AoG #4: Nurit Coombe - Israeli Military to Real Estate

Join us on this journey with Nurit Coombe on her persistence to do better every step of the way and achieve greatness. From humble beginnings to being ranked #14 nation-wide and #1 in Maryland! Nurit is the Founder of Team Nurit, Managing Partner of The Agency DC & Dominican Republic! 
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Transcript

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Welcome back to The Art of Greatness. We are very excited for our new special guest. And our guest today was part of the former Israeli military. She was part of the anti-ballistic defense team. She went up the ranks and became a director there. She moved to the US and went into real estate, opened up her own agency, has one of the top teams in the country, ranked 14th in the US, and #1 in all of Maryland. She is the managing partner of the agency in DC metro area and the Dominican Republic. Hold. On, hold. On. And soon to. Be, hold on, hold on. No, no, no. Don't, don't steal my t Hold on. I gotta cut you off. <laugh>. No, I love that. I'll take over from there. And she's one of our closest and dearest friend to Paige and I, uh, that's beyond anything else. We just love her to death, number one. Number two, she is our managing partner of Thank you for setting the gateway of me introducing the rest of Dominican Republic soon to be our managing the partner of downtown Toronto. So, uh, yeah, so, uh, it's in the works. So we, we couldn't mention York. Well, but you did it <laugh> because it's not launched yet. But.<Laugh>, something like that. But okay. Who cares? Who cares? We we're gonna mention and York well, but anyways, beyond that, she's a dear friend and she's the force to re me reckon with nobody Messes with Nurit. I'll tell you right now, <laugh>. All. Right. Let's welcome Nurit Coombe! We're excited to have you on here. Nurit. Oh. My gosh. I dunno how can call this? So you're talking about me, really? Yes. <laugh>. Yes, baby. Well, I'm fortunate to have you guys as my best friend. I, I tell you that this is like warms my heart. I love you. Absolutely love you. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you for this. Fahad, you're amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you, Peter. Thank, um, happy to be here. All right. We're, we're excited to get going. We're actually gonna go deep into your past. Uh, we're gonna start off with talking about your upbringing and how that was like, I know you had an interesting childhood, to say the least. So let's get to a little bit of that before the military and what really prompted you getting in there. Uh, but pre-military, what was life like, family like, where were you? Uh, and a little bit about Nurit. Okay, well, I'll just be candid. I'll open it all up right here. Cause uh, that's what we should do. Right? Um, well I was, uh, I was born and raised in Israel, Mount Carmel, Haifa, beautiful city. Uh, Israel is a little tiny country. Everybody's a family kind of thing, which is really wonderful. Um, and I think that the surrounding is what really shaped me because in my house there was a lot of chaos, sadly. Um, I came from a very broken family. Um, and, um, I think I was very, um, maybe not, uh, totally not who I am today. Uh, but maybe that shaped me cause I was a fighter at that point. I had to fight for my mom. Uh, we were three sisters. I'm the little one <laugh>. But I was the one, like my older sister, she probably had the most grunt of the issues. My father used to beat. My mom beat us up. He was not, um, we were abused. Um, and, uh, my older sister took it really hard, so she was always like really afraid and under a table somewhere. My middle sister, she was the pretty one and he never touched her. And she just like, heck with you guys and went somewhere else. Um, and I had to go in between my mom and, and him. Um, um, I was, I was just really, really kind of badass. 12 year old, 11 year old, whatever you call it. I was raised this way to be very hard. Um, I don't think my father ever liked me. And also, I was not a pretty sister. They were prettier <laugh> as far as he concerned. Um, so really this is, uh, not a great upbringing. Upbringing, but the lucky part about it is Israel. It's the culture of everybody around you. It's a one country with all brothers and sisters in a way. So my friends parents, my friends' family, I wanted to be likened by them. So I was always like the best and the sweetest and the best student. My teachers always loved me. Um, it's kind of funny, like I remember that my father used to say like, my sister couldn't study cause she was so scared, my older one. So he always like, like really bad to her. For me, I always had straight a student, not because I want to be like it by him, want to like it by my teachers and my friends parents and stuff. Cause I'm good to be around. Um, the funny thing is my, every time I had the report card, my father used to look at it. Like, they say, oh, that's the boring one. Okay, let's move on. Oh God, <laugh>. Cause it was all straight a <laugh>. Oh, that's the boring one because it's a straight A and she, he couldn't punish you for something. Oh my goodness. Okay. No, it wouldn't punish me. It was just like, it was like, there was no reward. It was like, who cares? Wow. Um, but anyways, it really is, I think a country that have support outside is really great. And, uh, I left my house when I was, uh, 15, uh, 15 and a half. I, um, actually rented a place, um, and worked in Bagel Nash, which is a bagel shop. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, So on your own? I just took two. Yeah. I took two buses to a high school, uh, and just finished my high school, my own and, um, everybody in Israel after that go to the military mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it was one of those things that, yeah, I'm going to the military and see what happens. Um, at that time I was known soldiers soldier. Cause my parents left to Paris mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then the end of divorcing there, which is good. Um, but I was a lone soldier and, uh, the military kind of like, took me over, took over or helped me mm-hmm.<affirmative> shape continue shaping me. And this is where the first time I actually felt that I could be somebody or that I have some assets to provide or not have some smarts and brain or whatever that some. Belonging mm-hmm.<Affirmative>, uh, yeah, I felt very, um, I didn't feel connected to anything and I didn't know who I am. I didn't know that I may actually can do something. How did you have the courage noit to at 50 age of 15 to go on your own? How do, how, where did you get that courage and, and, and, uh, that's, that, that's, that's a lot. It's to be on your own. I was on my own on, when I was 13 years old in Turkey. I was like, I'm like, I, I, I resonated with you a lot. Maybe that's one of the reasons, because I did come from a broken family too, and I, I didn't talk about it on the podcast, but isn't it amazing? Yeah. So, so, but but isn't that amazing? But how did you get a courage to go and rent a place for your own? And what, what was, what were those thoughts going through and emotions going through into your head when you were 15 year old? Yeah. What, and were any of your siblings with you at this time? Yeah. No. So my sister is the one, my oldest sister got married at a j t and she is still lovingly married to her husband that she met when she was 14. So he was kind of like, saved her mm-hmm.<affirmative> and my other sister went to the military, so I stayed with the chaos at home alone. Um, and every time they had a fight and blah, blah, blah, my mother used to leave and leave us with, with the chaos. So, so I worked as a, as a waitress. And I came home at 11 o'clock at night. And in Israel, if you leave the key inside the door, you can knock, unlock the door. So we lived in a condo and they had a fight, and my father stayed at home. She left, I came home and I couldn't open the door. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I just couldn't open the door. And that's, I, I sat there all night outside in a very cold, um, staircase of the building staircase mm-hmm.<affirmative> until there's buses in the morning, 5:00 AM Um, and that's where I said, you know what, I'm never coming back. Oh my. Goodness. And, and that was the moment that actually changed me in a way that I said, no, I have this job and I'll figure it out. So I had, uh, a friend of a friend, um, his, um, his parents left and, uh, out the country for a mission or something, and he was in the military and he said, you know what, if you, I'll give you a room if you clean the house and do my laundry. And I said, you got it. And that's, that's what happened. Oh. My goodness. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. So now you go on into the military and what's that experience like? Now? You feel a sense of belonging, you feel like you're learning something, you feel like you're giving something, uh, to someone where you are able to really grow. Right? That was your first experience of growth, would you say? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. It's a, it's, it's a recognition soundly. They give you this job that for the, first of all, you go basic training, and then you go to another training for whatever the job they assign for you. And, uh, lucky me, they gave me a job that was very, very, uh, important. And, uh, I was suddenly re in a, in a war room in a bunker, responsible on protecting the borders. And if there's any incident, I'm the one who's calling off the helicopters, the soldiers, the roadblocks, the, the, the little kibbutz, the habs, everybody. And pretty much handling that situation, uh, while reporting to the central command because somebody has to handle it right there moment when something happens. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then they bring the troops and everybody else. So, so there was a, it was a very responsible, very fast thinking, very, um, protecting people's life, really. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's right there. You have an infiltrator and could be a terrorist. And what do you do? You roadblock, you send helicopters, you send this, you send that troops. And where, which, which roads you think you should block, because they may have gone this way, may have gone that way. So there's a whole thing that you do, you go through, um, and it felt, um, felt good. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> felt that you actually can do something and you think out the box, you're responsible, then you train. I was then training the rest other people and meet me. And, um, it was very fast growth, um, from being 17 and a half on 18 year old to a 20. You had to grow up quickly. You had to really grow up quickly and be, and, and be, be, you know, a strong woman. That's just, that's just crazy. And how many years did you spend in the military? In total? Yeah. Two and a half years. Two and a half years. And after that, I stayed in defense for another 11 years. Wow. Um, so, so I continue in defense, but, uh, but really, I think this is a really amazing thing that we have in Israel. And I wish that he has been everywhere in the world because you take the kids that we're under his, their parents or whatever, and instead of going and partying in college mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because suddenly I'm by myself and I don't have supervision. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, you actually go to military. And how long is the period of time that you have to be two years? Because I know back home for me is two. For girls minimum, 19 months for girls. Unless you have different job that required for a little more mm-hmm.<affirmative> and, uh, two years for two and a half years for. A guys that's mandatory like us, like back home is mandatory. Mandatory. Yeah. And it's a wonderful. Thing. And actually it's. Wonderful thing to. Have build people. I'm not gonna lie, I did enjoy partying between 18 and 20. <laugh>, <laugh>. I just wanna get that out there. Partying is a lot of fun too, guys. But if you the military and gro, it's, it's a great gig for sure. So you, you stay in this role for 11 years. What kind of prompted you to a stay there for so long, uh, for that 11 year duration on the deve defense side, and what really prompts you to leave a place like that? And what were kind of your biggest takeaways? Because this is a high pressure job, fast decision making. You're learning a lot, you're growing a lot. I don't know if you, were you leading a team at that time? Or were you an individual who was, uh, just giving out certain things that need to be done? So actually, um, I had the career, most of the career here in the us. Uh, I was representing Israel here in the us so I was in the embassy mm-hmm.<affirmative>, uh, for a while. And then after that we moved outside of the embassy. Uh, our office. We used to be, we, we were a government entity. And then we became government owned company. This is the missile system, house of Israel. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and I was 21 years old. Um, then 22 getting a little more position, more jobs to do for, for, for the product that I was working on. I worked on, uh, um, at the beginning I worked on, uh, unique exclusives for military operations in urban terrain, which is pretty much how to infiltrate to a building with using, um, minimal collateral damage just because the hostile may surround themselves with women and children as a human shield. So you wanna use explosive surprise to go in quickly mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but you don't wanna have collateral damage. Cause you don't wanna kill the people inside. So that was one of the projects that I worked on. And I used to go to the Pentagon and I'm young Israeli girl and pretty hot chick back then with Minister Israeli. And I would go through the Pentagon and I had tons of ears because I had people from other rooms coming in to see who's Israel sent. Who is this girl? Or who is. This <laugh>? This is A2 two year old. No, Gordon. Like, look. We're gonna, we're gonna scout a picture and throw it up on the podcast after. We will. We'll try to see if we can find more <laugh>. Yeah. This is my, uh, back then curly hair picture. I love it. Awesome. Love. It. <laugh>. Yeah. So anyways, it's funny, but, um, but I had, uh, so I, so I worked as an assistant to the director, and they, uh, the government paid for my education. I did my undergrad masters. I continued to work while doing that. And I advanced to a director of business development. Uh, I worked on several programs here in the US mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, last program worked on was the anti ballistic missile defense. I worked on the, um, target missile that simulates the sc so we can then try to intercept. Um, and that was, um, nothing is classified, obviously what I'm telling. You. Yeah, that's what I was wondering, you know, secret. Can, can you tell us some trade secrets, uh, of the Israeli military.<Laugh>? We don't wanna go there, or. The whole world. We. Basically, this would be our last podcast if we went there. So we're not trying to. I'm worthless. I don't even know anymore secrets. So that was bad. Secrets are all out. All out now. <laugh>. Yeah. But it was fun. It was, uh, it was very, very, uh, at the beginning, intimidating. I've learned how to present in a hard pressure. Everybody that I presented to was, uh, 30 years older than me. Stuffy big, you know. How did you get the courage? How did you get the courage to deal with these? Because I, I can imagine in Pentagon when, especially military, they're not, uh, easy people to deal with. They're very, to direct, very to the point and, and, uh, obnoxious sometimes, you know. So how did you, what was the, what were you, how would you train yourself to, to be in front of these people and, and, and sign up contracts or. Or, or, and also in a male dominant space, right. In a male. Dominant space, in a heavily male dominant space, because this is what, 90, the military's what, 90 plus percent men. Right. 90 plus percent. I would say. It was all males, and it was all could be my father's. And they all had suits and ties back then, and very, very formal or military, um, you know, uh, formal military, um, equipment, I mean clothings. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And, and you had, so, so I think the key, the key really in anything is to know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if you know your shit, you know what you're talking about, then you have the confidence. Knowledge. Yeah. So I would've never gone without knowing everything I need to know mm-hmm.<affirmative> because, and I was young and I had just had to really absorb everything. And then I wrote my own slides, because then I know what I'm talking about. I never, like, they send me the slides and I'll push'em aside and I'll redo my own slides. And so I've prepared preparation, preparation, preparation, and knowing, and then be candid. Um, but you don't know. It's okay. You are allowed not to know mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so I would say that I had to center myself<laugh> and tell myself, you know, what if I don't know, I don't know if they don't like me, they don't like me, but I'm here to tell 'em what I know. That's amazing. And. And the funny thing is, they, they really were so impressed that I'm young and who is Israel saint. And, and, and it was that, that curiosity actually worked towards me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and I was so welcomed and I had such an open ears. So I was able to get, actually more than if there were, would be somebody else would come. Incredible. Um, you know, so, but it, it wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. It wasn't easy. It's to learn how to talk in front of people, a group of people that, you know, they're like so knowledgeable, of course. And, um, but we have the same goal. We have the same problems. We have the same issues we have, they were going towards, uh, preparing for the war in Iraq. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, we talking in the same area, same situations and issues, same things. Uh, we got solutions that are very, very interesting, very important. And, um, so, so I had the ears. And when you have the ears, you need to just muscle your cor uh, courage. Because if you know what you're talking about, if you know your shit and you have the ears, then it's just about being courageous. And you, you just go for it. You're amazing. And that's also indirectly such good advice, regardless of which industry you work in, especially if you're new, whether it's in real estate or any other industry guys, knowledge is power. You know what you're talking about. People aren't gonna question how many years you've been in the business. They're not gonna question, if you can talk about the market, about the homes, about the finishes, about providing value to people, whatever that may be, in whatever role that you're in, it can take you a long, long way. And percent, I feel people shy away from actually studying and learning. And they say, where do I gain the con confidence? Well, knowledge is where you gain the confidence. And you said it right. Is so, it's so true. It's so, so, so true. Really, when I, um, when I hire agents and I, I don't care how how much they know and everything else, it's important. We learn every day. And in our team meetings, we, I, I prepare our research and I come and I talk about the market and, and, and the economy and all sorts of things. Because the more you know, the more you understand, the more you can transfer it to your buyers and your sellers. And, and the more better you are. And, and the funny thing is, I always say a statement when you have a new agent, we just finished the school. I tell 'em, okay, whatever you learned, now dump it out. Forget about it. Let's it over again. <laugh>, right? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's noise. So walk us through Nurit uh, transitioning. Why did you leave, uh, defense minister for the, you know, military and what, what happened with the real estate world and where did, how did, how did that come about? And and you stayed, that was kinda in Washington. What? Yeah. That was kinda funny. Was it, it was, it was not planned. So, um, after 10 years outside of Israel to keep your security clearance, you gotta move back to Israel. Oh. And, and, and, and it's a rule because it's important that you don't align yourself with the country you're in. You gotta still align yourself with the country that you represent. