Get ready for a fire-hose of valuable information in my conversation with Rob Dipiero. Rob opens up about his journey from being a realtor to stepping into a leadership role at Exit Realty. His entrepreneurial spirit is so inspiring, and his insights on navigating the housing and labor shortages in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are insightful.
We talk about real estate market's disruptors, the importance of skilled agents, personal success, wellbeing, mentorship, discipline, goals and more. Rob and I challenge common notions in real estate, share strategies for success, and I cannot wait for you to hear this week's episode!
I'm your host, Micaiah Gosman and The MGR Podcast is where I talk with Real people, about real money and real estate. To connect with me you can visit my Website or follow me on Instagram or Facebook
Get ready for a fire-hose of valuable information in my conversation with Rob Dipiero. Rob opens up about his journey from being a realtor to stepping into a leadership role at Exit Realty. His entrepreneurial spirit is so inspiring, and his insights on navigating the housing and labor shortages in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are insightful.
We talk about real estate market's disruptors, the importance of skilled agents, personal success, wellbeing, mentorship, discipline, goals and more. Rob and I challenge common notions in real estate, share strategies for success, and I cannot wait for you to hear this week's episode!
I'm your host, Micaiah Gosman and The MGR Podcast is where I talk with Real people, about real money and real estate. To connect with me you can visit my Website or follow me on Instagram or Facebook
Hey and welcome back to the MGR podcast, where we talk with real people about real money and real estate. I'm your host, makai Gosman, and we got an exciting episode planned for you today. We got Rob DePiro from St John here with us. He's going to be chatting with us a little bit literally everything. We're going to be talking about AI, we're going to be talking about real estate, we're going to be talking about relationships, lead generation, everything. So we got a fun episode packed and planned and excited. We're just excited. We're excited, so we're going to get right into it. Rob man, how's it going today? Everything's going great. Man, you're having me on. Oh yeah, I know, my pleasure, my pleasure, all right. So we're going to get right into it. Tell the people about who you are, where you're from, where you started and just what you're doing now.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:So, I'm Rob DePiro. I'm the general manager of Exit Realty Specialists for our brokerages here in St John and in Halifax. I kind of grew up around everywhere. My father was in the military. I was born and raised in Toronto, so I guess, born in Toronto Well, I actually grew up in Oramuck, though so not far from here, so I know lots of people in Fredericton Kind of moved around as an adult as well. I was kind of all over Canada and settled in St John in Brunswick.
Rob:I started real estate in 2016. I started as a salesperson, as a realtor, and was really really fortunate to have had some really success, really because I had a lot of good people that were really holding my feet to the fire and helping me. And so in 2020, I transitioned from still selling real estate, but more to the brokerage side of things, more to the leadership side of things. I really thought it was the right time to kind of start giving back, and I've always been really passionate about that and just opened up a whole world of things that I never even knew existed.
Rob:And here I am now.
Micaiah:Yeah, that's awesome. So you married, you got a wife, you got some kids. That must be busy. How are you finding that? I like it busy.
Rob:I like it busy, like what else am I going to do? Just sit around and get fat.
Micaiah:Well, it's funny. It's funny I mean, we've been chatting a little bit just here before we started and everything. There's a couple of different kinds of people. There's people that, like you know, they're like, oh, they're like, oh, it's busy, busy, always kind of complaining. And then there's people that like they're like, oh, it's, you know it's slow, but you like, just in the past couple of minutes, like we've been chatting, and every time we've talked about like life being busy and stuff you just been, you just almost get filled with like, just like excitement and you've just been like you can tell that like being busy, being productive, being, you know, effective, and you know just staying busy like it kind of it energizes you a little bit, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Rob:Well, it's fun to do all these things, right, like I think a lot of times too, a lot of people just kind of tell you that you should take time and you should do all these things, and certain people are wired different ways, obviously. But it's fun to be busy, it's fun to be doing all these things and time with family and time with business, and I mean like you said, you're an entrepreneur and anybody that's like listening that is an entrepreneur.
Micaiah:Or maybe people that are like listening, that are just like sitting at home and they're just like man. Why do I have these desires to do all these things but like I'm not doing them? You know, like could be a. It could be a good indication that maybe you're in a closet entrepreneur, maybe, and you just haven't haven't cracked out your shell yet and like I, I know that I was at that point, one at one point, where I was like I had all these ideas. I had no idea how to do them and I was always kind of told, like you shouldn't do them or I just, like you know, focus on one thing. But then, until I kind of cracked it on my shell a little bit and then started taking risks, started doing more things, I was like man, like this energizes me, it feels good, fulfills you, yeah, and you can help more people and it's just like it's awesome. It's awesome.
Micaiah:But so tell me a little bit about. So you're with Exit Realty specialists in St John, which is awesome. I know you enjoyed there and you've got a great team. I've worked with a lot of guys and gals there and you know you got a great team there. So tell me what you're doing now. You've just taken on like a new kind of leadership position. So tell me a little bit about that and what you're, what you're kind of, your whole day to day is.
Rob:I guess, like this industry, this business is just full of opportunity. Yeah, it's crazy how many opportunities and I would have never guessed that I've been doing these things when I first started. But yeah, we just we had an opportunity to build something very meaningful in Halifax. There's a lot of other brokerages there right now, so we're now we're looking forward to partnering with them. Just go in and help people run their businesses and help people build something meaningful for them and their family. So started brokerage there. We're starting from the ground up. Something special, but it's starting from the ground up too. You know, it's a different energy. It's a completely different energy. Everything's fresh. You're always trying to figure things out. So, yeah, we just launched that, I guess earlier this week. It's been a long time in the coming and we're excited for that. That's awesome.
Micaiah:Yeah, do you have like a goal for 2024 of like where you want to see that brokerage, like at Halifax, or how many agents you want to have, or like what's the 2024? Are you able?
Rob:to tell me. Definitely, I can definitely tell you. So I like to see, go to 40 agents and go, I'll see 40. That's probably even just being a little conservative, I think, but 40 good agents doing business. So I say 40 doing at least 75 minimum in GCI. So it's good to have 40, but we want them doing business. And you know huge opportunity, especially with what we do, to kind of bring people either into the business and transition.
Micaiah:Now are you seeing? I mean here in New Brunswick I know, and especially like in the Fredericks area, we're seeing a lot of like new realtors and stuff like get into it over the past couple of years. Now I don't really follow the Nova Scotia market as closely, but is it kind of a similar vibe over there or similar?
Rob:thing happening. I think the same thing is happening all over North America. Yeah, like everything I hear, is real estate really used to be the job that people did when they retired. It was their second job. And young people are the future of real estate the 20 year olds, the 25, the 30 year olds. They are the future and I think what happened was people realized that they could make a career and make it. Becoming an entrepreneur was actually a viable career. Yeah, right, yeah, exactly. And you know, the young people have such great energy, right, and are just hardworking and they understand technology. They just have it right.
Rob:So we've seen a lot of new realtors in our brokerage in St John and it's really just, it's really created this vibe around our office. I remember when I started, I think, the average age of agent in my office. I was 31 when I got my license and average age was probably like 55. Yeah, I was the young guy, the techie guy, right, even though I wasn't, but I was just seen that way. And now we have agents as young as 20. And that's also in the business. But you know, I think that there's this, you know, people kind of paint like the new agents as they're not good, but some of some of the new agents, I think if you've been doing this for two or three years, you're still new. Yeah. Five years, you're still new, yeah. But I mean, look at what you're doing. I don't know how long you've been in it, but people are just doing amazing things, right? If you're serious and you got it, then you're gonna do.
Micaiah:Well, that's the thing. Like I just crossed my two year mark, like a month ago, and so I've been doing it for two years and it's like and I do still feel new. I'm like, okay, I've only been doing this two years, like I'm the new guy, but then it's like, then I kind of almost feel like I've been doing it for a long time because, like, there's so many kind of people that have come in after me, so it's like I'm not going to pretend like I've been doing this, you know, forever. Yeah, because, like, we've got people in our office that have been doing it 20, 30, 40 years some of them, but no, it's a lifestyle man and it's awesome.
