Interview with Chris Prefontaine of Smart Real Estate Coach – Small Business Show 220

The Small business show episode 220 for Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show here at BusinessShow Co the show by, for and about small business owners. Sponsors for this episode include thealternativeboard.com SBS and textexpander.com podcast. We'll talk about what those URLs are for and why they're important to you a little bit later. Right now here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out on the west coast, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, Dave?

I'm good, man. How are you?

I'm good, I'm good. We're maxing out. We immediately went from freezing cold, wet weather to about 90 degrees today. So it's a. It's good.

Nice.

We're ready for it out here.

So good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's awesome. Hey, so, yeah, it's good. I enjoy it. Continuing on our series of shows about coaching and mentoring, today we're joined by Chris Prefontaine, founder of Smart Real Estate Coach. Chris and his family have been in the real estate business for over 25 years. They've built hundreds of homes, bought and sold over $80 million in properties. After doing that, Chris decided it was time to share his expertise with others. Thanks for joining us today, Chris. We appreciate you coming on the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.

Yeah. So let's talk for a few minutes about your business and about transitioning from focusing on your own real estate business to creating and growing a successful coaching and mentoring business. When did you make the decision to start Smart Real Estate Coach? And, you know, did you find any obstacles as you were trying to, you know, shift to that, give us some background?

Sure, sure. So it wasn't really a transition. It was a, we still buy and sell. It was an addition, really. And so, yeah, what happened was I actually, we're near war college here in Newport, Rhode Island. So there was a gentleman there that had gone through, I don't know, three Afghan Afghanistan tours, was tired of it, was going back to civilian life, had heard about me and said, look, reached out to me, said, look, I'm so and so, and I'm heading back to my home state and before I do so I want to get some training. That was like 2000. And I want to say 13. Yeah, 13 ish. So I started helping him and then he referred me to someone and then it just started taking off and I literally did a couple emails to, to a database, a company that runs virtual assistants and Then of course, they had a bunch of investors in their database that said, geez, I want some of that. And it just grew from there. And when I say we added it, you know, the addition instead of the transition, what we do, it's a little unique. So we do deals every day, myself, my family, and the rest of our team. But then we do deals like that around the country with students. So we're actually doing deals in, I don't know, 25, 26 different states. Some are ours and some are in conjunction. I hesitate to use the word partnership, but we call them our associates and we're doing them with them around the country.

That's awesome. So these are folks that have reached out to you or taken one of your courses that you have on the website, and you work with them, they come back to you with opportunities, and you help guide them through it. Is that how it works?

Yeah, we have a basic course like you just alluded to on the website and then that. So some people take that and they'll run with it and great. And others will say, you know what, either I need more help, or I need you on the phone with my buyers and sellers, or I need my hand held a little bit more, or I want a mentor. I want to be aggressive. Whatever reason they're coming at it, they will apply, it's by application only. And they'll apply for one of our associate levels or private consulting, in which case we jump in and second, more detailed and obviously more aggressive for them.

This is awesome. I want our listeners to pay attention here because you gloss. I mean, you didn't gloss over, but it's easy to lose sight of what happened here. You were in business, successful, doing your thing. Someone else came to you and asked you for help to do the same thing. And so it's so easy as a business owner, especially when, you know, you get the machine running and things are going well to say, yeah, no, I'm just going to keep doing this. Like, I don't want to take this detour here. And yet. And sometimes that's the right answer, don't get me wrong. But sometimes that detour, like you said, can be an addition, perhaps a huge addition and an expansion to your business. So listen to your customers when they ask for these crazy things. Don't just dismiss it right out, right out of the gate. Yeah, that's great, man.

Yeah. Well, in addition to listening to the customers, I love that, the way you said it. And then take that further. I guess I'd say literally any business owner if they have something that's working, can create either a course or a mentoring program or what they call the information marketing business. Right. In some shape, form or fashion. They can. And they should.

