Robert Whitesides - Living With The Fear Of Failure And Good Communication - Elevate: A Podcast For Driven Real Estate Agents - Episode 3
Watch the Episode Here:
Episode 3 features Robert Whitesides, a top producing agent from the Les Walden Real Estate Team. Not only is he a top producer with the Les Walden team, Robert is in the top 1% of agents in the entire state of South Carolina! He was born and raised in a real estate family and acquired his real estate license at only 20 years old. After college, Robert left the real estate industry to become a Multi-Media Marketer, earning multiple National Sales Awards within his company and eventually becoming a National Sales Trainer. Now, he finally found his way back to the real estate industry and is the Director of Sales within the Les Walden Real Estate Team.
In This Episode We Cover:
An agent living with the fear of failure.
The importance of good communication in growing a business.
Some tips for agents just starting out.
Listen Along!
Read the Episode Here!
Nathan Whitworth:
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Elevate, a podcast for driven real estate professionals. And guys, I'm so excited to share with you my good friend Robert Whitesides. He's here with us today. Robert, Dude, I am excited for you to tell everybody about what it is that you're doing. You were sharing with me some stuff just a second ago. I had no idea. I didn't realize that you were a top producer, 1% in the entire state. Is that what you said? Oh man. That's amazing. Congratulations. Yeah, man, that's awesome.
Robert Whitesides:
Very humble. Di didn't realize that I was able to do the numbers that I did in 2021, but that's just kind of my theory. I like to just keep my head down and clean my plate, <laugh>, and then I wake up and then do it again. And then when somebody tells me, Hey Rob, you did this. I'm like, Hell yes,
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>. That's right. That's right. It over. But that's the result of keeping your head down and doing the work every day, right? Oh
Robert Whitesides:
Yeah. Oh yeah. It's listen, being in sales, it can be a lonely place, especially if you wanna be a producer, right? And I feel like at this stage in my career, I still have a lot of heavy lifting to do. We're trying to grow a business, gaining some traction. We've made some incredible modifications to the business model and it takes a lot of hard work.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's
Robert Whitesides:
Awesome. Nobody successful that hasn't failed a bunch and doesn't bust their ass every day. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. Well's true. And I want to get to that cause I think that's a really important point to harp on for just a little while. But before we get into all that stuff, tell everybody a little bit about who Robert Rice sites is. How'd you guys come to this game of real estate being a real estate professional?
Robert Whitesides:
Oh man, that could be a long answer, but I'm gonna give you the Cliffs Notes version of that. I was kind of born to do it because I grew up in a real estate family. But of course when I was at Clemson, the last thing that I wanted to do was to work within my family. So once I finished school, I high telled it and got the hell outta Dodge County. <laugh> actually came to Greenville and that's how I met our mutual friend. Oh, that's cool.
Nathan Whitworth:
Sean bro. Which is actually who connected us when I first started the business. Absolutely.
Robert Whitesides:
Absolutely. So I was pretty deep in the music had created a little successful buzz about the music business that I had kind of started doing in the upstate of South Carolina and afforded me to perform at a lot of really cool venues, meet a lot of really neat artists and unique talent about the United States and all that was well and good. At the same time I was selling Latin advertising, man, <laugh>. How about that? At six, I'm outta yacht <laugh>. Yeah. So I did that just because it was kinda like trying to prove a point. I don't need to work in real estate. And at the time I'm 23, 24 years old, I knew everything. Right? Right. Nobody tell me shit.
And then after some soul searching, and again, when you're in sales to that capacity and on the road it becomes pretty lonely. And I was starting to get old and then less, I started talking about retirement. My father had already retired from building, my grandparents were getting older. So I felt like it was a smart thing to do from just a legacy standpoint and having a strong why just to get back to your roots. So that's why I grew up around it. I'm really good at it, even though I don't care about houses, I don't really care about real estate, but I love helping people, man. And I feel like what better platform to earn someone to do
Nathan Whitworth:
That,
Robert Whitesides:
To help them to, to find their happy by purchasing or helping them to purchase what could be the largest purchase of their life or investment of
Nathan Whitworth:
Their life. A hundred percent.
