Tiffany Riley: Key to Real Estate Success is Confidence

Tiffany Riley  0:30  
when I first started, I felt like I didn't know anything. I didn't know what I was doing, and that was terrifying. And so I think just really kind of studying and like I said, and that's where I think coming in with a team or somebody like that that you can follow and gain that knowledge would be really helpful too, because I just lacked confidence at the very beginning.

Podcast Intro  0:54  
Welcome to Real Estate Excellence, making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes. We'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt now, please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:27  
welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Agent today is in the top 10% of producers here in the greater Jacksonville area, known for her integrity, professionalism and waiving dedication, she goes above and beyond to exceed her clients expectations. As a native of Jacksonville, she possesses an in depth understanding in diverse neighborhoods, market trends and emerging opportunities in the area. Follow her on social media, where you can find a very good Instagram page. We're gonna be talking about that and how that helps her out. She's consistently adding value to her followers. I am looking forward to learning more about her. Let's welcome one of the newest members of move with the momentum team. Tiffany Riley, thanks for having me. I appreciate you coming on. I really appreciate you. Maybe. Let's just say, why'd you? You know, invite me here so you your Instagram, and you're consistently putting out content, informative content, actually, after the show, remind me, I want to show you this Instagram person I think you kind of fall in line with, actually, probably steal some of her stuff. She's, of course, she's got 10s of 1000s, 1000s of followers on Instagram, but she's a real estate agent over in Orlando, and when I saw and I was watching your stuff, and then from season, hers came on my feed, and I'm like, Oh, wow. Tiffany could like this. She does it on an she takes it to another level. And obviously, as you know, with video, you just got to get out there and do it. Yeah, yeah. We don't always sound great. You know, might stumble on some words or bite your tongue or whatever. We've all been we've all been there. But I want to kick it off. You from Jacksonville, but whereabouts? Where'd you

Tiffany Riley  3:00  
go to high school? So I graduated from Sandalwood High School. I grew up in the intercoastal area. Actually,

Tracy Hayes  3:07  
my wife went to sandalwood. Okay, so you're 18 years old, graduated from sandalwood. I mean, what inspirations? I know you did some modeling. Tell us. Tell us a little bit about that. And you know, what were you doing as a young Tiffany,

Tiffany Riley  3:19  
yeah, so I had no idea what I wanted to do at 18, I did get into modeling, and I was into I had my cosmetologist license as well. I was doing nails. Right after I got out of high school, I started going to college, still did not know what I wanted to do. Then I got more into modeling, and that just kind of grew. And then I went down to Orlando, lived there for a little bit, because it was convention capital, basically, you know, and then I ended up moving out to California after that. So I was like, Well, I can always go back to school, do modeling now, and

Tracy Hayes  3:57  
give us a, you know, obviously, you know, just like real estate agents. I mean, people have a perception of what, what modeling, right? That you know, everyone you know we could think of either when we obviously on Sports Illustrated. You got models on Victoria secrets, you got runway models. You got, you know, these things they're doing, but you're working a lot locally. What kind of you know work is, I mean, you're not on any, I assume you're not on any salary. You're paid by the gig, right? Type of thing, yeah, what kind of, you know, do you get with an organization that, I guess I want to use an analogy, like a temp agency that temps models. Hey, they need models for this, you know. Or they're, you know, last time I Jagermeister models, that was a bad night. But, I mean, it was fun. Yeah, it was until later. But what kind of, what kind of work you know as a young person trying to get into that field? Because I imagine it's, it's like, well, it could be like podcasting, or you just, you got to just keep doing it. Doing to me. Maybe someone find you, right? Yeah, yeah. So what kind of, what kind of jobs and types of things are that you were

Tiffany Riley  5:05  
doing? So I actually started in Hawaiian Tropic, doing the competitions for them, and then I went out to Hawaii and did their huge competition. Some people found me that way. And then I just, I got an agency at a couple agencies. I had one in Florida, and then I had some in California as well. So they would, you know, find work for me and everything, and then also to just friends. I had a ton of friends that were models, so they would tell me about jobs, and, you know, refer me. And it was a lot of networking

Tracy Hayes  5:37  
too. Yeah, I was gonna say that was my question that was coming to my head, is like, I mean, you probably met some interesting people. Yes, yeah, oh, yeah. Do you remember anyone you want to share? You don't have to change their name, but anyone, anyone unique or unique story that you could share with us from who you met in the modeling dig deep on that one?

Tiffany Riley  5:59  
Yeah, I don't know, i Those were my party days, too, a little bit of a blur,

Tracy Hayes  6:05  
but I imagine also you got, they took you some interesting places and white and track book, I imagine, you know, for shoots or whatever, yes,

Tiffany Riley  6:11  
yes, I went to Molokai. I've been to Mexico. I went to Alaska, I've been to Japan. So, yeah, a lot of cool,

Tracy Hayes  6:21  
interesting places. Yeah, any, any place that you'd look back say, Man, I remember going there for mana. I need to go back now as an adult and venture around.

Tiffany Riley  6:30  
Yeah, I definitely want to go back to Japan. That was really cool.

Tracy Hayes  6:33  
What'd you find? What'd you find interesting about Japan? It

Tiffany Riley  6:36  
was just amazing. It was, you know, we went to Tokyo, so it was just so overwhelming. And we did have a translator, which helps. So if I do go back translator, we

Tracy Hayes  6:47  
get the cell phones that translate.

Tiffany Riley  6:51  
But you know, all the different foods and everything, yeah, she's completely different,

Tracy Hayes  6:56  
all right. So based on your LinkedIn, this is like 2011 ish. You, is it just the, you know, I imagine? Well, for any model, women, probably particularly because, you know, as age comes you, well, I don't know what happens in your life, you leave modeling, and I noticed you picked up a retail job and then led to something else, and eventually real estate, which we'll get to. But what was your change in career to step out of modeling at that

Tiffany Riley  7:21  
time. I got pregnant, okay, down to family, that'll do it. Oh, yes. Single mom at the time. You know, as a single mom in California, I just it was way too much, way too expensive. So I came back to Jacksonville with my daughter. She was 18 months old at the time, and I had no idea what I was going to do. I had always been interested in real estate, but I didn't know how to get into it or anything like that, you know. And I just needed something quick, too, because, you know, I was my life has changed. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  7:52  
you picked up a retail job with and then, but you did some time at Arbonne. Now, if I'm not mistaken, correct me. If I'm wrong, that's a your it's a multi level marketing thing. And you're an independent just like you are as a real estate agent. You're so self employed. What are some things that that you picked up there? Because what I found in a lot of is there's a lot of personal development training, yeah, in that. What are some things that you picked up there that that you remember that

Tiffany Riley  8:20  
it was really just a lot of the whole the mentality aspect of it, which I loved, and that's something I love about real estate, too, because I'm constantly reading, you know, like the whole business self help books, all of that, really just getting in the right mindset. And that's important for Arbonne, you know, it's important for real estate, so that I really like that. I mean, everybody you know on my team and everything was just super positive and motivating. And, yeah, so

Tracy Hayes  8:48  
how does that? You know, I haven't talked about this in a while on the show, but the from a personal development side to me when I read a good book, you know, I Ryan sir Hayes for one, but I'm John Maxwell fan, you know, picking up in some of these, it gives you some, like, positive juice, right? I mean, it just makes you, it makes you feel good. Like, wow. He Wow. Listen to that story. He fell on his face and he got up and, you know, now, look how successful is I. You can relate to that, yeah, yeah, yeah. I because going out there as a real estate agent or as an Arbonne representative, you know you're gonna get no Yeah, and it in, you get so many no's. So many people can take more no's than another person, just like a box. Some boxers can take more punches than enough. But, you know, tell me, tell us a little bit of how you know some of the things that that you took from there, and how it you during some times where you're like, Am I doing the right thing? Should I keep doing this? How that personal development kept you keep going? Yeah.

