Cole Slate: Hyper Community

Commercial  0:01  

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Cole Slate  0:56  

Hey, this is Cole slate with slate real estate. If you are looking to improve your real estate business, you need to be listening to the real estate excellence podcast with my good buddy. Tracy Hayes.

Podcast Intro  1:04  

 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  1:38  

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast, your host, Tracy Hayes, show 100 Yes, folks, we've made it, and I have chosen the perfect guest. As my listeners know many of my guests, almost all of them, have agents here in Northeast Florida. This guest is proud of his local presence. He has a unique comp plan for his agents, promoting local involvement. You want to hear the details about he is involved locally at nefar, as well as Florida realtors, as well as some other things we're going to learn about, and it's in leadership roles. He is dedicated to the growth of his agents as impactful citizens of our community. Let's welcome the slayer of slate real estate, Cole slate to the show.

Cole Slate  2:21  

Thank you very much.

Cole Slate  2:23  

Hey, man, I'm so appreciative to be your guest for episode 100 you know, just making it a podcast, making it to Episode 100 is something that you should be so proud of. You know, I looked up a stat a couple weeks ago that I think 56% of podcasts don't even make it past episode 10, yeah, much less wondering, yeah. So congrats

Tracy Hayes  2:44  

to you, man, huge and Cole, I know you, you've been, you've been a fan, and I really appreciate your support in in not only from you, but the great agents that have come on to make the 100 because it has become addictive to me as I learn the stories of the great agents that we have in Northeast Florida.

Cole Slate  3:03  

So how's it come up with the idea? Like, what made you want to do this? Well, it

Tracy Hayes  3:07  

goes, I always tell the story. About three years ago, I went to a John Maxwell event. Was in March. I think of 19 and and I'm a giant read John Maxwell's books and as they come out, but influence and credibility is something. He said there influence credit. So I'm thinking influence and credibility as doing really well to the, you know, working with the builder at a huge pipeline, I need to get out, and I need to shorten the time. Like there's some great mortgage loan officers out there right now. They've been but they've been out, not but they've been out. They have been out for 1015, plus years in the agents have gotten to know him over time. You enough transactions, you got enough events, that sort of thing. So I'm like, you know the agents really don't know me. They know some know me, but not like the top loan officers. I'm sure you and I are familiar with it, as in listeners are. And I said, How can I crunch that time down? And part of it was getting out there. Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways to get an ad in front of me from a gentleman named Travis chapel, who has his own podcast, which has reached his podcast 800 episodes now this past week or so. And he started talking about influence and credibility in leveraging the podcast to do it now in his world, he was he does a lot of zoom calls. He's interviewed John Maxwell, Grant Cardone named a few my let them into some of the names that are out there right now. And he started as a door salesperson. He knew he had to create that influence in that circle. So that's where I was like, well, podcast sounds fun. Sounds like something I'd like to do. And I, you know, I knew a couple, you know, some top agents, like CC Underwood was my number one show. Christina Welch came on early, and after having a couple of those on, you know, I worked through it, and just it just started going. And now, when I do reach out, you know, when people respond, people agents I have never met face to face, it's really flattering when they say, oh, we'd be honored to be on the show. That is where you've

Cole Slate  4:57  

reached well, and you see your hard work paying off. Yeah, you know what I mean, like you've done what I try to preach so much to people that work with me, or people that are considering getting in the industry, like do something that you're going to enjoy doing, and it's obvious that you love doing this, so I think that's awesome, man, congratulations. Number 100 I'm super honored to be here.

Tracy Hayes  5:16  

I appreciate and I appreciate you coming on and like I said, your support. So let's dig in, and let's find out about Cole slate here. Now episode 100 I want to talk about something you have on there, and I was trying to find some information about it, but I've known, I've seen you post it, but talk a little bit about impact.

Cole Slate  5:32  

Yeah. So impact. You going back to college, when I was at University of Florida, I actually majored. My major was called a family use and community sciences, essentially what that is, social work, nonprofits, you know, doing stuff in the community, kind of their slogan is, we're a people science, not a beaker science. And there were different type of requirements that we had regarding internships, volunteer hours. I mean, even here in Florida, we have the Florida bright teacher Scholarship, which has volunteer hours required. So back then, in 2005 to 2010 there wasn't a resource or a way for me to easily find local opportunities of which I would be passionate about in regards to volunteering. So back then, I came up with an idea called unite net, okay? And it was an idea that volunteers sign up, it goes off their zip code, because we didn't have these lovely devices attached to us, right? And the other way to sign up was that as a charity. So the charities signed up as and put in their zip code as well. So they had similar multiple choice options to choose what they're most passionate about or what their cause is about. In regards to the community, for example, I love volunteering with sports, the special needs community, and, you know, volunteering at schools. So if I on a weekend as a student, remembered, oh my gosh, I have this volunteer service hour requirement due next week. What can I find that I'm actually going to care about doing this weekend that needs me. This weekend that needs me, yeah. So, like I said, you know, in college, it was just a website. Life happened. I couldn't financially keep up with it back when I was, you know, in college, right? So now I was, I'm blessed to have the means to bring back the idea that's now going to be an app on your phone, and it's called impact. So volunteers are going to be able to sign up, find causes that they're passionate about, log their service hours, being able to distribute their service hours to wherever they need to turn it into the charities are going to be able to maximize their exposure, because, oh my gosh, every nonprofit needs volunteers and work in an extra set of hands and things like that. So we, I now have the same idea as an app that it'll be coming around. I believe the beta will be around a summer semester, and you'll be able, not only will the volunteers, but the charities as well will be able to maximize their exposure and their hands on debt and their impact on the community, in regards to maximizing impact you as a tool.

Tracy Hayes  8:11  

So this all on your dime. You're supporting this. Have you gotten any contributions? This sounds I mean, in not that it's like, you know, you just created an electric car, I guess. But really, I mean, what a resource. Because there's no doubt, like you said, these kids wait till the 11th Hour, right? They need their time, but also for those charities to get out there and put it out there and have people volunteer early enough too sometimes that they know they're going to have volunteers there, and they don't have to, oh, my God, it's already it's Wednesday. We need to. We need volunteers this weekend. Start getting on the phones and start calling people.

Cole Slate  8:47  

Think about as well. There's, we're trying to decide a almost like a score algorithm. So we're also going to have a GoFundMe aspect that gets in to impact you at some point. Okay, so, man, you know, I can't put in my 10 hours today that I wanted to do a Best Buddies, but then I could raise or donate or something like that. And so then take that score as a charity, and you start recruiting volunteers. Man, I know Tracy's impact, you score is huge. Let me reach out to him, because he's interested in our cause, and he also has skills like carpentry and, you know, whatever, right? So they think on a much more positive level, a almost like an Uber score,

Tracy Hayes  9:28  

when you can have your certain charities looking for, you know, because obviously, like nefar, builds a lot of it, or, you know, the ramps and stuff, and they need a carpenter. They have everybody else. They have everybody else that they can imagine to be labor, but they don't actually have the skill person there. And the skilled person could put themselves on there, say, Yeah, I'm available for so many hours. It's brilliant. And I know you do a lot at Bartram high there, so I have you, I'm sure you've introduced kind of talk to them, how their kids can actually get on there, may put their little profile, whatever.

Cole Slate  9:58  

So I actually haven't talked to them as. Much yet who I have already talked to, and I already have the support of University of Florida, which is where I graduated, right whenever my original idea unite that came out around 2010 20 or 2011 my program that I graduated from, actually required the use of unite net in their efforts to support me as a graduate, as an alum to kind of get that off the ground. So now we're revisiting on so much better of a tool, so much more convenient of a tool. Yes, and I know at least a handful of professors that are at the University of Florida in the families and community sciences program that have already agreed to assist in pushing the audio app

Tracy Hayes  10:39  

in what a great way. And I don't if you saw to this part, I just made me think, I volunteer. You have one of these students who need their hours. They volunteer for some time, they go over and, you know, let's say they're rehabbing a home or locally or something, and they have to show up and check in with whoever the person is, so they can say, yep, they were there and get their hours, but be able to do a selfie with that person and with our phones to timestamp it and everything. And then it goes on the app, and there's the picture of them, they were there. It just adds that social media color to it, yeah?

Cole Slate  11:15  

Like having albums like, Man, am I sure I want to that. I want to donate my time to this specific cause that I hadn't heard of before. Well, I start scrolling through and I see their album from their rant build last weekend. Oh, this looks like a blast.

Tracy Hayes  11:28  

Yes, or when you know, we know employers, and I'm sure some colleges, they're going through social media for to get those kids to put some of those pictures of them doing their volunteer time on their Facebook.

