Building A Winning Leadership Attitude With Nick Bailey

In a world full of turmoil, despair, and darkness, you need to carry the light. Season three of the Get Attitude Podcast is where we will ignite your mind, your heart, and your attitude. And welcome to the Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap. My name is Glenn Bill, host of the Gap, and today we are here with a leader in the real estate industry. Has been a leader for a long time, led some of the biggest organizations in America, such as ReMax, Real Estate, Century 21, was on the leadership and executive team of Zillow. When it comes to bridging the gap and figuring out how to go from where you are to where you want to go, I have a feeling our guest will have some fantastic ideas, solutions, and answers to how does attitude work with leadership? And what's it like to be running these huge organizations with like, over 100,000 people? So, without further ado, I want to welcome Mr. Nick Bailey to the Get Attitude Podcast. Welcome, Nick.

Thanks, Glenn. Thanks for the introduction. You said I've done this a long time. We start out with you calling me old, right?

Just a little old. You're not that old. Now, for those of you, good recovery. For those of you watching on Spotify. Spotify. If you look at Nick, he does not look old. That is, that is correct. But he's. You've been around a little bit, haven't you, Nick?

Yeah, I, I, I have. You know, professionally, let's say within the real estate industry, I think it's 28 years.

Nice. Almost as long as me. That makes, that makes me really old.

Well, you said it, I didn't. So congratulations, Nick.

We always like to open up our podcast and ask people what their defin attitude is.

I think it's the one you decide that you present with.

Okay. And so when you talk about deciding what you present with, obviously that means that we have a choice, right? Either positive or negative. Where do you think you derived your attitude? Or who was your first attitude coach?

You know, I believe heavily in coaching, and it's interesting you mentioned this because as my path has grown over decades and I've had the honor to serve as, as you mentioned, CEO of a couple of the largest global real estate brands. In the process, I've had a lot of coaching. I have a personal coach and a professional coach. And I think what's interesting, I'll get back kind of to your question, but this leads into it. I've never had an attitude coach specifically, but I would say that my personal coach, my professional coach, as I have grown, I actually got into coaching. The more my Leadership positions grew. And I think most people do it the opposite. They get coached when they're young, and then all of a sudden you become a CEO and now you are the coach and you don't need coaching anymore. I think it's the opposite. I think the higher you go in your leadership roles, the more coaching you need. And I think that I've never thought of it this way until you mention it, but that's probably been key to help me keep what I'd say is a pretty good attitude along the path.

I like it. And so when you think about whether you're business coach or. Did you say a life coach? Is that what you said? Yeah.

Yes.

What would hey, give us the goods? What are the like two mantras that consistently run through your mind from those coaches who helped you along the way? Are there two or three mantras that you live by or that you go, hey, what? When I heard that, this changed my attitude and it may have changed my life.

Yeah. I'll give you one example. On the personal side, my life coach said that people in your life, whether it be personally or professional, really resemble a space shuttle. That when you make a decision of where you're going to go, you have to realize that no matter what stage of life you're in, the people that are with you and around you, friends, family, colleagues, they may not be prepared to go where you're headed. And it's similar to the rocket boosters on a space shuttle. You launch and you're all together. But if you're the space shuttle and you're going to a direction that you want to go, you're going to have to let some people in your lives, possibly follow, fall off if they're not prepared to go where you go. And that was really important because I think we stay. It's going to make me sound heartless, but, you know, I think we stayed, we stay close to certain, maybe family or friends. When it's not, let them go, push them out of your life. Because I'm a long term relationship guy. But when you think about your goals and your attitude and where you're headed, some people are prepared to go with you part way and some are prepared to go with you all the way. And that was probably a really significant time for me several years ago to realize it's okay that not everybody has to go on your journey with you.

Right. And so when you think about, or when I think about leading an organization of 100,000 people, my guess is like when you were a kid, you weren't thinking, hey, this is probably what I'm going to do. I mean no, it was. You knew it.

I did.

That's good. And so that is somewhat of an attitude. I knew it. I'm dedicated to this. What do you think was the impetus to that. What put that burning desire in your gut or in your heart that made you feel like that? Was there some person that helped you with shape that attitude or was it innate?

So I, I have to go back and think that I've always just been curious by nature. And here's a dumb example. When my parents would buy a new car, I'd be seven, eight years old. I would read the entire manual front to back and then sleep in it the first night that they owned it. And all of a sudden I didn't realize that that was years in the making of becoming tech support for my, for my parents.

Right.

But I'm just naturally curious. And so I think that there's a nature component that's curiosity. But I also came from a very hard working entrepreneurial family and my family had small businesses. My dad worked in the corporate world for a while. None of which were in real estate ironically. But I loved real estate as a kid. And what I didn't realize is what started as an architectural interest, by the way, the little super lockboxes with the dialogue. Yeah I could break in any vacant house. Those things were so easy. Now I was a good kid and, and I think the as old as I am that can't be charged for this breaking and entering trespassing thing anymore. Anyway, I used to love to go. I used to love to go look at houses and I would self tour at 10 years old.

Oh my gosh.

And what I didn't realize is this was setting me up for a career that my real estate career was not going to be based on architecture or houses or which still fascinate me. But it was more around people. And some people are the most brilliant people I've met but they belong locked in a back closet doing what they do. And that's not me. I realized my gift and my desire was to be out and help other people achieve their entrepreneurial goals. So I think that came. It's that double role curious and a foundation of a very hardworking family.

