Burn the Boats, Build Super Fans, and Reinvent Success with Mike Bjork

[0:00] Welcome back to the REI Agent. My guest today is Mike Bjork, owner of Bjork Group at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, ambassador in Omaha, Nebraska. Mike entered the real estate in 2019 after spending time as a stay-at-home dad and in under six years built a team to over $100 million in annual sales with a focus on luxury positioning. He has since expanded beyond active selling into coaching other agents and teams and now runs a business dedicated to helping realtors actually use AI in their daily workflows. He has a referral from one of our past guests, which tells you everything you need to know about the kind of reputation he has built in this industry. Mike, welcome to the REI Agent podcast.

[0:40] Well, thank you for having me. Yeah. So from stay-at-home dad to top team leading agent, how did that happen? How did that transition? Oh, it was a little bit more than just that. That was the simple version, I guess. So I retired from the fire department in Tucson. So I was a firefighter. You know, that was in 2010. Worked as a trauma medic when we moved to Omaha. My wife’s practice took off. I stayed home with the kids. I used to do like 24-hour mountain bike races. I’d always be doing something. Once my kids hit high school and middle school, I got bored. I literally was walking around the pool talking to a friend and I signed up to be an Uber driver the same day I signed up to get my real estate license.

[1:26] And it was just because I was like, well, if I can make a couple hundred dollars more or a couple hundred dollars a month, I could get a little bit nicer car without having to fight with my wife. So I’d take it the Uber career didn’t really blossom? I never drove anybody, but I still keep on my little trophy case. They make you buy, you know, one of those things for the windows. Not saying Ubering is bad, but I just kept it as my little reminder. Keep you motivated? Yeah. No, I interviewed somebody once who relocated to a market and they did both. And it was actually kind of genius because they were able to learn the streets really well. We were able to learn the area super well as an Uber driver.

[2:11] Most of the time they spent doing that was hours that they weren’t spending as a realtor. So it actually worked really well as a pairing. And maybe a good life pro tip for anybody who is relocating to a new area needs a little something to sustain them while they get their sales business off the ground. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, it’s all networking. But it was like I was on like boards, like the Friends of Children’s board. So, you know, those things kind of helped when I did start. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So you would have been so you relocated from Tucson. How long were you in the market before you like how much of a network had you established? How much did you have to intentionally kind of get involved in these kind of community things to build up your sphere?

[2:58] Not not too long, but I was in I was in Omaha for a while. Right. So, you know, we got here at the end, like let’s say beginning of 2011. I got my license, I think, April 23rd of 2019. OK. So, you know, my kids are younger. There’s a network of school parents, neighborhood friends that kind of helped. You know, at first that was kind of tough, especially because it was a little it was considered a luxury neighborhood. You know, so building it quickly kind of really made me dominate the neighborhood, too, because then all of a sudden I had not just these friends, but I had all these super fans. But if, you know, they knew someone else that was there, that’s what kind of got me into the luxury pretty quick.

[3:43] OK, that makes sense. You said your wife’s practice took off. What practice is that? She’s a physician. OK. OK. So there was probably some some networking there, too, right, with her peers and coworkers? Yeah, not as much as you would expect because she she would never promote it at all. But it’s funny. Both of her partners, I’ve helped buy houses and tons of her nurses. So, yes, there is networking there. But it was at first she didn’t promote it much. Sure. You’re not trying to shove a different business. And she’s good at what she does because, I mean, she’s I mean, it’s all about her patients. Like she’s just a workhorse. Sure. And maybe that mentality also rubbed off on me over 25 years.

[4:28] Who knows? Yeah. I mean, you clearly built an awesome team here. I’m curious what were two or three operational decisions in years one and two that you would point to as the actual unlock and which of those would still work for someone starting cold in 2026? It’s a little bit of a mix. So I started preparing even before I got licensed. I made the mistake of not getting my fingerprints. Right. So right away, which takes, you know, several weeks when you’re ready to take that test. Sure. So I was studying networking even to choose the right brokerage. I always knew that, hey, like I took the approach that the brokerages I’m interviewing them. They’re not interviewing me. Yeah. Right. So I kind of, I would go to these open houses and talk to different agents and kind of get a feel of, okay, what would be the best fit for me?

[5:23] That’s why I ended up where I did. But that’s interesting. Can I ask a question about that real quick? Did you, did you go in under the guise of, you know, a potential interested buyer? Did you just talk to them? Hey, look, I’m getting my license. I’m curious what your thoughts are on this, your brokerage. Well, it’s, it’s actually funny because the first one I went to, it was someone that was just getting their license, but she was also there with an agent that’s been doing it for a little while. Like that was her team lead. Within a year and a half, both of them came and started working underneath me. Nice. That’s awesome. And I’ll give like the big reason, like a lot of people either hate it or love it.

