July 16, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Mike Putnam, a real estate powerhouse, coach, and author. He shares how he built a 7-figure income by selling over 2,700 homes in one of the toughest industries on the planet.
Mike walks us through his journey from being a restaurant consultant to becoming a real estate millionaire. He explains how making thousands of cold calls, despite constant rejection, helped him master the art of selling and build lasting success.
🔥 What you'll learn in this episode:
👉 How Mike went from restaurant consultant to real estate millionaire
👉 The secret to making high-volume cold calls work
👉 His “Be The Person You Want to Be” method for bypassing burnout
👉 Why sales skills (not just leads) make or break your career
👉 How coaching and self-investment fast-tracked his growth
👉 The role of social media in building authority and attracting clients
Mike’s passion for teaching, personal growth, and leadership will leave you fired up and ready to take action.
📘 Mike’s new book is on the way, so stay tuned
👊 Ready to level up your mindset and results? This conversation will get you moving
Influencers: Add a powerful monetisation strategy to your audience. Click Here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Walt Bayliss (00:00):
Today's episode of the Influencer Empires podcast
is brought to you by the EmpireProgram with White Label Suite.
Powering our influencers andbuilding their empires.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo the Influencer Empires
podcast.
Today on our show we have asuperstar in the real estate
agency space.
This man, when he talks, hasmore than half a million people
(00:21):
pay attention to his every word.
He has been a real estate agentfor more than 25 years but has
sold over 2,700 homes.
Now, if you're doing the maths,that's more than 100 homes per
year.
He's now on a mission to do1,000 homes a year over the next
five years and train peoplealong the way.
When this man speaks, peoplelisten.
He's teaching real estateagents how to succeed, how to
(00:43):
get out of their own way, andbuilding a tribe and a following
along the way.
Every single view, every singlepost that he's making on social
media is getting picked up withhundreds of comments and likes
and people engaging with noneother than Michael Putnam.
Michael is the CEO of thePutnam Group.
He's also the founder of theAlpha U Real Estate Coaching
Program and he is a man worthlistening to.
(01:05):
Dude, I'm so thrilled thatyou've taken the time to join us
on the show.
Thank you so much for jumpingin.
Mike Putnam (01:10):
Wow, what an introduction.
I can't say very often I'mblushing.
That was quite impressive.
Walt Bayliss (01:14):
Thank you, no man, we're just getting started.
There was a whole bunch ofstuff I had to cut out there as
I was researching you, Michael,you've had an incredible journey
.
So how did you actually getinto real estate as a career and
as a profession?
Mike Putnam (01:27):
Well, it's funny, you know, before I got into real
estate I was a restaurantconsultant, which you know,
everybody's seen Bar Rescue.
You know you basically havefour months you hire fire, go to
the next place, and I justtraveled around the country
doing that.
And you know, after you work100 hours a day, you start to
say gosh, you know, if you make$100,000 and you work 100 hours,
you basically are making $10 anhour, you know.
(01:47):
So I started to look at it.
You know, my grandmas hadalways said to go into sales.
So I went out and interviewedat Xerox and IBM and, you know,
pharmaceuticals, and the laststop was this mom and pop real
estate shop out in Woodbridgecalled Heartland Realty, and
I'll never forget.
I get in there and there's aguy and you know he starts kind
(02:08):
of limping in there and he goeswho are you?
And I was like Mike Putnam andI was like who are you?
He said I'm the broker and hisname was Jerry.
And so we start talking and Isaid Jerry, can I ask you a
question?
He's like yeah, I said how muchmoney you make last year?
He said well, you know, I'vebeen doing it 30 years.
I'm like I know, but you don'thave to tell me.
But if you did like, what'd youmake?
(02:28):
And he was, like you know,$352,000.
I was like, jerry, you made$352,000.
Oh yeah, but I've been doing it.
You wouldn't lie to me, jerry.
Oh no, stop.
See that man down there.
What's his name?
Did he make 350?
Walt Bayliss (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Mike Putnam (02:52):
I'm in, I'm in Stop .
I'm in Like, give me signed it.
I called up my boss and I'mlike I'm putting in my two weeks
, I'm going into real estate.
It's like if you do that, we'regoing to let you go.
And I'm like great.
And then boom, I go to the guyand I'm like I'm ready to start
tomorrow.
And he's like, well, you got toget a license.
(03:12):
I'm like, yeah, no problem, howdo I do that?
He's like well, there's abackup of four months, couldn't
you have?
Before I, you know, I got my job, I luckily got a notice after
like three weeks that there wasan opening in Roanoke, virginia,
which is, like you know, likeeight hours from where I live.
(03:33):
And so I remember going downthere and literally, if I didn't
pass the test, I would have hadto wait four months, which
probably financially wouldn'thave been very good for me,
right.
And I remember the only hotel Icould find was like a motel,
like one.
You know what I mean you couldlike rent it by the minute, you
know.
And I'm just like this is realestate at the very bottom.
You know you got motorcyclegames, you got people smoking, I
(04:05):
mean, you know it was just oneof those things.
But I crammed in that stuff andI passed and then I'll never
forget I was just like boom, I'mexcited.
So I like got in there thefirst day because I'm thinking
real estate, 100% commission,you have to have hungry wolves
Like I envision, like the wolfof wall street.
I figured everybody would there.
I didn't obviously pre-qualifywhat I was walking into, but I
imagine just people that arejust pounding the phones and
just calling because it's acommission job and I like walked
in at 6.30.
I'm in my three-piece suit andI look around and there's
(04:28):
literally nobody there.
I'm like flicking on and thephone's ringing at like 7.30.
And like 8.30 goes and nineo'clock comes and 9.30 and
around like 10 o'clock the firstagent came in and he was in
like jeans and a t-shirt.
He's playing solitaireitaireand I'm like freaking out
because I just quit my job andI'm like, dude, what do we do to
sell houses?
(04:48):
He's like you just answer thephone.
So like I'm like transferringstuff.
I think the second agent camein at 12 and I remember calling
my mom at like one o'clock andsaying I think I messed up, like
nobody's working.
I'm looking at the sales board.
It says one, one, one, two.
Like that can't be good, youknow.
And my first job when I was 14was a telemarketer Right, you
(05:11):
know, I call for the handicappedand disabled.
So, intuitively, I panicked,and so I got the white pages and
I just started at a and I wasjust like hi, this is Mike with
Heartland Realty.
Have you ever thought aboutbuying or selling?
No, and you know, I just keptdoing that over and over and I
would do it for eight hours aday and you know, my nervous
system had not got used to eighthours of that.
(05:32):
So, like you know, I wouldliterally some days I would
throw up because like it was sointense.
But I knew that like I wasn'tgoing to make money unless I
talked to people.
You know, make money unless Italk to people, you know, and
I'll never forget, I finally seta listing appointment and I
talked to the broker and he camein and he just bombed it.
He just bombed the appointmentand I remember calling the guy
back.
The guy's like never call backagain and I'm thinking like I
(05:55):
can't do worse than that guy.
So I went on the next one bymyself.
You know, and I'll never forget, it was a military lady and at
that time I had started coachingwith Mike Ferry.
He was one of the premier realestate coaches and he was like,
just bring the script and readit.
And I was so nervous.
I was like number one do youhave to sell the house?
(06:18):
And the lady's looking at melike what?
And second question, number twodo you have to price it to sell
?
You want to keep it.
And she's literally looking atme because I sounded good on the
phone but like I wasn't good inperson.
And the third one is you wantme to handle it?
And she literally is like this,this is done, pack it up,
you're out.
And she literally walkedupstairs and I remember, like
walking out and like I was kindof slumped over and I was just
(06:40):
like god, is this?
Because you know, the people inmy office weren't selling at
high volume and like I reallydidn't know what to do.
But I knew that the more peopleI talked to, it gave me the
best chance.
And obviously, as I kept doingthat, I kept getting better and
I realized that you know, at avery early age that volume is
the ultimate protection and Ithink that's the one thing that
(07:01):
stops most real estate agentsfrom ever being successful is
they don't understand the volume.
You know I'm in the process nowof writing a book and I talk
about the six levels of realestate and you know the first
one is you have to learn how tovolume call, because without a
volume of calls you don't getthe reps to actually be good
enough.
Because when you like sales, youhave to know how to talk to
(07:23):
people.
You know most scripts is youselling?
People don't want to be sold.
You know what I mean.
You want to learn to influencepeople.
You learn to influence peopleby asking great questions.
You know, instead of askingsomeone where do you want to
move it's like if you moved,would you stay local or would
you relocate.
You know what I mean.
Instead of asking what kind ofhouse do you want, relocate?
(07:44):
You know what I mean.
Instead of asking what kind ofhouse do you want, where they
could say I don't know it's, doyou want a bigger house or a
smaller house?
So I started learning thatthere's ways that you can talk
to people that they cannot sayno, and that's one of the things
we use to like evolve.
But you know, for a lot ofagents they're not willing to do
the volume of calls becausethey would rather sit in an open
house and wait for people tocome because that's easy.
(08:04):
But what is easy is normallyhard and I think you know when
you look at the National RealEstate Institute you're looking
at probably one to two houses ayear is what the average agent
sells and it's because theydon't make the calls.
But even if they do that youknow, that's amazing.
