Sean Carpenter - Build Relationships, Solve Problems and Have Fun: A Conversation About Golf, Beer and Real Estate. - GAIN THE PASSION

Episode Transcript
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Voiceover (00:01):
Welcome to the SUCCESS Coaching Podcast. On
today's episode, our guest, SeanCarpenter shares his own
personal journey to successbecause success is a journey,
not a destination. Here's thehosts of the success coaching
podcast, Todd Foster, AlyssaStanley and Kelley Skar.

Alyssa Stanley (00:25):
Hello everyone and welcome to the SUCCESS
Coaching Podcast. My name isAlyssa Stanley and I am here
with co hosts Todd Foster andKelley Skar. Today we are
sitting down with Sean Carpenterwhose business model revolves
around building relationships,solving problems, all while
having fun. He is a speaker,educator and trainer, author of
the award winning blog calledCarps Corner. He's a coach. He's

(00:49):
a realtor and a huge influencerplus so much more that he's
gonna fill you in on during oursession. So Sean, welcome.

Sean Carpenter (00:57):
Thanks Alyssa, Kelley and Todd. So, so good to
be with you guys.

Kelley Skar (01:01):
Yeah, right on man, thank you for for agreeing to be
on this crazy ride that thatwe're that we're currently on.
So I appreciate you appreciateyour time. Why don't you give us
just start off a little bit ofinsight as to who you are, what
you're about. I know Alyssa gaveyou a pretty good intro there.
But if you could kind of fill insome of the gaps that would be
fantastic. And then we'll jumpinto the conversation.

Sure. Well, I'm born in Billings, Montana. And
grew up in Columbus, Ohio, as myfather moved from Montana into
the education field, taught atCornell in Ithica New York for a
couple of years. My youngerbrother was born there. Then we
moved to Columbus where my dadtaught at Ohio State for many,
many years up until the day hedied, actually, so grew up in
Columbus, Ohio, and, you know,enjoyed a nice Midwestern

(01:44):
lifestyle, went to school,University of Florida wanted a
big school like Ohio State butwanted it to be somewhere warm.
So I picked University ofFlorida loved being in
Gainesville, major in exerciseand sports science. kind of my
goal guys was I wanted to workfront office of a sports team,
you know, wanted to work for theYankees, the Red Sox or the
Cleveland Indians or somethinglike that. But I after college,
I got in the golf business,worked in the golf business for

(02:06):
three years out of college, thatstarted in outside of Tampa then
brought me up to Cleveland,Ohio, moved back to Columbus,
after being married and got ajob in the beer business, worked
for the Miller and Coorsdistributor here in town, and
called on all parts of the citybut eventually landed at The
Ohio State campus territory wasmy was my it was my spot to sell
beer. And as you can imagine,Alyssa Kelly and Todd, if you're

(02:28):
going to sell beer, pick a spotwhere there's 45,000 students,
and that's a really, really goodspot to sell beer. But I after
after a few years of doing that,I realized I was kind of more of
an order taker than I was asalesman. And so I thought to
myself, what would be a careerthat allowed me to drink beer
and play golf? So I got intoreal estate, and I've been in
that career ever since. I'vebeen an agent. I've been a

(02:48):
manager, where the director ofeducation for the coal banker
companies in Columbus andCincinnati. And then about five
years ago, I decided to retirefrom the corporate role go back
into being an independentcontractor kind of bet on myself
and and start selling again, aswell as open up my own company
called Shawn speaks where Itravel the country and talk to
real estate audiences and othersales audiences about as Alissa

(03:12):
said, building relationships,solving problems and having fun.

Todd Foster (03:15):
What I love about this is that you golf, you can
drink beer, and you do realestate. So as you said, you're a
perfect candidate for being themost successful realtor out
there. Were you a golfer at ayoung age or how did you fall
into the golf world?

Yeah, you know, I grew up in a town called Upper
Arlington, Ohio. I still livethere now. Now, Burlington High
School is where a guy named JackNicklaus went to high school.
And we are the Upper ArlingtonGolden Bears. Interesting.
Interesting fact, Jack was namedafter the school, not the other
way around. In fact, when he wasa up and coming, you know, young
golfer, they would say, Herecomes that Golden Bear from

(03:52):
Upper Arlington. And that's howhe got his nickname, The Golden
Bear. And he went on, obviously,to become the greatest golfer to
ever, ever live, arguably,depending on your generation.
But, so I grew up Caddying, ToddI caddied at Scioto Country
Club, where Jack Nicklauslearned how to play golf and
really got hooked on the gameand started playing on a regular
basis and played all throughcollege didn't play at the

(04:13):
collegiate level, but got goodenough where I could get in the
golf business. And so it's justbeen a ton of fun. And
obviously, when I travel thecountry to watch golf in to see
some of the great golf coursesaround our country and around
the world is always always atreat.

That's awesome. So you went from golfing to then
the beer business? Did somethinghappen in your life where you
said golfs done? Or how did youaccidentally accidentally fall
into the beer business?

You know, I got a golf business because as you
can probably imagine the golfbusiness you work a lot of
weekends you work every holidayyou work from sunup to sundown.
It's a really challengingbusiness, especially at the
private club level becauseyou're really your only day off
is Monday when the clubs areusually closed. And so on
Monday, you have to get your oilchange. Get your dentist

(04:58):
appointments, do your Shopping,but you also want to play
because it's really the only daythat you can go out and play
with your fellow pros and otherother club pros from around the
area. And so it was just achallenging lifestyle and to
have a family, it just, itwasn't super conducive at the
time. And, you know, I also justdidn't see myself doing it
career wise. So we moved back toColumbus, I waited tables and

(05:21):
was in the foodservice businessand then kind of had the
opportunity to learn about youknow, being in the beer
distribution, distributionbusiness and got involved in
that and just kind of reallyexcelled at it, love the
product, love the love to lovehelping people at the grocery
store level on the conveniencestore level, which was kind of
the more the order taking part.
But then when I got into theOhio State area that worked in

(05:42):
the campus bars and getting toknow the the bar owners and the
bartenders and the staff anddoing the promotional things, it
was just a lot of fun. That waskind of the first advent of the
craft beer industry. Back thenwhen corps, you know, invented
this little beer called BlueMoon, and Killians, Irish Red,
if you remember, back in theday, and so I was really one of

(06:03):
the first people to kind ofunderstand the, the, the
intricacies of the differentcraft beer styles. And so the
company used me to go in andtalk to the restaurants and the
bars about why they should putour beers on tap. And so it's
just something I just reallyenjoyed. And, you know, the
aspect of, of working for anindustry that's been around

(06:24):
literally for hundreds andhundreds of years, that was kind
of fun. And the story, the storythat each beer tries to tell,
you know, and what we see nowyou guys with the advent of the
local craft beers explodingaround the North America, you
know, when I travel the countryoutside, it's fun to go into the
local craft breweries, becauseeach of them has such a cool
story to tell about the productin their community. And so

(06:46):
that's something I really enjoy.

With the beer industry, the way it's so
competitive. I could see wherereal estate and beer sales go
hand in hand. Did you find thatthe same thing where you know, I
mean, we have Budweiser, we ofcourse, we have the craft beers,
and we have other real estatecompanies out there as well. At
that time, did they teach youhow to close? Or did you have to
really learn how to close themyourself? Or did the product

(07:10):
sell itself for you?

