Build a Powerful Real Estate Brand Like Ryan Serhant | The Untold Success Formula

In 2015, I did one property tour of a $15 million townhouse that was impossible to sell, and a 13-year-old girl watched that video, showed it to her mom. Her mom came through because they saw it on YouTube, and they bought it for $13 million. And my whole worldview changed. Something I talk to people about a lot is really understanding what your adjectives are. Like, what are they? It's not enough to be pretty. It's not enough to be smart. It's not enough to be quiet. It's not enough to be good. I wanted people to know that when I work with you, when I email you, when I text you, when I call you, when I speak on your behalf, when I show up to the appointment 5 minutes early, when I do everything I say I'm going to do exactly when I say I'm going to do it, I do it polished. When you build awareness to separate yourself from the crowd, what you're creating is something that's clear, concise, and memorable. How are you memorable? Look at any stand-up comedian. They actually have memorable ways that they tell jokes, but they also have memorable looks. What is their look? So that's why I never dyed my hair as much as I wanted to. And as hard as it was for me when I was 16 with gray hair and 24 in New York City with gray hair at the bar trying to meet people and it was always a subject line. It's like, what is going on with this guy and his gray? I said the easiest thing to do would've just been to dye it. But it's like, you know what? People will remember me and I'll just own it. I'll just own it. And it worked. No one knows what they're doing. And some people just do it anyway. And so that was a mind-blowing moment for me because it means that everyone builds an airplane while flying it at the same time. Everyone is a lifelong learner. Everyone's just figuring it out. But you have those that are committed and they're rigorous. They're as rigorous as they are ruthless. And there are those who lead with their nerves, who always have a plan B, who always have a net, who always have a lifeboat that they could jump into.

Hey everybody, Movement Makers, the man, the myth, the legend. What, the most famous real estate broker in the world? At least America for sure. Millions of followers across all sorts of different platforms and the author of a new book, Brand It Like Serhant. Mr. Ryan Serhant, welcome aboard, man.

Hey everybody, how we doing?

So this group is Movement Makers and this is my private group of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, They all have a business, they're trying to become even more successful, and they believe in personal branding. That's why they're here. The focus that we usually start with is YouTube primarily, and then move to the other platforms. I know you are across all sorts of platforms, including Netflix, back on Netflix. So congrats on that. Uh, and then for the YouTube audience, we're gonna link up Ryan's book in the description below as well, if you wanna check that out and go support him with this awesome book. So given that context, uh, Ryan, and happy to go deeper as well. Thinking about the people here, they're thought leaders. We have a bunch of people in the real estate space as well. They're already successful entrepreneurs trying to get to the next level. They think branding is the way to do it. What kind of feedback or guidance would you have for them?

Oh, wow.

That is a loaded question. Well, first, hey everybody, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. I flew back from Orlando this morning, raced here so I would actually be here in my office. Nice camera and microphone for you all. First impressions are your last impressions if you're not careful. That's actually a great branding note, by the way. Right. Most people go about branding the exact opposite way. They start with the things that you would deal with much, much later in the branding process. But first impressions are key. It's like one of the first things I do with any new stranger that I meet, always, right? Because the greatest clients I've ever had, my wife, my best friends, they were all strangers up until the day that I met them. And so you use the two Cs. You give them a compliment that disarms them, right? That finds— that gives them trust. Oh, you give them a compliment. Amazing dress, great hair, love the X, Y, or Z. And then you go and you find something in common. But branding, right? Brand is reputation. If you take a step back and you really try to think about what the math is, what is a brand? Is it Nike? Is it Apple? Or are those products? Do you remember the logo or do you remember the way you— they make you feel? You know, Apple products bring us closer together, have changed your life. Nike products have made you feel faster because they've got nice tennis shoes and you run on them, right? But you love the commercials probably even more than any of the products. So what is brand? Brand, if you really think about it, for all of us, because I think most of us on here are in sales in some way, shape, or form, right? Sales, real estate, selling something, okay, starts with your core identity. So if we're building a personal brand, you have to understand that you already have one. You just either have control of it or you don't have control of it. You have control of that core identity or everybody else does. And a way you can test for this is you can go and talk to someone you trust, not a parent, not a sibling, no one who's going to be shy about hurting your feelings. And you ask them, can you describe me without using my name? And see what they say. I did that and I was the— a guy told me I was the tall skinny guy with premature gray hair who thought he was funnier than he actually was and looked at the ground when he walked. I was like, what? What about how smart I am? What about like real estate? What about all the things that I do? And he is like, oh, oh, you still do those things? I'm like, yeah, of course I do. He's like, oh, I, I didn't, I don't know. So the way he described me, top of mind was my personal brand. The tall, skinny white guy with premature gray hair, not as funny as he thinks he is, looks at the ground while he walks. And from that exercise, you can take the best and leave the rest. So I wasn't going to change my hair. My hair actually made real estate much easier for me because people thought I was older. And then they'd see my face and say, I don't get it. And then it was fine. By that point, I'd already won them over. Can't change how tall I am. Can't change the color of my skin, right? I could change that I looked at the ground when I walked. Why did I do that? I had to do like an internal deep dive. Like, why do people know me as the guy who looks at the ground when he walks? That's like being like the guy who has a loose, sweaty handshake. That's like being the person who's got bad breath and you're like, oh yeah, she's, she's the mom with bad breath. That's really, that's the brand. How do I fix that? So those are things that you might actually want to fix because your first impression is your last impression if you're not careful. And so I realized, oh, I had rash acne for like 15 years growing up. And it destroyed my self-esteem and self-worth. And so when I was walking in between classes in high school and college, and when I first moved to New York, when I would walk outside, people would stare at my face but not look me in the eye. They'd be looking around my face. Same thing when I was grow— I grew up and I was, I was pretty overweight as a little kid growing up, and people would always just look to my body, you know? And I'd be like, eyes up here, dad. And so those physical attributes ended up becoming part of my core identity, even though I didn't think they were. They were. So brand is core identity and it's your core identity, the core identity you want to own. What is uniquely you? So you are real estate and what? What's that passion commerce? For me, it was media. I love media. I came to New York to do theater. But obviously I wasn't going to be real estate and theater. That would be weird. But I love media. I love selling property through social. I loved using TV. I liked, I liked the media business. I think every company is a media company. They either know it or they don't. So I'm real estate and media. That's my core identity. Then when I'm online, I'm in front of human beings, I'm at a networking event, I'm at the coffee shop. That core identity leaves my mouth. Leaves my fingertips, and that becomes the perception then that the world has of me. So core identity leads to perception, and then I leave the chat room, I leave Instagram, I leave the party, I leave the coffee shop, and then people talk about you behind your back. Like, hey, did you just see that guy? I just met that guy. Hey, do you know that guy? Then that's reputation. And like a boiling pot of water, which never boils if you stare at it, that reputation slowly over time turns into brand. And brand is that reputation. And we all have one. You just have to take control of it. And you can now. The platforms that we have at our fingertips allow you to do that today, which is really exciting. So that's what I put into the book because I— that's how I've sold real estate for, for, for my entire career now has been using personal brand to create product brands to sell real estate for more money and faster than I ever could have before, and to generate leads while I sleep.

So if people used to say he's the tall, skinny kid with premature gray hair and looks at the ground all day, what do you hope they say about you now?

