Kira Sikes: Woman of Faith and Determination

Tracy Hayes  1:14  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast with your host. Tracy Hayes, the agent before you, has been flashing in front of me since I began planning the podcast over a year ago. We certainly have many of the same friends on Facebook. We both are in the real estate industry, obviously, but when preparing for the show, I think I may have found out why she was popping in front of me. Looking forward to hearing from this amazing agent, mom and woman devoted to her faith. John Maxwell says that he has a path for all of us. And people come into our lives for reasons. That's one reason I think she was flashing before me consistently on Facebook, is I need to have this lady on the show openly shares her faith on a great Facebook page, graces and places. And I look forward to learning more about her. Today I have the owner, broker of sandbar Realty, Kira Sykes in the house. Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you. So I dig into everyone a little bit as much as I can to create some, you know, content questions. Always find everyone has, you know, been really blessed from the standpoint every podcast has had such an interesting everyone has an interesting story how they came to success. Common themes, but different stories. And obviously I was digging into you, and I said, let's start off. I'd really like to start off talking about your separate page, that you have graces and places, what it means to you and why you you know you felt you need to create that page to get yourself out there.

Kira Sikes  2:34  
Yeah, so it's really interesting, and I've been kind of, I don't want to say slacking on posting on the page. I just feel like I'm in a different season right now. It's still always in the back of my mind, obviously. But the reason I started that was I, you know, I just wanted to do more. I wanted to give more, and I wanted to and when I say more, I mean, you know, being a real estate broker, we do real estate transactions. You know, me being a broker, you know, I talk to my agents. I'm always trying to recruit agents, but my heart and my soul is about the community in general, and I want people to understand what I represent. I mean, all of my clients I talk to, I am very open about, you know, God and what I believe in. And I get constantly certain clients who, for example, and hopefully I can say this,

Speaker 1  3:26  
but it's a podcast you can say, Yeah, free country, right?

Kira Sikes  3:31  
So, for example, I get real close with my clients. And one of my recent, well, she's a past client. Been a client for a long time. I had saw a post that she did on Facebook yesterday, and her husband is fighting for his life in the hospital. He's on a ventilator, and she made a post that said, you know, this is gonna sound silly. My husband's gonna think it's silly. We don't usually, we're not prayerful people, but like desperate times essentially call

Speaker 1  3:59  
you to the absolutely to your maker. There's no

Kira Sikes  4:02  
doubt, you know. And so, yeah, I immediately reached out to her, and I said, What can I do for you? I'm gonna pray for you. I, you know, prayed for her over her husband. And then, of course, I have, I'm actually, and you probably didn't take this part of yet. I'm on the board of an amazing nonprofit called embracing his call. And those are, like my prayer warriors, embracing his call, embracing his call. Yes, amazing, amazing group of girls, and it's just about, we can talk about that later. That's a whole nother conversation. But anyway, so I reached out to them. I'm like, hey, I need some prayers. I need you guys lift them up. And I checked on her this morning before I came in, and she said he actually was doing much better yesterday, and I'm just really hoping that he uses the situation to show them that, hey, prayer is not silly. You know, it's not. And we all believe in something, whether it be God or each other, right? You know it's

Tracy Hayes  4:57  
but do you find do you find you? I always believe. If people attract others that are like them, do you find that because you're, I mean, it's not, it's not you're pressing your religious beliefs on somebody or something. You're just open about your faith. Do you find you attract your clients, for the most part, have similar views, similar beliefs.

Kira Sikes  5:19  
You know, it's funny that you say that I do feel like you attract similar people. However, I also do feel that God puts people in your lives in order for you to because he knows that you're open, yes. And they when I say, Oh, it's okay, you know, we're I've been praying that God brings you the perfect house, and then it and then I use that all the time, and they're looking at me like, okay, yeah, we'll see about that, yeah, and then, sure enough, like, the one they thought they wanted falls through, and then the next one comes, you know, and it works out seamlessly, perfectly. So remember that one time, you know, they're

Tracy Hayes  5:53  
heartbroken because they didn't get the offer, or maybe the inspection went bad, whatever cancels that deal, and it's always the next house. Or, like, Oh my goodness. Like I thought, so you grew up in Orange Park.

Kira Sikes  6:07  
Half Orange Park, half, I don't like to talk about loud, but half in Clay Hill, maxville, so it's like Middleburg. Like the past Middleburg, I know so

Tracy Hayes  6:21  
they wouldn't with Middleburg. And I'm, you know, been out, what's it out 16, was it Lake City or whatever? Yeah, or Stark. I'm sorry.

Kira Sikes  6:29  
So I want to say, like, you say, because

Speaker 1  6:32  
you want to farm or something. I was on about

Kira Sikes  6:35  
an acre and a half of land, and yes, we had a ginormous pig. And I remember when I was little, I'm like, Man, I wonder if I can ride that thing, because it looked like a horse. Yeah, yeah. And then one day he disappeared as a young girl, I was like, Oh, they must have put him at a different home. And then as I got older, I'm like, he made somebody real fat.

Tracy Hayes  6:58  
Yes, they didn't come on over and offer your parents. Here's a couple pounds of bacon

Kira Sikes  7:02  
I gave us like my little neighbor friend.

Tracy Hayes  7:04  
So did you go to Middleburg high? Or where did you

Kira Sikes  7:07  
so went to Clay Hill? So I went to Clay Hill Elementary, and then went to Wilkinson junior high for half of a year. Then my parents moved us to Orange Park, where I spent the other half of my life, and then eventually moved away to launch part,

Tracy Hayes  7:20  
okay, yeah, your first aspirations, as far as I think what I've got off LinkedIn is cosmetology. Is that?

Kira Sikes  7:27  
Yeah, that's so funny. So when I was eight, I don't know if you saw this, but, and I'm trying to stay

Tracy Hayes  7:34  
humble here, as I tell all my clients, my assistant, my partner, she used to work for the Secret Service. So I know everything about everybody.

Kira Sikes  7:44  
I'm all about some of my friends and especially my agents. They make fun of me because they say that I'm just like, I should I'm a detective. I'm like, Okay, who are you meeting? Alright, let me look them up to make sure that, like, good. You know,

Tracy Hayes  7:59  
you got to be a Facebook stalker. Oh, man, I do more. I actually was at a conference. I was telling you, I think I was just talking yesterday, we were at a conference, and, you know, that was one of the tips. Was, if you know, you're trying to get to know somebody, as I like, I try to know somebody before the podcast. Go on their social media, see what they do. They like to go to the beach, or what, you know, play golf, or whatever they do. I try to teach

Kira Sikes  8:18  
my age, as I said, when you get a lead, obviously, reach out to them, do the thing, but then if you want to do an extra step, go Facebook stalk them, and they look at me like

Tracy Hayes  8:27  
they might be a sports fan or something. You don't know what's going to be. And I think also, you know, it's, it's a conversational piece, absolutely, yeah, which may lead into deeper things. Oh, you're, you know, Jags fan, or whatever you are, and it leads into, maybe that's something they like to do on Sundays. And you know, it helps build the rapport. Well, the

Kira Sikes  8:47  
biggest thing too, for that aspect of it is, you know, when you get a new lead, whether you you know, you've never talked to that person, and so if you Facebook stalk them, essentially, you figure out, oh, I have so many four mutual friends with this person. That is an open doorway working, you know, and then they realize that's a real person trying to call them three times a day, every hour, until they answer the phone. So then on Facebook or Instagram, whatever, they are more open right, to having that conversation. And I don't remember when you

Tracy Hayes  9:17  
first asked me, well, so cosmetology. I mean, so you left high school. Was that an aspiration? What did you foresee yourself doing at that time? Were you

Kira Sikes  9:24  
Well, believe it or not, and I before I even decided on cosmetology or real estate, I had no intention of getting married, I had no intention of having children. I wanted to travel the world, open my own business. I didn't know what yet, but all I knew was I wanted to

Tracy Hayes  9:43  
experience some fancy free. Yeah,

Kira Sikes  9:46  
it was weird, because, you know, my whole family is all about, like, having kids, having families, settling down, but not I didn't want to. I was supposed to move to California with my cousin after graduation. Well, I had a different plan for my life. I. I, you know, made some decisions, and it led me to having a child at a young age. And so I actually worked at a bank for a little bit before I figured out my path, and then, and before all that, actually tried to be into modeling and acting for, like, over 10 years. And they say, quote, that you get your big break after 10 years. Okay, we're about on that mark. And sure enough, I got a call from cover girl around the 10 year mark, and I was pregnant with child. I was like, four months pregnant, and I'm like, okay, so you just see my face, right? Does that matter? Like I have been waiting for this day. They were like, nope, and that was basically the end of that. I didn't get the chance to do that.

