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Joe Oz and Friends – Laid-Back, Fun & 100% Real Talk for Business Owners Who Started Small
Every big business starts as a small idea. Joe Oz and Friends is a podcast for the hustlers, risk-takers, and underdogs who built something from the ground up. Join Joe Oz as he sits down with entrepreneurs, real estate pros, and business owners who started small and scaled big—sharing their crazy stories, biggest failures, and the lessons that got them to the top.
Expect real talk, plenty of laughs, and zero corporate vibes. This is business unfiltered, unscripted, and not too serious—because success is messy, and that’s what makes it great.
No fluff. No gurus. Just real conversations with real people who built it from scratch.
Speaker 2 (00:04.334)
channel the cool stuff.
Yeah, I was just looking around like...
There's Did me, I wish you were my kids uncle. Have a lot of fun.
Yeah
Nice. All right, cool. We should dive in since we're late, right? Yeah, we're already going, right? All right, cool.
Speaker 1 (00:36.482)
All I said was make me look pretty. That's it.
We gotta do a podcast selfie, correct? Yeah, absolutely. Or like live on the, or like live on the, and then this one's my favorite, before I forget. On the screen. That one's good. All right, cool. Let's jump in.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:56.632)
Cool. I am rolling.
Cool. So Nick, how long did it take you to get down here today? Dude, you came from like, Niyak, New York or something?
North Jersey, like hour and a half ish, Parkway, you know, always good times.
It gets a little congested, right? Where do you live?
Originally from Montville, New Jersey, but in Pompton Plains right now. Bought my house five-ish years ago. And that's like kind of where real estate started actually when I bought my house. So bought my house. My best friend for since I was a child is a realtor as well for EXP.
Speaker 2 (01:25.42)
Okay, tell me more about that.
Speaker 1 (01:34.766)
He was coming over with his girlfriend, now wife at the time, and they're both realtors. They're both with the XP. And he's like, Hey, like, why don't you do this? Like I was at the time I was door dashing, doing some other things to make side money just to, you know, keep things going. I had a full-time job. Um, he's like, you're a people person. Like, why, why are you not doing this? This is no time commitment. You do what you want.
there's endless possibilities. And I was like, OK, we're watching the Jets. They're losing. We dive more into real estate and what it takes. And he's like, pass your tests. And then the sky's the limit. It took me two times to pass the test because everyone fails the first time. For sure. The course to the test is nothing like what it is.
and then hopped on with EXP, was the first brokerage I ever, I mean, obviously I knew KW, all the other ones, but Jake Handler, obviously my close friend was like, you gotta hop on, did that and it's kind of just been a journey since.
Okay, cool. So at that time you were doing real estate part time? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, my first probably three ish years in the business full full part-time or full part-time
Speaker 1 (02:54.242)
Part-time. I had a full-time job. I was at an advertising agency that was based out of Texas. That was my nine to five. Real estate took over five to whenever. It worked out well because the clients I had at the time were all professionals. Everything was going to be five after. So it didn't matter that I worked full-time. No one even knew that I had a full-time job because everyone thought I was so in real estate full-time because of the amount of back-end work I did to make sure I was prepped for appointments and all those good things.
So yeah, first three and a half years were just part time. I was closing deals. I think my first year I did like a little over three and a half million in sales. Year two was like six and year three or four was now eight or nine. So I've been growing, but it wasn't growing as quickly as I wanted it to go.
Turns out later in this year, or what was it, 2024, 2025, my advertising agency lost a client. When you lose clients in advertising agencies, people are the first thing to go. I lost my job April, yeah, April 2025.
Mm.
Speaker 1 (04:06.03)
On a Friday out of the blue my first call was my wife and I was like, just lost my job They lost business. They've cut ten people She was like, okay, that's fine. Like take a minute. And then my next call was Chris and you Being like hey, I'm full board like no more part-time. I was doing deals with you guys I had good sphere business and then Chris was just like, yeah
Like, let's do it. You were like, hey, whatever you need, I've been through this. and ever since then going full time in it, I've just, I've dove head in. I, I mean, I just got one under contract. Yes. except to yesterday getting that under contract. It's, it's allowed me to not only focus more on my business, but actually focus more on family. yeah. So I.
How's it been going?
Speaker 2 (04:55.02)
Really? Can you talk about that? That's Hard by the way. That's like when I talk to realtors, that's the one thing where they're like, especially successful ones. It's like, how do I balance the, you know, talk to a beach, you know what I mean? Like it's a struggle, man. Yeah. How do you, you just said you had, but yeah.
Yeah, no, no, you're good. No, I have a so I have a now two year old who at the time he was a one year old, know, I work from home. So it's been great. I've always been able to connect with her. But now it's kind of like that I'm full time into it. I'm really I know where my time is valued and I focus on those valued clients that value my time.
.
So I'm not running around like crazy trying to like book appointments. Like if you can make my time work with your schedule as well, you'll see the value that I put into it, which then allows me to play with my daughter more, do fun things with her, spend more time with my wife, relax, like not just be like, my God, where's my next deal coming?
