FULL EPISODE | The Standard with Chance Brown | Episode 5 | Mentorship with Cherin Cox

If you put the client first and you do the right thing for them, consistency, you can change you can change the trajectory of your your path. Yeah. I um I mean I was scared to death. Um my first six months I did do a part-time job, which I'm not saying you should, but I was scared to death and had no support system. So I saved as much money as I could and I was told by my first broker sink or swim day. And I knew what day that was going to be. So, I when the day came, I had to jump off the cliff and everybody listening that's gotten their license feels the same way. Um, and I've never looked back. Um, I really feel like I found my footing around the 5-year mark. Up until that point, I always felt like I was backpedaling just a little bit. Um, I had incredible, incredible training in the beginning. um coming out of a job where I was told what to do every day and then going to where nobody's going to tell you what to do, right? Which is a I mean it's a challenge we run into. It is. And I if I tell you nothing else today that you listen to um find a brokerage that absolutely holds you accountable, trains you, oversees what you're doing almost to the point of where it's annoying because you are going to soar past other people that chose different routes. Uh, even if that means you might have to give up some of your commission. I was giving up 50% of mine, but I had a drill sergeant. Yeah. And she knew what I was doing all the time. And you're here and here I am 25 25 years later. Um, so that would be hands down the advice I would give to anybody, even if you're been in the business for 5 years. Just go back, find another brokerage, and do it right.

So, let's talk about that starting period, right? I'm a brand new agent. I'm just coming in. I know what I think I know based off what I've either seen on the internet or TV or whatever. Um, I get this big dose of reality when I come into this that it's a real business. Like, walk me through when you get a mentee. Okay. A new a new l pinning down in the very beginning. Um, pinning down why they're here. Mhm. I want to know what is going to make them wake up every day and actually want to work hard at this because it is you have to work hard because you actually have to wake up every day and work hard at this. You do. Um and we we really try to make sure they understand that they need to work 40 hours a week. Like if you have a job so at a bare minimum treat it like an 8 toive job. Yeah. Or you know 40 hours you spread it out however you want to over seven days or 5 days whatever you want to do. But I mean obviously it's more than that, but at a bare minimum don't stop working until you full filled a whole day, right? Um and then we also talk to them about things like time management. Um we really really want to push them to not just wait for people to tell them what to do, but be proactive. Be proactive.

Go seek out things to do. Um and we give them lists of things that you can do to be proactive. Yeah. So that you're not constantly um looking around for something. We're like, "Here's a list. Go and find these things." Cuz there is an amount of like inherent initiative that has to exist, right? Like you have to be ambitious and proactive and self-starting to go out and do the stuff. Um, and at the beginning it's a lot of stuff and it's not like reality TV. No. A lot of people don't realize a lot of that stuff's pre-taped after the fact. They go back and retape it for what would be entertainment. Um, but you don't get to see the challenges and all the things. Um, I'm not even sure a reality show with new agents coming in the business would ever make it. Be like, "Forget it. Nope. Never mind. This is horrifying."

Um, but we also really try to make sure that they have the tools that they need to put a business plan together. Yeah. Identify what aspects of real estate they want to focus on because we call those pillars of real estate. Um, and we stress to them just because you're licensed does not mean you need to practice all things you're licensed to be able to do. Correct. So, but also, you know, we we talk about the pillars because we want some amount of focus. I think it's super easy, especially when you're new and all these things are being thrown at you to want to spread yourself too thin. Too thin. And miraculously, everybody always needs you for the most odd or creative real estate situations when you're new. are like what about this and what about that? I'm like that never even really happens. Just pick up the phone and call 10 people today.

Exactly. Just do that. Just talk to human beings. Exactly. You know, one of the things that I always tell new lenses, and I genuinely believe, and I could be 100% wrong on this, but I genuinely believe that if more people kind of had this in the back of their mind anyways, when we meet somebody, because human brains are dumb, we put them in a drawer. Yeah. Right. And this is the drawer for which I think of this person. And god forbid you change drawers because it's really hard for our brains to recategorize any anybody, right? You you only have one chance to make a first impression, that kind of thing, right? Yes. And so what I talk to new licences about a lot is your first two years in the business are a branding exercise. It's getting people to stop thinking of you as what you used to do and get them to start thinking of you as the person they call when they have real estate issues. And I would say that was that would be the second thing that we probably really focus on is how to reidentify yourself to your sphere.

