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
Kennon Maurer | Blending Personal Style, Entrepreneurship, and Coffee Culture
Ever wondered how personal style and entrepreneurship come together so effortlessly? In this episode, we sit down with Kennon Maurer, who brings a unique blend of tattoos, personas, and business ventures to the table. Kennon shares his journey of turning coffee shop dreams into reality, offering insights into how personal choices shape professional paths. With a story that mixes creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for real estate and music, this conversation is both light-hearted and thought-provoking.
We also explore the inspiring tale of a coffee enthusiast turned business owner during the pandemic. With a military background and the unwavering support of his barista wife, Kennon took the leap to acquire his first coffee shop despite initial hesitations. From navigating inexperience to seizing opportunities like free rent, Kennon’s venture has since expanded to three thriving locations. This episode dives into the broader topics of coffee culture, health decisions, and the mysterious world of influencer marketing, showing how passion can fuel a successful business.
Join us as we reminisce about early career adventures, from coaching gymnastics to juggling multiple roles at Panera Bread. Hear how Kennon launched a coffee shop in the midst of a deserted, pandemic-hit Washington and transformed isolation into a thriving community space. Together with his wife, Kenzie, they’ve created the “living room of Thurston County,” highlighting the power of connection and the entrepreneurial drive. This episode is a celebration of personal transformation, community building, and the mindset that keeps entrepreneurs moving forward.
Basically they can track when civilizations went into a boom or industrialization and that kind of thing, based on when coffee got to that civilization.
Speaker 2:Buying the coffee shop closing on the sale and like I was super excited, right.
Speaker 3:And then we went outside and we're like oh snap, I'm super excited to have you on and learn more about this coffee journey that you've been on.
Speaker 4:Guys, it's me, it's Rebecca. I know, I look really different. Just wait until I put my glasses on.
Speaker 1:I have three personas.
Speaker 4:I'm actually triplets.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, rick, actually you do kind of look a little different.
Speaker 4:I look different with my glasses.
Speaker 1:I go from professorial to a biker guy.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Very scary To professorial.
Speaker 1:It's just that you know. I hate to break it to you guys.
Speaker 4:I am the Clark Kent of Neither of you are intimidating.
Speaker 1:I would be.
Speaker 2:Not in a pink shirt.
Speaker 1:obviously, let's you know, start there.
Speaker 3:I think that's probably the more terrifying part about you.
Speaker 4:Is that he wears a pink shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean when they try to look tough, you know they're not tough, but when they got glasses on and a bald head and a pink shirt like that's crazy shit.
Speaker 1:That's what it is actually. I've seen the sleeve tats to match.
Speaker 4:Trying so hard I'm not getting a tattoo.
Speaker 3:actually, I want sleeve tats.
Speaker 4:Is this your midlife crisis?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:I am You're turning 50.
Speaker 3:You're like it's time to get. No, I've always wanted one. I want like a full arm.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:But I just haven't found an artist I really like.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:A design that I really love.
Speaker 4:Then you shouldn't get it until it's something that you actually it's permanent.
Speaker 3:That's why I said I want to but haven't, because I'm not going to get, just you know, random shit on my arm.
Speaker 4:You're too old to just be getting tattoos just for the sake of getting tattoos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are you ever ready to go for that?
Speaker 4:Yes, I think that's like a until you're 23. Wait a minute After 23, you can't just get tattoos for any willy-nilly reason.
Speaker 1:Once you get older, you can, because there's less of your life that you'll live with this tattoo. When you're at your youngest is when you should be most careful.
Speaker 4:Okay, after 60, then yeah you can get it whatever.
Speaker 3:I think it also has to do with your income and where you are in life right. Back in the day, the military limited the tattoos that we were allowed to get, and then, if you wanted to go get a jobby job, you couldn't have it below your sleeve. Or now that I work for myself and make more money than I ever thought I would, I can do whatever the fuck I want. Right, get a big tattoo on my forehead if I want to.
Speaker 1:That's what I've always. I always think there's going to be somebody multimillionaire that's going to be like I'm not going to use Ray because he has tattoos, but a Ray without tattoos I would have hired yeah, but that's my probably limiting belief.
Speaker 4:Yeah, does our guests have tattoos.
Speaker 1:No, I'm interested.
Speaker 4:We'll have to ask our guests that you guys all have tattoos.
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 1:I don't have any.
Speaker 3:No, none at all.
Speaker 1:None zero. I have a scar. I don't have a tattoo.
Speaker 3:That goes the biker thing.
Speaker 1:I know right, see out the window.
Speaker 4:I'm the most hardcore one in this group know right see out the window. I'm the most hardcore one in this group. How many do you have? I have three. Oh yeah, I only have two.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, there you go. We thought she would be the classy one again, I don't know why you guys thought that it's been longer than five minutes with me and
Speaker 4:yeah, had us fooled my entire persona is alive she's catfishing constantly all right well, our esteemed guest today, I believe, is known by both of you they don't consider themselves to be a real estate agent, but rather an entrepreneur who happens to sell real estate. I've heard.
Speaker 3:Heard that by a lot of people.
Speaker 4:They are of course musically gifted, because that is my theme it is the trend, it is my trend.
Speaker 3:Do you ask this of your guests before you bring them on? Like, hey, do you play an instrument?
Speaker 1:She's turned on several people because they didn't.
Speaker 3:They're like no, I don't.
Speaker 4:Sorry. I'm not going to make it. I think I just kind of like these are the people that come into my orbit for whatever reason, but this person does have several musical projects in the works, and they just might be Tom Ferry's best friend. What so, without further ado, please help me welcome Kenny Maurer.
Speaker 3:Yay, kenny, hello, what up, what up guys.
Speaker 2:Tom Ferry's best friend.
Speaker 4:I didn't put that in the bio you did not put that in the bio but very possibly Tom Perry's best friend.
Speaker 2:That was true yesterday he was in Seattle for the roadmap thing and we were best friends yesterday that's good.
Speaker 1:Kenan's one of my favorite people. Ray, you're one of my favorite people.
Speaker 2:Ray, you're one of my favorite people. People, man.
Speaker 1:Best thing is. What are you talking about? Get it.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:One of the things I love is the entrepreneurial spirit of O'Kinnon. How many, how many coffee shops you got.
Speaker 3:Just opened number three last week. That's so awesome. It is amazing. Yeah, the place is Just opened number three last week, that's so awesome.
Speaker 4:It is amazing. Yeah, the place is absolutely stunning. It has this huge screen right in the middle that has all these different waterfall scenes and beach scenes. Oh, that's cool. It's like two stories high, I think, that screen, and then it just has a really cool vibe throughout it. Super classy Unlike me, really put together.
Speaker 1:There are no tattoos on the coffee.
Speaker 4:Coffee's really good and they do drinks at night, which I haven't gone there yet for the happy hours. But that will be happening.
Speaker 1:Oh, you got a liquor license in there.
Speaker 2:I did get a liquor license, wow.
Speaker 1:That's hard in Arkansas to get.
Speaker 2:Really. We're only doing beer and wine at this station right now because a full-on license is super hard to get. But if you're just doing beer and wine. Apparently they don't really cut that.
