Practical Empowerment

Danny Brown — On Innovating Within Your Industry, Motivating Team Members and Exceptional Client Experiences

January 01, 2020 After5.io Season 1 Episode 3
Practical Empowerment
Danny Brown — On Innovating Within Your Industry, Motivating Team Members and Exceptional Client Experiences
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of Practical Empowerment, host Preslie Hirsch (@heypreslie) chats with founder of Myriad and host of Danny Brown Talks Phoenix, Danny Brown (@dannybrownaz). Danny has taken an innovative approach to running a real estate business and hiring employees, and in this conversation we dive into why he did that and how it's helped his business. We also talk about creating an exceptional client experience, providing value to your potential customers, the importance of understanding what your team members are motivated by, and much more.

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This show is brought to you by After5.io (website/LinkedIn). 

Danny:   0:08
every overnight. Success is 10 years in the making, and it's all that little stuff. Calm, pounded over time. That really starts to add up. And if you could do those little things every single day consistently, it really adds up to a huge games month over month, year over year

Preslie:   0:31
Hi there. And welcome back to practical empowerment. Inspiring conversations with Valley leaders brought to you by after five dot io. I'm your host, Presley Hirsch. On today's show, we're chatting with Danny Brown, founder of Myriad, which is an innovative real estate company based out of Phoenix. In discussing Danny's approach to leadership and creating exceptional company atmosphere, we talk about how to hire for cultural fit, building autonomy into each employee's position, how to discover what your team members are actually motivated by and spoiler. It's not always money, and we also talk about the role that his specific business coach played in his success. It's a business coach, actually for teens, not just for individuals. It's a super interesting conversation packed, a tactical advice and some really funny stories along the way, particularly in his early days of real estate, and you'll likely gain some ideas to take back to your employer or your team to help foster a space that people want to be a part of.

Danny:   1:28
Well, at the time I was, I've been a real estate for 12 years, and I've been running my own real estate team now for about six. Yeah, six years, and I I went through a transition with the team I was on, and I was actually a little lost. I didn't know I love doing real estate, but I didn't know if real estate was a long term career path that I wanted to stick with. I had some personal things happen with some friendships that kind of dissolved and hit me a little hard. So I just started looking around. I looked at nutrition as a path because food's always interest me. I applied and got into the Arizona State University's masters of real estate development program because I thought about getting back into corporate life, and you kind of needed a masters to do that. But then I didn't want to take on student loans and get into debt and one of my mentors, personal mentor, she's a loan officer, she said. You know, time out before you do anything, you really need to talk to my husband. He's doing real estate. He's been doing a lot of flips and buying and holding. But he's seeing AH, transition in the marketplace and things are changing. And so we went on a double date and he and I hit it off immediately, and he was talking about getting out of doing flips and investing and wanting to get into traditional real estate, but had no real background in doing that where I had 67 years of background and past clients. And so at that dinner, we decided to go into business together and start our own real estate team and haven't looked back since.

Preslie:   3:08
That's awesome.

Danny:   3:08
Yeah, yeah, So it kind of, you know, I I owe a lot of thanks to my mentor at the time and my coach, I'm a big believer and having coaches and paying attention toe what they say because they've been through a lot typically, And if you listen to them, they can typically guide you in the right direction to help you discover the answers. You know, she talked to me at the right time, and it's been It's been fantastic. I couldn't picture myself doing anything else.

Preslie:   3:39
Yeah, well, and that's a really cool testament, Thio. Just being open to trying, you know, look, applying for a school program, considering other options, talking to people, saying I'm feeling a little bit lost, and I'm not sure what to do next because that could be a really uncomfortable place to be in.

Danny:   3:55
Absolutely. And I think a lot of people feel lost at times and just don't know where to go and don't know what to do. And I think you need to be open to trying new things and exploring different options, you know, making pros and cons lists to figure out what's gonna work best for you and not be afraid to try something, because I mean, at worst, you're gonna fail and you get to just try it again.

