The Real Random Podcast: Where Real Estate Meets Real Life
Welcome to "The Real Random Podcast," where we're more than just Realtors. We're explorers of life's rich tapestry. Hosted by a trio of seasoned real estate pros, each episode surprises you with a mystery guest that only one host knows about in advance.
Our mission? To dig deeper. We go beyond the property listings and the coaching sessions to get to know our guests as mothers, fathers, and individuals with unique stories to tell.
Expect spontaneous conversations, heartfelt connections, and a ton of fun along the way. Whether you're in the real estate industry or just love a good, genuine conversation, "The Real Random Podcast" offers something for everyone.
Join us as we delve into the intriguing world of real estate and the fascinating people that make it all happen.
The Real Random Podcast: Where Real Estate Meets Real Life
Jay O'Brien | Behind the Scenes of Client Giant's Success
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Ever wondered how to thrive in business without air conditioning? Join us in this episode where we navigate the intricacies of surviving and flourishing in an increasingly warm world. We recount our own creative solutions, from portable AC units to swamp coolers, and welcome Jay O'Brien, aka Mr. BBQ, an Inman Innovator Award recipient who dazzles us with his entrepreneurial journey. Jay, the mastermind behind Client Giant, shares his transformative insights and personal stories from his days as a realtor to hosting his own influential, albeit now-defunct, podcast. Get ready for a conversation rich in business wisdom, personal anecdotes, and the occasional laugh.
What if your favorite podcast hosts double as your next favorite band? As we dive into the quirks of podcast production, we bond over our shared musical pasts. Jay reveals his history with bands like Champagne Boulevard and we reminisce about old-school punk and the thrill of discovering obscure music. Things take a hilarious turn as we toy with the idea of forming a podcast-themed band and even hunt down Jay’s band on Spotify, stumbling upon some mysterious fan art along the way. It's a chapter filled with musical nostalgia and the amusing adventures of podcasting.
Ever felt the tug-of-war between impulsive actions and strategic planning in your entrepreneurial journey? We explore this balancing act through the lens of Client Giant's evolution. Originating in real estate, this business has expanded to serve diverse industries, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We delve into the art of genuine client care versus superficial gestures, the importance of meaningful interactions, and the pitfalls of overly personalized marketing. Wrapping up, we share humorous behind-the-scenes moments and celebrate our collective growth. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, heartfelt stories, and plenty of laughs you won't want to miss.
Cool Guests and Lack of AC
Speaker 1The regret is that a lot of like just basic processes and systems that should have been in place way earlier than they were . Build a business that solves your personal problem , and that's exactly what our approach was .
Speaker 2There seems to be a real differentiation right now in the marketplace too , because so many people are focused on the commission compression .
Speaker 3It's . You know , we don't have air conditioning here and it was starting to get a little bit stuffy and I was like , well , I don't want to have the open , which I normally would , because there's definitely going to be road noise and all that .
Speaker 4I don't know how you live with no air conditioning .
Speaker 3Well , it's only like a high of 74 today .
Speaker 2Is this the heat of summer for you ?
Speaker 3Oh gosh , no . So the heat of summer it has gotten up to , I think . Well , in my area the highest it's gotten was like 94 or 96 interesting so I I do have like a this portable ac unit where it has like a hose that goes in the window and it pumps out air , and so I would have that going what in the actual fuck are you talking ?
Speaker 4what ?
Speaker 2is that ? Isn't it called like a swamp cooler or something like ? What is that called ?
Speaker 3a swamp cooler is where you take a fan and you take a like an ice chest and you have that blowing air . We have swamp coolers in California .
Speaker 4Oh wow , In the desert .
Speaker 2We have actual AC in Arkansas .
Speaker 3I know .
Speaker 2I wish Washington would get on board with this my building was built in 2018 .
Speaker 3You would think that they would put air conditioning in .
Speaker 2Yeah , for real , that is yeah , I mean , don't they know the globe is warming ?
Speaker 3The sun is warming .
Speaker 2I don't have you know If it was true , maybe more people would put AC into modern buildings . This is like a real concern .
Speaker 3Maybe we should look forward a little bit . On this coast , they really do think that that is all happening .
Speaker 2Well , you would think they'd put AC in there then , right . Yeah , well , you think they do a lot of things , but Well , I'm excited about this week's guest , even though I didn't pick them because of the guest name that they chose .
Speaker 4Oh , I told them to be creative . If they weren't going to put like mystery guests , they had to be creative . What did they like it , mr ?
Speaker 3barbecue oh , so it's a mr mr well , we don't know , you're assuming I just assumed their gender , that was that was incorrect of me .
Speaker 2That was not pc . Yeah , very , not seattle of you .
Speaker 3That was not PNW of me .
Speaker 2No , I'm stoked about it Cool .
Speaker 4Yeah , it should be fun .
Speaker 3Okay , should be fun , I'm going to take notes while you're introducing your guests , because I always forget their name immediately and I feel really bad and then it takes me about half of the episode to pick up on what their name is again hysterical so I'm trying to set myself up for success .
Speaker 2Hopefully no guest watch the show . Rebecca is going to be really upset who is this ?
Speaker 4why are we talking ? To this person .
Speaker 3Petillo has been hounding me . He like when are you guys going to release the episodes ? Why am I not the star of the show yet ?
Speaker 4I should tell him , like man , we actually released , but yours didn't make the cut .
Speaker 3Oh , I'm going to do that . It's going to be so good .
Speaker 4We'll start with a different one and he'll be like wait , what happened , guys ?
Speaker 2That would be really funny . Actually , he would be so offended by it too . He's the perfect person to do that too .
Speaker 3I love pranks , it's so fun , okay .
Speaker 4Well , so our guest today is my guest . Very excited , this person , as you will lead with they , have been a recipient of the Inman Innovator Award . Wow , they were a realtor . I'm actually not sure if they're still a realtor , but they were Okay . They're West Coast . They've had a fantastic podcast that I'm a huge fan of , but it doesn't run anymore .
Speaker 1Oh , interesting .
Speaker 4I'm trying to get him to to to restart the podcast and , uh , I don't understand the barbecue thing . But that'll be a good question that we can ask . Come on , um they're actually vegan , so the barbecue one of the things that they've said in the past that I really think is kind of catchy . That I've always liked about them is one of the , I guess , trademarks or taglines is thank outside the box . Thank or thank .
Speaker 4Thank outside the box . Oh interesting . So yeah , so , ray . Without further ado , let's welcome to this show mr j o'brien , the mastermind behind client giant hey hey guys , client giant , how's it going ?
Speaker 1jay , awesome , it's going well . How are you guys ? We ?
Speaker 4are doing well , just I would say long time no see , but I just saw you a few days ago I know , for the first time in five years , crazy , so crazy , speaking of names we got to go around and everyone's got to introduce themselves , because there's no names on here for me either there's not .
Creating a Musical Connection
Speaker 2Yeah , I think there's a way to do that , maybe what doesn't show one day we'll have a producer and we can do cool things like that , but no , no , there's nothing wait , you do lower thirds fancy system and it doesn't even show everybody's names .
Speaker 3Why do I even put my name in ?
Speaker 2This is pointless there should be a way to do it . I will say , Jay , that I am offended that you don't know my name .
Speaker 1No actually , I can't see your name either . Oh , you haven't aired any podcasts yet , that's true . My buddy keeps telling me he was on , but then was wondering where the hell the episode is Perfect .
Speaker 3Well , my name is Rebecca . It is nice to meet you , Jay .
Speaker 1Nice to meet you .
Speaker 2Oh , I think I found it . My name is Ray Hi Jay .
Speaker 1Wow , three R's .
Speaker 2Yeah , we were real close to doing something with that , but we didn't we like the alliteration hey .
