Start With A Win - Interview with Tony Iacoviello "The Geeky Agent"

Episode Date: December 14, 2018

Our guest on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is Tony Iacoviello, also known as “The Geeky Agent.” Tony is a RE/MAX agent in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls. Tony became known as The Geeky Agent several years ago when he was asked to create a character that would narrate his journey to and experience during the annual R4 Convention. Based on his childhood love for sci-fi and comic books, he told his character’s story in the form of comic book pages, and when R4 was over that year, he adopted the avatar he had created and has continued documenting his business adventures to this day. Tony has experienced a few failures that have brought him to where he is today. First, when he went through downsizing in the recession, he started his own construction and renovation company, which eventually brought him into the real estate world where he has found his fit. Secondly, he went through a divorce which caused him to do some self-evaluation and reconfigure the relationships in his life. He now views his time with his sons as truly special and he finds purpose, gratitude, and perspective from his time with them.Another big win in Tony’s life has been the responsibility that has come from being a recognizable representative of RE/MAX as The Geeky Agent. “With great power, there must also come great responsibility,” and Tony has found that The Geeky Agent provides him with both.Links:The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160XSeconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley - https://www.amazon.com/Seconds-Graphic-Bryan-Lee-OMalley/dp/0345529375/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544109740&sr=1-1&keywords=seconds R4 Convention 2019 - http://www.cvent.com/events/2019-re-max-r4-convention/event-summary-df767bb0c6a84450a31e8ff25770f088.aspx?RefID=Above%20Summary%20LinkConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/adamcontosREMAXCEO/https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/

At top of the 12th floor of the Remax World Headquarters, you're listening to Start With a Win with CEO Adam Kantos. And hello, everybody. Adam Kantos here, top of the Remax Headquarters, 12th floor here overlooking Denver, Colorado. Producer Mark, how are you doing today? Good. How are you doing? Doing awesome. Awesome. We've got a pretty cool guest today. Yeah, I'm excited about today's interview. He's a very creative guy. Yeah, amazing. I mean, he's known because of his creativeness. Yes, he's creative and nerdy, which I like. Anybody who, you know, can get down with Jean-Luc Picard, I'm down with. Right on. Yeah, there you go. So today on the show,

we have known as the geeky agent, Tony Iacoviello. Is that how I pronounce it, Tony? That is perfect, Adam. How are you doing, guys? Thanks for having me on the show. I'm stoked. I'm ready to go. Right on, man. So you are in Canada. So tell us about where you're at. I'm in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Most people don't know where that is, but if you know where Toronto is, where most people know, and Niagara Falls, Hamilton is like smack dab right in the middle of that on the Queen Elizabeth Way Highway. So we're about 45 minutes to Toronto, 45 minutes to Niagara Falls. Yeah, it's a great little old steel town. We're a lot like Pittsburgh for all the Americans

out there. And actually filmed a lot of movies here using our steel mills as a pretend Pittsburgh and all that sort of stuff. So that's where I'm at. Yeah. Oh, right on. So born and raised there? Yeah, born and raised 45 years and counting here in Hamilton, born right downtown at St. Joseph's Hospital and lived pretty much so I was in my early 20s, right in the downtown urban area, and then kind of over time moved out here to the outskirts. I'm sort of in the southeast corner in Bimbrook. If anybody ever watches me online talking, I always mention Bimbrook. We're just a little subdivision surrounded by farms and conservation areas and all that way in the southeast corner of Hamilton. Ah, wonderful. Amazing. Kind of the heart of the country, the land where people get things done, right? Yeah, yeah. It's a very rural area outside of here. This subdivision not too long ago,

probably about 15 years ago, was about four or five different farms that just got developed, turned into subdivisions. And now there's about 5,000 homes, but we're still surrounded by farm country and a lot of rural estates. And like I said, huge conservation area, about five minutes from my house. So it's still pretty country out this way. Awesome. Hey, tell me about the Geeky Agent. How'd you come up with that? What's the story behind it? Well, I was thinking to myself, what would be the most amazing thing that I could create? And I said, well, this sounds pretty good. I've just always been a geek. I love science fiction and watching Star Trek when I was a kid and Spider-Man cartoons and drawing pictures and

comic books and the whole deal. So that's just a part of my DNA. It's just like who I am ever since I was a little boy, as far as I can remember. And actually with R4, that really kind of created the geeky agent. I got contacted. I know, I think Corey Joe was out looking for somebody to be the artist for R4 and kind of just let everybody know what was happening there. And then once I started doing that, I thought, you know what, I'm going to just inject myself right into this. So I had to create like a little cartoon avatar. And he was initially the real estate geek. And then over time, he's just sort of morphed into the geeky agent. And he is my voice in my comics that you see online.

