Heather Strazinsky and Danielle Rodriguez: River2Ocean Realty

Tracy Hayes  1:09  
welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast, where we dive into the secrets of success in the industry. Today, I have a treat for you, a dynamic duo of two of the most successful agents in Northeast Florida last July, I had the pleasure of speaking with Heather suzynski and Danielle Rodriguez, but unfortunately, we were hit with some technical difficulties in a very hot room. I'll add that in there too. But I am not one to be deterred, and today, I'm excited to sit down with Heather and Danielle again to really dig into their business and uncover the golden nuggets of knowledge that they have made them so successful recently, they have taken the plunge and formed their own brokerage, river to ocean, and I can't wait to hear more about it. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming the dynamic duo of river to ocean Realty, Heather stracynski and Danielle Rodriguez. You all right, ladies, I am excited for you and this new endeavor here breaking out. We talked a little bit about in July in that room, where we lost power and everything and so. But being the second show, we're going to dive into really lot of golden nuggets, I hope any of the listeners, as I always put on I'm looking to inspire someone who's looking to get into real estate, or maybe they've been in real estate and they're just looking for inspiration, and hopefully something that you guys talk about today, some of the things that you're doing, inspires them, or gives them something to implement in their 23 game plan. So I will attest, we were talking about chat GPT before the show. So what I did for the questions today is, and actually my intro, you know, my intro is a little bit different than I normally do, because I actually took my regular intro and I put it in chat GBT and said, Hey, rewrite this and it, and I think, I think with, with some descriptive words, and it rewrote it for me. So that was actually chat GPT wrote that intro for me, and then I actually just asked it a couple basic questions in to come up with the questions, you know, you know, what are typical things that real estate agents aren't asked? You know, successful real estates aren't asked, that those who are not as successful want to know, right? So it actually created a bunch of questions for me for that. So interesting, yeah, so we'll see how this leads, yeah, really, I'm really curious on here. So what we'll do is we'll go in whatever order, because some of these questions you know, each of you can answer or make your comment on. So the first question that we have is, What inspired you to get into real estate and what has kept you motivated now through the years? Heather, go ahead.

Heather Strazinski  3:39  
No, my story is very different from others. I had another business. I just moved here, didn't know anyone, and I needed to meet other people for that business. And someone mentioned real estate, and I quickly fell in love with real estate, stopped doing the other business, and focused solely on real estate. Now, if I remember what that was, multi a multi level marketing, so having that background, and I had Sarah Rothstein on the show last week, and we were, you know, talking about how her previous career, you know, spending a lot of time on the phones was what her previous career was with a pharmaceutical company, but more from almost like a telemarketing position. How did the multi level marketing, you know, kind of give you some confidence, or, you know, how do you use that today, when you're in the real estate business, it's a lot, very much the same. It's about relationships, phone calls, follow up. That's the key to real estate. It's just, I think it's hard to hear the word no, but you got to get over it. It's not about you, it's about them, and it's not necessarily no forever. It's no right now, right? It's not personal. It's not you know, no one's buying a house every day, exactly, you know, or buying a piece of jewelry. You might, you may, do that every day.

Heather Strazinski  4:55  
You can call them, and they can say no, and then you can follow up with them two months later and they bought.

Heather Strazinski  5:00  
House, yeah, yeah, because someone called them at the exact right time. Yep, exactly. So it's all about follow up and key. Danielle, what keeps you motivated? Keeps me motivated?

Danielle Rodriguez  5:13  
No, you know, I've been in sales practically my whole career, and you know, I had a business before this as well, but I had physical challenges, so I had to switch gears, like Heather. You know, somebody had mentioned real estate. I knew Heather, and I knew she needed help, and I was kind of helping a little bit, making phone calls. And I don't know, I just got into it and fell in love with it, and love the relationships that you make with people, that's what kind of motivates us. I think for both of us, we just really, sincerely love helping.

Tracy Hayes  5:50  
Do you find it to be the process or that closing, when the title company hands you to check? 

Danielle Rodriguez  5:57  
Well, I think at closing, when title hands you the check just validates everything that you went through, right? Because not every deal is the same. It's, it's different every time. And I think it's the challenge that we love. I think we both thrive when we're under pressure. So

Tracy Hayes  6:16  
which is a rush, which is a big part of, you know, I think a lot of non real estate, or if you haven't done enough transactions yet in real estate, from the lending side, from the real estate agent side, everyone is different. And if you don't have some sort of bump, however, bump that might be, whether it's a repair or a lending issue that maybe they got to change loan products or whatever, that happens on a regular basis, and you have to deal with those challenges. And that's why you get paid. What you get paid? Right, right, all right. What does AI say next? Can you tell us a bit about your journey in forming the river to ocean? What inspired the name and logo?

Heather Strazinski  6:58  
The name, wow, the name. We had a hard time with the name. We didn't want something everybody else had. In fact, this wasn't the name we originally wanted. This probably came out of nowhere. We're like, oh yes, that's it. But we wanted something that enveloped power, strength, knowledge, branding, all of that, and it took us seven, eight weeks, I think, of pounding down different ideas, and I mean being on the phone at 10 o'clock at night with each other. Oh, I saw this. I saw this. Okay, let's do this. Let's look up this, and then just between the two, because there is two of us, right? And we are very good with if one of us says, no, okay, let's move on. Right? Having two people like a name is not easy, and we're just very, very different, but we're very the same with our ideals and what we want. So that took some timing, and when we both liked river to ocean, and, you know, I think Danielle said it best when she explained, you know what it encompassed. I mean really, Florida, St John's River to ocean? 

Tracy Hayes  8:03  
Yeah, no, it was creative. I saw it. I was like, Oh, brilliant. It really fits in. And then so you kind of, like, you think a little bit about, you know, I was just thinking about what you were saying, you know, your thought process and banging the ideas back and forth is, you think about these big corporations who actually have to, you know, use that logo in so many different areas. And then, then, then you will, but how that? How's that logo gonna look? Right? Right? You got the name, but then, you know, you got to make it like Coca Cola. We all know what this, you know, the script of the letters. How are you going to put that river, river to ocean logo together and and make it look and, and all the different styles that you can put it in, you know, and all the different formats it's going to be on, whether it's your business card, or on your website, or all the other 1000 things there's gonna be. So it does, it does take over. But I love the name. I think it's, I think it's perfect, perfect for the region. No, it is. It is. So Heather Danielle, I'm gonna go you on this. As Heather answered that one, what is, I mean, you guys had to sit down and obviously talk about, you know, your the business, not only a business plan of what you guys have been doing for, you know, last years as real estate agents, that part's not going to really change, but what is going to set river to ocean apart? What, what is, what is your unique niche, interesting

Danielle Rodriguez  9:17  
curse that AI system. What is our niche? Well, I think with everything that we do when we got together, or how we got together, how we started our team, and now the brokerage, one word to really describe it all is organic. We didn't start it to say, okay, you know now we're stepping back and we're going to hire all these people and start this, you know, that's not how it's going to evolve, or how we want it to evolve, right? Even with our team, I think, you know, we didn't really go out and advertise and try to recruit people. They kind of came to us, and we're starting to see that happen also with the brokerage. So you.

Danielle Rodriguez  10:00  
I think that's the direction that we usually go with, you know, if it happens organically, we try to do the right things, make the right choices and steps and, you know, things just kind of evolve from there. 

