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RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Talking local sports, business and real estate.
RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Jorge Hernandez on Real Estate Coaching and Team Success
hey guys, john mcnamara hosts run in vegas. We're talking local sports business estate. If you guys like what you see, please subscribe. Follow us on Runnin' Vegas Podcast on Instagram. And today we got a special guest, mr George Hernandez, director Operations Recruiting Mac Team in the house.
Speaker 2:That's me, that's a. I didn't realize how long that intro was. I'm like wow.
Speaker 1:I had to do like an extra run in Vegas for you. Okay, I like it. Get some hype-y Cool. So tell us about your story and your background.
Speaker 2:Okay, my background from the beginning. Yes, sir, or real estate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell us where you're from.
Speaker 2:Like, let's get a little personal okay, cool uh so I'm from the bay area, grew up in san francisco. Um then, how I got into real estate? We'll just navigate straight to there.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, um, you know, actually, when I turned 18, my cousin had a brokerage in walnut creek and at the time I thought I wanted to go into real estate. And I'm like I don't know, I was already working at a grocery store pretty much full-time and going to community college to get my AA and, yeah, I took that route. I didn't get into real estate. I did get the books I studied I never took the test in California Came out here for Nevada State College to get my BA in visual media and then when I was done with that, I thought I would want to go back to California and I did for two years and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It was just way too much traffic. I literally drove an hour and a half and it was 15 miles away and I'm like this is not the life for me anymore and came back.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I never really thought about. Kind of the same thing happened to me because I went to university and went back home and then was like I'm over upstate New York, right, moved to Vegas.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you think you're going to find things kind of how you left them or maybe a little better, and then you really you have a different perspective when you go back and yeah, the traffic was it for me. I'm like I'm not doing this oh yeah, there's no way. So yeah, here we are here, we are.
Speaker 1:So you're in real estate and Vegas. Tell us about that experience. That was. That's the last five years going. You've been seven, seven I just assumed real estate started with me on the team.
Speaker 2:So it basically did, it really did. So, all right. So came back from vegas, or from california to vegas. I joined a team.
Speaker 2:It was hell on earth, I mean there was no seems so there were so many growth opportunities that occurred and I so I I took the test. I didn't realize that the test had nothing to do with what real estate is. Yeah, they don't talk about lead generation, time management, any of that stuff, but anyways, you think that, or I thought that joining a team was going to, and I guess, in theory, a team should do this for you, but this particular team did not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most teams and, yeah, you know, real estate is very emotional and at the time I was with a team leader that was very emotional himself I'm a very emotional man as well and it was just crazy it didn't work out. There were so many things that were lacking. I had a lot of questions and I don't think we would cross each other paths. I was at Keller Williams at the time and that team didn't work out for me. But I did do BOLD twice, which is a program that KW puts together, and I think it it does set you with good foundations and ignite. And then, yeah, left that team. I realized that I needed training, mentorship, I needed true guidance If I were to do it again. Or my my advice, unsolicited advice, to anybody that is Getting into real estate and don't know what the hell they're doing is Make sure that you have a team leader that's closing at least 20 deals a year.
Speaker 2:They know what the hell they're doing. Because I think that unfortunately, in this industry, what happens is is everybody wants to start a team because they think it's the next cool thing and unfortunately, they don't have the leadership skills, they don't have the mentorship skills, they don't have the training, they don't have the systems, they don't have, they lack so much. So long story short, that wasn't working, did that? I realized I'm like hey, there's like systems need to occur. You and I met at KW, joined your team and then we would get into it a little because I had more of a systems background and you know, and yeah, that's kind of how we're here, or that's how I recall it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and that's really good advice too. I recommend that too is make sure, yeah, if you are joining a team, I would say two years of at least 24 deals a year. So really good advice there, and I know that when you joined my team, we were close to about 60 deals a year. I lacked a lot of leadership skills when you joined, so I think well, this is what was going through my head.