Tiffany Riley  9:47  
So Arbonne, I mean, at the time where I was in my life, too, at that time, I just I wasn't really in the best spot. So even though I was trying to work on myself, it just I wasn't in a good spot, you know. So. Trying to stay motivated and do everything with that took extra motivation, yes, yeah, yeah. So that's why, also I had the retail job, because I needed instant money, you know, right? But at the same time, I was like, this isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life. So then I got into real estate.

Tracy Hayes  10:17  
So what is it now, where I think was 2015 right? Yep, actually, if I were looking February 2015 so we're exactly nine years this month in your career. What comes across in front of you that says I need to go get my real estate license, or I need to go because I think you originally started with Watson, then I need to go down and talk to Watson really, what triggers you to make that step?

Tiffany Riley  10:44  
So I was actually dating somebody who is with Watson, and like I said, I've always had a love for real estate, you know. I just like looking at pretty houses, and I thought it would be fun. And I like that there's no cap on your income. So I was like, Okay, this might be the right thing for me, you know. And then I talked to him a little bit more about it, and I knew that Watson had a school, so I was like, I'm gonna end up with Watson. So I'll go to the Watson school. So that's what I did when

Tracy Hayes  11:11  
you got there, I would imagine, or even before, did you talk to other real estate agents at all?

Tiffany Riley  11:16  
No, not really. You just kind of went for it. Well, that's cool.

Tracy Hayes  11:24  
Most people, that's pretty much their answer. But as we talked pre show, one of the things I'd like my dream of a listener on the show is someone who is thinking about getting in real estate, or might be getting their license right now, but hasn't chosen that brokerage yet. And do go out and, you know, have conversations with top producers, not necessarily the top producer, but producers that are actually doing the business. And you know, to research more about the brokerage. Research more they know you've changed brokerage several, a couple times in your initial thought, thinking about nine years, yeah, ago this month, and think about your your move to Watson, you could you have reached out and maybe what you know now, and have talked to other brokerages, but you just didn't know, because you're just in that

Unknown Speaker  12:15  
right? You don't know what you don't know, right? Exactly.

Tracy Hayes  12:18  
What would you recommend to a new real estate agent today, or someone thinking about getting a business, yeah,

Tiffany Riley  12:23  
yeah. I mean, if I could go back and change how I did everything, I mean, Watson is great, but honestly, I would probably start on a team, or, you know, under a Top Producing agent to really figure things out a little bit better, to get better guidance. So it took me a while to really get to where I needed to be well.

Tracy Hayes  12:43  
And that makes you well in I always think he has a path for everybody, and that's made you who you are today, you know, type of thing, yeah. I mean, we do know some people like, like Brittany and John, who got in, had success pretty quickly. I mean, they're pretty brilliant people, yeah, but it's, you know, sometimes just, you know where we grew up, your background, you know, just you weren't exposed to those things. What are, what do you think are, you know, a couple, like, important things that agents need to know up front that maybe you didn't know nine years ago today?

Tiffany Riley  13:16  
Yeah. I mean, honestly, the biggest thing for me was confidence. You know, when I first started, I felt like I didn't know anything, I didn't know what I was doing, and that was terrifying. And so I think just really kind of studying, and, like I said, and that's where I think coming in with a team or somebody like that that you can follow and gain that knowledge would be really helpful, too, because I just lacked confidence at the very beginning.

Tracy Hayes  13:44  
You're modeling for 10 years. You had, but you had to draw back on that sometimes, because you you're standing in front of people. A lot of times you're in your bikini in front, you know, Hawaiian Tropic, right? That's what you're doing. You've got to have a lot of confidence. And we know a lot of people are, you were our biggest critics, right? You know, no matter what you look like, Rotary, oh, I wish I was a little this, little that, little taller, little skinny, or whatever, right type of, type of thing, and that's a different, well, I think that's a, it's a different, different type of confidence, yeah, yeah. Was the confidence in the sense of meeting new people, or what do you what do you think, or just the lack of your lack of knowledge at that moment?

Tiffany Riley  14:19  
Yeah, it was the lack of knowledge, you know, like I'm the kind of person that I want to know, like everything I want to be the expert, you know, I you know. So, yeah, feeling like I didn't know exactly what I was doing was terrifying.

Tracy Hayes  14:35  
How'd you so let's talk about that first year. Yeah, let's talk about some of the terror. I mean, you know, I started studying for the back last summer. I actually dove into what you guys have to learn. And I've, obviously, I've been doing mortgages for 18 years. So yeah, when I go and do the continuing ed for the mortgage stuff, I've, like, you. And we got half an ear on it, because it's the same stuff over and over again. You know, the dates actually don't change. Maybe how much you have to pay to renew like, they'll ask a stupid question like that, right? But some of the stuff that you guys have to learn is, is you got to learn it? Yeah, now you may never actually recall it later, right? But there is a level of competence that you have there. But were you, like many agents that realize this test has nothing to do with what I'm walking into? Everything

Tiffany Riley  15:31  
Exactly, yes, I was. I just completely felt unprepared.

Tracy Hayes  15:36  
So what do you do to try to overcome this? Because obviously you stayed with it. I'm sure there was many times you probably like, do I want to do this really? Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Riley  15:45  
Many times. What are some of the

Tracy Hayes  15:47  
things that you started doing to start chipping away at your we'll call it at this time, a lack of experience and

Tiffany Riley  15:53  
knowledge. Yeah. Also, when I was modeling, I also did makeup too, and I was basically a self taught makeup artist, and the way that I taught myself was by watching YouTube videos. So that's kind of what I did with real estate. I just watched everybody that I could on YouTube. And this is nine years ago, yeah, and I read as many real estate books that I could, you know, I just dove in and tried to gain as much knowledge as quickly as possible. And Watson also has great training too. You know, they have videos that you can watch, and you go to success school and all that too. But so I just picked up education from anywhere that I could. I went to nefar to their classes, and just tried to learn as much as I could.

Tracy Hayes  16:38  
Well, you know, that's a it's a great point there. I mean, how important for a new agent is to, I mean, there is countless education things going on right now, whether it's at ne far this morning, or a lender like myself is doing a lunch and learn today, or a title company, whatever it is to find out where these things are and put it into your schedule. Yeah, yeah. I mean, for, especially for a new agent, fresh, you know, jumps in the real estate, you know, the potential, you just got to figure out how to get there. Yeah, right. How important is like to find these places?

Tiffany Riley  17:12  
Yes, yeah. And still, to this day, I mean, that's one thing that I love about momentum Realty, too, is because we have so many trainings, and you don't have to go to all of them. You can pick and choose, but since I've joined, which was in January, I mean, I've tried to go to almost all of them, because they're so valuable, right?

Tracy Hayes  17:29  
What do you think are some of the most important ones? Because I imagine you've probably heard the same person, not different people teach us the same subject, right? But they teach something different, yeah. What do you think are like couple of first trainings that like people that again, a new agent that first year or two really should be an expert at

Tiffany Riley  17:51  
contracts? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. You need to know your contract inside and out.

Tracy Hayes  17:55  
How many, how many different people have you heard talk give a lesson on the contract in nine years. A lot, a lot. Yeah, yeah. It was, I was watching something real popped up. It was talking about the far bar contract versus the NE far contract. What's the difference? What's in it? And, I mean, you have to go see different instructors, because different instructors, See, Think Different things are important, yes, yeah, yeah. I won't ask you to think the most important best instructor is all right, you went to Florida State College, Jacksonville. What did you study there?

Tiffany Riley  18:34  
Oh, so I didn't like I wasn't there that long. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  18:38  
yeah. Well, you saved yourself a lot of money. Yeah, there's no there's nothing more inspiring. Be honest, I think it's more inspiring, especially because our higher education, I think, is, I don't say, failed us, but to me, it's become a business, yeah, and you know, the great thing is, and we'll get into deeper, how real estate's changed your life, and you don't need a college education to do it right and so forth. I want to go back to the again. The first year, do you find a mentor, someone to coach you? Or when do you find that in your in your career, because you said you went a while really producing where you want to be. You had some struggles and so forth. Did you find someone that you can attach to? And because, going back to the team thing, you know, you missed, I would have joined a team to learn. Did you match up with a top producer that?

