Real Freedom: Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable with Danny Brown

[0:00] Welcome back to the REI agent. My guest today is Danny Brown, principal and managing partner of the Danny Brown Real Estate Advisory Group at Compass in Beverly Hills. With over 24 years of luxury real estate experience, on the west side of LA, Danny is one of the most recognized agents in the country. Featured in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, and on CNN, Fox, and ABC. He famously sold the Brady Bunch house on H2HGTV. Is that right, Danny? You sold it to H2HGTV? Yes, yes. They’re the ones that bought it and then sold it for them after they built it. Okay, you’re going to have to tell that story here in a second. But anyway, Danny, thank you so much for being on the show. Welcome to the REI agent.

[0:43] Yeah, yeah. Great to be here. What’s going on? Danny, yeah. I mean, you came into real estate from the music industry. Tell us a little bit about that. How did you get started? Oh, man. So growing up here in LA, I went to school, ended up at USC, chasing sports, dreams, baseball as a sport. When that seemed to end towards the end of my college career, I had a big time for music. Hip-hop at the time, I didn’t involve with DJing and hip-hop since elementary school, since it broke out in the West Coast in the mid-’80s. And I’m like, oh, well, I should do this. It became natural to me. I was very much in promoting plays through high school and college and bringing in rappers and bands and DJing and stuff.

[1:29] So I started into the music business. And for anyone that knows the entertainment business model, it is very challenging when you’re new and young. It’s very much a long shot, one-in-a-million business. You write the hit song, you sign the hot band, you write a hit script, and boom, you could be a millionaire. But the odds of that happening, it’s probably not even one-in-a-million. It’s even less. So I was chasing that. I was chasing bands around, developing bands, working my way up, worked in the mailroom, worked for free, worked for $5 an hour, worked my ass off, ate a lot of shit. Can I say explicit language here or just family-like? It’s fine. Yeah. Dleep it out if you need. You take a lot of crap and you work really hard, and there’s no upside unless you hit it big.

[2:20] So I started in the business. That’s where I got my start. Transition sort of randomly, as many of us do. My best friend, who was the best friend at my wedding, best man at my wedding, a guy named David Rabbits, he worked as the right-hand man to David Offer. And David Offer, who may not know that name, has been like the number one Prudential Berkshire Hatch agent for 40 years in a row, is this Mr. President. And I thought, oh, you guys are killing it. Why don’t I just get in that business part-time and I can fund some of the bands, develop them and record demos and pay for this. And he’s like, are you crazy? This business is so difficult. Getting into real estate is so challenging. He’s like, the only thing harder is probably being in the music business.

[3:05] Somebody said, but if you decide to do it, you’d be great. You know how to put deals together. You’re great with people. You’re good with numbers. You have a good network. He’s like, if you do it, you’d be great. So I like, screw it. I’m just going to do it part-time. And part-time spiraled into full-time really quick as I started getting deals done and getting paychecks. And I built it up from there, one brick at a time. Actually getting money instead of just grinding. Makes sense why you’d be interested. Yeah. It was very different. Polar opposite. I did a lot of work for a lot of years in entertainment with no paychecks attached to it and no credit attached to it. So it was refreshing to be like, oh, work really hard, get a deal done.

[3:44] And a paycheck came in. They weren’t big paychecks, a couple thousand bucks. And I was like, woo-wee. I’m getting it all. I’m getting going. I’m living large. Can pay some bills. Let’s go. For real. Yeah. So you came into the real estate industry. You were kind of modeling your career after this David offer. What did those early years teach you about the luxury market that most agents coming in through the traditional paths never learn? So great question. So I was placed outside David offer’s office by the manager, Nancy Beckerman, who’s a legendary manager who’s now retired, but I’m still very close with her. She’s like, this is where you’re going to sit and you’re going to be around him. But first things first is he was the first one in, last one out.