Tracy Hayes  10:42  
So I mean, well, let's because we opened the session with talking about your faith as your is this something that you grew up with or something that you've grown into?

Kira Sikes  10:52  
I was raised in church. I was raised Southern Baptist, if any of you guys know what that means. But my faith has definitely changed over the years. I do feel in our world, we're so hung up on labels. We're so hung up on, oh, Are you Catholic? Are you? You know what I mean, so and in my opinion, it's not supposed to be about the label. That's legalism, and we should be focused on the relationship, because ultimately, if you think about it, every single person we come in contact with is a relationship. And if we pray to God as a relationship, everything should be relational. So that makes sense. And then so ultimately, back to the whole where I got into my life. I was at a crossroad. I was at a bank, and I had, you know, had my

Tracy Hayes  11:35  
first son. So is this just post Cover Girl?

Kira Sikes  11:39  
This was like, right after I had my my child was like, No, kick, rocks.

Speaker 1  11:46  
Oh my gosh. Now, yeah. And

Kira Sikes  11:48  
I was devastated, you know, because I like to be entertaining. I like, I was a national as a member of the National Thespians, as I know my oldest is like, Isn't that illegal? And I was like, No, that's something different. So I was at the Spank, and I auditioned for, I don't know if you know this radio station. It was 95.1 the big ape, and it was when Mark and the other girl was hosting. And so I did a they did an audition. Was right after American Idol came out, and they did this huge American Idol competition thing. And there's like, hundreds of people that audition. Well, they only pick 10, and I was part of that 10, and we had to do, like, a week long thing, and I got a singer, no, no. I mean, they were looking for somebody that was going to have a job there, essentially the part of the to the mark, and I think her name was Chrissy, oh,

Tracy Hayes  12:38  
they were auditioning for people to be on the radio, to

Kira Sikes  12:41  
be yes, to work there with them. However they did it, Americans idol type, yeah, were they eliminated? We had a different task. So anyways, and I'm gonna try to keep this story brief, because then we could talk about this one all day. Super fun. I did a lot of cool, crazy things that week that I never, ever thought I would ever do to try to get this position, because I was on,

Tracy Hayes  13:02  
like, audition for a sorority or something probably equivalent. Sounds like,

Kira Sikes  13:08  
let me tell you the positive things of, what about what I did that week. Was there any hazing involved? There was some humming in some areas that were definitely cleaned before I did it, humming, you know, song, because it was a radio station. And then one of the other things we did was we raised money for the Children's Miracle Network on the side of the road of Southside and McDonald's at like, six o'clock in the morning. And I obviously raised enough. I won essentially that little piece. But at the end of the day, they told me, and I and so the bank I worked out, I'm trying not to say their name, because I got in trouble for even mentioning that I worked at a bank when I was on the that that competition, that was a conflict of interest, they base. They gave me ultimatum and said, You they all figured out, I guess they listened to that station. They figured out I was on there at 5am before I would go into work. It wasn't even like I was leaving work. It was before work, and they

Tracy Hayes  14:01  
probably got more people walked in. Were you working in a branch? I was they probably found out what brancher, and they probably had a lot of traffic

Kira Sikes  14:09  
that day, yeah? Cuz I was like, a five day thing, yeah. So they gave me an ultimatum. Said, You can quit the competition you're doing and stay here, or you can basically quit here. And I was like, Well, I'm not happy here, which is why I'm doing this competition. So I left and hoping that I was gonna win, because it was really down to me and the other guy. I made it through that far, and then at the end of the day, the very last day,

Tracy Hayes  14:33  
well, Zach and I, we don't know the other guy is. We know who we would pick, Mikey.

Kira Sikes  14:38  
Mikey. P The All right, they told me that they couldn't hire me because I was, well, too organized, I was too good at what I did, and they were scared that they were going to lose their position at the radio station to me, so they went with the other guy. So then I was like, Okay, I lost this competition.

Tracy Hayes  14:55  
Is that your perception? Or someone told you this later?

Kira Sikes  14:57  
Well, because they they when I found out after they hired. Him what all he was doing. They basically wanted to hire somebody to make fun of on the radio station.

Tracy Hayes  15:07  
Easier make fun of him than you. They didn't. They felt bad

Kira Sikes  15:09  
making fun of because they were like, this girl is too good at what she does

Tracy Hayes  15:12  
again. No, that's probably true.

Kira Sikes  15:14  
And then at that point in my life is when I was like, Okay, I have no job. I did. I lost this competition. I'm either gonna do real estate or I'm going to go into hair school, and at that point in my life,

Tracy Hayes  15:24  
I see associates in business for Florida State College. Is that about this time we're talking about that was

Kira Sikes  15:29  
actually after so I started community college after high school, and I had, you know, the little break there, and then went to hair school, and then worked in the salon for several years. And eventually got back into the college to finish my two year my goal was to do my Bachelor's right? That didn't pan out either. Just school. You know, I love school. My my mom and dad are like, you know, you just do so many classes. Even my husband says, Why do you always sign yourself up for so many classes? And I'm like, I just like to be a student. Really enjoy. If I could be a full if I could get paid to be a full time student. Oh, I

Tracy Hayes  16:07  
know some people out there would be right in behind you, right to learn different things.

Kira Sikes  16:11  
It has to be, obviously, things I'm interested in, but, but absolutely so.

Tracy Hayes  16:15  
So you were in the salon, but you go back and get your associates in the business, what is your vision at this time? Because they're still pre real estate, yeah,

Kira Sikes  16:23  
so at this point, I hadn't even thought about real estate. Well, I did add my fork in the road, but I thought I had interviewed a few people, and they were like, oh, you can't just get into real estate. You've got to have, like, six months to a year of money saved. And I was like, I was like, 20. I was super intimidated by that. No, I'm just living paycheck to paycheck. So at that time, when I was finishing up my my two year degree, I also had already couple of years before that, met my husband, not met him actually. I've actually known him since I was in fourth grade, which is weird. He was the drummer at our church, and he got on stage, and I said, again, I'm in fourth grade. And I was like, Mom, who is that? She said, Oh, that's, you know, it was her friend son. You guys are roughly the same age. He's about two years older than me, so he was junior high was in so then it was like, weird, but at that time, I was like, I'm gonna marry him one day. My mom laughed at me. She said, okay, and fast forward, X, amount of years later, yeah, we ran into him again. We ran out, ran into him again at a mutual friend's birthday, and a lucky guy, yeah, we got married, and then had Noah, our second, my second son, because my first son was from a previous again. Yeah, we won that. And so, yeah, we did that. And then I helped him run a roofing company, and we actually started a branch here in Jacksonville, and it became very successful, and we have the opportunity to take that and open up a branch on Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii. We moved there when my youngest was eight months old, so we did all that before I even came back and got in real estate.

Tracy Hayes  18:00  
Oh, wow, that that part. I didn't, I don't think I saw, I think I did see something about roofing in there, but didn't play it into your in your own so you're in Hawaii. What brings you back to Jack's

Kira Sikes  18:11  
so expensive in Hawaii, plus it's their islands. Once you roof everybody's house, I mean,

Speaker 1  18:18  
else to do? They

Tracy Hayes  18:20  
have very I don't think they don't having they have been hit by storms, yes, but it's very rare.

