Born in Argentina, arrived in the New York area in 1996. Have been doing real estate in NYC for the past 10 years now. I run our team with a partner and we train and develop agents with many success stories.
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[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:00
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 0:00
Here we go. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast. A couple of things before we get started. Number one, just releasing the new app today is called Mindset Boosters. It gives you the ability to take charge of your mindset, so you can decide how you want to feel and act in any situation. Want to be at your best. It's just a click away shows you have discharged your mindset. So you become awesome or baby. And today we have Lucas Dallavalle. Did I get it? Right?
Lucas Dallavalle 0:30
Yes you got it right.
Umar Hameed 0:32
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I hate screwing up names. Welcome to the program.
Lucas Dallavalle 0:36
Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
Umar Hameed 0:38
So one of the things I actually named this, the title of this episode is coming to America. So you came from Argentina to the US? How old? were you when you arrived?
Lucas Dallavalle 0:46
1996. I was 15 years old.
Umar Hameed 0:50
Nice. So what was the was there a culture shock when you came from? Because out of all of South America? What is RS is probably like the New York of Latin America. So was there a culture shock when you came to the US? And if so what was the shock? It was
Lucas Dallavalle 1:06
A it was a bit of a culture shock in terms of I would say social dealings and so forth. Like, some of the basic things when it comes into like, you know, social protocols is that as a, as a teenager, I had to form relationships again. And the codes for forming these relationships were a little bit different than the codes that you have that are innate, in like a small town, I come from a very small town where all the families know each other parents, they know their grandparents, grandparents, and so forth. And that basically creates a different dynamic when it comes down to knowing your friends like family, right? Correct. It's an extended family. And it's definitely like, you know, it's the whole thing where it takes a village, there will be something that a that there will be like I would say a reality more so there than here. The differences will be like a little bit more supervised, a little bit more individualistic, and so forth. And in many different ways of seeing different families work in their hat in their homes. That was very interesting. It wasn't a shock. It was very like, I guess it was edifying to say the least.
Umar Hameed 2:13
So before we get started in real estate, when you were a kid misbehaved, did you ever get a smack from your parents?
Lucas Dallavalle 2:13
Haha, Yes.
Umar Hameed 2:23
I mean, I'm in Canada right now. And there's a comedian here called Russell Peters. And he's like, you know, if you're a kid of an immigrant, you get misbehave, you get a backhand or if you're a Canadian or American, it's like, oh, no, we don't hit our children. Always. I actually got only hit once by my dad. And he caught me stealing from him, said, Go get the hockey stick, who was a field hockey stick made me put my hands on give me one good whack when I was like maybe 10 or 11. And that was enough to correct the behavior. It's like, don't steal.
Lucas Dallavalle 2:55
Yes, indeed. And I actually, I actually heard that bit yesterday, I was listening to a podcast with another a Canadian. Canadian and Indian writer and psychologist. Emotions in the difference of emotions. And Russell Peters came up with that. And it was very interesting, because we have the sort of things that we think of them as normal, of course, you know, beating like you're saying, like, okay, the hands thing is not abuse, of course, right. It's like, no, it's, it's, yeah, yeah. And it's like, it is a it's a big cultural difference. When you see over here and the dynamics between the parents, I sometimes I will be like, like, draw up and I'm like, you spoke to your, your parents that way Like, what's going on?
Umar Hameed 3:40
Like, that I'd be, it'd be killed. When I first came to America. I was trying to figure out why is it so violent compared to Canada? And so it's asking people and I was on the subway stop in San Francisco. And this one guy waiting with me. He was an African American guy. And I say, you know, hey, I just arrived in America. Why is it so violent here? He says, When I was a kid growing up, and I did something wrong, the nearest adult came up to me and smack me on the back of the head. By the time I got home, she had a phone call, I got a call from her. And when dad came home, forget about it. But then they had like a lot of people being incarcerated in his community. So the dads weren't there. And he said, it just kind of destroyed the community in a significant way. But we're here to talk about communities and real estate. So you started your real estate business about 10 years ago? Well, 10 years ago, correct?
Lucas Dallavalle 4:33
Yes.
Umar Hameed 4:35
So you started as, you know, as a newbie, realtor. What was your idea of real estate? And when did the reality set in? Because there's often a disconnect between, I think it'd be like this and it turns out being different. How is it different than what you thought it would be?