You know we have a lot of people that come on and I love talking about the family because I always believe that your parents are obviously usually your first attitude coach. The first coaches that people get when it comes to who develops your attitude. I'd love you to Just tell us, like, what attitude lesson did your mom teach you? What attitude lesson did your dad teach you?

Wow. Should have sent me these questions ahead of time.

No, man, you're good. Come on, Nick. You got so much talent. You got more talent in your pinky than most people have in their real estate office. Let's go. You know what it is?

Okay? Best attitude lesson from both.

Yeah. Or just the best lesson when you think about your dad. What. What did he instill in you and your mother?

So there's one thing. And my dad was very quiet, and I. And so he didn't say much. He was like this unspoken guy sitting in the corner, and I did take away from him. You don't have to be the first one in the room to talk.

Great.

Now, at the time, I didn't translate that when I was young, because I was the one. I jump in. I'm a leader. Let's go. I'll be the first to answer something, realizing later that one of the smartest people in the room is the one who speaks last. So that was probably a unconscious learning. But then there was one he gave me. And I think that this can translate across many things. I had. I had a business when I was in my teens. And, you know, my parents had small businesses. And, you know, of course I wanted to go to college. And my mom went to a trade school. She was a cosmetologist. She owned her own school, and so on. So that was, you know, translated into that. But there was this debate between my parents that, should I go to college or should I keep working on these businesses that I was building? And this debate kept going on and on. And the one thing I'll never forget that my dad said, he said, no matter what, no matter how well you do, no matter how much money you make, no matter how you define the success, education in whatever form, or fashion, education is something that once you have it, no one can take it away from you. And so that was probably an attitude lesson. It doesn't mean college. It doesn't mean it's whatever education you're getting in your life, keep learning something. Because the more you learn, it's the most powerful thing that people can't take away. And then I think from. From my mom's side, this kind of do anything attitude, you know, here was someone that was kind of in the beauty business, and she could dress up, look like a million bucks, and nails and hair done and. And all of that. But she was also the person that could be in sweats, scrubbing, A floor or, you know, nailing two by fours together. So I think that attitude of whether you own the company or work at the company, you're willing to do whatever it takes to make it work. And so I think that in attitude is I see people in. They get successful and they get pretty snobby, and all of a sudden it's, these things are too good for me. And so I would say that attitude is, you know, I mow my own lawn, I clean my own house. To this day, people usually don't believe me when I say that, but it's true. So I'd say those two things. Long answer, the.

And I think. Didn't you just move?

I did. Are you stalking me? How do you know?

No, I just saw it on Facebook. You were, like, getting a new home or something. So.

Yeah, we moved in just over a year ago. Spent three and a half years building this thing. And I do it again in a heartbeat. Like, it was so fun. The detail of. I placed every outlet, every switch, every, like, down to every minute of detail. It was absolutely fun.

One of our favorite questions, and I know we talked about mom and dad, Bailey, and those are great, you know, it's great advice. It's simple advice. It's advice that everybody should know. But if you're an entrepreneur out there listening, these are solid facts about how to get from where you are to where you want to go. I always believe greatness can skip a generation. And one of my favorite things to ask is about. About our guest grandparents. And I'm just wondering, you know, we all have four grandparents. Was there one grandparent that was specifically really close to you? That had a super impact. We'd love to know their name in that story, because sometimes I think the greatest stories involve, you know, our elderly population, people over 80, over 90. And I just love to dig in and get a little of that from you.

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, because you do stalk me a lot. I guess my. My grandmother, her name was Ruth Cooley and was my mom's mother. She was my number one, even more so than my own mother, and had to do with kind of a cool story, sad story, but my grandparents, right after I was born, they raised me my first year because my father, at 33, 34, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's, you know, young man, first, first health issue. And this is a testament to the change in companies. Now picture this. He works for a private oil company at the time, on the corporate side. He's young, second child. This Happens. The company kept paying him a full paycheck, sent him to Stanford, which at the time was the number one rated treatment center. The gentleman that invented radiation was the physician that worked on my father. The company paid him for a year and rented my mother an apartment near the hospital so she could be close. And so, you know, what company today would do something like that. And he was young. It's not like he had been there for 28 years. So as a result, I was very close with my grandmother up until her death a few years ago. She was absolutely my number one. Hilarious.

And what, yeah, what did you, what was the lesson she taught you? What was her attitude?

She had one of the best attitudes in the world. And the number one thing I worked from, learned from her was no judgment. She was just a no judgment person. And especially for her generation, there was a lot of room for judgment against people that were different and lived in a small town. So there was, there was an opportunity for which I saw, with a lot of their friends, of bigotry and racism. And she just didn't have it. Yeah, she didn't have it. And so that was pretty cool how she could just meet or treat everyone the same.

Yeah, that's cool. And again, I asked this question all the time. I didn't stalk you, but usually people that ascend have a link to a grandparent and those stories are always so cool and eye opening. Did you ever end up going to college or not?

Did.

And you graduated?

