Kristin Lunsford: Dr./Mom/Entrepreneur/Business Owner

welcome to Real Estate Excellence, making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes. We'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt now. Please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:16  
Hey folks, welcome back to real estate excellence podcast, your host. Tracy Hayes, I interview the best in the best in the real estate industry on each episode, as I mentioned each and every time today, I found someone that produces a magazine featuring the best of the best. So she mixes and mingles every day with them. I am so honored to have her and learn more about the doctor who became the entrepreneur in the real estate industry, both her and her husband. Today, I want to welcome the owner, editor, producer, of the Jacksonville, real producers magazine. Kristen munsford. Kristen, well, welcome to the show. So much for having me. Thank you. I'm so glad you were able to make it in today. And yo, I learned so much. Everyone has a story. And whenever you know, I obviously have some people, and there's some people I know or have known for a while, and I and I brush up on what I do know. Then there's others I really don't know anything about, which and you're one of those people. So I I go online and I research, go on everyone's LinkedIn, go on your Facebook, whatever, whatever I can dig up about you. And it's so refreshing. And one of the great benefits of the show is, I'm sure with the magazine, you're meeting these people out there that are making things happen in the real estate industry, and that's what I'm doing as well, in really getting this, you know, sit down and learn a little bit about them. And so hopefully we can do that today. Yeah, looking forward to Yeah. So I was reading on there. You were born here in Jacksonville. I am a Jacksonville native, and your father was a pastor, yes, took you to Atlanta. Yes, tell us about that.

Kristin Lunsford  2:45  
Yeah. When I was 10 and we moved to Atlanta as a kid, you just think, Oh, fine, exciting. Moving to a new house. Being here in Jacksonville, we had so many friends that were in the Navy, and I was so jealous that they got to move to different houses all the time. So

Tracy Hayes  3:01  
you made a lot of new friends too at different times, because they were coming in and out. Yeah.

Kristin Lunsford  3:05  
So that's and then when we moved I was like, Wait, this is not Florida anymore. The first 30 days we were in Atlanta, I swear it did not the sun did not come out. And people told us, like, oh, Atlanta is just like, Jacksonville, wrong? Atlanta is great, but so yeah, I lived in Atlanta till after college, and then I decided to move back down to Jacksonville, and I taught middle school at Mandarin middle Okay, for a few years. So I think Jacksonville always has a way of pulling people back in at the time, though, I did that for three years, and then my family, my sister had a baby, and then I was going back home a lot to see my new niece. Exciting back to Atlanta, back to Atlanta. So I did decide to move back to Atlanta. Did that for a couple years, and that's when I actually met my husband Brian in Atlanta, and then we decided five years ago to make the move back down to

Tracy Hayes  4:00  
Yeah, so you actually reached a level very few people reach it. You took your education degree to its highest level of reaching the doctorate. What was your What was your envision? Because I imagine you went that far thinking this was going to be your career and you were going to retire as an

Kristin Lunsford  4:16  
educator. Absolutely. I had always said I wanted to stay home when I had children. That was important to me. I wanted to be there for those young years, but I always felt like I didn't just want to just be home. I always thought like, oh, I can. I'm always a multi tasker, right? Like, I'll stay home with the kids and I'll work on another degree. I love being a student, so that's what I did. I was home with my children, and I worked on my doctorate degree at the time, and I just knew getting a doctorate degree whether I wanted to just stay in the classroom or I wanted to pursue other avenues in education, I knew getting a doctorate degree would allow me more opportunities. I really had a goal of I love reading and writing, so I wanted to write textbooks or. Come up with curriculum material, and having a doctorate degree would allow me more opportunities.

Tracy Hayes  5:04  
So, you mean, so writing, imagine we make that relationship to the magazine eventually, right? I also

Kristin Lunsford  5:11  
do have a journalism degree.

Tracy Hayes  5:15  
So you really felt the need for, you know, really instruction. You were like, Hey, I'm going to get a doctorate so I can be a superintendent at school. So that wasn't really

Kristin Lunsford  5:23  
no, not overall. I just love more kind of the creativity behind what you can do in a classroom. And creating curriculum for teachers was really my goal to make

Tracy Hayes  5:32  
learning. What age group did you really enjoy the most? Seventh

Kristin Lunsford  5:35  
grade was probably my favorite. I taught middle school for nine years, high school for one year. I always said sixth grade, they were like babies coming in, terrified of the big school. Eighth grade, they thought they were too cool for school. Was like the good mixture, narrowing it right down there. Middle School's crazy age, though. So now I look back and I'm like, I can't believe I taught middle school, right?

Tracy Hayes  5:58  
Well, it's interesting that that you actually said the seventh grade, because obviously you talked to a lot of teachers are like, Oh, the middle school, their hormones are flying. They're, you know, all over the place. The fact that that was one of your favorite years is unique. Yeah, it is pretty funny. So you guys, you guys, came here to Florida now, and we'll get into the businesses. But what was your husband doing before

Kristin Lunsford  6:19  
my husband, prior, before I had met him, he was actually a news producer in Atlanta. He did the sports producing for Fox five news in Atlanta. And then he realized that he did not want to work every holiday night weekend, on call news breaks. You go and in the news business is very difficult. And he was like, I saw all these 50 year old, miserable divorce man working every holiday, night, weekend, and he was like, I did not want to do that. So he ended up quitting and moving to the Virgin Islands. Oh, and just worked in a diner. Him and his brother did that, and they said it was the most educated diner, because so many people had quit corporate America, and we're literally down there serving food. So they would work from like eight to two and then go to

Tracy Hayes  7:00  
the Tom Cruise. What's the movie with Tom Cruise, where he goes, he's the bartender cocktails. Yeah, that's what made me think when you go down and work in a restaurant in the Caribbean.

Kristin Lunsford  7:11  
So he did that for six months, and they realized six months really feels like two years in the Caribbean. He's like, there's only so many books where you can read and so many days you can spend. And so at that point, him and his brother realized, okay, probably time to get back to the real world. So they went back to Atlanta and started a home inspection and pest control company.

Tracy Hayes  7:29  
Okay, so they started it there. Yes. And now is this more of a branch off here? Your brother's still doing it up there.

