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Kosta: In this episode, I’m speaking with Kerry Mantziounis, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Ultimate, a brokerage in Toronto, Ontario. Kerry is by far one of the most hardest working realtors, if not individuals that I’ve ever met I what I love about Kerry is his focus on personal investment, meaning investing in yourself and your own knowledge. He talks about this and establishing the right mindset to be successful at a lot of fun chatting with Kerry, and I think you’ll come away with a ton of useful information in this episode, so I hope you enjoy it. So Kerry, thank you so much for joining me today. I really do appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Amazing. So Kerry. First, if you don’t mind just tell us, tell our audience a bit about your professional background as a realtor, how you got started and sort of where your business is at today.
Kerry: Great question. Um, well I started when I was a 24 and uh, been in the business for 13 years full time. You, I want him to be in the business from 15 actually. And uh, always liked the business aspect of things and uh, finished all my uh, business uh, schooling and then I got into real estate when I was 24.
Kosta: Alright, so you said 13 years as a realtor? Thirteen years. Yeah. So, so I’m curious to hear from you. So you’ve been a realtor now 13 years. What would you say differentiates you as a realtor compared to the other 50,000 realtors in the Toronto area?
Kerry: Well, what differentiates me, I would say is, um, I still use the same approach from day one until now is being honest with the clients.
Kerry: And a lot of agents I find are afraid to be honest, are afraid to, but they don’t want to put the work in because you got to put a lot of work in and when you’re really taking care of the client, um, and it may not pan out for you all the time, but again, I come from a school of thought honesty’s the best policy because then you might not make the sale today, you’ll make it tomorrow and you’ll get a lot of referrals out of it. And that’s the same model I’ve had from day one.
Kosta: I liked what you said there, that you’ve done the same thing since day one. And that’s consistency. And as with any business you’re in, whether it be, you know, my type of business or being a realtor, being consistent in what you do I think is so important and just pay so much dividends down the road. And that’s, you’re right. A lot of people fail to realize that long term vision.
Kerry: Yes. And then even clients that I’ve had now that are coming back to me buying a second or third property or an investment property, they know that they’re going to get the same service or even as the years go on, I’m even getting better and better at what I do and when they’re referring me business, they know how I’m going to handle that person. So it’s very important that you are consistent and consistency is the name of the game, I think
Kosta: For sure. You touched upon referrals, like how important do you think a referral business is in real estate?
Kerry: Very important because um, for me it’s interesting. When I got the business there was about 21,000 agents when I started and now there’s 50 50. 1,000 doesn’t make a difference to me because it’s always that two percent that are doing all the business. And when you work a referral based business, it doesn’t matter where the market is, doesn’t matter up or down. To be honest with you. Sometimes when the market goes down, I’m even more busier because there’s a lot of people out there looking for better realtors. When the market’s up, uh, you know, if things are selling kind of on their own, a lot of times having a better realtor. Yeah, you can’t get more money, but I find when the market shifts the other way, people are looking for that better realtor, so things tend to get a little bit busier.
Kosta: No, it’s true. I mean, I think at the end of the day, quality always prevailed over anything. So
Kerry: Yeah.
Kosta: One thing, Kerry, that I truly admire and respect about you is that, you know, ever since I’ve known you, you, you’ve been one of the very few people I know who invest a lot of time and effort into perfecting your craft and learning and just continuously trying to better yourself at what you do every single day. Um, can you share some strategies or some tips on what you do to continuously get better at your profession?
Kerry: Well, if you really think about, think about what happened that tell you right now and whoever’s listening to this, it’s very important. You can go spend all the money you want on advertising, doing this, doing that in the next new thing. But when you spend your money and your time on developing your skills, you as a person, you and your business, that money is never lost it. Once you build the skill, if you stop putting money into that, you’ll never lose that skill. When you stop putting money in advertising, it stops your full business comes in and stops. So the one thing is I keep on building and developing my skills. I pay. I have a mindset coach, I have a real estate coach. I’m always developing my skills and getting better and better at what I do and I’m more efficient with everything I do.
Kosta: That’s so true. I love what you said. There are, you know, when people think about investments like advertising, it’s very, it’s a very tangible Roi. Like if you put x amount of dollars into an ad campaign, you can expect x number of leads. But what I think a lot of people fail to realize is that personal investment in yourself is not quantitative at all. Like if you invest in a personal coach, life coach, real estate coach, or whatever the case may be, uh, it’s on quantitative. So you’re not able to see the benefits in front of your face right away, uh, but the internal skills and knowledge you acquire stay with you forever, like you mentioned. And because of that, I think people just simply failed to do it.
