From Truck Driver to Tattooed Realtor: Justin Mercer's Bold Journey to Real Estate Success

Imagine transforming from a truck driver and school teacher into a standout real estate agent known for bold tattoos and even bolder marketing. That’s exactly what Justin Mercer, the "Tattooed Realtor" from Phoenix, Arizona achieved. Today’s episode unravels Justin's incredible journey, where he turned societal expectations on their head and used his unique appearance to build a powerful personal brand in the real estate market. We'll hear firsthand how Justin navigated through struggles, skepticism, and a pandemic to emerge as a leader in the industry.

We promise you'll gain invaluable insights into the world of personal branding and unconventional marketing strategies that truly set you apart. Learn how Justin embraced authenticity and leveraged social media to propel his fame and success, creating a magnetic brand that resonates with clients. From the emotional roller coaster of the real estate business to the calculated risks that paid off, Justin's experiences offer a compelling blueprint for breaking free from the mold and achieving greatness in your career.

Plus, we explore the nitty-gritty of transitioning from an individual agent to leading a team, the significance of mentorship, and maintaining a unique office environment. Justin shares candid stories about the emotional highs and lows, innovative billboard marketing tactics, and the ever-important balance between personal branding and regulatory compliance. Whether you’re just starting or looking to revamp your strategy, this episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiration to help you carve out your niche in real estate.

🔔 Subscribe to our podcast and channel on YouTube 👇 https://www.youtube.com/@MyCityLenderTV?sub_confirmation=1

Follow The Grit and Grow Podcast on Social Media:
https://linkin.bio/gritandgrowpodcast

Thinking about purchasing or refinancing your home? For sound mortgage advice visit www.mycitylender.com or call 480-945-4545 today to connect with an experienced loan advisor!

LO Licensing (BRIAN): AZ LO-0924243 NMLS ID:1069978 LO Licensing (JAY): AZ LO-0911512/NMLS-162250 | Company Licensing: AZ MB-1036604/NMLS-2344442 | Equal Housing Lender

2250 E. Germann Road, Suite 12, Chandler, AZ 85286 | [phone]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe Grit and Grow podcast.
Today we're going to dive intothe impact of personal branding,
specifically when it comes tomarketing yourself in the real
estate industry.
Today we have a very specialguest who, in the Phoenix metro

(00:22):
area, has made quite a name forhimself, showcasing his
masterful marketing skillsacross billboards all over town
and known as the tattooedrealtor.
We'd like to welcome JustinMercer to the show.
Appreciate you, guys.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Nice intro.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Appreciate you guys, appreciate you taking time out
of your busy schedule to be withus.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I love doing these so yeah Well, time out of your
busy schedule to be with us.
I love doing these.
Yeah Well, we want to.
We really want to dive into thewhole, the whole impact of
personal branding, and I figuredyou know who else better to
reach out to than you.
I mean, you have just takenthis whole Phoenix metro area to
a whole nother level as far astaking on a personal brand and

(01:02):
making yourself maybeuncomfortable and getting on
billboards.
And I know you've done TVcommercials, you've done the
news, you've done all kinds ofdifferent things, podcasts,
which is how we met, and we justwant to hear a little bit more
about what you have to say aboutall this.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah.
So I mean I just put a story uplast night about this because I
have a class I'm doing tomorrowon branding too.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Oh cool.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
And I think it's important to let people know.
Like I didn't have any kind ofbranding marketing knowledge
before real estate, I didn'tknow anything about real estate,
social media, business brandingmarketing I was a truck driver,
okay.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
So like.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I've been on stages to speak.
I've had companies fly me out.
I've been on a stage with aJohnson Johnson rep.
I'm just like what am I doinghere?
I don't have a background inmarketing, but I used to become
nervous and I would shake onstage because I'm just like I
don't think I have thecredibility to be up here.
But when I start speaking about, just as an average Joe, the

(01:57):
thought process I had behindthings and why did things a
certain way, I think I can helpthe average Joe better than some
of the experts can.
So the way I learned aboutbranding marketing everything
you just said is strictly bydoing it and in my own thought
process and thinking like aconsumer, not like a like an
agent.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's incredible so tell us a little bit about your
background.
Did you grow up here in Phoenix?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, so I grew here, born and raised here, lived for
Indiana for a little bit, so Imoved to.
Indiana for like four yearscame back.
So high school I went to Marcosde Niza, graduated there when I
was 15, I got my first job.
I started working with kids.
So from 15 to 23, I worked withkids.
So I was a teacher.
A lot of people don't know thatI was a school teacher, no
kidding.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Okay, what did you teach PE?
I came out through 7 to PE.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And then I ended up teaching a behavior program for
teachers because I worked in aTitle I school and so
lower-income kids, and we had alot of trouble with kids, so I
knew how to work with them a lotbetter, so I ended up teaching
teachers how to teach how tocommunicate with them how to get
through to them.
So kids is what I've known,what I've always known.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
but when I was a teacher I made 31 grand a year,
800 bucks every two weeks, likethe days off are cool, but I
can't support anything.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
And you said you drove a truck too, yeah, so from
teaching I went to Pepsi and Iworked there for 13 years, so
back-breaking labor, probablythe worst position I've ever
been in my life from that job,just because of the unhappiness.
So real estate was a long storyhow I got into it, but it was
not supposed to happen and Ijust always wanted to do it, but
I didn't think I could.

(03:28):
So I got to the point in mylife where nothing could get
worse.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
So I just tried it and said if this doesn't fail, I
can't go any lower than whereI'm at right now.
So the tattoo branding how farback does that go?
Does that go back to yourschool teaching days, or?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
No, so I had a couple of tattoos.
When I was teaching I wasn'tcovered, but when I started
driving to semis, when I startedgetting covered up.
But it's funny because I wasactually going through a divorce
and, uh, driving back to workin my truck, so I started work
at two in the morning that day.
That's five in the afternoon.
I'm hot, it's 120 degrees outMiddle of the summer.
The truck has no AC.
I just do cases all day.

(04:08):
I used to bring an extra shirtwith me because I sweat through
the first one all day and Ican't wear it past a certain
time because it's just too wet.
So that's how the day went.
Plus, I'm going through adivorce and I ended like.
I remember looking at it andsaying that's exactly who I'd
work with someone that had thatkind of branding right so that

(04:31):
memory had always stuck with myhead.
So, six years later, I'm now atthe worst point in my life and
that had always been in my head.
Like man, how did he do it withhis look?
And now he's an anti-lawyerlawyer.
Yeah, now he's an anti-lawyerlawyer.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah, it took me seeing that that's the guy
that rips his sleeves off rightin the commercial.
Yeah, it took me seeing that toknow like maybe I have a shot.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
So had I not seen that, I don't know where I would
be, because that's kind of whyI started that other company
where I did a podcast but it wasto show people like you may not
think you're worth it.
You may not think you're worthit, you may not think you can
have a professional industrylike a career in professional
industry, but there's things outthere for everybody, Okay.
So I kind of took my brandingjust by that and I was like you

(05:10):
know what he did it, I'm goingto do it too.
Tattooed realtor worked out.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
So you got into real estate first and then saw that
and started formulating thebranding.
No, I had the idea first, oh,first, oh, you came into it.
Yeah, I came into it with ideaI actually had my business cards
made before I graduated school.
That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's a long story, but like I was going to not be
here anymore, if that makessense.
So like real estate was likethe last shot for me that I felt
, so I took it very, veryseriously.
So I looked up all the stats.
I think a lot of people nowdon't do this.
That kind of work is is.
I looked like what do I need todo to get the business?
Yeah when's a paycheck come?

