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Hello again, everybody, and welcome back
to the accelerator with Michael Coniff.

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That's me.

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We're a podcast that goes out to people
interested in startups and even roll ups

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and everything to do with being an
entrepreneur.

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We're a companion podcast to the angel,
which is more on the money side of things.

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Today we are joined by an extremely
distinguished businessman, entrepreneur,

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somebody who really has done a lot to help
people.

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Dave Linegar is.

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former top executive, one of the top
executives at least at Realmax.

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Did I say that right?

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No, I got that wrong.

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Remax, excuse me, Remax.

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And Dave has written a book called The
Perfect Ten.

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Is it okay if I call it a self -help book
for entrepreneurs, Dave?

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Okay, so tell us first of all, tell us
about

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Sort of in a nutshell, your career with
Remax, which grew into one of the great

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real estate empires in the world, how did
that come about?

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And what was your role in that growth?

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Well, I was in the United States Air Force
for several years.

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During part of my enlistment when I was
stateside, I started buying and fixing up

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houses and eventually led me to get a real
estate license, not to ever sell real

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estate, but to save the commission on my
deals.

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As I got out of the service, I realized I
was going full time into real estate

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investing.

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I might as well get a broker's license.

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and start my own company.

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I moved from Scottsdale to Denver in 1971.

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Did a residency for six months to get my
broker's license.

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And then I founded Bremax in January of
73.

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Since that period of time, it was a very
hard start.

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Controversial, industry did not like my
ideas, but we have now grown to...

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being a very recognized kind of icon of
the industry.

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We have offices in, let's see, 9 ,000
offices, 110 countries, and 150 ,000

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agents.

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And what was, you said it was a hard
start.

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What made it hard and what was the new
wrinkle that Remax was bringing to the

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business?

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Excuse me.

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shared their commission with the owner of
the office.

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And if it was a listing, the owner kept
half the agent, he half.

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If it was the buyer, the company kept half
the agent kept half.

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So it was a 50 50 split around that.

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Uh, what we looked at was why not take
experience realtors, no beginners or part

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-timers and operate like a co -op, a group
of doctors, lawyers, architects.

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dentist, share office space, share the
overhead costs, pay our own personal

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expenses, and keep 100 % of our fees for
ourselves.

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Quite controversial because if it worked,
the agents were keeping 85 .15 instead of

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50 .50.

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So the powers to be, the big successful
companies, they all fought the concept,

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said it wouldn't work, it would never
happen.

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They did everything they could to drive us

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business.

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They didn't have to work too hard.

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I was making enough mistakes.

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I probably could have done it by myself,
but as it is, you learn to be a street

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fighter.

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I didn't have a college education.

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And so I supplemented my weaknesses.

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First hire I made was to hire an
administrative vice president.

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I would be the recruiter, the sales
manager, the trainer, and the

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administrative vice president.

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would run the company, find the office
space, hiring secretaries, bookkeepers,

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set up legal contracts, furnish and
organize the businesses, that type of

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thing.

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And the 28th person I interviewed was a
superstar.

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She had just moved to Denver.

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She was a trailing spouse.

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Her husband was going to be a MayDNF
manager of a

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of a chain of stores.

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And so she was looking for a new
challenge.

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Uh, she was confident.

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She was, uh, very smart.

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Uh, she had an excellent, uh, resume, uh,
lots of experience in management and

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marketing.

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And it was just a home run.

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So I lied to her and told her that I was
going to build the largest real estate

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company in history of the world.

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If she'd helped me do it, she could run
it.

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And that's.

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name?

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Her name was Gail Main and that started us
off on an interesting journey.

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We were partners basically for the first
10 years.

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And after that we became married.

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And so my best friend has been my partner
for 50 years and my wife for 40 years.

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It worked out extremely well.

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And the important thing is you're still
married.

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That's great.

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And I want to point out that you're coming
to us from your rather expansive ranch in

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Colorado.

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So all that hard work paid off, to say the
least.

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I'm curious about the shifting of the
business model.

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How did you, if you're giving all of that
or most of that income to the realtor, how

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are you?

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How does Remax make money?

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How did you make money?

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Originally we had a management fee that
was paid to the company every month for

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overseeing and doing the business.

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Eventually we kind of switched to a 95 -5
model, 95 % to the agent, 4 % to the

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broker that owned the office, and 1 % to
headquarters, plus our regular fees.

