So i want to talk about innovation today i want to talk about pivoting. I want to talk about adjusting, but i'll give you some insight ready. So i coach 17 different ceos of real estate companies. One has 90 000 agents for contacts.

One has 27 000 agents uh throughout all of europe right. So you know these are major players in the space we did a sort of late april. Early may survey from you know, executives to managers and here's what we discovered about 45 of every real estate agent took a 12-week, unpaid vacation. They essentially they furloughed themselves and yes, some of them were in non-essential markets.

There was only a few left at the end. Um, you know new york. Obviously very you know very fickle. You know hoboken as an example where one of my top clients works uh, but you know places like philadelphia where they were completely shut down and couldn't do anything or parts of detroit where they were shut down and yet, with all of that, going on you're exactly Right, it really is those that did the work and those that were in a state of fear and - and i don't mean to dumb it down to just that simple.

But that's that's always the case, but i assume there's micro. So that's yes periods. I mean that's just always the case like there is no. There is no success in being crippled by fear and curling up right now.

Do not confuse that with being thoughtful and conservative right like like, i thought it was appropriate for people to hoard cash and not you know there was a lot of money to be made in real estate. Excuse me in the stock market in that two-week period. Yes, but i didn't deploy capital into it, even though i thought there was some opportunity because it was just too early, i don't like making decisions when you don't have all the information bingo. What do you think now, because look so we're a hundred and eight hundred nine days ish into as we're recording this at least certainly from california, in in a stay-at-home work from home environment? Do you think, there's enough time, that's now passed that we can, you know, have a deeper, more insightful projection into the future.

I don't but i, but i'm also not a macro global economic kind of like savant, and so what i mean by that is we've printed. A lot of money, the people that need it most have stunningly spent it um. As of this second, you know the situation seems really in flux. You know americans and humans in general, don't have the greatest patience and right now people are super out and about - and i think we've seen you know staggering.

Growth in certain markets and florida and texas and arizona have been well documented. But i don't, but i don't, but i think these are in cycles. You know all of a sudden, new york and new jersey looks good and then i have a feeling come september. They won't look good because now we're good and we're going to go outside.

I think we're in a real pickle here. I don't think i don't think um. First of all, we've created a society where everything is politicized. The fact that wearing a mask or not wearing a mask is a political issue is really unfortunate, regardless of what the right answer is.

It means that 50 are not going to agree, and so i think that we're in a really tricky spot here. I i'm not saying well, this is where we're at. I think that the i think there's a lot of people out of jobs. I think there's going to be more people out of jobs again, as the second wave kicks in, i think the fall and winter is is confusing.

No, this is i'm i'm personally not in a place of like oh, this is figured out just yet yeah um. I do think that the ability to work from home for a lot of businesses is figured out. I at vaynermedia feel like comfortable if people have work from home now in comparison at scale compared to what i went into this year. Thinking so i think, there's some things that are obvious, but i don't think that the macro like oh the economy is great or not great yeah um has been figured out and the longer this lasts and again i think knowing this is a real estate podcast.

You know i mean i think manhattan's got some real challenges. People are moving out and i think if this really lasts until next march, you know you could see people getting really impatient and um and i think uh and from work from a lot of reasons. People like to live in manhattan is their office is here and they don't like to commute well. Imagine a world where those individuals only have to come into work once or twice a week.

Instead of five days a week, all of a sudden, the suburbs of manhattan become very attractive, very fast yeah you're. Seeing the same thing, though in seattle you're, seeing the same thing in a lot of vertical living environments, like that's, that's, become sort of the new norm. I, the data, isn't out enough beyond the stories right. There's a lot of stories of everybody's, going to the hamptons everybody's, going to connecticut everybody's, going to new jersey everybody's going to florida, but the data isn't out there's a lot of online data.

That says, the searches are are massive from sort of these uh big industrialized cities to out to the outskirts, so we're seeing that leading indicator. But we don't have enough data yet to say with absolutism. People are leaving right and i think the people that tend to make money in business are the ones who see enough data to make a conviction right, like the data. Isn't the data wasn't there on social media when i bet the farm, the data wasn't there.

Yet on sports cards a funny thing that i've been investing in the last two and a half years two years ago, but but it, but it then showed the data. Wasn't there that podcast ads were a good idea. So i'm comfortable, you know i'm not in the real estate business um, but but in the places where i pay very close attention to to your point. If you wait too long for the data that everybody understands, the arbitrage is gone, and so it's going to be very interesting.