Preslie:   4:20
Sure. And how has your company grown and changed over time over the last several years that you've owned it now?

Danny:   4:26
Well, so you know, we started. There's really only one model for running a real estate team that we knew of at the time. And so ours was unique because most teams are either one individual with a bunch of people working underneath them, or it's a husband and wife team working together. Well, we were just two friends who decided to start a real estate team. So you essentially had to team leads at the top and the model that we were trying to follow than bringing on agents that were underneath us, that we fed leads to that would close business. And then you get paid on a split. And that's kind of the model that we were following. And we did that for, I don't know, maybe four years and my business partner. He's kind of a serial entrepreneur like starting businesses, likes the grind and likes getting stuff to a certain point and then kind of branching out, doing something different. And so we kind of hit that stride where he's like, I feel like I've gone as far as I can or want to in real estate. The part that I enjoy the most is the marketing, and, you know, he took us from, um, you know, I think the first year we were working together, we did about 10 million. He took us to 20 million. He doubled our closings through his marketing efforts and learning how to do things through social media. You know, six years ago, that was all kind of new running Google ads and all that kind of stuff, and so he wanted to branch out and do that on his own. So we, you know, we're still super close friends. In fact, that coffee with him this morning. And he started his own digital marketing company doing that for other small businesses. And so I was left to run a real estate company by myself, and I had really no idea what I was doing. And I'm really good at real estate, but running a company is probably

Preslie:   6:20
really different skill. Yeah.

Danny:   6:21
Yeah. Just so different. And so, you know, that same mentor, that same coach, uh, Lizzie, She and I sat down and she kind of gave me a road map on Like what? What do you want? Where do you see yourself? You get to do whatever you want to with this this real estate team and take it and make it whatever you want to be. So she and I Yeah, she and I kind of sat down. We looked at the traditional real estate model and just decided it was really broken. Um, what what ends up happening is you have, like I said, that single team lead and they're bringing in the business. And then they're feeding it out to people below them who are essentially running their own businesses within your business. It's very cutthroat. Uh, it's always about gimme leads. Give me, Give me, give me and then you pay this commission split and there's there's never really a sense of culture. There's no real sense of loyalty in the real estate community on these teams because, you know, these individuals get to a certain point where, okay, now they have their database and book of business, and they're gonna go out on their own. So you know, your typical agent on a team might last two or three years, and then they go out and try and do it themselves, or they just fizzle out of the business altogether because they can't cut it. And so what I worked to create, I blew everything up and started over. Um, I had a transaction manager, and she's amazing, and she is really good at paperwork. She's really good at running profit and loss sheets and the accounting side of things, all the stuff that I'm super deficient at. So she's kind of like the yin to my yang on the business side of things. And so she and I kind of sat down together and made this road map to what our team would look like. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, and so she's still with me today and is my number two, and I again I couldn't imagine running this team or my business without her. Um, having my back on and what we What we've created is a system of everyone on our team has paid a salary, which is super unheard of in the real estate industry because you think real estate, you first thing you think of this commission's right and so, you know, we've got a showing agent, so she helps all of her buyers, and I pay her well above what your average Realtor makes per year. I cover all of my team's subscriptions and dues. I cover all the marketing I pay the mileage reimbursement, so I really kind of take care of everything and then pay them a salary for doing all the different jobs that a real estate team needs to dio. And it gets rid of that, that cutthroat nous that exists in real estate teams. It gets rid of the revolving door because I'm hiring people who have a different, different like mentality. You know, there. I think someone is commission on Lee. They have a very different sort of mentality, chum, you know, And so I hire outside of the real estate industry and focus on individuals who put other people ahead of themselves. And, you know, we we search for people. Kind of. One of our core values is being humble, hungry and smart. And I don't want individuals on my team who want to be HD TV stars or one their names up in lights. I've had those people. I was one of those people. I wouldn't want to work for me. Um, So, um, and we want people who are intelligent, and but we want people also who are hungry to go after the business. So So having those those three principles in place has really led to creating a teen that puts others needs ahead of themselves, employees, their co workers as well as our client's needs. So you know my showing agent. She's not motivated by the next commission check. You know she's motivated to do a good job for the client, and if they end up buying a house with us, great. If they don't, that's OK, because she's gonna get paid regardless for her time and her efforts in her energy. So it's it's ah, it's a different spin it. I always say I'm not creating anything new. It's just running a traditional business, but it's new in the real estate world.

