Zackery Williams: Mentors Can Accelerate Your Success

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Tracy Hayes: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the real estate excellence podcast. Today's guest continues to big numbers, a 2023 Berkshire Hathaway chairman circle Jack's real producers and recognized by the Jacksonville business journal as a top producer. He's in the seventh year as a real estate agent. And I look forward to going deep here to uncover his secrets to success.

Tracy Hayes: Let's welcome from the Berkshire Hathaway home services, Florida network, realty, Zachary Williams. 

Zackary Williams: very much for having me. Well, 

Tracy Hayes: I'm glad you finally got here. We're doing an afternoon show, which is not normal to me because I'm, I'm usually a morning person. So I like to make sure I got my energy, but I've got my double cup of coffee here.

Tracy Hayes: We're ready to go. And there's a water, uh, cup there for you. Um, and while we're thinking, I'm going to, I'm going to, It's our little sponsor here, Remy Graphics, and there's one of these in your gift bag there, Zach. Um, Remy Graphics makes these cuts for me, got the Real Estate Excellence podcast on the other side.

Tracy Hayes: And, uh, if you mentioned, you called Remy Graphics, you mentioned the podcast, 10 percent discount, [00:01:00] and they will make these. Like, if you got a closing, you know, next week, and you just want to put, hey, John and Sally, you know, whatever, you know. That's a great idea. Put personalize it and you know, they'll never put it away.

Tracy Hayes: Of course, put your name on the back too. That'll never be tossed out. So, um, but appreciate you coming on. Um, it was Jocelyn, um, Reyes, uh, uh, gave me your name and, um, I, for some reason you were gliding below the radar, but, uh, you know, looking at your, your, the recognitions and it seems you just been steadily going.

Tracy Hayes: And, and then what's, well, I find interesting you're young real estate agent still, but you've already been in the business seven years. So you started fairly young. 

Zackary Williams: I started at 20. Eight years old, 

Tracy Hayes: 28. Okay. Well, you look, you look, I would say you're 30 years old, so I don't know. Is there a little gray?

Tracy Hayes: There's, you got a couple of gray hairs and that be in the beards there in the, in the chin on there. Um, but, uh, as I always like to start off the show to kind [00:02:00] of give everyone a background, uh, on everyone. And if the client's listening, uh, you know, now or three years from now, um, Zach, where are you from?

Zackary Williams: Um, so I'm born and raised here in Jacksonville, um, which I certainly helps with the level of success that I've had. Um, born and raised here. I did live in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale for about six years from 2012 to 2017. And that's actually where I did all my real estate schooling. I went to Gold Coast down in Boca.

Tracy Hayes: Okay. 

Zackary Williams: Um, with the intention of doing real estate down there. But I figured down there, I'd basically be a minnow in an ocean of like, It's like sharks down there. I felt like it was going to be a smart move to come back home where I have, um, a really good sphere, um, and like a network support system. Um, so I came home and started, um, and I have to attribute a huge portion of my success to a really [00:03:00] close friend of mine and mentor.

Zackary Williams: Um, anybody who's been in that business for a long time will know his name, Josh Newton, who. Berkshire Hathaway. He's the reason that I came to that brokerage. 

Tracy Hayes: Right. 

Zackary Williams: Um, and just an amazing friend. I've known him since 2008, uh, about, and he was gracious to take me under his wing, teach me everything, you know, put me on deals with him.

Zackary Williams: And we worked alongside each other for about three years until unfortunately he passed away in January of 2020. So since then I've obviously, you know, had to step up and be on my own. 

Tracy Hayes: Right. 

Zackary Williams: Um, and then you had the, the COVID years, which were insane. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, uh, so tell me what were you, you said you started when you were 28.

Tracy Hayes: Um, I mean, uh, you know, as a young Zachary, I mean, 18, 19, 20 years old, what did you envision yourself doing? 

Zackary Williams: Honestly, I always knew that I wanted to get into real estate. I just didn't want to start [00:04:00] too young. Um, I had my fun, you know, down in South Florida. I was a little wild child. Um, I wanted to get that out of my system and have a good time.

Zackary Williams: You know, I worked in the service industry, hospitality, which I think all that also really helps, you know, in this industry. Um, so it, it was always something that I was interested in. Was there 

Tracy Hayes: someone in the family that, what was it about real estate, even at a young age that you had a curiosity about? 

Zackary Williams: I don't know that I necessarily knew I wanted to be a realtor, but I've always been fascinated by architecture, um, you know, design, interior design, uh, landscape design, just everything to do with, you know, Right.

Zackary Williams: Has always been kind of fascinating to me. 

Tracy Hayes: How is that? Because I find it interesting, that's why I always want to dig into what the, you know, the pre real estate years are about. Because a couple things, you know, there's a handful of agents, um, that have the same type of, uh, um, Curiosity or knack for design, you know, you know, my, my wife can walk in a room and, [00:05:00] and, uh, go, yeah, we need to paint it this.

Tracy Hayes: And everybody walks in and goes, Oh, wow. You know, that just has that thing about it. Have you been able to take that? And when you're consulting with like, say, you know, especially the listings and so forth, or even the buyers and even say, Hey, you know what you could do with this? How has that, that curiosity and just your, your natural, you know, I don't know, it's just a knacker that you have for it.

Zackary Williams: Um, I think it's been very helpful because not everybody has that ability. Right. Sometimes they walk in and they can't even look past the stuff. That's in the house, let alone try to envision what they might do with the space. Right. Um, so will my couch fit 

Tracy Hayes: here? Will my king size bed fit in the master bedroom?

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, they're big enough. 

Zackary Williams: Obviously you need to know those things. Um, yeah, I think it's very helpful to be able to envision because you can try to kind of help your client. see the potential in a space. Um, or, you know, if it's a buyer or if it's a seller, you know, [00:06:00] um, suggest what they might be able to do with what they've got to, 

Tracy Hayes: with all the, you know, the NARS, the settlement, all that kind of going down.

Tracy Hayes: And I think a lot of people in the, in the market conditions too. I know we've been kind of blessed here in Florida have such a demand, um, you know, because of, I think of people's feelings, economics right now, things, things are not as obviously as fast as they were in 2020, as you mentioned, and several.

Tracy Hayes: So the listings are lasting a little bit longer, but the good listings staged correctly, maybe, you know, Go in and paint a room. So it's not, is that, are you finding that really helps move a property faster? What are some of the things that you advise on when advising from the listing side? 

Zackary Williams: Um, I'm definitely encouraging sellers now, you know, before you could throw up anything and people were fighting over it.

Zackary Williams: We're not in that market anymore. So it's time to bring sellers [00:07:00] to reality. Um, and more so, you know, buyers are now having to deal with. These ridiculous interest. Well, historically, with the price of property. Yeah. Yeah. Home valleys have gone up. Interest rates have gone up. The price of everything has gone up.

Zackary Williams: Um, you know, so buyers are going to be a lot more, you know, discerning and picky with what they're buying. They're paying top dollar. And they're having to, you know, incur these crazy interest rates and just everything else that they're dealing with. They need something that's, you know, Turnkey, 

Tracy Hayes: you know?

Tracy Hayes: Right. 

Zackary Williams: Um, so I think pricing appropriately and really optimizing the home prior to going on to the market. Mm-Hmm. and putting your best foot forward is paramount. Right now you have to do it. 

Tracy Hayes: If you were advising, uh, you know. an agent or an agent was mentoring with you right now. Uh, what's kind of the mindset that you go into that listing appointment, you know, looking already done a little valuation of the property saying, okay, I'm going to need to have a little heart to [00:08:00] heart.

Tracy Hayes: I'm going to, Hey, we need to do some landscaping. We might need to paint this room or we need to declutter all those things that real estate agents need to advise on what's kind of your, I mean, what, what, what. Kind of thought process. What do you do before, you know, getting out of that car and walking in and actually sitting down with these sellers and Say, hey, this is what we need to do.

Zackary Williams: Well, usually um, I I like to break it up into two parts if I can, you know, the first meeting is just to come there See meet the client see the place You know, and establish somewhat of a rapport with them, and then, you know, now I've had a chance to actually see what I'm working with, you know, I can't just, there's so much that you can, you know, come up with prior to seeing the home button, really, ideally, you need to, you know, Walk the space and, and see everything for yourself before you can determine a true, you know, opinion of value.

Zackary Williams: Um, but I'm very honest with my clients and I think that they appreciate that, you know, makes them [00:09:00] respect you more. It might be a uncomfortable conversation, but you know, if you want to be successful in selling, you don't want to go down mission impossible. You know, you don't want to just tell people what you think they want to hear.

Zackary Williams: You need to be very real with them and, um, to be a real, you know, You know valuable asset to them. You've got to be honest, 

Tracy Hayes: right? 

Zackary Williams: You know, 

Tracy Hayes: well, I think the um, I like to kind of you kind of do I I grew up in the i've been in mortgages for 19 years I for first eight and a half years I was with quick and loans.

