April 16, 2024 • 36 mins
Dive deep into the world of real estate and personal growth with the dynamic and inspiring Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens. Known for her sharp intellect, compassionate leadership, and unwavering dedication to excellence, Bess shares her remarkable journey from a young girl inspired by the power of advocacy and justice to leading one of the most prestigious real estate firms in the United States.
From her early experiences of connecting with neighbors and learning the value of love and generosity from her parents to her days as a determined lawyer fighting for justice, and eventually stepping into the world of real estate, where she found her true calling. Bess discusses the challenges and triumphs of merging companies, managing thousands of agents, and navigating the industry's complexities, especially in the face of the pandemic.
Bess shares her unique perspective on leadership, emphasizing the profound impact of interpersonal relationships in driving business success. Her story is not just about numbers and deals; it's a testament to the power of human connection, resilience, and the pursuit of excellence in the face of adversity.
Beyond her professional achievements, Bess reveals her personal side, sharing her love for Mahjong, cold plunges, and the simple joy of walking the streets of New York City. She reflects on the importance of being present, listening deeply, and the power of showing up as your true self in every aspect of life.
This episode is more than just a conversation; it's an exploration of what it means to lead with integrity, challenge the status quo, and find fulfillment in making a difference. Join us as Bess Freedman inspires, educates, and reminds us of the endless possibilities that come with embracing change, pursuing your passions, and connecting with others on a deeper level.
0:00 - Introduction 2:06 - Early Life and Influences 4:26 - Challenges and Growth 8:14 - Transition to Real Estate 12:20 - Favorite Aspects of Real Estate 17:57 - Challenges as CEO 28:29 Importance of Listening and Attention 31:08 - Hobbies and Personal Life 34:00 - Overcoming Challenges and Staying Positive
From her early experiences of connecting with neighbors and learning the value of love and generosity from her parents to her days as a determined lawyer fighting for justice, and eventually stepping into the world of real estate, where she found her true calling. Bess discusses the challenges and triumphs of merging companies, managing thousands of agents, and navigating the industry's complexities, especially in the face of the pandemic.
Bess shares her unique perspective on leadership, emphasizing the profound impact of interpersonal relationships in driving business success. Her story is not just about numbers and deals; it's a testament to the power of human connection, resilience, and the pursuit of excellence in the face of adversity.
Beyond her professional achievements, Bess reveals her personal side, sharing her love for Mahjong, cold plunges, and the simple joy of walking the streets of New York City. She reflects on the importance of being present, listening deeply, and the power of showing up as your true self in every aspect of life.
This episode is more than just a conversation; it's an exploration of what it means to lead with integrity, challenge the status quo, and find fulfillment in making a difference. Join us as Bess Freedman inspires, educates, and reminds us of the endless possibilities that come with embracing change, pursuing your passions, and connecting with others on a deeper level.
0:00 - Introduction 2:06 - Early Life and Influences 4:26 - Challenges and Growth 8:14 - Transition to Real Estate 12:20 - Favorite Aspects of Real Estate 17:57 - Challenges as CEO 28:29 Importance of Listening and Attention 31:08 - Hobbies and Personal Life 34:00 - Overcoming Challenges and Staying Positive
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Every successful person got there by goingthrough tough times. Success is a hard
ass teacher who likes to knock youaround along that journey. You know,
it takes real guts to not giveup and keep going. Well, here's
stories about failures and how these leadersflip the script to create success. I'm
(00:32):
John Schultz. Join me, andlet's discover how success is never really overnight.
So welcome to the John Schultz Podcast. Very excited for this podcast.
I love when I have podcasts inmy people in my industry, meaning you're
(00:53):
residential, I'm more commercial, butit's always exciting to talk shop. Best
is the See Brown Harris Stevens.She joined as senior vice president in twenty
thirteen and grew to CEO, whichis amazing. She oversees fifty plus offices
and nearly three thousand agents. Imean, I don't know how you do
(01:15):
that. That's too many people forme. But it's across New York,
Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida,and under her leadership, which is this
is an amazing statistic. It wasone of the largest most successful private companies
in the United States, but shehad the highest average sales per agent.
To me, that's like the businessright that everyone is productive, So kudos
(01:38):
to you. And you know,her insights are everywhere. We know that,
right, We see her all oversocial media. We love that,
you know, CNBC, New YorkTimes, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg,
Forbes, the Real Deal. That'sa real estate publication we like. So
welcome and thank you so much forbeing here and doing this. John,
(01:59):
Thank you so much much for havingme. And you know, since we've
chatted, I've been listening to yourpodcast, which is really good and you
have great people on there, sokeep doing what you're doing. We got
another one today you so thanks againfor doing this. So you know,
to me, what I love learningis about people and their stories, and
(02:19):
you know, I like going allthe way back to when they're young.
So when you were growing up,how would you describe yourself and how would
your first most of all, yourparents describe you. Yeah, I mean
I always say I hit the lottery. I had great parents. My mom's
still here, my dad I lostin a car accident thirty years ago.
But grew up in upstate New Yorkand Troy. You know, went to
(02:43):
public school, went to Hebrew school. Great mom and dad who really just
believed in me and my brothers,and also did an overparent. You know,
if you wanted to do something,you just did it. If I
wanted to go ice skating, Ihad to get my skates and walk to
the rink, you know. Sothey empowered us to be our own people.
And I was always that little kidthat would go to the neighbors and
(03:04):
talk to people and you know,would be able to get things by talking
to people encourage them. I wasalways good at relationships from an early age.
And my parents also taught us howto love and how to be generous,
because remember, love is learned.You don't wake up, you know,
as a little baby and no love. You learn it from your parents
and your environment. And my parentswalk that walk by picking up hitch hikers
(03:29):
and buying them trained, you know, tickets to wherever they had to go,
and feeding people and all that stuff. They led by example. So
I was really fortunate in that area, right. I don't know today if
I could pick up a hitchhiker maybe, Like it's it's a different world today,
you know, it's we can't doa lot of things my parents.
You know, listen, we neverlocked the doors. We had play dates.
(03:50):
My parents were never watching who weplayed with. We just went out
in the neighborhood. We played,We came home for dinner and it was
that and you got up and youknow, today everything is so much world
manage that kids don't learn their ownindependence, and we rob them of that.
I used to get home from schooland not come back till dinner.
Same. It was great. Youwere out in the world, you were
(04:11):
playing, you were building, youwere digging up worms, making forts.
I mean, this is what wedid. And we came home and we
ate. We ate whatever my momput on the table. It wasn't I
don't eat that, I'm gluten free, I've had no It was this is
what we're eating. That's it.There was no like crap about. You
know, you didn't get to choosewhat you got to eat. A great
different world. It was a differentworld. So uh and it's nice to
(04:33):
have that in your fortune. Soam I. I mean I have the
same experience growing up when you wereyounger, Yeah, because I remember mine,
Like when I was in middle school, I was actually bullied, Like
like I had three or four kidsthat gave me a really hard time and
life about what what did they whatwere they bullying you about it was just
(04:55):
making fun of me. It wasmore it was it was no reason except
I was the person at that pointtime that they were focused on. There
was no real did anything to them. But like I remember, I had
to deal with it and then youknow, it was horrible. But once
I got through it, I didget this like little confidence boost that I
(05:15):
remember I remember today and there's youknow, I have trouble remembering last week.
So it's it's great when you couldhave these experiences. What were one
of your one two of yours thatyou think like molded you a little bit
when you were younger. There area few. I mean I also I
wasn't bullied a lot, but therewere instances where, you know, believe
it or not. It was theseventies and there are you know a lot
(05:38):
of pennies thrown at me, youknow, called Jew and all that.
So a lot of anti Semitism,which I didn't understand, its swastikers on
our fort You didn't really get it. I mean, we were Jews in
the community and we were proud ofthat. But as there is today,
there was then a lot of antiSemitism. So I kind of recognized that
Okay, we're different from some people, and people are wreckinggizing that and pointing
(06:00):
their fingers at us. But youknow, that was one thing. The
other thing was and I've told thisstory. You know Bella Abzick, who
I'm sure you're familiar who she was. He was one of the first women
in the House of Representatives. Sheran for mayor. She was this sort
of boisterous woman who wore a hatand spoke about women and their rights.
