A first-person YouTube monologue (Oct 2020) in which the speaker explains why they left high-paying corporate roles (mechanical engineering, Wall Street, corporate acquisitions) to become a real estate agent. They describe applying a corporate, systems-minded approach to building a real estate business—delegating low-value tasks, hiring administrators and buyer agents, and creating scalable processes—walking through milestones (e.g., earning $14/hr in 2007, later reaching $250/hr then $500–$1,000/hr). The video also promotes the speaker's book, Scale or Die, as a step-by-step resource for agents who want to scale to owner-level businesses.
Why in the world would you leave a cozy six figure multiple six figure corporate job to become a lowly real estate agent? For me, getting into real estate wasn't as much helping buyers and sellers as it was creating a business that could serve buyers and sellers at a high level. And so I just took a different approach when I first got into the industry and it was based on what I saw in corporate America. You know, there's a lot of people coming together for a common purpose to grow a business. And I took that same approach when I got into real estate. So it wasn't about, you know, selling 25 homes a year in my market was top 1% of agents. And I did that in my first 10 months in real estate. And it led me to working seven days a week. So I knew that wasn't the path to being successful in all the areas of life mattered. If you're looking to build a real real estate business, make sure you stay tuned to the end of this video. I'm going to give you a resource. It's my book, Scale or Die that will show you the step by step approach to going from agent to owner. And if you like this video, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe and turn on notifications and leave comments. You know, if you agree or disagree with what I'm saying, it'll help me help you. When I look back on my career, even, you know, going from college to my first job, I went to an engineering school in Hoboken, New Jersey. I was a mechanical engineer. My first job out of college, I was working for an energy company and I was counting light bulbs. I was working with Don the engineer, who was in his mid-50s, pocket protector and all, and we were counting light bulbs in schools. And I was like, surely there is more to my career than counting light bulbs. And I was making, I think $44,000 at the time, I'm like, this is not going to lead me to any sort of freedom in my life financially and I might just die of boredom in the process. So I went from that corporate job to working on Wall street where in one week I worked 138 hours. If you've ever calculated the number of hours in a week, there's 168 hours in a week. And I was physically in the office. I think I took a few naps, but I was in the office for 138 hours in a single week. So I doubled my income, I tripled my hours. And so that wasn't sustainable. That wasn't going to lead me to where I wanted to go in my life in terms of having any freedom whatsoever. Then I was able to take the experience I got in Wall street and secure a position for a company called Curtis Wright in acquisitions and strategy. Really cool job. I got to travel the world. I think I went to almost 30 countries in seven, eight years I was there. We acquired 42 businesses, traveling first class. Just a really amazing opportunity. I was making just about $200,000 a year, and I was working about 2,000 hours. That's where I was capped in that job, unless I was willing to stay 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 years. The guy that recruited me from New Jersey to North Carolina, his name was George. He actually found out, you know, 33 years into his career with Curtis Wright that he had pancreatic cancer and passed away six months later, never having a chance to actually enjoy all of the effort that he put into his career. In all of that, I really came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to achieve, you know, the freedom that I wanted in a corporate setting. Yet at the same time, I understood the mechanics of, you know, how different positions in a company come together to kind of achieve this common mission. So I started investing in real estate at the time, and the broker I was working with introduced me to real estate. And I was thinking to myself, you know, what if I applied this corporate mindset to real estate? And I can't say it was that intentional out of the gate. You know, it was more sort of sink or swim. When I first got into real estate, it was looking at, you know, the different parts of a business, traditional methods. And traditional agents, typically, they'll do all the different parts of a real estate agent's job. And there's like 12 different functions that have to happen, you know, in order for you to successfully generate a lead, to contact that lead, to sit down with them, convert them to a client, to show them homes or list their home, to get them to a successful closing and to follow up afterwards. So there's all these different activities, and some of those activities, you know, I figured out I could hire someone else to do them for 12 to 15 bucks an hour. Some of those activities were $20 to $25 an hour activities, you know, like showing homes or, you know, marketing or closing out files. And so just applying that corporate mentality and like, hey, what would this look like? If I can get administrators working for me, if I can get buyer agents working with buyers, if I could get, you know, a marketing coordinator to make sure Leads are coming in consistently and just to constantly look at where I was spending my time. And it's embarrassing to sit this. I made $14 an hour in real estate in 2007. So I went from this, you know, multiple six figure corporate job to making $14 an hour in my first year in real estate. And it took me probably every bit of five years to go from 14 bucks an hour to $250 an hour, then probably another five years to go from $250 an hour to consistently making 500 to $1,000 an hour. And so I think the same is true for you. Look at where you are in your journey and where you're spending your time. And how could this corporate mindset that I had brought over from my experience with Wall street and that engineering job and who gets to count light bulbs in your real estate business? If you're doing the light bulb counting, it's not high value work. And you need to just be honest with yourself if you want to make more money in less time. You need to start to look at your business as a corporation, even if you're the only person in the corporation right now. But take that corporate mindset to your business. If you're stuck in a rut in your real estate career, or maybe you're thinking about going back to that corporate job you had, I would urge you just to take a look at what's possible in your real estate business to really think about where you're spending your time. You know, are you building systems that could do heavy lifting for you? Are you employing at least a part time administrator? I live in a major metro market and we can get good talent for 12 to $15 an hour. You know, if you want to make $100 an hour, offload $20, 20 hours per week of lower dollar productive activities. So I would just challenge you to just slow down a bit and think about what's possible in your business. Time and money freedom in real estate while serving your clients at the highest level is absolutely possible. You know, if you've enjoyed this topic or maybe it's challenged you or made you feel a little bit uncomfortable, I would encourage you just to lean into that. And you know, the resource that I mentioned the beginning of the video is my book Scale or Die. So go to ScaleOrDieBook.com or click on the link below and it'll kind of take you through my journey and the steps, steps I took. Looking back, you know that you can take these same steps in your business. If you like this video or you just want to challenge me? Leave comments like the video, subscribe to the channel, make sure you turn notifications on. I put these videos out because I really do want to challenge you to think differently about what's possible in your real estate business. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. It.
