Educate, Empower, and Inform with Stephen Jones

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Best of the Best in real estate industry is what I bring to you each and every episode today is no different. I have a Florida State grad who has a master's degree from Liberty University. He changed lives through home ownerships. Helps others create generational wealth through real estate investing. He had 15 years in corporate America experience, probably even a little bit more. We'll get the details on that before becoming an agent 2018 he is a dedicated volunteer through his church and his been a mission trip leader. His numbers are solid and consistent both listing and buyer sides. Let's welcome Stephen Jones of cross view Realty to the show. All right, thank you for having Thank you. Hopefully there was I, was I somewhat correct in there? Obviously, it's translation. We talked about a little bit about LinkedIn and making sure that we have the those numbers in there. Yeah, we're doing good. Yeah, sure. You are a little bit younger than I am. I think you're great. You graduated in 2003 if I are correct, yeah, Florida State, let me think back on that, like, roll it, yeah,

Stephen Jones  2:08  
remember what's going on in the world at that time? Tracy, I have my What's the 30th college reunion here coming up in a few months in November, that I'm rolling into so But Steve, tell us a little bit. What were you from, and then what led you to Florida State, and kind of give us a vision. What were you thinking about doing? What was your initial career choices as you were going through college? Yeah, sure. First and foremost, thanks for having me. Love the podcast. Love what you're doing, just highlighting people here in the local Jacksonville area. I think it's wonderful. Thank you so thank you for having you. So for me, I grew up. I was born in Atlanta and then moved over to Central Illinois, Champaign, so it's about two and a half hours south of Chicago, and I've got just thinking of cold, but go ahead,

Stephen Jones  2:51  
it's cold and it's flat, and the only thing that's out there is corn and soybeans. So for as far as the eye can see, and one by one square miles, it's just farmland. And so I was there for a long time. Went through high school, there did sports, all that kind of stuff. Was a four sport athlete in high school, and then just wanted to get out of Central Illinois, just wanted to go see something different. And so my mom gave me a radius of four and a half hours, if you can go anywhere with that four and a half hour radius. And so everywhere that I picked was like a 10 hour radius, or even farther, Notre Dame's in there,

Tracy Hayes  3:30  
yeah.

Stephen Jones  3:30  
So it was no, we were definitely not. There was nothing central in the Midwest that I was deciding to go to. So I decided to just head south. And so went to tried a bunch of different schools throughout the south even the West Coast, and just decided on Florida State. Great, great place. Went there. Loved my education there. For me, it was very much. I was raised with a very strong work ethic, going all the way through, I mean, high school and then into college. And I was an out of state guy. So with out of state, guys. I mean, you're paying a lot of money to go there, and so I took it upon myself to, I mean, I wasn't out on the Friday or Saturday nights. I mean, I was in the library. For me, I had to work at school and just work, work, work. So that's why I buckled down and went hard and finished in four years and got out of there.

Tracy Hayes  4:20  
Was it something about Tallahassee, just where the campus was laid out? Because I think at that age, you know, I know I only applied to two places, and in the obviously, the one I went to was in Charleston, South Carolina, so that was easy to fall in love with there. I've done some visits over to Tallahassee. Never spent time there, but my entire wife side of the family is all Florida State. Yeah, they live and breathe that.

Stephen Jones  4:42  
Yeah, it's a it was when I went there gorgeous campus. It really in the panhandle, and especially, I mean, even here in Jacksonville, but much more so in the panhandle. You're a lot more in southern Georgia than you are Florida. In Tallahassee is very much like that. It really feels just like the good deep South. South, kind of like Savannah. Once you get kind of Thomasville, you got the rolling hills, you've got the big oaks, yeah, you've still got kind of plantations over there. So it was, the area was really nice. Campus was just gorgeous.

Tracy Hayes  5:12  
So what were you What are you envisioning? I mean, when you're studying there, what were you envisioning yourself doing? Or did you have a vision?

Stephen Jones  5:17  
And I went, so I'm a fourth generation sales person. So that's just kind of runs in the family deep. So did I necessarily want to get into sales? No, but I knew that I always had the ability to connect with people and communicate with them. So that's kind of what I started out. I just went got a business degree, got a marketing degree, and that was my goal. Was just get a degree, get out, get into the workforce as quick as I could.

Tracy Hayes  5:42  
And now was that a quick transition for you? We, I mean, because you had, you've had some high level corporate jobs, area sales managers, that kind of thing. Just know. So what was kind of your first thing out of college doing first thing out

Stephen Jones  5:55  
of college was I, I went to the Caribbean and worked at a dive shop for about a year, cool just to get Yeah. I mean, we say it's cool now, it was not after spending out of state money to send me to Florida State to then just pick up and we're gonna dive shop. So your diver, I was a diver back then, yes, yeah. So, yeah. So I packed two bags and booked a one way flight and was gone just by myself. Oh, that is so I decided to do that then before, I mean, yeah, instead of doing it, hey, once we get, once you get retired and all that, like, no, let's just go do it right now. Yeah, so I did that. And then there were some family things that brought me back home to Champaign, just with some health issues with some people. So I came back to Champaign, and then I got started looking for the corporate job, yeah, and that threw me into my first job out of college, quote, unquote, that wasn't on a boat or being fully tanned. That first job was I worked in the wholesale business. So wholesale sign and supplies. So helping sign companies, everything from the little especially election season, the little yard signs or realtor signs that you see, yeah, all the way up to billboards, vehicle wraps and all that kind of stuff. So I work for a company that sold all those supplies to the sign companies. So fast, signs, signs, now a sign, Rama, all that they buy all those materials from somebody so and I was that guy. Okay, so that job really taught me the ins and outs of business, the ins and outs of inventory customer turns like the machine that is a business.

Tracy Hayes  7:32  
Are you physically going out to the storefronts or the business owners or or may I take a Santa Roma Signora, or those type of places are as franchisees? Are they being told who they got to buy their materials from their suggestions?

Stephen Jones  7:47  
But it's really that comes down to the salesperson going out and connecting with them, okay, and really understanding their needs, right? Is that's what it comes down to. Because a lot of those people, they are franchises or, I mean, most of them are small business owners, or they go start, they worked at a franchise, and, oh, we're gonna go start our own sign shop and stuff like that. So that really gave me a lot of insight into how a small business works, what's important to them, what's, I mean, those type of things, and how much relationship matters most. And so that taught me a whole lot about that.

Tracy Hayes  8:18  
I would, you know, I'm just, I'm, just going through my mind right now, you know, because you're in your mid 20s at this point, right? And you're going in to these franchise owners, or small business owners, not the franchise is only just getting guidance, really. Like you said, those mom and pops, they're there. You might be endorsed by corporate, but I'm sure there's several other vendors you know, to give them choice. And you got to go out there and create those relationships. And those in your right, those guys are making their decisions just like they would making their own. You know, the average person is making their own household decisions, correct? They're making it in their business who they want to do business with, you know. And then then, you know, obviously dollars come in there a little bit, but then they have to build. And I think it's the, one of the key terms that I like to use a lot, is value, because we're going to bring that to the real estate conversation later, is, you know, what value are you adding to it? And that's going to that's a great learning time

Stephen Jones  9:14  
for Yeah, and this is where I start. I mean, you kind of see, I start to develop my personality in sales. Start develop my personality and business, and it's really aligned on trust and education is so even these people who are, you know they're buying, there's some things where you don't need to educate them a lot. On if they're buying 100 sheets of little 24 by 18 coral that you're sticking in a yard, you don't need to educate anybody. It's a price game. Doesn't matter. It's price game. But on some of the things where they're talking about, Hey, should we expand our business into this model? What should we do when we're buying capital equipment? How should we do this so that really comes into trust and education? Yes, and that's how you differentiate yourself in any business.

