June 18, 2025 • 39 mins
How do you go from bartending in the UK to leading a $3 billion real estate empire in Nashville? In this episode, Scott sits down with Gary Ashton the founder of the #1 RE/MAX team in the world. Gary and Scott have a conversation on scaling smart, building teams that last.
Gary shares the real story behind his rise, including the mindset shifts, marketing plays, and relationship building that took him from handing out business cards at bars to working directly with the Tennessee Titans. Whether you're a new agent or a seasoned broker, this one is packed with lessons you won’t hear on a typical real estate podcast.
🔑 Topics include:
- The one thing agents get wrong about leads.
- How Gary scaled from 7 agents to 185.
- Why automation won’t replace connection.
- What he’d do differently if starting today.
- Nashville real estate’s next big opportunity.
Grab your coffee, or something stronger and tune in!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Liz Hack (00:00):
And welcome to Real Estate Distilled the podcast.
I'm Liz Hack.
Scott Hack (00:04):
Hey, I'm Scott Hack.
Liz Hack (00:05):
We are your hosts for Real Estate Distilled the
podcast. On this episode, Scott,we're gonna go back in time,
right? We're gonna talk aboutReal Estate Distilled The
Conference.
Scott Hack (00:16):
Yeah. So today we're going to introduce and talk a
little bit about Mr. GaryAshton, who sat down on the
stage with me and I kind of dida Q and A with him.
Liz Hack (00:27):
Yeah. We really don't do that a lot. You know, we
haven't done that for a longtime at one of our in person
events. And I think people likedit because it was refreshing and
got to ask questions that youwould normally wanna ask
yourself.
Scott Hack (00:40):
Yeah. So, I mean, we put Gary on the hot seat and
walked through some of his someof his marketing ideas and some
of his his business strategiesthat he's done over the years.
So we covered everything fromhis sports affiliations to his
billboard campaign that he'sdone and how he's grown the, the
(01:01):
Ashton real estate team, to bethe number one REMAX team in the
world.
Liz Hack (01:07):
Yeah. I was gonna say, why don't we tell people who are
listening who Gary Ashton is andwhy especially in our region,
why that was so cool to have himthere?
Scott Hack (01:17):
Yeah. So for those of you do that do not know who
Gary is, he is basicallyNashville real estate. So I I
mentioned it actually in the, onthe stage. Gary has produced a
brand that is as close to Cokeor Apple, for Nashville real
estate as I think they canexist.
Liz Hack (01:35):
It's amazing. Yeah.
Scott Hack (01:36):
So you can't drive through the city. You can't
listen to the radio. You can't,go to the predators games and
not see Gary's face.
Liz Hack (01:46):
Even if you're just driving through Nashville
Gary Ashton (01:49):
Right.
Liz Hack (01:50):
You see his billboards. That's a game we
like to play when we're headingdown south from where we live.
We, count the billboards that wesee Gary on. You can't listen to
rate the radio, in your car whenyou're driving through Nashville
without hearing one of his radiospots. So truly, exactly like
(02:11):
you talked about.
He is the coke for real estatein Nashville, Tennessee.
Scott Hack (02:16):
Yeah. He's built a huge omnipresence brand. So we
walked through some of that andbasically how he's put together
some smart people around him andwhat that looks like.
Liz Hack (02:26):
So let's go ahead and start the presentation from this
year's Real Estate Distilled.
Announcer (02:31):
Welcome to the Real Estate Distilled podcast. Get
ready for a smooth pour oninsights on sales, marketing,
lead conversion, and technology.All shaken, stirred, and
perfectly balanced to help yousucceed in real estate. Mixed
(02:53):
just for you.
Scott Hack (02:59):
Real quick. For those that do not know Gary,
he's in the national market.I've known Gary a while. And
last year, I put him into aheadlock, and he came up and
visited with us for a littlewhile. And then, like, hey.
We gotta get you back and andshare your expertise with with
the the community. But I knew,and I know Gary long enough that
I wasn't gonna get him up herewith a clicker and a slideshow
(03:20):
presentation. So I convinced himto do a Q and A. So I've got
some prepared questions, sowe're gonna go through some of
the questions that I've asked,put together. And then if we
have time and things are goingwell, Liz will take a microphone
around and we will basically,you all submit some questions.
So, Gary, why don't you do yourelevator introduction for people
(03:41):
who have no idea who you are?
Gary Ashton (03:43):
So my name is Gary Ashton. I own the Ashton Real
Estate Group of REMAX Advantage.Based in Nashville, which is one
city, and I'm with REMAX. Welove the new logo and I do
actually, I do love it. And weare the number one REMAX team in
(04:04):
the world is how I like to sayBut I will add that I have 180
agents on the team so we're moreof a team marriage rather than
your traditional ten-fifteenperson team.
Scott Hack (04:19):
This was not one of my prepared questions, but since
you mentioned it.
Gary Ashton (04:22):
Oh, here we go. Off the off
Scott Hack (04:23):
the I know. But now I'm curious, like, there's less
than a 180 people here in theroom today, so how do you keep
track of a 180 people's namesand who they are?
Gary Ashton (04:35):
So I don't really know everybody's name. So I do
know them because part of ouronboarding is I have a couple of
classes where I teach the agentshow I want the leads to be
treated. So I get to knoweverybody and when they start,
(04:56):
the part of their onboarding isto send me a video text and just
say, hey, my name's Scott Hackblah blah blah blah.
Scott Hack (05:05):
You're a really handsome person
Gary Ashton (05:08):
all Just cute, so really it's more about so I know
who they are. So when they comeinto the class and then four
months later they text me, I cango back and go, Who is that? So
really don't know. So what wedid though was when I started
the team, I started with two,four, six, ten, twelve, fifteen.
(05:30):
So around that number I kneweverybody individually and I
would always say that I could goout for dinner or lunch with
anybody on the team.
Some I would like more thanothers but I knew everybody
enough to be able to feelcomfortable doing that. But when
you get to 75, 100, you start tolose contact with people. So I
(05:53):
created this thing called, Icall them pods actually. So it
was an agent that we wouldselect that wanted to, don't
know,
Scott Hack (06:05):
Like a mini team leader.
Gary Ashton (06:05):
a mini team leader? It's kind of like a mini team,
yeah, but it was more on thesocial side. That was the idea
is to stop. Deborah Beagle's mybusiness partner and she's the
one that is the managing broker.She answers all the really tough
questions from the agents.
But she was getting all of the,hey, you got a minute? Have you
(06:27):
got a minute? Have you got aminute? So it was really a way
to filter out her dealing withall those. I mean, they're not
stupid questions, but there'snot something that Deborah
should be spending the time on.
So in effect what we did, calledthem squads and we had squad
leaders and then each of thesquad leaders had about 15,
though they do have about 15agents. And we give them a
(06:53):
budget so they can go out, theycan take the agents to lunch, to
go do training. And it's more ofa social network. It's a
feedback loop for us to figureout if things are going well and
also if things are going badlyand there's an undercurrent of
people complaining about things.Or if somebody's doing something
(07:14):
well that's nothing to do withreal estate, then we have a
feedback loop so we canrecognize that person.
Conversely, if something isgoing bad, somebody's getting
divorced, all the negativestuff, because when you get to
180 people, you've got, we'vehad people die, people get
married, people have kids,people get married within the
(07:35):
team, me being one of them.Yeah. Congratulations.
Scott Hack (07:41):
Congratulations, by the way, because that's fairly
recent, six months ago. Right?
Gary Ashton (07:43):
Yep. I did go to Italy. Yeah. It was the best
excuse to go to Italy ever.
Scott Hack (07:51):
It was awesome. All right, so next question I have
on my list. So you and Iactually met because we both
have a passion in online leadgeneration. And so for context
really quickly, how many domain
Gary Ashton (08:03):
names you own? So that is an unknown question
because I've got about three orfour hundred with GoDaddy and
then I've got other ones that Iforget about until they say your
credit card has been declinedand then you've got to renew it.
