Nathan Daniel (00:00):

Hey everybody, what's going on. Welcome back to the broker to broker real estate podcast. I'm excited that you're here today because today we're going to be covering a topic about don't stop getting better. And I have a, a guest that is going to really pour into us as we continue to grow and learn together, improve our industry and as brokers, how we can cooperate together and really be on each other's side. So are you ready? Here we go. Hi and welcome to the broker broker real estate podcast, where we are on a mission to interview successful real estate brokers and industry leaders. So we can learn what's working and peel back our industry so we can all work together. I'm your host, Nathan Daniel

Nathan Daniel (00:50):

All right. So today we are here with Trevor Smith from Carlsbad, California, and you're with England Volkers. Is that correct?

Trevor Smith (00:58):

That's right. I'm the broker owner of England Volkers Carlsbad and happy to be here.

Nathan Daniel (01:03):

Awesome. Well, I'm glad you're here. So first and foremost, you're going to tell your story best. So tell us a little about who you are. We already know what company you're with and stuff, but tell us a little bit about your real estate journey up to this point. How about that?

Trevor Smith (01:16):

Yeah, no problem. Um, et's see, I'm a third generation realtor here in North County, San Diego. Umt's kind of been in my family for ever, you know, my cousin owned a mortgage company. My, his wife was our first broker when I got in the business. And, m started in 2006, 2007, fresh out of college. Uh, o clue, you know, roughly what I was doing. I mean, I'd been involved with family business, but by this point we'd transitioned mostly to ply and hold, flipping, investing, that kind of stuff and getting into the day to day brokerage was a whole different ball game, especially as the economy and the housing market was just in freefall. So I had to build my business based on a whole new paradigm that no one had really encountered before. Umxcept for like, you know, my dad being through the eighties and, and previous to that, to the seventies, there's recessions throughout that time period and early nineties as well, then the.com bubble hit. But for the most part for me, starting in 2007 was very, very different. Everything had changed. And, momeone pulled me aside and one of my dad's friends, who's a very successful commercial guy, owns a lot of commercial properties, said two things. Trevor one is a hustler can make money in any market. And two, if you learn how to make people money, you will always be in demand. You'll never be without clients. So I took those two things to heart, and I really started working on developing my expertise with investment property because when the market was free falling, you're, you know, you're, you're seeing foreclosures and short sales and, and people that are going through a really hard time. And at the time you, if you paid attention, the most active buyers out there were investors. And I learned real quick that if I learn how to speak their language, I learned how to run their deals. I learned how to manage rental property and find tenants and qualify, and then in turn be profitable for them. Well then they become not only a client, but a repeat client client for life. And so the best best client in the world is the one that uses you again. Right? o I learned real quick, Oh, I get it. Now. I need to not just try to find a hundred clients to do one deal, but one client to do a hundred deals. The, here you go. That's what I focused on.

Nathan Daniel (03:32):

Cool. So then, and now you did that for what period of time. And at what point did you get your broker's license?

Trevor Smith (03:39):

Uh gosh, I did that pretty much started out in 2007. I had nothing else going on. So I was literally just making money where I could finding tenants for people. You know, at that time, a lot of the agents were primarily focused on the buy sell side and the property management side. I found a sort of opportunity for templates where I could sort of test my skills and marketing property in working with note buyers, so to speak, but it gave me the opportunity to open door for several things. One, it gave me access to qualifiable buyer pool, right? Because I could look at their finances and whatnot and be like, why are you renting? Why don't you buy? And that's face to face is direct. Most other property managements. Don't try to convert those, those individuals. Those leads into actual leads into actual buyers too. It gave me the opportunity to really show property owners, investors, people that didn't want to sell their property in a free fall. Those who are wealthy enough to sort of tie not hang on own their property, write it out, but it might been one or two properties they own as an investment, but per se, they're not invest doors. Well, they would hire me because their traditional agent wasn't interested in placing tenants, but I'm young. I'm going to hustle. I have the skills, the chops to go out and just work for pennies on the dollar, because at the time 23 years old, my overhead's like super low. Um and I was able to make it work. But from that, I was able to build up a pretty solid book of business, like book of clients that kind of carried me through until I took the next big leap, which was about four or five years ago when I started flipping my own property and owning my own investments. And then from that, I kind of evolved into the next strategy of, I don't want to invest in own a real estate brokerage. And then that PR that basically meant I had to get my broker's license, which I got about a year or two ago until then I was using an older broker that I just sort of paid on a monthly stipend to be my broker. So I got my license, then I took it over for myself. And then yeah, that's where we are from here.

