Corey Hasting: CEO at Engel and Volkers JAX

Corey Hasting  0:00  
Hey, this is Corey Hayes of angle Volkers, Jacksonville. If you're looking to level up your real estate business, you need to be listening to real estate excellence podcast with my good friend.

Podcast Intro/Outro  0:09  
Tracy Hayes. Welcome to Real Estate excellence making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt now. Please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  0:43  
Hey folks, welcome back to real estate excellence with your host, Tracy Hayes, this young man is quickly becoming the best of the best in Northeast Florida. Before the age of 30, he bought into the Engle Volcker franchise. He was recognized in the top under 40, and he's way under 40 and the Jacksonville Business Journal for 2025 call credit and is the fastest going real estate brokerage in 2021 here in Northeast Florida. He has been busy filling his trophy shells with continued success month in and month out. Let's welcome the broker, owner of Ingle and Volkers here in Northeast Florida.

Corey Hasting  1:19  
Corey Hasting. Thank you for having me absolutely. Thank you. Excellent. So I

Tracy Hayes  1:23  
didn't do the s on the angles, and I didn't put the s on the Hayes things, but Corey, I appreciate you coming by, because, you know, the more I dug in, as I always, you know, see a popular guest that hopefully be popular for my audience, and then I, you know, I dig deeper and more and more, and I know I'm just scratching the service surface on your story?

Corey Hasting  1:42  
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's been tremendous. I always joke that if you would have told me three and a half years ago when we opened this company, that we'd be sitting here today, I don't know if I would have believed you right, because, you know, when I first opened angle Volkers, Jacksonville, I had just turned 27 when I bought the franchise, and so I was the youngest franchise owner in company history that's been around since 1977 around since 1977 I think it's still him, so it's just been tremendous. But, you know, it's a testament to the team that we have. It's a testament to the advisors we brought on and just the opportunity that we had in the city.

Tracy Hayes  2:12  
Like, we're definitely going to dig into that, because, you know, because of your young age and your recruiting, I'm going to work into that, but I want to, I tapped into something I was scrolling through this morning with my sales manager here and talking about you coming in, and I came across the Inman Connect conference in Vegas. You were a guest speaker. Yeah. And of course, everyone knows I'm a big Ryan Sirhan fan, and that's what caught the picture was Corey was there with Ryan in the hallway there. How did was that something that Ingles, they reach out to you? What is the, what is the whole conference? I guess about what is,

Corey Hasting  2:44  
yeah, so Inman is probably, if not, the who's who of real estate, as far as publication, news, online presence, essentially like people's magazine, but strictly for new real estate. And so that twice a year, obviously non covid. They do conferences, once in Vegas, once in New York, and it's just a great conference for real estate professionals to come in. They bring in amazing speakers, great people that are really, you know, in tune with technology or in tune with brokers or in tune with agents or whatever else. And it's just huge collaboration. I mean, the one that we went to in Vegas, I think there was like 4000 people there. It's all

Tracy Hayes  3:24  
this is in October, yeah. And with covid still going on, you had 4000 people.

Corey Hasting  3:29  
And so it was amazing. And so being a part of angle Volkers, and being that we're, you know, this huge national brand, global brand, has its perks. And so where angle Volkers Americas is a sponsor of a lot of the Inman events. And so each sponsor kind of gets to nominate, I don't know, five to seven speakers each year. And then Inman has a process that they go through and then say, Hey, this is what we're topics, we're looking for, who fits criteria, so on and so forth. And so, yeah, I was very blessed to speak on stage, and we talked about teams, and where the direction of the real estate industry is going towards teams and how to structure it. Were you the youngest guy there? Probably, yeah, youngest, youngest speaker there, yeah. I mean, it probably, probably was. I mean, it's, I didn't see many people who looked younger than me. Yeah, that way, unless they

Tracy Hayes  4:11  
were the technology they were technology guys here, yeah.

Corey Hasting  4:15  
And so it was an amazing experience. You know, I followed in men for even before I opened the brokerage. I mean, it's amazing. It's where you get your news, if you want real estate information.

Tracy Hayes  4:24  
I am not familiar with the conference. Is it good for loan officers? Is it really more designed for the agents in there?

Corey Hasting  4:31  
I think it's more designed for the agents and brokers. I'm sure that they have some type of lender types. I know there's a ton of lending sponsorships there, and they have, like, an expo you can walk through and do that type of stuff, right? But it's definitely more towards, like, I think their whole slogan is, like, by the agent, for the agent. And so it's, you know, it's industry news as far as what's trending topics are going and all that. And so it's very blessed to be able to be on stage.

Tracy Hayes  4:54  
Yeah, that. That's awesome. So let's go back. I'm back on track, though, as I normally start every show. So where are you from? So I'm originally

Corey Hasting  5:01  
from Cincinnati, Ohio. I played football at Ohio University, and then after that, I was blessed to play with the Cincinnati Bengals for a short time. And that's part of how I got to Jacksonville, to be honest with you, is, you know, I got cut in Cincinnati. And you know, is always joke that it was December in Cincinnati, which is probably like the worst place on earth to be. And so my age at the time, knew some new a trainer, and knew some people in Jacksonville. I was like, Hey, why don't you go down there? You know, there's some opportunity there. So I moved down, worked out with the Jags, Titans and dolphins. All of them said I wasn't fast enough. But, you know, that's how I really got into it. That's how I got into real estate. Is, you know, I needed a job that can create my own schedule, and so go to work out in the morning. And so I got

Tracy Hayes  5:42  
my real estate license. Now, did I read correctly? Your mom's in real estate as well. Yeah. So she's been in real

Corey Hasting  5:46  
estate for ever. She's currently a broker in Nashville, and so she and I kind of were thinking back in this is 2013 hey, what can I do to make money? And she's like, well, you need something to this that. Well, why don't you get your real estate license? Right? And I was like, Mom, I know one person this entire city. How am I going to sell real estate? Right? And so it was just kind of fascinating to see how it could work.

Tracy Hayes  6:07  
You test. You said something, there one person in this city that this so, you know, in you mentioned you bought the franchise. In you were 27 years old. Don't know money people at all. Yeah, you must have had a vision. What was your What was your motivation? Said, Man, this is I'm gonna go all in on this. Because, I mean, most people say I don't know anyone here. I'm gonna buy a I'm gonna buy, I'm gonna invest in a franchise, yeah, with in that name, yeah. And the fact that, well, I mean, interesting part. I mean, I assume Ingo and Volker screened you in some way shape, yeah, before they weren't gonna sell their franchise to just anyone. No, yeah. So how do you, how did you, how did you make that connection to Yeah,

