Achieving long-term success in real estate requires stripping away endless distractions and mastering the power of reduction to focus strictly on what drives results. In an industry crowded with complex marketing gimmicks and market noise, elite professionals elevate their business by returning to boring fundamentals and genuine human connection. In this episode, host Jeffrey Saad sits down with Parker Beatty, Regional Vice President of Southern California at Compass. Together, they discuss how agents can eliminate fear-based decision-making, operate from a strong personal constitution, and build predictable deal flow. Parker shares expert leadership perspectives from managing thousands of agents, highlighting why personal relationships remain the ultimate luxury in a digital-first world.
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A Great Leader, Parker Beatty, Compass Vice President
Parker Beatty, it is so great to have you here. Southern California president of Compass.
Regional vice president of Southern California.
I just know him as Parker the Amazing. We met over a decade ago. I love being under your leadership at Compass. You literally have been one of the key people to take this company from what, when? Six Ages California, when I started. By the time you started, maybe we had, I do not know, a couple hundred, whatever. Now, thousands. I’ve always been inspired by you because you’re a great leader, and you do reduce. You are like the epitome of reduction. You just see that clearly.
This is going to be a podcast for Realtors. Now, anybody tuning in will benefit because the ideas apply everywhere. Reduction, storytelling, these things we’re going to talk about. I’d love to just have this go out to Realtors as a way to, like, “If you’re a Realtor, listen, and I hope this can help you.” Before we get into that. Give us your little mini life story because I know you’ve done so much besides being an executive. Were an entrepreneur and you did a lot of real estate business flips financing. Tell us about it.
From Real Estate Investor To Regional Leader
I grew up in San Diego and went to UCLA. After UCLA, I did what everyone did at that time from USC and UCLA. Everyone moved to the sleepy beach town, which was a sleepy beach town of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. It was so fun, and it was a really great scene. I thought, “I need to get some work down here.” I went to the UCLA job board, and I’ll age myself. That was a room at UCLA that had physical boards. It had multiple bulletin boards standing in the middle of the room. There were little three-by-five cards that were typed. I found one. This job’s in Manhattan Beach. It’s near my house. I’ll save money on gas.
I love the search criteria.
I’ll be able to go in for lunch. I’ll save money.
It’s not meant to be, no. It’s close.
Manhattan is great. I did that, and I had been interested in real estate, so the job interested me. It turns out he was a very prominent real estate investor, predominantly in commercial and industrial properties. I mentored under him. I wasn’t doing any brokerage at the time. It was all about working on acquiring properties, and he was involved in syndication. He’d raise pools of money and then purchase commercial and industrial properties.
Were you sussing out properties, or what was your future?
He taught me how to evaluate properties while I was looking for why he was looking for them. I would go out and try to pinpoint them. He taught me to ask, “What was he looking for financially? How did he approach looking at an investment, and why?” I just remember him saying, we’d get this set of financials, and I’d be like, “Look, this looks like a good investment.” He goes, “Throw all those away. I do not believe any of them. You need to run the analysis by yourself.”
He did you a favor.
It’s like, “Okay.” It was just learning all of these nuances of investment that have served in a lot of different areas.
This was the 90s?
The ‘93, or ‘94.
That was your first introduction to Realtors. I assume you sussed out these things you had to be.
I’ll tell you where that went. I worked with this company and the market got really hot, and he was positioned. He was a little early, which was perfect because we got everything set up, and then we were moving so quickly. We were purchasing a property every ten days. It was wild. It was unheard of. I learned a whole lot at that time, again, doing a lot of things I should not have been doing. We wound up taking those portfolio properties and selling them to Wall Street. Part of that was also going back and forth between our offices in New York and talking to these people who are Wharton MBAs, and I was not.
No one fakes it better than you.
We went back and forth, and they acquired the portfolios, and they kept me on as an asset manager. That says a lot about property management and asset management.
How did the boss feel about that? Is he blessed?
It was great. It worked out really well. I did that for a while. I thought, wait a minute, I’ve done this from soup to nuts. I can use myself. I joined up with a few friends, and we started, I got involved in syndicating apartment buildings, and we started buying apartment buildings. I remember the first one was like a fiveplex in Brentwood, in this really great area. It was less than a million dollars for sure. We had to raise money.
Now that’s not even a garage for $500,000.
I had half a million, $800,000, something like that. We had to raise money from a whole bunch of friends because no one had much money at that time. We were able to improve the property. At that time, it was just a period in history where you could purchase a property, improve it, increase your rents pretty quickly, and then refinance it. That’s just what you could do by and large. Which is so brilliant.
You get your money out, so if the place burns down, you’ve already made your money back.
Everything’s great. That’s like the ideal of, like, there’s a lot of people listening now, like, of course that’s what you do. It was easier then, and I think if you’re much more skilled now, you probably can do that. At any rate, we did that a bunch, and through that process we started acquiring parcels that we would use to build. I thought, “Great.” That was really one of my favorite pieces. We hired a general contractor, formed a development corporation, and started building ground-up constructions. That was one of the most fun experiences.
I’ve never done that. That takes some honesty, man. I used to renovate, flip the stuff like that whole, but the whole thing. Lots of people do not realize how real estate works. It’s so easy to lose your margin with just a couple of mistakes. “We have to do more in the foundation. We need this, we need that.” There was a delay, and you’re done.
Navigating Market Crashes And Building A Residential Business
It was very hard. We built these houses in Hermosa Beach. It was the first one we did, and they had to dig down like eight feet to compact the soil because it’s sandy. They dug down 8 feet, and there was this big hole there. We had like one hundred-year rains, and then it took months to dry, and they had rights. It was like right from the get-go. It was tough. We got a bunch of houses, and of course, you’re moving along, and things are going very well, and I’m a genius, and then 2008 rolls along.
I’m left holding a couple of houses. I wouldn’t say it wiped me out, but it was a humbling experience. We had to carry this house for a year or whatever it was and sell it at a steep discount. That was painful. I learned a lot, but during the process of selling these houses, I got my real estate license because I thought if anyone’s going to overbuild a house, I am. If anyone’s going to sell that overbuilt house, I want to sell it. I got my license never intending to have anything to do with residential real estate.
We traded a few houses, the market crashed, and I was floating around, and people started to call me and say, “Parker, I know you’re involved in real estate. Could you buy a house for me?” That’s how I got involved in real estate. Just as people started calling the phone, it started to ring with a fortunate reverse prospect. It just happened. I suddenly found myself in a pretty good residential real estate business. Buying and selling homes and also some apartment buildings for some folks. At that time, I was with Keller Williams.
I had a manager, the one whose name was Rob Eigner. He was great. He was doing super well in the franchising piece of this puzzle. I thought to myself, “I love the idea of buying a business and then not working, and you still get cash for it.” He had done great with that. I followed those footsteps and wound up managing an office in Santa Barbara, which was a tremendous experience. Came back down here and managed an office in Los Feliz, and then Compass came and found me. When I joined, there were just a few hundred agents in Southern California, and now we are at over 5,000.
