Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host, Justin Stoddart. Are real estate teams good for real estate or not? Today’s episode is going to be all about that. I have with me today, somebody who is a proponent of teams and doing some amazing things. His name is Christopher Watters. He’s been on the show before and I’m excited to have him back. Christopher, thanks for being here. I’m excited to delve into this topic with you.
Christopher Watters
Yeah, me too. Justin. Excited to be on your show again.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, thank you for coming back. For those that don’t know, Christopher, his background, he’s in eight locations across the US and Canada. His hub where his main business is based out of, is Austin, Texas. He’s got a real estate brokerage there. He’s author of Million Dollar Real Estate Team. So he has not only written about it, but he’s done it, which is impressive. For those of you who are maybe tuning in to the show for the first time, or haven’t been listening for a while, I want to restate the purpose of this entire show, is that when you are around big thinkers, guess what, your thoughts expand, your actions follow suit and pretty soon your impact also follow suit. My passion is to help people realize the divine potential within them and to begin to live up to their potential, impacting the world in great ways. So I’m excited to have Christopher on here today, because whether or not you agree with with his view on teams, the fact is, the guy’s a big thinker, and he’s going to influence you to make a bigger impact in your world. So again, thank you again for being here.
Christopher Watters
Yeah, so I mean, something I was telling you earlier you was when I got started building real estate team full time in 2010. And I went and paid and went through every coaching program imaginable. Like I’ve paid all the coaches, I’ve been through all the different coaching programs, and they were all amazing, like I learned so much. Going through all these coaching programs, I always say like one of the secrets or one of the shortcuts to like growing super fast is not trying to reinvent the wheel and go learn from somebody that’s already done it. I was watching Shark Tank back in 2010. And Damon john on Shark Tank said pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper. And I was really frustrated with my growth. Like I wasn’t, you know, selling as many homes as I wanted. And I heard him say that on Shark Tank. And I’m like, I’m like, Man, what, why am I trying to be innovative and all this stuff, like I don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars, like, you know, these big tech companies, right? Like I’m bootstrapping and putting money on a credit card and just trying to you know, scrounge up enough money to pay for lead gen and all that kind of stuff. And so I was like, there has, there’s obviously lots of people that have come before me super successful. So anyways, I got involved in coaching and like really radically changed my world, because I’ve learned from people that are already figured it out. And in 2013, I kind of hit a brick wall. Between January and June of 2013, I went on 267 listing appointments, my my title rep love to me, by the way. So I hit this brick wall, I was literally drinking so much Red Bull, and like Monster Energy and going from 6am till two o’clock in the morning. And when I you know, when I first got started in real estate, like, you know, I wanted all the fancy cars and fancy house and all that stuff. But the real reason I really wanted to make a lot of money was you know, I remember as a little kid, always feel like I needed to prove myself because, you know, I had a lot of like academically driven people in my family. And but none of them were entrepreneurs, like they were all like success successful in their own right. Never made a ton of money, though, but they’re very academically driven. And my mom was a nurse, so I didn’t have a lot of money grown up. And so I ever since I was a little kid, I always felt like I had something to prove. And so I had this big goal. By the time I hit 30, I wanted a million bucks, but it wasn’t really about the money, it was just trying to, you know, gain the respect of my family and the people around me. And so and I made that happen in 2013. But I did it at the expense of realizing that what I was chasing the North Star I was chasing, like making all this money going on tons of appointments, which is like what everybody thinks they should be doing, right? Like I got there to the nth degree. And I was like, Man, this is not like, this is not what I thought it was like, have you ever have you ever had that happen? Where like the North Star didn’t end up being a North Star?
