KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Magic of Networking: Building Connections for Success

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Don’t miss out! Subscribe to this podcast now for actionable strategies and expert insights from over 1,500 on-demand episodes.SummaryDiscover the true magic behind professional networking, which isn't luck but a deliberate, strategic process that builds relationships and unlocks opportunities. This episode reveals how to move beyond transactional networking and into a powerful world of collaboration, referrals, and invaluable support. Learn to be a proactive connector, master the art of the follow-up, and cultivate a professional network that becomes your greatest asset for career growth and long-term business success.Bullet Point TakeawaysThe "Magic" Is in the Strategy: Understand that successful networking is not accidental; it is a science built on intention and discipline. Learn to define your clear goals for networking—whether it's finding new clients, mentors, or collaborators—to guide every interaction. .Give Before You Get: The foundation of a strong network is reciprocity. Discover why the most successful networkers consistently offer value, share resources, and provide referrals to others without expecting an immediate return. This builds trust and fosters mutually beneficial relationships that pay dividends over time.Be an Authentic Listener: It’s not about how many people you know, but about how well you know them. Learn to engage in meaningful conversations by listening actively, asking insightful questions, and showing genuine interest in others' stories and challenges.The Power of the Follow-Up: The true magic of networking happens after the initial meeting. Learn to turn a new contact into a genuine connection with a timely, personalized follow-up. Consistent engagement, through social media and regular check-ins, is what maintains the relationship and keeps you top-of-mind.Expand Your Network, Expand Your Opportunities: A robust network is your key to unlocking a hidden world of opportunities. From gaining access to exclusive off-market deals in real estate to finding mentors and career advancement, a strong network provides insider knowledge, support, and a competitive edge.Topics:Magic of NetworkingStrategic NetworkingBusiness Networking TipsReal Estate NetworkingProfessional RelationshipsCall-to-ActionReady to unlock the magic of a strong professional network? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building connections that matter! Take your business further with the KGCI Real Estate On Air mobile app. Download it for free on iPhone and Android—just search ‘KGCI’ in the Apple App Store or Google Play.Grow your business with KGCI Real Estate On Air

Hey there, real estate pro. You ready to keep growing your business? While you found KGCI Real Estate on Air is more than 1500 on-demand podcast packed with actionable strategies, expert advice, and tips from top performing agents, but if you want to keep growing, first, make sure you subscribe to this podcast right now so you don't miss a single episode. Then take your business at that next level by downloading the KGCI Real Estate on-air mobile app. Available for iPhone and Android, it's the perfect companion wherever you go. Just search KGCI in the Apple App Store or Google Play. Let's build success together. The real estate biz is drastically changing. And modern real estate success can't be learned in some old course manual.

This is everything they never told you about real estate, where industry leaders expose secrets to success, contemporary lead generation, and how to dominate social media, all moderated by your host, the real estate goat and queen of social media, Kerry Sovey. Welcome. I'm your host, Carrie, and I'm joined with a very special guest, Nadia Habib. She is the VP of growth and retention for EXP Canada. And Nadia actually was my broker at EXP for a period of time before you got promoted to this fantastic position.

Thank you so much for coming on today, Nadia. It's my absolute pleasure. I've watched your podcast over and over. And when you ask me, I'm like, absolutely. I want one. See, a lot of people aren't comfortable because they know I kind of just wing it and they want structure. They're like, can you send me a list of questions? And I'm like, no. No, what I'm going to ask you. Let's just wait and I'll see how I'm feeling that day.

Right. So what a great position at EXP. Obviously, we're going to get into the whole EXP things. I'm an EXP agent and I love EXP. But what do you? exactly do you do as VP of growth? It's a very good question. In our sales industry, brokerage industry, team organizations, we focus a lot on whether it's the recruiting of agents, growing the organization, growing the brokerage. And there's another piece to it that if they don't go, they're hand in hand. And if they don't go together, you're not doing your job right, which is the retention aspect. So at EXP, my role is that all across the country,

I help team leaders grow their organization when they're talking to brokerages or they're talking to teams or individuals and they just need that one piece to help them cross the finish line. That's where I step in. But also my role entails meeting with team leaders and just individual agents that are looking to grow their organization

within EXP and retain. So when they have that growth, what are they doing for the retention aspect? And this is where we really kick it into gear and have an entire plan put in place for them and their organization so that retention can be anywhere between 90 to 100%. Wow. You know, I obviously, I'm an agent in EXP, so I obviously see the value. I have to be honest. I've spent the last pretty much the entire time I've been,