Tracy Hayes  10:12  
You know, you guys working, you were working with a great brokerage. You've worked for several with several great brokerages town. What you know is, I think every real estate agent you know goes through their mind at one time or another. I know a lot of new agents. Someone has never been in the real estate before, like, you know, what is, what is a broker really doing for me, type thing? And so you guys got enough experience. You got enough at bats. Now, what, what really was your your motivation to we can just do this on our own. We want to break away and create our own identity. I

Heather Strazinski  10:42  
 mean, we, we have worked for several great brokerages. We were just talking about that today. We we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for them, because we've taken bits and pieces from every single one of them, and we are. That's, I think, our new avenue is we're kind of taking pieces from everyone and adding it all together, the best parts. So one of the big things is, you know, we were with a phenomenal brokerage for that. The brokers were always there, always there for us, no matter when we called, they were always there, right? And we want to do that. And then we were nothing with another brokerage that they were so business minded that it was so great because it helped leverage the business. So we want to bring that part into it. Also that was just a wonderful, different eye opening experience each one that we've gone to. So taking the best of everything we've learned and trying to put it into one,

Tracy Hayes  11:35  
 I like that because it actually leads into the next question the AI created. It was kind of interesting. Well, I'm slightly gonna reword it just understandably. You know, taking from again, everyone takes from where that you know, whether it was a past career, education, and in this case, you know you're, you're already several years in the in real estate. So what are some different strategies that you're taking from the past, and whether you're putting your own spin on it or not, but going to move forward with your river to ocean, 

Heather Strazinski  12:05  
we've got some good ones, communication. What do we say yesterday? We're talking 99% of problems can be solved by communication, right? And that's one of the biggest problems in the real estate industry, I think, is communication. 

Tracy Hayes  12:17  
Daniel, would you agree that you because we were talking about challenges a few minutes ago. I mean, it's not actually the the obstacle or, you know, whatever that thing is. It's actually just people calling up and saying, hey, it's off the track. We and, but this is what we're going to do to get it back on the track. But what I find is the biggest complaint, especially real estate agents, to the loan officer world, is they didn't call and tell us, and then all of a sudden, you know, we're Day Before closing, and we're not clear to close yet, because there was a challenge that they've been working on for two weeks, and we never knew about it. 

Danielle Rodriguez  12:46  
And that is really, I think, what sets us apart. Because, you know, somebody can call you with a problem, and you can be working on it for hours and hours the hardest you are, but they have no idea, right? They have no idea you're working on it. They don't know if you've forgotten about them. They don't know if they got, you know, pushed to the side. So we find they really appreciate clients just getting a heads up, like, you know, if we need to make a call to the lender and they're waiting for us to respond. Hey guys, you know, we've put in a call. We're still waiting. We'll keep you updated maybe an hour or two. Goes, yeah, guys, just letting you know we haven't forgotten about you. We're still waiting on the lender. You know, we're going to get back to you as soon as we and they just appreciate knowing, because you know your your mind can go in all kinds of directions, and you can start thinking all kinds of things. So we try to really keep them abreast and let them know. Hey, even though we don't have the answer yet, we are still working on this. And we have, yeah, you know, our our transactions, you know, take weeks, right? And sometimes when there's silence, generally, when there's silence, I think we're all good, because I know in my process, the underwriter immediately say, Hey, this is suspended. You need to fix it. So I know as soon as that happens, it's coming back to me. So when they are talking to me, that means everything's good and we're rolling forward, but the client, the buyer, is going through this period of time, or even the seller is the loan. This buyer good, and we, you know, and you just got to give them those little touches through the process. So can you share any particular or memorable challenge, particularly memorable or challenging experience you've had in your careers as real estate agents. Give us a good story. I think our best story, which shows who we are. It's our best story by far as our St Augustine girl, I just think that that right there tells us who we are. So we had a client who needed to sell, we encouraged her not to sell, and what was the reason she we just knew that if she sold she was going to end up being homeless. The money was going to be gone. She owned the house outright, yeah, and you know, she wouldn't have the same opportunities if she sold it, she had gotten a good deal on it, but six months.

Heather Strazinski  15:00  
Later, she reached back out to us, and we had visited the house, and the house was in 10 times worse shape, such a disarray. There was mental issues going on, behavioral issues with children, and the house was in really, really bad shape. And at this point, she was in jeopardy of the house being foreclosed on. It. Oh, no, so what? So back because it was paid for back taxes, back taxes. Hoa, she owed a ton of money to she had burned through all her inheritance. So at this point in time, we were like, okay, it is no longer in your best interest to keep the house. Let's see what we can get for you before the house gets destroyed anymore. So we did. We did sell the house. But not only did we sell the house for her, we reduced our commission, we brought them food, we brought cages for the animals they had, and we took the animals and found them proper homes and things like that, because they just could not afford to do it. So we really kind of immersed ourselves, and we sold it for as much as we possibly could, especially in the state it was in. But then we also talked about, where do you want this money to go? Do you want it to go to your account? Is there someone else who can manage it for you and give you a certain we really, we delved into it, and I think that's our best story, because we put our all into that. Well, now you got my curiosity. So where did the money go? So the money went to the brother's account, actually. So it got sis over to the brother's account. And then we don't know what happened afterwards, we tried to help her find a rental, right? But again, it was a situation. Was her three kids, I think it was three kids and a grandmother and the grandmother, yes, and a boyfriend. But you know that just, you know, goes, You're the average real estate agent. Obviously, we know average person would not eat, you know, they would have just sold the money and not cared. But, yeah, you had, you had a project there, and some agents would have just ran the other way the one time, you know, checking out the house, and we were opening, you know, drawers and just checking everything out, and we looked in the pantry, we realized there was no

Danielle Rodriguez  17:01  
pantry or the fridge, there was very, very little. So the next trip that we were going to make down there, we stopped over $200

Tracy Hayes  17:13  
just broke our heart. Yeah, okay, let's move on from that one category. There's so you know, since we spoke in July last time some you know, obviously the markets changed. Interest rates have continued to go up like, well, actually, they've gone up and then came back down. And we've been kind of wet. We're at where we're at probably for the last now, 3060, days or so. But how do you stay up to date on the industry trends and changes go ahead since I told that story.

Danielle Rodriguez  17:40  
I think we just always stick to the basic everything else just kind of falls into place. We find if we focus on helping people with what their needs are, their Why is always our priority so well,

Tracy Hayes  17:58  
 I think it was that the AI was going with that question, right? Is, I mean, you guys are very, I mean, you're, you're Jack's real producers. You guys are out. I think a majority of agents, in my opinion, don't actually interact so much with other agents unless they're on the other end of a contract, right, right, where you guys are out and about. And obviously, you know, the great brokerages you got, both of those people running those brokerages are very involved in the in what they do. They're deep into what they what they the industry, and how it's going in different ways. They both have different, you know, sides that they take on, and both run successful brokerages, but they're passionate about what they do. So that's kind of spilled over to you guys in a natural way, just by being, showing up and being, you know, whether it's a social or you're going to a training class and so forth. So I think we're, you know what I want to I think I like this question here, because I think I would have asked, maybe just asked it differently than the AI did. Is just, you know, what is the importance of of being engaged? And now that you guys got your own shop, you guys actually have to now plan your engagements. Yeah. Would you agree with that? Yeah.

Danielle Rodriguez  19:12  
 I mean, I think information is key. We are always trying to keep on top of what's happening in the market. You know where it's going, apply it to our clients and try to meet their needs at that time. So that you know it it works for them, because it just has to work right, obviously, right, push them into anything so. 

Tracy Hayes  19:33  
But you know where we you know we've seen in the last 24 months, you know this thing, where you, I mean, you couldn't even put the sign in the yard before you had offers, right? So now, where things are a little more, I think they're more more normal people think we're in a crash. But here, I believe, in Northeast Florida, our demand is why we're we stay above you know, obviously all the magazines are coming out saying one of the best places to live.

Tracy Hayes  20:00  
Especially in Florida, that type of thing. We're rated high the greater Jacksonville area. So, so we have that demand. So you're, you're back into that, that normalcy, but so now you're not going into those brokerages office. You are the broker, right, right? What are some things, or have you? I mean, maybe you haven't thought about this part, but I'm bringing it up to you here, because it's only been, what, a couple weeks now, right? Not even, not even. So you know that engagement, because you guys are the leadership, where you were naturally just being fed that information. Let not saying that that was only information you were getting, but a lot of it was coming from your your brokers, your interaction with your other people in the office, and different things. But now what? What plans do you guys have to keep that information flow going that you've walked away with? 

Heather Strazinski  20:45  
We've always been huge into education. We take way more CE hours than we need, and we take tons of classes that aren't even counted as CE hours, right? So we're huge in education. We're huge into reading articles, talking to lenders, finding out what's going on, trying to keep on top of everything. Because if there's a new program out, we need to know about the new program. Our clients need to know about the new program. If there's new limits out, the VA jumble loan limits and things like that, we need to know about this so we can update them. So it's constant communication with our lenders, with the we just were actually, I think that was yesterday. We were on the middle to make it. St Johns County has a county has a site where it talks about all the buildings, yes, the building site, all the meetings they have. We make that a priority, to try to attend those so we know what is going on in our county before everybody else has hopes. And we have always been it wasn't right recently. 

