Rudy Lira Kusuma from Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty in California, talks about how he got involved in real estate in the first place. Rudy explains why he thinks that you should marry your “why” and change your “how” whenever you need, in order to be successful in life. Next, Rudy talks about the 5 core values he believes in and works by. Last, Rudy talks about teams and explains why he thinks the future of real estate is in teams.
You can buy Rudy’s book “Death of the Traditional Real Estate Agent: Rise of the Super-Profitable Real Estate Sales Team” by clicking here.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Rudy Lira Kusuma can be reached at 626-789-0159.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with Rudy Kazuma from California. Before we get to Rudy, just a couple of quick reminders to our audience first. While before a reminder, we want to remind us to thank you for continuing to listen and support our show from all of us here at the podcast as well as on behalf of our guests. We thank you for continuing to listen. And I also want to remind you to please tell a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Rudy, that you’re about to hear and send them a link to our show easiest way to do that have them find our website which is keeping it real pod att.com They can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from the website and also please follow us on Facebook facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Facebook has a new feature where every single one of our episodes is actually on that page so you can stream and listen to every episode inside of Facebook. So there’s a little tab there you’ll see that says episodes it’s brand new, and we were able to beta test it and our anyone who was on our page can listen to every episode we’ve done so again that’s facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our conversation with Rudy Kazuma.
Today on the show we have Rudy Kazuma. From your home sold guaranteed Realty in Los Angeles. Now Rudy and the your home sold guaranteed Realty Team have sold and this is beyond impressive. Five over 5000 homes totaling over 1 billion in real estate transactions. Rudy is known as the Millionaire Real Estate Agent maker at your home sold guaranteed Realty his passion is to help real estate agents and brokers 10x their income with no cold calling, no prospecting and no door knocking. Those are like the three things that nobody wants to do. Right or Rudy is all about that. He has been featured on ABC CBS Fox News rismedia named him as the 2020 real estate news maker and excellent magazine also named Rudy as a top 10 Most Admired business leaders in 2021. Now as the CEO of your home sold guaranteed Realty in California, Rudy led his company to be recognized as an inc 5000 fastest growing private company in America. Rudy is also the author of death of the traditional real estate agent Rise of the super profitable Real Estate Sales Team, which is available on Amazon. Look in the show notes for this podcast for a link to purchase the book. Also, I want every one of our listeners to check out Rudy’s website, which you can find at top agents freedom.com. That’s top agents plural freedom.com. Rudy, welcome to the show.
Rudy Kusuma 4:17
Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me here today.
D.J. Paris 4:22
Really, I think you might be one of the most smart it for those of you who are listening and not watching you can’t see but Rudy has the biggest smile. And he has just that he is exploding with Energy. And we are so excited. We just found out that I found out that Rudy is Indonesian. And so I had been to Bali many years ago, sadly, not in recent time about about 615 years ago now at this point. And we were reminiscing about about Indonesia and how much I love that culture. So I will be coming back to Bali because I had such a wonderful experience but before enough about me. Let’s talk about you You ready? But before it’s sort of, and you are really well respected in the industry, as someone who is a bit of a visionary and really is able to see current trends or future trends. But before we get to all of that, I’d love to hear about how you got involved in real estate to start with.
