Crystal Duckworth: Clear Guidance with Shining Results

Hey folks, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Superstar, best of the best rock star, my guest today was recently awarded the top 100 real estate professionals nationwide. She's an amazing team leader, broker, founder of an award winning brokerage. She has 15 years of real estate experience. Her passion has built her quite a reputation, as she consistently is rated the top 200 listing agents in Florida, top 5% realtors in Northeast Florida, named Best of the Best realtors, best of the best brokerage and has been featured in top agent magazine. She feels her success can be credited to her evolving mindset and focus on balancing technology with building relationships. She is the Owner Broker of crystal clear Realty, clear guidance and with shining results. Let's welcome crystal Duckworth to the show. Thank you. Thank you. So glad you were able to make it today. Thanks for having me excellent. Just doing some research on you, because I don't see a lot on social media, though, you have some great graphics there. You're not a big social media person, but you've popped up on my Facebook a few times. And then I researched. I said that, you know, I gotta get crystal on the show. She's a top producer, and as we've closing in on our 50th episode. And so you're episode number 47 Glad to have you on. So I just got to start off the show, as I do with everybody, just, hey, where are you from?

Crystal Duckworth  2:33  
So I'm from actually, Bellevue, Michigan. I like to say Battle Creek, because Bellevue is such a small town, not a lot of people know about it, we had one stoplight in our city. I was born and raised on a farm, there of 70 acres where we had goats and chickens. And, you know, I really loved growing up in a small town, but ever since I was little, I really had a big mindset, right? And I always wanted to go to school in Florida. That was somehow instilled in me from way back, from when I can remember, right? So that's where I was born, and that's how I actually got to Florida.

Tracy Hayes  3:08  
So I mentioned at cross rivers. You mentioned Bellevue high school, but you also mentioned st Philip Catholic Central, yes.

Crystal Duckworth  3:15  
So I went to St Philip, I actually end up graduated from Bellevue. They're real close to each other. Okay, so essentially in the same area, excellent.

Tracy Hayes  3:23  
So you just wanted to go to college. You graduated from high school and just say, I'm going south. What brought you to Florida?

Crystal Duckworth  3:29  
So the day after I graduated high school, I packed up my car and moved to Florida. I was actually accepted at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Okay, so that's where I went to college from 2002 1004 and I graduated with two degrees in business and psychology.

Tracy Hayes  3:47  
So well, let's just start off. I mean, it was just south Florida, just when you were looking at Florida schools in general, it's imagine you wanted to come to Florida. Was that just, hey, that just sounds like a really cool school. Let me go there.

Crystal Duckworth  3:56  
Yeah, it was one of the schools that accepted me. I liked when I went to visit. I really liked the culture and the feeling and the opportunity that it had for their business,

Tracy Hayes  4:07  
and that campus has just exploded. Oh, god, it's probably nothing like you were when you were there. Just what, 15 years? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What did you envision yourself doing? You're going you had these degrees. What did you see yourself doing for a career?

Crystal Duckworth  4:21  
Well, I always knew that I wanted to be a business owner. My whole family are composed of entrepreneurs and business owners and consultants and executives, and that's how I was, you know, raised, but more importantly, that's how I was fueled as well. So this, it actually just evolved by accident, but I knew it was meant to be in real estate because I started doing medical sales when I graduated, I was the regional sales manager of Florida in Georgia. And although I really loved it and it fueled my passion for sales and dealing with people, I always just loved the art of real estate, and I knew I was coming across some. Really good clientele. And I thought to myself, if I could just close one or two doctors a year, that's a really good side money, right? And something that I really enjoy doing. So I started doing that on the side, and I actually enjoyed it so much more than what I was doing, right? It fueled my entrepreneurial spirit. And at the end of the day, even if you're I wasn't a broker at the time, you're still kind of owning and running your own business, right? So I started doing so so well with it, that I phased out of the medical sales and I started doing real estate full time.

Tracy Hayes  5:27  
Wow, that's interesting there. I didn't realize, you know, necessarily see that when you're just looking at someone's LinkedIn how, you know, I always we talk a lot about with a lot of my guests, their beginnings, because we do have, you know, a lot of agents out there, and they may be been doing this two or three years, but just haven't found the way yet. You know, they're, they're still trudging through this. When you look back at that time period, you had a solid income coming in from your your day job, how did that help you sort of ramp up and kind of, you know, shorten your learning curve with the real estate? Because you weren't, you weren't worrying about feeding yourself at night, you know,

Crystal Duckworth  6:02  
well, it got to the point where I did have to, you know, stop doing because it's, it's hard to just, in my opinion, to be successful in real estate and only do it part time, right? So it did get to that point where I had to have work on, you know, just faith and work hard and work smart and just focus on real estate. And it didn't come easy, although it was a nice, gradual transition, I realized very quickly the opportunity made some good money to trade off of what I came from and the medical sales. It didn't come easy, but the opportunity was

Tracy Hayes  6:36  
crystal clear. You said, Hey, I'm going to do this part time? Did you have a mentor, or someone that was your go to person, or what helped you evolve in that that time period as you started the transition from one to the other?

Crystal Duckworth  6:50  
Yeah, so my mentors are my parents, so they're now both business consultants, and have had successful businesses. And you know, although they're my parents, there was still that really good, solid business relationship there and advice, right? So I had strong support from them. I mean, they always say, you know, I'm your biggest fan and but yet they're the first to tell me, Okay, be careful, you know. And let's get realistic here. So I did have them, you know, mentoring me. And were they in

Tracy Hayes  7:18  
real estate or just totally different type of business? No, I did end up doing, you up

Crystal Duckworth  7:23  
doing, you know, he does it on the side for fun. But no, they weren't in real estate. But yeah, you know, that was some of my support system. Also very, I'm very tech savvy, and I just did a ton of research online. There are so many valuable sources, and so much more today. Oh, gosh, yeah. Yep. So I'd watched a ton of YouTube, and I think I didn't do podcasts. Podcasts weren't back then, but there was research and forums online and you know about growing businesses. And there was this book from one of my professors in college called Romancing the clock, and that has helped me achieve that work life balance as well. So I kind of relied on family for that source, and then also just some transparent data.

Tracy Hayes  8:08  
Because I imagine there was a time period where both your day job in the real estate started to put that demand on you, where you had to start making that decision to go one way or the other absolutely full time. I do find it interesting a lot of my guests that I've had on, you know, we talk about that support. Because I think for a lot of individuals who want to get into real estate today, let alone being entrepreneurs in general, in any in anything, some of their biggest naysayers are some of the people closest to them who they want to emotionally get support from but they don't. And I when you mentioned your parents, and there was a well, actually my last guest, Jody Casella, she was talking about her husband and her father in law were just huge fans of her and pushed her to make that leap into real estate and how important it is to have that support system, whether now it's great the family members, because you love them and they're always close to you, but to have someone telling you behind you, you can do this, if you can express that how important that is when you're when you're because it sounds like you were really out there on your own. I mean, they're up in Michigan, right? You're down here. They were your cheerleaders on the phone, or when you know you saw them, but how important it was that you know you could pick up the phone and you know you were going to get that positive Mojo?

