From satellite dishes and hot tubs to coaching real estate teams, Verl Workman's entrepreneurial journey is full of unexpected turns. Facing hardship early in life, Verl developed a strong work ethic and a knack for sales. A chance encounter with a satisfied customer led him to a successful career in real estate.
But Verl's drive to innovate pushed him beyond traditional real estate sales, into technology training and public speaking. Now, as CEO and co-founder of Workman Success Systems, he empowers real estate teams to achieve "predictable greatness."
Verl challenges the solo agent model, advocating for the power of teams in real estate. He emphasizes leverage and delegation as keys to a balanced life. "Anything you do three times, create a system for it," Verl advises, encouraging realtors to prioritize high-value activities and delegate less profitable tasks. This approach frees up time for family and personal pursuits while building a successful business.
On this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast - Real Estate Edition, Verl sits down with hosts Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Stephanie Alonso, Sr. Director, Vertical Innovation at Constant Contact, to share his unique system for achieving predictable success in real estate. They delve into niche marketing, building a family-centric business culture, and harnessing the power of storytelling to forge deeper connections with clients.
Meet Today’s Guest: Verl Workman of Workman Success Systems
👨💼 What he does: Verl Workman is the CEO and co-founder of Workman Success Systems, a business coaching company specializing in real estate teams. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, speaker, and coach with a passion for helping real estate professionals achieve predictable greatness in their businesses and lives. He believes in building strong family-centric businesses and leveraging systems and teams to create sustainable success.
💡 Key quote: "If you stop looking at the past to define what your future looks like, and you wipe it clean and say, 'what if,’ it's game-changing."
If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.
Chapters
From satellite dishes and hot tubs to coaching real estate teams, Verl Workman's entrepreneurial journey is full of unexpected turns. Facing hardship early in life, Verl developed a strong work ethic and a knack for sales. A chance encounter with a satisfied customer led him to a successful career in real estate.
But Verl's drive to innovate pushed him beyond traditional real estate sales, into technology training and public speaking. Now, as CEO and co-founder of Workman Success Systems, he empowers real estate teams to achieve "predictable greatness."
Verl challenges the solo agent model, advocating for the power of teams in real estate. He emphasizes leverage and delegation as keys to a balanced life. "Anything you do three times, create a system for it," Verl advises, encouraging realtors to prioritize high-value activities and delegate less profitable tasks. This approach frees up time for family and personal pursuits while building a successful business.
On this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast - Real Estate Edition, Verl sits down with hosts Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Stephanie Alonso, Sr. Director, Vertical Innovation at Constant Contact, to share his unique system for achieving predictable success in real estate. They delve into niche marketing, building a family-centric business culture, and harnessing the power of storytelling to forge deeper connections with clients.
Meet Today’s Guest: Verl Workman of Workman Success Systems
👨💼 What he does: Verl Workman is the CEO and co-founder of Workman Success Systems, a business coaching company specializing in real estate teams. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, speaker, and coach with a passion for helping real estate professionals achieve predictable greatness in their businesses and lives. He believes in building strong family-centric businesses and leveraging systems and teams to create sustainable success.
💡 Key quote: "If you stop looking at the past to define what your future looks like, and you wipe it clean and say, 'what if,’ it's game-changing."
If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.
What is Be a Marketer with Dave Charest?
As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the Be a Marketer podcast! New episodes every Thursday!
Dave Charest:
On today's episode, you'll hear from a cofounder that launched his coaching business after an inspired plane ride. This is the Be A Marketer podcast, real estate edition.
Dave Charest:
My name is Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact, and I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore what it really takes to market your business even if marketing's not your thing. No jargon, no hype, just real stories to inspire you and practical advice you can act on. So remember, friend, you can be a marketer. And at Constant Contact, we're here to help.
Dave Charest:
Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Be a Marketer podcast. This is the third in our limited series dedicated to the real estate industry, and that means not only am I joined by the one and only Kelsi Carter. Hello, Kelsi.
Kelsi Carter:
Hello, Dave.
Dave Charest:
But also Constant Contact's resident real estate expert, Stephanie Alfonso, is here. Hello, Steph. Hi.
Kelsi Carter:
Hello. Hello. The way you set her up, it sounded like there needed to be a round of applause.
Dave Charest:
No. I have that capability. I might have to work that in next time. Steph, once again, you have lined up a fantastic guest for our listener. Kelsi, let's go to you so you can tell us a little bit about who's joining us today.
Kelsi Carter:
Of course. So today, we have Vearl Workman, the CEO and cofounder of Workman Success Systems, which is a business coaching company that specializes in real estate teams and other companies. They offer services like real estate coaching programs, agent tools, training, and a lot more. Well, listen. I, for one, am not surprised that our conversation with the great Vearl Workman truly fueled my fire.
Kelsi Carter:
You all are in for a treat. I am especially excited for Verl to motivate our entire audience, not just our real estate professionals, to really lean into their strengths, prioritize family, and learn to delegate.
Dave Charest:
Steph, this this really was a a great conversation, and it didn't make the cut, but I have to bring something up because I was, amazed by the fact that we learned something not only about each other and Verl, but all of us, me, Steph, Verl
Kelsi Carter:
Not me, Dave. What? I said not me, Dave.
Dave Charest:
That's right. Not Kelsi. Sorry, Kelsi.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Sorry, Kelsi.
Dave Charest:
We also need a But everyone except for Kelsi were members of DECA back in our high school days. And
Dave Charest:
For those of you who don't know, I think that's what Distributive Education Clubs of America. It's an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for college and careers and and all of that good stuff. And I bring it up because most times, no one knows what I'm talking about when I mention DECA. And so the fact that we all participated in it, and we we all get very excited. We geeked out a little bit.
Dave Charest:
So, but it it really it blew my mind. It's absolutely crazy.
Kelsi Carter:
So cool. So cool.
Dave Charest:
Now aside from that, what you will hear in the conversation with Viral today is he talks about the greatest thing that ever happened to him. He talked about why real estate teams create leverage, and he reveals the magic number for knowing when to create systems in your real estate business. So let's go to Viral Workman as he shares the early experience that shaped him in growing into the man that he is today.