Tracy Hayes: So I was on the phone And it was always as you got experience you could do a one call close We're doing a lot of refinances boom 30 minutes You already got the you know The app filled out because you're taking most of the time on the phone And or you know, they partially fill it out online you're talking and you're You know, closing, Hey, this is what your interest rate's going to be.

Tracy Hayes: Boom. Here's what's your new payments going to be. Boom, boom, boom. And you did a one call close, your two call, what you're doing to meetings basically, um, is interesting. And I think anyone listening right now to think about that, if they're, maybe they're not [00:10:00] hitting the home run is because maybe you're trying to think on your feet too quickly and to go back and reflect on what you saw, look at the other comps so you can actually go back in and.

Zackary Williams: Well, and you also get a gauge of them, you know, a little bit too, you know, kind of just Sometimes we're we try to be a little too fast, you know, 

Tracy Hayes: yeah, 

Zackary Williams: sometimes you need to slow down Obviously if you know you're in a situation where it's a competitive listing and like they may be meeting with other people You don't want to draw that out too long.

Zackary Williams: You want to try to like secure that opportunity as quickly as you can Can but if you have, you know, if you if you're able to I think it's best You To go, you know, take the time to meet with them, see the space, gather information, then go and really make an informed decision and provide them, you know, with, with that.

Tracy Hayes: Well, I think your credibility goes up higher because they, they think that they, well, the perception is you took some time to actually think about. I [00:11:00] have seen, I have heard, um, I know of specific stories that I could tell where, um, it was a competitive listing and the competitor didn't even go and look at the house and they're like already assuming the clothes and they're ordering photos and stuff.

Tracy Hayes: And it's a house that needed, um, needed a little bit of cleaning up or yeah, some decluttering and yeah, um, to properly, 

Zackary Williams: some people might be going off the old listing or something, but you know, we don't know what it currently looks like if they've. You know, so you've got to go and really see also there's outsides, you know, uh, surrounding things that you've got to take into consideration, you know, the homes around.

Zackary Williams: So, 

Tracy Hayes: yeah, we're going to take a little step back because we're just because we jumped into that because I always want to go down the rabbit hole. And when we have a subject on there, um, not to throw off the listeners too much that we're bouncing around, but you mentioned you were in hospitality prior to what kind of jobs were you doing?

Zackary Williams: Um, I was bartending, serving, I worked in a gym, you know, so all customer service, [00:12:00] hospitality. Um, and with that, I've always been, so I've, I've never had a job where I have a salary or a fixed income. So I think that too really helped, you know, cause I'm, I think for people that are trying to leave that to come into this industry, it's really scary for them.

Zackary Williams: You know, you don't know when you're going to get your next paycheck, you know, and that's. That's normal for me. Yeah. That's all I know. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, I was, I don't know what I was, I was listening to. Uh, yeah, no, it was, um, uh, her name's Kim Perel. She's on LinkedIn all the time. I suggest anyone follow her. She's an entrepreneur and she was, I was listening to her book on the way in, uh, her second or actually her first book, I'm listening to it in reverse order.

Tracy Hayes: And she was talking about, you know, uh, you know, she had her two parents, her mom had that secure job. You know, but dad was always the entrepreneur and, and at, and she said there was times where, you know, things were great and things, and he was just, this visionary came up with these things and she remembers she was telling the story about they, like, I think they were from Oregon and it was really cold [00:13:00] and they didn't have the heat on.

Tracy Hayes: They were basically trying to survive by the fireplace. 

Zackary Williams: Oh gosh. 

Tracy Hayes: And how she basically got to a point, she, she went down and she looked for her dad, found her dad in the, in the, in the garage working on something. And of course he had three coats on too, , you know, type of thing. But, um, do, but Well 

Zackary Williams: that's perfect though, to have.

Zackary Williams: I mean, a household with one that has steady pay and probably benefits and the other one, you know. Yeah, but her 

Tracy Hayes: thing was that to have, uh, you know, mom wanted her to have that secure job. Go, you know, go to college. You're going to go to college and you can get that secure job. Where dad's like, you'll find, find a job that has, you know, unlimited income potential.

Tracy Hayes: Right? Like real estate can have. And I mean, bartending can have to a point as many hours that you could stand behind the bar, right? Of course, you know, the hours of the day people drink are probably better just in the evenings. But, you know, that type of, that type of attitude, that type of thing that, that, uh, you're, you know, what, what you're, what you're, Product that you're delivering personally is a good portion of a thing.

Tracy Hayes: Now many people, I think the NAR lawsuit has put it down to a settlement has put it to [00:14:00] thinking that a real estate agents are like, you know, in a retail store or something like someone goes, buys a shirt, boom, that's what the shirt and they can maybe get a little commission on it and it'd be, that's, it's a lot more than that.

Tracy Hayes: It's not a 32nd transaction. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. Um, I mean, now and again, you might get lucky and have, you know, Somebody that comes directly to you for a specific property in that, you know, but that is rare. Very rare. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: You, you bless those days. I remember, uh, again, working in the call center doing mortgages where someone calls up and said, Hey, I need to get a pre approval.

Tracy Hayes: I want to buy this property. And the next day you got the contract, you're like, Oh God, yeah, there's a cake. But I think, uh, everyone underestimates, I mean, how many times at eight, nine o'clock have you been on the phone having. Consultation, 

Zackary Williams: countless times. And I've had clients that I've worked with for several years, you know, that it's, we were looking, weren't having any success finding exactly what they were looking for.

Zackary Williams: Maybe their circumstances changed and you know, it draws out over [00:15:00] a two year period. And then you finally, so yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: I always, I, well, I, the journals in the, uh, in that bag there, but I, I was, uh, something I, Just a thought that I had that every agent should have a journal and write down just like a lawyer would Uh took the call at eight o'clock.

Tracy Hayes: I don't want to talk for 35 It's about um Because a lot of the stuff is not actually about the house, right? Right? It's or 

Zackary Williams: sometimes you're just Talking them off a ledge, you know, there's yeah, I mean we we put on we wear so many hats. Yeah um But I, I think that this whole thing is obviously a big disruption, and no doubt it's gonna change stuff, but I think if you really prove your value, um, I mean, I don't I don't plan on it affecting my business.

Zackary Williams: You know, I'm not going to let it 

Tracy Hayes: a hundred percent. And that's, that's why I think my podcast is that much more valuable right now because of this, because [00:16:00] of bringing on top people like yourself and talking about, these are the things we do. And in the, uh, you know, you know, in, in 20, I mean all these agents were signing up as soon as you stuck the sign in the yard that, that, you know, you were selling it, right.

Tracy Hayes: You know, you didn't really have to, um, you know, spend on the now. Every, every loan today has extra puzzle pieces to it. And then negotiations I'm hearing you guys go through and trying, you know, uh, the different considerations they have to go through, uh, the buyers and the sellers. And then the, you know, if repairs need to be done, it's crazy.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Zackary Williams: Well, um, I think sellers are getting a little more, you know, it's definitely easier for buyers to negotiate now. I mean, unless it's like a perfect property, obviously there's certain instances where, it's You know, you've really got to be competitive. But, um, you know, I think 

Tracy Hayes: you think it's more of a buyer's market right now to normalize, normalize my market.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, they, um, [00:17:00] You mentioned, uh, the gentleman, uh, that passed away. I'm sorry, I forgot his name. 

Zackary Williams: Josh Nugent. Josh. 

Tracy Hayes: So, what, what, you're working the bars, you're, you're doing your different hospitality. Mm hmm. I imagine you meet Josh somewhere. What attracts you and what, what does he, what happens to bring you together?

Tracy Hayes: Well, 

Zackary Williams: no, we actually met. So, um, a lot of my business that I do. I'm sorry. I'm going to. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Information. Um, the peninsula is a high rise condo building on the south bank of the St. John's River in San Marco. Okay. Um, that's where I do majority of my business. I actually lived in that building for three years, um, back when it was first constructed.

Zackary Williams: I was renting, um, before moving to South Florida. And I met Josh there, in that building, through a friend of mine, Nicole Dana, who was one of the, um, site agents for the building. So we all, you know, became friends, um, pretty quickly. Stayed really close, [00:18:00] you know, while I was here and then stayed connected even while I lived in South Florida Um, you know, then when I moved back up Josh is with Berkshire Hathaway.

Zackary Williams: Nicole had moved on up to Amelia Island started a whole new project up there Um, but you know, they both suggested going to Berkshire Hathaway um, they offer, you know, awesome training and support for new agents like some of the best coaching because We all know you get out of real estate school and you're like, well now what?

Zackary Williams: Yeah, exactly. I don't know anything. Um, I know how many, what feet are in a square mile or something like that. I don't even know. So 

Tracy Hayes: now we're really worried about acreage and I'm selling condos. Yeah. 

Zackary Williams: So, I mean, obviously I do my offices in Avondale. I do a lot of the historic homes in Avondale, Riverside, San Marco, but the peninsula is the bulk of my business.