Tiffany Riley  19:35  
So what happened my first year was just, I also still had a lot of personal things going on, you know, from my move from my move from California and everything that I was dealing with. So I honestly, I wasn't focused 100% like I should have been in real estate. But then eventually I did hire a coach. I did Tim and Julie Harris coaching. I just did, like, not the individual coaching, but they have an option that you can do those group coach. Coaching. It was inexpensive, but it was still very valuable, you know. So I got a lot.

Tracy Hayes  20:04  
I did put a bottle of water there, just case. You go, I'm gonna have a drink of my coffee. So how did they, how did the coaching you go back to? Because, you know, I've had Jake Dixon on with the locker room last month. That's all he did. He got into real estate. He says he's only sold one house, and he quickly got real people realized coaching was his expertise, because coaching is not necessarily the ABCs of real estate. It's evaluating your business, right? Tell, give us some things of how that started to move the needle for you. Yeah? Assuming it did, yeah,

Tiffany Riley  20:42  
not as much as I mean, you get what you get out of it, what you put into it, right? I probably put, like, maybe 75% into it, not 100 but I loved I got my pre listing presentation from that. I got my listing presentation from it, which I really needed. So that was great. I just, you know, I feel like I became more professional, in a sense. I had systems in place. I had presentations. So that started, that whole side of

Tracy Hayes  21:10  
everything did, the coaching start to give you a larger picture of what real estate was all about. Or, you know, really what the entire picture of what your business as an agent is, you know, what are some things that you know, like, say, give you a listing. What kind of like exposure to the coach. Give you like, whoa. Hold on. Second, this is bigger than what I, what, what I what's in front

Tiffany Riley  21:33  
of me? Yeah. So then I realized, you know, I can't just rely on one thing. Then I started getting into expired and for sale by owners and the whole lead generation and figuring out different ways to go about it.

Tracy Hayes  21:46  
So, alright, so the list you said, what are some things that you took away, though, I mean that you're still because this was, what, 2016 17. Yep, you got your coach. Okay, what are some things that you're still utilizing today, or took and maybe tweaked it a little bit, because I think techniques always got to be moved as the market moves. Right, right? Yeah, you know, whatever market, what are some things that you're you know, you took from the news you're still using today.

Tiffany Riley  22:10  
So basically, my pre pre listing presentation, I know a lot of agents don't use them, and I got an expired pre listing, pre listing packet, I'm sorry, my pre listing packet, and a lot of agents don't use them, from what I've heard, and I got a huge expired listing just from that. He said, You're the only one that sent me this. So tell

Tracy Hayes  22:29  
us a little bit. What is it? What makes it? What do you like about it? And what have you the response that you've been getting for your clients on this package that you put out? Yeah,

Tiffany Riley  22:38  
so it's just, it has some information about myself, you know. And then I also do an RPR report about the home in there. I don't RPR, RPR, realtors, property resource, okay? And, but I don't put an exact price point on there, you know, I do, like a value because I haven't seen the home yet. So I put that in. I put like a little microwave popcorn thing in, and just some, like, fun things in a little note, a handwritten note. And so it's just individualized to them. And usually I'll have, like, a courier take it out the day before, or, you know, an assistant, or if it's close to me, I'll just drop it off on their front door or something like that. But I do it the day before the listing.

Tracy Hayes  23:15  
Okay, so they called you say, hey, Tiffany, I want to talk to you about listing my home. You put this report together, assuming you have time. It's not like, Hey, we're meeting tomorrow morning. So you want to get that out and have them at least browse this package before you actually come out. Right? Correct? Yeah. What do you think it is you said that there's stuff in there about you. What do you think it's important for the for that customer, the listing, the seller to know about you. So

Tiffany Riley  23:44  
basically it's just my bio, but it also has my marketing in there and trying to think. So I actually just switched my presentations over since I switched to momentum. So I'm trying to decide if I still want to use that one, or now I'm playing with some different things, but, yeah, but it just gives them information about myself, so that I don't have to go over a huge presentation the day of, right? So they feel like they already know me.

Tracy Hayes  24:11  
Well, that kind of my first initial thought when you did is like, okay, are those? Are you putting your, like, say, your social media stuff on there? Because you do have a great Instagram page, and in you have, you have some substance on your YouTube, which I think is the most underutilized by real estate agents. I have many of the top agents on and I go to their YouTube page and they got videos that are three years old. Yeah, haven't done anything recently, yeah. Do you put that on there so they can go, Oh, they're reading this. But we know also, people like to remember all their video watchers now, right? Yeah, you know, do you make that connection to try to put them over onto those

Tiffany Riley  24:47  
pages? So I haven't, but I should, but I've just, I'm just now trying to get better with my social media. That's kind of a newer thing, so I do need to incorporate that somehow, and I'm playing around with the idea. It too, because obviously I'm learning a lot from John and Brittany about, instead of doing the pre listing, packet mailing it over, like I have, they do, you know, like an email thing, and then they would be able to click on links and see certain things.

Tracy Hayes  25:13  
There was something I saw advertised. I thought was brilliant. It. There was a company that actually did that, but more on a pressure, because you'll see these emails come across. And, as you know, like, if I just went in here and created an email and put in a bunch of my social media links, it looks kind of like doesn't

Tiffany Riley  25:30  
pop Yeah, yeah. It has to be formatted properly,

Tracy Hayes  25:33  
yeah. And have have some style, I guess we'll call it, yeah, make it look pretty well, because would you greet me? Because everything you do is a representation of you in what they're going to perceive, how you're going to represent their home, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We go with the coaching. How does that move the needle for you? Do you start getting more listings, you thought, or buyers? What starts to happen? You're like, Hey, I'm moving forward. I may be doing the right thing. Yeah.

Tiffany Riley  26:05  
I mean, it grew. My business grew a little bit, you know, but it never grew to where I wanted it to be. And again, I mean, I think that I was, I've been dealing with some things, confidence was like a huge thing for a long time, just because of personal things that I was going through, really just getting comfortable with everything, comfortable with yourself, yes, yes, yes, yeah. And then really, when I started focusing more on my sphere, is when things started really growing. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  26:38  
What in, you know, we, like I said, you know, pre show, someone's going to resonate with your story. And you know, if there's any one thing that will move the needle for you, and you, you know, we've, we've mentioned it several times, is confidence. And if there's any one thing that's going to hold you back, it's confidence. And I think any, any agent listening to this show right now is going to say, Yeah, I had the same problem. Yes. I mean, I would say seven out of 10, if not nine out

Tiffany Riley  27:05  
of 10, yes. And it's just all mindset. You know, just working on my mindset these past few years is really what has changed me talk.

Tracy Hayes  27:13  
Let's Let's speak. Let's speak to that. Because that's a big, you know, mindset is a big word. There's, we see it a lot on the reels and the top producers, it's all mindset. If you want to be a millionaire, you gotta have a mindset. You know, that whole thing, which I would agree you, and I know people win the lottery and they blow all the money because they just don't have the mindset on how to like deal with that. What? When you say, mindset? What does that? What does it mean to you? And then, if you can in telling us that, how have you changed your mindset? How is your mindset grown? Which and it's continuing, growing, yeah, continuing. Dwell on that. What your inner because I think we speak to ourselves internally, right? Yeah, if you could speak to your mindset in your inner speakings

Tiffany Riley  27:57  
to yourself, Yep, yeah. So, like I said, I'm constantly reading, or now it's just listening to audiobooks, because I don't have the time to actually pick up a book. But, you know, books like 10x and the success principles, there's just, I mean, there's a ton of great books, but So also this past year and the year before, writing down my goals and doing affirmations and things like that, to just constantly focus so

Tracy Hayes  28:23  
you're gonna use that journal I gave you. Yes,

Tiffany Riley  28:27  
excellent, yes, yeah. But honestly, that is what has really changed my business is focusing on my goals and my affirmations and so course, I

Tracy Hayes  28:42  
want to, because a lot of people say that, yeah, let's get I like to put the rubber to the road a little bit. What are some things, and it doesn't have to be necessary. You know, sometimes we put a goal and or, you know, put a thought, or whatever it is. And maybe we we get to a point where we didn't actually get there, but during the the journey, we actually realized your the goals are just a little different. We tweak it and and get there. What are, what are some things you started finding yourself by writing these things down? What are some of the things you started finding yourself doing to get there?