Tracy Hayes  9:56  
Because when you start getting into that inventory. Inventory, yeah, type of business, yeah, it's inventory. Can you get it? Because I'd rather you inventory as, yeah, I call you when I need it.

Stephen Jones  10:06  
And so that was a big benefit for me to just to start seeing how businesses inventory, how cash flow works, yeah, I mean, and then starting to get in, that was my first real experience with, I mean, cold calling, with working a CRM, staying on, developing a schedule, etc, etc, etc, just those things that you really need once you get into business that they don't teach you in school, they don't teach you. I mean, so that was where that really came and I've really enjoyed that, and that allowed me to travel throughout the country, travel throughout Florida and the Southeast, and develop that. And then that opportunity kind of came to its came to its end. From there, I jumped over. I really enjoyed doing larger purchases for people, so I jumped into the industrial equipment scenario. And this was actually a really cool job that no one knows about. No, it's super cool. And for all my gear heads out there, they're gonna love this. So from there, I went to work in the forestry and shipping business. So it would take, and this is just cool, but for chopping up trees or biomass, taking trees, you'd put them into 1000 horsepower machine that had a massive barrel, like 48 inch barrel with sharp knives on it, and it would feed a tree straight into it, right, and chop it up in like 30

Tracy Hayes  11:26  
seconds, just grind it up, or actually, just trim the bark, no, grind it all the way up,

Stephen Jones  11:30  
just nothing dish, yeah, into malts. And it would do that. So you would see, and I'm not talking, you're thinking, Oh, well, it's probably, like the stuff you see pulled behind and like tree, like we wouldn't even touch those because they were too small. So think of something with 1000 horsepower engine on it that's put, like, it's awesome.

Tracy Hayes  11:46  
It is amazing. Some of the equipment they design, you see it on, you know, whether someone's doing a reel on it, or, you know, on YouTube, or even, oh yeah, the History Channel discovery, where the machines are made, where these, these things, literally grab the tree, cut it and then cut it in, then strip it and then basically drop it in the pile for the truck to come. Fell a bunch of Yeah, yeah. Amazing. Some of the stuff that does, yeah.

Stephen Jones  12:09  
And so that's really cool. And for me, that was really good to just get into a different industry, different people, because all of that was out, literally in the woods of Florida and Georgia and Alabama. Most people don't know. And this isn't real estate, but I'm a, as my wife will say, I'm a wealth of just kind of useless information. So yeah, here in the southeast, we've got the largest wood basket in the world. So developed wood basket that can be processed, re harvest. People think of, oh, you're cutting the tree. Well, they grow back in 15 years. I mean, it's just like corn or soybeans. You plant it and it grows. It's a crop. So really getting out there and developing even more the education and the trust, because these were definitely small business owners. I mean, these were in a large purchase, you know? I mean, we're talking, yeah, we're talking half a million to a million dollars. And, I mean, it's a big capital expenditure. Then we're talking about, how does this depreciate? How is this going to I was the guy coming in where these are loggers out in the woods who are the salt of the earth. Awesome People still friends with some of them to this day, right? But bringing it saying, hey, let's run a spreadsheet here and show you your cost per load to operate. Hey, here's what you're going to gross from the plant. Like, let's do it that way, in really taking that education, once you start educating somebody, then that trust level,

Tracy Hayes  13:27  
well, when you're grinding up into mulch, I mean, I imagine, obviously, all the land clearing around here, you see these machines out here turn doing similar stuff. Obviously, probably we're selling, also machines that, because we're actually, literally taking the tree and selling it to a lumber yard, or, yeah, selling paper, paper mills, the Georgia, Pacific's, or whatever, that sort of thing, to the because it's if they're not using the machine, it's labor intensive, which is a huge expense liability, because people get hurt and industry, but all you know, but then, can you be almost, is it smart for them To be, to be able to turn the land quickly and then replant? Is that? Is that a thought in that? Because it takes 15 years. So what's another month, right?

Stephen Jones  14:08  
Yeah, so that's I mean that. So that's when you start getting into the whole ecosystem of that business is where it's not just, hey, the guys who are clearing the land and chipping the land is just one cog in the wheel you've got. And I had to meet with, I mean, guys who owned, you know, 10, 20,000 acres of land developers of they're trying to figure out how to do this. How does this piece fit into it? Then you've got the guys who are going to harvest the wood, who are going to chip the wood, the guys who are actually going to, let's say they're going to replant it. That's somebody completely different. And so there's many different things. Or even guys we were talking about setting up biomass plants and the nobody knows this but because they're not in that business. But a large portion of the wood here in the southeast is actually shipped overseas to the UK and Germany and stuff like that, in the form of little pellets. Like you'd see them for like your trigger, like the little wood pellets then feed through and it runs your trigger grill. Think of it on a massive scale. They do that and then process those wood pellets, send them over to former coal fired plants, and they use them as renewable energy. So that's yes one. So you never knew that. You don't know that and so, but that was really cool for me, just to learn through that and be being able to, on any given day, I could talk from a range of a guy who was turning a wrench, changing the oil on a machine, and talking about, hey, how do we do I mean, how do we change out this transmission of having that conversation, right, which is a certain skill set for that person and those guys are geniuses. Nobody just ever hears about them all the way up to Hey, talking to a CEO of a multinational company, saying, hey, we want to talk about putting in a wood processing plant to do chips and so and everywhere in between, business owners, I mean, guys who are driving trucks. Hey, how do we so everywhere in between. That's I got that experience.

Tracy Hayes  16:02  
So how did so how? Alright. So now, what do you what now you're probably around 30, yep, yep, and you're working through this to make one of these sales isn't coming in, throwing the pamphlet out and saying, hey, oh no, yeah. This takes time for them to develop. How do you create a pipeline of business when you when you got all those different

Stephen Jones  16:25  
steps going on there, you drive 1000 miles a week. That's literally what I did, yeah. And so I was covering everywhere from Ocala to Atlanta. And, I mean, and it's just not like, hey, let's drive down the road to, I mean, this office building, and you walk in, oh, no, no. They're deep backwoods. You're driving four wheel drive, yeah? I mean, you might not even be able to find them. I mean, it's marked, if you've ever driven down a country road in the southeast and you see, like, the orange flags, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  16:53  
it doesn't have an address yet.

Stephen Jones  16:55  
Acre lot. It's like, oh, hey, you remember there's this tree and then there's a cow, so you're gonna go down the tree, then you're gonna turn right and you're gonna see this cow turn left at the road after that. Like, yeah, that's what you got into, yeah. And this was just that kind of the beginning of cell phones and dropping pins, and so it was literally, but it's really just working. It's working and making phone calls.

Tracy Hayes  17:18  
And I imagine a lot of them are family businesses that they've had for whatever generations. Oh yeah. So how do you start to talk about relationships in the previous job? And this is a different type of Oh yeah.