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So it became financially lucrative for all
three parties to the arrangement, and it

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has worked out extremely well for
everybody.

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So what made you realize that you had to
change the business model to do remax?

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Well, the business model as it was, was a
high turnover business.

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There are no barriers to entry for an
agent to get a license.

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In some places, it's merely a check and
maybe a test in a 30 hour course.

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So agents come in, they think it's going
to be a nice, easy job.

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Drive around a nice car, entertain people,
buy lunches and dinners and make big

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commissions.

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The problem you get into is there are no
salaries or...

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uh, advances in the real estate business.

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So in essence, you're in business for
yourself, but by yourself.

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And, uh, you have to find out how to make
a commission.

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And often you don't make one in the first
six months.

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And that's pretty damning.

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It's, uh, consumer federation, uh, just
put out a pretty big study a couple of

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weeks ago, 50 % of the realtors in the
United States have not closed the

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transaction.

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in over 12 months.

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Wow.

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That's not surprising really because also
because there's so many, the market goes

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up and down.

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It's variable by region, city, town, all
sorts of things.

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Well, let me ask you about the Perfect 10.

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So I know you've got other business
interests.

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There's lots of things you could do.

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Why stop and why write this book?

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a lot of people helped me along the way.

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I didn't have a formal education.

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I blew my opportunity for that.

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I realized I wasn't mature enough to go to
college.

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The military gave me six or seven years to
grow up and become a real human being

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instead of a teenage boy.

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So I learned a lot from it.

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A lot of people helped me on the way.

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When I first started the company, it was
dreadful.

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I made all the mistakes you could, but I
didn't want to fail.

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So I sat down, swallowed my pride and I
talked to my managers.

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I had eight of them.

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They were all 20 years older than me.

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And I said, look, what'd you like best
about the company you left?

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What did you dislike the most?

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What do you like most about Remax?

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What do you dislike the most?

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What do you like most about me?

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What...

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Do you dislike the most?

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Can you teach me with your maturity and
your success and my idealistic idea of I

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can build this empire?

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Can you train me to be the leader you want
me to be?

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And they did.

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They flat out did.

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They said some things, they hurt, but I
realized, yeah, I'm making those mistakes.

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Okay, I'm gonna fix it up.

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So every meeting, I wrote them down.

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I listened to it with a...

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open mind instead of being angry and said,
okay, if everybody else sees the problem

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and I don't, you must be right and I'm
wrong.

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So let's fix it.

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I've kept an open.

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and you started in 73, how old were you
when you started the company?

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27, okay, so you're a young guy, you're in
your 20s, but it strikes me that you had

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turned listening into an art.

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So, and I think that, you know, asking
people, how can I do better?

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What am I doing well?

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What am I doing wrong?

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It's like, so isn't that so obvious, but
people...

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I don't think it's part of basic
management training, is it?

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it should be.

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You know, in the military for generations,
it was the command down concept.

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The general said jump and the private had
to say hi on the way up.

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When they started creating the special
forces, whether it's SEAL teams, Delta,

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Rangers, whatever it might be,

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Uh, it's a different attitude.

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Uh, usually it's a smaller team, eight to
10 people usually have an officer

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involved.

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Almost everybody else has got more time.

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So they're mostly NCOs.

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Uh, there's nothing sacred about the
officer.

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Uh, if you're in the field.

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Sure.

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So this is not the whole military, but in
an elite team you're saying, you know,

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hierarchy kind of doesn't disappear, but
it has a different meaning.

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And the SEAL team leads from the front.

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Uh, the generals and most of the military
lead from the rear.

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They're too valuable to get injured or
hurt.

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And so you're right with your leader.

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And so when you design a, a concept for a,
uh, job that you're going to accomplish,

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all eight or 10 people are equal.

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Uh, there's no, yes, sir.

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No, sir.

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There's no saluting by the way, in the
field.

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There's never saluting because the officer
is the first one the sniper takes out.

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And were you yourself in Delta Force?

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Okay.

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So this is kind of, again, by observation
and listening and keeping your ears open.

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And so everybody puts the plan together
together.

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They rehearsed together.

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They actually do the, uh, the, uh, mission
together.

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And when they're done, they download and
reassess what we're right, what we're

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wrong.

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And so it might be a lowly private that
looks at the lieutenant and says,

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lieutenant, we cleared the room.

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You were supposed to go left.

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What you did was you went to the right,
right underneath my gun sights.