I um i'm very curious on how it's all going to play out um, but i know anecdotally in story form that a lot of my real estate agent, friends that are selling in manhattan are kind of checked out and taking the summer off, because it's real real Real slow and then the westchester jersey, connecticut, you know, friends and obviously my sister in jersey, um, seemed to be awfully busy. This year, then they've been in a long time, especially places like connecticut. That state has has historically, at least for the last decade and a half not done well from a residential real estate standpoint, and today the 5 million dollar listing that had been on the market for three years is now getting multiple offers. So there's some real data around there.

It's it's really interesting, um. Let's i actually wrote down for you ready eight different, just words and phrases things that uh things that you know. We've talked about things that i hear you talking about um, the first one you ready. I wrote down the word patience.

Yes, what i wrote down was your dad my dad us we're, like bricklayers, right sort of metaphorically, whether it's building the story of our life or we're building the you know the the castle. If you will, metaphorically most people struggle with patience and at a time like this, when i think it's really important, what are your thoughts around patience, especially for young or rock star real estate professionals? You know, patience is um a true business strength, true business strength, true life strength, that is uncomfortably not cool, which is why i think i got on it about three to five years ago, very loud um. I think it actually is a byproduct of people's deep need to seem successful to others. Yeah 100, and you know a lot of the way i think about homes and other assets, or even calling yourself an entrepreneur.

Come from this. I think people over extend themselves across the board on everything, from clothes to um, to homes, with a 80 to 90 percent being grounded in other people's opinions. Right and i think that when you can eliminate that judgment, whether it's your parents or your neighbors or the joneses or social media, all of a sudden patience becomes easier. But when you're, when you're living under your means, instead of over your means - and you do worry about like people thinking - you drive a shitty car - you know, then all of a sudden you know patience becomes harder.

So i think patience actually has a very close correlation to confidence um, and i think about that a lot. I'm a big big, big fan of patience. I really am, i think it really really matters. What do you, if you were sitting with someone today who just like they get it, but they don't apply it? What would you say or do i think so many people get it and ask them.

Why yeah? That's the that's the thing i poke out with friends and family. I'm like why and and and again when you have like an hour and a half over dinner and some glasses of wine or three hours in the backyard or or you work with them, and you get the answer over a week. A lot of it comes down to judgment, eventually, you'll eventually you'll get something like well. My brother has a home in connecticut or because my dad's been looking or you know, always all my friends in college are married.

You know like you're gon na get somewhere eventually to a place where they're going to say something about someone else and that's the trigger. That's the insight, that's the that's the hook, that's the hook! That's when i jump in and i'm like. Please please, let's debate this because living your life predicated on that judgment is gon na often lead to not a happy place like what do you want like? Are you like? I was super content in my crappy apartment in my 20s because it was super close to the store, and i you know i like waking up at 8, 30 and being in the store by nine. You know like, like you, know, that kind of stuff, the practicality which means practicality, because i just couldn't hear the noise from the outside, whether that was my parents, my siblings, my friends, you know the broader world and that really helped me.

It helped me be happy and that's ultimately what i want for people. I want them to be happy and unfortunate. A lot of people associate money with happiness, and it just it is so obviously not true and that's why some of these things, like patients, have become very important building blocks for me to communicate around, especially as i felt that more people were following me. I started to convert from you know, being flattered to feeling obligated, and so i started stretching myself over the last half decade to really challenge myself and figure out.

Why has this worked for me? What's working for me and how and how do i communicate these things and end up being a lot of soft skills and traits that haven't historically been associated with alpha business leaders and that's, i think, what's been a little bit unique about it and and has been Enjoyable to go through that process, yeah people, uh people - don't get that you can have an enormous capacity to care and be a great business leader. That's right, i think people think business is too much dog eats dog like step on people and yeah. I just don't see it that way. I see the world far more abundant than those individuals.

I agree before we're done by the way for the people that are listening. One of the questions i'm going to ask at the very end is social's pretty noisy. What does a new agent do? What does a crafty veteran do and what's a team leader do, but i'm going to save that um? The second thing i wrote down is content creation. Yeah right, i think, there's a lot of people out there that i don't think i know there's a lot of people out there that struggle with i just you know a.

