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What's going on guys, this is Melvin.
I'm here with Jesse Cage with the Cage Collective.
You guys may know him from radio.
And KJ Workman with Red Door Title.
We're getting better with this whole announcing where we work thing.
We usually get too excited and kind of roll right through that whole part of it.
But super excited.
So, you know, we did upgrade some mics, you know, we're still working through some of
the mic issues.
So bear with us with the third person.
We're, you know, technical stuff.
We're figuring it all out as we go.
But we're here at Three Daughters Brewing in St. Pete, Florida.
Super excited to be here.
It's one of my favorite spots.
They have pretty much anything you can imagine to drink here from ciders to beers to, I mean,
there's even energy drinks I saw out front.
So I don't think they really put themselves in a box at all, which is phenomenal.
We're excited to bring this episode to you today.
This whole episode is going to be about being authentic in your business and bringing out
your true authentic self.
So with that, I mean, who else to speak about authenticity than Jesse Cage himself?
You know, he's built a brand off of being himself as, you know, real estate.
It's kicking off.
It's absolutely incredible what he's doing as agents that he has the vibe that they build
around themselves is absolutely just it's just something you have to kind of experience.
It's just so different and it's so wonderful.
And it's right on brand with what we always preach with, you know, building relationships
and actually caring about the people you're doing business with, whether that is clients
or your own employees.
So we're excited to talk about that.
We're going to kind of roll into it today and, you know, he'll give you some background
on the brewery.
I think he pretty much lives here.
So that's pretty cool.
But yeah, we do got some got some babies.
I think we should like to talk about different words.
I'm like, that's not this kind of thing.
It could happen.
Cheers, everybody.
Thanks for being on the podcast today.
Cheers.
So Jesse is with the Cage Collective.
I don't know if you said the whole thing.
I can't remember.
I was in La La Land, but with Cage Collective with South State Coastal Realty.
Correct.
Yeah.
And but this wasn't your job all the time.
You were in radio, as Melvin mentioned.
So we're going to let you kind of take that off and tell us a little bit about your radio
show and how it went from radio to real estate.
All right.
So from radio to real estate.
It's a long journey.
Sit back.
Grab yourself a delightful beer from three daughters.
Let me take you on a jet.
So I did radio from this 25 years.
I started radio in high school.
And fast forward a lot of horrible radio because I was terrible at it.
And then somehow started getting better and better at it and better and better.
And then came Tampa.
Again, this is a very abridged version.
And then I went to the
Tampa did 15 or 20 years, a long time here.
Many moons.
And I was at multiple radio stations, most people will remember the cage cold show from
98 Rock.
I did the afternoons there.
So managed by Metallica and cage rage and all sorts of other things that we had actually
talked about off air that I could never do on the radio anymore.
And it's one of the reasons I'm on the radio anymore because radio got.
They got bubble wrapped.
Yeah, man.
Everybody got bubble wrapped.
You know, you can't do and say certain things.
And a lot of those things, there was a very good reason why you don't say, of course,
those things anymore.
You don't you do grow and people will fall.
I get it.
But I still firmly believe there's a place for comedy.
I think a lot of it comes from delivery and where it is actually coming from.
It's not malicious.
It's different.
There's a different way.
And that's a whole nother podcast that we can do about that.
But we should.
When I went to leave radio, I had a passion for real estate and a little bit more than
just the passion that I was watching property flippers, shit like that.
I mean, I do enjoy those shows.
Actually, I should say I did enjoy those shows.
Right now, they've been real estate for three and a half years or whatever.
I don't enjoy that stuff as much anymore.
But with that being said, leaving radio and trying to figure out what that next thing was going to be,
it was trying to find things that I was passionate about.
And I went to the podcast for a minute and my agent had me hooked up with a really great podcast that I was creating with a buddy of mine who has since passed away.
But it was something that politics pulled it apart and it didn't happen.
And that was kind of the end of my radio career, too, where politics happened.
I just was over it.
I think you've got to be passionate about whatever you do.
And my dad told me when I was very young, he's like, I want you to do whatever you want to do, but you've got to do it to the best of your ability.
So he's like, if you're going to be flipping burgers, you're going to make the best Big Mac that's ever been made.
