Jon Singleton: Building Loyalty and Trust

Tracy Hayes  0:00  
Podcast Today's guest has spent the last two decades in real estate with Watson Realty,

Tracy Hayes  0:06  
Florida's largest one of Florida largest brokerages. He served over 20 years in the United States Navy, 10 active and 11 in reserves. He is a top producer and leader in the greater Jacksonville market. Over the years, he has served in many organizations such as the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, amongst other organizations. He has a reputation of having a strong worth at work ethic and integrity. Let's welcome this guest I know has much to share on what it takes to be great in real estate. John Singleton to the show. Thanks, Tracy, yep. Sorry my little stumbles there. Hopefully my editor makes the final podcast look sound better than that.

Tracy Hayes  0:45  
I create those little intros like the day before researching. You know, I should read them back to myself sometimes. Anyway,

Tracy Hayes  0:55  
glad you can make it down as we were talking pre show. I mean, you know, as a leader in Watson, and Watson being one of the largest, you know, brokerages, you know, in Florida, right? You've been there 20 you're talking about loyalty, and I want to, I want to just tap on that some of the things you said, but I want, I want my audience to hear about it, and the kind of how that your loyalty, obviously, you know, you're dedicated to the Navy initially, and Watson and hanging there, I'm sure many brokerages are calling you on a daily basis, is, you know, trying to steal you over because of the success, obviously, you've had for many years.

Tracy Hayes  1:33  
Tell us. Tell us a little bit of what that means to you and how it plays into your into your business, and right down to your customer, the loyalty that you have,

John Singleton  1:42  
right? I think, I mean, one of the we're kind of talking a little bit, I think one of the key components for the for the consumer, is, you know, the loyalty. I mean, they're not focusing on that, what they're focusing on, on trustworthiness, right? And so what we really do as agents, on a, I mean, this is, you know, a daily basis. We connect with people, we meet people, we connect with people. We develop, you know, two way trust. And actually, you're talking about the NAR settlement. I think the huge thing about the Narr settlement, all we got to do is just work on that two way trust. We really, we've kind of neglected that for, I don't know, 100 years on the buyer side, yeah, you know, we always do that. I mean, that's a huge thing on the seller side, but, but for me, so I started off. I mean, I went the Navy to pay for college. They I got a very fortunate got a got a navy scholarship and paid for college. And so I was in for 10 years. Did a bazillion different things. I flew helicopters, and then I got into logistics. I got I left active duty, was in the Reserves, and the Navy was, I mean, I was not a perfect fit. I was kind of a square peg trying to going around home and but I mean it, it certainly served a purpose. Got another degree out of the Navy, had an amazing number of experiences. Spent four years off US soil. So connecting with people. I speak some Farsi, speak some Arabic. I spent a bunch of time in weird places, yeah, but the, you know, it helps me in a lot of different ways. I mean, one of them is connect with a lot of different people, regardless of, you know, race, religion, creed, you know, national origin, whatever. Yeah, but, but also, you know, I mean, there's, there's times in real estate where there's some drama, and sometimes I have to, like, bring people back to reality. Be like, dude, nobody's bleeding out.

John Singleton  3:32  
It's going to be okay, yeah, you need to chill, yeah? And, you know, and if we can't, you know, if we can't have that connection, that two way relationship that trust.

John Singleton  3:43  
Why are we working together, right? You know? I mean, I want to connect to people that I can connect with and work with them. And, you know, I mean, you come across people periodically that they're not your people. Yeah, don't work with those people. Save yourself a lot of time. Mr. Watson would say, you know, if you've got a customer that you're just like going water with. I mean, stop, stop working with that customer. Go focus on someone else who you can serve, who's going to appreciate you and you can connect with, because that it could take a lot of energy out of you when you're battling that and worried about, you know, you know, you're walking on eggshells, like they say, you know, yeah, well, you're worried about tax. Late at night, you try to answer them, and then you're right, because they might be mad at you because you didn't in the morning, don't sleep, yeah, and then the next day, you're not good to anybody. Don't do that. Cut that person right, right? There's, there's enough business out there. And I think that goes back to just the attitude of living, you know, people say living in abundance. That's not the last customer you're gonna have go out and find you know one that you're gonna pass, but your your loyalty and trust is obviously important to you. You you

John Singleton  5:07  
how is that allowed your you think, if you've made changes, could your business be where it's at now? Or you think, because you have stayed where you have obviously you said they've treated you well, obviously you've had great success. You've treated them well, and that mutual relationship has come back before that has really allowed you to get a, I guess, a cornerstone in your market. You know, because sometimes, obviously, you make changes. I've changed lenders who I've worked for, and sometimes, you know, you have to restart people. I don't know that lender. You know that kind of thing is your customers. I don't know today if customers really, are they really thinking about Watson, or it's really John is the brand. I think in real estate, it's always been that agent, that agent's reputation, and that's why it's it's a little hard sometimes to break in, and that's why I think so many new agents end up, you know, going for, you know, the pay per click, or the, you know, pay per lead kind of thing, because the the earned customers, or it's just, it's more difficult to get them, but then when you do, they're, I mean, they're gold, right? And so, I mean, I think that for me, you know, I've been with Washington for 22 years, I don't, I mean, next 10 year horizon. I mean, looks great.

John Singleton  10:00  
The past three mayors have referred to me as the mayor of st Marco, which I appreciate. That does kind of pigeonhole me a little bit. Now we're working on Donna, yeah, I do have

John Singleton  10:10  
anyway, one of her relatives just said, Donna, let her say, you gotta understand, John. Anyway, it is kind of funny, but that, but that digital sign? No, nobody's got that also, yeah, because Mr. Watson bought this piece of property in 1976 because he knew that it was a, you know, coral anyway, he took the McDonald's model. Oh, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, buy the prime real estate, well, and he bought the prime real estate. He it's always on the boundary between two neighborhoods, right? And so, you know, this the San Marco office, which, I mean, I've renamed the city. I mean, everybody's like, it's a San Jose office. I'm like, San Marcos got the higher price point. Call it that one, right? But it's, it's right on the border between San Marco and San Jose. The Avondale ortiga office is right on the border between Avondale and Ortega, you know, Ponte Vedra is right, you know, right there, kind of Atlantic Beach, you know, that's Jack's beach, you know, getting into Ponte Vedra, you know, it's everything's kind of on a border. But I think we are reducing our footprint a little bit because we had 53 offices, which a lot, yeah, but, but, I mean, so, you know, we've, we've kind of restructured some things, but, but, but I think we're doing the right things. I think Watson's doing the right thing. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to transition, but I definitely want to the to that mindset of the property. I'm going to transition here because I want to do my typical plug here, if I can get in the camera here, these nice laser graphic by Remy graphics. I don't know if you know dunya Taylor with Remy Realty. She's purchased Remy Well, purchased this company that the lady no longer won't do it. So she purchased the machine. She's making these. She'll make one offs. So if you've got a closing and you want to put, you know, hey John and Sally, you know, welcome to Jacksonville or whatever. And you know, John Singleton on the back with your phone number, she'll make those one offs. But Remy graphics, and this is, they make all sorts of laser cravings. And I'm going to put the website up there real quick on the Remy graphics com, Remy graphics com, and look at what she's got going on there. But like I said, great for closing gifts, because she'll make one off. She'll have to order a couple dozen. And this one is for you here, actually. Yeah, it's got the show logo on the one side there. Yeah,

John Singleton  12:26  
start off the show. So everyone gets a little background on you. Where are you from? Birmingham, Alabama, uh huh. I don't know if that comes through that native Alabamian next night. No, I didn't quite pick it up there, but it does. It does lead into not too far away, just to the north, going to Vanderbilt. That's true. Yep, yeah. So was it because of the Navy offered a scholarship there? Or you because you really have, well, today, I know, I don't know if it was different. Then when the Navy gives you an ROTC scholarship, you can go to where, anywhere there's Navy ROTC. That's great. He was the best school I got into. Yeah, yeah. What was your vision at that time? You know what John wanted to do as a career? Was a pre med English major.

John Singleton  6:22  
If there were some reason to change, right? Which there's, we're good, they're not. But there was some reason I think my customers wouldn't have, I mean, I don't think there'd be much of a speed bump there. Yeah, it's something you got to get ahead of, right? You know, in, you know, I've got friends that have, you know, they're on their fifth or sixth brokerage, you know, that wasn't, I mean, sometimes you see people leave, they think the grass is greener, and they come back, they're like, Wow, that was not, yeah, what I thought it was, but, but, you know, and I, you know, I'll talk to Corey Hastings, I've talked to Courtney or somebody just called from Sotheby's, and you know one of the problems so the recruiters, the recruiters assume that they know what their value proposition is. And I find this a little annoying. The recruiters have done less research on me than you did before. I came here today, right? And so the recruiters will call me and they're like, don't, you know, we're the best of the best. And, and they have no idea what my current situation is, right? And they should come stop by my office, right? Yeah, I actually have this corner office on the overlooking this lake, which is really nice, you know. And so, you know? So I'll talk to, you know, I'll talk to Lin, or somebody from, you know, from one of the other companies, and, and they'll, I'll say, do you have waterfront? And they're like, yeah, yeah, we got waterfront. I'm like, no, no, no. I mean, for my office, can I have a waterfront office, please? And they're like, what? So I think I've got the nicest office, actually, in the company, which I just got, well, you're

Tracy Hayes  8:00  
you're hitting on something really I bring up on every show, but kind of from a different angle, and the agents are out there searching. I think it was Caitlin Doherty with DJ and Lindsay. Obviously, she fits that mold. She loves it there. She's happy, but and she we brought because one of the subjects always talk about is finding the brokerage that that does business the way you want to, where you want to go, into that corner office. You've earned that corner office. You're proud of that corner office, that that's your little obviously a little hot point because you brought it up. That's that's important to you, you enjoy, that others need to have other needs. You know, whatever it may be. Maybe I know Ingle Volkers. They the agents, come on, they brag about a lot of support, transaction, coordinators, assistants, whatever, those types of things. And the agents are bouncing around. And I think there's two, two things working against each other there, somewhere in between, someone has, the broker is not doing the research on you, finding out, getting a little bit to know you, especially, you know, 22 years, not you've been in the business two years. You've been here, 22 years, for you to make a move, it's going to be big. So they've got to come at you with, you know, or approach you in a subtle way and find out more about you. They're not doing that. And then there's agents that are bouncing around that haven't done the research on the brokerage, enough research on the brokerage that they're moving to that they've gone to five, six brokerages over their career, right? Yeah,

John Singleton  9:28  
well, and also, I mean, I've got to realize that if I moved it, Watson would take a hit, and it would, I mean, it would really hurt some feelings to some people who've been really good to me. And so, you know? I mean, there's a whole different kind of thing there. What was back to your loyalty thing, right? Yeah, right. And, and we do have a digital sign on, say, road 13,

Tracy Hayes  9:48  
yeah,

John Singleton  9:50  
you know, San Jose Boulevard, man. I mean, so many people, well, most of the past mayors. I mean, you know, so the you.

