CGTV
CGTV
Ricky Carruth
Welcome to CGTV. Our first episode features real estate tycoon and free coach, Ricky Carruth. We talk about sales and marketing strategies, daily habits for success, and advice for new real estate professionals.
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I think the biggest thing is is everybody just worried too much about stuff That doesn't matter. We took all the worrying out of your life and then start focusing on the things that do matter. 100% of the time, you literally 10 extra life overnight
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Frickin legend CG TV show about our story and the people we share with number one 02 Diamond free Coach. What else? Baddest mouth
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working on the planet.
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What are you drinking?
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Pierre
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is at a sparks fancy. Are you an influencer for
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them? I am now gonna go. So let's start off by saying like What? What's your story, man? I'm so curious about you. I found you on Instagram. Blake's been following you for a really long time. We just so happen to find you. Ah, by ourselves. And then I was like, You gotta follow this guy Ricky Cruz. And he's like, Did I sent that guy to you a year ago? Um, I'm so curious. You know, your childhood, how you got into this. Everyone seems to get into real estate for different reasons. I'm so curious. You're probably the most positive guy in real estate. I've ever met.
spk_0: 1:24
Let's see, man, let's take it back. Childhood, You say I've always been super ambitious. Always knew I was gonna be right here. Where? Matt, I didn't know exactly how I was gonna get there what vehicle I was gonna use. But I've just always been really ambitious. Anything ever tried to do. I was really good at it. Like not because I was talented, but because I would work at it consistently. You know, I did a bunch of different things growing up, you know, sports our music. Um, work, you know, grew up roofing houses with my dad. That's what I did as a job. That's a teenager because he had a pee on the roof in business. So, you know, like everything in my life is always What's the next level? What's the next step? How can I, you know, conquer? How can I dominate? How can I be the best? And, you know, when I got out of high school, it was like college was the next thing, what you're supposed to do, So I'm gonna go crush that. So I went to four different colleges in two years, felt a history class, and a University of Alabama and decided college was not for me. That wasn't gonna be what got me where I wanted to go. So I decided I found out real estate was one class and I was like, Bingo. So I jumped on that. And I've always been really good at not only being ambitious and figuring out what the next level is and then put forth a lot of hard work behind it, but also figuring out what's most efficient what what can get me to the next level the quickest. And so that's basically like the story of my life. Man is just finding out how it could be the best, the most efficient, the quickest. You know, I'm gonna outwork everybody. It's like I'm gonna work smarter and harder all at once. And, uh, you know, I got in real estate because I wanted to help people. That was my whole thing. But when I got in, the market was starting to heat up, and I kind of lost sight of that and started kind of shifted to just making money and doing deals. Uh, because deals has fallen out. Skye And that was eventually what took me out that mentality. I, uh, you know, made a meal before I was 23 and lost it all a couple years later in the crash, you know? And it was literally because I was focused on the deals and the closings and the money, not the people and what I could do to help my clients through the crash. You know, I just I have the mainstream mentality of when it crashes. You got to get out with business and stuff. You know, I didn't really understand. The whole game works, so that's really in and not show.
spk_1: 3:57
So how do you get most of your business now,
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dude, like there's people everywhere.
spk_1: 4:04
You know
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what I mean?
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You know, make
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this so complicated. It's not Just go talk to people and see what you can do to help him tell him. Your agent, what can you do? What can I do to help you? You know, I mean, it's really that simple. You know, people want to pay hundreds of dollars for leads. These leads are random people in your in your markets contact information that these companies were just getting getting the contact information and then selling them to you for hundreds of dollars, saying that they're motivated hot leads when they're really just random people in your market. You know, you could have met this person at the grocery store or, you know, just as a you know it. It's just crazy how complicated and the whole reason behind why everybody thinks his business is so complicated because all the people that are making money off of these these situations are tricking us into thinking that it's so complicated because they're making so much money off of pushing the idea that it's so complicated when it's really so simple. You just talk to people in your markets, do what you do to help him build your database, like whoever talks to the most people with the best intentions and then builds a brand around that with those people, forever wins, you know, and it's really that simple. There's so many different ways you can do it. You can co call you could meet people grocery stores you can. I mean, you know, your Facebook is like there's so many give for vehicles to not only meet people and reach out and see what you can do to help him, but then also build brand with those people moving forward. So they never forget you. You know, like that great conversation that you have with them. And they love you so much. Well, now they're gonna see a Facebook at, or an email or a text message or something from you forever. Consistently and never forget that great conversation you had. And when it comes time to buy ourselves, who are they gonna call?
spk_2: 5:55
Blake? So it's interesting you bring up brand because I have been told a couple of different things about kind of where you got the start of all this stuff. You know, the YouTube and social media and everything. That and I'm curious to know what your story or how you tell the story of, like, what was that kind of pivot moment where it was like a light bulb of Oh, I should brand myself as a free real estate coach.
spk_0: 6:24
Oh, like you've heard rumors about how I became a free coach?
spk_2: 6:27
No, Like I've been told, I think someone said that you went to Gary V's four D's program and
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I was free for that.
spk_1: 6:36
Okay, But like the branding was there late,
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but that was long after I went free.
