Brett: 

I'm your host Brett Swarts. Each episode I am joined by some of the best commercial real estate brokers, realtors, luxury realtors, and passive income Wealth Advisors in the world where they share their ideas and deal stories and inspiration. So together we can make complex brokerage strategies simple and passive income plans achievable. I'm excited about our next guest. He's actually what I call a real estate Rockstar and kind of Hall of Famer been in the industry for years REMAX Keller Williams background led teams. Also what I love about him is he built another real estate team from the ground up and started coaching full time for the Tom Ferry International. He's a licensed contractor in California and Oregon as well as a licensed real estate broker in California and Oregon. And he has just a passion for everything he does, and especially for helping others succeed in real estate. And let's face it, you want to have someone who's financially and fiscally aligned with you. And that's what Randy is here to share about how he's been able to do that with his teams. Please welcome to show with me, Randy Byrd. Hey, Randy, how you doing?

Randy:

Doing great, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Brett.

Brett:

Absolutely. Glad to have you. And by the way, you can find Randy Byrd at randybyrd.tv. That's R-A-N-D-Y and that's B-Y-R-D. Okay, so don't put that I there, on the second Y so randybyrd.tv. Hey, Randy, would you give our listeners a little bit more about your background and current focus?

Randy:

Sure, thank you for that. Appreciate the intro and be involved with your show here. Real Estate 18 years, you know, figured it out from the beginning. It's an interesting story. I joined real estate completely out of greed. I was building houses in Sonoma County. And you know, I build them for seven months through the winter and wet and rain and get done and get it all primed up pretty and give it to my realtor, and they'd sell it in a week and make 40 grand and I'd make 70,000 in seven months. And I was like this math does not add up. So I got my license literally out of just greed and necessity to sell my own stuff. And in doing so really found a career that I love, very passionate about, and really found a home very, very quickly. went full time in real estate. For me, probably a mistake looking in hindsight, but I moved to a brand new town. I was in Santa Rosa, California moved to Redding, and I knew three people, and I was related to two of them. So literally, I knew nobody. And you know, I was just running scared. I was just doing everything I could to learn that industry. And, you know, made a lot of mistakes along the way. But I also had a lot of grit and didn't listen to everybody's, you know, naysayers along the way. I was just willing to outwork everybody else and ended up becoming, you know, having traction, having success, and building a pretty large organization on those grounds.

Brett:

That's a beautiful, great intro, so excited to dive into some of those strategies and how you were able to do that. But before we go there, I want to take one step back. You know, I believe we've all been given certain gifts in this life. I believe their God given gifts, some people call them superpowers, but I believe these gifts are given to us, Randy as a way to be a blessing for others. So I'm curious, maybe go back to the college days, maybe the high school days. Was that one or two gifts you believe maybe you were given? Has it helped how you help and bless others today?

Randy:

That's a great question. It gave me goosebumps that meant that was a great question. And you know, a lot of people respond with it's a great question just to give yourself time to think about it, but I'm not I know the answer. And mine was grit mine as I lost my mom at seven. My dad raised us, my brother and I alone. And he was a police officer in Compton, California. Very, very tough area. I was born and raised in East LA. And frankly, you know, I always had an entrepreneur spirit, but I didn't know how to direct it and what it meant to me. So I, you know, went through a lot of different jobs looking for that right thing, but high school wasn't for me. I moved to three high schools in a period of just three and a half years of school. My dad moved me for you know, for Private reasons that we had to relocate from East LA to a little town in Calaveras where I went to school. And then we moved to Lodi where I finished high school or didn't finish high school. Because I was not interested in high school, I was interested in playing football and girls, and that was it. But what I did do is I had a work ethic, and I don't know where the work ethic came from. But I just had a work ethic that was working two and three jobs. And with that entrepreneur spirit, I always had a side hustle, I always had a paper route. And then I had the biggest paper route. And then I took over my competitor's paper route. And then I moved into grass cutting and then I moved into other things and then when I entered the work environment, that didn't change, even though I had a job, maybe at a trucking company, I still moonlighted in the evenings doing construction and whatever else that would, you know, provide me the things I wanted, I never took no for an answer. Meaning that if I wanted the car or a boat, or some special thing, I just didn't look at it. Like I'm living in the lack. I didn't know it at the time, but I was living in abundance. Because I believe that I just have to outproduce and outperform my problems. And I've done that my whole life. And some of it's worked out great. Some of this worked out horribly wrong. But that was really I think the secret to my success early on. And then frankly, troubled youth growing up in that environment, I was always in trouble in some regard, raised my brother very young, so it made me an adult very quickly. And you know, all those things lead to a dangerous path when you're a young youth in that environment in East LA and but what I do remember is entering the military, I went in the military at 20 years old in the Coast Guard, and very quickly found my place very quickly, the discipline of the military created a discipline within me, that allowed me to enhance all the things that I had the great work ethic and, and great attributes to my, to my spirit of giving and working with people. But the military gave me that pride of chain of command. And then it just, you know, literally just blossomed after that I started running large hotels as the chief engineer and director of engineering, and that chain of command hierarchy that was instilled in me in the military, and the disciplines of that I started advancing very, very quickly through the leadership roles and other pieces of really anything that I applied myself into. And so I think it really goes back to the military if I had to put one thing on it. But it was growing up very young, it was growing up very, very early for a young kid of you know, 11 12 13 having to literally raise his younger brother. And so for me, I think that's really kind of where it started on that journey.

