Hey everybody, how you doing? Kelly Johnson here from the 4X Formula. Thanks for joining me again. I’m so happy you’re here. I’m really excited to talk about this today. What I call this episode: No pass back. But you know what the biggest thing is? It’s a little bit of a story about me working with my wife.
Hi, I’m Kelly Johnson, founder of the 4X formula and the big question is this: How are real estate agents like us able to create a constant stream of commissions and a constant stream of leads while enjoying life without wasting big budgets on branding, without working crazy hours, without worrying where the next deal’s coming from in today’s real estate market. This podcast is here to reveal the answers.
When Nicole started with me in the business back, about 10 years ago, I began to train her just like any other agent that I’ve trained that was part of my team. But it was a lot easier obviously, and it was a little more accelerated because we were together all the time. At home, we would discuss tactics and ideas and kind of just fine tunes things. But she kind of saw me prior to that for about 12 years. Basically I’ve been in real estate our whole married life and she was an at-home mom for a while. We were able to do that, which is great. She was able to be with the kids until our youngest got into the school age that we could then allow her to kind of come work with me. So it worked out really well.
But anyway, what we did though is we identified and agreed on our roles in the business. And you know what, she was like most people and probably very much like you. Didn’t have a whole lot of experience, didn’t have a whole lot of experience like in sales or any kind of stuff like that. Not really into contract law, you know what I mean? Basically the kind of work that she did prior to that was really just waitressing. And I’m not putting that down. Like to be a waitress. I was a waiter too. And I did waitering and it’s not easy and I was a very good waiter.
But at the same time, because I had an idea of service and I love people that come from the service industry. People who have sold shoes, have done very well in real estate. Believe it or not. I’ve seen waitresses… there’s one lady in my town who used to be like the “beer cart girl” at a golf course and everybody loved her and stuff and beautiful girl and everything. But she actually is in real estate now and she is kicking butt. She’s like number one in Canada in her type of office and stuff like that. So anybody that’s comes from the service industry understands serving and they do well. So anyway, I just love that real estate can do that for people.
Anyway. So she was like most people, right? In the sense that really just give her something to do and she’d do a great job. She was accountable, her word were solid. I knew if I shifted something over to her and she knew exactly what to do, how to do it. She would do it and she would do it very well.
She was also really good with people. She cares about our clients and I really believe they feel that. They get that from her and they love that about her. I would say she’s probably like a lot of you people out there. Just give me the clients and I’ll take them to the finish line. It’s going to be all lovie dovie and I love that feeling when I help people get into a home and you know, you bring them to subject removal or you bring the subject removal to the seller. And those are just good like dopamine feelings that we get to feel in this business. And yes, we get addicted to that. It’s a great feeling when we help people achieve what they want to achieve and they’re all excited. And in some cases we’ve actually helped people literally change their lives financially and lots of different other ways.
So it’s a great business and all those wonderful things. But when there were things that were uncomfortable or somewhat stressful or tough clients or negotiations really weren’t going our way or whatever, she tried to get me to take over, right? She goes, “Well, you’re just really good at that.” Or she would say things like that. “You know how to do that really good” or “You can approach that better” or “You’ve just dealt with that way more. You just really good at that part. You’re good negotiator. I just don’t…”
Really what it was is she didn’t like dealing with the crappy part. She loved all the Lovey dovey stuff and all the easy parts of the business and all the parts of the business that just make us feel really good. She would even admit to me that she didn’t enjoy the negative or stressful or difficult parts of the business. She just wanted me to do it. She just wanted me to take it on. And she fully admitted that. It wasn’t like I’m saying this in front of her face or behind her back or anything like that.
My little terminology on that, because I knew that she would not be able to become the great agent that she is today if I’d let her off the hook. Because I had experience and because I’d been through all those things and yeah, because I was pretty good at it. If I went ahead and just did those things, she wouldn’t learn how to overcome. She wouldn’t understand how to take a challenge and hit it head on. She wouldn’t grow as a person and ultimately as a realtor.
Nicole today is an amazing real estate agent. She’s great. But you know what I would say to her, I would say “No pass back” and my head jerk. I would say “No, no pass back. You can’t pass it back to me. You’re taking that ball and you’re now running with it and you’ve got to take it to the end zone.” So the idea, I pass her the ball, right? You guys understand football? So I pass her the ball. She has caught the ball now and yeah, she’s running into a defender.
We both love football by the way. One of the smartest things that I ever did was I taught my wife about football. I sat down with her one day and I said, this is why I love it. And I explained to her and I said, “See it’s this fight, right? There’s the offense and the defense and it’s strategy and there’s always people trying to do this. It’s Like war. You’ve the air part of the war, you’ve got the ground game, you’ve got all this stuff going on and it’s strategy and you’ve got the commander, which is the quarterback. And then you’ve got this defender saying, no, no, no, we’re not giving up ground.”
And when I explained all that to her and made her kind of understand how the game worked, she suddenly start to really get into it. She’s actually almost a bigger fan than me now. We love going to football games and just feeling that energy and all that. Football’s a great part of our life. She loves it as much as I do. There’s no guys time anymore with football because she’s got to be there, which is awesome, but it’s kind of funny. Anyway!
