Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: You're listening to Selling the Dream. This isn't an interview and we're not journalists.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: But each week we'll ask our guests
[00:00:15] Speaker A: to open up and share their secrets to business success.
Let's have a conversation and have some fun.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Selling the Dream. I'm Ken Jordan and of course I am joined by my co host, Joe Iredell. Here we talk about sales, entrepreneurship, the challenges, the struggles and successes, the failures, the fun, all of it that goes into the things that we do on a day to day basis.
We love to have conversations with cool people. And speaking of cool people, we're going to introduce in a few minutes our guests today who we're super excited to have spoken to our guest on a handful of occasions and I'm hoping to get some, some good stuff out of them today. But, but first things first, Joe, how you making out over there in California?
[00:01:02] Speaker C: We're doing good, man. We're doing good. We're. I'm looking forward to summertime, to be honest with you. We had a rough winter. Rained a lot. Wasn't really, you know, the, the typical California sunny weather that we're used to, but now it's, it's feel like it's kind of broken and things are getting back to normal. So.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah, we're feeling that a little bit here. It's starting to, starting to dip into the 80s a little bit, which is nice.
You know, it's cold and rainy, man. I feel like we did kind of go from a little bit cold and rainy to hot.
Sometimes we miss that spring, but, but you don't know nothing about that because it's like spring always down there in California, San Diego.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: It's pretty beautiful.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: But so big weekend this weekend.
We Broad street run.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: How'd that go?
[00:01:51] Speaker B: It went very well. It went very well. I convinced Amy to, to give it a shot and I just am super proud of her, dude. She, she was always like, you know, I don't need to do this, I don't need to do that, I don't need to prove myself, I don't need to blah, blah, blah, right? But when she finally got the idea in her head that she wanted to do something difficult and trained for it, she jumped in with both feet. She trained hard and she did phenomenal, dude. It was a lot of fun running with her. It was really cool.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: She didn't break your balls for wearing roller skates.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Now the heelys, the heelys were especially downhill, man. Those things are key to have, you know.
Yeah, brother, what's that?
[00:02:39] Speaker C: If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: No, it was good. The weather held out. It was,
[00:02:46] Speaker A: it was, I don't know,
[00:02:47] Speaker B: in the 60s, mid-60s, a little misty, but, but, but it was good. It was the second time I did it.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: I'm glad I did it.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: I'm looking forward to do another one.
I'm gonna try and convince you to do that 24 mile hike in October in the Grand Canyon.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: You know about all that? I don't know.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: We'll see. We'll see.
Why don't we bring in our guest? You ready, sir? All right, so we're joined today by owner and CEO of the Summers team at Keller Williams in Philadelphia, former president of the Philadelphia association of Realtors, phenomenal real estate agent. Very, very intelligent from all indications and a great guy all around, Chris Summers. Chris, thanks for joining us today.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Ken and Joe, an honor. Thank you for inviting me on here.
Yeah, I would love to be in California right now, but it's always sunny in Philly. It's sunny today, but yeah, thank you for having me on here.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: You bet, man.
So, Chris, tell us a little bit of your backstory. I know you spent a decent amount of time in finance and also, I believe some time in government as well.
Tell us a little bit about what, you know, your journey to real estate.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Well, I, I, I will. And I think like most people, really, whatever profession they're in, you know, nine times out of 10, where they are now probably wasn't where they planned to be, you know, by, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. But I graduated from University of Maryland. Terrapin accent now. But back then, in my mind, acc.
Yeah, I got a degree in accounting or business. When I first started, I didn't really know what I was going to major in, but I quickly realized instead of doing a major, that means nothing, do something that's marketable. And then I got my CPA license. I worked with the government. I worked with Deloitte and touche of Washington, D.C. i got a little bored with that. Although travel was great, I came to Philadelphia to be a stockbroker. I knew no one, no one except one guy who helped me get the job as a stockbroker. Six months later, maybe even less than that, he left. So then I really don't do new one or no one, but I did get, you know, some kind of, you know, the stockbroker I think really helped with the sales part. Ken. And then you guys probably recall the Internet crisis in the late 90s. Yeah, you guys are probably remember that and that.