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And if I'd been less sharp, I'm not a shot
you.

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And that the lieutenant says, I knew when
I went right, I should have gone left.

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It was my bad, my mistake.

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Thanks for calling me out on it.

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I'll work on it.

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And so.

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is this represented, this kind of concept,
these concepts represented in your book,

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The Perfect Ten?

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We talk about a servant leader.

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We talk about a democratic leader where
you take the ideas from everyone.

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And by the way, Remax is an
extraordinarily successful company.

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Every single great idea in our company has
come from the field.

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The foot soldiers in the trenches that are
out there talking to people day in and day

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out.

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Now they bring us some wacky ideas and so
you don't have to take every idea that

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comes.

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but just be open -minded enough to say,
when you have 140 ,000 people, there's a

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lot of mind power out there and you can
make changes.

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You can't just keep doing yesterday's
business with yesterday's methods today

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and expect to be in business tomorrow.

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You know, it's interesting.

226
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I've seen something similar to this.

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I actually just had a Zoom before this
podcast with a couple of entrepreneurs who

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had a modest exit and are now cooking up
their next thing.

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And part of it is like, I'm thinking to
myself, well, why are they talking to me?

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They know I'm not going to give them
money.

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I don't know enough about...

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what their space, but basically they were
doing a pretty good job of listening and

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indirectly tapping into my network, of
course.

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00:14:18,035 --> 00:14:24,075
But I think that, and I had another
situation where two entrepreneurs who had

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worked together, one was a CTO, one was a
CEO, have a new technology.

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And basically they're telling people about
it, select people, and they're listening,

237
00:14:34,455 --> 00:14:34,695
right?

238
00:14:34,695 --> 00:14:37,655
They're listening to what the feedback is.

239
00:14:37,655 --> 00:14:42,475
So it sounds to me that the one thing that
really enabled you to be tremendously

240
00:14:42,475 --> 00:14:49,315
successful was your willingness to listen
and not just, let me put it this way, not

241
00:14:49,315 --> 00:14:51,333
just to listen, but to hear.

242
00:14:53,570 --> 00:15:00,560
know, I mentor a lot of people and they
all nod their heads and say yes while I'm

243
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:05,760
speaking and answering the questions, but
you know that only three or four out of

244
00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,109
100 are gonna do something with it
because...

245
00:15:09,109 --> 00:15:10,799
Why don't more...

246
00:15:10,799 --> 00:15:13,329
What holds people back?

247
00:15:13,476 --> 00:15:15,166
don't like to change.

248
00:15:15,206 --> 00:15:19,156
They can agree with you that they need to
change, but they'll listen.

249
00:15:19,156 --> 00:15:20,366
They'll say that's entertaining.

250
00:15:20,366 --> 00:15:24,006
Hey, that's a good idea, but they won't
implement it.

251
00:15:24,006 --> 00:15:29,306
My most successful mentees have been the
ones that were really thirsty for the

252
00:15:29,306 --> 00:15:35,356
knowledge, took notes, would call me back
up four or five days later and say, can I

253
00:15:35,356 --> 00:15:36,826
have five minutes of your time?

254
00:15:36,826 --> 00:15:41,232
I did this and this and this like you
recommended, and this is where I'm at.

255
00:15:43,463 --> 00:15:49,403
think that's, excuse me for, yeah, excuse
me for interrupting, but you know, I

256
00:15:49,403 --> 00:15:54,603
always take notes except during podcasts
because I'm trying to concentrate on the

257
00:15:54,603 --> 00:16:00,383
guests, but, but it's such a simple thing
and it enables you.

258
00:16:00,383 --> 00:16:06,263
And by the way, these new note takers,
these new AI note takers, I honestly,

259
00:16:06,263 --> 00:16:07,839
Dave, I've been, I've been

260
00:16:07,839 --> 00:16:12,589
of amazed at how much I miss even though I
take notes and even though I was a trained

261
00:16:12,589 --> 00:16:14,219
reporter, journalist, right?

262
00:16:14,219 --> 00:16:16,159
I supposed to know how to do this.

263
00:16:16,159 --> 00:16:23,029
How much that I missed and then how much
there is really to follow up upon as you

264
00:16:23,029 --> 00:16:24,019
go forward.

265
00:16:24,019 --> 00:16:30,889
So what are, I also want to get at what
are some of the most important precepts

266
00:16:30,889 --> 00:16:33,499
that represent the Perfect 10.

