Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host Justin Stoddart, very, very excited about today’s episode, somebody who I respect and admire, and he is just a wise man. And I’m learning more about him. And he’s somebody who is being featured on some pretty big places around the country for the work that he’s doing. He’s a 25-year industry veteran out of the Dallas Fort Worth area recently featured on WaterCooler Is that right? Jay?
Jay Marks 0:27
Yeah, WaterCooler, right,
Justin Stoddart 0:28
With Chris Smith, and Jimmy Mackin. And Jay and I’ve met a couple of times, and been following each other on social media for the past while and just has a lot of really great things to share. And I thought, if I can convince this guy to come on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, it’s going to be great for everybody who listens. So, Jay, thank you good for your time for being here. On a post-Memorial Day episode of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Jay Marks 0:52
I’m glad to be here. And you forgot to mention also that you and I are good buddies, so help a friend.
Justin Stoddart 0:58
Thank you. And that’s true Jay, Jay’s a man of faith, good man all the way through. And he and he has a great perspective on the real estate industry. And so let’s dive into this, Jay, kind of the topic of today is Oh, my goodness, the sky is falling. Yet at the same time, everything’s gonna be just fine.
Jay Marks 1:20
Everything’s gonna be just fine. That’s right.
Justin Stoddart 1:22
Let’s talk about that. I think that’s it, that’s great, because there is a bit of a reality check is that like, for some real estate agents, I believe they’re, they’re at the brink of extinction. Now I say some real estate agents, because some, in my opinion, are not doing what’s good for the consumer. And we’re living in an era more and more where the consumer is going to win. So for those agents, I think there will actually be applause that like, thank you, right, that those agents aren’t with us anymore. Now, will there always be a bad apple infiltrating into every industry, of course, but I do think that those agents that are not innovating, they’re not truly adding real value that the consumer will be replaced by a robot. And yet, there are people like Jay marks who are doing some incredible things with their clients, with the community and adding real value to where there’s nothing to fear. So Jay talks a little bit about more kind of your perspective on that, why you say, the sky is falling, yet at the same time, everything’s gonna be just fine.
Jay Marks 2:23
Right? You know, first of all, it’s been a statistic for years, that 87% of all real estate agents don’t seem to get past the, to your first two years of their career. You know, as I walk into a room, I’m 25 years in the business, I can count on one hand, how many people been there, as long as me or between 17 and 25 years, there’s not a lot of us up in the corner talking about the old days. But I will tell you this, that it doesn’t really matter who takes over what and who buys who and what new technology if you are being authentic and being you, and most of all, staying in contact with your customers in your sphere of influence. You know, just this morning, we had our Monday morning meeting, and a part of our Monday morning meeting is to look at every closing. And at the end of every closing, we look at how the transaction goes how the client experience ago and is this person, someone that we would like to put in as a VIP, or someone that we want to make sure that? Yeah, let’s include them in future marketing at a higher level. And someone really wants to in touch with you get referrals and things like that. And, you know, some closings are smoother than others. But we are we want to make sure we’re adding value prior during and after the closing, we want to be the resource ever. Sorry, long answer.
Justin Stoddart 3:40
Well, I think it’s interesting what you just said there, Jay, if you’re actually asking your team, is this somebody that we want to add into our VIP list because I think there tends to be a bit of a feel of like, if the person is has a heartbeat, then, of course, we want their business. But there are people out there that recognize the value and those that don’t. And all they want to do is Jeremy on price when they don’t have eyes to see the fact that there’s a value that you’re offering. And so the fact that you guys are making a decision, is this somebody that we want to invest our time in, right? Is this somebody that we want to invest time and resources into, to add superior value because they’re going to get it and they’re going to receive it and they’re going to want to continue to reciprocate in the form of future business as well as referrals.