Zackary Williams: Um, So, yeah, he, you know, he brought me on at a very small percentage. At first I was just doing all the busy work, you [00:19:00] know. Um, 

Tracy Hayes: so would you more or less say you were, you were acting like a transaction coordinator for him, or what do you 

Zackary Williams: No, we would go on appointments together. Okay. I would be there, you know, kind of 

Tracy Hayes: more assisting.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. Kind of an assistant, you know, but doing all like license so I could do everything Right. Um, but yeah, we were. Side by side, you know all the time doing stuff together Um, I just was proving myself. I mean I wanted I just wanted to work, you know, right? I didn't care, you know about the split or whatever 

Tracy Hayes: how important Cause this is, this is another subject I like to always go down and in for new agents that might be listening or someone who might be listening, might be thinking about getting in the real estate.

Tracy Hayes: Um, you were fortunate enough that you had a friend that obviously you already had credibility and trust with. And, um, you know, he took you to Berkshire Hathaway. Cause a lot of times I ask, well, what led you to your first brokerage? In this case, you had everything, but you actually had a mentor right off the bat.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I mean, [00:20:00] you've been in the business now seven years. You look, look at some of the other agents that have come in, some other people. I'm sure you've seen people come and go many that, um, how beneficial was it for you to have that mentorship? If you think it versus if you didn't have it 

Zackary Williams: huge. I mean, Definitely I, you know, there's, there's something to be said for the network of friends that I have and you know, I'm, I mean, I'm not going to take away from the fact that I definitely work hard and I've made a good reputation for myself, but he catapulted me to, you know, you're like, it really helped me from the very beginning because there's a 

Tracy Hayes: huge learning curve.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. I mean, it's a lot to take in, but another thing that I did, um, I'm a very visual hands on learner. I can read a book until I'm blue in the face, but it's not going to sink in for me until I do something. Um, and knowing that about myself, when I first came to Berkshire Hathaway, Josh encouraged me to come there.

Zackary Williams: Um, but I didn't feel ready to start as an agent right away. I actually interviewed with Josh Cohen, my [00:21:00] current broker. Um, and told him that I would really like to assist someone in the office. You know, he tried to encourage me to not do that. Like you've got what it takes. You could be a realtor Of course, he wanted me to come in and start selling right?

Zackary Williams: Um But I just knew that I, I felt like for me, it would be more comfortable to start as somebody's assistant, gain a little bit of background experience and knowledge, you know? Um, and then segue into real estate. And so Liz Bobeck, she's another top producing agent in our brokerage. She hired me as her assistant.

Zackary Williams: So I was in the office from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Doing all of her, you know, busy work and that was more like transaction coordinating assisting Um, and we don't 

Tracy Hayes: know we don't want to under us We say busy work, but you don't want to these are these are vital things that need to be done. Yeah Yeah, 

Zackary Williams: not the things you want to do but the things that really you're going to be doing Well, there 

Tracy Hayes: are people that really like doing that 

Zackary Williams: [00:22:00] Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: you and I, yeah, we're not, we're not that, uh, that person we're more of a front facing, uh, situation, but there's other people who enjoy supporting and being part of a team.

Tracy Hayes: And that's why, you know, define one and they help you out and, uh, you know, they make a good living as well. Uh, you know, doing a much needed service 

Zackary Williams: coordinators are invaluable. Yeah. So, um, so I worked with her for about six months to a year. Um, and then Josh, I think Saw how committed I was, you know, he didn't right away just start putting me on deals with them He saw that I was like serious, you know Not just one of these people that thinks they want to get into real estate Right their license come and then within a few months they realize it's not as easy as they anticipated So I was committed, you know, I moved up here from south florida like Invested, you know everything into it.

Zackary Williams: So this had to work, you know, this was not something that I was just gonna You Try it out, you know. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, [00:23:00] knowing the I think there's a confidence is the word and I think, you know, a lot of people get in the business and, you know, like I said, they don't know, they don't know what they don't know. Right. I mean, that's, that's, that's the bottom line.

Tracy Hayes: But the fact that you spent some time working behind the scenes, you started to get, you know, Would you agree you started to get kind of a a bigger picture of what's going on? Yeah, what what actually happens in a transaction from start to finish because as you know you get out of that, of course 

Zackary Williams: If someone handed you a 

Tracy Hayes: contract you'd be like, uh, what do I do now?

Zackary Williams: How do you even get your first client like yeah, you know, you don't know where to start Um, so yeah, it definitely kind of made me Get a better grasp on The process and you know Kind of understand real estate a little bit more to be able to confidently go out there. 

Tracy Hayes: I'm just going to turn this light on here.

Tracy Hayes: Not that I think we need it, but there we go. Makes the reals look better. All right. Uh, makes me look [00:24:00] cloudy though, but that's all right. It's all about you. Um, What are, what are some, so you're, you're about roughly, uh, anywhere six months to a year, Josh starts throwing, throwing you on there. What are, what are some of the things maybe that he maybe directly said, Hey, you need to know this.

Tracy Hayes: Or you just saw him doing that. You're like, Oh wow, I didn't know, you know, some of the things that he did in his business to be successful that maybe you kind of molded into yourself. 

Zackary Williams: Uh, I mean, he was very direct with people, you know, does he 

Tracy Hayes: from New York? 

Zackary Williams: No. 

Tracy Hayes: No, 

Zackary Williams: but very direct. And I, I, like, I realized that people kind of respected that, you know, he was to the point, direct, honest, um, you know, didn't try to like, wasn't meek or shy about what he needed to say, you know, 

Tracy Hayes: he 

Zackary Williams: just gave it to people straight.

Zackary Williams: Um, and I think that, yeah. You know, I noticed that people took well to that. Was 

Tracy Hayes: it, was it [00:25:00] how, um, because I think there's a, there is a way to be direct and obviously is, you know, having, you know, Obviously, if you've got, you know, you hang out with Shonda Caponero and so forth and her success and the others that we talked about, Melissa Ricks and that sort of thing, they have all the success behind them that, uh, you know, so they can go into, into a room and, and, you know, walk into a list saying, you know, they, they're nice ladies and everything great that then turn around and say, well, okay, well, we need to declutter this.

Tracy Hayes: Stuff out of here. Right. And, but do it in a way because they already have this track record. Was it, was his confidence or directness accepted because more of that or, or, yeah, I 

Zackary Williams: think, yeah, for sure. He's, you know, you wouldn't want to be some brand new agent just coming out here all arrogant, you know, there's certainly a way to deliver the message, you know, you want to be tactful.

Zackary Williams: Um, but I just think that, um, noticing how real and direct with the people he was, you know, it. Kind of just made things a little more natural [00:26:00] and not as intimidating for me. I just need to you just got to be real 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah well when you um, I want to dig dig on this to kind of define it a little bit because I think one of the challenges agents have Even experienced agents that maybe have just been kind of just you know Jogging along, you know, they sell enough to to stay in the business but they're very bashful shy afraid To Kind of have that heart to heart with some of these these clients and some of these I think some of this not all I think some of my people might take it offense no matter who says and how they say it But there's others like really appreciate thanks for thanks for saying I got pie on my face because I want you know I'm saying yeah, that's because that's what a good friend tells you, right?

Zackary Williams: Exactly I think it's very much like you just said, you know I mean they they see that honesty and appreciate that and I think it makes them respect you and you know They know that you're gonna be Um, [00:27:00] Alright, 

Tracy Hayes: let's dig into Berkshire Hathaway. Cohen, you said was your broker, right? Josh Cohen. Josh Cohen.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Um, It sounds like you were fortunate enough to like, cause I think a lot again, going, I think a lot of agents are not as fortunate as you were. Things lined up, you had a mentor and you had, you know, a broker that, you know, obviously wanted you to get into production right away, but found, found you the way you wanted to get into business and felt comfortable getting into the business.

Tracy Hayes: Um, How important you look again, looking at what you know, you've been in this seven years looking at what other agents are doing and other brokerages. I see you, you mix with other agents that work for other brokerages. How important is it to find the brokerage that does the business that That clicks with you, you know, how you do business, because I think every broker in town does business a little differently.

Tracy Hayes: Right. And, uh, obviously you seem to just got lucky in the, the one you got to first is everything clicked in, in gotten your [00:28:00] groove. But some of these people run their cogs in the wheel sometimes where that broker's going right. And they want to go left and it doesn't work out. And sometimes I have to bounce around all these brokers to try to find them.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. Um, I will say I definitely love being a part of Berkshire Hathaway. I think it's a very reputable company They're globally recognized um You know, there's a lot of great brokerages in town. Yeah. Yeah, we're not the only ones but I like that. We're synonymous with luxury Um, you know, so that that's important to me and I don't i'm not one of these agents that wants to bounce around you know, I think that that shows inconsistency and What I'm thinking, I don't 

Tracy Hayes: think they want to bounce around.

