Jennifer Wehner the CEO and Team Leader of Wehner Group goes back all the way to the beginning of her journey into real estate business. Jennifer talks about her failures and how they brought her success and how important it is to keeping track of your activities. Jennifer also discusses how is she coaching the management of these challenging times in the market. Jennifer shares the first piece of advise for new agents. Last, Jennifer discusses the importance of digging deeper to find your “why”.
To learn more about the Renaissance Real Estate Agent, click here.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Jennifer Wehner can be reached at (480) 748-6925 and jennifer@jenniferwehner.com
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
What does it mean to be a renaissance real estate agent? We’ll discuss that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
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’m your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Jennifer Waner. She’s also the author of the book, The Renaissance real estate agent, we’re going to talk about what that means and why you also need to be a renaissance real estate agent. Before we get to Jennifer. A couple of quick announcements first, please tell a friend about this show. Think of one other realtor that you know that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Jennifer send them a link to our podcast or our website or our Facebook page, whatever. Just tell people about our show. We appreciate it. And the second second thing I asked for all for our audience is to please leave us a review whatever podcast app you might be listening to this my voice on right now. Let us know what you think of the show. Leave us a review. Tell us what you think it helps us continue to grow and improve But enough about me and this let’s get to the main event my interview with Jennifer Weiner.
Today on the show, our guest is Jennifer Wehner group with exp in Scottsdale, Arizona and all over Arizona actually, but let me tell you about Jennifer from being a waitress and a teen mom in Riverside California, to now becoming the CEO of a $200 million a year real estate team. Jennifer Waner has a PhD in grit. In her 18 years in the business she has been through the greatest ups and downs the market has to offer from Oreos and short sales to flipping homes commercial real estate and everything in between. She kept her business alive through being on the cutting edge of digital marketing tactics, including blogging, video and internet lead generation, as well as other tactics in 2014. She started her team the winner group now in 2021. Just eight years later, the winner group did over 200 million in volume and continues to be in the top 10 producers in Arizona annually. In addition to building your own team Jennifer serves as a coach and mentor to other agents across the country. Jennifer is dedicated to helping agents create their own extraordinary real estate business, allowing them to leave a legacy, build a healthy lifestyle and empower their clients to do the same. Jennifer is a wife, a mother of four, a skydiver, a biohacker serial entrepreneur, and is a upcoming author with her book The Renaissance real estate agent coming soon. Now please Venice visit Jennifer at her website, which is Wainer group.com. That’s w e h n er group.com Waner group.com And also check her out on Instagram. She’s at Jennifer dot Waner. We will have links to those in the show notes so you can find them there Jennifer Welcome to the show.
Jennifer Wehner 4:27
Namaste Thank you for having me. It’s uh I know we were talking about channel and just I know what you’re dealing with you know it’s a gritty it’s a gritty it is one gritty roller coaster and the faster the ride is getting these times these days because when I got in and oh three it’s like we just were like cutting edge we had IDX where the it was on a CB you know the MLS? Yeah, sure. And I got into video and oh nine so also check out my YouTube channel. But you know, that was was like, cutting edge for the time. If you look at it now that video looks like it was produced in 1972. But yeah, things have changed, and they change fast. And with technology and emotions and stuff we’re changing. We’re having to pivot and change that roller coaster has gotten a little crazier.
D.J. Paris 5:16
I agree. I’d love to start all the way at the beginning of your journey, because our audience always loves to hear especially somebody with as much time in the business as you and all the different things you do. But I’d love to start all the way to eating why real estate? How did you get in? Tell us that story?
Jennifer Wehner 5:33
Well, let me even go before that. But you know, my great grandma, I’m into legacy, you know, my great grandma, on my dad’s side, she came from Ireland as an indentured slave or servant. But I think seven years to pay your ship ship was sorry, ship passage is not like a really sure mount. But you know, to be able to own land because the British, I don’t know, the British at the time, had we’re doing a genocide on on Ireland to get power against us. But you know, she escaped, you know, that famine and that war to come here for freedom, and worked off her way to buy real estate, which I grew up on that real estate, you know, I grew up cried crash motorcycles on that real estate. But, you know, I had the freedom I remember just running out in the fields like seeing, you know, it’s like owning land, to me was freedom. It truly is the American dream. Because in Britain, you didn’t get to own it. and Ireland, you didn’t get it, own it. So you know, I knew like I wanted to get out of Riverside, California, where I where I grew up. It’s like, the opportunities were just, you know, mediocrity is what most people were shooting for there. And so I moved to the beach, I got into fashion school, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I don’t know if anybody in the call has felt that way. Sometimes. I even feel that way today because we forgot to add aspiring astrologer and polymath but, you know, I got in and you know, met my husband and two dates later, I was like, congratulations. You know? Yeah, Haida. I was pregnant, you know, freshman year in college, going to fashion school, I will have multiple jobs. And you know, I’ve been pretty much supported on my own. So 16, I was homeless a little for a little bit of time between finishing high school and going to college. So you know, it’s like, you know, but always had a job or jobs that it was working towards, and I knew I’d get out of it. And I knew, I remember, like, when I first got my car, my first freedom, you know, driving through these neighborhoods, because I just grew up in a frugal house, like, you can’t have that you can’t have that. It’s like, are we waiting till we die? So we could have things you know, and I’d be like, Look at these beautiful homes, you know, all these, why not me? You know, and so and it’s sad, because I didn’t know what that visual dream was, you know, I just knew I wanted I’ve worked for enough crappy managers, but I wanted to own something I wanted to create, you know, because it kind of, like make a really crappy employee. Like, I’m really good. I was a good food server, I was a really good cashier, but like, those were not where I was going to end my life, you know? So I’m going to business school now fast track and, you know, my daughter getting close, that was always plan X, you know, it’s going to Cal State whatever, you know, doesn’t even matter. You know, for business. It was I was pricing out tanning salons, I was looking at hair salons, but from an entrepreneurial lens, and then my husband happened to have some friends flipping here. And he’s like, wow, and I’m paying $1,800 a month in rent to live in Huntington Beach and going to you know, school for whatever, like plan X. And I was like, Well, okay, we did the math and I was like, Let’s go you know, so we bought two homes and 2003 that were both of those mortgages were less than what we pay for rent and by the beach. Now I had did have to leave the beach. Did I have to leave like I was at the ocean all the time. You’d have to come to the hot hot desert and Chandler but then I did discover like Scottsdale in Cave Creek and like a lot more nature and Sonoran Desert and you know, I will say that my first open house they were skinny to have Lena by the tree and in Southern California,
D.J. Paris 9:16
our audience that doesn’t know what to have Aleta is you would you buy
Jennifer Wehner 9:20
big old hairy smelly pig and they’re like, and like all these guys and fatigues. Were holding it from the front teeth tree, the neighbor and I’m like jet my first open house. I’m like, all we see in California is like cockroaches and rats like what the heck is that and why are you doing that? But no, I will say it was a little culture and you know, the heat, but if not better hair and the heat I have to say, but uh, you know, and there’s a lot more cooler things to do out here. It was way cooler than I could ever imagine. But, you know, I do love that our you know, freedom, you know, is like really where I feel like I live and I I’m and we’re in our to the mountains we have Sedona literally vortexes that give you energy. And yeah, I love my I love my area. But
D.J. Paris 10:10
I’m also a huge fan. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your, your, your story about your journey. But Sedona is a place that everyone should go visit just even for just the sheer beauty even if you’re like, oh, I don’t believe in energy vortexes but I have been on a couple of those hikes to those vortexes and if there is something going on, in those places, the energy is definitely different. So I know we’re talking about real estate, but I just thought that was
Jennifer Wehner 10:34
their job is actually something that we don’t talk about in real estate, but I actually coached to like one of the things we have as a visual wheel. Because I it’s like, do you want your employees to just be so maximum efficiency, and what if they hate their life, you know, how they’re not gonna be the best employee. So we have an exercise, and it’s actually in our cadence of our coaching to draw your wheel, and you want it to be as good of a wheel, you know, and it breaks it down to family love friends, money, jobs, spirituality. You know, we talked about self care and health. But you know, don’t take my word for it. The last time I was in Sedona, I’m like sitting there, and I already already touched the vortex trees that where you could feel the electricity go to you. You don’t have to sell me but this lady gave me some really kind advice to my son. And I was like, Oh, thank you. And she’s like, Yeah, I was here last week. And there was like eight of us, none of us were together. We’re all strangers. And she goes, a breeze came through and and we all looked at each other. Like, did you feel that as you feel that, and it truly was a breeze of like, love and positivity? And you know, we talked about business and numbers, and it’s so important, but what about the creativity in that? Because all execution comes out of the right side of the brain? And Are we fulfilling our spirits or minds? Because while it’s gritty, while it’s like Darwinistic right now, you know, at the same token, there’s this beautiful thing called collaboration, and people wanting to help and there’s so many opportunities and people that we can truly help. So that excites me.