Jay Marks 4:26
Right? You know, just recently Justin we had, we just put it under contract, we’re going to close here in a couple of weeks. But I had a wonderful opportunity to put a house on the market of a friend of mine. And the friend of mine was very clear on the phone, we were talking he goes just so you know, I’m interviewing XYZ company and XYZ discount company. And he made it perfectly clear Matter of fact, when I wrote for my ride for my appointment, a road, that’s a new word. When I arrived at the appointment, he’d already interviewed Company A and it was me then it was company see afterward, who was touting the I can do all of that for a really, really low price, like 1,500 dollars, something like that. And I was successful in convincing him of my value, and what we had to offer. And when we were putting the house under contract, I brought him here to my office and feel it behind me I’ve got a big TV on the screen there with the table, and I put all the offers on a spreadsheet on the screen. And that’s what started going through him. He actually commented his wife, that company could not have done this. Because it was so no frills. And yes, there is a time and place for a discount and a quick transaction. Yeah, like whenever you’re buying a book on Amazon. But whenever you’re buying a house or selling a house, there’s so much more to it. And it was neat to watch him realize the value without me having to say anything.
Justin Stoddart 5:51
You know, a friend of mine mentioned to me that he doesn’t believe that, that robots will ever entirely replace real estate agents because real estate is such a large wealth determiner. And I thought about that. And I thought, if and I’ll add this in, if a real estate agent is actually in the business of helping people determine wealth, or increase wealth through real estate, I totally agree with him. There’s some that don’t write that actually, the only thing they do is help somebody buy and sell as opposed to teaching them how to buy, how to sell, like, where to buy, where to sell, when to buy, when it’s like the things that you described you put up on the screen was data and insight that actually allows people to make decisions that will increase their wealth to where your fee becomes irrelevant, right. Whereas people aren’t offering that then I’m concerned about them. And they ought to be, as I mentioned before, replaced by a robot and or they just need to up their game, right.
Jay Marks 6:54
So I think
the thing that the most current thing you just said there is people need to up their game. You know, whenever you show up for a if you’re going out on a date, you’re you’ve got nice clothes, a clean car, you know, you have an evening planned, you’re ready to go. The same thing when you go on an appointment, you know, you want to be ready, you want to be on time and have all your facts and data together. Well, you know, treat your business that way to every single day, you should either an up your game or takes the day off. Okay, because if you’re halfway do everything, then you’re going to get beat by someone who’s committed. You know, they have Yelp, and all kinds of reviews online for restaurants and things like that. But although a, an online review can tell someone about a good restaurant and kind of describe their experience, they can’t say a while you’re there, do me a favor, tell the owner Sam and Michael. The Jay said, Hello. There are such great guys, you know, I’ve met their mother, and their restaurant is exactly what we needed this time in place right now. And you’ll have a good time. But be sure you love another Jay said hello. That is real power. And it makes it really personal. Does that make sense?
Justin Stoddart 8:00
It does, I mean it goes back to this concept of artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, there is a warmth and humanity that can’t be duplicated, right? Like pulling data from one place to another even creating insights around that is can, like artificial intelligence is doing that. But like that warmth of human connection cannot be replaced. And I think that’s where when real estate agents try and over-automate. They’re now putting themselves competing directly against the computers, right? Like, I agree that they ought to be like, agents ought to be automating a lot when you try. And when you forget about what your critical what your key advantages, right, your home court advantage is the fact that you’re a human. And they don’t do things like you just described, then it positions them out of their, their sweet spot, right?
