In today’s episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast, we have Dave Dubbin with us. Dave is a force in the Toronto Real Estate market and he isn’t stopping anytime soon. Born and raised in the city’s west end, he’s not only an area expert but has a unique background that gives him a fresh perspective — one that greatly benefits anyone who chooses to work with him.
Guest Bio:
Dave’s professional career began in Australia and Germany working as a professional water skier and stunt performer. In doing so, he quickly learned how to navigate the planet, the people on it, and everything in between. These experiences, combined with his formal education MBA, helped immensely in Dave’s transition into the corporate business world. While honing his craft in the Fortune 500 environment, he refined his skills as a negotiator and truly learned what it takes to be a world-class salesman.
The next step, in a series of increasingly successful moves, was to go into business for himself, in order to focus on what has become his greatest passion, working with people. That exact passion and need for helping others instantly drove him to real estate, where interacting directly with his clients, creating trusting and lasting relationships, fuels Dave’s desire to succeed in helping clients make the best choice for them.
Find Dave Dubbin: Website, LinkedIn
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[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:01
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone! My name is Umar Hameed, I'm your host on the No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how you can become better, stronger, faster. Just before we get started, I've got a question for you, do you have a negative voice inside your head? We all do, right? I'm gonna help you remove that voice and under 30 days guaranteed, not only remove it, but transform it. So instead of the voice that sabotages you, there's one that propels you to much higher levels of performance and success. There's a link in the show notes, click on it to find out more. All right! Let's get started.
Umar Hameed 0:41
Hello, everyone, welcome to another episode of the No Limit Selling podcast. And Dave, we got a very special guest here today. It is Dave Dubbin, and he is someone that is passionate about finding your calling in this world. And when you find your calling it you add more value to the world. And more importantly, you have happiness and joy in your heart. Dave, welcome to the program.
Dave Dubbin 1:02
Thank you. It's great to be here.
Umar Hameed 1:04
So one of the things we were talking about just before we went live was you were saying you know, when you find your passion, people can feel it. So continue on that thread.
Dave Dubbin 1:10
It's the energy that someone puts out, and when when you're speaking to them, you can truly tell how passionate they are. And, and it's the intangibles that you see how happy someone is to share their knowledge or connect with you or help you and to see that passion is is absolutely amazing. I think in today's age, you know, there's so much more information and access out there that and people are a lot more open to doing self reflection and saying, Hey, does, what is my passion and understanding that your passion can change over time. And, and you shift goals and what you want to do to fit it accordingly.
Umar Hameed 1:50
So just before we came on air, I was doing an interview with a leadership team member in a company in in Maryland. And what I'll be doing is transforming the management team. So they basically will take a bullet for each other, they'll be on the same page going in the same direction. And that will be not about me. And my department is like how can I serve the company to achieve the spectacular results. And the reason I got the gig was the president liked me a lot and said, You know, I've heard great things about you want you to do this, but the CEO was like old school started the company. And he was like, Alright, tell me what you're gonna do. And why should I talk to you? And then they took a couple of calls. And he finally said, Do you know why we hired you? And I go, No, is this only one word, and I go, what's the word? He goes passion, I could tell that this is something you're passionate about helping teams become spectacular. And so one things you do, Dave is you have a real estate team, right? I do. Yeah. So how many people in the team?
Dave Dubbin 2:48
We're currently five and expanding to six.
Umar Hameed 2:51
Nice. So one of the things that I find is this is that you can have teams or companies or organizations where it's like, you know, we are dedicated to the empowerment of our employees, the firmament of our customers, and being you know, environmentally responsible, and all those beautiful things. And when you talk to the employees, what's this company, like? They go all that stuff in the world? That's bullshit. We don't do any of that. We just talk about it, but we don't actually do it. And so a great leader figures out what would be the values and the culture that I want to build and not install it here. But install it here in the heart. A) Do you think that's the job of the leader? And if so, how are you actually manifesting that?
Dave Dubbin 3:38
Great question. So I guess I've sort of taken my, my view on sales and how I work with people and extended that to my team. And, and for me, it's, I understand that I, I really enjoy helping people. And it's the intangibles associated with that. And it's, you know, whether it's right now trying to navigate the rental market in Toronto, finding a one bedroom condo as, as a university student is extremely challenging. Or you're helping someone sell a multimillion dollar property, it's, it's making sure that that you have their best interest and, and that you're helping them and to see how happy they are, and really putting the client's needs first. That's always excited me and it's, I have a background in coaching, through sports. And so when I look to expand my team, I'm looking for people who have a similar mindset and really tried to create that family where we're all looking to take care of each other but also to take care of our clients as well.
