Brett:

I'm excited about our next guest. He's been featured in CNN, Forbes Fox, Northwest Herald, The Wall Street Journal. He's a real estate consultant and Top Producing Realtor with over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, and he specializes in luxury listings, and he has been marketing and featured on some of the biggest names in the industry, including, again, Fox News, Chicago business hour, to name a few. He's also the author of the books Luxury Listing Specialist and Outside The Box, and Marketing Luxury. Please welcome to the show with me, Michael LaFido. Hey, Michael, how are you doing?

Michael:

I'm doing excellent. Thanks for having me.

Brett:

Absolutely excited to dive in a little bit. To get to know you a little bit more. We had the pleasure of attending your training or amazing training in Napa, California just a few weeks ago and so we got to meet in person, which is not something to take for granted these days. Given COVID-19, and so thanks for coming out to California. I know you're from Chicago land, and so you'll tell us a little bit about that. For our listeners, we're going to be talking about listing luxury real estate, and Michael has a worldwide training and platform of helping realtors level up their game and help them to sell luxury. But before we dive into that, Michael, would you give our listeners a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Michael:

Michael LaFido, based in the Chicagoland suburbs, has been licensed since 2000, and I was a part-time real estate agent and a full-time high school teacher up until 2010, and then we really just went all full steam ahead on our home selling business, and through that, a lot of agents, a lot of relationships occurred where people are like, how are you doing so well, when you were a full-time teacher, part-time agents, so we launched some coaching and some products and DVD products and had a lot of success there, and I had an agent who was a top luxury agent and a few others reached out to me, and basically say we want to take those same concepts and apply them to luxury. We made the switch to the focus to be luxury in about 2013-14, and fast forward a couple of years after that, and in 2016 we launched our flagship product, if you will, it's our designation called Lux for short, L-U-X-E but a luxury listing specialist, and we coach, we train, we help individual agents, team leaders, and brokerages, increase their average sale price and dominate their business in the high-end and luxury properties for their given market.

Brett:

We're going to dive into that here all in a minute, and by the way, you can find more about Michael’s affiliate marketingluxurygroup.com, that's marketingluxurygroup.com. So, Michael, that's amazing, and I can't wait to dive into the high school teacher, one of the leading voices for realtors in the nation and for listing luxury properties, maybe even the world now. But before we go there, I can take a step back and even go even a little bit deeper to who you are Michael, maybe go back to the high school days, maybe the college days, and you. I believe I've been given certain gifts in this life, and these gifts I believe are given to us to be a blessing and help to others. Some people call them strengths. Some people call them superpowers. I think their God-given gifts, and I'm curious, what are those one or two gifts that you believe you are given, and how does that help and bless people today?

Michael:

Great question. A lot of the success we've had I owe to high school athletics. I think you can learn more on the gridiron football field or the baseball field or the wrestling mat, whatever it might be the gymnastics mat, than just in the classroom by itself. Whether it be working with others, whether it be not giving up, whether it be mentally you're tired, you're exhausted, you don't want to go to practice, you don't want to compete, all those, those things that we fake face as husbands as fathers as wives Brett to have, those foundational principles that I learned through athletics. For me, I use a lot of ISMS, if you will. Coaching ISMS I'll say some on today's show but behind me, one of them that you can maybe see is proving them wrong I love it when people say you can't do something right, or another one I say all the time is to lose or refuse to be average. You can always get better, and if you're not getting better your competition is taking those concepts and just constantly trying to apply and get better at them. Whether whatever you do in your industry, just SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are you passionate about? What are some threats to you and your industry, iron sharpens iron just my butt’s always burned in my mind, I'm always trying to get better, and that's what stems from being part of an amazing football program where we won the state championship and taking those same concepts to really every aspect in life, including parenting and coaching and being a better husband and trying to be right.