And when I was nine, mymom took me to RPI where she spoke
(06:23):
and she talked about being a lawyerand women and all the things that we
can do. And when I listenedto her, a light turned on me
and I said to my mom,I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm
going to do this. And Iwrote it all out. I still have
it, and so that sort ofturned a corner for me as a little
kid at nine years old. Theymade me think I want to be a
voice. I want to do thingsto help people, and I think I
(06:44):
can. And so that was sortof, you know, I would say
my moment or a moment of whereI recognized I was going to do something
like be a lawyer and help people. I love that. So she was
your role model, right, whichis isn't it a how we get role
models from the controversies that we ofcourse like most like Rocky and Rudy,
(07:08):
because like I really did feel likean underdog. I still do. I
feel like an underdog my entire life. Yeah, so I gravitated towards them
and they gain me the strength inthe movies to actually, of course,
the underdog is always, you know, the unsung hero, the one that
comes from tougher circumstances, who doesn'thave everything, who's like scrappy and gritty
(07:29):
like we you know, we kindof gravitate towards that. You do,
I do because you work a littlebit harder. You know, you don't
have all those sort of comforts thatother people might have growing up, and
so it builds a stronger you.It's almost like a gift. At the
time, you don't feel it asyou're living through it, but it's a
gift to have to fight for everything. I feel that people would realize that
(07:50):
it is the gift, and like, first of all, you get through
it, it still hurts, butat least you know there's a good outcome.
In theory, when you're done.Well, John, you have kids,
right, you have children, Soimagine if you take if you just
give them everything, everything they want, and protect them from ever having to
feel or fight for things. Whenthey become adults, how are they going
(08:13):
to function in the world or dealor do things. So today's world almost
a lot of the parenting. Andit's not criticism, it's I see it
in myself a little bit too.We rob our kids of what we had.
You know, we protect them toomuch because we don't want this to
happen, or that it's good forthem to struggle, even though it's hard
(08:33):
for us as parents to do it. But part of love is letting them
learn and figure out, right,I totally agree. All right, So
here you are in this little nineyear old wanting to be a lawyer.
That's wild. I wanted to bein entertainment, like I actually wanted to
be Rocky and I wanted to bein a movie. But yeah, so
now I have a podcast, somaybe that's my god I'm getting So Okay,
(08:54):
you went through high school. Iguess you went to college obviously,
and in law school. I wentto college. I went to law school.
I was I was a prosecutor fora few years and had a great
mentor I'm still great friends with.His name is Danny Barnett, who was
my boss. And that was agreat education for me because I had cases
(09:16):
I had to try, I wasin court, had to speak in front
of a judge and it taught meperhaps my most important lessons on how to
communicate, how to negotiate, howto work with people from all different backgrounds
and help them, you know.And so I had that job for a
while, which was one of mygreatest jobs. You ever were you go
(09:37):
to many trials? Yeah, Imean I had a dock and it was
like, you know, it wasI was in district court, so I
was in front of a judge andit was like small. I had a
few jury trials, but most ofmy stuff was like one hundred cases.
They were dwi's, some drug cases, that kind of stuff. But it
was great because you had your information. I worked with the police a lot,
did community policing. It was incredibleexperience for you young person out of
(10:00):
law school to do that and workwith people and try to, you know,
fix things. And it wasn't justabout prosecuting people. It was also
listening to what happened to them andmaybe there was a solution and maybe they
could get help. And so thatwas wonderful experience for me, and so
that I had that job. Afterthat job, I also worked at Legal
(10:22):
Aid here in New York City withjuvenile So I did do the lawyer thing
for a little bit of time.Listen, I think the lawyer education is
just such a good education for anythingthat you do. Teach you how to
read, how to critically think,how to express yourself in words, which
(10:43):
is very important, and also inspeech. So I think it's no matter
what I think, it's a it'san additive to whatever you're going to do,
I agree, and exactly helping youto think a little bit critical thinking,
which we are so lacking today.A lot of group thing going on,
which is okay, but it's youknow, it's it can be harmful.
(11:05):
Well, it's hard to think andsay when you're worried that someone's going
to like take you out, right, So right, this scary time when
when it comes to all this,right, hopefully it's going to change for
the better. All right, Soyou're the lawyer thing's going, well,
how did this real estate thing happen? Right? Because it sort of doesn't
match. Really, no, absolutelydoes not match. And you know,
(11:30):
I was working at Legal Aid expectingmy daughter, who is now twenty one
at Berkeley School of Music. She'sfinishing up there. And so I came
home with this little baby and wassupposed to go back to work as a
lawyer, and you know, Ihad some hesitation about it. I was
on maternity leave and a friend ofmine suggested. I was at my mom's
(11:50):
knitting store on the Upper East Side, and she suggested that maybe I should
get into real estate. That I'ma lawyer. I could dress the part.
I seem smart, articulate the thingsthat you need. And so I
said, you know what, I'mgoing to take a chance. I can
make my own hours. And Igot into it. I worked at Corkoran,
who with Pam you know who whoI know was on this podcast,
(12:11):
was a friend and was a mentorto me in my career. So I
worked at Corkoran as an agent.I loved it. It was entrepreneurial and
a lot of my skills as alawyer I used as an agent, you
know, being on time, youknow, listening to listening, listening,
listening, which we need to domore of taking care of people, putting
(12:31):
the clients interests first. So Idid really well, and then I got
asked to get into management at Corkoran, which I did and my career sort
of took off after I did that. And then Brown Hair Stevens, I've
been here eleven years, they askedme to come in as like the number
two person working with Hall, andI did and sort of just put my
head down and went to work andloved it and loved every everything that I
(12:54):
work. It is your favorite partabout it, right, because like it's
like being in real estate, youhave to be able to convert beliefs.
Right. I hate the word sales, but yeah, out there. What
was your favorite part in like thebusiness when you were younger and getting through
it? I mean, I lovethe negotiating portion of it. I love
(13:16):
helping people to do that and workingwith people. I mean, because I
always say, it's not a realestate business, a relationship business. What
we do at the highest level ismanage relationships with each other, with the
agents and with the clients and takingcare of people. And you know,
we get we have a crap imageright now as real estate professionals in the
(13:37):
residential arena. Because of the realityshows that continue to come out, you
know, Selling, Sunset, millionDollar Listing, all of those things portray
us as these sort of heartless peoplewho just want to make money at any
cost and don't care about the client. And it's it just does a disservice
(13:58):
to what we do, John,because if you watch what agents do all
day, you would fall asleep.It is not intriguing. You know,
they're looking at floor plans or gettingphotos done. They're on the phone all
the time. It's hard work andit's seven days a week, and what
the TV shows you is just notwhat we do. And so the consumer
has sort of this you know,confusion about it, and I would love
(14:20):
to sort of fix that. Ijust say, show up, be a
professional, do the job really well, and that helps. But there's still
this misconception out there. No Iknow, it's shown like I'm from Jersey,
right the Jersey Sure show. They'renot even from Jersey yet you know,
everyone had a depiction of what andpeople have that in their mind and
(14:41):
we know, you know, it'slike when the Sopranos came out and you
know, people were like Italian,you know, people were very upset because
they felt to portrayed Italians in aPortland, which it did. But obviously
that's just a small segment, youknow, and it's there's some truth,
there's some not. You know.It's and the same thing with Real Estate
Professor. These shows. If youwant to get people to watch, it's
(15:01):
got to be edgy. It's gotto have women with their boobs out and
short skirts with overdone makeup and guysyou know, doing all. If it
doesn't have that, people aren't gonnawatch it. It's like the Housewives shows,
right, You're not gonna watch itunless they're yelling at each other and
unless they're you know, doing thingsthat are like you're like, you can't
believe it. So that's a goodthing now, Yeah, because we're gonna
(15:24):
have that. It's not gonna goaway. They want to sensationalize everything,
right with sells, ads and allthe stuff that we do. But we
look at us. We're on apodcast like all the documentaries now they're doing
in sports that you get to knowthe players for who they are. They're
not just this thing that's out there. I think we can take it back
(15:45):
by doing things like this, andactually, you know, thank God,
we were afforded those channels today.I agree with you completely. I think
it's really important and I'm grateful thatyou do these because you're educating the community,
which is so important. But theother challenge we have, and it's
just prevalent right now social media,which you know, you know recently,
(16:07):
the actress I don't know if yousaw this, Julia Roberts, she there
was a post of her, sheand her niece playing cards for that.