Justin Stoddart
I have. Absolutely–I think all the way back to high school. You know, this is probably the first example. My wife actually hates this story, so if she’s watching this, she’s gonna probably chime in. She hates it when I share this story. But from a very early age, I realized that at outer or outside things couldn’t make me happy because I had poured my entire heart and soul into football. We were state champions, you know, two of my three years at that particular high school, and I remember as a junior holding the championship trophy over my head and I’m like, I’m still not happy. Like, what? Why is this not more exciting to me right now. I had the whole town there, cheering me on and although, you know, I’ve had a number of experiences since then that have have kind of reinforced that lesson. That was the earliest that I remember that trophies don’t make you happy, right? They don’t, they don’t fix what’s what needs to be fixed inside. I think that’s really everything from, you know, relationships to spirituality. There are some things that really do fix the inside and then once that foundations in place, then you can go create some great things and impact a lot of people but it’s got to start at the foundation.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, man, I couldn’t agree more. I I so the thing was, is like I realized in December 2013, I was on that transaction, treadmill, and I got the trophy, and it wasn’t fulfilling. And I was like, man, there’s gotta there’s gotta be more, right. And so number one, like I didn’t have a lot of time, you know, just like I couldn’t, you know, even with the money I had made, I couldn’t spend it because I’m working seven days a week. And it wasn’t, you know, I was I remember reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And there was this quadrant, and he said, top left is an employee. Bottom left is the self employed, and the top rights and business owner. And in the bottom right quadrant was an investor. And he said, the difference between an employee and somebody self employed versus being on the right side, is if you’re a business owner and investor, you don’t trade time for money. And so after going through all these coaching programs, something I realized those and they’re all amazing, like, I highly recommend all of them. But the thing that I realized is, there’s very, you know, there’s very few people that actually help you go from owning a job being self employed to actually owning a business. And very few people actually make that transition and legitimately have like a business that can operate without them. And so I spent the next two years trying to, you know, figure that out. And I remember in 2015, looking at my tax return, and I had broke a net income, like I literally paid taxes on a million dollars. And like, I felt like I had found the gold underneath the Rainbow Bridge, you know what I mean? Like I was, it was like one of these things where I was like, I felt like I had this, this moral obligation to like, share with the world how I did this. Because I didn’t go on it, I didn’t work with a single client from June of 2013, to 2015. and was able to make even more money in a single year than I had made my first three years. And so anyways, that’s a little bit about my story. But I wrote a book about my journey. And I’ll give this to people for free. I honestly, the reason I wrote this is I, I was I was going all these masterminds and I was like, quietly sharing with people, some of the things that I did, like, I kind of just did it by accident, and fell ass backwards into doing some things that kind of really helped me, you know, propel the growth curve. And I and I didn’t want to tell anybody about it, because I was afraid if they started doing these things, too, and it didn’t work, they’d be pissed off for some, but I kind of quietly started sharing some of the stuff I was doing back in, like 2014, in 2015 was some of the people I was in these mastermind groups with. And these guys, you know, that are sitting right next to, like, they were growing, you know, like, they’d been in the business a long time, 10 1520 years, and they were growing, you know, 20, 30 40% a year, but I was growing like, 300%. And so I started telling them what I was doing, and all of a sudden, like, their businesses took off, too. So, you know, I, the word started spreading, and I started getting hammered on Facebook, about how we, you know, did what we did. And, you know, my, my wife and I had a new, we had a baby, this was three years ago. And like, um, you know, my wife’s like, trying to get my help. And I’m there like, trying to answer people’s questions on my phone all day on Facebook and stuff. And I was like, man, I actually just document this in a book. So I spent a year writing the book. And yeah, I’m happy to give this to any of your your listeners, you guys can get a copy of free just, I just got to be patient be handling. Yeah. So
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So what I hear you saying Christopher is that the coaching programs that are out there in place, at least the ones that you went through? We’re very centered on helping you be a very high performing self employed individual. Yeah. And they also simultaneously tend to create a problem, right? Because the more productive you are in that world, the more you’re trading time for money, right? The more that you with more productivity comes more time commitment. And it isn’t until you make that pivot to actually become a business owner. Right? You can become very productive at work. But you and I both know, at the end of the day, that there are some things that are lacking in life, I’m actually reading a book, I wish I have it right here. Hold on, just say. Bye, gentlemen, mentor of mine, the name of Clayton Christensen, how will you measure your life? Oh, my good, right, man.
Christopher Watters
Great idea.Yeah, right.