Kira Sikes  18:25  
They had the biggest health storm in history the year that we moved there. Oh, well, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  18:29  
Okay, so you have work, and then obviously that eventually comes to,

Kira Sikes  18:33  
yeah, and it was hard being away from our family. You know, that's the other

Tracy Hayes  18:38  
side of the Earth, roughly. I mean, as far as we're concerned, I it's far, yeah, it's a long flight, and, you know, the five hour time change and so forth. I mean, obviously, go away around the Japan, that's the other side of the Earth. But I mean Hawaii's, you know, you're more than halfway there. I mean, football

Kira Sikes  18:59  
didn't exist for us in Hawaii, just because I'm not waking up at six o'clock waking up at six o'clock in the morning to watch an NFL game.

Tracy Hayes  19:08  
Yeah, you're all the footballs done by lunchtime. Have your have your day so you come back here to be closer to family. Is that now, when you're looking in the real estate, what's going on now?

Kira Sikes  19:17  
So, you know, everybody goes through ups and downs, and at that time it will, you know, our business was the roofing business. There was some things changing, and was very, very stressful company. There was so much happening again. We had the Jacksonville branch. We were still, we still had our branches in Hawaii that we were trying to run on the time difference. And I love my husband so much, but we're very similar when it comes to being stubborn. We both think we're right. Doesn't matter what it is in our minds. We're right. We are absolutely right about what what we're saying. So eventually, like, working together was a little difficult, and I was like, You know what? You go, you go run it. How you want to run it. I'm going to go over here and I'm going to go ahead and maybe go do some real estate. Maybe buy and flip. We had talked about buying. And flipping. Essentially, I had no intentions of getting into the community, though I had no got my license. Used to do buying and flipping, right? That was how that all started.

Tracy Hayes  20:08  
And so you go and take, I think, was it Watson, I think is where, if I go there, and really, you're just coming out, and you're starting to look for homes for yourselves.

Kira Sikes  20:18  
That was the goal, yeah. But like, right? When I got licensed, one of our friends partners that with the roofing company said, Hey, I have this house. Can you sell it for me? I was like, okay, yeah, sure. And I've always been kind of drawn to the investor side again, because I wanted to buy a flip and then new construction things like that. And so sure, absolutely, I'll do it. And then when I did it, I was like, wow, this is kind of really satisfying to help somebody else, not just myself. You know what I mean?

Tracy Hayes  20:44  
We're time where we at in years now, where we at, like, 2000

Kira Sikes  20:48  
2000 so the end November 2014 is when I actually got my license. So right after the holidays is when I had my first Okay, 2015 Okay, yep. So that kind of

Speaker 1  20:59  
you're hanging your hat with Watson. No, I was with exit, actually, okay,

Kira Sikes  21:03  
when I started, and it was there for a while, I did all their training. I did, you know, they offered a whole lot of, you know, good training for new agents and but honestly and real estate is way different now than it was several years ago, especially the mindset of agents, I think nowadays too, I just, if I didn't know the answer, I would just figure it out. You know, just search, do my own due diligence, essentially. And that's the difference of then versus now. Because now people just don't even know that how to use Google.

Tracy Hayes  21:37  
You know, there's the people don't realize the amount of stuff that is on Google. I actually said, this is months last, sometime last year. And there was some weird guideline this client was asking me about, and even the loan guidelines are, you can Google that now, like any document that pops up, you have to translate what it's telling you. But I just I Googled it. When I when I reply, I say, cheers. I took a Snapchat. Here's, here's the answer your question, I Googled this. What do you mean? You Googled it? Yeah, Google's bigger than your brain. Bro, yeah, it's bigger than anyone.

Kira Sikes  22:13  
But on the internet doesn't mean it's true. But okay, what did they teach you in school?

Tracy Hayes  22:17  
Three reasons coming from Fannie Mae's website, Fannie Mae's memo, it's

Kira Sikes  22:22  
look up, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  22:25  
So, I mean, from a challenge standpoint, because you kind of want to see you sort of stumbled into representing others because you didn't have that immediate aspiration. You were going to search out your own stuff and do and do your things. But now Allison, you had a client. So you know, how do you start to did you challenge yourself? Did you have a goal that first year or, you know, did you just kind of like, go with the flow and kind of fumble through it and see what popped up?

Kira Sikes  22:51  
This is what my husband call a bad business decision on my part. I was like, oh, man, this is awesome. So I went out and bought, like, 20 signs. Like to list properties. After selling one property, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna need all kinds of signs. And then I'm like, just sitting here waiting, like, Okay, where am I gonna put my signs? No idea what was next anyway.

Tracy Hayes  23:12  
So which now, but that is very common. I mean, when we look at the percentage of agents, what does I say within 24 months, you know, whatever great amount you know, for the time to get their license, they're not renewed and and so forth. Because a lot of them, actually, I'm licensed, okay?

Kira Sikes  23:28  
They think it's all just gonna come to them, yeah, TV, I mean, there's a lot of,

Tracy Hayes  23:33  
you know, good things you're telling me that people want to know about you, but if I was a new agent, and we're going to give them a little bit of advice, because you did start this way, as a lot of them do. They just kind of, you know, sign up with everybody and sit there and wait, what kicks in? What do you start doing?

Kira Sikes  23:50  
I tell everybody I'm in real estate. Immediately. People actually used to get annoyed with me because I'm like, Oh yeah, you need my house. Yeah? Oh, okay, alright. Like, over here, somebody like, Oh, hey, selling. Hey, hi, you know, to always keep cards on me. I would never let anybody leave a room without them knowing that I did real estate, even though I was, like, brand new. I actually, like I was, you know, they actually do teach you fake it.

Tracy Hayes  24:12  
Did you have to come out of your comfort zone

Kira Sikes  24:16  
for that? No, because I like to talk to everybody, you know, it was like, it was, like, it was kind of like my pretend stage. I never got to be on for cover girl.

Speaker 1  24:27  
I was like, Okay, this is so you like to be the

Tracy Hayes  24:30  
life of the party. I do. I guess all your friends are laughing right now. And I know who they are, because I see him hanging out. She's the life of the parties. Gotta get the last one in, yeah. So you utilized initially, what you already had in you, which was your strength at that time, is you are relatable in a room, you like you approach people you don't know and you have no problem going, hey, just want to give you. Give you my card, because you're buying or selling whatever. No a friend, here's my card. And because a lot of people are feel like you're trying to sell some. Thing at that, right? But really our business, and even as from the loan officer side, there, it's relationships in knowing people in I think you, I'm sure you've heard this before, why should they do business with someone else other than you? Because you know what kind of service you're going to give them. There may be others that may give equivalent service, but why shouldn't they not know you? And if they don't know anyone else, that's better than you. That's the message. You're in the room together with. You know, like I said, they put he puts people in front of us for reasons, and you're in that room, and he told you and your personality to hand out cards.

Kira Sikes  25:33  
You know, I prayed for a long time. I've struggled with identity for a very long time. When I was a little girl in raising the church. I always thought I was going to be missionary. I felt like that's what God wanted me to do with being a missionary. I mean, I remember standing in front of the whole church and

Tracy Hayes  25:47  
say, I'm well, you said you didn't want to get married. One to travel around the world,

Kira Sikes  25:51  
instilled in me. And then for the longest time, I always felt guilty that I never did that. But in my mind, I thought being a missionary meant to, like, go overseas and not be in the United States, just do that. And then one day, a gentleman whom I met a long time ago, I was actually the host of his show, the America's greatest networker, that he was trying to launch, good guy. He was a pastor. And one day, right before he passed away, he told me he goes, you know, Kira, you know, you don't have to go overseas to be a missionary, right? Like, you can do it in your backyard. You can make a difference right here. And I was like, Oh my gosh, he's right. And it just, I had a realization, like, okay, so God, what is it? And again, at this time, I was already in real estate, and I'm like, is real estate really what I should be doing? Am I making the difference in real estate? Am I utilizing what God has given me in order to be who he wants me to be? Right? And then I was just tried to, you know, again, just pray about it. Pray about it. And I just feel like this platform that he's given me has allowed me to get in front of more people. How am I using my time with those people? And I don't just approach people because, you know, realtors have such a bad name for some reason. You know, they're just like they say what we are, like attorneys or whatever, but not, maybe not as paid as,

Tracy Hayes  27:08  
like you said, they think there's a transition in the industry now. Yeah, like I said, the common, one, common theme that I've had in over, you know, this is your episode. I think 62 now in so probably like 5455 agents is the relationship.

