Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Building a Community, Not a Company | The Power of Determination & Leadership in Real Estate

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

In this episode of The Determined Society Podcast, Michael Little and Edwin Rodriguez share their journey of building a powerful community within Iron Valley Real Estate. They discuss the importance of leadership, mentorship, and determination in achieving massive success. Learn how surrounding yourself with high-level people and building a collaborative environment can accelerate your growth and help you serve your community. Don't miss this conversation on success and tenacity in business and life! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

People just need to focus on building a community and not a company. Everybody says, oh, you need a good culture, need a good culture, need a good culture. Do you even know what that means? What we want is a community. And a community is a group of like-minded people, irregardless of where and what they're from, that are operating together to complete the same goal. Communities used to actually physically build their community together. They used to eat together.

They used to take care of each other's children together. That's what we built here. I put my all and everything I'm doing up until it's done I'm me for the entirety I'm putting an over time I'll be working just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it they watch and I know it's time I confirmed I confirmed what's true what's a whole society welcome back to another episode of the determined society we are live here in Virginia Beach at Iron Valley Realty such an amazing opportunity we're here for an event determine your destiny so many amazing things happening in this course of three days.

Can't wait for all of you guys to hear it and see it. Before I introduce today's guests, I want you to take the time to subscribe to the show on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, leave a review, leave a comment, would love to hear it. Today I have two amazing badasses that are making a massive impact and splash on the community here in Virginia. And it's just an amazing, amazing blessing we have on the show. So we have Edwin Rodriguez and we have Michael.

Little Iron Valley Hampton Roads, baby. What's up, boy? What's up? What's going on, man? I do, I'm going to tell you guys, if you're listening on Spotify, hit the video button because Edwin is a sexy son of a gun. He put these beautiful shoes on with the buckles.

He looks good. I'm not making fun of you. Thank you. I'm not making fun of you. You look very, very nice, man. What's going on today, boys? Everything, man. We got training. We got you and Coach Bert in the house. We got I believe... When it comes

to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. Everyone's got some photos. session with his daughter. His daughter was our rookie at a year last year. Correct. Over seven million in sales.

Year one. Year one. Come on, dude. So, but what I'll do is I'll let everyone go ahead and introduce himself and let you guys chop it up for a second. Yeah, what's going on? It's great to meet you in person. So nice to be here.

I kind of feel like I already know you through Mike and social media. So it was an honor to say and speak to you. Well, thank you, brother. I received. But I would say 24 was a crazy year for me. It was a transition year. A lot of focus on the company growth. But one of the things that I'm very proud of is my daughter's success.

You know, she came on. She just turned 22 in November. So 21 houses and helped me with all 34 sales that we had on the team. As a 22-year-old. Yes, Jesus, man. Yeah. That is amazing. Killer.

She's a little different. She graduated high school year early. She started college early. She left home at 17, got an apartment, wanted to live on her own. So she was on a little. a path. I kind of didn't push her towards real estate. She's seen me sell real estate her whole entire life. I've been licensed since she was one years old. Yeah. Wow. So it was something I said, if you want to do this, I will help you, but I'm not going to push you. Real estate's not

something that you can be pushed. It's something that's either within you or not. Sure. So very, very proud of her. She still got a long way to go. And it's, it's funny because at most companies, she would have probably been the number one agent. Yeah. And here at Iron Valley, she didn't even make the top 25. So it's something that, yes, she did phenomenal, but she also has more goals and more people to try to catch. And, you know, she has a long way to go to be at the top. You know, our top agents sold over 35 million.

To ask you a question real quick. Obviously, you've led from the front since she was one years old. She saw you do everything. And having your tutelage is probably a big component, right? But what about her makes her so different than most rookies? I mean, $7 million in real estate sold as a rookie, that is not easy. Plus help you with 35 transactions that you did, right? Like, what about her so?

I mean, like, she is, so she was very athletic growing up. She had that competitive spirit growing up. So she kind of got that, you know, from me. We got very similar, you know, character traits where, We're very competitive. It's not necessarily money-driven. It's just, you know, she had a competition with Edgar, right? Edgar's one of the owners, right?

She's like, I'm going to beat you. Love it. You know, they're going back and forth. And that competitive spirit allows her to kind of just keep the pace going, right? Keep that gas pedal pushed down. And it's just something that you can't really instill in someone. It's something you're either born with it or not. Yeah.

