Stop Chasing Transactions: How Real Estate Agents Build a Real Business and Work With Investors

Gary Wilson (00:00)
But once I figured it out, turns out probably easily over 95 % of my business came from my database, either directly or indirectly from maintaining contact with them in a very loving, serving type of way, coming for contribution and not seeing something like, hey, you don’t need anybody looking to buy or sell. We don’t do any of kind of stuff on my team. Or I like referrals. I mean, that’s crazy. Every business card has that. Say something unique and different, you know, like, like.

let me help you, you know, earn more money in real estate in one year or less guaranteed, something like that, you know?

Michelle Kesil (02:08)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Gary Wilson, who helps teach real estate agents how to build their own business and how to work with investors. So excited to have you here today, Gary.

Gary Wilson (02:21)
you

Thank you, Michelle. I’m glad to be here. I really appreciate the opportunity to help some others, you know.

Michelle Kesil (02:33)
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s dive in. First off, those not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is?

Gary Wilson (02:42)
Yep, so I created and run a national team of real estate agents. It was the first of its kind and ⁓ now by state’s representatives, the largest too, but I really focus on helping them create their own business models inside the real estate framework and invest. It’s not a requirement, but I want them to be in a position to own a piece of the American pie while they’re at it, you know.

Michelle Kesil (03:03)
Yeah, absolutely. And is this a nationwide offering?

Gary Wilson (03:08)
Yep, it sure is. fact, it’s worldwide now. So we just signed on a couple of agents from like Panama, Dubai, the UK, mostly the businesses in the US though. So even though we’re working with agents over there, a lot of times representing their own clients who want to invest in the United States, it’s still probably the best combination of upside potential versus downside risk is here. I’m not saying you can’t invest in other countries. It’s just…

just better here, you know, so yeah.

Michelle Kesil (03:36)
amazing and what made you decide to help agents in this way.

Gary Wilson (03:41)
Well, it actually kind of goes back to when I first got my license. I really didn’t get my license, Michelle, to be a traditional agent. In fact, I actually, admittedly, I really didn’t have a lot of respect for them. was because they weren’t really trained to work with me as an investor. So I decided I’m going to get my license and kind of solve it myself. And then when I got into the relation industry from the brokerage standpoint, I realized why the agents were not unable to help me. They weren’t being trained. So I started training.

investors how to invest and I would represent them and lo and behold the agents started signing up and I was teaching the agents how to invest and they were going out and figuring out how to work with investors like I did so I started a brokers out of that I realized I thought this is something pretty unique we’ve got our own unique little kind of mission if you will and that’s that really took off in the early 2000s and when the big recession hit actually is when I started my brokers

I mean, on paper you would have thought I was nuts launching a brokerage beginning of 2008, but it turns out one of the best things I’ve ever done. We grew sixfold in those first three years during the recession years. Everybody was trying to buy me, Callwell Banker, Remax, KW, they were all trying to write me big checks and buy me out. And I’m thinking, why would I do that? Because I realized I was making money and they weren’t, you know? But eventually I learned a valuable lesson, Michelle.

I love building, you know, whether it’s, love even by the hands, building decks and houses and things like that. But building businesses is a lot of fun. Managing them is not fun. Most entrepreneurs I’m like, ⁓ that’s where my gray hair came from trying to, do something. I was able to do it. It just wasn’t bringing me fulfillment. So I finally realized I can sell the businesses that I was building. but, fast forward, I thought I want to have a team.

I want to work with a team of agents who were, you know, dedicated, inspired, you eager to learn. And so I started, I started traveling around teaching and eventually built a national team out of it. So the difference now is instead of agents paying me to train them, whether they produced or not, which I always thought was ludicrous. I thought, let’s build a team and you don’t pay me until you produce. So I get a portion of their commission on a temporary basis.

that really worked well because agents felt a lot like it was a better deal for them. They didn’t pay unless they produce. mean, to me, that’s how, in real estate, that’s how agents get paid. They don’t get paid until they help somebody to buy or sell a house. So when I made that shift, it really helped me change my whole outlook on things as far as what I was doing, how I was doing it. So the big shift was I was no longer building a team that was about me. My name’s not even on the team names, Global Investor Asian Team.