Preslie:   10:46
Yeah, there's so many things that I'm gonna get into that. I'm glad you brought up your core values because I'm gonna read one of them so I don't mess it up and I want to ask you about it, and it says, Don't quit until the job is done. This is real estate. We have to work when our clients aren't, which will include nights and weekends. And I found that really interesting because it's very clear it sets the expectation and you talk about hiring outside of the real estate industry so that, you know, you could probably teach people real estate, but you can't teach people to be humble, hungry people. Smart, intelligent, those kinds of things. So why is it so important to set those expectations before somebody comes onto your team? Well,

Danny:   11:22
I think that it's very important when you're in the hiring process to make sure that you're setting very clear expectations, because a lot of people I think will kid themselves and there's there's people out there who are really good at interviewing. Sure, they know what the questions are. They no have to answer them so that they sound great and get their foot in the door and then hope that it works out. And so I'm very clear up front that if you don't follow these things, then you're gone. We just don't have time to mess around with you. If these things aren't something that you're in agreement with,

Preslie:   12:00
we're not.

Danny:   12:00
We're not going to change. This is who we are. These are our core values. This is what we believe in. And if you're not on board with that, then you're not a good fit. And it's going to be obvious because everybody on our team has bought into these core values. They're the ones that that came up with our core values. We did as a team building exercise. And if you don't buy into that, it's clear and you won't want to stay. You won't want to be a part of that.

Preslie:   12:26
Is there something more than just that people are more about in If they help come up with the core values like, Is there any other reason that you felt doing it together was more important than doing it yourself?

Danny:   12:36
You know, I don't believe in me being the end all be all. I'm not the smartest. If I'm the smartest person in the room, then we're in trouble. If I'm the smartest person when it comes to marketing, we're in trouble. I've got a marketing person for that and, you know, So I believe in bringing in people who are very talented at what they do in that specific field. Sure, and I want to get there by in, and I want to get their opinions to help, you know, ultimately at yes, I do decide what we're gonna end up doing, and I weigh kind of all the pros and cons again. But I want their contribution. I want them to feel that they're a part of something bigger than just them and that their opinions matter and carry weight. And so if they come to me with a suggestion, then we talk it out and we work through the motions on what that's gonna look like, what that's going to entail. And then if I'm bought in, then we present it to the team. And if the teams like, yeah, that's fantastic than it's something that we implement. So I always think that it's important to get everybody's by and and suggestions when it comes to these types of things.

Preslie:   13:44
Yeah, absolutely. And how do you look at autonomy in your culture? It seems like you give the people that are part of your company a lot of responsibility. Thio kind of run their own little mini business within, you know, their expectations are clear responsibilities air clear. So how do you make sure that everybody's still working towards the same common mission while also allowing everybody to kind of do their own thing?

Danny:   14:07
So communication is key when it comes to that, and so we've got you know, I kind of got that open floor plan concept in terms of of our office. And, you know, we've got an open door policy so that anybody can come in. Of course, if you're working on, I call it the one thing. If you're working on your one thing, we put a sign up that says, Do not disturb And that means you're working on your one thing. Don't come in and bother me. And then we've got a sign that says that you know, you're welcome to come in and talk to me about whatever you want. Um, so I was still people I give you. I trust you until you give me a reason not to. And so I'm not the type that is going to make you punch a clock. If you want to leave, you know, I've got one person on my team. She leaves three times a week at 44 30 to go to the gym. Awesome. Like I have no problem with that. You need to get your hair done in the middle of the day from you know, the doctor. If you have to let your dog out, that's that's life. That stuff happens. You do not have to be sitting in that chair from 9 to 5. I just don't I'm not bought into that. Yeah, And I think giving people that sort of freedom to manage their life and manage their schedule with guidance, you know, of course. And boundaries still put in place. Um, people are adults, and if you treat them like adults, I feel that for the most part, they'll act like adults.