I saw that, yeah, Andshe posted and she said, look,
I'm Julia Roberts. I'm in myfifties. I know who I am.
She's a celebrity, she's beautiful,and people made these mean comments about how
she looked, and she said,and it really hurt me. So what
chance does a fifteen year old kidhave who's on social media. It's just
(16:32):
so it's that's damaging in particular forwomen. And back to the real estate
thing to tie it in is thatI want young women to want to get
into real estate. It's a greatprofession. I love what I do,
and you can be smart and attractiveand do all these things without over sexualizing
yourself. And that's what worries meabout these shows. Because they portray us
(16:53):
in not a good light. Iwant them to see their brain. I
want you know you're smart. Youcan do so much. It's not just
your looks. You have so muchmore. As Judge Judy says, beauty
fades stupid, last forever. Yeah, and you've got it. You gotta
work on you got to do yourwork well hopefully. Uh you know.
(17:14):
It's also you know, we're seeingso much of it. You don't even
know what's real and not anymore solike it's almost can get your head into
something that you think is happening thatmight not even be happening. Right,
You don't even know what's real andwhat isn't right, So all right,
So okay, but here you are. You got to get through that.
You got this gigantic company. Whathas been the hardest thing for you?
(17:37):
Because I believe, like we're ourcharacter traits that were great at that stuff
flows, it becomes easier, right, THEO three thousand people scattered around all
these different places. What's been yourbiggest challenge? What keeps you up at
night? Because that's usually what happensand how do you how do you get
through it? Yeah? I meanthe biggest challenge that I've had is when
(18:02):
we merged Halston into Brown Harris Stevensduring the pandemic, because you're bringing together
two different cultures, and so wemerged these huge companies together, and so
that was a huge undertaking and integratingthe back office. So that was tough
in getting everybody on board and gettingleadership, but it worked out. It
has worked out really well, andso now I feel like I'm on the
(18:25):
other side of that. So thatwas one of the bigger challenges. And
look, John, I appreciate allthe compliments. It's not you know,
it's not me and my leadership.I'm a small piece of an incredible team
of people. It's never about oneperson, right The presidency is not just
about the president. It's about whoworks with him or her. Hopefully one
day we get her, you know. And so you know, I have
(18:48):
so many great professionals that work withme and our agent base. I always
say, this is a graduate schoolfor real estate. If you really want
to come and be the best atreal estate, it's like playing tennis,
you come here because you will upyour game. The people that work in
real estate here are like the bestof the best. So the most expensive
and give the highest like service topeople. And it's not just about luxury,
(19:11):
you know, price, it's aboutthe service that we give to people.
And so I think that we're luckyin that regard. But merging the
two companies was hard. And whatkeeps me up at night is what's happening
to our industry. I think,you know, I still have this nar
lawsuit, right, I mean,yeah, I mean I I've been.
I've been. It's been emphasized tome that I'm not allowed to talk about
(19:33):
it, but yeah, but thelawsuit, yes, it's it's just frustrating,
I will say, and that's allI can say about that. I'll
let that get sorted out. It'sgoing to take some time. But again,
there's this portrayal that, you know, agents don't deserve their commission.
They haven't earned it, you know, or you know, what they do
is easy and they make so muchmoney, and it's and if people really
(19:55):
knew how much time agents put intoit. They only get paid for results.
So they work really hard and theycare about their clients. But what
people think is something else. Sowe have to do a better job at
fixing our image. And I thinkit's gonna take a lot of work and
we're going to focus on doing that. It's what we do at BHS and
we'll continue to so it'll get sortedout. I mean, you know these
(20:19):
things where the other Yeah, youknow, I'm in the commercial real estate
business, like yeah, and Istarted out as a broker, right,
so like to me the value ofthose and like you said it, everything's
relationships. And you know, brokersbring relationships and people to the table that
and they only get paid if somethinghappens. Like no, everyone forgets that.
(20:41):
Well, they don't realize, Likeyou could have somebody come and do
some work for you and they coulddo a terrible job in your apartment or
your home and you still have topay them. In real estate, you
can work with somebody for a yearto spend all this time on them and
they could not buy something, andthat can happen and then all those hours
you don't get a penny for that. You know, you're building trust with
people and working with them and hopefullyfor us, like a lot of our
(21:04):
agents have these incredible networks of peoplethat want to work with them and so
but it is always it's about thatrelationship and building trust over time, right,
there's always people that you know you'llhave a bad experience. But like
I've had that with doctors, I'vehad that with lawyers. I mean,
we're all human, and I youknow, I don't want to operate on
myself. I don't want to doit. I don't want to do my
(21:26):
own I don't want to cut myown hair. You know. That's why
people who think they can do realestate on their own as their side job
as they work a full time job. It's like we live and breede this,
like we study everything, we knoweverything, we understand it, and
we're here to help you. Andso it's a service and information because there's
people that refer and that's what Ilove about it. It's an industry that
(21:48):
you can make money, you know, that's right using your relationships the proper
way, where you know other businessesyou can't the people that are in it
full time one hundred percent, that'sall different. That's right then, and
those are the people that you wantguiding you through these transactions. Exactly.
I agree with you. So allright, So you know we're in twenty
(22:10):
twenty four rates just Skyra, Imean, you know, we're feeling it.
Everyone's feeling it and one of fivehundred bases points as fast as it's
ever gone up in my you know, tenure in business. Obviously we're seeing
you know, a lack of Iwould say momentum. So where do you
see things going in twenty twenty four? I mean, first of all,
(22:32):
we have a housing shortage, yeahwe do, we do. So all
these factors are not going to bodewell for prices, regardless of interest rays
where do you see all this going? I mean, I you know,
all the economists and people are sayingthat twenty twenty four should be a better
year than twenty three, because twentythree for us was not a great year.
(22:52):
And we just saw that inflation ishigher than you know, people want
then the Fed wanted it to be, and that we're probably not going to
get a rate cut anytime soon.And you saw the stock market drop a
bit yesterday. So I always thoughtthat this year was gonna be a little
tougher. I don't think it's gonnabe worse than twenty three, but I
think it's gonna take some time.We have a housing crisis, We see
all this potential empty office space,and can we get it converted to residential,
(23:18):
like will it make sense? Canwe use some of that? I
know there's some of that happening downtown. There's I know Silverstein is doing a
project. You know, but youknow how hard that is to actually do
it? You know, does itmake space for years? It's like years.
It's like people are like, welljust rip it out, and you're
like, well, there's hvac,what's the floor plate, what's the core?
(23:38):
Like, there's so much and thenthe zoning it's not that easy.
Uh So there are a lot ofchallenges. And so I think we have
good leadership. I think the governorand mayor support housing in our community,
in real estate and want to inour pro business. And so I think
it's gonna be a tough year.But I think it looks like the market
(24:00):
is good. I mean, we'restarting, we're writing a lot of business,
so the market is steady in thatsense. And so what area is
it? Like mid price, Likewhere's most of the business happening right now?
We're seeing it in all I'm seeingit in the two million in undermarket
and also in the luxury market.So I've seen a lot of big deals
get signed recently, even of twentymillion dollars in the city I'm talking about
(24:23):
specifically in New York City, andso it shows me that people are still
spending and people want to be inNew York City. Despite the narrative that
you and I hear that you know, the city is dangerous, there's crime.
We do have challenges, but it'sgotten better. If you look at
the stats, it's improved. Doyou take the subway? I take the
(24:44):
subway and I feel I mean lateat night, I wouldn't, but I
feel safe. I went downtown lastnight for a dinner. I took the
six train downtown and it was fine. And you know what, I standing
next to a bunch of police officerson the train. I just think that
the city has people want to behere. We have our challenges, but
we have always been able to workthrough them, and I think Mayor Adams
(25:06):
is set on getting us to theright place. Yeah. I think first
of all, I think the morecrowded the subway is the better. Like
people bring security, right, Imean, the police can only see so
many things and do so many thingsin an hour or a day. So
I think the more we get peopleback and it's happening, I mean,
people bring people back to the office. You know. That's the other challenge
(25:30):
though, John, is that thebig topic is that post pandemic people.