(05:47):
How much is the average like?
I looked up all the stats andyou realize like they're scary.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
85 percent of people fail out and so I knew, going
through school, people weren'tgoing to take me seriously and
I've always been the best workerwhere I've been at it's just, I
didn't need to get theopportunity so you, so you're
trying to pull yourself out of apersonal emotional kind of hole
that you're in and you findreal estate and you think this

(06:11):
is what's going to help me.
But then you're looking atthese stats that are saying
success rates are very low toget started, very difficult to
get started.
What was it about the realestate industry that really did
pull you into it?
I?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
love architecture, I love houses.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
I used to watch Million.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Dollar List, all the real estate industry that really
did pull you into it.
I love architecture, I lovehouses.
I used to watch Million DollarList All the real estate shows I
watched just as a consumer, andI would drive through Camelback
to look at the nice houses.
I never had anything like thatgrowing up, so I was obsessed
with mansions and how theydesigned it and I would look
through design books.
So real estate has alwaysinterested me.
I just never thought I could doit.

(06:49):
I bought two houses and sold twohouses before I was even
licensed, just as a truck driverand you see how much they make
on the settlement statement andstuff, and I was like damn, like
I always want to do it.
But then you see, like theopportunity or the possibilities
, and I always had that otherside, which tattoos all over my
face and head, and I was like Icould never do this and there
was no like specific rule thatyou can't.
But it was kind of drilled inmy head that you're not supposed
to be in this, in this industry.

(07:09):
So it's never.
I never even took a step toeven see if I could, until that
moment, what we said earlier.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, yeah.
And how quickly, once you gotlicensed and you got rolling in
the industry, how quickly do youfeel that your, your branding,
really took hold and startedbecoming its own thing?

Speaker 2 (07:28):
It got more attention .
So I had my open house signs,business cards, car wrapped,
everything before I even had mylicense, because I knew this was
my only shot, because if thisdoesn't work I'm done.
So I put everything into it andI still had a job at the same
time.
So I was still working 60,70-hour weeks and there're hard
days.
I started at midnight when Igot off till two in the morning

(07:48):
or two.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
This is the truck driving this is truck driving
yeah, so I had to pick up thekids.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
I had so much going on I couldn't even do real
estate.
So I was licensed for twomonths.
I couldn't do anything becauseI still was working yeah in that
time was the news story thatcame out because the russell
shah made fun of me and all that, oh, okay.
That's where the news came from, because I took headshots and
someone ended up seeing it on mypage.
They sent it to him and saidthis guy's trying to be an agent

(08:12):
in Arizona.
They were like laughing.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
And.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Russell had posted something.
What he said wasn't offensive.
I got a thick skin.
I love a sense of humor, so ifyou're bagging, on me and I find
it funny.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'll laugh with you.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
But what a lot of people were putting in the
comments is what upset me.
And that thing went from 16comments to like 600 overnight
and then the news ended upgetting tagged in it like five
times.
So they did a story on me.
Russell had reached out andapologized, he didn't know I was
in Arizona and he ended upbeing like a good mentor for me,
but the news called me, so theydid a story and then now I went

(08:43):
from 800 Facebook friends to5,000 overnight, because now
it's been syndicated now acrossthe nation, that news story.
So it was playing in Houston,jacksonville, all these places.
And then I started feeling thepressure because everyone's like
this guy's an agent.
I'm like I ain't done it.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I ain't worked.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
I don't got the license, but I got a job.
This is amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, my old team leaves the one ahead and he quit
.
He's like you got all thesepeople following you.
You're telling people to chaseyour dreams.
When are you going to startdoing it?
And I'm like you're right.
So February of 2020 is when Iquit my job.
Put my two weeks in, I ended upgetting one in escrow, but by
the time my two weeks was ended,that escrow fell out.
My last day of work, the escrowfell.

(09:26):
So now I'm like starting theindustry.
I have no background knowledge,I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm licensed.
I now don't have my safety net.
I got I'm a single dad of twokids, so, um, I was scared.
And then March 2020 hit.
And uh, covid, and no one knewwhat to do.
No one knew how I was gonnaaffect the industry.
So I started off like grinding.
So I I interviewed myself,looked in the mirror and did
like a job.
I I did a six step thing that Ido.

(09:46):
It takes too long to go through, but those are the six steps
that kind of got me to where I'mat.
But the branding alone.
I started beforehand, likebefore I was even licensed.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Okay, so really quick about about your look about the
tattoos, kind of going back towhat Brian was saying.
So I know that, like mostpeople, when you, if anybody's
talking about tattoos, like it'slike every tattoo has its own
story and so when you're head totoe pretty much, I mean it's,
it's everywhere like could youeven do that, could you even say

(10:21):
each tattoo has a story oh my,a lot of them do.
But or is it like it's yourwhole story?
Is your, is your appearance, Iguess?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
it's a little bit of both.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Like I do have a lot of meaningful what draw you, or
what drew you to, to have yourwhole body inked up like that.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
It's an addiction, so okay I've been always
self-conscious growing up so I Ihave never been open about this
stuff.
So a lot of people people,stuff I talk about on podcasts,
my friends don't even knowbecause I'm so closed off I
don't let people know.
But like I was veryself-conscious growing up, I
just thought I was alwaysgetting made fun of.
So when I started gettingtattoos it was almost like a
diversion for me, like now Idon't have to think about it.

(11:08):
When I'm walking to a, into aroom, in my head everyone's
staring at me, making fun of me,like no one was literally doing
it.
But it was just a thought I hadin my head, like everyone's
talking about bad things aboutme or whatever.
So when I started gettingtattoos, like the attention was
always going to the tattoo, soit kind of helped relieve me of
that.
Plus, I mean, I liked the pain,I liked it, I was addicted to
them.
So some of the mean things,some of them just it's full
space because you can't have,I'm pretty fully covered, I mean
so generally they all meansomething, they all have a
meaning.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
So you're like a walking work of art.
So do you have just like onetattoo artist, or is it like?
Is this like all of Phoenix?
No, like two or three people.
Is that your body somewhere?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, One of them.
He just kind of fell off.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Another one.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
I moved away from an area, so it was just.
I have like two or three majorbut one I I try to stick with
one yes, okay.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that's cool though, yeah.
So so what advice would you giveto somebody Cause your story is
so interesting and it's sounique, but to, let's say, a
brand new agent that's gettinginto the business and they're
really struggling?
I know I mentioned this kind ofbefore we sat down, but a lot of
agents, a lot of brand new realestate agents, they really
struggle with this idea of likeI've got to create this like

(12:12):
personal brand for myself inorder to become something, and
so a lot of times, you know like, the marketing reps will get
with the agents and they'll say,hey, you know if you could
somehow like align yourself with, like some passion of yours or
some something that can relateor, you know, somehow tie into

(12:32):
someone else's interests.
Yeah, yours is so unique andit's it's almost like you've got
this like following of peoplethat are interested in like what
you represent, maybe more sothan um, you're, you're almost
like a, like a public figure,and you've got this message that

(12:55):
you have kind of um, becomethis notorious, uh, person in
the real estate industry, butyou're really I mean, in talking
to you, you're, you're notreally that way, and so I think
what I'm trying to say is likeis there like a persona that
you've almost like taken onindirectly, that is, pulling a

(13:16):
certain crowd of people tofollow you and then ultimately
want to work with you as as anagent?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
So yeah, like it also gave me a lot of imposter
syndrome because I was gettingthe attention, but I didn't feel
like I was at a level ofbusiness yet where I deserve
what I was getting.
Like people find me to speak onstage and I was like wait, and
I would always step back, likewhy do you want me?
Like?
I don't want to feel stupid upthere, I don't want people to
judge me because I've always hadthat same mentality.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
That's kind of what I was getting at, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, so I didn't know I would be that.
But then I remember when Ifirst saw Byron.
He's an anti-lawyer now.
But I saw his Bronco indowntown Gilbert and I freaked
out.
I was like, oh my gosh, he'slike around here out, Like we
ended up doing a podcasttogether.
So the first time I met him, Ilike gave him a hug and I was

