how you were going to present or market. And how did you lean back on some of those past experiences to help them in the present? Yeah, good question.

You know, I think as realtors, and I don't care if it's residential, farm or commercial, I don't think realtors to the public at large are really looked at is super high integrity people. I think right or wrong, we've been a little bit tarnished. And so I think, you know, on a daily or weekly basis, I'm going into a meeting with someone that's maybe a little bit skeptical about

who is this person. And, you know, and one of the things I like to do is just, you know, not just tell them what I'm going to do, show them, right? Like that first meeting, I'm 10 minutes early. I'm sitting there. I'm prepared. You know, my truck is clean. I've got everything in my folder that they need.

I show up with a smile, you know, and like, you know, I've got, I just keep showing them, showing them, showing them, showing them. And then that's up to them to them to make a decision. But, you know, I do everything I can for the clients. I put them first every day of my life. And I take this job very seriously. And I hold myself to the highest levels of professionalism and honesty and integrity. And I think in time, people start to feel that. and most people pretty quickly actually.

Yeah. And, you know, when you've gone through things, whether it be, you know, the underdog or the resilience experience or so forth, what ends up happening is you start to have empathy for people that are in that situation as well, I believe. And so you bring that forward and they sense this confidence in you that you understand them. You hear them.

You see them and you understand them. And I think that's a really important piece to who you are. as a person through those resilient moments. You know, I think of confidence. And a lot of us talk about this confidence piece and where do we get this confidence piece. There's bravado confidence, which is that arrogant confidence that we see in some people. But then there's this whole package of confidence where we look at things like our identity and what makes us who we are and the successes we've had.

Those are great. Those are great, but what happens when some of those get taken away? Really, you're now riding or skating on thin ice, so to speak, because you've lost something that's given you identity and confidence. But then there's that maturity that isn't required to have this identity piece, these idols. Idols could be nice things, whatever, that give you that confidence. And that's where I see you in sitting at somebody's kitchen. table talking about their farm. Would you agree? I would agree. I'm going to comment on both the empathy

and the confidence. So, you know, my dad passed away unexpectedly and fairly young. And I ended up being, I wasn't the executive of the will, but I ended up stepping into that position just to support the family. And I wasn't farming at that time. I'd already moved on to other businesses. I'd already moved on to other businesses in life. And so, you know, I was managing like lawyers and accountants and there, you know, it was a pretty good size farm where his last wishes were like just sell everything and get it to like your stepmother, get the funds over there. And so I, you know, I hired a realtor to work with us on the farmland piece because I had a lot

going on with all the other pieces. And, you know, that farmland realtor, they specialized in farmland sales. They got us way more money than we ever could have or should have got on our own. I did have the buyer all lined up for them and had this nice package and everything. So I kind of handed it to them on a silver platter, which I look back now and go, that was interesting. But, you know, because I went through that and because I'd sold my own farm earlier as well, the empathy comes quite naturally to me. And because I've been in those tough situations, like, I think they can sense that where I'm just like, I've got you.

Like, I've been here, you know, I'm just like you. I've been in this situation and take your time. I can come back in a day or a week if you need to think this over. So that's the empathy part. Like, I've literally lived it. Selling a farm is exponentially more emotional than selling a house or a commercial piece of real estate. Like this is in their blood. It's very common that it's a hundred plus year farm in the family.

And like, you know, there's grown men crying at the kitchen table. And sometimes they're angry because they don't know how to express it and banging their fist. And there's all kinds of emotions flying. And I just need to take a breath and just reassure them, I've got you. I can help you with this piece. Wow. That's an excellent point to share because, you know, people flip houses. I mean, I think of all many homes I've owned.

And, you know, none of them really mattered to me. I was just moving on to the next one, the bigger, better, nicer location, whatever it was. But you're right, you're right. This is their livelihood. This is their DNA, so to speak. Yeah, they're really giving up something. They're giving up almost like a firstborn. Yeah.

