Start With A Win - Information is Currency: A Conversation with RISMedia Founder & CEO John Featherston

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this! And coming to you from Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Canto, CEO of Remax. We start with a win. How you doing, Producer Mark? I'm doing so good. Awesome, buddy. Hey, we have a longtime friend with us on today. I know. I'm so honored to have John with us on the guest. Can you kick things off for me? Yeah, of course. I mean, John launched Riz Media in 1980, and it has since become the leader in real estate information, serving more than 500,000 of the residential real estate industry's most productive and successful agents, brokers, and related service professionals. So I'm sure we

Starting point is 00:01:06 have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips here that we get to gain some wisdom from today. All right. So I mean, for those of you that don't know, I mean, and we're bringing John on right now, John Featherston is kind of the, he's the encyclopedia of real estate information. I mean, this guy is constantly researching, uncovering things like that. And even if you're not in the real estate space, how information really affects your industry is incredibly important. As you know, we do talk about statistics and news and things like that on this podcast and really hone in on the real estate space.

Starting point is 00:01:42 So John Featherston, welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you here, friend. Hey, thanks, Adam, and thanks, Mark, for having me here. I'm truly honored to be on with such a great guy. Adam and I have known each other for a long, long time, but more importantly, what Adam represents is an incredibly successful organization. It's comprised of tens of thousands of agents and real estate professionals, and I've been fortunate to meet many of them. So thanks for having me on. Awesome. Well, I mean, John is a recipient of the 2015 REMAX On the Shoulders of Giants Award, which recognizes his longtime support of the real estate industry. That award weighs like 50 pounds,

Starting point is 00:02:24 and congratulations on that, John. I know I was there when you got it. And it was just, it's an honor and a pleasure to have you in that cohort of those very few that have received that award. So congratulations on that. Thanks, Adam. You know, our relationship between my company and Rem-MAX goes way, way back. And I have to tell you that my library, my professional library, has Dave's books in it, all sorts of other literature and things that I've collected over the years, including my first show on the REMAX Satellite Network, the cover of our magazine in 1998 when Dave was in the Around the World Balloon Contest. All of these lovely memories that I have going back 40-something years with your organization. I'm proud to say that my career wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for Dave Linegar and Gail Linegar and the folks at Remax.

Starting point is 00:03:33 Awesome. Well, I want to dive into this show here and talk about your company and really what does a great information network do for an industry? So we were talking earlier before we came on that information is currency for an industry? So we were talking earlier before we came on that information is currency in an industry. I mean, real estate, or it could be construction, or it could be automotive, or it could be whatever. But we're going to hone in on how information in the real estate sector, first of all, has to be correct, has to be accurate, can't be as speculative and just people throwing opinions and ideas around things like that. But it really has to be accurate, can't be as speculative and just people throwing opinions

Starting point is 00:04:05 and ideas around things like that. But it really has to hone in on truly that leverage that it gives the full-time professional in the space. So John, why don't you tell us, first of all, why did you start your company and give us an overview of that? Well, I think you're right on all the points you brought up, Adam. But going back to when I started, it was like the Stone Age. There were no personal computers. The world as it exists today didn't exist back then. So understanding that, there was always a thirst, though, for information. So when I started out in the mid-1970s, information was still very, very valuable and incredibly valuable to those who had the information, because if you

Starting point is 00:04:53 had information, it was difficult to obtain information, but it was even more difficult than to parse it out and get it to the number of prospects and potential clients. Over the last 40 years, as I have been so fortunate to put together a company with incredible minds and wonderfully talented executives, we built our company understanding that the value of information in real estate is not just location, location, location, or price, price, price. It's the ability of profaying information to your prospects and your existing clients that you are the right person to be dealing with for their real estate goals and objectives. And that means you're the person that's bringing

