Full-service media squad helping real estate agents showcase their personal brand

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:06] SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:08] SPEAKER_01: I'm Philip Bliss, a business visionary coming to you today with Toronto's podcast.
[00:13] SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk to Laura Stewart.
[00:17] SPEAKER_01: Laura is co-founder of FTGU Media, a full service media squad helping real estate agents showcase
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: through content their personal brand.
[00:29] SPEAKER_01: In just six years, Laura has been promoted to vice president of the number two real estate sales team in Canada for oil of page.
[00:38] SPEAKER_01: And has helped over 700 buyers, sellers and investors every single year.
[00:43] SPEAKER_01: So welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:46] SPEAKER_01: I think let's do the normal kickoff for me.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows who you are.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: So tell us a bit more about your entrepreneurial journey so far.
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: Why you started it?
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: Where it is today?
[01:03] SPEAKER_01: What is future might be?
[01:05] SPEAKER_01: Did you get your MBA?
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: So why didn't you go and work for the Royal Bank or for someone like that?
[01:11] SPEAKER_01: Why go with the real estate?
[01:13] SPEAKER_01: You can tell a little bit about where you are today.
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: But that kind of thing.
[01:19] SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, that's a lot to unpack.
[01:22] SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm in a therapy question here.
[01:25] SPEAKER_02: But what is therapy?
[01:27] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to learn a lot about myself in this discussion with you today.
[01:31] SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks for having me.
[01:34] SPEAKER_02: As you said, I got my MBA about nine years ago now.
[01:39] SPEAKER_02: When I started doing my MBA, I didn't think at the time I was going to get into real estate.
[01:45] SPEAKER_02: I was kind of thinking I was going to dabble in advertising and marketing.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: I like that kind of creative side.
[01:51] SPEAKER_02: I really liked the branding aspect, all the classes that involved that kind of stuff.
[01:57] SPEAKER_02: But you know, you talk to a number of people and they say,
[02:01] SPEAKER_02: and I feel like a lot of real estate agents here this, you'd make a great realtor.
[02:05] SPEAKER_02: And I don't know what that quality is.
[02:07] SPEAKER_02: I feel like people just think if you're great at communicating or if you're personable,
[02:11] SPEAKER_02: that suddenly makes you a great real estate agent.
[02:14] SPEAKER_02: And I hate to break it to any of your listeners here, but that's not the case.
[02:19] SPEAKER_02: Just being personable does not make you a good real estate agent.
[02:23] SPEAKER_02: But I was young and I said,
[02:25] SPEAKER_02: let me give that a go.
[02:26] SPEAKER_02: So I got my real estate license and I've been in real estate for seven years now.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: You know, which is entrepreneurial of in and of itself,
[02:36] SPEAKER_02: you are working for yourself.
[02:37] SPEAKER_02: There is no boss, no one to tell you when to be at work and what to do,
[02:42] SPEAKER_02: who to call, what calls to make.
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: And so I was sort of dabbling along on my journey and I did that for two years until I really decided
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: that I missed the one on one aspect with like team members and doing something with other people.
[02:57] SPEAKER_02: So I decided to join a team.
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: And in doing so, I said, look, I want to cut my learning curve in half.
[03:04] SPEAKER_02: I'm not doing great as it is as a solo agent.
[03:06] SPEAKER_02: So maybe I can just, you know, put my hand up and offer my services to you when you,
[03:11] SPEAKER_02: when you need some help to my teammates.
[03:14] SPEAKER_02: In doing that's what I, what I realized was it got me into the office.
[03:18] SPEAKER_02: It got me in the room just to listen to conversations that other people were having.
[03:23] SPEAKER_02: And I learned very, very quickly how little I knew actually about real estate.
[03:28] SPEAKER_02: The team I happened to be working with was, was one of the top 10 teams in the country at the time.
[03:34] SPEAKER_02: And I was working with people who were really true salesmen.
[03:37] SPEAKER_02: Like they would have made great real estate agents.
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't really much like them and all honesty.
[03:45] SPEAKER_02: And so I got to kind of see what I wasn't good at, but also understood that,
[03:49] SPEAKER_02: okay, well, I have my background in my MBA and I have my unique experiences prior to getting my MBA.
[03:56] SPEAKER_02: What could I bring from those experiences into this working place?
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: And so I put my hand up for a lot of the marketing aspect, a lot of the branding aspects.
[04:04] SPEAKER_02: We rebranded the team and, and I helped start a podcast.
[04:08] SPEAKER_02: And that starting the podcast was honestly the beginning of an entire content creation journey.
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: That I didn't know I was on, but I was just on that bus.
[04:16] SPEAKER_02: I was on the train.