(14:08):
like, dude, you have no idea theimpact you had on my life.
And he was just so like takenback.
At first he was like whoa, whoa, I'm just a regular guy.
And I'm like no dude youindirectly might have saved my
life.
You don't know, Like everythingI have right now is directly
related to me seeing you havesuccess.
So, um, what he is to me, whatpeople started coming to me and
saying that kind of stuff andsaying I got into real estate

(14:29):
cause you had this.
So then I started like, oh man,like why me?
Like the imposter syndromeagain.
So the way he felt when I saidto him is the way I feel now
when people say it.
So I didn't know I was going tobe like a persona, but I'm glad
I'm, I'll.
I'll be that because I thinkit's important that people see,
um, some people just need to seeit.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
And the young, you know, the younger generation of
people that are coming up inthis industry, like, I think
they they need to see guys likeyou succeeding, like they need
to see it like okay, this, thisguy, was absolutely not, you
know, cut from the cloth of likethe real estate professional,
as we all you know remember.
Like the of like the realestate professional, as we all
you know remember.
Like the century 21 agents withthe gold jackets, jackets and

(15:08):
stuff that like our parentsgeneration was maybe a part of
you know, but like to seesomeone like you succeeding and
to the level that you have, likeit's amazing.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
I mean it really?

Speaker 1 (15:21):
it really.
It really is like.
It's like um, um.
I see stuff like that and I'mlike man, you know, like it.
It couldn't be happening to abetter person and in an underdog
type of situation like what youyou've been up against the last
few years, it's, it's reallyawesome to see.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
So I appreciate that.
Like coming in, I did ask thepeople around me, friends and
family like hey, here's my ideato join real estate.
I'm going to do real estate,I'm going to brand myself this
way.
Here's, like my kind ofbusiness plan.
I don't own a business so Ididn't really know what I was
doing.
But I got the same reactionfrom everybody.
I'm talking about my mom, mysister, my best friends.
They're all like don't do itand they're like not because you

(15:59):
.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
What was the reason?
What was there?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Because you can't change the stigma and everyone
wasn't afraid of me.
They're like.
We know you can excel likecause.
You're just.
I've always been a hard worker.
I've always been known for mywork, so they knew I could do it
.
But they're like you can'tchange people's minds, and
that's when I started, like youknow, not wrong.
I don't want them to thinkthey're wrong by saying that,
but it's just like.
Why does it have to be the case?
Why can't somebody who hastattoos do the same thing

(16:26):
somebody else can?

Speaker 3 (16:27):
And.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
I understand, customer service-wise, some
people might not want that to bethe face of their company, and
I do understand that.
But when you're talking aboutsetting up your own business,
why was that their first thoughtprocess?
So now I took that into realestate and it put that chip on
my shoulder, so that and youalready had the anti-lawyer
lawyer.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
You already had Byron to like, point to like.
Look, he's a lawyer and this isabsolutely working for him from
a branding perspective.
I mean, it's absolutely, Ithink, a major challenge for so
many people in our industry, inthe real estate industry,
whether it's real estate agentsor loan officers, to um, to dive
into personal branding, and soone of the things I'm wondering
maybe you could, you could talkto us about is is advice, having

(17:11):
been successful creating yourown personal brand, advice to
somebody coming into it, how tokind of discover that?
I mean, and maybe it has tohappen organically.
You just see a billboard oneday, I don't know, but from your
perspective, like what do youtell new agents in terms of how
to discover their branding?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
So I kind of show them like how I took the step.
So what's the reason behindbranding?
Like not, don't give them thereason, ask them, say what's the
reason behind you wanting tobrand?
I just want to hear theirthought process behind it.
And the reason I started mybrand was because I knew the way
to get the business was doorknocking, cold calling, open
houses, referrals.

(17:51):
I looked at that stuff so I waslike, well, I'm not cold
calling because I'm not going totalk to somebody for five
months and then meet them inperson.
Now I got to overcome thisobjection.
I'm not going to doorknobbecause they're going to call
the cops, so I knew open housesand social media, all that would
be my route for business.
But then I started thinking okay, now I'm going to put myself in
this situation.
I'm at an open house.
What's going to happen?

(18:11):
People are coming to the door.
They're going to get alarmed bymy look.
They're going to wonder wherethe agent is.
They're not going to that.
So I was like, if I make openhouse signs or listing signs, I
had a six foot cutout at thedoor of me holding a sign that
said uh, don't be alarmed by thebig tattoo guy.
Uh, sign in and take a tour.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Um, it was just a overcoming objection, because
I'm trying to talk to everybody,yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
I don't want to talk to them about my look, about
anything.
I want to talk about business.
I'm going to show them mybusiness acumen, not my, not
talk about the tattoos.
So it was almost me attackingmy look before they can attack
me.
So that was the reason I didthat route.
And it wasn't just that.
There's a story I tell becauseit plays perfect in the branding
role is I had a pest controlcompany for um, when I bought my

(18:54):
first house, got a pest controlcompany and I had my daughter.
At the time she was four monthsold and, uh, my ex picked her
up and there was a scorpionunderneath her and I'm like I've
been getting scraped, sprayedfor six months how is there
still scorpions in this house?
right, and it pissed me off andI remember driving.
She called me on that way homefrom work.
I pulled up at the light and Iwas next to a green mango truck
and it was f-150.
It was lifted, it was matteblack, it had the green rims on

(19:17):
it and the first thought as aconsumer was, oh, that's they.
They must know what they'redoing, right?
They got these kind of trucksI've seen a couple of them
before.
You know, I'm gonna give them acall because the phone number
is on the side of the truck so Icalled them.
I've used them for 12 years.
I still use them to this day.
But it wasn't.
I knew nothing about theirbusiness, it just I saw that and
I was like these people mustknow what they're doing.
Enough that I called them,figured out they do know what

(19:38):
they're doing and they've beenmy, my servicers, so I knew,
coming in the industry, ifsomeone saw my car wrapped in
the signs and a listing sign, acutout, they're like oh, this
guy's obviously got a brand.
He must know he's doing at somepoint, not just some one-off
agent yeah so that was mypurpose.
Behind branding was thelegitimacy okay yeah.
So I always ask them why?
First, because I don't wantthem to say hey, I'm the roller

(19:59):
skating realtor and here's mybusiness card.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Would you say the roller skating realtor?
Whatever it is, but it has tobe something Branding is a big
waste of money.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
If you don't do it right, it's a big waste of money
.
And then you've got to realizeam I doing it for now?
Am I doing it for the future?
Am I going to have a team?

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Am branding so.
So that was actually one of myquestions for you is that like,
at what point did you figure outlike you can, you know, just be
a real estate agent foryourself, working with yourself
for yourself, and and that's it?
Uh, but what?
At what point did you pivot andand kind of know, like I'm
going to, I'm going to go towardbuilding my own real estate
team, because it's two totallydifferent things.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
So I was the tattooed realtor for almost two years
and that's what I brandedeverything with.
Everything was made thetattooed realtor, the logo, all
that.
And then I started thinking Istarted teaching these marketing
classes for agents and I waslike, yeah, well, yeah, you can

(21:05):
brand yourself, but I do want tostart a team eventually and I
can't be the tattooed realtorteam.
So I started even thinking.
Then I was like I'm going tohave to change a lot of my
branding up.
But it came.
I had to change it because I'vegot reported at NAR more than
any agents ever been reported atNAR.
They've literally emailed me 200times.
I've gotten complaint aftercomplaint after complaint.
Everyone's saying he's usingthe realtor trademark wrong.
And they used to make me.
They had to change my website,I had to change my Zillow, I had

(21:27):
to change my URL and thenfinally I just said like why do
you let these people complainabout me?
And they're like, well, wecan't really stop them.
I was like, yeah, but I seeeveryone using the word realtor
wrong.
Like technically, it's firstlast name, comma, realtor.
That's the only thing you cando.
You can't put one name, youcan't.
There's rules behind us.
But you guys keep coming afterme like, no, we're not coming
after you, we've get, we getreported, we have to satisfy the
report yeah so I got reportedover 200 times in ar.

