Start With A Win - Overcoming Odds to Becoming a Top Performer with Quintavius “Q” Burdette

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

As one of seventeen children growing up in Mississippi, Quintavius “Q” Burdette learned at an early age that nothing was going to be handed to him. He achieved his goals of attending college and playing football for a division one team through sheer will power and a work ethic that wouldn’t quit. When other kids from his community went to parties, Q was on the field honing his skills. In college, he stood out to coaches and professors because he prioritized his education over football. During this time, he shifted his perspective. Everything he thought he wanted in a football career actually wasn’t the path for him. So his plan B because plan A. After graduating with an accounting degree, the first in his family to ever do so, he set his eyes on his future goals. Quintavius worked at one of the country’s top accounting firms before setting his sights on real estate. His choice to change careers brought out the naysayers who doubted that his dreams of being a top performer in real estate would ever come true. But Q’s mindset and determination sets him apart from others in his field. He chooses a mindset that uses challenges in the market as fuel for revising his strategy. His adaptive approach to anything life throws his way is one reason why he sold a record-breaking number of houses in his first year as an agent. He embodies the message that we can’t always control what happens around us, but we can control our mindset. Now a staple in his community, Q serves as a role model for children who want to build a better life for themselves despite the difficulties of their environment. Main TopicsQuintavius’ family life as a child and how he developed his unwavering work ethic (02:20)Q achieved his dreams of playing college football despite odds stacked against him (05:32)Q’s example of breaking through walls inspires kids who look up to him (07:53)Q shifts his perspective to prioritize education over football (11:10)Transitioning from accounting to real estate (14:16)Q’s inspiration for succeeding in the real estate market and other areas of business (17:45) Connect with Q:https://www.instagram.com/quintaviusburdette/https://www.facebook.com/quintavius.burdette.3https://twitter.com/QMB_4https://www.linkedin.com/in/quintavius-burdette-a82158181/Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts

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. Coming to you from Brand Viva Media Headquarters in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Kantos with Start With a Win. Producer Mark, how are you doing, buddy? I'm doing so good. I love it. I love it. We have a very special guest with us here today. Yeah, you know what's cool?

So we're all here in studio together, and we have Q on the podcast with us. He's actually a reoccurring guest. Yeah. So that's awesome. Awesome. And if you're just listening to this episode, head over to YouTube and make sure you subscribe. And then you can see us all together in the same studio.

Totally. So this man needs no introduction. So I would say, Adam, if you have an updated introduction, let's get this guy's stats because he's a freaking rock star. He is a rock star. So Quintavious Burdette, who is one of the top producing Remax agents on the planet. I mean, this guy does a ton of business. I think, what, 775 transactions in less than four years? We're somewhere around that number right now.

Dang, man. You are rocking it. So Division I football player at Ole Miss. Yep. He knows the story. There you go. Yeah. And frankly, you're just, I mean, you're loving life.

You have a wonderful, beautiful wife. She's just finishing up some medical training to be a PA, I guess. And life is good. So it's good to have you back on the show. Man, I'm so happy to be here again. And just to be here in Colorado for the first time with you guys, it's awesome. I can't wait. Well, it's great to see you. I know we've run into each other around the country at different REMAX events. You also speak around the country at different offices. I think. You also speak around the country at different offices. I think you did like 30 speaking gigs last year or something like that?

30. This is the 31st location I've been at this year and still producing at a high level. So there's no excuses out there for it. Wow. All right. Well, you're a machine. And I don't mean machine as in you wear yourself out, but you are dedicated, focused, you're a hard worker, and you're very intentional as to what you do. So I want to dig into a little bit. We'll give a brief background of growing up because you had all the cards were stacked against you in life. I stacked cards against me that wasn't even mine. You know what I mean? So you know how it goes. Let's rewind here, okay? So you grew up in Mississippi?

Mississippi, born and raised, North Mississippi, about 30 minutes south of Memphis. Of course, Jackson is about two hours from us. So small town, 8,000 people. Wow. Wow. And not a very high income level in that town. Oh my God, no. I mean, these folks look at you like a king if you make $50,000 a year. And coming from where I come from, my parents never made more than $40,000 a year. And to stack 16 other kids

into that mix, it gets difficult. So you are one of 17? One of 17. And where did you fit into that? Youngest, oldest? Where were you at there? So I'm the fourth oldest. So to all you folks out there just thinking about having multiple, multiple kids, don't have 17. So you were basically a big brother, little brother, parent as well. So you had a lot of responsibilities of helping raise those other. Yeah, so we grew up fast.