267
00:16:33,499 --> 00:16:36,971
Tell me why the Perfect 10, why that name,
why that title?

268
00:16:37,512 --> 00:16:49,402
Perfect 10 is the concept that in platform
diving, in gymnastics, in horse ice

269
00:16:49,402 --> 00:16:50,282
skating,

270
00:16:50,862 --> 00:16:55,602
They have judges and you do your
performance at the end of the performance.

271
00:16:55,602 --> 00:16:57,562
You're looking desperately to the judges.

272
00:16:57,562 --> 00:17:02,822
We're going to write on their cards,
seven, six, five, hoping, hoping not only

273
00:17:02,822 --> 00:17:07,862
will I get a 10, but will I get a 10 on
all seven judges cards?

274
00:17:08,682 --> 00:17:14,002
And yeah, especially if you're American.

275
00:17:14,042 --> 00:17:18,398
So anyway, uh, that started the Genesis,
but.

276
00:17:18,398 --> 00:17:23,978
Have you heard of net promoter score as a
business way of judging customer

277
00:17:23,978 --> 00:17:25,218
satisfaction?

278
00:17:26,458 --> 00:17:34,058
So NPS is a very simple set of one or two
questions that you can ask a customer.

279
00:17:34,378 --> 00:17:40,358
For instance, you can ask them to rank how
likely it is would you recommend our

280
00:17:40,358 --> 00:17:43,398
business to a relative or a friend?

281
00:17:43,618 --> 00:17:48,420
And then they rank them one being worst
and 10.

282
00:17:48,943 --> 00:17:53,733
I think we've all filled out a lot of
those online, right, where you asked for

283
00:17:53,733 --> 00:17:54,183
feedback.

284
00:17:54,183 --> 00:17:55,054
Yeah.

285
00:17:55,054 --> 00:18:01,084
So what you do is you take all the nines
and tens and those are promoters and you

286
00:18:01,084 --> 00:18:03,654
take the six, sevens and eights and ignore
them.

287
00:18:03,654 --> 00:18:04,874
They don't care.

288
00:18:04,874 --> 00:18:08,654
And you take the one through fives and
they're detractors.

289
00:18:08,654 --> 00:18:14,274
You get your total score and you take your
promoters, less your detractors and that's

290
00:18:14,274 --> 00:18:15,354
your score.

291
00:18:15,614 --> 00:18:24,214
So in 2017, one of the stats we looked at
was United Airlines got a two.

292
00:18:24,846 --> 00:18:32,446
and Southwest Airlines got a, yeah, and
Southwest got a 66.

293
00:18:32,966 --> 00:18:39,406
Now they have the same planes, same
Bowings, same destinations, same discount

294
00:18:39,406 --> 00:18:43,726
prices, and yet totally different
satisfactions.

295
00:18:44,166 --> 00:18:50,926
One, well maybe United's flight attendants
have all been around with seniority.

296
00:18:50,926 --> 00:18:54,478
They knew what it was fun to fly 30 years
ago.

297
00:18:54,478 --> 00:18:58,598
And first class was first class and now
everything's a cattle car.

298
00:18:58,618 --> 00:19:00,078
They're overburdened.

299
00:19:00,078 --> 00:19:03,098
There's burnout and they're tired and
they're just waiting to get that

300
00:19:03,098 --> 00:19:04,458
retirement check.

301
00:19:04,678 --> 00:19:09,728
Southwest was a much younger company,
younger employees, happy -go -lucky kids

302
00:19:09,728 --> 00:19:13,578
that were, you know, just flying for the
first five or 10 years.

303
00:19:13,578 --> 00:19:15,558
They were excited about their job.

304
00:19:15,558 --> 00:19:17,698
They laughed and joked with the audience.

305
00:19:17,698 --> 00:19:19,518
The pilot makes a bad landing.

306
00:19:19,518 --> 00:19:23,231
They want him to grab the mic and say,
well, welcome here.

307
00:19:23,231 --> 00:19:33,481
Yeah, they use it's a very intentional use
of humor and comedy to kind of create

308
00:19:33,481 --> 00:19:38,351
community and to be personable and it
really makes them human beings, doesn't

309
00:19:38,351 --> 00:19:38,903
it?

310
00:19:39,256 --> 00:19:43,526
so to get to the point, rematch to the net
promoter score.

311
00:19:43,606 --> 00:19:49,326
We knew every agent, every office in the
United States and Canada.