(21:49):
Oh, my god so I had to end upchanging it.
And she's like you know what Isaid I just put another
billboard up with this logo.
I said I don't have the moneyto keep doing this changing
stuff, because someone now tookthe picture of the billboard and
my car wrapped.
And she's like you know what?
I'm gonna give you 120 days.
She's like you don't have to doanything right now.
She's they ended up beingreally cool about it because I
was just.
I was like hey, can I legallychange my name to the tattooed

(22:09):
realtor?
And and she's like well, thatwould be in a code of ethics
because you're trying to skatearound a rule.
And that's when I changedeverything to call tattoo was
because of that.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
So I I was the tattoo , which is brilliant.
Yeah, which is brilliant.
Yeah, you've got the, the callto actions right there in the
team name.
Yeah, so now I'm contactingcall tattoo real estate group is
the name of it.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, yeah, it's brilliant so, and it was a good
change, but, like it camebecause of the wrong reasons.
At first, though, yeah yeah,but, yeah, but the.
The reason I also did that wasbecause, uh, when, when I was
seven, eight years old, I knewthe number to five different
lawyers like Goldberg andOsborne yeah, when I got engaged

(22:53):
I went to Shanko because it wasone mile South of bell road,
scottsdale, oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Like I knew the whole slogan in my head.
I knew the phone number, thehours the way to go.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
So I started thinking there's no real estate.
So now I'm asking agents when Ifirst got licensed two, three
months in the business I'msaying who's your most famous
real estate agent?
You know, and everyone's like,oh, I'm like the most famous.
And they were like Russell.

(23:26):
Shaw and Gillette were the twothat came up all the time.
So I didn't know Shannon at thetime, so I did research on her,
but Russell's the person wholike, started me at this where I
was so and I remember I'll beyour realtor from when I was six
seven years.
I'm talking I remember him as akid.
I remember seeing him on TV, sothe fact that I got to talk to
him and he was my mentor meant alot to me and I was like
there's never really been that.
Call Rafi, learn a row for realestate.
So that's what I was trying togo for with the billboards
commercials, this crazy jingletoo.
It's because that does stickout to some people.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
So you know, again, going back to, let's say, a new
real estate agent that'sstruggling with this whole idea
of the impact of of building apersonal brand, they're
struggling with the idea of,like I've got to come up with
something.
How do you get to the pointwhere you're actually able to
invest at that level in outdoorand bus station signs, wrapping
your car billboards, and someoneyou know getting into the
business would sit there and sayand they would probably tell

(24:13):
Brian and I the same thing Likeit's easy for you guys to say,
and we've been told that before.
And yet we're sitting here where.
What was that message I sentyou?
Was it last night or two nightsago?
It says that if you're toobroke to invest in yourself.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
You'll always be that way, get used to it.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
And I was like we have done that.
We have just keep overcominghurdles and challenges and we
keep investing in ourselves andour business and the show.
And it's like look what'shappening when you have the
stick to it and stick to it andthis, to actually just keep
grinding it out and doing it andthat's really the whole premise

(24:50):
of this show is like to havethe grit and grind it out and
stick to it.
So like what would you?
What would you say to thatagent that's going to say you
know the scoffer that's on thesideline that says, well, it's
easy for him to say he's alreadyon the billboards, it's, it's
your business plan.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
It's like what, what?
What do you and this issomething I still struggle with,
but it's something I learned,and you have to have extreme
clarity in what you're doing.
Like what is you?

Speaker 1 (25:13):
don't just look now, clarity you have to have clarity
like why am I doing thebillboards?

Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's not to get business.
My goal is not to get business.
My goal was to become Learn andRow.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
It's brand awareness.
I just told him that the otherday I'm like look at those buses
when people are like oh,there's no ROI.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
I'm like no there's not.
It's a waste of money.
But at the same time, what isyour plan in life versus mine?
Technically, I didn't think Iwould ever be here right now.
I'm not supposed to be here, soI ruined my life, making
$70,000 a year when I wasworking 70 hours a week.
Worst point in my life I made$70,000 that year.
So in real estate, if I made$70,000, I'm happy.

(25:48):
So, I could do everything in theworld, but as long as I'm
making $70,000 and I'm not therein my life anymore, it doesn't
bother me.
So my business plan was tobecome the call Rafi and those.
So when I started pouring money, I'm like well, I got my bills
paid this month.
Everything else goes to mybusiness, so commercials.
I should never ran commercials.
When I did, they told me not torun that short period of time
too.
They're like you got to havethe money to do this for three

(26:10):
months, not one month.
So I just did it to get outthere.
But I made a lot of mistakestoo.
A lot of money was in justgetting my brand out there Cause
I just thought in the futurethis stuff will pay off.
It's not going to be a rightnow, it's not going to be ROI.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
But you've got to be able to see that far ahead, Like
to be able to say okay, I'mgoing to commit to this for 12
months or 24 months.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
If an agent wants to get billboards now I'd be like,
why?
And I'll tell them why.
They're like, well, you'redoing it.
I'm like, yeah, but I don't getan ROI from it.
Plus, if you spend, let's say,two grand a month on one
billboard, you hiring two VAs isgoing to bring you 10 times X
of business.
So you're pouring your money inthe wrong location, unless
you're using it for a purpose.
So I wasn't worried abouthiring a VA doing a dialer stuff

(27:00):
like that.
I wanted to get out there.
I wanted to not just become abrand, but I wanted to show
people like I tried to come andchange the stigma on tattooed
people, like heavily tattooedpeople in the industry.
I have friends not get let intoclubs because they're Jordans
or because their hair.
I'm like these are the nicestpeople I've ever met and they
can't get in because their look.
So it wasn't.

(27:22):
My whole plan wasn't just realestate.
It was there's a big, big ideasdown the road that I thought
would happen.
So, um, when I branded it, it'sa little different me that
talked to a regular agent,because I do help them brand
themselves, but I'm trying tosway them into better
decision-making with as far aswhere they put the money,
because I could show them whereI've made mistakes.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
So tell us what.
What were some of thosemistakes?
The commercial so I did mademistakes, so tell us what were
some of those mistakes.
The commercial.
So I did the commercials.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
I did Monday Night Football commercial.
That ended up costing me like$38,000 to run commercials for a
month $38,000.
I didn't even have a website.
That was good.
I had a landing page and it wasa trash landing page.
And the night I did theCardinals-Rams Monday Night
Football game, my website hadlike an 860% increase in traffic
in two days over what I did ina month.