Rudy Kusuma 5:17
Well, like you said, DJ, I came here as a student college student, I went to Santa Monica College, I went to University of Wisconsin. My goal, my dream was to get a job in NASA. And then my major was mathematics. But then when I was about to go to my graduate school, someone gave me a book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, give me your book. Robert Kiyosaki said the number one skill in life, it’s sales. And when I was in high school, I grew up in a family, we never talk about money, we never talk about business. We’ve never talked about sales, right? In fact, those words are taboo. So when I was in high school, my dad who’s a high paid employees, he got fired, right when he was like when I was in high school, so that that left a little bit traumatic experience for me. So when I came across that book, The Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he talks about, the number one skill in life is sales. So I really want to, I really want to improve. I mean, I really want to learn, my family never talked about it. So what I did, I dropped out of my graduate school, and I start selling stuff in swapmeet, right selling door to door, I want to expose myself to sales. And one of the things that I sell, I was selling promotional products. So I was selling promotional products door to door, and one of my customers was real estate brokerage. And so the real estate brokers told me, I encourage me to get my license for two years. And finally, I get my license. And the moment I get my license in 2007, then I quickly realized that this business has a big, the big problem, which is one person as a real estate agent, you have to do we have to do everything all by ourselves. My broker asked me to call Hall, I wasn’t really good. I read actually, it’s kind of depressing people like cursing at you on the telephone. And so I went to my broker as you progress. I think this call howling is not my thing. Maybe they don’t like my accent. They don’t like my voice or something. And so the brokers say, okay, Rudy, why don’t you do the pull the door knocking, maybe, maybe cold calling is not your thing. So I did my door knocking. But then after two weeks, you’re knocked 1000s of doors, I went back to my broker as they progress. This door knocking is a kind of like cold calling is just now they’re cursing at me on my face. So that’s kind of my first exposure in the business. And that gets me thinking on how to then kind of be a better way to lead generate. So that’s kind of my story. DJ, how I get started as a real estate agent.
D.J. Paris 7:54
So the cold calling, which nobody wants to do didn’t didn’t work for you. The door knocking is even more depressing because most people don’t want to, you know, talk to someone, of course, and right now with COVID. Of course, that’s even, that’s probably not even a thing that you can do. But back then, so you didn’t have those two options that just didn’t work for you. How did you go about growing your business?
Rudy Kusuma 8:20
Well, so I came across. So I came across this game called the cashflow game, so I started hosting a cash flow game in the office. So people actually came to my office. That’s why I host the cash flow game three times a week on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, right? So people can tell office, we host the cashflow game, which is a game based on the rich that book. So at the end of the game, I always ask how many of you guys want to do this in real life. So every week I picked up at least 10 to 15 brand new clients, buyers ready to I pre approved them on the spot. And so I start, so that’s how I get started. And then if you remember 2007 2008, the end of 2007 the whole market collapsed. So most real estate agents exit the business, they quit the business, but that’s what I learned DJ, if you want to be successful, we got to do what most people are not willing to do. So in 2008 Most people quit the business because they say short sales is hard. But me as a brand new agent, I was like I have nothing to do. So I get all these free listings. The other agents in my office actually they give it to me, right they look at me they feel sorry, right as this brand new agent. So my first listing was a short sale, and then in the entire 2008 2009 I did all short sale. So that’s that’s how I get I get started in the business doing what everybody else who refuse to do.
D.J. Paris 9:51
It’s amazing. And I’m sure that you’ve been in this business for gosh, what 17 years or so now, or however many many years it is and you have tried everything or you’ve tried a lot and and I would I’m curious to get your thoughts on the willingness to try anything right to keep trying and in this case door knocking didn’t work cold calling didn’t work and all of a sudden hosting a game night at the office with you know basic based on Robert Kiyosaki is cashflow you know sort of principles was really the impetus to start your business that I’ve we’ve interviewed. By the time this airs, you’ll be our like our 300 and second interview or something like that. Nobody has ever told me that they got clients through hosting game night. I just think that is so impressive. How did you get the idea to do that?
