Greg Dybas and Zach Bellizzi are only twenty-two years old, but are already making waves as the youngest brokers in a three hundred broker office at Keller Williams in the Chicago suburbs. In our episode Greg and Zach discuss how they use their age as an asset in prospecting. They are, perhaps, the most fearless real estate brokers I’ve met thus far. Their grasp of video marketing and social media is gaining them attention and business. Zach and Greg are the team to watch!
Zach Bellizzi can be reached at 224-600-0030 and zachbellizzi@kw.com.
Greg Dybas can be reached at 630.880.4007 and gregorydybas@kw.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:13
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcasts made by real estate brokers for real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host. And we need a new tagline because I used to say for Chicago brokers, you know, buy in from Chicago brokers except and that was true, except now we have listeners from all over the country. So I don’t want to say Chicago and turn listeners off from other markets. But I’m sure we’re not the only podcast for brokers by brokers in the country. Maybe we’re the biggest, let’s say we’re the biggest I don’t know that. That’s true. But let’s just pretend we are still see the biggest broker podcast for brokers by brokers. Now we need a better one than that. So if you have any suggestions for what we should title our show, let me know because I desperately need one. I never know what to say at the beginning here. But you’re not here to listen to me. Anyway, we’re about ready to get going with a brand new segment. I’m really excited about this. I got these two young up and coming stars, Greg and Zach from Keller Williams, who will be coming on in just a moment. And the reason why I chose them. They’re not yet top one percenters. But they will be very soon I was super impressed with a lot of what these guys are doing in particular, with respect to social media, and video marketing. And I think it’s something that everybody needs to hear who’s in the business to see what other brokers are doing to find success. So this is a really fun episode for me, because these guys are super young. They’re cool, and they’re fun. So before we get to those guys, a couple of quick notes. Of course, as always, you can find all of our episodes on iTunes, Google, play, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever you know, whatever podcast app you’re using, just search for keeping it real pod or podcast, rather, if you don’t already have subscribed, and then you can also stream every episode we’ve ever done from our website, keeping it real pod.com. And please follow us on Facebook, we post links to every single episode that we do, along with links to our guests, websites, and social media. So you can check out what our guests are doing and get some good ideas. And also we do it. Our producer, Hannah, goes in every day and finds a great article that could benefit your business and posts it in that Facebook group as well. So facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod, okay, enough for me. But if you do have a suggestion for a new tagline for our show, I truthfully, I need one. So please send that to us via Facebook or through our website and we might just use it and I’ll take you to lunch if we end up using it. So anyway, thanks for listening, continue to tell a friend and on to Greg and Zach.
Today on the show, we have Greg Davis and Zach Blasi, which are they are known as the youngest agents in their office, which is a distinction that this duo embraces to their fullest. Greg says We love this challenge with an expansive background in sales Greg made the leap to real estate last year. And then Zach has set up shop with Keller Williams Success Realty and welcome Greg to the imprint defined by their determination out of the box strategies and an unflagging energy, they’ve now established themselves as agents swiftly on the rise, bring a 21st century edge to the Illinois marketplace. At 22 years old, these guys stand out of their office of 300 brokers and attempt to conquer the Illinois real estate scene I became familiar with with Greg and Zack white saw one of their videos where they were working on for sale by owners and trying to convince them that to list and it was so compelling and interesting. I was like I gotta get these guys on the shows. And now they are so welcome, Greg and Zach.
Greg Dybas 3:55
Thanks for having me. Thank you.
D.J. Paris 3:57
And by the way, I should mention that in the podcast notes, we are going to have a link to their YouTube channel, as well as their Facebook page. In fact, I’ll tell you right now, you got to follow these guys on Facebook because they post all their videos too. Which is guys, what’s your Facebook page?
Greg Dybas 4:14
Our Facebook page is Blizzy Davis Realty partners.
D.J. Paris 4:17
And we will put a link to that as well in the notes. So if you can’t find it, we’ll post a link directly for you. But guys, welcome. First, let’s figure out who’s Zack and who is Greg?
Zach Bellizzi 4:28
Sure. My name is Zach, if you can hear my voice.
Greg Dybas 4:35
Perfect. And then Greg. My name is Greg Davis.