Speaker 1:I think this is what happens to a lot of top producers is they think, well, I'm really good at selling real estate, so like I'm going to crush it as a team leader. It's a totally different skill set, you know. So it was very humbling for me. I had to learn a lot. I'm still learning a lot as a leader, and it took me like a good five years for anything like producing, running a business, becoming a leader. It takes time to really figure out that role and when it's just yourself, it's all about you and how great you are. And when you have a team, you are humbled very quickly because people don't care. They want results, they want mentorship, they want results, they want mentorship, they want training. So you were really good for me because we're really good friends.
Speaker 1:Well, that made it difficult, us being friends it did, but I think the difference, though, was because you were a really good friend of mine. I took it more to heart, if that sense I think we I couldn't just like be like now. This kid doesn't know what he's doing right.
Speaker 2:I think we complimented each other very well because we did bring different things to the table and I realized that at the time. We joke about that right now, or still is, you had note cards, a little note card system, and I'm like there is no fucking way this is reality right now it's not today, so so you know, it just wasn't.
Speaker 2:I'm like there has to be like what's the system? And I think that's where, like you, you crush it year after year. Right, you've been doing it for so what? 20 years? Yeah, um, so what happens is people can't duplicate that system. So there is follow-up system there is, depending on who it is, it's calling expireds. And I think what you got me out of my shell with is I still, to this day, don't want a cold call. So now I'm cold calling for something different. So I have a different vision. But at the time I didn't have a database here. I had to grow that very quickly and it was through calling expired and that's how you've made a living. And then I realized I'm like I just got to call, I just got to get to this number of amount of people and then COI will be there and referrals, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a good point you bring up too. So if you're a new agent as well you know Gary Keller talks about this and you did a really good job of this is building your database up to 2,000 to 3,000 people.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just remember you were cranking every day building that database, so that's a huge advantage to do so, kudos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think also doing whatever's authentic to you. That's what I've learned in the last couple of years. You know it's it's hard when. So I guess right now my perception is if you were to look for a team because I'm recruiting, so I'm kind of speaking that way right now and find a team leader that aligns with how you want to do business, because I see so many people be discouraged because it's not. It's not the team leader way and unfortunately, that's the only way they do know.
Speaker 2:When I was going through, I shared this with you. I wasn't on your team at the time. Bold it was. You know I was getting all this pushback with text message and direct message and social media. At the time, an agent that um shout out to Trish and she was the only one that was doing um, social media. So she was the only one I could actually have conversations with here in Las Vegas to how to do that and everyone's like well, text doesn't count, you need a call. This is what a conversation should look like and sound like, and whatever else I was hearing. And and then Bold came up two years later, all of a sudden, text messages were okay, it's cool now.
Speaker 2:So you know, you have to be aligned also with whoever. Yeah, it is cool. And now it's there's people crushing it on social media. So somebody that you find alignment with with the team leader as well in how they conduct business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's great advice because if it doesn't connect to you like we talk about in the pod all the time is, figure out what aligns and makes sense for you. For me it was just cold calling prospecting, so I attached to that, but there's no right or wrong way to get business.
Speaker 1:It's just whatever you're passionate about, it's gonna be a lot easier to go out there every single day and get business If you're passionate about, it's gonna be a lot easier to go out there every single day and get business. If you're not and cold calling can be really difficult um, and that was like and you felt in the beginning of our team, that's really all we could offer. Now we are because of you.
Speaker 2:We are like a multi-versatile team where we can help folks, whatever they if it's branding, social media, open houses we have all the tools and information to help them get there yeah, it's beautiful because had I joined a team and we offered, or I was offered, what we offer now, it would be completely different world because literally you can just plug and play right now as opposed to before. You kind of have to figure it out Now that that is one of the things, I think, the added value we have. Whatever pillar you want to choose, um, you can choose it and run with it and know that you're going to be successful.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and shout out to Trish Williams um, because of her, we uh, we started this podcast. So can I give you a fun fact today?
