Hans Struzyna, a top producer from the Bay Area with Gunderman Group at Keller Williams, is a former U.S. Olympic rower. In this episode Hans talks about his experience as an Olympian and the discipline that helped carry over into his real estate practice. Next, Hans talks about the switch from a professional athlete to a real estate professional. He shares marketing strategies and his plans for 2021. Last, Hans talks about his own podcast and the challenges he faced with the post-production of his episodes which led him to starting a post-production company for podcasts.
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Hans Struzyna can be reached at (510) 768 – 8228 and EastBayHans@gmail.com.
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. As always, I am your guide and host through the show. And also, as always, we want to thank everyone who is listening to these words right now, because you’re the reason we do this show and really appreciate it. And we would also ask that you keep the train rolling by doing just really one thing, tell a friend think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from hearing from great producers like Hans, which we’re about to get to in just a moment. And tell them about the show and you can send them over to our website where they can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from the site, but they can also subscribe via really any podcast app because we’re on every directory so just shoot them over to keeping it real pod.com And you can see every episode that we’ve ever done there so thanks again guys. But now on to our interview with the Olympic athlete turn top real estate agent Han ster Xena.
Right today on the show we have Constance Xena from the Gunderman group with Keller Williams luxury International in the San Francisco Bay Area. We tell you a little bit about Hans Hans is a US Olympian turned top producing Bay Area realtor and as a realtor partner with the Gunderman group, the top team in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay area. Now having done this is absolutely incredible, over 50 million in just under four years. Hans believes in being coachable, applying what he learns to the benefit of his clients and ultimately providing as much value as possible to his clients. And at the end of the day, he always says he is an advisor and not a decider and works to improve his skills and knowledge. So he can live that out to at a high level. Hans is also the host of an interview based podcast called another way to play we encourage everyone right now, grab your phone, if you’re if you’re not listening, well, even if you’re listening to this on a phone, or if you’re watching us live, grab your phone, pull up a podcast app and look up another way to play and subscribe. This is where Hans and his guests talk about mindset, probably the most important part of running a real estate practice and how it helps you blow the roof off your success. So Hans is a triple threat. He’s a Top Producing Realtor, a podcaster. And of course, a US Olympian. We are so excited to have him on the show, please visit him and his website, which is Hans josina.com. And a spell that for you. It’s H ANSSTRUZYN a.com. It’ll also be in the show notes. Please visit him there and subscribe to this podcast. Hans. Welcome to the show.
Hans Struzyna 3:39
And I appreciate you having me on this is awesome.
D.J. Paris 3:42
Yeah, really excited. I never get to talk to other podcasters unless I get invited on a show. And I never get invited on shows. But I never get to talk to another podcaster also top realtor and a US Olympian, you’re the first Olympian we’ve had on the show. So we’re really excited to have you. But and I know you’re relatively I don’t want to say new to real estate you’ve done 50 million in production, but still in four years that is beyond incredible. Do you mind sharing with our audience? Well, let’s first start with the Olympics. How did you become an Olympian Olympic athlete?
Hans Struzyna 4:17
Gosh, that’s that’s a long story for sure. But the short version is essentially one day at a time. And I was in the sport for just over 12 years. And it started in the Seattle Washington area on Lake Sammamish. And we as a family got word that we could take family lessons like a group, little private thing during the summer. And my parents knew about rowing. They were not into rowing, but it was visible in the Pacific Northwest because there’s water a lot all over the place. And we just thought that would be a cool thing. So we went down and tried it out and basically it was kind of fun. I wasn’t really doing In other sports at the time, because I a big part of my story is I grew late. So athletically, I was behind the curve for football and basketball and all that stuff. Yeah. And basically, I wasn’t doing a sport that that fall. Because I, when I was playing football, I was the smallest guy, but one of the oldest, you know. And so I basically got convinced to join the team. And then I joined the fall team, and then I joined it kept going into the spring. And then once we hit the spring, that’s what everyone says, you kind of get hit with this bug of rowing. And it’s this weird thing that you kind of love it, and you hate it at the same time. And it’s hard to explain for those who haven’t done it, but I definitely loved a little more than I hated it. And I just kept going from there.
D.J. Paris 5:45
Wow. So you’ve so you’ve been rowing for 12 years?
Hans Struzyna 5:49
Yeah. Well, I guess I officially really retired in 2016, after the Olympics, but but it wasn’t. Well, I officially really retired in 2018, because that was kind of half in half out for a couple years, just deciding if I wanted to go back for another another cycle or not. But I did take after that whole year off, that was a plan. And then I was thinking maybe I’ll come back, maybe not we’ll see.
D.J. Paris 6:14
Well, I can’t how, when you were when you were actively practicing for the Olympic team, how many hours a day were you putting in and was it was it basically every, you know, five or six days a week? Was it seven days a week is that work?