And I go, oh shit, I forgot,that's a good one. I didn't know
(08:23):
about that. So the ones Iactively use are Nashville's
MLS, worst URL ever,nashvillerealestate.com,
garyashton.com, and TN realestate.
So I've got one with Sierra, tworeal estate webmasters, and one
(08:43):
with Ylopo.
Scott Hack (08:45):
Okay. So you've got at least a handful, four or five
major domains you're using, andthen another four to 500 that
you own
Gary Ashton (08:53):
I mean, I've got other ones that I've the parts,
like Celebrity Agent, we usethat, don't if you know that.
Okay. And then with that,there's I think it's Ashton Real
Estate GRP is another leadsource.
Scott Hack (09:07):
So of the ones that you mentioned, there were the
handful where you have aplatform on them. I'm guessing
those are the ones you consideryour most valuable. Which one do
you think is the most valuable?
Gary Ashton (09:18):
In terms of lead generation, the most valuable
one is realtor.com because I ownall of the Nashville market. So
any leads that come throughrealtor.com in the greater
conurbation, so that'sNashville, Brentwood, Franklin,
Hennessville, all of the area,Clarksville, all of those leads
(09:43):
come to me. So that is inessence my website. The one that
I actually own though isNashville's MLS is the one that
although it's the worst URL,it's the one that ranks
organically better than anythingelse.
Scott Hack (10:01):
Did you start with that one? Is that why you think
it's ranking better?
Gary Ashton (10:04):
No, I started with Nashville buyers. Okay. And then
I think back in the day we allwanted to have 10 sites in the
top 10 with differentvariations. So I had Nashville
sales, Nashville buyers and Iwanted nashvillerealestate.com
(10:24):
that had gone. I wantedNashville MLS that had gone.
Nashville Homes had gone. So thenext best thing to me was, oh,
I'll just get nashvillesmls.com.And for whatever reason, that
one really stuck with the SEO.And yeah, today, because if I
tell you Nashville's MLS, mostpeople go, oh, Nashville MLS.
(10:48):
No, Nashville's MLS.
Scott Hack (10:51):
So if those ones that you were just naming that
weren't available, I'm guessingthat at some point there was one
that you've bought that wasaftermarket or or premium that
you were Yeah.
Gary Ashton (11:01):
So I I bought nashvillerealestate.com. I can't
remember now, maybe six or sevenyears ago.
Scott Hack (11:09):
So we were talking at dinner last night. How do you
place a determination on what adomain might be worth into your
business?
Gary Ashton (11:17):
So I paid 50,000 for it, but I think it was
Justin Havre said to me, we weretalking about domains and he
said, well why don't you havenationalrealestate.com? I said,
well it's already gone. He said,no it's not, it's for sale. It
literally was maybe two daysbefore anybody else really knew
(11:41):
about it. I went to the site andit said, nationalrealestate.com
is for sale.
So I knew that if I applied forit they would know who I was
basically from my email address.So I got Chris Lindell to, if
everybody knows Chris, he's upin Minneapolis. So I got Chris
(12:02):
Lindell to negotiate for me. Andif you know Chris, Chris is
probably the best negotiatorI've ever met. And so I gave
Chris my $50,000 and he said,I'll take care of it.
Because if I'd have beennegotiating, they would have
said, we're going to go to 100and I would have said, okay,
(12:23):
because I really thought it wasworth 150 at the time. I don't
know if it is now, but anywayChris just said, yeah, I need to
know today. Get back to mebefore 05:00 or otherwise the
offer's off the table. And Iwould never have said that. And
I got it for $50.
Scott Hack (12:42):
So you you also had affiliation with at least two
different sports pro sportsorganizations in the Nashville
market. Can you share a littlebit about what you learned from
leveraging those affiliations?
Gary Ashton (12:55):
So I was the official realtor for ten years
with the Tennessee Titans untilthey decided they wanted to five
x me on my sponsorship fee. So Idid that for ten years, but that
was really a way of elevating mypresence within the community.
(13:17):
So every Titans game, I had atailgate. So when did the
initial deal with the Titans,they wanted to give me a suite
with like 12 tickets, which isawesome if I wanted to invite 12
people to a game. But I said,I'd rather have a spot to do a
(13:39):
tailgate.
I had an RV, like a typical 40foot RV. So I wrapped that. So
it said Gary Ashton down thesides, pretty prominent, all the
branding on it. And then forevery game I wanted to do a
tailgate, so they said yes. Sowe swapped out the suite, then I
(14:00):
got just four club level ticketsand then got the spot to do the
tailgate, which for me, Ithought they were going to stick
me right in the corner of theparking lot, you know, way back
and it would just be my ownlittle event.
They ended up putting me righton the pathway where everybody
(14:21):
would walk down the road intothe stadium. So for me it just
created a huge amount ofvisibility. So it started as the
RV, but then it really expandedinto this little became a pain
in the ass to be honest becauseyou had to put all these tents
up and we would do hamburgersand hotdogs and we'd invite
(14:42):
everybody in. It was like anopen, then it became people
would just come in and stealhamburgers and hotdogs. So then
we made it a little bit moreexclusive.
You had to get a wristband. Soit evolved over ten years, but
it really did elevate myposition within the community of
I'm aligned with the NFL. Andthen after about five or six
(15:07):
years, then we also got theNashville Predators, which is
the hockey team. And so we stilldo that one. I have a really
good relationship with hockeyteam.
Scott Hack (15:18):
So you're you're talking about the the RV. So,
mean, essentially, that was a 40foot billboard that you parked
in the Texas Titans parking lotevery every game.
Gary Ashton (15:26):
That was my billboard.
Scott Hack (15:27):
Yeah. So so translating into now you have
billboards across the city, orat least I'm assuming you do,
because last time Liz and Idrove through there was We
Gary Ashton (15:35):
have about 100 altogether, it varies. 80 to
100, and I think we've got 10 ofthem are digital. So the digital
ones are the ones that I canjust send in a new message and
change those on a daily basis.The other billboards really now
(15:57):
just say don't sell without theIntel. That's kind of been our
phrase for I think six years orso or eight years.
Did that through radio to startwith, then we do TV and then had
a competitor come into themarket that I knew was going to
do billboards. I just, heessentially forced me to start
(16:19):
billboards, which was a goodthing actually because I never
really wanted to spend the moneyon billboards. But as soon as I
did that, it kind of became thefinal piece in the puzzle. If
you know Gary Vee's Jab, Jab,Jab, Right Hook, the billboards
all of a sudden elevated usagain because it reinforced
(16:40):
everything I've been doing withradio, everything I've been
doing with TV, everything that Iwas doing with sports marketing
and all of a sudden they hadthis big old billboard that you
would drive around and see. Andit just helped, I think I call
it brand equity, helped developmy brand equity in Nashville.
Scott Hack (17:03):
I've always talked about and referred to billboards
as brand multipliers, so we'rekind of on the same page about
what those are. I call them asocial backlink. Okay. Yeah.
Gary Ashton (17:13):
It's not really a backlink, but it's out there and
you've seen there.
Scott Hack (17:16):
It has that same power though.
Gary Ashton (17:17):
It's the perception of you're on a billboard then
you've got more credibility Ithink.
Scott Hack (17:23):
Most of your billboards are brand building,
They're not necessarily directresponse although when you see
your face 100
Gary Ashton (17:28):
times a Yeah, they just say don't sell without the
intel. It's the same, it's adifferent picture actually. It's
this jacket, so this is now moreof my branding. This white shirt
me, different picture becausethat one is, I always think I
look really good looking in thatpicture but then I forget that
(17:50):
when they took that then theydid all the digital enhancements
and took out, so yeah that'slike the best version of me
ever.