Kristin Lunsford  7:35  
When they decided to expand down to Jacksonville, we saw it as an opportunity of, oh, that's our chance to go down there. My husband and his brother, they've never actually done a home inspection. They are the brains behind the business. So they were like, we can work from wherever. And so my husband briefly mentioned it on a phone call one day, like, Oh, what do you think about moving to Jacksonville? And I was like, done. By the time he got home that day, I'd already set an appointment with a real estate agent. And I was like, so like, here we're gonna go to down in Jacksonville, look at houses. And he's like, I thought we were gonna talk about this. I was like, we did you brought it up? I said, Yes,

Tracy Hayes  8:10  
done deal. So you wouldn't have brought it up unless

Kristin Lunsford  8:12  
that was April and we moved in June.

Tracy Hayes  8:15  
Awesome, awesome. Yeah, so it's Lunsford Pro.

Kristin Lunsford  8:19  
It's LUNs Pro, so like so the our last name, because it's family owned business, and then the professionalism that we

Tracy Hayes  8:26  
LUNs Pro, home inspection, yes. And then y'all, he's also doing the pest control here as well. Yes,

Kristin Lunsford  8:31  
we have a pest control company, kingfish pest control. They had a pest control company in Atlanta. Him and his brother got up to about 100 employees, and they sold about two years ago. So at that point, we're now trying to just focus on regrowing

Tracy Hayes  8:45  
that's quite a feat to get up to that employees and run a successful ship and then obviously turn around and sell it nicely.

Kristin Lunsford  8:52  
Yeah, they did a great job. So yeah, my brother in law is running the Lens Pro in Atlanta, and my husband I are solely running the Lens Pro here in Florida, we're in Jacksonville and Tampa, and also the king fish pest control.

Tracy Hayes  9:04  
So you guys literally, obviously, he's educated to get where, what he was doing in the news, producing, you're highly educated. And then you broke from the corporate America, broke from the school system, government, if whatever you want to call that civil service, we'll call it that, to go out as entrepreneurs. I mean, is that? I mean, did you guys have anxiety, a little bit of that? I mean, what was your or was this, like, we're all in

Kristin Lunsford  9:30  
my husband is a big dreamer and a big idea, and he's always just like, we can do it. Like he's always like other people do it. Why not us? So him and his brother had done the home inspection pest control even before I was around. But he's always thinking of more and what can we do? And we have an amazing group of people working with us. So it's all about the who, if you have the right people in place, I mean, it's unstoppable, right?

Tracy Hayes  9:55  
So, yeah, well, and I'm sure that's one of his challenges here in Northeast Ford, is finding. To find good people, he's probably having to turn down jobs because you don't have enough good people to to execute them as the current issue in our

Kristin Lunsford  10:07  
area, that is for sure. Now, I probably did not always have the entrepreneurial spirit My husband had for years tried to get me to come join right the business. And I was like, Oh no, no, I'm good, I'm good, I'm I'm fine, right? But when we took over solely the Florida market for the home inspection and pest control, he was like, now would be a really good time for you to, you know, just come help out. And I was actually working as a director at a private school in Puna vra Beach, just part time. And I was like, you know, I'm good. I've got this job with the director in education, you know, I'm using. Got the kids. You've got the kids at this time. They're seven and eight right now. So young kids, so very busy. But I realized it would could be good for our family, so I started working with our home inspection company doing kind of the growth behind it.

Speaker 1  10:53  
You guys kind of molded yourself into it one at a time. You didn't like both leave your jobs and do it, but your mindset today, when you wake up in the morning, versus what your mindset was when you were teaching that seventh grade class. How is it different?

Kristin Lunsford  11:09  
Now? It is very different, because as a teacher, you have a lesson plan every day. You know exactly what you are doing. In the business world can be kind of unpredictable, and you know you're trying to schedule it. You try to and so, I mean, we laugh. Because literally, like, the first day I showed up working with my husband, I was like, All right, what do I do? And he's like, there is no, you know, like, you figure it out, you know, you're smart, you figure it out. And I was like, Okay, great. So we laugh about that, but you know, it really is, you just got to be, like, more creative. And teaching is definitely much more structured. I do try to incorporate that organization and structure my I'm very much a planner, so I still try to chunk my days and 30 minute increments and so I know exactly what I need to get done, because once my kids get home from school, I become mommy. Yeah, so I have, I don't have a full work day to get everything done. So I'm like, I have to really make sure I am utilizing my time

Tracy Hayes  12:05  
effectively. So you mentioned something there in you're doing the interviews for the magazine. Correct real producers? Do you find a similar mindset with the these top agents that you're that you're interviewing?

Kristin Lunsford  12:17  
Absolutely. I mean, they're so busy, so they have to have such structure in their day and planned out. They have to be creative. They have to be so creative, especially how things have changed over the last couple years with covid and everything, you really have to be ready to pivot and always be thinking of thinking ahead of what could be coming next, and how can we adapt to make sure that we are still going forward.

Tracy Hayes  12:40  
Yes, yes, you're, obviously, we go back. She's, she's a doctor. She's highly educated. I gotta say that three times, but, but obviously you, you've done a tremendous amount of reading for your education degrees. But what do you do as as a business person now? What are you? Are you a podcast listener? Are you reading some of these personal development books? What do you? What do you do to stay on top and be fresh and sharp for your interviews.

Kristin Lunsford  13:03  
I am more of a still handheld book. I still love a hard copy book. So I am a big reader. So I do enjoy reading our leadership team. For other companies, we do a book study every quarter together, where we read a leadership book and then discuss it as well. Right now we're reading traction, so always trying to improve, not only ourselves, but our leaders as well. Right? I am getting into podcasts more. My husband is a huge audio book fan and huge podcast fan, so he's trying to get me more and more into those. He's like, just listen to him while you're in the car. And I was like, half the time I have my kids in the car, and that's not what you want to listen

Tracy Hayes  13:40  
to. Yeah, that's true. That's true. The kids know when they get in my car, they're more likely to be listening to a podcast. I see that too, because I like the hardcover just like you. I feel an accomplishment when you put can I put the book on I read that book, and that sort of in. But your kids see you reading that. Your kids hear what you instead of blasting the music, which they think is the normal thing. You're actually listening to two people talking, and they start listening to what you're listening to, because they can't get away from it, right? It's not like and they just start absorbing it. And you'd be amazed. You could stop it, you know, pause a podcast and say, Hey, what do you think? Oh, they'll spit back because they're listening, because you're listening. It's

Kristin Lunsford  14:19  
funny, because my daughter, she's seven, and she was in the car recently, and I had on an audio book, and she was listening, and then the next time we got in the car, she's like, oh, what chapter are we on, Mommy?