Crystal Duckworth  9:28  
Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. And I was thrown into the wolves. I like to say when I went to USF, because my graduating class in high school had like 73 people. My first class, basic economics, the auditorium had more people in that class then my entire high school, right? So, um, that helps strengthen some of that. But having the backbone and having their support along the way is, yeah, that definitely made a huge difference.

Tracy Hayes  9:50  
Tremendous, tremendous. And, you know, similar to, we're kind of on that, on that subject, you know, one of the things like, you know, I might talk about my all these personal developments books from John Maxwell. To sirhand Cordon, but all of them talk about having the five people around you. Not only that, are actually, you know that you're striving to be like but that are, you know, think the same way. Have the same creativeness, the ideology to go out and do it on your own, versus, you know, some people have the ideology of the nine to five and work for somebody for somebody for 30 years, which doesn't happen anymore. You know, as you evolved, were you able to create a group around you to help you evolve in move up and create that support system locally?

Crystal Duckworth  10:32  
You know, yes and no, I feel that real estate's a very competitive and cut through industry, so you have to be very careful who you surround yourself with. So yes, I have a great sphere of influence, and I continue to have them, and now I have a wonderful team of agents who we all support each other. But I feel like having that faith and comfortable confidence in yourself and just constantly evolving and improving was a big asset as well.

Tracy Hayes  11:00  
So from what I'm from what I'm hearing then, so you and again, I'm hearing this is a common theme. I'm going to write a book, because I'm hearing these common themes. The one of the things was relationships, and we're going to get into that. But you, your confidence came from educating yourself, not just in the classroom, but actually just out there on the street every day, so to speak, whether it's reading a book, reading blogs, watching videos, listening to other people talk on the subject, really gave you confidence.

Crystal Duckworth  11:30  
Yeah, and I'm a firm believer like you have to understand yourself before you understand others. Yes, and to understand others, I mean, people do business with people who they like. If you can work on that art of it, it helps you in business. And so your strengths are, your weaknesses, your weaknesses are, your strengths. Identify those. What do you need improved to remain comfortably confident. Don't be too confident, because people see right through that. But yeah, absolutely, I feel that that helps tremendously.

Tracy Hayes  12:00  
So how long did it you started doing it part time? How long was it before you got your first sale? Three months, three months. And then so you had that sale. How many other sales did you get before you said, You know what, I'm in full time, three, three sales you were in. So what a period of six months? Or Yeah?

Crystal Duckworth  12:19  
Yeah, about six, six to nine months, right?

Tracy Hayes  12:22  
Yeah. And then you do, you dove in full time, yes. So that first day you're used to having some sort of schedule or be on a conference call or meeting a doctor, and now all of a sudden, you turn the lights off of that, and you turn the lights on of your real estate office. What is that next progression? Did you go through that? Would you do again? Or, like, I made some big mistakes, and I tell all my agents, don't do this. Oh, I would do it again, literally, like, just practices that you did. Because you turn those lights, like, Okay, what do I do? Do I start getting on the phone, you know, obviously, you know, Facebook and social media is just kind of evolving at this time, because you're used to it's, you know, that schedule that a typical nine to five person comes in, they check in, they log in they log in their computer, or whatever they're doing, and they start going. They start hammering nails or whatever. Now it's you. You don't have a boss anymore. You are the boss, which is awesome. So how does crystal jump in? By turning the day job off. Jump in. What? What did you start doing? This? This first those next six months, while you're on your own that you look back today and say that was a waste of time or and then on the other side of that question is, I should, I should have 10x that I should have done more of that, that one you may have stayed for. That was a deep question.

Crystal Duckworth  13:32  
So I think trying working hard and smart, and also don't forget to recharge. So not recharging my batteries when I should have I've I do that now, right? And, and I, a lot of people say, okay, work smarter, not harder. I think you need to work smart and you need to work hard, but don't forget to recharge, because you can have burnout and it can be counterproductive, right? So if I were to do anything differently, and you know, that's all just comes through experience and maturity and everything. I have that balance a lot better now. And so if I had that back in time, I would have probably something

Tracy Hayes  14:08  
you could teach a new agent. Oh, absolutely, have a better start than

Crystal Duckworth  14:12  
Yes, I like to think myself more as not necessarily a real estate mentor, but more of a life mentor to them, right? Because I feel like, if you're not happy at home and with yourself or just, you know, just what life, the challenges life throws up, throws us, it's hard to be successful as a real estate agent.

Tracy Hayes  14:31  
So recharge when you that's a very wide open term. The first thing someone would say would be, take time off and go on vacation, I guess, which we think sometimes that's not always recharging. Well, how many times have we said we need to take a vacation from the vacation we just exactly what are some of the things that you do then and you do now to recharge.

Crystal Duckworth  14:52  
So I have a daughter who is nine, so recharging is a little differently than recharging before, and I don't think that. I've actually gone on vacation and turned off my phone. I think more the recharge is just finding some solitude and just some quietness and decompress, right? You know, whether it's just going to the gym on the treadmill, sitting in the sauna, going for a run outside, listening to music. I love listening to music in the car. It's my time to decompress before I go home. So I feel like it's not necessarily a weekend away, you know, even a full day away, it's more just a couple times throughout the day or at the end of the day, you have to have that hour. You know, sometimes I don't get quite that much. But just to decompress,

Tracy Hayes  15:37  
you mentioned working out and so forth. Is it? Is it because, I mean, I'm answering the question because I know the answer. For me, it's the same way, you know, sometimes we get up in the morning, oh, gotta work out, but we got to do it. I'm going to do it because I know what it feels like when you're done. You know the what? I forget, the terminology that they I know, Daniel, your endorphins are, right? Is that the word, you know, get off and go off and make you just feel that much better. Does that? Is that what you're really referring when you go to get on that treadmill? Everyone hates the actual treadmill, but it's when you go, alright, I completed whatever it is 30 minutes an hour, or whatever you're doing, and you could step off and say, one, got your steps in for the day, and then two the endorphins go off, and you just feel better, yeah.

Crystal Duckworth  16:23  
And so it's different with me. I and my agents, they always laugh at me, because I never really turned my brain off, and I'm always thinking about business. It's just a different than what's currently going on. It's just a more creative thinking. So that's kind of my decompress. I don't think I've ever really just sat there and not thought about something to improve or grow or idea.

Tracy Hayes  16:47  
Well, it's the way you're programmed. Yeah, I'm programmed. I'm programmed the same way. I mean, I'm on the treadmill, I'm listening to a podcast. You know, sometimes I like listening to the motivational music, but I will catch my brain going off and thinking about, you know, who the next guest I might want to invite on the podcast. Or I'm thinking about, you know, how am I going to, you know, market myself differently as you are, you know, you probably do the same because that's we're just programmed that way, and we obviously were multitasking, because we're getting our exercise in at the same time. And don't

Crystal Duckworth  17:21  
we run I signed a contract from my phone on the treadmill too.