Speaker 3There it is and Mr Barbecue is still there .
Speaker 4What's the Mr Barbecue thing ? Was that just something you made up , or is there a story behind that ?
Speaker 1There's a story behind it , ray , I thought you were excited for the name because you do the reference , and then I would have been really , really , really excited .
Speaker 2But there's like a very old school Orange County punk band that had a song called Mr mr barbecue , like way back in the day , nice something ray might have known , right . Yeah , that's kind of off the wall , oddities wait .
Speaker 3So what was the name of the band ?
Speaker 2gutter mouth gutter mouth I want to find it , just like I do remember a gutter mouth dirty dirty punk music .
Speaker 3We keep the musical theme going every single guest has had some sort of musical connection do you ?
Speaker 1play an instrument , jay ? Uh , yeah , I play guitar and drums there we go , oh really see .
Speaker 4This is what I love about this . I mean , I've been talking to this guy on and off .
Speaker 1I interviewed him twice on my old podcast and never knew he played an instrument you didn't ask the right questions , clearly because I was stuck in all the real estate , estate music has been my life since I was a little kid and I played in a band from like 12 years old to like 27 years old . So it's only recently , in the last 10 years , that I have not been playing music , but it was a very big part of my life that's awesome .
Speaker 3Was it like in the emo punk ?
Speaker 1genre or was it else . Like progressive rock at the end .
Speaker 2There you go . That's about all I can play before we get a takedown notice , but that's rad .
Speaker 4So , we're going to all have to look that up after this . Was that Bruce ?
Speaker 2Lee in the back of that cover art . It sure was yeah , that's awesome . Guttermouth . I actually remember Guttermouth , but I don't remember this song specifically . I remember there , uh , they had one with godzilla on it yes , terry akimoto is the name of that album yeah , there you go look at that look at that , I do know odd
Speaker 2I actually am really excited now so I had a friend of mine in college or high school that was really into stuff that you couldn't find easily and everything mainstream . He would be like , ugh , it's mainstream . I hate it .
Speaker 1I know the type . I know the type .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah . Well , that's cool . So you played drums and what ?
Speaker 1I first started to play drums when I was very little , like 10 years old , and then I started writing songs on guitar and stuff when I was like a teenager and , um , yeah , I played in like hardcore bands , metal bands , like super aggressive bands , and then , uh , that later evolved into like more progressive , um easily easy listening , um sort of music and and then that's , that's the one , that kind of that . We had a few studio albums and played a ton of shows and stuff like that .
Speaker 2What was the name of it ? Champagne Boulevard .
Speaker 3Fancy .
Speaker 4You know , just out of our first six episodes we could put together a pretty awesome band and tour with a real random tour .
Speaker 3Podcast and concert series .
Speaker 2You guys have something going here I mean we at least need to get some of you guys to write some music for the show .
Speaker 3Yeah , we need a theme song .
Speaker 1I'm sure you can get the rights to Guttermouth for about five bucks .
Speaker 2Oh gosh , that's right . That's how it goes these days , right ? Yeah , challenge accepted . Are you trying to find his band online , ray ? That's right ? Yeah , that's how it goes these days , right yeah , challenge , that's still around .
Speaker 3Are you trying to find his band online , ray ?
Speaker 2yeah , progressive rock , psychedelic , hard is what I have so far that's what it says yeah , you have six monthly listeners still on spotify by the way we're killing it .
Speaker 4Two of those are j and j .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's right , it's actually all us , just six different devices , that's right .
Speaker 2I love that you still have six .
Speaker 4When you work at Client Giant , you have to sign up and be a listener .
Speaker 3Yeah , Do you only have six employees at Client Giant ?
Speaker 1Yeah , that's it . We actually have 30 employees and six clients , so we're overstaffed . Wise .
Speaker 2That's how it goes . All right , is this you ?
Speaker 1I'm gonna see , I'm gonna bring it up . Is that you no ?
Speaker 2what is that ? Oh , champagne blvd , that is it though I mean , that's just not .
Speaker 1I don't know what that cover art is , or anything I don't know either .
Speaker 2Fan art is this does this sound like your music ? Is that your music ? Can y'all hear that it actually sounds like your music ? Is that your music ? Can you hear that ? It actually sounds like our music , but that is not our music .
Speaker 1That's like the weirdest thing I've ever experienced . Do you have Spotify ? It's on Spotify .
Speaker 3You have an imposter . I don't know , Speaking of imposter .
Speaker 1You will not believe what I stumbled upon yesterday , rick .
Speaker 2Ooh .
Speaker 1I haven't . There is a copycat company that came out and they literally took our exact marketing video . No shit . If you watch ours and then you watch theirs . You're going to lose your mind and I just saw for the first time yesterday . I was like I am positive , this is not legal um wow yeah , it's pretty wild what they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery , but you know it's still kind of awkward , yeah it sucks .
Speaker 3I know we talk a lot about rip off and duplicate , but that's a little to the extreme .
Speaker 1Yeah , it is literally verbatim same language , same same words , same uh , same visuals , everything , wow way we'll put it on tiktok .
Speaker 2They will rip them apart yeah , tiktok is not a fan of that stuff I want to ask what their name is , but I don't want to get the the publicity , so I'm just going to assume they're like um customer colossus or something there you go that works wow
Speaker 4and you know easy I don't know how many clients you have right now , but I mean you've been going strong for going on six years , so I mean they can try to copy what you've done . But that would be that'd be . You know what's not funny . But there's actually a local agent here who just released that she's bringing on her first 10 clients and offering she says this a similar kind of service . But I'm like , oh , like she's grassroots , she got like one printer in a garage and , yeah , good luck .
Speaker 2That's where they all start .
Speaker 4That's where all the big ones start . Rick , you have to , you really have to be leery of anyone starting in a garage these days . You know , what's funny is so when I , when I first stumbled upon jay , I didn't realize that , like , he had just launched and just won the innovator award and everything was brand new . So I don't know how many clients you had in 2018 when I started using you guys . But I'm only now realizing that it was like the beginning , because everything was freaking awesome .
Speaker 1I thought you guys have been rocking for a while thanks , yeah , we uh , I guess we fake the funk pretty well um we , we , uh , went live with our first beta in may of 2018 and then , and then , we've launched officially at inman , san francisco , july of 2018 . So you were right there , right in the very beginning , you launched at Inman , yeah like I was speaking there . Yeah , yeah , that's where the award Rick's talking about came from . It came at that conference .
Speaker 3So wait , you had just started a couple of months before and then you won the award within a couple months . Tell me more about that , like , how did that ?
Speaker 2all come about . Is this a who you know situation ?
Speaker 4let's get the origin story .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's right who's in charge , and then you just bribe them with a bunch of money so it's like all real estate awards then , yeah , exactly .
Speaker 4Innovator of the year is the Real Random Podcast .
Speaker 1So actually the way that award happened wasn't specifically because of ClientGiant . It was because in January of that year I spoke at Inman in New York and kind of spoke on this playbook and this philosophy of what we do and that idea they consider to be innovative , even though it's literally just like taking care of people who take care of you . That was enough to win an innovation award , which is a little sad , but that's kind of what happened . So I actually didn't even know that this existed . I found out through someone else . They said congratulations on your nomination and I said what the hell are you talking about ? And then when I was there in San Francisco I saw my face on a on a bunch of things like with the nominees , and there was like Josh flag for million dollar listing and all these people and I was like how the hell am I on this thing ? And then the next day they announced it and I won . So I was like that's pretty cool .
Speaker 3That's awesome , did they ? Choose a good picture Because it sounds like they didn't even ask you . They didn't even ask you .
Speaker 1They had my photo because I was writing articles for them and speaking at their conferences for a few years .
Speaker 3Okay , so there was an approved copy out there ?
Speaker 1Yeah , there was .
