Danny Brown from Compass in Beverly Hills talks about the beginning of his career and his shift from the music industry to real estate. We then pivot to teams, and Danny suggests how to find the right team to join to provide structure and business building opportunities. Next, Danny discusses the importance of prospecting and different ways you can get in front of consumers who need your services. Danny hosts his own podcast The Deal with Danny Brown where he interviews top performers across all industries. Last, Danny talks about the differences and similarities of working with celebrities versus normal people.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Click here to visit and subscribe to The Deal With Danny Brown.
Danny Brown can be reached at (310) 901-7405 and dbrown@compass.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, I am your guide. And host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Danny Brown, of Compass, by the way compass just had their IPO. So congratulations at the time, we were recording this it hadn’t yet happened. And so I think we’ve been referencing it about hoping that they go public at some point. And of course, they did right after the taping of this episode. So congratulations, of course to compass. They’re just crushing it everywhere they go. And ever. Also, please, for all of our listeners and viewers tell a friend about our show. Think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Danny here in just a moment and send them a link to our website, they can you can download every actually could stream every episode we’ve ever done right there. So even if you don’t have a podcast app, and it’s not something you regularly do, but you sit in front of a computer, you can actually just stream it right from a browser. So keeping it real pod.com And also follow us on Facebook our every single day we find an article that was written online specifically designed to help real estate agents grow their business. And then we just also post episodes of our show. And that’s it. So it’s all sorts of good stuff there. And it’s consistent. So every day you’ll learn something and we post our episodes every couple of days there as well. So keeping sorry it’s facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our episode interview with Danny Brown.
Alright, today on the show, we have Danny Brown from compass in Beverly Hills. Danny is a lifelong Angeleno and anchor of luxury real estate in Los Angeles since 2002. Danny Brown is the principal of a luxury estates division at Compass in Beverly Hills and a compass evangelist. In this dual role he represents high net worth clients on the west side of Los Angeles specializing in Beverly Hills Bel Air humbly hills, little humbly, is it sure void hills. Sorry, Brett Woods semiotica. Yeah. Brett woods, Santa Monica Pacific Palisades and Malibu, in other words, where the celebrities live. In addition, he supports compasses senior management as a brand ambassador and compass as compass continues to strategically expand throughout Southern California and the western United States. Now Danny is consistently on the Wall Street Journal real trend list of top 250 agents in the country. And his recently sold the Lindsey Buckingham, which is the lead guitarist and principal songwriter for Fleetwood Mac, his estate in Brentwood for $28 million. He also helped sell the infamous Brady bounce Brady Bunch house. His clients consist of many family offices, entrepreneurs, sea level executives, developers, business managers, entertainers and athletes. Danny has an award winning podcast called the deal with Danny Brown, which is in its third season of production where he interviews elite performers in business sports, entertainment, and life and distills down their recipe for success. You can find the deal on all podcast form formats, and YouTube and we’re going to ask all of our viewers and listeners to subscribe to the deal with Danny Brown by either pulling up a podcast and doing a search for it or going directly to their website, which is the deal pod.com Again, the deal pod.com. And for anyone out there that is looking to work with one of the top Realtors in the entire country, visit his website, which is Danny Brown l a.com. Danny, welcome to the show.
Danny Brown 4:30
Wow, that was a very kind generous introduction. Well, I’m glad to be here.
D.J. Paris 4:36
How are you? I am great. Thank you so much for doing the show. I was I was telling Danny before we got on that he was on our list of dream guests for actually several years now. And so we’re super excited to have him on the show and I’m glad we
Danny Brown 4:52
were able to finally do this in COVID You know you’re you have a great show and great audience so I’m happy to do it and gives me something to do today?
D.J. Paris 5:01
Well I’ll tell you meet me too. I was funny I am now I know in LA right now with, you know with with the pandemic. I know outdoor dining was was a big thing is is that still currently shut down, opened up.
Danny Brown 5:16
That’s a sore subject in this household. It was shut down. That was our Saturday. That was our Saturday go into the couple spots Dan Tannaz and Sure. Beverly grill we’d sit we sit outside, everyone’s wearing masks, there’s plastic screens it spread out. The the waitstaff is wearing masks and gloves and everything. I mean, it’s not the safest place on planet Earth. And they opened it up for about a month or so and then they shut it back down. It was just a total total mindfuck for us. That was our only Saturday our only normalcy and these poor businesses or restaurants they employ 1000s and 1000s of people and anyway don’t get me started that’s a hot that’s a hot topic.