Tracy Hayes  17:23  
Yeah, most of the time, well, I get, I get up early and do it so there are no phone calls at that time. It's five o'clock in the morning, someone's not calling me, but I'm already, you know, yeah, I checked my email, maybe even responded some emails on my phone before I even started type of thing, but, but I think how? But I really want what I really want to touch base and then lead into what you do to educate yourself on a regular basis, whether it is a podcast now or reading or whatever. But how important it is, as you just mentioned, to recharge. And recharge means many different things to different people. But it's that it could be just that 30 minutes a day of some sort of meditation, just letting your brain catch up. I think, you know, some of the greatest people in history like to take afternoon naps. You know, they went, you know, some of the most richest people, they go and took an afternoon out because they're allowed their brain now is actually doing what it's doing and catching up to you. And now you're more creative. I think I find my creativity isn't during that time and catching up. And then sometimes you're like, you know what? What did I just do? No, I need to go back there and correct that, because now you're actually taking time, and you're letting your brain, brain process what you've done and what you want to do. You know it's doing it all on its own, its own computer there. So what does crystal like today? Are you? Are you listening to podcasts? You like to read books or YouTube videos? What is it that you do to to grab some of that extra education during this time?

Crystal Duckworth  18:53  
So I work really well starting about four o'clock in the morning, that's I start reading online. It's I still actually kind of do what I did before. I just do a little bit more in depth, and then I have a plan to implement it, but not necessarily a huge book reader, but I love to listen to podcasts. And you know, all the National Association, Association of Realtors, Florida realtors, any are all of that, right? Follow all of their, read their you know, Morning News Inman, ris media. That's what I do on a daily basis. I probably spend 70 hours a week. I would say, Yeah. And a lot of times it's, it's, you know, in the morning, when I first wake up,

Tracy Hayes  19:32  
because you're a leader, you're now, how big is your team now? How many I'm 10 agents, 10 agents. And you got to go in and lead those people. They're looking to you for inspiration. Inspiration. They're looking to you for knowledge. And they just assume, because your name's on the sign, that you know everything, sort of, right, yeah, yeah. But you know, if you want to in a. Get your input on this, agree or disagree, or what your angle is. I think it's important if, yeah, if you want to lead a team or be the broker, you got to be the motivator. And sometimes, sometimes, I mean, hopefully you have agents. You hire agents that motivate themselves, because they are still 1090 nines. But to be that leader, you've basically checking in to be the, you know, come on with the cattle prog sometimes and stick them and say, Hey, come on. You know, it's gonna be a great day.

Crystal Duckworth  20:25  
I did motivational speaking all throughout college, and I continue to do it, and I do a lot of business consulting pro bono, and I love motivating.

Tracy Hayes  20:34  
It motivates you. Oh,

Crystal Duckworth  20:36  
gosh, yes. I love to help others. And to do it and make money at it is even better, you know, and I enjoy it. So that's the icing on the cake. But, you know, with my 10 agents, it's it's nice because I haven't recruited those agents have all reached out to me, and I'm just scratching the surface, I'm sure to start recruiting to get some really more good agents on my team, because that is my purpose in life, is to give back and motivate and I've been doing it ever since a very young age.

Tracy Hayes  21:05  
So give us an example, if you can think of, I know I'm throwing you out there. Maybe you have 10 agents. So this probably happens, if not every day, at least once a week, but something that in some of the agents, and you notice right away, and you know you need to either, you know, reach out, call them in your office, or Hey, call them on the phone. What are some things that they're getting down with. And then what do you do to kind of give them that little pep talk?

Crystal Duckworth  21:29  
So I like to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. I mean, basically the worst that can happen. And so I usually try to tell them, Okay, just let's take a moment decompress, and let's, here's the worst case scenario. So usually, the worst case scenario that I can present to them and that we come up with together isn't that bad. So I'm like, this is the absolute worst. And so they usually calm down at that point, and it's not good to talk about it when they're heightening emotions, although I tell them to call me versus calling a customer,

Tracy Hayes  21:59  
right? But yell at you first.

Crystal Duckworth  22:02  
I would love to hear them and make them, you know, get it all out. That's fine. And then let's talk about it. And then when you decompress, then in recharge, then call your customer. But usually, when we talk about the absolute worst that can happen, it's in the grand scheme of things. It's not that bad, right? And it, of course, I I'm an empath, and I feel it with them, and I know it feels bad, and I do sales as well, so I totally go through the ups and downs as well. And I'm guilty of it. We're all guilty of it. But it's, it's at the end of the day, I can paint a brighter picture for them and help them through it. And again, the good, bad, the ugly, and usually it's not that bad at the

Tracy Hayes  22:39  
end, after, you actually talk it out, you're like, exactly, am I really talking about this

Crystal Duckworth  22:44  
easy to get caught up in emotions and such a roller coaster in real estate, you know, you're not just selling a printer, you're selling a home. So everybody's got the it's heightened emotions throughout. Buyers are emotional, rightfully so. So are the sellers, and so they may not even be handling it. And then we're here just, you know, like a ping pong back and forth, and we get the best and the worst of all of it. And so sometimes handling that, they just need somebody like me to help them through it.

Tracy Hayes  23:13  
So I was just thinking, thinking about this as you're expressing yourself greatly. There you had some new agents that literally are, you know, they're fighting for those first deals because they have Dovan and they didn't have that day job, or may not have the spouse who's making the income, and they're not really you know, what they're doing in real estate is not necessarily needed for them to live a lifestyle that they're accustomed to and having the meal on the table. So, so you have that more of the individual agent, single person is more likely what I'm describing. Obviously, there's some stresses of life that go on. So sometimes, would you agree that sometimes some of this emotions or negativity, thinking that everything's down on them is because really it's more outside the business than it is actually the real estate itself. Yeah, there's

Crystal Duckworth  24:00  
only so much we can control in real estate, and so that's hard. Those uncontrollable factors affect your emotions and how you handle everything throughout the transaction. So you know, absolutely I feel that you have

Tracy Hayes  24:15  
to consult your you have to be a counselor in some way. Yeah, especially if you see potential. I assume, if someone doesn't have potential, you probably best thing to tell them and say, you probably need to go do something else. Yeah, that thing obviously, you know, they say money can't buy you happiness. But yes, if you are selling homes, and busy selling homes, that money's coming in and makes the stress of, oh, you know, there's this one sale that we're having problems with. But you know what? If it falls out, it falls out. It falls out. We're going to definitely do our best to get it, but I'm not. It's not going to determine whether or not I go on vacation or I can eat next month. There's a huge gap in there, and that's where I think the leadership yourself and the many other brokers or team leads that take on a lot of these young realtors that hopefully have potential. Why they brought them on their team. That can be somewhat taxing, but it's something that you've chosen to do. I enjoy doing it. Yeah. So that leads us into what I want to talk about, this clear guidance with shining results. Where'd you come

Crystal Duckworth  25:14  
up with that phrase? It just clicked. So I know, you know, everyone's results driven. And then I wanted to bring in the company name and everything into the tagline. So shining results. I mean, ultimately, I think that's what the buyers and sellers care about, and it's all about them. So in the clear guidance, I mean, communication is key. There's so many avenues to the transaction. If you don't have clear guidance, you're not going to have shining results. So just click shining results.