Robert Whitesides:
That's a pretty serious vehicle. Well,
Nathan Whitworth:
And I will say of all the agents that I've had a pleasure of working with, the real estate professionals that really keep people at the center of the their business, <affirmative>, those are the ones that seem to excel far more than anybody else. So having a love and a passion for real estate I think is great. But definitely having a love and passion for helping people, that really seems to be what separates the top earners, the top producers from everybody else. So that's awesome. Well, so then tell me just a little bit about so the reason I asked you on, and the reason we got you in here is cuz man, when I think of Robert Whitesides, you are a definite you're a very unique character when it comes to being a real estate agent. <affirmative>, you're not the typical agent, man. You've got your own voice that I think that you fit really well into.
Every time I watch your videos on social media or anytime I'm seeing, talking to you on the phone, heading out to a listing, you're kind of giving us an update on what that listing needs need we need to focus on at that listing. You always have a unique flare about you <affirmative> and you're distinctly Robert. Yeah. And I gotta say it's really refreshing. No, I appreciate that man. It's refreshing. Cause we talk with a lot of real estate professionals every day. And I think what constantly astounds me is that day in and day out. I think when agents, and you spoke to this earlier, but when agents become an agent or when a real estate professional becomes an agent, they typically kind of have this copy and paste mentality where it's like, so I've got to now be a professional and I've gotta act and I've gotta talk and I've gotta speak, I'm a professional.
But that doesn't fit their personality at all, not who they are. And there's a bit of a disconnect there. I think when they go and they try to help somebody when you're speaking and talking and acting in a way that doesn't align with who you are and the values that you have and the way you think. I think sometimes that people can kind of sense that. And I think it is a challenge. So I wanted to dive in with you just a little bit on how you think about your personal brand and how you think about, how do you approach communicating that personal brand? And maybe you don't, I don't know, maybe you don't think about it, maybe you just do it. Yeah. Because I think that might be a part of it. But how do you approach it? Have you put effort into it? Have you thought about, we were talking about being the real estate go-to guy, that was kind of a thing. You said, Well somebody, Somebody said it was a good idea and I looked it up and nobody had it, so I took it. Right.
Robert Whitesides:
Yeah, just osmosis is huge. Just picking up things through your everyday life, being around people and learning through experiences and things like that. So the real estate go-to guy. Yeah. I was doing a video with a good friend who was on the team at the time and she was our marketing director. And I just so happened to say in the video, I want to be your real estate go-to guy. And she said, That's it. You should use that as a hashtag. So we real quickly looked on the Google and didn't see a hashtag again, What the hell, <laugh>. How is the hashtag, how does it not exist? It was 2015. How does it not exist? How does real estate go-to guide not exist? Well it does now. So I jumped on that. And in terms of my personality, man, I don't try. It's me. I'm always me.
I say it more often than not as transparent as Brita filter water, baby <laugh>. I don't leave any room for people to wonder how I'm feeling. And I don't like wasting time or my breath because I need both of those to live. And you do too. We all get 24. How proficient can we be with each hour? For sure. With each minute, with each second. So when I do real estate, I'm just me. Any real estate agent can let you in a house. Any real estate agent can negotiate a contract and get paid to commission. What sets agents apart is the extra mile, the relationship, the ability to pick up the phone and call your agent and get something handled that might not be in real estate. You're a newcomer to the area. How many people, important people are in your real estate agent's cell phone? And will they answer your real estate agent's phone call if he's calling them to get a favor for their client? When someone wants to work with me, they're not working with me because they wanna buy a house, They're working with me because they wanna work with me. I'm helping people understand that I'm not selling you a home. I'm selling you the experience to work with someone who's gonna get you some results. We're gonna have fun and we're gonna stay focused. And when it's all said and done, you're gonna hate leaving your property when you go on vacation and you're gonna love when you come back to it.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's
Robert Whitesides:
Awesome. That's awesome. But with me, it's just me. Yeah. I don't know how to be fake and I'm super confident, right? I'm confident because of the way that I've been trained, the way that I've been taught, the way that I've been brought up in real estate. I have been trained and mentored by what I believe one of the most brilliant real estate minds in existence. And he don't make a lot of mistakes. And I'm blessed to say he is my uncle. So with that said, when you are super confident in what you do, you can speak with conviction. And most importantly, if you are confident in what you're saying, then you can have a whole lot more fun with it. You can cut up and jive. It's like when you're really good at something, if you play basketball your whole life, you could shoot free throws while singing a song. You know what I mean? If you are really good at something, then you can multitask with it. But most importantly, you're confident in your ability.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's very cool. Cause I know that people are probably listening to this right now. They're watching you right now and they're saying, I wasn't sure that I wanted to be an agent. I wasn't sure that I wanted to be a realtor because I didn't wanna be somebody I'm not. Right. But they're looking at you and they're going, Wait a minute, Robert's a top producer <affirmative>. So you can be successful in this business and just be yourself <affirmative>. I think that's amazing. And something I really wanted to make sure that we got out there to everybody. Talk to me just a second about this idea of confidence. Cuz I tell people often that confidence comes from having a history of success
Robert Whitesides:
And a history of history of failure.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yes. <affirmative>, I was hoping you would go there, <affirmative>. So let's kind of talk about that when I'm sure that not every transaction has been smooth as rain for you in your lifetime, right? Oh,
Robert Whitesides:
Of course. They all
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>
Robert Whitesides:
Been, it's super dope. Spectacular <laugh>.
