Building a Brand in Real Estate with Georgia Tusch | Total Agent Access

Join us on this inspiring episode of Total Agent Access as we sit down with Georgia Tusch, a dynamic real estate agent from London, Ontario. Georgia shares her unique journey from a small-town upbringing to becoming a successful real estate professional. Discover her passion for rescuing wildlife and how her early experiences shaped her approach to real estate.

Dive into the complexities of selling country properties with Georgia as she explains the crucial need for understanding septic systems, water sources, and local tax implications. Learn how she overcame the hurdles of starting young in the industry and the strategic importance of building a referral-based business.

Georgia also delves into her effective use of video marketing to forge a personal brand and connect with clients. She reveals key tips for capturing audience attention quickly and showcases the importance of highlighting a property's best features right from the start.

Moreover, Georgia discusses the operational side of her business, including the benefits of having an assistant and the strategy behind repurposing video content. She outlines her future goals, emphasizing team building and becoming a recognized authority within her community.

Finally, hear about Georgia’s dedication to giving back, as she details her involvement in community events and her commitment to local charities. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for any real estate professional looking to enhance their marketing strategies and make a significant impact in their community. Join us to learn, grow, and be inspired!

 Links:
Website: tuschrealestategroup.com
Instagram: @tusch.real.estate
YouTube: @tuschrealestategroup

Transcript

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Mm -hmm. back to Total Agent Access. I'm really super pumped about this one because we have one of the Canadian stars. Can I say that? Canadian stars of real estate with us today. A woman that I look up to personally, especially when it comes to video, and I want to unpack that a lot. We have today the amazing Georgia Tush. How are you? I'm so good, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me on. this is amazing. It took us a little bit of wrangling to get to this point. Both of us busy schedules. Nope, can't do that time. Yes, I can do that time. Well, I can't do that time, but we're here and we have the time to spend together to bring some value to our listeners. So before we get going, let's set the stage here a little bit. What area do you cover in real estate? Yeah, I live in London. Well, I live outside London, Ontario. So, me and my team, we actually do like the entire city and we stretch out very, very far. So, Southern Ontario stretching all the way to Grand Bend and Port Stanley, if you guys are familiar with those areas. But yeah, the city of London. Excellent. Did you grow up in London? No, I grew up in a little town and I'm still in that little town, Delaware, on the outskirts. So I'm a little country girl. So that's where I like to reside. How how was it growing up i also grew up in a small city so how did you like growing up in a small city. I grew up in a small farm. So, yeah, oh yeah, I'm right country, you know, not many TV stations and two older brothers and a farm with dogs and animals and everything. It was the best. Excellent. So what do you do in your spare time? Do you still have a farm? I wish. I do a little bit more. What I do from that is we used to rescue wildlife. So I am a big contributor to wildlife rehab and I used to rescue raccoons and skunks and deers. And now I don't have the time to do it. So I like to support the organizations that do it in our community. So that's a big hobby of mine. What's your craziest animal that you rescued? Well, I had a pet snapping turtle for like eight years and he was my best friend. And like I took him to school with me. But yeah, we honestly, any animal we've had, it's been amazing. Like deer, we've had deer for years that would stick around. But my favorite were raccoons to raise. They were, I know everyone hates them, but they're the best. What makes them so interesting for you? Well, they're related to the bear and they are so brilliant. So when you get, when you actually get baby raccoons, usually their eyes are shut and their ears are shut before you can actually get them where you need to be when you rescue them. And they follow you in a straight line and you're their mama and they have all these different sounds and calls they make. They're like a cat, they go in the litter box and it's incredible to watch how bear-like they are when you're growing them up to release them in the wild. and it's such a great, it's just like an amazing experience, especially for kids to see that circle of life. I learned something here today. I didn't know that they were related to bears. Now, we don't have raccoons up here in Northern British Columbia that I know of. I've never seen one before, but we do have lots of bears. Oh, I love a bear. My goodness. Yeah, yeah. So we diverge here a little bit. So what did you do before you got into real estate? Or are you a kid that's been always into real estate? Yeah, my dad was a real estate agent, but he was always a back burner one. He never really put focus on it. He always had, it was always like a part-time realtor. And so I was around that growing up, but I was around renovating and flipping houses more so. So actually when I did get my license, that was what I thought that's what a successful realtor did was flip and renovate. So I was doing that very, very young. And I took my, I started my real estate exams, I think grade 12 in high school. Like I was already. rope into that. My dad didn't give me a choice. So I was going to go to university and no, you're going to real estate. So that's what I did. And yeah, super