YESTalk-135 - The Consistency of Greatness - Alex Khalilifard with Kevin Ward - Interviews with the Best

Welcome to Kevin Ward's YES Talk for Realtors. This is Kevin Ward. Hi there. It's Kevin Ward, the founder of yes Masters Real Estate Success training. I want to welcome you to this month's episode of Interviews with the Best where we interview top performers in real estate who not only are successful in their business and the best in the world at what they do, but are also committed to giving great results for their clients and committed to having a life. And today's guest is one of my longtime, in fact, one of my longest time inner circle members, a true yes master who is a consummate professional, Mr. Alice Kalilaford from ReMax and Woodland Hills, California and also has an office in Brentwood and West LA. And Alex, my friend. It is. I'm so excited for this interview of getting to talk to you about your business and your success today.

Thank you, Kevin, for the very beautiful introduction. My name is Alex Clofort, as Kevin introduced me. I am in Woodland Hills, California. We cover Los Angeles county and it is an honor to be here.

Awesome. Awesome. So let's just. You've been in real estate now for five years, correct?

I got a license in 2014.

2014. So you're not in your fifth year?

Yes, that is correct.

So tell us a little bit. Just kind of give us an overview of your real estate path from the day when you get your license. Just kind of your how your business has grown from year one, year two, year three. Just kind of a quick overview of your business growth.

Absolutely. So I got my license in 2014 and I started working. I started interviewing all these different brokers and I made a decision to go with this ReMax location in Sherman Oaks. And I, you know, he was a wonderful guy. I'm actually still friends with him now and he's in this office because they kind of merged together. And I would just go to the office, be on my laptop, be on ebay and had no idea what to do. I got a call once and I got excited. I drove all the way to, it was really far. And then in Valencia, no pre qualifying nothing, no structures. You know, we had no idea what that was doing. I mean, it was just the way it was. And that's pretty normal. That's the beauty of it. That's really normal. I mean, when you get your license.

You don't know what you're doing.

Yeah, some brokers have very little training, but in general, you know, it's great for mediocre basics and that's what it was. So I was just after you Know, two, three, four months just hanging out in the office, being on ebay and just really pretending, you know, just put on my suit and really not, you know, much going on. I. One of the agents in my office came and said, hey, do you want to go to a coaching event? And to me the definition of coaching was someone that if you want to go to the gym, if you're looking for a personal trainer and so on. So I'll just fast forward quickly. Anyways, so he showed a couple of your videos, like, who's this guy? And then I'm like, okay, cool, I'll come with you. And it was on one of those partner tickets that you offer. So I came in, I sat down all the way in the back and with my cap on, on my laptop and I was on ebay again.

So you mentioned eBay now three times. What was this? Were you selling houses on ebay? What was this ebay thing?

Well, I'll tell you why, because before I actually, back in 1998, 99, when eBay was really fresh, I used to have a cell phone store. So on the back of the store I had an ebay store. You know, if people had merchandise and they didn't want, they just want to get rid of it, they would come to me, I would charge them X amount of percentage. I would sell it for them. So always involved into ebay, you know, and just buying, selling, and at different accounts, different corporations.

So that's why you're using ebay and selling stuff on consignment?

Pretty much, yes. Exactly.

Call it.

Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Something that Amazon's doing now and probably times millions bigger on a much bigger scale, but yeah, something like that, exactly. But that's what I was doing.

And you had a cell phone store.

Yes, in west la.

Was that what you did before real estate?

Yes. All right. Before, singular. If you guys don't guys remember singular and ATT when they merged. So they kind of forced us. I mean, they said you got to either be ATT now or you can continue doing what are you doing? So I wasn't, I mean, I had to make a big decision and that's when, you know, I always wanted to be in real estate because I love helping people. It's a lot of fun. Yep, that's how it happened.

Ah, okay. Alright. So now you're in real estate and then you see somebody told you to come to one of my camps.

Yeah, I actually have my first. It's right over here, which I want to bring it to today.

Event one of the most organized guys.

Like, I have all these events that I've gone to. So anyways, I. I went ahead and came to one of your events. It's so much. I want to bring him on because it's so much fun. People have to understand it takes a lot of dedication and involvement and coaching and training to really make it in real estate. So, yeah, I was sitting in the back, just chilling, and I started listening. When I was listening, I'm like, hey, there's something about this guy Kevin that actually makes sense. With sales, it's always, always be closing, closing, closing. And the first thing that stood out for me was always be connecting. I said, okay, cool, cool, Connecting. So I sat down, you know, day one, day two, day three. And I was really, really scared too, because it was a big decision. I'm like, I want to do coaching, but I don't know what to do. I didn't have really the financials to invest at that time. $2,000. Hey, I just met this guy. Yeah, what if he's a good con artist? What if, you know, he's, you know. So that went to 2014. So obviously in 2014, with that mentality, I made nothing. But the second event that you had. When I came in, I knew that I had already. I knew you more by then, and I kind of connected well with you. I. I asked a lot of questions from people at the event, and I always recomm. Look, if I want to go to a nice sushi place, I'm not gonna ask a sushi chef if your fish is good. I'm. Does that make sense?

That makes total sense.

So I just talked to so many people. I'm like, hey, everybody likes this guy, so, you know, maybe he's good. And the second event, that's when I signed up for the holiday challenge. So now we're. I think now that was enough. 2014, beginning 2015, I don't know exactly where it was now. I put the date behind all these. Before, I didn't. So I don't really know name tags. Yeah, I actually put the date because I want to know, hey, I've been to this event at this time. So that's what I.

So 2015, you signed up for coaching, which was actually your second event. I didn't realize that it took you two events to figure out.

But I mean, you have to understand, Kevin, you go from someone that you see coaching as, hey, only Kobe Bryant's have coaches. I mean, real estate and coach, what is that? You just go start, you know, so it was very different. Not people. You have to understand. Not everybody has that education to understand coaching is. Could be in anything you do. Look, if I'm making bottled waters, I could train a company that make me more efficient caps. You know what I'm saying? So that's. That's what it was.

Yeah. Awesome. So you sign up for the challenge in 2000. So it started in with really working together. We started working together in 2015.

Yeah. Your first 2014, we started. You're absolutely right.

In 2015, first full year real estate was 2014.

Yes.

And then 2015. So tell us how your business has grown.

So in 2014, obviously I made nothing. And that was easy. A lot of ebay again for the four times. But in 2015, you know, it was just still a lot of stuff, you know, from expireds, fizz bos. And it's all about the mindset. That's why I love you very much, because you just hammer it in that it's how important that is for you to have the right mindset and surround yourself with the right people. In 2050, I mean, that was just a foundation for me in 2015, meeting you brand new. And it was probably, I think it was April from what I remember, that I actually signed up for the challenge. And usually I think we have your events anyways, if I'm not mistaken. So I signed up for it. And in that year, as my first really, really full time agent with some directions, I think I made $114,000.

Okay.

One, four. And you have it written here. And then in that one on I obviously right after the challenge, I, I saw the value of what you actually bring in, which I thought it was actually cheap. I mean, I shouldn't tell you that.

