GRIT: The Real Estate Growth Mindset

In 2011, Josh Cunningham was working as a recruiter for a small boutique brokerage.  He attended a Mike Ferry training event when he met Frank Klesitz, CEO of Vyral Marketing. Frank’s story of success inspired him so much that a few months later, he reached out to Frank to ask how he can work for him.  This was when he decided to take a leap of faith and jump into the entrepreneurial world.  A couple of years later, a client he had at Vyral Marketing, Spring Bengtzen, shared that despite the work she puts into her real estate business, she just wasn’t seeing the results she wanted.  At that time, a lot of people from the industry are attributing their success to the ISA model. Josh then decided to help Spring make her first ISA hire.         Today, Josh Cunningham is the CEO and Founder of rokrbox, a premium real estate ISA company that connects serious buyers and sellers with highly reliable and successful Realtors across the US and Canada. To date, Josh’s team has managed more than two million Internet leads using his proven model. Let’s hear from Josh as he shares his insights on the ISA model and the top 5 biggest mistakes agents are making with their leads.  Top Takeaways: 01:23 How Josh got started in the real estate industry 04:06 How rokrbox came to be 09:34 The formula they follow at rokrbox 10:18 What entrepreneurship is all about  11:06 The value of having a dedicated person to follow-up on your leads 11:27 What are the biggest mistakes agents make with their leads 18:47 How to hold a conversation with somebody without any local market knowledge  21:37 Why you should always communicate strong recommendations. 26:44 Why you shouldn’t waste all your time with leads who are not yet motivated 28:43 Josh’s take on where the real estate industry is going Download the Top 5 Mistakes that Agents Make with their Leads: https://bit.ly/3JdZVDy To get in touch with Josh Cunningham, email him at Josh@rokrbox.com Or check their website at https://rokrbox.com/

Joe Herrera comes from a long line of alcoholics and his family lived from paycheck to paycheck. With a lack of ideal role models in his family, Joe got terrible grades and he barely finished high school. After graduation, he went on a 2-year mission with their church and this experience changed him as a person. Coming home, he knew he wanted to break those generational chains and make something of himself. He also knew he didn’t want to pursue college. Since he believed that he has a talent in sales, he decided to go into real estate. Several years into the business, Joe decided to shift his focus and start a marketing technology company. Unfortunately, the app they developed was unable to reach the number of daily users they needed and they couldn’t raise the additional funds to keep going and the company eventually failed.  In 2014, Joe went back to real estate full-time. But this time around, he wanted to do something different. He took what he learned from running his marketing tech company, which is the power of social media, and used it as leverage to blow up his real estate career. Today, Joe Herrera is the Owner/Partner at Joe Taylor Group. He is also the Owner of Love Local Real Estate, Brokered by ΓEA⅃ Broker.  He believes that agents should focus on money-generating activities like building relationships and getting deals under contract.  That is why they’ve built a system that handles the technology, lead generation, and transaction management side of the business. Let’s hear from Joe as he shares his journey, his insights on the challenges that the real estate industry is facing, and how his failures led him to success. Top Takeaways: 08:52 Why building a real estate business is not really a fun endeavor 09:44 Why Joe decided to build a marketing technology company 11:06 How failing at his tech company fueled his successful real estate business 12:17 What led Joe to start his own brokerage 13:37 Is it advisable to sell your independent brokerage? 17:36 The most painful loss his business went through 25:22 The number 1 pain point for broker-owners 27:30 Why they joined ΓEA⅃ Broker 33:23 How Sisu changed the way Joe looks at their team 36:12 Why do more teams today focus on ancillaries? 39:41 Joe’s most valuable possession  

Guy Gal, CEO of Side Inc, shares his journey from problem solver to entrepreneur, founding an 'invisible' brokerage that empowers agents. He discusses positive accountability, funding challenges, and the evolution of real estate services towards quality over quantity. Side Inc focuses on empowering ownership and celebrating success, especially for women and minorities in the industry.