Micaiah:Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question. Sure, and I don't know if you've heard about it. I'm sure you have, maybe you haven't, and I don't know if I should like expose it. But honest door, honest door, you haven't heard of it, okay, so I don't even know I should talk about this. But so honest door is like this new. It's kind of like property guys, in the sense that you pay, I think, $500 and you can now privately sell and list your home on MLS. Okay, gotcha, yeah, so I get started in either Alberta or Manitoba, maybe Ontario, I think Alberta, yeah, anyway. And this company, like I don't know kind of really how they're doing it, but basically you pay $500 and you take your own photos, you do your own write up, you do your own marketing, you fill, you do all the data entry yourself, you pay $500 and then there's like one agent for your area, that, whose name is on like realtorca, whether it's like Keri or whatever it is, but that's it, that's like your only fee, and then you can list it like yourself on MLS, you know, saving you all these realtor fees and stuff like this. Now, I mean, we've heard of like other companies and other people try to do similar things like this and get rid of realtor's because we're overpaid and everything like this or useless.
Micaiah:Now, if you hear about something like this okay, you haven't heard about Honest World, but like what, where are you at in? Like cause a lot of people are always trying to a lot of agents and like realtors and stuff always feel like they need to justify, like where their value's coming from, why the general public actually needs us, and you know you get some good people, some bad people. But like, where are you at with that? Where do you see that going, like, if that kind of really takes off and like there's supposed to be they're in Nova Scotia now, apparently, and then they're supposed to be cracking it in New Brunswick here in the next couple of months but, like, what do you think that would do to realtors and us? And what do you think that's gonna do to like just the general, like housing market in general? Cause, like, if you get any Joe off the street, you know listening his house on MLS, you know who knows what could happen. You know what I mean. But what are your first thoughts when you hear about that.
Rob:Okay, so my first thoughts are I think all models are welcome. People have tried things like this before, so you know we're all for. You know competition and everything like that. But I think, if for the public, I'll go public first. If the public, I think it's a horrible idea for them. I think it's like a lot of risk to it.
Rob:I think people get so caught up in fees. They care more about saving fees than they care about profit, and fees and profit are two separate things. Right, cause what realtors do is they create leverage for people so that they can make more profit and so that they can have better terms, easier transactions, lend runs. If I talked about what a real estate agent really does, what real estate agents do is they create leverage right For the people that they represent, whether it's a buyer or a seller. So you know, and you're part of a strong office, like I know some of the people in my office. These are some of the smartest, most strategic people that I've ever met in my whole life. I'm taught like we can be in a room full of doctors and certain like these people are smart and I think there's obviously certain circumstances where people can sell their own homes, but they're not gonna make more profit by selling their own.
Rob:And I think, like I had a referral for a place. It would have been last year for somebody. It would came from another agent, in Halifax actually, and they were gonna put their house on one of these places and sell it themselves. And they did. And they got an offer and they ended up not accepting the offer. They were kind of talking to me at the same time and then when we put it on the market, I ended up selling it in three days and they ended up in their pocket after commission, making 80,000 more than they were gonna sell it for by themselves.
Rob:Maybe they, yeah, but you know there's a lot of like people don't understand the skill or the strategy or the knowledge that goes behind it, or even just making sure that it's safe. So I think you know, for certain people, yes, it's great that they represent themselves. I think people get caught up in saving fees over making profit. I always say that's two different things. Do you wanna save some fees and do it yourself so that you can say, oh, you sold your own house, or do you wanna put more money in your bank account? You wanna make more money in your bank account? Come see me. Come see someone who's skilled, they're gonna put money in your bank account.
Micaiah:Well, exactly, and it's all about like everybody can't do everything, and so you gotta come to a point where you're trusting the professionals to do their job. You know what I mean. So, like, anyway, we can dive deeper into that. But no, I wanted to know your thoughts on that because it kinda came across my door a couple weeks ago and like I'd been chatting with some other agents about it and like everybody's like panic, like oh, it's gonna disrupt the market, it's gonna get rid of realtors, and but I'm just like. I'm just like I know that even myself, like if I was like a home seller, like I would just want like selling your home, moving all this is stressful enough, as I'm sure you know like just dealing with your clients, Like definitely.
Micaiah:And so like going through that extra step of like having to take your own photos, having to do your write up post on MLS, and then like the skill and knowledge and strategies that it takes to just review offers Absolutely, let's say, you listed it yourself and you get three or four offers Like most people don't know how to negotiate those and make sure they get the best terms with the best price, and all this and that.
Micaiah:And so then somebody else was saying like oh well, I was chatting with one of the people that started the company and she was saying that they were like oh, you know, if you get multiple offers, you can just go to like a law office and the lawyers will help you negotiate the offer. I'm like I don't know anybody who's doing that around here, and if they do, they're gonna charge you Practice law, yeah, and if they do even help you with that, like, they're gonna charge you a hefty fee, you know. So there's your fees that you're paying. But anyway, anyway, I wanted to get your take on. That Just kind of crossed my mind. I was like you know what, should I screw up with that?
Rob:But yeah, no, I'm not worried about my position and I think those disruptors, they've been around forever, like if you've really talked to anybody who's been in this business for a long time. Those disruptors at the 3% or the you know, they call themselves disruptors. They've been around and maybe they do go to other places, but they don't really stick around here. No, but you know, I think too like you yourself work with a bunch of real estate agents. You think some of those realtors are better than other of those realtors Right, of course.
Micaiah:Okay, I didn't know this. I didn't know this was a trick.
Rob:But yeah, I mean, we're better than the others, right? Yeah, well, the public is not better than the worst realtor. Yeah, like, they just don't know enough. Yeah, right, they don't know enough realtors all the time and you know like, they're coming to us for help and we all work together and all that stuff. But you know, I think if you're getting like a top of the line real estate agent, they're gonna create so much leverage for you and help you so much and make it so easy yeah yeah, and put more money in your bank account. So it's like, why do you have to be so prideful that, yeah, yeah, you did it yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally agree.
Micaiah:I think it's really cool technical stuff, like some lead generation tactics, you know AI stuff, you know marketing strategy stuff like that let's chat a little bit about. I always like to ask people how, like people that have families and stuff like how they're balancing you know work life, you know what your definition of success is Like. Are you considering, you know, let's say, you have the biggest year of your life, you're selling the most homes ever, you're making you know the most money in your pocket, but maybe your home life isn't great? You know, are you still considering that like a successful year? Or like what is your definition of like success when it comes to just like big picture, like your life, not even just like work? Yeah, so give me a little bit of thoughts, give me a little bit of your thoughts around that and just like how you balance work life and what you consider success.
Rob:So, very first thing, I say cause people always quote me for work life you do not believe in work life balance at all. I do not believe in balance. Yeah, balance means two things are equal, or three things are equal, right, so that's really really hard to do. As much as you're in your business, you have to be in your family, right, but it's just not practical, right. Or as much as you're with your family, you have to be with your business. What I believe we should all strive for is harmony, where your work life integrates with your family and increases your family life and your family life increases your work life. I think that's the real goal. Yeah, so you know it's never perfect, like there's going to be times that you're going to be with your family, cause your family needs you, right? Someone gets sick, or you just have a baby, or yeah, yeah.
Rob:Yeah, and you have to take a little time away from work and there's going to be times where you're going to have to work 30 days in a row and leave early and come home late and hugs and kisses, but I don't know. That's what I think. One thing that's always really helped me is, honestly, calendar. I was taught going back to, once again, mentors really really early on. One of the best things I was ever taught is have a calendar, and they taught me the order to put things in. Oh, okay, actually, put things in your calendar.
Rob:So you know, we're entrepreneurs when we're trying to get things done and we always put, like our work stuff in our calendar. But I had someone teach me basically one of the best things you can do is to start by putting your own time in first. So like, when are you going to go to the gym, right? When are you going to take some time off? Like I'm saying away from everyone, right, the time just robbed, yeah, okay, yeah. And then from there you put your family time in. So I put, like you know, I'd say, like I make it to 99% of all of my daughters soccer.
Rob:Just occasionally miss one right, all that stuff goes in the calendar, right, and if you build it that way, then you can build your business around that Now you can build your appointments around that. So that's something that I kind of learned early on. But you know, I think I'm gonna say this success success to me means peace of mind, right, when you're head down at the end of the day and knowing I did what I was supposed to do today. You know, having that fulfillment, fulfillment all the time, right, yeah, I think it's Success isn't really great.
Rob:You accomplish your goals but you don't fulfill it. So I think that's and it's not perfect and I'm not always there it's something I'm always working towards and I think a lot of people would say that as well, but it's something to aim for. I know that I'm absolutely blessed with my family because I know that every single day when I wake up, there's hugs and kisses, and every single day when I go home there's hugs and kisses, and I know how rare that is. It's so rare, so I'm grateful that I have that and definitely powers me in everything that I do.