I don't know how many people comeinto your office, but my step fall
like and being in real estate likewe were in from a long time ago.
I mean, we all of ouremployees are in. The agents have
don't come in as much as theyused to. Some offices have more attendance
than others, but I encourage themto come in because of office culture and
(25:55):
like meeting with each other. Andyou and I both know being in a
room with someone is very different thanzoom. The connection, the human connection
is essential, and so I don'tknow how the younger generation will be sustainable.
I had someone I like mentoring youngpeople. I love giving back,
and you know, this person wasworking at a company for two years and
(26:18):
never went in. They finally hadto go in and they asked me,
like, I'm going to my firstin person meeting, Like how do you
act? Like like I actually gotthe question right, Like what do I
like? How do I do thisright? They just graduated, they were
after but they never met anyone.I don't I and I feel if you're
(26:38):
in a relationship business, which realestate is. I don't know how you
learn without being around people that havedone it. So that's not that's not
so how do you get your brokersto Are you going to start pushing for
what we do? You can they'reten ninety nine, So the only thing
to do is like, we havegreat meetings with people who come in.
We have a chief economist, Gregwho everybody loves and he gives good information.
(27:02):
We encourage them to come in.Food is always helpful. You know,
we bring have some food, wecater and you know people they once
agents start to come in, theylike it. So you know, it's
scary what you just said about youknow, younger people not knowing, like
the people that don't come into theoffice, you know, are hurting themselves.
Yes it may be cozy at home, but you need to learn how
(27:25):
to talk to people and deal withsituations you're robbing yourself of a whole future,
and learn how to be uncomfortable,like like asking a question where you
might not know what you're asking orno one as you know know, people
like young people do not I'm goingto get in trouble for this, but
discomfort is like nope, can't beuncomfortable. I'm too like that with might
(27:47):
you know trigger me? I youknow, like you have to be uncomfortable,
I mean not. You know,it's part of learning is you only
learn in the tough stuff. Youdon't learn when it's all smooth sailing.
You know, I never learned anythingwhen things were eat. I only learn
when I'm like on the floor struggling. So we have to encourage more of
that. You know, people aregonna, okay, Boomer, I'm not
(28:07):
a Boomer. I'm like gen X, So don't gen X too. I'm
like, I'm about the cut line. My kids always go all right,
Boomer, I'm like, okay,no one ever talks about gen X.
We're sort of the the the We'reso cool seeing Generation. I don't know,
I don't guess. I love genX. I mean, but hey,
you know it's my time, allright. So so in saying that,
(28:27):
like like learning how to be ina meeting and ask a question that
you know you're not sure how theanswer is going to come back at you,
or if you're asking it right assomeone and you are a prominent figure
you know that is not afraid tospeak out. What advice would you give
(28:48):
people in this day and age andjust in your experience on how to do
that and in a constructive way.Yeah, I mean, I think what's
helpful is, you know, haveto listen more. And one of the
best pieces of advice that I havegotten, and I say it, is
treat your attention like an on oran off switch, not a dimmer.
(29:11):
So here I am with you onthis podcast. If you were talking to
me and I was like, yeah, I looking at my phone, or
I'm at to dinner with you,or we're talking and I'm distracted, or
it's not good. It's getting watereddown. When I'm with my kids.
If I'm looking at my phone,they're not getting me, you know,
So give it, be all inor be out, you know, don't
try to do because things get watereddown. So I remind myself of that
(29:34):
too, because you know, it'slike I had lunch with my mom and
I was looking at my phone.She pulled it out of my hand.
I kid, you not put itin the seat. She goes have lunch
with that then, and she stormedoff. I was like, okay,
Sylvia, some of your stuff.She's like, oh she doesn't, Yeah,
she does not, And she she'sright, you know, so attention,
(29:56):
Like we got to like listen toeach other and and pay attention.
And if you can't, I couldsay, John, I got a million,
I got a fire burning over here, can't talk to you today?
Whatever, You would respect me morethan if I'm looking at you and then
I'm like all over the place.So I try to do that in my
personal life and in my professional life. And I would say that to young
people. My daughter is better atthis than me. She is with you,
(30:18):
and she's with you, she's withyou her she doesn't even look at
any of that stuff. I mean, I don't know if you ever met
it, but like Bill Clinton,like like there's certain people that when you're
with them, no one else iseven in your like sphere because they're that
focused on you. And those arethe people we all gravitate too. So
(30:38):
to me, this is the biggestlesson, like be there, be focused
and like and learn how to listen. I mean, this podcast for me
has taught me how to listen.I mean you think you extract really could
just talk, you know, no, but you extract really good information out
of your guests, and like thisis you know, you're we all I'm
(31:00):
here I learn. You know,we're all here to learn and help.
And I've heard that I have hadfriends. I have not met Bill,
but I have friends who have methim, and every single one says that
they said the whole world. Hemakes it seem like the world has stopped
and his focus is on you.And you know, in today's world where
nobody feels seen because we're so busyand everybody's looking at their phone, feels
(31:22):
good when something that's a that's agood trait to teach and yeah, right,
yeah, it's it's a really goodI have to remind myself too.
By all right, so you're you'rethis, you know a lot of business.
We talked about your career and yeah, it's all great. What does
best do for fun? Like youreally want to know the truth on this
one? I do. I wantto know besides drinking whiskey, which I
(31:45):
love is Scotch, but set thatto the side because I don't really drink
that much. I like it,but I don't do it. I don't
feel good from it. But Ilove a mccaulene twelve. There you go,
my perhaps one of my favorite drinksin the world. But I love
two things. And I'm gonna soundlike a nerd. I love majh On.
It's my game of choice. It'severything to me. I have a
(32:06):
group of women I play with.My mom plays, my grandmother played.
But I have these women. It'sa sisterhood and I've met them. I've
known them for fifteen years, metat my daughter's school, and we play
and we've traveled together. But fourwomen sit around a table, you know,
shuffling the tiles and a challenging game. It's oh, it's like bridge
(32:27):
and it's a mind game. Imean, to me, it's great.
It's the and I so to me, that's one of my favorite things in
the world to do. I havegreat women friends and we play. And
the other thing that I've done asof recently it's been a year now,
our cold plunges really because they areit's like a mood enhancer more than anything.
But it's There's a place called RemedyPlace downtown where you go. It's
(32:50):
six minutes, it's thirty nine degrees. You're in and when you get out,
it just feels you feel incredible.It's good for everything. Apparently it's
good for you physically, but it'sgood for you mentally. So I've been
doing those because I really don't likecold, and I wanted to challenge you
doing it every day. No,I wish I could. It's all I
have to go all the way downtown. But I try to do it at
least once a week. If Ican't, great, So it's a good
(33:13):
like those. You got to behere in the winter. I mean,
at least you can get some coldthat way, a little snow. I
love the seasons. I mean it'sthose are and I The other thing that
I love, love, love isI love walking the streets of New York
City. I just I love thecity. I love walking the streets.
I love listening to my music walkingthe streets of the city. To me,
that's like zen at the highest level. Yeah, I used to live.
(33:36):
I loved it too. It's inyour anonymous, right. I love
the whole anonymous walking around and there'sso many great places to eat and sit
and talk to Like the vibe hereis just New York is. You know,
it has its troubles, but there'sa vibe in New York City.
It's just it's it's but if youif you're working and doing what you do
and what you do at your company, and you can't say what you just
(33:58):
said you should not be in.I raised my kids in New York City.