Speaker 2You tell Becca her fear is the wrong photo , like that's the huge fear that did just happen .
Speaker 1Actually , I there was something got published like two weeks ago and , um , and I saw it and I was like where did this photo even come from ? Like I don't even know when this photo was taken . How did you get it ? It was , it was not .
Speaker 2It's from back in the champagne boulevard days . Yeah , I wish it was then . We get up to 10 monthly listeners here you go , we're going to add to it . I think this is your . Oh man , see , I can't play it on here .
Speaker 3That's it . That's it . Gosh Ray , can you get it together ?
Speaker 2I don't like Spotify because it doesn't let me play on the computer , but I'll play it on my phone . All right , we'll figure out a way .
Speaker 1I want to hear this .
Speaker 3We'll come back to that . We'll come back to that again yeah , all right .
Speaker 1So did your life change after getting this innovator award ? Uh , no , my life didn't change . But um , I will say and rick , you heard about us through a magazine , right ?
Speaker 4yeah , you had an article in florida realtors magazine that year for uh , for the client giant thing it was . It mentioned uh , inman , and it was just like a little column on the side of the thing . Okay , with your Instagram handle .
Speaker 1Rest in peace . Haven't been on Instagram in three and a half years .
Speaker 3It's changed .
Speaker 1Yeah , I don't miss it . So I think what had happened was in January I spoke at Inman . We had announced that we were going to build a tool that does everything that I was talking about for years at speaking engagements and finally decided to put technology behind it . And we built an interest list from people who were engaged with that , that talk and they were our first people that we marketed to and said , hey , we were going into beta , do you want to try this out ? Do you want to be an early adopter ? And that hit pretty quickly in May and then in July . That helped a lot because you know we had a platform there we were speaking , so that got some notoriety and spread even more . And then inside of six months we were in 50 states and Canada . So it was pretty cool , spread pretty quickly .
Speaker 3It is pretty fast .
Speaker 2How much did you have to increase your staffing during those time periods , or was the system you built , was that able to kind of shoulder most of the burden ?
Speaker 1Oh man , no , I mean , when you talk about wearing a lot of hats , I mean you're doing everything . So , like the live chat , the emails , the sales , the fulfillment , you know everything . And in those early days , it was just myself , Jeff and our now CTO . That was it . So we didn't hire our first person until April 2019 . So Jeff's been there since the beginning . Jeff , yeah , yeah , we co-founded the company together .
Speaker 3So when you say you didn't hire your first person until 2019 , it was just you and Jeff doing everything .
Speaker 1And Brad , yeah , our CTO .
Speaker 3Wow , that's a lot . That's amazing that you guys were even able to scale that quickly .
Speaker 1Yeah , we're completely bootstrapped . We never went out to raise money and hire a bunch of people money and hire a bunch of people . We just did it all ourselves and got our hands really dirty and worked very , very long hours and then eventually built up enough of a momentum to bring on employees and go from there .
Entrepreneur's Regret and Business Expansion
Speaker 2Would you do it the same if you had to do it all over again , or is there a different choice you'd make through all that ?
Speaker 1I would absolutely do it the exact same way . The only thing I would say that was a very big miss to any entrepreneur out there who's starting a business is Jeff calls me ready , fire aim , because I just like get shit done . I don't like , I'm not like methodical with the strategy , I'm just like just do it , just go , just go . So like when we went live . We're like just sell it , just sell it and fulfill it , you know . So the regret is that a lot of like just basic processes and systems that should have been in place way earlier than they were . It's much harder to play catch up with that , like with inventory and accounting and like all kinds of like different boring things that are intertwined in a business . And so once you've got a few years under your belt and more volume , you're like there's a lot more to undo and redo .
Speaker 3But sometimes you can spend too much time just ready .
Speaker 1Aim , aim , aim aim that you've never actually fired . 100% , completely agree .
Speaker 3That's more my speed . I wasn't going to call you out on that . I mean it is true .
Speaker 2It's very true . So you're in the real estate industry , of course . I guess did you focus on them first for a particular reason ? It seems like you kind of launched . Well , I most know you from the real estate sector . Are you in other sectors , industries , or are you pretty much just focused on real estate agents ?
Speaker 1Yeah , very much so in other sectors . It was just in the beginning . It was low hanging fruit . My background's in real estate . We had an audience for it . Most of the packages and plans that we launched right out of the gate were specifically catered to real estate agents , because that's what I know how to speak to . And then we started to see client-based businesses of any sector start to roll in . Primarily we saw financial services , so financial advisors became really hot to trot on ClientGiant . But it could be an attorney , it could be an accountant , it could be any insurance you know , anyone who wants to retain business and get referrals and make people feel special on an ongoing basis . They would engage with Client Giant and we ran that model exclusively just business owner to client for the first couple years .
Speaker 1And then COVID hit and everyone was sent home and all of these companies that we were working with that had employees said , hey , what can I do for my employees ? And we're like , ah , yes , we need to engage with employees on behalf of employers , especially now that they're stuck at home . And in the beginning one of those things , if you guys remember , during COVID , everything was about being an essential worker and if you're in an essential industry . So we very quickly made a ton of coffee mugs that said my boss thinks I'm essential and that's amazing . That was the first employee happiness gift and so that kind of started that division of the company .
Speaker 1So now to answer your question , ray , for the employee happiness space it's completely industry agnostic . We have companies from all shapes and sizes , different walks of life , that will use this to take care of their employees , whether it's for their onboarding , the first day , work anniversary , birthday , special moments , no reason , all kinds of stuff , and they just set it and forget it . And then the client care they would choose the appropriate service for them as well . So we're kind of tackling both now .
Speaker 3That's really cute .
Elevating Client Experience in Real Estate
Speaker 3I didn't think you were going to say that . Oh , what did you think I was going to say ? I thought you were going to say something deep , yeah , something more .
Speaker 2That's cute .
Speaker 3Sorry , I was basking in the moment I was thinking about the sentimentality of it , because a lot of companies don't show any care for their employees and they don't show any care for their clients and , to be perfectly honest , this is very different from what a real estate coach that I attended one of their seminars the other day was saying . He's like , oh , when you call them and tell them happy birthday , also ask them for a referral in the same conversation and I'm like that's so gross .
Speaker 4Why would ?
Speaker 1you do that ? That's tacky .
Speaker 3Yeah , I need to know who on the deal , oh , I will definitely tell you yeah , that's not our style .
Speaker 4Uh , well , you know so when , when I first found jay , like if you you can go back and on youtube I think the videos are still there from you doing your your talks on like just what people say about realtors when they do the reviews and like just how low the bar is set for us to exceed expectations , and that was the talk that Jay was given when I was like dude . This guy is like he's nailing it , because in the first one that we sent out , I think I did a buyer package for the very first time for like 350 . It was one of the the lowest priced buyer packages because my home sales at the time were , like you know , 150 200 . And the first time , the , the first one that goes out is the uh , what is like shit for your realtor to worry about the little box yeah , the uh , the stress relief kit .
Speaker 4Yeah , yeah , the stress relief kit and it has like a calming tea and a scalp massager and a little notepad that it says like stuff your realtor to worry about , and it has like just random , like fun stuff in it that I would never think to put in a package and send to a client . But that first client that got that I mean I think I took a picture and sent it into you guys because I was blown away . I mean they were so the moon excited and thrilled that they got this right after they went under contract . And then it was five more gifts through the contract . They were like we've bought houses for years all over the place . We've never had anybody do anything like this . And so that's when I was like , okay , this shit works .
Speaker 1That's awesome . Love to hear that , love , love hearing those stories .
