Michael Conrad

Welcome back, friends, to the Business of Holmes podcast. My name is Michael Conrad. I am a real estate entrepreneur here in middle Tennessee, and I am fortunate enough today and many other days to bring you stories that surround and flow through the real estate business and really everything that surrounds a home. This is the business of Holmes podcast, and I am here to introduce Emily Daniel, who has been a friend of mine for a number of years, and in that time she has held a number of positions and roles and now vantage points on the real estate industry and really the business underneath and inside of it all.

 

00:01:12:03 – 00:01:13:01

Michael Conrad

Thank you for being here, Emily.

 

00:01:13:04 – 00:01:15:01

Emily Daniel

Thanks. I’m so glad to be here.

 

00:01:15:03 – 00:01:46:21

Michael Conrad

I have been so impressed. You and I cut our chops back in the day hustling at networking events, and it felt like for a while we were everywhere and that was fun. It was like a little band of brothers and sisters who were sort of traveling from networking event to networking event to sort of maybe sell our wares is sort of a poor definition of it, but certainly to meet as many people as we could and expand our understanding of the business while we were trying to help hopefully open doors for other people as well.

 

00:01:46:23 – 00:01:54:05

Emily Daniel

Wasn’t that a crazy time? I feel like there are days I saw you three times a day at different events where we’re going tomorrow for lunch. You know, that was kind of what we did.

 

00:01:54:06 – 00:02:15:02

Michael Conrad

Well, I think ever presence is this essential piece of those early entrepreneurial days where you’re like, I don’t have as much to offer. Maybe as the person down the way. Maybe I’m new to real estate. I just got my license. How do I compete with, you know, the big guy on the sign will be everywhere. Was my idea.

 

00:02:15:02 – 00:02:21:05

Michael Conrad

And I was looking at you and say, Wow, you’re going to everything okay? I got a hustle, too. So yeah, that was more fun.

 

00:02:21:11 – 00:02:38:08

Emily Daniel

I think another thing that I did in particular was social media, and I really people felt like they knew me through social media, which was great. And then when I saw them at events, even if they never used my services right, they would still be like, Emily, tell me about this last place you went on a run. Tell me about the last race you did.

 

00:02:38:12 – 00:02:54:18

Emily Daniel

That thing you had said was hysterical. So it was kind of like I would create and then create. I was just always very authentic and people would relate to that. And even it gave a warm talking point, like if they use someone else for home warranty and they saw me an event, they would still talk to me about something else.

 

00:02:54:18 – 00:02:58:23

Emily Daniel

And by the way, weren’t these are not exciting. So I love to talk about other things.

 

00:02:59:00 – 00:03:30:07

Michael Conrad

Yeah, I didn’t do that as well. I have to tip my hat to you. You navigated that difficult balance between creating a public persona that is also in reality, your private persona, but not letting it be inauthentic or take over your life. I tried to keep those things separate for a long time, and I think in some ways this podcast and the people that we’ve been fortunate to interview and the stories that even I’ve shared is a chance for me to sort of try to mix that public and personal personas better.

 

00:03:30:08 – 00:03:32:19

Michael Conrad

You did it better than me for a long time.

 

00:03:32:21 – 00:03:34:03

Emily Daniel

For a long time, and still going.

 

00:03:35:23 – 00:03:57:18

Michael Conrad

Do it better than he does. But you haven’t just stayed the same. And I think that’s another piece of it. You can’t just be ever present. You’ve got to continue to evolve not only yourself with all the new knowledge and experience that you’re gathering, but the offerings that you’re giving to others. And you didn’t just stay offering one type of service to the real estate community.

 

00:03:57:22 – 00:04:04:08

Michael Conrad

You evolved into places where you were getting to connected people in other ways. Talk to me about that.

 

00:04:04:10 – 00:04:24:18

Emily Daniel

Yeah, and that was the quote. I will definitely butcher it, but it’s something like Evolve or die, right? Like, you know, no one’s buying film. I guess there’s a resurgence on film, so maybe that’s a bad example, but no one’s going to Blockbuster to rent a VHS tape or a DVD. And so it kind of maybe some of about ADHD and which is a late life diagnosis and life changing.

 

00:04:24:18 – 00:04:45:11

Emily Daniel

Honestly, to know that this is just how my brain works and it’s different. But one of the things that I get kind of bored. And so because I was able to build some trusted valued relationships, I was offered the chance to do other things besides just warranties. One of them was published National Real Producers were real producers. Nashville for a few years, which was great.

 

00:04:45:11 – 00:05:03:08

Emily Daniel

I got to go even deeper with some of my connections and network, and that was really fun. And I got to tell stories very similar to what you’re doing here, and I love this podcast for that because I think when people know you and they feel like going to hear your story, it’s easier to connect to them. Whether that’s a business relationship or something else.

 

00:05:03:09 – 00:05:22:04

Emily Daniel

I also am working with real tracks now and that’s been really fun and exciting to see a whole different side of the industry than I’ve been familiar with before. So it’s been just quite honestly a good time and I’m always looking to learn new things and grow and expand my industry knowledge because I never want to be just one thing.

 

00:05:22:04 – 00:05:29:14

Emily Daniel

I want to be someone that you look at and say, Oh, well, we can ask her about this, this or this because she’s so knowledgeable of the industry as a whole.

