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Show Summary
In this conversation, Quentin and David discuss the importance of knowing one’s purpose and motivation, overcoming personal challenges, embracing change, and the significance of building authentic relationships. David shares his journey through struggles with alcoholism and how it shaped his perspective on success and service. They emphasize the value of authenticity in networking and the impact of giving back through charitable initiatives.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
David Christensen (00:00)
I had all the checklist items, you know platinum records and the big life of an entertainment industry executive ⁓ And when I got to that mountaintop, I had never felt more emptyin my entire life. It was very clear to me that that was not the thing that was going to fulfill me. And through a series of events, alcoholism absolutely overtook my life and ⁓ derailed my career. And I had a very hyper bout with alcoholism and 15 years sober now.
Quentin (02:06)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. I have someone here today who I’m super excited about. Man, this guy put these two words together, uncommon hospitality. How many times do you hear that, right? But that’s what he strives to do. And him and his team, they want to give uncommon hospitality. Another word this guy used that I absolutely love, communication. He values communication. And so I am truly excited.for you guys to get a chance to peek through the lens of Mr. David Christensen. Sir, how you doing today?
David Christensen (02:41)
my friend, I’m doing great. Thank you for that kind intro. Really, really nice to talk to you. Looking forward to it.Quentin (02:45)
Absolutely. Peopledon’t know, but you gave me a kind intro. mean, as soon as you and I started talking, I was like, okay, yeah, this is my type of guy right here. And so I’ll tell you right now, man, I already appreciate your presence. I’m excited about our listeners being able to peek through your lens, your perspective. I already loved your perspective and I’m sure they’re going to love your perspective. And so, man, I’m going be honest with you. I kind of want to dive in. I want you to let us know, you know, what are you mainly focused on these days?
David Christensen (02:52)
I meant it, yeah.Quentin (03:15)
What markets are you operating in? Even if you want to take us, give us a quick, you know, rundown memory lane and kind of how you got started. But I just want them to hear from you, man. Take us into your world, Mr. David.David Christensen (03:27)
my pleasure. think I will give you a little rundown memory lane because I think it kind of sets up as to why I’m here and why I believe what I believe, you know, so I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, you know, 6000 kids and you know, very rural. And I had dreams of making it big in the music industry. So I literally moved out to Los Angeles with 700 bucks beat up car and, you know, tried to make it in the business and I was very blessed and I had a very successful career in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles for about20 years before I got into real estate and it was really a lot of those skill sets that I learned at that time which was communication storytelling you know how do we create a narrative for you know what that artistry was where whether it was a record or a movie or a TV show you know we were trying to find something special and significant about that and to find an audience for it and when I shifted into real estate about a decade ago I thought those two worlds really are
very, very similar, right? At the end of the day, we’re trying to figure out what this seller or buyer needs. We’re trying to tell that story, especially when we’re listing a home, right? We’re trying to figure out what’s special about this particular house and how do we get an audience to feel connected to it? And then how do we create a marketplace for it that’s competitive? And so I really just kind of aligned those skill sets. And I think that’s worked really well for me.
⁓ in the real estate industry. And it really does fuel a lot of my thought processes and how I see the world, you know.
Quentin (05:48)
Absolutely. No, I absolutely love it. You say so many words that really ignite me like the word storytelling. Kobe Bryant, before he passed away, he was on the Lewis Howells podcast. And he says, nothing in this world moves without story. Nothing. There’s a story behind everything. The computers that we’re using, there’s a story behind it. know, within your computer, somebody might have put just a little hint of… ⁓David Christensen (06:06)
100%.Quentin (06:17)
of remembrance to say, hey, I worked on this computer. You know, there’s so many different things that happened around us and they are driven by story. And so I absolutely love the fact that you wanted to tell your story. Absolutely love the fact that that storytelling translated from the music business into real estate. And so I guess my question is what keeps the machine that you have now running smoothly, the way you serve your clients, the things that you do, what keeps youcontinue to be motivated and passionate and running smoothly towards the goal.
David Christensen (06:49)
Great question. think again, you know, it goes back to the big picture, right? I think all of us as corny as this sounds, right? We need to have our why we need to have our why that motivates us to get up in the morning. I mean, again, at the end of the day, we all have these societal benchmarks that, everybody has, you know, the desire to chase to some point the house, the car, the bank account, but again, to stay focused as an entrepreneur and to really provide excellent service over a long period of time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.you have to have some type of bigger why. And so I’m always focused on, well, what is the reason that I’m doing this? Certainly there’s the family and the friends and the legacy you wanna build. But I think as I’ve older and kind of longer in my career, I really wanna help. I really wanna give back. I it’s been a big part of this last couple of years of my life in terms of mentorship and how we build the team that we build and being, I’m happy to say I’m 57 years old. I’ve done this for a while.
