Episode #806 - Success Tips From A Top 10 Real Estate Professional with Angela Duncan

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell. Let's talk about cost. And you know, like when you went in, I don't know if you, you, you know, you can either do things on a commission basis or a fee basis in financial services. I don't know what you're doing now. Is it fee based or is it commission? It is commission. And so the thing is that when you're paying a fee to people like you paid you and your ex when you started your, you were three years into your real estate business, you wanted to, you break out and move up. And so you found this top dog coach in real estate and about broke your bank to go in there. But the way to look at what you successfully looked at it, I mean, your payoff was that, and you never know, you're never guaranteed success, but your payoff was that you became a top 10, built a top 10 office for over five years in the biggest financial, I mean, real estate company in the world, which is, you know, amazingly successful. And so the way of looking at that was not what it cost you to pay for his services, what it would cost you if you didn't pay for his services. Right. It's like that's what we tell people about coming to certain meetings or this, that the other, what's going to cost? What's it going to cost you if you don't go, you know.

Yeah, And I remember that too. As we were moving up the ranks, I could look around me and see people that were doing better and then at some point we were doing better. And I would analyze it, what is it that they're doing or that I'm doing? And it really was hiring the right person, having the right people in our world that were doing bigger things and, and us taking the action and putting in the work to be more successful, you know, we would see people, they would go to a networking event, but they would hang out with the same people. And how do you learn and grow if the same people are all doing the same thing and they're not learning and growing? And I, I heard this analogy recently and I love it because I'm, I'm a visual person, is if you take the closest people around you and they're not either more successful in different areas or if they're not uplifting or if they're not challenging you or you're not bouncing ideas off of each other, then you're in a cage. There's no way for you to grow in the cage. And so I love that analogy because it, it gives you a very visual picture that you need to break out of that cage to find new people to be around so that you guys can continue to help each other grow and excel. So that I can give back to my clients and help them too.

Yeah. And the thing is that, you know, you learn things, you settle into patterns. You know, like one of the business coaches that I was listening to recently was talking about routines. You know, they have a deal where, you know, you can run courses like anybody can. You want to start off as a business coach, you offer a coach a coaching series on setting up routines in your life, which is, you know, to get. The underlying principle is that general consistency usually wins, almost always wins. And people that win have winning routines in their life where they, they somehow figured out how to get done on a regular basis. The things that are difference makers, you know, if it's the health, if it's the, you know, nutrition, if it's the working out, if it's the, you know, family relationships, it's the recreational aspects, if it's the, you know, what the most important business numbers are, what the most important business activities are that lead to those numbers coming in. You know, they've got routines on that. And that's called life. That's designing a life. You know, like one of the things, One of the things that I always. I never realized I did this, Angela, but, you know, we had, I guess, 10 years ago, my son came down from North Carolina with one of his buddies, and he came into my condo or my townhouse down. Down there. And the guy said, man, it smells great in here. And, you know, and I said, just without thinking, I didn't even realize this. I said, yeah, that's by design, you know, because I just like walking in a smelly house. You know, I have those little scent things around where, you know, it just smells good. You don't have to have fresh cut flowers all the time. You can have these things. So I said, yeah, that's like, that's by design. And like two years later, my son reminded me of that because I didn't think anything of it, but they obviously talk about it all the time. But it's like in your life, if you want good things to happen, you know, like wherever I live, Angela, I'm having the cleaners come in twice a week, twice a week. I don't need them that much, but I want them that much. You know, I just don't.

You don't want to clean toilets if.

I've only been gone one day, you know, on a flight or this. I come back one day, I want the cleaners to come. Stay on your schedule and, you know, it's like by design. And if you've got a successful business, any successful aspect of your life is either by neglect or it's going to be by design. And what are some things that you have in your life that maybe you haven't even thought about with your routines that really are by design? That's like, no, you make that happen.

Oh, absolutely. It's by design. The way that I start my day is I journal, I'm writing what I'm grateful for, because I want to start my day in a positive manner. The way that I approach life is I want to teach people about investing. But who wants to listen to a negative person? So I really spend a lot of time on my own mindset, starting my day in a positive manner. I don't go check my phone first. I don't allow, you know, the faucet or the fire hydrant of the world to be turned on. I'm in a quiet space and I'm reflecting on what my goals are and what I'm very grateful for. And it could be simple things like the sun is shining today. You know, just finding every piece of my life that I'm grateful for. But then I end my day. And don't laugh at me at this one, but I don't have, like, regular tv. I don't watch Netflix or Hulu or any of those thingies because for me, it's a waste of money. But I'll turn on my free YouTube and I watch funny videos because I want to go to bed laughing and feeling happy. And then I roll right back in the next day and I start it in a positive manner because I feel like the more positive I can feel, then the more people will listen to me. The more that I can teach, the more people I can impact. And that's my purpose and that's my why as to what I do and.