Speaker 2There seems to be a real differentiation right now in the marketplace too , because so many people are focused on the commission compression and how much this or that referral source is taking away from real estate agents and then how much brokers are in trouble . Right now . There's some giant flagship brokers that are not making a ton of money and they're trying to look at their margins and they're cutting staff or trying to gear up for what's coming in the marketplace . And with all that discussion about the you know , small commissions , it's going to be really hard for agents to provide real incredible experiences for their clients . But in the end , that's who's going to win , that's who Amazon's been focused on , that's who all these you know Apple , the client experience and the experience of the person that's holding their device and the end user experience is what we all have to focus on .
Speaker 2But in a marketplace in which our commissions are being compressed , we're not making as much money . It's more difficult . I think you're going to have a huge differentiator , with people having experience like what Rick just described . You know somebody in the process of buying a home and they get these as Becca called it cute things sent to them , but they're also timely and it makes sense and it kind of develops and deepens that relationship to where , from now on , that client's going to send so many people to Rick . They don't have to worry about going through Zillow , they don't have to worry about buying from another lead source .
Speaker 2So I think it's going to become more crucial than ever , and I don't know what you guys are seeing with the 60,000 real estate agents ducking out of the industry . What I'm presuming is the people who are using your service are going to be around a long time , because it's probably just a different caliber of agent .
Speaker 1Especially over the last year or so with interest rate hikes , we saw the the less the lower producing agents fall off and then the higher producing ones double down . Because to your point , it's totally a mindset thing . And , rick , what you just said , when you said you bought the cheapest package because your home was your home sale , was only $150,000 . That's such an interesting frame of mind for me to hear , because that is , you're investing 350 bucks into your client , no matter how you look at it , and that's super admirable . I'm used to speaking with people who go , this doesn't work in my market because the house is only 150 , because it's only 200 . So they'd rather invest zero . And you're saying it's just so interesting to hear that and it's so ironic because it's no secret that I mean it goes for not just real estate agents but any business owner .
Speaker 1Our favorite source of business hands down is a referral . Like you're not . Like my favorite source is an open house . My favorite source is a flyer . Like no , your favorite source is the red hot referral business where you've got built in forgiveness with that person . You've got a third party endorsement already , like it's just it's yours to lose , kind of .
Speaker 1Yet to your point , ray , no one is really doing anything for those referrals , at least not in the form of client experience . They're doing it in a way that's super cheap , like rebecca said , like calling hey , can you refer me business ? Um , sending a bunch of stupid shit to people's front doors . That makes no sense and they just write some pun on it and they think that's going to get them all kinds of business and it's just very inauthentic and tacky . So at the end of the day , I mean what wins ? Like be a human , like , at the end of the day , if you feel cared for , if you feel thought of and you feel special and important , you will remember that Like and what do you know ? Like that will be a knee jerk reaction with some human reciprocity where someone will then give you a referral because they want to help you .
Speaker 1You know , you don't even have to ask for every referral I ever got . I never asked for one of them . It should stand on its own , like you go to your favorite restaurant or see your you know favorite movie or whatever . When you went out to tell a friend about that place , there was absolutely nothing in it for you except for you selfishly got fulfillment , knowing that they've experienced what you've experienced and you can share that , so it's very easy to emulate that same thing in a real estate transaction and long after . Because it's a unique industry , we're able to leave an impact for 30 6090 days , unlike most professionals out there . Most professionals don't have that luxury . They're like this is more transactional and the fact that we've got that much time we got to leverage it , it's , you know .
Speaker 4So I try to do the transaction plans when I can . I've been doing so many listings that I haven't been using as many . But on the top of mind , when those gifts go out , sometimes I'll miss the email that says hey , we're getting ready to send out a gift if you need to make changes , and I'll miss that . But then , after the gift goes out and I start getting the text messages and the DMs , it's almost like clockwork . Every quarter I'll have at least two or three people reach out , not only with a thank you for the gift , but that's the trigger of hey , we got the towel , hey , we got the tea . Hey , we got the this . Oh , by the way , I just gave your info to my friend who's thinking about moving to the area .
Speaker 4So those gifts every quarter , just , I mean it's the top of mind plan and it does exactly that . It keeps you top of mind and it's I always get the same thing . It's thanks for the gift . Oh , by the way , I got you some new business . Thanks for the gift . Oh , by the way , I just sent your info to somebody and it's just crazy . It's , I mean it's . It really is clockwork . I could go through my text message , my DMS , and just send you so many examples where it's a thank you and a referral and the same message .
Speaker 1Well , Rick , we got to get you on the seller packages . I mean , it's not just for buyers .
Speaker 3I like that you said that even though you missed the email , it's still going out , because that shows how scalable it is , where it's not relying on us to remember , because I know me , I'm going to forget stuff like this until it passes . And then I'm like , oh crap , I forgot to do something or I didn't pass by , and then it just doesn't happen . So this way it's set and we're able to focus on getting other clients or serving our current clients , but also not forgetting about our past clients .
Speaker 4That's the only reason why I signed up , because if it involved me doing something , it wouldn't work , like Jay could have the most perfect thing , and if it involved me doing something I'd screw it up . So the fact that it is automated is the only reason it works .
Speaker 1You know , they say like build a , build a business that solves your personal problem . And that's exactly what our approach was , because , just like you , rick , um , my whole life , I want to be as frictionless as possible and run on as much efficiency . So I mean , back in 2018 , there was not a single company that I knew of that was doing anything like this , and to this day , there's still not one that I know of that's doing the gift curation and all the automation . There's some element of customer has to pick , or or the recipient actually has to pick , and we wanted to build something that had no roadblocks and no bottlenecks , where we could say , hey , rebecca , client care is a big pain point for you . You need that taken care of .
Speaker 1We're going to handle the people , the timing , the gift curation , the message , the delivery , shipping's free . You just literally say , yes , I want this and you're done . But we will give you visibility and control should you want it . It's just not required . So if something goes out and we , we trigger an email to rick and say , hey , moving boxes are going to your client in two days , and he's like , oh no , skip that , delay that , whatever he could do that , or here's the message that goes with it oh , I can edit that . 96 of people do not edit our messages um so yeah , it is what it is yeah , are you gonna have ?
Speaker 4yeah , and they do such a good job of like I would never pick the gifts they send and and the message is better than what I'm gonna write . Anyways , I only make sure that it doesn't have my full name and the company on it . I just make sure it just says from Rick and Katrina . And as long as it stays that way , I just leave it alone .
Innovation and Individuality in Real Estate
Speaker 1It's smart , I mean , rick , again a very unique thing for you to say , because normally people are like is my face on the moving boxes ? And you're like no , why the hell would your face be on a ?
Speaker 4moving box . They would be fucking awesome moving boxes , by the way .
Speaker 1Can we do them with me ? It'll actually be like you know , like a sphere , like a head .
Speaker 2People would order more .
Speaker 4Can I get some of those just for me ?
Speaker 3They would display them in their homes .
Speaker 1But yeah , people are . Just , they cannot help themselves to like , want everything to point back to them , like is my logo going to be on it , put my name , put my face , put all this stuff and you're trying to do . You're actually going backwards with that mentality . Someone who just gets something from Rick that feels personal If it's like Rick Gonzalez real estate company phone number , email , like . I see this is not . This is no longer a gift , this is marketing .
Speaker 2That's true , but so I noticed on your website longer a gift . This is marketing , that's true , but so I noticed on your website , you're not pictured , so it's it's kind of , uh , I I guess it's ingrained into who you guys are to let what you do speak for itself . There's no , uh , there's no back-to-back with you and jeff , which you know would be stellar yeah , nothing like that .
Speaker 1And I mean really , at this stage in the game , we can't take the all the credit even by a mile , like , um , our team is what does everything , like all the great customer service , all the the operations , fulfillment , everything it has ? Jeff and I are not doing that . We are not responsible . Our team is just incredible . We're very grateful for them . So , if anything , they should be on there , but um , then we probably have to change that photo all the time with , like , new hires , true ?
