Ricardo Cortazar - Broker Manager | Real Estate | NAHREP

Opening Quote: "...Everybody says, one day I'm going to get my license. And I always step in and say, is today day one or is it still one day?"      -  Ricardo Cortazar

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This podcast has been edited and produced by Content by Fabio LLC

Transcript

Chris -
Welcome to the Breakthrough podcast with Chris. I am excited to be here with my man, Ricardo Cortazar. How are you doing, brother?

Ricardo -
Thank you for having me.

Chris -
Awesome, man. Awesome. I'm so glad you're here today. Today on Breakthrough, we're going to talk about diversity. We're going to talk about adversity. And we're going to help somebody out there and inspire them to break through, to the next level. So I'm here with Ricardo. I'm very excited. He's a local broker, right?

Ricardo -
Real estate broker. 23 years.

Chris -
So the reason I asked you to be here at Ricardo was because you and I had met. And I got to tell you so I've seen you in the industry for some time, and you have a brand, whether you believe it or not. And that brand was sharp, dressed, Latino, and it was and you wear this bow tie every now and again our bow ties, it's become your brand. And I was like, you know, I don't see anybody doing that. And so when you go into a room, it's like you could scan a room and I'm like, I got to go. I got to know that guy because he was just doing something that no one else is doing. And it's like you figured out a way to stand out and then you actually reached out to me before I was able to reach out to you and said, Hey, man, like, let's get to know each other.

Chris -
Let's talk. And so being part of NAHREP, which is it's an industry, you know, a real estate industry, what do you want to call it? Like a group of people that come together like-minded, Latino-oriented. It's the national National Association.

Ricardo -
A Hispanic real estate.

Chris -
Professional. See, I should know this because I'm actually on the board of one, but it's really helping people also breakthrough, the next level and being around other people that are doing good things. So when you go to these events, they're also amazing, the network with like-minded people, and you and I just gravitated towards each other because you and I do something very similar. You're out in the marketplace helping people who are in the real estate industry break through the next level. And I'm out in the marketplace helping lenders break through to the next level. And so partnering, I thought, would be really cool doing a podcast, hearing your story. So I want to start off this journey through this podcast, Ricardo, by telling me a little bit about well, let, let me introduce you to let me let the world know who you are because I think you're doing something so amazing and then I'm going to tell you why I thought it would be cool for us to do this. So Ricardo is a broker manager at Coldwell Banker Realty in Tempe. He is serving all of the valleys. He is also on the chapter of the Greater Phoenix NAHREP chapter. That is also the chapter of the year, which is pretty darn amazing to do.

Chris -
Out of all the chapters in the U.S., You guys were chapter of the year. And then one of the things that really jumped out at me is that out of the 23 years that you've been in the business, you were presidents council for 2022 and one of the toughest years in real estate. You're also helping people with commercial sales. But here is dude here this is the biggest piece for me that got me. So I was at a dinner in Washington, D.C. at the national event for Nora, and my chapter was having dinner and there was somebody at my table who just exudes confidence and she has is like in the midst of having her breakthrough moment.

Chris -
And I was noticing it. And I just the way she was talking, the way she was carrying herself. And I asked her, you know, tell me a little bit about like how you got to where you were. And she said, you know, I didn't have the confidence that I was at. And I met somebody. Ricardo helped me and he helped take my business to the next level and then like the next week, you reached out to me and I was like, What are the chances that I'm hearing this amazing story about this individual? I've seen him everywhere. He has a bow tie on. He's a sharp-dressed guy. And then now we're meeting. And I was like, This is meant to be there's something going to happen with this relationship that I was like, Dude, first let's get you on a podcast because you and I are both Latino.

Chris -
We're both in the marketplace, we're both winning, and we're helping people take their business to the next level. So I thought it'd be really cool to get you on. So I got to thank you for being here. Being here live with me in the studio here in Gilbert, Arizona. So thank you, man. How are you doing today?

Ricardo -
Great. Thank you for the invite, Chris, and happy to be here. You know what? I got to tell you, they always say that in Nara, we bring up leaders, a lot of people that are joining our group at a local national level, over 100 chapters. We've got a lot of great leaders. And it's an opportunity like you and I met, we are living here in Arizona and we didn't meet. We had to go out of the country, out of the state, to meet each other to see what we were doing.

Chris -
Well, you know, what's funny is that I was seeing you. And it's a funny thing because it's like I knew we were going to meet, but like, when you go to those meetings, sometimes you're just talking to a bunch of different people. But I was like, me and this guy are going to meet. He has at the bottom, we got to meet and, you know.

Ricardo -
As a panel, yes, I was on a panel and we were both at the same time, so I didn't get to go and see your panel. You didn't come to see my panel. But I tell you what, they always say that steel sharpens steel. Go. And so it's a compliment to hear that you said, hey, but I got to meet that guy. Yeah, he wears the bow tie. Today's my day off with the bow tie. There you go. I wanted to get really in touch with you and with the people that we might be able to help.

Ricardo -
Because one of the things that I really like about you, too, is that you said that you are nothing without the people that you actually can help, which is important to me because we are never alone when you're successful. A lot of people played a part in your success. Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that you and I have in common. Last night I was at a happy hour with one of your loan officers from here. And, you know, she was telling me about you and how much you've done for them, too, and for her and for her group. So I think it's important that you and I share best practices, and how we can help out more of the lenders, the real estate practitioners, because the market is tough right now.