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Um, I wasn't allowed also to purchase a house in United States or anything, so I wasn't allowed to create a base. Right, mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but then, um, so one day I was 10 and a half years we didn't notice, but the security of Israel did. And they sent an email cease and desist this moment, I couldn't go back into the office. Wow. That's it, because it's security. Right. Um, and I had to move back to Israel. So at that point, I had to make a decision. Do I just uproot everything like that and move to Israel? Um, and I got some offers, um, in the, in the missile division in the north and all sorts of things. And I said, okay, you know what, let me take myself about two months off and figure out what I wanna do. Because it's, it is a male dominated world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it is, I got really quickly, really high position at a very young age. If I'm going back to Israel, I'm gonna be competing against a lot of people that have been there for many, many years. And it's, it's, it's, it's a tough one. Um, I did struggle with that idea of, of being in a, in a man dominant world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and what do I have to offer? And, and, and how high can I go? Because the pie gets shorter when, you know, of course. Smaller as you go high. Right. That's right. So, so I took two months off and I think I cried for about a month. Cause I had no idea what I want to. Wow. I, I, this was my life. How. How old were you? How old were you then? Nurit? I was, well, let me think. 31 30. So it was, it was, yeah, it was about 31. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. Yeah. 31. And, and, and I just had no clue what I'm gonna do. So there was an open house because the government paid for my, my housing, my rental in my neighborhood, there was an open house. So it's the first time I was like looking at open houses and, Hmm, let me look what it is, what it's all about. So I went to the open house. It was 2001, if you know the market back then. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I go there and I calculate what the mortgage gonna be compared to what they're paying for my rental. And actually the mortgage will be less than my rental <laugh>. And I was thinking to myself, wow, this is kind of crazy. So I turned around and bought two. Two. Months. What? For me. And one rental.<Laugh>. I was like, this is great. No, I'm. Fine too. Cause you can't do that in Israel. There's no way your rental will cover. No. Gotcha. So, so I literally bought two, just like that. And I loved it in the process. I loved the whole idea of owning faces. I did love because at that point I was allowed to buy mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I didn't like the idea of who I worked with. I just fell to not the best agent. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, I did all the research, did all the work, did everything that needs to be done, thinking about what I wanna do. And as soon as I read, I bought it. A lady drove by and asked me, do you know if there's any rental here? And I said, yeah, I just bought one. And I literally rent that second. So <laugh>, so then <laugh>, then I bought another one. And then I said, oh, I come to get my license. And that's why, how I got into real estate, I decided to stay here and get my license. Incredible. <laugh>. That's fantastic. That's one way of doing it. Right? Do it with a bang, buy two at a time.<Laugh>, walk it to an open house. I get my, why do I need you? I'll buy my own. I'll make my loan license.<Laugh>. So you get into, I know you get into real estate, a lot of the skills that you had, did you feel those were transferable? Considering you've been in high pressure situations, you've negotiated, you've dealt with a lot of people at a lot of different levels. So did you feel like it was a big shift or just a change in mindset and you had all the skills already that you could apply from what you had done in the past? Very smart. It's a great question. Really, really great question. Because it was very natural to me. Uh, it was taking your skills and, and, and putting them towards this good thing, which is helping people. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I, I love people. I'm a very sensitive person. Um, I, um, I, I get to, I get very connected to people. I can know you from the hello who you are. Um, and that is a skill. Maybe I got in the military, maybe, I don't know. But I literally know you from the Hello. I can know what you feel, what you think. Um, in negotiation, I had years of training on that. So, um, I'm, you definitely wanna be on my side of the table when you negotiate, I tell you. That. Oh, definitely, definitely. You do <laugh>. I can speak of experiences, so don't worry. <laugh>. Yeah. I mean, but, but, but negotiation is making sure everybody's winning, right? Yep. And the other side feels that they got what they wanted, although you get what you need. So there's a, there's a, there's a play and there's a play of, uh, how you, how you say what you say. And, and, and even the questions you ask, if I don't get my answer, I'll ask it differently and differently in a very friendly way. I will get my answer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause somehow you will tell me what I need to know without even noticing what you told me, because I asked the question different ways. So, so it's kind of a skill that you, you learn, um, or you develop with being sensitive, I guess from where you came, what I came from, I was very sensitive. Um, and, and gaining confidence and using it towards the good. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, using it towards helping people, not taking advantage of people. Um, it's, uh, I always tell agents, you know, don't cut your commission. Money will come. Just do the right thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and it, and it's so important because in front of us, this, this person who is looking for advice and we have to be real, we have to really hug them along the way and give 'em the right advice. Um, and then everything else else will follow through, will be successful. Absolutely. So, so, yeah. So my, my training, Hmm. I, I don't know, I guess everything builds you a little bit in life, um, is being confident but still being sensitive. It's ability to know and, and know your material. And always quest for more information. That's always, I, I love information. I love data. So Quest, quest for that. Um, and, and just bringing good for the world in general, I think. So. You got your license. I, so I'm, I definitely, all those background helped you to toughen you up for something that now you're independent. You're, you're, you were independent since you were 15, so, so you know exactly what to do with that, but you just wanted to go climb higher and higher and higher. So which company did you go to first? Give us a little bit about the time, because I know it's a lot of time has passed until today, but what we want to know, what did you do? What did you achieve? Because you, you are, you, you are somebody that, uh, I, I I think you are satisfied but are not for, and you don't settle you. There's a difference. People that are, have satisfaction, they're in life, but they have the satisfaction, but they're like to always achieve, or, or the bottom, the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next for them. That's what you are, that's what we, for heart and I are, we always have those ambition and fire and, and goals. We wanna Yes. Always be better and go higher and higher. So tell us what happened to, where did you go? You know, what, what, how was your first year look like? Give us a little bit about that. Yeah. I, I think we're all in the same kind of like mold, right? It, there's people, specific people in that kind of mold that has a quest to, to always push forward, right? Correct. Um, so I first took my license and I went to YRT realtor, and I took my license with yrt. It's some company here. And of course they, they, when they teach you the license, they teach how amazing that company is, and they want you to be in that company. And I said, fine, I'll just start with them. Um, but as soon as I started immediately, you know, I researched and I realized that you gotta be able to, if you sell a Coca-Cola, you're gonna advertise for cola. If you sell a car, you're gonna advertise for car, and you're gonna position yourself in a really, well, you're gotta be different. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So immediately I spent money in advertising. I called the PR company and I created a brand. Um, I went to it differently. I popped, put parade, the neighborhood with my mailers. But they were different. They were colorful, they was the showing different, they were luxury. I, I changed completely how things are looking because it was boring. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, it was really boring, uh, back then. So, so in literally three, four months, I became rookie of the year for the whole Washington Metropolitan <laugh>, which was pretty crazy because it was like bang like that. I get phone calls, people call me, my neighbors, my friends, my this and other neighbors. And it just was different cause I immediately started with marketing mm-hmm. <affirmative>, where the PR company, and I hired the marketing person. I was the immediate thing that I did. And that was a great thing. Um, so when I realized that I don't like the yellow brand of Whiter, and I don't use any of that, so I might as well either be independent or go to a company that is kind of like independent agents. So I moved after three months to re max. Mm. And I stayed with Remax for a long time, for I guess 19 years or so.<laugh> Along the ways I opened my own franchise and my own office and created a whole team. But I stayed in the Remax for a long time until I found my home at the agency. So what was your, how many deals did you do the first year, if you remember exactly. Or around. I don't remember. I know I have this rookie, the year thingy that I got from them. The, the crystal. Uh, it may say on it, I'm looking for the award, but I don't remember how many transactions I did. But it was, it was, uh, it was a lot <laugh>. It was really good. <laugh>. Listen, I made good money. I bought four, four more places that year. I love it. This is love it. This is the best advice anyone's gonna get. Guys. You sell houses, you make money, go buy. So, yeah. Exactly. It's exactly. And, and I wish, I wish, uh, every 20 years old listen to this because really save money. And I tell this to my new agents here, to my young ones. I'm telling 'em, listen, my goal is to help buy properties. That's my goal. Uh, this is how I mentor them because really, if they can buy properties, put it for rental, forget about it for another 15 years, do not sell it. Real estate is not to be sold. Has to be bought. It's a long game. <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. You hold it for 5, 7, 10, 15. The longer you hold it, the more money you're making at the end of the day. Absolutely. In the long run, real estate has always, always gone up. Historically speaking. It's always gone. Yeah. It's a fun thing. People thinking what it's gonna go down. Well, you know what, over long run, it's always go down. No matter what goes up, no matter what, it's gonna go like this, but it's gonna go up. So whatever your parents bought the house 30 years ago, it went up. Yeah. I don't care what happened. 