How One Big Gamble Changed Everything - Tomas Martinez of TM3 Impact - Key Factors RealEstateAF

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:34):
And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors
Podcast Real Estate AF, wherethe AF stands for and finance.
And I'm your host, Mark Jones,and we are powered by Lonebot,
the Smarter Mortgage Maggingapp, now available on the App
Store and Google Play.
And the past couple ofdiscussions, um, we kicked
around the idea of hard money,we talked about builders, we

(00:56):
talked about builder incentives,we spoke with some brokers to
get their opinion on thatconcept.
Um, and now I want to kind ofslow it down a little bit and
bring in a guest that I thinkyou guys should hear his story.
Um, I definitely want to learnmore from him.
Um, you may know him from the uhcorrect me, it is it is T3.

(01:20):
No, TM3 mailed it.
Okay.
Yep, TM3 Impact.
TM3 Impact.
Um, so without further ado,Tomas.

SPEAKER_04 (01:28):
Yes, how you doing?
Man, blessed.
Yes, blessed and highly favored.
I'm excited.
This studio is legit.
You guys did a great job.

SPEAKER_03 (01:35):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 (01:35):
Thank you for inviting me to be on a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 (01:37):
Absolutely, man.
Uh, I saw your episode uhrecently last week um with the
Garcias.
Yes, fantastic discussion.
Yes, I loved hearing more aboutthem.
Um, my brother went to schoolwith them, so I get to hear a
little bits and pieces here andthere, but that was a good
conversation.

SPEAKER_04 (01:54):
It was.

SPEAKER_03 (01:54):
It was um and like I like to start every episode
similar to the way you do, yeah.
Tell me a bit about yourself.
But instead of cliff notes, Iwant to know the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 (02:05):
The whole thing.
Okay, yeah.
Um, so Tomas Martinez, born inum Georgia, okay, in Fort
Benning, Georgia.
My my parents were military.
They met in Fort Benning,Georgia.
Okay, and um, they met there,and uh it's awesome.
The next thing you know, we areon our way to Hawaii, where my

(02:26):
sister was born.
Wow.
So moved to Hawaii again.
Parents uh both in the military,and then from Hawaii, my
sister's born.
We go to San Antonio, Texas,which is why most people end up
here.
It's because of the military.

SPEAKER_03 (02:40):
It wasn't for the weather.

SPEAKER_04 (02:41):
Yeah, it wasn't for the weather.
No, no, no.
It was for the military.
And uh, you know, we end up inSan Antonio, and I loved it.
I I remember as a as a young kidgrowing up, I grew up over um in
the glen.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the glen.

SPEAKER_03 (02:56):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (02:56):
So right there by uh Roosevelt High School,
Montgomery Elementary is where Iwent to elementary school.

SPEAKER_03 (03:02):
Aka the hood.

SPEAKER_04 (03:03):
Yes.
This was this was, you know,this was definitely the hood.
This was definitely aninteresting, you know, uh time
frame.
But I'm gonna tell you, it wasone of the most fun time frames
to grow up there because we wereoutside every stinking day.
Yeah.
We were playing football, wewere playing back.
We played basketball on a milkcrate.

SPEAKER_03 (03:21):
Dude, that's that's on a milk crate.
That's that's the real deal,right there.
It was a real deal.

SPEAKER_04 (03:27):
And I remember David Brown, shout out to David Brown
and his family.
I remember the day that his dadbought a basketball gold.
An actual hoop.
An actual hoop.
Y'all didn't know what's theone.
And he welded it to the top ofthe, because they had driveways.
Sure.
He welded it to the top of the,you know, this deal.
And we were actually shootinghoops in that thing, and it was
like the coolest thing ever.

(03:48):
I was young, so I wasn't, youknow, in that good, and I didn't
know what was going on, but allmy buddies there.
So grew up there, and then umparents uh separate, and then I
moved to Austin.
Okay.
And I moved went to Butah,Texas.

SPEAKER_05 (04:01):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (04:02):
And uh lived there, went to went to elementary, went
to middle school there.
And that's when the dream of myreal dream, which was uh NBA
basketball player.
That's where it began.

SPEAKER_05 (04:12):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (04:12):
Yeah.
I was like sixth grade.
I told my sixth grade teacher,I'm gonna be in the NBA.
And my teacher, you know whatshe told me?
She she she laughed at mebecause I was short.
I don't, I didn't break a 100pounds until my sophomore year
in high school.
Oh, wow.
Okay, okay, like I was little,like five, three, five, four.
But I mean, you talk about theheart of just an absolute crazy

(04:34):
person.
Yeah, yeah.
Crazy, tenacious, um, wild.
Anyways, so she looked at me andshe says have you not seen there
was a magazine cover that saidmore people get struck by
lightning than go to the NBA.
Ooh.
And I saw that in the sixthgrade.

SPEAKER_03 (04:52):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (04:52):
And I'm thinking, hey, you can't take my dream
away from me.

SPEAKER_03 (04:56):
How much time do you spend outside after that?
Like, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_04 (04:59):
I was just, man, I was like, listen, man, I I'm
this dream is gonna keep going.
I'm not worried about my my youknow, bad English teacher in
sixth grade.
So then what ends up happeningis sixth grade tryouts happen.
Okay, and I've and I've sharedthe story, but the base the gist
of the story is I I call it thenet story, is is you know, I
practice all summer.
And I mean I practice, I didlayups, I'm doing jump shots,

(05:20):
I'm doing everything.
Michael Jordan style.
All yes, posters, you know it.
I had the I had all the posters.
So get to the tryout.
I can't wait.
I'm in line, and and they had usall lined up at the free throw
line.
And I'm thinking, if it'slayups, this is a I mean, I'm
gonna I'm gonna get picked.
If it's free throws, I'mdefinitely gonna get picked
because I can shoot free throws.

(05:41):
If they if whatever they'redoing, I but I don't hear any
basketballs bouncing.
I don't, I don't know what'sgoing on, and it's a long line
of kids.
So I finally get there, and andour you gotta understand our gym
had a carpet.
Okay.
With carpet floors.

SPEAKER_03 (05:53):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (05:54):
Okay, that's how old I am.
Yeah, carpet floors.
Okay, okay.
You've never played on carpet,Mark.
I can tell by your reaction.
You've you played on carpet.
You know, you know.
See, JC, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 (06:04):
Hey Siri, is what they're talking about actually
real?

SPEAKER_04 (06:07):
It's real, bro.
It's real.
Carpet, carpet floors.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (06:12):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (06:12):
And that was like during that time, your your mic
is live.

SPEAKER_03 (06:15):
You know, all you gotta do is pull the trigger.

SPEAKER_04 (06:17):
Yeah, during that time, it was it was that was a
thing.
Carpet floors, it was a thing.
So I'm standing at the I get tothe free throw line, and the
coach looks at me and he goes,touch the net.
And I'm like, okay, I'll touchthe net.
I run and jump.
Don't even I didn't even getclose, Mark.

(06:37):
I didn't even close.
So I didn't get put with A team.
I didn't get put with B team.
I got put on Go team.
Really?
Otherwise known as C team.
Yeah.
Otherwise known as Water Boy.
You're not playing.
Yeah.
You're not gonna play, right?
And so basically, C team was ateam where you got pennies, you
got a penny, and you played eachother.

SPEAKER_03 (06:56):
Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 (06:57):
Yeah, that was C team.
Okay.
We we didn't there wasn't evenanother team.
There wasn't even another teamto play.
So I'm on C Team, and Iremember, I I just remember
going, I I I went home, I wascompletely dejected.
Told told my mom, I was like,you know, my coach, and he
basically told me, he said,Yeah, you're just too short.
I just wouldn't even playbasketball.
Go go do track or something orwhatever.

(07:17):
I go home and tell my mom, I'mquitting.
I'm like, I'm not gonna playbasketball.
She's like, You you you're notgonna quit.
You need to go tell your coachyou're gonna prove him wrong.
Like just straight up, just gotell your coach you can prove
him.
So I stand there, just you know,and I say, Hey, my mom told you
I gotta prove you wrong.
That's right.
That's what my mom said.
So I played on C team.
Um, after the first couple ofgames, they realized that I

(07:38):
can't be on C team because I Iwas just dribbling up and down
and scoring all the points.
So they moved me to B and thenfrom B to A.
And then that kind of like waslike that moment, that shift
where in my mind it was like,okay, if if if you put in the
work and you just and you don'tquit, stay consistent, there's
gonna be opportunities that comeup.
That was kind of that buildingblock.
Wow.
And so that led to playingbasketball in high school, going

(08:00):
to college and playingbasketball, played uh at Wayland
Baptist in Plainview, Texas.
Yeah, little bitty.
And little bitty town, rightoutside of way outside, well,
way outside of Lubbock, butnorth of Lubbock.
And so went there to playbasketball.
And all of that was based onthat one moment of my mom
saying, You're gonna go tell himyou're gonna prove your coach
wrong.
So after a year there, I got ina really bad car accident and

(08:22):
moved back to San Antonio.
Okay.
My dad said, Hey, come back,I'll pay for your school.
So I go to UTSA.
And that's when, you know, mylife started really kind of
shaping.
I met this amazing guy namedRafael Linares.
Okay, uh fellow Boricwa.
You know, my father's fromPuerto Rico.
You need to know my father'sfrom Puerto Rico.
My mom is from Virginia, okay?
So, like the perfect match,right?