Speaker 2just keep adding to it . Well , if you ever did a uh photo shoot , I'm , I'm pro the worst photo shoot , photo shoot .
Speaker 1I think that's the best yeah , like , just like a sloppy , just like . Yeah , I love it on purpose .
Speaker 2On purpose , like you do , the old real estate poses like have a have a phone with a cord .
Speaker 1Just like a sloppy , just like , yeah , I love it On purpose . On purpose , like do the old real estate poses ?
Speaker 3Like have a phone with a cord to your ear , like all that . Remember , ray , I'm a punk rock guy . I'm all about going against the grain .
Speaker 4The Sears glamour shots .
Speaker 1Yes , that's right , wasn't that your ?
Speaker 4tagline back in the day the anti-realtor Was it really yeah of the day .
Speaker 1The anti-realtor yeah , yeah , that was my instagram handle , anti-realtor , and everything I I wrote was under that and I got a lot of shit for that . But , uh , I still stand by it to this day . You still have that instagram account . I don't know . Oh man , I want to look it up .
Speaker 2I was gonna ask you the broke agent yeah , I should have , if you didn't .
Speaker 1I kind of should have . That was around the time actually . He was on our podcast like maybe , I don't know , 2015 or 16 , and that was that's when I had that handle .
Speaker 2But yeah , I was gonna ask you about it , yeah eric from the broke agent there is a , there is a the anti-realtor , but there's only like two posts , so this is not they're not uh all social accounts that I have have been deactivated for a very long time .
Speaker 1There's hopefully no trace of me anywhere .
Speaker 2Just on LinkedIn right .
Speaker 1Yeah , LinkedIn only All right .
Speaker 2So I have two questions . One is you're a real estate agent . Did you have sleeve tats as a real estate agent ?
Speaker 1Yeah , I did . How did that impact you ? So it's funny you say that I did something again that people told me not to do , but I did it anyway and I took a picture of myself fully suited and put it on one frame and then the other one . I was wearing basically nothing but really short shorts and I have tattoos on my legs and stuff too , and it and the tagline was the agent with nothing to hide , so everyone could see the tattoos and stuff . So , yeah , I always leaned into that . I mean , you know , I'd wear suits and stuff at listing presentations and whatnot , just because that's what you do , but I never really like hid them or like was ashamed of them , you know .
Speaker 2I've always wanted sleep tats , but that's the one thing keeping me from it is one day there's going to be a $5 million guy . That's going to be like meh . Cody , so much money . Do you think ?
Speaker 3he would really care . I mean , if you're showing up to the listing appointment in a suit but you're going to wear a suit , right , so you're going to have your sleeves all covered up , unless you're getting a head tat , what does it matter ?
Speaker 2Yeah , A head tat would be .
Speaker 1I mean talk about that would be .
Speaker 2I mean talk about ray , I think you're just focused on the aim , aim , aim , aim , aim right now and you got a fire for that fire , we're gonna get them . Uh . So my second question is ai . Are you guys finding interesting ways to integrate ai with the gifting and messaging and all that kind of stuff ? Is it ? Is it helping you at all , or are you just kind of sticking with your system right now and don't really find a way to plug it in ?
Speaker 1I'd say we're using it , but we've just barely scratched the surface there . So like it's been helpful with little things here and there , but it's not like the business depends on it or even that it's been a big contributor yet , but I'm sure it will be . I'm sure in the next six to 12 months we'll find ways to integrate it in that definitely are being shown .
Speaker 2Yeah , I noticed you've been integrated into a lot .
Elevating Real Estate Client Experience
Speaker 2You guys are like the cranberry of real estate services .
Speaker 1Oh , elaborate on that yeah .
Speaker 2So there's an old bit by Brian Regan no there's an old bit by Brian Regan that talks about the cranberry sales guy , how he's so good because they're getting into everything you like apple how about cranberry and apple . We call it cran apple , you're like banana , how about ? Cranberry banana . So I just noticed , like everywhere , everything I'm involved with , from follow-up boss to tom ferry , to intercom , like all these other things , it's like oh , you like tom ferry ? How about client giant tom ferry ?
Speaker 3giant tom ferry . So your cranberry sales guys doing overtime , this is so good oh my god , that's incredible . New marketing coming soon .
Speaker 4Yeah , there's something there , there's definitely something there we're gonna see on the new . The new uh was the ocean spray commercial . There's gonna be j and j from the middle of the cranberry field do you like cranberry juice ?
Speaker 3how about ?
Speaker 2cranberry juice and client giant . Show your customers you care that's right so I'm asking that because I see you're like integrating with all this stuff that we're kind of involved with and you know that's rad . But where do you go from there ? Because I feel like there's a lot of people that know you guys . So what are the next steps for client giant ?
Speaker 4I don't know if that's a secret . We can't talk about that yet , can we , jay ? Yeah ?
Speaker 2you jack yeah , you like real random podcasts . How about client giant ?
Speaker 1yes , let's do that . Mr barbecue will be featured we have his own segment yeah , so , like follow-up boss , that's just an integration .
Speaker 1so we have lots of integrations , um , just to make the ease of use there for our members , but like a Tom Ferry or LPL Financial , some of these bigger parent companies , those are actual partnerships . So there's like a strategic partnership with their organization and ours to kind of collaborate on things , and we're now the exclusive gifting partner for Tom Ferry . So not only do his coaching clients use us , but also Tom Ferry International uses ClientGiant to take care of people . So it's become quite meta , and so I mean to answer your question . The future is hopefully a lot more of that with all kinds of industries and in the employee engagement space , and you know that those partnerships are great . That's cool . Do you still write ? Do I still ?
Speaker 2write like copy . Yeah , and a lot of you have a lot of articles and stuff that are still out there yeah , yeah , in fact , um , they've been .
Speaker 1There's been quite a few published recently , um , so , yeah , I still write . Have you ever thought about writing a book ? Yes , um , we had uh , who was defeated . So long he's like like yes should I say the next ?
Speaker 1thing , we had a book deal proposal come to us like maybe , uh , a year , one year ago , pretty much exactly . Um , the reality is it takes a ton of time to do it the right way , and writing the book is like not even half the battle . It's promoting the book . It's , um , it's selling it . You know , and honestly , I'm just so hyper-focused on what we're doing at client giant that I don't want to take my eye off the ball in any way , shape or form . Um , our uh literary agent was saying like jay , you've got to get back on social media , you've got to be like in the face of people . This is like one million percent my worst nightmare . Like I just want to live in the shadows and like live my life . So , um , I don't know if a book ever happens one day , uh ray , I will not be the one to write it . It'll be completely ghost written . So you know , you know , you know that now and uh , yeah , yeah a hundred a hundred percent .
Speaker 2Yeah , it won't be me writing that book but these days there's so many tools you can use . You know , you can just basically talk into a microphone to say what you're gonna say , and then somebody ghost writes it or they convert it and you're right .
Speaker 1There's probably enough out there of me talking that's that ai write a book on .
Speaker 2Somebody could compile the book for you .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Ironic that the guy with sleep tats didn't want to draw attention to himself , just saying that was in a punk band . Yeah , that's true .
Speaker 3He's a really subtle guy , okay .
Speaker 1You know , punk lives in the shadows too , that's true , yeah , you're right . You're right .
Speaker 3And we only have six monthly listeners on Spotify by design . We don't want anyone else . Ray mentioned before that you were in real estate . You've also mentioned this . You started in real estate . Then you came up with Client Giant . What kind of prompted that transition from selling houses to selling experiences ?