Jay Marks 8:54
You know, it’s, you’re 100%, right. Also, there’s real life emotion involved. You know, in real estate, sometimes we work with people that are moving because they want a bigger house is kind of funny. Whenever we’re talking about going in real estate and selling a home, people always immediately imagine a dream home or an upgrade or something bigger. Well, people also move because they’ve been transferred or suddenly lost their job, or maybe their marriage ended. Or maybe there’s been a death in the family, or you know what, or just can’t afford it anymore, or vice versa. There are graduations downsizing, upsizing retirement, all manner of reasons that people are moving. And it’s really nice that when you connect with them, for their motivation, their reason, and help them solve the problem and bring a real-life solution to them. That’s where you’re showing your value. And that right there is what I’m doing. You know, a friend of mine once said Justin that if he was and he’s a retired real estate agent, national trainer, he said, If I already get back in real estate, today, I build a database of 5,000 people, I build a wall around it, protect it, and service the heck out of it, and make sure they constantly knew that I was their go-to source. And so we do, we’re taught as real estate agents to do selling and closing and objection handling and knowing our scripts and things like that. But at the same time, you should be constantly serving and staying in touch with people that know like and trust you I’m done busy before, even if you’re calling them on the phone and say: Hey Justin, Jay Marks. Just want to call in to say hello and just check on your how’s your wife, how’ve your kids heard you went camping this weekend was a lot of fun? I bet it was crazy taking the 18-month-old camping. So that’s kind of personal experience. And we’ll talk about it, maybe I read about it on Facebook and call and say hello. And I got something from the computer and made that personal. You make sense.
Justin Stoddart 10:36
That’s Yeah, like, just so the audience knows, I mentioned these things in passing. As Jay and I were starting our conversation prior to actually broadcasting this. And these are tips that he picked up and caught on. Like, these aren’t artificial things he’s he’s referencing here, I actually did go camping this weekend, we actually did take our 18-month-old and our other five children. And it’s like that was a memorable moment in the fact that you remembered that tells me that Jay, you have trained yourself to listen for things that people are saying, to be able to take care of them as human beings, right. And as a service provider,
Jay Marks 11:09
Right. And also,
I want people to constantly repeat what I teach them and what I say to them on the appointment. Like one of the things I like to say to people is like, Hey, I’m Jay Marks, I’m gonna make it happen. Because you know, I was taught by my father that your word is your bond, and you’re only as good as your good name. So make sure you have a good name, you know, and we’ve all made mistakes, we’ve got a lot of things, right. We’ve got sometimes we’ve got a lot of things wrong, but you learn from it. But if people know that if I tell him, Hey, Jay Marks said this is going to happen, then it’s going to happen. And if not, we’re going to get in there, make sure it happens. We’re going to team up recalibrate, try Plan B. And by the way, we talked about mistakes for a minute.
Justin Stoddart 11:48
Yes, but hold on. I like before I forget. So yes, but like mistakes are coming. But let me share this because you just reminded me of something. And I believe I’ve shared this before. But when it comes to being really real estate agent that adds superior value. Let me tell you a story. My family was moving. I was a junior in high school, moving from one city to another football was my life at the time, we just won the state championship and the town that I was moving from moving to a new school where the football program was a big question mark, it was a new school. And our real estate agent not only found a great house but she was connected through the fact she was married to the football coach. And she made a point to take my mom and introduce her to the coach and introduce you to other key people in the school. It wasn’t a matter of just finding a house. But it was like, What is this mom really worried about? Like what is really behind the scenes here of that movie, like you said, Every real estate transaction oftentimes is accompanied by a life event. Something that sometimes is exciting. And sometimes it’s not sometimes a divorce, sometimes you know a kid who’s in high schools whose love is football, and it means everything to him. And now he’s been uprooted to a new school where he doesn’t even know if there if the team is in good. Like, these are real emotions that people are facing behind every one of these real estate transactions. And to be able to actually spend the time to double down on human intelligence and find out what’s going on here in this family. And how can I not just help them find a house? But how do I help them connect to the community? How do I like who do I know that I can connect them with it will make their life better? Like that’s where you become irreplaceable, right? Is it now you’re a connection to solving not just help me find a house or help me sell a house. But help me solve other problems that I’m facing right now because of your vast network and the number of people that you know, and like you and trust you. And so I just had to share that example. Because what you said reminded me of an experience that my family had, who a real estate agent went above and beyond and made herself absolutely irreplaceable.