Cole Slate  11:42  

All right, we go, What if we got to the point? And I know we got to change subject, what if we got to the point that your impact, you score, was something regularly that people should put on their resumes when applying to college? Yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  11:56  

100% 100% I mean, I can see, you know, the growth of someone just grabbing that idea, because all the schools are doing, it's all part of now, of what everyone's doing. So let's go right back to my normal first question. You're from Northeast Florida. You're right here in St Johns County, and you went to Bartram high so what was that like? And what was your like? You know, your first vision, because it sounds like you were playing basketball and doing that social type work was kind of your thing when you

Cole Slate  12:22  

headed to Florida. Yeah. So it was cool because, you know, I told everyone like, I'm from the area born and raised, like I've lived through what people are still doing today, which is moved to St Johns County for the schools. You know, up until I was 11, I lived right on the other side of the creek in 32258, in the Bartram area. Then when I was 11 years old, my parents built a home in jewelry Creek Plantation so I could go to the St Johns County Schools. So you know, from the from the time I was born, I was in 32258,

Tracy Hayes  12:49  

or 32259, do you remember when 210 was a dirt road? Because people tell me,

Cole Slate  12:53  

Oh, let me tell you when Roberts road was a dirt road. Okay, so we could always tell when our bus driver was in a good mood, because in middle school, we thought it was so cool that we were taking the school bus out of Durham road all the way to Switzerland. Point, that's before there was long leafs. No one. There was no long leaf pond, right? You know, right? But yeah, so anyways, you know going through Switzerland point, Bartram, you know, that's why it's so easy to have those conversations today, because in 1998 my family and I did what everyone is still doing today, in flocking the St John's for the school district and the communities and, you know, the sports leagues and neighborhoods and amenities centers. And that

Tracy Hayes  13:33  

time we think of the schools that are long, the high schools that are long, 210 there's a lot of middle schools we go on forever. You know, Bartram Creekside knee and Ponte and, of course, the new beach side high, nice is one of the originals. Yep. And Bartram niece is older than Bartram. Is it? Am I correct? Correct?

Cole Slate  13:51  

So my class, I graduated from Bartram in 2005 and I was in the second class to go all four years at Bartram Tracy High School. Okay, so Bartram was the school that they built when nice was getting overcrowded. Okay, then Creekside was a school they built when Bartram was getting overcrowded. You see what I'm saying?

Tracy Hayes  14:10  

Yep, yep. No, 100% just the progression there. So the visualization again, you know, Cole had Cole has seen the growth here. What was it at that time? Early, because imagine when Bartram opened. I don't know how, when Pedro Menendez, you had St Augustine high, nice, and then now Bartram were the were the Pedro

Cole Slate  14:30  

Menendez at bar control High School opened the same year. Okay, they're actually the same exact floor plan, but yeah, they were the same year. I want to say similar to Bartram being niece's answer for overcrowding. I believe it was Pedro. That was St Augustine high.

Tracy Hayes  14:46  

Yeah. So what was it at that time that your parents saw, I mean, because you don't have a lot of schools, or were they already a rated just with the few schools that St Johns County had,

Cole Slate  14:58  

correct they were already a rated out. Remember, you know, my parents joked about giving me an option when I was 10 or 11 years old. They said, We're either moving to St John's County or you're going to bowls. Yeah, I said, Let's go to St John's County. I, you know, everyone to each their own. My amazingly beautiful wife went to bowls, but I just never found myself as a private school kind of guy, right? So, yeah, like I said jokingly, as if, as if my 10 year old self had a say. But yeah, so we came down here at 98

Tracy Hayes  15:27  

Okay, so did you play ball at Bartram? Yeah, because you are, you are you have a lot of basketball in there now, when you go to Florida, do you are you still involved in basketball there? Did you?

Cole Slate  15:36  

So I played a couple years at Bartram, you know, going back to your question on my involvement of barks, you know, my my senior year at Bartram trail high school kind of reflects how I am now. I was a yes man even when I was 17 years old. I was on the varsity basketball team and I was president of four different clubs at Bartram Tracy High School. Oh, wow. So, so it's deep, but I love that stuff, right, right? So, you know, I didn't play a ton. You know, I was probably first or second man off the bench type of thing. I got an offer to go play basketball at Florida Christian College, which is down in Kissimmee. And you know that college, I'm sure, is fantastic for a lot of people, but it didn't follow near the past that I really had for myself, right, right? All right,

Tracy Hayes  16:21  

you're coming out of Florida. You're coming out of Florida. If I'm looking at the you do some coaching at I didn't write the Santa Fe. Santa Fe, yes, so what caught your fancy there was somebody new you and just said, Hey, come out.

Cole Slate  16:32  

And so this is actually really cool story. So my first two years in Gainesville, I saw I was taking the easy way out and going to Santa Fe. Because, hey, if you get your Hey, from Santa Fe you get automatically into Florida. I learned that I was not the case. Okay?

Cole Slate  16:48  

So it's got, like, Rudy and going to the next door,

Cole Slate  16:51  

some people still think that's the case today, right? And, you know, I was a business major, just like, probably half of the school. And I'm going through, and I'm like, You know what? I'm going to switch to Sport Management. I later realized all sport management is a business degree with, like, a couple sports electives. You know what I mean? Like, I still have to do financial accounting, managerial accounting, you know, marketing, advertising, like, all this stuff, right? And anyway, so I'm taking one of those, let's be honest, Bs career prep courses while I'm at Santa Fe and it was to go interview someone who's in a profession of which you want to be in when you get older or for your career. I'd always love coaching, even when I was a student at bartonsville High School. I was the assistant boys basketball coach at Switzerland point Middle School. Oh, that's cool. I would help. I would volunteer coach at summer camps and things like. So I knew I love coaching, I knew I loved teaching and things, right? And so again, I'm thinking, I'm taking the easy way out. I have an amazing relationship with the head women's basketball coach at Santa Fe so I'm like, Hey, Coach, Stebbins, I had this assignment, and would you mind if we, if I do an interview for you for the assignment, right? We get done doing the interview, and she goes, Hey, Cole, I actually don't have an assistant lined up for this season. You want to be my student assistant? So me taking the easy way out turned into something really freaking cool, yeah, of me being an assistant coach in the regular season, we ended up, I believe, in number 23 in the country. So that ended up happening. And thank God I did that, because whenever I applied to get in University of Florida again. I thought all the AAS got it. Well, they only took five Sport Management transfer students with their AA, well, Coach Stebbins played volleyball and basketball at us. The I believe Mr. Keats was his name, the athletic director in Santa Fe right, had played baseball at us. So. So, needless to say, after I got my acceptance letter freaked out, I definitely went showed them how thankful I was. Because, I mean, there's no chance I would have gotten in over there without them. You know, putting a good word for me

Tracy Hayes  18:52  

that that's awesome. You you followed a path, you followed a passion and doors you wouldn't even think were there. Well, that's no idea. Yeah, that's awesome. So you because one of the first things that you do in your resume, and somewhere around nine and 10 you are over at Liberty, pines Academy, yep, doing and you were coaching over there, yeah.

Cole Slate  19:11  

So when I first graduated from University of Florida, I worked for my family business. Realized three months into that that it wasn't for me. And then after that, it's funny, you know, my dad owned the business, and being the loving, caring father that he is, when I realized my plan of working the family business for my entire life, three months in, Hey, Dad, this isn't gonna work the day that I told him, you know, son, I understand. I'll help you out so you figure out what you want to do. I'm like, 21 or 22 years old, right? And so that was the loving Father aspect. The next morning, the business owner aspect of my dad calls, he goes, so you figure out what you want to do, yeah, man, in 12 hours, I found out the rest of my life. So what I did was two of my best friends were in a call center doing mortgages at everything. So I was like, You know what? Even in a call center. I don't know how this job is going to go to my best friends work there. So even if it sucks, I'll be with them, because

Tracy Hayes  20:05  

this is a tough time too in the mortgage. This little mortgage that you did weren't

Cole Slate  20:09  

exactly easy, yeah, this was so they were huge on a refills over there, yeah, at the call center. So this was November of 2010 and I had my self reflection there June of 2011 and then that's when I got into the school system, right? I was at ese exceptional student education paraprofessional at Liberty pines Academy. I was their head girls basketball coach at Liberty pines academy that I was assistant boys basketball coach at Creekside High School.