Speaker 1Great question . So I started selling real estate in 2011 . And in the very beginning , like anyone , I was doing anything and everything I could possibly do for a deal . I mean , on Fridays I was looking up on Craigslist what garage sales were in the area and then I'd look at those addresses and see if those people were listed . If they weren't , I'd solicit them and be like maybe they're going to move Just anything I could possibly do . You're very scrappy , especially in the beginning years . Like anyone does you ask for referrals . You know you ask for five-star reviews , things like that , after each transaction .
Speaker 1And in 2013 or maybe 2014 , I decided to do a self audit and just be very , very honest with myself . What's going to keep my business defensible for the next 10 to 20 years , especially with all the tech monsters coming in wanting to take over the ? You know the agents entirely and just your , your local competitive agents , right , like what's going to make you relevant long term ? So one of the first places I went was Zillow to look up the reviews on myself , all of which I've asked for , right ? So it's no secret that I go there . I'm like , wow , there's 95 star reviews about me . Like yeah , I asked for every single one of them . So they better be five stars , you know . But what I was actually looking for wasn't like the rating , it was the review itself , and so I started to see the commentary of Jay was super professional , always on time , super knowledgeable , we got the home of our dreams , etc . Etc . Etc . And I'm going through all of these reviews and when I finished I was like , holy shit , I am in a bad place because none of those things are worthy of being commendable . That is literally somebody just doing their job . So could anyone in my sphere be doing exactly everything I was just commended for ? Yeah , that's not going to keep me in business .
Speaker 1So what I decided to do was kind of map out the customer journey of what does a real estate transaction look like ? What are the peaks , what are the pits ? You get an offer accepted that's a peak . You're going through inspections that's a pit . There are stressful moments , there are exciting moments and I believe , being a service junkie , very , very sensitive to a client experience at a restaurant , at a resort , anything , every little touch is something that I've paid attention to my whole life and I said this needs to get integrated into the real estate process . So that's how it started to get integrated with , like an under contract gift , moving boxes , packing tape would be sent to them and say hey Ray , one less thing you have to worry about , we take care of the forwarding of address , transfer of utilities , any and every pain point I could think of . And then celebratory moments like someone's loan gets approved Well , everyone's so hot on a closing gift . I don't want to celebrate that the transaction's over , I want to celebrate along the way . And so contingencies would get lifted . I'd send , like a bottle of wine .
Speaker 1And the touches continued on and on and on . And to Rick's point earlier of what he's willing to invest in a client , I was willing to invest a lot , and it's not like my commission checks were huge or anything . I was dealing with first time homebuyers buying condos 10 years ago , you know . So for me I was just like if I stand to earn $10,000 on a deal , will I spend a grand ? Yeah , I will , every single day of the week , and that's what I did . And so , even post-close , they would be sent to dinner at a five-star restaurant with round-trip transportation provided They'd get completely wined and dined .
Speaker 1To celebrate their closing 30 days post-close , I'd send a mobile car wash , detailing service , to their home or office the weekend after their move , all kinds of touches like that to elevate their overall experience and turn what I was getting as very passive referrals into super , super passionate referrals , like now people were referring me in a way that was , like you know , oh my God , you've never seen Shawshank Redemption . Are you an idiot ? Like you need to go see that kind of thing . And so if someone's like oh yeah , I'm thinking about , like , working with this agent , they're like trust me when I say you have no idea what you're about to experience if you work with Jay . So they became not only my raving fans , but my sales force and my business took off from there .
Client Gifting and Relationship Building
Speaker 1And and then in 2015 , I was named 30 under 30 with National Association of Realtors and started speaking . That's where the speaking came from . So they asked me to like you know , people want free content . They're like can you write an article for this , an article for that that ? You know ? The Florida magazine , rick , I don't even remember that , you know .
Speaker 1Like I mean , I was just pumping out articles for a great article , yeah and um , and then , after speaking on this topic which now this talk I've given like all over the country and I mean I was I was um flown out to South Africa to give this talk and Toronto . So I've talked about it so , so much that , finally , in 2018 , when I was at Inman , new York , um , I realized you know , this is just another rinse and repeat . Everyone in the audience is like super fired up about it . They're writing in their notes , they're taking photos of my slides , but no one's executing . You know , no one's doing it because it's a lot to do , like there's no secret as to why I don't have a six pack .
Speaker 1I know how to get one , but like I won't do that pack . I know how to get one , but like I won't do that , I won't do the work for it , right ? So it's very similar to that and I thought , well , why not just do this for people and make it super , super , super easy and it'll all come across very authentically , because it's not like I'm just some guy with an idea , like I've been doing this myself for years . I am a real estate agent . You know , like I've been doing this myself for years .
Speaker 2I am a real estate agent , you know , and that's how it all got started . I can't imagine the scalability of going from you doing this to then you just starting to take on people doing it for them as well , to where you are today , like that's an insane amount of scalability . But I mean , I assume that now you get the buying power of getting a whole bunch of stuff in bulk . Yeah , absolutely yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I mean really , it wouldn't be possible without the software that our CTO built . I mean , everything's proprietary in-house . And so when I say that I co-founded the company with Jeff and then we had our CTO , brad , he was full on developed , designed everything . And so all of these emails it's not like someone's emailing you , it's an automated email and automated triggers to fulfill things . So , yeah , we would have been crushed if we didn't have software doing this stuff .
Speaker 2You don't just use the if this , then that app . Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 3The whole platform .
Speaker 1You just gave away his secret .
Speaker 2That's the whole .
Speaker 4Thing gosh Jay , jay , do you know about how many people you have in your system , right ?
Speaker 1now as recipients . Yeah , just ballpark 300,000 , something like that nice wow very cool .
Speaker 3It's not bad , you're going to have more after this call this back is giving you a go yeah , honestly , like I've been kind of on the fence , I've heard a lot of good things about client giant but I don't know . I go back and forth on things . Sometimes I'm like , is it actually worth it ? Am I just looking at the next shiny object ? But aim , yeah , aim , aim well , test it .
Speaker 1You know , yeah , try it out and test it . It's very , very rare for people to use Top of mind is an example . It's very rare for people that go bullish with it , give my clients both during the transaction and after , but just haven't had the organization or the top of mindness to do it Because I forget .
Speaker 3Object permanence is a real thing and it's like out of sight , out of mind . I'm on to the next thing , and it's not that I don't want to show my clients I care about them Because I do like in my heart .
Speaker 4But I just haven't had the systems in place , so this alleviates that problem . Yeah , it's good to the point . Now I actually use it for friends , like for the like weddings and uh babies and if someone's not feeling good . I've used those services because now that I mean there's so many things in there now that weren't there when I first started using it , but they've got a lot of one-off gifts that are kind of situational that you can use for anybody .
Speaker 4That's a good , but I have my , I have my title agent in there , I've got my lenders in there . I've got kind of a pretty good mix of a lot of people in there that get gifts and they all love it yeah , so I think I should sign myself up yeah , yeah , so lots of people do that .
Speaker 1But the situational gifts yeah , someone has a new baby , or there's like you need want to express condolences to someone , someone's sick , there's like all these different situations and because your people are already in port of there , you just press one button and you're done . We already have your payment method , we chose the gift , we wrote the message , we have their address . It's not like a e-commerce platform where you have to go through this checkout . You just press one button and you're done . Same with holiday gifting and all that stuff . It's just that easy . And to Ray's point yeah , purchasing in bulk . We see an enormous benefit there . So the problem is most people won't do this themselves . That was really the thing in the very beginning , but now it's more than that , because even if someone had the time to do it themselves , there's no way they're spending less than they would spend with us Because of the discounts we're getting and passing on to you . It'd just be impossible . We did these nod pods one year .
Speaker 4You remember that one , Rick .