Rudy Kusuma 10:47
Well, um, I that’s like, you are being forced to find a way to so I so actually, definitely, I stumbled upon now we call it reverse prospecting. Right? But back then, I didn’t know what it’s called. All I know, is I wasn’t good at cold calling. Because literally the broker gave me a yellow page. Right. Right. So I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t good at prospecting. But I know I have to get the results. So I think the mission right we got a we got to focus What’s your mission? What’s your vision for me? My I was driven by have to make sure I’m successful. I got married, right there was I just got married I the why with kids. So I have to make money to to bring income right for the family. So so I know I have to get it, but how to do it. So. So the conclusion is we get a man what I learned throughout this years is that we get to marry our mission. But we get the date the model. So this is what I meant by that the mission is, what’s your vision? Well, why are you doing this? Well, for me in 2007, I simply want to make $50,000 Just enough to feed my family, right? The mission is just to feed my family. That’s a simple mission. I’m not trying to change the world. But the model is how to how to fulfill that. But I’d have to prove it. So did the model, we have no attachment on the model. Most real estate agents DJ, I think as technology evolve in our business here, because most real estate agents, they they marry the model. And so when the time change as technology becoming more advanced, they keep on cleaning on this old traditional model just because people just because you’ve been doing it all these years, doesn’t mean you got to do it. So to answer your question more directly, I think you marry your mission. And you did your model and be flexible that did the model means you can always change the model. Right? You made it official Remember why you’re doing this. But don’t get so much attachment on the how to do it. So
D.J. Paris 12:56
like Mary, Mary, your why change your how really is what is what Rudy saying. And boy, that is so well said. And for those of you who aren’t watching us, Rudy has a giant board behind him. It’s very professional board is not really the right word, but a giant placard behind him with his five core values. Because that is how important your mission is to you. And your values. And and you’re absolutely so right by saying the techniques change all the time, everything that changes, but knowing your why knowing your why you’re getting up in the morning, what you’re shooting for. And then the details about how to get there and your case, when you first started it was game night. Well, you tried a bunch of other things, game nights, what worked, but your mission never changed. So do you mind only because I am staring at your five core values? And I’m really so impressed with them. Do you mind sharing your core values with our audience?
Rudy Kusuma 13:55
Yeah, as you continue, as you continue building as you continue building your team, you got to have as you have more and more people right before it’s just me and one or two people, as you have more and more people joining your team, how can you continue to grow? And at the same time, don’t destroy the core of the team, right? Because no, no one person no one person can build a team. But one person can destroy your team. So if you are so I believe TGM. The future of real estate is that either you join a team or you build your own team. But if you start when you start going down that pathway of building a team, you get to know like, well what’s the value or what is core values? What values means how you behave, how you is like, like you every family, have our own core values, what you tolerate in that core value. So I’ll give you an example. In our team when it’s just me and my wife, we believe in second mile surface for example, what is second mile service? Second mile surface means if you have Hear me to do if this is my job description, if you hire me to do A, B, and C, for example, then that’s my first mile. That’s my job description. If you hire me to sell your house, getting your home sold is my job, right? That’s my first mile. Now second round is going above and beyond and my job description. So I truly believe that second mile surface means going above and beyond what you are being hired to do, number one, number two, you never cut corners. Right? You never cut corners. Just like just like my experience with you today DJ like I believe you you believe whether you know it, I experienced as a second mile surface like you could have just interviewed but you actually go deeper than just the strategy to sell a house, you want to understand the philosophy behind it. So that’s one of our values number one second mile service. That’s what my wife and I believe. So we just share it with everybody. The second one is, we believe to empower and inspire others to achieve more. One of the reasons why TJ I started this team, and it’s really passionate, my passion to build a team because when I was a solo agent in 2007, I was hungry and cold and broke. I actually pray to God, I pray I promise that God you helped me, show me away. But because I always looking for a mentor, I’m looking for a coach. But as you know, this industry, everybody’s like very secretive, right? And even if people in your office share information, but it’s very superficial, it’s like on a surface. So I remember as a brand new agent, I always want to learn how to I was just trying to make 50,000 I’m not trying to change the world. I’m just trying to fit my teacher, right. But then everybody seems secretive. But then, so I prayed God and I promised that God showed me away, right? Show me a pathway connect me with the right people, give me give me give me direction. And if one day, if I figured out how to do this, right, do these means be successful making money and stuff like that. And my promise is that I want to my commitment is to help over 1000 Other people like me, I was 2124 2137 something that does happen here. So all these people that’s trying to figure out oh, my promise is to make 1000 to help 1000 People like me, I feel like I want to be a mentor that I was looking for back then. So that’s our core values number to empower and inspire others to achieve more, because I was looking for bad guy before, right? I was looking for somebody to to equip me, you know. So and then that’s my, that’s our core values. Number two DJ, our core values. Number three is results driven.