Tracy Hayes  14:30  
Yes, exactly. That's so that is so awesome. That is, that is awesome. Yeah. So I now, have you read Ryan's books? Ryan Sirhan, I have not read those All right, so I'm going to give you a copy, to give you the first one, which is sell it like Saran and then big money energy came out. But read that, and I would, I'm almost sure you're going to be one of those people, because I would like to probably be having on in six months or so, because in dig into some of your interviews that you've been doing and so forth. And. What you've been learning there and update. Obviously we'll have the first podcast is about you and who you are, but dig in about and talk about these top agents, and a lot of their, lot of their say, correlations. Yeah, sounds good, yeah. All right. Who's had the greatest impact on your life?

Kristin Lunsford  15:15  
Probably my dad. He is a very hard worker. I mean, his growing up as a kid, he got so excited if he was the first one to the YMCA, like, if he beat the janitor, he was like, Yes. Like, that was his goal, you know, like, he was always up early getting his day started and going. And, you know, as a kid, we're like, Dad, that's pretty lame. You're the first one in the parking lot. Good job. But it just, he was like, that's the best way to, like, start your day. And now looking back, it was amazing how busy he was as a pastor, but he was there for us. He has three daughters. I have two sisters. He had three daughters, and he was able to be there at everything for us, still doing an amazing job, helping his church, helping the people at the church and just focusing on, it's about building relationships with people, yeah, and that's like the best thing that you can do.

Tracy Hayes  16:07  
You know, so unique about being a pastor, being a minister and running a church, they have to deal with everyone's opinion of how it should be done, absolutely. But ultimately, they make the decision and how they they they have to listen. You know, some of us like, no, no, we're going to do it my way. No, he actually has to listen. And he absorbs and takes it in. And then, obviously, every day he's standing up in front of people, and whether he's preaching or He's instructing or simply just being that pillar in the community, it's, it's, it's a unique position,

Kristin Lunsford  16:41  
yeah, and just being, like, having a now, seeing like, how well respected he has, he was and is, and just how much he impacted people's lives. Like, that's something so great, yes, yeah. Like, ministers don't make a ton of money, but I don't think you can put a price tag on being just a positive influence in other people's lives, and that's the most important

Tracy Hayes  17:00  
thing. I always remember my pastor. I was an altar boy, and just remember those times growing up, and, you know how he laughed and everything, and my parents, you know, we still remember him today. I grew up on Cape Cod. He's, he's in a different church on Cape Cod, least the last time I checked, but yeah, he was an, you know, someone in my life that was, you know, there for that period of time.

Kristin Lunsford  17:26  
Yeah, it's so cool, because to us, it was just, you know, dad. But now, especially as we're getting older, people are just coming out of the woodworks being like, Oh, let me tell you a story about your dad. And let me tell you a story about a time your dad helped me through, like, this difficult time. And that, just like, means so much,

Tracy Hayes  17:40  
yeah, oh, there's things I do, and I try to reach out to other people. Explain it. I use a program that I send my thank you cards, my birthday cards out, and that whole the owner of that companies is, is all about, all about, you know, when you send someone a card, just as one example of many things you can do, and open that card and just say, Hey, man, you're great. Or, or, you know, someone, someone to send a card out to someone who doesn't expect to get a card from you, and they get it. And of course, when they got this allows you take pictures. I take pictures from Facebook. When someone opens a card and their pictures in the card, you know, it hits them right there. You know what I mean. It just hits them right in the heart. And if it makes them smile, that's what it's all. I mean, you might not see them smile, but if you can put, you don't know where their life is at that point, and when they reach that moment, and they and you could put a smile, which sounds like your dad, put a lot of smiles, a lot of people through the years. And, I mean, I mean, besides being a, you know, big sports star, politician, you know, which are, you know, the likelihood of that is get struck by lightning. He's impacting many more people on a daily basis. And how, how amazing that is,

Kristin Lunsford  18:48  
yeah. And to me, that's, again, like I said, you can't put $1 dollar sign in that. That's, that's invaluable, yep.

Tracy Hayes  18:55  
All right, so the magazine, let's talk about that. Let's dig in and tell us about real producer. So real producers has been the magazine's been here for a couple years. You took it over early this year, correct? So forth. What is the, what is the goal, really, of the real producers magazine, what are you trying to get out there?

Kristin Lunsford  19:13  
Well, kind of little backstory, we were a partner with real producers previously with our home inspection company, because we love the idea of being able to get in touch with real producers. So when it ended, my husband and I both were like, Oh, that's a bummer, yeah. And then instantly we both thought we should take it over. We kind of friendly argue over whose idea it was first. It was mine. Because we were just like, it's so valuable being able to be let me ask

Tracy Hayes  19:41  
you something I just heard. I heard something in your voice. Did you get that accent in Atlanta or that didn't come from Jacksonville?

Kristin Lunsford  19:46  
It actually is funny, because my first grade teacher was from Georgia, and when you're learning a lot of words, so I think I had a southern accent before Georgia, and I think Georgia probably definitely impacted it once. A while the southern accent comes out even more. So it's funny. When I came back down and taught at Mandarin middle, right, the kids thought I was so Southern, so southern. I didn't ever really think compared to Georgia, right? I didn't have a southern accent. But coming down here, it definitely comes out.

Tracy Hayes  20:16  
That's funny. So use your idea, because the previous owner just said, Hey, I don't want to do it anymore. Let her franchise. Agreement just expire. I guess.

