Episode #66: Authenticity in Business

[00:00:00] If you're trying to be more authentic in what you do, whether you're in real estate, whether you're insurance, you're an entrepreneur, hey, you got a pizza place. Let's say your pizza sign looks like everyone else's sign could just order it from a sign company and you're like, I've seen that sign 10 times. Like, try and find a way to stand out in the way that you really are. Meaning, if you got a pizza place and you have a specific style of pizza or it's all about your family, then focus on that for your brand. Like, your brand should exude that.

[00:00:27] It shouldn't just be called Timmy's Pizza Shop and it looks like everyone else is just like, why would I go here? Was it a little cheaper? All right, I'll try Timmy's today. Otherwise, I'm going to Bobby's. I'm always the type to be like, how can we make it better? Yeah. How can we, you know, if we're looking around and we see these green, like if you're watching on the YouTubes, there's green phone covers. Yeah. This is a Mooney detail. And I'm always- These little things too.

[00:00:53] I'm always trying to adjust. Yeah. Just a little bit more. Let me just get that cowboy shirt. Let me just put it on. Maybe I can find a green cowboy shirt. That's like a 42. And not like have to squeeze into like a 38. And then be talking like this the whole time with your eyeballs.

[00:01:22] Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance, and building your business. Join us as we take you along our own business building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of local and national experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk. Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk. I'm Tim Garrity.

[00:01:52] And I'm Sean Mooney. What up, dog? Hey man. What's going on? How we doing? I'm doing alright. Good week? Hell of a week. Let's give it up for those Philadelphia Eagles. Super Bowl 59 champions. Smoked the Chiefs. Sorry for all those Chiefs fans out there. Corey Schnabel. You had our number last time, but guess what? We got you this one. Sorry, Corey. It worked out exactly how I thought it would be. Yeah.

[00:02:23] Yeah. I actually thought we really had no shot. I thought we were going to be the victims of the first three-peat in NFL history, which thank God that didn't happen. But what a game, man. Great for Jalen, for Saquon, for everyone else. I was even watching... Dijon? Yeah. Dijon. I almost ordered a Dijon t-shirt. He's the best. He's like 23. I know. He's a superstar.

[00:02:53] I was watching New Heights, and they had the moment where Jason was talking to Travis about, yo, I was caught up between, I want the Eagles to win, and that's where I live. I played for them. I won a Super Bowl with them. Love the organization. He's a fan. And then he's watching his brother get smoked, which, hey. That's a phony take. I think that he just says that to his brother to make his brother feel bad, but I don't think he's cheering for the Chiefs. You a Travis fan?

[00:03:23] I hate him. I'm not a Travis fan. So, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan. He's a loathsome individual. Oh! All right. Nice. All right. Well, what are we getting into today, man? I really love Jason Kelsey. Jason's the best. It's weird that you'd have one opinion and one in the other. Yeah. I don't know if I feel as intense as you do about it, but I'm not a Travis fan. It's like the heat of a thousand suns. Yeah. I've never been a Travis fan. But anyway.

[00:03:53] He's like, Jason is so Philly and he's so anti-Philly. He's like the farthest thing away from him. I would agree. Yeah. All right. What are we talking about today? Today, we're going to get into it about authenticity in business. Finding who you are, finding your voice in business, and what really makes you different. Awesome. Well, this is going to be fun because I feel like this always directly relates to our podcast.

[00:04:23] If you can tell by our outfits right now, we really don't care how we're dressed. Speak for yourself. I'm sorry. Excuse me. I have a design specialist that helps me put together my... You have a tailor that says this Obey Posse hat is perfect fit. From 1995. So I think authenticity in business is becoming more of a talked about subject, at least on

[00:04:51] like the podcast channels that I listen to and watch. Um, because I feel like we're in that spot right now. I'll relate it to residential real estate where the market has slowed down. Business is not as easy as it used to be. And now people are getting back to the basics. And part of the basics is like, hey, reaching out to people, you know, connecting with your past clients, even though they say you should never use the word past clients. They're always your clients. All this stuff.

[00:05:20] But I think why authenticity in business, at least to me, is important is because I think people are sick of the social media videos or YouTube videos that are super scripted that, you know, they do 10 takes and they cut out all the nonsense. Well, that was before social media. Social media opened the door to allowing people to be regular. Yeah.

[00:05:47] And once that started to happen, I think people want regular. Yeah. They don't want to be raw. They want you in your normal state. Yeah. And they don't want to be sold to like, it's, it's like a scripted thing when you're wear this and speak like this and make sure the lighting's over here. And this is like, that was the way it was before you had an iPhone that you could just shoot yourself.

[00:06:18] An iPhone. Okay. Keep going. To shoot yourself. I only say that because 83% of our downloads are on Apple. Yes. I'm trying to play to the crowd. They're just proving my point, but keep going. They're not informed. They're just listening. But the iPhone social media allowed people then to curate their own voice. Yep.

[00:06:44] Find like a way to, to be themselves, to pitch people the way that they wanted to do it and not follow like the norms or what they've been told to do. And I think that's the most effective way that people get their messaging across. All right. So let's go over the point of like, who are you? Yep. So what's your take on that? Like we're talking about authenticity in business, being yourself, being comfortable in your own skin.

