Al Nicoletti

Tracy Hayes  1:04  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, today I'm bringing you one of the top probate lawyers in Florida. This young man has a niche and is becoming an expert. He frequently is educating the local real estate agents while interviewing those who are in the know and property probate around the country. They will educate our real estate friends in probate, at least a beginner's discussion. But I also want to explore his social media campaign, which everyone listening to the show is trying to improve. I ad lib that part. So let's welcome Mr. Pro rate, host of the Al Nicoletti show, Al Nicoletti to

Al Nicoletti  1:41  
the real estate excellence podcast, Tracy, thanks so much for having me.

Tracy Hayes  1:45  
Appreciate it. I, you know, I've been dabbling in I didn't watch all the whole episodes, but I wanted to get a feel for what you're doing and the type of people you're having on your show. And I'm really curious. Obviously, we'll talk a little bit about probate and some of the basics that real estate agents need to know, but obviously, know that you are obviously a solid resource. I know you were at CC Underwood's office a week or so ago. Yeah, it's great doing a training, and I would suggest any of the brokers out there to have al come in. I'm sure he'd love to come in and get to know your agents, because you never know when you're going to come across a situation where you're going to need his expertise. But how he's actually, as a young lawyer, has actually got himself out there with the social media and showing that he is the expert in this area of probate. I'm sure you'll you have other terms, because I'm not a lawyer, you'll describe that to us. So as I start off every show. Al, where are you from?

Al Nicoletti  2:36  
I am from Miami, Florida. I grew up there my whole life. And I'm a cane. I'm a hurricane, so I was there for many years, and then once I graduated from college, went to law school in Orlando, so and I'm sure we'll get into the story of, how did I even end up

Al Nicoletti  2:53  
in jazz? Well, that's, that's, yeah, go ahead, go for it.

Al Nicoletti  2:56  
It's a wild story for me. Every time I talk about it. It's It's crazy, because where you grow up, you kind of feel like you're in that bubble for so long. And when I was in Miami for so long, I didn't know, like, what was outside of it, what possibilities were out there. So I go to law school at Orlando. I thought I was going to do something with, like, entertainment law and music, because I'm a violinist of 15 years. Oh, cool, yeah. So I played for so long, but I didn't they. I didn't see the violin as being something I wanted to keep going and maybe have a make a living off because I wanted to make money. I wanted to do something that was going to be awesome, right? And all of a sudden I'm like, All right, I'll go to law school do entertainment law. Well, that there was no really entertainment laws, like super niche down there. That doesn't really happen, right? So you have to really know that. Kind of have to

Tracy Hayes  3:46  
like, is an area that entertainment law where you kind of, like, be connected, yeah,

Al Nicoletti  3:50  
you got to be really connected. You got to know the people that are in it. But it's just super small, super small area to get into. But then it was, then it was around the end of law school, when I'm taking the bar, that real estate really was an interesting concept. A lot of the things that I was learning there, I was like, All right, I like that scene. Seems interesting. So after law school, after I passed the bar, I moved back to Miami. I'm thinking, all right, got to get a job. Gotta, gotta get my feet wet with real estate. And that's when I dove into foreclosure defense. And there was a little bit of dabble with probate at the time.

Tracy Hayes  4:22  
What time period are we talking

Al Nicoletti  4:24  
about here? 2016

Tracy Hayes  4:26  
26 Yeah, okay, so just dates out. I knew you're a young man. I know how young you were, so I just want to play, obviously, 2008 nine and 10. That's under high demand, right? The that,

Al Nicoletti  4:38  
oh, that was a whole other period. Yeah, whole other period.

Tracy Hayes  4:41  
But in, you know, of course, some people think we're going to come into that period again. I don't personally believe that, but that's a whole nother subject to go on but continue so you gabble into,

Al Nicoletti  4:50  
yeah, dabbled into a lot of the foreclosure defense. When I first started working, I was in a quartet in high school, and I was connected with one of my friends stepfathers who. He's an attorney, and he's like, hey, you know, come under my wing. Like, learn the ropes on what's going on when it comes to foreclosures and all that kind of stuff. So I did for about two years. And then, you know, this is where it kind of segues into probate. That probate realm. At the time, when I was down in Miami, one of my best friends comes down talks about probate, says, you know, hey, you know, there's this really interesting opportunity out there, if you like real estate, where there's a lot of properties, somebody owned it, they died, and now, in order for that family to sell, they got to go through this process. But the problem is, is they don't have somebody that comes in and is able to help solve it. You know, these things get complicated. They could take a little while. Or you know, actually, what we figured out later is that you can get these things done fast and quick. But there was nobody out there that was being able to figure that out.

Tracy Hayes  5:47  
Did you probably see at that time that some attorneys were doing it? They didn't specialize?

Al Nicoletti  5:54  
No, I didn't see any of that. Actually, at the time, I didn't know anything really about what I was getting into. I just knew once I heard sounded good. It sounded good once I heard opportunity. And there's something interesting here. I'm like, All right, you got my attention. What? What? What is this? So that's when I said, All right, let me find out more about what this is. What is probate? How does it relate to real estate? For about a year and a half when I'm In Miami, it really clicked, because I finally realized what that opportunity was and where people were getting stuck. We found the need. It was a need for people, because they needed to get out of that situation, right? So a

Tracy Hayes  6:33  
professional, like most of them, wanted to quickly, efficiently. They want to get their money out or whatever.

Al Nicoletti  6:38  
Yeah, they want they want to be able to get rid of it, but make all the money at the same time, right? They don't want to do all that kind of stuff. So that's when, all of a sudden, I'm going around, I'm talking about it. I'm saying, hey, you know about this niche? You know about probate in Miami at the time, it wasn't sticking, and it wasn't, I don't know how to describe it other than it was like a shiny object for people, because in 2016 2017 think about what the market was doing. It was, it was really just still going up and up and up. And everybody's getting in all these different construction, single family, they're, oh, they're going back to listing property. So talking about the stress at a time when the market's going to a high point is it's pretty hard.

Tracy Hayes  7:20  
What is the statistic on Florida? Just being in general, though, because we do have a lot of older people retire. Here they come here they buy their house, and then obviously, prepare the proper documents, which I hope you'll just touch on a little bit what someone should be doing. So they don't necessarily need to be spending a lot of money on an attorney. When someone passes away. Imagine it's a tremendous amount of stress, causes a lot of family issues and so forth. But statistically, Florida compared to other states, as far as coming upon this probate situation, or we just have a higher number because of the older population that we typically have on average than other states, you know, what's the demand? I guess?

Al Nicoletti  8:02  
Oh, high demand ready? So it's twofold, one because of that older population, for sure. But now what's happened is, so I had stats. Every time I do a presentation, I have stats on where the market in Florida is, and it's probably top four the big metro cities, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando's. It's got to be in that top four, top five area.

Tracy Hayes  8:23  
Imagine the older the City, St Petersburg. Oh, yeah, is a high demand just because of its age. Oh, I

Al Nicoletti  8:29  
mean, think about West Palm Beach. Think about Sarasota and all those other places, right? So the older population? Yes, the stats that came out about three, four years ago were like a third of the inventory by like, 2037 was going to be a lot of the baby boomer property generation, right?

Tracy Hayes  8:47  
The older generation, does? They passed on or went to assisted living or something. They moved out of that house, yeah, or because of age, whether it's death or just, you know, go live with their kids or move to assisted

Al Nicoletti  9:01  
living, right? And think about how many people owned real estate that, you know, the step really is a lot of these baby boomers owned real estate in the 70s and 80s. They weren't focused on stocks and IRAs, right? They were focused on buying asset, buying real estate. Well, they bought real estate, keeping it in their own name. The thing is, is that the stats really changed in the last two years because of covid. A lot of people moving out of New York, moving from California, moving out of a lot of those places where they just didn't want to be anymore. And the demand for Florida real estate, and think about how many new developments DR Horton and all Lennar have made the population increase increase. So now you're going to have even more in Florida, more in the major cities. And it's only beginning. And we could talk about this too, the distressed market right now actually is a real opportunity in the down market, because people. Are going to distress,

Tracy Hayes  10:01  
meaning these just older homes that were built in the 60s, 70s and so forth, renovating them, older people moving out of them. That kind of thing is that what? When you say distressed?