They. They should. Yeah, that's. You're right. Yeah. I, and I say this only because I, I've been fortunate enough to, to listen most of the time when people have suggested things. Every business I have, including this podcast with somebody else's idea podcast with Shannon. But you know, it works, right? You listen.

It's good. Yeah, yeah.

And I, and, and I think you're all as business owners as we, you know, see some success and grow. We, we kind of take for granted that, oh, we figured this stuff out, but there's a, just a ton of people that don't have that information and you can help kind of fast track them by sharing that information with them.

Yeah. Especially if in your niche it doesn't matter. Carpet cleaning, selling popcorn doesn't matter. But in your niche, if you're better than a majority or you're better than a bunch of people in your niche, you now have something to offer, period.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's really great way to look at it. So you mentioned you work with your family. We talk about working with spouses and family a lot on the show. Did you plan that from the start or did things just work out that way?

No, it's a great question and people ask that. So what happened was in 2014, I needed help when I started ramping up. And so my son was a realtor in the same office. We've always shared an office for several years. And he basically, I said, look, I need some help with the buyer side of my business. We buy and sell on terms. So we're always putting what we call tenant buyers in our homes and I need some help on that end. And so he literally just started doing some postings online, which I'm not great at, technology. And then that led to him dealing with the buyers like, you know, talking to them and getting them converted. That led to him resigning his realtor license and coming on full time. And then as we scaled that together, my son in law was in the bartending and personal, personal training space. Nothing to do with real estate. Didn't grow up with it like my kids. Nothing. He came on board from scratch and started calling on sellers. And then my daughter started coming in and they both left the bar scene, they were bartending, they both left that scene and wanted to try something else. So it just kind of organically happened and we still to this day don't sit down and go, look, you gotta do this role, you gotta do this. We kind of just evolve organically into the areas we're good at and, or like, and coincidentally we all are in different areas and we don't like each other's area. So it worked out perfect.

That's the perfect kind of partner or. Yeah, exactly. To have. Yeah, that's great.

That works good. So, you know, working with families, sometimes it can, you know, there can be some unique challenges. I mean, if you had to kind of develop any best practices, you know, to keep things, you know, I mean, do you talk about it all the time? Do you leave everything at the office? What's worked for you guys?

Yeah, a couple things come to mind. One is we definitely have a kind of an unspoken rule that we don't bring things home because we're together all the time. I live literally next door to my son across the street, used to be my daughter and son in law, they moved about 10 minutes down the road. And we work together every day. So we're together all the time. We will even joke around. My son and I will get home and I'll literally see him pull in the driveway and say, hey, how was your day? Like we never saw each other. So we keep business totally separate. Unless it's positive. You know, if we have three new deals getting done or three new students coming on, we'll talk about that. It's fun and positive, but nothing negative or challenging comes home because we all work super hard and super long and we don't need to bring that home. The other thing that helped for the second thing I mentioned is we do have a very specific mission and values statements. And so when we hire, when we fire, when we make money decisions they're all based on, do they match where we're going with the mission, do they link up with the values? Like I'm talking about, even if someone applies to be a student, an associate, they get a call from all of us, they get that we check references, we make sure they align with our values. Like everything we do is around that value thing. So why did I say all that to answer your question? Well, there's no, like, there's no argument or anything. Like we, we didn't, I didn't jam us anyone's thrill. We all decided this is what we're going to live by. So the decisions are easy. They either follow that or they don't.

I like that. So that brings up another question I had, is like qualifying the Type of people that you sell your products and you know, you offer coaching, do you look for certain qualities? You mentioned the values and I know in this business, I don't know much about this business other than, you know, you might. You certainly want to get the type of person that's going to be successful with you. I mean, so it does sound like you do some kind of qualifying.