Which is the perfect pivot because, talk about the circle of control and how you have to manage everything, because I always look at you guys as the team. I’m like, “You’re just reinventing every few months, like a whole new plan, a whole new project, a whole new angle,” which is what you have to do to grow business. Speaking of the circle of control, again, that’s what reduction is about. It’s about really doing what you’re meant to do, which most of us got into, like you said, because we saw a job board, we wanted to be close to work or whatever.
My goal with this personal constitution and figuring out who you are and who you’re really meant to be is how you can really thrive. In this episode, I want to talk more about the circle of control and the storytelling because you see it more than anybody. My goal is, honestly, Nadeen and I probably put in an average of fifteen hours a week in real estate. We work as one agent. We have the same clients. She handles the marketing side. I handle the prospecting, staying in touch, and getting new clients.
You’re doing very well for only fifteen hours, which then speaks to the focus of it all. If most people really focused and even worked for fifteen hours a week, they wouldn’t have to work for 80 hours a week. You hear this, like, if you just worked for a few hours a day, you wouldn’t have to work for ten hours a day.
Talk about that. What do you see as a leader? I see it being in it, all the opportunities for realtors to reduce. As a leader of all of us, what do you see? What’s the message for realtors that applies to life? What are they doing, and what could they be doing differently to maximize that return with way less effort?
Lead Generation And The Ultimate Value Of Relationships
Listen, real estate is a lead generation business. It’s like your success is directly proportional to the number of people you speak to about real estate every day. That’s it. That’s nothing else. Doing the deal is not the hard part. Yes, it’s difficult. There are challenges, and you have to have skills. It’s getting the deal flow. The people that are successful have managed, in some way or form, to create deal flow. For you, that’s like knocking on doors, or there are some top agents in our office and whatever. They make 25 calls a day or whatever it is.
What I see the most is people getting distracted with the shiny object, which is, and not to say there aren’t people who are very successful using Instagram or social media, but that’s a very small slice of people. As we go into the world of artificial intelligence and a lot more information available at your fingertips, that magic is going to be your personal relationship. That’s going to be a luxury in the future. That is the real estate reduction relationship. That’s it.
In the near future, intelligence will be free. Getting things on the computer digitally is going to be very easy, and the cost is going to go close to zero. Luxury will be working with people. That will be the high end. I have to work with a person for this. Versus maybe there are parts of the country or parts of the world where homes are more of a commodity. In Los Angeles, do not really have like tracts of homes that are the same. People couldn’t more easily determine the 302 bathroom peninsula model is this much money. You cannot do that here in Los Angeles.
You really do need a person to say, “Here’s the way this neighborhood is, and this street’s better than the street, and here’s why.” Those are things that AI will be able to do. Maybe, but like, I think having someone talk to you about these nuances is, that’s it. That’s the ultimate thing. The best service that we can provide is that piece of information.
You’re so right because even for the last 25 years since I’ve been in the biz. You’ve always said this. None of these discount firms have ever made it. Even though the information is there, people want to feel like they have somebody that knows what they’re doing on their team. All the reductions that realtors could do to thrive, like one of my favorites, is when you’re up there speaking in front of the office and just send the damn postcard out. People spent hours like, “Do I have the right pictures? The font, the right size, the color?” That’s one of your funniest stories you always tell. That’s what I always say, “It’s not about you making it perfect. Just get it out because that’s the contact you’re talking about.” That’s the lead. It feels like it’s the other thing.
It feels like it’s the other thing because there’s a very small number of agents out there who have this magnificent photography or the most incredible social media. That is 1% of 1%. The reality is, all that stuff doesn’t matter. The best agents I talk to are just out talking to a lot of people. Do they have a marketing machine spun up? Yes. They are not focused on creating the most original, bonkers campaign to get people. They’re just doing boring things. It’s a mastery. It’s like just doing the boring things again and again. That is how you get mastery.
It’s like judo or whatever martial arts. It’s doing the same movements again and again until it just becomes very natural. That would be your point of reduction. Also, the point is my joke quickly when I got into the business 25 years ago, and I met these real estate agents like, “I’ve been around for 30 years,” and I was thinking to myself, I think you repeated year one 30 times because it’s about getting better. The ultimate reduction for me in real estate is to be better. You do not have time to be better if you’re wasting your time doing a bunch of stuff that isn’t going to get a result.
Many people are doing all this stuff that doesn’t get a result because they do not want to look the phone in the face and have to call that person. They do not want to. How do I be a better negotiator? They just want to do more. If I just reach more clients, that’s the answer. Sometimes it is, as you said. It’s volume. I also find it fascinating because doing less is much more successful if you raise your standards.
What you’ve done is really unique. Being more focused, I think that’s the key piece there, is that you’re doing less, but it’s more focused on the right things. You raised a good point, which is that it’s way more fun to do flyers and artwork and fun marketing and a funny video. It’s way more fun than to call people and get told, “No, I’m not interested or do not bother me or do not ever send a piece of mail to my house again.” Here’s a wild concept to say no to a listing. That’s a whole other thing, is that there’s a downward spiral because you’re not lead generating.
Knowing When To Say No And Elevating Your Standards
You’re not talking to people. Your business is more precious to you. You get the business, and you do not say no to the wrong things. Those trap you and suck you in more. You asked me what perspective I have on that? There are people hired. There are people allowing themselves to get hired when they should definitely be firing those clients, and they know it. To it, there are very few people who say, “I had no idea that this person was going to be difficult or crazy.” They’re all like, “I’m going in.” Saturday, I won’t say any names in case somebody’s tuning in to this, but this is really who I love and know. He’s been around as long as I have. I was shocked.
He’s like, “I remember that. I still feel bad about that crazy deal we had with my ridiculous request. It’s because of what the client wanted, and I had no control.” I’m like, “Uh-hmm.” He’s like, “Yeah.” He still calls me all the time. I’ll spend an hour on the phone with him. I’m like, “Do you hear yourself?” That’s the amazing thing. The irony is, as a realtor, this applies to all business. You elevate yourself when you say no. You elevate yourself when you’re confident enough to say, “Parker, that sounds like an amazing price, but I cannot do it because I do not believe in that price. I do not want to be having you hate me in three months. I’d rather hate myself right now.”
Most people, most agents, will say what? Of course, whatever you want. Look, it’s not easy. In fact, it’s really hard. It says easy does hard. It’s very easy to say you shouldn’t take these things. When you’re trying to pay your bills and you only have two, maybe you only have one or no listings, you take this one, and I hear it. I can use this to launch marketing. I’m using this to build my portfolio or whatever the case might be, because there are agents out there who have very large businesses, just taking overpriced listings, and their whole strategy is to take as many overpriced listings as possible.
Over time, they just wear the sellers down and eventually reduce the price, and maybe they sell it. Maybe they do not. Maybe it goes to the second realtor or the third realtor. To shame me on that strategy, tell me how wrong I am or your take on this. First of all, most importantly, I want to make sure everyone knows I’m not here to make anyone like me or anyone like you or me like you. You need to be you. If whatever you’re doing makes you happy, keep doing it. I always say that. If you wake up loving your life, “Congrats, just keep doing that.”