AXP, moving from production over to coaching. So I've been slowly getting out of production, building my coaching business. And I haven't even started any agent attraction. Obviously, I see the value in it. My upper line is Curtis Shulal, go go Bethke. So I absolutely see that this is a retirement plan. But I haven't implemented anything. Whoever is in my downline, kind of just called me. It was like, I want to join you, which was really easy. And I thought, you know what, my next step is going to be putting together, like trial and error putting together an actual system for agent attraction, putting that in place. And I've come up with a bunch of ideas. So let's, why don't we just brainstorm? Okay. So for the most part, do you think the agents are

cold calling people or other agents to get them to join? Or do they have like, are they using AI? Are they using automation? What do you see most agents in the XP doing to attract agents? There's a lot of different, you know, different ways to attract agents. I've been, you know, recruiting my entire career because it's always been my role for the last 18 years. And I truly believe that if you have an item of value, if you have, you know, an organization that tailors to the needs that I need, but I don't currently have, I'm going to be attracted to you. But who do we find that's like that? So first of all, it happens organically for our agents. That's one method because they're out there selling, you know, real estate, the perception, you know, of exps that were recruiting

company. However, 95% of our agents are strictly production base. I would even say 96%. So only 4% are into the attraction. So we are very high producing brokerage. So it happens naturally, just like you said, anybody that's in your organization right now, you know, hey, Carrie, I like your style. I like you. I want to join your organization. That's great. Another way of doing it is you have a value proposition. So, you know, only focusing on you now, Carrie, is you're working on a coaching program. You're phenomenal when it comes to, you know,

the social media aspect, the CRM system, how to generate leads off of the CRM. That's something that, you know, you are, that's your strength. And that's what a lot of agents out there need that. So you hold a package that a lot of agents need, but they currently don't have or don't have time to, discover on their own and create that own system for themselves. Those are the people that you would gravitate towards giving them a call. When you have something of value that they need, that's when

they're open to the conversation. So the most successful recruiting that I've ever done is having something that an agent needs on a day to day, but currently does not have and does not have time to create. It's funny you say that because I took a little breather. I think it was last December. I'm like, okay, this coaching program is making me mad. Wasn't where you broke your life? I was, no, no. Now that I broke it, I'm just going to keep working, okay? I know, right? It's a great excuse to get things done that may fall through the cracks, right? But in December, it was Christmas holidays. I don't really like the holidays. I'm not like a family-oriented person.

I avoid the family dynamics as much as I can. So what I did was I generated full detailed systems with instructions and links for buyers and sellers from prospecting and all the different prospecting methods all the way through like sky slope, filling out forms, like the technical stuff. and then all the way down to nurturing for future business. And I actually had an agent join at the time when I completed it. And she was maybe two years into the business. And she said, oh, my God, this is a new agent's wet dream. Because these are the kind of tools that brokerages aren't offering to their agents. And so how do I take something like that and let everybody.

know. I would use social media myself, but for other agents out there who've built a great infrastructure of support and resources so that they can build, how would they get that out there? What would be your advice? The easiest way is through social media. I mean, really be present on social media, but a lot of people tend to forget that, you know, YouTube is its own search engine on its own. So I would, you know, through your, it's kind of like a show and tell. You know, you have all this value. I would start recording tidbits of what I have and posting it on YouTube, getting a following off of that and then nurturing those leads that are coming to you off of YouTube. What you just described to me as a new agent, my God, if I had it as a new agent, it would have

made my life so much easier because, you know, I walked into the real estate industry and it's who do you go for help? You know, I started with one brokerage. I lasted there four months. I actually hated real estate when I got into it because I just felt so lost. You know, you go to school. Nothing that you take in school applies to your day to day. Then I transitioned to another brokerage and it was, okay, I can get some help.

But it's a lot of it is, you know, I strive in chaos. A lot of people don't. So when the chaos came at me, that's when I, excelled and I became better and I learned it all myself. But what you're doing is I would start doing, you know, YouTube videos, tutorials. And then when you start growing your own organization, you would have your own law training that only your organization has access to, you know, of the day to day, of the coaching, of the social media interactions, all of that. So the value that you bring to the table, Carrie, is unbelievable. Well, you know, in our, the atmosphere in the Canadian real estate industry, I've found.