Stephanie Alfonso:
One of the things that kinda defined me as a young man is that when I was 11 now I want you to think about my dad was a school teacher, teaching high school history, and my mom a stay at home mom with seven kids. When I was 11, my dad had a brain aneurysm, and he had a blood vessel burst in his brain that caused him to go blind, have severe brain damage. And he literally spent twenty five years in a nursing home. And so, so I grew up with ex Marine dad, no such thing, and structure and strip in a household that of faith. Like we got up every morning and read our scriptures and wrote in our journals until all of a sudden there was no supervision at the workman house and it was a free for all.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And all seven kids were farmed out to neighbors. And we lived in different people's houses for two years while my dad was going through all of these things. And I learned early on that if I, if I wanted something or needed something, I had to get myself, I had to work. I had to figure it out. And I also learned that people are good and every family has a whack dynamic.
Stephanie Alfonso:
They're all different. They all have challenges. They all have there's amazing people out there that made a difference in my life as a young man growing up. I had a neighbor who was the scout master of the neighborhood that took me under his wing. And I lived with him for a while and I'd go to all the hikes with him and boy scout camps.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I became an Eagle scout. And I think that boy scouting kind of saved me as a child. It kept me out of trouble. I learned principles like a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Now think about those as business principles, Dave.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like if we just lived like that Yeah. It's game changing. So those are so my origin story is kind of funny. When I started this business ten years ago with my daughter, Brianne, I had just gotten off stage at a conference, and my partners fired me. I'm 50 years old, and I got fired.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Okay. Who's in? Fired at 50. Who wants to start over? And they were calling my wife and saying, oh, honey.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Hey. No big deal. But, I got fired by my part. Like, how do you fire me? I own a third of the company, but they did anyway.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Because on a plane ride home from, South Carolina, my daughter is in the back. I got upgraded because I have more miles than her in the front. And we got on the internet and we built a mind map. I'll call it an inspired plane ride where I basically, I said, all right, God, I'm giving up.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Give me some clarity on where we're gonna go from here. And we built a mind map of what workman success would become. And the very first thing on my list is I wanted to build a business that my children would wanna be part of. You know, in real estate, it's funny. I meet people all the time that say, okay, tell me about you.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And they go, well, I'm a realtor. I'm divorced. Like that starts the conversation. I mean, you know what I'm talking about.
Kelsi Carter:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's fifty fifty nowadays. Right?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Right. Well, and because they're so married to their business, when they're with their family of their kids, they're not actually present. Yeah. And so we started this Workman Success Systems company with the intent that I wanted to build a business that my kids would be like, how do I get some I wanna be part of that. So that's what Workman Success is.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We started I started with my daughter. In our previous business, it took fifteen years to generate a million dollars in revenue. With Workman success, we did it in the first fifteen well, we did it in the first six months.
Kelsi Carter:
And That's incredible.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We grew and grew and grew and had ten consecutive years of growth. Now I think about
Kelsi Carter:
Wow. So, back up a little bit. You said our first business. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Like, did it like, where did you start?
Kelsi Carter:
I know that you had a a a prior business or another company. Maybe you still do. Can you share a little bit about that and what transitioned you into the real estate space?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Alright. Oh, yeah. My life is filled with crazy stories of failure. Like, and I love it. Like, like failure and tragedy and hardship define all of the things that created the environment that allows me to be successful today.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So my first business was, are you ready for this? I sold satellite dishes and hot tubs.
Dave Charest:
Doctor. Together or were they separate? Doctor.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Right. Okay. So I know. So I want you to, so I used to sell those big 10 foot satellite. I'm 22 years old.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I dropped out of college. I borrowed $6,000 at 21% from the associates. And I opened my first retail store and I put two big satellite dishes on the roof and came up with a slogan that says, why pay for cable? And you can get it all with a satellite dish. And I go to these in house presentations for people.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And every man wanted the sports and not a single wife wanted that ugly dish in her backyard, 10 foot dish. And so it was like a confrontational sale. And the conversation we get into, why can't we have something the whole family can enjoy? I'm like, what does that look like? Something like a hot tub.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I've heard that over and over and over and over again. So like, this is real. So I'm at the state fair.
Kelsi Carter:
You can't win them.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Okay. You know, you've hit the bottom of the barrel in sales when you're selling hot tubs at the fair. Like that was me. I'm that guy. So I'm I'm at the fair selling satellite dishes and the guy next to me is selling hot tubs.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And we just kind of be got to be friends over the years. And I said to him, hey, dude, if I have someone that wants to buy a hot tub, can I have a couple years? And he's like, sure. I ended up becoming one of the largest hot tub resellers on the West Coast buying spas out of, Montana called mountain spring spas. And I didn't even have a showroom.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We would just do shows. We would set up in parking lots of home depot and rent an inflatable gorilla and have a spa sale. So we would do satellite dishes and hot tubs. So now when people say like, why can't we have something in the whole family? We would drive say, why can't you have both?
Stephanie Alfonso:
And we'd sell them a satellite dish and a hot tub and a home theater and all those things. And that was my first business. That's amazing. And I thought I was slaying it. I thought I had the world by the tail.
Kelsi Carter:
You were slaying it. You were, hey. Sales is all about selling yourself and all about selling and transferring that enthusiasm. Right? So Yeah.
Kelsi Carter:
Regardless of what the product is, I love that. I I think that's incredible.
Dave Charest:
I'm wondering if was starting a business something that was, like and, like, how where did this come from? Was this something that was, like, ingrained in you early? Or, like, how did you get to that point where that was something you were even gonna do?
Stephanie Alfonso:
No. I think it's a defect. I think I'm psychologically unemployable. Oh, okay. There you go.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like, just as a just as something that's wrong with me. Yeah. I remember saying to my wife, like, when we were dating, I met my wife when she was 12 and I was 15, and we've been married thirty eight years. And she still makes my heartbeat. Like, I, like, I get nervous when I'm around her because I love her.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I said to her, you know, I don't, I don't think I'm ever gonna really work for other people. I think that I'm always gonna go for it. And I think we'll make a lot of money, but I think we'll probably lose it all a few times. As long as you're okay with that, I'll keep going for it. And she's like, I'm in, let's go.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so I have this unbelievable support network. Yeah. You know, when I got fired, I remember getting off stage, getting home. My daughter and I built this business model out. We sat down with my wife, said, here's what we're thinking.