Lucas Dallavalle 4:54
I happen to approach it with a very practical approach. The one thing that happens is I have a bag I'm looking at property with from a family standpoint. So my my family business. Yeah, my father, for example of like he told me, as soon as we arrived as soon as we arrived in, and we joined him over here in the States, in 1996, we saw something that was, that was basically unprecedented in America, we saw the doubling and the tripling of the prices, home prices, in 96, 97. And then it was crazy. Every year, it's like, you know, you had a $25,000 lot that was worth $50,000 in six months, and then $75,000 in eight months, and so forth, and so on. And this stuff basically gave me a little bit of an introduction to that and making like, some of the real estate decisions with the family, and helping the family do research and so forth. So I have like, a bit of an introduction into these, these things. So I came in with a very practical approach. I came in to basically push numbers, learn, and become an educator, because I'm an educational background, I taught for six years before I became a real estate agent,
Umar Hameed 6:04
What who who did you teach?
Lucas Dallavalle 6:06
I was teaching high school, and I was teaching basically in public school for two years. And then I moved to private school for four years,
Umar Hameed 6:14
Aren't you fancy?
Umar Hameed 6:20
You know, I know, a lot of CEOs, especially women that are quite successful, that were elementary school teachers, I see. And I said, Well, how does this skill different match? Because pretty much it's the same thing, what I learned about handling little kids, and now executives around my board table, it's pretty much the same. So yeah, being a teacher really gives you a strong skill set to how to handle people how to educate people, how to help people that are not getting a get it. And I think that's one of the areas where you can be great at real estate and business. And the other area, surprisingly, is people that are waiters, waiters, waitresses in barkeeps, arise, they know about the human dynamics of how to navigate people when they're like happy, sad, drunk, and can lead to success because it's a people business. Right?
Lucas Dallavalle 7:10
Correct. And I think the fastest, the fastest way to establish an a solid relationship based on trust, and a lot of the times based on the confidence of exchange comes from this character, they're dealing with people day in and day out. By the minute you get to meet new faces, you have to establish that you have to sit like you know, connote and convey a certain level of trust with the person, okay, they have my order, they have my interest at hand, right? Even though it is in a very minimal scale, but it does translate as you say, it does translate the same way that as a teacher communicate the same concept, two or three, three times breaks it down to the level that is like, Okay, we go from a very simple standpoint to like a little bit more with Nuance. And then you layer and more complex approach, how things like the ramifications of things, and so forth. And I always love that. And I always love breaking these things down, especially with new agents that I'm training. So we basically in our team, we try to train agents that remain in the business. And basically, our approach tends to be basically one that is like pedagogical, a lot of the times we do a lot of like shadow shadow in and so forth. We do a lot of like, role playing some times. Like, some like, these are things that come basically from the classroom a lot of the times and I'm applying all those things that I learned in the classrooms of America and into into our business, or like boiler room, per se.
Umar Hameed 8:36
And actually, as you were saying that I was had this movie reel running in my head, like a comedy skit during the roleplay. What would you do if somebody slapped you like this back? What? Sorry, dad. So you have a partner right now, and you guys have a team. So tell me about your partner, who's your partner?
Lucas Dallavalle 8:59
My partner is Mark Benson, we've been doing business for about together for about eight years of my 10 years. He's, he has an extra two years, two and a half years about in the business. So he's like 12 or 13 years.
Umar Hameed 9:13
So next step, tonight, a half years of bad habits that you're correcting. I like that. So what's the relationship? Like, like, oftentimes you get someone that's a very kind of visionary person, and the other person is detailed. So kind of what's your role in the partnership? And what's his role?