[00:07:13] I used to call it, go with what you know. So when we first started Copper Hill and I'd be mentoring and training agents, I've mentioned this on a few different podcast episodes. And I wanted people to come up with a marketing strategy. I would say, go with what you know. Do you love the Philadelphia Eagles, let's say, and you're a season ticket holder and you go to every game, then that's part of who you are. People need to know that because guess what? You live in Philadelphia and there's, you know, millions of Eagles fans.

[00:07:40] So if you want to connect with people, connect with people on your authenticity. So what's your take on that? Yeah. Similarly, it's, it could be whatever your interests are, but play to your strengths. You know, you might like to be shooting yourself on an iPhone, right? And you might enjoy that and you might see that as productive, but other people might not. They might shy away.

[00:08:08] So they might have to go a different route of finding what works for them. Yeah. Um, but yeah, play to your strengths, do what you know, and whatever that is, just double down and, and go forward with that. I would say. Well, here's a, here's a great segue. So we've talked before about, you know, marketing idea versus marketing plan and how they differ,

[00:08:34] you know, ideas come and go, but plans are, are more of a vision. It's a visionary approach. If you have a plan for your business, it doesn't even have to be written down. It doesn't have to be formal, but if you have a plan for your business, then that's what you march toward every day. And the one point I'd like to make for like authenticity is like when you started your business. And when we talked to Garrett Maroon on his episode, what's up, man? We talked about the fact that he started with what?

[00:09:04] 40 people in his database. And that's how he grew his business. That was doing like 900,000 or so in GCI and gross commission income in, you know, just over a half decade. Like that's what he worked up to. So let's talk about, you've mentioned before your a hundred contacts. So when you started Mooney Insurance Brokers and you had your a hundred, your a hundred contacts, I look at that as that is a level of authenticity because most of the experts

[00:09:33] in your industry would probably say you can't build an insurance brokerage off of a hundred contacts, at least at the time. Maybe now people would say it's different because the value of relationships and emails and just direct connection to people aside from social media is very important. So talk about that, like your hundred contacts and building your authenticity. Yeah. So for me, it was very important to start with that.

[00:10:01] I thought that would be the most effective way to connect. Connect, connect with prospects, connect clients. Why? Yeah. Why? Like, you know, I know you're a relationship guy. Why were you so confident in that approach? Was it because you saw the opposite for your first 10 years in insurance? Yeah. I think the reason that I kind of went in that direction was, was exactly that, uh, you know,

[00:10:30] working in my previous office, it was, you would see customers come and go, right? Right. You would see, um, someone who worked on an account and you'd always like track like where they're from. Yep. Right. And so more times than not, you would see the client that let's just say found you online, called the office, got a policy.

[00:11:00] And let's just say that that person left after two years. Yep. And so there was a trend that I would see that those accounts were accounts that weren't sticking. They were like transient coming and going. Yep. And so on the opposite end of the spectrum was people that were based on relationships,

[00:11:26] referrals, uh, clients that you had a relationship with previously. Um, those accounts would be the ones that look to you as the trusted advisor. Yep. And, and would be less transient. You know, those were the accounts that would stick longer term. So in my initial, you know, start with the brokerage Mooney insurance, I had the idea that, all right, this is going to be the target.

[00:11:55] If I'm going to spend time, money, energy, and resources to start to cultivate this new brokerage, this is where I want to, to start from because it's going to make, it's going to be the highest return on that investment. Did you do any research into that at all? Like, are you just, you felt confident enough about it with all your experience with, you

[00:12:20] worked for State Farm and Allstate prior to your own brokerage that you're like, I know this is going to pay off as long as I stick with it and deliver great customer service and stay in touch with my network. Like this will just snowball. Yep. And I've seen, uh, I've seen it other ways too is, you know, um, agents that start, right. An agency based on like a leads model. Yeah.

[00:12:48] And they're not around after like three years. Yep. And in this area, um, I'm kind of familiar with a lot of the agencies around, not like on a one-to-one connection, but I'm, you know, there's obviously offices near my office and you see, you know, offices pop up and you see offices close out.

[00:13:16] And I think that the, the ones that are based on leads, you know, we're going to generate our, all of our new business revenue based on leads. Um, it's just, it's not, I don't want to say in all instances that it's not going to be,

[00:13:40] uh, lead to long-term, uh, profitability and all of that. It's just that if you're playing the odds, I think the odds are in your favor. If you really hone in on relationships. Speaking of the opposite, do you remember the opposite episode from Seinfeld? I do. When George goes to the diner and he said, tune on toast has never worked for me.

[00:14:08] I'm going to do chicken salad on rye, untoasted with a side of potato salad and a cup of tea. Remember that? Yeah. And remember how his life changed? Yeah. Well, that's what we're getting into now. The opposite. If every instinct you've ever had was wrong, then the opposite would have to be right. It's true. Um, all right. So I can relate this to Seinfeld. Right.