D.J. Paris 4:39
Awesome. And you guys are part of a Keller Williams Success Realty out in Barrington. Correct? Yes, perfect. All right. So first thing I need to know you guys are 22 years old. And you know nobody who is saying gets into real estate at 22. So I love the fact that you did that because it’s a term incredibly courageous thing. And you know, you guys are in in a very affluent area of Chicago. And you’re really taking on a tough challenge, but a really impressive challenge, which is I’m get we’re getting into real estate young, and we’re trying to make it happen. I watched this YouTube video I mentioned earlier and I thought, Oh, this is so cool. I know these guys are going to be top producers very, very soon. In fact, you’ve been featured in top agent magazine, which we’ll also post a link to, which is beyond impressive for 22. So congratulations to all your already have the success you’ve had. But also, I want to know, I want our listeners to know what young people getting into real estate now are doing. So can we talk about your history? I know there’s not a long history right now with real estate, but tell us how you got in the business? Why? And let’s start there.
Greg Dybas 5:52
Sure. So I basically have been in sales all my life, I always say I was selling stuff from the cradle. And I just I enjoy talking with people. So you know, I’ve done many, many careers before real estate and you know, it all comes down to sales. The jobs that I’ve had before this was I was a car salesman. I was a insurance salesman, I was actually a bail bondsman, I was selling bail insurance policies for criminals. And so needless to say, it was kind of apropos to get licensed and just move up the notch to real estate because, you know, what else more can you do besides that, you know, medical sales or whatnot, you know, you know, and for me, it’s just one of those things where you get to meet so many people, and you can, you know, it’s kind of like an octopus with tentacles, you reach out in different directions and find different niches. And it’s not always the same thing every day. And so for me, getting into real estate was a no brainer. Just because it was like the next level, it was the point of, you know, you can sell, why not sell houses, you can do it in a nice area, you can find a lot of clientele, that’s going to be good to you. And so two plus two equals four, and the math made sense for me.
Zach Bellizzi 7:16
And for me, I just believe that, you know, there’s obviously so much opportunity in real estate, I went to community college for two years, and I wanted to go just for like a business job or like a business degree. And real estate, which is always in the back of my mind, I used to actually watch million dollar listings on Bravo. And I just loved everything about it everything that the realtors did, as far as like their lifestyle, and then what they would do throughout the day. And I just knew that this is my key to becoming too successful because of the opportunity. And because we can just like basically, you know, make our own schedules, and just work as much as we want or as least amount as we want. And we can just meet just 1000s of people every single year. And again, just the money like there’s you can just there’s endless opportunity about the money. So
D.J. Paris 8:12
yeah, I want to talk about what you guys are currently doing the activity that you’re doing to grow your business. You know, I had on about a Gosh, a year or so ago, Nikko apostle who’s with Coldwell Banker here in Lincoln Park, and he he’s with Keller Williams actually, in Linkin Park. But Nico’s interesting, he’s been in the business for now quite some time. But when he started, he was about maybe he was 23. And he goes, it was great because he goes DJ, it was great getting in at 23 because it was so incredibly hard, because nobody’s giving me their million dollar home to list because you know, I’m a 23 year old kid, so I really had to hustle. And he talked a lot about how he did that through open houses. And then you guys are hustling like crazy. And I’ve seen that in your you know, the the articles written about you have seen it in your videos, let’s talk about that hustle, you know, the amount of effort you’re putting in which I love. Most of your friends aren’t probably buying condos or homes quite yet. So you really have to get yourself out there. So I applaud you guys for getting in. Let’s talk about you know, what are you doing? What have you found that that’s been working well for you?