Speaker 2:sure, I feel like you're gonna give me a fun fact anyway, yeah, so I was thinking about today, and this podcast started um february of last year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so today is the last episode of season one oh, that's really cool vegas. Okay, so I'm glad you made season one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I made it.
Speaker 1:It took me a little bit, but yeah, here I am thank you for being on and uh, yeah, because definitely trish has helped inspire this, but because of you, you inspired me because I've been talking about doing a podcast for years. Yeah, and he's just like one day like, hey, you're gonna do it, when are you gonna start doing the podcast?
Speaker 2:and so that is the nature of our relationship. Yes, you don't have a lot of choices.
Speaker 1:No, no, no just like when's the starting day? I'm like, yeah, because it's nervous, dude, I, I'm introverted, I don't like doing podcasts. I don't know, guys, it was like this too, with technology, though.
Speaker 2:The crm, yeah, it was, the instagram it was, yeah, we I think that's again we compliment each other because we're completely different people.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:But yeah, when it comes together it makes sense and it kind of balances out.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Running Vegas is a big part of this guy. He's been behind the scenes for a long time, so I'm glad you're finally on. It sounds like you might be joining me for a couple more times on this podcast, so watch out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see how I do after this one, and I won't commit because then it's on video. So, yeah, we'll see about that one.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, awesome, all right. So what other advice would you give to recruits out there, somebody who's out there looking for a team? What advice would you?
Speaker 2:give? That's a great question. Here's what I wish I would have been told. It's a little hypocritical though, because I didn't know.
Speaker 2:I just took that leap and came back to Vegas and just started this trajectory. We're on, but it is a full-time job. You can't do this part-time and think that you are. Get out of that mentality. I'm going to give you know just hard truths. Get out of the mentality that you think that real estate is going to be something you do, you know, a couple times out of the year and it's just a bonus check that you get on top of whatever job you're doing. Treat it like a career. You know, when I say I've met a lot of people, I'm not impressed by a lot of realtor teams or agents out there, and the reason being is the lack of discipline and I'm like this is who's running our market forward, this is who is educating the consumer, and it's a little frustrating because we have the power to do so and unfortunately, there's a lot of victim mentality or laziness, and anybody that knows me personally laziness is like a disease in our family.
Speaker 2:So, it's just not. I think that's why not. I think I know that's why I gravitated towards you, because you led from the front. It's like not that the team leader needs to have all the answers because we can't, you can't, no one person can, but it just evolves. But having that discipline of starting at the same time, treating it like a business, starting at the same time, ending at the same time, educating yourself every day on what the market is doing, progressing like any other business right now, ai is huge. So implementing that, remembering that this is a people's person, a people's business, those are probably one of the few things I think. Yeah, that's great advice.
Speaker 1:I would recommend the same thing because I know when I got in real estate I was full-time from the beginning, and what you and I have realized Coaching and coaching.
Speaker 1:And coaching yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, find a good mentor that can help you out. But, yeah, being full-time, burn the ships down. I've always said that because and you and I and we just went to a real estate seminar. We'll talk about that for a little bit but it's so important because if you've got a side job and you're making money, this job is hard enough. But to push yourself and go get that money every single day it's really difficult when you know you got that money already coming in right. So you got to take the time to work on your sales skills, go out there, get business, because sometimes it's just really down to those little details every day that you do and you go hard and what we have found we're running a team for five years is pretty much the only ones that have actually kind of worked out or in some way have worked out have all been full-time for the most part.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, in addition to that, I think if you are making that transition and you are going to make real estate your life, then, um, you know, we heard spring. We were just at a spring Benson um event and it is have that honest conversation. Hey, you need enough money saved up for like three to five months because that's probably what's gonna take you to get into production. Yeah, so make sure. And after you get the first three checks, then you're committed to leaving that other job.
