Build Beyond Yourself with Josh Wilton | Episode 137

Why practice makes permanent? Well, I think first off, that was from Jim Wood, who was my sixth grade swim coach. Yeah. Jim might have borrowed it from he might have stolen it from somebody. Well, Lombardi. Think about Lombardy. I don't think those guys ran a lot of plays, right? They ran like five plays and they just ran them to the point of perfection. Everybody knew what play they were going to run, and they still couldn't stop it. Right. That was the legend of that Green Bay Packer offense. Brokers, team leaders, agents lose sight of the fact the fundamentals got you here, and the fundamentals are going to get you there.

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Right here, guys, reach out to John Sachs and his team at Property Management Redefine. Take good care of you. And I'm Sean Mooney. Today, Sean, we got a boy from Joycey. We have our friend Josh Wilton, the founder of Queenston Realty and the Wilton Group. How are you doing today, Josh? I'm good, gentlemen. Welcome to joining us. Thank you. Long time coming. I know. All right. So Josh has been practicing within the Greater Princeton area for over 20 years. He has led a team that has sold billions in home sales, built on a foundation of data-driven strategies and a relentless focus on numbers. Despite the level of volume he has closed and the success that comes with it, he has never lost sight of the most important part of the deal, the client and their experience. Josh hosts a hyperlocal podcast called The Wilton Report and has been potting out since 2023, now with over a hundred episodes. He's a Virgo and a middle child. Hi, DC on the disc chart. I'm not a disc expert, but D is dominance and C is conscientious. Is that is that correct? Conscientious analytic, yeah. Okay. Let's let's start with that. Why why even take a disc test? Like what why do you find that to be helpful?

So I was introduced to disc as a methodology for coaching. Oh uh I'm gonna say about 10 years ago. Wow. And um what they did at the time, I was in leadership at a different brokerage, and they took the management team and we all had to do our assessments going into the meeting. So we came in and it was done. We hadn't seen it yet. And the administrator of it organized all the managers by their by their disc, right? And you know, the the there was only two of us that were D's in the corner. And he said, Josh, just kind of keep going. Huh? You know, just keep keep going out of the corner. And like, here he goes, No, no, no, no, keep going. And eventually I was all the way by myself, like way out in the corner. D yeah, like way out in the corner. And it was kind of like, you know, you're like somewhat embarrassed because you don't really know what it is. And then he he plotted it, right? And he put all your characteristics up there. And at that point I realized the traditional brokerage model coaches everyone to everything versus everyone to what they're naturally good at. The disc, all it does, like if you if you're in sales and you have taken it, you should, or if you're in sales leadership, you should and make your people take it. But it as a coach, if you're a high if you're coaching a high D, don't have that person behind a desk answering the phone. Like they'll put their head through the wall within about two hours. Have them out knocking on doors. If they're an S, they're gonna be the best inbound lead converter you've ever seen, with you know, proper coaching on scripts and stuff like that. So as a coach, as a leader, it allows you to look at your team and go, okay, we're gonna position you here on this lead pillar and we're gonna position you here on the script. And so it allows people to play their best game. It allows you to coach people to their best game.

We actually all right, so we are going to do this on this show. We are going to do it. I swear. Yeah, we should. We are and we're gonna have like envelopes and we're gonna guess.

And you're gonna have your Karnak, your hat, your your little Johnny Carson genie hat. Um Sean's a C.

But what uh Bet everyone a dollar. We'll have a we'll have a betting board, you know. We'll take some bets. We'll take some bets. We'll make it an interactive show.

Bet that Sean's a C. C.

Um But what uh what this brought me to is we just did an episode that we released, and it was why sales coaches um and and mentors just came out on Tuesday. Give everyone the same program as to like, hey, just do this and you'll be successful, right? So most people don't bother to get to know the subject and what their traits are or what could potentially make them successful or where they would thrive, and think that that blueprint that they're gonna give is gonna be applicable to everybody. Right. So I think it's I think it's from your position and what you're saying is very important, know how they're wired, and then develop that program for what's best best suited for them. Yeah, and it helps you hire more effectively, right?