Greg Dybas 9:17
You know, for us, you know, because we are so young folks will kind of look at us and say you won’t How am I going to sell this house? You’re 12 years old, right? We look at your brain not credible at all. You have no experience whatsoever. And it isn’t until we sit down with them. And you know, I’ve learned a lot of not tactics but ways to serve the eggs with clients that will make them believe us. And I think it’s more so when we sit down and say hey, we’re real. This is the idea that we’re going to have for you on getting this house sold or you know helping you buy and they stop and they kind of have to think about it for a minute and then they either make the plunge and they say yes let’s do it or no we’re gonna wait for us we go into it super aggressive. I mentioned before I was in car sales, I learned everything I know For my aunt, she sold Lexus for many, many years. And so when I got into car sales, she always said, it’s all about how you serve the eggs, it doesn’t really matter who the client is, but as long as you serve the eggs correctly, and it’s always going to be different for each client, they’ll make them you know, believe in you, way quicker. So for us, when we go home here, we look at how many, you know, different tactics we can use to sell a house that’s different, you know, you’ll have your conventional agents that show up and say, we’ll just put the for sale sign in the front yard, well listed on the MLS and wait, you know, and just see who comes to us. I never believed in that, or I’m not the type of person to sit and just wait for the business come to me, I have to go out there. And, you know, a little bit of caveat, you know, I I, what I mentioned before I saw bail insurance policies, I was also a bounty hunter, I still went out. And so for me to go and just wait for somebody to come to me, it’s not in the back of my head that that’s okay. You know, I’m used to hitting streets and going out and finding people and, you know, I have zero fear when it comes to just knocking on doors and approaching people. And it’s, it’s super aggressive. And Zach is, you know, always right there behind me backing me up. And so I’ve had to learn how to manipulate real estate to you know, I laugh all the time. Because my even my own family, they’re like, you know, it looks like you’re more of a bounty hunter than you are a real estate agent. I said, Well, you know, I apply the same, the same mentality to that. And that’s why we’re so aggressive is because at the end of the day, it’s the same thing, you don’t get paid unless you find the person Okay, well, I don’t get paid until I sell the house or find the clientele to buy that house. So that’s where the mindsets a little bit shifted, because we go out and it’s it’s so unique that way we I have to remind myself, you’re doing real estate, now you’re not chasing felons, right? So it’s kind of hilarious. When we do this. They look at us, and they’re like, holy crap, these kids are not playing. They’re out here. They’re doing this. We’ve gone in days where I’ll make, like my mind or wanted posters, right? It’s actually, you know, you know, we introduce ourselves in the neighborhood, we’ll hit certain streets or flyers, and we say, Hey, this is us, we understand if you’re not selling, but think of us if you are or if you know, somebody do it, you know, he’ll take one side of the block, I’ll take the other, we go down the row, and we go and meet people knock on the doors, if they don’t answer, we come back another day. You know, we do the video thing, that’s a huge thing for me. If I don’t know you, I’m not gonna buy from you use, you know, obscurity and real estate’s My biggest fear. And so you’re known for the right things. That’s also for me, the biggest deal I, I always say, I’ve been famous since I was 12 years old, and Zach’s got the same mentality with that, you know, we’re not afraid to get up on stage and talk to people. We’ve done some motivational keynotes before, especially in our office. And, you know, I think that brings me the biggest joy because not only do I get to help other people, but I get to mold the clay as we go. And I’m not saying I know it all, by any means. Every day, we learn something new. But for us to give back in that way and go out and show everybody that you know, it’s not like we’re just sitting here telling you what we’re going to do, we’re going to show you, and I’m going to make sure that we have proof of it. That’s why we film it to, you know, we’ve gotten we’ve done crazy stuff. I mean, Zack can tell you we’ve done open houses that were I mean, we’ve got gigantic balloons that were sent up, you know, 400 feet in the air. So people in the neighborhood could see I mean, we’re, we’re so crazy in and our people in the office know that. And so it’s just aggressive sales. I don’t know any other way. I really don’t I look at the line on the, on the ground in the sand. And I decide, okay, am I going to go over it or I’m going to just stay behind it. And every day, I think we do something unique to where it’s gonna stand out. So yeah, you know,
D.J. Paris 13:43
it’s funny, I’ve always wondered, what percentage of brokers here in the Chicago area, but it’s probably nationwide, and we have listeners all over the country. But I wonder what percentage walk up to a door and knock on it and say, Hey, by the way I’m selling. So like, I’ve always thought a great, easy way to do that is if you’re doing an open house down the street, you can knock on every door and say, Hey, by the way, just wanted introduce myself, I’m doing it I’m in the process of selling this home. And if you see me walk, you know, coming, coming and going. That’s that’s why I’m here. But I just wanted to give you my card. And if you’re ever interested or you need help, or you know somebody just like you guys were saying, but I love the fact that you guys are even doing that without at that time having a listing, right, just going in. And the reality of it is the data is really clear. Just like just like, Greg, you said earlier, the data is really clear about how people choose a realtor they want it is a face to face business. They want to choose somebody they know and they’ve met and they you know, or that they’re referred to. And you guys are door knocking and I wonder what percentage of brokers will ever do that. It’s got to be less than 1% has to be and it’s so smart for you to do.
