KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Value of Community and Partnership

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Welcome back. Homies and homies. Homies, is it a, that's a non-binary word. I think homies is non-binary. I think everyone's a homie. Welcome back, homies. It's Kristen Aaron coming at you for another episode of the Mindful CEO. We had a prompt. Last week, I wrote it down as a prompt, Aaron.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I can't remember exactly the context, but I have all kinds of opinions about it. So the prompt is the value of community and partnership, the value of community and partnership. So, I mean, just off the talk. of my head to set this up, I'm often, I was on my own path of doing hustle and grind and launching programs and I was a coach and there's all the stuff I was doing that was very isolated and alone. I would have amazing conversations with people in my programs and then my programs

would be over and we'd go our separate ways and then I'd be left to find a new batch of people that would want to have conversations with me. I'm like, why are we not having these kinds of conversations on a weekly basis. Like the hard work is, the hard work for me is like finding the people that want to have the conversation. Why would we let those people go? Why would we not find a container that invites those people in for the rest of our life? So you talk about like the value of community.

I just realized like I was doing a lot of the efforts I was doing in my business on my own and not aligning myself with people that I really enjoy. there's two thoughts I have that road forks you know there's one road where I hear what you say as an entrepreneur building a business you know building my tribe I hear the Seth Godin yeah conversation for a hundred raving fans you know that's that's this that's the goal if you're listening and you're an entrepreneur and you're building a you know of any kind of business. Yeah.

Right. I mean, it reduces down to when you get to the absurdity of the reduction, you know, repeat sales. But it's, you know, the idea that I hear what you're sharing, Chris, is very much from, you know, you're, I'm building something. I was thinking my friend Dave, who's got a taco pop-up stand makes the best. fucking tacos and we were i was there with a client appreciation event on sunday and we were just talking waiting for people to show up and he wants to expand his business and you know you think

about it like there are people that rave about his tacos right or besides me i suspect i'm not yeah the only person who eats those and thinks god those are so fucking good um you know but how does he as a business person nerds that, you know, fan those flames. Build that tribe. Build that community. You know, the prompt was what community and what? Partnership.

Partnership, you know, like developing that. And so there's that level to take the crayon for a walk on if you're a business person. Like, okay, how do I get these fans more raving? How do I get more of them? How do I get them to tell their friends? You know, how do, you know, that's the point. partnership part is they take ownership of that business. And I think that's one world of that conversation.

And then there's the community and partnership level of where do I personally go to sort that out. Like, you know, we're like not client facing, but planning facing, self-growth facing. Like there's, am I going to be figuring this out by myself or am I in a community, you know, when you initially posited, yay, posit. I know every time that I write something, I write posit. I'm like, they're going to think, hey, I did this. Oh, well, here's a tangent. I was doing a little thing about the NAR ruling. and I was talking about how the tech industry is already planning for the disintermediation of realtors from their businesses, right?

So we didn't need the NAR ruling to help them in any way, but it could. And a friend of mine was listening to it and I was like, oh, I heard disintermediation. I was like, oh, Aaron's got the dictionary out. But disintermediation is one of my favorite words. anyway so there's this you know when you had initially proposed the prompt today of community and partnership I heard it in you know that's the mastermind we're building that's the point like when I went to talk to I talked to Dave about joining the mastermind and you know I talk about it like because that's where you can go you know and have other people thinking about your stuff and you can have I spread you get your thoughts

out of your head and into the world so that you can see them and you can bounce you know they can bounce around with other like-minded people so whether you're in this community or you're doing something on your own or at a dinner or at a dinner party, you know, it's, there's elements of if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room kind of vibe to it. Like you want to be in community and partnership that way. So those are the two different things, two different directions. And I think we can go both of them.

But yeah. I mean, when I think of it from this context, in this podcast, I think of the second, the second content, the second one that you said, like having others that, um, you can have intelligent conversations with that who are interested in the same conversations like you know if i just keep this super simple and i think about the life i was the life i was living the double life i was living where you know if i had a conversation with my wife who was not in this space not in this conversation or my kids not in this conversation or i go to a chamber of commerce meeting right if i try to reach out to the business community like There's just, I couldn't, there was no place I could go to scratch the edge of the conversations I wanted to have.