Stephen Jones  17:32  
So, I mean, there was one where a guy called me up, we're developing a product. The manufacturer had a product of a certain size chip, and he called me up and he said, Hey, I want you to come out. And so went out, out Panama City area, and we literally went, sat down for dinner at his house with his wife and his son. And every we sat there and we talked the entire time. Didn't bring up business, right, but it was, hey, we're going to talk first like I want to understand what type of person you are before I trust you with my business 100% and just sitting there, and I mean, talking about life, talking about, I mean, God and family and all those things. And then it was, we were sent. I remember it like was yesterday, and it was, it was Jerry, Jerry's great guy, Jerry Sapp, out of Chipley, Florida. And so we were sitting there, and it was 10 o'clock at night, and about to call to bed. And I mean, I was getting tired, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm this young sales guy ready to go. Like, man, I've been sitting here all night and, like, driven out here doing everything. Like, when are we going to talk about some business? Like, look, then he goes, Well, Steven, you think we can make money at this? Said, yeah, we can make and then we got into it. But it was learning to be on their timeframe, not mine, in learning to Hey, they've they've brought you in here for a reason. Your job is to meet them where they're at, not to push them where you want them

Tracy Hayes  18:49  
to be. I think a lot of people don't, you know, we think of the big corporate farms or that sort of thing. But a lot of this business even, I think from what the perception is, even the orange grove business is all get liked at this family owned, yeah, long time. And they have it, and you want to come in and do but they don't. It's not a hey, let me I just need a machine. Which machine do you have? And it's not like there's a 20 other it's not like a car, where you have 20 other manufacturers out there or models to choose from. There's only a couple and who they're going to buy from, yeah, and creating that really they're not coming and spending the time with them. It's kind of like that, just to get a just came to me talking about Florida State and that college coach coming to get that top recruit. Yeah, everybody's after that top recruit, but it's the coach who comes and sits down and talks about what life is going to be like for their son or daughter and that sort of thing. And you've got to, you've got to win that over, from that standpoint for them, the because that check is big, yeah,

Stephen Jones  19:53  
well, and it's people's livelihood, yep. And that's in, I

Tracy Hayes  19:56  
mean, going, going back decades with their family a lot of times, Oh, yeah.

Stephen Jones  20:00  
Yeah, I mean, it's their livelihood, and they employ a lot of people. I mean, they're, they're small businesses and so and we'll kind of see that now that we're talking about this. I mean, we kind of see that trend for me, kind of throughout the rest of my career. So after that business, it was, we hit a big slowdown that was kind of round, oh, eight, stuff like that. And so that. How that affected everybody. That business ended for a while. At that point, my wife was a nurse at Mayo here in Jacksonville, so it was hard to come across a job. So she worked for a while. I stayed home. We had a newborn, one our first daughter, she was newborn, and then did some kind of side jobs here and there, just to bring in money, and then found a job back kind of in the industrial field, working with big companies, industrial plants, stuff like that. We stayed there for I stayed there for a while, until we had our second daughter, and she had a lot of medical issues when she was born, which then after that, I wanted to get into something which gave me more opportunity, which led me to my last corporate job, which was in the back in the construction business, and so selling big excavators, wheel loaders and things like that.

Tracy Hayes  21:07  
So what leads you to your trump you're all over this real estate from the same way what everyone else is doing with their real Yeah. What leads you to actually make, you know, come and and cross view is the first brokerage you come to from what I

Stephen Jones  21:21  
Yeah, so cross feeds, the first brokerage. When I got out of corporate America with that job, I ended up I was a director. And, I mean, had North Florida, Orlando, Tampa. I mean, lot of people working under me. And it was just long. It was drained. It was I got away from, Hey, how can I help the person sitting across from me. How can I help them grow their business? How can I help them, etc, etc, etc. So when we got out of that, when I got out of that, I was really looking for something, something to do. My wife and I talked about, hey, you know what corporate America is not, because I would always butt heads, because it's Hey, how can we help the customer? How can we do this? We don't need to be worried about, Hey, are we saving X amount. What is it right for the customer? I'm pretty black and white in that range of like, are we helping the customer? Like? Is this making their life better? Like? Because that's what's going to bring people back over and over.

Tracy Hayes  22:15  
Heard a phrase from a somebody managing the spreadsheets, yeah, and that you're dying. If you're sitting you're dying, if that's what you actually are coming down to, that you have to manage the spreadsheets to keep your job to the next person to validate. Oh, look at these spreadsheets. Look at my numbers here. You don't you're missing. You're missing.

Stephen Jones  22:36  
And that's what, yeah, that's what happened to me in my last corporate job, is it got to that, and I lost it, and then it didn't end well, because it was, I mean, it was just all over the place, yeah, and so talking with people that I know and respect, they gave me some insight of saying, hey, you'd probably be really good in real estate. So I got, I connected with a gentleman who used to be the broker, Chris Hone, here in Jacksonville. He was here for many, many years, and he's now moved out to Utah. But I was in a Bible study with Chris home years ago, and he was running the brokerage with Jennifer Hendry, who is still the broker on record now. And I just called Chris up one day. I'm like, dude, talk to me about real estate. He's like, Are you sure you want to talk about like, yes, come on, let's talk about this. Man, yeah. And so we went and sat down at Panera, and he, I asked him every question in everything, of good, bad and different, all this kind of stuff. And he literally just tried to scare me out of it, like, and I almost do that to this day with people that talk to me about it, like, Are you sure you want to do this? Like, this is like, Oh,

Tracy Hayes  23:41  
and 80% of the, you know, yeah, of those people you're in that that testing class with, they're gone in two years. Yeah, yeah, you Yeah. You really

Stephen Jones  23:50  
want to. So he really, and I can't thank him enough. I still talk to him to this day, wonderful friend, great mentor. But he really talked to me about the industry, and then, as you talk about I went out and interviewed brokerages. Like by this time I've been in Jacksonville, 15, 1617, years, I went out and just started interviewing brokerages. Because, for me, with a business background, I knew what it and I'm a big believer in buckets in the 12,000 hour. You've probably heard this before. It's that's 12,000 hours to mastery. I'm a huge believer in that.

Tracy Hayes  24:22  
Or you gotta do something 10,000 times. Yeah, exactly. So.

Stephen Jones  24:25  
So with that being said, I didn't need to work on and some people come into the business, they need to work on their sales abilities. Great. I didn't need to work on that. Or they need to work on, hey, how do you run a business? How do you manage your time? I'm good with that. For me, it was, hey, how can I learn real estate as fast as possible. And for me, learning real estate was I learned by doing so. I wanted to get as many transactions as possible. I could have cared less about the split. Didn't care about split, right? I walked into people and said, Okay, where am I going to get my leads? And. How are you going to teach me? That was my thing. And I went to all the big brokerages in Jacksonville, and it was just I landed back on cross view Realty because they were saying, hey, Steven, we're going to give you leads, and we care about you, just not as a producer, like we care a lot more about you as a person than we do a producer. So that spoke to me. And just being like minded, cross view reality is a Christian based company organized with a name cross view Realty, I mean it, that's what it sets up to be, and that's center of my life. Of is, how can I serve God? By serving people?

Tracy Hayes  25:37  
How important is someone's watching here? I bring this up on every episode, because I think it's so important when you're like I said, 80% of the people who get licensed the same month you do, 24 months are not renewing. They're out. And how important it is for someone to come in. And I think you when you were telling me that part of the story, it made me think when you went from the previous jobs of the working with the tree stuff and then the signs before, but then you had the corporate America job where now it's not you and the customer or building a relationship, it's you were more, you know, guiding a lot of employees. You're looking at spreadsheets, your your personalization of it was taken away. Yeah, you had to. Was there a time where you really dug in that? How my next job, my next career? In this case, you chose real estate. How you want that? How are you going to run that business? How do you want that business to be for you every day? You know, I imagine you've probably searched back. I want to actually deal with the buyer.