[4:28] It was all about hard work, consistency, and giving sound advice and being the smartest person in the room. No matter what room you’re in, having the knowledge in terms of not being the smartest, but being the smartest about real estate and what we do and what the market is doing. And what I realized quick was, you know, this isn’t about having flashy cars and flashy washes and big boicest personalities. David offer was just calm, still consistent and just a grinder working hard and giving sound advice. And I just that’s what I watch. That’s what I soaked up. And I think what people miss, especially post 2010 or so, whenever the million dollar listing craze and the reality TV culture became mainstream, what people thought was, oh, luxury to get in the luxury.

[5:17] You need to just have a fancy car and a fancy watch and boicest personality. And you just go from there and it has nothing to do with it. And not that nice things and looking good and being professional don’t matter. They do. But what matters is you got to know the contract. You got to know every sale. You got to know the off market listings. You got to be trustworthy. And you have to always give advice that’s in the best interest of your client to achieve whatever that client wants to achieve. And you have to do that day in and day out. And it’s exhausting and it’s a grind. And, you know, what I also learned is termites, toilets and mold are not that glamorous. Contrary to popular belief, everyone thinks it’s so glamorous to be a luxury agent.

[6:00] I mean, it’s not glamorous. So that’s what I have to say about that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess when it boils the brass tacks of it all, definitely can, you have to grind your way through no matter what. Even if it’s a, you know, if it’s a hundred thousand dollar house or if it’s a, you know, a hundred million dollar house. Correct. Correct. It’s the same. It’s the same values. It’s the same sound advice. It’s the same sharpness and doing what’s best for your client and giving them the most sound advice you can to, to achieve what they want to achieve. And, yeah, there are lots of differences, obviously, in dealing with super high-end luxury clients because they have a full team and business managers and lawyers and advisors and they have a whole team.

[6:48] So you’re working with those people as well. So that’s very different than everybody else. So you have to learn how to really read the room and really understand who’s pulling the levers, who are the decision makers and the influencers. And, you know, you also have to be confident in what you know and not just be a yes man. When you see a client or one of their high, you know, high-end incredible advisors steering the ship into an iceberg, I have to be able to speak out and say, look, I beg to differ. Here’s why. Doesn’t mean you should do what I’m saying. I’ll do whatever you advise you want to do. But let me at least lay out why I think your approach is going to get us into a lot of trouble and not achieve what you want to achieve.

[7:30] So you have to be able to step in and be able to be fearless with giving that good advice, even when you’re dealing with the smartest, most successful billionaires and agents and business managers and all that. So that’s part of it, too. Now, the difference is, you know, if you’re not dealing at that rarefied air, you know, the 99.9% of the clients that we deal with who are also very smart and successful, same deal. You’re just dealing one-on-one with them or if it’s a couple or a family. But you still got to do the same thing. You got to let them know, like, I’m going to try to steer you away from those icebergs. I don’t want you going off the rails. If I see you taking us off the rails, I will have to step in and say, look, I think we need to try this approach based on hundreds of transactions.

[8:14] This is what’s going to most likely happen if we go your way or this way. Then ultimately, I’m a vessel. I’m an advocate for you. If you insist on doing something some way that I disagree with, ultimately, of course, I’m going to do it. I’m going to let them know that I don’t think it’s the right approach. Yeah. So that’s fascinating that you have, you know, sometimes you’re working with a whole team of people that are advising. I mean, you represent a lot of celebrities, family offices, and ultra-high net worth clients. Are there any other differences and ways you have to approach those type of people in a transaction? I mean, look, the big difference is what I pointed out. There’s multiple people involved.

[8:53] And usually the multiple people involved think they know more than me. And in some instances, they may know certain things more than me. I’m not going to claim that I know everything. But when it comes to my specific niche of understanding and expertise, I’m going to step in. So besides that, I mean, look, you’ve got to be able to read the room. You have to put your ego aside. I mean, because you’re going to deal with egos. There’s big egos. You’ve got the biggest lawyer in Beverly Hills. You’ve got the biggest business manager in Century City. You’ve got their talent manager. Everyone’s got an opinion. You’ve got to be able to have an ego, have no ego. You have to be able to step back and read the room.

