Melissa Ricks: Fueling Her Fire

Tracy Hayes  0:00  
Three. Hey folks, welcome back to real estate excellence podcast. Your host Tracy Hayes, best of the best, I always promise you each and every show today, she is one of the top 1% of the producers in Florida, probably even the country, really even you. We calculate the numbers in 2020 she had over 43 million in volume, over 150 plus transactions. 2021, she has already surpassed that. Am I correct? If I read that correctly in the notes there, that is quite amazing. You can locate her on most days, probably at the football fields in Yulee, in that greater Nassau County area. I'm sure, with her young men that she has raised very successfully, she is endorsed and respected very much by her peers. She hangs her signs with Engel in Volkers. She's clearly the best of the best. Her numbers show it. Let's welcome Melissa Ricks to the show. 

Melissa Ricks  0:57  
Well. Thank you. What an amazing introduction. Thank you.

Tracy Hayes  1:02  
No problem. And Melissa, yeah, you know, I know you know a lot of the people here that started jet here, where I make home, I didn't know you personally, but they always were, you need to get Melissa on the show. You need to get her on the show. And then when I, when I dug in and started seeing what you were doing, and I'm very interested, because the numbers you're producing with how your team structures, and we'll get in that later in the show. And I think anyone listening, and I be honest with you, my wife started in real estate two years ago, and of course, she's gotten overwhelmed, and she's totally referral based. She doesn't buy leads or anything like that. Doesn't do anything special, just what comes to her. Because obviously, got my income and her income, she's not, you know, the major breadwinner, although she probably thinks she is this year. But from that standpoint, and I really want to let her listen to this show, and maybe even, may even get together with you and how you structure your team, because when I was reading in here, I was like, that's what that's what my wife needs to do. I think so. All right, so let's dig in as I kick off every show. Let's get to know Melissa. Melissa, you grew up in Pennsylvania. Tell us about that. 

Melissa Ricks  2:08  
Yep, I was in Pennsylvania until I was almost 30, about 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia. I was born and raised. That's where I we started our family and raised our kids, and we had an opportunity to come down to Florida. Well, I'll backtrack. The opportunity came from me getting what I want, basically, story of my life. If anybody knows me, if I if I want it, I will get it. So we had come down to visit Jacksonville in 2013

Melissa Ricks  2:37  
or 14, and I fell in love with the South and the weather. Specifically, anybody that knows me knows I'm a huge baby with the cold, hence my sweater today. And so we put plans in motion, and basically we're able to get a relocation down here. And that was all she wrote. We, you know, growing up in an area, we loved it. We never looked at it like we were running from something. But for me, personally, my whole identity at that point in my life was mom of five, which I love. I would never want to take that away, but I didn't at that point, you know, pushing 30 years old, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, or how I was going to approach that, and I we just looked at Florida as an opportunity to create something new. And to be honest with you, for me to find something that I could be passionate about and build an identity off of as well. 

Tracy Hayes  3:26  
So you literally, for basically, almost the first 30 years of your life, were in the same town. And I really think, you know, I grew up in the Northeast,

Tracy Hayes  3:35  
and I really think there is a growth, there is a new beginning now, maybe someone might be successful in their hometown, and that's great, and you could stay there. 

Melissa Ricks  3:45  
But I think if you feel you're which I sense you were at, you got to go somewhere else to make a fresh start. It's kind of like taking a new job, almost going to a different employer. I thrive on change, and it was funny, you know, you spend so long in the same place, and we, you know, we had a lot of struggles. You know, we were really young parents. We had five kids in nine years. I was 27 by the time I had all five of my Oh, wow. So we were young, so we were growing up with them. We were going through the struggles with them.

Melissa Ricks  4:17  
But there was just something else in me that was burning to grow and develop and mold. And you know, when we looked at the opportunity to move to Florida, it was, there's something there. We don't know what it is, but we're gonna find it. I'm right. Hell on Wheels, I will find it right. And that's how we ended up. I ended up in real estate. 

Tracy Hayes  4:43  
Where do you think that fire comes from? I mean, is your parents or something? Or is it something you just, 

Melissa Ricks  4:43  
I'm just, I'm just built different. I don't know how to describe it. Just, I wake up every morning and my feet hit the ground and I just want to chase the bag. I have this thing. Everybody that knows me knows I have a mike tyson mentality. So when I look in the mirror every day, I see Mike Tyson. There's nothing that can get in my way of what i.

Tracy Hayes  5:00  
Want to do, except for that tattoo he put on his face.

Melissa Ricks  5:05  
But that's just the, that's just the Melissa Rick's mentality. And, you know, I've been very fortunate. There's been a lot of people in my path that have helped me get to this point. But everybody knows, the end of the day, if there's, there's something that I want, I'm going to get it you mentioned.

Tracy Hayes  5:19  
You know, I'm going to expose to my viewers. There's an article coming out next month, right in in the real producers magazine,

Tracy Hayes  5:29  
about Melissa and I. She sent me the rough draft, which gave me a lot of background, which is going to hopefully make the show that much better, because now I have some real good dig deep questions. I don't have to ask three questions to get to the question. I can go right after it here. After it here. So bear with me. So you were dabbling in college, but you never went to college. 

Melissa Ricks  5:49  
Yeah, it was hard to afford on my own. I moved out when I was 17, and I, you know, I did everything I could to

Melissa Ricks  5:58  
put myself through college. Worked at multiple jobs. Having kids young age at a young age is tough, yeah. So, no, I never, I never got a full degree. Well, I think you'll, you know, I started late. I didn't have my first until I was 40. Wow. So, yeah, I know I look like I'm 39 but I didn't have my first till at 40, and he just turned 11.

Melissa Ricks  6:18  
Well, he's actually closer to 12 now that he is 11.

Tracy Hayes  6:23  
Yeah, I feel you because I talk to other fathers and like where I'm at, where my wife's at. You know she's she's about seven years younger than I am. Thank God.

Tracy Hayes  6:35  
You know we can provide different things for them, basically spoil them to a point. But I think in your situation, it was opposite. It was opposite, totally opposite. But that is going to change them and make them who they are. And you know, you're looking at your Facebook and everything, your family's intact. You were just telling us about Halloween, how you guys, you know, this is the way you like to do it. And I think I was reading in the article you guys, the seven of you, like to just hang out at home and watch movies or whatever. I'm sure there's some video games involved there. 