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: I was going full steam.
[04:19] SPEAKER_02: And I started to see the change in the clientele.
[04:24] SPEAKER_02: So as salespeople, we bring clients in.
[04:28] SPEAKER_02: We meet with them one-on-one.
[04:29] SPEAKER_02: And more often than not, their arms are like this.
[04:32] SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is the salesperson.
[04:33] SPEAKER_02: They're about to try to sell me something and, you know, everything's in it for them.
[04:38] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I took a while.
[04:41] SPEAKER_02: Those conversations would be at least an hour and a half,
[04:43] SPEAKER_02: where you're trying to get someone from keeping their arms crossed to like opening up to you.
[04:47] SPEAKER_02: And you find ways to connect with people.
[04:49] SPEAKER_02: You find ways to, you know, maybe you like share the same taste and food,
[04:53] SPEAKER_02: or you both like dogs or whatever it is, you try to find that mutual ground,
[04:57] SPEAKER_02: just so you can build off of a real relationship.
[05:01] SPEAKER_02: The podcast and the content creation journey,
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: it was interesting because people started coming into those meetings already with their arms open.
[05:09] SPEAKER_02: They said, oh, I watched your episode.
[05:11] SPEAKER_02: I watched your podcast.
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: I watched, I follow you on Instagram.
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: I know about your dog.
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: I know that you ski or whatever it is.
[05:18] SPEAKER_02: And so the relationship was already established before I even met the person.
[05:23] SPEAKER_02: And that was when I started to have this aha moment like,
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: oh, there's something to this content thing here.
[05:29] SPEAKER_02: So my partner and I, we doubled down on creating the content.
[05:32] SPEAKER_02: We started filming the podcast as opposed to doing audio only.
[05:36] SPEAKER_02: We started hiring a team of people because at the start,
[05:40] SPEAKER_02: it was just him and I holding cameras and filming each other.
[05:43] SPEAKER_02: And then we got real professionals, people who knew what they were doing.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: That actually morphed into a number of agents in and around the office.
[05:52] SPEAKER_02: You know, as our team started to grow and we started to become,
[05:55] SPEAKER_02: we were at the number one team in the country two years ago.
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: I think we've been flirting with number two in the country for all of our yellow page.
[06:02] SPEAKER_02: And so people started asking us like, how are you doing it?
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: How are you producing content?
[06:06] SPEAKER_02: And how did you grow your team so quickly?
[06:09] SPEAKER_02: And we would tell them, we would tell them, we would say,
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: this is who you need to hire.
[06:12] SPEAKER_02: This is the content you need to create.
[06:14] SPEAKER_02: This is the type of podcast or show you need to do.
[06:16] SPEAKER_02: This is how you're going to make your life easy on yourself.
[06:19] SPEAKER_02: And then three months of the past, I brought something to the hall and it said,
[06:22] SPEAKER_02: how's that going?
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: And they said they did nothing.
[06:25] SPEAKER_02: I haven't done anything yet.
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: I don't know who to hire or I haven't, you know, I need to lose a few pounds before I get on camera.
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: Or I'm too nervous.
[06:33] SPEAKER_02: My phone died.
[06:35] SPEAKER_02: What all the excuses are coming out.
[06:37] SPEAKER_02: And I realized, you know, there's just a lot of friction with content for people.
[06:41] SPEAKER_02: Maybe there's some white space there because I have to hear that again and again and again.
[06:45] SPEAKER_02: You start to think, you know, I think people are having the same issue.
[06:50] SPEAKER_02: And we could solve that issue for people.
[06:52] SPEAKER_02: And so my partner and I, my business partner and I, we opened up a business called
[06:56] SPEAKER_02: From the Ground Up Media.
[06:57] SPEAKER_02: We call it FITAGUE, FTGU for short because, you know, we want to be kind of cool like that.
[07:02] SPEAKER_02: So FITAGUE Media.
[07:04] SPEAKER_02: And the goal is to help other real estate agents create content for themselves.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: And I've been doing that for eight months.
[07:10] SPEAKER_02: So that kind of brings it all.
[07:11] SPEAKER_01: I don't think you beforehand, but, you know, I was surprised because you know, you know, you're in real estate then.
[07:19] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the last two and a half years have been absolutely boom times for realties.
[07:25] SPEAKER_01: Um, why, why step out of, of, you know, probably the most lucrative commissions time ever in, certainly in the last two decades.
[07:43] SPEAKER_02: You know, that question is very important one because yes, you're right.
[07:47] SPEAKER_02: Real estate agents are actually real estate agents.
[07:50] SPEAKER_02: There's 70,000 real estate agents on the Toronto bill board.