You know, so what we do is it allows us to have a platform where we have the agents build their brand and build their model. We don’t use the word team, by the way, in public. The team members don’t use it. I use it for myself, Mark, for marketing purposes, but the agents do not use the word team, partly because I want them to build their own team, if that’s what they want to do. And I hope they get all the credit for the transactions when you do that too. So most teams, the team gets the credit for their transaction. And usually the team is like,

The Gary Wilson team, know, and agents don’t like that and I don’t blame it. So we solved a lot of those objections to traditional teams by doing things like that. Putting all the leads in the the ACHES names. They all have their own account or a lead sourcing system. So the leads were theirs. They choose the ones they work with, you know, like, holy cow, why didn’t we do this before, you know? And again, everything goes in their name. So the consumer, what the public sees is the agent.

The public never sees me. It doesn’t make any sense for anybody in like Des Moines, Iowa, and I who Gary Wilson is, but it makes a lot of sense for them who the agents are in that town. So I just, we addressed all those kind of roadblocks, if you will, to traditional teams. And lo and behold, here we are, it’s almost six years now. And we’re, since January 5th of this year, literally not even three months, we’ve already added 26 new people to the team.

because it’s just the words getting out. And I’m just so happy for it. know, these guys are producing. They feel like they could go anywhere now and be top agents. They’re not just a buyer’s agent or not just a listing agent. They’re totally 100 % autonomous. So even if I retire tomorrow, they could go out and replicate what we’ve done. By the way, I’m not planning on retiring. I’ve got way too much gas in a tank.

I’m sorry to go long on that, but that was a great question and that’s sort of how it evolved, you know, from where we were all these years ago to where we are now, you know.

Michelle Kesil (08:53)
Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And so what would you say are some of the biggest obstacles that you support agents in overcoming?

Gary Wilson (08:55)
Mm-hmm.

A lot of it has to do with their mindset and their own beliefs. Because when you’re a business for yourself, every agent by default is an independent contractor. They’re their own business, right? But when you come from another industry, like a lot of people were teachers, they were programmers, they were nurses, they came from somewhere else. I don’t think anybody was born saying, hey, I want to be your real estate agent. No, they wanted to be a…

a fireman, a policeman, a nurse, a doctor, an accountant, that kind of thing. So in any case, back to the question, when you get into real estate, you have to learn to feel things, speak and act like a business person. And most people do not have that when they come into the business. They grew up in the traditional education world and getting traditional jobs where they had nine to five and they served a specific function every single day.

This was totally not like that at all. This is just for people who are creative, innovative, like can solve problems. And they like the freedom. Every day is different, every client is different. helping them shift from where they came from to where they are now, that transition is probably the biggest hurdle. And it just takes time.

The only way to do it is just to…

experience it. It’s a learn by doing business. I, every week, this is how I show up. I show up, teach every Monday night, every time I a class called Monday Night Live. It’s open to every agent, no cost. So anybody can join me. I do that once a week. I train every single day. We have huddles, groups of 10 people. And I’m in the with the huddle with them. I’m actually leading from the front. So if I’m helping agents attract other agents, I’m doing the same thing. I even pay for their ad spend, by the way, you know.

Same thing with like new construction, we have a new construction huddle now and I’m paying for the training to be in the new construction huddle and I’m leading right from the front with them. So that’s every day, that’s how I train and the way I coach is one-on-one every single day. Half the day at least is devoted to the one-on-one calls. We don’t limit them. You can get as many calls as you need with me, we call them strategy sessions, to get to your next level.

And that’s the commitment. I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care if it’s three weeks, three months, or three years. I don’t give up on anybody. So that’s what I tell people. As long as you stick in there, stick with it, I’m telling you, anybody can succeed at this. They might find out that they don’t like it, but at least they give it a try. We help them get in production so they can see firsthand what it’s like. But that’s how we help these agents transition from like the corporate world or some other type of industry.

into real estate sales because it is totally different. Being an investor doesn’t even really, mean being an investor does help, but it doesn’t really help with sales because it’s a different set of skills. people have to learn to be comfortable in their own shoes, be natural. A lot of agents try to be somebody they’re not. They go out and buy a bunch of nice fancy clothes and fancy cars and spend a lot of money only to find out they’re no better off.