Chris -
It is. It is. It's one of the toughest markets I've ever seen.

Ricardo -
And then going back to what you mentioned, I already know it's preset you're talking about because she's on your board as well. I can't take all the credit, but I will tell you this much. There's this one thing that you and I talked about when we first met as well, that to 11 to 12 moment when water boils, you had that all of a sudden change. Sometimes it's a couple of things that you might be able to tweak in somebody's mindset and it's all the difference in the world. Breeze was already a great real estate agent helping a lot of people. All she needed was somebody to believe in her more than she was believing in herself at that time. She's unstoppable.

Ricardo -
She's on fire. She's helping people day in, day out. Her team is growing. She's mentoring people, bringing them on board, because a lot of people see her. And when you see a good agent, a good lender, a lot of people are intimidated. How many people will not call you because they know you're charismatic?

Chris -
I don't know. I'm Yeah, yeah.

Ricardo -
This is your phone that should be ringing off the hook because you know what? If you've got a recipe for success, more people should be trying to benchmark themselves off of what you're doing.

Chris -
Well, let me jump on something you said and then and then this is really good because so I hired somebody to help me with some branding stuff and they were writing my based on all of our conversations, they were writing my bio. And in my bio, they said something like, I'm self-made and while that is somewhat true, meaning, I came up with very little mentorship.

Chris -
I came up with very little support. I felt like I was always digging myself out of a hole. The truth of the matter is my success has come from the people around me, the teams that I have helped build, and at times believing it. People like you said, more than they believed in themselves, seeing gold where, you know, they didn't see it in themselves and so for me, what I've always wanted to do is create a space, a safe environment for people to be vulnerable, come in and feel like their million dollar producer, $200 million producer, and get the same attention, you know, whether they were or not, because they had something special in them. And those are things that I didn't have coming up.

Chris -
So while the self-made piece, I always wonder, you know, is it really self-made? But there's no one that's truly self-made. The truth is, is that there are people around them that have helped them get there. And watching what you did with her and hearing her side of that really told me that you're giving in a way that I don't think a lot of brokers are giving. I talk to realtors every day. I talked to loan officers every day. And one of the things that I feel like our market is lacking and I feel like our industry is lacking our true leaders that are on the field supporting their people. You know, my wife my wife is a realtor and said she had a she's not a realtor, she's an investor, but was like, well, we can tax purposes, may as well become a realtor.

Chris -
And and that way when we do our own investments I don't have to pay somebody else was doing a contract I don't do a contract because they don't teach you that in real estate school. I'm like, Well, just call your broker. That second can call my broker. And I feel like, you know when I was talking to but he said she was like, I record of the will help me as he helped me with a commercial deal that I had no idea he got in the weeds with me and that's where I was like, okay, this guy is out there helping people and other realtors need to know that there are brokers in the market that are willing to get in the weeds with you in a way that maybe your brokerage isn't. And there's that to me is invaluable in the marketplace. So, you know, amazing job to you, and I'm happy to hear what you're doing for the industry. How, you know, how did you end up as a realtor what was the catalyst for you 23 years ago moving into that role?

Ricardo -
Well, before we jump into that, what's your wife's name? Tracy. Yes, she's by here in this podcast. Tracy, if you need a mentor or somebody who does real estate contracts, call me. You know, those are the stories that if I hear about an agent that's struggling somewhere else and they're not getting support from their broker, those are the things that I always pull at my heartstrings.

Ricardo -
They should be doing this. Why? Because they're also facing liability because they write the first contract and it's not done correctly. The other agent can see, too. So we are really good at making sure that any agent that's out there doing contracts knows what to do before they go out there in public.

Chris -
Absolutely. I mean, that's the value proposition of having an agent. Otherwise, everybody would, you know, sell their own home. Right. I mean, the value proposition is the contract. That's the hardest part of the deal.

Ricardo -
The real estate code of conduct says that we are here to protect and serve the public. How are we serving and protecting the public if we don't know how to write the offer or the contract? So let's make sure we talk afterward.

Chris -
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Ricardo -
But going back to your question, give me again the question because I was so excited about hearing, you know, and in fairness to the people.

Chris -
And, you know, the thing that I was curious about is, you know, how you ended up getting into the industry, you know, 23 years ago, you know, what was a catalyst that you said to yourself, you know, I'm going to go do this, this work, and that's a scary moment. That's a scary proposition. Because here's the thing for somebody listening out there that's thinking, I want to go into lending or I want to go into a be a realtor, the first thing you have to realize is that you're not going to make any money immediately, Right?

Chris -
And when you're getting into the industry and if you're somebody who's making I don't know, let's just say less than six figures, which is a large population of the world that's thinking to go to that route. You're living paycheck to paycheck already. And so to go and make the move to go basically into an entrepreneur situation is extremely scary. What do you do when in that moment, like how did you transition?

Ricardo -
You know, what you said was scary to make the transition. But I tell you what, it's scarier to not make it.

Chris -
There you go.