Tiffany Riley  29:15  
So, and this is something too that I learned from John. So I would always do yearly goals, and now he has me breaking it down into quarterly. So because my goal for this year is 10 million, so I'm like, okay, that translates to two and a half per quarter, right? So before I'd be like, Oh, 10 million. I did. You know, one here. I've got the rest of the year this quarter I need to do just

Tracy Hayes  29:39  
stay on pace.

Tiffany Riley  29:40  
So that has really helped too, because it's, you know, kept me hustling more because I'm like, oh, man, it's already February. Yeah, I only have until the end of March. So that's helped a lot. It's just breaking it down into smaller things.

Tracy Hayes  29:56  
And what does John say about, you know, setting obviously you want to be. You want to push yourself, but you also got to be realistic, right?

Tiffany Riley  30:03  
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for like, last year, for example, my goal was, Well, personally, I said six, but I had never done more than three. And my broker was like, well, maybe we should shoot for five. I was like, All right, so I did 5.8 I was just almost me my six, right, but, but I was happy about that, you know. So it was a accomplishment.

Tracy Hayes  30:26  
Let's, let's go into, you know, dig a little deep in, into the business thing you've been doing this nine years. So you have, you have a good track record of things you probably did and, like, would tell us a Don't ever do that, right? What is one of those things that you did like in you try and just, you know, if you recall, you fell on your face on it just didn't work, at least not for you. Because I think everyone marketing is in real estate, because it's all about relationships and so forth. What are some, what are some things that you did like now you know not

Tiffany Riley  30:58  
to do well, that's the thing. I think you have to find what works for you. You know, because there are some agents that cold call all day, every day, and it works for them. I hate cold calling, not my thing, but I've tried it, and calling expired is on my to do list. I don't know if I'll get there or not, but I don't know. I don't know if there's really maybe door knocking. You know, door knocking was not successful for me.

Tracy Hayes  31:25  
I think people there, I think was Ella. Ella got married, so she changed her name with momentum. Oh yeah. But if I rec and I may be wrong, Ella, if you're watching this, I thought, I don't know if it was her to said door knocking. Her name came right there when you said, door knocking. Yeah, it came right to my head. But I don't know if it was her, somebody said, somebody's, you know, different people have had success at door knocking at other times and others. I do think if I was a real estate agent, I would go, you know, two or three doors either side of my my open house, or whatever, and type of thing. Let everybody at least, you know, know, at least in that surrounding area. I don't know about just blanketly, just walking down the streets and hitting 100 houses, yeah? Especially, you know, we could probably do it today comfortably, but you know in August that it just ain't happening, yeah?

Tiffany Riley  32:15  
And the funny thing is, when I first started real estate, I thought, you know, oh, I need to dress business all the time. So I would wear, like, very business, like, clothes and high heels. And now I've completely changed the way that I address

Tracy Hayes  32:28  
you talk about that be, I mean being, being a model, you had that mindset that you wanted to be prim and proper, you know, dressed and so forth. What do you what do you think has changed your your mindset on that? What is the, what is the, the lifestyle of being a Northeast Florida real estate agent in regards to, you know, what, how you're dressing?

Tiffany Riley  32:49  
Well, I realized heels don't work when you're trying to show houses, especially after it just rained and you're sinking into the ground. And also, I mean, it just, you know, we're in Florida. You don't have to be super business like, you know, it's fine if you want to do that for listing appointments. I do dress up more for listing

Tracy Hayes  33:08  
appointments. Well, you don't know what who you're going to be in front of, right until you get to know them a little bit. Then, you know, hey, I can be a little more cash. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Riley  33:18  
But I've definitely taken it back a notch and just comfortable, but still nice, you know, yeah, I usually wear just like, a dress and sandals or something,

Tracy Hayes  33:26  
right, right, right? Yeah. We don't want to, yeah, show up and cut off shorts or something. You know, the clients that you've had or that you would visualize that, especially, like, you know, we get a lot of these people from up north. They're coming here now they have the jacket and tie thing, but when they enter across the Florida line, they have more of the casual mindset. In my way, I'm from the northeast, yeah, and I know my wife has said it a couple times. It's funny, she's from Jacksonville, and went to sandalwood, okay? And she's like, you know, a restaurant and, oh, you need to wear a tie. I don't know anywhere in Northeast Florida that you have to wear a tie in any restaurant. This is Florida,

Tiffany Riley  34:07  
right? Yeah, yeah. Well, the funny thing is, I was showing luxury properties one day, and I had just a dress and sandals on, you know, and my buyers were from New York, and the listing agent of this, like $2 million property, met us at the house, and he looked like a bum off the street. And the buyer, my buyer, said something, you know, yeah, like

Tracy Hayes  34:32  
he was below the level, yeah. Well, well, there is no doubt. Well, and I'm sure you saw it when you're modeling and mixing, you some of the most, I won't necessarily say a fluent but from a standpoint of what we see, a status as you know their their net worth, you know, you lot of times you walk by them, you don't even know who they are, because they're not. They don't. They dress down. And so they kind of, they hopefully they fit in more, and people don't notice them, and, you know, asking for autographs or whatever. And sometimes you just walk right by them and don't even know that that's that person's worth, whatever, millions of dollars. Yeah, let's digging in, digging into business. You mentioned earlier you're you have your you from your coach. You improved your listing presentation and buyers presentation. One thing we've been talking about recently, obviously, with the rates going up in the last 18 months, is, you know, the listing presentation isn't like 2021 where it's just, Hey, show up and you know, you can kind of wing it and get it, because you're gonna put the house up and probably have multiple offers before you even get it on the MLS, if not within a couple of days. But today you need to be have a little more Tracy involved. Tell us how you have you changed what the way you're handling listing appointments today, then just, you know, two and a half years ago, when rates were low and, you know, the houses were listed and had multiple, many offers.

Tiffany Riley  36:02  
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I have that conversation with my sellers, you know about the rates and about possible seller concessions that could come up because, you know, especially depending on the price point too, right, right? Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  36:13  
well, that you actually hit it right, and that was leading you to it, and you hit it right on the nail. That the importance right now to when you go in that listing appointment to have, hey, we may want to, because you're competing against new construction, who's giving away, I think they're giving away the houses right now. Actually. I mean, they're making minimal margin on these houses just to keep their guys busy, type of thing. But they have all the incentives to get that lower rate, so you have a lower payment for whether it's a short period of time or buy it down permanently. Whatever you know, tell us how you approach that conversation. You go into that listing appointment in approach them with these options. I mean, where you know is there different clients you guide to those options, others that maybe you won't because of the price point. What do you? How do you? How do you stage that conversation?

Tiffany Riley  36:58  
Yeah, yeah. It definitely depends on the price point and also to where we're pricing the house too, you know. So obviously, we go over the comps and everything and see if it makes sense, but I just talk to them about, you know, where rates are, and give them, you know, this is what I'm doing for my buyers. So if I brought the buyer, you know, they might need some help with closing costs or buy down rate. Buy downs, because some people don't, they've never heard of a rate buy down, right?

Tracy Hayes  37:25  
Yeah, they don't know what the builders are doing. And they might see the advertisement and wonder, like, what are they doing? Are they using their own money to give them that low interest rate? Or so they don't understand how it's actually getting there. What is some of the reception, though, that that you're getting? Because I think one of the challenges that agents are are having is, you know, being confident in that presentation right now, because I think you may disagree or disagree with agree or disagree with me. You know, if you go in to a to a presentation and you know, they said, No, we don't want to do any seller concessions. Just price the home. There. Go with it. And then, you know, two weeks, and they're getting antsy, right? Because, right? You know, they're used to, well, geez, you know, 18 months ago, the house sold in two days. My neighbor, you know, it's two weeks, and we've only had a few showings or whatever, and now they're talking about a price reduction or having to go back and say, Okay, well, let's do the incentive now, which is equivalent to a price reduction, right, right? So what kind of, what kind of feedback are you getting from the from these listing appointments in that in that discussion, are they are some warm to it? Who do you find more warm to it than others?