[6:09] Zillow did jumpstart me quite a bit, but I also figured out ways to manipulate it when I started. So within two days of being licensed, I already had my first contract. Wow. And that was because of like, I was like looking at different things. I did like for our neighborhood, they used to have a magazine that went out. I sponsored a page that, I mean, never really got me anything anyway, except for my name. The events I did is what drew more attention than that magazine. But with Zillow, it was what I figured out was, and it’s changed since then. So this may not be great for someone new starting, but at least it gives an idea that there’s always ways. So I went in, I learned that, okay, if you have, at least in our local market, if you’re spending $1,200 a month, you have an opportunity to get the new markets before anyone else, right?

[7:07] And at that point, it was all sold out. I had to put, I scraped like three or four different lower zip codes than I wanted just to get that $1,200. What ended up happening is the nice part of really heavy luxury part of Omaha. That’s a big zip code. That and a couple others came out. And from one night, I went from $1,200 a month to $8,000 a month because all the other top agents that were spending that, no one turned it in on time or didn’t expect someone to just come in and grab it all. Okay. Right. So because I kind of, the way I always did it, even when I raced, like I would track people’s numbers and see what they did from year to year. Right. And that’s how I kind of based my growth. So I am a very data driven person as well.

[7:58] So my Google sheet from day one, not only counts, but keeps track of everything on my agents. If it came from Zillow, what zip codes are performing, but I even break it down to lenders, title companies. I want to know where every single penny is going. Sure. Right. And especially because I didn’t think it was fair to go ask a lender. You know, I was excited at first when I’m like, oh, you know, lenders can pay up to 50%. Realistically, you know, it’s closer. What I found on an average for them to make their money back is them spending closer to 30%. Okay. Right. But I at least had the data to go to say like, hey, we’ve given you this many deals or, you know, this. Like I had like data backing me, which got me support right away.

[8:45] So like I said, once I got that 8,000 a month, all of a sudden I was getting like 50 leads a month. And it was just me by myself. So I went to my broker. I printed out because it used to be able to give you where every agent ranked in a zip code. And I went to our broker and our broker is unique. Like there’s not many brokerages anymore that have, you know, 49, 50% of a market. Sure. Right. So, you know, and several top 10 people come out of here that, you know, in the network completely for Berkshire. So it’s a great place to learn. But what I did is I went to him and, you know, he had no idea who I was. I’ve only been doing real estate for three months at this point. You know, three months.

[9:25] I think I was already at 8 million within that three months. That’s why. Or six months, let’s put it. And I just showed him like, here’s where I’m showing up compared to all of your top agents in this brokerage. I was like, I would like to start a team. He’s like, you need to start a team. So then, you know, people heard me talking. Like, I got my office. I’ll never forget it. It was the first day I walk into my office, sit down. I kind of had it set up. And then within 30 minutes, an agent walked in and just said, I’ve heard what you’ve been doing. Can I join your team? And I was like, okay. I didn’t know what to do. I was like, okay. I didn’t even know what a CRM was at that point. I was using Zillow CRM.

[10:07] And then they brought up, well, do you have a website? No. So I was like, okay. So then I started all that, you know, where, you know, there’s several different platforms out there. Yeah. By that point, the one I was using was probably pretty watered down a little bit. So, but yeah, Zillow was a huge jumping point. Just figuring out like it was always profitable. Even like at one point I got up to like $25,000 a month, but I also had like 25 agents. Wow. And it wasn’t so much as Zillow was profitable, but was really more profitable was teaching the agents how to nurture their sphere and how to create super fans. Right. So, and I purposely did that because Zillow was expensive. So I took way more of a cut on any Zillow deal.

[10:56] Right. Now they have flex, which Zillow takes a cut. Right. So it was generating more money just by teaching them how to do it. The luxury, I always had a little different approach, like, cause everyone wanted to be luxury. Not saying they can’t, but I always had a strict rule, like on my settings, even with Zillow, like I could set it for price points on who got those calls. I mean, to able to get a luxury call, you had to qualify for the luxury designation, which means like three sales of like the top 10% price zip code. Right. Okay. I thought that was fair. That has worked out. One of the people that I was just talking about, that first person I met at an open house before I was even licensed that came to me, she was in luxury.

[11:47] Her first Zillow call was a three point in, which is outrageous in Omaha at that point was 3.2. And she ended up negotiating it to 3.8, adding all this land in as well. That was her very first Zillow call. Top back. So she was sold. So then not only did I have a agent that’s a fan, but she’s also now a fan of Zillow, which is a luxury agent was like, they were not big into Zillow. And to be honest, like every single year I’ve gotten a 2 million plus deal from Zillow when I was in it. Yeah. So, okay. A couple of things I want to tease out here. And I think one of the points I like to make about buying leads is, you know, it’s not necessarily a bad thing in my mind at all. And obviously you’re making a strong case here for it.