Scott Hack (18:00):
So on the billboards specifically because
Gary Ashton (18:03):
Oh but on the digital ones that's the ones
where we started an auctiondivision so now I can flip those
10 billboards to talking aboutauctions or for recruiting, I
have a big recruiting billboard.And we just rotate those in, the
digital ones where they rotate.So we mix in the real estate,
(18:26):
the recruiting and if we have anauction through, throw some of
those in.
Scott Hack (18:30):
At the end of the day though, you've got a P and L
that you've got to check out.How are you tracking or are you
even tracking the return oninvestment for the billboards?
Gary Ashton (18:37):
So you can't track it unless you actually have
something that's trackable,unless there's a code on there
or even a phone number that youcould track, but I think it's
very hard to do that. You couldput a QR code on I guess, but
really all I know is that when Igot forced to do billboards,
(19:00):
when I knew this other guy wascoming into the market, Mark
Spain essentially, he's theguaranteed cash offer guy, so
he's in a lot of the South. WhenI knew that he was coming in, I
knew he was going to dobillboards. I was telling Scott
last night, soon as I knew hewas coming in, the only reason I
knew is because I was flickingthrough Instagram and I saw an
(19:24):
ad for Mark and it said MarkSpain now hiring. So was like,
good grief.
So I knew he was coming in. Sowithin a week we'd got the order
in, the campaign for 50, startoff with 50 billboards and to me
that was really more of a let meget ahead of him. I know he's
(19:45):
coming and he's got more moneythan me, he's going to have a
bigger campaign but it elevatedme within the Nashville market
and I think it just added to mycredibility. And I know what I
was going to say is that addedsort of a lift in business from
it. So Chris Lindell, they'vebeen doing it for a long time
(20:08):
before me and he'd been handingme to do it for years.
Justin Havers, my other buddy upin Calgary, same thing because
Chris did it then Justin did itand then they were both kind of
going, come on, you got to doit, you got to do it. And I saw
no reason to do it because I wasalready ahead of them in terms
of SEO. So Mark was the one thatpushed me to do it. So with
(20:31):
every cloud, there's a silverlining. I wouldn't have done it
if he hadn't forced me to do it.
Scott Hack (20:38):
Just for the audience that's not aware, if
you Google Chris, it's spelledwith a k, he's in the Minnesota
market. He's the guy who doesthe hands outreach, yeah, on
billboards. There's some reallyinteresting tie ins he's done in
some of the video game recently.Right?
Gary Ashton (20:53):
Oh, yeah. Is is it Call of Duty?
Scott Hack (20:55):
Yeah. I I can't remember
Gary Ashton (20:56):
what have a billboard of Chris Yeah. Within
the game, but it's not Chris.It's the the character, I think.
Okay. But it's the Armsoutstretched.
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Hack (21:07):
So, you know, on that note, like, surrounded
yourself with some really smartpeople. And, you know, Deborah
Beagle is Yep. You you mentionedher earlier. So how did she come
into your world and how did thatrelationship come together?
Gary Ashton (21:19):
So Deborah, so this goes back to 02/2011. So I was I
was working with the generalmanager of the Titans. He was
selling his house, so I knewthat I was going to get the
Titans account to be theofficial real estate agent. So
(21:43):
he lived in a gatedneighborhood, So I knew I was
going to be listing this houseand then there was a broker
progressive open house. So Ithought I should go to that
because then I can meet some ofthe other realtors that are
listing in there.
So there's about five or sixhouses that you go through and
these are all big old houses. Sothe one was literally 16,000
(22:09):
square foot. So it was a bighouse. I didn't have a car that
day because my car was in theshop, so I got somebody to drop
me off. Gated subdivision,there's probably about 28
realtors and so they're all,each house you would drive out,
there would be a valet.
So then would then go in thehouse, look around, then come
(22:32):
out and then get your car. So Igot one of my guys to drop me
off and I said, I'll text youwhen I'm done. I'll just hitch a
ride with somebody with, youknow, you would do that, right?
100%. So the house was 16,000square foot.
So I go in, I'm walking around,bump into this lady and that's
(22:53):
when you go, oh beautiful house,lovely, I love it, amazing. Walk
around and then I bump into heragain, she was with an old lady
and I was just like, oh this isfantastic, amazing architectural
features. Well that happenedlike four or five times because
it was such a big house, I keptbumping into her. So it just
became, and I was like, are youstalking me, what's going on
(23:15):
there? So just having a bit of alaugh.
And then when I was leaving, soeverybody's, the cars are all
pulling up, so this big blackCadillac pulls up. And then
Debra gets in, said to end itwith one of her friends and I
said to Debra, and she didn'tknow me, but I said, Can I get a
(23:35):
ride to the next spot? Andthat's when she's probably in
her head went, as a realtor. I'monly going 50 yards to the next
house. Yeah, it seems safeenough and I've got somebody
else.
So she let me in and then I rodein and then we started chatting
(23:57):
and I said I'm here because I'mgonna be listing. Oh, I said I'm
getting the Titans account andthen she thought I was full of
crap. And then I said, I gaveher my card and then that's when
she was aware of me. She said,Oh you're Gary Ashton.
Scott Hack (24:13):
The Gary Ashton.
Gary Ashton (24:14):
Well kind of because I was known for
generating leads and things likethat. I already had the team.
The team was about maybe 30people or something like that,
30 or 40 people. So she knew,anyway, then we just got on like
a house on fire. Went around andshe's ridiculously smart.
(24:35):
Then I thought I was beingreally, really good because the
brokerage I was at, they weregetting the Titans. This is
before I had them. So they weregetting the Titans. Turned out
that Deborah is a hockey nut.She really knows a hockey.
So after the event I said toher, you should come and join
REMAX. She was a Coldwellbanker. I said, you should come
(24:57):
and join REMAX because we'regetting the predators. And so I
thought that I was being reallysmart by trying to bring her in
just because of the hockey.Well, turned out she already
knew the owner of that brokerageand they were kind of friends.
So that deal had already beendone. I just didn't know that
they were coming in. So Debrajoined REMAX. Her job was going
(25:22):
to be kind of working with thepredators, all of the sponsors
and things like that. It turnsout that was the year that they
had the lockout, the hockeystrike.
So I would go into Deborah. Ididn't have an office, an
individual office, but Deborahhad one. Then if you all know
Deborah, if you ever met her,she's like immaculate with
(25:42):
everything. The office is fullof awards and it's just very
clean and just completelyopposite to the way that my I
don't have an office because itwas so bad. Anyway, I kept going
in and saying, should just comeand join my team because she was
representing three or fourbuilders.
So it was really like theperfect storm because she was
(26:03):
spending a lot of money withZillow and marketing and I was
generating all these buyer leadsorganically. So she had the
vision to say, okay, if I jointhen I'll get all the buyers and
I can cut my advertising spendwith Zillow. So that's how she
(26:23):
joined. And then I found outthat she was really, really
smart and then she justnaturally gravitated to being a
leader within because I don'tlike getting up in front of the
team meetings going blah blahblah blah let's go team. But
Deborah's much more, that's justmore natural for And so she
(26:45):
became the leader.
Also, she's a managing broker.And that's too hard a test to
take. So
Scott Hack (26:54):
obviously, the size of the size of your team and
your production that youprobably don't have to spend a
lot of time going out andlooking for things. People
probably are coming to you tosee if you'll test it or check
into it. So what what tech areyou most excited right now that
you're either experimenting withor that you've been exposed
Gary Ashton (27:10):
So yes, we have a ton of stuff and I am a bit of a
shiny object guy and which isgood and bad, know, because
sometimes we'll take stuff Ithink is amazing but then when
the agents actually startworking it they don't like it or
they don't use it. But the onethat we're really using now is
(27:34):
House Whisper. I don't ifanybody has heard of that one
but really that's like
Scott Hack (27:40):
Greg is going to do, I think, a little demo on it
later today. We'll get a littlepiece of So
Gary Ashton (27:45):
we've been beta testing that for a few months. I
think they're going to releaseit in the next I think they're
going to go to market in thenext few weeks. But essentially
it's an assistant. It's an AIassistant because everything's
AI right now that makes it cooland trendy. But it really is
something that with adoption fortechnology, it's usually about
(28:08):
if you do 20% to 30%, you'redoing okay.
