An Empire Through Authenticity | Nate Riggs

Rick Jordan  

What’s shaking? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. Oh, man. Well, we’re going, I mean, we’re recording now, but it’s a, yeah, it’s, that’s a, you’ve got a dog groomer next door,

 

Nate Riggs  

yeah? Office. So not only was it terrible for, you know, the idea of building a podcast studio in our office space, but even when I’m like, on the phone with clients, or if I’m just like, you mentioned Instagram, if I’m cutting a quick Instagram reel or something, you’re like, it’s a distraction. At the least, at most, it’s like, gosh, man, it’s a nightmare. And they told us the landlord was like, Yeah, their lease is up in October. So we were this like, and here we are in December, and they’re still there. So we’re okay, we’re not sure. Well, even

 

Rick Jordan  

without doing a podcast, man, I mean, that’s got to be interesting. If you bring some clients in, yeah, you got some house, some screeches. Do you want? 

 

Nate Riggs  

And like not to stay on this topic overly, too long. But here’s the most, here’s the craziest thing. Imagine two office spaces. Our conference room kind of is like L over it’s so think L shaped and where our conference room is. The air conditioner. The ducks are actually on their own system. So when they’re grooming the dogs, sometimes you get that like a dog if you leave the conference room door shut, yeah. And we have this cool office that we build. I mean, we have graffiti art on there. We’ve got glass doors, concrete table, custom made. And then if they’re grooming a dog, you’re like, oh, just don’t mind the poodle smell. Lord, that’s rough, dude. It’s not our forever office, but it works for now. You know, they make the story right? It sure does.

 

Rick Jordan  

But that’s how people start, too. It’s like, you know, I’ve got a great space. I’ve got offices across the country now, you know, with the cyber security company that I remember the stories from, like, the first space, which was above a pizza joint, right? You know, so the place always smelled like pizza, yeah.

 

Nate Riggs  

The interesting thing about our space too, is there was a, there was, like, a small, must have been small, like weight lifting group there, yeah, they went on to a bigger business and outgrew it. And then there was a Skate Company in there. So it was a skate shop right before us. It went on to, you know, to grow and need a bigger space. So we’re like, all right, this space has this like energy. Let’s just keep it going.

 

Rick Jordan  

So that’s cool, brother, yeah, I remember one time in that office, as we’re talking now, because there was, like a, there was a fire alarm that went off. And this is before, like, cloud was even in existence, right? So we’re talking like 13 years ago. The company was just founded, you know, it cyber security, and we had all of our client stuff and all the data and everything on servers in our office, and then at that point, just starting out as a brand new company, it’s like, the it’s totally different today, because there’s so much better tech and everything, right? But the fire alarm went off, like, is this real? And then the fire department pulls off. And I remember Ryan, who’s my first employee, like, ever. He’s been still here. You know, he’s a VP of managed services now, and he’s like, he grabs a server, like, pulls the power plug and, like, grabs this honking thing. He’s like, running down the hallway. Like, like, here it is this fire alarms go up. I can’t even walk because I’m laughing so hard,

 

Nate Riggs  

right?

 

Rick Jordan  

He’s like, save the server.

 

Nate Riggs  

Something you can really get nostalgic. I was thinking about I saw something. It was like, from 1994 and then I was like, pants, like 30 years ago, yeah, which is just wild. And I was still a kid. Then I’m a little bit younger, but it was just crazy to think about, because I remember, I remember 1994 and I remember thinking 1964 seem like, you know, when my dad’s telling stories or something, and you’re like, Dad, it’s ancient news. And now I’m like, walking through that same phase. You’re like, no,

 

Rick Jordan  

get those memories. I’m remembering, like, everything I grabbed when fire alarms went off. I remember visiting my girlfriend at college, and she ended up becoming my wife. And, yeah, there was a fire alarm that went off, and I had brought my guitar there. And I know you play too, you know. So I’ve got, like, other stuff there, you know, you know, laptop and everything, sure, but, but, dude, the only thing I grabbed when that fire alarm went off to go down the stairs was my guitar, yeah, yeah, the thing I’m saving right there would be there for sure, man, but dude, yeah, I mean, I remember now where we where we met. I forgot about that, right? It’s a, you know, universal at the chocolate Emporium, a toothsome there,