Tall, skinny white guy with premature gray hair who stares at you when you walk down the street. And says, would you like to buy, rent, or sell? That's, that's what I do now. I don't look at the ground anymore. I just, I stare you down. That's not true. That would— I mean, sometimes that's true. Not always true. I think they would say, Ryan's— I mean, today they would probably say, yeah, Ryan, he was on that TV show, Million Dollar Listing New York, for a long time. He was the one with gray hair, the American one. I think he thinks he's funnier than he actually is. But he's a killer salesman. He's built this huge company in this enterprise. Now, you should definitely talk to him. Like, that's, that's, that's what I want. If they break that down into adjectives, something I talk to people about a lot is really understanding what your adjectives are. Like, what are they? Because it's not enough to be pretty. It's not enough to be smart, right? It's not enough to be quiet. It's not enough to be good. Right, so I wanted mine to be polished. I wanted people to know that when I work with you, when I email you, when I text you, when I call you, when I speak on your behalf, when I show up to the appointment 5 minutes early, when I do everything I say I'm going to do exactly when I say I'm going to do it, I do it polished. I would hire someone polished. I want to, I want to invest money with someone polished. So polished is one of my, was one of my adjectives that I wanted to, I wanted to grow into because I wasn't, I wasn't that polished when I first said that's one of my adjectives. A second adjective was then I wanted to, I wanted people to associate me with success. So successful, because if you associate me with success, then that's what you're hiring. You're not hiring someone to turn lights on. You're not hiring someone to do paperwork. You're hiring someone who's successful because you want to also have that success. I get hired to sell houses now for unimaginable prices because sellers say, oh, you did that already for Bob, Nancy, and Paul. You were successful. I also now want to be successful. Please get me a price just like them or better. So polished, successful, right? Those are two solid adjectives. And I would charge everybody here to make sure that you have at least 2, if not 3 adjectives that when people are talking about you, they instinctually use those adjectives to describe you because that's how you get referral business. That's how you build a business. That's through word of mouth. That's how you create a warm lead audience. That's how you generate leads in your sleep.

You know, if I was looking at you, I would say this guy is the king of real estate and he's a marketing genius or branding expert. And he doesn't really talk too much about that side of things, but until now, because he's got the book. But is this, this whole branding thing— I mean, you've been— you got in early, you've done a great job. You're very charismatic and funny and you bring it to the content. It's not just about the real estate.

Yeah.

This book now, is this something that you're going to now be— you want to be known as a branding guy as well and you want to reach out and help entrepreneurs brand themselves, or is it just a pit stop? It's like you're still— you're going to double down on real estate.

I don't know, man. I think I have a disease. I don't know why I do all this stuff. Like, I have, I have a handful of different assistants, and they have what, what we call, what we call here buckets, because there's so many different jobs and so many businesses now. Every Monday, I have them put together the buckets across what we do, and it's cord— and it's color coordinated based on what happens this week, what happens this month, what happens this quarter, and what just needs to get done this year. Right. Because there's just too much. I don't— I didn't set out to become the branding guy. What I really set out to do was from 2008, when I got into the business, the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and ruined the world, up until 2018, give or take, I had to teach myself how to sell real estate in New York City. And selling real estate in New York City to people who would negotiate the price of a bagel is not the easiest, right? It's high stakes, it's high drama, and it's a— it's an old boys club. Like, New York City real estate is brutal. It is. It is not for the faint of heart. 90% of the people that get into the business get out within the first year, and it's really expensive to be here. And so as I was figuring out how to win, in this market, I would take notes and I built what I called like my Serhant Team Sales Bible. And I would just take all the notes. Any time I ever got a deal done that I didn't know how I was going to get it done, whether it was something I said or a way that I attacked the deal or a way that I got a lead or the way that I really built a niche, whatever, all those things, I just wrote them down and I would give them out to my team. And slowly but surely over time, that became a really, really big manual. And so I turned it into Sell It Like Serhant, which was my first book in 2018. So I put that one out and it did really, really well. And Bravo turned it into a TV show called Sell It Like Sirhan that we did in 2018 at the same year. So all at the same time. So we did the TV show and then I still had this itch to write more and people would come to me about Sell It Like Sirhan and say, great, you just gave me all the tools I need to learn how to sell and build a sales career. I know exactly what to do now. Every single minute I'm awake, but I have no confidence. I just moved to Nashville. I don't know what to do. I just moved to LA. No one knows me. No one likes me. I'm very, very concerned about how I look. I'm nervous, right? So I said, okay, I can't just give people a tool belt with no instructions on how to use the tool belt. And so I wrote my second book, which was Big Money Energy, which is what I had always called success. Like how to project success and walk into it instead of having to climb for it. And so during COVID actually, I wrote Big Money Energy because when I, when I would see people walk into a room who just like oozed success and not wealth, that's very different, but you could just tell, man, that person's successful. Wow, she's super successful. What is that? I was just, I've just said, man, those people have crazy money energy, big money energy. That's what they have. And I want that because I had zero money or energy at the time. And so that was my confidence manual, how to be the person you want to be in 2 years today. How do you do that? And so then I gave everybody the toolkit. I then gave them all the confidence. And then I was like, you know what? There's a third piece to this puzzle here. I think this is really a sales trilogy that I'm putting together. And so Brand It Like Sirhan is the final piece of that. So you, you know how to sell and you know how to build a sales career step by step by step. No bullshit. You now have the confidence to use all those skills. But if no one knows what you're selling and you don't know how to actually go generate the business to be confident for and to use those sales skills for, then you're just going to be the greatest salesperson ever for your mom. You know, and so Brand It Like Sirhan is a, is a, you know, it's a tactical manual really. Like it is, it is over 300 pages of here's exactly what you do across Twitter, X, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Reels. This is how you get a publicist. This is what you do with a publicist. This is how you get people to work for you for free. This is how you build awareness. This is how you create attention in today's economy and going forward. So I think I'll always be known as a real estate guy. That's my thing. I have a new TV show comes out in June on Netflix, so please go watch that when it comes out because I left Million Dollar Listing New York 2 years ago, I guess after 10 years. And so I think people always associate me with that. But I, I, you know, for anyone that's ever seen that show, you know, expansion always and always, that's always been my thing. And I appreciate growing. And doing new things, scaring myself a little bit. I'm 50% terrified, 50% excited every single day. I don't even know what your question was.

That's great. No, it was a good answer. A good answer. Good answer. How do you balance now the, the branding and the effort that goes into all of that with selling and running an organization and, you know, being a broker and recruiting team? And being an entrepreneur like this. Part of the, the thesis, I guess, with my takeaway from reading Alex Serhan is like, everybody needs to have a brand. This isn't something you can just delegate to somebody else. You can't have somebody else do the pushups for you and requires time. So with where you're at right now, or even some advice for the people on this call might be at, how do you think through how much time needs to be spent on a regular basis on the brand?

So I am focused on the brand all day, every day. The brand is the undertone to absolutely everything I do. The types of clients I personally work with, that, that's brand at work to the general marketplace. Every other broker I meet, the types of deals that we do, how we then promote them. Okay. Everything we do in education, how we push out our Sell Like Serhant program, which 2 days ago we rebranded to sellit.com. Because we started to train entire sales organizations that have nothing to do with real estate. Like we are now the— say, I have no idea how this stuff even happens. We're now, we're now the sales training platform for IBM. Like what? Why? You know? And so there's brand as an undercurrent through everything. All I think about all day long, every day is new business. For anyone that's read Sell Like Sirhan or taken any of our courses, I talk about find her, keep her, do her all the time. That's our— that's your time blocking. That's your day. Every day you find business, you keep business, you do business, you go to sleep, you wake up, you rinse and repeat. So I lead every single day and I use the finder part of our business as the foundation for all of our tasks, even across media. I mean, media is branding, right? You know, my tentpoles are Ryan Serhant kind of personal brand work that I do all day, the content creation, the books, the speaking tours. I gave a speech last night in Chicago, jumped on it flew in this morning, you know, the TV shows, the podcasts, all that stuff. That's Ryan over here. That's bucket number 1. Then there's Ryan Serhant, the real estate broker, bucket 2. Then there's CEO of the brokerage, bucket 3. CEO of education, bucket 4. CEO of the production company, bucket 5. And brand carries that across. So it's hard for me to really delineate how much time I spend focused on brands. I feel like I focus on brand all day, every day.