That person who’s taking anything and everything and just hopes whatever sells sells because they’re going to wear the seller out, I feel like the sad part is they’re wearing themselves out first. They’re inevitably going to wear themselves out. Unless you just are the personality profile who maybe just doesn’t have that aspect of your personality. We’re here more now. There are those people out there who just do not care. What you just said is important. That’s the beautiful thing about real estate is it’s for everyone’s different, and people who are going to like you may not like me, and they’ll like me, and they’re not going to get along with everyone.
It’s like, there’s just such a beautiful fit, I think, for everyone to serve their tribe or their people that are attracted to them. That’s one of the magic things about real estate. I always say, “Thank God it was not like me. That’d be a scary world.” It’s like, I’ll just say, “That’s why I make chocolate vanilla?” Everyone’s got a choice. I also think that, in my passion for the reduction, it’s like, what’s amazing to me is like, somebody else can do 30 deals at a discount commission with too high a price. It takes them twice as long to sell.
They make 30%, 40%, maybe 50% less than me. If you raise your standards and work on your skills, you can do a third of the sales and make more money and do all the stuff you love to do. You guys got back from three days of racing motorcycles. Next week, I’m going to a surf camp for three days. Again, it’s about choice. How do you want to live your life? What kills me is when a real literal says, like, “I do not have time, or I cannot go on vacation, or I cannot.” You can, if you can reduce.
Let me ask you this. Obviously, when you get into a place where you’re comfortable, it makes it a lot easier. What I see, and I have a question for you, and that is the reason people do not do that is they’re afraid. They’re afraid that they’re not going to get enough for themselves. They’re not able to pay their bills. They’re going to say no to someone they’re going to upset, and that reputation is going to be hit or whatever the case might be. Getting to a place where you can comfortably say no is hard, because you have to have more to say no to unless you’re in a position such that you can just say, “I do not want what I do not need 30 lists.”
Here’s the answer to your question that I think you’re asking. Here’s the crazy irony. That fear is what will make sure that monster shows up because I was a brand new realtor. Twenty-five years ago, Nadia woke me up in the middle of the night crying because we were closing escrow on our Bel Air house the next day. She asked me this weird question. “We do not have the money to afford this Halloween.” My answer was, “We’ll figure it out.” For some reason, that wasn’t very appealing to her. The funny part was, and it was hilarious back then too, that it was my wake-up call to real estate.
We were brand new. The mortgage broker goes, “You’re approved for your loan.” I was like, “That’s amazing.” I just realized, “You never asked me how much I made.” She goes, “I filled that in.” I’m a brand new realtor in a brand new city, from a restaurateur to a realtor. Anybody you talked to that would happen to remember back then, and still knows me now, Friday at 4:00, my voicemail said, “Thank you so much for calling. This is Jeffrey Saad. I look forward to checking messages and getting back to you Sunday morning. Have a great weekend.” Everyone was like, “You’re in real estate. You cannot do that.”
I go, “I’m going to, because my personal constitution, my way of living, is that I want to have a weekend with my family. I want to do my fun stuff. I’m not there for the kids.” The irony was, it became this immediate filter because the people that would leave a message, how can you not be working weekends? If you’re a realtor, I was going to sell my house, I guess, calling, but I do not know. I wouldn’t even call him back. It’s a great filter. I do not want to work with you. Somebody else would go, “That’s right. You’re with your family. The weekends. I love that. Talk to you Sunday.”
It became this great filter. All of a sudden, of course, listen, we could have a five-hour show on all my mistakes. That’s for sure. In each mistake, I was like, “How do I reduce?” I always believe it’s like showing up 40% of the time with your engines roaring at 100% versus showing up 100% of the time with your engines sputtering. You never really get to lose the fear because you’re always going to be more worn out. Those are the people that say, “Clients suck, or buyers are liars.” You hear these terms, and I’m like, “No, it’s you.” Did you ever ask that buyer, Bop? No, why? I got to get the business.
Show up 40% of the time with your engines roaring at 100% versus showing up 100% of the time with your engines sputtering. Share on XHere’s my thing with you. I called you last week, and you were like, “I’m not home right now, I’m racing motorcycles.” I was like, “You sent me videos.“ I was horrified. I was like, “He’s going to make it back? I do not know what’s going on.” I showed Brian the video, and I was like, “This is crazy.” You’re like, “I’m going to do all these very extreme things.” Your fear, your barometer of whether you have a higher tolerance for discomfort or something in there. That’s a thing to share because let’s say I’m a new person starting out and I need, and I have that fear.
Overcoming Fear And Building A Personal Constitution
How do you use your techniques to push that away? Also, you just said, like, we’re close to house. Didn’t really know how we’re going to pay it. By all means, that could be. I viewed it as irresponsible for sure. It goes back to the fortunate, like it’s like it’s the both sides. It’s the tough part, and the superpower is like, I’m just not worried about that. We’re going to make that work out. There’s something to more people as hard as that is taking on an attitude of like, “You’ve got to move forward.” If you think of any of the most successful people in our time, the biggest entrepreneurs in technology, they’re just going for it.
Do you know where it comes from? This is the thing? In the reduction, it opens up with The Personal Constitution, and I wrote that for myself 30 years ago because my life started off in a very rough way, and I was just like, this cannot continue. That’s where I’ll just say I was grateful when something popped into my head that made me say something like, “What’s life? I want to live. What is it going to look like?” This isn’t just a picture board of a mansion and a hot woman in a gray car. No, it was like, who am I, and how am I going to live?
When I finished that Personal Constitution, one of the things it said is, I know work will fill the time given, so I’m only going to give it the amount of time that allows me to enjoy my life, pursue my passions, and give more than I take. When you go through that plan and you lay out who you really are and who you want to be, you no longer need to renegotiate everything in your life. What I said when I left that message at 4:00 on a Friday, which, by the way, I had no business. Definitely didn’t know how I was going to pay this mortgage for sure. What I knew was that I was living by my constitution. Whatever that yields, it’s okay. It’s like automatic. It’s like your internal GPS.
If you get in your car and you just hit the GPS, say, take me anywhere, you’ll go anywhere. If you put in an address, you’ll probably end up there. The Personal Constitution is this way to just say, “I’m going to filter all decisions and everything through that.” That’s what makes, if you’re going to say that, then you’re going to say, I’m a husband, father first. I love and cherish my family. That is my guiding light. When I get offered an overpriced listing, and this opportunity, and somebody wants me to do this project, I immediately go, “That’s taking me away from my family. That’s diluting me.”