Yeah, Y2K, all the dot coms, they went like this, you know, then they all went down like that.
That was tough for me, and I ended up kind of getting pushed out of that industry.
And in 2004, a good friend of mine is like, chris, why don't you get into real estate? Okay. Yeah. So I kind of backdoored into real estate back then. And then over time, you know, fast forward, you now have a large team of people. I think we're up to, like, almost 28 agents or kids can say they're kids, you know, and then, you know, one of the top prolific, innovative real estate teams in the city of Philadelphia. Typically, you do it around 100 million, you give or take, you know, depending on, you know, the market and so forth. So that's like the brief little update there.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: So you married a Philadelphia native for street cred, right?
[00:06:17] Speaker A: For street cred, yeah. Because, like, I mean, one of my lies, or it could be a lie, you know? Yeah. From the city of Philadelphia. I remember going to an after hours club in South Philly, Deep South Philly, many years ago, before real estate, you know, and then some of the people are like, you're not from around here, are you? And I'm like, no, but I know dumps or I know Santa Suso. And they're like, oh, okay, cool, you're in. You know, there you go. You know, like, I just posted on Facebook, on the leadership side, you become who you surround yourself with. Right? So, yeah, I think that's always important in whatever endeavor one is in.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: So before we get too far along, it's always Joe's job to remind me to do two truths and a lie. He always fails to remind me to do two truths and a lie. So before we get too far along, Chris, we're going to play that little game. Why don't you start us off with three facts. Two of them are true, one of them is a lie. By the time we're done, the human lie detector, hopefully we'll be able to pick out which one's real and which one's not.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Currently, I have season tickets for the Philadelphia Sixers.
Philadelphia Phillies. And my favorite food is oysters seafood.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Season ticket holder, the Phillies. Season ticket holder, the Sixers. And favorite, favorite food is oysters.
All right, I think I know the answer already, but I'm not going to give it up just yet. Just yet. So. So, Chris, you.
Let's talk about your team. I know you. You work with your wife, right?
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Partner Partner.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Okay, so now. Now, what are some of the challenges as you started to grow your team? You had said you kind of quickly, I think, in your. In your. Your thing quickly grew your team. What were some of the challenges of, you know, in the early days when you were trying to build that team out?
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Well, that's a really good question because I, again, you could probably ask other teams, team leaders, like, was it their goal to build a real estate team from day one? Well, if it was, well, fantastic for me, that wasn't the case. Yeah, basically, you know, like, I was just working hard every day and got very busy. And, you know, the guy that brought me into the real estate world, I was on his team, Steve Osky, who's the broker owner at ReMax Access, who I was partners with at ReMax Access for a long time. But what happens is, once you get a little bit busy, what do you got to do, Ken? Leverage, you know. So I ended up sharing an assistant with him, and it got to a point where I was doing so much business, I went on my own.
And then in turn, you know, one thing kind of leads to another. You get an assistant, you get busy. You know, another agent joins in this case, you know, the partner join, and you kind of, like, expand from there. So, you know, with myself and the Summers team, it was more organic growth.
And then if you can kind of continue that, you know, then like, attracts, like, people want to be part of something cool. I didn't really know that we were doing that, but. And obviously we were, you know, and then, you know, like, someone, you know that I knew well at ReMax Access joined. You know, we moved to Northern Liberties from port Richmond in 2008, 2009. You know, a few more people end up joining the team. And I think one of the good news about, you know, our team over all those years is, like, our level of retention is very high.