Kerry: Yeah, because everybody in this day and age wants instant results. And when you, when you have that mentality with anything you do, even in your personal life, you’ll never get the results. So you have to have a longterm strategy law, like have patients, but you got to put the time in and make the mistakes, learn from those mistakes. You have to really analyze what you’ve done wrong. How can you improve? And I find when you’re developing your skills, you just get better and better what you do and want to get. Good example is I could pay and get for advertising and get all these leads, but if my skills are not to the highest standard, I’m going to lose nine middle those 10 leads. But if my skill is high, I’ll get at least eight or seven out of 10 leads
Kosta: Didn’t convert them. Exactly. So you touched upon a few of the things you do like a, you know, real estate coach, a mindset coach as well.
Kerry: Yeah. Mindset, real estate coach, tapping more into the mindset because I’m the biggest, I think issue with any business is your mindset. What’s between your two years, your brain there is your worst enemy and if you can’t control that, you’re done.
Kosta: Absolutely. And I like that. And you’d go to a lot of conferences as well. What was it? Any, any conference that sort of stuck out to the most?
Kerry: Yeah, I, uh, I’m, I’m involved with the Mike Ferry Organization and also, uh, with uh, John to Blair’s coaching. Um, and both those coaching, uh, platforms I find are very like the top end of the industry. And uh, yeah, it’s good to be around when you go to these seminars, it’s good to be around like minded top producing agents because when you surround yourself around people that are successful are doing better than you, your, you gravitate to that, you, you’re always in a positive attitude. It’s things changed. Start to change around you.
Kosta: For sure. I couldn’t agree more on that. We touched upon this a little bit before, but you know, the market is obviously constantly changing. You see cycles come and go, which is very natural. Um, but I think it takes a lot of persistence and consistency like we talked about to withstand a, any of these forces that come your way, especially in real estate markets. Uh, so what would you say are some of the biggest challenges you face as a realtor today?
Kerry: Uh, the biggest challenges I faced. That’s a good question. Um, that’s actually a question I ask my clients all the time. What’s your biggest challenge? It’s a very important question to ask and a lot of people in business don’t ask that question. That’s a very good. Um, I would say in this you’re bombarded with so many ways of tackling the business. So again, it comes back to the mindset of things and what you really want in your business. What do you want in your life? When you’re clear on what you want, you could take things one step at a time rather than being bombarded with I should do a bit of this I shouldn’t be doing and then you’re taking from your schedule is all over the place because most people are not clear on what they want. So, uh, again, going back to the mindset coaching that I’m getting, it’s really helped me with being clear on what I want and narrowing things more, a weekly, quarterly, and, and I just go after it that way and, and I have more peace of mind when I’m working.
Kosta: That’s a good approach. I mean just having a goal at the end of the day, whether it be a monthly, quarterly, yearly goal and then just sort of reverse engineer. So like what do you have to do every week or every day or every month to reach that goal. So yeah, totally makes sense. Yeah. Um, from what I know of you carry, you seem to be very disciplined and inhabit focused, which I think is great and very important. If you want to be successful in anything you do a big problem. I see a lot of realtors face is time management. So as a realtor, you know, you really don’t have a fixed schedule in your day to day. Um, so are there any daily rituals that you do that help plan your days a bit better and help you get started on the right foot? They were able to share?
Kerry: Oh yes, that’s, that’s a very good question because I had a big break through about a month and a half ago that I’d like to share. Um, I was always going into that circle of I wanted to follow a schedule and I was getting off the schedule and uh, something I worked on with my mindset coach was that he caught was you need a hire, a personal trainer. You need to hire a person who was telling me for a year, you need to hire a personal trainer. Why was he telling you that? Because if I start my day off with meeting the personal trainer in the morning, which now I wake up at five in the morning compared to seven, 7:30, I wake up at five, meet my personal trainer, 5:45. That’s how I start my day and someone’s waiting for me. I’m paying them. That was the biggest breakthrough I had a month and a half ago and since then my schedule actually has. I had been following my schedule a lot more religiously and stayed on target since I’ve been doing that.
Kosta: So That’s interesting. Do you think that change was because the first thing you do when you wake up, like you’re, you’re instantly accountable for someone else.
Kerry: What? Instantly accountable and it’s the structure. Every day’s the same. I get up at five, boom, I’m off, I’m going to the gym.
Kosta: Interesting. So for you, was it like you needed that personal trainer just to be able to be able to wake up at five every morning? Was I what it took?
