Building Wealth, Setting Boundaries, and Dancing Through Life with Leon Nasar

Ashley (00:00)
Welcome everyone to the Leading the Lane podcast. We are super excited to have another wonderful friend of ours on the podcast today. Our friend Leon here is joining us. ⁓ Leon is a world of joy, how I explain ⁓ Leon. But all kinds of... ⁓

good things, that people wouldn't know about Leon. He's been an amazing resource for me as I've grown my business. We're excited to pick his brain today on the podcast.

Leon (00:36)
That's a nice introduction. Thank you.

Ashley (00:39)
You're welcome.

Leon (00:41)
how to call in more

often.

Steven L. Burch (00:45)
There you go.

So Leon, let's first start with who are you? The listeners have never heard of you, never met you before. A, they need to, right? Like you're a hoot to be around. But give us a little rundown of somebody that's never met you before.

Leon (01:04)
A little rundown. guess going back, I first, I'm somebody who went to college for one semester and knew I wanted to come back and work. And I joined a commercial real estate firm when I was like 18 or 19 years old. I got thrown into real estate because I asked people what I could do to work in real estate. And there was no internet or anything at the time.

And so people who were selling an office building or a shopping center would say, well, go put together a package for me to sell this. And I'd be like, well, what do want me to do? And they'd say, just figure it out. Cause that was the great education I got. ⁓ And so that's how I really started in real estate to learn all about commercial real estate before much before residential real estate. ⁓ I did that for, I guess, until I was about 25.

And if somebody had told me at the time to count my customers and not my commissions, I would have stayed in commercial real estate, but I was like, I'm living on my own. need to make money. So I left that and I opened up Nextel stores, which was the cell phone with the walkie talkie it. So I had those up and down the East coast and I sold that business in 2005. ⁓ I played a lot of golf, like a lot of golf for about six months till I came home one day.

And my wife, Lisa, who you guys know, was standing in the kitchen and she said, so this area is my zone. You need to go to work. So I joined the I joined the residential firm where she was working and I sold there for four years. And then I took over as the broker for this company. And I was the broker for, I don't know, 15 years before we opened up our next home brokerage in 2019.

Steven L. Burch (02:42)
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Leon (03:00)
That's kind of the short version of...

of me. I've got a wonderful wife, two awesome kids.

Steven L. Burch (03:06)
There's some very... There we go. There we go. Very important

people that we missed out on there. How did you enlace a me?

Leon (03:14)
Yes.

⁓ I was leasing a shopping center that I eventually sold. She knew my brother, my younger brother, because they were a year apart in high school, but she didn't know me, but we look enough alike. And ⁓ she walked into 7-Eleven to get her morning coffee, and she walked back out and she thought I looked like a leasing agent in my gray slacks and my blue blazer, which was probably double breasted back then.

And she's like, Hey, are you Leon Nasser? And I was like, yes, I am. That's how we met. That's exactly how we met. At the time she was going down to downtown DC to work for her dad who was a dentist. And so she was doing that.

Steven L. Burch (03:58)
Bye.

Leon (04:06)
And then we dated for four years before we got married.

Ashley (04:07)
and look at you guys now.

Leon (04:13)
Pretty cool.

Steven L. Burch (04:15)
It's freaking amazing. I love it. All right, so first question that we have here is, what do you think most brokers misunderstand about scaling through multiple offices or teams?

Leon (04:16)
Is it?

Ashley (04:32)
Let's reference that with Leon has built some amazing offices with lots of agents. what do you think? Yeah, it's just, I think a lot of people think that's easy. So what is it that people misunderstand about that?

Leon (04:40)
Right? Right?

So it's not easy to do. ⁓ And if you really want to do it, I mean, when I was doing it on a much bigger scale than what I'm doing now, I had just under 300 agents who were working for me. And what I had to get good at, and a lot of those agents had sold more than I had ever sold in fairness. So I was in a great role because I could learn from people who were doing things completely different than I was, but these people could learn.

what I was doing also, which was different. And what I found in doing that is that it was really important to find somebody who I felt was like a leader of a group. When you have almost 300 agents who work for you, and even here, where I have less than I did because I let go of some people, but if you can find one person who's a real leader, I think it's really important to take some people who aren't doing as well.

who otherwise might say, I'm not getting the attention I need, I'm going to go to a different broker. And you can help them build their own team. You as the broker or owner might make a little less than you would otherwise make because maybe you're paying a team, like a team leader at a higher split, or the team leader is taking a piece of what the members are doing. But I think it really establishes a great community for agents who not everybody gets it right away. And I think you and I know that

to really do well in this for most people. takes somewhere in the two to three year range for them to really be able to put their head on their pillow at night and know exactly what their business looks like every day. So if we can accelerate that for those people, that's, think, really important to do.