 

Nate Riggs  

yeah, yeah, yeah. I call it the discount Chocolate Factory. Is a nod to, like, Willy Wonka, because at first, like, you tell the kids, you’re like, we’re going to Willie Wong, and then you’re like, No, no, not really. It’s an off brand,

 

Rick Jordan  

interesting place. Yeah, I dig it. It’s a it’s a place I visited during the during the pandemic, and I know you’re in Jacksonville, right? And. Yeah, during the pandemic. Because, I mean, being in Chicago, dude, the three were states were New York, Illinois and California, so it was, like, heading down to Florida a lot, and that was like, let’s stay on the open, you know, let’s, I’m like, I want to expose my kids to COVID. I think their immune system is going to be better for it. We know there are a lot. And made friends with, uh, servers there. And then even the mistrings, yeah. And then they started carrying McAllen 18 there, which I love. McAllen.

 

Nate Riggs  

We tried some of that. Yeah, yep, yeah. You know, I’ve been drinking, uh, kind of unrelated, not A, not necessarily a drink, but the the drink I’ve been drinking, the godfather with the dose Ronaldo in it, like a scotch whiskey with is really sweet. You gotta be careful. You don’t have, like, you’ll feel rough. But, like, we had a poker night, a few of my guys, different companies and vendors that we work with regularly, who it’s weird, you know, business sense, you kind of have, like, vendors who are your vendors, and then you have vendors who are like, okay, these are my friends and my life go to guy. So, like, that’s who Poker Night is. It’s nothing about trying to influence or make money. It’s just like, actual you find it like, you know, you’re kind of like, you can be kind of isolated when you’re running a business, really, bro, yeah, each of you is, like, isolated, and you kind of like, create this own, like, friend group. It doesn’t happen overnight. Yeah, I think everybody keeps, like, walls up pretty high too. You’re like, and once you get into that group and are leading that group, it feels really good. So we have poker night, and I like to, I like to pay attention to what everybody’s like drinking throughout the year. So when I host the poker night, I have like, everybody’s favorite drink there, and we do, gosh, I can’t remember what country is from, but I do this. I do, like a steak. Well, I do the the cap, the Tri Tip. I think it’s try tip for so good sirloin, right? Yeah, I do it a little. But you know what I make is like a rub that’s supposed to go on a roast, but I put it on that meat, and then I grill it. So it’s a look. It’s like a combo. It kind of combines, like, three different recipes. It’s kind of good, but only for poker night, and they’ll do it any other time. Yeah? You get these weird little things. That’s

 

Rick Jordan  

cool. Yeah? I mean, sometimes it’s cigars for me for some of those things, but did I go with a good rib cap or a good sirloin tip? Yeah? I

 

Nate Riggs  

think the most unique drink that one of my buddies has is aid. And maybe it’s not unique, but I didn’t know this was a thing. Rum Chada and fireball. What makes together tastes like a Cinnabon, like you’re at the mall. I’m like, Dude,

 

Rick Jordan  

that sounds kind of girly.

 

Nate Riggs  

One way, take one way, trip to headache down.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, no kidding that. Well, that was my thought. Because, I mean, I used to be, I don’t know if we got into this at the bar, but I used to be much bigger, you know, not a muscular, I’m talking like 290 all fat. Oh, really, yeah, so it’s a totally different physique. That was awesome. Thank you. That was shoot 13 years ago now, something like that when I when I decided no more, but I was thinking about this, I used to love going to TGI Fridays for appetizers and drinks, yeah, sure, and having some potato skins and some fried shit, whatever it is. But then I’d always have the drinks I would have would be, like, their ultimate whatever, towards, like, sugar and all the cheap liquor, you know, whether it was Long Island or, I can’t remember, some of the other stuff that I had there, but it was all the sweet stuff. I look back at that now, it’s like, what was my issue? It’s like, those were, not only were they sugary, it’s like, I look at them, it’s kind of like, drinks.