Well, the package part of it was literally
just going into the localconvenience stores, the grocery
stores and kind of you know,hitting a quota so to speak, we
got to sell this many cores like12 Pack bottles, we got to sell
this many Miller Lite cases. Andthen building the displays. You
guys probably think you know,you guys don't think of it much
as a consumer but your ceilingwhen I mentioned it at the end
caps in the grocery stores,that'd be the big cores light,

(07:32):
you know, case displays, andthere'd be the themed with the
Super Bowls, or the Stanley Cupsor whatever it was. And so there
was that part of it. But thenthere was the, you know, how do
we get our beers on tap and itreally what it came down to guys
was the relationship because alot of people would just put
whatever beers on tap, you know,bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite
Coors Light, they put all thesame beers on tap with different
colored tap handles. And hey,what if we put this beer on tap

(07:55):
and got your waitresses andwaitstaff to tell a story? It's
kinda like, when you order asalad, even though we know what
they're gonna say, we say whatkind of dressing Do you have,
and they say, ranch, bluecheese, Italian, 1000 island,
I'll take the ranch. And sohaving that other thing, that
other piece of the story, Toddto sell was was I thought always
cool to not just give the samething that every other

(08:16):
restaurant or bar had on tap,have that one extra thing and
then obviously closing andtelling him look, this beer at
this price, you know, per pintor pitcher could make a lot more
money than, you know, this thisbeer at this price per pitcher.

So what was it Sean that pushed you towards real
estate then I mean, you know,beer and real estate, they may
go hand in hand for, you know,realtors, beer golf in real
estate. But, you know, forpeople listening to this
podcast, it's like, one end ofthe spectrum kind of to the
other. Right?

Yeah, you know, Kelley, it was a it was a
conversation that I had with mywife early, early, early on the
morning of November 1, whichwould have been what 1997 Let me
let me just let me backtrack alittle bit. I was good beer
sales. I loved what I did. Ispent a ton of time waking up
early and doing the carry outsand then staying out late
meeting the bar owners in the inthe restaurant owners because

(09:08):
you know, most of them don'tshow up to till three or four
o'clock, especially around thecampus bar. So I was out doing a
lot of things. But I came homeafter a Halloween night
promotion at one of our newrestaurants near Ohio State
campus. And I got home aboutthree o'clock in the morning.
Maybe I if I remember, right, Itook out the staff, you know,
after the bars closed down, wewent up to breakfast. And, you

(09:29):
know, I rolled home and I camein the house quietly like I
usually did, you know, I didn'twake my wife up and she was
sitting up watching TV about3:34 in the morning. And I
thought what's wrong, you can'tsleep and she says no, I'm fine.
Just go look on the kitchentable. And I walked in on the
kitchen table and I thought Iwas gonna see divorce papers. I
really did. I didn't know whatto what to think. And she had
taken one of those big deskcalendars. And she had circled

(09:50):
all the days of October that Iwas out past midnight. And there
was 26 days out of 31 that I wasout past midnight.

Wow.

And I quickly got defensive When I was like,
Yo, this is my job, this is whatI'm supposed to do. And she
said, Look, you're good at it,you love what you do. But if we
want to have a family, you can'tbe out past midnight, 26 out of
31 days. And so we slept on it,we had a conversation, and I
said, What do you think I shoulddo? And she said, Well, why
don't you call Bonnie? Bonniewas the agent that helped us buy
our first house a year ago, atthat time. And she says, I think

(10:22):
you'd be great at real estate.
So that day, I called up Bonnie,we did we had a great time
searching for a house. And Isaid, Hey, Bonnie, do you think
I'd be good in real estate? AndBonnie said, Oh, my gosh, Shawn,
with your personality and yourstuff, you know, your energy and
your knowledge of the city, Ithink you'd be great at it. And
that's kind of where it where itstarted. Kelly, it started out
of a finding another careeropportunity that would fit my

(10:44):
skills that I could, you know,find a passion for. But also
they would allow us to, to starta family.

If your wife wouldn't have, I guess, had that
sit down with you that night,which we've all had, as

husbands, especially at 3 (11:00):
30 in the morning? Do you think you'd
still be in the beer sales? Ordo you think you'd have fizzled
out of that?

That's great question. I don't know. I mean,
I like to think you know, thatI, I would have been doing
something I'd love. I'd lovethe, you know, looking back, I
didn't really have my philosophyof build relationships, solve
problems, and have fun until Iwas in real estate. But I would
have probably been doingsomething with people Todd. I
don't know, though, that youlook at the evolution of the
beer business. I mean, I mighthave been a rep for a brand I

(11:30):
might have got into thedistilling business or, you
know, the brewing business. Idon't know. Because, you know,
out of college, I was a golf profor three years, then I was in
beer sales for three years, thenI sold for for three and a half
years. And I became an assistantmanager for a couple years, then
I became a manager for a coupleyears. So it kind of became my
evolution of finding that newthat new Sean Carpenter 2.0 3.0

(11:51):
4.0. So I don't know I, I'vealways been engaged in the
product, so to speak, but not inthe, in the business, so to
speak.

So I want to back up for just a second because
what you said, you saidsomething that really resonated
with me, I can think back itactually kind of triggered me
just a little bit. And that was,you know, your wife had the
calendar out circle 26 days onthe calendar on a 31. And you
immediately got defensive, Ican, I can picture myself
multiple times where my wife is,like, you know, you've got to

(12:22):
put, you've got to put someboundaries around your life,
like you can't, you can't justput the kids to bed, open up
your laptop, laptop and go backto work. You can just finish at
the dinner table, go and sitdown on the couch, or sit down
at your desk in the office andopen up your laptop and go back
to work. Like, what what was it?
I mean, she obviously didn'thave divorce papers. And I
understand, you know, her sayingthat she you know, wants to have

(12:44):
a family. But what was it thatthat kind of that trigger point
for you that that kind ofsnapped you out of this? And you
actually were able to sit downand say, Yeah, God like this is
this is this life is insane. Ineed to make some changes here.
And on top of that, has thathappened to you? Since? Has
there been other instances wherewhere this has actually

(13:05):
happened?

Well, I think probably at the time, I sat
down, I looked at at all thework I was doing and in the beer
business, the the hours andhours upon hours I was putting
in and then really at the end ofthe day looking at, you know
what I was making back then. Andgranted, this was you know, 24
years ago, but you know, tothink I was probably only making
like 35,000 a year, you know,and that became kind of one of

(13:27):
the things like, gosh, if I'mputting this much effort into
it, what if I was putting inthat much effort to something
that that I owned, that was mybusiness. And that's when I kind
of learned about real estatebecause honestly, the guys, I
didn't know anything about thereal estate industry. Even as a
buyer of the house, you know, wecalled up my mom and dad and
said, Hey, we want to buy ahouse, you know, what do we do?
And thinking back? It's funny,because my dad, you know, he

(13:49):
said, well call Bob Kidwell. AndI said, Who's Bob Kidwell. And
she and my dad said he was ourrealtor when we bought this
house in 1971. And it's thatpower of WoW, me. You know, it's
not like Bob Kidwell hung out atus. And I didn't know who Bob
Kidwell was. But so so that'show we got into it. So I think
Kelly it was the opportunity toto make something more out of my
life and kind of start a careerinstead of a job. If that's, you

(14:11):
know, I know it might be clicheto say that, but it became a
career versus just a job that Iwas doing. Has it as it
reoccurred probably a lotbecause I think a lot of what
our what we do is real estate iswho we are. It's part of you
know, I'm a dad 24/7 I'm a realestate agent 24/7 I'm a husband
24/7 I'm a Florida Gator fan.
24/7 I'm a beer drinker, not24/7. But I you know, I'm saying

(14:35):
like my brand is part of who Iam. And so So I think part of
what we do in this business, asopposed to someone who let's say
works at Walmart or departmentstore. They get to punch out at
330 on a Friday afternoon andthey don't have to think about
stocking shelves until Mondaymorning at nine o'clock. When we
punch out of our office or ourhome office. We're still a real
estate agent when we take ourfamily out to dinner and we talk

(14:57):
to the waitstaff and we see oneof our former Clients, you know,
at that restaurant, we're gonnahave engagement with them
because we have relationshipswith them. And it just
reinforces that we're in therelationship business. Right,
the house just happens to be thewidget that we use in real
estate. And so I don't think weturn that off, Kelley, but I
think there are some boundariesthat we need to set where we,
you know, to be honest with you,I think, life balance is kind of