(08:44):
Uh, perfect yin and yang.
My dad came, just to give briefhistory with my grandma.
They came to from Puerto Rico toNew York, three brothers, all
three of them.
They all came single mom, movedto New York in the middle of
winter with no jackets andthree-piece suits, and started
their life in New York.
Wow.
And then that be, you know, thatkind of started their life.

(09:05):
That doesn't happen.
I don't, you know, my daddoesn't meet my mom and I'm not
here, right?
So all of that.
So then, so I get to uh UTSA, Imeet this guy, Rafael Linadas,
and he starts talking about theBible.
He starts talking about church.
And I just was like, I kind ofgone to church when I was
younger, in middle school andhigh school, but never when I
was younger.
My parents didn't go.
But I went when I was in highschool and I knew that I needed

(09:26):
that in my life.
I knew that I needed thatstructure and everything.
And so I was like, yeah, Rafa,you know, that's that that that
sounds cool.
Okay, great, whatever.
I was like, but you know, Idon't know.
Call me.
So he kept calling.
Next thing I know, I meet him atthe campus.
I start studying the Bible, andmy life changes.
Isn't it amazing?
And and get baptized in my wholeworld view, everything starts to

(09:50):
change.
And it was it was amazing.
I'm part of this amazing campusministry at the time.
Um, and during that time, I Iactually had right before that
had met Christina, my wife.
Okay.
So her and I met at a KingCentetta.
That's a whole other story.

SPEAKER_03 (10:02):
Totally separate from being at UT.

SPEAKER_04 (10:03):
Yeah.
Well, it it was it was actuallyuh two weeks before I started
college at UTSA, my second year,I met her at a Kingston Yeta.
Okay.
Yeah.
And so we had kind of startedmeeting, and then I started
going to church.
And then so we be, we werefriends and we were talking.
Um, and then you fast forward, II get my degree of I'll I'll
kind of through the fast-forwardhere.

(10:24):
I get my degree in teaching,decide I want to be a teacher,
and uh start teaching.
And and and in the meantime, mywife at Christina at the at the
time, we met prior and then westarted meeting again.
We meet back at church again, weget married.
Uh, that was, let's see, thatwould have been 99.
So I'll be married 26 years inDecember.
Congratulations.
Yeah, it was a big deal.

(10:45):
That's a big mettle that I love.

SPEAKER_03 (10:47):
It really is.

SPEAKER_04 (10:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (10:48):
Um at 14, so I I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04 (10:51):
You know, yeah, you know.
And it and getting past that 10and getting it's just, you know,
it's you don't see it as often.

SPEAKER_03 (10:56):
You look back and you go, we've gone too far.
Let's just keep going.

SPEAKER_04 (10:59):
Yeah.
Well, my wife says her, her,her, her thing is we renegotiate
every year.
She we got to renegotiate.
We got to, what are our terms?
Yeah.
So yeah.
So anyway, so we get married, Istart my teaching career, and
then we're kind of off to theraces building our you know,
careers.
And there was a moment in timewhere my wife gets into new home
sales, and that's where thiswhole where you know, me become

(11:21):
luxury home magazine, all ofthis.
It started with her gettinginvolved with uh of the the the
building world.
Okay.
And she got hired at TollBrothers, and then she started
working with McNair.
Okay.
So she knew this world.

SPEAKER_03 (11:32):
She was really in the custom world.

SPEAKER_04 (11:35):
She was in that not in the very beginning, but she
kind of went to there.
She went to that direction andgot involved with McNair, worked
for McNair for a long time.
And then that's when we startedto see, because I was still in
teaching full time, you know,that's when we started to see,
like, well, maybe there'ssomething that we could, there's
a combining of what I do, whatI've done.
Because while I was a teacher, Istarted speaking.

(11:57):
Okay.
I became a speaker and andtraveled the state of Texas with
40 Farrier, where I was teachingteachers how to really do better
in their classes, in the taxtest, motivation, you know,
motivating their kids.
So I did that for a long time.
I I tell I actually talk aboutthat in my last podcast, um,
which was really cool.
Then, so at one point, my wifesays, I think I need a magazine.

(12:22):
I need to create a magazine.
And I'm like, Well, for what?
And she's like, Well, if Icreate a magazine, I could
advertise my listings and someof the listings that we have,
and then we can mail it topeople.
And I thought, that soundsreally expensive and dumb.
Um, but you know, okay, tell memore.
And then at that time, there wasno Zillow.
No, there was Zillow.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, this would have been uh2010.

(12:43):
Okay.
So there was Zillow at thattime.
This would have been 2009, 2010.
So Zillow was around.
Um, but in terms of like gettinginside of a house, yeah, mailed,
you had flyers, but there was nomagazine.
There was nothing like that thatsomebody could flip through.
Um, and so we were like, yeah,you know, that sounds

(13:04):
interesting.
So we went on a cruise with ourson.
Enzo was about 18 months at thetime.
Okay.
And during that time, you nap.
You remember when you nappedyour kids, how beautiful that
was?
Yeah.
And you would nap with them.

SPEAKER_03 (13:13):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (13:14):
Oh, if we could go back to the days of napping.
Ah, that's right.
So awesome.
But we were in the room and wewere, we were kind of napping
with Enzo.
But at one point, Christina,while he was had fallen asleep,
she's like, I really think weneed to figure this magazine
thing out because it wouldreally help me sell more houses.
And I said, Okay, well, let'slet's figure it out.
So we get back home, go to localcoffee, and we were just like,
What are we gonna call it?
And we typed in Luxury Homemagazine.

(13:36):
And lo and behold, it's afranchise.
Oh, right, it's already there,it was already out in existence.
How cool.
Okay, nationally.
So a lot of people don't knowthat about the publication.
Luxury magazine is all over thecountry.
And so at that time, we're we'reof course both of us are like,
it's already in, somebodyalready has it, you know,
because any franchise you lookat, someone owns.
Yep.
I remember the first time I ateat a corner bakery.

(13:58):
Okay, and I was like, we gottabring it to San Antonio.
They had already purchased it.

SPEAKER_03 (14:02):
Already done.

SPEAKER_04 (14:03):
And it and it didn't show up for like another four
years.
Oh, yeah.
That's how those work.
Anyway, so she um my my my wife,we we type it in luxury home
magazine, and there it is,luxury home magazine, and it
doesn't exist in San Antonio.
Okay, we were like, yes.
So we started doing all theresearch.
We call the guy, get him on thephone, and then it became like
this, you know, thisconversation.

(14:23):
Let's talk about it.
Does San Does San Antonio doesit even support a luxury home?
Now, when I first startedtalking to agents, a lot of
agents said no, it doesn't inthe very beginning.
Really?
They're like, this is not aluxury home.

SPEAKER_03 (14:39):
Well, and at that time, you had probably a handful
of agents that were selling thatline of product.

SPEAKER_04 (14:45):
Yeah, there's about 40.
Yeah, about 40.

SPEAKER_03 (14:48):
Well, two handfuls.

SPEAKER_04 (14:49):
Yeah, two handfuls.
Yeah, it was about 40 agents.
Now, in this, and this is thecrazy part.
Uh, in 2011, when we launchedthe magazine, there were only 77
million dollar homes that sold.
Wow.
In the whole year.

SPEAKER_03 (15:01):
That's it.
That's it.
The whole year.
Wow.
And it's just funny to hearwhich proves their point.

SPEAKER_04 (15:07):
It wasn't really a luxury market, right?
It wasn't really wasn't in thebeginning.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I was right at the cusp oflaunching that when we only had
77 houses sell for a milliondollars.
Holy cow.

SPEAKER_03 (15:18):
Yeah.
And and most realtors that Ihear, and I used to do uh
classes at Sabor and classes atChampions.
And uh one of the first thingsthat they want to aspire to do
is become a million-dollarlisting agent.
Oh, yeah.
You know, and it's like, guys,there's not enough yet to
compete with what you have outthere that are already doing it

(15:39):
pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 (15:39):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:40):
To be honest.