Well, so, okay, challenges back when it was cheap. Right.

Did you. Your first challenge, even right now, it's cheap for how much value you're getting, in my opinion. But yes, to answer your question, it was back then. It was 1997 or you have all sevens.

It was 2000. Basically $2,000 for the challenge back in 2015. And today it's more than way more than twice that.

Yeah, but, but it's also way more value. I mean, what you had before to what you have now, I feel that you have dramatically added different elements. I mean, you're always investing yourself, which is another reason I like to stick with, with the yes Masters, because when you add value to yourself, you share that with us. I mean, you have coaches, you spend 50,000, you know, so many. I mean, God, Knows how like Tim Adams, you actually bring them to many of to train us. Which to me it's like, buy one, get seven free. It's not just one thing. Am I making sense? I mean, anyways, this is not about, you know, selling your products because you're not paying me commissions yet. That was 2050 and 2016. I went up from 114 to 278,000. And that's right after the first challenge, I jumped in inner circle because I knew there was value. Yeah, jumped in. I had a conversation with you about my marketing strategies and what you have. My mailers. It was one of the sports conversations we had, you know, with Alejandro Perez. I wrote things down. I'm like, hey, this is what I do. That's how much I put on Zillow. And this is what I'm spending here. And then you said, are you effing crazy?

We're going to talk about that in a minute. We're going to actually talk about your. What you do, like how you built your business, because it's different than the way I built mine. And it was an interesting. Our conversations were. Our early coaching calls were very interesting because I was coaching on stuff that like, okay, I'm coaching them on something I've never done before. Took the principles and you just mastered them and built something great. So anyway, we'll get to that in a minute.

So that was 2016, 270. 2017 was over 500,000, 540. And that's when I got the ReMax. What is it called? Hall of Fame. Yeah, so that's when I got it. I was 2017 and 2018. Last year, GCI was 770. Close to 800,000. That doesn't include one of the side deals. I did actually two on the side, which with those is well over 800,000 of some of the skills that you actually taught me of. When you find investors, how do you present yourself? Because it's all about value. You have to present yourself with value. The only way I can present myself with value is I. I got to become good. I got to understand how to communicate with individuals. I have to understand it's all about them and it's not about me. And the moment you do that, sky's the limit. So. And then for 2019, the goal is $1.2 million in GCI, seven figures, your.

Fifth year in the business.

That's your goal for this year, if you count the first year, that half ass year. Yes.

Which is great. And so you near. You have nearly doubled Your business every year?

Pretty much, yes.

We just started. We just started what we call the seven figure, the six figure plus award. And you'll be you. Basically, even though we weren't given it back then, you qualified for it every single year you've been in the business. And some years over a quarter of a million dollars income increase. In fact most of the years. So just congratulate first I want to just congratulate you again because you have been probably one of the most coachable people that I've ever worked with and I've worked with a lot of people because you one, you always are learning, you're always implementing and you're consistent and you follow a course of action until it succeeds.

I mean I'm just a good student. Kevin. Look, if you trust the system and you don't question it, this is what I find problems with many agents because I love working with new agents because they don't have the bad habits who I want to bring on my team. I want them to be brand new. The newer the better. See, it's very straightforward for you to understand that if you trust the system and you believe in it and you do exactly what it tells you to do, it's going to work.

It works.

It's that simple, man. Look, if I want to be on a diet, I can't be eating cheesecakes every night. It's really that simple. It's not a scientific formula. So I believed in your systems and that's what happened for me personally.

Excellent. So now you mentioned being a brand new agent. You mentioned working with new agents. So as a new agent, what was your greatest struggle? Like what was the hardest thing for you as a new agent?

Oh my God, it is. That's such an easy question man, because just no guidance. I had no idea what to do. There was no guidance, no structures. Even with some of the, you know, because I interview like I think four or five different brokerages and some of them actually attended some of the so called trainings. It's just so BS man. It's so basic. Like you have no guidance. You have, they always have this top producing agent, this idol. Oh my God, he makes so much money. He's good, you gotta do what he does. But nobody ever understood how it is to be a brand new agents and not understanding and not having that navigation to guide you through the process. So for me was just not doing what the hell is going on. Like to me was brand new. Look, from my mailers, I got a listing. This is like 2014 15. So the lady said, laura. We're going to say laura X. Doesn't matter. Show up. You know, I just. For the first time, I see zip form, how it is. Somebody helped me. I put it together. I sat with Laura for three and a half hours. It was beautiful. She had a beautiful soul. Speaking about Jesus for about three hours, I'm like, hey, this is normal. So I'm all, this is your listing appointment? Yes. So I'm just sitting there, I'm like, okay. So I guess Laura has to ask me, alex, hey, can I sign? So, what's going on? And the next you know, she hugs me. She's like, you're very young. This and that. So anyways, thank you for stopping by. So I grabbed my folder, I walk out. I'm like, what the F just happened was this. Anyways, this is a little funny story, but going back to guidance, which is really not knowing what to do. The answer to a question for me was one thing. Not having a path, which you have created, not having the beautiful Forte vortex that you've been training us, the A team, B team, C team, boom, boom, boom. We didn't have that. Right. You just write them down. There was no CRM. There was nothing. Nobody taught me that. So that was really, really, for me, a learning process. That's what happened. Yep.

That is awesome. So what would you say that was really. From that first year of making no money, what was the breakthrough moment? What was the biggest breakthrough moment anywhere in your career? What was the biggest breakthrough moment? That was like that. This changed everything.

It was actually. Remember when it was. I was in your event, my hands were sweating. I was scared. I was terrified. And it was freaking coaching. And I mean, investing 2,000, 10,000, 15,000 in yourself, that's a lot of money. And as you know, when the average agent is selling two to three homes a year, their average is making, what, 32 grand a year? When something like that happens, it is terrifying. When you have to invest five grand, six grand, or even 500 bucks per month, it's a lot of money. So for me, that transition was. I'm like, f this, I'm gonna do it. And really involving myself into coaching so I could understand the systems and realizing one thing, and this is something for everybody to understand that you can't do everything on your own. Look, and I always talk to my friends about this. If the windshield wiper on my car stops working, I can probably go to bad boys, get it replaced. Well, when it's a freaking transmission, I can't do it. And coaching for me was a transmission. It started me year number one, year number two, and then it got me going. I mean, when you start from, you know, whatever kind of car you have, you start from one mile per hour. And some cars, you do 200 Bugatti, you do over 200 miles per hour, but you start from one, and it's. That is on the transmission that push you forward. Does that make sense, Kevin?

Absolutely. Makes total. Makes total sense.

For me, it was just making that decision for coaching, and it was a hard one, man. I got to be honest. It was very difficult financially. And also just. I'm like, oh, my God, this is a lot of money, you know?

Well, and you'd never. You'd never experienced the value of having a coach before.

Absolutely. I never had a coach.