Starting point is 00:05:45 them honest information, that the knowledge of the process of real estate, you are the person that can guide them through. So when I talk about information is currency, if you are truly a real estate professional, you are keeping up on every day what's happening in our industry. And that is bite-sized information to start your day. First thing in the morning, I've done this for many, many years. I check the information on RIS Media every single day from our editors and writers that are writing about what is pertinent today in real estate. Are interest rates on the rise? Is there some sort of trend or something that has happened that I should know about and I should take the initiative and let my prospects know,

Starting point is 00:06:37 hey, this is happening today or this is happening this week. I want every one of our readers to be the purveyor of the information that their neighbors would want to know about what's happening in real estate. Because as you know, Adam, if you're not the purveyor of information to your clients, to your prospects, if you're not deemed the person they go to, the opportunity of getting a listing and or a buyer to come your way, if you're not the first person they contact, you lose that opportunity by 90%. So you need to be up on what's happening and you need to be pushing that information out to your sphere of influence so they look at you as their go-to resource. Awesome.

Starting point is 00:07:30 I mean, that's so powerful what you're talking about. And you have to picture this. I mean, for all the listeners, and so many of you are in the real estate space, but if you went to your doctor and they did not have correct information as to what's up to date on potentially what's ailing you or something of that nature, how would you feel about that? Because what we're dealing with here is not necessarily a physical threat when it comes to your health. It's a financial threat when it comes to your future and the asset that you and your family have created. And that's ultimately what a real estate agent is responsible for is the fiduciary responsibility to the consumer, to you listeners and to all you agents, listen to how I'm saying this, because this is really what the consumer wants to understand is

Starting point is 00:08:14 that you're there with this knowledge, this information. So John provides you this information, you combine it with your local experience and create knowledge that helps you do your business. And really, this is fundamental to all different sectors of business, but RAS Media specializes in the real estate space. So, John, I want to kind of jump into a little bit deeper here. Let's talk about good information versus bad information. And, you know, you guys have this reputation for, okay, it's like if you're going to buy, you know, the best bottled water off the shelf, what is the most pure, best for you, things like that, versus somebody who's filling up bottles of water out of the tap and putting them on the shelf. I mean, there are different levels

Starting point is 00:09:03 of information that people can get just by going onto the internet or something like that and doing research. How do you view that responsibility of ensuring that you're putting out good stuff versus just gathering garbage and throwing it at the industry that causes confusion and overwhelm? Well, that's a great question, Adam.

Starting point is 00:09:23 And it's a responsibility that we have. It's a lot like this. When you look at your network, and your network in particular is made up of tens of thousands of real estate professionals. And in order to be a member of the REMAX system, you have to have certain standards, and that is the ability to pay the fees to be part of REMAX because it's a collection of professionals. And they have to make a commitment to make those payments every single month to be part of REMAX. Now, in RAS Media, there's gazillions of pages that we could be publishing all about real estate and information regarding our industry. But are they pertinent to our mission?

Starting point is 00:10:16 And what is our goal and objective? Our goal and objective at RAS Media is to help our readers be the best real estate professionals they can possibly be. And that means we are constantly looking at trends, techniques that will help our readers be better at servicing their consumers. So we have to know what do they need to do in order to be better. So we're constantly surveying our readers and asking, how can we help? And one area that comes up and comes up quite a bit is understanding your negotiation skills. How do you get better at negotiating on behalf of your client? Knowledge of the real estate market itself.

Starting point is 00:10:59 Although there's tremendous amounts of information out there from a slew of sources, including your local MLSs and others, about what's happening in the marketplace. How do you disseminate that information and effectively and efficiently get that information to your prospects? Take social media, for example. I think what's been interesting in the last three to five years in our industry has been the proliferation of social media marketing in residential real estate. And when we first looked at social media, real estate and real estate, we said, wait a second. There's so much garbage that's out there that is being sent to prospects. You're losing the attention of the prospects and the respect of your prospects. So we started a service that's called RAS Media's ACE, Automatic Content Engagement. And it's a social.