Preslie:   15:32
Yeah. Did that, Uh, you know that I guess thought process to run your company that way where you don't require somebody to be there from 9 to 5 and do things maybe a little bit differently and not so conventional. Did that come from a place of jobs that you've had before? Where you thought I want to do this differently? Or have you always kind of as you stepped into leadership thought This is the way that it should be done. Like, where does that come from? That you kind of broke off from a little bit more of a traditional approach.

Danny:   15:57
That's a good question. I I try to continuously educate myself. I listened to a lot of podcasts. I try to read a lot, and that's actually one of the foundations of Netflix. So the people that run Netflix, that's kind of how, and that's where I got that. I think I've always had that sort of mentality and stuff. I don't want to micromanage people. Yeah, I don't need to know where they're at every single minute of every single day. Um, it's just not in my personality type on dhe. So when I heard that it was an interview with one of the Netflix founders, that that's kind of how they operate and that they're the ones that said, if you treat people like adults, they'll act like adults. You know, I didn't make that up. And so that's kind of like I was like, Oh, I really I really resonate with that s O. You know, I implement to that into my business. And one of the reasons most people get into real estate anyway is because it gives you flexibility with your schedule, you know, So one of our core values is yes. Sometimes you're gonna have to work nights and weekends, but I'm also I preach work, life balance. And so if my expectation is that sometimes you know, if we have a client, that goes under contract at five o'clock on a Friday. They don't care that it's five o'clock on a Friday. They have a boat load of questions, so we need to get them everything right away. If we have clients that want to see homes on nights and weekends, which most people d'oh because they have to work a 9 to 5 that I have to allow them the ability to manage their schedule during the week when we might be slower, like Wednesdays for us tend to be a much slower day. So those were good days, and we talk about that. Those were good days for you to take off if you need to take a day off during the week. If you need to schedule things, that middle of the week tends to be lighter. So if my expectation is that your schedule has to be flexible to cover our clients, then I have to be flexible on when you're gonna be at the office.

Preslie:   17:57
Sure, that seems so logical, but I don't think a lot of people put it into practice.

Danny:   18:02
Yeah, I agree with you. I think that there is. It is changing, though I am hearing more and more companies that are having four day work weeks back and work, you know, 4 10 hour days. So you get that, you know, required 48 40 hours of work time in, um, so I do think that there are more import businesses that are are breaking the trend of working, you know, 8 to 5 or 95

Preslie:   18:26
share. Talked a little bit about what your employees are motivated by you. And I had a conversation about this off air that I thought was really interesting. And I would just love for you to share thoughts on, you know, is everybody motivated by money or some people not motivated by money? Um, and kind of Why's that so important to discover about your employees?

Danny:   18:44
Because everybody's I don't think that everybody's money motivated. There's gonna be a select few who are. And but I think there's gonna be a large portion of people that aren't if long, is there bare necessities, their needs are being met, and they've got a little bit extra for saving. I don't think that you can make people kind of jump through hoops just solely based on money. Um, you know, I think for some people responsibilities and job title. And, you know, one of my I keep talking about me and my number two Morgan, you know, she's my c 00 And she's I think she's 29. How many 29 year olds can say that there see a CEO of a company? Um, not very many. Um, so I think figuring out it's important to figure out what they're motivated by and knowing that it's not always money can really help you, especially when you're a small business and don't have a lot of money. Two. Figure out how you can properly encourage people to reach their you know their potential and to push them to do particular jobs. Um,

Preslie:   19:57
and on a very like kind of tactical level, how do you go about finding those things out like, Are there? Is it like a strength finder test or an ending angiogram, or is it conversations with them about why are you here other than the fact that you have to pay your bills? You know, how do you go about discovering people's motivation?