SPEAKER_04 (15:40):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, the TV uhdefinitely played in that, the
reality shows, you know, themillion-dollar listing.
For sure.
Which, you know, I I I've metJosh.
Josh has come here.
He spoke at my real estatesummit um back in 14.
And I think that kind of playsinto that, right?
That idea.
But what we what we found isthat there was an opportunity to

(16:03):
really market luxury listings,even though a lot of them
weren't selling.
We had them.
We had about 150 to 200 on themarket, but they weren't
selling.
It was taking, you know, twoyears.
I think the average days ofmarket in 2011, you're looking
at, you know, anywhere from 340to, you know, then I think one
year was 600.
You know, you I mean, it wastaking a long time for those to

(16:23):
sell.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (16:24):
But that was the norm.
That was a norm.
That was the norm in thatinstance or that time frame in
in our industry.

SPEAKER_04 (16:32):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:32):
And I think it's pretty cool, especially having
had a home, purchased a homethat's been in that magazine
over and over, etc.
It's cool for someone that isselling their home to be able to
go somewhere.
They see your magazine, they popit open, and sure enough,
there's their home that they'retrying to sell.
And I don't know if they getupset because it's still not

(16:56):
sold, but they definitely getthat feeling of uh ownership and
you know what I mean,appreciation for what they've
done, what they've built, whatthey've paid for thus far.
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (17:07):
Yeah, and and and so what we what we noticed right
away is that agents needed athey needed a tool that could
get in the household so thatthey could get those listing at
bats.
Sure.
So that they could get thoseopportunities to get more luxury
listings.
Right.
And so we st we I I remember wekicked it off.
I met with, I mean, you got toremember, I was a I went from
teaching and and and andspeaking, right, you know, to

(17:29):
now I'm gonna sell to the topagents in San Antonio.
With zero real estateexperience.
I had no experience in realestate.
I had my license.
Now in 2009, I got my licensewith my wife because basically
she became an individual agentat a point.
And so we both got our licensetogether, right?
Okay.
So so I I had a license, but Iwasn't, I wasn't like really

(17:51):
practicing real estate.
I was a teacher and then I wasmy wife's buyer's agent.
Okay.
So she would send me here yougo.
Here, he's a buyer.
Go take him, drive him allaround the city.
And I'm at I'm at SeaWorld, youknow, showing houses on 151, you
know.
Um, and uh I I I re-realized,you know, during that time that
that that this was probably notgonna be our long term, but but
something was gonna come out ofit.

(18:12):
And that's when the idea of themagazine came out of that is
that we need a tool to sell.
My wife got a really, reallynice listing, and we put it on
the cover of Homes and Land.
Oh, very cool.
And we were, I can't tell youhow pumped we were to get that.
It was a$900,000 listing, got iton the cover, paid.
I mean we paid this really fancyphotographer.

(18:32):
I want to think we paid it like$600 to get one photo of the
front of this house because itwas a very unique house.
We got it, got this cover, and Ithink my wife has it somewhere.
We uh we gotta pull that out.
Damn it.
But we had that cover, and likewe were, we, we thought.
We're the bee's knees.
We are gonna get so many phonecalls.
We're gonna have the phone ringoff the hook.

(18:52):
That's awesome.
Everyone's gonna know who weare.
This is gonna be the greatestthing ever.
We ended up getting like threecalls.
We got three calls.
It was good.
We got another opportunity whichfor a listing, which is what you
want.
But the reality was it wasn'tthat wasn't necessarily what
sold the house, but it was whatput it in front of people that
this house is available.
Most definitely, right?

(19:13):
And so, and that was homes andland that didn't even get direct
mailed.

SPEAKER_01 (19:16):
No, I was the first sales rep for homes and land.
Were you when they came uh cameto the market in 2002?
Out my friend bought thefranchise here with comedy.
Really?
And he sold it to someone.
Wow, that's so cool.
I thought I I was the first repthat oh the distribution to get
them at H E B's and that's JC onthe mic.

SPEAKER_03 (19:38):
JC.
I forgive me, I did not put hiscamera on.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 (19:42):
How do I gotten a taste in real estate?

SPEAKER_04 (19:44):
I love it.
It's a great, it's a great wayto learn the system, it's a
great way to learn the business.
You know, definitely.
And so, so you know,unfortunately, homes and land
went out of business.
It it it I think it closed likefive or six years ago, uh, the
one here in San Antonio, uh,which I I was I was bummed
because there's there's now agapping hole missing for stuff
below a million.

(20:04):
Sure.
You know, things in that thatthat lower than a million,
because typically everything inmy magazine is a million and up.
Correct.
Um, but anyway, so it's anational publication.
I start, we, we, we bring it toSan Antonio.
And in the beginning, agentswere just like, I don't know how
this is gonna work, but we gotthe first one going, and then
from there, it just took off.
Wow, it really now it it it wasa lot of hard work.
Oh, I'm sure.

(20:24):
I'm sure there's yeah, areinvesting of your money, like
constantly throwing parties.
Big risk, big risk, absolutely.
Every issue, we had a coverparty.
Wow, and those cover partieswere like everybody wanted to be
able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 (20:36):
So you were just pouring into the business,
everything was pouring back intothe business.
Everyone, yeah.
Um, did you have investors atthe time, or were you investing
your own funds and taking thatrisk and going, okay, I hope
this pans out, or I'm dunzo?
And and I speak from experience.
I've I've been CEO of twoseparate tech companies that one

(20:57):
all my money, the next, half mymoney.
And then it was like, okay, mamasaid you need to find some
investors.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (21:05):
Well, this is this is an interesting is this was an
interesting story.
My dad, he he's gonna hear thispodcast, and and again, I'm I'm
I'm I'm excited to share thisfrom two aspects of it.
Number one, I went to my dad inthe very beginning because I was
really I was scared.
I gotta be honest.
I was scared out of my mind.
I'm a here I am a teacher, andI'm gonna go start a luxury real

(21:25):
estate publication.
Right.
And I'm not I'm a realtor, but Idon't I don't really know the
real estate world like theseagents do, right?
I understand marketing, Iunderstand it to a degree at
that point, but I'm like, Idon't, I said, I'm um, and I so
I went, I remember sitting downwith my dad.
I go, Dad, do you want to investin this?
Like, I need some money.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(21:46):
And uh, and we had talked toother people about it, and and
everybody was like, they werekind of hesitant.
And I remember my dad going, youknow what?
He goes, the best thing thatyou're gonna do is he goes, you
need to go do it on your own.
And I was like, and I just Iremember, I remember this
feeling of like brother, I I'mright there with you.

SPEAKER_03 (22:05):
You know that feeling.
Well, same same situation.
Yeah, you need to do it on yourown.
My dad, yeah, he's like, Youneed to do it on your own.
Yeah, and that turned into whatwe are and where we are today.
So damn it, dad, but at the sametime, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 (22:19):
Yeah, you know, well, and and and part of that
is the part about it isinteresting, is that he he I was
a Dave Ramsey guy.
Okay, okay, like hardcore.
Okay, all right, like I'm I'mtalking like no credit cards.
I didn't have any credit cards.
Wow, I had no debt other than mymortgage.
I had all my cars were paid.
We we were like, like, I mean,we we had even did uh did the

(22:42):
the envelopes at one point, likethe cash and envelopes.
Like that's how hardcore wewere.
Wow.
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (22:47):
So at that point, you had not really felt the idea
of leverage to gain.

SPEAKER_04 (22:54):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (22:54):
Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_04 (22:55):
No, like and and and and even to a point after
starting the magazine, I had, Ihad, I had some really dear
friends, Brad, who was who whosold me my franchise here, um,
who was the owner of all ofthem.
Okay.
I mean, even to the point wherehe would just, he would, he'd
like, he'd make fun of me.
He's like, no, did Dave Ramseytell you to do that?
Like, it was it was a thing, allright?
So here I'm a Dave Ramsey guy,and and I remember, I remember

(23:16):
this distinctly.
My dad's like, he goes, justtake a loan out on your cars.
Both my cars were paid.
And I remember like that, that,that feeling of like, I'm gonna
have to not only leverageeverything that I have in my
bank, which give it all that up,now I'm gonna leverage my cars.

(23:37):
That's right.
And take the money out and putnotes on my cars.
And I went home and I told my, Iremember telling my wife, I was
like, okay, we're I think we'regonna have to take notes out on
our cars.
And um, yeah, the Dave Ramseything, we're probably just gonna
have to like put that under thetable.
We're just gonna have to likejust pause that for a second,
you know?
Um, and and we did it.