Yeah, you just said something, well you said a lot of really important stuff, Well first of all, I wanna acknowledge, lost, so, I had a therapist, well I do have, well I had many therapists. We can get into that another time, but we, I had a client that was a therapist, and she told me like the top five stressors are, it's like death, divorce, loss of job, moving, you know. So losing a job is extremely stressful, and,
Speaker 2 (06:21.474)
I'm sure having a one year old at that time didn't help, I'll like, dude, I'll go live under a bridge if I have to, I'll be fine. You know I mean? But when you provide for someone, so yeah, you did, that was obviously really, really hard. And how do you like shift from that? you...
No, it was like.
Speaker 2 (06:38.22)
You seem like cool, calm, like I've had conversations with you and there's an shit moment. Like Chris called me, he's like, hey, you give Nick a call. We love him and we want to really be there for him. Core member of the group, all those things, right? And you seemed like, yeah, can you take me through that? Like how do you shift through that and stay calm and just kind of like, just cause dude, you can go sideways on that thing, man, right? Like, and you can just like get commission breath real fast. A lot of anxiety, you know, can you take us through how you through that with like Grace?
Yeah, was a shout out to my wife, Taissa. Yeah, without without her in that first phone call, I mean, my brain immediately, like you said, where's the money coming from? What's next? Oh, my God. I have no idea what I'm doing. She she works. She's a nurse practitioner. She is amazing. She was like, I got this. I got us. You focus on what you need to do. You focus on your next step. I got us.
Shout out to Aesir.
Speaker 1 (07:35.072)
She plans. She's the planner out of us. I am just the, Hey, free will, free spirit. She's, she plans. And without that backbone, I, I would be what you said. I would be spiraling. I'd be like, where's my next deal? What a, she has been a rock in all this because even with a two year old and all the house and everything we got going on, she said, find yourself in this. You're great at this. Your clients always refer you, recommend you.
you can do this and that's kind of how I've made it now.
I think that's great, man. I think that's one of the most important, dude, in being successful in family and being a dad and work and all that, the partner that you choose to go through life with is so important. I don't know if you share the same experience, but I just got lucky, man. I met my wife's name is Nicole. Shout out, Nicole. She's a registered nurse. She's an MP.
Yeah, man, like without her, you know, don't think, you know, we have those tough times and you have to make decisions and things like that and like understand what's really important. That's great, man. Cool. we you've gained. So you've been full time doing this for well, tell me more about your family. Tell me about like what is. How did you your wife?
Yeah, so I have a daughter. My wife was my next door neighbor, which is crazy. Back in Pinebrook, we were 16. My grandpa introduced us. 16. Heck yeah. Been together since we were 16. I just turned 33 yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:03.374)
16.
Speaker 1 (09:09.07)
Yeah, crazy. We got introduced to my grandpa over a fence and I was just like, okay, this is, I like this girl. We started talking through summer, high school, college, all together. Did you do
Date through high school and college? Whoa, you're right.
After freshman year or I believe it right after freshman year, sophomore, junior, and then we went to the same school up in Quinnipiac in Connecticut and she got her RN license. I was a health science, wanted to do occupational therapy, did my first like little semester of occupational therapy and was like, I can't do this. I was like, this is not for me. I'm not the sciencey person. Got my regular bachelor's degree, went to Felician for a master's degree, like got an MBA.
which has helped me with business and understanding balance sheets, structure, time management, time blocking. But then, you know, I did the whole corporate thing. Like I said, Jake was like, why aren't you not doing real estate? You love hanging out with people. You love people like you're a people person. You want to help others and real estate. can you can make like you can. There's no possible. There's no end to it.
We have a private plane by the way.
Speaker 1 (10:22.062)
Yeah, private plane, boat, yacht, little condo in Greece, all those good things. No, but there's no there's that would be great. There's no there's no cap as much work as you want to put into this as much as you're going to get back. And I am a go getter. I'm not going to stop. There's there was a quote I used to watch real estate shows all the time. Bravo. All the junk TV, million dollar listing, Oppenheim group, all those things.
100%.
Speaker 1 (10:51.598)
Ryan Starhand's quote of expanding all ways and all ways has always stuck with me as something that there's no limitation. In real estate, there is no limitation. It's what has driven me to be like, hey, I can be the top realtor as much as I want to be and still be a great husband, still be a great dad. Neither of those needs to suffer in chasing goals.
Wow, yeah, you said a lot again, man. That's really good. So you say you're a go-getter and all these things. That's cool, too. think you're a, I think you have a very, I think one of the reasons why, and I reserve the right to be wrong, but I think, I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I think you have a very entrepreneurial spirit. And I think that's the word that I would use, right, is I think you have that, man. So in order to like, for the job to not work out and be able to go full, so real estate is a
where like you don't get, so correct me if I'm wrong, like you don't get a paycheck every week, right? Like you don't get gas money. You ever have a client ask you like, you get gas money from your brokerage or whatever?
Yeah, I've had clients being like, so like, where, yeah, where's your stipend? Like, what are you making? And I'm just like, when you buy the house or when we sell this house, then then yeah.
I think.
