In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Charleston realtor Kevin Beach. Kevin shares a pivotal story about taking on renters from a mentor, nurturing the relationship, and later converting them into a $600,000 home purchase, illustrating the power of long‑term relationship building. He explains the typical 3% commission model in real estate and emphasizes that real estate is not a traditional sales job; agents assist buyers who are already prepared. Kevin offers core business advice: persist through early struggles, focus on providing value rather than pushing products, and never give up just before a breakthrough. He stresses the importance of self‑care, sleep, and schedule control for self‑employed professionals, linking personal well‑being to business performance. Kevin identifies balance between work and life as the key to lasting happiness, alongside confidence and value creation. He cites the book The Go‑Giver and the 80/20 rule as a framework for identifying the 20% of actions that generate 80% of results. Favorite quotes include JFK’s moon‑landing speech and his father’s “if you’re the brightest bulb, find another room,” both motivating his entrepreneurial mindset. The episode concludes with Kevin’s online contact details (website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and his tagline “let’s find your beach.”
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Wags Media. Wags Media provides you with everything you need to generate more customers and grow your brand. Head on over to wagsmedia.com, W-A-G-S-M-E-D-I-A dot com, to enter a contest where you can win a free, done-for-you custom website valued at $2,500 for a limited time only. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Kevin Beach with us. He is a realtor in Charleston, South Carolina. So welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Of course, man. We'll dive right in. So the first question I have for you, Kevin, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So I thought about this a lot, and as far as best story, I'd like to use a business story. So I had this mentor of mine who did not want to handle renters, so I took the renters from him and went and found them a little place to rent, all this fun stuff. And, uh, that ended up paying off in my favor just because they came back to me 2 months later and said they were sick of renting. They wanted to buy a house and that their price point was $600,000, which is a pretty hefty price point. And, uh, the lesson that I've learned from that was to never discount someone just based on their circumstances at the time. This is a long-haul game. This is most business, and you have to be able to nurture and create those relationships over a period of time.
Yes, man, I love it, dude. It's all about the long game. That's awesome, dude. And then obviously, because the way— I actually don't know much about real estate, but from what I'm understanding, from the $600 grand, you got some sort of like commission from that, correct?
Yes. So real estate is all commission-based, and typically a realtor will get 3%, depends on the situation itself, but that's the normal average is 3%.
Beautiful. That was a nice little payday there for you. Awesome, brother.
It was not bad.
Very nice. You can go to the— it's just funny now, so you could go to the Vista that night then, right?
Exactly. I can go to the Vista. No Pavlons for me.
For everybody listening, before me and Kevin were talking, we both actually went to the same college. There's kind of like two spots you can go out. One is Five Points, one's the Vista, and is like, in comparison to Five Points, is like upper class, if you will.
It's the lap of luxury compared to Five Points. Oh my goodness.
Kind of an inside joke, but for anybody that's been to University of South Carolina, you know what we're talking about. So cool. So next one I have for you, man, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So yeah, this one actually was pretty easy. The biggest thing that— the most valuable piece of information to remember when in real estate is that it's not a typical sales job. It is technically defined as sales since it is commission and everything like that, but you can't go and just sell someone a house. You can only assist someone in finding what they're already looking for. No one's actually just wandering the streets with, you know, $300,000 in their pocket saying, "I'm gonna buy a house today," and do that. You know, you just sort of have to capture people who are looking for a house and have put in the work to set up their finances in a way that they can actually pursue that dream of owning a house.
Dude, that's awesome. That's a different mindset on that. Thanks for sharing that. And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So maybe we could actually, if you want, we could stick with real estate. It's like if somebody was like just starting out, like what would be like the first thing you'd like tell them or advise them on?
Yeah, so the first thing I would say is just do not give up 5 minutes before the miracle happens because within real estate it does take time to get that going. As with any business, it takes time for that business to grow and if you're 2 years in and you're struggling, I mean everybody struggles, you just have to keep going. I mean I did not make a single dollar my first year in real estate but I kept those relationships going and I managed to grow that business into what it is today which is quite comfortable. But there's another one that was just a piece of advice that I have for everyone is to provide value. Don't sell a product, don't sell a service, provide value to someone, provide value to your clients and your customers and have that mindset of how is their life going to be better after interacting with you.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Take control of your schedule. When I was, when I was first starting out, I did not pay attention to self-care and sleep schedules and everything like that. I was working 24/7 around the clock whenever anybody needed me. The most important thing to remember is working on yourself and taking care of yourself does count as work for your business. So any self-employed people out there, remember to Get sleep because you will be more productive. Take care of yourself, you know, keep your spaces clean and just overall commit to some self-care at least once or twice a week because it's, it's, it's overly important.
Dude, I couldn't agree more. And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
In my opinion, the key is balance within your work and your regular life. If you're always working, you're not going to be happy by the time you reach your goal because you'll miss out on all the fun stuff along the way. And if you're just paying attention to life, you're not going to be happy just because you're not going to have that successful business at the end of the road. So finding a balance is extremely difficult but extremely important. I think that is the key to elongated happiness or lasting happiness. Providing value and having a firm belief in yourself also is a very key part of what keeps me happy on a day-to-day basis.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So I was in this training course for real estate. It was the Ninja course, which was really— it was wild. I loved it. But they had a book that they suggested we read called The Go-Giver. The biggest lesson I learned in that was the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule, you might be familiar with it. 80% of your business comes from 20% of your action. The key is finding out what that 20% is. It takes time to use the 80/20 rule to your advantage. Over time, you can monitor where that 20% is that's generating 80% of your business. Bump that up to more time dedicated to that and grow your business alongside of it.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I would have to say, just personally, JFK at Rice College when he was talking about going to the moon. We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And it keeps going from there, but that really has inspired me to focus on a seemingly impossible task such as working for myself and having my own work schedule. You know, when I was growing up, it was just almost impossible for me to imagine that I would be my own boss. And now that's a reality, but because I stayed focused on it and continued to do that and surrounded myself with people who can lead me and teach me and just continue on my path and my journey. It's really kept me going, but I like that one because it helps me stay focused on that impossible task. But another one my dad told me when I was much younger, he said, "If you're the brightest bulb in the room, you need to find another room." And that's a pretty common quote, but in different variations. I don't know who exactly said it first, but that just basically means, you know, if you're the smartest person in the room, you need to find another room with people who are smarter than you so that you can Learn from them.
Yes, dude, I could not agree more. And dude, congratulations on taking the leap. I know jumping out of school and starting your own thing, because I've been there, is not the easiest step. And like you said, the first year, like not making anything, like that can be kind of like a wild feeling. So glad you kept going, dude, and congrats to you.
Yeah.
And yeah, brother. So, and thanks for coming on, dude. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where can our listeners find and/or like connect with you online?
Well, so I'm all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that. My website is www.kevinbeachre.com, and that's K-E-V-E-N-B-E-A-C-H. My Facebook thing is K Beach Real Estate, and so @KBeachRealEstate. And Twitter is @B-E-A-C-K-E-V-E-N. So, you know, any of those social media outlets I mean, my number is all over there. So if you go to my website, it's got a nice cool picture of me and it's got my phone number, all that fun stuff. And a little tagline, which I found out is not in direct competition with Corona. It's let's find your beach. Awesome.
I love it, brother. Thanks again for coming on, man.
Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me.
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