D.J. Paris 12:09
You know, I think you’re right. And I don’t mean to interrupt your story again. But I think the idea of collaboration, I think technology is has made that easier in a way, because now we can find people a lot easier. But then we also know that like social media, and technology actually makes us feel more lonely. So I think you’re right, it’s kind of neat. If we use social media correctly, we can find our tribe, and then we can go meet with them in person and actually experience some of those, you know, we don’t have to be sitting on Zoom meetings. And now, I mean, I just took a flight the other day back. And you know, we don’t have to wear masks anymore. And I don’t know if that’ll change anytime soon. But it was nice. It was nice to see people’s faces in you know, maybe we’re all sick. I don’t know. But but at least it was nice for a brief moment to be around other people. And so I think you’re right, there’s something very special that that we’ve been missing for the last couple years.
Jennifer Wehner 12:59
And on the on the positive side about the mask, because I won’t get into the science, my opinions on that. But I felt we were looking at each other’s eyes more, you know, because we weren’t. And I actually think there’s so much powerful connection the eyes. And because I would look in people’s eyes, and I could see like they were like starving for connection. And I’m just kind of a person that likes to, you know, sometimes ask people like, you know, how are you doing? Really? How are you like, yeah, right, are people treating you and you’d be amazed how like, they would open up their life story to where they’re the cashier at target because no one’s talking to them?
D.J. Paris 13:35
Well, that’s and that’s because so few people in people’s lives do actually pick up the phone or or say, Hey, tell me how, where are you struggling right now? How are you doing? What’s hard for you right now? And, and everyone’s dealing with something hard at all times. But you’re right, you know, just you even thinking to ask that might be the thing that person needs to needs to hear that connection. So it’s always a good reminder for all of us to reach out to our people that we care about and find out how they’re doing.
Jennifer Wehner 14:03
Yeah, yeah, love on your people, you know, it’s out is always a person. It’s like, not always been the best with my p&l cells and stuff. Because it’s like, I’m always like, theoretical first, like, give get, and I always feel like the money always follows. Now, of course, we have systems. I mean, we have p&l and tracking and all of that. But if you do the right thing, you know, and really, like, be grateful show thankfulness show true concern and care and really, like, what’s the feedback? What’s the word on the streets, like people want that authenticity? People want to be heard. They want to know how they want people to understand, you know, and that is that thing that you know, we’re look, we’re in a new age, you know, in COVID kickstarted this new age and astrology speaking we are in the Age of Aquarius, a new age. So
D.J. Paris 14:52
yeah, it’s really it’s really interesting, I think and you know, we we have this really amazing people are so starved for connection Now, it’s never been a better time to like, decide to add more of that into, you know, your personal life and then also your business to like, you know, these are people that we’re, you know, working with that you know, are putting either buying something that’s super expensive or selling something that’s super expensive to them. And, and this is an emotional, you know, decision both ways. And it’s, it’s scary, you know, which whichever way you might be buying or selling, it’s, it’s scary and to have an agent that cares, that actually isn’t just going to get the deal closed, but sort of hold their hand emotionally through the ups and downs of a transaction and the market, I think is the real value of an agent. I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.
Jennifer Wehner 15:40
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, the client experience has always been something that we believed in, I believed in, you know, before he even had a team, I had a virtual assistant doing the really stupid stuff. And, you know, I would spending more time with people having client appreciation parties, making sure you’re sending out birthday cards and but like, the, what I have found is we’ve had to pivot faster in our conversations with clients. You know, it’s like, understanding, it’s not just an objection handler, like, oh, no, I’m not just going to tell you why you should buy with all these market stats. Of course, you should know these numbers. But you have to understand, I think the true Master right now are people that understand people’s emotions, and are pivoting in our communication, you know, across the board, you know, to our clients, to our team, to our network, to our families, you know, that that communication, and, you know, it’s like, kind of on that collaboration piece. You know, Charles Darwin once said, it’s not the most intelligent man, nor the most capable, but the most collaborative man that ultimately survives, because the most collaborative man, you know, like, if me and you were here, I might have my visual I think’s gonna happen, you add your input, and maybe my eye could see one step further. And then we bring, you know, Kyle whistle in the room was one step. And then now together, we can see a clear path together. And with change, things changing so fast, you can just sign up for a coaching program and be like, oh, yeah, here it is. This is the blueprint and tenure. Now. It’s pivoting, it’s changing fast. And you’re the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with, and not just in money, but also in collective energy and collective mindset. You know, my mentors, like, like, I feel like I have a big mindset, my my mentors will show me you Inc, you ain’t dreaming big enough. You know, and when they say the average person stops dreaming at the age of 30. You know, in Warren Buffett, he didn’t make any of his money until after the age of 65. You know, it’s never too late to really plan your legacy. And, you know, put Don’t, don’t put off tomorrow, what you can do today. And there’s always something today, we can start. And there’s always something today, we’re going to fail on
D.J. Paris 17:51
it, for sure. And having other people to help us along the way is just everything right? I was telling my, my I do so many of these interviews right after going through a personal training. So PRs are probably sick of me talking about it, because probably sounds like I’m bragging and trust me, I’m not because I actually, it’s funny, the only reason I go to the gym is because I have a trainer who there’s accountability, and I pay her and there’s accountability there as well. And it’s the only I don’t go on my own. I wish I did. But it’s just one of those things I’m not good at I fail at that. So I have it on the schedule, I have a coach, in this case, a workout coach, and she puts me through and I don’t have to think about it, I just have to follow instruction. But if I didn’t have her in my life, I and she, you know, there’s a million trainers, but But I show up because I pay her and so I can beat myself up about not getting to the gym on my own accord. Or I could just go at least I’m going and now I you know I have a trainer and I’m in better shape. But
Jennifer Wehner 18:48
it is the highest form of love. You know, they actually that truly is true. And if you think about oh, my mom lets me do everything like, like do drugs at the parties and stuff, you know, and don’t do like my mom, like like the 96,000 cc and ours. I love my mom, but like that was too many roles. But you know, it’s that accountability, like the care ability that truly is the highest form of love and knowing what you had said, Knowing your women, limitations, knowing your weaknesses, super important, you know, also know your strengths, but know your weaknesses are out. Because there’s a solution to every problem and a problem to every solution. And you found a solution.
D.J. Paris 19:26
Well, you you have your journey is I know we sort of kind of got caught in the middle and I that was my mistake, but I want to see sort of where you ended up because you weren’t just this, you know, teen mom who’s going to college got married, you know, raising a child trying to start business moving, you know, from from the west coast into the desert. You know, 18 years later here you are you have one of the very top producing teams in all of Arizona. You have this amazing team with you as well. You’re constantly adding to your team, and you have just weathered Not just a very difficult time in the market, right? I remember those early 2000s. And then of course, the crash. And then here we are now where everything’s very, very challenging, I think. And so you’ve weathered a lot of storms in this market and not only weathered them but but thrived. I’m curious. I feel like you Yeah, well, of course,
Jennifer Wehner 20:21
like, I failed a lot, you know, but
D.J. Paris 20:24
it, let’s talk about failure. Because I do want to talk about this, we were so rarely on the show talk about failure. But I always heard that the successful people fail more than the average person. And that’s why they succeed, because we learn through failure, it’s really the only way.