Starting point is 00:12:00 Want to look it up? RAS Media, a social. We have 35,000 agents around the globe who use this service every single day. And what does this service do? This service has information from our award-winning editors talking about information that your customers and prospects want to know about their marketplace and what's happening in buying, selling, or investing in real estate. And then that system then automatically distributes that information to your entire sphere of influence so that the goal for us is to take our readers and enable them to send out great information to their prospects so they can respond, which is very important, respond to their prospects' needs and identify and assist them with their goals and objectives.

Starting point is 00:12:53 Part of what's happening in our industry is there's so many people out there buying leads and buying contact information, and they're not responding. They're not responding in a timely and efficient manner to the request of those that are really contacting them with their questions. Leads, you can buy leads until the cows come home. But if they're not good leads and you're not effectively sourcing those and contacting them with viable information, it's a waste of your time and money. So information for the sake of information is useless. But information that you do digest and you are able to send to your prospects and then answer their questions and concerns about that information is what we're all about. I love that. You had some great information in there and some great

Starting point is 00:13:52 bridges to that customer experience. Obviously, giving bad information or information that is confusing or diluted, if you will, it pushes away the customer. The customer is going to go where they find clarity. And where they find clarity is where they find that trust and that sure future of being able to activate that real estate transaction in an appropriate manner. So I mean, that's really what I've experienced with RIS Media and your organization is the ability to do that. I love the auto posting on social media part. And for those of you that are listening to this, your job as a full-time professional in your space, whatever that might be, is to be face-to-face with the customer and helping the customer with their transactions. It's not to be doing the research and refinement and editing and then reposting and all this other stuff. Let RAS Media

Starting point is 00:14:42 do that for you. I mean, when you take dollars per hours and compare those things, your money is absolutely best spent with the customer. So ultimately, you're either buying leads or you're creating customers. And if you buy a lead, you have to create the customer out of that lead. I mean, it's a lead at that point. And one out of 100 is actually even cultivated into a customer. But let this information help you cultivate that., it's a lead at that point, and one out of 100 is actually even cultivated into a customer. But let this information help you cultivate that. So it's really important that you're providing value to your marketplace. John, you hit on some great things there with respect to that. I think there's also another aspect of this.

Starting point is 00:15:19 Every single person that's going to tune into this podcast, who has been in real estate for more than one hour, has been asked by someone in their marketplace, how's the market? How's the market? What we try to do is we want all of our readers to take that as an opportunity and not lose that opportunity. If one of our readers that's on this podcast says, oh, the market is fantastic, you've lost an opportunity because anyone in our industry can answer that question that way. Oh, the market's great. The market's fantastic. What we want our readers to do is if they check every single morning their email from us which they get for free which is all about what's happening in the marketplace they can pick one or two pearls of wisdom

Starting point is 00:16:11 and uh you know for this the purpose of this broadcast i went on and i just said uh this morning what are two or three pearls of wisdom that we've just published this morning. Well, there's a couple of them is the home affordability is shifting as far as rental costs are concerned, okay? The housing market in 2022, which has been a roller coaster, is now steadying, okay? And just those two pearls of wisdom right there, even if you spent the additional one minute and 40 seconds reading each one of those articles to pull out something else, you're able to talk to your prospects who say, ask you, how's the market? Well, let me tell you, the market's very interesting. I will tell you that contrary to what we saw last year is it looks like the roller coaster effect of this marketplace is steadying. Whoa, don't you think that's going to elicit another question of more

Starting point is 00:17:12 meaning from your prospect? And that's where you can get in as a real estate professional and get them engaged in a fruitful dialogue about what's happening. And that's what having good information enables you to do on a daily basis. Be a step above, whereas you're one of your great taglines, above the crowd, which I believe came into Remax in 1994. Okay. I'm probably wrong on the date, but approximately then. And you want to be above the crowd. That's if anything, you want to be a step above what your competition is doing. Access to great information on a daily basis keeps you informed, keeps you informed. informed on not just what's happening in the marketplace, but what's happening with other professionals as far as techniques and services that are getting them results. That's a great point, John. And I mean, for all the listeners, there's a differentiation here between just having information and having actionable information. And that's ultimately what we're talking about