Kerry: Okay. Because the accountability was there, but also guess what happens as you’re doing this? It takes, it takes about two, three weeks to get used to it, but then you start feeling good. You have more energy than you’re eating better. Then everything starts to align. Right? So it’s. But it’s more to it than just I have to meet the personal trainer. I also have a strong why of why I’m even doing what I’m doing and I’m present to my wife every day. I read my why every day today. I read it three times and every time I read it I was more and more motivated to make my calls today. Amazing. Yeah.
Kosta: Perfect. Um, so switching gears a little bit, what are some of your favorite and most effective marketing strategies that I’ve given you the most Roi that you can share with their audience? And I know offline you mentioned a lot of success in your cold calling for example. So just wondering if you can share some strategies that have worked well for you.
Kerry: Yeah, so right now my two pillars of, of me calling is calling my database, so past clients, center of influence, and then my other pillar is calling for sale by owners because a lot of these people are trying to sell on their own, but 95 percent of them end up hiring a realtor there. There’s a lot more competition going after those, that pillar. But again, it’s made me push my skills up to a higher level because of that. And I specifically go after those two. Those are my two pillars of business. Would you say you’re on the phone every single day? Monday to Friday for at least minimum two hours in the morning to three hours. I’m on the phones.
Kosta: Okay. How many hours on average do you bang out in the day?
Kerry: My Minimum Standard, I try to do at least 15. Sometimes I do more, sometimes less. Um, it matters which pillar I’m calling. If I’m calling for sale by owners, I get through a lot more. My database, it takes a little bit longer because, you know, I, I certain people like thought I like to talk longer so it could go a little bit longer, but I have a certain goal of how many I have to call a week.
Kosta: Perfect. Um, so you mentioned, uh, you know, using your database to go through and sift through leads and call them, uh, what are some ways that you’re leveraging technology to help you either grow or be more efficient in your business?
Kerry: Um, well I have a great website with web for realty. That’s one way. Nice plug. Thank you. Um, I tried. It was your first, your first customer. I believe
Kosta: You’re definitely one of the, yeah, were probably, if not the first one of the handful of first.
Kerry: I mean I had a lot of compliments on your website, like the, the, like the how clean it was and all, how it was structured. Um, and then just off of facebook, Linkedin, I do a lot of youtube videos, client testimonials and videos of the properties that I list and promoting open houses. Um, so a lot of things like that I, I do, but one seminar a year or two for a buyers and sellers, which using social media to promote it for future. I do want to do a lot more social media. But again, my, my number one priority would be to do my prospecting that I do every day and I would consider to me, I think it’s important with the social media, uh, but the first step is to have good structure and to do your physical calls to your, your, your database first. But social media is important and as a, as a secondary with that, because it’s interesting because there’s some people you try to call and you can’t get ahold of, but when you send out an email or a something on social media, all of a sudden they’re responding. It’s interesting. Some people respond that way only. Yeah. I mean, I, I
Kosta: Totally agree. I think social media is so, so important. Especially nowadays. You just got to look at people’s behavior and you know, you look around, go walk into a mall or a coffee shop and you’ll see people are just on their phones, uh, know whether it be surfing the Internet, going on social media, facebook, instagram. So knowing that people’s behavior is on this device and on social media, you got to ask yourself as a business, okay, if people are here, what can I do to, to get in front of, get, get, get some of the people’s attention at least. So that’s all social media and just, you know, effective ways to penetrate, um, this constant stream of information that people are consuming. It’s tough, but I think it is very, very important.
Kerry: Yeah, I think creating good, like bringing value instead of saying, Oh, I’m number one, I’m this, I’m that, that stuff, you know, I look at that, I’m like, okay, you got to really give value to people and then people will see that and then you’re building your brand that way. Right? So that’s the way. If I go on social media to build more of a presence, it would be to do that. That’s why I do video testimonials. That’s why a host seminars for buyers and sellers to give them value.
Kosta: I think one of the biggest mistakes a lot of realtors make on social media and most realtors fall into this category, unfortunately it was like all of their posts are about like the latest listing they sold or know their current listing, which is great, don’t get me wrong, but you know, if I’m following this, this realtor and I’m the audience, I’m not looking to sell my house or buy a house right now. So that content you’re putting out there is totally irrelevant to me. So you’re just finding other creative ways to get someone like myself. So tension. And that’s a lot of people as well. Not everyone is looking to buy or sell at the moment. So as a realtor, what other value besides what listings and what you sold a can get people’s attention I think is very important.
Kerry: Yes, I agree.
Kosta: So switching gears a little bit again. Uh, I’m a numbers guy. I love getting, just getting into the revenue commissioners margins, all that fun stuff. Are you able to share with our audience how many transactions you’ve closed either last year or plan to close this year?