(23:58):
I called USAA.
I I I couldn't believe they gaveme, I had a Toyota Highlander.
They gave me like$15,000 for myToyota Highlander, which was
paid off at the time, and it washuge and it had$160,000 miles.
And I'm taking a$15,000 loan onthis car.
And then I had a BM, my wife hada BMW X5, and we took out a loan

(24:19):
on that car.
Um, and I just remember sittingthere going, okay, here we go.
I got there's$25,000 more pluswhat we're putting, and now
we're roll, we're all in.
I pushed all the chips in.
That's right.
And it was a moment of just likesheer of like, I don't, I like
this is this is wild.
And we're going in debt to startthis business.

(24:41):
That's right.
And so then fast forward, Iremember there was a there was a
moment of like, um, I'm callingthese agents and I'm literally
banging the phones, calling,because we're trying to launch
it.
Absolutely.
I'm getting meetings, I'm astartup, you know.
I'm meeting with all the topagents, I'm getting getting in
the door with them, I'm sittingdown with them, and I'm, I mean,
no became my vitamins.

(25:01):
Wow.
Like, no was like a vitamin tip.
That's right.
I just need you to tell me no,so I'll stop bugging you.
Just tell me no, you know?
And so, and I'm banging thephones, calling, I'm calling,
I'm calling.
And there came a point where,you know, we get that first
magazine printed and and we getit.
It's 32 pages.
Okay.
Okay.
And and and and we just we'relike, we just we got it to the

(25:23):
finish line.
I remember it took forever toget it.
We get I were they delivered itto my house in an 18 wheeler.

SPEAKER_02 (25:30):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (25:31):
Okay.
Wow.
Imagine that.
An 18 wheeler pulls up, it'spulling down the pallets.
I have four pallets of magazinesin my garage now.
Holy shit.
Now the mail went to the mailingand that was separate.
And but I had these pallets ofall the boxes of all my
magazines, and I rememberopening up the first magazine,
and I just cried.
It was the most emotional,surreal feeling ever, you know?

(25:53):
And I'm looking through each oneand I'm like, well, now I gotta
deliver them.
Now I got to get these out.
And and and so get them all out,and then I gotta sell the next
issue.
That's right.
Right?
But right as I was about to sellthe next issue, I remember there
was a there's that moment intime where I'm going, like,
because you don't make anymoney.
The first magazine doesn't makeany money.

SPEAKER_03 (26:15):
The moment is, am I in over my head?
Yeah, am I uh my skis out frontof me?
Are they back there?
I mean, there I know thatfeeling.
And you mentioned that the ideaof having that fear.
Oh, yeah.
In my opinion, being a businessowner, doing running some
startup companies, um, if youdon't have that fear, it's

(26:37):
probably not worth doing, in myopinion.
Yeah, you know, it's not bigenough.
Maybe you didn't reach farenough, risk more.
Yeah, um, maybe your message,whatever it is that you're
trying to get across that tosell, yeah, maybe it's not big
enough.
Yeah, you know, yeah, but inyour case, it was because you
got that.
Woo! Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 (26:59):
Well, and then the other thing I thought what it
made me think about is you know,that and just what along going
along what you're saying is thatwhen you when you hit that wall,
there's a wall that everyentrepreneur hits.
And you may hit 10.
You may hit a hundred walls, youmay hit one every morning when
you get up and you're like,you're gonna hit that.
But when you hit that wall,there's a moment of you go,
okay, I could quit and I couldjust go get a job.

(27:20):
Yeah, right.
I you just okay, I know that Icould get hired and I could go
teach and I can go do whatever.
You know, at that point I had mymaster's degree.
Okay.
So it's like I could go back towhat I was doing before.
But I remember there's a momentI was and and I and I and it was
and I thought about my dadbecause there was that moment
where I wanted to quit.

(27:41):
There's been several, and I go,it's all my money.
Yeah, I can't quit.
Like I this is I've puteverything in.
Yeah.
If it were other people's moneyand and I had a cushion, sure, I
don't think I would have pushedas hard.
I don't think I would have hadthe the desire to get to making

(28:04):
money as quickly as we did.
Sure.
Right?
The motivation, because it's allus.
I'm like, I can't let this fail.
There's no way this could fail.
You know, I can't let it fail.
And so all of that reallycreated the daily motivation to
keep banging the phone, to keepcalling, to keep doing the
parties, to keep moving forward.
This is gonna work, it's gonnabe successful.

(28:25):
And by issue three, we'reprofitable.
Wow, you know.
So by issue three, now we'remaking money.
And by that point, I could hiremy wife and get her on.

SPEAKER_03 (28:35):
Domas, that's impressive.
Yeah, that's a beautifulbusiness model.
Yeah, yeah.
And then I would imagine thatthey had already created this
concept of oh, this is ourmargins, this is what we do.
You've got to get it to X amountof people, but you got to do it
again next month and next monthand you got to keep it going.
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (28:49):
Yeah, and and the other piece to that is you got
to get people to commit longterm to your magazine.
Yeah, like the the the reasonwhy most magazines don't succeed
is they sell one issue andthat's it.
That's right.
Just give it one issue.
No, no.
You can't you can't build abusiness or reputation off of
just one ad one time.
You got to commit to a longerterm.

(29:10):
And so in the beginning, that'swhat I sold.
I sold all one uh year-longagreements.
Absolutely.
Now I sell two-year agreements.
Now I have a guy on three-yearagreements.
Beautiful.
So that's the that was themodel, and that's what really
got us to that next level.
But it was, I can't fail.
This is all my money.
Oh, and by the way, I have likea one-year-old, or at the time
he was two.
Oh, wow.
He's like a two, two and a halfyear old.

(29:30):
Oh, yeah.
And so you can't you can't failwith a two-year-old at home.
And every day you get you run ithome and daddy, daddy, daddy,
you know, in between.
It's like motivation.
And now that my wife was onboard, she was able to up level
me because I'm a I'm a solo cupguy.
Like I'm a red solo cup guy.
I might, I'm not fancy.
My wife is crystal glass, youknow, Tiffany boxes, like she's

(29:51):
got the vision.
BMW.
Yeah, she's got the vision.
Exactly.
She's got the vision.
Whereas I, for me, I just waslike, okay, let's.
Just let's be effective, butlet's make it happen and
execute.
She sees the finer details,which is what I needed to now
really expand.
Yeah.
And so, yeah, so that's how wegot it off the ground.
Started Austin in um that was in2011 when we started San

(30:14):
Antonio.
And then in 13, I start AustinLuxury Home Magazine.
And let me tell you, differentmarket.

SPEAKER_03 (30:20):
Oh, different market.

SPEAKER_04 (30:21):
It's it's like traveling during that time, this
would have been 2013.
It was like going in aspacesuit, going to another
universe, wow, trying to sellsomething.
Oh, I can imagine.
That's how difficult Austin was.
Wow.
It was so much harder than SanDiego.

SPEAKER_03 (30:37):
You've got your in crowds of that luxury 40 agents
or so that are tight-knit.
Um, who is this other agent thatcomes in?
I can imagine not only is it thesame in Austin, it's it's almost
harder.
It's harder.
It's almost double.

SPEAKER_05 (30:55):
It's harder.

SPEAKER_04 (30:55):
Yeah, and and plus at that time there were a lot of
magazines, there were a lot ofoptions.
You know, so we were competingwith other publications.
Um, and then some other and thennew publications popped up right
after we started because peoplesaw that there was an
opportunity there.
Because Austin, the the just togive give people an
understanding.
Um, year to date, Austin hassold$2,500 million homes.

(31:18):
Okay.
Okay.
Any guess on San Antonio?
Oh gosh, I would have to see.
Year to date.
What if San What of San Antonio?
I'm gonna put Mark on the spothere.

SPEAKER_03 (31:25):
I'm gonna say you get to vote too.
I'm gonna say$150.

SPEAKER_04 (31:30):
Okay,$150 million homes this so far this year.

SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
I'm going 92.

SPEAKER_04 (31:36):
92?
Okay, this year.
We've sold$656 million homes.
Way better.
Way better, right?

SPEAKER_03 (31:44):
Yeah.
Now, mind you, is this alsobecause we've had uh massive
growth in our property equities?
Uh yeah, for sure.
You know?

SPEAKER_04 (31:52):
Yeah, yeah.
But we've been selling over, Imean, we've been selling over
500 for the since COVID, butsince before COVID.
I mean, we've been we've beenincreasing, it's been
consistent.
You know, it every year it'sgone up.
This year it's gonna eclipseeven the COVID year, which is
rare for us.
Whereas Austin right now isflat.
Austin's luxury is flat.
It's not growing.

