Real with Neva

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros, with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Steven Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic, and raw perspective, you found it. Well, I'm going to go ahead and just start and throw both of you under the bus. You go with it. We'll see where this goes. I was like, what are we doing? Yeah. No. So I think we should leave this portion in the podcast so that we can make sure that we see your facial expressions saying that I'm throwing your asses under the bus. So, Niva, thank you for being here for the second portion in the scary part now. Not really. We're from small town America. Obviously, there's. You May, you shared a comment with me about your son. Your oldest son just got a vehicle and people were making comments because the type of vehicle that he drives. Give us a little rundown on what. That is, what type of vehicle it is, or just the comments. What happened with that situation? Like, basically, tell me the. Tell us the story that you told them. They said that we were selling drugs. Yeah, like, you're selling drugs because he has a BMW. And at that time, we had, we had got the car. We just. It was getting detailed and the windows tinted. Okay. And I'm all about window girlfriend. He was like, I can't drive in a fishbowl. And I'm like, all right, if I can get it into the. Into the deal. All right, if I can negotiate it in, you'll get it. And so when we had heard this, I was kind of first, I was like, what? I mean, I sell houses. I don't sell drugs. And I kind of, like, was insulted a little bit on the sense of what, you know. And then my hubby, of course, he laughs it off. And I didn't think it was funny at first. And then it clicked. I was like, oh, Lord, if they think we're selling drugs now. He hadn't even got his car yet. Wait till he pulls up in his new BMW. Oh, great. Now really, what? So, you know, it's so funny that, you know, Ashley, you and I have talked about, like, the Cadillac before and how there's opinions of that and then, you know, how, you know, you have a, what, 15, 16 year old son, right? Like, and he. They're making opinions about his BMW. Like, you can't win no matter what. Like, people are always gonna throw stuff. Like, it's absolutely just horrific on how people are out there talking about one another. So with that, Niva, like, success I think that you've noticed that yes, you are loud, you're passionate and you know, that's something I think that has served you extremely well. But how is it that you know like your kids reaction with your, your home life. You talked about them our last episode there that you know more about you and your husband. What, what are some of the things that your kids have noticed and started doing with you? Well, Maya, my seven year old, she is like, she shows me who I am for sure. She will have her little phone and she'll pace talking on it. She will sit across from me and she's writing up her houses and how much they cost and what color they are. And then she'll talk on the phone and I'll hear her say something. Well, the sellers want to see if they like you to see if you can buy their house if they like you. Whoa, hold on, sister. The word is pre approval. We're looking for pre approvals here. Okay. Not that okay. It's qualification on pre approvals. I also, my kids notice how present I am. I absolutely love going to the office. I do. It just energizes me. It's such a fun atmosphere. But my kiddos, even today they're home not feeling well and they know that I'm here and it's even the hubby was a little spoiled with me being at home, right? If he forgets something, I could just bring him something. But I can do that with this business as well. And I'm at my kiddos games. Another part of switching the brokerage was to have the efficiency. I could do everything from my phone. I can send contracts to be signed. My kids, my kids see me present and they also see that you got to work hard. And sometimes I don't, I don't always have it as roses and it's not always sunshine. They see all parts of it. But at the end of the day they do see they have a present mom, an active mom. And they also can tell I'm not as I was very anxious before. We. Talked about that for a little second because that's one of my points. So that's a great segue. I distinctly remember you had a, when you switched over, you had a part time job, right, at a theater and then you were subbing at the local school district and then you were doing real estate. And when you switched over our, one of our first conversations, I was like, all right, let's do some math. If you were to focus solely on real estate and you know, with your, your personality now with the efficiencies and the support of the brokerage, now you're getting leads coming in, you know, generated from the company as well. Like, all of these things are working in your favor. What would, what would that look like? If you would be able to just focus? And I think that if from my memory that was a conversation, you're like, I'm not really sure. Right. Like, I don't know if I can really walk away from a little bit of money here, a little bit of money there. But that's not the case anymore, is it? No. No, it's not. And I am, I'm just so thankful. Again, even though we have these conversations, like these checkpoints, because even when