Very high. Like, oftentimes you hear, you know, it's like a soap opera, people leaving this team or that team, this team, you know, and that happens maybe a lot with offices, but there's been some people have been our team for 15 years, and I think there's something to be said about that. And for the most part, you know, the only people that have kind of left has been more like, you know, attrition, leaving the industry, maybe moving to the county and just doing more real estate, you know, in a different, you know, part of, you know, Philadelphia counties or whatnot, but more in the county. So, yeah, it really grew organically and I think like as any business can grow from an entrepreneurial ship, I mean sometimes that's the best. I think some mistakes I see people wanting to start a team but they don't have any business yet. Right. So how could you really attract people? Or maybe you'll say that you'll provide A, B, C and D.
But if you don't have A, B, C and D, that might be challenging for some of those people with over promise under deliver and then they might lead now I mean I think there's something to be said leap and the net will appear but you really have to kind of be on it to basically provide the resources, the structure. And a lot of agents are obviously looking for leads. So at least have some foundation, a value proposition per se, you know, where it makes sense to a attract people to join your team. And this is the same thing for a real estate brokerage too. You know, it's very similar, you know, to attract people to join a brokerage or a real estate team and then more importantly retain them, you know, to have that high level win, win over time, you know, where you're working together, having fun, you know, positive energy culture, you know, all those things I think are really, really important for both growth or just you know, maintenance too. You know, if you're doing X amount of business, you don't have to grow 15 to 20% every year. In some cases you might be in growth mode, other cases you might be in, hey, let's just kind of, you know, keep this thing running at this level. And I think it's important to share those goals, you know, with the people on your team or your brokerage. Again, you know, to have it kind of be a collaborative type experience.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: I think that that is so true and it really highlights the main reason why businesses and entrepreneurs fail. And it's because number one, I believe one of the main reasons is they're under capitalized, people run out of money, you have a great business plan, you start to get customers or whatever, you can't sustain the infrastructure that you built. And the problem there is to Chris's point, if you build out this big machine and then all of a sudden you got to put fuel in it, you don't have enough fuel, it's going to fail. So you know, I love that strategy where you start, you prove concept on a micro level and if you can make money, a little bit of money here, then you just slowly add to it and then the economies of scale kick in and you basically have the revenue coming into attach other parts of the business. So that's, you know, I'm not surprised that you're successful by taking that strategy because it's almost foolproof. If you can make money, you know, with one person, then that same can be applied to more down the line, even more.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: So. Chris, do you think that, that the real estate business model from a sales perspective and growing a team, do you think that the scalability is, is different than other businesses?
Do you think it's easier? Do you think it's harder? You know, what, what are some of the unique things about growing a real estate team versus let's say growing
[00:13:29] Speaker A: a
[00:13:29] Speaker B: franchise or you know, where you're looking to grow product lines and things like that?
[00:13:37] Speaker A: That's a really good question and I don't really have the exact answer because it's hard to kind of compare Apples versus whatever that might be without experiencing it per se, you know. But I have been, you know, like part owner, like a REMAX Access for many years and my team was in REMAX Access for the last five years. I just have my team, you know, within the KW Philadelphia, which is now KW Empower. I mean, I think when you're running a team it's, it's definitely more focused, right? You have your team standards, you have your team goals, whereas the brokerage, it starts to get kind of like wide and diluted. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think one of the main aspects is if you kind of have your mission, your value proposition, you can kind of take that and scale however you want. I know a lot of Noah Ostroff with Billy Living has done expansion type models that other cities, you know, in the country. And I think that can work because obviously you have your branding, you have your database and whatnot. Like for me, like there's like enough of a large pie in Philadelphia where I really haven't had to do that or the franchise out. I think that would be more at the brokerage level versus, you know, a team level kind of thing. I love that high level thinking, Ken, with that. But at the end of the day, like, I mean ultimately, you know, it's like listings, leads, leverage. And I think the leverage part, you know, obviously a lot of that is agents, you know, and having them join. But a lot of that also is the systems and processes with that. You obviously have to have the right people too. Like Gary Keller kind of talks about, you know, the people are really more important than the systems because if you have the