Starting point is 00:18:23 here is, you here is take what you have and turn it into action because nothing happens until that action occurs. And there's no confidence in the buying process until you deploy that information in an actionable manner for the customer and be there available to answer the question. So John, I want to, I want to ask you a question about RIS media, RIS media, and you guys offer several different types of services, get the others, things like that. You know, I've, you've got the new RIS media.com, but you have several events and reports and things like that, that you put out. Can you just run through those real quick for us? Sure. I'd be glad to. Things that I think that would be really pertinent to your audience. First and foremost, every now and then we have a, like we just had, our Rocket in

Starting point is 00:19:16 the New Year. And there were about 16,000 agents that came in and watched our virtual event on what they should be doing to start off this new year the right way. If you'd like to go visit RASmedia.com, you can look at the panel sessions that we just had up there. Many of them are up for free marketing, things about commission, compensation. or 15 years, you'd like to compare and see what are you earning as far as compensation and how does that compare with others that are in the same band of experience that you're in. Now, that particular report will be out the first week of March, so look forward to that. That is going to be our first report that's behind our new paywall, which is coming out on the 4th of February. And behind RIS Media are going to be all sorts of other reports and information that if you're a premier member of RIS Media, you get all of that for free throughout the year. And then you do get

Starting point is 00:20:45 discounts, by the way, to come to our events, such as September 7th, 8th, and 9th in Washington, D.C. The CEO and Leadership Exchange will be held this year at the Mayflower Hotel, the beautiful Mayflower Hotel. That's a special event that is restricted to 500 of the leading industry professionals in the country some of you will be getting invitations and if you're a premier member you can get an invitation to that as well but there's throughout the year we also have our power broker report and many of your uh your members uh adam that are on this today, are part of our Power Broker Report, where we actually rank the top 1,000 real estate companies in the country. This year, we're going to be ranking even more, perhaps as many as 2,000 real estate companies throughout the United States for

Starting point is 00:21:39 their transactional volume, their dollar volume. We talk about productivity. You can compare how your firm, if you're a broker owner, you can see how your firm compares as productivity to a like-sized firm across the country or in a different region. Or if you're a real estate agent working within a firm, you'd like to see how your firm compares with your competition, whether it be cross-town or cross-state or cross-markets. All right. Well, John, I appreciate your time on here today.

Starting point is 00:22:10 I think one of the biggest takeaways that I've had here is, in knowing you, if I want good, solid information in this space, I go to RIS Media. So I appreciate you being here and sharing your wisdom and knowledge with us. I encourage everybody to go check out rismedia.com and take a look at all the different amazing reports and information that they can sign up for with you, as well as what's behind that paywall, because we know, hey, when you pay for something, you get a lot of good value out of it, especially from your organization. So anyhow, I have one final question I ask everybody that's on the show.

Starting point is 00:22:45 John, how do you start your day with a win? That's a great question, Adam. And I go back to the basics. I get up every single morning and I start my morning at 5 o'clock and I check our RAS Media's news site for my three pearls of wisdom. And I formulate what my pearls of wisdom are going to be for that day from what I read. Awesome. John Featherston, CEO of RIS Media, chairman of RIS Media, the guy that started RIS Media. So much appreciate you being on here, friend. It's great to see you again. And

Starting point is 00:23:25 thanks for starting with a win. Thank you for having me, Adam. And thank you, Mark. And if you're ready to create personal business success, make sure to subscribe to this podcast and head over to wherever you get your books and order Start With A Win, the book. For more great content, you can go to startwithawin.com. And until next time, start with a win the book for more great content you can go to startwithawin.com and until next time start with a win

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Start With A Win - Information is Currency: A Conversation with RISMedia Founder & CEO John Featherston

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