He's like, do that.
He's like, so whatever you do, go and do that.
So I wanted to, you know, find what that next thing for me was going to be.
And again, getting back to the passion, finding passion.
I love the real estate market.
I love the way that the interaction was still there because my entire radio career was built around the cage cult.
And yes, my name was on it, but it was a community.
It was about making it all family.
We're all on the same level playing ground.
We go back to things you can say and can't say.
You know, I was the butt of a lot of the jokes because that was OK.
Self-deprecating humor is OK.
It's my favorite kind.
Right.
So leaving that, trying to find, you know, that next move is either this or let's be quite honest, I've got job jammers, I've got tattoos all over my body.
I like it.
It was this one.
Hot topic.
I mean, like literally.
Hey, range manager.
Just get a couple of little, get a couple of little lip, you know, get the little lip thing going.
Yeah, man.
Get a couple of piercings done.
You know, so went over and I had a buddy who was in the business and got my license, passed that exam.
The first try.
You can do it to kids.
Believe in yourself.
Yeah, that's right.
It may take you five times, but you get it done.
You can make it happen.
No one asks you.
We promise.
That's exactly right.
And if they do their assholes.
Yeah.
So, you know, and they also tell you how long they've been in the business.
Right.
That's how you know.
You want to know how long?
Right.
And so, yeah, the rest is kind of history.
I like that little argument.
Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, we get into here we are.
I was on a team.
I left the team to manage the team.
I left that team to start my own team.
And now the cage collection at Self-State Coastal Realty is a reality.
We actually, we've existed for like four months, but we're going to be doing a lunch party here shortly in this very building.
Because you guys call it three daughters brewing.
I call it home.
Oh, so.
So, you know, you will find me here a lot.
So, me and my house.
If you're looking for him.
I have close deals in this very building.
Multiple.
Yeah, you can get a beer and a home.
Oh, five lines.
And several homes.
Several.
It's up to you.
Really depends on how you're running that contract.
Read the fine print.
So, yeah, that's me in a nutshell, man.
That's how we got to radio it to real estate.
Nice.
Thanks for that little back story.
I can't get out of my head right now is hot topic.
Hot topic.
That's what comes to my brain every time I hear that.
It's hot pocket.
It is hot pocket.
But it's the same thing, I guess.
So, Jesse, our conversation today is, and the reason we thought this was like a perfect topic for you is how to be authentic in your branding.
And we're going to make that sound a little more hard rock somehow.
But really, that's the overall topic is you're being yourself all the time.
I mean, you aren't out there looking like a stereotypical real estate agent, which I love.
Like if I was looking for someone to help me buy my house, I would go looking for someone that wasn't, you know, make what are the big box realtors like a cookie cutter realtor.
I would be experienced.
We talked about this.
People don't always just buy the product when they're buying something.
They will buy the experience and you provide that relatable experience to a lot of people.
I mean, you've got breweries around here, which is why we have this podcast are huge.
You're here all the time.
You give off that rock and roll vibe like people pick that up.
So how has that helped you get from all of these steps that you were in real estate?
So now I have my own literally my own team brand under sell state.
And it's all like that.
How does that serve you?
So it's funny when I first started, I thought I had to be somebody else.
I mean, that was really tough for me because I have been unabashedly me for so long.
There's my favorite word right there.
I can't say that one.
I'm not saying it again.
Unabashedly.
One more time.
Unabashedly.
Don't ask us to spell it.
Unique being, you know, you are you.
And when I got in, I thought that I had to do something different.
So I've got my plugs in and I've got the tattoos and the whole gimmick, which I can't give to those obviously, which I would not want to.
But I did go out and buy some new clothes.
And I've got some, you know, I'm not a big collared shirt guy, but I got some collared shirts.
But the problem was I didn't go out and do it the cool way.
I did it the way I thought it had to be done.
So it looked like, you know, you guys remember Angus?
Why does that sound so familiar?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Screw him, Angus.
But I looked like that.
I was like, you know, like a tenth grader in his first J.C. Penney suit.
Do we have pictures of this?
No, absolutely.
I've been loving some.
Go for it.
I want a CD.
You know, it wasn't me.