2000, It's went up a whole lot. So, so yeah. I mean, if you could buy something, rent it and forget about it, um, save more money, buy another one, rent it, forget about it. That's the best. That's a good advice ever. That is, that is the best way to do it. And investments are key. So you've, have you just invested in real estate or have you kind of dabbled in other things? Because I know you're very keen on crypto as well, and you're certified to sell crypto in, uh, well sell houses for cryptocurrency in the United States. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So talk a little bit about that. So, so cry crypto had few years that it just went like everybody wanted to do crypto. Right? But there were self-made millionaires or billionaires mm-hmm.<affirmative> from crypto. And crypto made billionaires. Yep. <laugh>. Crypto made billionaires. Right? Yeah. Uh, overnight. Yeah. Uh, and, and the issue was how do I use my, my millions and billions of dollars because I can't use it. Um, and there is a way to buy real estate using your crypto money, and there's gonna be, the regulations will change and the, um, governments will eventually, um, figure out a way to do it. So it's formally being done, but there are right now lenders who will actually lend you money on your crypto assets. There are, um, actually, because all these crypto buyers also don't have, many, many of them don't even have job, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they don't need to have a job. So you don't even, cannot even get loan. Usually you can't show in income because they don't wanna show their income<laugh>. So there's a way to take money or lend money on your crypto assets. There's a way to transfer ownership to an lsc, and then you buy the LSC with the crypto money. So there's, uh, different things to, that you can do with crypto. There's, uh, a whole lot of solutions. Um, and that's kind of what I've learned and what I got certified on. Uh, then the market has crashed on crypto. It will change, it will come back. Um, there will, it's, it's, it has to be regulated better. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, but it is something that's gonna come back. Did you invest in crypto yourself? A little bit, but, yeah. Well, I should've done better.<laugh> I should've missed at the beginning, which I didn't. <laugh>. We all should have, right? Think we should've. Did you. Touch? I know you're like anti. No, no, no. I bought, you did e auditorium long time ago. Okay. It wasn't that much. I, in 2015, and I was on a beach and I bought some with friend, but, uh, I should have bought a whole lot more <laugh>. But then <laugh> should have bought. I bought for fun. Yeah. I bought for fun. It went up, you know, a lot, like 20 some thousand dollars for, it was a lot for nothing that I spent. And, and then I saw that, um, before it went to like $56,000. I saw it when it was like 40,000. I thought, wow, that's, I made a lot. And I saw that, you know, I have always say, pigs get fat and hawks get slaughtered. So I saw it before I got slaughtered <laugh>. That's quite correct. Very smart. That's precisely correct. Very smart. All right, so let's get, let's get into some of this team building. What made you want to start a team? Is that something that you always wanted to do? Or did that just come up, uh, naturally, uh, through working with? And when did you meet Alex as well? I, is that something more recent or have you guys had a relationship in the past and worked together in the past? So, so with Alex, um, you know, stars kind of align sometimes. And what happened is I was with re max and we had the broker as sweet as he can be, but I didn't like to spend a penny. So his office was pretty old, old, old, old computers. It needs to be in the museum and <laugh>, everything was kind of old. Um, and I never want to bring people to the office. So I always just, um, had met them at Starbucks and this and that and hotel lobbies and all sorts of things. Never want to bring them to the office because they liked the office. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So he, but I was the number one agent in the whole office, but never come, never, never saw my face in the office. So, um, the broker one, they came to me and said, Nurit, why are you not coming to office? I'm, you know, I'm, I'm saving you an office for you. I said, Uhuh, I, I can't, I can't work with this computers, with this printers. There's no way I'm gonna be here. There's no way. I can't do it. I have a great setup in my house. I cannot come here. And he said, well, you know, you, we have an office next door that Alex, one of our agent just renovated. Maybe you can take an office there. So I go across the hallway and I see gorgeous, totally renovate. Cause my partner Alex totally is like ooc D kind of thing. Yeah. Everything is in space. Everything is organized. And I go, and I was like, damn, where is this <laugh>? How come you're hiding this? And so I look at Alex, I said, Alex, this is amazing. Okay, I'm here. I wanna, I wanna take an office here. He looks at me, like, came out of nowhere, like I'm taking his office,<laugh>. And he said, um, okay, let's have lunch and talk about it.<Laugh>, <laugh>. And that's it. We went for lunch. And since then we were together in this office, uh, loving each other, helping each other grow. I also get to know Alex as well through Nurit. We, we met the forum of me a few times, and we hang out with each other. And he's just a fireball. He's just an incredible, incredible human being. Exactly like Noit. <laugh>. So. Seems like a Greek r I didn't have too much time with him, but I did meet him at the forum. Yeah. Uh, had a couple conversations. And, and, and we really compliment each other because he's more about systems. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and organizations and all that stuff. You give me paperwork, I, you lost me. I hate papers. I hate papers. I hate paperwork. I don't like filling out application. I can't stand it. I, it's just not me. I let me do marketing. Let me fly, talk to people, connect people, hug people. Let me do this all day long. Don't put me in the office. Start preparing stuff. I don't like it. You're a salesperson. That's what you are. That's who you are. A natural salesperson. Yeah. Exactly. I'm, I'm the, you know, there's the red and the blue and the green or yellow, whatever. I'm like red. I have nothing. No blue, no green, no yellow. I'm afraid.<Laugh>, <laugh>.<Laugh> in the personality, you know, talking. About I know exactly. I've done those so many times. In the beginning, I was a, a heavy, heavy red with the yellow. And that was it. Like, no blue, no white, white for sure. No. Like, that's, that's not me. White's like the peacemaker. Okay. Um, and they're very, uh, non-confrontational. Oh. They're kind of go with the flow, but they're very organized. Uh, they're kind of by the book about everything that's there. That sounds like Alex would likely be closer, uh, to a white than yes. Than anyone else. The yellows are kind of the fun life of the party. You're a yellow, like short attention spans. Um, <laugh>, difficult time,<laugh>, like wanting to sit there for two hours to listen to shit, but they just want to have fun. Yeah. Those guys. But you have a lot of red in you too. Like you're, you would be a red yellow mix yourself. Natural red is that natural salesperson, like natural salesperson, really driven, uh, natural leader, uh, wants to win at everything, wants to be number one at everything. Interesting. And that's, yeah. Okay. And then the blues are more emotionally driven. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. They cry. I'm just kidding. So, so, so Alex definitely very organized. He likes it. Whenever there's like, I, I don't like pd and agents will complain or something. I, I don't have time for it. He can explain in a very calm way in a very, he is like, wonderful. He's like, exactly what I need. The stuff that I don't like to do. He does. Um, and it works well because he does it really, really well.<Laugh> <laugh>, you know? Yes. But, uh, so that's how I met Alex, and that's how we became partners. Um, after that we, we became partners on the, uh, franchise for the Remax office. And we built own office. And, uh, we, in terms of the team, it was a natural growth because I just couldn't handle everything. And the stuff that I don't like to do, I wanted to push to my assistant. And then my assistant needs an assistant. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then her assistant needs to split so she can get an assistant, um. An agent sudden to read, get about seven different assistants,<laugh> seven to 10. So assistant for everything. <laugh>. So by the way, like for those who don't have an assistant, guys, it's, it's a game changer. It is game changer. It's, so I just got an assistant a couple weeks ago and one full-time, and I have one part-time. And the part-time deals more with graphics and podcasts. A lot of that full-time is an IC and an assistant. So it's been, it's been phenomenal. It's like, uh, a weight off my shoulders and I'm now chatting with clients, having the appointments that I need to be having. Uh, had a great one this morning. I've got two right after this. Amazing. But just the schedule's getting filled up. It's, it's the perfect, perfect thing to have for those without an assistant, go get one. Especially if you're exploding at the scenes with either leads or certain things that you need to do. It is certainly a game changer. And that's actually one of the advices that I got at the form. So I was, I was chatting with, uh, with Ben Black and mm-hmm.