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This is
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the idea to go free from him, You know, like watching him when he does it actually sparked the idea. Okay. Like so I never did social media at all until, like, January 2017. Not one single anything? Nothing s 0 2017 was the first year I did anything social media wise, I didn't even have instagram account. I had a YouTube account but never posted anything. I posted a couple of videos about listings, but not coaching or anything like that. So I started. Like I wrote two books that year, and, um, I was just trying to figure it all out. So I started out charging and I would charge $20 a month. 150 upfront, 20 a month, $1000.1 time feet, you know, $300.1 time fee to 99 1 time fee, you know, $10 a month. I tried a bunch of different, you know, um, business models to try to figure it out. You know, through a lot of stuff out there trying to figure it all out and I had 200 paying members. When I decided to go free. I was up to 200 paying members about 10,000 month coming in automatically. Um, and it took me about I came up with the idea, and then it took me maybe a month or two of really, like, Moland and over inside my head, not telling a single soul what I was thinking because I was trying to figure out how crazy it really was or if it really worked. And, uh, you know, the more I thought about it, I was like, Man, that's just the way to go. Because what would happen is 300 agents were sent it from a webinar 100 would show up to it and one would sign up one. So you got 300 people that need help? 100 that really wanted to help. And then on Lee, one signed up. So that happened a couple times. Don't send your thinking. Okay. You know what it's like. Oh, you weren't doing the webinar, right? Probably that's probably the case too. But the bigger picture waas given if I did it right and got 20 people to sign up. There were still 300 that wanted some help. And 100 that really wanted some happen. I'm still only getting 20. So really, I'm getting, like, less than 10% You know what I mean? And then out of that 10% of who pay what if my program doesn't work for them now? What are they gonna do? They're gonna turn around and hate. They're gonna hate on my program because they pay for something that didn't work. So it was like, All right, well, let me flip this script. I'm gonna I'm gonna take that same scenario instead of getting 20 people who may or may not like me at the end of this thing, Why don't you create a situation where all 300 people love me till the day I die Soon? I'm saying, Yeah, it's so what's What would I want more? Had to think about what I want more 300 people that love me till the day I die because I helped him and they really succeeded And I gave him everything for free or 20 people that might like me not even love like might like me. Maybe. Hopefully they like me. So, you know, that's that's that's kind of the situation that that I had my mind. So I was like, Okay, well, if I have 300 people that love me, what's gonna happen? Everybody's gonna follow me on social media. Everybody's gonna follow subscriber YouTube. They're gonna be following every little thing because of how much I've done for them. Then what's gonna happen? I'm gonna speak of events, and I'm gonna have people banging the doors down to get in there cause I've helped him so much. There's just a crowd of people who want to see me and take a picture and shake my hand and all that stuff. That's what That's what's been happening for the past year. Every time I go speak or go to an event or something, you know there's 100 people that want to get their picture and talk to me and all this stuff that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't free. No, this would be happening right now. I probably wouldn't be here talking. You got
spk_1: 10:33
sinfully. Not
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if if I wasn't free. You know what I mean? It's so to take it just a step further before we get into something else. Like when you're free. When you say free, it opens the door and the consumer says, Okay, they're free. Let me try this out. I love free. I'm gonna let my guard down for a minute. Then they get past that that gate, and then they get inside. And now they determine Is he really free or not? Because a lot of people say they're free and then they charge on the back end. And so when you when you say you're free and then you really are free, then I hope it goes to a whole another level, you know. But when you're free and then you try to charge, that's when you create a lot of negativity. I think out there. And I think it's just the wrong business model. I think the way I do it's the way of the future. And I think I'm way ahead of the curve. Gary V was really the one that paved the way That gave me the idea to really do it this way. But man hasn't paid off.
spk_2: 11:29
Yeah, no, I I think what's interesting about all of this from a free standpoint, is that I think people it builds trust and you know, my background. My mom's an agent. She's been Asian since I was seven. I'm 27 has turned 27 I grew up around, you know, client parties. And during the holidays, we go give coffee cakes to every one of her clients at every door. And she she was never like a saleswoman. She was just like everyone loved Louisa and everyone trusted her, and everyone was excited to see her. She's just a nice person, and she just still crushes it because it was never like a salesman thing. It was never a bait and switch. It was never Ah, you know, snake oil type thing. I was like, Oh, no, that's just Louise And we trust her, you know, And she's good at what she does. So I think it's like taking that old school approach and then utilizing the new methods of distribution. But you're sending the same message. It's just, Hey, it's true. You can trust me because I'm really not trying to do anything but help.
spk_0: 12:32
Yeah, exactly, man. That's it. And then, you know a lot of people, you know that think the other way. They're like, you know, you. Yeah, right. Ricky, you gotta be building this thing up and then you're gonna charge some point rat. I'm like, no man like, the whole thing is bro's. I'm making way more money. I'm almost making as much coaching Azam selling now, you know, And, uh, that's what's very interesting. And it's way more scalable. So, um, you know who knows what the future holds?
spk_1: 13:03
So let me ask you this How would you young real estate guys like ourselves? We went in a listing appointment on Friday and the, You know, the question always comes up. How much you charge And I think we tried something new. I got it off your video and I said, Well, how much want to pass? And the it turned into this, like these the service's we provide. This is, uh, you know, we help you move, and we have a 24 7 concierges and all that kind of stuff. But I'm curious from your perspective how you'd go into those conversations when we're speaking to consumers, not other agents.