Jennifer Wehner 20:39
So making decision taking action. So, you know, my Done is better than your Perfectly Undone. You know, how many times do I hear in language? Like, I want to do it? I’m trying to do it like, and what did Yoda say? There is no try. Right? You know, but it’s like, yeah, I mean, I might take like, 100. Now, of course, there’s a balance, you know, if you have 100 priorities, you have none. So having like, your most important priorities and ideas, but having like structure and systems in place. And you know, I know, like with Renaissance book, you know, ever in the reason why I wrote it, because, you know, I did have a team, but I also, you know, have ancillary businesses. And you know, the compounding factor, I find most agents like they know, math like 3% and 6%. But like, do they really know understand the compound factor of what like, your investment is? And do they understand the market and the numbers so much as what we’re going into? No, because most people, and I’m not saying this to be bad. But when it comes to students, most, most of the time, their business plan is their email, maybe their to do list on a yellow piece of pad of paper and their text messages. You know, they’re just kind of flying off the seat of their pants. And that is a real estate roller coaster. It’s like, there’s no predictive, you know, and then it stops, like, do you want to get it to stop? Or do you want it to go, you know, continue to go.
D.J. Paris 21:58
And it’s all based on urgency, right? Like things are flying at them. They’re reacting, it feels busy, because I’ve got this massive to do list. And I have all these emails to respond to in text, and it feels like productive. And then at the end of the day, you’re like, Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t do anything to actually advance my business today, because I’m so busy.
Jennifer Wehner 22:15
Yeah. And that’s where, you know, in the Renaissance book I talked about. And first of all, if you look at the definition of an artist, every single person is an artist. I just discovered, like, I was an artist, and it’s what you know, inspired me to write my book with Forbes, that Renaissance real estate agent, how to unlock the art of systems into your business. You know, and because that visual wheel that we were speaking about earlier, I actually calendar block that, because you know, first put on the non negotiables, put your date nights in, do you know the top in the top 500 Fortune SEO companies, CEOs put sex into their calendar because you know, happy wife happy life, happy husband, but there’s probably no good rhyme with that. Let’s start building the foundations the non negotiables
D.J. Paris 23:09
Oh, we may have just lost Jennifer. Let’s pause for a sec. While we try to get Jennifer back. Give us just a sec. She is coming back online. So give us just a second we will fix this in post as they say. So thank you for those watching. Out there, your your back. You bought you bounced out for about a minute. So. So did I cut off? I’m sorry. You were just what we were just saying sort of how CEOs even planned things like sex, because sex is it’s important. And I you said that very quickly. And I just want to pause for a moment only because we had this weird pause app. And that’s a really important thing to track. Right? Like it’s as important as tracking your, your, your emails that you’re replying to and you might think well that’s sort of silly should I be tracking sex that doesn’t not very romantic and maybe it isn’t all that romantic but it is important because it’s a super healthy natural part of life that we should build in but so I just appreciate that use nobody has ever said in all hundreds of episodes. The importance of of you know, making sure that sex is part of the conversation and part of something that is tracked and I think we lost Jennifer again so give us just a sec to get her back
Jennifer Wehner 24:35
Oh my Gosh
D.J. Paris 24:37
Gosh, the doll is in technology fun. We were just talking about sacks. Right? We were we were for the first time ever in five years on the show the word sex came up so I appreciate that because you’re right. It is important to track every part of life that’s important. You know whether it’s how often am I calling you know, my best friend and checking in on them. How often am I you know, contributing? How often am I telling My spouse that how wonderful they are and what they need to hear. So same thing with clients. Same thing with it’s all. It’s all something that can be tracked. Yeah,
Jennifer Wehner 25:08
right. Like, I feel like my way one word of the year, we always have like a one word of the year, mine’s cadence. Because I find that there’s a cadence to everything. You can find a better cadence for your meetings, you know, why all the stupid stuff you’re doing like, there’s a cadence to like cramming in leverage to help out, there’s a cadence to relationships, friendships, children, you know, your team on the business in the business, but that what the calendar and technology allows you to do is to know exactly what you were doing. So if you really keep it updated, as a coach, I can let go and see what you were doing. You know, and otherwise, I’m, I’m just going off testimony. And most people don’t have like a visual of like, all logical facts that have transpired. And
D.J. Paris 25:53
I have I have such a horrible memory that I cannot rely upon my recall, to accurately talk about anything I you know, what did I eat yesterday? I’d have to think about it. And I’ll probably get some of that wrong. You know, the idea of writing things down and tracking is, is really, really important to avoid a lot of the like, what, you know, the sort of conscious our brains are
Jennifer Wehner 26:15
wired that way our brains every night we go to sleep, it discards all the information that thinks deletion, lots of deletion, that is actually the way our brains are wired. So if we’re expecting her to our brains to perform differently, just because we want them to, you actually know you have to work with the tools he got.
D.J. Paris 26:32
Yeah, well, let’s look. So right now, the vast majority of the country who agents are struggling in the most immediate sense with inventory, right? So I don’t know how it’s in your in your market, I’m sure it’s just like all the others little inventory rates are rising up that’s gets a little stressful for buyers, of course, with no inventory, it makes it tough for agents who are working with buyers. Of course, listing agents are having a wonderful time, although it’s also stressful being a list listing agent, because you’re getting 40 or 50 offers sometimes and having to deal with that. But how are you what how are you coaching your team right now on managing some of these these challenges? They’re right in front of them?
Jennifer Wehner 27:13
Well, first, I let them know what’s going on in the industry right now. Because Phoenix, we’re here like we’re in a special market, because every hedge fund tech fund marketing company that wants to see if their business model will work like to come here first, because we have eight to 12,000 sales a month high turnover, you know, easiest to recruit market. But what they need to understand is the industry itself is changing. The market is changing. Yeah, true. But what it should be more interesting is that the industry in itself is changing. Consumers and themselves are changing. And with that we haven’t really seen I mean, there’s been some harder some blips and you know, but there really has not been a challenging market until I’d say about last year. But if we look at what’s happening right now, now, if I could have gotten my DeLorean and gone back to like, oh, five, I would have known Oh, March of oh, five were in a market shift. However, I didn’t feel it until Oh, eight, we kind of knew you saw it no seven, but it was two years later, because that’s how fast real estate reacts. Now we have all the biome out my girls today that we actually are in a market shift as of today, by this fall, we will, we’ll hear about it more on the news, but the public’s probably not going to hear about it for two more years. So Winter is here. Now with that being said, you know, what does it take you 90 hours to get a license and 1000 hours to cut someone’s hair? You know, so
D.J. Paris 28:40
isn’t that amazing? By the way? Yeah,
Jennifer Wehner 28:43