<affirmative>, John Groman. And as we chatted about potentially building a team, because that's one of my goals is to build a team. Their main advice was, the first thing you have to do is get an assistant. You cannot build a team before you have an assistant. And if you do, you're really gonna stretch yourself thin. You can't give everyone everything that you have. Um, and then you're not gonna be able to make money yourself or help your own clients, cuz you won't have time for it. Correct. Yeah. Makes. Sense. Yeah. I, I tell you, I I tell you, this is one of the biggest advice you just mentioned right here. And it's for every field. Uh, when I hired my first assistant, I was like so worried. Cause she came from National Geographics, she had a real job. She's been there for nine years. And I was thinking to myself, cause I love people and I care for people, and I was like so worried. What if I'm not gonna have work for her? What if she's not gonna be busy? What if I can't hold, uh, pay her the salary? I can't take her from National Geographic being there for nine years and, and, and she's not gonna have enough to do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you gotta have a faith in yourself and 100% commitment to that person you hire and to yourself. And it will happen because suddenly, even if I didn't have enough for her, I gave her everything that I had to do. And we did extra. We did other things, new things, and I exploded, really exploded. Suddenly. I have so much more time to even think to be creative, to call clients, to do new different things of marketing, to change, to, um, grow myself in different ways. Um, this was the best decision I've made. It's the first decision, the best decision I've made for my career. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. I love it. And going into building this team and hiring people, hiring people is an art. So talk to us a little bit about that process of how you got good at it, because we've all made mistakes, hiring the wrong person. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I've done a lot of interviews. I'd probably say well over, well over a thousand myself. I've interviewed over a thousand people easily. I've worked for a lot of corporations, so used to do a ton of hiring for them. Um, and I've been through this process so many times, so I feel like I've got a pretty good gauge. But I, I want you to share what your process is of hiring someone. What are you usually looking for? Is it the experience, the intangibles? I know what I want in people, but I want to hear from you to hear like what certain things align with you and, uh, what you really look for. Yeah. Um, you know, for me, most important than anything is your heart. Who you are. I surround myself with around beautiful people, really sweet people. Beautiful. I mean, beautiful hearted people, smart people, sweet people. Before anything else, I wanna know that you are a nice, good, can like real person. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don't care how successful you could be as an agent. I don't care how ace of a wonderful realtor you are and how many millions you've sold, if you are gonna be a bad apple for the team, for the atmosphere, I don't want you around because that will put, will take me down, will put me, you know, it will cost me more because it will make me feel bad. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because I wouldn't like the atmosphere. I won't like the people. I won't like where I'm at. Uh, it will demoralize me. So for me, I, I gotta be able to feel that I connected to you. That you are gonna believe in me and I believe in you. It's not just that you believe in me. I have to believe in you. I have to like you as a person. I gotta know that I can trust you 100%. I gotta know that my clients can trust you. 100%. I gotta know that you are, you care about the people that you a people. Because in this industry, it's all about that. Mm-hmm.<Affirmative>. So, so you, I can help you be amazingly successful, but you gotta be a person and a good person with a good intention and caring. So that's the number one for me. Uh, after that, she gotta be smart. Cause I can't deal with not be able to absorb and understanding things. And so I don't have patience.<laugh>, that's one of my thoughts.<Laugh> reminds, reminds me of someone. No patience. When we were talking about the podcast, Peter's like, fucking an hour and a half, I'm gonna walk out after it. Now I can't do this.<laugh>. He's like, I dunno if I can last an hour and a half, this is too. Much. I almost got off and left on my own podcast on my own. You. Yeah. We had a semi. He's like, are we done yet? No man, we're. Not done. We still go leave me alone, man. Let me go <laugh>. Listen. When I, when I met Peter, I was like, this is my male version. Like seriously, I was like, I immediately fell in love with you guys. Save. You. And, and I was like, this is like, I love Yeah. This. It, you know how you Hello? Save, save. I. Keep, keep 'em on track basically. That's what I'm trying to do. <laugh>. You're such a super person. Really. You're wonderful. Oh, he's amazing. People. That's why you have farha next to you. Yeah. See, this is exactly what. It's, we make a good team when we go out and when we go out and present to builders or to clients, we kick ass. We actually kick ass together. We're really good. Oh. I, I know. I know you do <laugh>. That's. Not, we individually kick ass. Too. Yeah, we do. We have a pretty good closing ratio. Yeah. Together don't mean to tune our own horn <laugh>. You know, when you together you each one will kick ass and then you together you much more than double, you know? That's right. That's the thing. Yeah. One plus one is in two. It's one plus one. It's like 25 sometimes. Exactly. Exactly. So especially. You. Kinda to sum that up, number one, I think was attitude. Like, be be a good person, good intention. Good. Good. Yeah. Uh, number two was common sense. So this is something that I use. You need to have common sense a hundred percent. Like the, for me integrity I think is really important as well. Ethical. I don't wanna liar. I want someone who's ethical, who's gonna, you know what, I'd rather you just tell me the truth. Hey, this happened. It's all good people, fuck up. It's okay. Yeah. And I think that's part of being a good leader, is understanding that people will make mistakes. Hundred percent. And a lot of times when you a, hire the wrong person, or b, they leave you for some odd reason, a lot of times the person that's hired them has done something wrong. I also wanna put this out there. You have to look at yourself as a leader and say, okay, how am I going to help this person be successful? What training am I providing them? What resources am I providing them? What time am I providing them? If you think someone's going to enter your business today and learn everything, all your systems, your crm, your backend stuff, social media, and do it exactly the way you want it without you spending any time or dedicating any time, it's not happening. So I think a lot of people have this false perception, I'm gonna hire an assistant and they're gonna take stuff off my plate right away. No, no, no, no. You, you're gonna get busier right away. You're gonna have less time for all the things you actually need to do. And you need to give your assistant more time <laugh> to create them in order to be successful. Like even my assistance, I sometimes chat with them. That first week was every day I was having recorded calls like we are right now. I actually just opened up, uh, Riverside and Recorder calls and I would send it to them right after. So if they want to review something and we do role plays, so that's all recorded so they can go back to it. Yeah. They see the style, they see what needs to be done, but just consistent communication. A and b, great training. And if you're like the hiring portion, you've gotta start with those, um, those non-negotiables. Right? It's not always about the experience, the number one agent, the one who has 20 years of experience, because sometimes they're not willing to change their ways in the way they look at things, especially in our industry, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You just can't mm-hmm. <affirmative> it. It's all about how you conform to the ever-changing technology, what we have going on today. Yep. Like social media, as you said, you started doing flyers. Well flyers versus social media today. Right. And flyers still work. You still do geo farming. We still do geo farming. I. Still do farming. Yeah. People don't understand that. It works. Of. Course it takes time. But it, but. Said so many important things along the way, what you said. Um, and, and it's true. Once you ha you're not looking for clones, you're not looking for people like you, you look every, there's so many successful people in real estate that are not same as me, but what you're looking for is the integrity, the good heart, the right person, the one who's willing to learn. The one ones willing to give, the one who's willing to be part of your, of your group and your team. There's a lot that you that you go with. Um, did I lose you guys? No. No, no. We're here. <laugh>. But my camera by the way, you're not moving in my camera. Oh. Oh, that's okay. It'll continue recording. Either way. I'll try to move. So. Yeah, we've got a recording in like three different places. We. Are good in my camera. You get stuck in the face, but that's okay. That's on my side. Um, so, so, so really, um, you gotta have the the good people and then you gotta invest. Yes. You gotta invest and you continue to invest and you continue to teach and you continue to love and care and be there, uh, and support. Because why would they join your team if they're not gonna get you support? Look, I've seen you, we came to Washington to meet you, remember for your grand opening. And I think we had about a three hours meeting before the, the, the day before we came in, uh, to Nora's office. And I gotta tell you, he was a game changer for me personally because when I came back, and I gotta tell you the experience because first of all, uh, Nurit and Alex walk around the office, everybody loves them. Like there is so much, uh, the love in the air in that atmosphere of that office. It's insane. Okay? And, and it all starts from them. It's just their en suits love and passion towards their whole team and staff. And it's a very busy office and, and, and, and they get it back. So I strongly believe that we had great chats, we picked each other's brain and we tried to exchange ideas. And that was the moment that Paige and I really fell in love with Alex and Dorid and said, you know what, this is something that different that we have here as a friends and as as colleagues that we, we we wanted to explore and make bigger and bigger and better things. But I want to go back to something. I wanna ask you a question. I know when you were part of Remax and then you switched to agency, I want to find out what's going on there. Yeah. But I know you were, um, one of the highest producing, uh, office for, for Remax in Metro. Right? So, so tell us how many, what was your transactions like, how many you guys were pumping deals? You told me this, so I know the stories, but I want to I want the audience to understand. And then tell us why did you do this switch to the agency? What was your thought process? Alex's mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then what, what are the challenges and all of that stuff? So we were the number one team in the state of Maryland, uh, for Remax. We were, uh, number, I think six or five five in United States for Max. That's huge. That's a thing. It's huge, right? Uh, we, we sold, we had, it was pretty big. And, uh, we were very, we are, thank God, very successful. What happened is we had the five year franchise agreement to be renewed. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and we were looking at each other and we realized that we build our own systems. We didn't use, um, Remax systems at all back then. Remax didn't have a lot of systems. It was kind of like anticipated a little bit. Um, not today. Still is. Technology. Oh, I'm sorry. Dream. But. Yeah, I know. Still is. I trying Yeah. You trying to be politically correct, but there still are <laugh>. Yes, yes. Exactly. So, so we had on crm, we had on marketing. I never wanted to use it, but you wouldn't only think it was sexy. Um, I, you know, I didn't have anything that I used. It was our own logo, our own, uh, listing presentations on packages, on brochures, on designs. It was nothing. Remember I started with a PR company early, early. Um, so, so when came to pay to redo the franchise again, uh, and Compass back, back then became the new guys on the block and everybody thought Compass is sexy and pretty and this and that. And they came to us too. And I looked at Compass and what they have, and I thought to myself, well, they call themselves a technology company, but they really don't have much technology. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's just a sexy look, sexy logo, sexy brochures, but really down to it. It wasn't. So, I want to be independent. They wanna be under Compass, uh, cuz they're not gonna have franchise. They'll, they'll assume you to become their, their agent. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I said, okay, no. Um, and I looked at Alex and told Alex, listen, I wanna go to California, because, uh, they have, they do things differently. There are, it's very contemporary. Let's go and talk to PR companies in California that are, are in real estate and see what they have, what they can offer us. Because I wanna be really, really cut edge, um, um, to technology and everything. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I scheduled, uh, four PR companies to meet us. And then, uh, one of my builder friend told me, look at this shit. This is a company in California that they created this thing, this brochure for me for real estate. Nobody does this shit like that. This is amazing. Look at that. And I look and I see this sexy brochure,<laugh> that they've paid for him and a company called the Agency. And I'm like, mine, this is exactly what I was looking for. I'm flying to California to meet PR companies for this. This is gorgeous. Who is this agency? It's like, I don't know if this Mauricio guy, you should talk to them. And that's what happened. So I said, I called Mauricio and I said, listen, I'm flying to California. Uh, we're a number one team in Maryland for Remax, blah, blah, blah. We're not signing. I wanna meet with you guys and see what you have to say. And he said, come <laugh>. And that's what happened. So we flew to several PR companies. We stopped in, Mauricio met the agency. We fell in love that moment. And that was history after that. Yeah. <laugh>. Wow. Similar story actually. <laugh>. And. This is 2019 20. This. This is, uh, or earlier 19. 19. 19. Okay. So me and and Nurit Alex actually before, no, 2020, it was 20 years ago. We, cause we, um, I got a call from the head of franchise. I said, because I, I opened up in the middle of pandemic. It was April of April 8th, 2020. So I got a call. They said, uh, we are thinking of another East coast office in Washington, Maryland. And they're the number one team in, uh, the, the number one brokerage in that area. They did 500 plus transactions if I'm making like, the year before. So we really want Nurit and Alex, can you jump on a Zoom and uh, have a quick conversation with that. I said I was, of course, I'm, I love the brand and I'm high. It just opened up and I'm just running around. So me and Nurit and Alex, I'd never forget it. I was in the p I was in bi New York Mills. I was on my phone, <laugh>, and we did a Zoom together. Right. He was like in the back of my car. And I'm pacing back and forth in the parking lot and we are talking, we had a good conversation, like for 20 half an hour. And um, we, we, we, we just, we, we just, they asked me questions. We, you know, we really like the whole conversation that's happening and all of that stuff. And then the next thing I know, of course they opened up. So you, I was super excited about that. So. Yeah, I mean your, so our meeting with Mauricio was really important. And then the second most important, we always say to ourselves, we, and Alex was the call with you guys. Cause um, you guys, uh, really had an amazing experience and told us from your point of view how it is switching to the agency. Cause you know, we've been for like 19 years with Remax. Um, it's a big decision. It was, um, to, to make that switch. Whether we use the name or not, or it give us a lot. No, but we were still, you know, Um, and nobody knew the agency back then in DC. Yep. Yep. You the agency. What agency?<Laugh> the agency. Which, which agency do you work? Which agency? I, so, which I was actually on the phone with a client this morning, is they called Which agency are you like with the agency? California <laugh>. We got a Netflix show. Your wife probably knows about it.<Laugh>. Yeah, exactly. And we really that Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. And now people telling me, oh my gosh. Like, agents agent will come to me, say, nor you aced it. I when you said you move into the agency, we're like, what? What's going on with? Nor what did she drink? Because who is the agency? What is she doing? You mean Remax? Everybody knows her and now they're like, oh shit, this is great. Nurit, I Kus to you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we didn't know what you're doing, but I guess you knew what you're doing.<laugh>. So Dori is extremely, extremely creative. So tell us what is it that, uh, that look like the advices yet you can give to a, a newer agent that are starting into the business. You know, the first five years and I know how you operate, your brain operate. You are so fast and you come up with such a genius ideas in terms of marketing. You are really a great, great marketer. Not only a great salesperson, but you are a great genius marketer that you come up outside of Oxford because I brought some of your stuff back and I, I was pring around the office. Look at what Nurit has. Look, look, look, look.<Laugh>, I'm sure some of the boats, uh. You team. Nurit, team Alex. We still have it at the office over here at the conference center. But, but, but where, what, where do you get your inspiration? Where do we, people, where do people find inspiration for themselves to take themselves to the next level of the business If they want to emulate you. What, how do you come up with this stuff? I know, just you told me your process. Yeah. So I guess again, it's about understanding and people and, and, and you, you cannot, like my marketing person, poor her. She works, I have now four people in marketing. Cause they work very, very hard. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, why? Because you can't put me in a stupid box. Um, I cannot do this. You cannot have templates for me because I hate templates. If you're gonna send a mailer just listed under contract, just listed, just sold, and it looks the same. You gonna, you have about a second from somebody's attention. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when they go to the trashcan to trash what you just sent them. Right? Yep. You have a second in the email for them to look at it. If you don't have, if the message, my message is not going to you in a second, I failed. And if I don't make you stop and look, I failed. So it needs to be, um, some things have been the same. Meaning the logo by picture, the this, they need to know. Oh, it's again the read. But they're loving it because it's different. It's unique. It's, everyone is like, it's is an art by itself. Yeah. So, so when I look in the mailer, when I look in email, I look at the, at the post, it needs to cap capture your attention like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the message that I'm trying to send to you has to be like. That. Right. Popping up. Yep. Right away. So you understand. You connect nor read. And this is what she's asking me. Got it. It has to connect. If I don't see that and because maybe a D H D, because I, I I, I'm inpatient and you get my split second. When you put something in front of me, I could immediately says, Nope, where's the message? Got it. And they hate me for that <laugh>. Cause I always tell them, she comes, where's the message not reading? I said, of course I'm not reading. Cause nobody reads you puts 12 sentences. What? Yeah. Where's the message? It's lost in the 12 sentences. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Correct. So, so really, so the creativity part of it is to, uh, capture also what your clients, what is the, you know, uh, what is the important things for somebody right now? You gotta cap. I gotta capture your heart. I gotta touch you. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And if right now you're worried about affordability, if you're worried about your stock market, if you worried about, um, whatever the election, if you're worried about the highway they're gonna build by your house. If you are worried, whatever it is you are worried about this moment, I can use that to capture your attention. Got. It. Um, so you, you gotta, um, the message and it needs to be something that is interesting to you, something that touches you, and you gotta see this message like that. Understand this message like that. And it, he needs to be sexy, pretty something that capture your, your lock, right? Mm-hmm.