We call it a sphere. Um all those people around you that know you and people that if you called them would know who you are. Um, so that can be a real challenge for people, especially when you're younger coming out of college and a lot of your sphere is going to remember you as the high school college person jackass and doing dumb things. I'm just speaking. You still haven't left college. Yeah. Right. Um, so trying to I mean I'd even call it mature them up in some degrees to where they can have the respect of their sphere to be able to do such an important job for people. Yeah. Probably the most important thing they've ever do in their life besides probably have children. Um, so that's a really important aspect of what we do. And uh for those people that come to us in career changes, we just try to modify how they talk to people or you know how they might be able to use things they did in their previous career that that correlate to this for sure. And you know I talked to them about like it's about consistency. It's about hitting them with your real estate hammer on a regular basis so that they naturally rebrand you into a different drawer.

Correct. And it doesn't happen overnight like you said for two years. It takes a while. Yeah. Um, and you know, I joke and I had no idea of actually using a prop in today's podcast, but I joke with people about Coca-Cola, right? Like Coca-Cola is the most recognizable brand in the world. Everybody knows the red can. They know the white stripe. And nonetheless, they're going to run a Super Bowl ad and those damn polar bears are going to be around at Christmas time. And you know it. Yeah. Right. Um, but it's that consistent reinforcement of the brand. It is. And that's where I think it doesn't solve the problem. It speeds the solution. Yep. When you're delivering constant messaging, when you're making touches, when you're talking to people about real estate, it changes their mind faster. It does. And so a part of the program is to teach them the elevator speeches and the elevator pitches and how to quickly talk about what it is they do, what they need to do to be able to talk about real estate and not sound like a jackass, right? You know, so that they feel comfortable going out and to do the open the houses or talking to anybody about buying or selling a home or even leasing.

So, what would you say to the new Lency that is scared they're going to get that wrong? That is scared to start because they feel like they're going to screw it up. You have to screw it up. Um the the good thing about having mentors like me is I I I tell them, you know, I'm here. I'm a text away. Um let people ask you questions. Let them ask you questions you're not exactly sure how to answer. Um that's okay. People can respect that, especially if they know you're going to get the right answer. Right. And that's the thing. There's nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know. Let me find out and I'll call you back." Absolutely. I mean, people gives you permission to call back. I mean, to this day, people will ask me, "What do you think my house will sell for?" I'm like, "Well, I don't pay attention to every exact market where you everybody in my 500 deep sphere live and know what their home would sell for today." And I've never had one person go, "Oh, well, I wouldn't work with you because you don't know that answer right now." Right? Like I'll be I've said this on this podcast before. I couldn't tell you right this minute what my own house is worth. I have no idea. I don't follow the real estate value on my section of my neighborhood. Just there's no reason to.