young. I wish my parents did that for me. Rope me into it. Fantastic. Like how was it like when you were that young? Because I know I started in my mid thirties and you know, the community in itself already saw me as a business person and thus that they could trust me with their largest asset, but coming right out of high school, how do you gain that trust with people? that you're taking care of their largest asset. Yeah, it was a challenge. I mean, I don't even recommend it to be honest because you're just growing up yourself. And for me, I hated it. I actually didn't want to do real estate at all. My dad was never really super successful. It was always back burner stuff. So for me, I was looking at, you know, he's going to be selling real estate till he retires, which realtors never retire. I'm like, this isn't something I want to be doing. So for my first couple of years, I learned the ropes the hard way. And I swear back when I started, It was dog eat dog and I was selling farms and there was always a couple big farm guys. Like it was like when I came out there that young, you know, it was not easy to make a name. It was, I had to work twice as hard, three times as hard to get a client, to get a deal done and dealing with the agents. I didn't really want you in that circle anyways, it made me tough. And now we are all thick as thieves and they've watched me grow up to where I am now. And it made me a way better agent going to the trenches. I laugh because I look at real estate now versus maybe eight, nine years ago and everyone held their cards so close to their chest. No one gave you any free advice. There was nothing online. You had to take all these courses and there just wasn't agent to agent kind of collaboration. It was just me kind of figuring it out going, okay, that didn't work. Okay, what can I do different this time? And it was a... it, right? You know, that trial by fire and hoping that you come out the other end. What did a lot of flipping and stuff on the side too, because I just wasn't sure of this industry and this career until I got my momentum. So it took me a long time to really get my feet on the ground there. What do you have to know to focus on selling farms? Whew, so much with country. I actually like, we have a whole kind of different approach when it comes to country clients, because it's so funny when you sell even, I've grown up in the country, I've never had a sewer, but we've had septic. So the number one thing that people I find from the city mood in the country, like septic tanks, for them are just, you know, what are you talking about? They always think there's these huge massive problems. So really educating the clients on septic tanks, septic systems. If it's clay soil, that's sand, that's a big difference with septic systems. water sources. I grew up with a small well that ran out of water and it was hard water. And you need to know this when you're moving to the country because you might run out of water, you might have sulfur water. You know, we got to make sure that all the systems are in place where you're purchasing a country property to make sure it's a potable test. Amenities around you, utilities, propane, it could be geothermal. So it's really foreign, different things that the home has versus what somebody in the cities used to, even internet. And then I go again, going into financing too. It's not the same approach sometimes on these small hobby farms versus a single family home. Very difficult sometimes to get financing to get them appraised out. So I love to be really educated with my clients that don't want to move in the country and start their own farm because they might buy country property and the zoning might not be that they can have a little goat on it. So all these things, it's the same with anything in the city, right? There's always yin and yang, but it is a lot of differences and a lot of things to look out for. Yeah, and also tax when it comes to farms too, because up here we have a little bit of mix. Like we have the city, which has water and sewer, and then we also have the rural. And it's much like what you just described with septic systems, lagoons, wells, shared wells, and things like that. So we're sort of duly versed up here as well. But with farms also, I've noticed that there's tax implication as well. Whether you're producing a certain amount, then you can write off some stuff or you're exempt. Things like that. So working with farms, you have to know a little bit, a little bit of math, I guess you could say. as to HST, it's the biggest gray area when you're buying a country property, especially a farm, you know, am I gonna be paying HST on this? And is it a wash? And how do I do this? How do we write up the deal the right way that there isn't gonna be HST? Like, well, if it is, how is it? It is, and so you gotta have a really good accountant or lawyer on hand because there could be the biggest differences and the smallest amount, say you buy a farm that... They're not making any income off of it, but they logged that farm and made income off it a couple years ago. Well, now that I've made money on it, it's HSD applicable. So it's a very big gray area. There's no right or there's no black and white answer. So you just got to be able to navigate and protect your buyers and your sellers when you're negotiating those kinds of properties. And the best way that I found to do it is put into the contract that they seek both legal advice and advice from accountants so that you offload that from yourself, that they go to the professionals and make sure that they know exactly what's going on. And like you said, the implications, if they turn it into a business, when they go and sell it, is there gonna be like out here, it's GST and PSD. Is that going to be applicable on the sale now? Are you selling a business or are you selling a single family dwelling and the tax implications