Speaker 2:Great point, because I think if you truly want to succeed in this life and it gets rough at times, it is you need to have no plan b. Yeah, it's it, you know, because if not, you get comfortable. You're like, well, I could just go to bartending or whatever it is that you do, yeah, um, and then we, we're all there. Any business suffers at some point or feels a little shaky. However, it is the showing up every day that keeps that, those checks coming in, oh for sure yeah, I remember when I first got here and you've heard this story like a thousand times.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean literally the average sales. Are you gonna name drop before I can?
Speaker 2:if you'd like me to okay. All right, let's listen to this.
Speaker 1:The average sales price was 110 000. I'm selling like 40 homes a day. I'm making like no money and I remember for years I'm like I'm going out and you know I used to go to bars.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I'm like the bartenders are making more money than I am and I'm working my butt off and I'm like this that seems like a and I was definitely a big partier back in the day like that seems like a lot more fun than what I'm doing every single day. And it crossed my head a couple times, yeah, and it always in the back of my head. If I, I was like hey, if you leave, there's a good chance you're never coming back. Right, so, like long term, I knew real estate was always you just got to be like, hey, this is a marathon, this isn't a sprint bad or good market. Right, like you got to burn the ships. Keep moving forward, keep learning, keep, just keep adding every single day to your center.
Speaker 2:Um, so and I think what happens here it's this particular city. It's so easy to go work in the industry and yeah, that job is more fun. And then you're like, oh, real estate just kind of happens.
Speaker 1:No, you're right. I mean, but and we see that a lot right there's a lot of industry people that do it part time. So if you're out there looking to buy or sell, you know, depending on the service you want, ask, ask the agent, you know, are they full-time or are they part-time? Yeah, because there will be a very big difference in customer service and what they can provide for you.
Speaker 2:Um, so, there's a reason why there's some realtors that only show homes after five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but anyways.
Speaker 1:So do you have any fun real estate stories you can share with us? Fun real estate stories Anything?
Speaker 2:I don't think so not really. Okay, Not anything, that's yeah, Okay, cool.
Speaker 1:Next question so you and I we went to Spring Benson. We have shout out to Spring, who just joined EXP. We're super excited for you.
Speaker 2:Very inspiring.
Speaker 1:It's a big move for her. She is amazing. We've been following her coaching for over a year now, going to her events. They help us with that. Well, she's our coach, she's our coach and Justin Shout out to Justin as well. But they mentor us, they train us, we go to their events and we get a lot out of these events. So we actually ended up going to Salt Lake and I've been doing real estate for as you dated me already for- 20 years, 20 years.
Speaker 2:So I'm a dinosaur. Two decades, two decades.
Speaker 1:A dinosaur in real estate. I've gone to a lot of retreats and by far, if you're looking to just mix it up, go to a spring event because we're not sponsored by them, by the way, we're not.
Speaker 2:It sounds like no, we're not.
Speaker 1:But it's intense because it is and she kind of made fun of real estate seminars a little bit herself, like hey, usually people they go to an event and they go to happy hour. They might get one, two things and then they may or may not implement those things. But her event is not like that, it's intense, there's a lot of information.
Speaker 2:Probably the most intentional conference that I've been to, and everybody is there present in the moment listening you don't know how many event. Well, you do know we're at the events together. Everybody's walking out, taking their phone calls and all that. This is not one of those events which I like, because they set the intention from the very beginning yeah, absolutely it was.
Speaker 1:So what was your? Your kind of big takeaways from the event?
Speaker 2:oh, so many. Um, I don't know. You put me on the spot. What was your biggest takeaway? Maybe I'll piggyback off that yeah, let's go through it.
Speaker 1:I think we both probably had about 100 takeaways, but, like, oh, for sure, uh, I liked the one with um, uh, not enforcing, but enrolling your agents. So if you're like team manager out there or team lead, re-enrolling your agents, it was really cool because we actually got to go to their uh office. Yeah, we got to see a sales meeting and I don't know about you guys, but I have not attended a sales meeting since 19 years ago and justin actually said he's like because he trained, yeah, um, and he's got. He's like I have never gone to a good real estate uh, you know uh sales meeting.