Tracy Hayes  20:35  

Well, you're visiting, yeah, you're busy, and you weren't even technically certified that time they're you probably having to take a course, because they're giving you a year or two to get certified,

Cole Slate  20:45  

correct, which is why I had, which is why I was the paraprofessional. I have to be certified and, oh, okay, okay, you know, to put it lightly, you know, unfortunately, teachers don't, in my opinion, get compensated when I feel as though they're worth well, paraprofessionals get compensated even less. Yeah, so, tough job, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  21:03  

very tough job. Very tough job. So what is your what's the first attraction to real estate? You did the time at ever banks? Are you doing some mortgages? So you're, you are starting to interact with some real estate professionals, I believe, was like, was it 2012 in late 11? I forget the time period, but you and I think you started with the Welch team, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So what led you in that direction?

Cole Slate  21:28  

So it's funny, I was coaching a basketball summer camp at Creekside High School, and I went over to my buddy Zach Paul's house, and he's the now he's the owner of heart pine home inspections, and I went to his house. We are just sitting around, hanging out. I tell the story all the time, and I go, man, I go, I wish I could just get paid to network. I love networking. I love meeting people. I love doing stuff like that, right, you know. And I learned that from, you know, college and working for my dad and, you know, things like that. And then, you know, kind of going back to unite net, whenever I came up with that idea, I was solving a problem. Well, it's not necessarily a problem, but what does everybody right? Everybody needs a house. You know, that's the question that you're supposed to ask whenever you're starting a business or, you know, something like that. Like, I love to network. Everybody needs a house. So I just got out my phone and I signed up for the the one week the 63 hours course with the Florida real estate Institute, and I was unsuccessful on the exam three times. Passed it on my fourth pod.

Tracy Hayes  22:32  

Okay, so Luke, newcomer had a challenge too, so they then, yeah, passing the test the first time is not a measure of your overall real estate success.

Cole Slate  22:42  

No, man, I am a horrific test taker. I'm a horrible test taker, obviously. But it was so funny, because, you know, when I took the course exam, I was, you know, there was 3020, 30 people in my class. I was the first one in and out. I passed the first time. So I'm all cocky going into my first real estate exam, until I got a 54 and then I kept improving. And on my third try, I got a 74 you need a 75 to pass. That hurts. Well, when I go in, I finally pass. You know, me and the guy working at pearson view are like buddies,

Tracy Hayes  23:14  

Cole, you're back again.

Cole Slate  23:17  

Coffee, you know. But he gave me this look whenever I got done with my fourth attempt, because I had been so many times I had memorized the whole test bank, and so I was literally in and out probably 15 minutes, and he was looking like Cole man, I don't want to see you again when it passed, it was, you know, it was a, it was a heartfelt goodbye. I hope I never said thanks, yeah. So yeah, September 2012 was when I got in the light. And speaking of Christina, which I always throw this out there every opportunity I get, in my opinion, the best team lead in Northeast Florida. And you know, she she runs a tight shit. There's a reason she's so successful. Well, let me tell you something that's uncomfortable calling. Having to call Christina three times to tell her that you didn't pass your real estate exam, that is a phone call you do not want to make, and like she's such a good person, like she didn't get mad,

Tracy Hayes  24:07  

or I just hear their tone of voices. Christina's listening to this. I could just hear come on call.

Cole Slate  24:15  

She whenever she's watches or listens to this, she's shaking her head because she's the queen of the voice of I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed, right? Oh, her. It's worth you know. So, yeah, having to make that phone call three times was but thank God for Christina. She so you were

Tracy Hayes  24:35  

already lined up. You already lined up with her before the test that, hey, you were enjoying just went past tests before you're obviously getting, you know, correct,

Cole Slate  24:42  

officially joining the team, correct. So we had a close family friend. We have a close family friend, Sharon Yates. That is with teller. Oh, yeah, Sharon, we all live in St John's Golf and Country. Oh, that's right. I've been Sharon's been close for close to our family for a long time. She took me and introduced me to tell her I met them. I met. Christina. You know, Sharon's close with Christina. And I mean, you know, we already touched on once in this pocket, and I'm sure we'll say it again. You know, there's a plan for everything. Everything happens for a reason. Yep. So Sharon, having that relationship, introduced me to Christina. Christina having this faith in me and sticking with me through three failed test the tips. You know, it all happens for a reason, and I'm so appreciative of how all those dominoes fell.

Tracy Hayes  25:28  

You know, in you mentioned Christina and just in which we'll take a pretense, kind of our second half of the show, and you talk about real estate and the ideology of it how, you know, I've watched because I've known her since 2009 when I moved to St John's Golf Country Club, and just watching her team evolve over time, I know she, she's battled, you know, working and finding the right people, and now she's got this core group of people, like, you know, George and so forth in there, Katie, and that her team is now starting to expand. And obviously, you know, Jacksonville Business Journal ranked, you know, number one team. Yeah, that's been just someone. She could definitely write a book and tell you about all the trials and errors and things she's failed at and why and under understand. Because sometimes you obviously have to fail to understand why you succeeded. She's certainly, definitely one that should be up. I think speaking more and sharing her, I'm sure we want to know

Cole Slate  26:19  

something about her. She is scared to death of public speaking.

Tracy Hayes  26:23  

Oh, I did not know that we are rising now that, because now that I say that, and you say that, doesn't actually surprise me,

Cole Slate  26:29  

she's like, just thinking about public speaking makes me break out. She's so awesome, man. I mean, she, like I said, in my opinion, she's the best team lead I've ever met. Lead, the best team lead. And in Northeast Florida. You know, our relationship still is. I was texting her a week before last about, you know, different questions and everything I have. She's absolutely still a mentor to me, yeah. But I think the root of our relationship being so great and me looking up to her so much is because I'm professionally I guess overall, I'm so attracted to those of opposite strengths of mine. So I felt like my shortfalls were Christina's strengths. So being able to learn so much from was always so important, even going to exit, you know when I went to exit real estate gallery, right? You know my draw to exit. I love Nancy and Ray and Sonny, but my ray was the one I called, because, if you know Ray Rivera, he and I, I feel like again, just like Christina, his strengths are my weaknesses. Whenever it was time for me to start a new chapter, Ray was the one I called because I wanted to continue that growth and learn, you know, from him.

Tracy Hayes  27:43  

So you do a little break. It was a yellowfin in there. Yes, yeah. So something attracted you away from the Welch team over there. What was that? It looked like you were brought in as a partner of some sort.

Cole Slate  27:54  

So it wasn't exactly back to back. You know, I had been with Christina for a little over a year. And you know, when I joined her, when I got my license, I just turned 25 years old. And again, me being from here the market, doing what it's doing in 2012 which is, you know, back on the climb right. Me being 25 years old, my friends are starting to think about their first houses and things like that. You know, my motivation behind joining a team was that I wanted to learn as much as possible, as quick as possible, right and the right way? You know, I pride myself on doing my making my best efforts to do things the right way. So after, I think it was like 14 or 15 months on Christina's team, I decided to give it a shot on my own. I stayed with Keller on my own from, let's call it, December, till May, and then I went to yellowfin, and that, you know, I think I was putting the cart before the horse a little bit, you know, taking on a leadership role that, quite honestly, looking back now, I was not ready for right? But it's all a giant learning process, right? So so much that I've learned from Christina, so much that I've learned from yellow thin, so much so I've learned so much that I've learned from Sonny Ray and Nancy at exit, which now united. You know, there's so much learning, and not just from every transaction being different, but from every mentor you have, every leader you have, every company you go to, there's always going to be a haz and nuggets that you take with you as your career progresses. So let's just touch on that,

Tracy Hayes  29:37  

because it's always a subject that I like to talk about, and you're bringing it up naturally here in the conference. Naturally here in the conversation the importance of, you know, education, not only from a experienced real estate agent, Title Company, whatever it is, but I know you, obviously you're involved with nefar and so forth, great. And obviously, you know, the first thing you think of the. Boards, is the education department, and what they add in which circles around to one of the key terms that people use, is showing up. How important is it? Like you said, when you were going to Christina's, you had to show up in that office. Yeah, you go over to elephant in exit. I know you had this, you know the great location right here, next to the Publix on on 210 and always had your truck out there, which we gotta lead to the truck, and whose idea originally was that, was that just

Cole Slate  30:28  

so let me tell you about so this truck that I had was, you know, it was my truck I've had since college. Okay, okay. And, you know, when I got into real estate, you know, my dad was in my dad's very successful businessman by actually having lunch with him. After this, he was in my ear, and at the time, you know, I thought he was right, like, he's like, you're in real estate. Now, you know, you have to put your best foot forward. Right off the bat. People are going to be getting into your car to go with your property. You can't be driving around this big, loud, jacked up, you know, there are still dirt roads, though, in St John's, God, yeah, you got to get, you know, a Tahoe SUV more practical. And, you know, I beat the truck up pretty good, okay? And, you know, whenever I went on my own as an individual agent, no longer on Christina's team, I had this epiphany, and I think Wally Conway helped me with this a little bit to embrace myself, okay. So lucky. Everyone should embrace themselves, okay. And I was so lucky to have this epiphany so young and so early in my career that, and I say this within reason, but what you see is what you get. Okay? And so this truck that I had beaten up so bad I'm not sitting there trying to buy a new car, so I'm like, All right, it'll look brand new if I wrap it. And that was the thought process. That was the thought process that went into it, right? Okay, the first night that I had my truck wrapped, I am at dinner at the town center, and somebody takes a picture of my truck, post it on Twitter and goes, I wonder what Cole's having for dinner tonight. I go, Oh my god, so I don't even know. So what I did the first few months I had this truck, I had a spotted contest, okay? Whoever sees my truck or my swag or my koozies or whatever, whoever gets the most engagement? Okay, get posted on social media and gets right. Okay, use this hashtag, and whoever gets the most engagement gets a gift card or something. That's awesome. Okay, it got to the point I only did it for a handful of months, just because, you know, got old quick, but local businesses and restaurants would donate the gift card, so it was no money coming out of my pocket. We're supposed we're supporting and exposing local business to Jacksonville 100% with this contest.