[07:53] SPEAKER_02: Right. So I, you know, I don't think we're all, we're not all the same.
[07:58] SPEAKER_02: And I think probably it's the 80, 20% rule where 80, 80% of the business is done by 20% of us.
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: But of that 20%. Yeah, we've had some really great years by myself.
[08:08] SPEAKER_02: My best year was last year.
[08:09] SPEAKER_02: So why add on to that added stress, added pressure.
[08:15] SPEAKER_02: It's certainly not for the money.
[08:16] SPEAKER_02: I can tell you that.
[08:17] SPEAKER_02: I think it was when you get to a certain place where you've created a system and you started to treat your real estate business like such a business that things are kind of humming along and they're doing their thing.
[08:30] SPEAKER_02: It opens up time.
[08:31] SPEAKER_02: Time for you to do other things, but more so mental bandwidth, right.
[08:35] SPEAKER_02: It's gave me the opportunity to think outside my day to day sales transactions.
[08:40] SPEAKER_02: It gave me time to think outside of my when's the next deal coming because I kind of knew I had a pipeline.
[08:45] SPEAKER_02: I always had a lot of balls in the air.
[08:47] SPEAKER_02: One ball drops. That's okay. I still got a lot of other balls in the air.
[08:50] SPEAKER_02: And that kind of gave me the opportunity to say, what else do I want in life?
[08:54] SPEAKER_02: I've never really led a group of people.
[08:57] SPEAKER_02: I've never truly owned a business or certainly have never created something that I could probably sell.
[09:03] SPEAKER_02: It's very difficult to sell a real estate team, right?
[09:06] SPEAKER_02: Like who's going to pick up a real estate team that's happened, but it's not, it's not like a true business.
[09:10] SPEAKER_02: And so I just thought I came from the went, why not?
[09:14] SPEAKER_02: Like why not give this a try and see where it goes?
[09:17] SPEAKER_02: And if I fail, that would stop.
[09:20] SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, I feared more of what if I didn't try it?
[09:24] SPEAKER_02: And when the opportunity keeps coming to you, as I mentioned, that people kept asking us, you know, can I hire your team?
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: Or can you guys give me the blueprint on what I need to do when there's an opportunity that's knocking?
[09:36] SPEAKER_02: I didn't ask for this not opportunity.
[09:37] SPEAKER_02: It kind of just presented itself.
[09:39] SPEAKER_02: I feel like I would have been a fool not to take it.
[09:42] SPEAKER_02: And so it was not making, you know, call it.
[09:44] SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'm risky, but I like to think I'm just energetic.
[09:48] SPEAKER_02: And it's like, why not try?
[09:50] SPEAKER_02: Why not do more?
[09:51] SPEAKER_02: There's always more that that can be done.
[09:53] SPEAKER_02: And that was really why I jumped in with both feet.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: So let me ask this every so often, you know, you are different.
[10:01] SPEAKER_01: You might wire differently or entrepreneurs wire differently.
[10:03] SPEAKER_01: Is this something?
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: Something?
[10:07] SPEAKER_01: There?
[10:07] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was a trouble defining what it is.
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: You see, you know, if you look at your peers, you know, and the old entrepreneurs,
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: just, you know, think thinking about that.
[10:24] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's very insightful.
[10:27] SPEAKER_02: I don't think all entrepreneurs are the same.
[10:31] SPEAKER_02: You know, I think there's certainly people who are probably born more natural entrepreneurs than others.
[10:37] SPEAKER_02: But I don't think that that means if you're not a natural born entrepreneur, you shouldn't try it.
[10:43] SPEAKER_02: My business partner and I are very different.
[10:45] SPEAKER_02: He is a salesperson, as I mentioned.
[10:47] SPEAKER_02: He's been selling since he was like a 10 year old kid.
[10:50] SPEAKER_02: I'd never sold anything until I started in real estate.
[10:53] SPEAKER_02: I don't negotiate over anything.
[10:55] SPEAKER_02: I need help when I go in and buy a car because I hate negotiating.
[10:58] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, probably not the best salesperson, right?
[11:02] SPEAKER_02: I also know that I'm probably more of an intrapreneur than an entrepreneur at heart.
[11:09] SPEAKER_02: My business partner is an entrepreneur at heart.
[11:11] SPEAKER_02: He loves the conflict.
[11:13] SPEAKER_02: He loves the friction.
[11:14] SPEAKER_02: He loves leading people.
[11:16] SPEAKER_02: He doesn't get overly anxious and bogged down in the short term failures.
[11:22] SPEAKER_02: When people complain, he almost finds it exhilarating because it gives us an opportunity to grow.