Umar Hameed 4:43
Absolutely. And it kind of the way I see it is unique if you can get people with common cause and having that mindset but being individual so we don't want to actually take away the individuality but we do want people that put so I think one of the things that intrigues me is in intent, like my intent in this interview today is to learn something frickin cool. I'm not sure what it is, but we're going to have a great conversation. And I've got this curiosity. And my goal is to get something meaningful out of you, Dave. So you know, no pressure. But if my intent was to look good, it's all about me, I could talk a good game, but you would sense that, wait a minute, there's something amiss here. So talk to me about how you see intent first, in your previous career when you were a sports coach. And then let's bring it into kind of a real estate business. But go back to sports, tell me about intent, where you found to end up the athlete had the right intent. And also when you were coaching someone that perhaps didn't have the right intent,
Dave Dubbin 5:43
My, my athletic background, I spent, I'll say, five years working overseas as a professional water skier and stunt performer in sort of your theme park type shows. So you're, we're on the water performing the athletic component of it, but now you arrive to stage and now you've got to act, as well. So it's, and one of the biggest lessons I learned there about intent is, is to move with purpose, when you're on stage, if you're going to do something, you know, do it with intent, have, you know, have that have that passion for whatever it is, you're doing in the moment to do that. And, and it's also combined with that is, is when not to do that. So if someone else on the team or if that's their moment to shine you, how do you direct attention towards them, and don't take it and wait for your opportunity to do it. And that's, that's how the team works together and how the story is being told.
Umar Hameed 6:44
Brilliant said, as you bring agents on board, yeah, sometimes you get someone that's almost a fit. But then as they come in, and they get I'm gonna call indoctrinated, which is actually could be a really good word into kind of what the vibe is of your team. And you have to kind of coach them to tweak them a little bit. Without naming names, can you kind of walk us through one of those where, you know, it's hard to find somebody that's an absolute perfect fit, and nor should you, but it's about you know, there's a good connection? How do we tweak it?
Dave Dubbin 7:13
So my approach is, one I look at any relationship, any person I meet, I can, I can learn something from them, and they can probably learn something from me, and, and to find, you know, hey, you can teach me this, I can teach you that. And together we can make something better, is something that I've always taken, taking the approach meaning someone new to, or somebody unknown who's coming on the team. But when I look at my team, I look at it as one, we're a team, but it's also everyone has their own business within the team. And it's how can we work together? So that we can deliver to your clients, the best possible product? And also how can we grow your team to the level of success that you want? You know, everybody's different to what their goals are, and what they actually want in terms of that, and it's, you know, whether we sit down and work on on the lead generation process, or, you know, how do you deliver your, your listing presentation, you know, we can work on all those skills, but it's, it's also, I've always had a sort of a challenge by choices, you know, I'll lay it out for you. But you really have to work on self identifying what you want to work on, and how we can improve that together. And, and for you to set the goal and own the goal, then we can work on achieving that together.
Umar Hameed 8:32
Brilliant, sometimes it's easier to see greatness in others than seeing in ourselves. That your job as coach is seeing the greatness in your team members, what do you do when they can't see themselves?
Dave Dubbin 8:46
I, you know, everyone needs a boost of confidence every now and then. And it's sometimes it's, it's just sitting down. And let's revisit your journey that you've gone through so far. You know, what, whether you've been doing it for a year or five years, let's, let's revisit some of the successes and what what was your vision and your mindset at that time, and now you're doing something that you never would have seen yourself doing at that point. But we as human beings tend to be negative on ourselves, right? And it's easy to do. We're chasing perfection, and you're never going to reach it. So how do you stop to enjoy the moment and embraces successes that you have? And you know, get a good mindset?