What that is, is. And I got started on the journey a long time ago, too. And I, you know, start. Start the same way. And there's a variety of ways you can do it. You know, I like that better than meditation. Meditation, I've always thought, was the way I understood it was stupid because you, like, just let your mind empty. Well, the Bible says you Let your mind empty, you throw out all the spirit. Then seven worse spirits will come in. You know, if there's a void, there's not going to be a void. So I'm going to, I'm to going, I'm like you. I want to fill up my head with positives and make sure there's no empty space in my head where the negatives could come in. And if they do come in, you can kind of bounce them off, you know, because they're going to try and get in there all day long. And so the. And then I heard recently somebody, which he goes, they were talking about getting sleep and routines to get to sleep. I'd never heard this before. He listens to outtakes from seinfeld off of YouTube every night as he's going to sleep. So he goes to sleep in a good frame of mind.

Yeah, I watch two TV shows that you can only watch the clips for free on YouTube, but impractical jokers ridiculousness. And I like watching like cats and dogs fall over. It's just something to watch, easygoing at the end of the night.

Yeah, baby things, you know, where babies are doing crazy stuff or kids, you know. And so it's the thing is that what that has to do with us managing ourselves. And one of the great realizations I had when I wrote my book serial winter back in 2015 was that, wait a minute, we've all got to be our own best self coach. Because in life, especially if you're an entrepreneur, high achiever, things happens fast. You don't have time to always call in the special expert coach and explain a thousand parameters to this nightmare situation and then have. And then expect an instant answer back from them. It's just not the way life works. You got to make decisions on the run when you're going to be a high achiever. And so you have. First of all, if you can't coach yourself, nobody else really can. Eventually you got to get to where you could keep yourself on track and that, you know, we're challenged to do that all the time. And so the first thing is like, how am I going to make sure I stay as positive as possible? And people wonder, ask me why I do the podcast. I don't know how long I'm going to be doing the podcast, but the one reason I do it is to keep me from turning into a grouchy old man. You know, for those of you who are sick and tired of fooling around and are dead serious about wanting to move up fast, I've Got something especially for you. I've combined the best insights from over 40 years in business and making $70 million in income and compressed them into a free webinar. That's right, it's a free resource. If you want to find out exactly what the concepts are that I use and coaching million dollar earners, Register now@widelonwinning.com you'll discover the five part framework used by so many to reach their financial, personal and professional goals. You can find that link in this episode's show. Notes the natural thing of life is you become experienced. But you, you know, high achievers see success. But they also, for every success, they see nine disasters. You know, they overcome the nine disasters out of 10 things that happen so they can have that one out of 10. But you know, all of those things, you, you know, they, they accumulate. And so as you go through life, it's like, oh, not that again. And so the, I mean, it's natural. It's not that they're, you're, you know, a bad person or something. It's just natural that the trajectory of life is just, you'll be, you know, I used to say, why do billionaires bitch? Okay, because many billionaires just seem to be grumpy all the time. And the thing is that they're smarter than the rest of us probably, you know, there, I'm sure there's some lucky ones that are dumber than us, but probably they're pretty sharp and they probably see a whole lot more things that are wrong in life than, than you and I see. And it probably just drives them nuts. You know, that's the only thing I could, I, I could figure out. But for me, I try to do things like you say, and that's the first step. So what's the second step you would say in terms of your activity? To make sure your activities, once you got yourself your mindset right, that you do build into a day, week, month, year to make sure you're on the right activity track.

Yeah, for me, I usually have three to five big focuses. So for example, my health right now is my biggest focus. I've had some issues this past year. So when I'm making decisions every day, if those decisions don't fit into my top priorities right now, then the answer is no. And it doesn't mean no forever. It's just no right now. If I don't stay super focused on my priorities, then you're just going to get sidetracked and you're not going to accomplish what, what you want. If you're allowing all the little distractions to take you in a direction that you don't want to be in.

And so what are the other. And now, when it comes into the activities for your business, to make sure that, you know, one of those that you've set in place, to make sure that, you know your mind's going to be on business and you're going to have a certain amount of regular exposure to new people is the podcast, you know, and just set that up as by design, you know. And so what other things would you say that you have going on, your activities that cause you to continue to circulate, get out in the public, and be able to expand your brand?

Yeah. So the podcast is one of my priorities right now. I'm top 5% in the world, and I want to be top 1%, because I feel like if I can reach more people and teach them about money, then that will have a greater impact. So if I'm going to events or activities, I'm very focused on who I'm meeting. And since I interview women on my podcast, I seek out women. I ask, you know, what ex. What exciting project are you working on right now? And it gives me a good perspective on whether or not they might be a good candidate, and then we can have a conversation about that. But I'm going to invent with intention of who I want to meet that's going to help me to reach my goals, impacting more people.

