KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Troy Palmquist Creates Lasting Success by Elevating the Customer’s Experience

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Welcome to the reveal podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Nanto. We have a very special guest today, Troy Palmquist. We're going to go beyond the success story, the surface level chit-chat about entrepreneurial journeys. We're going to uncover the layers and reveal the kind of secrets that top entrepreneurs rarely share. I want you to experience real impact through these conversations and stories and inspire you to commit to the action required. to achieve your dreams. This guy, Troy Palmquist, is an absolute wizard that is on a mission

to revolutionize our industry with his creative approach to elevating the real estate consumer experience. And in this episode, we're diving deep into Troy's journey from selling over 4,000 homes to generating sales of more than $3 billion of residential real estate.

He's an author, content creator, and Troy's story is one of creativity, resilience and masterful execution. Troy, good morning. I'm so glad to have you on the reveal podcast. Welcome to the studio. Thank you. Thank you.

It's nice to be here virtually. Yeah, I love your hand virtually. One day I'll have a big podcast and we can fly out to do podcasts together. So love your background. I have to ask you about that I can't do it. You're cutting off the tea. So jumping into your entrepreneurial journey, can you think back or share a story

about a moment where you went from can't to can with some type of project or something close to your heart that you were excited to launch. Yeah, I don't know. That's such a great question. I think in life, there's a lot of opportunities where, or a lot of times where you look at it and I can't do it really does come into it. And it's the aligning with the idea that you can do it or that you have to do it, and that failure is not an option that you really have to push through and continue. continue to do it that is there. And I think there's a lot of times that it happens on a regular basis that I can't do this or and you push through it and you do. So it's a, for me, I think it's a bigger mindset thing. The screen changes and there's a couple other photos that jump up there.

I love that. It really is one of those things that it's a good reminder and focus on. So for me, I think over the last slide years, there's been a number of opportunities that it presented themselves that it was like, I don't, I can do it. Even writing the Peloton for 20, minutes today. I didn't think I could do it somehow. But there's always something that comes across that you just don't think you can do it. And you focus on the ability to do it and what it's going to take to get it done. And then you crush it. Yeah, I love that. And then you crush it. I feel sometimes that even when you have clarity and you're excited and your mission focused and you're ready to go exactly what you're getting up in the morning for, it can still creep in or try to find its way to creep in. And so what are some of the mindset tips for

other entrepreneurs that you can share where you shake it off and get focused again in clarity. You don't let the negativity take up too much headspace. When you start focusing or letting the negativity, like even thinking about how the negative is going to forecast into the future, it really starts to sink in. And you can't let that happen. Yeah, I learned a lot in 2020. We all did, right? I told the story about how I had cancer in 2020. And instead of really letting that be the negativity that was going to be the defining moment of it, that we started focusing on more powerful thoughts and activities that we're going to push through it

and gave you the positivity and just the power to get through something. So I think the mindset really plays into it. For some people, it's journaling. Some people, it's the positive affirmations in the morning or writing down all the stuff. For me, I've got a routine. I go to coffee bean every morning, and it's like at that time that I grab the coffee and I think about what I need to do in the day and what I'm grateful for, but it's not like one of the written down habit things that a lot of people promote to do.

What a year or two. You just can't get, you can't, you really can't get too deep into the negative thoughts are really what's going to pull you down and weigh you down. So you've got to be able to eliminate the negativity to put. through. Yeah, I love that. What a year to experience that when there was so much negativity everywhere or just people going through it and lots of confusion and chaos. What, for example, my wife never watched the news. She didn't watch the news and pay attention to it. And then during the one of the last elections and then 2020, she started watching the news. I don't watch the

news. So it was creating new boundaries around new circumstances and being home a lot. So your dad and has been. When I think of you, I think of that first is who you are. You share a lot of stories about your family. How did you find that new balance going through 2020 and then also having so many big ambitions and entrepreneurial visions? What are some tips for people to find some balance? I have the right spouse. Right. That helps. The biggest piece of it. What is the saying? It's like behind every successful person is a supportive spouse. My wife is really the rock of the relationship and of the family. So as much as the good dad, great dad, great spouse, I've got I struggle with a lot with the thoughts that do I work too much? Do I do too much here? Am I not playing

