Ricky Carruth: Zero To Diamond

REE #229 Transcript

[00:00:00] Ricky Carruth: If I'm going to put my success in somebody else's hands, I don't think I'll be very successful in this business. This is a personal branding business. It's a conversation and consultation business. You have to talk to people. The more people you talk to and the better you are at getting them to open up and tell you what they want to do, the more deals you're going to close.

[00:00:22] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Today's guest is one of the most popular real estate authors, podcasters, coaches, and speakers. He has over 270,000 followers on Instagram, where he regularly shares real estate tips and knowledge.

[00:00:56] Tracy Hayes: He has written two books, Zero to Diamond and List to Last: How to Survive Every Real Estate Market Crash. He’s sold over $1 billion in gross volume sales as a solo agent. He’ll also be a keynote speaker at the October 15th event here in St. Augustine, sponsored by the St. Augustine St. Johns Board of Realtors. Let’s welcome this amazing real estate influencer, who says, "Reach out to me if you need help" and gives so much of his time to others—Ricky Carruth, welcome to the show!

[00:01:27] Ricky Carruth: Oh man, I’m honored, bro.

[00:01:28] Tracy Hayes: I’m honored to have you on. I’m so glad! I've been talking to agents around here. My bank, my daytime job, is a sponsor, and I’ve been reaching out to all the agents I’ve had on the podcast—over 200. Many are from Jacksonville and might not usually get St. Johns Board updates, but they’re excited you’re coming. So, hopefully, we’ll see a good variety from all over Northeast Florida.

[00:01:56] Ricky Carruth: Good, man. Yeah, I’m super excited. It’s going to be a two-hour session, so there’s going to be a lot of stuff. It’s going to feel a bit like drinking from a fire hose, you know? But that's good because not all the information will be relevant to everyone. Everyone will take something valuable from it. I’m excited to share.

[00:02:20] Tracy Hayes: Right. I've been digging into your content. I was just watching one of your recent talks. You've been traveling around a lot, doing trainings. What are you seeing with the whole National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement situation? What are you hearing from agents as you visit different boards and speak to people?

[00:02:44] Ricky Carruth: It’s a huge opportunity, honestly. It's not an opportunity for people who don’t want to improve their skills or grow as an agent and businessperson. But agents are actually getting more money on the buyer’s side because now they’re negotiating their own commission. Experienced agents who know their value are thriving, but newer agents who don’t understand their value, just like the general public often doesn’t, are struggling.

[00:03:27] Ricky Carruth: There was a study where 50% of the public thought their buyer's agent only worked 15 hours on a deal, but in reality, it's 80 to 100 hours. That’s part of the problem—we haven’t done a good job of explaining our value as agents. But that’s going to change. Agents who understand their worth are negotiating higher commissions, and it's leveling the playing field. Less experienced agents are getting paid less because they haven't built up the skills yet. It’s a natural progression, and I think it’s a good thing for the industry overall.

[00:04:56] Tracy Hayes: I’d love to see a system where agents document their time, almost like lawyers do when they track hours. It would be great for people to see everything that goes into a deal.

[00:05:06] Ricky Carruth: Actually, there’s already a company doing that. It’s called Rayse, spelled R-A-Y-S-E. You can link it with your buyer, and it tracks everything—mileage, phone calls, consultations. It generates a report at the end of the transaction showing how much time and effort you put into the deal. This helps justify the commission you’re earning.

[00:06:33] Tracy Hayes: That’s brilliant. Imagine showing a report like that during a listing presentation or a buyer consultation, demonstrating all the work that goes into a sale.

[00:07:00] Ricky Carruth: Exactly. And one of the biggest issues we’ve had is that agents weren’t educating their clients about how we get paid. That’s how we ended up in this mess. Now, we’re seeing the same problem with buyer agency agreements. Agents aren’t fully explaining them, and clients are signing without fully understanding the terms. There’s still a gap in communication that we need to address.

[00:08:33] Tracy Hayes: It’s like history repeating itself, just with different paperwork.

[00:08:36] Ricky Carruth: Exactly. There’s a lot that NAR, local MLSs, and the legal teams haven’t thought through yet. But for agents, this is mostly media hype and fearmongering. The good news is, 98% of sellers are still paying the buyer agent fee, whether upfront or negotiated into the contract. What will change is that sellers will stop offering compensation upfront. Instead, everything will be negotiated during the deal. But it’s not going to hurt the industry as much as some people think.