You focus on the business that you have. You focus on your farm. You focus on other things and then be prepared on and know what to do when you do get the question. Yes. And that's one of the things that that's the third thing that I would say that we focus on in in our mentor um program or the mentor program here is where to find the information, how to analyze the information, how to talk about the information. Yeah. Um so that you what to do before the open house, what to do before you go show the houses, so that you don't get like uh oh scared face when somebody does ask you a question. You still have other information. You could say, you know, I didn't bring that, but let me get it for you. Well, and now unlike when you and I started the business, like they can role play with Chad GPT. I know like just tell Chad GPT it's crazy. You can sit there and practice with a ask me questions. Yeah. Um and it's a great way to learn and kind of get over that fear factor. But, you know, the the example I I sometimes use is you take this all these classes and you go take a test and all your instructors in the classes and anybody else in real estate will tell you that none of the [ __ ] that you learn is going to actually apply to the real world. There's an element of that in all of this is great, all this training and everything else, but until you actually go do it and screw it up. Yeah. Until there's a need to apply it and then you get to screw it up. Yeah. Well, we don't let you fall very far though. No, no, no. With a mentor, you don't get to fall far. But you know, I also joke with every new lency that I because anybody, any new licency that comes through our brokerage has to meet with me before they go to their mentor. And the one thing I tell them is the first time that this gets real. Yeah. Everything we've trained you on is going to fall right out of your head and you're not going to know what to do. You're going to be Ricky Bobby, not knowing what to do with your hands. It's every time. That's why we have the mentors is you're like, "Holy crap, didn't you sit through this class and we we role played this in Mindset Monday and all these different things." They're like, "I don't remember any of that. It just went blank." And it the the lovely part about um having the mentor teams where we all meet on Monday for Mindset Monday and spend some time talking about something specific is once you have one of the mentees go through a transaction and apply it, their whole like the way they view the mentor program completely changes. They mad respect. Yep. And we ask them because now there's context. Yeah. And now we ask them to get involved and not teach but answer questions for to the other mentees because sometimes people closest to you and experience you listen to differently. Right. Um so it's often it's often who's saying it, not what's being said. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. So, uh, it's an incredible program. And on the flip side of that, it gives that agent, that new agent, the opportunity to maybe create a little bit of mastery through teaching others, which is awesome. I found that our now asking them to also help.

They retain it. They like to um they like to teach it. They appreciate the opportunity to share their experiences and things like that. So, um, it's just it's an awesome program and everybody should have this. I don't know why every brokerage doesn't. Yeah, me neither. Shameless plug. Shameless plug. All right, so let's switch gears for a second. Out of the new licences, okay, we have a relatively young, and when I say relatively young, we have a pretty damn young Realtor population today, right? I saw a statistic. I think something like 53% of the population of Texas Realtors has been licensed since 2020. Wow. That's over half of the Realtors in Texas got their license 2020 or after. So, they're starting to see a market unlike they came into. Having gone through a couple of market swings.

Yeah. Um, let's talk a little bit about the things that don't change when the market does change. Y like what from an activity, what from a marketing, what what would your tips be for somebody experiencing their first market shift? Again, it goes back to the consistency. Yeah. Um, you don't all of a sudden want to be showing up talking to your sphere when the market slowed down and you didn't bother to do that while the market was hot, if you will. Um, so consistency uh always rules the day. Make sure you have programs in place where you're touching your clients. Let's edit that out. Where you're contacting contacting your clients at least monthly somehow someway. Be it snail mail, be it email, be it text, be it phone calls. Um, stay consistent. Um, I always tell people always be involved in the industry because the worst thing you can do is have that time alone by yourself and you're thinking about what you're not doing and then that energy follows and it just gets worse and snowball effect.

Um, go ahead to Yeah. No, I was just say it gets real easy to get real negative when you're just on an island. Yeah. when you're on feel like you're on an island when it's you and Wilson and you're just talking to you know your dog or your couch pillow or whatever it is and it's really easy to get into a bad headsp space and lose routine. Yeah, lose routine. So things like we have the mindset Monday for our um mentees and what they're supposed to do every week um every day to keep them consistency consistently rolling if you will with the program so that they don't lose sight um and they stay busy in the business. Um but those are habits that every agent should really be doing. Yeah. Everybody that's listening that's been in business for any length of time is sitting there shaking their head. Yes, I agree. Um, it's the time actually I think that you do the most changing in your business. Um, like that's when you really instead of running away from the slowdown, you run towards it. Yeah.

Learn things that are new. Find out what other people are doing. Do it harder. Do it better. I think you I think you get a really good idea of for you because it's different for everyone. What works you do and what doesn't. And and for me, staying involved, being busy in my business is what helps when things are slow. And I always harp about this. And the years I've done talks about new a what to do when you're a new agent, being involved in your business, being on committees. Yeah. You know, taking real estate classes, doing free classes online, whatever you can to just stay with it. Yeah. I just got back yesterday from the T3 conference in Dallas and you're just in a room with people who are doing the same things you're doing that are experiencing the same things you're experiencing and being able to have those conversations with people that get it. Um, you know, I think one of the things that doesn't get talked about enough entrepreneur being being entrepreneurial is a lonely business. It is. Very few people understand it because very few people have had the courage to go out on their own and do what we do. Um and it's stress. It's a different stress than than than an 8 toive job. Yeah. Oh, but and it's you know they both have their good and their bad.