Speaker 2:So we got to see him lead it right and he was high energy they're doing role plays and I'm pumped I'm like, yeah, and for you guys that don't know who spring is, because cause we'll go on and on. She's a team in Utah that has about 75 agents, two offices. Um, it's her and Justin that run it. Um, yeah, just very inspiring, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:They are yeah, they do about 750 deals a year. So something cool about this team, spring uh, which is inspiring to us, because four years ago she was doing 120 deals a year with seven to eight agents and four years she has like quadrupled her business more than that 750 deals, and we could see why, though just based on that behind the scenes event event, we went to this this last week absolutely yeah, so we got a lot out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, high, uh high level of accountability. Uh, talking about uh systems and operations, which is your specialty that you bring to the mac team and you have developed, thank you. Now we have sisu because of you as well, and it's having your agents present their business to you. So, and you're a big component about that. If you want to talk a little bit more about that, yeah, well, I'm a numbers guy.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like we have to lead with profit. There were some things when we joined them like hey, these things aren't really truly making sense and there's no way to gauge it unless we're tracking every single little thing. You, as a coach, you go with agents and you let them know that there is a formula for this amount of conversations you're having. You should get this amount of contracts too, and then we can see where their opportunities are. Right, I won't go through that whole thing, but wait, what was the question? I feel like I got a little derailed C-suit.
Speaker 2:Oh, so, yeah. So back to the numbers and systems. So back to the numbers and systems. I love all that part. And then, because then I can see where my opportunities are at, and our coaches remind us all the time accountability is the biggest form of love, right, and that's something we have on our team. So how we're able to scale, that is through a system like this, through Sisu, and then we're tracking everybody's numbers. And the good thing about this is that not everybody wants to close 24 deals, right, it's, we can meet them to wherever they want their production to be. So let's say they only want to close six deals and make a certain amount of money. It's a plug and play in this calculator and then we can reverse, engineer exactly what those tasks that they need to do in order for them to hit their goal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really cool because it's really easy to see and I kind of made fun of myself when I was there and you kind of alluded to my note cards back there I've been writing out my pipeline for the last 20 years on my Sunday. Yeah, I guess it's virtual now, I didn't know the technology existed yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Thank god for brian. Um, I've never heard of this technology before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, uh, but it's cool. So it has your pipeline in there. It breaks down the numbers how many. Another big thing that you get out of this coaching is it's how many conversations you're making. If you're producing on a high level, about 50 conversations a week. If you're newer to real estate, you're trying to build your business, they recommend a hundred conversation. I know just in the last quarter, with our business and you and I getting more focused on conversations, we've seen our business just absolutely explode over the last four months. And it's nothing new, you know, but it's.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's just going back to the basics and everything yeah but one thing I love about sisu is it's it's really easy to understand, it's all visual you know, yeah, and it kind of makes everything into a game.
Speaker 2:Right, there can be contests in there, you see how many buyers are under contract with the potential for seller buyers, and how much money you can make, and then as a team you could see that. So there's a little bit of friendly competition going on. So, oh, no, for sure it's a great system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the one thing and it's cool because the numbers are live and that's something that's so important like just a brokerage is out there that put numbers up. You know, and if you have a good brokerage right now, they may be putting the numbers up once a month.
Speaker 2:Don't get me started, we don't have time. Yeah, yeah the brokerages.
Speaker 1:They're all interesting out there. But, and the cool thing about sisu is these numbers are alive and that is super important. I know myself because most agents that produce are competitive by nature. Yeah, you know, and I like to see everybody actually win. I love it. I love it when somebody from Virtue Real Estate is above me because I'm like I can get, you know, do more business than they. Right, it's healthy competition. So the great thing about Sisu you're not guessing at the end of the year of who's where.