Al Nicoletti  10:11  
So I guess there's different categories of distress. That's one, but the the one that I'm seeing is a lot of times when you get a probate property, the heirs are not necessarily living there. They may have moved to Ohio or Washington. They got a job, they got their own families, and mom and dad lived in that property, but they didn't really either keep in touch with mom and dad or one family member did, and then Mom and Dad didn't keep up the property, and now they have a situation where they die, and there's this asset sitting there, but it's distressed because the lawn is terrible, the roof's awful. I mean, there's, there's, if you're talking about 50, $80,000 in players, people

Tracy Hayes  10:53  
get older, they're not they're unable to take care of those things, or fixed income, and can't replace the roof.

Al Nicoletti  10:58  
Yeah, those are situations distressed, meaning there's issues with it that are going to cause a seller to not want to deal with those situations and have somebody come in and deal with them. And where the market is right now is, is a really interesting opportunity with probates, because where you're you're probably seeing agents not have as many listings, or you're probably seeing, I think about it, investors that used to be getting 20 deals a month, they're only getting like, 10 deals a month. Or you're, you're seeing other people that are just slowing down, right? The probates haven't slowed down. And the reason is, is people are trying to tap into anything they can that has the equity. And the people, I mean, are the heirs, and they're, they're now in a position in this market, the climate that we're finding anything we can to offload and get done and be done with it. So because we've

Tracy Hayes  11:50  
peaked in price, I mean, people are getting maximum equity out of those homes. They held on to them even after mom and dad passed and rented it out, or whatever. Some of these bodies homes, I would imagine you were across. They've been in this family for years, are paid off right type of situation. So they were looking to cash out.

Al Nicoletti  12:07  
Interesting, yeah, and the interesting part about this is, you have a lot of agents and realtors and brokers out there that used to hear that word probate, and they thought, oh, I don't want to get into this. I don't want to deal with this. It's going to be crazy and complicated. And like you brought up CeCe before backstage, or, I don't know if we were on air, you brought up CC. I was in CC's class. I've talked about this for the last three years. And I saw Cece, I met her in 2019 and started talking about this. And I think in like, a year, it really clicked for her. And she thought, wait a second, there is a huge opportunity here. Why are we passing these up when we can work with people that can help solve these problems, overcome these issues? We're not waiting forever. These are, these are opportunities that we used to, you know, shy away from right? Let's, let's capitalize on it right 100% and this market, you ask, is there opportunity? Absolutely, they're all there. All these potential opportunities are there? It's a matter of, what are you going to do to get that?

Tracy Hayes  13:09  
Well, the economy doesn't change. People dying, correct? It actually may accelerate, it stress and so forth. And these situations are coming. But you said, you know, we've been being told, even my generation, your generation, these baby boomers, are reaching this point where they're at. I mean, my parents kind of fall into that area, and we're going to spend next week with my aunt. They're in their 80s. What's going to happen with them tomorrow? All this stuff is going on, but you're right on the point to kind of give CC some accolades. I've obviously, she was my first episode on the show. Oh, look at that highlight. But, and I look forward to have her on, because we didn't do video, so we're gonna do video with her on. But anyway, she digs into the corners, and I obviously she's sat down. It's like, where's an opportunity to get an extra, whatever amount of deals a year, and then have to have someone like yourself who is put yourself out there. I won't say there's no other attorney in town, but obviously you're out there with social media. You're gung ho. You're finding out the most efficient way, I guess, to do these things, and it's not as bad as you want to. So you know, for an agents to cling on to you, because they're going to get calls right from these family members. Hey, I want to sell the house. Okay, well, whose name, you know how it's all going to go down. Oh, we got Al right over here. Boom, get in there and get it done, and get the house closed in a reasonable period of time. So it's a huge relationship. So anyone out there listening, the agents that are listening right now, you need to have Al's number, you know, give him a call, or, if he's doing a training, stop by, but to have him in your back pocket, just like you have a home inspector, just like insurance agent or something like that, you need Alice to be in your pocket as well.

Al Nicoletti  14:48  
Yeah, and Tracy, let me say this. So talking about the trainings, what's really been different about what I've also been able to do is I understand how to educate. I just, I don't know where that came from. I wasn't that in.

Tracy Hayes  15:00  
College or know how to keep it simple,

Al Nicoletti  15:02  
stupid, when you can make a topic that's complicated simple and understandable, digestible, people are gravitating to that, and it's a it's you have to have that skill and that knack for doing it. So what I've been able to do is with the trainings. I had somebody email me the other day because I did a training for like, a group of 30. And they said, you know, when you did that training, nobody had any idea. I had no probate knowledge whatsoever. And then they emailed me the other day because we got to talk about systems, and they said, when you did that, they didn't know anything. Now they're dangerous, and so it's just having those trainings and that ability that the little things. You don't have to know all the concepts and the ins and outs. You have to be able to issue spot. You have to be able to understand what you want to get and have that checklist and the confidence, like I've talked talked to CC's class, and when you bring the confidence, when you bring the knowledge that, hey, we know where to go, we know what we're looking for, this is this process and system, it works. And I developed a system that has absolutely worked. If you called and said, Al, we got this, you would never believe we need this. We need this. We need this, and it's just super efficient.

Tracy Hayes  16:12  
Well, I think I totally agree with you in some of the things that I do, I do, I have a community development district seminar, and a lot of a lot of the agents, you know, even broker something they fear. They want to talk about it with their clients, like, dude, let's just dumb this down a little bit. It is what it is. And then when you when you're able to tell them, hey, this, when someone says this, or someone you you have this particular situation, this is the steps you need to take. And then you hand it off. Me, you're not the expert, but be the concierge. That's one of the terms that we've developed in the 106 episodes of the podcast is how the agents talk about being a concierge for like someone wants to do a kitchen renovation, they need a painter or whatever. This is something that's going to come up when they get that call from somebody in the or referred to them that's in this situation. And to be concierge and listen, know what to listen for, and when they say it, say, okay, hey, we need to bring Alan this conversation.

Al Nicoletti  17:06  
That's been the key. It's the red flags. It's the issue spotting. And I think when you when you break it down that way, it makes it so much easier, instead of you having to understand everything the

Tracy Hayes  17:16  
terminology, no, you don't have to become an attorney.

Al Nicoletti  17:19  
Just gotta know where to go. That's it all. Right. So we're gonna,

Tracy Hayes  17:23  
well, let's touch a little bit on just if you could simplify it for us, what was typically going on and how long would a typical probate take to what you've been able to do as far as your process in the average I imagine there's some one off center. It's really crazy. And you have 10 family members and, yeah, well, what have you found to try to simplify and make that, create that process you just talked about? So let

Al Nicoletti  17:47  
me just say this, we had a probate with 10 heirs, and I did it in eight days. Oh, wow, yeah. And that was kind of pandemic. Is everybody in town? Oh, everybody was ready to sign too. When they want the money, they'll do anything to just get this thing done, right? So what, what I was, I understood about probate for a long time. When I, you know, 2016 2017 the idea was, oh, this is like a seven, eight month process, nine month. Oh, it's been going on 12 months, like in the in the firm I was at, I, you know, I would look at some of the files, and I saw the dates of filing, and then, you know, that it's just getting closed out. I'm thinking, a year, all right, you know, that's just how probate is. And as I started to see the system, as I'm working through things, start realizing, Wait a second, this is not something that takes that long. We can find a way to streamline this and get this done even faster. So in Miami, Miami was known for taking forever for probate,

Tracy Hayes  18:40  
the bureaucracy of the county, or what? What causes?