Um, but I think when you put yourself in the room with other people that are in the same situation, whether that's an office meeting, whether that's a class, whether that's a happy hour, whether it's getting involved at the association level, um, or one of the, uh, you know, external organizations like WCR or something like that. Um, I just think it's so good for people's mental health. It is. And I'll tell you a little something y'all may not know out there. Um I early in my career thankfully about four years in was introduced to a lovely lady who encouraged me to get involved with Women's Council of Realtors and I did and I was fortunate enough to move up through the ranks and become Houston chapter president um in the mid n uh 2000s mid 90s um and that really made such a difference for my leadership role in in establishing my career. Um, so I continue to go back to I know we're harping on it at this point, but just get involved people.

Yeah, that's it. Get involved. I mean, I you know, my I hired my first coach and I think it was our second or third session in. So here I've hired this coach and I'm paying money to him and I'm expecting him to be helping me with like the tactical stuff and building my business and all of that fun [ __ ] right? And the first question on like our second or third call was, "So what are you doing in the industry?" Yeah. And I'm like, "What does that mean?" And he's like, "Are you involved in your association? Are you on committees? Are you whatever?" And I was like, "No, why the hell would I go hang out with Realtors? They're not going to buy a house from me. I want to go hang out with people that might buy a home from me." He's like, "No, dummy. Let me explain this to you." And I immediately went out and applied for a committee. Yeah. And look at you now. Yeah. Would you have ever thought back then? No.

Never in a million years the governor would have to appoint you to Never. Never in a million years would I think that I had done any of the things that I've done in either association or commission service. I know and I'm way better for it because of that one question he had. Yeah. So like I I can't advocate more for getting involved in local association, state association, things like WC Narre or NARB or A or any of the affiliate organizations. They're all good. They are all good. Um, you know, some of the scarier things though to talk about if I'm able is yeah, one of the things that nobody ever thought to talk to me about early on, not in school, not my first broker. I'm not knocking that broker. I'm just saying it just wasn't something that came up was ugly stuff like taxes. Yeah, taxes.

Saving money. Um, and I would encourage people I'm actually going to record a video later about putting yourself on salary. Yeah. Like that was something that I learned way too late down the road. And you'd think I would have like figured out the first time I had to write at the IRS a big check. Um but I didn't I had to ask my parents for money my first year because I forgot to do that part. And that was embarrassing because my first year I didn't make enough money to everything went back into the business. I didn't even think about it. It wasn't a big check but still still I was like oh that yeah. So, if you haven't done that and you're listening, please put money aside for taxes. Figure out some type of a percentage that you think and put it away and put some savings away. Y you'll thank me later because it took me three years in my business to figure that out really really well. Yeah. And I I'm going to say it was probably five years in before I really started saying, "Okay, every penny of commission is going to go into this account." Correct.

And I'm going to pay myself a paycheck. Yeah. Um, and now today I do the same thing, but today I actually use a paycheck service that takes taxes out. Like I pay myself real salary now as opposed to just, hey, here's distribution or whatever. Well, my CPA and there's plus or minuses to that, too. I'm not Don't listen to me for accounting advice, kids. Well, and I don't do it that way. So, hey, you can there's plenty of ways to make it happen. I mean, my CPA, I made all C's in the nine hours of accounting I had to have in a college not known for its accounting program, for mathematics and not Yeah. not known for its accounting program. So, don't pay attention to me. So, but yeah, taxes are definitely a real thing. They are. And this savings and all of that stuff, not this not the fun part because you will go through, no matter how good you are at this, you will go through down cycles in your business. You will absolutely have times where you don't get a paycheck for a few months. Yeah. And that happens to a lot of people way more often than they will admit. Sure. Um I'm not afraid to admit that it happens to me sometimes. Um either because things actually just naturally slow down. Um everybody just market timing or weird things like there's a million contingencies because I go on vacation and don't you know or decide to just spend the holidays doing the holiday thing. Um, you know, but going to if if we will like to a possibly fourth factor in our mentor program is on those pillars, what you're focusing on to not have a lot of ups and downs, the roller coaster ride. Um, it's really really I don't care who you are.