Speaker 2 (12:04.61)
Yeah, you're like, I've been broke for three months at a time. But yeah, so the entrepreneurial spirit, I think, has a lot to do with it. Where did you get that entrepreneurial spirit from, too,
My grandfather was his own business owner. He was a machine shop owner for many, years. He ran his own business. I think it's just when I got my MBA, when I was going through college, I wanted to open up my own business originally. I wanted to either open my own practice for occupational therapy, or I wanted to do something where I was my own boss. Don't get me wrong, I love working for others and helping a team and all that. I wanted to set my own hours and set, you know,
my own goals. When you are working for somebody else, you're working for their goals. So, in terms of just trying to motivate myself and always just get to that next level, I knew that entrepreneurship was where I needed to be. I was never just like, I love nine to five, I love being either in a cubicle or, working from home. There's so many other possibilities that were always running through my mind, like I was doing DoorDash on the side.
to make some extra side money just so that like, we can go do a crazy random trip one weekend if we wanted to. I was making nothing door dashing. I hated it. I was putting miles on my car. I probably got into two accidents that like, All the like break even and then just be like, my God, I owe taxes actually on this cause I made more than 600 bucks. And I was just like, wait, what? And so-
All are like, breakeven.
Speaker 1 (13:36.524)
Yeah, the real estate has always just been like ever since, you know, like I said, ever since I was told, why are you not doing this? I just jumped right into it. There's no reason to not go full board. If you have the possibility to.
What do you and your family like to do together? Like when you have a day off or a weekend or whatever? What do you guys like to
It's all with my, mean, my daughter just loves being outside. We go to parks, do playgrounds. She's just now starting to like understand restaurants and being able to sit down. So we'll start doing those things. It's really just like being together. I have a great house with an amazing backyard with, you my wife hooked it up with a whole gazebo outdoor TV. So like we can be outside. She can be playing on her jungle gym. I can be watching football. We're very much just home people.
That's all.
We love to just be home relaxing like yes, we'll do the trips We'll go, you know, we're we plan on going to Disney and taking her shout out Disney three under four free under three. Really? Yeah. So we'll do that We'll do that But you know, it's really Family's the biggest thing. It's true. Listen, shout out Disney sponsor me. I got you guys, bro
Speaker 2 (14:47.028)
I'm to me my buddy my buddy minds like he's a god you wanna go see the Knicks tomorrow and he told me he was like Yeah, there's an X game yesterday and he's like I'm stub hub every hour. Yeah, I'm just seeing when the ticket cheap
Yeah, it's like right before game time or something like that you
He's like, dude, if we get there at 630, we stand outside. And I'm like, all right. But yeah, man, no, I get it, dude. That's awesome. What are some challenges? So if there's one bottleneck that you could remove from your business, what would that be?
It's so tough because I love all my clients, but it's,
But this one, you can get Bob outta here, I'd be...
Speaker 1 (15:26.184)
And it's really it's reading out the people that you know are are just want to poke the stick to see like hey what's going on out there I try to have always an upfront call with somebody to be like what's your timeline let me I don't want to just get to know why you want to buy a house I want to know what's after you buy a house I want to make sure that you are never going to be a house poor and I tell my clients all that like hey yes this may be your max budget
but I want you to be able to buy toys for your kids. I want you to be able to go on vacation with your families. And some people are just like, I didn't even think about those things when I buy a house. And I'm like, listen, I will be real with you. Like, this is what your mortgage payments are going to be. This is what your monthlies look like. let's make sure that you and your family are always taken care of. And a lot of clients value that. But the ones that just want to poke the sick to just be like, hey, I'm a nosy neighbor. I want to go see yada yada.
Let's, those won't always be my biggest attention seekers or focus of attention. They're gonna be the ones that I, you know, touch base with every once in a while, but that's about it.
Check this out, ready? this. Hey honey, you're on the podcast with me and Nick Airy.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (16:45.302)
Are you driving the kids to school? No, I'm driving myself to work. Oh, you are. OK. All right. I was hoping to get the kids on the podcast. All right. I love you. I love you. I would not answer to it for just my wife, just so you know. I was hoping to bring. I have a nine-year-old. I live in California, right? So it's three hours earlier. Oh, so it's 6.30 there.
You
Speaker 2 (17:10.422)
She's a nurse, she's going to school, but I guess she usually brings the kids to school around 7.15, so I wasn't watching the clock. But so when I'm traveling, she'll call in with the boys in the car, and it's kind of awesome, you know? Last night I got into bed, so they'll go to bed at like, do whatever, dude. Last night I had to go to bed early, right? And so I just didn't get to talk to them or FaceTime or whatever. But yeah, man, no, it's a...