Jay Marks 13:50
Absolutely. You know, one time I had a lady moving here. And she made the point of telling me said I’m 40 years old, and I’ve lived in my hometown my entire life. I’ve never left my hometown before. And so they came here for a house on a trip. And then they came for another second trip. And I said, Hey, what are you doing this afternoon, I thought we’d have lunch and I took her over to a friend’s house. I knew what church she went to. And I called some ladies to that church. And I brought in a catered lunch. And they had about eight or nine ladies there. And I said why don’t you just bought your lunch and she’s just some new friends. And she’s still friends, the little ladies to this day, which is really kind of cool. But I want her to know that. Yeah, you can have friends here, too.
It’s good.
Justin Stoddart 14:28
You know, we’ve got a few comments that I wanted to point out here. Sarah Malarkey Johnson commented here, let me see if I can get her comment up here on the screen. She said yes, the community is everything. Thanks for sharing that Sarah. Then also, Hollie Beeby said nothing to fear but fear itself. So great comments. Ladies, thank you so much for sharing that. Let’s get into mistakes. Jay, kind of some stuff that you have learned from right opportunities for growth opportunities for learning.
Jay Marks 14:53
Yeah, well, I made a mistake. This weekend, I had a house with three car garage and MLS and the multiple listing service, I had two cars. Why I don’t know I went to my sheet my notes everything said three car garage even had the measurements down. But two car garage, and we fixed it. A matter of fact, it was during the open house, we realized, hey, our sheets don’t match the marketing, what happened here. And the number one thing I want to tell people about making mistakes is that it’s okay. Apologize quickly fix it as fast as you can demonstrate that you learn from it. But the number one thing you need to do when you make a mistake, no matter how big it is, or how small it is, is to forgive yourself. If you walk around beating yourself up, and we’ve all done that, you’re going to affect your entire day and your entire week and possibly people around you. And I want you also to know Justin, I am really good about beating myself up. And maybe making people around me uncomfortable sometimes. And that’s something I’ve been working on is you know what, when mistakes happen? Just Okay, that happened. Let’s fix it. One of the things we have written on our wall in our conference room is what victory we all celebrate together and when things are hard, we share the burden together as a team. And we’ve talked about processes and automating a minute ago about the robots. And one thing that we’re processing and systemized on our processes systems, is who does what on the team, and who covers who on the team. Like right now I’ve got one of our teammates is on vacation, and we’ve all come together, we’re covering her files and her clients. And the systems are still going and going in place even over a long holiday weekend. But the thing I want to talk about mistakes also, as I woke up one time, at the end of an open house, slept through the whole thing. And I wondered what the heck, you know, we’ve all had mistaken. I’ve opened up the wrong house before I’ve shown the wrong house. I remember I opened the door, it was supposed to be vacant. And there’s a whole bunch of furniture in there and someone watching TV, can I help you? Yes, supposed to be across the street. You know?
Justin Stoddart 16:56
You know, I think going back to Hollie Beeby comment, like nothing to fear except Fear Itself. Oftentimes, out of people being paralyzed out of things that could go wrong, right, I might mess up. Like, I don’t want to make this phone call reach out to a client because I don’t want him to say that like there’s this fear that becomes truly paralyzing. And what you’ve just given us, Jay is permission to be like, you know what, when you get when you stick your neck out there and you start doing things and start working, there’s going to be mistaken, there’s going to be mistaken. But if you can come in it through humility to say, hey, look, I’m human, sometimes I mess up. But I’m going to fix it, I’m gonna make it right. And then some, like, I think it gives all of us the ability to put fear aside and put fear away to be like, it’s okay, everybody that I affect because of my mistakes, guess what has also made a mistake. And if they if they’re not the type of person that’s going to see that then they’re probably not somebody that I want to have in my database long term. You know and have my life long term. And so I love that you share that cuz you kind of give even a top producer as you produce at the highest level, nationally recognized that you’re saying, hey, look, there are some times where I totally blow it. I think it gives, it gives all of us the ability to say, you know what, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to do a few more things that are outside of my comfort zone, knowing that there’s going to be mistakes, and it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.