Walt Bayliss (08:19):
We talked just before we hit the record that
you just now moved into a 9,000square foot office, just before
we hit the record that you'vejust now moved into a 9,000
square foot office.
Like you're, you're doingincredible things.
Um, the.
There's a couple of things,though, that, as you were
talking there, mike, as you'retelling that startup story,
that's really stood out.
Number one you talked aboutthat.
You were, you were coachingfrom that guy, like so you had
somebody that was coaching youand then that's you also
mentioned that like we'll get tothe volume, cause I I saw one
(08:41):
of your YouTube shorts.
You're talking about the volumeof calls there, but we'll get
to that in a second.
So you talk about coaching.
And then you talked about Ilearned there was a way to speak
to people.
I learned that there was a wayto ask questions.
At what point during thisjourney did you decide to take
it seriously when you said I'm astudy, I'm all in, I'm going to
(09:01):
be a professional?
You actually, I'm assuming youwould have had to make that
mental switch to turn that onand go.
I need to learn this craft, Iwant to do this.
Was that a?
Can you remember that time whenyou, when you, went all in on
the future of this.
Mike Putnam (09:15):
Yeah, I think you know, for me, growing up, you
know I played basketballcompetitively and you know, when
you start to go out into themarketplace and you start to
lose consistently, you know Istarted to realize that it
wasn't failure, it was feedback.
Yeah, it was feedback that,like my presentation wasn't good
enough, I didn't know myscripts, and you know.
The problem is is that you know, I was 25 years old, but the
(09:36):
problem is is that I looked 18.
And what happened is is that Isounded like a kid and I looked
like a kid.
So I realized that, unless Ichanged the way I kind of looked
, the way I sounded you knowRoger Love is a vocal coach and
I remember hiring him to help mewith my voice, because my voice
wasn't deep, it didn't have theresonance, and so I sounded
like a kid.
(09:56):
And so you know, when you soundlike a kid, people treat you
like a kid.
So you know there's a lot ofoptions.
You don't look the part andsound the part.
It's like you're dealing withpeople's number one investment
and you look like they're a 16year old kid.
You know some of the challengesbut I think, being competitive
and losing time after time aftertime.
(10:17):
You know there was a guy, garyFitzgibbons, that I would
compete against a lot.
He was like the number oneagent that I competed against
and he would just smear me everytime and you know I would lose.
And he would call me up and belike hi, I just want to let you
know that they listed theproperty with me.
If you have any buyers, let meknow.
Three second pause and hang up.
And so I think enough of thatis.
You start to realize you know.
(10:38):
So I had him on my wall, youknow.
And then there was another guy,casey.
And then there was another guy,casey Margano.
He was the number one REMAXagent in the world and Tony
Robbins was one of my mentors.
And so I remember calling himup and being like hey, I just
got into real estate.
I see you're the number oneagent.
You're actually in my area.
I was wondering if I could take15 minutes of your time and
just see what you do.
And he was like what's yourname?
(10:59):
And I was like Mike.
He's like Mike, I need you todo me a favor.
I'm like, of course.
He's like never call me again.
So I put his picture on thewall.
So you know the people thatthat, that that thought that I
was a little insane, cause youknow, I had all these different
pictures of the people thatevery day I had to compete
against and you know, looking atthem every day was a reminder
(11:19):
that if I wasn't working hard,they were going to beat me.
So it was kind of me everysingle day, you know, going in
and making sure that Iunderstood that if I didn't
improve, I was going to get thesame feedback, because I think
too many people look at failureand don't understand.
It's not failure, it's feedback.
It's telling you what you needto improve on and I don't think
a lot of people embrace that.
Walt Bayliss (11:40):
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
I'm going to ask I'll justpause for effect Like that is
absolutely amazing, dude.
Do you think?
Do you think right now, even aswe're recording this, Mike, do
you feel like real estate isstill an incredible opportunity
(12:00):
for somebody who has that hungerand that fire, who wants to
make something of themselves?
Can anybody step in and do thisnow?
Mike Putnam (12:06):
Yeah, I mean, let me tell you something.
I think right now we're gettinginto a skill-based market.
You know, the last 10 years youdidn't have to do anything and
the houses sold themselves.
It's been a while since we hada skill-based market.
It's probably been since 2008that we've had a market like
this.
I think that in the next 18months, you're going to see 40%
to 50% of real estate agents getout of the business because
(12:27):
they don't have the skills.
More importantly, they don'thave the volume.
Having said that, for the peoplethat have skills, they have the
systems, the strategies andthey go out and execute I think
that there's agents that cantriple their business.
I don't know if there's everhonestly been a greater
opportunity to be a real estateagent, because with less agents
having skills, it's so easy toshine.
(12:48):
I mean, I have a 17-year-oldfrom one of my past clients that
is here for the summer andthey're like hey, we watch what
you do.
You sold our house.
Would you mind if he makescalls for you?
Sure, that kid got two leadsthat turned into listings and
he's going to make 12 grand infive weeks at 17.
Where in the world can you make12 grand?
Walt Bayliss (13:08):
Yeah, right, and step into the shoes and just get
, get straight into it and startit off.
So, like the journey that hasgiven you, mike, to come from
that kicking down doors, drivingeight hours to get the license
to, you know, dialing, smilingand dialing, just doing the
volume to now where, as Imentioned on that intro, there's
more than half a million peoplethat pay attention to your
(13:29):
socials and your posts and yougo in there.
How has that social followinginfluenced you and influenced
your life?
Mike Putnam (13:40):
I think I probably get 15 to 20 DMs per week and a
lot of the videos that I makearound people that I talk to.
I mean there's a lot of peopleout there that are having the
worst year of their real estatecareer, and I'm talking really
really good agents, people outthere that are having the worst
year of their real estate career.
And I'm talking really, reallygood agents, because they don't
understand that if you don'timprove in one of the six levels
, you get stuck there.
(14:00):
I mean some people they're goodat calling people, but they're
not good at turningconversations into leads.
They're not good at takingleads and turning them into
appointments.
They're not good at takingappointments and turning them
into a signed contract.
And I think the biggest thingyou're seeing now is they don't
know how to take a signedcontract, meeting, a listing
(14:20):
agreement, and they don't knowhow to get it sold, because
right now you're having to goback and ask for price
reductions.
I mean I had a house listed at950.
Another house came on themarket a week later at 925.
So we dropped to 925.
House came on the market a weeklater at $925,000.
So we dropped to $925,000.
They dropped to $900,000.
We dropped to $900,000.
We dropped to $875,000.
(14:40):
They came to $875,000.
We dropped to $850,000.
No-transcript is a skill, theskill walking people through the
(15:02):
process, cause, remember, formost people this is the single
biggest investment.
There's more emotion in realestate than probably any other
transaction because it'speople's biggest money
experience and I think that alot of people they don't
understand that it's your job tomake sure that you have the
skills necessary to navigatethem through that.
So you know, I really believethat.
(15:23):
I mean, you know, there's a guythat I was coaching and he had
27 listings before he stoppedcoaching active and one pending.
What does that tell you?
He had $300,000 in activeinventory and said you know what
, I think I'm going to pausecoaching.
And the funny thing is I saiddude, come to my office, I will
sit down at the table and I willdo it with you.
(15:44):
You'll get at least 80%.
We'll throw away the 20%.
You'll make 200 grand, becausehe had 330 grand in active
inventory.
But the sad part is that to himhe was looking at the cost
instead of saying if I know thatskill, the investment for me is
that I'm going to make 200,000back.
(16:04):
You know, I had one of myclients last week she had a
listing that had been on themarket over 100 days at 1.5
million.
So we talked about it and Isaid where does he need to be?
She said one, two.
So I went through all thescenarios.
I get on a call with her, walkthrough, she gets the guy to one
, two.
It sells the next three daysfor one, two, five.
She's going to make $42,000.
(16:26):
See, that's the thing.
People don't understand, thatthe biggest cost in our life is
not what we pay, because Iremember someone telling me
what's the biggest cost in yourlife and I was like my mortgage,
nope, taxes, nope.
It's the cost of not knowing.
See, for that guy, the cost ofhim not knowing how to reduce
listings and get listings sold.
It's costing him $330,000.
(16:46):
He's focusing on such a smallfragment and I think that's one
of the reasons that so manypeople aren't successful is that
they would rather invest inApple or invest in Nintendo or
in all these other products,instead of investing in the best
product, which is yourself.
Walt Bayliss (17:04):
Yeah, I hear it, I hear it Sales is a transferable
skill, right?
So when you know the skill,when you understand the way to
communicate, you can sell,whether it be real estate or
automotive or insurance orwhatever it might be.
Are you still a study today,mike?
Are you investing in your ownskill set to sharpen up all the
time?
Oh, I've lost you there, mike.
(17:24):
I've got a camera freeze.
Let's see if I can get Mikeback on.
You guys, mike, jump back inwith me, mike.
Have I lost you, mike?
Mike, let's see if we can getMike.
Guys, we seem to, uh, havedropped Mike off there.
Let's see you, hear me, yeah, Igot you back, man whoa.
That was great, all right.
So, uh, my question to you wasare you, are you still a study
(17:46):
today?
Are you still uh, are you stillactively investing in your own
skill development?
Mike Putnam (17:50):
absolutely.
