A real estate speaker recalls his first major gig with Century 21 in New York, where he made $2,500 cash and $6,000 in product orders in one trip. After studying Floyd Wickman's storytelling approach, he chose the opposite strategy: skip the jokes, pack every talk with actionable points, and position himself as results-focused instead of entertaining.
Going back to the early days of the business, at what point did it click?
I think I just realized that I had met a couple people and, you know, I met these guys and gals at different events that I was hired to do. The first company that hired me to speak outside of me doing something in Southern California was Century 21 of New York. We got in the car with my box of cassettes and we drove from city to city. And I'll never forget on Friday, I'm in Rochester getting ready to fly back to LA and I had a check for $2,500 in my pocket and I had probably $6,000 in orders for all the products. I said, I think I'm on to something. You got to get out of Orange County. You got to do this nationwide.
Yes.
So then I started calling nationwide.
One of the things that has always intrigued me and you and I have never really talked about it was you, you created a brand. If they're really young, you go, he's the Bill Burr of real estate.
Well, In the very beginning, as I said, I got to meet Floyd Wickman, who's, you know, became a great friend. So we had agreed that he would sit in the back of the room through mine and I'd sit in the back of through his. And Floyd is a great storyteller, but I discovered that everything that Floyd said was funny. So then I got up to speak and of course I don't have a lot of stories, you know, I don't have a lot of jokes. I mean, I have a lot, I just never thought it was the right thing to do. We sat down to compare notes afterwards and I said, Floyd, "Man, you're one of the funniest guys I've ever seen." But I didn't learn anything. He said, "Yeah, but I out-sold you." He sold more products than I did. So then I had to figure out— Why do you think that was? Well, because he was telling so many stories and getting them nodding and smiling and laughing. So I had to make a balance. But then I really, here was the deciding moment. I'm sitting at the house on Galatea and I'm sitting there with a notepad saying, "What's the difference?" And it's like it happened yesterday. And I said, "The difference between them and me. They want the audience to love them. I don't care.
Yeah.
Because my job is not to get an audience to like me, love me, trust me. My purpose is to deliver a message. But then I also discovered that they all tell lots of stories. So I said, I'm going to differentiate myself. I'm going to give them more points than they can imagine. So if I never see them again, they won.
Yeah.
So I took a whole different approach. It just, it didn't resonate with her that you could be strong, give them points, and make them laugh a little bit.