I did, I did, yep. I went to Montana State, graduated with a degree in business administration. But I had businesses and I was selling real estate at the time. And so, and ironically at the time, I'd grown up in Colorado, I live here in Denver, but at the time I, I was in northern Wyoming. And so to kind of give you an idea, people say, oh, I came from a hardworking family. Many do. I lived in Wyoming and I went to Montana State. So three days a week I drove 200 miles to class. And my first class was at 7:15 in the morning. Oh my God. And then I had to be home for my business by three in the afternoon. And. And I tell people, yeah, I drove it four years or five and a half years. It was a little longer because I couldn't take a full slot. And so I, I listened. Even my oldest son started going to college and he had to drive 32 miles. And I said, that's easy, dude. So it was a lot of discipline, but it's because I wanted it. I wanted it. I wanted to Work. I am more of a toddler today than I was then. I was the most grown up 18 year old you'd ever meet. I read textbooks on my steering wheel, not advised. And I only fell asleep once and ran off the road. And then one other time was in snow and I broke a strut. So not bad odds.

Right? And I was going to ask you if you're read. I was just wondering like, did you. Were you listening to old cassettes, like some old Tom Hopkins cassettes or were you listening to music? Tell me what you were doing for five years. 400 miles a day, right? 200 there, 200 back. That's six hours in the car.

200 round trip. It's like 215 round trip.

Yeah, yeah. That's still three hours a day in the car. Did you make that the automobile university or were you rocking out on the. On the road there?

It was music, all music based and you bet. Cassettes.

Cassettes, right. Not eight tracks?

No.

Too young for eight tracks.

No, but I did have that cool little cassette with the string that hooked into the CD player. Yeah, that was kind of cool.

Who, who was, who was your artist of choice? Nick.

Oh, gosh, that's one thing. I'm big music guy.

Okay.

My wife and I met, we started dating in eighth grade because we were in jazz band together.

Awesome.

So we've been together a long time. And so I would say I'm not a metal head, I don't like heavy metal and I'll do a little bit of rap. But if you had to give me my number one today, I love country music.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool. I met my wife in sixth grade, so we have that in common.

Did you start dating in sixth grade or just met?

I walked up to her. I went to a new school, I was kicked out of a school. Walked in and I said, I'm going to marry her. And she's like, dude, that's a little heavy. And I did. But I'm a closer, so what can I tell you? So. So you sold real estate while you went to college, is that right?

Yes.

So you were doing deals. What did you study in college? I'm just curious.

Business administration.

Okay. Okay. So you were writing purchase agreements while you were in college. What company were you with at that. What was the company that Nick Bailey walked into and started selling real estate?

Believe it or not, when I was licensed, century 21.

No kidding.

And I was 21 years old and. Cool story. You fast forward. When I became the CEO of Century 21 just a few years ago. This is how, you know, some things are just kind of meant to be.

Yeah.

It was August 16th, 1996. I got my license 21 years later.

Wow.

August 16th of 2017, I became the CEO of Century 21. 21. 21. 21.

That's great.

But I was only there 90 days, and then the number one broker out of that office and the number one broker in the area, her and I opened a new company together. And I had no idea what I was doing, but I thought, sure, let's do it.

Well, we have that. I walked into a Century 21 office. No one would hire me in our market, except a Century 21 office that was in a old steak and ale converted to a real estate office. Gotta love them. And off, off my real estate career went. So did you open an independent or did you buy a franchise?

So we were independent, and the individual that we opened this office together, she'd been with a brand, the C21 brand, for 10 years. And so we realized very quickly. And it's. I tell everyone, it's when I became a brand fan in the industry is because all of a sudden we were creating all of our own marketing materials, Our folders, our display kits, Everything was from scratch. And we weren't focusing on the right things to build the business, which is get agents in the door and sell houses.

Yeah.

And instead it was building spreadsheets and marketing materials and business cards. And so we actually did affiliate with a brand about 12 months after we opened.

Cool. So in. In that early stage in your career, who was it that affected your attitude in. In business or to get you doing what you did? Who. Who was the biggest impact on you? Maybe let's call it your first five years in real estate.

First five years in real estate. I don't know if I have a single person that I just would jump to say, this is the person. But I will tell you what led to leadership beyond that five years is the process of going through, opening a real estate company and then branding it. Of course, we had franchise sales staff come in. Once we affiliated, then we had franchise development staff. And I thought, this is really interesting because I knew I wasn't going to sell real estate for my entire career. I knew I wasn't going to own a real estate office for my entire career. I like leadership, and I just naturally drawn to it. And it was that process of going through branding your company, seeing leadership from outside that was coming in to someone that was very young and naive and looking to them for answers on how to help open and grow this business under their brand. And I went, wow, that sounds cool. And so that was probably the most influential piece during that time. That then after I got married, Hannah and I wanted, I wanted to go back to Denver and she came back from a big city, graduated from college, and it's what led me into the franchise side and the rest is history.

Yeah, that's. And so what were you at first? Zillow, ReMax or Century 21?

Okay, so we mentioned I was C21 as an agent, spent five years in the brokerage side, went to ReMax headquarters working in their, the franchise operations side across the U.S. spent 11 and a half years there.

Wow.

I went to Market Leader. Market Leader is a SaaS based lead technology company for the real estate space. After being there for a very short time, Trulia announced they were acquiring Market Leader for their CRM and lead capabilities. And then after we closed that deal, Zillow came around and acquired Trulia. So between that Market leader, Trulia, Zillow, it was probably the coolest five years of my life. Three public companies and all we did is acquisition integration. Acquisition integration. Most people think that was chaos. I was fortunate enough, I got to leave lead the industry side and these tech portal sides and the two didn't speak the same language. And so it was fun to be build out a team that I got to lead a team that were the interpreters between these really wicked smart tech people that couldn't relate to these real estate people. And we had to connect the dots to make it all work. And it was really fun, really fun.