Stephen Jones  26:45  
Yeah, so I mean, Tracy, that's a great question. And I think a lot of that comes from personal growth and really trying to figure out who you are and what you do. And this is something I'm enjoying doing now, of bringing team members on and guiding counseling people. Is who are you and how are you and how are you trying to become a better person? And then where do your and heck, I just had a former customer call me late last week. She's transferring jobs, and she was like, Hey, should I get into real estate? Should I do this? Should I do this? And I said, I'd love to have you. But the most important thing is, hey, what are your strengths? What are your strengths and just your personality, what are your strengths? What are your gifts? What is just something you can do that nobody else can do? What's your strengths? What's your gifts? And then what are you passionate about? Once you overlap those three things? Yes, Craig Groeschel wrote a book about it called chizone, where once you overlap those three things, that's that's where you're going to be, and at that point you don't need to worry about money. Money will come because everybody, and throughout all these jobs that I went on, as I chase money, it's like, oh, well, this is gonna make me this. This gonna do this. This is gonna do this with real estate. It's, hey, all those three little things fit together, and then boom, explode it. Yes, yeah. And so it's so much. How are you searching that out for yourself. And then that's what I needed. When I talked to came back, talked across your reality, and it's like, they're like, Hey, we're going to be here for you. We're going to help guide you through this, help you build a business, not just hey, hey, hang your license at our brokerage. And the fees are this and this and this and this. And you'll know,

Tracy Hayes  28:18  
right, which you don't even have, people don't even fathom what's out there. I mean, obviously there are some brokers actually sit down there and do the math for you. But I always love the question, well, how much? Well, how many homes do you want to sell? I want to sell millions of homes. I mean, what's the answer to that question? What do I want to do? It's what can I do? And what is, what is actually reasonable? And I think that loses a lot of people on that well.

Stephen Jones  28:43  
And what it does, and I have this conversation with people now, is it's not, and I'd say this to anybody who's interviewing brokers, if, when you're interviewing a broker, they shouldn't be talking about splits. They should be talking about, Hey, how can I make you more money? Because splits are one thing, but how can I make you more money with the lifestyle you want to live? Is because some people, and the people who you have on your podcast, they'll tell you, once you start doing 40, 5060, transactions, that changes your life in terms of what you were doing, with your family, with your church, with extracurricular like, it changes like and not everybody wants that, and that's fine, like, there's nothing wrong with that. You've got to figure out. What I always tell people is, what type of life do you want to live? Let's figure that out. Let's have that conversation and then work backwards. That's deep, yeah, what kind of life

Stephen Jones  29:35  
do you want? Some really deep stuff here, Steve, we're good. Hey, this is why. This is where I liked

Stephen Jones  29:41  
it, yeah. And so this is, that's what you got to ask yourself, is, what type of life do you want to live? And hey, if you want to do one or two deals a month, awesome, great. Let's set you up to be successful doing that, versus, hey, if you want to run, and that's what I told Crossfield. I was like, I want to run, right? Like, let. Go like, show me how to run like. Show me. Help me learn. Help me. Give me one of the days in a life of running is going to be like, Yeah, show me how to run like. I want to be a top performer. Let's go like, and that's what Chris and Jennifer. And now Jennifer's like, I said Chris moved but that's what Jennifer still to this day, and she's one of the best leaders I've ever worked for, and a wonderful woman who just is always challenging me as a high performing agent of, hey, what are you doing here? How are we doing this? How are we doing so it's ongoing.

Tracy Hayes  30:32  
So when you're if you're talking to some new people, because it's in, you know, yeah, because this goes across all spectrums of sales, whether it's in loan officer world, because I see it in our world as well. There are those people who, you know, they set their goal for two or three. To me, that's setting it up for failure. Because, you know, it's, it's kind of thing. Well, I just, I just want to do two or three. Well, then it only becomes one

Stephen Jones  30:55  
or two, yeah. And so when you get into that, Tracy is, and that's great. Question is like, how do we and now we're just talking business and sales and all that in general, which I can do this all. Let's go so doing that. It's and I never focus on the outcome. Because once you focus on the outcome, it kind of changes everything.

Tracy Hayes  31:15  
Just not gonna make note. Common theme of top producers is that exactly that. Yeah. Focus on the process.

Stephen Jones  31:22  
Yeah, focus on the process. And, I mean, because that's the beautiful thing about real estate, or about loans or about anything is, I mean, it's all numbers based you can break it down to saying, hey, if I want to do one deal, it's going to take me X amount of phone calls and X amount appointments to get. Usually it's about 100 to 10 to one of, like, 100 calls. Maybe gets you 10 appointments. Those 10 appointments, one of those is going to get converted into a contract, right? So if you know that, great. And that's what I tell people all the time, oh, well, we're not walking. Oh, we're not hitting this. And then, well, how many calls you make? Oh, I don't like prospect. Okay, have fun. Like, that's it.

Tracy Hayes  32:07  
Well, I will. I'm going to insert that not their. Prospecting is the biggest whether it's a loan officer world or your world is our that is the biggest thing that we do, unless you're in a call center that literally is out there. As I grew up in Quicken Loans, and when I was originally at loan depot, in the call center environment, where they're spending tons of money. Unless you have tons of money to buy those leads, you've got to get out there. Now, I think there's different ways back to your crossing. You know what you like to do, what's you know you're good at, and what you know, what was it was, it was, what's

Stephen Jones  32:41  
your unique, yeah, what's your skills, what's your giftings, and what's your passion,

Tracy Hayes  32:45  
and what's passion, yeah? And there's, I mean, there's people who like to be social, if you're Yeah, boom. There's all that's going on. Get out there. See people,

Stephen Jones  32:54  
yeah, some people are networkers. And, I mean, like, there's some people in the real estate business who, mean, you don't walk into wherever Publix, and they'll get like, three leads out of Publix, yeah?

Tracy Hayes  33:05  
Like, they'll stand there in line and they go, Hey, by the way, yeah, awesome.

Stephen Jones  33:10  
You were great at that. They deliberately get in a line, correct? I'm terrible

Stephen Jones  33:14  
at that, yeah? Like, I don't do that. Like, for me, it's Hey, because I grew up in the business world, I'll sit down and crank out 100 phone calls. I'm good at that. Like, I have no problem with that. Where other those people will be, like, 100 phone call I'm not doing that. Like, that's fine. You've got to know what you're good at, what you enjoy, and then tailor your business to that.

Tracy Hayes  33:35  
How can have you ever have you used a coach before?

Stephen Jones  33:39  
So I'm a part not a real estate specific coach, so I'm a part of a mastermind called Iron sharpens. Iron view from the top. It is a mastermind of like minded business professionals from all across the country, everybody from some people who are W twos to people like myself run my own small business, all the way up to people who've had 710 figure exits. And it's, how do you come around each other and try to increase all five areas of your life? So it

Tracy Hayes  34:11  
was just tricky about the subject of finding those that what you're passionate about, what's you know, unique about finding those things? Sometimes you need to, need to find somebody who is, of course, oh, without a doubt, you know they're in this I highlight what those things actually are.