Stephanie Alfonso:
She's like, let's go. Like there were no pause, no hesitation. Just let's go. What do you need? And she would come in and do the books and help me with all of the business setup.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And she would always work in every business that I was part of as long as I needed her. And then she's like, yeah, this is like a job. Now I'm out. And then we would hire somebody.
Dave Charest:
How important is that, do you think?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Oh, I think it's critical. I think it's to not have the support. Like, I don't think I could do what I do. I've been a professional speaker now for twenty five years and we have six children, 12 grandkids. I travel for a living, like not having the support of your spouse and having that kind of a lifestyle would be devastating.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And she travels with me when she wants to, when I'm home, I try not to work and I'm present and with the kids and we have just this really cool dynamic. She's very independent. Like, like I'm glad she keeps me around because she certainly doesn't need me because she's done so much without me, but that's it's, I think it's critical. I think, being on the same page of where you wanna go and what you wanna build is like, if you don't have that, it, it just adds a whole level of complexity to your business and your life. So I'm selling hot tubs and satellite dishes during my going out of business cell.
Stephanie Alfonso:
After eight years of doing that, a guy walks into my store and he buys $7.10000 home theaters, one for each of his married kids. On the back of my going out of business flyer, I drew what his theater would look like. And he wrote me a check for $35,000 down. His name was Mike Holmes of Holmes Homes. And so I closed my stores.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I go out of business. I'm selling hot tubs for somebody else and not having a great experience. And I get a phone call on a Sunday from Mike and he says, Hey bro, would you mind coming over to my house? You're on my mind. And my wife and I had sold our big house when we moved into a little house with a carport, with our three little kids.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'd lost everything. That's a whole different podcast. So I'm starting over and Mike sits down with me. He says, bro, what are you doing? I kinda explained to him.
Stephanie Alfonso:
He says, you know what? I just felt like, you know, you did the right thing for us. And my kids are all happy and you did good things and I'd like to help you. And he wrote me a check for $10,000 And he said, I don't know if you'll ever pay me back, but if you don't, at least pay it forward, but I wanna help your family. Like, no strengths.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I can't, I can't describe to you the emotion. Sure.
Kelsi Carter:
That's why I keep my car there. Yeah.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Knowing that I could pay my rent and that I could pay my car payment and that my kids were gonna be okay. And I called my wife and I was emotional. Like, hey. He he just gave me $10,000 for not like, like, I don't know what to do that. I go home and where everything's all good.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I go back to doing what I was doing. And about a month later, I get a phone call from his son, Patrick, who I'd met because I'd put a home theater in his house. And Patrick says, my dad would like to meet with you in the office. Would you be willing to come in? I'm like, heck, yeah.
Stephanie Alfonso:
It worked out really good last time. We go for twenty. So I fly out to him. I, I don't fly. I drive out to his office and he sits down to me.
Stephanie Alfonso:
He says, bro, I said, I've never even, anybody can sell like you. Why are you messing around? Why you come sell houses for me? And I'm like, I don't have big hair or a big car. That's what my perception of a realtor was.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I said, I don't know if I can do that. And he goes, let me ask it to you differently. He says, what would it take to get you to come sell houses for me? And I thought about that and I thought, well, I need about $5,000 a month to pay my bills. And then I'd, you know, you'd have to help me out getting paying for my real estate school.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And he sat back and he says, done. Are you kidding me? I got paid to go to real estate school. Right. And he paid for my school because somebody believed in me or saw something that I didn't see myself.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And, I'll tell you that for me, that was a pivotal moment because I got my license in ten days. I went to the ten day stringham school of real estate in Utah, got my license in ten days. And on day one, I was trained by Stephanie and Heather, number one and number two. And we're in a model home in a place called in a place called Lehi, Utah. And I remember I walked in and my wife had dropped me off because we only had one car and I'm at the model home and Stephanie and Heather are like, I'm number one and I'm number two.
Stephanie Alfonso:
The best thing you can do is just not talk. Just follow us around and we'll show you what to do. And I'm like, okay. And I'm walking around, falling around and we got busy and they were both out showing clients. And I'm sitting in the home all by myself and a young couple walks in and I'm like, I can't talk.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm the new guy,
Kelsi Carter:
but what
Stephanie Alfonso:
do you want? And they go, we're looking for a house. And I said, well, usually we go around and look at lots. If you find a lot you like, then we go look at the models, and I've got this little puzzle thing, and I can see if the model you like fits on that lot. You wanna do that?
Stephanie Alfonso:
And they go, sure. And I go, can you drive? Because I don't have a car. I'm in the back seat. I'm literally in the back seat.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We're driving around looking at houses. And so we start looking at all these properties and they get to a lot they like, and I'm like, okay, let's go see if I we found the Sonoma that fits on the lot. And I'm and I just like, I'm selling hot tubs at the fair. I know how to ask closing questions. I'm like, so you like it?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. Do you wanna get it? And they said, yeah. And I'm like, okay. Well, not only do I not know how to write a contract, I don't even know where they are.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like, I like, this is my first client, and I'm like, they committed to buy a house. So I come back to the model home with Stephanie Heather, and I got their daggers and they're like, you're talking to someone? And I'm like, these guys wanna buy the Sonoma on Lot 27. Could you help me with that, Stephanie? She says, oh, I'll help you.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so she sits down, writes it up, and then she split it with me. And that was my first deal in real
Kelsi Carter:
estate. Wow.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Alright. So fast forward my first quarter, I think I did 27 houses within six months. They were both working for me. I was their sales manager, and I wrote a little program called the critical path to a hundred new home sales. I killed it.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so I had really early on success in real estate, and I loved it, but it wasn't my jam. I didn't feel like Mhmm. Like I was I was doing what I love to do. And so oh, this is funny. I'm telling a story like this.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So the guy that owns the computer store next to my satellite dish store came to me one day.
Dave Charest:
And he said, hello. This is all connected.
Stephanie Alfonso:
This is all this is all like, I'm literally sitting in the open house. He comes over to me, hey, Pearl. We should figure out how to sell laptops to realtors. I'm like, why? Oh, I don't need a laptop.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm making more money than I've ever made. I'm, you know, doing so all these houses. He goes he he goes, it's the future. And I'm like, nah. I don't.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So I passed on it.