things started to roll, I still was like, I don't know, I don't know, is this, this, I see it, but is it really happening? Like, and when I started to see all the other things that I was doing, the subbing and being at the office, my heart was with real estate. And I could tell that I really wanted to give it my all. But I was so, I was spread so thin. I was spread so thin. And honestly, it was a mind shift thing. I had to just trust the brokerage. I had to trust that everything was going to work out. And that's what I did. I trusted it and dove in with both feet. I now look and I'm like, I don't know how I could handle. I couldn't handle all of it because business is so good. I mean, it's not a bad problem to have. And, you know, I think with that conversation, there's something in leadership that, you know, everybody's trying to figure out, like, what is the special sauce or whatever to be a leader. And I don't think that there's really necessarily like a formula to be able to say this is how you're going to be a leader, because it's per individual. And in that conversation, our conversation went more from just, you know, yeah, you can, like, I know I saw in you that you can do this and be extremely successful, but you weren't there yet. But when our conversation continued, we start talking about you having a conversation with your husband, with Will, and what is that going to look like? Let's, let's make sure, like, you know, and that was a conversation you and I had. And, you know, Ashley, you shared with me and talking about clients that you've had conversations with them about life insurance and things that, you know are not typical. So my, my point on this and love to hear your Guys feedback is that, you know, yes, we're here to do a job, let it be recruit an agent or, you know, help them sell more real estate or list a house and help them get to their next house, whatever it's going to be. But there's where people really gravitate to you is not only your level of professionalism and how you can be able to perform on that transaction, but also what you bring to the table on, outside of that transaction as well. And these are conversations that I don't think leaders are truly having. Getting down to the nitty gritty of the people that we are dealing with. We miss that a lot. Or we always say sellers, we always say buyers, we always say leads, but we're dealing with people. And so when you get down to the core of the people and who they are and what drives them and who are the main factors around in their life and bring them into it as well, that's where I think you're able to light a fire for leadership and truly, you know, show that you are there and behind them in the personal and in the business world. So I'll throw that to either one of you. Yeah, I mean, I think that like the term leader is so broad and there's different ways, but I think you're right. Like the way I look at it is like, I've already gone through struggles, right. Like I've already faced some issues or whatnot. And if I can help people not have those same issues, because I've already done it for you. So, like, right. I'm. I'm kind of showing you the path. So don't do xyz, because I've done that and it did not work well. But there are a lot of people that, that aren't open, I think, sharing, because I think that they think that it, again, it's competition or whatnot. But I think it comes down to just caring about people in general. So like we talk about, right. Our world in, in general doesn't set up, I don't feel like set up adults for success. Right, Right. Like we always, we always joke about like adulting, but man, if we could like rewind the clock 20 years and you know, in high school, like, there are some things I wish I would have known about credit cards and financing, you know, all of those things that you don't realize till you're like 25, like, oh, shit, I made a bunch of mistakes. I wish somebody would have, you know, said something. So, you know, I've just found that over time, if you can be open about that. And we, Steven, we had this conversation with some clients a couple weeks ago about, you know, credit cards get a really bad name, which, like, right when you don't know what you're doing, you don't understand the process, you don't understand the fees. It. It can be, you know, horrible, but they can also be extremely fantastic if you know how to use them. I mean, those can skyrocket people's credit scores, which get them, you know, to be able to better have better rates and those types of things. So I think the ability to, like, actually have conversations with someone like that, like, have you thought about using a credit card for X or. Right. I asked someone about their life insurance only for them to realize they had minimal coverage. Again, we've had a lot of family members that have passed away unexpectedly, and we've seen the repercussions of not having things in place. So, you know, sit down with my agents, and I asked them about. I just want to. We asked one of them about disability insurance, and he's like, well, why would I need disability insurance? And I was like, well, I don't know. Like, imagine you. I don't know. I couldn't walk for six months. Like, how are you going to show houses? I just, like, blank stare and, you know, in his face. And I was like, I mean, right. These are things to think about that