John Singleton  12:21  
that I could call her get these for myself. Always want to

John Singleton  13:07  
No idea. No idea

Tracy Hayes  13:08  
that lasted. That's most 1819, year olds, though.

John Singleton  13:12  
No clue. Yeah, yeah, I got into Psych. Yeah. Navy doesn't pay for Psych degrees anymore. Tracy, interesting, yeah, they like engineering and math, which was part of that whole kind of square peg thing. I didn't really fit, yeah, but then you go on these, I mean, they're kind of like internships, but they're summer cruises. I mean, you go and you do these summer events with different, like, different parts of the Navy, and then you'll go and, you know, hang out. Well, the enlisted guys will, will, you know, say, we got an officer in the making. Let's go chip paint in the bilge. Super fun. But so, you know, you spend some time doing that. You spend some time it because it's like 150 degrees, yeah, oh yeah. So, yeah. But so you spend time with submarines, with the, you know, with the Marine Corps, with the Aviators, with the surface guys, and you kind of figure out, kind of like, where your people are, and the the pilots were super fun. I mean, I really enjoyed hanging out with the Aviators. And said, wanted to go to flight school. And so I, once I graduated, I did, fortunately, get a, get a flight slot. And so went through flight school, became a helicopter pilot, end up flying search and rescue off aircraft carriers for for several years, air strikes in Bosnia, that was kind of the first first round, you know, I was 26 and bulletproof, and yet later, when you have kids and you're in Combat Zones, totally different vibe, okay, but anyway, but we Yeah, and then my, my wife and I ended up going to Bahrain. Lived in Bahrain, you know, is Arabic country off the coast of Saudi Arabia for a couple years. And then we came back to DC.

Tracy Hayes  14:53  
Jeff kids at the

John Singleton  14:54  
time that no kids. Then we went to DC. Had a, I mean. A pretty cool Pentagon job. And but then my the community, I had shifted into a logistics community, and then that community was going away. And so there's just, I mean, there was just kind of organizational movements that were, that were happening, and it was, it was just well, and then she, my wife, got pregnant with our first child, and the Navy said, Well, how do you feel about Korea? And I'm like, yeah. Anyway, Candace was like, I'm going to Jacksonville, go to Korea. And I'm like, I want to do that. And so

Tracy Hayes  15:34  
So you because you had done a tour through Jacksonville during this time. So I married a Jacksonville girl. Oh, she is okay.

John Singleton  15:40  
I met her in Pensacola, actually, in a bookstore, not not in the bar. I was looking for love in the bar, but I found her in a

Tracy Hayes  15:48  
bookstore. Found her in a bookstore where you were going in to get change, and she was getting a book. And then I kept

John Singleton  15:55  
going back and like that Christmas, like everybody got books,

Tracy Hayes  15:57  
finally worked up. How many books did you read over that period of time,

John Singleton  16:01  
read you'd be buying, I

John Singleton  16:04  
bought a lot of books. I do read a lot of books, but yeah, I kept finding reasons to go back and talk to this, this cute cashier.

Tracy Hayes  16:13  
Well, you had you in the reserves, and you had put under at least the what I saw there on your LinkedIn about you did some, you mentioned something about HR doing some human resources in your reserve role. And, you know, I imagine, over the years, I don't know, you know what your support team is like right now? Maybe you know, you could describe it dealing in human I think human resources people are unique animals. Some are really good at it. I think it's really has to do with the company they work for, is for thinking corporate America. You know, some corporate Americas live and die. They let their human resources run their company. To me, it runs them into the ground versus, you know, doing advising and, you know, doing what they should that's, that's the role they should have. But I met, is there any experiences you had dealing with, I mean, in probably explain to the audience a little bit, what is human resources in the you know, in the reserves, like, what are you actually doing as far as the military Human Resources is concerned? And then you're in your, you mentioned earlier, might have been in pre show, if I didn't confuse the two. You know, that experience and being able to take it to relating with your customers today, right?

John Singleton  17:28  
Yeah, yeah, the so I found this really interesting niche, or it found me, I don't know. I mean, kind of God put me on this really interesting path, and when I ended up the last, like, four or five years, when I was in the Reserves, I had made it to senior officer level, and I had experience from the deck plates of, you know, of the you know, folks at the tip of the spear, you know, you know, absolutely, kind of the farthest in the chain of command from, you know, from the Pentagon. And I've been at the Pentagon, and I've been at the places in between. I mean, I'd been at, you know, at the places you know, where the, you know, where the, you know, the captains were, or the admirals were, the like, the high level admirals, or then, you know, the actual pentagon, where, you know, like everybody is. And I'd spent time on Capitol Hill. And what was really interesting, I had also, I had gotten called up because I was young, you know, rookie in real estate, kind of one of the up and coming guys, you know, made, made Jackson's 40, under 40, before they called it that, because it was in the old days. And the and I had gotten called up, and I'd gone to Afghanistan. I'd left for 15 months, and that experience being mobilized, and then coming back, I then went and trained all the reserve units. And I did, I created this unit in the spotlight program, and I went and talked to them, and, you know, made sure that their the things that they would need to do if they mobilize, either as a group or individually, they had all that stuff kind of handled right, and that they also were kind of emotionally prepared for, you know, as much as you could be for something like that. And then I would also go and spend, you know, a weekend or a couple of weeks at these mobilization centers where they're in processing at the time. I mean, this was, you know, full on Iraq and Afghanistan. We're sending a ton of people to the desert, bringing a ton of people home, and they were going through, I mean, 1000s, sometimes 10s of 1000s, of folks a week or a month. And so I would go and allow the commanding officers to go to take a break. They could go on vacation for a couple of weeks, because I was a debut commander, and I could go in and, you know, invariably, you know, one of the, you know, the captains, you know, same as Colonel and the other forces, you know, somebody would freak out because something was taken too slow, getting through MediCal, getting through. Whatever, and they're mad, because they're, you know, their team members were super stressed. And I'd say, Captain, can we, can we come into the office? And I could bring the captain into the office. And had the, had the, you know, on my resume, on my chest, right? He could tell that. I mean, I had, I mean, I had two of those Afghan medals, because it technically was two tours, and a bunch of wings and, yeah, well, and, and could talk to him about, Listen, I'm not a paper pusher. I'm actually operational. Which one of the issues, which were a lot of HR folks, are not operational. They really, they understand the paperwork. And so in paperwork so important, but you got to keep an eye on the mission. And I could actually kind of help him drill down and focus and like, sir, this is what we're doing. This is why I know it's painful when I went through it myself. This is what I experienced. And it was a really unique perspective, perspective, because none of the other folks that were kind of running that had really necessarily gone through those same experiences I had. So anyway, it was, it was interesting now, now the application into the real estate world, or just dealing with people. Yeah, it's part of just, it's part of just dealing with people. I do. I mean, personally, I wish I was a better manager. I did manage like, 100 people or something in the Navy. I'm really not that. I really love, hey, this is, you know, I mean, job rugs. Everybody's like, oh, yeah, I've left production. I'm like, production is where my happy place is, production, right? I don't not to repair negotiations, but I love, I mean, the getting with people and people like, well, I don't know what to do, and I'm like, man, we're going to take care of that, right? I love that. Being able to sit across from someone and say, Listen, all this stuff you're stressed about. I've done it 1000 times. We can solve these problems. It's going to be

Tracy Hayes  21:45  
okay, yeah, no.

John Singleton  21:46  
People like, well, how's it going to happen? I'm like, Well, it's good how

John Singleton  21:51  
it's going to happen, but you just get

John Singleton  21:53  
on my back. I'll and we'll get through it. First contract, second contract, third contract, I don't know, can't control Crazy, right? But, but I can talk to people, and I can say we're going to take care of the that's the part that I love. I really do. Yeah, my partners, I mean, like her to deal with the operational stuff. Well, it's, it's,

Tracy Hayes  22:16  
I'm trying to remember where I was reading this. It might have been rocket fuel, if it's but, but there's this, you and I are the same way. How are we going to deal with it? We're going to open that door and we're going to walk out in the hallway and we're going to go down the hallway and deal with it as it comes out, right where there's others that got to go. Well, what's going to happen after I open the door? Well, we're going to step in the hallway. After I hit the hallway. What are we going to do? Well, we're going to take it right, and then we're going to take so many steps they want all that information before they ever open the door.