Right. I want to talk about making the world a better place consciously through our business. That's what I want to talk about. And if you spend enough time in life finding the thing you want to talk about and then you can't talk about it anywhere. That's good. Stop right there. That's really good. You got to find the thing you want to talk about.

Yeah. You know, and mostly we don't. Mostly, I think we don't bother. You know, we're too busy. It's there's too much noise. There's two, that takes real thought. Yeah. It takes quieting. Yeah. Mind takes quieting the mind enough to get that there's even a question of something that I want to talk about. Even having the question, is there something I really, you know, lights me up. floats my boat, you know, that I want to talk about is a big deal. Yeah. And beyond what most people bother with.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, a true least. Yeah. And I think the benefit of having a podcast called the Mindful CEO is, you know, this would attract people who would want to talk about mindfulness and business. Like I think, you know, in some ways we've embedded it in the name of the show in the community. but and that's a high level because we could go down different roads in this community.

But I'm assuming that if you're listening to a podcast called the mindful CEO, this would be a conversation you'd want to have. And as you look at your close friends and your family and your Chamber of Commerce, you might also find it hard to have these kinds of conversations about mindfulness and business. Well, okay. So if we talk about mindfulness and business, God, that's such a broad thing because, you know, it's i mean we're talking about meditation business we're talking about making the world a better place it's not particularly inherent in mindfulness but it is what you think of when you speak it chris i can hear it and you're speaking that's your relationship to it is that the world would be a better place

if more so there's the world would be a better place and more people are mindful hard to argue right against that like no no fuck it we're world's fine the way it is people driving into trees distracted by text. Clearly, the world would be, in our view, the world would be a better, what we would consider better, what we would consider better place with more people are mindful. And if more businesses were mindful, we're asserting your businesses will do better. Yeah, right. You know, be more fulfilling.

But that thing about more fulfilling needs and east. It needs what fulfills me. It needs an awareness of something needs something. Yeah. Right. And it's not. And the thing that fulfills me is not a goal. Right.

Right. That's also a value of. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, that's just also a big deal is that the thing that's going to fulfill the, the realization, the opening, the awakening to the thing that's going to fulfill me is here in the present moment now. And the journey is stepping into being fulfilled every moment. That's the direction. It's now and now and now and now and now and now.

And not a destination. Like I'm going to hit that target, that number, and then fulfillment comes. Yeah. Right. I think that's part of the benefit of wrestling with that, you know, that we each get to kind of come in. I like it being broad. and for what we're creating to have mindfulness be. I think it's,

mindfulness attracts a certain person in a tribe. It attracts a certain tribe member. And I don't need, I don't need the collective conversation we have to be about, you know, when blank happens to the world will change. I don't need it to be directional. I think it will,

I think it will end up. Well, it is directional. No one. Hang on, but I think it has to be directional. I don't think it has to be goal oriented, but it's got to be directional inside what you just said. I mean, some element of mindfulness needs to be the direction.

Or it's all elements. What you're saying is, I think what you just, what you meant before I jumped in and corrected you. Were you saying, let me ask it. Ha, ha, ha, ha, let me pause and interact mindfully. Are you, are you saying it could be any of the directions of mindfulness, is not just the world's a better place. The world will change. Well, I think the conversation we're having is could be both.

You had said, you know, meditation is not necessarily directional. You could have a conversation. Mindfulness is not. Mindfulness. Well, and then I think you said we could go down many different roads. We could talk about meditation. I don't think of meditation as directional. But I find value in meditation.

Okay, good. Let's look. Yeah, I mean, on one hand, you could argue and you clearly make the argument that meditation is specifically non-directional. Right. I mean, it's about being here in this moment now. There is no other. But you could also argue that that's the direction. Sure.

Yeah. You know, meditation directs you to hear now. The sound of one hand clapping. Yeah. Okay, good. either side of that argument we're on the same side, right? Where that's, that's, I hear you.