Yeah, we do. Because if all three of us talk to myself, my son Zach, my son in law Zach, sorry, my son Nick and then on occasion my daughter Kayla, she's a little bit less active now if we all speak to them, one of us is going to have, we're all going to say hey pre cool. Sounds like a great fit for the values of the team. Or one of us may have the wrong gut feeling or two, in which case we wouldn't accept them. So that's just more of a gut on the phone calls. The references help. Obviously they're going to give references that are good but a lot of these references do open up and talk. So that's just to solidify it. But most importantly, in my opinion, in the real estate training space anyway and probably anything where there's an income opportunity that we got to make sure people are managing their expectations. There's just too many of this garbage out there. Get rich quick, get rich overnight, get your first deal in 10. It's just, it's all junk. And so I want to make sure people understand that this is not a get rich quick, it's a get rich like long term. And so if I hear the expectation being out of line, that's more of an ongoing coaching thing. We get it back in line real quick. Like if on their application they say, I consider success to be, I want, you know, five deals in the first five months. We would immediately jump in and go, no, it's not going to happen. So if you need money like you need water tomorrow, this does not fit for you.

Yeah, that's great. It's so smart because managing those expectations will certain is going to save you from tons of headaches down the road where they think they should be achieving certain things and that long term, look at it to being successful building wealth. It is a really different thing than like you said. What? There is a lot of junk out there that are just trying to convince people, hey, buy Mike, whatever and you're going to make all this money very fast. So that's awesome.

Yeah, because they want a good experience. I mean, what's the deal? They don't join a program or take a course because they, you know, they want more of the same. We've had people, you guys, this amazing. We have people weekly, but I have two in particular that are at one of our higher level coaching programs doing extremely well now. But they've been with us for two or three years and they both had spent six figures on education before coming in and both had not completed a deal. That's crazy to me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is. It is crazy. It's insane. But, you know, there's. I think a lot of these folks buy into this stuff and then there's some segment of it that really doesn't finish it, doesn't get through it. So I commend you for that. Qualifying and talking up front and being transparent about it because, you know, you want to walk them through, you want them to be successful, right?

Well, being up front, I mean, David, I think you're the one that's from New Hampshire, right?

Yeah, yeah, I'm just up, just up the road from you. Yeah, that's right.

Okay, so you're in New England. And you know, we're blunt and on top of that, we're super blunt as a family team. So your con was huge and you said they don't finish it. There's just most, like, if I took our course, it's 10 modules, 60 videos. If I took that, by anyone's standard, I could cut that into like three different courses, maybe more, and probably get, I don't know, in a vicinity of 10 or 14 grand. If I was just into selling product, of course it's like grand and it focuses on A through Z. Like you could do that and never talk to me again and be super satisfied and go do deals. That's. That's a big difference.

Yeah, that makes sense. So when do people come to you? Are they typically already in the real estate industry or they're looking at trying to find something new? Does it work either way?

Yeah, we have a mix. Great question. We have people looking to the last few. I'm looking at my whiteboard here. Came in because they're looking to just escape corporate America. They've got great paying jobs and they want to escape it. We've had other people losing or knowing that they're going to lose or anticipating that their company is going to fire them soon with layoffs. So they've come on board. We've had real estate investors that are big and successful. Like we've got two wholesalers that do several hundred deals per year who joined to add this as a Profit center. And then just last week I had a gentleman in Orlando who does large residential community developments, you know, like 80 homes, a clubhouse, you know, all that type of stuff. And he's adding this with two of his team members to what he already does. So that's a whole different level now that we're causing waves in a really positive way, way out there. That so we're seeing right across the board. And this will maybe be somewhat amusing for you. We have from an age group now we have 20 years old to 78.

Wow, that's awesome.

That's awesome. That's fantastic. Hey, I want to take a quick break here and talk about our two sponsors for this episode. Sound good to you, Shannon?

That sounds great.