[9:35] And you have to be able to pivot and constantly pivot. And something I always say is you’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable with those type of clients. Because, you know, stakes are really high at that level. And it’s a lot of money. And people are used to getting what they want all the time. And everyone around them are generally yes men. So that’s where you start from. And, you know, again, all the things I said previously. Like you really need to be authentic to yourself, honest, giving sound advice based on my experience of what I know to be true. And you also have to know, you know, you have to be able to read when to back down and when to step in. Other than that, people are people.

[10:19] You know, people want what they want. People think they know better. People think they can get lucky. You know, people all want the best deal possible. Like it doesn’t matter whether you’re buying, you know, the cheapest piece of property in the city or the most expensive. But there’s a lot of similarities with that. And there’s a lot of differences. Sure. What was your path to getting to some of these? Like I would imagine you weren’t landing big celebrities, high net worth people from day one. I mean, how did you build that up? No. I wish I was. I wish I was. You know, I always joke about I came in in the business, you know, at a time where it was like 10 years before reality TV. And now I’ve been in it, you know, 10 or 15 years since.

[11:04] I am the single most traumatized human being from reality TV about real estate because I spent 10, my first 10 years in the business starting out in areas of L.A. that I didn’t know how to get to. And I grew up here. And, you know, I’m talking Granada Hills, beyond East L.A., Sylvar, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 deals, which in L.A., you know, that’s as low as it gets. And at the time, there was no internet. The internet wasn’t like a big thing yet. Google Maps wasn’t such a big thing. So we were on the Thomas Guides trying to figure out, okay, where’s this street way out there in Mountain Washington? Where’s this street? So I started with that. I started with any deal I could. And I built my way up from, you know, $200,000 to $500,000.

[11:54] I got into the condo market thinking that would be a strategic move for a young guy who doesn’t have a big network of people buying homes. And quickly over a five-, six-year period of hitting condos hard and doing mailers to the condos in specific neighborhoods, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Westwood, I started churning it out. And my condo buyer would buy a $500,000 condo. And then a couple of years later, they’d sell it for $800,000. And then they’d want to buy a house for $1,500. And then five years after that, $1,500, they’re now looking for $4,000. And through all that, I stayed consistent with doing as many open houses as I could every weekend and meeting people that way and direct mail and being consistent with getting in front of people.

[12:37] And I slowly, you know, kept bumping the price point up. Now, looking back, now that I’m at a price point, and there’s always more to go. I haven’t sold a $60 or $100 million home. There’s probably a dozen or so people that haven’t. I’m not one of them. I’d like to. So I’m still ratcheting it up. But the thing that I look back on and regret through that process is I didn’t have the foresight to install a team member, bring on a team member. Because I’ve always been a solo agent with an assistant. That’s it. I find it efficient. Sometimes I’ll have like a showing agent. But back then, when I had the condos up and rolling, all I wanted to do was jump from that million-dollar condo to the $3, $4, $5 million home.

[13:17] And I left that behind after five, six years of direct mail and investing and being the top condo agent. I should have installed a partner, a junior partner, and kept that. And I should have done the same thing when I rolled into the entry level, the $2, $3, $4 million range, when I wanted to move up to the $5 to $10. And that’s what I do regret. If there was any lesson, I’d say, like, once you have something working in any niche, even if it’s not a niche that you’re passionate about or excited about, you should still try to strategically bring on somebody under you that could be excited about that and passionate about that and continue that business. Because that would be an income stream forever.