Melissa Ricks  7:11  
So the really cool thing about our family is we've always been really purposeful about protecting our family unit. You know, I've always preached them since they were little. If there's going to be people in your life, make sure they are providing quality to your life and value, or else, there's no room for it. You know, there's no sense in having this big friend group of people if they're not providing value to who you are as a person. It's really cool. So our oldest three sons were around, and do remember this, the struggle, quote, unquote, you know, they they have a little bit of a different understanding and mindset than my younger two, who might be a little bit more on the spoiled spectrum, right, right, but they are able to use their voices to them to let them know, like, hey, we didn't always have this. We didn't always live like this. You know, we're very, very vocal. We're really, really open with our kids. So they know, especially my oldest three, you were fed with WIC stamp, with WIC checks. Everything that was in our pantry came from food stamps. You know, we struggled. Ramen noodles and grilled cheese were their friend growing up. They did not have what they have now. And it's cool, because it really set the foundation for them to stay humble and understand true work ethic, which is why they're the athletes that they are, and why they're going to be successful? 

Tracy Hayes  8:19  
Yes, yes. I got to go off script on this, because I knew this was going to happen, because this was going to be a really good show. You just mentioned something that is a foundation of, you know, lot of these personal development books, and you just mentioned that you teach this to your kids, who you surround yourself with. Can you give us an example for that parent out there who doesn't really know how to express that to their kid, how do you show them? 

Melissa Ricks  8:47  
Tell them. How do you make that so for me, it starts with conversations and communication with them. We're not big yellers, we're not big screamers, we're big let's sit down and have a talk about this. And it's funny that you you bring this up because my family just went through a massive

Melissa Ricks  9:06  
family situation with other students and outside people and how they played a role in, you know, how my son needed to handle himself, and that's opened up a whole nother can of conversations at the end of the day as a family, if you're treating your family like a true unit, and everybody's on the same page and you're expressing, you know, and we don't have all the answers. I'm not a perfect person or perfect mom, but I just think, especially now, this day and age with everybody is so busy, there's no time for anything. Conversations just get lost in the shuffle, and I think that that's really needs to be the foundation so my kids understood, like, for instance, girlfriends. I have five sons. You know the conversations of girlfriends we've had their whole lives, nine through 18, right? Nine through 18, yeah, you know, don't go get yourself a girlfriend, because she's cute, right? So, like, understand who they are. Ken for prom night. That's that's okay. Okay? Maybe.

Unknown Speaker  10:00  
Yeah,

Melissa Ricks  10:01  
but like, understand who they are. Are they supporting your goals? Are you supporting their goals? What kind of value are they adding to your life as a person? Are they contributing to you and your character and what you believe in? There's just so much, and we drill it to death, but they hear you. So that's the one thing I would say to other parents, is the conversations are not being like they may seem like it's falling on deaf ears, but they hear you. And as they get older, you know, my oldest son's out in the real world now, and I've caught him many times the last couple of months, you know, giving me advice on that. You know, when I tell him, like I'm tired, and he's like, You got this mom, you know, this is why you do it. And, you know, like, I just think it's really cool to watch it come full circle, right? So conversations all day long, is what I would say. Is my, our number one thing. Well, I think

Tracy Hayes  10:47  
I can only imagine there's this huge level of respect, especially your like you said your oldest three were there eating the ramen noodles, you know, and then to see where mom's at today, and what you're able to provide them. By far, my biggest fans, huge respect, yeah, yeah. I mean, we can go on for a while on that one. That's a very impressive part. But to stay on task, here,

Tracy Hayes  11:11  
you moved. You come down to Florida,

Tracy Hayes  11:14  
and you kind of subtly mentioned in your article, hey, you know, I thought real estate would be that they did someone introduce you to it. Did you meet somebody? It was just totally you going, what am I gonna do?

Melissa Ricks  11:27  
Honestly, I didn't. I was in the restaurant business for about 15 years. I knew I didn't want to get back into that. I came down here, and I took about six months to get my kids settled and the house under control. And we had just bought our first home. I was 29 we had just bought our first home. I knew nothing about real estate prior to that, and I was just intrigued. I would, you know, the same thing everybody does before they get into real estate, they scroll Zillow, look at all the pictures, and ooh and all HGTV.

Melissa Ricks  11:55  
But I just, I wanted something. And it's, it's funny, we look back now, and it was for me, it was I started it because I just wanted a hobby, just something to do with my something to do with my time, right? Maybe close one or two homes a year, because you said your husband travels a lot he did at the time. Yeah. So, yeah. So I, I approached the agent that I used to buy my house down here. I loved what she was about. I loved her mindset and her culture, and basically just chased after that and locked arms with her for a couple of years. And that was I became obsessed with this. The one thing you have to know about me is there's no in between. It's either ball,

Tracy Hayes  12:30  
okay, there is no in between. So I should have known going into it that it was going to take off the way that it did, but at that time, you know, maybe I just didn't have the confidence. It was the first time I had done anything like a career path. So let's talk about that first year, which is, you know, there's a lot, obviously, a lot of agents out there. I was just talking to Patty Ketchum, she's on a Real Estate Commission Board. And after a couple of months, or whatever, there was a lockdown and licensing. And then they went back to allowing, you know, getting people go license. Now there's, like, it went from a couple 1000 a month to like, 8000 people getting their real estate license out there. So we have a lot of first year people still, you know, some people were probably really in their third year, but still in their first year. Yeah, yeah. From that standpoint, you said you,

Melissa Ricks  13:14  
you respected the agent that represented you to buy the home you You joined on to her. Is this someone you still look up to today? Someone, yeah, always will. Okay, so you kind of mirrored them. Got more or less coached by them. I mean, did you see this as a direct mentor, and how quickly did you get started that first year? So that was a team structure. So there was multiple agents, there was an admin staff, there was resources, tools. You know, just if you're a new agent, you're coming in. I'll backtrack about those numbers. The agent count. Why it's up so high. It's very easy to look at, especially a producing agent. And you know, if anybody follows me on my facebook or my Instagram Stories, it's fun. It's I have a blast. I love it. It looks like just this great old time. I can do that. I can jump right in. What they don't see is what you have to put in the first couple of years of your career to build that business and get to that organic level of success. So I was fortunate enough when I started, and I'm a big believer in new agents starting with teams, because you do come in with endless resources, support at your fingertips, trainings, left and right, low expenses. You don't have to pay for anything. So you can come in and truly learn the business. But just like anything, if you don't put the work in, you will not see the benefits of it. You get what you put in. Yeah, and you know, a lot of people see me today, and they're like, man, Melissa, you're just out here, just moving and grooving and doing great. Grooving and doing a great job. And man, that must be great. And like, let me tell you how much I killed myself the first two to three years I was in this business to build that pipeline so that it could eventually organically grow itself. And I was fortunate. I mean, I will forever be thankful for my first couple of years and that.