They you know, I walked likeI live the city, I breathe
the city. This is my homeland, this is where I feel. Now,
I will just say this, asof late, it's been a little
challenging, and I've had this witha lot of my Jewish friends. They
feel a little bit less safe inthe city because of what's been going on,
(34:19):
right, and that's unfortunate. ButI do think we will get over
that turn. I think there's moregood, more people that care and want
to live in love than you know, be a battle, and I think
totally right, and I think wewill, as we always do, overcome
and come together as a group,a community, a diverse melting pot of
incredible people from all walks of life. Not to diminish anything that anyone's feeling,
(34:44):
but like my grandmother was born innineteen oh five, like she went
through depression, two World wars,epidemic, you know, she was born
through all of that. Like we'vesort of had our world a little bit
easier and a little very cushy,right, So I did not go through
any of those things. Your grandmotheris a warrior. She will She's lived
(35:05):
to one hundred and three, didshe My grandfather lived to one hundred and
three too. Oh wow, theydon't make them like that. And he
But the good thing is that,you know, we'll all get through it,
and we all just got you know, it's good to learn about what's
going on and learn how to helpand be part of it and be and
you know what, it's never goodto sling hash. I think the other
thing is like, if you're onsocial media and somebody says something mean to
(35:28):
you, immediately feel like reacting.Take the high road, don't do it,
don't name call. I know it'shard people. I get a lot
of people say mean things. Themore you stay away from it, you
just feel better. Don't get intothe rabbit hole of that negative stuff.
Live in the house of love.I know it's hard. It's the best
if you can do it. I'mjust like a new album. You should
(35:49):
start rapping if I could. Myson raps, but and I do too,
but it's not very good. Soyou're trying. Well, thank you
so much for doing this. Thiswas great. I really appreciate it.
Everyone's gonna love this episode and thanksvery energetic, great person. So thank
you, John. I love chattingwith you and when you're in the city,
(36:10):
we're going to lunch. Okay,stay safe. Hi John Schultz here,
Thank you so much for tuning intothis week's episode. Would really appreciate
it. If you would like comments, subscribe and share with your friends.
Looking forward to being with you soon.
Every successful person got there by goingthrough tough times. Success is a hard
ass teacher who likes to knock youaround along that journey. You know,
it takes real guts to not giveup and keep going. Well, here's
stories about failures and how these leadersflip the script to create success. I'm
(00:32):
John Schultz. Join me, andlet's discover how success is never really overnight.
So welcome to the John Schultz Podcast. Very excited for this podcast.
I love when I have podcasts inmy people in my industry, meaning you're
(00:53):
residential, I'm more commercial, butit's always exciting to talk shop. Best
is the See Brown Harris Stevens.She joined as senior vice president in twenty
thirteen and grew to CEO, whichis amazing. She oversees fifty plus offices
and nearly three thousand agents. Imean, I don't know how you do
(01:15):
that. That's too many people forme. But it's across New York,
Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida,and under her leadership, which is this
is an amazing statistic. It wasone of the largest most successful private companies
in the United States, but shehad the highest average sales per agent.
To me, that's like the businessright that everyone is productive, So kudos
(01:38):
to you. And you know,her insights are everywhere. We know that,
right, We see her all oversocial media. We love that,
you know, CNBC, New YorkTimes, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg,
Forbes, the Real Deal. That'sa real estate publication we like. So
welcome and thank you so much forbeing here and doing this. John,
(01:59):
Thank you so much much for havingme. And you know, since we've
chatted, I've been listening to yourpodcast, which is really good and you
have great people on there, sokeep doing what you're doing. We got
another one today you so thanks againfor doing this. So you know,
to me, what I love learningis about people and their stories, and
(02:19):
you know, I like going allthe way back to when they're young.
So when you were growing up,how would you describe yourself and how would
your first most of all, yourparents describe you. Yeah, I mean
I always say I hit the lottery. I had great parents. My mom's
still here, my dad I lostin a car accident thirty years ago.
But grew up in upstate New Yorkand Troy. You know, went to
(02:43):
public school, went to Hebrew school. Great mom and dad who really just
believed in me and my brothers,and also did an overparent. You know,
if you wanted to do something,you just did it. If I
wanted to go ice skating, Ihad to get my skates and walk to
the rink, you know. Sothey empowered us to be our own people.
And I was always that little kidthat would go to the neighbors and
(03:04):
talk to people and you know,would be able to get things by talking
to people encourage them. I wasalways good at relationships from an early age.
And my parents also taught us howto love and how to be generous,
because remember, love is learned.You don't wake up, you know,
as a little baby and no love. You learn it from your parents
and your environment. And my parentswalk that walk by picking up hitch hikers
(03:29):
and buying them trained, you know, tickets to wherever they had to go,
and feeding people and all that stuff. They led by example. So
I was really fortunate in that area, right. I don't know today if
I could pick up a hitchhiker maybe, Like it's it's a different world today,
you know, it's we can't doa lot of things my parents.
You know, listen, we neverlocked the doors. We had play dates.
(03:50):
My parents were never watching who weplayed with. We just went out
in the neighborhood. We played,We came home for dinner and it was
that and you got up and youknow, today everything is so much world
manage that kids don't learn their ownindependence, and we rob them of that.
I used to get home from schooland not come back till dinner.
Same. It was great. Youwere out in the world, you were
(04:11):
playing, you were building, youwere digging up worms, making forts.
I mean, this is what wedid. And we came home and we
ate. We ate whatever my momput on the table. It wasn't I
don't eat that, I'm gluten free, I've had no It was this is
what we're eating. That's it.There was no like crap about. You
know, you didn't get to choosewhat you got to eat. A great
different world. It was a differentworld. So uh and it's nice to
(04:33):
have that in your fortune. Soam I. I mean I have the
same experience growing up when you wereyounger, Yeah, because I remember mine,
Like when I was in middle school, I was actually bullied, Like
like I had three or four kidsthat gave me a really hard time and
life about what what did they whatwere they bullying you about it was just
(04:55):
making fun of me. It wasmore it was it was no reason except
I was the person at that pointtime that they were focused on. There
was no real did anything to them. But like I remember, I had
to deal with it and then youknow, it was horrible. But once
I got through it, I didget this like little confidence boost that I
(05:15):
remember I remember today and there's youknow, I have trouble remembering last week.
So it's it's great when you couldhave these experiences. What were one
of your one two of yours thatyou think like molded you a little bit
when you were younger. There area few. I mean I also I
wasn't bullied a lot, but therewere instances where, you know, believe
it or not. It was theseventies and there are you know a lot
(05:38):
of pennies thrown at me, youknow, called Jew and all that.
So a lot of anti Semitism,which I didn't understand, its swastikers on
our fort You didn't really get it. I mean, we were Jews in
the community and we were proud ofthat. But as there is today,
there was then a lot of antiSemitism. So I kind of recognized that
Okay, we're different from some people, and people are wreckinggizing that and pointing
(06:00):
their fingers at us. But youknow, that was one thing. The
other thing was and I've told thisstory. You know Bella Abzick, who
I'm sure you're familiar who she was. He was one of the first women
in the House of Representatives. Sheran for mayor. She was this sort
of boisterous woman who wore a hatand spoke about women and their rights.
And when I was nine, mymom took me to RPI where she spoke
(06:23):
and she talked about being a lawyerand women and all the things that we
can do. And when I listenedto her, a light turned on me
and I said to my mom,I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm
going to do this. And Iwrote it all out. I still have
it, and so that sort ofturned a corner for me as a little
kid at nine years old. Theymade me think I want to be a
voice. I want to do thingsto help people, and I think I
(06:44):
can. And so that was sortof, you know, I would say
my moment or a moment of whereI recognized I was going to do something
like be a lawyer and help people. I love that. So she was
your role model, right, whichis isn't it a how we get role
models from the controversies that we ofcourse like most like Rocky and Rudy,
(07:08):
because like I really did feel likean underdog. I still do. I
feel like an underdog my entire life. Yeah, so I gravitated towards them
and they gain me the strength inthe movies to actually, of course,
the underdog is always, you know, the unsung hero, the one that
comes from tougher circumstances, who doesn'thave everything, who's like scrappy and gritty
(07:29):
like we you know, we kindof gravitate towards that. You do,
I do because you work a littlebit harder. You know, you don't
have all those sort of comforts thatother people might have growing up, and
so it builds a stronger you.It's almost like a gift. At the
time, you don't feel it asyou're living through it, but it's a
gift to have to fight for everything. I feel that people would realize that
(07:50):
it is the gift, and like, first of all, you get through
it, it still hurts, butat least you know there's a good outcome.