You'll see them all over the place. And that just became my brand. And I thought, you know what? I mean, that's who I am. So might as well make it a part of what I do. That's very cool. And for those listeners who are not part of the Remax Network, first, you should be. But second, R4 is our annual convention we hold in Las Vegas every year where we have

thousands of Remax agents from all over the world showing up. And Tony has become kind of an icon there. You do create these little one-pagers, the different boxes that look like a comic book. It's really cool. But you tell the story, the one pagers, the different boxes. It looked like a comic book. It's really cool, but you tell the story, don't you? I try. I mean, I think we started off and I think the original idea was that I'd sit in on the sessions and just kind of do like the four or five takeaway points from each session. So people back at home, not there, would kind of get the gist of what was happening. But before we started going there, I thought, you know what, I'm just going to tell my story of like, this was my first time going to

Las Vegas, first time obviously going to an R4 convention. And so I just started telling the story about what I was experiencing on the way there, all my Canadian REMAX friends who were on the way there, like a little bit of tongue in cheek. So we had Bruce and Mary Johnson, who you know very well with their Motorcycle for Miracles ride, my friends Susan and Mo in Ottawa, and a bunch of other RE-MAX friends here in Canada, getting ready to go to the convention, being at the convention, in the sessions, in the keynote speeches, going to the restaurants, experiencing Las Vegas. And then I just kept it going after that. And I thought, you know what, might as well just use that as a vehicle to tell my everyday story, what's happened in real estate with me, my clients, what I think about karma

and the universe and all that sort of stuff. So it's become a thing and people seem to like it. I think we're, I'm about 350 or 400 cartoons in now, somewhere around there. Yeah. It's just become my thing and what people identify with me. Uh, it was funny because after about two years or so going to R4, I actually get stopped on the elevator with people like Remax agents from St. Louis and they don't know who I am, but they know I'm drawing comics. So it was like, Hey, are you that guy drawing the pictures? I was like, yeah, yeah, that's me. That's awesome. And I know, I mean, your name tag even has, you don't have your name on it. It's like a little cartoon of your face.

You've got the scruffy beard. It's so cool. And I mean, your talent is just continuing to grow. It's really cool to watch your artistry going on with these different cartoons. But hey, I want to kind of take a step back here. We always, you know, the name of the podcast called Start With A Win, but really wins come from failures and we get to where we are in life because of some failures. You know, what are some instances or something that really stands out in your mind where you've learned from a loss or learned from a failure or something like that? Yeah. I mean, there's always a few,

everybody's got their ups and downs. I mean, I've had some pretty significant ones that I think a lot of other people have experienced. I went through downsizing back during the financial crisis in 08, 09. And so I lost a job that I'd had, corporate job that I had for about almost 10 years and really just had to pick myself up from nothing. Nobody was hiring anybody at the time. So I started my own company. I started doing renovations and flipped home and that sort of thing. My dad was a carpenter. He worked on the CN Tower way back when they were building it here in Toronto. It was the tallest freestanding structure for many, many years around the world. And so I always used to do stuff with him. So I took those skills and started a business like in real estate, basically, but more on

construction side, renovation side. And then just that sort of morphed into me taking my real estate courses, which is something I always had thought about and into a real estate career. So I really learned that, you know, just to be really self-reliant, you have to really be a self-starter. You have to really get up every day and go to work. Nobody's sitting there giving you a paycheck every two weeks just for showing up to an office. You really got to put the work in. So that was one pretty significant moment. And then right when I started in real estate, I actually went through a separation and divorce within the first few months of starting. So again, another huge life-changing event that really made me reconsider a lot of things about myself, just the way I was managing relationships with other people, what my expectations for myself were.