Tracy Hayes  32:54  

That is, I have heard so many stories from the giving away movie tickets and stuff like that, brilliant. And I think it was brilliant as 210 was developing, and you were with exit right there, and you had that location, and your truck was out there in that parking lot. So you get signs get lost in the A lot of times they want to be they don't want to be so pronounced, but you got this truck, which is higher than everything else, and you're out there, you knew whether Cole was at work or not,

Cole Slate  33:21  

yeah, unless someone else was driving them a triple edge story. But that

Tracy Hayes  33:26  

that it just, you know, we're going to do this at Landmark on Friday, and talking about content, which, you know, sort of celebrating the 100th episode. But it's stuff like that that those subtle things and all your friends are not forgetting what you're doing, and then their friends are seeing it because they're liking and they're posting it, and the fact you're getting other people like you said, the engagement, the algorithms, I mean, home run all the way around, that actually

Cole Slate  33:52  

was brilliant. There's such a the word is for it, but there's such a tight rip that you have to walk when creating content and posting on social media and things like that, because, you know, we're putting ourselves under a micro and you don't want to put yourself out there as too much into yourself and not enough into your customers. You know, it's hard, because we have to have ourselves out there, because in order to get the business. Let's be honest, it's a giant popularity contest. Okay, no one, very few people that I've ever come across when they hear all right, you know, Tracy's actually getting transferred, and I hear about this at my son's baseball game. Okay? They're not sitting there going of the 20 real estate agents that I know, because there's 12,000 in Northeast Florida, right? Tracy, your personality would go best with so. And so they're not doing that. They're rattling off the first name they think of. So what can I do to be the first name you rattle off exactly, and then going from that, you know, the popularity contest? Race to once you have made initial contact to turning into a customer concierge and wanting to be the Ruth Chris of real estate, and now sweep every person, every refer every customer, sweeping them off their feet with the process the rest of the way, you use

Tracy Hayes  35:18  

a word that I've used with a couple of top agents that I've had on the show the concierge, because I know you're very involved in in with the local businesses. And you do the, you know, out of Jack speeches once a month. At the end of the month, you do 904 pop up, yeah, 904 pop and you're doing those things, engaging with those other business people. And the concierge, you know, someone asked you, they're gonna that new person moved into town used you, they're gonna call Who do you recommend to do? And you have some, you have people that you've interacted and they walk in and say, Cole sent me. Like, Oh, we love Cole. You know, this whole circle of events and but that concierge, it is more than just that real estate agent.

Cole Slate  35:58  

Yeah, you've got to be whatever it is the concierge, the mayor of the community, the I got it, I got a guy. That's the I got a guy gains so much credibility because you're not only providing that warm introduction and that service to whoever reached out to you, whether it's a past customer or not. You know, random people reach man, if you had my phone, random people reach out to me all the time, and I'm always more than happy to help out with my resources, my relationship. You must need an assistant to actually, man, I've thought about giving Sarah my assistant, my phone and just having a what do people call it a bat phone? Yeah. But anyways, you know, so it's not only having the ability of the resources, the relationships, to prefer that business, but the other business owner is going to be so excited and appreciative that if Tracy is coming to me via coal, Tracy's getting the red carpet treatment, you know what I mean. So it not only looks great to you, it looks great to the business owner, everyone's it's a true it's a win situation, taking it from those businesses as well. That was a big that a lot of that mindset was why I am and I was so big with Northeast Florida Builders Association, because there is this wild misconception that the public doesn't need real estate agents when I go to a model home, but when you go into a model home and you say, I'm working with Cole slate, or I'm working With slate real estate, you get that same concierge service, you get a different type of business because of the relationships. I was on the board of directors with NEFA for four or five years, right? You know, from the side, agents and the builders, when there's a new construction build going on in Rivertown, unfortunately, stuff goes wrong. People make mistakes, and I have to make a phone call and it's fixed the next day. That's the type of stuff. That's the type of relationships and all that pays off. I mean, just scratching as many backs as possible, you know, Karma is a real thing.

Tracy Hayes  37:52  

Well, you know, you really, you bring that around, because it's thought I've always had with NEFA, you know, from a loan officer, unless we're one of their preferred lenders. You're not. You know, the builders have their list and or they have their own, you know, have their actual lender. But from a real estate agent standpoint, you're 100% to know who the no is to meet these people at the these NEPA events, and customer has an issue. And trust me, they're building these homes at a rapid pace. Mistakes are made. And, you know, keeping quality employees is really tough, and to be able to pick up the phone and know who to call with X builder and say, Hey, can you help me out there? Have whatever the issue is. Oh, what? I didn't, you know, I didn't really dig deep in it. But that makes total sense for a real estate agent to be more involved than that, but to know who is to know in the chain of command of those different

Cole Slate  38:43  

builders 100% and I can't it is countless. How many times those relationships have assisted a customer

Tracy Hayes  38:48  

of on All right, so let's, we'll keep moving, because we could talk on forever. Let's talk about the you spent some good time at exit, like, what five, almost five years, roughly. Yeah, I think it was right over five years. Right over five years, I if you you're talking to some new agents, because I always pretend to show is we're talking to any agents maybe hit a lid, not really growing, because their brokerage might not be growing. Or a new agent going, where should I go? Because I think you'd agree, there are different brokerages that cater, are better at than others with very green agents and growing them that it's very important for a new agent to truly find out about and dig into the brokerage that they're going to work at. If you could expand a little bit in your experiences with the brokerages, and of course, now you have your own How important is it for that new agent, or an agent looking for growth, they've hit that lid. They're just not they don't know what's going on. No one's meant to. No one's mentoring. What should they be doing? So this is

Cole Slate  39:45  

a giant, loaded question. So one thing just going back to how lucky I got when I started at Keller, thanks to Sharon and for introducing me to Christina Welch. You know, I just turned 25 years old back in. Then I didn't know that I'm supposed to go interview the broker, right? You know, I'm thinking it's just like every other job interview I've been to that I'm putting my best foot forward. My interview face is on, and I am hoping they will have me, you know, which is still the case. But you know, there are so many brokerages out there that I should like. I said, I'm very blessed with the situation that that I got in, but now I'm telling everyone, considering getting in the business, look, you need to make sure the leadership is what you're looking for, the culture is what you're looking for. Are you nice and comfortable? Do you like the environment? You know, at the end of the day, there are many different splits, many different services that are offered, many different fees. You know, there's so much at the end of the day, 0% of zero is 01. 100% of zero is zero. It's all about you as a new agent, waking up and grinding as hard as you can, but find that brokerage, find that leadership, find that culture of which you're most comfortable and most eager to partner with in your business to create your business and a brand and a reputation, right?

Tracy Hayes  41:19  

Because I know you would agree, because you've been doing this long enough and see it. Every person, as every brokerage, does things a little differently. Every individual real estate agent has Well, every person in this world has different strengths and weaknesses. Some they can get on and cold call all day long and be successful at it. Some can spend the money on leads and convert them to make it worthwhile. Others actually can knock on doors and have found success during that we've heard that numerous times in 100 episodes where people literally, like set themselves on knocking on doors. But would you agree finding that broker that's going to help you as an agent find what you're best at, and then obviously 10x at, yeah, absolutely.