Legos enough? Or am I really putting in everything that I could? And I had a great dad. It learned a lot and tried to emulate that. But we we've got the one, Rhett, and love him to death. And he's got his two cats. But for us, it's the work-life balance. I learned a lot going through the cancer and then some other stuff that happened with our family and then my dad passed away last year. And you really value life differently when you go through opportunities where somebody could die or did die. And it really changes the perspective of what life is and what the priorities are. And there's the opportunity to make more money. You can't make more energy. You can't make more time. And so you have to be able to really put yourself first in that health. It's like in the airport, or sorry, in the

airplanes. You've got to put the oxygen mask on before helping others because if you can't get your oxygen mask on, then what good are you to others? And that self-care piece is really one of the bigger things that you have to do. For us, when 2020 hit, we had a nanny for Red. We were fortunate that he was two years old. So it wasn't like he was at school. He would have been preschool 2021. So it really wasn't too interruptive of it was actually pretty cool because we were able to be home when he was like going through those those leaps as a toddler and we were home for it because we had to be home so we were both working from home had the nanny here and and it was great but I do struggle sometimes thinking that there's more that I could do as a as a dad we have a lot of fun together but I still think that there's more that I could do as a husband as a spouse like more that I could do helping around the house and it's one of those psychological like struggles I think wanting to be better, like always wanting to be better is good. I mean to you. I just have to think that I can do it.

You can do it all. So one of the things that I really intrigued by and I love watching your content is because you're very analytical, but at the same time, like very creative. And I'm curious for you to share a little bit with the audience. When did that come into play? Were you always creative as a kid? Was it later in life? Or when did you really find a good flow in harnessing that creative side and marrying it with the analytical side?

I don't know. Like when it happened, I think that it was more probably in my early 20s that it really came out. And it was because I was in the business world and trying to do stuff. I started at 20 in real estate. And so I came into it not knowing anything about it. to do. And so I just brought a different perspective of it. And you have to learn. You have to have have the stats and stuff to really look into it and see where you're going with it. The creative piece for me always been that it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. And that you have to be disruptive in whatever you're building. Whether it's my first brokerage had a for sale sign that

had pictures of the house on it. I was one of the first people to put photos of a house on it. But I didn't want sign writers that said, I'm gorgeous inside, or honey, stop the car. Talk about it, be about it. Put it on there and look at it. What's it cost to different to do? And we filed, I got two patents on a for sale sign. So I've seen one of the signs. And it not only didn't have a picture on it, it also lit up. The materials were like top notch. You did it well. It was part of the brand. Even into the second brand that we created, I really wanted it to have a full image all the way through as part of the brand. So I think I really like the branding piece of it. It's just worth, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. You've got to be disruptive in what

you're doing. You have to, when you're thinking about your marketing and your prospect and you have to think about, is it going to make it past the trash can in the garage from the mailbox? How do I get it inside? And when you start thinking like that, then it really does change the dynamic. What am I going to send to this person? Because it's not just a normal postcard. Like right now, we're trying to think about a postcard to send out for the sphere of influences and just even agents to get who's thinking about making a move. I don't want to ask you what your home's worth. But ask me what your home is worth you want to sell. But let's try and engage a different part of the brain here and say, who's thinking about

making them? And can that make it past the trash can? So if that's the message, what's the other piece of it that needs to be there so that it does from mailbox through the front door onto the kitchen counter and then gets a phone call? And I think that when you start thinking creative like that and trying to solve the problem with the creativity, that's where you really get good results. Because it's like with the for sale sign, they've been the same thing for how many years. And now they're actually starting to get more creative with the QR codes and leveraging the QR codes to put on there to direct people to the property website, lead capture from there. But for me, with the for sale signs, it was, I want people to take a picture.