[12:35] And I think buying leads is great, but I think you need to understand fully that, you know, you’re not in control of, like you mentioned, you know, they changed the way that the system works, et cetera. So you’re not fully in control of everything in that process. So like they can change the rules, they could get more expensive, all these different things can happen. But as you’re getting leads in, I think you also have to be able to balance, you know, being still that, you know, generating super fans, working your sphere, working the people that you got from Zillow or wherever to be in your sphere and like to nurture them long term so that they are then repeat buyers or referral partners, et cetera, going forward.

[13:19] In case you don’t want to, or they change things and you don’t want to do the buying of leads anymore. Because I think ultimately, like at some point when you’re very busy, you also probably want to decide how you want your business to look, how you want it to operate. Right. So like, do you want to be, I don’t know what your conversion rate was with these Zillow leads, but, you know, personally. 22%. 22%. That’s really good. And, you know, you’re going to be talking to, that means out of a hundred, obviously you’re going to be talking to 88 people or 78 people that will not convert. And that’s, you know, that’s a lot of phone calls. That’s a lot of, you know, spinning the wheels even at a really good conversion rate.

[14:01] Right. Yeah. So, and it’s changed. Like obviously, you know, we got into COVID a little bit, right. Which changed everything, which then we learned how to write a contract different, but we can get into that different. But I always looked at Zillow, like me being older, jumping in, I wanted to build a client base quick. Yes. Right. And, and I teach my agents that too is, I mean, the reason the conversion was so high was because there are certain key metrics that if you ask the right questions, you get a higher score on Zillow. Right. Right. A higher score means more leads. Okay. But to me, it was always using that as a jumping board. So a new agent, like, don’t be afraid to take leads. Like I know sometimes the splits aren’t fair on them, but use it to build your client base.

[14:52] You can be an agent because I look at every single one, like a seed, right. Or a piece of fruit. Each, each lead that comes in as a piece of fruit. You can be the agent that just grabs the low hanging fruit, or you can be the agent that grabs the fruit and plants a seed that’s going to grow more business. And I looked at it. I always looked at it from that way, from the beginning. A prime example is even got at my 50th birthday party a couple of years ago. I shouldn’t say how old I am, but like I’m looking around the room and I, you know, invited just kind of close friends. And as I’m kind of looking around the room, I realized like, oh man, there’s David. Like I would have never met him if it wasn’t for Zillow.

[15:32] Like there was like a couple of just really good friends that I actually met through Zillow, which then became super friends and generated business. But at that point, I didn’t need them to. They did it. Like I don’t even have to coach them at that point on how to do it. Yeah. Right. Well, they’re people I hang out with. You know, now. So, yeah. Yeah. And it means you’re so you’re getting into my exact point is like if you’re treating these people like, you know, as like friends or you’re getting them into that, that, you know, you’re nurturing, you’re taking care of these people. You’re you’re they’re becoming your referral partners, super fans. That’s that’s the ideal, because like if you’re depending solely on these new incoming leads and you’re not really caring about what you’ve already transacted on or who you’ve talked to, et cetera, then you can get yourself into a hot troubled waters.

[16:19] Because, again, they can change the rules. They can make it more expensive. The leads can dry up. I’ve I heard, you know, especially after I heard some people complaining about what the lead quality or how the lead quantity looked like, you know, kind of when rates spiked, like things changed and it was a little bit harder. That may not be true in every market. Yeah, it like right now, I feel there’s not a huge quality of great leads out there. I know the system has kind of changed. I don’t even do any Zillow anymore. I just help coach a couple of teams that are on flex to make sure that they hit their 90 day goals. But, yeah, it has been I’ve been hearing it here because I help a team in Arizona.

[17:06] I help a team in Arkansas as well. Like I hear it not just here. It seems to be a cross. Right. It’s hard to say. I think there’s just uncertainty right now and the rates aren’t really that bad. Yeah. You know, and to be honest, in my opinion, I could be wrong. But the next time the rates go that low is it’s going to take a circumstance that we didn’t predict coming. It’s going to take like a 9-11. It’s going to take COVID. It’s going to take the market crash. Like it’s going to be things like so we’re not people have got to realize we’re not back down to that level. Right. Right. With those rates going down, I do feel especially a lot of builders like now they’re stuck with a much higher price point than it was two, three years ago.

[17:54] You know, it’s kind of crazy because I look at like my house in the square footage and go find one that’s half the size for the same price and a new construction. Yeah. So there’s going to be changes. The market always adjusts. I mean, there’s a reason that the top 10% do 90% of the business. Right. You just got to make yourself one of the top 10%. Well, let’s get into that a little bit more. You talked about how you were coaching these people to become super fans. Or would you describe it? I don’t necessarily coach them. You know, a lot of coaches will tell you like how to get your past clients to promote you or give you referrals. Yeah. That’s the coaching part. The super fans are natural.

[18:43] And that’s one thing I’ve learned is, you know, people like even starting a team and people want to come do like they saw the numbers that I did in a short amount of time. And they want to do that. You know, but you can’t necessarily teach someone to be you. And at least for me, I figured out why is it’s you can’t fake the excitement. And I get excited for every single person. And you can’t. That’s just something you can’t fake. Because when you’re excited, like I said, when my neighborhood watched me grow really quick, it turned into everybody referring me in there. You know, just that’s part of the excitement. Sure. And I think that’s hard to teach in a real way. Yeah. No, that makes sense.

