Hey, welcome back to Think Bigger Real Estate. I'm excited to be here today with someone who I've known for a long time, my brother Jeremy. Hey there. Thanks for letting me twist your arm to come on the show today.
It took some work but happy to be here.
Yeah, he's been a very close friend and a mentor of mine for a long time--a very bright individual. And tell the audience real quick what you're up to now.
Yeah, I have a very entrepreneurial background, but I've spent the last three years working for a company called Andersen Windows and Doors and I'm actually headed to San Diego. We're opening a new division down there, so I'm going to help open that up and get things up and going down there.
You will be managing a sales team of how many people do you think?
Well, we're going to grow. We're starting with zero, but I've hired six so far and we'll be at probably 20 by the end of the year. We'll probably have a team of 30 sales people by the middle to the end of next year.
Awesome. Yeah. One of the top producers in the country. So, we're here to talk about some things that we're passionate about and it has been helpful for us and we really think it applies directly to real estate agents in helping them grow their businesses. So we're here at a conference and we are learning a lot.
So the three things that we want to point out that are central for real estate agent to have a better 2019 than their 2018 is TO LEARN. What are some of the ways that you learn the best?
I think it's a good question. We were having this conversation and it's interesting, we're already almost two months into the year and when you get out of town, it gives you a chance to look at the year you're having and say, "Okay, where am I at?" And where are my habits are my practices. What am I doing? Am I in a better spot than last year? And I certainly think that the learning component is huge. It makes a huge impact on where you're at and the direction you're going. For me, I, I think there's a combination of things. I end up spending a lot of time in the car and so naturally I have Audible and I, try and be listen to something good at all times. We're obviously at a conference now where there's huge value in that and we are learning from bright people. Someone that would go out and spend enough money to go out of town and learn is typically a person that you want to hang out with and learn from. So between books and podcasts obviously are great and what I spend most of my time on.
Yeah, for me it's the same. I try and read a book a month and really go through it and even go back and listen to it. So for me it's books and podcasts, of which I have a few favorites. Hopefully the Think Bigger Real Estate Show is on your list. A bit of a plug, or shameless self promotion right there. I would also add in conferences. This past week, I've been at two really significant conferences for me and so I appreciate you pointing that out. You do learn differently when you're out of the whirlwind, right? When you're learning in your city, in your environment, it's hard sometimes to really get to the right mindset, but when you're here to a new spot, you tend to buy-in at a higher level.
I think it's distracted right? When you're at home it's, there's so many distractions with work and family and things pointing different directions. Getting out of town allows you to really immerse deep into a topic and work to become an expert at that. And maybe just as importantly some time in the evenings to reflect on where you're at and how to implement some of these strategies in your life. You know, I've set a goal to try and go to one a quarter and as I've done that at certain times of my life, I see great growth. I don't know if it's what I'm learning or the chance that it gives me to reset and organize myself going forward, but it's probably a combination of both.
So point number two in addition to LEARNING is the NETWORKS YOU BUILD. I've been surrounded for the past week with like-minded people that are smarter than me, that are further down the path that I want to be on, and they're able to teach me. Last night we bumped into a friend of mine who is an architect who has built some really cool things in addition to just being an architect. And so it was fun for me to pick his brain and say, what advice would you give me here? There's so much value in having people around you, not just learning from books and podcasts, but also real people you can talk to and mastermind with. Tell me Jeremy, how have you found to best build a powerful network?
Well, I think the challenge is we are very, very busy in our daily lives and so you end up living a life that's fairly reactionary and you end up surrounding yourself with the people that are the easiest to hang out with. Whether they live by you or they're old friends or whatever, and we've all heard the adage that you end up making as much as the average of the five people we align ourselves with. To get where you want to go, you've got to be very strategic about that. You have to determine who are the people that are going where I want to go. And that's not just professionally, that's also as a father or a mother. That's the way I need, or th way I can take care of myself. And it takes work to go out and build those new relationships. It takes getting into different environments then where you're at and putting yourself in spots where you can meet the right people. I've learned firsthand that if I'm not strategic, I could go, or a year or two without building a valuable relationship that is going to get me closer to where I want to go. Right? You've got to do and take the time and map out a plan. Here's who I want to be and then who are those people that I would also want to surround myself with and then how do I begin a relationship? It doesn't just happen by happenstance for sure.
One of the things we learn when people are trying to build a network, they approach people with the mindset of what's in it for me, right? If I'm approaching you I would say in essence, "Hey, I think you'd be good for me. Let's build a network." And I don't think you can make that work by simply looking for that. I've got to be very intentional about discovery in advance, what that person really needs. In fact, we just heard a really interesting scenario, even Russell Brunson who's really kind of runs and leads this whole event that we're at and who masterminds closely with Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins. So, Dean and Tony, were putting together a mastermind and they had it all set up and were super excited about it and Russell, who had not been invited to join, was a little bit jealous because he wasn't invited to participate in this mastermind. Well, Russell perceived a need that they had and he told them, "You guys need to buy the domain mastermind.com. It's only $1 million. And Dean and Tony, were like, you know, for $1 million "No thanks." Well Russell went out and negotiated the deal and got the domain mastermind.com For $600,000 and gifted it to Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins. And in exchange for that value, he didn't expect anything from it, but he's smart enough to realize that good things happen when you give massive amounts of value to very powerful people. So, what did they do? Well, they invited Russell to be a part and now it's no longer just a two person but now a three person mastermind in which they going to be teaching some really powerful courses together.
There is a great lesson for all of us, that although maybe you nor I can at this point strike a $600,000 check, to get somebody, something like that, there are things that you can do and I think you could show up very intentionally in advance. And you'll show up differently by coming with what can I give instead of what will you give me?
A lot of times it's stuff that's free, you know, it could be, "I ...