You know where I'm from, I started driving at the age of 10. I was driving to school. After school, picking up my brothers, my sisters, driving back home. We lived about maybe seven miles from town. Wow. And dad had to go to work early. He would drop us off some days, but most days we had to fend for ourselves. You know, when we got home with the grandma house,

we ate, we had to find a way back to the house, so we would drive back home early on. So we had to grow up fast. We had to learn how to change tires, do all that good stuff, cut the grass, pick up sticks, do all that stuff to help my dad around the house because he was at work all day. Well, and is that where you think you developed your work ethic? Is that growing up knowing I have to do this to survive, to help my brothers and sisters and my parents? Is that? Yeah. And it's just, you know, where I come from, nothing is given. You have to work for everything. And, you know, I prided myself growing up on being the first of a lot of things. I was the first in my family to graduate college. Not just my brother, sister, mom, dad, like grandmother, uncle, cousin.

Anybody in my bloodline. So growing up, you know, it was tough. But I had a brother that kind of pushed me not to a factor where he was motivating, but it was more so like if I didn't wake up before he did, I probably wouldn't eat. Because if he woke up before you and his food on the stove, he would eat everything. So that motivated me to get up early to work out. But also, you know, I grew up fast. I was playing high school football at the age of 12. Wow.

You know, I was eighth grade playing high school with the seniors and I was playing. And so growing up fast is something I've done all my life, but it took a lot of work. So you played high school football. And then, I mean, when did you think, I'm going to break the paradigm here and I'm going to go to college? When did that start occurring to you? Yeah. So I used to watch Regzy Bush growing up a lot. That's my favorite player. And coming from seventh, eighth grade, when you're playing against kids your age and you're dominating, you're like, okay. You start to hear the talk around town, oh man, this kid can go. And I took that and my coach. So up until about ninth grade, I was a trouble kid. I wasn't always perfect. Wasn't always this clean cut guy, but I was a trouble kid. I wasn't always perfect. Wasn't always this clean-cut guy.

But I was a trouble kid. And my high school coach told me, he was like, hey, you have a real shot at doing something that really hasn't been done around here. And if you get in trouble again, you're not playing. Oh, okay. You're done. Yeah. So from that point on, I was walking a thin line because I wanted to play. My parents was real tough on us because, you know, growing up, my first job was after college.

They didn't allow us to work growing up. So, you know, that atmosphere of, hey, you train, you go to class, you get your grades, that's your job. So ninth grade comes along and I'm starting vars, and I lead the team in touchdowns, and colleges start to kind of come and watch you play a little bit, but they're not offering. And that's when I knew it was like, okay, I could do something special. So were you the – I mean, how many D1 players came from your school? In the history of my school, who's been around for, I don't know, a long time, because I know someone

who was about 85 that said they went to my school. So I think it's three total. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So you were, I mean, you were setting records from a young pace, from a young age, due to your work ethic and your desire to win. So you go to Ole Miss. Went to Ole Miss. Yep. And what did you study there? Accounting.

I got a master's in accounting. So did you get your master's at Ole Miss also? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. And you have your CPA too, right? So I started my CPA process, went to KPMG, worked. And I did not like that. I didn't like that ride.

I was there maybe three and a half months. Wow. And I was like, you worked, and I did not like that. I didn't like that ride. I was there maybe three and a half months. Wow. And I was like, you know what? It's not for me. So you come from this one of 17, small town, nobody's ever gone to college, to become one of three D1 athletes out of your school, go to Ole Miss, get your MBA, and then you go to one of the big five consulting firms. I mean, talk about somebody who continues time after time after time to really kind of, I don't want to say break the paradigm in life, but nobody told you, or at least you didn't believe anybody when they said you can't. Correct. And that's what it boiled down to. You know, even at Ole Miss, you know, things were great early on.