Yeah, I think she has a knack for getting around the older crowd, too. Like those of us that have been where she's trying to go, she's very astute in the fact of, let me attach to those individuals and ask those people to questions. And she doesn't waste her time talking to people that aren't where she wants to be. I've noticed that. That's such a major point, I think, with anything, a lot of people, when they get started with something, they reach out for opinions and ask for permission from people that aren't where they're wanting to go. as a young woman starting at 21 and now she's 22, that's a vital piece of her success is learning from the people that have already been there, done that, right?

And competing with them, standing on her own, getting her shoulders back and say, oh, hey, hey, girl, I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. But I can guarantee, though, that young girl did not think about beating him every day. She focused on what she needed to do in order to be successful and make herself proud. Yeah, absolutely. Very proud, right.

Yeah. Damn, man. That's impactful. Yeah, I'm sure. It's everything, right? But before Edmund was training his daughter to be a rookie at a year, he reached out to me, when was that, man? Was that 21? It was January of 21.

Because you brought him in, right? So, well, he reached out to me first. So Eric and I opened a company February of 2020. He reached out to me like right around a year mark. And you're probably better at this than me. as far as like reaching out to people and how we connected. Absolutely. So I was, so I did 23 years in the military.

A big, what branch? I'm sorry. Navy. Okay. There's only one. Okay. That's your baby. Yeah.

My dad was in the Navy too. Oh, see, there's only one. The only boy. Jesus. It's like, fuck. Screw you, armed managers. No, but 23 years of service and a part of my success was always having a mentor. someone who's been there and done that.

So as I transitioned into full-time real estate, because a lot of my career was part-time, okay, I was looking for a mentor. And I had a lot of success part-time, 22 homes part-time of my last year, and I needed someone who was doing better to me. And the people who I reached out to, they just wouldn't give me the time.

They just maybe was because they were too, busy, whatever it was. And finally, you know, I reached out to Mike. We were both previous chief petty officers. And that connection when you're a chief petty officer is just different. It's like an unexplainable connection. And within five minutes, he responded to me, hey, let's meet up. We set an appointment.

And I'm a lot older. I'm the oldest in the group. How old are you? I'm 46. I'm 46 as well. We're dinosaurs. Right? Yeah, we're in time.

Well, all, you know, Mike and Eric are under 30s. So I go to this meeting with, you know, preconceived notion of what a top producer is, right? So in my mind, I'm like, all right, shirt, tie. And I'm coming off a 20 million year. Cool. Yeah. You know, I don't know, I don't know Mike.

Yeah. You know, I don't know him from anything. Yeah. You know, I come in, he has a hoodie, jeans, sneakers on. You know, RASH, very direct. rack. Yeah. And within five minutes, I'm intrigued. Like, five minutes. I said, who is this guy? Yeah, what the fuck? Who is this guy? Yeah, right here. hoodie? Yeah. I said, I got to, I got to come to see this office. And, you know, we cut lunch short,

came over here to this office. And I always explained it as if, when you walked in, back in the day, that picture of Wall Street, people running around crazy, talking about deals, you know, sharing information. It wasn't something that I was used to. And I, and I been in the industry for at this point 16, 17 years. So I was like, I have to be here. Oh, that's awesome. You know, I came out, had another meeting with him. I said, listen, I want, you know, just to set up with some expectations. I just want to grow. If you can help me grow, I'm coming over. Yeah. He looked at me, he said, I got you. I believed them, and here I am. Damn. How has your life changed since then?

Oh, man, the biggest difference is I would say my network and the people who I'm around. One thing that I would say the biggest shift in my life, professionally, personally, is surrounding myself with those people who are just caliber humans, high operating, high functioning, high moral compass people. Because prior to that, you know, I'm from New Jersey and I'm Puerto Rican. That was my crowd, Latinos from up north, really not as far as where they're heading in life,

but more of what we had in common. Sure. And the shift came because of Mike and Eric. To be honest with you, like straight up. Yeah, here it is, a white guy from Ohio. Mm-hmm. Stop what he's doing, helping me to establish my business. That changed everything for me.