Corey Hasting  6:45  
so it's, it's kind of a long story, but you know, the whole when I moved here, I got licensed at 23 and at the time, and I say it's like at the time, this was 2013 2014 begin, 2114 and ni, there was only 4000 agents, and I was the youngest agent in my office by 15 years because it wasn't popular yet. Not a thing going bulk around. No, at a different brokerage. Yeah, different brokerage. But I knew that nobody was ever gonna outwork me, and so I moved here, and I never let not knowing people stop me, because realistically, I'm a 23 year old kid. My friends are not buying anyway, so I really care. I didn't nobody. So I did a lot of online lead generation, did a lot of networking, lot of open houses. I mean, I knew that I've always been very goal oriented, and so I knew that if I wanted to be a top 50 agent, I could be one. And so my very first year, had a lot of good success. Actually left the brokerage I was at, went to a different brokerage, worked for a competing broker. Wasn't for me, went back. And then in 2016 and 2017 I was a top 50 agent in entire city. Years three and four in the industry. And then so in beginning of 2017 one of my best friends, Bo Blankenship, is the angle and Volkers rep from 38 de scenario, he called me, and he's like, Have you ever heard this company? I'm going to open this brokerage. It's the next big thing. You need to look into it by the time, I wasn't sure, number one, if Jacksonville was ready for angle Volkers yet. And I wasn't sure if I was ready for angle focus, right? And so the entire calendar year of 2017 it kind of was an aha moment. You know, beginning of the year, we and him have this conversation. A few months later, I'm walking the streets of Buckhead, Atlanta with a lot of my friends, and I walk right by the angle of Volcker shop there, and I'm like, Oh, this is kind of cool. Yeah. Fast forward a few forward, a few months later, I'm in a family vacation in Savannah, Georgia, right right by the angle Volker shop there. I'm like, Oh, this is kind of following me around. And then about amazing, like, you buy a car, you see everything you see. And then two months later, I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, walk right by the angle Volker shop there, and I'm like, Okay, now this is a God thing. This is telling me to do this. And so right then, I went to, flew to New York, met with Anthony hit, did the whole process, met with the Florida crew, and I was blown away, to be honest with you, and I knew that if I could do, run it how I want to be ran, and do it differently, that we would have a lot of good success. Because real estate in Jacksonville hasn't changed much in 40 years, and so everybody kind of knows what each brand offers. But I wanted to do something different. Something different, and that's really what I was looking for. And I never would let my age become like an obstacle, because I was going to present myself like I was older, and I was going to study, even though I was a first time broker, I was going to every question, you know, and so

Tracy Hayes  9:16  
I'm going to take a line from your your bio, yeah, that you put on my introduction thing, which I'm sure you have in other places. Corey found home in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2013 bringing extensive knowledge and experience of the real estate market. So that was my, I was like, Man, this guy's he's getting, he gets it. Yeah, whatever it is, you're getting it. You got it early, at a young age, whether it came for your mom, I, you know, I didn't know, you know, what the what the background there? If you were following her and she was teaching you or mentoring, you, imagine she had some influence with her experience. But yeah, I'm like, how are you? And I'm jumping forward in my whole interview process here. But since Ron, you're 2728 29 and you're 3131 There's certain 31 and you're recruiting, and I know you, and there's a couple teams that I've worked here and there with that you stole. I like that word. They volunteered to come over, but you, you attracted them to your show, and that your show was, was better, and the brand was, was going to give them that, whatever it was. But yeah, you recruited them. Bottom line, you recruited them to come to you in your in your show. And I'm like, How is this guy doing? And he's recruiting these brokers that are twice his age?

Corey Hasting  10:30  
Yeah, yes. I mean, it's a combination of a lot of things, to be honest with you. Is it the coffee? I am obsessed with coffee. But no. I mean for us, one of the things that attracted me to angle Volkers is the systems, the tools, the globalization that everything that just jesville didn't have. And so part of the reason why I opened it is because the opportunity to sell a brokerage like that is never been here before. And so I knew that that would attract people. But then what we wanted to do is I wanted to create something that really made us different. And so for us, we're the only brokerage in the entire city that doesn't just have a revolving door, which means every single person who wants to be a part of our firm has to fit three main criteria for us, and we do not deviate from it. Number one is culture. We only want really good people. We only want full time agents. We only want people who want to help others grow. And that it to me, is the most important thing. Number two is every single person who's a part of our brokerage has to sell $3 million or more per year to even be a part of our firm, which doesn't seem like that much, but I have 11,000 agents in the five major counties. There's less than 1000 agents who do more than $3 million and our biggest thing is we want to be held to a higher standard in every single facet of the business, and the way that we know the industry from the way we know the contract, where we know the market. Because for us, we call ourselves advisors, because we can truly advise our customers on the buying and selling of the property. And number three is we have some of the best technology, some of the best lead generation tools, some of the best listing presentation tools. So just being able to kind of get that into your business. And you know, our first year, when we opened, April 30, 2018, we had three agents, because we didn't really recruit much prior to getting the actual Jacksonville Beach shop open yet. And then, you know, we started just recruiting more different people. We got kind of lucky with, you know, like, big names, like, let's say Joni Hayes, for example. She was kind of our big, oh, my God, what's going on now? And then we got, you know, Sandy Miller, and then we got, you know, all these big people, and then once, you kind of create this avalanche effect, now you're the kind of okay, what's going on? Meeting? Exactly. Because I knew that once I could get them in the meeting, I could show them things I've never seen before. I can show them things that their brokerage, they've never had, or how it can truly help them. And let's be honest.

Tracy Hayes  12:40  
Someone need a fresh start too. Yeah, I thought I saw someone move over. I'm like, they're looking for a fresh start. It must be something going on there, and then you just change the Yeah.

Corey Hasting  12:49  
And for us, you know, let's be honest. I mean, big agents want to work with really big agents, you know. And for us, not having any new agents, and having be able to walk across the hall and say, hey, 25 million dollar producer, I, number one, respect you. I know your name. And also, can you help me with this lead generation platform? And can I ask you questions actually matter?

Tracy Hayes  13:07  
You just said something that was so powerful, right there big agents want to play with big agents, yeah, and there's some, a couple other offices that are successful. You're recruiting in the last obviously, handful of years is just amazing to bring that talent over. But we're too many agency other agents as competitors. You This is the football locker room, because you mentioned that somewhere in I was reading you, you brought your experience or and when you play sports at a high level, you understand, you know, everybody in the room is an all star. When you're on an NFL team, all those guys are all stars. Yeah, they've been all stars at whatever level. You know, prior you're bringing them in the room. And that synergy, and use that fancy word, synergy, just

Corey Hasting  13:56  
rises up. Yeah? I mean, I think it's imperative. I mean, obviously I'm a very firm believer that success breeds other success, and so excitement is also very contagious. And so if you have an office or a shop that is surrounded by people all doing really, really well and all collaborating and helping each other, those people who are around those people are going to also be successful. Yes, one of my favorite stats that we have, 87% of our advisors increase their production within the first six months, being part of our firm, which is a testament to a lot of things that we offer, and everything of that nature. But it's also it's being the instant culture right away, and being able to collaborate with people that they might not have been able to otherwise. Or, you know, when I when I would work at other brokerage firms, the top agents would go into the office, close their door and say, Don't bother me, right? That's not what I wanted here, and that's the culture that we've built. Is, I don't care if you're my number one agent or my 30th agent, you guys are most likely going to know each other, get along and be able to text each other and say, Hey, what do you think about this or hey, what about

Tracy Hayes  14:51  
this idea? I love your concept because I was we were talking prior to the show about podcasts we listened to, and recently, I've been listening to the mortgage market animals with Carl White. Eight of those in the loan officer world probably have seen his name and so forth. Well, one of the things he talks about as a loan officer is to only is to really work with qualified agents. What they consider a qualified agent is someone who does at least eight buyer side deals a year. Yeah, you mentioned $3 million yeah, in this market, that's about, right? Yeah.