Melissa Ricks  15:00  
Team model and structure, and ultimately, you know, I went in a different direction because it was time for me to grow. But I advise everybody, you come in, you've got to put the work in. You know, cold calls are things people don't like to do. I did it a ton, open houses. I did for a weekend, knocking on doors and neighborhoods. I did it almost every night. You know, you have to put yourself out there if you want to grow your name in your business so you roughly, you're about, what about 10 years now,

Tracy Hayes  15:24  
or 2014 I think I read, if I read, yeah, I think a year, six or seven, six or six and seven around there. Okay, you know as well. I mentioned Patty earlier. She said she never made cold calls. But of course, she's been in the business a lot longer. She was very involved in she grew well. Tallahassee was her town. Her husband had a business there. She was a loan officer. There already had many contacts. You came, you come in about 20 people. Yeah, exactly to do that, yeah. How important is it? You know, of course, now you're, you're a football mom, right? 

Melissa Ricks  15:58  
Yes, all your boys are playing ball. Everybody knows you in that entire area because of that, because you're at the football field every day, you probably frown upon people who buy houses from someone else that are on you know, you give them the look to walk away. Sorry, but I might glare just once, but how important is to be involved in those other things so people know who you are. They got to know who you are and what you do. 

Tracy Hayes  16:26  
How important is that? What are some of the things that you did early you got involved in just so you could get involved in the community. Brand recognition is everything. 

Melissa Ricks  16:34  
But I'll be honest with you, it has to be genuine. You know, there's a lot of people that, you know, they'll cut a check and they'll send it over to so and so, just so that they can be on a billboard, not a billboard, like a banner or their program, or their wrist bands, whatever it may be. If you don't believe in it, Don't fake it. You know, I am a huge, huge component of community. Give back any of my people, or anybody in my community will tell you, we do quarterly events for our people. I'm all over all of the programs up there. I'm all over some of the programs in Jacksonville and St John's too, because my business is very widespread. But I don't, I don't do it if I don't believe in it, or if there's not a relationship there that we've built. I'm big on that, you know, I don't ever want anybody to take me as, oh, she's fake and she's just throwing money at us, left and right. That's never my approach. The people that we support know that they have my full support, and we have a true relationship. 

Tracy Hayes  17:27  
And just for example, for those are those who are listening. And I know some agents that are doing really well, that were in the middle a couple years ago, they were changing from, you know, they sold the business they had. I said, you know, you guys ought to get into real estate. Their sons had just, you know, gone through Bartram, played football. They were very involved in that program. She still goes occasionally to games now that her sons are going on to college and so forth, because of the people, yeah, now you're, you have at least one son that's on the team, because I see the pictures on the on your Facebook page.

Melissa Ricks  18:02  
I'm sure every mom and dad on that entire has any relationship to Yulee football knows what you do. Yuli high school football program has my heart and always will, whether my kids are there playing or they're long gone, I will always support that program, right? Because I'm a believer in it, especially like when you have a staff that's incredible, and you know what they're providing for your kids. Like I said, I'm, I'm a huge and, you know, the kids, I mean, we're huge. We're half the kids that live in my house aren't even my

Melissa Ricks  18:35  
own kids. That's a lot, because I have a lot of kids as it is. But, yeah, I mean, huge, huge believers in that. And there's, there's a couple of other programs up there that are like that, you know, we were a big, we're a sponsor for one of the big basketball teams up there, semi pro. And I believe in what they're doing. I believe in their approach and their, you know, desire to be in the community and stuff. Those are things that I, you know, I want to be a part of because of my beliefs, too, not just what kind of business I'm going to get out of it. You know what? I mean, that's not that's not, that's not ever my price. Well, the whole, it's a whole circle thing. You're investing money. You would, obviously, you'd like to see a return on it, but your return is obviously improving the community that you're working in. And I believe, too, when it comes to returns, when you're doing the right thing, and you're putting yourself out there, you're it's always going to come full circle for you. I would honestly, we could go a decade of sponsoring a football program and never see a single return from that specific football program. But when your heart's in the right place and you're doing things for the right reasons, it will always come back. It comes back like you said, I think too many people match it up. Oh, was that a parent one of the football players? No, that was actually a longtime fan. Their kids have graduated, but a Senior Science see that you contribute, and they wanted to give you something. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Community, it's all about your reputation, too. And you know what people know of you and what kind of heart you have, you know? So

Unknown Speaker  19:59  
2014

Melissa Ricks  20:00  
Gene. When do you use? When you started? When do you join angle and Volkers? So angle and Volkers I transitioned over to in May of this year. So what happened was 2020, June of 2020. I launched mre, which is the Melissa Ricks brand.

Melissa Ricks  20:19  
When I left the team, my goal was to take a little bit more control. My son was going into his senior year, and again, I'm a go hard or go home person, so I was dedicating a lot and sacrificing a lot for that team, because I was super, super loyal, and it just became really difficult for me to be the mom that I wanted to be, and also make sure to families somebody else's business, right? You had two families going on there, right? So my mindset launching MRE was I can now that I've got complete control, and it's my name and it's my I can pick and choose, and I can be very purposeful with my growth. And then we exploded, and a lot of it, I think, came from, you know, people believe in what we do because of how purposeful I am and how passionate and, like, obsessed with real estate and taking care of people I am. So we ended up, I ended up force hiring pretty much right away, my first two admin staff, and now, a year and a half later, I've doubled my staff. So I got four people. My girls are my everything. They understand the growth mindset of, you know, being purposeful for our people. They're our big why? So it's been really cool. So when I went to angle and Volkers, this was in June, that was a huge, huge step. I don't take change lightly. It takes me a long time to do it, but I was just kind of at the point where I wanted to

Tracy Hayes  21:48  
level up, so to speak, and see where that took me, and lock arms with a brokerage that I felt was really going to be aligned with what MRE was about, right, right? That was actually my next question where you're asking, you know, of all the broke, you know, brokers out there you could have gone to, and I know there's some big, you know, here in St John's County, a lot, there's been a couple big moves with some large teams over to Ingle and Volkers. What was the, you know, that that image that you were talking about, you know, why did, why did you choose them over the many others, or, let alone, just so even throwing up your own brokerage, yeah, I'm sure you thought about that, yeah, yeah, and still do Yeah.