The reality is, is being who your authentic self is, being natural, is the best way to attract people. People want to feel like they know you, know, and trust you and like you. That’s when they’ll do business with you. So it’s really a natural progression. It just takes time. It takes guidance. And that’s really what I do, you know? So, yeah.

Michelle Kesil (12:47)
Yeah, absolutely. And what would you say are some of the main keys that make a successful agent?

Gary Wilson (12:54)
Well, at a couple different levels, the first level is more of a, like a character level. So if they’ve, if they’re disciplined, if they’re organized, even if they’re not, if they, if they can learn to be disciplined and organized, if they’re coachable and teachable, cause you have to be, remember when you’re, when you’re running business, you, you’ve, like I said before, you’ve got to feel, think, speak, and act like a business person, totally different set of skills than actually selling out. Selling a house is one set of skills.

But managing your business, being a business owner, this is totally different. That takes time. So that’s one of the keys to success is feel, think, speak, and act like a business person, you know? Not just a transaction person in real estate. Most agents are just trying to get a transaction. They’re not even thinking of their mission, their values, and what do they want to accomplish in life. When they look back in a year from now, what do they want to see?

And I actually have them do an exercise called the vision exercise. There’s four parts, vision, goals, actions, plans, VGAP. We actually call it the VGAP. And the vision exercise is an amazing tool to help people gain clarity on what it is they really want at the deepest level. I’m not just talking about sitting in a classroom for a half hour and write down the things you want. That’s crazy. You got to have a clear vision. I mean, a deep, like something that grabs you by the, by your heart, right?

When you have that, when you get that kind of clarity, all the goals line up. Then all you need is the right action steps and the right plan. I hope them do that too. You need somebody like me to guide you through the process because it is, it’s, there’s no book you can read to explain what I just described there. You just have to do it and being in the right environment, being with the right people, you know, like those small huddles. I gotta tell you, Michelle, that’s where most of our progress is made. I mean,

I have an agent attraction huddle. By the way, we don’t cold call anybody. We don’t recruit anybody. We attract people based on what we have to offer. And we just since in the last three months, we brought in, like I think I said before, 26 people. That’s almost three people per person in the huddle. That’s almost unheard of, especially when we’re it the way we’re doing it. But that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about is really digging deep in the grassroots type stuff.

Some people call it guerrilla marketing, whatever you want to call it. It’s getting in there and not trying to follow just a script, but being really intentional about it, being inspired by it, and having a real deep desire to help people buy and sell homes, and particularly invest in real estate. You’ve got to really want it bad for them. You’ve got to love people to do this.

So in any case, that’s how we overcome those things. some of the keys are learning to feel, think, speak, and act like a business person, having a clear vision. There’s a process for the vision exercise, by the way. It’s not just sitting down with a pad of paper. There’s preparation of all. It could take two to four hours to do it. And I teach that. When I learned that process, Michelle, it blew me away. I mean, admittedly, I’m a grown man, but I cried after I did it. That’s how intense it is, right?

Looking back now, I’d pay $10 million for that process, knowing what I know now because of what it’s done for me over the last 23 years when I started it. It’s amazing. that’s really, having that is absolutely critical. And I’d say loving people, you gotta love people to do this. That’s another critical thing. I’m not saying you can’t do it if you don’t have those three things, but if you have those three things, where we can help you develop those three things.

you’re gonna have a really long, successful business that’s not only financially rewarding, but really spiritually fulfilling, you know?

Michelle Kesil (17:03)
Definitely, those are important keys.

Gary Wilson (17:05)
Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (17:06)
And so what does your process look like when you’re working with these agents?