 

00:05:29:16 – 00:05:49:20

Michael Conrad

A lot of our listeners here might find themselves being kind of a one trick pony like I have been in the past. Maybe you’ve experienced elements of that where I have one service to offer and then you decide, No, I need to do more. I need to expand my understanding, expand my involvement, my service, and you begin to change your stripes.

 

00:05:49:20 – 00:06:20:04

Michael Conrad

You said evolve or die. You’ve been doing it. How can we encourage those who are listening here to be open to taking on jobs that are nothing like what your is? You went from warranties to basically publishing and public relations, and now you’re getting to provide an incredible needed framework in the whole industry. If you don’t have a robust place in which for people to visit and see what’s available to them.

 

00:06:20:04 – 00:06:30:00

Michael Conrad

The MLS is the skeletal structure behind the scenes. If that’s not healthy for it, all the ways that that looks it, that’s not healthy. There’s a bigger issue at hand.

 

00:06:30:02 – 00:06:44:15

Emily Daniel

Absolutely. And I think a lot of it for for anyone listening, they’re trying to diversify the things they offer, the things they do. I think so much of it is just being curious, right. Like I felt like I knew what molested until I went to work there. And I was like, oh, I had no idea what was happening here and just learning.

 

00:06:44:15 – 00:07:08:06

Emily Daniel

It has been fun to learn new things, but also just being open to things because and I don’t mean no disrespect to MLM, but I don’t mean that. I mean find something in your core that you already know how to do and do that well, it’s if it’s connecting with people is there another way you can connect with people, the same people or different people, and just kind of expand that network and just always be will always be open, I guess the first time.

 

00:07:08:12 – 00:07:26:19

Emily Daniel

Stuart Why at real Tracks called me to ask me to come on. I was like, Oh no, thank you. We just launched this warranty company. I don’t think I can leave it now. It’s a tiny baby and then almost a year and a half, two years later, we had another conversation and I was like, okay, But I had to keep the warranty part because it’s kind of runs itself to some degree.

 

00:07:26:19 – 00:07:44:16

Emily Daniel

And he was like, That’s totally fine. And I was like, Oh, it’s interesting because it’s it’s very fascinating because I do these two full time jobs plus other weird things, like I still write for the real producers in Chattanooga as just a way to meet people is interesting because there are so many people that don’t realize you can do two things or more than two things.

 

00:07:44:21 – 00:07:49:21

Emily Daniel

I have one friend and she said to me, she’s like, Are you allowed to have two jobs? And I’m like.

 

00:07:51:11 – 00:08:11:08

Emily Daniel

They all know about each other. They work well together. Who’s who? Who is this that would say no to that? So it’s very funny because you it’s just I think it’s challenging the way people think. You think you have a full time job. You go to your you’re 40 hours a week and then you come home and then that’s never the life for me.

 

00:08:11:10 – 00:08:14:07

Emily Daniel

So I’m always looking for new and exciting things.

 

00:08:14:08 – 00:08:45:07

Michael Conrad

Yeah, we’re not we’re not trading time. And unfortunately, I do think that’s the trappings that a lot of people fall into, where I got to go give my time and do this, or there’s other phrases that kind of slip into the conversation, like, I have to spend time on this or I have to give time to this. And ultimately, if we’re really bound to this concept of time over value or over effect, right, then I think we we really chain ourselves to the actual clock.

 

00:08:45:07 – 00:09:23:04

Michael Conrad

And we know that the clock doesn’t magically get less time or more time during the day. There’s just a finite amount and it’s kind of always fixed. And so if you’re only ever dealing with eight blocks of time or 12 blocks of time or even 24 blocks of time, you’re never dealing with anything more of that. And so this concept of I’m going to trade my time for someone else or for something like money, and I think real estate practitioners, most agents at their best at, they’re just pinnacle of doing their job well, have escaped the understanding that they are bound a time that they are now moving into a place where they can have

 

00:09:23:09 – 00:09:45:13

Michael Conrad

a big effect or they can change how people view their own lives. You know, they can have a positive influence on people changing a station from one house to another or divesting of something. And so I think that’s a great encouragement for me that if we focus more on the fact that we’re having, which of course is born out of relationship.

 

00:09:45:15 – 00:10:03:13

Emily Daniel

Absolutely. It was funny that you mentioned that about the impact realtors have on more than just selling or buying a home. When I was at the association, I would always say realtors sell more than real estate because if you’re moving here, you’re asking your welcher, What’s your favorite Mexican restaurant? Where are you? Where is the best place to buy fresh produce?

 

00:10:03:17 – 00:10:25:00

Emily Daniel

Where should my kids go to private school? Who is your favorite? What’s your favorite music venue to go to? So realtors are selling everything. But the funny thing that I learned while I was publishing real producers is they sell the business a lot. Very, very many people that I talk to, very, very many people. A lot of people I talk to, a lot of people said they got into the business because their realtor had done such a good job.

 

00:10:25:01 – 00:10:46:06

Emily Daniel

A few of them got into it because their realtor done such a bad job. But overwhelmingly it was like I loved the thing my realtor was doing and to kind of bring this full circle, I remember when I was on staff at the association, I was on staff a greater Nashville for four years, and I remember meeting a warranty rep and she was on a couple of the committees I was the staff liaison for, and I thought, Gosh, her job looks like so much fun.

 

00:10:46:08 – 00:11:03:08

Emily Daniel

And she gets to go out and have meetings and happy hours and lunches and isn’t that a lot of fun? And I was like, How do I get a job like that? And then I went through this course. It was called investment excellence. Don Kline, the CEO, was very serious about putting us all through this course. That really changed the way we thought.

