Unlocking the Benefits of Referral Partnerships with Think Bigger CEO and Head Coach Justin Stoddart

Justin Stoddart: 0:00

If you want this strategic referral partnership, which by the way has the ability to send you one or two warm referrals a month, then get to work. Be resourceful. Who do you know who might know? You're one or two introductions away from solving everybody's problems? Who has them? So get resourceful and bring value to the business without expecting anything in return. Once they're extremely appreciative, and they recognize number one, you were introduced differently. Number two, you are you came in the meeting and talked about me, not you. Number three, you followed up with value. The final step is to add value to their clients through them.

Announcer: 0:31

You found The Real Estate Law Podcast, because real estate is more than just pretty pictures. And law goes well beyond the paperwork and courtroom argument. If you're a real estate professional, or looking to build real estate expertise, then welcome to the conversation and Discover more at the realestatelawpodcast.com.

Jason Muth: 0:56

Welcome to The Real Estate Law Podcast. It's another great episode that we think is a great episode Rory, we have an awesome guest on. And you know, we're really excited to be talking to Justin Stoddard out in Portland, Oregon, because he has so many great things to say with all the work he does coaching agents and as a former real estate investor, a current real estate investor himself. We're going to learn a lot about what's happening with his coaching teams of people that he works with and all the agents that help him out understand what's happening in their worlds and spheres of influence. Rory, I know that your agents come to you for lots of questions, especially in a crazy environment that we're here having in the first and second quarters of 2023, right?

Rory Gill: 1:35

Yeah. And I hope all my agents are listening to this podcast, especially if they want to grow their business in a market where we always need to be really thinking ahead, you know, not what's happening right now, but what comes next. And if you're an agent elsewhere, you should be listening to this one too.

Jason Muth: 1:48

Well, let me introduce Justin, officially. Justin is the CEO and Head Coach of Think Bigger Real Estate. You're a former lead developer and homebuilder and you specialize in helping real estate agents grow warm market leads by building strategic referral partnerships with other professionals like attorneys and CPAs, and insurance agents and whatnot. And I can't wait to hear more about that. But Justin, please - warm welcome to The Real Estate Law Podcast.

Justin Stoddart: 2:14

Awesome. Thanks, guys. Great to be here with you really appreciate the work that you do. And it's fun to be to be here with you today.

Jason Muth: 2:20

I should say you're a podcast host yourself too. Right?

Justin Stoddart: 2:22

I am. Yeah. Yeah. Well, my favorite things outside of being a dad, I think interviewing great people, like you guys is probably at the top of the list.

Jason Muth: 2:31

Yeah, you have an awesome background right there too. If you're listening to this, you don't have the opportunity to see the simplicity of Justin's background. And you know, we're, I'm in a jungle right here. Rory is our podcast studio downstairs. I love the wall paneling. Love the logo, great professional look you've got there.

Justin Stoddart: 2:48

Appreciate it.

Jason Muth: 2:49

So Justin, what's happening in your world today? I mean, we're recording this in the first quarter of 2023. Lots has been going on in the news with banking and real estate across the country. You're working with agents and you're coaching them, they're probably coming to you with lots of questions about how to improve their business because things are just not like what they used to be. So what are you hearing out there from some of your coaching clients?

Justin Stoddart: 3:10

You know, what we're seeing is that the casual buyers and sellers that are oftentimes coming into the market in the spring, are sitting on the sidelines. The phrase that oftentimes our agents are hearing more often than they like to hear, which is you know what, we're going to wait and see what happens. Like I just had a client yesterday, I was talking to her she said I had a client who was ready to write a million dollar offer. And he decided he was going to just hold off because of what's been happening with the banking situation. And prior to that, it was a very common conversation for people to be saying of like, you know, there's a lot going on with inflation, there's a lot going on with rates, a lot going on in Europe, right? I mean, there's just I think we're just gonna wait, I think people just whenever they feel unsettled, they stop. And they don't, they don't take risks, they just want to hold their money tight, they just want to not do anything crazy. And because there's a lot of uncertainty going on right now that's that's the market that we're in and so and that coupled with really with the raise of interest rates last year, sellers are really still in love with and attached to last year's equity. And buyers are really attached to last year's buying power. And those two are not on the same plane right now. And so that happens in every shift but this one was drastic, in part because rates jumped so quickly that it's just taking longer for sellers to come back down to where it's kind of more of an equilibrium and buyers to come up to what their new kind of buying power is. So you know, we're seeing that agents who in previous years in this spring market right now were selling x number of homes you know, their their x divided by two so I'm x divided by three right? I've had a number of people tell me I haven't sold the home, this is so weird I haven't sold a home and and six months. And so I think that's that's the reality that many agents are facing and not all agents. Some agents are doing just fine maybe not doing as well as they'd like to but they're doing okay. And so the overall landscape is is that I am, I am going to have to really take a look at how I'm getting business, because it's not going to just come to me it's going to be an intentional, it's a skill based market, I'm going to have to be very good at, I can't pass over the times that I'm supposed to be proactively generating new business, I can't just shrug my shoulders and say, I'll get to that tomorrow, like, it's no longer a nicety. It's a necessity, we have to be very intentional about growing our businesses right now.