Tracy Hayes  21:36  
Well, that's why you're successful. Yeah, that's why you're successful. That's what I'm pulling out of you, because that agents that you're watching right now. I mean, listen to what Heather just said and what Daniel's explaining. You know the importance of you've got, got the schedule, yeah, you got to be proactive. There's so much out there. You're not going to get to it all, but you got, you got to keep, like, moving forward in your education all the time, and grabbing those classes when you can. If you got a gap in your schedule, maybe you don't have a listing appointment this week or or showing because things have kind of settled down a little bit. To, know, hey, now's the time to sharpen my sword. I need to, you know, get that done exactly. Yep, probably talked about this a little bit in the last show, and then getting that's kind of the theme of one of the reasons that I do the show for the for you guys, it's, I obviously want to showcase your intelligence, experience and so forth. So I mean, I'm sure you guys, probably on a regular basis, are asked by people who are not in real estate, who are thinking about getting into real estate. So if you had that new person, whether they're 22 years old graduating from college right now, or 40 years old in a possible career change. What, what did? What couple things advice would you tell them, besides passing the test far license? What are a couple of things that you would tell them they need, they need to do? 

Heather Strazinski  22:54  
I mean, I think as new agents, the number one thing that they don't understand is, you choose the brokerage. They're all pretty much usually going to want you. There are very there are a few that only will use top producers and things, but you choose the brokerage who's going to best meet your needs. I think that's the number one thing that agents are like, Oh, they want me. Oh they want me. Oh they I did too, yeah. And then I come home from another one, I'm so excited in them, like, you know, every everyone was like, yes, and we'd love you to join our, you know, brokerage, but you just don't realize that, at first, you choose what? What's the difference that they can give to you that another one can't, right? 

Tracy Hayes  23:29  
Danielle, to feed off of that, obviously, and I've mentioned on the show numeracy, all these brokers will tell you, and every agent that I've had on from all the different brokerages, right? They all tell me, Oh, the education and the technology is, you know, they have great, you know, training and technology. But what really do they need to do to really, you know, feed off what Heather is saying to find out.

Danielle Rodriguez  23:53  
Shadow, yes, Shadow an agent. Shadow, somebody who's successful, and see what the day to day is like, because taking the class, taking the course, passing the test, even joining a brokerage, isn't going to give you a real picture of what the day to day is, right? 

Tracy Hayes  24:12  
Well, when it comes to the training, and you guys have been with a couple different brokerages, good ones. And I mean was those angles that those brokers took were a little different. So you guys, you know, you guys benefited, because both of them were good, and we're giving you different angles of this, of this industry, but the just to say they have good training, you mentioned shadow. How important is it to really they should, probably should pick up the phone and call a couple of agents from that brokerage, assuming they, you know, they met the broker, maybe they, okay, hey, I think I might be able to, I can get along with this person, but to actually really dig in, because I know most agents and you guys probably were the same way you they liked you, and you're like, oh, okay, I'll sign up. But now that you're more savvy, right? You know, look back and say, This is what it to actually get on the phone.

Tracy Hayes  24:59  
Some of the agents like you said, shadow them, go get a good cup of coffee, whatever, with them, and actually ask them some real detailed questions. And what kind of questions would you ask a successful broker or a successful agent with one of these brokers say you worked with to find out more about that broker? 

Heather Strazinski  25:14  
What to ask about the broker? I think, if you were, 

Tracy Hayes  25:17  
if you were sitting down with the godliest Realtor in town, and you were a new agent, and that you wanted to work for the broker of that or we're thinking about working for the broker that person is under. What questions would you ask that person, what kind of training they offer? 

Danielle Rodriguez  25:32  
And to go back to your question like, What is our niche,

Danielle Rodriguez  25:37  
I think, and although we never actually discussed it, but I I'm pretty sure she's on the same page. You know, we took a piece from every brokerage, and it's funny, because, you know, the broker is going to train, or what I've seen, and I haven't been with every broker, but from what I've seen, the broker will focus on what the broker feels, deems necessary, as far as training goes for the whole brokerage. And that was my experience in the last two brokerages that I was with right Heather. And I have always had specific questions and needs and wants as far as training and growing and stuff like that. So I'm guessing what river to ocean is going to look like is, if we have those agents and they're looking for and have specific needs, we will try to tailor the training and the help to what they're looking for them, not every broker, just like that, right?

Tracy Hayes  26:34  
 Well, in how they're doing the training, because we all learn differently, right? If they're a total, you know, online thing, I'm not going there, right? I per, that's me, personally, I'm older, so I, you know, these webinars and so forth. It is hard. Well, yeah, you get distracted. You're on social media. Someone calls, I mean, I hear, you know, be dated, but, but, yeah, it could be dated. I hear from the boards, you know, they've mentioned certain brokerages directly to me, because I'm, you know, I go down to St John's and do some training, and we do the hybrid thing, and they know certain brokerages. So I say, I'm old, and I'd get distracted. But even the youngest these, these agents in their 20s, they're getting up and walking away, right? I mean, they're on there, they're supposed to be on their camera so they can get credit for the CE class. But, you know, if you don't learn that way, I mean, some people maybe they can stay focused and actually learn that way. Great. But you know, to dig in is, how are they training? What are they training about, you know, are they bringing in different people? I knew. I mean, especially your first brokerage. I mean, Howard brings in different people and spices it up a little bit. You got to have that change and different opinion, right? All right, so you guys, you mentioned briefly there, at least, I thought I heard you say, Heather. I mean, what is the vision for river to ocean? As far as yo, are you guys looking to eventually recruit and become ours? Is just what? What's your overall let's say 2324 picture of it versus, you know, 25 and on, 

Heather Strazinski  27:58  
we are, but slowly. I mean, we just started on the 20, so we're still trying to get our foothold in now, we do already have someone in our brokerage, and we do have a couple other people that want to join our brokerage, but we are definitely want to go slow and not get ahead of ourselves. It's a marathon. Yes, exactly, exactly. That's a really good analogy. It's a marathon. And when you don't want ego to get in the way of I want to be bigger and better and best. And I don't think that's all what we're looking for. We're happy to be a little boutique brick bridge. Or if times change and circumstances change and we end up growing large, great. Also, we don't have a cap right now. We're just kind of waiting to see how everything goes. Get the best knowledge we can and provide the best service and knowledge to those who do decide to join us. Oh, I apologize. It's just in Heather's cameras together there. Okay, I like that better that one. Danielle. Danielle,

Tracy Hayes  28:57  
yeah,

Heather Strazinski  28:59  
everyone does that to us all the time. You know, I've had some really great agents that are, you know, they're different spots. Ones are recruiting like, you know, they want to, you know, multiples of agents like, quickly and but there's some great, you know, if you're going to stay in production, which obviously, I assume that is your plan. You go and take on, you know, 30 agents over the course of the year, and ramp them up, and then, you know, are you bringing on real newbies, or you got experienced agents that are successful all the ways that can kind of just come in and actually add to the program, you know? And each requires something different, because we've learned that from having our team, each requires something different. I mean, newbies require a lot of time, a lot of hand holding. Experienced agents want to be left alone, right? And they want help with what they want to learn and what need to know, right? And that's something we want to try to accommodate, is everyone with everything, but that's going to take a little bit time, and.

Tracy Hayes  30:00  
Going to take a learning curve, and that's why we're not jumping in full force and just going headstrong and recruiting. That's we're not quite ready for that yet. Okay, I'm a experienced agent. I join your team, or thinking about joining your your team, you're willing to take me on. Let's put it that way. John's got, I don't I forget it. When John started real estate, he's got about what six or seven years Brooks him. And more than that, has it been that long? Pretty sure, more than that, maybe, I don't know so, but obviously, like, Howard's got decades down, downstairs and so forth, and then he's got agents that got decades that are around him. So I'm looking in to you guys now, obviously, you guys been very successful in the in the time that you've been but you don't have, you know, a decade of of experience being a real estate agent. What kind of confidence are you going to give me that when I do have a challenge? You either, obviously, you know, maybe you know the answer, but you know where to get the answer. Well, we both have different levels. I mean, I'm going on 10 years, and this girl, she she looks like she's 19.