Speaker 4:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Do you know when the referee is telling the call. Yeah, personal foul, that's what you sound like. You guys can just ask me questions and I'll just put them in the call. Personal foul, that's what you sound like.
Speaker 2:You guys can just ask me questions and I'll just put them in the chat.
Speaker 3:That works wonders on a podcast.
Speaker 1:That's going to be a great podcast.
Speaker 4:And then one of us will take turns reading it in our best. Kenan voice.
Speaker 3:I should just read the show notes for all of Kenan's answers.
Speaker 4:Go to 11 Labs and copy his voice, and then we could do that this entire day of recording, from scheduling to right now, has been filled with errors. I mean, it's not been that bad well, so ray's traveling doesn't let us know that he's traveling, then apparently all his flights get delayed by two hours of just sitting on the tarmac. Then we're like ooh, we got to reschedule everybody.
Speaker 2:Wait, why do you always have flight issues?
Speaker 1:I don't know, man, and the weather was gorgeous, like there was no. They didn't say we're delayed because of weather. They're like we're just delayed, everyone's like. Why?
Speaker 3:Because they said we can't take off yet they were trying to bolt that part back on the plane before they let you take off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for real, maybe Tim Macy's friend was running around on the tarmac.
Speaker 4:I was about to say there was a guy on mushrooms who was just running wild out there he may or may not have been Tim speaking of mushrooms, kenan uh transition.
Speaker 1:You know there's actually uh, so I uh. Someone reached out to me yeah, because they saw that I like coffee, and they're like you have to try this because it's a replacement for coffee oh, this isn't that mud water stuff. It's, no, it's mushrooms, and I was wondering, kenan, as a coffee connoisseur, is this something that y'all looked into to be like? What is this mushroom hype about?
Speaker 3:The mud, water stuff that's kind of like that oh, I tried it, I've seen it, can't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I tried. I tried mud water, yeah, which I think is the same thing. I think that's just like a you know brand name of mushroom coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought it was disgusting so me too, right there with you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely horrible and I, you know, I feel like I'd really be doing a disservice to my customers to allow that into our coffee shops.
Speaker 3:So that's great I agree 100 muddy water is essentially it's literally called mud water because it looks like you went outside and picked up a mud puddle and drink it. Tiktok got me on that with the videos they're like oh, it's so much better for you. Coffee is just bad for you, and I've been. You know I was in the military, I was in the Navy and you can't function. You know port and starboard ships 12 on, 12 off four days. You know port and starboard shifts 12 on, 12 off four days.
Speaker 1:You can't do that without some kind of caffeine assistance Definitely can't do that on shrimps.
Speaker 3:Back in the early nineties, like there was no Red Bull, it was just coffee. So you drank lots of black coffee. So coffee has been a big part of my life for many, many, many years. But I was like, okay, well, maybe there's some truth behind how bad coffee is for you. So I was like I'm getting older, I want to live longer, I want to be healthier. Maybe I should try it. Absolutely fucking disgusting. I would never drink that shit again. It was horrible. I threw it away right after the first garbage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, find me coffee but right, have you tried this stuff?
Speaker 1:Honestly, I'm totally scared to. I'm all about being a tasty trier. That's what we say in my family, but I love black coffee and it worries me to be like I'm just going to start my day with a mix of shiitake and turkey tail and king trumpet and reishi and lion's mane and cata seps.
Speaker 3:I'll eat them. If you cook those mushrooms up, saute them in a little butter, I'm down.
Speaker 2:Put them in a cup and make me drink it.
Speaker 4:It was horrible. Rick's review didn't convince you to go out and try that amazing drink. Mudwater is supposedly different from the mushroom.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try it because they sent me a thing. They're like. We'd love your feedback on this.
Speaker 3:Bring some to Rise, and we'll all try it together.
Speaker 4:Wait, how can I get on the list to try foods, try random things?
Speaker 1:You just got to have a following on Instagram. I'm an influencer, I don't know if you know that I mean I have a following.
Speaker 3:Once you're an influencer, then, yeah, you can do that. So tell us about this coffee thing. I'm a coffee nerd, so I'm super excited to have you on and learn more about this coffee journey that you've been on.
Speaker 2:How did this all start? Yeah, for sure, it started because of my wife. Really. She was a barista. That was her first job Started. She really enjoyed it, loved it, worked her way up, you know, began managing shops. At one point she was running a couple different shops and the next kind of step, I guess, to get higher, you know, in the industry would be to own your own coffee shop, and so that was kind of an idea for us, you know, starting like 2019. We were like it'd be kind of cool to, you know, have a coffee shop someday in like 10 years, 15 years, something like that.
Speaker 2:And then 2020 rolls around and this coffee shop in our town that had started in summer of 2019 was, I mean, covid hit them and they were just like, okay, we're going under and we're going under really fast. So they just wanted to get out of there. And they knew I was. I was friends with the owner's husband and he knew that I was kind of interested in, you know, eventually getting a coffee shop. And so they reached out to me and they were like hey, I know you guys are interested in having a coffee shop. Do you want ours? And I was like, well, not really, because not now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I was like not really, because.
Speaker 2:And that's number one. Number two I'm kind of just a kid, I don't really know what I'm doing. And uh, number three, this was kind of like a 10-year goal for me, and then they told me the number that they were trying to get and, um, they were basically giving away their entire coffee shop and all the inventory and all the equipment and everything so just too good to pass up, and it was way too good to pass up, plus the landlords.
Speaker 2:Um, we were, we started talking with the landlords and they were like, hey, we'll give you guys free rent for an entire year. Um, and I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll do it and fast forward. That was two and a half years ago and now we have three locations.
Speaker 3:So don't go too fast. So you buy a coffee shop in the middle of COVID. It's failing, it's already failed. How did you go? Because, I mean again still, yes, your wife's a barista, she's got a little bit of experience, but you don't know anything about the coffee business, right, other than you enjoy drinking it. So how do you get from there to it being successful enough, where you're like, hey, I like this, we should open two, three more of these guys, was November of 2020 when we actually bought the place and do you guys?
Speaker 2:remember what November of 2020 was like.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it was the same for you guys, but for for us in Washington everybody was inside their houses.
Speaker 2:Everybody was like scared to go outside, you know, just like nobody talked to each other. It was just kind of a ghost town felt like a ghost town, like inside the city yeah, I live in.
Speaker 1:Florida. We didn't have COVID in florida, so that's true, and I don't know if they had it in arkansas either. So I'm just two weeks. We had two week break and then everyone's like all right, that's what it was like covid, apparently like started in washington, so that's where, like, the breakout started really
Speaker 3:in everett at a nursing home oh, so I was gonna say maybe it was at the coffee shop maybe that's why they're running.
Speaker 1:That's why they sold it, because they found out they were patient zero, they didn't want words to get out.
Speaker 2:We're breaking so many news stories on this podcast every episode anyways, um, we, I, I remember like buying the coffee shop closing on the sale and like I was super excited, right, like looking around the new shop. I'm like man, like I own this place, like that's so cool. Um, and then we went outside and we're like, oh snap, there's like there's no people like anywhere. The thing that like kind of went through my head is like I didn't really feel like people wanted to be inside their houses all the time, and so I was like I was talking to my wife, and so I was like I was talking to my wife, kenzie, and I was like Kenzie, you know what? Like you know what the mission of our coffee shop should be? It should be to create community. Like where they're like it genuinely feels like there is no community anywhere right now, everybody's just like like afraid to come in contact with another human being. It was crazy and um, so I was like, uh, let's make the, let's make the mission statement to be create community. And from that we built out like, okay, well, what does that actually look like? And we got to the point where it was like our mission was to become the living room of thurston county and beyond, and so we started building out, like, like core values around that and like, what does that actually look like? And all of this stuff.