Kelsi Carter:
Oh, man. So he goes like,
Stephanie Alfonso:
rematch broker to put on these seminars, and they put on these 50 people half day seminars, but they don't sell anything. And they were they were two day events. And the idea was they would bring in 10 laptops at the back of the room. Everybody would work on a laptop. It was like $7,000 And it was like a $3.86.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Your watch has more power on it today. And they wouldn't sell anything. So Brent came back to me a couple months later and said, Bro, we're not selling anything. You gotta help us figure this out. I'm like, alright.
Stephanie Alfonso:
But I can't do a two day seminar. I don't know what I would say for you. I don't know anything about technology. I would describe RAM and hard drive as the opposite. I didn't know what they meant.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So Brent would go and I'd have a PowerPoint deck and he'd have slides And he'd be point to what I was supposed to talk about, and I'd talk about it. So I re kinda redid the course and said, stop teaching people technology.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Nobody cares. Show them how to make money with it. Mhmm. And the first thing we did was teach them how to my goal was I wanted to increase the touches I had with my clients, but decrease the number of touches it took to accomplish that. I wanted to be able to Interesting.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I wanted to be like Ron Popeil's chicken roaster. I wanted to set it and forget it and have everybody I came in contact be communicated with on an ongoing basis. Sounds kinda like what constant contact does. Yeah. But that's what I wanted.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I wanted to have one to many. I wanted to create some leverage. And so we, we did a hundred thousand and 400,000. And then we bought the company from the guys that had hired us to put these seminars on. And I, we, we built it to become the largest little tech training company in North America and homes.com bought us.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Wow. I'm
Kelsi Carter:
so stoked. Look at that. What a fun fact.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So I started doing these little 50 people seminars and I do them for free. We buy everybody lunch and at the back of the room, I'd sell them a laptop, digital camera, top producer, Dave Beason's letter writer, and they'd get automated stuff and we would teach them how to set it and forget. And I realized that people would spend the money, but they wouldn't use it. I meet people two years later. I had never used it.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So we started coaching them on it. So we'd like get on a coaching call. Then I said, okay, Stephanie, you got your laptop. Yep. Okay.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Take it out of the box.
Kelsi Carter:
Step one. Yeah.
Dave Charest:
Here we go.
Kelsi Carter:
For for adoption. This?
Stephanie Alfonso:
No. No. No. Three quarters of the way back on the right side, there's a button I want you to push it, and it would turn on.
Kelsi Carter:
Woah. What a cut.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Now let's really turn this into how do I become a speaker in all this. Mhmm. So I'm learning to do seminars. I love the presentation. Brent would follow me around, with a yellow pad, like literally like a yellow pad.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Mhmm. And at the end of every time I did my session, he would tell me how many an'ems I used. Every time I paused, if I told a story, but didn't tie it back into a close and he would have 12 pages of notes of all the crap I did wrong. And my attitude was like, good, let's see if I can get it down to 10.
Dave Charest:
Yeah. Right.
Stephanie Alfonso:
The next day I do it again. I get to 10 and then I get to five and then I get to two. And as the number of pages of errors went away, our sales went up. And I'll tell you, I had, I had days where I would do a quarter million dollars at the back of the room. REMAX of Florida put me on the map.
Stephanie Alfonso:
They hired me to come in and do a series of tech tour. We did 1,100,000.0 in seven days. And I'm blowing and growing. So homes.com buys this business in the .com era, and a million dollars in revenue could create $20,000,000 in venture capital. And so once they bought us, they were able to take their revenue and go out to Wall Street and they raised $70,000,000 Now, all of a sudden, this is where I become a real speaker because we would go in and sponsor all the big real estate conferences and conventions as homes.com, but our guy gets to be at, like, a opening keynote.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so we're gonna talk about the technology and the future of real estate. And that was me. And so we bought our way on the many of the biggest stages in real estate, put a whole team together. Now what's interesting is we built a big team and they had like 25 speakers, but I personally generated 50% of all of the revenue, even though we had 20 other people doing it. Mhmm.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Because I had taken the time and really learned how stories sell and how not to be the hero of my own story. It wasn't about me. It was about telling the stories of people who bought the systems and implemented the high touches and the results they got and the referrals that came in. And we I I got really good at telling stories, but it was just fine. So that's how I became a speaker.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Now I'm really gonna tie it together for you, David. You're gonna be like, dang it. I want I want that.
Dave Charest:
I was like, well, where's my wallet? I'm gonna buy buy
Stephanie Alfonso:
some I don't
Dave Charest:
know what I'm buying yet, but I'm gonna buy
Kelsi Carter:
some tomorrow. No, right?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. But in 1999 Masterclass. In '99, Floyd Wickman hired me. And, Floyd Wickman is one of the greatest trainers in real estate. And so Floyd hired me because he felt like he was getting into the demographic where he needed to add technology to his business.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And he was a great speaker. His personal mentor in, in speaking was Zig Ziglar. And in 2020, Floyd hired me to speak with Zig Ziglar.
Kelsi Carter:
Oh, man.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Four seminars called Real Futures two thousand. So I gotta go next after Zig Ziglar four times before he passed away. And it was awesome. I cannot even tell you how awesome it was because like the stories he told and the authenticity which he told him, I sat in the green room in Chicago. It was just me and Zig Ziglar.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I told him my story and meeting him when I was in Decca club and how what's happened with my life. And he leaned in and was interested and asked me questions. And then we both got to do our seminar. I'm like, okay, so you need I don't know if you've ever been intimidated to be on stage, Stephanie, but Zig Ziglar got $50,000 and they paid for his private plane fuel. Right?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. I got $5,000 They bought my lunch because I didn't buy my own plane fuel. Like it was 10 X. Right? But the guy introduces it, because it gets done and he primed the pump and he did all the set and bolts, did all that stuff.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I'm in the back and I'm like, oh man, I'm crying. I'm fired up. People are standing on their chairs. And then the guy gets up and he introduces me as Vern Worker.
Kelsi Carter:
Oh, no.
Stephanie Alfonso:
From Salt Lake City, Utah with five children and only one wife. That's how you do that.
