SPEAKER_04 0:00

Every business owner is in two businesses. They're in the lead gen business and whatever they do. What do I mean by that? If you're a doctor, you might be in the business of being a doctor and practicing. You might be a dentist, you might be a home builder, you might be an insurance person. But first and foremost, you're in the lead gen business because you can be as good at the practice as you want to be if you don't have leads and people to do it for, it's really irrelevant. The best people, in my opinion, if they don't see this as they're in the lead generation business, then they are either out of business quickly or they are vulnerable to being out of business quickly, or they are vulnerable to being very compressed by the business when it's not easy. So what that means is that when the business is really easy and people are all calling you and they all want to move and everyone wants to buy and there's all these people in the market, that like you might be great with people and you might be, you might be really professional and you might be make cutesy marketing. But to me, a lot of agents survive on the same skill set that makes them a good bartender or a good waiter or waitress. They're good at service, but they don't have the sales and negotiation skills, they don't have the personal development skills to really push it when sh gets hard.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Welcome to the Studio 321 podcast, powered by Brightway, the Steve Trout agency. We're sitting down with real estate pros, insurance nerds, mortgage masterminds, and local legends who are making moves on the Space Coast. Hosted by the best insurance crew in the 321. At studio 321, it's all about community, real connections, and sharing a few laughs along the way. Strap in, let's launch into today's episode. All right, welcome back to Studio 321. I'm one of your hosts, Steve Trout, joined today by my two teammates and co-hosts from Brightway Insurance, our agency manager Jason Buckner and senior insurance advisor Angela Delac. It's great to have you both here. Yeah, thanks, Steve O.

SPEAKER_06 1:46

Thanks, Steve O.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

And today's guest has become one of the most recognizable connectors in our local real estate community. He publishes the magazine that top producing agents here in Brevard County actually look forward to reading the Space Coast Real Producers. He's doing the same thing up in Orlando, and honestly, he's just one of those guys who makes everybody in the room feel like they belong. We are super excited to introduce the one and only Aaron Luden.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Thank you, man. Thank you. What's up? You write that yourself?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Definitely not AI.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

No, he's getting better at it.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

We are getting slowly better at this. Such a word to be surely. Yep. So we're almost at this a year now.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I know, and it doesn't seem like that. Like we've been kind of rolling with it for a while. We did in the beginning, we were doing every two weeks, and then January 1st we went to every week for like three months. Ooh, that was painful. Every week was pretty painful. I mean, that was a lot. Yeah. Because you gotta remember that we're not just doing this, we also are insurance agents for a living. It reminds you of that. Oh shit, I forgot. You know what I mean? So like we were we've been we've been kind of grinding, but we're having a lot of fun with this, dude. We're just gonna do that. It's 14 in a row today. Yeah, yeah. So this is your 14th interview of the day.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

Well, I figured I I didn't want to end on lucky number 13 over there, so I came over to uh this studio and hanging out with you guys.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Awesome, man. Hey dude, I really appreciate you being here. It means a lot. Um I appreciate you uh having us as part of the Real Producers too. Um it's been a cool pickup for us and just an awesome way for us to kind of continue our networking and marketing and stuff. We were I will say we were probably getting a little bit complacent on that. You know, we went through a few years in our industry that was pretty tough. And uh, you know, when we kind of came out the other side of that, now that our industry is healthy again and we're feeling really good about the business, kind of got energized to do some new things, and so um, you guys have been kind of part of that journey, so I appreciate it. Love it. So, man, let's go back, dude. Take us back to the beginning. Where do you want to go? Man, I I w we want to know kind of what led you to where you are today. Uh like the big points in your life where you're like, this was something, you know what I mean? Big turning points and stuff like that. We want to know about Aaron Luden more than anything, man.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

So I was born in Philly, you know, I'm the kid raised on like watching Alan Iverson and you know, Philadelphia cult subculture. But we moved to Florida when I was twelve, thirteen, and uh moved to Maitland Winter Park, and it was just it's pretty crazy just coming from like the suburbs of Philly to uh suburbs of Winter Park because you see, like I saw people that were way wealthier than anything I'd ever been exposed to, and I saw people that were way poorer than anything I'd ever been exposed to. So it was really crazy. Yeah, but no well. I mean, I didn't live in the inner city of Philly, I lived in the suburbs. So coming down to Florida, it was like, man, the rich kids were way richer and the poor kids were way poorer. Florida's just melting pot, you know. And so uh but no, I grew up I grew up there and I got um actually recruited when I was 17 by Vector Marketing to sell Cutco Knives. And I went in this interview, they recruited me, and I thought it was weird, but my friend had made 800 bucks his first weekend, and they kept calling me and calling me and calling me to try to get me to come out. And I was like, dude, if Ben, who got fired from Hollister made 800 bucks this first weekend, sign me up. You know, like sign me up. So shout out to Ben. But I was like, man, Ben's Ben's, you know, Ben's lazy lazy as shit. And he uh you know how to cuss on me. Ben's lazy and he got fired from Hollister. So I was thinking, like, dude, if you made 800 bucks and this is legal, like sign me up. And so um that's kind of where it all started, you know. I uh I learned to sell. I happened to have a really good manager there, and I happened to, I didn't realize this until not even then, like I it took me till I was probably 28 to like wrap my head around that. Uh I was really comfortable on the phones from the start, and I never really understood why. I always thought, like, oh, it was just cool. I just booked a lot of appointments and my managers taught me to get good at sales. But I was thinking back, and I can think of being a kid uh in my parents' office on the phone, dialing through a directory from the school asking, like, can Johnny come out? You know, can Johnny play on Saturday or can so and so do like they made me set up my own stuff. So I got really used to getting on the phone and calling my friend's parents. It was pretty normal to call Mr. Trout to ask if his son was available. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. And uh, this is back before there were cell phones, so I was pretty comfortable calling people's parents. So when I went into this interview to sell you know kitchen knives at people's homes, and they're like, call your friend's parents and tell them you're working on the scholarship, I was like, hell yeah. So I had um without telling too much of the story, I had missed two days of training and I'm on day three and I came in late, or I came in early, and I'm like, I gotta impress them. So I just got on the phone and I saw like calling my friends' parents, like, dude, I need you to just put me in your schedule. They already hate me. Like, I gotta win this contest, they're gonna fire me. You know, I didn't know. Yeah, and because of that, like took a while, but I made 50 grand in my senior year of high school selling these knives. That's unbelievable. And um, so that's kind of where it all started.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, and so and it was like maybe if you're a drug dealer.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Like there was like I mean, back then 50 grand was a significant amount of money.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