All right. Our first sponsor today is the Alternative Board, sometimes called tab. You know, owning your own business can be really rewarding, but sometimes it can be lonely, stressful. If you don't have anybody to consult with, it's hard to know if you're making the right decisions for your business. You need to talk it out sometimes, right? And that's why you need tab, the Alternative Board. It's a group of business owners and experts in your area that you can turn to for advice. You go to thealternativeboard.com SBS that's TheAlbort and that's where you'll find Tab. They've been helping owners and CEOs of privately held businesses for close to 30 years with their business owner advisory boards. Each board is made up of 10 local non competing business leaders and you meet together for four hours each month to discuss business issues and opportunities. Plus you get valuable feedback and support and coaching in between meetings. Having a TAB membership can make a huge difference for your business. Members there report better work life balance, greater ability to deal with those day to day operations and things because you're able to talk it out, right? And a TAB survey showed that their members surpassed the average sales revenues of privately held businesses by two and a half times. It makes sense. Talking this stuff out is good. As I said, we have this special URL and you get something special for going there. So go to thealternativeboard.coms and you'll receive an ebook on 25 Timeless Principles of Exceptional Businesses. Normally it's 1695, but small business show listeners get it for free. Visit thealternativeboard.com SBS Our thanks to the Alternative Board for sponsoring this episode. Our next sponsor is a favorite. It's Textexpander. We're@textexpander.com podcast, you can sign up for this service, an app, really. It's everything all tied together that brings efficiency to an even deeper level of your business. Right? There are those things, emails, addresses, snippets of text that we type over and over again and we want to make sure they're right. Think about the amount of time that you spend replying to a sales inquiry, right? You look through that email and make sure, like, this is your first time talking to this customer. You want to make sure that everything is right. Sometimes you'll go back and find an old email that you sent to a previous customer, copy it and paste it. But then you gotta worry, did I say the other customer's name? Did I change the right things? With textexpander, all those worries are gone. Because what you do is you put your default snippet right into textexpander and then you invoke it either with a click of the mouse or by typing a short bit of text. And then it expands out. Now you get why they call it textexpander, and everything's right there. It can even pull data from your clipboard. So if you've got the person's email address or name, and it can also prompt you, you can configure these snippets really Easy now with Textexpander 6.5, because it's got this visual editor and you can configure it to ask you, hey, what's the person's name? What's their company? What's the price? What's the product that they're interested in so that you get your pre built, pre vetted email and then you get to put in the customized data. You obviously could review it before you send it off, but you know it's right because you just got it right inside textexpander, then you can sync those snippets with your team. Everything gets really, really good from here on out, folks. Trust me on this. Shannon and I both use Textexpander all day long. And now you can use Textexpander and get 20% off your first year. Go to Textexpander.com podcast to learn more about it and get 20% off. And our thanks to Smile, the makers of Textexpander for sponsoring this episode. All right, Shannon, back to you.

Okay, awesome. So, Chris, one of the things I really like with talking to you, we've traded some emails and set up this interview, but I can really hear the excitement and the enthusiasm in your voice about your business and what you're offering and the value that you're giving and is that difficult to kind of spread out to your team, that feeling that. I feel the same way. I start talking, my voice gets up, I start talking, you can just hear it. Do you, do you focus on making sure everybody's like that or is it just kind of permeate itself through your business?

Yeah, it's interesting. So. And it's interesting when you look at it. No one's ever asked me that. I think that the comment I made earlier about values and mission and purpose, because we've got it on a board, you know, five feet high in our conference room, we talk about it regularly, we meet on it regularly. I think all that drives that very thing that you just said, the enthusiasm, the passion, because everyone's tied to it, everyone's vested to it. We set goals as a team. We have yearly, you know, incentive trips as a team, you know, so all that just builds upon itself. And yeah, of course, I'm not so naive to think it doesn't help that families involved. Right. But it's not all family. We've got some amazing team members.

Yeah. No, that's awesome. So what is, what do you think your next greatest challenge is for your business success? And you know, how do you, how do you plan to break through that challenge or are you happy kind of where you're at right now?