Lucas Dallavalle 9:27
Oh, correct. Yeah, that's one of the things I like his structure I like, I like all of the things that basically, you don't have pre formatted emails, I have, like, you know, spreadsheets, and yeah, and he's more of like the human element. He's a little bit more, you know, he shoots from the hip sort of thing. He's a little bit more improvisational, and so forth. So it does bring a lot of different elements together that make up a team that has been successful for the past eight years,
Umar Hameed 9:55
Which is nice because oftentimes, people look for people like themselves. And the last thing you Need someone like you, you need someone that has the same values as you, but has their own gifts. And when my wife and I were working together, I was the dreamer, hey, let's go do that, how long will it take? Two weeks, we can do it. My wife's like, you nuts. It's not me. So she was like the planner and build, I would leap and she would build the bridges to make sure I had somewhere to land. So that's brilliant. So how many agents in your team right now,
Lucas Dallavalle 10:26
right now, basically, due to the pandemic, we had a lot of different people that are moving around, they're trying to some of the new agents that we have up for right now that are active, nice. And then we had the biggest team has gotten, I would say, it's 14 people at the height, and we oscillate between, I would say four and eight people now depending on how they feel where they want to go, there's a lot of times we I would say there are many reasons why an agent leaves. But there's like, a very few set of characters that makes an agent remain in the business. And then the numbers are very harsh. When you look at you know, the first year, you know, 80% get knocked off the list. Yeah, you know, so basically, that's one of the dynamics that we do. So that's why it fluctuates, you know, but you should be around, like I would say four, four to six is usually the very average, but we're doing well a lot of people are active, and they want to become part of the business. Eight is usually the amount that we that we keep,
Umar Hameed 11:29
I was working with a team. And one of the things we ended up doing with the team was this is to get the, the primary leader and figure out what his purpose in life was. And we map that to be the mission of the team. So he becomes the poster child. And we've done it with like partners too. And then all of a sudden, both people can be authentic. It's not like our mission is to deliver something artificial, it's more like this is what's in my heart, then we get the values around work and make those the values for the team. And then we get the criteria that you use to validate you're on track with your values. And we reward the agents when they're actually performing in that way. And then for these guys, their real motif was were hunters. So when we actually gelled the team together, everybody got an arrow, and it was just like, so they're really into picking up the phone and making the calls doing together. And they had a call day, about a month and a half ago, where it was like 10 of them and they did 1000 conversations in one day. Wow. And it was like a don't do all the time. But this was like one day, we're gonna do this. And they ended up generating just a tons of business. But that was their, like, we're hunters, we go out and make it happen. And it's like, when you do that you get people that are not pounding on your door, I want to be part of that team, because that's my tribe. And so it's just, it's all human behavior and human dynamics.
Lucas Dallavalle 12:55
In the end, and I couldn't agree more. I think it's, it's amazing when you have the vision and when you're able to convey it to your team. And they're excited about it. For example, like recently, like some of the new agents that I that we've been working with, I noticed that they're, they're hungry for activity, they're hungry, you know, basically to get out there a lot of the times but these agents are exposed to a lot of rental business because New York Yep, yeah. And it's just moving constantly, you know, right now we have a dip in the in the sales, business, and so forth. But there's still opportunities to exploit, there's still basically leads to follow, and so forth. So one of the things that happens is that I like to move some of my agents to more of a sales team oriented agent, to become a little bit more profitable in that sense. And to move a little bit, maybe like not as much volume in the beginning, as rentals do, but basically getting your foot wet, or your foot into the door rather, of the sales and what what it takes to become a sales agent. So a lot of the times we have this sort of focus where we're basically yes, we're doing rentals and so forth. But we're trying to always build and the team has a concentration to itself. So basically, that's one of the things that vision in order to basically transition into solidly sell that will be ideal, but it's basically takes a whole team to be proactive. And the practice members, as you mentioned, are the ones that get rewarded a lot of the time by getting listings by get an extra Commission, or get an extra percentages, maybe extra duties, extra responsibilities as well. And I think it empowers all agents to become basically while they're working to build their own business, per se, individually. They're working in unison and using all the tools available to them.
Umar Hameed 14:37
That's the way to do it is you know if you can gel the team together in that way it does something really amazing. Because at the end of the day, no grunt and Army gives a shit about the general. He's way off in the future who cares about him, but they'll do heroic things for each other. I mean, like risked their lives. And if you can build a team around that where we support each other, then they'll go the extra mile happily without complaint. And I think that's ultimately what I kind of advise clients to do is, I want you to be unemployed in a year. And by that, I mean, you don't have to be the rah rah person, let's go do this. If you can get the infuse that into the team, they're self regulating and self motivated, then you got something magical. So I'm noticing you're sipping that that's a very kind of Latin America kind of concoction with a long straw. What are you drinking?
Lucas Dallavalle 15:26
That's my mantra is an autochthonous drink of South America is drank throughout like a couple of different countries, and also has some place in Yemen and some Middle Eastern countries and so forth.
Umar Hameed 15:39
You know, it's kind of interesting, you know, what we drink and how we drink. So, when the Arabs basically controlled Venice, like way back centuries ago, then they got driven out by the Crusaders. And there was this dark powder left behind. And one of the people there was like, wait a minute, this is I know what that is. That's coffee, because it wasn't a big drink in the western world at that point. So he opened up a coffee house. And initially, it was like, you know, that's an atomic drink. We don't want to drink it till they tested it. And he would basically have newspapers, you could come have a coffee, have read a newspaper, in like, you know, 900 ad they had Starbucks man.