So, I mean, the concept of that question, let's, let's bring in the content then. If you think about content or even your 5 buckets that you've got running on here, obviously brand, if you're, if you're taking it the big picture, it's your reputation, it's how everybody sees you, which is every sales call is brand. Yes. In terms of creating content, there's a lot of real estate brokers who never make any content and they succeed just off of their reputation and history. Right. The old boys network. Cool. So actually making time for content, whether it's doing interviews like this or going on shows or doing your own vlogs or doing house tours, How are you prioritizing or, or making time for that?

So for me, I, I focus about 1 hour a day, right? So really, in as far as content creation, I focus, I put aside like an hour a day. It could be 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes around lunch, and then half an hour at the end of the day. And that goes across everything that we do. Sometimes it's an hour a day and I'm just thinking about a LinkedIn post. I'm just writing, you know. I'm just writing because there's something that's top of mind. I'm fast advertising. You know, there's been a lot of that over the past couple of weeks with the NAR commission settlement lawsuit and all that stuff going on, you know, news media shows going on CNBC or, you know, I did Good Morning America yesterday morning. All that stuff kind of like just bleeds in together. But I would say about an hour a day, the minimum I think anyone should do, okay, would be 3 hours a week. And if you're going to budget 3 hours a week, which every single person here can do, I would do it in one block. I know, do it like Wednesdays from 8 to 11, something like that. I do it in one block and just pound out that content. Just do it so you don't think about it. And so you could do it that way, or you do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1 hour at a time and just understand where you want to focus. The content. I think the reason most people don't do it, because they don't know where to start and they don't actually know how to or what to do. That's why I wrote this whole book, just to tell you exactly what to do. But I would focus on one platform to start if you're not doing it now and pick that one. What is it? If you're visual and you like photos and visual, then it's Instagram. Easy. Okay. If you like video, you can choose. You can do TikTok, you can do Instagram, you can do YouTube Shorts. If you just want to be a thought leader, then maybe you do half and half, or you just go really, really hard on LinkedIn. Probably one of our most important social media right now is just using LinkedIn, written content, so social leadership, and then turning that into video.

So I was on your YouTube channel earlier today, and, uh, there's one thing missing.

Oh no.

From the content. Yeah. Long-form video podcast.

Yeah.

Where, where is the Ryan Serhant podcast?

So I've had them. I've tried, man. I did a— I had— so when Big Money Energy came out, if you look it up, there's a Big Money Energy channel, and we did the long-form Big Money Energy podcast. I did sort of these virtual podcasts around Brand It Like Serhant, this book, where I met with really, really cool people, and we did that. We had a separate podcast. I guess we still kind of do it. You can look it up. It's called Business of Influence. So we would, we would interview different influencers and just talk about how they are actually building their business and making money that way. Like, what is, what is really that business? Because most influencers don't talk about the money, you know, they just talk about the influence. But that's really not that exciting to me. I want to understand how you make money, right? And then how you build that business. How did you hire your first person? How do you do that? So I've done it. It just is so much time. It's so much time. And too many other people have to get involved to make long-form podcasts. And I've just never been that good at it. You know, and to be honest about being super transparent, I start to lose interest hard when talking to people like one-on-one for an hour. Like, I don't know how Joe Rogan does it. Maybe the people he introduces in interviews are just really, really interesting. But for me, like, I just have— I'm a broker, I'm a real estate broker. I have no attention span whatsoever. I walk in and I'm like, all right, nice house. What's the roof made out of? Great. Where can we get this done? Like, I'm not I don't give a shit about your crown moldings. I just don't care about the basement, you know? And so the long-form podcasts for me have just never been, never been something I've really, really been great at. Yeah.

So if you're looking at branding in 2024, at least from a YouTube perspective, that's, that's the game. That's where everybody's— people who look like you are having tremendous success. And whether the, whether the comp is Patrick Bet-David, who's got his PBD podcast, you know, building an insurance brand underneath it. Or even you look at Graham Stephan, like Ice Coffee Hour now has almost more total views than Graham's entire main channel.

Yep.

'Cause YouTube loves long form a lot more than the short form vlogs. Not that I'm trying to get Jackson, your vlogger, fired, but if you make it fun and you're talking about NAR or you're using it for biz dev and you're talking to people of influence that like you actually genuinely wanna hang with, that could be a huge— I mean, just one man's opinion who's seen a lot of people go through. And we could talk offline about it too, if you want. But I would love to see the revamped Ryan Serhant Podcast 2024.

All right. If it comes back, you're going to know that it's because you just brought it up. And now I'm going to fire off a bunch of angry emails to my team and be like, guys, God, Evan told me we're not doing this well enough, so now we got to do it. I like it.

I think it should happen. I think it should happen. You talk about the 5 families, so your 5 families are the 5 main social media platforms. If you had to prioritize, obviously we go pretty YouTube heavy in this group and, and down from there, but if you had to look at the main platforms that are winning for you right now, and you can even throw book in there, you could throw Netflix in there, like what, what would you prioritize if you're picking a single platform?

Instagram is probably still our strongest. It's our biggest audiences across the board, and it's the easiest to use, followed by TikTok, because we care about reaching the kids of the clients. It's the whole reason I got into YouTube in the first place. I had no interest in making a vlog. Like, I wasn't— I wasn't even interested in social, like, early on. And then I realized, oh wait, I can't complain about it because it's a job. It's a job. Right. It's advertising now. So it's how you get your message across. So I have to do it and I want to influence the kids of the buyers and sellers we work with. And like, we started making some property tours in 2015. I did one property tour of a $15 million townhouse that was impossible to sell. And a 13-year-old girl watched that video, showed it to her mom. Her mom came through because they saw it on YouTube and they bought it for $13 million. And my whole worldview changed. Not that we didn't do the deal on YouTube, but that point of first contact, it's like, okay, so I can reach a lot of people through social, right? If I focus on the quality, if I focus on the value and I make things that I would want to watch, I think a lot of people just create content for content's sake because they feel like they're supposed to. But you wouldn't even watch your own stuff. So if you're not going to watch your own stuff, then why should anybody else? You make stuff that you would actually want to watch. Like my favorite content we've made on YouTube, for example, is stuff that like I'll watch back, not even just for me, but just because I think it's just, it's fun and it's cool and, you know, it was interesting and it's engaging, you know, in terms of how I like to see things. Some people, like you're saying, might just like that podcast content so that maybe that's what you're really leaning into. But Instagram is number one, followed by, followed by TikTok, followed by YouTube, followed therefore by LinkedIn. And then everything else kind of comes after that. Twitter X, we've just never really been great at Facebook. I've just never really been great at.

Have you seen just in terms of those priorities, have you seen a shift Or are you looking at a shift going into the next couple of years? Like, you still see Instagram being number one? Is it losing interest? You said LinkedIn you're doing a lot of priority on now. Like, where are you actually spending your energy in the next 12 to 24 months besides the long-form video podcast that's going to come up on YouTube?

Of course. Yeah. So we're getting really far away from long-form. I know people still like it. I haven't seen the same traction on our side. People have no attention spans anymore. Adults are losing attention spans. Kids are losing attention spans. We've even started to do our long-form pod— our long-form property tours in short form. But just give them hooks. So instead of, hi, welcome to 123 Main Street, let me show you around— no one cares. Make it 20 minutes, no one cares, you know? So we go through and like, these are the 5 favorite things we love about 123 Main Street. Let's go, 60 seconds. Keep it fast, keep it quick. It's an easier lift on us and it's more engaging. People watch them more vertical, fast, to the point, right? And you don't even have— we've started even doing things where we would use to go through and make a 15-minute long-form edited property tour about a house or a vlog, and it would take a lot of work. And yet these Shorts, the clips, get way more views and engagement than the actual long form. And so, you know, I want to make sure that I'm always doing two things. I'm posting with purpose, always post with purpose. And two, there's a clear call to action. So the call to action is, if you love this house, come buy it, or send it to somebody who might, or, or watch, subscribe. There's no call to action, then you're just like, again, posting with zero purpose just for the sake of posting. I don't know, it's not that interesting to me. And so I think we're going to go much harder than we've had before on YouTube Shorts. We're going to go much, much harder there. Plus we have a new show coming out on Netflix, so we just got to see kind of what happens with that and if it works, if it doesn't work. It's a very different show. It's not a normal reality TV show. It's not a normal real estate show. It's the whole reason I did it because I was like, I can't repeat Million Dollar Listing. I'm not going to make Selling Sunset. If we're going to make something and it's going to be about New York real estate and I want people to watch that first episode and say, what did I just watch? This is not normal. In the same way that Million Dollar Listing kind of redefined the occupational docuseries genre, like there hadn't really been like a let's go follow 3 people at work and see what happens show previously, really in that way. And now everybody does it. So, so we'll see what happens with that come June.