That's true for those that are watching this, that have never had a coach, and I'm going to just throw this out, and we'll talk a little bit more about your coaching, because I know you invest, probably because I'm not. You have, like, multiple coaches, right. And so as your business has grown, you're bringing in so much different information that you're getting from different coaches, which can be sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it's. But it's. All of it can help you grow. But there is a difference between having a good coach, a bad coach, and no coach. That having a bad coach is probably worse than having no coach. So you got to make sure you find the right coach.

I mean, Kevin, you just touched on a very, very sensitive yet true subject. I have been to events for, for example, Mr. X or Mr. Y. Names are not important. That when I walk out of the event, I'm like, this son of a gun was full of bs. And one thing that I always respect you for and I admire by you is the fact of no bs, man. I learned that from you. And I have applied that to my relationship with my wife. I have applied that to my. To my family, to my sisters, to my neighbors, to. To my sellers, to my buyers. I'm like, look, if you want this, you got to do this. It's that simple. And I learned that from you. And that had nothing to do with real estate. I mean, think about it. That has absolutely nothing to do in real estate. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Absolutely. It's just because that's the way I believe is. I hated the thing. At the first big thing I hated about real estate, it was all the BS they told us, say this, the scripts they gave Us, like, we're so full of bs, Like, I'm a buyer for your home. Not gonna do this. I'm not gonna go that way. And that was a hard thing for me to figure out and hold on to that value 100%. I appreciate you mentioning that and that you can get yes. Without the bs. And that's why you build your business.

I mean, look, everybody has to understand you can work with everyone. And you don't want to work with everyone. If someone's an a hole, why the hell would you want to work with them? I rather generate so many good leads that I choose who I want to serve with. Absolutely. And those that you know, they decide to want to work with me. That 85%, let's say they respect what I say. I don't have to go back and forth about price adjustments, about commission, about this and that because they know I'm there for their best interest. Does that make sense, Kevin?

Absolutely. That's awesome. So let's talk about your business. Let's talk about how you built it, how you made money and so forth. So I want to talk first off about when we first met. And I guess it was at the second event and you signed up for the challenge. And I don't remember if it was later when we had our first conversation was when you joined the Inner Circle or not. But you told me that you did all this direct mail was how you built your business with geographic farming.

Yeah, that was actually our first. Just so you know where it was, I want to refresh your memory because I know I'll tell you exactly where it was. It was at the Terranea and it was the first because I signed up. And then at that event, when I signed up with Inner Circle, you guys, I mean, you had scheduled like in 10 days or in 5 days, whatever days you had your event at Terna. And I think it was the same weekend too, because back then you used to do them back to back. Like it was. I don't know exactly what it was.

I don't remember exactly.

That was the event at the turnout result here in la.

Okay, so that was. That was your first Inner Circle mastermind with that we were together and then that's when you told me that you were doing this. Direct mail was your primary way of you were doing lead generation, which during the challenge, you're also doing all the phone calling and prospecting, all that. But you built your business with direct mail. Right? That's how you, how you build it. So let's kind of. I Want to talk, let's dive into that a little bit is how you've done that. And I think mainly because people, it's a traditional lead generation method in real estate is geographic farming. But it doesn't work for most agents. They don't, they fail at it. And you, you've had massive success in it. So tell us about how you've done it and, and then lay out for us. If somebody is, is saying, I want to build a geographic farm, I want to build my business this way or use it as an element of building my business, how do I do it?

Well, in my opinion, you should only do and start doing geographic farming. You got to be already producing. I don't recommend for anyone to go and put stuff on their credit cards or borrow the money or, or thinking this is that magic bullet or that shiny shovel that, hey, I got this. It's perfect. Now I can go ahead and I found that. You know the secret of start pumping out some mailers. I'm going to start doing business because let me tell you what happened to me when I did that in the beginning, because I started my farming in 2014, end of 2014, I didn't know you well. Right. So when leads would come in, they would call me. I did not have the expertise and the skills, A, to connect with them and B, to be able to convert it. I didn't know what I was doing.

Right.

So if you are given a lot of leads without a solid foundation, which again, it takes me back to coaching, then you have no clue what you're doing. Look, nowadays we can generate so many leads from Facebook, but if you don't know what to say, if what comes out of your mouth doesn't make sense, guess what, you're not gonna be covering crap. And then you're gonna blame Facebook. They're gonna blame, I don't know, whatever platform using that they're giving you bad leads. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So you're saying, so you're saying the geographic farming was the way you generated the lead, but it's what happens once you get to the lead that determines whether or not you get a client.

Absolutely. I mean, look, you could go to Starbucks and get leads. You could go to wherever you want to connect with people. Geographic Farming is just one out of the gazillion 20 different methods, 50 different methods that you can, they can get leads 100%. It's nothing special about it, but if you have to have systems for it, like your A team that you train as the B team, how does somebody qualify for a B team? Why is that person a C team? I mean, once you know that, when you. That's when I think you should be investing in anything, including direct mail, including fizz1 expire. I mean, including Facebook. That's why, you know, I like your training. When you do about for sub by owners and expireds, you don't have to invest much. What you're investing is in yourself, in the coaching. You're investing in the training. It's like the skills. Look, you can take everything away from me, but I have the skills to make it back.

Okay, so that's what you train on.

See, that's huge.

Let's break it. Let's dive into that real quick because we'll come back to geographic farming. But what you said is so important that geographic farming was not really the secret. The secret was that once you got a lead from the geographic farming or whatever, because you do Facebook marketing now and you do, you do all kinds of lead generation now beyond that. But the key is learning the conversations. So tell us about how did you master what to say and how to say it?

Oh, boy. Well, it was 2015 when I started with the first challenge. I want to tell everybody there is no shortcut. I'm not better than you. I'm not smarter than you. No one smarter than you. Very, very straightforward. I used to role play two hours a day. I would come to the office, start role playing from 6 to 8. And this was so intensive for me that at 8 o', clock, like, screw this, I can't even prospect now. I was so tired. So I used to leave the office. I'm telling you, I used to just leave my remax office. Obviously by that time there's still nobody in the office.

I mean, at 8 o' clock in the morning, yeah.

So I would walk to a local, you know, close by Subway, grab myself a sandwich, just kind of get some fresh air. I'm like, okay, now, now it's like that reset button on your router if your wi fi isn't working. You know what I'm saying? I would just walk back and then I would like rejuvenate and then try to get back to what I was supposed to do. But the point is the most and then the sink. I also learned that from you, by the way, was prospecting is worthless if you don't know what to say. Prospecting is a waste of time if what comes out of your mouth is a bunch of BS and you don't believe in it and you can't even sell it to yourself. So it was, for me, was a practice. It was. I have one of those oldest books, Gavin, the one that you have from, I think spy version 1.0, whatever it was. But it was just going over all the scripts, just role playing. Role playing, yes. The original one that you had, it wasn't even color than I think. I think it was blow. I don't know what it was, but I have it somewhere safe. You know, it's like my Bible, man. But I would just role play and role play and role play two hours a day. And it wasn't fun. And I was not enjoying it. It wasn't easy. Like my. My. Like, I'm like. I'm like, holy crap, what am I doing? Yeah. This is a lot of content that we had to master.