people probably aren't asking you with. But we've had these. As a leader, I want you to be that so that if anything happens,. You're ready to go. Absolutely. What about you? Well, for the leadership part that I received the, you know, you're so smart in this industry, and I love listening to everything you have to say. I find so much value in our personal conversations as well, because I always leave that conversation better than when I started. But also, you see things in me that I don't see in myself sometimes. And it's just a nice chin check, right? Like, chin up, you've got this. And you do know, right? You sent me a text that was like, hey, are you. Are you ready for this? Or. I can't remember how you worded it. When you were talking about where I was, and I was like, oh, no, do I brace myself? What does this. What does this mean? Right? And you shared some information with me that I. It was a big goal, right, to work myself up in our association and do well in real estate. But. So what is that goal? Let's get that on record here. What is that? Are we going to do it, okay, I am going to be, I want to be in the top 25. You started out right, I'm going to. And then you said, I want, I'm. Going to be, I'm going to be in the top 25. And it, it's when you, you first put that in my head and I'll credit you for it. And I was like, what did I say? I said, you really think I could do that? Absolutely. I know you can. And that type of leadership behind you because you're gonna, I have self doubt doubts that pop in that little gremlin that sits on your shoulder constantly. But when you have a leader that is like, knows you can do it, all I have to do is see you. That's all I have to do. Right. Like these, these conversations and the things that you set us up for and the fact that you believe in us in times that we don't believe in ourselves, that to me, I mean, that's of so much value as well. Yeah, I, and I think that with, you know, like, with leadership, when we talk about all of this, you know, people are again trying to find that, that formula and that plan. Like, yeah, I, I did not have on March 18th at 1:15pm and pulling up the text messages to see what I said to you to be like, I need to text Niva about her rankings and her production and where she's at and her numbers. Like, I was legit just looking at stuff and I was like, man, I noticed where she's at. Right. My text message then was that you're ranked 55 out of the MLS and you only have three people in our office that are above you and then there's multiple people that are below you that have been in this industry way longer than you have. And so, you know, being able to just find like what is that driving factor for that person and being able to spontaneously but genuinely reach out to them and continue that same message and of, you know, what you've been talking about in person and what you've been, you know, working with them on their personal life as well. Like it all just makes these connections. And I think that those small messages and those touch points are way more impactful than being able to say, okay, Niva, next week we need to have a one on one. And then now you're going to stress for an entire week, like, what are we going to talk about? Like what are, you know, you go in there and you clean them up. Like, no, like that's not what I think efficient leadership is. I Think there's appropriate times to have one on ones that are scheduled like that. But to continuously build everybody up within your company and with that are around you, it's those touch points and challenges and tell them that you're still thinking about them, that means a lot. Actually you did that to me. Like you sent me a challenge. I still haven't done it yet. But you know, like you recognize my flaws that I've told you and you're trying to help push me out of that. That's what you want to surround yourself by. That's leadership. We're all leaders and we all need to lead in our own aspect. And if we all try to work with each other and pull each other up, it's not just one leader in a company, it's everybody's leadership that I think truly drives growth and success. Yeah, and we're influenced by our surroundings, the people that we're working with. I think I mentioned it before but we started, I think this will be coming up will be our third time but we do like a 90 day plan altogether. So it's the whole entire office sits down including our admins, office managers, assistants, etc, you know, it's a huge white sticky and right down the next four months and we, you know, business goals, life goals, relationship goals, whatever that might be. You know, we just spend an hour kind of collaborating together. But the biggest part is then you have to read them out loud to everyone, you know, and it's an accountability thing. But then it's not just me, you know, that's checking in on people, it's the nine other people in the room that you know, know that one of those agents that they want to do act and they'll check on in with them. And this last time I actually set it so that afterwards each person had an accountability partner. And I kind of strategically placed people together as far as who I thought could maybe help each other the most, you know. And I have quarterly reviews with my agents. I mean I'm there every single day. They know that I'm available all the time. But it is