The answer is no. It becomes so much easier to make all these decisions. Ultimately, I’ll never forget this, when we really stuck to six percent as a commission, as you’ve known forever, because you’ve been in it. Everyone’s trying to fight over commission or reduce commissions, isn’t that? It was about 10, 15 years ago, I was like, “That’s it, I’m only doing 6%. We lost a couple of listings.” Nadia goes, “What are you doing?” I go, “I’m okay going out of business if we cannot get 6%.” Once you make that statement, and because it reflects my constitution, then that’s what you’re going to do. The irony is it all works out because that’s the other part of the production.
Talk to her about this in your life personally or with realtors you see, but the storytelling, because that’s where the real fear comes from. I always joke. It’s like if people would just stop telling a story, I say, “If you say it once, it’s a recounting of the facts. The second you say the same thing twice, it’s now a story.” Even worse is when you’re saying the thing that actually didn’t even happen.
People saying, “The client didn’t touch me back. I bet you anything that mad because I did that and they didn’t think this and that.” They’re probably looking at talking to the realtors, and they’re spinning out. The client calls back the next day. “My daughter’s in a car accident. I was on a billboard.” Does that work for you in your life and for the realtors you see? Whatever feels more appropriate to answer. Do you resonate with that?
Totally. I have a unique perspective on over 5,000 agents.
That’s why I love this. 5,000 agents and so being an agent.
It’s like, I see all of it, and you cannot tell me no one gets six percent because I see with my own eyes that this group of people achieves that. Someone’s like, “I cannot get this. There’s this group of people.” The story starts. I have a saying, “I will never battle with someone who argues for their own limitations.”
Never battle with someone who argues for their own limitations. Share on XI love that. I’m going to steal that. Say that again.
I’ll never battle with anyone who argues for their own limitations.
Dude, that’s what I love about this guy. That is an awesome statement.
Breaking Free From Limitations And Getting Better
I cannot win, someone’s, but whatever. They had a rich family, or they did this, or they did that. I have to stop at that point, because I know there are certainly these folks who came from nothing. They had nothing. They didn’t have a family thing going on. They just worked really hard, not only worked really hard because I think a lot of people work really hard, but they worked very effectively. They worked on the right things and were able to build a business because of it. Something else, they got better as they went along. I remember a meeting that we had 6 or 7 years ago. People were like, “What do I do? I said, “I had a spiel I gave. It was fun.” One of the things I said, and he has it, was, “You need to get better.”
I was one of your best. You’ve had many, but that was one of your best presentations. I remember that. Get better. Dude, you should redo that. That should be like a quarterly presentation.
I have no idea what you said. I just remember that everyone was worried about this and worried about that. It was so clear to me.
That was at the beginning of the downturn or something. I remember it was going on. No, it was during the change of all the paperwork, I think. With the new laws about tradition, and now I had to get them to sign something.
It’s like, and the funny thing is, I see people who get better at the conversations and get better at the paperwork and get better at the negotiations. I remember when the very first time Steve Schall had Chris Voss, it was super fresh. The book was out, but like no one really knew about it. I went to that, and it was incredible. You really took onto it and of taking this like, “I’m going to take this new approach.” That was a great example of, like, “I’m going to get better at this thing. I’m going to actually use this thing.
I’m not going to talk about it. I’m not just going to go to a class. I’m actually going to use it,” in a number of meetings you would talk about. I just use this dialogue. You have to have the confidence or whatever, the gumption to just even though it might feel a little uncomfortable to say these things. A lot of the stuff works, whether it’s Chris Voss or any number of other techniques. These people, success leaves clues. You can follow these things.
That’s the point, getting better. I’m amazed, Parker, and how many agents I talked to that are good agents, and they’re like, “I do not have time to figure out the compass tools.” It just blows me away. How can you have that, like saying, “I know I chopped trees down for a living, but I do not have time to sharpen my axe.”
It’s like it makes no sense, and that’s the oldest and cheesiest analogy, but it’s true. It’s like you want to chop these things down with a knife, a butter knife, or an axe. You’ve got to take a minute to sharpen the axe, or you just keep whacking with your butter knife. They’ll fall, and you’ll be proud. “Look, I’ve knocked down 50 trees more in the outsky, but you’re almost killing yourself doing it.” You haven’t had fun in years.
In fact, that is from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
That’s where I got it.
Number seven sharpened the saw. People say, “I’m working too much. I cannot possibly stop to learn this new thing.” Some of the most creative, successful agents I see make time to do these things.
That’s what I mean. You cannot make time.
It’s time management, but what it really is, it’s you management.
Bravo, dude. That’s why I love this guy.
It’s not that people have time with time management. It’s your management. That’s why it’s hard. It’s because you’re trying to manage yourself, and you have stories and things running around. Again, not saying like, this is so easy, and I’m perfect at this. I am not. It is a constant.
I fail daily. Just not as much as I used to.
There you go. I run a very large organization and it’s really hard, but if I do not improve and if I’m not efficient, like the train goes off the rails.
Dude, if you kept doing what you always did and didn’t reduce, you’d be done. That’s what I always tell people too. It’s like, if you’re a criteria, if you do not act like you’re a billionaire and you’re working for your mother, assuming you like your mother, you’re dead because the second you’re thinking about the check or yourself, you’re screwed. One of my favorite stories, I was a new agent. I had to work with this guy for months. First of all, he was the spiky, white-haired twenty-year-old kid who came to my open house to skateboard. It was a $7,000 house like 20 years ago. I treated him.
I was about to close, but I kept it open. I treated him like everyone else. He was the real deal. Even though somewhere in my head, I was like, “I just got skateboarding by.” That’s okay. He’s like, “I’ll take it all cash.” It turns out their family is like heirs to this huge fortune from England. He’s like, “My dad needs a house,” or actually it was for his sister’s daughter or something. It was, again, a million-dollar price range. I’ve been working with them for a couple of months, and I call them up, and I go, I found the perfect house. He was awesome. Where is it?
I here’s the address and here’s the seller’s phone number. He goes, “What is the seller’s phone number?” I said, “It’s for sale by the owner.” I tried my hardest, but they won’t work with me. He goes, “Why are you telling me about it?” It’s the perfect house for you. Everything he described. That’s our goal. He’s like, “I just cannot believe it, but thank you.” They get into escrow. It turns out it cancels. The foundation was a mess. I did twelve deals with that family in the next six years.
Again, “I’m so afraid I won’t get a deal. The scared person, but then you do the wrong things out of fear. Fear is not your best coach. Belief and skill are the best coaches. See all the bad things. My job is like the biggest problem. Talk about something. By the way, I want to come clean. I do not charge six percent now. We charge five percent because I got tired of doing two negotiations. The first one with my wife and partner, and the second one with the client.
Again, it’s okay because that’s what I mean about the personal constitution, the reduction, the circle of control. You just have to decide what you’re going to do and why, and then be unbending within reason. Of course, there are always exceptions, but so many people make so many exceptions that it’s not the rule. You’re saying, like, what are people doing? Give us some of those stories that you see. Again, this is for realtors, but I know that anyone tuning in right now and watching can apply this to their business and their life. Tell me these things you see.