Yeah. And for whatever business you're building, I'm just going to go back to Dave's taco stand. Yeah. Because it's such a random, you know, business. And it's such a heartfelt, authentic, you know, no kidding expression for the dude. It's, you know, I mean, it's, it's what.

it's what people eat that may it's that that that authenticity um yeah that heart um just okay so just cooking with that much heart it's funny it's uh there's a lot it this is good because this is really rich this whole thing i mean and this whole thing is really rich because we don't not interested in nailing it down we're interested in keeping it you know Catewompley, you know, just taking the crayon for a walk. Like, look, let's go out and see where it goes. Because, you know, what Dave's got there is a business that's based on an authentic love for, you know, family recipes and getting it out and looking to turn it into a business. Like, how could he do this as a business?

And he's right now flipping the tacos. You know, we were actually having the conversation about how he could expand that. fairly, you know, what I look to me fairly easily. And keep the authenticity and the heart and make it a viable business. So there's that world of there is a CEO part of mindful, the business part of mindful. Yeah. It is that in here is, yeah, business success, you know, measurable, demonstrable, business success. which brings up that whole paradox between intention and goal orientation.

You know, like, and that's, and that brings me back to that's really the power of community and partnership because it's a space in which that confusion gets sorted out because there's a clearing and an intention to get that sorted out to keep those paradoxical elements. elements from fucking with each other so you don't get down the road of oh well the easier way to do this is to you know buy the green chili in the jars and throw it you know like there's the not scalable nature of authenticity you know scaling the non scalable sure you know is is sort of a great that that's a good there's a prompt scaling the non scalable like how do we do that yeah um i know there's a lot this is good there's a lot this is good there So just a lot in there. I feel like too, if I had to, like if it's Dave, Dave has a taco stand. What's the name of Dave's taco stand? Let's give him a shout out. Cochina Borales. Ooh, nice.

Cochina Borrellas. So, I mean, and for me, just my curiosity is whether Dave took on the conversation in the community or not, but where I think what's so exciting for me is to say like, and how would Dave answer the question when blank happens, the world will change? Right. Like, let's, if I made the assumption that his answer was not eat more tacos, it was, it was above and beyond what is being sold, that what would change the world, you could say authenticity, you could say love, you could say, I don't know what he would say. But then what's interesting to me is how would you, in a mindful conversation or a community,

how would you flesh out the, how does that show up in my business? How do I bring that into the way I hire? How do I bring that into the accoutrements around my business? How do I bring that thing that I think changes the world for the better into the operations of my business that sells authentic tacos? All right. Good. It's so funny because I get so cynical when we say that. I just notice my whole being is like, I don't want the world to fucking, you know, when I sling houses, the world will change.

When I do the world will change. How about if I can just make a living, you know? So there's that element of it. But, you know, just beyond that is like, of course you want the world to change. Everyone wants the world. Everyone wants to make a difference. But everyone wants to make a difference. I'm saying this.

I'm speaking to myself. I'm speaking to a reminder. This is my reminder to myself that everybody wants a life that makes a difference. And yeah, literally, and I've asked tens. Yeah. You know, I've, I've asked 10,000 people that question. Yeah. Over the years.

And I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't. Right. It's just the resignation and the cynicism that we can't. Yeah. Right. And then, you know, and then, you know, the sort of, cheap resignation, you know, that comes with

certainly steeped in that East Coast, but also it's a punk rock ethic, right? To be, you know, an old man standing in the back of the room, judging the music from, oh, it's better than back in the day. Yeah. This guy's not for real judging their authenticity. Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. Fuck that band.

Um, namaste, motherfucker. Namaste, motherfucker. Um, yes. You know, but get, you know, live, you know, then having an authentic conversation for, all right, well, how does tacos? How do tacos change the world? You know, I, I think that's a worth, unless you're in a community that's going to have that.

