Community and Client Events | Brad Eaton

Full Audio Transcription:

Justin Stoddart 0:01
client events. I know you’ve heard that term in real estate, but it’s a good idea. But today, we are absolutely going to expand your thinking, we’re gonna help you to think much bigger than you ever have about client events about how they can be done, more importantly, why they’re done and the results that you can get from him. Stay tuned, folks, this episode is going to blow your way. The big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry with crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. And this is the Think bigger real estate Show. Welcome back to the thing, bigger real estate show thrilled to be here with you. With a dear friend of mine, somebody who has become not only a friend, a client, but also a business partner. He’s somebody who I greatly admire in life and in business. Brad Eaton, thank you so much for coming onto the show today.

Brad Eaton 1:07
You are most welcome. I’m super excited to be here. And I have have a little bit of jitters of being here, even though we’re such good friends. But I know what kind of a platform that you’ve built, and I’m honored to be on it.

Justin Stoddart 1:20
Well, it’s long overdue. I’ll tell you what, I’ve been admiring your business for many years now. And just recently, what you’ve done is absolutely blown me away. As far as what you’ve done with client events. And today’s promise for everybody listening, as previously stated is you’re going to have your your thinking absolutely expanded when it comes to what you could be doing to really connect with a larger group of people and in a much deeper way. So, Brad, let’s let’s talk about your background a little bit. I know you’re a pilot, just give us a kind of kind of a quick rundown. So people have some, some background on who is bradington?

Brad Eaton 1:57
Oh, Lord, I see, I think that in our industry, I think that that’s because we all come in with a different background. And we should, because our clients deserve more than just just us to, you know, be be just their agent, I, I came into the industry, or came into into the working life. My parents owned a rock quarry out here in the Pacific Northwest. And so I grew up in that industry. So I grew up in, in management and leadership and teamwork. And I didn’t I didn’t ask any of our my colleagues or our employees to do anything that I wasn’t willing to do myself. And so I started with that excavation, underground construction background that I that I worked at a very high level until I trained my own replacement. And and got out of the operations management of the rock quarry, and in transitioned into real estate. But the prior career was actually going into commercial aviation. And so I’ve got all my licenses and credentials to be a commercial pilot got 1100 hours and on an airplane have for many, many years. But the industry didn’t pay the local, the local regional airline offered me $28,000 a year to become to become a pilot for them. And I laughed at them. And I said I’m making twice that now in construction, why would I ever do that. And so I decided that I needed to figure out how to how to make my own ticket. And my wife, Michelle had been an agent since 2004. And I said, I think that my possibilities and my potential is so much bigger. And so we ventured into real estate together. And and it’s been a heck of a ride ever since.

Justin Stoddart 3:42
Really cool story. I don’t know that I’ve heard all of that. And we spend all the time together. So super interesting. So let’s talk about the way that both you and I believe in doing business, right? You just shared a story with me about people reaching out to you from a cold market standpoint. Now we all know that if you put enough money into that machine, if you make enough cold calls, you will eventually get to where you want to go right. Our only question that we share is what about the 97 people that didn’t want anything to do with that phone call and you interrupted them and it was a bit of an inconvenience and potentially difficult on your own reputation. When you’re going that path again not doubting anything, just you and I believe that there’s maybe a better way to go about doing this but share with me the example that you just shared I guess powerful people that understand when you’re on the other side of the table when you have people soliciting you

Brad Eaton 4:32
so All right, so I’ve been selling a couple of our our last pieces of heavy equipment at the rock quarry and so in that process I’ve been getting reached out to by people that would like to market on a you know on a on a bigger scale what our what our equipment looks like and get it out there and get in front of people and so just as we were in the process of prepping for the interview, I was telling the story that that I’m getting telephone Some calls literally three and four times a week, they don’t have any relationship with me. They don’t know me, they just want my money. I’m just a transaction, they want to quote unquote, help. But the question is, do I believe them? Do I trust them? Absolutely not. And I’m in the sales industry. And so it gave me a really great reminder of why that, in my opinion, is an absolutely terrible idea. You need to start with trust in a relationship. And, and not just by picking up the telephone and doing cold market. And if you do cold market, you need to transition them into a real relationship where you actually are somebody that they know, like, and trust and actually have no intention to be super helpful.