I didn't want a flyer box because I didn't want to have to go continually fill the flyer box with stuff. But if the person takes a picture of it, the likelihood is that they're sending it to someone. But whoever really goes through their phone and deletes photos, they might go through and scroll and look for something. And then, oh, that was that really cool for sale sign we saw. We should talk to him about selling or whatever. But it was still, it was just how do we do something better than what was out there already. And I've struggled with even the open house signs for years. like I hate the open house signs.

They're this like traditional A frame thing. And so we even took it another step and started putting the photos of the front photo of the house. So people knew where they were going. And it doesn't cost too much more to get a sign wrapped for the house. And you do five of them. It's not costing that much. You're reusing the frame and putting the time and the address on there because people just aimlessly drive around looking at open houses like to find the street that it's on. but here we put the property address on it.

It looks clean. It looks nice. And oh, look, honey, it's a beautiful house. Let's go look at that one. I love it. So focusing on a problem that can be solved. And obviously the experience that you had inside the industry, once you started at a younger age, you identified problems to solve.

And then you, like you said, disruptive ideas, right? Ways to and the consumer experience. I think it's about caring about the consumer experience. Let's shift a little bit to the, you're working with a team. I hear you say we a lot, which is awesome, right? Because we can't as one person, innovate, create, execute, do it all. You've built a couple really cool companies. You've sold large real estate brand.

Tell us a little bit about you and collaboration, like within your own business. I think we, when I say we, it really is the group of people behind it. I try and hire or work with the best that's out there in a particular field, even when you're working on like storefront marketing. Okay, I have an idea what if it should look like, but it's not what is feasible or what it can really look like. And so for me, even coming up with the first brokerage,

we had the address that worked with a naming company. I had no idea what I wanted to call it, but I wanted it to be something different. I went through a naming process. It's actually a really cool experience if you haven't done it before because you do. What naming styles do you like? What logos do you like? What companies do you?

want to emulate and then you come through it and then you go trademark searches to see what's available to get the trademark on because I think it's really important if you've got a name and you want to do something with it to get the trademark and so that comes with working with the best people but when you work with people you've got to be careful not to give too much input as to what you want because you're working with people that are in the trenches designing brands or designing logos or names or marketing material, you've got to give them the concept and then let them go to work

because otherwise you're building something that's for you and not for the general consumer, the masses, and you want to appeal to the masses with what you're working on. And so for me, it really is. It's working with the best creative directors. It's working with the best marketing people, the best copywriters when you're working on something like that

and really just going and letting them do the work. Even with a website, As simple as a website is, I can go and build a website and say, oh, I want to do this. But if I put too much of my own opinion in it, it's not going to look right. It's not going to be appealing to what people want to see. I love that. And you have an amazing website. I took a peek at it that you're going to launch soon.

I'm excited. I'm excited for you too. So are you sharing the website yet? Or can we show that with everyone? The website's going to go live in a couple weeks, probably next week. But I do a lot of writing for other published articles with inman, housing wire, broke agent media, I've done some CE writing. And it was just all over the place.

And I wanted a place that it all lived in one spot, like whether it was all the full content or just hyperlinked out. But I wanted people to do it because the writing takes a lot of effort. And it's a passion project, but there's the ability to really want to provide value. with it and give people the ability to learn, grow, and just provide different insight to people. And so I really wanted it in one place. And the website, it took years to ever come to it. And we're going to do a newsletter now, which I've never done, really just try and pour into the value and the support to agents so that they have a little bit more and a little bit something