Cole Slate  42:03  

And, you know, kind of something that you touched on goes back to whenever we were making the intro the show. You know what I tell every agent, everyone in our industry, everyone who's an entrepreneur, not even in real estate, find what is going to bring you in. What's going to bring you business that you enjoy most doing. You know, I don't enjoy cold calling, so I've never made a cold call in my life. I don't enjoy door knocking, so I've never knocked on the door in my life. But there are some people that thrive on that yes, and they love it. Yes. You know what I mean, being an entrepreneur, being in our industry, being a realtor, you know your business is what you make it. You know your expectation has got to be that you're putting in a minimum of 40 hours a week, you know. And I don't mean 40 hours of just messing around on your phone. And no, you are time blocking 40 hours a week if you want to make full time money. And everyone has a different, you know, ideal combination of, you know, friends, family, production and referrals, right? But everyone has different goals. But if your goal is to make full time money, then you got to put in time right, doing the right stuff, right? So I always preach to people. I said, you know, if you feel like networking should be part of your business, then pick two or three networking groups that you're excited about going and getting involved with at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon, you know. Or if there's a 7am breakfast, you're not going to complain and moan about getting up early and going to that networking breakfast. You know, find the stuff

Tracy Hayes  43:39  

that's very interesting. You bring that up, because oftentimes that happens. I know I'm guilty of it too. There'll be something that comes up, pops up, hey, this has happened in two weeks back. Yeah, I like to do that. And I look at the time, and in that day I'm looking at and go, Yeah, you know what? I'm ready to just like, go home, shut the computer off, and, you know, hang with the kids or something. Yeah? So if you're not passionate about it, because you can't get to be genuine, right? I mean, that's the thing. And you're, if you're going to be part of one of these groups, depending on how you know, emotionally, there's some women's groups. There's three thread that sort of thing, you want to be, you know, full heartedly passionate about it, because those other, lot of those other key people in there are that, and then you can bond real quick with your equivalent passion. What are you doing, though you're now at Slate real estate. What are you doing? What do you do to stay sharp? Are you a podcast listener, book reader? You do a little bit of everything. What is there any person you follow?

Cole Slate  44:33  

I don't read books. I as far as podcast goes, of course, the real estate excellence podcast and my Gary V, I like some of his stuff, right? I'll cherry pick Gary V stuff I enjoy. Mike Cuevas, who's the real estate marketing dude. Okay, you check out his podcast. I was nerding out about shoot eight or nine months ago because he actually reached out to me and I was again. On his podcast. Oh, cool. So being a get like it was, like I said, nerding, it was so cool. But he's always been the podcast that I've listened to the most, because he's so real with what's going on today. You know, it's not for a lot of people now, thanks to social media and networking and events. You know, not everyone's business model is smiling and dialing, you know what I mean, right? You know, branding isn't always smiling and dialing. You know, like we talked about earlier, being the winning that popularity contest. You know, that's a lot of social media now, that's a lot of events coming on podcasts. There's different ways that you can approach, you know, that contest and getting out there as much as possible without having to sit on a phone all day, door knock, call expires, and fizz bows and things like that.

Tracy Hayes  45:55  

But so I want to transition the business with this, because I put it in the intro, and you and I have talked about how long we've been going for your model, which I don't know if there's any other brokerage around that does it, but you actually have it in your compensation plan, driving your agents, which obviously, when they join, say, real estate, they understand this is how You do business, and getting involved, whether it's their local Hoa, it's the nefar or whatever, getting involved in the community boards, to be someone of you know, influence, but be you know, participate and help out in different things. Tell us, you know, obviously, hearing your story, it builds right up to this. But what, at what point did this kind of come to your mind? Because obviously you were at exit thinking about slave real estate. You say, you know, this is

Cole Slate  46:46  

how I do it. So it's funny, you know, I am a big nerd. I love going to all the classes. You know, whenever I took the brokers class, it was simply for the edge. I had zero aspirations of opening my own firm. Okay? And then, you know, some days at that broker's class, the teacher scared me out I need to start a firm the other one day. And then other days it was, I really think I can do this, like I'm sitting there coming up with all these ideas. And something, even going back to my high school days, something that I've always prided myself on was being well rounded. Okay, so when I came up with this compensation plan, you know, I think there's so much more in real estate than production, you know, at the end of the day, does production pay the bills? Yes, it does, but I want the well rounded agents that are giving back to the community, that are giving back to the industry, you know, that are fellow nerds like I am wanting to get these designations, you know. So the model that I created not only incentivizes production, but also achieving designations being involved in the industry, whether it's with the realtor Association or the builder Association, being involved with charities on different board like boards of directors, Chairman chairwomen, things like that, because those are the people that are most well rounded, that are that is creating a brand and a name for Slate real estate for the right reasons, right you see what I'm saying 100% and coming up with this compensation plan is essentially incentivizing what agents should be doing to be successful anyways.

Tracy Hayes  48:33  

Well, it said, I see it as a longevity play as well. This is your career as you started yours when you were 25 years old, you're going to be doing it for a long time. So why would you not want to make some of those long term plays meet people you normally would not meet in your normal day. And that's, you know, being on a board at nefar, being, you know, in your HOA. Because obviously you want everybody in your community to know who you are, hopefully in a positive way. But to be involved, this is a long term play in when you some, I think sometimes, as you agree, you've probably seen them. I know you've seen them in your life, there's people that come in and to the real estate world as an agent, they really don't know what to do. And if they've been working in corporate America, they're waiting for someone to more or less tell them what to do, and you have laid out a comp plan which directs them to be involved. And of course, the play with slate real estate is obviously, they're wearing their name tag that says it, hopefully, they're wearing their shirt that might say it or whatever, and people get to know them as the realtor from Slate real estate, so they're not ready to run so quickly to jump to another brokerage, either. So you gotta somewhat keep because they're making so many points of influence, but their business should be growing with it, correct?

Cole Slate  49:54  

So all these different things besides the production that our comp plan is incentivizing our agents. To do is, what's going to grow your business into success organically? Yes, right? Yep. So that was the whole idea. And, you know, the type of agents that are attracted to a well rounded comp plan like that is our type of people, you know, those are the type of people that are going to fit into our culture, right? Like, like a glove.

Tracy Hayes  50:23  

I think you know, if you took it away over time, it would dissolve, like, if you just went to a standard, hey, here's your standard split, and you didn't have these incentives to be involved in the different things, it would go away. But because they appreciate you as the broker, holding them accountable in a very, in a positive way. The positive way is, go get involved in the board, because, you know you should be, and we're, I'm going to compensate you better than if you're not involved in a board. So they're already it's just, it's building into a culture in a very, not in a draconian way. It's a very just casual way. Is driving any great comp plan, no matter what you're selling, if the comp plan does not drive the behaviors of the sales people to be moving forward in success. It's not a good comp plan, in my opinion.

Cole Slate  51:06  

I need to write down that quote that was good to exactly my goals with it. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I didn't go around to every brokerage in the country or the state or anything, but I haven't heard of another comp plan like that by a brokerage?

Tracy Hayes  51:21  

No, that's why I really think it's brilliant. I want to, I want to cover here the we talked about education and obviously your comp plan for them to continue going down the knee far, not just for CE credits. Well, I did my CE credits for the year I'm done. No, they keep going down, getting their designations keep because someone's teaching that contract class differently every time they get 100%

Cole Slate  51:41  

Yeah, and I stress that, so keep going to the same classes, because you're gonna get different nuggets every time

Tracy Hayes  51:46  

different instructors get something different. Every time we talked about showing up to the office, obviously you're in there. Brightener, I mean, what do you see from your top people or they, they, they may not be coming in every day, type of thing, but how important was talking about creating the culture at Slate real estate is that they're coming in and sharing stories, and because we don't, there's not enough transactions ever in your lifetime to understand every possible situation. I can't do enough loans to cover every possible financial but if you hear from others when the situation happens, you're like, Oh, yeah. Well, let me know what I've heard. We could do that. Let me go check over here, because I heard Tom talking about it last week, and you're right, how important is showing up and not only showing up to the office, but like I said, showing up to the social events and meeting other agents.

Cole Slate  52:33  

So, you know, going back a little bit earlier, you know, everyone's different. Everyone has a different mindset, motivations, personalities. I've always been an office person, so even if I have no in person appointments and no in person obligations that day, I will be like you said, me personally. I get to the office around 630 or seven in the morning, and of course, my phone never stops, but I leave the office around four, yeah, about four or 430 because I'm getting there at 630 in the morning. I feel like that's long enough. Yeah, but it's treating again, going back to not even just real estate, but treating any business that you're starting, whether it's real estate or mortgages or insurance or, you know, inspectors, whatever it is, like at least a nine to five. There are so many opportunities out there, from you time blocking to handwrite notes. To me wanting to have a lunch appointment with someone different every day. Okay? To me being involved with one nefar Council, one NESPA Council and one charity. There's always something to do, you know, like a happy hour mixer, networking time right to go show face and create relationships, you know. So I was always, I always am an office person, you know.