Danny:   20:12
So I work with the team coach as well, so I have an individual business coach and mentor. But then I work with a coach that kind of mentors, our team and our turn team dynamic that we meet with. And she meets with each of my employees individually and we do the disc profile So some people don't necessarily believe in the personality tests and some you know. But with that aside, I do think the disk is one of the more accurate ones. And so knowing what personality type that individual is at work, you know your work personality is very different than your at home personality. So I think it's important to know when you're doing those types of tests to do it in the environment that you're that it's applicable to champ. It's for work. Do it at work, Um, and and then just getting to know people, you know, you can learn a lot just by having conversations and getting to know your team and your employees and finding out what drives them.

Preslie:   21:10
Yeah, absolutely. It seems like you do a lot of things to pour back into your employees, like changing up the you're like, yeah, absolutely, like changing up the structure of your business. I know you guys? D'oh like days. Were you volunteered together? What are some of the other things that you do to create a culture that people want to be a part of?

Danny:   21:28
Um, you know, my my philosophy is that I'm here for them. They're there for our clients, and so I need to make sure that they're happy and order for them to make sure clients are happy. And so it's It's a hard question. Answer, um, trying to think of you know what we what we do, we do a lot of team building. So I think everybody really enjoys when we get together with our coach and we do those team building exercises, we try to eat lunch together as a team once a month and, you know, just not talk shop s. Oh, somebody's in charge of coming up with some sort of like ice breaker type when we eat. So we bring in and we bring in food and have it catered from a particular place. Um and and I think what really impacts our culture the most is regardless of where they're at on the totem pole, in terms of their level, whether their entry level, part time, full time. Whatever their opinion matters, they matter. And I think that they see that. And because their opinion matters, they want to be a part of the team share. And because I, you know, I don't think in corporate America your opinion necessarily matters. And, you know, you can have this great idea or even if it's not a great idea. You

Preslie:   22:58
just you just

Danny:   22:59
you tell it to your boss and it's like, Oh, yeah, And then it just kind of goes away. You know? I think back to I had a part time employee and he read a book, uh, and came up with the idea that we should be throwing housewarming party parties for our clients. And I was like, That's a great idea. Come to me with a plan.

Preslie:   23:20
Yeah, I

Danny:   23:20
know. This is your idea, right it out. Come to me and tell me what it's gonna cost, what it's gonna look like and then pitch it. And so he did. He it took a week, presented it to me. I was like, This is This is great. I really like it. Now let's present it to the team because the team needs to buy in to doing this. Because when do you have housewarming parties? Typically on the weekend, Right,

Preslie:   23:42
May. So

Danny:   23:43
now I'm asking the whole team to sacrifice, you know, an hour, two hours of their time to go to this thing. So he presented to the team and the teams like this is great. I'm in.

Preslie:   23:53
That's

Danny:   23:53
why I'm willing to sacrifice two hours on a weekend or an evening to throw our buyer clients, housewarming parties. And so and he was part time, and he would call you no leads on the phone, and that was his job relatively entry level and came up with it. So I think it goes back to empowering people. Um, And if you do that, I think that they will buy into your overall mission.

Preslie:   24:18
Absolutely. I love that. You pointed out that you didn't just take his idea and say, Let me think on it or push it off to the side. But, hey, why don't you now build upon this idea? See how realistic it is? Let's pitch it to the team. I love that you got him that involved in it because it's one thing to come up with an idea, but it's another to say, you know, maybe he starts doing it. He's like, Oh, this is really expensive or oh, this is gonna take more time than it's worth you know? But then now he knows that maybe it wasn't the most realistic idea, but now he's doing that research and taking ownership over it. And so I think that's a really neat way to go about it, too. Yeah,

Danny:   24:49
and I've had other guys on our team that do the same thing, and it turns out to not be agreed, Sure, but they discover like, Oh, you know, it was a good idea in theory, but the implementation side of it just doesn't work or is gonna be way too costly, and they discover that on their own. And