 

Nate Riggs  

Yeah, I’ve always just been kind of like a straight up drink, and I don’t drink soda, pop or anything else. Now, I did just cut I’m not, you know, as I probably, there comes a point in your in your life as a man where you’re, like, you’re just not gonna be 170 pounds anymore, you know, you have, like, Man size. And it’s interesting, because even if I stay out of the like, I used, I had a job. I don’t know if you saw that. I was a rescue swimmer in the Navy, so I was always working out, you know, that was just part of my job. And I did that for 10 years. I’ve been out of that now for, like, well, 2020 so we’re going five years out, and it’s like, now at like, 38 years old, if I go in the gym and I haven’t been in a week, I can still put up huge numbers, numbers that I couldn’t even hit when I was, like, training every single day. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. How your body, like, you know, as a man like that, we call it old man strength, you know. But I’m, like, texting my friends. I’m like, it’s coming. It’s finally, like, my late 30, like, you know, not training at all. Pick up more weight than anyone else, yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

is it like a thing in the south or something? Because, I mean, I’ve never heard of old man, straight, yeah?

 

Nate Riggs  

We talk about old man, yeah, maybe it could be regional, you know, I still thought about that. Yeah, old man, you know, you gotta be careful, like, I wouldn’t fight too many old men. And I, you know, even if I’m in shape, well,

 

Rick Jordan  

that’s probably the thing, if I, if I related it to this man, because it’s like, even though it’s like my dad passed when I was 16, right? But, you know, he was 46 I’m 45 now. And if I think about it, it’s like my dad was. Never this fit, you know, never had this muscle mass. You know, he was, he was a bigger dude too, you know, not athletic in the slightest. But seriously, it’s like, if I, if he was still here, you know, he’d be, what, like, 65 something, like, yeah, 60 almost 70, I think, yeah. Another think about it, yeah. My dad just turned 70 this year. Yeah. I can’t do the math in my head today. It’s been a day, you know, but it’s, but even if I saw him today, it’d be like, I’m not fucking with him. Like, seriously, because it’s like, you know, it’s kind of like the dad thing. It’s almost like, you always think that your dad can take you, yeah, exactly,

 

Nate Riggs  

you know, one thing I tried to train like chess a lot, like my dad always had a great chest. And I was like, yeah. Like, I’ve never seen you. He’s like, Oh, yeah, I do push ups every day. I was like, What are you talking about? It was like, it was, I’ve never seen you do one push up. He’s like, Oh, when I’m at the office, I’ll just, like, drop down and do like, 50 for no reason, like, period, like hundreds a day. I’m like, kidding me and but at home, nah, I never seen lazy boy. Get this, like,

 

Rick Jordan  

so what age does this kick in? Because I’m gonna look up the science of this dude.

 

Nate Riggs  

It’s gotta be, like, late 30. It’s gotta be late 30s, because it just recently, like, in it I’m not, like, doing you, you know, I’m 510, 100 and, well, okay, I just cut like, 10 pounds, yeah, doing a we just did a bone broth, like a bone broth client. So three days, nothing but bone broth. We kind of ran out. We had to buy some from the store, but we we just got a whole cow from the butcher, like a grass fed cow from the butcher. We’re just doing everything as clean as clean as we can, and I’m trying to avoid the grocery store as much as possible, but we just did. So we did got that. What is it? What’s the tail? What is the what do they call? I forget anyway, that cut at me. I can’t remember what’s called, but you put it in and you roast it. And so we made our own bone broth, and did that for three days. It’s crazy, like nine pounds in, like three days of just saying, yeah, and then you don’t want to eat now. You’re like, All right, well, let me get let me just like, Go gluten free after this or something crazy. Did you learn how much that stuff kind of just bloat you and in the sugars and stuff? So food something we take pretty seriously. I just went to Georgia. I came home with two Coolers, a hog. I still got a deer, still got a deer at the processor. I got a guy. We cleaned the hogs ourselves, which was crazy, man, we’re all over place. I don’t know if you got a direction you want to go. No,

 

Rick Jordan  

this is great. But even in that because, I mean, I start thinking, it’s like, you’re saying all this, it’s like, and you’re building a real estate empire, oh yeah. Because so it’s like, all of this that we’re talking about it, that it’s like, oh, and then, hey, you got a Rolex on right now. And there’s a reason for that. It’s not hogs, it’s not deer, right?