My drug dealing friends were making like 25. No, but I thought I was rich living at home, and I uh so yeah, so my senior half senior year, half freshman year of college, I was making money, and I remember I was going to school, I was paying my way through Rollins College and uh had a couple scholarships, but like was paying for a significant chunk of it. And I just realized like whenever I got out of class, I'd have to like race up the street to go like sell, like on a sales appointment, I'd have to like you know, be booked, and these kids would like be in the library writing essays, and I'd be like squeezing out to try to make enough money to do the thing. And I just realized like, man, I'm spending a lot of money for them to make it really hard for me to go make a lot of money. Uh I think I need to go to an easier school. That's a really good way to put it. That's how I ended up at USF. Good bulls and uh probably would attest to that. That's where it all uh that's where it all started. So long story short, is I got into sales really young. I got really well trained really young. I made good money for my age and you know, hired my first life coach at 18, Hal Ilrod, and we could talk about that in a bit. But um he was writing this book about morning routines. So I was like practicing this morning routine, the miracle morning, ended up selling like, I don't know, five, six million copies now. So there's just like all these things, and being plugged into this world of personal development and sales and getting into like learning, and they had me reading Zig Ziggler and watching Tony Robbins and learning Brian Tracy and you you know Jim Rohn and you name the thing, like I was studying the crap out of it. And so 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, I got trained uh at 19. I opened up uh Cutko office actually. I had 125 sales reps on my team, five receptionists. It was my name on the door. I paid the lease, I negotiated that thing, and we ran all of Broward County. And so um, you know, we sold a few hundred thousand dollars uh that summer, and I learned a ton about like it was like a crash course in business, like you know, in business. And uh I also learned that I didn't want my name on the door, but that's a whole other story. And it's crazy in real estate because you see these people that like just for the um they don't realize it's ego, but they like want to be the CEO. They want their name on the door, they want to be the broker, they want to be the thing because like they just there's a culture of wanting to be entrepreneurial here, and they don't realize that someone would make a ton more money and serve a lot more people if they weren't so worried about the logo being made uh decided by them, or then you know, and that's what I learned that that summer. So, anyway, that's um that's kind of the story, but that I uh got into you know sales really young. The the the broker thing is even more true today. Oh yeah, you see it all the time, you know. People and you're like, man, I I f I forget because I learned at 18, 19, and I'm like, I forget that these people at 50 still don't know until they like, oh, they're gonna go learn. They go learn today, you know, or tomorrow, I should say. But um, but yeah, that's how it all started. So but because uh earning you know really good money at 17, 18, I was kind of a poster child for Cut Coast, so they had me speaking at everything. So I was speaking on stages 17, 18, 19, 20, and for you know, hundreds of times a year in front of anything from a small team meeting of 25 to like you know a few thousand people at a conference. So it got really used to like, and I started because I was paying coaches, I started coaching people and get paid to coach them. And so you you get what I'm saying, you get immersed in sales and marketing and business and all that stuff. So as I was finishing school and studying marketing and uh had been with the company for years, was you know Hall of Fame member at that point, and um, when I graduated, the region manager was like, Hey, what if you what if when you graduated college you could speak on stages, teach marketing concepts, make residual income, because that's what I really want. I was tired of like selling a set of knives that's gonna last forever, and you're like, thanks. Um never need another one of these. Um and uh he goes, but what if you could speak on stages, make residual income, sell a marketing concept, and still sell knives? Uh and I was like, that doesn't make any sense, but I'd be interested. And he was like, There's this realtor program, and he told me all this realtor program and how the top people in the country, most like 80% of the top people, were on this program, and that was selling cut coat closing gifts, which is like taking cut coat products, engraving them with a name, number, and logo and giving them to your clients, and we'd sell a five-month supply and the realtors give them out. Yeah. So that was kind of where it all started, getting into the realtor world. So I started sponsoring events and I would sponsor how you got into that.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

That is just are you still doing the closing gift stuff today, or are you more concentrated?

SPEAKER_04 11:27

I mean, like if somebody that I've worked with like sends me an email, like I still write orders, but I don't take on new business. Gotcha. I don't market it. Um I have people that I refer most, I stuff out to because I'm impatient with it too. Like, I'll take your order, but if you want me to like help you pick between a pairing knife and a this and you're gonna take an hour, I get like annoyed and it's not like a good place to be in when you're like, I'm not in this business, I just want to write your order or not. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

That's how I feel. So probably shouldn't verbalize that.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

But not before that makes sense. That's how it starts. So I was sponsoring from my own pocket, I was 20, 21, 22, sponsoring probably about a hundred events a year. And I was a member of nine different boards. There were two here back then. Uh everything up through Jacksonville, through Palm Beach, over to Orlando, Lakeland, and I was just every day of the week finding a room or two or three I could speak in front of a room of agents and pitch them this idea for a few minutes. So that's how it all built up. I had a team of eight at one point. We were going all over the state and sponsoring a ton of events. And long story short, my counterpart in Indianapolis, him and I, were talking about some of our frustrations being sponsors in the real estate world, which we could have a whole podcast. But we realized, like, man, there's offices we spent a lot of time, money, and energy on, and we still don't know the top one, two, and three agents. We might know 20 agents in that office, the broker, the receptionist, the receptionist kid's name and dog's name, but I don't know the agent that gets all the trophies at the that's like not there to pick up. Yeah, they're not there to pick up their. I could even like text the broker and get in the meeting tomorrow, but what I can't do is meet the guy that's winning the thing or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Number one, number two. And so my our we were talking about like, well, what would get us in front of the top agents, help us identify the top agents, get us in front of them, but also get in front of them in a capacity that's significant enough that we could actually build a relationship. Yeah. So, you know, I don't really want to meet them at the water cooler in year five and be like, oh my god, you're so and so. This is such a pleasure to meet you, and they're like, sweet, I don't give a shit, I got stuff to do. And I'm like, but wait, I sell this cool thing. Um, so that's where Real Producers started. I said, What if we did events that are for the top agents? Most organizations don't attract top agents. I thought, well, these top agents fly across the country to go to like Tom Ferry, like, why don't they come to something cool in their backyard? And the reason is respectfully to everyone, there's there's not a lot that's cool enough that caters to them, that doesn't have mediocre average agents there too. And so um I wanted to do events. My friend called me back and he was like, Hey, do you think top producing realtors would want to read a magazine that's all about themselves? And I spit my drink off. And that's where it all started because we realized that hey, it might not that the magazine is how we get agents involved, but the events is how we get our sponsors and the relationships built. So we joined the two together. It's franchise now on 135 plus markets, and I've been running mine for nine years in Orlando, four years here, and uh we're rolling.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Yeah, I mean the success of it is probably some driven by realtor egos, right? Competitiveness and but competitiveness and also like it they're marketing their brand always all the time, right? A realtor is really their own brand walking around. And so by you putting them up on that pedestal and saying recognizing their greatness or recognizing their accomplishment accomplishments, right? Like you're helping build their brand, too. But it can't be bought. So why would they not buy into that? Why would they not want to be a part of it?

SPEAKER_04 14:50

Exactly. And the big thing is it can't be bought. Like some people don't like that. They don't they don't agree with a ranking. They don't want we can't be bought. Like we do this across the country. It's not perfect, but this is our rankings. We you can find it as legit as you want. You could protest it like Kanye protests the Grammys. You know, like you know what I mean? Like it it happens. So I mean we get plenty of it.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

So I would imagine you get you know, you do your top 300.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Yeah, we ranked the number 301, or someone's mad we counted this, or we didn't count that, or they didn't log their new construction, or we couldn't see their team, or the team wasn't counted, you know, and none of these data aggregators count teams versus not teams well. Agents aren't all honest, they don't all r do their thing the same, even if they were being honest. So there's all these there's people that split. So like even the people being totally honest, splitting with a big team, they don't want to have a half credit when we look up the team. They also don't want to be compared to a solo agent when you so it's like there's not a way to get what I'm saying. That's it, yeah. It's an aggregator problem. Yeah. And this is all the aggregator, it's not any specific MLS, it's not any specific, it's just kind of a thing across the board in the industry, across you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

When did you start doing the badges? Because I would imagine that really helps you guys take off. Have you been doing the badges since the beginning, or is that something that came later?