Nathan Daniel (05:53):

Okay, cool. So that, that brings us up to date. I appreciate you. Yeah. I appreciate You telling the, telling your story. Cause there's, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that. And you know, I love what you said, you know, back here about, I'd rather have one client that brings me a hundred deals right. Than a hundred clients that I have to sell one, two. And that's that's. Yeah,

Trevor Smith (06:13):

Exactly. If for all of you that are out there, you know, working with clients, working with leads, working with buyers, it's like, that's a tremendous amount of work just capturing the buyer or capturing the seller. But if you kind of win one person over, but they're good for multiple deals, then I don't have to spend as much time or money lead gen as I do focused on serving that client, selling the property and then listings beget listings. Right. Right. So I have the listings, the buyers come. And then from there I was able to sort of build a team hand buyers off to the team members then from that build the broker.

Nathan Daniel (06:44):

Yeah. We have a very similar story. We have a very similar story. So, cause I got started no 92, but you know, one thing I, I just heard from that also is that When you work with One client, you also have an opportunity, right? Like you can really build a relationship with someone. Right. And, and what's, what's the saying, they know you like you trust you. Right. We all know what that looks like. And if we can do that with a, with a client, and then all of a sudden we start talking brokerage and we bring people into our teams and we have those skill sets in place where we can actually really build agents up. Right. Cause they become our clients ultimately as brokers. Right? Yeah,

Trevor Smith (07:22):

Absolutely. And it comes back to that core concept of if you learn how to make people money, right. If you actively work towards investing and if you actually work towards building up someone else's wealth, it's only natural that you will join them in that journey. So the same thing with my agents, my strategy is I treat them like investors, right? I'm here as your broker, as your team, as your leader, right. My job is to make you money. Right. A job is to give you opportunities, systems, tools, and resources that generate business for you. Right. And that's our job as brokers. Ultimately, I view that if you're sitting there looking at your agents, like, you know, little sheep or cattle that you have to milk or your shear, I don't think that, I think that's forgive me for saying this to traditional model. Right. But my attitude's like, no, these are, these are like trees like theirs or like orange trees. You know, I want to plant them. I want to nurture them. I want to grow them. And then we don't just harvest it. But we, we gather the crops and the seasons and we share it together. And I think that that's my attitude. That's my heart. And that's why I ultimately built the brokerage because I didn't feel like there's other brokerages in our community that are offering that type of system support and encouragement and, and collaboration to their agents. So that's where I saw the hole in the market. That's where I came to fill it. And the Engle of Volcker's platform is great for fitting that need. And it's been, it's been a great experience so far. We've, I'm really excited to watch my agents grow as I'm investing in them.

Nathan Daniel (09:01):

Yeah. And so you're taking that same concept. You're pouring it back into your agents now. And what I also heard is, is something that, and it's primarily the reason that I'm I've started this podcast was our industry is changing and it's evolving, you know, you mentioned traditional real estate brokerages. And I honestly feel, that's why there's so many independence pocket popping up right now. There's smaller offices. So instead of going to these massive large offices, there's a lot of people say, you know, I'd rather have a small core group of people that I can pour into and have a great conversation and help them grow. Like, so really getting in. So that was the whole point of this, this podcast, because of that right there, like we have to start evolving, right. We have to start changing. What does real estate actually look like? And it starts at the brokerage level because it's, it's with the mentality that you have right there. Exactly.