Yeah, the diversity, right, of who you brought yourself in front of is everything, Rand. Well, that's the thing is, yeah, I'm sure we enriched his life, but he also contributed to us greatly. Yeah. He had contractor connections. He got flipped connections. He got hard money connections.

He got local connections, right? Like he brought a whole team over. He didn't come by himself. He brought a group of guys that are now all top producers or associate brokers, you know, a lot of them team leads now. Some of them are even coaching clients of mine at this point. So he also was a value ad, right? And that's why there was a point where it came. When we had to remove an original partner,

and me and Eric had a conversation. Only, you know, maybe five names came up, right? And him and Edgar were clearly atop the list. Yeah. Because you brought people here. You contributed to the brand. You repped the brand. And it doesn't matter what I tell you if you don't execute it, right?

These guys came hungry. Like, how do I properly structure a team? Yeah. How do I properly structure my business? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know this about health, you know, wealth and finance management stuff. You know, because I'm at some point, I don't know, a couple years ago, I just kind of set everything up because I hired a financial advisor. And I was like, I need a trust. I need a will. I need all my ownership and all my companies in this trust. So they were looking for that guidance more so than like just selling a house. Yeah. It was more about how do you structure the team and then how do you grow that? And then eventually that turned into they both became managing brokers. And then now. They both are owners.

And then Edwin and I, he's a certified instructor as well through Glover Youth. So we own our, we own and licensed our training program through them. Right. Myself, Edwin, Eric are all instructors. And then you sat with Julian and LJ earlier. They're getting certified this year. So the team just keeps growing, but it's just based on that. Like, I didn't feed him any BS.

Right. I told him everything I know. And he turned around, told me it taught me everything he knows. so we both grow. That means the company grows. Yeah, that's the co-creative environment we were talking about last night. I talked to, you know,

Julian and LJ a little bit about it today this morning, I believe. It's what can you do in order to enrich and grow and enhance what somebody else is doing? And there's so many people that are afraid to tell their secrets. I'll give mine away.

That's what we say here. Our secret is there are no secrets. Correct. Yeah. Like, will you do the work? we'll give you the tools. You got to know how you got to use them though, you know, like. Yeah.

You know, and I tell people that, you know, come to me like, I need you to help me grow my Instagram brand or I, and that's not even what I do. I just. Right, right. But I can help them, right? Because I know all the failures and all the shit that I went.

They have experience. Experience with it, you know. So I'm like contemplated on my mind, while labeling a service and using it as something that I can provide. Absolutely. But the other thing that I learned. man and and I said I was helping people and they were not taking action yep and so I got this from the book I'm reading called the go-giver I'm not going to take the idea but I'm going to

implement it right and I want to share with you guys someone reaches out to me I need your help all right great I would love to meet with you we can do a zoom we can do a phone conversation whatever you want to do if they're local I'll meet him in the person I have conditions though yeah you know and I tell them the condition after we meet, you know, like I'll, but I'll lead it in and say, I'm willing to help you as long as you always follow the conditions of me helping you. And they go, well, I just don't, I go, don't say anything. It's not what you think. I know what you're thinking right now.

You're thinking about money. That's the wrong response. Not talking about that right now. Right. Okay. And what I've done is when I meet with them and I, you know, hear what they want to do. I said, okay, well, I would love to help you out. Or a woman, like, I'd love to help you out.

But are you ready to hear my condition? And I say, yes, I go, as long as you are coachable and every single thing I tell you on that day, I'll give you one main component. You have to execute it that day. Or I'm out. I'm out. Because if I'm going to give you my time,

I need you to go out there and do. Absolutely. And they're like, that's it. I'm like, it's harder than you think. Yeah. You would probably rather pay me 20 grand. It's the hardest part, actually. Yeah, it is.

For sure. It is, but that's the goal, right? So you can come in and tell him whatever it is that's made you successful and vice versa. But if you guys do not take action immediately, it doesn't. It doesn't matter. Absolutely. But we take action. Yeah.