[14:00] And even if you’re taking 50% or 25%, that’s a cash cow over time. So that would be a lesson, advice, something that I think I could have done better. Okay. That’s interesting. And so are you still just a solo agent with an assistant, basically? I mean, you said- Pretty much. Energy broker as well, right? Yeah, so I have an assistant. I have another. I usually have one or two showing agents. And that’s it. So a team of, you know, four and a marketing person. But usually it’s just me in terms of besides the back office of an assistant, a transaction coordinator, and someone that does marketing and social media. Besides that, this infrastructure is that. Those three. And then it’s just me and a showing agent.

[14:43] But I’m the rainmaker, and I’m not counting on, you know, any junior agents I bring that I’ve brought on my team. I’m not counting on them to rainmake and bring in deals. It’s great if they do. But what I’ve learned is that I don’t believe in the big model. And I’ve been just as profitable doing it this way as some of my peers that have 30 agents, 50 agents, 80 agents. Because a lot of times, not a lot of times, almost all of those models, it’s a handful of agents or even less on those teams that are having any consistent business. And the rest is just, you know, dead weight and people that will do one-offs and get lucky. So, yeah, that’s all I have. Now, if I had incredible people to bring on, I would bring on one or two others because I do love mentoring and coaching and teamwork.

[15:31] You know, but it is very challenging because I have done that in the past. And when people start getting successful and learn the business, if they can do it on their own, they want to do it on their own. And I totally get that and support that. So, I’ve had a handful of great team members over the last 20 years that I’ve mentored that have now gone on to be very successful on their own. And I’m obviously very close with them and I keep those relationships. That’s awesome. Yeah. I do have to just ask. I’m very curious now. Tell us a story about the Brady Bunch house. How did that come about? Well, just, yeah. Awesome, funny story. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you Google the Brady Bunch house and, you know, when it sold to HGTV, you can get the details of the story.

[16:13] But the quick story is the Brady Bunch house that was used in the credits that rolled in the beginning, there was a picture of a house. It was a house in Studio City. They never shot the show in that house. The house was shot on the Paramount lot in a set and the house itself was just a set. So, when this house came on the market, now it’s probably 10 years ago, eight years ago, it was just the actual house in Studio City, just on an average street. And it was basically a fix or tear down. If it wasn’t the Brady Bunch house, it would have been torn down. But it was the outside of the Brady Bunch house. It was known as that. People were always going to that house and taking pictures out front for 30 years.

[16:54] And I didn’t know that at the time. But I learned about that. But anyway, so it went on the market. It was a crazy bidding war. I don’t know, 30 offers, a lot of celebrities and home collectors. And Lance Bass was one of them. And he announces on his social media towards like a week into the negotiation. And I’m negotiating still with them, representing HGT. He announces that he’s got the house and he’s celebrating and popping champagne. And it’s like a 7 o’clock at night. And I just spoke to the owner of the house’s representative like 10 minutes ago. And I’m about to get on the phone with the CEO of HGTV, who’s on a jet flying somewhere to Aspen or Wyoming. And I’m like, what’s going on here?

[17:34] So I get the guy on the phone, that representative. So I’m like, no, nothing’s been signed. I mean, they came in and they think they have it, but it’s not signed. And I get on with my client. And he’s like, we cannot lose this house because we have a plan to do a show and a plan to roll out all these other ancillary products and things and promotions with this house. We don’t, the economics for us are well beyond, you know, what normal people would think. So he gives me a, you know, he’s like, I give you the ability to, I give you the right to negotiate up to X amount. So I get back on the phone with that. The other person, like, we have to have this in, you know, we’re going to go up. We’re willing to go up to X amount.

[18:12] And he’s like, well, that’s just above where Lance is. And, you know, if that’s where you’re going, then we’re going to do a deal. So we signed it, got the deal. And Lance was so pissed. And I’m like, sorry, Lance. You can’t, no crying in real estate, Lance. But we got it done. And HGTV was the right buyer. They ended up, this is the great part. So they buy it. The house was a total disaster. They hired the Property Brothers and a team of all-star designers in their network. And they looked at the TV show frame by frame and piece by piece to get every piece of the house looking exactly like it looked on the show, on the set, including the furniture, the accessories, and the tchotchkes, and clothes that hang out in the closets.