Tracy Hayes  25:47  
So clicked, it actually says a lot. I mean, those what? One two words of five words there actually say a lot. Obviously, tag on to you. It's a great slogan to go on with you. But so 15 years you've been in the business? Well, actually, you bet you've had your own brokerage. Now, what has it been five years? Five years? Yeah, yeah. So what did you learn from your previous brokerages that you took? Well, let's talk about the good, bad and the ugly, right? That's mentioned. What were the good, bad and uglies that you had in the previous that you kept out, brought in to the to your brokerage.

Crystal Duckworth  26:28  
So I would say the good was, I was thrown into the wolves again. Here I am doing real estate, so I felt very comfortable going into an office that said, okay, here are the tools. The bad was it's kind of a large split and very resourceful. And I felt like already the resources that we have as being a realtor, there was some other outside sources that I could rely on for that. The Ugly I'd say, you know, you're more of a number and some brokerages, don't get me wrong, everything has shaped me to where I am, and it was great experiences, but I would say that was probably a little bit more of the ugly

Tracy Hayes  27:10  
side crystal you you were explaining to me. So you actually have at crystal clear. You actually have a property management division as well. Yeah.

Crystal Duckworth  27:18  
So I have several divisions again, to constantly, constantly evolve in this changing industry. So I have a property management division. I've got a new construction and development division where we acquire land work with developers, from the initial acquisition to getting financiers involved all the way to the end user, selling it to the homeowner also.

Tracy Hayes  27:41  
So like small subdivisions, more or less, not, not just individual homes, building one house, but actually where they're finding some of those acres, maybe they can put 1015, homes in there. Yes, yeah.

Crystal Duckworth  27:53  
First small to, you know, six homes to our largest in the works is 45 homes. So also we have a luxury division, Black Diamond luxury properties worldwide as well. And then I started crystal clearly cares where I donate a portion of my commission to a charity of my customers choice. And it's very great, because a lot of my agents, they'll participate in that. So that's cool.

Tracy Hayes  28:17  
That's cool. And the property management today is kind of because I know here, as you know, dealing with a large builder in town, there is a lot of people who are investing in Northeast Florida, oh yeah, not only because the the equity growth, but just because we don't have, you know, rentals are hot. They are diving a big part of

Crystal Duckworth  28:39  
our future as well, especially here in Florida, yeah. So I think it was important to start a division and stay on top of that demand,

Tracy Hayes  28:46  
right, right, and keeping those people in house. Because, as I've talked to other agents who have done a one or two where they'll management for a client who bought an investment property, they didn't open a full Property Management Division, but to have that, because a lot of times, those people are buying that house, they might buy another one, or, who knows, in two or three years, they may turn around and sell it because of the equity growth here, wherever it is. But they're, you're keeping them all in house.

Crystal Duckworth  29:10  
Yeah, there's an opportunity there with a tenant as well, because eventually, hopefully they'll want to buy a home exactly source and yeah,

Tracy Hayes  29:16  
and you have them right on your on your Rolodex, you're consistently contacting and looking at the advantages of buying a home and spending them. Yeah, excellent. Well, you mentioned early your technology savvy, and you know, when you you were just talking about this, made me think, you know, it's probably much easier today than 10 years ago, and obviously further back for you to go out on your own, because the dependency on that large brokerage. You know, some of the big names that everyone you know sees on television or whatever, or you like, said, Hey, name a real estate brokerage. I mean, most people can name, you know, a handful of the big names offer that information. But the reality is, if you're technology savvy and knowing what you were doing and what. You've basically expressed that one of the things you're great at is digging this stuff up and finding it on YouTube or reading the blogs and getting this information. That's all they're feeding you. And now, with technology, it's out there.

Crystal Duckworth  30:10  
Yeah, and that's why I like being a boutique broker. So I'm a firm believer, if you don't evolve, you die, especially in this industry. So I can quickly adapt and pivot and implement it, and then give it to my agents and be efficient and effective at the same time.

Tracy Hayes  30:27  
Yeah, well, that's, that's leadership, and that's, that's, that's what you do. You're deciphering what's needed and then passing it on and explaining the importance of it, or where to stick it on the wall, is what I always say. I think a lot of there's so much information out there today, you can get yourself so overwhelmed, yes, and but the sometimes you need either someone like yourself to tell you, this is what's important, this other stuff, you know, read for your leisure, but this is the important stuff that you need to know today to get you through today, this week, this month. Yeah, I think there's definitely, I talk a lot about social media and in like, doing videos. And obviously social media people said videos, video, social media is where, you know, where it's at. And there's some people that are really good at it. There's others that want to do it, but they're you just, you just got to go and do it and move forward. And what's important, you know, pick out the important things to put on there that you don't don't add all that extra, don't worry about all that extra stuff. Clear that out of your clear that out of your mind. I was watching, if I was watching a motivational video or something this this weekend, I saw something and just made sense. Is clearing those, getting those people in your life that are drawing you down, that drag you down, that if you want to move forward, and I assume as you as a leader and focused on your 10 people, and you're not only your personal success, because you're still producing and their personal success, you don't have time in the day for those people that are dragging you down.

Crystal Duckworth  31:56  
No, it's toxic, you know, and you have to, it's something you have to constantly remind yourself and reevaluate. And when I do find that there was a little bit more challenging transactions, or I feel about saying the transactions, because it's not a transaction, sounds more paper, you know, a very important sales, home sale, you have, I try to reevaluate after every step into it, okay, this turned out to be a little bit more stressful. How could I have handled this differently? Sure, and sometimes I can control that, and sometimes I can't, and handling it as okay. What actions could I have done differently? But also, how could I have handle it personally, right, differently so it's, it's not too draining on you, right? And so it's important to remind yourself about that, plus who you surround yourself with, so to stay recharged

Tracy Hayes  32:51  
when you have because my wife's an agent, so I hear the stories in my home as well when you're dealing with, you know, unfortunately, there's some, I don't know if we want to say not so good agents, not so experienced agents, or maybe some of those agents who are. You know, we hear the horror stories where they're, they're they're not calling their broker and venting on their broker, they're venting on their client, or they're venting on the agent on the other side of the transaction, or just being plainly difficult, almost like the I've heard some stories, almost like, are you trying to you trying to kill this deal? What are you What are you? What are you trying? What are you trying to do? What are some things that you know, because I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, you've had some of these toxic agents on the other side, not your agent, but, you know, the listing or selling you're working with. What do you? What do you do to kind of, you know, check up with yourself to say, Okay, this guy's got a problem or this girl's got a problem on the other side, but I got to make this happen. What? What is some of the checkpoints that you go through your your brain, as you just talked about you, you do a review in your experiences. In 15 years, you probably have dealt with this numerous times. What do you do to gain control of the situation, knowing you're the superior agent, and and making sure everybody ends up where we want to be, at the closing table.

