The Most Productive Realtor In The United States

Tim Chermak:
If you didn't have a full-time job, how many homes do you think you would sell a year, if all of a sudden you got all those hours back?

Lea Arndt:
I honestly think the same number of homes, because I haven't had to turn any families away, and I haven't had to turn down any business because of teaching.

Tim Chermak:
This is the platform marketing show, where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind the scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the platform marketing strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO of Platform, I love marketing, and I talk too much. So, let's dive in. Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm joined today by Lea Arndt. Lea, how are you doing?

Lea Arndt:
I'm fantastic. How are you?

Tim Chermak:
I am doing really, really well. I'm actually really looking forward to this conversation. I know that we've been texting back and forth for actually a couple months now saying, "I've got to get you on the podcast. I've got to get you on the podcast." And today is the day. So I've really been looking forward to this interview, because this sounds so crazy that it's too good to be true, but Lea has a full-time job as a teacher, a full-time job. She's not a part-time para, or she's not the school janitor that works 10 hours a week or something. She's a full-time teacher actually in the San Antonio area. And again, I'm not saying former teacher. I'm saying she's currently a full-time teacher, and still, as a real estate agent, sells over 40 homes a year.

Tim Chermak:
So whatever preconceived notions you have or excuses you have about not having enough time or not having enough energy to build your business, I think this episode is really going to shatter a lot of those excuses for people listening, because like I said, she sold 40 homes, actually more than 40 homes last year, even while still having a full time job as a teacher. So what we're going to do in this interview is dive into the specifics and the mechanics of how she's done that, how she's built her business. Lea has been an agent now for I believe, six years, right? And we'll dive into the marketing that she's been using, some of her long term goals and vision for her business, but really we're just going to dive into how in the heck do you sell 40 plus homes a year while having a full time job time job? So Lea, you are a full time special needs teacher in the San Antonio area. What prompted you... My first question is, what prompted you to decide to get into real estate in the first place?

Lea Arndt:
My co-teacher had been in real estate for six years and was doing it part-time, just enough to get money for his family to go on vacations. And since the moment we met, he said, "You have the personality. You definitely have the people skills. You'd be phenomenal helping families." And I just looked at him and said, "It took me forever to get my bachelor's degree. I don't want to go back to school." I enjoy teaching. I enjoy the time I have with my family. So three years of him bugging me, I finally looked up what was needed to become a realtor, and then realized it's not years and years of school. I can do this, and I can do it on my time and not take a lot of time away from my family. And so that's how I got the jump.

Tim Chermak:
So you just saw someone else who was doing it kind of part-time, selling a couple homes a year, and you figured, "Hey, I can do that." Now, obviously there's a huge difference between a full-time teacher who... Let's be honest, teachers have a lot more free time in the summers than most people do, because... I know you still have some stuff you do in the summers, but you have a lot of free time in the summers, compared to the average person. But there's a huge, huge difference between maybe selling two or three homes a year part-time and knowing that, "Hey, my real job is teaching, but I'm going to sell a couple homes a year to maybe pat our savings or take a vacation every year," whatever, right? There's a huge difference between doing that and selling 40 homes a year on top of being a full-time teacher. So you got into this six years ago.

Tim Chermak:
What has the career growth looked like? How many homes did you sell your first year? Where did those transactions come from. I'm guessing it was people who already knew you from your sphere of teaching. How have you built your business over the last six years?

Lea Arndt:
Just definitely sphere of influence, and then referrals from those spheres. I did try other companies that promised leads. I partnered with my business partner, Lavinia Johnson, and we kind of put our brains together to see what could we do to maximize ourselves. So pretty much, if it's out there, I tried it. And a year ago, that's when I saw Heather Mutz's Facebook ad, and just reached out to her and wanted more information. And so that's how I fell into Platform.

Tim Chermak:
And Heather is about 45 minutes west of San Antonio. She's a Platform all time, great case study where... She's also actually a teacher. I should say a former teacher, who made a transition, obviously from teaching into real estate, and maybe inspired you to check out Platform. So what was it about seeing Heather, her story that inspired you to reach out to Platform? Because you said you had tried other things, whether it's Zillow or BoomTown. I'm not sure what other marketing programs you had tried. What was it about Platform that made you think, "Hmm, maybe this is different."

Lea Arndt:
It was 180% [inaudible 00:06:23] It was genuine. She wasn't trying to sell to us directly. She was letting us explore her background. She was giving us content about the area. It wasn't just solely focused on that house. And I'd never met her, but I instantly felt a connection to her, that she would be someone that I think I could have fun with and go to dinner with.

Tim Chermak:
Sure. It's like, if that's the type of marketing she's doing... If I'm ever going to do a paid marketing strategy in my business, it's going to look something like that. That was kind of your thoughts, just seeing her actual ads in her community.

Lea Arndt:
Yes, because the biggest thing, when you meet somebody for the first time, is gaining their trust and having them believe in what you're trying to tell them, especially about one of their biggest investments, and I instantly felt that with her. And of course, I wasn't in the market to buy a house.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You were just kind of spying on her marketing campaigns and thinking like, how do I do this for myself? And I'm assuming, at some point, you obviously reached out to platform, you signed up, and now you've been in the platform family for about the last year. What have you noticed has changed in your business in the last year, since starting platform?

Lea Arndt:
Definitely the engagement with my sphere. They are seeing a side of me that they hadn't seen before. Before, it was just, here are the pictures, here are the facts about the house, and that was it. There was no engagement about how fun the community was that this house was in, or any events that happened specifically in this community. And that's been the real difference, that I'll get engagement from much more than I got the engagement from people just liking pictures of the houses that I was selling.

Tim Chermak:
Right. You'll have random photos of listings, but people weren't necessarily engaging with you, per say.

Lea Arndt:
With me, or telling me... Yesterday I put one up, and I have over 120 comments just telling me, "Okay, next year." So I actually got four leads yesterday, just from that one post. And it had nothing to do with me selling a current house right now. It's what my buyers needed. So it's what other people needed, and they connected with that.

Tim Chermak:
So how in the heck do you have time to sell 40 plus homes a year while still having a full-time job? Because again, I understand that obviously you have a ton of free time in the summer, but that's not even fully accurate because you just have the same amount of free time that a normal agent has in the summer.

Lea Arndt:
Right. Right.

Tim Chermak:
But the other nine months out of the year, you have-

Lea Arndt:
They have the wiggle room too. Yes.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, that would be one way of saying it. They have more wiggle room. They don't have a 40 hour a week job. I mean, so how do you... What does an average day look like in, let's say September, once school has started? Because lots of people are still buying and selling homes in a month like September. And you have a job. So do you just sell a hundred percent of your homes in June, July, August?

Lea Arndt:
No.

Tim Chermak:
Or, how does that work? Walk me through a typical day in September when you're actually back at school, still in that full-time job?

Lea Arndt:
My alarm-

Tim Chermak:
You wake up at what time? Yeah, let's just start when you wake up. Exactly.

Lea Arndt:
My alarm goes off at 5:24. I was born on the 24th, so I always have my alarm set on the 24th. And until about six o'clock in the morning, so for a little over 30 minutes, I check all of my emails. And that was just a strategy that was given to me by my very first principal. And that way I kind of know what fires need to be put out what people I need to reach back out to, what happened overnight, the good, the bad. So that way I can start, at an appropriate time, messaging my families and letting them know, "Hey, we've got whatever end for your house." And they kind of get updated that way. Get myself ready. I'm very fortunate that I have an amazing spouse. So my wife helps me get the kids ready [inaudible 00:10:56]. And the kids are now at an age where they're semi-functional humans. They're both 13. So they get themselves ready, brush their teeth. They're now getting their own breakfast, getting their backpack ready.

Tim Chermak:
They're semi-functional. I like how you put that. They're 13, so they're semi-functional, emphasis on semi. Yeah.