[11:26] SPEAKER_02: And although I don't detest any of those things, I don't think that's necessarily my natural being.
[11:33] SPEAKER_02: I just really think I'm a great team player.
[11:36] SPEAKER_02: Being on the team that I was on, I didn't own the real estate team.
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: But I was on that team and I treated it as if I did own it.
[11:43] SPEAKER_02: And every dollar that came in, whether or not I got a cut of it, meant something to me.
[11:47] SPEAKER_02: And it was important for me to grow the business, to grow myself, to see how far I could push myself within the company.
[11:55] SPEAKER_02: And I really took on every win and loss as my own.
[11:58] SPEAKER_02: And I think those are really the attributes of a great entrepreneur.
[12:02] SPEAKER_02: And in which case, I thought, you know, I just got to force myself to kind of get over these other issues that I'm having.
[12:09] SPEAKER_02: So when a client complains, for example, like I take that very personally, I take it to heart.
[12:15] SPEAKER_02: Like it keeps me up at night.
[12:17] SPEAKER_02: I'm not great at just brushing, you know, brushing it off and saying, okay, that, you know, should happen.
[12:22] SPEAKER_02: Let's move on.
[12:23] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[12:24] SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, I'm learning every single day.
[12:27] SPEAKER_02: And I think a true entrepreneur is just a person who wants to learn every day.
[12:32] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's maybe what's really in it for all of us.
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: So what does a typical day look like for you?
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: Now, how do you maintain the kind of focus that you need to succeed and still have fun?
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: How do you, how do you do that?
[12:49] SPEAKER_02: I am a routine person and I'll honestly, and I know that does not sound like a lot of fun.
[12:54] SPEAKER_02: I actually think people who can kind of stick to a schedule and stick to a routine.
[12:59] SPEAKER_02: It sounds like you have no freedom, but it actually gives you in an odd way more freedom.
[13:04] SPEAKER_02: I wake up at the same time every single day.
[13:06] SPEAKER_02: My alarm goes off at 520.
[13:08] SPEAKER_02: I work out every single morning.
[13:10] SPEAKER_02: I take my dog for a walk.
[13:12] SPEAKER_02: I do meditation.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: I have a very strict morning routine, which I think personally sets me up in the right headspace for the day.
[13:20] SPEAKER_02: I get to work at 8 a.m.
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: And the fires start from the second I get in.
[13:24] SPEAKER_02: Like, I open up my email and it's a problem after a problem after a problem after a problem after a problem.
[13:31] SPEAKER_02: Whether it's on the real estate side of things, I'm still a practicing real estate agent.
[13:36] SPEAKER_02: I probably do around like almost 200 transactions every year.
[13:40] SPEAKER_02: So I'm very active on the real estate side.
[13:42] SPEAKER_02: And what I've decided to do was really chunk out my days.
[13:46] SPEAKER_02: So I try to only check my email in the morning and in the evening.
[13:50] SPEAKER_02: And I don't check it in the middle of the day, which is problematic for a lot of people.
[13:54] SPEAKER_02: They think, oh my gosh, my phone is glued to me.
[13:56] SPEAKER_02: But when you're always putting out fires, I feel like it doesn't allow you the time to work on your business.
[14:01] SPEAKER_02: You're always kind of working in your business.
[14:03] SPEAKER_02: And you're always at the mercy of a phone call, at the mercy of a text message or an email.
[14:07] SPEAKER_02: And that can derail you very, very quickly.
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: And so I find just kind of sticking to those bookends and then having certain days of the week.
[14:14] SPEAKER_02: Like I only take meetings with clients, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
[14:19] SPEAKER_02: Mondays and Fridays are all my creative stuff.
[14:21] SPEAKER_02: And so I found that creating that kind of system and structure has actually allowed me to do more.
[14:27] SPEAKER_02: And more importantly, I do find it more fun.
[14:30] SPEAKER_02: Oddly, because I know what to expect.
[14:32] SPEAKER_02: I know what I'm anticipating.
[14:33] SPEAKER_02: And when I know about open up my emails, I'm about to see problems and things I have to solve.
[14:38] SPEAKER_02: I'm in the right headspace for it.
[14:40] SPEAKER_02: It's all about getting yourself in the right headspace.
[14:42] SPEAKER_01: A lot of entrepreneurs, especially in startups, side of things, you're letting one established revenue base,
[14:52] SPEAKER_01: sort of foster another revenue base.
[14:57] SPEAKER_01: I could be wrong, but that's what I'm hearing.
[15:01] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so in terms of like, does my real estate career help help with the other business?
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[15:09] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so what would, yeah, what I've kind of decided to do on that realm.