As you know, in this business, everybody talks. But then at the end of the day, if there is no results, and nothing accomplished, you’re cheating, you’re cheating the consumers, you are tearing your own families. I remember in 2007 When I went into a coma with my first brokerage office, the agents always hang out at the coffee, you know, by the coffee machine. And they are talking about how bad the market is, the whole thing is crashing down. And I was there as a new agent. I was like, how does it help you? How does it help you complaining about the market? How does it help you complaining about the situations? Right? So our core values, number three DJ results driven produce, like, at the end of the day, what’s the results, but you when you show up? You guys, most of real estate agents you work every day, if you if you want to work anyway, when you bring home you might as well bring the results, right? Otherwise don’t work. It’s like what’s the point going to the gym, if you don’t produce the result, then might as well just sleep at home. Same thing, my mindset if I if I decided to show up to work, then I might as well do the best I can be and to produce the results. So that’s our core values. Number three, results driven or values. Number four, is value value relationship by openly expressing gratitude meaning, you know, when people because in this business, it seems cutthroat, right? The traditional model, everybody’s very secretive. So we want to make sure when we build a team, we want to build a team that empowering each other of value each other, appreciate each other because I think the strength of the team, we we need somebody to encourage you right and so when people start when you are on the high up, the team needs you because now you can be the encourager, right but then life cycle right up and down. When you are on a down low, then you need the team because the team will lift you up. So that’s our core values. Number four, always value value relationship. And then last, the last one I’ve taught values number five is embrace. Continuous improve For once because TJ you know, this business or life in general, right? It’s like riding a bicycle, meaning if you are not improving, right, if you are not if you think you know it all, then then then you die basically. So I believe, always continue to improve even today, even back then DJ when I had no money in 2007, even if I have $50, the $50 I used that $50 I remember my first sales trainers is six figures. Sure I bought in 2005. And if I have to make a decision $50 Should I spend the $50 for lunch money, or have to do in fact, in Zig Ziglar I remember I bought Zig Ziglar cassette tape, and then Brian Tracy, those are my Tom Hopkins shirts, I’m like my first tremors and everyday, everyday I build today until today, I always set aside 10% of whatever revenue whatever income you have set aside 10% of that, to always to improve yourself, because Because technology, I mean, because life change, you know, it’s like you, Africa was the thing, DJ, if you are green, if you’re green, you’re growing, right. But if you think you are right, then you are rotten. So look at our five core values to the second month surface, empower, inspire others results driven value relationship by. And then lastly is embrace continuous improvement. So as we continue to grow, as we bring more and more, remember to partner up with us, we are looking for people that has these core values. In fact, I believe the skill is secondary, because I can always teach any agent the skill, right? The skill is easy. But the attitude, I cannot teach your attitude, I cannot teach your mindset. I cannot teach you to work hard for example, right? Like I like you’re 30 years old now. It’s already too late. Like I’m not your mom. Right? So so. So if you’re if you’re if you didn’t have that attitude to work hard to serve, right now, I don’t know I don’t know what to do with you. But I can teach you the skill I can I can teach you. I can our buyer presentation listing presentation there, I can teach you the core values. I cannot tell that’s why did you I’m glad you you caught that back. backdrop here is because the five core values that we continue to grow the team. That is important because no one person can build a team, but one person can destroy a team. So if you if you really believe that your team is doing a good service to your community, then you just have to be very careful, very intentional, as you continue to grow. So that’s the story behind the core values.