Hans Struzyna 6:27
It was interesting, I was actually trying to remember that today, I was listening to another podcast, and someone was just talking about how she was working six days a week on average, through her 20s and 30s. And that’s kind of one big thing of how she propelled to where she’s at. I was let’s see, during high school, it was all five days a week during college, it was about 20, the NCAA tops you out it not at 20 hours a week. Wow. And then and that’s just for sports in general, because you’re a student athlete, and all that, right. But then after college, it’s like, that’s your job man, like you are in it. So we were training, I think, depends on the week in the month, but 11 to 14 times a week. And so it was you know, in many cases, it was literally twice a day for a couple of hours each session. And you know, heart, your heart rate training, your cardiovascular is a big part of the sport, as well as obviously lifting weights, and then practicing the skill of actually rowing the boat. So all of that combined is, you know, I mean, shoot, it was probably 3040 hours when you count sort of the warm ups and cooldowns and all that other stuff a week for three or four years after college.
D.J. Paris 7:41
That’s incredible. Wow. And I can’t imagine the just the sheer amount of discipline that’s required to compete at that level has to have served you in really a lot of other areas of your life.
Hans Struzyna 7:53
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve talked about this on other shows, and I’ll talk about it on this one, which is, you know, I definitely have built up this, this discipline, you know, hard work and stuff, it came it came to me sort of from a young age because I had trouble in school actually was diagnosed in fourth grade with like a learning disability. I saw, you know, it wasn’t like the typical thing of dyslexia that most people think where you like, see things backwards. But that’s like the easiest way to describe it. And, you know, I struggled in math and spelling and all that sort of stuff. So I ended up having to go into basically special classes before school or and do extra homework after school. And so I was really upset about it at fourth grade. And then something eventually clicked for me, which is like, this is what it is. And I now if I just power through this, I’m going to probably get through it. And I ended up graduating this program, I think in less than four years, which at the time was probably the fastest anyone had gone through that program and graduated. And, and so that really stuck with me of like, okay, you can’t always control you know, what you’re born with, or what what you have coming in, but you can definitely control the effort and the attitude that you bring to it. And then, you know, forward that to sports and business and life and relationships and all the other stuff that we could talk about. I’ve just had a lot of reps at it, frankly.
D.J. Paris 9:20
Well, and it sounds like you know, even overcoming the learning disability was really a discipline in of itself. You’re already going to school now you’re going before school and after school, you’re putting in additional reps, even to just overcome it and you did it quicker than than anyone previously had. That’s I mean, that’s the almost, you know, an incredible feat. What is not almost it is that an incredible feat, and really set probably set the stage for you to be able to conquer anything else. So,
Hans Struzyna 9:50
I was definitely blessed with great parents, by the way, who like signed me up for that who could afford it who could, you know, push me to actually do the work you know, all that good stuff. So we I always talk about for the Olympics, at least it takes a tribe to send someone to the Olympics, from donations to meal prep to all that stuff, you know, all the little things. And And anyways, so it wasn’t necessarily all me and I can’t take 100% credit, but it was I ended up doing the work, but I had a lot of good influences helping.
D.J. Paris 10:20
Was there ever times where you wanted to quit and just say, you know, I this is too much at any point during during your career, and maybe this would be stillborn when you were younger. And your parents said, stick it out, you can do this, you know, what, what was the? What was the push there? Or was it all just something you wanted? Or you said it takes a village, you know, serious on on? Because I think parents struggle with this a lot like, yeah, my child is into this particular sport or extra curricular activity, but they’re frustrated and they want to quit and like, what do you do? Like, do you let them quit? Or do you not let them quit? Right?
Hans Struzyna 10:54
Well, I haven’t. See, I think it was my fifth grade football team. And it was through the Boys and Girls Club. So it was like a wreck thing. And I was telling my parents, as I’m sure many parents who are listening have heard, you know, the coach is a jerk. And it was not until later in the season that they actually realized that the coach was the problem. But But through that it was like no, like, he’s just being tough on you guys. Because it’s a tough sport and blah, blah, blah. And we you don’t quit you see this through like you committed to the season, you can’t let your teammates down. Like I got a lot of those good lessons. But then I also realized, like, no, the coach is actually just a bad person and shouldn’t be in charge of a fifth grade football team.
D.J. Paris 11:36
I have I have to pause here is like if I had the exact same experience, I only did Pop Warner Football or whatever we call it. In fifth grade one year, the coach and I was, you know, in fifth grade, I didn’t know the coach was a disaster. But But looking back, I was like, Oh man, that coach was brutal and not in a good way. Just just uh, maybe not even a great guy kind of kind of thing. So I understand that I ended up pivoting. I was a tennis player. So I’ve stayed with tennis. But But yeah, it drove me away. And it wasn’t because I wimped out, it was just like, No, this is not there’s no fun in this. And maybe this shouldn’t be a lot of fun. But there should be a little tiny bit and this coach just sucked all of it out.
