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How to Sell 36 New Construction Homes from YouTube with Zak Schmidt | Total Agent Access

April 01, 2024 Colin Breadner Season 1 Episode 5
How to Sell 36 New Construction Homes from YouTube with Zak Schmidt | Total Agent Access
Total Agent Access
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Total Agent Access
How to Sell 36 New Construction Homes from YouTube with Zak Schmidt | Total Agent Access
Apr 01, 2024 Season 1 Episode 5
Colin Breadner

Zach Schmidt, a real estate agent from Dallas, Texas, shares his journey from being a pastor to entering the real estate industry. He discusses his passion for hockey and how it led him to become a season ticket holder for the Dallas Stars. Zach emphasizes the importance of consistency in creating content on YouTube and how it has helped him build his business. He also highlights the need for agents to focus on serving people and building relationships. Zach's advice for new agents includes finding a niche and investing in coaching and education.

Links:
Instagram: @schmidt_zak
YouTube: Zak Schmidt

Takeaways

🔥Consistency is key in creating content on platforms like YouTube to build a strong online presence and attract clients.

🔥Building relationships and providing excellent service should be the focus of every real estate agent.

🔥Finding a niche, such as new construction, can provide unique opportunities and help differentiate an agent in a competitive market.

🔥Investing in coaching and education is essential for personal and professional growth in the real estate industry.


Show Notes Transcript

Zach Schmidt, a real estate agent from Dallas, Texas, shares his journey from being a pastor to entering the real estate industry. He discusses his passion for hockey and how it led him to become a season ticket holder for the Dallas Stars. Zach emphasizes the importance of consistency in creating content on YouTube and how it has helped him build his business. He also highlights the need for agents to focus on serving people and building relationships. Zach's advice for new agents includes finding a niche and investing in coaching and education.

Links:
Instagram: @schmidt_zak
YouTube: Zak Schmidt

Takeaways

🔥Consistency is key in creating content on platforms like YouTube to build a strong online presence and attract clients.

🔥Building relationships and providing excellent service should be the focus of every real estate agent.

🔥Finding a niche, such as new construction, can provide unique opportunities and help differentiate an agent in a competitive market.

🔥Investing in coaching and education is essential for personal and professional growth in the real estate industry.