D.J. Paris 22:47
No, I love it. And I just wanted to share with our audience, the your fifth core value, which was constant, never ending improvement, which Japanese might call Kaizen is there’s not an English word, unfortunately, that that translates. But But I’ll tell you a funny, sort of a silly story. But but one that’s that I think, you know, our audience can relate to and you can relate to I’m sure. So I was just on this fantastic vacation where I was gone for three weeks with my girlfriend, and we were traveling in Europe, and we just had a marvelous time. And we were pretty physically active. We were hiking a little bit we were walking all over the place. But we were also enjoying ourselves on beaches. And anyway, it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t, you know, just, you know, eating and sitting. I was walking, I walked in one one day, we walked like 10 Miles anyway. So I was somewhat active. However, the previous year and a half prior to that vacation, I had been working out with a trainer three days a week. And and when I got to that year and a half mark, I was able to look at myself in the mirror and say, Wow, look at that I have some muscles. That’s kind of neat. From all this hard work I have done. And then for three weeks, I said well, I’m just going to take it easy all work out a little bit. But why ended up really not working out at all during that vacation because I was on vacation. And when I came back and I knew that my trainer, you know, I’d be starting back up. And I thought, Well, gosh, I’m not going to lose too much muscle in three weeks. Oh no, I lost a lot of muscle in only three weeks. And again, this isn’t a fitness podcast, of course. But for those of us thinking about our business, or our relationships, or our clients, or our prospecting or any part of our lives, our relationship with spirituality or money or food or whatever it might be if you’re not staying on top of those things. By knowing what your why is knowing what your purpose is just three weeks away, really kind of I mean, look if it didn’t, you know, I’m back in the gym now and I’m recovering that strength but I was so amazed at how how quickly that strength went away. Even my girlfriend had said, Boy, it looks like you’ve lost some muscle in those three weeks. And she was right I sure had. And so this idea of of, you know, taking a break is perfectly fine. Everyone should be taking breaks, but realizing just how important it is to stay consistent. And that’s really what your your fifth value was. And I just think it’s so important is, if you even if you just do it’s not I don’t live at the gym, by the way, I’m only there three hours a week, it’s only three hours a week, I’m not somebody who is like, you know, there all the time. But even just removing those three hours a week for three weeks, really, I was shocking. And so I would encourage everyone who’s listening, obviously, like Rudy said, know why you are doing what you’re doing, what is your, what is your mission? What is your you know, your purpose, and then realize that all the tactics to get there, they’re always going to change. That’s, like Rudy said, that that part’s kind of the easy part. Because, you know, there’s lots of people that will teach you lots of wonderful techniques. I mean, this podcast is all about techniques and how to achieve your real estate goals. But what Rudy, you know, mindset, you were saying and attitude is so important. But I want to switch gears for a moment because I want to talk about teams, because a lot of the people listening on our show our individual realtors, they aren’t on teams, some obviously some teams, many teams listen to our show as well. What is What is your thought about teams? How important are teams now and into the future? I know that you have very strong opinions about this.
Rudy Kusuma 26:36
Yes. Did you ask you know how the industry has evolved so much. And I think real estate is the last one that disruption, right. But right now there’s all this disruption going on. I truly believe that in the near future, if you realize that agents want to be not just surviving but thriving in the in the near future is that either you join a team or you build your own team. And the reason I say that DJ is the reason is is twofold. Number one, who are you competing against now? Right now your your competition is not the other agents down the road? Your competition is now a multibillion dollars technology company. Right? That’s number one. How are you going to be able to compete against multibillion dollar technology company and the consumers now because in the past, when people are thinking of buying and selling a house, they’re gonna go to you because we looked at agents, we were the gatekeepers of information. However, today, today is an information age era. That means information is readily available. Anybody and
D.J. Paris 27:41
it’s great. It’s free and easy. Anyone get access to everything? Yeah,
Rudy Kusuma 27:46
yes. So people can just go online DGS, you know, just Google and they can see all the homes that’s available online. So what’s the value? So that’s number one. Reason number one technology. The second reason is mega team, no matter where you’re listening to this now, there’s always a mega team in your area, how are you able to compete with those guys that has a so for example, in my team, our marketing budget is like over seven figures. Right? So when so as a solo agent, when I do my my kids, my cute casual games, I just pay for my pizza or whatever, a couple $100. But how are you able to compete with the mega team now. So that’s because of that. We really here at your home sold guaranteed Realty, my passion now is to help. How do I help other people other agents to be successful, is either you join an existing team, so that way, we can just generate buyers and listing appointments for you. Right? That’s what your team leaders role, when you join an existing team, you just focus on one thing, just go to a buyer and listing appointments, because what your team leaders supposed to do. A good team is the one that has an infrastructure, each individual person has a specific role. So that way, you just go to a price and listing appointments, or the second option if you are ambitious, and you have the resources, then just build your own team. Right so that’s that’s that I think, the future of real estate. And and I think the and then the last one right now to do it. Easy they speak. I think Tony Robbins is the one that says whatever you want in life, somebody else have done it. So find somebody who have done it. And you model you model their behavior. It’s called modeling. Right? So like, like you mentioned just now, you hire you hire a personal trainers, like why would you hire personal trainers, you could have gone team yourself, right? Sure. We both know, I can go to the gym myself. I can stay at the gym for five hours, nothing will happen because I’m doing all the wrong stuff. But when we have a coach when we have our personal trainers, I couldn’t be at the gym for 30 minutes but my 30 minutes has more results than when my five ours hanging out by myself.