Hans Struzyna 12:15
100% Yeah, it’s so to answer your question. It’s like there’s a line between, you know, push through and do what’s hard and do do the thing that makes you uncomfortable? And then do you know, are you in an unhealthy environment? Is this really a productive thing for you, you know,
D.J. Paris 12:33
and how important is coaching been, I imagine, as an Olympic athlete, coach, every Olympic athlete has a coach, I’m sure about pretty much every type of athlete as a coach. So how important was coaching then, in order to you know, sort of just being able to sit down and do the work, say, okay, you know, the coach says, do this, I’m going to do that, because the coach knows, knows the the program and the path. You know, being coachable, I imagine is just a critical aspect of life.
Hans Struzyna 13:01
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you said it, like every athlete has a coach along the way, somewhere, if not multiple coaches at multiple different times. Yeah. And there’s, there’s definitely an element of like picking a coach and in, you know, trying to find someone who aligns with you. But there’s also an element of like, going with someone who just can’t, has succeeded in their own path, and then now can teach it to you and then trying to like, learn it a new way. And I had, as I said, I had really great coaches, some really bad coaches, all of whom certainly had more experience than me and knew a little bit of something. And I frankly, learned something from all of them. And I really seriously think one of my best traits, as a real estate agent, as a business person is just a human being and a friend, and whatever is that coachability aspect is like being able to take someone’s opinion, or their thought or their feedback, and then apply that to think about it critically, of course, but then actually try it, apply it and see how it works in my situation. And you know, if you can apply that when your coach is a jerk or a bad coach, and you can say, what’s the one thing that I can learn from this person, all you’re doing is improving your ability to be coachable and to and to really take advantage when you get a good one?
D.J. Paris 14:25
Well, that’s true, because coaches can be jerks and still be right. You’re right. And so a lot of times I know I’ve had you know, whether any sort of teacher or coach in my life, they’re not always nice and friendly. But, but but they could also be accurate in what they’re wanting me to do. And I’ve sort of learned and I don’t know, I’m curious what your thoughts are, as you know, we have so much independence and individuality in the United States here is and we’re taught every child is unique and special. And and I think I think kids are probably becoming harder to coach because I don’t Know how much how much they’re being taught to listen to someone else who might know a bit better or a bit more. And I wonder if I wonder if that’s as strong as it was when you and I were younger?
Hans Struzyna 15:13
Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting. I mean, yes, every kid is special and unique and all of that, like everyone is. But there, you know, there’s things like the Myers Briggs or, you know, disc profiles that all real estate agents know about. And like, we all also fit into patterns and not that we’re all predictable, per se, but but just because you think you’re, you know, a perfect special snowflake, you know, doesn’t mean you can’t also learn something from from a very, like, broad stroking piece of advice.
D.J. Paris 15:45
Yeah, so how did you make the switch from, from a Olympic athlete to, to real estate.
Hans Struzyna 15:49
So I would go down to San Diego with my team at various teams, because there’s an Olympic Training Center down there. And as you can imagine, the weather’s great all year round. So we’d go down there for various lengths of stay in for training camps, and one with one of the teams, we couldn’t stay on campus because it was all full. So we had to get an Airbnb. And we stayed with a couple different people, one of whom we only needed half of their large house. And they said, you know, okay, that’s cool, you can have the half well, we’ll be living the other half. And it was kind of weird, but it but for us, we were like, cool, we’ll just stay there. It’s five minutes away from the training center, we don’t care. We’re just trying to crash on the couch, basically. And they, they’re real estate agents, and they were flipping houses also. Oh, and so basically, I just sort of trying to be friendly and make it not awkward that we were kind of crashing in their couch and like eating all this food their kitchen. Would would just talk to him about what I did you know, the the Ford Model like family recreation, occupation, dreams, basically, like what do you guys do? And and what’s your life like? And I learned pretty quickly that they were real estate agents, they were investors, and they were living a lifestyle that I thought was pretty cool. He was training for an Ironman at the time, they had three kids, they all all things looked pretty good, frankly, from a lifestyle perspective. And so I just kept in touch with them. And we stayed with them a handful of times after that. And after the Olympics, they invited me down back to San Diego to talk to me about their business and what they actually did. And the end of that two day little kind of recruitment, I guess I don’t really know what to better call it, they offered me this opportunity to effectively open up a satellite office of their operation in my area, which is in the Bay Area. And they would support me with all their VAs and all of their systems from San Diego. And the licenses, you know, it was one broker license because one state so worked out pretty well. So that is I said, that sounds pretty good. It sounds really flexible. You know, I can get my real estate license. And if I don’t like it, I’ll go into commercial or I’ll do something else. And, and maybe I’ll go back to training, who knows. But that is that is how I started.
D.J. Paris 18:16
And so when opening the office or when starting your own, you know, your own practice. How did you go about finding clients? You know, that’s, I’m just I’m always fascinated, I don’t produce myself, I have a license, I bought things myself, but I’ve never worked with with the public, because not really what I do. But I’m always fascinated with agents and how they get started. So you know, how was it that you started finding people to work with?