Melissa Ricks  22:28  
You know, for me, it was just I wanted my brand to be aligned with something that was as elite as I felt like we were the direction that we were going in very, very clear and concise.

Melissa Ricks  22:41  
You know, marketing tactics and their global presence, you know, all those things were a factor. But the other day, I had really grown a solid relationship with the broker over there as well. I trusted him. Still do and, you know, I felt like, from a staffing standpoint, we would have the support that we needed. We're a little high maintenance, yeah. So we, you know, require extra stuff because we are volume. You know, not everybody's pushing out 15 to 25 closings a month, and there's a lot that comes with that. So I needed to know that that was going to be taken care of. And at the end of the day, you know, relationships matter. Trust matters. You know, knowing that if something comes up, I can pick up the phone and have a conversation within seconds was really important to me. So this Tracy, to me. So this change brings a again, I'm going to go off the sheet, so to speak, but it brings a thing that I'm working on myself right now with my business, you made the change. And I'm sure when you make when you're

Tracy Hayes  23:35  
working up to do this, you wanted to reach out and let everybody know you made the change. Sure. Do you think that kind of gave you a little kick in your um, I don't know that. I would say a change in business. We had no no. I mean, actually, just say saying hi to a lot of people you may not have said hi to in a while. Um,

Melissa Ricks  23:54  
I don't think so. No, because I'm I'm all of my customers and clients are my friends. So we talk pretty regularly, believe it or not, so we are, you have 180 friends about houses this year? Yes, okay, and that is

Melissa Ricks  24:08  
something I'm very, very prideful about. You know, at the end of this year we will, we're on track to close 200 homes this year. Yeah, and I would bet money if you went and spoke to every single one of them, they would all tell you that they were genuinely cared for and we built a genuine relationship. Yeah, that's really important, and my girls are a huge part of that, because I can't do that alone. I guess where I was leading with that question is, I think a lot of people

Tracy Hayes  24:34  
forget their they don't nurture their past clients as well as they should, and reaching out to them in regular time frames and so forth, that maybe the change you did some marketing to let everybody know that you were making this move, and that was unable to awaken them, because there's a few people I guarantee, in there probably may have just weren't thinking of you, and all of a sudden they got, oh, we're buying a house. We're gonna call Melissa.

Tracy Hayes  25:00  
That's right, she's Yeah, it was definitely another way to make sure that we were connecting with our people. For sure, I want, I want. This is so you know, as every story has its climax, right? I think this is this. I saw this quote and on her Facebook page, and I just, I had to, if you look at my Facebook page, it's already posted when I announced that she was coming on, Melissa was coming on the show, tell me about this. Where you got this if or unless, you just created it yourself. If you did, you're brilliant. When I flirted with hustle, failure became my ex, now enraged to the game and married to success. Where did you get that? Okay, so that's actually a lil Wayne quotes. Okay, those that know me know I love me some rap.

Melissa Ricks  25:46  
You'll see I actually have shirts with some Biggie Smalls quotes on them. But yes, that is, that's what. And I'm a quote Queen like you'll see another one. That's that I put out there a lot is some women fear the Fire, others simply become it. That's another one of my big ones. I just, I am very full of passion and conviction. So, yeah, that's one of my favorite low weighing quotes. It is. So, you know, I listen a lot of podcasts. Obviously, I've got the different books up here. I always want to know what everyone is listening to, because everyone, there's so many out there and you don't want to over. I i also often caution people is you could go out there and become a junkie, like I have, but I've learned almost I guess, if I want to use the

Tracy Hayes  26:33  
analogy like a drug, you can get attached and start bouncing around, and then at some point, you reach a point where it's like, Hold on saying, everyone's sort of saying the same thing, and they, a lot of them are, there is a lot of underlying stuff there, and flirting with hustle. And when I heard, when I saw that, and I was just listening to podcasts the other day in in our industry, he was a loan officer podcast, but agents can get the same out of that podcast and just the different spurts of

Melissa Ricks  27:06  
of things that we do on a daily basis, whether it's marketing, which is primarily what we do, obviously we want to get the phone ring, but doing the little things, following up with our past clients, and we got to go through these the even the spurts, and you said flirting with the hustle. So to me as a I'm thinking, you're just, you're you're touching it. You're touching it. All of a sudden, it grabbed you, didn't it, and it's taken you away. And that's what I failure became my ex is, I think too many people are like, well, if I do that, what if no one answers the phone? Okay, well, someone didn't answer the phone. What if they say no? Okay, so they said no. And the the one thing this podcast I've been listening to, design for loan officers again, anyone in sales can take it. They're not saying no to you. It's not saying, I don't like Melissa, I don't like Tracy. They're saying they're not ready to buy a house right now. They're just they don't know anybody who's looking to buy in house right now. They're not, they're not saying, Hey, don't we don't like you. Just because they say no, we don't have anybody to tell you, you know, refer or we're not looking to do anything right now and that and how important is, we all will think, Oh, what if they say, No, what if they do okay? So, I mean, is it, you know, that's one form of failure that think of in sales. I mean, you're through. You have another one. So, and you know, something that I would say, we say this a lot in the in the sports world, especially with wrestling with our kids, is you never lose, you always either learn or you win. So, and I think it's the same mindset, right? So, and at least in my experience with real estate, is you're going to fail forward all the time. I mean, we fail forward every other day. Yes, on our team, you can have failures throughout. That creates the big picture, the big win, you know. So I think that's, that's our mindset and my drive. I mean, I almost love to fail in some aspects, because I thrive off of the solution and the move forward and what's the next step, you know, being able to to daily hustle every single day, knowing that your end goal is ultimate, just success. What that looks like? It's different for everybody. Sure. No, I'm fortunate enough to know that those daily things that you talk about, you know, your marketing, you're nurturing this, and that I have a squad of people that are holding that piece of it down so that I can truly hit the pavement every day, head down grind mode every single day, and chase the hustle. So I think that there's a lot of pieces to that. You know, the hardest part for a lot of agents, and why the fail rate is so high, is it? Failure is painful. If you allow it to be painful, allow it to shift your mindset and say, Cool, I'm going to learn through that. Watch me now, you know, and I think that's where a lot of people lose themselves, right, right?