312
00:19:49,326 --> 00:19:55,896
We sent out a letter from me on an email
that said, nobody will see these and your

313
00:19:55,896 --> 00:19:58,046
name except for one person.

314
00:19:58,046 --> 00:20:02,866
Me, I'm the founder of the company and I
will not divulge who tells me anything,

315
00:20:02,966 --> 00:20:07,512
but we will develop a scorecard for each
company, each office.

316
00:20:07,512 --> 00:20:08,822
Et cetera.

317
00:20:09,242 --> 00:20:10,562
Open rate was fabulous.

318
00:20:10,562 --> 00:20:13,182
I'm very popular in the company.

319
00:20:13,402 --> 00:20:16,922
I've been speaking to them for 55 years.

320
00:20:16,922 --> 00:20:18,482
I'm one of them.

321
00:20:19,882 --> 00:20:23,102
We got an overall score of 72.

322
00:20:23,442 --> 00:20:31,202
So that's the same as Google, Amazon,
Apple, et cetera.

323
00:20:31,302 --> 00:20:34,042
That's just about the highest you can get
up to.

324
00:20:34,102 --> 00:20:34,882
So.

325
00:20:35,822 --> 00:20:37,882
We looked at the individual offices.

326
00:20:38,282 --> 00:20:44,842
We had 200 offices that had the responses
that were perfect 10.

327
00:20:45,302 --> 00:20:47,162
200 out of 4000.

328
00:20:47,402 --> 00:20:50,302
And that's offices like Anchorage.

329
00:20:50,302 --> 00:20:55,262
We have a woman up there that's just a
fabulous manager and then the second

330
00:20:55,262 --> 00:20:56,742
question you can ask.

331
00:20:56,742 --> 00:20:58,582
Why?

332
00:20:58,962 --> 00:21:03,882
And about half the time they'll tell you
why, and so if you give it a 10 why I've

333
00:21:03,882 --> 00:21:05,582
got the best manager in the world.

334
00:21:05,582 --> 00:21:07,522
She cares about me and my family.

335
00:21:07,522 --> 00:21:11,592
Every time I have a problem, I can go to
her and she's got a smile on her face and

336
00:21:11,592 --> 00:21:13,522
said, we can work this out.

337
00:21:13,742 --> 00:21:15,842
So you go through those answers.

338
00:21:15,982 --> 00:21:21,642
We had 200 that got an actual minus 100,
the worst you could get.

339
00:21:22,042 --> 00:21:25,162
And that's 200 out of 4 ,000 offices.

340
00:21:25,162 --> 00:21:29,362
And we looked at their comments and it was
my broker's a jerk.

341
00:21:29,362 --> 00:21:31,122
He doesn't do a thing for me.

342
00:21:31,122 --> 00:21:35,008
I had a problem with an appraisal and he
says, I don't have time to help you.

343
00:21:35,118 --> 00:21:36,458
Do it yourself.

344
00:21:36,838 --> 00:21:42,208
And so it really comes down to outstanding
leadership at the top, caring for the

345
00:21:42,208 --> 00:21:43,598
people that are there.

346
00:21:43,598 --> 00:21:44,645
Now, if you looked at the

347
00:21:44,645 --> 00:21:46,911
fix the problems at the bottom?

348
00:21:47,086 --> 00:21:52,926
Yeah, we gave him a report card and we
told him these are your deficiencies and

349
00:21:52,926 --> 00:21:57,400
if you can't get up into the mainstream,
we're not going to renew your franchise.

350
00:21:58,783 --> 00:22:00,973
Okay, so there was a little carrot and
stick.

351
00:22:00,973 --> 00:22:02,510
There was some stick in there.

352
00:22:02,510 --> 00:22:04,290
Oh, a lot of stick and carrot.

353
00:22:04,550 --> 00:22:09,940
And so if they, I can't want to make
somebody more successful than what they

354
00:22:09,940 --> 00:22:11,370
would have make themselves.

355
00:22:11,590 --> 00:22:17,690
And so if we can do the study and we can
say, our analysis says, this is what's

356
00:22:17,690 --> 00:22:18,870
going wrong.

357
00:22:18,870 --> 00:22:20,810
This is what you need to do to fix it.

358
00:22:20,810 --> 00:22:23,710
If they don't fix it, then it's too bad.

359
00:22:23,710 --> 00:22:25,791
I can't fix it for them.