And I love meeting young people. I love meeting people that are just trying to figure it out or that are at a second stage in their career. Maybe they had a totally entirely different life up until they were 35 and now they’re trying to reinvent themselves and that ability to share that is really a passion. So I think that’s one. ⁓ And two, you know, what do we do to make it work? Again, it comes down to that room, that word communication and listening, right? If we don’t understand
what that buyer or that seller or that customer wants, regardless of what field you’re in, right? Whether you’re selling mutual stocks or you’re selling, you know, homes, you got to know what is important to them. And it’s the same thing with my team members. What makes them tick and what can I do to help them feel supported and nourished and that they have the tools that they need to go out and do a great job.
Quentin (08:41)
Now, Mr. David, you said it, what’s your why? I’ve said this on other podcasts and I’m gonna say, I think you’re gonna love it. When I was at a crossroad in my life, I heard somebody say, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And so when you know your why, it’s very easy to say hell yes or hell no in any situation at your end. When you know who you are, you know what your motivation is, you know what your purpose is, you know what your force is.David Christensen (08:55)
Mm. How?Quentin (09:10)
You know what systems you have in place. Like when you are in line with who you are, you know how to move forward. And so you’re absolutely right. Knowing your why is everything. And then you hit on communication. We talked about the word being curious. When you’re curious, you’re always communicating when you’re curious, you know? And so I love it, man. And so you’ve been in the music business, you’re in real estate. You’ve been doing this for nine years. 57, wonderful 50s, young 57 years old.David Christensen (09:24)
Love that word. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah.
Quentin (09:38)
So,David Christensen (09:39)
We hope.Quentin (09:39)
yeah, no, man, you’re not. Absolutely, man. Your spirit, your energy is, yeah, man. Listen, you’ll be doing this for a long time, as long as you want to. But I guess my question is, you know, I’m sure you had the experience. You’ve been around for a while. You’ve seen a lot of things. And so when I do podcasts, I don’t just want to talk about the success. I want to talk about the journey of how we got to the success.David Christensen (10:05)
Mm-hmm.Quentin (10:05)
And so there are times when we have to pivot, right? Times when deals go wrong, times when, you know, things just is not going the way we expect and we have to pivot fast. Mr. Dave, you have any story like that that maybe you could share with our audience? Cause some, they’re facing some hard times right now and they’re like, you know, I got to keep going. And I think a little motivation may help.David Christensen (10:26)
100 % and this is one of the reasons I do these podcasts, you know I made a very clear decision this year that I was going to be very transparent about a part of my life that I thought might be helpful to people so When I lived in Los Angeles, I was very blessed with a very successful careerI had all the checklist items, you know platinum records and the big life of an entertainment industry executive ⁓ And when I got to that mountaintop, I had never felt more empty
in my entire life. It was very clear to me that that was not the thing that was going to fulfill me. And through a series of events, alcoholism absolutely overtook my life and ⁓ derailed my career. And I had a very hyper bout with alcoholism and 15 years sober now.
And that sobriety, thanks my friend.
But that sobriety is what crystallized what my why was. it’s what crystallized how I was going to run my my business differently in real estate. it’s, it literally brings every bit of my focus is through the lens of somebody who had everything you could ever dream of on paper and felt as hollow as hollow could be. And, and went through that dark hallway of, of, you know,
drugs and alcohol and came out the other side. And so, you know, when you talk about ⁓ how do we reinvent ourselves or how do we get to the other side if we’re going through a struggle, you know, I live that in a very painful way. And, you know, things that I try to tell people all the time is and again, I know it can sound cliche. ⁓ But if you believe that you have a worth, even if it’s just a minuscule of worth enough of a little grain of sand that you can hold your
your focus on for a little bit and get one day to two days to three days. There is absolutely light at the end of the tunnel. And I try to in every relationship that I have. again, many people are not are blessed with not having these catastrophic challenges. Their challenges may be more manageable, but the spirit is the same, Believing that you can see yourself beyond that challenge, believing you can see yourself to the other side and that you have value and worth.
to be successful and get better. so, ⁓ you know, a long-winded way of saying that I totally know that dark side of those journeys and I really try to bring that spirit when I’m talking to people trying to figure out that next chapter of their lives, you know.