(28:04):
And they're all going to acrappy landing page.
So I literally spent all thismoney, got my brand out there.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Everyone saw it, so you didn't have the
infrastructure behind it to makeit work.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, I didn't have like click funnels and pixelate
the page Like there's so manythings now that I learned that
I'm like what.
She even told me not to do itfor a month.
She said people have to see youover and over and over again to
call you.
It's not like they just see itonce and they trust you.
They have to keep seeing you.
So like just that alone.
And billboards they're not goodROI.
Great brand recognition notgood ROI.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Because it's really like a reinforcement of
something that's already outthere.
When you get to be, you know,when you're doing billboards and
even the sides of the buses andall that stuff, it's really
like a reinforcement of a brandthat's kind of already been
built and so it's like you knowwhat would you say is the best?
I guess, bang for your buckagain for a new agent or Social

(28:56):
media.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Social media all day, that is 70% of my business,
more like 80% now.
But even those mistakes, Ilearned how to incorporate a
different aspect.
So, like, the billboard companywill charge you per drive-by.
So let's say I got a hugediscount by them, by the way,
because they started getting hitup left and right from
businesses so they startedgiving me a better discount.
So then I started getting more,but they charge you per

(29:18):
drive-by.
So if I'm going to get paid,charge $3,500 for this one in
Arcadia for every car thatdrives by.
How do I get more action fromthat?
And it's funny because I had anice message.
I was smile, call to action,everything you need on an
advertisement and people weremaking fun of it.
I got blasted on social media.
Keep in mind, I don't care itdidn't hurt me.

(29:42):
I love any kind of attentionlike that.
But people were blasting me Iwas like dude, it's a freaking
billboard.
Like if I see billboard, itscreams success to me.
Like, yeah, people think I'm amillionaire.
When I got one billboard, I'mlike dude, I'm scraping by just
like you, right, but it was aperception.
He's on a billboard, he's gotmoney.
I'm like, no, I didn't, butthat I kept that perception in
my head.
So so now I'm like, well, I gota nice message call.
Actually, this is what you'resupposed to do when you're

(30:03):
making fun of me.
I got a smile on my face, likewhat do you have to make fun of?

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Like really this guy's just trying to get
business right.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
So I was like, why am I even pushing to get business?
I'm just going to get theattention.
So the our bodies and it saidbye bye, bye.
And are you not in sync withyour living condition?
Let's talk.
And that thing got shared over500 times on social media.
So then I was like why?

Speaker 1 (30:25):
am I going?

Speaker 2 (30:25):
So it's the picture of the billboard and my
Instagram was on it.
So then I started gettingflooded with followers because
now my Instagram's on abillboard.
So I was like, oh my gosh, Idon't need to have the call to
action, I just need to get theattention.
So that same billboard that Iwas getting charged changing the
message, it's now shared 500times, not twice that people
make fun of it.

(30:46):
So I started doing a wholebunch of crazy billboards, like
I had one where the city ofGilbert was in a fight to try to
take it down.
The whole Western Skiescommunity was in an uproar to
get my billboard taken down.
It said ho, but it looked likeho, but it.
It said home.
I was just in the middle of itand at the end of it it said, uh
, don't forget me when it's timeto sell.

(31:07):
so okay but I knew, having hobig capitals and they extended
over the billboard, I knew thatwas going to get that driver's
attention because you also knowpeople don't pay attention to
billboards.
Like you have to draw theirattention to it yeah, so when
someone sees the word ho andthey see something like whoa and
that forces them to read therest of the billboard.
So now it said don't use me,but they're like my kids.
See that I'm like your kidswatch YouTube Like what are you

(31:28):
doing?
Yeah, really Get off my backlady Like your kids have never
heard guy like if you come to mewith respect, I will listen and
I will, like you know what, Ican change that message.
I get.
I get why you're upset.
I don't want to piss you off.
Let me change it.
Yeah, but the way they came atme I was like you're pissing off
the wrong person because once Iturn off, like I'm not going to

(31:50):
help you out.
So they started like coming atme wrong.
So I was like you know what?
I would have taken it down.
I said, but now I'm gonna keepit up.
You guys got your wholecommunity.
I said someone has to own abusiness.
If you want to take me down,you got to pay full price and no
one would do it.
So I just came back at them andsaid leave me alone.
If it doesn't get taken down,stop calling me.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
So do you still have the same number of billboards
around town?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Now I have six freeway digital ones, six, okay,
and now I put the listings onit because I'm trying to.
It's a good Move, it more tothe team and all that.
That's awesome, okay, I knowlisting appointments will help
us win, and that's another thing.
You've got to always think likea consumer, like branding
marketing.
Every time think like aconsumer, not like an agent,

(32:34):
because I know putting a listingon a billboard is not going to
get that house sold Like MLSgets the house sold.
Open houses don't even get thehouse sold that much.
So the MLS is the main focus toget the house sold, right.
But I know putting on abillboard, perspective-wise from
a seller, they're like oh, myhouse is going to be on a
freeway billboard.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
And I take a picture of it, send it to them, because
now they're going to share itall over social media.
So now you're getting hittingtwice the three X the exposure
of not just the house but mybrand, and all that because when
they see their house on abillboard they share it over
social media.
So you're kind of hitting threetargets by just doing one
little program.
So when I posted it, I had anagent respond and say you think

(33:15):
it was going to sell on thebillboard.
I'm like no, no, it's not thepoint of it, but it gets buyers
and sellers now.
Yeah, so it's a differentapproach.
That.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I'm trying.
That's a great approach, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
This is brilliant.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
How do you think of this stuff?
This is amazing.
It's just being in it.
This is why I love it.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
now I've had marketing companies reach out to
me and I always say, no, I wantto do it myself.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
I didn't.
I wanted to live, so you had itjust bottled up inside of you,
and now it's.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
I've surprised myself .
Sometimes I'm like, why did Ithink about that?
But like Shark Tank, I've beena Shark Tank fan from season one
, so I take ideas other peoplehave and change them to be real
estate related.
One of the biggest marketingthings I do that people give me
credit for is there was a teamin my office they had like seven

(34:08):
closings in one month and I waslike, damn, how do they?
have seven closings in one month.
So I went back through theirpages and this is such an
important thing to do as anagent is go to the people that
have the business and look whatthey're doing that you're not.
So I looked at their pages andI know every Friday they farm a
neighborhood but they hand outdonuts and coffee to all the
residents that are coming outand then they take those donuts
and drop them off to firestation, police station, all

(34:29):
that.
But they're using Dunkin' Donutboxes.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's right at the exit of the neighborhood, just
hang out.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, and then when they drop them off, they're
dropping off a Dunkin' Donutsbox with their business card
taped to it.
So I started putting myself inthe firefighter's shoes or the
doctor's shoes.
I'm like, if I'm going to walkthrough, I had surgery.
I'm going to open this thing,take a donut, walk away.
I don't care who's on it, Idon't care who brought it.
When I go to my office KellerWilliams there's cookies all the

(34:55):
time from vendors and stufflike that.
You take one, you walk away.
You don't pay attention to whobrings it in.
So instead of doing that, Isaid you know what?
I'm going to steal that sameidea, but I'm going to make it
10 times better.
So I made custom let's Ink aDeal.
On the front had my phonenumber and Instagram.
On the side, the top, had mylogo and my cartoon character,
and I dropped seven boxes off atthe Mercy Gilbert Hospital.

(35:17):
That night I was on 23 NursesStories saying thanks for the
donuts.
Because now they have a box,because of the branding on the
box, because now it's like theyknow it's a donut box, they know
there's donuts in it, but nowyou can't not see who brought it
in right and the let's sink adeal.
And the cartoon character waslike oh, that's funny, that's
cute, like it was like that.
So now it's like I don't careif this nurse has 300 followers.

(35:37):
That's 300 people.
I wasn't in before, in front ofbefore yeah so now that's my
brand all over the place.
So making that donut box mybrand was something I got from
another person.
I just made it better.
So that's awesome shark.
Watching people's businesses, Ialways think how do I add
something like they're doinginto my business?
So I think that's like one ofthe best things to do as an

(35:58):
agent is rip off and duplicate.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
But try to make it your own and just make it better
.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, but I have so many people that do that now for
the donut boxes, so a lot ofthese ideas I have is just from
being in the mix just trying tothink of what can I add into my
business that somebody else isdoing Very, very cool?