So like if you're hiring, you know, a bookkeeper or an accountant, obviously you want a high C. You want somebody who's good with numbers and comfortable spreadsheets. And you know, if you're hiring a salesperson, high eyes are great, right? Because they're outgoing and they're you know, they're not afraid. So that's me. You're definitely high I. And uh Bet that too. And um so get it on the board. Yeah. So it just allows you to sort of like when you're looking and you're interviewing talent or you're coaching people to your point, like, why would I coach somebody who's afraid of door knocking to door knock? They're gonna fail. Like, why would you coach somebody to fail? Whereas a high D, like, why would I coach them to sit behind a desk and answer the phones? They're literally gonna run away. Like, I actually ran away from preschool as a little kid twice, and then they expelled me. I my dad was just talking about this. I swear to God.

Oh, you and Mooney are so alive.

Yes, yeah, didn't have that one on the bingo card, but yeah, very similar.

Yeah, like he's like, I I didn't bloss he didn't blossom until fourth grade. Uh yeah, I was a little later than that. But yeah, literally I got expelled from preschool because I ran away.

Oh my god.

Yeah, because I just wouldn't take naps. Better than biting. Well, yeah. I just went out the front window.

So so this really brings us into the next question. So, and this this one I love. So you start an independent brokerage from scratch, but you've also built some other companies. You've built some property management. We were just talking about that before the show started a development team, a consulting company. But let's stick with the brokerage. So, first of all, it's a massive undertaking. Yeah. You came from the corporate world of real estate prior to building your own brokerage. Why like why independent? Was that part of it? Or yeah, why'd you decide to like do it non-traditional?

So I was with one company for a long time, Shall Be Nameless, and um They Who Shall Not Be Named, right? And uh the day before Thanksgiving in 2020, I got fired after 20 whatever years. And I you know, I can't really say it was for cause, it was more just like personality difference with someone who was above me. So that happened, and then it's sort of like you you we looked at it from the perspective of we didn't want to put ourselves in a position of having anybody do that to us again. Right? Because it happened, you know, they fired me and then one of my business partners, she got wind of it, she quit, my other business partner, she got wind of it, she quit. Wow. And that's sort of how like we came to be because people were just kind of peeling out of this firm.

And um Were they thinking that they would be next? Like what or they No, it wasn't that.

It just they just it caused them to lose belief in the direction of the company.

Yep. Right. Yeah. Relationships they probably had an amazing relationship with you. Yeah. They fired you because of personality stuff, which is bullshit. Yeah. And then they're like, oh, we're gonna go with Josh.

Yeah.

So the it wasn't even we're gonna go together, there was nowhere to go. Oh, yeah. It was just sort of like now what? Now what? Yeah. And so when we went independent, or we decided to go independent versus like, you know, whatever. It was just, I think it was like, you know, trauma bonding. It was like we didn't want anybody to have control of us, we didn't want to sign a franchise agreement. We had a specific model in mind that we wanted to curate. So we didn't it was kind of like we didn't want to be told what to do, and we didn't want somebody above us who unfortunately didn't know what they were doing. You know what I mean? Whether it's in a franchise world or whatever. So we just we just went boutique.

That's actually uh I've referenced this on the show before. Um, one that there's markers in your life that you kind of hold and then they kind of chart your path down the road. And I'll never forget my dad was a sales guy for a national company, and he was with Shout out to Tom Mooney. Yeah. Um, he was with them 14 years, like exceptional sales guy, always, you know, delivering, always highest marks, all the national awards. And literally one day in the mail, he got a letter. Your position is being removed. In the mail. In the mail. Class. And so that is something that has always stayed with me, where I'm like, I never want to get a letter. Yeah.

I never want to put anybody in the position where they can do that.

Right.

Yeah.

So as you know, my career is going and getting going, and I'm starting to formulate what am I gonna do? How am I gonna do it? Top of my like like very top, it's like, all right, well, it's gonna be mine, and I'm not going to just be underneath someone that one day they just hand me a letter. You know? So it's kind of you know, similar.

Uh it's funny, like it didn't even happen to you, but it defined your path, right? Like that's like immensely. It did happen to me and it defined my path.

Well, that day where it's like my family is now like this atomic bomb is dropped, and we're like, oh my gosh, like what are what are we gonna do? What like my dad doesn't have a job?

Like beyond stressful, yeah.

That you know just resonates. Yeah.

All right. So you tortured yourself enough by starting a brokers from scratch. That's that's not an easy thing to do. Not only that, but you've grown it to an amazing level of success. So congratulations. Why property management? Like, why torture yourself? We just had John Sachs is a sponsor of the show. Shout out to Johnny Sachs, property management redefine. And he was just saying, like, it's like the most thankless job. It's you know, you only get calls when you're in trouble.