Nathan Whitworth:
So not that you have to tell us, give us specific examples. But I'm curious, how has your mindset around failure developed over the past 10 years as you've been doing this and as you've had more transactions and as you're climbing the ranks when it comes to being a top producer, How do you think about failure now as opposed to when you were younger and you first got started?
Robert Whitesides:
Right. Won't do it that way, no more <laugh> it. That's it. When it's, it's a lesson I absorb, I apply and I proceed accordingly. So when I fail and I am so thankful and I mean, it's great to say that I don't have a lot of mess ups anymore. I don't have a lot of deals get away from me. And if they do, it's typically so far out of everyone's control. There's nothing that we could do. Not even pray to save it. For sure. So when it comes to you were talking about confidence and you were talking about failure.
I live with anxiety. I think if you want to be good at something, you need to be obsessed with improvement. Yes. Yes. You need to be obsessed with improvement, but improvement is a hard thing to accomplish. Especially the better you get. That's right. The harder it is to get better. So you always have to live with that angst, that anxiety of this might be the last deal, this might be the one that really kicks my ass. But if you always have that inside of you, you're prepared for it. And luck will always favor the prepared mind. Always. And every time. Well said. So if you go into it expecting that there could be some roadblocks, there could be some speed bumps, there could be some detours where A is where you start where B need to go. Doesn't matter how you get there, just get there. And if you go this way and you hit the brakes,
Nathan Whitworth:
Right,
Robert Whitesides:
Won't do that way no more. You know, just know you don't do it that way anymore. Communication is everything though, man. Yeah. It real estate is 90% of communication. And the reason that real estate agents and real estate professionals have a nasty stigma with them is because so many of them are poor communicators.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's right.
Robert Whitesides:
And the younger agents are the worst.
Nathan Whitworth:
They
Robert Whitesides:
Love that text, man. <laugh>, What happened to the communication pyramid? <laugh> face to face is at the top, man. Text is way down there at the base. I think another reason that I'm able to have the opportunity to influence so many family's lives year over years, because I'm still old school in my methods of communication,
Nathan Whitworth:
Which I think a lot of people appreciate.
Robert Whitesides:
I like to get face to face with people. Yeah. I'm gonna call you way before I text you. Y'all both know that about me. Yeah, that's right. I am not afraid to say what's on my mind because we need to cut to the chase and get results. So yeah man, just communication is huge. Staying on top of everything and being proactive versus reactive. When you start living by those things, your confidence level will go up. Your fear of failure will always be there, but it will not impede your progress.
Nathan Whitworth:
Well said. No, well said. That makes sense. Nah, it makes total sense. Yeah, Well
Robert Whitesides:
Said. It's just like all
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, well said. It's a vibe. And what I'm also really always respected about the Les Walden team is the idea of having a team I think is really, really important. You've got people that you can lean on, Oh man, when something happens, oh man. When something happens and you're like, Hey, I'm not sure how to handle this, or I'm not sure where to, what to do, or who to talk to or where to go, or you, you've got that team of people who you can go to and you can say, Hey listen, here's a situation I really, I'm wanna help these people. How do we navigate through this? These murky waters. <affirmative> has that been a big part of your story? Having Huge, Yeah,
Robert Whitesides:
Huge. There'd be no way that any of us from the Les Walden real estate team would be able to produce at the level that we produced. Yeah. Do you think I could do 103 agents in 103 sides as an individual agent by myself?
Nathan Whitworth:
Nah, there's no way.