Speaker 1:Maybe it just pushes you, because sometimes that's what real estate is, it's just like that little thing to push you to get that extra million volume or that extra deal, whatever it is. So it's awesome, and they do like challenges on it too.
Speaker 2:They do they do, which is a lot of fun, and it could be whatever you want it to be, yeah, so yeah, so I know that's something you and I are going to be implementing on our team we want to have like a once a month challenge.
Speaker 1:I know for teams like Justin and Spring talk about all the time is always be doing challenges, so it's really important to the process. Yeah, always be doing challenges, so it's really important to the process yeah, yeah, absolutely so, besides real estate, what does george do for fun?
Speaker 2:uh. So if I'm here in town I hang out with my dog, luna uh I love to travel, so I love to travel, love watching sports. Yay football yay, football.
Speaker 1:He watches football because of me. Yeah, so sports is not my thing.
Speaker 2:Love watching sports Yay football, yay football. He watches football because of me, yeah, so sports is not my thing, so that's a joke, guys, if you don't know me Traveling, I like to go back and see my family and then just travel somewhere new every year, cool. So yeah, that's what I do for fun.
Speaker 1:What's on the bucket list for travel for you in the future?
Speaker 2:You know what? This this year it's probably. I've been to these places before, but we're going to Cabo with my whole family.
Speaker 1:My mom's turning 60, so it's gonna be a really fun event.
Speaker 2:However, with spring and with inner circle, there's this place and I'm excited for you to see it. It's called Ishkar at and it's in Cancun and it's all man-made, but they have these like rivers going through. It looks like pyramids, it's all types of craziness. It's like it's almost like it is a waterpark Disneyland. So that's where the conference is gonna be. I actually forgot to tell you, but it's a really cool venue. I'm excited to even know. Yeah. So if you guys have been to East Crate, you know how cool it is. So I'm really looking forward to that conference. Yeah, because there's going to be a little mix of everything. From what I saw on the itinerary, it's a lot of mindset things and the how to scale up our business yeah, yeah and uh, to talk more about spring as well.
Speaker 1:Um, so spring break, that is, in march, we'll be there as well we'll be there.
Speaker 1:I would definitely check that. That's actually actually how we got into spring is. It's a two-day event. It's really cool because it's intense. They have like an hour of either like a top producer of some sort or somebody who flips Whatever the best, they are the best of it and they dive in for like 40, 60 minutes of exactly how we do it. Cause a lot of seminars we go to, it's based off of theory and they tell you the results but they don't tell you how to get there. So that's one thing I really like about Spring. So Springbake's there.
Speaker 2:So, in addition to that, you guys, if you're following this and you're an agent, we have a discount code. So she doesn't have a discount code anymore, but she gave one exclusively for us and people we know, so we'll post it on your YouTube page or however that is. It's just DezXMAC. So, D-E-Z-X-M-A-C, and you get 50% off. Shep Black's going to be there, ben Kinney, which obviously everybody knows who he is. It's going to be a great event. So if you're going to go to that, I feel like I should be sponsored by them.
Speaker 1:Spring, spring, and if you're watching this, yeah, we want a referral, but no, we love Spring. We're excited about her coaching company. We're a part of it. We're getting a lot of results out of it. So that's in March. I think she's got another event in Inner Circle October. I forgot where that was October, and then there's one in July, so they do quarterly. That's one thing we like about it too, because it's a high-level accountability.
Speaker 2:Yeah and right. Where you're losing a little bit of momentum, you get re-inspired again.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so we're going to wrap this up. George Hernandez, thank you for being on the pod today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, if you guys are looking for a team.
Speaker 1:This guy is the best recruiter down here and he's amazing at systems If you just want to talk business with him. This guy is the best recruit recruiter down here and he's amazing at systems. If you just want to talk business with him, he's got the business marketing, the branding down. He's amazing. He said thank you for being on our team.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've done a lot for our business. I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2:And guys, this is.
Speaker 1:Run of Vegas. Take care of yourselves today.