Greg Dybas 14:53
Right and it’s like serendipity. It’s like we go out in the biggest place to start and a lot of folks will always tell you and they just kind of roll their eyes but it Is your own neighborhood All right, you know the streets. You know, some of the people there are very first listing was a for sale by owner and second I actually hit it. It’s down the street from where we live. And he, you know, wasn’t even living there. He had a rented out to tenants, the owner. And so I’m persistent. We’re both persistent as hell. I mean, forgive me for swearing. No, we don’t have right I’ll get blood out of a turnip before I walk away. And so I ended up talking to the caretaker of the house, he was there holding the open house for the owner, because it was for sale by owner and I said, Listen, if you can have him contact me, I just want to chat with them. Okay, fine. Three weeks later, we ended up talking to him over the phone, because he lives in another state for work. And he’s like, alright, I’ll give you guys a chance because you guys seem hungry. Yes. And to this day, we have this house for sale. We are, you know, just plugging away and we have still never met the owner. And he trusts us over the phone. I mean, so for us to go out and do that. It’s not about just giving up when they slam the door in your face. It’s you know, peeling the onion, we used to call it in the car business, right? Keep going. The first denial is going to be the biggest thing, right? They don’t know you with shell shock you, you they’re absorbing so much information. They’re analyzing who you are what you look like, you know, which brings me to my other point. I mean, we aren’t conventionally dressed like salesmen. We don’t show up in a tux. I’m not there in a suit and tie. I mean, we get yelled at all the time from our people in our office, they laugh at us, because we look like a bunch of California boys coming out with our gray bands and our shorts. And I think the stigmatized idea that salesmen have to be this whole, you know, I mean, we don’t look like bombs, but we look for something that’s simple, I guess, right? presentable, people are going to be like, Okay, wait a minute, we don’t have to slam the door. We don’t you know, because they’re not going to come to the door to begin with. I know if I have a salesman show up to my door there. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 16:43
I mean, if he’s white, such as I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’re absolutely right. If you’re showing up to a door in a suit, people are like, what’s this guy trying to sell me? So you’re absolutely, that is such a smart, important point is if you’re going to do these types of strategies to prospect, you, you got to really think about that, who comes to a door in a suit? Somebody’s trying to sell you a vacuum cleaner? It’s like, let me it is like,
Greg Dybas 17:06
right. And I mean, it’s it’s kind of a 5050 gamble. You know, I always say that. It’s like, in the game of poker, we’re dealing. And when we show up to a door, first of all, if I can get you to open it and leave you there and not slam it on me, okay, first step is done. If I can sit here and talk to you for 10 minutes, my job is already halfway through because now you’ve decided to stay at that door and not slam it. I mean, maybe the idea is they’re like, who are you? What are you selling? And so Okay, fine. We if we can get them to the finish line, right? And I can say, Here’s my card, it doesn’t matter if they’re selling, right, they might have a family member that is or, you know, their aunts or, you know, nephew, or you know, somebody’s going to be wanting to buy soon or whatnot, I’ve had that happen, where we just fall into it. And it’s like, perfect timing. Here we go. And the first thing I always say is, it’s hilarious. When we show up to the door, they immediately want to slam it because they don’t know who you are. And I’ll say hey, I’m just your neighbor. I wanted to touch base with you real quick. And they have like this second, like, look, split second look where they’re like, crap. Now, I can’t close the door on it, because they’re my neighbor. Right? Like they feel bad if they do. So, hey,
Zach Bellizzi 18:10
we’re your neighbors. We’re just here to help you out basically, right now, basically, yeah,
D.J. Paris 18:15
you know, it’s, it’s so important. And again, I applaud the courage that it takes to do that. It’s for you guys, you know, you might not see it as a super courageous act, because you do it. But this is what they’re willing to do. Exactly. And Greg, dude, 99% of brokers will not do and they are going to get those listings that other brokers or a lot of times they’re going to be convincing sellers who don’t want to work with realtors, that this is a predominantly what they’ve you know, the sellers have pre decided, and these guys come along and say, No, you really do need to work with us. Here’s why. And I’m telling you that is that is a an amazing accomplishment. And what’s interesting and what the audience really needs to know. And this surprised me 10 years ago, when I came from the IT world, I don’t have a real estate background. And I said, Oh, in 10 years, we won’t need Realtors because it will all just be for sale by owner. I just thought that made sense. It seemed logical to me because I didn’t know everything that went into you know, buying or selling a home and it’s like, oh, they always need you they’ll continue to need you. And in fact, the For Sale By Owner market has gone down it’s at the lowest point in eight years. It’s 90 something percent of all homes sold are sold through the MLS meaning through a realtor, you guys so this is such a smart play. And also just a great way to stay busy but I also want to talk about your videos because you guys film yourself doing this which I think is so cool. you film yourself doing a lot of cool things. But first of all who’s who’s doing the recording? Do you guys have somebody do you guys do it yourselves? How’s that work?