Speaker 1 (36:19):
It's a long story.
No, it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
So, besides billboards, getting away from
social media is obvious.
I want to go back to socialmedia in a minute, but I'm
curious.
So, billboards, are you doing?
Buses, Are you doing anything?

Speaker 2 (36:32):
else like that.
No, because I'm trying to thebig wins, big losses in my
business.
So, um, I started a team andgot my own office the month of
market turn.
Like it was literally the worsttime to do both and I did both
and, uh, it really hurt and Istarted like cutting back my
marketing expenses.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
And like.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I'm one of those.
If something's going to fail,I'm going down with the ship.
I'm not going to cut losses.
If it's going to be my team'slast day in office, it's going
to be all of our last day inoffice.
It's not going to be.
I cut things and try to do iton my own.
So we took the last two years.
It's been survival.
It's been bad, but it's beenbad like.

(37:15):
But it's so like grit and growlike I.
I got super depressed last yearand a half.
Like a year and a half ago Iwas super depressed and now I'm
starting to get that samemindset I had coming into the
industry, where it's like shoot,if I fail, it's 20 times bigger
failure because everyone thehaters say I told you so and the
people that follow me is like,oh I guess it can't be all those
, all those comments on his Shazpost back when he first got in.

(37:36):
Yeah, I didn't want them to beright, so I started getting
depressed like, oh my gosh, Idon't have the business I should
be having Now.
I got the two biggest expensesI had coming monthly now, like
the office is $6,500 a month,like it's a lot to run by
yourself.
And I met with a couple ofagents and I remember talking to
Jason Mitchell, who's got oneof the best teams in the country

(37:57):
.
Um, come to find out like somany of the people you look up
to have went bankrupt, soldbusinesses like failed over and
over again.
Then it started making me like,oh, okay, like I can fail.
Yeah, like, yeah, just startover.
Like I know an agent shecleaned bankruptcy twice, like
she had to do bankruptcy twice.
And I'm like, oh, I haven'tdone it once yet, so I'm still

(38:17):
good.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
So it's almost like I went from being super depressed
and miserable to literally thenext day like I hope it fails.
I got to start over again,cause now I got the blueprint.
And that's the most importantpart of if you fail out of this
industry.
You have the blueprint, youknow what to do, you know where
to start and you know how totake off.
So I went from being supernervous and like depressed to
like oh my gosh, there's so manyopportunities that are still

(38:40):
lying in front of me, and it gotme more and energetic and we
got, we're still got the office.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
you go through these cycles where it's like you know,
it's like the, the right, itcomes in and goes back out.
Comes in, goes back out, andyou're, unfortunately, as
salespeople, we're in thisemotional roller coaster of
whatever the market bears for us, but it's still it's up to us
to go and get it and wake upevery day and get after it.

(39:06):
And you have a choice rightLike you have the choice to wake
up and keep getting after it,or you can wake up and quit.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
No one knew I was depressed.
When I was Like, when I was atthat point, no one knew it.
I always put the smile on myface.
It was always good.
I was on social media smiling.
Was that like summer of 22?
Yeah, that's exactly what itwas.
So when I started being moreopen about it, you started
getting answers, because theonly reason I talked to that
first agent I was telling, orthe lady I was telling you about
, is because I just got to thepoint where I was like you know,

(39:36):
I'm not doing good, and this isthe only person I sold it to
and she just smiled she's likeJustin, like you're fine, like
you're doing good, you still canat least pay your bills.
And then she told me her storyand, oh, maybe I should open up
about this more, not justbecause that made me feel a lot
better, because I think agentsneed to know this stuff, because
I'm comparing myself toeveryone online, so every single

(39:58):
agent is comparing themselvesto everyone online.
So now I get compliments in mystories because I am vulnerable
and open and tell people heythis is a mistake I made.
Here's what I did.
Here's what I did wrong.
So I'm so more open abouteverything now because I'm not
trying to be Superman.
I want people to know there isups and downs, like you just
said.
I was holding my cards like noone's going to know that I'm not

(40:20):
happy, no one's going to knowI'm losing money.
But when I started just beingopen and say, yeah, I lost 10
grand last month because Icouldn't close this many deals
or whatever.
Now you're just helping agentsNow you're just helping agents.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
I can imagine that while you were sitting there in
22, feeling the way you werefeeling, there was all of these
other agents out there who werefully aware of your branding and
see the success that you've hadand the perception that you
were still having success,probably because all your
branding was still out there,thinking man, what is he doing?
I need to figure that out sothat I can be as successful as

(40:51):
he's being.
So there were probably a wholelot of people who were looking
at, not realizing what wasactually going on internally,
but thinking that they were notnearly as successful as you were
.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
I'm an honest person to begin with, so I'm like I
don't mind being open with that.
I'm an open book.
You guys can ask me anythingabout anything, and I would talk
about it, because I don't liketo be closed off.
I want to.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
So initially, when you kind of shifted gears into
like okay, I'm Justin, I'm justgoing to, you know, go for the
tattooed realtor and and do iton my own to like shifting into
this team, you know, I'm goingto build this group, I'm going
to build this team mindset, didyou guys pick up like was your
business?
Did you notice like a increasein your business immediately?
Or did you dive first?

(41:32):
Because I know what it takes tolead a team, like I know what
it takes and I know what ittakes from me to lead a team of
people and there's a commitmentthat you have to make if you're
going to lead a team of people.
So yeah, I was just kind ofcurious to see.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
First year I sold 23 homes.
I was trying to sell five.
I knew an average agent sellsthree to five and I was like you
know, I'm gonna go for five andit's doing 23.
Second year did 43.
So now I'm like I'm way pastwhere I thought I would be
anyway, 30 years.
When I started a team and Ididn't even want to start a team
, I kind of got pressured intoit by past agents and friends

(42:07):
and I ended up doing it kind oflike I was like, hey, hey, I
don't have a CRM, there's tonsof mistakes I've made in my
business, I'm not ready to helppeople grow their business, and
it was like peer pressure.
I'm like, well, I guess I canteach you the investment space,
I can teach you marketing,branding, social media, so I can
teach you certain things.
So I was very open to peoplethat came to my team and said,
hey, here's what I'm giving awaymy business, because I didn't

(42:33):
want to run a team either.
So now it's like I'm usuallyclosing these deals and I'm
getting them away and makinghalf and they're getting capped
now and I'm getting capped now.
It's just like these paychecksthat would normally be $10,000
are now like $4,000 to me.
It's $3,000 to me plus themarket turned, so I'm giving
away all my deals and gettinghalf of half of them and at the

(42:56):
same time, I still have all thebills so exactly it did like I.
That's when I started gettingsuper depressed because I'm like
now I'm trying to help likewhat did I do.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
Yeah, how did the branding translate over, though,
to going from an individual toto leading a team?
You kind of alluded to itearlier about how you're trying
to figure out how to navigatethat part of it, and my thought
process was, when you said thatearlier.
It was like, well, why not justrun right at the tattooed
realtor branding and and try tofind other realtors who, and

(43:26):
maybe there were other realtorsreaching out to you that we're
all you know that we're intotattooing and all that kind of
thing.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
And well, the first six people I reached out to join
my team were women.
Okay, now I had a team of womenwho there were six of us and I
was the only one tattoos I hadone girl had like a sleeve, and
the other ones like didn't haveany.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
So I was like, and I started thinking.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
I was like oh, like I feel bad for for them because
now they're part of my brand,like call tattoo.
Yeah, maybe they're gonna getlooked at wrong and um well,
that was part of the whole, likethe notorious part of the story
.
I'm thinking kind of how thereputation started, I mean maybe
two, three years ago, but Iasked them too.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
I said are you guys okay with this?
Because I don't want my brandto get mixed up, what you guys
do and people not to use youbecause of my branding yeah um,
because you do get haters too,and they were more thinking the
process of like you've created abrand that you're known, at
least so us working for youbecause they would have open
houses and people would go inthere to meet.