D.J. Paris 6:00
I figured it would be and I apologize for getting you heated but but I know like the whole country has been watching the the LA outdoor dining sort of scenario. It’s funny too, because I just got back from Florida, where you wouldn’t even know that you wouldn’t even know that COVID is happening in Florida. Yeah, we’re like, oh, there must not be any sick people down here because you know only about half the people we were in Tampa and then ultimately Clearwater on the beach in Clearwater nobody’s wearing the mask. Masks but but indoor dining is open outdoor dining is open and just
Danny Brown 6:34
my buddy Josh booty he was on his Instagram texting me New Year’s Eve party. I’m like, what? There’s hundreds of people on the dance floor like that couldn’t be safe. No vas. I know it sounds like you got Miami and LA. It’s like polar opposites. I imagine somewhere in the middle. There’s a happy medium of what hopefully, you know, common sense will prevail. But God man it’s been it’s been rough in LA it’s been rough everywhere. And hopefully we’ll get through this COVID COVID madness soon. I’m hoping in the next two three months where we can put it behind us and get back to outdoor dining a Dantana says
D.J. Paris 7:10
this is my first first moment back in the office because because I was in Florida. I was and I just flew back in late late last week. I was like I better go get tested because I was you know and and thankfully everything’s fine. So hopefully everyone listening and watching is also healthy and we we no hope the end is in sight. Let’s just get across the finish line and come on. I would love because of course you are one of the top agents in the all the entire country and that which is an impressive feat. You’re in the top 250 realtors, which by the way, there are like 1.4 million realtors. So that is a massive must, at least
Danny Brown 7:51
in my own my own mind. I don’t know if anywhere else. There’s a lot of realtors were everywhere. I
D.J. Paris 7:57
would love to know sort of how you got into real estate would love to hear that story.
Danny Brown 8:01
Yeah, well, let’s let’s see the story. So my best one of my best friends best man at my wedding, a gentleman named David Ravitz. Him and his partner David offer are probably top 10 in the country every year. So Dave and I were best buddies. I was in the music business. That was my first career. I was working with a guy that signed bands and Jimmy Eat World the band you’ve probably heard of, to drive in another alternative band, My Chemical Romance, a lot of hip hop groups too. So a lot of alternative rock and hip hop. That’s that was my world from starting in college. I was promoting bands and doing things in college than working for some record executives and trying to work my way up. Meanwhile, my roommate and best friend Dave, they’re crushing it in real estate. And I’m saying maybe I can work there part time and funnel some money into some of the bands because I was at the point where I was going out on my own to develop dance, manage fans, and I thought, well, this is great. I’ve hatched a great plan. And Dave says, Wow, that’s not a great idea. Real Estate’s impossible Don’t look at us just because we’re the top of card this is not there’s 1,000,001.4 realtors that are starving, and there’s like 200 that are killing it. He’s like this is not good. You shouldn’t do this and he said but if you decide to do it, you’d probably kill it you you got the skill sets and the hustle and the work ethic and he’s like I could never recommend you do it because it’s such a hard business but you know so that’s how I started part time picking up funding funnel money into my bands. And little did I know you know there’s no part time you’re not making any deals part timing and West Side la Real Estate. So pretty quickly within within six months, I was full time real estate and winding out of the bands started to close some deals. And luckily I hustled some deals early on and I got a taste of it. I’m like man, I love this. And I ran with it and that was 20 years ago, and then built my business step by step by step over For 20 years, I definitely started at the bottom, I was going to parts of LA that I’d never heard of. And I grew up here. And I was selling homes for in LA price points. 100 200,000, which is unheard of. That’s what I was driving anywhere lert with that, at that point, there was no Google Maps. So I had the, you know, Thomas guide, I’m driving to Granada Hills, and I’m driving to, you know, east of LA and all over the place to get any deal. I can. But I loved it. I loved it. And it just took off from there, year by year by year have grown of growth. That’s the quick store.
D.J. Paris 10:33
Yeah, that’s, that’s really amazing. I imagine working for for the those two gentlemen that that are really top top of the mountain probably gave you some of the best mentoring you could imagine.
Danny Brown 10:46
Yeah, so I didn’t work with them officially. But yes, I was on the phone with them. In fact, every day for the first couple of years in the business, you know, they’re like, this is weird. You’re doing deals, we’re white. I’m shocked. Most people aren’t doing deals. And I didn’t know any better. I’m just a hard worker. And I knew nothing about it other than to take it serious. That’s all. That’s always what I did in my career before in the entertainment business. And so yeah, I was on the phone with them great mentorship, and there’s that as skilled and versed as anyone. And it was it was a great, you know, MBA program. And I learned about, you know, 10 or 15 years of information in those first couple years. So that was a huge, huge benefit for sure.
D.J. Paris 11:29
Yeah, that’s it is really, I’ve always thought that either having a coach or mentor or joining a team, when you’re first in the business is typically a good idea for most agents, not for every agent, but for a lot,
Danny Brown 11:43
no doubt. And looking back, I never joined a team officially. But that’s now what I would have done. If I had learned a lesson. I went out on my own, but I would have joined a big team. And you know, grinded it out for the team learned as much as I can. I ended up doing it my way on my own and calling day nonstop every day. But you know, I probably could have accelerated my growth if I was on a team early. So that would be my recommendation. But it’s not for everybody. Right?
D.J. Paris 12:12
Well, I think it’s just it can be tricky to find the right team. And just since we’re on the topic, I’m curious if you have because, you know, teams are so prominent right now in in most major markets. For that, you know, in Chicago, where I am, there’s just, you know, the the biggest firms all have tremendous number of teams. And I know, there’s probably a lot of agents right now reevaluating. Because the beginning of the year, you know, should I stay on my own? Should I join a team? I’m just curious if you have any thoughts about how to find maybe the right team?