Micaiah:Yeah, and to add to that too, I can definitely vouch for the days when my family, like at home, you know, relationship with my wife, relationship with my kids, like the days that that's the best, is like the same week or same day, that like I'm just feeling great at work, something's going well. And then, like the days where work is going really well, it's just like it just goes the other way, you know, like it's so much and so, like you say, like having that harmony, having that balance, and I mean it's not easy, like we're not going to pretend that like you know my wife, you know she's just staying at home, mom, and she's working a lot harder than I am but, like and like obviously we can't expect I don't expect her to always be 100% on the same page as I am, you know, because I'm an entrepreneur and like I want to do all these things and like you know, obviously I'm running these ideas by her.
Micaiah:I'm like you know, I go through this blah, blah, blah, blah and she's like you know, you're crazy, like don't do that, like no, like just be happy. Or she's like, just why are you happy doing what you're doing? I'm like I am happy but still want to do this. Why is wired that way? It's just and it's hard. It's hard to balance that sometimes and just find that harmony. But you know, like we were chatting a little bit before, like my wife and I have been together for like about 12 years now, yeah, and so we've kind of figured out ways to kind of work together in those things. Like she expects that I'm going to come up with all these crazy ideas, you know, and the way that she responds to them she's learned to be more gentle with me.
Micaiah:And not just shut me down, you know day one, but it's yeah, it's finding that harmony and finding that. And yeah, yeah that work, life, harmony, balance. You know what I mean. So, yeah, that's awesome.
Rob:Yeah, I remember someone telling me that there's nothing more satisfying than being a good partner and a good father, good and good parent. Yeah Right, there's nothing more honorable than being a good partner. Yeah, being a good parent, yeah.
Micaiah:Good words, yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
Rob:But you know what, like back to the success thing, like I just thought of something about that as well Like one thing that I've really been thinking about, really like when it comes to success, and what that means to me is I guess it's related to this topic is this idea of like, what is your best self? Yeah, what is your best self Like? Who do you need to become? Yeah, to be your best self, yeah, what do you need to do daily? And you know, like a lot of people think that their best self is, you know, the guy who makes all the money, or the guy who is motivated or happy, but your best self is your disciplined self yeah, the guy who does it anyways. Yeah, right, doesn't matter if you wake up and you have a cold and you have a headache and no, you roll over. Give the wife a hug, give the kids a sogal right, rock them back. Just doesn't matter. Get up, go to work. You're an absolute monster out there. It doesn't matter how you feel, just use the wind.
Rob:So I've been thinking about that a lot lately is like and you know, like some of my best days that I can remember, I just felt like trash all day. Yeah, but I laid my head down at night knowing like it did. Anyway, yeah, I went and got the listing, helped the people went home, cooked my family supper, got down on the floor and played with my dog. Yeah, and the whole time I felt terrible. Yeah, I just did it.
Micaiah:I know, yeah, yeah, we could dive into that all day. But that's, yeah, just being like the best version of yourself. And I was listening to a podcast this morning on the way over here and Ryan Panetta he's like, he runs like the Wealthy Way podcast, does a bunch of stuff. He was a realtor and he's one guy that I listen to all the time. But he was saying, like people measure success differently and a lot of people like measure success by like comparing themselves to like other people and like they see, you know Bill Gates, all these random, you know rich people, and they're like, oh, you know, like I'll be successful once I get to this level. Or, you know, once I grant Cardone 10X my business and buy a jet, you know I'll be successful.
Micaiah:But like being successful is really like looking at yourself, figuring out what the best version of yourself is and then kind of striving for that you know daily and just kind of chasing after that and not I mean it's, it's hard, I mean it's. We live in a world that is all about like comparing you know people, whether it's just like looking at people on social media, whatever it is, you know, you know, I think really spending time like with yourself and really like looking, you know, inward and figuring out what that means like for you and your business and your, your life and your, you know, work life, harmony, kind of thing. Yeah, but yeah.
Rob:Comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah, have you ever heard that one?
Micaiah:I. I feel like I've heard something similar, but that is a good one.
Rob:That's a good one. I have a someone that I've been doing coach with and coaching with and like my coach, and his whole thing is 100% in your vision, right? 100% belief in what you're doing, 100% of the time the goal, like what is your vision? Yeah, right. And then do you believe that? How often? Because we all have these little doubts. 100% in belief, and then time is the multiplier, the more you can be in that, yeah, better you feel, the better you do.
Micaiah:Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna have a lot of good little clips from this episode, rob. No, but yeah, wow, that's awesome. Now tell me a little bit about that. So a lot of people too, once you get to a certain point maybe people think that you don't need any outside mentorship to get you above that. What are your thoughts on kind of that continual mentorship? Like you, you know, you know people look at you and they're like oh, you know Rob's got it all together. You know he's got a good real estate business, got a good you know life. He's making some money. He's he's doing this, he's, he's the manager now at these brokerages. You know Rob doesn't need any more training or mentorship, you know from from anybody else. So what are your, what are your thoughts on that? I think it's crazy, yeah.
Rob:Like, so I grew up. I love basketball. I grew up I love basketball, right, kobe, but I I love Jordan. Yeah, jordan is the best athlete, the, the person who is the best at his job, yeah, in the history of jobs. Right, like you can, you can argue Michael Jordan of real estate, right, yeah, michael Jordan had trainers. Yeah, yeah, jordan had a head coach and assistant coach, a defensive coach and offensive coach. He had all these people trainers, people stretching them and then, on his own he wouldn't hire his own trainer.
Rob:Yeah, right, and I think you know it's crazy to think that you know it all there's, it's impossible to know it all. I think coaches, really, they give you ideas, but one of the things that one of the things that they really do is hold you accountable. Yeah, like, a good coach really holds you accountable. Yeah, and I was really really lucky, especially in real estate. I go, I go early on like um, one of my, my mentors, mike, mike McCarron. Like you know, mike, mike spots me. Yeah, mike, I met Mike. I was working at Swish LA, just served from chicken. He's like hey, man, you ever think about real estate? That's how this happened right.
Rob:You have to have a coach. You have to, yeah, yeah, I have to. Yeah, can't know it all, yeah, just a different point of view, exactly Different point of view of someone who's done it before and someone who can say, hey, go left, yeah, right, and like I always think about it, you ever see Star Wars? Yeah, yeah, all right, you see Star Wars, right. So, like, if I'm your coach, you're a Luke Skywalker, right, you're the one swinging the lightsaber, right, whoa? I'm the one Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yeah.
Rob:I'm the one saying, hey, think about this, go over here, right. So it's kind of like that feel to it, but you need people to do that for you, yeah.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. And I think it's important too to have people, like you said, outside the industry as well, outside of what you're doing. Like I have some realtors in my office that I work closely with that you know, we kind of hold each other accountable, you know, with our day to day. You know, are you checking with your clients? Are you doing this and that? But then I also have people that are checking in on me like, hey, are you treating your wife properly? You know, are you spending time with your kids? Is that?
Micaiah:And then I got another people that are saying you know, are you paying your taxes? You know, are you doing taking care of, like, your business After each other, yeah, yeah, you know. So, yeah, that's huge. I just hope, like I've been blessed to have a lot of people like in my life that you know have been like mentors and, and you know, helped me accountable as well, and I just I just hope that you know, I keep that mindset of needing those people you know and wanting to have those people you know I mean you always say to my wife.
Rob:I say I hope I'm never like that where I because you know what it is, it's ego. Oh I'm. I made 300 grand last year.
Micaiah:I don't need them anymore, I'm good. Yeah, they didn't help me that much. That was mostly me, you know I did that. That's it right, I did everything.
Rob:Yeah, so I. But I always go back to like you know, sport, like I love sports. I was going to go back to Michael Jordan, like he was the best in the world and was outward. He is the. He is the most talented overachiever of all time. Most talented Overachiever? Yeah, he was talented. Yeah, but he also overachieved. Yeah, he just kept going. He just worked.
Rob:Yeah, yeah, he was like you know, you're going to do great things and you want to. You know, leave a legacy and you want to. You want to do all these things, then you need other people around you. Yeah, absolutely Can't do it alone. Oh, oh.
Micaiah:You're right.
Micaiah:You're right, yeah. So we're going to Robert, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to be chatting about AI. We're going to be chatting about lead generation. We're going to be talking about personal brand. We're going to talk about marketing A lot of fun stuff that I think is going to add a lot of value and be a lot of valuable content for people listening here.
Micaiah:So during the break, Rob, you and I were chatting a little bit about New Brunswick, Real Estate and affordable housing, the housing crisis that's going on right now, and we were chatting about it. But I was like man, we got to dive deeper into this, so let's kind of go back to that. So basically, we were talking about how New Brunswick has like kind of skyrocketed in growth in the past, you know two years and you were telling me about some stuff happening like even further East, you know in Halifax and Nova Scotia, and just dive into a little bit of that and kind of what's happening like in the province and why we need and what we need to help it, like do we need development or whatever? What do we need?