So with our team, we've beenbeta testing it for a while now,
but it's created such a buzzwithin the team that people are
asking when can I get on, whencan I be on boarded? So it
really does help withmaintaining that relationship
(28:31):
with the clients, the follow-up,the accountability. I mean, it's
just an assistant that you don'tworry about the AI, just use it
as an assistant that you neversee. You can call it, you can
text it and it will do all sortsof things for you, create
reminders and follow ups andthings. It's house whisper.
Scott Hack (28:55):
So looking back on your journey, what were the
biggest mistakes or learningexperiences that shaped how you
run your business today?
Gary Ashton (29:07):
Mistakes, I don't think there's any massive
mistakes. There's always littlethings like I spent some money
on some new program, which wasmore of a small investment.
Nothing big.
Scott Hack (29:24):
Okay. That's good. And we really only have time for
a couple other questions, so I'mgonna ask this one and then we
might be able to take anaudience question. But
yesterday, Christine talkedabout branding and personal
branding specifically, andthere's some, you know,
phenomenal teams and and brokersout there. And some of this
(29:44):
could be just me being, youknow, in your your world and in
your story for a long time, butyou've created a brand that is
as close to Coke or Apple forNashville real estate in my
eyes, and it's a competitivemarket.
So if you track it, what'sbringing you the highest ROI for
your brand building and leadgeneration?
Gary Ashton (30:06):
Right now I'd say realtor.com because we do
Zillow, we do Zillow Flex. Therehasn't been much business for a
while so Flex is turning moreback to market based pricing.
Realtor.com, so there'sdifferent programs at
(30:26):
realtor.com. So we're doingmarket VIP. So that's where I
just pay a flat fee, then all ofthe leads come to me.
So there's no tying it to alender. You don't have to use
the lender. You don't have touse the title company, which
what Zillow is essentially doingwith their enhanced markets and
(30:50):
they want you to use Zillow HomeLoans or don't even know what
the title company is, Spruce Ithink it is. So with
realtor.com, I don't have any ofthose pressures. I can choose my
own partners to work with.
So that's been the biggest one.The SEO has been is tougher and
(31:10):
tougher and harder and harder.So that's why I kind of went all
in on the realtor.com, which westarted at like 30% in the
market, then went to 70% andthen went to 100%. So it was a
gradual, we stair stepped it up.It wasn't just like go all in.
Scott Hack (31:28):
Alright. Liz is gonna come grab the microphone.
Like I said, I think we havetime for maybe one, maybe two.
One question. One question.
Okay. One question.
Gary Ashton (31:35):
No. I'm kidding. Long as it's not a
Liz Hack (31:37):
hard Who's the lucky winner of the one question?
Gary Ashton (31:41):
Nobody wants to ask a question. Hello. No, he's
going to be too smart.
Audience (31:54):
Mic. Two one two. So you have a 180 people in the
team as of now. What did that asyou started as you started to
build that team, could you giveus just maybe a broad overview
on how that developed? Right?
(32:14):
So year one, you had two people.Year three, you had seven
people, so on and so And thenthe other piece that I have on
top of that is with yourstructure, do you have all the
support on the backside as well?So do you have your own TCs or
is that more through thebrokerage?
Gary Ashton (32:34):
Well I'm going to answer the last question because
I can remember that one. Yes, sowe have marketing, we have
transaction, we have ISAs.Essentially all we do for the
agent is give themopportunities. So they're not
(32:55):
having to do the nurturing,they're not having to do the
initial calls. When the leadcomes in, the way I describe it
is if you imagine like a relayrace and the lead comes in and
that is the baton, That comes tothe ISA.
So the ISAs are all licensed,they all live in Nashville,
(33:18):
they're all licensed realtors.So they can ask all the
questions that you would as arealtor. And then they, so they
grab that baton and they runaround the lap until that person
says, yeah, I want to go see ahome. So that might be
instantaneous really, like ifit's a realtor.com lead and they
want to go see a house today ortomorrow, there'd be an instant
(33:42):
handoff to the appropriate agentfor that market, for that price
range. Otherwise they just keepon running around the track and
that's the nurturing.
And then it's either threemonths, six months, a year, two
years. And at that point whenthat person wants to go see a
house or wants to talk morein-depth to a realtor, that's
(34:03):
when that lead's handed off. Sothen when that lead goes under
contract, that's when it goes tothe contract to close. So we
have a lot of support on theback end. And then the question
was like how did the team grow,is that what you're asking?
So it was just organic. I neverstarted out to have a big old
(34:26):
team. Just I ended up when Istarted I was doing PPC which is
one or two leads a day. So I wasdoing that which is enough to
keep me busy. And then, this isa long story but I'll make it
short.
I got approached by the ownersof nashville.com, which is the
(34:49):
geo domain, just nashville.com.And they were getting 20 to 30
leads a day, but they couldnever get in touch with the
broker owners. They could neverget in touch with the people
that own Coldwell Banker, KellerWilliams, REMAX, because if they
made those calls, they never getthrough to the owners, even
(35:14):
though they would have probablyloved to have got that call. So
they were trying to findsomebody to sell to lease the
site to. So they went to Google,typed in Nashville real estate.
I was number one in the PPC. Sothey called me and said, would
you like it? And it was $2,000 amonth at the time, which was way
(35:34):
above my budget as it were. Butthey said to we'll give you a
sampling, we'll give you freeleads for a week. So I always
describe this as like a tennisball machine or a little tap
that's dripping and it'sdripping.
(35:57):
Well, I got the free leads for aweek, was like turning the
faucet on me. It was gushingout, which is really that's the
catalyst for developing the teambecause I'm gonna go back to my
tennis ball analogy. If a tennisball machine is like firing
tennis balls at you, I can catchthe tennis ball every time when
(36:20):
it's like three a day. It's likeand I can work that lead. When I
got nashville.com, the tennisball machine was just going
throwing that ball.
So I could catch every singleball as it were, maybe. But then
I would put it here in my, youknow, and then when you get to
(36:42):
like 10 or 15, I'm still gettingnumber 16, number 17, number 18,
but as I'm putting it here,those leads fall away and roll
away because you're so focusedon the lead that came. So that
was the genesis of the teamsthat I realized I had to go, hey
(37:02):
do you want a lead? Hey do wantto lead? And initially I was
giving it to anybody that was inthe brokerage but then I
realized, because this is in2,004 I think it was, there
wasn't really a manual on how tocreate teams or work teams but I
realized pretty quickly that ifI give Scott a lead and then
(37:24):
Scott gets his own business, hisfocus is gonna money his own
business.
My lead, he's only getting 50%,so why would he focus on that? I
had no accountability, thenthat's when I created the team.
So I brought those two agents inand then the team grew because I
(37:48):
think I said I like shinyobjects. So I'm always looking
for the next lead source and Ialways want to be this is
another cliche, you want todominate the market. So I would
say that I'm not too riskaverse.
So spending more and more moneygenerates more and more leads.
(38:08):
I've spent a lot of money on theSEO, lots of money on the sports
marketing, marketing overall,radio, television, pretty much
done it all. And then you find aresponsibility because then you
look out and then you see allthese agents like the little,
hey I need feeding, give mesome. So it's continually
(38:32):
feeding that fire, it's like apyramid. People do well they
start to focus more on their ownsphere, but they still want the
leads.
But you still need those newagents coming in to run out and
go see leads. Does that answerit? I'm just always looking for
(38:52):
new leads, continue trying tobuild, but with that you need to
continue, you recruit more andmore agents. Is that it? You're
welcome.