So I've been in almost 14 years now. I've built everything by myself. Even, you know, years ago, I was at Royal Lepage. I wanted to build a team. Nobody had teams in Hamilton outside of Rob Golfie and Rod Frank. And I went to my broker and I said, hey, I want to build an all female team. And he was like, I don't know. know how to help you there. So I left and I went to a new brokerage and I figured it out for myself.

So I've been building everything myself. I've experienced a lot of competition, negative competition. Personally, in my experience, I know it's different for everybody, but being a female and a younger female when I started and I did get off on the right foot. So I did pretty well from the beginning. Um, yeah, I expanded a lot of hate from people within my own brokerage. I never received help from anything. Um, and that's why I moved to EXP. The numbers are great, you know, like the splits are great. The capping is great.

The stocks are great. The revenue share is great. That's not why I joined. I joined because I couldn't call the top producer. in my brokerage that I was at and even get him on the phone, let alone have him share anything of value with me whatsoever. So I had a relationship with GoGo prior because we're both on social media. We're both, you know, there's a little community of us.

We all know each other. And I finally said, fuck and I'm just going to come over with people I like. And her first thing she said to me was, all right, what do you need, drip campaign systems? What do you want me to send you? And I said, what the hell are you talking about? Like, I just spent, because it was beginning of COVID, I decided instead of sitting around drinking and eating food and making fucking banana bread, I decided to start systemizing my whole business, updating my CRM, updating all of my automations. And it literally took me nine months to do because I'm creating this from scratch. We didn't have

chat GPT then. It was all coming from my brain. And I'm like, are you kidding me? There's, there's an atmosphere. There's an environment out there where I don't have to create everything myself from scratch. And that was a game changer for me. Like, people do not understand the level of cooperation within EXP. And I think that, you know, in the U.S. that they're doing it right. In Canada, I don't think enough of the EXP agents are taking advantage of the resources out there. How do we fix that? A very good point that you bring up, Carrie. So when Natalie and I came into our roles, the VP roles in Canada, you know, previous management, previous leadership, there's a lot of things that we had to change because we saw Glenn's

vision. We knew where he wanted to take the company. And I mean, Glenn being a Canadian, his heart is in Canada. So we, we saw the vision and we just said, you know, we know exactly what he's looking for and we need to start changing things up. A lot of really big players came to our leadership team, you know, such as Patrick, we have Michael Valdez, you know, we have Carolyn, we have myself, John Tsai, Natalie. We're all working together collectively to change. it up so that we are the growing company in Canada, and we are. We're one of the fastest growing companies. So when we look at, you know, collaboration within EXP, it is the one company that is owned by the agents. So of course that number one agent is going to pick up the phone and share

their ideas with you because they need you to do well. If you don't do well, they don't do well. The company doesn't do well. And that's what differentiates us from so many other competitors. competitors. You know, we're a company that has zero debt. You know, we're on the stock exchange, zero debt. And it all comes back to the leadership that we bring. I'm talking about a virtual company, the majority of real estate companies, their leaders are not on the ground with the agents. We are ready to go to any barbecue, any gathering, anything that our agents need, we will fly out and attend. Now, going back to a point that you said when you started your women team, you know, the difficulty of women in real estate. Preach it. I know exactly what you're

talking about. But, you know, I don't think a lot of people sit back and look at what EXP has put together. It has the most female in leadership that I have ever seen with any real estate company. You know, if we look at myself and Natalie, we're both VPs in Canada. We have Carolyn Merchant, who is the CMO. I mean, we have newer that's now in charge of all marketing in Canada. They are so supportive of talent

and hard work. And they are so supportive of promoting within our organization. And that's something I have to give them credit to. Doesn't matter if you're male, female, as long as you can lead and show us that you do great work, that's the talent that we're

looking for. And you can't find that anywhere. I love that. I love that. It is hard for women in real estate. And I think part of the reason why, you know, our resources aren't being utilized as much as they could be by our own agents is because they're so, let's call it like a little PTSD, but from being out there on their own in a highly competitive industry. And Nadia, like, let's be honest, if 10% of the agents are making 90s. 90% of the money, that means 90% of the agents that you're coming into contact every year are in survival mode.