[19:31] And, I mean, I think that takes a lot of special things. I mean, you can imagine, you know, things going viral. There’s excitement. There’s hype. Whatever. That’s, I mean, that’s essentially what you’re talking about. And, you know, has that been something that you’ve had a hard time sustaining after getting, you know, I mean, I’m sure there’s been periods of time doing that much business where, you know, you might feel burnt out after a while. I mean, I know going through COVID, the pandemic, doubling my, you know, my business in one year, even though the year before was a hallmark year, I doubled it the next year. And I just, I just, after that year, I was like, oh my gosh, I needed a bit of a breather.

[20:09] This is, this is a little crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And I get, I changed my philosophy a little bit because like I always had a business plan. Like my original business plan getting into real estate was I just tried to be realistic. And I was like, I’m going to do 2 million my first year. Yeah. By week two, I think I was already close to that. So I scratched that off new plan. I still saved that book too. But I built it like, okay, with systems, like, okay, if I’m going to grow a team, I need systems. So I made sure I had transaction coordinators in place. Everything was taken care of. Everybody’s on one dot loop. Like everything is confined. I at least had my control and knew that I could handle that because I had the right systems to handle it.

[20:52] Um, but even that, like my goal, my five year, the a hundred million to hit a hundred million in a single year was my, was planned for year five. When I hit that year three, it almost like, um, it was the opposite. It almost crushed me. Like I didn’t know I’m a driven person. And I took, I just knocked my drive away two years early. Right. So then I had to rebuild. So what kind of helped that drive a little bit is then like, I started looking at the numbers running axillaries like, okay, then like with this many units, I know I need 600 units to have a very sustainable title company. You got the right people involved that had other units besides just me started title, went into mortgage ranch.

[21:42] So those kind of kept me somewhat excited, um, about real estate. You know, the market took a hit. Everyone kind of went on their own or, you know, the leads completely stopped. At that point I had to stop the 25,000 too. Like I dropped it in half just because I saw the numbers coming from the way it was like just the down. Like I can do, you know, I’ll cover a quarter ahead, but it was like, okay, it’s like, okay, now I’m going to be losing money if I’m spending this much versus where I was making money spending that much. Um, you know, that’s partly, partly why now I run an AI SaaS company as well, you know? Yeah. Now I wanted to get into the AI side of, um, your business as well and what, and what you coach and how you, uh, teach people to use AI in their systems.

[22:36] Um, yeah, I took a little different approach to that. I don’t necessarily teach people. I built a platform that made it that you can just go and everything’s there in one spot. Um, it makes it super simple and I have no, like where I came from either. I don’t have a real big coding background unless you count video gaming when I was younger, but that’s about it. Um, you know, little tech, but once AI came out, what ended up happening? So I do these masterminds as well with other top agents like once a month and it was July. Our next mastermind was August and they’re like, okay, we’re going to talk about AI. I didn’t even like, I’ve heard of AI. I barely even used it before that. I used chat GPT a couple of times.

[23:25] So the whole month of July, I spent two hours a day studying all the different problems and all the different systems to do the different things. And then I, within that time I was like, wow, I can actually build. So instead of paying, it was kind of funny because at the presentation, like one person brought up like, Hey, um, and I don’t know if you want me to share names with the product or not. But they, they’re like, Hey, we used AI to find luxury presence. It has the highest this. And I was like, I was up next. And I, what I did is I took it and I built my own site, my own template, all the stuff. And it was actually when we compared numbers as already outperforming what they were just paying for.

[24:14] Yeah, that’s awesome. So that’s where I had the idea is like, okay, this is a template. Everyone needs a website. Like the website’s great, but it, I mean, where we’re high in the website is I figured out how to show up on all AI searches. Sure. We can get our clients to do that as well. And that’s huge because that’s where the search is going. Yeah. SEO is not going to be around. It’s going to be around in YouTube the longest only because AI can descript a video, cut a video, but there’s only like four platforms that can truly read a video. And so YouTube’s the last. And that’s where like Hey Jen, we partnered with at the beginning to create our avatar so we can produce stuff on YouTube quickly or any agents can that use the platform.

[25:01] And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And so I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that.

[25:14] And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. And I think that’s where I’m going to be able to do that. Right. So the first version I built kind of around my mind a little bit. And then I also brought in partners to help, right, to help with all the true server stuff that I don’t understand.

[25:34] So one of my partners, she resigned from Union Pacific, where she is the vice president, head of AI and tech. She was also in the same spot at Walmart International, same way with our master programmer. So like they built all this stuff for these major companies and already understood it. So I made sure I brought in like bigger people. One, because I don’t know how to run a tech company either. You know, that’s where I defer on them. It’s where I’m having my most fun now. But it’s kind of like the hardest hurdle was getting the agents to understand how to use it. So that was version one. Right. Because we’re connected to the MLS. Like so if you have a listing like your social media, the difference one of the differences about us is that it’s not just a link to your social media.