Corey Hasting  15:18  
And people always ask me, like, well, the bigger you get. Like, what about your time? And what about this? I'm like, I don't get phone calls, you know, because a lot of, I mean, all of our producers have been the industry for a way, a long time, and the calls that I do get is more just instant validation. Hey, I think this is correct, that run this by you, or, you know, all of that, you know. And are you

Tracy Hayes  15:37  
still produce? Are you? No, I don't produce you. Just total making sure the culture

Corey Hasting  15:41  
Absolutely I backdoor stuff is, yeah, like, my job, a day to day basis, is to continue to grow brand awareness by bringing great agents on, opening new locations, offering more marketing tools. My job, and hasn't been since the day we opened, is, was never to sell. My job is to grow the brand great, bring great people on and continue to hopefully increase ourself into the top five, top three brokerage

Tracy Hayes  16:03  
I often feel and, you know, we talk about, here it is, market share, and that's it. That's what you're talking about. You brought in some, you know, if it was an NFL team, you'd be paying lots of millions of dollars, yeah, bringing them in because you're going after the Super Bowl every month after month. Yeah, and you brought this in, and you're grabbing market share very quickly, yeah, because you've recruited some of the some of the best names in Northeast Florida.

Corey Hasting  16:25  
Yeah, you know, we joke that we probably have the most attention on us of any brokerage. And you know, we love that, because for us, we really want to break the mold of how real estate is done. You know, for the longest time, market share in this city was done by how many locations you have and how many agents you have. And for us, it's the complete opposite. What we want to do is we want to have the most market share by how much is each producer produced, volume wise and transactional sides. We don't care how many locations we have. We don't care how many people we have, because for us, I would rather have 100 agents doing a billion dollars a year than 500 doing a billion dollars a year, right? It makes my life easier, my admin staff's life easier, their life easier. And also, because of the level of advisors that we have, it allows me to have a personal relationship with them, because we're not always having to talk about binder disputes and contracts, and what did you do?

Tracy Hayes  17:16  
Or getting that call from that person that does two deals a year on how to write the contract again, because I haven't written one in so long, and it's just sucking your time and energy out. I'm with you on that one.

Corey Hasting  17:25  
I mean, your time is your most valuable asset you can possibly have. And so for me, I said to myself, give me 80 to 100 great producers who know the contract, know the systems, know everything, and let me just be friends with them. Let me, let me care about their lives. And also I'm there to help them, you know, if they need something, but they

Tracy Hayes  17:44  
like to go on vacation, you're there to pick up because you built this you built this family. It's a large family, because the locations which I want to get into next and I but your concept is obviously as different people I brought on the show. Melissa Ricks was one of them. She has a totally different concept of how she does her business versus the team's vision. You see a lot around town, it's her. She is the focal point. With her support, you're supplying support, but again, your time is limited, but with you, everyone is producing 3 million or more. It's, it's it's worth your your payout to help them out and continue them going. And I, I think where the other concept of some of we know, some of the larger brokers, they'll just sign any anyone up who wants to put their name there, and they've got 1000s of agents. And it does, you have to obviously expand your support staff now, hopefully those extra get paid off. But I want to go tap into locations, because you, I've your Facebook and if you haven't been on corey's Facebook site, I mean, first class, I haven't even stepped into them, but the pictures, pictures you just, I think Amelia is just open. Amelia is, yeah, two weeks ago, those pictures were up, but I'm like, Man, what a I mean, I could just feel the energy when just walking in there. Imagine your agents do when they do come in, or if they do bring a client by, or client walks in, it's like, Man, this, this is first

Corey Hasting  19:03  
class, yeah. So one of the best things about this brand, and with Ingle Volkers, is the International shop concept. So every single shop that you walk into, from Jacksonville Beach to Capri Italy, are all the exact same. And so it allows you to have an amazing brand idea for the electrical outlets earlier, probably, but it allows you to have amazing brand identity around the world. And so if your highest customer is skiing in Aspen and like, Oh, I'm selling my house with the Ingle Volker, Jacksonville agent, and they walk into Aspen office, it's gonna look the exact same. The advisors are held to the exact same standard. And so that is an amazing, amazing thing. And every single office that we open, we have one goal in mind, to be the nicest shop around. We call them shops because for us, you know, people think offices, they go in and buy something right, that they're meeting about whatever. But the shop concept is more mentally of, hey, I'm going, I'm gonna go and I'm going to purchase something like I'm. Going shopping, like to the mall, and so, you know, we have a lot of glass, a lot of modern we bring the coffee mugs out. We create the whole entire different atmosphere. Because whenever they step foot into one of our locations, we want them to immediately think, this is different. And that's the whole entire goal, because that's the whole thing with our company,

Tracy Hayes  20:16  
all right. So, you know, one of the big brokers names out there, exp is growing. Totally different concept, almost opposite standard. There. They're totally non shop. Your shop, you've opened some shops. I'm gonna put some pressure on you here. You've opened some shops in some very high end strip malls. Yeah. I mean, there's no doubt about it, where you're putting these locations. I mean, I know the one on 210, down the street from my house is, is not inexpensive. Yeah, I have an idea. But if you want your your vision, your because you had to go through your mind, going, Why am I paying that much on a lease for this location? Is it really going to drive? Yeah, the business are you? Are you seeing that investment that you're making? You know, whether it's recruiting, because the part of it's not just the buyer, absolutely, recruiting the agent who is recruiting the buyer, yeah, bringing them in. What is the mindset behind that? Yeah, well, the whole

Corey Hasting  21:08  
entire process, ideology, I guess, if you wanna call it, yeah. And so there's a whole concept that a lot of people go back to when they build brokers offices. Are you doing it for the client? Are you doing it for the broker, right? And or for the agents, or for the ego? Yeah. Yeah. And some of the ones around town with the size, you know, you never know. For us, we typically always build it for the agent, because then the agent will bring the buyer. And so we really want to have a place to where the agent can take extreme pride on bringing their sellers in, bringing their family, and bring in anybody they want to show off the brand they work for, because they take pride in who they work for. There's that's part of it's huge. Yes, that that is huge. And so, yes, there's a lot of virtual brokerages in today's market, and there's a lot of online things, right? But at the core of this industry is a customer service based industry. And I don't care who you are or where you are, that is the soul of this business, and it always will be. Now, different cities are more progressive. Different cities are a little bit further behind, as far as where they're on that level, let's say. But for us, we want to build a space to where our advisors can have any meetings they want. 24/7, essentially, we even, I mean, a lot of our agents want to hold B and I meetings. They'll hold like talk TED talks in there. We want to be in the community, and we want our advisors to think, oh, I need meeting space. Let's go to my office. It's beautiful. I would love you guys take you there. And so, yeah, it's expensive, and yeah, there's a lot of costs with it, but for the return on investment, let's say for with how happy our producers are and with how happy our customers are when they walk into that it's a feeling that they never felt anywhere else. And so a lot of old off a lot of offices, real estate offices in general, are kind of old and kind of outdated, and they probably have somebody, mean, sitting up front or something like that. And it's the complete opposite for us. We want a whole different experience, right?