There’s something that people could work on right away. Be like, practicing. Let me use an example. I do not know, not in, not California. Most people do, if you’re in the mid Midwest or whatever. Most people have to do something like 20, 30, 40, 50. It has to do a lot of your sales. They can do a lot of deals to make it work. Because you have to do a lot of deals, you have to put systems and processes in place, and you get really good at your scripts and dials. You have to do it again and again. One of the drawbacks here in the state of California is that people can do really well doing ten houses a year. That’s less than one.
The Importance Of Rehearsal And Skill Practice
It’s not even that bad because people would come to us and say, “I get into real estate?” I’m like, “If you really s***, you’ll make double what you make for your job.
Not anymore. People do not get a chance to practice how to do a listing presentation.
That’s a really good point, actually.
As an example. I remember one time when my office recorded. I said, “I’m going to record your listing presentation.” People were like, “I do not want to give away my speech to this and that.” I finally convinced the top few people. Said, “We’re just going to keep it amongst ourselves.” People recorded themselves doing a listing presentation.
How many killed themselves when they heard it?
All of them. Everyone would watch it, and everyone gave feedback on it. At the end, people were in tears. Like, “Didn’t know I did that. I’m going to be able to be better now.” The light-years of improvement just by doing that one little exercise.
Dude, that’s a great idea. You should create a workshop at the office where you have the cameras, the audio set up, and people write. That’s a great idea because, like anything, just like that motorcycle video I sent you. In my head, “I’m like a pro. You see the video, and you’re good, but you’re not what you thought you were.” You realize how much you have to learn. That’s a great idea.
It’s so like being able to practice, and in the same way, the next thing that comes up is the moment people say no, people are no, or like, what’s your commitment? The freeze that comes across is that people do not have a good answer, or they have an answer. Not two answers or three answers for the same situation.
Doesn’t that amaze you? When I say this to realtors and anyone tuning in, I mean it. How could you act like anything’s a surprise? I have not heard anything new in twenty years. You’re not ready for that time. That’s like you said, that’s a you problem. To be frozen when they say whatever they say, “It’s all,” you’re just not ready.
You come to the end of the deal, and it’s whatever. People are arguing over the dishwasher, and it’s like, whatever. “I got to put a thousand dollars in. That’s fine.” The really good people are like, “What we have, whatever we disclose this, we went along with this, here’s our process.” Whatever you’ve got to pay it out, or this buyer or the other side has to pay it, and they’re able to convince them. It’s like that skill level of, like, this is for sure going to come. People are going to say, no, people are going to say, “I want to pay less.” People are going to push back. The immediacy with which people just completely cave before even raising any, like. “Wait a second.”
They solve the problem with their own money instead of skill. Because so many realtors have done that, it’s now that clients almost feel entitled, as if they should ask. That’s what’s amazing, and what I say when a client asks me for money is I go, “Did I fail you? I want to know. Tell me.” This one buyer is like, “You’re rep.” I was representing both sides.
He’s like, “You’re representing me too. Do not forget that.” I said, “Tell me right now what your definition of good representation is because I want to know where I failed.” Most people, what do they do? As you said, they just start offering money. The irony is they’re hurting themselves, and that client and the relationship are still there to be tainted. I always say things like, if 5,000, 10,000, even 50,000 on 5 million, 3 million makes you not want to buy this house, then you shouldn’t.
That’s a great point. Listen, there are all sorts of ways to respond. I just think the answer is that immediately capitulating is probably not the best thing. There’s just a skill to at least having a line to put that in back. Most people also crumble when someone says, “We are presenting both houses, both sides of the transaction making all this money.” I think so many say, Hang on. Look what we’ve accomplished here, and that’s the reason I get paid. I’ve explained it before where it’s like, an hour of your time and real, an hour of Jeff Sothe’s time in real estate is not one hour. It is all the decades of experience.
Another brilliant one. I love this.
Everyone gets so agitated, like, “It only took you making it, you whatever.” It only took you a couple of hours to get this deal together. It’s like, “No, that was years of knowing the right thing to say at the right time and the right conversation and moving it this way and then dealing with the other side and dealing with the client and making that right.
Well said. You said it to me like ten years ago. I was towards the beginning when we started working together. I swear it was you in a meeting or something. Do not ever discount that gut feeling because that gut feeling is all those years and deals put together. You’re not feeling it in the moment for some random reason. It’s because it’s in your DNA.
Oftentimes, for the folks who’ve been doing this a long time, you’ve seen the movie before. That gives you a really distinct advantage. The difference is you need to harness that advantage. There are a lot of people who just keep doing it.
That’s a great analogy. There are a lot of people who keep getting shot for the bad guy dies, the good guy wins. Didn’t you see the movie ever?
It’s like, you just keep seeing the same movie again and again. I went. I can just think of a couple of things where people just immediately freeze versus having a really good answer. Again, that goes back to the practice piece of it, which is you cannot just practice it in your head. You actually have to talk out loud. Like, “Go videotape yourself at home doing this thing.”
Communicating Value And Mastering Tough Negotiations
It’s funny you said that. I will drive Nadia crazy because we are very different. That’s what makes us great. I will sit there and talk to her for an hour while we’re having a glass of wine or whatever about this situation we’re in and for the call with the client. She’s like, “You always get it done. Why are you going through all this dialogue? I’m tired.” I go, “That’s why I go through it because then I end up not even needing it.” Or “If I do need it, I have reduced it down to the one question that makes the difference.”
What you’ve internalized is a very important technique: when you have to actually talk it out because it has to resonate in your voice and it’s nervous. It goes through your nervous system. Versus you’re thinking like, “I’m going to do this, and then I’m going to do that.” It doesn’t work. You have to rehearse. You have to actually say it. That makes a difference in all of these things.
You have to talk their side through. That’s what I always say. I challenge myself. Think Larry King said the quote or whatever. “I never learned a thing when I was talking.” When you think about the other side. I’ll do this before our negotiation call, credits or whatever. If I’m going to pretend to be another agent, what’s my side? As a good attorney.
You really know what’s what. I just had an excitement about the part that you and I should come up with. Can you say yes to the following ten things? If a realtor cannot lean into a commission question, say, “It’s because I’m worth every penny.” If you cannot lean in and say that, if that’s a no, then there’s your first problem because you’re actually not negotiating with the client. You’re negotiating with yourself, because you do not believe it.
You do not believe it because what happens is the client says, “I really like you, and I’m talking to Jeff, but Jeff said he’ll do it for 1%.” It’s like, you know that’s coming. There are all sorts of scripts, like, he’s already negotiating against themselves. What are they going to do when you get all the scripts and scripts? This just becomes like getting better. What resonates with you? One talk track may work and one may not.
I was served up something on Instagram, and it was like this woman is this crazy big agent. She said, “Could you give a discount on your commission?” It went into this big spiel, and it was like, “I’ve got good news for you. I’m going to do it.” She went through all the things I’m going to do, and we’re going to look here and look there. I worked for free. You do not have to pay me until the deal closes. Like, “Let’s sign this and that.” She’s going to do all this stuff for free, and it may or may not close. That’s one approach.