[18:55] And man, it looks, it’s like a time machine when you walked in there at the end. It took them a long time to do. And they did a show about it and lots of other promotional things. So after, I don’t know, four or five years of them showing, doing promotions and shows, like, Danny, okay, this is just sitting on our books. We don’t have any other plans for this. I’m like, really? Like, yeah. So let’s just sell it. Let’s sell it like this. I’m like, wow, this is like a, this is a piece of art. This isn’t a normal house. Same sort of thing unfolded. You know, it got everybody, every TV outlet came to interview me and came to the house and everyone came to see the house and wanted it. It ended up going to an incredible, truly a home collector who collects historic homes and interesting homes.

[19:34] And her vision, which was the right one, was, look, I’m going to buy this and, like, make it like a public museum and do a charity event. So just, just a few weeks ago, she was able to get the city of LA to designate it as a historic architectural property, which means you can no longer, you could not tear it down and it’s got to be preserved this way. And I think now that’s the right thing. It’s like, it’s making it a community gift. And so now you can buy tickets and go, and it’s like a time machine when you’re in it. It’s an incredible feeling. I’ve never experienced that with a house before. Yeah. Unreal. One of a kind, one of one, one of one for sure. What a story, Dan. Do you, do you have an, like, I’m just curious, like what that house would have been worth when you were first buying it or first offering for your, for HGTV.

[20:19] Um, and then kind of how much more it sold for, like roughly, like, is it like, does it was like a tear down? Yeah. Roughly. It was worth, you know, yeah, it probably should have been $2 million as a tear down plus or minus. And I believe we pay like three, five, three, five. And by the way, there was 20 people that paid between three and three, three, you know, there was a lot of others lined up behind us because they wanted to do stuff with it. And then when it sold again, like, did it, did it sell for a good amount? Like, I mean, it was like, I mean, did it sell for getting a little feedback? It actually sold for less than three, a little less than that. It sold for like three, three, I want to say.

[21:00] So it sold less, you know, the time, that time around, like the reality was it was some people that wanted to make it a, like a boutique bed and breakfast. Most people thought they would turn it into some spectacular Airbnb, which sounds great, but it’s illegal in LA. So it’s very risky to spend a half million dollars on an Airbnb that can get shut down. So there weren’t that many, you know, true buyers that could do what she wanted to do, which was, Hey, I have the money to do this and preserve it. And so, but they made a ton of money on the TV shows and promotions and things they did with the house. So no, obviously it was still a great, great deal for them. That’s, that’s really fascinating.

[21:36] Um, uh, Danny, you have sustained 24 plus years at the top of one of the most competitive luxury markets in the world. What has kept you relevant through market cycles, rising competition and industry shifts that have pushed others out? You know, there’s no silver bullets. There’s no shortcuts. It’s, you know, focusing on the controllables and ignoring the noise because there’s so much noise. There’s so much negativity, uh, all around us. There’s so much rejection in this business, similar to entertainment, similar to the sports. If you’re ever played competitive sports, there’s so much rejection. So mentally you have to be, you know, just a beast mode mental mindset because you’re getting torn down constantly.

[22:19] So focus on the one thing in this business. And the one thing is getting in front of people in an authentic way and consistently, whatever that means for you, whatever, however you do it for me, it was generally, you know, beat to my bread and butter. You know, we all prospect, but for me, it’s, you know, I like breakfast is lunch, dinners, drinks, uh, going to people’s houses to have them come into my house. You know, that’s how I’ve built my business. And until this day, you know, I still do that. I’m still every morning, have an hour where I’m locked after the gym and after I’m ready and dressed that I’m looking at, okay, let me try to set up, you know, lunches, dinners. And I do, I’ve been doing that consistently.