And who would you say was, had the most impact or who taught you the most about leadership? You know, you're in the middle of all the chaos. Was there one or two people that stood out? And you went, you kind of pointed and said, man, somebody I could emulate, somebody I could look up to, somebody I could learn from. Who are one or two of those folks?

Well, number, that's an easy one. His name is Jess Jesperson. He's the retired CEO of ReMax. And when I came into ReMax headquarters, I was 26. Within a year, he became my mentor. And that's been 22, 23 years ago and he still is today. Cool and a very, very dear friend. But he was, he wasn't the crazy like charismatic front guy, kind of like I am. We're very different in so many ways, but we were so much the same in other ways. Like for example, you know how people would play tricks on him. They'd go into his desk and they would reorder his highlighters by color, and it would. He blow his mind. It would drive him crazy. And we had that in common. If you could see where I'm sitting and my drawers and everything is very organized.

Yes, it is.

And he was so instrumental in bringing forward to me things that I was too close to myself and didn't see. And I'll never forget. I'll tell you a quick story. About six months in, and there were a number of people that did the same job at the company that I did at the time. And he said, nick, I chose you to mentor you because I just saw something that I think there's some potential there. And I said, I appreciate that. But he said, I'll tell you, I've done. We've worked together now six months. And quite honestly, I don't know if I could really articulate if you're any better or any different than the other eight colleagues that have the same job as you. Now, I'm telling you, you talk about it was this type of thing.

Yeah.

And I walked out of there and I thought, okay, am I not waving my flag loud enough that because I knew I was working harder than some of my colleagues, I knew I was smarter than some of my other colleagues, and some of my other colleagues could run circles around me. I mean, there was a mix, but I was definitely willing to outwork them. And it took me months to figure out I wasn't. I was doing the job well and I didn't need to wave my flag. Look at what Nick's doing. It was which he finally got me to months later, is I needed to become the go to resource.

Right.

When someone has a question, be top of mind, whether it's someone experienced in the company or not, gosh, I have a question about this. You know, go ask Nick about it. He might know. And so that was a defining moment for me is when he told me, position yourself in leadership to be the go to resource.

Yep.

And that will then be what changes your career path. And he was right on the money.

And that's true in sales too, really. I mean, when you think about the hundreds of thousands of real estate agents and. And as I go out and talk to them, if you're the ultimate resource for your customers, like, you know, if they need a roof, if they need a. And all they think about is coggle in. Coglin. Coglin. That's the key, man. That's the key to success. No matter what you're doing, I love.

So what great, what great Advice is a 27 year old. That was invaluable.

Yeah, that's so cool. So I don't know, you probably can't see this or whatever, but we have the 10 attitude boosters that are, that are from my book. And number five is have a mentor and copy him or her. And so I love the fact that you brought up mentorship and we don't talk about mentorship a lot. Um, love the story, but give me your perspective on how to be a good mentor, how to be a good mentee, and overall, what, what the people listening to us today, let's face it, nine out of 10 people don't have a mentor. Probably 99 out of a hundred, don't you know, why get a mentor. How is it good? How's it, you know, how do you be a good mentor? What are the rules? Let's, let's just dive in for a couple minutes on what is mentorship, how does it work, and what can we learn from you about that so our people can go out and really start embracing attitude booster number five. Have a mentor copy them, him or her. So let me know, let me hear it.

I love number five. And I think mentorship does turn into what I mentioned earlier, which is coaching. You can, you can blend them together. I think one just has a higher accountability level.

First.

I think as a mentee, you have to seek somebody out and you talk about the emulation. I'm very visual and so I would walk in and I would see a leader or CEO on stage and I would just study what are they doing? You know, public speaking is a big thing of mine. I love it. I continue to try to master it. I watch comedians not to be funny, but for delivery. I would watch people that were good on stage, influential on stage. So I think you have to be eyes wide open as a mentee, but I think you have to have broad shoulders. Someone told me a few years ago, do you know why gingers are overly confident as adults?

No.

Because we were picked on so much as kids. We have built this iron shield around us that you cannot harm us as adults.

Hilarious.

And so, you know, I think that translates to being a good mentee. People really don't like criticism, whether we use the word constructive in front of it or not. And I think you've got to have broad shoulders. You can't get your feelings hurt. And if you really want to get better and you gotta, you have to let someone help you get Better now, I'm a focus on your strengths, not fix your weaknesses guy, but you got to do both. You've got to know where, where your, your, your sand traps are that you're going to sink into. And that's what a. I think a mentor did for me. So I think being a good mentee is broad shoulders and seek it out. Don't wait for your company to promote you. Don't wait for your boss to teach you. Because I've had a lot of supervisors that absolutely. I learn more what not to do from them than what to do.

Right.

So I think people also sit around and wait for someone to make them grow, make them better. You have to do it yourself. Go seek it out. Now, over the years, I've become a mentor to, to many people, and I, you know, I got lucky in a lot of. In a lot of cases, and I was at the right time at the right place, but I also got to do things at a much younger age than a lot of people have gotten to do.

Yeah.