wrong people, then all that other stuff you can start to disintegrate. So I think, you know, for me and for our team, I think a lot of it is just like you're just doing great work and being part of transformation of Philadelphia, like the amount of change the last 20 years and really be in there, the neighborhood level and be part of that is immense. And to be able to kind of have a living and, you know, doing great things, it really kind of becomes like a nice win win. I'm not really sure if I answered your question specifically, but you know, I think there's always opportunities for leverage and scalability and I think that's the benefit of a business owner. You can kind of take it as far as you want or as narrow as you want. But I think what I found is like those niche models can work a little bit better because it's more focused once people start to get kind of wide. You can have fast growth, but you could also have fast decline too.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: My opinion is that industries like real estate and financial and so forth that are so market dependent where like when it's on, it's on and when the times are lean, you know, and that can be so drastic and really unpredictable that, that ability to scale, you have to be very reactive and you have to have pretty fluid kind of strategies to adapt for, you know, the market influxes. And you know, one day it could be a buyer's market, the next day, you know, why not? So that's, that's where I from. Being an outsider looking in, that's the real estate world scares me, like, scares the heck out of me. And mortgages and all that because you're not in control of the rates, you're not in control of, you know, a lot of stuff that's out there. And you could put together a business plan and say, okay, we're going to grow 50 agents next year. And then all of a sudden the market tanks. You're like quiet shit. Like now we don't have the, the capital to sustain this and so forth. So that's, that's kind of my, my take on it. Maybe like.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Well, Chris, you've been around since 2004, right? So you've seen 08, you've seen a lot of cycles in the 20 year period that you've been in real estate.
How do you protect against those cycles? Like Joe's saying, you know, when it comes to the ups and the downs, what's your strategy? What do you preach to your people when it comes to navigating those ups and downs?
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Well, I mean, yeah, you guys are really bringing up some high level questions here because it's insightful. I mean, I think and over the course of the years, like you've seen a lot of, you know, things that are supposed to disrupt the industry or like the online model, you know, is going to kind of take over, you know, or the technology. But like, I don't know if anyone's looked at the real estate price recently. Redfin, even Zillow kind of had a 52 week low. A lot of other companies not even existence open doors a penny stock, you know, Compass is more like on the brokerage model. But yeah, they were a tech company. Yeah. You know, but like, you know, and a lot of other companies just aren't around, you know. So what does that mean at the end of the day? You know, client service and client delivery is what's most important in our industry. And I think you hear like some of the people talk about it, you know, like real estate influencers is like, you can't take that service equation out of the equation. You know, people want it, people need it. You know, it's like the one or two most, you know, difficult or maybe the most biggest purchases or sales they're going to make in their lifetime. You know, they want to go to people, most of them, you know, that have experience. So I think to some degree, you know, real estate is recession proof. Yeah. There's always people that need to buy. Always. People need to upsize, downsize, sellers need to sell. People are moving, they're kind of doing all that thing. People are leasing those leasing people turn the buyers. So there's always that constant demand to some degree. Now you're right. In certain years there's transactions. Like last year, Transactions were down 35% year over year in Philadelphia just due to a lot of different things. Public safety, mortgage rates.
Why lease when you can own? Turned into why own when you could lease?
But over time that takes care of itself. And I think if you can deliver, what's most important is delivering that experience, which we could improve, you know, with technology, we could improve with resources we could improve for a team. My joke is it's like I'm bald already, right?
I'm actually getting my head shaved soon. I like to be completely bald.
Yeah. But like if I was doing all the things on, like on our team, as one person, I would be like, you know, I'd be stressed out, out of my mind. So like when you can combine those resources, you're delivering a better experience to the consumer. And those are the types of Things that over time, no matter what's kind of happening, transactions up down should provide a large demand of business. Over time does that kind of make sense? And I think that's the case with a lot of different industry that are more service related. Right?
Yeah.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Tell me about your leadership structure with your team. You're 20, 20 agents or so.
How does the, how is your leadership structure set up?
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Well, like, you know, my partner, you know, Stephanie and I like, you know, we kind of run the summer's team together. And I think a lot of it is just kind of lead by example.