Yeah, 10-minute videos are in a really weird spot. It's either ultra short, like YouTube Shorts, or long or extra long, like hour plus. Yeah, both of those are crushing right now. Awesome. Well, let's get to some Q&A. We've got a whole bunch of hands already flying up. Markham, what's your question for Ryan?

Hey, Ryan, how are you? First of all, I looked at all of your stuff this morning. I love your Shorts. That's how I would buy a house. I grew up in Westchester County, Bronxville, New York. I was a fourth-generation insurance broker up there. And we, one of our niches was high-net-worth families. So we did a lot of the homes like you're selling, which has been exciting. 2018, my wife and I retired, couldn't really figure out what to do. So we rebranded ourselves and we now have a YouTube channel called Retirement Transformed. And we help folks like ourselves who were successful lead into retirement so they do it in a more successful way. YouTube channel's doing great. 3 years old, we got 40,000 subscribers and it's growing. My question is about branding deals on YouTube. Do you have any, and what is your feeling about doing branding deals?

We, we've done a lot of branding deals in the past. I'm lukewarm on them, not hot on branding deals because you do risk audience loyalty, you know, and they've gotta be right. I feel like I have made some mistakes in the past, but sometimes the money's too good. It's hard to turn down. You know, like we have a branding deal offer on the table right now that is so large. My gut instinct is obviously we should do it, but it's somewhat controversial, but the money's so much. And so like, it's a, it's a, I don't know. I don't know what we're— I don't know what we're going to do. It's like, it's hard. It's hard. And so there are branding deals. And so we do ones that we can fully integrate now. I care very much about our flywheel, right? So my flywheel is top of funnel content to generate customers that are salespeople or people who need salespeople. Salespeople go into our brokerage or education business. They do deals, they create new content, go round and round and round. People who need salespeople are connected to those salespeople. They do deals, they make content, they go round and round. And so like for instance, we end up doing for some reason, I guess because, because of like luxury real estate, we do a lot of cars. So, you know, we had a longstanding master deal. So like an MSA with, with General Motors. So that's why you would see me in an Escalade all the time, videos with Escalades talking about Escalades, General Motors cars all the time. We just did a new one with Range Rover. You're like, you literally see me now come to New York City. I drive around in a bright blue Range Rover that is Sirhan Blue. It is in the Netflix show. You'll see it everywhere. It is not an accident. We just did one for Mercedes. We're selling, but then we're also talking about flywheel. But I'm also selling Mercedes-Benz Place in Miami, 791 units. We just did one for BMW through YouTube. They care about YouTube, so there's property tours. But what we highlighted were properties that had garages, which is rare. So then you get the BMW that's coming in and out of properties that have garages. They're sexy tours. We have a little bit more of a budget than I normally would, so we get to use different types of equipment. It gets to be fun and you get a different audience that's attached to it. If you want to go buy a $100,000 car, maybe also be interested in this house. And so we are open to brand deals. We take those offers all the time. We just— my number one goal is not to do the most brand deals, is to do the most resales, you know, real estate sales. And so I just have to always remind ourselves of that. Thank you. Of course. Thanks for asking the question.

All right. Let's bring up Dr. Shana. What's your one question for Ryan?

The question is around brand. So there are lots of good Realtors, potentially lots of great Realtors. You are King of Real Estate, as Evan has branded you. And so is— was there one defining moment, one thing where you were great like everybody else, you have the skill set, and then you just— it just popped and exploded? And/or if you were to go back, what was— what would be one thing that you would do sooner to just get that growth or that vision of that brand? How did you separate yourself out from the pack?

You know what we're talking about now? Like, I, you know, going back to what the way that one guy described me, saying Ryan thinks he's funnier than he actually is. Well, one of the ways I could make friends when I was a little kid, one, because, you know, I was insecure with how I looked, and because my parents moved us 8 times before I hit 4th grade. So every year I had to go to a new school and meet new kids. And I wasn't awesome. I was, I was super shy. I was very quiet and I sucked at sports. And so having a sense of humor, right, was a way where I could make new friends. And so I brought that sense of humor to then Million Dollar Listing and I brought it into real estate. And in the property tours we started doing, I started to make them fun. I was like the first one in New York, which is very stodgy, right? Very buttoned up. It used to be anyway, and I would have a $20 million house and I would like run through it in bright red shorts, you know, doing a property tour, jumping in the bathtub, you know, going for a swim in the pool, showing exciting, showing it fun. And I differentiated myself that way for better and for worse. There is definitely business that I, that I did not get and will never get now because of that decision that I made. But I've now done a ton of business because of it. And so you have to be okay with that sacrifice and also make a clear decision to go forward. And however you're going to differentiate yourself with, like, if you're— it's kind of what I talked about earlier on about building brand. Like, you are, you are what you sell and what. And so I was kind of real estate and humor. For a short period of time, and I just owned it. Owned it. Because if you go one foot in, one foot out, no one will hire you. No one wants to work with you because they don't know what— they don't know who they're hiring. They're hiring someone who's got one foot in the door, one foot out.

Like, they—

okay, I'd rather have all of the clients on one end of the spectrum and none of the clients on the other than kind of clients in between. Right? I mean, look at politics. Unfortunately, no registered independent is ever going to be president. Got to pick a side. Unfortunately, I don't agree with that, but you got to pick a side. And so I think that's how I differentiated myself. And I think we all have to do too, because when you build awareness to separate yourself from the crowd, what you're creating is something that's clear, concise, and memorable. How are you memorable? Look at any standup comedian. They actually have, they have memorable ways that they tell jokes, but they also have memorable looks. Like, what is their, what is their look? You know? So that's why I never dyed my hair as much as I wanted to. And as hard as it was for me when I was 16 with gray hair, um, and 24 in New York City with gray hair at the bar trying to meet people. And it was always a subject line. It's like, what is going on with this? Guy and his gray. I said the easiest thing to do would have just been to dye it. But it's like, you know what? People will rec— people will remember me and I'll, I'll just own it. I'll just own it. And it worked. You know, it worked.

Love it. That's awesome.

Thank you.

Make, make me jealous with all this hair talk, Ryan. You know, it's a first world problem with your gray hair. I wish I had more of that.

Own whatever you have. You turn your greatest weakness into your greatest strength.

I love it. Okay. Uh, let's bring up Bri.

Okay. So I'm brand new to Movement Makers as well as I completely scrapped my entire business. So I'm in real estate in South Florida as well. I work for RE/MAX. I created the largest Facebook group with almost 30% of the global population of RE/MAX in it. And everything I've done for training, educating, marketing thus far was a hobby. And then back in August, I coached with workmen and they were like, what are you doing? You just wasted like a whole year of coaching for what? And I was like, I'm not a normal real estate agent. So I've changed and pivoted my entire business to get me here. And I stumbled upon Evan and I decided to take the plunge. I'm creating learning modules. I trained with a top keynote speaker this year. I have dove in completely to where I have all of my buckets. And thank you for saying that. So clear and concisely that it's going, but I'm still having— I don't want to say self-worth issues. I'm having issues in regards to the confidence of like, I know I'm good. I get standing room only, like presentations and little keynote sessions within my brand. And keep— people keep telling me to do this. So what advice would someone on the brink of their greatness do you have to give to me?