Al Nicoletti  18:43  
I think they just have so many that they needed to have, like case managers. And the case managers are reviewing everything. So if you don't do everything right, they kick it back to you, and then now the lawyers got to look at it, and then you got to kick it back. Something I could keep going on about that process, and finally gets there now they want something else. They think they finally fixed it. I think they finally fixed their system, right? It really comes out of systems and efficiency. Yeah, so they fixed that. But Miami at the time, that's where I was learning a little bit. But it wasn't until I came to Jacksonville that I realized that these probates aren't that long, like we I was doing them when I first started in two to four days, that was back in like 2019 like early 2019

Tracy Hayes  19:26  
is that? Because the way you put the package together, then you bring it to the county for, who do you bring? For who's approving it? The judge, the judge, yeah, so it's, it's not actually, you're not actually in a go, having to go to court. It's just judges sitting there and their clerk and their clerks that are reviewing these documents, are you actually having to physically go to court for every single one

Al Nicoletti  19:46  
at the time? Yes, actually having to drive downtown physically for each single one. But what we were able to do is have just an efficient system. I found that an efficient system to get these things done, then covid hit. So you. Know, in 2019 I was really focused in Jacksonville, covid hits. I'm like, wait a second, we can go everywhere now, because everything is virtual, so I'm not just hitting Jacksonville, I'm hitting Orlando, I'm hitting Tampa, I'm hitting Naples, I'm hitting all these other places all over Florida. And I'm starting to see, okay, Jacksonville's now, you know, during covid, it's taken like, three weeks. Oh, wait a second, Orlando's like a month. This place is two weeks. This is so I started realizing, well, wait a second, it's not actually that bad. In every county, we're going to just each county's got different rules, different procedures. What do they want? How do we do it? So the timings just blew my mind. I could tell you stories Tracy on deals we've done with one probate that I did in a week. I could tell you stories where we did six probates. It took six months, but it was an amazing deal. What it comes down to, a lot is, what's the deal? And is there timing involved? Is it complicated? Is it simple? Because the simple ones, the easy ones, these can be done in a matter of weeks to a month or two. The ones that are more complicated, and I call

Tracy Hayes  21:07  
whacking the example of a complicated one, what's, what's the scenario?

Al Nicoletti  21:11  
Okay, so we had this one deal, and it was, it was a commercial land deal down in South Florida, commercial, commercial zone land deal, yep. And the property came back and it was titled in eight people's names. And I said, Oh, okay, well, eight people, everybody alive. Nope, six are dead, exactly, and so. But I'm thinking that's a great challenge, right? Is there enough money in the deal for somebody to solve this? I'll do it. So we analyze everything. And here's where it got complicated. There were people in that line that died from 19 5019, 7019, 92,000, you have a string of people. What's their relationship? What's the family tree? And where are the death certificates? Where? What can we do to get this thing sold? So I've never done like a full on family tree like that. Before we had to do a full family down tree,

Tracy Hayes  22:05  
because I imagine most of them did not have any sort of formal which I want to, want you to touch on will or trust or whatever, this is where their assets are going.

Al Nicoletti  22:15  
Oh, no. These people had none of that, nothing. No, zero, yeah, of course, right. But when we, when we broke it down, there were only three beneficiaries total, which made things a lot easier at the end of the day. The the ultimate one was three beneficiaries, but, but one of the probates we had to do there, like all the Bennies were deceased, we had to do some weird procedure to get it done, and it took six months to do. But I think they netted. I think the listing was really high, and everybody came out making good money from it, and we saved it from a tax deed sale. It was complicated and it took time. But what I want and realtors and all the brokers to know is that scenario is a rare scenario. You know, you talk about this, somebody's got to do it, sure, yeah, but, but here's what happens, is, I talk about that scenario because I think it's cool, right? Like, I think these scenarios are cool.

Tracy Hayes  23:09  
Well, afterwards, in the middle of it, when you're trying to get people on the phone, or find out where they live, how to contact them,

Al Nicoletti  23:15  
yeah, hey guys, we did eight probates, you know, like, you know, CC, that doesn't want to do eight probates, right? But the realtors have to understand that we're not fine. That's a rare scenario. The scenarios that we see are one, probate, two probate, everybody's alive, everybody's on board, everybody signed the contract. We're ready to rock and roll. Those are the easy ones that could be knocked out, and that's the system we have. That's what I want people to hear. Because I've been to presentations, I've told these crazy stories. People are like, whoa. It sounds like crazy. It's like, No, this can be easy and simple.

Tracy Hayes  23:46  
Well, I mentioned really the only the challenge you typically get because, I mean, sometimes we'll get it and I hear it because I'm on the loan side, but they're trying to sell the house and they're trying to and one, one of the beneficiaries wants to sell it for this, the other one wants to sell, you know, kind of even sometimes in a divorce situation, you have that, you have two different people making decisions on the property, and one doesn't want to sell it for that. They want to hold on to it. And so you run into that. But I would imagine that that personal, emotional, whatever, probably more of your delays than anything else.

Al Nicoletti  24:18  
Yeah, the that actually doesn't happen as much as you think. The delays really are the paperwork and understanding what we need on the title end. So the emotion, I think by the time they've gotten to me, I think they've gotten to the point of, we got to do this. Run into the ones where they're fighting and they one doesn't want to sell. That's a whole other conversation. But like, you know, we run into those, but the, but the, it's the upfront stuff, right? What's the title work saying? Why is there a quick claim? You're on it, but title still calling for a probate? What's all this? It's the why in the beginning and where the documents are, versus any other delay. Because once we have that solved, once we have. The Do we have the right docs? Do we have the right understanding? Who do we need to do? How many probates do we need to do? All right, let's execute. Let's get it.

Tracy Hayes  25:07  
So would summarize a lot of what you're saying is one thing that's accelerated your corner in this market, this niche, is your ability actually you are presenting it to the bureaucrats in a proper way, the way they want to see it. So it's going through quickly. So you're not having that back and forth for months and months going on, because they they can look at the file say, Oh yeah, that dies, not dotted. They set it over here, and it might be three weeks before they let you know that that's not right.

Al Nicoletti  25:35  
So let's talk about what that mindset, okay, yeah. So there's two factors that you're facing when you get into these challenges, right? I stop calling them problems, I call them challenges. I do that because it's more positive way of we can overcome things.

Al Nicoletti  25:52  
That's what they are. They're just challenges. They're challenges, right? It's just also, what's the price involved? And we get paid for what

Tracy Hayes  25:57  
we do because we solve problems just like a real estate agent, right?

Al Nicoletti  26:01  
Two things you're facing when you come across these deals. One, you got to get through the judge, and you got to make sure everything's tidy and it's legal. You got to make sure it's right, and that that's one route. But the second route that a lot of people miss and don't understand is title insurance. So while the judge can say okay to a court order, absolutely, let's do this. You're authorized to do this if we bring that to the title underwriter, and the title underwriter says, no closing. And I think a lot of an example in that, here's a here's a good one. So just had this one come in. I do. I think you've seen the videos that I do like. How do you avoid probate? Yes, and this is, I have, I have a new one. So I just,

Tracy Hayes  26:46  
there was one that came out yesterday, and I was the first viewer. Just let you, Oh, great.

Al Nicoletti  26:51  
I love it. Yeah, we had one just recently come in and the will, the way that the will read, said that if any of my children shall die before my probate happens, their interests are redistributed to the other children that are alive. There's a really interesting way of saying you need to do probate here, but there's not going to be any additional probate. Seems really interesting, right? So what happens in that scenario. I've never seen that before, right? So when I see that, I'm going to say, Okay, we're only doing one probate here. We're going to file all the paperwork, we're going to send it in, we're going to send it to the judge. Judge is probably going to look at it and say, Yeah, nope, that's what the will says. That's what the will reads, and stamp it and done. It's going to, you know, get the court order. But here's the second prong, the title underwriter. What happens if we bring that same underwriter to same order to the underwriter? Underwriter looks at it, says, Let me see the will. Looks at the will and says, I don't know if I'm comfortable with not having additional probates to make sure heirs have conveyed their interest in that in those estates, we still want those probates done for the others that can have.