Ricardo -
Because a lot of people, believe it or not, always say that one day I'm going to get a license. Well, I tell my agents, what about today's day one as opposed to one day? And then that's their breakthrough moment too, you know.

Chris -
Say that again. Say, well, one day, that's really good.

Ricardo -
Everybody says, one day I'm going to get my license. And I always step in and say, is today day one or is it still one day?

Chris -
There you go.

Ricardo -
Go. You know, and then people realize, oh, he got me, now I've got them thinking now I've got their motors running in their head, thinking, you know what, This guy, man, he's really pushing me. And maybe that's all you need is a nudge. My nudge came at a very young age at 19 years old, when I was getting ready to embark on going to the University of Arizona, where I was working in construction and I know that the wake-up calls were at 430 in the morning do roofing, and I said, Wait a minute, I like the person that's actually doing the sales as opposed to the person that's getting up at 430 in the morning, you know, on a rooftop at 19. You're 18 years old and so for me, I was that was my breakthrough when I said, wait a minute, I like the way these people dress.

Ricardo -
And I tell you what, that's one of the things that I always had. And I'll never forget I was working for a development firm in Tucson when I was going to college, and Bill Bidwill, an owner of the Cardinals, walked in. And he was a lot better at one of these projects. And he would always walk in with the bow tie and everybody knew who he was.

Chris -
So that's where it came from.

Ricardo -
That's where it came from.

Chris -
That's where it came from, that is.

Ricardo -
And I said, Man, that guy's got some panache. He's got he walks in like, you know, And he said, he goes, Maybe I'm overdressed for these meetings and never have. Bosses are like, Oh my God, this is the owner of the Cardinals. Yeah, you know, he's got stuff going on. So that's where some of that came from.

Chris -
It's so funny. Real quickly, just to quickly interrupt, I used to work. I used to you know, I'm not the youngest guy in the room anymore. I used to be the youngest guy in the room. And when I was coming up in the mortgage industry, I remember working for a group of managers, but there was always one that wore suits and I asked him about that like man suits. And he's like, I want I had a boss who told me when people walk into the room, they need to know who the boss's. Yeah, right. And so I changed my world because I said, you know, I need to start wearing suits. I never stop wearing suits after that day, you know? and I just figured out, you know, that that was an important thing. And then now I have a little bit of a different approach to it. But I, I mean, my friends call me Captain Blazer because you'll always catch me in a blazer. But I do feel it's important. It's important to know what to expect when you're dealing with somebody and how they're dressed. And I know anytime I run into you, you're dressed to the nines, man. And I think it's important. I think that's a very important way to establish yourself, especially as you're coming up.

Ricardo -
Thank you. I appreciate that. We try to talk about that a lot, too. In real estate, the profession, I call it a profession. You should be dressed professionally, you know, dressed for the job you want, not the job you have. You're unemployed right now because you have no clients. What if you dressed up and people started seeing you differently?

Ricardo -
Yeah, I totally agree.

Ricardo -
At the age of 19 being called sir, at the University go in. The class is dressing up because I was working for a development firm. I mean, I never really experienced college. Like most college students. You know, just. You just roll out of bed, and do your thing. I was wearing tie suits going into classes at 7:00 in the morning. People were like, why is it 7:00 in the morning? Because I had to go to work. Yes, you know, so I tell you what, that's something that I wish we had more in the profession. People that wore the blazers like you wear that badge of honor of Captain Blazer.

Ricardo -
Because I tell you what, there's a lot of people that, you know, come in yoga pants, in shorts with ketchup stains on their shirts, and they expect, you know, people to call them you. This real estate business has been really bad for me. What if you did a change? What if you had a breakthrough? Yeah. And said, you know what? I'm really going to start taking my profession serious, and taking it serious also means that I'm going to dress up because what if somebody came to me and they can distinguish whether or not I was an agent or I was going to play soccer? Right now.

Chris -
That's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, when somebody, you know, is and I'm torn on this because I think COVID changed a lot of it, I noticed that people, you know, have really changed the way that they present themselves, you know, after COVID. And I do believe that if I walk into a room and I am not at my best self meaning, even if I work from home, I still get dressed every morning, I still put on a shirt, I still put on my shoes, I still go in as if I'm working in the office and so I can not do that. But I feel like it's showing respect for the people that you're doing business with and letting him know that I care enough about you to present myself in a certain way. And that's not a knock on anybody. It's just that's how I that's how it helped me kind of come up and it seems like it helped you as well.

Ricardo -
It does. But you know what? I try to share that with agents, especially the agents that I'm interviewing. First-time you brought up COVID, you know what a lot of people I understand it was a really tough time. But, you know, one, we also have a lot of situations and issues with anxiety, with people feeling depressed, whatnot. How does it make you feel when you put on your sports coat?

Chris -
Yeah, it's a change.

Ricardo -
Oh, my God. It changes. Everything changed for me. A crisp, white skin armor. Yeah, Yeah. Put it on, you know, And everybody notices what you're wearing like this. They see you. That you mean business? Yeah. Why wouldn't everybody else want to be treated that way?

Chris -
Agreed.

Ricardo -Like I want to be called a professional. It's called real estate professional, you know?

Chris -
Yes, I love that. I love this.

Ricardo -
State gym guy.