It is really tough to not have that. I don't care if you've got a 20 person team or it's just you. Um, everybody's fear is different in different markets and there's it is very difficult to not have a lot of ups and downs. So doing early planning and farming um things like that and the consistency setting up CRM tasks task lists and just doing everything the same. Uh all that will help you as you've moved further down the line. All right. So question for you. How how far into your career were you when you really started using CRM? Can they see me make this face? Yes. There's a camera right there. 2019. Yeah. Yeah. When I joined this brokerage. Yeah. So, I mean, for me, it was about two years in and two years in. It took me like 19 years. But here's here's the stupid here's the stupid part, right?

The stupid part is the reason it took me two years was I was just too cheap to pay $50 a month to top producer, which was the really the only CRM back in the day. That was my challenge back then is everything was really expensive. Yeah. Um, and so I just did it a little bit. I mean, I still had like a maybe like an Excel CRM, but not a sexy CRM. That's, you know, doing the templates and automatically sending people stuff for, you know, it just I had my own. I had a scheduled like this day the A's in my phone got called, this day the B's in my phone, but I didn't have a way of tracking it. and where what I learned um and I tell I always tell the story about my dad um owned a sales organization and he went in and this was precomputer pre everything in the palm of your hand right went into a sales meeting at one of his offices one day and he said okay I want everybody to write down your top 10 clients he took up everybody's piece of paper went back said all right I'll be I'll be back next week went back to his office he and his CFO crunched the numbers on the Everybody wrote down 10. This is like a 8 to 10 person sales team, right?

Everybody wrote down their top 10 clients. The most that anybody got right was three. But when they cross referenced that list with their expense account, they were almost all right really. And the lesson is we have a tendency as human beings to take the path of least resistance. Yeah. And hang out with the people and do things with the people that are low threat for sure. But if we're not really using a CRM to track where our business is coming from, we may be leaving a lot of business on the table from people who are either already giving it or willing to give it, we just don't particularly want to go drink a beer with them. And I think that's normal for you with your clients. Yeah, for sure. They're your clients. I mean, sure, when you're spending teen hours with them looking at houses or, you know, going through the process of selling their home with them, you get really close, but it was never going to be a relationship where your intention was to be drinking beers with them after. Maybe here and there you invite them to a client appreciation or something like that, but you come into their life for a purpose and you get really close and then you leave that and you just stay consistently in vibe with them, right? and some you do. But if you don't know that that person is referring you five transactions a year, trust me, my follow-up changes for that person when they're when they're referring me five transactions a year when they're not referring me anything. Yeah, here's my newsletter. Yeah, for sure. I'll stay in flow. I'm going to stay, you know, in the process of you're going to keep getting things from me. But there's a there's a level right here and then there's a level up here for the people who are, you know, my top referral partners. We have tears. I mean, certainly top referral partners, top repeat business. Top even the people that like to call me for things not about buying or selling, but they're like, "Would you go with this paint color or that paint color?" Like, I love those people. Yeah. Those people will never stop thinking about you if you're thinking about that question. Right. You have you have you have done your job of Exactly. Exactly. You've killed it.

Yeah. So, um you know um if you don't have a CRM, I'm not really sure to how to tell you in today's age to really have a functional business. Um because you just have to be able to track the stuff online. There is no more not online tracking. I don't even know what that's called anymore. Me neither. I don't even know what that would be. Yeah, you have to have one. Um, okay. So, 25 years in, Uhhuh. give a couple of your biggest lessons learned in a quarter century of real estate. Oh gosh. I would tell you easily it's the small things that would could impact the most things. Yeah. Um those little things that you're like, should I say this? Should I do that? Uh I wonder if it would matter if I wrote this this way or if I don't put that in the offer or the contract. those some of those little details will get you in the biggest trouble. So, um if you're ever questioning, ask for help. Especially like in the negotiations, I mean, that is such a learned and creative thing um that you do not get your license and know anything about real estate negotiations.