I mean, you know, that's, and that's really what it is. But it's been a collaborative effort from that point because him and Egger were running top producing teams, you know, and I just looked at Eric, I'm like, man, we need help, bro. We're growing at a pace and also dealing with that situation at the time where it's like, we can't do all this alone. And these guys are already all in, you know? So they decided to come on board. And since that time, I mean, we've gone from 150 agents to 300 and almost 40. We went from two offices to seven franchises. We now have the ability to to sell franchises, where the number one Iron Valley real estate franchise in the country,

over 900 million in sales last year throughout the companies that we've opened within four years. Wow. So this year is, you're about that billion point. So, well, like I have a concept, you know, zero to a billion, five year plans of success, something like that, you know what I mean? Something like that, something small. But if this old thing. But legitimately, you know, if we hit a billion in sales this year, which is actually more important

about our goal of 3,200 units because that means we will have assisted 3,200 families, right? That's the main thing. And as a kid that grew up as a homeless orphan to assist tens of thousands of people in creating homes for their families, like, that's where it ties together for me. You know, it doesn't tie together on the money.

However, if we can go from something that's self-made and built from scratch to a billion in sales annually in less than five years, none of us are from here. We're all military, transplants and we literally have chopped the tree down, built the table, set the table, you know what I'm saying, put the food on it.

Yeah. And we do other things too, you know. We connected it to the title company. I know you interviewed Matt from Noble Title. And we also have connection with Goosehead Insurance. Edwin's wife is actually the owner of that franchise through Goosehead, you know, and we just have so many things connected that are feeding so many more people. than just us, right?

Look at the employees, with the staff. Look at, I mean, it's just, it's cool to see, man. You know, it's funny, you mentioned something yesterday when I interviewed you one-on-one, and I'm sure you're going to echo the shit out of this one. He said, the reason why we're so successful, other than the fact that we focus on the people and the impact in the community,

is that in the Navy, it didn't matter. You had deadlines. You had a job to do, and you had to have it done. And it's the same thing, bringing those concepts over, right, non-negotiables into business. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, I say it all the time. A huge part of our success is our military and our discipline and our administrative acumen. Yeah. Right. In order to be at a position where Mike and myself, we both made chief, there's a lot of administrative duties. Okay. And that translated perfectly into

what we do now. Even our ownership meetings are very, similar to a planning board for training, which what we did every single week in the military, right? So a lot of our success is based off that and the background that we all have. There's no, how can I put this? No one ever has to call us and ask us, hey, are you going to be in the homeless tomorrow? Right? Those are non-negotiables. Even on holidays where most people are off. There's not a question on, hey, are you guys going in? There's not, those conversations don't happen because we know we're on. There's no excuses. It's usually more of a question like, why aren't they here? I haven't seen them. It's something wrong. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But I think it's also,

I think it's great because you guys are a focus on service, right? And you have removed the focus from yourselves. And I think that's big. But dude, like the other thing is, is those types of things don't happen if the culture and the overall feel in the office isn't collaborative and respect to so I tell people I feel like that work culture is kind of played out people just need to focus on building a community and not a company yeah like cultures everybody says oh you need a good culture need a good culture need a good culture like do you even know what that means what kind of culture do you buzzword sure you know what kind of culture do you want and what we want is a community

Yeah. And a community is a group of like-minded people, irregardless of where and what they're from, that are operating together to complete the same goal, the same task. You know, communities used to actually physically build their community together. They used to eat together. They used to take care of each other's children together. That's what we built here. That's a mic drop, dude.

I guess. I'm with this guy every day. Right? I get multiple bike drops out of regularization. They're making me want to move the family from Florida to Virginia Beach. Other than the fact that I can't get a Coke Zero anywhere. Edgar knows where to get the Coke Zero. Heger knows.

This is the first time I ever heard that, the privacy product thing. I honestly. Because I'm a Coke guy. I'm a Sprite Coke guy. And I've never even thought of not having that accessible. I know that Edgar knows where to get a Coke Zero. I'm laughing because, you know, I love Coke Zero. I feel like there's more carbonation.

It's less syrupy than Pepsi. But the funny thing is, is my buddy Mike out there. He's on my production team. Everywhere we go, he's like, hey, can I get a 7-Up or like a Sprite? They're like, sorry, only Pepsi products. Like, we have a star. He goes, yeah, no. That is not listening.

Absolutely not. And then finally at dinner last night, at one point, poor guy, he might not have noticed it, but I looked at his face. He was so defeated. Yeah, I'll just, I'll have a Pepsi. Please. Diet or regular. It's regular.