Yeah, it's always systems. And I'll preface it by saying, and you guys know this all too well, probably what got us here is definitely going to hurt us going to the next level. Like it's totally different. And I don't want to belittle anyone's business doing stay up to a million. But on any, any business we can do more of whatever, like more email, more calls, like just grind it out and get to a million. You really can't in a lot of industries. But to get over that is a different ballgame. So our challenge right now is it's a good challenge. We have associates doing deals all around the country now. And so we're building a system that really holds their hand and helps us and them not get off track, not lose track of a deal. You know, just total automation. I'm talking about from the second they call a seller to then, what's next? What's next? What's next? What like almost like a built in checklist through process street and some other technology. So that's what we're building. It's just saying is a daunting task. But we're on that now and that's kind of our next big thing. We hope to have it built out by the fall, but that's cool for us and it's very cool for the investors that know, oh man, I'm going to make a call and then this thing is going to tell me what to do next. I can't forget anything.

That's awesome. Yeah, we're big fans of systems here and it is good. Like you said, you build your business based on certain systems and then you realize, okay, now that we're here, we need a different system or another system. Maybe not something, maybe not completely different, but we need to look at the bigger picture again. You know, you got to keep zooming out to create these next level systems. That's really. And then the one you're talking about, like that sounds fantastic. We run a sales business here too. And I'm thinking, oh yeah, wait a minute, that would be good. Just to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

I like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, being entrepreneurs, you know, we're kind of rule breakers and you know, we set our own stuff, don't follow kind of the things that are going on. Natural stuff. So. But I would think in the real estate business you mentioned, you know, you're in 26 different states. It's got to be a million rules you have to follow, especially from state to state. I mean, do you have to go through, you know, before you offer your services in different states, you got to be sure you're in compliance and all that stuff. It sounds like a, A daunting task.

No, it would be. So. No, we don't. What we do is we say, look, here are. Because this is an important piece to what you said. Here are all the forms, you know, all the agreements that we use. And yes, they've been vetted in some states. We don't know if they've been vetted in your state, nor do we know if your attorney would like them. So make sure you show them to him or her. So it's definitely the onus is on the student to check that out. Now we're here to say, oh, you're right over in such and such state. Well, we're all set there and here's why we know that. Or no, we've never had an associate or a student there, so you might want to be a little bit more cautious and go check those out. However, what we do from a kind of a 10,000 foot level, there is one exception in Texas and a tiny exception in North Carolina that we've run into. As far as the type of deals we do, it's not that you can't do them. You have to know how to do them and the nuances. And so we learn those. What's cool is we learn those from the community. I was on a show last night and the gentleman said, he's a wholesaler. And he said, yeah, my community's so big now, we learn so much from our students that we are a huge benefit to the new students. And I said, well, same with us. I mean, so if you're out there on your own, trying to struggle in whatever state, man, it's so much better from a credibility standpoint and from a learning curve standpoint to tie into something bigger and better and more knowledgeable than you so that you can fast forward your own business, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that does make sense. And like, I live in California. I'm about 45 minutes east of San Francisco, and I just read the statistic yesterday. Like, homes under 2 million are in San Francisco county are just. They sell like within a day. Under 2 million. I mean, does your process and, and everything you're teaching work in different areas? Like, you know, insane San Francisco Bay area versus, you know, the Midwest. I mean, how do they. Does it adjust for that kind of thing?

Yeah, so you got a couple different things within that. You got price range and then you have state of the market. Right. People say, well, what do you think? What do you think the market's gonna slow down to your point, there's no market. There's a whole bunch of markets.

Yeah, right.

So what happens in a, in a market busier like that is you are not likely to get. One of our lead sources is for sale by owners. Well, you're not likely to find many leads. You have to talk to way more people to get a lead in the for sale by owner world, because they're selling on their own.

Sure.

