Start With A Win - Creating an Attitude of Abundance with Shane Torres

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Our guest on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is Shane Torres, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Concepts out of Polk City, Iowa. Shane got into real estate in 2009 after beginning his career as a homebuilder and seeing his business dry up during the recession. He and his wife had to make a lot of tough decisions to take care of their family during that period, and while becoming a real estate agent was a long shot at the time, this career shift has proven to be for the best.Having gone from the brink of bankruptcy to $20 million in production within three years, Shane has a lot of insights to share with others in the real estate industry and in business in general. He has written a book on the topic and he also operates a coaching business called “The Road to $20 Million” to help his clients find their paths and avoid some of the mistakes that cost Shane precious time and money. He finds this work extremely fulfilling, being able to help his clients obtain a life balance, understanding the importance of both revenue and having a life that will let you enjoy it. One of his key points is to set upfront expectations and communicate honestly with your clients and loved ones about this balance.The biggest business challenges that Shane has faced and has walked his clients through are mostly related to mindset. If you adjust your mindset to reflect an attitude of abundance by being focused on your “why,” you can set and attain very high goals and set up systems to support you along the way. Shane tells his clients that it is important to work toward their goals one step at a time with consistent effort. Shane starts his days with a win by spending some time listening to podcasts and Bible studies, getting to the gym by 5:00am or 5:30am, answering a few emails, spending time with his family, and then getting his workday started. Shane ended his time with us by dropping a new classic truth bomb: Don’t stoop to stupid. Connect with Shane:https://torresteamia.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXSHANETORRES https://www.instagram.com/shane.torres/https://twitter.com/REMAXTorresTeamhttps://www.amazon.com/Road-20-Million-Bankruptcy-Multi-Million/dp/0578497816https://www.roadto20million.com/ Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ 

So Mark, I love to talk to people who have really made a huge success in a short period of time. Yes. And I think we have a good one on the show today. I think so too. I'm excited to hear his story. This guy's like a business badass. Well, let's jump into that. All right. Atop of the 12th floor of the Remax World Headquarters,

you're listening to Start With a Win with CEO Adam Kantos. And top of the 12th floor, REMAX World Headquarters here in Denver, Colorado. REMAX CEO Adam Kantos. Start with a win. Got producer Mark in the house with me. How are you doing, buddy? So good. Awesome. So we have a really cool guest on the show today who's done some amazing things in the REMAX network, in his business, and has kind of built some structure around it to help others. Yeah. Yeah. Shane Torres. So Shane's the broker owner with REMAX Concepts in Polk City, Iowa. He's the CEO and founder of Road to 20 Million. He's committed to helping others achieve success with his valuable resources for business entrepreneurs

and real estate professionals. Welcome to the show, Shane. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Glad to have you on. So tell us a little bit about yourself. So I'm in Polk City, but we have 14 offices spread out throughout Iowa, and I have three other partners at Concept.

Wow. 14? Yep. Wow. 14? Yep. Dang. Yeah. We're the largest Remax and central network. I love it. So yeah. Tell us about yourself. Tell us about Shane. Like I said, I'm now one of the broker owners at Concepts. Got into real estate in 2009, which as we all know, was probably the worst time ever to get into real estate

as the market was going down. I was a home builder before that and had to shut that company down when the recession hit. From there, I got into real estate and worked my way up and started a team. Within three years, I went from chapter seven to 20 million in production. And as opportunities continue to present themselves, worked my way up to where I am now. 2009, getting into real estate, what was going on in your head when you decided to do that? I came from a construction background and I'd applied for over 200 plus jobs throughout the Midwest and got denied for a variety of reasons. Either they were cutting back or too qualified or whatever. And I'd already started my licensing process and I had nothing else to do. So it's like, why not?

It was really a turning point for me when I was going through those very early stages in a tough time was my wife. We were having a chat one night and I would say it was a low point for me. I asked my wife, if you obtain a goal and then you lose it, did it still count? And she said, what did you lose that mattered? And I thought a lot about that and it kind of changed my whole perspective overnight. And that's when I was like, I got nothing else to do. So why not give it a shot and borrowed a couple grand from my father-in-law to pay for all the upfront fees and just did it. You guys kind of threw caution to the wind and said, we're all in. Yeah. Didn't

have any other choice. That's it. Yeah. You're in the corner. You got to fight. That's the only way out, right? Yeah. That's basically what happened. I was, like I said, chapter seven, I was in foreclosure, living off of about $300 a week. And honestly, at one point, I made a vow because I grew up this way. But at one point, I had to jump on food assistance for a while just to feed my kids. Wow. Well, I'm glad you're doing well now. How many kids do you have? Three. I have a 15-year-old daughter. And if you've got daughters, you know how that's just a whole nother world in itself right now. I have a 15-year-old daughter. And if you've got daughters, you know how that's just a whole nother world in itself right now. I have two of them. You're right. So 13-year-old son and a nine-year-old son. Been married for,