of course? So, you know, all of us have had, you know, the scary real estate moments, the worst moments. Can you tell us your worst moment in real estate and what did you learn from it? Well, I could go back last yesterday. Just you have, yeah, there's so many fires. There's just a fire every, you know, there's just these little fires that happen every day and you have to be able to be able to put them out. I'm trying to think of like my worst situation. Oh my goodness. I think my head is flooding with too many of them to even pinpoint it. But yeah, I'm thinking of funny moments is that when you list, Like when you think you've been in the stinkiest house you've ever been in, like, I mean, like there's nothing tops that and then it gets topped. And you have to be in this home so many times that you do listing it or selling it. Just unbelievable. The amount of smell that you can go home with after this listing. I know we've all been in them, but I swear I just listed the stinkiest house. I had to put in the right app. Like I'm warning you, do not go see this unless you really need to. Like. and my photographer wouldn't even go in it. And man, you just get yourself in some weird situations in real estate sometimes and you just got to put it back there and suck it up. And then, you know, they hired you to do a job and you do it. I absolutely, you know, I said that so many times to my wife before she got licensed. I said, just wait, just wait till you see how some people live. It is unbelievable, you know? And then you come home from a situation like yours and you're like, yeah, I'm going to burn these socks. I am never going to wear this again. Like my wife leaves her shoes. Outside and will never again bring them into the home and your clothes have that permeated smell I once listed a home where the people inside were absolute chain smokers and I think they did it for 25 years and Literally, you could see the tar Dripping down the interior walls. It was unbelievable and I'm allergic to cigarette smoke and I was just Dying I go come inside go outside come inside go outside. I It was the absolute worst. Now, looking back at when you first started, what advice would you give to yourself? What would you say? Oh boy, when I first started, you know, what I know now is I think the best way to run your business in real estate is off referrals. I think there's a lot of great ways to run it, but for me, I mean, having somebody refer your name to you, like to a client to call you, it almost has that validation before you even make that phone call. So, building a community and an organization underneath you and around you is my biggest tip. You need to be... hitting the phones, like going back, I would have been way more consistent with hitting the phones, doing my 20 reach outs a day, 20 conversations, not actually reach outs, but having 20 great conversations unrelated to real estate, but building that, you know, the confidence with the people around you and your community and your network and asking for referrals and building that partnership because it all comes back now, 13 years in the industry. You know, I've walked up that mountain now where, you know, business gets referred to me if I like it or not, which is the best position to be in. And I don't, it is, and looking back and treating every client and making sure they don't fall off the face of the earth. There's so many clients that I sold a house to and never talked to them again when I was younger. I just didn't know how to drip on them. I didn't know how to build that into my yearly schedule. And I just, I lost a lot of people I think that I have now by changing up exactly how my process is and the aftercare after every sale. And being a strong listing agent, I think is always should be a big goal of yours. Maybe not in the beginning, because it takes a lot of money to be a very strong listing agent. The marketing, you can have 20 listings sitting there and you know, there's a lot of money sitting out that, you know, you might not get back. But being a strong listing agent, gearing your business that way, being known as that strong listing agent, listings make babies. And it helps you just get those referrals and get those referrals and off one listing can be seven, eight deals if you do it right. So making that your forefront when you're going into the business. Working with buyers, getting experience, but making sure everyone knows you're the best listing agent. The leverage off of a listing is like five, 10 fold compared to what you can do with a buyer. A buyer buys a home and that's basically the end where there is so much marketing that you can do for yourself around a listing. I always say list to last, right? Like if you're not listing homes and it's gonna become even more crucial look what's happening in the States right now, you're gonna have to be a strong, strong. listing agent and then just play with buyers and that's the focus. You can run 20 listings, can you run 20 buyers? Not a chance, not a chance. There's not enough time in the day to do that. of calling actually. And that's what I always explained to my teammate. Like I eventually had to build a team because there was so much business falling through the cracks because I just couldn't run with buyers and have the amount of listings that I was having. They weren't getting world -class service for me. And I felt bad about it. I wanted them to have the best service if they came into my network. So having the best buying agents on my team to take that individual to give them the best service was such a crucial. step up in my business, I would say, to where I am now, because we're able to service a lot more people, but better higher quality service. But like, yeah, you can't run around with 20 buyers, something's gonna fall through the cracks. That's where mistakes are made sometimes, unless you're like the most organized