[00:14:34] For, I can relate this, uh, myself as well is really when I first got into real estate and I've talked about this before my first brokerage. And that's where I learned how to blog. That's where I started a blog. So I think when I first started the blog, I can't remember the name of it. Like Tim Garrity's blog. It was probably something generic like that. It might've been Timmy Garrity's blog. Timmy G's blog fest. If, if it were similar to the naming of the podcast. Yes.

[00:15:04] It would have probably been Tim's blog on real estate. In Philadelphia. Um, so the, uh, the brand I created for myself was called Philly Urban Living. So I was looking for just mashing words. It goes kind of how Copper Hill came to be. And the reason I named it that is because one, I lived in Philadelphia. There wasn't a whole lot of content on living in the city, like the lifestyle.

[00:15:34] Yeah. And, um, I didn't have much competition for blogs. Most of the blogs I was looking at were just like stats and like sales and numbers. And then I really, the authentic part of that brand for me was like, well, what am I interested in, in residential real estate? The number one thing I was really interested in when I started was development, was investment, was working with investors, like understanding flips, understanding holds.

[00:16:02] Why did they put a skyscraper in that parking lot downtown? You know, how did they convert that old factory into 30 loft apartments? I was just very interested in that. Probably just my love for the city, um, as well as just, just the building creating aspect of it. So what I would really do is like in creating that brand in my blog is I would just keep a log of news articles that I was reading on a regular basis. I'd read the news for, I don't know, 30 minutes every morning.

[00:16:30] I'd find one or two articles I like, I'd throw them on my list. And as it was time to blog, which was at the time I was doing it a couple of times a week when I started, which was like nuts. Um, but it sounds very similar to my nothing divided by nothing. Yes. Equals nothing folder. It is similar. Um, it's just normal. So, um, but anyway, so I'm like stacking up these articles, I'm writing these things.

[00:16:56] And then as I'm getting these blog posts done and had like 20 of them or 30 of them, I'm just like, when I send out my newsletter, I'm going to link backlink to my blog so that when they get the vehicle, which is the email newsletter, it's going to go back to my blog and they're going to learn more about my content. And I just did that, did that pound, pound, pound, pound. And I did that for a solid 10, 12 years, just myself. And then once Copperhill was really rolling, we really started our own blog at Copperhill

[00:17:23] Real Estate, which I kind of was heading that, you know, we had a writer for a couple years. I think the last year I started writing for it again. And the reason I bring that up, the authentic part of that for me was my love of the city, the reinvestment, the resurgence, the development, everything was going on. So when I would blog, you know, maybe it'd take me a half hour and I would, I would have like four or five paragraphs. People are like, how are you doing that so fast? It's like, because I'm interested.

[00:17:50] It's like, when we do this podcast, we've had people say, how do you find new content? Like, how do you keep the conversation going? When you're just being yourself and you're, you're trying to share your knowledge on things that you like, that you're passionate about, that you're authentic about. It's easy. Yeah. If you're into it, if you enjoy it, like we do with our guests and we pick topics and we kind of formulate the conversation about where it's going to go and what, what kind

[00:18:19] of information we want to extract. Yeah. Out of that person. Yes, exactly. That's enjoyable. And we're, I mean, we could literally talk to some of these guests that we have on for two or three hours. We don't even need the notes. The notes just make it a little bit more organized. But hit those topics. Well, we could. Yeah. There's some that we're like talking, like the last episode we did was like, I think an hour and like a couple before then, one was like an hour and 10 minutes. I'm like, man, it felt like 15 minutes.

[00:18:48] Well, we have to cut it off. Yeah. Enjoy it. If you're, if you're into it and the content you're into it, it's going to have that free flow form about it, which I think is enjoyable for a listener to digest. Yep. And then for you, when you're trying to develop a blog or you have a newsletter or whatever

[00:19:17] that may be, if it's enjoyable, I mean, it's really the topics are kind of endless. Yeah. I mean, the information and the content provides itself. There's almost too much information. Yeah. You have to like sift through it just to find, okay, if I read five articles a day, I'd have to maybe find one that I like. Yeah. And then that's the one I would put on my own nothing list. And I think finding your voice, whether it's the newsletter or the blog or whatever is, is it reminds me about the conversation we had with Ryan Hanley. Yeah. And it was, what's up, Bri?

[00:19:47] About finding your tribe, right? Because the more you engage, the more you will open yourself up to allow people to understand what you enjoy and what you like and what you're about, people are, the right people are going to be gravitating towards you. Right. And they're going to want to know more. They're going to want to do business with you. You say it. Like, trust. What is it? No, like, and trust. No, like, and trust.

[00:20:16] It kind of leads down that path of no, like, and trust. It does. So that transacting business becomes a little smoother, a little bit easier because they feel like they have a relationship with you. And on a certain level, they do. They're getting to know you. Yeah. Like, if all I did in residential real estate was post listings and stats on other sale, do I post that stuff? Of course I do. I want people to see what I'm selling, where I'm selling, what kinds of clients I work with.

[00:20:44] But most of what I post is this content, which is us being ourselves. You know, I post stuff about my family. Like, if I travel, my interests, the birds. I mean, just think about, like, things in Philly. And people are like, well, no one wants to see that. No, people follow people on social media because they're interested. They're interested in what you have to say, what you know, and what you're doing. This is why social media works.