Yeah, but even one better, when he's starting like day one, he goes into this uh real estate uh meeting, and Alan Dom says to him, like, hey kid, you're starting a property. What are you nuts? Shout out to Alan Dom. Why are you Philly Legends? So that that just to kind of reference that.

Why why put that on top of it? It's another layer of responsibility, it's another big business to grow. Yeah, so true story, right? Mr. D.

This lady, this lady who was a broker in town, she ran a like a very small boutique, singular operator, owner operator, and she had a property management portfolio and she was retiring. She literally walked indoors and said interesting. I don't think I heard this story. Yeah, she said to Ingle and I, one of my partners, I want you and you know, Josh to take over my property management business and like you know, buy from me. And I said, Absolutely not. Like, multi-million dollar real estate. I don't need rentals. I like A, I don't know anything about it. B, I have like we have so much going on. We just started a company. You know? Yeah, like I don't need to time. Timing couldn't be worse. Timing could be better, worse, whatever. And then Ingla goes, we'll take it. And I'm like, What the who? Oh my god. Because she's fearless. Like, she's fearless. And she will tell you, like, very in a very devout, she tells you, fear comes from the devil. Like it's a bad, don't listen to fear, do the opposite. So, you know, there we were. And you know, we were promised a book of like 68 doors, and we ended up with a net 38. Oh boy. Did you pay for 68? Different story. Conversation for another lunch. All right. We continue. Well, that'll be episode two. But needless to say, like, there was a day I was like, I was sitting at my desk just because like, you know, Ingela's like, we'll take it. And then she's like, all right, good luck, you know. And she went back to selling real estate, which is what she does really well. She's a you know, $80 million solo producer.

Wow.

So I was literally, I had one day I was just sitting at my desk like this, like, oh my god. I had people coming in at the end of the month with cash, bags of cash.

Oh my god.

Uh we inherited a platform where it was wasn't digital, right? Oh god. Vendors were going out unlicensed and uninsured. It was really like it was there was a point where I'm like, blank this. Right. I don't need this. You can say that if you want. Fuck this. Yep. I don't need this. And um I don't know. And I just kind of like I just pushed it to the side of my desk and I focused on something else. And I came back the next day, I'm like, you know what? I can figure this out. And we just I made some personnel moves, I put somebody in charge of that business, put them on a salary, and then we just signed on a path to growth. And we're just about to, you know, a two years later he clips 200 doors.

That's that's yeah, it's unbelievable. So you know, to give a sense of like just your brokerage, like you know, how many agents are working for your independent brokerage? So we have 30 associates. Yeah. And you guys have done hundreds of millions in volume. That's we'll do like 350 to 450 a year.

That's unbelievable.

But you're also dealing with a higher price point. Correct. So when you're in Princeton, or let's call it Princeton, Greater Princeton. Um Junction next door. But yeah. It's not uh it's not a cheap place to live. No. Were you always in kind of like the luxury space with your previous employer or as an agent? Did you get into that when you started independent? Like how'd that come to be?

So I managed in Princeton for a long time. Uh as an agent when I started, like at most agents, you know, a million years ago, my average price point was probably 150, you know. And uh moved to Princeton. Princeton just is a naturally uh more expensive town. It's gotten exponentially more so. So people are out to saying, oh my god, your average sell price is over a million bucks, which is true, but there's only fifty-nine houses for sale in Princeton today. Like if you're in the Philly Metro, you have what, a thousand? Yeah. So it forces you to be like you said earlier, you have to focus on the math. You have to focus on the numbers, you have to have a very curated specific customer process that you do not deviate from. Every single customer, every single time goes through this process. Otherwise, they will fail when it comes time to make a bid. Like they won't get it. So, you know, everyone's like, oh, you're so lucky. I'm like, you know, choose your heart. Yeah.

You know, that that's that's I sales are not easy. Personalities and a lot of people.

And the personalities, uh, you know, for us it's just the scarcity. Like there's just not a lot of it. Yeah. You know, just not a lot of home.

What is the process? Uh did you develop it? Was it something that just kind of came over time? Like if you're selling something very specific to a very specific clientele, how did you develop that process and what were some of the things that you know you needed to hit on?

That's a good question. So I you know, I think the buyer consultation, like talking about the buyer side, right? So the buyer consultation process is not new. Right. I was listening to a Tom Ferry podcast on the way here. He was talking about the buyer consultation, right?

Everybody relatively new nationally speaking, ever since the NAR thing, but prior to that I don't know.