How much do i post and b is anybody? Does anybody care or or the better one is, i don't even know what to post yeah? What do you say to that person? Maybe some like what some practical tactical things of like not just getting over it, but just hey how much in your opinion should somebody be posting today on all different platforms as much as humanly possible? I i don't know my speaking to that is very simple. It is absolutely the way that people discover people you're, a person that sells real estate or a team leader or you're, trying to attract people to your brokerage or or you're trying to build credibility in a town because you're expanding into that town, because you've kind of You know you know saturated your current market and you want to go a little further out of your zone um. As far as like what i'm a very big fan of documenting versus creating, i think when people think they have to make a video it's hard. But if they just you know, give some thought to like i mean i would, if you just made a video every day and looked at your calendar and just spoke to your day, yeah, it's just it might help somebody.

I think who are you as a human? I think too many real estate agents think about putting out content that looks professional instead of just being the guy or gal that they are like yeah a real estate agent right now in kansas city posting that they're excited that the royals are coming back may. Actually, i mean, like you know, you know this about me already brought up with the jets like yeah. You know, like the jets matter to me, a lot more than if you had 14 or four years of experience, selling homes and like uh people make this. Everybody knows this people make decisions based on people.

Almost everybody listening right now had no idea what they were doing when they sold their first five homes right right, you learned it along the way and so those first five people were either family relationships. Acquaintances, serendipity, yeah, yeah or likability right, you're, just a likable person and that likability might be you're attractive, like that's real life or you're funny or you did something well before, or you were the high school quarterback and you or your high school friend, there's a million Variables that go into it, but as far as content creation that also goes into self-esteem and lack of confidence, slash deep insecurity. Most people talk themselves out of it because they're not confident they're worried that they're worried about the judgment. They're worried that people are going to say their lighting was bad or that was stupid or it's just fear fear is an incredibly devastating um energy in the world and leads to so much bad and in this very micro version of business, bad, not putting out content On instagram linkedin facebook i mean linkedin, facebook and instagram on a daily basis to not have at least one post as a real estate agent seems to me so stunningly shockingly big of a miss.

It's just a missed opportunity. Right i mean why did you buy it? It goes up yeah yeah. It goes up there with like not calling your own past clients and sphere. Do what i mean it goes up there we're like not uh asking for referrals like that's how big of a miss.

I agree. I i think it's oxygen. I mean, and you can do it a million different ways. Maybe you've become friends with prior clients.

You actually ask them hey. Do you want to do a video of like, like i think, story time is something i've been thinking a lot about people struggling with making content. I've been thinking a lot about like hey start, something called story time and just tell stories, hey it's janice. You know from re max, you know like uh.

Let me tell you a story. My third house i ever sold, oh god, what a disaster i would do you know like. I think. Certainly i mean it's.

What real estate agents do with each other when they hang out right story time, so i i think that um, i think that there's a million things to do you could put you know. You've heard this. I i think when i was on stage 209. It was one of my first time saying it being the mayor of your town, yeah.

You know interviewing people reviewing things school system data, putting out a video, i mean what we were talking about already like yeah, if you're, if you're in you know, outside of pennsylvania in the jersey suburbs, put out a video or a picture that talks about the increase In how many homes have sold in cherry hill, i don't know like these are. These are all things that are very realistic. I know this know this. It is very black and white obvious at this point a decade plus in that the lack of social media is leaving out opportunity.

Now you may be the cliche 36-year vet you've been doing this for 36 years, you're you're, 58 years old. You are the queen bee and you feel like you, don't need it. What i keep reminding those individuals and i've started hearing from them in the last half decade, is that's fine, but every second, that means you're, losing market share and until the point where it might not be sustainable and unless you've saved and you're in a great place. If you plan on, i would say this, the story goes to.