 

Nate Riggs  

Yeah, right, yeah. It says, Man, the real estate world, and that’s, that’s kind of, you know, and we’ll talk about that. So this trip we went on was basically like a break, and the place was a little fancier, for my taste, than but I’m not it’s hard to complain about a place that’s fancy, but the hunting place. I went with 20 other guys, a lot of business owner guys from my area. We went up there. They don’t like to do hog and you’re not supposed to transport the bones across state lines. But I did. I don’t care. Listen, we were like, so close to the Florida border that I’m like, this animal has crossed the state line in its life before, but, um, but I went and cleaned, like, there was, like, an old, like, hand at the property that they, like, I kind of got scolded by the owner, because he’s the processor will take it you can’t, like, when you brought these hogs back to the back to the, you know, you go out in the field all day, and then in the woods, and then you come back to the to the lodge. And the old guy was like, man, for 50 bucks, I’ll take you out there and we’ll clean so I went out there and we clean them. That was a 22 hour day. I woke up at 330 to go hunting, killed two hogs, a deer, and then we went. And then at like, 10pm I went out back, like, wow, to the kennel with this guy, learned how to clean the animal stuff. Ended up I was down to, like, no shoes, and like, overalls, you know, like a hillbilly total. And then I go back to the thing, and then I went back to my cabin, and I needed to wind down, so I lit a fire, and I, like, kind of logged, like my experience, but, you know, I told somebody I haven’t worked that hard in a long time. I work hard, but there’s a difference working in front of a desk. There’s a difference calling your leads client care for sure, right? Making sure I’m on top of my emails, making sure I’m negotiating contracts. And then when you contrast that to like, 10 years as a rescue swimmer, where you’re like in the gym every day, where it’s it’s hard work, it’s on, you’re on call all the time, um, sometimes dangerous work. And then so it felt like it was like my break, my rest, was like, pulling a 22 hour day, like, the hand was, like, the guy’s name Hardy, he’s like, normally you don’t let clients back here. It’s crazy. They let you back here, you know? And I’m like, I’m having while everybody’s having cigars and scotch, sitting around the fancy I’m out back, like, working. And to me, that was like, getting to some rest, you know? I grew up. In front of a John boat. You know what I’m saying? That’s awesome, brother, yeah, this is like, you know,

 

Rick Jordan  

that’s so cool. That’s a great analogy, too. You know, even with that, it’s the same as calling clients and just being consistent and really just being who you are, yeah, you know, in those areas, which I also love, that you play guitar too, man, because, I mean, I think you’re in a worship band, right? Or your worship leader, yeah, as I was looking at that, and it’s, uh, it’s like, because I, I was a worship pastor for years too, okay, cool, yeah, it’s, uh, well, that comes back to saving the guitar from the fire, right? It’s like, that, that was my tailor. It was like, I know, right? It was like, the first expensive acoustic that I bought, like, this is coming with me, bro, yeah, it’s, it’s awesome. Because, I mean, even that’s, that’s work too, brother,

 

Nate Riggs  

it is. It is a lot of work. And you know what? This, this summer, I got in a country band as well. Add that to it, and that kind of was like, because, I’ll tell you, because playing at church, I love playing at church. You know, I grew up in that world, man. Talk about, we could go everywhere, but talk about the success. And so much of the success that I have in real estate draws from like, so I grew up. Let’s go back from that. Let’s, if you want, if you want to hear the story, since we’re here, dude, yeah. You know, I grew I was born in Sebastian, Florida, like I said, kind of on a John boat, like my grandpa Orvis, who was just my grandma’s boyfriend, and my grandpa, Bill, who was my real grandpa. He was there too, but, you know, I didn’t go to daycare. I hung out with the grandpas, either riding around in the delivery van because we owned a flower shop at the time, or I was hanging out at Orvis and we were going fishing. You know, think about, he lived in the center of the sportsman he came back from World War Two, and he built the Sportsman’s Marina and lodge. And so, like, that’s where it was crazy experience there, and so really got an outdoorsy sense. But then, on the other hand, we were into a lot of stuff. My grandmother was doing real estate development at the time, so had built some condos. They had some Bed and Breakfast. They’ve been in this town for a long time. Sebastian, you saw