[22:56] So I think that’s part of the keys focus, blocking out the noise and the distractions and the, you know, the newest tech and the newest, this, and that, that’s not going to, that’s not going to sustain you for 25 years. Sure. We have to pivot and learn and grow and constantly add things, but be focusing on controllable. So like what’s between right here and getting in front of people and knowing my stuff, constantly learning and knowing my stuff and knowing what the market’s doing and knowing the nuances and knowing new laws that are coming, whatever that is. So I don’t think it’s brain surgery. It’s a simple business, but it’s very hard to execute because of all those factors, because of the pressure, you know, you can work for months on end.

[23:38] Like I said earlier, be comfortable being uncomfortable. You’re working months on end, long hours, seven days a week with no paychecks. That’s just a given at some point. And often that’s going to happen. And it’s not many people can act that. And as glamorous as it seems, you know, that’s the, probably the reason why they say, I don’t know, 80% of agents are out on the business within their first two years and very few make it past five years. There’s a reason for it. It’s very difficult to handle the kind of pressure and the unknowns and the negativities and just keep pushing forward. So that’s, that’s my, that’s, that’s why I would guess that I’ve survived so far. It’s true. It sounds like you also have an understanding of the clientele you work with, the ability to know when to, to speak up and provide value.

[24:26] Like I think if you were probably constantly in an ego battle or something with, with somebody you, you, you may not be winning business, but you know, being able to step in at the right time to, to provide the value that’s needed to provide your expertise, to know your stuff, et cetera, to be speaking with confidence because you know what you’re doing probably also speaks volumes. Cause I think, you know, there could be a lot of people that would, would, you know, get in their own way in, in that kind of market. Yeah, definitely. For sure you got to put your ego aside and it’s hard and it’s really hard, especially when you know deep down that you’re, you’re right. And this person is so far off, but yet it’s not, it’s not my place.

[25:06] This is their purchase. You know, it’s not my purse or their sale. I can give them as much info as I can, but yes, you got to put your ego aside and you got to learn how to be a chameleon and connect and understand that there’s so many different types of people. And each person has several personalities and emotional ups and downs within their personality. And you have to be able to track all that and react to all that and read the room in real time. And, you know, you’re going boom, boom, room to room, the room one after the other. I can’t tell you how different the people are. You know, I could be there with the CEO of a fortune 500 company, which is grilling me on numbers and grilling me on this.

[25:42] You know, he knows his shit. He’s as smart as it gets. You know, I’m just giving them the information like I can. And then the next meeting I could be meeting with, you know, the sweetest 88 year old lady living this house for 60 years and just lost her husband and really just want someone to listen and talk to her. And it’s like, okay, I got this treating her like it’s my grandma. You know, like I’m going to spend two hours in this, in the Palisades talking to her. And that’s what this relationship is about. And then the next one is, you know, could be the rock star who’s, you know, got drugs everywhere and girls running around naked. And, you know, and they’re like telling you, I, you know, I need to sell this house and I need to buy this thing.

[26:23] And you’re in that chaos and you’re just trying to survive it and get the pertinent information you need so that you can like coalesce that chaos, put it into like a package that I can get to their advisor and go, this is what I think that he’s saying and what we, the best approach. So that’s a daily thing and you’re boom, boom, boom. Then the next one is the next different, there’s so much that you’re dealing with on a personal level. So I think being able to deal with so many, a variety of people from every walk of life and every type of personality type, you know, maybe we’re like therapists, we’re kind of a therapist. That’s been, that’s been one of my, you know, that’s been one of my secret weapons, so to speak.

[27:03] And I, you know, I lean on that a lot. I’m like, you gotta just put your ego aside and deal with what’s in front of you and help them through where they are, meet them where they are and then help them get what they say they want to get. Danny, you probably have some crazy stories. There’s probably, you probably send a lot, sign a lot of NDAs. There’s probably a lot of stories you can’t tell, but are there any, any other stories you can that come to mind that would be entertaining to hear? Yeah. I mean, that’s a whole nother thing about selling in LA and a lot of the NDAs and the privacy. And by the way, if you haven’t figured it out, no matter what NDA you sign, and regardless if I’ve never said a word to anybody, which I haven’t, it always comes out in the press because there’s people that are bloggers that spend their life investigating the LLC and the trust and who the business manager’s name and who could it be, they all know.