Heather Strazinski  31:05  
I didn't go back and look at the bio from the last show, because Danielle and I have both two different perspectives, you know, but it's both of us have want and a need for knowledge and growth and yearning, and we want to do this, and we want to do everything to the best of our ability. So it's great having both of us at two different aspects. I mean, Danielle's not new. I'm not new. But, you know, I bet 10 years you have almost five going on five this. Yeah, so when someone comes in, it's easy for I think maybe Danielle more to remember her first day. I mean, I still remember my first day too. You're nervous as all head. Nobody remembers the first day. You're sitting there like, now what, right? But just kind of remembering our feelings is kind of, that's what we want to be able to help them with. If you're new, you don't know what you're doing, how to do it, what to get started. There's 500 things going through your head. If you're experienced, there's still 500 things going through your head because they're doing this, they're doing this, they're doing this, and they're successful, and you want to do everything but helping them just calm down, create their niche and focus on that, and bring in speakers that can tell them more about that, whether it be social media, we don't know. We're not end on be all of social media. I mean, she's a Tiktok girl. I'm a Facebook girl. I mean, I don't like Tiktok. She loves Tiktok. She's not really fond of Facebook. I love Facebook, so just try to share from both of us. I think is what we have to offer. Well, I think, yo, like anyone you're coming, you're well, anyone looking at a new company, right? They want to know what's behind there. So I could just see that being not a challenge, but something definitely you want to be prepared for to answer, because, like you said, you need to be interviewing the agent. Needs to be interviewing the broker, yes, and be asking you that question. You know what? If you don't know something, right, they probably not going to ask that. How? Howard that question? Because he's got gray in his beard, and they don't ask those questions. Every broker knows everything, right?

Heather Strazinski  33:06  
Yeah, no one does. It's, it's good to acknowledge that, right? But have somebody on the back burner that does know that information well. And it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, showing up, being involved, having these other top people, like I said, you've worked for two great brokerages, you know, assuming you still have conversations with them, or can call them and say, hey, you know, I got this real difficult one, just like an agent make, you know, from Clay County, may call the Ponte Vedra agent, say, Hey, I got a listing out there. I'm not normally out there. What, you know? What's the best way to price this out, you know, or whatever, you know, that advice for those people. We've done that all the time, and we've created some great relationships with some fabulous agents, I was gonna say, and there's probably, I can think off the top of my head about 10 different brokers that have said, call us with anything we're here for you. Ask us anything we're here to help, right? So wow, that's, that's, that's since I knew you created your own river to ocean that is really reached out this that is really awesome. This is a community that if you allow it to embrace you, it will embrace you. No, I totally great people out there. I totally agree. I think, you know, again, talking, you know, 100 dig this 116th

Tracy Hayes  34:16  
episode, yeah, you know, talking to, you know, over 100 different agents. I mean, that is one of the commonality I've said it numerous times, is, is collaboration, you're not going to get anywhere by thinking their competition. You're just going to burn your own fuel, you know, just to be out there and collaborate. And when you're out there, out front and you're positive you're helping other people, you know, what's the rising tide? Rises? Raises all boats. Right, right? Yeah, all right. So let's this is why. I don't know why I put a second up, but this was the different question I asked AI, and it created 10 more questions. Oh, boy, let's see. So again, talking about, well again, whether it's a new agent or agent maybe hit their lid, or maybe this is an agent who's looking and listening to this, or knows you guys already and is just finding out that that you guys got your own broker.

Tracy Hayes  35:00  
And just love being around you guys. What qualities or skills do you believe are essential in success in as a real estate agent, there are several motivation that's a big one. Yeah, so Daniel, expand on that motivation when I, when I when I hear you say that this is my reaction. You definitely there's, that's 100%

Tracy Hayes  35:22  
it's having a self motivation. You got to get yourself up in to the gym. I mean, you can't that. There's no clock You're checking in on. If you don't show up, you know, they may call you and say, Hey, you okay, but they're not going to go pick you up. 

Danielle Rodriguez  35:37  
The thing is, and we've experienced this, we could have all the training world. We can give you all of the apps and tools and everything you need to be successful. We can hand you everything, but we can't make right so, or, 

Tracy Hayes  35:53  
you know, the desire to do it in the other word we I've commonly brought up on the show is, is consistency. And just to give that a little bit of advice, I don't even know if that's one of the if that's one of the other questions on here might be, but you know, you get discouraged. I mean, you know, especially like you said, someone says no to you, you're doing some calls, or maybe you're knocking on doors and they don't want to talk to you, is to not take it personally. You just have to smile and walk away and take that next step. I mean, how and Danielle to expand on what you were just you know, that motivation, how important is to, you know, be able to take that punch in the face, so to speak. You may have a half a second, but you got to get back up and motivate yourself to move on.

Danielle Rodriguez  36:35  
 I One of my favorite phrases, like I said. I used to be sales manager, so one of my biggest things was persistence overcomes resistance. Persistence overcomes resistance. I love it. If you just, if you just keep going and keep going, you it will happen, right? You know, but you have to persist. You have to do it. It's that type of industry. If that's not your personality, if that's not the type of agent. I mean, anybody can be any kind of agent they want to be, right? You don't have to be persistent.

Heather Strazinski  37:06  
You know? You may not have as much as the next person, right? 

Tracy Hayes  37:09  
So if, well, there's some people, they whatever, they fall into a niche, or maybe they grab their neighbor, and it happens to them quickly that they're like, Oh, I wasn't persistent for that long, but for 90 days, there I was, and all of a sudden it started where others it may take years, right, right? You know, and having that and to continue to stay motivated, that was her word. What's your skill? What was the skill or quality? 

Heather Strazinski  37:34  
Quality, you know, my big thing is with agents, which we kind of see, is also humility. Are you willing to continue to learn? Are you willing to acknowledge that you're not the end all be, all that when you do become awesome, that you're not the best, there's always someone better, always. And I do find every now and then, we'll run across across one that sometimes difficult. I've been in the year for third business for 30 years, and this is how it's done. I'm like,

Heather Strazinski  38:02  
I acknowledge that, and that's wonderful, but it's not anymore. It's always changing. That's the thing. It's a fluid business, right, right? Interest rates, you know, procedures, role. I mean, you have to be well, you know, 

Tracy Hayes  38:17  
someone has been in the business 30 years. If they did it right, they kept their database right, so they have all these names. That's the power, right? That's why all these you go on social media, and you're you're learning, and they're all talking about these funnels, and everyone getting, they want your email address, because now they they got this huge email address, because they know, statistically, they drop on enough people. There's enough people who want to buy a house, sell a house, or get a loan, or whatever it is. So a person of 30 years, if they kept their database and have continued to religiously do the things that you know over the years, they'll run circles around anyone trying to do social media this day, because they already have it. They have their database. They haven't, yeah, but very few, one out of a million, have actually done that, and, you know, started to fade so that they're still they're trying to do the stuff that the younger, the newer agents are trying to do, as far as generating leads, whether it's on social media or whatever. So yeah, you're 100% right. I mean, because that person this was, I mean, I don't know if you could find one. I mean, I mean, Ryan Sirhan hasn't even been doing real estate for 30 years. So

Heather Strazinski  39:28  
 my mentor, my original mentor, when I first started, is still my mentor. I can call her anytime. This woman knows roles. She's the one who taught me you need to know the rules and you need to know this contract inside and out before you ever do anything. And that has stuck with me. I know the contract inside and out, and we've had people try to challenge us. I'm like, no, no, you know it's we know this contract, and my mentor has been in it forever, and she is a fabulous, fabulous lady, but she doesn't do things the same way. I.

Heather Strazinski  40:00  
I do them different generations, but you can always learn from each other.

Tracy Hayes  40:06  
Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence.