It isn’t amazing. That’s the point, Parker, right? I just read Roll the Calls, Ari’s book. It was amazing because the reality is, agenting is hard. We work our butts off. The way agents present themselves over commission and other things makes it look like we are a commodity. If you do not have the confidence and the clarity of the value of what you do, then how will anybody else? That goes for anybody tuning in to any business. I do not care from a dentist to a handyman to, Wall Street person. It’s always about staying focused on the client’s best interests. If you talk to a thousand agents, how many would say to you, “I’ve got to figure out how to get back to what the client really wants.”
You raised a few really good points. Look, listening is super important. It’s so many factors. All these things. The things we’ve talked about a lot of things, and at every point in history, there’s some new thing that comes along with it, like the discount brokers or this or that or whatever. It’s like this huge challenge. Now our challenges, there’s going to be like information is going to be totally democratized.
You’re going to be able to get basically, right now you can get information on any house in the entire country, like pictures of it, almost anything, but people are still using real estate agents by a long shot. It’s because you need someone to decipher the information. It’s going to move into a very consultative role. What’s going to happen is there are going to be fewer real estate agents, and the better ones are going to do better and better. Now you may have to do more and more deals and make a little bit less. That’s where we might go, or maybe not. I do not know. The talented ones are going to thrive. It’s just been that way. A lot of times people say it’s like an 80/20 rule, like 20% are doing 80% of the work. In real estate, it’s 90/10. 10% of the people are doing 90% of the work.
The stats are like some 80-some percent do three deals a year. I was shocked when Steve said that, like my co-author Steve Schultz, three deals a year. Again, if you’re making 20/30 on a deal, you probably cannot get by on three deals a year, which is a shame, because it allows you to do it poorly. Again, part of reducing is so you create your personal constitution. The mask comes off. Who you are and why you’re doing it. One of the greatest moments I had in real estate was when I was door knocking and sweating through my white shirt and my suit and feeling like a Bible salesman. No offense to Bible salesmen.
I was like, “This is horrible.” I said, “Who am I?” I took the mask off. I’m a guy with tattoos and long hair that loves life. I do not have big words because I’m not that smart, but I’m sincere. I rolled up my sleeves and threw out the jacket. All of a sudden, I started getting listings because I was me. I was now showing up as me, not as who I thought I was supposed to be. Once you get your personal constitution down, who you’re supposed to be.
You try to turn every ten steps into three steps. The realtors and people, business, and life that are going to succeed moving forward are going to be the ones who put all their energy on, how do I adapt and be better for the client? Not how do I keep fighting for what I’ve always had? Not how do I keep trying to convince myself that AI is not good. I have a friend from the movie business. I love him dearly. He will not let go of trying to get AI out of his mind. It’s like, “Dude, you’re fighting a losing battle. You’re a genius.” Adapt. How do you become the best director-producer using AI and still honoring people?
You brought up that the point you just brought up is what I call with your per your aligning, your aligned with your personal constitution. I’m having trouble thinking of one person, one really successful agent, who is just not super fully aligned around what they do. Not like it has to be their entire identity because look at you, have all these other things and you’re an author and do all these things, but it’s like, super, you’re not trying to do. I worked with a mentor of mine, no longer an agent, but she was just all about real estate.
She just loved talking about real estate, and she loved finding houses for people, and she moved very quickly. It just hurt that there was no I want to do this other thing or she was just completely aligned and was just wildly successful, but successful because of that. You have that unique alignment around the various things you want to do. You’re unique. When you’re focused on the real estate piece, it’s like, so very clear, like this is what I’m doing. You have me. I’m here.
Authenticity, Alignment, And Showing Up As Yourself
Thank you. You just summed it up so perfectly, which is what you always do. That’s exactly it. It’s like I always say, it’s not about being there all the time. It’s about being there 100% of the time when you are there. You just show up. Again, everyone’s different. That girl you’re describing, I feel like I know her. When you are that sincere and into it, if you do not do anything else, and you never have fun, you’re probably still thrilled because that’s what you really want to be doing. I respect that. I would say your personal constitution, if it’s to be a billionaire, then your constitution better say, I will never put work second to my family.
I will never play piano. All I will do is make money. As long as you’re not hurting anybody, I fully respect that. Own it, because do not tell me you want to be a billionaire and then be home at 4:00. Do not tell me you want to be a billionaire and you’re not taking risks. That’s the key. Just be true to who you are. What’s interesting to me, too, is that I say all this and I wrote this book, swear, money can never be the goal. Money is the byproduct. It’s the tool that lets you live your life. My goal is to help everybody not argue against themselves. What did you call it? Arguing against yourself?
They were arguing further about limitations.
When you show up, when my last restaurant failed in 2014, I lost a fortune. I can only smile when I talk about it because it was such a great journey. If you ride the rainbow, you do not care about the plot of gold. Maybe it comes, maybe it doesn’t. If you’re ignoring the entire rainbow just to get the gold and you do not get it, then you really lost your life. What’s interesting is, Nadia, when we transition back to real estate, she’s like, “Do not tell people you’re a chef and that you’re at a restaurant. They’re going to think you’re not a good realtor.”
I’m like, “Thank you for showing.” “You’re making asabuco tonight?” “No, the key is to dust it with flour after you dry it really well.” See, you’re good. I’m bringing this joyful energy, and they’re learning something about food, and they’re the ones that say, “Should we write an offer?” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” You bring your best self. I always say the best business plan in the world is just to bring your best self.
I remember a few things with you. One was early encompassing, we were doing all this really exotic marketing, and one was yours was like a cookbook, and it was so cool because across the board we were doing marketing that was personality-based. That’s great. I didn’t look at that as diffuse. That’s like, this is part of who you are, whether it was like, or maybe there’s someone who loves cars or motorcycles, or they’re super into watches, or they love cigars or wine or whatever. Lead into that.
That’s where you’re going to meet your tribe and your people, and the people resonate with you. You’re having a conversation, and they’re going to find you interesting. This story keeps going again and again, and it’s the people who, you’ve heard the term, like secret agents. I’ve had agents come to me over the years. There’s one thing in particular that, years ago, I’m like, “I do not really like telling people to sell houses and this and that for their business.” At some point in time, they’re like, I do not like the people that I sell to. I do not really like being a salesperson.
Who’s labeling them that?
It’s the perception that other people will label them as that. This particular individual was like I could do whatever happened and there was like, “I’m just going to be helping people.” It was like, “I’m just going to give of myself. I’m helping people in real estate, whatever that was.” Sure enough, here, I mean, there this person’s doing like 10X.
See, I love that because at the end of the day, if you’re going to tell a story, tell a good one. Everything is a story except this very fricking moment. Nothing exists except you and me right now. Yesterday, an hour ago, is gone. Tomorrow is nothing but a story. We got this for sure. If you’re going to tell it, tell a good one. Be careful what you tell, because you’ll hear it. If you’re saying out loud, I do not want to be known as a realtor or a salesperson, well then there’s your problem. You switch the dialogue, like me with the door knocking, and all of a sudden, again, people tell themselves a story, and this goes not just to realtors. Anybody listening who’s in any sales or service business, I’ve got to be available 24/7. That’s the story you’re telling yourself.