I like that line. Did you guys see the movie the Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino?
It might not be the best analogy because, like, you know, I'm not the double or whatever. But like, I like what he said when he was like taking, you know, piano around New York City is you got to be in the trenches. And they were like riding the subway somewhere. You know, he was like, hey, shouldn't we be in a limo? Or whatever? It's like being a trenches. So like, you know, I'm in the trenches pretty much every day. I'm in the office right now. Right now in Fishtown. Yes. I like to be in here several days out of the week, maybe not every day. And we're encouraging people to come in, you know, work together. You know, we have three sales rally calls a week. That's what we call them, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, where we're kind of sharing experiences, wins, challenges, losses.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Let me ask you this, and this is selfish. This is totally selfish of me because as I'm asking you these questions, I'm thinking about my own experience and some of the areas that I struggle or the challenges that I face as you know, in my, in my leadership role. But talk to me a little bit about the mindset that does a leader have to have more of an idealist approach? I struggle with being in the trenches from a standpoint, saying, okay, I'm in the, I'm in the shit with my loan officers. I'm dealing with the same stuff they're dealing with. But sometimes does that, does that make it more difficult to have the energy to show up one day like, hey, hey guys, like, super motivational. Here's all the things you have to do. Like there's a certain naive or, or, or, you know, kind of idealist mentality of some leaders that if that, that it's. It's hard to play, it's hard to do both. I guess if I'm not articulating the, the the question correctly, how do you. How do you balance that out? How do you.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: How do you battle that?
[00:23:09] Speaker B: You know, where. Where sometimes your energy, you're. You're beat up too. Right. You're in the. If you're in the trenches, that means you're getting beat up too. Right. But you got to shop for your people, so how do you do it?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, like, I mean, being in the trenches could mean a number of things. It could mean, you know, working with buyers and sellers directly. You know, it could mean, you know, just being out there, just trying to navigate more business, doing recruiting, bringing more resources to the team, you know, doing some marketing here or there, doing some branding, you know, working together with the market center. So, like, the trenches can kind of go wide, too. But I think the main points are pretty simple. You know, show up, have influence. You know, like you mentioned, I am past president of the Greater Philadelphia association of Realtors. Yeah. So that. Have some things like that, which sometimes could be the difference between procuring a client or not, who knows?
And just, you know, and being in the office, being available, and doing self development. Like, I started a book club this year. Yeah. Where actually a friend of mine and I did. So, like, some people on the team are part of the book club and those book clubs, you know, the first book was Miracle Morning by How Elrod. Everyone could incorporate those things pretty easily. I have myself. I wake it up an hour earlier and more productive every day. Yeah. The second was High Performance Habits by Brendan Bouchard. And then the third book that we're on right now is. I'm really excited about reading this one, Outwitting the Devil. Outwitting. Outwitting by Napoleon Hill. I've seen this with smiles. Maybe you guys have read that. I read they Can Grow Rich twice. I don't think I've ever read this. So ultimately, this is the type of leadership that we talk about, too. I'm not perfect, but I do know that with the right habits done day in and day out, I love the line.
Small things consistently over time lead to big results.
And if I can kind of show that, whether it's working out, you guys can tell I've been working out a little bit.
I wasn't like that a year ago.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: And I'm just starting, too. I'm just getting started here, you know, and. And doing things like being on the podcast with you guys. You guys are showing the initiative, you know, because I know it's hard to be consistent with these things over time. It. I think it's things like that that's just outside of a sale, you know, that, you know, start to become attractive. But at the same time, Ken, you do have to protect your energy, you know, like, and, you know, time blocking. For me, it's not the best attribute I have. And. Yeah. But I find out that I have a team meeting or a rally call, well, then, hey, I can kind of protect some energy. Energy. Like, the last couple team meetings that we've had, they're like, Chris, you're like Tony Robbins up there.