Tracy Hayes: Um, it was, uh, Caitlin from, uh, DJ and Lindsay said that they're, they're bouncing around because they're looking for that brokerage that that's going to mesh with them where they feel part of the culture. Um, you know, [00:29:00] uh, which I obviously you, you must, you've been there seven years and, and, and you're doing well.

Tracy Hayes: I, because I think. I think it takes away from their business if they're really analyzing it. If they're not, it's like you're working someplace, you really don't like work. You may be really good at whatever you, you know, you're doing, maybe you're an IT, you know, but if the culture and you, you know, the P the management's not good, you're not going to be very, you know, as good as you could be.

Zackary Williams: Right. I think, yeah, for sure. Culture and environment are very important, you know, for you to have success, um, and, and the environment and the culture at Berkshire Hathaway is super. Everyone's so supportive of one another, you know? We're like a family. Everybody wants to help. Everybody wants to see each other be successful.

Zackary Williams: It's not like one of these cutthroat, competitive, Type brokerages, you know, we all celebrate each other's success. We collaborate. Um, you know, so Where are you sitting different? Yes That's true. 

Tracy Hayes: That's true. I mean, but you do know other agents. I don't know. [00:30:00] Yeah, where do you Is um, josh cohen really the um, The, I want to say trendsetter or culture setter, whatever you want to, you know, in the office, is it, is it streaming from him?

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

Zackary Williams: absolutely. He certainly fosters a really awesome, uh, you know, energy in our, in our office. So I'm with Avondale. We're actually San Marco and Avondale are together. He manages both of those. Um, you know, so the other offices, you know, they may have, you different brokers and a different energy in their office.

Zackary Williams: But we all come together and we do company wide meetings, you know, once a quarter. Um, and all kinds of things, you know, that the whole brokerage comes together for. 

Tracy Hayes: Now, do you live in the same area? You live down in the Avondale area? Is that where you I 

Zackary Williams: actually live in Lakewood. So, uh, right in the San Jose area.

Zackary Williams: San Jose and University. Okay. Um, So San Marcos closer, but because of Josh 

Tracy Hayes: well, [00:31:00] I imagine you hang your hat because it was Berkshire's got offices all you know yeah, any of any offices, but You started off. Let's say let's the what was the condo complex again say the peninsula because You obviously felt comfortable with that you lived in there and so forth.

Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that you do? Um that anybody living in any subdivision can do but you know, basically you started farming your Vertical neighborhood your vertical neighborhood there. Yeah, tell us some of the things that you do To uh to farm. What are you doing? Are you doing mailers out to everybody?

Tracy Hayes: You know, what do you do? 

Zackary Williams: I do um, yes, but I I've never purchased a lead once, like all of my businesses, either word of mouth referrals or repeat business. Um, and I already had, you know, some, obviously Josh helped me get into the building, you know, um, as a new inexperienced [00:32:00] agent. But as soon as, you know, I told people, I know this building, I lived in it for three years.

Zackary Williams: That obviously instills some confidence in them. Um, And, you know, there's been enough turnover in that building over the years that my name has just kind of, uh, gone out. I do mailers, not too frequently. Right. 

Tracy Hayes: Occasionally. Um, 

Zackary Williams: but I am part of, our, our brokerage offers autoflow, um, which is like a, you know, monthly, your clients get like two postcards a month and an email a month.

Zackary Williams: So those go out to the building, but I am in that building. Almost every day, you know, in the lobby, or meeting with a seller, or showing units, you know, so people see me there all the time. Um, and then I, I really try to, um, friendships with my clients and take them to lunch or to dinner and you know, really make that a lifelong relationship.

Zackary Williams: So that 

Tracy Hayes: living so close together there, you know, they're they're meeting at the mailbox, they're meeting at the pool, they're seeing each other, especially in a [00:33:00] condo community like that. Uh, and anyone says anything about real estate, it's, Hey, Zachary, you got to give him a call. Yeah, I tell you the short story.

Tracy Hayes: but my wife and I, we've got some handful of units in a complex. My, my parents are in there and one of the units that we own. And, um, uh, it was, it was funny. My, my dad was in the elevator and I don't know how the discussion started. I don't know. My dad just started chatting with the, this person is like, Oh yeah, if you want to do, you want to sell your unit, you need to call Jennifer, my wife.

Tracy Hayes: That's the type of how tight that, that community gets. And if you really nurture that, uh, thing as you can nurture any neighborhood, just the condos. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah, um, certainly important, even more important in that instance to maintain a good reputation, you know, because of how close everybody, you know, uh, is.

Zackary Williams: Word gets around. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. What would [00:34:00] you, what would you, um, you know, if you were asked to speak at NIFAR or something like that, or in front of your, in front of your fellow, uh, teammates there at Berkshire Hathaway, um, What do you think are three things that agents should be doing right now with the current market?

Tracy Hayes: I mean, we know list in the current market being so someone might be listening to this, who knows two years from now, but, uh, listings are growing, interest rates are high. So, you know, you know, there's some transactions going on, um, but, you know, the, The listings are lasting a little bit longer on the market as our inventory grows right now.

Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that you're doing on a daily weekly monthly basis or even Mr. Cohen's You know is suggesting that every agent in the office two or three things that you guys should be doing 

Zackary Williams: Um, I mean for me First and foremost treating this as a full time job. You know, this is not something that you can just You know part [00:35:00] time kind of 

Tracy Hayes: show up at 11 o'clock, hang out for a couple hours and 

Zackary Williams: expect to be successful.

Zackary Williams: You never really want this to be your career and you want to be successful at it, then you've got to treat it as such, you know? Um, so you need to have structure, um, time blocking, um, making sure to, you know, touch your Your people, your, so I'm gonna 

Tracy Hayes: dig, I'm gonna dig in on that a little bit. What, what, when you, um, what's something that you do that relates to, you know, that treating it as a job?

Tracy Hayes: Are you the type that likes to get in the office at eight o'clock in the morning or what No, what, what's your schedule like? Probably horrible example. . 

Zackary Williams: I've just had some. I mean, not luck, you know, I've done well, but uh, yeah, I've been successful and I didn't necessarily have any kind of strict thing that I followed.

Zackary Williams: Um, I, you know, just took it and ran with it, but I have gone through ninja, um, ninja selling. That's a, I'm sure you've heard of it. Um, that's a training like a [00:36:00] installation that our brokerage has offered, you know, offers a couple of times a year. Um, and I've done it twice now and, One of the most important, like one of my favorite takeaways from it is like the morning routine, you know, really starting out your day on a positive note, um, taking some time to, you know, um, go through your gratitudes, you know, three different gratitudes a day, writing your affirmations every day, um, reading or listening to something positive or motivating for about 15 minutes in the morning.

Zackary Williams: Um, and then writing two personal note cards to clients or colleagues, friends, family, it doesn't matter, but you know, taking the time to write those two, um, personal notes. Um, and then for me, fitness is really important. That's what helps keep my, you know, keeps me positive in my mind, right? You know, my inner energy, get all the stress out.

Zackary Williams: You know, this industry can be very stressful and that's my outlet. [00:37:00] Um, so I always make sure to prioritize, um, You know the gym and I go to 

Tracy Hayes: well, it's interesting all the things you said was working on you you are because you are the You know, we look at you know There's these companies nordstrom and everything will pay a lot of money for what their displays look like But in a lot of cases you are the display.

Zackary Williams: Oh, absolutely. We're a walking business card. Yes, you know, I mean you You want to attract people to you? You know, you want to make sure that you uh You You gotta take care of you first in order to really benefit the people that you're taking care of. Cause if you're not taking care of yourself first, then how can you?

Zackary Williams: Right. Take care of other people. So I think that prioritizing, you know, your own wellbeing, health, like mentally, emotionally and physically, um, sets you up to be able to really go out and, and be successful for your clients. You know, give them the best version of yourself. 

Tracy Hayes: Your energy that you put off.

Tracy Hayes: Because you're in front of these people they they feel the energy people want to You know when you when [00:38:00] you walk into a room you can feel the energy coming from The different people and like you said, you know, just whether or not you got a smile or a scowl on your face You know people are you know, do I want to avoid this guy or you know?

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you want to 

Zackary Williams: have that magnetic, you know, you want to be a happy positive energetic person that people just want to be around and I think that's You know not to toot my own horn, but like that's just how I am and I think that's also Another attributing factor. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: All right. So number one, let's we're taking care of ourselves with a regular schedule If it's you're working out whether it's in the morning or you go at lunchtime What but it's just there's you're you're getting it in there You're you're not you're not letting the day go by that you're not you're doing somebody to see these things but if you're Writing the note cards, some of the little things that take 10, 15 minutes, because we definitely with social media or whatever can get distracted for hours, uh, very easily.

Tracy Hayes: And then realize you're not doing these things on a regularly, uh, a regular schedule. Um, what else? 

Zackary Williams: [00:39:00] I think another thing too, with, I mean, in light of everything going on right now, um, obviously we're all doing away with the NEFAR documents and we have to now switch to NAR. I think it's really important to.