Ashley (06:28)
sure. When you've grown throughout your leadership, obviously you learn all kinds of things that ⁓ work and that don't work. Is there something in particular that you had to unlearn as you were going on?

Leon (06:45)
I probably had to unlearn that even though over our door should say Leon Nasser PhD, because we're therapists for everybody who works for us, I had to unlearn as much as I wanted to help sometimes that I had to force people to really focus on. They knew I cared, but they also knew that like this is business and we need to focus on business while we're here. And that's a really hard thing to do, I think, to separate when...

Ashley (06:58)
Ha

Leon (07:15)
You truly care about the people you work with, and it's not to say you're not friends with them, but you have to establish those boundaries with everybody. That's probably the hardest thing for me. I think the second hardest thing for me to learn, no, go ahead.

Steven L. Burch (07:26)
100%.

Ashley (07:28)
Yeah, think, know, especially

especially like we spend so much time together, right? Like all day throughout the day going to all these conferences, et cetera. So they become like family, but there is this fine line of still having to be able to kind of put your foot down when you need to or ⁓ draw that line of things that aren't okay. I think it's always a struggle.

Leon (07:39)
Mm-hmm.

And I think the second hardest thing, which I still struggle with, is when people tell me that they're not doing well in real estate, it's hard. And I want to look at them and be like, did you start at 7 a.m. and work till 8 p.m.? Did you crush it all day long? And the answer I know, I know the answer is no. Or have you done all the things that we've discussed? Well, no, I didn't do them because it's outside of my comfort zone. And I'm like, OK, well then.

Steven L. Burch (08:13)
Mm-hmm.

Leon (08:19)
Keep selling three houses a year and making 10 grand. See you later. It's hard for me to comprehend that when I give people suggestions and I say, and I'm very matter of fact with people, like, this is actually how much money I make a year on real estate. And I've been able to do that because of the following. I know better or smarter than you. tell people, like, I went to college for a semester. You have to make a decision. Success is a choice. And if you don't choose to do these activities, you're not going to be successful.

Steven L. Burch (08:24)
You

Leon (08:49)
And I struggle with talking with people who don't want to make those changes. ⁓ That's just a hard thing for me.

Ashley (09:04)
answer we talked about like right you can lead a horse to water.

Leon (09:08)
Right.

But, you know, anyway.

I don't know if I answered your question or not.

Steven L. Burch (09:17)
So.

Yeah, I think I loved it. I love the passion behind. Like you can tell when you have so much passion, you get really riled up and you can hear in your voice and you see in your body language. I love it because I think in this industry, a lot of times there's this facade that people try to put out or put on to where I think that you ever since the first day that I met you, I mean, you are real. What you see is what you get and you are going to say exactly.

what you think and not that you're coming off mean or harsh or anything, it's the truth. And you know exactly where you are with you. And I absolutely love and respect that about you. And that's not always received well, right? How do you think that your personality type has helped you or maybe hindered you in this industry?

Leon (10:03)
No.

Well, I definitely think that me saying what's on my mind is a blessing and a curse. And I've had to learn how to not always say what's on my mind. And I'll be typing an email to somebody and Lisa will come over and be like, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. Like, you're not sending that. I'm like, what? It's exactly what I want to say. She's like, she's right. She's like, sound mean. So the people who know me, who work with me, they understand that I'm hard charging and that I'm there.

Steven L. Burch (10:31)
Backspace.

Leon (10:43)
⁓ I'm definitely there to help them in their best interest, I know it takes... Sometimes I turn people off the wrong way if it's with their personality. Our personalities can be different, I guess, if you were to do it. I don't even remember what they all stand for because I don't really care, which is another problem. Like the disc profile, how you're supposed to be a certain way towards other people. Yeah, don't do that. so that could be a struggle for me at times.

Steven L. Burch (11:05)
Mm-hmm.

I love it. I definitely have some of those qualities for sure. ⁓ just a little bit, just a little bit. Maybe that's why I like you so much.

Leon (11:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

That's just the it is, what it is. Yeah.