D.J. Paris 30:02
And, you know, for me, the personal trainer, which I had never really worked with a personal trainer before, I was doing exercises all wrong, and I was actually really hurting putting additional stress on my body that was completely unnecessary and would have resulted in injury. And that’s what a good coach, whether it’s a business coach or a fitness coach, they’ll do is maybe more than anything that will help you avoid the pitfalls, they’ll help you, you know, do do those push ups correctly, or your business pushups correctly, knowing the form and the structure, like Rudy said, I will teach you how to do this, this is not that, you know, it’s a skill that I can teach. And same thing with my trainer, my trainer is like, it’s a really simple exercise. And I you know, I do a deadlift, and I live and I, you know, it’s not that complicated. But if I don’t do it correctly, I will completely screw up my back, or in the case of a realtor, you know, maybe lose that listing presentation, or lose that buyer client. And so having a mentor or coach or a team leader, who can you can go to, and I think agents are starting to realize that oftentimes, they’re managing broker, you know, the managing brokers, I think, have, it’s very difficult to be a managing broker. I think today, because managing brokers at most firms are expected to sort of be everything, they’re expected to do everything. And of course, they can’t do everything, because, you know, they’re only one person, or maybe there’s a few people. And, and so it’s, it’s tough, it’s tough. And if you don’t have a team, then you, you know, you might be lucky, and you have a managing broker that is super supportive and helpful and always available. But if you have a large office, that’s not so easy to find. And so finding a team or partnering up with somebody who can complement your strengths, or help you where you’re weak, is really, really critical. How how do you suggest people should go out about either building? Or? Well, let’s let’s start with joining a team. There are so many teams out there. And you were very specific by saying your your opinion is that teams really should have team members should be have an individual single focus. So if I’m an individual, if I’m an agent, and I’m looking to join a team, you know, what should I be looking for in a team?