Speaker 2:And, um, fast forward to march, so that was november. Fast forward to march. We open up or we start doing all this marketing about. Like you know, we feel like a coffee shop should be like a living room of the community and like, uh, we expect our coffee shop to be, um, a place where, uh, not only do we serve great, great coffee, great food, but, uh, this is a place where you can come and share your gifts, whatever your gifts are, whether that's, you know, building new relationships, connecting with you know, potential job opportunities, sharing music, sharing art, whatever it is, this is the space to do it. Day one, we literally had a line out the door down the sidewalk almost to the street and, um, and it's just that was, you know, kind of been history ever since. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 4:Was this your first time owning a business, or had you guys like, had little small businesses before this?
Speaker 2:So let me take you back to when I was six years old. In my elementary school, starting in kindergarten, they give you a packet. They get every every fall at the beginning of the year. There's a school fundraiser right, and usually we were selling cookie dough. And who you know? Whoever sells the most cookie cookie dough gets a big prize. Um, but, like for you know, you get a certain prize at five boxes, ten boxes, you know, whatever I just kind of I really like to win.
Speaker 2:I've always been somebody who's like very competitive and so, uh, I remember like coming home and being like mom, like will you buy a box of cookies? And she's like, of course, yeah, I'll buy it. And I was like, do you think like grandma and grandpa would buy a box? And like maybe I could go to dad's work and like I could tell everybody about, like the different cookies that we have, and like I could maybe get them to like tell their families and like maybe I'll make like a little like paper explaining like here's the different flavors that we have, and I can make like multiple copies of that to give to like dad's co-workers so that they can go and give it to like other people.
Speaker 2:I was six when I did that. Every year from kindergarten through sixth grade, I won the fundraising contest every single year. It was like I swept the competition every single time. And that's when I began like I would door knock for cookie sales. I mean, I knew the whole neighborhood, everybody was, you know, they kind of expected me the whole neighborhood, everybody was, you know, they kind of expected me to to come to their door around, you know, beginning of October every year. Yeah, I kind of became the like neighborhood entrepreneur. So every summer, every summer, I would have a lemonade stand at the front of the of the from the street. And, um, one summer, uh neighbor kid who I used to play with all the time max was his name he wanted to do a lemonade stand and I was like dude, I'll build the lemonade stand for you.
Speaker 2:Split the, split the money with me 50, 50. So you gotta I. I told him you gotta stay in your cul-de-sac, though, like I get the mainstream, it's carving out territory you gotta stay in your cul-de-sac.
Speaker 1:Though, like I get the mainstream, it's carving out territory, you're gonna stay in your cul-de-sac yeah and um.
Speaker 2:You know that this was like elementary school canon. You know um it's phenomenal a hustler from the beginning right and like middle school comes around and I'm like, all right, like I'm not doing the cookie, cookie dough fundraisers anymore. Lemonade's not really cutting it like I kind of want to make, like you know, at least a hundred bucks every summer the roi and lemonade yeah, yeah, lemonade, just not gonna cut it.
Speaker 1:I need this anymore.
Speaker 2:So I I went door to door and I started, um, you know, letting people know, hey, I can cut your grass, I can walk your dog, I, I can uh pull your weeds, whatever you need me to do. And uh, that first summer I think I got like six, six, uh, you know, clients for for lawn care.
Speaker 2:That was when I was like 12 or 13. Uh, then I asked my parents. I was like, hey, would it be okay to like post online that I mow, mow grass and pull weeds? And my parents were like, yeah, sure, because, like they didn't think I was going to get anything. Well, it turns out that, like, a lot of people think it's super cool when, like a young kid wants to make money and like mow grass.
Speaker 2:So a bunch of people started hiring me to come mow their mow their grass. Well, only problem was like my parents had to drive me to all these jobs and it was like, you know, kind of weird, but uh, you know, they were very supportive of that endeavor, um, and I did that for like three years and then I ended up getting my own you know car and everything and I I actually had like a pretty decent I had a licensed um landscaping business when I was 16.
Speaker 2:So, wow, it's so awesome it was nice company because I wasn't allowed to like you. Legally can't have a company until you're like 18, but yeah rocked that for like three, three-ish years do you have any brothers or sisters? I have five, yeah five siblings.
Speaker 1:I'm the youngest so you're one of six? Yeah, you're the youngest. You said the youngest of six. Yeah, what were they thinking about, all this enterprising kid? Did you have other brothers and sisters that kind of did stuff like this too? Or was this all like?
Speaker 2:well, the whole reason that I even wanted to, to do all of this stuff I'm I'm the youngest right and so, like all of my siblings, you know, they get it. They get to do whatever they want, right? They get to go, like you know, my one of my older sisters bought a car and I was like I want a car, I'm 12 years old, but I want a freaking car. You know, my, my sister got to go to the movies. Uh, my brother got to go to football games. Like, like, I can't do any of that because, well, number one, I'm like 12 years old, but number two, I don't do any of that because, well, number one, I'm like 12 years old, but, number two, I don't have any money and I wanted to make money. Like they didn't have, like that. They were all kind of the same age. One thing about me I'm adopted, so like my parents had four biological kids and the difference in age between me and my oldest brother is 20 years, so like you know, a big age gap.
Speaker 2:And then my parents adopted my sister from China. She's three years older than me, and then they adopted me. So it's kind of me and my sister from China for a little while, but even she was older than me and I saw her making all this money and I was like I kind of want to make money somehow. But I couldn't just get a job. So I just kind of had to figure it out. That's cool yeah.
Speaker 4:I love that they all supported you in this endeavor, like from being a kid and so being like ah no, you shouldn't do something like that. Or oh no, don't worry about it. Because I feel like that happens a lot and that just like really extinguishes everything.
Speaker 2:So let me remind you, I'm the youngest of six kids. You're the baby. You know. My parents have been parents for like 25 years like if like like hey, mom, can I like I'm literally six years old. I'd be like hey, mom, can I go like knock on people's doors? Oh yeah, sure, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please get out of the house Anything you want to do.
Speaker 3:That last kid thing, it's funny because, my older brother is like mom would have never let me do that ever.
Speaker 2:He's the first kid.
Speaker 3:You learn as the kids come around. You learn that those little things are not going to like kill them. It's like, yeah, they'll be fine, sure Go, yeah, knock yourself out, right yeah?
Speaker 1:The first. The first baby comes and you drop the pacifier. So you wash it, sanitize it, get it really hot water, Then you give it back to the baby. The second one, you rinse it off, give it back to the baby.
Speaker 2:The third one.
Speaker 1:You, just like I, was six deep y'all they're more they're more durable than you ever imagined yeah
Speaker 3:yeah, the durability of kids, right. Yeah, yeah, six deep.
Speaker 1:You were kind of just doing your thing, so have you always done like worked for yourself, or was there a time where you took a job for a while? So when?