I've got four coaches right now, the coach being all different
things.
You have to realize something.
It's like if I told you to runas fast as you could and you did
.
And then I said I bet you athousand dollars you could run
even faster, and you're likenope.
And then I said, well, whydon't you try one more time?
And then, after you started, Iput a pit ball and I let it go
and it started chasing you.
Which one are you going to runfaster, the one by yourself or
(18:12):
the one with the pit bullchasing you?
And I think for a lot of peoplethey don't understand that if
you don't have something forcingyou to do the things that you
don't want to do, you'll neverdo it.
I mean, even the videos, youknow, I mean to me that's just
not something I like.
It's like you're talking tonobody.
It's like the weirdest thing.
It's like you know, you know,and it's like I have a lady and
(18:33):
she's in California and she'sRussian and I mean, if I don't
make my videos, everything Imean she's just on me.
And like you need people in yourlife to hold you accountable to
what you say you want.
Because I think the number onething that stops people from
being successful is they basetheir activities on how they
feel, not on what they want.
You see, if you base youractivities on what you want in
your life, it's a completelydifferent life than if you base
(18:54):
it on how you feel.
You know, after 25 years inreal estate, I don't know
there's any day that I wake upand I'm just so excited to go
talk to thousands of people.
But I know that it gives me agreat life.
I get to train a lot of peopleand I get to serve people.
You know, I hear so many peoplesay I'm not a salesperson, and
the truth is everybody is asalesperson.
Like, let me ask you somethingwho's the person that you love
(19:14):
the most in your life?
My kids.
Okay, if one of your kids wason a bridge and they said they
were about to jump and theycalled you, at what point would
you hang up the phone?
Never, but if they gave you athousand reasons why they should
jump.
What would you give them back?
Walt Bayliss (19:30):
A thousand and one .
Mike Putnam (19:32):
And that's sales.
See, sales is nothing more thancaring about your customer.
The ultimate sales hack is weneed to go from selling to
serving, and when I teach peopleto do that and they come from
that place, that's where you caninfluence and sell people.
You don't push people, you wantto ask questions and serve, and
then it pulls them in.
And I think that's one of thebiggest distinction between what
(19:54):
I teach and what a lot of thereal estate agents teach coaches
, because they're teaching justscripts.
People don't want to be talkedto through a script.
They want to be talked to Ascript.
Talking through you.
A script is there's nointeraction.
People want to be humanized.
There's so many things that arepulling us that people starve
for connection.
And if you know how to connectwith people and you know how to
(20:16):
get reports, like you know, whenI walk into a house, the first
thing I do is I say, before weget started, I'm going to take a
quick look at the house.
This is where we're going toswitch roles for a second.
You actually get to be the realestate agent.
You show me around and I'm like, well, you're natural.
And it immediately creates aplayfulness because you see if I
can get you to feel like I'mlike you, then you're going to
(20:38):
want to do business with me, andI think rapport is one of the
things that most people don'ttalk about Rapport.
People like to work with peoplethey like and trust and if you
can't get to like you, thenyou're going to have trouble
just talking at people.
It just it doesn't work.
Walt Bayliss (20:53):
Like you, then you're going to have trouble
just talking at people.
It just it doesn't work.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely so, mike, everything that you're
talking about here is, is, isdeliberate, and what I mean by
that you know.
My question to you before wasat what point you did you decide
to become a professional?
You said I'm, I'm going tolearn, I'm going to study, I've
got to get a coach, I'm going tomove this forward.
Then, even moving into thevolume piece, where it's like I
(21:14):
don't want to make a thousandcalls but I'm going to do it
because this is what I've setmyself to do, when you're
looking at that kind ofdeliberate actions and going all
the way back to the start ofyour story you know, when the
first agent came in at 10 andthe next one came in at 12, it
feels to me like that's neglector drift.
(21:35):
And you've chosen veryspecifically to be deliberate in
your life.
Is that something that youfocus on daily?
Is that a process that you gothrough to be deliberate about
your life and the choices youmake?
Mike Putnam (21:48):
I think everything you do in your life has to be
deliberate.
You know, if you don'tdeliberately do things, you're
not going to have what you want.
If you want a good body, youhave to be very deliberate and
that every single morning, likefor me, I get up at five o'clock
, I go work out, I get in, mycold plunge, Like there's just
certain things that Ideliberately have to do because,
you see, if you don't do thingsdeliberately, then you're going
(22:08):
to do things based on how youfeel.
I think that's the number onething that I can't stress enough
.
People base their life on theirfeelings, and their feelings
rarely ever get what you want,because you have to realize
motivation is like a warm bathit gets cold.
It's not something that issustainable.
Even discipline isn't enough,because there'll be times when
(22:29):
you're not disciplined.
You know to me, if you wantsomething, you have to become it
.
So for me, I built my identity.
Instead of saying I have towork out, I'm the kind of person
that just works out seven daysa week Instead of saying I got a
prospect.
I'm the kind of guy thatprospects for six or seven hours
a day Instead of saying, hey,I'm going to make calls, I am
going to go ahead and talk to100 people every single day.
(22:52):
I was very deliberate withthose kinds of activities
because you see, if you becomeeverything that you want, then
you don't do it, you just becomeit.
Walt Bayliss (23:00):
That's amazing.
I've I've literally never heardthat.
I've studied goal setting andand uh success for most of my
professional life.
I've never heard it describedlike that.
I think that's that's amazing.
It's not about discipline, it'sabout becoming the person that
does that, like I've heardpeople say about you know, I'm a
non, you know I'm trying toquit smoking.
Well, no, you're changing thatto.
I'm a non-smoker.
(23:21):
This change of mindset to bejust I am this person.
I that's who I am.
That's intrinsically what I do.
That's a real mind shift that,again, I've never heard before.
That's amazing.
Mike Putnam (23:33):
I don't think a lot of people understand.
One of the easiest hacks inlife is you decide what you want
, you think and write down allthe things that that person does
and then you do that.
You become everything that youwant because then you don't have
to do it.
When I said I was going to workout every single day for a year
, I didn't have to think in themorning when I woke up, was I
going to work out?
(23:54):
I already signed the contract.
I said I was going to work, andso it's like, when you already
know what you're going to do,your mind doesn't negotiate
because it just knows this iswhat we do.
It's just like you know.
I talk to people.
It's like, how many times inthe middle of the night do you
actually feel like getting upand using the bathroom?
So why do we?
Why does 100 of most people usethe bathroom?
(24:16):
Yeah, right, because you haveto think about something.
You know that is a choice.
You could pee in the bathroom.
You.
You know you could.
You could literally pee in thebed, but you don't because
you're the kind of person thatdoesn't pee in your bed.
Walt Bayliss (24:28):
And it's just, I think, when people really grasp
the thing that you become that'ssuch a different way of
thinking, like you know, yeah,you could just be the person
that pees in your bed, but couldjust be the person that pees in
your bed, but you're not theperson that pees in your bed.
So, get up.
You could be the person thatjust comes in at 12, but you're
not.
You're the person that comes inat 6.30 and starts to hit it
Most people brush their teethbefore they go to bed.
Mike Putnam (24:47):
That's just who they are.
You know what I mean.
Become what you want, then youdon't have to do it.
You just are it.
You know what I mean?
That's incredible.
Walt Bayliss (24:55):
That's amazing, man.
So you would have seen a wholebunch of people coming through
and change their lives in termsof real estate and sales, go
from struggling to success.
Do you put that down to thatsame learning pattern?
Do you put it down todiscipline?
Do you put it down to goalsetting values internally, like
what's the guy that walksthrough your door and you know
(25:15):
that you can take that personfrom where they are to where
they want to be?
What's the character thatyou're looking for in that
person that gets you to knowthat that's going to happen?
Mike Putnam (25:24):
I mean I would say 99% of the time.
When I get someone, the firstthing I have to fix is them.
Yeah, who has these skills isonly 20%.
The 80% is getting them tobelieve that they can actually
do it, that they're worthy.
You know what I mean.
When you think about making amillion dollars or 500, and
(25:45):
you've only made 40,000 in yourlife, it seems so far away.
You know what I mean, it's justincomprehensible.
So my first thing that I have toreally work with people is
mentally getting them to believethat they can actually do it.
You have to realize there'sthree parts of life.
The first thing to do anything,you have to believe it's
possible.
If you don't believe it'spossible, you will not do it.
The second you start to believethat you can do it.
(26:07):
And then the third part is youstart to understand your true
value, meaning that, like, ifyou have a job now at 100,000
and I teach you to make 400,000,would you ever take a job at
200,000?
No, because you understand thatyour value is 400,000.
And so I think for a lot ofpeople they have to go in
understanding that someone hasdone it so we know that it's
(26:29):
possible.
But somewhere along the way.
If you keep pushing, there's amoment where you actually start
to believe that you're possible,that it's possible for you.
You believe that you can do it,and when I coach people, when
they get to that point, it's oneof the most beautiful things to
watch someone blossom and tostart to win.
You know, you have to realizesomething Losing is a habit, but
so is winning.
(26:50):
You have to teach people how towin, and what a lot of people
don't realize is the way you winis you have to be willing to
lose.
No one starts off winning.
Look at Michael Jordan.
He didn't win championships.
Winners are built.
They're not.