It feels like that for sure. And so once, you know, once we're past that, then, you know, the confidence you talk of, I mean, I guess I'm pretty lucky. You know, I look back and there was like a one moment for sure, maybe two, where I lost my confidence for a few months. But out of the whole span of my life, I'm just blessed with natural confidence. Like, I know what I'm good at. I know what I'm not good at.

I don't claim to be good at things I'm not good at. I just don't do them. And, but I'm a master at this. and I know I am and so you know I just I know I can support people with this task that you know and I have a good track record so I think they can feel that like don't worry I can do this thing I've got this I got this I'm good at this great great answer I love that I got goosebumps with that last one hey folks if if you like what you're hearing and I mean this is just golden, golden stuff.

Like they're just getting nuggets dropped here. Subscribe to this channel, Return on Life podcast. It's well worth it. Well, let's move on to sales and some client relationships and things like that. And I want to touch on what you just shared about confidence. And you said you lost confidence for a fleeting moment. We'll call it a fleeting moment. What caused that to lose?

or what caused you to lose your confidence in that moment? I think that's really important for our listeners to understand. Yeah, well, I mean, it's quite a story. I'll give you the very, very short version, but in 2008, I lost a business. You know, I had some business partners that I dropped below 51% of the shares for like it was supposed to be for a month, and they moved in and made some changes, and out I went.

And I lost everything. I lost all of my net worth and everything I owned. I still had debt on the property, even though I had no access really to it or to the business. And I sort of lost my identity, right? Because it's like I was the CEO. I was the manager. I was all these things.

And all of a sudden it was kind of like, well, who am I? And to make things worth, I broke up with my girlfriend of several years, all kind of within the same month, right? So I was kind of left sitting there. And I remember losing confidence and going like, I'm 30, I think eight or nine years old. Like I can't go back to university for seven years for the kind of jobs I want. And what am I going to do? And I think maybe it's over.

And, you know, and then I had this amazing, like lightning strike. I actually broke out laughing. I was at home alone laughing and going, nobody can ever take anything from me, ever. And it was a knowing. Like it was like, I could feel it. Like I was just laughing. And it was so clear that like, I'm not that. Right.

Like it was kind of like the universe posed the question, who are you now? Wipe the board, right? And a couple months later, I know who I am. Right. I'm something else. And that's when I got my real estate license. And the rest is history. So, you know, great lesson for our listeners to listen to that.

Because many of you, as listeners, probably are moving through a moment, even right now, possibly, that you're just questioning your ability, you're questioning your confidence, you're questioning what we would call success, and know that it is within you. Know it is within you to find who you are and what you can become, just like Ted had that moment. You know, success is something we all want. We all chase. and we all want to be successful at something.

It just is who we are. God made us that way where we want to be the best we can be. But you've kind of found a way to move on from success, which I would then move to succession. Very similar words, but they really do mean a lot of different things. And sometimes we chase success without ever thinking of what succession would look like. And then I'm going to say for myself, as I've gotten older, succession has become so powerful for me to chase versus success.

Share on that, because I think you've got a really big idea what succession looks like. Geez, I'm not really sure which avenue you're taking me on. I mean, I'm more focused right now on, you know, what I'm doing outside of real estate, right? And I think that's a differentiator between good salespeople and business. business people. And I came into this, as you alluded to earlier, with a real gift. Like, I never looked at myself as a salesperson. I'd been, you know, a serial entrepreneur my whole life, right? I just, I had business after business. So I came into this looking at it like a business. So I mean, I think this one of my greatest pleasures in life right now is what am I doing with that money that's coming outside of the real estate? And what am I doing with that? So I spend a lot of my day, you know, I own a farm, right? And I put it in, you know, buy more farmland, growing the farm. I own rental properties in Costa Rica.