They're living in survival mode because they're not making enough money to support themselves and their families. Of course, it's going to be a nasty environment, right? Like, it just makes sense. I'm not blaming the agent, but this is the majority of people that we come across on a day-to-day basis. But we have to like, we have to get out there more.

We have to let the agents that are already with us know, like take advantage of all of these pearls of wisdom just being thrown at you everywhere, right? We're so fortunate. You know, the more IRL events that I attend and seeing the agents in person, the more like just my heart grows. These agents are there to collaborate to share ideas. is to help each other out.

And every time I'm at an event, you know, it shocks me. But then you see someone that flew in just to speak at an event for that agent, at no cost to the agent, just to help them. That goes, you know, a thousand miles with that agent. It's just, you flew out here just to speak at my event. The support is there. The help is there. And they are, you know, being a virtual brokerage, I truly believe I've never been closer to my agents.

being a virtual brokerage than when I was at a brick and mortar. Because at a brick and mortar, you're seeing the same group of 10 people come in and out of the office every single day. Being virtual allows you to engage with a bigger audience, creating a bigger referral source and meeting people globally all over through our platforms. Yeah, I love that. And, you know, one of the things that I love about EXP, I do you know that? I went to my very first real estate conference, my entire career, I went to Buzz, disruption this year. Never even went to a conference before because I hated most agents and I thought, why do I want to go and hang out with them? No, literally, though, I'm like, what am I?

I've heard them before. Yeah, and bus does agree. Yeah, after going, now I want to go to all of them. them. Like, this is, this is my thing. I hope you're going to the September one. Yeah, I'm coming to the EXP in Vancouver. Absolutely. They're, they're so much fun. And I love the EXP is all about getting connected in person as well as just virtual because you look at the whole perception of a cloud brokerage doesn't appeal to a lot of people because they want the personal connection.

However, I'm more personally connected with agents in EXP all over North America, more so than I was in my own office at another brokerage. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly how I feel. It's just easier, you know, attending so many meetings, so much training and, you know, jumping on Zoom calls or FaceTime. It's just for me, like you're getting more in a day than you,

you would going into a physical office. You know, being at the events that are provided, the nice thing is, is that if one agent is hosting an event, an email goes out to the entire province, whoever is available, hey, your leadership team is going to be. They're supporting the event. But also here is a list of all the speakers. We would like you to attend.

So, you know, the collaboration is just phenomenal. I love it. So, okay, so let's talk about AI. I've been diving deep into AI lately. I have gone down some black holes. I have some tools now that would literally blow your mind. And I'm obviously going to care all of them, right? There's so many.

You can't even go over them. But where do you see? Obviously, EXP was the first to adapt AI. Look at the Metaverse, right? Like our whole brokerage is, it's meta, right? Like it's, it's AI. So where do you see the training going towards AI? So we've tapped into it a little bit at shareholders,

our last conference in Orlando, but our conference that's happening in Vegas, it is primarily going to be sort of like around AI. The majority of our speakers, the majority of our setups. I can't wait. So it's going to be very, very exciting. With the training that's happening,

we see right now a lot of the RRL events in person. They always have a speaker that is talking about AI, tools to use, showing examples. So I've been to the last probably five to 10. They had someone there speaking about AI. We've always had AI, right? but just not at this capacity. We've never had it at our fingertips.

However, you know, series AI, our fridge that takes notes is AI. Everything is AI, but now it's so readily available. And, you know, you talk about tapping into it. My youngest son is an engineering student software engineering. And he was just showing me yesterday. He's like, Mom, look at this, you know, logo that I created for this program that I wrote. And I'm like, oh, it's pretty cool.

What did you use? He goes, AI did it all for me in seconds. So the amount of things that can be accomplished in such a short period of time. Now, we were even talking about Spotify, for example, and this is something that he told me about yesterday, is that Spotify is now pausing for commercials. However, the commercials are AI generated, but it's like a real person talking to you. And, you know, imagine just me thinking about that. Now I'm thinking all the radio stations, all the TV networks.