Hans Struzyna 18:41
Well, these these guys being that they had sort of that investment flair, were focused on foreclosures and that sort of thing. The broker, I believe, still holds the record for the most Oreos sold in Southern California, I think it was in 2009 or 2010. He did like 750 or something ridiculous, you know, back in the o nine to 10, something like that. And, and so he was like that just as a model. It’s transactional. But it’s a it’s a model that works because people in foreclosure don’t care if you’re brand new, they care. Like I need to get out. They just want the deal. Yeah, right. Yeah. And so I basically started cold calling lists of pre foreclosures and you know, just anything that looked like it had some hair on it, frankly, and I got the Mojo dialer, I would do triple line dialer, couple hours a day set appointments, you know, you know, the model, like, that’s what I was doing. And then in the first couple of deals, I would get a an appointment and he would get on a Southwest flight fly up, do the appointment with me because I wasn’t licensed at the time he was and so he would be the agent. I would be just his assistant basically. And then I got to learn firsthand what he was doing and all of that. And then once I got licensed I was just going on those appointments my son elephan I did nine deals my first year, and I almost did 11. But two of them crazy stories, but they were foreclosures and they got foreclosed on because the sellers were just so deep in denial, it was, I saw hundreds of 1000s In one case, like a couple $100,000 of net equity evaporate for somebody and it was like, I it like kind of crushed me, frankly, because I I put in all this work, they I worked so hard to get them to understand where they were at and it just disappeared. I’m like, I don’t know if I can keep doing this forever. And but that’s how I started is is in the foreclosure short sale, you know, notice the default world.
D.J. Paris 20:40
Are you still working mostly with investors? Or is that are you working more with with the public, you know, buyers sellers, that kind of thing as well.
Hans Struzyna 20:47
I am working exclusively with the public I except for my own personal investing. No, I do you Well, that’s not entirely true. I have a couple of buddies and a couple of acquaintances who who do want to flip and who do want to do some investing. So I keep my eyes out. But the market here is just so hard for you know, rentals and flips and stuff. Because there’s such a demand for housing right now in the Bay Area that even if something’s a total dog, it sells for a premium and there’s no margin it in it to flip it.
D.J. Paris 21:21
Right. Right. Yeah, it’s the Bay Area. Boy, it’s just its own animal. It’s, it’s absolutely incredible. That in New York, they I think they like trade off back and forth with what’s what’s more exclusive and expensive. We’re here in Chicago, things are a little bit more reasonable here, but we’re seeing activity slow down. And we have about 700 realtors in our company here. And, you know, it’s amazing, because I would think like I’m buying right now because rates are you know, where they’re at of court. And I just assumed everybody would be not everyone. But a lot of people would be coming out of the stay at home order earlier this year, like I did, saying I want a bigger place. And some some brokers are experiencing that. And a lot of saying, Oh, it’s pretty quiet right now. So it’s really unusual time.
Hans Struzyna 22:03
Well, you know, I’m our geography, I don’t know Chicago that well. And I hope to go there I will, we’re actually going to go there this summer, my wife went to UW Madison, and we were going to do you know some time in there and then go up to Madison and whatever, but I haven’t been so I don’t know the geography. But here there has been a real trend of eastward movement, meaning everyone in Silicon Valley through the peninsula up to San Francisco has gone to the East Bay. Because the density is a little bit less your money goes a lot farther on $1 per square foot basis. And then all of our people like our current residents are moving to like Sacramento, Tahoe, Idaho, Oregon, as you know, Texas, you name it there. It’s east, it’s everyone’s moving east for whatever reason.
D.J. Paris 22:49
Yeah, yeah, I have a friend who has a rent control in the city. And he’s been, he’s been there for like 20 years. And he makes incredible money, he probably makes money, I won’t get into it, but he makes a good living. And he lives in this little tiny apartment. He’s like, I can never give this up. Because, you know, it’s, it’s really, it’s really pretty crazy. He’s like, you know, one day, I’ll be able to afford a $3 million place. But he lives in this little tiny, you know, basically studio with his wife, because he gets the greatest deal ever. So I know, you know, rentals are just, you know, so unusual. In New York and Cisco. We don’t have rent control here. So everything’s a bit different. But let’s talk about about marketing. Because you you are obviously a marketing guy, like like me, talk a little bit about sort of how you market your business. And you know, even any suggestions for our audience who might be thinking of, you know, right now, as things kind of slow down towards the end of the year, what could I be doing to gear up my marketing for either early next year, or even right now?