yeah. And doing hair salon so I did the math there too. But you know, we are having we’re moving into an expert market. Our whole industry in itself is changing. It’s disrupted because real estate industry is 10 years behind every other industry in the world, in the most emotional industry in the world. So what are we having to do? First of all, we’re having to ask ourselves, do I really want to be here or do I want to bake cookies baking cookies there’s nothing wrong with it but if you want to be here because like you have the grit and the muscle and you love it so much there’s more opportunities in a challenging market then there is in a good in a good market so but it most agents that I see you know because they you know I’ve survived I still have PTSD like going through like what I went through you know, I mean made millions I lost even more millions i was i was worth negative millions. You know, just to get to zero was a win for me. But you know, that was 2011 when we really got into a good markets been loving years since we’ve been a good market. And we we’ve seen the most agents we’ve ever had. brokerages at the meantime are losing steam, they’re losing they’re not able to deliver on their value proposition. There’s not we all know real estate school is hogwash. Come on. Like, that’s why we join all the coaching but even coaching, you know, and I done 40,000 A year coaching and coaching said great for me, but to run a business, you know, coaching program never taught me how to run a business. You know, and it’s my mentors. It’s a circle of tribe and, you know, wise counsel and leveling up wise counsel, but it’s super important to know, right now begin with a long term in mind, do I have a place? What are my goals? Do I have different levels of different streams of income? Where am I learning? Who am I learning from? You know, it’s a time to kind of not like paws not be scared, not not like fear, takeover. But like concern? Yes, because we are in winter. And if you do not stop what you’re doing, and we know that there will probably be 30% less sales this year. And by fall, and by next year, it will see here we went from 33%. And appreciation last year to probably single digits next year, our rates are five and above, we’re gonna see threes and fours. But we can’t have conversations like this to our clients. Because what is it about more, it’s about feelings, it’s about emotions. And if we truly want to be here, it we’re turning into an expert market, teams are taking off. So leadership, as there’s never been more time that leadership, you know, and has a lot of responsibility, you know, and you, I believe you should accept that responsibility with integrity and character. And if you don’t want to be a leader like that, then step down. But if you really want to be a leader in the industry, and I hope every agent in this industry wants to be a leader, because what happens is leaders grow leaders, and we used to grow up in villages, right? Like, that’s how you couple 100 years ago, like we’d have three or four families helping each other out. You know, today, we’re kind of lonely on our own. And sometimes we feel like we’re on an island with no help. I certainly felt like that No, five, and I come from Podunk land, like, you know, nobody was a capitalist and my family and the, you know, people the way they looked at psychology of money, where I came from looks like money’s evil, you know, but the more money you have, the more you can give away. The more money you have, the more time choices and freedom you have. What’s the legacy not just that for your kids? Because sometimes you have to screw it up a little bit, you get a parenting coach, try to make it better, but what legacy Are we living for our children and great grandchildren, our community, our friends, because going through a weight losing everything where my home was going to be foreclosed, my card got declined for lice shampoo, that was really cool. And I was working seven days a week, so I was working the grit muscle, but I didn’t have the mentors that I had, you know, today back then. And I was just a 25 year old girl from Riverside, you know, trying to make it on her own, you know, and, you know, it’s time to level up and not rest on our laurels know that this is a sober and serious season. I have so much to grow in. I know I’m constantly being that dumb person in the room, find those rooms, you know, but be uncomfortable. You know, I know we talked about the real estate rollercoaster but I kind of almost feel like it’s a treadmill. And our FEC actually but standing treadmill, it could be running right now. But it’s kind of like you have to take one foot off the treadmill, you know, and you have to, like, it feels really uncomfortable. But if you’re on that treadmill, doing the same things every day expecting a different result, we’re working seven days a week, like that, you’re going to be doing that forever, it’s going to keep going. But when you get off that treadmill pause, because sometimes it slow down to speed up, you know, what can we do about low inventory? Well, we there’s a lot of different directions, I can go with that. Because with this, how many agents do we know that? You know, have you worked with that you like feel sorry for their clients? Like Right? Right? So
D.J. Paris 33:54
very common.
Jennifer Wehner 33:55
Who are your clients? You know, who should they work with? Like who is the best advocate for them? If you believe that’s you, it’s time to start. Start leveraging leveraging, leveraging out there’s a way a lot of different ways to leverage what conversations are you having with your client, you’re gonna have to shift and pivot those conversations to not I’m right, you’re wrong, but how, you know, how does it feel you know, and understanding you know, there was this is actually just from a mastermind I got off this morning from one of my mentors you know, where we collaborate every week, and I learned all the time, but you know, you could be if you’re looking at it, you can see this visual here.
D.J. Paris 34:40
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Jennifer Wehner 36:03
straight line and this is this is rent, or there’s a diagonal line here. So this is rent, this is equity, by equity. Oh, geez, I just kind of split that up. But it’s really kind of an activity that you’re going to do to show what the cost is of renting versus buying because it’s easier to rent might cost you a little bit more to rent. But when you show them, showing them is better than telling them and asking, you know, I find is asking, you know, as far as like how does that, you know, what are you feeling, you know, you originally wanted to sell you originally wanted to buy, you know what stopped that, you know, and they’ll tell you, you know what their biggest fears are, and it’s that we’re in those biggest fears is where we’re going to find all of the solutions of how we can be an advocate and showing them, there might be a number of different solutions for them. But there’s too many limiting beliefs out there. There’s too many false coaches out there teaching them things, and I won’t mention names, but some of them are famous. But if they’re really looking at real estate, what is still the American dream, or its real estate, what can be the biggest impact on your clients life, the compounding factor. If you know agents, this is probably good morning advice for you too, because you maybe you’re gonna want to buy some more acquire some more rental properties. But it real estate truly is American dream. And it’s fear that it’s letting people get in the way of that. And the way what we have to do is understand that and shift our conversations around what strategies in some of these long term strategies that have always worked. Robert Kiyosaki, you know, he’s one of my favorites. Sure, but look at the foundations of what’s really working and, and be able to be that expert to your clients, and you’ll win the war, because all the other saturated agents that don’t take it seriously, don’t put learning first, you’re kind of just barely flying off the seat of the pants, put iPhone photos up for their listings, those agents will go, you know, every hedge fund company thinking that they’re going to, you know, there’s a way to be everybody with just providing the best possible client experience.
D.J. Paris 38:23
Yeah, it’s so right. It’s the the client experiences is everything I just about a year ago bought a primary residence. And it wasn’t the first time buying a primary residence. But even though I’m in this industry, I’m not a practicing agent, but I work with, you know, lots of them. And I thought, oh, okay, and I had my, my boss was helping me just sort of making sure I was, you know, dotting my eyes and crossing my T’s. But I was freaked out. And I was stressed all the way through the process. And it wasn’t a particularly stressful transaction. But it just was like, I’d kind of forgotten how it feels. And I sort of wanted to relay that to all of our agents here, like, no, even if you know what you’re doing, it’s crazy stressful. And this is a great opportunity to be that stress guide to be able to help your clients as they get scared, and you know, the ups and downs of just any transaction, it’s like if you can do that, you will be so incredibly valuable to people that they’ll just tell everybody about you.
Jennifer Wehner 39:24
Value. Right? It’s it comes down to value. And I had a it’s funny, I had a client call me that she had already worked with one of my team members, they, and I think he worked with me like 12 years ago, but he called me and he’s like, What are you? And I’m like, what? And he’s like, Well, you know, the open door and the 72 sold and the but like what are you and I like I was kind of put on the spot and I was like, Oh, interesting. I’m like, real estate technician, you know, and he’s like, what is that? You know, like, you know, there’s like an art and there’s a science and there’s there’s the numbers it’s gonna be that different strata. Jeez, it’s changing fast. That’s me. I’m a real estate technician. You know, it’s, it’s really being the engineer. And if you can’t do it alone, like, let’s just put it out there. And you can’t even like, if you’re going to leverage can you leverage on one person? Because how practical is that? You know, you need to have a team. And that’s kind of my controversial opinion I put into my book. But, you know, it’s it’s growing the team. It doesn’t have to be 100 people, you know, but you need to have systems in place, and some of it can be outsourced. Some of it can be in person. But if you don’t have a team, you don’t have leverage, you don’t have a business. You pretty much indentured indentured servitude.
D.J. Paris 40:41
Yeah. Because the moment you stop the income stops as well.