Tracy Hayes  22:53  
That's so interesting. You know, Daniel's filmed every, just about every show I've done, but the different concept in Jacksonville so hot right now. I don't want to say anyone can just, you know, get out there and do it. I think anyone get out there, yeah, and could feed themselves, yeah. But to accelerate like you have, and obviously you do a great job of your your energy is obviously there at 31 years old, that's probably drinking the coffee. But you know, when you're sitting, you know, sitting down with that, that broker from over here at this, you know, very well known, not the Ingold Volkers is not known. It's not, I mean, I don't think, I think we could agree it's not big as the Keller Williams or obviously Watson in our area. Everyone sees those names and have for years, yeah. But to be able to attract that personality, I think is part of is your energy, and you got to have the vision.

Corey Hasting  23:43  
I mean, you got to have the vision. I mean, people want to be inspired. I think a good leader, not only you know, can find other people's strengths, but also can inspire others. And so I think for me, that's why I'm so big on that inner like your energy is contagious. If you're down the dumps, and people are going to feel that. But if you're excited and believing in them and empowering them, they're also going to believe that. And so, you know, and that's why, you know, we're really, really big, that if you come on board with us, and you walk through our door, that from that then to the next year is your greatest year ever, and that's your whole entire mentality, or don't come because, you know, if you're making the move to stay the same, then it's not going to work out. You know, we want people to grow. We want people to take that next step in their career. You know, we have a lot of advisors who love calling us grad school. You know, we've already been through the undergrad you're writing the contract. You've already built your business, this, this and that, but now you're going to have a company that you've never had before supporting you with the marketing and globalization and lead generation, all these things to really hopefully take you to the next step.

Tracy Hayes  24:40  
That's interesting, how you said that, and it made me think immediately, is because everyone in the office is producing, yeah, and now how often they may come in the office is another thing. But again, you don't have 2000 3000 agents listed, and really only, you know, whatever, a few 100 of them really producing at a. At a level you're totally focused on, really, on agents who are moving and grooving, yeah? I mean, really making a substantial income, because you can go at it kind of part time and do okay, of course, make better than the average person. But really, the ones that are making several hundreds of 1000s to million dollars plus a year, yeah? I mean, that's who you're focused on, you're focused on those top and the top 50 agents as you became, yeah, before buying a franchise.

Corey Hasting  25:26  
And you know, for us, I mean, I always tell people that there's an extremely different type of broker that a brand new agent needs and a high producer needs, and there's nothing wrong with either one of them. But everything that we do, from the support staff to the marketing to the brokerage style, to everything is built for the top producer. And so part of the reason we don't take new agents, obviously, because we don't have the training for them. But also, I think a lot of times it'd be doing them an injustice, because I don't have the training they need. I don't have like the concepts they need to learn, the core concept of the business itself, right? Because those first six to eight months of training are valuable. And so we get calls all the time of, hey, I've heard this. So we want to get into the business or this, this and that. And unfortunately, we can't bring them on, you know, unless they want to join a team or something of that nature that's already with us. But, you know, we just do not deviate

Tracy Hayes  26:14  
from that. Go get your at bats with exactly.

Corey Hasting  26:17  
I mean, I don't care how many people you know in this city or what you know about real estate, your first year is just drinking. I have a fire hose. It's unbelievable. And you have to go and take that and learn. And that way years two, three and four, you can grow, and you can do those things and say, Hey, I made that mistake before. I'm not gonna make it again. And so that's the people that we're looking for who's already been kind of past those beginning years, and now they really focused on, okay, I've been the industry three years. I understand what I don't have, I understand what I'm good at, and I understand what I need. And that's hopefully where we can fill those blanks on, what do you need? What can we do

Tracy Hayes  26:52  
for you? So there's agents out there doing three, five, 10 million right now. What is it that you're doing differently? You say you focus. You're focusing for the high producer versus that, getting that person off the runway. Yeah, what are you doing differently? What are your trainings? Are tailored? Tailored differently. Your your marketing tailor different. What is it that you're doing that that high producer? I'm a loan officer, so I don't know. You know? I understand. Yeah, anybody new needs to learn and get at bats. But you're taking people that have had plenty of bats. Most of them think they can do it themselves. Yeah. What would be their benefit to come over to you? Yeah, it's going to give them that

Corey Hasting  27:32  
next step. Yeah. I mean, that's very complex question, but I think at the core of it is, we have everything. You need more. So a lot of big agents identify, hey, I need marketing. We have that in house and streamline for the point where less than 24 hours. Everything you need is done. I need as a big

Tracy Hayes  27:49  
agent now it's just coming from you internally or from the greater, a little bit of both.

Corey Hasting  27:52  
So we have an amazing admin staff, led by Christina and then Alex and crystal. They do amazing. We also have a headquarters in Naples, Florida, that can have any type of thing we may need. But also, I mean, the big agent may think, hey, I need a brand that I can leverage, right? That was my biggest thing, is I wanted the brand that I could leverage that then the brand can kind of work for

Tracy Hayes  28:13  
me as a young guy, you absolutely don't have necessarily the reputation, yet it's huge.

Corey Hasting  28:18  
And so that's what Anglo vocars provides. Is a brand you can believe in, brand you can take pride in and leverage with the tools everything we give. But also big agents may think, hey, I need more lead generation, right? We have that too. I mean, really, anything that you can think of, we have. And every single person needs something different. And so I'm not saying other brokers just don't have that. I'm not saying that whatsoever. But what I'm saying is that we,

Tracy Hayes  28:40  
you're focused in we're focused as you're only dealing with producers. We've, we've had it. You're not drug down by absolutely, yeah, not say that they're the part timers are dead weight, because, like I said, you don't, if you just want to be a part time in real estate, you can do that Absolutely. You're happy with that. That's your cup of tea all the

Corey Hasting  28:58  
time, that we're not for everybody, and that's okay. We don't have to be, you know. And there's a lot of really big producers who I've met with that say, Hey, it's not for me. Okay, no problem. And just like the newer agent, I mean, we're, we're not for them yet, that's okay. And the best thing about our brand is we can be selective, where a lot of these other brokerages have to bring people on, or if you have a breath and a real license, come on, and they have to, right, because there's so much turnover, or whatever else, and for us, it's we, it's okay to be selective. No problem.

Tracy Hayes  29:25  
I really Golly. That's just that is amazing. If anyone's listening to what's going on, and you know, that's a niche, and you're focused on it, and you're selling or recruiting with it, and it's working, and that's just amazing. So I want to, I want to step in here a little bit, because obviously I got my personal development books, at least some of them here. I'm big Ryan sir hand, and you had to meet Ryan in Vegas. Was it was an awesome experience. And I imagine you're the energy, because he's, he's, well, I know, how old

Corey Hasting  29:52  
is Ryan? I think he just turned 40. I think, Okay, close to it.

Tracy Hayes  29:55  
Yeah, you know he started, well, you started a little bit younger than him, because he started. What, 1012, years ago, approximately, yeah, as well. But what do you do? Because I think there's a lot of young people, and there's actually when I say all people, I'm not gonna say young people, old people, I'm gonna say all people. To me, can improve, or if they're in a rut in life, can get out. What do you do, though? Because you have to stay in front of some of these, some of these agents. 20 years experience you got under your under your signage there. What do you do to stay? Are you a podcast listener, a book reader? Who? Who do you follow?