Rob:So, just off the top of my mind, I would say you know, we have a housing crisis. More importantly, we have an affordable housing crisis, right, and one of the things that are, you know, local areas and our governments are really, really focused on, is growing the population. So here in New Brunswick, nova Scotia, we have the lowest cost of living in the country, so a lot of these people are coming here because of cost of living, but also quality of life Hear that all the time, right, you've heard it over the last couple of years quality of life, right, don't want to be in the traffic, don't want to do all that. So one of the problems that exists with that is finding, you know, that missing middle of affordable housing. And you know, people are afraid of the I guess the market crashing or going down, but right now we don't have enough housing for the people who even live here. Yeah, right.
Rob:So what we're talking about was you know, in a bigger city like Halifax, there's actually people that are sleeping in their cars and sleeping in tents, and these aren't unemployed people. These are people who are working and have jobs, but they can't afford an apartment or they can't afford a place to live. Yeah, it's crazy Real crisis that we're in right now is there's not enough places for the people. So I think what we'll see here, probably in New Brunswick, is and I think it's what we've happened seeing is people migrating even from Halifax to St John or Halifax or Monkton to all these places as well. So now we're kind of getting like this closing effect from both sides.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, I mean because we're, I mean especially like Monkton, st John, like they're not far from you know Halifax, and like these bigger cities, you know just a little further over. So I mean, yeah, hospitals, I mean we'd love to have some more. We'd love to have some more people come in like some more nurses, some more contractors and stuff. So I mean come on in if you want, but so what? I mean obviously we don't know everything, we don't have the solution. Yeah, but like, what's going to help this? Like do we just need people to come and just build a ton more affordable?
Rob:housing. Yeah, the thing I hear the most out there right now is there's not enough skilled laborers. So it's not that people don't have the money or the ambition to do these things, it's that there's actually not enough people to work. There's not enough people to swing a hammer, there's not enough people to paint, there's not enough people to do the landscaping. People don't do those jobs, no, right. So everything that I hear is that there's a big focus on skilled laborers.
Rob:For a long time, there was a big focus on people with money. Right, entrepreneurs and people need to come into the country and come into the province, and now their focus is really on bringing in people who are laborers. So you know, that seems to be part of the solution is building. That infrastructure is very, very important. Right, you need water, you need roads, you need lights, you need electricity, you need all of those things. So you know, the planning from our leaders is very, very important. Then we just need people to take risks. Yeah, I mean, I think you know, if you've seen any multi units go up or apartment buildings go up, you probably know that they're full pretty quick. Yeah, I don't know exactly what the right answer is, but you know I'm tied with some people that talk about that stuff, but you know there's a big, big focus on skilled laborers. Yeah, big focus.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's huge. So I mean, if you're listening to this and you can swing a hammer, a lot of opportunities.
Rob:Well, it used to be that people used to leave New Brunswick the retirement province. Yeah, it was the retirement province. I know in St John we were losing, I think, for 20 years or something like that. An average of 500 people a year would leave. It was negative 500. Wow, until COVID started and now we're growing Right. So now we're bigger than we've ever been. So it's quite the difference. We need people that are working. People used to go out West and work and work in the oil rigs and they used to do all the labor jobs there and now it's kind of switched back to over here. So it's interesting how it happens. But yeah, that's what we need.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, we've got my brother and sister. They're living in Nunavut right now. He's a teacher and his wife is a nurse and so they're doing kind of like the traveling nursing thing. But like they if we're kind of switching industries, but just in general, like everybody that's working, but like nursing I know, because my two sister-in-law are both nurses and they've been here it's just like it's like it's like it's just they're overworked and it's just kind of like a tough environment to be in right now.
Micaiah:Yep, but like we're paying people, like New Brunswick is now a place where you can travel to go and work and like I think and we're seeing that too with contractors they're giving like incentives to construction companies or contractors to kind of come in and do work here. And but yeah, I'm like I love entrepreneurship, I love people starting the businesses. So like my brother just started his own construction company a couple months back and he's like just been super successful, just way overwhelmed. I got another buddy that just opened up his own. He's an electrician. He just opened up his own electrician company, just completely flat out. You know, busy as could be and a lot of people like to. A lot of people like yeah, anyway, a lot of people are scared to kind of start their own businesses and like those particular trades and stuff.
Rob:But I mean like I say what I hear is the same way to make money in those trades yeah, yeah Is to be self-employed, right and work, have your own business, yeah.
Micaiah:Yeah, but you can do really well, I mean, and if you're, if you're looking to, if you have a skill like that and you want to start a business in that, come to New Brunswick, man, come to Fridterton, come to St John, that's that. We'll make sure you stay busy.
Rob:I have a friend. I actually grew up with him here in Oramuck though. We went to high school together. We used to work together with the Lincoln Bigs Up, yeah, and he lived in Dartmouth for a while and he came to St John. He called me one day, said I want to open my contracting business and he's been wildly successful just because it does good work. Yeah, you know, he's very personable, he follows up with people, but he even him like he's booked a year out. I talked to him the other day. I was like when do you have availability? He's like, man, I can't book for the next year. Yeah, so there's huge opportunity for people who want to work right, wow, yeah.
Micaiah:All right. So that's a little bit on affordable housing, New Brunswick, what's going on, and just maybe just a little spark that'll. You know, if somebody's listening, they're trying to figure out the next place to invest and the next place to work. Definitely, you know, definitely considering New Brunswick. Definitely it's a great place. We love it here. So let's talk about lead generation. Yeah, it's kind of switch directions and go into the marketing lead generation. You know whether it's for just business in general or maybe we can talk for realtor specifically. Yeah, let's just dive into that. So what, if you're willing to share? What are some things that you're doing yourself, some of the things that you're recommending? You know, maybe newer agents, experienced agents, do to help with lead generation and like I'm sure a lot of these things can be used in across different like fields and industries and stuff. Like I'm sure, like lawyers and law officers could use similar lead generation strategies to definitely other businesses and stuff. So give me a little bit about that, yeah, yeah.
Rob:Yeah. So I just think, like I say to the people that I'm close with all the time, the question I was asked is what do real estate agents do? They really boiled it down. Yeah, what do real estate agents do? Lead generation, this is what real estate agents do. Oh, that's what they do. Yeah, lead generation, that's right. Yeah, that's what they do. Yeah, right, but if you really boiled it down a little bit further, real estate agents talk to people about real estate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what we do. We talk to people about real estate, yeah.
Rob:So when it comes to lead generation, I find a lot of times people are always looking for the one like what's the best one? What's the best one? But the truth is it should be multi-channel, yeah, it should be multiple and it should be a combination of the ones that bring you the most joy Because, like you know yourself, when you're doing this stuff, you're doing it so much over, it's so repetitive. Yeah, I am. It will bring the joy. You might think that door knocking is the best one, but if it doesn't spark that in you, right yeah, getting face to face with somebody, you're not going to do it. So I always encourage people that there is no right one, there is no wrong one, there is no best one. Choose the ones that bring you the most joy so that you can have fun doing them, but do them consistently and persistently.
Micaiah:Yeah, consistency.
Rob:Yeah, I've generated leads a whole bunch of different ways. I really started off door knocking. I have a soft spot in my heart for door knocking. It taught me so much, yeah, so much, yeah, you know. It taught me how to stay on the script, taught me how to be persistent, taught me how to have a conversation with people. What it really did was put me in a mindset of talking to people.
Rob:Yeah, what I mean by that is like before I started door knocking. If I was at Costco and I heard someone talking about real estate, I wouldn't really insert myself in that conversation. But if you've knocked on a thousand doors and it's minus 30 and your skin's all dry and it's cold and you've been shivering, and then you hear someone talking about real estate like I remember at the gas station throwing cards at people it just puts you in this mindset. It teaches you how to talk to people. I think anybody who has a hard time with conversation, I think that if you're self-reflecting and you think, well, I'm kind of like awkward in front of people, door knocking should be your training ground. Yeah.
Rob:There's nothing better than going up to people and just starting a conversation over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Yeah, I did internet leads for a long time. I was part of a team that did internet leads. We were kind of the first people to do that I mean not the first people, but to really really do it at the Yale and I learned a lot from doing internet leads. So I'm doing Facebook leads and digital leads after that, even just by my own. I had a lot of success doing that. I've done webinars, techinars on those types of things and, I think, with digital leads once again, just having a strategy.