Speaker 2:I was 16. This is so just random, but when I was 16 um I I got a job as a gymnastics coach for toddlers did you know?
Speaker 3:gymnastics for toddlers okay, just making them flip how did you partly landscaping and lemonade into gymnastics coach?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was the only job that I knew of that was hiring. A bunch of my friends worked there, and so I was like that sounds pretty cool. I was there for about two months and uh, then I've never worked for somebody ever since real quick around the room.
Speaker 3:What's the? What's the shortest period of time you guys ever held a job?
Speaker 4:shortest period of time I've ever held a job. I think it was like maybe in like two or three months at Panera Bread and I got tired of not getting paid. So as soon as I got my check I was like bye. And I just no call, no showed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably around six months, a couple of times, a couple of different places, but always kind of I would do a side hustle right. So I know I remember when I first started real estate my side hustle was a bartender slash, you know, server on the weekends, cause I can make bank in cash, and then during the day and during the week I was a real estate agent. So just to that's kind of how I looked at it, but it was never for a long period of time, I think in high school I worked at a. I worked at a lumber yard and I was a pretty big kid my senior year of high school. So I would, they would like. Anytime there was anything heavy. They'd be like Ray, can you come to the front please? I'd be like, oh gosh. And so I'd help this little old lady carry her mower out to her car, just put it on my back and walk out. I had to.
Speaker 1:I had to sweep the entire warehouse one day and that was supposed to be punishment, but I loved it because I was out there alone in this gigantic warehouse, just like sweeping. It was so therapeutic, I loved it. And the guy comes in, like at closing time. He was like, oh, you were supposed to go like 30 minutes ago. I was like, well, I'm finished. He was looking around. He was like this has never been this clean, and that's when I realized like I shouldn't, I'm not. This is not right for me, because I was like there's some stuff over there that needs to be cleaned.
Speaker 3:There's some stuff over there that needs to be cleaned, so I websites for people.
Speaker 1:I had a job where I was creating websites for people when I was like 15. And so I just kind of started doing that again, working for myself, and I was in work study. Have y'all done work study in high school? Work study meant you get to get out of school to go work, to have a job, and then you would like give them reports like here's what I'm learning at my job. Well, it wasn't a big deal when I was at the lumberyard, but when I was working for myself and had my own company, I filled out my own like thing that the boss normally did. I filled out that part too. It's like here's everything Ray's learning, blah, blah, blah, and signed it, Ray, and turned it in. I'll never forget.
Speaker 1:I got called to the principal's office and the principal's office and the principal was like you can't. I knew the principals like I was the. I was the kid that would like just leave class and the principal would see me. I was like hey, mr Spadoni, and he'd say hey, ray, what you doing? I was like just going to the restroom. He's like okay, cool, see you later. And my friends would like try to sneak around the. The principal was like you can't do that. I was like, why not? I work for myself? This is my evaluation. This is what I did, and he said we need to talk to your parents. So he talked to my dad and my dad was like no, he's actually working for himself. This is his, his deal, and he's building websites for these companies around the city. And so they said, okay, here's what we want client testimonials. You have to turn in a client testimonial a week so that we know you're actually working.
Speaker 3:And so that was the extent of me working for someone else. Google is like verifying all of your reviews online to make sure that it weren't written by you.
Speaker 4:This is when Ray learned how to ask for reviews Very early age.
Speaker 1:I need to play testimonial so that my principal knows that I'm working for you right now.
Speaker 3:I worked one shift in the drive-thru line at a fast food place in high school and halfway through the shift I was like yeah, no, this is not it and I quit, went home. That's the shortest time I ever had a job that's's funny.
Speaker 1:It's all in our blood, I guess.
Speaker 3:Does it not work for other people? Couldn't stand it. I hated it.
Speaker 1:Military is fine. Well, I guess, yeah, you worked for the country you worked for all of us.
Speaker 3:You held that job down, you did okay, there, it's pretty easy to hold that one down. Don't die and don't go awol. Anyways, back to our our guest and the. Uh, yeah, that was random.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry which is the name of the show yeah, real random so when did you become a realtor.
Speaker 2:It was just before my 20th birthday.
Speaker 1:Oh, young guy, young guy with a realtor and you're 24, right yeah. How would anyone ever trust such a young guy with a large investment? How did you overcome that objection?
Speaker 2:With real estate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is something I hear a lot. So our team gets approached by young people and they're like I want to get my real estate license. They're just out of college and you know they're in their early twenties and they're like I don't, how would, why would somebody trust me to sell their house.
Speaker 2:I've never bought a house. They won't trust you to sell your house or to sell their house. I had to. I had to gain some credibility and so, the way that I did that, I put other businesses in the spotlight and leveraged that to build my own brand. So I started. I live in an area called Thurston County. I started a web series called this is Thurston Actually, ray. This was very much inspired by you. I don't know if you even know this Sweet Home, arkansas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Dude, total inspiration for this is Thurston. I watched those videos and I was like I want to do like what that guy does, that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4:And so I did that.
Speaker 2:So I was, you know, doing these videos where I go to you know the different restaurants in town and and different local businesses in town just saying, hey, I'm Ken and my local real estate agent here in Olympia, I'm here with so and so from whatever restaurant, and then the whole video is all about that restaurant. And then I was promoting that on Facebook and Instagram and my name was getting out there and I was becoming known as this not necessarily this kid, but this guy who does these really cool videos for business owners in town and he also happens to be a real estate agent. And then from that I was actually able to gain some credibility and gain trust and that's kind of where I started.
Speaker 1:That's cool. So while perception was you may lack authority in how a real estate transaction goes, While that was the perception, you instead flipped it to show your authority on the area Exactly. I'm glad you took something from those videos. That was way back in the day. So, what is Sweet?
Speaker 4:Home, arkansas. I've never heard of this.
Speaker 1:So actually it's called Home Sweet Arkansas, but that's fine.
Speaker 2:Sweet.
Speaker 1:Home Alabama is the song and that's where it's from.
Speaker 1:Close enough, yeah, close enough. So I did this series I guess it was 2017, 2018. And we didn't actually keep it going because we started discovering stuff that I'm sure Ken and may have already discovered too. But it was a really good to launch and really good to get our name out there. But it's very costly to continue, so it was kind of a tougher thing to keep going with, but it was worth it because of how it started to put us in the in the limelight here locally, and now we basically are doing the same thing, which is with our cell phones, with a reel. So it's much shorter now. It's a kind of a different play. But are you, are you still doing?
Speaker 2:it. No, not the way that I used to.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was like production, you know before yeah that's what you know full. Yeah, we had a camera guy or two lighting guy. Yeah, it was a whole thing. Do you feel like someone could come in and do that and it be as worth it as it was back then? Or do you think that there's now so much content? Markets changed.
Speaker 2:I totally think you could still do that. The key there is you're leveraging another person's. I mean, these businesses already have established themselves in this area and you're trying to establish yourself. Well, just leverage their platform that they've already built. So, I mean that's kind of the whole point of the plan. I think it's totally doable still today as it was.
Speaker 3:This is just the old Gary Vee digital mirror thing, right, essentially.