Kira Sikes  27:24  
It's all about the relationship.

Tracy Hayes  27:27  
I don't I think now that we go back in time and think about those people when we were younger, look up, oh, they're a real estate agent, and they're older, and there's, you know, how successful they were. They were successful because they understood that. But so many people have flooded the real estate industry from agents and of course, quickly fall out because they don't understand that is the

Kira Sikes  27:49  
number one thing, absolutely and that's where I where. When I pass out a card, I don't just say, Hey, call me when you need something. I try to position myself, whatever it is real estate. You have a question about where to get your hair cut. You have a, you know, I want to be that resource for people for whatever they need. You know, want them to trust me and trust what I know about the community and all that. And I don't just call my my past clients, current clients, whatever. I check in on them all the time, and you try to touch them at least four or five times a year. But when rates drop, I'm like, okay, where? And I take notes.

Tracy Hayes  28:23  
Hey, I remember when you did your loan rates were higher. You may want to

Kira Sikes  28:27  
look closing like, Okay. This is when their first payment is due. This is when they need to follow for homestead. This is how much their interest rate is. And I make notes. And then when something changes in the market, I call it a

Tracy Hayes  28:36  
reason, reason to touch it. Hey, your interest rates this, and you're adding value. That's another key thing, value. You're adding value because we know that people forget to file their homestead of gunship. You know that, hey, you know, back in October, 2008 when rates were six and a quarter, and now, you know, two years ago, and you're getting, you know, or year and a half, whatever was you were getting below 3% Hey, if you haven't refinanced yet, yeah, now's now's the time. Or, of course, we're doing a lot with the equity growth now reaching out to them. Hey, you did an FHA loan initially. It's been a year. You may want to look, can we get you out of that FHA loan? Get you out of that mortgage insurance, and now you have the equity and so forth. So that is brilliant advice, right there, little things. What did it cost you a few moments to take some notes and create basically a file card for that, yeah, for that client, and reasons to touch them with value versus just touching them to say, Oh yes, it's the quarter. It's been three months since I called you last. How you doing? You actually now have reasons to what do you do? You're at Sam bar, really? How many, how many agents now you have? So seven,

Kira Sikes  29:47  
including me and it I can tell you. I don't know if you knew this, but I started my brokerage in the middle of covid in smack dab in the middle, and I just felt like, so I'm a very I'm i. I'm like, what people say, cliche, I always have to have everything that flows and matches and the brand, you know, like, for example, Kira keeps type like, it has to be like, okay, you know what I mean? Like, it just has to go. And when I felt like I was being called to do this immediately, it was like, the first name that came to me, it had very it had a deeper meaning. For me, it was more okay. So our world right now is drowning in chaos. It's drowning in hate, it's okay, drowning in Yeah, just, there's just so many unknowns. And who do you trust? Who can you go to? You know? And I wanted to be the sandbar in the middle of that devotion, and I wanted maybe to be at that temporary Foundation, whether they decide to jump on board and go help, let me help them, get them to the shore right, or they just like, You know what? I don't need you. And then they're down in the deep. And I don't, you know,

Tracy Hayes  30:52  
plus, I mean, we live, we're by an ocean, so it all kinds of as well.

Kira Sikes  30:56  
So there was a meeting, but it was the first thing that came to my mind. And again, it takes me a long time to usually come up with something, but so that popped into your mind, though immediately, and sandbar just so you know, because I haven't even posted this anywhere, because it's a long term goal for me, but I want sandbar to evolve into a community center, so we won't go into that too much detail, but there's a reason why sandbar is important. The name is important because there will be

Tracy Hayes  31:24  
so now, do you like you have an office, and most of your agents come in on a regular basis. Do you have a retail office or more of an office center?

Kira Sikes  31:33  
No, I don't have an office yet. Okay, I want one. But, you know, with covid, they were shutting everything down.

Tracy Hayes  31:40  
Well, the rates now for retail spaces in the area, it's insane. You have to have some return on investment. Absolutely.

Kira Sikes  31:47  
And honestly, I've been so busy, I haven't even had time to really go out there and recruit agents like I really would like to, I would like to grow sandbar like the name to to get out there more. But I'm also very picky on who I have worked for us. You know, work for me because I

Tracy Hayes  32:03  
like more some more seasoned agents. I should say I

Kira Sikes  32:07  
like them all as well. I like them

Speaker 1  32:09  
all long as you like them well,

Kira Sikes  32:13  
values and morals and I mean, because I've straight up not hired agents because I didn't like the way they carried themselves or their mindset on how to treat their clients. They were more money focused. And I mean, don't get me wrong, money feeds the kids, but our life shouldn't be about money. None of this

Tracy Hayes  32:30  
we can take. Well, it dies quickly. I mean, there's the different models I talk about. I mean, we know that. We know there's brokers that feed off the entire buy leads. They know they're going to get a percentage and they're going to kick out. The other end. I worked at Quicken Loans. That's how they work. They know if they buy and spend all this money on leads, they're going to convert so many money comes out on the other end. But if, for some reason, the money gets disrupted, you don't, but if you're relationship building, doing the right things for people, you will always even, even during the thin times, get a referral,

Kira Sikes  33:03  
absolutely, and that's where all my business. I don't think I've ever had to, not so I got agents who, you know, I wanted to help kind of kickstart a little bit. But I, for me, personally, I've never bought any leads for myself. It's all been my sphere relationship, building things like that, and that's what I try to teach the new like so that's why I would like some newer agents. Maybe that's been doing it a little bit, but that I can essentially help show them a few steps that I've done that's helped me to build what I call my referral partners. My referral partners are not just you know, you know the people in the industry or you know somebody who may know me, but it's I start to mold my clients that I get to become my referral partners.

Tracy Hayes  33:47  
Well, you want you like you said, you you, you're friends with them. When you go out to dinner with them, where their kids hang out, or whatever. We're gonna go back to sandbar here in a second. But I want to finish up this first, because this is a question I asked, because I feel, you know, I've got, we've got two books here, and we mentioned cart grant at the beginning. You pointed a great book. What are you keep yourself sharp. Keep yourself on on top of what's going on, whether it's in real estate or just, you know, to me, personal development gives me boosts of energy, positive thought and like your mind just starts, you know, going on with great visions like San mar or something like that. What are you a podcast listener? Do you read books? What is it that you do to feed your Well, I

Kira Sikes  34:30  
don't really listen. I try to listen to podcasts. Why didn't

Tracy Hayes  34:35  
start listening to podcast about a year ago, I heard about them, until I saw something and they said, This is a vehicle that you can do. And then I started listening, you know, I was talking to a gentleman about it. He had his podcast and what he did. And then I really started to, you know, purge the podcast world. Prior to January 2021 I had never listened to it.

Kira Sikes  34:58  
Okay, so that doesn't make me sit bad. Yeah, yeah, because I've always been a reader.

Speaker 1  35:02  
You know, I enjoy the hardcover books. That's why, growing up

Kira Sikes  35:05  
and then I got just, I've just been so busy, the only book I really read these days is, of course, the book, yeah, because I feel like that is our there's a reason the book is here. Yeah, it helps us to live life and helps us to,

Tracy Hayes  35:20  
you know, the stories. Well, I think I want to, I think was in college or something. You know, lot of your literature and so forth derives from it. Oh, absolutely. All these great writers and everything have all read it, and that's where they're getting the stories and the or the spins of the stories, or whatever they've all. They all have some they can filter it all back to the left.

Kira Sikes  35:41  
And I believe, and I'll have to go back and confirm this, but I believe that anybody who goes through law school, they require them to read the entire book of Romans. That's like one of their based on whatever it is in there that helps them to relate to law they make them all do that, which is,

Speaker 1  35:55  
yeah, that's cool. Makes sense. You know what I mean.

