My business is people. As Realtor®, my job is to help individuals and families to find the right home that suits their desired lifestyle. Whether it's selling a home to upgrade for something more suitable to a growing family, or purchasing the kind of home someone can retire in, I'm here for you.
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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
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast. Super excited here today, we've got Shawn Mayo joining us. But before that, I wanted to tell you with this close to launching the app, it's called Mindset Boosters. And it's an app that lets you decide how you want to feel and act in a situation. For example, let's say you're coming into work and you had your dog ate your homework or you had a fight with the spouse. And you're still like, "Rrrr", there's a tracking in it, "Let Go of Home," and it allows you to just let go all the stuff from home, get into your most productive successful mode and just getting to work like it never happened. 60 programs with 60 different tools to let you be frickin' awesome. And today, Shawn, welcome to the program. So happy you're here. Let's talk humans real estate and business.
Shawn Mayo 1:26
Sure, for sure. It's a fantastic business to be in, in real estate. And you know, even though we've got a little bit of cooling going on in the market right now, you know, we're kind of going from like a hot level down to a level level. So it's actually kind of a better place for buyers and sellers to be in because everyone can transact because, hey, if someone's if you're selling your home, you're probably trying to buy another one. So it's nicer to have a bit of a level market going on right now.
Umar Hameed 1:50
Absolutely. And there's always been that, right. It's like, if the market is high, and I sell my home high, then what I'm buying is high. And if I sell the low market, then everything's low. But somehow we feel cheated. If it's low, we feel happy when it's high, but it's like, almost bounces out. Right?
Shawn Mayo 2:05
Yeah. And I mean, this industry just naturally has about a roughly 10 year cycle, right? We go through recessions globally, or locally, or whatnot, and then we'll bounce back from them. And then we end up having a recession again, and it kind of goes back and forth, and back and forth, or whatever. So you just kind of, you know, an economy lives and breathes. That's quite literally what it is right here
Umar Hameed 2:27
in real estate is a good place to keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening in the economy. So it's not a state leading, or is it lagging in what the economy?
Shawn Mayo 2:36
Well, lately, we've been obviously seeing a bit of a cooling I think COVID gave a lot of people an opportunity to kind of sit down and evaluate their lives. And it was one of those people too, I was I was living in Ontario at the time, and I'm now in New Brunswick. And a big part of that having that time off was suddenly that pressure was off from a lot of different aspects of your life. And you're sitting there and you're like, Well, I've been wanting to buy a home. So let's take a look at the market. And, you know, that's where you saw a big influx during COVID Is everyone had an opportunity to do that plus was already a bit of a hot market in certain areas, especially Ontario. BC probably is the only thing or sorry, parts of BC is the only case where it was actually hotter than Ontario was. But then even in New Brunswick during COVID, you certainly saw a lot of people are like, Hey, I kind of want that better life. I like the fact that I'm not as stressed. And I get a chance to take some time at home and actually live my life kind of thing. So a lot of people moved out this way so that he ended up this market. But now you're seeing in Ontario, you know, Vancouver, Victoria and BC, here in New Brunswick as well, you're seeing where everything was very elevated, suddenly, it's coming down a little bit, right. And it's now a I'd call it a level market, but it's a little steeper fall in certain markets like Ontario.
Umar Hameed 3:49
So in the next little while you're going to be building a team. And as you build a team, what are you thinking about? What kind of vibe do you want in the team? What's the culture of the team that you want to design? Have you been thinking about that?
Shawn Mayo 4:01
Yeah, I have quite a bit. And you know, I've led teams before, I've been, you know, been a manager with a few different companies over the years. And I've worked with teams either at just as a team member or as a team leader. And, you know, you get a chance to kind of experience things firsthand what works, what doesn't work kind of thing. And sometimes what works for you is not what works for somebody else as well. So putting all that to mind. You know, I think the number one key thing that I want to put out there in terms of marketing myself, but also within the team is sincerity. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the key thing, I think above and beyond all else is like I'm here I'm doing real estate and I'm practicing this because I want to help people find their homes. Am I going to make money doing that? Sure. That's great. But if I'm not sincere about it, very good quickly going to find out nobody wants to do business with me. So you really have to be honest and you really have to put that work in there and that sincere the extent that sincerity also extends to the work you do right. Am I be insincere in that, am I doing the best job for my clients? Am I doing the best thing out there. And when it comes to building a team, I want team members like that. So I've been here in New Brunswick for the last two years and building my real estate career. And I've been slowly gradually building my company as well. My partner has come on board and is a partner in every sense of the word, she works with me, she's an admin, soon to be a licensed admin, she recently passed a real estate exam. And the way it works in New Brunswick is essentially the province will trigger as a as a realtor, just within the brokerage, she's going to be designated as more of an admin, but she's legally allowed to do things like showings, she's allowed to do things like type up contracts and have certain discussions, that someone who isn't a realtor isn't really allowed to do, because you have to be licensed in real estate to practice in that way.