See, that's a stupid conversation to have. with yourself. I mean, it's just it's impossible to have that conversation with yourself. You'd have to have that conversation with other people that were interested in. Right. How can I have my actions and what I do change the world? How can I do that? And, you know, you'd have to be, but authentically looking at that, you know, and being willing to engage seriously. and how can I do that? And what are the, you know, what are the personal,

professional business advantages of that? Yeah. To me, that's the paradox because I think, I think your, what has you attract a thousand true fans from Kevin Kelly, right? What has you find the tribe who would follow your taco stand anywhere and would tell their friends when you have a second taco stand in a different city, they would tell their friends in that city to go to Takostan because of what you stand for,

because of the work you're doing in the world. Like, this is where having something that is above the thing you sell, to have an ethos, to have a possibility, to have a mission, a meaning, a purpose, a true east that is beyond the taco. That's the thing that pulls the tribe to you, like Ben and Jerry's, doves, doves, There's a lot of case studies of businesses who have, who have a broader message than the thing they sell. Ben and Jerry's is ice cream.

But I think the true fans of Ben and Jerry's appreciate what they stand for. That there's an ethos. There's a, there's a narrative. There's a thing that says, hey, we're going to be conscious and mindful in business for the benefit of the things we value. And one of the ways we do that, how we scale that is through pints of ice cream. Yeah. Yeah.

If you ask Ben and Jerry, hey, when blank happens, the world will change. They wouldn't say sell more ice cream. They would say something above that. But how they scale that impact is through selling pines of ice cream. That's the conversation I'm really interested in. Yeah, I was talking of, I'm in another community with very, you know, very similar intentions as this, right? Like I've gotten a lot of people around me that have these kinds of conversations, you know. And one of the suggestions that came back to me was like, you know, one of the, so I was leading a mindful instruction, introduction to mindfulness.

And I was sharing what I do for work as slinging houses. And at the end, my wife came up to me. She said, I request you stop saying slinging houses because you don't. You know, you say it with derision and the truth is you don't. You take care of people in a way that people rarely get taken care of in a the most expensive transaction of their life. So you stop relating to it like slinging houses, which is accurate. She's, as always, she's right. And, you know, that's.

Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't get tired of it either. just good at it. Anyway, so that thought was that that thought was going somewhere. I swear to God that thought was going somewhere. Oh, and then I was talking to some people about this. I was in a partnership community kind of conversation and shared that. And, you know, the conversation turned to, well, what does it look like to sell real estate mindfully? Not training agents in mindfulness, which is where I've been focused.

Yeah, right. But what does it look like for you as a real estate agent to do it, have a transaction intentionally where the client is aware and awake and intentionally looking at the present moment? And how does, how do you leave them grounded in mindfulness, which is a conversation I had not had? I mean, at best I have the conversations at the highest level. So far, I've had the conversation for, well, if I listen mindfully, I can, you know, give them the space to be with any part of the transaction that they're having difficult. You know, I can be a space, a clearing for, an opening for them to have a stable ground in which they can participate in this transaction and have an easier time with it. but not left with a new orientation for anything.

Like not like how do I instill mindfulness over there? Or that's a fucking horrible way to say that. God, that's not a bad way to say it. But how do I leave them in some kind of new practice about that? Yeah. I love that. And I have no idea. That would be, you know, that.

would be something worth engaging in a committed conversation with a group of people. Oh, to explore. Excuse me. I can hear your, you know, we, for the last two years, we've talked about how you would answer, how, I don't know if you'd change your answer, but in the past, you said when, when people have agency, the world will change. Like, that, that the people you serve in real estate, the clients you serve in real estate could come away from, this. experience with you having a greater sense of agency, whether that's agency in their mindfulness practices moving forward, that what transpired wasn't just we bought a house and it was a great experience.

That what transpired was we bought a house. It was a great experience. And we have more access now to our own practice of mindfulness and et cetera, which is agency. That is agency applied to mindfulness. How would you design your business and those touch points in a 30 to 45 day. closing that they would come out the other side or not even in a 30 like because between buying seasons you've got seven years of the messaging you put in front of people that that that champion a particular narrative paradigm yeah well I don't know and that I can begin to feel the degree to

which it hurts my brain to think it through yeah which is the value of community because for you to then take that and put it in a journal is like fuck it I'm not going to do that but if there was if you could get yourself to a place where it was curious to you and there was a group having a conversation about it, it might do some of the heavy lifting and not hurt your brain as bad. Yeah. Or even attacking what hurts your brain about it. Is it the cynicism that hurts your brain about it? No, it's just getting into the actual details of it because it's new thought, right?