Rory Gill: 5:33

And we only have you for a short time. So I really kind of want to jump into that if like any agent, if they're struggling to have kind of a lot of that easy business that was coming to us in the past few years? What can we be doing to really be more intentional about finding the business that's going to come next and feed our families?

Justin Stoddart: 5:50

I love that topic Rory, I appreciate you asking it, because the traditional models tell us that we build a big database, and from that database will come a smaller number of referrals, right to the tune of about 10%, let's say. So let's say a warm market, sphere based business, if properly nurtured should produce about a 10% return. In other words, 100 people in a database well-nurtured should produce about 10 deals a year, right? And that's statistically across the board. Some are higher, some are lower, but you could kind of expect on that. Now in in a year like this, it might be closer to like a 7% return, right? Maybe even a 5% return. So we have to deal with okay, what I can either settle for less and adjust my business expenses and lifestyle expenses accordingly, which is not a bad idea to do. But there's another way where you don't have to necessarily settle. And I think that's that's the magic of what we're teaching right now. And the great results we're helping agents to get. And if you were to take a look at that situation where maybe a 10% return on the database has turned into a 5 to 7% return on a database. Rather than saying, well, I guess I just need to grow my database bigger and bigger and bigger and have more conversations and work harder, and put food on the table but not be there at the dinner table when it served, right, which is reality for many real estate agents, especially in this market is like, I just got to put food on the table. But sorry, kids, sorry, sweetheart, I'm not going to be there to enjoy it with you. And sometimes we got to do what we got to do. Right. And I commend anybody that does that. But I'm going to give you a perspective right now that will cause you to maybe rethink this a little bit is that that scenario, the working the additional long hours and having more more conversations is based on the fact that we know that we're having to sort through more people to find the highly motivated, right, those that are highly motivated to buy or sell this year, we just have to have more conversations to find those that are not casual buyers and sellers that are real, like need to buy need to sell buyers and sellers. So what if rather than - and I'll compare a typical database to a bale of hay, right, and in there, we know that there are needles, right? It's like needle in a haystack, there are people who have to buy have to sell they're in there somewhere. So what I do, I gotta go sort through more hay and maybe look through more hay to find the needles. That's that's what traditional thinking tells us. However, what I would recommend is rather than then taking that route, why don't we just go looking for stacks of needles instead of looking for more bales of hay to find the needles? What if we just identified a way to where are the stacks of needles, it's not the hay that I want. If for some reason we've gotten our head that if if I want needles, and I gotta go find hay. And it's that's not necessarily the case, we want the needles. So how do we go find the needles. And here's what this metaphor means is that there are highly motivated buyers and sellers in this market. And oftentimes those that are highly motivated, is because they're going through some sort of life transition that's forcing their hand to be highly motivated in this market. Because if you have the luxury to wait, sure, why not? Let's just see what happens. Right? But if by chance, you're going through what I call any one of the eight D's, call it Divorce, right? You might not have the luxury to continue to live in that same house for a while, right? Diamonds, right? You just you're forming a new household, we're getting more serious about life, right? Diapers, you just added new baby, we don't have room, I'm working from home and I've got a new baby here. This isn't gonna work. We need a bigger home, right? If somebody passes away, mom can't stay in that house by herself anymore. We got to sell the house. Right? Devastation, right in which maybe somebody loses a job that's happening, right? We have people who maybe it's some sort of natural disaster, right? Like devastation forces the hand. You know, some of the other ones include, like, new Destination, right? People moving from cold Boston, down to sunny Florida, right. So there's any number of things that are moving people to be highly motivated in this market. And that's the reality of housing. The beautiful thing is housing and shelter is not going out of style. However, people casually buying real estate that is out of style for the moment. So we have to get hone in on the people that are really focused really motivated in this market. So in other words, I would compare those people have been stacks of needles. Well, how do we like where are these stacks hanging out? Well, if we say, I'm going to focus on people who are going through a divorce, then you could go find a strategic referral partner of being a divorce mediator or, you know, a family law attorney. Right? If you're talking about people who are, let's say, they're diamonds, kind of using that, that the right people who are wedding planners. Diapers, or people who do birthing classes, right, these are professionals whose businesses deal with people right around a life transition. And as a result, you can rest assured that they're dealing with a lot of people who are going to be needing to buy needing to sell. So again, rather than looking through the masses looking for the needles of haystacks, let's just go right to the people that already have the relationships, who are dealing with people that are going to need that now.