Wow, loaded question. Listen, I— one, hats off to you, right? Because I'd rather regret the things I did than the things I never tried. You know, what I would say to you, um, is what, what someone super important to me said to me once too, which was, no one knows what they're doing. Some people just do it anyway. And so like, that was a mind-blowing moment for me because it means that everyone builds an airplane while flying it at the same time. Everyone is a lifelong learner. Everyone's just figuring it out. But you have those that are committed and they're rigorous. They're as rigorous as they are ruthless. And there are those who lead with their nerves, who always have a plan B, who always have a net, who always have a lifeboat that they could jump into. And so I think you're doing the right thing. I think you burn your boats and I think you move forward and learn. You pivot from mistakes, you fail fast, and you just own exactly who you want to be going forward. And you probably do it even louder and harder than you already are.

Thank you, and thank you for saying FAIL. That's my favorite acronym, First Attempt in Learning. So thank you.

First Attempt in Learning.

I love it. And she's on the brink of greatness. That's great. Thank you, Bree, and welcome aboard. Uh, okay, next we got Anthony. Anthony, what's your question for Ryan?

My question is, I think I read some, uh, somewhere that Your first year in real estate, you earned $9,000.

Yeah.

What, what really transitioned you? What kept you in the game?

Was—

and was it mindset or was it skill, experience, repetition?

What do you think really pushed you into creating momentum and inertia to do what you're doing today? The number one thing that kept me in the business was I didn't have a plan B. Ignorance is bliss. My plan B was to move home to Colorado. And that would have sucked because I knew if I go home, I'll never leave. I mean, I'll eventually move out, but I'm not coming back to New York. Like, it's too expensive, it's too hard. I would have stayed in Colorado, maybe gone to Denver, would have gotten a job, been fine, but it wouldn't have been the life that I wanted to lead. As far as I know, I only have one of them, and so I wanted to make the absolute most of it. So failure was just not an option for me. And so I had nowhere to go. I had to figure out how to stay. If I could figure out how to stay in New York and afford it. So I had to make $24,000 a year to stay here, right? Taxes be damned. $2,000 a month pays my bills at that time. And so I just had to figure things out and do odd jobs. And put cash together, move it forward. And I'll say, you know, I had the benefit of going to a nice high school. I went to a nice college. I graduated, moved to New York, ran out of all my money, got my real estate license. And so the brokerage, the sales where I was working at the start, most people at that brokerage that I went to, it was kind of like a chop shop, boiler room-ish, like little rental firm, you know, where you go when you're right out of real estate school. It's kind of shady place that I started at because it was the only place I could get into. Most people I worked with had never gone to college. And there was this guy, his name is Ben. I've written about him before. His name was Ben, and he worked in the same office I did. He's from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. He sold drugs when he was younger to make ends meet. Never knew his dad. Had his first kid when he was like 17 or something like that. But he carried himself really well, wore a suit and tie every single day, and he was crushing it. Like, he did deals every day, rental deals every day. He's making a couple thousand dollars a day, right? I just need to make $24,000 a year. This guy was making a couple thousand dollars a day. And I'm like, what? Like, I went to college. Like, I— this is— this sucks. How is this possible? Like, this guy, this drug dealer, like, selling Well, I don't understand. And I remember I went out and I called my older brother. I called my mom first one day because I just lost another rental deal. And on that, in that first year, and I was just depressed and I was like, this business sucks. Called my mom. She didn't pick up the phone. So I called my older brother and I remember complaining to him about it. And I'm like, do this other guy, he crushes, he does all this. I hate this business. I hate all that. And my older brother always said to me, and I'll never forget it, was, stop crying. You little— if Ben can do it, you can do it. Just go there and ask him what he does. Just ask. And then just work harder. It's not that hard. Stop complaining. And he hung up the phone. I was like, okay, you suck too. So I went in there and I asked Ben for help and he did not give me help. I'll just put it that way. No help whatsoever. But that moment really showed me like, okay, fine. You know what? Screw this. If he can do this, I can do this. And I sort of started watching him and seeing what he was doing. You take the best, you leave the rest, right? He was posting cold ads every day before 8 a.m. I hadn't done that yet. I didn't get to the office until 9, you know. So, all right, I'm gonna start waking up a lot earlier. I'm going to beat everybody to it. So when people are searching for homes, they're going to see my ads first. That started to actually help. I'm also going to go outside my comfort zone. He knows people because he grew up in the city. I don't. What's the worst that can happen? I'm going to go to Starbucks and I'm going to meet 5 new people a day. And then I bump that up to 15 new people a day, and I'm just going to use my own environment. So if you're pregnant in Starbucks and you wore Lululemon pants between 2008 and 2010, good chance I said hi to you on 49th Street. And I said two things. One, you look great. Pregnant women love a good compliment. Two, you look like you need more space. Some of those people are still clients of mine to this day, 15 years later. And then I would stand outside Saks Fifth Avenue and I would just try to meet people who were carrying more than 2 shopping bags out of Saks Fifth Avenue. They had more than 2 shopping bags, they were rich in my eyes, you know. And so then I was just persistent and just persistent, persistent, persistent, persistent, persistent. And then I started cold, cold emailing, you know, cold calling in New York City is hard. And so I would cold email, cold email people, anyone who's got a VP, EVP, C-suite title in their name and everything's available online. And then I started tracking movement. So like job movement, which we still do to this day, job movement, congratulating them, cold email, congratulating them. Emails are really easy to find. I would pick one that I thought was it and then would BCC like 12 others that could be it. One of them would always hit, you know, and say, hey, congratulations on the promotion. You don't know me, but I love your company. Been following your career. If you're looking to move, get a bigger apartment, let me know. Some of those people wrote back slowly over time. And so I just got used to, you know what, I'm just going to work harder and do more. I'm going to do things the right way and I'm going to be smarter about it and then just push. And I think it went from like $9,000 my first year to like $50,000 my second year. I broke 6 figures my third year, so it took me a little while and then I just started compounding from there and then I started building a team. And so I started putting junior salespeople underneath me so that I only did a certain price point and above everybody else I would bring on to do lower price points. And then I would calculate the— I would add up all the deals that we would do and I would only talk about the deals when they were above $3 million. So even if we were doing $300,000, $800,000 deals, I would never talk about those individually because success begets success. If I'm like, yes, another $400,000 home sold, people are going to see that and they're going to say, oh great, you're the one who sells $400,000 homes. So I would just wait until we did a bunch of them. I'd say $3 million in transactions, $5 million in transactions, and then you'd look at it and you see there's a lot. but my promotion was about the bigger number and that's how I started going up into higher price points and going from there. Thank you. Love it. I don't know if any of that is helpful.

Justin, what's your question for Ryan?

Ryan, incredible stuff, man. So much value. Thank you. Thank you. I'm a real estate coach and broker based out of Beverly Hills, and I've been following you for a long time. My question is, what strategies do you use to maintain your client relationships while being a leader of all these other companies, like your old school clients that they only want to hear from you, not someone on your team?

What do you mean? So, so I can answer clearly.

Yeah. So your, your client, your brokerage client relationships that you've maintained since you started selling.

Yeah.

How do you still maintain those strong relationships while leading all these other companies? You know, these people that only want to hear from you, not someone on your team.

It's hard, super hard. I obviously put everyone into our funnel. They all get our newsletters. I follow the most important people on social. I have a follow-up calendar. I don't automate any of my VIP follow-ups. We do it personally, stay on top of them. We invite them personally to our biggest events and things. I make sure that I personally try to stay in the media as much as possible, and I dare past clients to use someone that's not me, right? I dare them. Um, uh, and I, you know, listen, I, I have a good memory. You know, I, I spent most of my life in theater. The whole reason I came to New York City was to do real estate because I wanted to do Broadway. I didn't want to do film and TV, otherwise I would have gone to LA. I just always wanted to be up on stage. Totally screwed that one up. But I was— so I could memorize information really quickly because I did it as from a little kid. I can memorize books. And so I would just memorize information. And so people, I can, I can, I can remember them. And so I can follow up with them a lot. At this point now, my life's a little bit different, right? I have a handful of different assistants. One is a CRM. She, her name is Sydney. You know, she is, she is my CRM to make sure that she talks like me, writes like me, acts like me. And so she does client engagement all day long so I can buy some of that time back. There's obviously systems that do that now. There's processes that do that now. If I was brand new to the business right now, I'd be utilizing AI across everything I do. I'd be Copilot all day, every day. And we're building that stuff for our own agents now through something that we call Sirhan Simple. But that's, that's, that's how I, that's how I do it right now anyway.