spk_0: 13:39
To be honest with you, man, whenever the way that I feel about it whenever you start trying to sell it too hard. So we got this and we do that this and we've moved and we got all this stuff. It's just like, man. Okay, look, you know, like you can tell, Like for me. Whenever they asked me what I charge, I'm like, charge 6% and then I'll keep the conversation. I make it like most. They just want to make it like a road block where they have to, like, figure out how to get around it from me. It's not even a road bump that's like just it just keeps going like it's like, What do you charge? A kind of that my tone of when I answered that question makes it sound like it's not a big deal. Like what else we have to talk about here, you know, like that's that. That's actually like a moot point. If they start digging this light. Look, let's let's focus on what you're gonna make out of this. What do you What do you want? Your What do you want? Your you know, your take home to be What do you want your net to be? You know, let's start talking about that. Then let's start reverse engineering based on what the market is and let's try to get to the note. Let's get the numbers where they need to be, you know? Hey, I'm negotiable. You know, like, uh, negotiate on just about every deal. To be honest with either probably half of him. I'm negotiating. I'm paying for inspection items. Uh, you know, I'm throwing in a little bit, Uh, you know, just about half of, you know, uh, real estate. So lucrative. I mean, it just really is. It's just such a lucrative business, but we get paid. There's a reason why we get paid so much. There's a lot of liability. There's a lot of work that goes into it, but at the same time, man, there's so much. There's so much margin there, you know? I mean, if you quit thinking so if you quit thinking of such a conservative penny pension way and start, you know, like thinking, think of those investments back into your business. Because when people see that you're willing to budge for them to make the deal happen, they love you so much more. Then if you try to hold firm on that $100 thing, you know, So I I'll take care. I'm not even worried about that. I'll take care of that for you as a closing gift. How about that? They're like, Oh, my God. And so they remember that they come back to you. They were for people to you. You know it. Every every client is worth 10 to 20 deals to me, right? The repeat business, referrals and referrals of referrals. And so I do in either. From day one, I was cutting commissions. I wasn't. This is nothing that I'm doing now. What? I'm selling so much. This is how I got here. You know, like it's an investment back into my business. Sure, I'm a heck of a negotiator too. Now I will hold firm hold. I'll wait to the last minute. I will try to make it work where I don't have toe cut. I'm really good at that. There's plenty of times where I probably should have cut earlier, you know, but there's plenty of times where I probably could have cut, but I ended up not cutting it all because I'm such a good negotiator and I know what people's motivations. Our man. At the end of the day, that buyer wants to buy that property, and that seller wants to sell. And, you know, a lot of people bluff. They're just bluffing to try to see what the other party will do. And, you know, you got more than two parties you got, You got the buyer of the seller and the two agents and ball, you know, and they're a lot of people. Just try to play those four corners to see if they could get a little budge in there, you know, to help their bottom line. And, uh, you know, after you've been in those situations so many different times, you kind of realize you know what? They want that property, you know, they're gonna pay that price, or you try to play me for this $500 thing already. Know that you're gonna pay this kind of deal. Um, so a It's fun. Um, I enjoy it, and I do the best I gave for my clients, and I want to do everything to let them know I care about him, you know? So, you know, you know, if I could do a deal, you know, sometimes, Okay, I've done deals for one or 2% 1 to 2% sometimes. Pretty rarely. I just did one. That was 1% not too long ago. I took her for three and 1/2 gave the other agent two and 1/2. I took one on this guy that has bought millions of dollars of property for me, and he lost money on the deal. So that's another thing I think about, you know, he's losing money, you know? So I you know, I mean, I got a builder. I got a builder I sell for. I represent him on everything he buys and sells and builds. And, uh, you know, I got on both sides of a deal for him. I did it for three and 1/2 because, you know, he had to cut his price 20,000 to get the buyers to do the deal, you know? But then I just closed on one a couple days ago where I got the full commission, cause the buyers paid full price. So, you know, you just do what you gotta do to make everybody happy, But then the day man if you're working in hustle and you're gonna make yours,
spk_2: 18:47
I have a question going off Cedric and I'm I'm gonna ask this knowing that it's kind of a trigger point for you because I because I followed you for some for, you know, a long time to know a lot of people. So we're in Newport Beach, California. Right? It's arguably, in our opinion, probably, I don't know, Top five most competitive and highest price market. You can sell it and, um, people all the time, especially with your cold calling and even, you know, some of the stuff you talk about like, Well, yeah, Well, Rick, you're in. You're in Alabama, like, what do you know? It's different there. And we're in, you know, for us they were in Newport Beach and I would love to hear kind of what you think about, especially even our, you know, dilemma. With this listing, it's like, what do you think about the differences from market to market? I assume you probably think that there are no real differences and it's all relative, but I'd love to hear what you think.
spk_0: 19:42
Now there's a huge difference. Isn't ever market like I couldn't come there and sell stuff, you know, like I couldn't come there and buy anything or talk about it. I would have to go there and dive into the market headfirst for several months to kind of get the hang of what of the differences and kind of adapt, which it wouldn't take me long at all to adapt, but I would have to adapt. I mean, I don't know if he saw that live call session. I did, and I think it was San Diego or something. I actually called people in San Diego live with this guy with this agent that was in San Diego, and I was saying, Forget what I was I think I was saying I'm think I was saying I was Ricky Cruz with that car. I don't know what I was saying. I was saying I was Ricky Truth with his office, his company and, uh, yeah, man, it was rough, you know. But by the end of that session, you could tell that my voice had changed some, and I was It's talking different. I was adapting, like, within the hour and already adapted a little bit. Um, but no man like it's definitely different everywhere you go. But here's the thing. This universal relationships are universal. It doesn't matter where you are. People just want to know that you care about them. So the way that communicate that is probably different. The way business is done, it's probably different the way people talk and act and the nuances and the contracts and the properties and everything. All that's different. But at the end of the day, if your attentions are to help people and to talk to the most people that you can more than anyone else, it doesn't really matter. Competition doesn't exist like competition. You can't talk to every single property under your area ever, and you'll just never get to the end of that. You know that that rainbow like it just it'll never happen. So I don't care. 15 agents talked with the same person that hadn't told to you yet, like everybody has a different personality. So the way like people make, they may not like any of the other agents. They talked to 10 of them yesterday. They talked to you. They're pissed off because they talked the 10 they don't like agents at all. But you come out on like a like a best friend and all of a sudden something trigger. And now they just love you. For some reason, they can't put the finger on it, But they just love you. And next thing you know, you're doing a deal with him, you know? But you got people to sit around saying, Oh, competition so harsh, You know, it's too competitive. I just can't get I can't get in there. People that think like that are never going to succeed, You know? Just not gonna happen. You know, you get they take all that out of the equation. Whoever talks to the most people with the best intentions wins.
spk_2: 22:28
What's your morning routine? I know you're I know you're pretty. Ah, you're pretty dialed in.
spk_0: 22:36
Yeah, I get up every day at 4 30 answer those diem's for any hour. Go to the gym. Uh,
spk_2: 22:44
when you go to sleep
spk_0: 22:45
at the office by eight. Um, you know, make a little list of priorities, have a little meeting with my assistant and then just straight crush it.
spk_2: 22:53
When do you go to sleep?
spk_0: 22:55
10. Yeah, 10 o'clock.
spk_2: 22:59
So what is that. How long is that of sleep?