 

00:11:03:09 – 00:11:16:08

Emily Daniel

And it was basically like, you have these tapes in your head of the way you thought life should always be. You work 40 hours a week, you have you get married, have two kids. You live near your parents. Whatever it is that year, the world taught you are, the rule.

 

00:11:17:19 – 00:11:36:05

Emily Daniel

Aren’t the rules. You’re never going to reach your level of potential. I don’t think anyone actually reached a level of potential, but a lot of people stopped trying because they’re playing by these rules and tape they have in their head was essentially this program we went through. And I will tell you, there was this this is such a fun story for me.

 

00:11:36:07 – 00:11:52:21

Emily Daniel

We got a sheet of paper, eight and a half to 11th Dynasty paper. You folded it as mayhem as you could and you wrote down I think it’s 12 or 16 items that you think are impossible for yourself. And at the end of it, I was like, in a year, pull out this sheet of paper and how many of these things did you accomplish?

 

00:11:52:21 – 00:12:04:02

Emily Daniel

Now I’m still waiting on my beach house, but a year later when I looked at that, I’d switch jobs because one of the things I wrote down was I was a single mom at the time and I was like, I don’t I want to be I’ll pick my kid up. I don’t want him to be the first kid.

 

00:12:04:02 – 00:12:17:22

Emily Daniel

Day care in the last get out of daycare. I want a job of flexibility. I was working at a job then I had to be there 830 and if I left one minute before five, I had to get permission. And that felt wild to me that I could work somewhere that wasn’t like that. And I’d written that down.

 

00:12:18:03 – 00:12:34:19

Emily Daniel

I’d never run a step in my life. And I had a coworker that ran a half marathon. I wrote down right run a half marathon. I’ve now run 80 one half marathons. And so a year later I looked at that and there were so many things I thought were so far out of reach for my life. But were dreams or just like, if you can dream anything, what is it?

 

00:12:34:19 – 00:12:46:01

Emily Daniel

And I had accomplished so many of those because I stopped with a limiting beliefs. So, so much of it I thought, comes down to self-talk. Did you want it? Did you want a self-help novel with Emily today? Because glad you’re going.

 

00:12:46:04 – 00:12:47:12

Michael Conrad

Good.

 

00:12:47:14 – 00:13:04:13

Emily Daniel

So I did. I did challenge myself on just the things that I believe. And this is a not a one and done. I get up every day and I still have to. I don’t always win the day, but I always have to think what things am I telling myself that aren’t true or don’t have to be true? Like what?

 

00:13:04:13 – 00:13:08:18

Emily Daniel

What things have I subscribe to is absolute truth that aren’t.

 

00:13:08:20 – 00:13:38:16

Michael Conrad

Yeah, I, I struggle sometimes with the sense of like I can just talk myself into positivity and I probably don’t even struggle with it nearly as much as a lot of people do because positivity does tend to come easier for me. But this idea of writing down or codifying these tapes, these inputs, these limiting beliefs, at the very least you start to wrap your intellectual mind around whether it is real or made up or just been given to you a long time ago.

 

00:13:38:18 – 00:14:18:12

Michael Conrad

And again, this idea of time, we are constantly evolving from generation to generation. Our understanding of work and play and family and effect and happiness and all of these things are constantly evolving. And I think that previous generations have struggled with trading time. Previous generations have struggled with defining happiness as we now would define it. And so I think that business, when it’s at its best, is making you happy along the way to give you time and freedom to be happy.

 

00:14:18:12 – 00:14:37:06

Michael Conrad

Also doing other things and for fear of sounding, you know, like a millennial. I think that, you know, happiness quotient, whatever that means, is probably one of the nobler sort of pursuits. At the very least, it makes this very difficult life more pleasant.

 

00:14:37:08 – 00:14:56:04

Emily Daniel

It really does. It’s funny you touch on the generation thing. I was talking to my therapist recently. Therapy everyone should go to It makes you a wholly better human. But we were talking about this idea where, you know, our parents because it’s our podcast about the millennials that our parents didn’t care about work life balance because that was never a concept they thought of.

 

00:14:56:04 – 00:15:18:03

Emily Daniel

Right? And to be fair, the business world rewarded them differently than it does now. I my in-laws retired with pensions. That’s there’s not a company giving you a pension. Now that’s crazy. And also we’re not staying in the company for 40 years from the first job we take. And so she and I were discussing and she said, You seem to have good balance to work as much as you do and do as many things you do.

 

00:15:18:03 – 00:15:41:11

Emily Daniel

You have good balance. I’m like, I feel like our generation in 41 or 91, definitely an elder millennial, which makes me want to cry. I am an elderly millennial, but I feel like it was our generation that was the first one to really hear about and embrace this concept of a work life balance. We were the first to think, Oh, I don’t have to train myself to a desk or a factory or an assembly line for 40 hours a week.

 

00:15:41:12 – 00:16:02:13

Emily Daniel

This could look differently and I might work. When I left Greater Nashville to sell warranties, I remember thinking, I am working so much harder than I did before, but it’s when I want to you and I can pick my kid up from school. And this is so amazing and I love it so much. And I might work 2 hours at night or 2 hours on a Saturday.

 

00:16:02:13 – 00:16:23:04

Emily Daniel

And I remember just having to reset how I process time and work. I think realtors often get caught up in just always working for fear, like they’re not taking Mondays off or Sundays off for fear of losing business. And I think the really successful agents out there are setting those boundaries. You must pay your dues to be able to set the boundaries.

