Hal Wilkerson was a naval aviator, succeeded in medical sales at some of the highest levels and has brought his expertise to the real estate industry on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. He brings with him lessons that are sure to level up the industry and teach us how we too can be better at selling real estate and improving our client experiences.
2:51 – Hal’s greatest lesson from being a naval aviator
5:42 – Hal and I discussing building a board of directors of the world’s most brilliant minds
9:59- Sales at the highest levels, simplified down
17:14- Hal discussing operating in faith, not fear
19:22 – What does Hal do to continue to be a Big Thinker, to continue to grow and expand your possibilities
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Welcome back to The think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host Justin Stoddart excited today to bring you somebody from paradise Hal Wilkerson. He’s an agent in Hawaii, just outside of or on the island of Oahu comes from a deep, deep background of experience in corporate sales. From him, we’re going to be extracting key lessons that maybe you wouldn’t learn from the real estate industry.
Justin Stoddart
He also has a background as a naval aviator is going to share with us some lessons that, again, are not common in real estate. But I think every real estate agent needs to learn these things from how, how Thank you for coming on the show today.
Hal Wilkerson
Absolutely, Justin, thanks for having me on, man.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it’s my pleasure. So how when I got connected, he had seen a podcast that I done, he reached out, we spent some good time together. And that really kind of made a connection. And he’s someone who I think all of us can learn from. Hal, thanks for, again, for kind of being who you are, and bringing, I think, another generation of real estate agents into the industry, that are that are helping us level up, right. Sometimes people get into the industry, because they feel like oh, this is gonna be easy money, I watch HGTV, I’m gonna be showing homes, I feel like you come into the industry eyes open, I feel like you are coming in, like, looking to level up the experience that clients can have is that is that a fair assessment there? That’s not gonna be easy, but it’s gonna be worth it, you’re going to be able to bring some value to the industry?
Hal Wilkerson
You know, absolutely. That’s my feeling is that, you know, as you’re talking, I’m sort of imagining sort of the the ideal audience member that may be looking at this, and I think I most definitely would identify with people that are sort of have gone through what this perhaps last year has brought and sort of caused a lot of people to sort of ask themselves, really, you know, what is it that I really want out of life? And, and so that’s, that’s sort of what I did, which is sort of what got me here. And, and I’m bringing my skill set that I tapped into and used as a, you know, in corporate sales for the last 10 years in this in this industry. And so, you know, that’s, that’s really what I feel like I can some value that I can add. So yeah.
Justin Stoddart
That’s good. And I think, again, oftentimes, we tend to be so close to the problem. We all learn from the same people. And so we don’t really have an outsider’s perspective. And I love it when really bright people who have succeeded, have succeeded at high levels in other facets of life and in business, come into the industry, right? Some see it as a threat. I don’t I see it as an opportunity to learn from somebody like you, right, you sold medical device at a really high level for the last 10 years. Right. We’re a naval aviator before that, as I mentioned, what are some of the lessons that you feel like you learned, let’s start with naval aviator? I think that’s a fascinating thing, right? So what what did you fly? And what are some key principles that you feel like from that time period in your life, are going to benefit you as a real estate agent?
Hal Wilkerson
So I would say discipline is probably the biggest one from my, from my military days. To answer your question, I flew the ES6, the Prowler, the venerable electronic attack platform that is no longer around, she’s been placed by replaced by the EAA 18 Growler. And, but I am and to be honest, or to be more correct, I was technically a navigator, I was the name what was called the naval flight officer. So I flew right seat or backseat, and operated the, with the weapon system on that on that platform, but we still, it was, you know, tactical naval aviation, which was an absolute blast. And I really, really enjoyed it. But probably the one thing that I took from that, you know, block of time in my life, which also happened to be right around 10 years was, was discipline. And, and not only discipline, I would also say team based sort of mindset, a team based mentality is that, you know, you can’t do live, you can’t really succeed anything in anything in my opinion without a team, you know, a team to bring you up a team to encourage you, a team to strengthen you, and a team to sort of increase your success. And so I would say those would be the two biggest things that I learned as an aviator was teamwork and discipline.