Tiffany Riley  38:38  
Yeah. I mean, people have been pretty open to it, you know. I mean, really, just showing them the data and looking at other comps too, and seeing if other homes nearby have done seller concessions too, like, that'll help, you know? So showing them the comps and going over that with them, and then just showing them to the difference on a price reduction versus a buy down. So, because sometimes it's a lot cheaper to do the buy down then

Tracy Hayes  39:03  
yes, reduction, yeah, yeah, your neighbors like you better because the house sold for more. Yeah, yeah. And we're not really having a problem with appraisals. Have you got any issues or some low appraisals? No, I haven't. Yeah, no. I think the appraisals are there in right before the do the buy down and in from the lending side. Did someone listening right now, you don't necessarily have to do the buy down. It's, you know, here we're going to give you money towards closing costs or buy down whenever you want to use it, because everyone has, every buyer has a different situation, whether it's low payment or they're short on cash or both. Yeah, because qualifications. Have you had any one of the hot topics? Well, I think it's again, last 819, months, two years now, is insurance. Have you run into any issues with any your listings or with the buyers, where insurance has become a kind of a factor in the

Tiffany Riley  39:54  
not necessarily, I mean, we've had to replace water heaters due to insurance. But. But I do have a listing appointment coming up this weekend that the roof is 18 years old. Oh yeah, that's gonna, you know, fun one

Tracy Hayes  40:08  
that. Well, the good thing about the roofs is the, you know, whether you us grow it or there's roofers now that will take the check afterwards, type of thing. But, you know, having that wind mitigation, and really any house, I think someone we were talking with insurance agent said they basically says, over 10 years, get a four point win mitigation, because the insurance is definitely a challenge, because yes, you get that person set on that payment, yes. And all of a sudden, the because we used to wait till a week before closing, oh, go get your insurance. Now we're already Yeah. And all of a sudden, it's $200 more a month than what you thought, yep,

Tiffany Riley  40:42  
yep. And I recently had one too, where we were under contract. I had the buyer, and I they were shocked at how much the insurance was, and I asked what the current owners insurance was, and my buyers were getting quotes for $1,500 a year higher, but it was, you know, most likely, because they've had a lot of claims because they were talking about their insurance credit score, you know? Oh, wow, I don't know. I don't know.

Tracy Hayes  41:10  
Well, yeah, I mean again, and I want to continually had, I had Cindy on, she's on the NAR board for insurance. And when, because this is a national problem. It's not we think it's we know I think Florida is a focal point, but when I speak to people in other states, it's, it's an issue everywhere. We just have more litigation than than the average state does, and therefore has caused the issues. But the one of the tips that Cindy had was when she was at Ari bar camp was you're getting the actual declaration page from the current owner, and share it with the new insurance brokerage, because there's things on there. And flood is one of the biggest things that you can assume the policy, which could save you 1000s of dollars by assuming the current policy versus going and getting your own new policy, and there's little little tips and tricks, and so I'm planning to bring on Cindy more often to give us those little tips and tricks there, because I think your job is become in it falls back on the loan officer a little bit too. But to be that next age real estate agent, insurance ain't just a slam dunk anymore, right? It ain't just, oh, it is what it is you have to you. And then the data he can on the other day, talking about property taxes and portability and everything, and being knowledgeable on those areas and educating your buyer to prove your value.

Tiffany Riley  42:38  
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. When I first started, I didn't know anything, right, right? And it's like there's so much to learn, and you don't learn that in real estate.

Tracy Hayes  42:48  
And then some of the stuff you learn changes. It's always it's always moving, yeah, actually, I'm going to switch up my order questions here. You you were, you were happy with your 23 you felt you moved your needle a little further. You know you, you exceeded your, your broker's goal that they had set for you. As you mentioned earlier, what are some of the things in I'm going to combine, actually, we'll combine this because I think your, your move to momentum was part of your 24 plan, right? What are some of the things that you're going to, excuse me, what are some of the things that you're going to do, or, you know, have on your, you know, in your notebook, your your, you know, your quarterly goals and so forth. What are some things you're going to do, maybe a little differently, maybe a little more of than you did in 23

Tiffany Riley  43:38  
Yep. So this year, I'm really focusing on my database and, you know, my sphere. So we, in fact, we just had a class on this from momentum, and the way that John and Brittany did theirs is just mind blowing. So I'm super excited about it. I've learned a lot, you know, I'm going to do a client appreciation event this year, which I've never done. It's always been something that I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna do it, but, you know, he's like, you have to plan it. You have to put it down at the beginning of the year, or you won't do it, which, you know, I have it so that I'm going to do. And I've just really upped my game with that, Mom using Lolo gifts. And we have a focus program.

Tracy Hayes  44:18  
Actually, the second agent has mentioned that I

Tiffany Riley  44:20  
love Lolo. I get so many messes. It's the only thing that people actually really respond to me on they're like, Oh, thank you so much for this. You know, yeah, it's great, and it's very inexpensive. So I love Lolo and and there's different ways too, you know, you can touch them before the Lolo goes out and just say, hey, I want to let you know that this gift is coming, but it's just extra touches throughout the

Tracy Hayes  44:41  
year, and just so those who don't know, I try to remember who was on recently in last month or so that mentioned the Lolo gifts. It's obviously a way to touch them. You're sending them coupon gift of some local small business that's you. Their area, because you can regionalize it on Northeast Florida, you know, or wherever you're at, but you do for wherever they live, something near there might be a free ice cream or free sandwich or something type of thing. But how important is it? And I John probably has a plan, if you can, as you probably learned in this training, what do they feel? Because everyone's a little different. What do they feel? Is the amount of touches that you should be doing on a monthly, quarterly, yearly basis.

Tiffany Riley  45:27  
I want to say it's a little over 100 per year.

Tracy Hayes  45:29  
Wow, that many. Okay, so Lolo is going out once a month? Yes. Okay.

Tiffany Riley  45:35  
And then I also use homebot for sellers. Are you

Tracy Hayes  45:39  
familiar with home I am familiar with homebot, but how are you using it?

Tiffany Riley  45:42  
I just basically put their information in, and it just sends them out a monthly

Tracy Hayes  45:47  
email, just updating them on market conditions. This is where, yeah, yeah, type of thing is probably a little more colorful than them just going on Zillow and saying, what Zillow thinks their value is. It actually it

Tiffany Riley  45:57  
has a lot of good information. It has, you know, if you wanted to refi, if you wanted to rent your house out, this is what you could do. So it just gives them different options. And then I get an email, I think it might be weekly or bi weekly, saying, these are your top contacts, you know. Like, this person did threes, yeah, yeah. Like, they're really, like, diving in and looking, you know. So they they rank them. So I like homebody, I think it has a lot of valuable information.

Tracy Hayes  46:22  
How did, what does that email look? I mean, is it? It's got to be, obviously, homebod has their brand on it, but they're not really selling to consumers. You know, the end consumer anyway, you're, you're their consumer, right? How? What's, what do you feel the branding on there for you is to remind that age or that that homeowner that this is coming from Tiffany,

Tiffany Riley  46:43  
yeah. So my information's on there, and I'm co branded with a lender too. Okay,

Tracy Hayes  46:48  
yeah, all right. So you feel that that, well, it gives you a reason to call them, right? Is that what you're using? I imagine, if they're clicking on two or three things and doing a little more research, might give you a couple days might go by and give them a call and say, Hey,

Tiffany Riley  47:00  
what's going on? Yeah, yeah. And I track it too, and I keep up with their home value. And for instance, one of my past clients, I noticed that their home value was a little bit off, so that was a reason for me to reach out. I said, Hey, I noticed that you looked at your home buy. I wanted to let you know

Tracy Hayes  47:12  
that that's a lot. I don't

Tiffany Riley  47:13  
agree with that. And updated market analysis. Yeah, good.