Danny Brown 12:43
That is a really challenging question, because it’s different for everyone. I mean, you want to look at use your common sense, who do you align with? Who you value? Who do you respect? And who do you think has opportunity that you can learn from and that they would get value from you. I mean, it’s just using common sense. And yet being on the right team is important. There are a lot of teams, in fact, majority of teams in LA at least I can’t speak for every other market, but where they really don’t need to be teams, it’s just more of an ego play, let’s have 50 people in the picture or 10 people and, you know, I’m doing more business last week than they did, you know, 50 people all year. So it’s ridiculous. Now, there’s the other side of that, where there’s like legit people that have built companies within companies. And you know, and then there’s everything in between. But you do use your common sense. If there’s a style or something you met, you want to mimic or someone you value and you’d like, that’s how I want to do my business, or that’s an area want to work in to me, you got to be smart about it, right? You don’t always have that option to just pick, sometimes you just got to start where you start and then maneuver. But if you can, if you can think about it, you know, you want to work for someone that you respect, trust, and can help you get to where you want to go.
D.J. Paris 14:01
Yeah, and those are all really, really great advice. And also, it’s, you know, I think a lot of agents think, well, gosh, you know, I don’t I’d feel embarrassed to reach out to so and so because they’re so prominent, it’s like, no, you should reach out to them and say, Hey, I would be interested in talking to you about possibly joining your team, here’s the value I can bring to you. And and here’s kind of what I’m looking for. And and you know, every team is looking always looking for that next great team member not know, not every team, of course, but a lot of teams are always looking for that next, that next big producer or the person that they can groom into a big producer. So I always encourage you know, anyone who’s doing that to you know, reach out to as many top producers as you can. And like you were saying, see where the personalities match up and where the opportunities line up.
Danny Brown 14:46
Ya know, and you have to be someone who’s willing to work and uh, don’t think that you’re going to just join a big team and they’re going to start handing you easy deals and big business and you’re going to be a top producer. I mean, don’t waste your time unless you’re prepared to dig and grind in work and work committed for a couple of years. Otherwise, why would why does the top producer want to bring someone on they don’t You don’t want no one’s deadweight. And, you know, no one wants somebody that’s looking for handouts. You know, we all only eat what we kill, there’s no salary for any of us. And there’s ups and downtimes, no matter how high you are the business, you don’t want someone on your team that’s going to be entitled. So you got to be, you got to make sure that you’re, you’re really honest about willing to do the work. Because if you’re not willing to work at least as hard as the top people that don’t try to join their team, you know, unless that’s the setup, and they want people like part timers.
D.J. Paris 15:42
Yeah, I remember when I first got into the workforce, I don’t remember maybe it was my father, somebody told me never arrived before the boss gets there and stay after the bus leaves. And even if it’s just one minute after the buzzer leaves, you know, just you have to do the, the bottom line is, and I know that you’re somebody who grinds it out, you’ve been grinding it out for, gosh, 19 years now, which is amazing. And I would love to, you know, I know a lot of our listeners are probably thinking, I wonder what his day looks like. And of course, every day is different. But there’s probably some regular disciplines that that you’re trying to accomplish each day. And I’m just curious if you’re willing to share some of those activities. COVID
Danny Brown 16:23
are out of COVID. Because over the last 10 months, I don’t know what the fuck is going on, not just trying to survive, right? I’m on the verge of nervous breakdown, Zoom school wife is yelling, dogs bark, and kids are fighting. Clients are ringing. So that’s that’s pretty much that quick stats, a quick summary. But so ideally, let’s talk ideally, I think structure is really important. And it doesn’t mean that everybody’s structure looks differently. Some people structure is what people would say, is an old military style discipline. And that’s amazing if you can do that. But there’s also a lot of different types of structure along the paradigm and the chart of how disciplined you are, I find myself, discipline is everything. I think there’s no success in anything in life, and any passion or anything you do without discipline. And that discipline, though, can be you know, could slide it’s not all military self discipline. But for me, I have kids, I have little kids in school. So normal life, I tried to get up, put on gym clothes, take the kids to school. And funny enough, I’m usually talking to 10 or 15 parents when I drop kids off. So I’m like, constantly, you know, these are network people that are buyers and sellers, just naturally I’m talking to 1520 people there, then I try to work out then I go try to work out and that can be run on the beach surf weights, you know, walk, I try to put good put it out and get then need a shower there or get dressed and start my day in the late morning. And I try to structure my day where I’m spending that first, you know, hour or two or three thinking about reaching out to people. And I do have after 20 years or 19 You have a big network. And it’s not cold calling, but I’m reaching out to people now I have a certain amount of incoming calls that I got to get back to from the morning or the night before in emails. But I tried to spend an hour or two getting in touch with people and it really it’s checking in and that usually organically become setting up lunches. And a lot of my business now is breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee drinks. You know, there’s five slots or six slots or more a day. And on an ideal day, I’m getting into that kind of thing. Now, things come up. That’s it’s not perfect. And I could have a listing appointment, I could have a doctor’s appointment, I could have a kid that needs get get from school because they’re sick, I get it. There’s lots of stuff. There’s