Rory Gill: 10:48

All those connections are critically important for this. How can somebody get a connection? Or actually, I should say, how can an agent provide value to somebody who's in one of those professions, sort of just approaching them as a prospective taker of their business?

Justin Stoddart: 11:02

Yeah, I love that. Rory. You've you've actually identified some very key points as to why this oftentimes does not work very well. It's because real estate agents, even though they may be very friendly, and have beautiful cards and have a great elevator pitch, when they show up to get even in some of the kindest language that has been invented for real estate agents like, oh, by the way, I'm never too busy for your referrals. There's nothing wrong with that line when it's people who already love you. But when you're approaching a new professional, it's nice, and it may work for your sphere, but it's not designed to work for a business owner. And they know right away that you're there to get something just like every other real estate agent, you know, that has maybe come in the door to solicit their business as well. And that's exactly who you are, as you're a solicitor because you're there to get something. Your question is uber wise, because in order for this to work, it can't be about getting something because if so, you'll go to the back of the line, but behind the 10 or 12 other real estate agents that they already know, which means this isn't going to be like a really viable option for you to generate business. Now, the perspective needs to be exactly what you described, which is with the ultimate goal being of how do I make it so easy to refer me it's almost as easy as breathing. Like, it just, it just falls out of their mouth, because they're already talking about me in their existing client meetings. Like I've made it to where real estate is coming up in their meetings. And when you start to think, okay, then how do I reverse engineer that? How do I work backwards from that? It is exactly, you have to seek a warm introduction. In fact, from day one, you need them from the very first contact, or the first time they hear about you, they need it needs to trigger trigger in their mind that this is not the this is not a common real estate agent. And so what what we teach is to first and foremost be intentional about who is the person that you want to be serving, the ideal avatar could be a senior, right, a senior citizen, it could be a first time homebuyer, it could be somebody relocating to a new destination. Identify who is the person that you are uniquely set up to serve. Once you have that person identified, then identify who is the professional that already has a relationship with that person. So that I don't have to go out and try and find those people, I just go to the stacks and needles where they're already hanging out. And then you seek a warm introduction to that person. So you're not going to solicit in, and the introduction is going to be crafted by you. In other words, you're going to you're going to give us some bullet points very similar to how I gave you some bullet points on, here's Justin, and here's who we're interviewing today. I didn't leave that up to you. So it's like, well, Justin is a guy that has something to share with us, right, which you guys are more intelligent than to introduce me like that you sought out for me give us some some bio points. Very similarly, you're gonna give the person who's introducing you some bio points, so that the audience hears about you in the best possible frame. And so depending upon upon who you're talking to, you want to craft that to where when they say, Oh, interesting, this, this doesn't even sound like a common real estate agent, right? Some of the phrases we like to use is, this is a wealth advisor for your real estate portfolio. Right? This is someone who helps manage your wealth in real estate. This is someone who helps grow people's wealth through real estate, when all of a sudden you're being introduced to a financial advisor, for example, in that way, they're like, Oh, that's interesting. I want to meet this person. I like that kind of sounds like what I do, right? But in real estate, that's interesting. So now all of a sudden, from the very onset of this of this is introduction, you sound different. When you show up in that meeting, which is step three of our model, show from that meeting, you are showing up not to deliver your cards and your dog and pony show and say, you know, like, I'm never too busy for you referrals, you're there to take off the real estate agent hat and put on a business consultant hat you're there to learn about their business. First and foremost, you want to see if there's somebody who you could integrate into your practice. There's somebody who you could talk about frequently to your clients, like do they fit the bill? If not, right, then of course, it's a short meeting. But if they are you're there to listen for challenges that they're having in their business, like, where are they at? Where are they headed? What's their plan to get there? What bottlenecks are you experiencing? And you're looking for ways that you can leverage your network and your knowledge to add value to the business? And so the day after the meeting, you're following up saying, Hey, I heard what you said yesterday about having difficulty in finding and keeping good paralegals. I have someone in my network that actually works to find paralegals for people. Is it okay, if I make an introduction, right? Now, you might be saying like, I don't know, if I know how to do that. If you want this strategic referral Partnership, which by the way, has the ability to send you one or two warm referrals a month, then get to work, be resourceful. Who do you know, who might know your one or two introductions away from solving everybody's problems who has them. So get resourceful and bring value to the business without expecting anything in return. Once they're extremely appreciative, and they recognize number one, you were introduced differently. And number two, you are, you came into meeting and talked about me, not you. Number three, you followed up with value, the final step is to add value to their clients through them. So one thing that real estate agents have an uncanny ability to do is to create a comparative market analysis for people. And when you give that information to a financial adviser, they're able to better serve their clients, they want to talk about real estate, because that way their clients don't go buy real estate without telling them, they don't go sell real estate without telling them. And you can actually arm them and equip them with the ability to talk about real estate in every one of their annual reviews, which ought to be happening about one per day, by the way, one to two per day, in the average financial advisors database, you can imagine how many real estate related conversations are having and oh, by the way, you don't have to say oh, by the way, because your CMA is in that meeting with them. You're there in the meeting with them, to where you don't, you don't have to, it's not hard to get a referral from that person anymore. Because when they mentioned, you know, I think we're going to sell a couple of rental properties and, you know, roll that into a, you know, an Airbnb asset and at that coastal town where we want to spend some time as a family, you've already done the work on a couple of rental properties. Like, well, here's somebody who already has some some knowledge about the property, there's someone who at least you should talk to you, that came from their financial advisor. Right. And that's, that's a much better endorsement than online lead, where three other people are seeing who can call them back in the fastest. That's not, that's the world where margins and autonomy go away. And that's where most real estate agents are, like, I don't want to do this anymore. Or, or we, we don't get a really high professional group of people, right, we get people who are just solicitors. And so they get treated like solicitors, and we wonder why our margins are being compressed. It's because we're because we're, we're acting in the same way that we are asking to be treated. And so if we really want to show up as professionals to get paid as professionals, then we ought to maybe get introduced from other professionals and and add the kind of value that other professionals would, would add. And that's really the path to having a referral flow to clients in this market who are highly motivated to buy and sell. So you don't have to settle your numbers and say, Well, I guess I'll just settle for less, I hope the market gets better next year. Right? You don't have to have that conversation, you can say, Okay, what do I need to learn who I need to become? And what strategic referral partners do I need to add significant value to, in order to produce that referral flow to those that that will make a move this year?