Chris -
So it's an interesting thing because, you know, you're educated. You went to university. I didn't go. I basically started hustling fresh out of high school. You know, you were lucky to not establish yourself in, like, a 9 to 5 before you went in. It sounds like. Well, actually, it sounds like you did you were working construction.

Ricardo -
Well, I was working in construction, but at the same time, too, I knew that if I wanted to pave my own way, I had to be some type of entrepreneur. You know, I gave it back was the first generation here in the country. My father was a cabinetmaker working from home. We didn't know what entrepreneurship was until we had the city come in and say, Hey, by the way, you can't be cutting at 7:00 in the morning and the tables are in the neighborhood. That's my dad being an entrepreneur, you know, trying to make money to keep his family fed and clothed and whatnot and the roof over their head. So entrepreneurs started very young. And I'll never forget the problem that my father had when he got business cards. You know, they were just plain cutouts with the little tool guy carry.

Ricardo -
That's until this day he has music. I remember when I was the first entrepreneur in the family and I always said, One of these days, Dad, and, you know, I started right out of college getting into real estate because I said, I've got to pay my own way. Yes. And maybe I got lucky. The first transaction I did was in Paradise Valley. Wow. In a letter that I sent out. I'm telling you a lot of people have given up on sending out letters, postcards, that kind of stuff. How do people know that you're out there? Yes, there are a lot of studies done on people that continuously do marketing and get in front of people. Social media has helped. But you know what?

Ricardo -
Don't forget, there's also the hard copies of the people that still get mail at home.

Chris -
Oh, man. I mean, like, it's an interesting thing, but my wife has taken it back to her being a realtor and an investor. There was a neighborhood we wanted to move into and she sent we she got tax records of every house in the neighborhood and sent a picture of our family and a handwritten letter to everyone and said, we have been wanting to move into this neighborhood. If anybody is looking ever you're looking to sell your home, you know, please call me first. And we got a call like, you know, we end up ended up working out. So, yeah, if you're looking to break through, I mean, every print is not dead. No. You know, there's a realtor that we worked with a long time ago before my wife jumped in, and he used to send out a like an annual like, here's what's happened with me.

Chris -
Here's what's happened to my family. Here's what's going on in my business. And by the way, can you refer any customers to me, or if you're looking to do anything? And I was like, in my head, I thought, well, who can I help him? Like, how can I help him, you know, with a client? And it immediately just happened in my head, like he just asked and I started running through my Rolodex in my head, Who can I root to this guy? And so imagine all the people that he sent that to. You know, there had to be clients that came out of that, you know, that that that message that he sent, that was handwritten or it looked handwritten to me and, you know, came out to the mail.

Chris -
So I do think that print is not dead. Talk to me about I want to go into this idea around you know, we talk about NAHREP and the connections that are made and NAHREP. And this is a really good example of you and I sitting here happened because I decided to start attending the NAHREP. You've been, you know, a member, but how did NAHREP really change your life and how did it impact what you do on a day to day?

Ricardo -
Believe it or not, we have core values like everything else and we call it NAHREP ten. And a lot of the things that NAHREP talks about are what people that want to be successful should be trying to achieve. Okay, I know nobody has a mission statement that's written out. You want to look at NAHREP and try to use those, but none of them have to do anything with something bad.

Ricardo -
They all have to do something good. How to better yourself get better skills and become the best-educated person in the room. We said invest. You know, we talk about people getting into real estate. That's an investment. Don't just talk about it as an investment. Absolutely. Some of them don't even own real estate. The minute they become part of the board, we become part of them and are familiar with like we call it. All of a sudden they start buying their first home, helping clients understand how real estate can be an investment vehicle for themselves. And we've got a lot of great mentors, people that are willing to help, you know, Sergio Rodriguez, our current president, a lender will top everybody that's on our board is top 10% of whatever they do in their industry. Absolutely. And that's important because, as I said, steel sharpens steel and you got to fact find what exactly they're doing a benchmark of what they're doing, and share best practices. Because I got to tell you, there's something that we can learn from all of us. If I wasn't learning from the board, I wouldn't be on the board because there are a lot of places that you can donate your time.

Chris -
It's a lot of work. I mean, being on a board is a lot of work. It is you know, it is a commitment of time. But I'll jump on to that because I think that you hit on something that I've been saying and I think now rep is a really good catalyst or a vehicle for this. So a lot of times when times are tough, times are hard, markets get tough. We tend to search for validation of, Hey, is this tough for you too? Are you having a hard time getting sales? And what you're looking for is somebody to kind of jump in the boat with you and say, yeah, it sucks, You know, it's a really bad place and I've always coached people is that when you're in these modes of trying to find validation for why your business is lacking, find somebody who's winning, find somebody who's crushing it and call them and say, How are you doing it? Don't call the person. That sucks too, because they're just going to validate that it sucks. Call the person who is doing well.

Chris -
On what NAHREP has done is really put you know, like you said, the top 10% of our industry in a room and said, you know, how do we help each other and how do we, you know, create generational wealth through real estate and how do we help other people create generational wealth and real estate? And for me, that's what really spoke to me, because growing up, I think the only thing that helped me not go a different direction in my life than I probably would have when I look at all of my peers that grew up in the same neighborhood. Is it, my parents owned their home, you know, on a block of Section Eight. We were the only ones that owned the home. And that commitment to buying a home changed my whole life because I would just see friends all wanting to migrate to my house because there was food in the fridge and there was like a mother and a father there that, you know, we're setting the right family dynamic that people were attracted to.

