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Anthony: The long game folks, very few actually play it. Very few actually grind and do the right thing and do it the hard way and take on the harder road and work for years to get a system right to build something legitimate that is long term and sustainable. Very few do it and I want to talk to all of you about this because it’s a term that I’ve been using for years. I’ve been saying for years, “I play the long game.” We’re playing the long game here at Le Marquis Realty, okay? What do I mean by that?
I want to talk about that because today, Gary Vee said it in a video and I said I want to talk to you all about it because many of you have been fantastic to me, been so nice. I’m sure there’s some podsters out there who have other opinions of me sometimes, but by and large, you’re all very kind to me on social media. I get a lot of compliments about the growth of our company. There’s a good size following on Crush It In Real Estate, we’ve grown substantially and I hear lots of things like, “How do you do it? How have you built such a system? How do you have such a management team? Why do people stay with you for so many years that work in your company? Why is your retention so high?”
Last week, we had a meeting with some consultants and some analysts. We were telling them about our retention with agents, once agents are up and running and selling, what that retention is. They were like, “This is mind-boggling. How?” It’s because we play the long game, folks. I’m 38 years old. I’m not going anywhere. This logo is going to be around for years. I know every day when I get up in the morning, I’d rather make less money today, less tomorrow, less next week, less next year so that I can truly build the sustainable model in a sustainable empire. You’ve got to think about that for your business. What game are you in? Are you in the short term game? Are you in the long term game?
Guys, nothing wrong with being in the short term, quick hit, make as much money as I can in two, three, four, five years. Nothing wrong with that. Some people do it quickly so they can buy home. Some people do it because they’re five years from retirement. Doesn’t matter what game you’re in. It doesn’t make you bad, but if you really want in your heart, every day you get up and you say, “I’m going to build an empire. I want to build something legit,” then folks, that doesn’t come easy. It just doesn’t. It’s very difficult. You go through lots of failures and it’s hard. I’m going to talk about those failures in a minute, but I first want to talk about this Gary Vee part of it.
The reason I brought it up is it’s a term I’ve been using a long time. Last Summer, we made an offer to someone to work at our company. It didn’t end up working out, very talented person, someone that I think would be very good. Didn’t work out, they took another offer because the other company offered them some pie in the sky something. I said, “Good luck to you. Go.” Wasn’t an agent, it was an employee, although that happens with agents too. I said, “Go ahead.” That’s not sustainable to me. That’s not a real sustainable model.
Fast forward six months, I land in Aruba in April and I get a call from this person, and they say, “You were right, it didn’t work out.” I said, “Well, that’s okay. It doesn’t make you bad that you went in that direction.” I said, “You have to understand working with me is the long game.” Nobody gets on our management, our leadership team without being in it for the long game. Then today, I was watching this Gary Vee video and he talked about grinding and failing and being in it for the long game and I said I always talk about this, but I’ve never talked about it on Crush It and that’s what I’m here to do with you guys right now.
When I think about how my career has gone and where we’re at as a company, we’re 10 years independent now and we’re making progress. We’re finally hitting our stride. We had a lot of growth in the early years, then around 2015, we shifted the company into a brokerage model. It took us three or four years to adjust and now we’re doing this. Right now, we’ve got growth. Our sales growth is up 70% some months right now. Everyone’s like, “Wow, you’re killing it. You’re amazing.” Guys, guess what? That’s from the failures, the struggles, the grind, the losing that we did three and four years ago, but we identified problems, we fixed them, we tackled them head-on.
When people say to me, “You have this management team, they’re amazing. How did you ever find them? How did you do it?” You know how I found them? They were some of our top agents when we had a team model years ago and they busted their ass, they worked so hard and they’re so loyal and we fail together and we fail and we fail and we fail and then, we hit something and we get it right and then we get it better, we get it better, we get it better, we get it better and we work it hard and we stay consistent and we keep a structure, because remember humans like structure.
That’s what we do together every day. We go to battle every day. I say it, guys. You can say I’m ruthless, you can say I’m a capitalist. I don’t care. Business is war, folks. It is war. If you don’t think your competitors would take you out any day of any week that they could, you’re lying to yourself. Maybe a few that you’re friends with wouldn’t. I certainly have friends in the business that I’ve seen having a hard time and I’ve picked the phone up and said, “Hey, FYI you got this problem going over here” and some have returned me that favor, but by and large, it’s competition, folks. It’s kill or be killed, it’s war.
When you’re doing that, if you want to set up a long term sustainable business, whether you are a realtor or you’re a team leader or you’re a broker-owner, you’ve got to grind and you’re going to make less money today, less money tomorrow, to make more money later. I’ve actually taken it too far sometimes where I’m like, “Hold on a second here, I got to make sure that we’re making enough money here.” I’ve made that mistake and then we, of course, correct and fix it, then go on a run for a little while.
I just wanted to talk to all of you about this because a lot of people give a lot of compliments and I appreciate it, I really do, but for your business, if you want it to be long term and sustainable, you’ve got to be committed and you’ve got to be committed to the long game and the long game is not easy.
Whether you are an employee at a company, an agent at a company, a team leader at a company or the owner of a company, if you want to build something that is special, something that is better than everyone else, then get ready to fail, get ready to struggle, get ready to make less money in certain pockets, sometimes for the first few years, so that you can then take off later. Look at Amazon, guys, look at Amazon. 20 years of putting all their profit back in the business. People criticizing they weren’t profitable. People said it wasn’t sustainable. Now they’re taking over the world. Look at India. They’re hiring people on goats to deliver packages into the woods. I haven’t pulled that off.
I wanted to talk about the long game. I hope I helped shed some light on it. I know I rambled a little bit, but I just wanted to talk to you all about that because you need to think about where you’re at in your business and what steps you should take to get yourself in a better position. If that means making less temporarily, to make more later, then so be it. I’m trying to cook on the grill over here and stuff’s gotten out of control. I hope that helps, I don’t know. I feel like I rambled a little bit. Leave me your feedback. Tell me what game you’re in. Are you in the short game? Just make money quick. Are you in the long game? Let’s talk about it. Comment below.