Hans Struzyna 23:50
Yeah, I’ve got two different thoughts on this one is probably the answer, you’re expecting to some degree, and the other one may not be so I’ll start with that one. Which is, my my personal opinion is that the best marketing you do is to kill it for your client. Because if you do that, you will have a walking billboard for eternity with that person. I, for example, just got literally on Monday, something it’s Friday today, house closed. I worked with that buyer for maybe two weeks, showed them a couple of off markets negotiated, you know, we went into it, but it was a short engagement. They’ve already sent me two referrals. And, you know, and so that to me, like one a couple of things that I really did when I joined the Gunderman groups I told you, I was doing foreclosures for about two years. And I was like, There’s got to be a better way. So fast forward. I pitched myself to the top team in the East Bay who I knew socially through mutual contacts, and they agreed to ultimately bring me on and all I did was learned there. There flavor real estate. And that flavor included just leaning so hard into the fiduciary duty of our license and representing people’s interest, understanding the contract backwards, forwards left, right center, and nosing how to open and close loopholes, knowing how to exploit a solo solar lease or what a test hole is. And really understanding this as not just like I’m trying to lead, generate and be transactional, but like, I am genuinely looking out for this person’s best interests, especially when you’ve got a million dollar price point. It’s it goes so far. So I would say if people are listening to this, their business is starting to slow down for the year, which all of ours is for the moment. Start reading the contract that you write, you know, really seriously go through that thing, line by line, start taking notes, read it three times before the end of the year and know it, like you know, any other document that you’ve ever spent time with. Like if you can then tell your client like, they call you with a question and you’re in your car and you say, Yeah, line eight, section B needs to be blah, blah, and blah, oh, you’re super stoked that way? They’re like, wait a second, are you look and I was like, no, no, I just know it, you know? Yeah. And, and so that, to me is absolutely paramount, if you want to really knock it out for people. And then beyond that, it’s it’s then, you know, definitely asking for those referrals. And, you know, staying in touch with the people who you’ve closed with, especially the ones you have a good connection and rapport with. You know, I always anytime someone sends me a client, I always send them something of value, like a gift card, and I don’t send it for like five or 10. I send it for like 75 or 100 bucks. Yeah, granted, my Commission’s are larger, because our transactions are larger. But that is absolutely in my opinion, you know, you take care of those people, you train them, you reinforce that behavior. So from an easy marketing standpoint, that’s one. And then beyond that, it’s like, you have to start thinking about if people Google you, or people come across you on Facebook or whatever, what are they going to see? Ya know, what are what, like, if you go Google my name, right now, you’ll find that everything on there, I’ve put there intentionally, and I own that front page for my name. Now, are people searching for me my name specifically, not necessarily, unless they hear me somewhere. But I want to make sure that I am absolutely controlling that 100%. And that part is free.
D.J. Paris 27:36
You know, that’s a really, really strong point, I’ve done Gosh, we’ve done a few 100 episodes. Now, I don’t think anyone’s really specifically talked about that. And even the referrals, that obviously you’re getting quite a quite a number of, you know, a lot of times those referrals might also Google you just to start to see what you’re about, you know, even though you’ve came highly recommended from, from the person they know. So that is such a really strong point. And, you know, make sure that you do that your online presence is what you want to be seen. And if there are things out there that you know, would maybe negatively impact your business that you’re either okay with that, or that you’re willing to make those adjustments. Because you’re absolutely right. And then this goes into, you know, what’s my Zillow profile look like? You know, do I have a Google My Business page? Do I have some good reviews there? But also, what does my social media profile look like? My personal and is it public? If it is, what am I posting? Is it okay? Am I posting things that maybe I wouldn’t want people to see, these are all you were talking, you use the word intentional, this is really important stuff. Because everyone’s going to just assume everyone’s going to Google you and, and Hans has done a great job. His website is really, I’m not speaking to Hans, and of course, speaking to the audience, but his website is absolutely really impressive. I really encourage everyone to check it out. It’ll be there in the show notes. But you’ll see the intentionality he put into this into this website. And again, it’s also you know, promoting his, he does a lot of videos, he does a podcast, you know, he has a lot of good content on there. So if you go to his website, which you Google his name, that’s what’s coming up first, I can just go to that homepage. And I know a lot about him. And you put a ton of time into that. And that is really, really important. And it’s how we did a lot of research for you, you know, to have you on the show. But boy, that was a smart move.
Hans Struzyna 29:25
Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate that. The way that I’m so I’m obviously fortunate to be on a team and and I get leads from the team. The team has overflow, my my mentors are starting to trust me more. So they’re giving me a few more of their kind of value clients because they’re not too far from retiring. Like that’s a whole strategic play. And when I first joined that team, I was like, my number one marketing channel is to market to my team leaders. And I literally thought of it that way. Like how do I bring them value? How do I prove to them that I can handle this? And that’s like what I did for the first year. changed, probably. And then it worked. And now I got a lot of trust, I get a lot of leads, I get a lot of opportunities with their past clients that they don’t want to work with anymore. And, you know, it’s it’s teeing me up in a different way. So marketing, you can go buy ads and be transactional in that way, which I’m not saying don’t do, I’m just saying, like, think a little bit more intentionally, like, where’s the lower hanging fruit for you? Because chances are, it’s probably right in front of you. And it might be free or pretty darn cheap.