Tracy Hayes  47:17  
That puts it Wow. That is actually I mean to me, if you did that, you'd be like, Wow, Tiffany's on top of her game, right? Yeah, all right, but 100 touches is a lot, yes. So what are some other ways that you're you obviously, well, you just mentioned you want to have a client appreciation. You're building your business up to that, and you want to have that this year. So that'll be one big event, but it will give you a reason to touch them a handful of times, inviting them, right? Type of things? What are some other things that you're doing, or John suggests you're doing that you're going to implement?

Tiffany Riley  47:47  
Yep, so I want to come up with some sort of, like, giveaway for referrals or something like that. You know, I'm still working on putting that together. And then I also send out

Tracy Hayes  47:57  
your RESPA guidelines, right? I have

Tiffany Riley  48:00  
to, like, put it together properly, right? Yeah. And then also, I mail them out a newsletter every month, and it also goes out as an email too. And that's something through our focus program, through momentum as well. So I was just doing postcards, and John informed me that it needs to be trifold in an envelope so that they open it.

Tracy Hayes  48:21  
So I use Send Out Cards, is what I use. Okay, you're gonna get a thank you card for me for coming on the show today. But the reason why I do use Send Out Cards, you know, it's it's tough to do, it's because it's personalized, which, you know, it's not like you're selling 200 homes a month and like, Oh, I gotta get, I gotta make 200 cards. That way, you'd have to mass produce, you know, the same card, or maybe it changes their name on it, but it goes out in the same generic but what Send Out Cards does, and there's other companies that do this, but I use, I like, the way send out platform is and, and I've been using it now, oh, good three years, if not longer, but it's a description, and the postage is included. But I can go in there and take their photos off Facebook, because there's nothing that blows a client away, then to open that envelope, you know? And unfortunately, the envelopes, they're machine printed. I mean, right, you open the envelope, but when they see their picture, they see the picture of their family on there. I had a recent agent, John, if I could just leave it at John. John wants to tag on here. You can. But, you know, and I did a little market update with him, because I've had him, him and his wife on the show. And I just said, Hey John, let's talk about what's going on nakati. And we got on before we went live. You know, he's sitting in his home, we're doing it virtually, and he goes, Hey, I got your card right back here. Because people don't throw away the card that's got their picture, right? I love that, yeah. And on the back of the card is basically my, my business card. It's got, you know, Hayes, you know, Tracy's got my QR code on there, so they can scan it and. Goes to my application site, you know, my website and so forth, but they don't throw they don't throw those away. Okay,

Tiffany Riley  50:07  
I'm gonna have to look into that, yeah? Because I also use am cards for birthdays, home, anniversaries and that sort of thing. And I do like that, but it's just a regular greeting card, yeah? But you do have the option of putting in a gift, like a Starbucks gift card or an Amazon gift.

Tracy Hayes  50:23  
Yeah, that's send up cards that you can when businesses were really, was really good. I was sending brownies to everybody. It's slowed down. It's why you're not getting your brownies right now. But yeah, you can attach brownie to Starbucks gift card or, you know, yeah, there's there. You have a bunch of little they have a whole thing of little gifts that you can send them. But the The important thing is, you know you hit up. They remember you, right and and nothing. I'll tell one other stories about selling, selling Send Out Cards. When I first started doing it, we had this guy come into the lender I was working for at the time, and he did some trainings and so forth. Well, I made a card and thanked him for coming to it. Well, him and I did some post work virtually, and he's sitting in his office, and on the shelf behind him is my card he had, luckily I went on his Facebook, his family had just done some photos, you know, quality photos, and on the so I put that his family on the front of the car. Oh, wow. So they don't throw that away, yeah, yeah. But the important of touches, so I want to link this into Instagram because, well, I'm gonna ask you first, what your idea, what your mindset is, your ideology of of social media, and how you're attacking that. And what is your, what is your social media goals for 24 Yeah,

Tiffany Riley  51:39  
so, and that kind of originated when I was with Watson. My broker there was, like, you have to get on social media, even if you, like, don't like doing video, just film it and just put it on. Doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be professional. Just do it, you know. So, like, okay, so I started doing that, but I never, I felt like I never knew what to say. So I found this company called the paperless agent, and they do my social media postings, but then, so they do this whole, I get a website, and then every month they have a like a they individualize it per month. You know, a campaign is what it's called, okay? So they do a campaign every month, and then they have a blog post, and then everything is related to that same topic monthly. So the blog post goes on automated. The social media posts are automated, and they're tied into the blog post, and then they give me scripts. So that's what I read. I put that on my phone and I read it.

Tracy Hayes  52:37  
I was I was going, that was a question I had for you. I was gonna take it off camera because I was just and I will talk about it later. The your Instagram posts where you're giving great information, yeah, yeah, you're educating there. Because, you know, I think some of, if you look at some of the best of the best, or at least it's funny. I think John, John will relate to this, because this conversation him and I had at one time? You know, there's a lot of people get on stage, and they did all this volume, but they didn't make any money, right? Yeah, he's big on the return on investment, yeah. What are you actually putting in your pocket? Yeah, and, but some of these people have the greatest social media but when they say they're getting business off social media is because they're consistently educating, or at least, Pearson Might even be listening to what you're actually telling them, or remembering what they're telling what you're telling them, but the fact that you are telling them right and shows that you now you have knowledge, and you're you're sharing it with them, right? You know, in in you, they can go on your your library as your YouTube page as well. You have to go on Tiffany's YouTube page because she's got, you've got your reels there, yeah, and so forth. And I imagine, you know, you're evaluating and improving, you know, those all the time, from that standpoint. I mean, I'm constantly figuring out everyone has different advice on how to get more views. Yeah, personally, it's there because when they Google you, your reels are going to show up, and that long term video is going to show up, yeah, yeah, that that's, that's what I'm producing out there. Yeah, it's great. The shows recognize and the other agents recognize. I we get that minimal level of recognization, but it's that plant that's out there. Now, when everyone Googles you, how do you think the YouTube we talked about, or you mentioned earlier, your circle of influence? How when you're when you're doing those videos, are you thinking about everyone who in your circle when you're when you're doing those