Rudy Kusuma 32:24
Yeah, that’s a really good question, did you because right now, the word team has been abused, right? Everybody claim, oh, this is my team. So. So this is a quick interview session, when you are interviewing looking for a team, you ask the team leaders, what is my role as a team member here, because a real team, or at least the way I define a team here is that each individual has a specific role. That means we have one person or one department that focus on lead generation, we have one department that focus on App admin, we have one department that focus on follow up with inside sales team that follow up to make sure that check the timing, and motivation to see if the clients are ready to buy and sell now. And then we have you that the members, the agents here, we call it our outside sales agent, which the focus is just one thing literally just go to a bias and listing appointments. And then we have our transaction coordinators, we just focus on the paperwork, right? So that’s a legit real thing is where each individual person have one specialization just like when you work in a normal company. Did you have before I realize that I used to sell this stationery pens for example, right? There’s a person who just one thing just like any normal business, only in real estate, and person doing the job of 20 people and then I realized that agents at the according to the National Association of Realtors, the average real estate agent in us, this is the richest country on the planet, the the average real estate agents income less than 30 $40,000 Gross commission income a year. And this takes a while for real estate agents with less than two years of experience is less than $9,000 a year like how are you even survive? And like I don’t even know how exactly what happened. So that should not happen in the richest country on the planet. And that’s an easy, the easiest problem. The easy way to solve their problems is just have each individual person specialized in one thing. So if you’re a solo agent, and you’re thinking of joining a team that that’s an easy way to interview the team leaders you ask them what do you mean as a team because that’s a real team now there’s a team want to be a team want to be is this? Okay? DJ, you join my team, and you do all your yourself but I’ll be I’ll be acting like your father figure. I don’t know but oh RP, my role is to motivate you, if you need if you’re a real estate agent, this is your own business, and you need somebody to motivate you. Why not just get a job. You have to be selling, if you’re not a self driven person, if you need some be on the outs to motivate you, then I don’t think this is the right profession. But so the role of a team leader is not just to motivate you to give you pep talk, right? The role of a team leader is to create this infrastructure to create a space. So you can be successful without doing all the opposite way. You can make more money, you have more time. And you enjoy what what is it you do in life, right? If you like to go hiking, you like to go vacation, just like any normal people.
D.J. Paris 35:52
You’re so right. And I think all of our audience can really resonate with that. And understanding, we can all sit and think about our real estate practice and think what’s the part of my business that I’m not very good at, or I don’t like to do, or I just, it’s just a real struggle for me and I find myself not doing it or not doing a very good job. That’s the stuff where you have to you look, you can beat yourself up about not being good at something, or you can get somebody to help with that. Which case could be a virtual assistant or a team member. And, and you don’t have to do everything because you can’t do everything. Just like managing brokers can’t do everything. Either, you as an individual solo practitioner are going to struggle, because there’s going to be some part of your business that you’re just you don’t enjoy doing, but you need to get it done. And that’s where a team and I couldn’t agree more. That’s where team infrastructure is really important that the team leader could say, Hey, you’re really great at this particular, you know, sort of part of the business, maybe it’s a listing presentation, or doing the comps or doing customer service, or prospecting or whatever, or managing finances, whatever it might be. If you can hyper focus on that. And then you have a team, you know, other team members to do the things that that you’re not particularly strong at. Boy, you’re a powerhouse. And you get to tell your client, you don’t just get me because I’m really going to be mostly focused on this one task. I’ve got five or you know, three to five or 10 other members of my team that’s going to fill in the gaps for everything. I’m going to be the person that’s just staying in touch with you and but I got a whole army behind me to make sure that this goes smoothly. That is a very impressive sales presentation to to a buyer or seller.
Rudy Kusuma 37:45
Yeah. And that’s called leverage. Think about it. Right? That’s leverage because let me tell you a story brand new agent joining my team 20 years old, TJ 20 years old, never sell anything in our life, right? First year in the business making over 70 income second year on the business 50,000. Now this is third or fourth year, always making over 202 50 250,000. net net income income. The reason I say net take home income because as a team members, you just have to focus on one thing. And additional expenses, right? Because the team leaders already created this space. So for me DJ, that’s called leverage. Right? So where else cannot 20 years old, within her first less than five years in the business already? Over 500,000 basically right? Within the first four years now, where else can we do that, but the only way you can do something like that. She the new team members that 20 years old her name is Misha, to leverage the two models. He leverages the team system C leverage everything that I’ve done your team, whatever your team leaders have done, you leverage that. So you can just focus on one thing, and I like what you said TJ, like, instead of focusing on your weakness, instead of trying to improve what you’re weak on, if you’re not be successful, focus on your strength, develop your God given talent, because every single one of us, we all have this, God given talent, right? This but then if you don’t practice, you don’t develop your God given talent. It’s useless. Just because you know how to, I don’t know, just because you think you’re looking at every athletes or anybody that successful in their fields. Do you think they’re born like that they practice every single day. But they practice on the one thing, the problem with real estate agents DJ, they try to practice on the staff that like 20 different stuff. So now they become average in everything.