Kelsi Carter:
You did not. That's the oh, my goodness. Hey. Here comes one.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Hold me one. And I'm like, whatever.
Kelsi Carter:
And you're and you're probably feeling at that moment, like, listen, you can call me whatever you want.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Call me what you want. That's totally right. So I got to know him and, just it was just such a cool thing. And so now, you know, it's really fun because I've spoken with and done, events with some of the greatest speakers in the world and I'm not intimidated by them. What I've learned is the better they are, what makes them great is the authenticity that makes them great.
Stephanie Alfonso:
They're not cocky. They're not blowhards. They don't, like, give you all this. It's not about a bunch of fluff. It's like they genuinely believe they've been given something that can move other people outside of their comfort zone and help them do great things.
Stephanie Alfonso:
To me, that is the greatest gift that you could be given. And so I feel like I have this stewardship of a gift that I have to share with others. And, you know, the business that I'm in is just one of those vehicles that allows me to do that. So speaking's fun, man.
Kelsi Carter:
Yeah. That's awesome. Well, I just love hearing when you see people that are just so brilliant at their craft and they're able to go back and say, hey. These are the seeds that were sown into me. You know?
Kelsi Carter:
And then, of course, you know, we'll get into you're paying that forward. You're now bringing up next generation of incredible speakers and leaders. So super inspiring.
Dave Charest:
Well, Virla, I'm curious. Right? Like, so you've got this now. You're mind mapping, which I love to do as well, with your daughter. What does the business look like today then that you have?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Okay. So today, Workman Success is, Salt Lake City, Utah. We've got about 35 employees and plus and another 15 virtual assistants to support our coaches. We've got about a hundred coaches. We specialize in high performing real estate teams.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like, that's a really narrow market. I think that every realtor should be a team. Mhmm. You know why people don't wanna you know why their kids don't wanna work with them? Because they think their parents are made to their jobs, and they're always on their phones, and they're never really present when they're there.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And all team to me means is leverage. Yeah. And so how do we create leverage in our business, in our life? Let me ask you this, Dave. I'm just curious.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. How many companies are you familiar with that are wildly successful that are companies of one?
Dave Charest:
I mean, none.
Kelsi Carter:
Right. Right.
Dave Charest:
I guess depends on your definition of success. Right? But, yeah, none. Right?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Right. Okay. So why do realtors think that they have to do it all themselves? Yeah. That whole concept is foreign to success.
Kelsi Carter:
Well, and I think it's just kind of like a I think the real estate industry, we kinda pigeonholed ourselves into what the structure has always been. Right? You've got association, you've got broker, and you've got agent.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yep.
Kelsi Carter:
And so, of course, we've seen this past the past decade that the team model is definitely emerging, and rightfully so. And I think you've seen tech companies change their business prop to be able to accommodate that. But to your point of how your opinion would be that every agent should be part of a team, I love that, especially when you think of all that goes into you know, agents will say they have to wear so many hats. Well, when you have a team, you're able to harness the strength of everybody on that team to be a superpower.
Stephanie Alfonso:
That's right. And let me even give you a, like, a different perspective. You don't even know how many times I've heard the words, yeah. But when you hire me, you get me. And I'm always available.
Stephanie Alfonso:
You can call me 247. If you need, you call me. I'm like, no, you can't. Don't call me 247. Like like, I have a date Friday night with my wife.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We've been having date night for thirty eight years. Like you like, there are no emergencies in real estate. There is no reason you need to call me on date night. Like you just don't, right? If you have an emergency, call 911.
Stephanie Alfonso:
You don't need to call your realtor. Like, like this whole concept of I'm always available, like whatever. So the other thing is this, is I cannot physically take you to a place in your business or your life where you're making 7 figures or 8 figures if you spend any of your day doing $20 an hour tasks. And I'll even make it even more painful. I'm gonna stick my finger in it and explain the pain and put your finger in it is this, is that whatever your family looks like, whether you have partners, kids, friends, working for your parents, whatever, your dynamic.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like, we work because we wanna take care of the people that we love in our lives.
Kelsi Carter:
That's right.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And when you choose to spend time away from them, how about we choose to make it worth it and get the highest return on our time? So if you're doing your own admin work, you're running around putting signs in yards, you're doing all of the things you could delegate. What you're saying to your family, to your children, to your parents, to the people that matter in your life is that they are not worth $20 an hour to you Mhmm. Because you're unwilling to let it go.
Kelsi Carter:
And if you asked anybody if they felt that way, they'd say, of course not. You know? And and I think it goes back to, you know, that mind shift and the old saying of live to work versus work to live. And I think you're right, Laurel, is so many agents are workaholics. And they're, like I said, wearing so many hats and really struggling on how to leverage delegation.
Kelsi Carter:
And it's a real problem. I agree. And I love that tapping into the concept of having it all. You can have family. You can have hobbies.
Kelsi Carter:
You can play pickleball. Right? And you can do all these things and still manage to run a successful fruitful business to take care of your family.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. And the key is wherever you are to be fully present. Yeah. Like when you're with your family, be present. Shut your phone off.
Stephanie Alfonso:
But in order to do that, you have somebody else taking the calls or doing the things that keep people moving forward in the process. So my messaging is systems first. Mhmm. Anything you do three times, create a system for it, and then assistance or people second. So first we automate the things.
Stephanie Alfonso:
You know why people can't delegate? It's not that they don't want to. It's that everything they do well is in their head and it's in their heart. Stephanie, you're amazing. All your life experiences, the things that you've done, like, you can show up and you just dominate.
Stephanie Alfonso:
But it's really hard to imagine somebody else being able to do that. Right. And it's because everything is here and here. So what we'll do is let's take everything of your brilliance, all your experience, all things you do that are brilliant, and let's create systems around them so that when somebody else has that experience, they can plug into your experience and deliver the way you would. So we create really great systems and processes around your excellence, and then you start being more willing to delegate or let it go.
Stephanie Alfonso:
The things that you hold on to the most, my hypothesis is, is the things that will probably keep you from ever achieving something great. It's the things that you won't let go of that you need to let go of the most.
