The One Mindset Shift That Changes Every Relationship

Welcome back to another episode of the Roots Podcast. I'm Max Moore, joined by my co-host Tyler Lingal. And today we have a mini episode, boys Only, whatever you want to call it, talking about our conversation with Jason O'Neal. We just posted the podcast last week. If you haven't watched that, you definitely should. Uh there was a ton of key learnings in it. And I want to pick Tyler's brain. We just talked to him. You know, he's just in the room sitting where you were. What is the number one thing going back into the business world stepping out of this room that you're going to implement post conversation with Jason? I honestly think it's pausing to have margin to think about your thinking, but more importantly think about the experience. You want your leads, customers, the person right in front of you that you're trying to demonstrate some value exchange to. Yeah. to not just go straight into it with a million things on your mind, just exiting off the email app, but rather pausing, whether it's the car ride there or at the curb and the sidewalk outside, taking a breath to think about what is it you're truly trying to have them express so you have more understanding to give them that clarity. The number one thing that I want you to hold me accountable to is if you ever watch me walk into any type of connection and my head's down. I'm looking at my phone, snatch my freaking phone out of my hand. I'm going to be snatching a lot and throw it in my backpack and say like it'll be there when you get down. Well, I can tell sometimes it takes you a second to warm up in a conversation because you're probably still processing. We all are. What? Yeah. I'm not saying just you, but like we're still like you missed the whole first 45 seconds of the encounter because you're like, "Oh yeah, that appraiser. I got to respond to them later. I got to make a note in my journal." You just missed the welcome the most important like the and it might not be because your head's still down typing. It's literally because the there is always going to be a problem on the device. And he talked about like that's bringing your backstage with you. That's bringing the the problems. He actually went as far as he's like, "Don't even look at the phone. Don't answer." Like, "How often are you taking calls and going into a listing appointment, right? You're like, I gotta wrap up this to go to this showing like I gota get off the line to get to this showing and and go run in the door." He was like, "Listen to some hype up music and come in clear eyed and confident to to the picture." Uh that was a huge huge takeaway for me. What's the what did you think about when he was talking through this like appreciation model? Where was your mind going? uh value exchanged like appreciation is something becoming more valuable. It also can be showing somebody appreciation. He's like you should couple those. The more appreciation that you show to a client, the more valuable that client kind of becomes in a way because they the relationship becomes more valuable. It grows over time. I think is the the like gratitude input to output. What were you grappling with from that? Um, I think I was still in shock how he just like used the double meaning of appreciation, right? I would actually reverse that question. It seems like it spoke a lot to you. I've just seen it play out in in business. Uh, like having the habit of writing two to three note cards a day, putting that gratitude pen to paper and stuffing it in the mailbox and shipping it on on its way. That's earned me more referrals than like I used to pay for Zillow leads. I've I've earned more from writing on a $2 note card plus the stamp in a day than like thousands that had to go to Zillow. Yeah. I think the most important thing here is the I was genuinely thinking about you and I took part of my busy day and devoted it to thinking about Billy or Bob, whatever. like I I was genuinely putting you front and center in my life and taking the time. And I think that Jason is a is a master at doing that. And the front of the stage, the back of the stage, he he shows up like he's Post Malone and his whole thing is like Post Malone isn't worrying about the lights, the cameras, the recording, the how the stage got Yeah. Right. Right. He's showing up in one mind of performance and giving them a great experience. The thing he's doing that digging in is knowing what that back end is. Yeah, we didn't even talk about that. Like we did not ask the question of like what does your administrative staff look like because I think that's and I think it's just tilted towards having an excellent front end. The the front end experience dictates the back end. But he did say it was all through experiences, right? So he showed up to a listing presentation, didn't have his stuff printed the way it, you know, there was a comma missing and so now it's like this assistant knows you got to double check the spreadsheet. Right. Right. all that evolving over time. He runs really skinny and it might just be him. Might just be him. I I don't take it to that perspective because I was like, well, so Jason is a um Jason is more of an artist, not so much of a business tycoon running at scale. He's not running at scale. He has a boutique brokerage of 15 individuals. And he told me he doesn't even do that much training of the 15. It's just people that want to rub shoulders with him. Mhm. He's not even like getting into the trenches with those 15 to say, "Here's how you got to do business, buddy." He's just like, "You want to be around me in my system?" Great. But what I love about that is he is a purely a craftsman when it comes to real estate. Just like a craftsman has to cut the right uh piece of wood for that beautiful archway u of which they've custom cut like 10 pieces together or something. Um, I don't even know that's accurate in carpeting terms, but he's doing that when it comes to putting together