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Uh I wouldn't say take off as much as like it's something that came, you know. We started doing it a couple years ago when it spread around the country pretty quickly, but um it it's it doesn't take like the way that you think it takes off is not really what takes off for us. Like our presence and engagement and all that is the same. What's different is the number of people that help make sure we have good data. See the purpose of the badges, you would think, is like, oh, everyone's talking about it, they're all posting about us. No, that well, that's a piece of it, but the real the real behind the badge, behind the curtain is we want agents to reach out if they didn't get our emails and texts. Yeah. We want people to text us to get their ranking. Why? Because when I send you the stuff for the party, you know, next Thursday, I want to make sure you're getting the message. And the only way to know about that before the party just happens and you're mad about it on Facebook is for you to be mad about the badge you didn't get.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Or for you to be like, hey, how come I didn't get this? Yeah. Oh, we sent it to this email. Or for pe so we have to stir up a big buzz so we can scrub our data and also so we can get in contact with our list quickly. So not only is it nice to identify the list, but what's nice is like they text us to get their ranking. Well, I could have an autoresponder. Hell, I could actually all I could actually use variable data and text all of them, hey Steve, you're number 27, you're number 28. But then I wouldn't talk to Steve. So they actually literally talk to us. Like me and my team are monitoring the phone lines for weeks, you know, just to have conversations so we can start a combo. So when Steve texts in to get his number, my team and I are like, What's up, Steve? You're not, hey, your number of this. By the way, really quick, while I'm talking to you, is this the right info? Is this the right email? Is this the right cell phone? Is this the right whatever? Is this data getting to you? Did you get you get what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. And then I can be like, oh, by the way, are you coming to the toast of the top? That's our party on this day. Are you coming to this one? So uh I can start a convo, or let's just say that I'm look- I I like to look in because my team does a lot of it, but I can see all the stuff, and I'll see, let's say Steve's on my list of people I want to do a story about, and I see Steve's talking to our line, I might actually jump in. You guys can't tell the difference, but like my assistant's talking to Steve, and then I actually hop in and I'm like, hey Steve, by the way, like this is Aaron, I want to I want to tell your story, shoot me a text or you get what I'm saying? So we have about 280 conversations in the first like in a few day period. So between two markets where we have 800 agents that are getting ranked, really it's more like um 1,500 because we actually rank the top 1,000 in Orlando and the top 500 in Space Coast. We only our stuff only goes for free to the top 300, but we do give a ranking to basically like the first 200 off the list and the first 500 off the list. They get their badge and their ranking and all that. We can talk about that strategy in a second. But um but so we end up in conversation with 800 plus people in the first uh two weeks of the year. So it's really nice because if I meet with Steve and he's like, so do agents care about this thing? I'm like, I don't know. I talked to 800 of them last two weeks, they're talking to my assistant right now. Like, do they care? You'll see, come to the party. Yeah, watch it on social.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

That's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_04 19:05

You know, and so we know, like, and if someone's like, Oh, can I come check it out? It's like, no, you can you can check it out on Facebook the next day, on Instagram the next day, and you can wish you were there. You can call the agents that are there, you can call the sponsors that are part of it. But am I gonna open the doors to someone that's not actually supporting the thing when all these people are? Hell no.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

You know, that's why I bring a lot of videographers and photographers, so you can see the pictures. Yeah. You know, yeah, and you do. I'm real protective of it. And that's one thing that makes us unique, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Really from stop top to bottom, it's it's professional. The photography is professional, everything's well done. The magazine covers that you guys frame for everyone. I mean, just the way you guys set it up. Yeah, it's nice. When you're there, you're like, first time I went to on the street.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

We have an obligation. Like to me, you know, we serve like there's no membership, right? Like, we don't sell the top 300. So like we have to keep them engaged, and I don't get to pick the 300. They just are who they are. Yeah, yeah. So it's not Aaron's favorite 300, you know? It's the top 300. And so my team's job is to be in touch and communication, understand them enough, speak their language enough, or at least under you know, know what they need and don't need enough to get them to show up at things so that you guys stay happy. Yeah, you know? And um I think that's that's what makes us unique is we're not trying to serve all the agents, we're not trying to serve all we don't have membership, we don't we don't have someone we have to serve. You know, we have to get their attention and get them to show up, and we sell access to the sponsors to come fish in our pond and the promise that we keep the pond stocked.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah, what are some of the challenges when you're selling that access? You know, like I know for like you we had talked it took me years to get on board. But what do you think are some of the challenges?

SPEAKER_04 20:44

I wouldn't really say challenges as much because we have a very like flipped psychology on a lot of it, which is like we run, like I like to think of it more like a private country club, private like without a physical location, which is like we don't chase people down because we don't that's not our style, like it's not the posturing we even want with them. So I would love to have more people we'd love to constantly grow, but we never need to grow. We're always funded for the next three or four years at any given moment. So because we have long-term contracts with our partners, we don't sell small things. So it makes us different. What makes it different is we can actually build off it. So when someone supports us, they know that like we're not gonna go somewhere in six months, we're not gonna suddenly be disappearing. And that we're pooling together, like it goes two ways, right? So, like if Steve's on a two-year deal, I also am on a two-year deal. I have to do work on his behalf and run programming for the top 300 for the next two years. And my team's on contract for it. Right. So that's what makes us different is we're not a board, we're not an industry, we're not volunteers, we're not employees of someone, like we run this thing off contracts, and we're we're good at what we do. So we're contracted to do programming for the top agents by let's say 50 different companies in the city. Um, so I would say that the the hardest thing sometimes is getting. That across to the right people without us being an outside and chasing them down because we don't have the bandwidth to go out there and knock on everyone that could be a part of this and convince them that they should. We also don't have the bandwidth to hold their hand on using it. So one of our biggest problems is let's just say that so and so is really excited, they jump on board, but then they don't plug in, they don't show up, they don't take our phone calls, they don't you get what I'm saying, or their person isn't very good. Like Steve signs up, but he always sends so-and-so, and so-and-so sucks. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really hard. Or so-and-so stands in the corner. It makes my job really hard because I could get all the best agents in the room, and I can't be like, oh, you sure you don't want to use me in the corner the most of the opportunity. So uh that's sometimes I would say the biggest challenge is getting people to use it and show up and communicate. I mean, I have partners who like I'm trying to give them an opportunity and they don't pick up their phone, they don't text back. It's one thing if you're busy, like I I respect that, but I don't get anything back for weeks on end. It's like, all right, dude, for the amount of money they spend with me month after month after month, sometimes it's like offensive that they won't respond to stuff because it's like someday you're gonna hold me accountable to all the money you spent and all and I'm gonna try to hold you accountable to all the times that I was trying to give you an opportunity or a referral. And then I gotta go out there and I'm I'm supposed to go sell the person on like, oh, Steve's great, he's gonna be off, he's really referral. Well, I'm an honest dude, so I can't say, you know, I can say Steve's endorsed by a lot of top agents, let's say, but if he doesn't pick up the phone, I can't say he does. So I think that's my biggest challenge is having and obviously like Steve's been great at picking up the phone just to be clear. Uh but like I get this problem with people that like they want they think they can mail me a check and I'm gonna endorse them. It's like I can give you the access, but I can't endorse you if you're not endorsable. I need to stay out of that combo.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Yeah, honestly. Like I think that's a pretty cool aspect of what you do. Like show like show me the money, but as well. Like why you're a part of you're partnering with me. Show me why you're a good partner. Like let me endorse you, but show me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