Tiffany Riley  54:39  
Yeah, and I'm trying to get better at YouTube too. So because my videos don't have a lot of views on YouTube, my instagram and facebook get more. But for whatever reason, I don't know what I'm doing wrong on YouTube, but I want to also do long form on YouTube. And I have an 11 year old daughter, and I've told her that if she can figure. Out how to edit my videos, because that's another thing too. I see all these, like, really pretty YouTube videos, and I don't know how to do that, and I don't want to take the time to do it, you know, because I feel like it takes away from my business. Yeah, so that's something that I want to work on, too. But, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  55:14  
well, I mean, there's no doubt a good videographer can, you know, take out the there's there what I'm using right now, not for the show, but when I do my little market updates. Or, I mean, another loan officer, we do a mortgage athlete thing, we talk more mortgages like we had David, he can on earlier or last week, and Opus Pro, you can, literally, since I stream live to YouTube already, or I can take it, you know, obviously the video saved here, I can, you know, stick it right in there, and it'll go through. And I can tell it I want less than I want 30 or 30 to 60, under 60 seconds, because I'm looking for reels. But you can also, as the AI, technology is getting better every day, you can go in there and say, yeah, it can. It will actually do a video up to 15 minutes. So you could take this whole conversation that you and I are doing and say, hey, I want five minute I want a few five minute clips from this where we're going back for an AI will go in there and find, you know, it might only be three minutes, but it's, it's looking for that, where it's taking our conversation and breaking it down into those shorter forms. Yeah, very cool. And it'll put all in. You can go in there. And then one thing I really like about Opus Pro is, especially the reels. It's real easy. You might have a 45 Second Reel and you got the script over here on the side, you might go, Well, I want to trim that. Take out these. It'll do that. We'll say you have some filler words. Do you want to take them out? Yes, boom, take some. What it does it actually clips the video accordingly. Okay, so it's not like you're just taking the words out. You're actually clipping the video and cutting it down, you know, because, like I said, YouTube likes shorts to be at 60 seconds or less, and so forth, and and that sort of thing. So the technology is improving on that, and it actually does pretty good. I can take a 30 minute video and it might cut, you know, 20 reels. Now, I've had as many as nine or after nine or 10, I'm like, Okay, that's enough content from that person. But, I mean, if you want three or four solid reels off of a little 30 minute conversation that you're recording it, it'll do it. It'll do it really and boom, you're done. You can go in there and dress it up a little bit, add, you know, some emojis, or, you know, it gives you different ways to do the script across there way you want to do it gives you, like, a, you know, six or eight ways to do that. But the AI technologies, that's where it's at. Yeah, yeah. For Speed, yeah. And getting the content out there, plus it also rates it what they think the content like it'll give it a title. So if I actually take that video from Opus Pro and say, Yeah, put it on Tiktok, it'll put the title over there and everything, so that it's what I don't know what AI thinks is going to be a trend, so I'm constantly tweaking that. But you're a YouTube learner. So there's a lot of guys on YouTube that will tell you a lot about that. Yeah, yeah. So we were talking about, let's one subject I always like to talk about when I say, like to talk about it, but I think is important. You see agents move from brokerage to brokerage. Now, some, there's a handful agents out there been with same brokerage, you know, who knows 1520, years is whatever. But I think what they learned is they, they've gotten to a level where they're self generated anyway, right? Yeah, they've whether through, they just learned faster, had a better mentor, whatever, just, you know, they just whatever they were, whatever they're doing, they're producing, so they don't see a reason to change, right? But tell us a little about your growth. We talked about the brokerage in between, in going to momentum, but what you've seen, and if you were talking to a girlfriend about getting into real estate, or who's in real estate, maybe not be doing as well. You know the importance of the brokerage or or maybe joining the team, and how much that adds to your your business, and back to that mindset, yeah, yeah,

Tiffany Riley  59:09  
absolutely, that's what I was gonna say, is just mindset, you know. So definitely, being with a brokerage that does have the same mindset as you and can really help motivate you, and just has that energy there, you know, it's, it's extremely important. So

Tracy Hayes  59:23  
Well, some people can self energize, yeah, yeah, there's no doubt about that. But some of us, we want that. Like said, the personal development, yes, energizes you. John and Brittany, I mean, they're, they're, they're, sometimes I wonder, I see some of us post if he's moving too fast, yeah. But what was it? What was you on your initial conversation? Did you know someone at momentum, or you? I think you were telling me the story, I think pre show a little

Tiffany Riley  59:49  
bit, yeah. So I did a deal with Corey Miller, right?

Tracy Hayes  59:52  
That's right, that's what it was. And then when you sat the first, who did you sit down first and really have a conversation about momentum? So

Tiffany Riley  59:59  
I spoke to Corey. I just kind of casually asked him, you know, I was like, Hey, I see her with momentum. You know, what do you think about it? Blah, blah, blah. And, of course, he had fantastic things to say. And I was friends with John, and I think I'm friends, not sure if I was friends with Brittany yet on Facebook, but anyway, I was following John, and, you know, I'm seeing all this post and just raving about everything about momentum. And I was like, Okay, let me just have a conversation with them. You know, he had reached out to me. And I was like, All right, I'll have coffee with you. But you know, for the longest time, and

Tracy Hayes  1:00:33  
honestly, how long this go your initial conversation with Corey, did John call you? Did Corey tell John today? You know, you call me? Yeah, okay, so this is a brief period of time. Yeah,

Tiffany Riley  1:00:41  
okay, yeah. It was just like, within a few months, I think, okay. But even still, up until December, I was saying I will never switch brokerages again, because I had already done it a few years prior. And it was not, not a nightmare, but it was just a lot of work. You know, it's, it's a lot to change all of your size, to change, to switch everything over. So it's a lot of work, and it's scary, you know, because that wasn't a successful outcome for me. So I did end up going back to Watson, so to do that again and not know, you know, the unknown was terrifying. So yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:16  
I want to finish that, because you're giving me another question. Go ahead.

Tiffany Riley  1:01:19  
So then I met with John, and you know, we just kind of talked about everything that momentum offers, and I told him what my goals are. And it just seemed like a really good fit. So I said, Okay,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:36  
what are some of the things that he said? And this can go for anyone talking to any brokerage or something, these are the things, you know, I think you've picked up on, you know, at this point, you've been in the business at, you know, six, seven years, right? I mean, well, you just went over them, yeah, eight years now, but you have eight years under your belt. What was some of the things that he said that maybe Corey actually didn't even mention, but just like, clicked. Like, yeah, I need to go over here and be part of this.

Tiffany Riley  1:02:06  
Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely, I'm making more, you know, with split wise, with momentum, is that always important? It is not always important. Because sometimes they're, you know, and I think it's very common for 100% brokerages, you know, they most likely don't offer a lot, so the fact that momentum has such a great split, and they cap and they offer everything that they do was just huge to me. I mean, I don't know of another brokerage like it, so that was really big.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:38  
So the money structure, plus, yeah, you like that? Yeah. I mean, not say anyone can offer, obviously, that. I think the 100% brokerages, they're dealing off, you know, the the broker fee, but they're dealing they want, they want to be like Florida homes with a lot of agents, right? So the keep their training module stuff, there's, that's, you can make that a fixed cost. So if you have so many 1000s of agents, you don't have to take, you know, as much commission to offer that little bit of thing there. That, obviously, is how, I always wonder, how some of them operate, right? You know, in function because, because of the there is a lot of stuff that the agent doesn't necessarily deal with on the on, you know, insurance is one, you know, and that kind of stuff. Alright, so got a plus on commission structure. What else

Tiffany Riley  1:03:27  
but? And I was also gonna say too. I mean, commission structure is not always the most important thing, because if you don't know how to generate the lease in the business, you're not, you're still not gonna make 100% of nothing, exactly. So, yeah. So also having the training and the guidance is also very important, especially if you're a newer agent, but they have investment opportunities, which I love, you know, and they have, I think now we're over 160 agents, but there's newer agents, and then there's also success. You know, I forget what they're called, but you know, they're the more successful ones. And there's a name for them, though, but I don't remember.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:09  
Let me just your there's two things here that are the training and investment that she said, if there's one thing that is a commonality between a lot of people ask, Why do you like your brokerage, right? Oh, they offer great training. What does that really mean to you? Who's on the street every day? Yeah. So is it what they're offering, how they're offering it? How does that well, that's the thing,

Tiffany Riley  1:04:37  
because some brokerages, you know, they can say they have great training, is just online stuff that you have to kind of go into and find it yourself, even though you know it's there and it's good. But what I like about momentum is they have training on so many different things, so not just real estate, but also investing. I mean, we had a health coach, come on too, you know? I mean, it's basically like every aspect of your life. Life. So it's just that I really like that too.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:05  
Well what it sounds so the investing part of the second part of the question, you may be an agent out there and agree or disagree with me, but you may be an agent out there like, well, you know, I'm just good the way I am. I'm not looking into investment. But does it not intrigue you the fact that your broker is out there, up front that's offering and expanding your vision of real estate on on a larger scale? Yeah, I think a lot of agents get stuck in the, you know, with their blinders on. And, you know, I think it's important you are, do you invest? Are you buying real estate? Are you, you know, do you flip palaces? Do you have an Airbnb? Whatever it is that you like to do, and let's say, recommend do all those things maybe you do. But you know, if you have a you do you have a rental property or two, or at least building up and trying to get there, right? You know? Because, you know, one thing I've noticed in 18 years of from the loan side is I've had agents come to me like they don't even know how to talk to a potential buyer of an investment property, you know. Like, Oh, this guy wants to buy investment properties, and they like, panic, right? You know, yeah, how? You know, I mean, did that even in just, I mean, when he said that and all, because I he puts a lot of it on social media, what he's doing, which he should, yeah, because he wants to attract other agents and so forth, which might be, you know, obviously, some of the things that you saw, but that they are, you know, pushing the envelope as far as a mortgage broker in town right now.