I've got, you know, unique portfolio of, you know, venture, like, all kinds of different things. And that's, I get a lot of fun with playing with that. And I think that helps get towards the next phase of life somewhere down the road where you have assets that are, creating cash and appreciating, right? A lot of realtors make some money and they spend it all on houses and cars that are depreciating non-cash funding. So I don't know if that's what you were referring to. Well, I think you nailed it because that's really a succession plan versus just having

success. Yeah. Far too often, we see many, many agents having great success in real estate, but at the end of the year, they don't have anything to show for it. and they're not building a future that has a legacy plan to it or a succession plan to it. And you've just shared how you've got it organized so there is a solid legacy and succession plan there. So that's just a great, great answer. I really appreciate that answer.

In sales, there's things that we have as resources that we can use. And then, of course, we also want the outcome. And the outcome is, of course, a successful sale. But we as agents, we're the bridge. So you've got the resources. You've got the outcome. But without us, there's no crossing that bridge. And I think you've done a fantastic job in being the bridge for so many people.

Is that bridge getting more difficult, do you think, in the real estate sales environment? or easier? Well, it's certainly more difficult in Saskatchewan and the farmland industry right now. The last two years have been extremely challenging. As I mentioned earlier, it's been quite profitable. So there's no sellers. And so it's not so much the crossing the bridge is getting tougher, but there's not many bridges anymore.

So we're having to build bridges, which is something we never had to do. And building a bridge to me looks like. like getting a buyer's contract signed and going into an area and dropping ads on people's phones on their Facebook, like geo-fencing, dropping brochures in their mailbox, building maps and looking things up and cold-calling people. And, I mean, it's really grinding and hustling. It's not as easy as it was a few years ago where you just go on MLS and you match a buyer and a seller up.

There's no sellers. So we're trying to get sellers who are actively farming and often, young to step off and sell. So that's the real challenge that we're faced with right now. Yeah, with the NAR settlement too, you know, that whole buyer piece is becoming more and more important, how we see ourselves as representing buyers and how buyers see us as their real source. That's going to change, I think, in the next decade significantly where the buyer's

agent is going to have to bring a lot of value, a lot of value. a lot of value to connect with the buyers and the buyers are going to be very fussy who they work with years past. Now, it may be different in farmland. It may be different farmland, but on the residential side, a lot of people just fell into the arms of an agent

that was okay. They didn't have to be great because they were just there to help open a door, so to speak, and it then morphed into, I'm your agent. But I'm sure on the egg site is a really, really highly technical piece, a very sales-oriented, very customer-oriented piece of the business.

Yeah, it really is. A lot of the agents out there, well, most of them, I think, are dabblers, right? Like they do a little commercial, a little residential, little farm comes their way. They'll sell an acreage. You'll sell a condo the next day. where, you know, I think it's really to my client's advantage, number one, that I've farmed, and I understand that business that we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, and number two, that I'm highly specialized, right?

And so I do the one thing, and I do it well. And, you know, I've been working with these buyers contracts since day one, and there's hardly any farmland realtors that do that. It's probably been 25% of my income over the past 13 years. And so I've got very good at navigating those waters and doing that. But you're right. A lot is expected, especially on the larger transactions. Like I'll be sitting in boardrooms with lawyers and accountants.

And there's been times on bigger deals where the lawyers are like, well, it's over. Let's just leave. And I'm like solving problems for lawyers or accountants are like, this can't happen. I'm like, okay, well, what about a share sale or could we do this part? So, like, I'm earning my keep in these rooms to keep these things on track where you hit stumbling blocks and everybody else wants to leave. And I'm building tunnels under, going over, blowing the blocks up. So it's, I make sure my clients win and I'll do anything I have to to make that happen. You're constantly building another bridge.

I'm building a lot of bridges. Well, well, sales have routines. habits. And I imagine that maybe some of the routines and habits to build your business are maybe a little different, but I would think they're probably still fundamentally the same, whether it be residential or whether it be the sale of anything of substantial size. But maybe share with us some of the habits and the rituals and the things that you do to stay on track. Well, you know, one thing I've done is I've kind of a unique structure. I have two full-time client service specialists, one on the listing side, one on the sales side.