It's a two-way street. I I don't like respectfully, like we don't struggle with getting agents engagement. We struggle with getting partners to use it properly. Yeah, we sometimes struggle with getting the schedule, like like Brevard County. One of my biggest challenges is some of these venues just aren't very professional. Yeah, they won't book their schedule weeks in advance, months in advance easily with simple phone calls and emails. They want to just show up and you know, like sit down for lunch instead of like sending an email and get the contract done. And we run a bunch of different markets, so it's difficult. That would I would say is a big challenge. And then when you find a venue that does respond, you're like, should I do the party here forever? You know, like you want to not, but you're like, or should I chase down that place that never responds? So I think that's my uh I joke about, but that's that's probably the bigger challenge. Um also I'd say one more thing old school mindsets. I mean, there are people that like twofold, either they they're stuck in the ways of how they already do things, so they don't like want to try something new, or they're uh there's a they're they don't they might say it this way, but like we threaten the status quo. We change up the status quo, they're like the inner circle, or they're like the known people, or they're the cool people, or they already throw parties, or they already do cool marketing, or they already do cool events. So, like, why would I need to pay this guy to do cool events? I do cool events. It's like that's exactly why they should. Like, we should be partnered with everyone that values cool events because we already do cool events, they don't have to worry about us. Like, if you do really good events, great. Some of them like let us do some of the events. Yeah, yeah. We're gonna do them anyway. Yeah, it's gonna be paid for by all these different people. If you know how to work an event, come to the event, we're gonna get the agents to show up. Like, why compete? Right, I see it. Seems dumb to me. But um, that's I would say the bigger challenge is sometimes we come in a market and they're like, I don't need to pay that, I could do this myself. It's like, yeah, you could, but then you have to do it yourself. Like, aren't you also doing title, mortgages, insurance? Like, we do this full time.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah, it's a built-in platform. All you have to do is just go ahead and just plug in and show up.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

If you want to do something bigger, send a check, you know, like otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

That's what really attracted to me me to it recently, is because you know, I build a team, I'm slowly stepping back from the day to day. My team's kind of taking things over, and I needed to build I needed to have a platform where they could just plug in, like you said, and show up, right? And this did that for us. This is giving us a way to go, hey, we're doing these four parties are on the schedule, you know what I mean? These events, the the the the headshot days, and all that stuff, right? We're gonna plug into all that because we want to be as involved as possible, and we have the team to move it around. So it's not on one person, right you know what I mean? And uh so for me, that's why I loved the platform because it really did give us access to people in an easy way. I didn't have to plan the event, I didn't have to deal with it and they're in the setting.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

People forget like you're not behind a table, you're in a place where we're celebrating that like people forget. This is like the ego size part, but we're really these people are underappreciated, regardless of whether they have egos, they're so underappreciated, it's a thankless job. They're underappreciated in the in what they do and how they do it, and how many people they do it for. And so we're the few people that are honoring them, recognizing them, giving them really good photography, telling their story, framing it. Look, some of these people are gonna be a badass agent for 20, 30, 40 years. You know what? The only thing that's gonna be there when they die and they're cleaning out that apartment or that house or whatever that you know they they end up passing in is the framed article on their wall.

unknown 27:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:14

And you know how I know? I give out a lot of frames, but we were cleaning out my grandma's place and she had my great-grandfather's framed article from his newspaper clipping. And all of a sudden it hit me. I'm like, damn, I've given out a lot of these.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

And I was like, I bet you people are gonna hold on to them or something.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

It's the only thing I took. Yeah. They cleaned this, and she owned a craft gallery. She had so much nice stuff in that in that home. We didn't want like I felt almost bad. I'm like, nobody wants any of the stuff she collected with like fine taste for decades. But what did I want? The framed article. So sometimes I recognize like Scott on this cover may not know it, but this may be something his kids fight over. So, you know, like exaggerating, knock on wood, but like I get it. And um, so it's there's a it's a thankless job. We touch the personal side because we do tell their story. They're not just, hey, you sold a lot. It's like they're talking about their hopes, their goals, their dreams, their kids' names, their backstory, how they got in it, whatever. It gives a little piece of each of their personalities. Yeah. And I think that's what one of the other things that not just makes it work, but makes it unique so people can build real relationships, which is like I see the person behind the deals.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:20

And then we put them in a setting where you're not behind a booth or a table or selling them stuff or pitching something. You're like at an event that we're celebrating them and and you're not there by accident. Oh yeah. They know you're legit.

unknown 28:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

You didn't, you know, I was joked, they didn't bring bagels or donuts. They're the best of the best. So you can meet them like they're a peer, or you're both part of this club, yeah. Instead of like at a happy hour, you're like, let me sell you some shit. I'm a vendor. Let me tell you, you know, let me tell you about my company.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

I think you talk about um, you know, these top agents aren't decorated or aren't honored enough, whatever. But I don't I don't think anybody talks about like how passionate you are about what you do. I mean, here you're talking here like you're just you're fired up, dude. I mean, look, I've been a vendor. I think that's one of the key to your success and how good real producers is. You're very passionate about it. And uh probably not a lot of people thank you enough.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

I I come from no thank you. I come from outside sales. Like I, you know, made my money as selling kitchen eyes to people's homes for years. So I get like it might not sound the same, and there might be a lot more complexity and emotions, but I've sat in more kitchens than most of the agents that rank in my list.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

In in Orlando, at least, maybe not in Space Coast, but I've been in any of the neighborhoods they could name, any side of town, any zip code, except for the ones that are newly developed, like I may be a little limited in Lake Nona because it wasn't as built up. But uh, but you name a nice neighborhood. I was once on a, you know, I didn't name a nice neighborhood. I was once meeting with an agent, she was talking about closing guests, and she was like, Oh, well, my clients, but and I was like, Your clients, like, where do you what do you do that mean? She's like, Well, my clients are kind of particular. And I was like, Where do your clients live? And she named a neighborhood. And I said, Okay, where do you think I sell? And she's like, I don't, I said, name a street. She goes, Well, I was like, name a street in the neighborhood. And she names it, and we're like, we're gonna put it in my database, we're gonna see if I have any clients, we're gonna see how many live on that street. And she named a street. We pulled it up, there were like three Cutco clients on that street. And I and so that's when we started to realize like there's a lot of overlap. Yeah, so a lot of my passion comes from like I trained outside salespeople, so it might not be real estate, but essentially this is an adult version, a professional version. When I went into bold at Kelly Williams, I realized like they're doing the same training that I taught at Cutco. In a lot, like 90% of it is exactly the same. I again, like I don't want to be like overlook contract side of real estate, but I'm talking like the getting an appointment, getting a referral, getting in the door, that side of the talk. The first half of it, yeah, and the building the business because you know I had to get in enough kitchens to make a lot of people. Well, that's the hardest part for people.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Everybody can figure out the contract side. Yeah, exactly. That's the easy. Yeah, you can you can learn that part and the other ones the ones that agents don't do. The other one is almost it's it's very difficult to train, right? It's it's hard to change your behavior that the you've been a certain way for 30, 40 years of your life, and now you're in this sales training, all of a sudden you're gonna walk out of there a different person. Yeah, so it's it's hard to and and real estate has all these options.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