Lea Arndt:
Correct. Correct. And so I don't have to... They're not babies anymore. I don't have to get them ready and get them going. And then from... When I do get out of bed, it should be 6:00. So maybe around 6:15 to about 6:40, getting myself ready, and we are out the door. Our kids don't go to school near where our house is because they're in the dual language program. They go to school in English and Spanish. And so-

Tim Chermak:
Oh, cool.

Lea Arndt:
... I drive them to their middle school. And then my brokerage has an amazing broker that has what they call the breakfast club. So from 7:30 to 8:30, I listen to his Zoom in my car on the way to school. And so it's just good information, positive affirmations. He has guest speakers. So it's just, what are other agents doing that could help benefit me? And then-

Tim Chermak:
So basically every day for almost an hour.

Lea Arndt:
[inaudible 00:12:15] Yes.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, you're getting in though, a full hour of kind of personal development training, kind of just starting your day with that positive, motivational business content every day almost for an hour on your way into school.

Lea Arndt:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
And then from the time I get to school to the time that school starts, it's returning any phone calls, since now it's around eight o'clock, and getting anything, text messages that I need out. And then the way my schedule is set up is, I teach, I have my conference, I teach, I have lunch, I teach, and then it's time to go home. So I have little breaks throughout the day where I can return text messages, return emails, during lunch and conference. And then at 4:05, the bell rings, and then it's time to hit the ground running.

Tim Chermak:
And that's when the real work starts, right?

Lea Arndt:
Yes. So usually on the weekends, I'm scheduling out families who want to go see homes. Then, meeting with my wife and coordinating the kids activities so that I can coordinate those kids activities. We have a-

Tim Chermak:
Now, how often on a random weeknight, say a Monday or Tuesday night, are you on showings or working in your real estate business after 4:00 PM? Or is that all happening on weekends? What does that look like?

Lea Arndt:
Right now, especially in the spring, I would say it's at least six days a week.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. Okay. So it's not as if, hey, your school day ends at four, and now you're just spending time with your wife and kids for the rest of the day. You are still working, and there's probably several hours of work, I imagine, every day in the evenings.

Lea Arndt:
And it's fitting everybody in. So my kids come first. And so Mondays and Tuesdays, I really block for family time, because at the end of the week, our kids go see their dads. So when we don't have our kids, that's when I definitely hit the ground running at four, but our kids-

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
... just started playing golf. So every Monday the past couple of weeks, we've started going to a little par three golf course.

Tim Chermak:
Oh, cool.

Lea Arndt:
Playing with them. And then after that, if I have anyone that wants to see a house, usually around 6:30 to now 8:30, since daylight savings time, I still have two hours to show homes.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So you're just really efficient and intentional with your time. I mean, the right word's probably intentional. You don't let even one hour just randomly go to waste doing nothing. Everything better be creating value. In the sense that it's not economic value, but every hour better be spent with your family, having family time, or building your business. You don't just spend hours watching Netflix every day, right?

Lea Arndt:
No. And I mean, Netflix is on my phone, so yes, when there are those 5, 10 minute breaks, that is my go-to [inaudible 00:15:16]

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. And I think your structure really illustrates this truth of how much free time most people actually have that they take for granted. Because I mean, the average person, even a normal realtor, let's say. Let's say that they work... I mean, especially during spring and summer, a lot of agents are working eight to ten hours a day, right? They're certainly not working five or six hours a day.

Lea Arndt:
Right.

Tim Chermak:
Because often, 80% of what you sell happens in the spring and summer, and then the remaining 20% maybe trickles in over the winter, right?

Lea Arndt:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
So during that spring, summer season, most real estate agents are absolutely probably working eight to ten hours a day. But that still means that if you work a ten hour day, and let's say you start your work day at 8:00 AM, a ten hour day means that you work until 6:00 PM. Right? So that still means there's probably four hours, or five hours, depending on what time you go to sleep, of the time when you stop working between... Those are hours you have to fill with what you want, right? So I mean, frankly, even if you work a 12 hour day, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, obviously, there's still several hours at the end of the day for you to do other things that you either need or want to do. And so what I'm hearing is that you're just making use of every minute of your day. Because it's not like you're just a crazy, crazy workaholic. And that's what a lot of people might think immediately upon hearing, "She has a full-time job as a teacher, and she sells 40 houses a year."

Tim Chermak:
Because maybe someone's listening to this and they're struggling to sell 20 houses a year and they don't have a full-time job. And they're like, "Well, that's impossible. How does she do it?" I bet her kids hate her and her marriage is horrible or something like... She probably is a workaholic doing that." It's like, no. You actually schedule time every week to go golfing with your family, and go to their... We were just talking that yesterday... We actually, originally, were going to record this podcast potentially on a Saturday morning. And then you're like, "Well, I have a volleyball tournament I'm at, so maybe I could get away during lunch." And I was like, "No, no, no, no, no, go to your daughter's volleyball game. I don't want you to be missing that. Let's record it on a day when you have a free hour or two." So even on a Saturday in the spring, when a lot of agents are absolutely out showing houses, or they're sitting open houses, or they're working obviously in the real estate job, you're still carving out time to, "I'm going to go to my daughter's volleyball tournament."

Tim Chermak:
So to be very, very clear, you're not, in any sense of the term, a workaholic. You have a very healthy work-life balance. You're just not wasting hours a day watching Netflix for three hours a day, right? You're just making sure that the time that you are working is actually spent working. So on weekends, how many hours a weekend are you typically working? Is the average Saturday and Sunday? I mean, are you going on multiple showings? Or, what does a typical weekend look like in the summer?

Lea Arndt:
Yes. So we have our kids every other weekend. They're with their dads opposite weekends. So when I have my kids, I have showing assistants that'll go show my families. And thankfully, my families are very respectful of my time. Or because my kids are teenagers, they really don't wake up until noon, one o'clock. And so I'll get all my showings done from 9:00 AM until noon, and then-

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Lea Arndt:
... the afternoon time, the kids didn't even know I was gone. My wife's working on her PhD, so then there's quiet time for her.

Tim Chermak:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Lea Arndt:
And-

Tim Chermak:
Wow. You are just a kickass family. Wife's working on a PhD, your kids are in multiple extracurriculars and sports, you got a full-time job and a real estate career. Holy smokes. What's her PhD in?

Lea Arndt:
Social work.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
She's a social worker for a local school district here in San Antonio.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. So both of you are just super busy then. So, okay. You mentioned you have showing assistants. Would you mind sharing what do you pay those showing assistants. I'm assuming it's hourly.

Lea Arndt:
No, it's per house.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So what does that look like then?

Lea Arndt:
I have showing assistants that I've worked really, really well with, and I'll pay them $50 a house.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
And that's if it's inside the San Antonio city limits. I just put a house under contract that was probably 30 minutes outside San Antonio, and so I paid a little bit more for that, just because of gas and time coming back into the city.

Tim Chermak:
And so you pay a $50 per showing. Did they probably have two hours into every showing? Is that reasonable? Or, how many hours you think they spend per showing?

Lea Arndt:
About 30 minutes, or an hour going to the house, driving to the house, and maybe driving home. So to give you-

Tim Chermak:
Right. So it's probably-

Lea Arndt:
... an idea-

Tim Chermak:
It's probably like $25 an hour, if you were to think about it hourly, if you're paying them to drive out there and all that, something like that.

Lea Arndt:
Oh yeah, probably.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
We went to Disney for the first time, or for me, for the first time over spring break.

Tim Chermak:
Awesome.

Lea Arndt:
And I spent a little under $700 in showing assistant fees, but I put two families under contract. So yes, that was an unexpected added budget detour, but two of my families were able to get under contract.

Tim Chermak:
Now, what were the price points of those homes?