Chris -
So all my friends wanted to hang out at my house because of it. But I think that was a catalyst for how I created my life. And I now want to help other people be able to do that. And it sounds like you're doing the same thing. What are your thoughts on that?

Ricardo -
Well, I think it's important. You know, we have a gift that we've been given and it's not just been given. We've earned it. Now, you and I have been in the trenches, and I think when you said right now that somebody that's doing bad, they always find somebody else is doing worse and they become friends. They say that misery loves company and we don't, you know, give that anyhow would you say opportunities that to fester for us we always talk my upbeat every Tuesday I have a sales meeting and everything is upbeat and we talk about stuff that hey by the way you know what? If you're trying to make something change, get rid of some of your social media stuff, get off for a while, disconnect, and find somebody that's doing well.

Ricardo -
Make a phone call. You know, I invite you guys to compare calendars with each other. You want to be in 100,000. Our agent looks at what? 100,000? Our agents in Canada look like they've got appointments. What time are you getting up this morning? They sent you a text. Is 6:00? Yep. You were already.

Chris -
I was already up.

Ricardo -
There are a lot of people. I said real estate. Real estate doesn't start that early. But you should. Absolutely. Because I tell you, sometimes there are not enough hours in the day. And if you love what you do, it's not really that big of a job. It's taxing. But I tell you what, we work a lot, but the rewards that you get out of it, the people that touch you and say, Hey, by the way, thank you for making this change in my life. I have 71 agents in my office that I manage so I am somehow responsible for them making sure that they put food on their table. Absolutely.

Chris -
And I've got to take that seriously.

Ricardo -
I take it really seriously. And when I make a commitment, I make the commitment to the agent. If you're serious about your career, I'm serious about helping you. But you got to be serious because we do have a lot of agents in this market nowadays that give you excuses. There are happy hours that last night the agent was complaining that her client won't buy because she thinks the market's going to come down and so I said, what do you say I was really upset at her and I can't believe she's doing this for 45000. And they're trying to get me to come down on my commission. The other agents trying to do this, too, by the way, turn it around. What if you ask instead of, you know, just saying whatever, ask a better question.

Ricardo -
Hey, I got to ask if the market does go down, what changes? Do you still need a place to stay now? And all of a sudden she started to have a little breakthrough moment. She's like, oh my God. So then what you're saying is that if I would have, you know when we've sat down with you and your family, your boys are getting ready to go off, you know, to camp and you want to get them, you know, situated in the house before you guys do that.

Ricardo -
How is that going to get us there? And all of a sudden, she had a breakthrough and she's she started crying and we're at the table. People are like, oh, my God, this guy is making this lady cry. Just matter. She said, Ricardo, I've never been told that by my broker, by my mentor, about how I should be reframing questions for clients to get them to where they want to get to in real estate.

Ricardo -
If you want to be a good salesperson, listen and ask questions about people, how they want to be treated, and what they want, and then you deliver on what they tell you. Because I tell you, a lot of agents, they're not good at listening. We're really good at talking because we know our craft. But if you take the time, listen, or you've got all the answers.

Chris -
Without a doubt. I mean, here's the thing. So you said something really good. Brokers aren't helping, you know, reframe questions. And for me, when I'm coaching a loan officer, you know, one of the things that I really latched on to this year is, I said, look, I want you to do 5/5/4/2, 5 new clients, 5 pass clients 4 follow-ups of their current pipeline and 2 social media post day. So you can't leave until 5/5/4/2. That's not a lot if you really think about it that that's not a lot of touches. But if I can get you doing this and get you in and a habit, then you're going to see the results and then that becomes, you know, the way you do business and I always know whether they're doing it or not, based on the questions they're asking me. So if you're making calls, you're getting objections and you're getting stomped on objections, even I get stumped on the objections. And so when you're getting stumped on objections, that's when you come to me and say, Chris, okay, they said this, How do I get around that?

Chris -
And I know when they're not asking those questions because they're not making the contacts. And so for me and for, you know, people out there collaborating and role-playing and, you know, I drive home every night thinking about all the conversations I had during that day. And sometimes I'll call someone back and say, Hey, I don't like the way that conversation was when I think I was too short with you or I was distracted. Let's re let's redo this because I feel like that's important to, you know, reframe it.

Chris -
But some people just go through life not looking backward and figuring out how to get better at it. So I love that that agent, you know, took to a happy hour and said, I, you know, I got stumped on this and really wasn't really saying then didn't expect you to come in and say, wait. Reframe the question ask it this way. And so for those that are listening, when you're getting objections, partner with somebody who's really good at objections and, you know, figure out ways to get around them and call if your hair's on a court, a garden, or even if you're not. But like, you know, this guy. That's a really great question. And not only that but like, the data will show you that no matter what market you're in, in Arizona, if you buy right now, that's going to increase in value. You know, you'll never be able to time the market perfectly to win.

Ricardo -
Yeah. And you said it perfectly. You know, people don't make money in time in the market. They make money by spending time in the market.

