Setting High Goals and Believing in Your Ability to Achieve Them with Gogo Bethke | Total Agent Access

On this engaging episode of "Total Agent Access," your host Colin Breadner sits down with THE Gogo Bethke, the queen of real estate social media. Get an insight into the inspiring journey of Gogo from a stay-at-home mom to a mogul in the real estate business, sharing with you insights pertaining to marketing strategies and how you can use social media to bolster success in real estate. Come see the power of consistency, compelling storytelling, and effective calls to action that can re-imagine your social media presence. Gogo also enlightens us on the rewards of joining a real estate team, her experience in building a successful team and brokerage, and how she humanly balances a demanding career with personal life. This episode is packed with super-practical tips and inspirational stories likely to help you, whether you're just starting out in the industry or scaling your business. Tune in as he shares how he's scaling his business through platforms like ManyChat and Go High Level, and why his philosophy and success revolve around teaching and living a purposeful, fulfilling life.

Links
Instagram: @gogorealestate
Website: gogobethke.com

Takeaways

🔥Consistency is key in social media marketing

🔥Tell stories in your posts to engage your audience

🔥Include clear calls to action in your posts

🔥Joining a real estate team can accelerate learning and success

🔥Set high goals and believe in your ability to achieve them Consistently posting on social media is crucial for real estate agents to establish their presence and attract clients.

🔥Using technology tools like ManyChat and Go High Level can streamline and enhance business operations.

🔥Teaching and sharing knowledge with others is a valuable way to give back and establish oneself as an expert.

🔥Achieving work-life balance is essential for long-term success and happiness in the real estate industry.

🔥Building a team and leveraging resources can create more opportunities for growth and income.

🔥Living a fulfilling life beyond just chasing commissions is important for overall well-being and success.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the podcast. Now I have to say I have been waiting one whole month to book my next guest here because she is very, very popular. And I have to admit something right here on the podcast, and you can hold me to this, I'm a bit of a fanboy of my next guest here. We have none other than Gogo Betkey, the queen of real estate social media. GoGo, all the way from Florida, how are you? wonderful and I might brag a little bit with the nice and sunny and 75. That that is a brag because I stepped outside and it was below zero today where I am up in northern Canada so I really would appreciate you sending some of your great weather to us up here please work on that but if I can't let me turn this light on if I can then I can always help you do the same thing that I did and it's called move because we moved from Michigan to Florida for that same reason the weather we were kind of just like I'm sure in Michigan you have a little bit more weather that is kind of like ours, but without the real bad winters that we have up here. Yeah, to move. Only problem though, is that I'm not American and it's becomes a little bit harder to move to the States, I would. I. you're talking about moving, let's take it back to negative 40 degrees in Transylvania, Romania, where I originally moved from. Cause I'm not. this is a really good segue. You are from Transylvania, Romania, initially. Made famous by a book. So I moved in when I was 21 years old in 2003. I didn't speak English, believe it or not, until I was 21 years old. Isn't that crazy? I think that's like, blows my mind every time I say that out loud. Came by myself, borrowed $200, got on a bus, got on a train, got on a plane, came to a country where I didn't know a single human being and figured out I'd try out my luck. And why did you do that? I don't know. I always felt like I didn't belong in my culture. And my culture is a little slow. I always joke and say that if the world is coming to an end, they will live another 100 years because they're not. They're so behind. So I don't know. They still kind of have that mentality that the woman's place is in the kitchen. And I just, as you can notice, I don't live. that don't get me wrong. I believe that the man needs to be ahead of the household and I do cook and I am a mom and I'm a wife and we've been married for over 21 years. But that doesn't mean that I can't also make money. Yeah, I agree. I agree. What do you like to do with your family in your spare time? Oh, just, I don't know, just be, right? Like we talk, we goof off, we annoy each other, we travel a lot, we spend time together, just kind of hang, right? But I also have now 14 and 16, going on 15 and 17, you know what I mean? So they don't necessarily wanna hang with mom and dad as much anymore as they used to. And I'm sure that comes around, right? Right around, I'm assuming age 20, 21, they slow down a little bit, come back home, hang with mom and dad, little more than they do now, but. Really, it's just the travel and the hanging out that we do. I like to cook. That's my like my downtime. I, we love a lot of TV shows and I don't watch TV, but we'll watch TV shows or movies or things like that. So that's pretty much it. Just like, you know. Oh, I cook Hungarian. So when I cook, I always cook Hungarian cause that's the food I'm missing, right? Cause I can buy anything else here. So usually I was raised on soups every day of my life. I had a soup for lunch. the So on growing up, I should say not so much in my adult life, but now that's what I miss. I always try to make a big pot of soup, so I always like to have soup in the house. So you talked about moving over here. What did you do before you got into real estate? Oh, gosh, I like to joke and say process of elimination, a lot of things so I find out what I don't want to be when I grow up. Ha ha ha. You know what? That's actually really good. You know, I want to unpack that because so many people think that right out of high school or out of college university, that you need to pick something and you need to stay and do that exact same thing for the rest of your life. You got to have a process of elimination. I mean, I joke and say, you know, all the time, like when the teachers used to ask of like, oh, what are you going to be when you grow up? And so many of my classmates were like, I'm going to be a ballerina and I'm going to be a vet and I'm going to be a doctor and I'm going to be a pilot. And I was like, I don't know what I'm going to be. And I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. Right? Like I exactly, my personality is I get super excited about things. I put all I got to it. I figure it out and then I'm over it. As soon as I figure something out, it's boring to me. I don't have the personality, then I can do the same thing for the rest of my life. I don't have that, I like new. So I don't know if you ever gone to a Tony Robbins event, he always talks