Robert Whitesides:
No way. No. I've got incredible support staff, incredible support staff. My work wife, Nicki Nicholson <laugh> who is out on maternity leave right now. And let me tell you, just having her gone, even though we, we've got a phenomenal backup in place until she gets back. It's just, you have a family, your support staff, your agents, they become a family. And even less, he's not in production, but he's very much the head of the family. He's very involved. And if you need him, he's gonna be there. You will never have to worry about whether or not that man's gonna show up.
Nathan Whitworth:
Well, so the thing, this brings us to another question, which every new agent I think is trying to figure out, <affirmative>, how do I find the right mentor for me? I think you were very blessed, man. I think you fell into a great situation that you, you've by, you've put in the work <affirmative> us, there's no doubt about it. You've put in the work, but you also had kind of a built in mentor mm-hmm. That a lot of people doesn't have when they're first starting. Do you have any suggestions? I think you believe in the idea of a mentor and having somebody that you can learn from who's been there before and who's kind of paved that path for you. But do you have any suggestions for new agents who's trying to find the right mentor, who's trying to find the right person to go to learn from and to figure this business out?
Robert Whitesides:
Yeah, absolutely. So boutique firms are always a great way to start your real estate career if it's something that you're interested in. And the reason for that is it's small, it's close knit. You're gonna have that family friendly environment versus just being a number, just being an agent under a broker in charge who says, Hey man, here's your desk. Here's some business cards. You can hang your license right there. Get to selling. Good luck. You know, get with these small boutique firms or these team ridges.
Nathan Whitworth:
I love that. Team regs, <laugh>. Yeah, you just taught me that term. I love it. That's perfect. Where
Robert Whitesides:
It's like everybody kind of relies on everyone to produce to help. I mean, you obviously have people within the team that are going to out earn other people in the sales, the sales aspect. But the most important thing is, you know help one each other. And even though I may have more experience than the other agents on the team, there are things that happen from a situational standpoint that have educated me that happen to them. You know, don't have that mentality of helping one another when you are in 95% of the real estate brokerages out there, because a lot of those foster a mentality of scarcity. Does that make sense?
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Robert Whitesides:
Whereas we are very much in the land of abundance.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's awesome. The
Robert Whitesides:
Love is strong. The deals are there.
Nathan Whitworth:
Right?
Robert Whitesides:
The deals are there. The market is changing, there's no doubt. But guess what? Demand is still pretty high because people need places to live.
Nathan Whitworth:
And inventory is still low. It's still low. It's still low, hasn't
Robert Whitesides:
Changed. And people have this misconception when they see these headlines that say, South Carolina dropped a 1% month over month and home sales don't get home sales and home values
Nathan Whitworth:
Mixed up. Right? Right. <laugh>, right.
Robert Whitesides:
Houses aren't selling as quick and as by the masses. They the once. Yeah, of course not. Interest rates have gone up like duh. Right? But they're still selling and they're still appreciating. They may not be appreciating 1% per month they were last
Nathan Whitworth:
Year, which is nuts. But we're
Robert Whitesides:
Just going back to a normalized growth that was anomaly. Right? Really 2020. Most of 2020 and all of 2021. They were anomaly, not normal. Right. So we're just getting back to a normalized rate of growth that that's all we're doing. And yes, sales are slowing down, but the properties that we list, they're still selling pretty
Nathan Whitworth:
Quickly. Hundred, hundred percent. Yeah.
Robert Whitesides:
Pretty quickly. Well, yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Well we know <laugh>
Robert Whitesides:
Are saying to fix stuff,
Nathan Whitworth:
Go up,
Robert Whitesides:
Know what's happening.
Nathan Whitworth:
So I wanna go back to the idea of scarcity versus abundance. Cause I think this is actually a really important concept that it's really funny you mentioned agents and a lot of the brokerages, we see it, I literally got a text message yesterday from an agent who says, Yeah, I'm moving over to this new brokerage or whatever. It happens all the time, man. Oh man, it is merry-go-round when it comes to, and a loyalty agents. And so I think that there's a lot to be said for how agents inside of those brokerages feel on a day-to-day basis, right? And kind of the atmosphere in the environment that that's breeded in those brokerages. I'm not necessarily saying that one's good or one's bad, but I'm just saying it's very evident when I see agents day to day that's moving brokerages and they're moving around, they're looking for something <affirmative>, they're looking for something <affirmative>. And a lot of times I think it's looking for support, real support. They're looking for how to really manage and grow their business <affirmative>, which is another thing where I know that there's training, I know all the brokerages give training, but I mean, do they <laugh>? Yeah, I know. I know. So
Robert Whitesides:
How many sit you down for a month and make you sit down with a broker in charge and the team leader two hours a day, four days a week for four weeks before you get your first lead?