Kira Sikes  35:57  
So anyways, but back to this, the 10 times role, so I don't have any time to read anymore, unfortunately, which is why I want to grow sandbar, because I get to take that time for yourself. 20 hours a day. Working 20 hours a day is becoming exhausting, and it's happened. Started happening this year, because I want to scale my business hard to work in it and on it.

Tracy Hayes  36:21  
As I always say, it's feast or famine in our business, and it's feasting time. There's a high demand. There's people calling in. You gotta, you gotta take those calls and because they're, who knows, it could be 2008 again, and or 2009 and trying to scrape up some foreclosures, right? Yeah, the builders shut off building.

Kira Sikes  36:37  
They stopped accepting agents for that. Unfortunately, I've been trying to get on the foreclosure vendor list for quite some time, but now they just don't even have those departments right now.

Tracy Hayes  36:46  
Yeah, there's no because there's such a demand someone that's going to foreclose, they can turn around sell it. Yeah, just in case. Yes, try

Kira Sikes  36:51  
to think ahead here. Yeah, um, but yeah, absolutely. And just you try to take it while it comes in at the same time, it's kind of a catch 22 because as an as a broker owner, I want to, I want to grow sandbar, right? But then I have all these referrals coming in, and I'm handling most of them myself, because you're

Tracy Hayes  37:09  
working in the business instead of on right?

Kira Sikes  37:12  
Goes like this, you know, the money isn't really maybe coming in, so then that money to work on the business might not be, as you know, frugal there.

Tracy Hayes  37:20  
No, I'm totally with you. So, so we're gonna step back to sandbar. I want to just take that personal development side there for me, because I'm getting through my my routine here. Why did you want to go and create your own brokerage

Kira Sikes  37:33  
again, something I never wanted to do. I've got my real estate licenses. I'm never owning a brokerage. I just don't even want to deal with it. It just seems like a lot of work, and it's just that natural side of me. I just, I have that that, you know, being a realtor, you are business owner, but it all comes back to helping people, and enjoy training people. I enjoy being an example for people. And some agents would just start calling me and asking me for help, and I just, and that's kind of where I started my team. Originally, I used to be the broker of red zone Realty, but, and then they haven't had

Tracy Hayes  38:09  
anybody on from Red Zone yet, but hopefully soon.

Kira Sikes  38:12  
But okay, all right, do you need me to make some calls for you?

Tracy Hayes  38:15  
I always love a good recommendation, because there's obviously people out there. I don't know. You know, you know, I know who you hang with, for the most part, what I see on your social media. So most of them have been on the show. So there are people I don't know and reach out to. So you think there's someone like you, hazardous has a story? I mean, you've listened to some of the other podcasts? Yeah?

Kira Sikes  38:35  
Sure, absolutely. Yeah. 20,000 relatives in Northeast Florida now, yeah, I try to keep it to the 1% though,

Kira Sikes  38:42  
and only 2000 houses for sale. Oh, man. Talk about something.

Tracy Hayes  38:47  
Tells me you drive the road less traveled. Is that a good boy? And now a good summarization

Kira Sikes  38:53  
of it is it very much is, and my husband hates it, because he's like, I've already been through this, like, this is the way. And I'm like, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Tracy Hayes  39:04  
Well, you know, there comes, there comes a point where you're, you're working for somebody who's so worth and they just, they don't have the vision anymore. You know, maybe you went with them initially thinking that you were going to get something from them, maybe at that time. But as time goes on, they lose the vision, and they're not out there. Let's, you know, get the net, you know, conquer the next thing, and conquer in a polite way, like, hey, what's the new thing? Social media. Let's, you know, learn how to what's going on there and and teaching the latest and greatest things that are making the agent successful. They get complacent. Yeah, I think because of the money you can make in real estate, I think people get complacent very quickly and not realize that if you really put your nose to the grinds and you can change lives Absolutely. I always love this one. And I think you, I hope you agree. I think you say, people say money doesn't make you happy. And so then in the now the phrases is getting out of theirs as these very successful people. It's because you haven't

Kira Sikes  40:00  
given enough away. Yeah, I mean, the more generous you are, then it's, it comes back most fulfilling, right? I truly

Tracy Hayes  40:07  
believe John Maxwell, and I'm sure it's and to not know what's in the Bible, because John Maxwell said it, because that's, he's on, on the same place, but you have to give to get and it will come back to you. And you know, to give a couple dollars to of charity a good choice, because you can, is it going to change your life because you gave them $50 this month, you know? And you're successful. And that's really why, what drives the success is, I could turn around and you're sending your kids to, you know, inspire them, expose them to things in your life and their life that you may not even ever had a chance to do, you know, sending my kid to space camp last summer, right? And I never did, yeah, and, but the charity, so you want to get to a charity, you want to be focused and and really change lives. That's why that's the happiness and being wealthy or

Kira Sikes  40:57  
and it's not just about giving money, it. I feel like it has a lot to do with your time, whatever it is that you have, whether it be money or time or clothes or a roof,

Tracy Hayes  41:09  
teaching someone how to be a better real estate agent. And then they're making their lives change Absolutely.

Kira Sikes  41:14  
And then they're, in turn, helping other people get into the homes that they dream of, you know, and one of the things that I my theory, and maybe other people's theory too, is, you know, the time that we have here on Earth is our practice, our internship, of what we're going to be doing in heaven. And I'm like, Man, I wonder, I wonder how the mansions are in heaven that I'm going to be like, he's out there building us a place, right? So, you know, I wonder why they use super lock boxes. You know what I mean.

Tracy Hayes  41:42  
So let's talk a little bit about sandbar I have a list of now. Or I assume these are accurate names. Before I mentioned any names, are these all accurate on here? Yes, all these are all right off your website.

Kira Sikes  41:54  
Okay, good. If they're from the website, then they're good. Okay,

Tracy Hayes  41:57  
just wanna make sure it was updated. Someone didn't like Mr. Whoever does your website for you. So I want you to just say a little bit about each one. How did that? How were they attracted to you? What, what did you see in them? Okay, you know that said, yeah, they can be on the sandbar team, yeah. So start with Amelia.

Kira Sikes  42:14  
Okay. Amelia, oh, man, she was an introduction from mutual. I actually know the lender, but she is super, super sweet, and her heart has so much to do with why she works with with me. I mean, she's very similar to me. She cares about the people. She cares not just about making a buck. She wants them to get what they want and help them achieve their goals, but again, have that long term relationship.

Tracy Hayes  42:40  
You're saying that again, and then just maybe think of a thought, Is it nothing greater than to do the simple thing of caring for somebody, because it doesn't cost you anything to care for someone? Yeah, you're right. And then to actually get paid? What? What you can make? That's like, oh my, that's all that all sudden becomes

Kira Sikes  43:01  
a drug. Really, it is. It does. And it makes it everything worth it, you know, and, and that's the hard thing about today, and not just in real estate, in any position, in any job in the world in general, like we have so many people who don't care,

Tracy Hayes  43:15  
they're going through it, going through the motions. Oh, it's 459 let me get my jacket on. I gotta go, right? And they and they check out and not saying that everything you do in life has to happen at work. Right? Happen all at work? Yeah, shouldn't it? Yeah, it shouldn't, I think. But in our lines of business, because we're involved with, you know, relationships and networking and everything that we kind of make work, our work in our lives are kind of blended in one, there

Kira Sikes  43:39  
is no separation. Yeah, it's hard. And I hope my children, you know, learn that. I mean, my youngest loves showing houses with me. He loves it. And I'm like, You're gonna have my little

Tracy Hayes  43:50  
what's I mean, what's more fun? And like, you're going in and looking at different houses, and it's like, going to to him. It's probably

Kira Sikes  43:58  
like, going to different countries. It could be, yeah, Danielle. So Danielle is one of my newest additions. They actually sent us a day because she comes with a hubby package. Okay, he's not licensed yet. He's working on it. But they actually moved here from Colorado, and they were introduced from another mutual friend and real estate. There they were. They had just gotten there, licensed in Colorado, and then covid happened, and Colorado completely shut down for, I think, a year. So they couldn't they were about to do their first deal, and they never could do their first deal, I think, if I remember correctly. So then they were tired of being locked up, and they moved here, and then they live in St Augustine, and they're awesome. They're awesome. They both are there. They remind me of me. They're very motivated, and they will call, call, call, video, text, knock on door.