about, you know, some people live for certainty, some people live for uncertainty. I don't like certainty. If I had the same day over and over again, just shoot me now. Like, I don't want that. I don't want to be in the same place. I don't want to be the same thing. I don't want to do it with the same people at the same time in the same way. I don't want anything same. I cannot wait. I so look forward to what is next. Where are we going where I've never been? What food we gonna try I've never had? Who's my new friend when we go to Florida? Like, I love the new, I love the things that I haven't experienced yet. And that kind of takes me to, or putting it another way is that, People that don't travel or don't like new things, they're reading the same chapter of the same book for the rest of their life, even though there's so many more chapters and so many other books, right? And they just, they're just staying in that comfort zone because that's what they know. And I'm the opposite. I'm like, as you can see, I have a million books. I'm like, I can't wait. And I usually read three at a time, right? So I'm like, I'm all over the place and I love it. That's how I like to live. the exact same way. I love to learn. So once I learn something and get reasonably be able to master it, I get bored real quick and I need that next bit of learning stimulation, right? So yeah, what drew you to becoming a real estate agent then? Nothing. It was not my idea. So I was, what a genius she is, right? So at the time I was, so you asked me what I did. So I did all kinds of jobs. I worked in a jewelry store. I worked in a plastics department. I did shipping and receiving. I did labeling for a labeling company. I did, I worked in a plastics department with data entry. I have a restaurant food safety certification. I worked as a server in a restaurant. I worked in a jewelry store, like you name it, I have done it, right? And then of course I was an au pair and a living nanny. So I have done all kinds of random jobs and I was actually in between jobs. I got let go of my previous job from NSF International because when Duke, our second son was born, he got super sick and I used up all of my... FMLA, which at the time was like family something leave act or whatever, like vacation time and corporate vacation time. So they had to let me go because I had no more time and I needed to stay with my baby. Right. So they let me go. So I stayed home for a little bit. And in that stay at home time at the time, I could not imagine handing over a sick child to anyone. So it was a blessing. Right. Then I had the ability to stay home and unemployment. But in the same time about I would say almost two years I stayed home because I remember It was just after a year and a little bit, because I was still nursing. I remember when I was going through my real estate licensing. So I was home with the kids, end of the driveway one day. They're playing outside, right? And my neighbor stops by, like driving by our house, and she stops in her car. And she's like, hey, you're so active on Facebook. I see you all the time. I think you would make such a good realtor. So I already talked to a broker at Real Estate One. You should go talk to him and see if you want to be a realtor. And I'm like, I watch HGTV all day. It doesn't seem that hard. And I'm like, oh, how hard can it be? Right. So I was like, what a great idea. Right. So I went and talked to Real Estate One. They offered me that they will pay for my licensing if I pass. I passed right away. So my investment into real estate by for zero dollars. And that was it. I passed first try and I was a realtor. Where else can you start a business with zero down and have have to pay for licensing, like we sell people's largest assets and we have a 40 hour training. Right, right. It's a little bit different where I am. It's a little bit more difficult, but yeah, for, you know, up here, a thousand dollars down and then $2,000 for licensing, $3,000, you have a business and an ability to make as much money as you want to. As hard as you're. guys, doesn't it take you guys like 900 hours or something? Isn't it almost like an associate degree? It takes about six months to eight months if you put your head down and really go at it. You can take up to a year to do it. Okay, so is that 40 hours, like a full time kind of? Probably a little bit more. Wow. So if you work 40 hours, considered full time, that's 2,080 hours in a year. So you guys go more than 2,000 hours to get a real estate license, and we get it in 40. Yeah, it's like, yeah, if you want to do it right, I know some people that do it around their job, you know, like at night or something like that. And yeah, it may take eight months or so. And then the then the exam that you have to write is quite difficult. I tell everybody take two months and study solid before you write it. Because you have to get 70% on it. Right. So Really? Yeah. So I mean, even in Michigan, it was super hard. I didn't think it was. I love math. So math is super simple to me because I don't have to translate it. In my mind, when I talk, I still translate, right? Because my native is Hungarian, and I speak spoke Romanian as a second language, then English as a third language. So my brain still translates. There's a little bit of a delay when you talk. I'm translating in my head, right? But when it comes to numbers, when you look at it, numbers look the same in Hungarian as they look in English. So I don't have to translate them. So I was praying, please, give me number of questions because. I don't want the widow or widowy, mortgager, mortgagy. I was like, I don't really know. Just give me math. Don't give me English, because I'm going to fail. And I got lucky. I got all of the math questions, or a lot of the math questions. Our testing is 90 minutes. I was in and out in like 50 minutes, less than an hour. They wanted to send me back. It's like, you should probably go back and look at your questions. And I was like, if I go back, I'm probably double question myself, and get it wrong. So I was like, no, thank you. And I passed, but when I was in the waiting room, there were a lot of people, they're like, oh, it's my seventh time, oh, it's my second time, oh, it's my fourth time. And I was like, oh, so it's not as simple as I thought. I thought I'm just gonna boom, I'll be out of there, right? I was, thankfully, but that is not the case in many cases. Many people have a hard time passing. Right, right. So, share with us your worst moment in real estate. Tell us that story and what did you learn from it? Ooh. OK, so the first, I've never got asked this question, right? So the first time I cried over a real estate transaction, I don't cry over a real estate transaction anymore, but I used to let me tell you. I used to learn my feelings, right? I don't have feelings anymore. Is that what happens over time is that you lose your feelings? you don't give a bunny rabbit anymore. It's just a transaction, right? And it's another day. And also you have solutions to problems as you've been in the industry for a long time that you did it. Yes, exactly. And also if