Kristin Lunsford  20:24  
Yeah, I think some things happened with her, and they were just going to end Jacksonville world producers, because covid hit and everything too. So it's just a difficult time time. So they were just going to end it. So we reached out to into is the parent company that does the real producers, and several other magazines as well. So we are, like, reaching out to them. We're like, how do we take this over? So we went through, you know, several interviews, you know, talk to lots of different people, and we took over officially in March of this year.

Tracy Hayes  20:53  
I did, you know, went online, and obviously there's some videos of before, and I know you guys just did, had a huge event in September, which, I mean, the the agents had it all over Facebook. I mean, down at the stadium, great setting. How does, how does real producers, in a sense, you know, support that, because the production seemed to be very high level.

Kristin Lunsford  21:16  
Yes, it's all. We work with the top 500 agents. That is our goal is to connect businesses with the top 500 agents, real producers. Realize that you can build a business based on word of mouth and building relationships. And real estate agents are a great group, because they are a referral source for every business. Pretty much. The problem is there are so many agents in the world in general, but especially like in Jacksonville, I know we have over 10,000 plus, you know, agents, but on average, the top 500 are doing majority of the business. Some statistics say about 75 to 80% of all pretty much, are those top 500 so when you're trying to build relationships with people, that type 500 is who you want to spend your time with. The problem is, who are those top 500 and how do you get in touch with them? Well, that was

Tracy Hayes  22:04  
one of my questions. How do you Where are you getting the statistics? How do you judge that 500 it

Kristin Lunsford  22:09  
is a combination of working through different metric systems, MLS, personal submissions. It's a lot of research, because it's just not, you can't just Google top 500 agents in Jacksonville. So it's a lot of research that we do, and then it gets difficult, because a lot of agents are under a team, and all of the numbers are put under that team leader, you

Tracy Hayes  22:29  
know? So there's really not producing, they're managing

Kristin Lunsford  22:32  
Exactly. So it is a lot of extra legwork and trying to reach out to, you know, I do research on Facebook too. I'm like, Okay, I've seen this person, and so I'll get their numbers. So

Tracy Hayes  22:41  
just in a broad sense, I assume you with because you do so much research, number 500 is probably doing how many million a year?

Kristin Lunsford  22:48  
Um, for it's based on the previous year for so 2020, it was over 7 million.

Tracy Hayes  22:53  
7 million, it makes it makes the cut. So any agent out there doing more 7 million or more, or probably even six, you never know, although last year has been great, you they need to, if they're not being already have an invitation from you need to say, hey, you know what I did, 10 million in 2020

Kristin Lunsford  23:09  
absolutely feel free to reach out to me, because that's we do. Take those personal submissions, because we are trying to get the most comprehensive, fair list. And so, yes, absolutely.

Tracy Hayes  23:19  
So you invite the 500 to your event, which you're having another one in December down in St

Kristin Lunsford  23:23  
Augustine. Yes, at the White Room, beautiful venue overlooking the bridge of lions, beautiful rooftop. All the Christmas lights will be up. Agents are super excited.

Tracy Hayes  23:32  
So obviously you invite 502 300 show up. You typically get a number like

Kristin Lunsford  23:38  
that. Yeah, for our jag stadium, we definitely had over 250 Yeah, that's a lot. It was great. And it's the, it's the top agents, and then our preferred partners. So it's a lot, a lot of success in that one room. And a lot of agents tell me, they're like, we don't really go to events anymore, but they're like, we'll come to the real producers events, because they know it's going to be the best of the best there, right? And then, you know, FOMO, the fear of missing out there was definitely fun after, as you mentioned, social media was definitely lit up that night, of agents at our jag stadium event and agents that were not able to make it that night. They're like, we're not missing the next one, right?

Tracy Hayes  24:13  
Well, you know, the agents, anything you do, whether it's a training or you got to make it an event. So to get them to come out in the evening and go all the way down to the stadium. You've got to make it like, oh my god, if you miss this, you're missing out. Yeah, it's a life changing event. There's no yeah, the term event, you have to really, like, make it bold type, like, this is an event you cannot miss.

Kristin Lunsford  24:33  
Yeah. And the President of the Jags actually came out and spoke at the event as well to Mark Lamping, so that was pretty cool. He talked about how important real estate agents will be in the redevelopment of downtown. So, of course, they loved hearing how important they are,

Tracy Hayes  24:47  
because many of the agents, too are season ticket holders, yeah. So they had to show up. All right. We talked about so the goal, the underlying goal, to, just to go back to that and reiterate it. The underlying goal is to bring together and create these relationships of the top people who you know, in our economy, building a house is very important new homes, because when you build a house, there's so many different parts involved, labor, refrigerators, ovens, whatever. This whole production, the real estate agent is also a center of a great bit of services to go around, whether it's the lender, it's the home inspector, the pest inspector who's going to cut the lawn. What all these things are involved in this great circle of events. So I imagine, I mean, what as a non agent getting in, what is, what is the ticket price for what do you expect from that supporter of the mag? Because that's what I assume. The the non agents are supporters of the magazine, correct to get out there. So, yeah,

Kristin Lunsford  25:49  
the agents cannot pay anything to be part of real producers. Everything is completely free to the agents. They cannot pay to be featured. They cannot pay to come to our event. So everything is supported through our business. Yeah, the agents cannot pay anything to be part of real producers. Everything is completely free to the agents. They cannot pay to be featured. They cannot pay to come to our event. So everything is supported through our business.