[26:28] You can pull straight from the MLS. Let’s say you have an open house. You pull from the MLS. What pictures? Click the button. Does the description. And it’s also checks for compliance because I learned as a team lead, the number one reason you’re going to get fine is letting their, letting your agency go. Letting your agents do their own social media. Right. So I made sure that I built all compliance built in. Like so it will check it. It won’t even post it if it’s not compliant. But people still don’t understand like when they’re trying to do the creative stuff, it was probably a little confusing. So then the newer version just has like a board and we already built all these templates. And like so if you have a listing, you, I tried to leave creativity to everything on it because even here, like with, with some of the brokerages, if you’re sending out those emails or those templates, they all look the same.

[27:22] Yeah. Right. I was trying to create individuality because that’s how I got to where I was at was by creating things different, not just following the same template. So I always left that open, but now it’s pretty easy. And you just put, you have a board you, and it says, what do you want to do? And then it has a conversation with you before it even creates. So you don’t have to know how to prompt. You don’t have to do because that was, I mean, that’s the biggest thing is like, like Jason Pantana does great teaching it and has like an academy. I just made it all like every product that he ever talks about is already partnered with us. So what I did is I took it a step further and instead of just like teaching people how to use it, like, why not make enterprise accounts with all these major AI companies?

[28:11] So it’s actually cheaper to have all the AI in one spot instead of having agents jump. Right. And it changes three months. Claude’s great. Now, Jim and I used to be, it changes every three months. So that’s why I’m more into AI now, because I mean, I take a month off and I’m three months behind. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it is wild. The, the shifting landscape, um, there. Um, what, what, can you talk to your clients? Can you talk to, I know a lot of, um, agents might have some reservations, some, some concerns about, um, being, you know, replaced. That’s always kind of been the fear. I mean, ever since I think, I don’t know the internet. I know when the internet came out, that was a big fear. Um, the getting the MLS, uh, onto the internet, as opposed to just the, the book that only agents had.

[29:02] Um, the fear was that, you know, agents would be replaced. Uh, and I think that there are a couple, uh, big companies actively trying to, you know, do so lawsuits and AI. Um, what can you talk to about how to, how can you tell agents that, you know, they should be still using this to, uh, further their business and make themselves more powerful as opposed to, um, you know, being worried about it being something that’s going to replace them. The only agents I think AI is going to replace are the agents that aren’t putting effort in to do what they need to do. Okay. Uh, I don’t think that you’re, you’re not like I’ve created several bots that even have like, um, size somewhat emotions when, when they’re dealing with a client, like talking to it.

[29:51] Um, but you’re never going to fully replace that person. Um, I, I think that it is, and you, and to be honest, let’s look at it. The whole history of real estate agents are replaced every day. Like, so replaced, like the whole concepts of some of the brokerages is more like, all right, let’s just get the numbers. It’s like the numbers game. Like they are replaced every day. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them don’t make it. Right. Um, and that’s why. Um, and that’s what I’m trying to change is like, okay, like one, you can’t change the motivation. Yeah. It’s not easy. You know, it, it’s great to hold a license. You know, if, you know, even think about it for what the cost is like selling. I think that the percentage here last year was like, I think 87% of the agents only sold one or two houses in the last year or two.

[30:45] That’s not sustainable. No. Yeah. You know, that does count, um, assistance, licensed assistance. So it’s a little skewed, but, um, it’s the work. And that’s where for teams like new agents, like don’t necessarily scoff at the opportunities to get leads. Cause like I said, that’s where you build your business. And if you build your business in three years with repeat leads, you’re not getting replaced. You’re going to have your super fans. You’re going to have your clients that you stay in touch with. Yeah. You know, that’s the idea is to mix both. Like everyone’s like, Oh, so like, I remember one of my first days is I had an agent come up to me and go like found out I spending, you know, a couple thousand dollars on Zillow.

[31:27] And said, you know, if you really want to learn how to make it, I’ll show you how to do it without spending any money. And I’m like, well, I’ve got a plan. Let me see it through. You know, it’s don’t, don’t get rid of the old, you know, the, the other stuff, but make it more efficient. Right. Where AI helps more is on those teams. Right. And, and it potentially helps the agents because, you know, you’ve probably done it long enough. You know, the old saying was speed to lead with AI that’s gone. Your speed to lead is instant if it’s done right. And then it hands off like a fresh thing. It may not teach the agents properly sometimes, but you know, you have the option to turn it on and off. Like for a team, for an individual agent, I would still say, get your own personality and do it yourself.