Justin Stoddart
So for those that haven’t read it, it goes into, he was a Harvard grad, now a Harvard professor at his 10 year reunion, he was just so excited to come back and see the amazing accomplishments of his classmates. And he found out that many didn’t have good personal relationships, lots of divorces. In fact, a couple of more in jail, one was a CEO of Enron, like some some guys got done a really bad path. And he said, these individuals that were now incarcerated weren’t the people that he read that he remembered, like, they were actually really good human beings. But for some reason, they got a little bit off track, and they got chasing these big trophies, with peer pressure, whatever that was, and ended up you know, really kind of dive bombing life. And so the book, I’m not that deep into it yet, but one of the things that I hear kind of as an early theme is how important your moral compass is, and how important your personal relationships are. And I’m not saying that these coaching programs would encourage that. But I do think that there tends to be, as you mentioned, the treadmill, like the the transaction, treadmill of like, always trying to get ahead and win the trophy, that if it’s always you doing it, some things are going to take a hit, right, maybe that moral compass, maybe those personal relationships, and at the end of the day, again, as Clayton Christensen, how will you measure your life? Are the trophies really going to matter? Or is it the relationships that people that are there, right to mourn your loss, or the people that you love the most?
Unknown Speaker
So it’s interesting, you mentioned that book. So after I had something that had changed for me, back in 2013, was I gone through all these coaching programs, and I was kind of, you know, and they all helped me grow incrementally have lots of growth. But I was like, Man, I’ve got it, I need I need, I wanted to, I need to find somebody else outside of the industry, because I’ve tapped all the I’ve tapped on all the shoulders in the real estate industry. And so I got introduced to a leadership coach. And it’s so funny, you just showed me that book, because it’s one of the first books he recommended to me so that that author Clayton Christensen, he’s written several books on leadership. But the key thing like I learned getting into leadership coaching, you know, is, like you, if you’re going to create leverage for yourself and have this self sustaining organization, you need to create something bigger than yourself. And so you know, when when you can create an organization that kind of has like this sense of shared purpose around along around all the team members, like that, that is when people like get bought into something and are willing to show up to work to like, do something bigger than you the owner, or, or even then the, the agents, for example, there’s a, I don’t know if anybody remembers the encyclopedia industry, right. But like, Encyclopedia industry got wiped out by Wikipedia, and people submit content on Wikipedia for free. And it’s because they feel like they can level up mankind by you know, pushing out really great content for people to read and just improve their, their being. And so one of the key ingredients, I learned, going through leadership coaching, and which was kind of interesting, because I remember in Business School, learning that you need to have a mission of vision and core values. But like, at that point in my life, I was I was like, 2028 2930. And those things, I thought, were just checkboxes, right? Like, I had a mission vision, core values, and like, I probably just stole them from some other people. You know, like collage collage of things that sounded good. But the thing I started learning about, like, leadership, for example, is like, if you wanted to make that transition from owning a job, basically to being a business owner, like you got to start thinking a lot bigger than yourself, and think about how you can get people to buy into something, you know, that makes them want to jump out of bed. And that, and that is where the foundational DNA of your business comes, comes into play, when what I mean by that is your vision, your mission and your core values. Because, you know, obviously, if you’re going to build a business, you need to align with people that have similar values that yourself, like, if you’re fiercely committed a resourceful type of person, etc. You know, and and then you got to figure out what’s your, you know, what’s your purpose in business like, and your, your purpose in business needs to not only affect the agents you hire, but it needs to also have an impact on your customers, and your community. And so if you can get those three things in alignment have an impact on all three of those people, that will get people to buy into something even bigger than you the owner, because if you try starting a team or business and people think like this is just about making you rich, has a bizarre, like people aren’t going to buy into that. And so, you know, I think, man, it’s, you hear so many people talk about, you know, once they have tons of like, tons of money, I was reading this cool thing Steve Jobs wrote right before he died. And he and he said, You know, he died with like, $7 billion.