They don't come that way, and Ithink so many people look at
other agents and they'll be likeyou know what I want to be like
, mike?
Like there was a guy threeyears ago and he called me and
(27:13):
he said you know what I am thenext Mike Pugnam.
And I said you know what Goodhe's like?
I'm going to be just like you.
And I'm like are you sayingthat or do you mean it?
He's like oh no, no, I mean it.
I want to be just like you.
I'm like I've never done thisbefore, but for some reason.
Why don't you come live with me?
For three days I'm going tohave you live at my house.
You'll get up when I get up.
You call when I call.
(27:33):
You go home when I call.
I want you to see what it'slike with me and my wife and my
kids.
And then we're going to do thatfor three days.
Oh yeah, I would love that.
So the first day it's like fiveo'clock.
You know, I'm just going toskip gym.
Dude, you're in my house, getup workout.
Get there by like 12 o'clock.
His eyes are just red becausehe's never prospect for four
straight hours.
(27:54):
He's like what are those eyedrops?
I'm like, dude, you just putthem in.
So we went through that.
He goes, I'm tired, I'm goingto go to.
I'm like stop, now you get tobe with me and my family.
I want you to see what that'slike.
Next day, five o'clock, I'm notworking out.
I'm like dude, get up, you'rein my house.
I don't feel like working outeither, but I'm the kind of
(28:18):
person that works out and sinceyou're in my house, you're going
to do it too.
By the time he got to about twoo'clock that day, he literally
looked at me and he said youknow what?
I don't want to be like you.
And he literally packed up andleft.
Wow, and the thing that youknow that he didn't understand
is that to prospect for six orseven or eight hours it's like a
marathon.
You have to train yourself todo it.
You don't just walk in and dothat.
I think so many people look atthe end product of people and
(28:40):
they don't understand all thethings they had to do in private
.
Tony Robbins has always saidyou get rewarded in public for
what you do in private.
Everyone sees themillion-dollar real estate and
you're showing all these fancyhouses.
If you don't have a high volumeof leads to go show, you don't
have a business.
Which means that for themajority of real estate agents,
if you're going to sell in highvolume, you're not on a TV show.
(29:02):
You're going to have to call inlarge volume to make a profit.
Because if you look at, thealternative is you could buy
business.
Zillow charges like $2,000 alead and only 10% convert.
Do the math it's not there.
So if you're going to buy, youmay sell a lot, but you're going
to be broke.
I remember coaching a guy andhe's like I made 800,000.
(29:28):
I'm like do you have a P&L?
No, let's put one together.
And I'm like looking and I'mlike 780, 820, 780.
Like you made 40,000 last yearand he didn't realize like all
his money in his mind I'm making$800,000 a year, but he didn't
realize how much money he wasspending to actually do it.
Walt Bayliss (29:41):
And there goes.
Mike Putnam (29:41):
the most profitable way to be a real estate agent
is to learn how to, number one,get leads, which is actually get
it on the phone and prospect,but, number two, have the skills
that you can actually convertthem.
Walt Bayliss (29:53):
I love it.
I love it and I know thatyou've got some, some amazing
coaching programs you weretalking about just before.
We hit record that you've got acouple of people coming in
today working with them,prospecting with you, right
there in the thing.
Guys, you want to head over tomikeputnamcom?
I'll make sure that that linkis in the show notes as well, so
you guys can follow along withMike.
Mike, let me just focus on theinfluencer element of this just
for a moment.
(30:13):
Considering, you know,influencer empires, how do you
feel that social media isimpacting realtors right now?
Like, how is it?
How is the the the advent ofTikTok and Instagram and
Facebook and LinkedIn and youknow all of the amazing
platforms that are out there?
I know you've got thousands ofpeople that are following you on
YouTube as well.
How has that, that worldinfluenced realtors right now?
Mike Putnam (30:34):
I think that it gives them a false sense of what
success looks like.
I think you know, people onlylike to post the wins.
They don't like to post thelosses.
They'll post showing a milliondollar house, but they don't
post the day that the milliondollar house fell out of escrow.
We're in a culture now whereeverybody only posts things that
look good.
You see relationships andhusbands and wives and they're
taking pictures and they're sohappy and they're kids and then
(30:56):
they're getting divorced.
Nobody likes to actually talkabout what it actually takes to
be successful.
There's just not a lot ofpeople influencer, wise that
actually do it and people thatdo and are raw.
I think they're unique and Ithink that's why people are
attracted to them.
People want the rawness.
They want to know like what isit really like to be a real
estate agent?
You know, that's why my dreamwas to always have a facility
(31:22):
where people could come and Icould literally train them from
if they were a beginner or ifthey were an intermediary, and I
could literally train them howto prospect and then actually
let them see what it looks like.
So you know, I just got a 9,000square foot facility.
In September we're going to bedoing prospecting clinics twice
a month where people can fly infor three days.
I'll show them how to prospect.
I'll go over scripts,objections, dialogues and then
they'll prospect next to my team.
(31:42):
And I think the cool thingabout my team is that you have
kids between 21 and 30, and youhave kids in here at 21 that are
just lesser copies of me, butyou would never think that a 21
year old could sound that good,because people think that sales
it takes all these years.
No, it takes a great mentorthat can actually show you what
(32:03):
to say, because if you know whatto say, it makes it so much
easier to go out and execute.
The number one reason why peopledon't do things is they don't
know how to do it.
If you ask to go out today andcold call people or to call a
for sale boner or an expiredlisting, they won't do it
because they're terrified of therejection and what to say.
But when you're equipped withthe weapons to fight, you enjoy
it, and I think that's one ofthe things that people see, even
(32:26):
today.
You know when they were herewatching these young kids just
dice people up and be able toask questions and influence and
ask this or that, because youhave to realize something.
I mean, sales is nothing morethan the transfer of energy.
The highest level of sales iswhere we take our eyes and we
just let you borrow it so thatyou can see what we see.
It's like it's funny when, likea seller says, I'm going to
(32:46):
wait six months for the value ofmy house to go up and I'm like,
great, but you're going to buya house in six months, isn't
that house going to go up too?
So if you make $30,000 on yourhouse and then you give the next
seller $30,000 to buy theirhouse, how much money did you
actually make by waiting sixmonths?
We didn't make anything.
Walt Bayliss (33:06):
Right, but it's just having the skills to have
that answer ready to go.
Mike Putnam (33:09):
Yeah, but if you buy a house now, instead of
giving the seller $30,000,you'll actually have $30,000 in
equity.
See, I learned at an early ageis that if you take complex
things and make it really simplethat people can digest it, they
receive it, and that's how youpersuade people.
It's like I had an investoryesterday.
It's like he was talking aboutwaiting for the market to get
(33:30):
better.
I'm like well, if you wait inthis market, you're going to get
a 1% or 2% return.
You mentioned that you haveother investments that give you
20% or 30%.
So if you're going to wait,would you rather wait with a 1%
or 2% return or a 20% or 30%?
Because either investment,you're going to wait.
The question do you keep it inthis asset class or this asset
class?
You're an investor.
(33:50):
What's the number one goal ofinvesting?
To make money.
You want 20%.
It's too easy decision, butthat's how you have to learn to
talk to people.
You have to learn to reallysimplify it and people receive.
Walt Bayliss (34:03):
I love it.
I love it.
So, changing lives, mike, likeyou know, literally taking
people in and letting them sitnext to you and have that coach
and be in the pit bull in theirlane chasing them down towards
the finish line.
You know, helping people runfaster in their lives and in
their profession.
That's amazing.
Do you feel the responsibilityof that?
Does that ever weigh on you?
That there are lives thatyou're responsible for now
(34:24):
because people are followingwhat you're doing?
Mike Putnam (34:26):
Yeah, I mean you know, to me it's like you know
it's an obligation.
I mean you know I took someskills that God gave me and I
had some great mentors along theway, and it's just like I feel
like you know there's six levelsin real estate, but the seventh
level of anything is become sogood at it that you can give it
back to someone else, cause youknow the key to living at the
end of the day is to give, andwhen you can give your
(34:46):
information and, as a result,other people's lives are changed
.
I mean, when I watch the agentsthat work for me and they make
three and four and 500,000 andthey have no expenses, where in
the world can you do that?
You know what I mean.
Like we make more than thepresident of the United States.
Like we make more than fortune500 CEOs.
It's just like it's insane thatI can take people with no
(35:07):
college education.
They have nothing, but they canhave the desire to have a
better life and they can have it.
It's just, it's one of the mostbeautiful things as and they
can have it.
It's one of the most beautifulthings, as I said, to watch my
clients win, and the number onething that stops people from
ever taking that first step isthey focus so much on the cost.
They don't look at theinvestment of what they get back
(35:28):
.
They don't understand that thebiggest cost is what you don't
know.
Walt Bayliss (35:31):
Man.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
I think that's an incredibleplace to wrap.
Guys, this is none other thanMike Putnam.
He is, as I mentioned at thebeginning, the leading star in
the real estate space where youcan actually come and turn your
career around.
But, mike, some of the thingsthat you've said there are
outside of real estate, they'reoutside of sales.
They're literally like a lifedirection, and I appreciate you
(35:54):
for that.
Being able to, to understandthe, the, the, the thought of
internalizing this is who I am.
This is what I need to becometo achieve what I'm looking for,
dude, I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for forsharing the time, sharing the
insights.