Umar Hameed 9:30
Yes. So for me when I'm working with teams is like, I never want you to be the best team, you may end up as number one as a byproduct. But if I could help you guys focus on better and and part of that is deconstructing what we've done and sometimes you do something brilliant, and it's like, what the fuck do we do that was so brilliant, like what causes success? And sometimes it's what we've always done, and sometimes it's like, oh, wait a minute. Here's the nuance that we did. And on the other side, when things go badly, it's like, instead of beating oneself up, it's more like be the scientist and look at it. Say, huh, When they said this, I said that it went sideways, like what was going on there? And they can go to the team leader and say, Hey, this was going on. And they said, this, I thought was perfectly fine to say this. And then you're like, No, no, wait a minute,
Dave Dubbin 10:11
There's so many variables. When you're doing sales, what anytime you're acting in interacting with other human beings, there's so many variables, you know, what, what might work for 60% of the people you talk to, might not resonate with with someone else. I was lucky to be introduced to through coaching, about the different types of communication, you know, and how to, you have to know your audience. But at some point, you don't know your audience. So it's, I don't know, if you're a visual learner, you're an audio learner or a kinesthetic learner. So I have to, until I know that present on on all levels to make sure that I'm communicating with you. And then role basis, yeah, then once I understand that, hey, you might be an accountant, and you're really all about the numbers, then I can focus a little bit more on that aspect of it.
Umar Hameed 11:00
What do you do, Dave, when you have people that are actually, for whatever reason, 100 people that are olfactory, they're all about smell instead of visual. There's a very small percentage of the public that actually that's their main modality is a sense of smell. And once in a while you hear it with a go, you know, Something doesn't smell right here. Is that kind of languaging.
Dave Dubbin 11:20
While you I can give you the classic real estate answer, you know, at the open house, we will bull will bake the cookies and the but it's, it's more about to me, you know, it's always listening and trying to communicate and having the other person understand that, that you hear them and understand what they're looking for. And how you connect, whether it's identifying and recognizing to them that, hey, I'll try and bring you places that smell nice. But it's..
Umar Hameed 11:53
Yeah,
Dave Dubbin 11:55
...it's understanding what they're trying to communicate and confirming that with them. That really, really helps.
Umar Hameed 12:00
And I think we live in a world that is really busy. And you know, this device is pinging all the time. And even our family members that love us are distracted most of the time. So when you can not honor the person you're with, with total attention. It goes a long way.
Dave Dubbin 12:17
Absolutely. I'm a big component of, hey, you know, if I'm interacting with friends or family, it's like, let's put down the phone, you know it, you don't have to? To answer it, you know what speed to lead is important. But so is so is being present and enjoying the company of the people you're with. So you find a time and a place for everything and make sure you use your present in the moment.
Umar Hameed 12:44
Yeah, I was working with this one team and they had the money phone, this is the money phone. And so they would pass it around. So when one admin was, you know, with family, another admin was getting the call, so they can actually be focused on the phone. But it's not something you're with family or with a client and all of a sudden it rings and you have like panic. So there's, you know, strategies to be put in place because speech to lead is important. But you can out think a problem if you want to.
Dave Dubbin 13:10
Absolutely you can overthink it and think it for sure. I find in my industry, it's and it happens with a lot of new agents is they can't set that boundary with their clients being like, hey, you know what, I take Sundays or I take Monday's off. That's, that's some me time. And or you know what, hey, we're going into a long weekend, I'm going to I'm going to be up at the cottage. So, you know, I'll check my email here and there. If you really need something, this person on the team will get back to you. But you know, setting boundaries as soon as you do with people, they go, oh, yeah, you should have some time off that that is important. And, you know, from our mindset, we think, Oh, our client messaged me, I've got to text back within 30 seconds to show them that I'm engaged. But it's okay, life happens, you know, you get stuck in traffic like today. Yeah.
Umar Hameed 13:56
And you kind of freaked out about it, I kind of freaked out about it. But it was like, Hey, I just actually landed a coaching client while I was waiting for you next time be late again. Perfect. So Dave, as a leader, you know, you need to always be improving areas that you're playing with right now to be a better, stronger, faster, Dave.
Dave Dubbin 14:15
I am. Right now I'm in a phase where I just I want to collect and refocus. You know, making sure that I'm doing those fundamentals correctly. And I always find kind of the end of the summer, it's, you know, you're not you're not doing all those fundamentals that you should be doing you've, you've taken a vacation and, and let things slide. So it's, you know, making sure that I'm, I'm doing all the things that I'm accountable to myself and to the team on and, and I'm a big proponent of making sure that you're doing those and that's the unspoken side of leadership.