Stephen Jones  34:25  
Tracy, highly suggest anybody who's out there find yourself a coach. Find yourself a mentor, even more a coach, especially somebody you got to pay for. Like, that's where the line gets crossed. Like people won't do it, because, man, this is expensive. I'm not going to spend the money on this. Well, what you're doing is you're not spending the money on growing yourself like that's where people like the mindset changes is, hey, we'll go spend two grand a month on Zillow leads, sure. Great. Oh, no problem with that. But you're not going to spend 500 bucks a month on making yourself a better person, right? Making yourself a better business owner. But. Her husband turn

Tracy Hayes  35:01  
that $2,000 and Zillow leads into much more exactly, you're much better or a person, correct? That's kind of, you know, it took me. I've talked to so many younger people. I'm so jealous of them, because I wish I came to this realization 20 years ago. Oh, yeah, but it's something that I realized two or three years ago. And one of the reasons, you know, starting the podcast to sit down with top people, and you know, surrounding yourself by that sort of in exchange those ideas, finding out what you are really good at. And sometimes you need that coach to pound that into you a little bit dry, make you dig deep into those things. Because the one that, whether it's loan officer world or especially the real estate world. Every every one of these top agents run their business differently. Yeah, there's no, there's no exact cookie cutter. Here's the book. Do it. There's a book. It gives you an outline. And then your personality, what you like to do, what you're passionate about doing, has to be inserted into

Stephen Jones  35:55  
has to be inserted into it. And the big thing too, is, is, I mean, there's no you can make it whatever you want to make it. You can have a lifestyle business. Great. Have a lifestyle business that's awesome. You can grow and have a huge team and run it like a corporation. Awesome. You could just be a little Navy SEAL unit and have five or six and you're just crushing it. And that's what you want. There's no right or wrong, but the big thing is, is you've got to find what you want to do, and go do it,

Tracy Hayes  36:22  
and while doing it in those things, and that's where. And then it's where my Grant Cardone, because in 10, exit 10, to double down on what you really like doing. John Brooks, with momentum, he put me on to it. The Clifton assessment is what he uses. And he says he gives it to all his agents to find out how they like the prospect? Yeah, some people are like to pull those leads down. Some people don't like making calling on those leads. He's had an agent that just blew her business up because they actually found out that's what she's really good at, yeah, and she likes doing it 10 exit.

Stephen Jones  36:55  
Well, I met in sidebar here. I met a guy. He called me up to do I had a listing over in Orange Park, and he said, Hey, I'd like to do an open house on your listing. And it didn't work out. But then we just got to talking. And the way he got his business in, I would never do this, and it just blew my mind. But the way he got his business is he would go out on Friday, Saturday, Sunday to and he would farm certain areas of people who had, like, big dumpsters, or there's stuff out front, or any, no, seriously, I hear you, or any garage sales or estate sales, and he'd walk up and just start, a very nice guy walk up, hey, how you doing? What's you guys remodeling it in there? What's going on? And that's how he got all this business. And I was like, that's a great like, I would never do that. Like, that's not in my personality. That's but that's he loves doing it, yeah. And so there's always a different way to do something. Find what you like and go to it. You talked

Tracy Hayes  37:48  
about your mastermind, that you're but what do you obviously, you're very involved in your church. So, you know, the Bible study, you mentioned that as well. What are some other things that you do to you know, we've talked about working on yourself. Are you a podcast listener, a book listener? Do you follow anyone individually

Stephen Jones  38:05  
or, oh, yeah, great question. Now you're really opening up, like, Pandora's Box. Like, now we're really getting into it. Real Estate's gonna go out the window very quickly. Like, so I've always I'm a personal growth chunky, and always have been. It really got started out for me on entree leadership through Dave Ramsey years ago, Ken Coleman and the ken Coleman podcast. Great guy, if you never listen to him, great interview question. King Coleman. Ken Coleman, yeah. So I got started with that years ago, and then into kind of Bible podcasts. And then right now, I always have for real estate. I've got the team building podcast by Jeff cone, who's out in Nebraska. He was with Berkshire Hathaway and then kW elite, biggest run, the biggest team in the world. So listen to Jeff cone a lot. I listen to the real estate guys Radio Network, which is more of investing and investing on a larger scale, not just single family homes, which are awesome. You should do that. That's part of it. But hey, how can you invest doors? Well, not even that, but even getting into what does it look like for commercial? Because in residential, everybody's, oh, let's go buy a single family home. Great. I own a single family home as an investment. That's awesome. But I'm not limited to that. I'm also going to look at, hey, can I go buy farmland? Can I go buy commercial? Can I buy this building and so so many different things. And it just gives you a different perspective. Yeah, because we don't know what we don't know. And then also, I listen to a lot of, throw some Brian Buffini in there. And then also, I've always got books on tape, books on tape with as much driving as I do, real estate books on tape all the time.

Tracy Hayes  39:39  
I think you know one thing I've learned. And you know, I started off in last year 21 learning about podcasts, hired a coach, learn everything about how this works, went to a convention in August, becoming a junkie on the podcast. I'd never listened to a podcast before, and actually, I started purging him, and then I started. Following this group, the mortgage market animals, yep. And which, in, you know, you're talking about the other real estate podcasts that are out there, even if you're not following every single episode, just, you know, I'm popping around listening, what's their subject today? Because you're in the car and you got 30 minutes to kill you get there, and it just, it's to me. And as you, I'm sure you agree with this one. It gives you energy, because they're generally positive. Generally have a positive person on there, and it's like, but then your whole vision of the industry just starts growing and growing. And if you if you're just going through your day to day things, and you're not taking in some of that stuff, positive stuff from the outside, you're not expanding what things like, like the multiple doors, you know, buying multiple family listings, or commercial property, opening up stuff, if you just focused on it, when that customer comes in front of you, which could be a huge opportunity for you, and starts talking about a commercial building, or buying a four family unit or whatever, and you're not, you don't have any mental knowledge of that or or what the experts are talking about. You're really shortening yourself on what you can do in the industry.

Stephen Jones  41:04  
So the big, and I agree with you, and I think what we're getting down to is the difference between you, me, other agents, other loan officers, is the people we talk to, the books we read and the podcast we listen to. Yeah, like, that's the difference. That's, everybody's got 24 hours in a day. And so what are you doing to grow yourself? And you're right, it gives you other opportunities. It allows you to talk differently, think differently, expand, run your business better. So that's I'm a big, big proponent of that, because if you're not doing that, I get a

Tracy Hayes  41:38  
lot of energy from it. I get I get motivated from just listening to a positive story, well, it triggers thoughts in my head, and that's what gets me going. Well, I'm the visionary, yes?

Stephen Jones  41:49  
So, I mean, I've never, I mean, I've never met a successful pessimist. So we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. So very good. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  41:57  
All right. I took this, this quote from, I can't remember which which side it was, but this is directly yours. My passion is to educate, empower and inform people throughout the buying selling process, be it for your personal home investment in company growth that more or less like your mission statement and a lot of things that we've been talking about that. So what are some you know, if you're you're working with somebody never sold. You know they're thinking about, whether they're talking about thinking about getting real estate, or they're in real estate, and you're mentoring them as you it sounds like you're doing something at cross view. Some of these things, what are some little things that that are Steven's little spins on your when you're working through a transaction, buying or something? What are some things that you do to talk about building that relationship with them, when we talked about your previous things, but now bringing it to real estate, what are some things that you know that you like to do to just make it yours?