Thank you so much. By the way, any expansion into the Sirhan brokerage expansion into the LA market?

You know, one day— LA is a tough market to own a company in. You guys have really, really tough labor laws. The taxes are really high in California and the agents make all the money. So it's great to be an agent in California. It's great to do deals, but to own the brokerage is a tough one. You've got to really get to scale. And so we will eventually. Right now I'm wrapping up the East Coast. I got to get across the East Coast because that's where all our, you know, it's the easiest referral business for us anyway, being based out of New York City. I'm in New York City right now. It's a— that's, you know, I'll wrap that up and then I'm going to move west like the Oregon Trail.

It's the master plan.

Yeah, exactly. So that's my business plan. Just me and Jeff Bezos, exactly the same.

Greatest Broadway show of all time.

I have always really, really loved what Book of Mormon did for the business. Did for the industry, really brought Broadway into a new era. Obviously, I love Hamilton like everybody else does. I loved Rent. I saw Rent early on. The Producers, kind of the original version with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, was pretty amazing. I'm not like a big Cats guy. My 5-year-old loves Lion King and Aladdin and all those. It's kind of one of the cool things about being in New York. You get to watch it on TV and then go see them on stage.

I like it. My, my son is in musical theater high school, and every year I take him to Broadway to watch a show. We haven't done Book of Mormon yet, so next I'll tell him Ryan Serhant said Book of Mormon is next.

You got to go see it. It's one of the best ever.

I love it. Okay, let's bring up Stephanie. Stephanie, what's your question for Ryan?

I'm a relationship coach here in Vancouver, so I have a bit of a different question for you, if it's okay, if it's okay to ask, because I'm always curious about couples who are really busy professionals, entrepreneurs, and supporting one another. And Ryan, my question for you is, what is your— what are some success habits or rituals that you have for your relationship to stay connected?

Like my wife?

Yes.

Where is my wife right now? That's a tough— I mean, you know, I'm not great at it. To be honest, you know, I— my, my number one focus is building business, and I travel so much now. It is hard. It's super hard. But I, you know, my focus is our daughter. So, you know, Zena, we have Saturday Daddar Day. So I'm with her all day tomorrow for Daddar Day. And when they're in town, I try to get home 2 nights a week, but it's tough. Like when you're building, you know, I've I've, I've basically 5 separate full-time jobs that I do at the same exact time. And so there's no, it's like no break, you know, ever. It's hard. And so, but we try, you know, they go to Greece a lot. They're in Greece right now, actually coming back right now. So I'll pick them up tonight from the airport and just do, just do my best, you know, just do my best. I don't know. We'll see what, we'll see what happens. Maybe I need to hire you as a relationship coach. Okay, I'm available. Oh, good.

Thank you.

I love it. Okay, let's bring up Alex. Alex, on this couch, what's your, what's your question for Ryan?

Hey, Ryan. So I run Canada's largest salsa dance school. And my mission is to solve loneliness. Like, that's the world's greatest problem. Because it feels like we're similar since I was like in high school, awkward, not good in sports. Weird sense of humor. And so I've doubled down that if I make everyone feel like they belong in this world, then nobody will feel lonely. And so that's my mission. And like, for someone who's expanding so much, you know, my school has grown with students becoming volunteers, promoting to instructors, which means it maintains the culture. I want to dominate New York City. I want to open up a location there. Okay, uh, for someone, uh, if you want to dominate Toronto or any other city you're opening up How do you make sure that you have the volunteers and instructors in order to be successful and have— because that's the thing I'm focusing around. I'm training more, teaching less so I can scale. How would you open up another city and attract people really, really, really quickly?

I mean, we open up cities all the time. You know, I just opened up Orlando. I just opened up Tampa. I'm opening up Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Boston this year. And Rhode Island. Can't forget Rhode Island. It's just this big. And so what I do is I look for the top 10 people in each market and I just go and have conversations with them. Right. And I say, hey, coming to your market this year, I'm talking to your top 9 competitors and I'm going to— I'm going to go with one of you. So you can either have a real conversation with me or just know that I'm coming. And then that's how, that's how I've done it. Right. And it's worked. It's worked so far. The only markets it hasn't worked in is when the markets are all upside down and like they're just not either learning that process. Like, man, you know what? I don't want to be in this city. This is not a good city to do business. People are actually moving out of the city more than anything, or the commission split structures here is just terrible or tough, or there's too much liability, stuff like that. But I look for those people. And I create partnerships because guess what? I don't live in any of these places. So where do you live?

I live in Toronto, same place as Evan Carmichael.

So if you want to come to New York, right, you're not going to live here. I'm looking for somebody that can carry my brand torch in a market that I'm not going to wake up in every day. It's got a different beat. There's a different rhythm in each city, in each state, each market. So I'm finding that person who can help me beat that drum, and I'm immediately explaining to them the vision that I have for them. The biggest mistake that I made early on in building our company is— and maybe it was because COVID was around and it was just easier at the time, but I used to meet with a new potential brand partner, a new team member, right? A new person I want to hire. And I would spend 30 minutes with them, let's say, okay, keep this simple. 25 of those minutes I would be pitching me and Sirhan, our company. Look at all the stuff we do. We're amazing. I'm number one here. I'm the greatest salsa dancer since the history of salsa. And then I would spend 5 minutes talking about them and it would work. But then things changed. And so what I've learned now, because I've made the mistake, is now I spend 25 minutes talking about them and talking about the value add that they will have being with me and how I'm going to be better for them. I don't make the mistake anymore of saying, hey, come do this with me. Your life's going to get better because the person I'm talking to hopefully already has a pretty good life and they're in the back of their mind saying, my life's already pretty good. What, what, why are you so great? And I'm going to them and saying, I have an awesome opportunity for you. Here's how it looks in the next 12, 24, and 36 months. And then I spend the last 5 minutes talking about us and company and all that. It's all great. They're going to do their own due diligence if they like me anyway. And that was kind of a mindset and tactical shift to how we started talking to people in different markets. And it's worked well.

Thank you, Alex. Mary is next. Mindset Mary in the house. What's your question for Ryan?

Do you personally use coaches, performance coaches, mindset coaches? Does the brokerage— do the realtors use coaches? Like, how do the realtors how are they intentional around their personal development and around performance and sales and, you know, like always reaching that next level? Do they use coaches? Is that something that's kind of normal in the real estate industry or not?

Super normal. I don't. I tried in the past. I just have no patience. And every coach I had ever worked with, basically the call to action at the end was always stuff I had to go do. And so then I felt like every call was just me God damn it, I didn't do my homework and I hated that. I'm like, what am I paying for? I'd rather just go work. I'd rather take this hour and just go make calls. Let me just go see if I can make money. So it wasn't helpful for me. I see that it is super helpful for other people because we do coaching here, right? As part of SellIt.com, we have, I don't know, 500 clients, I guess, coaching with us every day. Maybe it's more, but I'm assuming it's around that number. And it's everything from performance coaching to brand coaching to kind of executive executive coaching. And some people really need it. They really, really like it the same way. Like, you know, I, I can go to the gym by myself, but it's also really nice to have a personal trainer just tell me what to do. But the personal trainer doesn't give me homework other than don't eat donuts, you know, like that's the homework. Like, don't go to Domino's even though it looks great. So that's my mindset homework over there. But I believe in coaching. I think it's great. You know what I like more even than just coaching? And I think you can do it both with a performance coach, but you can also do it with someone you work with who matches your work energy, is what I would call an accountabuddy. So an accountability buddy, and you hold each other accountable to your goals. So early on, you know, when I said I was telling you I wanted to meet 15 new people a day, So if I don't meet 15 new people on Tuesday, who cares? I'm not getting arrested. Like, I still have to pay my bills. And so, um, I found another guy. His name was Dave. He was weird like me, and he also was looking to grow his business. And I was like, dude, you're gonna be my accountant buddy. That's where we sort of figured it out, right? And then it was like, how many people can you meet? How many people can I meet? Well, you met 25 people today.