Greg Dybas 19:50
Yeah, so ironically, when Zach and I started up that idea we said alright, let’s so I’ve I’ve never been shy of a camera. I’ve been in front of many cameras. Since I was like 12 years old, so I’m like, Okay, we’re cool on camera, let’s do this. So I’ve had we’ve, we’ve come together to produce in. So we do all the shooting of the video, we, we produce it ourselves, we even edited ourselves. And so a lot of people think, okay, when our first video went up the office called us and I’m like, listen, who filmed that? And what, like, what TV show are you guys gonna be? And I’m like our own, we don’t we do everything in house like, and I think that’s some of the benefits for our position too is that we have that knowledge and that idea that we can do that ourselves, we save money, and we have control. You know, if I want to plan for something, I’ll censor it. If I don’t, then there’s a Genuity right there, we can just show people that what we do is so difficult, I don’t think you know, like, when people flip on the, you know, TV channel, and they see, you know, HGTV shows or whatever. And they’re like, oh, you know, they buy a house, they look at three houses, pick one, and then it’s done. It’s like, I wish it was that simple. You know, it’s, I’ve had to be today, even I was I was calling I called Zach like, maybe 5000 times in a day just because, you know, we’re both like each other’s buffer. I’m like, Listen, I’m about to have an anxiety attack, like my deals falling apart, or this deal is falling apart or this is going good. And you know, it’s it’s they don’t realize how difficult this career is. And I think God that I have background in putting car deals together and insurance deals together. Because I think I was being like prepped for real estate, let down isn’t there anymore. It’s just like, Okay, let’s my biggest motto and my my first boss, when I was writing bailbonds taught me she goes, I’m going to tell you something that in any business it will ever apply to is I don’t care how bad falls apart, you need to find ways to make it work. And so when we have these little hiccups, I call them, I always take a minute and we compose ourselves. And you know, even if I got to scream into a pillow for five seconds, and we go back at it, we go, you know, this is our client, this is our business, you know, we’re not going to stop until the deal is done. And so it’s just it’s people don’t get it. It’s hilarious. So when they say I want to get into real estate and the club, I’m like, Okay, we’ll get you going. But don’t be surprised if you’re going to have a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of long days that, you know, don’t consist of smiles because it’s not going to
D.J. Paris 22:22
well, you’re so right. And you know, there’s an old expression. And it might be the just about the truest thing ever said for anyone in any sort of sales capacity, which is prospecting solves all problems, right? Because we know that that’s true, because there’s so much in particular, in real estate that you don’t have control over deals fall apart, there’s sometimes it’s just up to the gods, there’s nothing you can do about that. But you can always control your effort, right. And that’s what you guys are doing, you’re controlling your effort, you’re keeping your pipeline full. And also, of course, everyone has to live somewhere. So you know, they’re always going to need you. But the the effort that you guys are putting in is, is so impressive. And, you know, I’ve been around this industry quite some time. And our own firm we have over 600 brokers so it’s we have a lot of, I don’t read, I don’t see as often, very rarely people who are who are going to this extent to really get out there. You know, sometimes somebody might say, well, I’ll buy a list of for sale by owners, I’ll pound the phone for for a week. And then they realize, Oh my gosh, it’s so hard I and they quit they they give them obviously, you guys are taking that that next step and like we’re going to go to you and we’re going to try to convince you why you need us. And and they do need you that’s the that’s that’s it’s not even a sales tactic. They literally need you. So I applaud you guys for doing, which, you know, technically it is a technique, but it’s also what actually they need to do, because they’re only going to probably select you if they know you. So it’s smart for you to get there and they actually need you to sell the home. The statistics are really clear that for sale by owner clients, I know you don’t just only work with for sale by owners. But those people those for sale by owners tend to overprice their properties. I’ve been a victim of that myself where I’ve overpriced myself too. So you guys come along and say, here’s why you need us. I love that.