[15:12] SPEAKER_02: Again, you had mentioned this.
[15:14] SPEAKER_02: Like it's been a pretty good couple of years for real estate agents.
[15:17] SPEAKER_02: And so I'm not, I'm not trying to take any money from my company.
[15:21] SPEAKER_02: So I'm putting all of my dollars back into the new business, back into the business.
[15:26] SPEAKER_02: And by back into business, I really just mean hiring more people.
[15:30] SPEAKER_02: I can accomplish so much more with the team than I ever could on my own.
[15:34] SPEAKER_02: And so I just keep putting my money back into the business to get more people.
[15:38] SPEAKER_02: I'm not that fancy of a person.
[15:40] SPEAKER_02: Like I like some clothes and some nice things in the odd trip.
[15:43] SPEAKER_02: But like, I'm really not spending all the dollars I make.
[15:46] SPEAKER_02: I try to just put them right back into the business and hire another person to help.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, let's sort of think about mentorship.
[15:55] SPEAKER_01: And things like that, you know, what's the best piece of advice that you've received ever received?
[16:04] SPEAKER_01: That you've always got with you somewhere that, you know, may not be.
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: It's always in the background that comes.
[16:12] SPEAKER_01: It's something that, you know, you know, that kind of thing.
[16:18] SPEAKER_02: It's money.
[16:19] SPEAKER_02: I would say business partner.
[16:20] SPEAKER_01: I want one boss that said to me at once because I was definitely a messy guy.
[16:26] SPEAKER_01: And he said, um, tidy desk, tidy mind.
[16:29] SPEAKER_01: And it sounds, it sounds minor, but it completely changed the way that I work.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: I tidy the way that I worked from not just from my desk, but in every way.
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: I mean, and that was kind of a simple little piece of advice, but it's, but it made a massive difference.
[16:51] SPEAKER_02: It's funny that I think the simplest pieces of advice are usually the best because my mentor happens to also be my business partner now.
[16:59] SPEAKER_02: He was the one that sort of took me under his wing and the real states out of things.
[17:03] SPEAKER_02: And he thinks so differently from me.
[17:07] SPEAKER_02: And he said, you know, Laura, it's ready fire aim, not ready aim fire.
[17:12] SPEAKER_02: Like we all learn as kids.
[17:13] SPEAKER_02: And I was the kid who was definitely ready fire aim.
[17:16] SPEAKER_02: Like I would, I would think and contemplate things before I made decisions.
[17:21] SPEAKER_02: I wanted everything to be perfect.
[17:22] SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to succeed so badly.
[17:24] SPEAKER_02: And I was so fearful of failure that a lot of the times I'd spend way too much time in aim that I'd never actually fire.
[17:30] SPEAKER_02: I never actually took the chance.
[17:32] SPEAKER_02: And he kept preaching this to me over the course of a couple of years.
[17:36] SPEAKER_02: And then when I started giving small things a try and I started realizing, oh, he's right.
[17:42] SPEAKER_02: Like if you, for example, on the content side of things, I have clients.
[17:46] SPEAKER_02: That, that overthink it.
[17:48] SPEAKER_02: They write an entire script just to make a one minute piece of video.
[17:52] SPEAKER_02: And they're, and they're thinking about it for weeks.
[17:55] SPEAKER_02: And they need to get their hair done and their makeup done.
[17:57] SPEAKER_02: And then when we give them the video, they analyze it.
[18:00] SPEAKER_02: And they're like, it's not good enough.
[18:02] SPEAKER_02: I need to redo it or re shoot it.
[18:04] SPEAKER_02: And I, and I think they're stuck in the aim.
[18:06] SPEAKER_02: They're stuck in the, I'm so concerned to get judged.
[18:09] SPEAKER_02: I'm so fearful of failure, whatever it is that I'm not going to put something out there because I'm fearful.
[18:15] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's been the greatest thing I've learned.
[18:17] SPEAKER_02: That's probably why I started the business.
[18:19] SPEAKER_02: It's probably why I ended up in real estate because you have to take those chances.
[18:24] SPEAKER_02: You're never going to have all the information to make the best decision.
[18:28] SPEAKER_02: You can get as much information as you can.
[18:30] SPEAKER_02: But you're never going to know everything.
[18:32] SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you just got to try fail, pivot, retry again, fail, pivot.
[18:38] SPEAKER_02: And it's in the pivoting and what you learn along the way that I think is the most helpful.
[18:42] SPEAKER_03: So that's been ready fire aim has been the most, the most important thing I've learned.
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: You know, if you had to be one word to describe Laura, what would it be and why?
[18:57] SPEAKER_03: I would say Laura is extremely determined or tenacious, I suppose you could say.