I mean,
Speaker 2 (17:36.674)
Two Boys is pretty wild. So, all right, so I wanna dive back into that, man. What you're talking about is extremely important. And so what you're talking about as well is, so a couple things, right? I think that you have, I think we're talking about standards. That's what I think we're talking about, right? And I had dinner with Chris last night and we were having the same conversation, man, because standards, dude, standards keep everything in check, right? And so was like,
Zillowflex, it's like, dude, you have to be on a 5 % conversion rate or on a trajectory of that. And if you're not, or you don't want to be, or you can't, that's okay. We can sell houses in other ways, but you're not going be on that program, right? Or whatever. And so, you know, I think that Nick Airy, you have a standard. It's like, hey man, this is who I work with. And there is, there's also, there's now, there's now,
Someday never business, right? And if we can identify those, right, as now someday nevers, right? And I think that's what you're doing. And what you're saying is you're also saying like, hey man, I wanna, there's a way to change the way you say things, like not waste time. Like I used to say, I don't wanna waste your time, but if you say, wanna respect your time. And you wanna respect that person's time because maybe, dude, we're buying, Nicole, she,
She just took my realtor in Orange County around like for 55 pluses for her mom. We went in escrow on one. Dude, this is real. Yeah. then, then, dude, and we canceled it, right? And we were like, my mother was not ready. And dude, that's what you're talking about, dude. It's like, And bro, through the whole like personal to me, right? This whole situation, I'm like, I had to give it up to God. I'm like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to be the realtor, but I'm too close to it. My poor buddy, Peter, right?
I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1 (19:26.732)
Yeah.
Peter's my boy, you know what mean? I'm like, dude, he's gonna show him some houses. Anyway, I don't get too far into it, because I don't want anybody in my family to hear this, or hear how I feel. essentially, there are consumers that haven't information gathered, right? They don't know the plan. They're not, people say you gotta get pre-approved. It's like, let's do a buyer consult, talk about where you're at, and you might be a year out. And because you also, I think, in our org, you get consumers through OzGroup.
that are like strangers from the internet. They could be ready, they could not be ready, blah, blah. But there is a specific skill when you can identify the ones that are now, right? And that's not selfish, right? Because people would think like, well, you just want to close the people now. No, want the people that are ready, I want to sort through, if I have 100 people, I want to sort through the 10 that are ready between now and the next six months so I can be purposeful about working with them.
the someday people, I wanna set them up on like, maybe they need to, you know, maybe if you do blah, blah, to your credit, you'll get this interest rate, which will save you $300 a month, right? And that's a big difference, right? So we wanna get the people that aren't ready on the right path, set them into a timeline. And I think, I can't tell you how important it is to do that because that's leverage for your business. And if you understand that,
And you, like if you, so Oz Group, right? If you leverage not putting a sign on the ground, whatever it is that that thing provides, leverage all of this, so you don't have to do all this part of the business. You can just concentrate on, there's three things, Prospecting for business, which could be going to your kid's soccer game, by the way. Going on appointments and negotiating deals, right? If you're just doing those things, you'll be solid.
Speaker 2 (21:13.144)
Dude, I've done it, man. I've spent so much time. And also, you're talking to, you ever hear the phrase, if you're talking to everybody, you're talking to nobody? And so, dude, I've been guilty of that in, dude, in, yeah, in every aspect of real estate, whether it's purchasing real estate or the real estate team or agent attraction to the company and all that stuff. So, yeah, tell me about how you discovered why that's so important. Because that's a high business IQ thing.
And I just want to say this because I'm passionate about it. I remember like. If it's not a money making activity, you're not working right, like working on your creating a new logo for your business card, bro. That's not, you know, like going to a real estate office and just hanging out all day and leaving. That's not working, man. So Keem. To set a mouthful there.
Yeah, it's, you're good to me. It's like, it's all about the value prop.
of kind of what you said. There is nothing wrong with being a tire kicker. It is not meaning that you are going to get any less of my attention. It just means at a different stage, you're going to get a different type of attention. Whether that's, you know, just doing automated emails so that you see where the market's at. Whether that's just a phone call every quarter. There's a value prop in everything. And I try to make sure that when I am putting time into my business that I am taking away from my family, that that value prop is
at 100%. It's not at 90, it's not at 95, it's not at 50. It's at 100 % that I'm doing an action that is going to get me some sort of deliverable out of it. And I feel like my clients respect that. And not only do my clients respect it, but my family appreciates it because I'm able to be more centered with them and still close business and still be looking for the next opportunity.
Speaker 1 (22:59.566)
So it's important to me to make sure that even if you're not buying a house two weeks, we're not, you know, even a month from now, we're having some sort of touch points, something that is going to be valuable for our next conversation of when you are ready to buy that house. So it's kind where I see things.
Yeah, that's good, man. Any other bottlenecks in your business where you're like, dude, if this wasn't like, I also call it like removing friction. Yeah. Right. So like anything else in your business that you'd remove, like besides it, I think you're good at identifying your people. And congratulations on sticking up for your like worth your value.
I am because I
You have to, especially in this business with all that's happened with NAR. the standard in New Jersey right now is if you're a buyer's agent, I'm seeing just 2 % across the board. At Oz Group, we on our documents put 3 % because we know our value and we always push for 3%.
You put 3%. I wish that was the way it was.
Speaker 1 (23:56.142)
It's a value prop and and you know, worth because you're having these upfront conversations with these people where you are showing your value from the get-go I I have a phone call with somebody I give them my whole hey who I am how I'm gonna help them The if they're interested in a property the very next thing they get for me is a fact sheet on that house I want them to know what we're walking into and then from that very first instance They see that I am doing above and beyond and just opening a door. I had a client the other day say hey, I just need you to connect me
with the listing agent and just open the door so I can see the house. I said, I don't know if we're the best fit then together. And I'm okay if we're not the best fit. And I hope you're okay with that because I'm not a door opener. There's services out there that are door openers, but I add value. Not only by booking the appointment is a value prop to get you into the house. I'm going to give you that fact sheet. I'm going to let you know if there's offers out on the property, even before we step into the door so that you're fully aware of what's going on. She just wanted a door opener.