Brett:

I certainly resonate with that, playing high school sports, myself, college, high school football, and high school basketball and had a chance to play basketball in college, and I always said that was my classroom. I definitely resonated more. I wasn't as much of a bookworm. I found certain subjects very, very passionate about history, math. Suddenly other ones. I was, like, when can I get to play basketball? When can I get to play sports again, and practice and such. I definitely resonate with that. I appreciate you sharing that, and those are lifelong truths. I love to prove them wrong. I love the refusal to be average, and then working with others and persevering. Now let's dive right into the topic of the show. Michael, you're talking about listing luxury, real estate. Michael, what's the number one secret for a listing luxury specialist with number one seek it for them to start with, to obtain, to be successful and listing and obtaining more and more deals that are higher-end?

Michael:

I look at it as a diversification of your portfolio. Let's just say you won the mega lotto. Your financial advisor would tell you to diversify, have some low risks, some high risks, and long term, short term investments, no different than the properties that agents and team leaders and brokerages represent, as most agents and team leaders focus on the average price properties for their market or maybe an entry-level starter. I challenge agents to go after more high-end and more luxury. But getting back to your original question, there's no, I can tell you, Brett, there's no easy button. Everybody's looking for the easy button. None of it works all the time. But the vast majority of things that we talk about work the majority of the time. I use football as my background. Vince Lombardi says, whether you think you can win or not, you're right. My point is many agents have what I call limiting beliefs, they believe they have to live in a certain size home or drive a certain car or come from wealth or be wealthy themselves, themselves to work with the luxury buyers and sellers, and although if you did come from money, and you and your parents do belong to a country club, and you live in a gated community, it certainly makes it a lot easier. But I didn't come from any of that, and so, you really have to start with your mindset.

Lisa Hayes says whether you think you can, she says. Be careful how you talk to yourself because you are listening to, and so you really have to believe you belong, you have to believe that you can do it. It really starts from the mindset that's the most important thing and many agents won't go on those opportunities because of the what-ifs and they will lift themselves to death. What if they asked me this? Like, for example, a property you mentioned, you mentioned my book earlier and I'm looking forward I can't find it. But the cover that's on my book, there's a house that we represent. It was Architectural Digest’s most beautiful home for sale in Illinois. It's on the market for seven and a half million. When he interviewed me, he flat out said how many other homes have you sold in Barrington Hills, Illinois. I said I haven't sold any other homes in this area. But you just, you're currently listed with the second neighborhood specialist, the first, and get the job done. The second hasn't. If you want someone that keeps doing the same things as everybody else locally, Einstein defines that insanity, but if you want something that's outside the box, that's creative. Doesn't think like a real estate agent but thinks like a marketer. You're talking to the right guy. I don't even like saying listing luxury real estate with Michael LaFido. I would like to call it marketing real estate luxury real estate with Michael LaFido because really I teach agents not to think like a listing agent, but think like a marketer.

Brett:

That is phenomenal. It's so much the golden nuggets there. I want to focus first on mindset one. Because you have a really unique story, and that you were a high school teacher High School, athletic coach, I think basketball, football or both, and you're there and you're in the middle of doing that into transitioning, and I imagine, it wasn't like just wondering, I'm not going to struggle with the identity of I'm just a luxury listing. It was a process you had to work through. Take us through that shift, that mindset? How did you really break through? What was the moment where you said, it doesn't matter what I drive or my income right now. But I will be a top listing agent.

Michael:

Mindsets are important. I teach agents to grow their knowledge, and your confidence will grow, grow your knowledge, and your confidence will grow. Of course, Brett, when you're more confident, you'll step out of your comfort zone more when you step out of your comfort zone more, and that's where the magic happens. That whether that be attending events, whether that be, reading certain, publications, whether it be a podcast, grow, your knowledge, and your confidence will grow, and so for me, mentorship is important. Tony Robbins says success leaves clues. Go figure out what someone's success was doing and model and tweak it and improve it and make it your own. One of my mentors was Dan S. Kennedy, and he's written a lot of books out there, and, and one of them we talked about is marketing to the affluent, and so if you're going to sell widgets, if you're going to sell supplies, if you're going to sell towels, if you're going to sell, in my case, real estate, he talked about might as well sell that more expensive ones, there's more margins, and you can make more money, selling fewer products, and so that resonated with me, and I just was like a sponge, I tried to absorb and consume as much knowledge as I could, and so that's what prompted me to make the tweak from the entry-level properties and the average properties to go after the high end and the luxury but it took some time for me.