Yeah. I love it, man. But no, community is huge, right? And you made a great point about communities used to eat together. They used to build the community together. And I think that when you have an office or a bunch of people rowing in the same direction, it makes the boat go faster. Absolutely.

And that's what you guys have had, that light speed, you know, revenue growth, but also franchise growth, people that want to be a part of it. So that's the bigger piece. I think is, you know, I just said yesterday at a team meeting. L.J. was talking about the law of the lid. And so, yeah. So John Maxwell wrote 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.

Yes. And the law of the lid essentially is this company or this brand will only go as far and high in this region as the leadership does. So like Evan and I have the same coach, Kathy Schweitzer. She's the CEO of Glover U, right? Right, right.

I coached with her for a little over a year, and then Edwin hired her, but she's got, you know, as many years in real estate as I have alive. And I was seeking somebody that could take me to the next level because nobody in this area wants to help me, right? Like where...

You're a threat. Come on. I don't like the word, but, you know, because I'm more of a collaborative person. I'm actually trying to help the whole market and the industry, but people fear that their agents may leave or what have you.

And that's fine. That's their prerogative. But I told the team, yesterday and it was just based on what you and I have learned from Kathy is like every team lead even though you're not running a brokerage you should still have a mission statement a vision statement core values right and for us we rewrote our core values we wrote our mission and vision statement and when you recruit to those things that's when you're building the proper fiber right so you know for

us it's ingenuity independence fearlessness humility we added authenticity and fearlessness. So those are the core values of the company. So what that means is if you come to us and you're not an independent person, this may not be the place for you, right? Like we expect independent contractors who are not on payroll to do their job, right?

Like we provide training, we provide technology, we provide, but we're not handholding. Yeah, exactly. Fearlessness, you know, you could look at anything that we do even just hiring a coach. you got to be kind of fearless to like get vulnerable and have somebody address you regularly or I don't know what was it last 23 23 we opened three offices within 90 days Jesus that's

that's fearlessness right but having the humility to still come to work every day like we got the lunch pail to still wake up and train our people every day to show up to try to like we me and this guy for sure and eggers a very doer personality It doesn't matter what's happening in the company. One of us always tries to make it there. We're very big on management by walking around. Leadership should be around. Like something I'll say for Edwin and I

that's different than the Navy that we left. Because the Navy we left, a lot of people lead behind a computer desk these days. Edwin and I, I credit Agar for this, and even Eric as well, Eric moved to California, my original partner. But we all are very like a pop your office and say hi, I'll call and check on you, I'll drive 40 minutes just to pop into

training for five just to have that presence. And you're probably worse to me when it comes to that. I've let it go a little bit, but when I came in the military, there was a term that we used. It's called deck plate leadership. Yes, sir. Okay. And that is being by your people, showing them what to do, finding out how they are as a person, not just as a sailor or soldier or an employee, but hey, how are you? Not just like just in conversation, but no, no. How is your family? How are you?

How can I assist you? Is there anything that I can assist? I love that, man. Absolutely. It makes people, you know, really understand that they're a part of it and they feel seen. And I truly believe that most employees or however you look at it want to feel seen and want to be valued enough by the leadership. Without question.

And included, right? Yes. Inclusion's big. That's something else that really honestly came with. coaching like that was natural in the navy but there's also like a part where your opinion kind of doesn't matter right like you just do what you're told that's why the coaching piece in the civilian side and i'll credit kathy again she gave us that term m mf i make me feel important and what you realize in life is that's all anybody really wants yeah you know uh and then i told you about the

story about me my grandfather and how he was a real real estate educator that was wild man literally His saying and when I think back, I'm like, dang, I've heard this my whole life, but like my grandpa was 86, so, you know, I don't know when this came out, but care. Central Arizona Realty Educators, their slogan, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. We just, I just literally said that. Like, like, the last, he was pressing that like before we were born, you know, and it's just like, I didn't even know any of this. This is, that's who I am. Yeah. Right there in a nutshell.

And I believe that we've aligned with people that feel the same way. Like, you know, Edgar the other day, hey, guys, I got a jet because I'm going to my son's spelling bee. Yeah. Bet. Go do that. Go do that. You know, me out of pocket for almost 10 days, this guy's telling me every single day, I got it. Take care of your kids.