And as a result, it has attracted a very young group of people that say, how'd you become a CEO at 40? You know, how. What can I learn from you? And as a mentor now, it's not teaching them what I did, it's asking them questions on what they need.

Right. Oh, that's good.

And sometimes as a mentor, I say, I don't know, what do you think? And so I think when it's coach or mentee, mentor, neither one of you have all the right answers. But I heard something from Simon Sinek. I shared. I was speaking last week, and I shared something. He said he had a colleague that reached out and said, can we have lunch? And he didn't get back in a timely fashion. And, and didn't realize.

And.

And she followed up with him, and they were great friends and said, you know, why didn't you reach back out? I was having. I was in a really dark place. I was having a really hard time. He said, well, your message about let's get together, have lunch wasn't any different than any other time. And he followed a study that said, when you're having a tough day, a bad week or something in your life is, Is. Is difficult. You need eight minutes with someone, and it's not eight minutes to fix it. It's not eight minutes to figure it all out. But this study showed that the average time that people can get together, when you're having a tough time, eight minutes, can reset your outlook. And so they had a code between Them that now the text wasn't, do you want to have coffee or lunch? It's I need eight minutes.

Nice. I like that.

And I think that's really powerful in a mentor, mentee type of scenario is we all need eight minutes.

Yeah.

It's just going to be. Are you willing to ask for it?

All right, we're with Nick Bailey with T360. We're going to talk about that. And we don't get eight minutes. We get about 42 minutes. So we get. We get eight times six. I think that's the right math. No. Is that right? Yeah. 42.

That's 48, but you're close.

48. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Catholic school education. How about that? So you were 40 year old. You're a CEO at 40. And what company were you the CEO of at 40 was? Because I knew I was like, man, this dude is getting it done.

That was. That was century 21. I got recruited to. To come on board and be president and CEO of that organization. 128, 000 people in 80 countries. And like, what a. What a cool opportunity. It just. My path has never been as a kid, I always knew I wanted to lead a large real estate brand. I didn't know what that meant. That could have meant 25 people in one location or 150,000 in 110 countries. So that's why I say I knew that path. I just didn't know how I was going to get there. I kind of let that just happen.

And being in that position with three different entities. Were you the CEO of Zillow too? No.

No, no, no.

Okay.

I was in their executive group and I led the industry segments, but I was not in their C suite.

I gotcha. Regardless. Intense. Lots of work, lots of travel, lots of time, long days. Tell me about, like, the worst day you've had in your career professionally where you felt like you were broken and you mustered the attitude to come back. I'd love to hear that story because I'm, you know, as great as this all sounds, I got to imagine you've had a couple not good days.

Yeah. I'll tell you both, and I hope I don't get choked up with either one of them. Is a leadership lesson. One is a personal lesson. Can I share both?

Of course.

Quick story. It was the downturn in real estate. Some of the most successful people with large operations were suffering. And I got a call from a gentleman that said my accounts have been frozen. I'm gonna have to tell all of my Agents, multiple locations, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of agents. I'm telling them, tomorrow at 9am we're out of business. We're closing the doors. And I was leading regional operations for a company at the time. And I said, hey, you know what? I think there's a better way. You don't have to just lock the door. Will help you. My number one colleague myself will be on a plane this afternoon. We'll get there tomorrow morning. Because independent real estate agents, we need to help them too. You can't lock the door on them. You may be locking your door, but don't lock the door on all of them. Let's help get them so they can have some continuation in their business. He said, okay. So I was the last person that spoke to him. Plane landed, turned it back on. He had gone out between the air conditioning units and committed suicide.

Oh, my mercy. Wow.

His wife didn't know. She had dropped off a salad minutes before and left it on his desk. And I had to stand up the next day, office by office by office, and tell his entire company of hundreds of people that he was gone.

Wow.

One of the toughest leadership days. Because in a moment like that, people are looking for strength. They want strength, direction. What do we do? All of its staff, like, what do we do? And so that was professionally the hardest day of my career.

Wow, that's a hard day. Unbelievable story.

Yeah. Yeah. Just incredible. And this guy was known. He was like the president of his church campus. Like when I say campus, thousands of people. He was the guy that always it together. And so it was such a surprise. So that was a tough day. And then When I left C21, I was.

Let me ask you, did you find a lesson? Did you learn something? Did something click on that? I mean, I know it's on the spot, but when you reflect on.

No, I did learn that I probably could have in that last phone call with him, maybe ask a few questions a different way because I didn't pick up. And I don't know if there were signals that I knew. It was humiliating. I know that's tough to on your ego and your business, but I didn't go deep enough on, okay, we've got all the business things. We're doing this, we're doing this, we're going to do this. We're going to do contracts here. We're not going to litigate this. Like, I had it all under control.

Wow.

Like it was. We had a plan. But I didn't stop for a minute and say, by the Way, Tim, this has to be tough. How are you doing?

Yeah.

Right now. I went to his service, and I'll tell you, the pastor that was doing the service did something wonderful for 2,000 people that were in the audience and said, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Not one person in here could have changed this. You couldn't have said, I should have called him. I just saw him last week. Maybe I should have reached out. I haven't seen him. You've got to let go of. Every one of you is sitting in here saying, maybe I could have done something to avoid this. And he walked people through. So I, I, he was wonderful that I don't look back and say any of it was, quote, my fault. I, I'm not carrying his monkey. But what I did take out of that is I don't care how good, how smart, how business, you've got everything locked up. But we were in the people business, and I knew that, and I could have gone that much further. So now in tough situations, when it's tough people situations, I'll step out of the piece that and just say, glenn, how are you doing?