different out there than what's there now. I love that. There's so many people in this industry that have so much to share, many of them that don't. And like you said, it's a lot of work. Even when you finally get to the quiet space with the pen in your hand or your laptop or whatever that you used to write, for me, it was a journey to get to that space. And then once you write it, to share it, and to draw hard lines about what you just address or talk about. Well, I think for me, getting into that space to inspire others to do it. What can you share? I write a lot about what's going on in life, not something. It's not pre-planned. I was on a conversation yesterday. Like, how far out do you plan on what you're going to write? I'm like, I don't. I know OZMPIC's the cool

thing right now and we're going into the new year. How can we write an article about what, like, the dead weight you need to lose and title it OZMPIC for real estate? That's so brilliant. Or sharing new tips about how to goal plan and celebrate the goals as they come with a bottle, with 12 bottles of champagne hanging on the wall and putting a tag on there. And as you celebrate the goal, you get to drink the bottle of champagne and celebrate with the people

that were involved in that milestone. But you have to think about it, plan it out. But for me, a lot of times, if I'm driving, I'm dictating into the phone. Like, it's so easy to open the note on your phone and dictate something. And a lot of people are really good at talking and articulating through their words talking,

it's harder to sit down pen to paper and write or type. And for me personally, like, I type slow. Like, my handwriting's borderline illegible. And, but I can talk pretty good when I'm thinking, right? And I've got enough coffee behind me. And so to be able to go in and talk when I'm thinking, I can write the article afterwards because I can edit it afterwards, but I can't get the thoughts on the paper or into the keyboard fast enough.

I love that. And you struck on something that I want to dive right into coffee. So you're working on a really cool creative project. Tell me what comes up for you that you're excited to share about coffee with the audience. No, nothing. I'm kidding. Coffee's been one of the things, even the first brokerage for the address, was the marketing angle of trying to get people to come into the office.

not just agents, but like the consumer, come and visit us in the office. And it was come over, visit us and have a handcrafted pour over coffee. Like, we're not going to just pour you a curing. And what the thought behind it was, if I can make you a good cup of coffee, how well am I going to pay attention to the details to market and sell your home? Oh, love that. And so it went from there. And then the address actually, in the corporate headquarters, we opened a coffee shop, the pandemic. hit two days after the it was finished and so it actually never made a cup of coffee but the store

was fully built out and then the pandemic hit and so we just it never never happened but coffee is one of those cool things for me that i've gone to coffee bean every morning at 530 for years and so i've got a good relationship with a friend of mine that's got a coffee roasting company and so we're going to launch a coffee like subscription coffee brand that's branded for the real estate agents and it's closing time coffee and it's got the story about how the coffee kind of has played a part in our lives like real estate agents go to meet people at Starbucks or coffee being and so it's it plays a part in it so I don't know it was just one of the ways for me to bring it kind of full circle we named one of the coffees the address and another one curb

appeal and but it like it pays the homage to like the importance that copies played in like my career and where it came from. And even the last office that I opened, it was next door to the most, not the most, the busiest coffee shop on the street because you're always going to have foot traffic. And it was one of the things I learned about at Angle and Vulcars when I was working with them and opened the first office in the Western United States. It was like, when you're looking at a location to be, you've got to be next to the, like, the best coffee shop on the street or the restaurant that's going to be there and have the most foot traffic because foot traffic's going to drive people to look in the windows. and so coffee shops have been the one for me that I like to open next to.

I love that. I'll be looking out for when your tequila launches too. Never tequila. I love it. So as a speaker, a thought leader, what key message do you hope to convey to your peers in the industry, especially regarding the future of independent brokerages? Let's cut right into that. I think that independence is a great way to go.

if you're trying to build something to scale. When we opened the address, it was with the intent to, I really wanted to create a brand that was franchisable or really scalable outside of an area, thinking bigger, which we ended up doing. We opened five offices throughout Southern California. We acquired a brokerage in Malibu and such, so we were really trying to go that independent route.

You saw in 2018, 19, 2020, when the big box brokerages and the newer, newer ones were coming around, just acquiring everybody. That, like, independent model kind of disappeared. Like, they got, the good ones got acquired. Climb was, and still is one of my favorite brands that was ever made. And I wrote the eulogy to climb when Coldwell Banker decided to close the brand after they'd bought it. They were going to franchise it. But it was such a good brand.