Corey Hasting  30:32  
Yeah, all of it. You know, one of the biggest things that I take a lot of pride in is, you know, like I said before, I've always been extremely goal oriented, and so no matter, you know, no one is ever going to outwork me in anything, it's probably to probably one of my biggest downfalls as well. But so for me, you know, I'm always going to stay on top of the news. If it's in the news, if it's reading, sir Hayes book is, if it's reading, you know, business books about how to grow a business, or if it's for this in the podcast about the best broker techniques, whatever it may be, I'm going to be all in because, if I'm really big on never being the smartest person in the room, because if you surround yourself with somebody who has done it before, and even maybe not in your industry, but you can always take something from somebody, if it's operational, if it's business, if it's lead generation, if it's this, that, whatever it may be, And then I have a great team around me that I can say, Hey, I've heard of this concept. How can we do it? And, you know, then, you know, Christina and crystal and Alex and all. Then we kind of sit together and say, Okay, how can we do it? That's the EV way. Because for us, we always want to take something and elevate it to next level, and that way, when we roll it out to our advisors, it's just Wow. I've never even heard of this before, and it blows them kind of away, hopefully. And so for me, I think it's just, I'm always been extremely self motivated. And so I think that just pushes me. You know, every day, not always like to be the best and be number one all that stuff, but just being better each day.

Tracy Hayes  31:58  
So give me, give me an inch. You're 31 years old, you're taking in information as fast as it comes, whether it's a book, a podcast, or within your team, or going to a conference and grabbing a nugget. Because even while you were guest speaker, you didn't pay for the Inman conference, but someone was one to sit in the Inman how much would they pay for that ticket?

Corey Hasting  32:20  
I think it was close to 1000 bucks. Think, $1,000 all right?

Tracy Hayes  32:24  
And I don't, I've heard podcasts you should be spending, I don't know, like, 3% of your your income or so, on personal development or coach or whatever. Yeah. And you think, if you're an agent out there right now and you've hit a rut, yeah? I mean, Corey is telling you right now that you take, invest some of that you need to go to an Inman conference, or whether it's, I don't know if you go to cardones thing down in Miami, whatever, Sirhan speaking, whatever you need to go. And you need to now, you may listen for 10 hours, absolutely. And really could have been there for 15 minutes, for the right amount of time, but you had to spend the 10 hours to find the 15 minutes. Got to be there, right? Yes, you got to be there and be present, yeah.

Corey Hasting  33:04  
And I think just in life, not necessarily in our business, but in life, I think a lot of people become comfortable, complacent, yeah. I mean, I'm really big on success. Either number one makes you strive for more success, or it makes you complacent because you've had success, right, right? And I think a lot of times it may be that time for the fresh start, because you've been in the industry for so long, and you're kind of in this little rut that you might not even know you're in, and being able to step outside the box and maybe go to that Tony Robbins seminar or Ryan's book or something, just to kind of get yourself rejuvenized, because in this business, especially those 12 months are brutal. The ups and downs of this business. I always joke that real estate is the craziest industry in the world, where you can work so hard for something that somebody else has to say yes to and you don't get paid for it unless they say yes. And so it's brutal. And so you have to find things that bring you back to neutral. You know, if it's going to the gym, if it's going for a walk, if it's listening to podcasts, reading family time, whatever that may be, we talk all the time in our brokerage, never getting into up, never getting too down. We want to be as like small waves, essentially. Yes, you had a great, fantastic month. Don't forget the prospect. Because if you don't do that the next month, you're gonna be slow and you're gonna complain, then you're gonna be it's, you know, that's where I think a lot of people in life, but also agents are two up, two down, right? Have four closings, one month, none the next five closing next, none the next. And so we try to keep it slow and steady, because 12 months is brutal if you don't, if you let yourself get burnt out, right? And so I think in any form of life, I think in any type of high pressure position, which has to be honest, real estate is you have to find things that make you step away from the business and just recharge. And I think once you find that, you can then go every single day to be able to be better.

Tracy Hayes  34:48  
And I mean, I find it when I'm listening to, we talked about it earlier, before the show, listening to a podcast. And there's so many out there, guys, you know, obviously I wish you'd review mine, make comment. Or whatever. Hopefully what Corey is talking about, you're feeling his energy, because that's what's really what, what this is all about, but you're listening to someone else's story and how they became success. I had. I've had two women on in the last month that are tops in the in real estate in Northeast Florida, both of them literally, within the last roughly decade, had nothing were negative in their checking account, and they chose to take the path, start reading, start talking to people, learning about the industry, everything they could, and absorb it in and what I think they found energy. They found your energy that you give off and why they want to work

Corey Hasting  35:41  
for you. I mean, I mean, I think the thing or work with you, I should say, Yeah, and I think you have to find what motivates you, right? Because, you know, it's the old, kind of corny saying, if you find something you love in your work day, in your life, I kind of really believe in that, to be honest. Because I love getting to know people. I love watching people's business grow. I love real estate. And so, you know, somebody else's passion might be something else, but then you're stuck in your job, and just you have to find what makes you happy in life. And maybe that's not real estate, maybe it is whatever else, but if you are passionate about it, then go, be the best put it. Go all in like, put your foot forward, and work harder than everybody else, and don't let other people dictate you how things should be done.

Tracy Hayes  36:21  
I think I've said it on almost every podcast. This is should be close to number 40, or at least most of our podcast, the one of the cornerstones in every one of these books, surround yourself by five people that you want to be like, yeah, you'll be like you mentioned earlier, be the fifth person in the room in there, and you have made offices where those five people that you should be hanging out with are already in that office you've already created. So if you're an agent out there looking going, Hey, I just can't seem to make it to the next level. I need to surround myself by successful people. You may want to give Corey a call.

Corey Hasting  36:56  
Yeah. I mean, I would love that call, by the way. But yeah, I mean, and that's the concept, right? Because if you walk into an office and you see the same people every day who are complaining about X, and they're down, and they're this and, oh my gosh, it's me. You're gonna walk in here. So if you're gonna say, I can't come here anymore. But if you walk in the same place and they're a chipper and they're saying, Hey, how are you in today? How is your business? Tell me about what you have going on, and let me see if I can help you that it's gonna be so different. And I'm not saying that we are this, like, cult group that's like, oh, you know, we have hard times too, yeah. But at the same time, I think it's in attitude is everything and mindset is everything. And so if you walk into January 1, that this is gonna be my greatest year ever, and every decision that I make from January 1 to December 31 is this is my year. So from marketing to this, to open houses on Saturday when you really don't want to, and all these other things, it'll pay off. But if you walk in January 1 and you're like, you know, I had a good year last year, but I really don't care if I grow Guess what? In April, you're gonna be probably sitting with a goose egg. You're gonna say, Oh, my God, I gotta get going, right? And you just lost four months, right? And so mindset is everything, and that's why, for our broker, it's like, we business plan a year in advance, and so we start business planning, and the end of November through

Tracy Hayes  38:09  
December is what you're doing now. Is Easter,

Corey Hasting  38:13  
it's done. I mean, if you don't have a deal within the next week under contract, you're not closing this year, unless it's cash, whatever else. So our mindset, absolutely, after like December, like 10th, is 2022 what do we build into? Yes, let's close. 24 not strong, don't get me wrong. But what are we building to is going to make you different from what you did this year to next year? What are your goals? What are your financial opportunities, all these other things so that you can run your business solely. This is not

Tracy Hayes  38:38  
only in your business, but our business as well. I mean, what we're doing now is really, you're not really going to see the fruit for 90 220 minutes. So if you're out there prospecting, or whatever you that's, you got to have that four, six month. Look out. Yeah, just because you got a deal now, yeah. Well, okay. Well, hopefully that closes by December 31 but what do you you can't, can't wait till January 1 to start and go. I got to work on the next deal.