back to the podcast today we have the one and the only Zach Schmidt coming to us all the way from Dallas Texas how are you Matt? I am great. Thanks for having me, Colin. I appreciate the opportunity. I think we're going to have some fun. Hey, awesome, excellent. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in the Dallas area? Yeah, so born and raised here in Texas. Spent majority of my life here. My wife and I spent about three years in Phoenix, Arizona, and then you know, hopped back to, you know, decided that wasn't really. It was never home and so ended up back here in Dallas, Dallas area. And so we've been here ever since and have no plans of leaving. Again. That's great. You know, like before the podcast, we were just chatting a little bit about, uh, I've been to Dallas one time and I'm going to go again here soon. And I love Texas. It's wonderful. The people were really nice and inviting and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. And for a Northern Canadian guy like myself, it was warm. Yeah, it's we've got all we're telling Colin. So we've got every terrain and every season you could want. You just got to depict that part of Texas. And there's a reason a thousand people a day are moving to DFW. Yeah, so what do you like to do in your spare time? In my spare time, so my wife and I are huge hockey fans. So we are stars season ticket holders. So that's one of our biggest things is we're usually at hockey games. Holy smokes. Just by saying that, you're partially Canadian. You realize that, right? know, if y 'all will have me, I will. I will accept that. You know, we're also we're you know, we're baseball fans or football fans. But hockey is like hockey is our thing. And that's the so and if we're not doing that, we're usually, you know, out at a good restaurant getting, you know, fajitas and margaritas or just hanging out with me, her and the two dogs, you know. That's great. What is it about hockey that you like just as a curiosity coming from a Canadian? Uh, so the stars, you know, the stars moved to Dallas in the nineties and my dad got into them because tickets were super cheap and you know, they were trying to sell tickets and get people excited about hockey in the South. And you know, it was just kind of a thing that we gravitated to and it's like soccer on ice with fighting and it's like, it's just, it's such a, uh, it's such an engaging sport. It's such a fast sport. Um, and, and we've really like leaned in hard. You know, this is only our second season being season ticket holders and I that's probably one of my favorite things that we do is is is being at hockey games and then like being in the building for the playoffs. There is nothing like that. Yeah, it gets pretty insane, that's for sure. That's great to hear. You know, up here as a Canadian, most of us learn how to walk at the same time we learn how to skate. Living in a northern town, I literally had an ice rink in the front and in the back of the house. So it was just simultaneously you learn to walk and you learn to skate at the same time. wish I could skate. I can't skate to save. I mean, I can like grab the wall and like shimmy, but nothing yet. I keep wanting to go to, you know, they put on all these like learn to skate camps and I'm like, I'm going to be a grown man out there learning to skate. But what, what? Yeah. down, I'll teach you how to skate, Zach. We'll have to do that. I just want to know. I want to know how to skate backwards. Like if you can teach me how to make that part happen, because that's the coolest thing for me is is so where is your hockey allegiances lie, Sir? Who are you? OK, they're playing well. I was born in. They're doing well this year. It's uh... look really good. We'll see if they can hold it hold it down for the long haul. At this point, I'm like anybody but Vegas, right? I've literally lived 54 years of pain with the Vancouver Canucks. So that's what I always say. But anyways, this is a real estate podcast, not a hockey podcast. So what did you do before you got into real estate? Yeah, so before I was in real estate and side note, if you want to start a hockey podcast, I will start a hockey podcast with you. But before I got into real estate, I spent more than a decade working in the local church work specifically like with students and their families as a middle school pastor. Okay, very interesting. And what drew you? What drew you to becoming a real estate going from a pastor? Uh, I kind of got into that space. Like a lot of people did. I'm, I'm a COVID realtor. Um, so I was, you know, I'd always had that interest in doing it and it just kind of never worked out. Um, you know, wanted to get my license and I kind of got to the point of honestly, I'd hit a hard, hard wall of like burnout and just some, you know, just some frustration, nothing too crazy. Just ultimately it was burnout. So I was like, okay, I need to figure something else out. I want to, I still want to help people. I still want to be involved in what's. You know people's lives and and make a difference and this is kind of allowed me to do that, right? I did both You know did did my day job and they did this part -time but which you know, well and good Nobody does this part-time it becomes too, you know full -time jobs very quickly and Then it got to the point of like I needed to make a decision And then the end it was hey, what's best for me? What's best for our family? because I couldn't keep running down the path that I was running down because again burnt burnout and just I exhaustion was setting in hard, you know, it wasn't good mentally, wasn't good physically, wasn't good for my marriage. You know, no ill will against the church. I mean, we still attend the church that I last worked at. So there's, you know, wasn't anything bad. It was just