let's see, 15, almost 18 years. Wow. Cool. Congratulations. Yep. Thank you. Awesome. So let's jump into the coaching aspect here. You've been through a lot in your business, seen both ends of the spectrum, obviously, coached yourself and talked to others along the way. Why is coaching in the business so important? For me to A, for me to build to,

whether it be someone around me or, we've got a mutual coaching friends like Chet Plack, just having someone that's of a positive influence that's been through some things that can help guide you when you go through tough times, I think is important. And for me personally, I've gone through a lot in a short period of time. So what I try to do with my coaching, and it starts within our company, I do it with our agents all the time. But beyond that, when I did the book and everything, it was to help people know that they can do it and you don't have to live up to

all the stereotypical things that they say you have to have when you get into a business. But beyond that, how to avoid the mistakes that I made and get there quicker, hit that success level quicker. And then from there, my mission, if you will, is to help everyone obtain what I would call a life balance. And by that, I just mean a good revenue, but yet still a life to enjoy it. Because real estate will suck the life out of you if you let it. I like that. So you're talking about both business and life holistically. They're all in the same when you're in real estate. It's hard to turn it off. Yeah. Oh, totally. I mean, you've got to be willing to be standing there talking to one

of your loved ones and go, hang on, I got a client calling right now. Because that client believes that they might have an emergency or whatever they're calling you about is generally an urgent matter to begin with. And they need your feedback. How do you deal with that? How do you balance? I mean, we all know there's no such thing as life balance, right? Right. Correct. It's about dealing with different aspects of challenges, dealing with different things as they show up and being able to be present for what you're with. How do you coach people through that? What, what are some of the aha moments that you've come up with?

Well, the big thing is just setting the expectations up front and who you're dealing with, whether it be your significant other or a client, you know, if you, if you're working with a new client and you tell them, you know, as if I'm available, I'll always take the call, but if I'm not, I'll shoot you a message. But if I'm not, I'll shoot you a message and say, I'll call you back or leave a voicemail. I will get back to you. That way, you're in the moment, whether it be with your client or with your significant other or your family. And I use the kids a lot as an analogy because at the end of the day, kids aren't going to remember if you sold a million dollars in real estate. They're going to remember those times you missed their

dance recital or their soccer game or things like that. So I think just coaching, if you will, your clients and your people around you is just as important in setting those expectations. And once I started doing that, because I was just as guilty as everybody, I found that at the end of the day, as long as you're open with people, they're willing to respect you as a person. When you bow down to people, those people are going to be a disaster to deal with. setting expectations and communication, both with the clients and with the people that you spend your time with, your family, friends, things like that. If you got something going on, I mean, that's a big key point there in coaching, some gold hiding in there. You talk about setting those expectations. And do you think a lot of people avoid doing that

up front when they start dealing with a client? They do. I think they avoid it because they're afraid of they might have some sort of pushback and confrontation. But what I've found, especially as I started to grow the team and now the brokerage and have a lot of staff, what I found is people don't care as long as they're getting good service and they're being taken care of and they're being listened to. Don't care. They know you have a life and they should respect that. And again, if they don't, those are just people we choose not to work with. Right.

And I think if you approach this from a position of kindness, a smile on your face, I care about you and the outcomes that we have here, but let's kind of talk through some of the things that end up challenging our relationships in the event that we allow them to. I totally agree with you. I think people are open to having that conversation up front, but so many people forget to do it. So, so important in that coaching process. What are some of the biggest challenges that you see your clients facing in business growth? I think just in general, a lot of people have a very limited mindset as to what they can accomplish. I think people can get defeated too easily. There's so much negativity with social media and just media and now elections.

And they let that get into their brain and it starts to affect their day-to-day activities. When I feel if they would just tune these things out and focus on the priorities and the things that just do the action steps that are going to accomplish their goals, they would have all the success in the world. But it's a lot of self-doubt. You're totally right. You start kind of worrying yourself in circles and then nothing happens. And then that gets contagious. And I don't think anybody wants to really sit down and talk to a business professional who is down in the dumps or is kind of a worry wart about what they just saw on CNN. So attitude, mindset of abundance, instead of mindset of limitations. We see so many people, when we talk about mindset of limitations, mindset of abundance,

we see everybody starts from zero in their business growth. How do I get a deal? How do I get a second deal? How do I get a third deal? Do you think that limits people when they start approaching it from, I just got to start at the bottom? Or do you look at it from maybe starting at the top or working your way in somewhere else? Yeah, I think it does. The way that we approach things and I approach things is to tell people, figure out what that ultimate goal is. And we're not talking about money. We look at it from, everyone talks about what's your why. And it can never be about the money. So you figure out what you want to accomplish, whether it be sending your kids to college,