you have, I never forget, one of my coaches told me, if you have one transaction, it's a hundred percent of your commissions, it's a hundred percent of your income, right? If you have 10 transaction and one falls apart, it's 10% of your income. So it doesn't hurt as bad anymore. When you are new and you're chasing that one transaction and that one commission and all of your, this month's income is hung up on that, and you lose that because whatever reason that hurts. But when you have multiple commissions coming in and multiple sources of income and passive income, you're like, okay, whatever, next. So it's just, it hurts a little bit less. So, okay, let me tell you the first time I cried over spoiled milk. So I had these clients and I swear I showed them every house for like four months straight. Right, because they were the type of clients that were all over the place, didn't know what they want, didn't know where they wanted it. They could shop anywhere from 250 to a million. Like we were all over the place, right? Which again, it was my fault. I should have known better. I should have narrowed them down to a location and to a price and what they really like, right? But hey, I was brand new. So I showed them everything, four months. Then I go on vacation. While I went on vacation, I did have backup. And I did disclose with them that Jessica over here is going to take care of them over the weekend while I'm gone. They decided not to use Jessica, didn't say anything to anyone, went to an open house, loved the house, made an offer with the listing agent. Mind you, mind you, I did do one thing right, and I had a buyer's agency signed already. But who had, what is the word? There's a word for it. When you show the house, I can't think of it. Um. And you guys may not use that in Canada, but in the US, there's a term that even though I had a buyer's agency, the other agent had the. I can't think of the term called. Pretty much she's due the commission because she showed the proper Okay. I can't think of the term right now. And so I cried over that because I was like, what's the point of having a buyer's agency? What's the point of doing the right thing, disclosing ahead of time, having a backup agent, if your clients are just having zero respect for what you have done this whole time? So four months of my life, then I'm not going to get paid for, right? But as would have it, that agent was not a good negotiator. They did not get that deal, and they came back to me. Perfect. But you had a little cry in the meantime. I, oh, I did. I literally went to bed early and cried myself to sleep. That was my first transaction. Then I was like, I just lost the deal. Yeah, so what did you learn from that? Because it seems like you did everything correct. Up here, when you have a buyer's agency, it supersedes everything. Yeah, yeah, there is a, I thought so too, until I learned this term, now I need to freaking Google it, what it's called, where's my phone? Ha ha ha. Actually, where is my phone? It's always with me. I don't see it. I must have left it out there somewhere. What is it called? I would google it if I had my phone, but I don't know what I did with it. Anyway, in the US there is a term where you owe the commission to the agent that showed the property and it overrides your bribe agency. OK, got you. Now, if you could look back and give yourself some advice when you first started, what would you say? Join a team. Why should somebody join a team? So I can tell you why I didn't, and I can tell you, well, I don't want to put words in other people's mouth, but I can tell you why I didn't. So I had a chip on my shoulder, and I had an ego, and your ego is not your amigo. Your ego is not your amigo. I love that. That's a quote right there. right there. It is not your ego. So pretty much, I didn't join a team because I was like, I am not paying someone 50% of my commission, and I am not building somebody else's brand. OK, let me put it this way. You cannot do that, and you can keep 100% of a Big Fat Nothing, or you can keep, I don't know, 50% of a $12,000 commission, which is $6,000. Right? And you learn faster. They spoon feed it to you. They teach you to negotiate. They teach you to fish. They put food on your own table. They teach you every step of the transaction, and you just learn it faster from the ones who's doing it. Or you can take the road I took and make$16,000 in year one, $36,000 in year two,$76,000 in year three, $156,000 in year four. Or I could have joined a team and made the 156 year one and speeded from there. Right. Being a team leader, I completely understand where you're coming from. It's hard. only works this math I'm teaching you here only works if you do, meaning that I would have been the team member and I'm like, if I see a top producer going out of the office, where are you going? I'm going with you. I mean, I would be setting shotgun right next to him in their car before they even leave the office. You're like, what are you doing here? Like, I'm going with you wherever you are going. I'm going to shadow you. Right. Like I would have been at every training and every, you know, contracts training. I would have been at every negotiations, at every open house, at every listing appointment, at every buyer's agency agreement signed. Like I would have been at every appointment and I could have like attached myself to a top producer to learn from them to speed up the trajectory of my success. That's what I would do different than I know better today. I would be on a team for six months to a year, learn everything I can and then go out on my own. Yep. So we've all had one, the moment that it clicks, where it all makes sense and you gain a sense of clarity. Tell us your aha moment, that moment that sticks with you and helps push you forward. Oh, yeah, good questions. OK, so and mind you guys, I did not read the question. So these are literally straight from my heart. OK, so the one I can think. So the one that I can think of, I got a real estate coach in my year five, five or six in real estate. And so I was still at real estate one. I became a top producer in the office and for the top producers, for the top 10 percenters. They gave us free, well, not free coaching. They paid for half of it, right? So it was like 1200 bucks, I think a month, and I paid 600, really, so I paid 600, I think that's how it was. And so I had my cute little coach. First I had a coach that called me weekly and told me, asked me how was my week, and then, so they got fired. And then I, and then I was like, I need someone who can kick my ass, excuse my French. Someone who's like a bulldog, someone who can, because I have the personality that, A, you can't tell me what not to do, but at the same time you can't tell me what to do. If I don't feel like doing it, I'm not doing it. right? And it's just my personality. So I need someone who can push me out of my so-so comfort zone, right? And so I get this little firecracker, her name was Sarah, little four foot nine, like she would chase you out of the earth and you would run like dog with your tail between you. Like she was vicious, right? And I love that. She was an amazing coach. And she asked me one day of like, how much money do you want to make next year? How much? Oh, this year. How much money do you want to make this year? I never had that question asked. Not even myself. I never planned that of like, oh, there's a goal that I'm chasing. I was just chasing that next commission and the hamster will. So I told her I want to make $150,000. Guess how much I made in the end of that year. 156. 