Unknown Speaker
And he’s sitting on his deathbed, saying, you know, he wished he wished, you know, parents and educators would teach people to focus on happiness, and having a positive impact on the world versus like trying to go out and make a bunch of money. And so there’s like this huge mindset shift, you have to go through to transition from being a self employed agent, or being like, you know, one of these teams, it’s also Rainmaker, into a business owner because like, you gotta, you gotta stop thinking about the money, and you got to start thinking about how can you have an impact on, on the on the people you surround yourself with, again, agents, customers, community, and like, it’s hard to, it’s hard for people to, like, quantify the value, like, you know, most high driving personalities want to attach, like an economic, you know, dollar amount to, like, whatever it is they’re doing. And, and so it’s hard to, like, think about the economic impact personally, from a cash perspective on, you know, create an organization that, that its purpose is built on helping customers, agents and community, like it, you know, just, it’s just one of those hard things to quantify, like, you don’t see like how there’s going to be a direct impact by focusing on that. And I always something I think I realized, between 2013 and 2015 was, you know, when you first get into real estate, you think about how long the conversion cycle is, from being like, you know, a new agent, and like, you know, trying to find clients, which takes months and getting a deal under contract, and then actually closing as months and months. And like in your mind, you’re maybe previously you were at a job getting a paycheck every two weeks, or whatever. But like the conversion cycles really long. And what’s even longer is the conversion cycle of going from, you know, being a self employed agent, to a business owner, because as a business owner, you have to start like integrating into your language with your team, you know, why you guys are in business, the positive impact you’re trying to have, and all these people, and you know, you’re making decisions around hiring people and creating leverage for yourself by hiring people with similar values, and all those like tactical day to day things you’re doing. Like, you don’t reap the benefits of that for, like, you know, one to two years, but when you do, it’s just like, you know, it’s it’s, it’s like leap frog, you know, exponential growth. It’s just, it just sucks. But,
Unknown Speaker
but literally, this is, these are some of the components that help you transition to being a legit business owner, not just somebody that owns a job.
Justin Stoddart
It’s interesting, you say this, Donald Miller, who’s the author of Story Brand, love that guy. He he shared, he said, You know, I’ve, his situation has been changed pretty rapidly as a result of the writing of that book. And he said, as I’ve been around wealthy people, he said, it’s really quite simple is that people to get wealthy have businesses and investments that are working when they’re not. And, you know, what I hear you saying is that the way wealth is built is obviously to have people doing that yet, if the purpose for you bringing them on is to do that, it actually doesn’t work, you actually have to not bring them on for that purpose, you have to actually bring them on to empower them, to enrich their lives and to be able to affect more lives through the good work that you do, which keeps them like you said, bought into a bigger cause bought into not just your big life plan, but their big life plan, right? If they’re just a pawn in your game, at some point, they’re going to want to go play their own game, if they’re if they’re, they’re talented at all. But if you can say, look, this is a platform through which you can build, you know, your great life, this isn’t mine, this is ours, this is the stage is simply a sacrifice to build so that others can build their great lives on on top of it. Now all of a sudden, you have a recipe to actually attract a quality team, keep a quality team and get that true leverage, which actually doesn’t turn then create well,
Unknown Speaker
I couldn’t agree more, man, it’s, it’s, it’s hard, because like, I know, when you’re building, you know, like, you’re just thinking about that next condition check. But if you’re ever going to get out of that, you know, off that world, when or or get off that treadmill. You know, it’s like your, your, your belief, like you were saying at the very intro of this, of this podcast, like your your mindset, your beliefs, like those drive your emotions, which drive your activities and your activities, drive your results. And so I think the first thing is you got to just believe that like, if you want to make that transition from being an agent to like a legitimate business owner, and like, Look, there’s a lot of people in real estate, especially people who have teams, like they don’t have a business, they want a job, like they’re, you know, maybe their team is crushing it. But like they have to show up every single day. And if I really spent enough time with them, I’m willing to bet they’re wearing a lot of different hats. So you have to get you know, you have to get your team to be pretty large from a transaction count in a commission perspective. And to get that many number of people bought in, you’re going to have, it’s going to have to be about more than just you trying to get rich. So I yeah, I reckon if, if there’s, for those people watching this, definitely go check out Clayton Christensen, you also read another great book called The road to character. And what’s created, you know, it’s so we’re going on a tangent here about leadership, but like, the thing is, is like all these books out about leadership, like, it just sounds like, you know, philosophical, you know, theory and all this stuff. And it’s, I mean, I remember like, in the early days, like, it was so hard to quantify, like, Okay, if I follow the advice of assignments, and a Clayton Christensen, all these, you know, you know, there’s another great one out, I’d recommend Justin called culture code, that one was amazing, by the way,