D.J. Paris 39:49
It’s a great point. And this we are so fortunate to live in the current time we have where teams are plentiful, assistance are plentiful. Well, you can find assistants from all over the world that can help you with with with all these sorts of tasks. But what what I what I’d like to say in wrapping up this conversation is, you know, look, I’m inspired by Rudy and his success is truly impressive 5000 homes over a billion sold in real estate, his team is incredibly impressive. And if there is anyone out there listening who is in California, who’s an agent that is looking to maybe find a team, or join Rudy’s team, or, you know, really go under his, his tutelage as, as, as a mentor, what’s the best way that an agent should reach out to you, Rudy,
Rudy Kusuma 40:45
we have to we have two opportunities, TJ either either you can join my team, where I just supply you with buyers and listing appointments, or here at your home sold guaranteed, we actually help you to grow and develop your own team. So it’s, it’s up to you. But if you want to learn more about how our team system works, go to WWE top agents free.com. And I will actually do a quick tutorial sharing with you how the team system actually works.
D.J. Paris 41:20
Yeah, and once again, that’s top agents and agents is plural top agents freedom.com. And that will tell you everything you’d like to know about Rudy and his system. He’s also the author of an amazing book, which is called Death of the traditional real estate agent Rise of the super profitable Real Estate Sales Team available on Amazon, which you can find in the show notes a link right there, which you can purchase. Rudy, thank you so much for being on our show. You are wonderful guest I love your attitude, you certainly have an incredible mindset. And I like that your team structure is so well defined. And it hopefully will serve as a model for the rest of our audience as they continue to think about how their business may develop in the coming years. If you’re a solo practitioner, you really should be thinking about, you know, in the next couple of years, do you want to partner up with someone? Do you want to be able to offer more? I once asked, I’ll leave with this one question. Or this one anecdote. I once interviewed a team it was a two, two person team, two women. And I asked them when we weren’t on the air because I didn’t want to embarrass them or have them reveal any this on the air. But I asked them, I’ll keep them anonymous. So I can I can tell the story. But I said just out of curiosity, because you’re two people. Do you charge more for your listing for your listings? I said, What do you charge? Because here in the Chicagoland area, the average listing commission is probably 5%. That’s probably the average. And they go, Oh, we charge 7%. And I said really? I said that’s, that’s that’s a lot more, right. I don’t know what percentage more that is, but it’s substantial. And I said, if you’re in competition with other people who are charging 5%, or even 6%, how do you do 7%. And they looked at me like, we don’t have any problem with we have no problem selling the 7%. And I said, Well, how do you do that? Don’t people ask about it? And they said, No, because we explained that we’re two people, you’re getting two of us. And it’s only 2% more. And I said, Oh wow. And they both had their own skill sets. And they were different. And I said, Well, that’s how they do it. That makes perfect sense to me. And so we’re talking leverage. And that’s, of course, what Rudy is all about is creating a team so you can leverage all of the strengths of those team members to be able to if you want to increase your fees, that’s probably about the only way you can do it really is by doing adding more services. And that’s by adding more team members. So Rudy, what a great idea. So if anyone out there is in the California area as an agent, and you’re looking to see what other teams and offices offer, visit top agents freedom.com. Rudy, thank you so much for being on our show. This was a real pleasure, your absolute joy to interview and your energy is definitely, boy, it’s it’s it’s just so so much fun. And I’m sure our audience enjoyed it. So on behalf of our audience, we want to thank Rudy for spending time he is incredibly busy, but taking time out of his day to speak with us. And also on behalf of Rudy and myself. We want to thank our audience for continuing to listen and watch and support our show the best way that you can help us grow, telephoned, think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from hearing this great conversation with Rudy and send them a link to our show. The easiest way to do that, go right to our website, keeping it real pod.com. Again, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, can be streamed right there or just pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real. Hit that subscribe button. Rudy, thank you so much. It was a pleasure. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Rudy. Good to be here. Thank you DJ
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