So, um before you just think you're a master real estate negotiator, ask managers if this is a good method. Um um and I would say have grace for yourself. Definitely don't and don't compare yourself to everybody else. No. Uh keep your head down. That's a real trap, right? That's a real trap in our business is there's this person that's getting on a magazine or this person that won this award or that's, you know, getting mentioned at this, mentioned at that. Don't get caught up in that. No, my goals are my goals. Your goals are your goals. Chance, if you wanted to sell a 100 houses this year and I wanted to sell 25, well, we can both do that, but you want to make the same amount of money. I do. Well, we're going to do that. It's just going to be different ways to get there, right? Absolutely. So, my if my business plan has me one house a month, cool. Why am I mad or upset with myself if somebody's selling five houses a month? That wasn't my business plan. So, and this is why those types of things are so important. If you make the plan, you know your plan, then other people's success that might be greater than yours doesn't affect you as much because it's not your plan. Yeah.

Well, if you're not doing jack [ __ ] to even follow your plan, then then you should look at yourself in the mirror and have some tough answers. And I would say that that would lead into one of the things that I have learned most. I can't imagine a time where I wouldn't have a coach. And really what that boils down to more than anything is that accountability factor that you brought up very early in this conversation. is if you're an agent and maybe you can't afford a coach, that's fine. Whatever. Find an accountability partner in your brokerage. Absolutely. Find somebody who I'm gonna call you. It's like going to the gym and having a gym buddy or having a trainer at the gym. Like that person that's going to hold you accountable and you're going to have to openly say I'm going to call these five people today and I'm going to set this appointment and this and then the next day, did you actually do any of that? Yeah, I agree.

I think that's the key, you know. As entrepreneurs, we are typically very long on idea and short on execution. Um, and so we have a laundry list of projects that are 30 to 70% done that never actually get finished. Yeah. Um, and you have to have that person holding your feet to the fire to get things to the to the finish line. You really do. And it's kind of like a the reverse sear for me of stake being a mentor to new agents. Yeah. Now you have to do that [ __ ] I am accountable. I can't preach my evil my evil laugh. I tricked you. Yeah. No, so I every day I have right now four coaches that basically hold my feet to the fire. Yeah. Um and uh and so that they can also I can hold them to the fire too, right? So it is important.

Um and so for that point, if you can't afford um somebody that challenges you and make sure you're doing what you're doing, like you said, working partner, working partner or accountability partner, uh networking groups, yeah, um alumni groups, something something that holds you accountable to your business so that you're you better be in it. And then I think gets you up and starting your day, right? Yeah. Like I have we have an agent who is in an accountability group and they meet every morning at 6:30 a.m. And that group Yeah. I'm not in that group. I'm not in that group. I'll meet you at 6:30 p.m. Yes. Is there a happy hour group I can be a part of because I'm here for that. Exactly. I'm 100% in for that one. But this group and I, they're all really great producers, but they meet at 6:30. And I have actually joined one of their calls just because I wanted to see it. They barely talk to each other. What? They write down their goals for the day. They write down their their affirmations. They do those things, but they just do them together.

And then at the end, they kind of talk about, "Hey, here's what I've got." I love that. And it's 30 minutes from 6:30 to 7 every single Monday through Friday and then they're done. But they make sure that they're there and just being there to start the day. I love that. And they have to be on C. The other rule is they have to be on camera. Yeah. Which means they have to be dressed for work. That's okay. And hey, let me tell you guys listening, that is one of the most important things, too. I mean, we've said a lot of most important things. It's there's I mean, we could you run a business, you need to wake up, have a routine. Yep. Get dressed. Um I'm not saying you've got to be in a Chanel suit when you wake up and get going, but you know, be ready to go show a house. Whatever your work uniform is, you better have it on. I agree. Um and you said something I think is really important. Uh the affirmations. Yeah. Uh the daily affirmations and thank yous. I used to think that that was such [ __ ] hippie nonsense. And I am freaking a firm believer in it now. I mean, if it took me like literally What year was the first year we did a Ninja install? 2022.