[00:21:14] But it's also, too, the differentiation. It is, yep. Most people don't do that. If you have 20, if you think about social media in the context of, like, what's going viral or what gets the most likes or what gets the most repost, typically, it's going to be people that are just copying something else. Yeah. And that's fine. And you get the, and there's a process to that.

[00:21:39] But I feel like, at least from my perspective, what I gravitate towards is, is that voice that's a little different. Yeah. Right? So if you have the real estate that's posting, I closed this and I did this and I did this, like all this volume. It kind of like, it gets old. It gets a little stale after a while. And you don't have the ability to rely on your personality and who you are. Right.

[00:22:06] And so I think that the important part of that is, is what's, what's making you different? What's making you stand out? Yep. And it's those things that allow the connectivity with your tribe. Now, here's, here's the second part of like, you know, who are you? Like, what are you trying to achieve? Um, we talked about like, go with what, you know, the things that we've done, but there's also like, what are your growth goals? Like, where do you want to go? And why do you want to do that?

[00:22:36] Meaning when I first started just as a solo agent, what I wanted to do, my first goal, I want to get back to the income that I was making at my previous job and not ever have to worry about working for an employer again. Like that was like, that was my fire when I first started because I looked at it as like, you know, when I lost my job in corporate America, it was like, they had the control over

[00:23:04] my destiny, my success, where I was going to go, how fast I was going to go there. Like how I, you know, in what fashion let's call it. And then when I started working for myself, I'm like, you know, this is going to suck because I know I'm not going to make a lot of money for the first couple of years, but I prepared my family for that. But I knew I was like, my first step, I want to get to the spot where I was at before, but now I'm doing it on my own and I don't have to worry about anyone else. So that was a growth goal.

[00:23:32] Then once I got into the business and I got my broker's license because I just wanted to further my education and wanted to open up my opportunities was like, let's open a brokerage. And then even when we opened the brokerage, it was probably like a five or 10 year vision of just like, let's see how far we can take this thing because at the very least someone will be interested in us and maybe there's an exit strategy with that. So we went really fast. Those were some of the examples of like, you know, solo to being broker and owner of a

[00:24:02] company to get us to where we went. I mean, what about you? Like when you started with your hundred, where was your initial mindset with like either income or exit or whatever? Do you want to know the truth? Of course I do. Literally opening up, I was like, man, I hope I can make it three years. Three years. Like. Yeah. So you were just about survival. Yeah. If I can survive three years. If I'm still around. That's goal one. Three years. Yeah.

[00:24:29] Because I knew that first year was just going to be a disaster. Because then the half, the half desk that you cut off would have fallen over. After three years, I could buy a full length desk. The termites in the, in the utility room would have eaten the legs. The broom closet is getting a little stretched. Um, so yeah, like out of the gate, like, man, if I could, if I could put this together

[00:24:54] and get some contracts, write some accounts, have an office and be alive. Like self-sustainable and making money. Yeah. Like that would be awesome. That would be awesome. Yeah. Isn't it crazy how, how it just, you get to these spots and you're like, okay, now where do I want to go? Yeah. Now what am I doing? Yeah. So, I mean, I think the growth goals are important. So like, if you're trying to be more authentic in what you do, whether you're in real estate, whether you're insurance, you're an entrepreneur, Hey, you got a pizza place.

[00:25:23] Let's say your pizza sign looks like everyone else's sign could just order it from a sign company. And you're like, I've seen that sign 10 times. Like try and find a way to stand out in the way that you really are. Meaning if you got a pizza place and you have a specific style of pizza, or it's all about your family, then focus on that for your brand. Like your brand should exude that. It shouldn't just be called Timmy's pizza shop. And it looks like everyone else is like, why would I go here? Was it a little cheaper? All right, I'll try Timmy's today. Otherwise I'm going to Bobby's.

[00:25:53] I think sometimes though, I really wonder like, so in my mind, I'm always the type to be like, how can we make it better? Yeah. How can we, you know, if we're looking around and we see these green, like if you're watching on the YouTubes, there's green foam covers. Yeah. This is a Mooney detail. And I'm always. These little things too. I'm always trying to adjust. Yeah. Just a little bit more.

[00:26:22] Let me just get that cowboy shirt. Let me just put it on. Maybe that, maybe I can find a green cowboy shirt. That's like a 42. And not like have to squeeze into like a 38. And then be talking like this the whole time with your eyeballs. But I often wonder like that pizza shop. Like. Like, let's just say he buys that business, rolls in and doesn't do anything different. Yeah. It just says, Hey, it's making money.

[00:26:52] I'll just operate this thing. Yeah. And I got to imagine that there's some. I don't know how to describe it, but. It's got to be almost an awesome feeling where you never have to be like, I feel tortured. Yeah. By, by having these thoughts. Right. Yeah. Like every day I'm like, oh man. Just a little. Make it a little bit different, a little bit better.