Tracy Hayes  28:08  
So when you say, when you actually use the term, does that mean? That means actually getting in front of the judge and the defendants have to plead their case that they don't believe that's what the will says.

Al Nicoletti  28:18  
No, no, this is two separate world so judge World Court, world title, underwriter, it's like insurance, like car insurance. You have Geico, all state, progressive, same thing in title. Yeah, right. So they have to review it, because ultimately, they're taking the chance on they're they're

Tracy Hayes  28:32  
clearing the title. You want to say, yeah, no one else has claims on this property, exactly.

Al Nicoletti  28:37  
So if they're looking at that and saying, I don't know if we feel comfortable with giving insurance to the buyer until we have even more because they could do that. They could call for that. That's a scenario that a lot of people don't realize. Is that, yes, you have the judge part, but two, you have the underwriter. And my thinking is we are always looking at that both prongs, but at the end in sight. So everybody thinks, oh, let's get under contract. Oh, we're under listing. Great. We got a listing. I don't think that way. I think about, are we going to close this deal, and is is it going to close? And are we going to have any roadblocks in between?

Tracy Hayes  29:16  
Okay, Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my backend work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamlined media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence. In this case, you were telling the story in the. Underwriter comes back and says, I want the, let's say there's, let's say there's four kids. You know, parents pass away, so normally you would just be 25% each, because that's, you know, basically, just equally. But two of the kids have passed away, so they're now saying the other two kids would get 5050, but the underwriter saying, Well, maybe you know the errors the other the two that passed away, may have claim on this. So when you say we they would want them probate. They want you to research lineage down. And then how do you, how do you who makes a judgment saying they don't have a claim because the judge already said, No problem, right?

Al Nicoletti  30:39  
It comes down to the head of the insurance companies, whether they they want that they can make those requirements if they want to, right? So you're seeing, you're seeing what I'm talking about.

Tracy Hayes  30:48  
You got to convince them that, that you're that's, is that what you're doing?

Al Nicoletti  30:52  
We that could happen where we got to hop on the phone. That's happened, like two or three times when we're like, no, no, no, no. This is what it says. This is what's going on, right? But that may not happen. That may happen where they want more requirements. The point is, is that people think that it's all about just getting the order it's, it's not just the order, it's, we have all these other players that we're facing, and we have to satisfy what they want to, right and when. And I can tell you, I have done it has to be over 300 probates in the last four years. I can tell you, in those amount of probates, I've had multiple scenarios where I've had to simply think about what in the world does that underwriter probably want, or the title insurance for the title insurance,

Tracy Hayes  31:39  
interesting, we get this. So this is, I'm sure you have a video on this. Al's got a great YouTube chat. I mean, it's just information after information and even the guests that you have on the podcast, the Al Nicoletti show, I think you had somebody. He wasn't he wasn't local, but you did have him in your studio. You weren't zooming him. The other day, I was just listening to a part of it. I think he was talking about somewhere down south. But like I said, Each county has a little bit different way. Yeah, and I'm sure you probably run into judges you unfamiliar with of how they want it presented to them. To keep it simple, let's I want you. I want you to just do a quick evaluation, and I'll just use myself as example. I've got two kids. They're both younger, nine and 12. My wife's a little bit younger than I am. How? What should we be doing to make should something happen catastrophically to my wife and I tomorrow where property is going to the kids properly? What? What? What things should I be doing? Some basic things you have to get into the detail. Yeah, well, what are some basic things that I need to, you know, with yourself or a estate planner, what are some basic things we need to be asking?

Al Nicoletti  32:45  
That's my number one. Get with an estate planner, right? So my world is the afterlife, right? That that's how I've always explained. I come after death. The estate planners come before death, right? So, but the benefit of what I see are the mess ups when people don't just doing anything, correct, a lack right? You know, sometimes it's good that they don't do anything. It makes it a lot easier for everybody. They don't have to think about the will. So a couple things pop in my head. You said nine and 11. Immediately. Those are minor nine and 12. Let's see. Oh, there you go. Nine and 12. All right? Minors, yeah, so right away, let's just say something happened to you tomorrow. Right away. I'm thinking, you know, if you don't have everything set up, they could be looking at guardianships, because if you have assets, and there's and there's money and there's a house, there's got to be somebody that can help represent them, so that any you know profits or assets are that are going to them are entitled to them until they turn 18, and then they have, you know, control over it. So what I'm thinking is probably a trust, or a testamentary trust, where, in the event something does happen, you're appointing a trustee to oversee the assets for their benefit until they turn 18, and, you know, I'm thinking of provisions that maybe they distribute something, or they they're, they're using money for their care, for the school, for, you know, or maybe they don't get the money until they turn 25 because when they turn 18, that money is going to be used for college. And when they turn 21 maybe there's another provision that says, then they can ask for discretionary provisions or discretionary distribution.

Tracy Hayes  34:23  
So hypothetically, Lord, takes my wife and I the house there the whoever takes them, obviously brings them to their home. They sell our home. So there's a lot of equity there, hundreds of 1000s of dollars that they would set it up where, you know, of course, they needed to draw money off, obviously for childcare and that sort you know, whatever you know. Whatever you know, take care of the children easier. But that money you would set up so that they could sell the house, but that money is going into some sort of fund for them to obviously, can activate when they're 18. Yeah, fully access.

Al Nicoletti  34:56  
The idea is that you want it protected, and you want. Be able to choose people you can trust that can help manage it. Once you start talking about guardianships, you can throw certain family members into that mix that you never wanted to have them oversee something. Once you start being able to pick this is the other point too, not just one trustee, but but successor trustees.

Tracy Hayes  35:21  
So kind of a trustee passes themselves and you got problems

Al Nicoletti  35:25  
or missing or doesn't want to challenges, challenges. See, that's I like that so much more at a conference. Never changed it again, but you could see where, where you're overcoming that, right? You're, you're trying to think through who would be next. If somebody doesn't want to serve, declines to serve, is missing, is dead, and you can imagine the title issues I've seen in the firm when somebody's property is titled in a trust and they're no trustee, they're missing. So that's why I'm seeing like you got to be able

Tracy Hayes  36:02  
to I mean, who takes over in that situation? There's a judge. I mean, the trustee is no longer with us, can't find them. Does the judge become what happens at that point?

Al Nicoletti  36:14  
Sometimes there's professional guardians, or sometimes professional like trust

Tracy Hayes  36:18  
mediator type, yeah, I'm gonna try to relate who? Yeah, be that unbiased.

Al Nicoletti  36:25  
There's people out there that help represent other people, like, like, you know, profession on the professional level. Sometimes lawyers are that advocate, but that's why you want to set all this up. And here's the other thing, Tracy

Tracy Hayes  36:37  
recommending at least, maybe even two or three chain of Trustees.

Al Nicoletti  36:41  
Yeah, same thing in a will for successor personal representatives, or, you know, executors, if you're in another state, because what happens if that personal representative that you named doesn't want to serve? Let's say your sister. You name sister there, but sister doesn't want to serve, so you name brother, so then brother is the one that ends up serving. So you want to make sure that you're comfortable there.

Tracy Hayes  37:04  
Yes, yeah, okay. What do you do to stay sure you're obviously doing your videos to educate people, yeah. Well, what are you doing to stay abreast of what's going on? You know, tips and tricks. Are you? Are you a podcast listen? Are you a book reader? Do you you are there many events for probate lawyers to go to? What is it that you do to stay sharp

Al Nicoletti  37:25  
as far as probate or just being aware of, like, the events surrounding what's going on?

Tracy Hayes  37:30  
Well, yeah, I mean, the industry in general, right? I mean, we know there's lawyer conferences everywhere, but, I mean, there's, Is there things that specialize so you're staying up out in front obviously, you've got people that work for you staying out in front of them, and obviously customers coming to you every day. So stay in charge.