Tracy Hayes  53:47  

And someone might say, well, it's, you know, Cole's name, you know, Slate's out there. It's his business. That's why he goes in early. Okay. Well, as an agent, if you want your name to be up there, you got to put your time to the point where, yeah, you can break off and go do your own thing if that's what you want to do. But ultimately, still, as an agent, you are your own business, and that's the office. Yes, Cole is motivated, because he motivated himself to get his own name on there. If you want yours, you got to get motivated too. And it starts worth working under a brokerage and showing up in the obviously, whether he's pulling in from you, but you also have some other very brilliant people that are very involved in the office and pulling from them if you ultimately want your name on

Cole Slate  54:29  

it, yeah. So, you know, it goes to, you know, we don't take on brand new licensees. We've taken on two brand new licensees ever, and they're both their own story and reasons that we brought them on, one of them being Jamie McLaughlin, who, even though she's only had her license for 14 months, she's a top three, I believe, the top three or four producer at our firm, which is unbelievable. Yeah, you got some names over there. Unbelievable. Yeah, and, but, you know, we do that because, you know, I have a lot to. Offer to coach up those who already have foundation, you know. And for me, it was going to the office and all these events and everything as much as possible. You know, whenever I was time, blocking my time, if there was a training I was there, if there was a networking event, new builder was open community. I was there, you know, it's just showing up, like you said, as much as possible. And not everyone has the personality that they want to have their own firm one day, right? You know. And it's so difficult, you know, going back to the new licensees, you know, so many people get into our business that think, like you said earlier, it's corporate America, you know, hey, broker, Tracy, I got my license yesterday. I'm here now. What? Yeah, that isn't what this business is, right? That's not owning your own business. I can't create motivation for you. I can give you the resources, I give you the support, I give you the tools. I can share my experience from all the different homes that I help buy and sell. But it's up to you to get out what you put in.

Tracy Hayes  55:59  

Would you agree? Really? In, I think, in the real estate world, it really brokerage. You're actually signed up under the actual name or brand. Isn't really the driver. There are some brokerage might give you a couple of inches. But really, in the grand scheme of things, it your own personal brand, the reputation that John Smith brings, or in this case, Cole slate brings, to the it's Cole's name. He's they're not going, Hey, slate, real estate, yeah, call Cole. No, they call Cole. That's you've driven that all along. And what doesn't matter who they're working with by showing up, being that person, volunteering, doing, showing up on those boards, your name is to be out there in saturates.

Cole Slate  56:44  

Well, that's what's so cool about being so picky about who joins us all like minded people like you know, we're not spending money on online leads and Zillow and like all this other stuff. We're spending money on appreciation events. We're spending money on our past customers and our past referrers. We're spending money on the first responders, the teachers, the pro the crossing guards, the military. We're throwing all these events to, you know, help out the community and be as much as possible. People say the word, I guess, words hyper local all the time. We are hyper community. Okay, hyper so we, I've been working we name the podcast at hyper community, that's it. You know, I've built my business the past 10 years on finding excuses to appreciate people, whether it's a demographic like first responders, or whether it's just coming in and appreciating you on your 100th podcast. You know what I mean? Yep, finding excuses and finding ways to scratch as many backs as possible, is how you're supposed to do business. And that's going to create a particular reputation. You know, man, I already love Tracy, but he's an agent at Slate real estate, all the stuff that they do for teachers. I am. He's absolutely my first call.

Tracy Hayes  57:54  

Do you think you know lot of stuff we're talking about, a lot of things that you're doing, you know, we are hearing from you. Listen to Gary V you can go across all anybody who's been out there. John Maxwell, I mean, the listen to this. There's a lot of people out there doing public speaking and motivation and just talking about business and what you're talking about, it takes time. And the next word I want to bring up is consistent.

Cole Slate  58:19  

I knew you were gonna say that, yeah, that

Tracy Hayes  58:21  

we're such in a rush that, oh, you know, I've been doing this for three or four months. Why isn't it just raining loans on me? Why is it not why aren't my phone not ringing because I've been, you know, Facebook posts, yeah, donated to Best Buddies. Why isn't everyone calling me? You This is a business you got to do consistently, doing the things you do, you may hopefully reach a tipping point where you can start cutting back and obviously, hopefully, appreciating some of your fruits of your labor, and, you know, going home at 430 and what? Sometimes there's those nights, I'm sure at seven o'clock there's things going on. Like I said, I

Cole Slate  58:52  

leave the office, the phone doesn't stop, right?

Tracy Hayes  58:55  

Yeah, exactly, you know that. So, yeah. So we were up consistency. This could be consistency for three months. Consistency for three years. How many people in stories that we've heard, they were one AX swing away to pick ax away from that golden nugget, stopped in the mine and went and left, and the next guy came in and swung one time and they found the gold nugget. Yeah. Consistency. That's the word Absolutely.

Cole Slate  59:23  

I mean, that's what it's all about, you know, that's, you know, whenever we have golly, how many events that we have every year. So we have Teacher Appreciation every year, crossing guard appreciation every year, first responder appreciation every year, Military Appreciation every year. So we have those

Tracy Hayes  59:39  

four touch on the like the crossing guard appreciation. What do you do?

Cole Slate  59:43  

So, you know, we actually started the crossing guard appreciation here locally. I think we've been doing it for four or five years now, and whenever the first year that we did it, okay, I didn't realize we were perhaps getting the crossing guards in trouble. So what we did was we. Right here in Northwest St John's, they're only at their posts for like an hour and a half every morning, right? Okay, so, number one, our first year doing it, didn't realize we were doing like, Chinese fire drills at every post. Number two, I didn't realize that they were not allowed to have like a drink and food of their post. Oh. So here we are, four of us crossing race track road with a box of donut and one of, one of the big things, of coffee. Oh no, Here's your coffee from this local shop and your donut from this look. And they're like, I can't take that. And, like, holding the crossing guard signs for, like, elementary kids, yeah. And here comes my big butt walking across the racetrack road. And I'm, you know, happy crossing guard appreciation. They're like, that's a thing, which actually, I believe, it takes a lot of Googling, but it is actually recognized, I believe, at the state level. And I believe it's the first Friday of every for oh, I think it's the first Friday of every February. Don't quote me on that. But anyways, so we lived and learned, we grew, we divided and conquered. Go to it was our third or fourth year doing this, and after talking to St John's Sheriff's Office, we found out that they that's who actually oversees the crossing guards. It's a sheriff's office. I always thought it was a school district, right? But anyways, and they said, Well, why don't you just do a breakfast? Everyone comes to after their posts. I said, perfect. You know, be able to help out a lot more people. Provide Breakfast Show appreciation.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:27  

So actually get some fate more face to face. And then I rushed out to go do what there's Right, yeah.

Cole Slate  1:01:32  

And so we set up at Cafe Genoese, which is this awesome little diner where you would ask yes on calorie rates, a very good brand. And every crossing guard showed up, and St John's sheriff's office enjoyed the event so much that the following year they actually piggybacked on our event for sheriff Hardwick to come give out awards to the crossing guard come speak to them and everything. So now with the whole thing, this past year, we actually took all of our stuff to their new training facility off of 16 right at night, live, and we were their sponsor at their training facility. So it's turned into, you know, this great thing for the crossing guards. They know they're gonna see us every year. You know, I

Tracy Hayes  1:02:12  

get now, obviously, because we're spread out in the county here, you're, you do you? Are you just doing here in the Northwest? Or you bounce around to be a little

Cole Slate  1:02:20  

more closer. So they're also, now it's the whole county, so they'll drive all the way from here to wherever your central location is. Yep, interesting. And, yeah, so that's, you know, been awesome. The crossing guards, you know, now expect us, because I think it's been five years now, so it's really cool.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:37  

Well, in fact, you know, they're looking forward to it. You've made it and made an impact. You know, the business may be, I don't know if you can measure it, unless someone said, Yeah, my friend Sally, who's a crossing guard, you know, you know who Sally was, she was at that event, and you were appreciating him. Because, trust me, the influence of just northeast Florida, we have people coming from all over, and these are moms. A lot of times I drive, you know, we drive by me

Cole Slate  1:03:01  

on whether they have to stand out. Oh my gosh, luckily, well, especially

Tracy Hayes  1:03:05  

in the afternoons, yeah, and the heat, you know, and they're out there, but a lot of their moms, it's not, you know, they're out there, and they're more or less volunteering their time, whatever little they get paid, seriously, but they're out there. But trust me, they see the circle of influence that they have. Because I see the parents taking their kids on their bikes to school, and then they're riding home. They're passing by Sally the guard all the time. The circle of influences you've infiltrated and expanded