[00:27:21] That's a tortured way to go through life. But it's fun. I enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. But it's fun, man. I know. But part of me is like, just like there's part of me like, man, I wish I did nine to five. You know what I mean? Well, yeah. Because then you can coach your kids basketball without any worry. You know, you're not really going to be doing anything with bricks and risk marketing at eight o'clock at night on a Thursday. But you don't care.

[00:27:47] Like if you're like, if you mail it in for two weeks in a row. Yep. So what? Yeah. You know, there's some. There's a hundred. It's more peaceful to go the safe route. It's more peaceful. Like you said, on your mind, on your soul, on your sleep. Like if I was that pizza shop, man, I'd be at a different sign. And I'd do what about this on the menu?

[00:28:16] And like you'd have Philly based, you know, or menu items. You'd be doing the Dijon. Yeah, I do the Dijon. The Dijon pizza. A quick shout out to Julianos Deli in Glenside. Oh, nice. What's up, Julianos? Hey, Julianos. Many hoagies from there. Remember we used to go every week? Yes. We get a haircut at Ralph's when we were in college. Yep. And we go, you know, all blade, no fade. So real tight. Yep. And then we go across the street. We get some subs. We bring them back to LaSalle. We crush them. No, we didn't get subs.

[00:28:46] We get some hoagies. Bring them back to LaSalle. We crush them. And we get drunk. But you forgot the other stop along the way. Oh, we had to go to Madonna's in Glenside because we had to pick up natty bottles for everyone we knew. Natural light bottles for like the whole campus. Yeah. It would be like a pallet. Yeah. We'd come like six, seven cases. We'd bring them back. Yeah, we'd get like orders. Yeah, like who wants bottles? They're like, how much of Madonna's? You're like nine bucks. Yeah. Italian hoagie. We go through the hoagie order. Yeah. And then the case order.

[00:29:17] I digress. Yeah. So anyway, Julianos did the Cooper Dijon sandwich. Oh, nice. I like that take. It was like a ham and cheese with the Cooper. That hits someone probably at like 1 a.m. They're like, oh, what a great idea. Let me write that down. We'll fire it up tomorrow. Which, it's funny. We're talking about this. They're always crafting different things. Yeah, because that's what makes them authentic. Authentic.

[00:29:45] But they're probably tortured in the same way that I'm tortured. It's like, hey, what kind of sandwich can we do this week? Yeah, like the Phils were doing while they do something with Harper, you know, or whatever. And they're like, have this really great takeout beer. Right. Different flavors. Yeah. That you can grab. And so like, I'd imagine they're always trying to do something different to better their business. Yep.

[00:30:12] Which again, it's a differentiator. 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 BNR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend.

[00:30:40] We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show. All right, let's go to this next spot. So this is kind of like you wrote this down, like your USP, your unique selling proposition for your business. This plays into authenticity. What's the difference? What's the value that I bring to the table that you'd want to work with me versus, you know, ABC realtor down the street?

[00:31:09] And I think that's highly valuable how it plays into the authenticity. Because if you don't have anything that differentiates you, like again, let me go back to that example from when I was a solo agent. One of my differentiating factors is I was in the mortgage business for like almost a decade. I had an interest in development. And then when I'd meet a new developer client, I'm trying to develop rapport with him or her. Like I'd be talking all about the development. I'm blogging about this stuff all day. This is my USP.

[00:31:36] No one's dialed in to the development, to the lots, to the conversions, to the rents. You could speak about it all. I could tell him and be like, what do you think about this neighborhood? I'm like, oh, okay. We're talking about Brewery Town. Here's what's going on. They just opened this place, you know, on West Girard. And I know Westrom's got the development like right down the street and they just put in an Aldi. Like I could hit on all that and be like, none of this stuff existed five years ago. And if you drive down some of these blocks, they look a little tough.

[00:32:04] And therefore, most people don't see what we see. Like you're asking me about the neighborhood because you have interest. And I'm telling you what's going on in the neighborhood because it's like ready to go up. So that's what you're looking for. I was talking to, you know, Rybrew? Of course. I was talking to Ryan and Steph, friends of ours. Nice. Oh, they own it? Yeah. Oh, very cool. Yeah. Is there Rybrew and Rybred?

[00:32:31] Rybred's in Fairmount and Rybrew is in Brewery Town. Yeah, the one in Girard. Yeah. But similarly is they were kind of, only you said it, but they were kind of in early, right? And they were like, hey, this cool idea and get a sandwich shop. We'll have cool beers and everything. Yep. But knowing that, right? Like knowing all of the characters that play in that area.

[00:32:57] And if you know that area as a, from a developer standpoint, you could kind of see those early tells. Yep. That you're like, oh, I think this would be a good investment because of these different things. Yeah. So knowing that stuff, I could see how it could be unique to you and provide value for, you know, for clients.

[00:33:23] And then even with Copper Hill, I think a lot of our USP was that we were an independent brokerage. There weren't many. I mean, there's plenty of independent brokerages in the city, but most of them are very small. Like one to three people, let's call it. And we were growing a bigger independent brokerage in the city that said, you know, we're from here. This is what we want to grow. We want it to have a Philly flavor. We care about the city. We live in the city. We're investing in our community.