Al Nicoletti  37:46  
So two things that are going through my head, of course, continuing education, right? So you know, when you're when you're a lawyer, you're, you have access to a lot of these, you know, educational things that I can keep you know, up to date with, right? That that's one area, right? So I keep up to date with like, what's happened in law and probate, what the updates are throughout the year. Maybe I get newsletters on that, but it's not so much that where my side of understanding what's going on takes place. It's all the applicable things that are happening in my business. So I my probate practice has just been such high volume that I'm just seeing so many different scenarios going on. It's awesome that anytime it's a quirky issue, I research it, I look it up, we figure out what we got to do, and then, you know, execute. Or if somebody's got a frequently asked question, the same thing comes up over and over. I get I've been through this 10 times. This is where the educational side comes in.

Tracy Hayes  38:41  
So it's interesting. You tap on that, and it brings up, you know, when I'm talking to the agents, there's no real estate transaction that's identical. There's different issues they people, how they make their money, what they qualify for. The property is different. Obviously, just by simply the address in all the different properties that you have, you're never going to get enough at bats. And what I think people need to note is, like you said, you're you have such a high volume you're seeing so many different scenarios. I'm sure a new one comes up every month, or something a little different every day. You got to do it. But also I, you know, would you say it's even a benefit just to tap on? You know what? I want to finish up to the show with fact that you, you are taking that education, you're reading that then you're getting doing a YouTube video on it and almost logging that information so you now have heard it, you've spoken it or taught it. You educated people with so it's in it's in there, and you, your YouTube videos are on there forever, correct? Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Al Nicoletti  39:39  
But here's what's funny about even just making a video? So I'll do you'll ask me the question. You'll see al do wills avoid probate. I'll say, wills Do not avoid probate. All right, let's make a video on it. I make 10 videos on wills Do not avoid probate. Put it on the YouTube channel. You would never believe. How many people ask me, even after it's posted, it's out in the mainstream and it's. And it's one of those questions that I could do with a different background. I could do on the beach, I could do on the golf course, I could do here, where people just want to really grasp it. And it's one of those concepts that just doesn't, doesn't end so you there's endless educational things that you can talk about that just people don't retain in that instance, it can go over and over and

Tracy Hayes  40:23  
over, right? Yeah, sometimes they do have to hear it. I mean, from the

Al Nicoletti  40:26  
again and again and again,

Tracy Hayes  40:28  
let's, I want to, I'm gonna flip the script here a little bit. We're already, I mean, I mean, we can sit here talk about probate, I'm sure, all day, all day, and all the different scenarios and stories. I mean, stories sell the story. I mean, there's, there's a Mr. Baller on, I don't know if you ever crime and crime podcast and YouTube videos are like the big wow. And this Mr. Baller, like, he's up there with that other guy who's the big YouTuber. I mean, the kids watch, and he does. I figured Mr. Mr. Big or something like that. He won some award, people get intrigued. Say, I think people will get intrigued by your you could even probably just do what channel, just simply on stories. Oh yeah, that you do. And people will just be interested of the drama that sometimes happens when the property. But so as we're getting it, so what? When did you come to that point, as you and I discussed my point where I said, Hey, I want to start a podcast, and what my my goals were, of it, what, what did you see as a, you know, as a young attorney in what that, you know, having a YouTube channel, you have a podcast that's out there as well. What triggered that thought, beyond the fact that we see these ambulance chasing lawyers on television and TV commercials and all this stuff all the time. But what puts you into that arena? What gave you that thought?

Al Nicoletti  41:47  
I think that's just always been me, I'm different. So I wanted to, like, I see all these lawyers that are making those commercials, and I think some of them are just awful, like the ones behind the books. When I first started making some videos, I did the behind the books, and then somebody was like, you gotta, like, change that. That's right. That's not me. I need to be out there in the in the actual world and scenery. I think it was just trying to find a different medium that wasn't just in person. I think covid and the pandemic had a lot to do with it, because we couldn't be out there all the time and meeting people, so how else were we going to have presence? So that was going through my head. I'm like, wait a second, like, I'm I'm the type that. I'm sure you're the same way we go to meetings and we're just working the room right? I would just work the room, but you can't do that in a moment when you can't go out right? So that's when it really started. I was like, Wait, we got to figure out what's going on here. I also I think a lot of my violin years, I realized I was, I'm a performer. I'm like, Really, I'm good on stage. So I was like, Wait a second, probably I could do things on camera, right? Well, when I first started going in front of the camera, I I wasn't exactly comfortable. I didn't I didn't understand, because I could go in front of a room of 200 people, and it's just like, What's going on everybody, you know, camera is like a little lens, you know, you have to talk to that. It's like, how do you talk to this thing?

Tracy Hayes  43:09  
How do you put on a show when it's just you and the right? I mean,

Al Nicoletti  43:13  
you have to find you, and you find you through that, through the lens. So I think just putting everything together, I had to overcome a lot of the I had to learn what the camera was like. I had to find, find mediums that I wanted to be out there. And what better way than Facebook and having a channel being able to do videos, and then, of course, putting the Instagram together and having, having just post, and we're not doing anything just crazy and unusual high production. We're just being consistent with it. And I think just posting a lot and just posting just things that are, uh, we changed this concept last year. Last year, I was doing a lot of just post, post, post. This year, it's more purpose driven post, which is just personal purpose. There's, there's something to it. There's something that, you know, it's about.

Tracy Hayes  43:57  
Well, I feel like everything I've watched of your stuff, you you're consistently educating? Yeah, it might be a 3045, second blip, but you're, you're educating constantly, right?

Al Nicoletti  44:06  
Yeah, yeah, it's constant education. But it's also purpose videos. Because what, what I've also seen is some people are starting to just post, like a lot, but what, what it is, is just random stuff, and there's no purpose behind it. And I think that that's the kind of stuff that gets drowned out. Would you

Tracy Hayes  44:24  
influence and credibility is, is, is really, I think, the cornerstone of what you what your show, and when I You're bringing on people who are credible in their space, which passes on credibility to you, you're sharing, obviously, information the agents out there to break away from what we actually do as for a living. From the social media standpoint, agents that are listening to you, if you look at the top agents who are doing social media, they are doing they're educating as well. They're they're giving you, showing you that they have knowledge in whether it's the area, whether. Whether it's how to flip a house, you know, they do it themselves. Hey, I'm doing my own flip. I can help you do one too. You know, that kind of sharing that kind of information is, to me, what is the substance of it? And then it gives, gives you credibility. Let's let everyone know, hey, you're not only telling them you're a real estate agent or I'm a loan officer or you're a probate lawyer. We're telling them that. But when we give the education, our credibility scores go up. So, right?

Al Nicoletti  45:23  
And when you're doing this consistently, when you're doing it, you know, over a long period of time,

Tracy Hayes  45:30  
yes, consistently. Tip on that. Go ahead. Well, I think so.

Al Nicoletti  45:34  
When I was at CeCe class, she was talking about this, about, like, the fact that I'm not, I didn't just post a video for three months, and that was it, right? And that's what a lot of people do. They post like, they think that just posting two videos like, that's gonna do something, and then their their mindset is, oh, I didn't get anything. It's like, No, you got to be doing this like, all the time. Like, this is a full time job. Content Creation is another full time job for me. Just like getting fit and, you know, you know, watching your health or doing probate, or it's a full time job, so you got to constantly work to it. So CC was like, No, Al's not just been doing it for three he's been doing six months to a year. And when I see people doing it six months to a year, I know that person's serious and that person's got credibility. They know what they're doing. That's the difference maker, right? A percent. But you want to, you want to talk about the show that's something that completely took its own animal, like it took a life of its own. So when I started doing it again during the pandemic, how are we going to get our message out? How are we going to, how are we going to network? I launched it in like, October 2020, and the time I thought probably that it was just going to be a pre recorded show. We're just gonna, you know, I'm gonna have people on hey, you know what I do, but I want, I want people to see what you do. And then all of a sudden, last year, I said, I got to get my schedule. We'll definitely talk about this too at some point, but I got to get my schedule together. I got to make it really consistent, because this consistency thing is working. That's when I started going live stream. Then I was going live. I'm, you know, live at 8pm at night, you know, every every Wednesday.