Kelsi Carter:
I know you talk a lot about predictable greatness. I feel like that's what you're describing, and I know you talk a lot about that, Viral. Can you expand on that a little bit? Like, am I hitting the nail on the head when we talk about predictable greatness? It's because I have systems and processes in place so that I know if I do or we do a, b, c, we're going to get d.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yep. So let's talk about it. Okay. So I believed, a few things. One is that that which gets measured gets done.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And if we measure the right things, that would then become clear what we need to focus on. I don't mean to pick on Constant Contact, but you know that if you send a certain number of emails out, a certain number are gonna be opened and the ones that are open, if you have the right headline and the right subject line, then you get a higher open rate. So by tracking that, you figure out what works and then you make course corrections in the process. Yep. You also know if you overuse your database and you send it too often, then you get more unsubscribes.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so we start to learn that there's patterns. And then we have benchmarks that we measure all of our communication with, with the focus of just getting a little bit better than the last time. So when we measure everything, things become clear. We use a thing called the daily success habits tracker. In the daily success habits tracker, agents and team leaders get 61 points a day doing dollar productive activities.
Stephanie Alfonso:
You get a point for making a call, a point for having a conversation. You get 10 points if you set an appointment. If you get a listing agreement signed or you get a buyer agreement signed, you get points for that one. Do you get points for having a closing? You only get points for dollar producing activities, And you have to get 61 points a day, and we put them all into a system.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Now I want you to imagine hundreds, hundreds of agents putting all their numbers in. I can tell you how many dials it takes to have a conversation, how many conversations it takes to get an appointment, how many appointments it takes to get a contract. And then I can look at your business and I can identify where the gaps are just by looking at a chart. If you have lots of calls, but you're not getting any appointments, we focus on what to say. If you're getting appointments, but you're not getting agreements signed, then we focus and work on your presentation skills.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So we coach to the gaps based on the data and we begin to get predictable results, just as predictable as how many people open your emails with constant contact. It's that real. Like you wanna build a 7 figure business? No problem. What does that look like?
Stephanie Alfonso:
I would say that let's just build it with listings. Stop playing around driving buyers around. Buyers are time sucking animals. It will suck your life away. You work twenty hours to work with one buyer.
Stephanie Alfonso:
You get one transaction. And let's say you make $10 on a transaction. You charge whatever you want, but let's just say that as an example. K. If you work with one listing, you work three hours to make the send $10,000 So you wanna work twenty hours for $10 or you wanna work three?
Stephanie Alfonso:
So let's just focus on listings. So if you wanted to make a million dollars, we need to sell a hundred listings. In order to sell a hundred listings, you're going to have to go on well, you're going to have to get 50 contracts signed. And if you only get I'm just doing math in my head for just a second. If you only get 25% closings, that means you need 200 listing appointments this year.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So if I have 200 appointments and I'm gonna do them by twelve months, it's 16 a month. It's only four a week. So you need four appointments a week. Mhmm. So what if I told you, Stephanie, and I'm gonna coach you for just a second, that
Kelsi Carter:
I'll take it.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm gonna give you a million dollars at the end of this year. Would that be life changing for you? Would that be helpful?
Kelsi Carter:
Absolutely.
Stephanie Alfonso:
But the only way you get it is if you set four listing appointments a week and you focus on whatever activities you have to do. And at the end of the year, if you show me that you did four listing appointments a week for the year, I'm gonna give you a million dollars. If you fall one short, you get zero. So you're gonna get a million dollars or you're gonna get nothing. How would you behave differently?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Is there any chance you fail? Is there any chance you'll go home with zero this year?
Kelsi Carter:
Not in my book. There's not.
Stephanie Alfonso:
K. Now Nope. I'm gonna reframe this for you. What if I told you we had to do it in ninety days?
Kelsi Carter:
That we had to do the same amount that you would expect in a year for ninety days?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yep.
Kelsi Carter:
Oof. I think some doubt would creep in there, if I'm being honest.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Because what you're doing is you're I saw I was on a a bet with Ben Hardy the other day, who was just brilliant. He did 10 x is easier than two x. And what he said was is you use your past experience to frame your present business. And what you need to do is say, look at your future business and then put it in steroids and think about it in ninety days. What if you had to hit your one year goal in ninety days?
Stephanie Alfonso:
How would you act differently? And it allows you to get rid of all the crap in your life and all the things that are distracting that don't move you focused on that one single goal, and that's getting four listing appointments a week. It's not Stephanie. It's not even one a day. Like, all you have to do is prospect all day till you get one.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. Could you get one a day? I mean, really, could you? Now flip this and say, so if greatness is predictable and I can see you going on four listing appointments a week, I know you're gonna nail it. But also, what if we tracked everything you're currently doing?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Average is also predictable and so is failure.
Kelsi Carter:
Mhmm.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so if you track what you do in thirty minute increments throughout the day, and I can see that none of those things generate any revenue that you're spending ten hours away from your family, I know what your result's gonna be. Because when you measure the right things, you become aware of whether or not your activities are consistent with your goals. And that's why I think accountability is crap. I can't make you do something you don't wanna do. But if you become aware of it, I know you'll change behavior.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So, let me ask you who you are in this story. Thanks for all the listeners in that. So I ruptured a disc in my back when I was 30, and I had back surgery and that saved me for a long time. But when I turned about 48, my back got really bad again. And it was time that I it got so bad that I okay.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So Dave, imagine sitting behind me on a plane and I can't sit in my seat. So I turn around and kneel in my seat and you're the guy behind me. So I'm flying backwards looking at you, like, for four hours because I can't sit because my back hurts so bad. I couldn't stand up straight. Like, it was brutal.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I had all these gigs I'm doing. I'm, like, looking at you like, so you can eat those peanuts? Or I don't know
Kelsi Carter:
who that's more awkward for.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm, I'm like, for me, it's like, whatever. I'm meeting new people. I like, they're like, I just wanna sleep. Could you turn around? So my back got so bad.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so I go to my doctor who my general practitioner. He has an MRI done, and he goes, oh my gosh. Your back your discs are blown out. You gotta get fixed. He goes, but it's okay because I also do backs.
Stephanie Alfonso:
What do you think the chance of me having that guy cut in my spine and mess with my nerves are? Like, zero. Right? Yeah.