When he was six, Rod Khleif and his family migrated from Holland and settled in Denver. They didn’t have much growing up. To put food on the table, his mother worked as a housemaid and did babysitting on the side. But his mom had an incredible work ethic and was a bit of an entrepreneur as well. With the money she earned from babysitting, she bought the house across the street from where they were living. Three years later, his mom was able to sell that house and make a $20,000 profit. He remembered his mom telling him that she made $20,000 in her sleep. This sparked his interest in real estate investing. In his third year of being a real estate broker, he met a guy who taught him that up to 90% of our success in anything is our mindset and psychology.  This thought led him to 10x his income that year. In 2006, his net worth shot up to $17 million - while he slept. But all that changed when the market crashed in 2008 when he lost a staggering $50 million. His net worth dropped by more than 70% and he felt he had to throw in the towel. This painful yet valuable lesson reminded him that the key to recovering from his losses was to work on his mindset. Today, Rod Khleif is an accomplished entrepreneur, real estate investor, author, mentor, and community philanthropist who is passionate about business, life, success, and giving back. He is also the host of the top-ranked iTunes real estate podcast: The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing where he advocates creating lifetime cash flow through multifamily properties. Let’s hear from Rod as he shares his life’s journey and why real happiness cannot be achieved by having the life you always dreamed of but by giving back to those who truly need it. Top Takeaways: 06:04 How Rod lost $50 million 06:55 What makes cash flow so important?  10:18 The importance of failing your way to success 13:30 How being accountable for yourself helps you to move forward 15:32 Why you need to build cash flow other than real estate sales 16:56 Rod’s thoughts on Airbnb 22:24 The difference in investing in multi-family properties vs. single-family homes and other asset classes 24:50 How Tony Robbins influenced Rod 26:12 A step by step guide to Rod’s goal-setting strategy 32:07 The core emotion you need to get what you want in life 38:56 Why happiness comes from progress and growth  39:01 The biggest lesson Rod wants to share with the audience To know more about Rod Khleif:  Visit his website: https://rodkhleif.com/ Listen to his podcast: Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing Rod Khleif Join his Facebook Group: multifamilycommunity.com You can also join his Multifamily Bootcamp which is happening from Dec 3rd to 5th, 2021.  To get a special discount, text multifamily to 72345 with the code: rodfriend  

Although Andrew Franklin’s father had a successful real estate business, he was against the idea that his children would follow in his footsteps. Somehow, he believed that the real estate agent will be eliminated in the future. So Andrew worked in investment banking for 6 years, primarily on mergers and acquisitions. But real estate runs in their family’s blood and Andrew didn’t just want to be his father’s son.  He wanted to try and grow their business and not screw it up.  This is why, eight years ago, he, his sister, and a third partner decided to buy his father’s real estate business. Today, Andrew Franklin is the owner/partner at The Franklin Team where he has helped grow the business from having 3 to 4 agents doing up to 600 deals with $150 million in sales, to having 25 agents that will sell 1,800 homes for more than $600 million in sales this year.  They have also successfully created ancillary businesses as part of their growth. In this episode, we talked about: 04:52 How Andrew and his partners acquired the business from his father 06:50 What sets The Franklin Team apart 07:11 Why Andrew considers builder leads a very warm and predictable listing lead 15:30 Why it’s okay to rip off and duplicate business models in real estate  16:42 How The Franklin Team took out 99.99% of their competitors 24:55 What made them decide to start their own title company  26:54 Why they moved from REMAX to eXp  29:26 Where's Andrew thinks the industry is going over the next 3-5 years  32:23 The great thing about having ancillary businesses in real estate 32:49 Why Andrew thinks the real estate agent will continue to be around in some form or fashion in the future 34:13 The most important investment we can make. 37:23 Why Andrew’s father changed his mindset about coaching 43:41  Andrew’s one piece of advice for those who are striving to grow? Here are ways to get in touch with Andrew: Phone: 281-248-8520 ext 107 Email: andrew.franklin@thefranklinteaminc.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-franklin-7482952/  