[00:10:00] Ricky Carruth: We’re moving toward a model where listing agents only worry about their client’s net figure, and buyers’ agents negotiate their fees directly with their clients. It’s more transparent and ultimately better for everyone involved. Agents just need to adapt and continue providing value.

[00:13:18] Tracy Hayes:
So, I want to get a little background on you because it was kind of an oddity to see a 20-year-old real estate agent. How did you get started at 20? Was your family already in real estate? What was happening in your life at 19 or 20? It doesn't sound like college was on your radar.

[00:13:38] Ricky Carruth:
Yeah, so my mom owned a hair salon, and my dad owned a roofing business. They both worked in their own businesses—blue-collar, hard workers. My mom had a brick-and-mortar hair salon, and my dad was on the roof laying shingles with his workers and crews. So, that's what I was born into—this hardworking, own-your-business kind of environment. We lived paycheck to paycheck, though they were able to save some money here and there.

I had a football scholarship to Missouri Valley in Marshall, Missouri. I went there for a semester when I was 18, but it was an 18-hour drive. When I came back for Christmas, I realized I didn’t want to go back. It snowed and everything, and I wasn’t into that. So, I did a semester at community college, then went to the University of Alabama. I was planning to walk onto the football team, but I failed a history class and just decided college wasn’t for me. In about a year and a half, I went to three different schools and felt like I was learning the same things I learned in high school. I wasn’t seeing much progress, so I decided to take a real estate class at Shelton State in Tuscaloosa. After going to four colleges in two years, I got my real estate license.

[00:15:00] Tracy Hayes:
But what was it about real estate? This was before shows like HGTV's Million Dollar Listing. What drew you in?

[00:15:46] Ricky Carruth:
Yeah, it was interesting. My mom’s salon was a place where all the local doctors, lawyers, and real estate agents came to get their hair cut. I was the little kid hanging out in the salon because we never had a babysitter. I grew up seeing all these professionals. My dad also roofed houses for a lot of builders, so I saw the real estate signs when I was younger. I didn’t necessarily want to be a real estate agent, but it was always in the back of my mind.

My dad wanted me to be a doctor, and my mom wanted me to be a lawyer. When that didn’t pan out, I gravitated toward real estate. I liked the real estate people—they were nice, professional, and drove the best cars in town. I thought, “That’s something I could do.” They seemed happy and successful.

[00:17:36] Tracy Hayes:
Did you think about the money potential back then, or was it just about seeing their lifestyle?

[00:17:51] Ricky Carruth:
Oh, it was definitely about the money. I saw how hard my parents worked, and they still just made ends meet. We didn’t go without, but they didn’t have much extra—no millionaire lifestyle. So, from a young age, I learned to appreciate simple math. I wasn't great at advanced math, but I understood practical math. For example, with roofing, I knew that if I laid X amount of shingles, I would make X amount of dollars. That simple equation really motivated me.

When I got into real estate, I had to figure out how to apply that same mindset. I realized making calls was like laying shingles—it was the daily grind that led to sales. It took me a while to understand what the real estate equivalent of laying shingles was, but once I did, it all clicked.

[00:19:42] Tracy Hayes:
I love that analogy. So, once you got your license, where did you start? Was there someone mentoring you?

[00:20:12] Ricky Carruth:
Yeah, back then, YouTube didn’t exist, Zillow didn’t exist, and cell phones were just becoming common. As soon as I got my license, I quit roofing and went all in on real estate. After 30 days of doing nothing but real estate, I hadn’t sold anything. I was in the office full-time, about 8-10 hours a day.

There was a guy there named Scott, who had been in the business for about 2-3 years and was crushing it. He was 10 years older than me, but we connected. He was gracious enough to spend time with me, showing me how to write letters, send postcards, find property owners, look up phone numbers, and what scripts to use. He was my first mentor in the business.

After 30 days of no success, I had to go back to roofing. So, I told my dad, "I’m back," and I did that for another seven months. It took me eight months from getting my license to closing my first deal. But I kept pushing.

[00:22:55] Tracy Hayes:
So, what was that first deal like?

[00:23:00] Ricky Carruth:
It was amazing. I got the first listing from a letter I sent, and I’ll never forget it. I was in the truck with my dad when I got the call. The guy told me he wanted to list his property, and I was in disbelief. It felt like euphoria. My grandmother also let me list her condo, so I ended up closing two deals on the same day—my first deals ever. It was $11,000 total, and I thought, "Oh my goodness!"