showings that come up. But within that structure, I spend that first couple hours before noon, you know, trying to think about that. And then from there, I am a big believer in eating and getting nutrition and sometimes that means walking out my door, my office to Beverly Hills. And a lot of times that means getting in front and having a lunch with a friend or most of my friends are now potential clients but friends are network and you know, do that. And then the afternoons after lunch, it’s showings going on appointments. And if not, it’s thinking about marketing. It’s thinking about either, you know, strategizing, and fine tuning and getting ready for the next day. And look, every day is different, but that’s the generic thing. And I try to get home and have dinner with my family. When it’s a season I’ll take you know when it’s baseball season with the kids and I’m trying to coach so then you know I’ll start I’ll start my day at 330 on Fridays and go coach and then you know at six I’m on the phone for another hour to catching up. So there’s ways to skin different ways to skin the cat and a lot of times when the kids go to sleep by 989 10 o’clock, that’s when I catch up. And it’s another hour of cleanup work and emails and texts, and in looking in the MLS for new listings, and that’s a typical day. And you know, is it a grind? Yes. But I’ve also realized that at some point, I do take time off. And if it’s a day for the weekend, or if it’s 5060 days straight, and then go for days away to Palm Springs to the desert, at some point, it breaks, and I do something that’s taken a while to learn, but I recharge, take time off. And sometimes that means only taking four hours on a Sunday on a Sunday, if that’s what it is, when it’s real busy. But eventually, in our business, there is a time where things recede. And when that happens, I get the family like, let’s go to Laguna, Newport, Santa Barbara, wherever Palm Springs, Hawaii, you have to recharge. And that took me a long time to figure out before I was married, I would do the seven day a week thing and just grind and burnt out. And that’s not good. It’s not productive.
D.J. Paris 20:58
Well, you just said so much there. And I think one of the one of the things I want our listeners and viewers to to really hear that, because he just he just really gave you an amazing structure for his personal day when Number one, he knows his structure. And that’s obviously a hallmark of a top producer where yes, it changes it fluctuates. There’s always things in flux, but but predominantly, he knows what he’s doing in the morning. He knows what he’s doing in the afternoon, and also in the evening. And he also has a family and other responsibilities like coaching, you know, baseball and things like that. So one thing that you spend a lot of time on, and I really want our audience to hear this is getting in front thinking about ways to get in front of prospective clients. Again, it’s that’s our business. Yeah, it’s probably the number one reason why people fail at this industry. I mean, obviously, it’s they’re not doing enough deals. Yes, they’re leaving because they don’t make the income. But it all goes back to are you having conversations with people that are sure, yeah.
Danny Brown 21:57
And there’s no one right way to do it, right. There’s a million ways to do it from cold calling the door knocking to golfing at the country club, to going to dinners and lunches to open houses. To all of it, I mean, it’s a combination of all those things, or you pick what what you’re good at and you stick to it, you’re not going to force somebody to door knock, if the petrified the door knock, you’re not going to force someone to pick up the phone and call if they’re petrified of phone calls. But that person may be great at texting, that person may be great at having lunches that person may be great at having book clubs and meeting people that whatever I say find your lane, and go all in and double down and triple down. And if it’s something you’re passionate about even better, you know, if you’re like I’m passionate about golf, great play golf all the time. That’s a huge network. You can be golfing with business people all the time, you’d like to surf, great surf, there’s softball, book club, whatever it is. And if you’re passionate about something great, and you got to have to do something go, you can’t say no, no, no, no, I’m good. I don’t want any of it. If you don’t want any of it, you know, then you better have some really wealthy friends that want to use you. And that happens to there’s some people in our business, especially in big markets where you know, you have a couple of wealthy friends and that keeps you sustained. I will plug for Compass, we have this CRM, that’s incredible. And I’ve never been a hardcore CRM. I’ve been on Outlook for 30 years since the internet started. But our CRM and our AI is so organized, and so on point, like once you put your contacts in, it’s telling you every day here Here are the most likely people to sell. Here are leads that you haven’t talked to. It’s amazing. Now, do I have to contact all these people every day? No. But if I don’t have to think about it, you know, it’s automatic pilot. And that is a huge thing that I’m thrilled about a compass because I never was someone that was living in their CRM, I always I’ll just think about it. And this has made it so easy, and attracts it. And oh, yeah, I did talk to them, or I haven’t talked them in eight months, it tracks it automatically. So that’s a quick, quick compass plug, but you got to do something, you got to get in front of people anyway, anyway, you can and everyone’s got to pick how they do it. There’s no right or wrong way. But there certainly are a dozen tried or trued ways. And you know, you might want to start with
D.J. Paris 24:18
those. Yeah, boy, yeah. Everything you just mentioned is such a such a great idea. And also we should mention, you know, I think in the last year, introverts have actually started have really been able to step up because now we’re doing so much stuff virtually. So if you’re somebody who is more introverted, you have so much opportunity that you really didn’t have pre pandemic because the whole our whole culture is now used to doing virtual stuff. So like this
Danny Brown 24:49
exam, a lot of zoom meetings, a lot of zoom calls, I mean, look, you just got to figure out what your what your thing is, and double down on it and go hard on it, but you’re gonna have to do something other While you’re just waiting to get lucky, and that’s not really a good business model.