Speaker 1:About the same time Gary Vee was talking about it, we were trying it. I think I even made a comment back in 2017 at Tom Ferry that in the future we won't be real estate agents, we will be marketers.
Speaker 4:you- know marketers, Influencers, yeah influencers.
Speaker 1:Well, I think at the time I said marketers that happen to be real estate agents, which is kind of what you know. Kenan said an entrepreneur that happens to be a real estate agent. That's kind of what we were starting to point towards as the future.
Speaker 3:One I think you know a lot of people have said that you know that might not be the best way to go about it, because we do need to be professional realtors, but I still think like we, in this market or this day and age of real estate, we do so much more on the marketing end than they used to in the past where you really have to know more about marketing. You still have to know your contracts, you still have to know your real estate, but you really have to understand marketing unless you're going to be part of one of these big teams where they do it for you One thing around that is, I tried doing the educational content when I first got into real estate and it just didn't go anywhere because there's no audience.
Speaker 2:There's not a tight enough audience for it. And I think you know, even in today's, like current marketing, you have to be hyper local to really like get anywhere. You know all these people that have like YouTube channels but they only say like here's, you know the five things you need to know as a home buyer, versus like here's the top five things when moving to olympia, washington. Like the people that are doing just educational content about real estate specifically. I mean it's, it's just not hitting any real market, you know no yeah, it's boring, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, you know you, you might need the information, but you don't want it. Just like people might need a mortgage, they don't want a mortgage.
Speaker 1:You only need it when you're searching for it. I think there is a time. I think if you have a library of that stuff like this is what escrow is, and this is how the process works and it's most useful when it's in context, when a person needs it, right then. So having it to be able to send to someone to say, hey, you know you were asking this question the other day. I actually answered it on video, you know. Here's a video of me doing that. I think that's extremely useful.
Speaker 1:But I think there's also more than one part to real estate that someone can specialize in. Like if you're a brand new agent moving into an area, well, you don't have a sphere, so you can't just like dive into your sphere very easy easily. You don't have, you know, you don't, maybe you don't know all of the agents in town, so you're not really networking. That way. You don't have this huge, vast amount of knowledge about how real estate is done in the area. But what you can share is what you wish you would have known before moving there, and that kind of stuff is what people key in on because it's relatable and they know.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's what I'm looking for, is what this real estate agent says they should have known before they moved here. That's valuable and so making the content that's most relatable to your current situation will display your current expertise and I think that's where you can get authority from play your current expertise and I think that's where you can get authority from Kenan. Talking to business owners in the area, kenan is someone who understands owning operating a business from six years old. So that experience of him buying and selling marketing, being out there on his own benefited him in the first shot he made in real estate because he was able to relate with people that do that where some people may not have that same relational aspect to a business owner.
Speaker 4:Do you feel like your experience with business and entrepreneurship that that helped you have better conversations with those business owners and have better relationship with them?
Speaker 2:Not really to be honest.
Speaker 1:What did you say? I said oh, never mind then it's like everything you said was trash I think it's just like.
Speaker 2:I think I was so, like you know, naive and, like you know, young. I didn't know anything else that I'm just. You know, I walk into a business and hey, can I talk to the owner? And just like talk to them, see, see what's up? It wasn't like like if I did that now I would be like, oh my gosh, like it's the owner of this, like company and, like you know, like that's crazy, I don't know for me it was just like I just want to talk to these people because you know I go into their coffee shop or whatever, and I just want to talk to them.
Speaker 2:There really wasn't much strategy behind it, it was just a conversation. Hey how did you start this place, what made you want to start it? And then they would say something that I could relate to, and then we would maybe, you know, talk about that, you know, or something.
Speaker 3:So I did the same thing when I moved here to my town. There was I knew nobody, nothing new agent. It wasn't a big move, it was just counting over. But I went out and interviewed the person I own the coffee shop, you know, talk to the mayor, did all that stuff, but there was nobody here doing any kind of video on social or YouTube when it was growing very quickly in the neighborhood where I live. And when I got here I couldn't find where to take my dogs to the groomer. I didn't know where to go get a haircut. There was nothing online, no resources.
Speaker 3:For people who hadn't lived there for 50 years Right, everyone knew where to go because they'd lived here for generations. But for the new people like me, there was nothing. So I created a Facebook group and then I started doing videos on social and just sharing, like Ray said, I've just shared my experience of like hey, I just moved here and I've met this really great guy who owns a groomers or this guy does lawn service, this guy washes my car, does lawn service, this guy washes my car and it kind of took off. So now, six, almost seven years later, kind of like our previous guest, now that I've gotten to a certain level. Now we're going to pack up the family and possibly move to a different state and try and start all over again.
Speaker 4:Wait, you guys are thinking about moving.
Speaker 3:More breaking news yeah, next week we fly out to go do a little bit of house shopping and making sure that we want to go, and then we'll pull the trigger.
Speaker 2:Are we?
Speaker 4:allowed to ask where. Yeah, denver, oh, that's fun, very different from Florida.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I want mountains and seasons and more stuff.
Speaker 4:Oh, I don't know anything about that desire we have beaches, and that's all we have here.
Speaker 3:We don't even have a good coffee shop, so you know.
Speaker 2:If you ever want to move to Washington, we have all of that stuff.
Speaker 3:I'm definitely going to come out there and check it out, because I've been watching it online. Your place looks amazing.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That new shop is like.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, what's funny is so last week we were in New York for an early 50th birthday present. My wife took me to New York City and we went to the Starbucks Reserve, which is like three stories and they have multiple bars and all kinds of, and I was like kidding a candy store, I mean it was amazing. But, your place like it's not as packed with with stuff as theirs is, but it's not far off, man, that place looks really really nice yeah.
Speaker 1:It's really nice.
Speaker 2:I mean it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Did y'all redesign all that stuff, or did you take it over?
Speaker 2:We designed the entire thing, so that was. That was our first like from the ground up. So the other two that, um, that we bought were existing coffee shops. This space was an old bank and, um, uh, I saw that yeah. And so we came in and and built that from the ground up, and it was like I almost died during that process. Man, that was so hard, I didn't know what I was doing. I mean like, Would, you do it again. Extremely challenging, but we pulled it off.
Speaker 3:so Would you do it all again now that you've done it? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Not that big, not that big.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't go, so Now you have a flagship.
Speaker 1:Would you call that your flagship store or your first store? Your flagship store, the first one's?
Speaker 2:our flagship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one's got a special vibe too.
Speaker 3:So the next one's not going to be bigger than this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a whole never say never, but no, that's a whole thing that we a whole.
Speaker 2:It's like never, say never, but no, hey, listen, that's like a whole thing that like we're talking about right now, like with, with, like our leadership team and stuff. We're like, okay, we kind of outdid ourselves with this Tacoma location and we kind of outdid ourselves with the last location too. We're kind of out of ideas and so like if we do another like launch, people are going to expect something crazy. Because, like the last two have been like all three were kind of crazy. I mean, the first one was in the middle of covid, like people thought we were nuts, um, and then we opened another that was like super cool, it has like a tree house and like that's cool. And then the third one is just like this huge location and like you, you know, punches you in the face with, like you know, coolness. I don't know if I can do a fourth one man.
Speaker 4:You can do a fourth one, but have a virtual reality space.
Speaker 2:Maybe as soon as you walk in.