Lucas Dallavalle 16:19
Do it. It's amazing. Because this was the competition for coffee. Interesting, was introduced to Europe as well and to the Middle East, in order to compete against a coffee, the new commodity. And this also has a caffeine content, and so forth. Stimulates conversation is the same. It has the same effects the same ideas. Love it. Yeah. And he was amazing because they I believe it was Franciscans Franciscan Order, basically discovered it. Well, don't discard it, but like, you know, they came upon it, right? Yes, they do. As people of the water need region in Rios, and Uruguay area, like, I would say, like the literal area, they call it. In north, northeast Argentina. In Northeast Argentina is subtropical, and this grows over there. And he's cured and is used by different indigenous people as well as their people from there. And it has been taken over. In some countries. It didn't take over in Europe this distro. I believe the straw was a problem. And the fact that we fill it and so forth, it was a little bit cumbersome. And coffee is just a copy simple. You put it down to 10. You move up,
Umar Hameed 17:23
You never know it could have its day, it could just come in and all it takes is one like the new King of England if he started drinking that, who knows could be a trend everywhere.
Lucas Dallavalle 17:35
Yeah, I think the trend was brought on by some California. Artists, I think more we started doing this in the early 2000s. It started early. Yeah. And it started working with small farmers, and like direct purchasing with the farmers and so forth. And that, like blew it up. And then you had ended up I remember walking in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and see in a coffee shop that had the option to have demotic, and you have a disposable straw that will give you with it and so forth. Wow, this is bananas.
Umar Hameed 18:05
I was watching this show called Mozart in the jungle. It was like an Amazon TV show. And the conductor of this orchestra is from Argentina. And of course he would drink that all the time and expect his assistant to fill it up all day long.
Lucas Dallavalle 18:23
It's like your mom. It's the same thing. That's what she expects as well.
Umar Hameed 18:29
So as a as a leader of your team, what's one you're you're working on? Like your skill set as a leader as a human being as an agent? Like, where do you find that there's a gap in your skill set that you're trying to perfect right now? If I had a magic wand, which I do, and I could wave this wand, what's the one change you want to make you a better leader?
Lucas Dallavalle 18:52
You want change? I would like to make me a better leader.
Umar Hameed 18:55
Better looking? I can't do that. I'm sorry.
Umar Hameed 19:02
No ang up. I'm hanging up from this podcast.
Lucas Dallavalle 19:04
That's yeah, that's, that's a good question. I mean, it's I've been refining a lot of my communication skills with my and I think that it's always there was always room for progress there. I think that Hmm. I wish I had this question before because I thought with this,
Umar Hameed 19:28
Because there's always a place there a right to improve.
Lucas Dallavalle 19:31
Yeah. And it's like, and I'm looking at different things. And I would say maybe sometimes I would like to be more flexible. And you know, I think I would like to be open to more constructive criticism, a lot of times when it comes down to some of the decisions and so forth, to be open, to be more open and to be, I would say and to continue working I guess in my communication skills with the team. That will be something that I would like to always improve on. And I think you I think I have a pretty good grasp, there's always room for improvement.
Umar Hameed 20:04
It's being human. It's like, what really drives me crazy is when you see people that have such potential is like, no, no, I got it. Everything I need to learn, I already know and people that are like masters at their craft, even at the top of their game, they're always learning, always looking for new nuances, because it just keeps you motivated and hungry and always improving. And as soon as you stop learning, I think you start dying.
Lucas Dallavalle 20:28
Yes, yes. And that is something that I believe as well. And I think that it comes with this sort of thing that sometimes it's like, sticking to structure a little bit without realizing that it's like, okay, you're doing too much. Now, just let the other person come in, bring in this sort of like a level of influence, see, if it works, try it out, you know what I mean, and if it doesn't work, then compare and contrast and see where you could meet somewhere in between. And that's something that's a learning experience that I think I'm continually trying to work.