Preslie:   25:06
it's not mean, like I might

Danny:   25:07
already know the answer in a couple times I do, and it's like, Okay, you know, I hear what you're saying. Do some research. I don't have timeto research this for you and build off your idea. Bring it back to me a completed plan and let's see if we can make it work. And if it's good will implement it. And if it's not, they typically discover it on their own. And we'll come back to me like that. You know, that isn't a good idea. Like, OK, why? Why would and and usually they have come to the answer. The realization on their own and I had may have already known that answer. But now they feel kind of validated because they discover

Preslie:   25:44
it for themselves and their learning something along the way, too. Yeah, that's really cool to switch over from your employees and your team to your customers in your clients. I know that you invest a lot of time and money and resources to put content out for your clients, it seems like from falling on social media, you're always trying to educate people and empower people of knowledge who technically aren't even your clients Yet, like they paid you anything. Why is it so important to you to put time and money and energy an investment into that when those people aren't even your customers? Yet?

Danny:   26:16
Because I think that people think real estate is super easy. I think that they related to buying and selling a car or, you know, personal belonging, and it's much more complicated than snapping some photos and throwing a house in the MLS. Um, so I feel that by putting out all this information all these different things that you should know when purchasing a home or when selling a home and best practices and different types of inspections you should do and just everything that goes into it. If somebody wants to take that information and run with it, great, good on them that if they have the time to do it for sure that I'm okay with that. But my thought processes is that people will discover there is way more to this than I thought. I have a job or I'm running my own business. I don't have time to do everything that Danny and his team do. So I'm just gonna call and go straight to them and have them do it,

Preslie:   27:16
sure, and establishes you as an expert in space. Probably.

Danny:   27:19
Yeah. Yeah. I think that you need to put your best stuff out there and let people see that you have that knowledge in that background, and if they value it, they will come to you and they'll see that Yeah, I think of 11 client. Specifically, he had put a post on Facebook. Um, he's a high school friend and he's like, Okay, all you realtors out there convince me why I should use a buyer's agent and that's that's an agent that's gonna represent you through the purchase. And I saw all these posts that people, um, wrote like why they should use them as his agent. And he ended up not using any of them and tried to do the transaction on his own. And he was actually under contract on a property. And then he saw one of my videos about doing sewer inspections and how you should always do a sewer inspection on a home that was built prior to 1978 year General. Home Inspector is not going to do that because they have toe fish a camera down your sewer lines to make sure that they're not falling apart. And ah, because he saw that video, he ordered a sewer inspection, and it turned out that the sewer lines all needed to be replaced. It was gonna be somewhere around 15 to 20 grand, and the seller wasn't willing to do anything. So he canceled. Had he not seeing my video, he could have been on the hook for 15 to 20,000. Most sellers don't know. You don't know what's going on under the ground till you are literally have stuff bubbling up through your drink. And so he then immediately called me and he's like, Hey, man, this is what happened. I saw your video and I canceled the deal because they wouldn't do anything. And now I want you to be my buyer's agent. I don't have time to schedule with these agents to see properties. I'm trying toe work myself, and you just saved me upwards of $20,000. Help me. And I was like, Awesome! Yeah, and it worked out great. And we helped him find a home and he purchased it and closed. And it was great. And it was all because just putting my stuff out there, you know, for the world and just trying to make sure that people are protected. And I think all that stuff matters being authentic matters.

Preslie:   29:38
Absolutely. That's such a good point. I think that we're really transitioning as everybody can be, a content creator in a matter of moments for sure. I think we're transitioning to a place where there are any secrets. Everything has been in some book or some podcast or some post and to assume that you have proprietary information that if you were to give it out, would ruin your business. I think it's starting to become so obsolete because, like you said that the chances that they're gonna take that information and do it themselves is still really low. And if anything, it just makes you look like you really care about your client's what you d'oh!