Tiffany Riley  1:06:40  
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, and that was something he recently said to us too. He said, You know, he's challenging everybody to do one flip this year. Oh, so, wow. Yeah, that's a lot, yeah, 160 agents, yeah. I mean, not that everybody will do no, no. I mean, some people just aren't into it, you know. And that's totally fine.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:01  
Well, you got to find that. I mean, you got to come upon the right gem too. I mean, not, you know, there might be dilapidated properties, but it ain't selling for the right price, or won't sell for the right price. I mean, you ain't gonna make any money. There's no sense of pulling your hair out, because that's what you will do on a flip, yeah, especially your first one, yeah.

Tiffany Riley  1:07:18  
But I'm excited to learn about it, because I don't have a lot of experience on that side of things.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:24  
So I mean, the some of the top agents that I've had on obviously, you know, take themselves to another level. Some like Jordan Faria, she does it on a regular basis. There were other others at Mercedes, St George, obviously, was with the yellow bird, or whatever they were flipping. That's how she got in the business. Was learning, working for them, and then building up the action. Then became, you know, became a real estate agent in that process. You know, I'm sure John is putting together, because he's so forward thinking in a lot of things that, you know, the key component is having the right people, you know, the right contractors. You know, you can go in there and you your job is to find the house after you find it. Now, you got to get somebody come in here and give you some dollar values and so forth. But is this not even if you never flipped the house, knowing that your broker is forward thinking like that, that you walk into a house where you might be listening like, hey, we need some repairs done. We got people on speed dial, yes, yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, I'm sure you've experienced it nine years, trying to get a contractor to come in and do some work. Yes, you know, it's Florida, if they show up, that's the great, yeah,

Tiffany Riley  1:08:35  
had my, you know, list of vendors, right? But over nine years, that's it changes, yeah, you know, on a regular basis, because they either just stop or, you know, I can't reach them anymore,

Tracy Hayes  1:08:47  
yeah, so, 100% Well, well, I mean, in realization, their lives change. Yeah, you know, whatever goes on, they move out of the area. Or, you know, you know, I know, 2008 killed a lot of skilled craftsmen and building houses, because the housing industry went to zero. Yeah, so they all had to find something else to do. So that's why we're short on having great, skilled people in that area, yeah, which? Which opens up opportunity going back nine years to where to know what you know now, if you you know again, went back nine years. But know what you know now? Yeah, what? What do you think would be one or two things that you would do before even getting your license? Ooh, before getting my license, or in that process, before actually stepping out on the street? I

Tiffany Riley  1:09:33  
would probably interview people a little bit more than I did, and just kind of learn more of like, actually what's happening on the streets, you know,

Tracy Hayes  1:09:43  
well, I mean, when you had the conversation with John, you know, nine years ago, you probably would have just listened more to him, doing some talking, yeah, but I would imagine that because you have nine years of experience, trials and tribulations. And second. Some success. There were, you had some more in depth questions for him as a broker,

Tiffany Riley  1:10:06  
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said, my biggest thing was he's not action broker, Britney. Britney is the broker, yeah, yeah. She's amazing, yeah, yeah. And I really look up to them for all of their success. You know, when they were selling and everything. It's just mind blowing. What they accomplished

Tracy Hayes  1:10:25  
because you, because of the knowledge you you had some some questions, and actually, I wrote it down here, and I didn't ask. I'm gonna, we'll finish with this question. Doing this all time, making a change from a brokerage. You've, you've done it a couple times. Yeah, you said it was, you know, changing the signs and everything, but in your path and your your real estate career path. Now, the jury's still out on the momentum move right now, maybe, maybe next year, we'll regroup and talk about what was your first year at momentum like, Yeah, but would making, you know, those you know, changing the signs, changing your logo, should it hold you back to meteorocritity versus, you know, obviously you make the change because you feel you're going

Tiffany Riley  1:11:15  
to move forward, right? Yeah, no. And honestly, to switch over, it was the biggest pain in the butt for me, because everything, like little that could have gone wrong, went wrong, like I ordered my new for sale signs with this QR code through my old CRM, and I didn't realize it cut my QR code off. So my new signs came, my QR code didn't work. So then I had to go and order stickers for a new QR code to put on there. And then my Open House signs came, and one side, the arrows were going one way, the other side of reorder my Open House signs, you know, then my business cards came. I didn't like the way they looked. The paper wasn't good, so I'd reorder my business cards. So it wasn't it was just a lot of little bumps. I mean, nothing major, but, you know, it was time consuming. And then my CRM, I thought that I had everything exported, and all of my past clients were not in there. I had everybody but them. So I took me weeks to accumulate all that information. I had to go back through my emails, find their emails. Might go in my phone, find their phone number, put everything back in. So it took some time, you know, probably a little more time than it should have to switch over. But, I mean,

Tracy Hayes  1:12:22  
we learned a couple things there, right? Yes, if you're using the brokerages CRM, you may want to have your your backup personally, which I know, yeah, one officer in time, he said that, and I wish I kept, I mean, the 1000s of people I did loans for in a call center, because it's volume based, yeah. I mean, they have a backup system in case you change over, yeah? So you you don't want to just bank totally on it, because they shut you off. You're off. Yeah? Everything's gone, yeah. So we learned that, yeah. What the artwork and everything on the signs? Do you recommend the QR code on the

Tiffany Riley  1:12:59  
sign? But I will say Britta and John did make it pretty simple. They have somebody that makes all of their signs and everything and marketing, so it was pretty easy. I just had to put my contact information in. So it was pretty much done for me. How important

Tracy Hayes  1:13:12  
is when you're working with a brokerage, like things like that that are just more or less turnkey? Yeah, I go. Here's a couple options on your business card. Which one do you want, versus trying to create a whole new wheel,

Tiffany Riley  1:13:23  
yes, yeah, yeah. I think, I mean, it's huge, especially if you're, you know, not a brand new agent. You don't have ton of time on your hands.

Tracy Hayes  1:13:29  
Well, you know, it's part, part of that thing that I talk about. It's adding value to it. Someone wants to transition over. Number one thing is what you just talked about, oh, last time, or, you know, you know, I don't want to deal. I got to change all, you know, no, just plug into the system, yeah, and go, Yeah. Here's a couple different options. These are the three most popular business card styles. We go because, in reality, we, I mean, the business card, yeah, it should look good, yeah, but it's, it's not a make or breaker, you know, no.

Tiffany Riley  1:14:01  
And now a lot of people are using the digital business card too, yeah, which I personally like that better, you know, then you can get the other person's contact info. I have

Tracy Hayes  1:14:09  
more contacts in my phone from people who just sent me from the Hey. Share contact from their phone and share it over to you. Boom, boom. Now that person's information and never taking it off a business card. Yeah, yeah. 100% Tiffany, I appreciate you coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. I think we created some great content today, and everyone got to learn a little bit about you. We got some great cutouts for John and Brittany for some highlight reels, as we did last week with Hannah and Carlos. As Carlos is very passionate about momentum, yeah, but I, you know, having both of them on the show, you know, I know what you're you know, a little bit about what you experience in me. I just, I just think, they're, they're amazing people in in again, the energy that's coming from them and their force and and continue to grow, yes, as a brokerage, but hopefully you're going to have, oh, I know you're going to have a very successful 24 for you. So appreciate

Tiffany Riley  1:14:57  
you coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. You.

Podcast Intro  1:15:00  
Tracy, this may be it for today's episode of Real Estate excellence, but we both know your pursuit of excellence doesn't stop here, to connect with the best of the best and really take your skills to the next level. Join our community by visiting Tracy Hayes podcast.com where you'll meet more like minded individuals looking to expand their inner circle and their personal experience that's available at Tracy Hayes podcast.com