Tracy Hayes  29:47  
I probably read through, you know, John Maxwell done a lot of his, I think he's, he said it is somewhere

Tracy Hayes  29:53  
card Arnold is probably said it a lot of the greatest, most successful people.

Tracy Hayes  30:00  
Obviously kept that consistency and punched through

Melissa Ricks  30:03  
many, many, many, too many more, unfortunately, were one step away, one AX chip from that, finding that golden nugget through in the town. And you think, you think about those guys, and we look at them digging for, you know, mining for gold still on Discovery Channel and stuff today, those guys are chipping away, chipping away, but their whole thing is that they're hoping that next chip and that nuggets gonna fall out, or they're gonna find that big seam and it's and that's so many people stop. So there's a there's an internal fire in some people that no matter how many times you hit that wall of failure, you're going to push through it every time. So for me, most mornings, when I wake up, one of the first things I think about is my struggles, or knowing that, you know, reminding myself of where we came from, what kind of beater car I had to drive just to get my kids from point A to point B, and didn't have a license because I couldn't afford the inspections, or whatever the case may be, right? Those are the things that drive that fire in me. If you have the mindset every day that you wake up and you say someone is coming, we talk about this in my house all the time, somebody today is going to come to strip away everything you've worked for and take you back to that place, I promise you, you will have a different fire in your belly. And so that's, you know, a lot of times, that's what drives me the most, is just understanding that that's where you come from. When you get yourself to another level through hard work and work ethic and non stop grind, you don't let up the gas. You keep going, right?

Tracy Hayes  31:34  
I think there's so many. I was just listening to a podcast of a guest who I wanted to, I want to have on the show. She's very successful, also here in Northeast Florida, and my she lived on her brother's couch not six, seven years ago, and now she's one of the top agents in the world, and in the world, in the state, if you know, actually, nationally, I mean, you have, obviously, you look at the how many are successful. So she was, she kept pushing through just, just same stuff. You were just saying, it's amazing the story, how correlation of the story, well, that's inspiring alone, just the fact that she slept on her brother's couch. Because, I'll tell you, I just slept in my car before I slept on one of my brothers, not the move, just saying they were filthy.

Melissa Ricks  32:18  
Just kidding,

Tracy Hayes  32:19  
God, we've gotten some, some great stuff I wanted to, I really want to tap into, because I think your team is a little different than most,

Tracy Hayes  32:29  
at least in my observation, yeah, so obviously, you know, like you said, You came from a team, but you had other, you know, other agents you were mentoring up they, you know, you were training them, you know, you probably got some override on their either success, but you broke away from that. You said you didn't want to that. That was another family. I was taking a lot of time from you, and now you it's it. You are the agent, correct, and you have four

Tracy Hayes  32:56  
highly,

Tracy Hayes  32:59  
highly trained, but highly focused, and what they do, if I read in the article correctly, briefly, go over

Tracy Hayes  33:07  
what gave you that mindset, what took you from what you were at to say, you know, I'm going to do it myself, and I'm going to bring in four people. And said a lot of these teams, they'll have 20 agents and four people. It's just you and four people. What gave you that?

Melissa Ricks  33:23  
So it was, I think it was two part for one, I was a little exhausted of that model. It's very, very common, especially at Keller Williams, and I respect it a ton, and it works for a lot of people. My approach, and I've always been like, this is my people are my everything. I'm obsessed with my people, the same way I'm obsessed with my kids, right? So for me, bringing in other agents would to me, this is my own thoughts. Would take away from my ability to be to be able to build those true, genuine relationships with my people, whether that was an agent, a buyer's agent, a showing assistant, it just was not the direction I wanted to go in. Now, I did not envision having a full time, you know, four person, full time salaried staff at the time that you know, just hiring My first one was terrifying. But I'll be honest with you, I've been told a ton that my model isn't going to work, and that will stifle our growth, because I don't have agents to pick up the pieces. And what they don't realize is, as much as I love real estate, I love being a realtor, I love operations that much more. So building out the back infrastructure of how MRE runs, it's like,

Melissa Ricks  34:34  
it's like a well oiled machine, like, just like an incredible, badass well oiled machine. Like, I don't even know how everybody has very, very specifically designed roles. But the bigger picture of it is they understand. You know, when you hire you can train on systems and processes all day long. If you don't have people that understand the mindset and what you're about, it's never going to work. So I've.

Melissa Ricks  35:00  
Thankfully, I haven't had any turnover since I've launched. And granted, we've been in business for a year and a half, but we really focus on the why, which is our people. Have you ever heard of Simon Sinek, podcast guy? So his golden circle is really what we built our foundation on, was kind of building from the inside out and making sure that instead of saying, hey, I want to sell 400 homes a year, and I want to hit this dollar volume, and I want to hit this number of transactions, we said, hey, we see spaces where we can fill in gaps to maximize what we're doing and love on our people even more. And fill in those gaps over time, and then ultimately your referral ratio just goes through the roof. Yeah, we're truly at, I would say, comfortably, between 75 and 80% referral based, because that's where it's at. Yeah, that's, I mean, if your people feel loved, they will. So I feel like refreshed. This is someone who sees the light.

Melissa Ricks  36:01  
They will, they will. They will not be able to not say your name. I mean, we have some of the most incredible I call my VIPs, but realistically, they're all my VIPs. You know, like, I could walk you through every single one of those 200 families and tell you their kids names, their dogs names. I mean, we're that, and my team could, right, because we're so invested in them, and they know that, right? So when they're when their friend comes up and needs a house to sell, they are your biggest supporters, right? That's how you grow organically and that that call in. So alright, so I'm gonna play devil's advocate. We're gonna be sarcastic here a little bit. But how do you how do you show all these people who want houses on the weekends and you're the only licensed agent, right? Is that? How do you do that?

