Noob School - Episode 35: How to Transition from Coaching Basketball to Selling Real Estate with Toni Leopard

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Toni Leopard is a basketball coaching legend around these parts, even coaching John's daughter for a few years! Recently, she's channeled her intensity for improvement and passion for relationships to the real estate world. She talks John through this interesting (and rewarding) transition, and how her coaching chops helped her ramp up into a successful sales career. Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, well, welcome back to Noob School. This is where we interview great salespeople and we find out how they got started and some, maybe some things they learned along the way that might be helpful to you. Today we have, and I'm not kidding, one of my favorite people, Tony Leopard or as some call her T-Lepp. Tony has been in sales, I think her whole wife, but I don't think she knew it until she was maybe after college. But Tony was a great basketball player at PC College at Presbyterian. Also became a coach at several different schools, Chattanooga, Furman, some of the other SEC schools around here. Eventually came back, coached a J.L. Mann and won three state championships. And even coached my daughter Lizzie for a few seasons at Christchurch. And that's where I met her to begin with.

But Tony will tell you how she's transitioned, what's you learned in coaching and how she's transitioned from that to a fabulous career in real estate. And so Tony, I've got to thank you for taking some time to come be with us today. Thank you, John. Excited to be here. All right. All right. Well, the first question, we always ask the first question, is just tell us, in your own words, kind of how you've gotten to sales. Well, it was really a natural path for me, I think.

As you mentioned, started with basketball. you know, love playing the game. And then had a little stint coaching college and then coaching high school. And then just always looking for the next challenge. And then so that led me right into being a real estate agent. Right, right. What was it like making that first real estate sale? It was awesome.

Feel good? Two houses, $50,000 total. Really? Yeah. Two houses, two little houses. Exactly. Two total remodels. Great story.

It's a start. That's right. to start. Well, that's great. That's great. And how did you, like give us an example of some of the stuff you learned sales-wise in terms of coaching young women and getting them to come to your school and follow your program. Give us some sales things you learned along the way there. The biggest sales things, I think, I correlate it to the life skills that you learned through playing sports. Team sports in particular, you know, just the determination, the discipline, surrounding yourself with people, you know, that are maybe better than you, not intimidated.

Like, just that resilience and strength to work towards a common goal. Yeah, good. It's something that I think I became, you know, really addicted to. Like, I love that, like, teamwork. Let's get after it. Never quit. Yeah. Just mentality.

I remember when you coach Lizzie, you were so intense. I didn't really talk to you that much. I didn't want to get in your way on. game day. What was Lizzie like? Was she a good student or was she rebellious? She was a great student. Was she? Is that the right answer? Yeah, she was wonderful. What about that free throw? Always 100 mile per hour. The free throw thing she did where she held it up so long. The only player in my long coaching career, 10 second violation. She got 10 second row. Took longer for 10 seconds for her free through routine. Well, I can't explain it either. Hey, I told her to have a routine. She had a good

routine. Yeah, she did. Very thorough. Exactly. She was great. She'll love the fact that we're talking about her. Exactly. Yeah. Tell us some of the stuff you learned along the way. Some of the things maybe you tried, or at least maybe you tried so far in real estate, some of the stuff that's worked or not worked, because you can pass on to some other folks. I think the biggest thing I've learned and I try to remember every day is to keep learning. Never stop learning. Never get distracted by the numbers, the wins, the losses, the good days, the bad days. I'm a real process-oriented person.

So just everything that I learned in class and that you learn in anything in life, like make the follow-ups, make the phone calls, just kind of keep your head down and keep doing the right things. You know, you know, I'm the quote, you know, all the quotes are always in my head. But, I mean, we're either getting better or getting worse. We're not staying the same. So I just try to get the most I can. of every single day. That's wonderful. And I would add on, I mean, I've been guilty, I've been more guilty of letting off when things are going good. Exactly. You make the big sale and you're

like, I'm going to take the rest of the day off, you know, or something like that. And that's, that's really when you've got to double down and just do what you're supposed to do every day, good times and bad. And you're going to have a long, successful career. Exactly. So you've formally gotten the sales only a couple years ago. Before that, you were selling through basketball, really. What are some of the things about actually being in commission sales that are different than you thought it was? I think the difference or the scary part for me at first is the, it's not a constant salary. So there's a learning to manage your money.

there's no finish line, like learning like where you are. But again, I think when I, I think for me, like before I went into it, and we talked a little bit about this, it was more like there's so many realtors or, you know, we all have a level of fear like, will I be good at that? But I think for me, real estate and then, you know, the coaching Orange Theory, I like helping people. So it's that reward when I see people get the house that they really love or first time, home buyer, buy a house when they've been renting for a while. Stuff like that just makes me continue to focus on just the process over the result, maybe. I love it. I love it.

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, you're a natural, you really do want to help people. And if you have that approach in sales, then, you know, you are going to do well. Most people are thinking, you know, my commission or something like that. That stuff will all come if you help people. That's for sure. I had Colby written down here, did you do any Colby or any kind of psychological profiling along the way?