Danny:   30:09
Yeah, I feel like you're right that everything is out there. Um, you know, I love coaches cause I implement what they tell me to dio. But

Preslie:   30:17
I know a

Danny:   30:18
lot of people that work with coaches and don't

Preslie:   30:19
implement a single thing. They dio people. Yeah,

Danny:   30:22
right. And so it everything. You're right. Everything is out there.

Preslie:   30:26
It's just

Danny:   30:26
a matter of actually doing it. And for some people, a lot of people, they just don't have the time. And it's what is your time worth as well Would you pay? You know, I break it like I don't I call it my staff. You know, I've got a landscaper, a pool guy, a housecleaner. I break it down. If I wouldn't pay myself to do that job, that I'm gonna outsource it to someone else. Yeah. And so I think if more people kind of thought that way, that it would allow them to spend more time doing what they enjoy and focusing on what brings in money.

Preslie:   31:00
Sure, kind of a sidebar question, but you've mentioned couple times how helpful it's been. Toe have coaches and mentors. How do you screen for you? Because anybody could be a content creator. Which means anybody could be a business coach. Everybody coaches very unregulated term. So how do you screen for people that are legit? Are gonna add value to your business? Are who they say they are, are the real deal?

Danny:   31:23
I think word of mouth is super strong in that regard, and the proof is in the pudding. If if I'm gonna work with somebody that's coaching me on my business, they sure as hell better have a successful business. It's like working out with a trainer. Are you gonna work out with a trainer who's at a shape and overweight problem. Least I'm not that training needs to be in better shape than me if I'm gonna work out with them and have them tell me what to do. If they're not doing what they're, they're not practicing with the preaching Chen. It should be fairly obvious.

Preslie:   31:54
Yeah, that's really that's a really cool point. Um, and it's just I've never even thought about the concept of having a team coach, So I think that's really cool and how that's different than a business coach. So is that more of like a business coach that specializes in working with groups? Specifically? Yeah,

Danny:   32:10
yeah, so she Yes, she's her name's Rachel Gutowski, and she spends. We meet with her quarterly, and we come up with our team goals, our goals as a company, as a team, and she brings us all together and we talk it. I really enjoy it. I think our team really enjoys as well because it gives everybody an opportunity to, and we always do it off site and to discuss what's happening in the business. One of my favorite questions to ask that, she asks, is if you were running, you know, myriad real estate group What would you be doing differently? And, you know, hearing that feedback is really great Because then I am pivot and shift what we're doing toe, try and take some of that into consideration. Um, and having my team know that I care about them and what their ultimate path to success for them is, whether that's with my company, which I hope that it is. But if it's somewhere else, that's okay. And I want to help them get there. If I'm you know, if they're, if I'm a launching pad for them to get to the next stage in their life and they become a huge success, that's amazing. Whether it's in real estate or something different. I want everybody to succeed. And so bringing in that coach to help them discover that and work through that process is just super valuable.

Preslie:   33:30
Yeah, that's really neat. You mentioned earlier. In addition to coaches and mentors that you read a lot, you listen a lot of podcasts. What other resource is books? Podcasts? Have you want to think about it? Have been really valuable for you as you've grown and scale of this company.

Danny:   33:44
Uh, I mean, you probably imagine I spent a lot of time in my car. And so I love listening to podcasts, and I've I've listened to, you know, Joe Rogan. Not necessarily when he's interviewing comedians or talking UFC, but when he has very intellect, like various intellectuals or scientists, because, he asks, Really amazing question. Really good interviewer. He is, you know, and um, it's fantastic. I listen to Sam Harris is another podcast that I I really enjoy, and he's kind of philosophical and also a very good interviewer. Sometimes they interview the same people, and I like that because you're getting two different points of view, asking sometimes similar questions, but in different ways so that you can get different answers. I really enjoy Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. That's kind of a tech entrepreneur type podcast on DDE that I've really gotten into a bunch of different Bloomberg podcast because there's a ton going on the in the economy, and I want to be a thought leader and someone who can speak to what's happening in the economy and how that's gonna affect our clients and their pocketbook and their home values, and to be able to speak with confidence on what I think is going to happen. So, you know, I'm listening to weigh more economic podcasts than I ever thought. Well, actually, I never thought I would listen to

Preslie:   35:13
that,

Danny:   35:13
but I'm actually really enjoying it because it allows me to speak with authority and not just guess Chen and make it up as I go.