Yeah. And not to plug. And I appreciate, I can't tell you how much I appreciate. Killer story. Wonderful story. We did two podcasts on suicide during Suicide Prevention Month. Get Attitude. Get Attitude podcast. Mark Hennick, and that one won a national award for that pod. So if you are somebody out there that's struggling and this came up and it hit you, or you know somebody, or if you're like Nick going, what can I do? Mark in that podcast walked through the mindset of a suicidal person, which he was. He was saved by a stranger ready to jump off of a bridge. But to get inside the mind of somebody with. And we did it on the pod. I mean, it was unreal, and it's just a great resource. So if what Nick just told you hits you, check out Mark Hennick on the Get Attitude podcast. It will open your eyes and hopefully help you maybe someday save somebody that feels that way. So.

And Glenn, I'll say that's the, all the college, all the education, 25 years of experience, none of that prepared me for that.

Yeah, I can't imagine.

But leadership is. You got to rise to it, and that's what you have to do. I compliment you for having that podcast and openly discussing it, because there's always someone out there that if you hear something from the right person at the right minute, it can make all the difference in your life.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes we don't know the power of what we say in passing, you know, I mean, and I'm sure you've done it where people go, God, Nick, when you said that, I can't tell you what it meant to you. And you, I don't even remember saying it. Right. So it is keep on going. Now, I think we had a slightly more upbeat, positive, personal, personal lesson that you were going to share with us. The second story.

Yeah. So, you know, I mentioned my wife. I had two boys. They're now 20 and 15. At the time I was at Century 21 at their headquarters. I lived in Denver, they're based in New Jersey. I was commuting. We didn't relocate. My kids were 9 and 13 at the time. I traveled over 200 days that last year.

Ouch.

And I got home at Thanksgiving from a long trip. I think I went to China to speak. And yeah, they made me wear the gold jacket on stage. And it was all, you know, old school, official. Anyway, I took my son to lunch to Chipotle, my nine year old. And on the way back he said, dad, I miss when you worked for Zillow. Now a dad, I'm thinking he has charge labeled branded charging cases. He's got Zillow blanket hats, he's got all the cool tech swag. That's immediately we thought. And I said, oh, why buddy? I haven't brought you any new, like cool tech stuff. And I swear to quote my 9 year old said, no, dad, I used to get to see you. Oh, oh. And this was the first time I always had plans in my life. This was the first time in my life I didn't have a plan B. I walk in the house, tears rolling down my face. My wife looks at me and she said, oh my gosh, what happened? Did you get a car accident? I mean, what is wrong? And I told her. And after Thanksgiving, I flew out that Monday and I resigned.

Awesome.

And there wasn't enough title, there wasn't enough pay, that I only had one chance to screw up my kids and I was going to make sure I was a little closer to home to do it right. And so that was an attitude moment in my life that I went, I thought I was. I never missed a baseball game, I never missed a concert. I changed flights to be home. And I thought that was making me the award winning dad with the right attitude. What I didn't realize is what they weren't telling me until he mentioned that. And I went, you know what? I may have just put a couple of things in my priorities just got out of whack a tiny bit. And, yeah, first time I didn't have a plan B. And people said, are you kidding me? People live their lives to have a job like that, right? That it wasn't. Wasn't going to work.

Well, like you said, no better title than the title of dad. No better pay than the presence of your child. So what a great.

And I got to go on to be CEO of another company. And I still traveled, which is fine, but I got to be better at both instead of only good at one.

Well, I think I was at Century 21 when you were the CEO, if I remember correctly. So I remember when you resigned. So powerful, powerful stories, Nick Bailey. You're killing it. You're giving us lots of great things to think about, great antidotes, but now it's time to wrap it up. I can't believe we've been on for 50 minutes, but we got to do knowledge through the decades with you. Do you know what knowledge through the decades is?

I don't.

Okay, so knowledge through the decades is how I close every show. We walk you through your life and ask you about the attitude lesson for each time you turned into a new decade. And so this is just, you know, there's no wrong answer. Just speak from your heart and let's have some fun and walk through Nick Bailey. Nick Bailey's attitude adventure. Now, we always start with the day you were born. I'm certain you don't remember the day you were born, but maybe when your kids were born, you do remember it. But what is the attitude lesson of new birth or being born or being reborn, in your opinion? What is there to learn?

Attention. Pay attention.

And let's just dive into that a little bit. When you say pay attention, what does that mean? Why did you say that?

I think. I think when you look at, you know, small trial. And I've had two.

Yeah.

That you have to be prepared or anticipate the unexpected needs and deliver upon them before they even know they need it. That, to me, is like the complex answer of pay attention.

I like it.

How many things do you need to pay attention to with your children to make sure that their wants and needs are met. Excuse me. Even before they know they need it. And that's the job as provider. And so you got to pay attention.

And that's the job of a leader, really, when it's all said and done at a different level. All right, so now, little redhead. Nick's 10 years old. He's in fourth grade. You remember being 10? Do you remember your teacher? And was there a time during that year that you said, oh, I think I just learned a lesson. Tell us what it was like being 10 years old in Colorado. The attitude.