spk_0: 23:04
About seven and 1/2 hours.
spk_1: 23:05
Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah,
spk_0: 23:08
I sleep. I sleep plenty. I sleep good. I don't have any problems with the energy or, you know, not depriving myself of anything. You know, this is like I finally found the perfect place as faras. You know, when you go to bed when you wake up to maximize my energy all day and get the most stuff done, you know, because, you know, answered all the d elms is a really situation enough, you know? So but I gotta answer him, you know? See, speaking to Gary, be like he I read something somewhere. Something where he answered or replied Every tweet, uh, between, like, 8 4012 or something like that. And it made me really reminded me of myself because I answer every single deal. You know, it's kind of like the same. The same, you know, characteristics there.
spk_2: 24:07
Yeah, well, and I'm gonna test that, cause I remember. So I got my license in Ah, 2018 just at the end. So I haven't even been licensed a year. Hopefully no one's ah upset about that, but, uh, we've done well round our fifth deal together. Said Rick's been in the business for much longer than I am, and he we linked up. And this we have our 50. Let's go together. Fifth deal together. 14th I think Yes. Year. Yeah.
spk_1: 24:36
And that was what I was gonna ask you is we're kind of that we're at that point where it's like, Okay, this is working like, how do we want to scale this thing to want to bring someone else in? We just hired a cold caller. We want to bring some door knockers in. I just want to go in as many listing appointments I possibly can. And it's like everyone has a different opinion.
spk_0: 24:59
I mean, you know, I'm a single agent, so I probably are probably not the best one asked for growing a team advice. You know, I I would probably steer you in the other direction, you know, Um,
spk_1: 25:13
well, I I kind of want to go that other direction you're talking about, but I want to build a structure around Blake and I. If that makes sense,
spk_0: 25:23
I'm a big believer in the cold call. It needs to be done. But see, the whole night, You know, Red van, You know, like that they have a person that handles each little part of the deal. You know, they got somebody, you know, handling the incoming calls or whatever. Then they have somebody else that goes to list your informant that have somebody else does this part transaction coordinator who handles the closing like there's a different person for each step of the way. And if you look at their reviews this horrible, I mean, they're full. Their rating, their customer reviews are just ridiculous. And it's what I've been doing from Day one. I handle every single part of the process. I'm handling the first moment that they make contact with me or I make contact with them. I'm meeting with them. I'm handling every step of the way they know that it's me the whole time. I don't have somebody. I'm delegating a bunch of different, crucial parts of the process out, too. Um, and I think that's huge. I think that's the reason why I have such a big business. And so many people were for so many of their friends and family to me because they know how I'm gonna handle it. I'm gonna handle it. They know I'm not delegated to people who may or may not know exactly the best way to handle certain situations. They know I'm gonna handle it. They know how I'm gonna handle it. And they're comfortable sending people to me because they know how I'm gonna do it. Whereas a big, huge team may not get the same retention of referrals because, you know, their experience was you know, this person handle this then this this person handled that one person didn't handle it, handle one thing that great and then that, you know, so it enter mean I'm pretty happy with my production, you know, like there's teams that do, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and gross millions and millions, you know, so definitely not doing the same numbers as a huge team could do. Um, but I am able. I have built the business where I'm able to maintain it while doing podcasts like this and traveling to speak and building my coaching business, which are basically doubled my income with that, and it's gonna completely explode over the next. You know, 2345 years. So I think I've done in a different way where I could still do it all on my own. I miss it. Therefore, I have different train of thought when it comes all that, you know.
spk_1: 27:50
Yeah. So what does your assistant do for you then?
spk_0: 27:54
Oh, she handles like, she puts properties in M L A. She schedules a picture she handles all. The biggest thing is a set up all the showings for agents that want to see my properties. Yeah, that's the biggest part because, you know, we're in a vacation market, So there's a lot of short term rentals that are people that are here for just a week or a weekend, and so we have to reach out to the rental companies, and they call the tenants. If it's okay that calls back, call the agent that there's a lot of lot of moving parts for each showing. Um, you know, So, uh, you know, hurt to taking that job off my shoulders was the biggest thing, and then want to get a contract she hopes will process it with my company, shall order the title insurance and and all the hook. You know she'll send it all to the title company. Make sure all that's good, Um, things of that nature. But when it comes to the client part like you know, anything during the deal they had involves the client like an inspection comes back when he repairs. I'm talking to the client to negotiate that
spk_2: 28:59
right?
spk_0: 28:59
You know, if a problem comes up with the appraisal, I'm calling the client to talk about What if there's something client related that I'm stepping in? If it's just processing stuff, then that's all her, you know. But if anything that involves clients, then that's me. So you know, prospecting, listing, appointment, showing property, negotiating stuff like stuff of that nature. I'm involved 100% in that stuff, and that and that her taking all the processing stuff off of me allows me to just work on just client activities 100% you know. So that's when I'm in the office and I'm doing real estate. It's all I'm on the phone the whole time, talking about deals out of me for putting together or or deals are put together or you know what I mean
spk_1: 29:48
said I'm
spk_0: 29:49
showings and fixing to meet this person or meetings and appointments and stuff like that.
spk_1: 29:53
So you're not getting bogged down in all the admin stuff. So you're not getting bogged down with all the admin stuff, and that's one of our biggest issues that we have.
spk_0: 30:04
Exactly. Man, I heard you all that, and I just do me. I just want to be in front of the people anyway, man. That's what that's what gets me fired up. That's what keeps me like, you know, that's that's my high is helping the people buy and sell properties and help him through the process and all that. That that's what that's what keeps me energized. Is that part of the business? You know, the admin stuff? I'm just not that That's boring to me. I want to be in front of the people, you know.
spk_2: 30:34
And you like prospecting because you understand that it's the gateway to the people. So do you. You enjoy prospecting because, you know, without prospecting, you can't be in front of anyone.