Rob:A lot of people think that those leads are garbage leads. And there are some garbage leads, but there's garbage leads no matter what you do. You just have to have a strategy, have a script, have a plan behind it. Social media obviously, if you're in business and you're not doing social media, it's almost flabbergasting. There's never been a time where it's been easier to connect directly with the consumer, where we didn't have to pay someone else to do it. Even think ten years ago we used to have to pay to put our ads in the paper that same little host that you can do in five minutes. You just have to pay $200. And hope that somebody or you used to have to pay to have a commercial or pay to have a spot on the radio. Social media there's just such great opportunities in it. So I would say almost everything that's good in my life has come from Facebook, including meeting my wife, like I met my wife on Facebook.
Micaiah:But and to kind of interrupt you there and kind of add on to that. Before I became an entrepreneur, self-employed, started a business, I hated social media, like I mean, every once in a while you catch yourself scrolling, but I never posted anything. My wife would get mad at me because I wasn't posting enough about the kids or something like this. Or why do you never share likes, pictures of me? Because I hate it. I don't think it's necessary. I don't need it for anything other than to communicate with people I don't know of.
Micaiah:But once I started the business and then kind of just like my mindset kind of started to shift right and I started seeing more people. It's kind of like when you get a new car, you know you don't think anybody has a car, but then you drive around and everybody's always around. I started to see business people, people that were successful, kind of doing what I wanted to do, start posting on social media. I was like, oh, maybe that's the thing Anyway. And then I was like, oh, I still hated it though, and I still don't enjoy posting on it.
Micaiah:And I was like, okay, what can I do? Like where's the middle ground here? So that's when, like, I went and hired, like my marketing manager, and she does, you know, a fantastic job at you know, pushing all this content out and creating this content. And yes, it's not me, but it's a lead generation organic tool that, like I know, is necessary to kind of help grow my business. So, even if you don't like it, do it. You don't have to do it yourself. You know you can hire somebody to do it, but you should, I think, be the face of it a lot of times, especially if you try to build your personal brand, and stuff like this Personal brand is you.
Rob:Yeah, that's what people are buying, yeah. Personal brand yeah, it's literally like I've had people ask me like, oh, how do I build my personal brand? We go through their social media and I'm like you're not in any of your posts. Yep, yep, you have to be in them. Yeah, or at least most of them. You know, like you're either your headshot or a picture of you, or like you got to be in it, right?
Micaiah:It's not like a clothing brand where you're just advertising like A logo yeah, a little logo or like a pair of pants or something like this. It's like it's you, it's you, it's really you. Yeah, have you done? We've done like the Ryan Sir hand, like personal brand training and stuff. Have you guys done that at the exit office? No, I haven't done that. I'd be interested in doing it, though you should. We did it like in group sessions and stuff at in the office, but then I've also like done it like on my own outside and just, yeah, he mean Ryan Sir hand man, like he's, he's wild, you know he's he's doing really well and like his big thing is like social media and like media in general and like his personal brand, you know, and growing that Definitely and just like how that will then organically basically just generate leads for you and whatnot. Like yeah.
Rob:I would say, like, how is anyone going to buy or sell with you if they don't even know that you're a realtor? Yeah, how is that ever going to happen? Yeah, just hoping that people are just going to stumble upon like it's, it's almost impossible, I think. Like, I think too, like, because I was like you, where I I hated doing it, I never did it before, like I didn't even set up my own Facebook account, you know, like I never posted, I didn't do any of it, yeah. And then once again, I was struggling, right, and I remember I was looking, I was selling a story earlier today, I was looking at another very successful real estate agent in my board and I remember, like their posts came up on my feed and they were selling like a lot of hoses right, I'm selling like none. And I went and it was on Instagram and I looked and saw how many posts they had. They had like 650 posts and and then I went to my post and I had like 37.
Micaiah:I think there.
Rob:I think there's a connection there. You gotta do that, yeah, when you're like, okay, like this person's doing more business than me. They're obviously way busier than me. Like can I at least beat them at something? Yeah, Like can I at least own up to something. So I made the commitment that day to post more than I wanted to get over that that 630 or whatever they were at. I was like I'm getting over that faster than anyone's ever gotten over that. So then I started posting a bunch, yeah. And then a funny thing happened when I started posting about real estate. All the time I can business.
Micaiah:Oh, what Crazy. Your friends saw it. They were like oh, you're in real estate, Really good.
Rob:So I think you know like there's a mindset behind it too, and I think, like a lot of us have been raised with good intentions right From our parents, we were taught these limiting beliefs from our parents. Like you know, don't brag about yourself, right. Don't, don't, don't, don't, jimmy, jimmy's too cocky, don't, don't do that. And like the spirit of that is really really positive, right, it's really really positive. And you shouldn't be cocky and you shouldn't, you know, have a big ego. But if your business is yourself, you actually have to promote yourself. Right.
Rob:So it doesn't really work under this. Entrepreneur, you're your business, you know facet that were that were under. You have to promote yourself.
Micaiah:Yeah, and it has to be paired with with mentorship and training and you have to have, you have to, you have to have that confidence and that you promote yourself. But you should also have that continued learning and just education you know behind it so that when somebody actually does finally call you, like you shock them with, like the knowledge that you have and the ability that you have you can build some ground as you run it. Yeah.
Rob:But I think, like I was talking to my coach yesterday and he said there's only three fears, and I think there's a lot of people don't post on social because they're afraid, like, let's, let's boil it down, right. They're afraid they're going to be judged, right. They're afraid that they're going to be rejected or they're afraid that they're going to succeed, right. So all of the behavior that we have is kind of tied to those things Like you can't be afraid of if you're starting your own business. You can't be afraid of what other people say yeah, yeah, I just could go for it. Yeah, I know that's what it was for me. It was afraid of, like I didn't like the way that I looked that day, or you know what I mean.
Micaiah:Like you know when.
Rob:I had hair. I did like. You know, I did like the way it was the weight I was at or whatever. Oh, yeah, yeah, didn't like the way I sounded on video. I still don't. Yeah, I do it, it's a job. Yeah, exactly, I go back to discipline. It's a job, I know it works, I do it, yeah.
Micaiah:I always considered myself to be like you're, like, self-confident. Yeah, like self-confident. Like I never thought, like you know, I was ugly or I sounded stupid or like I was overweight or whatever. And like I always like thought that it was odd that people had like, like image issues or like lack of self-confidence around those types of things. Yeah, and it wasn't until I started posting content on social media.
Micaiah:When I got hit with that, I was like, oh man, like I kind of look weird in that, like, oh, I should have turned here. Or like, oh man, like, why does my voice sound like that? But like and like, yeah, it's a constant, it's a constant battle, but it's like you say, it's a job, it's work, it's what you got to do and it pays off. Not always pretty, yeah, and I mean, at the end of the day, like it's not your fault that people are judging you right, like you're not doing anything wrong by you know, maybe your hair being messed up or something like this. And I just keep reminding myself, like, if somebody you know, if somebody wants to judge me and make fun of me, like whatever, you know, it's easy for me to shake those people off.
Micaiah:But, like, I started, like looking at myself and like judging myself. You know, because you're seeing yourself from a different light. You know what I mean. But yeah, just stay consistent with it. Keep doing it. After it's gonna pay off, you're gonna see the results of it and yeah, yeah.
Rob:But I think there's just so much influence behind it too, like if you, you know like that's what we do. We're influencers, we influence people to use our services, that's what we do, yeah, right, so you either talking about it or you're not. Yeah, and you're talking about it, you're gonna get like this is so funny, man, I was telling this story earlier today. Yeah, is it okay if I tell the story, please? I was talking to the story earlier today where it was like 2019, I think I it was the first time I did business plan. Anyways, I went from like, let's say, like 23 transactions, 60 transactions. I was like the first like leap that I did, right, and I hit my goals and all the stuff. And then at the end of the year, when I was analyzing my business, I found out that I did, of those 60 transactions, 48 were buyers 100 houses a week. Wow, leaving at 8am, not coming back till 9pm, like because this is what it was. Then, right, like shown houses.
Rob:And then I remember I would always act like I want to become a listing agent. Right, talking about the marketing, again, I want to become a listing agent. I'd always ask people in my office how do you become a listing agent. How do you do that? Anyways, right, and they'd always give me the same answers like you know, like the people you sell houses to now, like they're gonna, they're gonna buy again, and you know, like it'll just naturally like those kind of answers and I was always like I don't think that's it, I think that's part of it. Yeah.
