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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Kristen and guest Will Inglis delve into the importance of mindset in real estate. They discuss the impact of personal influence, the role of ego in professional success, and the necessity of maintaining a work-life balance. Bill shares personal anecdotes and insights on overcoming fear, the significance of spirituality, and the value of giving back to the community. The conversation emphasizes the need for authenticity and personal growth in both life and business.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- William Inglis’ Website
- William Inglis’ Phone No: (443) 622-7653
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
William Inglis (00:00)
you know, who thought I was going to be a scientist, that I’m going to be a real estate agent. So whatever our fear is, the reality, here’s reality number one. You want to know a little secret, Kristen? You want to know a little secret of life? People don’t think about us anywhere near as much as we think they do. So all of this, my God, he’s mad at me, or she’s mad at me.I can’t believe I just did that. All of that stuff is just our ego being out of control. And when I trained agents, I used to think…
aren’t they doing what they need to do? Everybody knows. Here’s the thing, it’s pretty basic to succeed in this business. Do some open houses, let your friends and relatives know you’re here. Go out and knock on some doors, call some people. Basically, put yourself in front of the public. But again, our ego is there to keep our feelings from getting hurt. It’s not there to say, just missed out on a big opportunity, you coward. I’ve never heard anybody’s ego say, mine doesn’t say that.
Kristen (02:24)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Will Inglis, who is an agent out of Howard County and also an educator. We’re going to get all into mindset today. So I’m really excited about that. Thanks for being here,William Inglis (02:36)
Well, thank you for inviting me. And I’ll start off by sharing a little anecdote that in a book I read about Theodore Roosevelt, he said, somebody said, the guy on Mount Rushmore, somebody said once, would you like to be memorialized or just thought of for the rest of eternity as one of the famous presidents in American history? And he said, I care not one whit whether somebody remembers me 15 minutes longer or shorter than the next man. AndI think, you know, it’s funny, there’s another great quote Hemingway said that economics becomes silly after 200 years. And like in my county, who was the richest, most powerful person 200 years ago? Nobody knows or cares. But people do remember the influence you had on the people in your life. And more importantly, those people have an influence on other people. And it’s like the analogy a friend gave me, it’s like ripples in a pond. We can’t
in essence, achieve a mortality that even Mount Rushmore can’t give us because we are stewards of our own direction and we also give guidance to other people in our lives. And we have an obligation as realtors and as human beings to try to make that as positive and forceful as we can.
Kristen (03:49)
Absolutely, and I think what’s interesting is nobody ever really knows the impact that you have on people. Like you might be surprised at, you know, just encouragement or support how much that means to someone and how that trickles down into their life.William Inglis (04:03)
Well, there’s an old saying, absolutely, and there’s an old saying that…When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. And one of the most frustrating things about, and we have to educate our clients too, you know, the old thing about having a champagne taste and a beer budget. Sometimes we got to give them hard reality. Sometimes a husband wants to have a two car garage and a wife wants to be in a different school district. And we have to not just educate them, but reconcile two very difficult issues to reconcile as realtors. ⁓
Kristen (04:19)
youWilliam Inglis (04:34)
I think we can make a difference in that way and when I used to train real estate agents as I was one of the four trainers for the biggest real estate company in central Maryland, I always wondered why did some people just some of my agents would sell five or six houses the first month after getting a license and others would never sell anything and the thing that I really came to fixate on was that after doing a lot of research on this was theThe biggest thing that holds us back as agents is our ego.
Kristen (05:05)
Absolutely. I think that can be something I can work on.William Inglis (05:06)
So you’ve already come to that same conclusion,Kristen. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. ⁓ I would be curious if I can ask you a question. How did you come to the same conclusion? Because I absolutely believe that’s true.
Kristen (05:10)
no.Yeah, I mean, I think it applies to a lot of people. I think that we all just kind of get in our own way a lot of the time. And the people who are very genuine and are able to connect with others are usually the people that succeed.
William Inglis (06:18)
You know, that’s an interesting point too. There’s another famous quote. I quote people all the time. It’s just I want to find what I like. I grab onto like this one comes from Emerson. Who you are is so loud. I can’t hear what you’re saying. Isn’t that a beautiful quote? And so when you have to pretend to like people in order to get their business, don’t people pick up on that? I think they do. And so this is where I think real estate is actually a great.Kristen (06:31)
Mmm. Yeah.Yeah.