Jennifer Wehner 40:45
Yeah. And then even exit strategies. When I asked agents like, what’s your exit exit strategy? You’ve been in business 30 years, you know, what are you gonna do? Like die in a front porch? You know, why are like prospecting? You know, I mean, I don’t want to go out like that. But, you know, it’s like, oh, no, buy investment properties. And we start sitting down doing the math like, Okay, how many would you have? Need to have your cash flow? 600 bucks, 800 bucks on new each one, how much would you have to save? Like, they would have to be 132 like they acquired and they would have to no whole other skill set. So, you know, it’s, it’s practical things today, like putting a plan in place, like I have a one page business plan and give it to you. It’s, it’s really simple one page, because if you again, 100 parties equals zero, you know, staying on plan, being able to pivot and being uncomfortable with change. And you know, recently it was that I’m wondering Italian because it opens up your heart chakra and, you know, excusing elitism, what, maybe someday, but I did a speech on school motto, you know, and what school motto, it means is embracing uncertainty, embracing paradox, and duality. And actually, if you think about it, anxiety is the closest thing to excitement, just as Hope is the closest thing to defeat. So in our darkest moments, and our confused moments and our nervous moments, there’s always a way to channel this to change. And to know that Elon Musk lives man, Elon Musk, and I don’t care how you believe on Him. If that doesn’t inspire you, the fact that we’ll be in Mars. And I already asked Glenn, if I could get dibs on expansion team in more hours. But you know, what does, you know, and it’s sad that people stopped dreaming after the age of 30. Because I remember when I was a kid, I had all these dreams, I got into real estate and I kind of forgot about him. But you know, dream big, you know, stop dreaming, dreaming? Don’t like live in anxiety that’s gonna give you nowhere Are you truly want to be what do you want in life? Sometimes it’s those big questions and kind of kind of throw some answers at No, seriously, sit back in a moment and journal it write it out under a tree in nature, send us some good music, but slow down to speed up, have a plan in place. And look around, who are you going for wise counsel on your tribe? And at the end of the day, it’s you, you know, you’re the captain of your own ship? Where do you want to take your ship?
D.J. Paris 43:15
Yeah, I think I think all of that is such great advice. And it’s so again, it’s like getting off the treadmill of transaction, transaction, transaction, transaction, prospecting, customer service deal closed. Getting off of that a little bit. And now it’s kind of, there’s sort of you have a little bit of time now to do that, I think maybe more than when, you know, the last couple years when things were just exploding. Now, no, it’s
Jennifer Wehner 43:41
actually I mean, you know, every time you reach a certain extent in your career, you hit your new threshold of problems. So it’s all these skill sets you have to learn. But you know, that’s the uncomfortability so I’ve had to learn because my time was getting taxed. And I had to learn how to kind of tear down my calendar and rebuild it with a different cadence, so that I could add time that I’m most passionate about self care time like I coach and and reallocating that time to where it’s going to be the most valuable based on my time per hour and you know, which level I can help and then also time I need to learn so
D.J. Paris 44:20
yeah, it’s it’s about you know, building the life like you said, it’s starting with that, you know, drawing the wheel and saying okay, how’s my relationship with my clients? How’s how’s my business? How’s my relationship at home? How how’s my physical being? What’s my spirituality look like? How often am I hanging out with my friends and what nurtures me and what am I doing and agents you know, we we now if we don’t set appropriate boundaries our clients can with technology can ping us anytime day or night we can choose how we want to respond if we don’t have systems in place even around our own behavior. Even around what what you know, what are our hours, you know, an agent, should you be available? 24/7 I don’t know I don’t think I’d want to be
Jennifer Wehner 45:01
scripting for that. So next you’re just practicing. Well, I don’t want to 911 Senator Mr. Seller, so you know, if you reach me after they just seven, if it’s like, you know, mediate like now I’m like, of course, if we’re writing an offer, I’m just gonna be that’s not likely. So if you reach me after seven, you know, I just don’t respond, you know, if they do text me if it’s over something insignificant and they didn’t listen to, you know what I told them, and I just treat it as I didn’t do anything wrong. So I’m not going to apologize, I’m gonna come back the next day in my business hours, it’s really drawing your boundaries. You know, I teach, I think, you know, a lot of women because I think Mom, I don’t know mom shame or whatever.
D.J. Paris 45:38
But you have to be perfect as a mom, you have to do everything perfect. And you have to
Jennifer Wehner 45:42
always want to like be with your kids too. You know, I put all Sundays I will not work. And that was 2014 Snow 1516 Sorry, 2016. And I’ve honored that ever since I would not work Sundays, even before I had a team. I would pivot all those conversations that were on Sunday, I did have one backup person at that time. So there’s always a different way you can build this where you can start drawing your boundaries because I mean, Albert Einstein DaVinci like we all so many of the Great’s they tell you how important r&r is. And we know that all execution comes out of the right side of the brain, which is the creative side of the brain. So without r&r, you’re not going to be able to get that creation, you know, which which is going to cause change, you know, changing the direction you want it to to not, not the panic train.
D.J. Paris 46:37
Yeah, no, you’re right. And this is right now a lot of agents a lot of our listeners are in in that panic mode, because it’s it’s stressful right now to be an agent. I mean, it’s always stressful, of course, but right now it’s tough with with little inventory, you really have to be able to take time away from your business and say, Okay, how do I how do I provide a better service right now? While things are stressful? How can I take care of myself? How can I take care of my clients? How do I call my clients down? What do I do? How do I find opportunities? But I have a question. We have so many of our listeners are newer to the business. And I’m curious in because you are you bring on new agents, of course on to your team as well. What’s What do you recommend to to like up and coming agents or new agents, what’s sort of your your first piece of advice when when you watch this is
Jennifer Wehner 47:25
not a self promotion, this is just literally like, I’m going to tell you the honest truth. And you know, if I were to backtrack and go back to where I was in 2003, I would have done the same but teams weren’t prevalent. But we know in the results and story after story, the fastest way for new agents to get into production is to is to join a team, and a good one. So definitely like interview and know that you’re joining a team who went systems and that’s a whole other story. But you know, if they say they’re already working with buyers right now, maybe you’re more buyer heavy. If you’re a new agent, what’s more valuable of your time going out to see eight homes 12 homes you’re at now you’re two months later, and they’re stopped? They’re not following up with you? Or would it be more valuable upfront to say like, let’s sit down with coffee, come into my office, let’s set expectations up front, and really build that rapport getting somebody people are either running away from pain or going towards pleasure. So really getting deeper to understanding what their pain and pleasure and desire is. setting the expectations. Yeah, it’s crazy. Yes, this is going on? This is how I’m going to solve it. These are the different strategies, I’m going to allow you take you about an hour, an hour and a half. But how much more valuable would that time be? As opposed to? How do you lose your like the house? No, okay, I’m gonna write an offer. It’s three offers. No, if you actually take time, slow down to speed up, how better pirate buyer consultations, look, your seller consultation? Are you setting expectations there because we are in a shifting market. It’s not just price your home $500,000 with meth needles on the ground and sell it now you actually you know, have to set proper expectations there as well know what’s important to them. You know, it’s really get into the more humanism side and being the to professional, because we’re all humans, we all have emotions. And our clients do too. And we’re in this world of technology where they’re hearing from their co workers, they’re hearing from zooms they’re hearing from the media, which of course they only say good news, right for me, you know, so, of course, they’re in panic. So what they do every day. So just understanding that and being empathetic, getting down to like, kind of again, the basics. Yes, definitely forgot. But for buyers for agents to know. It doesn’t matter. I have agents on my team first year in they’ve sold 30 homes. You don’t I mean, so it doesn’t matter. Like how long you’ve been in the business. There’s a lot of agents that have been around for 20 years that that don’t have like, they’ve never called the past client their life, you know, so it doesn’t matter where You’re not in the business, even if you’re 65 you’re not it’s been Colonel KFC, you know, Colonel Sanders started his business, but who you are as a person is just like somebody that cares, you know, somebody that is open and coachable, curious, you know, be around those mentors, because things pivot, they change fast and know that that is going to be a part of not just real estate industry, but this world in the new world that we live in. And we have to be able to pivot with those changes and not let fear block us or our clients. Because we can dispel those fears and limiting beliefs. And there are so many more solutions out there then, you know, possibly we even know.