Rob:That's not it Right. And then I remember a mentor at a time came up to me. I'd asked this in a sales meeting and didn't really get kind of got that, those same kind of answers. And he looked me afterwards. He's like, hey, you want to become a listing agent? And I was like, yeah, man, it's like you know. He's like the question you had there, there's an answer to that. I was like, Well, what is it? He's like, if you want to become a listing agent, you got to talk about listings and I was like, All right, man, but like, seriously, how do you do? Tell me, tell me. He's like how often do you talk about listings? I was like, hang on, that's a good question.
Rob:So then when I started doing, was all my social media was about sellers right, Tips for sellers? Is that still listing your home seller seminars? And I went from and what I wanted to do is actually want to scale down my business but make the same amount of money. Make the same amount of money. Yeah, I wanted to do because I was just running, running, running, running. So then in 2020, I went from. I went from 60 transactions to about 29, but went from 48 buyers to I think I had like one buyer transaction a year, maybe three somewhere around there, made the same amount of money, Wow.
Rob:But, like you know, like there's such a strategy to all this stuff, and I took someone like saying that, but that's all it was. He was like you want listings, you got to talk about it. He said how often do you talk about it? How often do you ask for one? Do you have a listing presentation? Yeah, he's like you want listings, you got to talk about it. So back to the social media stuff. Like I'm really influenced that I started thinking about that. Like how many ways can I talk about getting listings? Yeah, I started doing that and I got listings.
Micaiah:This is like the stuff you're saying. This is the kind of stuff that I just want to like, keep for myself and just not, not given.
Rob:But it's like yeah, so simple. Yeah, I was like seriously, man, how do you do it? And this guy lists, this guy does, I'd say right now somewhere between 150 and 200 transactions a year, part of another brand. I was just like what's the answer?
Micaiah:Yeah, that's awesome. I've got a guy that I work with and then, like his big thing and his big goal for 2024 is like get more listings. Mine is so what I enjoy doing. I don't enjoy listings as much and I see the value. I got another question, follow up question to this.
Micaiah:But I want to specialize in like multifamily commercial stuff buying and selling, but mostly on the buying side, because I just love negotiating like contracts for my buyers and just like bullying people and like you know what I mean and getting people to come down from 80,000 to 10,000. But like so I kind of want to specialize in, yeah, multifamily and commercial real estate, but also, but like specifically, like I think I'm better at like the buying side of things. That being said, what do you think? I think I feel like I know the answer to this, but maybe I'm wrong and maybe I'm just like playing like reverse psychology in my head. But what do you think is better for long-term growth to be? Is it better to be a buying agent because you know, once you sell these houses to your buyers, then maybe they'll sell again and you'll get that business, or is it better to be a selling agent because it's easier to generate new leads from listings Like what do you think?
Rob:Well, the term, the saying is list to last right. Yeah.
Rob:Like when you have listings, you essentially employ people to come to work for you, yeah Right. So I don't know, like maybe it's like I would just challenge your mentality on that, because a lot of people tell me they don't like listings too, like I hear. I do hear that a lot and actually I was like that I liked that because I was just more familiar with it. But then what I realized was the reason I didn't really like listings was because I just wasn't skilled in that.
Rob:If I'm being honest and I'm not saying that you're an I realized I wasn't prepared, I didn't have all these things. But then when I started getting listings and I had all these strategies like to this day, I honestly believe with everything in my heart that if I get a listing, I'm going to represent the person better than anybody else. I truly believe that and you know, with the strategies and everything that I've learned over time. So I don't know if it like I just I guess I kind of challenge you in your mentality on that, but I think long-term success, really, if you're thinking that way, one of the best things you can do is niche down, niche right, look after all the people that you're supposed to look at, because you're still going to want listings. You're still going to want them to resell with you. Yeah.
Rob:But, like you know, there's not enough specialists out there, right, there's not enough. Like, if you're buying a multi-unit, makaya is the best at it, right? So I think, if that's what you're really passionate about and I have these conversations with other people too if it's really what you're passionate about, nicheing down is one of the best things that you can do. Yeah, right. And I think I'm going to say and the same in marketing, right? Yeah.
Rob:Is a lot of people just trying to go too big because it's a mindset of scarcity. Scarcity mindset what if I don't have it? But if you have a mindset of abundance and you just know that you are the specialist in what you do and no one is better than you, what are they going to call? Yeah, what are you going to call? They're going to call you right. So, whatever it is, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I think I'm going to call my social content around that. Yeah, have you ever heard of AnswerThePubliccom?
Micaiah:No, I don't think so. No, is it kind of like on a store?
Rob:No, no, no, AnswerThePubliccom. So this is what AnswerThePubliccom is. So there's search engines out there, right yeah, people use Google as a search engine, people use Bing, people use YouTube. Those are essentially search engines that have a bunch of information on it, right? So AnswerThePublic is? It compiles all of the answers based off of the keywords that you put on and what people are searching for, and tells you what they're searching for most in that.
Rob:So what I mean by that? I don't know if I explained that, right? What I mean by that is like, let's just say, you put people search for homes in Frederton on Google, right? Well, there's words that are populated after that, there's different variations of that and there's the problems that they would look for. In that, we're talking about niching down again. Right yeah, if you're talking about buying multi units, like you would type in buying multi units and you would find out all the fears around buying multi units. And how do you even find out the things that people are searching, all the things that we take for granted, right yeah, because we just assume that we know the answers.
Rob:Then you make all of your social content around that. You can create libraries around that, right, you can do a whole podcast and cut it down and then anytime that somebody has questions about buying a multi unit in Frederton you have a bunch of specialists around or whatever just send them a video Strategy, but like I like it. So people are doing that. That's actually how I found out about the homeless people in Halifax, because that was the thing that came up, oh, really. So I found out. Oh, I typed in homes in Halifax. You know, came up a bunch of articles about homeless people in Halifax. Yeah, so the person who made all the content around that, yeah, that's the thing that came up in that crisis.
Micaiah:Yeah, so I think that's the thing that came up in that crisis. Are you using chat GPT every day?
Rob:Using chat GPT.
Micaiah:every day Chat GPT 4, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So AI, you know artificial intelligence. You know we're seeing a lot of weird stuff come out of it. We're seeing a lot of good, useful things and tools come out of it. What are you using it for? What are some things that maybe people should look out for and like or just kind of look into? You know, maybe we can talk about like the opus and like chat GPT. You know how it's. You know helping you make things. You know scale your business up, make things more efficient, whatever it is. What are you using AI for?
Rob:Okay, so I'm super opinionated about this Super opinionated, get ready. So what I love about AI is that it's leverage Like. There's certain ways that you can create leverage, and code is one of them. So automation, artificial intelligence, is one of them, and if anyone's listening to this right now and they have not hopped on the AI train yet, this is their invitation to do that.
Rob:Do it. Do it right, like right now. This is why you have to do it right now. There's this fear out there that AI is gonna replace people. That's the fear. Right, it's gonna replace people. Ai is never going to replace people. People that use AI are going to replace people who do not use an AI. That's what's gonna happen.
Rob:So, like, the best analogy I have is let's say, 100 years ago, there were farmers that were planting their crops by hand. They were planting and everything was good, and that's the way that you did it. And then one day, somebody invented a tractor right, and a bunch of farmers said I don't like the tractor, I don't like that. And the tractor allowed them to plant more seeds faster. Now some of those farmers went and learned how to use a tractor right, and some of them didn't, and the farmers that learned how to use the tractor produced more, produced more crops.
Rob:So then what happened was some people did not jump onto that right and they either went out of business or probably had a hard life, we could assume. And then some people decided now I'm going to learn how to use a tractor, but they were so far behind the people that already knew how to build a tractor that they were trying to catch up. Well, the same thing with AI. It's the same thing as a tractor. It just allows you to produce more at a higher scale. So if you're not on AI, hop on it right now. The people that are using AI are going to be so skilled at using it in 10 years. They're just going to they're just going to out-produce everything.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah.
Micaiah:So it's like the old people you see walking around that still have like the iPhone 3 or the iPhone 4. It's like they feel like they're way ahead. But then it's like now we got the iPhone 15 Pro Max coming out and like it's just wherever it is. In the next year there's going to be something else and leverage yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, I have you heard of the jet business.
Micaiah:No, so the jet business is like this. It's like a business, this guy that sells jets, like private jets, and his big thing is obviously, you know jets are expensive, you know buying a private jet is not free by any means, but he says it's a leverage thing. And the thing is leveraging is your time, definitely, because it's like you can jump on your jet, you can fly wherever you need to go, so much quicker, so much easier and you have so much more time and you're also going to use it more to get where you need it anyway, and so it's. I mean, obviously you have to have, you know, some money behind you. But, like he said, once you get to that point and then once you buy a jet and you can leverage your time to another level, he said you know it. Just it completely changes people's businesses.