Cole Slate  1:03:32  

is just awesome, and it's all about approaching this hyper community effort like the right way. You know what I mean? You're not showing up and taking donut and coffee to the crossing guards with a sign in sheet trying to get someone's contact info, right? You know what I mean, right? You're doing it to give back and appreciate the community. You know, the goodwill and the karma and effort spot. You know, it's all a real thing like it'll come back. Just keep treating everyone like you want to be treated, and it will 100% positively affect your business and your life.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:04  

You know, we go to different events, and you get your nice Yeti mug up here on the table and so forth. We go to events as real estate industry people, and we get piled on stuff, right? We get all these strange, you know, you're someone who's that crossing guard person. You come up and, you know, give, I don't even give out stuff. You just give them a coffee mug or just something like that. That really goes a long way to us. We get them all the time. They're, you know, it's like, at a point until my wife's gonna stop. We've got enough of the, yeah, if it's not, if it's not the expensive Yeti cup, don't take it anymore, because we just got enough of those. And but just those little things go such a long way, and you will find people in the fact that they already give their time to stand out there in that heat. They don't get paid. They never get paid enough that someone actually reaches out to them and does something for them and recognize them, even for that couple hours. Once a year, there's people in there that means a lot, and they. Are actually looking to refer you somebody to show you appreciation. Yeah, yeah, that's building raving fans. I know that's a subject of one of the things that we're gonna talk about on Friday, but also, I know there's an event later on next month, and another loan of brokers is doing, you know, creating raving fans.

Cole Slate  1:05:15  

But that's, did my colleague Christine Hall drop raving fans when she was

Tracy Hayes  1:05:20  

I do believe she's like, Yeah,

Cole Slate  1:05:25  

cool, sold out for me, and maybe I did it. You know, we're gonna

Tracy Hayes  1:05:28  

finish up here surrounding yourself by successful people. When I look at what you do and you're being on the different boards and so forth, you generally the other board members are successful in their own right. In there is like a fringe benefit of being on those boards. You're surrounding yourself by people who are thinkers in the community, who want to do more for the community. They have ideas, and they want to network with you, and because you have a similar interest, whatever that board may be, that you're able to, you know, have a coffee with them. You know, call them up. They know you change ideas or even just being around them. How important has that been to your overall development as a leader in real estate,

Cole Slate  1:06:10  

Iron sharpens. Iron is a real thing. You know, being around like minded people and the type of people who you know, like I said earlier, I try to surround myself with people who their strengths are my weaknesses. You know what I mean, and also people who have already been where I'm trying to go now, being able to surround yourself with those type of people and spend extra time with them. I mean, the investment is infinite. You know what you could potentially get out of that you know relationship well.

Tracy Hayes  1:06:42  

I mean, would you agree? I mean, one of the most flattering things is, you know, someone to come up to you and say, hey, you know, I really admire what you're doing. You're successful. Because I think a lot of people don't realize how successful they are, but we're kind of modest. I would that you someone seeing them, that they, you know, from the outside looking in, and say, Hey, you're successful. I, you know, tell me a little about what you did. Or, Hey, this is where I'm at. I'd really like to have the success here. Is there something, you know, you can share with me and 99% of the people, they want to, they'll pour their, you know, everything into you. Yeah.

Cole Slate  1:07:16  

I mean, the you know, difficult part about that is, you know, we're all just built so differently, you know. And being an entrepreneur, you get out what you put in. So there's not a secret song. You know, people you know, and I'm happy to when I have time, but you know, random agents and entrepreneurs and business owners reach out to me. Just show up at my office, right all the time, you know, I like to speak with Cole you know, I'm starting this type of business, not even real estate related, right? You know, I'd like to come up with a marketing plan with him, and, you know, stuff like that. You know, all of this stuff, you know, get out what you put in. There's not an exact roadmap to anyone's success beyond your own effort and drive implementation and consistency.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:59  

I mean, that's kind of brilliant. What we were talking about before and finding is it the things that you know you enjoy doing that obviously you know that you get up every morning and go do and you can get some ideas from some other people, maybe something that someone else is doing. Oh, I didn't even know I could do that and go with but it's got to click with you. So you do to repeat exactly the same steps as someone else, extremely hard you were brought up differently, different mindset, different motivations, whatever it is.

Cole Slate  1:08:26  

So funny, because you know something, or some things that have grown to be my brand is me being in shorts and flip flops every day, okay? And my truck, all right? Well, we already talked about how much the lack of thought that went into my truck. You know what I mean, it was, hey, I don't want to buy a new one. I'll wrap it and I'll throw some advertising on there. That was, you know, that was the thought process. But of course, then it was realizing the potential, right? The shorts and flip flops, which, you know, everyone to this day, I did the Women's Council of Realtors fashion show on Friday night. You know, this awesome pictures, yes, okay, and are awesome flip flops under your suit. So everyone was saying that, right? So what happened was, they brought us out on the catwalk twice. So the first time we had to milk it for a minute. I was in my closed toe shoes. I was looking proper. The Magic Mike Song may have came on, and I threw some moves out there. I even got $1 put in my pants. But, you know, I was dressed how it's supposed to be, and stuff like that. So the second time, they're like, Hey, be a little bit. Be quicker this time, because we just need to tell them, like, what you're wearing, because of all clothes from dealers. So I'm like, Okay, I'll be funny. I'll take off my clothes, toes, shoes and throw flip flops on. Because, you know, at least a dozen people mentioned to me, oh, is flip flops part of your, you know, your wardrobe tonight. And so, of course, that the picture that Diane posted, and everyone see it, you know, of course, I don't care. I love it, but it's funny how that has evolved as part of my. Right? Yeah, it's at your trademark because I'm like, you know, when I was working for Christina, it was so important to me to always put my best foot forward, because it was her name and brand that I was representing, right? I was in a three, believe it or not, I was in a three piece suit every day. Three Piece every day. I was in a three piece suit. And let me tell you something, my socks were matching my tie like I was on it. And, you know, whenever, whenever I started my next chapter, my customers started to say, like, hey, Cole, you don't have to dress like that. You know, it's 100 degrees out showing a foreclosure, yeah, and your face is dripping. So then I went to, obviously, the Polo show flip flops. And I'm like, Y'all, I'm this 300 pound guy living in Florida. You know, this is how it's gonna happen. Now, of course, you know, especially with me being the incoming nefar secretary, with me having a different state leadership, the Vice Chair of the state's Young Professionals Network. Now, you know, I dress appropriately at official, official events, yeah, but yeah, like it was, you know, that's that just happened on accident. Title again, not something that I put a lot of thought into, you know, and I have this mindset too. If I ever went to a buyer's consultation or a listing consultation, okay? And I was interviewing for the business they know based off my resume that I have given to them, sitting there at the table that I'm one of the top agents in the area, and the only reason they don't want to work with me is because I'm in shorts and flip flops, and quite frankly, I'm not sure I want to work with them either.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:40  

Yeah, you gotta, you've gotta, you've gotta be you. We've heard that a lot lately. Embrace your Gabby in general. Yeah, in I people move here for lifestyle, trust me, they're moving here for the lifestyle, and that you are exuberating the lifestyle. Yeah, we're bigger guys. We start putting we're, you know, one we're uncomfortable. So then we're, then the people notice that we're uncomfortable. You know, I really think people come here they want to wear shorts and flip flops all the time themselves. And when they say, Hey, we're gonna go out and see houses, we can wear shorts and flip flops, they don't feel like they're wearing shorts and flip flops and you're wearing a jacket and tie. They feel uncomfortable.

Cole Slate  1:12:17  

We're bigger guys. Man, yeah, shower sweats is a real thing to still PC when I put on my suit 6am

Tracy Hayes  1:12:25  

Oh, man, I've worked some places where, yeah, that's another thing you Laura, yep, you guys been

Cole Slate  1:12:30  

married now two or three years. Now, three years was May 17.

Tracy Hayes  1:12:34  

May 17. She's part of the business. Take a minute and just, you know, share a little bit well what she does and what she's bringing to state

Cole Slate  1:12:41  

real estate. So how I told you the story, how we met? So this is how so we joke now that Laura and I are so nefar. Okay, we are so nefar, though. Laura and I first met at a nefar YPN kickball. Wow, that is where we first met. Who was she? Who was she? Watson. She was with Watson. Yeah, yep. So she was at Watson. And I have been married to my beautiful angel for So

Tracy Hayes  1:13:09  

let's dig in really now. So you meet at the kickball tournament who's interested in who?