D.J. Paris 25:05
And also, if you’re spending the majority of your day servicing your existing clients, which is totally normal, we understand client’s needs. But if you’re not also thinking about, okay, how do I get in front of new people? Or how do I have a few additional conversations, it might feel like you’ve done a lot that day, and you have for that one client, but maybe you haven’t expanded your network, because you didn’t build that into your day.
Danny Brown 25:27
That is the million dollar paradox, what you just talked about that is the difference between living a, you know, being a mogul, in real estate and just surviving in real estate. And it’s, it’s a hard dance to figure out the balance between servicing your, your deals, your clients, and prospecting for new business, and it’s a constant dance. We all do it, I do it every day. And yes, you know, if you spend too much time, being busy out of your mind, which sometimes we are, you know, multiple deals going and clients and pulling you in every direction, and you let the prospecting marketing side go for a couple of weeks before you know it, you can imagine it’s almost every time a month or two later, you hit a cold, a dead spot. And that’s why real estate is the up, it’s up and down. But you eliminate the downs, by doing the prospecting and the networking regularly, even when you’re busy. And like any way you can figure out how to steal 20 or 30 minutes to reach out to 10 people, or what however, you’re going to do it that that is just that’s the great paradox that you need to solve. Otherwise, you’re going to be constantly in the oh, I run, run, run, I got a couple days, oh my god, I made some money and then starting over again. And that kills most people. And that’s why most people probably get out of the business or hate the business. It’s not fun when you’re in that. And we all get in that in some ways, but you want to minimize
D.J. Paris 26:56
the freefall. So I’m just curious, because that dance, of course, is the million dollar question that that, you know, doesn’t have a real specific answer. But do you set certain boundaries around like, Okay, if I get an email at a certain amount of or text at a certain time, I’m gonna, I’m gonna attack unless it’s an immediate emergency, which I, you know, you’ll need to respond to if it’s something that can wait. You know, it’s a certain time of day where you’re like, This is my prospecting time, you know, and I get it. I know it’s a dance, there’s no simple answer. But do you have certain boundaries? You’re like, Okay, if a text comes in at 10 o’clock at night, I’m going to deal with that tomorrow, or do you just respond when it comes in?
Danny Brown 27:33
So I know a lot of really successful brokers that have a cut off time, and they put on their voicemail, you know, if this is or email, this is after seven or six, I’ll talk to you in the morning. And that works for them. And they were very rigid. And a lot of those people are super disciplined. And it works. That doesn’t work for me. I have my own version of that. And I am so good at compartmentalizing and going from room Kid Mode loom wife mode, boom, offer mode move, whatever charity fundraising. I’m constantly shifting. So yes, I’ll tell you Yeah, I feel like I have some boundaries. I couldn’t even define what those boundaries are. Because there are times I’m the one in the morning was, you know, responding. And sometimes, and sometimes it’s eight o’clock at night or six o’clock, and I’m like, I’ll deal with this later, I’m doing something else. So it’s very hard to pinpoint the rhyme or reason. But yes, you have to have certain boundaries. And the prospecting time. For me, it’s always like the boundary time if you’re going to be stringent, even if you’re giving yourself 15 or 20 minutes to make a call or send out three texts. Now those important reach out moments are like, those are the moments those are the golden moments that you really got to protect, because it’s so easy to just get lost in the blur of busyness, there’s always so much work to do in real estate, it never ends, the inbox is never empty, and there’s always things coming at you. It’s really easy to stay busy, and not do anything that’s productive than going to make your money and that’s you want to be doing stuff that you can build your business and make money off.
D.J. Paris 29:08
Yeah, for sure. And just because you are in a very sort of glamorous part of the country, or at least to the rest of the collaboration.
Danny Brown 29:18
But a lot of sewer lines are very glamorous and Beverly Hills
D.J. Paris 29:23
but you know there are a lot of reality shows that that a lot of agency and they’re like wow is so Insell you know, there’s you know, there’s countless shows, and I’m just curious
Danny Brown 29:35
started with the reality shows. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? So, look, my everyone in LA has their own take or New York because we see it but like, if you’re not in LA, this reality shows are bullshit. That’s not what we do. That’s a different business. So if you can be one of the lucky motherfuckers that gets on Bravo and gets on TV in front of hundreds of millions of people. You’re gonna be a millionaire. But there’s only 10 of those. You said how many real orders? 1.5 million? Yeah, there’s only about 10 of those that have Bravo shirts. So that is not our business. And there’s no way to think that that’s how you’re going to make it in business in real estate. Now these people have done it, they’ve capitalized on it. And you know, the Josh Altman’s and God bless, they work hard. But you only get that kind of business if you’re on Bravo, or you got a TV show. So for the rest of us, if you’re not on TV, don’t chase that. Don’t look at that. That’s a whole different business. It’s a completely different business. So I that’s what I say. It’s fun. It’s entertaining to watch. That’s not what we do. That’s not our business. And do I do deals with all these people? Yeah. And when they’re doing deals with us, they’re they’re in it doing normal deals, but the TV shows are, those are a fucking joke. That’s not the real world. And God bless. If I could get on it. I’ll take it. You know, you get on it, a Joe Schmo start real estate tomorrow and get on Bravo, you will be a millionaire in a year or two guaranteed. Yeah. But there’s only 10 of those. It’s like hitting the lottery. Yeah, I
D.J. Paris 31:02
have. I have a friend who’s a producer and a director for reality TV. She’s been doing it for 25 years, and she’s worked on about 40 different shows. And in her career, she’s like, you just have to realize she’s like, it’s all scripted. It’s all fake. Oh, you know, there’s elements of reality to it. But she’s like, it’s just not, you know, she’s like, we set up all of these scenarios. She doesn’t work on any of the of the real estate shows, but it’s all scripted. And you know, and let me put it this way.