However, in every market, you just have to know where to fish and when to pivot when the market changes. And so two examples of that, because this could be a whole thing. I'll just give two short examples. One is in a hot market, you'd gravitate towards things like, well, I'll call on the expired listings. Then those are the ones that were on the market and for whatever reason didn't sell. Because even in a hot market, they exist. It also behoove you to go and seek out the one third of the population. That's a rough number, but it's pretty accurate. One third of the population, the homes rather in the United States are debt free. It's a big number. And those people are great to do the type of deals we do deals with. And so we buy from not people that are stressed out. We buy nice homes and a lot of times they're not stressed out and they understand they're financially savvy. So the short answer is, you fish in a different pond.

I got it. That makes sense. Yeah, I love that.

Smart.

Yeah. Yeah. So we talk about mistakes on the show a lot and we've made a ton of them. But, you know, we also really value how much you learn from making those mistakes. Is there a mistake that you made along the way that really sticks with you that you learned so much about? And then part two of this question is, would avoiding this mistake be the best piece of advice that you would give a new small business owner or would it be something different?

Well, I mean, there's a whole bunch. We could spend eight hours on my list.

Yeah, we can trade them back and forth all day long. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. And by the way, if someone, I'll comment on that. If someone says, if they're, if they're seeking out a mentor or a coach and they say they've never been through any, any crap or challenges, run.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's why I asked this question. Because it's funny that, you know, you know the folks that are like, no, I really don't have, but you know, come on, we all come on.

Yeah. Uncover the rock.

Yeah.

Well, we're here. This business exists since 2013, 100% because of the big boo boo I made prior to the 2008 crash. I mean, that's, that's exact why we're here as a company doing, you know, several million dollars around the country is because in 08 or prior to, sorry, oh, wait, crash, I signed on loans personally and I personally guaranteed those. And if you're a business owner and you're doing that, you're jeopardizing your entire family, everything you will ever do, forever. Because the banks, and if you're banking, no offense, but the banks do not care who you are. They have a job to do. And if you sign personally, you're risking your business, you're risking your lifestyle and your families. And so that was a big boo boo. When the market crashed, I had banks, creditors, irs, repossession people, you name it, I had to deal with. So that was a three year part time job. But that drove us to create this business, which buys on terms, and despite controlling 60 properties at any one time, plus all the ones around the country, zero loans are in our name, and zero loans will be signed on personally. Well, that's a big difference when you go to sleep at night.

Well, and to your point, I mean, yes, it's a big difference, but. But like you said, this business wouldn't exist if you hadn't made that mistake and then had to figure out how to dig yourself out of it, too. That's a hugely valuable thing, is getting yourself into trouble. Not that you want to intentionally do that, but when you find yourself there, it's an opportunity. That's a good thing.

Well, Dave, it's huge because people do come to us. You made me think of this when you just commented. People do come to us because they'll hear that story, or they'll hear my son's story that he had a snowboard accident, was in a coma, and, you know, they can relate to that or whatever. They hear Zach's story. He's a bartender. He came into this. So they'll relate to one of those or all of those and say, I want that, or, I need help with that. I'm doing that same thing. And there's a lot of people that got hurt by.08. And so they come in, they go, help me, help me. I'm still hurting from it.

Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great story.

There's some empathy there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And just the, you know, the grinding through it. You know, years ago, my attorney, you know, we were young and doing really well, and he's like, hey, I want to tell you something. You know, most people that I know that have built a lot of wealth have all gone through something bad, you know, and being, you know, a young guy at the time, I was like, oh, that's not going to happen to me. But of course it does. And. And you're a different person when you come out the other side and. But, you know, learning that you just have to keep grinding it out, that you can't give up, that. That can't be your. Your defining moment of your business career. It's a powerful lesson.