Cole Slate  1:13:14  

So Laura needed help. She was a damsel in distress. Oh, and needed help putting a cooler in the back of her SUV. Okay, so my buddy and I go help with that. Then, as the kids say, I slid into her DMs, okay, but then she went to France with her mom for like, a week or and, you know, I gotta be honest, I'm not a big phone talker. I'm yeah stuff like that. And you know, she'll still tell her

Tracy Hayes  1:13:50  

business on the phone. Get

Cole Slate  1:13:52  

Rachel, yeah, say, Hey, what's up? Yeah, so, so, you know she'll tell, I hope she's watching right now. She'll tell her version of the story, okay, but she felt while she was in Paris that I pulled the walk away. Oh, and she's like, Could you stop direct messaging? Yeah, she's like, son of a gun. I missed this guy. Like she wasn't expecting it, you know what I mean. And so yeah, like I said, Talk to her for her version of the story. It's awesome. So Laura and I, we're actually very opposite as well. She loves the behind the scenes, the systems, the details. Make sure everyone's crossing their T's and dotting their eyes. You know, she really leads to effort in running our office and our systems. Okay, so it's funny a lot of people like every married couple that works together, oh, don't get tired of each other and stuff like that. Well, when I'm out doing stuff like this all the time, and she gets to the office about 915 she leaves at five Monday through Thursday, and works from home on Friday. And so. When I'm out doing stuff like this all the time, like, we really aren't seeing each other like that much, but even in the office, she has another office, right, you know? But yeah, like, it's, I'm so lucky. I'm so blessed to have her. I'm so lucky and blessed that I played in that kickball.

Tracy Hayes  1:15:18  

So the damsel in distress was to let you know that she was single. There was some sign given there that, hey, you know, you may want to call me, and now she's my boss.

Cole Slate  1:15:28  

That sign on the building is Laura slate. That is not Cole slate, that is Laura.

Tracy Hayes  1:15:36  

You're just, you're just the figurehead out there. So when did she eventually join you from Watson? I mean, she joined you and you're still at exit or so, it's

Cole Slate  1:15:43  

funny, yes, while we're still at exit, that memory just popped up on my phone. I will get my Facebook memories every morning. Shoot four, four or five years ago,

Tracy Hayes  1:15:52  

okay, you know, give or take. Yeah. So she, she put a two or three years when you were still the coal slave team at exit real estate gallery. Yep, cool. I know we're going right over, but I always like to ask, that's fine, man, we can talk fast one, we'll keep this one to me. What is if you look back right now, and you know, like said, you have a lot of people coming in your office, you asked you business, even, not even real estate. Just want your opinion, your angle, whatever. But when you look back in real estate, what was probably your, your biggest mistake that any new person you might be mentoring is that, yeah, I've done that. Don't even open that door.

Cole Slate  1:16:27  

My biggest mistake, and probably not even necessarily like the route that you were going, I only started implementing an actual CRM, like, three years ago. I, you know, I use Facebook a lot. All of my Facebook friends are organized in regards to where they are friends, correct? Yeah. So you can go in on the back end, when you're on your desktop, and organize your friends list, right? So, you know, I have three lists of Realtors, University of Florida alumni, you know, I have everyone you know. So I guess I use Facebook as my CRM, but that's obviously not the most efficient right way. So, you know, I'm sure Christina tried to preach this to me and teach me the right way, but I would have found a CRM day one in the business, and absolutely invested as much time and as much detail into it as I could. I would have started one in college.

Tracy Hayes  1:17:23  

Yeah, you're 100% right. I can think about the same you had in, you know, here in the loan officer, where I'm working for a company that has their CRM, you know, they tell you to leave, they shut that you have no access to that. So you've got to keep your own at all times in your 100% right? I would that's a great one to lay out there. Start your own, get your own CRM early. Make sure, if you're, if it's, you know, you got a company has a CRM. Make sure everything's being transferred over into yours. No matter where you go, you've got it, and you got to

Cole Slate  1:17:53  

continue to touch that being as detailed as possible. Yeah, just going down, you know, I how you met him, absolutely. Kids names, pets names, address, you know, the whole nine yards.

Tracy Hayes  1:18:05  

All right, wrapping up with our Two Minute Warning questions here, what is you and Laura's favorite thing to do here in Northeast Florida?

Cole Slate  1:18:13  

Well, we love to go out to eat. You know, if you follow any of our social media, so much of it is food oriented. We love, or say, or whenever there's a super special occasion that we're, you know, periodically ready to drop a large tab, which, that tab has gone down significantly now that I've stopped drinking. So we go to we love, or say, we love Matthews that's in San Marco. So we love going out to eat. We love spin Matthews is the Italian restaurant? Is it? Matthews is more it's not Italian. It's more of like a fine dining type of place. Maybe they market like a French twist, maybe. Okay, I guess I think of another one. Okay, yeah. So trying to think of what you're thinking of, I'm sure we'll think of it whenever we're done. Yeah? So we love going out to eat. We love spending time with Fenway, our dog. And you know, I gotta be honest with you, I tell I asked Laura, you know, probably once every few weeks, how's it feel to be married to the most boring guy in the world? Because all I do is go to bed early and wake up and go I'm scared to death to fly. I get motion sick, so I don't do cruises, you know. So, you know, the little whenever she says she wants to go somewhere, I'm like, so what friend do you want to go with? My driving limit is probably, like, five or six hours. You know, where do you want to go within five or six hours, right? Something like that. But, yeah, I would say she's a big traveler. She loves to travel. She tries to go skiing annually with our friends in Colorado. You know, like I said, whenever we met, she was in a week or two. After that, she was in parafarm, right, which is her favorite city on earth. I have random Eiffel Towers all over my house that Laura thinks is decorative. I'm like, Oh, I didn't

Tracy Hayes  1:19:58  

know your kids will be moving, though. Sound. I think I know your answer already. But obviously, the question I ask on every episode, is it more important who you know or what you know and why?

Cole Slate  1:20:10  

Man, I think it's finding the perfect combination you know. Like I said, you know at the beginning, you know, I start with the who you know answer, because who you know is how I got into us. Who you know is how I met Christina, who you know is how you get these referrals and these introductions for business builders and things like that. But what you know is your quality of your work. What you know is knowing the contract is knowing the city, just knowing the resources. So who you know and what you know you know, I would have, which one do you get? 51% to 51% who you know? Because if you don't have the who you know, then you don't have anyone to share. The what we know is,

Tracy Hayes  1:20:56  

I like that. I like that. I agree wholeheartedly. And I mean, I think in our business, you know, it's the you know what's it's not what you they don't care what you know until they know how much you care. So you got to get the who you know and knowing you and when they know you, then they care. Then your credibility goes to another level, and you can then pour into them. Cole, it's been amazing. I want to show this. Oh my god, great. Yeah, hopefully those are some people are still walled. You can put it off to the side, but no, I'm gonna hang this with great. This is gonna be all over. This is just, this is beautiful. But the 100th episode of We I'll get, we'll get a we'll get a selfie of that. I appreciate that. That is, that's really precious.

Cole Slate  1:21:36  

Congrats, man. Congrats to you. I mean, 100 episodes is so awesome. And hopefully this is just building up that snowball effect to Episode 1000

Tracy Hayes  1:21:46  

I really appreciate it. And there's just so many great people out there with great stories.

Cole Slate  1:21:53  

You have to be such a sponge, like taking if you took even the most minimal nugget, the most minimal from each of the 100 guests that you've had to just be pouring with it.

Tracy Hayes  1:22:05  

Yeah, there I tell people, it's like a personal development book every time I sit someone down. And you know, it's not they're telling, not always telling me something I don't already know. But you know, when I look back and I try to pour my son or younger people, except, like, I've had a lot of sub 30 people on here doing just amazing things, and I'm just at all. I'm 52 years old. I wish I knew or had the mentors or the whereabouts, or just whatever it is that they clicked in and got locked in so early, because they're going to make they're going to just be icons like Brittany Nolan with DJ and Lindsay. I mean, she's 30 years old. She's running that large company. I told her she's going to be an icon in St Augustine real estate for the next three decades, you know. And it's just to watch these people in the be honored to be sitting down with them and learning about them, because I'm going to call them when I'm a little older, maybe still wholly doing this and, you know, type thing. But there are many more people to bring on and learn about.

Cole Slate  1:23:02  

That's awesome, really, is Congrats, man, thank you awesome.

Podcast Intro  1:23:07  

This may be it for today's episode of Real Estate excellence, but we both know your pursuit of excellence doesn't stop here, to connect with the best of the best and really take your skills to the next level. Join our community by visiting Tracy Hayes podcast.com where you'll meet more like minded individuals looking to expand their inner circle and their personal experience that's available at Tracy Hayes podcast.com

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