Tracy Hayes  26:08  
Can't take you out to a nice dinner, and

Kristin Lunsford  26:11  
no they can take me out. So the goal is to get partners businesses that want to partner and get to know those top agents. And so it depends the pricing depends on the ad size, because we produce a magazine every month that goes out to the top 500 agents and just features their

Tracy Hayes  26:33  
stores. And then you say, are you more or less doing like a yearly agreement? Because you have the magazine, but also you have the events and expenditures of those,

Kristin Lunsford  26:41  
and because the whole idea of real producers is a relationship building. So it takes time. So our most popular is actually a three year agreement, because we also do spotlight and feature our business partners in the magazine. So if you do a three year agreement, you get two full story two full story articles on your business, and you get to tell your story which businesses love because they is an agents love because they agents say, we work with the same businesses over and over, but they're so busy working oftentimes, they don't get to know the people behind the business, right? So they love reading the magazine because it just tells the personal side of those businesses,

Tracy Hayes  27:16  
right? Right? There's no There's no doubt you we talk about relationships, and we all want to have a lot of relationships, but unfortunately, there's only so many hours in the day Exactly. And we got kids, and we have ball games to go to, and life is busy, and we need to read a book and amongst the other things. So it's so important. So when you're talking about the three year agreement, when you're presenting, let's say to a jet home loans or something like that. And I know you have some brokers and so forth, but any vendor, non real estate that you're looking to try to get their investment, does some, does it just click for some and others are, you know, really a little bit harder, even though, you know, they could afford it, yeah.

Kristin Lunsford  27:53  
I mean, it really has to be on, like, a growth mindset, right? You've got to look at the big picture. Because some people definitely think, oh, three years, like, that's a big commitment, right? But relationships don't happen overnight. I mean, on average, it says it takes seven to 10 touches of a person to kind of win them over, right? So that's a lot of you know, time to get together. So if you have a growth mindset, I think people then start to realize how valuable

Tracy Hayes  28:18  
we are listening to the same people. You're 100% right, too many, I think they don't understand, even though all the podcasts and books were talked Tony, are all about the relationships. You've used that term, relationships, relationships, relationships in our in especially in our business, it's all even, but even in the guy who sold 13,000 cars in 10 years, writing cards to all his people every month, he was keeping top of mind, but he was keeping that relationship, that he was thinking of them, and in the relationship is, like I said, and it doesn't happen overnight. We don't have one magazine article, and all of a sudden they're, you know, this most popular person in town. Either they've got, it's got to be a consistent thing or or having someone on the podcast or something. It's about time and getting that initial My goal is to have get the initial hour and sit down, learn about you, obviously promote you as you promote these agents in the thing. So the growth mindset, god. That was so powerful. That was a powerful statement. Because I think so many are all about well, if I invest this, what am I gonna, am I gonna get a deal tomorrow? Am I gonna get is my phone just gonna start blowing off the hook tomorrow? No, you got to be in this real estate is a long term good, bad and ugly downturns in times you can't even put have time to put the sign in the yard, like right now before you gotta, and

Kristin Lunsford  29:36  
that's people, if, like, we tell them, if you think just putting an ad in a magazine is going to bring you business, and you're not going to come to the events or try to interact with agents. You're wasting your time, and you know, that's not a good partner for us. So it's really about the combination of the magazine being at the events, interacting then more outside

Tracy Hayes  29:56  
interesting. This is so powerful people don't realize how powerful this. Is it's actually going through me right now, because I'm telling you right now, it's, it's like you said, just because you put an ad in the magazine, you're putting the ad in the magazine to be seen as a supporter of this program, which the greater program is building relationships. You're putting top people. That's your job to only put top people. You don't have any side shows

Kristin Lunsford  30:21  
going. Everybody that is a partner with us has been recommended by a top agent, right? So that is a requirement for that awesome.

Tracy Hayes  30:28  
So that costs money. I mean, people pay big money, though, you're not going to get it by putting one back back of the magazine ad, yeah, or back of the Yellow Pages,

Kristin Lunsford  30:38  
because real producers is not just a magazine, it's a whole platform, right? It's being involved with real, real producers coming to the events. So

Tracy Hayes  30:48  
how stressful is it to be the host of the most when you when you have an event like that, because you're the focal

Kristin Lunsford  30:54  
person, it is a lot. I do kind of enjoy the event I've always loved, like, party planning and stuff. So like, oh, it's kind of, you know, like, Oh, this is actually, you know, fun too. So I enjoy that aspect of it. It is nice at the end of the night when it's done success. Because, you know, like, leading up the days before, it definitely can be very stressful and making sure. And, you know, last minute people saying, oh, I want to come now too, and trying to check if you know they're part of, you know, if they're part of the real producers, sure, you know, if they're sure

Tracy Hayes  31:26  
it's so I have, I'm president of my Alumni Association, and I'm involved to organizing the few events we have each year, and and to get a card from an old alumni who, you know, yeah, we probably met, but we, I mean, we don't know, but Just out of the blue, and then just say, Hey, man, you're doing a great job, which I imagine you probably get a ton of after one of your events. It

Kristin Lunsford  31:47  
was, it was very nice. And actually, our event at the JAG stadium, it was supposed to end around like, seven o'clock, and 745 people still weren't leaving, and they're asking me, then they're asking me, like, all right, what do you have planned for our next event? I was like, let me just let me just clean up from this one. So I took that as a huge compliment, that they didn't want to leave and that they're excited for the

Tracy Hayes  32:08  
future of it. So to talk about the event, though, real quick. So what is, kind of, typically, your your agenda at at the event? Do you bring in some speakers? Or what do you

Kristin Lunsford  32:16  
Yeah, there's no real agendas. Sometimes we'll bring in speakers, like we did at the JAG stadium, but it's really just a time to come hang out, eat, drink, have a good time. Seems to be a winning combination of just mingling. We tell like our partners, like it's not a game of how many business cards I can pass out. Because, again, that's not building a relationship. It is go in and try to just connect with a few people and make a meaningful conversation. They're

Tracy Hayes  32:41  
high producers. Most, most vendors can't handle. If you've got several people out of that 500 you are pretty busy. Yeah, you need to grow your staff to be able to handle what business they are able to give you. If they were giving you all their business, you're right. I mean, it only takes a few in our business to really

Kristin Lunsford  32:59  
especially with those top 500 because they are bringing in a lot of

Tracy Hayes  33:03  
transactions. What do you love most about working the magazine? I love just

Kristin Lunsford  33:07  
getting to know the people. I love telling people stories. I've always said everybody has a story. They just often don't get to tell their story. And I love just being able to share it. And like I said, I did have a journalism degree. I never went into news because so much of it was so negative. And I love the magazine is literally just positive. It's telling people stories and just creating community.