And we mutually said this is not going to work. I wish you the best of luck should something change and you want a valued partner Come back to me. I'm always here
Dude, that's awesome. Because what's gonna happen there, you're not, dude, the person that's not serious is not gonna work with you. Dude, that's great. You should train on, you should, we need to harness this.
I can show you on the log that what happened. There's a full thing of explaining what the buyer agency agreement was.
Speaker 2 (25:20.8)
Is that your buyer console? Where'd you learn that? Or did you make it up?
kind of just do it it's gonna sound cocky it seems natural just seems like what you should be doing
No, it's-
Yeah, you're a business person, man. That's your entrepreneurship. Dude, it's so funny, man. All right, cool. That's awesome. I wanna learn more about that offline. Where do you see your business in the next? So like, people used to be like five years. So much shit is gonna change between now and then. So like, let's say the next like one to three years. Like, where do you see your business?
I, this Jersey market is still insane. Everywhere else in the country is having dips.
Speaker 2 (25:59.64)
Can you, okay, and Sane's like, can you dive into that? Yeah. Can explain it like the business IQ professional high level person you are?
Yeah, so in scene as
Speaker 1 (26:08.702)
We saw when I say insane, I mean, houses are still there when you have a quality property that is valued in a neighborhood at, you know, competitive price. We are still seeing multiple offers with terms that are, more favorable, favorable to the sellers. But I tell my clients you are getting in at a time where this is going to just continue to explode. There is no reason for us to sit on a sideline when six, nine months from now, we're going to say, Nick, I should have bought that house.
So hold on how do you How do you? How do you prove that to your client like you show them numbers like so it's so for example So if I bought a house for nine hundred thousand dollars in what town are you selling? Okay, so if I buy a house for nine hundred thousand dollars does that sound about it? Right. Yeah, it's an accurate purchase price. Yes, so I buy a house for nine hundred thousand dollars in Pompton Lakes You said planes planes. Okay, dude. I'm I know Bricktown. You're good
in public planes.
Speaker 1 (27:01.742)
Lakes is up here, Plains is here, Wayne's over here, it's all good.
Anyway, I never got up to fancy North Jersey people, but South Jersey people are doing alright. Alright, so if I bought that house two years ago, what was the value?
So I use my own home, for instance. bought before COVID, everyone I know I bought before COVID lucky me. Sure. I paid a certain thing. My house is now worth double.
Really? Can you borrow some money? Do you have my Venmo?
Do you have Myven? Do you have Mine, Cash App, whatever you need, Zelle?
Speaker 2 (27:42.414)
So, okay, so you talk about that, right? So you're like, yo, this is just silly, correct?
I bring in real world instance so that they could see like I'm not, I'm not just walking the walk to be like, Hey, you need to be XYZ over. And these terms I'm saying, you know, for the most part in the real estate trends, we have for the most part, don't quote me always gone up.
There's a, if you Google it, like, and I'm not promoting any websites or anything, but Redfin has a really good, like, you just say, like, Redfin values in, I don't know, Morristown, New Jersey, right? It'll show you where they've gone, and they're pretty accurate. And so, yeah, so you're saying, dude, just get in, right? Like, everyone's, yeah, okay.
Jump in, jump in the pool.
So, okay, hold on, you're, all right, where's this going? I'm saying where's your business going in the one three years? I took you off track. The market's insane. And by the way, can you, like, whoever's listening to this, where can they send, like, where do you work to send you? Anything in New Jersey, send it to you. If it's not personally you, you'll get it.
Speaker 1 (28:37.974)
No, you're good.
Speaker 1 (28:44.046)
New Jersey
We'll find you the best person that is the top in their market.
Alright, perfect. yeah, okay. where's the markets crazy markets insane? Which basically you're saying if I'm understanding you correctly that like the good stuff the good stuff the good stuff by the way just sold two not good stuff houses took me a minute to sell them. But like, but the good stuff that is priced right is selling fast. So now where's that taking your business in the next one to three years?
I'm hoping to, so I'm projecting myself this year to be at 10 ish or so million, if not more, thank you. In the next three years, I'd love that to be double, triple. I'd love to, there's a big luxury market in New Jersey. I've done pretty well in it so far. I'd love to take my business more there. Yes, it's harder. I'm ready for any type of challenge that that faces because it's just a different type of clientele.
It's an exciting clientele too. So I'd love to take my business there and not saying that I wouldn't take smaller deals or anything along those lines, but that's my goal.
Speaker 2 (29:51.502)
That's awesome. Yeah, that's good. What do you need? OK, so I asked about bottlenecks. What do you need in your business to go there? Like what needs to happen for you to double your business in the next one of three years?
I saw a big advocate on what I've done with my Zillowflex program is building relationships that are not just clients, but that have now become friends. that's a lot of referrals to those people. And I've already seen some of that happen so far.