Like you can buy Zillow, you can buy like we can we don't have leads we can buy at Cutco. I have to get your name and number written down by somebody. Yeah. And I have to call you and get in your kitchen. Or I don't get an appointment. And so if I want to eat or if I want to, you know, make six figures every year, I need to get in a lot of kitchens. Yeah. And I need to get a lot of names and numbers from people. So I need to get in with someone like Steve and get him to write down like 20, 30, 40, 50 people from his cell phone and unload it because he wants to help me out. And I have to be really damn good, like respectfully, like I have to be good at sales and interpersonal communications to have a enough connection where he's like, I like this kid, I believe in this kid, I want to help this kid. Hell yeah, I'll give him all my number, call my friends. And that's you know, a different skill set. So the reason I say I'm passionate about it is I I recognize a lot of these agents aren't really trained in sales. They weren't trained at a young age, and they're basically stuck into a very similar role that also has higher emotions and longer sales cycles and all these things that make it even more complicated. But there's a respect for like the what an agent has to do.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

You know, and then the flip of it is um I've been a vendor. Like I know what it took, and I also know how trained in sales I was. So I know that if I was like really good on the phones and getting my foot in the door, and it took me years to get into this office over here or that office over here, I'm like, yeah, I'm damn sure know this person who's showing up with cookies and is not that you know what I'm saying? Like some of these business development people just lack that skill set. And um so I have a passion for the two kind of combined.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

And I've worn both hats to some extent. Like I I've never been either completely, but that's why I'm in a unique role, is that you know, I understand the vendor is a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

I kind of tell you, I call you the the ultimate connector. You know what I mean? Like you're probably of anybody I've met and in the real estate community, probably the biggest connector I've met. You know, where you're you're really connecting people together. You know? Like you do a really good job of that. Like and it's you're passionate about it. Sure. And so that that's where it starts and that's why you're good at it. You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:07

I mean it I believe in it. You know, I think it I think it matters. And I think we live in a world that's we have more options to be connected. And we yes, like we have more con we're more connected, but we're less connected than ever before. We have all this connectivity, but we're we're behind a phone, we're not really connected, we're not really connecting, we're not noticing the person next to us, you know, we're but we're connected to 6,000 of them. And if we make two clicks, and if I want to pitch about something, I can get in front of hundreds and thousands of people. But if I want to connect with someone on a real level and have them feel it, that doesn't happen that often.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Yeah. So I got a question for you, man. So you interview a ton of realtors, you know, for your magazine that you have for many years in Orlando and Space Coast. What do you think? And obviously the ones you're you're interviewing are the top, you know, the top agents or the people breaking in or showing real promise or whatever. Um what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the ones that do really r well in real estate and the ones that struggle?

SPEAKER_04 34:05

Um I would say, I mean, if we boil it down to one thing, it's my friend Craig De Lahoy always says that every business owner is in two businesses. They're in the lead gen business and whatever they do. So what do I mean by that? If you're a doctor, you might be in the business of being a doctor and practicing, you might be a dentist, you might be a home builder, you might be an insurance person. But first and foremost, you're in the lead gen business because you can be as good at the practice practitioner as you want to be if you don't have leads and people to do it for, it's really irrelevant. And so the best people, in my opinion, see the business. I mean, they don't all see it that way, but they all treat it that way. Which is like if they aren't if they don't see this as they're in the lead generation business, then they are either out of business quickly or they are vulnerable to being out of business quickly, or they are vulnerable to being very compressed by the business when it's not easy. So what that means is that when the business is really easy and people are all calling you and they all want to move and everyone wants to buy, and there's all these people in the market, that like you might be great with people and you might re- you might be really professional and you might be make cutesy marketing. But to me, uh a lot of agents survive on the same skill set that makes them a good bartender or a good waiter or waitress. They're good at service or or deep decent with people, but they don't have the sales and negotiation skills, they don't have the personal development skills to really push it when shit gets hard. And when the market gets tougher, they're not doing enough lead generation activity to make up for it. Whereas like I I was went to post a picture the other day and it's me and I'm 18 years old sitting and I look young as shit. And I'm sitting with a phone at a phone on my ear, and I was like, I've been, you know, eating 100 calls for breakfast since I was this young. You know, and not that every day I make, but like I'll sit down and make 300 calls if I have to. I'll sit down and send, you know, there's some evenings where if I'm still going at it, like I pre-schedule 120 text messages for the next day. So if you ever get a message from me at like nine or nine a.m. and I don't respond for three hours, I probably sent that yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

You know? And I probably sent a hundred of them. And they probably were to you. Like it was not like I sent, like, I actually went through like something. Like maybe I went through every single one of my partners and I had different questions. And I wrote the ones for Steve and they hit tomorrow and they hit, you know, so like I'm not afraid to do a hell of a lot more work than the average person. And so I recognize that the best agents, they know that the lead generation activity matters, and they're not afraid to really outwork people. The rest of them just want to be involved. It's like that chicken and the uh the chicken and the egg thing, or you ever know what's in the breakfast? Bacon and the bacon. I was just talking to and the chickens commit that you know the chicken's involved, the pig died for it. That's the difference. That's the difference. So no, seriously, the the market gets tougher, the phone just rings less.

SPEAKER_05 36:40

Yeah. Honestly, I went to lunch with a top agent here in Brevard, and I posed a similar question to them, and that's they almost the money didn't really matter. It was that I'm gonna outwork the next person. That's what really makes them go. And that I mean, you can tell, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

But yeah, if you focus on the business, if you focus on like what Aaron's talking about, the lead gen and really concentrating on how you're gonna make your phone ring, the money's gonna come. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_05 37:04

Well, I think and you were like, uh, I'll outwork the next person. Like, that's your deal. Like, I'm going to outwork you, I will do better. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:11

And I think also like having the right work ethic, the right mindset, the right integrity, the right person, like those things also matter. Because it's people that are work really hard, but they're sketchy as fuck. Excuse me. They do shady shit and it comes back. You're really talking about service. Or they're not likable. Like you could just not be likable or just be socially awkward. There's all these things that like I think if you're just a good person, you're cool, and you like keep your core value. And look, like I might piss somebody off. I'm very willing to be like blunt and speak my mind. I'm much more willing to tell you I don't think this is working and have you be mad at me about it than you know, uh tiptoe around it just so you could stay my friend. I'd rather you hate on me for being real honest. And because of that, for me, I know that reputation will precede you. So you're either going to deliver results or you won't. It won't get shaded by whether or not someone likes you. So to me, I've learned that my role isn't to be liked by everybody, it's to run my thing well. It's it's almost to be respected. So to me, it's like I don't even mind if my partner's like, well, he's kind of an asshole, but I like his program. That's cool with me. I'd much rather that than you really like me, but be like, I like him. So that's why I do this. I want you to do this because it's really damn valuable. And sometimes you got to step on some toes to run a group for the top 300 people and all the advertisers. Sometimes if you got 50 advertisers, 17 of them are the same thing, or you know, six of them are insurance and ten of them are title, and ten of them, you know, like you're gonna step on someone's toes. And I think the reason it works well is I've got a big heart and good, you know, core values and world compass, but I'm not afraid to step on someone's toes because I know who I serve and I know how to do it and I don't compromise, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