156. So what I learned from that is two things. A, holy shit, this works. Like when you set a goal and you put it out there to the universe, the universe shall deliver a path of which is going to take you to 156. Right? B, or the second lesson I learned from that is if this does work, which it does, why did I only ask for 150? Why didn't I ask for 300? Why didn't I ask for half a million? Why didn't say, I want to make a million dollars this year? You know why? Because that's what I believe that I can do. So I put myself into $150,000 box because that's what I believed that I can achieve. So then the next question is, if you believe you can do 150, can you force your brain to believe you can do 300? And if you believe you can do 300, then can you do six? So then it just goes on and on and on. So pretty much the moral of the story is you can have what you believe that you deserve. Yeah, that's really great. I always believe in setting high goals, high goals, because if you fail, you're going to fail high. But if you set your box at 150, guess where you're going to land? 150. Right? Yep. Burn the ships. Go. where we are going and we'll figure out how we're going to get there. Yeah, on the along the way, right? You got it. Can you open up your toolbox and share with our listeners? What are your marketing secrets? What has worked for you when you first started and what is working for you and your team right now? It's really nothing different. We are still doing the same exact thing. It's just more people doing it at the same time. Right. That's the only difference. So we are having more results because more people are doing it. Initially, that was only me. Um, so consistency is key and it's really, it's not brain surgery guys. Anything that you do, do it consistently and do it the best possible way. And by the best possible way, I mean, if you decide to do it on social media, don't do flyers, doesn't work. Don't put letters on the screen. Doesn't work. Do a video, talk to the camera. Talk about whatever's going on in the industry, whatever's on your mind, whatever you achieved today, who are you closing with, what new restaurant came to town, whatever that's going on in the real estate aspect of your life, right? And just post videos about it. Everything has to be a story. Stories sell. OK, facts tell, stories sell. If you say, today's mortgage rate is 3%, it's not. Let's say more like 7%. Today's mortgage rate is 7%. Do you want to buy a house? Or how about we say, oh, Jessica Smith over here just closed down 123 Main Street. So her $420,000 house, they are getting it less than $2,400 a month. And my lender gave them free appraisal and free home protection and 3% closing cost. If this is something, if this sounds like, hmm, too good to be true, give me a call because it is true and I can show you how. Right? So it's a story. I said the same exact thing, but broke it down into numbers. So it's a story versus facts. So it always has to be a story. And at the end of the story, you always have to do a call to action. So I said, give me a call. I can show you how. Right? So you always have to do a call to action. Sometimes, or so many times, I see agents are posting, and there's no call to action. You can't assume that the person on the other end understands what the heck do you want. Imagine that they have no idea. They're a three-year-old. They have no idea what you were trying to achieve with this post, right? So you always have to A, have a swap. A, be on camera. A, B. So one, be on camera. Two, share a story. Three, call to action. What do you want them to do? Do you want them to call you? And if you say, call me, then better include the phone number because they're not going to go to Google, type in your company name, get to your website, get to the contact button, go to the bottom of the page to copy the phone number and paste it on their phone. Never going to happen. So if you say, call me, you have to also say where. If you say, email me, you have to say where. If you say, DM me, that means direct message. That just means send me a direct message right here on Instagram or right here on Facebook. So you have to give. clear instructions, and then you have to tag location. And you always have to use hashtags that are relevant to whatever post, whatever is in your post. And that's pretty much the secret. Step one. Step two, well, let's go back to the basics. What I'm talking about is that you have to have a business page. Do not do business unpersonal. If you don't respect your business enough to create a business page for it, your friends are not gonna respect your business that doesn't exist, right? So if you have a business, you're going to do business and business, you're going to personal and personal. Um, that doesn't mean that when you create a post, so when I create sometimes a post on go-go's real estate, I will share it to my personal, if it's like an event, then I can invite my friends to write things like that. But other than that, my business stays on business page. My personal stays on personal. That's where my kids grew up. This is what I run business. Right? So that's the basic, then you're going to start doing posts. We talked about what the post needs to look like. And then third, you have to do it consistently. So we are super scheduled. It might not feel like to you when you go to my profile to see, but everything I do is super scheduled. I do the same things over and over again. Every Tuesday at 11, I do a podcast. Guess what time it is? Guess what day it is? Tuesday at 11, I'm in a podcast, right? So everything that I do is super scheduled. So I will then go live and be like, hey guys, I'm going on whichever podcast I am on. Here's the link so you can watch it live, right? Like... It doesn't seem like it is scheduled. On your end, it just looks like I'm on a podcast. But if somebody starts paying attention, they realize it's always on Tuesdays and it's always at 11. So everything that you do from now on is going to be super scheduled. So on my real estate team, here's the weekly schedule if you want to write it down. Mondays, post, enlisting. Enlisting, I don't care. Find one in the MLS. You might be specializing in late-front properties. You might be specializing in. moving up, moving down, moving over parents' basement, whatever that is that you specialize in. You might specialize in hunting land. I don't know, whatever that you specialize in, e-listing every Monday. Every Tuesday, one of your listings. If you don't have a listing, go back to find something again, right? In your KV Corps. Wednesdays, search for homes. So that is everybody, every reo tour has a search for home in their