Tracy Hayes  44:47  
That, and that is a rare. That is a rarity, but it goes back to, like I say a lot about Greg cardones, book, whatever you're good at, they feel they've had success in that 10 exit. You know, if it's handing out. Cards to everyone you meet and you're comfortable doing that, 10 extra calls to, you know, whatever they do there. Carrie Erwin,

Kira Sikes  45:08  
so Carrie and I actually have been each other since high school, and Carrie was one of my first agents other than the team that I had at red zone that I had brought over that I, you know, that cures sex group. She was, like, my first outside of the team agent, and she came over from Keller, I believe. And yeah, so we just have, like, like, a long history of just knowing each other since high school, and she is

Speaker 1  45:33  
very good at an agent now.

Kira Sikes  45:36  
Oh, goodness. How long has she been, I want to say, around the same time as me. Yeah, she did a lot of volume at Keller Williams, and then she had a family, and since she's had that family, she's kind of waiting, I think, for them to get a little older before she dedicates because I know that girl can crush it. She's crushed it before in the pop, you know, multi million volume every year on a Team at Keller, but she's got her season of family right now, and I'm letting her do her thing, but she still does business and but you know, you can't push them

Tracy Hayes  46:06  
all. She's your fan. She's a fan. Okay, yeah,

Kira Sikes  46:09  
Lindsay, Lindsay, also, she came on board around the same time, I think, around the same time, as my other agent, Trey. But she came from, I want us forgive me. Lindsay, I forget where you came from. She also is.

Tracy Hayes  46:27  
Just knows you're good, and that's why she is.

Kira Sikes  46:29  
All of my agents are really good. They each one has a different role and a different goal. I was not trying to be. Dr Seuss right there. So yeah, so right now. She's actually growing her family right now too. So she's kind of taking a little bit of a step back, but she's still with me.

Tracy Hayes  46:45  
I'm gonna get the tray here in a minute, because I can see this office Rachel.

Kira Sikes  46:50  
Rachel, another husband and wife duo. But again, Rachel's license, her husband is like, I guess her, you know,

Commercial  46:57  
transaction coordinator.

Kira Sikes  46:58  
Essentially, they do

Speaker 1  47:00  
a lot of poster

Kira Sikes  47:03  
Well, what? They also have a separate business. They also buy their own properties and flip them. But, yeah, she, she's like, my quote, not conspiracy theory, but, well, that's what people call them, conspiracy theory girl, but we like no hashtag truth, and we talk about it all the time. So that's like, my

Tracy Hayes  47:21  
that's my girl, either. Okay, now, well, there are a couple husbands that are on on the outside here, so, but Trey is on the website. So Trey is in this office. I can them just seeing this with it sounds like we have multiple pregnant women here. How does he survive? Well.

Kira Sikes  47:42  
Trey is a cool guy. He is a hustler. He actually has a full time job at ADP as well. But he not only does business for clients ADP as well, but he also has partnerships with different investors where he buys investment property. He's growing his portfolio. Honestly, don't know how he does it. He is seems just as busy as I am, but with like, like I said, a full time job and but, but working at ADP helps them to get clients, which is great because it's kind of all hand in hand. Somebody's financial picture, yeah, has a lot.

Tracy Hayes  48:15  
So you're meeting people all the time. You're in their house, whatever. And I'm sure he's a younger guy, if I remember, from his picture. So they're always asking, oh, hey, you know the people just catching and I imagine in the casual conversation, he goes, Well, you know, I do real estate investment too. Here's my card. And now, you know he's throwing those out there

Kira Sikes  48:33  
absolutely now I do. I'm not opposed to hiring more male agents. Don't be intimidated, for sure, but, yeah, I would love to grow sandbar just to have more diversity, more you know, I get, I get Spanish leads that I can't, I try. I'm like, No. Jocelyn, right? So that markets there, and it's untouched for us. And we would love to be able to expand

Tracy Hayes  49:01  
mention sandbar that you want to hire agents who basically have similar ideology of you and so forth. So when you're sitting down with them, you know, and having that initial conversation, you're you're mentally feeling them out with your questions or just discussions, what are some of the things that you keying on in their history, or just, you know, something, the things they say that that said, we might be a match. What are you looking for? Because it's oftentimes hard to find that out. Some people are like a book, and others are this,

Kira Sikes  49:34  
to me, as if, like, I'm the book, because, well, something

Tracy Hayes  49:38  
tells me, a couple glasses of wine and I can know everything about you.

Kira Sikes  49:43  
That's the problem me. I wear everything on my shoulder,

Tracy Hayes  49:46  
and I know the group you hang out with half a glass of wine, and they're rolling, yeah, so, but yeah, what are you looking. For. I mean, what do you what are you seeing in their eyes? What do you like you said? I think you said someone, how they carry themselves? Use that phrase early, oh

Kira Sikes  50:07  
yeah, carry themselves. I look for genuine people who are genuine, who, you know, I'm a really and I again, I always try to be modest, because I never like to be like, oh yeah. I'm like this. But I am a really good judge of character. I've always been a really good judge of character, something, God bless me with I, you know, discernment. I feel like he gave me that

Tracy Hayes  50:26  
so, so, because I have this similar that. So when you often want to say often, hopefully it's not often, but when you walk in a room and you like, you can immediately size someone up and go persons a little, seems to be a little shady.

Kira Sikes  50:39  
Oh yeah, there's been business partners in our, me and my husband's life, and you just had immediately, I'm like, Nope, we shouldn't, but we do. And then eventually, oh yeah, one day he'll listen to me. Love you, Ben, so yeah, just knowing and how they talk and how they answer questions, and then, of course, learning about their family, where they've been, where they want to you interview?

Tracy Hayes  51:01  
When you interview is, like, like a job interview? Well, not much of a slightly different how you phrase your questions, I'm sure. But you kind of have some questions and you want to, you're looking to see how they some standardized questions, to see how they're going to answer that.

Kira Sikes  51:14  
Yeah. I mean, I always just kind of go with the flow for the most part, kind of like just chatting, kind of like how we are. I do a little bit of due diligence on the front end on Facebook, and maybe a background check, just kidding, but no, just to kind of see how they present themselves online. Unfortunately, that's there for that reason. I feel like so if you don't want anyone to know anything bad about you, don't get it out there. But yeah, and just, really, just the way we it's all about energy, like, how we connect.

Tracy Hayes  51:42  
You know, it's interesting. You mentioned that look like checking people out online, and what they do now, obviously they're doing something illegal or something you probably like, ooh. You know, that's probably not. What's so amazing is I and how there are some people that put some stuff on there, and I'm like, wow. But you know what, they're rolling. I mean, it's so it's not affecting their fan club.

Kira Sikes  52:04  
Fabulous. I don't know exactly people love. People are drawn to the whole not in the good box. You know what I mean?

Tracy Hayes  52:13  
Yeah. So, alright, so I want to circle around to some of the common themes that we have, all right? I think one of the ones we, I don't think we touched on yet. How important is it? And then this is a broad term education. How important is it for an agent to educate themselves? And what do you do to continue to educate yourself on your trade?

Kira Sikes  52:34  
Well, education, again, is, I mean, that's how you start in this industry. You have to know, you have to pass an exam, a state board, but every

Tracy Hayes  52:43  
day really just a little bit of a hurdle, not really the ticket, nothing. You learn that phone's not gonna ring because you pass that

Kira Sikes  52:49  
test, right? Because, you know, okay, that's a baseline, right? But even then a baseline, when you when it's actually happening in front you're like, uh, I don't remember this. Like, what do I do? You know? And you want to be look like a complete idiot in front of your clients? Obviously say that, but everything's constantly changing, not just education wise, regarding rules and ethics and laws and things like that. That's obviously number one important. But having a relationship with a good real estate attorney is ideal. I developed one several years ago, and she's been a lifesaver. But because

Tracy Hayes  53:20  
how you're structuring some of these deals, especially now, you gotta be a little more confident.