So what were the scripts? You're role playing Main.

Mainly that you remember in the beginning, it was the expired script, obviously, because that's what you trained us with. It was foresight by owner. And he would say, I have an agent. I want to look. Because you helped me understand what is an objection. What is a condition. Right? The moment I hear something, there is one filter. I call it Kenworth filter. I put it in front of him. Boom. Is this objection or is that a condition? Look, if your wife is an agent and she'll divorce your ass. If you're gonna use somebody, some of the, you know, agent, it doesn't matter how many objections you have. I mean, doesn't matter how you handle it. You can't handle that one. Right? It was just. It was for so obvious. And he was. I still have him here. I can. I don't want to mess up the camera, but I have. Hey, we need to think about it. The deduction approach, where you pay a commission. Pricing objection right there. Boom. That's not enough. I want higher. You know, I wanted to master those. And it was because you have it. Because in a way, Kevin, you make it. I can't say easy, but you make it simple. Like in your Honey challenge, it was just very structured. You do this like the blindfold. You guys have no idea. That was when I. When I did it, I felt so freaking amazing. And it was not easy.

So tell.

What.

Tell people you're talking about. Because they're like the blindfold.

Speaking about the listing presentation. I apologize. It is four pages. It's everywhere. Look, if I bend down, they're all here. They're your books. You know, it's by the prospecting station and we had to memorize it. Four pages. You have the two. The two page version. Now, I don't know if you had it then or not, but it was just memorizing it. And then we had to blindfold ourselves. Recorded on YouTube. I had never used YouTube before. I mean, I didn't know what this was. So that was really challenging. Which again, it goes back to practice. I want everybody to understand one thing. Your question was what? You know, one of the first things that in my opinion is the most powerful thing is how much time you put in working on your craft, on your skills, on what you do, which in our case as salespeople is what you say, what comes out of your mouth. If you have a bunch of BS coming out, it's not gonna work. So that's the answer to a question. I know my question. You know, I guess I wanted. They're long. But that was role play for me, baby. Role play. I still do it.

So you, how much time do you spend it? Because you were doing two hours a day then and you were memorizing. You memorized the listing presentation. You memorize all the other scripts and they're objection handlers. You're role playing them every day. So you're not just memorizing them, but you're mastering how to present them.

Yeah, well, it's all about, you know, you memorize it. This is what you. You memorize, internalize, and you master. I'm only interested in mastery. Screw memorizing. Screw, you know, you know, internalize it. I want to be master. This is what I'm committed in doing. I. When it, when I buy, like I got to. In the past two days, I've got like three, two buyer appointment sign. You know, they come to my office, one listing up. But the point is, I want to be so good and so efficient, such a great servant that doesn't matter what a buyer says. I have something that is non BS to communicate with them. Right. Or when a seller says about pricing, I want to be able to master it so I can lead them to the right decision. Which is why we go on listing appointments or buyer presentations. Make sense?

Absolutely.

See? Makes sense. That's a title I learned from you.

So how much time. How long. How much time do you spend role playing? Now, wait, because you pretty well. How do you still pro play every day?

Or do you. Absolutely. Yeah, I. And some days I do an hour, even though I want to. I want to limit it to 30 minutes. Look, you guys have no idea how important that is. So right Now I'm rolling 30 minutes, minimum to an hour. And this is Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sundays. Look, you trained us to have a life. Yep. I want to have a life. If I choose to run open house. I mean, listen to the word that I use. When I choose to do an open house, I don't have to do it. That's different. So I don't role play on Saturday and Sundays. However, if I'm in a. In an open house with another agent on my team, guess what we're doing. Welcome. Come on in. Are you working? You know, will I practice? In a way, I guess now when I think about it, I do a halfway roleplay. You know, in open houses, when we have time between clients and so on, it's game on.

I love it. Okay, so let's go back now to geographic farming.

Yeah.

So one, you said don't start as a brand new agent doing geographic farming. You need to start making money. And then once you start getting production, getting listings and sales, then you can invest in geographic farming. That's your first recommendation.

Absolutely, yes.

And then second, you said that it's not the, that the first step is getting the word out with, with the direct mail. But then whenever people call you or whatever from the geographic mailing or you talk to people, knowing what to say and how to say it is the most important part.

So the vortex, putting everybody in the vortex.

So that means bringing people, once you connect with somebody is bringing them into a relationship and then learning how to build that relationship with what we call the real estate vortex.

Exactly.

Okay, cool. And so, and the A team, B team, and C team that you're talking about is part of the real estate vortex of how you decide is somebody like A team or B team or C teamer, which is way more than we need to get into on this.

You know, Kevin, thank you for reminding me, because, look, I've been so involved in your coaching, so when I say A team, I am automatically assuming that you know what that is. So I apologize to all the audience if someone's watching. A team is not Alexis. Team is A team and B team and C team. It's, it's, it's some of the vortex that really supported that Kevin has been like hammering into our head, like, you got to do it this way, you got to do it this way. And look, I get a listing from three years ago, easy, because of vortex, because they have a home, I have systems for them, which is the real estate vortex, which is amazing.

Which is how you build a relationship with people, maintain a relationship with People maintain top of mind awareness so that when they are ready to buy or sell, they're calling Alex.

Exactly.

All right, so now let's go back to the geographic farming if. Tell us, do you remember. So in our first conversation, what did I tell you? What did I say was the most important measure of whether it was succeeding or not? You remember that?

Absolutely. I remember all the important conversation in my life. You sat me down. We were actually sitting by the beach in front of us, and you asked me, what is your X? How many X, R, Y you are getting on your mailers? And I had no idea what it was. So you actually sat me down. You said you got to go. I had to go through all the numbers. And then I think it was not even 2x. And your recommendation always minimum, minimum 6x. If it's not 6x, then you got to do something about it because you got to understand the time that you put in, the effort that you put in. It's not just money. It's not just $100. You get 600 back. What are all the time you put it. So you actually had me go through my numbers to see how much I was spending? $3,923. Fuck. I have. Excuse my. I remember that every month. Every month on that credit card, you know, was spending. I had to write it down. And that's really what happened. So once we did that, I realized I was not tracking anything. That's when I realized I don't know what's going on in my business.

Yeah, that's huge.

Like, that's. And you'll be surprised, Kevin. Most agents have no freaking clue what they're doing.

No, I'm not surprised.

Or where they're spending. I mean, I had to learn. Hold on a second. You just invested over a hundred thousand dollars in Mach. You don't know exactly what cost you're having with your mailers.

Right?

Am I making sense?

You're making total sense. So we started out with. You were less. You were a little. I think you were like 1.2 or 1.6. I don't remember. ROI, which means for every. So 6x ROI is what I say. That's your minimum standard of a profitable business. Lead generation model. Which means for every thousand dollars you spend, you should make 6,000.

Yes.

And that's. I said that's the standard. So now we're not there yet. But we. You'd only been doing this for like barely over a year. And so I'm like, okay, so that's where we want to go. And let's just make sure that we're going on that track.