Yeah. So Ms. Nyberg was my teacher. She was a fellow ginger, and she taught us how to write a check.

Oh.

And my attitude was, I like being able to write checks.

I love.

That's an honest, true story. I remember what the check book look like, and we did practice checks.

I love it.

And for some reason, that's when I became kind of money. Not a money person. But the formula of business and revenue and money in, money out started to take place. And I bought my own trampoline that year so that I had. My parents had made me save up for it and I had to buy it myself. And I had the coolest backyard of any kid in the neighborhood for the summers.

And how did you raise it? Were you a grass cutter or what'd you do? Paper route? What was going on?

Absolutely. I. I mowed lawns and I had a car detailing business in high school.

Okay.

There's a lot of things there that we've left out on my young career.

Cool.

But, yeah, anything I could do to work to. I babysat kids.

Yeah.

That's good, because it was always hard. I had family members that they had boys. And at the time, it was hard to find a male babysitter that would go and play football in the backyard with the K. And so I had no problem finding babysitting jobs, especially for little rowdy young boys that just wanted to play basketball and football.

I did a lot of babysitting. My rate was $1 per hour, no matter the number of kids. It was a dollar an hour. That's what my uncles and my aunts paid me.

See, at least you had a rate. See, I learned a valuable lesson that you just right now made me figure out on the spot. I just let them pay me what they paid me. Sometimes it was a lot, and other times it was not good. So I should have set a standard, and I didn't.

Let's talk about Nick turning 20. Do you remember turning 20? I'm guessing you're in college. And what was your attitude lesson at 20?

Attitude lesson? the time, that's what. I owned my own business. I bought. I purchased two commercial retail buildings when I was 17.

Oh, my God.

In the community where we lived. And so I was a landlord for one, and I had a business in the other. And it wasn't real estate. It Was kind of more in the entertainment business side. And so when I was 20, I was going to real estate school. I was operating a business, I was a landlord, you know, going to college, obviously. And then I had worked in a restaurant for nine years on the weekends in a high end steakhouse. And so my attitude was busy was better.

Cool.

And yeah, so I wasn't a troubled kid. I was never into drugs or drinking or anything like that.

Right.

And I was just a hard working, busy kid. I sat on the Economic development Alliance for our community when I was 20. Wow. And. Oh, yeah. And I had bought my first house when I was 18. So I was a homeowner, a landlord, a college student in school for real estate and serving steaks on the weekends. Busy was better.

And so gappers. The lesson is, look it, Nick's had a lot of success. He's done a lot of great things. Right. And you may be sitting here going, God, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. Well, the point is, age doesn't matter. You're never too old. You're never too old to start. And if he could do this at 18, you know what, you can do it at 52, if that's how old you are listening. So, Nick, certainly cool that you showed the path. It doesn't matter when you start. Right. And you started early. And I have that in common with you. So have we done 30 yet? We haven't done 30 yet. Tell us, do you remember turning 30? What was going on in your life in the attitude lesson when you turned 30?

Everyone wants to stay young. 30 was wonderful to me because, okay, now I've been in real estate nine years now. I was at this corporate place that I was younger than most people. And I used to always get the question, how old are you? Because I looked young. And it didn't matter if I was 21 or 29, if it started with the word 20. I got a reaction on the other side when I became 30. My attitude was, I am now grown up enough that I've grown into the career that I have at a young 30. And I would just say I'm in my 30s. And they didn't know if I was 31 or 39. And my credibility from 29 to 30 went like this.

Right.

And so I gained an extreme amount of confidence at 30 because I kind of knew my place and I wasn't getting questioned on how old I was.

Yeah, cool. Great, great story. So then 30s flung by because you were awesome. And you're like, Holy crap, I'm 40 now. So tell us where you were when on your 40th birthday. Was it a big party? What was. You were the CEO.

I went to Las Vegas and all my buddies said, oh, wait till stuff starts falling off. Now I work out. I've worked out with a trainer for 20 years at least three days a week. Like my personal health and fitness is important. I said, no, I'm fine. Four days before my 40th, I had an emergency appendectomy.

Oh my gosh.

I'd never had anything health wise. Surgeon looked at me. He was cool. He was a trauma surgeon in Iraq, actually.

Wow.

Young, fast. Every do or every nurse said, he's the best. He gave me double the pain pills. He said, go ahead, get on a plane, go to Vegas. Either take double of these, drink a lot, but don't do both. And so I went to Vegas on my 40th and I don't remember much of it.

Cool.

Not because I did anything crazy. It was just because I had been out of the hospital for 24 hours. So that was interesting.

That's fun. I like that. That's a good 40th story. So the attitude less it is no matter. I'm 40. I can still go. I can still go do it. Even after being on the table 24 hours later, right?

That's right. That's right. Go do it. And we had fun.

Are you 50 yet?

This has gone well until now. That was two weeks ago.

Happy birthday, Nick. Congratulations. Welcome to the club.

Yeah, thanks.

What's the attitude lesson to turning 50?

It's not a good attitude. So maybe this is timely. I needed this. We'll get. Because remember, 30s. I like saying I was in my 30s. I was okay saying I was in my 40s because then when I was 49, if I was in my 40s, I could have been 41. Yeah, there's nothing good about saying I'm in my 50s.

I love it.