 

Rick Jordan  

that world when you were young, too. Man,

 

Nate Riggs  

also, my dad was a pastor. He actually just kind of retired, so for like, 45 years, he was a pastor. So now you add public speaking up in front of folks able to, like, kind of, then you’re, like, with the flower shop and with the church, like, for everything from, like, birth to weddings to funerals, like, you know what I’m talking about, you’re involved in everything. And so, you know, when I, when I started thinking about, like, what am I gonna do with my life? What it what do I want to do? The idea of, like, a nine to five job? It just didn’t like, I was like, I can’t even, I can’t even fathom it. It doesn’t even make sense. I can’t imagine doing it. So I, after high school, went to UNF, North Florida, in Jacksonville, for real estate and marketing, found out you don’t need a college degree to do real estate. So I did. What I should do is quit school, I started selling real estate. But then what happens? I’m like, 21 years old, and so let’s see, I was born in 87 so what year is 2008 I’m 21 Yeah. So I’m selling real estate, a few properties, but kind of like, working at the mall at the same time, and then the market crashes. So, yeah, you know, I kind of like, learn, like, Hey, man, if I’m gonna be like, a real asset in someone’s life, I better get some, like, I better get some real experience or whatever. And so that’s what led me to the Navy of all things, um, after you were in real estate. Yeah, so I already started real estate, and then I was like, All right, what am I going to do to grow up, to get some life experience and something that, you know, it doesn’t have to one for one transfer, but the idea of, you know, what are people’s complaints about real estate? Oh, you know, even at the time, it was like, agents don’t answer their phone, they don’t take initiative. They’re scared to make a call. Well, what is gonna like, empower me to do all that stuff, and that is just a bullet point on my resume that the average consumer So, being a veteran, having a special program in the Navy, all those things lead to like, Hey, this is someone who’s not gonna be afraid to pick up the phone to negotiate for me, or they’re gonna show up when I need them. They’re going to be at work every day, and I am. And that’s kind of it. You know, a lot of people struggle with, like, wanting perfection. There’s a book out there that’s the opposite, like, called starting ugly. I forget who wrote it. I normally would have it here, but starting ugly, and it’s kind of about that, like, if you’re going to start a business, or you’re going to start something, like, you you’re better off to just dive in, yeah, kind of like, get it going. Consistency is more important than perfection, right? Always. So then in 2018 I wanted to get back to real estate, so I reactivated my license, and for two years. Because now at this point, you know, when I was younger, it was easier to be like, Oh, no one. I don’t have a boss. I’m not going to make these calls. I’m not going to, like, go in and some people have that natural drive. I didn’t have that natural drive or whatever. But then once I got out of the Navy, now you’re, you’re in this special program, you’re, you’re a rescue swimmer. You’re not just like Gen pop navy. So it’s a little more advanced, a little bit more advanced schedule. Workout routine, the responsibilities, and so at 2018 I was an instructor here in Jacksonville, and I turned my license back on. I still had two years on my contract. So for two years, I did real estate and was an instructor. I told them, hey, look, I’m going to come to the schoolhouse and teach the kids. I’m going to do the flights that you need to do with them, but don’t expect me to do extracurricular Yeah, because I’m focusing on this transition, and at this time, I’m married, and I’ve got my second kid on the way. So when you leave a contract job for a sales only commission job, like the pressure is on. And in that pressure, I’ve worked, I found over the 10 years in that rescue summer career, I work really good under pressure. I’m really hard worker, and we can also kind of talk about the struggles kind of run the business. It’s one of the struggles I have today. I’m learning I’m maybe, like, a better worker than a manager. So when you’re building and you’re trying to lead others, you know, I’ve got a few failed hires, a few failed team members, and I look in the mirror and say, like, hey, it’s not just them. Like, I put the wrong people in place, or I didn’t put the right checks and balances, you know, I set them up for failure. Maybe we use that term, I don’t know if that’s