(44:24):
They'd call me and say someonecame by just to try to meet you
and they'd laugh about it.
So they were getting some peoplethat reached out to them
because I was already onbillboards commercials.
We did Spanish radio, so ourbrand was getting blasted
everywhere.
So now I have a team of I havea lot of 19, 20, 20-year-olds,
22-year-olds on my team and plusI had this crazy look.

(44:45):
I just rebranded six months ago.
So I changed my logo, I changedthe colors, I changed
everything to be more of aluxury type feel.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Because now I have agents that, yeah, you can wear
whatever you want your listingappointment.
You're calling Fizbo's.
You really want to show uplooking like that because I
still have the consumer part andeverything is in my brain.
So when I brand now like allthe agents, they wear black
slacks.
I made them all polos.
The brand doesn't have thecrazy colors anymore.

(45:14):
The paint splatters.
It's like a sleek brand that,okay, can fit in now.
So it.
I have changed.
Make it a lot changes of thebrand too.
Okay, to combat what my fearwas is other people using your
brand and not fitting with them.
Yeah, okay, so now it's justlike more.
I'm called tattoo.
This is my real estate group,so okay, so cool, so it's where
it now, but it was scary.

(45:34):
Like it was scary, I didn'tknow what I was doing.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
So 2024,.
It has been a reallychallenging couple of years in
the real estate industry.
So where is the team today?
How big is your team?
We got 12 right now.
12, awesome.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
So I'm struggling right now because, I don't know,
I just hired a sales managerbut I don't know my team format
is more of a brokerage format.
So part of me wants to open myown brokerage.
So I'm still struggling and ifI did do a brokerage, I'm not
going to name it Call Tattoo, itwould be something else that
could?
fit more of a broader audience.
Because now you're going for abrokerage, so I don't even know

(46:13):
what I'm going to do with it yet, so but I'm, I'm having a lot
of fun, like real estate'salways been a joyful enjoyment
for me, like it's not somethingthat I wake up and like, oh, I
gotta go work tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Like I'm excited to go to the office.
Like we have a tattoo artist inour office, we have a barber.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Our office is not like a traditional real estate
office.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
There's like graffiti on the wall.
It a fun vibe um tvs, musicit's very cool, visually
appealing.
In the back of it I wanted tocreate like a speakeasy type
real estate office where, yeah,it's a real estate office, but
when you go through the back, wehave a tattoo artist there, we
have a barber there, we had astylist.
So now it's like I'm trying tochange the feel of a traditional
office.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
So there's a lot of changes sounds like we need to
come by no yeah's open toeverybody.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
I used to have a someone's renting it now, but I
had a conference room and Iopened it to everybody.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
I said if you guys, need a conference room.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
it's a 20-seater.
It's a big conference room.
It's open to everybody.
I don't care what meetings youhave, because my thought process
is I just want to be in frontof everybody, okay.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
So what was the, what was the worst comment in
Russell Shaw's post, going allthe way back to the beginning of
our show here, where you saidthere was, there was all of
these haters in that like what,like what, go back to prison.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
I feel sorry for his kids, like there was just all
these things.
What pissed me off is you'reseeing someone smile and that's
what you're depicting them asbecause of the tattoos, and
that's why one of those six-stepprocesses I was talking about.
The first one's the real why.
Everyone needs a real whybecause why is always family and
kids, and to me I was like Mike.
That was the worst point in mylife and I still kiss my kids

(47:48):
every night.
I read them books, took them toDisneyland, loved them to death.
If real estate failed tomorrow,I'll get three warehouse jobs
to support my kids.
So they're not going to be mywhy ever.
It's my obligation.
So my why was to shut people up.
It was those ignorant peoplethat have that kind of mindset
where it's like you candetermine who somebody is just
by looking at them.
That's the most arrogant thingI've ever heard in my life.
So it's more to shut people upand those are the people I will

(48:11):
call out Like I will save theirname, go back to their page and
throw it in their face, cause tome it's just.
It's the most arrogant,ignorant thing to say is judge
somebody just by their look.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Well, on social media is really kind of given way to
that right, Because people feellike they can they can like
throw a punch and then run awayCause there's an internet wall
in between I get it, I get it.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
I got my face tattooed Not a lot of people do
I get.
There's a might be a stigmabehind it, but at the same time,
in my position, the way I thinkis like you're making fun of me
, you're talking about me butyou're going to hold the door
open for a child molester, likeyou don't know who anybody is
and those are the people thatcan hide who they actually are.
Like I'm not hiding anything.
Or I go in a restaurant and youguys stare at me but you'll

(48:51):
wave to the guy who beats hiswife Like you don't know anybody
.
So for you to just determinewho I am based on a, a billboard
or a look or a social mediapost, like it shows your
arrogance, not my negative thatyou're trying to point out.
Yeah, so that real why I had iswhat drove me in the very
beginning was like I just wantedto shut people up.
So those comments were ignorant.

(49:12):
But now I've got the agentsthat commented on that one where
I changed the billboard around.
So when agents start doing it,those are the ones that kind of
hurt the most.
I'm like why are you?
You should be supporting allother agents.
There's too many catty peoplein this industry.
Oh, for sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
I want to help everybody.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
There's money out there for everybody and I know
like my looks not gonna hitcertain people and those ones
gonna go to you.
Yeah, but nobody's look hitseverybody.
I got young people that I workwith who won't use the older
agents that have been in theindustry for 40 years.
I had a team full of women.
Like one of the girls on myteam, she looked like a
supermodel.
Women didn't want to work withher like single women because
they were intimidating andmarried couples.
The wife didn't want to workwith her because now it's like I

(49:56):
don't want my husband to getoff early and go see homes with
you, like, but that was a realthing that she faced.
So just as much as I got judgedlike nobody in this industry
gets everybody.
So, yeah, I didn't think it waslike a.
Now I think it's an unfairadvantage to be different so.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
So the first level of why are you able to get to
share with us the other five?
Oh yeah, I could briefly touchon it.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
So the second was perception, and perception I say
because there were certainthings that changed the whole
outlook of my business becauseof the way someone perceived
something I did.
The very first open house I didwas a $3 million mansion and my
whole thought behind it was Iwanted to show that I'm getting
business and I was in a hot tubin this $3 million mansion.
I was fully suited with a glassof wine.