hyper -focused person. That's a lot of fires. which most of us are A type personalities and we are not focused. We're like running around, right? And it's hard. I just want to dial back a little bit to the first thing that you said about 20 conversations a day. And I think that's worth sort of some unpacking there. Do you mandate that everybody have 20 conversations on your team a day? And that may be like 40 or 50 dials. if you're just phone calling people to get the 20 conversations. Yeah, so I learned years back from a coach of mine. When I really wanted to amplify my business, I had to go back to the beginning and I didn't have I've never ran leads before I started the team. I've never ran internet leads. It was just strictly a referral business and working my phone and working every contact in my phone. So, you know, my goal was to do 20, 25 calls a day, but I wouldn't write their name down unless I actually had a conversation. and we were actually talking back and forth. And then that would go into 20 reach outs a day as well. So it would be 20 calls, 20 texts, 20 DMs, so, or emails. Emails, I wouldn't write it down until we had a conversation going and texts would also account once we were talking, but also messenger on Facebook and on Instagram once you have those conversations going. But with the team that we have now, we use Follow Up Boss and it's really great because they have, I love it, we have great, So good. And now we have the scoreboard in the back. So we have ISAs on our team that already have to do around 100 calls a day. But now the teammates, they are challenging each other to see who can actually be the leader on that board. And it's so cool to see that healthy competition within the team of how many conversations, who booked the most appointments that day, how many people went and showed houses that day. And seeing that, because it's one thing to do it at home and no one's holding you accountable, sitting over your shoulder versus, the team every morning, seeing what we're doing. And then we have commitment, accountability group of a commitment and a goal every day. So every morning we have one group chat that's just for accountability. And you put in there your accountability for the day and your commitment. And you have to do it. We want to get it done before noon. But at the end of the day, everyone puts in there if they got it or they didn't, they let the team down. Did we all get a win or did somebody not get a win today? And it kind of starts that morning off with a really great pop. and making sure we push our goals every day. That's great. Another thing, you know, like just to put in my experience, when I first started, it's really hard to have 20 conversations a day just because you don't necessarily have the database. I would go to Costco. I'd just go to Costco, walk around and, you know, inevitably I would see people and I would just talk to them, you know, like I would, hey, there's Joe there. And I just go, hey, Joe, how's it going? And I would have like three or four conversations that way. And it, you know, it gets you out of the office and gets you into the public sphere. And there's always lots of people here in town at Costco at any time of the day. And I just found it was a really good place to go and have conversations. So that's just one of the things that you can do. If you're not a phone call person, go out somewhere where you're going to see people that you already know. and have the conversations that way. You know, the face to face is always good. Give out a business card or two. my town, the Delaware Legion, the Legion here is still thriving. And I am like the local Legion queen in the sense that everyone knows me there. I could pop in there on the way home from work and I would, you know, I could have 20, 30 conversations in a matter of an hour. And it's something, oh, you know, the conversations, they always lead to real estate. I know no matter what. So it's... soon as people know what you do, they're inevitably going to ask you, how's the market? Yes. So it's inevitable, but you know, we've all had one, you know, that moment that's clicked where it all makes sense and you know, you gain some clarity. Tell us your aha moment, that moment that sticks with you and helps push you forward. You know what? So I would say four years ago, I did have a death in the family. My mom passed away and it was two years of me, you know, it was just, I fell off my game for two years as if anyone would with any big life event. And if you take your eye off the ball with real estate for two years, you really one day click when everything that that's settled. And it was like, oh my goodness, I have. going on, I have nothing in my pipeline, nothing's going on. And I had to buckle down and I had to reinvent the wheel here. And my aha moment was probably the year after that of having one of the best years in real estate of fully focusing on what the goal was. And the goal was to sell as many houses and talk to as many people as I could a day. That 20 person a day, I went into that night, I couldn't put the phone down. And... That was the aha moment, the year after that going, oh my goodness, I can actually make my real estate career as bigger than I ever imagined because I really looked at my dad's career and was like, I never knew what was possible. And from that moment, it just that consistency of holding myself accountable and doing what I needed to do grew a team that I have today very quickly, actually. And the other aha moment is the video marketing. going out in public after doing a lot of video marketing and everywhere I go, no matter where I am, I have somebody come up and say, George, I love what you do. I love watching you. Like, and you just, you almost have like a little celebrity moment, but it's almost like an aha every time. Like, wow, you don't realize how many people watch and see what you're doing