Zackary Williams: know that contract inside and out. Um, and then with the whole NAR settlement, don't perpetuate the negative media. About it, you know, they're getting clicks. That's all they're after the clicks. Yeah I've had to have a couple conversations with clients about it. Mm hmm and Majority of them are on our side, you know They think that this was just some stupid money grab which it is, you know, and that we anybody who's worked with a good realtor You know, they feel that their realtor was worth wait, they're waiting gold and they would never Even attempt to navigate a real estate transaction without somebody advocating for them.

Zackary Williams: So I think if you can go out there and confidently, you know, um, show your worth to people and This isn't going to affect anything. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Would you, would you, um, suggest, [00:40:00] because I know there's a lot of people out there, agents wise, because this is natural statistics, um, that are still, still dwelling in the negative.

Tracy Hayes: Obviously, some people have already rolled out, right? They've already checked out because they just took the negative route. But, um, You know, the fact that your office is very supportive, that you need to get around like minded people like yourself. So you can talk about it. So when you do get in front of that client that asks you about it, which sometimes clients just ask you about it, cause they're just going to see what you say.

Zackary Williams: Well, and on, before we, I tend to like lose thoughts. So we actually talked about it this morning, uh, in our sales meeting. And, um, if somebody asks you, or they say, so I've heard about this in our settlement. Rather than immediately going into your dialogue about it, which is probably going to come off a little defensive.

Zackary Williams: Oh, really? I'm glad you brought that up. What have you heard? Right and open it up for them to then kind of tell because they're going to 

Tracy Hayes: tell you [00:41:00] their mindset on it Is what they're going to do It's not that they heard some stuff and then they came up with their own opinion on it and spit it back at you Yeah, 

Zackary Williams: so it's best to go ahead and deflect that and allow them an opportunity to tell you what they've heard or at least how they've Digested what they've heard, you know, and then 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, they might come out and say man.

Tracy Hayes: They're full of shit. This is a money grab 

Zackary Williams: That's going to be the case. Yeah, so before you immediately Leave You know, get defensive, right? I saw it 

Tracy Hayes: actually email came out, uh, within the last hour, but just people was waiting for you to get here. Um, it was talking about how the VA, um, you know, because the VA would not allow a buyer, a veteran buyer to pay a commission, but they're, you know, they, they thought it was a great thing that they, I don't know, whatever, uh, paused it or whatever that restriction, like, that's not a positive thing that you just leave that in there because the people who are going after this need to feel it, they're letting them get by and we're [00:42:00] making all these changes to accommodate someone who doesn't, to me, in my opinion, doesn't fully understand the real estate transaction.

Zackary Williams: No. And, um. Another thing that I do when I've had to have that conversation with the sellers, you know, when, when you purchase this home, did you not benefit from that system? You know, your buyer's agent was compensated, you know, by the seller, realistically, the buyer, you know, the, they're paying for it either 

Tracy Hayes: way.

Tracy Hayes: They're paying for it 

Zackary Williams: coming out of the proceeds. Yeah. So, You know, well, coming out of the purchase 

Tracy Hayes: price, I look, I look at as if, if you, if I, you came to me and you weren't represented, you could say, well, you know, since you're not having to pay an agent, cause I don't have an agent, you know, you'd ask for a discount.

Tracy Hayes: Right, you know, give me drop the price three percent, right? But we're not getting low appraisals right now So, I mean so to have it's built in the price. Yeah, you know, 

Zackary Williams: I just If it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't know why they had to do this, you know, it's so frustrating. I'm so with you 

Tracy Hayes: um, what are some things that you [00:43:00] um in in through trial and error in seven years in the business, um, Um, you you had your mentor there You got, uh, Josh, uh, you know, uh, from the brokerage, uh, I know between mortgage lenders and real estate agents, we get all the little bells and whistles, all these different marketing things, you know, artificial intelligence is out.

Tracy Hayes: So you need to be doing something with that. What are some, what are some things that you've, uh, done, whether it's physically, I imagine you, you do things at peninsula at the condo unit, but that you do, uh, It almost is a routine it's just it's just part of because I think The marketing part of real estate, a lot of it is you, your, the routines, the, whether you're showing up at a social or you have a customer appreciation at the peninsula or, you know, happy hour and you go down and, you know, uh, by the first round or whatever, you know, what are some things that you've done in your career?

Tracy Hayes: You felt have gotten some return as far as, [00:44:00] you know, put under marketing. 

Zackary Williams: Um, well, definitely. I always partake in anything going on at the peninsula, like, uh, any kind of a resident event. You know, I'm always part of that. Um, and, uh, at the holidays, you know, all my clients, I do a special gift for everybody.

Zackary Williams: at that time of year. And then obviously the auto flow is something that they're getting consistently. 

Tracy Hayes: Right. 

Zackary Williams: Um, and a lot of times that's something as a value. We also have partnered with Lolo, which is local supporting locals. So monthly my clients are getting, um, something for their general area. So if like somebody lives in San Marco, you know, uh, free ice cream at Dreamette.

Zackary Williams: You know, Marco compliments of me. 

Tracy Hayes: How have you, someone else was mentioning that on, I forget who I had on was mentioning that I, I was introduced to it, um, years ago. Um, I didn't, I didn't continue it, um, from that standpoint, cause I was sending it out to real estate [00:45:00] agents, but, from, from your clients, uh, there, cause they send you a tracking, right?

Tracy Hayes: There's of who opened the email and all that kind of, kind of stuff. Do you see a little bit or give that a good reason to give them, maybe give them a call sometimes to say, Hey, did you try that ice cream shop I sent you? Or, or have you, 

Zackary Williams: um, so I've actually had people reach out to me and say, Hey, we got this.

Zackary Williams: Thank you so much. You know, um, I probably could be better at strategically using that as an opportunity to reach out, you know to people but no, I mean People rarely use them really but it's still a touch, you know, it's more about staying top of mind whether they You know actually go and redeem that gift or not.

Zackary Williams: It's not important It's more the fact that they're consistently seeing your name and getting something from you, you know 

Tracy Hayes: um You should still, 

Zackary Williams: you know. No, I agree with you a hundred percent. I still send my personal notes. I still make phone calls on, you know, if somebody pops, like, I love that line. You came into my mind, you know?

Zackary Williams: Mm-Hmm. , that's like an easy. [00:46:00] Segway into you know, just a reason to call. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, you never know when they're having that conversation with somebody You know their neighbor or something just you know I can imagine the condo cause some walks in they have coffee or whatever and they're like, oh, yeah I'm thinking of buying another unit or I'm thinking about selling another unit and just that morning They opened their email and you're you know, your coupons there.

Tracy Hayes: That's the win. Exactly. That's the win. I challenged Um I could mention names, but I'm not, uh, not in the real, not real estate agent, but people in, in corporate America, um, above me, basically, um, that don't fully understand the concept of social media and, you know, can you get leads from it? And it all goes back to the word you used, the consistency of, you know, you're posting, you know, uh, saying relevant, you never, you're every, you have an opportunity for free every day to pop in there and if [00:47:00] you, if you, you invite them on there or collaborate with them or whatever, you know, obviously when I put the reels from the show up, I, Collaborate with you and you know your circle seeing you and that sort of thing going on the the value of consistently staying in front of because What's the worst nightmare for for me or for you is to have one of our friends or someone close to says?

Tracy Hayes: Oh, yeah, we just sold our house with Sally or whatever 

Zackary Williams: Yeah, you certainly don't be a secret agent. Yeah, you got to make it known that you're in real estate, you know I went through a period of time where I wasn't posting very much because I felt like I I was spamming my friends, you know, constantly, you know, just closed, just listed, just, you know, it definitely can at times, especially if you're really busy, you know, you're posting a lot, right?

Zackary Williams: And I didn't want people to get annoyed by that. But finally, I was like, you know, the people that love me and support me and want me to do well are going to 

Tracy Hayes: See your success. 

Zackary Williams: Appreciate that and be proud and they're gonna support [00:48:00] you, you know, so don't worry about that. 

Tracy Hayes: 100%. I do think it can get overwhelming when that's all it is.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Um, you know, you had some pictures on your Facebook of you out with some other real estate agents, just having a good time. And, you know, to me, that's, that's perfect. You're, you're collaborating with your peers. peers. You know, you're out there, you're doing the business and people are seeing that and obviously seeing that, you know, uh, all those ladies that were around you are big producers and you're hanging with them.

Tracy Hayes: And you know, we make up the, what, the five people we supposedly hang out with, right? Definitely. 

Zackary Williams: You 

Tracy Hayes: know, uh, that you're a mover and groover in Jacksonville real estate. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. And you want to be, you know, you gotta be connected with other agents, whether they're with your brokerage or not. I think it's very important to have those Connections, you know, you never know when you guys might need each other or a deal could be even worked out potentially off market It's so important to be well plugged in 

Tracy Hayes: Very good point.