D.J. Paris 50:41
Yeah, it’s funny. I was just at a conference with Zillow. And I know agents have a very visceral reaction to the word Zillow, some agents like Zillow, some agents, of course, don’t. But they’re here to stay. They’re not going anywhere, and to push against them. I understand people are allowed to have opinions and I’m not here saying I’m pro Zillow, or anti Zillow. I don’t really personally think about it one way or the other, but, but they’re not going anywhere. And so then it’s like, Okay, if that’s if that’s the case that 200 million Americans are a month, go on Zillow, then we need to learn how to accept them as somebody’s part of the transaction, right? It’s just how it’s going to be. And we can fight it and we can get mad, or we can say maybe they’re making my job a little easier in a certain way. Because now I don’t have to do as much searching because my clients do a lot of the searching for me. And I can focus like you were saying, on the more human side of things, the things that Zillow can’t do. Zillow can’t do the human side. That’s not their job. They don’t want to do it. They’re not trying to do it. They’re trying to say, well just do the tech side. And I think that’s really cool, in a sense, because it opens up an opportunity for agents to have deeper connection because you have more time.
Jennifer Wehner 51:51
Yeah. Or maybe they could have saved 200 million and compete with Zillow, you know? Yeah, yeah. And it’s funny because when I came over to exp in 2018, it was because I was like, struggling like hardcore about how to build a team. And my mentors, Kyle and Dan moved in a week later, I was like, yeah, no brainer, you can see it. But I was at four people. Today, I’m at 40, and then my network to 60, and a couple of ancillary businesses. But you know, when we launched I had an open door at the time, and Zillow was at the time but you know, those were our competitors, but I was losing listings open door. I’m like, I can either beat them or join us. And now we have Zillow. It’s a it’s, you know, I don’t put all your eggs in one basket. But Zillow has been great to us. But I had them on my panel, because then I was like, Okay, you do a referral fee. I could have my clients go to you. And maybe if it’s a better service, I could still get paid because I can help with the human side of things. So we put them on our panel people that I was crazy, like, Why do you have open door and Zillow? I’m like, Well, you know, we have to like understand these are where our clients are going. They’re like, Are you are you spending that much money marketing and retargeting to your clients? Probably not. Where our clients going, they’re going to Zillow. So why not help you and your client by running them on Zillow seeing what what homes they like, you know, so you could be right or you can be rich? Which one?
D.J. Paris 53:21
Yeah, and being right is fun for about two seconds. And then you realize, oh, I maybe I lost the battle here. I lost the war, I won the battle. Because I was right. Anyone in a relationship knows this. Right? Better to better to get along then be right, because being nobody, you know, we we all we work in collaboration with each other, you know, it is called a cooperative commission. Right? We work together. Yes, we are sort of competing against the other agent, in a sense, although we’re really working together to get the deal closed. So seeing the universe is friendly, and not that everyone’s friendly, obviously, they’re not but just try looking for ways in which we can all get along and make things better. The agents I know that are the most successful and of course, there’s exceptions, but very few at least here in Chicago, we have 46,000 agents and I know a lot of the top ones because of the show and you know, just me being around long enough. They’re all pretty giving people surprisingly like I would have thought they would be closely guarded with their secrets now they’ll pretty much tell you everything and they’re nice. Being nice is an underrated thing to is talking about. If you’re really nice to other agents, you’ll you’ll see that things will start to fall your way just being a good human being.
Jennifer Wehner 54:35
Back to the basics, I know it’s like and then it just say no and aspiring CIDA they just detected life on Venus.
D.J. Paris 54:43
Yes, I know.
Jennifer Wehner 54:46
Plenty of loving and kindness and actually with Venus in retrograde it speeded up right next to Mars. Mars is the planet of war, but Venus and Mars are right next to each other. So that meant the most passionate energy of loving and kindness for the universe. was that we could have seen that was in February. So, um, but yeah, you would, you know, kill them with kindness. You know, we kind of hear these basics, sometimes, like we forgot we complicated things, but some of those things, basics, like they actually still are true and loving and kindness, it goes a long way.
D.J. Paris 55:19
Yeah, it’s one of those things. It’s especially like, if you’re in a multiple offer situation, and you’re working with a buyer, and you have a reputation. And again, maybe there’s 30 offers also going out. And yes, you might not win it, and odds are, you probably won’t, because 30 Other people are competing, or whatever the number of people are, but if you’re known as somebody who, you know, can get deals closed, of course, the professionalism part and knowing your stuff. And then just also being a good human being, you know, just, we’re just, we’re animals, we want to be liked. We want to like other people, we want to be out of conflict as much as possible. And if you’re somebody who, you know, your offer comes in, and they’re like, Oh, I liked that person. I liked that other agent. Sometimes things fall your way that probably shouldn’t fall your way just because you’re a nice human being.
Jennifer Wehner 56:03
Yeah, and, you know, like, I will say, like, um, you know, I don’t always think that university work this way. And but I’ve always been, like, a natural giving person. And sometimes all I’d have to give was a smile, you know, and I’m gonna say, there’s like, a total, like, be word side of me. So I’m not trying to be like, like, Jesus here.
D.J. Paris 56:20
Well, that’s an important thing. It’s important to have that too, right? When you need to stand up for yourself and set boundaries and defend them and, and say, Hey, that’s not okay, behavior, but of course, absolutely is it just like,
Jennifer Wehner 56:30
was uncalled for, because that’s just, you know, I’m human.
D.J. Paris 56:34
And we all make mistakes,
Jennifer Wehner 56:35
I sin. But, you know, it’s like, sometimes all you can give is like a smile. I’m like, you know, what, I don’t feel like giving all the books I want to talk, but you look like somebody needs a smile today. But I carry gifts on me at all times. I just feel like empowered. Like, when I have gifts, it’s like, I’m gonna gift you, you know, but it’s like, you know, it truly all like, you know, the freedom, like I was at this event a month ago with agents, and I two years ago, wouldn’t have had the freedom to give $10,000 away, just without looking at p&l, I think I get 15. You know, that felt so free to be like, just give and it’s like, I came back and like, positive things happen on my team. And I’m like, you told me that was the way the universe works. But I didn’t believe it. But I really think it’s true. And it really is true. When you have that grateful giving heart and you give without expectation. You know, you’d be surprised that you know, what comes your way?
D.J. Paris 57:31
Yeah, it’s that old mentality givers get and it’s, it’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough in this in this industry. We look just so much on how do we get a how do we get a client? How do we get the deal closed? You know, and then how do we move on to the next client? How do we get referrals? All of those things, of course, are important. And every all of its important systems are important. You know, you and I are having a more human conversation then, specifically around systems because, you know, I think this is a much more interesting conversation. I think, you know, I’ve had a million conversations around systems, I rarely have these kinds of conversations. So I hope our audience is is is tuned in as I am because you are not somebody who just has theories and the sounds cool. And it’s, it’s, you know, things that that work well on a on a podcast, you’re actually one of the top producing teams in Arizona, which by the way, is one of the most competitive markets for real estate agents as well. So this stuff actually works, which is the coolest part of it, right? It’s like you get to feel good. make other people feel good, contribute, and oh, by the way, benefit, you know, financially.