They had an airstream trailer that they took around to go to meet people and, The whole thing was just beautifully put together. The core values, the mission statement, the culture, everything was just so well done. But independence now, I think, I was at side before, which is really trying to promote the independent brokerage model. I think there's a lot more value having the support from a brokerage than being straight up independent. And I don't think that the brokerage acquisition is going to be a big thing going forward anymore. I think there's too many other options for people to go and be cloud-based. With side or with the EXP, still be enterprise level with a lot of agents and a lot of support

from the brand, but also the brokerage itself. But I think there is an importance for people to have their own identity. But I think real estate agents and brokerages have all kind of realized that the consumer doesn't necessarily care what brokerage you're at. And so if you want to be an independent name, You can be an independent name, brokered by, powered by, or white labeled by these different things. But the need to be your own broker and have your own brokerage now, I think the technology and the brokerages that are out there now, like EXP, like it wasn't there 10 years ago when these independents were bigger players. And so it is really nice to be a part of something.

And I wrote a book called Independent. And it was about not buying the franchise model. It was about creating something. Instead of calling my first brokerage TP properties and a house made out of toilet paper rolls for a logo, we went with something different. We tried to create something that people would really want to look at for a logo with the marketing that was beautiful versus Palmquist properties or something with my name in it. Because again, we wanted to create something that was scalable. So I think that independence, I do think, they'll always have a place here.

I think that it's just going to be different than what it was. I think it's going to be independent powered by somebody to really help you grow and have better support and services. Like, it's nice to not have to worry about so much stuff as a brokerage owner or a broker owner of an independent because you've got the support from a corporation behind you that's really going to help you grow. And you get to do the part that's fun, which is we all got into this business to help people.

And when you're able to help, that's the part that. we like to do. I want to pour into people. I want to help as many people sell and buy a house as humanly possible. I can't do that. I love that. That's been one of those like those, that value proposition for myself throughout my entire career. I want to help as many people buy and sell a house and have a positive experience. Positive experience. Yeah, great experience. Because it's so easy in this world of real estate to have a negative experience. Like it gets delayed. So many. House doesn't sell. There's a lot of ways to have a positive. positive experience. And for me, the brokerage angle has been the way to make sure that I can do

that because you can only help so many people on your own. Going back to the team and the independent, so many of my peers in the industry when we have conversations and it comes up that they want to start their own brokerage as like an independent brokerage, that fork in the road where they go from what they could do, not what They should do, but they want that independence, like you said, of brand. What I love, we're both at EXP Realty, and I wanted to dive into that a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your goal in terms of how you actually are, want to support other independent brokers and agents in the industry as it relates to the EXP opportunity.

So I'm the director of growth for the state of California for EXP. We've got, I think, 12,000 agents now. I want to see the growth there. It's the largest number of agents in a state for the EXP network. And it's the size of some brokerages. When you talk about growth, it's big ones. Yeah, someone told me the state of California, if it was its own individual, like, independent brokerage, it would be the fourth largest brokerage in the United States.

And that's just the state of California. And so when you really look at it, how do we grow? And I think it's based on providing the value to the agents, providing them with the right support to help them grow, whether it's with the transactional experience, the support there, how to do more, how to grow more. But just in the growth of the brokerage, how do we provide the agents with the support to have the opportunity to attract others and focus on that? Because it's not recruiting. And if you look at recruiting, it's not the right way to do it, but you attract by doing the right things and then people want to work with you. And so I think,

I think it's going back to basics and over communicating with people and helping them. Yes. Here to help them. Making sure that when somebody gets an icon award, that they get a message saying congratulations. And really just being able to pour in and show the support to people that this is a great place to be. Like, I left side and came here and it's one of the best decisions that I've made, I feel, for my, like, real estate career. Like, there's just so much value to it. you just got to be out there and really megaphoneing what you have to say to show the value so that everybody sees it.