D.J. Paris 30:30
Yeah, you just You said something so important, I want to just circle back to it, where you said marketing to, in your case, you marketed to your team leaders, and I don’t think anyone else has ever mentioned that as well. In in specifically in that way. And, and so if I were an agent right now, which which I technically am, but I don’t practice, I would be begging every top producer in my in my office and begging them, meaning I’d be trying to provide them value trying to build a relationship so that when they have open houses, I can go sit at those open houses, you know, if leads aren’t flowing your way from from the group you’re in, or just the company you work for, go up to those top producers and say, I am dedicated to helping you sell these homes. Can you let me come in and do and I prompt, you gotta be persistent, obviously, you know about persistence. But that would be you know, that’s marketing to your team leaders. That’s one one way to do that. And that’s gonna get you a ton of experience, do as many of those as you can.
Hans Struzyna 31:24
Definitely. And, and psychologically, the other thing I think about relative to the website, and the videos I put out, like, I see, this still sticks in my mind, like there’s an agent that I’ve seen on on social media who put something out the beginning of October, so cute beginning of q4, right? That was like the 90 day homeownership challenge. And I still remember this because it and to me, I didn’t I it struck a chord negatively with me, because I it’s sort of like, oh, you know, you should buy a house. And here’s why. Like, I don’t want to find people that I have to convince to transcribe, what I want to find is the people who are who are actively looking to transact, who have that motivation. And then tell them what they need to know to do it, give them some value with my YouTube videos, or my my social media posts about things to look out for, or, you know, whatever the case is, and then, and then draw them into my world. And that just generally with my newsletter that I put out, you know, the YouTube videos, it’s all about giving value away explaining stuff to them, that I would explain to my own clients, it hopefully in the way that I explain it to my clients, so that they can, they can genuinely be helped in the five or 10 minutes they spend on my stuff. And when I bring I think when you bring that to your engagement, and you stop trying to convince people to buy, and just be a resource when people are ready to buy and just be consistently in front of them for that. You can’t lose on that one.
D.J. Paris 33:00
Yeah, he basically talking about attraction versus persuasion. Right. Persuasion. You know, a lot of times people want to study persuasion, they want to know how to overcome those objections. And of course, yes, you should have, you know, answers to traditional object objective type of questions and statements so that you can service your clients. But if you’re trying to, it’s a lot easier to attract people that are already interested in wanting to go down that path. In your case, you create lots of great content, people find that content online, and then think, Hey, this is a guy who’s providing a tremendous amount of value, I’m gonna go with him. And Hans doesn’t have to persuade people as much to you know, convert them from a renter to a buyer, but he’s already finding people that are interested in purchasing because if his content is centered around that, which I think makes a ton of sense, it’s really smart.
Hans Struzyna 33:49
Yeah, I appreciate that. I gotta say, like, nothing I’ve done is original, necessarily. And by that, I mean, it’s not like I invented any of the strategies. My YouTube 100% came from Karen Carr. And if you don’t know her, go Google her. She’s got some cool YouTube stuff. And she’s get she gets like 75% of her business from YouTube leads and she doesn’t even I don’t I think she has less than 10,000 YouTube subscribers and most of her videos get you know, a couple 100 Maybe a couple 1000 views like it’s she’s not like a viral sensation per se but she kills it. And then you know, podcasting I do have a podcast I’ve been doing it for over a year it is not a real estate specific podcast it’s a more of a mindset you know, human interest, storytelling podcast of of people who happen to be good at business in most cases. And and the reason I started that was to basically build my network. My my mentor in that area is Travis Chappell, who has the build your network podcast. I hired him as my podcast coach. He taught me everything he knew at the time about it. And basically, long and short of it, it was the reason to start a podcast is not to build an audience, it’s to have a good excuse to get in front of the guest. And, and if you then say like, if you called me up and said, Hey, can I get 30 minutes of your time? I’m fairly generous, I might give it to you, but I might be busy. But if you’ve called me and said, Can I get you on my podcast? I’d be like, Absolutely, hell yeah, no, no problem. And that logic works on pretty much anybody you want to get in front of. So that’s really why I started it and continue to do it.