Nathan Whitworth:
So I'd imagine not many. Yeah, I'd imagine not many. Yeah. Well, and I think this, for a lot of agents, they're sitting there thinking themselves, Oh, okay, well let me hang my license here. Let me go into the office. I'm gonna spend every day in the office from nine, nine o'clock in the morning until five o'clock. I put in a good day's work and things are gonna happen for me. My business is gonna start to grow. It's like, no, you just because you walked in, you sat down at that desk, doesn't necessarily mean that you were doing any revenue jittering activities. It's gonna get you leads in the door. Right? And if nobody's helped you understand, what are the activities you should be doing on a day-to-day basis in order to get those leads, <affirmative>. Yeah, I can understand why they'd be frustrating. And you're right.
So going back to the whole abundant versus scarcity thing, <affirmative> when you're operating, It's funny you said that because press and I were literally talking before you came in, and we're talking about when we have people that were talking with, it's easy for us to be able to walk away from something, or for us to be able to have a level mindset when we kind of live in a idea of abundance. We know that, hey, if this deal doesn't work out, there's gonna be another, It's gonna be okay, fine. But when you approach something from an idea of scarcity from a sales standpoint, I guess I'm trying to say is how do you see scarcity affecting sales? Right? Because when you go into a sales situation and you have this mindset of scarcity, it kind of forces you into a place that you're, you're not saying the right things anymore.
You want that sale just a little too bad, right? And I think that, and people can see that, and that's not a good look. I think most people, when they start to feel some desperation, most people's inner triggers start going off and they're going, Well, okay, well hold on, wait a minute. I thought this guy was the professional that I was coming to solve my problem if he doesn't have other people, if he needs my business that bad because he doesn't have anybody. You know what I mean? <affirmative>. So can you talk to me for a little bit about that? And maybe is, I didn't give you this ahead of time, so I don't know if you've thought about this, but I'm just curious, how do you approach it from a sales perspective? How do you think about abundance and scarcity?
Robert Whitesides:
Okay, so scarcity is, I mean, it's a real thing, right? We just experienced it with toilet paper not long ago.
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>, right? <laugh>,
Robert Whitesides:
You start going all over the place, right? Trying to find a strike in paper. But no. So a lot of scarcity is a mind frame. It's the way that you're thinking. And that can be embedded in you by the way that you are trained. Scarcity, if you're focused on the right thing and the right thing being your clients. And we're talking about real estate exclusively. But if you're focused on your clients and your clients exclusively, you understand that castles are relative. Doesn't matter what the commission, screw the commission, help 'em find they're happy. And if you get really good at that, really good at that, and you get your confidence level where it needs to be, scarcity won't exist because you become frothy. And when you become frothy, you stay at the top. So when you walk into something, understanding that there will probably be more, but still live with the fear that we talked about, that angst, that anxiety. That's what keeps you on your toes. But know in your heart that there's gonna be more. Just get better every time you do it, Every time you get an opportunity, get a little bit better. Because as this market is changing and deals are becoming a little harder to come by <affirmative>, the consumer will know. Smart consumers will know whether or not you're good or whether or not you're feeding 'em a line of shit, right? Good clients recognize good agents, shit. Clients recognize shit agents. And it happens that way.
If you want to be someone who is chasing every pop tart opportunity, someone just calls a sign and says, Hey, I wanna look at this. And you're not asking them the right questions, then you're just trying to sell a house. You're not trying to help someone find happy, figure out what their why is, right? So state focused on those things all the time. What happens out here and over there? We can't change that, man. We can't change that. But for the present and for the foreseeable future, real estate agents are somewhat of a necessity, right? So just get good at it, become frothy, get dangerous, and guess what? You always gonna eat. You always gonna eat <laugh>.
The 80 20 rule is a real thing for sure. It's a real thing in your industry and our industry for sure, in everyone's industry for sure. And to dig deeper, before we talked about that, you were all asking about the benefits of that and the training. Well, as I told you, the scarcity and abundance is very much a mentality. Yes, it's a mentality, it's a real thing. But how you don't let it dictate how you perform as a sales professional, right? So it's a mentality. Well, if you're a part of a firm that gives you that hands on training and hires based on culture first, then man, all that does is just multiply. A hundred percent magnifies. But the moment you bring in about Apple, it can spoil the bunch. So that's so great about the boutique firms is because you're mindful as to who you're bringing in.