John Singleton  22:46  
So, so the Navy is unique. Of all the services. I spent a lot of time with all the other services. And I spent time with with like, like, you know, like, British Air Force, and like, you know, New Zealand special, you know, ops guys. And like, under like, all sorts of different the Navy, because of couple 1000 years of admiralty law, is used to saying, Tracy, this is what I want you to do. You're going to go to the other side of the world, and you're going to do this thing, and I don't know how you're going to do it, and I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen, but if, when you come back, if it's not done. It's your ass, right? And sorry, I don't know if that kicks us off YouTube, but, but you steam over the horizon, right? The captain's in charge because there were no comms, right? I mean, maybe, and maybe even now. I mean, often you've got satellite, what if it doesn't, what if there's a storm, right? And there's times where

Tracy Hayes  23:41  
there are no because many ships have never returned. And the Navy

John Singleton  23:45  
is unique, I think of all the forces. And, you know, we say, Aye, sir, and we go and we do it, and we come back, and we're either, you know, we're either lauded or pilloried. I mean, in fact, even after you accomplish the mission, you come back, you still don't know if you're going to be rewarded or punished. And we, sir, yes, sir, yeah, you know. And so anyway, that same kind of attitude, you know, people are like, how are you going to make this happen? I'm like, Well, no, but it's going to happen. It's going to happen, right? Don't worry about it

Tracy Hayes  24:17  
exactly. And you're, bleeding that confidence on them. You're giving them that again. Go back to the initial thing, the loyalty and the trust. And I think there's, there's, I always remember, and I can't remember the lieutenant was in band of brothers, and there's that scene where they're at the farm, and he just runs straight at the Germans and actually runs right on through them and turns around and starts shooting him in the back, basically from the rear, and hit that type of leadership. And all all the soldiers who are hunkered down and wouldn't even pop their head up, are seeing this guy and going, man, and they get energized by that. Get energized by that leadership and that just, you know, courage. There's 1000 different words we throw out there to describe that, but it inspires people, and that's why they're that's why they become great leaders, because people want to follow

John Singleton  25:14  
people like that. Of course, he gets to the other side. He's like, I can't believe that played out, just like it did in my

Tracy Hayes  25:19  
head. You Yeah,

John Singleton  25:23  
the other thing is just the, you know, the faith, right? And the you talked about abundance, I think abundance is super important. But also realize that God's going to give you the business that you're supposed to have and and it's going to be okay. And you think about, I mean, I think about, you know, people ask me about all the listings I've gotten, and I think about all the times I've gotten fired. Still here it's okay. And I read a quote the other day that I thought was fantastic. Like, whenever you're having a bad day, think back. Think about your track record. Think about how you know, what percentage of bad days have you survived? And you're like, had some really bad days. Yeah, I'm at 100% Yeah. Gonna get through this one too. It's gonna be okay. And so anyway,

Tracy Hayes  26:09  
you know, it's just maybe, give me a thought,

Tracy Hayes  26:12  
I take my son to this gym. You know, he's working out for high school sports and stuff, and I was taking a picture of him, and he was doing this exercise. My wife was getting all worried about this. Oh my God. His joints just said, Honey, the coach is right there. He's watching. He's got the right amount of weight, and he's doing the exercise properly. I'm like, wait till he starts squatting 400 pounds and putting it on his shoulders. And then you want to work. Then you want to get concerned. He ain't doing nothing right now. But when you haven't experienced that, when you haven't been put in those adverse situations. Some people are just like, oh my god, what are you doing? And I've, we've talked about it on the show with other guests, just and obviously you've been put through it, you know, going through the Navy. But you know, you and I are about the same age, when we were growing up, going through adversity, like you said, a bad day, right? You know, going down and being told to go chip paint in the in the bilge at 150 degrees, yeah, you go down there, most people would, they would open the door and close it and turn around say, No, I ain't doing that, right, but we did, and how that is, how that has given you that, that confidence. Like you said, this is no problem. We're buying and selling homes. We're not shooting guns at each other. We're not going to, you know, these long off lands here that we don't know. Yeah, they don't. They speak a different language, and we don't even know what they're saying, right? Yeah, yeah. They could be talking about how they're going to shoot you in the back of the

John Singleton  27:40  
head. That's right, yeah, yeah. That's why you learn some key words, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  27:48  
And I want to tip on it, just so that people understood you the the reserve role, like you said, in these, in these, would you call them, where they were transitioning, getting ready to be shipped out? Or is that what's, what was the word? What was, what do you call those centers, mobilizing mobileization center? So you, you, I think, over the last, well, 24 years, I mean, since 911 basically in when the reserves and the National Guard units have been called up, these guys were just doing their weekend and their two weeks, and now all of a sudden, yeah, they're going from civilian life. They may be a little bit out of shape. They haven't they're not totally qualified doing certain things. And you're having to evaluate these guys and get them off to the right

John Singleton  28:33  
schools, hopefully somewhere at a higher level is evaluating folks. But that's where, you know? I mean, yeah, I land in Afghanistan. I'm a realtor, right? Psych major. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we want, we want you working in this warehouse. Like, who am I working for? They're like, well, you're going to work for a captain. Well, there's army captain, right? So that same as Lieutenant the Navy, I'm a Lieutenant Commander. I'm like, I'm not doing that. And so, so I go on a jobs I'm like, seriously, you pulled me out of my life and left my two

Tracy Hayes  29:07  
of my because you're 30 something now, and they want to put you with the 2223

John Singleton  29:10  
year old. And I'm like, I'm not doing that. And so I until I went on a job hunt, and I ended up being like, like a key, like, negotiator and adviser for this. I mean, it was, it was an HR kind of thing, but, but I was, I was over the, like, the folks that were doing all the admin and all the pay and finance for this, like, you know, like 30,000 people a year at where they were training all the, you know, all the the new Afghan National Army folks, and going back and forth and negotiating with, you know, with the, you know, the key folks in the country about that. And, like, I'm not trained for this, like, it'll like, and I was the guy that was, like, issuing, like, all the ID cards for everybody coming into the Afghan National Army, because we had this, like, card printer, and I had an Excel spreadsheet. I'm, like, seriously. Recently, this is how we're running this war. I mean, this was like year four and five, I guess. Anyway, they see if anyone wants to talk about which president and what happened with Afghanistan, and I don't know, well,

Tracy Hayes  30:11  
well, you're right. They throw you, they throw you, they throw you out there. And you got to figure it out that that's one of the I mean, if there's any, I think of any, you know, you think why you should hire a veteran, because most of them been thrown in those situations, been just dropped in the zone and figure it out.

John Singleton  30:26  
I mean, literally, you're like badges. We don't need those sticking badges,

Tracy Hayes  30:32  
all right. So, but why real estate? What? What was it that did? What got you into real estate? You have family in real estate. What got you into

John Singleton  30:39  
real estate? So? So, when I was at the Pentagon, I was working in the family housing division. Actually, this is, you know, it was, it was funny part of my, anyway, bizarre career path. But in ended up as a budget and policy analyst working on this, we had this huge plan where we're going to transform how, the, how, the bachelor barracks, particular, which are apartments? I mean, it's just, you know, Navy apartments for single guys and ladies. But we were transforming, we're changing the architecture and making, anyway it was going to save the Navy bunch of money and and was going to provide better, you know, better stuff, yeah, just a different configuration in the rooms and stuff. And it's so we had 120,000 apartments, and then 66,000 houses that that branch was responsible for, yeah, for those were super historic, multi million dollar. You know, one was the chief of naval operations in DC. One was the Pacific fleet in Hawaii. And then one was the one was the Air Force Academy. And there was a, there was a there was a fourth one, the coming of the Air Force Academy. But so we were doing these, like historic, you know, restoration projects, which are really super interesting. But I was like writing a, like a one sheet white paper for him, and sitting into Congress. And, you know, never touch a brick, right? I mean, it was very like high level, which was, you know, it was very sterile, right? It just really didn't get into, I mean, it seemed really super cool what I was reading, but I wasn't doing the cool stuff. Well, I got out, and we moved back to Jacksonville, because my wife's family's from here, and we had our little baby boy. He's now six, six, and anyway, going to fire academy next week, but, but so we got back here and and my my boss, who was one of my super good friends, was was here in Jack's visiting, and I was working as a consultant. I've got a management a master's in management. Was working as a consultant. Thought I was a business consultant, and I was, but that's a hard job to explain, you know, anyway, but, but so he was like, why don't you get a real estate license? I'm like, Mike, you sure? And he's like, Yeah, you you should look into that. I'm like, alright. And so when, you know, took the school, you know, went to school, took the class, yeah, Watson. Went to The Watsons, you know, I don't think I went to the Washington School real estate think, you know, Bob ho or somebody, right, Florida, you know, real estate school, but, but I went to the, went to the school and in a interview with some folks. And, you know, I'm like, you know, this could be fun, right? And this was what gets into, you know, my mom couldn't believe I figured out how to make a living talking to people. And I'm like, wait. So I get to just go talk to people all day, and then, like, every once a while there's like, a $10,000 check. Yeah, no, it's kind of works that way. How often do you get those checks? They're like, well, how many

Tracy Hayes  33:36  
people you're going to talk to?

John Singleton  33:40  
That whole equation that, how many Hang on, how long can I last without food or water? Yeah, but, but anyway. But so, yeah. So I, I got into that. It was 2002 and got my license and started Watson. I've been there ever since, and I've, I've talked to a lot of people now.

Tracy Hayes  33:59  
So one of the questions I always ask is, you know, what led you, in this case, led you to Watson. You've been there for 22 years. Would you just a friend, or you just went over? Did you actually even talk to other brokers there? You just

John Singleton  34:11  
but, you know, I probably did.

John Singleton  34:14  
I really don't remember Audrey Richey now, Audrey lackey, who, who, who now owns legends, was the recruiter for a long time there, and I talked to her, and she, she hooked me up with, well, eventually it ended up being Clark le blonde who, who's at Legends, but he was the lead trainer of recall, a banker, but he was my broker for 10 years. The the cultural fit was really good, and, you know, part of that, and that didn't really, we really didn't connect on this level until later, but, but Mr. Watson had been army RODC, and he'd gone, he'd gone to Stetson, and he went in the reserves for a couple years, particularly when I got called up, it really, kind of, it really, kind of hit him. And he and I have actually been really pretty close, which, I mean, we, I mean, I think probably every. He's been in Watson for, you know, 20 plus years. Feels like they've got a great relationship with him, but, but, but it was really good, and his his culture was good. And I talked to a lot of military people about getting out, and I tell them, there's only two things that you need to do to find a successful career shift, and it's a huge shift, right? But for military, for any veteran, you got to find camaraderie and you got to find mission focus. And if you don't have both of those, it doesn't work. And so for me, for the first couple years, you've probably seen a lot of people in real estate, they're, you know, they're killing it, right? And I hate that word, killing it, and so, you know, and people on Instagram don't see it as much now, but you know, you know, 2021, you know, I'm, you know, slanging houses, you know. And I hate it, you know. So you start talking about units, right? We're talking about numbers earlier. You start talking about units. And you can, you can sell a bunch of units. It's hard to really get behind that with your heart, right? And when you make that transition and hope everybody, I think that stays in here, in this for more than five years, does this. But when I made that shift and realized that I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't selling houses, right? I was helping people with their home. And you make that shift, you're helping people with their home, and that's something that your heart can get behind, right? And then, when you're talking to people, you're talking about that, you know, they're like, Well, we're going to give you the sale. If you're like, you're not giving me

John Singleton  36:29  
nothing's for free.