Brett:

Amazing. When the book comes out, Randy, let me know because I'd be the first one to buy it. Because there's so much to learn so much there, right. So these are the two things I picked up on just that. So growth through adversity, and grit, and entrepreneurship. And then being able to the military being able to hone your character and your leadership skills through discipline. Is that a fair summary?

Randy:

That's 100% great summary! Yeah.

Brett:

So now let's dive into how you've been able to take those challenges in life, persevere, right? And then the disciplines you've learned to the real estate brokerage world, so I want you to take us from being a realtor to then moving up to, you know, managing an office to now coaching to now maybe doing a mixture of everything right now. Take us through that kind of journey.

Randy:

Yeah, I love that. And actually, I'm looking forward to this journey, because I really do believe that there's nuggets in here that a young agent or an agent looking to reinvent their career are going to be able to grab on to without just being motivational fluff. Because there is a lot of motivation in our world. And there's a lot of great people, Tony Robbins and Brian Buffini and Tom Berry and just, you know, Tom Bill, you a lot of people that I tracked with Gary Vee, all these people, but the people that are emerging the most are the ones that give you impactful information that can make a difference. And so for me, the journey was this, I got into real estate and moved to a brand new town in Redding, California, far northern California. And I knew nobody, so I had to really focus on how to meet people? How do I get into this environment? And I didn't have coaching this time. That's the one regret I wish I would have understood the value of coaching back then. I didn't get into coaching for probably five or six, seven years into my business until I really started succeeding. And then thought like, you know, I could afford it or whatever the case may be. I think it was a mindset thing over money but in the beginning, a coal banker said, Hey, I'm open. I'm like, I'm a blank sponge blank piece of paper, tell me what to do. He's like, the first thing to do is go upstairs to the training locker and pick out something that you know that you kind of resonate with. And I went up there and I opened this metal cabinet. And it's no exaggeration, it was literally like, opening the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's like, dust balls out. And I looked in this and I grabbed this thing called Floyd, Whitman, sweat hogs. Now, this is probably from the 70s or 80s. But I didn't know anything about anything. So I didn't know any better. And I grabbed this, and I opened this thing up, and I go, I'm going to do this. This is what they recommend. They know what they're doing. So I'm going to do it. And it said, Call 100 people a day. And I'm like, I know nobody, how do I find 100 people today? And so it said, you know, call through the phonebook. So I literally was going through the phone, but now suddenly 2003 not a long time ago, but it's a long time ago, but it's in the phone book. And I was you know, this is before Google and all these things by yours. But I'm going through the phone book, and I'm just calling people. I'm trying to isolate neighborhoods and I think this is not working. So I just started doing ABCD and whatever. And to this day, I still will burn out the script that I was using back then because I did it so much that it still comes to the top of the mind when I get stressed or if I get like a quick answer. Hi, this is Randy bird with Coldwell Banker CNC properties here in Redding. How are you doing today? Hey, quick question. Are you thinking about buying, selling or investing in real estate in the next six months? Pause? And depending on their answer, yes, no, or a stall was where I wanted to go. And if they said, Yeah, we've thought about it, then I'm all you know, dog and a bone or if they said not really, and they kind of stalled and that's a soft yes to me as well. And then, you know, I've had people say, Nope, they're going to carry me out of this house in a pine box. And I go Do you mind if I stay in touch with you gently anyway, so I started building this database. But the bottom line is I did not quit every day until I got to 100 or an appointment. I didn't know any better, didn't know anything about anything. Well, suddenly I started booking an appointment a day, I booked an appointment on call 37 on call 50 do on called 99 twice that I remember, specifically, I'm called 99. I booked my appointment for the day. I remember that because it's a celebratory thing. And so I'd go out there. And again, I don't know anything about anything. So I'm just having conversations and learning. I had a sales skill. I've always had a sales skill. I've always had a gift of gab and a gift of conversation. So that piece was easy to overcome. But I knew nothing about anything. I go to the house and I'd