Absolutely. So, so, Kevin, let me jump in quickly and explain this to you. The reason I was not making the 6X, it wasn't because the direct mail wasn't working. It was because I didn't have the systems when the lead would come in, what to do with it and what to say. I mean, that part that's just so powerful, I did not know that. So it wasn't that the, you know, that's why I said nobody should get into direct mail until they have had good, sufficient intensive training with what to say. Because if you are handing all these leads, if you have that, let's say you are handed this magic bullet called postcard, and you send it out, boom, you get all these calls. If you don't know what to say, what is that good for? Right? Because I experienced it, Kevin. I mean, I want everybody to understand I wasted thousands of dollars in marketing, which I then found out when I went and checked those listings. They were listed with somebody else. So my marketing was work. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's brutal. It's really. I mean, it puts a bit. It puts a really bad taste in your mouth when you see that you have invested so much money. You got the calls, but they listed with somebody else because you had no systems for it. So I'm sorry I had to stop you, but I want, I mean, it's the second time that I want everybody to understand systems and your skills are more important than lead generations and engineering leads. This is very powerful. If you don't know what to do with it, it doesn't matter how many of it you have.

Right. And that's what a lot of agents are like. I need leads. I need leads. But if you can't get a lead, somebody hands it to you like you said, somebody hands it to you and you don't know what to do with it. You got. You end up with nothing. This is still a learning how to talk to people, connect with people.

Absolutely.

Decision is the irreplaceable skill set. Even in 2019 and 2020 and beyond, even with technology, it's still where you make the money.

Yep. Yes, sir.

That is so cool.

So you were asking me a question about geographic farming.

I'm an agent. I'm making some money. I want to start a geographic farm. If you were starting over on a, you know, a reasonably limited budget, but making money, how would you start exactly? And just Give us a quick rundown.

That's a fun question, man, I love that question. Because look, I had put out about 600,000 pieces until I got this down. I'm like, holy crazy. I mean, that's a lot. I mean, just do the math. Even if a lot of money, even 600,000, your best cost, even if it's 45 cents apiece, 50 cents, $300,000, that's what, 3,000? How many thousand, Bill? So it's a lot of stuff that I've gone through, but going back to really, if you are an agent and you're making some money and you want to implement this as one of the other systems that you are going to implement, this cannot be your only one. And that's why, you know, what Kevin called trickle leads. There are so many different ones that we get trained on to really have all these funnels feeding. There's one from here, one from there, one from there. So this way if Mr. Google decides to do something with it, with the algorithm, we're not all of a sudden completely leadless or prospect less as Kevin likes to call them, because they're not leads, they're prospects. Anyways, so with geographic farming, my first recommendation is when you have made the money, pick a form of about a thousand homes. And I want to you why? I said it's very powerful. See, I own a print shop and a mail house, so I know about prices. You guess, you know, you get your. I guess the best bang for the buck that you get when you use outside printers is when you print either a thousand, 2500 or 5000. Why? Because that's how the softwares are just written and that's how the systems are built. You can do 850. Yes, you can, but you're not gonna get that great discount. A lot of times if I want to send a market, if I was sending market to about 1500 homes, I would order 2,500, dump 1,000 of it. It would still be cheaper if I did. It's very interesting. So you pick a 500,000. You know, and I remember I did a little training on this before also. And then you want to study that market. Who's the agent dominating that market first of all, before that, the first thing you want to do is the roi. And your ROI is your return on investments. How much money do you want to make? I mean, what kind of strategy do you have going in? So that takes you to the turnover. Turnover tells you how fast and how frequent homes are selling in that pocket. Generally I Recommend Anything over 5%. It's very difficult to find more than that in Los Angeles in certain areas. But you do 5%, you study it. Because also a good thing with a thousand is you can doorknock them. And if you door knock them, that takes away one marketing expense. You can use your feet have that face to face connection and you know, statistically they say that one face to face connection with you. When I knock on your door one time, it's equivalent to 13 mailers, one 300%. So this is so this is so huge. Yeah. Are you going to look, are you guys going to run into a holes at the door you go after? Yeah, it happens to me all the times. It's part, it's the name of the game is part of the game. We have people like that out there. So when you have a thousand, it's realistic for you as a solo agent by yourself, without a team, without anything to take care of it and nurture it. Am I making sense so far, Kevin? Totally. Yeah.

Yep.

So really what I, what I started doing was sending a market update because something that I quickly learned from Kevin was you got to be always about adding value. You cannot, it's. People don't give a crap about who you are, how many homes you've sold, who your father is, who your mom is, what kind of car you drive. Nobody gives a crap about that. They want to see what can you do for me, what can you do for me. So when you add value to people, you are automatically helping them, upping their game, upping their scans for them to understand exactly what's going on in the market. So that's how you add value to them. Totally. And I'm actually bringing a lot of, to that next event to Dylp, I am bringing a printout for the first time of everything that I sent to my farm. I'm going to bring it, hand it out the actual piece, which I have it in my second office so people can see how it is and why did I strategically chose it that way? So anyway, sometimes I get up, you know. So going back to the farm, a thousand homes, number one turnover minimum 5%. Number three is you want to touch them once a week.

Okay, once a week. Mailer, mailer and or a door knock.

Yes, you could doorknock and once or once a month you could send three mailers in a month. So that's three mailers. By walking them, you already saved on a mailer. That's, that could be a lot of money. And being consistent and Doing it and doing it and very important is holding open houses for other agents that have listings in that pocket. You'll be surprised. Agents are very lazy. They do one open house and that's it. Or even more interestingly, is they don't want to do any open house at all. So what do you do? You put you. You create a little bit like a buyer search criteria on MLS for your pocket, for. For your farm. And anytime there's a new listing, you send an email to that agent. Hey, Alex, my name is so and so. I just wanted to tell you that, you know, this is what I do in open houses. I wanted to know if you're open for me to hold your open house. I want to bring refreshments. I want to do this. I want to do. I want to, you know, door knock the neighborhood. You're gonna benefit with getting your listing sold. And I'm going to benefit hopefully from your listing. I find a buyer. Would that be okay? Now, is every listing, every agent want to say yes to you? Of course not. But look, even if one out of ten. Yes. Say yes, you just got your foot in the. In the door of your farm, and now you're door knocking. Not just with a market update, but you're using Kevin's open house event strategy, inviting them with the invitation that he trains us, how you can get it from, you know, so cheap, get them printed or, you know, very, very inexpensive. Right, Inexpensive. And then you just go and invite them to the open house. Now they're getting your mailers, you're adding value to them, and they see you as doing business. And this is how you built credibility for yourself, so people can see you, recognize you, and put the pieces together so you can think. I can promise you one thing. The chances of any agent sending one marketing pieces or one touch per. Per week in your market, it's almost close to zero. Yeah. I have talked to many, many top producing agents. They're not doing it.

So how long.

How.

How long do you do a mailer every single week? For three months. For three months every week.