Danny Brown 31:29
If you take these people, and you they were never on these reality shows, their businesses would be miniscule. You know, they may look, they’re smart, and they work hard and this and that, but they would just be, you know, another broker, you wouldn’t know of their names like you do, like, and anyone that’s unknown. If I put you on that show, you know, you’d be massive within a year so well, that’s less than half. Yeah, those
D.J. Paris 31:53
people are cast. I mean, that you know, they are producers looking for a specific type and and they’re, you know, no different than actors who are trying to win certain roles and, and again, it’s just a whole different thing. But I wonder it’s not real. I would love to talk about what Israel which is your podcast the deal with Danny Brown, so tell us real?
Danny Brown 32:13
Well, I started a podcast the deal with Danny Brown, it’s on Apple and Spotify and all podcast formats. The video is also on YouTube, you know, the deal with Danny Brown. It’s basically about success, career and business and recipes for success. So I interview business people, a lot of a lot of real estate people like Robert Rifkin, the CEO of compass, and a lot of big home builders like Tommy Beatle of Thomas James Holmes, but also a ton of entrepreneurs. The old chief of station for the CIA Darrel blocker, who’s being one of the finalists of this, of running the CIA, for Biden, I interviewed him, people from entertainment athletes, Kevin Miller, Boston Red Sox, so I break down their recipe for success. And kind of like, you’re asking me, what are some of my routines and things I asked them? What are their routines? What are their? What are their recipes? What is their work ethic? Like, what is their mindset, like, and I distill it down, so and I distill it down, and it’s palatable and entertaining. And for anyone who’s in business and wants to grow in real estate, or business in general, or start our own business, there’s great, great wisdom in these in these interviews. So we’ve done three seasons. It’s really been a lot of fun and ice creative outlet for me.
D.J. Paris 33:29
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s exactly what we’re trying to do on this show as well. So we applaud, applaud you for doing that, and, and expanding it to all sorts of different industries, because so much of the discipline of success is, can be distilled down to just, you know, certain behavior, and, you know, it can be cross across industries, and it doesn’t necessarily have to, you know, success of an athlete versus the success of a real estate agent really incorporates a very similar discipline. Yeah, yeah.
Danny Brown 33:59
And that’s what the theme of my show is, it’s showing that it’s the same mindset, the same discipline, the same energy, the same stick to itiveness. There’s no shortcuts. And that’s really what it’s about it. There’s no There’s no easy way there’s no silver bullet. I know in real estate, we’re always looking for the latest gadget, the latest lead generator, the latest suit, the latest, whatever to make our business blow up, and it’s not an ad, you know, it’s none of that we all know it’s not an ad it’s, there’s no shortcuts, baby, you got to get down and dirty and put the work in for a long time.
D.J. Paris 34:35
Yeah, well, for everyone listening and watching, please subscribe to today’s podcast, which again, is called to deal with Danny Brown. You can find it on any podcast app or just go to the website, the deal. pod.com very similar to our website, which is keeping it real pod. Here’s the deal. pod.com. And I would be remiss if I didn’t ask about Lindsey Buckingham, I’m a musician. I’m a guitar player. I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan of course like effort and probably everyone listening. And I would love to know, you know, how you how did that come to be? Were you friends with him prior? Or how were you introduced?
Danny Brown 35:09
Yeah, well, unfortunately, these are things that we can’t talk about public other than it’s public information that the house has been sold, but everything is under noncompete, NDA non disclosure, but incredible family, incredible guy and family that bought it I also an incredible family that I can answer other questions. It’s an amazing estate with a tennis court and you know, things like that. But yeah, it has full blown Music Studio. And their goal is it won’t when magic was that’s pretty spectacular.
D.J. Paris 35:40
But I have a question about doing big, massive deals like that, versus as you were saying, when you started out doing smaller deals, you know, 100,000, and 20 million is quite a spread. As far as the amount of work it takes, obviously, the bigger properties, of course, are going to be a bit more complicated. But do you find that it’s, you know, you’ve been doing this a long time? Is it about the same amount of work? Or is it is it quite different?