[27:57] And they’re out there following these people. Like I always say, they’re taking pictures while we’re showing you houses. They know you bought something. And when they close it, it’s anyway. So crazy stories. There’s so many. What’s a good crazy story. There’s so many. There’s so many. What is something that comes to mind that I can, that I can explain here? What are the things you’ve worked with or that you can share or anything like that? You know, I’ll tell a fun story that, you know, you could say it’s crazy. I recently sold, I’m a Paul Pierce, Celtic legend, NBA Hall of Famer. He’s an LA kid. I’ve known him for years because we were both LA high school sports guys. So I’ve been working with him a lot.

[28:36] His mom passed away and we sold her house. And before it closed, he’s like, we got to go through that. They had a whole storage area of memorabilia. He’s like, this is stuff that I haven’t seen. And this is like my early memorabilia. So we go in there and we’re going through all these stuff, posters and trophies and awards and this and that. And he pulls out this humongous shoe. It’s like, I think it was like a Reebok pump shoe, you know, old high top shoe with signatures on it. The soul is coming. He’s like, oh my God, I haven’t seen this since high school. This is the shoes I wore on my all American, McDonald’s all American high school team. And he starts looking, look at these signatures.

[29:12] And it was like one NBA Hall of Famer after not. They’re like five or six Hall of Famers on his team. Like this is incredible. I’m like, Paul, that’s been sitting there for this for 20 plus years. I’m like cleaning it up, put it in a frame, you know, frame it or something or send it to the basketball Hall of Fame. He’s like, yes, yeah, I’ll do that. So that was something that just happened. Not that it’s crazy, but that’s a pretty cool story. Most of the crazy stuff is like you said, you know, stuff that I probably can’t share and wouldn’t want to share. I’m sure. We’ve seen some wild stuff. No, I’m sure the rock star image is ingrained in my brain. It sounds like something out of a book or something, but or a movie.

[29:50] Yeah, that’s, you know, that kind of stuff happens, you know, that kind of stuff happens. You think you’re watching like a Quentin Tarantino movie or that. Yeah, that happens from time to time.

[30:01] Danny, that’s amazing. So what what golden nuggets would you have for the listeners of the show? You know, I’ve probably been repetitive, but I’d like to say get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You got to be able to compartmentalize under pressure and being able to just still be yourself and still be able to have a voice and opinion, because at the end of the day, they’re paying us and paying me for my guidance and expertise. So I need to block out pressure and the stress and the egos. And so I think that’s one big thing is, you know, become make sure you’re comfortable being uncomfortable. Another thing I said earlier was focus on the controllables. You can control your health, your mindset.

[30:43] A big thing is you got to know when to rest and recover, you know, because this, excuse me, this business is high stress and it is seven days a week. And if you don’t have a plan for recovery and it’s not always easy, I know, especially in my first 10, 15 years, you need to take that time off to recharge and be a better, you know, better agent, a better husband, better father, better friend, better human. You just can’t perform at that level. You burn out. This is a burnout business. And when you’re taking on all that stress and negativity, you have to do that. And, you know, so that’s what I’d say. Those are a couple, couple basic nuggets. I wish I could say there’s an easy, you know, app or an easy trick to do, but there isn’t.

[31:25] It’s just be consistent day to day to day and be yourself because everyone’s different. So my version of being an agent and how I do it is different than you and different than them. There’s some, a lot of similarities and there’s only so many ways to get in front of people. But at the end of the day, you got to do it your way. What aligns with your values, your personality, et cetera, your resources. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. What about a book? Do you have a fundamental book you think everybody should read or just one that you currently really enjoy? Well, I just read the Mark Hoppus Blink-182 biography, which I loved because Blink-182, but it has nothing to do with real estate. It’s just fun and entertaining read.