And I learned very quickly that even some people around me were like, it's not for you.
And then I learned that what in the hell am I doing?
Right.
I learned that I didn't need to be somebody else.
That this business is specifically about, yes, you buy these, you miss that and the other to get leads.
But it is not your sphere of influence.
This is all about your SOI.
And my audience for 20 plus years knew me as somebody.
And that somebody was very offensive.
Too much on the back of the rain.
Too much, in fact, where, you know, you can ask people in my family circle if they've been happy with all the things I've said on the air.
Right.
Of course they have.
But I wanted it to be authentic.
There was.
Ok.
So now we're really getting to the mud real quick.
Yeah, let's go.
Let's get money.
So I was having a hard time.
And I was having a hard time having kids.
And it turned out that there may be a little issue
with my swimmers that could cause that.
So what I did is I'm trying to make this as clean as possible.
So back in the 90s, I went on the air and I was like,
well, I read a story on the air that it, you know,
speak to yourself that maybe, you know,
you give it the power or whatnot.
And I was like, well, I'm gonna go a step further.
I'm gonna name it.
And so I'm gonna name it.
So we go on the air and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna.
You just caught that.
So we go on the air and I wanted the audience to name it.
Because I wanted it to be a lot of us.
Wild.
And so of course she had people calling her like,
oh, name it Thor or Spike or any of these things.
And then this one chick called, she goes, name it, you know,
Boo Boo Kitty Fock.
And I'm like, boo boo, fuck it.
And I'm like, well, I don't know if I'm gonna call that,
but you know, put it on the board.
And so I go in and I, okay, you're gonna,
you gotta be careful about this.
I don't.
No, you don't have to be careful.
So if I can do this on the air,
I could have done it, you know, not anymore.
Yeah, no.
Okay.
So I squoze into a cup.
It was soap, by the way.
It was squoze.
Soap, aha.
Squoze into a cup.
Yup, yup, yup.
And then I had all the names written on the wall,
this big plastic sheet.
And I would throw it at the wall
and wherever most of my
Stop!
breath, that would be the name.
That is clever.
Please tell me it landed on Boo Boo, whatever.
I purposely made sure it landed on Boo Boo Kitty Fock, yes.
100%.
I made it happen because that's the funny one, right?
Because that's the funny one.
So again, it's going out.
So man, that was off track.
I love it.
But bringing it back in, it was,
So on brand.
It was, I was always myself.
I was always myself.
So taking that moment where I was not myself,
immediately I felt dirty.
I didn't like it.
And I'm like, if somebody looks at me
because of my black t-shirt or my tattoos
or my earplugs, whatever the case may be,
Right, right.
then is that somebody I want to spend time with?
Is that somebody I want to work with?
Preach.
And the answer is absolutely not.
I would.
The funny thing is, is when you see me,
and I get it.
You're like, you saw me walking down the street.
Now you guys know me a little bit differently.
But if you just see me walking down the street,
I can see some of you like,
oh, there's this guy.
He's kind of scary.
He's got a beard and tattoos or whatever.
I would think you look like the friendliest dude actually.
Like, because you scary dudes.
Right, and I love that though.
Totally.
And I think that's the thing though.
So give me two seconds.
Yeah.
We can have two seconds conversation all of a sudden.
Oh, I, you know, I don't want to punch you.
I'm going to hug you.
Like immediately.
Right, right.
I'm such a hugger.
And again, that goes back to my dad was a hugger.
You know, I'm a hugger.
I just, I love that.
So I can have this appearance and that's all fine and good.
So going back to somebody looking at me and going,
I don't know if I want to work with this guy.
Yeah.
Sell me a $2 million home.
Give me two seconds.
Right.
And I'll make sure I force that two seconds.
And you're going to see immediately who I am.
And then it goes from, okay, he's not just this,
you know, rocker guy or whatever.
I made sure getting into it
because I knew I would be up against those things
is this business.
I was just talking to my team about this today.
This business is about educating
and speaking to your audience
and making sure that your sphere of influence
knows what they need to know in the business
delivered in bite-sized portions that they can consume.
It has to be consumable.
Everybody's different.
Yep.
And so going forward and then having a conversation,
it's not just a video or something.