(15:19):
a BS word, because balanceimplies an equal time spent on
each side of the fulcrum, so tospeak, and I think I heard Jeff
Bezos say at first and otherpeople have said it, but I like
to think of a work life harmony.
And, and so I really feel likewhere I'm at now, certainly,

(15:41):
when the kids were growing up,the harmony had to be different,
I'd spend more time at home,doing homework and bathing the
kids and being there for feedingtime and things like that. Now,
the kids are older and selfsustaining. You know, I can be
down here in my home officegetting worked on in the
morning, I can get stay outlate. And if the harmony is
good, I mean, Todd and Kelley,you guys have all had had those
times where you have a great dayat work, and you bring that

(16:04):
energy home to your family,right. And when that other time,
you have a great weekend with afamily, and you bring that
energy to your office in thedaytime. So I think Kelley and
Todd if we can find thatharmony, of balance of life and
work, that's where I really aimfor. And so long answer your
question, because Sure, I've hadlots of those times where I feel
like do I really need to bedoing this right now? Or can I
go upstairs and just turn on afootball game and not have my

(16:28):
phone? In my hand? Can I go pickup a book and not check text
messages in between everychapter?

Yeah. 100% I love that answer. And I was actually
my follow up to that was gonnabe can you coach me out of this,
right, like putting your coach'shat on, but I think he kind of
nailed it in some aspects,talking about, you know, how
work life balance is bullshit.
And, you know, this this harmonythat could exist? You know, how
do you I guess the question thenwould become, how would you find

(16:54):
that, you know, if you're, ifyou're at a point right now, in,
in your business and yourrelationship at home, where your
partner is, you know, constantlyon you about putting your phone
down and putting a laptop away,and not bringing your work home?
And, and all that kind of stuff?
How do you then institute somesort of in and you're self aware
enough to realize that this isaffecting your relationship? How

(17:16):
does that how does how does onethen put a boundary into place
and say, Okay, well, I need toput this down. And, you know,
considering the fact that we'reall entrepreneurs, that we're
all working for ourselves that,you know, if we don't actually
get out and do the thing, themoney doesn't hit our bank
account. Right. So how do youhow do you? How do you balance
that out? I guess, is thequestion.

Yeah, I think that's some that's maybe the the
myth that sometimes people feellike they have to spend quality
time with their family, so tospeak, but then they also have
to balance out the all the workwe do. earning an income is
usually going to be fed backinto where we live and how we
live and the lifestyle we chooseand where our kids go to school

(17:56):
and the car we drive and theclothes we wear, right we have
this this belief boundary. Andso so understanding that the the
work we put in is is also forour family. But I think
something I've been using a lotwith the the agents that I work
with on the coaching side isthat you guys have probably
heard the Eisenhower matrix,right? And maybe we've talked
about it in previous episodes,right? That urgent and important

(18:17):
not urgent, not important. And Ithink, in our business, because
most people in the real estateindustry most not all, but most
people are people people, right,we like to help people we like
we're that, that Hi, I, youknow, personality, where we want
people to like us. And thatmeans we don't say no to people,

(18:38):
because we don't want them tonot like us. And so we elevate a
lot of things from our customerstandpoint into that urgent and
important matrix. A lot of ourclients put everything into that
urgent important, but really,you know, like, you can imagine
Kelley, like, you get a textmessage from a client, they say,
Kelley, I need you to call meASAP, and you're thinking like,
oh my gosh, something must bewrong. I gotta stop what I'm

(19:00):
doing and call them back andthen they say, Hey, what time
was the inspector coming overtomorrow? And you say to
yourself that that was not ASAPthat was not an ASAP issue. So
catching yourself, coach youknow, kind of managing yourself
Kelley to say alright, is thisurgent and important? Can this
get done today? Does this callneed to be returned immediately

(19:25):
within the hour? Or by the endof the business day? Can I do
this tonight when the kids go tobed right after I've had some
quality time a glass of winewith my with my spouse or
partner you know, like onceagain, just kind of prioritizing
the tasks that we have on oureither our written to do list or
on our mental to do list I thinkis is a skill that we all can

(19:47):
get better at putting a priorityon things and not prioritizing
everything as a one.

Yeah, I think the power of no is incredibly,
incredibly like being able tosay no Two things is incredibly
powerful for for some people. Iremember Jesse Itzler. He was on
Joe Rogan's podcast here a whileback and Joe Rogan and asked him
a question about, you know, howhe's able to run, you know,

(20:13):
multi million dollar businesses.
He's married to a wife that ownsa multi billion dollar business
Spanx. You know, he justbasically asked him like, how
are you able to spend a bunch oftime with your family yet run
all these multimillion dollarcompanies and the big chord? The
big answer that he has was Ijust learned how to say no.
Like, it's it's these peoplecalling him up and saying, hey,
I want to take you out for lunchand spend 15 minutes picking

(20:34):
your brain and he's like, no,like, what what is what is the
cost benefit analysis here? Likewhat how does this benefit me in
any way shape or form? Right?
It's it's the the gotta secmeetings, you know, somebody
opens your door and says, Hey,do you got a sec? And you know,
damn, well, that isn't gonnalast a second, it's gonna last
15 minutes to an hour. Right? Sowhat what is it that I'm

(20:55):
actually going to get out ofthat? So the power of No, I
think is is something that thatyou kind of touched on there
that I think a lot of peoplepeople could probably take away
and implement right away and,and all all of a sudden just
have this massive impact on ontheir lives. Just by setting
that one boundary.

You know, I want to give it credit, cuz I think
it was Derek Severs, who startedCD Baby, and he's an author. And
I believe I was listening to himon a interview podcast with Tim
Ferriss, and Derek's a very busyguy, entrepreneur and doing lots
of things. And and Tim's big on,you know, minimizing your
distractions. And he askedDerek, he said, How do you say

(21:32):
no. And Derek, I believe, onceagain, I want to give him
credit, if it's if he's got saidit. But he said, as soon as he
started implementing this rule,when someone asked him to do
something, if it wasn't a Hell,yes. Then it immediately became
a No. If he didn't say tohimself internally, Hell, yes, I

(21:53):
want to do that. Then he knewthat it had to be a no. And so
you think about that, guys inyour business? You know, there's
a lot of things we say yes to,but not a lot that we say hell
yes. Like, I'm going to dropwhat I'm doing to do this, or
I'm gonna put it on my calendar.
You know, I love that, that thatcode that says, friends, I like
friends who will consult theircalendar spend time with you,

(22:14):
but I like better friends whodon't even have to consult their
calendar to spend time with you.
Right? It's not a matter of whatI can do. And so that hell yes,
fulcrum is pretty powerful.

I like to piggyback on the hell yes, thing. So as
let's say, you're brand newagent, or you're an agent or any
small business out there thatstarting off, and you're hungry,
right, everything you do isdependent on what you do that
day and the next day and whatyou did before, how do you get
over the hell yes. Because inthe beginning, I believe
everyone's going, hell yes, I'lltake this, I'll do this. I'll do

(22:47):
that. And for all of us, I'm inreal estate. You know, I mean,
you've been in it for 25 yearsor so. I've been in for a 20
Kelley's been in for 86 years,we have the option to now say,
hell yes to certain things. Atwhat point or what advice would
you give someone to be able to,I guess, really figure out? When

(23:08):
is the real time in the righttime to say, hell yes. Or even
hell no.