I think like I think people practice it, but maybe not with the diligence which they're doing now. Um, but I always believed in it. Like you're taking somebody on a path to buy 100, 200, 300, a million, two million dollar home. You need to explain the process, your process, their obligations, your like it's a business relationship. Yeah, you know. So we focus heavily borderline maniacally on that. So, and a big part of that is the numbers. Like, look the market doesn't care what you think it's worth. These are the metrics that determine the market. There's case studies of houses similar to yours. So by the time they're done with the meeting, it's a true business meeting. They know the process, they know what's expected of them, they know what's expected of us, and they know at least on a baseline level, how to start evaluating real estate strategically. But I think, you know, when you when you look at it, uh we we were just hired by a buyer, right? He we interviewed we did the consult presentation, the consultation with him. He's about a two million dollar buyer relocating from California. I've been working with another broker for six months to a year, right? And uh went to see a house because he you know hadn't quite made the decision to fire that person and asked them about the escalation clause to ask them about the data points, and they they couldn't formulate a coherent answer. So he said, You're fired. Called uh called us up and said, I'm working with you too.

Nice and because it was so clearly defined, uh Yes or no?

Yes or no. They couldn't form they literally couldn't formulate an answer. Whereas we know because it's literally that's all we focus on. Not all, but a big part of what we focus on.

But it makes the relationship better, it makes getting a deal done easier. So for you, it just if you can nail that down, it's it just everything becomes easier.

I think it's you know, like literally listening to Tom Ferry, you know, it's confidence then process, right? Like literally like whatever pocket whatever episode I was listening to of his today. So for when you're thinking about it from the consumer's perspective, there's only 59 houses on the market. Seven of them are new construction, can't even live in it. Right? Sixty-five percent of it's above two million. They you know, they're selling in two days. There's seven bids. What do I do? What do I need to do?

Yep.

And if you can't visually demonstrate what they need to do, I can, and I'm gonna I'm gonna my consumer will win over yours. Full stop.

Hey everyone, this is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host. But don't tell Sean. I hope you're enjoying this episode, and I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth, so if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're on, that would be fantastic. Please also help spread the BR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend. We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show. So with your with your brokerage, you are a practicing agent. You have a team within your own brokerage. Correct. What's the argument for never stop practicing or like being involved with your clients? Because we just had someone on. We had John Campbell on. He's literally traveling in a rehab school bus all over the country with his family, homeschooling their kids. He runs a team in Pennsylvania that does 300 units a year. And he's, you know, he's obviously not practicing. He's not even in Pennsylvania. Like he's driving all over the place. So, like when you went out to start your brokerage, and now you're you're years into it, you're about five, five, five years into it. Why keep practicing? Why not pass off the leads to other agents and say, like, I'll I'll work uh, you know, on my business, not in my business? Like, what's the argument to like keep working in your business?

So, from the brokerage perspective, we keep very little. Like, you know, we're if agents ever woke up to the fact that they're the creators of their business and not their broker, every traditional brokerage would go out. Business like that. If agents ever woke up to that fact, yeah, that industry shifts overnight. So, but again, the big broker just sell the agents, I'm gonna give you this and I'm gonna give you this and I'm gonna give you this, and they're like, wow, this is so great. Meanwhile, they don't even know what they're talking about because it doesn't register with their disc, but they're overwhelmed by the the pageantry of it. And then, you know, you know, maybe as a new agent you can get open houses or, you know, on a team or whatever. But um, if that ever happened, if agents ever woke up that they don't need to pay a franchise fee and they don't need to give away, you know, a third to half of their money to the broker, that'd be interesting. So we are of the belief that you are the creator of your business, you should keep pretty much all of it, right? So we don't keep a lot on the brokerage side, like it we run it very lean. Secondly, on the team, you know, we're a pretty nascent team. We're young, right? We're three years old, three and a half years old. Um we'll do about 100 million this year, you know. Umbelievable. But for us to get, you know, for me to get to that point, it would have to be, you know, 150 to 200, which we'll be at in two years. So we'll make those decisions then. But I do give a lot of leads off, you know. I I somebody left me a message yesterday morning. I went to their house because they want to sell their house. And I said, by the way, like I because I texted them, I called them, texted them, confirmed the appointment on text, and just went to the house.

Yeah.

And then I sat down at the kitchen table, and they're like, Yeah, and I said, How'd you hear about us? Because, you know, we're our boutique or whatever. And he goes, Oh, well, my loan officer told me to call so-and-so at the firm. It was one of our agents, and I'm like, Oh my God. So I did a quick buyer consultation, quick seller presentation, got in the car, called our agent, and said, Hey, by the way, you have a listing in a sale. It's yours, not mine. I just gotta we gotta figure out how to hand this off to you.

