Why Every Risk Is an Opportunity Waiting to Happen

Well, and it is important, like when you align yourself with people that understand taking risks, because I think that you know, or finding other opportunities, because I think that when you can have those conversations with people, like, I'm thinking about doing this. If you surround yourself with people that are like, I would never do that, or why would you do that? Or what happens when it doesn't work, then I think your mindset set shifts into the negativity right away versus someone that's, oh my gosh, that's great, like, what can I do to help? Then your mindset is more focused on how do we make this opportunity happen. 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. Welcome back, everyone to the Leading Lane podcast. And today we're going to have a conversation about taking risk. And I think it's just a matter of. I was at a conference a couple weeks ago and it came up about not necessarily like how you know when to take a risk, but when you're presented with what you think might be a risk, how to really decipher the next step. So I think, you know, Steven and I, we've both taken a lot of risks to get to where we are today. Not all have panned out as we've talked about. All of them, I think were put there for a reason to learn. But what does, like, what does taking a risk mean to you? Well, really, like, I think that first, like, risk to me is like, all right, this big plan, you know, this big life changing, altering decision, right? In, in all reality, every single decision has some sort of risk. So I think understanding that, you know, each decision that you have, you, you are taking a risk of one, you know, one thing or another. And then that's the compound effect, this now life altering change of what's going to happen. So I think for me, I have to first understand that I had to change my mindset of what a risk really is. But you know, I think that when people look that, do I want to be able to get up and go to the gym today? I mean, the risk is if you don't do it, then what is your health? You know, impact is going to be going with that. And I'm talking to myself because I didn't go this morning and I saw your message. I'm going to text you. I know, and then, but then, you know, like, also, we, we started a company. We, we Started a brokerage. And that's a huge risk as well. What comes into play with that? So I don't know if I answered your question. Cause I rambled there. But yeah. No. Well, you make a good point. Right? Because if you think about it, like, everything we do, like getting in the car, coming to work, like, in a sense, we're taking a risk because you might get in a car accident. But I think that people just like to focus on what they deem to be bigger decisions, right? So, yeah, starting your own franchise, leaving a job that you've been in for 20 years, you know, leaving a partner that you've been with for 20 years, like, there's all kinds of risks. But I think that sometimes people get so caught up in the what if? Or the failure of the risk that they actually never take the risk. And, you know, that in itself is sad because sometimes, like. Right. We talk about it all the time, but you can, like, lead a horse to water, right. Can't force them to drink. But it's the same thing. Like, sometimes people. It's almost like we should change the word risk to opportunity, right? Like, when you're presented with something, why is it automatically like, oh, that's a risk that it's going to not work out? Like, why can't we see it more so of what a great opportunity that would be if it worked out? You know, the. I use an analogy when I work with people on, you know, taking risks for speeding. When you're on the highway, you're on the interstate, you know, there. There's a limit, a speed limit, and that's where everybody's capped at. And to me, the limit is where all your competitors hang out at. And so the risk is actually you speeding and going above that speed limit. And you may take the chance, the opportunity to get pulled over and somebody, you know, like. But at the end of the day, the reward is that how much quicker are you going to get to wherever your destination is going to be if you do take the risk and you speed and go ahead of your competition? So I think it's all about the mindset, really. It is. It is an opportunity. You know, if you're. If you're not willing to take the opportunity, you're not willing to take the risk to speed ahead of everybody else, then you're going to be complacent and hang out there with everybody else and get stuck in traffic. But that's not how I want to look at life. I want to be able to run a business and I want to speed ahead of everybody else, and the risk is me getting pulled over, and that's okay. I know. I know what the outcome could be with it. I love the analogy. Only because I always have my cruise that's 7. 