Umar Hameed 20:55
Brilliant. So what is, so tell me, what brings you joy in your life, what brings you happiness,
Lucas Dallavalle 21:01
Freedom, freedom, I haven't his business, I think he brings me a lot of happiness as well. Being a self starter, being in charge of my schedule, in charge of my responsibilities, and so forth, brings me a lot of a lot of pride in the efforts and remaining in this business, and continually making, making positive moves towards the longevity, as well reassures me of my efforts. And I think that that brings a lot of like professional happiness, personal happiness, I like peace, I like peace coming together, I like community, you know, these are the things that make me happy. A community, a sense of community makes me happy on a personal level, you know, and then I build that up within our team, as well as, you know, within the relationships that we form around the city and around the different boroughs and so forth. And I'm hoping to be basically even tap into areas like Vermont and different other states as well to form basically relationships. I'm looking into some of that stuff and expanding a little bit of what this I would say, professional sense of happiness, and outreach and expansion of the business, as well incorporate that into my personal life as well.
Umar Hameed 22:11
Brilliant. What's one mind hack? What's one tip, you would give people watching in hearing this interview that would allow them to be more productive, or happier, or sexier or sleep better? Like what's the one tip you'd like to share with the world?
Lucas Dallavalle 22:27
By active listening? Active listening doesn't joke. It's like I try these little tricks with by when we're doing roleplay. And so, you know, and I say little things, and I put a little nuances in there. And I try to see if they pick it up, in a way. Well, remember that I said such and such? Like, why are you asking me this? Oh, worry, you know, because they're really not not really listening to the person that is in front of them and putting their full attention to that. That's like a mind hack that I think a lot of people sort of overlook, because we're just sort of in the hustle bustle,
Umar Hameed 23:08
Oh yeah,
Lucas Dallavalle 23:09
Up and down.
Umar Hameed 23:10
Listening, I got that it's like, no. So here's a tip for the people watching on how to be a better listener. Watch the person's lips. I see. And because when you do that, all of a sudden, you start paying attention to what they're saying, because part of the problem is that your mind has, your brain has 86 billion neurons. And only like a small percentage of that horsepower is focused on listening, that means the rest of the mind is doing other stuff. But when you force someone to look at, look at their lips as they're talking, like if you do that now, when I'm talking, it gives your mind something to do. And it also connects you with what I'm saying. And that's a simple little trick to be a better listener.
Lucas Dallavalle 23:53
That's a great trip. That's a great trick. Exactly. Because I mean, we were mostly visual animals, and a lot of times we lost in our musings about the different visual sensory data that is coming in. And we sort of like the mouth becomes like some sort of like thing where it just sort of sometimes, you know, it's like, if you have this severe, you know, it just sort of like just starts moving until you focus on it. Yeah, let me just zero in.
Umar Hameed 24:17
And one of the things that people lost, which he realized we weren't hearing as well as we could, is because people had a mask on the couldn't see the lips, and it just made it harder. So we did it unconsciously. And it's not in the background. But also when you lost sight of lips. It was like What did you say? The pandemic? So you're
Lucas Dallavalle 24:36
looking for and you're looking for emotional inflection and so forth. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, if there is a disconnect with the actual voice, it's interesting that this also I noticed this thing happening, like any site, and it's a very interesting the way that their mind works with that. Yeah. And if you get
Umar Hameed 24:51
good at it, you can say, you know, we're looking really looking for a house in, in Queens, and it's like, wait a minute, there was a hiccup on When you say Queen's, could you back up a bit? Like, have you lived in Queens before? We had a terrible experience and sometimes just listening to the tonality and the change. And you can also see the tightness of the skin. Yeah, like sometimes they're talking, everything's fine. All of a sudden, they go kind of rigid. It's like, yeah, there's something going on there. So So last question, Lucas, what's the question? I should have asked you that I did not.
Lucas Dallavalle 25:34
Know you asked me. No. I mean, it's like I think that this is very exciting. I don't know why but he's like you asked all the right questions about a coming here, being faced with the different cultural, cultural differences and so forth, building up the team, the things that make up like some of the things that have been affected in the team some of the things that we need to work on the team as well. I think that no, you asked all the right questions and I can't come up with like, what another one right now it's like, you know, what's your favorite color? But
Umar Hameed 26:09
the one I always ask is, you know, Umar, do you good looks get in the way have you been taken seriously? Well, actually, yes, they do. So wise, Lucas, thanks so much for being on the show. We're gonna chat after we kind of go off the air so we can just round this out to once again, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it and sharing your wisdom with our listeners.
Lucas Dallavalle 26:32
Thank you as well. Thank you
Lucas Dallavalle 26:33
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.