In theory, when you're done.Well, John, you have kids,
right, you have children, Soimagine if you take if you just
give them everything, everything they want, and protect them from ever having to
feel or fight for things. Whenthey become adults, how are they going
(08:13):
to function in the world or dealor do things. So today's world almost
a lot of the parenting. Andit's not criticism, it's I see it
in myself a little bit too.We rob our kids of what we had.
You know, we protect them toomuch because we don't want this to
happen, or that it's good forthem to struggle, even though it's hard
(08:33):
for us as parents to do it. But part of love is letting them
learn and figure out, right,I totally agree. All right, So
here you are in this little nineyear old wanting to be a lawyer.
That's wild. I wanted to bein entertainment, like I actually wanted to
be Rocky and I wanted to bein a movie. But yeah, so
now I have a podcast, somaybe that's my god I'm getting So Okay,
(08:54):
you went through high school. Iguess you went to college obviously,
and in law school. I wentto college. I went to law school.
I was I was a prosecutor fora few years and had a great
mentor I'm still great friends with.His name is Danny Barnett, who was
my boss. And that was agreat education for me because I had cases
(09:16):
I had to try, I wasin court, had to speak in front
of a judge and it taught meperhaps my most important lessons on how to
communicate, how to negotiate, howto work with people from all different backgrounds
and help them, you know.And so I had that job for a
while, which was one of mygreatest jobs. You ever were you go
(09:37):
to many trials? Yeah, Imean I had a dock and it was
like, you know, it wasI was in district court, so I
was in front of a judge andit was like small. I had a
few jury trials, but most ofmy stuff was like one hundred cases.
They were dwi's, some drug cases, that kind of stuff. But it
was great because you had your information. I worked with the police a lot,
did community policing. It was incredibleexperience for you young person out of
(10:00):
law school to do that and workwith people and try to, you know,
fix things. And it wasn't justabout prosecuting people. It was also
listening to what happened to them andmaybe there was a solution and maybe they
could get help. And so thatwas wonderful experience for me, and so
that I had that job. Afterthat job, I also worked at Legal
(10:22):
Aid here in New York City withjuvenile So I did do the lawyer thing
for a little bit of time.Listen, I think the lawyer education is
just such a good education for anythingthat you do. Teach you how to
read, how to critically think,how to express yourself in words, which
(10:43):
is very important, and also inspeech. So I think it's no matter
what I think, it's a it'san additive to whatever you're going to do,
I agree, and exactly helping youto think a little bit critical thinking,
which we are so lacking today.A lot of group thing going on,
which is okay, but it's youknow, it's it can be harmful.
(11:05):
Well, it's hard to think andsay when you're worried that someone's going
to like take you out, right, So right, this scary time when
when it comes to all this,right, hopefully it's going to change for
the better. All right, Soyou're the lawyer thing's going, well,
how did this real estate thing happen? Right? Because it sort of doesn't
match. Really, no, absolutelydoes not match. And you know,
(11:30):
I was working at Legal Aid expectingmy daughter, who is now twenty one
at Berkeley School of Music. She'sfinishing up there. And so I came
home with this little baby and wassupposed to go back to work as a
lawyer, and you know, Ihad some hesitation about it. I was
on maternity leave and a friend ofmine suggested. I was at my mom's
(11:50):
knitting store on the Upper East Side, and she suggested that maybe I should
get into real estate. That I'ma lawyer. I could dress the part.
I seem smart, articulate the thingsthat you need. And so I
said, you know what, I'mgoing to take a chance. I can
make my own hours. And Igot into it. I worked at Corkoran,
who with Pam you know who whoI know was on this podcast,
(12:11):
was a friend and was a mentorto me in my career. So I
worked at Corkoran as an agent.I loved it. It was entrepreneurial and
a lot of my skills as alawyer I used as an agent, you
know, being on time, youknow, listening to listening, listening,
listening, which we need to domore of taking care of people, putting
(12:31):
the clients interests first. So Idid really well, and then I got
asked to get into management at Corkoran, which I did and my career sort
of took off after I did that. And then Brown Hair Stevens, I've
been here eleven years, they askedme to come in as like the number
two person working with Hall, andI did and sort of just put my
head down and went to work andloved it and loved every everything that I
(12:54):
work. It is your favorite partabout it, right, because like it's
like being in real estate, youhave to be able to convert beliefs.
Right. I hate the word sales, but yeah, out there. What
was your favorite part in like thebusiness when you were younger and getting through
it? I mean, I lovethe negotiating portion of it. I love
(13:16):
helping people to do that and workingwith people. I mean, because I
always say, it's not a realestate business, a relationship business. What
we do at the highest level ismanage relationships with each other, with the
agents and with the clients and takingcare of people. And you know,
we get we have a crap imageright now as real estate professionals in the
(13:37):
residential arena. Because of the realityshows that continue to come out, you
know, Selling, Sunset, millionDollar Listing, all of those things portray
us as these sort of heartless peoplewho just want to make money at any
cost and don't care about the client. And it's it just does a disservice
(13:58):
to what we do, John,because if you watch what agents do all
day, you would fall asleep.It is not intriguing. You know,
they're looking at floor plans or gettingphotos done. They're on the phone all
the time. It's hard work andit's seven days a week, and what
the TV shows you is just notwhat we do. And so the consumer
has sort of this you know,confusion about it, and I would love
(14:20):
to sort of fix that. Ijust say, show up, be a
professional, do the job really well, and that helps. But there's still
this misconception out there. No Iknow, it's shown like I'm from Jersey,
right the Jersey Sure show. They'renot even from Jersey yet you know,
everyone had a depiction of what andpeople have that in their mind and
(14:41):
we know, you know, it'slike when the Sopranos came out and you
know, people were like Italian,you know, people were very upset because
they felt to portrayed Italians in aPortland, which it did. But obviously
that's just a small segment, youknow, and it's there's some truth,
there's some not. You know.It's and the same thing with Real Estate
Professor. These shows. If youwant to get people to watch, it's
(15:01):
got to be edgy. It's gotto have women with their boobs out and
short skirts with overdone makeup and guysyou know, doing all. If it
doesn't have that, people aren't gonnawatch it. It's like the Housewives shows,
right, You're not gonna watch itunless they're yelling at each other and
unless they're you know, doing thingsthat are like you're like, you can't
believe it. So that's a goodthing now, Yeah, because we're gonna
(15:24):
have that. It's not gonna goaway. They want to sensationalize everything,
right with sells, ads and allthe stuff that we do. But we
look at us. We're on apodcast like all the documentaries now they're doing
in sports that you get to knowthe players for who they are. They're
not just this thing that's out there. I think we can take it back
(15:45):
by doing things like this, andactually, you know, thank God,
we were afforded those channels today.I agree with you completely. I think
it's really important and I'm grateful thatyou do these because you're educating the community,
which is so important. But theother challenge we have, and it's
just prevalent right now social media,which you know, you know recently,
(16:07):
the actress I don't know if yousaw this, Julia Roberts, she there
was a post of her, sheand her niece playing cards for that.
I saw that, yeah, Andshe posted and she said, look,
I'm Julia Roberts. I'm in myfifties. I know who I am.
She's a celebrity, she's beautiful,and people made these mean comments about how
she looked, and she said,and it really hurt me. So what
chance does a fifteen year old kidhave who's on social media. It's just
(16:32):
so it's that's damaging in particular forwomen. And back to the real estate
thing to tie it in is thatI want young women to want to get
into real estate. It's a greatprofession. I love what I do,
and you can be smart and attractiveand do all these things without over sexualizing
yourself. And that's what worries meabout these shows. Because they portray us
(16:53):
in not a good light. Iwant them to see their brain. I
want you know you're smart. Youcan do so much. It's not just
your looks. You have so muchmore. As Judge Judy says, beauty
fades stupid, last forever. Yeah, and you've got it. You gotta
work on you got to do yourwork well hopefully. Uh you know.
(17:14):
It's also you know, we're seeingso much of it. You don't even
know what's real and not anymore solike it's almost can get your head into
something that you think is happening thatmight not even be happening. Right,
You don't even know what's real andwhat isn't right, So all right,
So okay, but here you are. You got to get through that.
You got this gigantic company. Whathas been the hardest thing for you?
