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In this podcast hosted by the trailblazing founder of RE/MAX, Dave Liniger, we discover the secrets of those who have overcome challenges, pushed past their own limits, and experienced the best life has to offer.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:01
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Welcome back to Ambition and Grit with Dave Lineker. In today's episode, Dave shares his journey of scaling and expanding Remax to become an internationally recognized brand. He discusses his mistakes, setbacks and the lessons he learned along the way. He also gets practical advice for what to consider when scaling your business. Let's tune in. You know, the thing that was amazing about starting Remax was how innocent and naive I was as this young entrepreneur had no idea what the road and the journey was going to be like and how much I had to learn.
00:00:40:03 - 00:01:02:11
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You don't know what you don't know. And so I naively went in thinking, This is the greatest concept's ever been brought about in the real estate business. I can make it an overnight success. My plans were take over the Denver market. Then the Colorado market and expand throughout the United States. It was much more difficult than what I anticipated, but I guess it worked.
00:01:02:12 - 00:01:28:08
Unknown
In 1975, just two years after starting Remax. Dave and his team decided to expand outside of Colorado. A young man from Kansas called and wanted to start a new Remax franchise in his state. The other partner called me up. Name was Dennis. This is Dave. I'm fascinated with what you're doing, and I'm pretty limited on my capital. But would you consider selling me the franchise?
00:01:28:10 - 00:01:48:19
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And I said, Sure, of course. At the time, I think he was 25. I started Remax when I was 26 or 27. And so by that time, I'm an older man that's been 29 or so. It didn't bother me at all. We were just young, kindred spirits of take on the world. Those early years of expansion were exciting.
00:01:48:21 - 00:02:14:06
Unknown
Having survived a few tumultuous years at the start, the Remax concept started to gain more attention and interest. When we went to Kansas City that the concern never even crossed my mind. I knew the sort of problems we had, and I knew they were going to be identical in Kansas City. That's a state old, rusty business model that doesn't like to see change.
00:02:14:08 - 00:02:48:03
Unknown
And here were some young whippersnappers coming in saying, we're going to disrupt the industry. We can change everything. And so we were so naive to think we can do this. Dave leaned into this fresh momentum, and when Remax received franchising interest from outside the U.S., he didn't hesitate to capitalize on the opportunity. About a year after we opened Kansas City, the press continues to pick up that we were doing something different and we got an inquiry from a broker in Calgary, Canada.
00:02:48:05 - 00:03:13:14
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He flew down for the operation by that time we had eight offices open in the metro Denver area. He says, Well, I think this is the wave of the future. And so we knew nothing about international expansion. All we knew was he wanted to buy a franchise and we wanted to sell our franchise. And so with the help of a pretty low entry level attorneys, we managed to get it done.
00:03:13:16 - 00:03:46:00
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Today, Remax has a presence in more countries and territories than any other real estate brand from a single office that opened in 1973 in Denver. Remax has grown into a global real estate network with more than 140,000 sales associates in over 9000 offices and a presence in more than 110 countries and territories. But to run an organization of this size, they've had to continue to grow as a leader is an interesting fact that is quoted all the time.
00:03:46:00 - 00:04:13:23
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Is that just because you're a great salesperson doesn't mean you're going to be a great leader or a great manager. I disagree with that. The characteristics of a great salesperson are very similar to the characteristics of a great leader. The service oriented you care about the people you love, your product. You're totally involved with the whole process of I believe in this and those are the things that create leadership.
00:04:14:01 - 00:04:37:09
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The problem is you have to figure out how to develop the other skill set that you don't have. It's often claimed, and I believe this is true. It's better to build on your strengths and hire for your weaknesses. It is to try to correct your weaknesses. However, in the position I was in, we started with a very small company and I got to grow with the company.
00:04:37:11 - 00:05:01:05
Unknown
I pretty well screwed everything up for two or three years. The industry was trying to drive us out of business, but I was making enough mistakes on my own that I could have done by myself. But I wanted to win. I refused to file bankruptcy. I refused to throw in the towel. I'm a street fighter by nature. I've been in three sets of property, which is three styles Black belts and all of them.