360
00:22:25,791 --> 00:22:35,091
What do you think is the one or two
lessons that you would like to people who

361
00:22:35,091 --> 00:22:36,541
read your book to take away from?

362
00:22:36,541 --> 00:22:41,201
And I know that you're a believer in
Napoleon Hill, think and grow rich, which

363
00:22:41,201 --> 00:22:47,611
I still think is the not just me, but is
regarded as the classic of the self -help

364
00:22:47,611 --> 00:22:47,931
field.

365
00:22:47,931 --> 00:22:53,257
And sometimes I feel like everybody is
just riffing on Napoleon Hill.

366
00:22:53,257 --> 00:22:58,627
from the 1920s literally on Andrew
Carnegie sent him out to interview the

367
00:22:58,627 --> 00:23:03,207
most successful people in America and he
came back with You know, you need purpose.

368
00:23:03,207 --> 00:23:04,327
You need a plan.

369
00:23:04,327 --> 00:23:05,247
You need goals.

370
00:23:05,247 --> 00:23:09,717
You need deadlines So what do you see in
addition to those sort of obvious things

371
00:23:09,717 --> 00:23:10,577
and well -known things?

372
00:23:10,577 --> 00:23:15,487
What what what is kind of the the secret
sauce and what you're telling people?

373
00:23:15,507 --> 00:23:16,791
in this book

374
00:23:16,954 --> 00:23:22,874
in this book, we got 10 sections with 10
great ideas on each one.

375
00:23:22,874 --> 00:23:27,254
One section's on leadership, one's on
scalability and making your company

376
00:23:27,254 --> 00:23:31,794
bigger, one's on team building, one's on
personal development.

377
00:23:31,814 --> 00:23:36,624
And so I've tried to take the lessons that
I've learned, not only from my

378
00:23:36,624 --> 00:23:42,934
experiences, but we had researchers that
helped us and we looked at how about 75 %

379
00:23:42,934 --> 00:23:45,038
of the book is based on...

380
00:23:45,038 --> 00:23:52,848
Amazon, Google, Apple, the other thought
leaders of the last two or three

381
00:23:52,848 --> 00:23:58,478
generations to say, this is how these
people took a simple concept and made it

382
00:23:58,478 --> 00:24:01,158
incredibly successful for everybody.

383
00:24:01,418 --> 00:24:06,858
So for instance, I've got a chapter on Sir
Ernest Shackleton.

384
00:24:07,498 --> 00:24:10,458
Shackleton was an Arctic explorer.

385
00:24:11,578 --> 00:24:13,710
He tried to class.

386
00:24:13,710 --> 00:24:15,590
the South Pole.

387
00:24:16,530 --> 00:24:24,190
And in the process, they got iced in, ice
flow collapsed around them.

388
00:24:24,190 --> 00:24:28,830
They were going to live on the ship until
the ice melted, but the ice started

389
00:24:28,830 --> 00:24:29,890
crushing it.

390
00:24:29,890 --> 00:24:32,550
And they realized the ship was going to
sink.

391
00:24:32,550 --> 00:24:37,900
So he took them out on the lifeboats, put
the lifeboats on the ice flow, took all

392
00:24:37,900 --> 00:24:41,790
the food and everything they could carry
with them and got away from the ship and

393
00:24:41,790 --> 00:24:42,714
it sank.

394
00:24:42,862 --> 00:24:47,242
They were marooned on the ice for 22
months.

395
00:24:47,342 --> 00:24:52,952
There was no radios, no telegraphs, no
newspapers, and it was in dark half the

396
00:24:52,952 --> 00:24:53,782
year.

397
00:24:53,782 --> 00:24:56,762
And he saved every one of his men.

398
00:24:56,762 --> 00:25:02,792
He finally sailed off in one of the
lifeboats with a sail and two or three

399
00:25:02,792 --> 00:25:03,942
other explorers.

400
00:25:03,942 --> 00:25:10,372
And they went 700 miles in rough seas to a
whaling station and got a boat back and

401
00:25:10,372 --> 00:25:11,230
saved him.

402
00:25:11,374 --> 00:25:16,154
All the men wrote in their journals that
Shackleton was the finest leader they had

403
00:25:16,154 --> 00:25:17,854
ever followed in their life.

404
00:25:18,034 --> 00:25:23,584
And in his journal, he talked about, he
wanted to kill half of them and he was fed

405
00:25:23,584 --> 00:25:24,974
up with them.