Corey Hasting  39:01  
You can't, unless you're a part unless you're a part timer. Yeah, and so in our brokerage, we always say what you do January you should be doing in August. So if you're a mailer person, you should do it consistently. You know all I mean, unfortunately, we live in this get rich quick scheme lifestyle. You know, people fall in love with Ryan sir Hayes listing and our HGTV and think I could go and do that, but they really don't see what work they put in and the hours they put in

Tracy Hayes  39:24  
read his book, and you'll find out, yeah, exactly.

Corey Hasting  39:26  
And so I think being able to set yourself up and say, okay, for 12 months, I'm going to tell myself, this is my goals every day. That's why every single business model that we start with, it always starts with, what's your big why? Why are you waking up in the morning? Why are you holding an open house August 31 at one o'clock on Sunday? Why are you working as hard as you are? Because in the dog days of this real estate year, you can go back and say, I'm doing this because I want to do blank, right? Whatever that may be for somebody, yeah. And that's what we always, always start with, is, what is your why? And why are you doing it? Right?

Tracy Hayes  39:59  
You. Know you mentioned, and I'm gonna go on a slight finding I'm not a rant. But like you said, What is my why? And, you know, I just got back from we went on a cruise. We hadn't taken vacation. I said we're going away. And we, you know, took off. And, you know, my thing is, I've got a decompress always. Yeah. It's been a crazy, best year I've ever had in the mortgage business. Thank you. And you know what really is the most powerful thing I know a lot of people out there listening. They have their their have their charities or their heart things that they they are passionate about, and to be able to go into a restaurant, as we know, a lot of our wait staff and so forth have got hurt. You know, during absolutely tip 30% they did a great job. I don't know, maybe if you buy a beer and leave them a $5 bill instead of just $1 yeah, that's, that's, to me, that's, that's what it's

Corey Hasting  40:53  
all about, yeah, and giving back, I think, is typically, most people's, if not, number one, maybe two or three points of why their why they want to do something for a loved one. They want to do something for a foundation. They want to do something for whatever it may be. And that's what we love to do. Like so angle Volkers, we are the only broke residential real estate company in the entire world that's partnered with the Special Olympics on a corporate level. Cool. And so actually, it's really exciting, because our Jacksonville local office is number one right now out of 350 shops for donations paid at closing to the Special Olympics. So we're really pushing to win, and we want to win because it's a fantastic thing, and so all of our advisors who have given contributions at closing, you know it's just so tremendous, like you want to give back for that, and being able to reward people who maybe be less fortunate, because I think every successful person at one point in time has had help, and, you know, other people are just not blessed with opportunities like some people are. And so if you can give back to that, or give back to the wait staff, or whatever, it makes working hard,

Tracy Hayes  41:55  
it really, it's, it's, I mean, I that's, that's my gratification. I like, you know, my kid wants something, you know, if, unless it's my wife doesn't agree with it, but if he, if they want it, and I want to give it to him, I can do that if that's your why. You know that that's that's what it's all about in putting the time in and getting injured. Let me see if I got a question on here, because we've been talking a lot, and I think I've used like, two of my questions, so right, who has been the greatest impact on your life so far? Gosh, digging deep here, real serious interview questions.

Corey Hasting  42:30  
You know, to be honest with you, I think my head coach in college, Frank solich, you know, he's somebody who took a 17 year old snotty nosed kid thought he was everything, and really made him into the man that I am today. To be honest with you, he I've always worked hard. I've always been decent kid, you know, type thing. I would get bored a lot, so I get in trouble. But I think in college, when you those growth years that you're 1718, 1920, really make you into the man that you are today. And so frank solich is somebody, and that whole coaching staff, Peter German, who is my defensive coordinator and D line coach, are guys that, still to this day I talk to, and still to this day I look up to, you know, because they changed my life so dramatically and gave me an opportunity to get a college education, play division one football, you know, start 30 games in a row, play in the NFL. I mean, I would have had none of that ever with without them. And so, you know, I think their aspect of what they've done for my life is something that, you know, I came in the

Tracy Hayes  43:30  
impact of sports, you know, being male, that you know, you know, I can't necessarily speak from the female side, but we've had coaches, you know, I look back and even at times where, like, almost, I wouldn't say hated them, but, like, you know, but they're, they're, they're the ones, like, when you walk in the room and, like, you better be out your pet, better be in your step, because otherwise he's going to recognize it, and you didn't want to let

Corey Hasting  43:56  
him down. Yeah. I mean, I think at the end of the day, I think any successful program, company, whatever has a standard, and I think as a culture, essentially, if you want to use that word too, but the standard is set that whenever we're in the meeting room, this is what it is. Whenever we're out of practice, this is what it is. And if it's not, if you're off the deeding point, then you're going to, you're going to get around after, you're going to get yelled after. And you look at these guys as true father figures. And the whole point is, I can't let him down, so I got to go deal above and beyond, right? And that's what I think is an amazing leader, is if you can bring out the truly, everybody can play 100% right? But if you can bring out the 110 120% in people, where the fact that they're willing to, let's be honest, like, not hypothetically, but die for you, like, that is something that you go above and beyond, and it comes so natural, because it comes out of love. I think, like I truly loved Frank, soulless.

Tracy Hayes  44:47  
You know, do you feel? You know, I'm 20 years older than you, and I tell my son this, sometimes I can, I've coached him in a few different things, and I'm a lot I get out there because I'm passionate what I do. Yeah, I try not, you know, I think about the encouragement side, yeah, because of more of what we would label your generation. But when I grew up, basically if they weren't in your face, they didn't care about you. Yeah? Today, it seems to be if they're the people feel, Oh, he's in my face. Yeah, he's trying to demean me, yeah, you know, do you did you have? I mean, I football kind of because you had old time guys like me coaching you, yeah?

Corey Hasting  45:29  
I mean, I, I think tough love is great for everybody, you know, because I think if you grow up in life and you're pampered and you, you know, never really get I don't wanna say yell that, but you kind of give whichever you want, and all these do that today. Yeah, I think Tough Love is something that truly builds hard work and work ethic. And I think not. I'm doing it wrong. I don't ever agree with like people, like grabbing people's face masks and doing crazy stuff, right? But at the same time, I think every personality is different. And I think a good coach or good leader can dictate, okay, this is the type of guy I can yell at, this type of guy I need to encourage, right? And I think that's where really good coach sets

Tracy Hayes  46:11  
more scientific today, absolutely. I mean, because even at the highest level the NFL, some of these guys,

Corey Hasting  46:16  
no, yeah. I mean, that's a business. I mean, there's no screaming. I mean, you don't call coach's coach. You call them by their first name in the NFL, it's a whole different aspect. And that's why, you know, there's a lot of really good college coaches who don't really always make an NFL and vice versa, right? It's a whole different ballgame, right? And I think understanding the personality of the kid, personality of the employee, personality of whoever, being able to say, okay, this person can be a little harder on because they can take it this person, I really did encourage because of their personality. I think