(32:12):
Yeah.
Where our luxury is up around 13to 16 percent this year, year
over year.

SPEAKER_03 (32:16):
Now, let me ask you you being so entrenched in this,
and I know you know your stuff,what do you think the reason for
that is?
I've got my uh beliefs or or uhwhy there's so many million
dollar homes that are selling?

SPEAKER_04 (32:28):
Correct.
So two things.
Number one, we're where morepeople are coming here that that
a million dollar house is likenot a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 (32:34):
That's that's where I was going with it.

SPEAKER_04 (32:35):
Yep.
Million dollar house is likemillion dollar, yeah, and I get
the land too?
Correct.
Right?
Like you're gonna give me 14acres.
Yes.
So people freak out when theysee our value in comparison with
the land.
Absolutely.
Right.
So that's one.
Number two, appreciation.
Um, every realtor, I just ifyou're listening to this in the
car, right?
You you have this on Apple,right?
You're listening to this a car.

(32:56):
You've walked into a KB housethat's a million dollars, and
you're like, how is this amillion-dollar house?

unknown (33:01):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (33:02):
Every agent has experienced that.
That's right.
You know, and you're like, well,it's location and it's the size
of the home, and it's it's it'sa million dollar house.
So our appreciation is anotherfactor to that.
Plus, what I also think is Ithink San Antonio has been very
conservative.
This will probably be the thirdlittle San Antonio's been very
conservative.
We have a lot of business ownersthat do really well here.

(33:23):
That's right.

SPEAKER_03 (33:23):
On the down low.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (33:24):
And they're and they don't know.
That's right.
And they're all been very, youknow, they've been subtle, but
they get that, they they startgetting to that point where
they're like, okay, now I wantto buy the big boy house.
Yeah.
But they're not too flashy.
They don't, they don't want togo for the$8 million one that
Bink Con has in Dominion rightnow.
They're they're thinking maybetwo or three, right?
And so that two or three market,even though we've only had 10,

(33:47):
11 houses um uh over, I thinkit's uh what was it?
Goodness.
I have the statistics.
Um over what?
Uh once you get to threemillion, I think we've had nine
houses sell over three millionto three point nine nine.
And then I think it's a 51 from2 million to 2.999.
I think it's 50 houses.

(34:08):
Wow.
In that little brand, it's 50.
Wow.
But once you get above that,we've only had 20 houses that
have sold above three million.
Wow.
Okay.
So that's where you start to seethe even bigger difference
between Austin and San Antoniobecause those numbers jump
dramatically.
Okay.
But all that to say is I thinkwhat's happened is that that
that that uh home a businessowner is like, I'm ready to make

(34:30):
the jump.
And they're going for a biggerhouse.
Oh, for sure.
Now, mind you, all my statisticsstatistics are MLS.
Okay.
I don't have builder.
Yep, I don't have off the books.
Off the books, uh, the non-MLSstuff that sells.
And they're still live.

SPEAKER_05 (34:45):
Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (34:46):
But that's in every market.
All sends the same way.
So so that you you've got so nowour market can can handle.
I mean, we're we had there were900 million dollar houses on the
market in San Antonio.
Wow.
Think about that.
That's quite a bit.
That's a lot.
Yeah.
When I started, we were in the200s.

SPEAKER_03 (35:04):
Oh, I can imagine that.

SPEAKER_04 (35:05):
So 15 years later, we're at you know, 900 million
dollar houses.

SPEAKER_03 (35:10):
Appreciation, and and you've got the concept of
and I hate to say this because Idon't, I'm not against it.
Yeah, the wealthy get wealthierin times like this.
Sure.
Um, opportunity comes up.
We tend to capitalize or areable to capitalize on that.
Yeah.
And now what do we do with themoney?

SPEAKER_04 (35:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (35:30):
You know?

SPEAKER_04 (35:30):
Yeah.
And real estate is one of those.
And I'll tell you, um, I knowthat you know, Florida's talking
about, you know, getting rid ofuh property taxes for your
primary house.
Oh, yeah.
Can you can you imagine?

SPEAKER_03 (35:41):
Oh, I can imagine.
I drink about it every night.

SPEAKER_04 (35:44):
If that happens, I mean, now the million-dollar
house doesn't seem so crazy,right?
Now the two the four milliondollar house doesn't seem so
crazy, right?

SPEAKER_03 (35:52):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
Um, but it's only on your primary residence, is what
I'm hearing that they're talkingabout.
Hey, right?

SPEAKER_03 (35:56):
I'll take 30 grand a year off any year.

SPEAKER_04 (35:59):
Yeah.
It'd be incredible.
Absolutely.
It'd be incredible.
So, so yeah, so that that's partof it.
But but I think to me, the onething that really worked, and
the reason why we were able tohave the success in San Antonio
is the events was one.
And number two, just reallytaking care of the clients.
Yeah.
Like doing what we say we do.
Sure.
We we direct mail 17,000magazines.

(36:21):
Wow.
I mail 17,000 plus magazines inSan Antonio every single issue.
Wow.
It costs me a lot of money.
My book is over a pound, itweighs over a pound.
Wow.
So it's it's very expensive tomail a magazine, okay?
Then we print 24,000 copies inSan Antonio, okay, right?
So the other 7,000 are handdistributed all over the city.

(36:42):
We're at H E B's and you knowtitle companies.
In terms, in terms ofdistribution, we're putting it
where people can see it.
And same thing in Austin.
I print 20,000 in Austin, 15,000are direct mail to the most
affluent houses.
Sure.
And we base that, it's a forcedmail.
You don't have to subscribe.
Nope.
We base that off of yourproperty values and we send it
to you.

SPEAKER_03 (37:02):
Oh, I get it every month.

SPEAKER_04 (37:03):
Yep.
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (37:04):
Of course you do.
That's beautiful.
Yeah, of course you do.
That's awesome.
So, yeah, of course you do.
So now, at what point withinyour journey you had the
magazine rolling, it stillrequires, I'm sure, plenty of
your time.
Uh, you've got your wife that'shelping you out in this
instance.

(37:25):
When did you make the transitionto the motivational speaking,
the engagements that you'redoing?
And I'm seeing them all over theplace.
Uh one day, I when I grow up, Iwant to be like you.
Yeah.
You know, and people will cometo me and they'll say, Well,
you've got the podcast, you'vecrushed it in mortgage, you've
got these companies.
Why aren't you a motivationalspeaker?

(37:45):
Yeah.
Well, I'm not there yet, in myopinion.
I have not done enough thus farthat I'm on autopilot.
Yeah.
I'm still working to make thenext jump in where we want to be
in life, to be honest.
Right.
Um, what what was yourindicator?

SPEAKER_04 (38:02):
Well, I was a T because I was a teacher, I think
there's a natural progression toteach realtors, right?
It's or to teach whoever's infront of you.

SPEAKER_03 (38:10):
No, you're 100% correct.
That is the one thing that alender and lenders out there
listening, you want to gain morerealtor relationships, teach
them something, give them value,something they can use to make
more money, to help theirfamily, et cetera.

SPEAKER_04 (38:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, so that was one facet ofit.
And then I I remember at onepoint uh when I got into the
space, um, the CE credits werelike a big deal.
People were all like, well, canyou can you do CE credits?
Because I was teaching classeswhen I started Luxury magazine.
I started teaching realtors, andI was like, Well, I'll get the
CE.
So I did the CE thing and it wasa pain in the butt, but I did it

(38:44):
and it worked.
And I was like, okay, that'sthat's cool, but I don't want
that to be my main focus ofteaching, right?
To do the CE credits.
But uh, but but here's thething, right?
I got in 2014.
I remember uh like vividly, Iran into a client and he was on,
he's like, Yeah, you know, I'mon my way to John Maxwell.
I'm gonna be a my John Maxwellcoach.

(39:04):
Oh and at that time, I was like,What do you mean you're a John
Maxwell coach?
Like, I was a John Maxwell,like, I read all his books.
Yeah, same here.
All of them.
And I mean, what do you meanyou're gonna be a John Maxwell
coach?
What does that even mean?
Right.
I never heard of this concept.
And he goes, Well, I'm gonna goand you you get certified and
you become a coach and theyteach you how to coach, they
teach you how to speak, and theyteach you how you know, do these

(39:27):
things.
And I said, Well, I know how tospeak, I've been doing that.
I said, but but I don't knowabout coaching and I don't know
about this masterminds, and andand and then it was the
training.
Okay.
And so I'll I told I I Iliterally, my wife and I were
standing there with thegentleman, and I go home and I
go, What do you think?
And she's like, You're gonna go.
Now, this is 2014.
We'd only had the magazine atthat point three years, right?