Justin Stoddart
I’ve had that recommended before, and I can’t
Unknown Speaker
It was written by Daniel Coyle, okay, and what and what he says in the beginning of the book is that, so this guy, like studied every organization imaginable, you know, like went into like, all these elite organizations, and we’re trying to figure out, like, what made like, high performing groups high performing, and something after, like decades of studying this, you discovered was that it had nothing to do with people’s backgrounds, their skills, none of that it, it had to do with how did each person feel amongst their peers. And so in sales, I think everybody on here would agree that eight your mindset drives your results, like 80% of sales success driven by mindset. And so like, you know, when you when you’re trying to build an organization, like one of the first dominoes you got to knock down is like helping improve your sales teams mindset. And so that’s actually where core values come into play. So like, again, in college, I that core values was just a checkbox, but what I realized is if you can actually find people with similar core values, that shows up in their daily actions as people, so like, for example, if one of our core values is being fiercely committed, and, you know, you’ve probably all met, we’ve all probably met people that are like the type of people that will just wrestle a problem to the ground, and like, we’ll just not quit, you know, like, they just have that grit that won’t quit. And so like, imagine, you know, a room full of people like that, you know, they’re going to like, their, their performance is going to be through the roof. Now, imagine, if you like, threw somebody in there that didn’t have that same value. Like if you create some corruption, and it’s like a weed grown in a garden, you know. And so, you know, your job as a leader is to help like with these be behavioral things like improving people’s, you know, their mindset when they come into work. And so that’s like, a huge shift from being a real estate agent, because as real estate agent, you’re thinking about how to get deals closed. And as a leader, you’re trying to help people level up and just be better human beings. And that and that a lot of that starts with just surrounding people with like minded people that have similar core values. So anyways, I could talk about this, are you talking about this?
Justin Stoddart
I mean, I think, you know, an interesting component, you know, guy that I work with here at Old Republic, Steve Yeager, just a great leader, he said, you know, the highest form of sales is leadership. And I think, to your point, that there’s, we often have spent a lot of time kind of focusing on on the tactical scripts, and what to say and what not to say, which I think is important. But also at the core, every one of us that are in sales, and even in management, leadership type roles. Leadership is is, is foundational to all of that, like, we have to be able to lead people through a transaction, like you said, to get a deal closed, right, people have to be able to confide in us that we are the professional that they want to use. So you know, I think these leadership books that we’ve been discussing, and the and the people focusing on that is only going to help both their team business as well as their own transactional business, being a leader is, is in greater need now that I think it’s ever been, that’s pretty evident the world today and and the more that you can become a better leader, the more opportunity, the more people are going to want to follow you, whether it be in their transactions, right, or even as their team leader.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I think that’s a great point. I think agents, agents are leaders, they, you know, are trying to lead people to the right, you know, home that’s best for their family. And that’s very much, you know, servant leadership, trying to put somebody else’s interest before your own. And so we learned how to do that as agents, you know, like, there’s all this stuff we’ve learned how to do to pull that off. And so again, that transition from being self employed to being a business owner, you guys start thinking, Well, what are the scripts? What are the tactical things? What are my daily activities to, you know, be a great leader to people that are not trying to buy a house, but are trying to have success in their own life?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love it. Let’s, I’m kind of, on how people can get get in contact with you. You’ve created a course around this book is when I understand right?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, yeah. So um, you know, yeah, yeah. So I’m not I’m, you know, I’m not really in the coaching industry, but I do like to help people, you know, make that transition, because I do feel like there’s a whole, you know, like, there’s not, there’s not a lot of people helping agents and people with these small teams, like, learn how to level up and, and make that transition from being self employed owning a job to having a business that doesn’t actually need it. So I, you know, I didn’t want to start some big coaching programs, so, but I did want to, I do feel a moral obligation to, like, share this with the world. And so I created a course called SEO masterclass. And it’s, it’s predicated specifically weekly, on helping real estate agents make the transition from being a salesperson to actually being a CEO, and a business owner. And we talked about all the different components of making that transition around, you know, scaling, recruiting, and