 

Rick Jordan  

so that is. Yeah, very much. So I’m with you

 

Nate Riggs  

learning curve, and that brings us to today. So 2018 you know, you’re looking at going into year seven. This year was a tough year for real estate. It was an election year, so there was a tons of noise. Historically, there’s fewer homes sold. And this year they were for sure. We were still recovering from those high interest rates. And then on top of that, a bunch of stuff in the public eyes, with the Department of Justice, getting involved with like how commissions are paid and everything else. So sure. Should be a really tough year for us. We’re up 25% year over year, so I’m not complaining. I think I did some I read somewhere that, like your business to be successful should see five to 25% growth. So I set that goal at 25% Yeah, and we and we hit that 25% growth. So I’m not complaining, although I’ve never worked harder in my life at the sales world, you know, I talked earlier about that physical work, but at the like mind work and that, and so, man, we’re getting it. We’re getting it. Well,

 

Rick Jordan  

think about that for a second. I mean, a tough year, right? Super tough year, but yet, yeah, you said you worked your ass off to make that 25% compound annual growth. Imagine what happens when it’s an easier year. Yeah, you know, if you put in the same effort, but at the same time, it’s like, how, how much less sleep do you get during these years? Man, it’s like, is that? Do you want to run yourself that hard every single year, right? No,

 

Nate Riggs  

I wanted to get where, like I have, and so we’ve kind of studied and and the world is changing with tech. You talked about technology earlier, you know, even, like, real estate technology and the way teams work completely, bro. You know, it’s, you know, you might use this like, AI is a new tool that I’m getting used to using it. You know, AI is great for the podcast because I can, hey, I read a news article. Or, if I hear people saying this and I want to do I use it for, you know, some people might say, like, hey, write a property description for this house, yeah. And they kind of cheat and they that’s very I use it for, like, hey, what? What were the top conditions that caused, like, a market to crash? Give me those sources. Okay, do those conditions exist today? Kind of asking at those questions, getting some answers. It’s like, it’s research based, versus, like, give me this and, and so we use that and then, or if I’m interviewing somebody, you like, Hey, man, I can input some of their bio. Hey, help me create, like, three really captivating questions for us. And it’ll spit out something so that you got it. If you just read it word for word, someone will know. But if you use it like it’s an assistant bringing you something, you’re like, Ooh, that’s a good idea. Now let me write that question into my own question. Yeah, right on this. Guess it ends up being great. So that’s

 

Rick Jordan  

true for sure, man. I mean, if you know, maybe this will help too. Because, I mean, coming from a tech firm, it’s like, we use AI every single day. Yeah, and large language models, you know, there’s different models too, like chat GPT is great for research. Exactly what you’re talking about right there. Claude, on the other hand, is one that’s better at writing copy. It sounds more human, less robotic, you know, more active language, though, if you can take what you have, you know, and chat GPT can help you research a lot of the trends and all that. And then you can take property descriptions that you’ve written, you know, because we’ve done this even with my podcast episodes, you know, because, you know, I’ve got over 500 now. The show is global. It’s great. There’s a lot of stuff to pull from. We’ll take transcripts, you know, it for you, it would, it would be the property descriptions. And then you can create a project within Claude and literally ask it to analyze this stuff and come up with a guideline of how property descriptions need to be written in the voice of Nate Ricks. It’ll write it exactly those same ways, using your adjectives, your voice and all of that for future. One. So you’re talking like building teams. It’s like you could have a brand new teammate, whether they’re a great hire or not a great hire, or whatever it is, you know, personally. But you could say here you can write a property description for this use Claude. It’s already trained. Yeah, they can just pump that stuff out. Man, in the appropriate way to write them. It’s efficiency.