I was going to say it was into COVID. So, yeah, 21 or 22. I think that was when I really learned the power of affirmation and I was like, you know what? I'm going to give this a chance. See if it actually works because this is everything else here I know works. So, why not try this? And I wrote down a goal, an income goal that I genuinely did not think I had an ounce of chance to reach and I blew it out. Yeah, that's my first affirmation every day. Well, I do thank yous first. Yeah, I think all the things that I'm thankful for, grateful for. Um, you know, and in our program, we have them write that stuff down. Um, but I would encourage people that if you don't have time to write it down, at least spend time in the mirror while you're getting ready or showering or whatever, driving, say, brush your teeth and say three things you're thankful for in your head.

Yeah. And um, think about it often. Yeah. Like when you're just kind of driving around, think about those things that you're grateful for. And, um, those things you want to affirm for yourself and for your business. Uh I I always tell people that when you're being a sad sack and like your negative energy fills the room, that is the same thing that happens when you give affirmation and gratitudes. Yeah. That energy fills the room. The air. So um it's important. Yep. I I put it out to the world every day. Every day what I want and what I'm thankful for. Um, and even when it's not a big list, you got a lot going on, you just just say it. Yeah. Go before you go to bed, say it. I don't know. Just do it every day. Yep.

When it works for you. Um, so, all right. What did we miss? I don't know. What else do we need to throw out there? I know you I made a handy dandy list. You did bring notes. Listen, I would like to tell y'all, make a note. Notes are important. There you go. If you don't have if you don't take notes all the time and use a some type of what is that thing you use that I use a remarkable you use a remarkable and I use old school like yellow pad no because that would rip off I use spiral notebooks and they are stacked up for dec like two decades there I used to be like that until I got the remarkable and now the remarkable like I won't go I won't leave home without my remarkable it's just I go everywhere with it. Um, what I was going to tell you, we, you don't even know this, so interesting.

Um, we are now in my, we call ourselves the crew, my group of five. Yeah. Um, K R E W E. Uh, we are, I'm asking them now for when they're going through transactions or they do anything significant in class or whatever, I need them to make notes of everything that is significant that they need to remember. Yeah. Um because you have to one of the things that can get you in trouble and you can edit this out if you want to in a mentor type program is a dependency and it's a kind of like I like to say to them it's like when you're the passenger in the car and not the driver. The tendency is to just kind of pay attention and just know that the driver's got it. But could you get us back home? But could you get us back home if I couldn't? Um and so for that reason because sometime we've found sometimes that we get questions the same. All right, let's jam on this thought for a second. Okay, so two things. Number one, and we do this when they go when our new licenses come to our new hire orientation. Um and I completely 100% stole this from David Weekly Holmes. Okay. Like I I used to work at David Weekly Homes and I stole this idea because it's the most brilliant 59 cent solution to what you're talking about. We give them a spiral notebook. Yes. And we say as you have questions, write them down. When your mentor answers them, write down the answer. Now you have an encyclopedia of knowledge right in front of you and you can just go back when you have these questions. Yeah. But the same thing is true of, for lack of a better term, sort of a debrief. There's actually a book over your shoulder right there. Um, Extreme Ownership. There's some really good books up here, by the way. And Extreme Ownership is Jaco Willink and one of my favorites. Oh, it's a great book. I'll hide it from the camera. Camera doesn't care. If you haven't read this, you'll read it 10 times. It's a great book.

It's fantastic. U, but Extreme Ownership is written by Leaf Babin and Jaco Willink, who were both Navy Seals. And one of the chapters in there they talk about is debriefing. Like we spend so much time planning and pulling comps and all of that. And then we go to these meetings and maybe we get the business, maybe we don't. But what we don't do is go back home and spend an hour thinking about what we just did and how we could make it better for next time. I love this. I like you already just gave me an idea. I'm going to be calling my buyer's agent and being like, "We're going to debrief after every transaction." Yeah. and what worked, what didn't work, and what could we improve on process-wise, or do we see trends in the questions that are being asked, and can we proactively answer them? Well, so to that point, we did that amazing um um drawing a blank. What was it when we did our retreat? Yeah, it's we call it a retreat. And you didn't have to you didn't have to draw a blank. It's just retreat. The And we talked about pain points. Yeah. And I have been harping in our in the Interloop office um since we got done with that retreat that my main focus for this year is identifying all the pain points my clients have to go through and we are going to Oh, you're talking about Champ Champ Camp. Champ Camp. That's what it was. Yes, Champ Camp. So, we had an event called Champ Camp where we brought some of our our top producers together and we looked at the client experience and the journey mapping of that experience and where are friction points that we can reduce friction.