Jennifer Wehner 58:34
Yes, you know, it’s like, it’s like humanizing. You can do everything you can do with technology, okay, you can do some humanizing of technology, right? The action plans or communication, but, like, truly being human, is what your biggest gift is not. You’re an artist, again, human, you can systematize human humanism into your business. And then you could add, you know, what the time element is, but it is all day, you know, at the end of the day, you know, that’s what we all want, right? We all want connection. Nobody wants to be alone. They just want to believe that somebody has their back, you know, and when you have that, and when you have that for yourself professionally, someone has your back. And then you’re like winning together and you’re failing together. Because let’s just put out there, we’re still I’m there still. So it’s under construction at all times. For every win that you see, I have 1000 fails that you don’t and but it’s a constantly evolving, constantly evolving, that’s life. That’s world that’s our industry. And what if you’re constantly evolving with it? It’s exciting, you know, it’s an adventure. And it’s what we think we’ve never we don’t even know what the ceiling is yet. You know, for real estate. And if we think about it like that, that’s crazy because well it’s one thing to help a buyer and seller and I’m not saying anything like I didn’t love that part of it. Then when you can get back at a higher level and like literally change people’s lives, I have two of my team members in escrow right now on their second home, they’re going to rent their first one out, like they listen to my advice, I got excited, that already have equity before closing. And their spouses are so happy for me their kids lives. And I’m not again, it takes it takes me a lot of people to help me to be just live, you know. So like, shout out for all the people that have helped me. And all the people that like are going to help me and I’m going to help because the more we help, and we start in our communities, the more that that energy expands, and when you change people, when you can see the change that you’ve been given. And you see that happening in people’s lives, it’s been the most rewarding thing that I’ve seen in my real estate career so far. So
D.J. Paris 1:00:50
this idea of of helping other people and seeing them benefit from from your help is is truly remarkable. We are very fortunate when the show on this podcast, because we get we get a lot of that and we love our audience for telling us, hey, this really helped me or, you know, hey, if you if you interview this person, you know, that would be really interesting. And it’s so fun. And people say like, How’d you get started doing this podcast? I was like, I just did it one day, it wasn’t I’m nobody special. I’m not particularly a great interviewer. Really, I’m not I’m fine at it. It’s I’m okay. But the reality of it is I just did it, and no one else was doing it for having these kinds of conversations. And so it’s one of those things that you don’t have to be particularly skilled, like you were saying, the best, you know, your, you know, not imperfect plan that gets done is better than the perfect plan that never gets done. It’s just a matter of just getting uncomfortable. Like you were saying,
Jennifer Wehner 1:01:47
you know, that comparison is the thief of joy. I think I like comparison for the inspiration part of it. But if you were to see me two years ago, three years ago, I joined Toastmasters, my speaking skills, like I would have been like a nervous anxiety wreck on the show. So like, again, like, you know, we’re talking here we are today, and where would we be in five years? I’d probably be laughing at myself, you know, but you know, that, like, why, you know, I think like asking yourself why, you know, we’ve kind of generic, but for me, like why I am fueled and purpose filled and like driven more and just so passionate. And I would do, I’d coach, like for free if I you know, could because it’s just that’s how passionate I am, is like when I was in defeat and I lost everything. Like my kids. I mean, I was suicidal, that was back. I don’t drink alcohol, just full disclosure, I surrendered four years ago. But I was like, in full on alcoholism, you know, and I would never want an agent to feel that way.
D.J. Paris 1:02:48
I wouldn’t be probably felt very alone.
Jennifer Wehner 1:02:50
Lone like, like, I felt like I was in this canyon that I could never get out of it like world would be better without me. And I just even if it’s not that low, you know, I don’t want to an agent that truly cares and wants to be in this industry to ever have to go through that. So if I can save, you know, and we all can like together collectively, you know, where we agents can actually thrive and grow, you know, in this business and the ones that don’t want to do this and aren’t like committed enough like it’s Okay, goodbye, namaste. But truly namaste for the leaders that step up right now. Because it’s exciting. And I promise you any leaders or agents listening thinking that you don’t do it. I like to call myself a limiting belief like murder. I was gonna take my, like, ar 15 out, like take that like limiting belief away, because I wish somebody would have done that to me. And, you know, I have limiting beliefs right now I get checked on my belief systems, like almost weekly where I’m like, Oh, I wasn’t thinking oh, I wasn’t thinking big enough. You know, and it’s, it’s yeah, the people that challenge me and fuel me and all the people that help and support it. It’s so important at the end of the day, because we don’t take anything here. Like I don’t take my CRM to have it. I don’t take my bank account to heaven, right? Or wherever going, like purgatory or everything you go, but you know, I don’t believe in like flames, but we can’t take it with us. So what are we doing here? But money, like money is important to know because money provides choices, money provides freedom, money provides time, you know, money provides, like being able to change your family’s legacy and the legacies of however many countless families that are out there that are going to be touched by simply a spark of your influence.
D.J. Paris 1:04:43
Yeah, your boy you just said you just said so much right there. And that one is is is really thinking about what’s what’s important and what is your why and he said this it’s like, again, it’s back to basics. It’s it’s sitting down and writing out what’s my why am I doing this not just you know, to close a deal and And you know, what’s what’s?
Jennifer Wehner 1:05:03
Yeah, boring? Boring anymore. Like, let’s get past level one and level two guys straight to level two. But I’m like, what does it really mean to you? When 100 million? What is that going to mean? Are you going to give a library away? Are you going to like, what are you going to do with it? But like when you ask yourself, why, what am I most passionate about? What it’s like, if I could like, take this away from you tomorrow, what would that be? You know, but literally stopping journaling. Like literally write it down, keep a piece of paper with you. Because journaling and writing is just something that we don’t encourage enough. I run a real estate school practically, I am very involved with my kids school, I’ve taught art history. Throughout my kids schools, I’m just really passionate about art and teaching. But writing and you know, I have what my first book out, but there is going to be a memoir, that I’m actually about a third way down. So that will be on another day. But for the Forbes that Renaissance real estate agent, it I really put my blood, my blood, sweat, tears and heart in it. So it’s really like the fundamentals, it will have links all of our site with the actual tools you can use. There’s, it’s good that you guys,
D.J. Paris 1:06:13
well, we were excited for that. And so the book that’s coming out is the Renaissance real estate agent that once those those links are there, we are going to make sure that we promote this to our audience. And, you know, again, just a great reminder of the human side of this conversation of this business and making sure that we’re not only taking care of our clients, we’re also taking care of ourselves. And I think throughout this conversation, we’ve stressed a lot of that it’s it’s it’s maybe even doing a little bit less to get more sometimes, like you were saying, stepping back from the business just a little bit to making sure am I getting everything I need and being collaborative, having people in your life that you were saying can call you out when you need to be called out. And we all need to be called out. And that doesn’t mean negatively. It just means Oh, I noticed you’re doing this thing. And maybe you could try this other thing or, or how are you feeling? Or how are you doing? And then, you know, like you were saying, joining a team, if you’re new boy, you learn you’ll learn so much. And you learn so much faster when you’re on a team because you’ll just absorb energy and exactly you know what they’re going through. But just the idea of having a community around you having having a advisors around you who can actually, like I’m so grateful I have an accountant. I mean, it sounds so simple, because so many people do. But like I literally never, I mean, I probably should think about my taxes a little bit more than I do. But it’s nice to go. I’ve got somebody for that. And we go through things. And you know, as long as I think she’s
Jennifer Wehner 1:07:36
sorry, your app, as soon as you have to level up on your wise counsel. Yeah, I’m sorry, I had a conversation with my mom, we could go at our health and like say I love my doctor, like my doctor three years and like, Mom, you’re in the most pain like you’ve ever been in. So that’s insanity. Like, sometimes you have to level up your wise counsel. And it’s like for sure the likability factor. But absolutely. And sometimes it is addition by subtraction, you know, look at your core values of who you are as a person, because you’re not different as a professional organization, or you should you be and are if you’re not like firing and hiring with your core values. Know that how important those are. Because one bad apple can spoil a bunch. And I can tell you that as this year’s lesson of what I learned, I feel like I was my childhood pattern out of my professional life last year. But sometimes, like there is like like activities, you can subtract people you can subtract and people, you more people that you would add, because you were able to subtract. So it’s a net positive at the end of the day.
D.J. Paris 1:08:35
I agree, what a great place to wrap up, I want everyone to really start to follow, you know, some of the what you what you do on social media in particular, because I think a lot of your wisdom comes through in your your content. And Jennifer’s just a wonderfully thoughtful human being who also has these incredible achievements behind her. So she’s, like I was saying earlier, what she says actually works. And boy, isn’t that nice. That’s somebody else’s. And there’s lots of people in this industry that have done this, but you can sort of just follow in the wake of someone else who has already made a ton of mistakes, and you’ll be able to make new mistakes, then that are better quality mistakes. And how nice is it that Jennifer is willing to come on and talk about, you know, some of her challenges. And by the way, Kurt, I wanted to acknowledge the courage of sharing addiction issues. I mean, this is something that we look every family members got somebody, right, we were all used to this, this happens. We don’t talk about it a lot. But it happens, you know, people are struggling and and you know, it could be even a friend. But this is you know, the opportunity to be vulnerable. And to be honest, I always heard the honesty is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. And I never really understood that until until more recently. I’m in my 40s now, and I’m like oh yeah, truth actually being honest about what I’m actually going through like the hard things that is is hard and having people who love and support you in your life, whether it’s in your business, whether it’s in your, you know, your family life, whatever it might be friends, it’s really, really important so that you actually have a safe a safe place to be honest. But it takes courage and you you’ve demonstrated a tremendous amount of courage throughout your entire life. And that is something that I think is beyond admirable. And so congratulations on your four years of sobriety. That is, that is a big, big thing.