406
00:25:25,134 --> 00:25:31,934
But, but the thing's amazing was he was
such a kind leader.

407
00:25:31,934 --> 00:25:34,194
He cared about them individually.

408
00:25:34,194 --> 00:25:38,434
He met with every one of them every day
for the 22 months.

409
00:25:38,434 --> 00:25:40,398
He didn't let them have clicks.

410
00:25:40,398 --> 00:25:44,278
They had to change the tents, two and
three people to a tent.

411
00:25:44,278 --> 00:25:47,038
And after a week they had to be with
somebody else in another tent.

412
00:25:47,038 --> 00:25:49,298
It was a group effort to survive.

413
00:25:49,398 --> 00:25:51,338
They survived happy.

414
00:25:51,578 --> 00:25:53,358
They didn't lose weight.

415
00:25:53,458 --> 00:25:58,038
They managed to live off of seals and fish
sometimes.

416
00:25:58,058 --> 00:26:00,158
But he was a brilliant leader.

417
00:26:00,378 --> 00:26:06,808
And the thing's interesting, the thing's
most interesting to me, he had, I think,

418
00:26:06,808 --> 00:26:08,980
six or seven sisters.

419
00:26:09,774 --> 00:26:12,454
and he grew up with no boyfriends.

420
00:26:12,594 --> 00:26:15,234
And so he grew up around girls.

421
00:26:15,254 --> 00:26:21,734
And as you know today, people acknowledge
that women often are better leaders and

422
00:26:21,734 --> 00:26:23,434
better managers than men.

423
00:26:23,434 --> 00:26:27,534
They have a more of a consensus building
feel.

424
00:26:27,534 --> 00:26:30,294
They don't like altercation.

425
00:26:30,974 --> 00:26:35,234
Most of them do not just try to be command
and control.

426
00:26:35,234 --> 00:26:36,622
They try to do things.

427
00:26:36,622 --> 00:26:40,322
more democratically, what's your idea,
what's your idea?

428
00:26:40,722 --> 00:26:45,612
A lot of those things are incredibly
important in today's management and

429
00:26:45,612 --> 00:26:46,782
leadership style.

430
00:26:46,782 --> 00:26:49,682
The command and control is gone forever.

431
00:26:50,911 --> 00:26:55,161
Yeah, it's a different, it's a different
world, but it's interesting from the

432
00:26:55,161 --> 00:27:01,531
Arctic Tundra to, to remix finding the
threads there.

433
00:27:01,531 --> 00:27:09,011
So let, let's, you know, every day, it
seems like I talked to entrepreneurs who

434
00:27:09,011 --> 00:27:11,311
are struggling.

435
00:27:11,331 --> 00:27:12,481
It's a struggle, right?

436
00:27:12,481 --> 00:27:15,111
You said how hard it was when you began.

437
00:27:15,111 --> 00:27:20,911
And I'm as a mentor with mentees, you're
probably hearing.

438
00:27:20,959 --> 00:27:25,199
People are telling you things aren't
working out, that they're having problems

439
00:27:25,199 --> 00:27:26,759
and whatnot.

440
00:27:26,839 --> 00:27:35,209
What's the most important thing to say to
an entrepreneur at what I would call the

441
00:27:35,209 --> 00:27:36,599
moment of truth?

442
00:27:36,599 --> 00:27:42,159
When it's kind of, it wouldn't necessarily
be easy to give it up, but they're

443
00:27:42,159 --> 00:27:43,659
certainly thinking about it, right?

444
00:27:43,659 --> 00:27:45,619
Because they're like, it's so much
trouble.

445
00:27:45,619 --> 00:27:50,359
So what is the thing they need to think
about right at that moment?

446
00:27:51,022 --> 00:27:52,522
It's very simple.

447
00:27:52,662 --> 00:27:54,422
Why are you doing this?

448
00:27:54,922 --> 00:27:56,982
Why are you abusing yourself?

449
00:27:56,982 --> 00:27:58,742
Why are you getting killed?

450
00:27:58,742 --> 00:28:01,002
Why are you taking all the lumps?

451
00:28:01,042 --> 00:28:03,242
What is it that makes you go?

452
00:28:03,242 --> 00:28:06,722
And what that comes down to is what were
you doing it for?

453
00:28:06,722 --> 00:28:07,962
Why were you doing it?

454
00:28:07,962 --> 00:28:09,422
What was your mission?