Tracy Hayes  47:10  
Yeah, now I saw some of your show announcements like they're in the evening, correct? Do you find most of your you're having more live effect in the in the evening? Two things I don't, there's only a handful that are actually probably watching this. Yeah. Watching this, but obviously it's on Facebook up there, and then eventually, you know, it'll be edited and put on YouTube, yeah. But are you finding the time of day is attracting your listener or your watcher?

Al Nicoletti  47:33  
Yes, but also it's, it's a matter of my day is so busy, and there's so many you know, things that are constantly happening that I want to be locked in and focused, right? I want to be locked in like I've learned to put my phone on airplane mode for podcasts, right? I've learned to put my airplane mode on day of a speech. I don't I keep my phone off from that night until I speak, and then after I turn it on, because you want to be locked in. And I like being locked in my episodes, because that's when you get the most out of the guest, and you also want to be the best at what you're doing in that moment. So the 9pm hour, nobody's blasting you, nobody's, you know, emailing you, everything's quiet, but also everybody's just put the kids to bed. All the parents now want to learn about what you know Airbnb is, and how do you get these deals? And they're like, interesting, yeah, there's something with night, and they moved it from eight to nine because there was an episode we had one time where at eight there were like, five people watching, and then we're like, all right, it's gonna be one of those nights. And then, like, by nine, it was 20 people, and we were like, nine o'clock, and we're like, all right, by 920, people are gonna hop off. Then it went to 25 and we're like, what? Like, this doesn't make any sense. And it just, I moved it to 9pm so it's, you know, my show, Al Nicoletti shows every Wednesday, 9pm live. You know, streaming on all the platforms, and the live part is cool too, because of the engagement people, people love the shout outs. People like being engaged with, you know, of course, there's sometimes we got to pre record, you know, and do that kind of stuff. But I think it's just fun when we do it that way. It's fun when we're able to have that and the guests, all the guests, I mean, in the beginning, I didn't know what was going to take off with it. Now everybody's like, no, we want to be on the show because we want to talk about what we're doing. We want to, we want to be there, and it's like, whoa. It's, it's taken off.

Tracy Hayes  49:26  
Well, I mean, I did a seminar, kind of celebrating my 100th episode at Landmark title. I brought in CC and Aaron Salem from she runs the marketing roundtable Realty downstairs, but talking about my part of it, my intro, and I had my coach do a video, and came up is the content that can be produced from a podcast. Now, granted, everyone's not going to do what you and I do. We got a niche. We love what we're doing. We we do. We don't mind the sound of our voice, and we appreciate everyone who likes. Says, Oh, that was a great show, or thank you for having me on right that gives us a high. But you can be guests on podcast all day long. And I'll shout out to guestio Travis chapel, who is my coach. He has it's guestio.com which I would recommend you putting your profile on there, because he's locked in with a lot of top podcasters. I mean, guys that are actually making money podcasting. Wow. Yeah, that's their actual thing. Wow. Entrepreneurs on fire, a lot of which, if you go on to guestio.com Just go on there, you'll see all the people you can put a profile on there say, I'm willing to be a guest. I'm an expert in probate law, blah, blah, blah. And they can be asked, or you can reach out to someone and say, Hey, I'd love to be on entrepreneurs on fire, because I'm an entrepreneur, and this is what I'm doing, and be a guest in the content that's created. Because every anyone who's that I had even talked about, as I said, you got a video? I didn't do it, right? Yeah, my first probably a handful of episodes, didn't get video. But the video part, there are people who like watching, but the also the content that can come out, like the short reels and so, yes, you know that could come out in promote that person, or, again, the nuggets of knowledge that you spilled out today. There's probably 15 reels that we could cut from this right, and repurpose for the next five years, right? Yeah, because that stuff so and just being a guest on a podcast, you don't have to start your own. Can help you create that content that all the agents will

Al Nicoletti  51:23  
Yeah, I could tell you so many things that happened this year when being on podcast, and how, even on the show, we had to reformat the micro content. Is what we call it. Is the micro so it's like a, you know, 22nd you know, boom. We've had to reformat everything because of engagement, you know. So I don't know if you know Brent Daniels. Brent Daniels a big wholesaler in Arizona, and I was on his podcast in March. And when I went there, I did, you know, a little video with him, a little live, and then we posted some reels from it. But it was, it was kind of interesting. There was one reel that we posted where Brent was like, like, up to the camera, like this. It was to the point where some people told me, like, whoa. Like, you need it. You guys need it. Like, back on the camera. But that video got a lot of views, and we were like, well, maybe we need to change some things up with the micro. So that's when, if you, if you see the more recent ones with like Nicola Espinosa Derby, you'll see, like, we did it, like, just a different style, and it's just, it's engaging, like, um, you'll see some more videos to drop. You'll like this. So I launched al on the streets because I've been going, I've been going.

Tracy Hayes  52:29  
The one I watched yesterday was, you were, you were on the

Al Nicoletti  52:33  
beach, okay, that's one, yeah, that's just a walk and talk. In my world, that's just a walk and talk for you, that's al on the street.

Tracy Hayes  52:40  
So there's a gentleman that does a he's a real estate agent in Canada. You can see his face, and I kept trying to remember the name of show, price to sell is the name of the podcast? Okay? He has a nice set where he's on a couch, but he actually will go where he calls it. I think, I don't know if the names are being mixed up, but he calls it something similar, as whatever his his on the streets, because he'll go to, like, one of the agents, fancy listings or something, and he'll, you know, to kind of give that lifestyle of where he's at and which, which fits right in here with Florida and our lifestyle. Are you going out on the streets, being on the beach and so forth, right that?

Al Nicoletti  53:13  
Yeah, yeah, what I've been doing lately, and you'll see, is the the owl on the streets, has been a different micro for me, because I know how to I learned by watching some of the reels and the tiktoks of interview style. So I'm already doing podcasts, so I'm doing fast interview style back and forth now too. I don't know where that came from, but my ability to just ask the question really fast and go back and forth is now it's super engaging, and that's what people want. People want the FOMO stuff. They want the wait. I don't want to miss out what just happened. What was that like? That seems to be taken off the the

Tracy Hayes  53:45  
only short form content to me, that I that is staged, in my opinion, goes viral, is some of the very gorgeous women that I like on Instagram. Because people are obviously men are attracted to that right to see an attractive woman. They'll sit there and watch that. Or many of many men will watch it where, if you're just dudes, they want real they want to, I think people want to see like real life, like you asked the person a question there. They didn't know you were to ask them. It's not staged, and you're actually out on the street, live on a Wednesday at noontime, you know? And I think that is the attractive, I would say the attractiveness of that.

Al Nicoletti  54:22  
Yeah, I think I've also learned that it's the camera style, so it's the fast moving back and forth. It's the it's the quick interchanging edits. I've seen some podcasts where their production companies, I don't know what they I think it's, I don't know if it's run and gun or what it is, but they like zoom in, zoom out, cut over, zoom in, and it's just like, Whoa, yeah. But when you do that, it gets people watching, Like it keeps people glued. You want people glued and, well,

Tracy Hayes  54:51  
one of the one of the advice I was going to go about, think media. They're a bit podcast. They have a podcast and a huge YouTube channel, if you they're always. Talking about, you know, how you can better your YouTube and they're talking like a show like this, like, obviously I'm bouncing back, but I could technically in here, and if we somewhat stage this or appear in a different way, I could pop up a video, like, I said, Hey, I watched your video from yesterday, and actually pop it into the show by creating that change of scenery, or popping up a PowerPoint or picture or video or something for people to be engaged long term, right on, you know, to sit here watch a show for an hour?