I kept roofing for about 30 more days, but then I had two more pending deals and two more listings, so I went full-time in real estate. From then on, I was closing about two deals a month. The market blew up, and by the end of 2004, I’d made a million dollars.

[00:25:25] Tracy Hayes:
And then came the market downturn in 2005. How did you adjust when the crash hit?

[00:26:02] Ricky Carruth:
Yeah, when the market crashed, I lost everything. It was a slow bleed. It took six to eight months to deplete my savings, and the crash just kept going. At the time, people were saying, "Give it two years, and the market will rebound." Well, two years passed, and it still wasn’t back. Eventually, I was sleeping in my car and went back to roofing and worked on an oil rig for a year. It was rough.

What I learned through all of that was that closings happen every single day. The market can fluctuate, but it can’t erase your business unless you let it. There’s always enough business for everyone. That realization helped me understand that business is unlimited, and if you build genuine relationships with people, you can create something that lasts regardless of market conditions.

By 2014, I was the top agent in my market, doing over 100 deals a year. It all came from the seeds I planted during the downturn. Now, in a slower market like we have today, it’s time to plant seeds again.

after putting in a lot of hours, then you start to become super disappointed. So you start out on this high, and then you hit this really low point. Most agents can't stomach that emotional [00:33:00] rollercoaster. Every single agent goes through the same thing, right? I don't care how successful you are. When you renew, you've gone through the same experience—starting on a high and then sinking to a low.

And then what happens is you go on another high, you know? You're like, "Okay, this is harder than I thought, but I can do this. Ricky did it; other agents did it." So you hit another high, but it's not as high as the first time. Right? Then you hit another low, but it's not as low as the first low. Eventually, you get to a point where things balance out after a good six months, a year, 18 months, or even 24 months. It's a huge learning curve.

[00:33:35] Tracy Hayes: I noticed that in one of your bios, you talked about having a passion for helping agents, especially the 80 percent that don’t renew their license the first time around. You really have a drive to improve those percentages. You were also the first person to offer free coaching. Can you talk about your passion? I’m sure people listening who are at that 15th event will want some takeaways for themselves, but I’d love to hear about your passion and what you're doing today with your coaching.

[00:34:17] Ricky Carruth: Yeah, I sold my last listing as an agent in March of 2022. In 2017—well, really at the end of 2016—I started writing books and thinking about helping agents. At that time, I wasn’t even thinking about starting a coaching company; it just turned into that. Initially, it was about getting my story out there.

I’m just a roofer from Alabama, making a million bucks a year as a single agent with no assistant. I did it by simply caring about people, taking care of my customers, providing great service, and doing what I said I would do—just being myself.

A lot of agents feel like they have to become someone else, like a high-pressure salesperson, to get business or win a listing. But you don’t. People actually want to know the real, authentic you, and you’ll win more business that way.

We’re not taught this. We’re programmed to believe that leads are scarce, that there’s only one way to get listings, that we have to buy leads, or that social media is the only solution.

When I made my first million in my twenties and then lost everything, I realized that a lot of coaches out there had only sold real estate for a few years, maybe 19 properties, and then they started selling courses. But I took the long route—I made a million, lost it, and then it took me six years of learning hard lessons to get to 100 deals a year. I did that for three years in a row before I even thought about teaching anyone. And when I did, I offered my coaching for free for seven years.

The whole idea behind doing that was seeing the huge failure rate in the industry. No one was really doing anything to address it. I felt like I had something that could help, so I started putting out content, writing books, doing weekly calls, and helping agents in any way I could. Thousands of agents have told me they would’ve quit if it wasn’t for what I taught them. So, it’s working. We’re reducing the failure rate.

[00:36:34] Tracy Hayes: I’ve been listening to your books and watching your presentations on YouTube. What you teach isn’t some sort of secret formula or rocket science, but you’ve clearly made it work. What do you say to those agents who are struggling, maybe feeling like, "I can’t make 50 phone calls a day," or "I’m not great at building relationships"? Some of them are trying to jump straight to being a top producer when they haven’t even built the basics yet. How do you help them take those baby steps and just get started?

[00:37:26] Ricky Carruth: They're immature in their business, like an infant in the business world. They don’t understand the core principles. And what are those principles? It goes back to the Bible, really, and the whole success formula in life: be, do, have.