Tracy Hayes: Uh, I don't have it on my list of questions But it's something I [00:49:00] always like to talk about because I don't think there's a a good core of agents that aren't Um, it's not necessarily you got to go to every happy hour, but you know, it could be whether it's, you know, not taking the class virtually, but actually going down the knee fart or, uh, you know, the lunch and learns that lenders and other vendors, you know, put on and, you know, going into the office or, you know, obviously, you know, there's some title companies that have some neutral territory where you run into other people from other brokerages.

Tracy Hayes: Uh, I mean, you know, just tip a little, your advice is expand on what you just said. The importance of. You, um, well, like having the happy hour at the ladies and I'm sure there was some shop talk. I'm sure it was like, Oh my God, I had this deal and this is what happened. And you can only do so many real estate transactions, 

Zackary Williams: but everyone's 

Tracy Hayes: different.

Tracy Hayes: Right? 

Zackary Williams: They're all, yeah, you learn something every time. So, you know, I never think that I know it all. I'm always open to learning, you know, and it's times like those [00:50:00] happy hours where, you know, you're sharing ideas with each other and. It's just nice to have those connections with people. Number one, we understand each other's lives.

Zackary Williams: Like what we're all going through. Yeah, you know like 

Tracy Hayes: minded Yeah, and you get energy out of it because you have like minded and I know those are all very positive Successful ladies that you were hanging out with there, but also to know that you can you know, pick up the phone They work with a different broker say man.

Tracy Hayes: I've got this deal going on man What would you say? What would you suggest I do to kind of get another angle? But like you said, you never know who's going to be on the other side of that, that, that next transaction. And if it's a tough negotiation, having confidence of who's on the other end. 

Zackary Williams: That, yeah, I mean, it's important to be like, you know, well liked in the industry.

Zackary Williams: You never know, you could be in a competitive situation with a buyer and the agent on the other side knows you, likes you, trusts you. I mean, that can certainly help, you know. 

Tracy Hayes: The word often brought up is, is collaboration and [00:51:00] again, referring to the group you were hanging out with, I know that they collaborate because they're all from different brokerages, you know, uh, on, on to understand, uh, because I'm sure you've run, you've done enough business that you've had some combative agents on the other end of a deal.

Tracy Hayes: And where they lose track of the fact, okay, we have a house, we have a seller who wants to sell it and we have a buyer who wants to buy it. Our job is to 

Zackary Williams: facilitate, 

Tracy Hayes: dig, dig, dig, trench so the water can run here between it. And how many, you know, can be combative that way or think, think there's some sort of competition going on.

Tracy Hayes: I mean, how do you, how do you, I know you've dealt with this. So how do you, how do you handle that other agent on the other side? 

Zackary Williams: Um, I've certainly encountered it. I always go into transactions hoping that it's going to be a fun, enjoyable experience for everyone. You know, my client, your client, each other.

Zackary Williams: There's always 

Tracy Hayes: something to negotiate. Somebody's going to give a little here, give a little there. Yeah, 

Zackary Williams: I mean, it's not win versus lose, you know, it's trying to reach a win win for everybody. [00:52:00] Um, if, you know, what's that saying? If you leave a transaction feeling like somebody won, then, you know, that wasn't really So, you know, there's always going to be a little bit of Lose on either side.

Zackary Williams: But anyway, I always try to go into it very collaborative and you know, with a positive energy towards the other agent. But unfortunately there have been times where I've encountered somebody who didn't, you know, who was a little combative. Um, and you know, I kind of just, I mean, you have to get a little stern sometimes, unfortunately, but I like let them know, you know, listen, I'm just, we're going to have to work with each other here.

Zackary Williams: You know, We're working for our client's best interest and you and I not getting along with one another is not in our client's best interest. Wasting time. Yeah. So let's put our own egos to the side. Yeah. And work for our client's best interest. It's 

Tracy Hayes: cause it's really not any money out of your pocket. I mean, it could be a couple dollars difference in a commission off a 600, 000 home.

Tracy Hayes: I mean, it's not even measurable what the difference is, [00:53:00] some negotiation over some small repair. Yeah. Um, I think it was Kim Knapp who said when she was on the show, uh, you know, if the repair is less than a thousand dollars, I'm going back and say, you really going to walk away from this for a thousand dollars?

Tracy Hayes: Cause sometimes, sometimes these agents like want to get fired up over some nickels and dimes. 

Zackary Williams: Oh yeah, you know, I mean, obviously I try to always get it, get all parties to come to a, an agreement on things, but there have been times where I've kicked in, I'm not going to let a deal fall apart over a home warranty or, you know, a small credit or something, you know, so sometimes we've got to look at the bigger picture, you know, something's better than nothing.

Zackary Williams: Someone has to be the adult in the room. Yeah, if we're all like losing sight of the whole, you know, over something small, then 

Tracy Hayes: it is, it is still a house. And, uh, unless it's something that's a catastrophic to, uh, you know, serious mold where someone could get sick or something [00:54:00] structural, most of the stuff can be fixed for, you know, uh, a reasonable thing.

Tracy Hayes: What are, what do you. Some, um, you know, look back over your seven years. I mean, if we want to just, you know, even at the beginning, what are some of the challenges that you ran into? And then, you know, how did you overcome even, even yourself? I mean, uh, I know some, you know, some people have personality things when they meet people or whatever, you know, there's, they, uh, or like you said, you're a little nervous coming on my podcast today, but hopefully you're over that now.

Tracy Hayes: What are some of the challenges that, that you had that maybe other agents, I'm sure there's other agents that have probably have very similar. And what did you do to overcome them? 

Zackary Williams: Um, well, you know, public speaking or something like this is so out of my comfort zone. Here we are. Yeah. I've been trying to be better about stepping out of my comfort zone.

Zackary Williams: Recently, I hosted a sales meeting at one of my listings with, uh, 40, 50 agents. Oh, wow. Um, 

Tracy Hayes: and got up and spoke in front of all of them. I 

Zackary Williams: had to talk about my [00:55:00] listing in front of all of these people. And I'm, I'm fine in front of like a small group, you know, but being in front of a large group, definitely like, you know, your heart starts raising, lose train of thought, but I did that, you know, so I'm trying to kind of step out of the comfort zones that I've did that.

Zackary Williams: Now I'm on this podcast with you. Um, Um, but I'd say, I guess maybe starting out, I was very nervous, you know, I mean, I had been in hospitality and customer service for a long time. Um, 

Tracy Hayes: so speaking to people one on one or a couple or anything like that, it was no problem because you did that all the time.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that was, that was always fine. But anytime I had to like speak in front of the whole office, you know, cause every Tuesday we'll do our sales meeting and we'll discuss buyer needs or, uh, upcoming listings that we might have. Mhm. Um, you know, so that was always a little nervous for me. So, um, you know, just getting over my fear of public speaking or, you know, Did you feel, 

Tracy Hayes: because the path you [00:56:00] took, um, the confidence was, Not being the, I think it's the unknown, right?

Tracy Hayes: We don't, we don't know what's out there. So we're scared, right? The dark, there's that dark area over there. What's over there. What's gray. I can't see through it. Um, that, that was, that was, uh, well, I think it's a challenge for everyone in all parts of their life to no matter what it is. If we can't see. In there, we're always a little, you know, tentative, you know, going in the door the first time and never seen these people before, you don't, you know what they look like.

Tracy Hayes: And you know, are these, are these, is this the couple that actually owns the home when you open the door? Right. There's actually a little fear there, you know? Yeah. Starting 

Zackary Williams: out going on appointments and like meeting with people was always very nerve wracking at first, but now I've just kind of, you know, I go in and myself, I'm not like, you know, um, I think that it comes obviously with experience, you know, I mean, I'm getting a little.

Zackary Williams: experience under your belt is going to give you the confidence to be able to Go into these situations and not be nervous. [00:57:00] Um, but yeah, I was very like starting out. I was very nervous. It took some time You know 

Tracy Hayes: Well that the I would imagine I want to circle back because I want to make this point to the listeners If you know if you're not doing very well, right, maybe you know, or don't feel you're up to your potential Uh, maybe you're at a brokerage where you're you're going through you've made some sales I don't know.

Tracy Hayes: Maybe you got some leads or whatever and done some business, but To find That mentor and it really sounded like you really almost like an apprentice, you know starting off with but to find that senior person in the office Uh and search that out and sit down and and uh, you know You've been doing it long enough that if a new agent called you said hey, would you have coffee with me?

Tracy Hayes: You probably would and I know every one of those ladies that you were in the business with Facebook pictures, they would do the same thing. Anyone calls him and says, I think it was Shonda said she was gaining weight by all these agents who were calling her and wanting to take her out to lunch. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Um, to, don't be afraid to [00:58:00] reach out and try to find that person. And they might not even be with your brokerage. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. I think it's very important to be in a brokerage that you feel is offering the training and support and that has that culture and that energy that makes you feel good. You know feel excited and supported um, you know wherever that might be but 

Tracy Hayes: finding that relation that one on one person that Because I think everyone likes to have a confident someone a confidant so that they can call and say god damn This is just you know, yeah, we all need You don't need that Yeah.