We've had this conversation about how actual thinking burns calories. Yeah, yeah. You know, to actually think something through that you haven't thought about, but to intentionally push your brain into creating those new pathways and having those new synapses created and thinking something new. Like, okay, seven years of touch points from introduction to next house. Yeah. Right?

Yeah, yeah. How does this point leave that person with more agency? Yeah. Yeah. I have no fucking idea. I mean, I'm like. But isn't that a great thing to walk? It's a great question.

I really do need to write that question down because that is the kind of question that I will wake up thinking about. Hang on one second. What did we just say? Seven years of touch points. And now does each one leave them, we just leave them with agency. Yeah. Yeah. And to your point, like you could, you know, I mean, you could go, you should go chew on that yourself.

And to have some of that present in the community conversation, a collective conversation with others who get that and are interested in that. Like, that's, I don't know, there's so much juice in that for me. I'm like, this is. So like all that cynicism you talked about, like, I, I, I. I think I've felt that too, and I just go, but I'm, I'm energized by this community thing to me feels like then being the change I want to see in the world because I'm tired of being cynical, what container would actually move it forward? And if there's no collective place to say, what are the touch points that over seven years that actually fulfill it, then we're just doing the same thing. And being resentful, that change never happens when in fact, not do anything to change it. Like, what's the point?

but if we could come together as an intelligent group of people peer to peer and wrestle with this, we'll coddywomple our conversations together so we could actually do something about it. Then I feel like, yeah, like we have a good chance here. I'm betting on us. I bet on us. Yeah, I think it's, and that's,

you know, that's the gym metaphor. You know, you don't go once and have it worked out. You don't go do a weekend. seminar and this goes goes back to your initial conversation where we started this morning is you know like you've had these people in this community you have this people in this coaching program and the program ends and then what happens to the conversation but it gets

churned back into hustle and grind it gets churned back into because you're I'm not going to think about this if I don't have a place to go where, first of all, I'm not going to think about it because I wouldn't have thought about it. Second, I'm not going to continue to think about it if I'm not in a container or a space in which other people are interested in what I have to say about it. Or I could ask questions or I can hear what they say. I'm not going to, that's not going to grow. It needs that kind of a container. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. the I always you said that in it right reminded me of the force field of business or yeah you know I've called it the gravitational pole like that there is a without some separate orbit that insulates you from that gravitational pull like some you know to be one person you get sucked back into that gravitational pull of hustle grind show up make you know make the donuts the whole there's that thing but to have a the value of community is it creates another orbit to have that conversation so there's a there's a

possibility. You keep the possibility of the thing you say would change the world alive in that conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, I mean, and again, full circle here at the beginning of the conversation. I just don't know. There's not a lot of places that you can have that kind of space. There's not a lot of places you can have that kind of conversation.

Yeah. I mean, it's full circle in terms of it takes the two roads and it puts them back. together too. I mean, that's really, that's really where that is. I think that's a great ending for this conversation. It's a good thing. You know, and then whatever people are left with who are listening, five world changers out there, you know, this is an opportunity for you to ask that question. You know, how could I have each touch point in my business leave my clients, my customers with the change I want to see in the world, whatever that is for you. Yeah.

You know, whatever Dave's answer to the question about the tacos, you know, about the change he wants to see. All right. How do I have each touch point communicate that? Yeah. And intentionally set that up. So the touch point communicates that. Yep. Yep.

So good. Well, if these are the kind of conversations that you listening to this appreciate and enjoy and you can see some value in for, yourself and the direction of your business. You can go to the mindful CEO.com, the mindful CEO.com forward slash invite. And fill out an application. I have a new call to action for people too. I know we shouldn't ever give people multiple calls to action.

But well, let's draw. The other one is go to the Apple store and rate the podcast. Yeah. You have a review. That would be, you know, you might not be interested in the CEO community. But if you listen to the podcast, you, could do that and that would get us you know that's how we grow yeah so yeah there you go choose your own adventure awesome thanks here good stuff man this is uh right this is this is this is the right thing

the right direction yeah no i love i i love that i walked away with a question that i hadn't had it which is confronting and annoying it's great so good all right man love you see you next time yep