Because everybody, because it's a family and everybody in that family is after the same goal, helping people find happy and having fun while you're doing it, <affirmative>. So if everybody's living by that culture and everybody understands that, if you do the right thing, if you make your calls, if you do what you're supposed to do and go where you're supposed to go, when you say you're supposed to go there and do it all the time, focus on your clients. Screw the houses, screw the dirt, focus on your clients, screw the commission, focus on your clients. You will produce. There's just no doubt about it. You will produce. And for you young agents out there, you need to make sure that you're buying into a system like that. Not someone who just says, Well, we got an 80 20 split. Cool, that sounds great. What value are you bringing to my career?
How are you helping me grow within this company while helping the company grow? Right? And I understand that our Team Ridge is probably not the best business model for agents that are out there banging it, that are doing big numbers. Our business model is great for people that want to get in, do a lot of transactions, not feel like they're doing a lot of work, but still manage to make a good bit of money. For sure. For sure. It's the best of both world worlds. You may not get as much of one transaction, but I promise you, you're gonna do three to one. You're gonna do three transactions per one versus the normal structure versus our structure. But it's all systemized. We all train on those systems and we require you to know those systems. We test you on those systems before you become a valuable member of the team. We bring you on understanding that you're gonna make the team better. But we also know the onboarding is a process. It doesn't happen like that overnight. So a lot of it's just culture, a lot of it's mentality. So that's awesome. How I stay focused on abundance. That's how the team that's around me stays focused on abundance. That's awesome. Yeah, man, that's awesome.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. So as we wrap up, tell me, cuz you've given such good advice here and even there at the end, there was a lot of really good advice. If somebody's coming up to you and they're saying, Hey Robert, I think I wanna be, be a realtor. I think I wanna get into this and I think I want to try to help people. <affirmative>, what's your top three tips? What's the thing that you're like, Okay, so if this is what you wanna do, this is how you should get started.
Robert Whitesides:
So first thing I tell people when they want to get into real estate, I say be prepared to not get a paycheck for six months, even if you're good. Do you have six months of wealth saved up to live like you're living right now comfortably? Do you have six months of wealth saved up? Cuz it takes time, it takes grind, it takes consistency, persistency, and ain't no sacred days when you grow in your business. Ain't no sacred days <laugh>. Because guess what? People visit where you live during the holidays. That's right. And they need help. That's right. There are no sacred days. So that's the first thing. Have your money saved up. Next is what we just talked about. Make sure that you hang your license with a brokerage that is going to give you immediate value. And that doesn't mean a greater split. Are they gonna teach you how to fish? Are they gonna teach you how to work your sphere? Because for every 19 contacts that you have in your cell phone, there's a deal in the next 180 days. That's a statistic, right? I mean that's real stuff for every 19. Those are your have mets, is the brokerage you join, gonna teach you those things? Are they gonna add value to your career the moment you start? And then last but not least, I just ask 'em, I say, You got quitting in your blood
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>
Robert Whitesides:
Because if you got quitting in your blood, shit ain't for you <laugh>, because you don't really see dividends in terms of financial comfort until you've been doing it for a few years and running hard. But you remove the cap, It's not a salary
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. The upside is there.
Robert Whitesides:
Right?
Nathan Whitworth:
You just gotta work to get there. You gotta get there. You just gotta work to get there. You
Robert Whitesides:
Gotta go
Nathan Whitworth:
Hard. That's
Robert Whitesides:
Right. You gotta go hard. And when I first took real estate, super serious, Les would make sure I was in that office at eight 30 cuz he was right. If I wasn't there at eight 30, it's 8 31, he's sending me a text. Where you at man? Where you at? I didn't take any days off. I worked every weekend. I was grinding, making my phone calls. If I didn't have appointments, I was in the office making phone calls. Some people say, Oh, to be a good agent, you don't have to go in the office. Man, listen, I'm friends with a lot of the top agents in the western upstate and the upstate <affirmative> of South Carolina and other states. And they're in that office. They may not live there, but they're in that office.