a listing presentation to have both people part ways and to have the client walk away with the three C's. Clarity, commitment, or clarity, confidence, and commitment having been felt, which is very hard most of the time. Most appointments, you don't hit all three. But he's showing up like a craftsman with his s his saw and his sander and his paintbrush, right? To to just dial that in. And so he can't do that scale. Show up, right? You show up and you do that skill. It's a high pay per, but you also have I guess what I'm describing is there are trade-offs. Like there's a reason he doesn't have a brokerage with 2,000 people, right? Like he's so focused on that like interchange between him and his client. He said it's easier to niche down than than to scale up and to go wide in the industry. Uh because I I would anticipate he appreciated that we didn't ask how do we break into luxury. We didn't ask that question because I'm not going to ask that question. I understand it's a relationships game especially in Indianapolis. We're what? Two phone call city whatever the saying is. You can sell whoever's house that you want to. Mhm. You don't have to spend all your days on marketing. And he chatted about that. What are your thoughts? How how much money do you think that guy spends a year on on actually marketing himself? On marketing himself? I think he's um spending a lot of money on marketing properties, spending a healthy amount on himself. Nothing. Yeah. I think he's he's paying for some meals with people and some gifts that he brings to the doorstep. Right. Um but yeah, not it's all about the clients. Not a postcard. I'm Jason O'Neal. Right. Right. Right. Like nothing. And and that's what I think I took away the most is like and we got this from Dave Short with the flipping like he's not spending money on like hey I'm trying to flip. Send me your deals. He's putting coins in the piggy bank of people. Yeah. Um at scale. If any he's doing anything at scale it's managing relationships, right? Managing relationships. He said uh he shows up to be helpful. He focuses more of his energy on selling the mark than marketing the property to a sense how how am I going to actually get the job done for you not what flashy crap am I going to bring in like those are going to come no matter what right it's on autopilot that was uh unique and interesting what did you take away from the discussion on him as a luxury listing agent and how the differences there between that and someone who's just listing their $500,000 second home or whatever. It's a run-of-the-mill property. Yeah. I love the fact that he's he brings the same thing to the 500k house. Uh because it's a lot easier. He said it. It's easier when you have the $5 million marketing package that you can grab and take to the 500k. It's a lot harder to go the opposite way. It's a lot harder. I've I've found myself grappling before where I just got done selling the 98k Burr downtown and I'm turning the corner to drive north and go sell the, you know, house in Fisers for 500K and I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] I don't have a listing presentation. I just have my like my mouth. That's it. I need to go make that. Uh I don't have this print brochure. I need to go print that. like I need to go put the things together because I don't have to do that for the 98k burr, right? It's I just have a buyer in my back pocket and I bring them. Um I thought that was unique and a good uh focus point because he's niche down to scale up. It not only attracts, he talked about the Mercedes and the cars and like selling the most expensive Mercedes, not actually what they do. They sell the lower-end Mercedes more often. So having a $5 million listing isn't about selling the $5 million listing, per se. Well, it reminds me of the Alexi thing of like have that uh super high platinum uh deal. It's like you have your silver, gold, platinum, and it's like he just wants to sell the gold right in the middle of the one, but it's like this one we're going to fly fly out. We're going to bring a team of people and going to do all this specialty. And it's like this is a million dollar package or whatever the I don't even know how much it is, right? No one's ever going to buy it, right? It's the same thing. And for you and I, I think that that's the reflection point of like we don't really have that. Yeah. We spend too much time, brother, selling the the bronze package, right? We're like specialty in the bronze package and we're like ah culmination of 45 listings this month. This is what I heard. He said a high producers more than 15 transactions uh a year. I did 70 last year. Right. There's a problem, right? You might it would be possibly better if we just did the 15 and the Yeah, you probably I did, right? Is the ironic part, right? I don't know. Uh I think from a a business perspective, he has it a great head on his shoulders to be in that front stage, be present, and be mindful. Too often we get wrapped up in what are the task and and what is the urgency and lightening the load is something that he is a master at. I would say that is his craft. He's been able to lighten the load completely. Uh and he's laser focused in the draft. Yeah. Simplicity was what was what I got out of from it. Yeah. Just like it's much more simple than we make it. Um and what's ironic is it's like the duck who's like calm on the surface but then underneath they're paddling real hard. It's actually, it looks really simple because he's done the work through the sheer volume of effort and trials and failures of many decades before to now, wow, he shows up and he just says words and it's like lightning. It's just like, wo, that was like really well put. Um, but really it's the duck piling under the surface with him. Um, I think, well, the secret there. I'm going to go paddle my little fins as hard as I can so that I can be smooth like Tyler. This has been another episode of the roots podcast. Like and subscribe. Peace.