Crystal Duckworth  34:05  
So first of all, I never, ever really raised my voice or try to get in some type of conflict with the agent, because at the end of the day, our goal is both to get to the closing table. So I always, no matter what a text or a phone call, just remain my professional composure on that end. And the mind is a powerful thing. It's actually, I mean, it seems so simple, is to change your thought process of how to handle it, and just think positive and take a deep breath sometimes just walk away for a minute. And then I like writing down to the pros and the cons, and that helps keep me focused as I'm dealing with how

Tracy Hayes  34:47  
you're going to work through this deal. It might have some difficulties and repairs or whatever going on.

Crystal Duckworth  34:52  
Yeah, it helps with conflict resolution, right? Yeah. Interesting is

Tracy Hayes  34:56  
that it's, I think we don't know what's going on in other people's lives. All the time? Oh, absolutely. You know, I think of when I'm driving, I think it's the stories we see of road rage, right? And we don't know what's going on in that other person's life, if he's trying to get in, let him in. Is it really going to change your day if you let somebody cut in front of you? I mean, does it really matter at the end of the day? The bottom line is, you want to go home to your family and do what you do, whatever you do. So do I want to tick that guy off? I don't know what happened is like, maybe some, maybe his father just passed away. Who knows right, and just your, you know, his wife told him not to come home. Who knows whatever right? So whatever that situation is, and it's a take a moment like you're saying, you know, write down. Calm them down. Don't rate, don't raise your because just don't know what triggered them. And they may never tell you, maybe afterwards they do, but you may never know why they were that day. They were just like, off the handle,

Crystal Duckworth  35:55  
trying to digest it, because when their emotions are high, actually, sometimes their delivery was incorrect. You know, it's just a miscommunication, right? So digesting through all of that is key.

Tracy Hayes  36:06  
What do you think so you have 1010, agents now, most of them been with you for a while. How long or did you start? How fast did you grow in the last five years? Or do you always have 10 agents?

Crystal Duckworth  36:18  
No, I've had, let's see my one agent has been with me for four years now. I comfortably grew. I was doing more sales before, but now I'm to the point again, I'm just scratching the surface. So it's as of two years ago is when I started having more than a handful of agents, right?

Tracy Hayes  36:42  
Yes, right. So what is it that you are, your your ideology, your culture, within crystal clear that that you feel sets you apart, or you try to use to set you apart from other agencies?

Crystal Duckworth  36:59  
So I was busy, busy, mom and productive. Mom and I try to take my crazy, busy 15 years of experience, really, in the past 10 years of being a mom, and share that life work balance with them, with time saving tools, technologically advanced, how to be efficient, how to be effective, and for me to be comfortably aggressive with them, try to understand their learning style. I do like, it's a fun, it's like a dis personality, but it's, it's not, it's real fun, a fun way to approach it and figure out, you know, what is it that makes them successful? In my definition of success may not be the same definition of someone else. So finding that in really what they want, and then being comfortably, like I said, comfortably aggressive with them. If they want me to micromanage them, I'll micromanage them. If they're the type where they don't want to have to come in the office, no problem. If that's how you work best and you want to work from home. No problem at all.

Tracy Hayes  38:02  
Right, comfortably aggressive. So with

Crystal Duckworth  38:06  
a fun, I like a fun working environment as well.

Tracy Hayes  38:10  
I just, I like the comfortably aggressive. And I think, Well, I think that's one of the challenges as as any leader, and as I guarantee, I guarantee it's in this Jack Welch book right here, probably talking about, he probably doesn't use comfortably aggressive, though, but how you tailor your leadership to the individual that you're working with? You know, because there are like you could get. You could jump right in my face. And because I'm That's old school to me. That's how I was brought up. If they weren't in your face. They didn't care, talking about coaches and so forth. I'm sure you may have some people where you can really, you know, stick. And there's some others where you got to just be like, give them all the warm and fuzzies and then kind of start digging into the, you know, kind of soften the situation, so that opens them up. And then you can actually have a conversation to, you know, because your goal is obviously, you know, you know your own personal growth, but you want to see them grow. That's why they're there. That's why they came to work with you. Is for for you to get them to rise up, right? They, obviously, they see you as someone who is more experienced, more polished than they are, and they want to learn

Crystal Duckworth  39:19  
from you. Be a chameleon. I feel like that's important, you know, not necessarily just with customers, but also with business. So I try to be a chameleon. What makes them comfortable? People do business with people who they like, and so how can I help you and make you enjoy it?

Tracy Hayes  39:32  
Would you say that's one of your one of your keys to your success?

Crystal Duckworth  39:35  
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yes. There's no, it's, it's, I feel like all throughout the day, that's what you do. You adjust and adapt to that situation. I mean, this

Tracy Hayes  39:45  
is great leadership for those they're listening to you. I mean, if you really think about it, really sit down and think about it, those great those managers, those bosses, whatever in your life that you've had that you look at how they handled you. Do individually. I think, I think some one of the greatest things that, if you we really think about it, everyone, everyone that's even presidents on down, they didn't get to that level. They memorize people's names. You know what? People want to hear their name? It's, it's true, they actually, people want to hear their name. So to be when you haven't seen them in a while, and they go, Hey, Crystal, how you doing? It makes you feel good. Oh, wow, you remembered my name, you know, because I forget means all the time. I'm terrible at it. I really, actually, I've for, I don't know, 20 years. I keep telling myself I need to, like, take one of those courses where they teach you how to, you know, polish that up, because that's one of my worst things. Like, I can recognize faces all over the place, but it might take me two or three minutes. Oh yeah, that's, that's the name that's so I'm really poor at that, but that just goes at the importance of being that chameleon as a leader. And you know, to deal with the juggle 10 plates, you got 10 agents, and you're juggling them, and they're all spinning at different speeds, and they're all at different levels. And that takes, that takes a lot out of you too.

Crystal Duckworth  41:06  
It does part of my whole reevaluating every stage of whether it's the, you know, home sales or mentoring my agents, I try to get a flexible system as well, and I feel like I'm I learned from them as well. So I'm able to put some systems in place. It has made that very manageable, right? Because, again, I'm just scratching the surface, and I am going to continue to grow. And being able to, you know, conform to their individual need is a goal, and in order to do that, they're just like any other successful business that grows. There has to be effective systems.