Nathan Whitworth:
They're putting in the hours,
Robert Whitesides:
They're in there. I mean, they <laugh> show up. They show up. You have to have some structure, you know, have to have some type of work ethic. That is a routine that is, again, a system that can be approved upon that is living, breathing, growing every day. But you just add to it and improve it and streamline it.
Nathan Whitworth:
Well, I think for most agents, that is the issue, right? Because one of the reasons they want get in the business, cause they think they can make a lot of money, right? They think that they can make their own schedule. Right?
Robert Whitesides:
Oh, got it. Aka I'm lazy, right? Aka I'm, I'm lazy as hell. Right?
Nathan Whitworth:
Right. Yeah. So it's, there's plenty of reasons that make a ton of sense why somebody would wanna become an agent and get into it. For sure. The problem though is that literally most all those are what's gonna hold you back, <affirmative> from actually making progress and what's gonna hold you back from actually building a business that is gonna be worth all those hours you put into it. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Robert Whitesides:
Don't throw me in a car and not gimme a roadmap and tell me I need to get somewhere. Right.
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>,
Robert Whitesides:
You know what I mean? You have to give people, Well, yeah, you have to grant the autonomy to feel like they're somewhat of an entrepreneur within the company. They've gotta feel like they've got the opportunity to make more money. The harder they work. That's what it is.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's what it is. You
Robert Whitesides:
Remove the cap. It's not like you're a salesperson getting a salary with a couple bonuses because you sell X number of homes. I mean, the moment you get the salaries, the moment you give up hope, right? That's the moment you take the wins about your sales. So again, you just have to, man, that's what, that's what's so scary about the younger agents that are getting into the business that I've seen get in the business just since 2019. And so many of 'em have quit. Some of them, which I thought would be really good, but I guess they just had too much quit in their blood. And some of them, I truly believe the reason they quit is because no one was there to give them value. No one was there to give them that roadmap, that structure, at least the foundation of the routine. There are things that you can do that are proven processes, that are proven that if you do day in, day out, you will be a successful real estate agent. All these ideas have been around for decades. <laugh> far more brilliant than mine. Far more brilliant than yours, <affirmative>. But a very small percentage execute. That's right. But those that do produce,
Nathan Whitworth:
That's right. Right.
Robert Whitesides:
Yeah. Well said. Everybody got ideas, everybody got ideas. It's the ones that take 'em across the finish line that when you start getting your props that you deserve.
Nathan Whitworth:
Well said, man. That's a perfect way to end this podcast. Yeah. Rob, Robert, man, thank you so much. Absolutely. I appreciate this man. And
Robert Whitesides:
Hopefully can get some good sound bites
Nathan Whitworth:
Outta Yeah, No, no. It's gonna say, Oh, it's perfect. It's perfect. No I really appreciate you being here, man. I appreciate you doing this and I'm, I'm gonna have to go check out Spotify, see if I can find some R dub on the, it's on there really,
Robert Whitesides:
Unfortunately, it's on
Nathan Whitworth:
There. We took it down.
Robert Whitesides:
I mean, I guess I could, but I mean, as long as I still get these little 81 cent checks go, heck
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>. It's awesome. That's awesome. No, Robert, man, thanks for being here, dude. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a great day. Absolutely, man. Appreciate
Robert Whitesides:
It. And everybody before he crossgate Realty Media, they're the best. Thanks. The best visual experience, Easiest to work with. It's fantastic. No, and all honesty, I do appreciate the reason that our properties sell in the manner that they do is because of that sparkle that you put on 'em when y'all go out there and take pictures. And Preston is just absolutely nuts with him.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, incredible. Isn't he
Robert Whitesides:
The social media platform that y'all are getting, the vertical video that y'all are working on now? Oh yeah. Yeah. I think that shit's gonna
Nathan Whitworth:
Be high. Yeah. Does that performed really well? Right? Yeah. I know you sent me some little testimonials about it. Yeah, but it popped, right? Yeah, it did.
Robert Whitesides:
You're
Nathan Whitworth:
Pretty good. That's where things are going, man. Yeah, I think so. That's where things are going. It's trending. It's trending, certainly. Yeah, it's trending. Well, thanks man, I appreciate it.
Robert Whitesides:
Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Hey everyone, thanks for listening. Hopefully this was really helpful to you in your journey of building a business. If you like what you heard, please click subscribe and go to iTunes and give us a rating that helps us out tremendously when we are producing hopefully content of huge value to you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I hope that you have an amazing week. Go out there and crush it. I'll see you soon.
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