The book of business building that Zillowflex can offer you if you manage it correctly is what excites me the most. It's one of the main reasons why I also joined a team. I'm now 33. I was telling Chris this like, yes, I would love to sit at my desk and farm 24 seven, three, six, five, if I could.
But being able to have this type of advantage where Zillowflex comes in and then those clients now trust me with their friends, family, is how I build a book of business. And it's been very beneficial to me so far.
Dude, that's awesome, man. think, yeah, okay, cool, yeah. Building a book of business, by the way, so I've done a lot of work on myself. Part of that is thinking before I talk.
Speaker 1 (31:07.918)
need to start doing that because sometimes it just spits right out.
So everyone, especially in New Jersey, did everyone just used to like...
We get so uncomfortable with silence in our society. And by the way, I came from a place I reacted to everything. said the first, it me in a lot of trouble, man. I said the first thing that came in my mind. And so I pause and then I'll be like, and people get super uncomfortable. And I'll be like, hey, I'm just thinking real quick. And I'll say, and people get, not you, people will just be like, what? And I'll be like, hey, if you get to know me really, really well, I'm going to pause sometimes because I really want to be purposeful about what I'm going to say to you.
So yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (31:48.556)
You're correct, by the way, and so how do you do that, right? So you're, okay, you're right, you are going to double your business. It's the same thing as houses, right? So if you just like, buy the house, if you just do the business, if you do a good job, and then you stay in relationship, right? I think what, I just hear realtors say constantly, they're like, and dude, I'd do it too, dude, because I came from that school, right? They'll say like,
Oh, you got to reach out to your past clients. First of all, stop calling them past clients. Like just call them Like these are your people. And so how do you... Man, like, dude, we've had like, don't know, we've, dude, like, and especially Zillowflex, right? The easiest way to kill yourself as a realtor is to join a team that has Zillowflex and just be a transaction taker. And that's it, right? Like, and don't, don't...
build a business, don't love on your people, don't get in a relationship. Like you'll die, like I've seen it, man. And like I've produced plenty of them personally, you know, and they're just in and out of the business. You know, they do like, they'll do like 12 whatever deals and then they don't, I think what happens is once you like love on those people and you get a referral and you get another one, you see it building, like I say, these deals have babies, right? Like how do you do that, man? Like how do you establish a, probably I'm sure a lot of this is your natural behavior. I'm sure a lot of it is not.
It's just organic behavior that you do, right? So yeah, how do you get in a relationship with these folks to the point where like, oh yeah, man, oh, okay. So what you really want is like, if you're a client of mine, I wanna be in relationship with you to the point where like when you're at school, church, work, soccer game, whatever, someone says to me like, oh yeah, we're thinking about selling our house. Their brain goes like, holy shit, I have to advocate for Nick, right? And then by the way, and then I'm sure this is what happens, there's probably a three-way text.
hey nick it's mary i copied bob on this we saw at the soccer game he's been selling one two three banana street in pompton lakes can you guys connect yeah how do you take it from that to that
Speaker 1 (33:51.412)
It's first about acknowledging the
the client that you previously worked with and thanking them and being like, I promise that this, this referral or whoever you've given me is going to be as just as good hands that you were. And you're always making sure that you keeping that connection because this is probably one, two, three, that's going to come from them in the next five years. it's then taking that new relationship and it's immediately diving into them, not just being like, what's your home search? Like, tell me what you're looking for. Bed Bath. Tell me about yourself. Tell me why you're thinking about moving.
as a realtor like moving sucks and we're realtors and we're telling people, Hey, go spend X, Y, Z dollars, but moving sucks. Like you're gonna pack up your life to go move. and I'm telling you this, tell me more about what's the goal of this. Like tell me a little bit about yourself, your family, and people really have seemed to like that, that I'm not just transactional. I don't just care about what money's coming in my pocket or what house you want or what you want to go look at. That I try to dive in more on a personal level. and dealing on that personal
level it's I tell them about myself, what I what I do, my family, and I try to just bring my real life into their home buying. And it's created so many more friends and relationships that are just being like, Hey, I'll get a text at 830 at night or being like, Hey, I know your daughter might like this and get those types of texts. That's what I've seen my business grow into by having just not being a transactional person by being a real person.
relationship person. The script that I use for that conversation is moving is a really big deal. What has you thinking about making a move?
Speaker 1 (35:29.228)
That I love that we have that when we say that though, we sound like robots. So I always say like, Hey, I know moving sucks. What can I do to make this as smooth as possible for you? What do you need from me? And what can I do to help you? because you never want to sound it off like a robot to somebody. Cause they're just like, I'll go to Bob Dylan down the street and use them instead of the somebody who asked me about me.
I don't say exactly. I'll be like, I'll be like no cap. Yeah. Yeah. You know, uh,
skibbity-dibbity-whatever, all those things.
I bet no gas.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how they do it in California, sure.
Speaker 2 (36:09.88)
Hey Ming, are we, is 10 10? Okay cool, 10's good, okay. I'm gonna shift gears. Yeah.
So in order to grow your business you just got to harness, you got to stay in front of your database and continue to grow your database. Is that a correct answer?
That's to me, growing your database, building those personal relationships, then, no, taking risks. Like, I am not the person that's gonna sit on the sideline. I will take a risk. I will go take a $5 million lead in an area that I don't know and know everything before I get there.