A lot of people want to have—they want the results—but they don’t want to do what it takes to get there. Some people do the work, but they keep doing the same things over and over, so they don't really get more than what they have.

Few people focus on the be—becoming the person who can do the thing. That means you have to learn new things and master new skills so you can grow. If you're not continuously learning and applying those skills, you won’t have anything new.

So, if someone says, "I can’t call 50 people," or "I’m not good at relationships," okay, but you’re not going to have what you want unless you become the person who can do those things. There’s no way around it. You can’t sell real estate without talking to people.

If you’re not doing what you need to do, then we need to go a step back and focus on becoming the person who can do it. And that’s where serious coaching and training come in.

[00:39:59] Tracy Hayes: You make it sound so clear. Some people have that "gift of gab" and find it easier to just talk to anyone, but for others, it’s more challenging. You talk a lot about creating situations and just talking to people, not necessarily about selling a house right away. Like, "Hey, are you interested in moving up? I have a buyer for your house." It's more about starting conversations. Is that where many agents struggle—getting comfortable just talking to people about what's going on in their lives?

[00:41:13] Ricky Carruth: Yeah, the number one goal in prospecting or lead generation is to get people to open up to you. You want them to tell you what they want to do so you can help them do it. Agents are too focused on trying to close a deal right away—listing that expired property, selling the one they inquired about. But that’s not even the goal. The goal is to understand what they want to do, and they’re not going to tell you that unless they feel comfortable. Your job is to make them feel comfortable enough to open up to you.

That’s the number one skill—making people feel comfortable. If you can’t do that, you won’t close any deals. So, the entire game is about helping people do what they want to do, but first, you have to understand what that is. That’s something I emphasize a lot.

[00:42:21] Tracy Hayes: I loved the way you explained that. It’s almost like a shell game—you’ve got someone who wants to move into a neighborhood, so you're calling around to see if someone else wants to move out. Even if you don’t find that match, you’re still building relationships, right?

[00:42:48] Ricky Carruth: Exactly! You might not find someone who wants to move, but out of 100 calls, you could make six meaningful connections. Maybe three of those turn into lifelong clients. What’s the lifetime value of those clients? It’s astronomical. It could be $50,000 to $100,000 per client, especially with referrals.

I’m trying to help agents build a career. If you plan to be in this business for 10 more years, you should be planting seeds now. In three to five years, all the people you called will come back to you, and you’ll have a lot of deals at once.

Deals happen every day, but the magic is in building those long-term relationships so that when the market is great, they call you.

[00:44:19] Tracy Hayes: I really liked when you asked the crowd how many homes are in the area, and then brought it down to more realistic numbers. It's about finding those people who want to move up or downsize. You're building your CRM, adding them, and staying in touch with information tailored to them.

[00:44:55] Tracy Hayes: ... a little bit defeated, and then after a couple of months, you haven’t sold anything. You’re, you know, reaching out. I’m sure you coach on follow-ups with those people, to nurture them, because now you’ve just entered their world. They’re seeing your stuff, and when that real estate transaction comes along—whether they’re ready to move up, move down, whatever it is—you’re right in front of them.

[00:45:05] Ricky Carruth: Exactly, man. That’s it, all day long.

[00:45:07] Tracy Hayes: You said something else I really liked, too. You’re training on not being dependent on someone else’s leads. Can you expand on that a bit? I think a lot of agents, maybe initially, are fed leads to get started, but you want to teach them how to fish.

[00:45:26] Ricky Carruth: Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, as a new agent, or whenever you're trying to get going, you take everything you can get, right? But, what you have to realize is what I said earlier: you can’t do a deal without talking to someone. Every lead generation activity is designed to create a list of people to call. So, you do Facebook leads, Zillow, open houses, YouTube—whatever it is—you’re using those platforms to create a list of people, and then you sit down and call them.

So, the question becomes: If every lead gen activity leads to a list of people to call, why spend time, money, and energy creating a random list of people you have no control over? Why not spend literally pennies and get a list of property owners you want to do business with and call them? It’s going to end with making calls either way. So, why not just start by calling the exact people you want to work with now, instead of waiting for leads that you have no control over?

[00:46:30] Tracy Hayes: Exactly.

[00:46:31] Ricky Carruth: You don't control the quantity, the quality of those leads, or who they are. But with property owners, you get the list of exactly who you want, for pennies each, and you call them. You have to call either way. So, when you understand the real principles of the game, it starts to make sense.