I think you probably have to earn the hell
part. I think you don't knowwhat a hell yes, is until you've
had a whole lot of Ah, shit, Imade the wrong decision with
this one right here. Right? It'sfunny, because when new agents
asked me best piece of advice Ican give them, you know, I tell
them make more mistakes. So manynew agents are afraid of making

(23:38):
any mistakes. Because thesepeople that teach pre licensing
classes, tell them that anythingthey do, they're going to get
sued. If they breathe wrong froma client, they're gonna get
sued. You know, we go so farover the spectrum of, you know,
client protections, and I'm allfor it. But I basically say if
it's not lethal, or illegal, tryit. Do it. Make mistakes,

(24:00):
because I don't know what thewrong script is. Until I've said
the wrong script. I don't knowwhat the bad objection handling
technique is, until I've said itwrong. And so I think you need
to earn that hell part of thehell yes, Todd, because what I
what I like about the businessmight not be what you like about

(24:21):
the business? Right? What whatKelley likes or you know, his
his mill, you might be FSBOs andexpireds, mine's sphere of
influence, you know, what's yourtarget? And how do you know so?
I saw Kelley maybe nod his headwhen I said that, but I think
you don't know what the hellpart is until you've had a lot
of yeses, but more importantly,a lot of no's.

That that hold that whole thing just kind of it
brought up a memory for me. Ilike back when I first got
started. So it hasn't been atsix years taught it's like,
fair, I mean, my 15th year I'mstill a baby compared to you
guys. But still, you know, I itwas like, and I think it was
like 2008 I kind of I I pickedthe wrong mentor. And that that

(25:01):
was one of the mistakes that Ilearned early on is, you know,
surrounding yourself with theright people. But I picked the
wrong mentor. And you know, oneof the things that this guy had
said was, well, you know, Idon't I don't do open houses
anymore. I don't have to do openhouses. I don't, I don't need to
do open houses, I'm just notgoing to do them anymore. And
I'm like, Yeah, I don't have todo open houses, either. And it's
like, hold on a second. I don'tknow anybody in this city. Like,

(25:24):
how the hell am I gonna build abusiness if I'm not doing open
houses? Right? That's got to beone of my lead pillars, like I
you know, so you know, it was itwas just that that whole thing?
It was like the, my hell yes,was very different. Because I
was like, hell yes. I don't haveto do I'm not gonna I'm just not
gonna do open houses. Right? Itwasn't the power of No, it
wasn't it my hell yes, was justsomething very, very different.

(25:47):
And I agree with you in terms ofmaking those mistakes. That was
one of the mistakes that I madeearly on, and you don't you
don't earn the right to havethat power of No, I think when
you're early in the business,you got to do anything and
everything that you possiblycan, in order to make sure that
you're going to be able to getpast that that rate of
attrition, which is typicallyabout 18 to 24 months. So if you

(26:07):
can move through that andactually make money and you're
still in the business after fiveyears, maybe then you've
actually earned earned thatpower of No, and that ability to
basically be able to say, hellyes.

I have a question about the 24/7, then. So if you
are hungry, and you haven'tearned the hell yet, how do you
balance or imbalance or have nobalance? Or keeping I guess
yourself consistent to notworking 24/7 Not being a
southern loving? Because you, atleast in the beginning, unless
I'm wrong, and my perception iswrong. Everything we hear in the

(26:38):
beginning, we will be sayinghell yes to most of those
things.

Yeah, a quote that I share with a lot of new
agents is live your life and letreal estate happen in the
cracks. I think we see a lot ofpeople who tried to live real
estate and fit their life in thecracks. And that doesn't really
work for me. And I think itdoesn't work for most people,
people who try and live realestate for their life in the
cracks usually end up failing atboth. But when you're super
active in your kids school, oryour church or local charities,

(27:06):
or you hanging out your localcountry club a lot are right,
where do you get your businessfrom? From your kids schools,
and your churches and yourcharities and your country club
and things like that. So I thinklearning that that you don't
need to be you will be a realestate agent 24/7. But you don't
have to be I don't have to talkabout real estate. Every time
I'm in front of somebody, I justneed to be ready to talk about

(27:28):
real estate. When I'm in frontof somebody. Right? There's a
there's that fine line betweenbeing pushy and desperate, and
being knowledgeable and helpful.
My friend Jim Stevenson said, itused to be find me sell me now
it's no me help me. And when wecan make that paradigm shift,
you guys, I think that ispowerful, that it's about, you
know, sales is not about doingsomething to somebody, it's

(27:51):
about doing something forsomebody and listening for
opportunities. And so I thinkit's once again is a lot of at
bats. It's a lot of hittingrange balls, you know, and
anyone, I don't care how goodyou are on the on the golf
course. Anyone can hit a rangeball and hit the driving range.
But when you're on the firsttee, and you got to get it
around the corner and the pondand the bunkers are over there.

(28:11):
It takes a different level ofskill. But you better be at the
driving range a lot. You betterbe, you know, doing a lot of
batting practice before youbecome Tony gwinner or something
like that. Right? Tony Gwynn,like Kelley, you said, you know,
I don't do open houses. Youknow, I mean, can you imagine
someone like mentoringunderneath, you know, a great
baseball player like Mike Troutor Tony Gwynn, you know, back in
the day. And, you know, I mean,Tony Gwynn could look at that

(28:34):
and say like, I don't swing itcurveballs. That doesn't mean he
doesn't swing it curveballs. Hedoesn't swing it bad curveballs.
He doesn't mean it curveballswhen he wasn't expecting a
curveball. Right. And so it'sall about I don't do open houses
because I don't have to. But Idid when I know when I was
younger.

Speaking of curveballs, a curveball could be
a mistake for us in life. Couldyou tell us one of your biggest
mistakes you ever made and howyou overcame it?

Probably not leaving and going on my own
sooner. Right? I think that'ssomething everybody in our
business. A lot of times peoplesay, I don't, I can't afford a
buyer's agent or I don't need abuyer's agent. And then when
they get a buyer's agent, theysay, I wish I would have got a
buyer's agent sooner or anadmin. So just probably those
evolutions tired of you know,the betting on myself. And I

(29:20):
just kept saying to myself,gosh, every single person who's
successful in life took a chanceon themselves, right? You know,
you look at the, the Bill Gatesand the Steve Jobs and, and the
the wolf snacks and the guysthat you know, they ended, Dave
Ramsey's, they, you know, youhear all the legendary stories
of how they built their businessin a garage, how they, how they
left and you know, came to thecountry penniless and succeeded

(29:43):
and so it's that but that's sohard because if you're not just
betting on yourself, you'rebetting yourself on your family
and your name and your and yourbrand. And, and so that's
probably one that comes to mind.
But like a lot of like a lot ofI joke, you know, I knew agents
have flat foreheads, becausethey said that Because when
they, when someone asks themwhat they say they say, that's
what I should have said, liketwo days later, they remember

(30:03):
what they should have said. Sothe answer to the question,
What's my biggest mistake, I'llprobably think of six of them,
you know, after we hang up, butit's that reminder that, you
know, I bet on yourself, andit's probably the best bet
you're ever gonna make. Becauseyou got to believe you got to
kind of go all in. And guesswhat we have to do that every
day in our business everyday inlife has kind of go all in.

(30:25):
Because if you hedge your bets,you know, you're you're almost
never going to go all in.

Voiceover (30:32):
If you're enjoying this episode, please rate
review, follow and subscribe tothe SUCCESS Coaching Podcast.

What are you seeing out there? Right now? You know,
in the real estate space, Sean,you're you're traveling around
the country? You know, you'retalking to a lot of agents right
now, are you seeing a I don'treally want to get into markets.
But I want to get into kind ofwhat you're seeing in terms of,
you know, companies and modelsand all that kind of stuff. And
I'm curious as to what, youknow, people are thinking out

(31:01):
there, what they're saying, whatthey're what they're feeling,
you know, there's there'sdefinitely a shift, it seems to
be happening, you know, movingtowards the cloud. And, you
know, started kind of withRealogy, and REMAX and, you
know, these companies goingpublic and that sort of thing.
What are you seeing what'swhat's kind of the word on the
street as as sort of speak asto, you know, what are people
talking about in the real estatespace right now? Where it what

(31:22):
kind of trends are you seeingthat are starting to emerge?