I want to correct that. I want to say it can't be the negative defining moment. It could sometimes be the positive defining moment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'll come to that. The. The, you know, knowing that someone else did it and. Or that they're in your court with you when you go through it is a huge difference, because I was younger then, obviously, than I am now. And I wish I had reached out to a couple different mentors at that time. I did, but. But it was to ask a different question because it's too late. And there's a. Two great books came to mind. You guys probably read them. One is Grit G R I T. That's an amazing book on this subject. And then the other one comes to mind is Ray Dalio's Principles, because he talks in there about. And I think I did the audiobook on that one, but it's a big book. He talks about, like, almost welcoming the challenge, like, waiting, like, come on, give me more challenges. Because I can learn from that and I can improve my business from it. Or curveballs are challenges.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's a great lesson. So we got thousands of people listening. I have one question about. You know your podcast that you host each week? I know you do a lot of them. I know you do a number of them for your own business. Has that become a good marketing tool for your business?

Well, yeah, I call it as two things. I call it attraction marketing, of course, because people want to go to the expert. Right. And that gives you the exposure. But also, I think the better word is authority, because we've started just recently offering this to some of our students, helping them become the authority in their marketplace. Because real estate's changing. I mean, this is any business, but real estate's changing so fast. I mean, Zillow was new, you know, 12, 13, 14 years ago, and it was like, nobody knew if it worked. And now it's like, major player. So because it changes so fast, I think it's super important to be the authority. So in our case, if a buyer or seller is saying, well, geez, I wonder who I should go to for this Renton thing? And you got the mom and pop, or you got someone that has a show or a book or YouTube channel, or all of the above, frankly. So becoming the authority in your space is huge. So, yes, the podcast has helped tremendously. Between that and the book and other things that we do.

Yeah, that's great.

I love that.

Just adds so much credibility to you.

Right.

Even just when they search for your name or your company name, there's all this content that's coming up. Your books, articles, your podcast. I'm a firm believer in the power of that.

Yeah, I don't want the sole entrepreneur to think that. Well, I couldn't do that. Yes, you can. You start somewhere. That's why we show our students these individual students are solopreneurs. We show them how to do it.

Yeah, that's. That's powerful. So as we kind of wind things down, what's the one thing you'd like folks to remember about you and Smart Real Estate Coach when they're done listening here? You know, everybody listens to lots of podcasts. Is there something you'd really like to stick with them?

Well, so I'll take it away from me for a second and say this to the listeners, because it's a diverse group. Follow you guys. It doesn't matter. And I've said this to a few of my points, what niche you're in. Success leaves clues. So find, first of all, manage your expectations with whatever you're doing, like I said earlier, but find a mentor or a coach in your space, whatever that is for you. I'm not so naive to think, even if it's in real estate, that it's me, it's whoever you can relate to that are in your space and they're still doing what you want to do. That's a big piece. Because I don't care what you're looking to learn. If they're not still doing it, you're gonna have a headache. You need someone actively doing it, and then they. And then the last piece of that is, doesn't matter what business it is. Put the blinders on for three years. Three years. Just put the blinders on. Stay with that person because you'll have an amazing experience, and anything short of that, you won't, in my opinion. So that's just my two cents.

Yeah, no, it's great. I love that advice and that. That sticking with it. There's too many folks that think they can get things ramped up, you know, in 12 months and, you know, make it. You really gotta give it a few years of your focus. So that's awesome. Yeah. Well, you know, thanks so much for coming on the Small Business show. We really appreciate you sharing your journey, taking the time to help others succeed. What's the best way for our listeners to learn more about Smart Real Estate Coach and to connect with you?

Well, if they don't mind listening to me babble for another 55 or 60 minutes, they can go to the free webinar. We offer it to everyone because I want people to back to a couple things we talked about earlier. I want them to be able to see, touch, taste, and feel before committing $0.01. And so go to smartrealestatecoach.com and go through the free webinar. That's the best way to do it. And you've mentioned the podcast already. That's just smartrealestatecoach podcast dot com.

Awesome. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it. I've learned a ton and I know everybody else has as well.

Thanks having me on. Appreciate it.

You bet.

This is great. Thanks so much, Chris and everybody. Listen to Chris. Go check out his podcast, go check out his webinar, and he'll lead you that path to lead the charm life. See you next week.