going on more trips. And you work backwards and you figure out what those monetary amounts are. But a lot of people say set your goals, but set them so that if you don't hit them, you don't feel bad about yourself. I forget that. I say shoot for the moon

and you set your goals really high. Therefore, you build your systems to attain that and that because if you said to your systems to do a hundred thousand in production you hit a hundred thousand your systems crash so set them for 10 million and in that way your system so i refer to that as failing my way to success so you know as i set my goals every year um you know if i don't hit them i just roll them over to the next year. And that goes back to the mindset. Even though I don't hit them, I'm not down on myself. I just got to know that I got to keep working. So I do think that's important when people are doing that. I love it. It's like

the four-minute mile. Everybody was saying nobody could ever run a four-minute mile until Roger Bannister ran it. And then everybody was running a four minute mile at that point. What if they said, oh, you can't run a three and a half minute mile. A four minute mile would have been nothing. Right. Someone will do it. Exactly. Exactly. So I love that. Set your goals high and your systems to achieve that high goal. Another key point for WinNation there. Well, and I also go a step further than that. I tell them to figure out not what their revenue is currently, but what they want it to be. And then anything under that, break it down per hour, anything other than that, I tell them to

delegate out to someone else so they can focus on those money generating activities or spending time with those who they, their loved ones. And in doing so, that's what I've found how you grow. So spending your time on the highest dollar return activities possible in your business. Yep. Yep. Excellent. How do you stay motivated each day, Shane? Let's go back to the alarm goes off. How do you motivate yourself from that point? I'll be honest and say that my alarm goes off super early. So that's not always the easiest to do. But I know that I've got not only my family, but other people and myself that are depending on me daily. So alarm goes off. I've got a morning routine. I get up, move around for a little bit.

I pop in some headphones, listen to a Bible verse or something in a Bible study. From there, I'll jump onto a podcast or listen to a book or something of some motivation. And then maybe return a few emails in between. I've got a half a dozen or so businesses that I manage. So I'll fire back those to all the department heads, if you will. And then usually hit the gym by 5, 530. I feel that if I do that regularly, my day's good. No matter what happens, I can handle conflict pretty easy. I don't get worked up too easy, which I think kind of annoys people a lot

because I stay pretty calm. And then I have a very similar type routine when I get home. I try to be home by five or six to be home with the kids, go to different events. My son plays hockey. That sucks up life during the winter. I don't deal with negativity on social media. I don't follow the news. I really don't pay attention to the political. I mean, I know it's happening, but I don't really get down in the weeds of the political aspect. And I just focus. I have tunnel vision, if you will, on what I want to accomplish. And in doing so, I'm able to keep myself motivated. I love it. The focus, the intensity, the rise and grind, if you will. That's amazing. What is the key piece of advice you would give other agents in our space? You have a whole bunch of agents and a whole bunch

of offices there. Somebody walks in your office, sits down and says, Shane, what advice do you have for me? What key piece of advice do you have that you would share with them? I usually start with, if we say they're already here, they're licensed, one step at a time. We figure out what your goal is and we do it one step at a time. I think that everyone tries to chase that new shiny object. They get overwhelmed, they quit, and they shut down. You focus on one step at a time, get that set up, do the next one, one step at a time. Real estate, and I think business in general, is very simplistic in nature. And if you do those little steps that add up daily, you get big results. It's the Darren Hardy compound effect.

It's relevant in anything. And like I said, they focus on too many, they get overwhelmed. So, I've found doing that and they put it into application, it's all worked out really well. We talked a little bit about your morning routine. Yeah. A question I ask everybody that's on the show, know, we all have trials and tribulations with family. If I'm able to wake up every day with those that my family, my wife, and they're around me, no matter what happens, no matter money, business, whatever, I consider that a win. My wife stuck with me through a time that would have ripped people apart. So that to me is a win. Wow. I love that. So the support, the love that your wife provides. One last thing,

Shane, your favorite quote? Give me a hard hitting one. Give me one that I... You know what? It's a silly one, but I use don't stoop to stupid a lot. We've not had that one. I love it. Don't stoop to stupid. Yeah. I just, again, don't engage in that negativity. That's stupid.

Awesome. It's so profound when you think about it. Don't stoop to stupid. Win Nation, write that one down. I love that. So Shane, thank you so much for being with us today. I know our audience got a lot out of this. Where can people find you on social media

and learn more about what you do? I've got my main page is just Shane Torres, business consultant or Shane Torres Remax, Road to 20 Million, any of those sites will get you there. Thanks for being on Start With A Win, Shane. We appreciate all that you do and thank you for starting with a win. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win.

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