00:05:01:07 - 00:05:20:03
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And you learn that you never lose as long as you get up one more time. So I tried to figure out, how can I become the leader that my people want me to be? One thing I had the personal courage to look at them and say, I know what's coming up. You all have 20 years more experience than I do.
00:05:20:05 - 00:05:40:02
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I'm a superstar when it comes to sales. I don't have a lifetime of experience. What am I doing right? What do you like about what I do? What am I doing wrong? What do you dislike? If you were to train me like your son, what would you say to me? How would you mold me into the leader? You want to follow?
00:05:40:04 - 00:06:02:05
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And I made a lifetime commitment to be a lifetime learner. I read book after book after book. I didn't read them for pleasure. I underline. I talked about it and Dr. Gayle and the other officers. And I'd say, How do you think this applies to us? How can we use this to build agreements? We create the money together.
00:06:02:05 - 00:06:26:11
Unknown
And we went to conventions and seminars. It wasn't a company paying the bills. It really didn't have a company. It was our money. We didn't go to a convention to have cocktails and glad hand and shake hands and make contacts. We went to learn what are the best people in the industry doing that we're not doing. We came home from it and took the notes and didn't put them on the shelf.
00:06:26:13 - 00:06:55:19
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We sat there and said, All right, we spent three days of this course. What can make us money today? What can we implement today with the resources we've got that can turn this company around? So trying to keep them sailing became a lifetime quest of how do you imitate other people's success? Becoming a lifelong learner was a key way they've gained the skills and experience to scale Remax to the size it is today.
00:06:55:21 - 00:07:14:17
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But he also believes this critical mindset helped him succeed as an owner of a company. You have stakeholders. You've got your employees. They've given up a job to take your job and if you can't make it work, they're unemployed. You've got vendors that give you money or product and they're going to get paid and they may go out of business.
00:07:14:19 - 00:07:37:03
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So you have to go into this thing as I am a responsible individual, I will take some risks, but necessary risk. But I won't be a riverboat gambler. For instance, if you only got one office and you have a wild idea, throw the dice as you fail, you fail. If you get 9000 officers like a company like Remax, that's a big boat.
00:07:37:05 - 00:08:04:09
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And if you want to change direction in a big boat, it takes a long time and a long distance to get it up and turned. And so you have to just be cognizant of fail fast, fail often, and you'll be a billionaire. It's awful. There are a handful Facebook, Amazon, Google, these companies, they beat the odds. It was one in a thousand.
00:08:04:11 - 00:08:36:16
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Ever started to scale up and have that kind of power? And so I believe in the traditional way of doing business of slow steady is smart. Take reasonable chances, build your expertise and scale as you have the capability many times. Business growth is not without risk. In Dave's perspective, how you handle negative emotions like fear and anxiety is critically important to being able to successfully scale.
00:08:36:18 - 00:09:02:15
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When you think about building your own business, there's a tremendous amount of emotion involved. There's the emotion of anticipation. Excitement. Tuesdays are the there's always the negative of fear and anxiety. And what happens if this doesn't work? And what if I sign a ten year lease and the company goes bankrupt and then I go bankrupt? And so you have to face the fears.
00:09:02:17 - 00:09:28:19
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I've often heard the quote, Courage comes from confidence. Confidence comes from experience. And without a doubt. That's a true statement. Fear or anxiety should not hold you back from leveling up your business. But Dave does believe that scaling isn't always the right strategy for every business owner. The personality of business owners is distinctly different from person to person.
00:09:28:21 - 00:09:53:12
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Some people are more than happy to maybe build a restaurant and say, I put my heart and soul into this. It's first class. We have great customers. We're making a profit. This is a good life. And others have this unquenchable ambition. This is the time that Mountain lake is their peak. There's nothing in front of me I want to build.
00:09:53:14 - 00:10:17:21
Unknown
And in my case, I happen to be incredibly ambitious. And every deal person would do it. Each person has to find their own world. I've said my world was I'd be the number one real estate company in the world. It takes ambition to grow your business, to capture more of the market share and to grow your brand. But it also takes patience and consistency.