7 Above whatever the speed limit is always, man. Like, and I hate. On 55, we're definitely going 62. Yep. Can't. Can't handle it. Like, I get mad now that when people are in front of me. I mean, think about road rage, right? Like, that's what I think. And maybe the analogy needs to continue with that. Like, I'm getting angry at somebody else because they're not willing to take the risk, But I can't want. I can't want it more than them. I can't make them put their. Their gas on, you know, the pedal and go faster. Right? Like, I just want them to move out of my way. And if you want to join with me, then great, let's go. I'll lead the way. But I don't want to get stuck behind somebody because they're not willing to take the risk. You know, it's just so funny that I wasn't expecting this conversation to go that way, but. But, you know, we talk about it, like, when we talk about outgrowing friends. And sometimes I think it's not that they're not taking risks, but you're right. Like, we have our pedal, you know, metal to the pedal. Pedal to metal, you know, for. And I get, like, hustling. But it's also like making yourself better. And you try to help your friends feel light to making things, but we try to help them make themselves better. And then when we don't, it's kind of like we get stuck, and we feel like we're slowing down to help them when in all reality, they don't want to go faster. Right. And, you know, at the end of the day, like, you can cheer people on. You can, you know, be able to give them the tools or resources or whatever and challenge them, but you can't want it more than them. Like, that is some. That's a hard lesson to really take because, you know, you took the risk, quote, unquote. Like, now I'm kind of changing it to, like, an agent standpoint or to a staff standpoint. I'm taking the risk on hiring somebody, and they're taking the risk to homework with me, too. But if they're not willing to make the changes and, you know, they want to limit what their capacity is, like, I can give them all the Tools, the resources, tech, training, everything to make them successful. But they have to want it for themselves. And that goes like in the friendship world, too. You do outgrow your people, and there's nothing wrong. They serve the purpose. And I think that those people, it's not that you have to ultimately cut them out of your life because they're not willing to take more risk, but you also need to make that decision for yourself. Because if you're not willing to cut ties and move forward, you're risking your own opportunities. And now what are. What are the opportunities that are going to bypass you by sticking with said friend or sticking with said agent? You know, you want to make sure that, at least for me, I want to make sure that I'm going to continue to evolve and move forward in the direction that is, you know, aligning with my plan, not somebody else's plan. Well, it is important, like, when you align yourself with people that understand taking risks, because I think that, you know, or finding other opportunities, because I think that when you can have those conversations with people, like, I'm thinking about doing this. If you surround yourself with people that are like, I would never do that, or why would you do that? Or what happens when it doesn't work? Then I think your mindset set shifts into the negativity right away versus someone that's, oh, my gosh, that's great. Like, what can I do to help that? Then your mindset is more focused on how do we make this opportunity happen? One of the things that I've. I picked up from Neil is when we're evaluating these risks or these decisions. You asked me a question one time that has really stuck with me is what's the worst thing that can happen? Right? Like, if you go, whatever you decide to do, xyz, what is the worst outcome? And then is it really that big of a deal? Like, is that outcome really that bad to outweigh saying, no, I'm not going to do it at all? And that really has changed, and it has made things way easier to decide when making decisions. Like, we're going through a process right now of eliminating a brick and mortar location out of the four offices that we have. Well, like, we took the risk, but the reward has not been as fulfilling to overcome the risk. And so we have to look at the finances to be able to say, hey, instead of like, cutting completely, what is the worst case scenario of if we got rid of the brick and mortar, what's the worst outcome? And really, there's really not a bad Outcome like some people would look at that as a failure. I'm not looking at that as a failure at all. That's an opportunity. We took the risk. It's not going the direction that we thought. There's a lot of different variables that have happened. We didn't go through the merger. You know, the agents think differently in the NAR lawsuit. Like all of these different things and we could not foresee those different things. So now we just have to make that decision of be able to cut the ties there. And the worst thing that's going to happen is we don't have a physical brick and mortar office there. Whoop de do. We can work from anywhere. That's not that big of a deal. So I always try to evaluate what is the worst thing that can actually happen from this decision. Well, I think it's because we tell ourselves stories, we automatically go to the worst thing that's going to happen. And I think we were on a lunch with someone and I asked for what the worst thing that was going to happen. And I think for them to sit back and be like, well, I mean, like, nothing really. I mean, right. So then, so then do it. Yeah, like. And in that situation, like she was. They both were coming up with a lot of stories and a lot of stories that were really weighing them down and holding them back. And it really wasn't the other individuals that we were, you know, talking about. It was the them in their own way. So they were actually held up in their own, you know, traffic backup, if you will, is. Is their own stories. So, yeah, what's the worst. Go do it. Well, and I think even this morning I was talking to a broker owner that is, you know, considering making a change. And I think it's funny because she kept