And what’s funny is you could call property owners using the same script you’d use for Facebook or Zillow leads. People say, “Oh, I don’t want to cold call people,” but you’re not cold calling—you’re doing community outreach to see how you can help them.

I even tell agents, "Pretend they’re Zillow leads if that’s what makes you feel comfortable!" If you call property owners with the same enthusiasm, you’d crush it. Have someone swap the Zillow leads for property owners without telling you, and see how successful you’ll be.

[00:47:47] Tracy Hayes: I think we could title this podcast “What Can You Do to Help Them?” because, listening to you, it’s all about that mindset. You’re reaching out, saying, “Hey, I’m a realtor. What can I do to help you?” Whether they’re ready now or later, you’re just going to keep in touch.

For example, agents often ask, "Can I give you a home evaluation?" Why not just give them the evaluation? Would you agree that’s more your mindset?

[00:48:24] Ricky Carruth: Give them the evaluation of what?

[00:48:26] Tracy Hayes: Well, some agents are running advertising campaigns where they say, "Click here, and I’ll give you a free home evaluation."

[00:48:34] Ricky Carruth: I would never give an evaluation to anybody. Never.

[00:48:38] Tracy Hayes: I think they're doing it as a way to get people to search them out, rather than them reaching out. But I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier: you can find people who are ready to move now, instead of waiting for leads to come to you.

[00:48:50] Ricky Carruth: Exactly. It doesn't matter to me whether I’m reaching out to them or they’re reaching out to me. If I’m putting my success in someone else’s hands, I’m not going to be very successful.

This is a personal branding business, a conversation business, a consultation business. You have to talk to people. The more people you talk to, and the better you are at getting them to open up about what they want to do, the more deals you’re going to close.

If you’re sitting around waiting for people to reach out to you, you’ll be an average agent at best. And if that’s what you want, that’s fine. But don’t tell me you want to be a million-dollar agent and then sit around waiting for clients to call you. You’re in sales. Get out there and find out who needs your help. Over 90% of buyers and sellers use agents by choice—they need us.

Closings are happening every day, and you’re going to sit around while people out there need your help? I don’t understand that mentality. Of course, I grew up in a very blue-collar family where we owned and ran our own businesses. That’s just who I am.

[00:50:31] Tracy Hayes: You get up and get it done.

[00:50:32] Ricky Carruth: Exactly.

[00:50:33] Tracy Hayes: I want to finish with the content creation formula. Obviously, agents are bombarded with all these training sessions on Canva, Instagram, and so on. You talk about creating content, but when you first started, you didn’t have social media—you were doing it through email. What’s your mindset today on what agents should be doing with content?

[00:51:00] Ricky Carruth: Call people and tell them what’s going on with the market. The baseline of your business is conversations. If you’re not there yet, focus on that first. Block out time to have conversations every day with potential buyers and sellers.

Once you’ve got that going, get a weekly email in place. It doesn’t matter if they want to do something now or later—that email will make sure they never forget you. Once we have those two pillars—conversations and weekly emails—then you can start posting content daily. Document your process.

There’s high-production content that takes time, and there’s quick, selfie-style content. Both work. Just document your process, show your clients how hardworking you are, and keep it authentic.

[00:53:00] Tracy Hayes: You said something about content—how agents should go out, gather education, and share what they learned.

[00:54:00] Ricky Carruth: Yeah, look at MLS every day—new listings, pendings, closings. Spend 10-15 minutes scanning it, and you’ll become an expert without realizing it. Stay educated, not out of fear but to better serve your clients. Don’t worry about market crashes.

A market downturn might hurt your business by 20-30%, but when it rebounds, it could 3-5x your business. Focus on the data.

[00:56:17] Tracy Hayes: That’s a great point. Real estate agents need to realize they’re influencers in their community. They play an important role in the economy and in people’s lives. Content isn’t just about selling—it’s also about being part of the community and sharing what’s happening locally.

[00:57:13] Ricky Carruth: For sure, man. Well, I’m excited to get down there.

[00:57:15] Tracy Hayes: Yes, October 15th in St. Augustine. The Board is sponsoring the event at Palencia, and I’ll put the link in the show notes. Ricky, I appreciate your time, and I look forward to meeting you in person.

[00:57:38] Ricky Carruth: Absolutely, man. I’ll be there. I appreciate you, sir.

[00:57:42] Tracy Hayes: Thanks. Take care!