and how far, if you really get uncomfortable on camera, that can take your name. And it just comes back in 10 folds if you get uncomfortable. I don't know if that was the right answer for that question. Haha. had two ah -hahs, I guess. Well, that's actually really good because it leads me into my next question where I normally ask people to open up their toolbox and talk about their marketing. I want to talk specifically about video and video tours with you because anybody listening to this, go check out Georgia on YouTube, on Instagram and see how she does her property tours. I literally, I'm going to confess to something here. Every time my team shoots a video beforehand, I say, please get your inner Georgia out and use her. So we have a little thing on our team that we channel our inner Georgias when we do property tours. So. That's a little thing going on out here on the West Coast. So I hope you feel the love coming your way. So absolutely, big love from our team to your team. What, you know, you definitely have a style. How did you come about with that style? Thank you. Oh my goodness. Okay, so you're freezing. You're good. You're back now. Honestly, if you go back to my videos from the beginning, you create your own style. I mean, that's not the best way I'm going to answer this question, but you do. You learn by watching yourself going, like I'll tell you right now, my videographer knows every word I've ever used in my vocabulary. Like my biggest challenge is using new words. Like it's, you know, the amount of times I say love and beautiful, like I want to die when I rewatch this, but. It's critiquing every video going, okay, I don't like the way I say those words. I don't like how I slid into that conversation. It's getting very boring, very repetitive. How can we do that and switch it up? The biggest, I'm actually a new agent on my team that have video today. She was so nervous and I had my other teammate went and helped her out. And my biggest advice to her was when I was starting out doing video was I forgot the smile. and it's so simple and you think it would be a natural thing, but you don't because you're so focused on what you're trying to say and how you're walking that you need to smile and light up the camera and make it exciting for the other person that's watching it because you're so excited to be there. So my number one tip is remember to smile. Number two, I guess for my own style, obviously I think one of the best videos, ever is Brad McCullum. Like he just shoots this properties in a light that you, you know, he really tells a story a lot like how I try to tell my videos. But I actually NS, I forget his first name now, he has a different way of shooting video as well. And when I looked at myself and how I like to do more property tours, I really wanted to create a way that is a mixture of both of those, but with my own style. So I love to catch your attention with a hook right away because The biggest pet peeves I noticed when I first started doing video, I think I was one of the first ones in my whole area, was I would watch those property tours and I would not know there's a pool in the backyard till the very like fourth minute or like third minute. Like I would be like, I would have probably went and saw this, but I'm not sitting around until I get to the backyard. I'd always be skipping forward, skipping forward. So I wanna make sure that whoever stumbled across my video knew in the first 10 seconds, the top three features about that property. And I think that's so important to catch that attention because you might miss that buyer that might scroll past versus the one that stops and goes, I didn't know that was on a ravine. I didn't know that was near that one store that I love going to. I didn't know you could walk there. And it's very easy to pick three things that would have proper even five, even if it's the biggest piece of crap. I sell, I sell multiple dollar homes and I sell little shacks and I don't care. There's some, there's one buyer that would love that. And another great tip Colin is, If you're shooting a video of a property and you're like, oh man, this thing's not going to show out. Like it's like, you don't even want to go inside. You know what? You got to start outside and you got to hit the couple of things that why somebody would want to buy that house. Why is that area special? Where is it close to? And you start there because as soon as you get in that door, you lose them because they're like, okay, this thing needs more work. But you can actually sell them maybe on the entire area and location and what you could do with that property before you go in the door and lose them. So. You can get so creative and just focusing, I guess my style is focusing really heavy on what buyer would buy that property and making that the forefront of how you want to tell that story. Also, I think talking to your sellers and really meddling in something about why they loved it there. I think that's something I do really great is really listening to my sellers and telling their story while I'm in the video about. You know, my seller, she tells me looking out this window in the winter, she sees coyotes, she sees deer. This is her favorite window to look out, especially because it's by the kitchen sink and she can do the dishes. You could really learn so much from your sellers. So I think my style. that's really important to ask the sellers what they love about the property because what they love is probably going to be something that somebody else buying it will love as well. And you want to focus on those positive features. I love the fact also in your video that you are in the video quite often, you know, probably 40 to 50 % of the time, whereas so many people just want to hit the easy button and just do a regular walkthrough where you're talking and the video not only becomes about selling the home and the