Again, guys, that'smikeputnamcom, instagram,
YouTube.
Mike is talking to the camera,even though he feels weird about
(36:14):
it, helping people change livesand move their roadblock
forward and being that pitbullin the corner.
If you want to have a pitbullchasing you down towards the
finish line, number to the mic,mike.
Thank you again, man, I reallyappreciate your time and sharing
some of the wisdom that'staking you to where you are.
I really appreciate you havingme.
Thank you, man, I appreciate it.
Today's episode of the Influencer Empires podcast
is brought to you by the EmpireProgram with White Label Suite.
Powering our influencers andbuilding their empires.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo the Influencer Empires
podcast.
Today on our show we have asuperstar in the real estate
agency space.
This man, when he talks, hasmore than half a million people
(00:21):
pay attention to his every word.
He has been a real estate agentfor more than 25 years but has
sold over 2,700 homes.
Now, if you're doing the maths,that's more than 100 homes per
year.
He's now on a mission to do1,000 homes a year over the next
five years and train peoplealong the way.
When this man speaks, peoplelisten.
He's teaching real estateagents how to succeed, how to
(00:43):
get out of their own way, andbuilding a tribe and a following
along the way.
Every single view, every singlepost that he's making on social
media is getting picked up withhundreds of comments and likes
and people engaging with noneother than Michael Putnam.
Michael is the CEO of thePutnam Group.
He's also the founder of theAlpha U Real Estate Coaching
Program and he is a man worthlistening to.
(01:05):
Dude, I'm so thrilled thatyou've taken the time to join us
on the show.
Thank you so much for jumpingin.
Mike Putnam (01:10):
Wow, what an introduction.
I can't say very often I'mblushing.
That was quite impressive.
Walt Bayliss (01:14):
Thank you, no man, we're just getting started.
There was a whole bunch ofstuff I had to cut out there as
I was researching you, Michael,you've had an incredible journey
.
So how did you actually getinto real estate as a career and
as a profession?
Mike Putnam (01:27):
Well, it's funny, you know, before I got into real
estate I was a restaurantconsultant, which you know,
everybody's seen Bar Rescue.
You know you basically havefour months you hire fire, go to
the next place, and I justtraveled around the country
doing that.
And you know, after you work100 hours a day, you start to
say gosh, you know, if you make$100,000 and you work 100 hours,
you basically are making $10 anhour, you know.
(01:47):
So I started to look at it.
You know, my grandmas hadalways said to go into sales.
So I went out and interviewedat Xerox and IBM and, you know,
pharmaceuticals, and the laststop was this mom and pop real
estate shop out in Woodbridgecalled Heartland Realty, and
I'll never forget.
I get in there and there's aguy and you know he starts kind
(02:08):
of limping in there and he goeswho are you?
And I was like Mike Putnam andI was like who are you?
He said I'm the broker and hisname was Jerry.
And so we start talking and Isaid Jerry, can I ask you a
question?
He's like yeah, I said how muchmoney you make last year?
He said well, you know, I'vebeen doing it 30 years.
I'm like I know, but you don'thave to tell me.
But if you did like, what'd youmake?
(02:28):
And he was, like you know,$352,000.
I was like, jerry, you made$352,000.
Oh yeah, but I've been doing it.
You wouldn't lie to me, jerry.
Oh no, stop.
See that man down there.
What's his name?
Did he make 350?
Walt Bayliss (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Mike Putnam (02:52):
I'm in, I'm in Stop .
I'm in Like, give me signed it.
I called up my boss and I'mlike I'm putting in my two weeks
, I'm going into real estate.
It's like if you do that, we'regoing to let you go.
And I'm like great.
And then boom, I go to the guyand I'm like I'm ready to start
tomorrow.
And he's like, well, you got toget a license.
(03:12):
I'm like, yeah, no problem, howdo I do that?
He's like well, there's abackup of four months, couldn't
you have?
Before I, you know, I got my job, I luckily got a notice after
like three weeks that there wasan opening in Roanoke, virginia,
which is, like you know, likeeight hours from where I live.
(03:33):
And so I remember going downthere and literally, if I didn't
pass the test, I would have hadto wait four months, which
probably financially wouldn'thave been very good for me,
right.
And I remember the only hotel Icould find was like a motel,
like one.
You know what I mean you couldlike rent it by the minute, you
know.
And I'm just like this is realestate at the very bottom.
You know you got motorcyclegames, you got people smoking, I
(04:05):
mean, you know it was just oneof those things.
But I crammed in that stuff andI passed and then I'll never
forget I was just like boom, I'mexcited.
So I like got in there thefirst day because I'm thinking
real estate, 100% commission,you have to have hungry wolves
Like I envision, like the wolfof wall street.
I figured everybody would there.
I didn't obviously pre-qualifywhat I was walking into, but I
imagine just people that arejust pounding the phones and
just calling because it's acommission job and I like walked
in at 6.30.
I'm in my three-piece suit andI look around and there's
(04:28):
literally nobody there.
I'm like flicking on and thephone's ringing at like 7.30.
And like 8.30 goes and nineo'clock comes and 9.30 and
around like 10 o'clock the firstagent came in and he was in
like jeans and a t-shirt.
He's playing solitaireitaireand I'm like freaking out
because I just quit my job andI'm like, dude, what do we do to
sell houses?
(04:48):
He's like you just answer thephone.
So like I'm like transferringstuff.
I think the second agent camein at 12 and I remember calling
my mom at like one o'clock andsaying I think I messed up, like
nobody's working.
I'm looking at the sales board.
It says one, one, one, two.
Like that can't be good, youknow.
And my first job when I was 14was a telemarketer Right, you
(05:11):
know, I call for the handicappedand disabled.
So, intuitively, I panicked,and so I got the white pages and
I just started at a and I wasjust like hi, this is Mike with
Heartland Realty.
Have you ever thought aboutbuying or selling?
No, and you know, I just keptdoing that over and over and I
would do it for eight hours aday and you know, my nervous
system had not got used to eighthours of that.
(05:32):
So, like you know, I wouldliterally some days I would
throw up because like it was sointense.
But I knew that like I wasn'tgoing to make money unless I
talked to people.
You know, make money unless Italk to people, you know, and
I'll never forget, I finally seta listing appointment and I
talked to the broker and he camein and he just bombed it.
He just bombed the appointmentand I remember calling the guy
back.
The guy's like never call backagain and I'm thinking like I
(05:55):
can't do worse than that guy.
So I went on the next one bymyself.
You know, and I'll never forget, it was a military lady and at
that time I had started coachingwith Mike Ferry.
He was one of the premier realestate coaches and he was like,
just bring the script and readit.
And I was so nervous.
I was like number one do youhave to sell the house?
(06:18):
And the lady's looking at melike what?
And second question, number twodo you have to price it to sell
?
You want to keep it.
And she's literally looking atme because I sounded good on the
phone but like I wasn't good inperson.
And the third one is you wantme to handle it?
And she literally is like this,this is done, pack it up,
you're out.
And she literally walkedupstairs and I remember, like
walking out and like I was kindof slumped over and I was just
(06:40):
like god, is this?
Because you know, the people inmy office weren't selling at
high volume and like I reallydidn't know what to do.
But I knew that the more peopleI talked to, it gave me the
best chance.
And obviously, as I kept doingthat, I kept getting better and
I realized that you know, at avery early age that volume is
the ultimate protection and Ithink that's the one thing that
(07:01):
stops most real estate agentsfrom ever being successful is
they don't understand the volume.
You know I'm in the process nowof writing a book and I talk
about the six levels of realestate and you know the first
one is you have to learn how tovolume call, because without a
volume of calls you don't getthe reps to actually be good
enough.
Because when you like sales, youhave to know how to talk to
(07:23):
people.
You know most scripts is youselling?
People don't want to be sold.
You know what I mean.
You want to learn to influencepeople.
You learn to influence peopleby asking great questions.
You know, instead of askingsomeone where do you want to
move it's like if you moved,would you stay local or would
you relocate.
You know what I mean.
Instead of asking what kind ofhouse do you want, relocate?
(07:44):
You know what I mean.
Instead of asking what kind ofhouse do you want, where they
could say I don't know it's, doyou want a bigger house or a
smaller house?
So I started learning thatthere's ways that you can talk
to people that they cannot sayno, and that's one of the things
we use to like evolve.
But you know, for a lot ofagents they're not willing to do
the volume of calls becausethey would rather sit in an open
house and wait for people tocome because that's easy.
(08:04):
But what is easy is normallyhard and I think you know when
you look at the National RealEstate Institute you're looking
at probably one to two houses ayear is what the average agent
sells and it's because theydon't make the calls.
But even if they do that youknow, that's amazing.
Walt Bayliss (08:19):
We talked just before we hit the record that
you just now moved into a 9,000square foot office, just before
we hit the record that you'vejust now moved into a 9,000
square foot office.
Like you're, you're doingincredible things.
Um, the.
There's a couple of things,though, that, as you were
talking there, mike, as you'retelling that startup story,
that's really stood out.
Number one you talked aboutthat.
You were, you were coachingfrom that guy, like so you had
somebody that was coaching youand then that's you also
mentioned that like we'll get tothe volume, cause I I saw one
(08:41):
of your YouTube shorts.