an opportunity to do something different. And, you know, I don't know how it is in Canada, but pastors don't make a ton of money. And so if there was ever a thought that my wife and I. You know if she like when we we don't have kids, but when we start having kids if she ever wanted to stay home that just was not going to be feasible making you know the kind of living that I was making. Yeah, I always call that moment where you have to make a decision to jump in with both feet, the burning of the boats decision, you know, it's either it's go all in, burn the boats behind you, or probably get out of real estate. So what was it that made that decision, you know, specifically? Um, I think for me, it was just seeing like, honestly, it was more of the, uh, the burnout side on the other, on the other end for me of like, I can't keep doing this, but I've got some momentum on the other side. Uh, so that, so that was what it was, was like, I've got to jump in and, and it, and it literally was a burn the boat conversation. Hey, if I'm doing this, we're going to go all in and we're going to crush it with everything that we've got. Yeah. So in your short time that you've been a real estate agent, tell me about the worst moment that you've had, you know, tell me that story and what did you learn from it? I mean, we could talk about a couple of different moments. I'm trying to decide. There's one that comes to mind. It's a recent one, and I don't know if I want to share it yet publicly or not. But so we'll flash back and maybe we'll circle back on this one. But worst moment would probably be height of COVID. So like 2020, 2021, working with some buyers. A lot of what I do is new construction, so I'm sure we'll get into that. and standing in line at a builder's model home. The line was 50 people deep for five houses. We stood there for three and a half hours in the cold and the rain to get to come in to get an opportunity to bid, not even to buy, but to bid on a house or five houses that the builder had available. Wow. Yeah, that was, uh, and we lost, we lost by the way. Like it was, um, it was bad. Women, they said we're there, you know, get there. You thought we were going in for like a concert and it's like, come in, you know, look around, place a bid. Uh, we're not making any changes. You know, we'll tell you if you win in two days. What made you think about niching down into new construction only? Uh, so we've bought my wife and I personally, we've bought three properties and all three of them have been new construction. Uh, the first one we bought was off of the builders, off of a builder's inventory, uh, in Phoenix. And so we kind of, you know, we worked through that and bought one that was completed. When we moved back to Texas, we built, and then we built again, uh, in COVID. So we've had really good experiences in that space. Um, and so I've really enjoyed it. I love, I kind of love what I get to do in that space. It's, it's a different atmosphere, honestly. And then for me, like the niche down has become like there's just so much opportunity, at least here in Texas. And we're talking about earlier, you know, a thousand people a day are moving to DFW and builders like they can't keep up. Right. So they're constantly building, they're constantly moving, constantly trying to make things happen. I love it because it gives opportunity for buyers to have some massive closing cost incentives. I also love it from a so this is probably going to sound terrible. It removes all of the emotion out of out of a transaction. Right. You've had those moments when you're negotiating with somebody with buyer or seller and they're like, yeah, well our kids grew up here and we have all these memories and everything's wonderful and amazing. And because of all of these things, we think our house is worth $50 ,000 more than our neighbor's house. And like, I don't, I don't do, I don't do well with that emotion. And on the builder side, there's no emotion. It's like the numbers on the spreadsheet. And if it makes sense, they're going to give you like, you're going to get the deal and we're going to make it happen. And. Secondarily, you know, the thing I tell my clients is like, guys, we're buying, you're not buying a problem. You're buying a canvas because like on a resale side, you never know. Like you can get it inspected, but you never know what you're going to find. Right. New construction is never going to be perfect, but at least it's brand new and you have the warranties to back it up. And it's a canvas that you get to paint, not a problem you have to fix. Right? That's really, really well put. So if you could give yourself some advice when you first started off, what would you say to yourself and why? Um, I think for me, the two things I would say, so I do a majority of my business on YouTube. Uh, I spent a ton of time there and a ton of effort there. Um, and so it's for me, it's like, I would have started that suit. Like I would have taken that seriously a whole lot sooner. Um, and just, and went all in quicker because it took some time to kind of go all in on that. That would probably be the first piece of it. The second piece of it would be it's, you know, you, everybody, like this game, the, the real estate space is not hard. We make it hard, but like if we would just show up consistently and care about people and do the right thing for the right people, it works itself out in a ton of different ways, right? I think there's a ton of agents that give us for good or for bad, a bad name because of the way they do business, right? And I think those of us that do business the right way, like if you lead with integrity, you lead with character. And don't try to be something you're not. I think that makes the biggest difference in how you approach clients and how you