property, but you're also selling yourself. And that's so important. If you're going to spend money on marketing, I always tell people this, make sure that you are marketing yourself as well as the product that you are. It's, you could do, like if you really structure out your process around your listing process and the time that you spend with your videographer, you could do so much more. Even bringing a sold sign, bringing a coming soon sign and having him take a quick professional video of you going, just sold, or hey, we're doing an open house this Saturday, two to four, you might not know when you're doing it, but you have the professional footage. It's two seconds of their time to take it, you're just prepared for it. And then the repurposing of the videos, I'm a big advocate if they're not moving, what I can do with that five, seven minute video is I can now recrop it and turn it into like a whole new advertisement for that listing. Maybe we did a price drop. Maybe we are like, you can just have it. I've had listing videos I've put out two, three times repurpose and people go, oh, when did that come on the market? It gets amazing what you can do. And that's so important for realtors to really. do that if they want to be a strong listing agent because money, $1 ,500 for a video shoot or $700 can go out the window really quickly if you don't make it the best that you can do. Oh, for sure, for sure. And you know, the repurposing and marketing, a lot of people forget about that. They just think the one and done, put it out there. Everybody's going to see it. But in fact, very few people, unless you put money behind it, are going to see it. So you can put it out. You can chop it up, rearrange it into like the small 90 second clips, start putting those out as well. And you get so much more reach. And I like to put out the short ones and try to bring them back. the long ones on YouTube, right? I'll give you my newest tip, right? What I've been trying to do lately is, obviously we know reels is, and short form, even on YouTube shorts, anything like that. The vertical and the horizontal, it's always going to be a difficult decision with your videographer because every videographer likes landscape. They don't want to do vertical. I could be wrong, but most of them, my guy especially, does not want to do vertical. How do you do a whole vertical video and how do you do a whole... horizontal video because you need it for YouTube, you need it for Facebook, like, sorry, and you need it for, you know, when they click on your video to watch it through the different outlets that they get the listing. I don't think you could ever go to full vertical where I'm at in my mindset right now, but you do need the vertical and there's, you just can't crop in the horizontal. It just doesn't have that quality that's going to make the bar these days. So our video, it's very difficult to get a videographer to shoot everything horizontal, shoot everything vertical, my style. It would just take an entire day for a shoot. So what we've been doing now is we're being really more, we're gonna put as much effort into the verticals and as much as we've done into the horizontals, really divvy up that time smart. So we're testing and trial and airing right now. And once we have a method to our madness, I'll share it with you. But to start, yeah, we do a quick whip at the house vertical. I actually take it and I can actually have someone edit a really quick reel for me or I can do it on CapCut myself, but I have high quality vertical footage to use on so many things. I just posted today an open house coming up and I just, you know, it looks so fresh, so clean and professional because I took that extra 10 minutes to make sure he whips through the house vertical and not repurpose all horizontal video. Yeah, that's, that's so smart because you really do get in front of a lot of people going vertical as well. I've, I'm one of them. I'm one of those people because I love movies. So growing up my whole life, everything is, you know, horizontal letterbox. I love that. And, uh, you know, trying to go to vertical video, I feel like I'm missing half of the video, but it is becoming such a trend and it's so useful just to do those 90 second little clips because you you know people are consuming them a lot quicker now and you can get a lot more out there so you alluded to you know basically that you've built this team and you've become really busy and you know a lot of us in this business sacrifice time for success how do you keep a work -life balance and what advice could you share? with us. I think I might be the worst person to ask for that. And I think it comes down to, I'm just gonna be totally transparent with you, is I'm in a building phase. I got a lot of big goals and for me, I am so wrapped up into this. I'm growing at a pace that I can't comprehend and I work 24 -7. And if you're a realtor and you wanna be sometimes at these higher levels, you gotta have a lot of sacrifice with your time and these growing years. and I wish I had a better work life cycle for somebody to take in for me to actually implement. Honestly, it's like, I could say that I don't work past seven. No, I'll get an offer in at 7 .30. That's what's being a listing agent though. Like your time in Canada, the way our market is, I mean, no one really gives you 24 hours. You really need to be on the ball, but you need to be able to make yourself available for whatever direction you go in. So by me really letting go of any buyers that come into my... that work with me, letting go of buyers has given me the time to hyper -focus on my listings and my process and on my team. So that was a big step for my time management. And of course, giving yourself, you know, you time, you know, giving yourself the time that you need to have that quiet time. And for me, it is in the morning, I'm up at 4 .30 because my phone doesn't