Steven L. Burch (11:27)
So you've,

yeah, absolutely. You've recruited a ton of people into your company or into your teams. So what do you think matters the most? Is it culture, systems, opportunity? Like, why do you think that matters?

Leon (11:47)
When I recruit people, which I, when I first opened up this brokerage, I had recruited a lot of people and then I decided to scale back from what I was doing because I wanted fewer people. That was very intentional. When I talk to people, share what I want to find out is, are you interested in doing this as a hobby or do you really want to create independent wealth? If you want to spend your time creating independent wealth,

and be with a group of people who are doing the same thing.

then this is the right place for you to work. If you just want to help people buy and sell a few homes, this probably isn't the right place for you because I'm looking for people who don't just want to do that, who also want to make investments and own properties on their own that they can rent out or do commercial development or bring in opportunities where I could do the commercial development and then we all benefit from it. So if you want to come and join and really learn how to be wealthy, I'm a good place to work.

And that's when I recruit that way, the people coming in know like this is we're really going to work.

So that's.

Ashley (13:02)
What do you

think is the mistake that brokers make when trying to recruit like experienced agents, right? You'll be like, they closed, you know, 70 transactions a year. So they're a must to have. What do you think that people mistake when they think like that?

Leon (13:18)
Like if you close 70 that I have to recruit you to have you come over? Is that what you're saying?

Ashley (13:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think that a lot of people, like when they're recruiting, they're just trying to go after like the big fish is what they say, right?

Leon (13:30)
I think you could, but it so the way I look at this is if you are selling where you are 70 units since that was your number, you're doing 70 units a year. That's a lot of that's a lot of properties you're working. You probably have you've got your systems with either a virtual assistant or somebody who works for you in person. You probably have a couple people who work with you that you can have leads going out to and where you are.

there's no question you're gonna be at a high split. So I can either come after you and say, hey, instead of just your high split, I'll give you a higher split, which doesn't make a difference because if there's somebody who's earning seven or eight or $900,000 a year, for you to get three points more, there's nothing in your life which is gonna be different. So if you're gonna spend time going after somebody like that, you really have to spend time more on the relationship side of it to see what makes them tick and see if you can bring something of value to them that they don't.

Steven L. Burch (14:18)
you

Leon (14:28)
have. And so that's where I for me, I can say to somebody like that, hey, you're making a million dollars a year. As an example, we're building 92 townhomes. We got shovels in the ground about 90 days from today, we're going to have about 30 million into the project, and we're going to sell it for about 60 million. If you'd like to be a part of something like that.

So now you don't have to spend time doing 70 transactions, but you can make more money doing 50 transactions, is that of interest to you? And I think that that's a game changer for somebody who's has earned that type of money because people earn a lot of money. ⁓ They don't necessarily want to do things just because they're gonna earn a whole lot more money. They want that to be the byproduct of it, but they want to challenge themselves to be better or do something different than just the same routine over and over again. And I think when you're recruiting people who are new,

who either just got their license or maybe they're somewhere and they've done five or six transactions. If you can bring them in and ramp them to get to that same level, for the most part, you got a customer for life. They're not gonna leave your brokerage. Some people will leave, you know? But I think for the most part, people will stay with you. And you guys can probably, you know from how many people have joined you versus how many people have left you, and it's because of what you deliver to them,

Steven L. Burch (15:48)
Yeah.

Leon (15:50)
People stay with

you and you teach them how to be better and you give them opportunities to grow. ⁓

Steven L. Burch (15:53)
Okay.

I'll go for it next. So if a broker is struggling with agent retention and has high turnover, what is the first thing that they should look at internally?

Leon (16:21)
they should look at themselves internally. And then they should pick up the phone. Yeah, and then they probably should pick up the phone and call another broker who isn't struggling or who doesn't have high turnover and ask what they're doing. I think a lot of people won't do that because their ego will get, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but I can do this on my own. I don't need anybody. I don't need any help. I sold a lot, so I should be able to be a manager myself.

Steven L. Burch (16:27)
Awesome.

Leon (16:51)
And ⁓

If you're new at being a broker, there's a learning curve. And then there's even a greater learning curve if you want to step out of your role of active sales, somebody who's selling $30 million a year and running her brokerage to how do I step that back and make that can do 20 million a year and have other people take over that business so I can have more time for vacation or enjoy other things in my life. ⁓ And so that's not somebody has a big turnover, but it's how do you transition that as a broker?