[32:13] You know, we’ll help with social media. That’s where AI would help for a newer agent is getting your SEO, AEO up there through social media. And that’s free. Don’t like, I’ve heard some ridiculous numbers of people spending like 5,000 a month for like SEO and you don’t need it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s fascinating. What would you, I mean, what kind of playbook would you give a person that’s getting started in 2026 for, yeah, trying to, we can’t really expect the growth that you saw probably now. But you never know. I mean, what kind of playbook would you give somebody getting started now? You know, social media, if you’re hitting the right things, especially because no one else knows, people might be following you and know who you are, but don’t know what you do.

[33:11] Right. Right. So to me, that is like getting it out there, making it so everyone sees you like that. To me, that’s why I also did Zillow. Cause at the time it would always show like the top agents in every zip code. Like, and it was based off what you were paying. It wasn’t an accurate statement, but the public didn’t know that. Right. You know, in that sense changed. That’s what helped me. But like, I don’t know, sponsor things like what, what I did for my neighborhood is, and it cost me nothing more than what I paid for drinks. But like we had a couple of parks, so I got the HOA. You know, I did get involved in the HOA, but I also got them. So every during the summer, every second Friday, you would have a food truck come up when we’d have a thing in the park.

[34:05] I would have like my stuff out there drinks for the parents, drinks for kids, things like that. And the food truck didn’t have to pay a dime for it because everyone in the neighborhood still paid. And as long as the food truck got their minimum, they were fine. So the HOA wasn’t paying a ton. I wasn’t paying a ton, but I gave me a chance to be one on one with every single person in the neighborhood. And show that I was an expert, not just because of what I’ve done in there, because I lived in there. Like that’s the excitement. I did love the neighborhood. Right. You know, I wasn’t doing it to get out of the neighborhood. It was sure. So, you know, things like that will really help, you know, keep a CRM one way or the other.

[34:49] I know one of the top agency, I still think she uses just her spreadsheet and she does like 30 million a year. Yeah. But she’s also a workhorse, you know. Yeah. You’ve got to find your work life balance, because if I also found when I got into it, I was going for 12 hours a day. You know, you’re just going, going. Yeah. And you got to do that at the beginning. Later, you can start picking your clients or, you know, then you have referral opportunities, things like that. Like at this point, I just refer most to my stuff off. Yeah. Yeah. And then you have to do a ton. And then you have to do a ton in that, which makes up the difference. But then you also have a much larger client. And then you have to do a ton in that.

[35:30] And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that, which makes up the difference. But then you also have a much larger client base growing that has more opportunities for upscale. Yeah. No, totally. Yeah. I was telling my team about, you know, they were talking about, you know, I was going to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that. And then you have to do a ton in that, which makes up the difference. And then you have to do a ton in that, which makes up the difference.

[35:52] But then you also have a much larger client base growing that has more opportunities for upscale. No, totally. Yeah. I was telling my team about, you know, they were talking about wanting to get a, you know, this million dollar listing or they would love to get one like that. I’m like, I mean, maybe, I mean, it’s, it can be great. Don’t get me wrong. You know, but I think I’d rather have like six townhouses. Yeah. You can definitely turn those over faster. And, you know, you can definitely get, yeah, more, more activity from them. Like, you know, potential buyers, et cetera. Yeah. And it’s crazy market though, here right now, like going back to that question, sorry to divert. Like the million plus market is still pretty strong.

[36:38] Nice. It’s the five to eight that really is hurting. Okay. And I’ve seen that a couple of places. So, yeah, I’m sure. I’m sure Omaha is big enough that there’s different like sectors, et cetera. So like, there’s probably the median sales price for the whole area is probably, I mean, not in the million range, I would guess. Right. No, not the median, not even close. I think we’re closer to four or five for the median. And then you’d have sectors that would have enough activity. So you could have your own kind of like, you know, whatever median sales price, if you will. But that five to eight, it sounds, yeah, like it would be pretty tough. Yeah. And those take longer too. Like, so, I mean, that’s why I like, take the, take the first time home buyer.

[37:18] That’s your best bet. Like, that’s where you, like, if you do it right, you have a fan forever. Yeah. Totally. Because it’s emotional too. Yeah. And I think that’s, you know, that’s exactly one of those reasons when we were touching based on like where, you know, getting replaced by AI or whatever, like that’s doesn’t really, I don’t know many first time home buyers, for example, that would feel comfortable with a bot. Usually they’re coming with their dad for a little bit until I can convince them that I know more than what their dad knows. Right. Yeah. And, and AI is not going to show up at closing. Yeah. Or, you know, be able to figure out like, you know, all I’ve been through, you know, hundreds of home inspections and, you know, I can help make sure that we’re not walking into a disaster, which AI definitely can’t.

[38:05] Right. Or like when a client freaks out over like, oh, like the, the gas line’s not grounded. I’m like, well, it’s because the house is built in this year. That’s a $50 fix. We’re not like, you’re not walking away over gas line, not being grounded. We can get that fixed. Yeah. The AI would be like, that’s a valid concern. You are very smart for thinking about that. And we bring up all the dangers. Right. So, right. So I’ve also really, I really dove into what AI answers to because, and it wasn’t. So one of the programs I then created was, or platforms called, I think we, I think the legal name is client social IQ, just because client IQ was taken or, but what it does is we figured out like how to scrub your past clients’ social media.