John Singleton  36:31  
I'd like to earn that, right, but I would like the, you know, I would like the honor of helping you with your transition, right? You start talking about transition and start talking about that home, because we're, we're going to sell this home because it's no longer a blessing to you, and we're going to find you a new home that's a blessing to you, right? And I am a Christian, there are some weighted words, you know, sometimes I'll use like, you know, like, like, faith and blessing and stuff like that. I've spent a lot of time with, you know, with folks in all different faiths. And so, you know, it's not judgmental, but it's, I want people to know that. I mean, I come at this, you know, it's my heart, and, you know, follower of Christ, and I'm going to do this in a way that that not only has integrity, but has morality, right. And so we talked about legal, ethical, moral, not necessarily in that order, but it's, you know, it's extremely important for me to have that integrity and credibility, that I'm going to do something that's legal, ethical and moral, and I'm going to do it because, you know, my license is writing on it, but, but also, you know, great commission. I have to do that as a Christian, otherwise, you know, I've, I've failed.

Tracy Hayes  37:40  
Well, I mean, it's that holding you the passion that you have. If your heart's not behind it, obviously you're not gonna have passion that that you want. It's kind of like me in this podcast. I mean, I have a passion of doing it and learning about every agent coming on and and hearing the stories and words you you were leading in a little bit. Sounds like you've done some counseling for active duty, coming into civilian world and being graduated the Citadel, I had a group come down. They were studying PTSD, how to do around, actually two things, PTSD, but also where, unfortunately, our young people aren't able to make it through boot camp, getting injured, that sort of thing. But what they found, because the word you use, was camaraderie. What they found with a lot of the military guys that have PTSD have those issues that putting them in the in areas where there was other veterans, right? And they're working on a project together, the mission that you just mentioned, and having that common, that common bond, helped them through their their issues that they were having, right? And that it really gets down to real, I mean, ground level. I think, I think a lot of people like you're saying to get the passion you enjoy going into the Watson office. Obviously, when you walk in there, you obviously you have respect from a lot, from a lot of people. You've earned that respect because you put the numbers has nothing to do what you did in the Navy. As far as they see, you're not wearing bars on your shoulders anymore, and they're seeing this is, you know, you're respected because you've been there for 22 years, and you you've earned that corner office overlooking the water there.

John Singleton  39:34  
Keep earning it. That's one of the things I like about sales. Yeah. It's not what you did 20, you know, over the past 22 years,

Tracy Hayes  39:39  
but you put yourself into last year, yeah, but you put yourself into this cycle now of loving what you do, talking to people. You mentioned that the passion of helping them, getting in their home, versus, you know, hey, I, you know, I gotta eat next month. I gotta go scramble. I gotta get, you know, make a sale. You've gone beyond that, and now you're, you're into that. I'm. I'm helping people love what I do, and I'm talking and you're just loving what you're doing, and that attracts bees to the honey,

John Singleton  40:06  
right? Yeah. There's also another component that's really interesting for the, you know, kind of veteran mentality, the adrenaline is awesome. And it's, you know, it's, you think about negotiations, and you think about deals. You think about all the different times or, you know, in there, you know, the strategies that are winning, and sometimes it doesn't work. The I do love the sport, I do try really hard not to lose focus on what we're really trying to do is find a new home that's a blessing for someone. The sport of it is fun, though, and it's a lot safer than jumping out of airplanes.

Tracy Hayes  40:44  
It sounds like there's, there's two things that you get, an adrenaline rush, obviously, when you negotiated, you got that contract, now you're riding the closing you're like, that's that gives you that, that a little rush, and then probably getting that either a referral, or just a nice compliment for someone saying, man, just totally Thank you, right? That's your two moments.

John Singleton  41:08  
Real, incredible. Yeah, I love it when someone said, You know what, you I was really super stressed about this, and you made it feel so easy, and we're so appreciative. I mean that, oh my gosh. It just doesn't get any better than that, right? You know. And honestly, in that, you know, in that that transcends, and this is something you know, most top folks focus on. I mean, that's not that has nothing to do with what the commission percentage or the price point or that, you know, it's, it's, it's that Job well done is fantastic, yeah. You know, the the money, the money

Tracy Hayes  41:41  
becomes, yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously that that's as you how you measure it. And if you didn't make any money, unfortunately, yeah, it would, you'd have to find another circle to get into Right. Talk about your, your, your so you had, you had some experience in, you know, like I said, you're, I don't know if managing, where you were overlooking those properties you were just describing, you know, being in the Pentagon, you had these things that kind of attracted you to a high, high level of dealing with real estate. And now you're your first year, you get your license. You're trying to get started. Expresses, a lot of the Watson ages, we talked about a pre show, a lot of, hopefully a lot of the new people will will listen to this a little bit. Tell us about your first year. How did you get going? What were some of the things that you were you were doing now 22 years later, it's a little different. You got social media. You got other things, how, how you relate what you did to the first year. Just like, imagine some first year people like, dude, you've been doing this 22 years. You forgot what you forgot what you did your

John Singleton  42:43  
first year. No, no, I remember.

John Singleton  42:47  
Tell us about so Watson.

John Singleton  42:50  
And there's a playbook, right, you know? And you open it up and it's like, oh, you know, it's 10 different activities. You should do these things. And there weren't many guys in real estate at this time. Okay, this was pre HGTV, pre Bravo, and I got in trouble. I was, I was on a panel with the with the Jackson chamber. Anyway, Daniel Davis got mad at me because I said something about y'all my old squadron mates were like, What are you a housewife? You can't say that, but, I mean, but I mean, seriously, yeah, there weren't many guys. I mean, I was 32 and super young. Don't do the math, because anyway, I'm still only 37 the but I, and I was working as a I had, I had spent a little bit of time working for a defense contractor. So I left the Navy active duty last day was 1101, which I thought was the coolest, you know, anyway. But I had worked for SAIC, which is big defense contractor in the inside the beltway for, I don't know, for about, you know, 910, months, something like that. And then we ended up moving to Jacksonville, and so I started a consulting firm, singleton group, and had very, very thankfully, got a contract fairly early. And so, you know. But the problem is, if you're all by yourself, and you're doing all your own work and all your own marketing, it's very, I mean, that's just very complicated. And the great thing about real estate is, so when I tried to explain what it did is a is a business consultant. We talked for 30 minutes. You still had no idea I sell houses. I mean, my elevator speech, I've got three words, okay, three words, I sell houses immediately. And hey, I bet you live somewhere, right? Pretty much everyone does, I mean. And then we, we start, I mean, it's so easy, right? I mean, the elevators speech is so easy, but, but, but anyway, so that first year I was, I was kind of fighting that playbook, and I was still working and, and, and I was like, you know, you gotta tell, you know, you gotta have your sphere of influence, and you gotta, you know, you gotta reach out and tell everybody. And I was, I was ramping my. Mind around the what, what am I, right? And am I something different than the realtors that I see around me? And, you know, I was looking around, you know, average age is, you know, it's 55 you know, 55 female who's been doing it for a long time. And I'm looking around, we'd have these quarterly meetings for Watson, and we, you know, and I'd look around like, there's nobody in this room, right? It looks like me, you know, just kind of funny. And so I kind of fought that, you know, the door, knocking, the cold, calling, all the stuff and, and so I, you know, that first year, so I got my license in, in in July, so I had six months, and I sold, point 3 million. So I was a house on Barcelona, in Granada, which I sold that house to the guy I was working for my very first sale. Love that house. That

Tracy Hayes  45:49  
would be a million dollars today, 262,000

John Singleton  45:53  
literally, that house is a billion dollars. Yeah, but yeah, I remember Marcy Scarborough in the office was like, well, you're spoiled, because now you think you're going to, that's going to be that easy. And, you know, she was right. It wasn't that. I mean, I mean, I sold that one in like, August that we closed. That was great. And then I got a listing on delwood Avenue, and I think I sold it for like, $92,000 and that was it for that year. And that was, you know, not a whole lot of cash. And so then the second year came around, and so, as you know, as kind of, you know, kind of hammering it a little bit better. But it wasn't until September, Sandy Wagner, who's been manager of our intercoastal office forever, did the seminar, and she's sitting there talking about, like, how do you, know, how do you market yourself, whatever. And she said, you know. And here I was, you know, 3233 always wearing a suit, you know, kind of, kind of rigid, kind of, you know, in most of my business, it was four calls, because people call the phone, the landline, Tracy,

Tracy Hayes  46:57  
we're the same age, John,

John Singleton  47:01  
they see, well, I'm going to call, you know, you know, what was it? 536, and anyway, and so they would call the the office, and I was doing a lot of floor duty. And so I get that starter set of customers, which, I mean, you know, same as free leads, right? I mean, it's, you know, say you started exit, or fathom, or whatever else. And, you know, you get these free leads, right? So I'm working the free leads that come in. So conversion rates not super high, right? And Sandy said she's, you know, it's just, it's just like, 90 minute, I don't know, two hour, whatever, seminar, but there's just one sentence. It was just kind of funny, just kind of a throw away lunch. It's like, you've got to resonate with your customers. And I was like, holy moly,

Tracy Hayes  47:44  
light bulb went off. Oh my

John Singleton  47:46  
god. I gotta resonate. And I realize that I'm not resonating with my customers. And so, you know, I mean, there's two different things you can do, right? I mean, I could take off the suit, right? And it's, you know, I'm still wearing a blazer. Because, you know, can address it up because post pandemic. I mean, like, no one's wearing a blazer. So look at this. It is unlined. So it's a nice Jacksonville summer. It's southern time anyway, but, but the I wasn't resonating, and so I was a little, I mean, I was working with a bunch of blue collar guys, and I'm like, you know, either I can like shift, and of course, we've learned how to be complete chameleons, right? You you, you know, you mirror, you do all the stuff, right? But you know, we I've learned to resonate with anyone. But I also realized, why don't I try to attract the people that are going to resonate with me better? And then, you know that, that that's a higher price point too, right? Takes longer, right, but that's a higher price point. And so that's where I started getting involved, say, market preservation. I started getting involved with the chamber. I started doing other things. I started getting leadership positions in those different places. And that kind of stuff is what ends up attracting that those folks that appreciate the professionalism, you know that you bring having come from, you know, he was working the Pentagon for this. I'm going to carry this out, you know, a business consultant. We're going to have great strategic planning. We're going to, you know, and the price point went up, and the conversion rate went up, and everything went up, because I just figured out I have to resonate with my customers anyway. Long

Tracy Hayes  49:19  
answer, no. But

Tracy Hayes  49:23  
from one little like you said, Throw away thing at the end of a presentation that she's doing, threw it out there, and it triggers. And it goes back to how important to go to these talks like this. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people, you know, oh, I've heard that stuff before. Well, if you had been doing it from the beginning, sometimes you have to hear it 50 times, right? I mean, you might have heard that actually a number of times, but never it didn't click with you at that moment, because at that moment, you had something to stick it to on the wall, because you were looking for something, because to move your needle.