Justin Stoddart
A couple interesting lessons are kind of popping out to me here out of it. One of them is I remember how to track coach, you think that track and field seems like a very individual sport, right? This particular check coach, it was very much a team thing to him, like we showed up at the track, where most kids were kind of wandering in, like, kind of like, you know, going over to their event, like he had us come in, we are all dressed in uniform and render on the track. We did, like the whole warm up thing together, which you don’t normally see track teams do. It was interesting. I think we performed really high level, in part because we had some great athletes, but I think it also changed the way that we showed up it changed the mindset of our competitors, right? Like who is this group? I think anytime you take maybe an individual sport and call it real estate, and you begin to think of it as a team sport, of like, you know,
Justin Stoddart
It seems like I’m solo, but I’m really not. I’ve got a title partner, I’ve got a lender, I’ve got a, like a cooperating agent, I’ve got the client, I’ve got, you know, the cooperating client, you know, I’m on the other side, I’ve got, you know, maybe transaction coordinator, Principal broker, you start to realize, like, this is not an individual sport, we feed off each other. And the more that we start to really see the fact that, hey,
Justin Stoddart
I need the very best teammates, and I need to lift them up, and I need to be sure that they’re able to perform at their highest level and not be a ball hog, or an egomaniac, right, I think these lessons are standing out to me that like, this isn’t an individual sport, it’s very much a team sport. You right? Love that.
Hal Wilkerson
Yeah. And you know, beyond just the team members within a transaction, like for me, and finding success, I also feel just the way that you and I connected is, I think it’s important for agents to sort of be resourceful, especially for those that perhaps are in a second career or third career kind of situation, where, you know, they’ve got a fairly large body of experience to draw from that, you know, kind of the mechanics of sales is sort of like second nature, obviously, there is going to be that piece of, especially, you know, for me, as a newer agent, I rely heavily on my principal broker, or my broker in charge for sort of guiding me and navigating me through sort of the paperwork and pieces in that. But beyond that, as far as like mindset, as far as accountability, as far as sort of expanding your mind, I think that is sort of for me, where I think it’s valuable to realize that you do need sort of a, you know, iron, sharpening iron, you need other people in your lives that are going to be operating at the level that you want to be operating at and sort of do what you can to get close to them and emulate them whenever possible.
Justin Stoddart
That’s a great point. I think we live in a really unique era, right? Where there’s all kinds of noise, and all kinds of interesting challenges that that previous generations haven’t had to experience. I will say that I would not trade it for everything, for anything, because of the access that I can get to the people whose lives I want to emulate. Right, not just through even through social media, through podcasts, the things that we can learn the people that we can, again, that normally would have caught that would have been out of reach for the common professional, that we can now literally have in your car, right? their voice in our car. Yeah. I mean, just this morning, I spent time with some greats, right? People that aren’t even alive anymore, right? That are just sounding greats. Me too.
Justin Stoddart
And it was it’s, it’s, you know, you’re right, when you start to even expand your team to think about how can my team help me to grow? Right, I’ve got Tony Robbins in one year, I’ve got Jim Rohn. And the other I’ve got, you know, like these, these great, brilliant people who have literally changed the psychology of millions and millions of people as my individual coach, right, helping me today, show up differently, show a bigger for the people that I’m serving. That’s a great point, you can really your team even expands to those that you recruit into your board of directors, right?
Hal Wilkerson
Yeah, that’s a great way to look at the board of directors a mastermind? Yeah, it’s a it’s a great way of thinking about, you know, a big for me a big lesson in a hugely important part is usually sorry, not even the right word there. But a very large part of who I am is my relationships with my mastermind, or my board of directors, they may not even know it, that they’re on that board that proverbial Board of Directors, but yeah, they do. And so, yeah, that’s a big thing. But But yeah, discipline and teamwork. Those are the two biggies that I took away from what
Justin Stoddart
I have to point out, you know, from the book, Think and Grow Rich, I think Napoleon Hill actually talks about having this mastermind of people that right, many of our living, like, what would they say, if they were here advising me what’s the best advice you’d give to me reminds me of that. Let’s move to your role. Again, in corporate sales skin medical device at a really high level. You learn sales and sales training, and how to create a client experience maybe how to get access to key decision makers.