That means 12. That is 12 mailers. Maybe bam, bam, bam, you're sending it. And after that, you do three a month. You do three times a month? Once every 10 days. Now, guys, let's be. Let's be realistic. If one month you want is two days early or two days late, don't overthink it. You just want to make sure on average, you're sending the three something that I forgot. Before you start any geographic marketing, you must you must have your first six mailers ready. This is powerful because you're going to go in, you're going to put all your eggs in one basket. You're going to send that mailer like, holy crap, what's next? What do I do next? So you must design it, get it ready, have your coach look at it, get the approval that looks good and then mail it out. Make sense that way there.

So that way you're not running like running behind and stressing out. You've got them ready. So now you can stay ahead of the game rather than trying to play catch up.

Absolutely. And one thing that also I want everybody to add to our notes is you always have to have minimum, two mailers ready. Minimum. That's at all times. Doesn't matter if it's Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, whatever, new listing, just sold, whatever. You know, all these different stuff, you must have to ready because trust me, you get your one or two or three transactions, you'll get busy.

Yeah.

Going to not be consistent. It's going to drop and then you are going to say direct mail doesn't work. Doesn't work. That doesn't. Does that make sense?

So the, I mean, the obvious magic to this is just your consistency. How long must I commit to do a geographic farm before it makes sense?

Six to 18 months of nothing.

So plan on six to 18 months before I make a dime.

Yes, sir.

So if I'm not committed to doing this for at least two years, I might as well not start.

That's exactly why I mentioned if you're not already making money in real estate. Yep. And you're not investing the money that you are making into direct money you should do into direct recommend you shouldn't do it. You're absolutely right. Yeah. Because look, I have three farms right now. Every farm, every or every area that I target is very different. You have different races, different ethnicities, different backgrounds. You have, you have condos now. You have single families. They're completely different. So you can go in with like, oh my God, six months. Yeah, I want to put in my money for six months. No, you may. Look, I have one farm right now that I've invested with. Somebody has over 300,000. And believe it or not, we are getting ready to pull the. We are getting ready to pull the plug on it. Why? Because the experience that I had three and a half years ago, it's not what I have today. I would have not started at one farm. We call it Farm X. Location is not important because I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know. Okay, well, maybe I should look at the ROI or the turnover or what kind of people are there? Are they condos, are they homes?

And it's just not getting the ROI that you expect.

Absolutely, absolutely. It's just not there.

So I love the fact that you're playing at a level that the way you just started, you played at a level most people never get to because they're like, you spent how much in that? So I want to move on here to a couple of other things that are really, really critical. Because you built it with. Geographic farming was one of your key cornerstone sources of lead generation. You still have multiple lead generation sources, which you've always done. And we. And I think it's more critical than ever before. Let's talk about a couple other things. One, I want to talk about listings and how you built your listing business because you've done something that very, very few top real estate agents have done, and that is you have never had a listing. Not sell. You sell every single listing you take. How in the world do you sell every single. And even over the last year, when the market has started slowing down, you still sold every single list listing. How do you do that? What do you do different than other agents that says, I don't ever. I just sell every single listing I take for top dollar. How do you do it?

It's actually very simple. There are four things that you have trained us that makes every listing sellable. And I'll just go through it briefly. Number one is you price them well. Number two is you take beautiful pictures you put on mls. Number three is you make him show really good when somebody's showing them. And number four is you make him easy to show. No appointments, none of that crap. Make it easier. Agents are very lazy. So when you have. When you. When you have those four check marked for every transaction, when you want to get into, it's gonna sell. Look, guys, if, God forbid, there is a fire, if there's an earthquake, if there's something happens that is not in your control, but if you follow the basics and you know how to communicate with your sellers, it's all that difficult. And the key and the most important thing for me has been from your training that I've always taken away with me is just be straightforward with them. We don't want to tell clients what they want to hear. And believe it or not, when I'm sitting at a listening appointment with you and I look at you dead in the eye, And I say, look, Kevin, I have two options here right now. Number one is for me to tell you what you want to hear so I can get your signature and walk out of here with the listening. Or option number two is for me to tell you a truth so you can get the result that you want. Which one do you want? When you do that and you mean it and you genuine and you have the track record, what do you think the answer is going to be? Well, of course, you know. You know, tell me the truth. I'm like, okay, this is what you wanted. That is how much the other home sold because of blah, blah, blah, it's better than yours. Or it could be. It doesn't matter. Now, if you want to make this move, I might get to San Diego or to Colorado, wherever you're going. This is the strategy that we have being straightforward, Kevin. And this is so simple, guys. I feel. Most of us feel we have to BS to get the result we want. We don't have to. That's something I learned from the yes master and the coaching. And I use the same strategy with my wife. I'm very straightforward with my mom. My mom, you know, with Persian. And sometimes all the food they make, you know, is very, very greasy. I'm like, mom, look, if you're going to make, you know, my favorite dish and it has a lot of oil, I want to take it from you, but I don't want to trash it. Do you want that? And then. But she respects it. And next time, guess what happens? You train people.

Yeah.

So going back to how it is, because people always ask me, you know, I can advertise and say I sell 100% of my listings, and I can do it all day long. You guys can take my mls. It's public information anywhere ways. Yeah. Following the four steps and being straight actually works. Well, it's been working for me. I mean, look, and let me add something else to this, Kevin. Because we are in a shift in market in Los Angeles, my listings are taking longer to sell. Look, my listings used to selling eight days. Not anymore. But guess what? Because I have the skills that I've been learning through coaching and training, I know how to communicate with the homeowners to lead them to the right decision. Because the right decision that we had two months ago has changed. So we got it. So we got a go on. We got to go back to it and rethink it and make a better decision based on how the market is. It's not what I say. It's not what you say, Mr. Seller, it's what the market says. Wow. Based on the market. That's how it is. I never have price reduction troubles. If there's no motivation, if somebody. Look, there are situations, there are exception. Nothing is a black and white in this world. World, it's not. But when you communicate with them and then you have some facts showing them, hey, this is what's going on. This is what was going on three months ago when we met. And then we were on the market a month and a half ago, but here's where we are today. So you have really three options. Number one is, and I did this yesterday, Kevin. That's why I remember. So I'm like, look, option number one is we can just let it be the way it is. Option number two is you can do a price reduction so we can get you a result that you want and get. Just get some buyer traction. Number three is, look, take it off the market. I don't want to. Look, maybe this is not the best time for you to sell or you rent it out because I'm here to do what's right for you, not to get that commission check. And when they hear that, I promise you one thing. Not only you are a better servant, you help them make a better decision. And that's what matters to me, you know, I want you to make a better decision. That's why I make a lot of money. And I tell them too. I'm like, look, you want to hammer down a commission, I make a lot of money because I tell you exactly what it is. If you have cancer, sir, you got cancer. Your stage two. We got to do this. Boom. Then we're gonna do that. I'm bam. You're gonna take care of it. Being straightforward, telling people what the truth is versus not telling what they want to hear. Look, I want to say one thing, Kevin, one last thing on this subject. You are going to have clients, they're going to walk away from you. Oh, yeah. You're going to have clients. They're going to say, you know, who the f do you think you are? And so on. You are going to have unrealistic buyers and sellers, but it's okay. You get to choose who you work with because you are generating so many leads, good leads, motivated leads, people that want expertise that you're flying.