Actually, Joe looks. Well, Joe reminds me of, like, a motivator anyway, you know that. And that's like a compliment because I did plan for that and I planned, you know, to say some things that actually meant something. And it wasn't just fluff because it's like my own experience that I'm sharing too, that can provide, provide that motivation. And if I could help, you know, people on the team, you know, upscale their business a little bit, or sometimes you need to save that energy for clients and have that frank and candid discussion. Hey, your list price is by 10% too high. Yeah, we got to do something here. It's like Marty and Ozark. You want to get in front of things and maybe saving your life and get your property sold. Maybe it's the exact same thing at the end of the day. I don't know.
So. But yeah, I think all these little things add up. You know, I think that that answered your question for the most part.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: But let's also, let's also kind of take it, take a look at, like, how you got to where you are, and we're all of a certain age now that I'm assuming that, you know, the guys that the team that's, that's working with us is a little bit younger. Right, Right. So when you, when you've got to this point, through doing the things that you're asking other people to do, it's a lot easier to kind of have more of a visionary approach and, you know, take a, A, a higher level look at things.
But one of the things that I know for me is I have. And kj, I know you have this, like, we'll sit back, I'll sit back and be like, you know what?
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Watch.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: I'm gonna, I will do every single job in here and I will kick everyone's ass at it because I did it. And, you know, cold calling.
How many phone calls did we make through college? Yellow book? How many doors did we swing? How many late nights? All of that experience that adds up, that you just carry around and you don't even realize it, that when you're talking to these younger guys who are hungry and, you know, it's kind of like the old bull on the hill and like, all right, well, you know, if you need me to show you what, what this is about, I will gladly step up and do it and whoop everybody in here. But, you know, it's better if we're. If we're kind of directing as opposed to acting. So that's, that's the attitude that I, I know that I have, and it's. If, if someone wants to call me out and go toe to toe, I will go toe to toe with any of these young bucks and show them
[00:28:15] Speaker B: what's up, you know, so that's a good point. I think my takeaway, you know, from, From. From me, from what both of you are saying, is that, you know, it's. It's having. It's having done it or the willingness to do it. The. The, you know, having done it and the willingness to do it again if necessary, kind of gives you the credibility and the street cred necessary to make, you know, to. To. To kind of lead the way.
That's a. That's. That's good insight there. I like that.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: Hold my beer.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:28:43] Speaker C: Hold my beer.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Watch this.
Right, right.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: So, Chris, let's talk about retention.
It's a. And from a leadership standpoint, you can't pick up a leadership book without them talking about retention and how to keep your people. What do you. You had said you've. You've got. That's probably one of your strengths of your team, right, Is. Is how long you've been together. What do you attribute your attention to, you know, as opposed to, you got some people that are going to pop in, create a lot of noise. Maybe they're good people, but they're just not meant to stay long term, you know, and then you got the people that are there long term because they're just afraid to make a move. You know, how do you. How do you. How do you kind of characterize the dynamic of your team? And what do you attribute your retention rates to?
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's a great question, too. And kind of getting back to that last conversation, I like the term mindset.
Action. You can't have action unless you have the mindset. And I think, yeah, kind of getting to retention, too. Yeah. Then it's about. Yeah. The mindset, you know, of your team or your business, whatever it is, you know, what's the culture? What's, you know, what's the, the value proposition? And then, you know, really being consistent with that, you know, sharing it, you know, being collaborative, you know, finding win wins, you know, it's not, you know, without the agents on your team, there is no business, you know, for you guys, you know, in your side business, without the people, you know, there is no. So you have to like, find win wins, be generous when you can be, you know, be, you know, firm and direct. Yeah, when the time is right. Yeah. But really kind of like, you know, have, you know, some sort of, you know, kind of overall plan where, you know, there's, there's a value on both sides. If it's all one way, it's like a bad relationship. It's just not going to work. Right. Yeah. So. So when people are working together, I think that's a big thing. And I think the mistake that, at least from what I hear right, you know, like, you know, again, I would have my recruiting hat on More like at ReMax Access because it was the brokerage. But even on the team part, I do some recruiting. They want me to do more. I need to do more for kw. Empower.