[00:33:51] And that was a differentiator because it was good for clients. People were like, people never even heard of you. Like, how are you going to get a listing? Or why would they work with you as a buyer client? And I said, I would flip it. I wouldn't say that's a deterrent. That's an advantage to work with me. I'm the broker of record. You know, I own the company. If I've done all that, not only do I understand residential real estate, but I understand how to open up my own brokerage in residential real estate and grow it with good clients like you.

[00:34:18] Well, I got to believe that it's an advantage too from the agent standpoint, right? Yeah. In a lot of these other shops, everything is being dictated to them. And being an agent in a smaller independent shop is like they kind of have the ear of the decision makers. Yep, exactly. It's an advantage. And having that ability to call or, hey, can we do this? Or let me run this by you.

[00:34:47] You know, what do you think about that? It's an advantage for sure in that position. So like when you started Mooney Insurance Brokers and you had your list of 100. Yep. And you've talked about this many times before. Like you had said one of the things that you saw out there, mostly independent insurance brokerages didn't have any brand. No logo. Still don't. No logo, no nothing. You went brand day one. What's up, Brent Bush? Hey, Brent. Thanks for all your efforts.

[00:35:17] I think also you hit it a little bit differently. Like you're like, this is a commodity industry. Like people can get insurance anywhere. Like a couple bucks difference here, a couple bucks difference there. But you looked at it as like, I want to build relationships with people and I'm going to do that through my customer service and my outlook on this company. And then you had your guerrilla marketing signs, which we just saw one. We'll have to get a picture for Dill. We saw one at your parents' place in G-side. Oh, yeah.

[00:36:15] Yeah. Dictated to people was presented, you know, in TV ads or, you know, so there wasn't this space where your trusted advisor. Right. Yeah. It just didn't exist. And I kind of was like, well, this is me, right? Like this is the relationship I want with my clients.

[00:36:40] I want my clients to come to me because they trust what I have to say. I want my clients to come to me. And I've always said it from day one is the way I've sold our USP is really we are your advocate. We are your insurance advocate. Yeah. And it just doesn't exist out there.

[00:37:06] Like we take so much time and energy to make sure that our clients are in the best possible situation. Yep. That they have the right coverage, that they're with the right company when a claim comes up. I reached out the other day. This was just a simple story about a car insurance claim.

[00:37:33] And on the policy, you have 30 days of coverage for the rental. And we get the notice, hey, by the way, your client's car rental is expiring because they're coming up on their 30-day mark. And I reached out and I said, hey, Mr. Claims Rep, I said, we're using one of your network shops. If we're using your network shop, then that 30-day goes out the window. Okay.

[00:37:58] And the client didn't even know that I'm working in the background. You're like an advocate without getting any recognition at all. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's what I wanted to be for our clients. And it's one of the hardest things that we've dealt with trying to message that. Yeah.

[00:38:23] Like make sure people understand, like this is part of the service that you get. You know, you're not just taking orders and saying, okay, I'm saving you 50 bucks a month. How about it? Like, I know you saw my reviews online or like, I know, you know, Tim gave me your name or whatever. And that's why you're here. Yeah. Here's your $50 savings. That's 600 bucks a year. How about that?

[00:38:49] You're saying, no, not only am I going to save you the 50 bucks, but here are the things that we do to make sure you have the right coverage, that, you know, you're billed the way, you know, you want to be billed. Like you were even just saying the other day, like if you pay your whole premium for a year, you save money. If you do paperless billing, you save money. Like I'm going to say 99.9 out of a hundred people did not know that before they listened to that episode. I was on the phone. I was on the phone yesterday.

[00:39:19] Yeah. A client of mine that I've had for years, I've had his family. Um, I reached out to him cause I was just doing a review of accounts that were coming up. I saw, man, this is, this, this premium is like really high. So I reached out to him and I said, Hey, you want me to take a look at things? I want to review this. It seems high. Right. Yep. And he's like, yeah, sure. Like whatever.

[00:39:42] And, uh, so I ran it through and I was able to get them, uh, with a new car that's better plan and save him some money and we're on the phone and we're talking and we're just catching up. And he's like, Oh, I was, I was, uh, I got married, uh, you know, a couple months ago. Okay. And, um, and I'm, so I'm, I'm still talking on the phone and I pull up his, his proposal, uh, for the new coverage.

[00:40:10] And then I went in and, uh, I changed it over to married. Right. Yeah. It went down even more. Wow. And I guess the point in saying that is that number one, I reached out to him and he's like cold, like, like why are you reaching out? Right. So like my commission's going down because I'm writing this new pile. I'm reaching out. You're making less now. I'm making less money. Right. And then I put in the married discount rate because it was him and his girlfriend before.