Speaker 1These beautiful weighted sleep masks that you can buy at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's and they sell for 36 bucks in their store . That's one of four gifts that went out . So and mind you , we are doing this in a thematic box with a card fulfilling shipping . It's all included . So if Rick went to Nordstrom to buy that and paid tax on it , and bought a box and went to the store , you're into it for at least 50 bucks , you know . And that's just one of the four gifts . So at this point it's like not only streamline your life , but also it's become very , very cost-effective .
Speaker 4And I wouldn't even know where to begin to curate some of the shit that you guys send out . I mean , we have a weighted blanket but I never knew they had weighted eye masks to help you sleep . You know , and my clients clients , they went nuts about it .
Speaker 4That's why I want to sign myself up , because sometimes a little jealous , like I get all these , messages they're like dude , this , this beach towel you sent me is so perfect , or this thing is so delicious , and I was like , well , shit , like I didn't get any of that on your spouse up , I get a gift and what you've probably found too , rick , is like the power isn't even so much about the actual gift it's .
Speaker 1It's actually even more about the message , like what ties it in , like if , if you got , like this iced tea that just went out , if that just showed up at your door and without any context , it wouldn't hit at all . You know , yeah , um , similarly , like the , the eco-friendly dryer balls we sent out , like you , we , we craft a whole story as to why this gift was chosen and why it's being given to you right now . And that's really what impacts people , because they're made to feel thought of this , this lady , when she gets hers , every time she gets a gift she can't see who that is .
Speaker 3Oh sorry , it's all blurry oh , there you go , that's better , it's the just went .
Speaker 4Oh , it's the tea that just went out . But every single time she gets a gift , she takes a picture , she sends me a message and then we have a nice long conversation about you know what's been going on with her and it's it . It takes away that . You know , sharon just had a video about the whole . You know , I'm calling to follow up . I don't have to call to follow up . They reach out to me and start the conversation because they get the gift and then I get to see how the family's doing hey , what's going on with this . And that's when I always get the referral or the hey , by the way , my son's moving or we're thinking about selling .
Speaker 2And it's like they are the ones giving us the icebreaker to have the conversations that all the other realtors don't want to create . Jay , were you the type of agent that would just do an incredibly good job and people loved the job you did , but you wouldn't be friends with your clients at the end ? Or were you the type of agent that you were like friends and buddy-buddy all the way through and would also do a good job ?
Speaker 1It was mostly the prior . But the funny story here is that Jeff , my now business partner , we met because he was a client of mine and what happened was he went into a Wells Fargo to get pre-approved . That lender said I'm going to send you to an agent to work with and he's going to become your best friend . And Jeff said I'm not looking for a new best friend . She called me and said this guy's coming to your office . He's going to be your new best friend . I was like I'm not looking for a new best friend .
Speaker 4She called me and said this guy's coming to your office .
Speaker 1He's going to be your new best friend . I was like I'm not looking for a best friend and he is now my best friend . He was the best man in my wedding , so there are exceptions to every rule .
Speaker 2Cute
Client Relationships and Gift Giving
Speaker 2. No , the reason why I ask is because I always find myself kind of in that position where there are very few clients that I remain friends with long term Because I'm so focused on , you know , working for them and getting them the deal they want . And we get rave reviews at the end . And then , you know , we see them around and sometimes they'll come to our client events , but sometimes they don't , but it's never that . You know , I've had several clients call me after the transaction and after everything's over , after we've called and checked in , you know , like a month or two , and they're like we just missed talking to you .
Speaker 2I'm like okay , is everything okay , but I feel like that would be a real fill-in of a gap . It's not like a communication , but it's a thought that goes out when you don't have to actually sit down and do something to send that out .
Speaker 1Yeah , it can spark conversation , but at the same time , it's like maybe no words need to be spoken . You're constantly illustrating your sentiment and it kind of puts it on them . If they want to talk , they'll reach out , like what Rick said , versus something super invasive like a Popeye . There's never a time in my entire life that someone has Popeye . This is perfect timing , Like I'm so happy you're here . That's literally never happened and never would happen , so I think it's just like a more authentic and classy approach .
Speaker 4And I like that . It's quarterly . You know , I think when people try to do things , like you know , biweekly or monthly , sometimes it's like God , that's a lot Like I don't talk to my own family , that much you know . And so I think when you're calling a client or sometimes a stranger , monthly to check in , that's , that's excessive , you know . So monthly , I mean quarterly a little gift , it's , it's enough where they don't forget about you , but it's not too much where you're like okay , I get it , like we get the fruit of the month club . Did you guys ever sign up for that ?
Speaker 1jelly of the month club no , that's what I'm thinking .
Speaker 2I know that's exactly what I was like a jelly of the month club .
Speaker 4I wish it was jelly now somebody one of my wife's old like vendors from one of her past jobs and I'm talking about like seven years ago put us on a fruit of the month club . So every month we had a box of fruit and it's like strawberries , pears , pears and cherries , like nobody likes and we get them . It's to the point now where I don't even know who who it is that's sending it how do I stop it at this point ?
Speaker 3wait , you're still getting fruit from this person , every single one . Is there a message ? Just a box of fruit just a random box of fruit .
Speaker 4No message , no word , who it's from to refrigerate . So I'm like at some point this person has to like get a renewal and stop it .
Speaker 3Yeah , they've never called change their credit card and yeah , no , what's the point ?
Speaker 2what if you're just stuck in some kind of gifting organization system . They don't realize that you're continuing to get it years down the road . I love this . They just really don't want you to're continuing to get it years down the road I love this .
Speaker 3They just really don't want you to get scurvy . They're very concerned .
Speaker 4So while we have Jay on here , I do have a request , and I know that this might not be doable , but for me in a small market , when I go shopping on ClientGiant for my clients , there are a lot of really , really , really cool packages that just are not available in my market . Like , I can't send a closing gift and send them to a major league you know ballgame or a concert because they don't have it around here . Can we like , can we work in ? Like , can you just go ahead and get like your own airline , or can we ? Can we work something out where I can spoil my clients like you do in in california for small markets , or how can we make that work ?
Speaker 1yeah . So the the default on packages like that would be something like that like sending them to a sporting event or a concert or like , um , a really high-end tea time , you know , depending on what their interests were . So if something like that were populated and the suggestion didn't hit for you because you're being notified , you would just say , hey , can we swap this out for like like , we got this one where they're like oh my God , this , my clients been dying to see this play . It was like in Chicago or something . We're like yeah , that's fine , send to the play . So our , our member experience team is absolutely incredible and they constantly just find ways to say yes . So if there's a hiccup or something that's irrelevant , all you got to do is raise your hand and we'll make it right . That's just that easy ?
Speaker 2glad I asked yeah , see , there you go . Yeah , uh , and from . I'm also in a small market , so we don't even have a pro team in the entire state , but the Razorbacks are our protein actually .
Speaker 3College is our pro . Isn't that your Instagram handle ?
Speaker 2Yeah , it's a big deal in Arkansas , razorback , that's me .
Speaker 3The Razorback . Well , we have a few pro teams here in the Seattle area .
Speaker 4You do , just rubbing it in .
Speaker 3I don't follow them though .
Speaker 4You don't have .
Speaker 1AC so so so you know , it's all about balance . We don't have .
Speaker 3AC , but we have sporting teams and beautiful mountains to look at .
Speaker 4So well , you guys have any more questions for Jay ? Jay , you have anything you want to talk about before we let you get back to whatever it is you do .
Speaker 1No , I'll just say thank you guys so much for having me on . I love your , your setup here . I love the smart list vibe . It's . It's great . Thank you , yeah , and I appreciate shooting the shit with you guys . It's been a breath of fresh air . Almost every podcast webinar I do is just business , business , business , business and it's like kind of draining . It was nice just to kind of take a more casual approach to it . So thank you for that Thanks for coming on . Yeah , yeah I appreciate it .
Speaker 4It was great to see you guys the other day .