But I think some of the big ones obviously, are,
you know, like I said, using thecloud, leveraging technology to
become a better agent. Listen,old school still works. This is
good news for anyone out therewho's, you know, 50 plus age and
they think all all these youngwhippersnappers are gonna come
in and steal our business usingtheir their Twitter's and their
and their iPhones, old schoolstill works, right? The the
belly to belly handshake, eye toeye relationship still works.

(31:49):
Does new school work? Heck, yes.
There's a lot of agents andcompanies that are killing it on
the technology side. And I thinkthat blending guys have that old
school relationship, leveragingit with technology is is going
to continue to be the pathforward, right? Somebody,
somebody with a with atechnology tool necessarily
can't take my relationship away.

(32:10):
But they could start building abetter relationship through
time. So I think technology is abig one, I think we're seeing
clearly a shift to teams, right?
And think of that what you willwhether that's mega teams or big
teams or partnerships, I thinkis maybe a better word for it.
Because you don't have to be ateam to be successful. I think
we're seeing that a reinforcedwhat we're seeing across not

(32:34):
just real estate, but by a lotof businesses is there's
different options out there fordifferent people. And the menu
of services. You know,Cheesecake Factory, I don't know
if you have that up in Canada,Kelley. But Cheesecake Factory
has a menu that's literally like12 pages long. And Chipotle, and
Chipotle has seven things ontheir menu. And they're both
super busy. Right? And so whatis the key though, is you've got

(32:58):
to know your menu, what is youroffering? Right? The, you know,
I know it's kind of cliche tosay, what's your unique selling
proposition? But what's yourstory, because here's what I
find, if you have a good storyto tell, and other people tell
it for you, then you don't haveto tell it as much. Think about
that. If I have a great story totell. And other people like to

(33:20):
tell it, then I can spend mytime effort money on the people
who tell my story not on tellingit to strangers. So the other
thing I'm seeing is people a lotof people are asking me, you
know, do I feel the marketslowing down right now in the
States? Do I feel it's slowingdown? And my answer might be
yes. But here's my here's mymetaphor, you guys. For the last

(33:40):
six months, the real estatemarket's been going 110 miles an
hour. And about a month ago, thereal estate market came up over
a hill and saw a cop in themiddle of the road. And so the
real estate market slammed onthe brakes and slowed down to
90. We're still going 90 milesan hour, but it feels a little
slower. Because it's not 110.

(34:04):
But if we took ourselves from2016 or 2018, and looked at
ourselves from the outside, we'dsay, Holy crap, look how fast
they're going. Look at thebreakneck pace of this business
right now. And that's where itcomes down to slowing it down
having those one on one face toface conversations, those buyer
counseling sessions, thoselisting presentations that are
all based around askingquestions, getting more

(34:27):
information, listening to theanswers from our customers and
clients and communities, andthen finding ways to answer
those questions and or solvethose problems and or, you know,
satisfy the needs of our of ourclients.

If you were a fortune teller and had a crystal
ball, do you see real estate thesame as it is, let's say three
to five years from now. In termsof we are still going 90 Or do
you see us getting pulled overhaving a conversation career
relationship with a policeofficer and having us go on our
little way, maybe just a littleslower than we were in the past,

I think you're gonna see both, I think you're
gonna see people that are goingto stay on the freeway and try
and go as fast as possible andpush it, push it, push it. And I
see other people that says, Youknow what, I don't need that
lifestyle, I get a littlenervous, I get knocked white
knuckles and I feel nervousinside, I'm gonna take some side
streets. And you're gonna seesome other people says, you
know, I'm going to find a way tosit in the backseat and have

(35:23):
someone else drive me. I stillwant to go places, I just don't
want to be the one in charge.
Right. And as people and maybejoining teams or or partnering
up with, with organizations, Ithink there's probably a
metaphor there if there's,there's different paths for
other people. Right? The samething, the music business,
right? People say, do you thinkrock and roll is dead? I don't
know, rock and roll is justchanging. I think there's still
there's hip hop, and there'scountry and there's alternative.
And there's grunge. And there'sall these different flavors. You

(35:46):
know what my favoritepresentations I do is called
getting in tune with youraudience what real estate
rockstars can learn from realrock stars. And I love a quote
by from the lake Glenn Frey fromthe Eagles. He said, You know,
when I was younger, in thebusiness, I used to think other
bands, making good records couldkeep us off the charts. And then
I realized that other bands,making good records can't keep

(36:08):
me off the charts. Other peoplegetting listings can't keep me
from getting a listing. And so Ithink the the, the answer, Todd
is, which road Do you want totake? Which route? You know, do
you want to stay in the fastlane? Do you want to find a way
to make a faster car? Or do youwant to take the side streets
and enjoy the pace more? Do youwant to take a you know, a lot

(36:29):
of different ways to get fromhere to California, I could take
the fastest freeway, I can go onways and I'll say here's the
fastest way. Or I can say well,let's go down Route 66. And
let's stop and, and enjoy thetrip and see people on the way.
So I guess the answer to yourquestion, I think is there's
lots of different ways that Isee that the industry going it
depends on who the driver is. Iuse lots of metaphors and

(36:51):
analogies in my, in my teachingsI cuz I just think there's, you
know, I need people to Sometimespeople hear it different ways.

Well, let's let's talk about that what pulled you
towards you know, you'resuccessful in real estate yet a
successful beer sellingbusiness, you moved into real
estate selling, helping, youknow, people buy and sell real
estate. And then, you know,what, what was? What was it that
pulled you towards managing andteaching and coaching and
training? Like what what what Imean, clearly, you know, you're

(37:23):
not going to be doing that sortof thing in the beer business,
you know, that they probablywere doing that as a pro, I'm
assuming as a as a club Pro. Isthat kind of where that came
from Sean or where did thatwhere did that whole thing come

I can tell you now where it came from back then
from?
I think the opportunity tobecome I was teaching in the
beer business, I was teachingthem about the products. And I
was teaching them about theflavors and the pricing and
things like that. But in thereal estate business, having the
opportunity, we had our firstchild. And I was given the
opportunity to become anassistant manager, which meant

(37:57):
we still I still got to sell mynumber one job was to sell but I
got to help the manager withcoaching and with with training
classes and talking to recruitsand things like that. And then I
was given the opportunity becomea branch manager, which meant I
stopped selling up we were notselling managers at the time.
And so I made the decision gosh,do I want to stop selling but
the trade off was I got apaycheck, I got benefits. I was

(38:19):
a new dad to have thatconsistent pay was a nice thing.
In the two years I managed Ireally love the coaching and
training part of it. But I hatedthe managing part of it, Kelley.
And so I was given theopportunity from the director of
education. What I learned when Ibecame a branch manager, even
though I stopped selling, ieworking with buyers and sellers
guess what I had to sell everyday, I had to sell my agents on

(38:41):
why they should show up fortraining classes. I just sell my
agents on why to show up forsales means I have to sell
recruits on why to get in thereal estate business and why to
join our company and why to joinmy office. So I got to sell
every day I think we all get tosell every day. Right? We we
sell our kids on the books theyread the people to hang out
with. We sell our spouse on youknow why I'm going to play golf

(39:01):
this weekend or stay out latethis tonight. So I really love
the coaching and training partof it. Knowing what I know now
though, Kelley, it's funny. Myfather, as I said was a
Professor of LandscapeArchitecture for 29 years. He
was great at what he did he hewas president of the American
Society of Landscape Architects,which would be like us being
president of the NationalAssociation realtors or or into

(39:21):
the Canadian Associationrealtors, and he was at the peak
of his industry. His father, mygrandfather, I call him Pop. My
my Pop was a traveling shoesalesman for Clark's of England
and Florsheim shoes. And he wasthe classic you know, old
salesman, the big Cadillac, thesamples in his trunk. I remember
I he lived in Ponte Vedra Beach,Florida which is in Jacksonville