You're talking about the volumeof calls there, but we'll get
to that in a second.
So you talk about coaching.
And then you talked about Ilearned there was a way to speak
to people.
I learned that there was a wayto ask questions.
At what point during thisjourney did you decide to take
it seriously when you said I'm astudy, I'm all in, I'm going to
(09:01):
be a professional?
You actually, I'm assuming youwould have had to make that
mental switch to turn that onand go.
I need to learn this craft, Iwant to do this.
Was that a?
Can you remember that time whenyou, when you, went all in on
the future of this.
Mike Putnam (09:15):
Yeah, I think you know, for me, growing up, you
know I played basketballcompetitively and you know, when
you start to go out into themarketplace and you start to
lose consistently, you know Istarted to realize that it
wasn't failure, it was feedback.
Yeah, it was feedback that,like my presentation wasn't good
enough, I didn't know myscripts, and you know.
The problem is is that you know, I was 25 years old, but the
(09:36):
problem is is that I looked 18.
And what happened is is that Isounded like a kid and I looked
like a kid.
So I realized that, unless Ichanged the way I kind of looked
, the way I sounded you knowRoger Love is a vocal coach and
I remember hiring him to help mewith my voice, because my voice
wasn't deep, it didn't have theresonance, and so I sounded
like a kid.
(09:56):
And so you know, when you soundlike a kid, people treat you
like a kid.
So you know there's a lot ofoptions.
You don't look the part andsound the part.
It's like you're dealing withpeople's number one investment
and you look like they're a 16year old kid.
You know some of the challengesbut I think, being competitive
and losing time after time aftertime.
(10:17):
You know there was a guy, garyFitzgibbons, that I would
compete against a lot.
He was like the number oneagent that I competed against
and he would just smear me everytime and you know I would lose.
And he would call me up and belike hi, I just want to let you
know that they listed theproperty with me.
If you have any buyers, let meknow.
Three second pause and hang up.
And so I think enough of thatis.
You start to realize you know.
(10:38):
So I had him on my wall, youknow.
And then there was another guy,casey.
And then there was another guy,casey Margano.
He was the number one REMAXagent in the world and Tony
Robbins was one of my mentors.
And so I remember calling himup and being like hey, I just
got into real estate.
I see you're the number oneagent.
You're actually in my area.
I was wondering if I could take15 minutes of your time and
just see what you do.
And he was like what's yourname?
(10:59):
And I was like Mike.
He's like Mike, I need you todo me a favor.
I'm like, of course.
He's like never call me again.
So I put his picture on thewall.
So you know the people thatthat, that that thought that I
was a little insane, cause youknow, I had all these different
pictures of the people thatevery day I had to compete
against and you know, looking atthem every day was a reminder
(11:19):
that if I wasn't working hard,they were going to beat me.
So it was kind of me everysingle day, you know, going in
and making sure that Iunderstood that if I didn't
improve, I was going to get thesame feedback, because I think
too many people look at failureand don't understand.
It's not failure, it's feedback.
It's telling you what you needto improve on and I don't think
a lot of people embrace that.
Walt Bayliss (11:40):
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
I'm going to ask I'll justpause for effect Like that is
absolutely amazing, dude.
Do you think?
Do you think right now, even aswe're recording this, Mike, do
you feel like real estate isstill an incredible opportunity
(12:00):
for somebody who has that hungerand that fire, who wants to
make something of themselves?
Can anybody step in and do thisnow?
Mike Putnam (12:06):
Yeah, I mean, let me tell you something.
I think right now we're gettinginto a skill-based market.
You know, the last 10 years youdidn't have to do anything and
the houses sold themselves.
It's been a while since we hada skill-based market.
It's probably been since 2008that we've had a market like
this.
I think that in the next 18months, you're going to see 40%
to 50% of real estate agents getout of the business because
(12:27):
they don't have the skills.
More importantly, they don'thave the volume.
Having said that, for the peoplethat have skills, they have the
systems, the strategies andthey go out and execute I think
that there's agents that cantriple their business.
I don't know if there's everhonestly been a greater
opportunity to be a real estateagent, because with less agents
having skills, it's so easy toshine.
(12:48):
I mean, I have a 17-year-oldfrom one of my past clients that
is here for the summer andthey're like hey, we watch what
you do.
You sold our house.
Would you mind if he makescalls for you?
Sure, that kid got two leadsthat turned into listings and
he's going to make 12 grand infive weeks at 17.
Where in the world can you make12 grand?
Walt Bayliss (13:08):
Yeah, right, and step into the shoes and just get
, get straight into it and startit off.
So, like the journey that hasgiven you, mike, to come from
that kicking down doors, drivingeight hours to get the license
to, you know, dialing, smilingand dialing, just doing the
volume to now where, as Imentioned on that intro, there's
more than half a million peoplethat pay attention to your
(13:29):
socials and your posts and yougo in there.
How has that social followinginfluenced you and influenced
your life?
Mike Putnam (13:40):
I think I probably get 15 to 20 DMs per week and a
lot of the videos that I makearound people that I talk to.
I mean there's a lot of peopleout there that are having the
worst year of their real estatecareer, and I'm talking really
really good agents, people outthere that are having the worst
year of their real estate career.
And I'm talking really, reallygood agents, because they don't
understand that if you don'timprove in one of the six levels
, you get stuck there.
(14:00):
I mean some people they're goodat calling people, but they're
not good at turningconversations into leads.
They're not good at takingleads and turning them into
appointments.
They're not good at takingappointments and turning them
into a signed contract.
And I think the biggest thingyou're seeing now is they don't
know how to take a signedcontract, meeting, a listing
(14:20):
agreement, and they don't knowhow to get it sold, because
right now you're having to goback and ask for price
reductions.
I mean I had a house listed at950.
Another house came on themarket a week later at 925.
So we dropped to 925.
House came on the market a weeklater at $925,000.
So we dropped to $925,000.
They dropped to $900,000.
We dropped to $900,000.
We dropped to $875,000.
(14:40):
They came to $875,000.
We dropped to $850,000.
No-transcript is a skill, theskill walking people through the
(15:02):
process, cause, remember, formost people this is the single
biggest investment.
There's more emotion in realestate than probably any other
transaction because it'speople's biggest money
experience and I think that alot of people they don't
understand that it's your job tomake sure that you have the
skills necessary to navigatethem through that.
So you know, I really believethat.
(15:23):
I mean, you know, there's a guythat I was coaching and he had
27 listings before he stoppedcoaching active and one pending.
What does that tell you?
He had $300,000 in activeinventory and said you know what
, I think I'm going to pausecoaching.
And the funny thing is I saiddude, come to my office, I will
sit down at the table and I willdo it with you.
(15:44):
You'll get at least 80%.
We'll throw away the 20%.
You'll make 200 grand, becausehe had 330 grand in active
inventory.
But the sad part is that to himhe was looking at the cost
instead of saying if I know thatskill, the investment for me is
that I'm going to make 200,000back.
(16:04):
You know, I had one of myclients last week she had a
listing that had been on themarket over 100 days at 1.5
million.
So we talked about it and Isaid where does he need to be?
She said one, two.
So I went through all thescenarios.
I get on a call with her, walkthrough, she gets the guy to one
, two.
It sells the next three daysfor one, two, five.
She's going to make $42,000.
(16:26):
See, that's the thing.
People don't understand, thatthe biggest cost in our life is
not what we pay, because Iremember someone telling me
what's the biggest cost in yourlife and I was like my mortgage,
nope, taxes, nope.
It's the cost of not knowing.
See, for that guy, the cost ofhim not knowing how to reduce
listings and get listings sold.
It's costing him $330,000.
(16:46):
He's focusing on such a smallfragment and I think that's one
of the reasons that so manypeople aren't successful is that
they would rather invest inApple or invest in Nintendo or
in all these other products,instead of investing in the best
product, which is yourself.
Walt Bayliss (17:04):
Yeah, I hear it, I hear it Sales is a transferable
skill, right?
So when you know the skill,when you understand the way to
communicate, you can sell,whether it be real estate or
automotive or insurance orwhatever it might be.
Are you still a study today,mike?
Are you investing in your ownskill set to sharpen up all the
time?
Oh, I've lost you there, mike.
(17:24):
I've got a camera freeze.
Let's see if I can get Mikeback on.
You guys, mike, jump back inwith me, mike.
Have I lost you, mike?
Mike, let's see if we can getMike.
Guys, we seem to, uh, havedropped Mike off there.
Let's see you, hear me, yeah, Igot you back, man whoa.
That was great, all right.
So, uh, my question to you wasare you, are you still a study
(17:46):
today?
Are you still uh, are you stillactively investing in your own
skill development?
Mike Putnam (17:50):
absolutely.
I've got four coaches right now, the coach being all different
things.
You have to realize something.
It's like if I told you to runas fast as you could and you did
.
And then I said I bet you athousand dollars you could run
even faster, and you're likenope.
And then I said, well, whydon't you try one more time?
And then, after you started, Iput a pit ball and I let it go
and it started chasing you.
Which one are you going to runfaster, the one by yourself or
(18:12):
the one with the pit bullchasing you?
And I think for a lot of peoplethey don't understand that if
you don't have something forcingyou to do the things that you
don't want to do, you'll neverdo it.