Yeah. Or eliminate friction. And there was a lot of things that you just kind of take for granted. You do. And that we were so awesome to identify and and that's what we're trying to do for our clients now is get all of those things in place so that moving forward and it's a work in progress. We're only in May and you can't always a work in progress, but we're already implementing things. Um and I'm not sure where I was going with this point. It's my We were talking about debriefing. Yes, debriefing. And so that that will help add 100% to that and for us to be able to see if we're identifying trends that maybe we haven't captured in our painoint list yet. Yeah. So perfect. Um all right. Are you ready for speed round? Okay. We close every show with speed round. Question number one in speed round. Okay. And you may have already said it just a moment ago.

Favorite book, favorite business book. Uh oh, I do. I love that one. Um, the subtle art of not giving a bleep. Um, because we do think too much f word. Um, and well, um, Eat That Frog hands down is the best. And I tell people all the time, I've read that book. Get rid of the stuff you like doing the least early. Early. Yeah. Eat that Frog. It's an easy read. It is super easy read. Okay, cool. Um, favorite piece of technology or tech tool or something that you find yourself using more and more? Oh, obviously chat GBT. Yeah. I mean, for oodles and oodles and gobs of reasons. Yeah. It's interesting. JGPT is kind of becoming like the new Google. Yeah. And it's not for it to uh for anything that's um specific to like law or anything like that, but just like I don't need to screw around for 30 minutes trying to write the perfect effing email reply to somebody that I just met and they've emailed me. Like Catchy B can do it and I can edit a little bit, right? And that's my thing.

So the I mentioned we're we're building out some AI tools for our agents right now and the idea behind them like the the the foundational idea is how much more time can I give you back? Mhm. Right. Like leverage is lots of leverage. If I can save you 30 minutes on a task that you do every week, I just gave you two days back. It's incredible. Two full days of your life back over the course of a year. Like that's pretty awesome. Well, and you know what else it can do? It can take um ingredients from a cocktail that you had at a restaurant that you love, but you don't know how they make it, and you can ask it to create the cocktail for you in the right measurements, and it will do it. There you go. You can if you join for no reason, you've learned that today. There we go. Chad GBT is our our new bartender. It'll listen to our problems and just be with us. Yeah. Um, best piece of business advice that you have gotten or life advice. Oh my gosh, Chance, that's hard to narrow that down.

I know. That's why it's a speed round. I think get your ass in gear and just do it. Like, stop waiting for perfection. Yeah. I didn't when I started my team I was fortunate that I I'm at a brokerage CB&A that they are open and willing to help you and learn those types of things so that you can build the right team for you. Right. Um and so I was given a lot of ideas. Um and I just couldn't sit around and wait for everything to be perfect. I mean we're a process. Yeah. Things will always evolve. Always. Um and you have to have that mindset, right? It's a marathon, not a sprint. It is. Yeah. Um, okay. If somebody wanted to get hold of you, how do they get hold of you? I am super easy to reach, actually. Um, 832 is Well, here's my mobile number.

8326073430. Um, I always tell people to shoot me a text first. If you're out there listening and you have a question about real estate or our brokerage or mentor programs, anything like that, just shoot me a text first because you all know we get spammed from every local number. And they're getting slicker and slicker. And so um just because of chat GPT because of ChatGPT. Yeah. So I would say the easiest way to get a hold of me is through my mobile number. Cool. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for being one of our mentors. Thank you for being willing to share and show some vulnerability and you know pass on the the good news to That's right. Pass on the good news to the next generation. Yeah. Got to give back. That should be your goal in your career is eventually you want to be able to give back. Yep. Awesome. Well, thank you and thank you for listening. We appreciate you and we'll see you next time on the standard.