(39:44):
on the beach, he had beachfrontproperty and me and my two
brothers would go down and staywith him like one at a time we
got to go out spend a couple 10days or two weeks with pop and
swim in the ocean and play onthe beach and I remember one
time I was down there pop had tocall on some clients him Miami.
And so he said, we're gonna godown to Miami for a couple days
and you're gonna see what, whatyour pop does for business. And

(40:06):
he said, if you're gonna call oncustomers, you got to have a
little suit. So he took me tothe store and he bought a little
salesy. I think it was sevenyears old, maybe eight years
old, and he bought me a suit, alittle clip on tie. And my job
Kelley and Todd, I had to bringthe samples into the stores. And
I didn't realize it then. Butknowing now, when we would drive
to Miami, and we would stop atthis diner, or this hotel, or

(40:27):
this shoe store, he knew everyemployee's name. He knew every
employee's spouse's name, kidsnames, hobbies and interests, he
knew every waitress along thepath, he knew every hotel clerk,
he knew their names, and he wasjust absolutely the consummate,
relationship driven salesperson.
And I never wanted to do what mywhat my Pop did, I never wanted

(40:50):
to be a teacher like my dad did.
And here I am, after theirdeath, and I teach people how to
be salespeople, I get to honortheir legacy, so to speak, in
what I do every day. So the longanswer Kelly is that's where it
came from. It was inside me Igot to, to, to live that. And

(41:12):
now that they're both gone, Ihope that they're looking down
on me and say like, we're prettyproud of the fact that he gets
to teach people every day how tobe salespeople.

Please tell me you still drive in 1973 Caddy
around.

I don't man, I every time I see a big Cadillac,
man, I think of my Pop and Ijust think like that big boat of
a car. You know, I mean, youknow, you picture your seven
year old kid, and you're sittingin the backseat, and you
literally felt like you wereseven feet away from the driver,
you know, it was, but you know,he, he was just, I mean, he was
old school, old school, right.
And it was a, you know,handshake and, and I told you, I

(41:47):
was gonna get this for you. AndI'm gonna call my company, and
we're gonna get that for you.
And then my, you know, my dad,you know, like I said, I never
like kind of paid attention towhat he did. But the day of his
funeral, when my brother'selected me to give the eulogy.
And I stood up on that altar atthe church. And you know, when
you're, when you're in thefuneral party, or the front row,

(42:10):
you know, and you don't want tosee everybody filling in the
church, when I stood up andwalked up and looked out on the
congregation, and every singleseat was taken in the church was
lined in the back of the churchwith his students from over the
years that had come back to kindof pay respects to him. Kind of
cool. And you think, like, thinkhow many professors you'd go
back to, to their town to honorand at the receiving line after

(42:34):
after the funeral, you know,shaking the hands of the
students, and they said, youknow, what, your dad was the
hardest son of a bitch, I everhad a teacher, but he made me
the great landscape architect Iam today. And that's why I drove
through the night to be at hisfuneral, you know, and so that's
kind of cool. That's kind ofthat legacy that you know, that
a lot of people talk about,like, at the end of the day,
that's, you know, your resume isgonna be what it is, all of our

(42:56):
resumes will be done, you know,how much money we made in our
jobs and what we did, but thethe relationships and the
legacies is, is kind of what Ireally liked about what we do.

What would your legacy be, you're off, people at
your funeral. They're tellingthe truth about how great you
are not lying about how greatyou were? What type of legacy
you're looking to leave Yeah, onthis world. Once you're gone?

Well, you know, it's it, you know, my my
philosophy, my slogan, you know,build relationships, solve
problems and have fun, I thinkthat could be my tombstone,
right? He built relationships,he he solved problems, and he
showed us all had fun. Itprobably that it probably be
that, you know, I Kelley youknow, you and I have talked for
years, you know go back to ourdays with Mike McCluer and the

(43:40):
things you know, we did that,you know, when is the when
people meet me in person Todd atan event like the Michigan
Realtors event and they sayma'am, Sean, I've been following
you for years on social andyou're the same person in, in
human in real life as you areonline. You're the same person
offline as your online I thinkthat's a cool thing. So when you
know that can be part of mylegacy is that I was genuine.

(44:01):
You know, he, he was a smartass.
Through and Through. He was aloyal person through and
through. He was a sportswatching beer drinking. Laughing
person, right? I mean, I That'smy target audience guys, it's
beer, drinking sports fans witha good sense of humor. I mean,
I'll work with you. If you're awine drinking non sports
watching person that doesn'tlaugh. We're just not gonna have
near as much fun as a beerdrinking sports fan with a good

(44:21):
sense of humor. And here's thekey. You know what beer drinking
in sports fans with a good senseof humor hang out with other
beer drinking sports fans with agood sense of humor is it's
finding that ideal client, youknow in what you do so, the
answer to that is I want peopleto toe to say he built
relationships. He saw problemsand he had fun.

With the career you have now you are definitely
doing that. Do you see yourselfdoing that long term or do you
see yourself holy cow Sean it'stime to hit the brakes and slow
down and just enjoy life at aleisurely pace.

For the time being? I think I'm on a pretty
good road. I work hard. I work alot hours. I mean, I you know, I
sell real estate 50 plus times,you know, a year, I just got off
a 11. City. Let's see 12 City 11State five week tour kind of,
you know, where I was just eventto event people like, are you

(45:13):
ever home and I go, Yeah, I gotto go home and change my luggage
and get new clothes and thingslike that. But at but my family
and I made that decision, Toddto jump back into sales and
leave a corporate America andleave a paycheck and leave
benefits. I asked my wife andkids hey, do you think that I
could do this? Do you thinkwould you guys support this? And
like, that's what you love todo? Heck, yeah, do it. That

(45:33):
doesn't help that they're,they're all grown. But you know,
my son is a sophomore incollege, my daughter's
graduated. And, you know, theyknow, this is what I like to do.
And so I don't see any reasonwhy I couldn't continue to do
this. Keep telling a good story,helping other people learn how
to tell their stories. There'ssomething special guys about
being a teacher at heart. Andwhen your students, whether
that's a classroom student or orprofessional, taking your

(45:57):
classes or attending yourclasses, you know, send you that
note, text message of a messageon social media that says like,
Hey, I still do that thing youtaught me to do or I still build
the relationships and solveproblems and have fun. And
that's kind of a neat thing. SoI guess no, I'll keep doing it
until I until nobody wants tolisten, I guess. It may be it

(46:18):
may be at different levels. Itmay not be speaking around the
country. But you look at some ofthe great speakers of our
generation. You look at the LouHoltz is and the Zig Ziglar 's.
And, you know, they kind of weretelling stories and and
encouraging people till the daythey died.

I'm guessing that if my wife would have sat down
and sat down and said, Hey, youwere gone 26 nights of October,
and that was pre COVID. Andafter COVID I believe my family
would be saying, Why aren't yougone 26 nights a month?

Yeah, yeah. It's neat. And it's fun. And it's you
know, but it's, it's not foreverybody. I mean, my wife
traveled with me to. I spoke atthe Georgia realtor conference,
which was in Destin, Florida.
And obviously we were I wasbooked four or five months ahead
and she said, Oh, I'll go onthat trip with you. Because
she's really done traveling muchwhen I go and so she thought
Destin, Florida, I'll go sit bythe pool. Well, it so happened

(47:11):
that that conference was at thetail end of hurricane Ida, so it
was raining and cold. And youknow, the flights home were a
little bit delayed. And shethought, man chasing planes and
living in hotel rooms is justnot for me. But I love it, man.
It's the it's the stories I getto meet. I've spent, I did some
math the other day guys, I've inthe last 10 years of my life.