Lea Arndt:
475 and 210.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. So you're basically looking at like 500K of, or excuse me, $700,000, almost, of volume right there. And I mean, the gross commission on 700K of volume, I mean, obviously depending on what your splits are and everything, but you're probably looking at 15 to $20,000 in commission there, and you paid $700 to have those showings happen. I really believe, and I think I've mentioned this before on other platform podcast episodes, but if I were to become a realtor myself, and if I were to shut down platform tomorrow because... If I were to say, "Oh, this is too hard, doing all this marketing for all these agents. I don't want all this stress. I'm just going to do it for myself," right? "And I'm going to shut this whole thing down and just do it myself." There's not a doubt in my mind, 100%, that's the business model I would use. I would have showing assistants. I would spend my time and money on marketing [inaudible 00:22:13] branding. I would do my own follow up, because I think the person who's always going to do the best job of converting leads is you.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I know so many people spend money on ISAs or assistants doing their follow up.And to each his own, if that's what you want to do, rock on, but I believe that you should be the one doing your follow up, because the way that an assistant is doing your follow up, whether you have an assistant here in the US, or you hire some VA from overseas in India, or something like that to do your follow up, and you're paying them $5 an hour or whatever. I know some people who do that. You are just going to do a better job doing follow up than other people. And yet, I see a lot of agents do the opposite, where they hire out the follow up to free up their time to go on more showings, because they have this rationalization that it's like, "Well, I want to spend more time with clients and get more face time with clients. Because when I'm with clients, that's when I connect, and that's when I feel like I'm making the biggest impact or creating the most value."

Tim Chermak:
And I would just really push back on that, because how much value are you adding when you're just driving somewhere on a showing and opening a door for someone. And you're saying, "Oh here's the kitchen, here's the living room." It's like, you don't know anything more about that house than they do, right? They're they're well aware what a kitchen is. They're well aware what a bathroom is. You don't need to point out a lot of those features. So that to me, honestly is one of the lowest value things that agents do, is the act of driving around and going on showings. Because also, let's be honest, 75% of the time is spent driving in a car. You're not even with the client, right? You're driving there. So it makes a lot more sense to me to do exactly what you're doing, Lea, and that's higher out the actual showing of homes. If you have-

Tim Chermak:
...hire out the actual showing of homes if you have buyer leads to showing assistance. Pay them 25 bucks an hour. I would frankly pay $50 an hour if that's what it took. Because like you said, when they go under contract and you look at what the commission looks like, the real money is made in the strategy and the representation and the crafting of offers and helping them realize that you're the expert negotiator, you're the consultant that's going to give your advice and expertise on what neighborhoods they might want to be in, what we should go in at with our offer, any other negotiating strategies. The actual driving to a house and opening the door and knowing how to work a lockbox does not require a PhD, right? That can absolutely be outsourced. And every hour that you can spend more time doing follow up, I think is a huge win. So I completely agree with the way that you've structured your business.

Lea Arndt:
It's a 50/50, because I want to be there as much as I can for my clients. So the only time that I do source it out is when I physically can't be there-

Tim Chermak:
Sure.

Lea Arndt:
...because I'm not in the city. Or when I'm double booked, I've got multiple families and I can't. Or they want to see a house, again during the school day because they're off on that random day during the week and I'm not off.

Tim Chermak:
And you just can't. Right. Right. And so with how you've structured your business, this kind of comes back to how Platform has been helping is that, a lot of agents probably think they could never do what you're doing, which is, "Oh, you want to go see this home on Tuesday at 11:00 AM or Tuesday at noon over your lunch break?" Let's say it's late September and you get a hot buyer lead that's like, "I'm already pre-approved. I want to go look at this $400,000 house. And I'd like to go over my lunch break. It's at noon on Tuesday. Can you go show me this home on Tuesday?" And you're just like, "Crap, I have this job. I can't go show them on Tuesday." Right? Most agents would be depressed because they'd be thinking, "I'm going to lose this buyer to some other agent, because this person probably just wants an agent who will go open that door for them." They're just looking for the first person who's available.

Tim Chermak:
What Platform changes in that equation is, if they've been seeing your retargeting ads and seeing your videos and photos and kind of getting to know you as a person, not just as a real estate agent, but they feel like they're getting to know you personally, that's the difference between them reaching out to you and then you saying, "I'm so sorry, I can't show you that home, on that date, at that time. But if you can wait until Tuesday evening or if you can wait until Wednesday evening, I'd be happy to show it to you." They'll probably say, "Oh, okay. Yes. Let's go Wednesday evening. That works for me." They're actually willing to wait for you, because they want to specifically work with you, not just some random agent. And that's the difference between Platform leads and a Zillow lead, where a Zillow lead just literally wants the first agent who can go show them a house. They do not care.

Lea Arndt:
And then, I think because I'm still new and I don't want to lose them, what I'll do is I'll let them know, "Unfortunately, I'm going to be with a client at that time. I have a team member that can show you a home at that time." I find out where that home is, then I find similar homes in that area and let them know, "I'm free at 4:30 to show you these homes, so that way you can compare." So, that way they get what they want, and then I get to see them that same day, and then meet them in person and then kind of build that relationship. That they see that I'm just not waiting for them to tell me what homes they want to see.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You're not completely outsourcing the act of working with your buyers or going on showings, but when there's a scheduling conflict, ie. You have a full time job. When there's a scheduling conflict, you're like, "Oh, okay, well here's what we can do temporarily." But I think this is really important, you're still adding value to the buyer process by identifying other homes that they might like in that area. You're not just being an order taker. Because there are so many agents out there that are just order takers. They're like the real estate equivalent of a McDonald's cashier, where they're just sitting back, waiting for people to email them saying, "Oh, I'd like to look at this home," the same way that someone walks up to the counter at McDonald's and order something. It's like, well, software could do that job.

Tim Chermak:
If that's all you do as an agent, you just wait for people to call you and say, "Hey, I'd like to look at this house." It's kind of a pejorative in the industry when people say, "You're just a door opener." It's obviously an insult. But there are some agents that honestly are just door openers. They don't really add value. So the fact that you see that a buyer wants to look at a house in such and such neighborhood, and you're like, "Oh, okay, cool. Well, here's some other similar ones." Or "I know an agent who has a listing coming up in that area." It's not yet on the MLS, so that you don't even know this house exists. You're adding value and you're making sure that even if you can't physically be with them at one o'clock-

Lea Arndt:
I'm building that importance of a relationship.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Because they're viewing you as their realtor, and that's the most important part. Because I've also seen Shane Saunders, he's an agent in the Phoenix area. He's built out a similar model, where he'll use a lot of showing assistance when he has to, but he makes it very clear that he is their realtor. "These are just my assistants that'll go open the door for you if I'm not available, but I'm your realtor. I will advise you on the strategy of making an offer if you like that house. And if you like it, I'll first talk to you about that house, and I'll attempt sometimes to talk you out of it, because I want to make sure that you like this house for the right reasons. And that you're aware of comps and the neighborhood trends and all that good stuff."

Tim Chermak:
So they really view Shane as their realtor, not the showing assistant. Yeah. And he'll even tell his showing assistants, because obviously, to go show a house, you have to be licensed as an agent. And he'll tell them, "Don't be talking the whole time. Don't be offering your insights necessarily and stuff, just literally go open the door for them. Take notes if they tell you anything of what they did or didn't like. But don't necessarily tour the house with them, because I want them to be viewing me as their agent, not you." And let's be honest, that's how a lot of showings go anyways. Right? Even when you're on a showing, they're not necessarily looking to the realtor to tell them, "Ooh, tell me about these kitchen countertops." It's like, well, they can read the MLS report. They can see it's quarts or granite or laminate or whatever it is. The real value is added at that higher level, at that strategic level of like, "Oh, okay. If you like this this house-"

Lea Arndt:
Yeah. If we end up liking it, how can you-

Tim Chermak:
Exactly. What does the process look like for, what are we going on offer price? Are there other variables besides just the offer amount that can help our offer stand out from other ones? All of those things is the real place that you're adding value. So Leah, you had mentioned, you tried other marketing programs before the Platform strategy. Did those not work? What lead you to feel either rationally or emotionally that Platform seems to be better aligned with how I'm running my business.