Justin Stoddart 5:45
The interesting thing about what you’re seeing right there, I know that there’s a lot of good thinkers that are gonna hear this, they’re gonna say, like, yeah, guys, okay, I agree with you, I would love to do warm market. But I’m a bigger thinker than that. And I’m very limited when I go warm, because I can only have so many relationships. And that’s where today’s episode comes in. So beautiful. My mind was expanded when you invited me to your client event, which happened to be a firework show. Now, I went because of our relationship, I thought, I’m gonna go support Brad, like, I don’t want to have like too few people. This is me being super transparent. And I get there. And I’m like, Okay, this is right in the thick of COVID, right, like, right check, like 2020. And it had been delayed a little bit because of, you know, the state in which we live, whatever. And we were, I was at that. And I was like, protect my family was that. And I told my wife afterwards, I said, I just saw the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen. And it was like in someone’s feel like in their backyard. It was unbelievable. And she’s like, really, yeah, and I said, get this. And Brad told me that it was a fraction of what they normally do. Fast forward to this past year, if he my family attend, again, no COVID restrictions. It’s there in full force. And me and my family and some distant relatives who are visiting from out of town, sad there with our mouth on the floor. Like that was the most incredible firework display. Now you don’t need to share with us necessarily how much you like pay to put that whole thing on. But it was better than any large scale firework display that I’ve ever seen. And the crowd that you brought, was unbelievable, Brad, I mean, it’s absolutely unbelievable. So I don’t know if you want to share any details around that about maybe going back to the point of of our flow with this episode is the why why do you do that? Let’s start with that. Well,

Brad Eaton 7:36
I learned a while ago, through a whole bunch of just regular life experiences, that if you want to do something that is unchallenged, you have to do something that is unchallenged. And we need the ability to build relationships at mass scale, quickly, effectively. And how do we do that? That’s, you know, that’s the magic. How do we do that? Well, we can pick up the telephone, we can try the cold market ways we can try that stuff. It works, but it doesn’t work well. And it’s not genuinely who Brad Eaton is. Brad is Brad, somebody that’s super genuine, super passionate. And if I want to do something, I should do something that I’m already going to do. Anyway. Something that I enjoy. Well, I have thrown the Fourth of July fireworks party for 15 to 20 years. Why? Because I like doing that stuff, read likes explosives. And then some of my clients might not know that I like blowing things up. Well, there’s a way to do it legally. And you can start your own Fourth of July fireworks show that’s legal and done the right way. And we have all of that we have credentials and licenses to do all of that kind of stuff. But the reality is, is you the other agents that are on this call that are listening, there’s other things that you might not want to blow things up. You might not want to go shoot guns, you might not want to do this, but you might be passionate about cycling, you might be passionate about running, you might be passionate about giving back and volunteering in the community, or, you know, a walks or runs for different causes. Will that’s what you need to do. Well, what I do is I’m passionate about me and I’m genuine about who I am. I want to attract my people. Well, I’m going to track my people by being brown. And so I be Brad and that’s what I do. And so we we bring regularly five to 500 people to our event. And then I talk for about three to five minutes, mostly giving thank yous but saying hey, this is who we are. This is what we do. And I let you know I left the background. Of course I’m in a nice listing right now this is not my house, by the way, but I’m in a nice listing right now and I let the background speak for me well in that splay, I’m letting the fireworks do the job. And we put on an absolutely incredible show in it’s exorbitantly expensive, but the reality was, I was pretty much going to do it anyway. So I might as well invite as many people as possible, and then do a Walt Disney where I don’t, where I create a memory with them. If I create a memory with them, they’ll never forget, they’ll never forget what their agent did for them. And they know who to call. Because if my fireworks displays any representation of what my marketing looks like, for their listing, I’ve won, I won more than any marketing could ever buy.

Justin Stoddart 10:42
That was something I was fascinated with at the event is that you would share that if you were impressed with the way that we put on this firework show, which everybody was, then you can, you can know that. That’s how we how seriously we take the selling of your home, the staging of your home, and it was a point really well taken. I love that, Brad. So that’s really why you do it. You’re going to do this off anyway, right now you found a way to share that joy with more people, crowdsource the attendance and the people inviting other people into your world, crowdsourcing, how it gets paid for, right? Because now these people are to you, they realize that hey, this is this is above and beyond. That’s impressive, of course, we’ll use him and refer him in real estate. Pretty cool. Any other things you want to share on that one, before we get into this even more impressive event that you do on a very recurring basis.