[32:02] So a real estate book that I think anytime someone gets in the business or a team member that’s looking about how do I build my business, it’s so hard. I say, get, you know, read the Gary Keller book, The One Thing, Do The One Thing. And what that focuses on is like, what is the one thing? The one thing is we all have to prospect. If you focus on the one thing, you don’t have to be distracted by thousands of other things that are coming at us. Spend that hour. If you have more, if you can do more than an hour, God bless you. You want to accelerate your career faster, do, you know, focus on prospecting for four hours, eight hours, God bless, whatever you can do. But if you can just keep small, even if it’s 15 minutes, then reach out to three people.

[32:43] But for the most part, that’s it. That’s a good book to just get you started because everything else doesn’t matter unless you’re doing that first. Yeah, it’s really true. And I think, you know, we are in such a, everything is just fighting for our attention. And, you know, you could probably spend your whole real estate career and probably fail in it by like trying to find the next thing on Instagram and just keep scrolling the next tip or whatever and then never actually take any action. So what a great filter for your life to really just focus in and do what you know is the most important thing to boot the needle. So I love it. Yeah. If you’re not doing that, it’s hard, hard to get a business consistent.

[33:23] And, you know, you’re only as good at the next deal. That’s another thing I learned, you know, from David Offer and growing up in this business. And you could go on a hot streak and give a ton of deals, but you got to keep up with the prospecting and the fundamentals because that hot streak can turn cold. Just like in sports, you can go in a slump and, you know, that happens. And you could be working your ass off prospecting and doing everything right. And just, it’s not the right timing for a couple of months. And, you know, you can’t control, you can’t control your client’s timing or motivation. And you just got to be able to have the strength, tenacity, mental toughness to push through it.

[33:56] So that’s all I got. I don’t know. It’s not an easy business. You know, it really isn’t an easy business. And, you know, the reality TV culture, you know, that really helped a couple dozen agents become mega millionaires. That’s a, they’re not in our business. That’s a different business. And you can’t look at that and go, oh, that isn’t really how it happens. You know, that’s not, it happens to 20 people that way. And they’re, they’re incredibly wealthy and successful, but that’s not how everyone else has done it. Yeah. Well, I mean, you really touched on a really important element for a lot of people if they can have is to find that mentor that will guide them to, you know, who has experience, who has done the job for a long time.

[34:36] And they can, you know, you may end up doing a flavor of them. You may not be exactly like them because, you know, we all, like you said, are different. But, you know, that is certainly a way, especially, you know, that if that person’s in your market, they understand the market, all that stuff will really jumpstart your career faster than following HGTV to get a real estate sales advisor. Sure. I mean, mentorship is critical. And then, you know, it’s, it could be multiple people and you could take good things from even people you don’t relate to and make it part of your thing, especially when you’re starting. It’s so hard to just start holding this business, except for an exception here and there where you have a huge network of wealth.

[35:16] That’s the outliers. But for everyone else, find some network, find a mentor, whether it’s agents in your office or another office or managers and try to learn. And that means being an assistant or working for free and helping them. I did all those things. You know, it helped everyone. You can get to as many open houses as you can learn the language, learn the contract in now and there’s so much that you can learn and that’s all part of the controllable. 100%. Danny, if anybody wants to follow you on social media or go to your website, where is a good place for people to find you? Yeah, you can reach me anytime at DannyBrownLA on Instagram at DannyBrownLA.com. I’m on YouTube, DannyBrownLA. You can find my podcast, The Deal, where we interviewed agents from all over the country.

[36:02] That was a six-year podcast that we just finished and appreciate you having me. So thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show, Danny. It was a lot of fun talking to you. Thanks for listening to The REI Agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week. Visit REIAgent.com for more content. Until next time, keep building the life you want. All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.