Lea Arndt:
The other marketing program's very cold. We were almost like bots. So, them picking me as their realtor versus somebody else, we were all the same. There was no value in who I was until they met me. But even getting to that point was hard because they're just clicking on so many different Platforms and then getting so many feedbacks from those Platform marketing companies that it was overwhelming to filter through the people who already had realtors. And just their realtor wasn't responsive, so then they're dealing with me, but they weren't needing me to be their full-time reiterate. So, that was exhausting.

Lea Arndt:
The other ones promised multiple listings every month, or the opportunities, and those opportunities never came. So a lot of promising and under delivering. And with Platform, the high hanging fruit mentality that you are not promising us results today, but following your system, your business is moving this way. And you're collecting as many people who see you and feel you as a genuine person and they've never even met you. And they feel the same way about the person who grew up with you and now has a family.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, we were just talking before the show started about this analogy almost of, most agents think that lead generation is synonymous with marketing. They just think they're one and the same. Like, "Oh, I'm doing marketing. I'm doing lead generation." They think those two are just like identical terms for the same thing. And I just completely disagree with that. I think lead generation is a small part of marketing.

Lea Arndt:
And not the end all, be all.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, like lead generation isn't marketing though. There's so much more. The idea of marketing is so much more of a deeper, holistic endeavor than just lead generation. And pretty much every other company out there that claims to be a marketing company for realtors, at the end of the day, they're just a lead generation service. All they do is leads, and that's just, I don't know, maybe 10 or 20% of marketing. The other 80% is building that brand and getting people to trust you and getting more referrals and changing the game so that people want to work with you specifically, even to the point that if it might inconvenience them a little bit, they still want to work with you. Where if they can't look at that house today and they have to wait another day or maybe wait a couple days, they're still going to wait because they want to work with you. That's the difference between-

Lea Arndt:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, and they say that. And then that's when I let them know, "In this market, we don't have time to wait. This is what I have set in place, because you-

Tim Chermak:
Sure. Sure.

Lea Arndt:
...come first.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Because obviously, you're right. In this crazy sellers market, you can't wait 48 hours or 72 hours. If they want to look at a house, that's why you have to connect them with a showing assistant, because you probably should look at that house today. Absolutely. We were talking about this analogy of, it's almost like teaching and standardized tests. As a teacher, if you thought that teaching was just helping your students do well on standardized tests, you're probably going to be a pretty shitty teacher, if that's all you care about. If you just reduce teaching just to worry about, what are their standardized test scores, you're just not going to be a very interesting teacher and your students probably aren't going to like you either. It's not going to be a very fulfilling job.

Tim Chermak:
And I think that's kind of an analogy to marketing and lead generation. If all you think that marketing is or all you think your business is generating leads, ie. Just buying leads from realtor.com or buying leads from Zillow, you're going to treat the business and treat your clients very differently from an agent who thinks deeper than that of, "Oh, I just need to buy a bunch of leads," because it forces you to think about all these transactions as just transactions, not actually relationships with these people, that then in the future probably lead to more referrals. And I know that this sounds kind of like, duh, the way I'm describing it like, of course. But no, seriously, look at the way most agents do their business. They might say they value people over profits, or I value relationships over transactions, but look at how they run their business. They really don't.

Lea Arndt:
Right.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. They just view it as a bunch of transactions. So thinking longer term about the marketing definitely changes the way that you do things even on a day to day basis. So in the last year, you've really started a lot of this content marketing around this idea of high hanging fruit and the Platform strategy of rather than chasing low hanging fruit, let's plant some trees and get that high hanging fruit on the top branches that other agents are too impatient for. So what have been some of your favorite content campaigns, retargeting campaigns that you've done with Platform? What are some of your favorite videos, Leah or favorite photo ads when you look back on the last year that seem to have resonated with your audience or just that you personally enjoyed and you think have made an impact in your business? What are some of your favorite ads that you've run?

Lea Arndt:
Definitely the one where Lavinia and I, we're in the academy, it's a sporting and outdoor store. I want to say we did it back in February. So it's the beginning of the spring when people are thinking about putting their homes on the market, and we just dressed up in camo and we played back off of each other that it's time to go hunting. And she's looking at me like, "Well, hunting season in Texas is in the fall. What am I talking about?" And every time we went back and forth with each other, we were putting on more and more camo until at the end we were fully ready to go. And it's like, "No, we're ready for a hunting season to go help our buyers find the houses that they want."

Tim Chermak:
House hunting. Yep. Yep.

Lea Arndt:
That just got so much engagement. We got so many remarks of, "You're making finding a home fun again," and that's what we wanted. We wanted people to see, it's not as hard as you think it is. We're getting success. We have strategies in place. Two brains are better than one. Call us. It doesn't have to be difficult. So, that was definitely by far my favorite. I want to say the next one was driving in the snow, there was an agent that was in her car and she was in the snow, and it was just a genuine post of, I think she was going to a showing and the snow wasn't going to get in her way. "I'm going to meet you there. We're going to figure this out. Everything is covered in snow, but it's not a problem. We'll get through this."

Lea Arndt:
But it just seems like every single ad, no matter where it is around the country, somebody will put their different spin on it. So whether it's the pulling the luggage behind them, it's what's in the background that really talks about where their city is, where their town is, where their community is. And so it's not cookie cutter. And that's, I think the huge difference that, we're all connected in some way. If you've lived in a town long enough, I've lived in San Antonio 41 years, we all know each other. There's over 16,000 realtors here in San Antonio.

Tim Chermak:
Geez.

Lea Arndt:
We're all the best.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Well, you all have access to the same MLS.

Lea Arndt:
And I apologize, my dogs are asleep right now. So they're snoring.

Tim Chermak:
Oh, what kind of dogs do you have?

Lea Arndt:
King Cavalier Spaniels.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. Okay.

Lea Arndt:
[inaudible 00:40:36] God in heaven. I was like, "I can't hear Tim."

Tim Chermak:
That's hilarious.

Lea Arndt:
Apparently I'm boring. So no, like I said, seeing everybody from around the country put their own spin on things then helps give us ideas of what to do here in town, because we want that fresh content. The world is so hard. And of course, many of my friends are mothers. And so it's so hard being a mom right now. As I'm sure it's very hard being a dad, but I can't relate to being a dad. As much happiness we can put out into the world, I think that's our motto, LVNI.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. And if people can get to know you and they feel like they're getting a sense of what you're all about and your values and what's important to you, then they'll want to work with you. I think that's why some big companies that lean into their values do so well, and they have higher margins. Because if people are choosing you for that reason, that's where they're willing to inconvenience themselves. Because if they align with what's important to you, they will actually inconvenience themselves. And in some consumer categories, it might even mean paying higher prices because they want to align with someone they believe in. And this goes across all beliefs.

Tim Chermak:
So if you think of two big companies, one let's say is Starbucks, and Starbucks is probably on the left or progressive side of cultural politics, versus Chick-fil-A is on the maybe right or conservative side of cultural politics. But people who love both of those brands... And I'll go to Starbucks for coffee. I'll go to Chick-fil-A and get a sandwich. I could care less what their politics are. I just want good coffee or good chicken. But there are some people that will go out of their way to go to a Starbucks or will go out of their way to go to a Chick-fil-A versus a Popeye's or whatever, because they love what that brand is all about. They align with whatever values that brand is trying to uphold. And you can leverage that same effect in your marketing, even as a local realtor. And you don't have to get into your politics, but just talking about, what's important to me? So if you're willing to say something like, "Hey my teaching job is important to me."

Tim Chermak:
So even though frankly, I mean, doing quick math, your area, your average commission check is probably what? Eight, 10, $12,000, something like that? Let's just say 10. If you sold over 40 homes last year, that means your income is a realtor was over $400,000 GCI. And I know that, that's not necessarily take home, because you have taxes and expenses and all that fun stuff. But your GCI was over $400,000, that's probably very, nearly 10 times what a lot of teachers are making. And yet, you keep your teaching job because that's important to you. That's something that actually gives you a real sense of fulfillment and you're helping people. It's important to you. So talking about that in your ads helps people get to know the real you. Or talking about the fact that like, "Hey, my daughter had a volleyball tournament this weekend and I could have been out showing houses, but I decided to spend those couple hours with her," that helps people get to know you, because they're like, "Oh cool. She's the type of person who prioritizes family, or at least makes an attempt to balance family with your career." And not that it's right or wrong, because some people choose to prioritize their career and maybe they don't even have a family at all because they chose to prioritize their career.