Doug Gieck was managing ice cream shops when he got headhunted as a client care coordinator for a referral business under the REMAX Alliance brokerage.  He didn’t know anything about real estate then but he was able to learn his way around by making appointments for real estate agents. In 2009, the company Doug worked for started their own brokerage, 8z Real Estate.  Here, he started as the manager of the client care team.  Then he worked his way up each year until he became in charge of running operations for the brokerage. Today, Doug Gieck is the Vice President of Production at 8z Real Estate. From having 30 agents, they have now grown to about 165 agents.  They achieved $1.4 billion in volume doing 2,700 transactions last year.  Their goal is to up those numbers to $1.75 billion with 3,000 transactions this year.   In this episode, we talked about: 06:22 What is 8z’s big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG)? 09:44 Doug’s advice to those building an ISA team 13:14 The most successful lead source 17:10 How to get your team to produce $1B in volume 23:27 What Doug thinks about running gamification in their business 24:03 How giving your agents recognition goes a long way 26:15 How to motivate agents and hold them accountable 29:15 8z’s core purpose 33:22 Why 8z signed up with Sisu 35:30 The true purpose of going into ancillary businesses 40:27 Doug’s one piece of advice in terms of innovation and automation 42:38 What Doug does daily to stay ahead of the curve 44:28 How having a calendar sets you free To get in touch with Doug Gieck, check the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-gieck-34b601a/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/douglas.gieck Website: https://8z.com/  

When Chris Craddock graduated college in 2000, he worked as a staff for a Christian ministry where he earned $20,000 a year.  After 3 years, his wife got pregnant and he knew he needed to earn more. This was when he looked into real estate investing and got the idea of talking to people who were in distress and offered to buy their houses. In the next four months, he ended up making 12 times as much as he did in a year doing his previous job. Inspired by Gary Keller’s book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Chris decided to build his own team in 2014.  In 2020, Chris’s team made 501 transactions, both on and off-market, for $167 million in sales volume. He has also expanded to several ancillary businesses including home insurance, title, and mortgage.  Today, Chris Craddock is the Founder and CEO of The Redux Group. He is a nationally certified Life Coach with a Doctorate in Leadership and is the driving force behind REI Revive which is an advanced online training that teaches how to turn dead leads into cash. He is also the host of the Uncommon Real Estate Podcast and entrepreneur who runs multiple successful businesses in the Washington DC Metro area (and Richmond, VA). In this episode, we talked about: 03:59 The key to being a great leader 04:44 A great resource for anyone looking to recruit great people. 08:23 How Chris started his career in real estate 14:44 What Chris thinks of having a home insurance business 24:35 Why Chris got into coaching 25:18 A really good ancillary business that I think a lot of people miss 31:25 The problem with entrepreneurs 34:39 What was the idea behind the Uncommon Real Estate podcast? 35:23 Why every real estate agent needs to be an investor 36:58 What is Chris’ morning routine  38:49 Why we need to become corporate athletes To get in touch with Chris Craddock, check the links below: Instagram: Chris Craddock @craddrock Facebook: Uncommon Real Estate Podcast REI Revive: http://chriscraddock.com