William Inglis (06:47)
profession for getting our ego under control.Our ego’s not there to say, go for it, there’s a great chance. It’s there to keep us from getting our feelings hurt. So we wanna puff ourselves up with whatever pride and ego we have. And as a consequence, we miss out on a lot of opportunities in life because we’re afraid. I’m afraid to ask some girl out. I’m afraid to go knock on somebody’s door. I’m afraid to pick up the phone and call someone. I’m afraid to tell people,
Kristen (07:11)
youWilliam Inglis (07:15)
you know, who thought I was going to be a scientist, that I’m going to be a real estate agent. So whatever our fear is, the reality, here’s reality number one. You want to know a little secret, Kristen? You want to know a little secret of life? People don’t think about us anywhere near as much as we think they do. So all of this, my God, he’s mad at me, or she’s mad at me.I can’t believe I just did that. All of that stuff is just our ego being out of control. And when I trained agents, I used to think…
aren’t they doing what they need to do? Everybody knows. Here’s the thing, it’s pretty basic to succeed in this business. Do some open houses, let your friends and relatives know you’re here. Go out and knock on some doors, call some people. Basically, put yourself in front of the public. But again, our ego is there to keep our feelings from getting hurt. It’s not there to say, just missed out on a big opportunity, you coward. I’ve never heard anybody’s ego say, mine doesn’t say that.
Kristen (08:07)
Yeah.William Inglis (08:08)
So I would like to hear more from you, actually. I feel like I’m monopolizing the conversation. What are your thoughts on this issue, Kristen?Kristen (08:14)
Ow.Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with you. I’m very aligned with that. I think that the thought that people don’t think about us as much as we think they do is totally spot on. I think that…
stops a lot of people from pursuing passions and dreams and from being authentic. Maybe they try to shape shift into what somebody they think somebody else wants from them when it’s really not at all the truth. ⁓ But I think it’s really interesting. And in what way do you think being a realtor kind of pushes those boundaries for you?
William Inglis (08:48)
I’m going to tell you one of the best stories that I have from training agents. This was a lady from Africa. She was an immigrant, a first generation immigrant. And I said, so you can make money just knocking on doors and say, hey, you want to list your house? Hey, you want to list your house? You see, if you repeat that 100 times, you’ll get somebody says, I guess, yeah. So I said, here’s our exercise for the day. And I gave her some scripts and she was like, I can’t do that. Me?Kristen (09:05)
Yeah.William Inglis (09:14)
walk up to somebody’s house and bang on their door, some random stranger’s house and say, okay. And I said, well, you don’t have to, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. That’s another beautiful thing about this business. And she said, thank you, Mr. Inglis for not pressing me on that. But next week, when I asked everybody, how did the door knocking go? She raised her hand and her name was Sue. And she, said, well, I guess you didn’t.do the door knocking right that was the assignment for the week and she said i did it i said wow that’s really that’s really got see of you you fought through your fear you put your ego back in its box where it know it comes out when it’s necessary but it doesn’t dominate your life and she said i brought my daughter with me and i told her i want you to see how a woman conquer sure fears
Kristen (09:45)
Yeah.William Inglis (10:04)
Isn’t that a great story?Kristen (10:06)
It’s a great story, it really is.William Inglis (10:43)
and ⁓ you know i’d tell my students whether i’m training agents or whether i’m teaching continue education or whether i’m ⁓ working with an investor flipping a house ⁓ i learned from my the people in my life all the time i learned from my students i learned from just the other day with a last class i taught it it it it i’ve tristar academy i hope people will keep giving consideration if you would like my teaching expertiseI had a student who said I ended up in a settlement where the transfer taxes were completely messed up because the homeowner who was selling was a disabled veteran. And my father’s a veteran with a very severe disability. And I thought, well, I know they give discounts on transfer taxes for teachers and firemen and policemen, cetera.
I never heard of a discount where they waive your property taxes if you’re a veteran. And apparently in this jurisdiction, maybe they claimed it was a Maryland wide program. That yes, and I’m thinking my parents are still in their home they’ve been in for 30 years. That could be something that would really, out of the mouth of babes, right? All of us can learn from any of us. And that’s another place where our ego may get out of control.
Kristen (11:57)
Absolutely. And I know kind of shifting gears a little bit. know that work-life balance, you’re really passionate about that, like leaving room in your life to have other passions outside of work. Can you talk a little bit about that?William Inglis (12:12)
Absolutely. ⁓when i have the five i was the rookie of the year for my state for the biggest company in this in the uh… i’m not bragging about that i’m just telling you that i worked my rear end off to accomplish that i literally work three hundred sixty two days that year the first three years i was in real estate i took off christmas and maybe the fourth of july and one other day but it was work work work i’m gonna be a top salesperson and eventually i was a top salesperson in my office but i a
got burned out, I got miserable. And you need a certain psychological fortitude to be able to deal with a job where, ask how many people that you know says, how would you like a job where you make $20,000 this month and you might make nothing for the next month or the next two months? And not too many people are interested in that job, regardless of the salary. I mean, it’s like the government shutdown comes every three months.