Tim Chermak:
I was actually just listening to a podcast on, I think it was on the Tim Ferriss show with Matt Mullenweg, he's the founder of WordPress. And he was saying, he's kind of made a conscious decision that he doesn't want to have kids, because he thinks the biggest impact or legacy he can leave for the world are the companies and the products he builds. And he doesn't think he could lead those companies and do a good job and also be a good dad. So he's just consciously decided, "I'm not going to have kids and then be a terrible father because I'm focused on my business." So he made that conscious decision of, "I'm going to just do an amazing job on my companies and products. And that'll be the lasting legacy, hopefully that I get to live." And not that, that's right or wrong. It's just his choice. But the point is, he's willing to say that out loud. And so people know where he stands on those values.

Tim Chermak:
And so you, just knowing where you stand on, "Hey, I've made enough money long ago that I don't need this teaching job anymore, but I'm still a teacher because it makes me happy doing it. I'm still going to carve out time in my schedule to go golfing with my teenagers. To go to their volleyball games." I'm not this agent who just works 90 hours a week and has time for no friends or family besides showing houses and negotiating deals. That is really effective marketing. Marketing can be so much deeper than just talking about the listings you have, and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and whether or not they have hardwood floors or a pool or whatever. People choose the realtor they work with based on those intangibles. So the marketing should therefore be about those intangibles.

Tim Chermak:
And so you've been doing this for about a year now. What is the actual difference you've noticed in the last year in your business, since you joined the Platform? Because, obviously, you were already a pretty successful agent before you joined Platform. That's something I want to make clear that, it's not like you sold two houses before Platform, and then Platform helped you sell 40. You were already successful before Platform, but you were looking to add an extra layer to that business, to where you would get more referrals and people would just know you for you, versus just buying leads from Zillow, let's say. So how have things actually changed in the last year in terms of your sphere and your brand?

Lea Arndt:
Definitely see way more engagement, and not just in likes and clicks on... It's full on sentence engagement and private messaging engagement of, "You make it look easy. Why is everyone else having such a hard time?" And then it's confessing to them, "This deal that just sold, we actually had to go through all of these different hoops and jump through this and that. There was so much more, but we don't choose to focus on all the hoops we had to jump through." So yeah, the engagement there has exploded, because they see more of me. It's not just me just putting pictures of property up. It's me.

Tim Chermak:
Right. Now, I want to jump back for a second and talk about the time management of how you structured your business. So let me just ask you a question that's kind of your personal opinion. There's not a-

Tim Chermak:
... a question that's kind of your personal opinion. There's not maybe a right or wrong answer here, but I'm just genuinely curious how you would answer this question, because of your unique experience of having a full-time job and yet still selling 40 homes a year.

Tim Chermak:
Because I mean, I bet the number of agents that sell 40 homes a year ... I mean, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'm guessing if you sell 40 or more homes a year, you're in the top 1% of agents around the country, because the vast majority of agents actually sell 10 or fewer homes a year, the majority of agents sell fewer than 20 homes a year. Once you start selling 20 or 25+, you're probably in the top 10%. I would imagine if you're selling 40 homes a year+, you are in the literal top 1% statistically of agents across the country.

Tim Chermak:
So all that being said, you're selling 40+ homes a year with a full-time job, I bet there's not one in 100 agents doing that, there's probably less than one in 10,000 or one in a million. I mean, seriously, it's probably a one in a million thing of agents who are selling, seriously, totally serious, of agents that are selling 40+ homes a year that have a full-time job that has nothing to do with real estate, right? Yet, you are one of those people.

Tim Chermak:
So when you hear agents say that, "Oh, I just don't have time, or I don't know how I could possibly sell more houses." What do you think is their excuse or what is going on in their mind maybe mentally that is different from how you see the world or how you structure your day? Because, I mean, there's even agents in Platform listening to this right now that let's say are selling 25 houses a year, and they're like, "I don't have time to do my follow up. I just don't have time to follow up with the leads coming in, I'm going to have to hire someone to do follow up."

Tim Chermak:
They're only selling 20, 25 homes a year. You're selling 40+ and have a fricking full-time job outside of real estate. Why do you think so many people make excuses about not having time, or what are they not doing or what are they doing that's different from you?

Lea Arndt:
I think the biggest thing is prioritizing what you feel is important. If you feel that it's important, you'll find a way to do it. Someone has a famous quote out there, and I'm guilty of that as well. Could I be doing way more on the follow up on my leads? Absolutely. But I'm very secure with the business I have right now.

Lea Arndt:
So if they're happy with what's coming in, then there's really nothing there pushing them to continue to follow up with the leads that they have. Maybe it's just time management or maybe it's outside life that's way too stressful and they need so much more time to themselves. I don't know. When somebody says they can't, I don't focus on that, because I'm going in 100 different directions.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, yeah, you're obviously too busy living your own life to care about what other people-

Lea Arndt:
I mean, I don't-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah.

Lea Arndt:
When people are like, "I don't have time," they don't. That's whatever their life events are during the day, they don't.

Tim Chermak:
Well, really it's because they're not making time, right? That's what all this always comes down to is you are making time. Yeah, it's in your calendar this is when I do these activities. You're not leaving your day to chance, like, "Oh, I hope I have time to do this or that," you are putting it in your calendar, this hour I do this, this hour I do this. So, things that need to get done, get done, right?

Tim Chermak:
So when you hired Platform ... this is really interesting to me, because you are definitely in the minority here. When you hired Platform, you weren't even necessarily looking to scale your business in a massive way. It wasn't like, hey, I did 40 homes, next year I want to sell 70. The goal isn't about doing a ton more, as much as it is enhancing the work-life balance and getting more referrals and investing in your sphere, so that you can continue to do what you're doing and get even more referrals, because that's how you've built your business.

Tim Chermak:
It's really about stabilizing your business and investing in the sphere, so that they see more of your content all the time and you hopefully get more referrals. I think this approach is very revealing, in that, again, it sounds crazy, hey, she has a full-time job, she's selling 40+ homes a year, but think about what has to be true for that to happen.

Tim Chermak:
One thing that has to be true if you're selling 40+ homes a year, you said it was 42 last year and yet you have a full-time job, is that probably the vast majority of those deals are coming from your sphere. Because in a literal sense, you probably wouldn't have time to follow up with cold leads and go back and forth throughout all this process if they were all just Zillow leads or realtor.com leads or something where they had no idea who you were, but they were just requesting to go look at a house. That's probably how you built your business is investing so much in a sphere.

Tim Chermak:
So that can kind of be a teaching moment for other agents, is like, well, almost precisely because she's a teacher and because she invested so much in her sphere and people know who she is and whatnot, that's why you leaned in to that sphere so much to build your business, where a lot of agents I think view their sphere as one among many lead sources. If that makes sense. They're like, "Oh, yeah, it's a small part of my business, of course I have to pay attention to my sphere." Where you're like, "My sphere is my business and that's what should get the majority of my mental energy and commitment."

Lea Arndt:
Yeah, I'm definitely probably a 60/40. 60% of my business comes from my sphere, and then 40% is non-sphere. The biggest advice I can give for non-sphere is your local Facebook community. So the mom's group is really big in my area, and so being the face that they see helping other moms has helped get that word of mouth out, that you definitely want to call Lea, she'll help you. So, building who you are in your local community. Platform-

Tim Chermak:
I think it's interesting that-

Lea Arndt:
That's exactly what it's designed to do.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, that's what Platform is all about is about creating marketing campaigns that frankly have nothing to do with real estate, so that people can get to know you as a person. I think it's really interesting too, in case people have been following along here, that almost every time I ask Lea a question in this podcast interview, her answer is a variation of, "Hey, I don't want people to just think of me as a realtor," right? "I'm so much more than that, I want to add value in other ways besides just telling you the number of bedrooms and bathrooms on a house."