Melissa Ricks  36:44  
Just works. So when you have a staff that handles literally every single piece on the back end for you, and your only jobs are to be front and center with your people, there's plenty of time. So listing appointments, showings, closings and photo appointments, so you're doing an initial consultation, you know, why are you looking to sell, or why are you looking to buy? What are you looking for? You're doing that, and then your team is doing the search. You're not sitting there in front of the computer going, Oh, I wonder what houses they would like. You're doing a very thorough consultation, buy or selling, and then your team is going to handle it, and then spit you correct home. They set the schedule up. They handle all the back end stuff with the calendars, anything to do transactionally. Anytime a new customer is introduced into the team, there's like a welcome party from the team, and it's a full all hands on deck. You know, everybody gets their handheld from day one. Just tell me where to be, and I'll be there, right? But the showings, the I love that you asked that question, because, and I still get this, there's a couple of really close agents that I'm tight with and brokers in town that still to this day are mind blown that I never hire a showing assistant. The reason why I will not hire a showing assistant is because my best relationships are built during those showings, and we're walking through those doors together, and I will not give it up. I just won't. I would refer out business before I would, I would miss a showing. You know, for those listening and those who regularly listen the podcast, you hear this all the time, and she's using a term consistently, consistently. I'm hearing it consistently in all these books. I'm hearing it consistently on the podcast. Relationship 100%

Tracy Hayes  38:21  
you started your real you, so you were rough when you actually started in real estate. What you were like, young, 30s, right? So, I mean,

Tracy Hayes  38:33  
she's give or take, 40 years old, approximately 2929

Tracy Hayes  38:38  
but let me tell you, she has because

Tracy Hayes  38:42  
your kids are going, your boys are going to be working with you soon,

Tracy Hayes  38:46  
maybe, or maybe they're wise.

Speaker 1  38:50  
You, you are in, you're in an area right now that is already exploding, but is really about to explode. Yeah, Nassau County is like, let alone, just northeast, yeah, let alone, I mean, you're working, you know, yeah, pretty much from St John's County all the way up, you know, to this Georgia line. And you're willing to go there because your assistants take all that load off of you. And that is so brilliant. I think it's brilliant. We need to have an On, Off mic conversation. There's not many people that as a single agent, without a team, can do 200 transactions a year. Yes, obviously I could not do it by myself. There's no possible way, but I didn't need a team of five or six agents to hit 200 transactions, right? And it's just, it's, I would love to open it up and walk you through. I mean, it's, I do want to talk to you further about because it's really incredible. Yeah, everyone thinks that they're the only ones that can do it. I see it in the loan officer world. They write a loan and they want to coddle the loan, like, Dude, I don't need I've written enough loans. Been doing this 16 years. I know what will float, won't won't float, or what.

Melissa Ricks  40:00  
Marginal, and I'm going to, I'm going to write that loan, and I'm going to submit it down there are people that will gather the documents. There are processors that have been doing it longer than I've been writing them, and that they'll they're going to take that loan to the closing. I'm here. Call me if you need me. Otherwise, I got to make the phone ring, and that's what you do. Systems and processes are everything to running a business like if you want to treat your real estate business as a true business, your systems and processes have to be tight. But here's where I changed the game in my world. I did not build my systems off of a book or a training module or a YouTube video. I built them off of the needs of our people, and I continue to build them your Pete, when you say your your needs, of your people, your customers, yes. So as we go, and you know, my girls will tell you, we sit every quarter for a value visit, and we pick through everything that we've done, and we say, where are the gaps? What can we fill in here? How can we make our people? Give me an example of that, what that might be. What would a gap say that the last meeting you had, that you guys, so one of the last things that we went through with my client, Success Manager. For instance, when we sat down for quarter three, I and I always ask them, How are you feeling? Where are we missing? What's sloppy? What can we tighten up? And one of the things was our MLS inputs. And so we developed an intake form for for it to be a more detailed process. So there was no questions, there was no back and forth. It was clear and concise, and it changed the game. So the buyer's agent sees that MLS, they know everything, right? But when you get to a point where you're putting up, I mean, the last two weeks, we listed six listings each week, that's a lot for your staff to handle to make sure everything is clear and concise, right? And we have those conversations every quarter for that reason. One of the other things that we just implemented was your people got to think like the buyer's agent. What questions are they going to have? Let's put that answer. To put that in there. They have to think like multiple people. I mean, they have to think buyer's agents, listing agents. You know, customers, you know Zillow, everything you know. And I preach to them all the time. I'm not the only one here with a creative brain. I want everybody to have a voice. I want everybody to be creative. Bring me our ideas so we can implement them. One of the most recent things that we did, and it was such a small thing, but it's made so many people so happy. We just ordered custom welcome home signs, yard signs. So for final walk through, is when our buyers, when we go to the final walk through, they've got this big welcome home sign in the front. It says MRE on it, with a couple of emojis and stuff. Game changer, you know, wasn't something we had thought about before. I saw it somewhere on a Facebook post. I said, Hey, Otter these. How great would this be? Yeah, and it's made people so happy, and that's the goal. I mean, you know, people are are not going to forget how you made them feel. If you have stuff come up through a transaction like it's going to that's always going to happen, but the way you made them feel and the level of care that you took of them, that's what resonates, and that's why your referral business correct. And I'll give you the little example that we had. You know, I work with a large builder, and we had some a little bit of some

Tracy Hayes  42:54  
11th Hour

Speaker 1  42:56  
fumbling and bumbling. They got down the clothes, but they were, they were going to come in one at a time to the closing table, because they had some kids. My assistant, as wonderful she is, she went down there and sat with them. And they actually sat for an hour and a half because there was a line in the last day of the month. Last month, they wrote the nice, a really nice email, thank you. And stuff matters, and they're thanking me. I said nothing to do with me that do it Dana and I put it on her. And it seems you do the same way with your people. You matters this. These are the people are going to solve your problems. I'm out showing a house. I mean, you know not that you're ignoring them, but they're better than me at what you're asking. And that's what I that's what I tell say, Hey, let me this. This person actually is more in touch with where the loan's at. I've got all these loans or money, but she's in it all day long. Her and my my processor, they know more. Let me get them, and they're going to call you back and tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to send us. We say all the time that the four of them are all extensions of me. So when somebody calls in and wants to talk to me or whatever, they remind them that they're an extension of me, and they're all just as highly trained as I am, and they all have the same information, and that's what allows the customer to feel like, wow, this is a true family. These girls like they all they every single one of our people knows all those girls names and what their level of involvement is, because it's not just about me. You know what I mean you you say in your article, they're very, you know, what they do is very, you have a very task oriented, you know, situation each or more have their lane, yes, so to speak.