But as my career progressed, I changed positions, and it was a tough time trying to get used to a new coach. And also I had to miss practice a lot because of my class. I chose a difficult route for schooling. And the coaches kind of, you know, they wasn't a real fan of missing practice. But, you know, they was proud that I told them, hey, this is what it's going to be. I have to miss on Wednesdays because of this class. And you can play me or you can't, but I'm not going to change my degree. So that's when I realized then, you know, it was more so about what can I do for the people? When I say the people, the kids that come from my community that look up to me to say, that guy, he's doing it and he's doing it at a high level and getting this education. So I made it my business to always say, no matter what they say, no matter what they

do, no matter what's in front of me, I want to get through it to show everyone after me that it's possible. So when I got my master's and I graduated college, I was proud. My whole family came to my graduation. You would have thought we was at a nightclub. We celebrated and we laughed and jumped around. But I saw something then that kind of showed me that this is what I'm on this earth to do, to break through walls, to show others that if I can do it, you can do it. But here's the thing. I'm going to show you ways that you can do it much better than I have done it and make it a lot easier. So, you know, when you say the cars are stacked up, man, they were stacked up. Yeah.

I was the kid where, you know, growing up, I didn't really ask for gifts for Christmas. I asked for a weight bench one year. Right. And that was my Christmas gift. I asked for a parachute the next year. That was my Christmas gift. And a parachute is when, you know, you can scrap it on your waist and you can run against the wind and it makes you faster. Wow.

You know, so I was doing that stuff, ankle weights. I was jogging around the city with weight vests on at the age of 10, 11, 12. You know, when I was going out to parties, I would go to the gym. If it was raining outside, I would go to the field and work out. If it was snowing, go to the field and work out. If it's hot, go to the field and work out. So I was that kid. And now if you go to my school right now, you're probably going to see kids out there, although it's cold or maybe it's raining today, they say back home, there's going to be kids out there because they videotaped it and they show those kids, he did this. If you want to get to where he is, this is what you have to do.

So that's, that's incredible. And thank you for being such a great role model. Those, I mean, that's, we. We mimic the beliefs and the successes that we want to become. But if there's nothing to mimic, it's hard for those kids to understand anything. They do what they see in front of them. And if it is not creating success, maybe it's, okay, it's all right to drop out of school or something like that. You set that standard of it's not okay. And I love when you talked about I was missing practice on Wednesdays to go to class. Usually people are going, I was missing class to go to practice. Correct.

And those coaches had to be going, wait a sec, this guy's different. Yep. This guy is, he's doing both because he's so intent on doing what's best. Correct. And here's the thing. I knew early on my goal was to have a shot to make it to the big league. Right. I had that opportunity, and it was perfect for me. But when I got there, I realized quickly that that opportunity is really not the best in life, you know, for a lot of young kids because, A, it's

very difficult to make it there, but it's also even harder to stay. You know, that's a business. It's no longer about X's and O's in football. It's about business. So when I got there, I realized quickly, like, I'm not going to chase it. So I have some friends still to this day that I play with that could be doing other positive things, but they're still chasing that football. So for me, I wanted to say early on, I want a backup plan. And my backup plan is going to probably be my plan A eventually, but I'm going to give it a shot with the football. And I ran track at Ole Miss as well, but I was more mainly a football athlete. But my classwork was more important to me than anything because I was always told, even before I even went to college, that I should be an accountant or a lawyer because I used to talk so much. And I used to argue with the teachers in school, and they'd say, man, you talk and you argue, you talk and you argue.

You need to somehow be an accountant or a lawyer. So my mom actually had a dream of being an accountant. Oh, wow. But she couldn't go to college. She didn't go to college. And she would always talk to me about, I'm going to go back to school, and I'm going to get my degree in accounting. So I said, you know what? I'm going to do this for mom.

She wanted to do this. I'm able to go to college now for free. I don't have to worry about no one paying for it. I'm going to get that accounting degree that she's always wanted to show her that she can do it. So my junior year in college, my mom actually enrolled and started her associate degree for accounting. Wow. Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome to see, and we kind of finished it out together. And it was a blessing when she started that role. But to see myself start it and then her kind of say, you know what, if my son can go in there and do that, I can, no more excuses, it meant the world to me.

That is, I mean, there's a word there. It's called proud. Yep. That's amazing. I mean, you have such a great heart, such great determination and a ton of love also. So, so cool. I want to jump into your talk about your real estate business now. Oh yeah. So you, you left KPMG and you thought I'm going to go get a real estate license. Yep. So, and I left it on a whim. I literally, they showed me a billing, a billing report one day. And the next day I put a two week notice in.