Nathan Daniel (09:55):

I actually will disagree. I think it starts to decline level. Oh, really? Well, look at it like a business, like any other business, right? You have an ultimate consumer customer, client, whatever you want to call them, you have to find out what they want, what resonates with them, what, what they're looking for. And you have to take a D you know, I was just having a, our office meeting yesterday and I brought this up. Like, you really have to take a deep dive and get to know yourself as a whole person. Who are you? What motivates you? What drives you from that? You can get an idea of who is the co the Irv Rez sued, you know, higher. And therefore you can define that. Okay. If I'm interested in this, this is how I expect to be treated. If this is how I want my business to be conducted on my behalf. Well then clearly you shift it into a client's mindset that gives you your message, that gives you your business model of how to address and serve your client. Okay. So there, okay. Does that make sense?

Nathan Daniel (10:54):

Yeah. So you're, you're I go back to the movie robots with Robin Williams, you know, it's an animated movie. There was a saying inside of that, that was CNA fill a need. And this is the way I've, I've always thought too, like in what, what I just heard is teaching your agents to get with their clients and find the need and solve the problem.

Trevor Smith (11:13):

Yes. Because if you, and also my big thing, I have a background in psychology and psychology, my chosen family therapy. And we come from a relational aspect where if you truly get to know your client, right. And they're like, you will like people like to work with people that are The added bonus to that is, guess what? That person that you just served and fulfilled and made their life better because you're similar, their circle, their sphere is going to be similar as well. So if you resonate with that person, guess what? There's, there's a high chance that you will resonate well with that entire person's inner circle. So you've not only become that person's like trusted guru, but now you've become the trusted group for that whole circle of friends. And this has happened. And I have evidence of this over and over and over again, with my personal book of business, where I focus on the people that I like, that people that are most like me and therefore my business tends to auto-generate off of that versus chasing down anybody who's fogging a mirror wandering in off the street, right? I will gladly refer people that do not gel with me to other agents that I think will gel with, because at the end of the day, what serves the clients best is what meets their needs the most. But also what personality traits will, will, will be most cohesive. And therefore the business will then continue to auto-generate because if you work with somebody, you may sell a house, you collect commission, but if you don't allow them, you don't become their friend. You don't become that person in their life. That's your, their real estate guru. What's the point. Cause then they're not going to refer their family and friends to you. Now you have to go back on the streets, spend more money, time and energy generating more leads. If you focus on the individual, the client, and then resonate with them, then all of a sudden you're auto-generated from their sphere. Yeah. It's very much a combination of bro and a Buffini method sort of ish. Yeah.

Nathan Daniel (13:13):

Well, it goes back to knowing yourself. I love that. I mean, it ties back to a tagline that I've been living on for a while now, which is be you and be real, right. I mean, it's finding that authentic voice that's internal before you ever go out to the public. And I love that message because it goes on to, you know, what we were talking about just a little while ago, which has never stopped getting better. Right. So let's, let's talk about that for just a few minutes. Like as a, as a leader of people, how are you, how are you continuing to get better? How are you pushing yourself to always get better in our industry and for your people?

Trevor Smith (13:52):

I used to you know, there's classes, there's seminars, there's books, there's podcasts, there's all sorts of resources out there in the end. I mean, jeez, you get in the real estate training world. There's there's everything souped up, right? What I, when I got the most out of when I was younger and I still do is really hanging out with the old timers that have been in the business for 30, 40, 50 plus years. Right? Not only the guys that have been or gals that have been in the, in the broker seat, like, you know, leading, but also those that are, you know, still slinging houses, still taking listings and buyers and whatnot. But also those that have transitioned into investing or who currently still invest. And you find out what their criteria, what they're looking for, in what their goals are, what their goals had been, how they've changed, how they've evolved, what strategies they've used, what information they've, they've really been benefit. And I kinda just like spend time, you know, I, to spend a lot of time, I was younger at like happy hours because at the time I was broke and is the cheapest time to drink and have a good time. But there's one bar in particular and insidious that there always used to be this old timer. And you actually used to meet my dad's old broker back in the day and I'd sit next to him and he'd just be there. And we'd like, watch whatever ball games on TV. And we just drink beer and talk about life and talked about clients and investing in this and that he owned a ton of real estate. He'd been a broker for eons. And I got so much knowledge just sitting there and listening. And I still do that today. Like I always talk to people that are at my level beyond me, below me, doesn't matter. I'm always trying to get more information, how I can improve, be better and try to find insight that it's outside of my own little sphere, my own little box and bubble, because the more you you learn, the more you experience, especially in different markets and how they're overcoming their challenges at the end of the day, our market's never the same locally, regionally, nationally, it's always going to change. So I like for instance, I two weeks ago I had a, I was out in Chicago, I'll go. And I had breakfast with