Brett:

Having Dan Kennedy, having a mentor, absorbing, observing, wanting that, learning about that, and applying that, and then so you make the shift. I think at one point, you're telling your story when enough of what you're saying suddenly, I was making much more money, the person was pretty close, that it was like more, and then it was much more you're like, now I'm retiring from being a teacher.

Michael:

I retired from being a teacher. It was like the light bulb went off. Like, what are you doing here, you can help impact thousands of lives. For me, too, I have a podcast like you, and I want to educate others, and but you're doing it I'm doing, we're impacting thousands of lives versus, a couple 100 over a couple of years in teaching, and that's important. I'm not downplaying that my wife's a teacher, so kudos to them, but I'm following my passions and what I feel is like my calling.

Brett:

That's number two. Number one is diversifying your portfolio. Can overcome limiting beliefs, and Michael LaFido could do it as being a teacher, and moving to luxury, we can do it right. That's part of the amazing thing that Michael is doing. That number two, what would be the number two secret now.

Michael:

The number two secret we were talking about.

Brett:

So we're talking. All things marketing luxury real estate with Michael LaFido are listing luxury real estate. So, Michael, we had a little station identification, a little commercial break. Sorry about that.

Michael:

No, you're fine. You were talking about what's the number two tip?

Brett:

The number two secret you have to be leveling up your game? If you're already trying to break into luxury or just, what's the number two thing to get going?

Michael:

I don't know what it sounds like, but I go to where the money is. What I mean by that is, I'm based in a suburb of Chicago and, and I literally joined the Chamber of Commerce 45 minutes away, where the million-dollar properties were selling and, and there were high-end buyers, and you got to maybe join that Chamber of Commerce, you got to go to those networking events, you got to maybe go to that Golf Club, whatever it might be. But, if you're in an area where there are a lot of high-end and luxury properties, that's okay. You might have to drive a little bit. I'm a licensed data In the state of Illinois, my philosophy is the half-car will travel. I have a winery. I'm selling two and a half hours outside Chicago. You might have to go to where these opportunities are, you might not pick up and move your family or you might in some cases, but I didn't. But I just networked and went to the city of Chicago, even though I'm 40 minutes outside there, and so, again, go to where those opportunities are because they're not going to land in your lap.

Brett:

Excellent. Join the King's Chamber of Commerce, join the golf club, go on tour, go to where those opportunities are willing to get in your car and go to those meetings and network. That's excellent. You're building that. That's number two. What's number three Michael?

Michael:

Real quick on number two going to the chamber. The reason you do that is your network with other business owners that cater to high net worth individuals, and so it's about the best way to get referrals as give them so if you're that connector if you're that guy that's always looking out for others, and those just happen to be business owners that cater to successful people, you're going to differentiate yourself, and you're going to be top of mind awareness. That's why number two, I talked about that chamber. As an example, number three is to hire a mentor or coach. Tony Robbins says success leaves clues. I belong to the orange theory fitness, that's a public workout place. I know I could run on a treadmill. I know to go run a mile or two. I was a former physical education teacher. I know what I should do. But having accountability, being on that treadmill next to a guy next to you that you want to beat competing is important. Well, no different than in business. Having that coach, that mentorship that holds you accountable, that pushes, that is really important as well. The top business, the top CEOs, the top, luxury agents, the top agents, period, they have mentorship, they have coaching, they have accountability.