D.J. Paris 35:32
Yeah, the podcast is called another way to play. And again, we encourage everyone watching or listening right now to subscribe, check it out, listen to some, some stories, storytelling, from top business execs from from all over. And Hans and I were actually talking about this before, before we started, I’m just going to mention it because Han seemed to be in agreement with me that one of the suggestions Hans and I are podcasters. And we both do this to give to just provide value. And it’s something that is a lot of fun. And probably, I can’t speak for Hans, but I imagine provides him with a lot of satisfaction of being able to share these stories and help other people, you know, learn from these top business execs. And of course, we do a very similar thing on our show. And what we were talking about, you know, podcasting. And for everyone listening who thinks that this is something that they can’t do, maybe they don’t have the voice for it, or they don’t have the knack for this sort of conversation, you probably are better would be better at this than you think. But also, if you can commit to it, you know, real estate. And of course, Hans knows this better than I do. Real estate is hyperlocal, you could create a hyperlocal podcast for your local community. You know, if it was me, if I was a realtor, I don’t have a lot of friends. Look, I’ve had a license for years and years, not one of my friends has ever said, Hey, can you help me buy or sell a home because they, they just don’t think of me in that way. Because I don’t position myself that way. But if I were wanting to get more people interested in, in what, you know, me as a as a real estate agent, I would be reaching out to local businesses. You know, if you think about it, local businesses are always getting hammered by all sorts of advertising companies, newspapers, billboards, TV, radio, hey, advertise, you know, they want them to spend money to advertise their business, you’re gonna you can call up these local businesses, they have creating, I have a podcast where I feature local businesses in my three block area or wherever you live, your town, your city, your county, whatever. And you can say, I just wanted to feature you and hear your story about why you started your business. I’m going to promote this to our listeners, they’re going to love that just like Han said, when he gets called and says, Hey, can you be on my show, he jumps in and I do the same thing. When people asked me to be on the show, I don’t think I’ve ever turned anyone down. Even if it’s a really tiny podcast, I’m happy to do it. Because it might just get somebody else listening, going, Hey, I want to listen to what DJs podcast is about and Hans his podcast. And this is something anybody can do. You don’t need a ton of equipment. I will say the hardest part about it for everyone listening is actually not the interview, because all you have to do is get a guest and say tell me your story. And, and probably go okay, the hardest part, at least in my perspective, after doing this for four or five years now is the post production. And so Hans and I were talking about that. And he’s like, actually, I have a post production company. So tell us a little bit about that. So anyone listening, by the way before, I’m sorry, Hans, I’m stepping all over you. But I just wanted to say, you can start a podcast, you can interview local businesses think about the value that you’re providing to them. And that’s just one idea. There’s a million podcast ideas, but that’s a good one. Because then they’re gonna want to promote it to their to their clientele their social followings. But then the hard part is, is all the editing and the production. So tell us about about streamline? podcast.com?
Hans Struzyna 38:44
Definitely, well, I’ll just I’ll just piggyback on what you said. Then we’ll get into streamline which is if you’re going to start a content based strategy, like a podcast or a YouTube channel, mentally it you have to commit for like a year to end the minimum to do
D.J. Paris 39:03
this. My when I when I brought this idea to my boss, and he goes, here’s the thing you have to commit for a year, or don’t do it at all. And I was like, and I had to think about it. It took me like two more years before I was like, Okay, I’m going to try this. And I just said, I’m going to do it for a year and we had like, no listeners for like half a year. And so yes, you’re absolutely right.
Hans Struzyna 39:24
So the point is it a it just the algorithms it’s crowded, like whether it’s YouTube, Facebook, whatever, I don’t care, do it for a year could because it also like if you say some someone looks at you looks up your show, and you’ve got seven episodes and they were alright, from like eight months ago. That looks really sad. At least if you’re if you close down your show, but you have 150 episodes. It’s like okay, you probably moved on to like a new project or something like that’s respectable if nothing else. Right so Same thing with YouTube videos and all that sort of stuff. But but basically at the beginning of COVID, when everything was up in the air, we didn’t know if the sky was gonna fall or not. I was listening to Gary Keller’s podcast a lot. And he was talking about basically demanding more value out of the dollars that you’re spending in your business and, and in font and challenging us to see where we could cut 10% a month. And for me, I was already running pretty lean personally and in my business, and I thought, Okay, where’s the next biggest expenditure, and it was my podcast editing. And I, I’ve never edited my own podcast, I’ve always paid someone I’ve had enough money to commit and invest into it. I’ve always paid someone for logos and all the other things that I’ve created. And I realized, like, I don’t think I’m getting the highest value I possibly can out of this 500 bucks, or whatever it was every month. And I was like, so they’re at the very minimum, I can probably get the same thing done for less. And so I talked to a buddy who was in a mastermind that I was part of who had a VA company, and he had done at the time, 600 episodes of his show is a daily show. So I was racking them up. And I was like, Who are you using, and he introduced me to his guy. And then that guy started talking. And then meanwhile, another one of our buddies in the same podcast, or in the same mastermind, was thinking about starting a company. And so we all kind of got together with the fourth guy and said, We’re all having this issue of paying too much not being delivered. We’re not monetizing these shows. So these are all loss leaders for our brands, personally, or whatever. And so we’re like we got we can do this better. So we we created this, this thing called streamline podcast, which is essentially a service that keeps podcasters podcasting. And we know that the majority of shows out there won’t monetize or won’t monetize, big enough to warrant you know, making it a full time job. And so how can we provide the highest value for the lowest cost, and effectively, we’ve taken what what any person’s like the industry average for, for editing and cut it almost in half, and increased the value of the shownotes, the post production, the ID three and metadata tagging, and social media graphics all rolled into that one low cost. And, and the goal is to make it as easy as possible and economical as possible for someone to start a show and keep the show going.