Kira Sikes  53:24  
Oh my goodness, yeah. And you can't just pretend like you're an attorney and just fill it in. You know what I mean, like you're in verbiage kind of thing. But with our ever changing, fast paced technology, I feel like that's the number one thing that as a business is changing daily everything, yeah, changes everything. Somebody who might be Now, don't get me wrong. Would I love it to go back to a little bit of a slower pace, where people are, like, not wanting, can I want to do this deal? Let's sign right now. Oh, you have your phone. Let's do it on our phone, you know, like, no sign here. Sign, and then you're done. Essentially. Oh, let me call my lender. Oh, pre approved. You know, it's like this, I think about people from back in the day, the caravan realtors, where they all met in an office, and there was, like, one key you went to that one, you know, went to the office to pick up the key together.

Tracy Hayes  54:10  
Or you had to actually get the paper or the book without listings. Listings, yeah, can

Kira Sikes  54:16  
I just, you know, but they probably the relation. That's why their relationships were more loyal, more firm. Now it's just go, go, go for everybody, and it's for me, with 20,000 realtors in Jacksonville, what makes us just not another Oh no, move on to the next. You know, loyalty is just very minimal now, because it's like, pick and choose whoever you want. It's like a dating game, almost like, oh, who do I want to use today?

Tracy Hayes  54:41  
You know, do you preach to your people? Or maybe they already just do it because you are, they're like you, you know, going down the knee far and taking the courses, not just to get your enough hours right? It's your you should that should be done very quickly. You should be going and trying to take everything you can to absorb the knowledge. College, especially when you might have downtown. Obviously, there's busy times where you don't have time to take those. There's a ton of stuff online as well. I would imagine you probably prescribe the stuff like that. So overall, you know, in the key things education, where would you put that? Is that, like, one of the top two or three things?

Kira Sikes  55:17  
Oh, absolutely. And that's how I provide, like, the vendor relationships for my agents, and set up the meetings with that. I mean, learning about new loan products, especially in this market, because not every situation. That's why I love what I do. Every single situation, every client, every transaction, is different. Every house is different. For example, you know a lot more. Lately there's been foundation stuff with houses. So I coordinated a training with one of the foundation, local foundation companies, to

Tracy Hayes  55:47  
understand a room is shaking because the stone train is going by.

Kira Sikes  55:51  
Oh, wow, yeah, this is what it feels like to be like an earthquake,

Tracy Hayes  55:57  
all the stone going after the train. So education, yes, I'm going to insert this one in here. The other common theme is consistency. Absolutely. What are you doing? Whether you've done it from day one or obviously have developed it that you make it part of your game plan, whether it's a marketing a training or whatever, what are you 10 Xing,

Kira Sikes  56:20  
the consultations are so important when you're meeting with clients, again, we are like this in our world

Tracy Hayes  56:27  
so fast. Don't underestimate the consultation. Oh, 100%

Kira Sikes  56:32  
you get to know the client, and that helps you stand out, because most of the agents are like, I'll meet you at the property. Like, no conversation about their loan, no conversation about why they're moving, what their motivation is, how soon they want to move. What happens if you show them the perfect house today?

Tracy Hayes  56:46  
Where's the cash coming? Oh, you have another house you

Kira Sikes  56:49  
have to sell you already working with a realtor, but you don't find that out until you show them the house, and then they go all our other realtors like, oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you. We have another realtor. We're gonna, you know what? I mean, it's or the big thing is, let's say you they want to see this house, but you don't know that they have this 50 year long, generationally passed down piece of furniture that they have to fit in this house. You don't know that. And then, but, and you can when, if you do know that, you can look at this

Speaker 1  57:22  
property and say, Guys, yeah, we're gonna have to take the door off to get that thing right, or the roof,

Kira Sikes  57:26  
you know. So and that allows me, as a as an agent, to go preview houses based on this specific thing that's most important to them, so that they're not wasting time.

Tracy Hayes  57:37  
So the here's, I totally agree with you too many in even in my in my side. Lord that that initial consultation and having that chat, in finding out those little things about them, we definitely, we too often want to skip over it. We don't want to take time. But really it's that piece right there that starts to set you apart from the other agents and why they go, oh yeah, this is why we're talking to her, because she was referred. We're checking her out, but we're being referred to her because she look at the professionalism, and she's taking the time to, you know, build that rapport, build that relationship.

Kira Sikes  58:15  
All about expectations, too. Most of the time, the reason why people don't like Realtors is because they feel like there's something happens in the transaction and starts to go crazy and well, that realtor didn't tell me this or that, or this or that, and there was no foundation you have to have again. You got to have that sandbar right foundation in order to know what to expect throughout everything, you

Tracy Hayes  58:34  
can forgive someone has built a friendship, and you know who they really are, and they make a mistake, you can eat more easy, or forgive them, or understand that they're you know, when they come back to you and said, Oh, man, something hit the fan. You can cope with that. I totally agree.

Kira Sikes  58:49  
And the best part, and the last thing we'll say about that is every single one that since I started doing this, every single person that I have done a consultation with whether they were ready, right then, if they weren't ready, right then, I create a roadmap for them. And we actually just had a closing last week from somebody. We've been working with them for over two years. They had to get their credit in order. They had to do all these steps. But two years later, and this, this sweet couple in their 50s and 60s, this is their first time ever buying a house, and we work, have been working with them for two years, and it all started with that one consultation. Yep, super important.

Tracy Hayes  59:24  
This one, I assume you know, there's there's, friendships have been created. Wine is just the thing. But you surround yourself with some very successful agents all of you ladies, I haven't seen any guys into this group yet, but there maybe they are on the sidelines or whatever, but you see that how important is to hang out with successful, in this case, other realtors that like

Kira Sikes  59:49  
you do, and this didn't become so important to me until recently, and because I've always just been a realtor, I'm always or I was the broker of a company that where there was always people there. Here, not until I started my own brokerage did I realize how I need to be around people, how I need I can't just work in my household by myself, because myself, arguing with myself is not a good conversation. And so having these people around me has really lately helped lift me up. It has helped encourage me. I mean, I, who do I as the broker owner with no partner, which, by the way, I'm actually going to be looking for a partner investor to help me scale my business. So if anyone's interested, but it has to be somebody who has the same passion for me, but, but just being at home and in my office or my car, working by myself, and I'm struggling through some things, or trying to figure out something, it's like, oh, who do I ask? I don't call my agents usually, because

Tracy Hayes  1:00:46  
how do you how are you structuring a deal? You know, in the thing is, all you work at different brokerages. Obviously they're not all at sandbar, but everybody in that circle that you hang with all work somewhere else, at different brokerages and I tell even the new loan officers here, I'm telling you, right? I grew up in the loan business in a call center environment. I was dealing with volume. Now in the retail world or in real estate, you only have these handful of transactions through the year. You only have that many experiences, right? If you hang out, if you join up with five or six other real estate agents doing the business you're doing, or more you now are exchanging the stories and exchanging how you won this deal and how, well, maybe you lost that deal. And if you did this, you probably would have won it. And this is what you do the next time. And I think people miss out on that. Usually they got to get involved and get back in the office. I'm sorry, people, you're hiding at home. I don't know what you're doing, but you're not improving your business, and it eventually will start to fade on you.

Kira Sikes  1:01:47  
I'm a big believer in collaboration over competition. We live in a world of abundance. I'm gonna,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:53  
well, I'm gonna ask this one last question and then go into my standard finishing questions. Here is three key success, you're talking brand new agent, some girl, the guy, whatever doesn't matter. It's just new agent. You you may say, Hey, I'm getting started. What are three things you would tell them to do?