Umar Hameed 5:49
Right. So as you go out and build his team, so sincerity is one, but there's probably going to be other elements that you want. So what I've noticed in the past is you are going to be the heartbeat of the team that you're building. So one of the things that you need to do is uncover your purpose in life. And that becomes the mission of your team. So you become the poster child. Because oftentimes, what people do is, oh, our team is going to be dedicated to the betterment of our community and dolphins and whatever other bullshit, we say. But if we can figure out who you are deep down and made that the mission of your team, then you would be authentic. And along that mission, you could pick goals that you want to achieve that become your vision. And that brings clarity to the team kind of thoughts on that?
Shawn Mayo 6:32
Yeah and, you know, I completely agree with you, you know, in, in the in the podcast verse out there, there's so in a woman by the name of Angela Duckworth, and she was saying recently in a podcast of hers that that she goes, You know, I'm I gave up being the CEO of my own, not for profit, because I realized looking at the job titles and stuff like that, they're all wishy washy and stuff like that, right? So it's too easy to kind of get hung up on that. So like, to me, it's focused on the core values, focus on the to focus on the core things that are really important. And development and learning, I think, are the it needs to be a passion, right? Like, I always want to do better in my space. And, you know, my father told me something when I was very young, he goes, it doesn't matter how good you are at something, there's someone else out there, that's better than you. Right. But I like that I like being second best in that way. Just because it or at least having a second best mentality because there's always something to strive for. I want to do that little bit better, even if it's just incrementally Oh, you know, what I could have said that..
Umar Hameed 7:32
That's how you become great is the small incremental things and examining each transaction throughout, what did we do? Well, and why did we do well, like what happened there? And what didn't go as well as it could have what we need to do better? And it's that incremental. So one of the things that's really cool is, I invite you to be the best fricking agent in your market, that should be the goal, and really looking at, what's the experience I want my clients to have. And once you get that and go, Okay, I'm going to be best in the world at this, are you there yet? Of course not. You could be 80% there, but but with that focus of getting better in that area, and having that lofty goal of being the very best. And also knowing like your dad said, You're never gonna get there. So it's always a process, you're gonna go from 80% to 90%. And really quickly, 90 to 92% is going to take a lot longer, because all of a sudden, it becomes difficult to reach perfection. But that's the..
Shawn Mayo 8:26
..deeper climb, Yeah.
Umar Hameed 8:28
And if you can find agents to come on that journey with you, then maybe fill in some of the gaps, but they realize, Oh my God, I want to go on that journey with you, dude, I want to build that attract people that stay.
Shawn Mayo 8:38
Exactly. And that's that's what a big focus of, you know, the past several months, and over the next year I'm doing as well as I've been slowly kind of bringing people to onboard within my brokerage give them the opportunity to see what I did. And, you know, I want them to first feel that this is the right place for me, this is the right kind of job for me. And I've had a few you know, a few friends that may not even realize that each other have they sharing the same interests and they know each other, but, you know, people that I've, you know, I say friends, but these are people that I was colleagues with and other places that I've stayed in, because I'm like, you have the rights mentality, you want to actually go out and do good, you want to maybe make money doing it too. And there's plenty of money to be made in real estate. But really, at the end of the day, you have the right attitude, I see how you treat your customers, I know the fact for a fact that if there's something you don't know, you want to go find out. Because even if it's not applicable, or it's really important to know now, you want to know for when it is important kind of thing, and I pay attention to those people and those are the people that I want to be bringing into my team and you know, having done this before with other you know, other organizations I've worked with, like I've worked with big companies like U haul or auto trader, you know the key thing is is keeping an eye out for those personalities that really they want to strive they, their passion is striving there and to do more and to do better and to learn more And even if it's like I said, it could be just a little thing like I could have talked to that potential client a little bit better or said something a little better. I stumbled a bit, too. Oh, I completely messed up. How did I handle making that mistake? Because we all make mistakes?