Tim Chermak:
That is very telling, because it means she's always looking to lead with her personality and lead with her values and just who she is, and then people probably at some point will find out she's a real estate agent. But if their first impression of Lea is, "Wow, she's just genuinely a helpful person. Oh, she's a realtor? I didn't even know that". Well, guess what? Of course you're going to want to work with Lea if you just feel like she's such a valuable, genuine, authentic person, and she just happens to be a real estate agent, right?

Tim Chermak:
That's way better marketing than just talking about how many homes you sold, which is impressive. You do sell a lot of homes, right? But every time I've asked you a question, your answer is always going back to I'm just trying to help people and be valuable to people. That's the old fashioned way to build a business, and it still works.

Tim Chermak:
So long-term, I asked you right before the show, we were getting into what are some of your long-term goals, and you started talking and I had to cut you off. I was like, "No, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me all that, I want to get into that when we're actually recording," right? So long-term, your goal isn't necessarily to scale your real estate business to sell 70 or 80 homes a year, you're actually building another business on the side. So, tell me about that.

Lea Arndt:
The current business is a transaction coordinating business to help agents leverage the time that they do have, and helping share the strategies that I'm currently using with the time that I have, and hopefully it'll help build their business. That started in January, and we've been doing a soft rollout of that practicing on my transactions and getting all the bugs out. We now have four agents that we're doing business for right now. What I'd like to do is officially open up once I hit a certain production this year with my company. The company awards us with an award called the Icon Award, and it's the top 1% of the brokerage-

Tim Chermak:
Oh, for EXP?

Lea Arndt:
Yeah, because I'm with EXP.

Tim Chermak:
Yep, yep, yep.

Lea Arndt:
This year in about a month I'm on track to receive my third award, which right now I think there's only a handful of people in our entire city that have three. So-

Tim Chermak:
Probably none of them have a full-time job.

Lea Arndt:
Full-time jobs? No, no. But yeah.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, let me ask you one indirect question off of that. I don't mean to change the topic, because I do want to keep talking about this transaction coordinating business, because this is really fascinating to me how you're pivoting and starting a different business, and yet it's in the same industry, because you just realize there's an opportunity there. But I want to ask this quick side question before I forget. If you didn't have a full-time job, how many homes do you think you would sell a year, if all of a sudden you got all those hours back?

Lea Arndt:
Oh gosh, I don't know. I honestly think the same number of homes, because I haven't had to turn any families away and I haven't had to turn down any business because of teaching. So, I mean-

Tim Chermak:
That is a fascinating answer. So you really don't view your teaching job as an obstacle to your real estate business, that is not what I was expecting you to say.

Lea Arndt:
Yeah, I mean, yes, could I spend eight more hours following up on my Platform leads? Absolutely. So, is there room for improvement? 100%.

Tim Chermak:
But that's true of everyone. That's true of most people who don't have full-time jobs.

Lea Arndt:
Yes. But no, I haven't had to refer out business because I was too busy. What I've been thankful for, that as soon as one home closes, then another one starts. I've had a very good syncing pattern of the flow of real estate, that yes-

Tim Chermak:
You always have that pipeline.

Lea Arndt:
March was the biggest month for me, because I had more buyers, which meant my one person was having to juggle many people who needed to see homes inside San Antonio and then outside San Antonio, on not only the east side of San Antonio, but the west side. That was hard. Then going on vacation, trying to navigate that. But right now-

Tim Chermak:
That was probably during your spring break I imagine that you went on vacation in March?

Lea Arndt:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
But right now I have five homes that are going on the market in the month of April, so it's nice being the listing agent. So it's just me, one home, preparing it and then waiting for the families to come and put in offers.

Tim Chermak:
Sure. So you actually don't think it affects your business at all, that's crazy. That's something to think about. I'm not even sure what my immediate reaction to that is. I'd have to think about that for a while, because that's kind of deep. "I have a full-time job and I honestly don't think it even affects the production I would do, because I always find a way to serve the buyers or the seller leads anyways, and so I don't think I would do more business." That's just a really interesting answer, I would not have thought that you would've said that.

Tim Chermak:
So, okay, let's go back to your transaction coordinating, because I think this is equally fascinating. You're starting a side business, because you have so much free time. You're a full-time teacher, you're selling 40 homes a year, of course naturally you're also going to start a side business.

Lea Arndt:
But that's not the first side business I have. So when I started real estate in 2016-

Tim Chermak:
The plot thickens.

Lea Arndt:
I also started a mobile tutoring company that I was one of the tutors. I employed certified teachers to go to family's homes-

Tim Chermak:
Are you just making shit up at this point? How many businesses ... what do you have going on? You have three businesses you own, you're a full-time teacher, this is crazy.

Lea Arndt:
Will the IRS hear this podcast?

Tim Chermak:
This is incredible. Okay, I'm just really interested. So, you started a mobile tutoring company, okay?

Lea Arndt:
It started because my daughter didn't want to listen to anything I had to say when it came to helping her with her reading and math. I had a friend come over and a friend explained the math problem to her, and she was like, "Oh, I get it." Not even three minutes ago, I said the exact same thing, but I should have known, because as a teacher, my kids listen to everything I say, and then they go home and their parents are like, "They're not listening to me." So, it was very humbling-

Tim Chermak:
Oh, it's the same thing with Platform too. It happens all the time, where one of our account managers, for example, will call me and be like, "Hey, I'm working with such and such client and I just really need to get them to do this, or they're scared to do this video or I really need to get them to do this, because I know this particular ad will work well in their market." Sometimes it's like, "I need to get them to increase their budget, because their ads are working so well, but they're only spending $600 a month on ads. If I could get them to spend $1,000, their business would blow up, but they're just too scared."

Tim Chermak:
They've told them all the reasons they should increase their budget, but then I call them, and just because I have a different maybe level of authority with that client, because they think Tim is the big fancy founder, CEO. "Oh wow, Tim called me," right? I will tell them the exact same thing as our account manager's probably been telling them for the last several months. Then they do it and they take my advice, and it's like I didn't tell them anything different, it's just that they view the advice or the perspective different coming from me. So yes, I completely understand how that dynamic works sometimes. So you started a mobile tutoring company, because you had this experience with your daughter. Yep.

Lea Arndt:
Yes, so then I turned to my friend and I said, "Hey, how would you like to make ..." Then I gave her an amount and then I said, "Hmm. I wonder if there were other moms that would love somebody to come to the house to teach their kid, because their kid's not listening to them?" So reached out to a couple of other certified teachers who are of course looking for ways to make extra money, and then that summer Amplified Minds of Texas, LLC started. It helped-

Tim Chermak:
So, are you focusing on the homeschool market or just any-

Lea Arndt:
Just the kids who need help with any kind of ... mostly elementary kids. Focusing on pre-reading for little ones, comprehension for the kids in the middle grades where the parents are like, "We're pulling our hair out. They're not listening to us." So that pretty much funneled money into my real estate career my first year, because we needed sign money, I needed picture money, all the upfront cost marketing money to market the homes that I was selling. So, pretty much everything that I made off of tutoring business went directly into real estate to help get that going.

Lea Arndt:
So I was tutoring along with the other teachers, and then as real estate picked up, then I pulled myself away. So right now, Monday through Friday I have my tutors that'll send me a text message and tell me who they tutored and for how long, and then I send the parents an invoice through Square and then I pay the tutors. So I'm just kind of the middle man, just sending invoices, paying tutors, and then at the end of the year paying the IRS. But what's nice-

Tim Chermak:
So, you are-

Lea Arndt:
Now this business helps funnel money into money for my school. So I help fund different programs at my particular school and my wife's school, and then friends of mine that are principals around the city. I give money to teachers in form of gift cards, I'll buy breakfast for their staff, I buy gift cards for their kids so they can do raffles. So, that's where that money goes now.