[38:57] Okay. Now that we get permission from, but that’s as simple as sending a thing like, Hey, we’ve changed our website or sending something like, Hey, follow us on social media or let us follow you. But what the algorithm does is it picks. So we, we use several different personal profile places. And what it does is it gives key indicators that will automatically flag your CRM or call them if you want of key moving factors, like growing family, empty nesters. Um, it does also, and we do have it broke down enough with another program that like that can go through LinkedIn free where you have how to negotiate with people. So not only that, like if like we’ve learned that, okay, the husband might be the decision maker, but the wife is the influencer on it.

[39:48] So if she’s posting stuff, we know who to target and then it will even do a key target. If it’s a divorce situation. Now where I dove in to start playing with it is to me, I, like my son hates AI and feels like it’s destroying the world, right? The water, like, you know, just graduated. He’s also into filming things like that. So, you know, we have different points of view. So I always say that I want to do something good with every AI creation as well. This particular platform now with our medical background, my wife’s medical background, having several friends that have published papers, we are starting a foundation because theoretically with the right input, it could also be used for suicide prevention.

[40:34] Right. Because then, I mean, the goal is low and that is all we need to save one person. Like who cares? So, but then I started diving into the AI systems. Like, okay, what are the red flags when people do this? Right. So I always have tell at first, like, hey, I am not like, this is for my research. But like, what do you say if I say I’m feeling like doing this, but then it kind of goes into other things. So you kind of, I learned how AI, how it’s programmed to hit certain things, but doesn’t necessarily have that part that we need. That’s not going to replace agents. Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. There’s, there’s definitely some pushback. I’ve heard a lot of, a lot of grads are feeling that way about AI.

[41:21] And I think I’ve heard, is it Jonathan Haidt talk about, have you heard his perspective on AI in general? I’m not sure if that’s the guy I’m thinking of, but I’ve heard several. So Jonathan Haidt would talk about, he was, he was all about the, the impact of social media on, on, on children, on teenagers, et cetera, and how that increased their depression, that kind of stuff. Well, now he’s on to AI. His, his thesis is that, you know, social media was taking over and getting your like dopamine cycles. Like you’re like, they were wanting to, to, to harness that natural part of your brain to, to, you know, you, your attention goes there, you’re getting your dopamine hits and your attention gets worse as a result of it, et cetera.

[42:04] They’re his thesis about AI is that it’s, it’s that, but for attachment, um, so that you’re getting attached to this artificial being. Um, and, and like that, it is now a good thing. Everything starts off nice and honky dory. Like social media, uh, was, was great at the beginning. And then they have to squeeze the lever of a profit. Um, and the, the real, uh, talent starts to show, but it is interesting. I think there’s, there’s a, it’s a, there, it’s not, it’s not going away. So I think that anybody who completely resists it, um, if they are in like the business space, um, they, they are, you know, missing a, like the internet, like it might be a little bit overhyped in a lot of ways, like the internet was, and there was a bubble because of the internet.

[42:49] Um, the.com crash, there might be a little bit of something like that going to happen in the future. We’ll see, but you know, it’s not going to be around. Yeah. It’s a boom right now. Like even setting this up, like I, I know that it’s somewhat like the.com boom. Right. I know that I will never be a Google, uh, tick tock or what I’m not going to be one of the four major places that run it, but I can have the number one platform for real estate. I can have the number one platform for restaurants. I can have the number one. Like, so I don’t, that’s where I’ve learned. To, um, set my standards back a little bit on being the best and being a little realistic. Um, yeah, it could change every day. You know? I mean it, the problem is, is no one knows where it’s going.

[43:34] It’s, it’s like shiny odd, especially the way videos like, so we do really good with our videos. Um, and that to me is like, people see it and like, oh, that’s cool. But that’s, I mean, I remember I’m probably older than you. I mean, I remember when you hear that the dial tone from AOL and like, wow, this is cool. Yeah. Yeah, totally. You know, um, I can see as far as that thesis goes, um, I use AI in a different way. Like I don’t use it, uh, like I use it to help a little bit, but I also use it to also build. Right. So one piece of advice is if you guys are using AI and building something for yourself, see if it’s monetizable, you know? Um, we can always help with that, but it’s also cause you’re going to need the back ends.

[44:22] Like it’s, it’s hard to get a project from building to launch harder than you think. I mean, you, well, it’s actually pretty easy to launch, but to get a sustainable product to launch where you have everything secure. Um, I’ve seen people like build great stuff, but problem is, is they get their first client and they’re spending all their time not doing sales, trying to fix what was going on. You’ve got to have something in place that when you’re ready to go, you have all of those, um, systems already set up. Sure. Otherwise you’re going to get behind, you know, it’s easy to play catch up when you have it, like to add things to a product versus shutting down and adding things to a product every time.