Jason Muth: 18:38

It's such an interesting perspective. And way to think about the real estate agents' world because there's so much noise out there. You know, we all see it on social media, from the bad agents that are all they're doing is they're posting what they sold, what their listings are, and asking for referrals. And, you know, they're, they're kinda leaning on their local expertise, which today seems pretty lazy, frankly, right? Oh, um, you're expert in this zip code. Okay, well, how is that different from the other 50 agents that are experts in that zip code, and Justin, what you started talking about, is a way of setting agents apart. I could see some agents getting nervous because, you know, if you become the specialist in X, you know, maybe you're not the specialist in Y or Z anymore might be the way their mind goes, because people try to harness all the leads, right? Like I could, I could be a generalist, I could do everything. But you know, in in a pure marketing sense, you know, it's really good to specialize on one thing, then be a generalist in many things and really serve nobody. So that kind of leads to a question like, you know, you do a lot of great coaching, you know, with Think Bigger. The types of people that are contacting you, you know, are they do they know, they need your services do they know, they need your coaching and some of your wisdom as to how to really set them up for for good lead flow for a good year? Or do they have no idea they need your service or somewhere in between? Who do you hear from and who are kind of your best clients?

Justin Stoddart: 20:08

I would say, those that heard what I just share right there. If it's like, oh my goodness, I would love to work almost in like a in a b2b environment. Maybe they've come out of a corporate world, maybe they've come out of some sort of professional field. And they've always been a little bit uncomfortable, have gotten uncomfortable, but they've longed for those conversations again, right where they can leverage the power of their professional network to grow. Yet they're serving people in their houses. And so they don't, they haven't really leveraged their professional network, or even just their skills in dealing in a professional setting. Those are the people that are really like, oh, man, I like this model, because this is kind of my DNA. I love having strategy conversations. I love connecting people, I love solving problems in business, kind of a business person, I just happen to be in the business of real estate, residential real estate. This typically resonates with them, and they're like, how do I do this? Because I would love to have not only just the benefits of what you described, but I'd actually like to have my day to day be having conversations with an insurance agent, and a lender and an attorney and a financial advisor and adding value to their clients through them. That's, that's, that's kind of my jam. Right? And that's, that's really, why why this originally worked for me as a high end home builder, I really enjoyed not just soliciting business from the consumer, but I really enjoyed creating strategic referral partnerships that work. So usually when people hear some component of what I just shared, they're like, oh, I want to learn more, right? And then there's always some curiosity of like, how do you actually help people to do that? Right? What what does that actually look like? So at that point, it becomes kind of a kind of a, an alignment of is the help that I offer, how they receive the help, like, is that what they're looking for, and then we walk down that path together. And sometimes I'll say I don't, I don't think this is the right fit for you, I think you're really looking for something else. I'll give a recommendation, you know, to some other coaches really do that I really, I call myself a coach. But more than I'm a trainer. And I have a very unique model that allows people to shift to a b2b lead generation model in a b2c world. And I teach and train that and help install that in your business in three months. And if you want to stay stay in our community, you can continue to refine that get better at it great, but you'll have what you need to know the systems will be installed through you can make that pivot in, in one quarter.