Greg Dybas 24:11
Right? Absolutely. Let’s
D.J. Paris 24:13
talk I want to talk a little bit about social media too, because we we were talking offline about about websites, and I was you guys were saying, Well, we’re in the process of building a website. But you said something, which I think is really important, and a lot of brokers don’t understand. It is yeah, oh, yeah. We’ll have a website and it’ll be fine. But people aren’t really going to our website to look for homes. They’re going to Zillow, they’re going to Redfin, they’re going to you know, these Trulia for example, of course they are. So but you guys are focusing a lot on on social media, in particular, YouTube or Facebook, to talk a little bit about how that’s helped you.
Greg Dybas 24:49
You know, so for our background, we’ve were the younger generation, right? We’re 90s babies. So the internet was fairly, you know, not new, but it was, you know, the.com era and everybody was signing on to AOL and all that fun stuff. You know, I used to remember to instead of instant messaging people on, you know, what was that jerk AOL or whatever. Now, we’re on Facebook and all this stuff. But it’s interesting when you look at the future. And I think that’s what we really base a lot of our stuff off of is, as sad as it is that nobody wants to read a book anymore, they’d rather watch a video, they just, they’re not going to get absorbed into a piece of text. It’s very difficult for younger generations, especially our age to pull up something on their phone and read it for more than a paragraph and lose interest and two seconds. And so for us, when we go into this, people can feel videos. And what I mean by that is for us, and I’ve really kind of made that impactful is I don’t want people to watch our videos and say, Oh, they’re a bunch of liars. I want them to see that we’re real people, we cuss, we scream, we yell, we fight. We banter we have our bad days. And then we have our fun days where we’re screaming and yelling and having a great time. And I think people are always stigmatized in real estate to see that people are always showcasing home and welcomed. Right, in a perfect role. It’s like, listen, the wall has a scratch, the trim needs a little paint. You know, it’s not perfect, but I’ll tell you what, at the used house factory, all that wasn’t an option. You know what I mean? You can make I love that way. And also,
D.J. Paris 26:19
we’re all imperfect people and we relate more to people, when we see imperfection. We actually connect more deeply and intimately with people when we see other real human beings. So I love that you guys keep that stuff in.
Greg Dybas 26:31
Absolutely. Absolutely. So you know, when we call when we do videos, it’s, I always say I call it the B roll. Yeah, because I certainly do and professional film, you want to show your real world life like Holy God, they’re not robots, they don’t do this 24/7 Even though I beg to differ because we do, right, I’m always on my phone. I’m always trying to think unique ways I’m always texting or Colin Zack, you know, and, and so it’s like, when we come here, we have to produce content that people are going to fall in love with us, not Ryan love with real estate, where every time they think, you know, real estate, they do think us or every time they see us, they think those are the real estate brokers, you know, and a way for them to remember that is through video through, you know, the idea that they can be seen at any time online presence, you know, and they don’t have to be long vlogs we call them but nobody’s going to want to I and I’ll be honest, I lose, we lose interest. The second somebody showcases a home, and they’re going through it through a tour and they got the perfect music and it looks like something out of Los Angeles, right? And you’re like, oh my gosh, it’s a million dollar house. Really. It’s only 150k. And it’s just like, wow, that’s cool. Right? Who are you? Okay, we we don’t care about the house we care about who are you? Right? And so for us, when we do this, it’s it’s not so much that we’re showing the real estate aspect even though we do but it’s people will fall in love with the people I’ll
D.J. Paris 27:53
tell, I’ll tell you, when I first when I saw your first video where you guys were driving around doing cold walking, which again, is amazing that you’re that you do that. And within 45 seconds or so I went, Okay, I know who these guys are, I have a sense of who they are their personality. I know what they look like, I know what they sound like. And they just grabbed my attention. What we’re talking about is branding, right? You you have established yourself as a brand. And I love that within a minute. I was like, Okay, I have a pretty good idea of what these guys are about. And boy, that is a hard thing to do. And the fact that you guys can can accomplish that so quickly, in particular through video is is really impressive. Thank you. Yeah. And that’s what your intention is you’re like, I want people to know who we are and what we’re all about. And we’re going to do it in a compelling way. We’re going to show warts and all right, we’re going to we’re going to show the mistakes and the challenges. And that’s that’s what, that’s what branding is if you’re trying to brand yourself, you are this this, you know, complex person with challenges and successes and failures. And you guys are putting it all out there. And people are going to connect to it very, very deeply. And they’re gonna be like, Okay, how cool they are going on there. we root for you, we root for people like that. Right? Yeah. And what I love too is you know, you’re in this big office and there’s lots and lots of brokers and I suspect you know, you guys are very unique in this big massive well established office you’re coming in as new guys go and we’re gonna try something different. I love that. I think that’s that’s great. Sure, well, you know, I want to Oh, I wanted to ask you guys we had a couple of stories that I wanted that you guys were telling us about that I wanted to I wanted to ask you tell tell me the God will sell my house story