own website, right? In your own C-ROM website. Thursdays, these are the open houses for, in my case, the area that I cover is so small, I do a whole county. But if the area you cover like a nice city and there's always open houses, you can just do the city or a specific area. I have to do the whole county because the area I cover, people have acreage and we go so far out and there's only so many listings, right? So every Thursdays we do these are the open houses for the weekend in Livingston County. And then every Friday, how much your home is worth. So this is the same schedule, Monday, A-listing. Tuesday, one of your listings. Wednesday, search for home. Thursday's open houses. Friday's how much your home is worth. And then my agent, Saturday and Sunday, they hold open houses, so they go live from the open houses. So we pretty much have a post in Google's Real Estate team every single day. Right there, you just gave the blueprint. So if you didn't write that down, go back and listen to that once again, write it down because GoGo just gave you a whole bunch of gold right there on how to create content, when to post, and your schedule. And it may get boring, but it is effective when you do the same thing over and over again, consistently. Doesn't matter how great your posts are, it matters that you post consistently. That is key. So, success doesn't come easy. For most of us, we sacrifice our time for success. How do you keep a work-life balance and what advice could you share? Oh gosh, so that's a loaded question. How much time do we have Colin? We have as much time as you want to talk. Okay. So I kind of walk you through the evolution of my career. So at first, because there's so many different phases, being a re-author, I haven't sold the house in three years, so what I do today is super different than what I did to become a tap producer, right? So... Originally when I started my kids were two and four by the time I got licensed So I was a stay-at-home mom I literally stayed home with the kids all day because we could not afford baby sitters, right? I couldn't I didn't make enough money to pay for sitters So I stayed home all day and then I used their time when my kids were napping or watching TV I used the time to make posts to talk to people to reach out to send video messages to like anything I could do Online, right and then if someone wanted to see a house I said, oh my gosh, I'm booked until 5. My earliest is 530 But I can meet you at 123 Main Street anywhere between 532 until the sun goes down, which is usually 8, 30 in Michigan. So that's pretty much what I said. I didn't say, hey, I'm watching my kids and I have to wait until my husband comes home. I said, oh my gosh, I'm totally booked. My earliest availability is 530 today. And so pretty much what I did, my husband goes to work. I stay home all day. As soon as he walked in on the door, I handed over the babies, peace out. I was gone showing houses and I worked evenings, but you really see it kind of works perfect because your clients are at work during the day anyway. So anything that usually happens, listing appointments, buy sides on weekdays is usually happens in the evening and then weekends and holidays. So I pretty much worked when my husband didn't mean he didn't have to work weekends. He didn't have to work holidays. In real estate, we work weekends, work holidays. It's like a restaurant industry, right? It always works. So that's pretty much what I did during the day. I've done anything I could align. And then evenings and weekends is when I did the boots on the ground kind of work. Right. And then if I saw the house on the weekend, it was easy because I really had to do paperwork, send it to the title company, talk to their freezer, do all of that. And there were times when I had to show up for a home inspection with a baby. Right. I'm like, Hey, I'd have a sitter for our home inspection. He can be on the hip. What do I care? Right. So. And then it got easier as the kids were growing up and I was able to start sending them to school. Right. And when they started going to school for a few hours, that's when I scheduled my home inspection. So if Kobe was in school from on Tuesday, from, you know, nine to 1130, guess when I was doing the home inspection Tuesday from nine to 1130. Right. And so pretty much you just work with your schedule and then over time I worked all the time. So there became a time where. I was making enough money where I could easily afford a sitter. And that's when it became that, hey, I work all the time and I did. And I really had like a 90 hour easy, 90 hour work week. I was, if I wasn't working, I was on a call. If I wasn't on a call, I was on, you know, negotiating or writing offers or marketing or just constantly working. And then one day I looked up, I remember being at like my son's soccer game and he was trying to talk to me and I was like, hold on, honey, I have to take this call. Right. So even though I was like, there. I was the soccer mom, right? Was I really there? I had no idea if my child won or lost the game. I was physically there, not mentally there. So I said, okay, something has to change, right? Because I also want to, don't want to miss out on my children growing up. I got myself an assistant. Her name is Christy. She's been with me for going on 12 years now. So then Christy took off all the paperwork off of my plate. So I'm really good. I'm a very organized chaos kind of person. meaning I don't actually like to organize things physically. In my mind, I know where everything's at. Ask me where it's at. I can tell you which email, who sent it, what they find it, what letter starts with, right? So I'm super visual. I'm organized like that, but I never had a file for my clients before Christy. So then when Christy came into the picture, she organized my life on paper, right? And then started having files and all of that. Stuff in that, I strongly recommend if you're in real estate today, get a TC. Back in the day, I did not have an option for TC today. I would not do paperwork if you put a gun to my head. It is not worth your hourly rate. Think of it this way. How many hours do you think you work, you push a file from start to finish? Eight. 