 

00:16:23:10 – 00:16:30:22

Emily Daniel

But I think the top people realize that none of this is worth it if you’re not having a good time, if you’re not happy, none of this is worth it.

 

00:16:31:00 – 00:16:59:18

Michael Conrad

Yeah, and I’ll tell you, work is not all the same. I mean, there is real identifiable planting of seeds. There is real identifiable cultivating of leads, and there’s real identify if I will harvest. But so many people, probably in many industries. But I see real estate. Most are busying themselves, I guess the agriculture analogy would be that you’re sort of like you’re puttering around the farm or.

 

00:16:59:18 – 00:17:01:00

Emily Daniel

Whatever, getting their seeds.

 

00:17:01:01 – 00:17:01:08

Michael Conrad

Right.

 

00:17:01:10 – 00:17:02:00

Emily Daniel

Even planting them.

 

00:17:02:00 – 00:17:35:17

Michael Conrad

I mean it it’s might be beneficial for the farm, but it’s not beneficial for reaping a harvest. And ultimately that’s where it really has to come down to. You have to be creating relationships and planting seeds and cultivating those leads of over time. And so that’s an encouragement. I mean, that’s a classic, like one finger pointed out and four or five fingers pointed back or however many fingers I have my hand, and I need that too, as a constant reminder that the busyness quotient is not an effectiveness, you know, result.

 

00:17:35:17 – 00:17:52:22

Michael Conrad

You have to be able to set aside time for each individual action so that you can be moving the process forward. And again, time is just this it’s so difficult. I mean, how many of us have got to the end of the day and be like, Oh crap, I can have an entire other work day amount of hours every day?

 

00:17:53:01 – 00:17:53:19

Michael Conrad

Yeah, basically.

 

00:17:53:19 – 00:17:56:00

Emily Daniel

Every day.

 

00:17:56:02 – 00:18:10:06

Michael Conrad

And never get accomplished. And yet I’m not feeling that drudgery and that fatigue. And it’s usually because there’s either a mixture of I’m enjoying what I’m doing or I’m getting to see the results out of making sure I’m spending the time in the right places.

 

00:18:10:08 – 00:18:34:09

Emily Daniel

It’s fascinating because I say all the time, especially with warranty wraps that I’ve worked with in the past, and then in a lot of jobs that I’ve had, I see people want so badly to work and to feel like they’re working. And so they will fill up a lot of their time with busy work and that busy work, it’s never going to to have a harvest is never going to bring you success you want.

 

00:18:34:11 – 00:18:50:00

Emily Daniel

So I am an extremely efficient human. So I see people do things and I’m like, I remember one time the first words come I worked out. There was a whole section in our training manual about organizing your car. And I was like, I think if we’re hiring people who need to be told how to organize our car, we’re hiring the wrong people going the wrong way.

 

00:18:50:00 – 00:19:08:07

Emily Daniel

They are not the people we want building relationships because it is like you could work forever. But I see and I do see a lot of agents do the same thing. You see the agents at the same open houses. You see the same agents at the same places, and they seem like they’re working a lot and they probably are working a lot.

 

00:19:08:07 – 00:19:31:14

Emily Daniel

And I think we’re designed to want to work a lot as humans. But you have to work on the right things. And I see so many people just doing some busy work. I’m just going to clean up my website and once my website’s ready, I’ll be ready and I’m just going to organize my database. I could never do those things which are not skills I have, but I see people just spend so much time getting ready to get ready to do something when it’s always better just to do it.

 

00:19:31:16 – 00:20:08:06

Michael Conrad

Yeah, this is key because I have seen this in a number of sort of service based industries and that is you get attracted in. Maybe you see some element of the business or the job that you really like, but going out on your own means running your own business. And not everyone is prepared, equipped or has the mental capacity to sort of stay on target, work on the right things, be effective like you’re talking about, and that business kind of starts to come in to make us feel good, like we’re not failing at what we’ve set out to do.

 

00:20:08:06 – 00:20:32:13

Michael Conrad

And so I think it’s an important reminder that the selling of real estate, writing contracts, showing houses, understanding people’s needs seems that is the dealing part. And there is an entire business and entrepreneurism and practice around that. That shouldn’t be taken lightly. And quite honestly, you might get it along the way, but that’s a bit of a rolling of dice.

 

00:20:32:13 – 00:20:54:10

Michael Conrad

You need to be pursuing the knowledge not only about how to write contracts and what zoning requirements are, but you need to be understanding the practice around that and know organizing your car is probably not on that entrepreneurial list of skills that you’re going to need to be successful. And yes, being out there and hustling always feel good.

 

00:20:54:10 – 00:21:02:14

Michael Conrad

But there is different types of hustle.

 

00:21:02:16 – 00:21:32:04

Jake Hall

Hey everyone, it’s Jake, director for the Business of Homes podcast. I hope you’ve been enjoying today’s episode, starting with Emily’s evolve-or-die mentality or balance between working two full-time jobs and how she created a life of efficiency. When we return, Michael and Emily dive into how to expertly manage your time, how what you do now will affect how your business is doing in 90 days, and why you should not only focus on what you are good at, but more importantly, focus on what you enjoy.