Kristen (12:59)
little anxiety.William Inglis (13:09)
You know, it’s like, we don’t know what’s going to happen next month. It’s all in the cards and how hard you work and a little bit of like good fortune. And it was a wonderful lady named Jill Malloy, was, at one time she ran Coldwell Banker School and she said, you gotta, you gotta pace yourself and you gotta have a work-life balance or yeah, you can work. Sometimes you gotta work 12 hours. Everybody who’s in this industry knows that some days you gotta work nonstop.But doing that day in and day out means you are living to work, not working to live. And somebody gave me some really good advice once, I don’t know where I heard this, but they said, schedule your time off first. Franklin Roosevelt on his deathbed, again, only president to serve three full terms out and get elected for a fourth. Somebody said, do you have any regrets when he was on his
Kristen (13:44)
rain.William Inglis (14:01)
about to expire and he said the only thing I don’t regret are all the days I took off. The days I went fishing with my family and the days that I just spent with my wife in the park. Those tend to be the days we remember. And I think you have to have a physical balance and by ignoring my physical health, I’ve got diabetes now and I can’t eat all kinds of junk food that I used to love.and I can’t drink alcohol anymore, which I drank probably to excess at one point. And you know, these are the prices you pay and my energy was down. And at this point in my life, I work out almost every day. I do the things, I eat healthy foods and what a huge difference. But if I had started that earlier, I wouldn’t be dealing with the repercussions for that now. It’s like my, have a great roommate and he said, if you don’t take care of your health, you have nothing. So.
And there’s another great Chinese, another saying I picked up somewhere, the Chinese aphorism. ⁓ If you don’t make time to exercise now, you’ll have to make time to be sick later.
Kristen (15:05)
Yeah, absolutely, that’s a really good quote. Yeah, I think people often ignore it and think of their health as not important somehow, and it controls everything. I just as you said, if you don’t have it, you can’t do anything.William Inglis (16:01)
And ultimately it catches up with your business. You can put your…and I’m a spiritual person, I’m not here to represent any denomination, but I will say that personally I feel that we are spiritual creatures, that there’s a whole…like this is from Blaise Pascal, one of famous philosopher, he said, all of us have this hole in our heart that can’t be filled with anything other than a spiritual answer. And you can try to fill it with drugs or sex or alcohol or whatever it is.It’s never going to work and that’s my opinion. You can take it or reject it. But I think a work, a spiritual, a physical and time for your family, those things have to be part of your life or even if you made beaucoup money. And I’ll tell you this, I look at the people who are beaucoup money, most of them have figured this out. It’s not like an either or situation.
Kristen (16:53)
Yeah.William Inglis (16:55)
There was a famous professor and I’m drawing a blank on her name now, but she, you know how she recommended ⁓ moderating her ego.Kristen (17:04)
Hmm.William Inglis (17:05)
She said, duh.The surest sign that our ego is out of control is whining.
Kristen (17:10)
Mmm, yeah.William Inglis (17:11)
Complaining about, there’s nothing wrong with complaining if you’re trying to get addressed an issue. If you have, that’s more like a righteous indignation. But like, this is an example I gave my agents when I was talking about this years ago. I said, we have a book in front of us and I was saying something, you know, it’s like the answer key is wrong or whatever complaint I was making. And I said, gang, there’s a perfect example of where the professor was correct.Am I really trying to fix the book at this moment? No. I’m basically, when I’m complaining about things like the book that I’m not going to change, not in the middle of this class certainly, what I’m doing is making excuses for why I’m not being a better teacher than I could have been or a better trainer. And the lady said, the way to break yourself with this habit is get a jar and every time
you catch yourself complaining about something you’re not trying to fix. Put a dollar or whatever amount of money that ends up being $5 if you have a lot of money. Put a quarter in there if you don’t. And I’ll tell you the thing, Kristen, that I really discovered doing this was that I was complaining internally about stuff all the time and breaking myself of that. And I still do it. We’re not perfect.
Kristen (18:24)
Yeah.William Inglis (18:31)
but i try to catch myself ⁓ in i a it was like twenty seven times in two days i stopped doing the experiment after two days ago i was so embarrassed about the results i was getting but ⁓ that would be the situationKristen (18:44)
Well, what I think is so interesting about that as well, number one, I tell myself a lot. I try to remind myself that you can’t argue with reality.You can vent, but at a certain point you have to accept its reality and kind of figure out how to deal with it. And I also think an interesting point that you brought up, all those times you put dollars in the jar, I’m sure if you were to write those complaints and problems down and revisited it a month later, they would be completely non-issues in your life. I’ve spent so much time…
being like sad or angry and then months later I can’t even remember what I was so angry about.