service people. So true. So we've all had them. The moment where it all clicked, where it all made sense and you gained sort of a sense of clarity in your business. Tell us your aha moment, that moment that sticks with you and helps push you forward. Uh, that aha moment for me was, so it goes back to the YouTube thing. So I posted my first YouTube video in April of 2022. Uh, I had somebody call me from that video or not in that video, but like my YouTube channel in September of that year. And we closed in October and that was the aha moment for me of like this digital marketing space works. Um, and you know, when, when you work, when you work those systems and again, you show up authentically. and you treat it like a job and you care about people and you become a student of the game. That was the moment for me that I was like, okay, this is what we're going to do. Yeah, that's, it's so true. You know, and you know, part of your toolbox here is YouTube. Can you share with us a little bit more about what you're doing on YouTube and, you know, roll, roll back a few years, what was working then and what was work and what is working now. Yeah, I think I mean, I think you hear, especially if you're in and around this industry, you hear people a lot talk about social and YouTube and doing those things. And I think the hardest thing people look at is they try and be somebody else. They like, oh, that's working for them. So if I just go do the exact same thing, it's going to work for me. And and in theory, it might, but you've got to be authentic in that. Right. So I started on YouTube and I was like, I didn't know what I was doing. So I was like, I'm just going to go show off model homes and property tours. Because I'm like, it seems like that's fun. And that kind of and then that led into, hey, we're going to do more and more new construction. So I started with like, hey, we're going to do one video a week and then one video a week turned into, hey, I'm going to be consistent and do two videos a week. And then at the end of twenty, twenty two, when I was working on my goals for twenty, twenty three, it was, hey, if we're going to be serious about this, we're going to we're going to lean in. And it was three. My goal was three long form videos a week. So anything, you know, six, six to twenty five, thirty minutes a week of content. Um, and we hit that. Yeah, no, for anybody that's not creating, you know, content consistently, it is a hard challenge. Um, and I hit that 48 out of 52 weeks last year. Um, and, and what our content became was I started to realize, Hey, again, anybody can go show off a model home. Um, but as I niche down even more into my, to the new construction space, what I realized was there's not a ton of people that are educating in that space that are not talking, Hey, here's. this builder and here's the good things, the bad things. Here's what you should expect. Here's what you should look out for. Here's kind of their processes. Here's, you know, what if you're looking at this price point, these are my top builders. It's, you know, so I started doing a lot of education. So I've got a good mix now of like educating on the process of a new construction home, because it's different than a resale home, whether you believe it or not, it's, it's different whether you're building or you're buying. It's different than going resale. So there's a lot of educational content on that. A lot of educational content around like neighborhoods. I am like builders and inventory. So it's kind of become a mix for me. Uh, so my goal every single week is, is some, if we're doing three a week, it's some sort of neighborhood tour or like neighborhood update, some sort of like market, like, Hey, here's what you need to know as a tool in your tool belt. And then some sort of conversation within the industry of what's going on. So I would say, yeah, if I'm looking back like YouTube for me, um, is the biggest tool in my tool belt. I don't cold call. I don't door knock. I like none of that. because I started realizing like, I don't like being sold to that way, right? I don't know about you, but like, I hate the cold phone call. Like, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want you knocking on my door. So I've just taken the mentality of I'm going to educate. And again, it probably comes out of that, like that pastor thing of like, I'm just going to serve. And I will give you everything I have for free. I will teach you how to do everything you need to know. Because my hope is that when you see the value that I provide for free, That you're like you think oh man what how much more value am I gonna get when he's actually getting paid to work for me? And so that's that's kind of a standpoint I take and I would say too like on the YouTube thing like I outsourced Editing and all of that as quick as I possibly could I You know, I when I started I thought I was like, oh, yeah, I'll edit video and I'll do this I'm like, I don't have that skill set. I don't have the time to learn that skill set and I'm just not good at it so that was the thing for me is like I YouTube is one of the biggest expenses in my business, but it is well worth what I paid to my team to have that taken care of to continue to serve people the way that I get to serve people. What do you have to have in place to stay so consistent with YouTube? Because that's one of the major problems that most agents have is that they start off really well and then it just sort of falls apart. and I think the principle is not just YouTube, but anything in general, agents, I feel like we are like terrible at chasing shiny pennies, right? Like it's like, Oh, this new thing. Oh, this, Oh, this new Legion. Oh, this, Oh, that. And it's like, everybody does it for like six weeks or six days. And they're