I just juiced it up for you.

Basically, you're good to go. She's taking it today's Thursday, she's going out with them tomorrow. Yeah, like to sort of like do that transition and that handoff.

Yeah, so obviously there's there's a respect with your agents. It's like, hey, it's like just because I'm here and I'm doing this right now, this this is your transaction. You know, I'm I'm here to make it.

100%. But we also like anything I figure out that works, they get. And I'm you know, dogmatically curious, right? Like crazy curious. So last year I went to Baltimore and I wrote a check for 12,000 bucks for one day of coaching. Wow. Right? And best thing I ever did. The next set team meeting, which we do once a month for the brokerage, they got the whole playbook. And the brokerage didn't write the check. I wrote the check. Yep. You know what I mean? So when I took his listing presentation, which I basically bought, repurposed it for our company, wow, they got to have it. You know what I mean? So it's not like I'm hanging on to a thread, don't tell the team. Right. You know, like like here it is. Abundance here.

Here we have it. Here you are.

Yeah, and that's that's it's true, like scarcity versus abundance mindset, right? Like more is more. So why would you work for a small boutique whose owner competes with you? Well, just make sure that they give you their playbook, which we we literally give our playbook away. So, Ingle, who's one of my partners, she's an $80 million solo producer.

Whoa.

Think about that, right?

Obviously, she's got an assistant, I'm guessing.

One assistant, more or less part-time. Holy cow. She serves as a buyer's agent for her, too, but she's a machine. Like God assembled her to spare real estate part time. Dialed in. Dialed in. Crazy high belief system. Um she repurposed her listing presentation. We gave it to the company. You can have it. I just said, look, there's a lot that I don't know, but I'd take that. Yeah. All day.

You know what I mean? Like it's rising tides.

I mean exactly. You know, it's exactly so. Rather than force things down everybody's throat, it's like we I do it here to the disc. If you're good at this, play this, play this play, just keep refining that play. Don't do something you're gonna fail at. Like don't ice skate a pill because it's not gonna work. Yeah, but anything we if we pull a thread and it works, here you go.

Yeah, you you referenced um that uh the recent uh client you're working with was with another firm for six months or a year. Yeah. Do you find that in your niche market, luxury high-end, that that happens a lot? And and is it an easier convert or is it harder to you know engage and and complete that deal?

We are now at this point being sought out by the consumer who would literally come to us and go, look, I'm working with another associate. This is not working. I cannot understand why I'm losing. Like that's I mean, think about it, these people are trying to buy at home. And they have a lot of money to spend. It's it's even if it was 300. Right. Doesn't matter. Like, if it's a hundred, it doesn't matter. Right. You know, they're trying to do that. And you mean like they've lost out on six deals? Bids bids and and it's you know, I don't know, we'll get the next one. That's not a strategy. You have to have a defined strategy. We have a defined strategy. So we just closed a lady uh Tuesday, real super nice lady, had been working with, you know, a casual friend, right? And, you know, I'm not sure even sure how we met her. I think she kind of sought us out. And same thing. We did the consultation, this is how we approach it, this is what we do. If you want to work with us, this is the agreement you sign, this is our methodologies, our pricing strategies, our bid strategy. We go through every mechanism of the process. She was blown away. I hate to say this, fired our agent, hired us. She's been looking for like three years. We got her house in like four months, five months. You know? So I don't know. It's so it's like listen to the Tom Ferry podcast, steal his stuff, put it into place. I think most people will listen to it and go, that won't work for me. Because you know in the blank and they go down that line versus I'm just gonna try and figure this out. We just try when you're a solo operator or you know, mini operator, if you don't figure it out, you got you got a pretty big problem. True. You know?

All right, so you told us you're a routine guy. Yeah. Talk about routine a little bit. Is it morning? Is it night? Is it both? Like, what what's a routine that gets you moving to run a real estate brokerage and a property management company and a development team? Like, what's the routine? A lot of coffee.

Um I you know, I I am a morning person. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. I'm more or less useless after I would even say like seven, eight o'clock.

What what time are you up? Four. Okay.

Yeah.

What are you doing it for? Well, you know, take care of personal stuff and then uh have a cup of coffee and then I meditate. Okay. Every day? Every day.

How long you meditate for?

Today it was like close to 30 minutes.