[19:05] SPEAKER_02: My mother told me this when I was young.
[19:07] SPEAKER_02: She said, you know, I'm 5 feet tall.
[19:09] SPEAKER_02: I've always been the scrawny little kid.
[19:13] SPEAKER_02: I'm a late December birthday.
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: So I was smaller and tinier than everybody.
[19:18] SPEAKER_02: And you know, a year behind in some cases.
[19:20] SPEAKER_02: And she said, you know, you always tried harder than everybody else.
[19:25] SPEAKER_02: And that like, I just didn't feel like my size or being a girl, for example,
[19:31] SPEAKER_02: where it's used as not to achieve something.
[19:34] SPEAKER_02: If I put my mind to something, I'm going to,
[19:37] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to try my best to achieve it.
[19:40] SPEAKER_02: And even when I fail, it's like the tenacity to get back up, brush your knees,
[19:45] SPEAKER_02: often and try again.
[19:47] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's super, super important.
[19:49] SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean I don't hurt.
[19:50] SPEAKER_03: It doesn't mean I don't hate failure.
[19:54] SPEAKER_02: I do.
[19:54] SPEAKER_02: I'm just willing to get back up and to fail again.
[19:57] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's helped me throughout my whole life.
[20:00] SPEAKER_02: And it's certainly helping me out more along my entrepreneurial journey, for sure.
[20:04] SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, what's the best thing that you've found about being an entrepreneur?
[20:12] SPEAKER_03: The thing I've loved most, and I actually didn't think I would have liked it as much as I do,
[20:18] SPEAKER_02: is probably working with my staff.
[20:20] SPEAKER_02: It's not even the client so much, which I love working with the clients and seeing them grow and achieve things.
[20:26] SPEAKER_02: But my staff is like, they're like my little kids in a way.
[20:31] SPEAKER_02: And like, I'm certainly not necessarily old enough to be all their mothers.
[20:34] SPEAKER_02: But, you know, you take them under your wing and we're such a tight-knit family.
[20:40] SPEAKER_02: There's eight of us now working on the team.
[20:42] SPEAKER_02: So it's not a big team, right?
[20:44] SPEAKER_02: So you can still be very involved in their lives and sort of seeing how each person takes.
[20:50] SPEAKER_02: Like, I know that, for example, Chiquita on my team.
[20:54] SPEAKER_02: I know that she takes things emotionally like I do when someone complains about something.
[20:58] SPEAKER_02: She takes that as a personal attack on her.
[21:00] SPEAKER_02: So I know I have to hold her hand a certain way or have an extra meeting with her.
[21:05] SPEAKER_02: Then there's, then I have other teammates where they just want to extra time off to spend with their family.
[21:11] SPEAKER_02: And I know that when they're having a hard time, just letting them go early and saying,
[21:15] SPEAKER_02: you know what, go home early or come in late tomorrow, take that time for yourself.
[21:19] SPEAKER_02: To know that now they're even more bought in and gaining the trust from them.
[21:25] SPEAKER_02: To give me kind of like the strength that I need to go out and kind of tackle everything I need to do.
[21:32] SPEAKER_02: Only comes from me putting in the time with them and creating that family has been the most interesting thing.
[21:40] SPEAKER_02: And I'm very shocked by it, but it's probably my favorite part of the journey.
[21:46] SPEAKER_01: Well, books you're reading now, I mean, or listening to, I mean, they don't have to read them.
[21:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, some of you can maybe recommend that Mike, the, the, the, what's the read worth the read?
[22:01] SPEAKER_02: My probably the book that I've gone back to a few times now is Atomic Habits by James Clear.
[22:07] SPEAKER_02: I'm on my third go around with that book.
[22:10] SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of one of the ones that I feel like every year in around January,
[22:15] SPEAKER_02: when people are trying to make like these big audacious goals, just as a reminder to myself to say,
[22:20] SPEAKER_02: don't focus so much on the end result.
[22:24] SPEAKER_02: Have the goal in mind, but really think, or what are the steps that are going to lead me to there?
[22:28] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, if I want to be a successful entrepreneur, what does a successful entrepreneur look like?
[22:33] SPEAKER_02: What do I feel they do? Well, I feel like they go to bed at a decent time,
[22:37] SPEAKER_02: or they look at their calendar before they go to bed, so they know how to structure their day.
[22:41] SPEAKER_02: They have routine, they take notes, they care about their employees.
[22:45] SPEAKER_02: It's all those little things that I think that add up over time.
[22:48] SPEAKER_02: And it feels sometimes like, you know, watching paint dry,
[22:53] SPEAKER_02: because they're so little sometimes the changes, right?