It's amazing, dude. He got something going on. It'll flip. You know what I mean? Like it's just we just take care of each other, man. And the staff, like Lori, Christy, like without our staff, we wouldn't be able to to be as nimble as we are, right? Like, the ability to come meet you at a conference

and sit down and chop it up with ET derives from the backbone of the company being here, making it happen every day, right? And for sure, man, that's the concrete foundation, right? Without great support, we can't do what we do and we cannot do. Absolutely. I have a couple more questions as we, I can't, can you believe this almost been an hour already?

I can do this all day, right? I am doing it all day. So one question, the first question, I have is more of a serious question, right, as it pertains to your business and how you've grown and gelled together. You mentioned multiple times you had the same coach. So they're teaching, she's teaching, yeah, guys the same thing. How do you feel, each one of you feel how important to having the same coach has led to the success of what you guys were. Well, I'm going to tell you, yeah. So I hired Kathy because I had a front row seat.

of what she recommended to Mike. And in reality, I'm already at a certain level. I'm on an owner of seven brokerages. That's wild. So, you know, not many people are going to have the information that I want. Yeah. Right? Just, you know, not trying to sound any way.

It's reality, though. Reality, right? I'm not going to get a coach who does worse than me. And I needed someone who she's just a pit bull. Yeah. You know, she knows what this. tell me how to motivate me. And she don't, you know, I needed someone who was stern and who had a different perspective.

And she just has so much life experience. When my coaching sessions go from real estate to helping my personal problems, I just knew she was the one. I don't necessarily think it was because Mike had her. It was just, I seen the results. Yeah. Right. I've been around her.

She's the type of person. that if she's in a room, she has the attention. Everyone in, when we go to these Glover events, right? Kathy's love. Kathy is a boss of bosses. You know, he's up there. You're just like, yeah, that's my coach. You know, I turn it to a group really bad.

You turn into a fanboy. But I will say him doing the coaching and being along my side when I started it and into things that we were implementing in the company, Edgar too, man, you know, and Eric didn't shy away from me either. He went and hired a different coach because that's his style, but he was supportive as well. And it was just like everything that we would implement, it would work. Yeah. You know, and I'm not the type of guy that's going to take an idea if I think it's stupid.

Yeah. I was never a Kool-A drinking cat, like ever. You just, if something's stupid, I'm out. You can't, like, tell me it's not. Yeah. Like, that's just how I'm wired. So, and I'll tell you about it, too. Like, I'm not, I don't care.

Oh, your feelings are hurt. Nobody cares. Like, let's move on. We don't want to do that, you know. Or this is great. Let's crush it. Let's do it. But as we were doing that, he was like, okay, this stuff is really working. And then when we both are doing it now, when we have a recruiting meeting, we're on the same page. We're speaking the same language. When we go train or the certified training program that we white labeled through Jeff, so he has a program called Sales Rocket.

We white labeled it and created peak performance elite sales training, which I told you about. It also helps us when we're instructing and teaching because now we're so on the same page. It's the same material. We're getting the same information. We're giving the same information. And by proxy, your brand now has uniformity as well. Right? Yeah.

Just like in the military. Everybody has a standard operating procedure. When you're running a company, you should have a standard operating procedure. You should have a standard training procedure. You should have a standard onboarding procedure. procedure. So us being on the same shoe of music is, is helped tremendously. It's so funny you mentioned SOPs, dude, because I think before I brought on my partner, Pat

Sikkins, and hired my production team, Grit, that's here with us. It's doing a bang-out job, by the way, freaking incredible. There was no SOPs. It was just me. Mayhem. Fuck, bro. It was like, what are we posting today? And now we have it down to a science. Yeah. You know, Sunday slides about the show.

Monday, the show launched clip. Tuesday, another clip. Wednesday at Twitter quote. Show launch. And then on Friday, which is, I think today's Friday. Yes, it is. Today's a flashback Friday. Got it.

Where you play a clip from an old... Yeah. And that's how we do... There's an SOP, right? Yep. But they have their own SOPs, and that's why the show moves so freely now. Like how he was editing while shooting. Oh, dude.