Tracy Hayes  33:29  
I know this is a no names need to be mentioned for this question, because when I was researching, doing the podcast and talking to a coach, and and that has been doing podcasts. And networking was his main gig, anyway, and then the podcast was his vehicle. You know, they always prepared you for, you know, that interview that was a dud. Have you ever had you have only been almost a year now. You're coming almost 10 months now you've owned, well, we said

Kristin Lunsford  33:58  
March, really, March is when we took over. Our first issue was July.

Tracy Hayes  34:01  
So you've done a number of interviews. You ever had somebody that you're like, Oh man, it's gonna be a great interview. And then also you started talking to him like, oh my god, I can't publish this.

Kristin Lunsford  34:10  
Not too much. We do have writers on staff that will fill in any so it's funny. I mean, so many agents have really fascinating stories, because so many have done previous they've had, like, previous lives, right So and, I mean, you can take one little snippet of someone's story and make it

Tracy Hayes  34:28  
so many of these agents. And just, I mean, you're my 38th episode, I think I've probably interviewed 30 something agents. There's been some, you know, like Austin Gray, non agents and so forth. But even he has a unique story. So many of them, their story is so unique, they could write a book about it and about where they were and the failure that they felt and wanting to quit and but kept pushing on, and then met somebody that coached or mentored them, or gave them some nugget that just got them going. Yep. And amazingly, Tracy.

Kristin Lunsford  35:00  
Absolutely, that's my husband. People are like, Oh, you've had so much success. And he's like, we've had a lot more failure, you know. But people don't, you know, always broadcast their failures. But, I mean, that's and we're actually in a group for our home inspection company that really just helps build people up, and they'll talk about their failures, and you can learn so much from how you failed and how others failed, and that then when you get successful, it's when you can learn from those mistakes, for

Tracy Hayes  35:25  
sure. I mean, if you any book you read, well, I want to get political, but I'd love when someone tells me about our former president. Oh, he had so many bankruptcy just how many businesses is he owned? Right? You've he's failed enough times he knows he'll probably still fail some things he's learning every time, if you have not failed, somebody's probably, or you just got the golden nugget, you know, I don't know, but I think even you know the Facebook you know, he was a young guy. I don't know how much he could have failed, but he's failed a lot within Facebook, but keep pressing on, because he learned from it and just changed. Luckily, his ship was strong enough to stay afloat.

Kristin Lunsford  36:02  
Yeah, if you're not failing, are you pushing yourself far enough? Are you challenging yourself that you're not failing? Could you do right? You know, are you taking the risk necessary to go to the next level? That

Tracy Hayes  36:12  
whole point, again, from the books, is, is how many people that were almost they were one step away, one swing of the bat, one swing of the ax to get the golden nugget. And they stopped. And they, if they just kept pressing on in the consistency an agent wants to, they're they're one of the tough ones. Just assume they're one of the top 500 Well, let me, I'm gonna change the question around a little bit. How do you select who you interview for the next magazine?

Kristin Lunsford  36:38  
Well, we have our list the top 500 and then we asked for nominations. So that's what I particularly love, because being successful is one thing, but people wanting to work with you is another thing, right? And I love when people nominate them, and I ask them, like, why are you nominating them? And they'll just write, you know, like, Oh, they're so great to work with. They're so easy. They've helped me so much. That's what's really important to me. Yes, your numbers are awesome. How much volume you've done, that's great, but what are you doing to help the community right? That's what I particularly love, is getting those nominations

Tracy Hayes  37:07  
right. And that's one thing I found, too, is a lot of the agents who are successful are going out and, you know, speaking or doing seminars or doing trainings. You know, I just had Stevie Hahn on the other her episode is going to go out next Tuesday. And, you know, she started an Instagram, course, she's and then she but she makes herself available, she, you know, and she's now reaching out. She's doing her podcast is starting next Wednesday, with some with a lady, I think somewhere up in the Midwest, I want to say Michigan, but I'm not 100% sure. You know, they're doing a podcast together, but they're reaching now on a national basis, but they're they're spilling out their story and their experiences and their successes. So the motivate, educate others,

Kristin Lunsford  37:47  
yes, absolutely, and that's what we particularly love, is those agents that are helping, especially like the newest coming in. Because again, we know how many agents are out there, and a lot of them are not going to make it, but we love seeing the top agents helping agents and just sharing their knowledge. Because the top agents, I'm sure many of them, tell you the mistakes they've made, and they're like, learn from my lesson. Don't do it. Yeah, I did it. Yes. As when I was going through my master's degree, our professor always said, somebody's already done it. Beg, steal and borrow. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Learn from other people. You come up with your own ideas along the way. Yeah, and you can adjust it to fit you, because you know what somebody else does may not be exactly what you need to do. So you can take it and make it your own right, but it's not reinventing the wheel, right? So you can learn so much from other people, and that's what we love, seeing the top agents that are helping other people 100%

Tracy Hayes  38:36  
that so, oh, wow. So you have an endless list there, because I think there's some top, some top agents, but we, like I said, some of them don't want to participate. I've invited some to the podcast. Some are, you know, whether they're afraid to go on Facebook Live, which I don't necessarily have to do the Facebook Live, we can just do an audio and not see you. But they're much better looking than me anyway, so I'd rather have them on the video from that standpoint. But, yeah, you gotta I'm coddling them. I've been trying to give them some encouragement, because I know their story is actually valuable. Yeah,

Kristin Lunsford  39:07  
we've had some that are a little hesitant and some that are like, I have a whole team of people behind me. It's not just me. They're like, it's my name that's associated with it. So we have done where, instead of just spotlighting them, we'll let them feature their whole team as well.

Tracy Hayes  39:21  
But you know, there's some of those leaders. They put that team together. They're leading that team. They that is,

Kristin Lunsford  39:26  
they've done the work that often. Yes, they're just very humble. And yes, you know, don't want to take all the credit, but they had to find those people. They had to leave those people they definitely deserve in the trial. You know

Tracy Hayes  39:35  
some of these people. You know some people coming to mind. I won't mention them, but I'm sure you're probably thinking of some of the same people that I am. You put that team together. You've been doing this 1015, years as as a team, and you know the trial and tribulations, and that's what you need to share with others who want you know, because other agents have visions of building teams too, and they were, well, what about hiring people? You know? We know some people. They just hire every. Everybody? Well, I guarantee you, the top producer will tell you, don't just hire anyone. Now, what I mean, recruit anyone to be on your team, because obviously, an agent's 1099, anyway, so, but, but the recruiting, it's, it's, it's the top agents will tell you, be a little more, you know, stringent, yeah,

Kristin Lunsford  40:14  
especially because their time is valuable. So who are you pouring into? You know, they're not. You know, the best recruit. You know, like you only have so much time, so be very careful.