ring and no one's bothering me till seven, hopefully. And in that timeframe, I can, you know, really take care of myself, get a workout in. have that quiet morning that I need to really focus on the rest of the day. And then also one last thing is I think the biggest, I forgot my aha moment. This actually goes into like what made my life a little bit more manageable with real estate is when I got an assistant. I really tell you not, I was, when I got told I need an assistant and I said, no, you're crazy, I can't afford one. I can do everything myself. It's letting go with the reins. And when I got an assistant, my life. I'm not even joking. I made more money, sold more houses than I was ever capable of because I was only focusing on what I could actually do good at, everything else I let go of. And every month, you know, you're trying to get things off your plate, you need to be hyper focused on that. What am I spending time on that I don't need to be doing? So I'm always looking at that with my assistant and we're always pinpointing, okay, I think she could do that now. And this is four years in, there's real estate, you just keep adding stuff and you will keep adding stuff. So. You gotta keep taking things off your plate so you can grow and focus on what you're best at. I love that. What is the one thing that has you most excited about the future of your real estate business? The future. I don't know. I just got the numbers back from what we sold since January. I think we've sold over 50 homes since January this year, which is a huge accomplishment for really good. Yeah. And we just brought on two new agents and we had, it was really just my dad and I, that was just two agents. And then now we have the four. So to see where our numbers will hit going into the future. But at the end of the day, what gets me the most excited, is being able to maybe have the goal of getting out of production and having a very strong team and a strong brand that's growing within the city. And I can sit back and help other agents really dive into this industry. And just, it's changing so quickly and navigating it and moving in the direction that I think that we can get to and having that stronghold in the city that we're in. I would love to see us get to those accomplishments one day. So that gets me really excited. I don't know if that was the right answer to that question. It was a perfect answer. Give our listeners three actionable takeaways that you think every agent should be doing in their business right now. Be known as the authority in your community. Number one, wherever you live, your neighborhood, everyone's gotta know who you are. You gotta be helping out. You gotta really show your face and give back and throw events. Make sure people know who you are. That could be through social media, community events and hobbies. Sorry, I thought I shut everything off here. My thing's going off. There we go, sorry. Number two, consistency. I think that's like the number one thing in getting anything that you want in life. You have to set your goals, set your challenge and get that done. You need to be consistent with your calls, with your emails, with your texts. And don't be shy, social media. It is the most uncomfortable thing, but the more you do it, the better you get and make sure you put yourself out there. And if you're not uncomfortable, then maybe make yourself more uncomfortable because that's the only way you're going to grow in this industry. Yeah, that's the truth. You know, nothing great ever comes from being comfortable. No. It sucks, but you gotta do it. it does suck. What do you see in the future for organized real estate? What are our challenges? I mean, I think AI was a big scare for everybody considering how everything's going online. But I think now that I've learned so much about every new challenge that's coming, I mean, I'm not so scared about that anymore. I mean, it is always going to be a job that you need someone on your side. You need someone in the middle here to negotiate. You need someone to guide you and advise you every step of the way. I don't think we will ever be extinguished from this. world as realtors. I mean, I'm sure we're going to have things that pop up that might scare us, but that's the way it's always been. There's always been different brokerages and methods and things that have come in that have tried to take over and it just doesn't work. That human connection is what we need. So focusing on your community and building that up will always make you safe. What gets me scared. Obviously the NAR, I mean, that's coming down the line. I mean, we're just going to have to adjust and focus on what's going to be the best for you as a realtor. Like we were talking about earlier, I think being a strong listing agent is always going to be the best bet. I think we all know that. But as for the future for realtors, like I was saying too, is it is like a major community now of sharing knowledge and helping others. Like this is so cool to see. It really wasn't like this. And everyone is just, helping everybody, especially see that at EXP, but I mean, I know there are brokerages as well. And if you want to jump in and thrive and be a realtor for the future, I think there's never a better time than now because there's just so many people there to help you along the way. I agree. I've never seen it like this. When I first started, it was very cards to the chest. Nobody shared anything because they were coming from a place of scarcity. I think a lot of us are now operating from a place of abundance that there will always be lots. And it's one of the reasons why I do this podcast is that I love sharing and I love educating people and. more so just helping somebody that may be having a rough time and they may get something from this podcast that helps accelerate their business. And I always say, reach out to me if you need help, just