Zach Bellizzi 29:51
for sale but was that an accurate
Greg Dybas 29:53
rehab so we actually down the street from us we I had called this for sale by owner over the phone when we first started out in the House has still been on the market. So I think it was like a week and a half ago, Zach and I went over there. And I said, Alright, let’s hit the house, I called the two minute warning, and we went over and dropped in, knocked on the door, the guy comes to the door, and he goes, you know, well, we’re not really interested. So it’s kind of still leave you my information in case you change your mind. He goes, Oh, no, this guy will sell my house. And I looked at Zack and Zack looked at me we had this like, mute point, like, here we go, right. It’s, I’m, if you were to put a Bible in front of me, I wouldn’t know of paragraph or verse to save my life. You know, I mean, we’ve all got our own connections, but I, I’m not the type of person to sit there. And in July about stuff, like I simply am not educated on maker and about that. And so when he said that my car salesman came out in me in Zach, and I have like, this look like for various things. And he’s just like, have it right. And so I was like, Okay, here we go. I said, You know what, you’re right, God is gonna sell your house, he that’s why he put two qualified real estate brokers at your doorstep to sell the place. And he didn’t really know how to respond to that. He goes, Well, we’re okay. You know what I mean? Kind of like fighting fire with fire, we just put a lien on it. Right. So, you know, it’s immediately walking out of there as x like, I’m gonna write a book all this one day, because this?
D.J. Paris 31:15
Oh, yeah, you guys are gonna be on a TV show. At some point. There’s just no question about it. And I mean, that in a very complimentary way, is what you guys are doing. And by the way, that is a really smart thing to say. I don’t want to gloss over. It’s funny. But the truth is, it’s actually a really smart thing to say, because somebody who is religiously oriented in that sense, and is telling you, hey, this, these are my beliefs. And you’re in you can quickly say, Well, you know, people typically who have those beliefs also think everything happens for a reason. And then he basically just said exactly that. Well, guess guess why we’re here. You know, they, I love that. That’s really, really smart.
Zach Bellizzi 31:55
Yeah. Right. When you said that me, Greg and I were just trying. Oh, yeah.
D.J. Paris 32:03
I love it. And yeah, let’s, let’s talk about let’s see, we had another story that we wanted. Oh, I wanted to talk. I heard you guys got paraded around like an acre of land, by us by a seller. Tell us about that.
Zach Bellizzi 32:20
Is that? Yeah, that was in Inverness. So like, obviously, if you know, Inverness and Barrington, there’s your higher priced homes and have a lot more land. So we actually didn’t call this person we just went up to their, their driveway, and they’re, they’re about to leave. And then we just introduced ourselves, basically tell them more brokers and we want to help you basically sell the house. When we didn’t go inside the house. Once we rocked around the whole acre of land, just walk around and then the sellers were just talking about all the parties that they had in their backyard and how much land that they have and what’s theirs. And we finished and we just never went inside the house like oh, okay, yeah, I
D.J. Paris 33:06
had an experience like that. Once in in Barrington. I was invited to a party. It was a friend of mine, and it was her fiance. spot her fiance’s parents so so I’m out there for a party, my friend and enter fiance now married, it was just they were having a pool party. I never went inside. And this was I God knows how expensive this house was millions and millions of dollars, just something you couldn’t even see it from the street, one of those kinds of homes, you know, just way off in the distance. And it was just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Anyway, my my friend’s fiance’s father who owns the home comes home at some point, he’s sees everyone out back, you know, enjoying the pool. And he’s a really nice guy. And he comes over and I’m sorted didn’t really know anybody other than my two friends. So I didn’t really have anyone to talk to. But I went over and because I want to know this guy’s story I want to know, and I’m not a producing broker, I should I should mention as well, but I was just genuinely interested in like, Gosh, I wonder what this guy did to build