Justin Stoddart
That I would say would be very beneficial, the real, you know, for real estate agents that want to come in and really build a strategic business. Talk to us about some of the lessons that you’re that you’ve pulled from that experience you think would benefit anybody listening here today.
Hal Wilkerson
Yeah, so my role was a, you know, I was with a company called Medline industries. And what we did were were supplies that was our that was our big thing. And so for example, every single operating procedure in a hospital has to have like a specific set of supplies for that procedure. And I had them was sort of the my role and there’s you know, there’s there’s hundreds of people that do this job for, for my company, around the around the country, but my role was sort of to act that
Hal Wilkerson
As the quarterback and sort of bring in all of the appropriate people to sort of accomplish that task, and it’s a gargantuan task, when you’re talking about the levels that we sort of delivered on, and for me my role, when I first you know, stepped in and first got in the sea, you know, in Hawaii, we didn’t have any, any, any customers to speak of, that were sort of at that level that that I wanted to operate at. And so sort of the first thing that I did was I wrote down what I wanted. And I wrote down that, you know, I wanted to have this specific customer with this specific product category. And I wanted to have it by this date. And that was, like, the first thing I know, it sounds like, so basic, and so like, you know, almost mindless, but that was what I did. And then I just sort of shaped my activities to do just that. And it was in that, you know, role. I mean, my, my, you know, after, at the end of my 10 years, with, with Medline I had, you know, relationships and still to with, with, you know, C suite level folks, you know, a billion dollar IDN, here in Hawaii, and I can pick up the phone and have those relationships, but that didn’t happen instantly. It took work day in day out, constantly focusing on the basics, but I really began with the end in mind. And it was an amazing thing to be a part of, because when I started at that, you know, in 2011, with with Medline, I mean, we were nothing we were in Hawaii, we were really, nobody, we weren’t even. I mean, we used to joke, we couldn’t even get thrown out of a hospital because nobody really knew who we were. But through the collective efforts to have a lot of people in that organization, Medline is now the top privately held actually the the number one not just privately held medical supplier in the country today. And, but it came from me personally, just starting out with a goal, I knew what I wanted. And then I showed up, I focused on the basics, I focused on my call points. And I focused on building those relationships and just doing, again, kind of the discipline and teamwork to show up at work every day and do what I need to do to achieve that end. And so, you know, I do, I do actually have some sales experience from college where I actually learn how to actually sell sell, and also as a pharma rep, believe it or not, before my days in the military, but um, so you know, it’s more than just showing up, obviously, you do have to, you do have to spend the time on the skills and as a real estate agent, one of the things that I know, for me as a skill is I have to focus on sort of my scripts, my dialogues, my things that I need to sort of focus on, on guiding the conversations. And, you know, that’s sort of how it looks in real estate. Today, I do the same thing, I write down my goals, I write them down every single day. And I focus on those, and then I also spend time sort of strengthening my craft, you know, and that is through practicing my, my scripts work with other with other folks. And it’s, it’s just the basics, man, I just, I just focus on the basics and, and, you know, good things happen. Really,
Justin Stoddart
You know, it’s, it is really interesting how there’s so much overlap, right, when it comes to success in any industry, in particular sales based industries, is that you go to battle with your mind, they in and day out, right? Because you’re gonna, not everybody’s gonna want to do business with you, and everyone’s gonna, like, jump to help you grow your business, you’re in charge, you’re the one who’s gonna have to get it done. And I feel that when people do what you just described right there, it’s a winning recipe, with regardless of what you’re selling, if you can get up every day.
Justin Stoddart
And well, first and foremost, identify what is the goal, what is what am I going to accomplish, and get up every day and write that goal, then practice, and then go to work, and have that practice and that work, be focused on the goal incessantly, you’ll win. Like, there’s just so few people that get up and do that day in and day out, that it won’t take long before you’re ahead above most, because again, many come into the industry, because their previous industry didn’t work out. And this looks like he’s your money, right? They see the commission checks. They don’t realize the internal and the external battle, that it is to win at this space. And so I’m so appreciative of you just simplifying it down. Like it’s not complicated. It’s not easy, because we’re all again, battling ourselves mostly at a competitive market. Secondly, but if you can nail those things, every listening to this, if you can nail those things, create a very clear goal. Write it down, get up every day and rewrite it. Then practice and then go to work. Right and putting that practic and actually having real estate conversations. Right? You win, right? I mean, am I oversimplifying it here Hal?