I I was talking to another agency yesterday that they're they're just getting started with Brightway, so they're pretty green, but he's built a team pretty quick, and you know, he was just kind of asking me, you know, like what our differentiator was, you know. Yeah. And I said, I don't I don't wake up every day thinking about what insurance I'm going to sell. I wake up every day saying, How am I gonna make the phone ring? Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? And so that goes just like that's what I think of every day. And then in that street, right too.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Correct. It's not like like there's two, you know, you get a little Wall Street guy. You know what I'm saying? When you get the two together, the rest takes care of itself. People start referring you, they start talking about you because you're a good dude and you you know you handle your shit.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

And now there's some days where I feel like, man, we've we've gen we generate so much business here that we couldn't stop the train if we freaking wanted to now. Like with the network we've built and the relationships we built, I mean they just feed us constantly. I love it. And so I love what you were saying. Like that you know it goes to any business. Like you're talking about the doctor or whatever. Like it's so true in any business. Yeah, if your phone doesn't ring rather than you're not gonna do it. I just think a lot of businesses forget that.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Why is John Morgan the top law firm in the claim? Yeah. He's you know, he's done he's outmarketed everyone. The phone rings more than anyone else's, and because of it, he's bigger. Is it because he's the best attorney? I have no clue if he's the best attorney. I'll say this is gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

This is super unpopular in my industry, but I actually am a big fan of John Morgan. That guy is absolutely he's a beast, dude. Like you were saying, from a marketing perspective, you gotta respect him. You got to. You know? Plus he's our pot daddy, so you gotta love that, man. I actually follow him online, dude. He's freaking hilarious, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 40:31

He's an animal. Yeah. Yeah, he he gets after it. But else we gotta go with this one.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Oh man, so let's let's do a deeper dive into Ludin, man.

SPEAKER_04 40:41

So I mean, where are you gonna go?

SPEAKER_00 40:42

I mean, every day you're working up and you're grinding, dude. And not everybody's got that. You were talking about you're gonna outwork everybody, you're gonna outwork the next guy, right? Like, where does that come from at your core? Like, what drives you? What is like making you get up every day and focus on doing that? Like, where does that come from?

SPEAKER_04 40:58

Probably trial to trauma. No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

I'm just joking.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Uh some people it is, right? No, I I don't I don't know. No, like I just I probably adulthood trauma, actually, if we're being honest about it. Uh I recognize that life is short, man. You're like, I'm a lot of custom listeners, is it gonna offend it's gonna be like you're gonna fucking die someday.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:18

And uh, you know, like I 2020, you know, I were in this event with a friend of mine. We sold a hundred something agents. I went into this room, my friend and I b broke down this uh social media direct marketing training for agents. We had we had been doing our normal, like I run a mastermind every month for agents, and we used to get 200 plus agents pre-COVID in a room, you know, like two, three hundred in a room every single month, and we'd be teaching. And so we had these agents talking about social media, and my friend and I were like plugging a few answers in, and it went so well, people were like, damn, you should teach on this. So we sold a class, we sold a hundred people, like a hundred dollar plus ticket, and we did this big class, and it sold out, it went awesome. I was like, we should do more of these. And that night I flew out to Colorado, I went to uh uh basically a skiing trip for my brother. It was about to my brother was getting married. I went out to ski, they had like a ski trip for all his friends instead of a bachelor party. I went into the Airbnb, I checked in, went to sleep, and I woke up 16 days later in a hospital. And uh I couldn't tell you the story, I couldn't tell you exactly why I fell, how I fell, altitude, sleepwalking, slipped, who knows? But I fell out on the stairs, I hit my head, brain injury, broke my wrist in two places, and um based don't remember 16 days of that experience. And I woke up and essentially during that time period, um my friends, one of my friends started to go fund me, raised fifty-four thousand dollars in two days from the real estate world. Again, I didn't even know this happened. And so they airlifted me back to floor. Basically, I got woken up, not woken up, but I got taken off of like whatever sedatives they had me on because they had to fly me out the next day, and my first memory is 16 days later. So you can imagine when you wake up in a hospital and you don't rem and the last thing you remember is going to sleep in a bed, and now they're telling you that your wrist is broken in two places, your brain's bleeding, you have permanent brain damage, you might never talk or walk, and they don't they won't give you your phone, they won't let you do, you know, and uh you get what I'm saying. Like it's a pretty traumatic and weird experience. And um yeah, it kind of wakes you up really quickly when they tell you you almost died, especially when it's in some frivolous way. It's not like I was like skiing and fell, or you know what I'm saying? Like there's certain things where you don't think you're gonna have, but like when you're driving a car, if you get hit, you're like, okay, I was driving a car. Yeah, you know, like I was asleep in a bed. Like you can't feel safer, you know. So um I would say that a lot of what drives me is realizing, I mean, I've been driven before this, obviously, but like realizing that life is short and some of us are gonna die in some frivolous way that's probably not gonna be the day you expected, the day you planned on. And so being kind of slapped in the face by that, uh, to me, I try to approach every day recognizing that like I gotta live like it might be my last day. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I can't control what's gonna happen tomorrow. I can't control what's gonna happen in the future, I can only control how I show up today. So even this conversation. Right here, I could give you some lame ass answers and sit back and you could just kind of go through the motions. Or I could like speak in a way that if I walked out in the parking lot, got hit by a truck, you and you played this back, you'd be like, damn, he said some shit, you know, and you felt something before I walked out that door, and that was the last impact I left. So I just believe, like to everyone watching that like you never know when the last chance you're gonna have to make an impact on the world, like when your curtain call is gonna be. And I just think that you gotta freaking show up knowing that I just got the chills, you know. You don't know. We're glad you're here. That's a great message. That's that's where the passion comes from.

SPEAKER_05 44:32

He turned he turned it up real quick, didn't he? Like, let's go. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

I mean, you told me you wanted something. So people have to be reminded of that.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

They just go into the motions every single day and like they just forget about like live life. Like, I mean, we could go.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

So what do you think like that? Do you ever get mad about it? Do you ever get like frustrated? Go back here.

SPEAKER_04 44:51

Do I get mad? Yeah, when you smash your frontal lobe, you get mad about a lot of shit. But I gotta keep that to myself sometimes because I learned that like it comes off so verbally aggressive, I can't always share like my thoughts because they're unfiltered. And I would take it back. Like if I was mad at Steve and he's my friend, like I like Steve, we gotta I could be like Steve. This is what you have, you know, like and and I could take it back, but other people don't receive it well. So I had to learn, you know, when I when you first um so I found out when you first hit your head, I I knew I was screwed up at like for a bit, but I didn't know it takes 18 months for the brain to swelling to come down. So I learned this like two years ago that it was 18 months. So the first year, like the first few years, I assumed that like I just was an angry dude and some other things. It wasn't until I was like a couple years ago I was talking to a doctor and I said, Well, the first six months, or she goes, six months, it takes eighteen. I was like, Well, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_05 45:41

You know, thinking back to all these times.