Speaker 4:You put on a virtual reality goggles.
Speaker 2:My idea with the coffee thing is to start a whole different business, call it something else and then, uh, franchise it. So that's, that's probably more realistic to happen than a fourth ebony and ivory so I've wanted a coffee shop for years now.
Speaker 3:I've driven my wife nuts with looking at spaces where we could open up a coffee shop because it's my favorite office. Like I love just going and sitting at a really cool coffee shop Hot, fresh coffee all the time, right, Probably some really good pastries, Plenty of people to talk to. If you run out, if you made all your calls for the day hey, what's going on man.
Speaker 2:How you doing.
Speaker 3:Meet some new people and meet some new people and I could just go hang out at a coffee shop all day and I was like I should just own a coffee shop and then I could work there like own it. I wouldn't make the coffee but just go hang out at my own coffee shop.
Speaker 2:Right that kind of reminds me of somebody actually myself.
Speaker 3:And then you say franchise, and I'm like hmm, yeah, are you going to?
Speaker 4:open one of Kennan's franchises in Denver, Colorado.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I could be the first franchisee in Denver.
Speaker 2:Dude. So you know what the craziest thing about the coffee shop is? It's like it's a lead generator for the real estate business. So I'm kind of like it was way easier for me to build like a brand in coffee than it was in real estate because you have, like there's so many more people that will buy a coffee from you than will buy a house from you. Yeah, um, we serve like almost 400 people every single day, uh, and we have a loyalty system set up at the coffee shop.
Speaker 2:So, you know, for every 10 drinks you buy or every 10 orders that you make, you get like $5 off, something like that, and in order to get logged into that you have to give us your name, your phone number, your email. Well, I'm like the face of the coffee shop. So, if you like, look at our Instagram posts or Facebook or whatever marketing like, you're going to see my face, a lot and me and my personality and everything. So I, you know, and people recognize that, like when I come into these coffee shops, people are like oh, that's like the guy you know.
Speaker 4:And so.
Speaker 2:I take, I took that loyalty audience and I I utilize them as a custom audience on on Facebook and now I'm retargeting all of my real estate content to hit those people so that they make the connection between oh, that's the guy that owns a coffee shop, oh, he sells real estate too, and this year alone I've sold eight houses from coffee shop customers.
Speaker 4:And this is.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is the first year I've really even explored this strategy. So you know, I think you know, if I tweak that a little bit, my goal is to be able to build an entire team off of the leads that I get, or have the leads from the coffee shop feed an entire real estate team.
Speaker 4:So so we mentioned music before I haven't heard you tell us about your journey. Did you guys know that Kenan was musical.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. Well, I have a music-related question first, real quick. Okay, did you have to get any kind of license in to use the ebony and ivory? I saw the slogan even says live together in perfect harmony. I mean that's, it's right out of mj and paul mccartney. I mean, you know?
Speaker 2:it is yeah. So I asked an attorney about that and he said um, you really don't. You really don't, because it's um, like ebony and ivory coffee, like by itself. Um, so our slogan is actually like it's, it's not really together in perfect harmony, that's just like. It's just like a thing I mean that that was like not totally intentional, but also like a little bit and but um, I asked an attorney about it and he was like you can use the name ebony and ivory.
Speaker 2:He's like my wife is white and so like ebony and Ivory Coffee. Honestly, nobody ever thinks of the song. They never do. They're like, oh, Ebony and Ivory, Like you must be Ebony and she must be Ivory.
Speaker 3:It's just the old guys like me that remember the song. I mean, mj is not going to come harassing for it, and I'm pretty sure Paul's got plenty of money, so I think you're probably safe.
Speaker 4:Is he still alive?
Speaker 1:Paul, you money, so I think you're probably safe.
Speaker 4:Yeah is he still alive, paul? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, putting out albums? Oh yeah, clearly I'm not his target audience ouch.
Speaker 1:So what do you play, kenan?
Speaker 2:I mean I can. I can play a lot of things, but mostly I'm a I'm more known to be a piano player. Yeah, I've kind of played piano my whole life, since I was like two years old.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what I do.
Speaker 1:Was it always something that you wanted to do, or is that something that your parents were like, hey, you're going to play piano.
Speaker 2:No, that was totally me. My grandparents had this piano at their house and every time we would go over there I was just like drawn to it and I would. We would go over there, I was just like drawn to it and I would just like go like kind of plink around on it and my parents were like, oh, you're kind of like, you know, he kind of has like a little bit of rhythm and like there's kind of like something there. They didn't really. They didn't really care if I wanted to like actually do piano or not. It was just kind of, you know, it's what I always felt like doing. Um, so I was kind of like, uh, self-taught most of my life and then in like fifth grade, fifth or sixth grade, my parents uh put me into lessons and I hated it the worst.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I, I got out of lessons, and then I just learned everything else from YouTube and Wow really Worked out pretty well, nice yeah.
Speaker 1:They didn't say where. You're just going to have to go anyway.
Speaker 2:My parents aren't like that, not for the baby anyway.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not for the baby, For your brother. Your brother would have to play his fingers to the bone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fun. So what else do you play? You said you play a lot of things. You play piano. What else?
Speaker 2:So the first paid gig that I ever had. You guys should guess what instrument it was Accordion.
Speaker 4:The oboe.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Violin no, it was trumpet.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:I was in a band called.
Speaker 1:That's interesting to go from piano to brass oh wait, ray, you got a band name.
Speaker 3:You might do some research. Yeah, what's the band name?
Speaker 2:the gray wharf g-r-e-y. Gray, g-r-e-y wharf, w-h-a-r-f. We have an E on Apple Music and I am the trumpet player for that band.
Speaker 4:Now, is that still going? Oh no.
Speaker 3:They haven't put anything else?
Speaker 2:Let's see, that was when I was 14, 15. And then, when I was, you were busy as a teenager.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kenan was like doing all the things, so of course his parents didn't have to tell him oh, you need to practice, you have to go to lessons. Cause he's already out there doing all the businesses he's occupied.
Speaker 3:He's a teenage Renaissance man for real.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:I've always been a you know busy guy. I guess Yep always been a you know busy guy I guess.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's us dude, that is us valley of the wolves.
Speaker 3:It is not here Like this this is good and love has called us.
Speaker 1:Is there a song that is a trumpet feature?
Speaker 2:There's a trumpet line In that song and Actually I think all of those songs have trumpet in them Good trumpet. There's four.
Speaker 4:A line. Let me see A little bit, maybe like in the chorus, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it's either right before the chorus or right after the chorus. I'm going to see if I can guess about where that goes.
Speaker 3:We'll hold on to hope once again about where that goes. No, not there. Well, here it comes.
Speaker 4:Look, the chorus is coming. I like the beat, I like the verse.
Speaker 1:Okay, not the verse. Okay, let's see what happens. Skip to a little bit Rich Rich.
Speaker 4:Kenan's like come girl, for it is kind, it licks my soul and haunts my mind.
Speaker 2:Standing tall, see the light.
Speaker 1:This place will leave my mind. All right, we'll find it, we'll have to find it it's.
Speaker 2:It's okay. You really don't have to listen to it. I like the music. It's good, good, yeah, you're being like 14 in this. This is great man oh, I was the youngest person in that band how old was everybody else? They were, uh, I was in eighth grade and everybody else was in high school.