I had to reconfigure my relationship with my children because now they're sharing time between myself and their mother and just, you know, shared friends and family and all that sort of stuff. So it made me really take a step back and just reevaluate who I was. So I mean, I don't know. I think most people look at divorce as kind of being a failure. I don't know if I see it quite that way, but it definitely was a pretty dramatic and drastic change in just my everyday life, of course. So just from that, I just kind of learned to be more introspective, I guess, to really kind of take a step back and see how I'm interacting with the world and try to be just that little bit better every day with my relationships, with my business, with the advice I'm giving to my children, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, and I agree with you. I mean, you look at it as an opportunity or you look at it as

something that is just going to beat you down, but you're a pretty you're a pretty upbeat guy, and it gave you some great opportunity. You have two sons, right? Yeah, two boys, Mateo and Luca, 15 and 13, teenage terrors. You know, they just started to get into the older ones, finally discovered girls. So that's a whole other universe of things happening there. And the younger one is just deciding what he wants to do, getting ready for high school and all that sort of stuff. So those are always interesting adventures we have every day. Oh, yeah, very cool.

And just watching you and I are friends on social media and kind of get to check out each other's lives. It's so cool to see you just enjoying your family and things like that. So very, very cool. So let's lead into a big win. Obviously your family and your relationship with your, your boys and things like that is, is a huge win that you get to experience every day, but take us through some wins in your life, you know, personal or business. What are some of the amazing things that you are super proud of there? Sure. I mean, I used to play a

lot of sports back in high school and stuff. So there was always things like, you know, I played on the volleyball team back in high school. We were city champions like three years in a row. I ended up being class valedictorian of my high school, which was a big significant moment for me. Yeah, it was, you know what, it's just that it was a vote of confidence from my peers, a little bit of recognition that, you know, they thought I represented them well. And I got to take on that role for that little period there. So I always look back on that very fondly as just being something that, you know, I always kind of want to hold up myself to that, you know, whatever reputation that gave me. Like, I don't want to let people down because I know you get that recognition and you don't want to

let people down after the fact. They say, you know what, we thought this guy was something great, and now he's kind of gone by the wayside. I don't want to be that down after the fact. They say, you know what, we thought this guy was something great, and now he's kind of gone by the wayside. I don't want to be that person. I always want to be the one that's kind of pushing what I'm doing and at least having that integrity and stuff that people expected from me. So that was a pretty good early win, like sports and stuff, all through high school and everything like that. I think R4 was huge, honestly, just getting that nod

and being given that leeway and that responsibility to kind of at least be one of the voices, helping to promote RE-MAX and the conference sort of through the RE-MAX social channels and globally and that sort of thing. I take that very seriously. I mean, I think that's not something, an opportunity that everybody gets to have. So, I mean, for me, that was a huge win. And just every day, we get all these everyday wins. Like you said, I get to spend time with my kids every morning, which being a divorced dad wasn't always the case. And now I'm very lucky that I get to see them pretty much every day and spend time with them. And then all the little wins. And sometimes I put them into my comics too when they're pretty significant. Just about helping these buyers get their house or some funny circumstance that we kind of worked

through and finally got the deal done for them. All these little wins kind of add up to just making a very successful life. I hope at least that's what I'm aiming for. Oh yeah. So you talk about kind of the convergence of your social media, your business, your comics, things like that kind of walk me through a little bit or, or tell the audience about how, how doing a consistent personal branding message has, has impacted your business. What has that done for your relationship with the customers for generating new business, things like that? What kind of impact have you seen there? Oh, it's huge. Absolutely huge. I mean, I've always been of the mind that I'm with REMAX because of a number of different reasons, but one of them is because they're a recognizable brand.

They've done an excellent job of just establishing themselves as an industry leader, as a productive agent, and then their branding, whether it's the REMAX logo or the REMAX balloon or any of that kind of stuff. It's just, especially here in Canada, even more so than the US, I think, it's an extremely recognizable brand. Like everybody knows when you're talking real estate, Remax is the first name that usually comes to their mind. So I really just build my own personal brand on top of that. Like I don't try to hide that in any way.

Like anything I do, you know I'm with Remax. That's the foundation of it all. And then on top of that, I just added my own personality to it and just kind of kept it consistent. It doesn't mean that it never changes. Like they actually said, I started as a real estate geek and it's morphed into the geeky agent. Initially, even before that, it was Tony's Homes before I really got the geekiness into it. The logo has changed a few times, but it's been fairly consistent, red, white, and blue. And usually I put that out there and get people engaged. But like you said, it's been fairly consistent red white and blue and usually i put that out there and get people engaged but like you said it just it's something that people identify with me specifically like i said just you know people are bumping into me and this they might not know they might not know the