Tracy Hayes  46:42  
it's, well, it's a concept is, like, you know, the best player is a lot of times who the coaches go after, because they're showing the last guy on the bench, yeah, I'm taking, he's the best player on the team. I'm not coddling him and giving him the VIP room. I'm actually on his butt, absolutely. So you better, you need to stay in line. Yeah, you show people they can go the extra mile. I think you would go back to the business standpoint in again, your young age, you're showing some of these agents the path, yeah, they've been making a great life for the last 1520, years, yeah, but all sudden they went 10 or 20% more like, Oh, wow. You know now I, you know, got extra for the charity, college fund, whatever it is, but you push them to another level, as you would on the athletic field. You get some of them run a little bit faster. You get to the point where you actually may fall on your face, you know, because you're running so fast, or hit so much harder, or whatever it is, you're getting them to go that extra 10, 20%

Corey Hasting  47:40  
whatever, yeah. And I think, you know, competition a lot of times, breeds that, because, let's be honest, real estate agents love having trophies and their names on things, and so if you can surround them with people who are competition for them, but very healthy competition, you know where, hey, you know what I see that Sally Smith is holding an open house on Saturday, get buyers. I'm gonna go do one on Sunday. Or, hey, you know what I'm going to take this Zillow call, or whatever that I really don't want to because I want to win that top producer this month, or whatever it may be, I think being able to be accountable and helping people that are healthy around you that obviously the same time, yes, they want to beat you at the same time, they also want you to do well, I think, is really, really important.

Tracy Hayes  48:17  
All right, here's one of these deep interview questions. What do you feel is the most important thing you have done now, you've done many I'm sure you've could have put out a list, but what do you think is the foundation that has put you on such an upward trajectory? Trajectory?

Corey Hasting  48:31  
That's a great question. I think that the best thing that I have done in a trajectory is I've built a culture that people can take pride in, I think, because I think if you ask any one of our advisors, matter if they've been with us for a month or three and a half years, is they've loved the people they work with, and I think that they love the shop staff, hopefully they love me. But at the same time, I think we have created a culture that people are drawn to. And I think for me, like we've always wanted to break the standard of how real estate was done, right? That's our biggest foundation of our brokerage. But we built that through collaboration. We built that with really good people who want to work with other really good people who want to sell real estate. And so I think things I'm most proud of is the culture of the people we brought on and we have with us. Because if you have great people who obviously are very successful. The awards will come. The shop openings will come. The production will come.

Tracy Hayes  49:26  
Let me, let me get this now. So you Milford High? Yeah, you went to Milford High, yeah. Was that, I mean, did you guys? Were you a state championship team or, I mean, were you pretty much the the best player on the team, one of the top two or three? Well, we're a huge

Corey Hasting  49:40  
division one school in Cincinnati, so we graduated 1200 kids. And football in Cincinnati is no joke, like we have Mueller ST X, you know, look at A West all these big schools, 1200 students in your class. Yeah, and we sucked. I think the most wins we ever won in my I started varsity as a freshman. So my four years like, I think we four maybe. Five. But I'll tell you what it taught me lessons. Because, you know, once you get knocked down, it's about how you get back up. And the competition we were playing against every single game there was this guy's going to division one, this guy's going to LSU, this guy's going to Ohio State. I mean, there's so many I played the 2006 core rain team had 31 division one athletes on their team, only 22 players play at

Tracy Hayes  50:26  
once, right? IMG,

Corey Hasting  50:28  
they're in history books as Ohio's history like one of the top five greatest teams ever, right? And they beat a 70 to three, but their entire offensive line went Division one. So I was able to play and all this well.

Tracy Hayes  50:39  
So you you go from, I'm doing an analogy. I'm gonna help me out here. So you go from, like, some of these large brokerages as just, you know, 6070, 100 agents signed up underneath them out of this office. But, yeah, there's only a couple of them producing. You were that guy on the Milford High School team? Yeah. Now you go to Ohio University. Now you've got these guys have been recruited in, yeah, they're, they're being, you know, your scholarship, yeah, level, yeah. And then you're able to actually get recognized by an NFL team, and actually you'll participate, you said six games, I think you said with the bangles, yeah, and so forth. So you go from that to a little bit more, to the highest level you could play at, yeah, and I look at this as your England Volkers, yeah, as what you're trying to do you you want to grab that top producer from XYZ over here, that's 100 agents working at them, and come join the scholarship team. Come join that division one team. Yeah, because somebody out of there is going to go, you know, be real big time, absolutely, I want to say to be a Ryan sir Haye, we don't have that kind of dollar values. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely, that's what I'm seeing and relating to your football. I don't know if you thought about that, yeah.

Corey Hasting  51:55  
I mean, I definitely see the correlation. I think for us, we just want to be different, you know. And we want our customers to see the difference from the day they walk into our shop, the way that they meet when talk to our advisor, the way that our advisor handles himself professionally. Our biggest thing is we want the consumer on the other side, buyer, so whatever it may be, or even agent on the other side to say, You know what? That was just different. They were professional, they were educated, they were ethical, they were great people. That was a fantastic transaction, and that's what we want to constantly have. And so, yeah, I mean, I think the correlation from college to Pro is definitely there. And you know, hopefully we can continue to bring as many all pros on as possible. I have

Tracy Hayes  52:36  
to have to admire to you've had some you've had some great success, but you're still looking to grow. Because I think you a lot of people, your A or even my age. I mean, they open, would open the first shop, which was a Jack's pizza, and you go, I could sit here, man, I'm making a great living. I'll go out and do a couple sales myself, and I'll just sit back. But yeah, you, you have a greater vision, yeah. And in expanding your energy going on. And I'm sure financially, you're reinvesting a lot of what, of course, the brokerage is doing to make that impact and make the company, well, at least your franchise very valuable. Maybe one day you sell it and retire. Yeah.

Corey Hasting  53:14  
I mean, I mean, we'll definitely see. I mean, it's funny, because when I first opened the brokerage, I thought to myself, you know, if I can get 15 to 20 really good advisors, how about just good what happened is, we started getting so much interest, and then I saw so much opportunity to expand to St John's, so much opportunity to expand to the beaches, Town Center, Atlantic Beach, so much, you know, opportunity to expand to Amelia Island. Because my thing is, yes, we have our criteria, and yes, we're really strict on our criteria, but if people meet the criteria, I'm not going to tell them, No, no, I want great people, you know, I want big producers, and so, you know, I don't think we'll ever be number one with market share, which is fine. We don't need to be because, you know, a lot of brokerages here have 10 locations, 500 agents, or 2000 agents, whatever crazy it is. But our biggest goal is we want to get to a billion dollars in sales with a fraction of the agent count of other brokerages like we want to get there with 110 and really just continue to dominate that space. And if we continue to grow to get to 1.5 billion, fantastic. But our goal right now, and a lot of other goals, but our biggest goal is to get to a billion dollars in sales and in sales. And so we're close, but it's a day by day process. You know, you have to go through the ups and downs of the real estate market, just like there is in the broker market. You might have somebody leave. You might have someone this. You might have someone who tells you they're going to join, but then they never don't. You might have an LOI fall out of your new, brand new space. I mean, there's so many different things you have to worry about, but, you know, start trying to stay focused on. The goal is the foundation of our growth.