You hear why people leave. And more often than not, it's the same reason why people leave.
Typically, you know, what they promised was not delivered. So I think that's a key part, you know, is like you never want to over promise and under deliver. It's the same thing with working with a client too, you know, is, hey, I'll get, you know, don't tell someone. You'll get back to them today. You're not going to get back to them until tomorrow. You don't tell someone that you're going to make this when they're going to make that, you know, on whatever it might be. And I think if you're honest and kind of show integrity and when situations come up, you know that you're there for them, that you have their back and they know that you'll have your back and they'll know that maybe if you have to, you'll do something to make that work or find solutions. I think it's all those things, Ken and Joe, that provide that foundation or that backbone, you know, where people like, I've had several people on my team, they're like either doing well, of course they have other people contacting them. There's even one woman on our team. I like what she says. She's like, the only reason I'm at KW is because the summer's team's at kw, you know, so she'll go where the summer's team is. That doesn't mean that KW is bad or whatever. Yeah. But it's just the value that she has experience.
If there were a time being on the team means something. And I think that's. I think the goal for any business. And you kind of. You could read about it like a lot of those books, like, you know, from good to great or whatever it might be, you know, is to have that kind of culture. And you can kind of see it on the flip side when businesses start to fail, more often than not, something changed. Leadership change, culture change, marketing blunders, you know, whatever it might be, you know, where something change as far as that consistent value proposition that, you know, that you promised and it's important to deliver. And then what's important from there is to, like, continue to deliver it. Right. You know, and I think that's just maybe kind of being ahead of the curve from technology, resources, whatever the new bells and whistles might be, finding new ways for win wins across the board. And then, yeah, so we set a 20% recruiting goal, Ken, for 2024. We're almost there. Like, our team literally has grown from like, 22, the 28 agents in the last four months. And a lot of that has just been, hey, let's do more video, let's do more content, let's do more branding. Let's let people know, you know, that we're. That we are in a position where we can take on, you know, some people to join the team. And, you know, I think we've already hit our goal for the year, and we're not stopping. Right. So when things are going good, you know, it's like, and you can deliver, I think that's the time to continue to put your pedal to the metal. Other times, it might make sense just to kind of, you know, back off and chill a little bit, you know, and kind of regroup where you need to as well.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: Funny, we're talking. Joe and I were talking earlier about his, you know, about the. The diabetes treatment centers. You know, are you growing too quickly?
And, you know, there's. There's, like you said, there's times to push and, and take advantage of your scale ability, and then there's times to kind of take of advantage, take, take, take stock and take inventory of where you're at and reassess.
So, all right, couple things here, because I know we're.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: We're up against the time crunch for
[00:34:17] Speaker B: you, so we're gonna. We're gonna get to the two truths and a lie. But before we do, I just want to give you a quick tip. Listen to.
I don't know if you listen or you prefer to listen to or read the books, but Outwitting the Devil on audible is phenomenal.
It's phenomenal. There's like a theatrical component to it that I think you're really gonna love if you're.
If. If you're planning on reading it, I'm sure it'll be fine. But if you get a chance to listen to it, that. That's my favorite way to listen. That. That book is 100. An Audible book for me. It's great. Did you ever read it, Joe?
[00:34:52] Speaker A: I mean, I don't sometimes. Oh, I'm sorry. That question was for Joe.
[00:34:56] Speaker C: Oh, that's all right. I don't. I was gonna say there's a theme here. Kenny doesn't read books, and he uses Heelys and marathons and sp.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Read books. I just don't. I just prefer to listen to that one.
[00:35:08] Speaker C: All good, dude. All good. I take the elevator, too, instead of the stairs.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: I mean, there's nothing wrong with Cliff Notes, but there. There is something to be said for the time. But no, I mean, I might read the book, Ken, and then do the audible subsequent to that. I've been kind of slow to the audible transition. I'm a little old school. But, you know, I. I. Anything that. Where you can kind of get that message in here, whether it's reading or audible, I mean, to me, that. That's a win.