Kelsi Carter:
There's no doubt.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I want Tiger Woods back doctor. Right? Like, oh, by
Kelsi Carter:
the way, my side gig is Yeah. Yeah. No, I I want someone who specializes
Stephanie Alfonso:
in that section of the back.
Kelsi Carter:
You're right.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I want to be able to live my life and do things. So I reach out. I find out who did Tiger Woods back surgery and I'm it happens to be a guy from Utah and, Doctor. Reichman. And there's two of them.
Stephanie Alfonso:
They're twin brothers and they're both neurosurgeons.
Kelsi Carter:
Who would've thought?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Whatever. And so I go to Doctor. Reichman and I call the office and they're like, Yeah, he's got a closed practice. You can't get in. Like, to me, Dave, this is like the challenge.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like, okay. Okay. Alright. But who do I know? So I find out that one of my houseboat partners is a physician, and his wife plays golf with Reichman's wife.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I reached out to Leanne. I said, Leanne, you gotta get me. She says, oh, I'll get you in. I get a few days later.
Kelsi Carter:
Oh, mother, you know.
Stephanie Alfonso:
No. So seriously. So I get a phone call from Reichman's office, and he's like, hey, Doctor. Reichman will see you in six months. Oof.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm like, okay. And so I have to send my MRIs in, go all this stuff. Six I get the appointment. I get the office. And sure enough, I'm sitting in the waiting room, and I go through the process of checking in, giving my insurance card, do all the stuff, pay my co pay.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And then dude comes out of the back with his white coat on named Dave. And he goes, Vern? Everybody calls me that. Vern? Vern Workman?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Or Veral? Veral Workman? Wow. And I'm like, and he says, Hey, I'm Dave. I'm Doctor.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Reichman's PA. Nice to meet you. Come on back. I'm gonna sit down with you, get on scale. You have my blood pressure.
Stephanie Alfonso:
He says, we've had a meeting. We've looked at your MRI. The doctors have gotten together. You're good candidate for surgery. Here's how we're gonna do it.
Stephanie Alfonso:
This is what's gonna happen. This is what happens. Do you have any questions? I ask him questions, and this guy's sharp. And then we get done.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I'm like, okay. So is the doc gonna come in and meet him? He says, oh, no. You don't meet the doctor till the day of surgery. I'm like, k.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So now I get to surgery day, and I'm laying on the Kearney, and the anesthesiologist comes over, put the mask on my face, and he goes, okay. I'm gonna have to count back because I'm a hundred. I'm like, wait. Haven't met the doctor. And doctor comes over.
Stephanie Alfonso:
He goes, comes over to his man. He goes, Hi, Viral. Mark Reichman. Nice to meet you. Leanne says to tell you, hi.
Stephanie Alfonso:
9998, I'm out. Wow. Like literally. So he gets in, does that, comes out of surgery. I never met him after, I never saw him after surgery.
Stephanie Alfonso:
He came in after surgery, talked to my wife, said everything went really great. Now you're gonna work with my physical therapy team. We're gonna go through rehab. You can do all these things to get done. Okay.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm great. I'm playing full contact pickleball. I bought a mountain e bike. Like my life is good. I'm flying, flying straight.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Everything is great. But I want you to think about this for just a moment. And this for all of our listeners and ask yourself, who are you in this story? Are you the receptionist asking for my credit card and my insurance? Are you the PA?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Are you this anesthesiologist? Are you the physical therapist? Or are you the neurosurgeon doing the most important thing at the most important time, giving your client what they need the most from you? Mhmm. We live in a world where we are trained to deal with specialists.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I wanted a spec I mean, Stephanie, you probably have a specialist that cuts your hair and a different one that does your eyebrows and somebody different who does your nails and someone who different who does pedicures and someone different who does facial peels.
Kelsi Carter:
I'm being called out right now.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yep. Right? Well, I have a wife and I have three daughters, seven granddaughters.
Kelsi Carter:
Oh, that's awesome.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Here's what I know. They have specialists for everything, but it's the same cosmetology license. But then when you go to real estate, you deal with, oh, it's okay. I do residential, commercial. I'm the assistant.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I'm the chief bottle washer. I'm the buyer's deeds. I'm the listing partner. Like nobody wants to deal with a generalist. The consumer today has been and is trained to deal with specialists.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Who do you wanna be in the story?
Kelsi Carter:
Listen. I am feeling this right now, Viral, because this is a subject that I think is important to talk about when we think about real estate agents, how they're marketing themselves, niche market, being a specialist. Find a niche and dominate it. That's something I believe in. I think that when we talk about branding and all of that, which is crucial right now, agents are on the struggle bus stressing out about showcasing their value and all that good stuff.
Kelsi Carter:
So I I'm with you, and I and I think you're saying the same message is find your niche. What are you a specialist at? What are people going to seek you out to work with you?
Stephanie Alfonso:
But some people's specialty is I do it all. Right?
Kelsi Carter:
Well, that's what they're saying their specialty is. That's what they're trying to brand themselves at. Do you think an agent can be all really well?
Stephanie Alfonso:
Well, I think agents can make a lot of money doing real estate and do a few transactions here and have a decent life. And if that's the lifestyle that they want, I'm totally great with that. Nobody should tell anybody else what kind of business they should own or how they should operate. I'm just saying that, is it possible that if you specialize and you become really good at something, your clients will get a better experience?
Kelsi Carter:
I agree.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Is it possible that if you specialize and only do high dollar productive activities, you'll spend more time doing things you really like more in life? Is that possible? And if it's possible, what would it look like? Let's map it out.
Kelsi Carter:
Well, and I wanted to say one thing is, kind of going back to our friend, Mr. Ziegler, people do business with people they like, know, and trust. You had a referral to that specialist. You trusted it.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Right.
Kelsi Carter:
You didn't even meet him. He brought down his mask, said, hey, nice to meet
Stephanie Alfonso:
you all. Microscope. Right? Yeah.
Kelsi Carter:
And and see on the flip side, that you trusted him.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Oh my gosh.
Kelsi Carter:
You came
Stephanie Alfonso:
sent so I've referred so much business to him.