Chris -
That's it. Yeah. You get these great one-liners, man. Like that should be Your entire social media is just like these one-liners are amazing. Like, I love that. Like what? What did you say earlier? Like, you know, one day or day one. Yeah.

Ricardo -
I mean, I can't take credit for as you said. Yeah. All these things that I'm getting are with my coaches too. I get coached. Yeah. I didn't just pick. I went from good to better, you know, I'm still, you know, sharpening my steel, making sure that I'm a better, better broker, better manager for agents that I serve because they have clients that they serve, too and I got to tell you, if you're really good at Defuzing, you get paid based on how well you can take care of problems. Remember that? Yeah. Any good agent is really good at defusing situations and problems. That's it. And that's how you make money. So if you see a six-figure agent, they're pretty good at Defuzing problems. Yeah, we see an agent that loses their stuff on, you know, something so minor that's an agent despite making $20,000 a year.

Chris -
Totally true. Totally true. And by the way, this is a crazy thing, but like, there are so many agents suffering right now in this market, you know, the inventory is low, but for every agent that is suffering, there's an agent out there that's winning. And those who you should be talking to, find the agents winning and connect with them, and here's what's crazy about top performers. They're top performers for a reason because they're giving people they're they're approachable. They know how to deal with people really easily. So and it's flattering when somebody asks you for advice. And so if you're not talking to top producers, you know, you're wasting time. You know, every day should be connecting with somebody who's winning and figuring out, how do I get better?

Chris -
So talk to me about so let me frame this next segment up because this is really what the podcast is all about. It's about breakthrough moments. And the way I describe a breakthrough moment is water boiling at 212 degrees. There's a moment that happens right before that and that's to 11 to 11. So right before 211, it water does not boil, but right before we break through at 212, you know, we have millions of breakthroughs in our life, maybe not millions, but we have a lot of breakthroughs in life and there's that moment right before the breakthrough that we're going through. We could be pissed off. We're feeling, you know, undervalued, underappreciated, and something starts to boil in us that says we have to make we have to intentionally do something that is going to make a change in our lives. And it could be you're trying to hit a weight goal or you're not feeling good about yourself.

Chris -
And so the breakthrough moment is I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. So, therefore, you go for a walk. And that's the breakthrough moment that changes everything, right? It could be that you're at your job and you're feeling underappreciated. You're working for a broker that doesn't give you any attention, but you're a good producer and they're not looking for ways to help you grow and so the breakthrough moment is you speaking up and saying, Hey, either this gets fixed or I'm out, and then all of a sudden everything happens for you. So there are all these breakthrough moments. And you and I were talking this morning and you mentioned that you've had a lot of them. Tell me about a breakthrough moment where, you know, it was really transitional for you that changed your life.

Ricardo -
A Breakthrough moment, many of them. And they don't they should happen almost on a daily, you know, the breakthrough moment when I called you, I said, you know what? This guy is, you know, busy doing his things. But you know what? I'm busy, too. And I'm going to show him when I call him. That's a breakthrough moment.

Ricardo -
Met. We talked. And I tell you what, I've done that with a lot of people. I'm not afraid to pick up the phone because guess what? What's the worst you can say or do to me? and it's weird how agents have somehow now it's text messages or getting me on TikTok or Instagram to try to get clients. You know, people have forgotten that you can reach out and communicate with people. When you reach out, at least you get an opportunity to have a conversation about why you guys can't work together or how you guys could work together.

Chris -
Without a doubt, yeah, it's making connections, making friends pick up the phone to make friends.

Ricardo -
People won't do that these days. The breakthrough moment that I've had a lot of, you know is, you know what? I want to make sure that I help a lot of agents. What's my breakthrough moment? I had to get in and get coaching. I had to come in and listen in and read a lot of scripts, you know because there's a lot of people that'll give you excuses. I had an excuse a while back that an agent told me, You know what? I can't come over and work with you guys because I'm feeling a lot of love over here. But one thing that Coach Bank is good at is having numbers of what people sell analytics and how they could do better if they came over to our platform and we marketed on their behalf and so I said to this agent, When love doesn't pay the bills, call me. Yes. Two weeks later, he called me.

Chris -
There you go.

Ricardo -
He said, You know what? I know. I told you I was getting a lot of love here, but it's not the love that I need. I need love with money because I have kids to feed. And I tell you what, those are breakthrough moments where you can say, you know what, stop coddling people too much because you got to be straight.

Ricardo -
You know, there are ways of selling to people. But if you let the message sink and just drop it, sometimes there's be a lot of pauses in my conversations and it's uncomfortable for people to have pauses in the conversation because you don't know what I'm thinking and I don't know what you're thinking, but I know what you're thinking you're like, This guy's right. Do you know what's going to change if you stay here? What's going to change if you don't make phone calls? What's going to change if you don't market and just let it sit and they ponder the like the people when they say, well, I'm not ready to buy, right? I'm going to wait for the market to either come down.