like, well, I did it, but nothing happened. So I'm going to move on to the next thing. And you know, I had a, I had a mentor tell me, he goes, listen, if you're not willing to do it for the life of your career, like it's not even worth doing. And I was like, oh, okay. And I just kind of stuck with it, right? So, so I think the consistency thing is a, is such a big deal for agents. Like whether you're, you're just getting started or you're trying to figure it out. Um, you know, I did, you know, almost I did 40 something transactions last year for over 17 million in volume and my second year full time, right? The biggest piece of that is like treating it consistently. Um, it's, it is blocked on my. calendar and you're not going to like it's unless you're, you my wife and we're having an emergency or something crazy has happened. It's you're not getting on my calendar when that time is blocked. So it's just being consistent. I think is the biggest thing and like, and, and then extending the runway of like, Oh, if I, you know, I told you, I posted my first one in April and I didn't get a phone call till September. Well that, you know, that's six months of, of nothing of, you know, letting the algorithm algorithm learn and letting me learn and, um, But now it's like I said, I couldn't imagine not doing those things. And it's one of those things where it's like you just you have to be consistent and build that muscle. And then, of course, don't play the comparison game. Right. Like I've got several thousand hours on camera and I'm nowhere near where I want to be. I'm better than what like I go back and watch those first videos. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's terrible. And even now I go back and watch stuff. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's terrible. but it gets better because of the repetition, right? So I think that's the thing is just like treat it consistently, like find the one thing you're good at and beat the drum until the drum can't be beaten anymore. Yeah, I say that all the time. Done is better than perfect. There's so many people. Yeah, so many people want to be perfect out of the gate. But it's more important that you take the reps because like you said in six months or a year, two years, you're going to be way, way better. Everybody's first step is terrible. Everybody's. There's a, there's a sign that hangs on my wall. It's looking, I mean, it's literally on the behind my camera. It says get Mo the phrase is good enough to move on. And we've, we've got to adapt that right. Cause cause if not, everybody ends up in this like ideation stage of like, Oh, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And at a certain point you just have to like do it and see what happens. Yep, I love that I've never heard the Gitmo analogy. I'm gonna remember that one. So, you know, success for us doesn't come easy. So for most of us, we sacrifice our time for success. How do you keep a work -life balance with your wife and your dogs? And what advice could you share to others? Um, it's a work in progress. Cause let's be real. If it wasn't for her, I would work a hundred hours a week and wouldn't, I would just, would just go, go, go. Right. Um, so my wife is a school teacher. So it's for me, it's like trying to get as much as I can done while, you know, while she's there. Um, it's, Hey, we've had conversations of like, Hey, I'm only going to work, you know, one or two weekends a month, and I'm only going to work a couple of nights a week. And like, and I, and I try and honor that. Right. Um, It's easy like I to answer a text and say, Hey, here's, you know, here's what's going on. And here's, um, you know, if you want to work with, I'm okay letting people walk away. Let's just, I'll put it to you like that. I think part of like, when you start to get into this space of creating content, um, and putting yourself out there and educating, like when, when people, when I get a phone call or an email, I'm not having to like qualify those leads on me. Like they know, they know what I'm. good at, they know my expertise, they know me and they want to work with me. So like if somebody sends a text and we're at date night and I just say, hey, you know, we're out, you know, we'll touch base tomorrow. Like I'm not losing that lead. Right. Like, and even if I do, I'm a hundred percent OK with it because I again, it's a balance game for me. Right. I'm going to work with the people that I'm supposed to work with. I firmly believe that I firmly believe that there is in an abundance mindset of there is plenty to go around if you're willing to work. And there are just things I'm not willing to put on the altar to sacrifice to get that. The other side of that too is it goes back to that editing thing of like, I believe wholeheartedly and smarter, not harder. And anywhere that I can spend money or to buy back my time and buy leverage, I am investing heavily in that. That's probably been my biggest thing. Like first part of 2024 is systematizing. in ways that get me leverage. How did you find your video editing team? Um, it was, so I started on Fiverr, uh, paying, you know, 20 to $25 a video. And that was a headache. That was more, honestly, it was more trouble than it was worth because it was always, could never be consistent, could never, um, get the same kind of edits. And we didn't really have a rhythm. And then actually I ended, it's funny enough, I ended up on a, there's another agent, another guy here in Dallas. He's another eXp agent and he ended up on his email list. I'm like, I don't know how I ended up on it, but we connected through an event or we connect. I don't know what it was. And he kind of sent out a thing. He's like, Hey, we're, we're launching this, uh, this done for you YouTube editing program. And I was