Jay Marks 18:19
And mistakes also can set you back and make you scared all over again. And then you just gotta kind of repeat the process like it’s okay, it’s gonna be all right. You know, we’ve all jumped off the high dive at the pool at summer camp, but how scared we were, you know, but after a couple of jumps, we’re flying off at try and do a triple gainer or something, you know, but I’ll share something with you. You said something to me that kind of sparked a book that I read once I’d like to share with everybody. And the name of the book is called Mr. Schmooze by Richard Abraham. And I hope everyone goes and buys it. It is a business story. But I’ve probably given away 30 copies of the book. And it talks about how a very in tune salesperson paid attention to his client and made them feel really welcome and really connected. And I was at a conference recently Justin and there was a speaker from Southwest Airlines. And her role was a director of hospitality. And that doesn’t make sense that an airline has someone to charge hospitality, hotels, restaurants, right? And she says, No, we want every single passenger to feel welcome, appreciated and cared for. And that’s something that is, and that’s going to have people calling you back and they’re not going to click by now, they’re gonna instead call Jay.
Justin Stoddart 19:37
That’s a powerful lesson to maybe even on your team, right to have somebody who’s in charge of hospitality around here. Right, like, like the client experience, you know, I know that there’s, you know, certain firms that have kind of adopted the director of first impressions, but like, Who’s in charge of being sure that the way we show up to a customer the first time and the second time, the third time, it’s where people are always like, wow, that was more than I expected. I,
Jay Marks 20:03
I showed houses in a pair of jeans one time. Not that that’s bad. But this particular customer, I completely misread the client. And I showed up in a pair of jeans and tennis shoes, and I don’t remember what shirt I had on. But he never saw me again went on and buy a house, but he didn’t buy from me because he thought I didn’t show up as if I cared. That was many years ago, but I still remember that guy, you know, show up as if you care.
Justin Stoddart 20:32
Interesting. And that, like means different things, different people. Right? Right. As a father, or as a team leader, right? You got like you said, You’ve got to know your audience, like what matters to these people, right for my kids and set my phones in my pocket and it doesn’t come out. And when they’re talking to me, I’m looking in their eyes and not looking at a screen like that’s, that’s what matters to them, you know, where as soon as a pretty good client, it was that you dress a certain way. And that you show showed up in that way is what matters to them. So it’s great. Any kind of closing thoughts or wisdom, Jay, before I ask kind of the signature question of the show?
Jay Marks 21:12
Okay. Yeah, I have a small rant, I’m gonna do a nice rant. Okay, here’s the deal. To you Justin and to anyone watching this show. It doesn’t matter. Go be you and work your hardest and bring your A game like Justin said earlier today. And every day, wake up, show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and give it your all. And if you cannot do that, then stay home for the day, call yourself out. You know, we call it tapping out, hey, I’m off. I’m not in this round. But when you do show up, show up ready to play as if the curtain opens on a great performance or the kickoff just happened on the Super Bowl. Believe me, those guys came to play and your client. Here’s the deal. I asked one time and agent Hey, what are you think your clients think you’re doing right now? Well, my client thinks that right now I’m in here working in phones and making calls to get their home sold, or I’m negotiating repairs, or whatever it is I’m doing or finding them a house. They think that all day long, I’m finding them something, well then do it. Make your clients needs matter. And you’ll always have a job.