Al Nicoletti  55:28  
Yeah, I've thought about that for the show too. I want to get to a point where I have a guest on and be like, Tracy, do you remember that video that you did

Al Nicoletti  55:36  
last year? Real number, let's watch it. And then, yeah, you know, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  55:41  
Maybe one day we'll be like, well, where you actually have a production staff, it could be just one or two people, but that person that's already preparing this, you know, material for your guest, you know, obviously, you're busy. I'm busy. I try to take the day before, take a half an hour, go and look up someone, or in case, if you they got a book, I read their try to read the book type of thing. Yes, you mentioned consistency and how important in social media, in just tip on your understanding. This stuff doesn't happen overnight when it comes to social media, unless you get really lucky and you pop out a video and it may go viral, but you got to kind of keep playing the lottery and just keeping it out regularly.

Al Nicoletti  56:24  
Yeah, content creation is a skill. Is? It can be developed. I had to learn how to do it as well, right? So you constantly have to think about what's next, right? I don't know that's a lot of my background, too, about push, push, no, next, next. I'm, like, always thinking about, we got to do this now.

Tracy Hayes  56:40  
You're a lawyer, you're supposed to be thinking three steps ahead, right, right?

Al Nicoletti  56:43  
There's sometimes lawyers that don't think like

Tracy Hayes  56:46  
but you don't ask the question unless you already know the answer. Correct.

Al Nicoletti  56:50  
I'm just always thinking that you got to think ahead about what you want to do next. And the tip out there for people that think that just posting one video, even if it went viral, that that's enough. You have to always be in someone's face. That's just me. I gotta constantly be in your in your face on things.

Tracy Hayes  57:08  
Would you agree? And this is a thought I just kind of came up in our discussion. You know, they got all these different algorithms. That's the term album, right? Whether it's Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, Facebook, in the reality, you can, you can bog yourself down trying to jump from what, what's the latest thing? What do I need to do now? Versus just keep moving forward, keep creating the content. YouTube reels. That's a, you know, the reels, the short term content is popular. People say, Oh, well, short term content is probably when you have to have long term Correct. Cut it to short term correct, and that, because that makes it real. I mean, you could, you know, there's some people that create some really quick things for 30 seconds thing, but that's not you and I. You and I are in our conversation. We're gonna cut out bits and pieces, but just keep moving forward and the consistency of it, doing it, whether you know your weekly schedule, just keep consistently putting it out there, putting it out there. The algorithms will come together because people will start noticing you. As you said, you know people, you've been doing it. No, this wasn't a flash in the pan. You did it for a couple weeks, and then you stopped doing it. It was like, Well, is he even in probate law anymore? Right? You gotta keep just keep doing it. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. You're pounding on someone's door, because eventually someone needs it, and goes, well, who's that guy? Haven't seen like for the last eight months on whatever social media you're on. But the importance of consistency. We talked about education, one of the common themes with the real estate agents kind of closing out, is surrounding yourself by successful people. Oh, sure, so you were not just some fly by night. Attorney is trying to put out social media and make people think you're better than what you you are in your how important as a as a young person, and especially in the law field, people look at, you know, attorneys in a different light, kind of like people that look at teachers in a different light. So that, how important is it surround yourself other successful whether they're attorneys or just other successful

Al Nicoletti  58:54  
business, hugely important. I think, who you surround yourself with will not only just help you, but also help them too, because you're always providing value back and forth, right? The idea is, it's, it's, it's a relationship based business. This isn't about, yes, there's people out there that see it as the competition, but it's, it's all relationship you want to help level up together on things. But what I can tell you is something that you brought up before, about there's this and that it's all the noise, right? You hear everybody's doing this and that, and this and that, and that's something I really realized this past year, was, block out the noise. It doesn't even matter, right? What one person's doing is their style. You have to find your style. You have to find your groove to what you want to do, right? You are you? You're not them. And so just because somebody else is doing all these other things and they're throwing on a conference, they're doing a big show, it's like, do what makes sense for you. I don't do anything anymore unless I know I can do it consistently and I know that it's going. Going to just really keep going, right? It's going to be passed. So in terms of social media, it's like,

Tracy Hayes  1:00:06  
that's, that's such a great point, because if you're trying to be like someone else, you have to you realize, okay, is that someone actually going to keep doing what they're doing? Or is that someone, in a week, you think they're doing really well. But, you know, month down the road, they got they stopped doing it. Now you're going, Okay, well, who else can I be like, and you got to be you. And I get top of very a common topic, as you just say, Be you whole slate. Where's his flip flops? Everybody that's like, that's his thing. He wears shorts and flip flop. If I the temperature is supposed to be dropping here in Florida. So I did wear my pants today because I'm going to a social later this afternoon. I won't be back home. Otherwise, I would have worn my shorts and changed, but you got to be you, yep. And that is so true, Alice, and that's what keeps our podcast going and our social media, because we like doing it. We like showing off other people. We like helping other people and educate that's us. We're in a groove. We get a high off, and we keep going. Yep, you're not getting that. It's because you're not being you and you're you're pushing yourself to be like someone else, and it's not gonna last.

Al Nicoletti  1:01:12  
So you know, what's interesting about this is, in the last year, I was on a speaking tour, right it was, I was doing so many things with probate, going all these RIAs going all these events, and then some conferences came up. One conference in Milwaukee came up, and I only had like, 15 minutes in the summertime, oh yeah. I was like, I love Milwaukee. It's nice over here. I don't want to be there in October, though. So we only had like, a little bit to speak, but I wanted to speak on some different stuff. And some of the things I talked about were It wasn't intentional to be mindset, but it was where things were for me and my business that I could help others on. Right? So we did a whole bunch. I did a whole presentation on that. We cut it up into different content. Somebody came up and said, Are you trying to do motivational speaking? And I thought, I'm not trying to do anything. I'm just being me and talking about what's been working for me and and some of the concepts that I have learned along the way. And I think a lot of people got to realize that it doesn't matter what somebody else says and who cares what somebody else thinks about it. You always have to put out content that is purpose to you, and that makes sense to you, because when you start doing that, your authenticity comes out. And people know when you're authentic about topics, people will see it, they read it, they know, and that's what's going to make the difference for people out there.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:31  
Well, I mean, I'm a fairly emotional guy. When I start talking, you'll see, you'll and you can pick it up on people, how they might come up to the microphone, or just a reflection in their voice. Yep, they're passionate about and also their heart sucks in some blood, and their adrenaline goes off. And yeah, I did a presentation back in February, was a sales and asked me to speak. So I put together a thing, and actually, afterwards, people were like, Oh, you need to be a motivational shooter. You need to do a TED talk. Okay? And you know what TEDx Ted, you wanted to start with TEDx, right? And you

Al Nicoletti  1:03:05  
know what, I bet you would do amazing at it. And it's something that you that would come from you, and what experience you, you've had. And anytime I'm even presentations, you'll see people go, Oh, I like that kind of PowerPoint. I like that presentation. I want that. No, you want to do what you want to do, like, you got to come up with something that works for you.

Tracy Hayes  1:03:25  
Well, yeah. I mean, the 100% that the PowerPoint that I was playing off of, I've inserted some videos that were motivational to me and so I could get motivated, which, you know, I'm obviously some of the crowd will say some of the crowd probably aren't motivated by things I'm motivated are. But because I was getting motivated, they, they would get motivated, yeah, the human thing there? Yeah, there's

Al Nicoletti  1:03:42  
so many things we could talk about when it consists style.

Tracy Hayes  1:03:48  
We go on forever. We've got to close out there. We're at an hour five minutes. Let's I'm gonna go to my two minute warning questions. I think we gave out a ton of information here, but definitely to have you on a different because I would love that you just do a show just talking about stories, you know, said, I think you could start a whole YouTube channel of probate horror stories.