(39:48):
So we're three years in, and andyou know, you're you're trying
to like make everything work andyou're trying to make your you
know, it's not like we're makinga killing.
No, no, no, no.
But we're making enough to whereit's like, okay, this is a this
is a sizable investment.
Sure.
And I remember they called me,so that was a Thursday.
They called me on a Friday.
The event was the next Monday.
Oh, wow.
Zero time to think, get ready.

(40:09):
Right.
Wife says we're going.
Wife says, You're gonna go.
That's right.
And I'm like, I so I'm talkingwith this person and I'm like,
okay, what's the investment?
And they say it, and I'm justlike, I don't even like, I I and
and I call so I said, she goes,well, if you if you do it now,
it's gonna be this, right?
They do the whole like if you ifyou do now, it's gonna be this.
Oh, and you get this, you know.
And so I was like, I said, you Isaid, I have to call my wife.

(40:32):
This is this is a size ball.
I mean, it was like almost 10grand, right?
And I call her and I said, Isaid, I'm freaking out right
now.
And I said, uh, I just need youto tell me if this is crazy or
not.
And I said, it's very expensive.
And she goes, it doesn't matter.
You're gonna do it.
And I and I was like, you don'teven know the price yet.
Like, what are you talkingabout?

(40:53):
Christina.
I said, it's 10.
She goes, but cut me out.
She goes, it doesn't matter.
She goes, you need to do this.
Yeah, you're going.
So call them back and hurry upso you don't lose your time.
You know what I mean?
So I call back the next thatweekend, I'm on a flight, I'm
there, I'm in front of JohnMaxwell.
And here's the thing I don't, Idon't necessarily think of
myself as a motivational speakerbecause I think this will help

(41:13):
you if you would allow me tospeak into you a little bit.
Please.
I don't think of myself as amotivational speaker.
I think of myself as a teacherthat's got some content and some
things that I've learned in thislife, right?
Things that I've like things inmy, what I call my toolbox.
Okay.
And I have all of this stuff inmy journal, but all these things
that have been that that haveI've collected over time, and

(41:35):
nuggets, wisdom, books.
I see all your books here,things, uh uh what I call um um
battle scars that you've had.
Sure.
Right, all of those lessons haveled you up to this very moment.

SPEAKER_03 (41:48):
That's right.

SPEAKER_04 (41:49):
And you can share that in a way that is
motivating, but doesn't meanyou're necessarily a
motivational speaker.

SPEAKER_03 (41:55):
I see.

SPEAKER_04 (41:56):
You you follow me?

SPEAKER_03 (41:57):
Absolutely.
It's the presentation, howyou're packaging it up.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I call them landmines becausethe idea is I've gone through
many landmines.
My goal is to keep you fromstepping on the same ones I
have.

SPEAKER_04 (42:09):
Love it.

SPEAKER_03 (42:09):
But there are many cases you have to step on that
landmine because it needs tohurt.

SPEAKER_04 (42:14):
It needs to hurt.
I love it.
And so just that, just thatstory uh uh uh of you could
create a class called uh called,you know, I've stepped on some
landmines and so should you.
And that's your class.
I love it.
Right.
I love it.
I've stepped on some landminesand so should you, right?
And applaud, remember that.
And literally the whole thewhole class is about I'm gonna

(42:36):
tell you my top five landminesand what I learned from each one
of them.
That's your class.
It's motivational.
Oh, for sure.
Right?
But it's also educational, whichis really, I want to educate you
because what I don't, what Idon't want is I don't want
people to come see me speak andwalk away, walk away feeling
motivated, but then the next daythey don't know why and they

(42:56):
don't do anything.
I want them to come in and sitwith me and be educated and then
walk out and go, well, Tomassays, I gotta do that, I gotta
do that, and then go do it.
You know, that's the differenceI think between motivational
speaking and teaching.
It's a huge difference.

SPEAKER_03 (43:11):
Yeah, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_04 (43:12):
And so you could do that tomorrow.
You could do that today becauseyou've already got the stories,
you've already got the knowledgebase.
And the cool part is you've runbusinesses, you've run people,
and so now you've got thesystems because really what
realtors need, they needsystems.
Correct.
They they don't realize most ofthe time that they are running

(43:32):
their own business.
They're business owners.
That's right.
They're entrepreneurs, yeah, anda lot of them don't know it.

SPEAKER_03 (43:36):
Yeah, you are correct.
You are correct.
Um, JC, where are we at on time?
I love this.
Say it again.
Okay, yeah, about 15 moreminutes.
Um, let's talk about somecurrent events stuff.
And and what I want to do isstart with the idea of where you
think the magazine is gonna goas the future continues to do

(43:58):
what it does.
Yep.
Without saying the obvious.
Yeah.
Uh, what do you think?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (44:02):
As far as those, so you know, you look at the
magazine.
I I think that people, no matterwhat, still want to touch and
feel and open something.
Yes.
Like when you get your magazine,you look through it.
Absolutely, right?
So I don't know if that'snecessarily gonna go away.
And I and then one of the mainreasons is is restoration
hardware.
Okay.
Okay, you know that story.
Absolutely.

(44:22):
They send out uh catalog thisthick.
We get it, right?
I don't know why they keepsending it to us.
We we haven't bought anything ina while.
A year.
Okay, like a year, but they keepsending us this thing.
This thing has to weigh abouttwo and a half pounds, and it's
this thick catalog of all theirstuff.
Why are they still printingthat?
Because paper's cheap.

(44:43):
It's cheap.
Yeah, they can get it in frontof a lot of people, absolutely,
right?

SPEAKER_03 (44:47):
And it's that that the feeling that someone gets
when they're going through it.
Yes, that feeling of renewal,that feeling of uh opportunity,
potential.
Yeah, what could we do?
Goal setting.
I'd like to do this, and andthis almost the same idea of the
magazine that you have, it'ssexy.
Yep, it sells, it sells, youknow.

(45:07):
People want whether you areliving in a luxury home
currently or aspiring to live ina luxury home, or even hating on
people that live in luxuryhomes.

SPEAKER_04 (45:16):
You still gotta lose.
You're still gonna look.
You still gotta look.
That's right.
Yeah, yeah.
So I look at it like from a perperspective of I don't see that
changing.
Now, um, is there it doessomething evolve with mail that
we don't know of?
I don't know.
I don't know if mail reallychanges.
I don't think it can.
That's right.
So like mail can't change, andif mail can't change, then then

(45:37):
this avenue is gonna be, it'sgonna be a long time for this
absolute changes, right?
So then you go, okay, so thatthat kind of plays us out maybe
five, 10 years, right?
So that that's the aspect of itbecause this is a male
determinant type business.
Now, the evolution of this, alot of magazines, what they
started doing is they realizedthe expense of mail.
And so a lot of magazines justsaid, we're not gonna mail
anymore, right?

(45:59):
But that's the whole bread andbutter of what I do.
Because if you truly want to getaspirational, the best place to
do it is on their coffee table.

SPEAKER_03 (46:05):
Yes.

SPEAKER_04 (46:05):
I need to be on their coffee table.
I need to be in their mailboxevery issue six times a year.
That's right.
I need them pulling it out andgoing, Do you see this?
Yeah, this is crazy.
Look at this$8 million housethat's on the cover.
I got a house that's gonna be onthe next cover.
It is absolutely people aregonna go, where is that house?
They're gonna freak out.

(46:26):
The house is completelysurrounded by water.
It's on a peninsula.

SPEAKER_03 (46:29):
Holy cow.

SPEAKER_04 (46:30):
It is the coolest photo of the house.
This is gonna be on the cover ofSan Antonio.
How cool.
People are gonna be like, whereis this house and how much is
it?

SPEAKER_03 (46:40):
Yes.
And then they're gonna say whoowns it.

SPEAKER_04 (46:42):
And who owns, like, how like wow.
At one point, we're looking atthe photo, and the photo has a
garage that's in the water.
So I want you to imagine garagedoors, and they're going down.
That part of the house goes downuntil it has a garage for your
boat.
Wow.

unknown (47:01):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (47:02):
Now in Austin, that's kind of like that's no
big deal.
No big deal.
Everybody knows about that.
Absolutely.
Brother Bill Wait, San Antonio,like you got a garage for three
boats and jet skis and and likeso so.
All that to say is I think theaspirational aspect of, I don't
think much of that changes.
Now, how how do we evolve as acompany?
Sure.
Well, we're we are evolving as atraining company.