Tracy Hayes: And that other person listens and it goes out the other ear and then we move on and, and, or, you know, some people don't like to expose that. Hey, I was really nervous. I'm really nervous going up, you know, to the house. The first time, a lot of people don't want to tell other people their, their weaknesses, but if they have that friend or mentor that they know has their back or is going to then turn it into an encouragement thing, it really can help you out.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. I think definitely try it. If you've got a friend, you know, I always tell [00:59:00] people, um, find somebody that needs an assistant. Start out that way if you can, you know, I think that's 

Tracy Hayes: there's a lot of listings out there need open houses done 

Zackary Williams: Yeah, and and you really need to be yeah doing those open houses doing floor duty If you're off if your office has that, you know where you're answering the calls like you got to be out there, you know Um, but yeah If you can assist somebody and and learn that way, even if it's not you're not making a ton of money off You know doing it you're gaining experience and knowledge from that person and that's You know, sometimes for me, more.

Tracy Hayes: Real estate is like, um, analogy, but you, what you just said is it's, there's not a classroom, but even the, even, you know, you think about the college degrees today and like someone goes and takes engineering, takes four or five years to get their engineering degree or their law degree, let alone, they spend six or seven years in, in, uh, in an institution.

Tracy Hayes: They've learned all these books, but they've had to go and [01:00:00] actually, Sit in, you know, uh, hopefully that some internships in there, especially the lawyers, they all, you know, do their summer interns where they're actually in a law office doing lawyer type work. They may not be in the courtroom, but they had to do all this other stuff to get it where real estate is the same way you have to go in there.

Tracy Hayes: And the only way you're going to learn is by doing in the only way you're going to do it enough quickly enough. Is by meeting up with someone like this it's gonna take you on some of those appointments. I'm sure yeah, he took you on early 

Zackary Williams: Yeah, I have somebody who you know, I'm a little mentee friend of mine.

Zackary Williams: That's newer in the business that I'm hope, you know Unfortunately things have been a little slower for me on the buyer side I've got listings but I haven't had you know buyers, but my hope is to get to a point where you know, I'm focused more on the listings and then he takes the buying me with the buyers, you know?

Zackary Williams: Um, so hopefully the market will, 

Tracy Hayes: but being at every situation that you have that opportunity to talk to a buyer, he wants, you want him to be there because [01:01:00] that's the only way it's just like him being part of it. He's listening to you have this conversation, he's gaining confidence and understand, you know, how that conversation should hopefully go.

Tracy Hayes: Right. Right. Yeah. Um, 

Zackary Williams: I want to, you know, I want to pay that forward because, you know, I was fortunate to have that done for me. So, you know, I'm happy to do it. And I think a lot of agents out there would be happy to do it. So if you're new in the business, don't be afraid, you know, to ask for help. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, I had, um, on the last episode, um, I had, uh, Gia, Gia Arvin, uh, she's the president of Florida Realtor right now.

Tracy Hayes: She's been in the business 20 years and, uh, she started off like it because her mom had the brokerage. She now, her mom's passed away. She's taken over the brokerage out where they're at and over there in Gainesville. But she, she said our business, because of the way it's done, you really should be not necessarily like an appraisal, but someone wants to go out and be an appraiser.

Tracy Hayes: They're going to have all these hours of apprenticeship that they have to do, where a real estate agent [01:02:00] literally can get their license and as fast as they can put us, put, get a sign made, stick it in the yard and they're selling the next day. Um, and, but. you know, having, you know, this is your episode 206, 190 some top agents going on, many of the ones that got off to a really good solid start all had that, that mentor, that senior person, whether it was the broker themselves, or in this case, a friend for you that was in the brokerage that you, you know, could tag on and rely on and make those phone calls.

Tracy Hayes: And cause I'm sure there's many times, how many, every agent started quitting at some time or another. They're like, is this right for me? Yeah, we've all done that. That's a true test, right? 

Zackary Williams: You have a closing and you're like, I think I can do it. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, but having, having that mentorship and I think not enough agents realize, and it's not only in the real estate business, but, um, there's so many good agents and I, and you've obviously surrounded [01:03:00] yourself by some tough ones to just reach out and ask.

Tracy Hayes: Um, you know, 

Zackary Williams: never be too. And we're, you know, like we, we all need help. Sometimes we all have questions. I call Shonda, you know, and ask for her opinion on things all the time. So we're all, 

Tracy Hayes: well, you all were there at one point or another, you all just got your license, got that little piece of paper, said you passed, and then you're like, what's on the back, what's next.

Tracy Hayes: Right. Um, and so everyone's been there and we laugh about it and you look at these agents and you think, oh, they're just too busy for you, but I have found all of the top agents. We'll find time to have a conversation with you, whether it's on the phone zoom or have a cup of coffee with another agent, because I would you agree are the, um, you know, I think this nor settlement is shown a little bit of, uh, and it's some of the, some of it's because of the agent's, uh, faults site, but there's a, there's this disrespect, um, you know, to, to label, you know, to use the [01:04:00] analogy, the a used car salesperson, you know, uh, and that's because there's our, there, there's some good used cars people, right?

Tracy Hayes: We just, it's that stereo typical, right? And whatever, whoever created that stereotype of a used car salesperson, but, um, that the industries had that because there've been agents who just aren't doing it. ethically, um, professionally and so forth. And that the more agents who bond together to bring the level of some of these agents that this is how it's done professionally is only going to raise the bar for the industry.

Zackary Williams: Certainly. Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, there are those, you know, fly by night people that don't, you know, they're just don't have the ethical, you know, values. Right. Um, but yeah, I think, You know, I always want to be a good example, you know, for people 

Tracy Hayes: and that's, yeah, the, the, the, you're the last real estate agent they touch.

Tracy Hayes: They want to say, well, you don't want them to forget you, but you don't want to say it was a bad transaction either. You know, or, Oh my God, that guy got paid a lot of money. He didn't do squat for us. I mean, [01:05:00] I mean, I've had, I've had agents come on and say they got into real estate because of the way the real estate agent agent was so bad that they had, I think it was, um, John with a momentum reality.

Tracy Hayes: Doug Brooks. Yeah. He said he had a really bad transaction with an agent. He said, yeah, I gotta get into this business. . 

Zackary Williams: Is this easy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, because I can do it better. Yeah. They make a bad name. You know, some, some of these people out here. Mm-Hmm. . So, yeah, it is, it's nice to join forces with other really, you know, reputable agents that, you know, that do a good, you know, do good by their clients.

Zackary Williams: Right, right. Um, 

Tracy Hayes: um. Zachary, is there anything you want to add here to, or any story you want to share? What's a success story recently that you had? Maybe a tough transaction here as we finish up? Tell us a little, tell us a little about you and your superpowers. 

Zackary Williams: Well, I mean, I don't know. I'm putting you on the spot with that one.

Zackary Williams: I understand. I always just feel like I've been very fortunate to be successful. And you know, I mean, of course, it's, you know, The [01:06:00] relationship, you know, I'm a relationship builder and that's huge in this business. Um, but I will 

Tracy Hayes: Well, talk directly. Um, you know, if you want to give your 92nd elevator speech, uh, what the type of agent that you are and why clients you've been successful clients are attracted to you.

Tracy Hayes: They're either using you again or referring you to people to just kind of summarize, you know, your, your mindset on being a real estate agent and how you're, you know, You know, treating your customer, um, through an entire buying selling process, you know, foreshadowing, you know, preparing them for everything.

Tracy Hayes: Cause like, you know, we set sale a lot of times on these transactions and there's very rarely that we don't catch a couple of ways from the left to right. Yeah. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. I think it's, um, you know, I, I really tried to, uh, foster the, Relationship with people, you know, make them feel like a priority. You know, anytime I'm with [01:07:00] them, I'm not looking at my phone or checking my apple watch.

Zackary Williams: You know, I'm tuned in plugged in. I can drive you 

Tracy Hayes: nuts. You think really like they got to leave or something. You look at their watch. I'm like, do you got to leave? 

Zackary Williams: I never, I always make sure my clients feel like a priority. I'm also never you know, I've been successful and I've been very responsible with my finances.

Zackary Williams: So I am never pressed or, you know what I mean? Yeah. I feel like people can sense when you're like commission. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: When's this going to close? Cause I need to pay my mortgage. 

Zackary Williams: My priority is always them and their comfort level and making sure you know, that they are making the decision that's best for them.

Zackary Williams: I'm never trying to hurry us to the closing table or try to, you know, trying to get a sale, you know? 

Tracy Hayes: Well, let me, how, how important is when you say building the relationship? Cause that's, it's, it's a broad word, so we'll break it down a little bit, you know, to, to get to know the, [01:08:00] these clients where they've got a family, they got a dog, they got a cat.