So once a quarterback passes the ball, he doesn’t start running to where the person is that he passed the ball to and then wait in case the guy gets into trouble or runs into, you know… And he doesn’t pass it back to him. The quarterback will get hammered if that happens for one thing. But imagine that though. That receiver would never get good at dealing with defenders. At dicking him out. Making a miss. Planning out his next move. Putting his head down and shoulders down and just pounding right into that challenged and get a couple of extra yards, right. If every time he came across a defender, he just threw the ball backwards…
So I’m like, no! No pass back! And it made her mad sometimes. “You’re just trying to make a point, aren’t you?” And I go, “Yeah, I am.” I would admit it! But I would say, “No, this is a challenge that, I’m sorry, it’s painful. I’ll guide you along the way. We’ll talk about it. I’ll tell you things to say or how to approach it or questions to ask or whatever. Let’s talk about that. But I’m not going to take over on it because then you’re not going to get good at it.”
Sometimes, yeah, things are uncomfortable, but that’s where we grow. There’s no shortcut, right? There’s no magic pill. There’s no easy road to any kind of success. There isn’t. There are always going to be some sort of challenge coming your way. Always.
This course is not going to put you on a perfectly paved path that’s all lit up for you with little snack shacks along the way, and people cheering you along the pathway to success. If that’s what you’re imagining, I’m sorry, we’re going to disappoint you. You know, I’m your cheerleader. I’m running by you. I’ll throw water at you once in a while. I’ll kind of keep encouraging you and I’ll tell you when you got to turn right when you got to turn left and all that kind of stuff.
But we’re about equipping you. Giving you the right vehicle. Giving you the tools. Give you the knowledge and the commitment and the sheer will, all that kind of stuff. I’m going to help you come to that place. Hopefully help you open your mind to new understandings of things. We’re going to give you the map to get there. We’re going to give you everything you need in our course. But the only variable in that, the only variable is you. That’s it. I can’t account for that. I have no idea. I know I can do everything I can to kind of get you thinking a certain way. Understanding when a challenge is what it is and what that looks like and how you can overcome that and all that. I can help you with that, but I can’t make you be “you”. I can’t make you be the best “you” you need to be.
But you know what? When you go through certain things, that’s how you get there. Nicole didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all, but because I love her and I care for her, I had to apply tough love. She now today is an amazing real estate agent. She is better than me in so many ways. People call her now 10 years in now. It’s not Kelly anymore. It’s not Kelly and Nicole. It’s now Nicole and this Kelly guy. They refer people to her now, to her name. You got to talk to Nicole.
My name is mentioned less and less as I built her up as the name or the brand of our business. She is really good. She deserves it. She’s awesome realtor and she’s grown as a person, which is awesome too, right? Like for our marriage, we grow together and that happens in marriages sometimes where people kind of grow apart and I never want that for anybody. If I let her do the pass back whenever it got a little bit tough, she would have not grown as a person and sharpens her skills as a real estate agent. She wouldn’t have grown. She wouldn’t have. It’s a fact, God forbid.
I know for a fact that if I died today, she would be fine. That gives me a lot of comfort. She’s going to be able to provide for the family and herself without me in the picture if I’m gone. No, I don’t plan on dying yet. I mean, I have a lot to do. I have a lot to accomplish yet. So that’s not part of the plan right now. But who knows? I get hit by a bus tomorrow. I know she’s gonna be okay and that is an awesome feeling. I wouldn’t be able to feel that way or feel confident about that if I let her off the hook all the time. And I just took over when it got hard. You know, she’s self sustaining now.
We still work together every day. We’re a team in all aspects of the term. I help around the house. I washed dishes. I cook dinners. I help keep the place tidy because she’s working too. Just as much as me. And so as a team, we’ve got to help out. We’ve got to do those things. So I do step in when we run into some situations that sometimes to ensure that we’re doing our best for our clients, but I still don’t let her off the hook. So there’s a balance there.
The other benefits of simply just going through stuff is you get to have some stories. When you run into a situation where a client is digging in his heels or you suddenly can foresee a challenge before it rears its ugly head. You can use a story to kind of help someone make that right decision. This just gets to be another little tool that you put in your toolbox and it just allows you to be more successful in situations.
Every single day. Every single person you come into contact with. Every single challenge. Every single difficult situation. Every single jerk client. Every single cooperating real estate person that causes friction. Every single type of real estate market or real estate cycle. Every interest rate change. Every single meeting. Every single buyer and every single seller will serve you on your journey. Every experience with all of those things, every experience that you’ve come into, embrace it. Lean into it. Understand it. Look for the opportunity, the lesson, the skill set you’re supposed to sharpen. Get excited about it. Don’t get hung up.
I hope this inspires you today and I just really appreciate you guys hanging out with us, listening to our stories. I’m really excited at creating a movement of 4Xers, 4X agents that are employing the 4X Formula. We’re just so excited. We’re getting so close to launching. Stick with us. That’s it for today! Take care. Bye. Bye.