Rory Gill: 22:25

There is a time and place and purpose for online leads and even cold leads. But what I like about the approach of having kind of the warm introductions, isn't just the conversion rate, but the relationship you have between the professional and the client. It's rooted in trust, the conversations are a little bit more advanced, at least in my experience. And you're not always trying to build that little bit of trust as you're getting going with the relationship. So for all my agents out there, I'd encourage them to make this more central to their practice, just because I've always found it to be more rewarding to work with those clients who start the relationship with an element of trust.

Justin Stoddart: 23:07

Yeah, and I think you've hit the nail on the Rory, is that you're, you're not having to build the trust yourself. Because that trust is being transferred through a powerful introduction, right? Through an endorsement, you have to say endorsement lightly because of these, like financial professionals have to be careful about endorsing. But if they say this is a professional, who we've partnered with, to get information about your property, they're great. There's someone at least you should talk to, that's not an endorsement, but it's an introduction with, even though they're covering themselves a little bit there, saying, like, here's somebody you should talk to amongst others, right? If that helps them to feel like they're at least for liability standpoint, that they're covered. That even just the fact that that you're their partner to bring this information into this meeting, there's so much trust that gets transferred just just through that, that you're not one of many anymore, right? You're really one of one, it's yours to lose, in my opinion, right? Let's that person is either deeply related to or has a deep, deep relationship with another great agent, like you are in first place when their advisor they've trusted with was so much says this is who we've partnered with, you know, you should at least talk to them. It's yours to lose, right, which is very different than the online lead space is very different, where you're trying to do anything you can to get trust and become likable. And and it's very much a you're a, you're on call like, and you better be there, like at the speed of the ambulance. Because somebody else will if you won't, and I don't know you from Adam, so I'm gonna cause you to open a few doors, and I'm gonna keep kicking some tires. And I don't even feel bad if you left your family on Sunday night dinner, because I wanted to see this house now. And on the website, it says that's what you do. So sorry, right? You can exit out of that world and stop having planet wars, which right now many are saying my warm market sphere isn't producing at the level I want to so I don't have an option. I gotta go into that world, but they hate it. And they want out of it. And this is a path for them to come back into the warm market and get better and more referrals not just leads, but referrals, but more scalable, right, because again, the average database produces at 10% a great referral partner will produce at 1,000%. And what I mean by that is to get 100 people or 10 people to produce one referral per year, right. Whereas the right upstream partner, which is what I referenced them as right strategic partner, it's one partner to produce 10 referrals, right? It's such a higher conversion rate, and just a better use of time.

Jason Muth: 26:16

How do you get clients of yours to think differently and maybe move out of their comfort zone of what they're used to doing, and whether or not what they're used to doing is successful? To move into a system that you're proposing.

Justin Stoddart: 26:30

A lot of it happens as they hear the stories of other people, right. So I'll tell a couple, I have a client right now, his name is Daniel, and Daniel had a rough 2022, as many agents rougher than he would have liked. And he, he called me, he said, Justin, I don't, I can't give you all the credit for this. But your, your program has had a significant impact upon me and upon my business. And to the tune of I will have made more money by March 15, which was two days ago from this recording that I did all of last year. Keep in mind, he had a rough last year, this is a great purchasing agent. And he said, Now some of that would have happened already, just because the pipeline was delayed a little bit because of interest rates. But he said, I've switched my conversations to be from the masses, to the few, but the few who can really help me. And so when people hear your stories, right, and I mean that another one already, and that sometimes we think of just the professional crowd, right? People who, who are dealing CPAs, and attorneys and so many people are intimidated, like I don't know if I can have those conversations, I have some people that some agents that are very unsophisticated, and one in three weeks, got two slam dunk listings from an HVAC contractor of another group out of Idaho that his has teamed up with, you know, what to call strategic referral partner of a moving company. Like I didn't know this, but she uncovered it that oftentimes people will get a bid on what it's going to cost to move before they ever go move, right before they actually list their home, they want to see what other ones are going to cost. And so people are having these conversations, you know, consumers are having conversations these people before they go talk to real estate agents. So sometimes it's just helping people to see, there's all different tiers of people around that are right around a real estate transaction. And if you just spend your time building real value, as Rory described real value for that, one or two people it can, it can change everything. So typically, when people start hearing those stories, they're like, Okay, this is way better than pumping money into Facebook or, you know, given lead gen source 35% of my of my income, you know, this is a better path.