Melissa Ricks  44:32  
Would you say that maybe all of them, couple of them, are probably better at what they do than you would be 100% and when you hire, you hire for your weaknesses. So there's strengths. When I tell you earlier, I'm not tech savvy, I don't know if I uploaded the right headshot to you. That's deja,

Melissa Ricks  44:51  
but yeah, absolutely, part of hiring and successfully hiring, and you know, retention, is understanding where your weaknesses are and not being.

Speaker 2  45:00  
Too prideful to admit that, right? You know what I mean? Yes, yes, yes. You know. Listen, we got a more conversation. All right,

Melissa Ricks  45:10  
I got this last question here, and I'm taking this from the last paragraph, actually, of the article, and I'm going to read the quote here because it is quoted. I've learned that it's okay to be real and transparent about who you are and where you come from, no matter what society or social media tells you is acceptable. I'm glad that you brought that up, because that's probably the biggest thing that I would want to convey to people when it comes to me and you know my the people that know me, either in my personal life or through business. Know what you see with Melissa Ricks is what you get. There is no sugar coating. There is no fake in the funk. I am unapologetically and authentically me. Love it or you don't, but I'm fine with either outcome, right? But what you're going to get with me is super passionate, super convicted, super deep. I love super, super hard. I'm a lot, I'm a lot, but I will not ever change that, no matter what role in life I'm in. They know where you stand 100 they know what your values are, yeah, yeah. And I've had to learn as I've as I've gotten older, I've had to learn how to be protected sometimes.

Melissa Ricks  46:17  
But I'll be honest with you, you know, there's, there's a side of me too, that, you know, this is just me and you know, I think that's one thing that our customers love about working with us. We're all like that, because I encourage that from my girls too. Listen, we're not robots. I don't want you to be robots. Yes, you are very task based, but your personality needs to come through to them like we Aaron, my transaction manager, sweet as pie. Everybody calls us good cop, bad cop, because I'm a little aggressive, sweet, bubbly one. And there are definitely times where somebody needs a sweet person. And I say, Aaron, you got to make that call.

Melissa Ricks  46:51  
But you have That's me and my assistant Exactly. We're like completely opposites on the DISC assessment, yeah, and that's exactly what I'm like, All right. I'm a little heated right now because I'm about to go off on this processor or this closer because they're not getting something done correctly and it's delaying it. Please make that phone call because I'm about to lose Yeah, you have to, at the end of the day, you have to own you. Nobody else is going to own you. So when you look yourself in the mirror every single day, you have to own who you are and take that and run with it. I talk about all the time building your niche. What is your niche is? Are you sweet? Do you want to build that side? Are you detailed? You want to build that side? Me? I am fierce, I am feisty, I am vocal, and I am loud, and I've built my business off of my people truly knowing that and understanding that about me. And honestly, people like authenticity. They don't want to work with a salesy realtor. They don't want to work with someone that's going to pressure them or push them. They want someone that's going to be real and love them, because that's who they are. I can't stress that enough. I say it to people all the time, actually teaching a class this week to a brokerage about just understanding your niche and like just owning it and running with it. And don't be afraid of that. Social media and the world has told you that you've got to be one way bump that No, be who you are and run with that, right, right? I'm glad you asked that. I get super, super, like, fired up. Yeah, I could tell No, I am totally, totally with you. I mean, yo,

Speaker 1  48:16  
I can go, I can go on off Mike, but yeah, I mean, a lot of people,

Tracy Hayes  48:21  
they don't see that. We're very similar. You're probably a little more polished now, because it's, I think it's a little easier as a woman, because you're so, you know, when you're a big guy, you know they're like, they're already scared of you anyway, yeah, and you know, I had a former boss tell me say, hey dude, you got to realize you're big guy. So when you growl, it's like, grizzly bear growl. Like, not like, you know what's really funny about that? I look at myself like, I'm like, six foot four.

Melissa Ricks  48:49  
So when I go off on somebody, I get, like, really feisty people sometimes have to be like, Melissa, you're all of like, five foot three. You got to, like, bring like, they're not seeing you the way you see yourself. And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. When I look at me, I'm scary.

Speaker 1  49:02  
It's funny you say that, yeah, it's just in that having to take that mindset. But deep down, we're both. We're teddy bears, yeah, and we love people, and we want to help people. You know, as much as you know someone who's may have done us wrong. Sometimes you're probably that person. That person came to you and said, Unless I need some help, can you start off back? Yeah, and because we're but we're both like that and deep, deep down that, yeah, people, that's the part of the people that make it very far in this business. I say this all the time to new agents. If you come into real estate and your goal is dollars and cents, you will not go far. If you come in with the understanding that you want to give back to people, and you want to take care of people, and that's your focus. Sky's the limit, your poster child for that. And I think, you know, it's going to be amazing watching you, you know, until you don't want to do it anymore.

Tracy Hayes  49:54  
I mean, really, I mean sky's the limit for you. I really, I mean it's going to be amazing. You're going to probably have half.

Tracy Hayes  50:00  
Dozen assistance and be near 300 or something, I don't know, in the next couple years as Nassau County is gonna blow up, you're sitting in the middle of it up there. From that standpoint, Melissa, someone's listening to this show. They want to reach out and contact you. They're inspired by you. Want to get some some advice on, you know, what, in their career? Or obviously, someone maybe there's a buyer's Lister on there. So, man, I want to list with Melissa how what's the best way to reach you, Melissa, at Melissa Ricks real estate.com and my cell is 904-548-8540,

Melissa Ricks  50:31  
and I will say this, and there's a lot of agents in this market that know this because they've experienced it, I will never not pick up the phone, or I will never not call you back, whether you're a brand new agent that's never facilitated transaction ever, or you're somebody that's seasoned and you want to look at my business model, or you just want to mastermind. I cannot tell you how many agents I sit with on a regular basis, because I believe that we're all in this together. Nobody is better than anybody else, and I believe that we can all give to each other. I'm a huge, firm believer in agent rapport. I have some of the most amazing friendships and relationships with age. You have an abundant mindset versus a scarcity. Another real estate agent is not a competitor of yours. You have relationships and and you're doing very well. Yes, would you like half the market share? But that's not realistic. You couldn't handle, oh, there's, there's plenty of business. And honestly, half of the stuff that most people in this industry get they've taken from somebody else. I can't tell you how many agents are running around Jacksonville with my information, like my checklist and my job forms and my templates. I mean, I share them like with great because why? Why wouldn't I want to help support you? At the end of the day, this industry had a black eye on it for a long time. Agents are scumbags. They only care about money. I will fight until the end of my time in this industry, changing that mindset, and we can only do that together as one transaction at a time. Really love what we do, yep. All right, I'm gonna, unfortunately, me and Melissa could talk on for hours, but she has things to do. So I want to go. I'm going to wrap go into my two minute warning questions here. Of course, you you said you didn't listen to my podcast before, so you don't know what these are. Oh, great. Is it more important who you know or what you know? I'm

Melissa Ricks  52:16  
going to say what you know.