Nathan Daniel (16:04):

Very interesting guy who was a he was a trader on the mercantile exchange. He's now in real estate. He invests, he's working with developments and just finding out his challenges are in the Chicago market, which are very different from our challenges here in the Carlsbad market. But, you know, hearing him, it's like, he's just on a different side of the cycle. That's all. So finding out how he's overcoming those challenges in Chicago market today means those could be my challenges in the Carlsbad market in two years or four years or whatever. You never know, because anything could happen. If you look at the last 60, 70, 80 years of The real estate cycle in macro and micro economics, local, regional national levels you'll understand it. Absolutely nothing Right? Whether it's a cornfield in Nebraska or a high rise in New York or condo in Carlsbad, doesn't matter. Everything goes through the same.

Nathan Daniel (16:55):

Yeah. Well, and that's, I like where you're going with that because surrounding yourself with a wisdom is really what you're doing. You're setting yourself up to pull from people's experiences in the past, how they handle it. So you're improving, you're learning from other people's mistakes. Right. And the challenges that they went through in the different markets. So then you can be ahead of it whenever that curve comes or back around. Cause it typically does, right? Yeah.

Trevor Smith (17:20):

Yeah. And I talked to anybody in anybody who's willing to share with me, knowledge like I had I was lucky enough to count myself, very lucky to be introduced and share with some amazing people throughout my journey and still continue to this day, you know, very fascinating people that I've just come across. And I built Relationships with yeah. Sitting at dinner with a guy who owns quite a few high rise buildings In downtown Chicago. And I asked him, Hey, how do you qualify a to buy? Like, I don't know. I don't know anything about high-rises. I don't really know much about Chicago. I just happened to be right place right time. And when I find myself right place, right time, I learned, I need to ask questions and listen. And he told me that if he sort of the John Hancock building and hit a baseball, and if it hit a building, you would buy it, whether it's on the market or not. And I said, well, what about, you know, do you pencil it? What's your cap rate? What's your IRR? Like, how do you qualify? How do you find it? He's like look driver at the end of the day. He's like, I don't care if it makes money, it could be losing money. But I know that in 10 years it will make money. It's just a matter of when and how, but then once it starts begging money, if you can buy it for a certain price, when it's losing money, how much more is it worth when it's making money? That's just the trajectory of things. So that's his attitude. He's just like, if it's on the market, I'll buy it. If it's on the market, I'll buy it doesn't matter. Overpriced under priced sideways left, right upside down. Doesn't matter. I'll buy it. And he knew it.

Nathan Daniel (18:44):

He knew if he held on long enough and he turned it around, it's a long term play. And he knew he was going to make money on it. And it's no big deal. As long as he had to hit a game plan, right. He had a game plan with it,

Trevor Smith (18:55):

The game plan for my brokerage. Again, it comes back to one thing. I asked my agents when they first come on board when I'm interviewing them, same thing I do with my clients and deal with myself is where do you see yourself in five years, 10 years. Are you navigating with binoculars? Are you navigating with a microscope? Because we can only look at today, but today is going to not be today, tomorrow. But if we focus on the five-year tenure strategy where we want to be our goals, we can, all, we can break that down into actionable steps, tasks, targets, benchmarks, metrics, whatever you want to call them. And then we can say, all right, if I want to be here in 10 years, If I have a goal and I write it down, it's realistic, tangible, Achievable goal. Okay, great. We can get there. Now let's break that down, build out a road map and let's start navigating with binoculars, looking at the horizon, figuring out what's along the path to get there. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Nathan Daniel (19:48):

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're, you're just breaking it down to a microscopic level. You know, you take the big picture, you break it down to a small level. Say here are the action steps that you have to go and implement. Right? Yeah.