10 hours by the time you get to the closing table, right? Like, oh, make sure everybody got their emails. Oh, did we order title? Oh, is there anything wrong on the title? Oh, did we have inspection? Oh, did anything needs to be negotiated on the inspection? Oh, is there any addendums that we need to write? Oh, did we get the signatures back? Oh, we need to add this to the addendum. Addendum A, addendum B, addendum C. Oh, oh, now we need to get appraisal, negotiate the appraisal. Oh, did we tell them that the appraisal came in short? Oh, we did, okay, they've been negotiated. I don't do any of that. That is not your time best spent. Your time best spent, go get another lead. somebody else can push that file to the end of the table. And so pretty much all I did is negotiate. When the negotiations were done, I just called Christy. Hey, we just agreed $5,000 seller concession. Price is the same. Can you please send over a dendem? And so she would sit on the computer. She would get it on. I'm off to get a next client, get another seller, get another buyer, do another open house, those kind of things. So that's what I would do even. So think of it this way. If you get a transaction coordinator, they don't cost you anything, at least here in the US. We pay them if and when we close. So that agent, they're not an agent technically, that transaction coordinator works the file the same way you work the file. And if that deal falls apart, you don't have to pay them. Both of you just work for free. So there's no expense. It's an absolute no brainer. So let someone do the paperwork, remove that from your plate, and use that time to go make more money. And then as you evolve, as you learn these tricks in the game, everybody saves their money, but here's the thing. Show me one person who got rich by saving their money. You need to make more. You don't need to save. You need to make more. And how do you make more? By creating more time and opportunity for yourself. So remove everything from your plate that doesn't make you money, that's costing you money, like doing your own paperwork, and then use the time to go make money. So then I built a team. Because do you know the quote? Then I'd rather have 1% of 100 people's efforts than 100% of mine. Absolutely. I live it every day. Right. So then I was thinking, okay, let me get this straight. I can go work 20 hours with a buyer because the minimum you work 16, 20 hours with a buyer by the time you show them houses and negotiate an inspection and go to the closing table and yada yada, it's at least 16 to 20 hours. Right. If not 30. And I make, let's say, let's say $10,000 average commission. What is that? I can do, I don't have my phone. So it's what? Uh, $10,000, 30 hours. What is that? 300 bucks an hour. Can't do the math. about that, yeah. Okay, so I can do that or I can get two buyer's agents, give them two leads, even though 50-50 split, the two of them sell one house each. I'm at 100% of a commission because 50% from two is 100%. And I didn't work a single hour. Hmm. There's something there. there's something there. And then eXp came about and then eXp says you have the company grow and then we'll give you three and a half percent of every agents come pretty much. I mean levels are a little different but let's say three percent in average to some percent in average. So you could have a hundred percent of one commission or maybe you could have three percent of 1200 commission. Hmm. Right? So then you start thinking it's just math, right? It's just math. So then you have to figure out where do you want your time? Where is my time best spent? Is my time best spent to go get another seller or another buyer to make one more commission? Or should I give that buyer and seller to my agents, take a 50% cut and then spend my time on agent attraction over here, build a massive downline and organization and take three and a half percent of 1400 agents? So then on top of it, I decided I'm only going to work Monday to Wednesdays because two years ago, one of my best friends passed away in a car accident. And I realized how poof, it was gone one day. And what if that happened to me? Like, did I really spend my time and my life the way I really wanted to spend it? Or was I chasing the next commission? Because guess what? You can't take commissions to heaven. There was nothing there. What we can take with us hopefully is memories. And I was like, OK, so I'm going to work Monday to Wednesday. This is why my podcast is on Tuesdays at 11. And I'm going to take long weekends for the rest of my life. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I don't work. So I work like a mad woman for three days, and then that's it. And then on top of it, I got myself 17 assistants, 14, I think. and they do everything. I haven't checked an email or a DM and I can't tell you when. I don't do anything that I don't like doing or doesn't make me the money or the hourly rate. I stay in my lane. I'm very specific of what I do with the time that I do work and everything else is hired up. I love that. And I haven't made less than seven digits or multiple seven digits in more than five years. Boom, right there. What is the one thing that has you most excited about the future of your real estate business? Oh, you have a good question. Thank you. I have so many goals always, I'm always chasing something. Right. So, and then sometimes I look back and I'm like, have I even celebrated the one that I did achieve? Right. Um, so I just had a big, I wouldn't say achievement, but a big thing that happened, um, right, I just brought over a brokerage with 500 agents and I think I need, I need to give it like, half minute to let that soak in and enjoy. Because just so the audience understands, when we attract at eXp, we can bring brand new agents, referral agents, which they don't actually sell. They just refer to transactions. We can bring rock-solid, top-producing agents. We can bring small brokerages, smaller teams, big brokerages, bigger teams. There's all kinds of options. Well, since I've never been a broker owner, I don't know their pain. I don't know what they need. I don't know the pebble in their shoe. I don't know their expenses. I don't know how to run a brokerage. Right. So I always had like this underlying, um, fear that I'm not enough to bring a brokerage, right. Since I've only been kind of like, even though I have a small team now, I still consider myself a solo agent for whatever reason. That's how I feel. Right. Um, so I had that underlying, um, internal battle. whatever you call it, right? And then now that it did happen, I want to let that soak in, right? And yes, I can do that. I am deserving of that level, right? And then whenever you reach a level, I'm always then question myself, OK, so if I can do this, then what else can I do? Right? So my chasing is not necessarily, I don't necessarily. So how do I answer your question? I feel like I have achieved so much in my life that I've never even dreamt about. And somehow, accidentally, I just happened to achieve it. Like, I have three, two comma, cover words. Let me show you. Because we are about to paint them. So I have three of these. Aren't they pretty? Very nice. That's the 2 Comma Award from ClickFunnels. Yes. So I have three of them. And so what I'm trying to say with this is that if you asked me three years ago, maybe four years ago, what a two comma word is, and if I ever want to achieve to get one, I didn't even know what it was. Right. So sometimes I feel like we achieve certain things and it wasn't even a goal. It's just, you started doing something, you put all your time and energy into it. And next thing you know, there's an award and you get one. You're like, Oh, I don't even know there were awards, but that's great. But now that you gave one, I want another one. And then I want another one. Right. Um, so I feel like, yeah. So I feel like I get new ideas all the time and my, the way the ideas come to me, they are so random, right? I'm not like, I've never was like, Ooh, so I'm going to finish high school. And then after high school, I'm going to go to college and I'm going to go to this college and when I finish that, I'm going to get my master's and then I'm going to get my PhD and then I'm going to be a whatever. Like I am. I am so not like that. I can't even tell you how my brain works. Like an idea pops in my head, like ask my team. I can give them instruction today. This is what we're gonna do. Get it done by Friday. 