D.J. Paris 42:33
Yeah, I love that I so funny, I up until about a year and a half ago, I was doing all of that myself, I’m the guy. I’m a guy who builds websites, and I’m a marketing guy. So I love getting my hands dirty. But it’s really not the best use of my time. So I, I know how to do it. You know, and, and but it takes so much time. And so I did it for the first we’ve done what 220 episodes, I probably did it for the first 120 and I was killing myself after like three years of doing it. I was like, What am I doing. This is not where my time is best spent. But I was just didn’t want to spend the money, I knew I could do it for free. And I would do a good job, but I was killing myself doing it. And finally, you know, now I have somebody to do it. But I wish I would have had streamline podcast.com. Because back when I started it, it was it was so expensive. And I couldn’t find a reasonable solution for that. So I encourage everyone who’s listening, if you’re thinking about starting the show, don’t do the post production yourself. It’s one of the smartest things I ever did was to pass that over and streamline. podcast.com is the place to go because they’re incredibly reasonably priced. And it’s something that’s affordable. And you can do it and you don’t have you can just focus on the show. And don’t worry about the all the technical aspects of it because it is a bear to do.
Hans Struzyna 43:57
And same thing with gear like I’ve got, we’ve got a bunch of blog posts up on our website that you can go check out if you just want to get some free resources of all the gear that I bought, I mean, the entire setup that I have that you’re listening to this on cost less well under $100. And I’ve recorded every single one of my podcasts on this microphone, I’ve got a ring light, I’ve got literally my iPhone here that you’re looking at which the phones these days are super good. So why buy another one. And you know, you kind of in GarageBand or whatever operating system, it’s so easy to start this kind of stuff. Once you kind of get a little bit of a nudge and hopefully some of those blog posts. If you go to the resources section of that website. You can read through those and click on links and it’ll take you all kinds of places.
D.J. Paris 44:46
Awesome. Well, I think that’s a really great place to sort of wrap up we’ve talked about so much oh my gosh, I can’t even recap all the topics but but really, I think that the main point that I think our audience is going to take away from this is just consistency, discipline push through. You know, the good news is and Hans mentioned Gary Keller in his podcast, of course, Hans works at Keller Williams, which, of course, is Gary’s a Gary founded company. You know, Gary’s all about having coaches and you putting your head down and doing the work. And really, this, this business is so much really not dissimilar from the training that that Hans, I’m sure did to become an Olympic athlete. It’s discipline, it’s hard work. And the good news is, there’s so many people that have done it before us. You know, Hans has resources on streamline. podcast.com, if you want to start a podcast, go there. And he’s got all sorts of like, you don’t have to spend a fortune on gear, he can take care of the post production. You know, Gary Keller’s got tremendous. He’s got books and podcasts and resources as well to learn how to grow a business. You don’t even have to be with Keller Williams, you can learn Gary Keller’s approach. The I guess the point is get a coach, get get coachable, and stay disciplined. And you know, Hans, gosh, you just basically shared that same message over and over today. And I really hope that resonated with our audience. I want to remind everyone to please listen to Hans his podcast, which is another way to play. So Google that look it up on your podcast directory. You can also find it right on Honda’s website, which is Hans josina.com. That’s h a n sstruzyna.com. Hans on behalf of our audience, we want to thank you for for your time today are incredible guest we’re super excited to have an Olympic athlete turned top real estate agent and buyer. Can I share your production for this year? Or is that something Yeah, keep
Hans Struzyna 46:43
bring him in bring it hasn’t closed yet. So
D.J. Paris 46:47
well, Hans is on pace to close 30 million. This is his his personal production this year. And there’s about a month and a half left, and he’s going to get there 30 million, and you’re in your fifth year that is beyond incredible, right? So for everyone listening should go to listen to his podcast, I’m going to listen to his podcast because I want to increase the production that I do for my company. And I want to get to the level that you’re at. So for everyone listening though we also on behalf of Hans and myself, we want to thank you for continuing to listen to support our show supporting our guests. And we want to remind everyone to if you want to help us grow our show, there’s two ways to do that. Number one, tell a friend to think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from having heard from from Hans, Olympic athlete turn top producer in this episode, shoot them a link to it, you can find us on our website, which is keeping it real pod.com We have every episode we’ve ever done, we have been broken down into the different show categories. So if you just want to listen to all the top 1% producers like this one with Hans, we have a place to do that. And you don’t even need a podcast app for it. Just go to our website. And the other way is to follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod we post all of our interviews that we do while we’re recording them there. We also find articles every single day that online that are written specifically designed to help agents grow their business and we post it that’s all we post. There’s no fat, it’s all meat. So keeping it sorry facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Hans, thank you so much. I am so so excited that you were on the show and we are excited to watch your continued trajectory upwards to
Hans Struzyna 48:25
Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. And I’ll just leave the audience with this when you start to put consistent action to work over time, key phrase over time, amazing things will happen. So thank you for having me on, man. Appreciate it. And to all of you listening. I hope to connect with you soon.
D.J. Paris 48:45
All right, thanks. We’ll see everyone next time.
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