Heather Strazinski  40:47  
Tip a little bit on this, and both of you, if you can make comment on it, just came to mind. We were talking about people do it differently. How important? Because I'm reading it or seeing it, whether it's on, you know, the social media motivation, or listening to different people speak, or in the different books, finding the broker who's going to help you if you don't already know, I know John's big on this, finding what your marketing or prospecting niche is, what that is, and how important it is to to find out you don't do things exactly. You may start off trying it because you don't know if it's going to work for you, but you have to really spend that, you know, good bit of time upfront, finding what that that niche is. As far as prospecting, it's been hard. I mean, it's, it's hard at the beginning. It's hard everyone, like you said, everyone does everything different. It's you listen this person, then this person, then this person, then this person. You've got to bring it all together and figure out what you want. I mean, we wrote our own follow up systems and our because there are systems out there that says, you know, do it this way, but we've changed them, we've tweaked them, we've added them because it doesn't work for us that way. It works for us a different way. We may do 30 days of pain, which other people don't necessarily do 30 days of pain, because that's what works for us, 30 days of pain. Oh, it's 30 days of pain.

Tracy Hayes  42:06  
Is that the name you gave it?

Heather Strazinski  42:09  
I mean, it's following up with a lead from certain systems for 30 days straight, until they answer every day. Is that something that's a just someone who contacted you with a thought of where you where's that? Where's the generation? Yeah, like a lead generation says particularly Zillow, okay, you know, you pay for that lead. Work the lead because they're not cheap, right? And we work that lead. We work that lead until that lead tells us stop. 

Danielle Rodriguez  42:37  
Most people will call for maybe a week, 10 days. You know, they move on to somebody who might be ready. Now we don't stop until they tell us to stop. 

Tracy Hayes  42:46  
Well, I mean, in reality, it's that sounds like common sense, but again, it's the motivation, right? They didn't answer the phone. So now I'm getting discouraged, so I'm not motivated anymore. But in reality, what do we know? You know, someone needs a TV. Today they'll go out and spend a TV. It's not, not a huge thing, you can, you can. It's amazing. The TV's over. Yeah, yeah, anyway, but they're gonna buy a car. Most people don't this morning go, ah, you know what? I need a new car. So I'm gonna go, no. They start looking, right? They start evaluating, looking, you know, which one's going to best fit them. You know, are you big on this safety? Are you big on that, or what's more important to you? And they're going to spend some time. That might only be a week. It could be six weeks or more, because maybe they're looking for a car, but they're not financially ready. It's the same thing for the house, right? They're Hey, rents getting up, but we only got four more months on the on the lease, and, you know. So they they go on the site and start looking. But as they get closer to that four months, their urgency exactly picks up, right? 

Danielle Rodriguez  43:47  
We've said to our team, you know, like Heather said earlier, you know, when they say no, it's, it's not, no, they don't want to buy a house. It's no, I'm not ready. Yep. And we always love, using the example of our one client who we dripped on two years texted, called, never got, never spoken, never never responded to any text message or anything. Two years later, calls us up one day. Okay, I'm ready. Yeah, I've been getting your stuff, and we're ready to go. So if those who have not listened to my podcast with Markie lemons reihah, who's going to be the keynote speaker at Ari Ari bar camp. Kim that so that you see my camera,

Tracy Hayes  44:28  
She corrected me because I called

Tracy Hayes  44:32  
it rebar, yes, yes. I thank God she Correct. She says actually that that reel blew up.

Tracy Hayes  44:40  
But where was I going with my thought there? I actually totally like, I can't jump in your head, so I'm really asking, What was the last thing you said? Gosh,

Tracy Hayes  44:52  
reached out to us after two Yeah. So Markie lemons, Ryal, she talks about on the podcast.

Tracy Hayes  45:00  
What she has done, and she's one of those people been she actually originally was a mortgage loan officer in her in her young 20s, and then went in the real estate but how her goal is to each day add, I think I want to say it's six or eight names to her CRM every day. So everybody she meets, everybody that interacts on her social media. That might be, you know, friends with 50 of her friends. She's adding to her CRM every day. So however she's, you know, sending those top of mind emails, text messages, whatever, those things are going out consistently. And I was like, That is such a gem, especially for a new agent, right? If your goal is, hey, I got to add six people. You add six people. It's like 2800 a year. And you know, you're, you're constantly, your database is just growing, growing, growing. And then just all those people, like said, they could be on there for two years, never talk to you, right? But you're, but they're still they didn't unsubscribe from your email yet. They didn't, so they're still alive.

Heather Strazinski  46:02  
Just our consistency, yes, constant consistency, and we get told, No, we've had people say, Stop, like but you gave me your name, your email, your phone number, you answered all the questions, and you're telling me, stop, okay, but it happened, yes. I mean, did they change their mind? They changed. We don't. We don't know what that, you know, maybe they're looking to buy a house with a significant other, and that significant other is not there anymore. So that email now is reminding them of that and that, you know, they did, they're upset about something in their life, not you. The big thing is, as we tell everybody, and I, how I kind of live my life is, you have no idea what's going on someone else's life. Yes, you don't know 100% this, I think, is probably one of the most important questions, especially for new agents. It makes a difference of whether or not not the only reason whether or not you get off to a good start or not. But how do you guys stay organized and manage your time effectively?

Unknown Speaker  46:58  
Do

Tracy Hayes  46:59  
you? Are you a time blocker? You literally like, Hey, I'm getting, you know, I'm gonna work out. I know some people like they put their I'm gonna work out at six o'clock in the morning. They put that on their calendar, even though that's what they they what they put on the calendar. 

Danielle Rodriguez  47:10  
We do. We try to put everything on the calendar, because if we don't, number one, we'll forget and number two, because, you know, we we're not just scheduling ourselves at times. We're scheduling both of our times. So we always, pretty much have to know where each other is and if it's on the calendar. We we really make it a point to do it, and we'll put things on like, you know, mastermind, you know, this day at this time, or, you know, calling our leads, you know, calling the database and stuff. We put that in the calendar and time block that, and because it will force us to do it, we're creatures of habit, and we're we're very organized. So, you know, if it's there, and we're very self motivated, we don't really need somebody to kind of like rah, rah, behind us. If it's there, we'll do it. 

Tracy Hayes  47:55  
Would you agree? And I know I'm susceptible to this. I mean, I listening to Ed my let comes to mind. But other books I've either listened to and read over the years, and especially now that the whole point of like time blocking is what we're talking about, and how important it is that if you don't actually set that block of time, all of a sudden, you find reasons to, you know, because it's something maybe you don't like the calls, right? It's not ideal. You don't you're not totally comfortable with it. So you find excuses to do something else, play on social media, go run an errand, whatever it may be, and you don't get it done. And all of a sudden, the next thing you realize you're not being consistent in the money making activities, which is the prospect, right? Yeah,

Heather Strazinski  48:40  
 could have dire consequences. I mean, we work our business two months ahead of time, and let's say you just we don't feel like doing it that week or the next week, then all of a sudden you have the month of April and you have no closings. I want to know who calls who and says, let's just get a glass of wine. Oh, we do that all the time, honestly. Okay. So there's another problem, and this is our problem. We are too motivated, yeah, so when we take time off, it literally. We were talking about this yesterday, we have got to start taking one day off a week, because we are burning the candle both ends, and we have been for years, and we feel guilty if we take a day off, and then it's like, oh, but we need to be doing this, and we need to be calling this, and we need to be making this. And so it gets bad, and there are times when one of us will need a mental health break, and we'll call the other one up, and we're like, Okay, this can wait. We're moving this to this day, and we're going out to lunch. And a lot of times when we're together, we purposely go out to lunch, take an hour breaks, sit there, just chatter, eat our meal. Okay, we took a moment. We're breathing now we're gonna return the 50 phone calls we got while we were eating our one hour lunch and go back to it. It's honestly, it's agents who are extremely motivated that is the downfall.

Danielle Rodriguez  50:00  
Feeling guilty. And I think we're pretty good at I can tell when she's kind of reaching that limit. She can tell when I'm reaching that limit. Well, I get angry, and she knows that, and then she's not stopping herself. I'll be like,

Danielle Rodriguez  50:14  
Yeah, put the phone down, right, go away, you know, go on vacation, or do something, or she'll go away for the weekend. And I said, You better not answer your phone. Yeah, do not answer your phone for anything you know. So we kind of look out for each other in that aspect too well.