You know, where we're headed and it's just mind-blowing, Carrie. This is why when I learn something, I stick to it for a little bit, because if I dive into everything, it's just a distraction. Yeah, that's why coaching is for me. Like, my perfect scenario would be to have my coaching program and I spend my time helping agents on that coaching program, but the majority is researching and being on the forefront of every single thing in technology that can advance real estate and then adding it to and bringing it to realtors. That would be my perfect life because I'm, I'm, I'm in a school like three times. My mom's a professor. I think my brother's a professor. Like, I feel like I have it in my blood, right? Just to be a career student. So that's why. You know, you can never stop

learning. That's when we stop growing when we stop learning. So it's a continuous. And, you know, fortunately, I have my kids that always throw things my way. Sometimes I have no idea what they're talking about. But, you know, I'm like, oh, okay, great. But yeah, the technology is just phenomenal. And the speed that AI is moving at is unreal. Yeah. I'm getting new tools and new apps to look at every single day. I went out with my husband. He wanted me to go for a drive with them somewhere and I don't know why. But so I'm sitting in the truck and I'm on a live YouTube because Mind Valley had an AI summit on the weekend.

Yeah. Of course, I wanted to be there. And he's like, can you get out of the car and like come in for lunch? And I'm like, no, I'm learning how to build an app with AI right now. Like, leave me alone. Yeah. Bring me a sandwich. He's like, oh, geez.

I'm like, this is what I love. This is what I love to do. So what are some of the, what would you say is the biggest struggle for realtors right now in production? Like what are you seeing? Because you're seeing a lot more. You talk to a lot more realtors than I do. So what do you think they're? Yeah.

Across the country, it's very interesting. You know, if we look at Ontario, Ontario is, you know, where we're at. Right now we're seeing more inventory come on the market. and we're going to see more and more inventory come on the market, especially as mortgage renewals start to come into play and people can't afford it. However, you know, rent's gone up 27 percent. So it's not becoming affordable to have a home, but it's also not becoming affordable to rent a home, but it's still more affordable than owning one. First time buyers are going to struggle right now in a market like this. And what where I'm seeing is migration to areas such as Saskatchewan, New Brunswick,

Halifax, Calgary, where affordability is a lot better than here. There's always going to be a market for homes here. Obviously, there's always going to be buyers. However, the problem is the first time home buyers. Those are the ones that are going to struggle. I don't, I mean, this is a correction in the market. I've said this from the beginning. I truly believe this is a correction in the market.

The price is inflated. The inflation just went up way, way too high. I mean, we saw buyers paying $200,000. $2,000, $250, even more than that, over-asking for properties. And now the market has to fix itself. So, you know, where do I see it headed? First-time home buyers are always going to struggle in a market like this. But once the interest rates start coming down, it'll become more affordable for them to get

into the market. But my biggest advice is- Isn't that just going to drive prices up again? We're Canadian. we buy real estate. It's like a sport for us, I feel like. And, you know, everybody wants the interest rates high. It's great because then the prices will stop going up.

But eventually they have to come down a little bit or even just stabilize and the market will get back up there again. Like it's going to start moving again. And I think they need to, they need to also improve a lot on, you know, different municipalities, cities improve on. the permit releases. I mean, builders are really being held back, but also their costs have gone up tremendously. It's no longer available. Land value has gone up so much that it's no longer profitable for builders to be building. So, you know, that's where we see a lack of inventory coming on the

market, you know, especially first-time homebuyers that are looking for apartment buildings that are going up in the price range that they can afford. And not everybody can move to different provinces, but now, We're in a world that a lot of people work from home. So it doesn't matter where you live. And this is where we saw the big buyouts in rural areas all across the country is because as long as you have the internet and you can get the space, it doesn't matter where you work from. So there's, you know what?

Who knows what's going to happen? I really believe by the end of this year we should see some stability in the market. But in the summertime, we're known. for this. The market always slows down. People are busy with their family. Travel. I tell everybody that. I think by September things will be great. Yeah, I tell everybody in like worst time to sell your house July and August. Call me in September. Yeah. It doesn't matter what kind of work there is. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It could be a great market. It could be a shitty market. I do not blame, you know, things slowing down right now on the interest

rates at all because look how the interest rates were at the beginning of the year and the market was going bananas again. It's the season. One thing I will say, though, is that there's a lot of government incentives coming down the pipeline for purpose built apartment. So a lot of the builders I usually work with to find them site plan approved packages and projects. Now they're like, okay Carrie, find me, I'm going to build a purpose build apartment because there's some stuff supposed to be happening with HST, some HST changes and some incentives there. So hopefully that will add to the rental market maybe stabilized. I hope so.