Tracy Hayes  41:45  
Do you feel sometimes because you're, you're like me, your your mind's always going and you're thinking of bigger, better, faster ways that sometimes you have to, you have to stop yourself, because you just implemented this, and now you're like, already thinking about that? And have to say, you know, I need to follow through on this right now. I need to see if that's going to work. Because if I keep changing on the I knew when I was in telecommunications and cell phones, if you've ever been in that business, it was always the flavor of the day corporate. This is what the corporate wants. Everyone greeting customers this way. No, they want them greeting them that way. No, they want you to do this, this and stuff. It's like, every week there's something different. They're trying to analyze all these little things when really they need to just stick with that. Yes, those are other good ideas, but let's write those down right now, because we need to follow that through. Do you feel you? Sometimes you get caught in that with your yeah systems,

Crystal Duckworth  42:39  
yeah and so what I normally do, like I implement and then also teach my agents on this for part of time management. So we have, you know, list of all of our to do's, and then you prioritize it. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, knock out a lot of the little stuff at the beginning. If you if you just have a hard time focusing of everything you have to do that day. So take an hour to get all the little quick, five minute tasks. Then do, I mean, anything that's pressing and time sensitive, then anything that's customer service related, and then, and then focus about money generating. And then also you have other tasks on that, but you kind of put it in order, because it's so easy, there's a lot of little things, and also, I'm trying to get a little bit better at this as well. But don't be afraid to delegate. You know, if your your strengths are your weaknesses and your weaknesses are your strengths, so identify those. Focus on what you're best at, and then delegate. Find somebody smarter than you and that area where you need improvement.

Tracy Hayes  43:39  
That totally leads me into a question, and I'm glad you're because I was actually thinking this question. Then you brought that up, and I'm like, this is exactly what I'm what I what I want to lead with next. And that is, you've you yourself have become successful. You probably have some other agents that have reached a point where they are busy, and when is it time to, like, break off that when's the time to get that transaction coordinator in the real estate when's that time to get those that person to do the 1520, hour, hour job. Because you need to focus on what makes you the $500 an hour, and that's getting that next client, or spending time with that next client, or spending the right time with the client to get the referrals that you want. Because that's where, that's where the money generation is going. When do you I'm sure you've probably experienced this, not only with yourself, but some of the agents that have grown with you, yo over the years that when do you step in and say, hey, it's time we get you some help.

Crystal Duckworth  44:33  
So what's the beauty of my brokerage is I actually have a wonderful licensed assistant on staff, and she offers a la carte services. So if they're not quite ready, but they just need for this one transaction seems a little bit more difficult and time consuming, or they're going on vacation, they can reach out to her, because I understand that having that overhead, you have to be very careful, and not all of them are very comfortable with that. It's also hard with control to finally just hire. Everybody and say, Okay, that's all in your hands. So the a la carte services has been wonderful for them, right?

Tracy Hayes  45:07  
Because you can, I mean, as an agent, you start getting busy enough, you could spend hours online, like you do a listing and you're trying to run comps, you're spending hours, you know, you know, doing that because you got multiple listings coming up or, you know, as you know it is feast or famine, one day the phone doesn't ring, and also the next morning at 1010, customers call. Now you're juggling. You're trying to run around and give them all the attention, but you're just now overwhelmed. And then you got you not only make make contact with them and what they're what they're looking to do, whether buy or sell or whatever. Now you got to go and start doing your work. This is what you get paid for the run the comps to start, obviously, right now, inventory so low, so you're trying to find these little needles in the haystack.

Crystal Duckworth  45:48  
And so I going back to reevaluating every step of the process. So I normally break it down. I try not to calculate my commission too much, because I don't want to focus on just money, although it helps, but

Tracy Hayes  46:01  
it follows. It follows if you're doing the right thing,

Crystal Duckworth  46:04  
yes, yes, absolutely. So what I do at the end? I'm like, Okay, so here was the pay. Here's how much I made. And I go through about approximately how many hours I try to create. Keep track a little bit. It's hard because it's a lot of little things you want to measure yourself. You want to know, yeah, so I usually go back and reevaluate that in, in break it down by an hourly rate. So at the end of the day, I'm if I felt with that transaction, it was more time of doing stuff that wasn't productive. That's how I kind of evaluate Okay, now it's time to outsource in. Actually, I have it in house, but have someone else. How right you got?

Tracy Hayes  46:39  
You got that? Because there are people who like that hourly, nine to five, that's that's their zone, or they have other aspirations in life, so they're good with that, and sometimes they're better at it. Yes, hopefully, yeah.

Crystal Duckworth  46:52  
I mean, in those areas, it's nice to find, you know, hire someone that knows even more than you Yeah?

Tracy Hayes  46:57  
I mean, there I will. I mean, hopefully she's listening. My assistant is Miss Congeniality. She's awesome. On the phone I O Gemini, I go from what I am a Jekyll and Hayes. Sometimes I my my adrenaline gland will go off or or something will just like, you know, maybe a problem with a loan or something, or someone's not doing something that I need them to do, because I can't do it for myself. So, you know, the frustration sometimes comes up, but there's some. She's just has more of a time and patience than than I do my you know, patience is probably empathy and patience are my two weaknesses. So she on the other, and we talked about the DISC assessment, she's, you know, the high C, I'm a high D, but your strengths are your weaknesses, so but to be able to have someone that compliments you on that, and hopefully is better than you, yes, you know, you don't have to be the best at everything you know, because, if you like yourself, you raised at a level in this business, you if you want to that unlimited income, which it can be, but you've got to have, at some point, you got to be able to bring on some people to do some of those, those time consuming tasks that put you, put you more out doing what you're doing. It's really making the money. Yes, yeah. 25 million in 2021 for your office. What do you? What do you? What's your vision? Actually, Daniel, I don't know if I put it, put that little clip from Facebook I stole. You want to show everyone on Facebook. So 2022, and that's a great I asked the headshot, that is your headshot that you sent. That's a beautiful picture of you, not You're very beautiful. But that's, that's a, that's a killer picture. If I was, like, looking for a real estate agent, I saw the picture, be like, Oh my God, she's bad. Watch out. She's gonna tear you. Yeah, don't get in negotiations with her, yeah. But great shop, what's your, what's your, what's your vision for your team? And you know, to get off on a great 2022 What are you preaching to your team? What are you? Are you doing anything different

Crystal Duckworth  49:00  
this year? Yes. So like I said, I'm just scratching the surface, and I'm going to be recruiting more agents. My goal is to get to 30 agents by the end of the year. Task, yeah, and I think that can be easily done, and I have a whole plan of action and all that stuff. So that's one of them. And it's interesting, you mentioned social media. We're just scratching the surface on that. Thankfully, it's been pretty much referral basis to

Tracy Hayes  49:27  
your social media. Yes,

Crystal Duckworth  49:28  
this is a great start. So we have the business is there, the content is there. We do. We just need to implement it, and that's what we have in our plan as well. And I know that's important. So you know, I'm not going to, I have enough of a team and strong team, we want to get more that if I start advertising, I already get a lot of leads. It's, it's, we're going to be unstoppable. And I'm very excited about 2020

Tracy Hayes  49:53  
I can tell you're excited about 2022, 20 more agents. So wow, that's a lot of I just hopefully, i hope i. Just, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hope on you that there was a lot of experienced agents come over, because I don't want you to get a lot of inexperienced agents draw you off the field, because you need to be on the field and leading. That's that's an amazing, amazing task. What would you say? Because obviously, you, you're thinking of incentives, you know, from the age, not not only work with you, obviously, but what are some of the things you think are the most important for? Here's your sales pitch, really, right? Here you can give it to possible agents who may be listening. What is it? The you think is the maybe the one or two, three most important things that they come with come over to crystal clear that you're going to deliver that's important to that agent and why they should come over and work with

Crystal Duckworth  50:42  
you a plan that works for them, I would say it's all about you. So if you want leads, I have leads.