Brad Eaton 11:34
So just be passionate, be genuine about whatever it is, because people can smell when you’re not being genuine. And it’s true. We’ve all been in the used car scenario, and not saying that anybody’s used car sales was terrible, but you get the idea. Right, they can smell when you’re not being genuine, just be you and just be 100% you. And if the marketing that you’re doing or the or the client events that you’re doing aren’t really you or they’re not something you’re crazy passionate about, then find something that you are crazy passionate about, and do it. And if you want to see what we did, you can find a couple of our videos over Fourth of July. Not that it’s going to do me any good, but you can kind of get an idea. Search Brad Eaton, and then beaut Vils rockets by the river, bu t t e V i l l e,

Justin Stoddart 12:23
I love it, we’ll put it in the shownotes you’re gonna be blown away. Alright, Brad, let’s move to this next one, which I believe again is is far more impressive than the extremely impressive firework show, which is the weekly let me say this, again, weekly client and community event that you put on, that includes over 200 people who by the way, from that event, you have almost 800 new people that have come into your database and who receive gladly receive two emails a week from you, and thank you for it. Hopefully all of you are like, wait, what? Did I hear that right? Or a weekly client event? Yes, a weekly client event where 200 people show up week after week after week right now that we have everybody hooked in there like what in the world are you doing on a weekly basis? Walk us through what you’re doing, Brett? Why don’t know, why don’t you walk us through what we’re doing. You’re the one who came. That’s true. That’s true. My wife, by the way have been regulars. And here’s why is it Brad decided to solve a problem. And the problem was that I’m left footed, I have two left feet. I’m actually not left footed, I have two left feet. And she’s always wanted to dance and I’ve never taken it seriously. Well, Brad said why don’t you come out I’m hosting a community dance lesson every week. It’s at the best dance hall in the Portland metro area. And he rents it out with the help of some sponsors. And they invite the entire community to come in for free. Now, Brad, previously, that didn’t make a bio, owned a dance company where they would actually go on cruises and teach people how to dance and entire like dance community sold that business. So now I’ve asked Brad like what would you do if you didn’t do real estate? What’s exactly this he’d host massive firework shows. And he would get big groups of people together to teach them how to dance like folks, this is the key is it it’s not you don’t have to invent something that you think people gonna like what do you like and what’s the biggest way that you can add that back to the community so again, at this dance hall Brad has for the first hour he teaches those that are beginners and I’m like a forever beginner and teaches us how to dance and then those continue on for the next several hours and more people who are more expert show up and the entire dance floor is filled with people that are either learning how to love to answer already loved dance, and it’s it’s very classy, it’s very well done. And people are gladly coming in the door for their contact info. And Brad meanwhile, is making In his way around the room, helping people dance, make connections, building relationships, again, go back to the point that we were selling before is that just because it’s warm market doesn’t mean it has to be small. It doesn’t mean it has to be small, you can go big and be warm market, you just have to be creative. So that’s my interpretation of what’s happening there. And I get the emails every week. And I’m like, oh, cool, I’ll go in and watch and get some, some tips remind myself, I need to get better all this stuff. It’s, it’s amazing. So anyway, anything else you want to add to that, Brad as to why you’re doing it? How you’re doing it? What’s what’s happening there that I may have missed? Please do? Be sure.