Because that's- I hope so. Yeah. I mean, you know what? Things are still moving. We say that it's gone up, but gone up from what? Like it's gone up. It goes up traditionally. single year. So people are still right here, you know, vacancy rate is still very low. So for us,

it's it's the time of year. No one right now is looking. They're busy with their families. They're busy with summer vacations. Come September, it's going to pick right back up again. So, you know, for the agents, enjoy the break. Continue to keep in touch with your clients. Continue making those small touches with them. But September is coming and it's going to go right back up again. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, geez. What a what a, what a, what a roller coaster of a last few years, I tell you. I know. I have agents that that did really well, got into the industry during COVID when everything was, you know, crazy and really didn't. Everybody and their mother, I knew at least, everybody knows at least 10 people that wanted to buy a second home or upgrade.

when the interest rates were really low. So of course, they just killed it and made a ton of money. And now they're like, Carrie, I'm a failure. I'm not producing. And I'm like, you're not a failure. You're just starting from scratch in a normal market. Like, just forget that the last two years even happened. Because all that happened, yeah, all that happened really, essentially,

is your sphere of influence all were incentivized to make a move within that two years instead of spreading it out over 10 years like what usually happens. So now you have no clients and now you have to start prospecting, right? Funny, you know, the agents that came into real estate during COVID, which everybody wanted to do real estate because the market was so hot and it was so easy to do a deal. Multiple offers everywhere. Like it just insanity during those years. But they came in, like you said, they came in at the prime time. They came in when real estate transactions were literally the easiest to do. Yeah. Low interest rates, lots of inventory,

and, you know, just buy and flip over a sign whatever it is. It's us that came in, you know, 18 years ago or in the time of 2007, 2007, 2008, where the market had, again, we were at stabilization. We were waiting for the market to equal itself out. And we really struggled during that time when, you know, average homes were anywhere between 225 to 250. That was the average in my marketplace in southwestern Ontario. And now you, there's nothing in that price range. So, you know, agents, when they come in an easy market, they expect it to be. easy, but this really shows them how difficult a real estate agent's job is. It is not always, you know, an uphill. There's downs, a lot of downs. And yes, we get lucky with a good market.

However, it's helping the agents or helping our clientele in a bad market. That's what really counts. Where do they offer the assistance in a bad market? Never gone through it. So for us, it's helping them when it comes to mortgage renewals, you know, downsizing their home, getting them into something, that, you know, fits their family but is affordable to them so they can live a normal life. Those are the things that we've been through. Yeah. I do have a specific question I want to ask you because you are from Ontario, even though your job is Canada-wide. What do you think about the new mandatory health program? A lot of brokers aren't happy with it. A lot of, obviously, the agents are and complete uproar.

I don't have much of an opinion either way. It doesn't bother me, but it also, yeah, I just, what do you, what do you think? Because I've heard that there's some brokers that are getting together and they're going to try to fight this. So have you heard anything about this? Yeah, I was reading, I was reading about it this morning, actually. There are some, you know, board presidents that are sending out emails to their agent base, letting them know that they're getting them more information and so forth and they're digging into it.

I really feel, you know, and I can't comment on behalf of anyone but myself, is that more of a consensus should have been put out to the agent base to find out what they want to do. You know, it's the board members that voted for this. I don't know which boards were in favor of it or not. that information is not available to us. However, I never feel anything should be mandated. There should always be a choice. And, you know, for example, with EXP, we have health insurance. You have health insurance for our staff. We have health insurance for our agents. So isn't it, you know, why, and what if, you know, your spouse also has life insurance or health insurance? So are you going to be now having it with EXP, with EREA and your husband has it? I think that's a lot.

on the table, I think it should always be a choice, especially in a market like this, you know, bringing up the fees to over $600 is a lot of money for just your area because then you have your board dues on top of that and we have our RICO dues on top of that and the expenses. So I really feel it should be a choice and opt in, opt out choice. And that gives them, I mean, we appreciate them negotiating it on behalf of the agents because I think it's badly needed that they have that option at expe, we have it, but a lot of brokerages don't have that option. Yeah. However, it should stay as an option for agents.