But the first thing you have to look at is yourself and are you doing the right things? And unless you do that, I'm not a fan of making a yearly plan. I think that that's the most ridiculous thing, because I have no idea where I'm to be next February. But I think you really have to make a weekly plan. You can have a vision of what you want to have accomplished, but you have to have a weekly plan that you revisit every week. And you need to let your team know that that's what you're doing. And I think if you do that and your team buys into what you're doing,

You won't have those kind of struggles.

Ashley (18:00)
So Leanne, you talk about your team. ⁓ So you actually inspired me to come up with some office awards for my staff. And when you and I had talked, the overarching award in real estate is all about your numbers, right? And you and I both kind of agree that that's not always what people should be recognized on. So.

Leon (18:25)
Uh-uh.

Ashley (18:27)
Obviously, you my office implemented the ⁓ most valuable player and then we did a next homey award, which is someone that basically has like the school spirit, right? So they're kind of sought after. It's kind of become a competition. I think that that's why people step up. So what do you think is meaningful for agents and why do you think it's something outside of just always the numbers?

Leon (18:53)
I think it's not just in real estate. I think it's at any job. I mean, we all go to work to earn money, whether you go work at Nordstrom or you work in real estate. And so what's the environment like that makes you want to be part of it? And so if you're doing something different and fun like that, you know, here's the agent who did a coat drive this winter and got raised, got 300 coats for kids and let's give them their...

Steven L. Burch (19:19)
you

Leon (19:21)
here's their paper

plate award, you know, or actually go get a stupid little trophy and have it engraved. When you start to do things like that, it becomes fun. And I think when you do that, if you're gonna do that, I would also incorporate a whole bunch of other prizes that you do. So there's a few people that are gonna really be recognized and everybody knows that they're doing something a little different because it might be their passion, right? But then you could also do,

We did last year an award for, we had somebody who sold a parking space in DC for $5,000. And it took them four months to put the steel together. So that was like one of the most fun awards because everybody knows this person spent four months and earned like 150 bucks. So I had gone to the dollar store or Five Below or whatever, and we got a whole bag of just junk. And I think that they got like oven mitts with a crab on it.

Steven L. Burch (19:57)
.

Leon (20:21)
Here's your prize for that. And so then it became a joke of a prize, but then everybody starts wanting to get one of these little prizes. So everybody left with something, but we really did have something a little more significant for kind of who the people are. And it doesn't really matter how much you sold. Everybody knows who works with Ashley's you as an example. Everybody who works for you knows how much you sell. What are you going to do? Give yourself an award? I'd like to give myself award as the top salesperson.

People will be like, that's terrible. And if you have somebody who works for you like you, who's the top salesperson, and they're always getting recognized, I think that makes the other people below them who are still contributing to grow your brand, I think that makes them feel like, I not important enough to be recognized? So if you really wanna create that culture, you need to make it fun for everybody.

Steven L. Burch (20:53)
Hmm.

Ashley (21:09)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think it's just funny. Other agents that have worked here came from other offices where it was just a numbers thing. And so then they'll ask like, why aren't we doing numbers at office meetings and those types of things? And I just explained to them that that's not the culture that we're building here. Everyone can look online, everyone can see what numbers they are at, but we're building more of a culture of supporting others, you know, even people that have

10 transactions a year, like one person worked on a transaction for like nine months right before it came together and we celebrated her at an office meeting. So I think that that is just really something to set yourself apart from other brokerages. And sometimes that's why people leave is they don't want to just keep on talking about who did the most.

Leon (21:58)
But doesn't that make you feel better as the owner of your company to be able to acknowledge that person? It's like so nice. so if you have somebody who's like, well, I'm going to leave unless you're going to acknowledge my numbers, OK, well, see you around. Because if you're gone, that's a negative energy, and everybody else is going to rise up to my level. Like, I don't have time for that. I like that you did that. Good for you.

Steven L. Burch (21:58)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley (22:05)
Definitely.

Bye.

Steven L. Burch (22:19)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley (22:19)
Correct.

Well, you inspired it, so thank you.

Steven L. Burch (22:25)
So.

Leon (22:26)
you're welcome. Yes.

Steven L. Burch (22:27)
Leon, you

obviously work with your wife, Lisa. How's that going?

Leon (22:32)
I do. Yes.