his fortune. And so I asked him, I said, Tell me about what do you do for a living and he started talking about a business he built up from, you know, and he started in a, you know, he had a studio apartment with his wife and his child and in the city 30 years ago, and he built up this this really nice business unfortunate. Anyway, he’s telling me a story. It’s the most amazing story he had, like, moved from Puerto Rico. He didn’t even hardly, you know, speak English, even though Puerto Rico, you know, is part of us, but he really just a total success story. And he’s telling me this and it’s so incredible. The story again, I’m not I haven’t gotten in the house, and he goes, Hey, DJ, you’re in real estate, right? I said, Well, I’m sort of, you know, and he goes, Well, I have this other home in Barrington. Now, we had probably talked 20 minutes. He goes, I just finished by building it, and I need to sell it. Can you do that? Now? What was so funny to me, and this is an $800,000 home that he was talking about. Now, unfortunately, I couldn’t help them because I don’t really do it. But I went, Oh, this is how it works. This is exactly how people get business. And, and it’s exactly what you guys are doing. And I love that, that you guys have these stories because you’re willing to go up and say hi, where we’re Greg and Zach, and we need to talk. I love that. So, you know,
Greg Dybas 35:18
right? Well, you know, a little thing that we kind of always write off of is when you’re younger, you’re talking stranger danger, right? That’s just so your parents comfort in their back of the mind that you’re running the streets, you know, at night, not getting in trouble. But, you know, for me, when we, when we get into this, it’s like, I come from a law enforcement, family and military family and operational security, they call it is like, huge, you know, don’t tell people your name, don’t it’s like, you know, what, strangers have everything. I don’t know, we were back in the day, they they fell off the wagon with the idea that, you know, you should work a typical nine to five job and do as you’re told and not have anything to show at the end of the day for it. You know, but strangers have everything you want. And so when we go out there, it’s just like, Listen, I don’t know you, I’m gonna, we’re gonna find out who you are. We want to know what you can do. We want to know what we can do for you. You know, and that’s just what we play by every single day, every single day.
D.J. Paris 36:13
I think that’s, I think that’s a perfect place to to wrap up. Because, again, what you guys are doing is so exciting. I’m excited to watch your your growth in this industry, you’re already killing it, you’re going to continue to grow your business, you’re going to, you know, be on the show again, in the future. Several, you know, a few years from now you’re like, oh, my gosh, when we first did your podcast, we were just starting out. Here’s where we’re at today. And I’m excited to have you back on the show.
Greg Dybas 36:41
While we’re gonna like listen, you’re gonna play us, we’re gonna fly you out on our private plane to Malibu or something. I
D.J. Paris 36:47
will I will accept that and hold you to it. So I will absolutely. So now see, I’m riding your coattails even better. Now I have a place to stay in Malibu. So guys,
Zach Bellizzi 37:00
what’s your what’s I’m sorry, we can add you?
D.J. Paris 37:04
Oh, yeah. So we have a Podcast, the podcast is keeping it real pod. So facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod by the way for all of our 1000s of listeners, if you haven’t yet joined our Facebook group. And most of you haven’t, you should, because every single day are actually a Hannah, who’s on our team. She posts a relevant article that we’ve sourced online, specifically trying to figure out how to help brokers grow their business. So every single day, we have one article, and we say here’s what you need to be reading. And then of course, we post links to every podcast interview, we did an announcement that we’re you know, talking to you guys and we’ll be posting a link directly to the the episode once it goes live here next week. And so yeah, everyone needs to follow to follow us on on Facebook. So keeping it real party, you also need to follow Greg and Zack we will post a link to their Facebook page so you guys can can follow them watch their videos, see what see what they’re doing. Because what they’re doing is branding and their branding is really compelling. It’s really smart, it’s courageous, and it works. And so, you know, for our listeners, our whole intention is to help you know get people to increase their production by taught by you know, interviewing guys like you who are out there doing it. So on behalf of Greg and Zach and myself, we thank you this was this will be episode I believe 102. So we’re super grateful for everyone who has continued to listen. We’re grateful to Greg and Zack for taking time out of their crazy busy day to to be on our show with us. So guys, thank you. We it was this was awesome. And we’re going to really excited to watch your watch your progress. Cool, guys. Well, on behalf of all of us. Thanks for listening. We will see you guys on the next episode. And that’s it. Thanks. All right. Thank you
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