Melissa Ricks  52:18  
I'm a big believer that you need to educate yourself. Education and confidence are the two you know pillars I think of how I've built over time, who you know will expand, but you're the only person that can control what you know. So don't ever stop fighting, because you can control that every day, correct what you know. Okay, I would agree with that, to learn and understand your craft and truly be the best like you know, my mindset the other day is when somebody says, hey, I want the best real estate agent Jacksonville. I want Melissa Ricks to be the first thought that came to your mind, sure, not because of who I know, but because what I've taught myself. Billions of dollars you spent on advertising, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  52:58  
you're taking the boys out,

Tracy Hayes  53:01  
I'm probably for a sporting event. You guys Jaguar, Iceman, jumbo shrimp. I mean, you're from Pennsylvania. What do you got a mixture of sports here? So Iceman might be on the on that list. But what do you guys like to do? Can I add Dallas Cowboys? Oh gosh, no. We'll have that edited out of the shell.

Melissa Ricks  53:24  
That's really, yeah. I mean, they're big into football. They follow college football. I don't watch TV, so I'm kind of a limo, right? Like, if we're doing anything for fun, if I'm doing anything for fun outside of real estate, it's, it's at the field with them, right? Yeah, it's kind of lame. Anything on your travel bucket list? No,

Melissa Ricks  53:45  
you're so overwhelmed with the boys, I can imagine you probably, I mean, just even think of like, take a weekend to go Disney World or something. You're like, yeah, to be honest with you, I'm just not a big vacationer or a traveler. It's we never really have been. For me, if I've got some downtime, I want to curl up on my couch like

Melissa Ricks  54:03  
it sounds so bad. I do think at some point in my life I will. But you know, when you've got that many kids under a certain age, that's your extra time is going to them, and I'm okay with that. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Do you find, you know, because of, you know, you grew up in 17 you moved out of home. You know, you run food stamps with the the boys for a long time. I mean that where you're at and, I mean, do you actually sit down and, like, think about, like, Oh my God, every day, how surreal it is. Yes, every day. Matter of fact, I just had a couple of months ago. I just bought a new car, and I struggled a lot with it. I never looked at myself as somebody would drive a Mercedes Benz, a convertible at that. It was like an imposter syndrome type thing. I was actually ashamed.

Melissa Ricks  54:55  
I had to work through it for a couple of weeks, because every time I'd get in there, I would fly.

Melissa Ricks  55:00  
Back, and honestly, I think that's part of what has allowed me to be as successful as I've gotten, because I don't forget that like my my humility will never change. I will never forget that stuff that we went through. Yes, it's surreal. Yes, sometimes I have to pinch myself, but I purposely remember to keep that in my mindset, because I don't I, no matter how big I ever get, this could all be gone tomorrow, and I wouldn't know how to survive, because I've been there before. You mentioned something that you and your husband, I want to phrase it correctly, and it was something about my husband and I have a motto that we live by due to those years wake up every day as if someone is trying to steal everything you've ever worked for?

Melissa Ricks  55:43  
Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  55:46  
do you feel sometimes that might, I mean, I mean, I'm I like to consider myself a man of faith that,

Tracy Hayes  55:54  
you know, you took a path. You're successful, you you've got five great boys, very active. You're involved in their life as much as as much as humanly possible. That maybe

Speaker 1  56:08  
that restricts you sometimes, of just enjoying a little bit of, I mean, you're still young. You know, I go through that sometimes. I mean, my wife have reached a level. Because, let me tell you, it was just after 911 I was 31 years old. I literally, was, you know, fired from a job, and I had, I had, like, dollars in my pocket, and I went down to the grocery store, literally. And I've thought about telling this on this podcast for a while now, but you're bringing up because, you know what I'm talking about. I bought a turkey. It was, you know, because, you know, you buy the turkeys and cook them? Well, this year, they're probably expensive. But back then, 20 years ago, you know, 99 cents a pound or something like that, so I can make myself turkey sandwiches so I could last, you know that Turkey was going to last me for the week, or whatever, right? I mean, that's the mindset that you have. And now I have to stop in, because I'm like, You got to get up. Gotta get the next phone call. What am I doing this weekend? Well, I'm not on coverage, but I'm, you know, sending out birthday cards. I'm doing, you know, all these things that need to be doing, because I I'm in that same mindset that you guys have, where I've told my wife, you know, this, we got we're taking a legit vacation. So we're going away for Thanksgiving, eight days, 20 to 28th we're going on a cruise, shutting the phones off, and we're, you know, we're going to go and spend some serious time just enjoying ourselves in the family. Because we are running around like crazy like that, because we have that mindset that, oh my god, if I don't show up tomorrow, I'm going to lose it all. Here's why I don't feel restricted. Because I walk out my house every day and I'm on literally cloud nine because of how obsessed with what I am I do. I am one of very few people in the world that I feel like has been able to find something like a career path that obviously is very, you know, lucrative for your life, but that I genuinely love and obsess over. And I think that's for me, why I don't feel restricted. If I left the house every day and I was like, huh, gotta go back to the office, or got to do this, or whatever, then, sure. But I, you know, I don't think it's, it's very common to have that mindset, and I feel very fortunate for it, so I'm just gonna spin the wheels until they fall off. I love it. Well, that's true thing. You gotta love, you gotta love, you gotta love it. There's never a side that of me that's like, God, I don't want to go out and do this today. I mean, when you thrive on what you're doing, it's a lot easier to understand that mindset.

Speaker 2  58:31  
This has been a great conversation. Hey, let me know how turning that phone off for eight days goes.

Melissa Ricks  58:38  
I'll think of you.

Tracy Hayes  58:41  
Well, there'll be a couple islands there.

Tracy Hayes  58:44  
Check a couple emails.

Melissa Ricks  58:47  
Well, thank you.

Tracy Hayes  58:49  
I am so honored that you came on today. I really appreciate hope everyone appreciated the show, and we're gonna sign off. Thanks, Melissa, thank you. Peace