never been in the neighborhood in my life. I just moved there. So I learned how to search for homes in that particular neighborhood and then ultimately become an expert in that particular neighborhood before I went on the listing appointments. So for me that was my first six or seven months journey in real estate. It was just that dialogue and it came with guardians. I call it gatekeepers of people that didn't believe what I was doing. So they started trying poopoo and on, on what I'm doing right. And so I'm in my little cubicle. That coal banker gave me this coal banker in Redding, California, and I'm in this little cubicle and making my calls and there's 20 other people upstairs and they're all big producers. I'm upstairs luckily with where the main producers were, and I'm making my calls and they're coming by and throwing little notes on my desk like oh, this is Randy bird with CNC properties and, and just really antagonizing me along the way until they started recognizing what I was getting accomplished. And then they started asking questions like Hey, how are you getting these lists and things? Well, then I got listing, appointment listing, appointment listing, closing, closing, closing. And mind you, and this is not a thing about that particular brokerage, and I'm just talking about my experience, but I was on a 4555 split on the bad end of the split. So I got a 45 split with a 6% franchise fee. It's common business back then. But I didn't know what I didn't know, I thought that was pretty competitive. So I'm now doing deals and, you know, get nominated to be Rookie of the Year and all these other accolades in the first six, seven months. And, you know, I looked at the end of the year, how much I made in that seven months, it was like 28,000 bucks, and I'm like 28 I can't live on 28,000 bucks. And I'm one of the rookies of the year. And so REMAX reached out to me in a recruiting call, and said, Hey, are you interested in 100% commission? And I said, Yes. 100% commission sounds amazing. And so that was the transitional journey to the next thing and, and I'll share a story that's vulnerable because I do feel like I'm a committed guy. I don't change companies just for the next shiny object. When it comes to that I'm very dedicated to my broker. It just comes from that chain of command that the military instilled in me. And I went to my broker and said, Hey, I got called by REMAX. Just curious, can I talk about my split? And they looked at me like I was an alien and said I was brand new, that no, you're where you're at until you get to this level on all this stuff. Why did I put in the notice and said I was leaving, and I cried, I cried in the office of the manager. Because I mean, I'm an emotional guy anyway. But I felt like I was leaving something on the table and my family after six or seven months I felt was there. And I'll never forget this because I was weeping. I was like, Hey, I, you know, I really love you guys. But I've got to take care of my family. And I got to do this. And as I was walking out, they held the door open for me, and two or three of the people included, including the manager, kind of said, Hey, you'll be back, you're gonna fail over there and really made it so I turned around and said, I will never be back. Not only that I had like an ax to grind now in terms of production. And so I joined REMAX and I was there a few months before we broke the year, but my very first year in real estate in a town I've never been in now I've been in business less than a year, maybe a cumulatively, but now my first full year at REMAX. So it might have been 16-17 months, whatever it is to be integral. I did 338,000 in GCI. I closed. I forget the number, but it was 11 point 8 million I believe was my very first year in real estate full year. And I never looked back, you know, I never looked back. I had opportunities to have a coal banker come back. Now they were the number one office in town by a ton an 800-pound gorilla. So you know, the journey for me was just a lot of grit. There was a lot of belief that I could out produce my problems. But I didn't know what I didn't know. So I was door-knocking. I was walking. I was, you know, somebody at a real estate event goes, if you walk 100 doors a day, that's 500 a week, you'll be successful. And I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna do that. And so it didn't come with the fear of what was the expectation or the failure. It was just like, I was listening to whoever I could to take the next, you know, nugget and try and make it happen. And, frankly, you know, I started building a large brand and a large business. And then all of a sudden, within two years, I'm one of the top five agents in town, I'm invited to the top performers. The thing we're speaking in front of the whole MLS is and that was kind of the start of my real estate career was just strictly out of fear. And not knowing anything about the business. But not afraid to try anything that somebody put in front of me.