John Singleton  49:55  
And I was at a place where I was receptive, right? Whatever it took me to get to that. Place, be in that moment and have her say that at that moment, and I, and it was 10 years or so, maybe 15 before I tracked her down to thank her for telling me that. But I mean, she knows that I absolutely 100% have given her credit for transforming what was, you know, what was going to, you know, be a real estate career that I was going to be one of those 80% or 90% that didn't make it to two years or five years, and that in that comment, I mean that that comment changed it. Yeah. And then I went to a Hayes herder seminar that next year, and I sat there with Barbara maple, and I worked on this brochure and all this stuff. It did. It did take me about 17 years to print that version. Finally proved it. That's all wrong, and he's changing it. But anyway, so yeah,

Tracy Hayes  50:46  
well, let's so let's break it down for you've been doing this for 22 years, and like I said, you walk in office, you got a lot of, you know, zero to five years people, I'm sure you see all the time. Let's say those are the ones listening to it. So let's gumpify this down resonate with you. So for you, if I've heard you correctly, where you were at and what was going on at the time, being part of these, the chamber and all these volunteer organizations, really, which there are a lot, and I will throw out Limelight theater in St Augustine, because my wife's down there. They need a lot of help right now, the state of Florida pulled a lot of money from those type things down there. Pull 50 grand out of their budget, which is huge as a 501, C, but there are places like that, and they need help. You just need to call out in there, in get involved and start mixing and mingling with these people. Because, like you said, Everybody want everyone lives under a roof hopefully, or desires to live under a roof? Everyone? Yeah, so getting down and mixing me and then, like, who was, I think was Angela Walker, Retta. It's not how much you know. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And when you start putting putting your time into these organizations, you start building credibility. And also you're meeting people and hang in. They got to build a trust, and that sometimes it takes time, and

John Singleton  52:04  
you don't have to pay for that, yeah, right. Tracy, you don't have to pay for the membership in those groups, right? And they're glad you're there. They just

Tracy Hayes  52:10  
want a little bit of your sweat, right? Yeah. And hopefully you're bringing something to the table. But what are things you know in today, you know, a lot we got a lot of lot younger agents. You know, you talked about, yeah, the stereotypical, you know, when you and I were growing up was the real estate agents were wives of, you know, some of the husband was successful, not to be sexist in a way, but a lot of the stereotypical thing, a good portion of them were like that. But now, you know, I had a 26 year old Taylor Johnson was killing it just last week. In the last episode, we have a lot of sub 30 agents now in this market that are men and women that are really doing well. But for that agent like you said that might have been struggling like you were, what are some of the things they can look at it to start to resonate with the buyers of Northeast Florida?

John Singleton  53:01  
You know, I think there's so much more material that's out there to help now, which is really great. I mean, I'm, you know, right now, I'm devouring books. I mean, I'm going through a profitability, you know, or production kind of pit stops, I guess. Which Ron Howard, who's top agent up in Maryland, just wrote a couple years ago, and it's in, I mean, from that, I mean, I've been, you know, I read in inman.com and so I was reading this blog, and they mentioned this book, and I'm like, wow, this is really good. And so it so I started reading this book, and this book is all about, you know, I mean, you may be, you know, closing 10 to $20 million and you're focused on getting those awards and walking across that stage, but you're really wondering, you know, why don't you have more money in your pocket? And it's because you're focused on the wrong thing. And I'm sitting here reading it, going, oh my god, yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, it's, you know, I've got some things on the wall, but that's, yeah, that's not, you know. I mean, really need to focus on streamlining and refining my business, the there's so many different things that can help so many different agents. And, you know, and it's not, I mean, it's not necessarily cold calling, or, you know, social media or whatever. I mean, you kind of pick your pick your thing. I think the as far as the volunteer groups, I have rejoined the chamber. I was part of the chamber for 10 years. I left it for a while because we're in the middle of the recession. Didn't have any cash, and it was focused on, you know, more kind of just, you know, really, really, you know, stroking through being, you know, being in the business. And so I'm back in the chamber. And you know, if you go in one of these groups, you know, you are going to make the world a better place by your involvement, by doing your thing, and when you go in with a open helping heart, that is going to be the most productive for you that you can possibly be. Now, something like the chamber, you got to go in with a plan to how are you going to monetize it? Right now, the chamber is a, you know, is, is. A civic group. It's not the same as one of the nonprofit, you know, going helping the lighthouse, you know, limelight, Limelight theater, yeah, you know, or San market preservation, or, you know, clean up Florida waterways or something like that. You go into, you know, you go into a you go into a BNI, you go into a rotary. You need to go in kind of with a plan on, how are you going to connect? You know, you've got to, you've got to attend events, you've got to network. You've got to talk to people. You've got to, you know, share with them. Like, what can you do? You've got to go be a spotlight speaker. The but the the nonprofits are a much more I mean, they're target rich environment, military term. But I mean that is a resource rich I mean, you go in and you help folks, and where you dig in with your church, or you do something, you know, I mean anything, anything where you're where you're really focused, and you're going in with a, with a, you know, with a helping heart. We had one guy. We'll call him Blake, because Blake was his real name. But this one guy was in our office, and he's like, I see bunch of people are getting business from their church. I'm going to get three different church bulletins next Sunday, and I'm going to get me some business. And we were like, You go Blake. Good luck. And and I've done a lot of business with my church. I've done a lot of business with my friends, with you know, my kids, schools, neighbors on my street. Now, the problem is, when you're staring at a house across the street from you that you're supposed to sell, and you're kind of sitting on your front porch and it's not friggin selling, there is some pressure. That's a different kind of pressure than when that sign is a somewhere else, some other neighborhood, and when it's one of your friends and you're not, you know, the market's not responding right, right now, I've got my brother in law's house on the market, and, man, we've done price reductions. We've done price reductions. It's, it's in Cypress village, and it is a fantastic two bedroom, two bed, but maybe one of the best price, but it's, you know, there's pressure there. But if you own it, if you own it, and you do the best you possibly, and you keep, you know, keep focusing on it, keep trying to figure out you can do some fantastic business. It there. There is a risk there. You just got to realize

Tracy Hayes  57:21  
that in these organizations that you like, said you rejoin the chamber, but the church, you know, yeah, you can't go. And the first day you go into church and expect someone to turn around and say, Hey, I'm looking to buy. Can you give me your card because I want to sell my house? It doesn't happen that way. You have to put yourself out there. And it may be months before anybody really even knows what you do, you've got to in because they pick up on you weird term, fake people. If you that's what, if that's your motive is to go in there, I'll, I'm just gonna start handing out business cards, and they're going to see that go. They want to see you every week. They want to, you know, whatever, at the regular events, you're active, you're volunteering for maybe there's an event that needs to be organized, and you're volunteering to help out, you need to get those are long term plays. This is actually something I've thought of recently over the last few months, and brought it up at different times. A lot of agents really only look at the next 3060, 90 days you've been in it. 22 years out, the marketing and involvement that you're getting in things, I imagine your understanding these are long term plays. This is hopefully going to pay off in three years, if I get a deal tomorrow. Oh my god, blessing. I got icing on the cake, but really, you've got to put the time and the consistency and be that guy. And I think a lot of times in these B and I's be the last guy standing right. Be that. Be the most senior person in there, and everybody looks up to you as you know, like when you walk in a Watson office, right? And they see you as the resource, right?

John Singleton  58:55  
Yeah. And I've never been a B, and I guy, right? And then I say, Yeah, I don't want to pay to play, but, but, okay, but a different chamber, because that's a, you know, because, you know, it's a greater good. Well, you know, it's a different, yeah, it's a different pretext, I don't know. But with the, you know, the challenger church is, there's a lot of business. That you can get with people who trust you, right? But, you know, so you need, ideally, you need everyone to know what you do, and you need to not talk about it. Okay, so that's, that's true. You want

Tracy Hayes  59:35  
everybody behind your back talking about, hey, John's your real John's a realtor. Yes, you

John Singleton  59:40  
want to have that integrity, but you also want to have that, you know, I mean, you particularly in church, you have to have a servant's heart, right? So you go in and so honestly, so I would, you know, in general, you know, if I'm, you know, if I'm there for church service or Bible study or something like that, and we're actually shopping now, because our church went through this big split, and is, anyways, pretty do. Disruptive, but, but, you know, if you know, people would come up and want to talk about real estate at church, I'm like, Well, you know, let's, let's have coffee, right? Let's have or let's go have lunch next week. And you know, because, you know, because I'm there too, wanting to kind of center myself. And you know, you know, get my worship on, or whatever. And, you know, and I don't want to, I don't want to just, I mean, it's actually the only place in the world that I don't want to talk about real estate. And my wife will tell you that can't seem to talk about anything else, right? But I do love it, but, you know, but then you sponsor the, you know, the Fall Festival, right? And so you spawn, you're one of the sponsors for the Fall Festival. I mean, you're clearly out there, clearly doing real estate, and then you're helping with the pony rides, right? And so we would always do that. We're not talking about real estate. But, I mean, you know, my logo is on the sign over by the face painter, right, you know. And it's, you know, and so that was, that was valuable. It just other, you know, spent a lot of time with scouts. Spent 17 years as an adult leader for scouts that wasn't about real estate. Now, I've had some phenomenal lifelong customers that have come from that, you know, because someone says, Here's my son, we trust you, and we want you to help, you know, raise him to be, you know, a good man, right? And, yeah, keys to the house. I mean, after that. I mean, you just hand me your son. I mean, it's, I mean, right? You know, both of those, you know? I mean, both of those are sacred things that, you know, your treasures, right? And you need to, oh, my God, you gotta protect him with your life, you know, the keys to the house. I