<affirmative> that you wanna stop and look for a second. So these are the rules, really. And if you capture those rules, you, you do it be you're gonna get attention. Can you do it? Fantastic. I'm sorry. He said you do it fantastically. Yeah. Thank. You. Yeah. So what would you say your biggest pillars of your business are? Where does most of your business come from? If you're to, uh, give us a percentage is allocated from, maybe it's door knocking, it's flyers, it's uh, social media, marketing, it's referrals. Where does that come from? And uh, kind of going back to what, what should people focus on if they don't have the money to be mm-hmm.<affirmative> focused on advertising. Because the thing is geo-farming. If you're not willing to do it for at least 12 months, and that's anything that's even online advertising guys. Don't do it for a month, two month, three, three months and then say, I didn't get anything and I just stopped. Or I called a hundred people and they didn't convert so I stopped. No, you have to do it for about 12 to 18 months before you start seeing returns on anything. So with that said over to you, where does your business come from? What percentages are from the door knocking side versus the, uh, social media side? So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, yeah. And, and fard, you know, you do that. You, you come every Saturday and you record a podcast. That is, if you had just one podcast and then mo another one six months later, whatever, that wouldn't have the effect. Right. It's the same thing. You do exactly what you're supposed to do. So anything you do, you commit to it. You're right. You cannot do farming without committing. And I tell to my agents as well, I'll come up with all these ideas, but you've got to be able to send it every time. Uh, and there's rules about farming and a whole lot of, uh, holistic approach to it, in my opinion that I take <laugh>. Um, and, and, but my, and I'm happy to share, but my clients. Um, so if you wanna be successful in real, in real estate, you gotta have most of your clients coming from personal referrals and, and uh, repeat clients. That's right. Um, you cannot just buy, buy and look for new, new people all the time that you don't know. Uh, you have to be able to concor your personal referrals and your pest clients. You have to, that's number one. Um, so you nourish that. Once you've got that, um, then you can continue and explore for the new things, which is either buying leads online or advertising campaigns or doing mailers or door knocking, whatever that is that you wanna do. There's, uh, some things that it's not for everybody. Like door knocking is not for me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, although it's very successful, I just, I don't know. I just don't have it to me. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And it's very successful. People do that. I have agents who are magnificent in that and kudos cause they, they're amazing. Um, I have a flaw. I don't know how to door knock, uh, a door. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just don't know. So, so, but I know how to tell 'em how to do it. I know how to say. So it, you'll grab their people's attention. I know how to create for you what to give them. And really good peace that's gonna be showing, um, that you actually giving them something rest is knock on the door to bug 'em. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you gotta have the psychology behind something, what you do. So if you come in with something to give, then you Okay. Knock in the door. Cause they may be interested in that. So, but you have to, your go through your sphere of influence, your clients, your friends, uh, your neighbors. If anything, start there. These are your warmest people who would wanna help you. You just have to master the ask. Just ask. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, don't forget to ask. It's okay to ask. Ask and you shall receive. And it's. Okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to tell 'em, listen, I need your help. I have a great team leader who is gonna support me, who's gonna go and do it with me, blah, blah, blah. Help me. And incredibly, that is important. Yeah. Opinion. Yeah. And, and leveraging, as you said, leveraging someone who is a team leader. Go join a team, work with someone who knows what they're doing. Yep. Team up with someone. Cuz remember, 50% of something is better than a hundred percent and nothing. Absolutely. And I think people forget that. And they try to gain the business on their own. Yeah. And they really end up losing the client long term because they don't know what they're doing or they don't have the overall experience at all. Listen, it, I, it's somebody's biggest decision. Okay? If I'm selling my house, it's my biggest asset. A you come to me as a friend and you just got your license. And with all due respect, I love you, but this is my biggest asset and I'm just gonna like dodge you and, and find the, the biggest asset that in town to sell my house. That's right. Right. Okay. I wanna talk about, I wanna take gear this to towards. Our last, last question before we go to you, because I know what you wanna go to where. Okay. Last question is what were, uh, and I genuinely want to know this, this is for people building teams. What were your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? Because there's been a lot of growing pains of you building this team and you've been going at it for a number of years and you've done it very successfully. You've got great retention. People love you, people enjoy working with you. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced and how have you made it this far? So I, I mean, I made mistakes along the way too. Uh, I think that one of the challenges is that you invest in somebody for so long and then they think they can be successful or they are successful because of them, not because of all the stuff that you have given them. Meaning a lot of times we give referrals and, and we give, uh, leads and Zillow leads and all that stuff. And they're doing really, really well. Especially new agents who haven't been in other companies and don't know the support they're getting and don't know all the stuff we're doing. Cause for our agents, we, you mean there's a whole lot of things that, uh, it's another podcast by itself. Uh, what, how you build a team, what you do for your team to create for your team. So they keep the retention, but if there haven't been other places, they think it's very easy. They don't realize that you do so many things. And, and just by even, uh, a third party, um, um, to be able to, to say we're number one team. I work with the number one team, it, it's much easier than to say, come work with me because you're a new agent. But if you have the third party endorsement that you team and we sold this much and this and that, you already feeling better. You already have the success. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So the biggest thing was, uh, some of the new agents that we grew from, nothing to become 10 mill agents or 50 mill agents, felt that suddenly they want a much higher split and unreasonable or they wanted to go somewhere else. And, and suddenly they, they, they, they fall. Um, I took it personally a lot of times because I felt like I invested so much, but it's okay. It's people's wishes to grow mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it's okay. So I've learned ways to allow my team members to grow and stay within the team and allow them to build the team within the team. So we were able to kind of do something on that to allow them to feel this, because this is everybody's. You wanna, you wanna grow yourself as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so, so that's some of the things that I've fixed along the way, I would say. Uh, and that was the biggest challenge for me. Cause I, I love you. I fall in love with you. I'll give you everything. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because we, we partners in this and I took it very personally. Um, but it's business at the end of the day, A lot of times Alex tells me, noit, it's not a family, it's a business. But I don't have that distinction because this is who I am. I'm all in. I'm family. This. Is, I love you guys. This is me. And why me and Nurit, we resonated a lot because you heard me say this constantly in the office. I'm the same way. Its just, I give so much and I put, we put our heart and soul into everything we do because we don't know anything else. We don't know how to be, uh, the, you know, the, the hold things back and not share. I just, I just don't know how, it's not my personality, it's just either I'm in 1000000% or I'm not. You know, it's, that's why not. Exactly. It's, it's, there is no gray in between For me and you, I, that's why me and her, we are so much alike. <laugh>. Yeah. So much alike. And, and it's, uh, and, and I dunno, some people say this is business. You can't be like that. Yeah. And I don't know, it's, it's my family. You spent, here's, here's my philosophy. You spent big portion of your hours of the day working mm-hmm.