00:10:17:23 - 00:10:46:06
Unknown
My reputation in the industry is based on real estate and mortgages, which we scaled up incredibly successful. But it was not an overnight success. It took us five years and Remax to 300 agents. Five years later, you're number ten. We're at 3000. Ten years later, we're at 30,000. And ten years later, we're at 90,000. So it looks like the hockey stick going up.
00:10:46:08 - 00:11:14:06
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But understand, it was 30 years, 365 days and 55 nights, and we worked them all. Scalability starts small and it compounds just like interest compounds. And the longer you're at it, the better you're at it, the better you do. So when you think about scaling your business up, you're just not going to have the overnight success. Few people do it, but millions more try.
00:11:14:08 - 00:11:44:05
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It doesn't happen. Now a serial entrepreneur and investor, Dave has owned many different types of businesses. Additionally, he and Gail have a privately owned golf course they use to raise millions of dollars to support charitable causes. He continues to enjoy the challenge of learning new businesses and skills. It's interesting to look at the differences in businesses. For instance, in expanding real estate offices was relatively easy songs.
00:11:44:05 - 00:12:17:04
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You had the proper zoning. Lots of choices of office buildings to go into fairly easy task. And we've succeeded. We have 9000 offices in the Remax organization, 110 to 120 countries tri food service. I walked into food service with some background in it. I had a catering company and a golf course and never really ran a restaurant. When I started trying to think about how do we franchise this restaurant concept, all of a sudden, it was not just any office building would do.
00:12:17:06 - 00:12:42:05
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You have to have fire suppression equipment, you have fryers, you have a grease trap. All these things that come into play and the permitting to build a roasting office that's already up, you just remodeling it. Maybe 30 days permitting after COVID, in some places it's over a year just to get the building permits to change the structure to the concept that you want.
00:12:42:06 - 00:13:04:13
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And so nothing is ever as simple, as easy as you think until you've actually experienced it. Walk a mile in my shoes. And when you finally figure out this is a whole different ballgame, I have a good skill set, but I don't have this skill set. It takes humility to admit what you don't know and hard work to find the answers.
00:13:04:15 - 00:13:28:06
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Being a business owner requires you to find unique ways to solve problems. Those that are going to be incredibly successful in business. Have an infinite curiosity. How can I do this better? How can I make my customers happier? How can I make more widgets with less material? How can I do this with less waste? How can I make an impact on my people's lives?
00:13:28:08 - 00:13:58:22
Unknown
It's a journey that you never reach the finish line. Dave is now the founder of Area 15 Ventures, a Colorado based private equity business focused on emerging franchisors and high growth businesses who require an investment to scale to the next level. He shares what he and his team look for in the ventures they choose to back. When I think about investing, I'm looking at number one for unique product or service that gives you a competitive advantage.
00:13:59:00 - 00:14:24:18
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You might have new great ideas that maybe nine out of those ten sale. So you have to be very cautious with the number one. Number two, is it scalable? Can you replicated across multiple cities, states, countries, whatever it might be? But then number three, it always comes down to management. You have the right leaders to take it where you want to go.
00:14:24:20 - 00:14:53:00
Unknown
As Dave identifies, it's important to consider what your long term goals are and what skills you need to scale your business. I'm fascinated with different businesses. If I kept selling real estate residential houses 60 years ago, I would have quit. I have been bored to tears. It's like, Give me a break to do this. I don't know how somebody becomes a teacher and goes to school and teaches 30 years and retires.
00:14:53:02 - 00:15:17:21
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I couldn't do it. The variety that business gives you is that I kept myself young and fresh by going into lots of different businesses because it challenged me to think different. And all of a sudden, the horse business, I realized things that I was doing in that that would improve my relationships in the real estate business. And so it's just this unending quest.
00:15:17:23 - 00:15:40:18
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Thanks so much for tuning in to today's show to find more episodes of the show and learn more about Dave and his story of ambition and grit, visit ambition and grit. Tor.com. And if you love the show, be sure to hit, subscribe and leave a rating and a review wherever you get your podcast. Until next time. Remember everything in life worth having takes a little ambition and grit.
00:15:40:18 - 00:15:55:12