[22:56] SPEAKER_02: And you don't see them in yourselves until like year or two, you go by,
[22:59] SPEAKER_02: and you think, oh my god, I'm a completely different person than I was two years ago.
[23:03] SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely a good one.
[23:05] SPEAKER_02: I'm actually currently watching, I'm into the master class.
[23:09] SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you tapped into any of those, but...
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: Oh, no, no, no. I got close a couple of times.
[23:14] SPEAKER_02: Oh, I mean, there's so much content there to watch not.
[23:18] SPEAKER_02: And I always, you know, caution people on watching too much content
[23:21] SPEAKER_02: and getting opinions from too many people,
[23:24] SPEAKER_02: because sometimes you just need one piece of advice,
[23:26] SPEAKER_02: and then you just got a role with that.
[23:28] SPEAKER_02: But I'm currently listening to Bill Clinton's master class on leadership.
[23:33] SPEAKER_02: And I'm, I just started it two days ago, and I'm almost done.
[23:37] SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, whether you'd like Bill Clinton for his politics or not,
[23:41] SPEAKER_02: I think is irrelevant, just to listen to somebody
[23:43] SPEAKER_02: who held this position for two terms, you know,
[23:48] SPEAKER_02: just knowing what he accomplished and leadership.
[23:52] SPEAKER_02: And he talks about this a lot too, particularly in leadership,
[23:55] SPEAKER_02: is that you have to take the losses as your own.
[23:59] SPEAKER_02: You can't start placing blame on your staff and other people,
[24:03] SPEAKER_02: and your clients and circumstance, particularly if the circumstance is in your control,
[24:09] SPEAKER_02: while at the same time you have to share the success.
[24:12] SPEAKER_02: So every time my team wins, it's a we win.
[24:16] SPEAKER_02: It's never an I win. We won this.
[24:19] SPEAKER_02: We did this together and finding the ways to share those successes,
[24:21] SPEAKER_02: because sometimes because I'm the one on the camera doing this,
[24:25] SPEAKER_02: you know, I might get the feedback and the messages,
[24:28] SPEAKER_02: but making sure that they see those and say, guys,
[24:31] SPEAKER_02: this was a win for all of us because they're a part of the journey too,
[24:34] SPEAKER_02: and they're the ones that are helping behind the scenes.
[24:36] SPEAKER_02: So you always have to make sure that you're giving that,
[24:38] SPEAKER_02: that credibility out to other people.
[24:41] SPEAKER_01: You have another fun one.
[24:44] SPEAKER_01: So in business, watch your favorite word.
[24:48] SPEAKER_01: Cold. Give me words.
[24:51] SPEAKER_01: And why?
[24:53] SPEAKER_00: My favorite quote, sorry?
[24:55] SPEAKER_00: Your favorite word, quote, sentence, and why?
[25:00] SPEAKER_03: So my favorite quote is probably, I think it's,
[25:04] SPEAKER_02: I think it's Shakespeare who said it.
[25:07] SPEAKER_02: Although she may be small, she is fierce.
[25:11] SPEAKER_02: And for some reason, that always sticks with me.
[25:12] SPEAKER_02: And again, I'm sure that's not relatable to everybody,
[25:16] SPEAKER_02: but I think what I take from that, because it resonates with me,
[25:20] SPEAKER_02: because I'm so small, is that sometimes something that you see in yourself
[25:25] SPEAKER_02: as a weakness, or that you think other people see in you as a weakness,
[25:31] SPEAKER_02: maybe you are the only woman in a group.
[25:33] SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're the only man in the group.
[25:35] SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're the only person of color in a group,
[25:37] SPEAKER_02: or you're the only person from a certain background,
[25:40] SPEAKER_02: or economic status, and you feel alone,
[25:43] SPEAKER_02: I actually think those are your strengths.
[25:46] SPEAKER_02: And if you can somehow find a way to say,
[25:49] SPEAKER_02: yeah, this is something that's been hard for me,
[25:53] SPEAKER_02: any of those hurdles that you've had to overcome,
[25:55] SPEAKER_02: any of those things that make you different,
[25:57] SPEAKER_02: or actually the thing that you should double down on,
[26:00] SPEAKER_02: because that's the one thing that sets you apart from everything else.
[26:03] SPEAKER_02: And so that kind of quote always reminds me of that.
[26:07] SPEAKER_01: Okay, that was a great answer.
[26:08] SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to disclose something else to you.
[26:11] SPEAKER_01: What's your least favorite word or sentence?
[26:16] SPEAKER_03: Oh, you stump me.
[26:20] SPEAKER_03: My least favorite word or sentence.