And I call them clients service specialists because they truly are. They're not administrative staff. They go well beyond that. They're experts in their own right in these fields through training that I hire for them. I've hired them coaches, bought them courses, and a lot of one-on-one training with me. So because of that, you know, we have three people. So any given day, even at eight hours a day, we can do 24 hours of work for our clients every single day. Everything is systemized. I have systems and procedures. I could add 10 client service specialists and 100 agents tomorrow.

We have like 150 page manual that outlines every single detail of every way we do it. And that builds tremendous efficiency. And then when someone new does come on the team, because we have a have had agents and other people in the past. We have every, the training is all put together. We have training videos that they can access, the manual, us. So I've really systemized everything. Now, there's nuances and variances to every deal, but we try and stay in our lane and do it the same way every time.

And then outside our little circle of the three of us, there's probably another dozen people where we have someone doing Google AdWords, someone, someone's. shooting all of our drone video and, you know, and someone editing that drone video and then accountants and lawyers and, you know, web designers and all those people. So we have very close contact with them on a daily basis. And so, you know, we're just fine-tuning things at this point because it's,

it's working pretty well. Yeah. Building a team is so important. But what you did mention to me is systems trump goals. And a lot of people, A lot of entrepreneurs, they have their lofty goals. I'm going to do this or I'm going to accomplish this many sales or this volume, but they lack systems.

And without systems, none of those can come to fruition. And so I love that you share that. You've got, you know, manuals and systems just like bang, bang, bang. And you can basically close your eyes or go away and say, here's the manuals, go do it. And people would know what to do, which is incredible. Yeah, no, that's great. I don't see a lot of entrepreneurs that organized with systems and manuals.

And for sure, I don't meet a lot of realtors that have that as well. I do have my own manuals, my office manuals, my mid-manuals, procedures and all that as well. But very, very few do. So really, really appreciate that. It's pretty incredible. You're elite. I'm going to say that. I speak with a lot of agents and you're very, very on point, elite, and what you do is so highly specialized.

What if you could share with our listeners maybe one, two, three things that could take them to the next level when it comes to sales, client relationships, what are those pieces that you think that many, many agents don't get or they've missed? well it's a big question it's a big question it's a good one i'm just trying to think of like the top ones i'm just uh i'm going to say number one is mindset you can't achieve anything in this world if you don't believe you can achieve it yeah and there'll be days where you have to fake it till you make it but you have to find a way to believe in yourself that you can accomplish this task whatever your goals are you know and i mean as you know there's a million ways to get into that, the manifesting, the writing them down, the vision boards, taking radical action, all that stuff. But you need to believe that it can be done.

And, you know, I do a bit of coaching of agents too. And they show up and they go, hey, like, I'm making $500,000 a year. I want to get to a million. You know, what do I do? And I'm like, well, you have to abandon every idea you have right now because the ideas that got you here aren't going to get you there. So you have to have that. positive mindset and you need to be willing to deflate your ego to know that there's probably a better way if you want to take that next gap up. So that's number one. Number two would probably, sorry, did you have a comment? Well, I was just going to say, I love the fact that you need to deflate your ego. Ego, man, it can mess up so much of one's world. Oh my goodness. So I just,

I want to just acknowledge that ego. Yeah. Well, for sure. And it's messed up a lot of my world, right? And all of them, like, we have moments where we want to dig in and protect our position. And I'm telling you, just a small story on this. And I won't drag on too long. But I know Tiger Woods when he was at his peak.

Like, I mean the elite number one golfer in the world by far. No one could touch him. He changed his golf swing and his coaches. and everyone was like, what are you doing? And he just, he knew there was a better way. And he took the risk of messing up, the thing that made him the number one person in the planet just to get better, right? And that's what the elite people do.