Tracy Hayes  50:27  
 I think that I mean, I mean the two of you together informing and you've been together for several years now, and to have that person that you know you can trust is going to answer the phone because you want to go on a three day cruise with your family, and you're not going to be able to pick up the phone, right? That she's got the phone and you know, things are going to be taken care of. I mean, that that is a breath of fresh air, really. We have each other's phone numbers on our voicemail. 

Heather Strazinski  50:52  
We're like, if you don't get me and you need immediate help, please call my business partner at blah, blah, blah. That's how like, connected we are. We get the question all the time from other agents, how are you still together? Because t like partnerships, they have a very high rate of breaking up in the first few years, and we have so many agents that come to us, how do you do it? And I think our big thing is, is we talk every single day. I mean, every single day, whether we're seeing each other that day or not. We talk every single day. We start our morning that way. And there's been times where we have had to say, like, I'm gonna hang up the phone before I say something. I mean, we've done it before, but then we come back around, we check on each other, we regroup. I mean, it's like having a sister. You're not always gonna get it wrong, but you have to be able to, you know, vent, but the foundation is there right communication, trust and respect. If you don't have those three, then, well, I think you have to go into the relationship with, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  51:56  
to understand, you have to have the trust in the faith in that other person. And of course, that other person has to understand that they have the other person has the trust and faith in you that you actually need to fulfill that thing. Otherwise, the trust and the faith is lost, right? And therefore you break up, right? And to go into it with that mindset, that there's a sharing part of this, one person is going to be really good at it, at something, then the other person who, you know, who's who, I think we talked about that back in July, you know, who's good at what? And understand those things and let that person do that. Because, you know that's their their strength, with their passion about what they love to do, and you're what they do is acceptable to you, don't criticize that other person, but you I think the word greed comes to my mind, just not there's other terms that can be used. But when you have that relationship and you start to get, well, I'm doing most of the work, or I'm doing, you start thinking you're doing everything, not realizing that other person is actually allowing you to do you know, maybe Heather's great at the prospecting part, but Heather's, you know, you're doing the back end stuff so she could continue to do her prospecting, because she's really good at that. And it's, you know, you're floating the boat from, from the backside, you know, when you have to have 

Danielle Rodriguez  53:15  
that patient, yeah, do that, and we'll say, and we don't have to, I don't have to tell her that, you know, we have tasks every day in our CRM, you know. So we open it up each day, and there are X amount of people that we need to follow up with in contact in some way, shape or form. And, you know, there could be 30 of them, and now there's 15. And Heather will be like, hey, you know, I just ran through some of them, and I can certainly see that when I open it up, but it's important for us to let each other know I'm not sitting at home drinking tea, just sitting on the couch. I'm here working, watching Oprah Exactly. But I think we know each other well enough now to know Heather's not sitting on the couch, you know, drinking a cup of coffee, just, you know, lounging, doing nothing. And I think she knows the same of me, you know, in some way, no matter where we are, what we're doing, we're doing some kind of work. And that's why we almost have to pull back a little bit, because no matter where we are, what we're doing, we're doing some kind of work, and it's great for our business and for us, but at the same time, maybe not so much for our brain. 

Tracy Hayes  54:20  
Well, I mean, in the yoga to go back to what you saying that, how do the people stay together? And both of you have a conscious thing of knowing I can't let Danielle down. I can't let Heather down. You're, you're, you've got to get up and go. She's expecting me to be there. I've got to be there. I've got she she covered me for the last vacation. I've got a cover here. I think a lot of people get a little selfish with that part this guy, this is actually something I'm very hits a chord with me. I see a lot of people unwilling to give. But I'm gonna tell you that when you're around the successful people, they are giving all the time. They give.

Tracy Hayes  55:00  
More than they get, but they're getting more than you're getting because they're giving so much. And it's always if you go into it with like, well, what's in it for me? Type attitude versus, you know, I'm going to build my equity up here with by giving, you know, giving some of my time, giving some of my expertise, whatever it may be, but, but I think obviously, with you guys is you have a conscious thing that I don't want to let the other person down, just like any true team has. I mean, 

Danielle Rodriguez  55:27  
it is, yeah, and I think it's easy, easier for us because of the stage that we're in. Like, Heather's kids are older, so she'll take, you know, weekends, or go away for a week, or something like that. I have young kids in school, heads, stuff like that. I can't go away for big blocks of time, but I have to make dinner, clean up dinner. I have to, you know, drive kids to school and, you know, so I'm taking little bits of time here and there, and she's taking bigger blocks. So she covers me when I need to do that stuff, and I cover her when she needs to. So both of our needs are met, yeah, and, 

Tracy Hayes  55:58  
and everything you're doing is you're thinking about the other person exactly respect. It's respect that. So that's the answer to those people wonder why you guys have been together. It's we get that. 

Heather Strazinski  56:08  
I mean, honestly, we get that all the time. And I think people think we don't fight, oh, you know, we do disagree, and we do argue about things in the fight. Because, as we have, I think raw honesty at times. Like, we'll sit there and she'll go, like, do you still want to be partners with me? And it's like, we'll have raw honesty time where I'm like, you need a little checkup. We make sure she smells, look at her. I'm like, why are you unhappy? Or what are we doing? And we literally have raw honesty time like, well, we need to tweak this, or we need to check in here, and we just wanted to make sure that you're still feeling good. And we'll tweak we'll tweak, we'll check things, because there'll be certain things that will start bothering you, and you don't know, unless someone says something. And then we'll hash through it and go like, Okay, well, this is why we're doing it this way. Or, yeah, maybe we should change. Or she knows what's important to me. I know what's important to her. And there are some times where she'll be just like, I don't care how you do it, because I don't care. 

Tracy Hayes  56:57  
I mean to have to be able to be able to call the other person up and say, Hey, yo, you ticked me off when you're you upset me because of that. And it's not the end of the world. You're just expressing how you felt. And I remember when I was at quick, and I was the one of my the sales managers, so always, always go to the customer said, This is how I feel. Because no one could challenge how you feel, right? And don't challenge someone how they feel. This is how you made them feel. They're telling you that. So hopefully, the next time you you know, you handle it a little differently, or you ask them, so well, how, how would you suggest I handle that so I don't upset you, right? And it's an honest conversation. It doesn't mean you dislike each other. There's no, there's no two people that are together to not piss each other off at one time or another.

Heather Strazinski  57:45  
And I think that's impossible if you say you have right? I mean, we definitely, I mean, we had clients asking us if we were married. Literally, we had to start introducing each other as my business partner, just not my partner, because we literally had clients thinking we were married. Yeah, it's, we're together so often.

Tracy Hayes  58:05  
 I'm going to jump down a few questions here. I think we may have talked about this a little bit in July, but I think it's, it's, it's good to refresh, especially as a team, because I imagine you know when you're working with a buyer or seller, they know you're a team. Both of you, I imagine, are interacting at one another. You know, obviously I've had like the Glenn team, they're a couple, so they handle, they do a lot of things together, showing up, but you guys, you know, give them that confidence as the as the team. What are some, some used to use the word tactics that you may use when you when you do have a little more of that difficult client. And I say that, and all probably three names just popped into your head, yeah, buyers or sellers, whatever their demands are, whatever you know, how, as a team and now as as river to ocean, how are, what are some things that you guys have internally in maybe you don't actually have steps written down, but because you're a team and you're together all the time, What is, what do you guys do together to handle those more difficult clients?

Danielle Rodriguez  59:07  
So I think after, you know, X, amount of years, we just remove ego, like I said, their Why is our priority? If one gravitates towards Heather a little more well, then they feel more comfortable with Heather. Great. I will do what I can, you know, in the background or or support. If they grab it towards me, you know, same thing, she'll, she'll do minimal, you know. But we both have our roles, so they have to interact with both of us at some point. But if it's like more communication, you know, aspect, whoever they're more comfortable in hearing from, that's who kind of takes lead. It doesn't often happen. But, you know, in a couple instances when I say that, I mean, we've only had maybe one or two where it was blatant, obvious, they didn't want to talk to Heather, right? Didn't like her tone, right? Blah.