Again, I’ve fought. I’ve had very excited discussions about people. I have got to have my, because they’ll be in a meeting. I’ll say, “Guys, you got to silence your phones.” I’ve had them put them on vibrate, even, and just leave it. I’ve had some top agents a long time ago, and they came to me, “You cannot say to do this,” because they fought for. I’m going to be available 24/7.
It costs them in their lives and their personal lives, and they do not have vacations, or they’re on vacation, and they’re on their phone. It’s like, no. What’s funny is when you, I do not want to call it a takeaway, but it’s like when you say, “I’m another acquaintance who is a magnificent agent and very religious, doesn’t work on the weekends at all, and has a lot of business, and people are just super attracted to.” Like, “He has these really strong beliefs.”
Again, I was telling people 24/7. You want to be getting back to Sony really quickly with a bad answer. I’m going to get back to you when it makes sense for me, and I’m going to have it done or get it done. How about that difference?
How about this? The people who are answering the phone all the time. I say, “Look, nothing good happens after 7:00 PM.” People are tired. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe they were in an argument with their spouse. Maybe they’ve been drinking which I’ve had ones that are like, were off the hook. Then the next day, my client didn’t remember the conversation. What should we do? This is not that far off. You’re not doing anyone any favors by getting into arguments at 10:00 at night with any side of the train.
You're not doing anyone any favors by getting in arguments at ten o'clock at night with any side of the transaction. Share on XThat’s what I’m saying. Most times, Steve Schultz said this years ago, which I love there aren’t any emergencies in real estate. Houses do not bleed. Funny enough, I listened to that, and that was probably like 10 or 50 years ago, and I just literally stopped calling me on the back of the day after 6 or 7. Ninety percent of it solves itself overnight. Espro got the paper they were missing, or the person, as you said. You said it perfectly. They were in a bad mood. I used the door knock, and somebody would literally say, “Get the F off my front step. You do not come up to my house without an appointment.” Guess what I did three months later? Went back again. They invited me in for coffee, because I know they’re human.
I do not know if I’ve ever told you this. Nine years ago, someone came to me and said, “This guy is door-knocking and fell air. He does not know if he should be here. This is so embarrassing.” Which, by the way, whoever that was, they’re not even here anymore. They weren’t doing anything, selling any houses. They’re worried about it, it looks like, or whatever it is. Here you are with this wildly successful real estate career.
I never pay a lot of attention to that, but someone did specifically complain about you. If someone complains about you knocking on doors or sending too many mailers, great. That’s success. By the way, we have had clients. I’ve been standing at the front desk, and someone will say, “I’m not joking.” They come into the office with a stack of things and slam it on the desk and say, “Tell these people not to mail me anymore.” They turn around and walk out, and I’m like, “It’s really crazy.”
I feel sorry for them. Think about it. That’s how much they know the time they gather it. They drive. They park. It’s like they throw it away.
They can throw it away. You can delete an email. People are triggered by this stuff.
In wrapping up, let’s talk about you specifically, whatever you’re comfortable with. The circle of control is one of the biggest things I believe in, which is like when people are talking about politics or talking about wars and all these different things. They get very annoyed with me because I say, “I hear you.” What are you doing about it? There’s nothing. It’s like the only thing you’re accomplishing, at least around me and the people I see with, is making everyone uncomfortable and miserable, and yourself mostly.
If you’re not going to be able to or willing to affect something, I literally let it go. It doesn’t mean I do not care. Of course, I care about everyone. I’m like, why don’t you care about human trafficking? Why aren’t you talking about poverty? Why aren’t you talking about it? If you really want to worry, let’s worry about everything. Why are you picking one thing? Really go crazy and run your life. For you, what are you most proud of, or great at yourself being able to stay in the circle and being such a great leader with thousands of agents and dozens of executives that you have to work with, where you do not always get to make the decision? What are you best at staying in the circle, and what are you still struggling with?
It was funny.
I personally hope to.
Quieting The Noise, News Limits, And The Circle Of Control
I talked to you about a while back. I said two things. I stopped watching the news, but the only thing I got a little done, and it’s because of the dopamine hit, is I’ll look on Twitter, probably, maybe 30 minutes a day. That’s how I’ll ingest my news. It is very bite-sized, but I know I do not. I’m not reading the paper. I’m not reading news sites anymore. Just cannot. I just cannot. A lot of times I’ll come home and say, “This happened, then that happened.” I’m like, “No, because there’s really nothing I can do about it.” The straight-up moose. You cannot do anything about that. It’s very hard. People get very upset about politics. Like, “You can vote.” I guess you raise money or go out and be an activist. That’s what I mean.
If you really care, why aren’t you doing that?
Go do that thing. First off, you have to get over the notion that, like, if I do not watch the news or look at the news or know everything that’s going on. I’m going to be somewhere, and that’s going to get found out. I’m going to look like I do not care. The reality is, you should be caring about your family and your friends and your loved ones and focusing on that.
What’s funny too is that it is a story, right, Parker? You’re right, everyone tells it. I might not enjoy it, I tell myself. I want to always be the dumbest guy in the room. Is that how I learned? You rarely have to worry about being asked, because people usually are happy to talk more than listen. That’s how I get my news. I get it from people I love and care about in a room at a party, in a conversation, their version.
That’s more thrilling to me if we’re going to talk about it. I also limit that because the question I ask everybody is I love that you say that’s the thing you kept in the circle of control, because I always tell people, and I have yet to have anybody be able to answer it. Tell me one thing from the news, especially current events, that’s ever made your life better or helped something.
Since I’ve stopped watching the news, my impact on the planet has been exactly the same.
Well said. That’s the point. I always say, like, “Why put energy into what I call expiring information?” You read a book on how to be a better negotiator. You read a great story about living in Europe for a year. You learn about cultures, and you think about what it’d be like to do that. Maybe how, but what do you gain from a temporary event that’s going to end at some point, anywhere, right? It’s one thing, COVID, sure. We got to listen, like even COVID. People get so mad at me, but I’m like, “You asked me why I’m not watching anything? Let’s see, wear a mask, stay six feet away, and stay home. I got to check.” Everything else is just noise. All the stats, how many have died, what does, goodness, any of that.
It doesn’t do any good. If you take the time, if you had a newspaper and you looked at a newspaper from three weeks ago, the inaccuracy
Bravo. That’s a great point.
How wrong. Just how flat-out 180 degrees wrong it was will shock you. There are a few books out there about the history of news, and it’s not a good story. They make up stories to bring people in to make money, and it’s for profit.