Trevor Smith (19:59):

Any, any coach out there will tell you it's, you know, it's the same jargon over and over again. There are different ways.

Nathan Daniel (20:08):

Let's talk about like mistakes. Like what's the biggest mistake you've made along your journey of becoming a broker and in this broker world,

Trevor Smith (20:17):

Biggest mistake I ever made was trying to do everything myself because I'm a control freak because I, I, I know myself best. And ultimately I want to have my hand on everything. It's kind of like the attitude. And I took it to an extreme, like, you know, the CEO does every job in the company to, to, to understand, Know it works well. I'm horrible at it. A lot of jobs. And I'll, my wife will tell you, anybody around me will tell you Trevor, in certain, certain aspects of management and leadership, I fall on my face. And so what I learned is I need to focus on those skills, those lanes, those calls, where I Excel and operate in my strengths. If I try to great my weaknesses, I am spending a lot of time, energy and money on things that are not gonna be fruitful or they will produce results. But the time and energy and investment to get there, it would have been far more efficient and cost effective to hire someone, what else to delegate it. So ultimately, when I was willing to admit, I have faults weaknesses, I can't do everything. And I started bringing in those support people around me. And I started laying out the trust on them to him, the baby, right? Like here, here's my baby. I built this blood, sweat, tears, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars into this thing. Please be careful with it. You know, and learning how to trust my staff, learning how to trust the people that I have put in those roles allowed them to and not micromanage them, but allow them to take those steps and really grow in their own strengths. In those things. We've been a lot happier, healthier, and more productive, despite Covid, despite all the crazy stuff going on, our economy, our housing market, I think it's generating, it's a long term result, but I think it's going to be a healthy results, sustainable result in a result that can be replicated duplicated as I grow open more offices and hire more agents. Yeah.

Nathan Daniel (22:14):

Well, and what does that, what does that not only do for your staff and helping them grow in their strengths, what does that do for you? Right. Cause so many brokers get trapped in this wearing so many hats all the time. What does that do for you? Whenever you turn the reigns over a little bit and say, you're stronger in this than I am like help me.

Trevor Smith (22:32):

Well, it's funny like yesterday morning I went surfing for the first time in probably a year and a half. I go surfing every day. I love surfing, surfing centers. Me, it calms me. It makes me feel the chakras world, whatever. Yeah. I love it at the time for me and the time away from my phone. Cause that's leave it in the truck and I have to, you know, I go down, it's an investment in time, but it's also an investment in me and I just wasn't taking those actions. Well self care steps, right. I like playing guitar. I'm not, I wasn't playing guitar as much as I was. I was really just grinding, grinding, grinding on the business. But in the meantime, myself, my wife and my daughter and my family, like I just wasn't seeing people. I was engaging with people. It was really wearing me out and, and leaving me tired, exhausted, and I wasn't rested. And so, you know, the, the hustle culture right now is, is I think borderline talked tick because everyone's like, Oh, rise and grind. You know, I'm going to work seven to 7:00 AM to 10 o'clock at night. I was there. I was that guy. I was working 14 hours a day. I was doing 70, 80 hours a week. I was working at my office until midnight one AM and then finally coming home. And it was just, it was so toxic to me and my relationships and ultimately my clients, because they're not getting the best version of me that I have to offer. It's almost like I have a product to sell and I'm letting it wilt on the shelves. Right. My quality control had gone down, and when I invest in, okay, I need to invest in myself. I invest in my staff, my systems, my tools, my technology, my resources, everything I need to streamline, automate systematize. I mean, one of the most boring things in the world that we finally just got through was redoing our entire policy, procedure, manual, and our offering and all that stuff. Right. It's not fun, but COVID thankfully gave us the time because one of our big, another topic or marketing things is we do events. We do huge events every month. But now that we don't have events, literally we had like all these big events, we were sponsoring big things, headline the whole nine yards that all got taken away. So now what do we do? We're sitting around with basically the horsepower, the engines idling. So I got to put this people to work, doing something. So we're not all right. Let's dig out the policy procedures. Honestly, my wife pushing forward on this. It's like, I don't want to work on that. So boring is all a bunch of legal. We have a policy procedures manual, but when you look through it looks like it was put together by a kindergarten. You know, it was like copied and paste. It was just a mess. So we finally read it, everything. We read our on boarding procedure. We did exit interviews for those agents that did leave us. And we did you know, actual time with every single agent that's with us to find out what it is they need, what they expect, what of the system schools, resources that we have. Cause we have a lot, and that's what I pride myself on. It's like we do so much, we're very supportive. We have staff, we have tea, we have everything you could need. Right. Have we have a video recording studio in the shop ready to go? You want to do a podcast? Here's all the technology you wanna do video. Here's all the technology. I spent tons of money and time setting it up. But they don't even, but the agents were like, we don't even know how to use it because it's very intimidating. I'm like, Oh gosh. So I have all these toys. I have a re I built a race car, but nobody knows how to drive it. And nobody even knows it's in the garage. They're just like, well, the doors closed. We just thought there's nothing in there. So I was like, okay, fine. We got to go through. And we, we now have a five hour onboarding process. We have a full policy procedures manual, and we have an we're, we're upping our training. We're upping everything. Our coaching are, are checking in on listings. And we're doing a lot for our agents, making sure that they know that we're working behind the scenes for them on their behalf. Gotcha. And I wouldn't have been aware of that. Had it not been for COVID. And I had not been for me, realizing my weaknesses and hiring people that are able to see and operating their own strengths and find those weaknesses and then start working on them and developing them and making them better than anything I've ever seen in the business.