Oh, no, I love that. And here's what I know everybody can see in Alex as he's talking to us is when he says straightforward conversation, what you see is the confidence and the conviction that makes it Almost impossible to say no to because he believes so firmly in serving his clients and he believes in what he's telling them. And so that belief behind your words is what will cause people to follow you.

Right?

That belief has got to be there. So I love it.

I just want everybody to understand one thing. Where did that belief come from? It came from somewhere from those two freaking hours of role playing. From the time that you put in role playing, from all the practices, from all these events, these. It's not just, hey, I'm not smarter than anybody. I'm not better than anybody. I just put in the time. I work, I work and I work.

I just want to in there, you out train everybody.

That's all it is.

And then you train me.

Exactly. I look, I'm the first that comes in the office. I turn on the lights Islamic, and I turn off the lights when I leave. Well, actually automatic, I don't think I turn them off. But I gotta go in the front, do it because it's hard work, baby. You got to do it. You got to do it because of financial freedom, which is another thing that you've been teaching us.

All right, so then there's so much good stuff. Okay, so now. Now that is, I think, like, these are huge breakthroughs that most agents, as they're listening to this, going like, wow, you can actually sell every single listing. Not only that, but you don't discount your commission. So now let's talk about. You're in a market where literally you on average get a full point seller listing agent commission. You get sellers to pay you in your pocket a full point, a full percentage commission higher than the average commission in your market. So tell us how that works. How do you do that? How do you get.

And that's a great question, by the way. And the answer to that is, I'm in Los Angeles, and here the standard commission for the buyer side is two and a half percent, even though we are seeing a lot of 2%, which disgusts me, by the way. But it's half percent. When I meet with sellers and I do my listing presentation, I am already pre sold to them. Because let me tell you guys why people Google you. This is something that Kevin started hammering into our head four years ago, which, you know, at the time that I said, you know how YouTube worked those times? So you start understanding that it is really, really important for you to have that online presence. So the way when I. It's all about how you present yourself. And I promise you one thing. Yeah, we have certain Races and ethnicities, that it's just got to happen to make him feel good. I. You can give them an ice cream and they'll feel good. They feel like they got something from you, Right? That's fine. Look, I'm Persian. I'm from Iran. In Iran, you walk into store, if this Wade is $2, they want to price it 220. So you can say, oh, can we do it for $2? And then you feel good, you got it for $2, but you know, you paid exactly what it was worth. I get how it is. However, I feel the only time you get some objections about commission, it's when you haven't done a great job delivering your value. Why is it we don't question? I mean, I don't remember the last time somebody negotiated with their surgeon, with their doctors. I don't remember that.

Yep.

Why do you think they don't do that? Because they believe in him. And, ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news for you. We agents come from an industry that we have the worst reputation. We are being compared with car salespeople, mechanics. So you have to deliver so much value that when they speak with you, from the very first conversation, when you talk to them on the phone, you have to be so good. From the first video you send them, you got to be so professional, so polished, so smooth. From the thank you card that you send, it's going to be so nice that everything about you as a package stands out. Mm. Everything about you, it's not just, you look good if you're pretty. If you're growing, you're pretty. No, no, that's not gonna do it. If you're a guy and you just want to do one thing, it's a package. It's like a Big Mac. You have the bun, you have the little patty, you have the little sauce. I mean, you try to make that sauce at home, whether it's. Whether it's healthy, cancerous, we don't care about that. But try to make it at home. It's just. It always tastes the same.

It's a cocktail.

Yeah, absolutely. So the better you become, you know how to communicate with people. With proper communication and great practice, which we call role play, it comes a lot of conviction that they know, boom. This guy or this gal knows what the hell he or she's talking about, it's that. That they're not going to question it.

And then, because you've had the straightforward conversations with previous sellers, you've told them the truth, your listings sell faster. They sell for More money. So now you have a track record that backs up. I sell homes for more money than the other agents do. And here's why.

Absolutely. I mean, I have over 130, 140 reviews just on Zillow altogether from different website. Close to 300. A lot of times I don't need to talk about it. Yeah. Guess what? They already looked you up, My friends. They already looked at it. That's why they probably called you. It's not back in the days that it's only referrals. Even nowadays, even with referrals, even though something like Kevin calls a trust gap, it's a lot. It's a lot more narrow with the referrals. They still look you up.

That's right.

So. So if you communicate all of that to sellers, I promise you guys one thing. If you know what to say and what is coming out of your mouth is for their best interest, not your pockets. They feel it. Let me ask you guys a question. Has it happened when you go to a gym, some guy or some gal did not wear deodorant? You smell them? I always say it. That commission breath. That's what it's called. People can feel it. If you've been genuine versus if you've been a scumbag. And you just out there for the commission check.

Yeah.

Once you have that. See, I said I'm speaking about value a lot because in my opinion, value is tied into your. To your self esteem and your conviction. When you say something. If you don't, if you can't sell it to yourself, you can't sell it to anyone. My friends, if you can't sell your own product to yourself, you can't sell it to anyone. That's mostly good in what I do because I believe in myself, not because I'm the best or I feel I'm the best. I know I will do everything my. In my power and my control to get you the best results. That's powerful. Look, if you have cancer, I'll say you're home for free because you. You got to be able to be there for them.

Mm.

And you'll be surprised what universe is gonna do for you.

Man, that's awesome. I love that. So somebody says, somebody asked, challenges you on your commission and says, will you do it for less? What do you say? How do you handle that?

You know, that's it. I always say. That's a great question. So what's important to you about paying less commission? I grabbed the ball and I put it back in their Court, I want to hear, what is it? Is it because they simply asked, is it because their cousin said, if you go with, I don't know, XBC realty, you have 4%. I want to know what's important to you.

Yeah, so and so said they would do it for less.

Absolutely. So I want to hear exactly why you're asking that. And you know, guys, sometimes people must net a certain amount of money. They have to. They're buying a home. It has to be, for example, $80,000 net. So in a situation like that, I make a business decision, which. Kevin, you always trained us. This is a business decision. It is my business. I make all the decisions. And I want to just like you and take care of you. Look, guys, I've taken listings, I've sold listing at half a percent because you're getting a fucking divorce. Excuse my language. I want to help you. I don't care about money. You just pay my fees. What I'm paying to do my company, it's good to give back. I have investor packages for my investors that are feeding me 5, 10, 15 listings a year. Are you doing that 4%? I'm not sitting here, I'm like, hey, everything's 6%. No, no, no, no, no. You got to be very straightforward. If someone's feeding you more and more business, that is very different. But that doesn't mean I am giving away my value. I have made a business decision. Very different. Something that I learned is from you, Kevin, was you have to make a business decision, and so on. So once you communicate that to the homeowners, based on every situation, look, if final, God forbid, you have cancer, which I've had it, I'll do it for you. I mean, if I know you're going to take this money and do chemotherapy, I mean, come on, guys, when you're selling 40, 50, 60, whatever, how many homes a year, it feels so amazing to do 1, 2, 3, so many of them away for nothing, just to give back to the community. And it feels good. And I promise you, it's just. It's priceless. I mean, I don't want to get too detailed into it, but getting the commission at 6%, if you know your value. And let me say one thing, Kevin. This is what. This is what I want you, every one of your agents, to ask yourself, am I worth 6%? Go in front of a mirror without anybody. Don't be full of shit. Ask yourself the question, am I worth 6%? If you start stuttering and you don't believe in it, Guess what? You'll be getting a lot of those objections, my friends. Yep. That's simple. Yep.