Damn. Oh, you're doing like TM, like uh transcendental?

Like today was just I did, you know, there's there's a couple I'll do repetitively just because it, you know, puts you mentally in a good space. And then there's a few like, so you know, we just we just bought a building for work, you know, which awesome, man. Congratulations. Financially, I had no business doing, but whatever. Um, you know, like it's like you make these you have these ideas.

Angle wanted the building, so she got the building. I didn't want to do it, but so here we are. And I don't even have to pick out the couch.

Oh my god. And um, yeah, so here we are. Yeah, we bought a building, which again, I had no financial business doing, but we did it. So like literally the last like six weeks was among the more stressful just putting this deal together. So it's like meditation just allows you to have a clear space, you know. And I think, you know, like there's a the Dawkins is an author this guy, David Dawkins, I think his name is, and he's something called an energy scale, right? The top of the scale is like joy, love, enlightenment. The bottom of the scale is like shame, fear. Those are horrible forms of human energy. So it's like in the morning, you just try and go, all right, if I'm feeling fearful, or if I'm feeling here, how do I get, how do I play a better mental game today? And that's that's my morning routine. Then I journal every day.

Okay.

Uh without fail, like religiously journal. And then I'll go to the gym, go for a walk, or I could be at my desk by like this morning. I was there at 6 30.

So pretty much like the first like two, two and a half hours of your day are really focused on you and your well-being. You know, meditation, exercise, get caffeinated, like journal. Like it's it's almost like um prepare yourself to I hate to say it, to go to war. Because Yeah, I wouldn't say war, but yeah, it's business is crazy. And you got a lot going on, man. It's intense. Yeah. You got clients, you got employees, you got agents, you got partners buying buildings, like you got all this stuff going on. She's gonna be mad, by the way. It was sort of my idea until like whatever. I mean, you know, listen, we do this for the clicks. Just leave that. You know, we gotta get coffee. Like the sparring. I need the skinny.

She's she's amazing. She didn't talk about vibrating at a high level, right? She vibrates at a crazy high level. And so anyway, yeah, we're buying this building and moving, and so we needed that.

Luna just bought a building.

Nice.

Yeah.

My second one if you want to do the JV. Yeah. That's a whole drive story. Yeah.

Good.

I'm closing it.

I'm closing them on the podcast.

Um open this envelope.

One uh, what do you think of that? One thing you uh you taught, we say, what do you love most about what you do? You said, I love it all. Clients, agents, building companies. I said, let's go with agents. Let's go with the most dramatic. Why do you love leading real estate agents?

Well, it's our my life of leading real estate agents today is very different than at a traditional brokerage, right? Um it's six million to get in the door. Okay.

We won't hire you. You have a floor. Yeah. You don't meet the floor, it's just not a good floor.

Financially doesn't work. We don't keep enough money, you know? And that's part of it. And the other part of it is you are who you surround yourself with. And we are not geared for new associates. Like that is not a team leader can hire a new person, but you're responsible for training them, the whole thing. Um so we wanted to have a little bit more of a curated business model. And we didn't want part-timers. We didn't want, I don't mean this negatively, new associates who've No, there's nothing negative, but that's reality. Seven out of ten don't make it. Yep. A churn. So and the brand has taken off. Awesome. You know, so the drama, yeah, I won an award last year, but my production's down. Can I still have the award mentality? We don't have any of that. It's so shiny. It was like, do you guys listen or follow Bandmax? Right. Um you actually like that Instagram post I shared. Yeah. Uh huh. So whatever his name is, the broke agent, right? Yeah, Eric Simon. Eric Simon. And I interviewed him a while back. He posted, he had the greatest. I thought it was just so genius, right? I'm the top 10% nationally. Never sold a house. You know, don't even my MLS subscription expired. You know, whatever. It was so ridiculous. And he's like, you know, he had this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh, I'm like, that is if you ask what the opposite is, it's Queenston Realty. We are the opposite of that. We are customer focused, process focused. You want an award, you apply for the state award, right? We work hard, we play hard, but like we're not here to inflate your ego so you can have you know 7,000 things in your email signature.

I don't have a leaderboard here to make the other people feel the fear or the shame.

And we had that at you know, at my old firm, and it, you know, there's good and good and bad with it, but like you know, you're with us, you are in the world of giants. Like you there's some major producers that work at that firm, and you know, it's just sort of like if you come in and you're 10 million, we want to make you 20. You know, if that's your objective, and we'll we'll give you the path to do that.