If you plan on working another 12 years, you don't want your last six years to be crappy, and so i i would say the only individuals that that shouldn't be required to put out three four pieces of content a day on social across 345 platforms. Are the individuals who are retiring within the next half decade right and if they sell no homes in that next half decade are in financial stability to have everything they want in their post-retirement world? If you're, not one of those individuals, you really need to debate how to figure out how to put out more content, because it's every second, it's becoming a bigger variable of how people make decisions on who they work with. So i would uh i agree, and then i would argue that point and here's what i would say right now, with the average real estate professional being you know, 57 58 years old, which means there's a whole bunch, like maybe judy johnson from connecticut, who might be Listening or watching this who's, one of our clients, who's 92 right. So here's i mean gary by the way hashtag be like judy right judy's, making her phone calls she's hustling, but here's here's what i tell people like when they're in that position, because i remember to remember in 2009, you were like look look if you're gon na Retire in five years, you can watch me i'm entertaining, but you know you're not gon na doing this stuff.

Who cares what i say to those agents? Now is seven years ago i started saying: agents are gon na start selling their businesses they're gon na start selling. The trust that they established in a marketplace they're gon na, sell their client list, and that gives them a very real opportunity to retire. So i would counter that just with a different insight is, if you are that agent and you're listening right now and you're 62 years old, and you think, oh, my god, i'm already done and i paid off my house and i own a couple round of properties. Why do this? I would say why not extend your brand and sell your business? How are you going to do that? You got to be relevant today right.

It can't just be the postcards because now every one of those people we all know that i mean even the us postal service - puts it out. If you do social and postcards you get a better response like and by the way. Let there be no confusion because i've a b test this to the moon, billions of dollars in media spent through my companies. There is no comparison to direct mail versus facebook.

If you do facebook properly they're, not even in the same world, so gary there's, no doubt right and and as a as a company we've been talking about uh, you know sort of what's called multi-channel marketing right, youtube, facebook, instagram both the content creation as well. It's the boosting side and and the direct ads we we know - and i think my my community say listen to this they're - going to check, check, check, check check. Yes, yes, yes, yes, let's switch, let's switch gears um, we talked content creation. Let's talk about innovation.

The thing that i, that i've always uh admired about you and and other others. You know that that do what we do, we continue to evolve. I see a lot of people getting stuck. What are your thoughts around just innovation and and re-engineering yourself and and getting better being relevant to your customer? What are your thoughts? It's about not falling in love with what got you there yeah.

You know to me when, not if, when social media is not the dominant current way to communicate, i'm going to be thrilled, i feel no emotional tie towards social, even though that's where most people see me right now, no different than when i was a wine guy And started doing business content, everyone was confused and this and that - and i'm just like this - is just real to me. You know if i started doing business content in the late 90s, i would have been the email and google adwords guy. That's right! That's right! So i am, the answer to your question: is don't don't get and this goes back to the postcards. This goes back to the bench ads.

This goes back to being part of the chamber of commerce or email or google adwords or facebook. It's i'm just too scared to not continue to try to challenge myself. You know i have no interest in i mean the amount of people that are going to lose because they're 100 instagram now and instagram will evolve in the next five years and not be instagram as we know it, it's going to be very heavy, and so you've Got to continue to challenge yourself, we're already seeing that look at all the influencers. I mean i'm not kidding guy moves in, like you know, 10 houses down for me, rents this uh, this ocean view pad and out front lamborghini.

You know just one hot shot after another right i mean stereotype on his door. My son said he had some symbol for whatever his instagram was like on his front door. Right, like the ego like i wanted to punch the guy right, i wanted to walk by and literally scratch his car. I didn't, but you know what i mean just like.

I just see that are you ready covet hits within two weeks he's out of the house. Yeah, a hundred percent i mean and you've already seen it. I thought the punchline of that story was going to be that he's actually a tick-tock celebrity, not instagram right. Like things about things for sure yeah i mean, i think i think it's very very important to put yourself out of business before somebody else.

Does it for you right, and so i i innovate out of necessity. I test alexa skills, even though they're not real. Yet i look at ar and vr i look at machine learning. I look at messaging.

I've been very aggressive on text platform, yep um, hey, thank you. You're welcome uh. So those these are real things, and so you know i i think that um, i just view it again as oxygen, no different than content creation not getting caught up in what got me here, and so i will continue to look at you know every you know: Advertising in esports and and twitch and by the way tick tock's on the cusp of being 30 to 40 year old, all day long, and so i could see tick, tock being a big conversation in real estate. You know in the coming months and i'm sure there's plenty of real estate agents.

Who've already sold a house from a single post on tick tock and i know that's not the conversation in the real estate world, and so you know they're, that's just the game. It's always been the game, it always will be the game.