Scott Hack (39:06):
Alright. Give give Gary a round of applause,
please. Thank you, Gary. Reallyappreciate it. Thank you, sir.
Thanks.
Announcer (39:14):
That's a wrap for this episode of the Real Estate
Distilled podcast. Visitrealestatedistilled.com for more
tips, and jump into our Facebookgroup to keep the conversation
going. Here's to making everytransaction a smooth pour.
(39:34):
Cheers.
And welcome to Real Estate Distilled the podcast.
I'm Liz Hack.
Scott Hack (00:04):
Hey, I'm Scott Hack.
Liz Hack (00:05):
We are your hosts for Real Estate Distilled the
podcast. On this episode, Scott,we're gonna go back in time,
right? We're gonna talk aboutReal Estate Distilled The
Conference.
Scott Hack (00:16):
Yeah. So today we're going to introduce and talk a
little bit about Mr. GaryAshton, who sat down on the
stage with me and I kind of dida Q and A with him.
Liz Hack (00:27):
Yeah. We really don't do that a lot. You know, we
haven't done that for a longtime at one of our in person
events. And I think people likedit because it was refreshing and
got to ask questions that youwould normally wanna ask
yourself.
Scott Hack (00:40):
Yeah. So, I mean, we put Gary on the hot seat and
walked through some of his someof his marketing ideas and some
of his his business strategiesthat he's done over the years.
So we covered everything fromhis sports affiliations to his
billboard campaign that he'sdone and how he's grown the, the
(01:01):
Ashton real estate team, to bethe number one REMAX team in the
world.
Liz Hack (01:07):
Yeah. I was gonna say, why don't we tell people who are
listening who Gary Ashton is andwhy especially in our region,
why that was so cool to have himthere?
Scott Hack (01:17):
Yeah. So for those of you do that do not know who
Gary is, he is basicallyNashville real estate. So I I
mentioned it actually in the, onthe stage. Gary has produced a
brand that is as close to Cokeor Apple, for Nashville real
estate as I think they canexist.
Liz Hack (01:35):
It's amazing. Yeah.
Scott Hack (01:36):
So you can't drive through the city. You can't
listen to the radio. You can't,go to the predators games and
not see Gary's face.
Liz Hack (01:46):
Even if you're just driving through Nashville
Gary Ashton (01:49):
Right.
Liz Hack (01:50):
You see his billboards. That's a game we
like to play when we're headingdown south from where we live.
We, count the billboards that wesee Gary on. You can't listen to
rate the radio, in your car whenyou're driving through Nashville
without hearing one of his radiospots. So truly, exactly like
(02:11):
you talked about.
He is the coke for real estatein Nashville, Tennessee.
Scott Hack (02:16):
Yeah. He's built a huge omnipresence brand. So we
walked through some of that andbasically how he's put together
some smart people around him andwhat that looks like.
Liz Hack (02:26):
So let's go ahead and start the presentation from this
year's Real Estate Distilled.
Announcer (02:31):
Welcome to the Real Estate Distilled podcast. Get
ready for a smooth pour oninsights on sales, marketing,
lead conversion, and technology.All shaken, stirred, and
perfectly balanced to help yousucceed in real estate. Mixed
(02:53):
just for you.
Scott Hack (02:59):
Real quick. For those that do not know Gary,
he's in the national market.I've known Gary a while. And
last year, I put him into aheadlock, and he came up and
visited with us for a littlewhile. And then, like, hey.
We gotta get you back and andshare your expertise with with
the the community. But I knew,and I know Gary long enough that
I wasn't gonna get him up herewith a clicker and a slideshow
(03:20):
presentation. So I convinced himto do a Q and A. So I've got
some prepared questions, sowe're gonna go through some of
the questions that I've asked,put together. And then if we
have time and things are goingwell, Liz will take a microphone
around and we will basically,you all submit some questions.
So, Gary, why don't you do yourelevator introduction for people
(03:41):
who have no idea who you are?
Gary Ashton (03:43):
So my name is Gary Ashton. I own the Ashton Real
Estate Group of REMAX Advantage.Based in Nashville, which is one
city, and I'm with REMAX. Welove the new logo and I do
actually, I do love it. And weare the number one REMAX team in
(04:04):
the world is how I like to sayBut I will add that I have 180
agents on the team so we're moreof a team marriage rather than
your traditional ten-fifteenperson team.
Scott Hack (04:19):
This was not one of my prepared questions, but since
you mentioned it.
Gary Ashton (04:22):
Oh, here we go. Off the off
Scott Hack (04:23):
the I know. But now I'm curious, like, there's less
than a 180 people here in theroom today, so how do you keep
track of a 180 people's namesand who they are?
Gary Ashton (04:35):
So I don't really know everybody's name. So I do
know them because part of ouronboarding is I have a couple of
classes where I teach the agentshow I want the leads to be
treated. So I get to knoweverybody and when they start,
(04:56):
the part of their onboarding isto send me a video text and just
say, hey, my name's Scott Hackblah blah blah blah.
Scott Hack (05:05):
You're a really handsome person
Gary Ashton (05:08):
all Just cute, so really it's more about so I know
who they are. So when they comeinto the class and then four
months later they text me, I cango back and go, Who is that? So
really don't know. So what wedid though was when I started
the team, I started with two,four, six, ten, twelve, fifteen.
(05:30):
So around that number I kneweverybody individually and I
would always say that I could goout for dinner or lunch with
anybody on the team.
Some I would like more thanothers but I knew everybody
enough to be able to feelcomfortable doing that. But when
you get to 75, 100, you start tolose contact with people. So I
(05:53):
created this thing called, Icall them pods actually. So it
was an agent that we wouldselect that wanted to, don't
know,
Scott Hack (06:05):
Like a mini team leader.
Gary Ashton (06:05):
a mini team leader? It's kind of like a mini team,
yeah, but it was more on thesocial side. That was the idea
is to stop. Deborah Beagle's mybusiness partner and she's the
one that is the managing broker.She answers all the really tough
questions from the agents.
But she was getting all of the,hey, you got a minute? Have you
(06:27):
got a minute? Have you got aminute? So it was really a way
to filter out her dealing withall those. I mean, they're not
stupid questions, but there'snot something that Deborah
should be spending the time on.
So in effect what we did, calledthem squads and we had squad
leaders and then each of thesquad leaders had about 15,
though they do have about 15agents. And we give them a
(06:53):
budget so they can go out, theycan take the agents to lunch, to
go do training. And it's more ofa social network. It's a
feedback loop for us to figureout if things are going well and
also if things are going badlyand there's an undercurrent of
people complaining about things.Or if somebody's doing something
(07:14):
well that's nothing to do withreal estate, then we have a
feedback loop so we canrecognize that person.
Conversely, if something isgoing bad, somebody's getting
divorced, all the negativestuff, because when you get to
180 people, you've got, we'vehad people die, people get
married, people have kids,people get married within the
(07:35):
team, me being one of them.Yeah. Congratulations.
Scott Hack (07:41):
Congratulations, by the way, because that's fairly
recent, six months ago. Right?
Gary Ashton (07:43):
Yep. I did go to Italy. Yeah. It was the best
excuse to go to Italy ever.
Scott Hack (07:51):
It was awesome. All right, so next question I have
on my list. So you and Iactually met because we both
have a passion in online leadgeneration. And so for context
really quickly, how many domain
Gary Ashton (08:03):
names you own? So that is an unknown question
because I've got about three orfour hundred with GoDaddy and
then I've got other ones that Iforget about until they say your
credit card has been declinedand then you've got to renew it.
And I go, oh shit, I forgot,that's a good one. I didn't know
(08:23):
about that. So the ones Iactively use are Nashville's
MLS, worst URL ever,nashvillerealestate.com,
garyashton.com, and TN realestate.
So I've got one with Sierra, tworeal estate webmasters, and one
(08:43):
with Ylopo.