Speaker 4:Okay, but still, like you guys are teenagers, that was really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we won like a. We won like a 21 and under like music competition with that band. We were like our whole goal was to open for Mumford and Sons Cause. That was like really popular.
Speaker 4:That's very much in the vibe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whole goal was to open for Mumford and Sons because that was like really popular that's very much in the vibe yeah and then, yeah, then everybody went to college and you all got lives yeah you know, it's so funny that when, when we were interviewing these guests and you start hearing their backstory and like their growing, their upbringing and the things that they've been successful at all the way through, is it any surprise that they continue their success in real estate and all these other endeavors? I mean, it's like they're just destined to succeed at everything they do.
Speaker 1:Well. I mean he's only got three followers on Spotify.
Speaker 4:So let's call it, that's true.
Speaker 3:But the podcast hasn't been released yet. Wait, there's going to be a resurgence. Once the broadcast drops, there's more tracks than followers currently.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's how our podcast is going to be. There's a few other bands that I've recently been like co-writing for that's cool. I have a lot more followers, so like you should check out Winehouse, winehouse.
Speaker 3:See, he's doing the same thing, not Amy Winehouse. He's writing for someone who has more followers to get more. He's just doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:What's the name of one of your songs? Because Winehouse is hard to Google. I mean it's easy to Google, but it's hard to find a band named Winehouse because of Amy. Type in Winehouse is hard to Google. I mean it's easy to Google, but it's hard to find a band named Winehouse because of Amy.
Speaker 2:Type in Winehouse, the band, you'll find us. My wife is in that band and I co-write the majority of their songs.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is this y'all?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. That was the latest song that we released.
Speaker 4:Is that the one that you played for me the other day?
Speaker 2:uh, no, that's a different one. That one's really good. That's like my favorite song.
Speaker 1:But what's the song name?
Speaker 2:that one is called icy stars, but that's not a that's not a winehouse song. It's, uh, one of the guys in winehouse, his name's aiden. He's doing like some solo stuff and we wrote a song for him called icy stars and it's kind of a. It's kind of a banger, not gonna lie that's cool if you play.
Speaker 3:I can't play it on your website.
Speaker 2:I play all of the music in the coffee shops nice all of it that's awesome, is this? The song that that's a good song. I did co-write that song.
Speaker 1:This is not the one though that's not the one, but that's trying to figure out how to play the one that you were talking about, but yeah you won't?
Speaker 2:you can find it on spotify, um or apple music. Uh, it's not on the winehouse website.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, Okay. Well, I just want somebody to hear what you sound like that is not as folky Kenan.
Speaker 4:He's got range.
Speaker 3:I do have range.
Speaker 2:I even did a. I did a country album this year too. What yeah?
Speaker 3:Open three coffee shops. Country album Country album. Real estate, real estate, I mean Jesus.
Speaker 4:Is there anything he can't do?
Speaker 3:How many hours are in your day? I feel like there's more than the standard 24.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I said, man, I've always been kind of a busy guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for sure. He's also young, he's got a lot of energy. Yeah true.
Speaker 1:He saves a lot of time by not texting anyone.
Speaker 2:That's one of his secrets. I don't participate in the group chats, no never.
Speaker 1:He's in them. He'll see them, but he will not participate at all. You and Will Draper, both as soon as there's a group chat you're like deuces, I'll see you later.
Speaker 2:I'm in like 20 of them, so it's just like I lose track of everything.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm keeping them going most of the time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's always Ray sending the memes and the inappropriate reels. Yeah, that's true are you the one starting all of these group chats too, ray?
Speaker 1:no, I just do start a lot of them, but it's by. It's because people are like, hey, we need a group chat to talk about this or we need to get people together to do this. I'm like, fine, I'll do it, because I got everybody's contact info. I know everyone on the Instagram that wants to get in the group. So fine, I'll form, I'll form it, and then they won't do anything with it and I'm just sitting there, so I'll use it.
Speaker 4:I'm not afraid of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you can mute them if you want to. I'm not afraid of them. Well, kenan, you also sell houses. I don't want to keep you all night, but I do want to mention that you got on stage for selling houses. There's a lot of people that sell houses, kenan, that don't talk about it on stage, this is true. So what was your? For those that don't know, that didn't see you on stage, that don't know your best friends with Tom Ferry? What was the thing that catapulted you to the stage?
Speaker 2:I think it was a mixture of a bunch of things. I'm currently four years into real estate. I've sold just over 100 houses, which is pretty good for somebody a younger guy Not a lot of time.
Speaker 4:Half of that during COVID yeah, half of that during COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, really the thing that caught Tom's attention, it came from another one of the or a couple of the other, you know, real estate coaches. I've always just like I work really hard, man, I really do, I work like I don't think people understand like the amount of like like hard, hard work it takes to be able to do like all the things. You know I do a lot of things but they're all like fairly difficult. Um, but I, I balance it and it works.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you exactly how Tom Ferry came across me. I wish I could, but that's I would assume that's that's how.
Speaker 3:Do you enjoy downtime? Like is, but that's, I would assume that's that's how Do you enjoy downtime?
Speaker 2:Like do you? Is there something that's curious? You know, like, like, is there?
Speaker 3:like 30 minutes to yourself and you'd like you?
Speaker 2:know, just play a mindless game. You know what I do in my downtime? What I do in my downtime is like I play music and then I'm like oh, this sounds like really cool, like I'm gonna invite my friends over and like we're gonna like make this into like a really cool song that's like gonna get us like shows to play, and then we're gonna like make money off of that.
Speaker 2:It basically works and then like so, just it's like thank you right just take over the world also also in my downtime, I think of new ideas for, like coffee shop. It's just like I don't, that's like, and that's like my downtime. You know what, though that?
Speaker 3:it's because you're doing things that you love doing. You can't turn it off. If it was a job, you could punch out and go home and watch netflix all day, but because it's you're in multiple things that you just genuinely love you, you're never working, you're just having fun and making money doing it. Yeah, why not do it all the time?
Speaker 2:it almost makes me feel bad yeah, almost yeah.
Speaker 3:Isn't that the best thing though? Okay, well, yeah, yeah yeah, I mean albums 100 houses, stage three, coffee shops and you're still married.
Speaker 4:I mean, come on, most people, something would have given my wife does all that stuff with me yeah, I'm gonna add on to that every single person that kenan's name has come up around, at least in my presence, always has something really positive to say about him as well, because he's like oh, kenan's the nicest guy, kenan's this. Like you, I have not heard anybody say one negative thing about you, and that's not always the case, as we all know within this business especially people who are very busy or very doing all the things, they get a little bit of an attitude sometimes.
Speaker 4:But I haven't heard anything negative about you, hey thank you I appreciate most.
Speaker 1:I can mostly echo that sentiment. There was a couple.
Speaker 4:No, I'm kidding right back at you it was actually Kenan talking about Ray and Ray talking about Kenan.
Speaker 1:That's right us talking about each other. That's cool, that's awesome. Well, dude, thanks for joining us. Happy to be here. Thanks for the invite. Yeah, good guest. Yeah, for real. I feel like the name of the podcast is real random and I know Kenan, because you lived your life. You see that there's a lot of order in it, but from an outsider looking in, that's just taking a glimpse at your life they're going to look at it and go.