[00:35:34] Speaker C: It's.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: It's a game changer for anybody listening. It is in my top five books of all time is Outwitting the Devil. So without a doubt worth your time. All right, let's jump into it. Two truths and a Lie.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Let's.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Let's rehash. We got the season tickets to the Phillies, season tickets to the Sixers, and loves oysters. Joe, what's your guess?
[00:35:52] Speaker C: So, technically, he said his favorite meal is oysters. Now, oysters. I like oysters. I like them raw.
But there's no chance that that's a favorite meal. I can't believe that. And being that you have a large team, I would think that some of the perks for a team would be season, you know, tickets to games and for clients and so forth. I'm going to go with the lie
[00:36:14] Speaker B: is the oysters, Chris.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: I mean, oysters are, like, my favorite thing of the world. You're right. It might not be a meal, but maybe have the steak and the oysters. Or, like, you know, or maybe oysters and shrimp or whatever that might be. But, like. Yeah. I grew up in Virginia beach, and my oyster fetish. I could just say fetish. You know, kind of start. Start.
I love oysters.
They make me happy.
Yeah.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: There's an only fans page for that.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: Got a lot of pearl necklaces.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Something. So, like, I know for I. And I guess I, you know, I might have been a silly one, but I know typically with oysters. Right. Either people love them or hate them. There's not a lot in between. So, you know, I wasn't that smart to come up with truth and lies. But that sounds like it might have been a good one.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: So which one is. So do you have Phillies tickets and Sixers tickets?
[00:37:12] Speaker A: You know, my friend and I got my team, Sean, one of my best friends, like, we've had season tickets for the Sixers for the last three, four years.
And moving forward to next year maybe relates to Biden Omics.
Maybe it relates to. Maybe it just relates to. We've had a good run. We decided not to renew next year. And, like, in order to get the playoff tickets, you needed to renew next year.
[00:37:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: Like, they're already out, so I'm kind of like, all right. But, like, if they kind of get. I've had so many. Like, the last few years have been so tough where some good squads losing some really tight games. I mean, not just the next. Yeah. This time around. But, you know, even, like, the last few years has always been, like, fourth quarter and it's just been heartbreakers. Yeah. So, like, I'm like, you know what? Let me be. Whether it's Biodynomics or just take it a break.
And then. Yeah, they got to be really expensive. Like, speaking of inflation, I think the Sixer tickets on a percentage basis might be up more than gas. I don't even know. But yeah, so. So for the Phillies, I think the Phillies are a great, like, client gift post settlement. Yeah. And it's not like, as, you know, so expensive versus a pair of Sixer tickets. And then, you know, also, like, if someone from the team had a good deal or whatever, it's just. There's just so many more games. It just becomes not just fun, but just a really good investment, too. And, you know, the Phillies are really, you know, starting off the season well, even if they weren't doing that great, I think it's just a great thing to have something like that and to be part of the fabric of the city.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Too, without a doubt. And there's enough games to get to go around, which is good. Well, Chris, thank you very much for joining us today. I really enjoyed this conversation. This was a lot of fun and I look forward to maybe having you on again. I always try and get that commitment before I let you hang up. You'll be on again maybe sometime in the future.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: I mean, for you guys, I've had fun. This has been fun. We did another one. Maybe. I don't know if it's more, you know, formal podcast, but this format is great. Yeah. Mad respect for both of you guys. I, I and I didn't get a chance to reciprocate as many because you guys had a lot of questions for me.
[00:39:23] Speaker C: But I know you guys to hear about us.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Well, kudos to you guys and yeah, obviously I'd be happy to be on again and also again. Yeah, for the people that are, you know, kind of like getting people on, having these high level questions. I know they are helping people because people watch them. Kudos for you guys to be doing this and it inspires me too because once you talk about things you can't just talk about, you got to keep doing them.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: That's it.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Cool, man.
You guys enjoy your day.