Jennifer Wehner 1:10:27
I’m so an addict, it’s now a sugar. And so I gotta manage that. But if I would love to end on one note that I really didn’t waste on. And it’s a it’s a quote from one of my favorite favorite Greeks. And it’s one quote I love, but he was a philosopher. But you know, not all philosophers are kings. But you know, we often say, but we have team leaders, we have brokerage owners, we’re leaders in the industry. But all kings should be philosophers. And it’s that questioning mindset. But at the end of the day, it’s ownership. Like, when you Marcus Aurelius said, the biggest thing you’ll overcome in your life is yourself. And so we can’t control the external, but we absolutely can control the internal neuro. And I’ve looked at like, in that, with that perspective, I looked at every single situation I’m in and of course, like, maybe it was 2% ownership. But, you know, like, no matter what I could see why, why I caused that external event to happen. And maybe that external event was there to be a lesson. But there’s ownership wherever you’re at like you are, that’s what your intention lies in your results. Look at your life today, if there’s something that’s not wrong set of blaming or look within, you know, it’s internal, because when you take ownership at that high of a level, and I’m not even all the way to the level I want to be, because the more you learn, the more you know, you’ll don’t know. And the more that you know, that you might not never know. But you can, like mastering making a commitment to self discovery for the rest of your life, I feel like should be a universal core value, and that ownership piece, it for every employee that you hire a client that comes in and didn’t work out well. Like, you can see why you’re at fault. And when when you see that, that is empowerment.
D.J. Paris 1:12:11
Yeah, and we all learn the, like you were saying earlier, we learn by mistakes, it’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to feel crappy about the mistake as long as you then say, okay, what can I do going forward so that I, I can improve, I can get better I can, you know, it’s all of these things are learning, we’re talking about learning and we stop learning, you know, at 18 or 21. And, you know, a structured sense, you know, for some people go on for additional degrees, but most of us stop learning around 2118 to 21. And we just know, we read a book, it is not their fault, false, because
Jennifer Wehner 1:12:44
10% is only 10% of the population that actually want to learn for the sake of learning. And that’s just the way like people are designed. It’s not saying good or bad. But like, again, like stepping outside of your comfort zone, knowing where your weaknesses is, if anything, I could be learning junkie and not implement, you know, but, you know, so there’s always like,
D.J. Paris 1:13:03
that’s real common to where people get addicted to learning, but not implementation. So that’s why you need that accountability. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I read about podcasting for like, three years. I didn’t do anything with it. I knew how to do it. But I didn’t actually do it. Because guess what, it was really scary. And guess what being scared is okay. It’s okay to be scared as long as well. Yeah. I mean, you’re, you’re scared of just the unknown?
Jennifer Wehner 1:13:31
Well, and usually what I find that is, is that you’re scared of what other people think about you, oh, First, learn about anything from high school. Like, let’s that leave in high school. Because, like being different when you know, it’s like you like, again, like you might like have like stutter a lot. And there’s actually an agent that stutters a lot and he actually got a lot more traction on his video channel and was really successful agent. So you know, like, what your biggest curse you think it is, can also be your biggest gift. Because even being an addict for me, I see it as like a superpower. Because the more empathetic and more creative, the more likely to be an addict. So, you know, that’s when I discovered I was an artist. But, you know, they’re just look at yourself, because that again, back to the Marcus Aurelius, the Greeks knew a thing or two, and you are the captain of your own ship. And I’m imagining like a Star Trek Enterprise kind of ship. But your ship can look like a yacht or you know, real estate train, but I like ships for something like that. But no matter what, like you have the power, whether you believe or not believe you’re going to be right, but you do truly have the power to accomplish, whatever it is that you want in life, especially right now here in America, where we do have the freedom,
D.J. Paris 1:14:43
we are very, very lucky the freedoms we have in this country are pretty much unparalleled. And it’s easy to forget that if we just follow the news, and we just look at what’s wrong, and there’s plenty of things that are wrong, but there’s plenty of
Jennifer Wehner 1:14:57
years ago, do we remind ourselves of that? Our ancestors, all of our collectively were starving 100 years ago. And now cheeseburgers are 99 cents. So we have to remember, we have to go back in the past for nostalgia, and yeah, healing trauma and all that. But to learn the lessons where we are, because we can’t predict the future, we can be in the present. But we can see the trends. And together we can see what that visual looks like for the future, and how we can make a change for the positive. And I don’t know about you, but there’s a lot going on in the world right now. And we can end on this. But there is absolutely things we can do about it. Not running for president maybe but maybe being a better local leader, maybe volunteering more maybe helping your agent community more helping your clients that better accent but there is absolutely a positive impact that we can do, you know, in the humanitarian cause that we’re in.
D.J. Paris 1:15:49
Yeah, it’s it’s apps and even just smiling at a stranger as they walk by on the street as long as you’re doing that in a non creepy way. Even doing that might just be what that person needs in that moment. And you’re going to feel good when they smile back at you. So all of that is being said, so I am so grateful that we had this conversation. Jennifer, I want everyone to check out Jennifer two places. First her website Wainer group.com. You can see everything that her and her team are doing as well as follow her on Instagram, which is at Jennifer Waner, which is Jennifer dot, sorry, Jennifer dot laner. And that’s w e HNER. She also has YouTube channel. She does a lot of really cool things with social. She’s a coach. She’s an author, she’s a mom, she’s a team leader. And you know, a bio hacker, skydiver, etc. Last year, I can do astrologer I would I need it, I need it. I’m a Gemini, so I’m all over the place.
Jennifer Wehner 1:16:44
Anyway, your natal chart and transits?
D.J. Paris 1:16:47
Well, I am so glad that you were on the show. And on behalf of Jennifer and myself, we want to thank our audience for showing up staying to the end, we appreciate you, you’re the reason we do this. And we hope that this was of as much fun and value as Jennifer and I had. So thank you on behalf of Jennifer and myself. And then on behalf of the audience and myself, we want to thank Jennifer, she doesn’t have time to do this. She is just that busy. And she took time she made time to give back to our audience. And so thank you on behalf of everyone who listens and watches our show. And we want to thank everyone and please the last thing that we will do before we sign off, we asked our audience of just one thing, please tell a friend think of one other realtor, real estate agent, real estate professional, whatever it’s called in your neck of the woods and send them a link to the show. Maybe somebody who’s struggling that could that could benefit from all of these things Jennifer was suggesting about how to go inside and actually, you know, figure out what’s what you can do to improve your own life and your clients life and send them a link to our episode. This episode. The best way to do that, just send it to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is there. Or if they’re a podcast listener already, just have them pull up whatever app they’re using search for keeping it real, hit the subscribe button, we would appreciate it. Jennifer, thank you so much. This was such a pleasure.
Jennifer Wehner 1:18:00
Now it’s truly an honor and Namaste and Namaste to your to everyone listening because the most important thing you can invest in is yourself. And so it’s it’s fun. It was fun for me I’m selfishly saying it was fun. So thank you. It really was an honor and you know Namaste.
D.J. Paris 1:18:16
Namaste. We will see everyone or I guess everyone will hear us on the next episode. I won’t see you but we will hear you and Jeff Lee check Jennifer and her team out and by the way Jennifer’s team is hiring. I forgot to mention that. So if you are in well, you can be from anywhere. You don’t have to just be in the Scottsdale area. But if you are particularly if you are in the Scottsdale area, you want to join an amazing team. Of course reach out to her but it could be anywhere in the world and if you can reach out to her and she can talk to you about the coaching she does for her team. So anyway, Jennifer, thank you so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks
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