[00:40:40] So I put that in less money, less commission, like to understand the length of the business owners, like antichrist, but who's going to do that? No, no one. Because it's not about that. It's not about the dollars and cents will follow if you treat people right. Like that's the bottom. That's what we believe. And you may not believe it. That's fine. But if you're working with someone that that person's only vested interest is how much

[00:41:09] money they're making off of this policy. They're like, I won't do that again. Why? Why did I do that? Why did I? Why did I check the married box? And now my insurance brokers made a couple less. Yeah. In income. Yeah. But so that's that person, that agent looks at the equation as that. Yep. I look at it like, man, if I have this guy for the next 10 years, it's like how can also

[00:41:34] how can I make the relationship with this guy or girl just a little bit better every year? Yeah. For whatever reason, maybe it's just an ease of doing business with you. Maybe you're like, hey, I used to reach out once every three years. Now I reach out once a year. Yeah. And you're doing all that for their benefit. Yeah. A hundred percent. And people see that, like people notice that, like that's, this plays into everything. So here's another one we want to talk about too, is like kind of like your ideal client. And you had talked about on a few episodes, like your customer avatar.

[00:42:04] And you're like, part of my approach is how do I like disqualify you from working with Mooney insurance brokers? Because you know who you want to work with. And I think even on another episode, you had mentioned like the Philadelphia contributions ship. And, and again, if you're not from Philly, you've probably never heard of them. Even if you are from Philly, you may not have heard of them. They have the signs on the houses, right? With like the hands. It's, if you know, architecture, we'll get that to Dill too. You've probably seen these all over the city. Like a plaque.

[00:42:34] Yeah. Yeah. But, um. Like top finder. Right. When you, when you were talking about that company, you're like, did you know they only do homeowners? Yep. And I'm like, no. And then you're like, as much as I want to be a part of that company to say, it's hard to get in. And I'm from Philly. Most of my clients, I do home. I do auto. Maybe I do business. Maybe I do some personal property. You know, maybe I do life. Like you have all these different, maybe it's their shore house, their mountain house, whatever. Yeah.

[00:43:04] So you're like, I'm not really trying to get in with them. Yeah. Because as much as that's like cool and like maybe they'll save a couple bucks, it's not really servicing the avatar of the client. Well, you have to find what fits. Yeah. Right. And you can't have the mindset that everything fits because then it's just nothing fits. Right. Right. So you really have to get dialed in on, you know, like the clients that you work with and

[00:43:32] who you want to work with and who you want to like cater to and who your message is going to resonate with because it isn't everyone. And so we absolutely, 100%, anybody that comes to our office, we put them through this disqualification process. Because at the end of that process, we're going to want to know if it's worth our time to, and people like get crazy about it. Oh yeah.

[00:44:00] People are like, what do you mean you don't want my business? Right. Like you're lucky I unlocked the deadbolt for you to even get in here. First of all, nobody's getting in. Nobody's getting past the deadbolt. You're like, you know how many times I unlock this thing in a year? Like I can count on one hand. So by the end of that, we kind of have, okay, so you clear this hurdle, you clear this hurdle, you clear this hurdle. You're not disqualified by this point. So now we can kind of talk. Right.

[00:44:28] And so I think everybody does that to a certain extent. Maybe not. I mean, maybe everybody's like, oh, just do everybody and talk to anybody. And yep. But I think it's an important process, whether you're doing that or you're just trying to find the right fit. Like I always say, is that avatar? It's funny. Like I just went through all this when we ended the partnership at Copper Hill and Ryan and I broke off on our own.

[00:44:58] I started the Tim Garrity team and had a team of like seven or eight people. And when I got back into real estate, kind of like my own company now, it's not in a partnership. You know, Ryan does development. I do real estate, lead the agents. And I'm trying to go over my annual plan, my marketing strategy for like 24. I had to do some last year and then I had to do it again in 25. I do that every year. And it's like 24.

[00:45:27] I even had like, I had a bunch of ideas out there. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do the other thing. But what happened is, as you know, I'm a calendar guy. I'm a task driven guy, structured. I had all these things on my calendar. I kept pushing them and pushing them. And then they would be on there for like six months. And what would happen at the end of the year? I was just like, I don't even need to do that. That's not a part of my strategy. In 2025, when I did my marketing strategy for this year, because it changes a little bit

[00:45:53] every year, I had one word to describe my marketing strategy in 2025 and it's relationships. And I looked at every single thing I do is to either strengthen, maintain the relationships I already have or add new relationships to my book of business. And one of the biggest things I was already doing in 24 that I didn't even think about, because we were just doing it, was the podcast.

[00:46:21] It's like podcast for me and my residential real estate business, it is a lead gen strategy. I'm putting content out into the world. You know, I think we're almost at 80,000 views on our YouTube page, which is like insane in less than a year. And it's, I don't know all those people. Like, I don't know who these people are. They could be in different parts of the country, the world. You have 80,000 potential clients. Argentina. But most of them are around here. Most of the views are from around here.

[00:46:48] So people are getting to know me and you through the podcast. Yes, that's a marketing idea. It's a marketing activity. It's part of my marketing strategy for 2025. I had a few other things I was going to do in 2025. I just, I crossed them off my list. I said, I don't think that is serving the relationships that either already have or the ones that I want to add to my book. And Sirhan just did something recently. I saw, I saw a video. I'll have to pull it. Maybe we can put it up.

[00:47:19] And it was kind of the same thing. It's, um, he breaks up his day or his week and it's whatever. Two hours creating new relationships and three hours fostering existing relationships. Yeah. And it's just to kind of, your point is that's what my focus is. Like keep, keep those relationships strong on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.