455
00:28:09,542 --> 00:28:15,622
My mission in Remax had nothing in it
written about mission goals, vision,

456
00:28:15,622 --> 00:28:16,502
anything.

457
00:28:16,502 --> 00:28:20,750
It was I want to make life better for top
producers.

458
00:28:21,198 --> 00:28:25,538
because there's so many beginners and part
timers and losers in my business.

459
00:28:25,558 --> 00:28:31,578
And the overhead is wasted on trying to
make one out of 10 successful and watching

460
00:28:31,578 --> 00:28:33,478
nine out of 10 fail.

461
00:28:33,598 --> 00:28:39,958
And so my idea was why not do this co -op
only with good successful people you were

462
00:28:39,958 --> 00:28:44,998
proud to be working with and us keep the
majority of the money and have the

463
00:28:44,998 --> 00:28:46,398
lifestyle we wanted.

464
00:28:46,598 --> 00:28:50,062
And so when your passion is that, uh,

465
00:28:50,062 --> 00:28:54,442
There's a reason for what I'm doing this
and it's not chasing the almighty buck.

466
00:28:54,582 --> 00:28:55,962
You can't quit.

467
00:28:56,122 --> 00:28:57,182
That's, that's your life.

468
00:28:57,182 --> 00:28:59,402
That's, that's the dream you add.

469
00:28:59,402 --> 00:29:01,482
My dream wasn't to make millions.

470
00:29:01,482 --> 00:29:01,982
I did.

471
00:29:01,982 --> 00:29:06,742
I certainly did, but you can get
everything in the world you want.

472
00:29:06,742 --> 00:29:10,182
As long as you help enough other people
get what they want.

473
00:29:10,362 --> 00:29:16,362
And so, uh, I think that's, that just
comes to the stick to the, the grit, the

474
00:29:16,362 --> 00:29:18,402
ambition that I will not fail.

475
00:29:18,402 --> 00:29:19,716
I will not quit.

476
00:29:19,743 --> 00:29:24,963
Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's really well
said I want to remind everybody this is

477
00:29:24,963 --> 00:29:30,083
the accelerator with Michael Kahn if we're
the companion podcast to the angel Make

478
00:29:30,083 --> 00:29:35,423
sure to sign up for a sub stack Email
newsletter which delivers all podcasts

479
00:29:35,423 --> 00:29:42,383
right to your email box We're also up on
Spotify and YouTube with audio and video

480
00:29:42,383 --> 00:29:48,673
and then on all the major podcast
platforms audible Amazon Apple and others

481
00:29:48,673 --> 00:29:49,215
that don't

482
00:29:49,215 --> 00:29:51,095
just begin with the letter A.

483
00:29:51,095 --> 00:29:58,525
Our guest today is, it's really been a
privilege, the founder of Remax, Dave

484
00:29:58,525 --> 00:29:58,955
Lineger.

485
00:29:58,955 --> 00:30:01,355
He has written a new book.

486
00:30:01,355 --> 00:30:02,545
It's out, right Dave?

487
00:30:02,545 --> 00:30:03,635
The Perfect Ten.

488
00:30:03,635 --> 00:30:05,965
Is it out and can you buy it now?

489
00:30:06,758 --> 00:30:14,911
The official publication date is March the
24th or 26th.

490
00:30:14,911 --> 00:30:17,331
Coming up, coming up soon in a couple
weeks.

491
00:30:17,331 --> 00:30:20,711
But I want to say like I've read, I've
read big portions of this book.

492
00:30:20,711 --> 00:30:21,281
I read a lot.

493
00:30:21,281 --> 00:30:25,001
I've read a lot of self -help books and I
think this is really one of the best ones

494
00:30:25,001 --> 00:30:31,171
I've read in part because you, you kind of
incorporate a lot of other ideas and other

495
00:30:31,171 --> 00:30:37,691
books just as you're, you're just as you
were a great listener as a CEO.

496
00:30:37,691 --> 00:30:43,311
So we want to thank you for so much for
being with us and wish you best of luck.

497
00:30:43,374 --> 00:30:44,354
Thank you, Michael.

498
00:30:44,354 --> 00:30:45,271
That was fun.

499
00:30:45,271 --> 00:30:47,591
and the snows of Colorado.

500
00:30:48,231 --> 00:30:50,271
And thank you all out there.

501
00:30:50,271 --> 00:30:55,231
As we like to say, we'll be back with
another podcast before you know it.