Speaker 2:that's real random yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a perfect, perfect guess, but I feel like there is so many things in your life that just kind of keep coming together. So, it'll be interesting to see what you do next dude.
Speaker 4:Candy bars, lemonade, music, coffee houses.
Speaker 3:You never know. Coffee, lemonade things, music coffee houses.
Speaker 4:You never know. Coffee yeah, I'm coming to try some of that coffee man. Whatever it is, it's going to get you that house on lake washington.
Speaker 2:So, oh my gosh, probably no I. I decided that I will never have a house on lake washington did I tell you that story, rebecca you told me the story about how you wanted one there.
Speaker 2:I did until I figured out like what the people actually do on that lake and I was like, well, I have no chance oh well, you got to share with the, the non-washington people here the other day, um, me and my wife were hanging out with some friends on lake washington, um, and like we were, you know, it was our friend's mom who's really, really wealthy, and she was driving us around the boat and like this place is insane. There's like super yachts everywhere and like big, big, big mansions, like crazy stuff, and I'm like you know kind of serious but like kind of not.
Speaker 3:I was like what does everybody do out?
Speaker 2:here for a living. You know like I must be in the wrong profession. And this lady's like oh well, that guy uh, like kenny g lives there and carol lives there, and that guy there invented baby carrots and the guy next to him owns uh, or started carnival, cruise linesines and Build-A-Bear Workshop and I'm like he created both of those. Like, I will never live on Lake Washington.
Speaker 4:I've just decided that I don't know you might they were like I don't think. Ebony and Ivory and this other franchise business. That's right.
Speaker 1:And he played with Kenny G. There you go.
Speaker 4:Very well, it's going to be, Kenny.
Speaker 1:Basically everything you said that those people do. You do right now, just a smaller version. So you're just pre-launch and you're done.
Speaker 2:That's what it is. It's a limiting belief.
Speaker 4:See, I thought you were going to say that you found out that people dump bodies in the lake and you're like never mind.
Speaker 1:I don't want to live there anymore. Somebody does something on the lake. I was like, what do they do on the lake?
Speaker 4:But I mean, they do dump bodies in Lake Washington.
Speaker 2:Don't they dump bodies in?
Speaker 3:every lake. It's true.
Speaker 4:Yes, but Washington also has probably a higher number of weird things happening. We have a lot of cults.
Speaker 1:Rebecca's got a guy. We have a lot of serial killers. I got a guy.
Speaker 4:She's like I got a guy, I'll put you in touch. Well, thanks you can, and for being on this is awesome so glad you could make it Happy to be here. We'll see you at One Reel.
Speaker 2:I will be there, yes.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Oh yeah, it's a prize.
Speaker 1:now I'm petitioning that they go back to One Reel for every year.
Speaker 3:I've still got my wristband from last year, so I'm holding that one up. What's that one? The little skinny one.
Speaker 2:Maybe he'll get into the party for free.
Speaker 4:I mean he already bought his ticket, so I think he does get into the party for free.
Speaker 3:I mean he already bought his ticket, so I think he does get into the party for free. It's not for free if I bought a ticket True, alright, cool. See y'all. Next time, when those franchising opportunities open up, let me know, I will tell you. You'll be first on the list.
Speaker 2:Denver First door Bye.
Speaker 1:Kenneth.
Speaker 4:See you, kenneth Alright guys.
Speaker 1:See ya.
Speaker 3:Later. That's an awesome first door. Bye.
Speaker 4:Kenan alright, guys see ya awesome guests. I love that guy seriously, people have only said the highest praises about him. He is just such a nice guy. He's super young, so it's amazing how much he has accomplished literally half Rick's age double the accomplishments, half Rick's age Double the accomplishments.
Speaker 3:Just shoot myself right now, yeah. No so after the first Blueprint. Actually didn't meet him at Blueprint. Met him outside of Whataburger at the airport.
Speaker 4:Randomly.
Speaker 3:Very random. I think I was hanging out with Greg Goad and we ran to the airport and we chatted just for five or ten minutes. And he was just super nice and then since then we've only chatted a few times, but every time super nice guy. It was a good show. I liked that one.
Speaker 4:I learned a lot about Rick today and his love for coffee.
Speaker 1:There was a guy I was trying to find it, but he actually studied this society and he basically figured out that society operates better caffeinated and that most people operate better caffeinated, and there's a big movement like anti-caffeine, like you should get off caffeine.
Speaker 1:So he did that for a while and while he was doing that, he was also studying the effects of caffeine on civilization and basically they can track when civilizations went into a boom or industrialization and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Based on when coffee got to that civilization, it increased and enhanced productivity. And so his thesis is if you need it, you should probably take a step back, cut down on it a little bit. However, by taking a step back and cutting it out, it's the best way to get yourself reacquainted with its effects whenever you add it back. And so he, after all of his research and everything, decided that he's going to drink coffee once a week and that's going to be kind of his like oh yeah, coming alive. But he said, when he went off of coffee he was trying to think and he couldn't think. And it wasn't necessarily because coffee was a crutch that now he couldn't think, and it wasn't necessarily because, you know, coffee was a crutch that now he couldn't think without it. It was because he was not caffeinated, living in a society that was caffeinated, and so his ability to process was out of step or out of sync with the rest of society.
Speaker 4:Very interesting some stuff there. If we look back on history, we've had some level of caffeine for always, because people have always drank tea like in every culture. That's how it started and then we were introduced to coffee.
Speaker 1:You know when we came over to the side when it like an ethiopian that gave beans to a monk and the monk made tea with it and then coffee in like a thousand BC, started going throughout China.
Speaker 4:Oh, is that how.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 4:I didn't know exactly where I thought it originally like over here in Latin America.
Speaker 1:Of course you do.
Speaker 4:I don't think so Of course I don't know a lot about coffee. I didn't start drinking coffee. I have to relook at the history.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was literally a tea back in the day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean now. I think, we've probably gone too far with Red Bull and whatnot and the monsters.
Speaker 1:You could argue yeah, because it's a little bit much. It's possible. Yeah, we have industrialized drugs. It's like everything else, right?
Speaker 3:It's like everything else with sugar In its natural state. It's not that bad because you'd have to eat a shit ton of apples to get enough sugar that's in candy. Caffeine in its more natural state is probably way more manageable than downing a four-pack of Red Bull.
Speaker 4:Right, it's also a way lower dose. You're going to get other health benefits along with drinking that tea, so you're getting the little bit of that caffeine on there. But yeah, we like to do things to access, don't we?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's how we live.
Speaker 1:And now Kenan is feeding the world his coffee.
Speaker 4:Yes, it's really good coffee. It's better than Starbucks.
Speaker 3:When are we doing a mastermind at his place? We could just take over the place for a day and do a mastermind. That place looks amazing. Do you guys want to go to?
Speaker 4:Washington.
Speaker 3:I'm down, I'm totally down to go out there.
Speaker 4:Well, maybe I'll tell you all some ideas when we get off air.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Okay, bye we. Well, maybe I'll tell you all some ideas when we get off air.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Okay, bye, all right, and we're not even going to delay that conversation. Bye guys.
Speaker 1:We're going right into it.