Heather Strazinski  1:00:00  
Right, one or the other? It's, yeah, we've had, I think, two, that is, it's, they've gravitated towards one and really did not want to speak to the other

Tracy Hayes  1:00:07  
one. Well, like, okay, you know, in our discussion about team and working together, and even these, you know, somewhat solo agents, you really, I mean, even if you didn't want to join a full, you know, totally invested team like you guys, to have an agent that you trust, maybe you're friends with in, in and outside of working real estate, that you can trust. Because sometimes that second voice comes in with you guys, they have a choice, right? The couple teams like the Glenn team, and I'm thinking John Richardson and Richardson Group, him and the Andrea, you know, they 46 so they can, they find out that we talked about, that they go to, you're just like a kid would, right? Do they go to mommy or they go to daddy? Right? Yeah. So to have that other agent just to say, hey, if I fall off the face of the earth, they're going to be there now, if they start communicating with them, okay, all right, you're assuming they're in the transaction. They've already found the house, but you're working through the transaction. They're still working with you, but they just feel more comfortable talking to them. I always felt in sales to have that be able to, you know, turn over the customer, to that other personality, to that other face, when you have a client who is not saying no to you, but they're not actually moving forward quite yet, you know, to close a sale, or maybe there are some issues, and they're they're shying away from talking to you, not telling you everything, but they'll tell her,

Danielle Rodriguez  1:01:32  
 Well, yeah, it always happens, yeah. And there's no limit to communication. Okay, if you're going to be a good communicator with your client. You need to communicate everything, and maybe it means organizing your thoughts, your process, writing it down. Because from day one, when we meet clients, and we always try to our together clients, we always meet together if it's possible, we tell them, Danielle will handle these steps and this process. And then when you go under contract. Heather's going to handle this portion of it, so they already know up front, and then we introduce our showing agent. If you know, we want to get you in as soon as possible. If neither one of us can, we will hand you over to our showing agent, who will open the door for you. You will never miss an opportunity, right? So nothing is a surprise to them. They're not like, Oh, are they pointing me off on somebody or what? Danielle isn't doesn't want to work with me anymore, right? They know the process setting the expectations upfrontly.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:27  
 Yeah, it's important. I got so many questions, so many good questions. She's this AI, that's pretty good. What role does networking play in your business? And how do you go about building your network?

Heather Strazinski  1:02:39  
 Have fun. We were talking about that earlier today. Networking can take over your life. It really can, because there are so many networking events and so many networking opportunities. You got to be careful there. But if, when you're sometimes starting, you're like, Oh, well, why do I need to meet this person that doesn't get me business or talk to that actually does help you, because we have won deals because the agent has worked with us before, and they've told their client that they are going to get this done. They don't miss a beat. They are a great communicator, and their client may have picked us over another offer that they had, because they know that about us. We've got some wonderful agents, all different brokerages, all different types. We get together for dinner with, you know, you go to events with and stuff, and we all collaborate together and share ideas. And when you find those people, it changes your business, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:03:30  
 Do you that kind of goes into something I was talking with, Sarah rusting with, and I've talked on several podcasts about, you know, we are in the real estate industry. You are, you know, we say 24/7 because part of the you're going out to dinner is, not only you enjoy, you know, want to get to know that other person, but you're also, it's also, what should that relationship building and that network you're building to build the trust you actually spent time, broke bread together, and doing so, yeah, you know, technically, the IRS could say you could write that off, right? Yeah, so, but that's all part of networking. So if you want to become a real you're a socialite and you want to become a real estate agent, it all plays into it that to be out there and meeting and shaking hands, the more the power is in how many people you know, right? Especially the one, especially how many people like and trust you would you very Hopefully, everyone, every here's Okay, here's some. And this, this is a, I'm reading this question here now that you guys are your own brokerage. You know, not that you weren't doing it before, because real estate agents, you're to 99 I mean, it is your own business. You know, the brokerages before were, you know, had the logos and stuff like that, but they weren't really, you know, there was no big financial marketing spend on different things that you're doing. You you took that out of your own pocket. But when you go into opening your own brokerage, what are some of the things on? You know, the question is, how do you handle financial aspects of the business, such as budgeting and forecasting? And I think this is a question not only for a brokerage, but any agent. When.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:00  
Then, you know, you do have times that are better than others. So what? Over the years, what have you guys learned? As far as you know, that the financial aspects of the business, such as budgeting and forecasting, you got to do it.

Heather Strazinski  1:05:15  
We were just talking about that again. It's you got several accounts set aside, you know, I've got my account, then I've got my tax account. So you take money out of each sale, set aside for your taxes, and then we were just talking literally about opening up a third together account for marketing, and taking portions out of every deal and putting it into that marketing account and trying to figure out how much we need. Because not only do you have, your lead generation, your signs, your lock boxes, your dues, anything you run, any ads you run. I mean, we've done Facebook ads, client events, those are that stuff. Can? You can spend quite a bit of money, and before you know it, you've spent more than you actually made that right? So you got to be very can we've taken a hard look. One of our brokerages has really taught us take a hard look at what you're pushing out, and we've cut our expenses a lot. You know? Again, ego gets in there, right? Oh, I'm I've been sending this out for three years. But can I really dictate anything that came from that? No, I can't. You're talking about like, a marketing maybe a mailer or something like that, mailer, magazines and things like that. But you don't want to give up those addresses that only your magazine goes to. But when you look back for it, can you really, or can you send this on something different to all those addresses? Yeah, there's, there's some all change the cost, yeah, but you have to budget it. Because, again, what if there's a month where you don't have a closing? You may have closings every month, but closings get pushed back. Closings get changed. I mean, we had three of our closings in December got changed to January or March, all the way pushed back. I mean, it happened, yes, yeah. So you push your new construction. If you got new construction, and ain't closing on time, and we do half, half of our business, I would say, is probably new construction, you know, based on where we live. But I'm a big I'm sorry I do not count that money ever, until that check is in my hand, right? We've seen it happen to me times. 

Tracy Hayes  1:07:17  
I think one of the, you know, going on, and I spent a lot of the Christmas break going on and studying what other, what other real estate professionals, what other materials are putting out for social media wise, who, you know, there's a couple, there's a couple ladies I came across with that are in South Florida that have big YouTube followings and so forth. And they're just agents that are pushing the knowledge that they have out there. And that was one of the the I caught on, one of them was, you know, talking about part of the success of being a real estate agent. Yes, you have to prospect number one prospecting. But if you're not doing like what you said to the budgeting and a finance plan, you're not putting the money aside for taxes. I think Markey rehaul lemon ryho mentioned that, you know, how many agents, after just a short period of time are out, because all sudden they get the tax bill and they can't pay it, yeah, because they're so used to the w2 employer, and they're pulling it out, and you don't worry about it, and hopefully you get some back, because they took too much out, but now you have to actually take that out yourself, or you're going to get this big bill at the end of the year and put yourself in a bad situation. So yo, how important is the what you're what we're talking about, the financing and the planning to actually sit down and sit down with some experienced people that maybe, well, we fail forward, have failed, and then can be able to teach you right from the get go, to get you off to a great start again, going back to that new agent, sitting down with people who have done it before. And that should be one of the questions. I think it's an overlooked question. It's a very you know what I asked? Ai, what I asked the one of these last series of questions were questions that aren't often asked by to successful agents, by not agents that are not as successful. 

Danielle Rodriguez  1:08:52  
You know why? Because you don't know what you don't know. You know you haven't experienced it. So you wouldn't even know that, like when I first started, I didn't realize how many fees were involved. Nobody tells you that, you know, just from the just from being licensed and being part of the board and licensed and MLS and you know, you know, and like everything, it's, it's just, you know, you don't know. And be great if somebody sat you down and told you these things. But not everybody has that person. Well, you know, that goes back to our question, you know, what do you ask the broker, right? Right? When you're interviewing him, are they going to sit you down to that finance? Is there someone? Because I guarantee you could find there's a people around town, because I've heard them talk about it, that are, like, really focused on this stuff, or when they have that tax class that maybe you go to that right, you know, class, because you're going to pick up some nuggets, or go to a few of them to pick up different nuggets, but because you could quickly be out of the business, because you're going to be put yourself in a hole very quickly, because those checks come in and they're big, but then they don't always come in, and then the tax man's got to get this guy, and then the fee guy, yeah, and then just keeping track of and.