Hal Wilkerson
You know, I’m a very simple man. And that’s why I like to make things as simple as possible. And that’s, I don’t think you’re ever simplifying it all. So, yeah, and you’re right, it is a complex industry, there’s a lot more to it, there’s a lot behind it. I mean, anyone that’s in the business knows there’s, there’s a really lot to this to this business. But once you’re in the in that in that zone, in that moment in the in the space, kind of from a mindset standpoint, and then also systems as another very important piece that I’ve sort of brought over and I systemize, and maximize every efficiency that I can, so that I can keep it as simple as possible. That’s another big one for me is systemising and maximizing my efficiencies.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, that goes back to what you taught us before, right? Is this is a team sport, like get the right people on the team, right? Your partners in the industry, right, like industry partners, the right teammates to help you show up where you don’t have the deep understanding. And I love it, man, it’s it’s great stuff. And I’m sure for those, like those out there that are in the in in the trenches right now, you might be saying like, dude, that’s totally oversimplified. And, and, and we might say, You’re, you’re totally overcomplicating it right now, again, I’m gonna get some pushback on that, no doubt, right. But I do think that when you have a choice to make a complicated or simple, like, Hal was saying, choose simple. And the chance of you being able to shine or are going to go up, right, they’re just going to go up.
Justin Stoddart
Any last bit of advice, how that you’d share that really comes from your experience? Again, having succeeded both in the military, as well as in, you know, the private sector?
Hal Wilkerson
You know, anything else? Like that would really be helpful? You think? Well, no, absolutely. I just say that for because I know, there’s a lot of people like myself in the world right now, that are sort of, at this moment where they are considering, you know, changing their lives. And I know a lot of them specifically in the corporate world.
Hal Wilkerson
You know, my, it’s, I specifically do so anyway, I can just say that if you apply the basics, if you do, what you know, has always made you successful, you can bring that into this industry. And you can do very good for yourself, operate in faith, don’t operate in fear, and set your goals, write them down, get up every day, do the work, and it will happen. And I just I know, I’ve had so many conversations with guys over the last several months that from my old industry that are just like, dude, you’re like completely out. And a lot of people have been like congratulatory, a lot of people were shocked. A lot. I mean, most people are very sincerely happy for me. And I have had multiple conversations with people that are, you know, sharing an element of envy. And I just say to those people, that if you’ve always thought that you could do it on your own, that you wanted to sort of step out and do it on your own. I say operate in faith don’t operate in fear. If you apply the basics, if you do the work, the rewards will come without a doubt. And that’s my, probably my biggest advice to that person that’s just like I was, you know, a year.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, and I think a key a key indicator there, cuz I’ve got some great mentors that will say this, and they’re like, hey, it’s, it’s cray cray right now, like, Don’t think that you’re gonna, like, leave your day job, and it’s gonna be smooth sailing, like, get ready for battle. But yeah, anytime that you apply these principles, right, like, the reality is that person was speaking to people who either haven’t had success in something else, because they weren’t willing to pay the price and or they’re coming in looking for easy money. Those people need to stay right. But for those that can say, Look, I’ve been successful, I know what it takes. And I’m willing to work hard without an immediate, you know, big win, then then I agree. I’ve seen countless people come in and succeed at a high level, having that mentality, right. So anyway, great stuff, man.
Justin Stoddart
Let’s go to the final signature question of the show. Hal, which is this, you know, you’re a big thinker, you’ve proven that in multiple areas of your life. What is it that held us to continue to grow himself to continue to be a big thinker? expanding your personal possibilities? Yeah. So that’s a great question. And as I mentioned, you know, that’s really that concept is what drew me to your, your podcast.