I mean, even the videos, youknow, I mean to me that's just
not something I like.
It's like you're talking tonobody.
It's like the weirdest thing.
It's like you know, you know,and it's like I have a lady and
(18:33):
she's in California and she'sRussian and I mean, if I don't
make my videos, everything Imean she's just on me.
And like you need people in yourlife to hold you accountable to
what you say you want.
Because I think the number onething that stops people from
being successful is they basetheir activities on how they
feel, not on what they want.
You see, if you base youractivities on what you want in
your life, it's a completelydifferent life than if you base
(18:54):
it on how you feel.
You know, after 25 years inreal estate, I don't know
there's any day that I wake upand I'm just so excited to go
talk to thousands of people.
But I know that it gives me agreat life.
I get to train a lot of peopleand I get to serve people.
You know, I hear so many peoplesay I'm not a salesperson, and
the truth is everybody is asalesperson.
Like, let me ask you somethingwho's the person that you love
(19:14):
the most in your life?
My kids.
Okay, if one of your kids wason a bridge and they said they
were about to jump and theycalled you, at what point would
you hang up the phone?
Never, but if they gave you athousand reasons why they should
jump.
What would you give them back?
Walt Bayliss (19:30):
A thousand and one .
Mike Putnam (19:32):
And that's sales.
See, sales is nothing more thancaring about your customer.
The ultimate sales hack is weneed to go from selling to
serving, and when I teach peopleto do that and they come from
that place, that's where you caninfluence and sell people.
You don't push people, you wantto ask questions and serve, and
then it pulls them in.
And I think that's one of thebiggest distinction between what
(19:54):
I teach and what a lot of thereal estate agents teach coaches
, because they're teaching justscripts.
People don't want to be talkedto through a script.
They want to be talked to Ascript.
Talking through you.
A script is there's nointeraction.
People want to be humanized.
There's so many things that arepulling us that people starve
for connection.
And if you know how to connectwith people and you know how to
(20:16):
get reports, like you know, whenI walk into a house, the first
thing I do is I say, before weget started, I'm going to take a
quick look at the house.
This is where we're going toswitch roles for a second.
You actually get to be the realestate agent.
You show me around and I'm like, well, you're natural.
And it immediately creates aplayfulness because you see if I
can get you to feel like I'mlike you, then you're going to
(20:38):
want to do business with me, andI think rapport is one of the
things that most people don'ttalk about Rapport.
People like to work with peoplethey like and trust and if you
can't get to like you, thenyou're going to have trouble
just talking at people.
It just it doesn't work.
Walt Bayliss (20:53):
Like you, then you're going to have trouble
just talking at people.
It just it doesn't work.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely so, mike, everything that you're
talking about here is, is, isdeliberate, and what I mean by
that you know.
My question to you before wasat what point you did you decide
to become a professional?
You said I'm, I'm going tolearn, I'm going to study, I've
got to get a coach, I'm going tomove this forward.
Then, even moving into thevolume piece, where it's like I
(21:14):
don't want to make a thousandcalls but I'm going to do it
because this is what I've setmyself to do, when you're
looking at that kind ofdeliberate actions and going all
the way back to the start ofyour story you know, when the
first agent came in at 10 andthe next one came in at 12, it
feels to me like that's neglector drift.
(21:35):
And you've chosen veryspecifically to be deliberate in
your life.
Is that something that youfocus on daily?
Is that a process that you gothrough to be deliberate about
your life and the choices youmake?
Mike Putnam (21:48):
I think everything you do in your life has to be
deliberate.
You know, if you don'tdeliberately do things, you're
not going to have what you want.
If you want a good body, youhave to be very deliberate and
that every single morning, likefor me, I get up at five o'clock
, I go work out, I get in, mycold plunge, Like there's just
certain things that Ideliberately have to do because,
you see, if you don't do thingsdeliberately, then you're going
(22:08):
to do things based on how youfeel.
I think that's the number onething that I can't stress enough
.
People base their life on theirfeelings, and their feelings
rarely ever get what you want,because you have to realize
motivation is like a warm bathit gets cold.
It's not something that issustainable.
Even discipline isn't enough,because there'll be times when
(22:29):
you're not disciplined.
You know to me, if you wantsomething, you have to become it
.
So for me, I built my identity.
Instead of saying I have towork out, I'm the kind of person
that just works out seven daysa week Instead of saying I got a
prospect.
I'm the kind of guy thatprospects for six or seven hours
a day Instead of saying, hey,I'm going to make calls, I am
going to go ahead and talk to100 people every single day.
(22:52):
I was very deliberate withthose kinds of activities
because you see, if you becomeeverything that you want, then
you don't do it, you just becomeit.
Walt Bayliss (23:00):
That's amazing.
I've I've literally never heardthat.
I've studied goal setting andand uh success for most of my
professional life.
I've never heard it describedlike that.
I think that's that's amazing.
It's not about discipline, it'sabout becoming the person that
does that, like I've heardpeople say about you know, I'm a
non, you know I'm trying toquit smoking.
Well, no, you're changing thatto.
I'm a non-smoker.
(23:21):
This change of mindset to bejust I am this person.
I that's who I am.
That's intrinsically what I do.
That's a real mind shift that,again, I've never heard before.
That's amazing.
Mike Putnam (23:33):
I don't think a lot of people understand.
One of the easiest hacks inlife is you decide what you want
, you think and write down allthe things that that person does
and then you do that.
You become everything that youwant because then you don't have
to do it.
When I said I was going to workout every single day for a year
, I didn't have to think in themorning when I woke up, was I
going to work out?
(23:54):
I already signed the contract.
I said I was going to work, andso it's like, when you already
know what you're going to do,your mind doesn't negotiate
because it just knows this iswhat we do.
It's just like you know.
I talk to people.
It's like, how many times inthe middle of the night do you
actually feel like getting upand using the bathroom?
So why do we?
Why does 100 of most people usethe bathroom?
(24:16):
Yeah, right, because you haveto think about something.
You know that is a choice.
You could pee in the bathroom.
You.
You know you could.
You could literally pee in thebed, but you don't because
you're the kind of person thatdoesn't pee in your bed.
Walt Bayliss (24:28):
And it's just, I think, when people really grasp
the thing that you become that'ssuch a different way of
thinking, like you know, yeah,you could just be the person
that pees in your bed, but couldjust be the person that pees in
your bed, but you're not theperson that pees in your bed.
So, get up.
You could be the person thatjust comes in at 12, but you're
not.
You're the person that comes inat 6.30 and starts to hit it
Most people brush their teethbefore they go to bed.
Mike Putnam (24:47):
That's just who they are.
You know what I mean.
Become what you want, then youdon't have to do it.
You just are it.
You know what I mean?
That's incredible.
Walt Bayliss (24:55):
That's amazing, man.
So you would have seen a wholebunch of people coming through
and change their lives in termsof real estate and sales, go
from struggling to success.
Do you put that down to thatsame learning pattern?
Do you put it down todiscipline?
Do you put it down to goalsetting values internally, like
what's the guy that walksthrough your door and you know
(25:15):
that you can take that personfrom where they are to where
they want to be?
What's the character thatyou're looking for in that
person that gets you to knowthat that's going to happen?
Mike Putnam (25:24):
I mean I would say 99% of the time.
When I get someone, the firstthing I have to fix is them.
Yeah, who has these skills isonly 20%.
The 80% is getting them tobelieve that they can actually
do it, that they're worthy.
You know what I mean.
When you think about making amillion dollars or 500, and
(25:45):
you've only made 40,000 in yourlife, it seems so far away.
You know what I mean, it's justincomprehensible.
So my first thing that I have toreally work with people is
mentally getting them to believethat they can actually do it.
You have to realize there'sthree parts of life.
The first thing to do anything,you have to believe it's
possible.
If you don't believe it'spossible, you will not do it.
The second you start to believethat you can do it.
(26:07):
And then the third part is youstart to understand your true
value, meaning that, like, ifyou have a job now at 100,000
and I teach you to make 400,000,would you ever take a job at
200,000?
No, because you understand thatyour value is 400,000.
And so I think for a lot ofpeople they have to go in
understanding that someone hasdone it so we know that it's
(26:29):
possible.
But somewhere along the way.
If you keep pushing, there's amoment where you actually start
to believe that you're possible,that it's possible for you.
You believe that you can do it,and when I coach people, when
they get to that point, it's oneof the most beautiful things to
watch someone blossom and tostart to win.
You know, you have to realizesomething Losing is a habit, but
so is winning.
(26:50):
You have to teach people how towin, and what a lot of people
don't realize is the way you winis you have to be willing to
lose.
No one starts off winning.
Look at Michael Jordan.
He didn't win championships.
Winners are built.
They're not.
They don't come that way, and Ithink so many people look at
other agents and they'll be likeyou know what I want to be like
, mike?
Like there was a guy threeyears ago and he called me and
(27:13):
he said you know what I am thenext Mike Pugnam.
And I said you know what Goodhe's like?
I'm going to be just like you.
And I'm like are you sayingthat or do you mean it?
He's like oh no, no, I mean it.
I want to be just like you.
I'm like I've never done thisbefore, but for some reason.
Why don't you come live with me?
For three days I'm going tohave you live at my house.
You'll get up when I get up.