Fuck yeah. By the way, I don't think that's taking a risk for you because I think you're gonna be getting uncomfortable. I mean, is that makes sense? Is that kind of what you're some people? Yeah, oh, yeah, failing forward getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, right? Trying new things, right? I don't think that's risky for you because I think you'll nail it. Yeah, I don't think that's a risk. I mean, that's an opportunity, but I understand what you're saying. So, um,
But some people...
Speaker 1 (36:56.126)
We'll see that dollar amount and be like, I don't know what yeah. Yeah
Speaker 2 (37:13.986)
What famous person have you met in your life?
Speaker 2 (37:21.582)
Really? Yeah, a lot of athletes. I thought you were gonna be like Kunal. A lot of athletes? me about it. Alright, cool.
No, I I saw you Like Martin brodor of the New Jersey Devils Jamie Langer burner former devil who else
Yo, by the way, Jersey Devils is like the coolest, that's the coolest name in any like athlete, athletic thing. Correct? Yeah, yeah. I told someone, I'm like, dude, there's like a Jersey Devil. And they're like, what? Like, is the hockey team named after that? And I'm like, yeah, dude, we're not called the Lakers. You know I mean, right?
not a bunch of athletes, I think for the most part.
Islanders, dude, that's a stupid name.
Speaker 1 (38:02.102)
Yeah, I got the island in the-
Yeah, dumb, dude. It's not a Jersey devil where a lady had like 13 kids. Something down They named a hockey team after the 13th kid.
I it's Just I I played sports growing up Friends of friends that they lived in the town. I met Martin brodor because I was sleigh That when I used to live in North Caldwell when I was younger they would live in that area because the facilities and everything I guess
How'd you meet all these sports people?
Speaker 2 (38:26.092)
Wow, really? They like live by you?
Speaker 2 (38:35.022)
proximity
Okay, cool. What is your, what is your go-to karaoke song? my God. So we're in the bar, we have a couple drinks. Gun to your head.
I mean, it's like it's Backstreet Boys something. OK. And do I look like a Backstreet Boy guy? There you go. I take that. I don't know something either that or country. get a lot on Luke Holmes. So I've got I get I'll do Luke Holmes. I'll go to a country concert. People will say you're Luke Holmes brother. I'll say, absolutely. You want to meet him? And then I'll run away. So that.
Little sexy.
Speaker 1 (39:16.835)
Hold on, me two seconds, we'll take a picture and then yeah.
Alright, speaking of...
Speaker 2 (39:26.158)
By the way, I had a friend, I my first buyer agent, his name is Chuck. Shut up, Chuck. His nickname was Chuck Chiba. And he looked like B-Real from Cypress Hill. And he may or may not have sold drugs. With last name Chiba, you probably figure that out, right? Early ages of real estate, we weren't just selling real estate, Nick, but we can get into that a whole nother time, right? So what was your first concert that you ever went to?
Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:46.35)
What's up?
Speaker 1 (39:54.99)
My first concert, my wife took me to Jay-Z. Yep. At the Prudential Center, we were like 16, 17 maybe ish.
Tell people where is the Prudential Center located and does it still exist?
So now I am where it's been the rock. It's been a bunch of other things where the Devils used to play I think there's a mall there now like Mall of America or dream mall or something along those like 17
How old were you? Dude, so what album was that on, Dean? Do remember?
God knows I'm 33 now. It's like 15 years ago. I'm like, no, you're good. I mean, it was my first concert and I loved Jay Z at the, at the time. And it was like, we're to go to a Jay Z concert. I was like, okay, awesome. you play God? couldn't even remember how much smoke and clouds in the sky. Probably it was my first contact. was like, there's no way.
Speaker 2 (40:31.182)
Sorry, I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (40:37.198)
That's the best answer.
Remember who opened for him? there anyone else? I don't care,
Speaker 2 (40:54.958)
Dude, that's cool. All right. Dude, that's a good answer, man. I think that might be, so my, someone asked me like the other day, they're like, what's your favorite type of music? And I was like 90s hip hop. Just like hip hop music and especially from New York, right? Dude, that's cool, man. Where's your favorite, are you guys, do you guys travel much? Is there a place you guys like to go? there a place that you've been that you love?
No,
Speaker 1 (41:15.662)
I mean We've been to Aruba Turks and Caicos like love the islands we are beach people There's nothing like the Jersey Shore though. We go down to Wildwood usually every year But yeah, I mean love to travel more. Am I we've been Iceland Ireland London really? Yeah, Iceland was unreal If you have a chance to go go before the volcano erupts or something It's not going bye-bye but
Is it unreal?
Speaker 2 (41:41.474)
That place going bye bye.
It's like the Maldives, right? dude, what was the best part of Iceland?
It was seeing the drastic, I mean, landscape. I'm a huge landscape, like all that. I'm Irish. So seeing Ireland, yeah, seeing all the greenery, but Iceland was like, there's mountains, there's black sands, there's beaches. It's cold. You go to see volcanoes. You just, it's insane. It's you see the Northern lights. The friendliest thing ever. So nice. No, they're just like.
90 % Irish dude.