It doesn't matter where you are, get your ego in check. And you're like, there is a better way. And let's find a better way. So, um, that's great. So after the, after the mindset, um, I would say discipline. I don't think most people in general, realtors, business people, any people have discipline. And if you want to be ultra successful, you need to be discipline. There's no one that's ever won a gold medal.

There's no one that's ever drank from the Stanley Cup. There's no one that's ever, you know, been the top, you know, violinist in the world by not having discipline. I mean, these people that are the top in the world in their field, field have amazing habits and discipline and they do those hard things every day on repeat because they know what's going to make them better. And I think with discipline comes sacrifice. You're sacrificing what you want to do right now because you know it's going to give you something you want in the future. Yeah. And that takes mental toughness and it's it's tricky. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent points. Love that. Love that.

mindset and discipline and I totally agree with you 100%. Hey, well, if you are getting value out of this, please hit the subscribe button. We're going to move on to another piece of our podcast, which is the return on life piece. And I know Ted gets a lot of ROL. He gets a lot of return on life. In fact, I know he was just recently traveling the world and driving supercars and all that kind of good stuff. But Ted, when you think of ROL, what comes to your mind? What do you think about return on life? Well, that's what it's all about. Like, that's the name of the game. Like that, this isn't a, like for me, it's not about hitting the goal in real estate. It'd be like, well, why? So you can have a return on life, as you call it. Right? Like, I think I want to be happy. I, like,

Like no dress rehearsal. This is it. Like this is, this is the show, right? So like I want it all. So, you know, as committed and driven and disciplined and how hard I work on my mindset to make sure my clients get everything they need, you know, the end goal is, of course, so they can have their success, but so I can have mine as well, right? And you and I both know a lot of people that are very wealthy and have had tremendous success

in that realm and I would say most of them get caught on that hamster wheel and they don't even know what they're chasing anymore and they just run until they die and it's the end of life. So I make sure to block off time for me personally and my calendar first. I'm big on my calendar. Everything's in there. Everything's organized and I block that all off first to make sure that all the things I want to do in my life are going to happen and then I just build the work in around that. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, you know, so you've, you've farmed, which is, you know, in your, in your DNA, in your blood, you've run resorts, you've run other businesses.

Real estate, out of all that you've done, which one do you feel that you've been able to find that, that magic of finding more out of life, return on life? Is it in one of the other businesses? You know, people say, farming is just like this magic. And I grew up in a problem. farm. I know that. But for you, where has that magic happened? I mean, farming is very rewarding. And if you think there's magic and working 18 hours a day and I mean, honestly, then, you know, and running flying fishing resorts, having all these, you know, even had NASCAR drivers and some of these famous people coming in on their private jets and doing that. I mean, it was glorious, but it was 18 hours a day for for no financial return, really. So, I mean, it's obviously real estate. You know, my very first, I have three coaches right now, if you can believe it. My very first real estate coach I ever had told me you will never make

more money doing anything than you will in real estate, you know. And yeah, I mean, that return on life for me has definitely come from real estate. You know, the interesting thing with real estate is we do have an incredible opportunity to make a lot of money with very little money as an entry point. And I don't think enough of us understand that concept. Almost no money to get in, but huge opportunity. And so many of us, I'll say us, because there's a lot of agents listening on this, you squander it. You don't take it seriously enough. don't realize the full potential and really buy into it and put your shoulder into it, whether

it be mindset, discipline, as we talked about earlier. But one thing I want to touch on now is that you said you've got three coaches. A lot of people say, well, you're so successful already. Why do you need three coaches? So explain. I mean, how are you going to stay at the front of the pack if you're not learning and growing every single day. Like I yearn for knowledge like a fiend, you know, I'm looking at booking a Tony Robbins course for 2025 already. I mean, I want coaching in all areas of my life. One's a real estate

coach. One's more like a life coach. The other one's sort of somewhere in between, you know, I do sauna and cold plunge every night. And in the sauna, I'm always listening to audio books. And like, I just, I want information. That information is, helpful to my clients. It's going to be helpful to my business. And I don't gain knowledge in areas that I'm not interested. And it's things that I care about and I want to hear. And those coaches give me quick access to information. I don't want to spend a week trying to research things to get an answer. I call my coach and he goes three and I go good enough. I trust you. Boom. Next. Give me the next problem. So access to information through coaching is it's a good hack.

for getting ahead in life and in business. Talk to someone that's done something that you want to do, right? It's been before. I could have said it any better. So awesome, awesome response to that. Really, really good response. I love that. What do you do for hobbies?