on talking about timing and, you know, there's not a good time to change brokerages and we have a lot of transactions on the line and, you know, I just kindly reminded her, like, when is a good time? Like, there is no good time. Like you're gonna. If you don't do it, if you don't do it now, you're still gonna have transactions two months from now. It's gonna be the same difference. You know, when I, when I left my former brokerage, it didn't quite pan out the way that I thought it was going to. Right. As far as when I was gonna leave. But, you know, I told her, like, looking back, I wish that I would have ripped the band aid off sooner because the sooner that you can get to that Next step, the sooner you can start to grow. The next step versus just in this waiting pattern for the right time, which in all reality the right time is now. Yeah, well, you know, obviously we don't have kids and I, I've heard a lot of my friends, you know, talk, well, you know, we want to have kids but the timing's not right. Like we want, we want this, but the timing's not right. But like when are you ever really prepared for things? Like if you really think about it, those big life altering things that happen, are you truly, ever truly prepared for whatever is going to come down the pipeline? No, I think it's really, it's. What are you preparing for constantly on every day that when life does happen, how you react to it and how you, what you have available is now how you're going to be able to change and shift and pivot versus thinking that this is a light switch moment of a. Yes. No. Yep, I'm prepared. Okay, cool. Let's have a kid or let's, you know, open up our own company or change companies or whatever it's going to be. I think it's everything else, all those other compound decisions that lead up to you prepare for that ultimate life altering change. Right. Well, and I was at a retreat a couple weeks ago and this woman was talking about she's been in her job for the last 23 years and she had an interview tomorrow and she was going to cancel the interview just because, you know, the thought of changing a 23 year career and it was kind of, you know, just funny. Everybody in the room was like, no, like don't, don't cancel the interview. And you know, she kept on referring it to risk and at the risk to take a new job and at the risk to leave all the people that she's always known and know. Somebody else got up and just said, I think you need to rethink that as far as an opportunity, like is this an opportunity for growth? Is this an opportunity to meet new people, to expand your sphere? So I think if we can really work on. And I think that's really where I look at things now too. Like, don't really see them as, as risks. I try to see them as opportunities. Right. Like we had a shitty situation with mold in our building. I mean, and. Right. Was it quote unquote, risk to move out and buy our own building? Sure. But at the end we saw it as, you know, an amazing opportunity to have more room and expand our team and offer trainings. And now we get to Be a part of all these downtown activities and people walk in like every single day now, like, what an opportunity that, you know, came out of an unfortunate situation. Well, you, you weren't, you weren't stuck. You didn't keep yourself in a victim mentality. And I think maybe that's where you know, some of this reward, risk, opportunity is the mentality of some people are, you know, they're always played the victim. Because what if in that scenario of your worst, what if you did not, you know, invest into your health and do those additional tests, right? What if you just kept on saying, man, I always just feel like, and didn't investigate what's really going on? What if you, you know, because really you still weren't in a lease at that point and you know, you, you're your landlord. A large risk by cutting that early, right? Like that was a risk right of, okay, we have to exit this building immediately for our health benefit. But now I have this other risk of what happens if these landlords want to come back and take legal action on me. But the risk of you moving or that happening was the reward is outweighed that risk because your health is way more important. So again, it's all of these things that you're constantly adding under your belt, if you will, that, that when that big opportunity came, it was not a hard decision to, to make and say, cool, let me move forward and I have to do what's best. And the other small risks that, you know, can trail behind it, they're worth it because I need, you know, the health of my, my staff and your own well being. Imagine if you were still in that freaking building. Oh, right. It would be horrible. It would be horrible, but also like, it's just amazing. Like once we were in this new building, like, I don't know, like, the demeanor of everyone changed in some fashion. I think like a place to have your own, make your own, be able to do different things. It's, it's been tremendous. But you know, I think you make a good point in that it's also the people in your life that are willing to question the quote, unquote risk. Like when you do say, like, oh, I'm thinking about doing this, but I mean, I'll be honest. I'll tell people, like, if you are considering a risk, like, and you don't want the, the truth, probably don't come talk to me because I'm gonna be the one that's like, what are you waiting for? But also, there are times that I've Been like, that's a horrible idea. I mean, some of them are like black and white that you're