Quentin (13:36)
Absolutely. No, Mr. David, not long with it. Not long when they at all. ⁓ Thank you, man. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability. Thank you for sharing that. ⁓ Again, you know, so many different people listen and listen from different perspectives in their journey, different places in their journey. And so, sir, thank you for your journey, man. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you for coming through and pushing through and found the value in yourself. And because you find a value in yourself, you’re able to give and add so much value.to everyone that’s listening. And so thank you so much. Now listen, you’re a great storyteller. And so I’m going to do a call back in the industry. you know what a call back is. Exactly. You ready? So you ready. I love a good call back, man. Exactly. So I’m going to call back Y2K, man. You and I, we.
David Christensen (14:09)
My pleasure, my pleasure.Yeah. Yeah. Comedian callback. I know a callback. I know a callback.
All right.
Quentin (14:29)
We’ve beenaround, you know, I’m 40, I’m gonna be 44 this year. And so, you we’ve both been around for a little while. And so, you know, a little bit, right? And I can’t remember how it came up. I think it came up because we was talking about, I think it was something like facing our fears moving forward, right? And how things are forever changing. But even though they’re changing, we can’t be scared. We can embrace the change. And actually the change can become normalcy in a sense.
David Christensen (14:35)
We’ve been around a little bit, yeah.Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Quentin (15:38)
once you learn how to deal with not scared of it. And so we started talking about Y2KDavid Christensen (15:39)
Yeah. Yes. Well, fierce.Quentin (15:43)
when everybody was scared. Yup, there’s a Y2K. You said you had a Y2K story, man. So I wanted to pause right here before I move forward and get this call back, man, and see if you wanted to plant that story in this podcast, man.David Christensen (15:49)
Alright, alright.All
right. So here’s my here’s my Y2K story. So when I was in the music business, I had a client that was engaged to Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’s daughter. And ⁓ we had the blessing of becoming friendly and spending a lot of time together over a couple year period as they were together. And we were working on these records. And she had this beautiful house up in Calabasas. And so we decided that we were going to have New Year’s Eve up at her big house. She was going to have a party and, you know, a classic New Year’s Eve celebration. Right.
Quentin (16:03)
Mmm.David Christensen (16:25)
So we have this party. We’ve all retired back to the big ⁓ master primary bedroom suite to watch the ball drop on this big television in her room. And there’s maybe 15 or 20 of us and we’re watching the ball drop. And all of sudden it was, you know, the eve of Y2K and we’re all a little nervous. What’s, what’s going to happen? Right. So the ball drops, it hits, you know, midnight andEvery single light in her house and her entire compound go off. She had a very large compound and ranch and whatever. Every single light goes off and we’re like, oh my God, it’s like legit. It’s Armageddon. This has happened, you know? And so for like two or three minutes, we’re all like trying to find, you know, flashlights on our phones and figure out what’s going on. Do we call 911? Is there a meteor hitting the earth, you know? And all of a sudden we hear Lisa just pee in her pants laughing.
Quentin (17:20)
Are serious?David Christensen (17:21)
inthe corner and what she had done was had her security team pull the master breaker to the whole compound to turn the lights off right at midnight. ⁓ so she turned them back on and we all laughed, but there was a two or three minute period where I’m like, wow, this is it. Like the world is legit coming to an end, you know? So that’s my story.
Quentin (17:32)
⁓ man.Now listen,
we say two or three minutes and in our minds, two and three minutes is not a long time, but putting yourself in your shoes, those two or three minutes had to be long and felt long as I don’t know what, it had to. I’m sure.
David Christensen (17:55)
Yeah.It definitely felt long and we gave her lot of crap because she held it together
for two to three minutes. Like she played it, you know, and we were like, holy, what are we going to do? know, that was a fun one.
Quentin (18:09)
Wow. Yeah. No, man.What a story, man. I’m so glad we had to that quick comment, man. That’s what an amazing story, man. I appreciate you sharing. ⁓ Yes, man. So listen, man, what are your next real goals when it comes to real estate? What are you focused on scaling next? Like, what’s the next step for you, Mr. David?
David Christensen (18:18)
Yeah. Yeah. My pleasure.Yeah,
so we’ve really made a shift into luxury over the last couple of years. So we’re focusing a lot in the luxury space. I’m personally licensed in New Hampshire, Mass, Maine and South Carolina. So that’s where I handle my personal deals. But we’ve brought in over 100 agents nationwide to our group. And so we’ve got a lot of kind of relationships there. We’ve had a really fun project this year. I don’t know if you were a fan of Breaking Bad or you watched that television show at all, but
we listed the Breaking Bad house, Walter White’s house, ⁓ for sale. so that got us a lot of media attention this year and has been a really, ⁓ fun project. And that was based out of Albuquerque. So one of my agents in Albuquerque was, was, handling that. And, we’re just about to launch a sports and entertainment division that’s going to be announced, next month in Miami. And we’re excited about that, you know, again, just to provide that next level of white glove service and discretionary service to a.