Wow. I just Googled what profession I can make what I'm worth. Real estate popped up and I saw a video and I was like, you know what, if kind of confused, disappointed, like, oh, my God, you've made it out. Why would you come back to this place? And I'm like, well, I have a different opportunity that can potentially give me a pay raise because going from $70,000 to $100,000 potentially in your first year, what the video said, I can get a pay raise

by just talking to folks. And the things that, you know, people were doing, I was watching a lot of videos online of cold calling, door knocking, and I was like, okay, this could be easy. But I did not understand how difficult it would be, but the folks around me did not understand, like, how determined I was to make it work. So, man, it's the story behind, you know, when I first got started, all the naysayers, you know how it goes.

That's it, yeah. You know how it goes. They're first in line, usually. Correct. Correct. They want to ask you questions like, hey, what do you want to do this year? What are your goals? And then you tell them your goals, and they tell you what's possible.

Oh, no, that's not possible. Right. I don't want you to think like that. Come on, man, you have to be realistic. I heard a lot of that my very first year. But if you rewind, I don't think there's many that have sold 106 houses their first year. Right. And so I look back on it and I tell my story all the time. It's what you think you can do. It doesn't matter. You be loud about what you're going to do because it's going to hold you accountable.

The more folks you tell something that you're going to do, it's probably going to come true eventually because you're going to work at it. And don't sell yourself short either. A lot of people are like, I want to sell 10 houses my first year. And you looked at it and you go, I want to hit, what did you say, 100 or something? I said I wanted to. Well, I didn't even understand what it would be, but I said, Hey, I'm gonna make 500 grand my first year. I'm gonna hit Chairman's Club, which is the Remax award level for that. And everyone looked at me like I was a fool. You said game on, let's go. Game on, man. My first 30 days, I talked to over 6,000 people.

Wow. Just cold calling, door knocking, going to Kroger, bagging groceries, helping folks, being very personal and not even really asking for the business. But I was so active within the community, they felt like they had to give me a shot. And when they gave me a shot, I took it, and I made it, and I made it again, and again, and again. Right on. And, you know, like in sports, if you start to get good at something, the coaches start calling plays for you.

Yep. And that's kind of how it turned over for me. People started referring me and saying, hey, call this guy. They started calling my number. And here we are today. All because of hard work and getting out there, putting in the reps. I mean, nobody can do your pushups for you, right? Correct. So, all right, let's switch to today. Let's switch to, you're doing a lot of public

speaking. You probably hear some common questions and challenges faced by real estate agents. And we've gone into another cycle in the market. Everybody's like, oh, the market's going down. No, it's a cycle, folks. It's like when you hit the field in sports and it's raining or snowing on the field, it's not a beautiful sunny day, but you still got to go play. You have to play. You still got to go score those points, run your plays, do what you trained to do. So what are a few of the challenges you're hearing today? And what do you have to say to people to help them get better during this time instead of just make it during this time? Yep. So, you know, Adam, the places I'm going, they're asking me, you know, courses like, you know, how are you keeping up with the changing market? How are

you getting buyers under contract? How are you convincing sellers that the market is changing? And to be honest, I don't have that problem in my market, honestly, because, A, I don't watch TV. Right. And I don't buy into what other folks think about anything. So your perception on, hey, the market is doing this, okay, if you think the market is bad right now, the market is probably bad. For me, my job is to understand that yesterday Susie, who I don't know, probably sold a house. Right. And it's my job now to go out and find that next Susie.

You know, people are still going to buy and sell property with the rate 6%. It's not very high. It's high for this last two or three years of new buyers and sellers. But if you look at the grand scheme of things, well before I started this business, folks were getting 6% interest rates and were smiling.

Totally. And that's going to be a thing again. Yep. So they're so concerned about what this market is going to do to their business. What I would be asking is, what's your business going to do to this market? That's what I ask. Yeah. Not what is the market going to do to your business, but what is your business going to do

to the market? Correct. All right. So taking that thought, somebody wakes up this morning, and this episode is airing after the first of the year. So it's 2023 now. What key points do you have? What recommendations do you have for an agent today? Or it doesn't matter what business you're in, because we're in the people business. Everybody's in the people business. Go out and find somebody and do business with them.

What advice do you have for them? So if you're starting right now in 2023 and you feel like by the end of the year you want to meet your goals, here's what I would say to do. Go out today and meet as many people as possible that your time and your energy will allow. So if it's 15, perfect.