Tracy Hayes  54:43  
All right, I'm going to start to wind down a little bit. I got one, one last question, because I know standard interview questions. You've recruited some teams, yeah, but you also have some individuals, absolutely, without spoiling everything, yeah? Without, well, discouraging anyone or. Finger. What do you what do you prefer? Do you prefer the individual or or your teams? Because they're so good, they run themselves, and you really don't have to get involved in the

Corey Hasting  55:10  
politics, to be honest with you, I don't have a preference. I know that's very like gray to say, but I prefer the really good people who want to invest into the company and want to grow. And if that means you have a team of 10, fantastic, that means you have a person that's just you even better. I have relationships with every single person in our brokerage. Every single person who joins has to sit down with me interview because, you know, it starts at the top. Starts with me, you know, and I think that's where, potentially, obviously, I've never been, I don't know, but other bigger brokerages lose sight of that is because they lose sight of what the actual brokerage is all about. It's about the agents.

Tracy Hayes  55:45  
Do you assume you have an inner circle, you have you have a monster, because you've obviously recruited some very experienced people. You you meet with them on some regular basis, where you get on a phone call with everyone, because neither one's in the same, yeah, just, you know, confined on, hey, this is what, this is a direction I want to go, or a marketing plan I might have, or whatever.

Corey Hasting  56:05  
Not really, to be honest. I mean, I talk to them a lot like, you know, I probably took their feedback. Yeah, I talked to probably, if not every single on our brokerage every week, but definitely throughout the month. Or I'll see them in the office, or I'll do something like that. I'm very visible. I'm always available people. They always know that. But I really don't bother them with, like, what my visions are. Like when I talk to them, it's how they know what your vision is, yeah. But the the fine, the final tunes, there's only a couple people who really know, hey, this is what we're working on, just and it's because I want them to focus on what they are going on and know that, like, Hey, I'm here for you, whatever you may need, right? And when the time comes when we can announce it, or, Hey, this is the thought we're doing. Then, yeah, absolutely, we'll shop from the rooftop, but I don't want and also, in this business, things change so quickly. So you may say, Hey, I'm opening a new office in blank and the next thing you know, you lose that. Loi, you lose this, you lose that. Next thing you know, it's like,

Tracy Hayes  56:53  
Hey, we're soft, not enough. Oh, we decided not to do it. Yeah, I agree.

Corey Hasting  56:57  
I'm very guarded on that, just because I don't want to ever over promise and under deliver, rather have the opposite, obviously. And so I have an inner circle with things that we talk about, but I don't want to bother our producers on, you know,

Tracy Hayes  57:09  
some of them, some of the minor. You might go back to the franchise support or something, but you're right. You distract people by, oh, we're going to open a new office, and then they get all distracted. Should I move over there?

Corey Hasting  57:20  
Yeah, yeah. It's never a good thing. I want people to focus on money producing activities every single step of the way.

Tracy Hayes  57:26  
All right, so I call these my two minute warning questions, since I officiate football. So just to kind of finalize things, definitely Corey, I'd love to have you on at least on a yearly basis to Yeah, because I mean your energy and what's going on and with you guys. But is it more important who you know or what you

Corey Hasting  57:41  
know, I think who you know for sure. I mean, because, let's be honest, I mean, if, if you know somebody that can get you tickets at someone else, no, it's about getting that ticket, you know. And I think, I think in life, it's about opportunity and what doors you can get in. And so it's about knowing people who can get you in

Tracy Hayes  57:57  
those doors. Yeah, yeah. Now I know you have a I think you have a young lady in your life I saw on your Facebook page there. You're a sporting guy. Are you a Jaguars? You like the Iceman or a jumbo shrimp guy?

Corey Hasting  58:11  
I'm not from Jacksonville. I mean, my beautiful girlfriend, Christina and I would you go to different things that we love, going to, you know, games and concerts and that stuff. But to be honest with you, I'm not a Jags fan. I'm sorry. I'm not from here, so I you know, my Sunday is my down day. I'm on

Tracy Hayes  58:30  
the are you a Cleveland guy or a Cincinnati guy?

Corey Hasting  58:34  
I'm a fantasy football guy, whoever's on my team that you know drafted and it possibly win any money. That's who I'm rooting for. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, I have a lot of friends in the NFL still, so I root for a lot of teams like I want. I love watching good football, yes, and so I really don't care who wins. I love watching Aaron Rodgers play. I love watching Tom Brady play. I love watching Von Miller play these players that, from a perspective of an X NFL athlete to say, Holy crap. Did you see what they just did? There's one person on this earth that can do that, and it's them that, to me, is mind blowing.

Tracy Hayes  59:07  
Well, you know the benefit of officiating is you have the best seat in the house. Yeah, and that's one thing that I love doing. And I wish I had time for basketball as well, but football has been my thing, and done some small college stuff, and now just back to doing Friday nights this past year and being on the sidelines of a good football game, and when you understand the inner workings, and you stand here and you literally, you're focused on a couple of players as official. That's why there's so many officials and understanding and then seeing how the coaches interact. That's yeah, having the best seat in the house. I love it. What's on you? And Christina's Christina, right? Yeah, Christina's travel bucket list.

Corey Hasting  59:46  
Actually, we just got back from Mexico on Saturday. So I love traveling in general, but over Thanksgiving, because you get a couple of days off, it's built into the calendar things. And so we actually just got back. Back. And so I just

Tracy Hayes  1:00:02  
did an eight day cruise. Yeah, university. I got back on Sunday.

Corey Hasting  1:00:06  
One of my neutrals is I travel and get away decompress, you know, get away from the stress and just refocus, get re motivated. You know, we have, we're going to New York in December 15, weekend, you know, Quick, Quick Trip, Friday to Sunday, our headquarters is up there, and America's on Park Avenue. But also it's New York. This time of year is amazing. Yeah. And, you know, we'll probably do something for New Year, stuff like that. So we'd love to travel. I mean, I'm

Tracy Hayes  1:00:31  
interested in give me some on the ground feedback, because with the covid thing, because we're looking to do something at Christmas time, when the kids are off two weeks. And yeah, and I thought, you know, this great time to go see Rockefeller Center and that sort of thing, but it's always concerned about what the what the covid restrictions is, because it can be cumbersome, yeah, and you can't go do things that you want to normally do when you're in New York, yeah, under normal times. So Corey, I really appreciate you coming on the show today. My pleasure. Excellent. Hopefully our fans out there please make comments like, I don't normally push that, but you know, on the on the audio podcast, and those of you on the Facebook, please share it. Would love it. Corey, I got an agent out there who wants to, you know, talk to you about your team. What's the best way to reach you?

Corey Hasting  1:01:16  
You can email me. It's probably the best way. Or it's this. Corey dot Hasting at ev usa.com, or you can always just call my cell phone. It says Area code 51340605,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:29  
you move to Jacksonville eventually and get a 904 number.

Corey Hasting  1:01:32  
I've had the same phone ever since I was eight, so I'm not changing. My dad got me the Nokia emergency only phone when I was eight years old, and between playing Snake. And, you know, who knows us, what I was doing on that thing, same number. And so I always told myself, if I ever, like, changed it, I would lose, like, 4000 people's contacts. And so, like, you know, whenever I was selling, I actually bought an app. You could have it on a four number, and I had that, but it's, you know, this is Tracy. Everybody's moving here, yeah, nobody has another four now. Has another four number anymore.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:06  
All right, thanks again. Corey,

Podcast Intro/Outro  1:02:13  
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 you.