Jason Muth: 28:33

Before we start to wrap up and get to the final up questions, I want to ask about your book, because you're also an author, The Upstream Model. And I'd like to find out what a couple of those hidden secrets are into building a massive referral business while crushing the big tech competitors as part of your title. Yeah.

Justin Stoddart: 28:50

Appreciate asking. So the principles we've been talking about are some of them are in the book, like the foundational way of thinking is, that's what the books about. And so you know, some of the some of the, the, or the way that I uncovered it, again, I was a land developer, high end home builder, working for another gentleman, he decided his passion was really land development. And he began to pursue that heavily. And he put me to oversee his custom home business. And there came a point where it just didn't make sense to have him in the equation. And he knew it, I knew it. And so we parted ways with his blessing. And I just assumed that it was going to be just as easy to go develop new business as he had made it appear up to that point. And I quickly realized, as many real estate agents recognize is like, Oh, I got my license looked really easy on HGTV, or last year 2020-2021 are pretty easy. But all of a sudden, like, this is a very crowded shoreline, there's 1.6 million agents and a projected 4.5 million transactions, each agent is going to close a couple of deals, that's not going to work, right? How's this going to pan out and people start to realize, like, Ooh, this is credit. And that's what I felt like, as a builder. I feel like there were more builders, and there were homes. And so I realized I could, I could kind of stay down at the bottom of the stream. Hence the name, upstream model, I can see down at the bottom of the stream and really look for scraps. And, and and or try and do it for less and have it be a race to the bottom. Or I recognize that there was somebody else in the marketplace who was not a direct competitor, but who was it was building relationships with those people just before they needed a builder and that was an architectural designer. So in the book, I lay out the principles that I learned, first and foremost in doing it wrong, right as showing up as a solicitor or even just as a common vendor, and then how to actually build value for somebody else who has great potential to help me in a big way. And how I built out these strategic referral partnerships that changed my business, and changed the way I think and look at business now. To where it's not about chasing the masses anymore. It's really about finding a few key partners that can open the door to my ideal clients. And so the book outlines that and gives a number of principles not just on that, but on how to how to step into being a leader that's attractive to these other professional partners, because it's not a matter of just learning a few scripts that can help you get going. But there's also kind of a bigger shift that happens when you, you go from being a vendor, which is just someone in your industry like a real estate agent, to being a peer of these partners, and then to being a mentor and a leader to them, to where they need you and their business more than you need them. So it walks through how to make that how to start that transition, and how to keep it going to where you become someone that all all your ideal strategic partners seek out and want to have in their business.

Jason Muth: 31:28

How long have you been at this? Like, where you officially transitioned into the Think Big Think Bigger part of the business?

Justin Stoddart: 31:35

Yes. So I began coaching, I was actually in the, after the building industry did what it did in 2009, I realized my passion really wasn't building homes. Nor was it even developing land. It was, it was a great business, right? But when the market shifted, suddenly, I realize I don't want to develop land, I want to develop people. I don't want to build homes, I want to build businesses. So I was in the Title and Escrow industry, actually, for a number of years. And in there's where I really caught, it caught my attention that I really wanted to serve professionals, I wanted to serve the real estate industry. And, and so it was actually just officially over a year ago that I left kind of an executive role instead of a title company, very cushy position to go pursue my passion, which is really this, helping people to develop themselves and build their businesses.

Jason Muth: 32:27

Right. Wow. Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a limitless amount of people that could stand to gain some wisdom from you know, conversations with Justin, and you know, you have a great podcast, I think the Think Bigger Real Estate show, is that right there, get the name, right. Yeah, we'll make sure we link to that in the show notes along with the link to the book and your website and everything. Let's get to the final couple questions, we ask all of our guests just to wrap up the conversation and get to know you a little bit more. And then we'll make sure that you could mention where they that you can be found easily. First of these questions is if you can get on stage for a half an hour and talk about any subject in the world does not have to be about what you do for a living, what would that be?

Justin Stoddart: 33:06

My family, I'm married to a super superhero. And together, we have six children. And I could take if I had 30 minutes, that would give me about five minutes for each child, that wouldn't be nearly enough. But I'm I positioned my life to where I can be at their games and at their events. Yesterday, I was at a play for my two grade school aged kids. And then the day before that I was at a track meet and a tennis match for my two kids. So are my high school aged kids. So family is really the kind of a center of of my world. And part of what I see, as I mentioned before, is that I've sought out a business model, meaning the upstream model that allows me to only put food on the table, but allows me to be at the table when the food is served. Right. And of course, that's a that's a metaphor. But I think that's important is because there's a lot of people out there that will work their face off to put food on the table. And I commend that there's, it's there's something very deeply noble about that. But if showed another shown another way, they could be their present as well. I think that's it the at the end of the day, that's what's gonna matter the most is that the impact and time we spent with those we love the most. So that's what I would talk about is family. And how you can actually have a life where you can have both you don't have to choose, you don't have to be a popper and a good dad, you can be both right or good mom, you can be both

Jason Muth: 34:18

Your secret must be you have a double or a triple, you know, the doppelganger whatever the term is, for the third version of that, if you have to go to all those different events, I mean, what happens when all six have a sporting event or a play on the same day?