William Inglis (19:24)
Isn’t that amazing? You know, it’s like…Kristen (19:25)
Yeah.William Inglis (19:26)
We get all bent into shape about stuff and…it reminds me of something and this is something i wanted to talk about a little bit today too in a few minutes we have left and i’ll try to give people some practical advice to because it’s not all theory and it’s not all nuts and bolts but uh… benjamin franklin wrote an amazing book when he was in his twenties called the autobiography of benjamin franklin and one of the things he as a twenty two-year-old and i guess that’s why he was benjamin franklin uh… he said
I want to look at the different religions of the world because I know he made the same conclusion that Pascal did that we all are spiritual creatures and he wanted to be involved if there’s nothing else than meditating, you know, a few times a week or whatever. And he went to various sects and denominations and he said, I don’t really feel drawn to any of these in particular.
But I do believe that collectively the religions of the world have real wisdom in there. And he looked and studied and he found 13 things that he thought were absolutely true in every society. And one of them was don’t be as angry at other people as you think you have the right to be.
Kristen (20:31)
Mm-hmm.Mm.
William Inglis (20:42)
You know, drink not to elevation or eat to dullness was another one. ⁓ I highly recommend everybody look at this. thinking, no wonder, you know, not besides being one of the founders of the country, he was the richest person in the colonies when he died. So these general rules are not just rules for being a good person, which is really the most important thing. They’re good advice, even for business advice. And I would also recommenda book with a terrible title is called Think and Grow Rich. I never read it until I got recommended. I don’t read books other people recommend unless they get multiple recommendations. money, money, money is like Think and Grow. I thought that was the theme of the book. It’s nothing like that. The author studied the 20 most successful people in America at that time, measuring success financially, which is another issue. But one of the things they all had in common was they could visualize where they were going.
And here’s something else that’s super important that was in all three of these books. The other one that I like a lot that I didn’t mention is called Seven Habits of Effective People. ⁓ Amazing books. And the first chapter in ⁓ Thinking Grow Rich, the man’s talking about his son who’s born deaf. And you may know that if you’ve read the book. And his son didn’t even have an aperture for sound to enter his brain. He didn’t have a hole where
Kristen (21:45)
Mmm.William Inglis (22:03)
could enter his head and his doctors said, we’re terribly sorry, Mr. Hill. Napoleon Hill wrote the book. Your son is deaf and he’s going to be deaf the rest of his life. And soon as he got his son away from those doctors, he said, you’re going to hear one day. You just got to believe it with all your heart and you will make it happen. I don’t care what those doctors say. And not only did he regain his hearing, he went on to teach at a deaf school and inventsome of the first hearing aids. that’s something, like the people that that book was patterned off of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Thomas Edison, they were the luminaries of that age. And this is something they all had in common. And another thing that they had in common, which I believe in, it was also something Benjamin Franklin believed very strongly, the universe reacts to us.
when it feels we are concerned about our fellow human beings. And Franklin thought, God doesn’t need my money. God doesn’t really need anything from me, but the one thing I think He wants from me is to find need in the community, and there’s a screaming need out there right now, and address it in my limited way, even if it’s only to
Donate $25 to a charity today or host a dinner or put groceries in a bag at your local church or synagogue or mosque, whatever you believe in. I think we do show our gratitude when we do little things for others. And this isn’t just a good idea to make us better people. This was something every single person in that book believed firmly.
Why should the universe or God or whatever you want to call that great spiritual force, why should it help us when we’re all absorbed in ourselves? And I believe that fully. And of course Franklin went on to start libraries and universities and he was the shining example of somebody who practiced what he preached.
Kristen (23:48)
youYeah. Well, I think that’s wonderful. I think that’s such a great ending note of just, know, that again, the impact you can have on other people and how important that is to give back. ⁓ Please tell everybody where to find you and how to work with you, both, you know, as a teacher and as an agent.
William Inglis (24:18)
Well, I’m with Samson Realty in Clarksville, Maryland. my, I’ll get, can I give my phone number out? I’m okay with that. It’s 443622 sold. So easy to remember. 6443-622 sold.Kristen (24:24)
Of course.William Inglis (24:31)
would love to have any of you join my class at TriStar Academy. You can go to mytristaracademy.com. And Sarah, the lady who runs the school, is carrying on the legacy of her father. She’s not doing it for money. She barely breaks even on the school. But it’s all about what we just discussed. Give him back.Kristen (24:49)
That’s amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for being here and giving us such great topics to talk about.William Inglis (24:56)
And Kristen, I want to thank you and the podcast host for, you know, in your own way, you’re giving back to the community by giving people like me a chance to express our viewpoint and giving us a little bit of light we wouldn’t ever otherwise see. So thank you so much.Kristen (25:12)
Amazing! Well, thank you for saying that. ⁓ And then thank you everyone for listening. I hope you got a lot of inspiration. I think there’s a lot of good takeaways from this and a lot of good books to check out as well. So we will see you back next time. -