I agree. If they want to, if they want to raise fees, just raise fees. Let's not call it a mandatory health care program. You know what you mean? I just don't understand why else it would be mandatory, right? So it's just right now, agents are struggling financially, you know, and it's, you don't it's hard to kick when when someone's down i think you know have the option of hey we negotiated a great you know health benefit for you guys if you want to opt in that's great and if you don't then

you don't but um when you mandate on a real estate agent it's difficult to absorb because you know we're independent contractors we want to call our own shots we want to be the boss of our business so it's difficult you brought up something interesting it's hard times financially for realtors I have an idea. I don't know if you like it. I think EXP Canada should do a two, three day workshop event, maybe live as opposed to virtual, on financial health, budgeting, everything than an agent. because I'm one of those agents and I know so many. I didn't have any kind of financial intelligence.

I, you know what you mean? Yeah, I do business. I buy rental properties. But like my version of doing business and real estate is I got a boatload of money. Let's throw it on a property. You know what you mean? And then when that tenant and audience, let's sell it. You know, I don't, you know, there's no financial structure to my life.

And I have met a few agents, Babe Picat being one of them because she has an accounting background who has these spreadsheets and this structured system for her own personal life tied to her business. And, you know, I just think that's wonderful. And there's so many agents that don't have access to that or even nowhere to begin. Is that something the EXP Canada maybe could, you know, you never know. We definitely explore putting on something like that for our agents. I think it's super important when I was with the previous company, when I did my training for the agents coming into the industry.

Believe it or not, the second lesson or the second session that I did with them was financial planning. And that was because a lot of real estate agents don't know how to control their money. And because it comes in in lump sums, right? It's not like we're getting paid biweekly. So I try to change their mindset. Like you're getting paid in lump sums, forget about it. You work, you are an employee for your own company.

So make withdraws weekly or biweekly as if you worked for a company. They don't know how to control it because it's just in lump sums in their account and it's easier to spend. But I think that's a fantastic idea. And they don't plan, you know, for the future funds. They don't plan for retirement. They don't plan for, you're an independent contractor. You don't have a pension plan.

You really have to work hard to get there. And this is, you know, when Glenn thought of this process, it's EXP has that exit strategy where you can retire off of the rough share that you earn. And the one beauty of it is, it's a willable asset. So you can have one of your kids inherit that. You can. So it's just a phenomenal idea because as real estate agents, we don't have that pension plan. Yeah. And even like let's do it from like budgeting to tracking because. do you know how many agents have no idea how much money is going out to compare to what's coming in and where everything is coming from? I don't know if that's like your thing, but I feel like you would be really strong at something like that. Me, not so much. Like I'm not going to lie. I have my own strengths and that is not one of them. And Nadia, we should talk later because I, um,

I'm going to be doing some events with, I do the lead generation through CRM, through social media, now AI for my coaching. I've met a wonderful girl who coaches a neurolinguistic programming, which is, she is great. It's like hypnotherapy. I find women as realtors could use this because I feel like it's a more feminine

energy of conversion and follow up as opposed to the aggressive hunts and kill and eat what to kill fun of deal, right? But also, she addresses like limiting beliefs and just like gets really down to the core personally and business. So I feel like the missing component, Nadia, is the business planning. So I don't know if you're into it, but we should talk about that because I think that would make for a well-rounded workshop, business planning, lead generation workshops, and conversion at a very high level. So we should talk about that. Yeah.

And yeah, please let me know. Absolutely. I would love to. Yeah, please let me know if you do do something in terms of, you know, financial security and intelligence, some kind of program. And I feel like that would be a really good attraction. magnet to EXP as well. I think so too. Like, you know, everyone, um, everyone can use guidance when it comes because, you know, things change. We're so used to dumping money into

our RRSPs all the time. That's, you know, tax savings account. It, you know, you can save yourself tax if you put money in there. However, for me, I can only speak for me, the most profitable investment that I have ever made was real estate. Yeah. The turner, there's no way I can make the amount of money that I made off of real estate, I could have made that off of my RSP savings. Absolutely not. The only reason I dump money into my RSP's is to really cut down on my taxes. Other than that, I have zero use for it. I would rather invest my money in property than invest in stocks or invested in anything else.