SPEAKER_04 45:44

You're like, I wish somebody told me that sooner. Man, you're a real asshole, you know that? Here's the other thing, like it's hard when like I run two full-time businesses and it's it's only me, my VAs, like I have, you know, I have help like that helps me with events thing, but like there's not a whole giant staff doing all this stuff. And so I juggle a lot in general. And so even just keeping the whole thing running, a lot of people don't recognize like what that took when like I smashed my freaking head and wasn't sure my brain would work, and I couldn't pick who was going on the next cover. I had to ask other people to help me pick. And I didn't know if I'd be able to run the thing. So like while doing that, my dog was dying. I was like not sure if my you know, my wrist was broken. COVID, COVID, like just to tell the story even better, uh, I checked out of the hospital. So I got flown back to I got airlifted back to Florida. Uh I was in the hospital for four days. I was like doing and they had me uh I was like looking around me and everyone was like in their 80s and like you know, like diapers and helmets, and I was like, I don't think I'm that screwed up. You know, like I'm screwed up and not that screwed up. And they took took me to physical therapy and this lady gave me a nerf soccer ball and told me to dribble it. And I was like, ma'am, I I went to soccer. Like I played, like I was state champion in high school. Like I played college soccer, you know, like yeah, like and I was sort of juggling, she was like, slowing me down. She's like, slow down. So when we were throwing the ball and the physical therapist was dropping it more than I was, I was like, I don't think this is right for me, but I need to go home. My dog's like home dying. So anyway, I checked out of the hospital and um COVID hit two weeks later. So I never actually went through, like I checked out to go to a recovery program at UCF. That thing got canceled because of COVID. I checked out, I went home and basically semi-slept it off and went back to work. So like I run a group in Orlando, like I said, in Orlando, Real Producers was you know thriving, and it was like if I don't save it, it's gonna die. And so I went home and buckled down and did the best I could virtually, and we transitioned to learning how to do virtual events and connecting people through Zoom. Like we we ran 200 person events where we threw them into Zoom rooms and had them talking to each other, all sorts of crazy things. And so I just think what drives me is just like man, relenting, like like I'm I'm a competitor, man. I just and and I've been through a lot of shit, you know. Like I'm and I'm like maybe five six on a good day. Like I've always been a tiny one. So and I played sports. My brother's almost a foot taller than me here. So like I grew up with a brother two years older that you know I can that can block every shot I take on the basketball court. You know, it can shoot over me every time. I can't block his shot. So I have to figure out how to be scrappy enough. Exactly. You know, I'm I'm a five-five, five, six defender, you know, and in in soccer, that doesn't always work well when you got six foot one forward. So like you know what I'm saying? So I just I think a lot of it comes from just being competitive and always being the underdog, like literally, you know, literally physically. Like I've been the little one, the underdog, but I gotta outsmart the people I play against. Nothing wrong with underdog. I think it's the same thing in in I see business like a sport. Like I want to outstrategize everybody and outwork them.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Well you're you're sitting here with two of probably the best insurance agents in the county right here. Um what drives you guys? Like, what do you think sets you apart and why are you guys so damn successful? Good.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Well, I'm just saying I I feel you because I've always been an athlete. I mean, I was an athlete too, and I think just always being competitive. Like I I I'm always talking about my numbers, I'm always asking where I'm at. Like that's just it doesn't go away. And just the next I'm and I don't have boundaries. I don't have boundaries. So I'm working day and night, whether that's texting um referral sources and the weekends or whatever, it doesn't bother me. And it that's the thing. Like I just don't and I come from my husband's really competitive, my daughter's really competitive, it's just like integrated in us, so I I I can't shut it down.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Yeah, I'm I'm a bit on the opposite end of the spectrum there because growing up, you know, I did competitive sports. I actually grew up competitively surfing, and I would get I would feel bad if I beat somebody.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Oh, yeah, no. So I was always on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_05 49:35

Yeah, no, that was just always my thing. I never liked beating anybody, but I I think I learned I don't know, eight years into this thing myself. Because going through it, I was going through the motions. Anyways, the last couple years I realized I was good at talking with people. I realized I was good at making problems go away or making somebody call mad and make them happy. I was good at talking with people, and that in turn led people to be comfortable with me. I can make people feel comfortable with me. And that turned out to being a successful business because we're the similar as realtors where um we are our own business. So like every call is a marketing call for me. Right. That's how I treat it, and yeah, people like to talk to me, I guess. You're a likable guy. I'm likable and I I feel like I'm kind of funny. So even he's been doing great. But as far as like beating somebody, no.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

I don't even think it's about it's just me. Like I'm in competition with myself. I'm a quiet killer, man.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

I'm a freaking assassin. I'm a I'm competitive as hell, dude. You are, yeah. Your whole family is. I try to stay as humble as possible about it all. But there's no doubt, man, like I'm competitive as hell. I don't want any of my competitors to have a leg up on me. I don't want any of them winning. You know what I mean? We can tell. Like, I uh it definitely is what drives me, is just my competitiveness. And I think that comes from being like a younger brother. Yeah. You know, like you were saying, do get my ass.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

I'm always like Steve, do you want to do the smaller insurance sponsorship for this next one?

SPEAKER_00 51:04

I'm just kidding. No, yeah. He's like, You sure you don't want to do the smaller one?

SPEAKER_01 51:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Let them take let them take the top dog spot this year.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

Steve doesn't half ass anything. No, he does not.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

No, we're like I always say when we're in, we're all in. We're not gonna do it. That's why we've been talking about the Orlando stuff, right? And it's it's one of the reasons like I haven't pulled the trigger is because I don't think we're gonna be all in, and I'm not gonna do it unless I know we are gonna be all in.

SPEAKER_03 51:28

We don't we don't want you guys if you're not all in respectfully. Yeah, it's perfect. I mean that uh best way.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

I didn't know that was even an option.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

Well we'll talk about that not on a podcast, maybe. I mean we could talk about it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

No, I mean I mean for me it's like it's an investment, right? It's a contract, it's a long term, it's a long-term commitment, like you were talking earlier, right? And so long, it's all and for me, and for me, it's like I want to do it, but my team's got to buy in.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

I'll buy I got a girl going into college. I need more things to do.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

All right, well, we'll talk further about it. I mean, that's why I'm bringing it up. Yeah, there we go. These are how deals are done here, you know. That's how we do it. Live.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

So there's a golf tournament, and then I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Next. What are your most favorite books that have changed Aaron and changed?

SPEAKER_05 52:17

750 books.