Stephen Jones  42:51  
So I think the big thing like, let's talk let's talk buyers. Right now, if we're talking buyers, and you work with a lot of buyers, a lot of I mean, the big thing people want to know. And I mean, that's for people don't know. Here in Jackson, Northeast Florida, there's probably 10,000 realtors in Northeast Florida, and there's so many of them, if you go ask anybody, hey, do you know any realtors, you could probably get five recommendations in two seconds. Same with loan guy, like, Hey, do you know any loan officers who does your mark? Oh, use this guy. He's like, so it's everywhere, yeah. So the big thing that I do is, one, ask good questions, ask good questions, and then shut up like, you don't need to talk, right? They're not. You need to find out. They want to tell you what's going on. They want to tell you what's happening. Your job is to ask good questions for them to talk even more. And then, really for me, and I leave this on my voicemails. And I've, after we finish this, I'm going to go start prospecting, but I leave this on my voicemails of, hey, there's no pressure and no obligation. I always sit down, either virtually or in person and do a new home buyer consultation. Of, I'm going to make sure that they know everything that's coming from, I mean, from talking to a realtor, how to look on a website. I mean, what it looks like to get pre qualified, pre approved, what the inspector I go through the whole

Tracy Hayes  44:10  
thing. Don't go into new construction

Stephen Jones  44:12  
without a realtor. Yeah. So my goal, literally, my goal, is just to educate and empower somebody to make an informed decision. Because with that, I mean, you can think about it, you've we've all done it before. We've made a decision where we're not educated or we're not informed. Usually that decision goes pretty bad, but when we do make an educated and informed decision, really, no matter what happens at the end of it, you go, Well, I made the best decision with the information I had. Yeah, and you don't really like, even if it turned out kind of bad, you're still like, Well, I mean, you live and you learn, but I made the best decision, right? That's one in, especially right now, in this market with, especially with, I mean, the millennials are the largest home buyers right now. They've never been through this before. These are their first time homes. Or, yeah, they maybe bought one seven years ago, but they don't remember any of it, right? And that's. Fine, that's no big deal. And so that's really my goal. Is just and once again, I take it all the way back to the beginning in my first career of like, How can I educate people, once on the home buying process, what you should run into, what you shouldn't like be aware of, that is, I want to be their guide through the process, right? That's it. I'm not there. I can't,

Tracy Hayes  45:20  
can we're building a lot of credibility, yeah, because you're taking the time without, yeah, well, I'm their guy trying to close them. They're talking to you, so they're in front of you. And in a sense, they, they are closed now you just, you're, you're educating them, yeah? But like you said, you know, the the important, I think, is one of the important things, the first thing, one of the first things you said was, I asked a question, and and I listen, yeah. And, you know, as I was talking to a bunch of Realtors the other day, and this thought, just, you know, came to me and and they started talking about interest rates, I said, Hold on a second. All right, I realized the only question they know to ask a loan officer is, what's your interest rate? But when they talk to you as a realtor and comparing you to other real estate agents, whether or not they should use you. Do you start talking about your commission? No, then why are you talking about the interest rate? Yeah, the reality is, you don't know enough about it. One, two, they don't actually have a home at this moment in time. Yeah, we will talk ranges. But you need, you need to find you need to get over and beyond that initial question they have, because it's the only question they can think of, yeah, they don't know what questions asked, so you need to hold their hand and lead them into the questions

Stephen Jones  46:27  
they should be exactly yeah, you need to. And that's where it comes back to the podcast, the books, the mentors you have of being able to ask those questions, of being able to once again, I don't I really focus on, how can I serve people? Like, literally, in my beliefs, is, hey, the way that I serve God is by serving people, and if I'm educating people and putting them first. And I mean, I'll work with any price range. I mean, I've got a $10,000 piece of land right now, and after this, I'm going to a million dollar listing. So, like, I mean, I will serve anybody, because I know that that person needs help, right? Like, I mean, I worked with one lady who she had, it was in downtown Jacksonville, in Springfield. The home had been vacant for 32 years. She had gone through, like, called, like, 50 realtors, no one take it. 32 years the house has been vacant, yeah, wow. And it was actually still in really good shape, other than the big hole in the floor, but other than that, like it was in really good shape, and so we but nobody else talked to and, I mean, it ended up being like $20,000 and I worked for four years on this. Four years because it was in probate and then somebody else died. So isn't a second probate and all this kind, but once again, that woman need help like, she needed somebody to help her, like, and that's what's most important, because if you put the customers first, you're you're going to be successful.

Tracy Hayes  47:54  
Well, my phrase that I always like to use is you never know what rock you're going to Oh, yeah. And that one that you never know, just because that person doesn't look like they have a lot, that they might have a friend that has a lot, yeah, and you don't, you just don't know. You don't know what. Goes back to a word we used earlier. All the things that we're just, you know, you were trying to is value, and when it comes down to, you know, the commission, you continue to, it appears your mission just add value. Add value. Add value. Here's my expertise. I'm gonna, you know, we're gonna take care of you, and then, like I said, the money will follow by continuing to add value. Of course, what would you say was probably in what's been for for you, all four years you've been across you, I saw your thing last month. Your biggest mistake that you've made in real estate, or at least something that you tell a new agent, don't

Stephen Jones  48:47  
do that. I did that. They don't want to do that. That's

Stephen Jones  48:50  
a really good question. Believing that the good times will last so and resting on your laurels. Yeah, I think that's the once you get a little bit too big for your own britches, that's when you're like, oh, pride comes before the phone. So I mean really, just the advice I always give to new agents is, once again, figure out what you want to do, have your goals. And cross view really helped me with that, and make sure you're doing the things every day to do it. That's what Jen would always pound it in my head, like, are you doing? Like, Oh, man, I'm not getting this. Well, you've been prospecting. Have you been doing this? Have you been like, so that's the thing that I would say to new agents, is like, hey, focus on the

Tracy Hayes  49:29  
daily and consistency sounds like a word.

Stephen Jones  49:33  
Consistency is oh yeah, without a doubt, consistency is key in just good times are bad. I mean, I remember going into the office. I mean, I would always be there Saturday morning prospecting, like just 80 100, 150 calls Saturday morning all the time, and just my wife. I'd come home and, I mean, no showings afterwards, my wife, Hey, how'd it go? I didn't talk to one person, just voicemails. Do it next? Like you need. Keep doing how to keep doing you got to keep doing it. Keep doing it. And so that's the thing to really focus on. It's just being consistent what you want

Tracy Hayes  50:06  
to do. My first 12 years of my career was in the in the call center from cook and loans and loan depot. And I would get, I would log in as early as possible on Saturday morning, because the, you know, the calls will come in, and just to try to grab that one customer and do a deal, yeah? And by, hopefully by noontime. And then just, I felt that made, that made my day. Got it now, you know, I'm, I did my deal for the weekend, and I'm already going into the week, yeah, under my belt,

Stephen Jones  50:35  
oh yeah. And that's, and, I mean, I know this is gonna sound weird, but I like, no's just as much as I like, yeses. Like, I really do, like, somebody telling me, yeah, no, we're

Unknown Speaker  50:45  
good. What makes you good, Steven?