That's crazy. Yeah. Like the Switcher, they have, their technology is insane. And they're always, like, they're always talking about the next thing they got like, oh, this new lens. I'm like, I'm like, but, but dude, like for me, it makes me smile. Because I know that my team is literally so damn good. Yeah.

But shooting for more greatness every single day. And that is the fucking brand. Like, that's what we do. That's 100%. So I, you can participate in this next question. you answered it yesterday, you may have some more to add to it. If you want, feel free. Well, let everyone go first.

Yeah, absolutely. So this is the determined society, right? In my dream, when I created this, it was a Facebook page, just to begin with. And then it was a podcast in my car with a stupid iPhone. My goal was to wake up in a society that was determined to chase their dreams, no matter how they felt emotionally every single day. But so my question to you is, what does determination mean to you? determination to me is

operating no matter what's going on what's the noise I always I use a term that one of our realtors uses life be lifem I love it right lifeing like a mum

life be life and those who are determined will execute no matter what's happening in their personal life now we all have setbacks sure that's not the same as just giving up

or just not executing Yeah. You may have an off day. Cool. Mental health break, whatever. But the next day, you're back on it. Yeah. So I would say that determination is the ability to execute no matter what's going on in your life.

Dude, I love it, man. And I think that a lot of people look at determination is something different, right, as this massive action taken every day. And I don't think that's it. To your point, there's days where I'm like, I just cannot today, you know. and, you know, I'm blessed enough to where my wife's a teacher, my kids are at school. So if I have to take a few hours and just lay on the couch

and watch something and just veg, I'm going to do it, right? But I'm not going to do it two days in a row. Correct. You know, and all the while, I'm also recharging my brain to be like, okay, what if we did this? And then I can take some notes, and I'm still kind of in it, right? I never turn my phone off and disconnect. Like, I'll respond.

But there's days where I'm just like, I'll wake up and I'm like, yeah, not today. Yeah. I need something different for me today, you know. And I think there's a big misconception on that too. Like the hustle culture says, no, no, you can't do that. That's a week. That's your, that's your bitch voice.

No, it's not. It's not. It's okay. And then also part of the determination, and I just took it in perspective, is your network, right? The people who are you around. Yeah. If they're constantly executing, right, you're not going to want to fall behind. No.

Right? So that assists with that determination. Yeah, man. All my partners are highly executing individuals in all aspects of life. Being a father, a good person, a top-notch, real estate professional business owners. So I can't lack. There's no lacking. Yes, I might take a couple hours off.

I may take a day. Life may be life in. Sure. And, yeah. But at the end of the day, that network is going to kind of give me that. extra motivation when I'm down and that's gonna assist with my determination. It just reminds you that you're not in it for yourself, you're in it for the people, and you have people to lead and you want them to be successful and they will not move unless

the leader moves. Yeah, I, uh, I'm not even sure that I know what taking a day off is to be quite honest with you or an hour for that matter, like, no matter what is going on in my life, like high level tragic shit. Yeah. And these guys will reach out to me like, why are you still working, bro? We got it. You don't need to do that.

But for me, yes, the fuck I do. There are seven franchises that have stemmed from a brand that I brought to this city. There's over 350 professionals that depend on me every single day. These people feed their families with what we provide. Like, it's too serious. Yeah. Like, I'm not, I don't have. have a, it's all good, it's going to be all right, bone in my body. No, we make it all right.

Yeah, I like. We make this happen every single day. And the determination, see, the thing with the determination is it's kind of like happiness. It can fleet. Yeah. Right? Just like you said, well, if I need a day, cool. For me, I might be a guy that takes 30 minutes or an hour, whatever. But to me, I tie the determination to the tenacity, to the beat tenacious, because it's the how I defined it, you know, the sustained superior resilience. And that just means over and over again, no matter what, I'm going to be determined every single day and every single task that I do. Like, if I can't feel that fire inside me about what I'm doing, I'm not going to do it.

Yeah. Right, right, right? So it's just like, if you know that this is your purpose in life and you wake up and chase that purpose every day, you can find that determination. Even if it's not there, like you could find it. You know what I'm saying? I could look at a picture of my kids and find it. I can look at a picture of my father in his coffin and find it.

I can look at a picture of, oh, I met my grandfather for the first time last summer. Yeah. And now I have repurpose, right? Because now I know I'm doing everything I was born to do. Sure. Like you can find it. What are you going to do to find it? You know what I'm saying?