name tony yuck of yellow but as soon as you mention the geeky agent they're like oh you're that guy you're the guy i've seen your cartoons i've seen you talking about real estate i know you're with remax and it's just made that that image in people's mind that I just stuck with them because it's different than what other people are doing. So as far as just even realtor referrals have become a huge part of my business. So within the realtor community, I'm fairly recognizable. I mean, I don't like to toot my own horn too much, but I'm pretty well known out there. I do a lot of video. I do a lot of social media, like you mentioned, and the geeky agent is always part of that. I always mentioned I'm from Hamilton and from Binbrook. So my business, I'm like seven years into the business

now, and it's probably last year was about 60 to 70% referral based. And about 80% of that was realtor referrals coming from all across Canada, people moving to this area, which I'm blessed to be in an area that's been pretty busy real estate wise. But I seem to be the go-to even above a lot of agents who've been in the business two, three times as long as I have, because they just really haven't established themselves in other people's mind with that consistent branding, that consistent idea of who they are and what they stand for. That's great. And I mean, you've done a great job of proving the concept of personal branding and tying it to a larger network of agents. I mean, you're right. I mean, you've kind of built this

little following. You're a comic book artist, comic book author at Remax, and people are like, hey, there's Tony, there's a geeky agent. Hey, will you draw me a picture? You know, things like that. It's really cool. And it turns into just this reciprocal offering of, of friendship. And it, that's the beauty of our, our industry beauty of, of this, uh, of the Remax network, it turns into business and people make a living doing that. It's, it's, it's the coolest part of, of what we do is helping people and, and we get to, you know, everybody gets to make money doing it. So pretty neat. Hey, um, the podcast is called start with a win. So how do you start your day with a win?

And what does that do to the rest of your day? Yeah, I think I kind of alluded to it before, but it's really just spending time with my two sons. There was a time when I didn't get to do that every day. And just circumstances of change with things like where they go to school and that sort of thing. So at this point, I do see them virtually every day. There's like one day every couple of weeks where I don't actually get to touch base with them for a bit. So I really relish that opportunity. I'd make the most of it to just sit quietly with them and spend time with them and get grounded. I ground myself. It really

makes me understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's like, it's all for them. Really, it really is. But it gives me a chance to like, just connect with them and find out what's happening, how they're feeling, what's happening in their day at school or personally. And then days when that doesn't happen, it's a messy day. It really, really is. If there's a day when they're not visiting my house because they're off doing something else or they had a day off school or whatever it is, it really throws a wrench into the rest of the day. I can physically feel it, that I'm just not right. It's almost like you miss your morning coffee kind of thing. Yeah.

And I'm sort of, you know, my head's kind of swimming throughout the day because I'm just missing that something that got me started. And that's usually what it is. It's just, I miss being with them and making that connection. And then once they're back the next day, I'm right as rain again. But it really does have that really serious impact on me personally. Like family matters to me are the most important thing. I can deal with all sorts of personal issues, whatever they might be, financial, personal, physical, mental, medical. But when things are sort of out of whack with my family, it really has a significant impact on me.

So that's how I start my day with the wind. I think I just, you know, really ground myself, make myself understand why it is I'm doing what I'm doing. And then I have a purpose for the rest of the day. I just have that motivation behind me to do all the things that I need to do. That's really cool. And I mean, you think about it, and I completely agree. I have to start my day with gratitude. I have to start my day with loving my family. And I mean, you're saying exactly the same thing. It's so cool because when, regardless of what's going on in your world, if you share that love, share that gratitude,

it makes everything else easier to deal with, better to deal with. Yeah, it makes insignificant things go away. Right. Really, it does. Yeah. Yeah, very cool. I mean, kudos to you for being a great dad.

We need great dads in this world. It's important. Absolutely. We're part of the process. You know, we're invested in these kids, and we've got to make sure that they understand that. And I send all the best to you and your family, your boys, things like that, and that you're showing them how to be a good person. I'm creating the future geeks of the world, so I've got to work hard on that. That's right.

Yeah, a little comic book class going on there at Tony's house. But, hey, Tony, let's jump into the lightning round. I have three questions here that I want to ask you, and your best answer, and your first answer is usually your best answer. If you have a second answer, throw that in too. But tell us, first question here, best book. Oh, best book, as far as business-related type stuff, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I love that book. I read a number of years ago. I even gave a copy to Conrad Srini, my broker of record, and he loved it. Just about why we form bad habits, how to

break them, how to establish better ones. And so many examples of like from the business world and science world about why they happen, but just a great, great book to read. And then as a second, I'll throw in a fun one. It's actually called Seconds by Brian Lee O'Malley, the same guy who got Programless Versus the World, which is a movie. He's a Canadian comic book guy. So it's a graphic novel. And it's about this girl who has the ability to give herself second chances. And she keeps squandering them.