Scott Hack (08:45):
Okay. So you've got at least a handful, four or five
major domains you're using, andthen another four to 500 that
you own
Gary Ashton (08:53):
I mean, I've got other ones that I've the parts,
like Celebrity Agent, we usethat, don't if you know that.
Okay. And then with that,there's I think it's Ashton Real
Estate GRP is another leadsource.
Scott Hack (09:07):
So of the ones that you mentioned, there were the
handful where you have aplatform on them. I'm guessing
those are the ones you consideryour most valuable. Which one do
you think is the most valuable?
Gary Ashton (09:18):
In terms of lead generation, the most valuable
one is realtor.com because I ownall of the Nashville market. So
any leads that come throughrealtor.com in the greater
conurbation, so that'sNashville, Brentwood, Franklin,
Hennessville, all of the area,Clarksville, all of those leads
(09:43):
come to me. So that is inessence my website. The one that
I actually own though isNashville's MLS is the one that
although it's the worst URL,it's the one that ranks
organically better than anythingelse.
Scott Hack (10:01):
Did you start with that one? Is that why you think
it's ranking better?
Gary Ashton (10:04):
No, I started with Nashville buyers. Okay. And then
I think back in the day we allwanted to have 10 sites in the
top 10 with differentvariations. So I had Nashville
sales, Nashville buyers and Iwanted nashvillerealestate.com
(10:24):
that had gone. I wantedNashville MLS that had gone.
Nashville Homes had gone. So thenext best thing to me was, oh,
I'll just get nashvillesmls.com.And for whatever reason, that
one really stuck with the SEO.And yeah, today, because if I
tell you Nashville's MLS, mostpeople go, oh, Nashville MLS.
(10:48):
No, Nashville's MLS.
Scott Hack (10:51):
So if those ones that you were just naming that
weren't available, I'm guessingthat at some point there was one
that you've bought that wasaftermarket or or premium that
you were Yeah.
Gary Ashton (11:01):
So I I bought nashvillerealestate.com. I can't
remember now, maybe six or sevenyears ago.
Scott Hack (11:09):
So we were talking at dinner last night. How do you
place a determination on what adomain might be worth into your
business?
Gary Ashton (11:17):
So I paid 50,000 for it, but I think it was
Justin Havre said to me, we weretalking about domains and he
said, well why don't you havenationalrealestate.com? I said,
well it's already gone. He said,no it's not, it's for sale. It
literally was maybe two daysbefore anybody else really knew
(11:41):
about it. I went to the site andit said, nationalrealestate.com
is for sale.
So I knew that if I applied forit they would know who I was
basically from my email address.So I got Chris Lindell to, if
everybody knows Chris, he's upin Minneapolis. So I got Chris
(12:02):
Lindell to negotiate for me. Andif you know Chris, Chris is
probably the best negotiatorI've ever met. And so I gave
Chris my $50,000 and he said,I'll take care of it.
Because if I'd have beennegotiating, they would have
said, we're going to go to 100and I would have said, okay,
(12:23):
because I really thought it wasworth 150 at the time. I don't
know if it is now, but anywayChris just said, yeah, I need to
know today. Get back to mebefore 05:00 or otherwise the
offer's off the table. And Iwould never have said that. And
I got it for $50.
Scott Hack (12:42):
So you you also had affiliation with at least two
different sports pro sportsorganizations in the Nashville
market. Can you share a littlebit about what you learned from
leveraging those affiliations?
Gary Ashton (12:55):
So I was the official realtor for ten years
with the Tennessee Titans untilthey decided they wanted to five
x me on my sponsorship fee. So Idid that for ten years, but that
was really a way of elevating mypresence within the community.
(13:17):
So every Titans game, I had atailgate. So when did the
initial deal with the Titans,they wanted to give me a suite
with like 12 tickets, which isawesome if I wanted to invite 12
people to a game. But I said,I'd rather have a spot to do a
(13:39):
tailgate.
I had an RV, like a typical 40foot RV. So I wrapped that. So
it said Gary Ashton down thesides, pretty prominent, all the
branding on it. And then forevery game I wanted to do a
tailgate, so they said yes. Sowe swapped out the suite, then I
(14:00):
got just four club level ticketsand then got the spot to do the
tailgate, which for me, Ithought they were going to stick
me right in the corner of theparking lot, you know, way back
and it would just be my ownlittle event.
They ended up putting me righton the pathway where everybody
(14:21):
would walk down the road intothe stadium. So for me it just
created a huge amount ofvisibility. So it started as the
RV, but then it really expandedinto this little became a pain
in the ass to be honest becauseyou had to put all these tents
up and we would do hamburgersand hotdogs and we'd invite
(14:42):
everybody in. It was like anopen, then it became people
would just come in and stealhamburgers and hotdogs. So then
we made it a little bit moreexclusive.
You had to get a wristband. Soit evolved over ten years, but
it really did elevate myposition within the community of
I'm aligned with the NFL. Andthen after about five or six
(15:07):
years, then we also got theNashville Predators, which is
the hockey team. And so we stilldo that one. I have a really
good relationship with hockeyteam.
Scott Hack (15:18):
So you're you're talking about the the RV. So,
mean, essentially, that was a 40foot billboard that you parked
in the Texas Titans parking lotevery every game.
Gary Ashton (15:26):
That was my billboard.
Scott Hack (15:27):
Yeah. So so translating into now you have
billboards across the city, orat least I'm assuming you do,
because last time Liz and Idrove through there was We
Gary Ashton (15:35):
have about 100 altogether, it varies. 80 to
100, and I think we've got 10 ofthem are digital. So the digital
ones are the ones that I canjust send in a new message and
change those on a daily basis.The other billboards really now
(15:57):
just say don't sell without theIntel. That's kind of been our
phrase for I think six years orso or eight years.
Did that through radio to startwith, then we do TV and then had
a competitor come into themarket that I knew was going to
do billboards. I just, heessentially forced me to start
(16:19):
billboards, which was a goodthing actually because I never
really wanted to spend the moneyon billboards. But as soon as I
did that, it kind of became thefinal piece in the puzzle. If
you know Gary Vee's Jab, Jab,Jab, Right Hook, the billboards
all of a sudden elevated usagain because it reinforced
(16:40):
everything I've been doing withradio, everything I've been
doing with TV, everything that Iwas doing with sports marketing
and all of a sudden they hadthis big old billboard that you
would drive around and see. Andit just helped, I think I call
it brand equity, helped developmy brand equity in Nashville.
Scott Hack (17:03):
I've always talked about and referred to billboards
as brand multipliers, so we'rekind of on the same page about
what those are. I call them asocial backlink. Okay. Yeah.
Gary Ashton (17:13):
It's not really a backlink, but it's out there and
you've seen there.
Scott Hack (17:16):
It has that same power though.
Gary Ashton (17:17):
It's the perception of you're on a billboard then
you've got more credibility Ithink.
Scott Hack (17:23):
Most of your billboards are brand building,
They're not necessarily directresponse although when you see
your face 100
Gary Ashton (17:28):
times a Yeah, they just say don't sell without the
intel. It's the same, it's adifferent picture actually. It's
this jacket, so this is now moreof my branding. This white shirt
me, different picture becausethat one is, I always think I
look really good looking in thatpicture but then I forget that
(17:50):
when they took that then theydid all the digital enhancements
and took out, so yeah that'slike the best version of me
ever.
Scott Hack (18:00):
So on the billboards specifically because
Gary Ashton (18:03):
Oh but on the digital ones that's the ones
where we started an auctiondivision so now I can flip those
10 billboards to talking aboutauctions or for recruiting, I
have a big recruiting billboard.And we just rotate those in, the
digital ones where they rotate.So we mix in the real estate,
(18:26):
the recruiting and if we have anauction through, throw some of
those in.
Scott Hack (18:30):
At the end of the day though, you've got a P and L
that you've got to check out.How are you tracking or are you
even tracking the return oninvestment for the billboards?