Tracy Hayes  40:24  
I love you know, I know CC Underwood's one of your people, and I've had her, Oh, she was my first show, one of my best shows. I think Daniel says, I'm getting better every day, but it was a great guest, Cece, you were a great guest over you're listening, but she has people come in when, you know, considering to be an agent on our team, she says she's gets her whole, the whole team together, and they almost do like a group, you know, social, but get to know the person Absolutely, see if that person is a fit on their team, because they don't want to bring in

Kristin Lunsford  40:54  
poison, right? Because, you know, one person can completely change the culture and dynamic of the entire team. And if you've got something great going, you don't want to disrupt that. So you absolutely need to make sure that it is the right fit for everybody.

Tracy Hayes  41:07  
Super Oh, I'm going to We're from a time wise. We try to keep it about 4045, minutes, which I think we're getting close to that right now. So I'm going to start coming in for a landing here. I call it my two minute warning questions. Now, you mentioned this earlier, but I this is my standard question. Is it more important who you know or what you know

Kristin Lunsford  41:27  
right now I say who you know? Yeah, absolutely. It's all about the who and they can do so much for you, because a person can be so super smart, but you only have so much time you know. You can't do it all. So where we are in our stage of life, for sure, absolutely, who because time freedom is so important, we have small kids, so having people in place that can help us,

Tracy Hayes  41:49  
that are sometimes better at that other thing, absolutely,

Kristin Lunsford  41:53  
there was times I had to get a different mindset. Sometimes, because I was like, Well, I can just do that. When I was working with my husband, he's like, but you don't have time to do it all. And if we find somebody to do those things, and I was like, oh, that's silly to pay somebody, we actually outsource our laundry.

Tracy Hayes  42:07  
Now, I like that. We have to give you the notes on that.

Kristin Lunsford  42:12  
So silly to pay someone to do our laundry. But he was like, but if you're doing high level work instead of folding the laundry, how much more valuable is that? So yes, we outsource our laundry.

Tracy Hayes  42:22  
Yeah, we're doing the lawn. I've told my wife, who's an agent as well, and hopefully, I think she'll make your list, and next year, this is a year she's one of the top Florida homes. She got some notice the other day she called me bragging about it. I said, Honey, I didn't expect anything less, actually, I knew you'd be successful at it. So congratulations to her, yes. So we're both doing very well. And I'm like, Honey, we you've got to focus on the $500 an hour chores, absolutely. And there are people who totally are support back operations, 15, $20 an hour folding the laundry, whatever you're paying there that that's what they do and and they're great at it, and then probably fold the laundry better than you do, and it's actually done, and the fresh clothes are there, and price

Kristin Lunsford  43:09  
clothes don't stay in the dryer as long as when I was doing

Tracy Hayes  43:14  
exactly, exactly

Kristin Lunsford  43:16  
that. Yeah, but that's the same conversation my husband had to have with me. Is you could do $500 an hour work, you know, instead of folding the laundry where, and he's like, we're giving somebody else a, you know, that can do that. Yeah? So it was definitely a mindset shift, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  43:30  
we went last year to hauling your lawn service one. I hated doing the edging and I hated doing the trimming. I can ride a lawn mower all day long. I enjoy what the grass looks like after it's cut. But the reality is, I had to take time away from my kids on Saturday to do it. And then, obviously I work with a major builder, so being on the being available on the phone on Saturday is important too. So I'm like, what I can make on a phone call versus paying someone on a monthly basis to mow my lawn is nothing.

Kristin Lunsford  43:57  
Yeah, you just gotta look at your priorities and see, you know, like where your time is best served,

Tracy Hayes  44:02  
right, right? And picking the brains of these 500 people, I guarantee you're gonna find more details than what we're talking about right here. All right, so you and Brian are going out town. Are you a Jaguars? The Iceman? Are you jumbo shrimp? Girl? What do you like

Kristin Lunsford  44:17  
we are jaguars. Our pest control is actually in a sponsor of the Jacksonville Jaguars. So you will find us on Sundays, actually down on the field. I have seen that we have field seat. So very exciting. My husband is has always lived in Atlanta, except for his time in the Virgin Islands in our five years here. So he is a long line falcons,

Tracy Hayes  44:39  
jaguars, falcons, pretty much understand the

Kristin Lunsford  44:43  
pain. We actually went to the Super Bowl in Houston, where we lost in time. Tom Brady, yeah, he kind of gave up on, not gave up on the Falcons, but was like, he's like, that girlfriend that you keep going back to. He's. Like, you keep going back to the Falcons.

Tracy Hayes  45:01  
They're gonna do it this year. They're gonna do it this year, right?

Kristin Lunsford  45:04  
It's always a building year, building year, next year. So, yeah, we're huge Jags fans. You can't beat, like the weather during football season down here in Jacksonville, the open stadium. It's just fun,

Tracy Hayes  45:17  
although I actually you say open, say I really wish they'd actually build a stadium like the Detroit Lions have indoors air conditioning, nice quality seats, everybody's

Kristin Lunsford  45:26  
comfortable. No, I love it hot Atlanta dome. And I was like, No, I do not like being inside. It was too cold. I love, love the hot I was at the Patriots game when the Jags beat them, when it was super hot, and I was probably the only person that thought it was the most wonderful thing ever. Wonderful thing

Tracy Hayes  45:43  
ever, because I was like, Oh, I love it. It can be, oh, my stories there. But I was on your Facebook and I saw you guys. You guys went somewhere recently. But what is on your travel bucket list? I mean, the high end, like, like, the trip that you would plan months or maybe a year in advance. What do you get? What do you guys got?