(50:38):
I treated the video like it wasa Tinder video.
I said ladies, you love richmen with beautiful houses, swipe
right.
And the girl that was filmingwas like no, justin, it's for
your open house.
But I put that video all oversocial media.
So all over social media.
So now this is a video made toannounce an open house.
How does it have 30,000 views?
Like it's shared 600 times?
It's just an open house video.
So then that perception of me,I was like, oh, like the end,

(51:01):
like I'm thinking like an agent,that's what wholly can change
my, my thought process.
Behind it is now the next weekI did it at $900,000 mansion,
800,000.
So I'm getting flooded with DMstalking about like, how did you
get that listing?
It's not my listing.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm holding an open house but.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I didn't tell them that.
I said come, bring me a buyer,I can represent the buyer.
So the second process wasperception, because I knew it's
what people perceive, not whatit is.
Third was think like a consumerand give you some examples of
that.
Four was social media.
Five was rip off and duplicate.
And six is attention.
I mean attention is like one ofthe biggest ones because it's

(51:38):
not about like I'm reaching abroad audience, Like I'm not
trying to dial a specificmessage into a small group.
I'm just hitting as broadpeople as I can and they'll
funnel themselves in where theyneed to.
So the attention came because,like I bought a limo people as I
can and they'll funnelthemselves in where they need to
.
So the attention came because Ibought a limo.
It was $5,000.
I wrapped it and took my kidsto school to it and now, fast

(52:01):
forward through time, kids wererunning up to the fences every
time.
I dropped my kids off andpicked them up and my kids would
be like are we rich?
I'm like no.
Who said that?
Everyone thinks we'remillionaires?
I'm like their mom's cameracosts more than this limo, but
it's the perception of what thekids were.
They're seeing kids going tolimo and that's the whole reason
I wrapped a limo, because itwas like everyone looks at
notice it.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm gonna wrap it and uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
So I started making kids shirts and I went there for
one of their events and I saweight kids wearing my shirt in
the school.
So I'm like like the wholeattention thing was what I was
riding.
From that point on, yeah,you've mastered that.
I had two kids from theirschool.
I sold their parents' housesbecause I gave away T-shirts and
they were like oh, the tattooedrealtor came by and he's got a
limo and all this stuff.

(52:44):
So now you got kids likeadvertising for you.
So the sixth one was attention,and you just always try to
figure out how to createattention because it just gets
eyes.
But those were the six.
They were like an hour each.
I can explain them all, butthose were like the big six
where I had zero in escrow.
I didn't know the business, Iknew nothing about real estate,
no pipeline to closing $1.8million the next month, and that

(53:09):
was during COVID, when now I'mscared, I have no business,
nothing in the pipe, too closethan that because of those six
steps.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
So if you could go back to the point in time when
you decided to become a realtor,what advice would you give
yourself?
Would you do it all over againthe same way?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (53:26):
because it was so much fun.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
It really was.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
I've never made money before, just the fact that I
can give away, like all thepeople I was helping, giving
money to my mom and this companyand doing this for the kids.
I remember the first december.
I was like I've I've livedpaycheck to paycheck my whole
life like I remember when I wasmarried my wife hit a curb and
it popped the tire.
It's 160 to change the tire andwe got in a fight at night

(53:51):
because of it.
That led into the grocery storeto like why can't get that Like
we just got.
So I'm like we're we'recreating this turmoil in our
house because of the stress that$160 tire put on our entire
relationship, kids, family,future, everything.
And I was like I'm not livinglike that anymore.
So like it.
So it was just like a bigchange in my lifestyle, so like
Christmas.
I remember going to Walmartfilling up four carts full of

(54:14):
toys and clothes and stuff anddonated to Jacob's Mission.
I didn't post it, I didn't tellanyone about it, I just did it.
But I felt so good.
I was like I didn't even lookat the receipt, I didn't, I just
knew there was money in myaccount, so I went and bought it
.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
And I was like it's like that's the life I want to
live, like you live in.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Where you can give.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Yeah, I love that, but I especially love that you
didn't post about it, becausethat's everybody tends to want
to show off how great they are,yeah, how generous they are.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
I didn't want to use it as like I'm trying to get.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
This is not for real estate, this is for me, yeah.
So now I do, like here's whatI'm going to do if you guys want
to donate, because now thatfour grocery carts can get, now
I fill the bus.
So I have a mini bus that Ibought and now we try to fill it
from bottom to top front toback full of toys during the
holidays.
That's awesome, so it's stilllike I still do it, but now I

(55:07):
post it because I want to bringeverybody else into giving.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
That's amazing.
So to kind of wrap things up sohow important is personal
branding for your?

Speaker 2 (55:13):
success Like life change for me.
But you just have to have aclear vision Like what is the
goal?
Like why are you doing it for?

Speaker 3 (55:20):
one.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
And then, like what does it mean?
Like what does branding mean toyou?
Does branding mean you put yoursticker on a water bottle and
hand them out at open houses?
Because that's not branding.
That's like what's it called?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
like advertising or something like that.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Branding is like who people know you by what they
know you for.
So brand is not just like alogo, color designs, all that
plus.
Like you, you represent yourbrand.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Well, it becomes your persona, right?
Yeah, but even colors like itgoes down to colors.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Like I looked up psychology behind colors before
I branded myself and rememberI'm a truck driver, I don't know
any of this stuff, so I'mreading all this stuff online.
I'm like, oh, colors, colorsmatter.
So I started looking.
There's psychology behindcolors.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
I didn't know any of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
So now I'm reading that and now I've become
interested in subjects I didn'teven like.
But red is the most attentiongetting color.
But I was like I don't want redbecause everyone uses red.
And what's the next mostattention getting color was pink
against black, hot pink againstblack.
I was like that's my color.
So I knew pink was, and thenblue was the opposite of the
pink.
So that's how I went about.

(56:23):
Even branding my colors waslike what's the most attention
getting colors?
and I started looking like.
No one uses pink and blue inreal estate like it.
It's all like the same color.
So now it was like I rememberthere's a hair dryer in Walmart
and it's got pink, blue andgreen splatters all over it and
those are my colors and I gotsent that hair jar like 250
times text messages.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
But I was like I love , I love that because it's like
your brand.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
it's working it is.
It's sticky.
They thought about you and theylooked at a hair dryer.
Yeah, that's so.
That's pretty awesome when Itell agents.
It's not just like your name iswhat are you gonna do with the
name?
Like what is the purpose of it?
We're gonna do with it becausethat green mango truck me seeing
it.
They got my business for 12years.
So I know branding does workand people do trust a brand and

(57:09):
I went to a branding like amastermind and 70% of people
trust a brand.
They'll always buy from a brandfirst.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
So now, like now that I'm in the world of branding
and marketing, like I realize,like how in-depth some things go
like, with their thoughtprocess behind why they do
certain things so, but yourbranding, I mean it's been it
really not been around all thatlong, but it's been extremely
successful for you.
Yeah, I never like you guyshave no that long, but it's been
extremely successful for you.
Yeah, I never like you guyshave no idea.

(57:35):
It's amazing.
It's amazing, it really is Ilike it's a inspiring story.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I'll go to a gas station, park my car, get
whatever, and I'll see someonedelivering and I was like I will
sit there and feel guilty,cause I'm like this, I know what
they're just going throughtoday Like.
I know whole day and I'msitting there like now.
I'm getting emotional becauseI'm like I see this guy working
his ass off.
So I never thought I could bethis person.
I never thought I'd have abillboard or commercial.

(58:00):
So it's all still new to me,but it makes you extremely
grateful for what you came from.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
So just this whole industry changed my life.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
So I'm like so grateful for just even being on
a podcast.
It's like, why do these peoplewant to talk to me?
But it's life-changing.
This is why.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Well, we appreciate you taking your time to be on
our show.
Really appreciate you forsetting an example a great
example for our industry ofknowing who you are and running
towards that being the genuinearticle and not faking it.
I think a lot of people in ourbusiness could take some notes
on that.
I think that would go a longway in our industry.

(58:40):
So, yeah, I really appreciateyou being here.
We're going to have all ofJustin's contact information in
the descriptions.
If you're watching on YouTube,please hit that like button.
We'll have Justin's contactinformation down there.
If you're looking to buy orsell real estate, please look up
Justin.
His team is awesome.
They do a great job, they knowwhat they're doing, and that's
hard to find, I think, in theindustry these days.

(59:04):
You want to work with somebodythat doesn't just have amazing
branding but really do know whatthey're doing from a real
estate perspective.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
So check them out.
It's the Call Tattoo RealEstate Group.
It's the Call Tattoo RealEstate Group.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Thank you, but I appreciate everybody for
watching and look forward toseeing you guys on the next
episode.
See you you.