spk_0: 30:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the prospecting. So, yeah, the prospect amount is where it's out. Like if you don't have any business going on. Um I mean, like, if the market crashes tomorrow in my you know sales go down because of the market, then I just maintain the same level of activity and energy and motivation. I'm just directing it towards prospecting instead of going in and just slam and deals left and right. You know, like my work ethic wouldn't change. My production wouldn't change. My effort wouldn't change. Nothing would change. So it's such a cool business because like the market goes like this and you know, deals come and go and your business fluctuates. But when it's down, it's like you just feel your effort level stays like this, though, because regardless of what the market's doing, you know you're either closing deals are calling and prospect, your closing our prospect and closing a prospecting. And it's just so cool, man, because it closings will happen every day, regardless of what the market does. You know, it's just such a So many people are worried about job security in this industry, you know, is robots gonna take us over Amazon going to take us out, or Zillah gonna replace us and all this and all that's impossible. Number one, But number two like businesses here forever. You know, I'm saying forever every day for the rest of our lives. Like it. It'll never stop so that, you know, it took me a long time to realize all this. But I'm trying to really push it everybody's head so that they can also takes the pressure off. You know, we're
spk_1: 32:37
so for scheduling for your scheduling. I'm trying to get as much out of this I possibly can. What do you think? Your time. You obviously do a lot more deals than we. D'oh. How much of your time is spent prospecting?
spk_0: 32:52
Well, depends on what you call prospecting, because, you know, at this point I'm not really cold calling him or have such a big business like I have so many people coming to me. I want to buy ourselves stuff. It's hard to keep up like my prospecting is really just follow up. It's just constant. It's just a constant revolt revelation of following up every day that I never get to the end of the list. So tomorrow I'll get there. I've still still working on that list of people that want to buy and sell stuff. I need to get back to voicemails. E mails, text messages, you know, it's just it's just, you know, there's just so much so like I said it would take the market. It would take half of the market to crash to put me in a position where I'm now literally cold calling every day again, You know, if it crashed really hard and the markets stopped on a dime, you know, and, uh, you know, people aren't just flowing and want to buy and sell stuff. Then I would just turn around and spend that same time. I'm spending now, follow it up prospecting. You know, which at that point of prospecting with consists of calling past clients, you know, because I got thousands off. You know, it's not go through that list of people I haven't talked to in years. So how you doing? How's that property? The market crash. You know what you gonna do? You gonna buy on sale? You gotta hold What? Well, you know what Can I help you Do? Yeah, you know, probably catch up with him. I mean, it's endless, fellas, it's You can't get to the bottom of the barrel. I don't care how it would be like you trying to drink the ocean. You know, it's just you never gonna get it. It's never gonna happen.
spk_2: 34:27
Yeah, So you would say that to anyone. So, for instance, for from for me I mean, Cedric and I, we're a team, and and I personally like, I'm at this one deal a month kind of thing. Basically what we've been kind of averaging here. I think we're about one deal month. I am at least that I've getting paid on and I want to go toe. You know, two or three deals a month obviously wanna go away more than that. But two or $3 a month would get me to the place where I wasn't ravenously texting every single person that has breathed real estate on me in the last 30 days to try to figure out how I can show him a property or how I can help. You know what I mean? So you would say the difference between medium and one deal a month and me dealing Maur is just prospecting. It's just calling is just doing just
spk_0: 35:14
Yeah, I think I think what told me back from doing more deals per month is the exact saying is the exact reason. Um, we'll see. How do I put this? Like you're texting and calling and stuff everybody that's breathed real estate to you, Right? To try to get more than one, right?
spk_2: 35:33
Yeah. Whether it's like a zillo lead or door knocking on the door like
spk_0: 35:37
everybody has breathed real estate. You You're just, like, constantly trying.
spk_2: 35:41
Hey, Happy birthday. Hey, how's, uh How's this man?
spk_0: 35:45
I understand you're going after him. Hard core and all that stuff. The exact thing that you're doing trying to get to a couple bills a month is the exact thing that's preventing you. We're getting to a couple of bills a month
spk_2: 35:58
in the way that instead of focusing on current leads, I should go get new leads. I got it. Yes, yeah,
spk_0: 36:05
yes. Dude, you're spending so much time trying to convert all these leads that will never do anything
spk_2: 36:09
right selling to the unsellable.
spk_0: 36:11
Yes, instead of spinning that same time trying to find people that want to work with you today,
spk_2: 36:17
right?
spk_0: 36:18
See, the whole thing is is all you need. Really manage one conversation with these people. One conversation. See where the mind is. If there's a connection between you and them, what you can do to help them, why they want to do it? Do they have an agent? They're gonna work with one conversation from there. It's like, OK, if they want to do something down, we feel a connection. You know they don't have an agent. Let's create a game plan around what we're gonna do to help them move it forward. But it's not less. That'll just get our email every week or text message every week. Or are you know, Facebook ads or whatever it is? Let's built. Let's just let's just then quit focusing on them and let's just build our brand digitally with them. Let's just build our digital brand with them From there on, never never tried to call him again, ever trying to tack. So nothing. Let's let them come back to us in two years after they referred three people to us, and then we'll do the deal. Now we got four deals instead of one, and we didn't even do anything to spend any time with him after that. We just put him in our little generic you know, brand building machine that whatever vehicle that we have in the meantime, instead of trying to convert those people that aren't gonna do anything for two years and probably won't do anything with us ever because we're handing them, let's go spend our time on new people that might actually do something with us now or in the future and continue building that database. Then you'll get to the couple deals a year
spk_1: 37:39
so that digital drip that you're doing What what programs to use for that?