It's funny, we've been asked, both have been asked this forever because we've been working quote unquote together since 2005. We've never worked together. She's an agent, she goes out and sells real estate and has her clients. I'm a broker, I work with all the agents. ⁓ Except for when she calls me with a problem and I'll be like, do you really need an answer to this? She's like, how come you're nice to all the other agents and you're not as nice to me? I'm like, sorry. ⁓

Steven L. Burch (22:47)
Hmph.

Leon (23:06)
No, ⁓ but we don't really work together. You know, she handles the accounting for our company. And other than that, she's out doing her thing today. I'm here at my office doing my thing and I'll see her back at home tonight. ⁓ Which works really well. It works really well to do. Yeah.

Steven L. Burch (23:14)
Mm-hmm.

Has it always been that way? That you guys had

definite, ⁓ Okay. Love that.

Leon (23:28)
Yeah, but I started at my old company selling

in 2005. We were both selling at our own clients. We were out doing stuff during the day. When I started being the broker for the office, I'm in the office and I'm working and she's out doing her thing. So we don't really work together that way other than, and I think because we don't, it allows us an opportunity to get excited for each other with each other's accomplishments. Like if I were to say, hey, I'm about to recruit this person or hey, I just sold.

I actually have a pretty big commercial deal that we're probably gonna get a ratified contract on today. She can be excited for me, because we're totally separate in our lives.

Steven L. Burch (24:09)
That's awesome. love that

Ashley (24:15)
So Leon, one thing that you and Lisa do is some ballroom dancing, correct?

Leon (24:22)
We do a lot. Swing, cha-cha, tango, waltz, foxtrot, you name it.

Ashley (24:25)
So

if you were to think, is there something that dancing has taught you that carries over to business or discipline?

Leon (24:38)
⁓ Yeah, that's actually pretty easy. It is really hard and it takes a really long time to get good at all these different mediums of dancing. Even if you're a good dancer, like you can go to the club and dance and everybody's like, you've got rhythm. To actually go and do two foxtrot and then waltz and then go to a tango, then a cha-cha, whatever you name it, it takes years to have it look effortless.

And there have been, we were ⁓ dancing on Tuesday night and there was somebody who's been in the group for, they take lessons right before us and they've been there like four months and they go, my God, we can't wait to be like you someday. I'm like, yeah, well, I've been doing this for like forever. So like, you're not gonna get there right away, but you need to practice a whole lot. it's ⁓ the same with real estate. Yeah, you gotta learn the neighborhoods and all that.

But I think it takes a long time to learn how to really work with people and make them feel comfortable with what you're doing for right away them saying, you're like, you're my guy or you're my girl. So it just takes a long time.

Steven L. Burch (25:46)
Thanks

Leon (25:49)
Lots of practice.

Steven L. Burch (25:50)
Really guys, you were telling us, can you go a little bit more into, you guys have an event coming up, Black Tie Affair. There's what, three couples that are being asked to dance. Tell us a little bit about that.

Leon (26:08)
So the night, it's at Lakewood Country Club near me. And it's kind of cool. You go in, it's a black tie event. So everybody's there just sitting around first, like maybe having some appetizers or drinks or whatever. And then it's just ⁓ music for like 45 minutes to an hour. And everybody who's there is part of the dance studio. So people are just dancing of all different levels. And they'll take a break for dinner.

And then they'll say, hey, we're going to showcase.

Ashley and Steven, please come up and they're gonna be doing a, if it was you guys, I'd like to see that. And they're gonna be doing a swing for us. It's really cool. So Shane is our instructor, he owns the company also, but he'll announce Lisa and me, we would have already had to leave to come back in and change into our costume. You have to wear the right costume for your dance. And then he'll tell a little story about us and then we'll dance. And what's so cool about it is everybody who's there,

Ashley (26:49)
Love to see that.

Leon (27:12)
is there because they love dancing. so you have however many people are there, 200 to 300, depending on the year that it is, you just have a huge cheering section and it's a really nice community of people. And so they'll call us up, then they'll call other people up. And then if somebody's going from their bronze to their silver, their silver to their gold level of dancing, they'll be called up to do like a little dance also. So it's really, it's a really special night. It makes you feel, it makes you feel really good.

Steven L. Burch (27:25)
Mm-hmm.

Leon (27:42)
And when you go into dance, I would encourage anybody who doesn't have a hobby outside of what they do with work, when you're in that environment, nothing else that's going on matters. You're just there with your spouse dancing or if you like bowling or whatever. It's really nice. You can't be on your phone. You can't be texting or emailing. You can't have your Apple watch on because that's going to interrupt you. You're just...