Nathan Daniel (26:44):

Yeah. Well, and I think that's a, that's huge. I mean, in the world we live in today, I know so many people were like gung ho 20, 20 new decade. Woo. Yeah. Raw. Let's go. And then boom, it gets here and it's like, this is wow. Linens. I saw something the other day wins 2020. Get to decide when it's going to make up its mind. I don't know. I think that by you taking the opportunity to slow down and be able to go through that, you're not, you're only improving yourself. Right? Like you're, you're strengthening your position moving forward because you've taken advantage of the opportunity while you had it to move forward. So that, that experience, when somebody comes in, you know, five hour onboarding process, you walk them,

Trevor Smith (27:28):

We do break it up over a couple of days? It's not like five hours of just hitting them over the head with a binder.

Nathan Daniel (27:32):

No, that's good. Yeah. But it's still like, you have a process, right? It's you have a process when somebody come in, you know exactly what you're going to do. You have a system in place for it and your people own it, right? Like your staff owns it. Yep.

Trevor Smith (27:45):

The best part is like watching my staff grow into the roles that we didn't necessarily hire them for, but now they're, they're flourishing in something different. And for instance, my I have a business development manager, right. She, her job was basically handling the social media, working with the agents on their bios or website. It's like really just helping his business development. Right. This is development for the company and for every, every agent she used to be a teacher and that was her background. And she really finds joy in teaching and education. And so it came to the, when she started doing training on social media and stuff, we watched her just blossom and bloom and bring so much to the table or like, why are we having you do social media? You should be our trainer. So she evolved into now, she's my training person. Like she handles not, not necessarily the technical aspects of real estate, but all of the, just day to day stuff like the policies, procedures, how to use this, how to do this and, and how to work on your business and, and beyond just, you know, your, your basic social media stuff. But really she dives deep into every single person's account life. Everything draws it, you know, things out of people that they otherwise wouldn't know about themselves, which is the same thing with our operations manager, he kind of started our operations manager. Now he's the director of creative services because he was originally brought on board to replace our outgoing operations manager who moved to Texas. And here he doesn't really do well with filing and paperwork, which is really what I hired him for. But he does phenomenal with photography and videography and creative stuff and he Photoshop like unbelievable. Our, our marketing stuff has never looked better in our photography has never looked better. And our agent, our head shots, he does everything in house. Now it's a service we offer to our, but yeah, we're, we're, we're lagging a little bit on, you know, some of the paperwork stuff, it's not as strength, but that's okay. Because now we're looking to hire that next person to come in and sort of an admin to do all that other stuff that Is their strength. Right, right, right, right.