Rob:Wherever you want. When you want to go there, you can eat while you're doing it. You don't have to drive work from your computer.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so I don't know, I mean I don't, I think it'd be cool to have. I don't really love flying, but I mean I think it'd be cool to have a jet when it'd be all right, it'd be all right, but anyway, yeah, it's just, it's another one of these things that you're leveraging, like in this case. It's like a time thing. I was like you're not, like you're not buying. He said you're not buying a jet as an investment because you're not like gaining appreciation on it. You know you're not making money on it, but you are gaining your time, which is, in a lot of cases, more valuable than whatever. That's what artificial intelligence is like. Yeah, like when you used to spend, you know, 20, 30 minutes doing a write up for your clients. Yeah, you know, give me a Not as good. Yeah, yeah, give me a 500 character write up about a bungalow with three bedrooms, view of the water, and they just spit out this beautiful. You know, yeah, we shouldn't tell our clients that that's all we do.
Rob:But Well, you have to. Yeah, You're just not doing as good, exactly Like, flat out. Yeah, I know some people have that pride with them like, oh, I, you know, I did it. It's all all myself. But you know, and I think, like the fear is being inauthentic and that's not what I'm saying is, being honest, it should be you, yeah, but it just it provides so much leverage, yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm even chatting to BT4 for almost everything.
Micaiah:Yeah, yeah, a couple of months ago or like I don't know when it first came out, like you'd use it for like your real estate write ups, but now, like I'm using it like to plan vacations. You know everything. You know to search every, and now that it has, like the, I think it uses like Bing as like the main search engine for chat GPT, like to search the internet. You can use it to actually like search stuff now, and so it's got so much more information, unreal. It's like you're stupid if you're not using it. You know what I mean Crazy. I mean nobody's stupid, but I mean you're just. You know.
Rob:Can I? Can I give a couple of examples of the way that I use it? Please do All right, so these might just be small things, but I used chat GPT for to create about 160 email templates that I put into my CRM to make a drip campaign. That were all based off of Tom Ferry videos, all based off of real estate trainers their ideas. I literally just popped that link in there Said give me the best content from this. Wow, give me ideas about how to help sellers sell their home. And I created 160 templates, took me about three hours, put them all into automation. Now I have automation built into my CRM that actually has value to people Real value, because that's what they actually care about. This is the stuff that they actually care about, but I repurpose it for that. So that's just one idea to create all your templates. I've used it for social media plan right On how to post ask it questions the other day. Oh, this was a cool one If you have technical problems, right, like I was trying to connect my Instagram page to my Facebook page.
Rob:It wouldn't connect and I'm like pretty you know, you're way around, tech way around, and I was staying up at night. I could not figure this out. Like I'm staying like for months oh no, I'm posting them both separately and it was just driving me crazy and I'm going around in circles, around, in circles, around in circles. And then I remember one night it was like 11 o'clock at night. I'm trying to figure this out and then that little code comes up you can't connect and you have to do this and this, and there's this little error code on it and I'm like searching the web I can't find it.
Rob:Anyways, I have this idea Screen capped that I threw it into chat GPT-4. The screenshot. Yeah, I said turn this into step search the web and find step by step instructions on how to fix this. No way, and it went. Gave me step by step instructions and it worked, Wow. So like evenly think about if you're not.
Micaiah:I didn't even know that you could put like picture. I didn't know that you could like put pictures of this stuff in there I took.
Rob:We got a printer in the office the other day.
Rob:I took a picture of it. I was like, teach me how to set this up. And just went wow, it's great. So like that's what I'm saying, like you could take it and I don't know. But you could take a picture of your fridge. Say what you know, my fridge is acting weird. Let me fix it. So I use it for stuff like that.
Rob:I think if you're an entrepreneur, one of the things that I always struggled with is I get a lot of contact information. Like imagine you're at an open house or you're at a you know an event and you're getting business cards or something like that. I was in Toronto, I guess, last week and I did this where I was collecting people's business cards and I used to have to go into my CRM and manually input that in. I literally put all the business cards, I laid them on the floor and I stood on my hotel bed and I took a picture of them. I threw in the chat GBT. I was like turn this into a CSV file for me. It turned it all into a CSV file. I took all the names, numbers, like everything.
Micaiah:Are we writing this down?
Rob:It was. I put it into my CRM. Oh, my goodness man, but that would take me two hours before I put it in.
Micaiah:There's a number of drip campaigns, most like complex things. That I've had to do is I had like a list of like what did I do? I went into like Planet, like Service in Brunswick, copied like a bunch of like names and addresses in just like a random order, and then, like I said, like make this into like an Excel sheet for me that has like a column for first name, column for last name, column for address and like that in itself like saved me tons of time, crazy. And so I was like I was like man, this is kind of cool, but that's like. That's like basically the extent of what I've done, but that's yeah, basically a virtual assistant.
Rob:If you use it that way, it's basically an assistant, for that knows everything. Yeah. Yeah, that knows everything. Yeah, like I'm really big on it. I have it even sometimes like if there's something that I want to learn. Let's just say YouTube video and it's says 30 minutes long. I don't really know if I'm going to watch it or not. I'll throw that link in there. I'll be like summarized this for me Tell me the main points that it talks about, and then I'll read the points. Then I'll watch the video. Man.
Rob:Based off like it's, I gotta get into this more.
Rob:Pretty unreal I just made with AI, just made for a brokerage. It took me, I did it myself this because it was real estate specific Like we have a VA, but this was so real estate specific that I wanted to make sure that I had my eyes and my hands on it. But I made 200 posts Instagram posts for a brokerage in about an hour and a half using chat, gpt and batch create on Canva. So that's basically three posts a week, three reels a week Wednesday, friday for the next year done.
Micaiah:Wait, so it made videos. It made videos.
Rob:Yeah, it took a real template and like reels and then I did, like you know how, like people do, quotes, yeah, put a little quotes thing in the middle, but I got the real background so that it gets the algorithm of the reels. And seller tips, buyer tips, yeah, yeah, yeah, I put that in there and I batch created them. So if you put that all into CSV, you can go into chat GPT, say, make me 200 seller tips, right, and then some of them they're not all first run draft picks, right, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So you have to go through that, something you're gonna change, right, but it'll make all that.
Rob:And then I took that. I said turn it into a CSV file for me, turn it into a CSV file. I went to Canva and if you have a Canva Pro account, there's this button called batch create. So what you do is you pick your template and you get your template the way that you want it, with your branding right yeah, branded to you. And then there's a thing called bulk create where you actually upload that CSV file. You select the field that you want it to change and it will make that many posts for you, but change the words in them, wow. So if you wanna do seller tips or something like that, usa, I want all my seller tips for next year and it's, you know, your template with your face on it and your logo and all that.
Rob:But you wanna say different words? Yeah, you can do that in like MS and.
Micaiah:Talking about oh man, man, that's crazy. So long story short. I mean, all we're saying is you gotta get on the AI train. I have to, yeah, Cause. I mean, if you're somebody and like that's the thing, like if you're somebody that's doing this exact same thing without AI, and maybe you were hired by a digital marketing company to do make three reels a week or something like this, but then you got somebody who can make 200 in a 10th of the time. That are still like. They might not be like as handcrafted Is that, but I mean like it's still a lot of them are still super creative and super well put together and yeah, heck through the 200.
Rob:Maybe you only get 30 out of the 200.
Micaiah:Even that, yeah, you're still saving hours and hours of work. But I think if you're in marketing, yeah, yeah, and I know there's a lot of AI scheduling and calendar apps and stuff out there as well that are pretty effective, but I haven't. Yeah, I'm gonna have to go home right now and like, just like turn my computer into all things AI.
Rob:It's unbelievable. I've used it for, like you know, maybe like a difficult. I've used it as like a confidant. I'm having a problem with this person. I really care about them. Here's what's going on. It's really important to me that I'm empathetic with them. How do I say it? How do I say this? And you know, not perfect, but like, but yeah, give me some ideas. Or I use it the other, like here's a good one.
Rob:Talking about lead generation, scripts are so important. What you say is so important. I mean the top salespeople. Sales is the king's skill. Sales is how you make people feel by the words that you use. That's what sales is.