You're just there dancing with your spouse. It's really cool.

Steven L. Burch (28:17)
being extremely intentional. Have you always been able to have the passion and hobbies outside of real estate or was there a time that you ever just were go, go, 24 seven and didn't give that area of your life any intention?

Leon (28:20)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ Yeah, when I first started, I was like that. And then once I had kids, that changed real quick. ⁓ I didn't grow up in a real healthy environment. And so I wanted to create that environment for my family. So I was the dad who from kindergarten to fifth grade every Thursday, I was a teacher at the public schools. So since my kids are two years apart, I really had it for seven years.

⁓ And that was every Thursday. And then I was the chaperone for every field trip, because all the teachers would always ask me. And the worst day was when my son was like, everybody thinks you're the cool dad, but can you not chaperone this field trip? And I was like, my heart was broken. I had to let my little boy grow up. ⁓ So yeah, I was really intentional about doing that. And when I was teaching or when I was at school, like nothing matters. And I would tell all my agents, like, don't call me on Thursdays, because I'm going to be teaching at school from nine to three.

Steven L. Burch (29:13)
Bye.

Leon (29:28)
and I'm not answering, nothing that you have going on is that important. I was pretty direct about that. So it's been quite some time that when I take off, I take off. Because what real estate is not who I am. This is what I do to earn a living. That doesn't, it's not who I am as a person. You know, it's just something I think if you get...

If you get lucky enough to find something that you're good at, that you can make a living at, and you can enjoy, then you've got a great career. And not everybody finds that, so.

Steven L. Burch (30:12)
So you brought up your kiddos. They're not really kiddos, but I'm gonna call them kiddos. I know that every time, adultos, every time that we have conversations about your kids, like you and Lisa just have this aura and this like glow about you, brag on them a little bit, because they're pretty incredible individuals as well.

Leon (30:18)
adultos.

Mm-hmm.

I think so. So my daughter Jackie is, I think she's a superhero because she is 24. She graduated college. We had her move back home because she is a kindergarten teacher for special needs kids. And I was like, if you're going to do that, you got to move home, your money so you can buy a place where she's doing that. she's so dedicated to these kids. It's unbelievable. In the summers since she was, I don't know, 14 or 15,

She's been a counselor at the JCC camp, which they have an inclusions program. So there's 10 kids in the group. And let's say I would have the nine, but she's got one who's one-on-one with them because they are, special needs. And some of them are like this girl she had last year, didn't even, couldn't even talk. So just in working with her, Jackie had to learn some versions of ASL to communicate, which is amazing. ⁓ And then last year they asked her if she would come back.

They called her and said, are you planning on coming back to be a counselor? And she said, yes. They go, well, that's good because we want you to oversee all the counselors. So she did that last year and she's going to do that again this summer. And so she's really, she's a cool girl. And then my son, Sam is a crazy, talented, singer songwriter, musical theater, mostly.

Ashley (31:44)
Bye.

Steven L. Burch (31:44)
out.

Leon (32:05)
⁓

something really cool that's, I mean, he's done a lot of really big stuff with some super famous people. ⁓ He just found out that his original Broadway show that he's written called The Chef ⁓ will be put on at ⁓ Playhouse Theater in Cleveland in 27. ⁓ So that's really neat. He released his first album, I think he released his first album probably about nine months ago. ⁓

Steven L. Burch (32:28)
It's amazing.

Leon (32:37)
You know who Chloe is on Instagram, who's the Broadway singer for all of her listings in New York. She works for Ryan Serhan for like, you know, that show, million dollar, million dollar listing, whatever is. So anytime she has a listing and they're like, they're in New York City, so they're like 15, 20 million dollars. She spends thousands of dollars on putting on these almost like a Broadway style show of how she and she sings because she's got a great voice because she's a musical theater kid. So he met with them last week.

Steven L. Burch (32:46)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Leon (33:07)
and they've asked him to music direct all of their stuff. He just, The Heart was a show that is a new show coming to Broadway. He was in San Diego for a month for there and he just finished last week in New York. And then he'll be with them again in August ⁓ as the musical director for that. And then starting next month, he's been asked to be on the musical direction side of The Lost Boys, which is the newest show coming to Broadway. So like,

They're just, they're really cool, driven people in totally different crafts. But yeah, I can talk about my kids all day because I think they're awesome people.

Ashley (33:41)
amazing.

There.

Steven L. Burch (33:48)
wonder

where they get that drive and determination from.