Umar Hameed 10:14
Absolutely. And one of the things I'm going to do that you guys will not hear is at the end of this interview, when we turn off all the recording stuff and streaming, I'm going to say, What did you like about the interview? What could I have done better, and we'll just chat about that. And the goal really, is to get better and better as we go, because that's the only way you become exceptional. So here's another thing, Shawn, that you need to think about, at least, let me know what you think is oftentimes the people that you lead, borrow your confidence in them, to go do amazing things. So sometimes people don't believe in themselves at the level that they want. And it's the leaders job to lend that confidence to that person. Because through your leadership, they get to do a stretch past their comfort zone, which is scary for a lot of people. And so how are you planning to instill confidence in the people that you lead? Like, do you have any strategies in mind to do that?
Shawn Mayo 11:03
I do. And in fact, I'm actually going to add a little bit to that too, just about the team members, but also the potential clients because there's a lot of people, you're given the biggest purchase in your life, you are leading these people, and you obviously need to lead the you're the Sherpa, they're picking the mountain path that you're taking care of that thing. But but you know, in the end, it's it's all about, you know, again, if you're being sincere, right? You they feel confident that yes, this person is trying to get take me to that direction. And then when it comes to things, like if you make a mistake, okay, look, here's how we're going to handle it, we're going to do it. Because mistakes are going to happen, or hurdles are going to happen, things come out of nowhere that we're not expecting. So it's all about like, okay, let's pause, let's not panic. And let's take a walk. And let's walk through this together kind of thing. Because, you know, it's easy to say the nice stuff, it's easy to talk about, you know, be a cheerleader and say, Hey, everything is really great. And this is how we're going to go and yes, every leader needs to do that too. Because they need to instill, you know, pride in in what you're doing. But when it comes to obstacles to be overcome, everyone's gonna be like, Okay, it's be easy to panic right now. But we're not going to do that. Maybe we'll do that later. That's that's just how I am as a personality as I'm going to do everything later. And then I'll get all my, you know, swearing or whatever out of the way later on, or whatever kind of thing after I've had a chance to deal with the thing. But you know, let's, let's tackle things. First, let's walk through it together. Let's reevaluate what's important here. And then let's take the next steps to do that. And I think that by, you know, you're walking hand in hand with the people around you. We it doesn't matter whether it's, you know, your coworker, your teammates, subordinates, Lance. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, I've seen situations where, you know, I've had people say, No, Shawn, I think I got this, I think we're going to do this, I want to really do this this way. I think this would be a good way to go. And I'm like, Man, you've given me confidence. And I'm in charge of you. Right? So it's nice to sometimes see, see that take off? And it's just about reminding ourselves, what is important? What is our goal? What is our focus? Are we going to achieve that? Is there a way to achieve that with the problem that's going on? Or is there a way to deal with the problem? Or is there a way that maybe maybe two different people have two different expectations? Is there a way to achieve at least most of what both of these people want in order to get to an ends? Which I'll tell you right now, that's the very description of you know, a real estate contract? Where can we come to some sort of agreement that everybody is in the same place? And you know, when it comes to this particular business, if you don't have that skill set, you're gonna have a really rough time, because hurdles are going to come out of nowhere all the time?
Umar Hameed 13:43
Absolutely. So could just an idea, I really like that metaphor of the Sherpa was ultimately, the people that do all the heavy lifting, literally. And also the guidance, they'll go, do this one is the Sherpa and this sincerity there. And so maybe that's your logo with the Sherpas. Everyone else or maybe are the Sherpas. Oh,
Shawn Mayo 14:01
that's what I should do
Umar Hameed 14:02
with the people that basically get you to the mountaintop, baby.