Tim Chermak:
So, how big is that business now? I mean, what's the annual revenue of that business? I know that revenue's not the same thing as profit, but-

Lea Arndt:
Oh, it's $15,000 a year.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Lea Arndt:
So I mean, it's healthy, but it's not anything that I could quit my job over.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, right. But it's still, I mean, a side gig that makes a couple thousand dollars a month, that you're also helping teachers make more money too.

Lea Arndt:
Correct. That was my biggest thing was it's a benefit for all. It's not just me making that extra income, but my friends, and it's on their time as well. They get to pick their schedule, they partner with the families.

Tim Chermak:
That's cool. Have you ever written retargeting ads about that?

Lea Arndt:
No.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, we'll do some live consulting on this podcast. You should write this down if you have a pen and paper in front of you.

Lea Arndt:
Yes, yes.

Tim Chermak:
You should write an ad that starts with a sentence, "Many people know I'm a real estate agent, but what they might not know is that I also started a tutoring business that matches up local school teachers with kids who need some extra help in reading, et cetera. Then and I'm still a full-time teacher on top of all that."

Tim Chermak:
By the way, Lea, I can help you with the copy on this later. We don't need to spend half an hour here on the podcast episode writing the specifics, but that's going to be a killer ad, because I'm already thinking the next sentence is something like, "No, you might think that with me starting multiple companies and being a full-time teacher, that I'm probably just a very part-time agent and maybe I only sell a couple houses year. The truth is I actually sold over 40 homes last year, and I'm in the top 1% of real estate agents nationwide."

Tim Chermak:
I mean, that ad is just so fascinating. It'll help people get to know you, that yeah, you're a serial entrepreneur problem solver. Whenever you see an opportunity, you find a way to meet that opportunity and to help people. I mean, because that's really all that being an entrepreneur is, is you find a need that other people have or a challenge they have and you figure out a way to solve that problem, and hopefully solve it in a way that makes money not loses money, right? That's really what an entrepreneur is.

Tim Chermak:
So okay, what is the long-term goal? Because we took a huge side detour here, because I had no idea you had other companies you've started. What is the long-term goal with the transaction coordinating company? I mean, is there a number of clients or a revenue number that you want to hit? Is that kind of your retirement plan of I want to build this business so that I don't have to sell as many homes myself anymore? What's the thought process there?

Lea Arndt:
Yes, yes. I definitely don't want to be running around till 8:00, 9:00 at night showing houses in my 60s or my 50s or at 42 if I don't have to. If I want to, then I get to choose, instead of it being a, well, I've put myself in this financial situation, I have to keep up this income stream. The work smarter, not harder mentality. I think at the heart of everything I do is I'm a teacher, and so if I can teach other agents to be successful, there's something about that that-

Tim Chermak:
It just comes naturally to you that you're a teacher. So in any situation, you're like, how can I teach people how to do this? I can teach my transaction coordinator and then I can have them teach other people, and then I can build a business off of that. That makes perfect sense.

Lea Arndt:
That's really truly our EXP model is it's not me just trying to get rich as fast as I can, it's what can we all do as agents to help each other out? Because the more successful you become, then the company becomes. So if we all had that mentality, which you can see with our company growing as much as it has, we're doing that for each other. So, the more I can teach-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, I mean, that is the essence of free enterprise and free markets and entrepreneurship is that if you focus on solving problems and you actually don't worry about the money, if you just focus on solving problems, that's the cool part about capitalism is that you'll probably end up making a lot of money if you just focus on solving other people's problems. Actually more so than people who are only trying to make a quick buck and they don't really care about their customers.

Tim Chermak:
They might have some short-term profits, but over the long-term, they'll get their asses kicked by people who actually care about solving their customer's problems and actually care about their customers. So, that's incredible.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, wow, this has been such a super cool podcast episode. We've gone over here, we're at an hour, hour and 10 minutes now at this point. I did not know that you've started these other companies, that's super cool. So, where do you see your life at let's say 10 years from now? How would you define success-

Tim Chermak:
10 years from now, how would you define success 10 years from now? Where would you like things to be in terms of your work life balance? What you're spending your time doing? How are the businesses going?

Lea Arndt:
I definitely have set myself up to when we hit that production mark for our company, they ask us to give back to our real estate community in several ways. So we can teach at our online university, we can become a mentor. So that's my path that I chose. So I'm a certified mentor with eXp. And so as many baby agents I can help, then they will teach that next generation of agents and then it'll just keep multiplying. A good friend of mine two years ago, we started a Facebook group. Anis and I saw a real big need in our community to share our struggles and our triumphs with each other, because we saw just how closed real estate can be within realtors. That nobody wants to share, nobody wants to talk about how you get leads. Nobody wants to see what you're doing for fear of, they may steal all your business away. So we've taken a different approach to, you can have all my knowledge. You can have all of my secrets. There's plenty of business out there for all of us. And in turn...

Tim Chermak:
Isn't that the truth too?

Lea Arndt:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
There is so much business out there.

Lea Arndt:
There is.

Tim Chermak:
Even if you're in a small town, I've had this conversation with lots of agents, like because you're in San Antonio, which is a major Metro area. I mean, it's not LA or Atlanta, but it's still a big city, but this is even true in small towns. Even in a small town, there's still typically 100 transactions happening every month during the spring, summer, even in tiny, tiny towns. And it's like, if you even did five transactions a month, you had 5% market share. You'd be absolutely printing money as an agent in terms of the commission that would create. So have an abundance mindset. You don't have to think of yourself as being in competition with all the agents in your market.

Tim Chermak:
Because there's so many deals out there. Just think of the competition in terms of, I want to win all the business that's in my sphere of influence. If that's how you thought about your marketing, it would change your life. Don't think about converting strangers. Just think if all I did was convert all of the leads, and I'm saying that with air quotes right now, I know people can't see me because it's a podcast. But if all you did was convert all the leads that are already in your sphere of influence versus losing them to other agents, you would make more money than you even know what to do with. So don't even focus on new leads. It's just getting all the referrals that you can from the people who already know you. So that's awesome.

Lea Arndt:
So in 10 years to answer your question is I see that transaction coordinating company turning into a coaching section. There will be a part of that where I will be coaching other agents on how to be the best and most productive self so that they can be that for our community.

Tim Chermak:
That's cool. And do you think you're going to keep teaching 10 years from now? Or is that something you're going to give up in the next year or two or 20 years? Or how does that factor into the future?

Lea Arndt:
I'd say, yes. I enjoy going to work. And there are very, very few of us that can say that right now. I have phenomenal coworkers that we share the same ideals about how to help children who are struggling, not only academically, but personally. Middle school is a favorite time of year that I didn't know that would become, because I came from the elementary school side. These students are not babies, but they're not ready to be... Like I said, they're semi-functional humans. They have a lot to learn. And I think I also get a kick out of they're listening to me when they're not listening to their parents. So it's nice to know that there's there's people out there that will listen to me and not my own children.

Lea Arndt:
So not anybody can say that every day they can go someplace and laugh and feel inspired and feel like they're making a difference. So the gentleman who brought me into real estate, his name is Vince Arnold. We worked side by side because we had two classrooms because we had so many children with special needs. We worked together for four years, and he was like the big brother that I never knew that I needed. So not only in the classroom, but then after school with real estate. And two and a half years into my real estate career so in 2018, he passed away at 43, about a month before his 43rd birthday. And that was life changing for me. I've been very blessed to not have many people in my life pass away. My grandmother was 108 when she passed away this past January.

Tim Chermak:
Wow, good for her.

Lea Arndt:
My great-grandmother was 99. Other grandparents were also in their nineties. So in my mind, in my little world, you don't die at 43. That happens someplace else. And that changed my perspective on if something was to happen to me today, do my children know that I love them, does my wife know that I would do anything for her, do my students know that I believe in every cell of my body, that they are capable of everything, do my friends know that they can call me 24 hours a day and I will be there for them. So that pretty much pivoted my life. And changed I think how I helped with real estate that it became personal for me. That, yes, I'm not going to be making their mortgage. I'm not going to be raising their kids in this house, but I'm on their timeframe. We're not going to just pick a house because it's an easy house to get under contract. We're going to truly do what's right by them.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. So that event kind of just woke you up to where you live much more consciously and intentionally day to day where it's not like, well another week or another month or just basically, you're not just going through the motions. And maybe not that you were just going through the motions before, because I'm sure you were already quite intentional about how you were living your life before, but something happens like that and it really, really jolts you. And it forces you to realize that like, hey, none of us are promised any extra day, right? I mean, whether it's at 43 years old or 63 years old, I think I've always had an acute sense of that timeline with loved ones because my dad actually had a previous marriage before he was married to my mom.