(47:32):
Two and a half years of that ofthose 10 years have been in the
Marriott property. In a MarriotHotel. They're, they're my
they're my family on the road.
Right? But I try and get to knowthe, the, you know, the stories
of the people, you know, thatwork the hotels and the bars and
the restaurants and the airportsand, and things like that. And

(47:53):
if I can use those stories in myblogs, you know, I call it being
blog worthy. If I can catchsomebody being what I deem his
blog worthy writing a blog aboutthem telling their story to my
audience, so that my audiencecan learn about some little
thing that a shuttle bus driveror hostess or a waitstaff did,
because I think if we all dothat, if Kelley and Todd and me

(48:14):
and Alyssa, if we watch forother people in our communities
doing something worth talkingabout, then we start doing
things we're talking aboutourselves, we start saying
what's that thing that's just alittle bit better than the next.
And I think I can do that for along time.

You've proven that when you feel important, and you
just feel good when you're doingbusiness with someone such as
Marriott. And they make you feelspecial, right? They give you a
an upgraded status card, you area member who can walk in and get
a room if needed. There's manythings to it. Yet. That's how
business is. Any person outthere running a business, either

(48:48):
in real estate or a pizza shopor any small business need to
understand that you must makeeveryone feels special because
of not Hilton, Holiday Inn'sright around the corner.

Seth Seth Godin years ago in you know, probably
96, I want to say he saidthere's four kinds of people in
the world. There's prospects,there's customers, there's
former customers, and there'sloyal customers. What are we
trying to get right? And thenhe, he says writes a lot of
books. And so later on, he said,you know, the key to success in

(49:21):
sales is turn strangers intofriends, and then turn friends
into customers, if you canfigure out a way to do that. But
then Seth is a smart guy. Hekeeps thinking and what I love
about what he says now he saysthat still works, turn strangers
into friends turn friends intocustomers. But then the most
important thing we need to dotime Kelley is turn those
customers into salespeople. Getthose customers to talk on a

(49:43):
podcast about the Marriott getthose customers to talk about,
you know, Coors Light orSouthwest Airlines. Get those
customers to tell your story.
And so that's yes, you're right.
It's about creating that loyalcustomer. Because for the most
part everyone is listening tothis Every person in the world
is a prospect until they becomea customer and then hopefully to

(50:04):
become a loyal customer. And notjust a former customer. And in
real estate, like we have theopportunity to get that repeat
referral business because you'reright, Todd, every city I go to
that has a Marriott probably hasa Hilton property, or Holiday
Inn, or something cheaper, orsomething a little further away.
Every place that has coke hasPepsi, for the most part, like
convenience stores and thingslike that. So what's gonna make

(50:26):
someone reaching that cooler andgrab a loyal drink? When when
the window when you order a DietCoke, and the waitress says we
have Pepsi? Is that okay? Do yousay No, thanks, I have a water.
Right? How do you create thatperson in your business? That is
a true card carrying member.

And I think it's important to remember that
although we desire to haveperfection in life, not
everything's perfect. I mean,I've had many issues on the road
with hotel chains. And and thething is, we'll go back because
they either took care of it, orwe know it was mistake and
probably won't happen again. Orthey somehow made us feel

(51:05):
special and important by saying,okay, Sean, here to here, Todd,
here, Kelley, here's what we'lldo for your next visit. And so
it shows you that you don't haveto have perfection in business,
as long as you have therelationship, and they are
raving fans who are talkingabout you for free, which is
basically you're getting freeadvertising. It's okay to make
mistakes, just don't make themover and over and over again.

Sure. And that's that's where the loyalty comes
in. Right? That's where the,that incident that went wrong
was an isolated incident. It wasoutside of this person who's
behind the desks control it was.
But if every time I go in, nomatter who's back there, that's
when you start making changes,right? I mean, we've all we've
all had restaurants that we liketo frequent. And one time we go
and the food wasn't as good, thefries were cold, the service

(51:49):
wasn't good. And you don't sayall the whole place sucks. You
back a second time and a thirdtime, the fourth time the fries
are cold, the service sucks. Hestarts saying like, damn,
they're slipping. And then hestopped going. But the isolated
incident. And that's a goodlesson for us as salespeople is
we can have a day where itwasn't as good as it was before.
And we should know that weshould be able to self monitor

(52:11):
that. But how do we handle it?
How do we make it up? How do we,you know, how do we earn that
trust of our of our customers? Ilove talking about trust,
because in our business in realestate, I mean, whether you're
new agent or experienced agenttrust is I think, the key tool
in our toolbox. And there'sthree C's that lead to trust,
right? There's there's compcompetence. Are you good at what

(52:33):
you do? Do you know your shit,right? I mean, people trust you,
if you know your product, youknow, your service, you know,
the second C is confidence. Whenpeople listen to you, can they
hear your confidence? Can theysee your confidence? I think
people can feel confidence. Andthe third C, which I think is
the is the epitome of trust. Andthat's consistency. Can I

(52:54):
consistently deliver competencewith confidence? Can I
consistently show up connect,and that's where I'll trust the
brand. If their overallconsistency is good, if they
have one glitch, but then it'sconsistently repaired or fixed
or apologized for, then thenthen we can do that. So the the
newest people listening to thisand the most experienced people,

(53:17):
if you focus on those three C'sof trust, in whatever it is you
do whatever service you provide,or product you have or company
run, if you can be competent,right? That's a function of, of
action, right? If you can, or,you know, if you can be at the
function of ability, if you canbe confident, that's a function
of attitude. And if you can beconsistent, that's a function of
action. Man, you're going to beyou're going to be trusted

(53:39):
today, tomorrow next week. Andif you can earn people's trust,
they'll tell other people aboutyou.

Could there be a 4th C, that could be
communication.

Sure. Let's add that one in there. I think yes,
somehow, once again, telling thestory of how you're confident,
competent, and consistent. Andsometimes that story can be
told, or it could be, you know,in print, and video, it could be
on your social channels, itcould be word of mouth. super
powerful.

Alright, so Sean, you mentioned, you know, making
people blog worthy, or findingpeople that are blog worthy, or
experiences that are blogworthy. Maybe you can just let
us know where your blog is, andhow long you've had it in, you
know, the type of content thatthat you're posting up there.

Yeah, so I love the blog has given me
opportunities to kind ofdocument my journey. And it's,
you know, people don't blog it'sfor me, it's a place that I can
keep my thoughts and find anaudience. I blog at
carpscorner.net, you can getthere by seancarpenter.com as
well, but carpscorner.net andI've been blogging there for I

(54:42):
think I started blogging inabout 2002 or 2003. And so I've
got over 1100 blog posts nowwritten and you know, guys,
people that don't blog peopledon't do videos, people don't do
podcasts. You become a betterwriter when you I start writing.
I'm a much better writer than Iwas when I started. But my

(55:03):
audience is real estate agents,brokers, managers, mortgage
people, anyone who's in sales,anyone who wants to learn about
building relationships, solvingproblems and having fun and, and
by using that as my sort of mytarget audience. A lot of my
blogs aren't about real estate.
It's about being a dad, it'sabout it's about traveling. It's
about, you know, lessons I'velearned. Of the 1100 Plus blog

(55:24):
posts. I bet if I went throughand looked at them, guys,
though, only about 100, probablyless than 100 have been truly
about one person, a blog wherethe story, a story worth
telling. And I think of those,let's just say I've done I'll
just get 7574 of them were aboutsomeone doing some awesome. And
I think only one time have Igone the negative route, and

(55:46):
said this was a bad, badexperience. And I told the
story, almost as a lesson tosay, but then I changed I didn't
like that I said, I changed. Isaid, I'd rather tell good
stories about that. And so it'sfun. For me, the consistency has
been powerful. I started yearsago guys writing what I call the
Monday morning match. It wasdesigned as a post that was

(56:09):
gonna be a story, a quote, avideo, something to inspire your
week to kind of slide that fuelunder your week and get get you
started Monday morning match.
And by doing that, it forces meon Sunday nights to make sure
that I write a blog post thatshows up in your mailboxes on
Monday morning. And thatconsistency, I've missed one
Monday and I think nine years.
So that's been a great exerciseto kind of tell my story. And it

(56:34):
allows me to find new readers,people that hear me speak and
they want to continue to hear mystory. They can follow my blog,
sometimes people follow my blog,because their manager or their
Board of Realtors shared a post,they saw it on social and it's
gotten me business because whenpeople say we've been following
your blog, we want you to comespeak at our our conference and
things like that. So it's justcool for me to kind of have my

(56:55):
you know, I haven't written abook. I don't have a physical
book that I could hold up andshow you. But I have 1100
chapters of a book, if I just gothrough and pull out my, my
greatest hits. In fact, I'vethought about doing that, you
know, getting maybe some of mybest blogs and calling it a book
of matches, right and pullingout my best Monday morning

(57:15):
matches and pulling out just myblog worthy individual stories.
And I love it. It's just somefun for me like you guys enjoy.
And you'll love doing thepodcast. And it's years from now
when I'm dead and gone. It'll beit'll be out there. My friend
says blogged and better listingon Google.