Stephen Jones  50:49  
Because for me, one it's a time thing. Like, I'm like, hey, if no, we already found a house. Great. That's awesome. Like, I'm happy when I get told that, like, congratulations. That's great. I hope you make it a home. If you ever need anything in terms of vendors or anything like that, I'll share all my contacts with you no problem. Or if you ever have any questions,

Tracy Hayes  51:08  
do you when you actually get somebody on the phone like that? I was just thinking, because you're making a lot of calls, and I said, you make, may make 100 calls, and three or four people you actually talk to if you're like, do you, even though they may have said no, whatever, do you let me send them a card or just something to say, yeah, thanks for talking to me for 30 seconds.

Stephen Jones  51:25  
Without a doubt, yeah, without a doubt. You definitely do that. Because it's, it's about that relationship. It's, I mean, perfect example. About two years ago, I had a lead that came in and seller lead and the property her mother had passed away. It was, it had to go through probate, then it had to go through foreclosure, and it was right at foreclosure. And we spent a bunch of time, brought in investors, brought in people to all this kind of stuff. And, I mean, spent a good amount of time on it. And then she said, Steven, I just don't want to do it. We're going to let it go through foreclosure. Boom, there you go. And I said, Hey, no problem. Completely understand that's I mean, if that's the way it worked out best for their family, great, awesome. Like, I was upset for a second, but at the end of the day, hey, there you go. And so she said, but just in the future. So, you know, in the next maybe 356, years, we'd probably sell our house and go somewhere else. And she goes, I'd really like for you to come and talk to come and talk to us from good support. I said, Sure, no problem. And then it was last Wednesday, her name rang on my phone. I'm like, what? She goes, Steven, we're ready to sell our house. That's great. Went on listing appointment on Saturday, and they're listed in beginning September.

Tracy Hayes  52:35  
That That right there. I mean that that that's our industry. And I think a lot of people just they don't understand that the relationships and going out and touching those people, staying top of mind, obviously, social media has helped us a lot. Staying top of mind of things, sending out the cards. You know, it's been a regular thing. And I keep I keep telling I felt a little bit you got to send out the cards. You got to send out the five cards that even the top real estate agents are telling you. And the ones that aren't doing it are like, I need to get back to doing my cards, because they've gotten caught up with how busy it was. They've got to go back to the basics.

Stephen Jones  53:07  
Well, relationships matter most. Let's just get that out of the way. If we can set that found, if somebody can set that foundation in their head that relationships matter most, then however you do that, to interact with your sphere. You be you, like whatever that is. You be you. I know some people do drop ins and cards and this and this, whatever that is. You be

Tracy Hayes  53:30  
whatever you like doing, whatever you're comfortable doing. Do it great.

Stephen Jones  53:33  
10 exit every lead source works if you do it 100%

Tracy Hayes  53:37  
I agree with that. I agree with that. Let's say we go good. We're running short on time because we said such a great conversation. Let me find out a couple questions

Stephen Jones  53:44  
that are really like this. We're just getting into it. You're Yeah, we probably could

Tracy Hayes  53:49  
go for we definitely could go for a couple hours when you were talking a little bit earlier. You made me think I if someone asked me about the podcast I start three years ago. Actually spent four now, and I went to a John

Stephen Jones  54:01  
Maxwell. I love

Tracy Hayes  54:02  
John Maxwell, and he really spending that time you read in his books. But when you're spending it there, and he's talking it, and you're in the room with all these like minded people following Joe and the whole president, things happen for a reason, and you have to find out, you know, when he puts you on, you know, he gets that person to say no, or, in this case, he threw at you that they were just going to let that house go. But it's the test was, Are you going to continue to follow up with them so that you get this call last Wednesday? You know, to me, there was a plan already. You know, the plans already in how much of your of your faith keeps you focused. And to me that when I get down, that's what I think, okay, he threw me a curve ball. All right. You took a second. Said, Oh, man, that stinks. And then, now, then, usually, like, Okay, now, what, what, what. Why did this happen? Why? You know,

Stephen Jones  54:56  
of course, yeah, no, so in and especially in. This business is you get so much rejection, so many difficult like, you can do nothing wrong, and they just, I mean, it just goes bad, yeah? And because, really, as real estate agents or loan officers, we have control over basically nothing. I mean, just a little bit. We have control over, but we don't control the decision maker. We don't control the other decision, like there's so many things we can't control, it's how do we align it and make it run smoothly? But at the end of the day, I mean, for me, faith comes into it very much, is you just got to trust that these things are going to work out. I have faith that, hey, a door will close, yeah, a door is going to close, but that means another one's going to open exactly and once again, being grounded. For me, it's in God and in Jesus. For other people, it's something else that's fine be grounded in what you're going to be grounded in, because you will get beat down, and you've got to come back around to Hey, how are we going to make this work?

Tracy Hayes  55:58  
Right? You were, as you do, mentor new agents? What would you say? There's three must do's well, and that changes. Obviously, last year probably was different, but right now, we're talking to agents are coming into the industry, even though, you know the uncertainty, I wouldn't say it's in decline, because everyone, everyone has all their predictions of what's going to happen. Rates are going to go up. No. Rates are going to go down. No, the you know, the housing market's going to implode. No, it's not because we have jobs or, you know, everyone has their opinion. Oh, yeah, of course. So someone coming in right now, or maybe someone who's maybe a little challenged, because I'm seeing some of the numbers come in of what, you know, agents did last year, and then where we're at this year, then obviously they're not on pace, you know, what a big year. So that reality has to Yes, what are three, like, foundational things that you do, or that piece of advice that you would give that person that's hit a lid, or getting new into the business right now,

Stephen Jones  56:52  
I think once again, it goes back to one. What type of lifestyle do you want is go back to that? Especially over the last year, it's just been chaos, and every and it's been great chaos, and everybody's hopefully been very successful. And all of that, customers are being served, people are finding homes. So kind of reset that, and I've been kind of going through this myself, is reset like, hey, what kind of lifestyle do you want, and what do you want out of that business, out of this business? Because I think a lot of times we just get off track. We don't I mean,

Tracy Hayes  57:23  
the big question is always like, What's your why it's such a let's dig deep into the why, exactly, why is I need to make this much income because I like living in this neighborhood. My kids like to do this. Family likes to go on these vacations. I need to make X amount of dollars a month. Is that kind of what you're doing?

Stephen Jones  57:39  
Yeah, working backwards and then, but that's the financial why? If you're just doing this, just like, if you just do anything for money, you're not going to be fulfilled by it. You're just not like, you can go anywhere and make a bunch of money, and it just is what it is. But outside of your financial why, which you got to know those things you've got to have. I mean, I have that. Hey, I've got a wife, three girls. One of my girls has special needs like so that comes very much into it. We have to factor all that in. I know that I've got to make so much money per month, but to make that much money, I've got to make this many sales, this many calls, etc, etc, etc. So you got to know those numbers. But outside of that is, hey, what's your why? For me, it's going back to saying, especially this happens to me when I get worn down, or when I get to the level of, hey, you know what I'm like at burnout? Like, I'm right there in burnout, which we've all been to it, yeah? Like, let's be honest, let's have a real conversation. Yeah. Of like, we've all been to that point of burnout. And when I get to that point of burnout, that's when in Jen, my broker, has really helped me with this. Is always circling back to Hey, why are you doing this? And that thing you said is Hey to educate and empower people to make sure that they're making the right decision. Because that the thing that's the thing that bothers me so much is not losing a deal or not. It's not the commission, it's man, I get really upset. You can ask my wife or ask my broker, I get upset when people make a bad decision like that could really affect them negatively, right? Like, that's what bothers me at my core of, like, ah, like, that's just not a good decision. So in the same way, yeah, so, but to kind of answer your question is, hey, figure out what kind of lifestyle you want. What does that look like? Figure out what's really important to you, and then just reset and then be accountable. Set goals and be accountable. If you're going to be accountability, everybody gets a low accountability this. No, you just need to share it with people who you know and love and trust and say, Hey, I'm going to make, let's say it's your broker. Hey, I'm going to make 150 calls today. Great. Tell your broker when you walk in, I'm going to make 50 calls. Would you ask me if I made 50 calls when I leave? That's accountability,