Kerry: Yeah, my range on my individual agent. So it’s just myself, a no assistant. I’m actually hiring an assistant so in two weeks I’m going to have a full time assistant finally. Um, and my range is between 25 and 30 a year on my own.
Kosta: Nice. And the. Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to say, has that been like steady consistent or has it been growing?
Kerry: Grand jury? Consistent for the last three, four years since I’ve been doing coaching and really Tony and my skills up, I like, I increased because I used to have her a little bit. The little 20 before.
Kosta: Yeah. Nice. Solid numbers or are those all any leases there or is that just a.
Kerry: no, I don’t count leases for my transactions. If I, I know what my average transaction. A commission. So with all the leases I do add up to that only then I count that as a transaction. Right.
Kosta: I got a very solid numbers. Thanks for sharing that. Um, any, any words of wisdom that you would give to either a new real estate agent or an agent that’s looking to take their business to the next level?
Kerry: Yeah, new agents. I would just say before you decide even what brokerage to go with because they’re all gonna give you there, you should join us because of this, this and that. You should be really clear on what you want to get out of the brokerage first because sometimes all the fancy technology or what they’re offering you might not be what you need. My opinion is when you’re starting off, you got go somewhere where they’re gonna offer you very good hands on training. You’re gonna, learn practical. Uh, you’re, you’re gonna learn, you’re gonna actually be out there and do stuff and someone’s going to hold you accountable to it. That’s what you should look for when you’re starting off because I, I find too many brokerages are recruiting people as fast as they come and they go out, but they’re still making their money because that business model still works, but you should go somewhere where they’re actually the actually know what they’re doing as far as like for skill building. Um, I, I think that’s more important.
Kosta: Yeah. Think that’s great advice. It makes a lot of sense. Um, so about Gary, I do want to be mindful of your time. I do end off each chat with what I call the top three. So number one, your top real estate or a business book.
Kerry: Oh, my top real estate book, which is interesting because my, one of my coaches wrote this book and I highly recommend it for anybody starting off or anybody in the business that’s been in the business for a long time. Uh, it’s called unleashed secrets to break through the 11 mindset barriers to dramatically increase your real estate sales today. So that book is written by John Tumblers.
Kosta: Alright. So I’m not that into the show notes. I think a lot of people can go some definitely great value from that book.
Kerry: Oh yeah. And it’s all about the mindset, right? Which is so important. And he’s a very good book. I read it already twice. And uh, you’re almost any book you read, you, it’s always good to be reading more than once. You’ll, you’ll be in a different stage in your career. But this book, it’s a book you could read over and over again.
Kosta: Nice. Thanks for sharing that number to already know the answer to this one by your top vacation spot.
Kerry: Greece. Number two is Bahamas.
Kosta: Perfect. Uh, and number three. Um, so Kerry, how old are you? I just turned 39 on Saturday on the 13th of all. Happy Belated. Thank you. Uh, so if you can go back 19 years, what do you wish your 20 year old self knew?
Kerry: Like 20 or so year old self from you? You don’t let. It’s an interesting question you ask. It’s a good question, but I wouldn’t change anything.
Kerry: Because see, a lot of people say, Oh, I should’ve done this. Should’ve done that. But you know what? That’s what life is about you. You make mistakes, you learn things because that’s what was supposed to happen.
Kosta: Very well said. Yup. And uh, lastly, if people wanted to just get a hold of you or reach out, where’s the best place they can find you?
Kerry: Um, best place is uh, my cell phone is 416 76 5379. Or if they shoot me an email and I’ll carry you home.com. So That’s kerryyouhome.com
Kosta: Perfect. All that information in the show notes. Kerry, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I’m out a lot of fun. We should definitely do it again some time.
Kerry: Yeah, and thank you for, uh, for having me and I really appreciate it and I’m very proud of you and your company growing as they’ve had and uh, doing things like this. This is good.
Kosta: Thanks so much. And likewise, it’s been a pleasure watching your business grow over the year so I truly inspiring as well. Thank you. All right, Kerry, we’ll talk soon.
Kosta: Thank you so much for listening to the Top Agent podcast by Web4Realty. By the way, we’re providing exclusive promos to our listeners, visit web4realty.com/topagent and get your first month on us. That’s web4realty.com/topagent to get your first month of service completely free until next time. Over and out. Peace.
Subscribe to Top Agent Podcast on Apple, Google, and Stitcher or take a moment to read the transcript below.By the way, we’re providing exclusive promos to our listeners, visit web4realty.com/topagent and get your first month on us.