[45:08] Right. Um, I do also see myself on that thesis that, um, I find myself even sometimes having conversations and thinking in a different way because I spend all day like working out problems sometimes with AI. Like it’s like a mind switch. Um, but the same way, you know, too, you just dive right back in. It’s that problem solving. Like when you have a client that calls you, Hey, we’re not going to close. We have this. You’re trained enough. Your mind goes into like, you just know how to handle it and you probably know how to handle it calmly. Well, if you hand it calmly, you’re always going to come out on top. Um, you know, and like I said to me, I started as a firefighter, paramedic in a really bad part of town, like losing a deal at the end of the day, no one died.

[46:01] Like I have pretty low accomplishment goals, I guess. Yeah, seriously. It’s, uh, that is a, something that some people definitely need. I was just talking to somebody the other day that, uh, that was one of their biggest things that they kept in their mind is that nobody’s going to die. This is not, you’re not like having open heart surgery here. This is, uh, like keep things in perspective. Uh, Mike, I do do need to transition over to the, uh, three golden nuggets. And if so far, if, if you know all, there’s been a million nuggets here so far that you’ve already shared, uh, definitely if you’re listening to this, uh, and, and are driving around like a lot of people are, uh, definitely go to rei agent.com and sign up for our newsletter so that you can, uh, get, uh, these kind of, uh, golden nuggets, uh, sent to you weekly. Uh, but Mike, what golden nuggets do you have for our listeners today?

[46:49] Um, first one is the one that helped me. So to put like the Zillow in perspective, sometimes don’t be afraid to make money to spend, or don’t be afraid to spend money to make money. Uh, I’m not saying everyone take this approach. I was always a big fan of burn the boats. You know, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that story, but yeah. Um, second nugget would be, make sure you follow up, like not just follow up to get the sale done, but follow up to create your family. Like it doesn’t have to be every day. Um, everybody does it in different ways. Some people are very strategic about it and okay, this goes out at this time. I was always a little different, like, but it also helps cause I was like constantly with clients showing houses.

[47:35] So I would like, if I was driving through a neighborhood that I know someone bought a house and that I with, I would just give them a call. Half the time they invite me over. Like I just used it that way, but at least do something to follow up with your fans because that ties in to make super fans because one super fan can lead to 10 clients instantly. Totally. Totally. No, those are great. Um, now we, we typically ask people, uh, what their favorite book, um, or fundamental book you think everybody should read or one that they’re currently enjoying. Um, you told me honestly that, and like many people, like you listen to more podcasts and that kind of stuff now than, than books, but, but does anything come to mind when I ask that question?

[48:22] Um, there’s a couple, I mean, it depends. Like right now I’m studying more. I mean, um, I’m, I’m studying a lot of AI and to be honest on even mental health, like getting that foundation going. I’ve been reading actually published medical papers. Um, but one of my favorites that kind of helped me a little bit on negotiation. Oh God, I forget. It was Chris something. He used to be a negotiator for like the FBI or, or, uh, uh, for the government. I know exactly. Um, never split the disc difference. Yeah, that’s what it was. Uh, and that is why am I also blanking on, um, Chris Voss. Yes. Chris Voss. There you go. Yeah. That’s a, that’s a great one. Um, and talk about, uh, having somebody’s life on the line.

[49:13] Yeah. And then still having that same, like keeping that same negotiation pressure. Like, I don’t know. I don’t know. Like to me, like there’s a couple nuggets in there that I always use that people don’t even realize sometimes that like some of the psychological stuff in there actually works like the round numbers I’ve seen work well. Um, you know, holding off, even though like there’s, you know, um, yeah, that’s probably the last one that I pulled information out unless you’re talking AI or medical stuff. Sure. No problem. Um, and then where can people find you? You, you mentioned this website, that platform that you have. Um, what can you plug, uh, socials, whatever you use? Um, yeah, the, the, for real estate, it’s called I make page.com. Um, and that’s just the platform. Um, besides that, I don’t like, I have my website, but I use it more as a demo at this point. I only take a couple of clients a year now, but I handed off 4 million. So, um, if you guys ever want to reach out, I do ton of referrals.

[50:20] Sure. I’m sure you got the team in place and everything to, to handle it. Um, Mike, thank you so much for being on the show. Uh, it’s been, uh, a lot of fun talking to you. I’m sure a lot of the listeners have gained so much from the conversation. Um, everybody that’s listening, definitely, uh, give us a subscribe on whatever platform you use. We’re on everything. Um, give us a review if you enjoy the content, um, and check out reiagent.com for again, that newsletter. We have all these episodes turned into blogs, uh, that will, uh, you know, another way to, to digest that information. Um, and is also a good way if you want to feed AI for some, uh, some, some good content, you can, uh, come up with a game plan by feeding it our website. So definitely check that out. reiagent.com. Uh, Mike, thank you so much for being on the show. We will talk to you soon.

[51:10] All right. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the REI agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week. Visit REI agent.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.