She can reset things whenever she wants, almost like a Groundhog Day kind of thing. But she never really learns her lesson. And she keeps trying to make things work to her advantage. And it isn't until she realizes that by helping other people, things work out for her, that she really makes good use of that last second chance that she has and things work out for her. So seconds by Brian Lee O'Malley and the power of habit are just amazing. My two go-tos that I give them to past clients and friends all the time. I've not read secondss. I've read The Power of Habit several times, and I second that one on Power of Habit.

I'm going to have to go get Seconds now. Sounds pretty cool. I'll send you one. Oh, right on. It's in the mail. Oh, thanks, Tony. Hey, all right, next question. Best quote.

I'm sure you got a good one here. Go for it. Oh, I got to keep it geeky, so I always go back to my absolute favorite one. It is from Spider-Man. It's actually from Amazing Fantasy 15, the very first comic book ever to feature Spider-Man. And it's, with great power, there must also come great responsibility. That is the foundation of my life. A lot of people misquote it a little bit. They leave out that there must also come part, but that's probably the most important part. Because if you do have power, and we all do,

we have power to affect people's lives every day just by being kind to them. But especially as real estate agents, people endow us with tons of power to influence their lives, but where they live and investment properties that they're buying for their families, all sorts of stuff at all different stages of their lives. And there's a great responsibility that comes with that. And we really have to live up to that responsibility. And it's not something we can shirk. With that power, there must also come that great responsibility. So that's my absolute favorite one of all time. I love that. I love that. Everybody in society has responsibility, great responsibility because they all have great power. You're absolutely correct. Everybody, and if everybody

lives their life that way, what an amazing world. It would be pretty cool. Unreal. So third and final question here on the lightning round, what piece of advice do you have for our listeners? The best advice I ever got, and I know it's banging that geeky drum again a few times, but they all come from geek culture, to be honest, and that's why I love it so much. It's such a diversity of thought. But I'll give you my Star Trek and my Star Wars pieces of advice for everybody. So Yoda says at one point in the Star Trek movie, or Star Wars movie, sorry, because there is no try, there's only do. So if you're not going to complete your task, I mean, don't bother.

I mean, it's not about trying, it's about getting things done. If you ever watch the old Star Wars movies, and Empire Strikes Back, like Luke Skywalker at one point, he's on Dagobah with Yoda, he's trying to use the force to raise his X-Wing fighter out of the swamp, and he can't do it, so he gives up. And Yoda, who's like a fraction of his size, gets up and raises this massive starship out of the swampy water and puts it out. And Luke looks at him and he says, I can't believe it. And Yoda looks back at him and says, and that is why you fail.

So you really got to believe in yourself. You have to believe it. You have to have the courage of your convictions if you really want to get things done. And that's the lesson I take from that. And then Star Trek. Star Trek's awesome. I love it. There's so many things there. To boldly go where no one has gone before is amazing.

It's like just having the courage to do things differently and seek out new information, new life, all that kind of stuff, and just enjoy and learn, constantly learning your entire life and going places where no one has gone. And with that comes the Vulcan philosophy from Mr. Spock called IDIC, I-D-I-C, Infinite Diversity and Infinite Combinations. If you understand that the world and the universe is made up of infinite diversity and infinite combinations. It just allows you to appreciate just the amazing things that are available to us just right here on our own little planet. And then at some point in the future, hopefully in the universe out there,

if we ever get a chance to go out and explore like they do in Star Trek and that sort of thing. And it just makes you more accepting of other people, other cultures, other ways of doing things, maybe better ways of doing things, better ways of being, just being a better person, that kind of thing. So there's infinite lessons I take from geek culture, and that's why I love it so much. But those are my main four, I guess, takeaways from Star Trek and Star Wars, just for your lovely audience. I love it. Thanks so much, Tony. We've learned so much about you today. Thank you for what you do. You're an amazing man.

If you're ever in Hamilton or that neck of the woods, check out Tony at TheGeekyAgent.com for all of your Remax needs. There he is with Remax Escarpment Realty, one of our amazing offices in Canada. So that's it for Start With A Win. Tony, we really appreciate your time today. And ladies and gentlemen, we'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure to head over to startwithawin.com

to get more great content. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Adam on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And remember, start with a win.