Justin Stoddart: 34:30

You know, my wife super wise. I mentioned, I was fortunate to marry up and every sense of the word. And she's pretty strategic about how she she organizes life and sports. And oftentimes, we'll have three kids in the pool at the same time, she was a swimmer. And she was a she was a state champion a track and field athlete. And so she's okay our kids, she gets them to fall in love with the sports that she loves, which is pretty strategic. And they're all kind of grouped together to where we can typically watch a couple kids at the same time. But yeah, sometimes we can't, right. And that's just the reality of, of life, we got to pick and choose our favorites for the day and then make it up to the other ones on the next day, so.

Jason Muth: 35:08

Strategic parenting.

Justin Stoddart: 35:09

There we go.

Jason Muth: 35:11

Second question that we have tell somebody happened early in your life or career that impacts the way that you're

Justin Stoddart: 35:17

I love it, this just came to mind. So when I was working today. a kid, I had a really bad stuttering problem. Maybe we've all been around people who tried to open their mouth and nothing comes out and it's pretty uncomfortable for not just the person but for you. I never imagined I'd have a career where I communicated for a living. And as I think back about that, and now how that's all I do, right is I communicate and I teach and train and I lead that it gives me hope that the stuff that I am poor at now or my limiting beliefs can be turned into, into something strong, I can be a strength. And so I really believe that that weaknesses can be turned turned into into at least neutral if not strengths. And that helps helps me to to have not have limiting beliefs and allows me to really we'd be able to focus on what areas do I need to be great in? And how do I how do I strengthen those things that need to be strengthened because we're not, we're not stagnant, right? We're very fluid, very dynamic. If we put attention to it, seek out the right mentors, the right coaching, the right help. And put in the time and the effort that we can really get, again, make something that was weak, strong. So that was something that I've had, in fact, I overcame it twice. Quick story I was I served a two year mission for my church down in Brazil. And while there, and learning the Portuguese language, I went through the same stuttering problem again, as if I were a toddler again, trying to learn how to talk, it was a weird thing I was I was 19 years old. And I'm gonna open my mouth. And it wasn't just because I didn't know Portuguese. So that was the first part. But then as I learned Portuguese, I couldn't. I went right back to stuttering just like I did when I was in grade school. And so it was obviously very psychological or if something was going on there, but I had to work through it twice. And, and it was there was nothing more humiliating, and challenging and yet, very empowering to overcome it. And so I carry that with me now as a reminder that I can like this is a family mantra as my kids are complaining about something I say I'm a Stoddart, and they repeat, I and I can do hard things. And then I say again, I'm a Stoddart. And they say, and we love to do hard things. So that's, that's something that we've we've carried that mantra loud and clear, especially when the groaning starts to set in.

Jason Muth: 37:36

Yeah. Do you have that printed on the wall somewhere? That's a it's great. I have been repeating that.

Justin Stoddart: 37:41

No, you don't. Wow, that's a great idea.

Jason Muth: 37:44

I get to try that with parenting also, you know, we just learned how to give breaks you know, with our soon to be four year old that worked fantastically yesterday for me, you know, this early morning, tantrum, unreasonable tantrum as I'm sure that you've had in your life with your children. And we just work toward the break and the break doesn't start until the tantrum stops. And eventually, the tantrum stops and the break happens and then.

Justin Stoddart: 38:08

Break. What do you mean? Like, like, we're gonna go on break, like, we're gonna go on a break?

Jason Muth: 38:11

Just say, Alright, I think you're gonna take a break right now. And then No, break. Now. I think you need a break, you know, continued screaming for another minute or two. And then finally, when she calms down, say, okay, the breaks gonna start now then I hit my button on my phone and then count down two minutes, you know, a minute into it. Okay, we're a minute into it. We're halfway there. And the whole time during the break, she's totally calm, waiting for the break to be over. I've never seen this like work before. But Rory told me about it and it works great.

Justin Stoddart: 38:38

How am I just learning about this? Like, this is amazing guys.

Jason Muth: 38:41

Raising Lions. That was the book right? Raising Lions.

Rory Gill: 38:43

That's the name of the book. Yes. So the things you learned on a real estate podcast?

