Pick the Right Space and Take Calculated Risks | Ken DeLeon

So what did I do? First, I picked the right space. So think about when you're seeking to disrupt or improve an area, give that a lot of thought. So part of it's twofold. One is where are your ideas leading you to? But also, where's the most inefficiency currently? And again, you look at residential real estate, there's no brilliant people in that. People kind of shun it. They look down upon it. But that's the space I wanted to go in. Throughout my whole life, I found a lot of success by being a big fish in a small pond. So don't be afraid to— if the competition is really tough in one area, maybe you should look in another area that people aren't focusing upon, and you can really separate yourself. And then from there, how do you initially attract clients? Well, my thought process was like attracts like. What does that mean? It means that when you're in business, the people who are going to be your best clients are oftentimes going to be the people who are most like you. And therefore, a way to find out what industry should I enter or what area is most compelling to me, if you can find— if you can imagine you want to find people, attract people who are similar to yourself, in an industry that interests you, think about if I were the consumer, if I'm the client, what is missing in this industry that I could really improve upon? And if you fill the void of what you feel is missing, you're going to attract other people who think like you. and fill that void. So how did that allow me to enter real estate? Well, when I was at the law firm, I was buying investment properties. And I was just unimpressed with my agent. Nice guy, great guy, drink a beer with him, but do I want to buy a $2 million house with him? Not really, because I'm very analytical. And I wanted big insight. Which cities have the most appreciation? Within those cities, which neighborhoods? And what are the reasons why? What's the time of year when I'm most likely to get a good value? How do I get a good value? I wanted some statistical analysis, and I was getting nothing. And I just thought, wow, everyone in the Valley— the Valley people are very analytical. This lack of insight I'm getting, lack of expertise on the analytical side, other people probably feel that frustration. So if I enter real estate, this field that I'm frustrated with, and I fill that void, then I'm probably going to attract a lot of people who have the same frustration I do. So when I entered real estate, I said, I'm going to make my career completely distinct. And that's one thing I'd recommend to everyone here as well. Have the confidence to be distinct. Provide that distinct alternative in life. Because if everyone's doing it this way and you're the lone person or company who's doing it this way, people are going to be drawn to you because people just like choices. So what I did is I created a very analytical approach to real estate, providing that analysis that I was looking for. And through that, I attracted a lot of people, particularly like Googlers or just engineers who wanted something, you know, wanted some analytical analysis for real estate and weren't getting it. So fill that void. And then for me, it was a lack of insights. And how did I do it? So first what I did is I kind of built my practice And I thought about things. And one of the things I think that also works out well, when you're building your product or thinking of your industry, think of who are your clients. And actually, think of your clients' problems. And if you can solve your clients' problems, they're going to love you. So I tried to take a step back and said, who are my clients and what are their problems? So my clients are pretty much you guys in 10 years. People who are very bright, very successful, but have no time. They work 60 to 80 hours a week, and they're focused on what they're great at, which is, you know, coding or innovating or disrupting, but probably not fixing up or remodeling a home. So I try to think about what are my clients' problems? Well, my clients want a good deal. I don't blame them. I want to get them a good deal. The problem is the good deals tend to be the homes that are the fixer-uppers. The homes that need the most amount of work. And they don't want to deal with that. When I have somebody— say you guys in 10 years, you're running your company, you don't have any time really, but you're like, Ken, get me a home a couple hundred thousand below market value. But I show you these fixer-uppers, you're going to think of 3 questions to remodel. How much is it going to cost? Who do I even call? And how long will it take? You don't know these answers and you shouldn't. And as a whole, people are risk-averse and they don't like uncertainty. So if I could give clients certainty and help them with this problem, then they could buy these good deals. So what I did is I created a position, the construction consultant. No one else has it. And all he does is he goes into a home, client's looking at a home. He says, we'll take care of this. The kitchen remodel is going to be $25,000. Bathroom remodels each $12,000. And just goes through the whole thing. And it's gonna take about 6 to 8 weeks to complete this. But— and we have— and my clients proceed with the purchase, then they can— my construction consultant will orchestrate the team and do it for them. And then therefore they can get the good deal. And as a whole, Google's done it really effectively with their employees. Oh, our employees, they don't like to cook. Let's give them all the free food we can. They don't like to dry clean. We'll put dry cleaning in Google. But they took care of everything. And that's why they have such great retention. And then myself, I just try to think of what are my clients' problems and how can I solve them. And along those lines too, another problem my clients have is they just want information. They want insight. So what I provide for them is a whole bunch of detailed insights where I go neighborhood by neighborhood on which areas are going to see more appreciation than others and what are the trends driving it. So that way, if clients have a thirst for knowledge, Satiate that thirst, feed that thirst. So that's some of the things that I did to kind of get going. And any questions anytime are great. So, oops, my apologies, secondary. So what did I do? Well, in my first 9 years, I did some of the things that I spoke of and I was successful. I ended up being the number 1 agent in America. There's about 1.2 million real estate agents. In 9 years, I became number 1. Usually it's all these old people who are like 60 or 70, been doing it forever, who are at the top. But I did it quickly. But the key is, first you master the game, then you change it. So I thought, great, I've won through the traditional model. I've done things better than other people. I've had some innovations. But what can I really fundamentally change about the real estate business model? that would kind of really appeal to my clients. So that's when I formed my own company. And before I go into what I do with my own company, take calculated risk. Calculated risk. So if you look at all economic studies, the vast majority of people are risk-averse. People are afraid of risk. They're just afraid of uncertainty. The majority of people live a fear-based life. You know what? It's interesting. A lot of people— They actually— people fear death. They fear failure. They fear death. I don't fear death at all. You know what I do fear? I fear mediocrity. I fear never living. That's the real fear in life. If there are 7.25 billion people in this world, be unique, be distinct, be powerful. It doesn't matter if you might die. We all know we're going to die. But live that life because 90% of people never really fully live. That's right. And then the key is take those chances. Take those big, big chances. And all the studies will show, because people are risk-averse, if you have the ability to take calculated risk, you're going to get a huge amount of reward when you succeed because no one else is willing to take it. So one thing I'm proud of is that even though I was number one in their traditional model, I felt a desire to change the model. Why? Because life is short and I wanted to leave a legacy. Thank you.