Except I read an article a few years ago that said 50 is terrific. Because by the way, if you've done it right now, you can drink the wine that you want, take the trips that you want, and all of those are better things than what you could do in your 30s. And so there's probably a little bit of truth to that. But it's only two weeks. Two weeks young on this 5o thing. So I'll have to get back to you.

Okay, well, my guess is you'll grow into it. You'll figure it out and you will thrive. There's no doubt about that. You've just accepted a new position at T360. And they're an awesome company, a leadership positioning company. It's the number one education company. I've been to the T T360 summit and just give us a little thought on the new role at T360. What, what you're going to do and why it excites you.

Yeah, it's cool. This, this idea of this role. I mean, this is. T360 is the largest executive management consulting firm in residential real estate in the United States. And the founder that started at about 26, seven years ago. He's been a good friend of mine for years. I've been on his stage for years. And this is something that's been on my mind for a while because all of a sudden, when you have almost three decades of the lenses that you look through of agent broker, tech, franchise, all these different components, it's been able to give me a very interesting lens to look through. And so now for me, it was time to take this knowledge and be able to help many. So instead of leading, helping just one brand that there were many in it, it's really cool. I get on one call, which I was on right before you. It's helping one of the biggest brands in the industry. My next call after you, is helping a totally different brand in the same industry. And so now what it is is it's about helping people really get close to their business and help them no matter what it is. And it's cool. They're competitors and we're not helping them try to figure out how to take the other one out. We're trying to help them be what they want to be and rise the tides, as the cliche says. So that part of it is really fun for me. And a big part of what I do is I'm a steward to the industry and spend a lot of time on stage talking to groups and especially in a market like we've gone through, which is biggest changes in my lifetime in three decades. Probably yours too, Glenn. With litigation and changes and regulation changes and interest rate changes, all these different things that are happening at once, there are a lot of people looking for answers. And not that I have them all, I don't. No one has a crystal ball, but in a moment of confusion, it is such a cool opportunity to be the one that can bring some level of clarity.

And when you keynote, Nick, what's your favorite topic to keynote on? And do you have a line or a mantra that would Be awesome to tell us you've been on stages. I've seen you on stages. I've seen you do all kinds of crazy stuff at conventions. What do you like talking most about and what's your message when somebody wants to hire you to speak to their group?

You're right, I do crazy things. A couple years ago I flew in across a stadium ceiling by a wire. That was my entrance on the stage. That was super fun.

I saw it.

And so yeah, topic. Okay, I'll give you one that I talked about last week and I'm still refining it. I mean I refine every time I do this.

Sure.

But there's one that is I entitled it See what others don't and there's a lot to it. But it's the idea of if you're only seeing what everybody else does, you're going to just fall into what everybody else does. And I'm not the smartest guy. I think I'm a harder worker than most. But I, I have always tried to with that curiosity of reading the man car manual tried to really look and say what is everybody else seeing and what are they not seeing? And I do that today in headlines like I listen to people talk about politics and headlines don't care what your politics are. But some people can only regurgitate the headlines because they're seeing what everybody else sees.

Sure.

And I ended my talk with this. There's a lady in 1951, she was at the time called a secretary at Texas Bank. And the electric typewriter was new, great invention except because it went so fast it created a lot of mistakes. So she went home and took some water based paint and some coloring and she matched this to the stationary of the bank and she went back and she used her correction fluid to help her be more efficient. Five years later in 1956 she left to start this company that she ran for 25 years. And in 1979 she sold Liquid Paper to Gillette for 47 and a half million dollars. She saw what others don't see.

Love it.

And so this keynote and granted I did it for non real estate last week. It can be real estate. It's a lot about leadership but it fits. No matter where you are in your career as a leader, are you not seeing, are you seeing what others don't? If you're a brand new entry level employee competing for the next job, are you looking for the things that maybe others don't? And it's my favorite one to give.

That is a great message. We are with Nick Bailey from T360. We're going to wrap it up. We got to respect your time. But Nick, we always want our guests just, you know, to give a message of hope, right? There's, there's people that aren't in the real estate business. We got people from all over the world that listen to us. We got 20 year olds, we got 70 year olds. Hey, I got a text the other day that said, as I do my chemo, I sit there for two hours getting the drip, and there's nothing more I love doing than listening to the people on. So what's your message of hope in this time of chaos for those that are listening? And I'll turn it to you and we'll call it a day.

I can't take credit for it, but I've lived by it. Which is E plus R equals okay. And if anyone has heard that from Jack Canfield, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, it's the event plus your response equals the outcome. And I've lived my life by this for decades. It's changed my attitude. I have it in many of my keynotes. And again, I can take zero credit for it other than the fact that it hit me like a brick in the face and I've stuck with it. And so to your good friend that's getting chemo, the event, we know what it is. His reaction of listening to positive things is going to lead to a great outcome. And I don't care if it's personal or professional, you can control your response, you can't control the event. And you can take the same event, exact same event, two different people, and their responses can be night and day, and it ultimately results into a different outcome. And I think that that is absolutely the best formula to follow because we worry about what we cannot control. And I love asking people, what are you worried about? And name two things nine out of ten times, it's what they cannot control. If we worried more about our r, our response and what we can control, I don't think we'd worry as much.

I love it. Nick Bailey from T360. Nick, thank you so much. I'd say the album outcome was good. We did some good. And Gappers, we will be talking to you on the next Get Attitude podcast. Thank you, Nick Bailey.

Thanks, Glenn.