(17:37):
Because I believe, like we're ourcharacter traits that were great at that stuff
flows, it becomes easier, right, THEO three thousand people scattered around all
these different places. What's been yourbiggest challenge? What keeps you up at
night? Because that's usually what happensand how do you how do you get
through it? Yeah? I meanthe biggest challenge that I've had is when
(18:02):
we merged Halston into Brown Harris Stevensduring the pandemic, because you're bringing together
two different cultures, and so wemerged these huge companies together, and so
that was a huge undertaking and integratingthe back office. So that was tough
in getting everybody on board and gettingleadership, but it worked out. It
has worked out really well, andso now I feel like I'm on the
(18:25):
other side of that. So thatwas one of the bigger challenges. And
look, John, I appreciate allthe compliments. It's not you know,
it's not me and my leadership.I'm a small piece of an incredible team
of people. It's never about oneperson, right The presidency is not just
about the president. It's about whoworks with him or her. Hopefully one
day we get her, you know. And so you know, I have
(18:48):
so many great professionals that work withme and our agent base. I always
say, this is a graduate schoolfor real estate. If you really want
to come and be the best atreal estate, it's like playing tennis,
you come here because you will upyour game. The people that work in
real estate here are like the bestof the best. So the most expensive
and give the highest like service topeople. And it's not just about luxury,
(19:11):
you know, price, it's aboutthe service that we give to people.
And so I think that we're luckyin that regard. But merging the
two companies was hard. And whatkeeps me up at night is what's happening
to our industry. I think,you know, I still have this nar
lawsuit, right, I mean,yeah, I mean I I've been.
I've been. It's been emphasized tome that I'm not allowed to talk about
(19:33):
it, but yeah, but thelawsuit, yes, it's it's just frustrating,
I will say, and that's allI can say about that. I'll
let that get sorted out. It'sgoing to take some time. But again,
there's this portrayal that, you know, agents don't deserve their commission.
They haven't earned it, you know, or you know, what they do
is easy and they make so muchmoney, and it's and if people really
(19:55):
knew how much time agents put intoit. They only get paid for results.
So they work really hard and theycare about their clients. But what
people think is something else. Sowe have to do a better job at
fixing our image. And I thinkit's gonna take a lot of work and
we're going to focus on doing that. It's what we do at BHS and
we'll continue to so it'll get sortedout. I mean, you know these
(20:19):
things where the other Yeah, youknow, I'm in the commercial real estate
business, like yeah, and Istarted out as a broker, right,
so like to me the value ofthose and like you said it, everything's
relationships. And you know, brokersbring relationships and people to the table that
and they only get paid if somethinghappens. Like no, everyone forgets that.
(20:41):
Well, they don't realize, Likeyou could have somebody come and do
some work for you and they coulddo a terrible job in your apartment or
your home and you still have topay them. In real estate, you
can work with somebody for a yearto spend all this time on them and
they could not buy something, andthat can happen and then all those hours
you don't get a penny for that. You know, you're building trust with
people and working with them and hopefullyfor us, like a lot of our
(21:04):
agents have these incredible networks of peoplethat want to work with them and so
but it is always it's about thatrelationship and building trust over time, right,
there's always people that you know you'llhave a bad experience. But like
I've had that with doctors, I'vehad that with lawyers. I mean,
we're all human, and I youknow, I don't want to operate on
myself. I don't want to doit. I don't want to do my
(21:26):
own I don't want to cut myown hair. You know. That's why
people who think they can do realestate on their own as their side job
as they work a full time job. It's like we live and breede this,
like we study everything, we knoweverything, we understand it, and
we're here to help you. Andso it's a service and information because there's
people that refer and that's what Ilove about it. It's an industry that
(21:48):
you can make money, you know, that's right using your relationships the proper
way, where you know other businessesyou can't the people that are in it
full time one hundred percent, that'sall different. That's right then, and
those are the people that you wantguiding you through these transactions. Exactly.
I agree with you. So allright, So you know we're in twenty
(22:10):
twenty four rates just Skyra, Imean, you know, we're feeling it.
Everyone's feeling it and one of fivehundred bases points as fast as it's
ever gone up in my you know, tenure in business. Obviously we're seeing
you know, a lack of Iwould say momentum. So where do you
see things going in twenty twenty four? I mean, first of all,
(22:32):
we have a housing shortage, yeahwe do, we do. So all
these factors are not going to bodewell for prices, regardless of interest rays
where do you see all this going? I mean, I you know,
all the economists and people are sayingthat twenty twenty four should be a better
year than twenty three, because twentythree for us was not a great year.
(22:52):
And we just saw that inflation ishigher than you know, people want
then the Fed wanted it to be, and that we're probably not going to
get a rate cut anytime soon.And you saw the stock market drop a
bit yesterday. So I always thoughtthat this year was gonna be a little
tougher. I don't think it's gonnabe worse than twenty three, but I
think it's gonna take some time.We have a housing crisis, We see
all this potential empty office space,and can we get it converted to residential,
(23:18):
like will it make sense? Canwe use some of that? I
know there's some of that happening downtown. There's I know Silverstein is doing a
project. You know, but youknow how hard that is to actually do
it? You know, does itmake space for years? It's like years.
It's like people are like, welljust rip it out, and you're
like, well, there's hvac,what's the floor plate, what's the core?
(23:38):
Like, there's so much and thenthe zoning it's not that easy.
Uh So there are a lot ofchallenges. And so I think we have
good leadership. I think the governorand mayor support housing in our community,
in real estate and want to inour pro business. And so I think
it's gonna be a tough year.But I think it looks like the market
(24:00):
is good. I mean, we'restarting, we're writing a lot of business,
so the market is steady in thatsense. And so what area is
it? Like mid price, Likewhere's most of the business happening right now?
We're seeing it in all I'm seeingit in the two million in undermarket
and also in the luxury market.So I've seen a lot of big deals
get signed recently, even of twentymillion dollars in the city I'm talking about
(24:23):
specifically in New York City, andso it shows me that people are still
spending and people want to be inNew York City. Despite the narrative that
you and I hear that you know, the city is dangerous, there's crime.
We do have challenges, but it'sgotten better. If you look at
the stats, it's improved. Doyou take the subway? I take the
(24:44):
subway and I feel I mean lateat night, I wouldn't, but I
feel safe. I went downtown lastnight for a dinner. I took the
six train downtown and it was fine. And you know what, I standing
next to a bunch of police officerson the train. I just think that
the city has people want to behere. We have our challenges, but
we have always been able to workthrough them, and I think Mayor Adams
(25:06):
is set on getting us to theright place. Yeah. I think first
of all, I think the morecrowded the subway is the better. Like
people bring security, right, Imean, the police can only see so
many things and do so many thingsin an hour or a day. So
I think the more we get peopleback and it's happening, I mean,
people bring people back to the office. You know. That's the other challenge
(25:30):
though, John, is that thebig topic is that post pandemic people.
I don't know how many people comeinto your office, but my step fall
like and being in real estate likewe were in from a long time ago.
I mean, we all of ouremployees are in. The agents have
don't come in as much as theyused to. Some offices have more attendance
than others, but I encourage themto come in because of office culture and
(25:55):
like meeting with each other. Andyou and I both know being in a
room with someone is very different thanzoom. The connection, the human connection
is essential, and so I don'tknow how the younger generation will be sustainable.
I had someone I like mentoring youngpeople. I love giving back,
and you know, this person wasworking at a company for two years and
(26:18):
never went in. They finally hadto go in and they asked me,
like, I'm going to my firstin person meeting, Like how do you
act? Like like I actually gotthe question right, Like what do I
like? How do I do thisright? They just graduated, they were
after but they never met anyone.I don't I and I feel if you're
(26:38):
in a relationship business, which realestate is. I don't know how you
learn without being around people that havedone it. So that's not that's not
so how do you get your brokersto Are you going to start pushing for
what we do? You can they'reten ninety nine, So the only thing
to do is like, we havegreat meetings with people who come in.
We have a chief economist, Gregwho everybody loves and he gives good information.
(27:02):
We encourage them to come in.Food is always helpful. You know,
we bring have some food, wecater and you know people they once
agents start to come in, theylike it. So you know, it's
scary what you just said about youknow, younger people not knowing, like
the people that don't come into theoffice, you know, are hurting themselves.