Jeez.

Damn it, I lost, you know, because you meet those people, you get their information, you grow your database. By default, we would sell more, we'd do more deals, right? Those relationships create relationships. Success begets success. Um, but yes, I think that's my answer. No, that's great.

That's good.

Some people need competition, you know, like that.

You just do what works. Yeah, I remember, you know, if you read that book Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, about the founding of Nike. That's a great entrepreneur book. And there's just a line he says in there, it's like, Nike wouldn't be Nike without Adidas, you know? And it's, it's, it's really key. He says it really simply: had Adidas not been there, would he really have tried that hard? Would he have woken up that early? Would he have gotten on that plane that time? Like, doing stuff is hard. Doing work. Like, I don't want to do stuff. Like, I don't want to adult. Like, I just want to—

it's just—

I remember my dad. My dad would wake up every day, no matter what, at 5 in the morning. He would go to work every day, come home, be with us, be home on the weekends, do it his whole life. Now, I never even thought about it. I was like, that's what my dad does. That's what makes him happy. That's his thing. I never even thought about it. And one day early on, like, when my real estate career started getting, like, real and it was really busy, I was complaining to him You know, as you do, like, this sucks. I'm so tired all the time. I have to wake up so early. Oh God, I don't want to do this anymore. You know, just complaining, complaining, complaining, hoping that I'll get like a hug. He's like, do you think that I wanted to wake up at 5 AM every day and go to work? Don't you think I wanted to sleep? Don't you think I wanted to watch TV? Don't you think I wanted to go hang out with you guys and used to. And it's like, so it makes so much sense, but it also blew my mind. I'm like, are you really? But you're the guy that wakes up early and goes to work. He's like, because that was the job. Like, oh my God, my life is a choice. The job is a choice. So I just have to do it. And if I do it every day, I increase my chances of getting lucky. Right? And luck is what happens when hard work meets preparation, right? We all know that. But I want to work so hard I make luck easy to find me.

I love that.

When I first joined the agency that I'm at, he's based out of New York, and I asked him, who's the number one guy on YouTube right now in the agency? And he said, Grant Cardone. Uh, and this is when everybody was under a million subs, and they're like, okay, I'm gonna pass Grant Cardone. That's gonna be my goal. I'm gonna beat Grant Cardone on YouTube. And then eventually we did, obviously. But do you have— do you have somebody, Ryan, who's your Adidas?

It changes all the time because my life changes. When I was a broker, my Adidas was, was Frederick on the show with me because he was so annoying. And so he was my Adidas and I just wanted to be number one. And so when we became number one, I was number 1 in the city, in New York City, and then I was number 3 in the country. And I did that year after year. And then I was like, all right, so now what do I do? I just fight to stay here the rest of my life. No. What's the next thing I want to do? Let's go to a bigger pond. And so we started our own company in 2020. So my Adidas now are the brokerages that are number 1 in New York City. I'm number 6. The top 5 brokerages have been around for a collective like 900 years. And so they have a little bit of a head start on me, but it's just that's just an excuse, Ryan. That's just an excuse. And so, so those guys are, those are all my Adidas up there, you know. And I guess I would also look at like the past brokers that I pitched against all the time. And, you know, they're still just selling real estate and still paying ordinary income tax. And still waking up every day and thinking about listing pitches, which is fine and great. It's a great way to make money. But I became very focused in 2019 about the next phase of my next decade. Right. Each decade is like, that's my section. So I spent 2010 to 2020 building up my, my real estate brokerage business and brand. So what is 2020 to 2020, 2030? You know, what are those next 10 years? I'm going to put a $1 billion sticker on my wall in my office. So every Zoom I ever do, it's going to embarrass me that it's staring at me and I haven't gotten there yet. Right? So I'm going to— I want to get to a— I want to get to a net worth of $1 billion. How am I going to do that? I have to build enterprise value. Can't sell that much real estate. I start to build major enterprise value. Do I do that? I have to start a lot of things to build businesses like real businesses at scale and build them fast. And so that's, so that's how I think about it now. And then we'll see, see what happens by 2030. I don't know what I'll do when I hit 2030. Maybe my relationship advice coach over here will tell me to slow down and have more kids.

I love it. Let's bring up Brian from Reno. I keep saying Nevada wrong so he can, he can correct me again. Did I get it right this time, Brian? No.

Just like you told me, it's Toronto and not Toronto.

Nevada.

Nevada. Okay, Brian from Reno, Nevada, what's your question? What's your question for Brian?

So Ryan, I want to go a different little bit direction. I've been a real estate agent for 25 years. My team has been in business for 30 years. And of course, with all the news and all the stuff going on in the real estate market, especially in the US, I'm just curious to see what your thoughts are on how this industry and business might change and how, like, how can we go about talking about it because I do videos about living where I live and talking about this doesn't exactly go with what I normally talk about. So I'm just curious where— I saw you on the news the other day talking about it briefly. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on the best way to communicate what's going to change in our industry.

I think, like I said on the news, I think there's going to be greater transparency. I always lean into what's best for the customer, right? And always put the customer first. Because the customer wakes up every day saying, what are you going to do for me today? Not what have you done for me? And for some reason, the real estate brokerage business has operated recently with, well, look at what we've done for you instead of here's what we're going to do for you going forward. Like, that's, that's where opportunity is created. That's, that's the difference between companies that are birds and companies that are bugs. They both fly, but one can adjust their flight path and not get hit by a speeding windshield. So I think that there's going to be a greater free market conversation about compensation. I think the cream's going to rise to the top. I think there's going to be more power in the hands of a few. And I think being on the list side is where you're going to want to be the strongest. I think every seller is going to say, all right, well, uh, happy to pay a buy-side agent, but I'm hiring you because there's a greater chance that you'll be able to bring me a direct because you have a bigger brand. I think personal branding just got way more important. I think the brokerage brand just got way more important, right? All these buy-side firms, it doesn't matter where you are, blah, blah, blah. And now all of a sudden you sit with someone and say, hey, happy to go show you a home for $1 million tomorrow. If you find someone you like tomorrow, you have to pay me $30,000. It's a tough conversation, you know? Absolutely. And so I think that's got to change and it's going to change now. Now, I think you're going to put things into offers. You're going to say, yep, seller pays my, my commission and you're going to have that conversation. Maybe the seller pays 1%, you get 1% of the buyer. And now we go into volume. I think you're going to see the creation of super teams and mega teams now. I think junior agents, rookie agents aren't going to be able to just go into real estate because they got their license. I think now they're going to have to go into like what banks do. Banks have 2-year banking programs. You don't go work at JP Morgan and all of a sudden just start trading, right? You do 6-month rotations for 2 years, you know, when you go into retail banking, investment banking, pensions, all that charitable asset work, all that stuff. So I think you're going to see more of that. And I think everything's going to work out at the end of the day, no matter what, no matter how much they tax us, more people keep buying more stuff. And so there's opportunity that's coming out of this. It's just up to you to either take it or not. So let everybody else get out of the business. Let them complain and just really go hard on your value proposition right now. That's what I care about, right? That value prop all day long. Obviously, you're going to work with me because like I said on CNBC that you're— you mentioned great service is definitely expensive. Bad service is going to cost you a fortune, though.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much.

Andrew, what's your question for Ryan?

So this is kind of piggybacking off of what Evan was asking about your Adidas. I know you answered it in terms of business, but speaking like about your dad and stuff and like, you know, it's just what he had to do with the success you've had and where you're at right now. Like what personally drives you to keep going? Because you mentioned your relationship and like you have like 5 different jobs and, you know, your wife and daughter would like you to be there more.