<affirmative> because another portion, some hours you're home, like in the evening, dinner, blah, blah morning, whatever. And then you go to sleep. That's the other biggest portion, right? Yep. So, so, so most of the hours is working. I'm spending here with these people and it's my second family. I've gotta love it. I mean, my, I love what I do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I wake up in the morning, I'm happy. It's, it's my thing. And, and, and I have to love the people around me. And if I have to watch my back or if I, or it's somebody not making me happy, I, I, there's no money in the world. It's worth it for me. Same here. It's not worth it. That's fair. It's not worth it. I have a question for you before you go on. No. The truck. Where where's your shoes? My shoes are put on the. Front. What? <laugh>? I'm like, where's I'm, I see socks, I'm in my socks. What happened? I'm like, this is not on bread. Peter Torkey. I took up my shoes that are my boots. <laugh>. Okay. So last last thing I want to ask you is actually, it's a two part. Okay. I want you to talk about, uh, Dr. Dominican Republic. How did you all of a sudden got the, the, the, the courage and the, you know, ambition to go from Washington, DC and, uh, you know, dragged me along with you Of course. Which I begged you to be part of it, which I love. Thank you. And, and I, you guys are, you're, you are, you're, you're, you guys are kicking ass in Dr. That's number one. But what, what was that? Why that ambition to push for in, in agency office in Dr. And then lastly, just tell us what big advice do you have for the audience that they can improve themselves in life, whatever their job is. Could be something else. Doesn't have to be real estate, because this is, this podcast is about art of greatness, making yourself better, you know, in life. So, so, so tell us Dr. And then the advice. Yeah. So Dr. Um, I think, I think that I, I really fell in love with the idea of, of, of learning a new culture, new, new place. Having a sunny place to go to, by the way, has a lot to do with it. Um,<laugh>, I like the beat. And, um, it's, it's such a great culture, such a cool people. And I found this most amazing partners to do it with. And when I've, like everything that I do, I research, I research it, I've studied it, I've learned, I saw how they do business there, what they do. And I've realized, you know, if we come structured with our structure and we come with what we have, we will change how business is done in this country. Mm-hmm.<Affirmative>. Because it's a country that everybody's a realtor. There's no license, there's no regulations, there are no requirements, and you wanna be a realtor, it's good. Your realtor <laugh> next. The cab driver's a realtor, and you don't even be a business card. <laugh>, the. Funny thing is the funny said the cab driver. So I went to, the first time I went to study what I like this place, or not my hotel, uh, Butler, my hotel Butler. He explained to me this and that. He bring me, I asked him for papayas and guava. He brings me a planner with papaya and guava, and then he gives me a card. I'm also a realtor.<Laugh>, that feels like Toronto nowadays. You have to go to school for 15 months. There's no requirements. So, so, so then what happened? Because of that, a lot of people got burned. They bought places and not from the, the seller was not actually the lead of record seller. And then they had this, uh, represented this person, but then they had about four other layers of representation before they got to the owner. A lot of stories like that. Um, so coming as a company that is so professional, that is American company, that we have systems and we are doing it the right way, it's such an important thing. So for the first few months, what are we spending on right now is creating the systems, creating the, the base and everything else. Um, because we're, we're, we're, we're different. We're organized and we already have tons of listings. We have developers contact, we have, it's been amazing. Absolutely amazing. We're already starting seeing the sales. We already have few on the contracts, which I need to update you, Peter. But, um, it, it's been, it's been great. It's, it's, uh, I love it. It's a challenge and it's such a wonderful thing. It makes me happy. Really. And Nurit is not shy of getting away from a challenge, man. <laugh>, she's No, no, no, no. She's not shy at. All. She's one badass woman. If that's, if there's anything we know through this podcast, she's one badass. Woman. 100%. No, nobody messes with noit <laugh>. No. You know, it's <laugh>. It's, I like to work. I think the, we all workaholics right? In a way we are, we like it. Yeah. And I, and I don't call it workaholic myself, people call this telling me, sometimes I don't because I, I'm enjoying what I'm doing. Yeah. If you love your, and I love my kids and I love my family. I'm all in and everything. I'm exactly based, I'm all in into my kids. I'm big, I'm all into my dog. I'm <laugh> Yeah. And. Everything. And if you love what you do, it's not work. That's what I say. If you love what you do, it's not work is you're enjoying what you do. So that's what it matters. So the last advice, and then maybe you, I know you want to ask a question about, uh, a question from Nory towards you for, for the final question. You wanna Yeah. Well, what, what's the biggest advice I wanna. Hear that the biggest advice that you have in terms of achieving greatness? Keep pushing. Hmm. First of all, keep pushing. Believe in yourself. You have to believe in yourself. Uh, it starts with you. Okay. Um, so you need to be a good human being, a loving person, trusting people. If you don't trust people, you cannot be trusted. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so trust people. It's okay. We make mistakes. And this, it's, it's their shit. If they did, if they use my trust, it's not me. Yep. Right. Trust people, love people, keep pushing. And number one, believe in yourself. What's that? Confidence is key. Believe in your greatness. Confidence is key, my friend. Confidence is. Completely agree. All right. So what made you want to join forces with Peter <laugh>, uh, to bring the agency downtown and be a managing partner of that? I'm gonna let you answer that one. <laugh>. <laugh>. First of all, who's not gonna wanna be part Peter and Paige? I'm like hoNuritd. Seriously. No. I'm, are you sure? Like, I I'm here with them all the time and it's, uh, it's a little rough.<Laugh>, I. Dunno. I come into the office every day. I love these guys. I, I koolaid I guess, but <laugh>, I, I love them. I mean, we, we, I like kind of people. Um, the challenge in downtown Toronto is not really a challenge. It's an amazing opportunity. Um, learning what Toronto is all about and how amazing Toronto is. It's such a cool city and it's such an amazing opportunity for us to, to bring the system, bring the agency, uh, bring the love and helping agents, um, in this coolest city in the world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Totally. Really, uh, it, it's so exciting. I mean, just thinking about it, they get excited. Um, and, and I have the best partners, so we will have so much fun together. So for me, it's a win-win. It, it's, it's absolutely exciting. Thing for me. I think that question should have been two parts. You should be also asked from me as well, because it's, it's two ways you're. Gonna chime in anyways, so go ahead, Peter. No, it's, no. So look, uh, the Nurit is such a, uh, force to re be reckon with, in my opinion and Paige's opinion. We just love her to death. So, and, uh, when we Dr. Happened, I, I see the way that she just Wow. The research that she's telling you, it's not a joke. Like she really sorry about that. She really, really, she knows so much about Dr that my head got start spinning about the information that she was giving me. And also I know how creative she is and how such a loving person she is. And I think, um, a partnership just, just made absolute sense. You know? So, so to bring Nurit in and, and grow this brand and this baby, and as she likes and as as we love and you love and, and as a family, we grow together and we have big ambitions, uh, for Toronto and other places. So I think it was just a synergy between us that it was just, uh, the match made in heaven, <laugh>. So yeah. So it was just match made in heaven. I think everybody will benefit from it in terms of internally from here, Washington, dc the dr the whole ecosystem of between offices of ours, everybody will benefit from this, uh, the partnership. And I think it's gonna be tremendous. Awesome. Amazing. Very well, thank you guys. Yeah.<laugh>, anything to add, Nurit? No, no. It's, uh, I, I, I was thinking last, last question I had, it was, you, you also, the one more thing, the suggestion as well is that it's okay to make mistake. Um, it's okay to make mistakes, but learn quickly and pivot quickly from it. That was something else that I should probably should have told you. Cause yeah, I make mistakes along the ways all the time. But you recognize really quickly, should I made a mistake, pivot very quickly. Fix it. Recognize it. Accept it, take it. Move on and fix it with it. Yeah, absolutely. I like you heard this, me saying this, this is exactly, going back to that is I, I, me and you, we have personalities. Like we don't aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, and then shoot. We shoot, you know, oh shit, it didn't hit the target. Let me just adjust it and fix it and just move on. That's my personality. Same. And then, and you heard me, you say this many times, shoot, first ask questions later. Yeah. If you need to aim ream again and fix it up, and just adjust yourself, adjust your, your, your, your do it decision and just do it <laugh>, you. Know, we all just make a. Decision. It's, you have to make a decision. Most people their biggest problem is it's their own head. It's their own mindset. It's just their own belief, as you said, believe in yourself that they, they, they believe in themselves that they, they're not good enough. They can't do it. You know, and, and, uh, and that's all it is. Analysis, paralysis. Like keep on analyzing. Analyzing. Like just. Do it. Just do it already. Exactly. <laugh>. Love it. Okay. Go on. Sometimes a bad decision is better than. Better than no decision at all. Got. It. I completely agree. Love it. All right. On that note, thank you so much, Nurit. We've had a wonderful time getting to know you. We appreciate you sharing your early childhood as well. And I think we could dig deeper into business, probably for another podcast into different pillars and real estate. That'll be part two. Uh, but really thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. And to the audience, thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening to the Art of Greatness podcast. We're excited. We're gonna bring you another guest in a few weeks. Please like, subscribe, comment down below. Really appreciate the support and have your guys have yourselves a wonderful. One. Hold on, don't finish up. Where can audience find you? Nait? Uh, they, where what social media would you like you, uh, to the artist to go follow you and, and look, look for your inspiration from nait. Uh, s <affirmative>, uh, as team, uh, I have an Instagram at Team Mart. PMM on Instagram, right? We put, we're gonna put that in the camera. Everything down below, below. The comment as well. And Instagram, and follow you, Peter, because they can see me. Well, a lot of times. You're, you're together. We're hundred percent love you to death. As always.