[26:23] SPEAKER_03: I think, I don't know, I hear this a lot.
[26:26] SPEAKER_03: I hear this a lot from my clients in the real estate industry,
[26:32] SPEAKER_02: and it's in and around, how can I get more blank?
[26:40] SPEAKER_02: How can I get more blank?
[26:42] SPEAKER_02: Whatever the blank is, whether it's more views,
[26:45] SPEAKER_02: more followers, more money, more deals, more clients.
[26:49] SPEAKER_02: And it hurts me because I feel like they should turn it
[26:53] SPEAKER_02: and say, how can I give more blank?
[26:56] SPEAKER_02: How can I provide more value?
[26:58] SPEAKER_02: How can I give better service?
[27:01] SPEAKER_02: And I think if they flip the sentence and change it to be what they can control,
[27:06] SPEAKER_02: what they would probably find is that they will have more clients,
[27:10] SPEAKER_02: more money, and more likes and followers or whatever it is that they're looking for.
[27:14] SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's, whenever I hear that, how can I get more,
[27:19] SPEAKER_02: I just, my ears turn off right away, because I'm thinking,
[27:21] SPEAKER_02: you're already lost.
[27:23] SPEAKER_02: You're already not looking at it from an entrepreneur's mindset.
[27:26] SPEAKER_01: So we're going to, then, so I'll throw this one at you.
[27:31] SPEAKER_00: What are you most excited about in your business today?
[27:37] SPEAKER_03: I'm most excited in my business about the fact that I think the real estate industry
[27:43] SPEAKER_02: is undergoing a bit of a change.
[27:46] SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's a huge massive change per se,
[27:49] SPEAKER_02: but as people get more and more access to information
[27:53] SPEAKER_02: and the landscape becomes more and more competitive,
[27:59] SPEAKER_02: competition's actually a great thing, because it causes and forced as people to get creative,
[28:04] SPEAKER_02: it forces people to come up with new ideas and solve bigger problems.
[28:10] SPEAKER_02: And what I'm hoping my new company provides,
[28:13] SPEAKER_02: and what I'm hoping I do as a real estate agent is really offering my clients
[28:19] SPEAKER_02: more than just a transaction.
[28:21] SPEAKER_02: It's more than just selling a unit to somebody.
[28:25] SPEAKER_02: Anyone can just sell one unit.
[28:27] SPEAKER_02: It's about creating those relationships over time.
[28:30] SPEAKER_02: And so if I can do that through the phone,
[28:32] SPEAKER_02: meeting new people like you, if I can do that through content,
[28:36] SPEAKER_02: or through taking the hour and a half long meetings
[28:39] SPEAKER_02: that it might require for us to establish a conversation,
[28:42] SPEAKER_02: and give all the information away for free with no expectation of return.
[28:49] SPEAKER_02: I think that should have a positive impact on the industry as a whole of real estate agents.
[28:54] SPEAKER_02: I think we're right at the bottom in terms of how well we're trusted in the public's eye,
[28:59] SPEAKER_02: with lawyers and maybe car salesmen, like used car salesmen.
[29:04] SPEAKER_02: And then it's like real estate agents.
[29:05] SPEAKER_02: We're not very trusted, and I would like to see that industry become better.
[29:11] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's only going to happen if real estate agents,
[29:14] SPEAKER_02: which I think is what we're, you know,
[29:16] SPEAKER_02: I'm seeing a lot of people do this is providing that extra level of value and education
[29:20] SPEAKER_02: so that our clients are making more informed decisions.
[29:24] SPEAKER_01: It's really good, Laura. It's been a good session. Thank you.
[29:28] SPEAKER_01: How can people get a hold of you?
[29:31] SPEAKER_01: Have I missed anything out?
[29:33] SPEAKER_01: Do you want to add?
[29:35] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say the easiest way to get a hold of me is probably on Instagram.
[29:39] SPEAKER_02: So Laura, Stuart, T-O, and you can give me a follow-up there,
[29:43] SPEAKER_02: or shoot me any DMs. Again, I'm an open book, so I love answering people's questions.
[29:49] SPEAKER_02: Whether it be Laura, do you have a quick guide on how I can start producing content.
[29:54] SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to share all that information with people.
[29:56] SPEAKER_02: No cost, and I'm not looking for anything in return.
[29:59] SPEAKER_02: Again, as I mentioned, I'm just trying to elevate the industry and do the best I can.
[30:04] SPEAKER_02: And hopefully this resonated with a lot of your listeners, and they'll seek me out.
[30:10] SPEAKER_01: Thanks very much, Laura. Really great singing on Canvas Podcast.
[30:14] SPEAKER_02: You as well. Thanks so much for having me.