That’s a really great point, Parker, alone. Not only are we not taking it in, but who says it’s right? It’s funny, I had this one guy who was aggressive. Strong opinion about some stuff going on. I kept just saying to him, “How is that true?” He kept getting madder. I was enjoying it a little bit because I was trying to make the point like, what makes you so sure that’s true? I’m not saying we’ve got to go around. We’re already in this terrible trend of facts not mattering. That’s not what I’m voting for. I’m with you on that point. I loved that idea three weeks ago. It’s all different now anyway. You just took all that in for nothing.
It really blows my mind that Parker is now like the New York Times, because I get the New York Times email once a day. I like that. I literally read the headline and maybe the first three lines, because I want to be an engaged part of the world. It takes me three minutes, and I do not let it affect me. I was blown away when I started seeing it in multiple places, taking last week’s news quiz. Now not only are we supposed to be inundated, but we need to be proud that we got all that you were up to today. How about the thing that you’re struggling with? You’ve nailed the news thing. What’s something you struggle with personally and professionally with staying inside the circle or storytelling?
For me, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Part of my job is taking a whole lot of information and producing it and saying, “Wait, what’s important that I need to deliver to everybody?” I need to keep the noise out. I can only do so much of that. All the other noise comes in. As a leader, my job is to try to create the clearest signal through the noise and try to have people focus on that signal versus the other stuff. That’s just a constant process. That’s a challenge.
Talk about that for five minutes. As a major executive and one of the most major companies in America, how many people are underneath you, if you will? I do not mean that. You have to lead to make a difference.
Let’s just say I have about 35 sales leaders that I’m working with. Manage, whatever, 5,000. There are 200 staff members. You’ve got to work with that. Not as much. You are affecting thousands of people. You have to do things that dribble down to cascade down to all these folks.
Talk for five minutes about anybody tuning in, that’s a leader who has similar things because you are great at what you do, and you keep getting promoted, and you keep making people want to be here, and you keep making people better. Talk about that. How you manage that a little bit and what your biggest wins are.
I’d say that also my challenge now is how do you deal with things, as this year has been. There’s just been so much going on. We’ve released a bunch of new technology. There’s a bunch of new paperwork. We’ve emerged companies. There are all sorts of various initiatives. There’d be, yes, Goldbaker, pretty much everybody. The good news, I do not have to deal with that a lot. However, it’s changing our landscape.
We have battles with portals, and there are losses, all these sorts of things that are happening on a macro level. It’s not that the agents do not need to focus on that. They need to sell houses. It’s keeping trying to filter stuff so that people feel like I know what I need to know. I know enough that I do not need to pay attention to that. That it’s just going to happen with or without me, so they can go and run their business.
I like that statement too. It’s going to happen with or without me. What’s the 10% you said called it a signal that I need to tune in?
I’m getting that signal. Here we are this far into the year. How do I keep my sales leaders motivated and focused? We’ve now had nine months of assignments, let’s just say. Now I’ve got to peel back all the assignments and say, “Here’s the thing, these are the things, and that’s the ultimate reduction. Here are these three things we have, we have OKRs, which is why we have these three goals. It’s like, whatever they are and however many they are. You got to like peel all the other stuff away that we’ve said, this is important. Got to do it. That’s important. You got to do it. Now I’ve got to say, “We need to tone, turn all the other things down and turn it up on just these things.”
This picture of you is like a DJ.
You’re dealing with people, and people move at different speeds. Some people can recover. Really, one of the things I’m focusing on right now is what do you do to snap back? What do you do to snap back? Whether it’s working out or taking a walk or listening to music or meditating or taking a cold plunge, whatever it is, like, what are you doing to take care of yourself to snap back so that you can come back and focus and not burn out.
I love that dude. What’s your snap back? That’s great.
My snap back is exercise. If I do not exercise, I am a worse person for sure. When I was younger, I worked out a lot. As I’ve gotten older, I’d rather just stay in bed or sit on the couch.
I remember you telling me ten years ago. I said, “You damn, you’re looking good.” You’re like, “Put my gym back out every night. I set it all out in the morning. It’s ready for the morning.”
Now it’s hard because I get injured more, and I’m doing whatever the case is. There’s all sorts of excuses to not do it. When I do not work out, I definitely, it changes my mindset. I want to go get that energy out in the morning. I do not think it’s good. I was listening to, who’s the Dog Whisperer? There’s a guy who’s a dog whisperer. There’s a guy who trains dogs. I listened to him on a podcast, and what I loved about it was I was like, “All the things he’s saying apply to people.” It was like, it was basically the dynamics, interpersonal relationship dynamics. This happened between big dogs, but it was like, “Dogs respond to this thing and that thing and these aspects.” I was like, “People do too.”
I love that about you. That’s what a great leader does too. They look at one of the greatest things I ever heard was from this guy who was a big part of putting Tony Robbins on the map. He would always study electricity, plumbing, random s***, and then figure out how to apply it like you just did. We’re talking about dog whispers. I know you’re making me better because of dogs.
Anyway, he had a lot of little sayings, and one was, dogs appreciate silence, calmness, and confidence. I thought, who are the great leaders I think about when I think about these things? I’ll tell you, I do not know that they’re all silent, but it’s like they help. They listen. Maybe that’s the silent person, but 4 they’re not reactive. They are calm, and they are confident. It’s like every leader I checked off in my head had these things. I just took those aspects away from that. It was such a great learning experience.
See, that’s great of you. You can do that if you haven’t reduced it because you do not have time for that. If you were listening to that podcast, you wouldn’t have learned something that is so valuable. One of the best things I ever heard, because we’re all trained to be efficient, is to be efficient with everything except people. You cannot be efficient with people. The irony is, it’s the ultimate reduction because if you take enough time to understand me and figure out how I tick and how you can help me best, which then helps you best, it’s the ultimate reduction because that time invested will pay back a hundredfold. It’s like, it’s knowing what doesn’t seem like reduction is a reduction.
It’s the best investment. Most valuable.
You’re amazing, Parker. Thank you.
You are amazing. It’s great to be here. I cannot wait to read your book.
You’re the best man. Cheers. Thank you.
Important Links
- Parker Beatty on Instagram
- Compass
- Compass on Instagram
- Compass on Facebook
- Compass on X
- The Personal Constitution
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Roll the Calls
About Parker Beatty
Parker Beatty is a senior real estate executive and Regional Vice President for Compass in Southern California, where he leads one of the company’s largest and most competitive regions, encompassing approximately 5,000 real estate professionals and a multibillion-dollar business.
Over the past decade, he has progressed through sales management, managing director and regional leadership roles, building high-performing teams and translating strategy into measurable results.
His experience spans organizational leadership, talent development and retention, technology adoption, M&A and cultural integration, operational restructuring, and navigating businesses through periods of rapid growth and market contraction.
Under his leadership, the region has maintained approximately 98% agent retention while competing in one of the most intensely contested real estate markets in the country. A UCLA graduate and real estate professional since 1993, Beatty brings the perspective of both a former practicing agent and an experienced operator.
He is particularly focused on the intersection of real estate, technology and AI, and on how emerging technologies will reshape the role of the real estate professional, the consumer experience and the brokerage industry.