Ricardo -
What's the value of waiting? What if the market goes up? Because we only have 12,500 houses right now for sale and the interest rates do drop in the next couple of months. What's going to happen here? We go again. And then you let that one sit in there like my friends tell me, can I borrow your friend's crystal ball? Because mine's broken as I like to find out what the lotto numbers are, too, You hit something with something sarcastic like that. It makes people uneasy and they're like, Oh, this person's on to something. I think people need to start telling people straight, you know, what they could expect if things don't change if we don't do anything to change the outcome, don't expect a different outcome and I think that a lot of agents are sitting on that. They think that you know, people are going to magically call them on their cell phone, text them, hey, I'm ready to buy a house, I'm ready to list my house. I tell my agents every day that if you want to sell something in the East Valley right now, go get yourself a $1,000,000 listing.

Ricardo -
Those things are Average on the market in the East Valley for 22 days. And those sellers want to sell because they want to upgrade. They have money because we have a lot of people from the semiconductor industry on this in this part of town.

Chris -
Yeah, it's one of them. It's one of the highest grossing comes in Phoenix like it's crazy. But let me go back to something because I want to go a little bit deeper here. One of your breakthrough moments was getting a coach.

Ricardo -
Getting a coach.

Chris -
So what was happening right before then? And the reason I bring it up is because I've talked about this in the past. I think there are two types of people. There are people with coaches and people without coaches. And, you know, I have different mentors for different things. So if it's a social media thing or something I'm trying to break through there, I know who I'm calling if it's business related, and within my corporate structure, I know who to call to get coaching. Um, you know, there are different people in my life that help me with different things, and I think everybody has those people. But the question for you is I've never I did a coach one time and it didn't bode well for me. I mean, in fact, looking back, I think the advice was really good, but we didn't have good chemistry together and it didn't work out.

Chris -
And then I just kind of never the process of vetting out a coach for me was too hard. But what got you to coach and what was happening right before then and then what changed afterward?

Ricardo -
Well, believe it or not, my coach is like my boss, okay? And when we first started, we didn't get along. We butted heads a lot because they were trying to get me to do something that I was. It was different from the way I was wired. And she said something. She said, Ricardo, don't treat people the way you want to be treated.

Ricardo -
Treat people the way they want to be treated. I said, Hey, boss, you're doing the same thing to me. And she says, You want me off your back, Do better with your office, do better with your agents. So I took it upon myself to break out. I never said I still have a coach, but I've been coached by the best and we have a couple of coaches out of New Jersey that that's all they do and they've we've had breakthrough moments. They see me at conferences, at national conferences. Ricardo Can we take a picture in a coach that you had for like, you know, 30 days asked you for a picture is like, this is the guy that, you know, we met for 30 minutes and, you know, he just turned it around. So because not everybody would do it.

Ricardo -
But I tell you what, the scary part is not doing something to change your own outcome. And so that was scary for me. So I said, you know what? I got to just cut and do it and or else this is going to happen to me.

Chris -
And what happened afterward?

Ricardo -
After that, I'll never forget one of my coaches out in Jersey said, Take out of you know what your office is not doing. When I first took over the office and I manage offices before, but this was something new to me. I got dropped into a position where I got an opportunity to really make changes and fast and so the coach said, if I do that, you have 30 days. You know, we don't hold on to people very often. If you're not going to be able to swim, you're going to have to leave. So what I'm going to do, Ricardo, if I were you, I'd pray and she said it, but she didn't joke around and it was an eye-opening experience and I said, You know what? I'm not just going to pray. I'm going to actually do something. Because a lot of people say, Well, I'm praying. I hope that things happen, things change. But you know what? If you don't want things to change, I'll never forget driving down the I-70, backed by the stadium where there was a picture of the Dalai Lama prior to what he just did recently.

Ricardo -
Whereas as you know, he didn't just hope for change, he actually participated in change. So I said to myself, I got to participate in this, change myself. Other than that, I'm just going to keep doing the same old thing and it's taking me to different opportunities. You know, I do a lot on a national level for our D-I group with not just Coldwell Banker, but for our parent company, which is anywhere real estate, which we own.

Ricardo -
6021 Corcoran Group era Better Home and Gardens Climb and 21 C and all those brands. We share best practices and some of those people are my coaches that sit in Chicago and I talk to them, their friends, people that are in Florida and I talk to and we're friends, we're all the top producers.

Chris -
I got to put a pin in this one because this is like, this is gold. So what happened to your office after you made what changes you needed to? Where did you rank after that?

Ricardo -
After that big changes came to me. I started getting better agents, okay, because my messaging was changed. I wasn't just I'm not a salesperson. Yeah, like they said, right? A lot of agents tell me that. But I said, You know what? If you keep saying that enough people are going to start believing you that are not good, you're not a good salesperson and I said, You got to really believe in. And I believed in what I did well because I sold real estate for, you know, 18 years prior to coming to call a banker. I said, What's the difference between doing and coaching managing agents to get their sales up? And I had that breakthrough moment where I had to say, Hey, by the way, it's not the same to sell than it is to coach people to sell, because not everybody sells like you and I had to do a lot of fact-finding, had to do a lot of, you know, trial and error stuff, showing agents how to get noticed at a Starbucks about how to make a difference, to get people to call you.

Chris -
The thing with this story that I think is magnificent about it is that you're bold and telling it because a lot of us have a lot of pride to say, my office is failing corporate called me and said, we don't keep people for 30 days and here you are winning. Right? And because you were smart enough to figure out that change had to happen.