Justin Stoddart 22:20
You know, that reminds me Jay, one of my very dear friends’ person I get to work with every day, Steve Yeager, he taught me this. He said, If your very best client. So if you were to have a camera on you all day long, almost like as if you were the Kardashians, right? Like, like the reality TV show of what you actually do during a business day? Would your best clients still want you to represent them as their real estate agent? You know, it’s like, you just put a sign in the yard and hope that it sells let someone else sell it. Are you actively out trying to solve those clients problems? Because if they really had full transparency and what you did, truth be told, maybe you get more clients? Maybe you’d have less. But it’s a great question asked like, what am I doing with my time to actually serve my clients to deserve their ongoing loyalty? And the commission that comes at the end of this?
Jay Marks 23:10
Yeah, I agree. All right.
Justin Stoddart 23:13
Signature question. Are you ready for it?
Jay Marks 23:14
Yeah, I’m ready, go.
Justin Stoddart 23:15
What does Jay Marks do? You’re a big thinker, right? You’ve done some some some great, great things and you’re being recognized on larger, larger stages for what you’re doing? What is it that you do to consistently expand your possibilities to think bigger, like, talk to us? Just a thing or two. It’s like, Hey, this is critical for me to continue to think bigger.
Jay Marks 23:44
I’ll tell you this, I lost my mother when I was eight years old. And my mother was an incredible force. She directed the choir, sang solos, directed plays, acted in plays. She’s one of the top 10 Tupperware salespeople in 1976 in the entire country, pizza Hey, Mom, den leader from my Cub Scout troop, and saying to me every single night when I went to bed, and she left this earth at 35 years old, and in my opinion, she had this incredible, unused life, that the world did not get a chance to experience. And I have made a commitment to make sure that I don’t have an unused life. When I leave this earth, I want to leave completely worn out with nothing left on the table. And I want people to say, Wow, at my funeral, I want my gravestone to say wow, you know, and then also have parentheses. Hey, sorry about that, you know, but no, seriously, I am. I want to go out with a bang. And I’m constantly trying to find ways that I can have more fun and laugh even louder and help people. Because I’ve been through so much Justin I want to say something else. I want to get in front of every widow I can, every widower where I can I want to help every kid I can find that last a mom and dad seemed to really shine this last year, we worked with four widows. And now I’m working with a brand new widower and to be able to sit at their kitchen table and cry with them and know what it feels like. But what makes me think bigger and go forward Justin is. I don’t want to leave anything on the table. I want the mark of the man to be a worn out guy when it’s over.
Justin Stoddart 25:20
Jay, you gave me goosebumps that were as powerful as an answer. As I’ve heard. I’m sorry to hear about your mom sounds like she was an incredible lady. And I’m sure from where she’s at her perspective. I’m sure she’s awfully proud of you to know, the man that you are the man that you’re becoming and the impact you’re having. So it looks like Jay Oh, look at that.
Jay Marks 25:39
Yeah. Got this off the wall. This is uh, this is her. This is Margaret K. Marks right there. Wow. Friend of mine painted her for me a couple of years ago.
Justin Stoddart 25:50
Well, thank you for sharing that. Jay. It’s been a total pleasure to spend some time with you here in front of everybody that has had the privilege of meeting Jay Marks. So if you don’t know who Jay is, now you do a little bit, go find them on social media. And if you have if you’re a real estate agent and you have any sort of business in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, reach out to Jay he’s a guy that you can absolutely trust will do right by your clients. So Jay wanna thank you, good buddy, for your time. This has been a total pleasure and excited to see you continue to grow and impact a lot of people, Justin
Jay Marks 26:26
thank you on behalf of the real estate industry for helping us think bigger. Thank you for developing this platform. You are doing a great job and I love seeing what you do.
Justin Stoddart 26:33
Thanks, my friend. That means a lot coming from you. And we will be in touch soon. Thanks, everybody, again for tuning into today’s episode of the Think Big Real Estate Show if this has been valuable. A great way to thank me and Jay is to share this out. I appreciate the comments that have come in and we look forward to impacting more people. Thanks again, Jay.