spk_0: 37:46
Well, it's not a drill. Okay, let's let's make that clear like it's literally original content that I create every week, right? So I think I think drips and automatic campaigns and stuff have their place. But I think people are trying to overuse them in a way that makes them feel like they're just a generic realtor. Whereas if you if you create the original content every week they're gonna see you, they're gonna value you weigh Maur This somebody who sent them a recipe on how to cook shrimp that to Fay, or what color to paint the walls in the fall to get the most money for further I mean, it's crazy the information that some of these drip campaigns do and how these realtors we're sitting it out and their brand is standing behind shrimp buffet. You know it. It's insane. So, like, I like I built it with constant contact. Sesto system. I just plug my people in there. I go in there and I'll build, you know, every week it's, you know, recent listings. Recent sales feature Properties, Restaurants of the month, listings of the month, events in the area, riel. Real information. What's pending right now. Every property is pending. Boom. Here's a list of everything pending in the area, you know, here's a few properties I sold lately, like and I don't put all that one email. I give in just two things this week. Two things next week because I know they're going to get an email for the rest of her life. I don't have to hit him up with everything that today I'm gonna build Brand as somebody who gives them the best information and saves them time because I'm not. I'm not writing a novel for them, Marie. They open it up and there's a couple click hears and a couple pictures. That's it. You know, like they understand when they opened up that email, it's gonna be pleasing to the eye. And they're gonna be happy. They're gonna be able to click on whatever information they want as opposed to some of these people that are riding a Dane novel. When their email, somebody opens that up, they're gonna, like, delete, block like it. I don't want same thing with people who talk a lot. You're cold calling and you talk a lot. People were trying to get off the phone with you as quick as you because they can never hope. Hope you never try to call him again. You know, because you're what you're spending too much time talking about things that don't matter, you know, saying they want people that air straight to the point, saving them time, whether it be a Facebook post that they're reading a phone call and email. You know, I think people appreciate other cells. People in in all industries who save them time.
spk_1: 40:19
Yep. Conveniences King. So two things for me. How do we get involved in your program? Um I mean, I've talked to a lot of big Realtors, and I would say bar none. I'm most relating to you. I'm into Riel. Ah, lot of the guys in our area to be quite frank are full of shit. Um and they don't want to help people because they're worried. I don't know whether it's for competition or what it is. Um, and I know most people they don't want to.
spk_0: 40:52
Oh, yeah, Those those kind of guys, they just don't understand the reality of abundance. You know, they don't understand unlimited business. They don't understand they, you know, there's the same guys that reminds built spending a $1,000,000 a year on Zillow, thinking that that is the entire market when really they're getting ther ther getting so screwed because, you know, they were getting their paying hundreds of dollars. I saw a screenshot of somebody who who took a screenshot of another agents like Zillow. Deals like 41,000. They paid for 100 leads. Was like these were people you couldn't manage. Kroger. You know that, right? You know, like like you literally could have met this person at the post office. You know that, right? Like you just paid $200 for somebody you could have met. Like, you know, Walmart. It's nuts. And, uh, you know, like the system I use red. It's three cents a less than three cents or contact for people that are in the exact subdivisions you want to sell in the exact price range you want to sell in less than three cents. You get their contact information for a targeted person, as opposed to a couple $100 for some random person in your market. Same thing with Facebook leads. I mean, for real estate agents. Facebook leads are not efficient at all. The horrible Never do it right because it's it's random people in your markets. Contact information for even $3 is too much, you know, $5.10 dollars. $100 is too much. You know, If Facebook leads are great for other industries, there's a lot of industries. My coaching business, you know, Facebook leads are great for the coaching business, You know, I get him in now, I can work with them. I consider my stuff and it's great. But for real estate, it's not for Facebook and social media. I just believe strongly that that it's for building brand, you know, And people are gonna come to you through building your brand on social media, and you're gonna get leads that way. Um, I just you know, if I'm going to sit there and call somebody like a lead that comes in, I'd rather call Somebody owns a house, and I want to sell it already owns the property, You know what I mean?
spk_1: 43:04
How do you
spk_2: 43:05
advertise open houses?
spk_0: 43:08
Oh, no. Hard. Hardly. Doing the open house is
spk_1: 43:10
you know what I
spk_0: 43:10
mean? Like, I mean, I would rather sit in a room and call people don't sit it open house and wait on buyers to walk in. Well, what do you tell your cellars, Ricky?
spk_1: 43:19
Tell him I'm gonna
spk_0: 43:20
go to the office and call people until I saw their house.
spk_1: 43:25
Do you? If you want Mr
spk_0: 43:27
Open House guy, then you might want to go. You know, somebody who's just gonna sit at a house and wait on people to show up? I'm probably not your guy, but if you want a worker smile is gonna go back to the office right now and get on the phone and call hundreds of people try to find a buyer for your house, then I'm your guy Don't mean. And so I'm just Mr Phone call guy. Nobody can beat that. Like there's nobody. I don't care what you say. You know, you your new open houses. Well, you know, you didn't have a pre listing package, Ricky. Well, I'm not gonna go back to the office and work on 10 more pre listing packages to send more people. I'm gonna go back and call people to try to find somebody who might actually be interested in your house.
spk_1: 44:05
You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So do you guys show a lot of the houses showed out There are through, like, lock boxes, and super isn't.
spk_0: 44:14
Yeah, Yeah, stuff like that. Yeah.
spk_2: 44:18
Okay, because I was just thinking about, like, you and your list of your never ending list of follow ups that you need to follow up with, Like, how do you How do you vet and handle buyer leads and, like, showings and stuff like that? I mean, you
spk_0: 44:34
just don't get any buyer leads, man. Right? I do not get Lily's mom. I'm not gonna pay 100 $200 for a random person in the markets Contact information?
spk_2: 44:43
No, no, I'm saying, like if someone I'm saying, like if one of your, you know,
spk_0: 44:47
I get what you're saying But what I'm saying is, is you're probably thinking I have tons of buyers. Went Really A lot of these people are sellers.
spk_2: 44:55
A
spk_0: 44:55
lot of these buyers were thinking about doing something in, like, five months, like it's not all today,
spk_2: 45:00
right?
spk_0: 45:00
You know me. So I probably should Property, I don't know, two or 34 times a month. You know what I mean? Something like that.