You call when I call.
(27:33):
You go home when I call.
I want you to see what it'slike with me and my wife and my
kids.
And then we're going to do thatfor three days.
Oh yeah, I would love that.
So the first day it's like fiveo'clock.
You know, I'm just going toskip gym.
Dude, you're in my house, getup workout.
Get there by like 12 o'clock.
His eyes are just red becausehe's never prospect for four
straight hours.
(27:54):
He's like what are those eyedrops?
I'm like, dude, you just putthem in.
So we went through that.
He goes, I'm tired, I'm goingto go to.
I'm like stop, now you get tobe with me and my family.
I want you to see what that'slike.
Next day, five o'clock, I'm notworking out.
I'm like dude, get up, you'rein my house.
I don't feel like working outeither, but I'm the kind of
(28:18):
person that works out and sinceyou're in my house, you're going
to do it too.
By the time he got to about twoo'clock that day, he literally
looked at me and he said youknow what?
I don't want to be like you.
And he literally packed up andleft.
Wow, and the thing that youknow that he didn't understand
is that to prospect for six orseven or eight hours it's like a
marathon.
You have to train yourself todo it.
You don't just walk in and dothat.
I think so many people look atthe end product of people and
(28:40):
they don't understand all thethings they had to do in private
.
Tony Robbins has always saidyou get rewarded in public for
what you do in private.
Everyone sees themillion-dollar real estate and
you're showing all these fancyhouses.
If you don't have a high volumeof leads to go show, you don't
have a business.
Which means that for themajority of real estate agents,
if you're going to sell in highvolume, you're not on a TV show.
(29:02):
You're going to have to call inlarge volume to make a profit.
Because if you look at, thealternative is you could buy
business.
Zillow charges like $2,000 alead and only 10% convert.
Do the math it's not there.
So if you're going to buy, youmay sell a lot, but you're going
to be broke.
I remember coaching a guy andhe's like I made 800,000.
(29:28):
I'm like do you have a P&L?
No, let's put one together.
And I'm like looking and I'mlike 780, 820, 780.
Like you made 40,000 last yearand he didn't realize like all
his money in his mind I'm making$800,000 a year, but he didn't
realize how much money he wasspending to actually do it.
Walt Bayliss (29:41):
And there goes.
Mike Putnam (29:41):
the most profitable way to be a real estate agent
is to learn how to, number one,get leads, which is actually get
it on the phone and prospect,but, number two, have the skills
that you can actually convertthem.
Walt Bayliss (29:53):
I love it.
I love it and I know thatyou've got some, some amazing
coaching programs you weretalking about just before.
We hit record that you've got acouple of people coming in
today working with them,prospecting with you, right
there in the thing.
Guys, you want to head over tomikeputnamcom?
I'll make sure that that linkis in the show notes as well, so
you guys can follow along withMike.
Mike, let me just focus on theinfluencer element of this just
for a moment.
(30:13):
Considering, you know,influencer empires, how do you
feel that social media isimpacting realtors right now?
Like, how is it?
How is the the the advent ofTikTok and Instagram and
Facebook and LinkedIn and youknow all of the amazing
platforms that are out there?
I know you've got thousands ofpeople that are following you on
YouTube as well.
How has that, that worldinfluenced realtors right now?
Mike Putnam (30:34):
I think that it gives them a false sense of what
success looks like.
I think you know, people onlylike to post the wins.
They don't like to post thelosses.
They'll post showing a milliondollar house, but they don't
post the day that the milliondollar house fell out of escrow.
We're in a culture now whereeverybody only posts things that
look good.
You see relationships andhusbands and wives and they're
taking pictures and they're sohappy and they're kids and then
(30:56):
they're getting divorced.
Nobody likes to actually talkabout what it actually takes to
be successful.
There's just not a lot ofpeople influencer, wise that
actually do it and people thatdo and are raw.
I think they're unique and Ithink that's why people are
attracted to them.
People want the rawness.
They want to know like what isit really like to be a real
estate agent?
You know, that's why my dreamwas to always have a facility
(31:22):
where people could come and Icould literally train them from
if they were a beginner or ifthey were an intermediary, and I
could literally train them howto prospect and then actually
let them see what it looks like.
So you know, I just got a 9,000square foot facility.
In September we're going to bedoing prospecting clinics twice
a month where people can fly infor three days.
I'll show them how to prospect.
I'll go over scripts,objections, dialogues and then
they'll prospect next to my team.
(31:42):
And I think the cool thingabout my team is that you have
kids between 21 and 30, and youhave kids in here at 21 that are
just lesser copies of me, butyou would never think that a 21
year old could sound that good,because people think that sales
it takes all these years.
No, it takes a great mentorthat can actually show you what
(32:03):
to say, because if you know whatto say, it makes it so much
easier to go out and execute.
The number one reason why peopledon't do things is they don't
know how to do it.
If you ask to go out today andcold call people or to call a
for sale boner or an expiredlisting, they won't do it
because they're terrified of therejection and what to say.
But when you're equipped withthe weapons to fight, you enjoy
it, and I think that's one ofthe things that people see, even
(32:26):
today.
You know when they were herewatching these young kids just
dice people up and be able toask questions and influence and
ask this or that, because youhave to realize something.
I mean, sales is nothing morethan the transfer of energy.
The highest level of sales iswhere we take our eyes and we
just let you borrow it so thatyou can see what we see.
It's like it's funny when, likea seller says, I'm going to
(32:46):
wait six months for the value ofmy house to go up and I'm like,
great, but you're going to buya house in six months, isn't
that house going to go up too?
So if you make $30,000 on yourhouse and then you give the next
seller $30,000 to buy theirhouse, how much money did you
actually make by waiting sixmonths?
We didn't make anything.
Walt Bayliss (33:06):
Right, but it's just having the skills to have
that answer ready to go.
Mike Putnam (33:09):
Yeah, but if you buy a house now, instead of
giving the seller $30,000,you'll actually have $30,000 in
equity.
See, I learned at an early ageis that if you take complex
things and make it really simplethat people can digest it, they
receive it, and that's how youpersuade people.
It's like I had an investoryesterday.
It's like he was talking aboutwaiting for the market to get
(33:30):
better.
I'm like well, if you wait inthis market, you're going to get
a 1% or 2% return.
You mentioned that you haveother investments that give you
20% or 30%.
So if you're going to wait,would you rather wait with a 1%
or 2% return or a 20% or 30%?
Because either investment,you're going to wait.
The question do you keep it inthis asset class or this asset
class?
You're an investor.
(33:50):
What's the number one goal ofinvesting?
To make money.
You want 20%.
It's too easy decision, butthat's how you have to learn to
talk to people.
You have to learn to reallysimplify it and people receive.
Walt Bayliss (34:03):
I love it.
I love it.
So, changing lives, mike, likeyou know, literally taking
people in and letting them sitnext to you and have that coach
and be in the pit bull in theirlane chasing them down towards
the finish line.
You know, helping people runfaster in their lives and in
their profession.
That's amazing.
Do you feel the responsibilityof that?
Does that ever weigh on you?
That there are lives thatyou're responsible for now
(34:24):
because people are followingwhat you're doing?
Mike Putnam (34:26):
Yeah, I mean you know, to me it's like you know
it's an obligation.
I mean you know I took someskills that God gave me and I
had some great mentors along theway, and it's just like I feel
like you know there's six levelsin real estate, but the seventh
level of anything is become sogood at it that you can give it
back to someone else, cause youknow the key to living at the
end of the day is to give, andwhen you can give your
(34:46):
information and, as a result,other people's lives are changed
.
I mean, when I watch the agentsthat work for me and they make
three and four and 500,000 andthey have no expenses, where in
the world can you do that?
You know what I mean.
Like we make more than thepresident of the United States.
Like we make more than fortune500 CEOs.
It's just like it's insane thatI can take people with no
(35:07):
college education.
They have nothing, but they canhave the desire to have a
better life and they can have it.
It's just, it's one of the mostbeautiful things as and they
can have it.
It's one of the most beautifulthings, as I said, to watch my
clients win, and the number onething that stops people from
ever taking that first step isthey focus so much on the cost.
They don't look at theinvestment of what they get back
(35:28):
.
They don't understand that thebiggest cost is what you don't
know.
Walt Bayliss (35:31):
Man.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
I think that's an incredibleplace to wrap.
Guys, this is none other thanMike Putnam.
He is, as I mentioned at thebeginning, the leading star in
the real estate space where youcan actually come and turn your
career around.
But, mike, some of the thingsthat you've said there are
outside of real estate, they'reoutside of sales.
They're literally like a lifedirection, and I appreciate you
(35:54):
for that.
Being able to, to understandthe, the, the, the thought of
internalizing this is who I am.
This is what I need to becometo achieve what I'm looking for,
dude, I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for forsharing the time, sharing the
insights.
Again, guys, that'smikeputnamcom, instagram,
YouTube.
Mike is talking to the camera,even though he feels weird about
(36:14):
it, helping people change livesand move their roadblock
forward and being that pitbullin the corner.
If you want to have a pitbullchasing you down towards the
finish line, number to the mic,mike.
Thank you again, man, I reallyappreciate your time and sharing
some of the wisdom that'staking you to where you are.
I really appreciate you havingme.
Thank you, man, I appreciate it.
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