 

00:21:32:05 – 00:21:50:21

Jake Hall

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @thebusinessofhomespod, where you can interact with us and see some great bite-sized pieces from all of our episodes. For you listeners out there. Did you know our entire podcasts are filmed and are on our YouTube channel? Check it out next time you want to see our amazing guests tell their stories.

 

00:21:50:23 – 00:22:10:15

Jake Hall

And are you currently watching this episode in video format? Don’t forget to follow us on your preferred audio streaming service to take us with you on the go. Lastly, do you have any feedback or one to suggest someone for the show? Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Please enjoy the rest of today’s episode with Emily Daniel.

 

00:22:10:17 – 00:22:24:01

Jake Hall

Let’s get back to it.

 

00:22:24:03 – 00:22:46:23

Emily Daniel

Leveraging, right, Like you’ve deleveraged yourself, there are things I’m not good at that I will leverage out to someone else and I see the really successful agents and really successful business people, not just real estate, but anyone who’s successful in business. They know when to leverage things out. They know that I just said my skill sets never going to be organized in my database, so I will form that out to someone else who can do it more efficiently and faster.

 

00:22:47:02 – 00:23:05:09

Emily Daniel

And I’ll focus on things I do well, which is connecting with people. And I see, especially again, like you, real estate industry and are the best and I see the top agents. They’re really good at that. They’ve got they’ve got an admin, they’ve got a social media person, they’ve got someone who helps them create content, they’ve got a contract to close person.

 

00:23:05:09 – 00:23:26:12

Emily Daniel

They know when to ask their broker questions. They have a sharing assistant of a buyer’s agent. Like you get to that point where and it’s funny because the question I hear when I would lead panel discussions and conversations around real estate, the question I always got most was when do you hire someone to help you? And every agent’s like way before you think you need it, even if it’s just a contract closed person because you get to leverage your time.

 

00:23:26:14 – 00:23:36:09

Emily Daniel

Some of that comes along with letting go a little bit to know which things you can let go of a little. If it gives you more time to do that revenue generating activity, which is bigger people.

 

00:23:36:14 – 00:23:46:22

Michael Conrad

Now it’s a real thing for the two of us who are not currently practicing real estate agents to give this kind of advice. But I do like to play the game. Like if I was a real estate agent, how would I do it? Like with myself sometimes.

 

00:23:46:22 – 00:23:51:00

Emily Daniel

And like I’ve learned so much from the amazing agents I work with that I feel like I’m pretty good at this game.

 

00:23:51:01 – 00:23:56:10

Michael Conrad

Oh, yeah, Yeah. Like I could play the virtual reality version of being a real estate agent. Definitely.

 

00:23:56:11 – 00:24:01:23

Emily Daniel

Definitely. And I don’t want to do it. So for the record, yeah, of all the jobs I have, I don’t want to be a real estate agent.

 

00:24:02:01 – 00:24:23:04

Michael Conrad

But I will say there are some easily identifiable things right in the beginning that I think comes down to, interestingly enough, trading time. We’re kind of back at that concept. How close is an easy example to sort of attack? Because it really kind of does come down to a specific set of actions over a relatively specific set of time.

 

00:24:23:06 – 00:24:46:13

Michael Conrad

You have to fill these things out. You have to file this, you have to keep these schedules. Those are the actions and that you have to do it over the course of 15, 30, 45, 60 days. There’s a specific set of time and so if you know what the actions are and you know the time, how much are you not doing else that you could be doing if you’re doing this?

 

00:24:46:13 – 00:25:08:18

Emily Daniel

The number of times I see people it’s fascinating because kind of in the warranty business, I can see the cycles of things. And so it’s fascinating to see Realtor will have six closings in in six weeks and then not anymore for six months. And I would attribute that to, again, this is virtual reality real estate. I would attribute that to they got so in the weeds with those six deals.

 

00:25:08:18 – 00:25:27:02

Emily Daniel

Oh yeah, and they probably weren’t using someone to help them. And then their pipeline dried up because they weren’t actively working their relationships in their sphere. And so I feel like that’s the big thing, right? It is trading that time. It is finding ways to hack things. I’m really good at hacking things because I just you’ve got to get done quickly so you can do the important things.

 

00:25:27:05 – 00:25:41:12

Emily Daniel

Yeah, not a not a coaching plug, but I do know my friend Kinderhook is the head trainer of the real estate. It’s definitely not her title. It’s definitely better than that for the core. And the core whole model for realtors and lenders is face time. Knock on.

 

00:25:41:12 – 00:25:42:02

Jake Hall

Everyone.

 

00:25:42:08 – 00:25:45:15

Emily Daniel

Face to face, time for the best teams, read with people. That’s the thing they met. I hope.

 

00:25:45:15 – 00:25:46:03

Jake Hall

You’ve enjoyed.

 

00:25:46:03 – 00:25:46:13

Emily Daniel

Measure.

 

00:25:46:13 – 00:25:48:04

Jake Hall

So kudos to to Emily.

 

00:25:48:04 – 00:25:53:11

Emily Daniel

Do they do everything but they measure this over on Instagram for them.

 

00:25:53:13 – 00:25:55:14

Jake Hall

And let her know how much you enjoyed her story.

 

00:25:55:15 – 00:25:56:04

Michael Conrad

Yeah, don’t.

 

00:25:56:04 – 00:25:56:13

Jake Hall

Forget to.

 

00:25:56:13 – 00:25:57:18

Michael Conrad

Subscribe honestly for.

 

00:25:57:18 – 00:25:58:22

Jake Hall

Listening.