Speaker 2 (42:12.782)
people like nice so they're like aliens like why are you like
come tourists like why it's still here in pristine like come look at it and it was it was amazing their food is great like they're all they're all
They're not like people from New Jersey, right? The name of the street we're on right here is called Reckless, dude. That's how we bring it in New Jersey. You know what mean? I turned left on Reckless Place and I just wanted to fight someone, I felt like. You know I mean? I felt like someone was talking shit about my mom and I had to get down with it. So Iceland... So, okay, you mentioned a few beautiful places. I couldn't imagine anywhere being more beautiful than Wildwood, New Jersey. But is Iceland a little bit nicer?
how we are.
Speaker 1 (42:59.246)
I was nicer. Wildwood is nice because we have my wife's family is like a family of 5,000 which is great for a referral business as well, but We about 30 of us or 20 of us it all depends go down for like a week We stay the same resort that her grandma stayed 50 years ago, so it's like
Dude, the Maurice Pierre water park, dude, is that this shit? Took my daughter there this year.
because she understood and it was just like, best day. Lights. Yeah, it was insane.
Like the boardwalk, I was there this summer too. The boardwalk can get a little sketchy, I feel like.
It used to be, but not anymore. Now it's nice, clean and all that stuff. I mean, it's, it's always a good time.
Speaker 2 (43:41.102)
memories from Maurice Pier water park dude it's like I want to go there like right like if you go to Great Adventure Six Flags you go to a water park it's not the same thing man I don't I don't know but yeah we my dad owned a bike shop in Ciel City my uncle owned a bike shop in Avalon so I spent a lot of time we'd always go to Wildwood and we've watched the tram car situation you know
Yeah, I read on the sea goal taking your food
Milo loves the the frog bog where you hit the frogs. It's like his thing. Like we Dude, yeah eight hundred dollars to get like a snake. That's like this long
That cost them. Yeah, but listen then their eyes light up and then it was all worth it. So did I woke up?
The other day, it's the gift that keeps on giving, because we're walking through the airport and he has the snake tied around him, you know? And then the other morning he woke up and he's got this snake, this like snake that's so wild, this wild snake. Cool man, damn, so you guys are doing a lot of traveling. Yeah, the Iceland thing perked up. Ireland, you've been to Ireland?
Speaker 1 (44:31.235)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:45.08)
been to Ireland. But we Ireland and London at time. We did Cork. We did one of those tours that literally took you all around.
Did you go outside of Dublin? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:54.35)
more all that stuff right? Did you go to Dingle? That place is the shit. So the Dingle, there's this Dingle Peninsula that's just like, it looks kind of like Jersey dude, like swamps and marsh and whatever and like lot of history there. It's just, well, it's, know, if you've been around, if you went on one of those tours, it's really, really beautiful. But I've been to Ireland like three times. I'll say this, my wife's
No. It sounds like a crazy name.
Speaker 2 (45:24.366)
My is a pilot and when Nicky moved to New Jersey, he got moved from LA to Newark and I became his travel companion.
before we had kids. Yeah, yeah. I he was in nursing school. So for like 10 years him and I, like I had an employee log in for United. yeah, that's So like I could see the loads. Yeah, Like I could see, if it's, if like you, if I wanted to go to like Ireland tonight, I could like log in and be like, dude, there's 50 seats on this flight. So I could predict and I would just go to the, I would just take the train. That's And I would just fly. It was like, so for like 10 years, I just like.
It's great. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (46:03.414)
And I didn't marry the woman who was like, what time will you be home tonight? Sure. I the one who like, get out of here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're annoying. so I would just like, it made it very, very easy to travel. Dude, any questions I didn't ask you that I should have asked?
No, this has been great. Thank you for having me. I'd to come back because I could probably do like five
We'll do another one. We've been doing I've been doing them on the Riverside platform too. Yeah, like which is you've seen it. I'm sorry, right? It's like super Yeah, like there's somebody in Atlanta that I want to talk to you for like an hour. I'll just like hop on there Dude, yeah. Thanks. This is really fun Like I said the more when I'm more I learned about you the more I learned about me man, and this is awesome and I just want to say thanks dude you've been like just a core member of this thing and you have integrity and you're not wavering on your goals and I know the conversations you have with Chris we talked a lot about you last night and
under
Speaker 2 (46:52.608)
And yeah, the thing, like it came up, the thing about the standards and finding the people and focusing on the people that like, like the now people, which actually are the people that are gonna respect your time. And yeah, I just wanted to say thanks, man, because you give me energy and you inspire me.
I appreciate it. Yeah. You and Chris have been above and beyond what I could ever have asked for. It's not just like, your team leads Joe Oz and Chris and is your product manager and everything. You guys actually, you, you make it a fact to learn your agents and you not just that we're transactional people like you and I've had many conversations and texts and same with Chris just about bullshit. And that's the relationship that I've valued the most because it's not just, you don't care about what my numbers are. Yes, they're important.
But you care about like what I'm doing, like, hey, how's the family? That's I can't appreciate you guys enough. yeah, Thanks, that's what I've been told. Appreciate it.
You have beautiful blue eyes. All right, Ming. Wrap it up.
Well done, guys. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (47:54.178)
Well done.