spk_1: 45:06
Well, well,
spk_0: 45:07
you know, on a really busy month, I might show property, you know, 5 10 times, You know, something like that. But it's just it's nothing crazy. See, when you when you build your business focused on the most effective leads out there, which are property owners who own the top property you want to sell, you don't get all this garbage,
spk_2: 45:25
right?
spk_0: 45:25
You know you don't you don't get all this, you know, crazy, like everything's efficient. It's people that want to sell and then by its people that know people that are just like them. There are high net worth people that want to buy, you know, it's all it just your life becomes so much easier when you're when you're when you're when you're taking off the cream of the crop rather than down here the bottom where you know you got the lowest quality leads for the highest price possible
spk_2: 45:51
and that's what it is. I mean, that's literally what Zillow is is the lowest quality leads for the highest price.
spk_0: 45:57
They're not. They're not leads. Broke their random Well,
spk_2: 46:01
no, But they are there. That's the thing. They literally they literally say, They'll enquire, Hey, they'll click on a property like I want to see this property And then I'll reach out to them and I'll show him a property and I'll show him 10 and it'll just be one in 100 of them actually do something the endless time suck. It's a tire,
spk_0: 46:20
something. The leaves don't suck. Let me just throw that out there that they are people that are in your market and that period. That's that's like what we want. The problem is
spk_1: 46:32
they're too expensive way. They're like $400
spk_0: 46:36
as opposed to me targeting a subdivision. You know,
spk_2: 46:40
And how does Red X get the data for that subdivision question?
spk_0: 46:44
They just have it is called JIA leech. Put that you put the address of one of one of the houses in the edge in the search bar, and then you tell that you wanted to find, like, 50 100 205 100 houses around that, uh, you know, in that subdivision or whatever it click one click and boom. Wow, It just It just, like appears in your little folder. And then he had another button. It's her style, you know, as Tyler
spk_2: 47:07
and the quality of the oh, and then the dye alert takes care of my question, which was the quality of the numbers. Because if it's in a bad number, just keep going.
spk_0: 47:15
It just cuts right through, man.
spk_2: 47:16
Wow.
spk_0: 47:17
I mean, it's just incredible. Now, you know, with any online you know, numbers you buy, you're gonna have bad numbers,
spk_2: 47:22
right?
spk_0: 47:22
Numbers and stuff like that, man. But, I mean, if you could sit there and talk to 10 people an hour, you know, you might it went through 50 numbers, but if you talk to 10 of them, that's 10 That's 10 people,
spk_2: 47:34
right?
spk_0: 47:34
That's 10 people that own the half owned the type of property you want to sell that you don't have a relationship with. You know that's gonna do business with you now or later. You know, it's just for
spk_1: 47:43
three cents instead of 400.
spk_2: 47:45
Have you started using text at all? I know. I mean, we've I've started, actually, texting are are are cold calling our our lists of data, especially for our farm. I've started to either I'll call him first. And if it's a voice mail text,
spk_0: 48:01
I've never I don't know anyone that's ever been fined at all. But like text messaging, I hear that's a thing I could think you get trouble from that for sure. But, uh but yeah, as faras answer your question, I'm actually working on a platform right now. Um Thio. So I'm working on a deal to create like a well, like, different packages for agents to do mass texting to their clients. So, like I do the weekly email. So, um, I also think that, you know, with open right of text messaging being so much higher, you know, it's like 20 or 25% with, uh, e mail. It's like 90% with text.
spk_2: 48:47
Yeah,
spk_0: 48:47
So I'm putting together some packages that made a deal with a company just for real estate agents. Thio set up really cheaply to be ableto like mass text, their database, these weekly emails or if they get a new listing or if there's something they just want their database to know about or whatever. Um, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go down that road because I think I think Tex is the new email. Nothing forward. So kind of on the front end of it for agents, I'm pretty excited about it. So I'm still kind of working on that deal, but, yeah, it's for his individual attacks. Like people don't answer my calls. Oh, no. You Because, like, text right now is like friends or family, right? Yes. And you don't know texting. It's kind of that's kind of creepy.
spk_1: 49:32
Yeah. Yeah.
spk_0: 49:33
So I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe later on, when text becomes made more mainstream for businesses and it becomes last intimate, then maybe maybe that might be something.
spk_2: 49:46
Yeah, The reason I ask is because I'm a if you haven't got this already. Have a pretty big Gary V fan, and I've gotten Cedric to come on board the gravy train. I think he's about half one. I'm like in the caboose, one foot in, one foot out. But I just think the guy's an absolute genius. Actually. Don't even think he's a genius. I think he's just he's just a hard worker and he just it believes in what he believes in any executes, and that's just he just does. He does stop talking about does. But the reason I bring up Texas because he's like all in on Tex, that's like, literally his opening line to his podcast is I'm all in on text, and I think he uses my text or something like that. It's a text platform and is it called community Okay, Yeah,
spk_0: 50:27
it's only for celebrities.
spk_2: 50:29
I see. Yeah, and so I had this idea. I was like, Well, people open text a lot more, and we have these numbers that you can see if they're an iPhone or not, because it's blue. So I was like, Maybe I'll just start and I'd start. I sent video. Hey, is Blake like the thing I could do for you. Whatever, but I haven't been doing it long. Obviously. I just interested to hear what you thought about it. But,
spk_0: 50:52
you know, I don't know, you know, trying out. See what happens. You know about trying things and seeing what works, you know? Um, so, yeah, give it. Give it a world
spk_1: 51:02
we live
spk_0: 51:03
in taxes. Big. Gonna be big, moving forward. Yeah, I'm not I'm putting, you know, pieces in place so that agents could actually take advantage of it, you know, Um, so I'm pretty excited about that. What about tiptop?