Tracy Hayes  1:01:34  
mean, well, it goes, it goes back to again, and I gotta figure out the how I'm going to correct the title for this podcast, but it goes back to the loyalty and trust, the years you put in at your church and what you didn't just do it one year. You've probably done that multiple years, 17 years in the scouts. I mean, you have many, many, many families and right, you know, they entrusted you in your own way. You probably took out of your own pocket to sponsor different things for them, you know, put the logo on the trail, whatever. But you know, you suddenly let them know what you were doing, and not only having obviously all their contact list again, you earned the loyalty you were loyal, and you gained the trust through that, you know, because there's nothing I give my son's, he's, he's probably about eight months away from his eagle. Scout just got back from Camp two weeks ago, which true, 474, in St John's northern St John's County there. And, you know, yeah, when there's a shift in leadership. So to have someone there again 17 years, right? You know, and you build a reputation, you know, again, go back to the loyalty, which then gains

John Singleton  1:02:50  
you to the trust, right? Yeah, well, and that's and you're doing

Tracy Hayes  1:02:54  
and you love doing it. I think that's the one thing, I swear to say. You love doing the things at the church. You enjoy it. You probably had your young kids and they wanted to ride the pony. So, hey, you got involved, sponsored the ponies, or whatever it is, and you enjoyed scouts. You love doing it. So you it became

John Singleton  1:03:10  
part of your, your lifestyle, right? Yeah, right, yeah. Well, in, in, in, part of your brand, you know. And that's it. That's it. Well, in that kind of continues. And so, you know, so, so one, you know, you get chapters of, you know, of your life that you know, one kind of closes, and then you know, kind of, what do you do, and how does that follow up? And you know, and how do you shift? And you can, certainly, you know, take a break for a bit, but, but you know that constant, that you know that constant thing, and that's where you do have to love it. It really helps to be an extrovert. But yeah, that the Scouting has been great the, you know, shifting over into into a community leadership, or thought leadership, or however you want to look at it. You know, you mentioned PTSD, and I am a high performing combat vet, but there's real struggles. There's real struggles that I this morning, I got up at at 630 and I went to yoga. Alright? Now is, is a 32 year old, you know, with my squadron mates, and never would have admitted friggin right, but it's really good for my head, and it's good for my flexibility, because, you know, I keep reading all this stuff that talks about, you know, getting into a centered place, focus, time blocking, do more, close the loop, stuff, meditate and, you know, and so that kind of fits into that and sharing with people that you know, that going through, you know, my own battles with the VA or whatever, and finally, you know, you know, finally, kind of, kind of breaking through and figuring out, kind of, what, what's the, you know, what's the secret, what's the gouge, what's the scuttle, butt, like, how, you know, what's the cheat sheet? I mean, how do you, how do you. Break the code, right, to get help, you know, and it's in that it's okay, right? But I mean that for me is a is like a new mission, right? I retired, literally, June 1, from scouting. I mean, my son, Eagle, five years ago, and still I was committee chair for, you know, troop 35 and in my my heart, I mean, honestly, my heart wasn't in it anymore, and so I was terrible for that. I did help navigate the troop through a painful transition with a schism in the church. Is the Methodist Church. They were United Methodist. They disaffiliated, and anyway, but they stayed at they stayed at Southside Methodist, which I'm super grateful for. And they're going on into a new chapter, and someone else is leading them. Because, you know, it was, it was time for me to sunset, yeah. But now I've spent a lot more time with VFW and with, you know, PTSD issues, right? And, you know, it's a new it's, it's the same thing, though, it's the same brand. I mean, you know, my daughter talks about things being on brand, right? I still care about people. I'm still pretty open and transparent about all sorts of things in my life, and I'm willing to share, and I'm willing to talk to people even about painful discussions they don't want to talk about Christianity, you know, talk about my testimony, talk about spending a lot of time in the Muslim world, and, you know, speaking, you know, Arabic and Tracy with, you know, folks that are have a totally different construct,

Tracy Hayes  1:06:19  
right? So again, to relate it back to some of our listeners, or maybe in some, you know, some of these new agents that are out there, you would you suggest to them, structure your day, but you've got to, you've got to find some of these things you love to do, whether it's if you like the drama and so forth and want to volunteer at Limelight theater, go spend some time there, if it's your veteran. And, you know, working with, you know, some veterans that are having issues and so forth, they're going to the VFW Elks Lodge. There's, there's a tremendous amount of places that are, I mean, that are doing great things that can be found out that want you right now. They need people to do this. And these are, this is, these are places where you're going to meet people. Now, some of these places you might walk in, and it's not the person standing in front of you that's actually the person that needs you, but they they know people, right? And in adding value, you know, showing gain loyalty and trust by going they know people that are going to want to refer you. It just, I think, like I said, too many, or I said that too many agents are looking too short term that go spend some a couple hours. You think about all the different marketing things. Marketing is such a wide variety, wide, broad word. You're marketing yourself all the time, 24/7, as a real estate agent, and everything you do. And it's, it's that, it's again, it goes back again. I think I'm probably just gonna name this loyalty and trust goes. Where can you go and gain loyalty and trust and credibility?

Tracy Hayes  1:07:58  
And where can I get started today? You gotta start that

John Singleton  1:08:02  
journey, but you've gotta go gain loyalty, trust, credibility. Is a human being. Yes, that's gotta be first real estate agent. Second, you know, people care that you're qualified and that you know what you're doing, as far as real estate's involved, but you know, but going in and digging in, you know, go in with a servant's heart and go in because, you know, I had no intention of, you know, starting off in, you know, as a den leader and Cub Scouts. I mean, I was there to be with my son, to be involved in the, in the things he was doing, right? And, like, keep him alive, right? I mean, must be clear. I

Tracy Hayes  1:08:37  
mean, yeah, the whittling stick 23

John Singleton  1:08:42  
and still keeping, you know, and so I went on all the high adventure trips, and actually ended up going on one more than he did. So I got my grand slam. He only got his triple crown, but he was supposed to go on that last one. And then, anyway, work called him one but, but he, you know, I mean, I was, you know, there. I mean, you know, trying to explain to my wife that, yeah, our 14 year old is going to go on a canoe trip, do like, 100 miles in the Canadian wilderness where, you know, there's, you know, he's 50 miles, 50 miles away from the nearest road, right? And there is a float plane that can come in if there's an emergency. But, oh, by the way, we can't actually communicate with the people that would send the float plane, and they can't get in. And there's like, a lake, like eight lakes over, maybe that they can land on, you know, it's Lake Hayes, by the way. But I don't know how we're going to get to, like, you know. And she's like, are you going to go with them? I was like, oh, yeah, no, I'll go with him, yeah. So, so is, you know, so I got to go on northern tier with Brandon, you know, that was awesome. You know, one of our first, you know, amazing, epic adventures. And, and then all these, you know, all these parents, you know, number of whom have been lifelong customers of mine. Well, I kept. Their son alive, right? One of them, we had a medical emergency, literally, you know, 50 miles away from the nearest road to the Canadian wilderness. And that was exciting. But he anyway, course, to a great it's, it's fine, but, you know, but, but trying to kind of work through all that. I mean, that's, you've got to go in, though you've got to go in, focused on whatever that is, the real estate's gotta be second, because people see right through that. Well, you get commission breath, yeah, Tracy, you know this, you get commission breath. And the two different key things, one is that, you know you gotta, you gotta work today on what's going to be 90 day money, right? Because, I mean, there's very little that you can do today that's going to pay you in 10 or 15 days, right? It's, it's, it's all kind of, at least out there a little bit, but, but Gary Keller is just reading a book, and Gary Keller had said that that whoever develops a club around their database is going to win this game. And so look at your database, where

Tracy Hayes  1:10:56  
develops a club around their database? How does he, how does he describe this club? Put to make this some I get an idea. An idea is going through my head. But what? How do you

John Singleton  1:11:09  
bass fishing or playing Dungeons and Dragons or Fortnite, I don't know, pick a common interest. Who cares? Who cares people that have, you know, cats that have three legs. It doesn't matter. It literally doesn't matter. If you can develop a club around some, you know, some group of people that you connect with. It doesn't matter what that is, has that, you know, if you got a bunch of friends that really like going to, you know, Judas Priest concerts, or whoever's

Tracy Hayes  1:11:43  
playing, right, Grateful Dead obviously had their club, yeah, no, go, go.

John Singleton  1:11:49  
Drill down into something that's, you know, little you know is niches well. So for me, a lot of it was historic area stuff. Now, now one of the problems is that, you know, so, okay, so I have San Marco has been great for me, and I think I sold more houses in San Marco than anyone else has ever Okay, now I there is one competitor that would probably like to challenge, and I'd like to I'd like to compare, at some point, if she's interested, I'd like to compare house for house. And I don't know if we're counting units, is that signs is that, I don't know. I think, I think I got it, but anyway, you're there. I think. So, who knows? Let's compare, but, but, but, one of the problems is, so I've been an OC certified agent for a long time, because that in to a certain extent, like, is like a little inoculation. But, you know, we sell new houses, I mean, but, I mean, I do a lot of San Marco, but you can get, you can get pigeon holed in a niche, but that niche is never actually hurt me, though. And then, and then I, and then I was the chair of the historic Area Council for nefar for years and years. I mean, I was either chair or co chair for 13 years, all right, which it would, I had to find someone to take that away, right? I mean, please. I mean, I mean, seriously. I mean, you do 13 years. I mean, someone else could get that resume line, right? I mean, literally, don't need it anymore. It's fine, but, I mean, that's but that's where my heart was, and that did help with that, just kind of locking in that understanding that, oh yeah, no, he knows historic

Tracy Hayes  1:13:23  
So,

Tracy Hayes  1:13:26  
but you put 20 years in the Navy. We're a navy town, right? Did you see a market there are? You also have a market there. You just keep it on. That's another, you know, because there's some agents, obviously, that have exploited that I was exploiting the bad word. But they market because they have family, their husband, wife, you know, whatever.