9.30, nevermind. Everybody hold, hold your thought. I got a better idea. Hold everything that you just did by far. We are pivoting. We are going this direction. Tuesday morning. Guys, I woke up with a great idea, right? So they're like. Christie said one time, so Christie's now my director of operations. She's the one who started as my assistant 12 years ago. She said one time, she's like, go, I'm going to take all your fricking squirrels and I'm going to put them in a row, in a duck row, right? Like put your ducks in a row, right? I was like, I was just, because I am like that. I'm a super squirrely person. I get great ideas. I chase it. I figured out I move on. I'm onto the next thing. Sometimes I haven't even reached a goal than I set for myself. And I'm already chasing something totally different. So. To answer your questions, where do I see my career? I would like to have a massive, massive organization for agents because I do believe that I can help a lot of agents. So that is a goal. We are at 1,400 agents now with the new brokerage of 500 coming in, so soon to hit close to 2,000 agents. I would like to see that 25,000 plus in the next few years. So that is one of my biggest goals. And then I just started a podcast. So I'm super excited about growing that and reaching larger audiences of my own. I have attended, who knows, probably thousands of podcasts now, but never my own. I always attended other people's podcasts. So now this is going to be my own podcast, my thoughts, my guests, the way I see the world and the way I can help others. And so I'm super excited about that. You know the quote that you can have absolutely anything in life, the more people you have to get what they want. So I think. And that's why I started this podcast is just to help people. Because we need more people. We need more people sharing what they know because in our industry, it's so much that people don't share. They hold their cards close to the chest because they come from a place of scarcity. Whereas I always think. Nope. No. you know, my previous guest said the same thing. It's just the color over here is a little bit different. So you've given us a ton of value and takeaways, but what are three actionable takeaways that you think every agent should be doing in their business right now? Oh gosh. Social media, number one. If you're not on social media, you're going to be a dinosaur. I hate to break into you. You're not going to exist. You're not going to be a choice when they're searching for an agent. So if you're still fighting the idea of going on camera, then maybe you want to ask yourself, which one is harder, being on camera or being broke? Yeah, big bro. choose your hard. So that would be one. Learn constantly, right? Because the industry changes, mindset changes, technology changes, people know here in the US how we do business, how we used to do it for the last 20 years and how we do it now, just changed, right? So go to events, read books, join masterminds. Surround yourself with the smart people so you know those things before they are here. And then you're already prepared before the freaking freight train just hits you. That would be number two for me. And number three, I would say something about that balance thing. It's so easy to get caught up in the next commission, in the next commission. But one day you're going to look back, and I don't want anyone to have it not a healthy marriage, no friends, no vacations, like a vacation on the beach with your laptop. Is that a real vacation? And your phone attached to your AirPods in your ear going swimming, right? No, that's not a real vacation. So I would really like to say that concentrate on to live an actual life and not to change that next commission so you can have it all. Because I see so many people who are, let's say they are top producers, but they are on their fifth wife. or they are top producers but they are overweight, or they are top producers but can't keep a friend for the life of theirs, right? Or they don't have time for friends and that's why they don't have friends, right? And so I think my goal for everyone or my prayer for everyone would be that you have it all. Then you can have the most amount of life, the best life, right? With the most amount of money and with the bestest friends and family surrounding you and feed your brain. of that. So what do you see in the future for organized real estate? What are our challenges? Oh gosh, I look at challenging as lessons we haven't learned yet, right? Like challenges excite me because that just means we haven't figured something out yet, but we are a very smart industry and we sure will. If anybody can figure something out, we can figure it out, right? So, I mean, here in the US, I don't think you guys have that in Canada, but here in the US, we just had this big NAR situation, right, and everybody was losing their mind over it. Is it, yeah. Yeah. losing their mind over it. It's really nothing different than we've already been doing. You should have always had a buyer's agency. You should have not shown a property without having a contract with that buyer to have fiduciary duty to that buyer and not to seller. You should have negotiated your commission, right? And now that's the only difference is that we also have to negotiate it with the buyer. In the past, our commissions was listed on the buyer's agency agreement where we just assumed that the seller will pay it, right? Where now you have to actually have the conversation with your buyer that, hey, if the seller is not willing or not able... to pay my buyer side 3% that you're willing to pick it up because I don't work for free. And I think what's going to happen in the industry, in my opinion, it just helped us. It just helped buyer's agents. Because if you think about a buyer's agents in the past, we just assumed we worked for free until we have a commission. Now we have a guaranteed commission. And we can also even charge a retainer fee. I'm like, okay, I work for 3% plus 600 bucks upfront. Because I could be showing houses for you. for the next four months and you don't buy anything. So how about a retainer for three months, 600 bucks plus a 3% commission if and when you buy. Right, so now there's a cost of doing business. In the past, they just assumed you work for free. Yeah, yeah, and it's going to become more like running a business and instead of just hoping. I've been saying for years that I hope they make it mandatory that you have to have a buyer's agency agreement because it only makes sense. We have contracts for sellers. Why don't we have mandatory contracts for buyers? We always did. I don't know if you guys do in Canada, we always did. So we cannot