Justin Stoddart: 38:46

I know. Right? No, now is a break. Like consider like a timeout? And is that same thing? Like, okay.

Jason Muth: 38:53

Yeah, same thing. Take the break exactly where you are like, you don't go into the corner. You don't go into your bed. You just take the break. I think you need to take a break right now. Okay, go sit on the floor. Go sit in the chair. We're gonna take a little break.

Justin Stoddart: 39:02

Start as soon as you come down.

Jason Muth: 39:04

Yeah, yeah. As soon as they calm down, I'm like, you know, there can be five minutes of screaming after we declare a break is needed. And the break hasn't started yet until you're calm. And then the break starts.

Justin Stoddart: 39:15

And the ideal time for a break is what a couple of minutes,

Jason Muth: 39:18

One or two minutes? Oh, yeah. Just two minutes. Yeah. That actually goes into my final question, which is tell us something you're listening to watching or reading these days. And clearly, we're reading Raising Lions, but what's something that you're listening to or watching or reading?

Justin Stoddart: 39:30

You know, I'm actually going back through a book that I read, read very carefully. Now I'm applying it, it's called a book called called Traction by Gino Wickman. And it outlines the Entrepreneurial Operating System. And I think oftentimes, when you're entrepreneur, you're in charge of it all. And oftentimes, as a result of always working in the business, it's hard to ever work on the business. And I feel like this book gives a framework by which working on the business is no longer a mystery or something that you have to create yourself. But it's a plug and play. Here's the system. Here's where you have the meetings, here's what happens in the meetings. Here's how you find the right people, here's how you, you judge their performance. And here's how often you judge your performance. Like it just takes the mystery out of it. And so now I'm going back through because now I'm I'm a fan of it. So I'm going back to and actually implementing it into my business. Yeah.

Rory Gill: 40:18

That's the kind of book that you have to revisit every so often because you will derail from the plan and you have to revisit it once a year or something like that. No doubt, no doubt.

Jason Muth: 40:26

Justin we'll put all the links to ways to find you in the show notes. But you know, what's the easiest way people could reach out to you if they want more information?

Justin Stoddart: 40:34

I think on my website, if you just go to Justin at think sorry, just thinkbiggerre.com. And then my email address is that's justin@thinkbiggerre.com like real estate, re. com Just anything bigger. rt.com is again, the probably the best way to communicate or you go to my website. I've got a number of free resources there. You've got access to get my book like for like $7.99 So which is a lot more on Amazon. So yeah, well to hear from you if this is ready, if this has resonated with you, please do reach out. We'd love to see how I can help you apply.

Jason Muth: 41:11

Well, it's certainly resonated with us, Rory, any final things for Justin?

Rory Gill: 41:16

No, I am going to steal a couple of these ideas when I sit down and work with my agents because I have a couple agents, I think this would be really critical for myself included. So thank you, and I'll be listening for more tips in your podcast.

Justin Stoddart: 41:31

I love it. I love it. I look forward to please circle back and let me know how it's working. I'd love to hear the updates in the progress.

Jason Muth: 41:37

Yeah, Rory, where can people reach out to you?

Rory Gill: 41:40

You can find me at my real estate brokerage. That's NextHome Titletown, nexthometitletown.com. Or my law practice UrbanVillage Legal, urbanvillagelegal.com. All right.

Jason Muth: 41:50

And that's it. Thanks for listening to us at The Real Estate Law Podcast. If you want to reach out to me, you can get me jason@nexthometitletown.com. I'm happy to pass along any messages to Justin if you don't want to reach out to him directly, or you can't get a hold of him for some reason, because he's at 17 swim meets. But I'm sure he responds really well to all emails. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please give us a great rating. We love five star reviews on iTunes, Spotify, or any of the platforms that you're listening to this on. We also read all the comments on YouTube and we read all of our emails. So that's it, a great episode. Justin, thank you so much for all of your insight and all your time today. We probably could have gone on for like four more hours because we have so many questions. But you know, we'll have to have that for the next episode. And thanks for helping to decipher some really great ways to improve business in this crazy real estate world that we're all in here in 2023.

Justin Stoddart: 42:44

My pleasure. Thanks, guys for the opportunity. Great show, by the way. Thank you.

Announcer: 42:49

This has been The Real Estate Law Podcast. Because real estate is more than just pretty pictures. And law goes well beyond the paperwork and courtroom arguments. were powered by NextHome Titletown Real Estate, greater Boston's progressive real estate brokerage. More at nexthometitletown.com and UrbanVillage Legal, Massachusetts real estate counsel serving savvy property owners, lenders and investors more at UrbanVillagelegal.com. Today's conversation was not legal advice, but we hope you found it entertaining and informative. Discover more at the real estate law podcast.com Thank you for listening