Um it seems to me less professional in a way. Like if you're not concerned, like your job as a real estate agent is to sell homes. And if if your focus is not on the selling of the homes, but rather the acrylic, the acrylic, as we call it, like I don't know, it's it's you your professional approach to what you're doing is misguided.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it is. And I think to, you know, when you and I think back to like some of the old offices you would visit, right?

Because you were like a regional guy, right? You were going out to all different offices.

They'd have like the plaques from like 1972, and then it stopped in like, you know, 1995. Right. But they never changed their email signature. It still says it on their card. You know what I mean? Like we have them plaqued out for 25 years. That's not who you are. Just be, you know, but like they hang on to that one identity versus letting it go and creating a new one.

We got an email recently for our insurance office. It's this long dissertation about this award you've been nominated. And it's like, send five hundred dollars and we'll write. And I'm like, what?

Yeah. I think in high school, right? Who's who?

Yeah.

All America. Best dressed insurance company.

Yeah. Yeah.

Duh.

I'd give you that. You're right. I don't know. It's just for me, it's like, are we professionals doing what we should be doing?

Or we should be helping the client get what they want. They want a home, we're gonna we're gonna fight tooth and nail to get it. If you want to sell it, we're gonna fight tooth and nail, sell it. Beyond that, apply for the state if you want, you know, apply for the state award. Awesome. It will celebrate it, no problem. But it's like the real estate industry has it called real trends? Is that there's real trends, you know, there's whatever, but it's got a bad habit of celebrating mediocracy. So if you celebrate mediocracy, then mediocracy becomes the norm. It's just not who we are.

It's funny. We did an episode, I can't remember when, but we were talking about stop obsessing for people in real estate, residential real estate, stop obsessing over your volume and start obsessing over your ROI, your commission, the money you're making. Look, this is a career, this is a job. Don't want to focus on the money too much because then you start, you know, you start doing things for the wrong reasons. But the people who are like, I did 10 million, I need to do 20, and at all costs, I'll hire two people I shouldn't hire, I'll spend too much money on leads I shouldn't be chasing after. Uh, you know, I'll find a way to like meet more agents across the country and get referrals, and like you get one, but you spent weeks on it. Like, there's so many people who just chase that volume thing because that's what I feel like the race is over in our industry. It's about volume. But again, like as you've learned, you're running your own independent brokerage. We you're doing a ton of volume, but you're also out there crushing a hundred million in sales yourself. That is incredible money. And then you're, you know, almost 3-4X just as a company, like teaching people to understand. Look, you're you're working to really help people, to build a business, to have a career, not worry about losing, like you said, not worry about someone's hanging, uh, you know, you want to keep working here? And you're like, no, I don't. And you go out and you do your thing. I think the shift in mindset away from like stop trying to like beat others out and get that award. Focus a little bit more about what you're doing day in, day out to meet more clients, to help them out, to get more Google reviews, because that's a glowing example of you as a person. And to just almost like fine-tune your business so that your ROI does go up. Because if you help 10 people and you help them well, they're gonna go tell five people each how great you are. And now you're not running after business anymore. The business is attracted to you. Like you said, your brand, Queenston. They're attracted to that because you treat people right. You have you have a process, like you deliver on what you say you're going to do. You're probably setting records for sales, and therefore we wouldn't know. Right. Therefore, people just come to you and they're like, I want to work with you, not oh, let me go out and like convince people to like work with me so I can get my numbers up.

Well, I think there's agents and there's owners, right? Agents um don't understand that they're running a PL, like a profit and loss statement. Owners run a PL. So if you're an agent at a traditional brokerage, if you ever looked at your PL, you'd be like, can we talk about this? Yeah.

You'd call yourself into the office. Right, right, right. Sit down. Hey, Tim, you want to talk?

Sure, Tim. All right, Tim, sit down. What is it, Tim?

Myself, why am I paying this much money for I don't understand? And um, so there we have in our business, it's owners, like in our firm. Like we uh we hire owner, owner operators, people who understand the PL, people who still want support, still want systems, still want the C, you know, CRM, like we give them bull trail. We have a media coordinator, we have a dedicated CTC service. So it's like you know, we have systems to help grow scale, grow scale, grow scale, if that's what they want to do. Or they just want to go from 10 to 20, be a solo operator, whatever. Awesome. That's awesome too. You know, but if if you're an agent, stay a cold banker. It's a good place for you. Yep. Give them half your money.

Love it.