Rob:There's something called neurolinguistic programming, and neurolinguistic programming is basically, our words have effects on what we do. Our own words have effects on us. They have effects on other people. So if you understand this, then you can leverage this. So it's called neurolinguistic programming where basically I'm saying the words that make us come to an agreement, yeah, yeah, programming you to agree with me, yeah, to get the sale right. And there's, you have to do it ethically and all that stuff, yeah. So I was having a hard time coming up with some lead generation ideas on how to really start this conversation that I was at and it was working with a bunch of realtors and I was like research, neurolinguistic programming, come up with one, or it was like 20 opening questions that I can ask people in Instagram message and it researched neurolinguistic programming and even all these great responses. So if you're doing sales by chat on Instagram and you're just connecting with people, selling services or selling whatever connecting with people and it uses this strategy, Now I can never like know like I get a text from Rob.
Micaiah:I never know where it's going. Oh man yeah. Yeah.
Rob:Like I really believe in keeping it personal too. Yeah, right, oh yeah, and that's the risk with it, yeah, is sometimes people do feel like that. Yeah, sometimes I use it for a chat because I actually care so much yeah, like that's the other one, I care so much that I would use it and I just couldn't find the right words. But if it's something personal, I just think it's gotta be from you. Yeah, it's gotta be personal.
Micaiah:Yeah. Yeah, I mean one thing I loved I love cold calling, and like I don't do a ton of door knocking but I enjoy cold calling. I mean I don't. It doesn't make me bubbly in the morning when I wake up and I'm like I'm gonna call a bunch of people, but like I don't mind doing it and it's been an effective lead generation kind of thing that I've used.
Micaiah:Anyway, but and like I've also thought about like eventually getting to the point where, like I hire an assistant and but like I don't. I'm not at the point where, like I trust anybody to talk to any of my clients that aren't me, and not because like I don't think that anybody else can do a good job, but because I value that relationship and that kind of personal connection so much and like I don't trust somebody to say something that I don't trust somebody to say something the exact same way that I would want them to say. You know what I mean. So but I think having those first kind of conversation starters, gaining all those prospects, leads, whatever they are, and then kind of diving into that one-on-one kind of conversation, I don't think there's anything wrong with, like maybe sending out a bunch of emails or doing a bunch of cold calls that are scripted, like you say, or maybe AI generated, and then kind of getting into that personal kind of like you've been talking about, But-.
Rob:But I think we were just talking about, like, the King's skill is sales and sales people are trained, like everyone that I know. That's like I'm saying the lead at sales, lead on it. They all know what they're gonna say. Like that, your open, yeah, yeah, yeah. They got five openings that are tested by science. They know how to. When the conversation is going sideways and the kitchen table with us up, they are elite at bringing it back and adapting it and they are elite at closing and that's learned. That's not I'm just nice, right, that's, there's a skill to that. I mean, that's neuro linguistic program.
Micaiah:Yeah, that's one thing that, like I didn't come from like a sales background in the slightest you know, and like I've learned a lot like over the past couple of years of like seeing like some good sales people that are like good and genuine but just saying the right things to make people like you say, like make you feel comfortable and make people trust you. And it's not like a lot of people think that like sales people are like slimy or like whatever it is Like like I wouldn't say that sales people have a good rap, like I don't.
Rob:Maybe maybe you think differently but Exactly so like I think sales is the most noble job.
Micaiah:I think it is too Now that I'm in it, but I don't think people like from the outside looking in, think I just don't think anyway.
Rob:Cause you know what it is. It's the one bad story. It's the one bad story that paints us all with the same brush. Yeah well, exactly Like you know, like these cops, as a there's a lot of awesome cops out there. Yeah Right, one cop goes and eats someone up, or whatever, exactly, and that's all you're about. You think all cops are the same thing with sales, right, like there's. I always say like this is my opinion, is with realtors. With realtors, I would say like 80% of them are like average, they're like they're good, they're okay, they're not. You know nothing special, nothing bad, nothing good. Like they're good, they're good people. Yeah, 15% of realtors that's the people they've ever met in your whole life. Yeah, like they are giving, they are skilled. Yeah, they are working on their craft, they are helping people. Yeah, they are very serious. 5% Meet, probably less than that, really. You know I'm long in the industry. Yeah.
Rob:They're in for the wrong reasons. Yeah, for some reason those are the stories that we tell. Yeah, those bad experiences, and if you really looked at it objectively, really doesn't happen that much. But anyways.
Micaiah:Yeah, no, you're totally right. Like, I totally agree with you. But like and like you say it's. Like it's that bad, those bad stories that get passed around, it's not the good ones that are getting passed around. Like, oh, I had the best salesperson ever, you know. But like, from when I joined the industry, like before I got into anything sales, like I didn't think that people would look highly of you because you're a salesperson. You know what I mean. I know we gotta change that. We gotta change that Because like it's, because like I love it and like seeing it from a different perspective now, like it's just. Like you know I love working with salespeople like that that I'm with. But yeah, that was that's the difference between like good, skilled, highly trained salespeople. Like going into a conversation knowing what you're gonna say but not knowing when you're gonna say it Yep, or like Active listening yeah.
Rob:Exploratory questions, discovery questions, learning what they really need. They think they need something, but you're really listening, yeah?
Micaiah:Yeah, I, it's like you need this. I just had a guy do a new website for me, yep, and and he was absolutely amazing. We had these, like we call them like discovery sessions. We're like I was like just spitting out all this stuff about like what I wanted, what I needed, what I thought I needed, what I thought I wanted, and he was like he was just incredible at like the act of listening and coming up with like solutions and like asking me questions that, like I didn't even think, that, like that I hadn't even considered, so it resulted in, obviously, you know, a great, you know great website, great, you know relationship there. Yeah, I like it's those types of people that you know it was that 15% of like Sales people like he's sales person yeah, right, he offers a product, yeah, offers a service yeah.
Rob:But great sales people are really good at asking questions, yeah, and just listening, yeah, and really like really listening.
Micaiah:Yeah, and I think that's one thing I got to work on too Like honestly, like I wouldn't say that I'm the you can ask my wife, but I wouldn't say I wouldn't say that I'm the best like active listener, just because you know I like to chat, I like to share whatever it is. Yeah, that has in a mindset of like taking, even if it's like one or two extra seconds to just like, just like actually listen and maybe just think a little more before you say something. You know what I mean, what's that? But yeah, these are all. These are all strategies and things that that we're constantly working on and that if you're a sales person, if you're a new realtor, even if you're a business person, you know that's maybe not salesy but you're trying to promote your brand Like these are all things that you can use and strategies that can help you. Hopefully story, hopefully we have time, please too.
Rob:Oh, yeah, we have. So I was coaching this, this a group of real estate agents, by one one in particular, and we had this house in our area that was for sale by owner, for sale by owner, for, let's say, this is over a month, and realtor after realtor after realtor would come to me and tell me that they were gonna go try and get this listing Right, try and get this listing for the sale by owner, right, yep.
Rob:And they would come in and they would say how they were the best and they were gonna do this and they're gonna get them this money and they're gonna do this. And they would come back and they would tell me all these things and they would leave without the listing. And then finally one person came up to me afterwards. She's like how am I gonna, how do I am gonna get this listing? And I was like you know what? I bet you no one's ever asked them where they're gonna go. I said I bet you no one's. They pick up the phone, they start saying everything that they're gonna do. I said just go in there and say there's only one thing that's important to me Just tell me what you're gonna do with this money when you sell this house. She did that out the listing, yeah, but it was that the listening, it was the questions that got her the listing. Not that I'm the best. They felt like, okay, she understands and I can trust her.
Micaiah:That's what they really weren't. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, rob, I really appreciate you coming on here, man, today, and we're definitely gonna have you back because there's a lot more stuff that I wanna talk about, but for now, that's it. If you have any questions for myself, you can definitely check out my website at gosmeca and get in touch. Rob, how can people, if they wanna get in touch with you, how can they do that?
Rob:Yeah, I think Facebook Instagram is really the best way you can follow me, Rob Dupiro, or at Rob Dupiro on Instagram. Yeah, Best way. Shoot me a message. Yeah, yeah, awesome.
Micaiah:Cool man. Well, it was great to have you on. If you have any topics you want us to chat about, then check out my website at gosmeca and get in touch. Anyway, but that's it. Thank you so much. We'll see you later. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you have any questions or wanna learn more, feel free to check out my website at gosmeca Wherever you're listening from, leave me a five-star review and let me know what you'd like to see in future episodes. Also, if you're a buyer or a seller and looking for some guidance in this ever-changing real estate market, I wanna work with you To get in touch today through my website at gosmeca, or you can search Makai Gosman Realtor on Google and get connected with me through any of my social media platforms. Thanks so much. We'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you.