I'm a new dad.

I've got a 3-month-old. So, and I'm trying to build a business and to have a day job and do 50,000 things.

So, yeah.

So what, what drives you to like keep going just in spite of all you've achieved?

Fear of wasted potential. You know, just the fear of the fear of why, why not? I never want to be someone who's who will one day say, I wish I could have, I should have. You know, I want to be somebody who says, I wish I didn't do that thing that one time. Like, oof, yeah, that one time I did that thing, maybe I shouldn't have, but at least I learned from it. Failed fast, you know, failed fast and learned, move forward. I don't know. I think I just, I cannot sleep at night not knowing that I tried and that I'm trying to do as much as I can. And what's helped me a lot over the past couple of years, because early on, just in sales, my number one motivation was me and was money and make as much money as you can. And then you, you'll get to burnout real fast. And so I, so it was much easier for me to create a greater mission. So like our education business, for example, right? Um, I don't need to do that. Like, I didn't need to set that up. I have a massive staff there now. So you know what staff is? Staff is payroll. I don't even know what their names are. I just look at them all and I'm like, hey, what's up? $75,000 a year plus health and benefits. You know, how was your weekend? Okay. Um, but my mission over there is I believe, like my salsa dancing friend Alex over here who wants to cure loneliness, I believe that by 2027, 50% of the North American economy is going to contribute to the gig economy. Like, in the United States, 50% of taxpayers are going to file a 1099 by 2027 according to the Department of Labor. And I believe salespeople, which is what all those people are going to be doing are lonely people, and I feel that they're forgotten because student loans are business, right? It used to be to go to college, you couldn't afford it, you'd apply for financial aid or you go and get a loan, and loans were private. There were companies that offered student loans. You have to get approved for them. But then Obama came into office and said no, they should be federal as well. And all that did was it gave more loans to people who couldn't pay them back for degrees that maybe they shouldn't go get, and it rocketed the cost of higher education. Skyrocketed. You can, you can just look at, you just look at the stats, right? Because all of a sudden even schools said, oh, we're higher education, we're in business to make money, we're all for profit. Ah, the government's going to cover all of our customers to pay us for our goods and services. What are we right now? $40,000? No, we're $68,000 a year now. Thanks, thanks, government. And so you've got $1.8 trillion in student debt now. You have 43 million Americans with student debt. That they can't pay back. And it's unfair then to say, oh well, the government has to now pay it back. You, the average American, has $8,000 in savings, and there's a forgotten generation that our education business, Sell It, is on a mission to help. So for all the people that don't want to go into $27,000 of student debt, right, where are you going to go? What are you gonna do? What community is there for you with whatever it is you sell and however you want to build your entrepreneurial career? And so long answer to your question, but that's, so I, I'm mission motivated now more than anything. And if you focus on the mission, the money will come. Just like I've always said, take care of the work and the work will take care of you.

Francesco is next. Francesco, what do you got? What's your question for Ryan?

If you had to start from scratch today, what would you, what will you do to get back and brand you again to the top of your arena in real estate or just like in life? Start from scratch. Yes. Yes. In real estate again. Yeah. So in real estate, I would not sit at a computer by myself and trying to figure it out by asking questions. I would 100% have joined a team. I now see I didn't know the difference honestly, and no one told me. I had no guidance. I also wasn't a part of like an education program. I had no training. I had no coach. There was no— I had no idea what I was doing. And ignorance was not bliss at that time. So I would join a team and I would buckle down and I would learn and I would take the first 3 years and I would treat them like my graduate school. Those first 3 years, if I make money, more than I need to survive, I am lucky. I'm one of the lucky ones. My goal is to survive and learn because then I'll spend the next 3 years on a rocket ship that I just started building. That's what I would've done. I would not do it by myself. Awesome. Time goes by so fast. You kidding me? 2019 was 5 years ago. Cool.

Let's throw it to, uh, Zen, our, our hype man who's always here kicking things off early. What do you got? What do you got for Ryan?

Zen, the man.

What's up, Brian?

How you doing, man? You're doing an excellent job. Okay, so this is good. Um, it seemed like the constant theme throughout all of your success has been relationships. So in the beginning, you, you mentioned the first C was first you compliment them, then you said the second C was commonality, find what you have in common. To complete that quadrant, what would be three— what would be, um, the third C and the fourth C, um, in cars.

We should make a podcast series. See, Evan, now it's all I think about now. When Evan was like, just so you know, Serhan, you suck at podcasting, and he's right, I do. So we're gonna be like driving the compliments in common with cake in cars. Um, what are my other two Cs? Well, honestly, one would be community.

Okay.

One of the reasons we started this whole company is because I figured out how to do content to commerce through real estate, but to really build and scale, it was community in the middle, right? So that would be C number 3. So I give you a compliment, we're talking, we find something in common. I want you to be part of my community in some way, shape, or form. The fourth C would then be cult. No, I'm just kidding. The fourth C would then be, I don't know, you know, once you join my community, then the goal is to get to commerce, I guess. If I had, you know, that's, that's where I'm trying to get to, right? To try to do some kind of deal down, down the line that way. If the cult thing didn't work out.

There it is. I love it. And we'll, we'll talk about the podcast. There's ways to do it that's fun that you'll enjoy and crush it. But let's close off with that. We got Tony Varga in the house. So Tony is actually on my sales team. So Tony is the sell it like Sirhan For me. So what do you got for Ryan?

What's up, Tony Varga?

Hey, what's up, Ryan, man? I, yeah, like Evan said, I work very closely with him. I manage sales here. I've worked with a lot of the awesome entrepreneurs and thought leaders in this Zoom here today, and a ton of which here lead sales teams and lead teams of themselves and are emerging leaders who are taking off their hats and putting them on other people's heads. And, you know, there's been so many quotes and one-liners that you've been able to share with us today that I think will really stick with a ton of people. That's been a commonality here in the comments. I know I've written some of them down. But for the sake of, you know, finishing off this call with one last value zinger and making this not the longest question on the planet, if you had to distill all your experiences and your wisdom into one piece of advice for leaders and emerging leaders especially, what would that be?

So this is, this is specific to the world we live in now. I don't think I would have said this 5 years ago or 10 years ago.

Even better.

But I feel like we live in a, in an overconfident world now. Right? I feel like we live in a deserved world now, a lot less than the worthy world that I feel like we used to live in, you know. And so I would say, the best piece of advice I would give is, do not let your confidence overshadow your competence. Like, that's— be the absolute most competent, and that'll give you the confidence to do whatever you want to do, right? People hire confidence, yes, but they, they fire incompetence. So don't let your confidence overshadow your competence. That's a solid nugget to end on. Just want to put that out there. I love it.

I love it.

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you, Ryan.

Just easy last question, right? Just throw all of your life advice into one sentence, Ryan, and that's it.

Exactly.

That's—

I come back to this in a year and I'm like, what, dude? It's all about confidence. Who cares what you do?

Ryan, you've given us so much time and energy today. For the people who are both in this group, we got some connected people here, as well as people who are gonna be watching this on YouTube, how can we support you with what you're doing?

You know, you can follow me anywhere @RyanSirhant. If you're interested in the sales training side of our stuff and everything we do in that community, just go to sellit.com. Sellit.com. We love the support. Check it out. We just rebranded 2 days ago, so it's been super exciting. And I don't know, just go be out there, be happy, you know, have fun, crush it.

I love it. Well, the man is Ryan Sirhant. The book is Brand It Like Sirhant. YouTube will put it in the description below. Ryan, thank you for joining us, man. Appreciate you.

Of course. I'll see you guys.

To watch our last Movement Makers guest presentation with Trent Shelton, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

When your why is strong enough, whatever comes against you will never be great enough, right? When your why is strong enough, when it's great enough, whatever comes against you will never be strong enough. If your why is, I want just a lot of followers, what's going to happen when that doesn't happen?