 

Nate Riggs  

It is pretty cool. And that’s just using those modern tools. And what we found, like the old school real estate team, was more like, I’m the agent, and I buy leads, and then I get more agents on my team. And so our our vision is really like, almost like starting a marketing company, but we service real estate. Yeah, I’m just gonna make be the broker, be the agent. My wife has her license. She works with me too. She really handles a lot of the client care stuff. She’s better, like, today, I was like, hey, I need an intro email. So going back to what you’re talking about, she uses all that AI stuff to help. I’m like, I’ll give her the bullet points. This is what needs to be in the intro email. And then she’ll take the time to input that into the system and then shape it to make it ours specifically, and then create the Google Drives, or whatever the links are that I wanted. And so she handles a lot of that stuff. And then, now, like, I’m only doing, you know, lead gen, lead follow up, buy or seller appointments and closing. So I just am trying to, like, I don’t even want to check an email, like, I’m gonna, I have to check email. But it’s like, she usually goes through my emails, and then, like, deletes the junk, and then it’s like, here’s the five that matter, and so we can read those efficiently. And then the other side that I need, really, is like a videographer, you know, content creator, and basically like a marketing expert to handle like that creation of like, the podcast, the home tours, any other content that we’re doing, and on the side, probably just need, like, which some, most of the stuff we all outsource now, but the idea is to kind of, like, bring it in to your own and then once, once that company is established. Now, if you want to, like, start bringing team members on, who are agents to say, like, Hey, I already have this entire system. All you got to do

 

Rick Jordan  

is show up the machine rather than trying to bring

 

Nate Riggs  

on agents. Because we try to bring, you know, I try to bring on a buyer agent, but like, if the market has ups and downs, you get real busy. You’re like, let me bring on an agent, and you’re splitting commissions with them. And then when the market goes down and you’re not doing as many deals, it’s a lot harder to split them, or that person’s now crying because they don’t want to pick up the phone and like, it was when it was easy, they were all about showing homes and fill in the blanks. But when it comes down to, like, hey, you need to call these people and they’re sitting in your office and they won’t, then that’s tough. And so I’ve, I’ve failed that, and I view that as kind of, like, leadership too, not just on them. That’s me, like not even noticing that up front, or being too easy, you know? So

 

Rick Jordan  

I get you. I mean, I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself, bro, because when you see that, I mean, sales is sales, and sales is that your success is just based off of activity, yeah. So if somebody in sales, which is real estate, man, if somebody is refusing activity to pick up the phone. It’s like, I’ve been through two large purges of salespeople in my company, you know, to where it’s like, literally everybody goes in one day. And that may have me sound cruel, but then at the same time, I was able to build up after that, you know, like, I just hired a new one six weeks ago, you know, total self starter. Started writing definitions for everything that we have in plain language to explain to customers. Built a 40 page sales playbook. This is all in six weeks. We just closed their first quarter of a million dollar deal in cyber and it’s very awesome. It’s because she picks up the phone and she’ll call somebody five six times a day, a prospect, five six times a day. And we share the same mantra. It’s like, there’s, there’s no such thing as too much activity. When it comes to sales, you know, it’s like, oh, I want to wait. They said they’d be out of town, or whatever. It’s like, send them a text. It’s like, Hey, I know you went out of town. I know you said you’d get this to me today too, so we could process the application. You know, do you have it on your laptop? Do you have a quick break for five minutes to send it? Yeah, it takes,

 