(47:23):
We're gonna become not only justthis aspirational publication of
where people can go to seeluxury, we're gonna start
teaching agents aspirationally.
How can you start selling?
How can we become that?
How do you get to this level tosell luxury homes?
Now, can everybody be a luxuryagent?
No.

(47:43):
But people can aspire to thatand start learning some of these
techniques.
Most definitely.
They can start learning, we callit the distinctive agent lab.
Okay.
And so in this distinctive agentlab, we're gonna teach people
how to leverage, amplify, andbuild.
Right?
How do you leverage yourbusiness?
How do you amplify it?
How do you get your message infront of people?
How do you build your business?

(48:03):
How do you scale?
Sure.
A lot of realtors don't know howto scale.
You're exactly correct.
You know, so that so this that'sgonna be the evolution of where
we're going.
We're gonna be doing moreevents.
We're gonna have the luxury realestate summit in February 2026,
um, possibly the end ofFebruary, March.
We're just finalizing the datethis week, but that will be at
the JW Marriott.
We had it last year, we had over530 agents that came to that

(48:25):
event.
Wow.
Don't miss it.
Wow.
It's gonna be an amazing event.
Um, and it was this year, it'sgonna be another amazing one
next year.
So the evolution of where we'regoing is teaching, training, and
using all the skill sets thatI've had uh with everything that
I've done and and with all theagents that I worked with.
And now let's take it over andhelp agents so they can aspire

(48:45):
aspire to that.

SPEAKER_03 (48:46):
Leverage even bigger, add more value.
Add more value.
I love that.
Yep, I love that.
Wow.
And and and there's many outthere that that think um, yeah,
the magazines, that paper stuff,it's it's just I don't even use
it.
But then when we're bringing itback to the idea and concept of
luxury homes, that goes out thewindow.

(49:09):
Yep, it truly does.
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (49:10):
Um, yeah, it's impressive.
Well, it's a niche, and and thisis what people need to
understand is that uh there areriches and niches.
We all know that, right?
But but but when you have aniche of luxury real estate,
everybody wants to look at thosehouses.
Yeah.
I don't care who they are.
You're correct.
They not only do they want tolook at them, they're like, can
we go walk in them?

SPEAKER_03 (49:29):
Yeah.
What do I need next?

SPEAKER_04 (49:30):
And how do we how do we get that?
Well, this year we did theluxury uh Dominion Luxury tour.
We had six houses there withwith with um some of the
builders, Burdick, Lifestyle byStadler, uh Jim Bowles.
Uh um we also had um uh who elsewas it?
We had two houses with uhRoberto L.
Kinningstein.
I mean, people were walkingthrough and seeing these houses.

(49:51):
You don't get a chance to seethose houses.
You are correct.

SPEAKER_03 (49:54):
It's very rare.
As a matter of fact, uh I usedto throw an event, we did it for
a full year, and it was uh tacosand mimosas.
Okay, we have luxury homes thatwe would gain access to and we'd
get them on a big tour bus andtake the realtors around.
They were packed every singletime.
Yep, and it's because for thatreason, yeah.
Normal agent, your your typicalagent, does not get the

(50:17):
opportunity to even set foot inthat because they don't have a
client that you go to see thathome.
Right.
And most homes like that, byappointment only, most of the
time or funds.
You gotta have the funds.
Show me the funds or the listingagent's gonna show up.
Yeah, they that's what they do,yeah.
Um, which that's impressive, butwhat it takes to sell those
types of homes.
Yeah, you know, yeah, you getone opportunity to sell eight

(50:40):
million dollars, four milliondollars.
That that's not that doesn'thappen every day.

SPEAKER_04 (50:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (50:44):
Um, for your layman.

SPEAKER_04 (50:46):
For sure.

SPEAKER_03 (50:47):
Yeah, no, that's impressive.
For sure.

SPEAKER_04 (50:48):
So and and part of that evolution too is is is
getting back to that wholeevolution of luxury home
magazine.
Is that the the magazine is Ithink is always going to be what
it is.
It's it's it is a tool foragents to and businesses.
Like think about right now, ifyou wanted to get in front of
seven thousand 17,000 of thewealthiest people in San
Antonio, what would it take toget in front of the 17,000 of

(51:10):
the wealthiest people?
Because remember, on Facebook,you can't do that.
Oh no.
Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 (51:15):
They're probably not there.

SPEAKER_04 (51:16):
Well, and they're not there, right?
But you you can't you can'ttarget based on wealth or any of
that.
So, how can you do it in SanAntonio?
It's a luxury home magazine.
It's the only way that you canget in front of that that type
of client.
That's right.
And so the evolution of thatalso, it's now um um training.
We're gonna do four workshopsnext year that we're gonna be

(51:36):
helping not only businesses, butuh people understand brand.
You know, today I'm I'm I'm I'ma big uh Grant Cardone, and on
the class today, I'm on CardoneUniversity.
My whole team is on CardoneUniversity.
We learn every single day, andwe're learning the uh the
process of sales every singleday.
And today was branding is moreimportant than marketing.

(51:57):
Oh, I have to agree with that.
Branding become a householdname.

SPEAKER_03 (52:01):
They need you they need to know who you are.
Absolutely.
If they don't know you, theycan't flow you.
Well, and it's the same conceptof what old timers used to say.
If you build it, they will come.
Yeah, not in today's world.
Nope.
They have to know about it.

SPEAKER_04 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah.
And and and so all that to sayis that's kind of the evolution
uh uh of where we're going intraining company, coaching, uh,
coaching company, uh uh givingpeople the ability to access
that world to understand how tobe a part of that world.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 (52:28):
Yeah, man, that's awesome.
Well, Tomas, I mean, this hasbeen a great conversation.
I've learned a whole lot aboutyou.
Uh is there anything that youwould like to tell our listeners
about you, the future, and whatyou're doing, which you've
already told us quite a bit.
Yeah, let me ask you, what isone thing that besides the
family, because we know thatthat's the ultimate motivator,

(52:51):
um and and I believe in doingthings through Jesus Christ
Himself.
Yeah, uh, he uses me.
He I know he uses you.
100%.
Besides those two factors, whatwhat is something that motivates
you nonstop?
Because and I and I'll prefacewith I don't care how successful
someone is or or how much theysay they are motivated like

(53:13):
myself, there's still somethingthat that continues to motivate
me uh to push forward to thenext venture, the next uh
failure, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04 (53:23):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I think I thinkone thing that motivates me is
you you gotta marry well.
Who you marry matters.
Yeah.
And I have a whole class on thison my YouTube.
Who you marry matters.
Um, because if you if you marrythe right person, they're going
to be a motivating factor uh sothat you grow.

(53:43):
They're gonna be a motivatingfactor, like, hey, you're gonna
go take that John Maxwell classand you're gonna pay the 10
grand.
And well, where's it?
It doesn't matter.
We're gonna figure it out we'llfind the money.
Don't worry about it.
So you need to, you you need aso my wife is a massive
motivation, uh, motivatingfactor.
We leave on Saturday and we'regonna be on the Ritz-Carlton uh
cruise line.
Very cool.

(54:03):
And and this is uh, we'recruisers.
We love to cruise.
I mean, we've been on a lot ofcruises, but this is not
cruising, this is yachting.
This is a whole different level.
And we're gonna be on the boatwith Grant Cardone, okay.
And this is a mastermind cruise.
Um, last year I was on it, therewere three billionaires that
were on the cruise.
Okay.
And so the motivating factor forme is that you've got to get

(54:25):
around people that are that aredoing things way bigger than
you.
So when you start getting aroundpeople that are doing things at
a bigger level, listen, yourdreams get way bigger.
Yes, that is very true.
Right?
Your dreams get way bigger.
And and I mean, my dream at onepoint was like, this is it's
funny that I'm I've I don'tthink I've ever shared this.
My dream was I wanted to live bya golf course.