 

00:25:59:00 – 00:25:59:02

Michael Conrad

And.

 

00:25:59:03 – 00:26:01:00

Jake Hall

Make sure to follow us on Instagram as well.

 

00:26:01:06 – 00:26:01:16

Michael Conrad

Not this.

 

00:26:01:22 – 00:26:02:18

Jake Hall

Of homes portray.

 

00:26:02:18 – 00:26:04:14

Michael Conrad

The time you would speak. Have any feedback now?

 

00:26:12:15 – 00:26:29:11

Michael Conrad

Or construction service industry? That is a very, oh too familiar cycle that you get out there and you meet a lot of people and then you get a lot of leads. You go do all the jobs and then you’re out of job, out of work, and you got to go back and start the cycle again. And it’s really difficult on your anxiety.

 

00:26:29:13 – 00:26:34:01

Michael Conrad

It’s really difficult on your relationships around you. It’s really difficult to scale.

 

00:26:34:03 – 00:26:53:10

Emily Daniel

It’s really difficult mentally. Yes, Like it really, because you’re on a high of being. I’ve done so much, I’m doing so well. And then you look back in 30 days, you’re like, where did that all go? And so that’s tough mental game. Yeah. When there’s a better way to do it by leveraging your time and trading time. It’s funny, this is like a sure sales principle.

 

00:26:53:10 – 00:27:04:05

Emily Daniel

It’s fun to have a business coach and she’s like, You’re doing all the things instinctively and you don’t have names for any of the things you do. And I’m like, That’s true. I don’t. I just kind of it’s a it’s an innate skill and very few innate skills.

 

00:27:04:05 – 00:27:16:03

Michael Conrad

I think zinnias or elder millennials or whatever you call them, do kind of shirk traditional coaching and then kind of organically get to it on their own lately and then like pat themselves on the back and it’s like you could have just shortcut it that.

 

00:27:16:05 – 00:27:22:22

Emily Daniel

I could have just like read the book that told me how to do it. And instead I’m like, I made this up all my own. And she’s like, You’re doing this and this and this. And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t know that.

 

00:27:22:22 – 00:27:26:22

Michael Conrad

And if it’s in my case, it’s like and it took me three years to figure it out. And they’re like, You could have read a book.

 

00:27:27:01 – 00:27:42:00

Emily Daniel

Like, Here’s the Miracle Morning. Yeah, I’m like, Look at me. I’m getting up early. Isn’t that amazing? And now, like, there’s whole books about that. It’s not amazing. I’m like, Oh, well, it is for me. But one of the things I think is like a basic sales principle is whatever you’re doing now is affecting your business. In 90 days or 60 days.

 

00:27:42:00 – 00:27:59:16

Emily Daniel

And I sold Pampered Chef when I had gotten out of college and I was actually working at Greater Nashville just to make some extra money, single mom thing. It and that was one of the principles like you can get so caught up in the things you’re doing now that you don’t have any like I did. This is hysterical because I don’t cook.

 

00:27:59:18 – 00:28:16:11

Emily Daniel

I can barely make hellofresh meals that come up basically assembled. And I was selling cooking tools. So, you know, that’s the kind of salesperson I am. And but I would tell them I’m like, I’ve never use this thing. I use this pizza cutter to cut pizza that’s already sent to me or whatever. But it was fine. I loved it because it was about people, right?

 

00:28:16:11 – 00:28:32:13

Emily Daniel

And that’s should have my first inkling that I need to be in a people driven business. But that was one of the principles. Like whatever you’re doing now is going to affect how much business you have in 60 or 90 days. And that’s such a core principle that I think we lose sight of sometimes because if you look around, you’re like, I’m just servicing things right now.

 

00:28:32:13 – 00:28:48:18

Emily Daniel

I’m not meeting with people, I’m not going to lunches. One of the things that warrants do track or who’s ordering for us from us for the first time. And so I will realize I haven’t been out lately. I haven’t done many coffees or lunches or whatever. And then three months from then, I look, I’m like, well, the numbers show it.

 

00:28:48:21 – 00:29:04:04

Emily Daniel

So it’s like such a it’s such a bedrock of sales that we kind of skip over sometimes. But if you can trade some of your busy time now and do the face to faces and the meetings and getting to know people, then your business is going to thank you in the future.

 

00:29:04:04 – 00:29:28:14

Michael Conrad

So and honestly, all hours aren’t created equal. Also, all tasks aren’t created equal. There are high level tasks, mid-level low level tasks. There are tasks that you can trade out for low number of dollars and tasks that might be traded out at a high number of dollars. If you are, you know, away for a couple of days, you need someone to help manage your listing.

 

00:29:28:18 – 00:30:00:04

Michael Conrad

You know, that might come cheap because it’s easy. But if you are looking for someone to co-manage the entire experience, that might come at a cost if you are trying to get someone to manage paperwork again. Rebecca Contract to close, you know, that might come at a more lower quantified cost. And if you yourself can be going in planting seeds, which is a high value action and you can trade and get that time back by giving away something that can be paid out in 20, 30, $40 an hour or less.

 

00:30:00:06 – 00:30:10:10

Michael Conrad

You know, that is a good trade, good trade every day. And unfortunately, we all get in our own way. We think, nope, I got to do it. I got to know it, I got to make sure I service it in this way.