Nate Riggs  

it takes a lot of worry. It does. So, like, even, even going back to this hunting trip where I was like, Okay, I’m gonna deliberately, like, I’m sitting in the deer stand, you know, I don’t know if you’ve been hunting or have experienced a few times, yeah, sitting there for hours, a lot of waiting, yeah, doing nothing. Then all of a sudden there’s like, you know, and you gotta be silent and like, barely move if it sees you. So I’m looking down my phone and like, I see an email come through. And I was like, I know that’s an important email, but I am committed to just not doing this. Then, of course, I get the next thing I see is Shauna texting me a screenshot of the email. You know, I committed. I committed. I committed to not doing this. So I didn’t, I didn’t open them. Yeah, honestly didn’t open them. But what’s wild is, like, you know, in talking to her after the trip and, like, some takeaways there, like, you don’t realize how much you work seven days a week, yeah, right now, all the time, because just taking, like, that one day. To say, I’m not gonna open this email. Was like, Oh my gosh. Like, and so you’re like, you realize I open emails Saturday, Sunday, every day, which is crazy. Now we also are good about, like, I mean, we have a nanny that leaves the house at three, so we’re like, home by three unless I got appointments or doing stuff like this. But like, you know, we already were home for a couple hours chilling with the kids before we got four kids. It’s wild, dude. It’s, it’s insane. I love, I’d like the real estate stuff at this point too. There’s, there’s pros and cons to this. It could be viewed as like, a wow, that’s awesome. It could also be viewed as like, Oh, do you think you could be doing more, but 100% of our business is past client, repeat client, referral business. We get onesie twosies come in. I believe I get some older folks off of post. I still run some print mail. Yeah, and we get stuff there with, like, in a 55 and up neighborhood or something, but only if we’re like, we don’t go looking for business. But if, like, my buddy’s parents have a home to sell in there, and we work with them, which I view as kind of like a repeat pass client connection, then, you know, I’ll run ads on that property, and inevitably, off of advertising that property, someone else will pick up the phone and be like, you know, I like the way you advertise. So we get onesie twosies like that, but we’re not buying Zillow leads or Boomtown leads or Google dial a leads, no circle prospecting, no cold calling at all. The things I like to do, I am into the nerd side. I love the education side. I like to geek out on, like the contracts and the data, and I just want to educate people on the data.

 

Rick Jordan  

You went that route because, I mean, that’s one thing even, you know, just prior to us starting today, was looking at your feet again. And, I mean, you mentioned, you know, like the the election year earlier today. And I watched that, that video you had on there, and it that model. It’s like, whether you you continue to do real estate or anything, and I think that’s what people need to pick up on here is that your model, when you talked about turning it into a marketing company and getting that foundation first, is really educating people, right? You know? Because it’s like, yeah, when you’ve got the referrals, it’s like, that brings your credibility into the stratosphere, because they’ll go look you up and be like, Oh, great. It’s not just because my friend told me to come to you, let me do my own stuff, and then as soon as you come up, it’s like, oh, wow, I just learned something from this dude. It’s

 

Nate Riggs  

all knowledge base. Yeah, I love that. And so that’s what, that’s the side of the business I really like. That’s what keeps me attracted to it. It’s not so much like, like the gift baskets and stuff. That’s where I struggle with, that’s why you wanted to handle client care. I’m like, gift basket, like, come on, like, this is a serious financial decision here. Like, give a gift, they’ll give a referral. And I’m like, How about they just give me a referral? Because I’m good at my job, like, you know, and so kind of, you know, I’ve softened up some. The other thing I like to do, the other thing I like to do is, is throw parties. And so basically, that’s what we did. We just had a an event at beach world. I know it sounds like bowling alley. It’s not the bowling alley from when we were kids. They just spent $13 million renovation. A lot of big companies were doing the parties there. They got a private VIP room with four lanes. We had a Okay, so bowling alley, we had a prime rib carving station. Okay? So brilliant. Killer party. We gave away tickets to, like, Trans Siberian Orchestra as like gifts and other things. And so that’s basically, basically the whole of our business, is all of our content, and then throwing these parties. So like, may 21 we got a VIP party. Anybody who sends me two referrals that close before May 21 I’m taking them out to this real nice restaurant beach called the refinery Jacks beach. And that’s on us. And so that’s our new thing. I’ve already got people giving me two three. I got another guy. After we get off here, I’m gonna send some homes too. I mean, so so it’s a fun way to, like, stay with your sphere, rather than just call column every quarter, say, like, Hey, if you ran into anybody like, Hey, listen, I got a game to put. Like, you know, you had a good experience. Let’s make it fun for someone else too. It’s brilliant,

 

Rick Jordan  

man. It’s a great place to book in this too, because, I mean, we’ve gone everywhere today, dude, in this it’s all all over, right? It’s been phenomenal. Yeah, everyone needs to check you out for real. You know, rigs official, because your model is phenomenal. And no matter what industry you’re in, working in, anybody who’s checking us out today, is it marketing companies, first and foremost, beyond anything else, marketing and education? Is it? Yeah, right on, brother, I’m grateful to know you for real and to meet you at bar and then coming on here and blasting the size of the world. Awesome.

 

Nate Riggs  

Yeah, man, we’ll connect again. I’m sure you.