Kristin Lunsford  46:00  
Something on there? Yeah, I love traveling. I love planning my as a kid, growing up, I always wanted to be a flight attendant. I think just for like, the free flying my husband, I was like, I'm still gonna be a flight attendant when the kids go to college. He's like, you know, we can travel without you working. So we do try to travel a good bit. Our goal is to hit all 50 states with the kids before they graduate high school. We have a map where we put their picture in the different states that we're going to and and it's fun too, because they'll go to the map and be like, Oh well, we need to go to this state. So what we have planned coming up, we're actually going to Jackson, Hole, Wyoming, oh, in March. Yeah, so far spring break. So

Tracy Hayes  46:35  
I had Patty Ketchum. She's one of the top Florida Realtors instructors, I we did an interview with her. Of four or five interviews back everyone was watching. She went to Jackson Hole on a snowmobiling was a four day snowmobile trip. And she actually sent me the information the other day, and I looked it up, you know, you start. She said, you're out in the middle of nowhere. You riding the snowmobile during the day, and then you you get to a lodge, and you stay there, and then you go, you know, so that you don't, you don't have, if you something happened, they got to fly a helicopter. Oh, wow, because you're out in the middle. Literally,

Kristin Lunsford  47:07  
that's pretty more adventurous than we'll probably do with our kids. Yeah, that must.

Tracy Hayes  47:12  
My thought is, mine are eight and 11. I'm like, Honey, I flip to see if they even allow kids to ride on the snowmobile, because obviously it's like riding a more or less riding a motorcycle or a wave runner? Well, we did. There's some danger

Kristin Lunsford  47:23  
involved. We went to Park City, actually March 2020, and so covid literally hit while we were unlocking our condo door, and they're like, everything is shut down, but they still did allow snowmobiling. And our kids were like, five and six at the time, and so I had my daughter on the back with us, and I'm, I'm a pretty safe, slow driver, and she was pretty cautious. And they kept telling us, like, you're gonna have to speed up. You're gonna have to speed up. So they do allow them, but um, she was like, Don't go too fast, mom. You know, I tried to tell a group. I'm like, Y'all can just go without us. They're like, well, we can't see the trailer billing was pretty awesome. So well we did. There's some danger involved. We went to Park City, actually March 2020, and so covid literally hit while we were unlocking our condo door, and they're like, everything is shut down, but they still did allow snowmobiling. And our kids were like, five and six at the time. And so I had my daughter on the back with us, and I'm I'm a pretty safe, slow driver. And then she was pretty cautious. And they kept telling us, like, you're gonna have to speed up. You're gonna have to speed up. So they do allow them. But she was like, Don't go too fast, Mommy. I tried to tell the group. I'm like, Y'all, can just go without us. They're like, well, we can't. We can see the trailer billing was pretty awesome. So that

Tracy Hayes  48:37  
does sound excellent. That does sound so well. So you go to Jackson, you're gonna go skiing, is that your

Kristin Lunsford  48:41  
my husband's actually never been skiing. My ski experience is people laugh at this, but my middle school in Georgia put soapy carpet on a hill and taught us to ski and then took us to like, a North Carolina right ski slope. And that's literally the only time

Tracy Hayes  48:55  
I've only been one time to Breckenridge. It takes work. Yeah,

Kristin Lunsford  48:59  
it to me. I'm not a fan of cold and I'm not a fan of pain, and that's all that skiing sounds like to me. So I'm fine with just snowmobiling, ice skating. I think we'll try to get our kids into ski school and maybe just watch them.

Tracy Hayes  49:13  
I think it's the after skiing is what people are into. Yeah, yeah. That maybe being sore, but like, getting the fireplace going and warming up and thawing out

Kristin Lunsford  49:21  
like I can just sit by the fire and skip the whole that works for me. So I just love because, you know, we live, obviously, here in Florida. And as a kid, it was funny. My dad used to call us over to the TV if there was snow on the TV. Never like experience. No, I did experience. Was it 1987 or 89 my only white Christmas here in Jacksonville. So I do love like a winter, but only for a week, and then I want to come home to Florida.

Tracy Hayes  49:48  
Yeah, yeah. My kids have not seen snow yet, and we're trying to figure out something for them as well to because I grew up in the northeast, I've plowed snow. That's the greatest thing I've said that story on here. Is nothing better than at about three o'clock in the morning, where there's not a soul to be seen, and just stop the truck, get out, and it's so quiet you can actually hear the snow hitting the ground.

Kristin Lunsford  50:10  
It's snow is beautiful, but yeah, just don't want to live in it. Yeah, Atlanta, short visits. Atlanta was too cold for me, so that the extent was too

Tracy Hayes  50:20  
cold the Yankees come down and get in the sun. No, just You're fine. You don't spend the entire day in the sun, one hour in the sun here, you're okay.

Kristin Lunsford  50:26  
Yeah, I love vacationing places, but definitely love living in

Tracy Hayes  50:31  
Florida, right? Well, Chris, I totally enjoyed having you on. And obviously we could probably talk for hours by really, yeah, you know, let's like, in six months, maybe before you say, what's your event calendar for next year, you've got one in December, then the next one's going to be, well,

Kristin Lunsford  50:46  
do one every quarter. We don't have quite the dates, but we usually month every three months, that one will probably be late February, okay?

Tracy Hayes  50:53  
And then you're gonna go on vacation, yes, yes. So February, May, June, that

Kristin Lunsford  50:59  
one will probably be June, ish or July. Okay,

Tracy Hayes  51:03  
so maybe I'd love to maybe have you on before the June show, promote the June show, what's going on and that's or where you're having it, that sort of thing. But really catch up. Because I really like to dig in to the stories of because by that time, you'll have another, you know, I don't know how many more interviews you're going to do, but stuff that you know these books, because facts tell stories sell and the unique, and we don't have to mention anybody's names, but you're gonna hear a lot of unique stories and just things that you'd probably, I'm sure you're like, oh, wow, I didn't know that. Well, I gotta get that down type thing. So I'd love to share that. But thank you for coming on today. Thank

Kristin Lunsford  51:37  
you so much for having me. I appreciate