Yeah. Now, as a podcast host yourself, you can help coach me up here. What are some good questions that you find really useful in getting people to open up? Because when you get them, you know, they're on there. There's always a little tension. A little. Or you get the standard routine, the standard running for president speech they give every podcaster. You know, there's like, the first 30 minutes is always the same stuff they. They talk about everywhere. But how do you break through that barrier of the standard thing and get behind the scenes and to get the fresh stuff that maybe, you know, they've never been asked before, you know?

Yeah, a couple things. You got to throw in a fun question. My fun question is, and I ask it at the end. I used to ask it in the beginning, and I found I got better answers at the end. So, you know, we. We test things to see how they work. But my fun question is, if you could have a superpower, what would it be and why? And when you kind of change the focus from their business to something different, it helps them open up their mind. To having conversations that aren't so focused on themselves. So I like that aspect. And also, I do use ChatGPT a little bit. So if I know a guest is coming on and I know what their field is, I'll say, like, what are some, like 10 outside of the box or fun questions to ask someone who's a financial advisor? And then kind of tweak those questions and make them a little bit more relevant or interesting for me. And then I ask those questions.

Okay, Angela, let me inform you, that's cheating. On behalf of the podcasters of the world, I'm going to just tell you you're cheating.

Hey, and the advance of AI is here. Whether you like it or not. I'm going to use it to help my business.

All right, Now, I'm not sure I know what to answer to the superpower thing, so I'm going to ask you, what superpower would you want?

Yeah, so I. Some superpower super talent. For me. I would love to be able to sing in a voice that people would receive. So I'm. I'm a church person, and when I get up there and I listen to, you know, the gospel singing, and it just moves my heart. That's an incredible feeling. And to have that kind of positive impact on someone else, I think would just be amazing.

Wow. Very interesting. I would have never thought of that one. Now when you go and look forward, once you get through your, you know, when the health is not, you know, the thing is that's. That's like life balance is that as you go through life, your priorities change. That's what people who don't understand, you know, basically, they're boneheads. You know, that's why again, you know, there's the. The fake amateur life coaches that, you know, have had no life experience. You know, they say, you know, God, family, business, you know, and it's like, yeah, we got to do this every hour of the day. You know, it's like, you know, very rigid. You know, the thing about life is that it. That a person who has achieved things like your. Yourself is. You realize how complicated it is. Good night. You know, it's twists and, you know, every person that come, every situation has thousand variations, you know, and you gotta, like, think on your feet all the time and keep yourself organized, evaluate the situation, make sure you say things that are, you know, and it's for podcast host, it's. We. I think we should say a prayer at the end of every podcast of gratitude that we didn't say something inadvertently that pisses the whole world off, you know, that's going to ruin our entire reputation. You know, when you're talking like this, it's so easy to blurt out something and, you know, offend the world, you know, but the life is so complicated. And the thing about balance is, like, you have different priorities at different times, you know, like, for example, you know, your health is your priority right now. However, something happened with your daughter, and then she had a health issue. Now that's the number one priority. You know, you're focusing on that, and your health is down the drain. You know, we'll get to that later, right? Until we get the daughter. Right? And so we all go through life sorting of priorities, and that's how we establish the value of our life, is how what we put our mindset, you know, on and where we've invested our time and our energy and talents is. Why do you, you know, a lot of us believe that we were created for purposes, you know, and right from the beginning, we were created with a purpose. And if that was true, why do you think you came out of a poverty, you know, the purpose that has turned out of your life? Helping people fancy. How do you think that purpose was, you know, helped to be realized? By sticking you in a poverty background right from the beginning?

Because I can relate and I can be empathetic. Who wants to listen to someone about transforming your life and becoming wealthy and financially free? If you started with a family that was millions of dollars, you know, already had millions of dollars in the bank, the person that doesn't have money can't relate to them. So they think, well, that can't be me, because I didn't start that way. But the fact that I came from poverty and I studied money and now I'm teaching people it relates to people because now they can see that it's possible. And when you can give them the possibility, then they're gonna start taking action because they can relate to your story. And that's why the podcasting is so important, is because we can share each other's stories so that hopefully you're reaching someone else in your audience that might not have related to something you said, but they might relate to something I said, which is gonna be the cause and effect, Right? The cause is being that now they can relate to the story. The effect is they're gonna make a change, because now it's possible.

Absolutely. Well said. I appreciate all your time. We've had a great afternoon, and so I like to give my guests the final word. And you think We've covered everything at this point, but I've always found that there's something left to say if I'll give the guests the chance. And so, Angela, what would you pass on to people that are coming up the pipeline? You know, the next generation or the people who are going to create the next great sensational successes out there and impact the world in a positive way? What would you say to encourage them or to help them focus from your experience?

Yeah. Be selfish. Spend that first time of your day for yourself. Control that environment that is around you. Invest in yourself. And so that to me, is being selfish because you need to take care of yourself first in order to impact the people around you.

Fantastic. Thanks so much, Angela. Look forward to seeing how your business grows. And we'll have to check in down the road and especially since we're not too far apart down there in South Florida, it seems like the whole world is moving to Florida. Well, take care. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

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