Yeah, part of your part of your legacy. So if I'm,
if I'm the, you know, directorof an association looking to
hire you to speak, where do Ifind you?

Yeah, you can go to seancarpenter.com, or
carpscorner.net. And there'skind of an About Me page. I love
talking to obviously real estateaudiences, I've had a chance to
speak to some non real estateorganizations, which is fun, cuz
I think the message of buildingrelationships and solving
problems and having fun goesacross borders, I speak to some

(58:04):
local high schools and talkabout leadership and goal
setting. So they can reach outto me, you can always you know,
I'm super active on social.
Because I don't think there'sany better way to build
relationships, solve problems,and have fun to an audience
further and faster and freerthan I can on Facebook and
Instagram and my favoritechannel, Twitter at Sean Carp on

(58:25):
Twitter and Instagram. I lovethe fast paced variety of the
stream on Twitter. You know,Twitter's that cocktail party
that rolls by really quickly.
Instagram is the slide show inyour in your living room, and
Facebook's at backyard barbecue,where the stories are different,
but finding out social connectme on my blog, follow my blog.

(58:48):
And you know, if there if yougot a real estate event or an
audience that as small as aleadership team, or a top agent
event or a kickoff event, I amalready starting to book into
2022. So it's it's a something Ijust love getting in front of an
audience. As we talked aboutTodd, in the green room, you
know, sharing that passion andlook, Zoom was great. It allowed
us to get in front of people andhelp tell a story and entertain

(59:12):
and engage and educate peoplebut there's nothing better than
that. That energy you get from alive studio audience. You know,
you see that with a Garth Brooksor a Bruce Springsteen or any
band that, you know, they feedoff their their audience no play
longer if their audiences givingthem the energy they they need
back.

I would like to go back to that one Monday that you
missed. I mean, you had a streakthere. And it's been nine years
and you missed that one Monday.
And what I love about that isthat first of all, you remember
that Monday, and more thanlikely you also had the guilt of
not doing something that you'dcommited yourself to doing in
business, I believe also peopleshould have that guilt. They

(59:51):
should be in such a pattern thatthey're doing things that when
they skip a day or miss a day,because life gets in the way.
You still Think about that day.
So can we go back to Monday thatyou did miss? Exactly. Why did
you miss that Monday?

Sean Carpenter (01:00:06):
I gotta think back. But I think that Sunday
night, I just nothing was in myhead. I couldn't get anything
out. And I thought, You knowwhat? It's okay to skip one. I'm
human. No one's gonna care. Noone's gonna miss it. And then
that Monday afternoon, I gotabout six or seven messages from
people saying, Hey, Did I did Iget taken off your list today?

(01:00:26):
You know, and it was one ofthose things that if you do
something that people will missit. If they don't get it, then
it's something worth doing. AndI also just felt like I missed
it. I felt like, you know, I,but here's the thing. I just
started another streak. Right? Ijust started again. I remember a
story Jerry Seinfeld, the greatcomedian. He was talking about

(01:00:48):
writing jokes. And how do youwrite so many jokes as a
comedian says your job as acomedian is just to write jokes
every day, if you can write onegood joke a day. So he just put
a wall calendar up, he put a redX every day, he wrote a joke.
And a day, he didn't write ajoke. There was no x. And so we
had to start another streak. Hehad to start no straight can so
it's one more phone call. It'sone more podcast. It's one more

(01:01:11):
joke. It it's like to share thestory of trigger tree, right?
Remember, when you went trick ortreating, you know, on Halloween
night, and that first time youwent out without your parents
with you, you and your buddiesare gonna go out and we're going
to crush the town, you are goingto fill your pumpkin that you're
going to fill your pillowcasewith so much candy that you are
going to go out literally untilthey kicked you out. Right and
you went to a door lights wereon you rang the bell? And nobody

(01:01:35):
answered the door. What do youdo as a kid? You went to the
next house? Because you were outto get candy. He didn't sit on
the porch and think oh my god, Imust be wearing the wrong
costume. Oh, my God, I must haverung the doorbell the wrong way.
Oh my god, I must be at thewrong time. You just said screw
it. Let's go the next housebecause that's where the candy
was. But for some reason, guys,we become adults. And when

(01:01:57):
someone says no to us whensomeone says no thanks not
interested, it's not for me. Wethink it's about us. We think
it's about the company. We'reaware that the product we have
or the the way we set it insteadof No, it's just about them and
their needs right now. And I gotto keep knocking on doors. So go
to the next house, the nexthouse, the next house, that's
where the candy is. And that'swhere I think that that I didn't

(01:02:21):
write the blog that day. So Iwrote the blog the next week.
Now I tried to do one onThursdays I called my 30 for
Thursday, it's 30 words or lessin a blog post. And I gotta tell
you, man, right in 30 words isso much harder than writing 300
words. Because you got to findthe exact right words. And I can
tell you many times in my head,I just want to write and I write

(01:02:42):
in like the 36. How can I gothrough and say the same thing
with six less words. And man,you become a better writer when
you write something that's 30words, and not 300. So that's
called my 30 for Thursday, andit's just more of an exercise
for me. missed a couple more ofthose because sometimes I just

(01:03:02):
can't get it out. But the Mondaymornings I haven't missed. Like
I said, if I went back andlooked it's gotta be five years
that I haven't missed a Monday.

Voiceover (01:03:11):
The lightning round.

Kelley Skar (01:03:13):
Alright, so we've got this little little thing
that we do with I think probablymost of our guests. It's just a
lightning round rapid firequestions. The idea, Sean is,
you know, just kind of off thetop of your head and, you know,
we'll go from there. Soundsgood. Okay, here we go. Summer
or winter?

Summer.

Cuz you're a golfer, right?

Yep.

Okay, when are you at your most productive?

Early in the morning? Get up and do my four H
club every morning. Yep.

There you go. Who is your inspiration and a quick
why?

Probably my dad and my pop that I talked about
earlier. And just once again,the lessons that they taught me
and as you become more mature,you realize that the lessons
that they teach you when they'regone are probably more impactful
than the lessons they taught youand they were here.

Awesome. When you were in school, what was your
worst subject?

School.

That's a good answer like that. What's your
favorite cake flavor?

Chocolate.

All right, last one. What scares you?

Snakes. Snakes and heights. So my worst fear
would be cleaning my gutters andfinding a snake in my gutters
that would be the worst.

Todd Foster (01:04:25):
Likewise for me.

That's awesome.

Voiceover (01:04:29):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SUCCESS
Coaching Podcast. If you'veenjoyed this episode, please
follow or subscribe to theSUCCESS Coaching Podcast at your
favorite podcast provider. Forspecial access to past
recordings, videos of pastepisodes and more, please become
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Sean Carpenter - Build Relationships, Solve Problems and Have Fun: A Conversation About Golf, Beer and Real Estate.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sean Carpenter - Build Relationships, Solve Problems and Have Fun: A Conversation About Golf, Beer and Real Estate.