Heather Strazinski  1:10:00  
Every single dollar that goes out. Yeah, it's crazy. 

Tracy Hayes  1:10:03  
All right, we're at about an hour 15 minutes here. So I'm going to ask this last formal question. This is, this is actually number 10 from the AI, which is a general question. I think both of you could probably make a couple comments on, what are some common mistakes you see less successful agents make, and how can they be avoided? Like,

Heather Strazinski  1:10:24  
that's a hard one, because I feel like, as a beginning agent, we all make a ton of mistakes. Well, true, but then you're, you're now, and you're looking back, you see some of those agents, what, or maybe, what was the mistake that you Well, I mean, because I know we talked about this in July, because I always ask it, what is, what is the mistake? Obviously, today, you know better, but you didn't know that. You know, one of my big one is trying to be who everybody else is. I think that's a mistake for every agent. Oh, that's good. It's you're not, you're not who Melissa Ricks is, or Shonda is, or Nikki is, or Ben is. You're not them. You're you. And I made that mistake. I'm like, I want to do what she's doing. I want to do what he's doing. And you get so sometimes hyper focused on it, you start to feel bad, and your business starts to suffer, not because you're not good at your business, because you're just starting. You're not going to be here. Yeah, you need to give it the time. And like you said, there are some agents who start out in their first year, maybe they sold, you know, 25 million or something their first year. That's not the norm. So I think agents just need to stop comparing themselves, start being stop being so down on themselves. That's the big thing. Be who you are. Learn. Take all the time in the world to learn. Never stop learning. Never stop going to classes, never stop researching things. And that's a mistake that I did. I researched the heck out of things now that I have to stop my research too many things, right, right? But in the beginning is, it's like, you focus on one hyper thing that's like, maybe you're missing this, this and this, until you really do find your thing. So stop comparing yourself. That's that's a that's gonna be a great reel, right there. Yeah. What would you say going in a different direction? I think when you first get your license, you get so excited and you just want to jump in and do take a safety class from MLS, you know, go there. Take their safety course, because, you know, you're putting yourself in situations that no may not for you,

Danielle Rodriguez  1:12:23  
some know what to look for and procedures and how to do it, and just, you know, be aware. And sometimes you don't, your brain doesn't even go there to think like I could be putting myself in a situation that isn't good. So couple episodes ago, I had Tracy Hawkins. She's, I want to say she's from the middle part of the country. Anyway, she was on, actually, Markie lemons ry halls podcast, because I was, I wanted to listen to a couple of her podcasts before having her on my show. And Tracy Hawkins was a guest. And she is Tracy the safety lady. She used to be a real estate agent. Her sister still is a real estate agent, but she just found this thing on personal safety. And I will tell you I, a friend of mine, works for Gavin de Becker, wrote the book The gift of fear. It is a long book. I did the audible because I knew I had to listen to it before, because that's her favorite book before the show. So I put it on Audible. It's like 12 hours long. But I will tell you this, when you start listening to what he's saying in the book, you will you it's one of those things where you're like, I can't wait to get back in the car because I want to listen to the next whatever amount of minutes. And it goes back to the safety thing. And everyone says, Oh, well, yeah, I know. But no, humans are the only ones that will get a sense, you know, not, no, no, no, they look like nice people. That's that's not right when, when our initial intuition, and he talks about it for the through the book. If you have not listed, you know, gift of fear, either reading it or going to Audible. But I would also look up Tracy Hawkins in her materials. She teaches classes and keynote speaker internationally as well. Hopefully, maybe we get her in next year for the RE bar camp. But I think it's under looked until somebody something happens, right? We are like, Oh no, it's cool here. Nothing's happened in a while. You know, peculiar situations where, you know, we luckily did listen to that inner voice. You know, this isn't, let's get out of here. Yeah, you know. And 100% it's, it's a real thing, you know. And it's something that people, you know, you get so excited and you just want to go out there and you're and you're literally meeting strangers, yeah, in an empty house, and you're so anxious to get going. If someone says, Hey, they call you up. Can you show me this house? And you, oh, my god, I gotta, right? And you want to tell your broker and run right out there. And I think the app is called forewarn from what I understand, I have a couple of Flagler. Flagler actually has it for their people. But nefar in St John's don't, but you can, you know, put in their driver's license and so, and we should not feel one of.

Tracy Hayes  1:15:00  
Things we talked about in that discussion with Tracy was you should, if you don't even know this person, to ask them, Hey, can you send me take this picture of your driver's license and send it over one Hey, so when you walk up the house, you go, Oh, yeah, that looks like that person. But you know, just you've got to do some due diligence. Yeah, it's here until something tragic happens, right? You know, 

Danielle Rodriguez  1:15:20  
and that's why we put we even showings, whether they're Hayes mine or are together, they're on the calendar, so I know exactly where she is at all times and she doesn't show up. I'm like, right? She was here. 

Tracy Hayes  1:15:33  
Tracy actually has this whole thing about, you know, doubt the listings and what, even, even educating for sale by owners to show value into them. Hey, you know, just some certain things that you do around the house. I thought was quite interesting, like not having your schedule on the wall, like when your kids are playing sports or whatever, take that stuff away, or your any valuables. Or, you know, if you got a expensive painting or something, you want to take that away, because someone could be casing the house. Yeah, just little things with their names on their backpacks. Yeah. I mean, you've just told the everybody who your children's names are right there, that somebody who's, you know, just walking around now they're going to try to follow. And where are they getting out of what's, what's their routine? It's, we go through that with Hayes. 

Danielle Rodriguez  1:16:16  
We tell people all the time, take that down. You're telling them exactly where you are and when Right, right 100% scary. I can't we I think we asked questions in July, but I'm gonna ask it again, because we're gonna get some good reels from it. I've been going back. We all pass on the favorite thing in Florida, thing we'll just go right to. Is it more important who you know or what you know? And I want you to give us out and what you look right in the camera, because I know you're gonna give a great give you 10 seconds think of that answer, is it more important who you know or what you know? And why so hard? I'm gonna say what you know. I think because you know knowledge is key. Knowledge is everything, and especially with your client, that is the best way to achieve any kind of confidence in yourself, and whether you're in it for a year or you're in it for 10 years. I mean, there are people walking around out there now, you know, in the business for years and years and years, and I'm schooling them, you know, five years in, right? So I think what you know is really going to set you aside. Well, when you I, I'm generally who you know answer on that. I like that from the standpoint, made me think that when you're looking for the who you're like you know, you want to find key people and interact with them and network with them. But in the meantime, you can be on YouTube, you could be reading a book, you could be going to a class where you might meet the who. Right, right? Well, it's, it's a combination, because the who you know can introduce you to someone, but the what you know is, what's going to retain them? Yeah, I agree, because you may if you can get introduced to the million dollar client who buys a million dollar home every other week or whatever, but if they don't think you're knowledgeable, they're not staying with you. Does not matter. You can meet Ryan Sirhan today, and it's a great who, right? But if you, if Ryan's talking to you in a in a language of, you know, his experience and all this stuff, you know, let's just take marketing and the social media campaign that he has. If you're you don't have some sort of foundation in, you know, funnels and all you know the different things, or have been watching him and what he's doing, and he starts talking to you. It could sound like someone speaking a totally different language. It is who you know gets you in the door. What you know retains I like it, ladies, is anything you want to add about our river to ocean. I don't know where I got coast to river from. I swear to God, I feel like an idiot because I'm like, I thought I saw, coast to ocean,

Tracy Hayes  1:18:43  
coast to river, river to ocean. River to ocean. Really great. Because, you know what the lifestyle thing and the unique thing people don't realize is, especially, you know, Florida, generally, people like to go boating or beaching, or whatever is you have. You have lakes, you've got the river you want, tubing you want. You know, the different boating areas you can go to. We just had this really unique thing that I can't think of another place. Maybe out in Seattle, maybe they might have something like that. Well, it's basically the area that we service, right? I mean, from, you know, North Florida all the way down to, I mean, the St John's River goes to Orlando, right? Yeah, it's kind of like, it's like, holy, encompass everything it was a great name. And look forward to your success. We're excited. All right, thanks, ladies, thanks.