Tracy Hayes  50:49  
If everyone, if you don't want leads,

Crystal Duckworth  50:52  
yeah, I mean, it's, it's whatever works for them. If, if a, if the split is a challenge, let's talk about it. Let's do a win, situation. I mean, having that flexibility, you know, I have my standard, you know, packages to offer them, but that flexibility, I feel like, in real estate, is key, especially in today's world. With real estate, it's ever changing. So really, let's talk about what works for them. And then, you know, a lot of the stuff, a lot of it isn't reinventing the wheel on some things, but taking that the time saving tactics. I mean, we can't get back time in our life, and we can't get back age. So let's utilize my 20 years of being in business and sales and my ups and downs. And how can I make your life easier? And I mean, even I consider especially being a busy mom. You know that 20 minute drive somewhere and 20 minute back, I calculate that in my head, in a good way to try to improve that was 40 minutes. How could I I mean is, do I have to go there for 20 minutes? Or why did I go there? Do you have to come in the office? Can we jump on a zoom? So I understand your time is valuable, and I also understand that you're in it to make money. We all have to make money and pay our bills. So let's come to a good happy medium with the split and time saving tactics and being to be efficient and effective and still be competitive. You know, tech savvy. And my

Tracy Hayes  52:14  
test for sales managers to me, because they're broker, sales manager, this is pretty much the role you're taking owner of the company, doesn't really mean anything, but the sales manager, someone who's someone who's responsible for your sales, because if you're not doing the sales, we got to ask the sales manager what's going on. The sales manager needs to implement things to hopefully move that sales person, or that sales person needs to move on the number one thing. And it's probably just something you just didn't think of, because we're you didn't know the question. So you're just, you know, coming out what's what's on your heart? How important is it when you have that difficult deal that with a new agent, to be able to pick up the phone and say and you answer it or return it immediately and say, Crystal, what would you do?

Crystal Duckworth  53:00  
I try to answer all the time, because I realize if they're calling me, they really need assistance. Yeah, and that call is so important, and, you know, it's so rewarding. And I'm an empath, I truly feel if they're stressed out. I mean, I try not to get stressed, because I'm going to be their backbone for them, right? But I really want them to do well, like, if they're losing sleep over it, chances are I'm probably losing sleep over it too, and I'll wake up think ideas at three o'clock in the morning. They'll pop in my head how

Tracy Hayes  53:28  
important it's been in the last three years. I mean, for the experienced person to structure, to help structure, a deal, to win. I mean, because there's getting multiple offers on these listings and so forth, not on, actually, on both sides, really, and you think about it, the buyer side how to structure the deal, and hopefully you make the final two or three or four offers, so they're talking about you, and then from the listing side to be able to call you and say, Hey, which one of these offers is the best one?

Crystal Duckworth  53:54  
That's why I like to stay actively involved in sales as well, because I feel like this industry changes so fast, and I still learn every transaction, if I'm learning every transaction, so is every other real, yeah, and so to be able to again, provide that experience and the ups and downs that I went through so they can make their life better, so valuable.

Tracy Hayes  54:15  
All right, every transaction you learn something from change direction. There's one thing I wanted to mention when I did your intro and I saw that mentioned several times, is the term relationships, I know I'm saying something I know you you would agree with just learning from you and reading what you put on your social media and your bio, but how important that relationship is, and you learn something from every late every transaction, because a lot of times it's the relationship within the transaction, more than the actual physical house or repairs that need to be done or whatever all those other things that go on all the time. They're just different colors where it's actually relationships in every how you dealt with it, how you dealt with that hostile seller, or how you dealt with that agent who. Wasn't didn't know what they were doing or how you negotiated. Would you agree there? It's actually, really the relationships that makes every one different.

Crystal Duckworth  55:08  
It does and so understanding how those buyers and sellers want everything handled as well how you present to them, it's personalities, relationship building. You know, there's technical a lot. There's some stuff that doesn't change about the contract, but it's really, oh my gosh, the art of negotiation. I love that book. I mean, how you tailor it is as simple as how you word the email can make or break a deal, yes, and so I feel that's in it keeps that relationship and that trust going 100% very important.

Tracy Hayes  55:41  
So if I was to write a book, your number 40 they say 48 we're 48 episode. 48 episodes. Yeah, write a book on the first 48 episodes. There would be a good probably, probably half the book would be one chapter talking about everyone's relationships. So I want to kind of finish with this in the in the meat and bread of our interview, expand on because you do talk about in your bio that that's what your technology in the relationships, and how you know, in 15 years, you know, what are you? What do you do now differently than say you did in year one when it comes to actually building those longer term relationships, whether it's with a vendor or a loan officer or a home inspector or your client, your buyer or seller, I

Crystal Duckworth  56:33  
think continuing to understand them and what they really want is important, and finding that balance of so like when I deal with some executive clients that I know that they look at PowerPoint presentations, that's how I'm going to give them the comps, or the engineers, yeah, and so that, you know, just with experience and stuff, I've been able to improve on that, and that really helps. And, you know, just be genuine. I mean, people can see through if you're just not a wholeheartedly, honest and genuine, I mean, care, right? And just continuing to do that and ask about their family, you know, follow up on a holiday, tell them Merry Christmas, you know. Or I've been thinking about you, and I've done that before. I've, you know, think about customers, how they're doing, or the child is doing. I'll drive by their school. I'll pick up the phone and call them, Hey. How you know, at the same time, though, you got to have that balance of you still have to be tech savvy, because that's a big part of the success, but those good old fashioned work ethics, and I'm more of a newer one of the newer millennials, so I have that, still, that good old fashioned work ethic, but that technology edge to it. And so I feel like that is important. We're selling a home, not a house, and it's their biggest investment, right? And if you just take it as a let me just text them. And you know, don't get me wrong, some customers that's all they want. They're so busy, and they said, No, just text me whatever, understanding what they want, how they want it presented and handle it again to make them feel comfortable.