All right, so uh your quote, which I thought was great, and I was looking up to see who said this. Practice makes permanent. That could either be by Bobby Robson, who is a football coach or Vince Lombardi. Why practice makes permanent?

Well, I think first of all, that was from Jim Wood, who was my sixth grade sword. I was over two. Yeah. Jim might have borrowed it from he might have stolen it from somebody. Well, Lombardi. I think by Lombardi, I don't think those guys ran a lot of plays, right? They ran like five plays. And they just ran them to perfection. And everybody, I think, you know, when everybody knew what play they were gonna run, they still couldn't stop it. Right? That was the legend of that Green Bay uh Packer offense. So I think what happens is that brokers, team leaders, agents lose sight of the fact that the fundamentals got you here, and the fundamentals are gonna get you there. So like every Friday, we have a nine o'clock Zoom call and it's script practice. It's what to say.

Wow.

You have to know what to say. Like if you don't know what to say, everything else falls apart. There is no buyer consultation. You're not showing a client a house. Or you're showing them the house, but they don't know the market, and then they fail. Like everything starts with this script.

Do you get pushback? I assume you have very seasoned agents that do a high volume of business. Yeah. Like, I don't need the script. Or is it is it?

Well, I don't do script. It's optional. Don't come. Oh, okay.

Don't come. Yeah.

We'll have 10 to 15 people every Friday. Yeah. On a Zoom call. You know, we practice on Fridays? The open house script. Every Friday. Like, don't deviate. Going out for the weekend. There's no professional athlete. The NFL plays once a week, right? So and I know you're a Giants fan. Yeah. So with the green here, right? You know what they do on Friday, Saturday? They do walkthroughs. The repetition in sports is so high. Right? Because you're performing at a crazy high level. Do it in your sleep. Do it in your sleep. For whatever reason, you start here and you're like, I don't need that anymore. I don't need to do that. And then all of a sudden your business just weird. And then you blame it on the market buyer. Like agents who say buyers are liars, I just want to like body tackle them and throw them out a window because it's not the agent, it's not the buyer, it's you.

Yeah.

Like you're not prepared. So preparation that kind of like and I've told like it's borderline maniacal, my focus on it. Proofs and pudding.

Yeah. Where did you learn that? Like, would would you accred would you credit like your last job like managing a regional area of brokerages to get really good at that? Was that instilled in you when you were young? Like where where does that come from?

So my first corporate job was a company called Dale Carnegie Training.

Oh yeah. You worked for them. I worked for them. Wow.

Okay. And um we had a script, you know, like when you first started, like you had the script, and it was like, you're gonna say this, and literally they're gonna say this, and then you just follow like it look and like it was stu it was so simple. It was like seven lines. And I remember my first like interview, I'm like interviewing this lady, and I'm like, Is she gonna say it?

Is she gonna give me the reason?

Yeah, and it was like it just was like it was so clinical, you know. And the sales process is you're not selling people, you're trying to uncover what they want and then give it to them. That's ultimately what sales, that's what real estate is. And um, so I think people think scripts is like slick back hair, gold teeth, right? That sort of the perception of it. But if the consumer is looking for something and you fumble on what to say to help them, then you're not helping that person or yourself. Yeah, that's all that's how simple it is, right? So every Friday's open house, Tuesday we do more like inbound lead scripting, like if you get a Zillow call or you know, follow-up, you know, that kind of say, like if you're making calls that day, like what's your what what are you gonna say? What's your plan? And uh that's Tuesday, and then Monday's CEO day, which we just sort of like, as you know, it's a pretty mad dash in the real estate world, seven days a week, right? Monday's just like a mental reset. Like, are you tracking to your numbers? A chance to breathe for an hour on a Zoom call or in person. And then Friday we just do like a mastermind, and that's our structure.

Like it's super simple. Love it, man. Great conversation. Also, congratulations to you and to Michelle recently getting married. Uh met her, she's a sweetheart. You knew before. That's true. I keep secrets. Please know that. All right. So before we shut this one down, why don't you tell our bricks and riskers where they can learn more about you and everything you got going on?

So um do a podcast on YouTube called the Wilton Report. You can definitely subscribe there. It's more specific to real estate, but again, if you want to steal the playbook, just go there and copy what works. Right. Um Instagram, Josh Wilton or Josh Wade Wilton, I don't even know what it is, and um Facebook, LinkedIn, you just kind of look me up, you'll find me.

Love it, man. All right. That's all we have for this one, folks. Thank you for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you next week. Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all BR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.