Trevor Smith (29:56):

And hiring a financial manager, a CFO has been like, why didn't I do that sooner instead of paying an outside bookkeeper and accountant to do it, bringing it in house, because now she handles all the commission spreadsheets. She handles all the closing stuff, timelines like almost a pseudo TC, but not fully. We have, I have another TC that does all the TC work. Yeah. But she does The financial stuff and having that it's been, mind-blowingly amazing.

Nathan Daniel (30:23):

That's good. That's good. Well, I mean, it sounds like all your pieces are coming into place and you've taken advantage of this year to put all that together and Hey, you're getting back to the ocean and you're doing the surfing and I'm sure that's just improved your, your mindset whenever you show up for people like you were saying. So

Trevor Smith (30:41):

Pour out to people, right. If I'm, if I'm exhausted, if I've squeezed every ounce of water out of this rock, you know, I don't have anything left to give. That's not fair to the people that I'm, you know, my agents, right. I, I have to sit there, like if I sit there for a seller, I have to convince them that I'm worth, you know, five, six, 7% of every dollar that they're, they're getting, you know? Yeah. And why am I worth that? Why am I worth that much, same thing with an agent. When I talk about splits, like, why am I worth your split? And I have high splits and I'm not afraid. You tell people that I have high splits. Um but I'm willing to give you so much for that. It's just like any business, you gotta spend money to make money. If you invest in us, we'll invest in you. And there'll be, you know, and it works. I have track records. I have people that have grown guys have come to me doing zero deals, one deal. And all of a sudden, now they're flourishing and building 10, $20 million a year production out of literally nothing because we've been to, we've been investing into each other.

Nathan Daniel (31:40):

You're so you're, and you're pouring into your people and you're constantly providing additional value in finding ways to find value for them to help them improve their business. That's right. Going back to the original part of the conversation when you were in business, right. You found that one client that you want to continue to pour into and you found their need, right. You found their need, you're solving their problem and being the solution for them. So I love that. Well,uone last question. What's next level of success look like for you?

Trevor Smith (32:11):

I don't really quantify it as, as success. It's more like what's the natural, what, how can we serve more people with our services? Right. It comes back to like, my mentality is I see a broken system. I want to fix it. You know what I mean? I want to bring a higher level of service to the general clientele of North County, San Diego. What does that look like? It means we invest in the community. We do a lot. I mean, I mean, it started with the community stuff that we do as far as the nonprofit where we won an, this last year for our community service for Carlsbad, from the chamber of commerce. So what that means is how do we bring our service? How do we bring what we bring to the community to more communities? So ultimately I want to open more angled Volker's offices in North County, San Diego. So our next location is probably gonna be Oceanside or LaCosta sort of one community North when community South. And when we want to spread and grow organically, I don't want to force it or push it. I want to bring. And ultimately we are a boutique operation like England Volkers worldwide. I think average is about 15 to 20 people per shop per location. We're a boutique. We are a high end, high touch, high service, high clientele. We want to make sure people get the best service possible. So therefore, if I start growing past 15, where I'm at now, and I start getting to 20, 25, then it's going to be like natural evolution, I guess is okay, where we target our markets. Where are we doing business? Where's the source of business coming in? Is it ocean site? Is it LA Costa? And then naturally I'll say, alright, we need to build a shop there. We need to have a presence there. We need to be in the downtown. We need to be in the community, achieving our goals, helping our clients achieve their goals, and then helping our agents come on board with the philosophy and the mindset, and then growing their business in that space. That's awesome.

Nathan Daniel (34:05):

Well, I look forward to hearing that and I may have you if you're open to it, come back on the show and let's talk about that. Cause community, community outreach is such a huge topic, especially from a brokerage level and congratulations on the award by the way. That's awesome. Well,today we,uwe won, thank you Trevor, for being on the show. We've been talking to Trevor Smith with England. Volkers out of Carlsbad, California. Uthank you so much for being on the show today. Thanks for having, yeah, absolutely. It's been a great conversation. So I look forward to catching up in the future. All right, sounds good. All right, man, we'll talk to you.

Trevor Smith (34:41):

Cheers.