Kelsi Carter:
Right. So I I love making that comparison because kinda going back to how agents need to be positioning themselves is you've gotta be somebody that people trust in order to really dominate whatever their niche is.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I want you to think about who realtors are. We put our faces on our cards, on our billboards, on our cars. What if we stop making it about ourselves? Like, I actually don't think anybody cares about me. I think they care about themselves, their own families, their own stuff they deal with.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And so why do I need to make it about me? And so if I stop thinking about why I'm important in the transaction and I start thinking about how do I make sure this client gets the highest level of expertise for whatever their need in real estate is, and I make sure they get that and it's all about them instead of about me, it changes everything. It changes about the way we get contracts signed. It changes about who does what. Like, I don't need to drive people around and show them houses.
Stephanie Alfonso:
It's not like I'm a freaking sales animal. I can negotiate. I'll keep the deal together. You need me in there for the brain surgery, not for the process to get you to the house you want. And so if I just did that all day long, I'm happy.
Stephanie Alfonso:
I had to stop. My daughter did this to me. It was mean. She says, you know, you know, I was VIRL workman seminars, VIRL workman coaching, VIRL workman real estate, the workman team. Like, everything was about me.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Mhmm. And she says, you know, dad, you're really good, but nobody really cares about you. I mean, I care because I love you because you're my dad, but people care about themselves. So what are we gonna do at Workman Success Systems to make it about them instead of about you? And that's what changed the nature of our trajectory.
Stephanie Alfonso:
That's why we had the growth we had, because I stopped caring and making it be about me. The only reason I was able to create other coaches is I started believing that, you know what, there's some other people that are really good and it's not just me. And so I can teach them framework, but they have life experiences they pull on and amazing real estate business. And when they're coaching other people, it is game changing. We now have coaches that are way better than the world is.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Like I'm interviewing people that want coming to coaching and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have the perfect coach for you. And where I used to think it was, oh, yeah. I'm gonna coach them. Now I never think that way. Mhmm.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And my life is so much better because I'm not I'm not doing the daily activities. My job is like every real estate leader's job is. It's only two things. It's business development and people development. My job is to create opportunities and develop coaches.
Stephanie Alfonso:
So I'm in business development, coach development, not coaching realtors. That make sense?
Dave Charest:
Yeah.
Stephanie Alfonso:
Yeah. That whole change is where big growth happens. And it's so fun to see it. Like when no one cares about you, you don't have to be there all the time. I literally just got off at Crip.
Stephanie Alfonso:
We just spent three weeks in Italy with my wife. It was so awesome. And I barely checked in. I barely checked in. And in the beginning of the story, I told you I wanna build a business my kids would wanna be part of.
Stephanie Alfonso:
All three of my married children work in Workman Success Systems. My daughter, who's a young president, she's the president of the company and runs it. My son, Nate, runs sales and marketing. Ryan's a closer. He's on doing business consultations, and they all live within five miles of me.
Stephanie Alfonso:
And I see all my grandkids every Sunday. There's dinner at my house. Like, I'm with them. We've intentionally created a lifestyle and a business because of my experiences as a kid. I never got to see cousins.
Stephanie Alfonso:
My kids, like their cousins are their best friends. They're together all the time, and we're creating this really cool family dynamic. Every business, every life, every team, every family has a culture that is either accidentally created or it's intentionally created. And if I could have any message today is it would be that we have the ability to intentionally create anything we want. And if you stop looking at the past to define what your future looks like and you wipe it clean and say, what if?
Stephanie Alfonso:
And you start building for the future and let your activities today be consistent with what you want the future to look like instead of what you've done in the past, it's game changing. So there's no limit to what you can do.
Dave Charest:
Well, Steph, what do you say we recap some items from that discussion? What do you got for us?
Kelsi Carter:
Yeah. So number one, embrace failure to shape your success. Viral shares with us how failure is truly a defining element of success. Failure taught Virl to embrace innovation, take calculated risks, and refine his business approach to really building sustainable and scalable business models, even on napkins.
Dave Charest:
Yeah. You know, it really is about that idea of just, you know, learn and move on. Right? What do you what can you take from something and then and then, you know, get even further with it. Right?
Dave Charest:
And I I particularly love the idea of how thinking bigger really allows you to learn what you need to give up in your business, which was something that Viral kind of explained to us. Right? For example, you need to stop doing those $20 an hour tasks if you really wanna get your business to the next level. What else you got for us, Steph?
Kelsi Carter:
Yeah. So number two, you can create a family centric business culture. Real estate agents, listen up. Viral, it really he's a no nonsense when it comes to prioritizing family involvement. You know, he focuses so much on creating legacy and how entrepreneurial success can certainly coexist with your own personal fulfillment.
Kelsi Carter:
A team dynamic in real estate especially helps to create kind of a better work life balance and also allows everyone to harness their own strengths. So truly a win win.
Dave Charest:
You know, VIRL really does emulate that idea of creating a life that you love. And I and I I really enjoyed that, and I think that's a great reminder for people. I think we often get on this, like, hamster wheel thinking it has to be something or we have to be doing these things all the time. And it's really about really right measuring the right things so you can make sure that the activities that you are doing are actually consistent with your goals and really tracking your success and then being fully present in both work and play. I I I loved all of that.
Kelsi Carter:
Yeah. I think a lot of business owners will struggle with that. Right? And really embracing the whole we work to live and not live to work. So finally, number three, use storytelling as a business superpower.
Kelsi Carter:
And this is super near and dear to my heart. Viral shows us how storytelling not only uncovered his niche in business, really launching him into the public speaking space, but plays really a critical role in all businesses, right, to allow for better connection with your audience and engaging with your clients, and that inspires action.
Dave Charest:
You know, storytelling is one of those things that I think comes up again and again in our conversations about marketing in particular. Specifically, I loved how Vero points out that you're not the hero of the story. I think this is really important for people to hear because it's easy to fall in that trap of thinking, well, I'm I'm the hero here. And it's really it has to be about your customer, and your role in there is to really act as the guide to help them reach their goals. So really great things there.
Dave Charest:
Steph, once again, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for introducing us to VIRL. He was amazing listener. We'll catch you next time.
Kelsi Carter:
See you.
Dave Charest:
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Please take a moment to leave us a review. Just go to ratethispodcast.com/bam. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show. That's ratethispodcast.com/bam.
Dave Charest:
Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.