Leon (33:51)
I don't know. Hopefully it wore off from a little bit of both of us. They're both a little more gentle than I am. So they get that from their mom, which is good.

Steven L. Burch (33:54)
No.

You

All right, Ashley, ⁓ we're gonna start on the fun rapid fire. Do we have other questions we wanna go over?

Leon (34:15)
You can ask me anything you want. Alright.

Ashley (34:15)
Yeah, we'll do some rapid fire questions, Okay,

favorite cigar?

Steven L. Burch (34:19)
yeah.

Leon (34:22)
probably, ⁓ Julius Caesar.

Ashley (34:29)
And where does one find one?

Leon (34:31)
and cigar stores, or you can get them at Thompson's online. Thompson's is an online cigar shop. That's not a plug for them. I'm not getting paid by Thompson's.

Steven L. Burch (34:42)
You

Ashley (34:44)
that you have traveled.

Leon (34:46)
Eee, best place I've traveled. ⁓

I think one of my best trips is when my son graduated college, the four of us did four days London, four days Paris. And that was an awesome trip. actually liked London more than Paris because Paris felt a little more like a city to me. And I'm not a huge fan of the city. I'd rather be out on a hundred acres without anybody. And London, London was a really cool trip. I liked that a lot.

Ashley (35:16)
know that you're into cars, what is your dream car?

Leon (35:21)
A dream car. Well, you don't have to get a new car because somebody smashed into my other car and totaled it recently, which was not fun. Yeah, my little, man, my Z4 M40, some girl right around the corner from my house, she came flying through the stop sign and she hit the nose of my car went underneath her rear wheel and she did three flips. It was like watching a movie. She did three full flips in front of me and landed on her side.

Steven L. Burch (35:30)
I didn't know that.

goodness.

Leon (35:48)
And my car was total just because airbags are three grand a piece, a headlamp is 4,000, and so they just totaled the car. So I had to get a new car, which is a real bummer. What would I guess though as a dream car?

Probably a Ferrari F90 or a 488, one of those two.

Ashley (36:11)
Very cool.

Leon (36:11)
It's hard to

get the cars that you want sometimes when you're in this business, because I have found I don't want to look like a jerk. And somebody's like, you have, like my agents, like you have so much money that you can buy this. So I usually buy less than what I would regularly buy. You probably don't understand that feeling though, Ashley.

Ashley (36:32)
Nope, but then that's just why I went ahead and bought it.

If you weren't in real estate, what do you think you would be doing?

Leon (36:48)
probably be a school teacher. I wouldn't make the money I want to make, but I'd be a school teacher.

Ashley (36:56)
Kids would love you. Best advice that you ever received that you maybe didn't appreciate at the time.

Leon (37:09)
⁓ to not have such a problem with authority.

Ashley (37:18)
That's a good one.

Leon (37:18)
That

was really good advice. That wasn't good advice at the time I took it because the person who said it to me, was like, who the hell are you? Should have listened.

Steven L. Burch (37:19)
Mm-hmm.

I

got one for you Leon. What is the smallest airport you've ever been to?

Leon (37:38)
Well, that's not a hard question to answer. What's the airport called? Manhattan? Is it the Manhattan airport? Was it? What's the airport called where you are? That's the airport that I went to.

Steven L. Burch (37:41)
Too funny.

Manhattan, Kansas. Yeah,

Manhattan, Kansas, you're right.

Leon (37:55)
That was this one.

Ashley (37:55)
I just want to say that it was

the best thing ever because Leon had to get Lisa on video camera to show her that there was like two gates and he was like, you're not going to believe this. It was the best.

Leon (38:06)
It's funny.

Steven L. Burch (38:09)
Yeah.

He was like, ⁓ we'll just get food at the airport. No, you won't.

Ashley (38:13)
So was like, yeah, no, there's no

Leon (38:13)
I you are. may

Ashley (38:14)
food at the Air Corp. ⁓

Leon (38:14)
be eminence. Eminence from a vending machine.

Steven L. Burch (38:16)
There you are.

Leon (38:21)
It's great.

Ashley (38:22)
We laughed so

hard. And then he was like, we need to get there early. And I was like, no, I think we'll be just fine.

Steven L. Burch (38:29)
A-okay.

Well, so I don't know I'm reading the next one and seeing how I can word it for you

Leon (38:33)
What else you got?

Ashley (38:33)
Bye.