Umar Hameed 14:53
Absolutely. I think you kind of hit that word, the fundamentals because no matter how who you are what you're doing, it will lose sight of the fundamentals because we get more sophisticated or lazy or whatever. And whenever we want to like reacquire our excellence is going back to the fundamentals. And if you don't lose it in the first place, that's a blessing.
Dave Dubbin 15:10
I say to my team, like I'm very transparent with them, like, hey, you know what, like, this month has hasn't been the best in terms of, you know, doing the dials for myself. But that's okay, that happens. And, you know, that's my body telling me and my mind telling me, hey, you need a little bit of a break. So let's, let's enjoy August and take some downtime. But knowing that come next month, we're going to be refocused and re dedicated to it. So you have to find the balance sheet. You can't be making your your whatever number of phone calls 10,000 phone calls a day, not sleeping. It doesn't work.
Umar Hameed 15:46
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that Bruce Lee quote, I'm gonna paraphrase it here. I don't fear the man that knows 10,000 kicks after the man that's practiced one kick 10,000 times. Absolutely. So I had this interesting thing. I do these workshops. And at the end of the workshop, I get this pine board. It's one inch by 10 inches by 10 inches. And people write down their biggest fear and they break through it. And at this one particular event, this woman comes up to break her board. And she does. She does Oh, I used to do taekwondo. And she comes back a little while later and says, Can I try breaking two boards and I go short, put down two boards. She goes, and she breaks two boards, and she's super excited. I'm excited. And then she comes back a little later, Umar Can I tried three boards, and I said, Sure, put down three boards she doesn't break through. But something in that it's like, you know, I've only broken one board. And it's like, I'm the instructor. And it's like something about my manhood was challenged. So the very next retreat, we had boards leftover, so I had three boards on the pedestal. And I just seen this documentary, it was about Nike, the guy that designed the Air Jordans. Yeah. And he used to be a coach for a pole vaulters. And he said something about, you know, when you're doing pole vaulting, you cannot try. He said that you fully commit or you get injured, and so go for it. And so when I went to break the board, it was like, I don't care if my hand falls off, I am giving it everything I've got. And something amazing happened. I broke through the three boards. And it was 1/10 of the pain I thought it would be it was like actually no big deal. And had I hesitated. I may have broken through the boards or not. But it would have hurt a lot but fully committing and hitting through, just allowed me to go through and I think that's the next subject I want to bring up is fear. Because a lot of times your agents and you Dave have the capacity and the know how to do something. But when fear comes up, we pull our punches. So talk to me about a time in your life where fear came up and how you overcame it.
Dave Dubbin 17:41
So I'll I can give you a sports one. And then I can give you the real estate sports. Yeah, so I doing some of the stuff I did water skiing, I would do with that it's done stuff into it. So you're doing fire burns, you're doing High Falls, you're rappelling and then you're going off jumps, doing spins and flips and all that sort of stuff. And for me, there was stuff I did that That scared me every day. But for me, the true adrenaline was being able to do it, and own it and master that. And it's still it still scared me every time I did it. But I but I was 100% confident that I could do it.
Umar Hameed 18:20
I'm gonna pause you right there just for a moment. And I think that kind of fear is really useful because biologically, fear puts you at your strongest, fastest, very best self. Yeah. And so if you're going to channel the fear in the right way, it allows you to perform at your highest level. So it sounds like that's what you were doing
Dave Dubbin 18:38
the focus you've mentally and physically. Yeah, absolutely. And there's no margin for error, because you know what the consequences are. And when you get dialed in, like that, boom, every time locked in.
Umar Hameed 18:50
Brilliant. So now let's go to Sales where fare came up.
Dave Dubbin 18:53
I did, you know, doing sales, whether it's the cold calling, or even the warm calling of a lead, and if that's knocking on a door in person, or if that's making picking up the phone and dialing them, you know, we'll do email videos as well. Getting in front of a camera to do a video for a property or whatever it is. It's the fear is there. And it's the more you do it, the less the less there is, but it's still always there. So it's, you know, our minds are our worst enemy. And it's like, you know, I'm gonna knock on this door and the person is gonna slam the door in my face and yell at me and but they'll actually go oh, hey, actually, I was thinking about this. Yeah, because my mom wants to move or my neighbor's thinking about doing it. You know, I think we're a few years old, but why don't you go talk to him? Actually, you know what, why don't I introduce you?