Danny Brown 36:06
God? That is such a good question. I get that all the time. So tactically, it’s the same work, it’s the same contracts, it’s the same disclosures, it’s the same contingency periods, it’s the same escrow and less than that the minutiae is the same. What is different, and it is drastically different is the people involved, and the level of sophistication involved and the level of emotional intelligence needed to get through these situations, you know, at the high level, you’re dealing, you know, the individual principles are very sophisticated, but you’re also dealing with their business managers, or attorneys. A lot of times you’re dealing with, you know, you can only imagine the entitlement and in the, the note, no everything attitudes that you’re up against. So it’s technically the same, but it couldn’t be more different in terms of dealing with the people and the layers of people personalities. So your people skills have to be so much more advanced and sophisticated and broad, to deal with that level of a person and sophistication and intelligence. So it is very different. So when you talk about it, is it more work? Yeah, I guess it is more work, because you’re drained, you’re more drained, you’re more emotionally and psychologically drained, constantly dealing with the lawyer who wants this and says they can’t pay this price. And then the wife says, I have to have it at any price, you better not lose the house. And then the business manager says no, they have to stay at 20 million, the wife says we’ll pay 20. You know, you’re dancing between, that’s just a random example. But you’re dancing between so many conflicting, intelligent opinions, and you got to navigate it, and you got to be on your toes. And so it’s not for everybody in the commission, sure is appealing, but very few people can deal with this on a consistent basis. It’s not fun, it is not fun, for the most part, the grind, you get you put in and I’ll say for the celebrity and athlete types, which seems really glamorous, you know, it’s that times 10. You know, sometimes it’s the hardest. And, you know, it’s fun, and it sounds good on paper, but it’s it’s a lot of drama, a lot of work a lot of unnecessary emotional stress and other things. So it’s, it’s, that’s what that’s where you have to be able to handle that
D.J. Paris 38:27
you’re gonna have a lot more people involved in. There’s a lot of a lot of people who are paid to be very smart and knowledgeable. And then of course, you have human emotion, which comes in and it just gets complicated, I’m sure.
Danny Brown 38:41
Yeah, and look, real estate general stakes are high doesn’t matter if someone’s buying a $50,000 cabin, I mean, for everyone that’s buying or selling, it’s their moat, their biggest asset. So no matter what level you’re at, it is stress and real estate brings out the worst in buyer and sellers personalities. So we are absorbing that all day, we have to be really good and really careful and make sure we take care of ourselves self care, it’s huge. I talked about vacations and breaks but also working out if you can meditate or read or hike, whatever it is that you need to do to detox because we are sucking up a lot of stress.
D.J. Paris 39:16
Yeah, it’s funny I’m in the process of closing and I don’t practice real estate myself I have a license but I don’t use it. And so but you know, I’ve been around this industry long enough and even I and again, I’m really no different than any other buyer seller buying a home a primary residence and closing in the next month or so. And granted I have thank you, even I and I’ve been through this process before but even I am like there’s lots of all this anxiety and I firm where we have hundreds of agents and people are giving me all the information I need. I am in this industry and I’m completely stressed out and freaked out. And I think there’s so much of a realtors job is just managing your clients anxiety right a
Danny Brown 39:59
huge part of Our job is the emotional and psychological part, you’re the therapist, You’re the lawyer, you’re the friend, you’re all of it, you’re the designer, you’re the gets all of it in one, and you have to be able to navigate it, and switch on a dime and pivot. And that’s, that’s the name of the game. That’s what we do. If you’re gonna do it, well, you’re constantly bobbing and weaving, and people have no clue if you’re not in our business, have the skill sets that we need to be able to flourish, that people have no idea the outside looking in, they think, Oh, it’s so easy, because they watched sure Million Dollar Listing, oh, you just buy a nice car and you drive celebrities around and you make a million dollars. Like, it couldn’t be farther from that, you know, it’s not part of the reality of the shit that we put up with. And it’s insane. And I’m sure it’s like that in any market across the world. And just what it is everyone that buying or selling a house is stressed out of their mind, and whatever negative issues they have and their personality, it’s going to come out during the real estate transaction. So as the broker you got to be able to deal with it in a, you know, a kind professional way.
D.J. Paris 41:05
You know, it’s a really good good place to mention that if any of our listeners are a buyer or a seller, that are looking for a top agent in, you know, the west side of Los Angeles area, and you’re interested in working with one of the top agents in the country, definitely reach out to Danny, you can always visit his website directly at Danny Brown la.com. And also for all of our agents that are listening and watching go to his website, too, because I want you to see what a really great realtor website looks like. And Danny’s is about one of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s, it’s outstanding.
Danny Brown 41:38
And if any of you guys have any interest in compass, we really are doing amazing things and our CRM and our tech and our staging ability and our compass concierge, we’re adding so much value. And it’s not just talk, we’re walking the walk and talk the talk. So feel free to email me D brown@compass.com. anytime, from anywhere around the country, we are looking to expand in a lot of markets over the next 24 months. And we are hopefully approaching an IPO sometime this year, we’re praying for that. But forget about that just the tools we have and the culture is real, you feel like you’re working at a real company with really good human beings that care about you. And, you know, we got people, if you look into our company, and ahead of our tech is from Microsoft, and you know, Robert reskinned, and what he’s done and our board, this is a really special place and to have an opportunity to be at a company like this. And this business is it’s once in a lifetime. So feel free to reach out to me I know people are happy where they are and that’s fine. But if you’re not, or you want to look into it, I’m here. I’m here to help. That’s my plug.