Kira Sikes  1:02:11  
The first thing I would tell them to do is get it out there, like, don't, don't, not tell nobody that you're a realtor. The second thing is, well, business plan and time management. Is so important. And you may think like you don't need it right away, but if you don't set that up in advance, you have nothing to go off of. You have no path. And for me, time management is a struggle, because I'm one person running a company in my own

Tracy Hayes  1:02:37  
business, if you want the phone to ring, you better put things in place to get the phone Exactly.

Kira Sikes  1:02:41  
And then when it starts to ring, what are your what's next? What do you

Tracy Hayes  1:02:46  
have now? These things are difficult because you have brilliant people like yourself that have done it, who they can feed off of and how to structure, yeah.

Kira Sikes  1:02:52  
And then, of course, that's good advice, absolutely. And then, of course, it's just all

Tracy Hayes  1:02:56  
advice was good mine. Mine was okay. You got the podcast, obviously, setting structure, because I think a lot of people come out of the business world of their nine to five world, and they want to be a realtor, and that's why I've asked sometimes, like, okay, so you went from nine to five, went cold turkey in the real estate so on Friday, you quit your job. On Monday, you're a real estate agent. What are you doing? What time are you getting out of bed? Right? When are you working out, when are you when are you doing your calls? What is your industry in your area? Because I guarantee there's a time block where they say, you know, morning or afternoon or whatever, evening, whatever it is that you're you know, you're making some of those dials. Are you calling your friends? Are you posting videos on social media so everyone can see what you're doing? You know those things, okay, number three,

Kira Sikes  1:03:38  
and the reason why you have to do that is, as you grow, eventually, you want to be in control your business. You don't want your business to be in control of you, like it is me right now, because you have to block that time for your family. If you don't have that, you're gonna be so burnt out, so burnt out. So number three would be like the education, the training and having the mentors, super important. You cannot do this on your own. Google can get you so far. But honestly, surrounding yourself with a group of people who you get along with, who don't mind that you pick their brain. Obviously everything else will come. As long as your heart is in it, you have the education.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:20  
Three is surround yourself. Two is the time scheduling. Number one again, was what was number one? No time engine was number two. Let's go back and recap that apparently number one is not important. Oh, man. But like you said, there are people out there that are successful. You're hanging around with a group, and that these young ages can reach out, tell everybody that you're Oh yeah, letting everybody know, yes, letting everybody know that's Yes. Everyone should get your business card, everyone you should have whatever, post the videos and things so letting everyone know, time blocking and education, all right, those are the three things surround yourself, surrounding your story, and that's far. Surround yourself with and take them out the coffee, take them out the lunch, whatever it is, is it more important who you know or what you know?

Kira Sikes  1:05:06  
I've never been one to get anywhere on who I know. However, I will say that knowing certain people well, first getting to know certain people will come as you learn more to surround yourself with certain people. It's kind of like, how can I say

Tracy Hayes  1:05:22  
you drive a road less traveled? Something tells me, because you like you said you're stubborn and you're you're you and your husband are clashing because you're both stubborn, that you have to overcome that ego and actually reach out, oh yeah, to those who you consider are better than you and don't have an ego because, oh, they're better than me. I can't trust me. They say it's lonely at the top. It's because the guy at the top is not being asked by the guys, well, how he got there, yeah, in my opinion,

Kira Sikes  1:05:48  
well, and I that's actually a great statement, because if you think about it, everyone might be intimidated at the guy at the top. The guy at the top is lonely because he ain't got no friends, because everybody's too scared to die Exactly. Oh, man, yeah. And honestly, with within what I do, it's, it's hard to not be on the road less traveled in this market, especially because my clients, like, I'm so discouraged, like, I can't buy a house. You know what I do? I'm on the internet. I'm looking I'm not. Hey, do you want to sell your house? Do you want to sell the house? Hey, you have like, three houses. I gotta buy all of them, right? So, you know, so I am proactively making people's dreams come true. And through doing that, I actually met a really good client who never lets Realtors blitz his houses. And so I got a hold of him, and he's like, no, no, no. I list. I do it on my on my own. He's an investor gentleman, and I had reached out to him because I wanted to. I had somebody who wanted to buy this house. It's been empty for six months, but lo and behold, I found out he was slowly renovating it, and he's like, No, I don't need a realtor. Well, guess what? He goes live this week. So those kinds of reaching out is what helps me grow and get me outside my box right.

Tracy Hayes  1:06:57  
Reach out to others. Travel bucket list, what's on your travel?

Kira Sikes  1:07:02  
What's that? So one of the things I've always wanted to do is I want to go and see where I was born. I was born and which might not happen now that I think about it, but I was born in Nuremberg, Germany, okay, we'll see what happens. If that's going to be an option. But yeah, it's one of my one of my goals is definitely do that. I want to go to Bali. I want to go to Australia. I want to go to really, anywhere except for Jacksonville. So when you making that plan, oh, it's on my

Speaker 1  1:07:29  
list, Bali first. But as my agents say, they always tell they always joke

Kira Sikes  1:07:33  
around me, like, just put it on your list. It's your list is so long.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:37  
All right, this is the last question, because I know I seen you. You know, hanging out with other loan officers is my loan officer question, but definitely a chapter in my book that I'm going to write from all these things and your stories, not just on you and all, but anyway, with you have, you have particular loan officers that you work with consistently for a reason. What is the number one requirement of that loan officer relationship, and that minus buying you bottle of wine.

Kira Sikes  1:08:05  
We all love free food. Honestly, the number one thing for me is, and it's actually like a combo is transparency and honesty and communication. If you feel like you're going to get a deal done because of how creative you can be.

Tracy Hayes  1:08:22  
Let me know, it smells right now, my

Kira Sikes  1:08:26  
clients getting evicted from their house and they need to move, and then all of a sudden, we're doing all this crazy stuff to potentially, you know what I mean, like that I don't do I have fired lenders for doing stuff like that, because it makes me look bad, even though,

Tracy Hayes  1:08:38  
let you know that this one's got hair on it. Yeah, exactly. That was exact. Thought they went through whether I was going to use a different word, but, yeah. I mean, in the the honesty of I just got done, she was working with another lender, my friend of mine, he's talking to her, and the other lender said he couldn't do it because of this reason. So he called me. He was trying to do her an FHA loan when she's got great credit and can put 5% down instead of the three and a half. She's gonna get a much better loan. So we last there's some problems with the house, an older house, it's got a couple of little issues. I say, Hey, no problem. But here's the serious situation. It's we're gonna play this game, yeah, because the seller is a corporation, not a human. So they got to go through levels and you just map us this. We're gonna do this. And if this happens, we're gonna turn and do this. And so be prepared. But if we don't have to turn, we're just gonna keep on going right to closing. But everyone knows up front, this is what's gonna happen. And because we have a good we have a good buyer, it's, you know, the house actually has a few little things in it, but not overcomeable. It's just how we're going to actually handle it to get it to the closing table.

Kira Sikes  1:09:44  
I like that. Having the roadmap, again, I don't really sound to the consultation expectations, and having something in play in advance based on the property they want to buy, I'm getting to that in that end result. And that's how I look at my business. It's like, I don't care what the situation. Situation is people will turn you away all day long. You don't have good credit. They're like, Man, I got time for that. I Let's sit down. Let's put a map together. Whatever it is, I like that. It's just overcoming and it makes it

Tracy Hayes  1:10:10  
well, then when you do have to make a turn, they realize, oh, I don't really want to make that turn, but we have

Kira Sikes  1:10:14  
to already talked about this, and it's happening Absolutely. That's what makes our job fun, though.

Tracy Hayes  1:10:19  
That does make our jobs fun. It does take experience and swings of the bat to realize those things are gonna possibly come down, but foreshadowing up front and people should be, you know, afraid of it. So just, we're just trying to, we want to make the transaction smooth for everybody involved. Because there are a lot of people involved in a transaction, from title and everything in between. I'm like, like, visualize you like Brit and Kayla. I mean, we probably have to have three bottles of wine. Hopefully Kayla won't, hopefully she won't spill her wine on my tablecloth.

Kira Sikes  1:10:51  
But I appreciate you coming on. Oh, thanks for having me super, super excited. Thank you. Thank you.