[00:47:47] But then also don't shot. You can't just rely on everyone you have and think they're just going to like buy another house or get a shore house and want more insurance or get a more expensive car. Like whatever it is, you have to constantly be thinking about adding to your book. Like you with Google reviews, you know, with the call list you were talking about. Best of Monco. Yeah. Again, vote for this dude. It's probably, this will come out after it's happened. Well, hopefully he gets the Monco happening list. Number one insurance brokerage in Montgomery County. Yeah. Pennsylvania.

[00:48:16] So vote for Sean. We should get t-shirts like the vote for Pedro shirts. I just say vote for Sean. Next year. Yeah. But, and then think about this for all of your mediums. You know, it's for social media. It's for your email marketing. If you do that, it's for your website. Like it should be plastered everywhere. You know, print however you're doing it to let people know this is how you roll. This is what you're doing. And I think this brings, I will just go ahead. Yeah. One second.

[00:48:44] Because it just came to my mind is because I have those relationships and you're probably going to find something similar that you could even add in. But because I've built the, the brokerage on relationships. Yep. It makes it very easy for me to reach out to people and say, Hey, help us out. Give us a vote. Exactly. So, so you've planted the seeds. There's reciprocity. Yeah. You've planted the seeds, foster that relationship.

[00:49:15] And then when, when you go to them with a request, they help me out. Of course. Why wouldn't I? Yeah. You help me out all the time. Yep. No, it's, it's, it totally works that way. Google reviews, everything else. Referrals. Yeah. So here's the last one I want to go over too. This is really like this, this kind of ties the authenticity together is really like, what do you love? And I know that may sound corny to some people, but what do you love about life? Like what drives you?

[00:49:45] What are your interests? Are you into music? Can you go to concerts like twice a month? What's up, Brent Bush? I know you go to a lash. I know Dil is Mr. Music over here. So we can feed off that as well. But whatever it is that you're passionate about, because there's probably things you're passionate about aside from business. Brent's taking me to kneecap later this year. Oh yeah? Nice. I think in August. Is that Irish punk band? Yeah. Nice. I think. Brent said he's got the tickets. I'm going to try to work on getting my ticket.

[00:50:14] I said, I'm a little too old probably for the, I might have to pay a little more to get a seat. You might want a seat where people don't bump into you. He's like, it's pretty tame. I'm like, Brent, come on. Yeah. It's not tame. Mosh pits are never tame. Yeah. But going back to kind of like that, you know, what do you love? Yep. This is like, you got to put it out there some way. Put it out. If you do email marketing, it's got to be out there. If you do social media, it's got to be out there. If it's in your brand, your brand should say something about you and who you are, where

[00:50:42] you're from or what you like, you know, your favorite color. It could be whatever. But if you don't, if you don't tell people what you love, then the authenticity starts to go away. You're just like every other realtor. You're just like every other insurance guy or girl I've ever met. Why would I work with you? I'm already getting the insurance I want here. I have good coverage and the payment's fine. What are you going to save me money? And you would say, no, I want to build a relationship with you. I want you as a client. Yeah.

[00:51:12] And I say this with residential real estate clients all the time. Like they're like, Hey, maybe they're going for renting to buying. And they're like, I might only stay here for two years. I'm like, don't buy. I think that's a risk. Unless you want to be a landlord for eight on top of that, you know? And they'll be like, what? Like we just had, don't you want to sell me a house? We just had a referral come in and I said, Hey, I can't help you. You know, you got an accident, you got a claim. But here's what I recommend you doing. And I wrote this like this.

[00:51:37] They, I don't know if they read it or not, but I, but I took the time because they're not a client of mine, but I think they should have the right coverage. And laid out, Hey, do this, add this, change this, do this. Yeah. And like send it off. You're like later. Yeah. Well, we get back to what is Mooney love? I mean, look at, look at this. eBay. eBay. Obey. Thrift stores. Making rogue clothing himself. Here's a question.

[00:52:07] When you order all those shirts, do you just order in one or do you have to order, you do one-off t-shirts? Are you ordering like five or 10 at a time? You're just not telling me about it. Oh, you know what's funny? Keep talking. Okay. This is, this should be pretty interesting folks. This has never happened in the history of Bricks and Risk where one of us has actually walked away from the desk to further the point of rogue clothing that relates to Mooney.

[00:52:36] So you asked me if I do one-offs and most of the time they are one-offs and some, they are two-offs so that I can share. I don't even know if I've ever heard a song by Bad Brains because I'm not a big punk guy, but I appreciate it. That's good stuff. You'll love it. All right. Why don't you close this one out for us? And thank you, by the way. Listen, everyone, if you've enjoyed this content and you'd like to share it along the way with

[00:53:04] all of your friends and family, we'd appreciate it. You can shoot us an email at bricksandriskatgmail.com. Find us on the streams, Apple, Spotify. Leave a review. We'll get it up on the show and we'll read that as we break into the episode. And find us on social, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. And that's it. Love it, man. Well, thank you guys for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you soon.

[00:53:35] 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 BNR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.