spk_2: 51:19
We're on it. I mean, I have I created a CD. Ari. Ah, is our company name on tic tac? I haven't been active on. I can barely keep up with our see Ari Handel and my personal handle on instagram. Um, it's just so hard to, um, content content. So it's just like there's so much. It's like, you know, the dream is to have, like, some guy like Dirac who just follows us around and and, you know, because we're doing this no one's doing. No one's taking a video of this for instagram. For us, it's like who does that mean? I'm we're sitting here in a podcast. We would love if there was assistant or one of our wives or someone that would just Hey, we're gonna take a minute long of instagram video on her phone. But it's like we go to a client party that we threw away clothes. We throw the client parties for all of our buyers that by, um, it's one of our like, closing gifts. And I show up and I'm meeting everyone. No one's videotaping it. No one's capturing the content. And it's just so frustrating because there's so many opportunities that if I'm not videotaping, you know, we don't pay someone like $400 to come do the video that day. It doesn't get documented, you know?
spk_0: 52:36
Well, um I mean, as faras right now, you could actually set up a camera I have right now,
spk_2: 52:44
which I have
spk_0: 52:45
Video yourself. You know what I mean?
spk_2: 52:47
You're right.
spk_0: 52:48
Also, you could have hit the record on the zoom call and had this footage where you could then chop it up,
spk_2: 52:54
right?
spk_0: 52:54
You could even you could zoom in on just you guys and go back to me and then you guys may. There's a lot of stuff you can do on your own without paying somebody. Like I had a video got following me around, but he's not with me longer. And so I've just been doing it myself
spk_2: 53:08
and then do everything. Uh, you were going to say you had an editor?
spk_0: 53:13
Well, I added about, I had it. Maybe I post every single thing in our response. I'm the one commenting and replying and gm ing and everything, but and then I probably edit maybe half of my YouTube content, and then I have a company that at it's the other half I gotta got L. A at it, some for me and, uh, between the three of us. You know, L a Canada and me, you know, we get the job done. So there's plenty of content, so but yeah, it's definitely has been two years since I started all this. So it's come a long way, but, you know, I just want to continue getting better, you know? Keep getting better, Better, better.
spk_1: 53:59
I think the answer is we need to get more organized and stop chasing all these Byerly. I think that yeah,
spk_0: 54:05
turn off all the, you know,
spk_1: 54:06
paid
spk_0: 54:07
leads. And, uh, you know, just focus on property on. You know, what you should do is is like, quit buying ZIL elites for $100 apiece. Start buying Geo leads for three cents apiece to pretend like there's ill elites,
spk_1: 54:21
right? Yeah, exactly. I feel
spk_0: 54:23
like there's a little
spk_1: 54:24
I saw.
spk_0: 54:24
Okay, what can I do to help you?
spk_1: 54:27
I saw a video you did last month, and it was talking about this little leads and literally we fired till a week later. E. Because we broke it down. Ended up being like 400 elite. And we're like, What the hell are we doing
spk_0: 54:41
exactly? Did for people you could have met at Kroger,
spk_1: 54:44
this Kroger grocery store, I'm guessing.
spk_0: 54:47
Well, the reason I say Kroger's
spk_1: 54:49
because there's
spk_0: 54:49
this guy in Mississippi at the grocery store just got Mississippi. He started following me. He's been in the business one year. He sold 106 properties, just Jilly to meet people. Kroger.
spk_2: 55:01
Well,
spk_0: 55:02
yeah, that's why I keep saying Kroger, because that dude course he was that he was old Miss football player.
spk_1: 55:08
His
spk_0: 55:09
receiver, he just graduated, like, just a couple years ago. And he's an absolute animal. No, but yeah, he, uh it's crazy.
spk_1: 55:18
Yeah, Sky's the limit.
spk_2: 55:19
Well, I think I think we've taken up enough of your title, your super valuable time. It's been incredible, especially to anyone listening. I mean, to us and to anyone listening, whether your realtor or not, because I think we talked about this all the time, the things that you need to be successful in anything, whether it's real estate, er, just life or just productivity. I mean, there's house wives and different people in the world that they don't even necessarily have a quote unquote job outside of the house. That productivity is still enormous obstacle. It's very like everyone needs to understand what the building blocks are to be truly productive and efficient with the time that we have, because we all have the same 24 hours, whether you're real estate Asian or not. And ah, so I think everyone could definitely benefit from the things you had to say about that. And I know we definitely have and will. I mean, I I've been trying to get up earlier, but I think this is super motivating to both of us to get things started earlier. But, um what? One thing that you want to just leave us with and for any of anyone listening, What do you you know, you have the floor?
spk_0: 56:29
Uh, well, I think just I think the biggest thing is everybody just worried too much about stuff that doesn't matter. You know, they're just worried about things that don't matter when you take all the stuff out of. We took all the worrying out of your life and then start focusing on the things that do matter 100% of time. You literally 10 extra life overnight, you know? And it's just so crazy that things people are worried about that, you know, worry about something that's gonna happen. That's probably not gonna happen. And then it takes up all their energy. All their mental capacity is just focused on the staying. That's probably never gonna happen, you know, it's just nuts. And I just wish that everybody would quit worrying about everything. You know, the 5% of stuff you worry about that might happen. Let's worry about it when it happens, and then take the time we would have spent worried about it 100% of the time and focus on the things that matter like typically help next, you know? And how can we talk to more People have to be more efficient. How can we, you know, do more, You know, because, like our success and the, you know, our family depends on it. You know, our co workers want to see a succeed. Our broker wants to see it succeed our family or friends. Everybody wants to see us succeed. So I think if you'll just take that one little piece out the worrying part and replace it with things that actually matter, like talking to people and seeing how you could help, you know, quit worrying so much about stuff that doesn't matter. I think that literally the world would be a better place.
spk_1: 58:03
Well said. Thanks, Ricky. Really appreciate it, man. They
spk_2: 58:06
will do this again. And if you're ever in Orange County or even even L a area, you know, we could make the drive. So we'll take you out to lunch, because I know that's your thing
spk_0: 58:16
for sure, for sure. Um enjoy, guys.
spk_1: 58:18
Thank you so much. Everybody have a Good day. Thanks for
spk_2: 58:26
tuning into another installment of CG TV. If you haven't already make sure to subscribe and leave us a review on the Apple podcast app until next time. Follow us on instagram at c g r e underscore O. C for all things C g R E