Preslie:   35:24
Sure, my final question for you is kind of two part because I'm curious on both ends of it. And it is, You know, if people are listening to this and they think, What can I do today? What can I do tomorrow on a very like tactical basis to feel like I have more empowerment in my life and I'm curious is your thoughts as a business owner. So somebody that's a leader, but also as an employee. So if somebody is working for somebody else and they want to step into a place of more autonomy or empowerment their lives, and if somebody leads a team, what are the two kind of different ways that they could go about on a very like practical basis, toe to step into empowerment?

Danny:   35:56
I'm really big on routines. I think that time blocking and creating. You know, um, small winds is huge. And so, being consistent with what you're doing every single day, so is really important, at least for me. So, you know, I No one I'm going to bed. I've got it set up. You know, my success for the next day is it starts the night before, so I have an alarm triggered on my phone. That's okay. It's time for you to get ready for bed. Don't matter what I'm doing. I go get ready for bed. And so I I get the seven hours that I need Thio function the next day and then my whole next day is kind of already mapped out in terms of what I'm doing every single hour. And I think that that's really important for me to be able to get what I I need to get done. Um and I think that that's something that's very easy for somebody to implement. What does your perfect day look like? And Matt that out and then try to stick to that. Of course, fires. We're gonna come up, and but you can schedule for that because you know that they're gonna happen so you can have these chunks of time that you can spend doing and working on those fires. Um, and turning off notifications is huge. Turning off your phone, not getting alerts when you get an email. Um, that really allows you to be pretty efficient too. And if you're if you're working for somebody else and you're an employee tohave Maur empowerment, that that's really hard for me, too. And I haven't been employee for a really

Preslie:   37:40
long time. I mean, I'm hearing you say, you know that the routines establishes credibility with yourself. It allows you to be more productive. You know, doing anything consistent is really applicable to a lot of things. So I actually, as you started to answer that felt like that's really applicable to both scenarios. You work for somebody else, or you're in a position of leadership, putting in place routines that allow you to be more productive, that allow you to feel like you're a person that is, you know, committed to what they say they're gonna do and actually follows through on it. I could see as being like the small first inklings of feeling more empowered.

Danny:   38:11
Yeah, I think it all just comes back to creating those small winds throughout the day. Yeah, and you know, every overnight success is 10 years in the making. And it's all that little stuff. Calm, pounded over time that really starts to add up. And if you could do those little things every single day consistently, it really adds up to a huge gains month over month, year over year. Um, I think that's something that Darren Hardy is another thing that I that I followed that he preaches. He wrote the book the compound effect, and that's implementing small things every single day to make you better.

Preslie:   38:49
Absolutely. It

Danny:   38:49
doesn't have to be this giant unobtainable goal, right? You know, if it is, break it down and if I want to be here and you know I want to make so much money or I want to be at this stage in my career, what do you have to do today? What small little thing can you do today, Tomorrow, the next day, the next day, to get you there.

Preslie:   39:11
Absolutely. I love it. I think we have it. They're awesome. Thanks, Danny. Thank you. This is fun. Hey, they're just a couple quick things before you go first. Thank you so much for listening to this entire episode. And we really hope that you enjoyed it. If you are listening and iTunes please take just a moment and leave a review. Let us know what your takeaways were and what you would like to see more of. And if you haven't already hit, subscribe in your podcast app. So you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes. And until next time, thank you for listening. And may you feel empowered today and every day to step into leadership and the life that you have been dreaming of. This has been practical empowerment, inspiring conversations with Valley leaders brought to you by after five dot io.