Gary Wilson (17:11)
Sure. Well, so let’s take like somebody who’s just joining the team, whether they’re brand new or a seasoned veteran. We actually start off with the VGAP program first. then once that’s accomplished, about the same time though that we’re doing that, I always have them load their database, the contact management system with all their contacts. I don’t care if it’s uncle’s aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents, children.

Neighbors, everybody is a prospect. That does mean you’re going to be selling to your Uncle Bob or Aunt Jane. They might not buy or sell a house for another 20 or 30 years, but you serve them. We have marketing that’s service-oriented and not sales-oriented, so we actually help people, giving them information, strategies, methodologies for them to succeed in real estate, whether it’s to run home or investing.

when you work with your database, they become almost like agents for you because the people who love you most are the ones who want to help you succeed the most. So whatever actually sell to them at all, we serve them and we’ll call them and say, look, I’m setting up almost called a monthly market update. It’s not sales, it just gives you information on real estate in your area. And we tell racists to say this because it’s true. See, look, I’m learning a new system.

I need to get these things in place so I can practice and learn from it. Would it be okay if I set you up on one of these two? Most people that know you a lot are going to say, sure. Well, what happens is they may only open up the first three emails, but it doesn’t matter because every month thereafter, they’re going to see your email coming in from you. And it’s a reminder of who you are and what you do for a living. So when they go to church on Sunday or work on Monday and somebody says, hey, we’re being transferred, they’re going to say, you know what?

You gotta call my cousin Michelle or my neighbor Michelle. She’s in the business and she gives me information every single month that I use. She’s really good at what she does. It’s called front of my presence. So we have areas to go through that and we don’t leave any stone unturned. It’s one of the most critical steps in success in this business. I didn’t do it in the beginning Michelle when I was asked to do it for my broker. Because I didn’t see the connection. I couldn’t see the value that would apply to me in today’s immediate world.

But once I figured it out, turns out probably easily over 95 % of my business came from my database, either directly or indirectly from maintaining contact with them in a very loving, serving type of way, coming for contribution and not seeing something like, hey, you don’t need anybody looking to buy or sell. We don’t do any of kind of stuff on my team. Or I like referrals. I mean, that’s crazy. Every business card has that. Say something unique and different, you know, like, like.

let me help you, you know, earn more money in real estate in one year or less guaranteed, something like that, you know?

That’s the kind of stuff that we do. So those are the building blocks and going forward, we have to kick off no more than three marketing campaigns at once. And there’s dozens of marketing campaigns, but the reality is marketing, you have to have a marketing plan. There’s a sequence to it. Starting marketing campaigns work in conjunction with each other.

summer sequential. So I need to teach these agents that. They need to learn it. Because when they do that, they will never be without business.

Michelle Kesil (20:21)
Yeah, absolutely. That is so important. Thank you for sharing.

Gary Wilson (20:25)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Kesil (20:25)
Well, before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect and learn more about what you’re up to, where can people connect with you?

Gary Wilson (20:33)
Sure. Well, they can visit globalinvestoragent.com. That’s the team website. They’re just going to see what’s public facing. They won’t be able to log in to the internal team platform with all the coaching and training and marketing and lead access and the AI scripts and all that stuff. But they’ll see what it looks like from the front. They can also go to my YouTube channel. Just go on YouTube and type in Gary Wilson, Global Investor Agent.

And we’ve got 16 playlists in there. Everything you could imagine having to do a real estate over 1200 videos. Those are probably the two best places to go and look. And if they pay attention, they’re going to see they actually get my catalog link in there. There’s even some locations that have my personal email and phone number. But the best thing is just set up a call. Let’s see how we can help you. You don’t have to do anything, buy anything. Nobody’s recruiting you. know, we literally,

Every day I help people, solve problems. They may eventually join a team, we’ll always be colleagues from that point forward.

Michelle Kesil (21:32)
Perfect, well I appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Gary Wilson (21:36)
You’re very welcome, Michelle. God bless you and all your followers. I hope you guys listening get something out of this. That’s my hope and wish and prayer.

Michelle Kesil (21:43)
Absolutely, thank you so much. And for the listeners that have been tuning in, if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Gary who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.

Gary Wilson (21:45)
Mm-hmm.