present, well, not mandatory to enter a home, but it's mandatory to present an offer. You have to show agency when you present an offer. So most of the time what agents do is that they sign the buyer's agency at the time of presenting the offer. versus signing it from day one, from the first house that you ever showed. That's the only difference in my opinion is that they're going to now sign it on time. You're going to have a buyer consultation, just you have a seller consultation. You're welcome through the process of buying a home and what's expected of the buyer and what's expected of you as you fiduciary duty to the buyer. And what is it going to cost them? Yeah. Yeah, that's. I think it's super easy. In my mind, nothing happened. We were already, I mean, my team always had to sign a buyer's agency. Maximum they can. there. I was all right. The only difference now, we have to negotiate our commission multiple times. We have to negotiate with the buyers, have them agree that they're going to cover it if the seller doesn't. Then negotiate again with the seller. Hopefully, they pick it up. So then my fiduciary rate to my buyer make saving them as much money as possible. And if the seller refuses to cover a commission or partial commission, then I have to go back to the buyer and negotiate again. So it's nothing but negotiations. We have already been doing that. Anyway, just throw one more thing into the conversation. Yep, exactly. So realtors that I know are generally a very giving bunch. What are you doing to give back to your community? So I used to think that, so being from Eastern Europe, giving was like tied at church, right? That's what I thought giving was, give money. No, teach people how to make money. Because you can give a fish and the man will eat for a day. You can teach him how to fish and they will eat for a lifetime. So that's what I like to do. I like to teach. Anything I learn, I teach. I started GoGetEm webinars. That's one of my membership-based products, right? Anybody in any industry can come. It's an entrepreneurial product. They can come and learn. So anything I learn, I create a training on it and I dump it in there. And so as the dance of Washington said in one of his... speeches he said each one teach one. So my goal is to share as much knowledge as I possibly can and then the zig-zag quote you can have absolutely anything you like the more people you share your knowledge with right pretty much the more people you have to get what they want so that's what I like to do that's my give back time is to give my time because an hour of your time is an hour of your life. Love that. That's so true. Teach a man how to fish. So next bit, are you ready? It is the rapid fire round. Okay. What is the one piece of technology that you just can't do without and why, and you can't say your cell phone and you can't say MLS. I'm going to give you two things, many chat and go high level. Boom. What is the best book you've ever read? Oh, I'll show you. Oh, I gave it to my son. My son got punished and his punishment is he has to read it. It is Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. out winning the devil by Napoleon Hill. What is the best piece of business advice you've ever received? Never eat alone. Hey, this is my favorite one. 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 and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter is 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'm laughing because this is my exact life. I came from Romania. Not even a laptop and not $500 $200 Didn't even you forgot to say you don't speak the language Okay, in your case, we'll make an exception. You don't speak the language. also forgot to say that your name is impossible to pronounce to anyone and then you decide to be in sales to sell a house, right? And I was like, who the heck is going to buy a house from me? So I would do exactly the same what I did. I would take my kiddo laptop, I would go on Facebook, I would create my business page and I would start posting away with my accent and Never Eat Alone comes in handy, right? So then anybody I would run into, I would invite them for coffee. It was so nice running into yoga or at the grocery store or at whatever you run into someone right? It's like I would really like to get you know, you can I take you out for coffee? Can you do some work at night? So I used to be caffeinated out of my ever-loving mind because I would have a nine o'clock coffee meeting and a ten o'clock coffee meeting You know why? Because I could have invited them for lunch, but I couldn't afford lunch. So I figured I'll just have two coffees with people, right? Exactly, so then we're gonna do a lot more coffees than there is lunch, right? So I just did a bunch of coffees in the morning. So I started with the local experts. So I would invite out the title companies, the inspectors, the appraisers, the moving company, the painter, the cleaning crew, like anybody that's involved in a real estate transaction. I would invite them out for lunch and I would pick their brain or coffee. I would pick their brain. I would ask all kinds of questions from their angle, which then in return gave me knowledge about something I didn't know anything about. What does knowledge do? I can create a video with that knowledge. What happens when that knowledge comes through your lips automatically makes you the expert. I didn't even know that five minutes ago. I just recited what I learned from five minutes ago on camera and now I'm the expert. Would you go figure? It sounds so easy. Last question, and we will say goodbye. Give us a quote that has guided you in your life. My favorite quote. I have a million of them but this is the one that started the fire in my soul. If you don't build your dreams, someone is going to hire you to build theirs. Boom. That's beautiful. Let's remember that. keyboard, hire you. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the big things that we love to do on this podcast is we love our listeners to send out referrals. If somebody has somebody coming here and going in Michigan and what area of Michigan do you cover? So my local team covers Livingston County, but Team GoGo covers almost every state in the US besides South Dakota and North Dakota. So almost anyone in the US we can help. Okay, how do they get ahold of you? GoGo's real estate and Instagram. I mean, you can find GoGo, Badkey or GoGo's real estate everywhere, but and all the other platforms you're going to be talking to one of my assistants. If you want to talk to me directly, Instagram, GoGo's real estate. Beautiful. Just send you a DM. Absolutely. Perfect. And I will link your account in the show notes of this podcast. And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time. I know you are one of the busiest and hardworking people that I know. So thank you for taking the time, the hour that we've been chatting out of your day to be able to do this. It is greatly appreciated. And if there's anything that I can do on my side for you. just do not hesitate to reach out. You're the best. Thank you so much for having me. Bye guys. You're the best.