John Singleton  1:13:45  
Yeah, that is so much easier for someone to tap into who's on base. Bit, you know, who spends time on base, who has a direct connection. I've never been super successful with tapping into the Navy stuff. It's part of my you know, it's part of my makeup, part of who I am. It did, you know, cause the genetic defect that maybe adjusted my personality weird way that somehow works? You know, well, for, for what I do, hearing

Tracy Hayes  1:14:10  
those aircraft carriers, the radars were causing,

John Singleton  1:14:14  
but, you know, but, I mean, San Marcos not a destination that a lot of Navy folks go to. A lot of go to Orange Park if they're NAS, a lot of go to the beach if they're at, you know, at Mayport, but, but that's, I mean, that's definitely been kind of an undercurrent, but I've, I've never really tapped in super well to them. I do think that VA and FHA buyers are in an advantage right now in this particular market. And the reason why I think that is, I think VA and FHA buyers have been pretty much, you know, they've, they've been out, you know, competed based, you know, that's really not the but, but for the last three years, they've had a really difficult time competing. Yeah, and and cash buyers are totally wanting to make deals right now, but cash buyers want a discount. Yeah and VA and VA and FHA. Buyers are like, I'll pay your. Asking price, please. I really need a house. I'm trying for years. And so your VA or FHA buyer often is, is offering, you know, 20, $30,000 more than that cash buyer is, and that's very attractive to a seller, because at the end of the day, it's all cash, yeah, you know, at the end of the day, it funds, and there's cash in the bank. Would you wait for, you know, for an extra, you know, to make sure the inspection and the appraisal are okay for, you know, wait an extra 20 days for an extra 25 grand. And most sellers would say, Yeah, you know, I'll

Tracy Hayes  1:15:30  
wait for that. That kind of leads us into, as I want to finish up here we're looking at what our timer right now. What do agents need to be doing right now? If Mr. Watts say, I want you to speak to, you know, these 100 agents, maybe you know they're, they're making a living, but they're not, they're not. What do they need to be doing right now in this current market place that we have right now,

John Singleton  1:15:53  
same thing we do in every marketplace you you have one job, prospect. I mean, there's one job, it's to prospect. And so that prospecting can take a lot of different you know, you know, there's a lot of different avenues, a lot of different things you can do. And you know, part of that social media, Part of that's phone calls, Part of that's going to networking events,

Tracy Hayes  1:16:13  
Part of that's doing, finding what you love to do, I would imagine, you know, we, our

John Singleton  1:16:17  
only job is to prospect, and you prospect. And then with those prospects, then you you connect with those people, and then you make an appointment. And so when you make an appointment, you work on what you're doing, buyer, seller, whatever it is, and you kind of lead them through the process. You've got your you know, we'll call it intake, we'll call it whatever, but, but, but the only thing that you need to do in any particular market is prospect. Could just keep prospecting. And so people always ask me. They're like, are you busy? I'm like, I don't understand the question. I mean, people, I mean there, there were two months that are that I was not busy. There was this one month in 2008 it's like September, actually, maybe early October, when the the entire world melted down, right? The whole financial structure melted down. And, yeah, I was not that busy that month. That month we're trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do, and if we needed to, like, do a massive pivot, right? Like career change, like this isn't going to work. And there was another month that you remember, march 2020? Yes, I do remember the 1515, days to flat everyone, yeah, you know there's TPC March 13. And they Yeah, hey, drink up, because we're closed tomorrow. It was Thursday, and we were talking to the bartenders. Were like, alright, well, I'm going to do my part, because I'm a team player. Give me a double and then I'm going to be right back. But, you know, but the Thursday we went home and we didn't go back to work, maybe it went back to work on Friday, but, I mean, then every the whole world shut down. And so that, you know that two weeks there and first two weeks of April, I didn't wear shoes, you know, weather was wonderful, right? But, I mean, I was not super busy. You know that I I've always

Tracy Hayes  1:18:02  
been busy. So when you go to these, your your chamber, whatever, again, going back to the prospecting, and we're talking about, hey, you know, we're suggesting to these agents, get out and get involved in the many different whatever it is that floats your boat. Get involved in it. Start showing up consistently. Are you asking, you know these Hey, or just just through, naturally, hey, what do you do for a living? Because a lot of people obviously just in talking and whatever you might be packing bags at the food bank, right? You just start chit chatting about whatever. Are you adding these people to your database? Are you adding these people to Yeah, you're getting there. Or, obviously, you get a lot of them on social media. Get a lot of their information, getting their email addresses.

John Singleton  1:18:42  
And, of course, you get the first, you know, first loan from here. I mean, it's well, so part of it is we got a three word elevator pitch. I mean, I still have this, you

Tracy Hayes  1:18:58  
know, I like that.

John Singleton  1:19:01  
I I have always hated that. What do you do? Right? Because, I mean, I don't want to. I mean, you're not what you do, right? I mean, for

Tracy Hayes  1:19:09  
you're afraid that person might return back, say, I'm a stripper at wackos or something. That might be their response. That's fire.

John Singleton  1:19:17  
She lives somewhere. I mean, I'm just saying she does or he. I mean, I don't

Tracy Hayes  1:19:21  
know, yeah, we can't be

John Singleton  1:19:23  
no but so the

John Singleton  1:19:27  
listening is always better than talking, right? You need to be you know. You need to receive information. So another quote that your most interesting when you're interested, right? When you're interested in someone else, that makes you more interesting, personally, but So, so the, I do think that listening, I don't like that question, but there's like, a bazillion other questions, you know, the forward questions, the you know, talk about family, talk about occupation, talk about recreation, talk about dreams. There are, you know, there's a bazillion different questions, you know, what? For. You here, I don't know. Hey, that's a cute shirt. Where do you get that? You know? I mean, what, you know? What do you the Fourth of July is coming up? Where's the best place? You said you're in St Augustine. What's the best place to watch fireworks in St? Augustine, right? I mean, there's like, a just start talking, right? I mean, and then listen. But I mean, yeah, somewhere in there, if you're in a networking a bit, dude, yeah, well, if

Tracy Hayes  1:20:22  
you go to BNI, it's natural. I'm just like the church and so forth,

John Singleton  1:20:26  
naturally BNI. I'm just not a BNI guy, but, you know, but these agents

Tracy Hayes  1:20:30  
are thinking prospecting. So they're thinking about, how do I adding these people to my database? Right? But it's not necessarily that direct. Some obviously, you're seeing this person every week you're showing up, you know, at the church for whatever volunteer night it is, I don't know, fish fry Friday or whatever it is, you're showing up every week that that's part of your prospecting. Eventually you get to the adding them to your database, or whatever it

John Singleton  1:20:55  
might be. That's not price, maybe that's prospecting, but for me, that's not prospecting. But then you talk to people, and then they give you your business card, and then you business card, and then you call them the next day. That's prospecting, okay? And so that's where that that moment in time is a time for connection, alright? So moment, so when you're connecting with people, that's not exactly the same as prospecting, but you do need to be out there and connecting with people. And then when you figure out those people that you're connecting with, then call them and say, Hey, listen, I really enjoyed talking last Tuesday, and I just wanted to to ask you, we just, you know, just just finished our latest guide for the summer. Do you mind if I send you a copy? You know, or or, you know, you mentioned you're in this neighborhood, and I don't know if you knew that they're doing a big food truck thing on Friday. And I just, you know, thought you should know about that. And I'm actually, you know, going to help sponsor, you know, one of the folks there, and I'm doing a raffle for, you know, when you I don't know, yeah, I mean, just, you know, just something to connect, right? And then, and then add them to your database. I do think I really hate it

Tracy Hayes  1:21:57  
when it's so is it really connecting or prospecting that they need to do

John Singleton  1:22:01  
first? Don't worry about it. Don't think, don't overthink that. Well, that's what

Tracy Hayes  1:22:05  
you just described you were you because they need to get out. Yeah, they need to get out in, like you said, get involved in these things and start making connections, letting everyone know, even if they wear a Watson real estate t shirt, right? You know, that's a subtle way of letting everyone know, yeah, I'm a real estate

John Singleton  1:22:22  
agent, right, right? What are they doing if they're not? I mean, people, literally, just at home.

Tracy Hayes  1:22:25  
Well, I mean, some of the top agents I have on are some of these moms that go to the go to their son's, you know, ball game, sitting there, sweating and getting eat up by bugs, but they're wearing something that says, I do real

John Singleton  1:22:35  
estate. Sponsor the team. Yes, sponsor the team. And then your logo is on the back of everybody's shirt, so everybody sees it when they, you know, when they're when they're running around, or when they take it out of the wash. I mean, whatever, right. So, right, yeah, sponsor stuff. I mean, but, but, yeah, but So, but, but I've got very specific time each week that I'm, that I'm prospecting and and go to these, you know, I mean, I mean, sure, take classes, but then put in practice. And take more classes and put it in practice. But so the one that, you know, I think of them as 590, 10s, where I, you know, I block off, you know, two hours, basically, and that's been five minutes come develop what I'm gonna do. I spend 90 minutes calling people, and then 10 minutes, technically, it's not, it's a little bit less than than two hours, but 10 minutes kind of recapping what I do. And one of the problems that I have that's that's really made me plateau for like, the last 10 years, which is kind of a issue you can't really complain about a whole lot, but I've been kind of plateaued for the last 10 years, and I think it's because I was a helicopter pilot. I mean, I'm kind of seated the pants. I'm kind of, you know, just make it up as I go along. I've really realized, particularly in the last couple years, I've got to add structure. And so I've been adding in structure. I've been adding in time blocking. I've been adding in this is what I'm going to accomplish today. This is what I'm going to accomplish this week. This is my goal for this month, for this quarter, and that is helping immensely. And I finally partnered a year ago with Susan Hopkins, who had been working with for 12 years. We actually went 5050 people were, why do you go 5050 well, because that changed the dynamic so much. Was I bringing in? I mean, yes, I'm, I mean, I'm kind of the Rainmaker. I've got all these, you know, connections and things we've been working on for 20 something years, but to have her totally bought in, and we're in this together, and we're figuring out what to do together, has has been a game changer. And I think that really, this next year, I mean, that's going to that's going to break us out.

Tracy Hayes  1:24:32  
We're so question comes up almost well on almost every show these some of these agents reaching lid. We were at the mastermind a couple weeks ago at Landmark, and we were talking about teams. And those you know, what is teams? Is such a again, like marketing, it's, you know, how do you want a team of real estate agents? Or, really, you need a team of some support staff? You know, when you when you got this, what is your support staff look like? Do you have a full time. Transaction coordinator. You and Susan, right now, what do you? What do you?