Tracy Hayes  59:41  
and that's the free that's the free coach. Yeah, we talked about paying for a coach to hold you accountable. Is like you said, in digging out those three things and defining them for that individual person. Yeah, you need someone else and that hopefully, hopefully that broker is provided or, I mean, I think you would agree a senior agent that's that's been doing this a while. Shown success. They're, they're not successful. You know, I guess someone's been doing, you know, hanging around for 2025, years can fall into success, because they've been just kind of like, yeah, they got so many people calling them, it's gonna happen, yeah? Where there's, there's others that that are doing it and staying abreast of our market, yeah. You know what? You know, I remember when I first started the podcast a year ago in June. And, you know, my question was, you know, Hey, how are you, how are you re gearing up for the current market, you know, getting all these offers on the house, and how are you preparing your sellers for that? How are you preparing your buyers to know that they're going up against 20 other people on this house? And now, now, we're still getting multiple offers, but there's not as many of them, right? We're working. You got to start going back and doing this thing so that they're not I think people get when they're asked that question, because I know I get to stop What's your why? I mean, golly, I got a lot of whys, you know, of why do it? One, because I'm just programmed to go, go, go. Yeah, I oftentimes go. And I'm appreciative of what I have, but I'm like, out there, like, it's like, you know, what's it like the hoarders from the from the depression area, they're like, grabbing everything, and you kind of, you kind of want to do it, because I've always said that this business is a feast or famine. You got to run and get as much as you can when it's there, because you just don't know you have a 2008 come around and everything, type of thing, but,

Stephen Jones  1:01:25  
and once again, a good way to define that and process through that is when you're sitting in your office and you can either flip on your phone and look at YouTube or make the next phone call like, what is going to be the thing that's going to switch you from scrolling on social or Getting back

Stephen Jones  1:01:41  
to work. That's your why. Like, a real easy like, boom, that's your why. Like, that's what's doing it. Who's been the most influential person in your career, in my real estate career, I'm gonna go career.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:51  
And, I mean, if you want to break it down, either or as you had a successful career, and everything you did sound like you did well at what you were doing. So, you know, you can go, you know, I know some people go all the way back to a coach they had in high school or college or something, who's, who's a who's that person that pops in your mind every once in a

Stephen Jones  1:02:10  
while the, you know, well, so how you think about those days?

Stephen Jones  1:02:15  
Yeah, so I'll give it kind of to you in in three different people. So one is my dad. He was great man. Still is a great man. He was in sales for 36 years. Taught me about people, taught me how to interact with people, taught me. I mean, I'm the guy who at the grocery store, I'll talk to the clerk, I'll do this, like all those type of things. So my dad definitely just of kind of being a man, how to be a man on the spiritual side of that, I had a high school youth group teacher named Sarah wackerland, and she's taught me so much about what it means to love God. Live, live out God's purpose on your life and etc, etc. And then I would say definitely, as a in real estate and professional without a doubt, Jennifer Hendry, my broker. She's, like I said before, she's one of the best leaders I've ever worked for, very knowledgeable about the market, and always circles it back to, hey, what do we what are we doing for the customer, and how is this relate to how we're serving? God, I need

Stephen Jones  1:03:16  
to have Jennifer on the show. You definitely need to have that. I'll make the connection. I'll make the connection. I'll make the connection. Yeah, yeah. Let's get around

Tracy Hayes  1:03:23  
next month for sure. Two Minute Warning questions, if you've listened to my show, I broke it. I've changed these over time, but there's one that's I've always Oh, I love these. Fire away. What's, what's, what's your your well, in probably your family, because you got three girls and stuff, what was your favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida as a lifestyle question. I was like, because real estate agents, I think we sell lifestyle a lot in different communities and so forth. What do you when someone's coming from out of out of the area which we have a lot of you know, what are some of the things you tell them about that you like to do? Well, so family likes to do?

Stephen Jones  1:03:57  
Yes, so by myself, I'm playing golf. I'll go and play golf as much as I can. Unhealthy, healthy addiction is, let's go play golf, also with that, with the girls, or stuff like that. Of course, we hit the beach, all that kind of stuff we love. Actually, our food scene is really good. Here in Jacksonville, I've got a couple who came in from Denver this weekend, and we talked for about 20 minutes about housing and what we're looking for and all this. And then they're like, so where should we eat? And then we talked for like, 35 Yeah, you gotta go here

Tracy Hayes  1:04:29  
deep in the St Augustine. Although, yeah, yeah. We didn't

Stephen Jones  1:04:33  
even get to say not, like, we just Yeah, so, but yes, so all

Tracy Hayes  1:04:36  
the way up, I mean, between ferrandina and everything in between everything.

Stephen Jones  1:04:41  
So for me, yeah, it's golf. Yeah, that's my thing.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:44  
Cool. It's more important who you know or what you know, and why?

Stephen Jones  1:04:49  
Yes, so, because I love that saying of, hey, it's not, it's not what you know, but who you know. But if you don't know something, and then you get. It in front of that person you just lost your opportunity. So you can meet that person, like we talked about, man, this is the person who that's what you I mean, ideal. But if you walk in there not knowing what's going on in the market, and that's what's going on in the greater economy, the local that you just lost your chance. So I say, Yes, both. You've got to be first cop out, but that's

Stephen Jones  1:05:23  
but I presented it so well to you. Did I do get points? I do get points for presentation? Yes, my feeling, yeah. I mean, I don't think you'd

Tracy Hayes  1:05:32  
actually search someone out if you didn't like, have some sort of knowledge of why you want. I mean, obviously, you know, you run into somebody out on the streets that you know is famous, yeah, you might go in there and shake their hand if you're able do that. I always, I'll tell the stories. I live on 210 there's a Waffle House on 210 Yep, and one Sunday morning. And I know a lot about football. And I followed. I followed. I was a Giants fan almost my entire life, with a few years being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in the late 70s, a decade behind your time. But anyway, I pull in the WAFF house on this early Sunday morning. My wife wanted Waffle House. I run over there and Bill Parcells, the former giant skit, was walking into the waffles and I don't know whatever it was, he turned around and walked out, and I was I'm like, right there, and I'm like, Oh my God, I am standing in poor cells, Waffle House. I'm like, and I just watched some video on giants calm or something that, yeah, but you get that moment time. It's like, everything I knew,

Tracy Hayes  1:06:34  
yeah. So that opportunity was blown.

Tracy Hayes  1:06:38  
I appreciate you coming on today. Of course, we definitely want to carry on this because this because it was, it was deep, and I'm really if you and Jennifer are like minded, that's gonna be interesting having her on ever.

Stephen Jones  1:06:49  
Yeah, no, be happy to I appreciate you. Cool. Thank you so much.