Shawn Mayo 14:06
Yeah. And hey, look, you know, sometimes, whether it's a client or it's a co worker, or whatever the case is, right? Sometimes you're like, I know, this is the better path, but they want to go this way. It's like, okay, we're gonna go this way. But I just want to preempt you with a couple of things we're going to have to go through if you want to do that cool. You still want to do that. Great. Let's do it. And then you just, you deal with with whatever may come kind of thing, right and be really easy to get stressed and really hate that things aren't going the way you want them to. But you really want to keep the ball moving at the end of the day, regardless of who's in your team
Umar Hameed 14:37
So, Shawn, if we went back in time, five years, that Shawn sucks compared to the Shawn that's sitting in front of me right now, probably. There's a better Shawn in the future. So what are you working on right now to be get better at your craft? Like what vision are you seeing for yourself? Like in three years, I want to have these capabilities and so what
Shawn Mayo 14:58
are you thinking about that? Well, I know in a few years, I have a few, you know, personal and professional plans. So part of it is, obviously expanding my business, I want to make sure that coverage and availability and awareness of who I am, I mean, I come from a marketing and business development background as well. So like, when it comes to awareness, you know, having people just know your name, right, you know, I can't put a coat can and a movie to have people think of me, but I can use other methods. And so I want people to be more aware of who I am and what I do in the community. And even if, even if they don't necessarily use my services, I want them to be aware that, Hey, I am out here and I am an option kind of thing. Or, Hey, I know my Realtors working with this Shawn guy kind of thing. And he seems like a reasonable guy. So we're probably going to end up taking this path forward with her thing. And I want that for every team member team member in my group as well. If three years from now, I would love to have a small team of four to six people in terms of active Realtors plus admin team kind of thing, maybe, maybe more, who knows. But you know, and the nice thing is I have this great pool of 80 plus Realtors at Royal Lepage Atlantic right now that I work with, as well as outside realtors, I have colleagues and friends in the real estate community two that I touch base with all the time. And I, I frankly consider them to be informally a team member because I know that hey, if I'm in a situation I need to I can refer out to this person, and they just want to expand that right the network and stuff. Same goes for home inspectors, you know, drywall installers, insulators, whatever the case is lawyers, I want to be able to grow that network and I want to expand beyond what I have now. And I have a pretty solid network after a couple of years. Because again, it's all about that sincerity. I see them acting sincerely, they see me acting sincerely I can I can send a 2am email and get an email the next days answering a question because I'm like, Oh, I'm kind of curious wetland titles does in this situation or something? Right. But, you know, a lot of that is about expansion in that. And then personally, you know, my partner and I, we've been together a little over a year now, maybe about 1415 months now. And you know, we're planning, you know, what does marriage, what does kids look like and stuff like that. And being able to develop a team in the right way that we can all lean on each other. When life events happen, I want to take some time off, when I have a kid, I want to be able to have that work life balance, you know, I want to be able to do the same for my teammates. You know, if I have a teammate who has a kid, it's like rain. So what are you doing for the next six months kind of thing or whatever, when you take some downtime, because I want you to be able to take some time and recoup and build your family. Because that's your home team, literally your home team, rightfully so. So I want to be able to do the same for myself. And I think that you know, and I think again, it's just all about striving to do that little bit more. And you know, to borrow something from economics crowd or whatever, right? It's all about marginal improvements in your life, three years from now is going to look very different because of little things that happen along the way. It's not going to be I woke up tomorrow and had suddenly $10 million with which to do what I want, you know, just we don't win the lottery every day. That's just not how it works. Yeah, we'll be nice. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna
Umar Hameed 18:15
do that, too. I've got some realtor clients that their network of service providers is really really strong and did a first phone call any one of their clients call, oh my god, I got issue with my fence. And they go talk to John, he's gonna look after you. And then at so much value when it takes a lot of stress away from the homeowners because they know they can count on you and to it, you become that go to person, so you're never forgotten. So it's like, when on many, many levels.
Shawn Mayo 18:41
Yeah. And that's, that's again, that's still part of your team, right? And like you have this referral network. So if I have somebody who comes to me and says, like, hey, I need to have some windows installed. Great. I know a few people that are great options for that. By the way these windows here were replaced by this particular person. Just so you know, he's on my referral list but we ended up having a problem one day and we realized that he had accidentally ordered the wrong size of windows and he came to me and he said, Shawn, look I made a mistake. These are some things that were done. Or sorry this is where I made a mistake on each window on one section is two inches shorter than it should be so we losing some some overall window space on in your sunroom. He goes these are a few different ways that we could end up tackling it I picked an option that I felt was fair, I was okay with what they're slightly smaller windows in a room with like tenable, so I'm not too worried there. So he offered me a little bit of a discount and we ended up moving on and he goes, You know, I feel really bad. I know you're not going to refer me and stuff like that. I'm like, No, of course I'm going to refer you you owned your mistakes. From it, you didn't bail especially when like tradespeople, for example, have a really bad rap because it gets some fly by night guys that come out there. But every single time I'm going to give his card out because I know that if a mistake comes up he's gonna do it plus the word He's done really well. So that's also a big part of it. But if that's again, that's that sincerity, sincerity, look, I made a mistake, I did this thing, I need to own it. I just needed to pay for my guy's labor, I'm going to take my labor out of this. And just let's do it. And let's get it done. And I'm like, Cool, let's go. And and he's forever on my referral list. Unless I have some reason not to, and I can't see that happen.