Al Nicoletti  1:04:08  
Yeah, that's something that's coming, gonna come down the pipe eventually, is, is talking about the stories. I could see that being a podcast like probate after dark or something. It's funny because we laugh about it, but it's something that I mentioned, you know, thought about. But, you know, having, having the ability to talk about that, for people to learn is,

Tracy Hayes  1:04:29  
well, like I said, crime, and crime is one of the biggest podcasts out there, and on the YouTube, there's some people gone viral going these people research these crime stories. And I don't think it's necessarily that, it's the crime, but it's real, and they're telling the story. And if, obviously, you're a good storyteller, you can, you know, people will will cling to it. Yeah, all right, too many more cash. We'll round up. What is you don't have a ring on? So assume you're not single. So what is your favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida? Wow.

Al Nicoletti  1:05:00  
And in the last couple months, it's really been travel. I I've barely been home, just because I've been out speaking and everything. But, you know, I'm sure we could talk about this is I've been just, my whole fitness is completely just, so my workout routines and what I've been doing is constantly focused on that has been unbelievable. But just just going around, traveling around Florida has just been fun. You know, just doing new people, meeting new people, going to different a lot of people you've probably

Tracy Hayes  1:05:25  
been talking to and calling and asking questions about, because they're experts in this, in your field, to actually shake hands, yeah,

Al Nicoletti  1:05:31  
to actually be be able to meet

Tracy Hayes  1:05:32  
them, yeah, yeah. Is it more important who you know or what you know, who you know?

Al Nicoletti  1:05:36  
I who you know? Because you can learn the what from even those people and bouncing it off each other, but the who it's, it's, we're in a relationship based business, the more I've seen it in the last five years, it is so important to have that relationship with those people, because you don't know what they know or who they know, and together, you can figure out and build together as a community.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:59  
So when you really break down. I mean, obviously you've got an undergraduate degree in a law degree, and of course, you're taking so much continuing ed I mean, technically, eventually you'd be a doctor if you took that equivalent time in a classroom, right? But even if you just break down, just what you do as a lawyer, it's important that you're building the relationship. You build a relationship with the judge in a professional way that he that he knows when, oh, this is one of Al's files. He's already, yeah, okay. He knows it's, it's, it's done right, and creating that. You may not be taking the judge out to dinner, but then the other attorneys that you work with that are willing to share with to to know them. So education has been a big part of your you know your your young life, obviously, yeah, for you know, most of it's you know me. I've tipped scale the other way. I've been more out of school than in school. You haven't got tipped that scale yet, but you have the knowledge. But in that, in the in the in the directly in the legal field, to know other people, to share, understand the we talked about your at bats in the volume of loan probates you've been doing. It's the same thing in the real estate world, knowing other top real estate agents to know loan officers. I don't there's so many loan products people out there. I love these guys that do these videos on loan products. Like they're the only ones that have it. Trust me, the other lenders are not in business unless they have it too. Now are there some one offs, like, these crazy stuff that isn't worth chasing because if someone's got that blue moon, yeah. But the stuff that's out there, if I don't know something, there is someone in my channels, other loan officers, whether their work for loan depot or not, and I can call and say, Hey, man, have you experienced this? Yeah, and that's building that network. So I'm a who, you know as well. I have had some recent knowledge people that gave good reasons don't totally agree with them, but I'm a who, you know too.

Al Nicoletti  1:07:49  
It's just, it's all relationship based, right? The more people that you're able to have a meaningful connection with, is something that just changes the game for everybody. Being a part of groups and being a part of high level masterminds, being a part of because everybody's learning from each other, right? I'll learn something from somebody that's focused in marketing, that doesn't that, that I'm in world that can, that can help my business. But then there's stuff that I'm doing that they're like, wait a second, my clients would love to see stuff like, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:08:21  
100% Yeah. Because what you're, well, I found it just in talking to people about the power of the podcasting, and they're like, they think it's, they immediately just think it's like, okay, people don't know there's this whole realm and it's, it's the newest, it is the newest thing that's untapped, because it does take consistency and time. You've got to do it. But what you can, you know, the content in education that can be pulled out of a podcast is so new, and when you are talking with a marketing person, you kind of have to explain. So no, we're gonna, it's not just a podcast for an hour. We're gonna have reels in repurposing content, right? That's a big thing in social media, if you you have a mountain of content, you can you can have content for years, because you're going to keep repurposing people didn't see that video the first time around. You're gonna send it out a second time or remind them, and it's out there. Hey, you haven't seen this one. You need to watch it now, right? Because they only watch when they have that situation.

Al Nicoletti  1:09:18  
It's funny you say that. So when I was starting to make videos on the beach in the golf course, my videographer and I, we were joking we're gonna we said, we're gonna make one video, I'm gonna post it. And like, every time I post it, I text somebody like, that's it. That's it. That's the only time we're gonna post it. But then all of a sudden, we I have a marketing team, and the marketing team redid it again. They post it again, there are people that never saw it before. So like with the repurpose, the things with the show, things with reels, it's like all this stuff is, is well,

Tracy Hayes  1:09:48  
and then you have, you have all the different platforms. LinkedIn is a different platform than obviously Facebook. And who's watching you, I don't know. I think Tiktok and Instagram. I haven't quite broken them out, although I'm I have. My Instagram page, Tiktok, something new that my media, you repurpose it to a different audience, because there's different audiences on those things, and then different times of day. Is it nine o'clock at night that they're watching, or do I post it at eight o'clock in the morning? And all these different hours so you could consistently be doing and then three months later, go back through the same cycle, right? Yeah. Yeah. 100% Al, I really appreciate you coming on the show. I really want to, well, we'll talk about some things outside the camera here, but from the from the podcasting and stuff, I do want to come by your studio. Yeah, absolutely. Check that out. You know, Al's got a totally different podcast than me. He does something totally, totally different. He's interviewing different, different people. We may overlap, I don't know, because there's industry professionals out there, but he's, he's does an awesome job. And if you want to see, you may not be interested in all the subjects right now, but if you see how he's doing and how he's doing your business, his business, through the social media, I think it's just cutting edge.

Al Nicoletti  1:10:57  
Thank you. Tracy, yeah. I mean just bringing people on that provide value, you know, different talking about Airbnb, commercial property, different things that are out there,

Tracy Hayes  1:11:04  
you name it. You've got a lot of subjects on there. And if you don't, I'm sure you contact Al, and he'll, he'll figure it out and create a video for it.

Al Nicoletti  1:11:11  
Oh yeah, there's new things going out eventually, which is one of the

Tracy Hayes  1:11:15  
great thing when you're talking to a client, you think of your real estate agents, those who might be listening to this point, and you run upon the situation. If you, if you're familiar with Al's material, click one is YouTube videos, and send that client said, this is, hey, we need to talk to Al. Here's Al, here's one of his videos talking about that. Let's get him on the car. I mean, what a great way to you could refer somebody, but when I can actually take a video and here's al talking about that situation, see you that you're a real person and your personality. So yeah, let's call that guy.

Al Nicoletti  1:11:44  
Some realtors have actually just shared the videos like, like, I'll post one. All of a sudden, somebody just shared it, and they'll say, like, you got to hear this, like, from the attorney himself. Or I'll have a Facebook ad that's out there with me, you know, a smiling probate and somebody will, somebody will in the comment section say, we need to talk to this guy. And it's like, you know, community chatting happening like all in one so it's so cool.

Tracy Hayes  1:12:07  
But I don't see too many people on there. The ambulance chasers are on all the time. You don't see too many TV commercials or big signs up at Tia bank field down there for probate attorneys. But Al is on Facebook. He's on it. You're on Instagram, correct? Instagram has a nice YouTube channel. Where else you at?

Al Nicoletti  1:12:25  
Spotify, iTunes and Google Play for the Al Nicole

Tracy Hayes  1:12:29  
you just, just search al Nicoletti. It's gonna come up. Yeah, you go

Al Nicoletti  1:12:33  
into Google. Just type that in the whole first it's probably second page or just consumed by all the content. Yep. 100% thanks for coming on. No Tracy, thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.

Podcast Intro/Outro  1:12:43  
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