Brad Eaton 15:35
So as we do that, it’s it’s phenomenal. And, and, you know, I could have shared but I, you know, I It’s always more fun to hear other people talk about it. And, and we have regularly. Last week we had for our Halloween party. We had people come in costume. We had 165 people there the week before we had 200. The week before that we had about 220 people there. And we’re we’re collecting contact information for all of them. We’re not doing nasty, nasty, smarmy advertising. We’re just we’re just, you know, sowing great seeds of amazing people doing things that they’re passionate about giving them the opportunity. And, you know, COVID is is, you know, still in the rearview mirror. It’s not, it’s not that far away. And in some cases and instances, it’s still right here with us. But the reality is, how do we get beyond where we’re at now to where we’re going. And we do that by genuinely connecting with large quantities of people at the same time, in a way in which they want to be connected with when we’re doing Google AdWords when you’re doing, you know, Zillow leads, and that kind of stuff that that’s not necessarily people that really want to be connected with. They wanted to look at a listing, but they don’t want to be hounded. You know, like I am in the with the equipment sales guy, I don’t want to be hounded. I look at this number come up on my phone, and I’m like, talk to you later, you know, but when we’re doing what we’re doing, we’ve got all those people in the database. We’ve got all those people in the database. And guess what? I’ve had six people, six people unsubscribe, six. When was the last time you bought leads, and only six people unsubscribe six out of 800. And yet we’re sending them stuff twice a week, not about necessarily real estate, but about what they’re passionate about. And you know what? I’m out there and I’m teaching the last lesson I was teaching at myself. I’m teaching at students and you’re in you’re like, Okay, wait a sec. Wait a sec, hang on. Timeout, Brad, timeout, wait a sec. I don’t know how to teach dance. I’m going Well, neither did I. I learned to dance 10 or 12 years ago, I didn’t really want to teach I hired the best instructor in the Portland area brought him in, and the group got so big. He goes, you’ve been my student for 12 years time for you to teach. Well, guess what? Now I’m teaching the beginning lesson. He’s teaching the intermediate lesson, I don’t really want to teach the lesson. But I’m doing it because I need to because I have to because I’m the host of the event. It’s my job. It’s my job to cultivate people in the best opportunity that they can. And they love it. And they come around every single week and say, I can’t thank you enough for doing this. You’re changing my life, you’re introducing me to new friends, I’m making new connections, I’m getting physically active, I’m having fun. You know, we’re changing people’s lives because they’re so in the COVID headspace. So people are, you know, I’m gonna get something from people, instead of I’m going to give something to people, you guys want to be the difference, you want to make a difference in your real estate market, then make a difference in how you’re connecting to everybody every single day, and be the difference that you want in the community. That’s what we’re doing.

Justin Stoddart 18:52
It’s so good. Oftentimes, I think, where we get hung up and whatever it is we’re in is we stay in our little silo of this has been living. And so I’m going to look all day long for people that need that thing, right? Whether we know war market, a cold market, that’s our sole focus. Whereas if we just expand outside of that a little bit to say what our concerns do people have, it’s not just finding a house, maybe it’s finding a community. It’s actually connecting and building relationships to where they’re not happy in the house they live in, but in the community that they live in, I would ask everybody listen to this right now and encourage you and invite you to think a little bit bigger, what you’re doing with your client events. You know, picking up pies is an awesome thing. I hear a lot of people doing that, you know, for 4050 people seems like a massive event, I would challenge you to say, is there more that you could do on a more regular basis to add even more value to people that you might say I would do this anyway, right? Whether it said read, whether it’s being whether it’s dancing, whether it’s some sort of charitable contribution, just be a leader, this economy in particular. And this industry is requiring more and more that we aren’t just good practitioners at the work that we do. But we are leaders. That’s what people looking for someone who can lead them. And I love the way in which you’re doing the grant any final thoughts for, for the audience sitting, as we wrap up this episode that have wasted its chance to your business and your life, or the guests want to hear.

Brad Eaton 20:16
So, when we’re at any of these events, whether it’s the fourth of July, whether it’s out dance, out dancing, when I go around, when I go around, and just talk to people and dance with people, or you know, or just mingle at the firework show with people, you know, what they’re talking to me about? Hey, I’m thinking about selling, hey, I know somebody that’s thinking about buying, I’m not even bringing it up, I don’t even have to, I just go around, and I be me. And the conversations come, the leads just show up. And as I was kind of prepping for this, you know, I was one of the books I carry around with my bag is right, there’s 17 invaluable laws of teamwork by John Maxwell, right. And so the book is written for about building a team. So if you’re building a, you know, a real estate team, or whatever, but I’m challenging you, I’m going to challenge all of you guys today to take things and resources like this, and say, Okay, how can I build a team out of my clients? How can I build all of them into team members that are on board that are showing up and volunteering and being a part of what it is we’re doing our Fourth of July event, we have 50 5050 people who come and volunteer to be a part of what it is that we’re doing. In our on our Thursday night, social dance and dance lesson, we’ve got well over 25 people a week that are volunteering, and people that are regularly saying, How can I be a help? How can I how can I help? How can I be a part of what you’re doing? I see the vision of what you’re doing, I see that you’re teaching and instructing the dancers of the future, and you’re removing cost as a as a hurdle to entry. And just just go out there and do it good dream a little and yeah, it’s gonna cost you money. But anything good, is expensive. And the return is always tenfold.