nice to have that like Steven said, like that time that they know that maybe this isn't like a just going to pop in and talk about it. Maybe they want to hold up the meeting to have it, but they expect them every three months to sit down, you know, for a good hour with me on top of everything else that we're doing. And I think it's just important to be visible, but it's also important to be vulnerable yourself. As well in front of your agents or your friends. Because that's really the only way you change. I mean, I, I sent Steven a message about something else, you know, that if you look back like a year ago and something that we said was going to happen and it has happened, you know, had you not surrounded yourself with those people or been willing to push one another or ask the hard questions, you know, or kind of go through those moments of, you know, is it worth it? Is it ever going to do anything? It's just amazing when you do surround yourself. I mean, even our Niva and you started on some of our calls. I mean, it's just something to look forward to on Monday morning because it's a great way to start the week of five people on a call that are just going to power through all their goals. So. Yeah. And I also want to touch on when you have leaders that are vulnerable, you know, you start, you start the industry. Right. You don't have the flashy stuff. Right. That I, we chatted about previously. But it's when you have a leader that's vulnerable, you know, that they started from somewhere. They did, it just wasn't handed to them. They didn't get it overnight. They had to work just like you're doing to get there as well. So you lean into that leadership of like, hey, I've paved the road and I've gone down the one that doesn't work and I've gone down the one that does. This is, you don't have to do it, you're ultimately your own business owner. But I will tell you this one was a little bit easier. Or do these hard things now and you will set yourself up for success. And so I am so grateful for that type of leadership that's vulnerable. And you talk, it's not so much you want to talk about struggles all the time, but we're addressing them and then we're figuring out how to do that. I think that was our, that meeting that we had, the 90 day meeting was talking about struggles and it ended up being, you know, even more valuable than just what the struggles were because of your vulnerability with me as well. Good. Like you, you have to be vulnerable. Because if I want you to be vulnerable, like you need to realize and know and feel comfortable and typically if I let my guard down and just be open book, like I really have nothing to hide whatsoever, you know, I want people to succeed. But yeah, being able to show and allow that vulnerable conversation to being a two way street instead of a, you know, just A dictation of, like, this is what you have to do. 1, 2, 3. Like, let's figure out what works for you, and I'll share what works or had worked for me or did not work for me. Um, and let's save you some time in that hard, not life type of world that is out there. Let's, you know, help each other out, so. Absolutely. And I think the other part of that, too, natural leaders come through and just, like, what you're doing again, with your accountability on your power hours, like, you are turning that around and then trying to pull people up with you as well. It's not a selfish act that you're just saying, cool, let me hold on to everything for just myself. It's, who else can I bring with me? And there's gonna be people that aren't gonna show up, that don't want to because they're fine with the complacency. And that's perfectly a. Okay. But I know for me, I don't want to be surrounded by just complacency. I want to be around the people that are innovative and forward thinking and positive that are wanting to help each other out versus trying to slay each other's throats in competition. So I'm sleeping. Yeah. All right. So the next question that I have is. All right, Niva, you and I have known each other for how long? Oh, gosh, long. I mean, yeah, like high school to college. You're a long time. Six years older than me, I think, or anything, but. No, no, no, you were. You were my sister's age. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're a year younger than me. And so let me be perfectly clear here, that when neither got her license, and I was like, I guess I should tell a little bit backstory. Niva and I hung out a lot in. In college, you know, and we. I mean, all the time, and nothing really happened that I can recall that. Like, we fell out and we. You know, it's not like we had a confrontation or anything or, you know, whatnot, but we kind of fell out of touch. And then over the years, you know, I was in real estate. And then here, two years ago, you got your license. And I remember thinking, and I told you this before, I hope, like, man, I don't think I would ever have Niva. Like, I don't. I don't think I would ever have her in a part of my company. And, you know, that's just what I said in my head, and I started watching what she was doing, and she's doing extremely well. And then I started thinking, like, I mean, she's extremely personable. Like, she would do really well with this. So we had another agent that actually made the connection and as far as the, the conversation and, you know, like, just like