don't be shy, just shoot me a DM, whatever. So realtors are generally a pretty giving bunch. What are you doing to give back to your community? So it's been a big focus of mine to definitely amplify that every year. Like I was saying, we are big with the animals. But recently, I just did an Easter event last weekend and I had the whole community invited to it. Not gonna lie, it was insane. There was a lineup around the corner. I know what to do different now, but we are really diving into the local businesses and. opening our doors, not just to our past clients and our sphere of influence, but to actual communities. So what we're trying to do is get a lot of kid events out, a lot of family events where people don't have to think they just show up, there's food, there's gifts, there's entertainment, there's fun. And we're finding that the community is responding really, really well to that. And then every time we do a community event, there's always a donation attached with a local charity. And whatever we can do to amplify that and grow it more, that is our main focus going forward. Because having a team and being able to give back is probably one of the most rewarding parts of anybody that's successful is being able to make another person smile from the goodness of your heart. So the ways that we do it, you'll laugh. Like last year, we gave out a ton of money, but it was great. I was on the tractor pull with a microphone and. Like, you know what, you can really get yourself into so many fun, different charitable situations that you never thought you'd be in. But it is, I don't have a video that you'll die one day, but every year, but making sure you're repeating it and doing it and documenting it and then, and go. Yeah. this. George Atush on a tractor pull. That sounds awesome. So my favorite part is here, the rapid fire round. Uh oh. If you're not, are you ready for this? Okay, the one piece of technology that you couldn't do without and why you can't say your cell phone or the MLS. can't say yourself for real estate. Sure, whatever. One piece of technology that you can't do without. Oh, okay. For real estate wise, I would be a good CRM system because it's the only way to keep your contacts and drip on them. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, there we go. What is the best book you've ever read? Actually, I have it right here. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I know it's an oldie and it's a boring, but I learned how to survive when it was really hard in real estate from the ways I was able to have conversations. What is the best business advice you've ever received? Um, whatever you avoid imprisons you. So, gotta have those hard conversations and get it out of the way. Yeah. Now this is my favorite one. Bear with me. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world identical to earth, but you knew no one. You still have all the experience knowledge you currently have your food and shelters taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500. What would you do to resurrect your real estate business in the next seven days? I have a laptop and 500 bucks. You got a laptop and 500 bucks. What would you do in the next seven days? Okay, so if I have a laptop, I have follow-up boss on there. Okay, oh my God, in seven days. Well, amount of conversations that you can have in seven days will lead you, but you don't know anyone. So I would go down to wherever I was living. I'd start at the local area where I could have a great conversation in person, and I wouldn't go home until I had a contact that I could send them listings to. And what I would do is I'd probably run an ad about, and I would go to any realtor, like seven days, every single open house I would go to, I would go there and try to make contacts, add them to my follow -up system, and I would run ads for anyone looking for a property that's maybe listed in the area and start having those conversations off that.$500 worth? I don't know. I don't know how I should have prepared for this. That's good. That's the truth. What you're doing is you're getting right in front of people as quickly as possible because our business is built on relationships. I can't say that enough. You can sit behind a computer all you want, but you need to create relationships at scale. So last question and then we will say goodbye. So give us a quote that has guided you in your life. goodness. Oh goodness. I guess I don't have one that I can really go off of. I don't have a quote that I could really say. Let it be. I mean that's, you know, at the end of the day, it is what it is. Things happen. You just need to let things be. And it is what it is. I guess it is what it is. There we go. There you go. You got one. You got around to it. But I was going to say, I like to let it be just because I'm a huge Beatles fan. So, you know, it's such an amazing song. One of the big things we do here on Total Agent Access is that we like to connect realtors to realtors for referrals. How can somebody send you a referral either coming in or going out of London or the surrounding area? What's the best way to contact you? Oh, call me. 519 -878 -2521. Or you can email me at gtush at gmail.com. Or if you're on Instagram, shoot me a DM at tushrealestate. Beautiful, love it. Thank you so much. And again, I cannot say enough, anybody listening, once you're done this podcast, don't do it quite yet, but once you're done listening to this podcast, go and search out Georgia on the socials and check out how she does the property tours because it very well could change the way you do it. And you will find yourself channeling the inner Georgia. Georgia Tush, thank you so much for being on the podcast. So awesome to have you on here and I'm glad that we were able to find a time together to connect. much. I really appreciate it, Colin. Take care of yourself and I hope to see you sometime soon.