So, you know, guidance to that is, you know, you should have a goal in place when you get into business and you're starting to make your own money. Your first thing that you should think about is I want to start. owning investment properties. And of course, like you, I mean, as it builds equity, you would draw you by the second one and the third and you continue growing that portfolio. Honestly, Gary, I never had an education fund for my children and my only dream that I educate my kids and have them walk out of university debt-free. And when they started going to university, I mean, I thought they would go to university for four years and would be done, but they're all, you know, highly educated. So the oldest is an

Ivy graduate. That's very expensive to do. I believe, like his four years, you know, plus living plus plus plus plus cost me about 270,000. And I had zero savings for that. All I did was sell one property and I profited and was able to pay. My daughter went and did nursing, but she lived in Toronto. And of course, you know, she's got the rent on top of that and the food and the expense. It's same thing. So, and my youngest is in software engineering. It's very, very costly to put kids through school and I was very fortunate to be able to do that through property investing. And, you know, as females, we all have our own goals, whether it's putting the kids through school or, you know, being able to stand up on your own two feet and be able to support yourself

and your family so there's no, you know, dependencies on other people. Property investment is the way to go, especially if the rental properties, because people are paying your mortgage, tenants are paying your mortgage and you're able to get that back and be able to sell it and take that money home to yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I do. It's just, it's needed. This is something that we need to do. We need to provide this kind of information. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Because there's England out there, they're making a million dollars a year and spending two million dollars a year. Like that is a, that is a realistic assessment of a lot of realtors, unfortunately, and it's just because they don't have the right guidance and they don't have the right tools or information. So that's something we should do.

A lot of business owners, a lot of business owners are that way. They're missing that financial piece to the puzzle. You know, they're very talented at making the money. They are so talented at spending it, but zero talent at what to spend it on. So during COVID, I saw a lot of them by the cottages and the boats and this and that, well, you know, eventually everything slows down. So now what do you do with all of that? If I were to say, I think a lot of cottages are going to come up for sale soon. Right. I've actually been reading some articles about how the cottage industry is taking a huge hit right now, which I totally get. I mean, makes sense. Yeah. People don't have right now, the extra funds for recreational properties. People right now are focusing on, you know,

having a good family home, keeping a steady job and focusing on what's happening in the market. But yeah, I think a lot more will come up for sale. Okay, let's play a little game. All right. Let's play a little game. So I'm going to ask you a series of questions. It's all going to be Canadian-related, where would you rather? Okay. And because you travel across Canada, have you been to all the provinces yet? Every single one. Oh, my goodness.

Okay. So minus Yukon. Gone to Yukon. Yeah. I haven't gone to the territories yet. Okay. Okay. So number one, where would you rather live?

What province, and if you can pinpoint a city, tell me it has to be in Canada. Okay. I would have to say, oh boy, I would have to say Montreal. Oh, because it is just absolutely stunning with so much to do. I'm in love with old Montreal, but second in place would be Halifax for me. Oh, wow. Okay. If you had to settle. your real estate business in any province or city in Canada, which one would it be? I would say Montreal. Oh my goodness. It's going to be all Montreal.

No. Like the luxury, I'm never going to go BC because it's so gloomy. Every time it's gone to BC, it's been raining. As soon as I leave, it's sunny. And I'm like, this is a sign. I'm never moving to BC. I lived in Vancouver and I feel like it out of Canada has the highest suicide rate because of the environment and the level. Yeah.

I would live to live. I would love Kelowna. That I will never give up. Colonna to me is heaven on earth. It's gorgeous. Okay. If you could only eat in one point. province for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Oh, dear. That one is a hard one.

I would say, I would say BC for the food. Yeah? Yeah, I would say BC. They have phenomenal food. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Now, when you retire and you want the peace and you're done with the business, What province is that going to be in? I would have to say Ontario. I really like Lake Huron. So I would say somewhere in a little cottage town. It has the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life. And that's where I would want to retire.

I like that. Girls vacation. What province are you taking the girls on vacation? What province do? No one knows you guys. I think girls' vacation would have to be Newfoundland. Oh, really? I haven't been.

Because I can't lose you. There's only one street that you guys can go. One street. Okay. We're coming for you. We're coming for you. That's the easiest. There's George Street.

Other than that, no bars are anywhere. Oh, my goodness. I love it. I love it. I want to explore more of Canada. You're so lucky if I could travel around. You have a great position, a dream job. And you're doing a really amazing job, Nadia. You are really hands-on with everybody. And I really want to thank you for being on this podcast. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. You're a gem and inspiration. I love everything you do and everything you give back to EXP. So thank you. I really do appreciate you. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to everything they never told you about real estate. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

To connect with Carrie or for more information about her coaching program, check out Carriesovey.ca or at Carrie Sovey and Associates on Instagram and TikTok. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll see you next time.