⁓ And, ⁓ you know, again, on, you know, more of a personal scale, I’m, really focused on communicating with people. have a, ⁓ a charity called, ⁓
Quentin (19:35)
Yeah.David Christensen (19:51)
property with a purpose and or purchase, I’m sorry, purchase. I’m totally blanking on this. We’ll have to, we’ll have to keep this. That we’re basically giving 10 % of all our earnings to a charity that we’ve put together that we’re really, really excited about. And so that’s been a real kind of game changer for us. So it’s been a great, great year. We’re excited about it.Quentin (19:53)
Beautiful.Gotch. Okay.
I love it, man. This is awesome. Like, I love talking to you, man. You sound so much like a people person, so much like a connector. I tell people all the time, you know, my purpose. I feel like it’s to unite, it’s to connect. And my passion to do that is through storytelling. That’s the vehicle that I love to use through. And so I said that because I want to talk about relationships for a little bit, because it sounds like, you know, you value relationships and it sounds like you understand how relationships is valued.
David Christensen (20:30)
Yeah. Yeah.Quentin (20:44)
in our everyday life, whether it’s being business, whether it be personal. So I guess I’ll ask a question like this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?David Christensen (20:45)
of this month.I think authenticity. think people are very, very savvy. And I think a lot of times entrepreneurs or networking people forget the fact that if you’re not leading with authenticity, if you’re not leading with how can I actually serve this person first, it’s just a red flag to people. And I think if I look at every relationship that I’ve built and if I look at the five core relationships that I built 20, 30 years ago that have spawned
Millions and millions of dollars and many many substantial relationships over the years. They were built because they were authentic They were real they were reciprocal right? They were never one-off. It was never about what can I get from this person and I think ⁓ It’s more of a long game. It’s more of a marathon, but I try to tell you know people that I mentor Never walk into a situation thinking about what can I get from this situation walk into a situation thinking about how can I be of service?
in this situation. And if you’re the guy or the girl that’s of service, your mind will be blown how quickly people flock to you. Right? It’s just natural energy. It’s a law of attraction. If somebody knows that guy’s authentic, and I know if I’ve got a problem, he’s got a good answer, or he’ll help me find the answer, you will be amazed how quickly your network goes, you know, and grows.
Quentin (22:21)
You are 110 % correct. When we have that, the attitude of service, serving people, and I’m not talking about being a doormat and what I’m talking about, you can’t make profit. But when you know at your core, what you’re doing is a great service to people. Like you said, that’s the ultimate lead generator. That’s the ultimate really sustainable business to build.David Christensen (22:34)
No!Quentin (22:49)
is when you authentically serve people, when you’re making a difference in somebody’s life. And so you are 100 % correct, Mr. David. I couldn’t agree with you more. Could not agree with you more,David Christensen (22:59)
Yeah, andjust to call back to that charity, because my mind is now woken up, it’s Purchase With A Purpose. We’ve had it for about a year. Purchase With A Purpose. And we’re really proud of that.
Quentin (23:05)
Yes!Thank you. I’m so glad that came back to you, Absolutely. And speaking of, mean, this is a perfect time, man. We talked about purchase with a purpose. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,
David Christensen (23:26)
Best way through my website, davidchristensen.com. It’s got my direct mobile, my direct email. I love to communicate and talk to people, super approachable. You’re not gonna go through an assistant or a voicemail like you call and we’ll connect. And there’s a lot of information about what we do and different ways we can be of service. And I would love to talk to anybody who’d like to talk.Quentin (23:48)
Absolutely, absolutely. Listen, sir, I appreciate you so much, man. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. You are an amazing storyteller. I appreciate your perspective. This has been absolutely wonderful. And so thank you so much for stopping by and showing so much value and giving us so much value through your presence. I appreciate you.David Christensen (24:08)
Well, you’re so welcome. And I truly mean what I said at the beginning of the program. Your audience is very, very blessed to have you. You’ve got a phenomenal energy and a really good warmth about you. And I was honored to be on the program. So thank you.Quentin (24:19)
Appreciate that so much. Thank you so much. Well, y’all heard it. Y’all heard the man. I’m a superstar. I’m the man. Come back and see me again. No, let me stop. Listen, what I do want to be serious about, we do want you to come back. So please make sure you subscribe. We’re going to continue to bring valuable people who have valuable stories, valuable experience. So Mr. David, I thank you again for being here and everyone else. We will see you on the next time.David Christensen (24:23)
He’s the guy. ⁓