like, that's a really bad idea. But I think if you have someone that you can actually talk through, that will be like, let's. Let's wad analysis it out. I mean, right. Are there more strengths and opportunities than there are threats? And sometimes you can walk yourself right into that answer. And it's funny how all these conversations that we have is, you know, goes back to who you surround yourself with. And one of the stories that's popping in my brain is I have a really good friend, you know, she's a nurse, and she was talking about, like, how she's wanting more. And so then it happened to go into a more conversation of how she can, you know, thought about going back to school and, you know, becoming a nurse practitioner. And I was like, why wouldn't you? And, you know, the risk, you know, for her. Well, I don't want to go any anymore into debt and, you know, school, like, I don't want to go, you know, for another two years. Like, okay, so let's. And that's what we did. Like, we're laying in the pool and I'm like, okay, debt, like, okay, 50, 60, 70 grand, whatever. To be able to go to school, to be able to make double that as an income in one single year. But to me, that's quite an investment in yourself. That's not a debt. And so we had to go through that. And then it was, well, school, I don't want to go do this for two years. What else are we doing? We're literally laying out at a pool right now. What if you were to be able to be doing schoolwork and you can still be out in the sun? And she went that weekend and applied, and then a few weeks later, she got the acceptance. Actually, I think it was like on a Sunday she got acceptance and she was thinking it was going to be for next year, but it was actually for this school year. And it was starting in a matter of a couple of weeks. And I was like, see? Great opportunity. Let's do it now. And she was over at this last weekend and she was like, my God, it's flown by. And I can't believe that I took so long to even jumping here and do it. But I pushed her to be able to be able to see, like, what is that reward at the end? Like, if you are complacent now and you're not happy now, if you wait another year in this Complacency and unhappiness. You're going to be really fucking miserable. And I don't want to, I don't want to hang around somebody that's really miserable. Like, I want to empower you. I think it's really cool to be able to see how, you know, now I push her and, you know, she is a different dynamic of a person. And it's that triple trickle effect that, that ripple effect that we kind of were talking before we started recording of. You don't know whose life you're going to impact because then later, whose life are they going to impact because of your paths crossing, which I think is the, probably one of the most beautiful things with humanity of being able to, to help people that way. Yeah, I mean, it is. It's the same thing I had this conversation this morning which is, you know, could have never imagined, like the people that are in my life now that I met at these conferences, met at these retreats, but it was a matter of taking the opportunity to put myself in those rooms. And that's scary sometimes. Like, some of those rooms have a price tag to them. And I remember just thinking like in my head that is there a way that I think that meeting certain people would replenish this price tag? I mean, and it has more than quadrupled back to me, like what I invested for to be in one of those rooms. And I think that's what people struggle with too, is such a big number, right, to go out to one of these masterminds or these retreats. But, you know, normally it's a year's worth of coaching, et cetera, but it's such a big number for people to think about. But if you can take a step back and just think like if you put yourself, you know, in front of eight other people, and then what those eight people, either who they can introduce you to, what lessons you can learn from them, it always like more than pays for itself. And those are just things you learn over time that most risks are actual opportunities, 100%. And you know, I think that the, the price tag, if you will, I think when you force yourself to go into these different rooms, these different tables, but where the beauty actually happens is that every single person in that, that table that you're sitting at, they all have made that same price tag commitment for in time commitment and resource commitment to sit there at that table. So you're automatically leveling yourself up by just being around people that all are making the same type of financial and time investment to themselves. Into others. So there's risks. Every single day. You have the risk walking across the street and, you know, hopefully not getting hit by a car, but you, you learn to look left, you learn to look right, and you evaluate the, the situation and you make your best decision to move forward. And sometimes there will be a car that you didn't see, and that's okay. You just have to pivot. Don't get hit by it and don't let it get, you know, don't be a frogger and get stuck to it. Keep on hopping across the road. Like that analogy. That was good, huh? Love it. Cool. Well, so, yes, risks are opportunities. And I think that every day there's new opportunities that are presented. So please go like and subscribe and share. And if you would like to be a guest on our podcast, please reach out to us so that we can get you scheduled. So have a fantastic day, everybody. 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.