100%. We brought over our small brokerage based on a Newport Beach in March of 2020. So like you were going through a lot at that time. For us, it was like one foot in and, oh, wow, are we going to do this right now? And yeah, best decision. All the things that would keep you up at night and you did a video, which I love that you did this video, was literally, someone restless, sleeping on the couch. The alarm looking at the time, can't sleep, up, stressing about just the little things that are not, that don't fulfill you or give you joy as a business operator or as an entrepreneur. That was awesome because you could tell it came straight from your imagination. Straight from the imagination and the videographer is like, what the hell do you want to do? And I'm like, I want to do this. Like, I lay in bed at

night or on the couch at night thinking about stuff. I want to tell that story. Yeah. Somebody do it. And help people, help the broker's owners know that there's a little bit more on it. And it's funny, if you read the, if you press pause on like when I'm writing on the notepad, it says call summer DRE expert. And like the amount of times I've had to call her because I like to make sure that I'm doing the right things and I'm well educated. So I've had a DRE expert witness that I've always consulted with and done mock audits with and stuff like that. to just make sure that I know that I'm doing the right thing as a broker and overeducated and overdoing the right stuff.

And so it was fun to put that on there. It is one of those things that people think about. What's the next thing that's going to hit? What's the next issue? What's the next? Did the seller disclose that the sewer had an issue? We're in California. I live that.

Yeah, as a broker. So the video was fun to do. I think it turned out really well. and it really does show the life of a broker. And I should do another one now at the post-EXP and the excitement that you get to bring because you're not worrying about that stuff. So what's the next client party that we're going to throw

because we have the time and you wake up well-rested because you're not worrying about so much stuff. But yeah, I think that was a fun one to do. Yeah, I love that one. It's such a great example and it's overlooked, I think, as the EXP platform is communicated. to people in the opportunity. There is no better feeling than not having to study so deeply, like, compliance.

Because it's such a big thing in my world. I've sold thousands of properties with investors and literally have only settled once for $1,000, which is one of my favorite knock on wood, like amazing accomplishments that you don't share on social media. But not, you felt right, but going into the virtual office and speaking to one of our brokers and being able to go in there directly and just say, hey, what's your thought in this, blah, blah, blah, blah, and get their immediate feedback rather than staying up all night, thinking about what the right way is and consulting with people, et cetera.

It's been a really fun experience because then I can just get back into action on the things that are tied to what I enjoy doing, which is not that. And that's where the support here is so valuable because you do have the opportunity to get an answer quickly versus waiting for the the one broker at an independent or at a smaller franchise. And even if you're a franchise, you're still the broker of record. You're just not your own brand. And so for me, I've loved having the conversations with agents troubleshooting a problem, like how to write something up and get the terms across to what you really need it to be.

And that's a lot of fun and a lot of value and very rewarding. But sometimes people have to wait for it. And now you don't have to wait for it. You've got top in the line, top notch people that are here. They're so great. And they really are. And that's so important to have that support and support at your fingertips. Yeah, going into the world or even just Facebook Messenger or there's so many different ways to get the workplace.

Yeah. I love it. I love it. Right. workplace. Let's wrap it up with this. Troy, thank you so much for joining us. I hope I know the audience.

I learned a little bit. will be impacted by what you shared. I'm excited to see what you create and put out there this year. I have an awesome day. Thanks for joining me. You too. Let's grow. Today's episode of the Reveal podcast, I leave you with the words of Steve Jobs. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. So remember, every story we share, every insight we gain, brings us closer to understanding the vast and vibrant world of entrepreneurship. Don't miss out on our journey of collective growth and discovery. Hit that subsisting. button below and let's continue to find strength and inspiration in our shared experiences.

I'm Jessica Nieto and I can't wait to explore more empowering stories with you in our next episode. Stay inspired and connected.