Gary Ashton (18:37):
So you can't track it unless you actually have
something that's trackable,unless there's a code on there
or even a phone number that youcould track, but I think it's
very hard to do that. You couldput a QR code on I guess, but
really all I know is that when Igot forced to do billboards,
(19:00):
when I knew this other guy wascoming into the market, Mark
Spain essentially, he's theguaranteed cash offer guy, so
he's in a lot of the South. WhenI knew that he was coming in, I
knew he was going to dobillboards. I was telling Scott
last night, soon as I knew hewas coming in, the only reason I
knew is because I was flickingthrough Instagram and I saw an
(19:24):
ad for Mark and it said MarkSpain now hiring. So was like,
good grief.
So I knew he was coming in. Sowithin a week we'd got the order
in, the campaign for 50, startoff with 50 billboards and to me
that was really more of a let meget ahead of him. I know he's
(19:45):
coming and he's got more moneythan me, he's going to have a
bigger campaign but it elevatedme within the Nashville market
and I think it just added to mycredibility. And I know what I
was going to say is that addedsort of a lift in business from
it. So Chris Lindell, they'vebeen doing it for a long time
(20:08):
before me and he'd been handingme to do it for years.
Justin Havers, my other buddy upin Calgary, same thing because
Chris did it then Justin did itand then they were both kind of
going, come on, you got to doit, you got to do it. And I saw
no reason to do it because I wasalready ahead of them in terms
of SEO. So Mark was the one thatpushed me to do it. So with
(20:31):
every cloud, there's a silverlining. I wouldn't have done it
if he hadn't forced me to do it.
Scott Hack (20:38):
Just for the audience that's not aware, if
you Google Chris, it's spelledwith a k, he's in the Minnesota
market. He's the guy who doesthe hands outreach, yeah, on
billboards. There's some reallyinteresting tie ins he's done in
some of the video game recently.Right?
Gary Ashton (20:53):
Oh, yeah. Is is it Call of Duty?
Scott Hack (20:55):
Yeah. I I can't remember
Gary Ashton (20:56):
what have a billboard of Chris Yeah. Within
the game, but it's not Chris.It's the the character, I think.
Okay. But it's the Armsoutstretched.
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Hack (21:07):
So, you know, on that note, like, surrounded
yourself with some really smartpeople. And, you know, Deborah
Beagle is Yep. You you mentionedher earlier. So how did she come
into your world and how did thatrelationship come together?
Gary Ashton (21:19):
So Deborah, so this goes back to 02/2011. So I was I
was working with the generalmanager of the Titans. He was
selling his house, so I knewthat I was going to get the
Titans account to be theofficial real estate agent. So
(21:43):
he lived in a gatedneighborhood, So I knew I was
going to be listing this houseand then there was a broker
progressive open house. So Ithought I should go to that
because then I can meet some ofthe other realtors that are
listing in there.
So there's about five or sixhouses that you go through and
these are all big old houses. Sothe one was literally 16,000
(22:09):
square foot. So it was a bighouse. I didn't have a car that
day because my car was in theshop, so I got somebody to drop
me off. Gated subdivision,there's probably about 28
realtors and so they're all,each house you would drive out,
there would be a valet.
So then would then go in thehouse, look around, then come
(22:32):
out and then get your car. So Igot one of my guys to drop me
off and I said, I'll text youwhen I'm done. I'll just hitch a
ride with somebody with, youknow, you would do that, right?
100%. So the house was 16,000square foot.
So I go in, I'm walking around,bump into this lady and that's
(22:53):
when you go, oh beautiful house,lovely, I love it, amazing. Walk
around and then I bump into heragain, she was with an old lady
and I was just like, oh this isfantastic, amazing architectural
features. Well that happenedlike four or five times because
it was such a big house, I keptbumping into her. So it just
became, and I was like, are youstalking me, what's going on
(23:15):
there? So just having a bit of alaugh.
And then when I was leaving, soeverybody's, the cars are all
pulling up, so this big blackCadillac pulls up. And then
Debra gets in, said to end itwith one of her friends and I
said to Debra, and she didn'tknow me, but I said, Can I get a
(23:35):
ride to the next spot? Andthat's when she's probably in
her head went, as a realtor. I'monly going 50 yards to the next
house. Yeah, it seems safeenough and I've got somebody
else.
So she let me in and then I rodein and then we started chatting
(23:57):
and I said I'm here because I'mgonna be listing. Oh, I said I'm
getting the Titans account andthen she thought I was full of
crap. And then I said, I gaveher my card and then that's when
she was aware of me. She said,Oh you're Gary Ashton.
Scott Hack (24:13):
The Gary Ashton.
Gary Ashton (24:14):
Well kind of because I was known for
generating leads and things likethat. I already had the team.
The team was about maybe 30people or something like that,
30 or 40 people. So she knew,anyway, then we just got on like
a house on fire. Went around andshe's ridiculously smart.
(24:35):
Then I thought I was beingreally, really good because the
brokerage I was at, they weregetting the Titans. This is
before I had them. So they weregetting the Titans. Turned out
that Deborah is a hockey nut.She really knows a hockey.
So after the event I said toher, you should come and join
REMAX. She was a Coldwellbanker. I said, you should come
(24:57):
and join REMAX because we'regetting the predators. And so I
thought that I was being reallysmart by trying to bring her in
just because of the hockey.Well, turned out she already
knew the owner of that brokerageand they were kind of friends.
So that deal had already beendone. I just didn't know that
they were coming in. So Debrajoined REMAX. Her job was going
(25:22):
to be kind of working with thepredators, all of the sponsors
and things like that. It turnsout that was the year that they
had the lockout, the hockeystrike.
So I would go into Deborah. Ididn't have an office, an
individual office, but Deborahhad one. Then if you all know
Deborah, if you ever met her,she's like immaculate with
(25:42):
everything. The office is fullof awards and it's just very
clean and just completelyopposite to the way that my I
don't have an office because itwas so bad. Anyway, I kept going
in and saying, should just comeand join my team because she was
representing three or fourbuilders.
So it was really like theperfect storm because she was
(26:03):
spending a lot of money withZillow and marketing and I was
generating all these buyer leadsorganically. So she had the
vision to say, okay, if I jointhen I'll get all the buyers and
I can cut my advertising spendwith Zillow. So that's how she
(26:23):
joined. And then I found outthat she was really, really
smart and then she justnaturally gravitated to being a
leader within because I don'tlike getting up in front of the
team meetings going blah blahblah blah let's go team. But
Deborah's much more, that's justmore natural for And so she
(26:45):
became the leader.
Also, she's a managing broker.And that's too hard a test to
take. So
Scott Hack (26:54):
obviously, the size of the size of your team and
your production that youprobably don't have to spend a
lot of time going out andlooking for things. People
probably are coming to you tosee if you'll test it or check
into it. So what what tech areyou most excited right now that
you're either experimenting withor that you've been exposed
Gary Ashton (27:10):
So yes, we have a ton of stuff and I am a bit of a
shiny object guy and which isgood and bad, know, because
sometimes we'll take stuff Ithink is amazing but then when
the agents actually startworking it they don't like it or
they don't use it. But the onethat we're really using now is
(27:34):
House Whisper. I don't ifanybody has heard of that one
but really that's like
Scott Hack (27:40):
Greg is going to do, I think, a little demo on it
later today. We'll get a littlepiece of So
Gary Ashton (27:45):
we've been beta testing that for a few months. I
think they're going to releaseit in the next I think they're
going to go to market in thenext few weeks. But essentially
it's an assistant. It's an AIassistant because everything's
AI right now that makes it cooland trendy. But it really is
something that with adoption fortechnology, it's usually about
(28:08):
if you do 20% to 30%, you'redoing okay.