Hal Wilkerson
I read a book in college called the magic of thinking big. And, you know, it’s just, it really has has changed my mind. There’s a great businessman that said, you know, if you have to think you might as well think big anyway. And so, what I do in my personal daily life is I literally, you know, I take and I’ve just started doing this in like the last three to four months. One of my business coaches that I that I follow. His name is Perry Marshall, just an amazing, amazing individual, I do recommend him, aside from the Justin Stoddart Thing Bigger world, but Perry, you know, sort of got me on to this thing of Renaissance thinking. And, you know, as you alluded to earlier, in our, in our talk here, there are so many distractions. So, I mean, every single one of us has got this little black rectangle in our pocket, buzzing beeping, bopping, booping, constantly sending us and trying to get our attention. And our physiological composition naturally receives that dopamine hit every time we see something, but we you know, and you want to, like look and engage and interact and see what it is. But you’ve got to sort of take that moment and push that down or take the time systematically, purposefully, to improve your efficiencies, you’ve got to push that down. And one of the ways that I do that, which sort of helps me as a leader, as a thinker, as a, you know, a self employed individual is that I do Renaissance time.
Hal Wilkerson
And so every morning, I spend without fail, well, I shouldn’t say without fail, I don’t always do it. But most every day, I am doing an hour of writing out my gratitudes I write what I’m thankful for I write out my goals, and then I spend about an entire page just writing Okay, how can I accomplish these goals? What is it that I’m doing today, that is going to help me accomplish these goals that I want to have, you know, by 2030 by 2040.
Hal Wilkerson
And by doing that, and I do it in the absence of my phone, because I’ve got ADHD, like most any successful individual, I would imagine, you know, you get, you’d have a thought and you think, Okay, let me go do it. And it’s so easy when that phone is within reach, at least for me, maybe, maybe not for you or others. But if that phone is in reach, instantly, I’m going to pick it up. So I literally I set my phone, I leave, the way I do it for me is I set it in my desk and I go out on my my Lanai, and I close the door, I’m sitting outside, it’s nice, it’s quiet, it’s outside. And I spend time with my thoughts writing out what I want to do writing out my long term plan what I’m especially what I’m thankful for, that’s another big one, I think is just sort of repetitively, you know, encouraging yourself and reminding yourself of what things you’re thankful for. And, and it’s kind of through that that sort of my mind grows, and I’ll have ideas and I’ll have notions, and I’ll write those down, and then I’ll go out and execute them later in the day. And so that’s what I do to think bigger.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I think we function best when we’re creating, you know, I think when people are most unhappy, and I’ve really had to watch this with my kids, as we’ve been in kind of a different learning environment now, right, where they’re sitting in front of devices more often than they used to be that when they consume and consume all day long, and don’t interact and don’t connect and don’t create, they’re like they’re not happy. You know, I’ve seen this. Yes. And I think for anybody out there that is feeling stuck. When it comes to your own level of happiness, your own level of productivity, what Hal just shared with us, right there is a key is go create, create your goals, and then create them in your life. Right? I think there’s there’s beauty in that I think there’s there’s, you know, kind of divine fingerprints in that like, like, however you want to describe it. We were designed to create stuff, right? Not just sit around and consume stuff and we sit down to consume stuff. I think it’s a fast track to not being fulfilled, not being happy, not being productive, etc, etc. So I appreciate your thoughts, Sal such a pleasure to spend some time with you again, for any of those that are that have any interest in Hawaii real estate, talk to how this guy is fantastic. Again, they’ll take care of you at the highest levels. He’s got a podcast, the Hawaii Real Estate Roundup Podcast.
Justin Stoddart
If you’re thinking about short term properties, some sort of vacation rental, talk to how he’s a guy who you can definitely bounce some ideas off, where you can get some expert counsel from and obviously he can help help help serve you as you’re looking to potentially make that that step to the Paradise Island out there. So appreciate it. Hal such a pleasure. Thanks for your time, my friend.
Hal Wilkerson
Absolutely. Thank you, Justin. It’s a pleasure.
Justin Stoddart
You bet everybody listening here today my final request for these three simple words and they are go think bigger. Hal, thanks for helping us do that today, my friend.
Hal Wilkerson
Absolutely. Thanks, buddy.