And that's your belief, is what feeds their belief and what your value is.

Yes, sir, 100%, Gavin. That's exactly what it is. Because I know I'm gonna do whatever it takes to give you such a service that I want. Look, I want to do such a good job for you that you asked me to my Zillow profile that you want to write me a review instead of me emailing you to write me a review. Love it.

That is awesome. You have given us so much here, Alex, that it's crazy. I'm like, there's so many things. I've still got a list of things I want to ask you about. And I'm like, I think some of this I'm going to have to bring you back for another interviews with the best in the future. Just because there's so much that I wanted to talk about. I want to talk about your team, I want to talk about your systems and all that. And we're not going to have time to do it on today's interview. But I'm just so, I'm so proud of how you, how you show up. I'm so proud of the conviction, the confidence that you have, the professionalism, the commitment that you have your clients is just like, is so, it's so beautiful and it's so powerful. And I want to just. I also have to add this because you invest a lot in yourself, in your coaching, you invest a lot in marketing, invest a lot in your direct mail and so forth. And yet you're extremely profitable in your company, your personal business. And I'm going to say this because you sent me a screenshot last year, sometime last year, it's been six months ago, just to say I never would have thought having this kind of money was possible. And it was just showing your balance in two savings accounts.

It's just sitting, baby, and it's just sitting there.

I'm like, that is a lot of money for somebody to have sitting in a bank account that is going to be going to financial freedom, to building that and so forth. So I know that you're extremely, that you're. What you do is extremely, extremely profitable.

Thank you.

Last thing, if somebody were just saying, okay, Alex, man, you're so good, you've done this. If I just need to know, what is this to help me grow my business the fastest? What are the secrets give me. Give us two or three takeaway secrets that says this is what I would do to grow my business fast.

Well, I have bad news for you, Kevin. There are no secrets. There are none. The number one and the most important thing that somebody has to do well, a licensed agent is get yourself a coach. Doesn't have to be Kevin. Whoever it is, do your research. I think Kevin's the best. That's what I think you can think. What do you want? But get yourself a coach, of course, so you can have that guidance. Guys, I don't know, some of you may be not that old. You know, back in. It is a Thomas guide that we had to go to gas stations. The big map.

So Thomas guide was a big map book.

The big map. It was a book gas stations would sell it from and you had to open it. You know, I used to work at a gas station, so I know how it is. I used to help you. I love. I always love helping people. Pay 2, $3 and go from point A to point B. Now, a coach is a navigation. A good coach. Not a coach that trains you on crap. A coach that trains you on what to do and what to say to get the result you want and they want. Everybody wins. You make money, they get what they want, everyone's happy. So the only thing that I recommend is not direct mail. It's not for you to go to. No hacking, freaking event, none of that. It's very, very simple. And that is. Let me see what happened to.

Yeah, we just lost. I think we just lost your lights.

Made in China.

Anyway, I thought you went to a witness protection program. All of a sudden it's like.

Anyways, one thing is get yourself a coach that you are going to follow everything. He or she's going to tell you what to do so you can have systems and guidance. Imagine getting from one place from A to B with nothing, from A to B with a Thomas Guide, from A to you with a navigation on your ipod, on your iPhone, your Android doesn'. Matter. Yeah, a coach. A good coach. Is that navigation? That's all it is.

Awesome.

Nothing else.

Very cool.

Don't. Don't jump into it.

What's next for you? What? Tell us what's next for Alice Kahloford? What is your, like, big picture goal for the year? What do you want to do next? What are you seeing for the future of yourself?

Financial freedom, Kevin. Something that you know when you. For the first year, I didn't understand what you said. When you said financial freedom, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what it was. But for me, my biggest goal is to serve as many clients as I can and use that as my. As my bridge to get to my goal, to my goal, which is financial freedom. So I can use my time today. I mean, to do what do I enjoy. I don't have to do it because of my car payment, because of my house payment, because of anything. So my goal is financial freedom, which. Which you actually have given us the plan and exactly what we got to do. We already know what to do. It's just a matter of time. Look, you can plant the seed tonight and tomorrow an apple. Right? Process. And you have that process. And actually, a lot of the inner circle, which I got to share something with you that was surprising to me. How many of the inner circle members now have 5, 10, 15. One of them, I think 16 investment properties. I love it.

Yeah, we've got. We actually. So in our inner circle, we have a school board, and we have, like, tens of millions of dollars in assets that inner circle members have as they're building their financial freedom. So it's really cool to watch and inspiring to everybody to watch each other's portfolio grow as you get toward financial freedom. But I love the fact that you have clarity about that, that you love what you do. There's so many things. Like I said, I'm gonna have to bring you back because there's more things I got to talk about. I'm making notes about things I want to talk about on another interview.

Well, this was, like, version one, the basic. And then we get into details. What are these boards? How do we track that? Look, these are. That bites. Could be a call, man. I mean, these are.

This is like the Dow Jones. You know, it's kind of like being in the New York Stock Exchange.

Let me turn off the light so you guys can see it. It's really cool.

Look, this is his. These are his. How he runs his business. Literally runs his business on these monitors and boards. And it's really cool. We don't have time to go into that on this, but there's definitely more to come, because I want to talk to you about your team build. Team building. I want to talk to you about working. I know you work with Yasmin, your wife. I want to dive into a lot of that, but we'll do that. We'll save that for another interview with the best. But I just want to. To thank you for the way you've showed up today. I mean, here's what I noticed. I'm like, Alex, just like he does for everything. He prepared for this. He did. You didn't just show up. And the preparation that you've done for this interview is just a reflection that we prepare for mastery and greatness in your business. And it's shown up in your success.

Let me show something to you, Kevin. Yes. Something that I also learned from you, which is on my board all the times. It says, he who sweats more in training bleeds less in battles.

That's right.

I don't care who said it. I heard it from you.

Awesome. That's great, man. Well, Alex, thank you so much for sharing yourself and your story with us today and the secrets which are not of your success. Again, proud of you. And I'll be spending time together this next week at our training. At our next training. I will look forward to seeing you there. And again, thanks for your contribution to the industry. Thanks, brother.

Thank you, Kevin.

Hey there, it's Kevin. Did you like today's podcast? If you did, be sure to subscribe to the next one and tell a friend about us. If you want more free training and resources that are the best to help you get more Yeses with no BS, visit@yesmasters.com until next time. Remember every day to embrace life, engage opportunity, and always expect yes.