Tamir Poleg started in the real estate industry as a construction worker 16 years ago. This experience allowed him to learn homes and construction from a fundamental level.  After earning a degree in economics, he joined the tech world with a couple of start-up companies doing mainly sales positions in Europe. In 2006, Tamir started his own real estate company in Houston, Texas. When the market tanked in 2007 - 2008, he saw the opportunity to invest in real estate and grew his portfolio, property management company, and construction company. Despite the odds, it turned out to be a good decision, and he ended up selling that company in 2013. A  year later, he started Real, a technology-powered real estate brokerage, and this is where he’s been devoting his life to ever since. Today, Tamir Poleg is the CEO at The Real Brokerage Inc. The company recently rang the bell at Nasdaq and is currently on a mission to make agents' lives better, creating financial opportunities for agents through better commission splits, best-in-class technology, revenue sharing, and equity incentives. In this episode, we talked about: 03:36 Why Tamir decided to go into the real estate world? 07:22 How COVID gave way to in opening up the industry virtually 08:56 Why Tamir chose New York to start his own company 10:30 What was the vision for Real when they first started it? 15:13 When did the idea of building wealth through Real come about? 19:47 What sets Real apart from a traditional brokerage? 20:11 Why are agents attracted to Real?  22:49 How revenue sharing works at Real 24:16 What is the tech platform that Real uses? 25:11 The four main pillars of technology 30:15 Tamir’s most crucial piece of advice  

In 2005, Rivers Pearce started doing e-commerce and lead generation for an ad agency in Atlanta and then moved to Charleston and South Carolina.  Five years later, a real estate technology startup called BoomTown was looking for someone who can do search engine marketing and Rivers joined them as their 10th employee. For almost a decade, Rivers helped grow BoomTown’s client base from 70 to well over 3000 clients by serving as their Director of Client Success, Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy. With his vast experience working with operations and team/brokerage structures as well as the various technology, marketing, advertising, and operational components that support all of that, Rivers is considered a veteran in the real estate technology space. Today, Rivers is the CEO & Co-Founder of W8less, a real estate and property technology consultancy that is focused on making people's processes better and ultimately creating an infrastructure to support their business’ success. In this episode we talked about: 00:57 How Rivers came up with the weightless concept? 04:20 What does that mean to be “weightless”? 09:45 How Sisu’s way of automating processes helped operational efficiency for teams and brokerages 18:39 The key difference between Sisu and other transaction management platforms 20:24 What Rivers thinks anyone managing a real estate business should know 20:56 The value of looking outside the industry for your competitors 25:15 Why you should work with companies that can help you navigate the technology aspects of your business 26:23 What advice Rivers has for business owners moving forward  

Growing up, Steve de Laveaga loved playing basketball. As a high school senior, he attended basketball camps at Cal Lutheran. Due to his athletic talent, he was offered a full academic scholarship and decided to take up Communications. Through this course, he discovered that the key to creating great influence and wealth in any field is the ability to communicate your vision and passion to your network. As as he got older, he has made it his mission to make people’s lives better through his positive influence. For almost a decade, Steve was the SVP and National Sales Manager for Fidelity National Title Group, encompassing multiple Divisions and overseeing 3,100 Sales Executives, and assisting over 200 sales managers across the US. Here, he assisted their partners and stakeholders in growing their business and bringing value to real estate companies. Today, Steve is the Founder and CEO at Real Intelligent Sales Engagement (R.I.S.E.). Their main goal is to be the best business-to-business facilitator with clients and prospects in the real estate space.  They also work with top producing teams and focus on helping agents develop into “sales savants” and be in their company’s top 10%. Top Takeaways: 03:06 Why Steve has chosen to work with elite teams 09:54 How Steve came up with R.I.S.E  11:23 The 3 key things a team must have to achieve more closings 12:54 The value of follow-up 14:23 Why more agents don’t always mean more closings  15:42 Why you need to be accountable to the process and business of real estate 21:34 Where Steve sees the real estate industry ending up in the next 3-5 years 23:27 What Zillow and Open Door haven't figured out yet 24:28 What will happen if Google or Facebook goes into real estate?  27:11 Why you need to watch out for Keller Williams 36:38 What Steve loves about Sisu dashboards 42:38 Steve’s vision for consumer experience 46:08 What is Steve’s most important piece of advice? To get a hold of Steve, you may visit https://salesisacareer.com/