 

00:30:10:13 – 00:30:27:06

Emily Daniel

Are you getting a scarcity mindset? Yeah. And you’re like, I can’t possibly like, you start to do the value. Like if I paid out $500 for a contract to close on these five deals, what else can I do that 20 $500. But you’re not seeing that if you trade that time. Yes. That 20 $500 could become a $25,000 commission.

 

00:30:27:07 – 00:30:44:12

Emily Daniel

Interestingly, and I think it’s you choose the things you love, right? So there is a really successful realtor in Franklin, and I had her on a panel and she said, I love all aspects of the business. I want to do my own contract to close. I want to do I want to manage all of it. I don’t want to buy birthday presents for my the birthday parties.

 

00:30:44:12 – 00:31:01:12

Emily Daniel

My kids are going to I don’t to buy groceries. I’m not doing the dry cleaning. She’s super successful, her husband super successful. And she’s like, I want to do all the business and I’m hiring a personal assistant to do all these other things. And I was like, That’s such a great insight into your own mind to know, like, what are the things I’m good at and not even the things I’m going.

 

00:31:01:16 – 00:31:08:19

Emily Daniel

There might be things I’m good at that I actually hate doing, but I’m good at them. So the things you enjoy do that is the things you don’t enjoy. If someone else do.

 

00:31:08:21 – 00:31:24:13

Michael Conrad

And you got to get some perspective because we all suffer from the reality of getting lost in our own like little bubble where we can’t see what we’re good at, what we’re not good at, what we’re efficient at, what we’re not efficient, that if you have the gift of and the vantage point of already knowing that self-knowledge, good for you.

 

00:31:24:18 – 00:31:41:18

Michael Conrad

But SIDLE up to a colleague, a broker, a friend, a spouse, and say, Hey, what are the things I’m best at doing? What are the things I’m least efficient at doing where I go back to your own data? Heck, let your data be your coach and say, Where am I finding the best success or my finding the least success?

 

00:31:41:20 – 00:32:02:06

Michael Conrad

And sit with that. I definitely have over the years been someone who has focused on those piece of advice or what the data was saying, and I’ve also been blind to it at times and I’m used usually Im going to find myself in the future, immediate future in a good season. If I’m listening.

 

00:32:02:08 – 00:32:19:11

Emily Daniel

I usually willfully ignore those things like I know it deep inside and I will do everything. I can’t ignore the thing I know. And then I’m like, Oh, I’ve had I’ve just done this. When I first felt this tug to do it. Yeah, some of it is just trust your instincts, right? So some of that’s like, I know the thing I need to do.

 

00:32:19:13 – 00:32:36:00

Emily Daniel

I know if I do this thing, it’ll grow my business. But the self-talk and talking myself out of doing those things. Oh my goodness. Though I think you’re right. And I think asking a variety of people, you know, ask your spouse, What if I complain about doing What do you think it is that I hate the most about my job and listen to what they say.

 

00:32:36:05 – 00:32:47:15

Emily Daniel

It might match up with what your broker says or your business partner says that you’re great at doing, but you hate or say like, Am I not so good at? What do you see me do that I should probably outsource to someone else?

 

00:32:47:17 – 00:32:56:19

Michael Conrad

Yeah. And there’s changes. There’s changes coming in the wind. You know, none of us are guaranteed a static similar tomorrow. This business.

 

00:32:56:19 – 00:32:58:20

Emily Daniel

Is tomorrow. And that’s what I thought you were going to make this.

 

00:32:58:20 – 00:33:24:09

Michael Conrad

Or tomorrow at all. But, you know, this business is changing fast. There’s, you know, all sorts of stuff that is coming down the line that may completely change the way that we practice real estate and all the things that surround it. And the truth is, for anyone who might be listening here, who has been around for more than five, ten, 15 or 20 years, has probably seen three or four cataclysmic changes already.

 

00:33:24:09 – 00:33:30:06

Michael Conrad

And so being able to know what you do best will help you understand what’s ahead of you.

 

00:33:30:08 – 00:33:45:20

Emily Daniel

I remember seeing I was on staff at our national. I feel like I told him this other day. I feel like there are two times since I’ve been in real estate where it just kind of halted. One was 2008, the housing recession. In 2008. I was on staff at Greater Nashville and it was like everything froze. It’s like a game of free swag.

 

00:33:45:21 – 00:33:50:17

Emily Daniel

And again, when interest rates went up last year, it was everyone just kind of took a breath and literally.

 

00:33:50:17 – 00:33:53:09

Michael Conrad

Thought, you’re going to the pandemic. But no, that did not happen. Actually.

 

00:33:53:09 – 00:34:09:22

Emily Daniel

Actually, it did happen in the pandemic for like a whole four days. Yeah, for the whole four days. And actually, this is where are PAC dollars matter? If you’re a realtor, you should give to our PAC because that the state was able to lobby to keep realtors as an essential worker. So they were able to keep going. And then we had no idea what was coming after that.

 

00:34:09:22 – 00:34:29:00

Emily Daniel

Exactly. With the real estate world, how it exploded. But I think the interest rates and it’s been fascinating because it’s there were so many people who started at the beginning of 2008, not knowing what was coming in real estate. They were like, I am going to find a way to be successful. And there were so many people who had been superstars until then.

 

00:34:29:06 – 00:34:46:16

Emily Daniel

It did something else. And so I think that’s always fascinating. When you want to do it, you’re going to find a way. So I’m fascinated to see a year from now, the people who recently started in real estate, some of them are going to be our top producers because they’ve only existed in this market. And so I think that’s a testament to everyone to just keep learning and growing.