Umar Hameed 19:40
So pause right there. And you know, what's kind of interesting, some ages ago, thank you. And some agents will go really, and they in disbelief that this is happening, but it's happening. So thank you for sharing that. I think it's our level of comfort in our own skins dictates how we see the world and even if we're comfortable in our skin and fear comes up we can have and little walk better is when we have doubts and uncertainties and fear comes up and then that just magnifies the fear and sometimes can can block us and there's a quote from the bard Shakespeare. Furious is getting so angry that you take action.
Dave Dubbin 20:16
Interesting. Yeah, I, it's, I think to tie back what what you're talking about is to look back and, and reflect on what you've done. And I'm not a big baseball guy, but, you know, to be a successful baseball player, you know, it's, you're hitting the ball failure son of the time, right? And it's like, Oh, okay. And, you know, with online leads, if you're in the three to five, you know, three to 5% range, like, you're a rockstar Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's. So that's, that's 95 times you're no luck. Nobody answers wrong phone number, whatever it is.
Umar Hameed 20:54
One of the things I like to point out to people, Dave, you may not have realized this, but you're not dead. I mean, you should have been dead like 20, 30 times, like with, like rejection and your sports activity and that, and when people go, yeah, all that shit I was scared about never actually came to fruition. I am perfectly fine. I'm over here. So Dave, before we part company, I have two questions for you. Yep. Number one, what makes you happy?
Dave Dubbin 21:23
There's there's a lot of different things that make me happy. But it's, it's, I've always found a big happiness. You know, we briefly talked before we got on about photography, and whether it's giving a photo to somebody else and seeing how happy they are. Or it's the intangible of helping someone with a sale to see how happy they are. It's working with others to help them achieve their goals has always been a very rewarding thing to me.
Umar Hameed 21:48
Ah, love it. And one things I tell people is if you're not feeling your very best today, go help someone.
Dave Dubbin 21:54
Absolutely. Absolutely. Second question,
Umar Hameed 21:57
what is a mind hack or a technique you use to allow you to be more productive, happier six years sleep better eat better? Like, what's the mind hack you'd like to share?
Dave Dubbin 22:10
I'll tell you a story from from from waterskiing, we would do you know, everyone at that level was very proficient, but you would fall on something, and then you might fall on the next show on it. And then you fall on three shows. And now Now this is a mental thing. It's not a physical? Yeah. And so, you know, we would we would all coach each other. And you know, because someone on the team was very proficient in a and you're proficient at being and you do that. And one of the best coaching that I shared with people is I'd say, hey, just think to yourself, when they got what, like, your your mind knows how your body knows how to do this. You're just overthinking it. And so what's your favorite song? Oh, okay. It's I'm a little teapot. And I want to hear you over the edge of the boat. And so it's spread wildly through the team, everyone started saying to themselves when they I love that. And that's genius. Because because you don't have time to get into that negative. Oh, what if I do this? What if I do that? It's just go out and execute? We don't? I used to say them. Maybe it's a little harsh. But it's we don't pay you to think we pay you to do and so I know you can do I know you know you can do but when you start thinking about it. That's That's trouble for everybody. So went
Umar Hameed 23:17
to Home Depot. About a year and a half ago. Yeah. Ah, hi. Cute. Yeah. And this guy was like that. And they could can ask you a question. You could say, Sure. Do you stutter when you sing? No. I said, Why don't you just sing it Home Depot, you will be like a start in the entire chain. How can I help you today? So it's kind of interesting that we stutter in one area and singing so I'm gonna write that down day that is like a genius thing synced to yourself. And I'll
Dave Dubbin 23:46
break it down a little bit further to you. So it's, it's not just turning off the mind. But when you sing, it forces you to breathe. So it gives your body the oxygen that when when you don't sing and when you get tense, your your muscles are contract, you have to be relaxed. Yeah, absolutely. Now, one of the major sports I do is golf. And it's, you have to be relaxed to hit a golf ball. You're it's, it's it's golf is torture yourself, right? If you have a horrible, great shot, and you're like, Ah, I'm pumped again. So it's just accepting that you're not going to be perfect all the time and to really embrace the times that you are perfect. And when you're not, it's okay, let's let's figure out a way to get out of this and formulate a plan and try and execute it.
Umar Hameed 24:37
Love it. So thank you so much for being on the show. I really learned a lot and I'm looking forward to our next conversation.
Dave Dubbin 24:45
Same here. Thanks Matt.
Umar Hameed 24:52
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.