Tim Chermak:
And so I have a half brother, older half brother, older half sister that are way older than me because my dad had me when he was 50 years old. And so my dad was always, basically like 20 years older than all of my friend's dads growing up. And so what that means is now my dad's 80 years old, and most of my friend's dads are in their upper fifties, low sixties. My dad's 80 years old. So I'm like acutely aware of the math that most American men don't live to be 85. And so I'm in statistically the last couple years with my, with my dad.

Tim Chermak:
And it's crazy thinking about that because usually in certain age ranges, you just don't think about how short life is and you just think, oh, there's always going to be more years. There will always be more weekends or always more whatever days, weeks that I can do what I want to do. And then when you actually consciously think about it even a little bit, it's like, no, there's not. Even with this concept, this concept of retirement, right?

Tim Chermak:
The whole idea of postponing all the happiness in your life for the final 20 years, let's say, because you retire at 60 years, 65 or whatever, is so insane to me that became the norm where people will save all the money they can and put it into their 401ks or pensions or whatever. Right. Hoping that they can retire at age 65 and then live 15 or 20 more years at some golf club in Florida where they get to finally enjoy their life. And I think the whole premise of that is just fundamentally flawed because life is happening in the here and now. You shouldn't postpone enjoying your life and feeling, I guess, feeling alive right. For the final 15 years of your life, not just because that's a bad trade mathematically like, oh yeah, I'll give up 65 years of my happiness so I can be happy in the final 15.

Tim Chermak:
Right. That math doesn't make sense because that means the vast majority of your life is spent in theory doing something you don't maybe want to be doing so that in theory you can enjoy the final 15 years. But also there's a huge, fundamental flaw in that thinking of that assumes that you're going to live to be 85 or 90 or whatever. And a ton of people die in car accidents when they're 50 or they get cancer in their forties or whatever, right. And so I would hate to postpone all the happiness and the trips you could take or the vacations, or even if it's not expensive stuff like trips and vacations, but like a simple thing, like going out and grabbing coffee with your mom or dad or going out and grabbing coffee with a friend and spending whatever 10, $15.

Tim Chermak:
Because let's say that you get a latte and you get a cinnamon roll. All the financial planners are like, hey, if you save that $10 per day, and it compounds over time with the magic of compound interest. And we've all seen the charts, right? Where if you save $10 a day, that'll end up being you're a millionaire or whatever it is long term. I don't care because it's like, honestly, I'd rather have the latte. If the price of being a multimillionaire in retirement, is that in the here and now I can't go enjoy a glass of wine with friends or go out for beer and pizza with my buddies or go out for coffee with my mom or my grandma or whatever, because I'm saving that money for retirement, it's like, well then I don't want to be a multimillionaire in retirement because it doesn't sound like it's worth it. Honestly. That's a bad trade.

Lea Arndt:
Yes, Vince, like I said, he did real estate only to provide that extra money for vacations and of course supplement teaching income. And I wasn't raised that way. We went to the beach one time during the summertime and that was our one family trip. And that's how we were raising our kids. We had one family trip. That's what we did. And so I would tease him and be like, God, you're always going on vacations. You're always doing this. And then the one day when he passed away, that's when it clicked. He had so many memories that his children now have because he didn't wait. He didn't wait until retirement to enjoy life.

Tim Chermak:
Yep, absolutely. So I'm going to give you a book recommendation right now, as well as anyone who happens to be listening to this podcast later. This book has really changed how I've thought about my life and career in business. And I've since bought a bunch of copies for friends and family actually. It's called Die With Zero, and I believe the author is Bill Perkins. I think that's the author. Let me Google that right now just to make sure I'm not giving out false information on a podcast here. I believe it's Bill Perkins Die With Zero.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. Yep. That's right. So it's by Bill Perkins. And basically the premise of the book is kind of in the title is that you should think about your life in terms of dying with zero. So don't build up a huge lump sum of wealth, hoping to pass it on and just constantly delay and then die with money. The author views it as a failure. If you die with a million dollars or a couple million dollars or whatever, that's kind of a waste because it means that you could have spent so much more time and memories in your life not working or with your friends and family that you died with a million dollars of lost experiences. And then you might think that's like, well, yeah but then you can leave that money to your kids, right?

Tim Chermak:
So it's like I want to leave something to my kids. In the book, he answers that talking about, well, your kids don't really... Like if you assume that most people have children at or around the age of 30, that's like the statistical average. So typically I know there's all sorts of exceptions because I'm one of those exceptions. My dad had me when he was 50, but statistically, most people when they pass away, assuming it's the median American age, their kids are probably going to be around 60 years old or so 65 years old, something like that. Getting a lump sum, inheritance from your parents doesn't really help you when you're 60, 65 years old, because you've already incurred most of the major life expenses. It would've been way more useful to have that sooner. So even in the book he talks about structure your life in such a way where if you want to give your kids an inheritance, if that's something that's important to you, and maybe it's not, right.

Tim Chermak:
But if that's a goal you've always had is to maybe leave some money behind for your kids, give it to them when they're 30. That's the actual statistical age when it does them the most benefit, because that's the time when they're probably like a first time home buyer, for example, and they need that money for a down payment. And it means that they'll be able to raise their kids, which is your grandkids hypothetically in a nicer house, in a nicer neighborhood, whatever, because you gave them their full inheritance at age 30 versus waiting for you to die. And then they're 60 and they don't really need it, and you don't get to see them enjoy it either. Right. So he actually comes from an insurance commodities trading background. So he's like a Wall Street hedge fund guy. So he's really, really smart, and he's made tons of money. And there's lots of other interesting life strategies in the book, I guess.

Tim Chermak:
But yeah, that's one of my favorite business books that kind of like crosses the chasm. It's almost not even a business book as much as just life strategy book because it just attacks this idea that you should postpone all the happiness in your life for the final 10, 20 years because that means you're not enjoying things now. You should always structure your life in such a way that if you did get hit by a bus tomorrow, right, that you go out with no regrets that you were having fun and that you didn't have all this postponement of memories with friends and family and loved ones. So yeah, well wow, this podcast conversation took a turn that we weren't really talking about. Weren't really talking about Facebook ads anymore, but I think this was super, super valuable.

Tim Chermak:
I hope this episode has been inspiring to everyone listening, because again, I'm still kind of in awe, Leah, of not just of the business you've created, but the life you've created. That you're running this side business with tutoring, and you're literally just using that to basically give back to teachers in the area, whether it's gift cards or sponsoring breakfasts and things like that, because that's something you're passionate about, right? You're not doing it out of a sense of obligation. You're doing it because it actually makes you happy being able to do that.

Lea Arndt:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
You're starting a transaction coordinating company because you see that's an issue and that's a problem that you can help solve for people and hopefully make some money doing it. You've got a full time job as a teacher and then you're selling over 40 homes a year on top of that.

Tim Chermak:
And you still have time to have a podcast conversation with me, right. We're actually recording this on a Sunday afternoon because I mentioned at first I was like, hey, maybe Saturday you'd be free, but you were at your daughter's volleyball on Saturday. So it's not as if you're doing all this, and you're just completely absent from your family's life or something. You're still a very, very involved spouse and parent. So that's just really inspiring I think to anyone listening to this. This is what is possible with your life, not just your business, but with your life, if you're actually intentional about how you live it. So thank you, Leah, for your time today. And guys, we'll see you on the next episode of the Platform Marketing show.

Lea Arndt:
Thank you.