and we talked about the selection process. And we talked about the vetting process, some of the tactics and strategies we use around recruiting and selection, we modeled after, you know, studying Harvard, the navy seals, like what they do to vet people out studying teachers for America and nonprofit organization, ranked number four by Forbes magazine is one of the one of the hardest companies get a job for, it’s a nonprofit, by the way, you don’t get paid a lot of money. But anyways, we modeled a lot of these other successful companies and organizations to you know, implement a funnel, if you will, from a recruiting and selection perspective around finding talent. So that’s one of the things we talked about, we also talked about just the art of building culture. So something I something I had to learn the hard way, was the difference between the art of leadership and the science of leadership. And so every single person like has a natural tendency towards one or the other. So for example, the the art of leadership is really like being you know, cute in to how a team member makes somebody else feel like people that are really good at the art of leadership, like, you know, they, they do a great job creating, like a high energy environment. And like, when they see someone that’s like a negative Nancy, like, they kick them out of the organization really fast. So they make it feel like that family type of environment. And then the science of leadership is understanding all the KPIs. So like to be able to coach an agent, you need to understand like, you know, standards around conversion metrics, like from, you know, number of calls made to number of contacts, appointment set, etc. And so we all come from either, you know, we were, our natural tendency is going to be one or the other. And so we talked about those two things and things you can do, tactically, you know, to improve on, you know, maybe perhaps it’s your weakness, if it’s one or the other. And then we also talk about leaving generation. You know, there’s one of the one of the things that I realized, starting my real estate team, especially being a millennial, I was all about internet lead generation buying leads on Facebook, Google. And when I first got started, I started giving these leads to my agents, I realized that I was setting my agents up for success. For I’m sorry, I’m setting my my agents up for failure. When I gave agents internet, only internet leads from Facebook and Google, like I was literally setting them up to fail, because those lead sources had a very low conversion rate, and they had a really long Conversion Cycle. And so something I realized over time was like, my job as a team leader was to set agents up for success. And to do that, I needed to help them be efficient with their time and work higher quality leads, that would convert faster, especially because, you know, they, you know, they can’t go six months in a paycheck. So I started identifying the lead sources that converted at substantially higher conversion rates up to you know, 30% or higher, like, literally, one out of every three leads closes, which is like, you know, with compared to internet leads, one out of 100 closes. So one out of three is pretty amazing. So anyway, start identifying all the lead sources that convert north and 30%. And you know, we’ll close in less than 90 days. So we talked about that, how you got to make sure you set your agents up for success in the lead gen side. And then we also go into the technology a little bit around like accountability tools, that as a leader, you need transparency into what your agents are doing. So you can actually coach them to understand where the holes are. So anyways, that’s kind of you know, it’s
Justin Stoddart
Good stuff, man, how do people get their hands on your book, is there a link you can send us or I can put it in the show notes? If you don’t have it on you?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so let’s see, um, let me see if I have a link here.
Justin Stoddart
While you’re looking for that, we’ll go ahead and prepare to kind of have you answer the signature question. You know, we The important thing I think for for people to realize is that anytime you can consume the content of people that not only talk a big game, but that do a big game, right? How many transactions did your collective teams close? Over the past year crisscross eight locations? Um, roughly, you know, our,
Unknown Speaker
I don’t even know, I should know, this are our, our hub close, just shy of 600 transactions and shy about 200 million are, you know, all of our teams are pretty new, like they’re all less than two years old. I guess just to give you some like trajectory history from the first couple teams, like most of the people I work with, they start off like their agents, right, doing 3040 deals in the first year, I’ve consistently gotten all of them to triple and go to 100 in the first year, second year, they’ve all gone from 100 to 250. So if I think about it, the guests like as a group, we’re going to be, you know, somewhere around 2500 to 3000 transactions this year. And then we’ll probably double that next year, probably go to 5000 transactions next year.
Justin Stoddart
Impressive stuff, I want to I want to highlight Chris Merz, who’s a big fan of yours, I’m a big fan of Chris’s. He’s a great guy, great local agent here where I’m at. But he had some nice things to say about you. This is amazing, Chris waters is genius. I’d have to agree. Very smart guy, we have you on the episode with us today. So with that, Chris, first and foremost, thanks for chiming in. Chris, me ask the the signature question of the show, which is you’re obviously a big thinker. Hence, you’re on the think bigger real estate show what? What does a guy like you continue to do to continue to expand your own possibility to continue to be a big thinker. Teach us what you do.