Tracy Hayes: I mean, these are important things because you're putting him in a home and that's where everyone's going to go. What, how important is it to, to kind of dig a little bit in a, in a, you know, Casual polite ways you're building. They get to know some of those little little things. It may not actually Affect the transaction in the in the grand scheme of things But it's important that you actually spend some time to know these people 

Zackary Williams: love when they can tell that you care You know that you pay attention that you pick up on the things that they're Saying or the things that are important to them and that's easy to pick up on if you're really paying attention You know to them.

Zackary Williams: I I don't go into a home and try to sell the home to them. I go in and I Watch them, you know observe the things that excite them about the house, the things, you know, that, that they love. Cause then I can, kind of, keep that in the back of my mind, and, and when I feel like we've found the one that, you know, you can tell that they've been the most excited about, you can touch on all these things, and [01:09:00] You know, I just feel like they they know that you've been paying attention that you care 

Tracy Hayes: because you're paying attention And then the reason you're in that house is because you paid attention To the previous conversation of all the things they want needed and had and then looking at what was available You're like let's go see this house because I think based on what you've told me and all the things you want I I This house may be a close fit for you, uh, versus rushing it, uh, not paying attention and just showing them house because they said they wanted to live in knockety when really they found out they really don't want to live in knocking, you know, for example, or, or downtown or, you know, whatever, because I think a lot, um, I've had many over the years, you know, I don't want to live in a CDD.

Tracy Hayes: Well, then they went around and looked at the communities in St. John's County and realized, well, if you want to live in the community that has all the amenities, that the reason why you want to live there is because they're CDDs. Right. You know, so you've got to listen and not necessarily close things out, but understand because you're, you're, you're taking the time.

Zackary Williams: Yeah. And sometimes read between [01:10:00] the lines and even, and now more important than ever, you have to have these buyer consults. You know, you can't just. Before we could, you know, somebody called they want to see a house You'd hop in the car and go show it to him and then hope that you know But conversation would lead from there then we would start working together.

Zackary Williams: But now we've you know, we're moving towards having to have By representation agreements, maybe I think they may become more Um, and especially if you care about making sure that you're going to get compensated, you know, you're going to want to make sure that you have that. Um, so it's going 

Tracy Hayes: to make you a better agent.

Zackary Williams: Taking the time to sit down with the client and have a buyer consult with them, explaining the process of, you know, buying a home, especially if it's their first time. Um, and then kind of establishing some. Ground rules and going over the compensation and making sure that they understand, you know, that obviously we're going to first seek that compensation from the seller, but there may be an instance, you know, where you're [01:11:00] interested in a home that's not offering compensation.

Zackary Williams: Do 

Tracy Hayes: you, um, do you like having these conversations face to face or you just go with the flow or you, you, you actually encourage a face to face, you know, sometimes obviously you can't have one, maybe they're at a down or. Yeah. That type of thing, but 

Zackary Williams: every circumstance is different, but I, yeah, if I can get face to face with somebody, I'd much prefer that, you know, sometimes it's a phone call, sometimes it's virtual.

Zackary Williams: Um, but yeah, I like to be face to face. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Because I think when it comes to building a relationship, even as a zoom call would be the second thing. Um, because obviously, you know, with social media, we've learned that people don't differentiate from looking at a screen versus, you know, like us face to face here.

Tracy Hayes: And if you can't meet face to face, which is the ideal situation, because you're seeing the, the, the body language, the facial expressions, you know, are they, are they making eye contact with you and listening, or they're like, I don't like this guy. I can't wait to read Leo. You're getting that face to face, the zoom call.

Tracy Hayes: You're getting a little bit of that as [01:12:00] well. And then building, cause they're, they're seeing you and seeing how, you know, you present yourself and so forth. Uh, how vital that is in the relationship. Building process. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah, and then dress for success, you know

Zackary Williams: Well, you don't 

Tracy Hayes: have to, um, you, you're, you're dressed very well. You got a nice jacket. It's fitted the shirt I could see it's fitted to you. Uh, you don't have to wear a three piece suit. This, this is for Florida. People, I think people, you think, you know, Florida do expect to have a little bit of casualness.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. To it, to a point. Type of thing, but yeah, I agree. 

Zackary Williams: Yeah. I think that the way that you put yourself out, you know, definitely, you know, We'll give people confidence in you, you know, dress for success. I think there was a study we learned about this in a, in Ninja recently. They had like three groups.

Zackary Williams: There was a group of people that were dressed like in suits, a group of [01:13:00] people that were dressed business casual, and then a group of people that were just dressed casually and they all had to negotiate, um, contracts. I don't know exactly what type. Um, um, and, They all did fairly well, uh, but the group that did the best were the ones in suits, the second best, business casual, and then, you know, third best was the, the uh, casual.

Zackary Williams: And this was all done over the phone. 

Tracy Hayes: Hmm, 

Zackary Williams: interesting. That just goes to show that it's not even necessarily, it's more about You know, yeah, feeling confident, you know, because you're, 

Tracy Hayes: well, I mean, I've heard that from me because obviously I started in a call center and, um, you know, we used to, yeah, we used to wear shirt and tie and it got, it got casual or as the years went on, we still wore slacks and everything.

Tracy Hayes: Right. Even though, I mean, I mean today they may even, you know, I think if I was doing it today from a call center, I may actually in knowing and listening to you guys, uh, [01:14:00] the agents, I would probably, you know, do a zoom type call with them. Uh, because I think that is where the connection is made. When they see you, they see your real person.

Tracy Hayes: Cause I often felt in the call center. I mean, we used to get some, I mean, you would laugh when you saw us. It wasn't regularly, but it would be a joke. We'd send around the pictures of some of these appraisals of the houses. These people thought we were going to finance. I mean, there were, I mean, some crazy stuff out in the middle of Arizona, like it was like this little dome that was someone used.

Tracy Hayes: 30 years ago, you know, the grass was growing up or whatever. I remember I had one in Alaska where it was like, they didn't, they didn't have any internal plumbing. And, you know, the house was, yeah, no, no one could live there. It was not a livable house. They 

Zackary Williams: were wanting to buy these and turn these into, yeah, or 

Tracy Hayes: refinance them because, you know, maybe this, someone passed on this property to them and they're like, Hey, I want to refinance the property.

Tracy Hayes: And really the value was just the land it was on, you know, but I don't know if they thought because we were an lender, they could get away with that. You know, we wouldn't actually [01:15:00] send an appraiser out who would take pictures and send back to us and we would, you know, look at the, but that would be, uh, you know, the, the, um, the thing.

Tracy Hayes: So the, but we often talked about, yeah, uh, I remember when I first started, we, we definitely wore, um, shirts and ties in. Um, and, and dress shoes and so forth, uh, you know, going off, even though we were call center and the only other people was our coworkers that were seeing us, you know, the clients never saw us.

Tracy Hayes: We never were at a closing. You know that that wasn't part of the deal. 

Zackary Williams: I just think it's important. I mean, it is, you know. It's you're dealing with people's most expensive investments and, you know, some of their biggest investments. So I think it's, 

Tracy Hayes: Well, you don't, I mean, in a first impression, there's always a first impression to you.

Tracy Hayes: You want to go in there and look, you know, Hey, I rolled apart. Maybe after you've been showing them half a dozen homes and you see, they like to dress in shorts and flip flops when they go see the house. So you, you may, you may dress down a little bit. So you're not, you're not wearing the three piece suit and they're in flip flops.

Tracy Hayes: Then they feel uncomfortable 

Zackary Williams: on your people. But I just think that, um, and it's [01:16:00] actually been stated that a lot of people, one of, one of the things that complaints of people is that they felt like their realtor was, To relax. Not doesn't, it's not 

Tracy Hayes: surprising though. Not surprising. Cause I've, I've, I've, yeah, I've seen it.

Tracy Hayes: That's why you're where I'm not a real estate agent, but a hundred percent. I appreciate you coming on. Anything you want to add to, to, to the audience here? 

Zackary Williams: No, I mean, I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, now you're, you're, you're memorialized out there in the YouTube and, uh, in the podcast world. What's today, Tuesday.

Tracy Hayes: So go out on Friday and it'll be out there and I'll, I'll text you over, uh, listeners, please, uh, you know, leave a review. Go ahead. 

Zackary Williams: I will say that, um, you know, if I can offer any advice or, you know, be of support in any way, don't ever hesitate. You know, it's, it's a compliment for people to come to me and ask for, you know, help or advice.

Zackary Williams: So. Always here, you know, if I can help in any way, I'm happy to. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, so Zachary would love to have a [01:17:00] cup of coffee with you, uh, talk about the things that he's doing. And like I said, just even like you said, if you're doing business, you know, maybe you got some clients that are interested in the peninsula or, you know, in the areas that you work or, you know, I, I think, uh, one of the, one of the shows we had, somebody got a listing from a friend.

Tracy Hayes: And so the friend gave him the business, but it was in an area. That they don't normally work. And if that, if, if your friend owns a place in the peninsula, but hires you to sell it, call Zach, he'll give you all the help. Cause he's probably got a buyer, you know, uh, type thing or vice versa. So, um, I appreciate you coming on.

Tracy Hayes: Thank you. Thank you.