like, okay. Um, you know, I'll try, I'll try anything. Well, you know, we'll see. Uh, and that, uh, honestly their team has, so I've been with them since the early stages. Uh, their team is the best. They're phenomenal. Uh, I will sing their praises every chance I get. And I would like said, they're not they're not the cheapest by far, but they are, you know, they're really good at what they do. And so like now we can turn videos around in 48 hours or so. Amazing, amazing. And that's what also stops a lot of people is they don't have the skillset to move forward and they don't really understand about leverage and that in order to do that, pay somebody to do it for you. It's just like hiring an assistant, right? Yeah, I mean, it's that conversation of, you you start asking yourself, how much do you want to make an hour? Right. And we all have a different hourly rate. But if I, for example, tell you I want to make one hundred dollars an hour and I can outsource something for ten, I'm costing myself ninety. Right. And so it's that's the thing. It's like spending money in the right strategic places. Obviously, we still have work to do. There's still things that have to be done. But. It's like if we can do spins things in the right strategic places and systematize quickly. I think that's like looking back over the last year. That's the thing that I'm working through now is like, how do we systematize this so that everybody gets the same experience throughout the process? Right. I think a lot of realtors, like there's just no, they don't know what we don't know what we're getting into. And it's like, you need to function like a business. And if you don't function like a business, you're probably not going to be in business for a long time. Yeah, that's actually one of the things that we do on my team is we talk about having the same experience over and over and over again for the four different clients that if two clients talk to each other, they would both understand that they had the same experience, same marketing, same everything. And it doesn't matter whether you're selling a million dollar property or a$200 ,000 property. everybody gets the same experience. So what is the one thing that has you most excited about the future of your real estate business? Uh, the one thing I think is just the continued growth that's happening here in DFW. Uh, I think we see, you know, we have a ton of out of state buyers. We have a ton of people, you know, buying, you know, that are here that are buying for the first time. And so seeing DFW continue to expand, uh, I think is the thing that's got me most excited built continuing to build these relationships with builders, um, and becoming that, like, w we will become the team that's like, Hey, when you want to buy a new home in DFW, our phone should be like we should be the only phone call that you make. So that's the goal for me. That's what's exciting for me. I love that. So give our listeners three actionable takeaways that you think every agent should be doing in their business right now. Uh, you should be on YouTube and you should be creating authentic content. So that's, that's one, uh, two. If you don't have somebody coaching and investing in you, you that that's two, you, you need to, you know, all, you know, you talk to all the best athletes in the world, you know, pay dietitians, pay exercise coaches, you know, whatever. Like if you don't have somebody pouring into you, whether it's in a like paid coaching program or it's in a, you know, upline with. or it's in a office or it's in a, you know, whatever it is. Like if you're not getting the investment, like you need to go find that. That would be number two. And then number three, like just freaking get like South State would get to work. Like there's way too much to do. There's way too much opportunity. There's way too many people that need to be helped, like start treating it like a job, treat it like a business and, and get to work serving people. What do you see in the future for organized real estate and what are our challenges? Oh, we, uh, I mean, you know, stateside, we've had all kinds of fun stuff with the NAR thing. I don't want to, I don't want to go too much into that, but here's what I will say. I think the challenge coming ahead is you are going to have to be able to, to articulate your value. Um, you're going to have to, again, it's, it's the service of people. It's caring about their needs. It's, it's answering their questions. It's showing up. It's being present. Um, And you're going to have to do that as a, as you know, somebody who does a ton of buyer stuff. I'm not honestly, I'm not worried. I think like this is, there's an incredible opportunity to serve people the right way. I think challenge wise, I think you're going to see agents that, that, you know, that don't treat this like a business. They're not going to be sustainable. And I don't think that's a challenge. I think that's an opportunity. Because somebody like somebody's going to have to service those clients. And I would much rather be somebody with integrity within character with. with know -how, with market insight, with, you know, it's going to go above and beyond. Then people continue to get a lousy experience. So I think on the consumer side, I think you're going to get, my hope is you're going to get an elevated experience. You know, I challenge wise, I think we still live in a market where everything's getting more expensive and we got to figure that out. And, you know, money's not getting cheaper. Houses are not getting cheaper. So we've got to find creative ways to do that. But I think it's a great opportunity. Um, you know, agent wise, I think we're gonna see agent counts go down. I think we're going to see a per train agent, like per transactions. I think that's going to