How do you get return in life through your life outside of real estate? I may have too many hobbies. I'm an avid fisherman. I've fished all over the world. I'm going to be down in South America and February again. I go up to the Arctic every summer and in northern Canada, which I just love this country. It's beautiful.

And, yeah, I do lots of travel as well. I snowmobile, do lots of hiking. So I have so many things. I've actually had to pare it down. I had to cut snowboarding out because I had a couple too many winter activities. and I have no shortage of passions for me to spend my time in when I'm not working. You're not saying around what and what I should do now. Yeah, you know, and we all know a lot of people like that.

And I have some in my family that are super successful business people, but they know nothing else. Nothing else. They've never had a day off to do these things. And that's fine. That's their life. But my life is very different. Like, I like to work intensely, and I like to play just as intensely.

Right. They are hard at the ROI, which is great. You need the ROI, but they have missed out on the ROL. Absolutely. Yes, yes. Hey, well, thanks for touching in on the return on life piece. Again, please do subscribe if you like what you're hearing. We're going to finish it off with some rapid-fire questions.

Are you ready, Ted? I'm ready. You're ready. Okay. Hey, question number one, what is your first? favorite supercar. Ooh, that's a good one. Well, there's so many.

I know you love supercars and you have a couple cars. I like the Ferrari 458 Italia, the last of the naturally aspirated engines. That is a fun car, yes. Yes. I've driven one of those. I don't own one, but I've certainly been behind the wheel on one of those. What's your favorite book or

podcast that inspires you? Oh, well, this podcast might be my new favorite, but my favorite book, I just listened to an audio book was Dan Martel's buyback your time. Oh, I'm in the middle of that. It is so, so good. And by the way, he's a Canadian. Yes. Good dude. Yeah. I'm in the middle of that. Great book. What's one tool or resource that you can't live without in your business? My two clients serve a specialist. They're amazing and my rock and I just love working with them every day.

Benjamin Hardy. It's not how but who. Not how but who. Love that. You unwind very well, I believe. What's your strategy? What's your one go-to to unwind? I don't mix work and play.

And like when I'm working, I am working and there is no play. There's no nothing. There's no other people in the room. There's no distractions. and when I play, like there's no phones, there's no checking emails. So I'm either, I know where I am, right? I'm either here or I'm here. And like I draw a line.

It's pretty black and white for me. Very cool. Text, email, phone, or in person? What would you prefer? I always love meeting people face to face like that. So you get that true, authentic connection. I just, I love it. That's right.

I can't wait for later in December when we're going to meet over dinner here in Vancouver. I'm looking forward to that. Me too. Very excited. Yes. Hey, last question, a bit of a trick question. If you're a scratch and sniff sticker, a scratch and sniff sticker and I came over and I rubbed your shoulder, Ted. What would I smell? Jedi grape. Jedi grape. Awesome, awesome answer. Well, Ted, thank you so much for being on the Return of Life podcast. You've been a fantastic guest.

many incredible takeaways and golden nuggets you drop. So thank you so much, Ted. I appreciate the invite. Thanks for having me. You're very welcome. Hey, thank you for joining me on the Return of Life podcast. I'm excited that you're here. I need you to hit the subscribe button on the YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Comments, reviews, guests that you think should be on this would be so important for us. So we want to hear from you as well. And of course, we're on all the social platforms where we are always discussing everything that is about.org.R.L. Return on life.