So with our team, we've beenbeta testing it for a while now,
but it's created such a buzzwithin the team that people are
asking when can I get on, whencan I be on boarded? So it
really does help withmaintaining that relationship
(28:31):
with the clients, the follow-up,the accountability. I mean, it's
just an assistant that you don'tworry about the AI, just use it
as an assistant that you neversee. You can call it, you can
text it and it will do all sortsof things for you, create
reminders and follow ups andthings. It's house whisper.
Scott Hack (28:55):
So looking back on your journey, what were the
biggest mistakes or learningexperiences that shaped how you
run your business today?
Gary Ashton (29:07):
Mistakes, I don't think there's any massive
mistakes. There's always littlethings like I spent some money
on some new program, which wasmore of a small investment.
Nothing big.
Scott Hack (29:24):
Okay. That's good. And we really only have time for
a couple other questions, so I'mgonna ask this one and then we
might be able to take anaudience question. But
yesterday, Christine talkedabout branding and personal
branding specifically, andthere's some, you know,
phenomenal teams and and brokersout there. And some of this
(29:44):
could be just me being, youknow, in your your world and in
your story for a long time, butyou've created a brand that is
as close to Coke or Apple forNashville real estate in my
eyes, and it's a competitivemarket.
So if you track it, what'sbringing you the highest ROI for
your brand building and leadgeneration?
Gary Ashton (30:06):
Right now I'd say realtor.com because we do
Zillow, we do Zillow Flex. Therehasn't been much business for a
while so Flex is turning moreback to market based pricing.
Realtor.com, so there'sdifferent programs at
(30:26):
realtor.com. So we're doingmarket VIP. So that's where I
just pay a flat fee, then all ofthe leads come to me.
So there's no tying it to alender. You don't have to use
the lender. You don't have touse the title company, which
what Zillow is essentially doingwith their enhanced markets and
(30:50):
they want you to use Zillow HomeLoans or don't even know what
the title company is, Spruce Ithink it is. So with
realtor.com, I don't have any ofthose pressures. I can choose my
own partners to work with.
So that's been the biggest one.The SEO has been is tougher and
(31:10):
tougher and harder and harder.So that's why I kind of went all
in on the realtor.com, which westarted at like 30% in the
market, then went to 70% andthen went to 100%. So it was a
gradual, we stair stepped it up.It wasn't just like go all in.
Scott Hack (31:28):
Alright. Liz is gonna come grab the microphone.
Like I said, I think we havetime for maybe one, maybe two.
One question. One question.
Okay. One question.
Gary Ashton (31:35):
No. I'm kidding. Long as it's not a
Liz Hack (31:37):
hard Who's the lucky winner of the one question?
Gary Ashton (31:41):
Nobody wants to ask a question. Hello. No, he's
going to be too smart.
Audience (31:54):
Mic. Two one two. So you have a 180 people in the
team as of now. What did that asyou started as you started to
build that team, could you giveus just maybe a broad overview
on how that developed? Right?
(32:14):
So year one, you had two people.Year three, you had seven
people, so on and so And thenthe other piece that I have on
top of that is with yourstructure, do you have all the
support on the backside as well?So do you have your own TCs or
is that more through thebrokerage?
Gary Ashton (32:34):
Well I'm going to answer the last question because
I can remember that one. Yes, sowe have marketing, we have
transaction, we have ISAs.Essentially all we do for the
agent is give themopportunities. So they're not
(32:55):
having to do the nurturing,they're not having to do the
initial calls. When the leadcomes in, the way I describe it
is if you imagine like a relayrace and the lead comes in and
that is the baton, That comes tothe ISA.
So the ISAs are all licensed,they all live in Nashville,
(33:18):
they're all licensed realtors.So they can ask all the
questions that you would as arealtor. And then they, so they
grab that baton and they runaround the lap until that person
says, yeah, I want to go see ahome. So that might be
instantaneous really, like ifit's a realtor.com lead and they
want to go see a house today ortomorrow, there'd be an instant
(33:42):
handoff to the appropriate agentfor that market, for that price
range. Otherwise they just keepon running around the track and
that's the nurturing.
And then it's either threemonths, six months, a year, two
years. And at that point whenthat person wants to go see a
house or wants to talk morein-depth to a realtor, that's
(34:03):
when that lead's handed off. Sothen when that lead goes under
contract, that's when it goes tothe contract to close. So we
have a lot of support on theback end. And then the question
was like how did the team grow,is that what you're asking?
So it was just organic. I neverstarted out to have a big old
(34:26):
team. Just I ended up when Istarted I was doing PPC which is
one or two leads a day. So I wasdoing that which is enough to
keep me busy. And then, this isa long story but I'll make it
short.
I got approached by the ownersof nashville.com, which is the
(34:49):
geo domain, just nashville.com.And they were getting 20 to 30
leads a day, but they couldnever get in touch with the
broker owners. They could neverget in touch with the people
that own Coldwell Banker, KellerWilliams, REMAX, because if they
made those calls, they never getthrough to the owners, even
(35:14):
though they would have probablyloved to have got that call. So
they were trying to findsomebody to sell to lease the
site to. So they went to Google,typed in Nashville real estate.
I was number one in the PPC. Sothey called me and said, would
you like it? And it was $2,000 amonth at the time, which was way
(35:34):
above my budget as it were. Butthey said to we'll give you a
sampling, we'll give you freeleads for a week. So I always
describe this as like a tennisball machine or a little tap
that's dripping and it'sdripping.
(35:57):
Well, I got the free leads for aweek, was like turning the
faucet on me. It was gushingout, which is really that's the
catalyst for developing the teambecause I'm gonna go back to my
tennis ball analogy. If a tennisball machine is like firing
tennis balls at you, I can catchthe tennis ball every time when
(36:20):
it's like three a day. It's likeand I can work that lead. When I
got nashville.com, the tennisball machine was just going
throwing that ball.
So I could catch every singleball as it were, maybe. But then
I would put it here in my, youknow, and then when you get to
(36:42):
like 10 or 15, I'm still gettingnumber 16, number 17, number 18,
but as I'm putting it here,those leads fall away and roll
away because you're so focusedon the lead that came. So that
was the genesis of the teamsthat I realized I had to go, hey
(37:02):
do you want a lead? Hey do wantto lead? And initially I was
giving it to anybody that was inthe brokerage but then I
realized, because this is in2,004 I think it was, there
wasn't really a manual on how tocreate teams or work teams but I
realized pretty quickly that ifI give Scott a lead and then
(37:24):
Scott gets his own business, hisfocus is gonna money his own
business.
My lead, he's only getting 50%,so why would he focus on that? I
had no accountability, thenthat's when I created the team.
So I brought those two agents inand then the team grew because I
(37:48):
think I said I like shinyobjects. So I'm always looking
for the next lead source and Ialways want to be this is
another cliche, you want todominate the market. So I would
say that I'm not too riskaverse.
So spending more and more moneygenerates more and more leads.
(38:08):
I've spent a lot of money on theSEO, lots of money on the sports
marketing, marketing overall,radio, television, pretty much
done it all. And then you find aresponsibility because then you
look out and then you see allthese agents like the little,
hey I need feeding, give mesome. So it's continually
(38:32):
feeding that fire, it's like apyramid. People do well they
start to focus more on their ownsphere, but they still want the
leads.
But you still need those newagents coming in to run out and
go see leads. Does that answerit? I'm just always looking for
(38:52):
new leads, continue trying tobuild, but with that you need to
continue, you recruit more andmore agents. Is that it? You're
welcome.
Scott Hack (39:06):
Alright. Give give Gary a round of applause,
please. Thank you, Gary. Reallyappreciate it. Thank you, sir.
Thanks.
Announcer (39:14):
That's a wrap for this episode of the Real Estate
Distilled podcast. Visitrealestatedistilled.com for more
tips, and jump into our Facebookgroup to keep the conversation
going. Here's to making everytransaction a smooth pour.
(39:34):
Cheers.
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