Justin Stoddart 22:19
And it’s beautiful to hear. Right? For those that are in how in the world? Does he afford this? How does he do this kind of stuff, right? As we mentioned before, there’s there’s other sponsors that come in. But also people feel a good obligation, when you’re solving more concerns than just can you help me buy or sell now Brad does that as as well as I know. But you have to recognize that the magic of what he’s doing here isn’t just that he’s a better real tour. Right? He’s inviting people into a community. He’s inviting them to be a party not just to come and consume, but to come and contribute to be a part of something much, much bigger than themselves. And it’s a fun thing to take this industry and think about the possibilities of what you could be doing. Taking your passion, what your unique perspective is on the world, your unique background and experience and say, How can I make the community a better place because of that? Because of taking that and expanding it through the lens of let’s think bigger about this? How do we get to more lives, and then the process? You? You take a scalable business that is warm, which very few people you’re taught how to do. Love, you’ve done this brand. Yeah. So one final question here, Brad, which everybody that that comes across this stage gets the opportunity to answer this question, which is you are a big thinker, right? You’ve proven that to us here. And your whole history proves that to us. What does Brad Eaton do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to end your possibilities?

Brad Eaton 23:52
Man, I am. I am a personal growth junkie. I love it. But the reality is, I think a lot of people read and they listen to podcasts like this. And they read great books like John Maxwell and, and other great authors out there. The compound effect is one of my favorite books, because that’s what we’re doing. That’s what all of these clients events are about. They’re about the compound effect. You know, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world, those who understand it will profit those who don’t will pay it. That’s Albert Einstein quote, right? And so compound interest, but there’s also a compound effort. And that compound effort is in how you think bigger. That’s how you invest into yourself into your own mind, and how your potential can grow exponentially because of what you’re putting in on a daily basis. And so I’m always feeding in I’m always listening to podcasts. I’ve got audio books, while I’m in the car. I’m always growing. I’m always thinking and then I’m in community with great people like Justin All the time going, Hey, had a wild idea. I was kind of thinking about this, what do you think? And, you know, what are the pitfalls? What are the what are the opportunities there, and I’m just growing every single day, I am not the same person yesterday that I am today. And I’m not going to be the same person tomorrow. And I am here to leave a legacy for my family, but also for my community and for the world in which I really live in. And so that’s my mission. And I’m very passionate about it. And we get passionate about the why, then the what and the how we’re just going to show up along the way.

Justin Stoddart 25:33
And something that I have to highlight there, because if people weren’t listening carefully, they might have missed that is that you’re a personal development junkie. But you also not only do you invite people into a community, but you look to be a part of other communities. You know, proximity is power, when you can be around other big thinkers. That’s exactly why Brad and I have gone into business together in the real estate space and was interested in talking about that, just tap us and see what you mean. But we’ve done that, because we recognize that synergistically, he and I together one plus one doesn’t equal two equals three or four. And the the energy that we thrive by being around each other and running with each other’s ideas, is exciting. So it’s not a matter of just developing yourself as Brad described and as illustrating that it’s a matter of being close to those people even in partnership with those people, which allows you to be much of much bigger thinker and bigger achiever than you would otherwise. So, Brad, such a pleasure, buddy, haven’t you not only in as a friend and as a partner, but also in being someone who I learned a ton from. So thank you so much for all you’ve contributed to the show today. I’m gonna check you really quickly. Yeah, we have some some, some really cool comments coming in here. We appreciate those of you that have participated. If you’re listening to the podcast, you’re interested in learning more, please DM me, you can find me on Facebook or Instagram. Happy to answer any questions also be watching for if you’re not yet on my email list, please reach out to me and we’ll add you on there which will give you access to the golden nuggets of this show things that you can begin to apply directly into your business. And so please reach out be sure that we stay connected so that you become a part of our community. Not just learning from afar but learning by getting in proximity with us so appreciate it very much. I want to thank you all for tuning in today. And Brad my final request of everybody listening here today which I know you would echo this are three simple words. You know what they are go for Brad, what are they?

Brad Eaton 27:29
Go think bigger. Thanks, everybody.

Justin Stoddart 27:32
I love it, buddy. All right, friends talk soon.