Steven L. Burch (38:44)
When agents look back on working with you someday, what do you hope that they would say about you?

Leon (38:53)
that I cared more about their success than my own.

That's what I hope they would say. And I hope they say that now.

Steven L. Burch (39:04)
and I you probably all of them do.

Leon (39:08)
I hope. mean, you know, there's old saying that people never, they don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And I think that that's a really, that line alone stuck with me a long time ago as being, I think, much bigger and more important ⁓ as I grew into a role of being a broker. I didn't know how much of an impact that would have on me when I first heard it.

So hopefully that's what they would think.

Steven L. Burch (39:43)
So what's next? Not just professionally, but personally. What's next that's exciting that you're looking forward to?

Leon (39:54)
You guys should come with us on this. So our 30th anniversary will be in 28, in March of 28, and my 60th is in August. So we are going to do in either June or July, because it's between the two, but it's also the time you go. We are going to do an Alaskan cruise, because I think that that would be super cool. That's what we want to do. So you guys should come with us on that. professionally, I would...

Ashley (40:22)
It's literally the

only cruise I said I would ever do.

Leon (40:25)
Yeah, well, I've been on other cruises and this is one that I definitely would do. Lisa loves cruising. I like it. I'd rather fly to where I want to go and spend time there because getting off at the ports of call are typically like just like discussing schlock shops and that's not my vibe. ⁓ But the Alaska cruise, I think it'll be super cool. ⁓ Professionally, there's a couple of good friends of mine who ⁓

Ashley (40:47)
Yeah.

Leon (40:54)
who do a lot of development. And I've done a bunch of business with them now and we have several more deals happening. I'd like to continue to grow in that. ⁓ I like the challenge of it. It's hard and it takes an unbelievable amount of patience. ⁓

I like things that challenge me and that's a real challenge for me. Things that were supposed to settle in June are finally settling in February and there's reasons for it all along the way. Some of which I know could happen and some which are new each time. So I like the challenge of working through those. So I want to continue to do that ⁓ professionally. ⁓ I want to do all I can for Lisa and I to help my son blow it up in his musical world.

⁓ That's another, I mean, it's his goals. I know what he wants, but there's a lot that we do behind the scenes for him. So I want to keep being able to focus on that and being able to help him do that.

Ashley (42:02)
Love that.

Leon (42:03)
Yeah. Thanks.

Steven L. Burch (42:05)
Okay, any

last questions or anything you want to leave us with, Leon? Any words of wisdom or points?

Leon (42:10)
No, just think it's really cool

that you guys actually do this. A lot of people talk about doing, I'd love to do a podcast someday. And you guys actually jumped in and made it happen. And I think it's nice that you call people that you're friends with and that you know and trust and love and care about already. And it'll be cool to see where you grow this from because it's not... ⁓

You're not doing a podcast based on what your career is in real estate. You just happen to be meeting with people who might be in real estate, but you're talking about the human side of people and I think it's really nice. So I'm really honored that you included me in this.

Ashley (42:54)
We are honored to have you and we are always thankful for all of your input and everything that you do for us and everyone in your circle. So thank you so much. Leon, if somebody were to be looking to get a hold of you, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Leon (43:03)
Thanks.

They can call me. Do you want my number? Put it out for the world. 8675309. No, it's 301. If you're at a certain age group, you know that song. It's 301-674-7981.

Ashley (43:12)
And what's your number?

Bye.

Steven L. Burch (43:26)
Mm-hmm.

No way.

Ashley (43:31)
Perfect.

Steven L. Burch (43:34)
Leon, thank you. And I'm going to leave this so it's documented properly. One, we'll miss you in Dallas, but we understand. But two, maybe we can meet up in Aruba in May. Just throwing that out there.

Leon (43:35)
Thank you guys.

So I will go along with that provided that one of you four doesn't book it the day before and be like, by the way, just an aside. Yes, Aruba and May, hold on. No, because I'm gonna text Lisa. I'm texting Lisa Aruba and May. I'm gonna text this to Lisa when we get off the phone.

Steven L. Burch (43:59)
Ha ha ha.

Fair. Fair. Perfect.

Ashley (44:04)
video.

Steven L. Burch (44:17)
Perfect. Love it. Well, again, Leon, thank you so much. We appreciate you taking the time to be with us. And for all the listeners, make sure you reach out to Leon. So thanks for listening.

Leon (44:18)
Okay.

Thank you guys. My pleasure.

Thanks. Talk soon.