Perfect number to start at. But tomorrow, when you wake up, you have to meet at least 16. Oh yeah. And then the next day, 17. And if you start this trend of just meeting brand new people, but you have to do something that I'm not doing a very good job at right now. I'll be fully transparent. You have to start capturing everybody that you meet old and new. So for me, I was so caught up on saying, I can meet more new people than any other agent in this market and be successful because I understood most agents in my market don't want to go out there and do that work.

So now that the market has turned a little bit, we all have to say collectively, we have to start meeting new people. It's the name of the game. It's a contact sport. The more folks that know that you're in the business and know that you're selling real estate, you're probably going to start getting better odds and numbers on closings than other folks. Right. You know, and that's easy. It don't cost you any money to go out there and meet somebody. So for all the agents who are new, old, or you spent all your money, you don't have anymore. You can go out there to Kroger, Walmart, or any of these other places where you know folks have to be, because people have to eat. They have to go grocery shopping,

they have to get gas. You can go to any of these places and meet them. 15 seconds is all it takes. It's no longer COVID. You don't have that excuse anymore. Right. They want to talk to you now. And it was easier than doing COVID, to be honest, because people were locked up in the house for so long. Right. They were excited to finally have somebody with a mask at their door. There you go. So, you know, it's one of those things that we can control this market,

but you have to start controlling your actions. Control your actions. I love that. Q, this has been kind of a mini masterclass on reset your mind, understand their challenges, but go exceed those things and build your business in the process. So I love every time I get to see you and say hi and hang out with you. You and I had lunch yesterday and just talked about stuff and how I think we both gained a ton from it. It was a blast. But Q, I do have a question for you that I ask every one of my awesome guests on the show. And that's, how do you start your day with a win? Because you get up and you hit the ground running. How do you do it?

Yeah. So I'm an early guy. I like to wake up around four o'clock. I have two alarms. It goes off at four. I go and I meditate for about 15 minutes. That's where I get my creative thoughts from. I sit in the dark. I don't do anything else. And then I try to be in the gym by five. All right. I work out for about 30 to 45 minutes. I try to be back home by 6.15 to 6.30. I nap until about 7.30. That's my second alarm. All right, from there, it's go time. The lights are on. There's no more pregame. The fans are in the stands, and I have to put on a show. So I go to my office, and I get after it. I call. I go to places and meet, and my goal is to get four points. Everyone who knows me know I'm

a big four-point guy. So that's how I start my day off with a win. But I end my days with wins as well. You know, by doing the things that I want to do, I break down my 168. Everyone has 168 hours in a week. We have to break those things down. And we have to include in that 168 some of the things that we want to do with our time. So every night, I want to play the game with the boys. That's a win for me if I get to do that every night. Nice. And I start over the next day with the same regimen. All right. And I never ask a second question here, but I got to ask because I want everybody to know, what are the four points?

Four points. It's like the game of football. You score a touchdown, you get six. For me, you get a contract, it's four. All right? You get a listing agreement signed, it's two points. You don't get points for attempts. If you miss a field goal, you lose the game. Same in this business. Okay? And showing a buyer a property is one point. You get one point per buyer, not one point per showing. And my favorite point to get is when I don't have anything else going on, I can always meet folks. You get a half a point for meeting potential customers looking to do business within 90 days. Every single day, I have to get four points in some form or fashion.

And if I do that, my business will be booming. Awesome. Quintavious Burdette, Q, you're a great man, a great friend. It's great to see you. You know, we want, where can we find you like on Instagram or social media? Yeah. So you can type in my name. I have a very unique name, Quintavious Burdett. I think I'm one of one. So you type in Quintavious Burdette, Q-U-I-N-T-A-V-I-U-S, Burdette, B-U-R-D-E-T-T-E on Instagram or Facebook. You will find me and you can connect with me there. Right on. Send him a message. He is your guy for Mississippi. Tennessee. Tennessee. And I'm in Florida now. I'm moving to South Florida here soon. Right on, my friend. Great to have you on Start With A Win.

Thank you. Thanks for all you do. Thanks for being an amazing part of the REMAX Network. Yes, sir. And for being a role model to so many people. We appreciate you, my friend. Thank you. And thank you for listening to Start With A Win.

Make sure you head over to adamcontos.com. There you can find great content and other ways to get in touch. So until next time, start with the wind.