back in the day, you picked up and like nothing even happened and extremely positive. And in that meeting, like, that we're trying to recruit you. I believe I even said, like, you know, I need to apologize to you because I, I judged you. And I was thinking in my mind, like, no, because of just past experiences. And, you know, and I think exactly what I said to myself is, man, I can't. I have no room to judge her because she probably is judging me because this was college and I partied a lot. And so she probably see me do a lot of things that are not acceptable, probably not illegal or not legal. And so why am I sitting here judging her? And she's probably judging me. Like, why do I need to have that pre determined notion in my mind? And so, you know, I thank you for that opportunity, Niva, because that really gave me a chin check of like, we can't hold people to their, you know, everything that they've done in the past, and we cannot have this predetermined notion and judgment onto others because we could. We can't throw stones at a glass house. And we all have a history, we all have a background. And I know the three of us have went through tremendous struggles in our life. And I think typically when you pull those types of people together, I mean, like, we are now, those are typically the groups of people that are actually getting shit done and moving things forward. So. Yeah, I don't know if I told you that, Niva, but sorry for judging you. Thank you for not judging me. You know, the funny part about all of it is, and that is not at all what I thought. I remembered you just as fun and you were awesome to be around. I mean, I think we all want to forget a little bit of what happened in college, but I just remember leaving the meeting, like, I missed him. I mean, just so fun. And, you know, I'm going to, if I'm being honest, when I was watching, because we. I was watching all brokerages, I was like, man, I really want to be a part of that. Like, they just have so much fun. The culture, the dynamic. Like, I want to be a part of that. Like, I had this like, missing out type of feeling. Yes, I had some fomo. And when I sat down with you in that meeting, I could tell it was like, we're going to be business. Like, you brought all the business. Right. My stats were up on the TV above, and I was like, whoa. He's like, he saw everything about me. But deep down, I. I missed you. It was like, you know, you're just still the same great, fun guy. And aside from the business, like, I knew you knew your shit on the business. Can I say that on here? I knew that. I knew you knew your shit. I had been watching. And your success was, you know, evident. Right. You don't even have to post it. You're seeing the signs all over town, so. But then just our connection back with that. I didn't know that you originally didn't want me, but at the same. At the same time, too, you know, we can tie that into, like, maybe a little bit of judgment based off of the association of the people that I was around at that time, if maybe that's fair to say. And, you know, I think that's a very natural thing to do. But at the end of the day, I really had. I wanted to be successful in this business, and I did start to realize who you're around influences you in more ways than one. I mean, down to, like, your eating habits, down to, like, your. How you're dressing for the day, your attitude. You might come in and be, like, super happy, in a great mood, and then somebody's like, not. It bleeds out. You're like, oh, man, I'm. Yeah. So I did not know that, but I'm glad that. I'm glad that it reconnected. Absolutely. Me too. I think it's a. I mean, it's a learning opportunity for me. It's growth. And at the end of the day, like, you know, I, again, want to be around those positive people. And so you have been an influential part of the company, and you have been here less than a year, and you've taken things, you know, the bull by the horns and ran with it. And, you know, you are not afraid to pick up the phone. You're not afraid to do research and work in the best interest of your clients. You're not afraid to help your peers, your competitors. Like, you are truly, you know, out there throwing value to everybody that you are around. So I applaud you for that. And, you know, thank you for changing and impacting my life. I appreciate that. Thank you for creating the space that allows me to do that. Not everybody. I didn't always have that opportunity to present that and offer that, so thank you for that. Absolutely. Ashley, do you have anything to follow up on. I'm just, you know, happy, Niva, that we met, I think October of last year and as a quick connection, but just watching you grow even from October and and plans you have coming up in the future, we're super excited for you and looking forward to it. Yeah. Thank you guys for listening today. We greatly appreciate you. Niva, thank you for being our guest. I'm sure we'll see more and more and more of you. So as always, guys, please go and like and subscribe. Check us out on Facebook and all of our socials and we'll look forward to talking to you next time. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please, like subscribe and share with others. Stay connected for more genuine insights and strategies to boost your real estate career on Facebook or check out our website. We'll see you next time.