Umar Hameed 20:23
Brilliant. So you've been in real estate for a while? What are some areas where Realtors struggle, like not every realtor is perfect. And there's certain areas where Realtors struggle, like what are the common areas where Realtors struggle?
Shawn Mayo 20:36
I think marketing is a part of it, I think it's very much a saturated industry sometimes, especially when there's big rises, suddenly, you got a lot more realtors, because the money is really good for a while, and then you suddenly see them drop off when the market drops out. So I think when you need to stand out in a crowd, and I think with really any business, but with realtors in particular standing out in the crowd is really important. And being able to make people aware for your awareness campaign. Look at the marketing funnel. In that awareness campaign, you really got to get that messaging out about who you are, this is what I'm doing. This is how people feel about
Umar Hameed 21:16
marketing is one area, where else do they struggle?
Shawn Mayo 21:19
I think the other thing might also be just with it's very much nobody is your boss, nobody's managing you and realistic, independent single business. So time management, I think when it comes to also, I think also just diligence when it comes to certain aspects. It's easy to take the easy path when nobody's watching when no one's giving you whatever. And you're supposed to be the professional for your clients. So I think sometimes it's easy to Slack more than you need to, when really five minutes can make all the difference to your client. Brilliant.
Umar Hameed 21:53
I was actually playing squash today. And this is guy who's like my mentor, when it comes to sports. And he was in front of the ball, I was hitting the ball, and he stopped me from hitting. So look, whenever somebody's in front of you, and there's a chance you might hit them, you need to stop, you need to put the human being ahead of the point. You're also going to get the point anyway, because they're in front of you, and you automatically get the point. But I thought that was like a really, really good advice just for any endeavor, real estate, is anyone gonna get hurt with this transaction I'm about to do. And sometimes someone is and you just need to tweak one little thing to make it a win for everybody. And it's, you know, worst to live by. So last couple of questions for you, Sean. Number one, what makes you happy? Like, what's the thing in your life that you do that brings joy to your heart?
Shawn Mayo 22:39
Yeah, so I mean, I find, I find for me, it's really about. I like to be the guy in the background, I don't need to be a face. I mean, by nature of the work I do on my face. But you know, for me, I like to kind of just sit back and see the fruits of my labor happening and watching people build and enjoy these lives. So when they walk into their home for the first time when they're like we finally arrived from Ontario to New Brunswick, and we're ready to unpack and it was such a journey. And like, there were so many hurdles to get to this point. We're now here and we can just start our next chapter. And you get to really watch people unfolding and doing that. And the same thing, even professionally, you know, seeing people really kick in like, this is the job for me, this is what I want to do, I am able to do it, I can that impostor syndrome is melting away because I'm actually succeeding and helping people get their homes and stuff. So So I think that's really kind of the big thing for me is just watching people be able to like go from uncertainty or challenge or a difficult process to just suddenly being able to open up and relax and I just watching that from a distance to be a wallflower and do that.
Umar Hameed 23:53
That is beautiful. I love that. So what's one piece of what's one mind hack that you use to become better? stronger, faster, more productive? What's the one mind hack you'd like to share?
Shawn Mayo 24:06
For me, it's probably going to be compartmentalization. Like okay. 123 problems all happened at the same time, because of course, when it rains, it pours. And you're just going to be like, okay, pause. We're going to separate each of these things out, triage it, what's the most important thing to do right now? Focus on it, let's get it done. I'll stress about everything later, get everything done, and then when everything's done and out of the way you realize you're not stressing as much later.
Umar Hameed 24:33
So Shawn, thank you so much for being on the program really enjoyed our conversation learns a lot and looking forward to our next conversation. For sure.
Shawn Mayo 24:40
I appreciate you having me on.
Umar Hameed 24:46
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.