 

00:34:46:16 – 00:35:00:07

Emily Daniel

And now don’t let the outside forces affect how run your business. If you’re still doing that face to face time, you’re still doing the human connection and the relationships, whatever the rest of the economy and the rest of the world is doing, you have a solid foundation.

 

00:35:00:09 – 00:35:25:05

Michael Conrad

Boy, that is not only great advice, but an incredibly tough balance because especially for younger practitioners, younger realtors, I mean, it’s this do I listen to the way it was? Because there is this seeming benefit of, you know, the wisdom that comes with experience. No doubt. But there’s also this and it was in me and I so I know it well.

 

00:35:25:05 – 00:35:44:23

Michael Conrad

And that is like everything that has come before now is basically a version of wrong. It’s either wrong today or it’s going to be wrong tomorrow. And so I need to cut my own trail. And so this real intense tug of war, I don’t know if you feel it, but trying to figure out how to cut your own trail and make your own way, but also borrow from the past.

 

00:35:45:00 – 00:36:01:10

Emily Daniel

Oh, it saves you so much time. If you can learn the lessons and learn before you, then don’t have to fail in the same ways. I really try. It’s one of our core values is to fail fast and iterate always. And so I think I think about that all the time. If I’m like, fail fast, you’re going to fail, fail fast and then iterate, do it again.

 

00:36:01:11 – 00:36:22:04

Emily Daniel

Yeah. And another way to do it and that kind of it’s really stayed with me since I started at real talks about a year ago. And just as you’re going to fail, that’s fine, That’s great. You’re going to fail. And I think for super high achieving people like you, like me, like probably everyone listening, it’s hard to accept failure, but the faster you accept it and try again, the better your business does, right?

 

00:36:22:06 – 00:36:23:09

Emily Daniel

The better you are as a human.

 

00:36:24:06 – 00:36:44:09

Michael Conrad

And I think we can’t underscore that. You know, all us have seen enough change to know what change looks like. All of us have had seen some element of success or failure in some part of our life to know what those feel like. We don’t need to fear the change, fear the success or fear the failure because we are We didn’t just fall off the turnip truck yesterday, you know, kind of a thing.

 

00:36:44:09 – 00:37:08:02

Michael Conrad

And so it doesn’t matter if you’re new in business. You have some of those feelings inside of you from something else. And so I have been someone who has prided myself on always being an innovator, but it feels like the inertia pressing against in 2023 about trying to continually come up with new ideas is so, so hard. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still needed because the world is still changing.

 

00:37:08:06 – 00:37:25:10

Emily Daniel

And I think when you find that that’s hard, like you’ve got to get around some different people, right? You got to have more conversations and and talk about things and and don’t be afraid to say like, I feel stuck and I feel scared and I feel like I’m failing. And you get around the people that go, Yeah, you might feel that way, but have you thought of this and have you thought of that?

 

00:37:25:10 – 00:37:41:06

Emily Daniel

And I mean, we were talking about this before, like just the ways our own businesses have grown and things we’ve tried and things that didn’t work. But at the root of it all is always coming back to people, finding people you trust, finding mentors, finding someone you can sit beside and say, This is terrible right now. What am I going to do?

 

00:37:41:07 – 00:37:49:15

Michael Conrad

I love that. The advice of like when you have to innovate and you have to pick yourself up off the floor and keep going, the answer is people. It’s people.

 

00:37:50:14 – 00:38:03:10

Emily Daniel

Again, like we’re right back at the beginning. I mean, I really feel like the answer to everything is people for me and my own life and business. Like it’s always people. Like if I’m not doing as well as I want to do, it’s fine. More people talk to more people who ask, Can I sit down with who else is going to challenge me to think differently?

 

00:38:03:15 – 00:38:11:22

Michael Conrad

Man, I mean, we should probably just rename this podcast to extroverts because we guess we think the answer to everything is people. So there you go.

 

00:38:11:23 – 00:38:14:11

Emily Daniel

Oh, no. Any introvert listening is like, I’m turning this.

 

00:38:14:13 – 00:38:15:00

Michael Conrad

This is.

 

00:38:15:03 – 00:38:20:18

Emily Daniel

They said a sit down person again, I can’t do it. They’re probably not listening. There’s not there’s not an introvert listening to us.

 

00:38:20:19 – 00:38:39:04

Michael Conrad

Oh, I hope that we get all types. Emily, thank you so much. This has been so good. And honestly, I feel like we could keep going for hours and I hope to have you back. Thank you so much. And guys, this is the Business of Homes podcast. This is for you. This is your stories about the business that you love and I hope you stick with us.

 

00:38:39:06 – 00:38:51:09

Michael Conrad

Hit subscribe, Check us out on YouTube. If you would like to see what our smiling faces look like. And of course, listen to us where you get all of your free range organic podcasts. We’ll get you next time.

 

00:38:59:08 – 00:39:21:06

Jake Hall

Hey, everyone. Jake, again, director for the Business of Holmes podcast. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. A huge thank you to Emily Daniel for being a part of the podcast. Go follow her on Instagram @emilypdaniel and let her know how much you enjoyed her story. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred listening platform and make sure to follow us on Instagram as well @thebusinessofhomespod.

 

00:39:21:08 – 01:06:46:18

Jake Hall

Do you have any feedback or want to suggest someone for the show? Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Thank you again for listening and we’ll see you soon.