Chris -
But you also said something that really resonated with me and I think leaders missed this, is you have to treat people the way they want to be treated versus the way you want to be treated. And while sometimes there is alignment there when you're managing and you're the leader of a group of people, you have to be flexible. Well, to everyone that's in that group, you know, I serve different purposes for different people that I work with, but I think a lot of leaders miss that. They want everyone to manage and basically manage them to change the way that they are. And I think true growth leaders have the ability. And I think it goes both ways.

Chris -
I think true to true leaders know how to be flexible with their folks. And I also believe that folks who are being led have to be flexible and manage as well. So I think there's a meeting of the minds on that. But I love your story because I think that there are a lot of people out there right now that are managing offices and managing people that are failing and have to change their plans in order to start to succeed because we're doing the same thing every single day. It will fail. Yeah, you know, there has to be innovation, there has to be change. And I love that you were willing to make that change to win. And I think that's truly what this is about this podcast is talking about those breakthrough moments.

Ricardo -
Yeah, I appreciate you asking me those questions. And I tell you what, not everything is rosy and we're created to tell you that they're always they've always done well. I mean, agents every day and they always say, How's real estate? I'm doing great. You look at their numbers, they did two sales last year. Yeah. How great could it possibly be?

Ricardo -
Great. Yeah. You know what? If you start if you're honest with yourself, the sooner you start healing, the sooner you start getting to where you really want to get to. Because believe it or not, some people say, I don't do it for the money. Okay, don't do it for the money. Do for the people that you're going to help.

Ricardo -
Remember, we said we're going to help people because there are other agents that are doing it for the money and for the wrong reasons. And they're getting all these clients that you can't get in service, right? Mm-hmm. So, you know what? They're either a better marketing machine than you are and shame on you, because I've even had agents in my office that have told me that they can't sell because their church is not a place where they would go and sell. I said, Well, that's even, you know, we need to sell at our church because, you know, we all believe in the same beliefs and we make leaders out of those agents because all of a sudden that agent went from being the shy person to being the agent that's leading the prayer group and telling people, dear Lord, you know what?

Ricardo -
Thank you for this gift that I've been bestowed with. You know that I have this real estate license to be able to help people secure homes for their families, to be able to prosper so they don't have to move every month, every year when their leases are up. But, Lord, I've run out of people I can serve. So that's why I'm here asking for you and this isn't a prayer group of 50 people. All of a sudden they end their prayer and they said, I didn't know you were in real estate. Oh my God, I've got a cousin that's moving here from Louisiana. I've got a friend moving here from Kansas City, and all of a sudden it drops on them. And the like.

Ricardo -
I never would have done that the way you share this thing to do. But once again, it's a lot of the stuff that I do read. I read books just like you read books. The majority of the people that are successful are reading. They're not just waiting for people to give them the information. All these little one-word or, you know, sentences that I have to to get people.

Ricardo -
Those have all come from reading. Yes. Do you know how to become better at your craft?

Chris -
Yes, man. I will tell you, it was it you know, it's an honor to have you here sharing your story. I know you're busy. It means a lot to me that you reached out to me. It means a lot to me that you agreed to do the podcast with me. I would love to continue to collaborate with you.

Chris -
I think you're doing amazing things for folks out in the market. I hope that you continue to grow your business, and if you're an agent out there looking to, you know, be mentored and to get, you know, just a ton of support, I think this would be an amazing place to start. Ricardo, how do people find you?

Ricardo -
You can find me at (602) 4180457. That's my cell phone. And don't be surprised if I answer, because I actually like to answer my phone.

Chris -
There you go.

Ricardo -
People always say, Are you busy? I wouldn't have picked up if I was busy always answering. I'm always answering my phone, making sure that people get a hold of me because it might be that decision before they either let go of their license. Yes, believe it or not. So thank you for having this podcast and for doing that, because you know what you and I think the same.

Ricardo -
We want to help more people. Yes. Do the right things in the industry that we love. Because you know what? I really love the real estate industry. It's the industry that's changed the economy. I tell my agents every once in a while that, by the way, if we don't wake up tomorrow, our dry cleaners, the people that we buy cars from, you know, wherever you go and gas up, they're going to hurt. Yes. And we've got about 80,000 of us in the market right now in just real estate itself. Don't know the lending portion, but we control a lot of that market. So we have to get up. Think of it like that. You have that weight on your shoulders that you got to get up and go and do something because title companies won't work without you.

Ricardo -
Haven't you heard that, too? Title companies are hurting right now. Yes. Everybody's hurt. They all love us. Yes. You know, because they want us to sell more so they can get to be employed as well. Perfect. So thank you for creating this vehicle because I think we need to really help more agents become better at their crafts.

Chris -
Absolutely. And guys, if you are looking to get in touch with Ricardo, look in the comments section and the body of this podcast, we will put all of his contact information there. If you liked this podcast and you found value in it, please subscribe. Please like, please leave us a review. And if you want to watch and see this live, we are in a studio here in Gilbert, Arizona.

Chris -
You can find us on my YouTube channel. Just check it out. The link will be in the body of this podcast as well. So thank you for listening. Thank you for joining. And here is to you having a breakthrough moment today. Take care.