John Singleton  1:25:03  
What is your structure? We have a full time assistant that does, yeah, she's Tracy coordinator, she's marketing, she's she's admin, you know? And so those, those are her core functions. So we don't really worry about a lot of the, a lot of the nuts and bolts. Now, one of the problems I'd love to talk to, like, some of these teams about, like, how they do with, deal with repair issues, and I think that to a certain extent. I mean, my average house is 75 years old. There's, yeah, there's some stuff that comes up, and sometimes that's pretty tedious and kind of, like, really absorbs a lot of time, and that's hard to outsource, just because I, you know, I mean, I've read through 1000s of inspection reports and I, and I have the contact database, but I would love to kind of streamline some of the repair stuff a little bit better, and that, Susan's been great about taking a bunch of that, you know, just kind of heavy lifting off of my plate. But yeah, so we have, we have one admin support.

Tracy Hayes  1:26:03  
How important has that been, though, to give you the time to go, to be the Boy Scouts and stuff? I mean, is that, you know, you're the people reach that like it is a lid and you can't, you can't grow anymore. If you're trying to do everything yourself, you've got to spend some of this stuff off, on somebody, right?

John Singleton  1:26:19  
Well, and you've gotta spend some of that stuff off. And the other thing is getting over committed. And when I got called up, went to Afghanistan, I, you know, aside from all the other stuff that was going on with leaving my two and four year old, I'm sitting in, sitting in this, you know, cold, dark place in Afghanistan, and my stress level was lower. And I thought, What the hell, and it's and I realized that I was on five different boards, and I was cheering two of them, and I was just running myself ragged, you know, as a realtor, and doing all this stuff. And I got back into that situation again couple years ago, where I was on like five different boards, I was was looking at all my obligations, and I realized that I had 11 nights a month that were dedicated to something other than my business or my family, right? And I'm like, Okay, there's not that. I mean, there's only, like, 30, right? And that's including the weekends. And so what am I doing? Right? It's actually taking a long time to kind of shift out of that. And I finally, I mean, as of, I mean June 1, literally, there was a meeting last night that I didn't have to go to, which, thank God, you know, but, but I finally have, kind of have kind of cleared my plate of that stuff. And I'm trying not to add in new stuff with that. But anyway, I forgot what

Tracy Hayes  1:27:41  
the question was. Well, the importance of you want to get involved in these things and your time, and putting some of these tasks over on someone, relying on somebody who can, whether it's a transaction coordinator, an assistant, you know, there or, you know, one of the terms I have on here, put mentor. Have you ever had a mentor in your in your

John Singleton  1:28:02  
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Meet with her every other week. Oh, these guys, or as a coach or mentor, well, so I've got a coach mentor, okay? And there are a lot of other people that I have surrounded myself with, and you know, and part of this is, and this just the way I grew up. I had my parents got divorced when I was early, and a stepdad that was, I think he was crazy for a bit. We're cool now, but, um, but, I mean, I, you know, and I've tried to be a good husband, and I've tried to be a good dad, and both of my dad's had, my dad's stepdad had great qualities, but they also had some, some that were not ones I wanted to replicate. And so I have always surrounded myself. I've found people that I'm like, Okay, I really respect that. And this person let me go talk to him about why. And, you know, and so I've done the same thing in business, and, you know, and, and that's, you know, I love going to, you know, Mike roll with his events, and I love talking with Mike. And so his team is different than mine. David Butler, another, I mean, hero of mine, who's, you know, who's been Watson forever. He and Claire are the only people on the planet that I know that have a team that that's very similar to the model that Susan and I have, and we're kind of modeling after David and Claire, where they just went 5050, early, early on, when David was producing like 90% of the business. And now it's balanced, and it's been really good. And I've always, I've asked him and her, like, how that happened, and they're like, Well, man, that just transformed the whole relationship. I mean, there was no other way to, really, you know, clarify, like, you know how important you are to me that, listen, I'm just going to share half Everything I make with, yeah, right. And

Tracy Hayes  1:29:48  
how do you tell your wife that, hey, I'm going to take half my normal commissions because I gotta share it over here with a, you know. Well, how are

John Singleton  1:29:54  
you going to work with a young lady who you know, I mean, 12 years ago, who you know, and have your wife? And her, and have my wife and her husband be cool with them. And there's a lot of different kind of movements, dynamics with that. And just trying to make sure, and a lot of that is real intentionality, and trying to make sure that everybody understands, listen, this is what my intention. This is what we're trying to do, right? And how do you see that? You know? And actually, and I hadn't talked to Susan about this much, but, but, like, I see her kind of as a sister, you know, which you know, which is really, she's like a sister in business, you know. And it's in here that has been really helpful, just trying to, you know, how do you get your mind around what you're doing, you know? And are you,

Tracy Hayes  1:30:35  
are you guys dividing, like one's doing lessons, one's one's buyer side, or you, you just help each other and tag team on on prospects, just to help each other cover each other's business.

John Singleton  1:30:44  
We're helping each other with everything. Yeah, it's just 5050, interesting.

Tracy Hayes  1:30:49  
So another, another entire subject. We've been going about 90 minutes now. Yeah, it's gone by fast. Is there anything you like to add?

John Singleton  1:30:59  
So I think the, I mean, there's a bunch of different points, you know, that we covered. I think that, I think the main thing is, you know, don't give up. Just keep keep working. Keep working, keep growing, keep learning. At some of the masterminds I've talked about, this is my 22nd first year in real estate. Yeah, I talked to a lot of first year folks, and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm new. And I'm like, Yeah, well, you know what? All the contracts just changed. Everything just changed. I'm new to, yeah, right, yeah. And, you know, and what worked, you know, what worked yesterday isn't necessarily what works today, but that's with, like, the silver bullet, things, the core stuff, the core stuff, which is, understand your branding. Connect with people. Find people that you resonate with. Work with those people. Add people to your prospect base. Don't focus on just commission. You don't want to have commission. Breath. Focus on people. You focus on people that that pays off fantastically in the long run.

Tracy Hayes  1:32:01  
Key points here, I think we've got resignate resonate. What's your, what's your, your your avatar, right? You're who you're focused on. Focus on people, loyalty and trust, right? Right? Those, I think, are some key points. There might have been some others, but they're four, right? There will

John Singleton  1:32:20  
and you need to work with customers you trust. Okay? Now this whole buyer agreement, I think, is fantastic, right? Because, I mean buyers, you know, I mean, I mean buyers have always been kind of a challenge, because, you know, you commit, you pour you, you know, you spend all this time, and then they're actually working with five different agents, and then they end up buying a FSBO, you know, I mean, they're going to have something and, I mean, you're going to have a contractual agreement. I mean, that's awesome, right now. I mean, what it means is, it means that we need to do the same care and diligence that we do when we're on the listing interview, right? And, you know, and you can't, you can't forget, you can't forget that you're always interviewing. You're always interviewing. You know, you go and talk to some folks about a listing, and sometimes you think, you know, am I interviewing? Always assume that you're interviewing. Would you?

Tracy Hayes  1:33:10  
Would you suggest, with the a

Tracy Hayes  1:33:14  
new agent, and especially with, especially at Watson, where you guys have a lot of locations around town, to really try to do those buyers consultations, face to face in office. Worst case is zoom, but try to get them in, try to get them into the into your, you know, your home court,

John Singleton  1:33:32  
right? Will they do it? I don't know. I mean, will the will the buyer? So we still, we have no idea how the buyers are going to behave with this, right? I mean, I gotta someone contacted me through homes.com yesterday, right? So we text him, and because it's, it's, you know, it's late, I don't really, I don't really feel like getting into the phone call, you know. So we text him and we're going to call tomorrow, and he just want to see this house, right? Is that guy? Will he put up, coming into the office? Or if we put that in as a constraint, hey, listen, this is what we want to do. We want to bring into the office first, because we need to go through, you know, the process. Okay, so if that prevents us from connecting with that buyer, were we ever going to convert

Tracy Hayes  1:34:15  
them anyway? Yeah. Do we care? Yeah, you know, well, in, you know, putting it out there, you're obviously, you know, blame it on. I think the whole thing is obviously a farce, because here people use the word law and stuff like this. There's no legislation that was ever put forth and voted on to make something, this a some sort of law.

John Singleton  1:34:35  
The agreement's not accepted yet. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:34:37  
agree. It's not accepted you and I think the funniest thing is, when they were talking about everyone, you know, the war up in Washington, DC, Washington, DC, a month or so ago, and they said, Well, who's, who's going to police this? Like, they're like, Oh, you gotta police yourselves. And everyone basically laughed. So it is going to be interesting.

John Singleton  1:34:55  
NARS being punished because they're, you

Tracy Hayes  1:34:57  
know, anyway, yeah, John, after. Appreciate you coming on. We could talk for hours and hours and hours, but I appreciate, I want to, in the future, kind of do some sort of, you know, where they, you know, have a couple different a couple different subjects, and get another agent on, or maybe your partner Come on, and then you guys actually talk about how you guys actually work together? Because I think, you know, everyone's out there searching for some knowledge, and they in the seat, and they have you guys come on, maybe talking about how you guys are working together, what your strengths are, what her strengths are, weaknesses and back and forth and and how you make, make that work, right? So be interesting, how this, this goes on for you.

John Singleton  1:35:38  
Talk about the pinky promise. Yeah. Basically,

Tracy Hayes  1:35:41  
yeah.

John Singleton  1:35:42  
People may not want to replicate it.

John Singleton  1:35:45  
You get to trust, right, right? Well, trust in law, right? We actually don't have a written agreement. And I was talking to Claire David and Claire, and she said, Yeah, we actually don't have a written agreement, either, and we, because it's a rolling 30 day note, seriously, yeah, 90 day trial period, or 51st 90 day trial No. But so the you know part of the law, there's loopholes, right? I mean, if someone's going to screw you, they're going to screw you. Yeah, right, yeah. And you work with people you trust, and if you know, and if, if at some point you don't have that trust, then you stop, yeah, right, if you still trust them, that's

Tracy Hayes  1:36:18  
it's all good. Appreciate you so thanks for loyalty and trust.