(54:46):
Okay.
Okay.
I wanted, I just wanted to liveby a golf course.
And and I didn't even make thedream to live on the golf
course.
Okay, my dream was so weak.
I just want to be close by.
I just want to live by a golfcourse.
You know what I mean?
It's like that's so general andvague and weak.
You know, it's like, Tomiles,come on, dream bigger than that.
But that was my dream.
I wanted to live by a golfcourse, right?
That was kind of the dream andthe motivating thing.
And then I remember my son getsin the golf, and then we were

(55:10):
like, and then we would starttalking about, well, maybe we
need to join a golf club, right?
Maybe we need to join and be apart of like a golf club.
And and that to me was soforeign.
I didn't grow up playing golf.
I didn't start playing golfreally and truly till I was
probably 30 or 40, right?
I'm 50.
I just turned 50 uh uh uh in inSeptember.
And and here's the thing.
I I I just I literally was justlike, you know, I want to be by

(55:34):
a golf course.
Well, I didn't do it.
And then we started talkingabout this membership, and then
we we pull the trigger duringCOVID and we're like, okay, we
became members of a golf club.
And I can't tell you how weirdthat felt for like two years.
It was I didn't even tellanybody I was a member at a golf
club.
I wanted because it was so big,it was so outside of my world,

(55:54):
you know?
And so became a member at TPC,and and I'm golfing there all
the time, and I'm really nottelling you, I'm not talking to
me about it, right?
And then as we're there, I toldmy wife, I was like, we need to,
we probably should move.
And then we end up moving, and Iwe sold our house in Stone Oak
and we moved across uh right byTPC.
Okay, and I can see where myhouse is from the golf course
now.
That's awesome, right?

(56:15):
And so the the thing is, islike, I think the one motivating
factor I tell people is likesometimes you your dream, like
you have those dreams, and likefor me, I wasn't a big goal
writer.
Okay, and I shared this, I'veshared this with people.
I wasn't really a big goal, likewrite goals down.
Sure.
I that wasn't my thing.
Because I'll tell you why,because I knew I had to do the

(56:35):
work to go get it.
That's right.
So I didn't want to write downmy goals.

SPEAKER_03 (56:38):
You didn't want to set the expectation that you
could fail against.
Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (56:41):
I didn't, and I didn't want to fail.
Yeah, right.
And I because I was like, well,I mean, so then as you as you
start going to more workshops,as you start, you know, you see,
I've been to Business Masterywith Tony Robbins, I've been to
John Maxwell four times, I'vebeen to all these workshops with
Grant Cardone, I've been on thiscruise, and you start getting
around people and you startrealizing, you know, Grant
Cardone's jet that he owns, oh,and oh, the helicopter he owns,

(57:04):
all of those were dreams that hewrote down when he was broke and
didn't have anything.
When he had nothing.
And he would write down thesevisions and he would say, Okay,
I'm gonna have the the the Gfive or the G whatever, you
know, the global.
I'm gonna have, and he kepttalking about it and he played
this game.
And so this is the game.
If you had a, you know, whenyou're when you're out down on
your look, this is what ElenaCardone would make Grant play.

(57:27):
You have a billion dollars.
What are you gonna do with themoney?

SPEAKER_05 (57:30):
Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 (57:31):
And that's when they were like, when they were down
on like things were hard whenthe car business went to
everything, and they becausethey did all their business
based off coaching the carbusiness.
That's how Grant Cardone gotstarted.
She's like, Okay, Grant, I wantyou to spend a billion dollars.
What are you gonna buy with abillion dollars?
And this was an exercise thatthey would play.
And so one of the things thatmotivates my wife and I is not

(57:53):
stuff, it's not the stuff, it isthe exercise of going.
I need to think bigger than justI want to be by the golf course.
Yeah.
I need anything bigger thanthat, right?
Absolutely.
To the where now I'm a member ata golf course.
Oh, and by the way, I live byone.
Like, but I went the long way toget there because I just didn't
want to write it down.
So what if I had written it downsooner?

(58:15):
Sooner.
Wow.
Who knows?
Who knows, right?
Like, I mean, it could be waydifferent, right?
It could that that vision couldbe way, I could be further along
in the journey.

SPEAKER_03 (58:24):
That's an incredible practice of of going and it's
going through the motions rightnow than putting yourself in a
position to go through the gametime situations to get there.
You know, and it that's anthat's an incredible practice.
Um, I I would probably startincorporating that personally.
Yeah.
Um because for me, similar toyou, I did not dream big enough

(58:48):
until I started meeting peoplethat became a part of my circle
that were doing way, much olderthan I, but at the same time, if
he can do it, I can do it.
Yeah, type concept.
And if and if he can talk aboutit, I can listen.
100%.
Okay.
So I became that sponge.
And the idea was let's get indifferent rooms.

(59:09):
Yeah, let's get in differentcircles, and that's how I'm
going to shape who I'm gonna bemoving forward.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (59:16):
And now we're here.
And I and the other piece tothis, to that motivation, right?
So the pe the piece is who youmarry matters.
You need to you need to makesure that you've got somebody
that's motivating you, right?
That's pushing you.
And and and then the other pieceto that is is get in a Bible
study.
Oh, most I read, man.

SPEAKER_03 (59:32):
I I'm in a weekly one with a bunch of gentlemen.
Are you doing the every man awarrior?
No, no, no.
This is a Bible study we doevery week.
Every matter of fact, we had itthis morning.
Yeah.
Um couple of guys from highschool, the nice uh Charlie Kirk
situation happened.
We got together and said, Heyman, um, the time to stop being
quiet about it.
Let's let's do our weekly thing.
Yeah.
And let's invite other men thatare great.

(59:54):
We're not doing it for show.
We don't publicize it oranything like that.
But definitely I recommend thatas well.

SPEAKER_04 (59:59):
Well, yeah.
I I can tell you, I got Gilly,shout out to Gilly Mendoza.
He invited me to Every Man aWarrior.
And um, you know, he I thoughtit was like a, you know, we're
gonna get together for like aweek.
No, no, no.
It's like a 30-week process.
And it is, I'm telling you, I'mI'm I'm serious when I say this.
Like, when you get in a group ofguys and you're studying the
word like that, it's motivating.

(01:00:20):
Absolutely.
Because no matter whereeverybody's at, everybody's
having some wins.
Some people may be in somelosses, but everybody's having
some wins and you get to sharein that and you get to be
together and you get to read.
So I just find a Bible study,and I'm gonna be doing one.
When I finish mine, I'm gonna belaunching my Everyman a Warrior
ML.

(01:00:40):
Buckle up.
Because let me tell you this,it's been incredible.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:44):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, Tomas, this has been agreat discussion, probably one
of the top uh that I've hadrecently.
Uh, no offense to those before,but we were talking about real
estate and stuff like that.
This is uh a little different.
Um, for those of you listeningout there, um, if you do want to
get in touch with Tomas, let'sthrow this up on the screen real
quick, JC.

(01:01:07):
This is the website that he hasthat you can find his bookings,
videos, podcasts.
Um, his podcast is top-notch,has different conversations with
individuals, um, by all means,all walks of life.
Um, let me see here.
Here's the luxury magazine whereyou see all of the beautiful
things and sexiness uh that goeson in San Antonio.

(01:01:29):
Um, and finally, guys, thanksfor joining and subscribing.
We're now at 30,600 subscribersand rising.
Uh, don't know how.
Yes, I do.
We're consistent.
We bring on guests likeyourself, and we're continuing
to do that.
Um, so Tomas, I want to thankyou again for giving me all of
this great stuff and allowing meto kind of pry into your life

(01:01:52):
and your story today, man.
Thank you.
I really did.
Yeah.
Um, those of you out there, weappreciate you.
My commitment to you is tocontinue to bring you guests
just like this so that we can betransparent.
Um and uh give you guys somenuggets out there.
Hopefully, you can take some ofthis stuff to the bank and cash
it until the next one.
How much better?
Check you later.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:12):
Are you getting better every single day?
That's the question, right?
And it's just taking smallsteps, and you know trying to
get it all done in one day, inone week.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:27):
If you're still sending out pre-approval letters
and praying your realtors sendyou the next lead, you're
already behind.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:34):
Top producers are winning because they're giving
their agents more than just ratesheets and donuts.
They're giving them loan bot.
With loan bot, you can offerrealtors a white-labeled
co-branded digital mortgage toolthat they send straight to their
buyers.
It's like giving them a miniloan officer in their pocket.
Available 24-7, fully loaded andbranded with your name and their
trust.
Buyers can self-diagnose,compare loan programs, check

(01:02:56):
real numbers, search properties,and explore down payment
assistance without blowing youup at 10 p.m.
And the best part?
You see everything, everyscenario, every lead, every
milestone.
You're looped in the whole way.
Loan bot isn't a widget, it'sthe referral machine you've been
waiting for.
Here's the deal your realtorscan get it from us directly for
$9.99 a month.

(01:03:17):
But it'd be in your bestinterest if they got it from
you.
Either way, they're going to getit.
White labeled, co branded,transparent, and more.
Sign up for your demo with ourteam of innovators.

All Episodes

How One Big Gamble Changed Everything - Tomas Martinez of TM3 Impact

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

The Joe Rogan Experience

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How One Big Gamble Changed Everything - Tomas Martinez of TM3 Impact