Unknown Speaker
I think everybody’s heard that saying you’re the average of the five people you spend the most amount of time with. And so something I think if you’re, you know, if you’re a high driver personality, always trying to take things to the next level. You know, it’s kind of interesting. That’s a great question, because I have found myself in many times in life, where I found myself like catching up to the five people I surrounded myself with, and then kind of looking around like, Okay, what now? And so that’s a really great question. And so what’s what’s kind of interesting is, I’m totally connecting and getting to know and like masterminding now with people that are at a much, much higher level, I’m actually, I’m having the opportunity to spend some time with Lee Lee Walker, next week, which probably most people watching this podcast, have no idea who Lee Walker is. Lee Walker, in the mid 1980s, he was hired by Michael Dell, Dell computers in the early 80s, was on the brink of bankruptcy. And Billy Walker was a physicist. And he happened and he got his MBA from Harvard. And just this like super brilliant guy. And he actually turned Michael Dell down the first time Michael tried to recruit him. And Michael is 21 years old at the time, and Lee Walker was in his mid 40s. And our you’ve done like some pretty cool stuff. And so Lee Lee Walker was the first president of Dell computers. And what is probably one of the key reasons why, you know, Dell computers became what it became. And so, you know, like, I’m, I’m spending some I could spend some time with Lee Walker next Monday. I’m actually, in preparation of our meeting. I’m Lee Walker, by the way, he’s in his 70s now. So like, I don’t, you know, like, it’s super awesome. Like, it was, you know, like, getting connected to people like that super hard. You know, these people are like, super wealthy, like, time is a very sacred resource. But you know, like, I find myself spending a lot of time trying to connect with people like that. That’s something that resonates with me all the time is that saying from I heard on Shark Tank, pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper. And you always hear the saying, like, you know, you need to take history class to learn from history, so we don’t repeat history. It’s like, Oh, you know, I’ve been trying really hard the last couple years to like, connect with people that are much older, wiser than me that I’ve walked that journey of like building a successful organization. So I’m actually reading Lee Walker’s book right now. It’s called the imagination house. And what’s what’s fascinating about this book is like, Lee Walker, I’m halfway through the book. And the Walker has, has said, like, like, 80% of what helps Dell be really successful, came as a result of all of the constraints that the business hat. So when Michael Dell was building, Dell computers, you know, he was putting some he was putting parts supplies in his dorm room, and would hide them from his parents and like, would assemble them somewhere else. And he had no way of like offering support, or like service to customers, right. And so Lee Walker helped him partner up with a company called tandem, which was a computer parts manufacturing company. And they it’s like they laid out of all these constraints that there’s so many limitations. I mean, this dude was building a damn college dorm room. It’s funny my, so I, I underline this section of the book. And it says, In our case, constraint had bread imagination, and like, So anyways, long story short, they delegated so many, like massive things in their business, like supporting sales, manufacturing, they came up with this thing called Justin time, adjusting time order system, right? You go online, and you get your computer built online, versus going to the store and buying it, which was like revolutionary in the 80s. But they did all this out of necessity, because they didn’t have any resources. So anyways, it’s a, it’s amazing when your backs up against the wall, how resourceful you can get.
Justin Stoddart
That was a great, I mean, a great answer, is it right? And I think these people that like, like Lee Walker, like you’ve described, they actually their legacy now is that they actually want to impact people who are serious people who also want to have a massive impact. And yes, they’re hard to get to, but they’re not impossible to get to. You’ve proven that. And I think we all would be, you know, wise to really identify who are our mentors, and try and actually reach out to them, you know, people like Mel Robbins and Grant Cardone people who I thought were untouchable, you know, I’ve had the privilege to interact with and it’s been interesting to see that that the especially the social mediums today, you can they, it’s amazing how many people actually don’t try to reach out to these people. Right there. They’re not they’re still human beings. And they still care when people interact with their stuff. They still care when people reach out for help, not the city, you’re going to get an answer from from everybody. But I think you’re a great example to us CRISPR that there’s, you can actually gain access if you try some people that can massively impact your thinking and your world and, and allow you to do something potentially similar to what they’ve done. So anyway, want to thank you for the great answer. Thank you again, for coming on the show today. For those that are watching. Please look in the show notes. Whether you’re watching this on Facebook, on YouTube, or if you’re listening to podcast, go find it in one of those two locations. And we’ll have a link to the millionaire or sorry, the million dollar real estate team written by Christopher waters himself. He’ll give you the book for free just pay for shipping, be a great way to look at his many life lessons and building the great organization that continues to expand and see how that impacts your life. So again, thank you again, Christopher. And thanks to all for tuning in and watching and i’ll leave with these this final invitation and charts to all of us which are three simple words. And they are go think bigger. Thank you, Chris, for helping inspire us to want to do that today.
Christopher Watters
Thanks, Justin. Appreciate you man. You bet man.