Tracy Hayes  58:02  
But you know what's amazing, though, with those people that, because I've done complete loans over text or Facebook Messenger, but when you send them a card, an actual old school card, handwritten blows them away. They're like what I got mail, but I was listening to a podcast the other day. Was someone said actually, it might have been even one of those little Instagram reels or something, and they were talking, if you you need to talk to your buyers and sellers, your your your customers, that you're serving the same way you'd be talking to a relative doing the same transaction when you're on the phone, talking to them, talk to them the Same way as if they were your brother or cousin, that you're you're doing the best, do whatever you can, to take care of them and express that, you know, the same way that that just rang with me. I'm like, Man, that's just, that's really simple me, you you know, because oftentimes I will, I'm one of those people who I'll run into a high school buddy or college buddy that I hadn't seen in years, but I almost like, pick up the conversation like we sent ourselves just yesterday, you know, are worried where they're at, you know, and just talk about things and just flow right into it. And I think some of my friends appreciate that, because I treat them as if we're like we're talking every day. But our world takes us all different directions, and the fact that you are make a customer feel like they're your family, they're your brother, they're your cousin, and you're taking care of them in a similar transaction.

Crystal Duckworth  59:29  
That's the power of passion shining through you know, brings meaning to life too. Yeah, for sure, I really care at the end of the day care care for the shining results. What?

Tracy Hayes  59:42  
I'm going to ask this last question, actually, we're right at an hour now, because I wrote this down here, and I wrote down I didn't, I realized I want, I have to, there's, there's probably five more questions that I want to ask you. But what do you think would be the common denominator of a successful real estate agent?

Crystal Duckworth  59:59  
I. To work smart and hard. That's, I mean, you don't get paid until you close, so it's very easy to work hard, but if you don't work smart, there's no way you're going to make it as a real estate agent.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:15  
All right, so let's, let's help our help our listeners out there, from the smart side, we talked about a little bit here, but reach out to those that are more experienced, because a lot of them have fallen on their face with no reason for you to fall on your face the same way, right? To get around people like yourself. Go to need, go to nefar. Meet some, meet some of the top people in the area. Ask them out the lunch or coffee and learn about these, these smarter things that you're talking about? Would you agree? Yeah.

Crystal Duckworth  1:00:43  
And I think, I think the power of passion is unstoppable. You had to truly enjoy it, and not every aspect of it is 100% enjoyable. But if you don't have that passion behind it, I don't, I don't know why you're doing it. Yeah, you know, there's, there's more life.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:59  
You know, that's actually something that the passion, I don't think I've ever had anybody say that that way. It's actually very interesting. You say that. And when I was being passionate, there for a second, you caught that. You have to be I'm passionate about what I passionate about what I do. Now I measure someone. I expressed to someone here recently that to me, my six, yeah. You can measure your success by the dollars. How much money did you make last year, or how many, how many actual sales you had? Some, you know, there's there. You can measure it that way. But I think what, I think you would agree with me, when you're doing all the right things, when you're finding those systems, and you see this, you see them successful, or you see them help your 10 agents become more successful, isn't that the true high? Yeah, there's no better feeling. That's the passion about it. That's, that's where I get passionate. Wow, I came up with an idea. I put it in play, and look at it succeed, and

Crystal Duckworth  1:01:51  
I feel like it's that, it's your intrinsic motivation shining through, which helps you have a solid, successful career. If you're passionate about it. All those other little characteristics that make you succeed. They're already there, that extra drive, that extra, you know, staying an extra two hours or 12 hour day, versus a 10 hour day, that day, if you're passionate about it, you're that'll fall into place.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:12  
Passionate about it, you're you're not only family sees it, your your circle of influence sees it, but the individual people that you may, you know, you may do the transaction and never hear from them again. Hopefully, they see your passion and refer you to someone else, because they realized this girl was on my team. You know she she killed it, you know, for So, all right, I'm gonna go to my two minute warning questions that we wrap up here. It's more important who you know or what you know.

Commercial  1:02:37  
Can I say both?

Tracy Hayes  1:02:39  
Some people cop out to that one.

Crystal Duckworth  1:02:44  
I guess who you know, but the average person knows six real estate agents. So also what you know?

Tracy Hayes  1:02:51  
That's true. But I mean, what's made you successful? You? I mean, you obviously educate yourself. We talked a lot about that today, but

Crystal Duckworth  1:02:58  
I would say what you know, then, if it was my specific I mean, I had to organically grow you organic clientele here, and by doing that, I provide value with all the knowledge and experience behind it. So I wasn't born and raised here, so right? It's a loaded question,

Tracy Hayes  1:03:16  
semi personal one, not really too personal, but what's on your travel bucket list?

Crystal Duckworth  1:03:21  
I want to go to Europe. You know? How do I think about that right now? And I'm totally involved in my company and growing that Right, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:03:31  
But sometimes you do, they talk about recharge. Sometimes you have to, like, Hey, I'm doing really well. I'm only going to be this age for so long. I need to, actually, I don't want to be 70 years old and and who knows what my health is going to be like. And then try to go, right, yeah, take some time.

Crystal Duckworth  1:03:45  
I love European food, and my best friend is from Europe, so I have a kind of, I think, a connection with them. Really gonna love going over there

Tracy Hayes  1:03:53  
to visit cool. So, yeah, who do you think would be a great guest on my show? I think

Crystal Duckworth  1:03:57  
my agent, Natalie. Dunlap. Natalie, she's also a CEO and owns a marketing company, and she's a powerhouse, and she's one of my newer

Tracy Hayes  1:04:05  
agents, so she has a marketing company, and then she's doing sort of part time. Oh, and she's

Crystal Duckworth  1:04:09  
doing awesome, every mistake, okay, all right. And she's, she's, she's boss lady, hashtag, boss.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:17  
Well, let's get that, because I'm scheduled up for, you know, late, late March into April right now, says I got, you know, a couple shows every week. So let's get her, let's get her scheduled up for maybe early April, and get her in. I appreciate you coming on today. Yeah, conversation, please like and share those listeners, especially on the on the Apple Spotify, wherever you listening, into us on, you know, please like and share, or make comments. I would appreciate it and Crystal if someone wants to be on your team or wants to utilize your services as a real estate agent, what's the best way to contact you?

Crystal Duckworth  1:04:49  
Call 904 house 54 you know, I was

Tracy Hayes  1:04:53  
watching some of your videos, and I was like, What is this? She talked about this, 904 house 54 Did you just fall into that? What number did you

Crystal Duckworth  1:05:01  
actually be one that was available at the time? And it had a little ring to it, 904, house.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:07  
54 made me think I said, is she? Is that her street address or something? 54 What's the order? 904? House, 54 that's awesome. So reach out to Crystal. Obviously she's trying to recruit, and she's a leader. Obviously you heard her ideology today, and sit down with her. I'm sure she'd love to have a cup of coffee if you're considering and coming over to her brokerage. Thank you.