Yes it may be cozy at home, but you need to learn how
(27:25):
to talk to people and deal withsituations you're robbing yourself of a whole future,
and learn how to be uncomfortable,like like asking a question where you
might not know what you're asking orno one as you know know, people
like young people do not I'm goingto get in trouble for this, but
discomfort is like nope, can't beuncomfortable. I'm too like that with might
(27:47):
you know trigger me? I youknow, like you have to be uncomfortable,
I mean not. You know,it's part of learning is you only
learn in the tough stuff. Youdon't learn when it's all smooth sailing.
You know, I never learned anythingwhen things were eat. I only learn
when I'm like on the floor struggling. So we have to encourage more of
that. You know, people aregonna, okay, Boomer, I'm not
(28:07):
a Boomer. I'm like gen X, So don't gen X too. I'm
like, I'm about the cut line. My kids always go all right,
Boomer, I'm like, okay,no one ever talks about gen X.
We're sort of the the the We'reso cool seeing Generation. I don't know,
I don't guess. I love genX. I mean, but hey,
you know it's my time, allright. So so in saying that,
(28:27):
like like learning how to be ina meeting and ask a question that
you know you're not sure how theanswer is going to come back at you,
or if you're asking it right assomeone and you are a prominent figure
you know that is not afraid tospeak out. What advice would you give
(28:48):
people in this day and age andjust in your experience on how to do
that and in a constructive way.Yeah, I mean, I think what's
helpful is, you know, haveto listen more. And one of the
best pieces of advice that I havegotten, and I say it, is
treat your attention like an on oran off switch, not a dimmer.
(29:11):
So here I am with you onthis podcast. If you were talking to
me and I was like, yeah, I looking at my phone, or
I'm at to dinner with you,or we're talking and I'm distracted, or
it's not good. It's getting watereddown. When I'm with my kids.
If I'm looking at my phone,they're not getting me, you know,
So give it, be all inor be out, you know, don't
try to do because things get watereddown. So I remind myself of that
(29:34):
too, because you know, it'slike I had lunch with my mom and
I was looking at my phone.She pulled it out of my hand.
I kid, you not put itin the seat. She goes have lunch
with that then, and she stormedoff. I was like, okay,
Sylvia, some of your stuff.She's like, oh she doesn't, Yeah,
she does not, And she she'sright, you know, so attention,
(29:56):
Like we got to like listen toeach other and and pay attention.
And if you can't, I couldsay, John, I got a million,
I got a fire burning over here, can't talk to you today?
Whatever, You would respect me morethan if I'm looking at you and then
I'm like all over the place.So I try to do that in my
personal life and in my professional life. And I would say that to young
people. My daughter is better atthis than me. She is with you,
(30:18):
and she's with you, she's withyou her she doesn't even look at
any of that stuff. I mean, I don't know if you ever met
it, but like Bill Clinton,like like there's certain people that when you're
with them, no one else iseven in your like sphere because they're that
focused on you. And those arethe people we all gravitate too. So
(30:38):
to me, this is the biggestlesson, like be there, be focused
and like and learn how to listen. I mean, this podcast for me
has taught me how to listen.I mean you think you extract really could
just talk, you know, no, but you extract really good information out
of your guests, and like thisis you know, you're we all I'm
(31:00):
here I learn. You know,we're all here to learn and help.
And I've heard that I have hadfriends. I have not met Bill,
but I have friends who have methim, and every single one says that
they said the whole world. Hemakes it seem like the world has stopped
and his focus is on you.And you know, in today's world where
nobody feels seen because we're so busyand everybody's looking at their phone, feels
(31:22):
good when something that's a that's agood trait to teach and yeah, right,
yeah, it's it's a really goodI have to remind myself too.
By all right, so you're you'rethis, you know a lot of business.
We talked about your career and yeah, it's all great. What does
best do for fun? Like youreally want to know the truth on this
one? I do. I wantto know besides drinking whiskey, which I
(31:45):
love is Scotch, but set thatto the side because I don't really drink
that much. I like it,but I don't do it. I don't
feel good from it. But Ilove a mccaulene twelve. There you go,
my perhaps one of my favorite drinksin the world. But I love
two things. And I'm gonna soundlike a nerd. I love majh On.
It's my game of choice. It'severything to me. I have a
(32:06):
group of women I play with.My mom plays, my grandmother played.
But I have these women. It'sa sisterhood and I've met them. I've
known them for fifteen years, metat my daughter's school, and we play
and we've traveled together. But fourwomen sit around a table, you know,
shuffling the tiles and a challenging game. It's oh, it's like bridge
(32:27):
and it's a mind game. Imean, to me, it's great.
It's the and I so to me, that's one of my favorite things in
the world to do. I havegreat women friends and we play. And
the other thing that I've done asof recently it's been a year now,
our cold plunges really because they areit's like a mood enhancer more than anything.
But it's There's a place called RemedyPlace downtown where you go. It's
(32:50):
six minutes, it's thirty nine degrees. You're in and when you get out,
it just feels you feel incredible.It's good for everything. Apparently it's
good for you physically, but it'sgood for you mentally. So I've been
doing those because I really don't likecold, and I wanted to challenge you
doing it every day. No,I wish I could. It's all I
have to go all the way downtown. But I try to do it at
least once a week. If Ican't, great, So it's a good
(33:13):
like those. You got to behere in the winter. I mean,
at least you can get some coldthat way, a little snow. I
love the seasons. I mean it'sthose are and I The other thing that
I love, love, love isI love walking the streets of New York
City. I just I love thecity. I love walking the streets.
I love listening to my music walkingthe streets of the city. To me,
that's like zen at the highest level. Yeah, I used to live.
(33:36):
I loved it too. It's inyour anonymous, right. I love
the whole anonymous walking around and there'sso many great places to eat and sit
and talk to Like the vibe hereis just New York is. You know,
it has its troubles, but there'sa vibe in New York City.
It's just it's it's but if youif you're working and doing what you do
and what you do at your company, and you can't say what you just
(33:58):
said you should not be in.I raised my kids in New York City.
They you know, I walked likeI live the city, I breathe
the city. This is my homeland, this is where I feel. Now,
I will just say this, asof late, it's been a little
challenging, and I've had this witha lot of my Jewish friends. They
feel a little bit less safe inthe city because of what's been going on,
(34:19):
right, and that's unfortunate. ButI do think we will get over
that turn. I think there's moregood, more people that care and want
to live in love than you know, be a battle, and I think
totally right, and I think wewill, as we always do, overcome
and come together as a group,a community, a diverse melting pot of
incredible people from all walks of life. Not to diminish anything that anyone's feeling,
(34:44):
but like my grandmother was born innineteen oh five, like she went
through depression, two World wars,epidemic, you know, she was born
through all of that. Like we'vesort of had our world a little bit
easier and a little very cushy,right, So I did not go through
any of those things. Your grandmotheris a warrior. She will She's lived
(35:05):
to one hundred and three, didshe My grandfather lived to one hundred and
three too. Oh wow, theydon't make them like that. And he
But the good thing is that,you know, we'll all get through it,
and we all just got you know, it's good to learn about what's
going on and learn how to helpand be part of it and be and
you know what, it's never goodto sling hash. I think the other
thing is like, if you're onsocial media and somebody says something mean to
(35:28):
you, immediately feel like reacting.Take the high road, don't do it,
don't name call. I know it'shard people. I get a lot
of people say mean things. Themore you stay away from it, you
just feel better. Don't get intothe rabbit hole of that negative stuff.
Live in the house of love.I know it's hard. It's the best
if you can do it. I'mjust like a new album. You should
(35:49):
start rapping if I could. Myson raps, but and I do too,
but it's not very good. Soyou're trying. Well, thank you
so much for doing this. Thiswas great. I really appreciate it.
Everyone's gonna love this episode and thanksvery energetic, great person. So thank
you, John. I love chattingwith you and when you're in the city,
(36:10):
we're going to lunch. Okay,stay safe. Hi John Schultz here,
Thank you so much for tuning intothis week's episode. Would really appreciate
it. If you would like comments, subscribe and share with your friends.
Looking forward to being with you soon.
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