go up and you're just going to have to continue to find ways to serve people, um, with openness, with honesty and with integrity. I agree. Lots of stuff stateside with the NAR ruling and it's coming here to Canada. It's in the works. There's going to be something very, very similar. But instead of freaking out, you have to understand that there's opportunity in this. There's opportunity for those professional agents that do treat this as a business. and primary concern is taking care of your clients. So there's lots of opportunity there. You just got to look and you got to work. So realtors are generally a pretty giving bunch. What are you doing to give back to your community? Yeah, we so I told you, you know, we still attend the church that I left. I left working in. I we still volunteer on, you know, in student ministry, hanging out with students, loving them, caring about them and, you know, investing in families. That's the biggest thing for us is still being engaged and plugged in with our with our community here locally and making sure, you know, kids and families are taken care of. So that's the biggest place where we're giving back. of our time and our talents and our resources. Amazing. Keep up the great work. Are you ready for the rapid fire round? This is always my favorite part. Okay. Number one is what is the one piece of technology that you just couldn't do without and why, and you can't say the MLS or your cell phone. Can't say the MLS for my cell phone. I will say I couldn't do it without my camera. Like, again, content is king and it drives everything we do forward. I've spent a lot of time, money, and lots of input on camera equipment. So I would say piece of technology, camera equipment. What is the best book you've ever read and why? best book I've ever read, uh, outside of the Bible, like, cause I would, that would be probably number one for me. Um, just in, you know, beliefs and the greatest story ever told. But outside of that, uh, I would say probably one of the best books I've ever read is a book called the go -giver. Um, it's by, I gotta look it up now. It's, uh, and it tells it. So it tells this story. Do you know the book? I know it very very well. I've read it's I cannot remember off the top of my head. It's Bob Berg and John David Mann. But the GoGiver tells this, you know, it's all these different scenarios of these various different business owners and the skills and attributes and characteristics that have built their successful businesses that in your life and you look at and you're like, oh, I don't really. That's not what you think it would be, but it is a brilliant book. on how to again, serve and care for people and to put others first when it comes to how you build your business. I highly recommend anybody listening to this podcast that has not read The Go Giver. Drop what you're doing. Well, listen to the end of this podcast, of course, but then drop what you're doing and go and get that book. It'll change the way you look at business most definitely. So super easy. And if or if you're not like an actual book reader and you believe in audiobooks, because I believe in audio, I love audiobooks. The author does the reading and it's phenomenal. So it's one of my books that I read it every single year as part of like, you know, what's going on in business. You and I are the exact same. What is the best business advice you've ever received? Best business advice I've ever received. Man, that's always got to go one, right? I would say the one is again, is when you care about people and you do the right thing because it's the right thing to do most of the time, everything else will work out. Right. People, people first profit second and do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Yep, relationships over profit. So I think I know the answer to this next one, but imagine Zach, you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world, identical to earth, but you knew no one. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter is taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and 500 bucks. What would you do to resurrect your real estate business in the next seven days? I would go spend as much time as I possibly could in model homes. And I would get to know builders and learn product, learn service, learn what makes them different, learn inventory, and then spend that $500 getting as much content out about what was going on in those markets as I could. Amazing. So before we say goodbye and wrap this up, give us a quote that has guided you in your life. Give us a quote. Oh man. Um. I got you. People will never care how much you know until they know how much you care about them. So. I love that one. Zach, thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing your wisdom with us. Now, a big part of this podcast that we'd like to do is send referrals. So if somebody has somebody coming into the Dells Fort Worth area or leaving the Dells Fort Worth area, how do they get ahold of you to send a referral your way? Yeah, honestly the easiest way I mean, and I don't know we can link it in the show notes or whatever is is simply an email Email is is hello at Zach Schmidt comm that is the easiest way to do that You can find me on all socials Facebook Twitter. Well, not really Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube tick -tock all those places I'm happy, you know happy to help especially if you're you know in the DFW market or coming and looking especially at new buying new or you know building with a builder happy to help. But yeah, hello at Zach Schmidt com. Once again, Zach, it's been a real pleasure and we will talk soon and hopefully some skating lessons in June for you. I'll teach you how to skate backwards. for the time. I appreciate it. All right, take care, Zach. Mm -hmm.