Like even for you, like a flashback Friday, you probably see clips where it's like, that's where it started. Yeah. You know, or I just saw some, some pictures of last year's summit that we went to, right?

And it's like, I can't wait to go because, like, I kind of need this break, even if it is work, right? Like, because the thing is,

I work with people that I love. Yeah, man. Yeah. I work with people that I choose to work with, right? Like, so it's not like I'm going to answer

to somebody. No, like I'm going to talk to my people. Yeah. Like, you know, it's easier when that happens. Absolutely. Because I,

there were days in Navy, like, dude, where I just absolutely could not stand who I worked for, where I worked, the environment, but I still had to perform. Yeah, yeah. Here I have the luxury of being surrounded by people that I know actually give a shit about me. Love that, too. That will lift me up when I'm down.

So I'm tenacious every single day. I'm determined literally every moment of my life. What I had to learn was not to expect that from other people. Right. You're allowed to be at whatever frequency you're at. But don't hate on me because I'm up here all the time. Yeah. I'm up here for a reason.

Yep. And if you don't know me, you probably shouldn't judge me. Yeah. Right? Like, but I could tell that one's from Jersey. He's got a little street in him, right? Like, I have that in me. Edgar, like, that dude's life has been crazy, right?

Like, we all have kind of a little bit of a rougher background, which leads to us all loving our families harder and working harder to give a better life. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's like none of us are here to just sell real estate. If that was the case, we wouldn't drive the training so hard. I wouldn't spend, I don't even know, like maybe a hod of racks or something like that on this event that we're putting on, right? Like, people have no idea.

They just think you're out here getting paid. No, I'm trying to break even, if that, you know, like I'm actually bringing you tools. I'm bringing exposure to our area. Yeah. Why? Because I'm tenacious enough to do so. I love it, dude. Right?

Because I'm determined enough to know who. and what I am truly authentically, like, I don't want to just go on stage and talk about selling houses. Like, let's talk about real life. Yeah, no one gives you shit about just the selling of a product. Correct. How can I impact your life? Exactly.

You know? And I think that that's what, I don't think I know, that's what keeps me going. And I believe that that's kind of what trickles down to everybody else. It's like, well, if Mike never quits no matter what, why should we? Yeah, I think that's a big point, you know, right?

That's true leadership. I will hurt for everyone else to win, whether it's my family, the company, my people, the employees, whatever, and they all know that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But that's just what it is, man.

It's kind of like, you know, Ohio State and Ohio against the world right now. That's why I'm wearing a hat. Yeah. You said something yesterday. I'll like, man, I'll break something out, you know. Big game on Monday. Big game on Monday. But, you know, I kind of, there's always something going on in the background that helps me champion to that next level as well, right?

Like that, these last two weeks I was going through all that, a little baby dropped the album, Ohio State went on this crazy run. I find something to cling to that will, that will, like, adjust my mental, right? Kind of why, you know, hey, son, you're going to come in the office with me today. Hey, you're going to come to this conference because I know he's a little down right now, right? and I know that your environment can change your mindset. Absolutely, man. It can help you up, man. It's so important.

But guys, thank you so much coming on today. It's a pleasure seeing you in person. I know we're going to have a lot more interaction this weekend. Absolutely. Oh, we're about to go tear this training down. Yeah, I got, yeah. We should have a full house. We've been gassing it up.

Very excited. But so, you know, for the audience, like, listen, I just really hope you gain a ton of value at it today. Just listen about what tenacity means to Mike and how Edwin has built his brand and his companies, his seven brokerages. And I just think it's a great story, you know,

behind the success of, hey, it's all about people and what can we do to serve others. I think that if you guys, truly every single day look at your goal, but break it down into steps to serve the community and other people, you will get there a lot quicker and a lot more joyfully than you would if you're focused on you in your pocket.

So thank you all for listening. Again, please share this episode with someone you know love and trust. And please don't forget to subscribe on the YouTube, Spotify, or Apple for podcasters. And really just please reach out if you guys need anything. Let me know what you want to hear. Until next time, stay determined. Our friends, what else? Doing up until it's done, I meet for the entirety.

I put it in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it. They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society determined. Determin. Thank you.