I have not. Okay. I've done the Intergram test and some things like that, but I really don't know enough about it to speak on it. Well, you're doing fine just the way you are. We'll just assume your Colby is a yes. Okay. All right.

Do you have anything that you've done in your real estate career so far that you wouldn't do again? that I would not do again. Something you tried, didn't work, or you're just doing it all right. I wouldn't say I'm doing it all right. I'm surrounded by such a great team and company that right now, I mean, I still, it's been almost two years, but I totally still feel like a new because I feel like that sponge. I'm continuously soaking up, you know, all the knowledge I can from them.

And every transaction is so different. So as a relatively new salesperson, we don't have a big bustling office anymore, right? Is it like zooming and talking and how are you getting the information? So we have a lot of online training. But yeah, definitely for me, you know, I'm getting out, seeing people, you know, stopping by, dropping off the little gifts, checking in, you know, have you been there for a year. But other than that, yeah, we don't go in the office as much. We do the Zoom office meetings.

Because that's new. I mean, that's new. It kind of used to be most companies had a bullpen or a boiler room or whatever, and people were there. And you just kind of learn from each other as time went on. And now you have to be a little more intentional, I would say. Exactly. I mean, to circle back to that, if I could have it my way, I wouldn't have started a real estate career at the beginning of a pandemic. So that was kind of challenging. I mean, I try to find the positive in it.

I was able to sit home and really write tons, yeah, learn, take on more online classes, write handwritten notes and things like that. But my team jokes around and they call me the COVID agent. You know, my first couple closings were at a drive-thru. Oh, that's funny. Where the clients drive up and they're talking to the attorney through the iPad. But I would show up, you know, outside and be there. That's great.

I was so excited. It's just going to be getting better from here, right? Absolutely. It could be worse than that. Is there anything you wish you to know about selling or about real estate selling in particular when you started? I wish I would have known how much paperwork there actually was. Oh, man.

Isn't that going to change eventually, won't it? I think so. People have somebody that just handle that part for them. Or just do it on the computer or something. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. It was all the signing and the initialing. It is.

A lot of docusine. Yeah. On your basketball at PC, what was your biggest win? Biggest win. Well, a sophomore year, we were 28 and 2 and 4th in the country. Nice. We're division 2 then. And then I led the nation in free throw shooting.

Nice. They're free, right? What percent was that? Like 93%. Wow. Led the nation. Yeah. That's a lot of discipline.

That's awesome. They're free. We've got to make those. You've got to make they're free. That's awesome. Fourth of the Nation. Way to go. Awesome.

Okay. What's your favorite word, Tony? Sold. Sold. Just kidding. I'm kidding. My favorite word, it's really three words, but we'll go with yes. And you know I'm going to follow that up with you can.

Yes, you can. Yes, you can. But yeah, yes. Try to say, yes, I'll help you. Yes, I'll be there. Yeah. give as many yeses and get as many yeses as I can every day. Yeah, yes, I can.

I love that. Tony's a big, you know, Tony part-time does Orange Theory training. And you can tell by I'm one of her clients. Just look and see. But she fills the class full of those kind of one-liners. And it makes a difference. I really believe, and of course we talk about this in Noob School, it's true that what you,

you put into your brain is kind of the way you're going to be feeling and thinking. Exactly. And if you put just negative stuff in there, then you're going to be kind of a grouch. And if you just put, yes, I can, yes, I will. Yes, we did. You know, if you get kind of that going, I'm starting to get a little fired up right now. Just, just having said that three times. Exactly.

And there's a lot of competition, you know, I would imagine in any sales job, but you just have to be willing to put in the work and you have to believe that the work you're doing is going to matter. Yeah. So I think it's that resilience that helped me. Like, I may be new. I may not know the answer, you know, but I'm going to find a way to figure it out. Right.

Right. And do you have one piece of advice for the new salespeople for the nubes you could pass on? One favorite thing? One favorite thing. I think I'll have to go back to that, try to get 1% better every day. It's kind of a cliche thing to say, but don't get distracted. there's going to be good months, bad months, good numbers. There's going to be wins.

There's going to be losses. It's okay to feel big. Yeah, 1%. Do it with passion or don't do it at all. I agree. I love it. And then, you know, promote yourself a little bit. Some of these folks are local.

They might need your help around here, find in the house or condo or whatever. Tell us what you do and how they can get in touch with you. So I work for Berkshire Hathaway, Cid, and Joyner. I'm on the Spalding Group, and then I coach Orange, Theory Fitness in the dark and early mornings downtown. And I'd love to help you sell a home, buy a home, and there won't be an agent that has more energy and more passion for what I do.

Yes, you can. Than me. That's right. Yes, you can't tell you how thankful I am you came to see us today and pass along your story to the noobs. And I really appreciate you. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much.

I appreciate you, John. Thank you. Hey, is John here. Thanks for listening today. Please check out noobschool.org. That's my website. That's where we have other videos and content that can help you get started in sales.