SPEAKER_04 52:18

I couldn't start, but I went I used to do so years ago, I did this 50 book challenge. There was this 50 book challenge that my friend had spoken about at a conference, and I was like, man, that's pretty cool. I think I'm gonna do it. And I had no clue what it would take to read 50 books in a year. I didn't know if it was possible to read 50 books in a year. In fact, I actually thought it was impossible to read 50 books in a year, but I was like, I'm gonna freaking try. So at the time, because I didn't know, that just meant that like any extra time I had, I had to like read a book. You know, like I didn't know. I didn't know. So like I started getting kind of addicted. Like I could listen to music, but I could just read this freaking book. And I ended up reading 63 books that year, I think. Wow. And jeez. So I just kept doing it and kept doing it. And it was seven, eight years in a row that I did it. In fact, the year that I had the brain injury was the year I wasn't gonna do it, or you can imagine why. And um, it was like May, and I was like, you know, it'd be cool if I still fucking did this. And I did it from May till the end of the year. I hit 50. And honestly, I still credit like some of them I lit I had to listen because like something like is was not right. Like I screwed up the nerves in my right eye, so like sometimes reading and even just looking at things that people don't realize. I have like massive nerve damage in my face from slamming my head. Yeah, and um, you know, and it screws me like I'm on camera and on stage, but like it bothers the hell out of me. Like the photographer, I book, like, pops the camera, and I can't look at just the camera in one, you know, and being an athlete my whole life. Like the other day I played pickleball, and it's like they don't realize how athletic I have to be just to play the pickleball because I don't see the ball till it's right here. I see two balls for a bit, I can't track it. And it's like so everything I'm doing is done, like you know, anyway. Maybe that'll get fixed, I don't know. But um but all I'm saying is um reading all the books, like I couldn't physically read them all that year, so I've got notes. So I actually wrote all the notes from the book, like start to finish, on my phone, and I posted them. So you could actually find like all 50 books and all of the notes I wrote from all the 50 books in case you were like, and if you just wanted like Aaron's cliff notes, you could click you could click the hashtag I didn't know what else to write on social. I my brain wasn't working right, so I'm like, I'm gonna keep so a lot I kept all the notes of all my books for eight years. And um and what's crazy is you know I decided to take a year or so off because I thought like, hey, maybe my brain needs a time, you know, like maybe I'll see how I do. And now I'm like, it's been a handful of years, maybe five years of not doing it. I'm like, man, why did I stop? I you know, like there's no reason to stop. So if you're wondering about like, is it ever too many books? No, the answer is probably no. Um I think challenging yourself to spend your time wiser and fill your mind with inspiration. So Darren Hardy says, like, literally litter your mind with inspiration, he says. So I'm a big believer that like you have to wake up early and litter your mind with inspiration. Uh otherwise it gets filled with other people's bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Yeah, when are you listening? Like, when do you have time to listen?

SPEAKER_04 54:59

In the morning. You early wake up. I mean, I spend 95% of my time by myself, so I have plenty of time to listen, to be honest. Like when I'm not talking or on the phone, uh I've I can listen, you know. So I get up fairly early usually. Like when I first hit my head, it took me a while to get back early. But um I'm up early and I'm listening, I'm riding a bike, I'm in a sauna, I'm doing something, but I'm like filling my mind. So by the time it's time to jump on the phones, you know, if I'm up at six or seven or eight, like I'm by the time that eight or nine o'clock roll around, like I'm in the zone, I'm warmed up, I'm not I'm not playing around. And if I ever am up late where I'm not in the zone at 8 a.m., it's probably because I scheduled 200 messages to start at nine, and I'm gonna start a little later, but they're gonna look like I work twice as hard, you know? That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Yeah. So that's just yeah, that's just my style. I need to get into the audiobooks. Like, I listen to a lot in my car, but I don't listen to audiobooks, I listen to podcasts. Yeah. And so like I have my like three insurance podcasts that I listen to every week. You know, I I do the Joe Rogan every now and then and some other sports podcasts.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

I used to think it was weird because I couldn't quantify it. Not like I'm like in a contest, but I'd be like, it's cool to read 50 books. It's like I listen to 50 podcasts this year, sounds shitty. So I not that I like need to impress anybody, but just to me that was like what drove it originally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

But I think you can just learn a lot by constantly like instead of listening to music, you know, I always tell people, listen to a podcast in the car or listen to something. Like learn as you're driving around. You got all that free time while you're driving around, use it.

SPEAKER_04 56:24

Yeah, I think it um I would agree, but I also think it depends on what type of music you're listening to and what type of energy and what type of state it's putting you in. That's true. But I think a lot of people listen to shitty music that fills their mind with shitty things. But like some people, they need they need some rhythm and beat that makes them happy and they're moving and whatever, and they need to like tap into the phone.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

Like, we'll have a big week at the office, or I'll leave here super energized or something, dude. And Snoop Dogg might come on. I don't know. Yeah, some people you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:48

And that's cool. You know, if that gets you, if that gets you pumped up, yeah, yeah. You know, but it's it's the people that are listening to the like like F the World or Let Me Slip My Wrist or that kind of stuff, or screaming at my mom was mean or whatever. Those people probably don't need to listen to as much of that.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

You're right.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

What else? What else we got, man?

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Where do you see real producers going over the next few? Like, what's the vision for it?

SPEAKER_04 57:10

I mean, it's growing. Uh luckily I don't run it. I don't I don't have to manage, you know, spreading rail producers around the country. Um we're fortunate to have a really good team and really good leadership, and so um I'm I'm not in a leadership role because I I don't like managing people. So uh I I'm I'm more like I like to pioneer stuff and then teach people how to how we duplicate it, and I like to run more than myself where I can get my hands dirty. So I see like we own the rights to Broward rail producers, plan on relaunching that. Uh a few other markets, maybe take over any in Florida that ever uh if there's ever a market in Florida that transitions at some point and my team's ready and staffed to do it, the opportunity presents itself, we're very ready to run. I think that we know um not just this market, but our franchise system and how to run it properly. Like we know how to drive the spaceship, if you will. Um, and you could put us in any market, and I I firmly believe that my team knows exactly how to get to know the market, figure out who the people are, connect with them, run events that people will show up at, and that type of thing. So I think it's pretty rinse and repeat. So for us, it's just running our thing well, adding layers and trying new things um that have been tested and proven in other markets. I don't just like randomly try something, but we're doing things like we have a builder summit that we've been doing in Indianapolis for three years. We're doing for the first time in Orlando. Uh, we're doing a golf tournament. We've done them for years in Tampa and other markets. So um if it goes really well, we'll probably do it in Space Coast. I think someday we'll do an awards gal in Space Coast like we do in Orlando. I just I think we figured finally figured out how to get everyone awarded without them fighting each other. So there's things like that that I think um roll out over time. But I think it's really just learning how to launch and run more of them in more places effectively, you know, and rinse and repeat and then staff it better so I'm not the only one able to deliver the stuff because I have a good staff, but I'd really like to have more people that like you'd feel just as comfortable having on this podcast or running the thing because I really think that um had a few things been different, my team and I could have run or helped, you know, the statewide, region wide different areas. So um it's really just being ready to grow our you know franchise group and help others.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Awesome, man. Well, I think we're ready to wrap up, dude. Love it. I really appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Thank you for your friendship and your partnership and all that.

SPEAKER_01 59:27

So thank you guys. Nice to appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 59:30

It's fun. When's the next event?

SPEAKER_04 59:33

Coming up next. Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Yeah, next Thursday. If you got the invite, you're invited. If you didn't, don't show up, please.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

All right, man. Thank you guys. That's a wrap for this episode of the Studio 321 Podcast, powered by Brightway, the Steve Trout Agency. We can't thank you enough for being part of our journey. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with a friend. Until next time, 321, we're out.