D.J. Paris 42:43
compasses, compasses awesome. We’re here in the Chicago area and compass came in, maybe five years ago or four years ago. And, and really the thought was like, wow, okay, you know, are they going to be able to, to appropriate market share, and they just did. And I’ve had a ton of Compass agents on the show over the years, some from the local Chicago area, others from other parts of the country, they all love it. So if anyone out there is not satisfied at their current firm, or just wants to see what else is out there, especially like you were mentioning the seat, you’re mentioning the CRM, and the CRM does something really cool for my understanding. And maybe you can correct this by a bit wrong. But what it does is it looks for certain so you upload your your contacts and your you know, your sphere of influence, and it looks for certain signals to then maybe suggest to you, hey, this person might be going through some sort of life event. And maybe they can even identify what that is, or just at least they’re they’re suspecting that something is happening, you should give this person a call that is huge. I would love that kind of technology.
Danny Brown 43:43
Yeah, look, we have 300 or more engineers in Seattle, and 300. More engineers in India that all day are thinking about how do we make the algorithms better to find out who may be looking to sell and why and who may be looking to buy, they’re working for us. And it’s getting refined and refined and refined and refined. And it’s going to continue to get better and no one could touch this. So it’s really a once in a lifetime type of company. And being in the business for as long as I have seen all from all angles. It’s a special place to be. And this technology and everyone says oh, it’s everyone has technology. No, they don’t not like this. No one has anything like what what’s going on here? No one’s got 300 engineers in India and in Seattle. These are the best smartest minds in you know, it’s all helps. It all helps do you have to work hard and hustle and grind? Yeah, you’re not going to be huge in real estate if you don’t do that, but to hit a little bit of an advantage. I wish I had that 20 years ago, when I started it would have given me an accelerated growth in my business. But yes,
D.J. Paris 44:54
yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I am so impressed with the compass agents that I know personally and I’d have been on the show and again, they all love it. So definitely if you’re beginning of 2021, if you’re like, hey, well, I’m gonna see what else is out there, reach out to Compass, you can reach out to Danny directly as well. Danny, do you mind sharing your email again, one more time?
Danny Brown 45:12
Yeah, it’s D brown@compass.com. Just like the color D brown@compass.com.
D.J. Paris 45:19
So and again, I want to remind everyone to listen and subscribe to Danny’s podcast, which is the deal with Danny Brown two ways, two ways to do that. If you’re already a podcast person, pull up your podcast app, do a quick search for the deal with Danny Brown, it’ll pop right up. If you’re not yet a podcast person, go to his website, the deal pod.com You can subscribe there, you can also listen to all of his episodes, and become become fascinated with the discipline of success or the secrets of success. If you’re listening to the show. You’re already wanting to know that and you’re learning it here for the real estate. Now it’s time to expand that to other industries. So check out the deal with Danny Brown, and
Danny Brown 45:56
appreciate it. That’s awesome. Thanks for the plug. And yeah, leave a comment. If you like what you hear, reach out to me. I’m always I’m reachable on Instagram, too at Danny Brown LA or, or my email. But yeah, leave us a review. Tell us what you think. Tell a few people in your office and try to spread the word we’re in like 50 countries right now the podcast and it’s exciting. It’s fun. What you’re doing is awesome. I really love this platform. And it’s really useful, very educational for people in all levels of real estate. So kudos to you and what you’ve been doing for such a sustained period of time.
D.J. Paris 46:29
Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate it. And that’s a good reminder to all of our listeners and viewers. If you want to help support our show two ways to do that, we just ask you to do two things. Number one, tell a friend, think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from having heard this great interview with Danny and send them a link to our show. Same way that you’re gonna subscribe to Danny show you’ll do for hours, pull up your podcast app, look for keeping it real, it should pop right up. Or if you’re not yet a podcast person, go to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com And subscribe, you can listen to all of our episodes there. And we have an organized into different categories. So if there’s a particular type of interview you want to hear, you can actually just go and we have them all separated out there. And the last thing we’re going to ask you to do is follow us on Facebook, you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. A couple of good reasons to do that. Number one, of course, we post all of our episodes there. But while we’re recording the actual interview episode, we broadcast it live. So again, facebook.com forward slash alive. Yeah, so we’re live. And then the other thing is, every single day we find an article that’s written online specifically to help real estate agents grow their business and post a link to it. So again, facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod, Danny, thank you so much for being on our show. We love having you element.
Danny Brown 47:44
I love being here. Your show rocks. You guys are crushing it. It’s such a great.
D.J. Paris 47:49
Well, we’re glad to have it. We only crush it. We only crush it because we have such great guests like yourself and you crushed it on this episode. And really you did and we’re super honored to have you and everyone goes subscribe to the deal with Danny Brown as well. Danny, thanks.
Danny Brown 48:05
Hey, thanks. I appreciate it. Be safe, everybody. We’ll talk soon. Thanks. All right.
D.J. Paris 48:09
Thanks, everyone. We’ll see you next episode.
Danny Brown 48:11
Take care guys. Bye bye.
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