Speaker 1Likewise , finally put a face to the name . Can you believe it after five years ? I can't .
Speaker 4I'm going to frame that photo and put it above my monitor right here .
Speaker 2Above the gifts he's now going to put after putting himself while listening to Champagne Boulevard and listening to me singing to you , oh which I think actually .
Speaker 4Did you finally get it up ? I think I got it up . Wait , is that ? Is that our our end of music ?
Speaker 1That's just , that's just an interlude song , but yeah , that is . I wouldn't listen to that song . I would listen to . It's not really , it's not really like a song song , but I't listen to that song .
Speaker 3I would listen to Gosh Ray .
Speaker 1It's not really like a song song , but I would listen to . I saw you had Hurricane of Headlights pulled up . Anything off of that album ? I would listen to this one is .
Speaker 2There's one that is . It's like some of these are only available for special or something I don't know .
Speaker 3Your whole library is not on your whole library is not on Spotify .
Speaker 2We're going to go find it .
Speaker 1Are you a Spotify premium member ?
Speaker 2No , I'm an Apple music guy .
Speaker 1It should be on Apple music too , oh really .
Speaker 2Now you're speaking my language . Can you tell that ?
Speaker 3Ray's , our tech guy .
Speaker 2Yeah , he does so well with it .
Speaker 1Give Hurricane of Headlights or Overhead Architect a listen .
Speaker 2Here's Overhead Architect . Oh , it's very real estate related yeah .
Speaker 1So this is actually like a concept album , so it's narrated throughout the entire album . I love that kind of stuff . Yeah , so this is actually like a concept album , so it's narrated throughout the entire album . I love that kind of stuff .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's you right , mm-hmm .
Speaker 3There you go .
Speaker 2Now I have to drop it down , so I don't get taken down .
Speaker 4Yeah , I like it .
Speaker 1Thank you .
Speaker 2How many years ago is this 2010. ?
Speaker 3All right .
Speaker 4Back in the day .
Speaker 1All right , jay , we're going to get you to a Seven monthly listeners .
Speaker 2Seven listeners Breaking records .
Speaker 1Actually you went to Apple , so now our yeah , it doesn't even count , yeah .
Speaker 3I'm curious , though , though , if you get a royalty check for that uh stream that we just gave you it'll be his venmo just got a 25 cent deposit members are gonna call and be like we're back guys time for a reunion tour .
Speaker 1What's client giant ? We're done with that call jeff .
Speaker 4sorry , sorry , jeff , we're closing it down .
Speaker 2Maybe you should put some music industry execs on your gifting Jay .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Get back out there the old days of tour I'll get a message next quarter .
Speaker 4They'll be like what is this CD that you sent me ?
Speaker 1Yeah , I noticed you didn't send a CD player with it .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's the important part .
Speaker 3That's true . Does anybody even have CD players anymore ?
Speaker 2We do , because we went out and bought a little CD player that connects to Bluetooth , just so we could play old CDs on it .
Speaker 4I have a turntable but no CD player .
Speaker 1Yeah , love that .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 1Thanks for joining us Jay .
Speaker 4Awesome .
Speaker 1Jeff . Thank you guys so much . Thanks , man , nice to meet . Yeah , thanks for joining us , jay , awesome Jeff .
Speaker 3Thank you guys so much . Thanks for meeting you . Bye , bye , that was fun .
Speaker 4What is with the music connection ? This is so crazy . Everybody is like a musician . That's wild .
Speaker 2It seems like it .
Speaker 4It seems like musicians are creative enough to like really you know , I wonder if we'll find any like artists , like painters or sculptors or any other creative types , or if they're all going to be musicians .
Speaker 2I think it has to be maybe some sort of performance aspect , because my ego drone well , I was gonna say , now that he's gone , let's talk about that ego hey golly we're talking about giant .
Speaker 3No , I was thinking like , just , although I did see rebecca blush .
Speaker 4When he was talking about being in just shorty shorts and that is true did I blush a little ?
Speaker 3bit , just a little bit . I don't believe you .
Speaker 2I don't blush ray's got the play . It's my makeup it's the heat .
Speaker 3That's why I have the heat from this exactly uh no , but I think you're right there could be something there .
Speaker 2You know , it's the those that are bold enough to go out and do , and if you're bold enough to sing in front of a whole bunch of people then right a lot of us are former theater kids too , so I think that there's a lot of correlation there .
Speaker 4Except for you , rick , I don't know even how you got into real estate as a little kid ? I was , no , as a little kid , I was .
Speaker 3I did all the school plays , yeah , okay but did everybody do ?
Speaker 4all the school plays this is just required acting well , you remember I did school in england , so it was very thespian and lots of shakespeare and lots of that kind of stuff in england
Guest Interviews and Podcast Recommendations
Speaker 4did ?
Speaker 3I know that . Did you tell us that ?
Speaker 2you tell us that we need to have ourselves on the podcast .
Speaker 3So tell us your background , you don't even tell the other person .
Speaker 2It's like this week . Rebecca is our special guest this week . So we actually bring on one of our former guests to be a special host , while one of us is there To grill you or bring on your mom .
Speaker 3My mom would be so nice . She's a good mom , that's right , your dad would be hilarious . That would be amazing , though Wait , how do you know ? My dad would be hilarious .
Speaker 2From your post about him on like loving the beach and he turns around and he's like this is not a real beach . That's fantastic , maybe after we snub Matt's like this is not a real beach . That's fantastic .
Speaker 4Maybe after we snub Matt's episode , that could be like his consolation prize .
Speaker 3I'm going to immediately tell him this Be like . So we talked about it and that episode just wasn't the vibe , so we're actually going to scrap it .
Speaker 2Our later episodes are much better . Yeah , we learned a lot .
Speaker 4We learned a lot in that one , so we've made some improvements .
Speaker 3You're just not the caliber of guests that we're looking for .
Speaker 4Oh , my gosh .
Speaker 3We took a vote . And we actually played snippets of your episode for our other guests and they were like yeah , that's not the vibe , he's too into D&D , so funny . Yeah , d&d is the worst .
Speaker 2For those of you finding us on episode six , go back and listen to episode one .
Speaker 4Oh Lord . Episode zero , so the next one will be episode one , that's right , but you know this is all working out though , because I mean , seriously , I've interviewed Jay and Jeff twice in length and didn't know half of that stuff about them , so this whole thing is working out really well .
Speaker 2It does seem to be pretty random , but it's an interesting random . We're still learning about what they do and their businesses and such .
Speaker 4It's just more about them , yeah but it's nice because with three different minds that just come from different directions , and I feel like Rebecca is our Sean . She's a little bit more organized and I see her glancing down at notes like she has questions written down . She's writing notes , I write the notes .
Speaker 3I wrote down everything you said about him so that I could have something to refer back to in case I forgot . It's not that I'm organized , it's that I have ADHD .
Speaker 2Still didn't ask you about barbecue .
Speaker 3Well , we found out it was from the song .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , that's right . That's right , it wasn't from this actual cooking barbecue .
Speaker 3Get with it , Ray .
Speaker 4Although now I'm , hungry .
Speaker 3It is lunchtime . We didn't ask him about his podcast .
Speaker 4Oh , so if you guys want to listen to the podcast , I love the way it was done . It's called the Lift and it was two seasons . It's very short seasons but they're very well done . But they said they won't bring it back because it was very heavy production and they just don't have the time for it . So but it was , I loved it .
Speaker 3It was so cool the lift yeah I'll give it a listen at some point I have a lot of podcasts that I listen to .
Speaker 4I know just check out the first one and see , and then you can always , you know , get into the other ones . But , yeah , lots of good stories and anecdotes and it was , yeah , one of my favorite podcasts back back then , cool , so , yeah , all right guys good show guys .
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