It's sitting at a bar
and I can go ahead and spout off
what the interest rates are today.
We're Fannie Mae things are going
and you're like, what the?
He knows this stuff.
Yeah.
You know, and then you go to my Instagram
at Jessica Cage, Kage with K.
Kage with K.
You go to that and you see the entertainment stuff
where it's definitely out there.
It's in your face.
It's different than what you're seeing from everybody else.
Not to slag any other real estate agents,
but I am different.
Yes, you are.
But purposely so.
Purposely so, yeah.
And then there's brands.
Sorry, I totally like...
No, that's perfect.
I mean, that's kind of like right on brand
with anything that I've, you know,
I'm trying to teach anybody that I work with
and I know we do that together
is the power of being your authentic self, you know?
And I think it's easier said than done for a lot of people.
A lot of us are afraid.
I mean, I'm guilty at the beginning of mine.
Everybody knows my story.
You know, when I first got into this whole social media world,
my reservation was holding back,
oh, do I want people to know that I'm gay
and that I have a husband?
Like, they don't want to do business with me, you know?
And to that, you all know the story.
If you don't, I'm gonna let you know.
I mean, my coach, the first thing I asked her
was that via DM on Instagram
while she was at our fairway event.
You know, she was like, why?
Do you want to do business with people
who don't respect you for who you are?
And I was like, no.
You know, now that you put it that way, no, I really don't.
I wouldn't, you know?
So at the end of the day,
what I love about being your authentic self is,
you know, you're gonna scare some people away 100%.
It's gonna happen.
I'd be lying to you if I said that you wouldn't lose business.
You know?
It could happen.
But the reality is the type of business
you're gonna gain and the quality.
Again, I'm gonna preach this quality over quantity
so hard this year.
The quality of human being that you're gonna get
that connects with you for being exactly who you are
is a whole different caliber
than the people you're just trying to mold to be like
to get their business.
You know what I mean?
Like it's a whole different beast.
You know, you're gonna have referral business come through.
You're gonna have just things just fall into your lap
just because you're just not holding anything back.
Whether that is your appearance,
whether that is the way you talk, the way you move,
the way you do, just be unapologetically you
and everything that you do
and the rest will fall into place.
It's, I think a lot of people go into this world
and you know, we talk about it a lot
as these perfectly curated Instagram accounts
with the perfect pastels and the perfect little posts
and some of them are like, you know.
All pastels, all pastels, all pastels, flowers.
Always, you know, and it's just, it's crazy
because people think that they have to put on this show
per se for business.
But that's not the world we live in right now.
People are looking for that relatability,
the way to connect.
They're looking for the tattoos to start a conversation.
They're looking for, you know, the music thing
to start a conversation.
They're looking for something to latch onto
to talk about anything other than real estate
and then segue into that later on
once they feel comfortable enough with you.
When you get into the industry,
you sometimes they box broverages,
which again, you work where you work
because it's not a slag on anybody else.
What it is is though, when you come in, it's,
hey, this is our logo, this is our brand,
this is your header, this is what you do,
what you need down here.
Now look, we all have to, there's compliance,
gotta make sure you're compliant.
There's ways to be compliant and be awesome, right?
You don't have to just be I'm with blank
and this is who I am.
Here's my little name badge, which I hate,
this little fucking name badge.
It's terrible, it's terrible.
But.
The worm everywhere.
Oh, it's terrible.
She's gonna get yours tattooed.
Yeah, absolutely.
We're gonna get QR codes on our wrist or something.
Right here.
That cage actually has my logo from my radio show
on my chest, so yes, it's already there.
That's people rare.
But with what we're doing differently
with the cage collectives,
and this is not going to turn into an infomercial
for rejoining my brokers, but call me.
What the fuck?
You know, just had the conversation today in my meeting,
this was about branding, and they were coming here,
so it was kind of my, hey, let's get this going
and get the branding juices flowing, if you will.
Right, right.
And my whole thing is, I want you, yes, the logo is awesome.
And at this point, you flash our logo on.
There it goes. Awesome.
You see it?
So the logo is awesome.
I'm gonna make sure you do that now.
Okay, is it here?
I'm buying a new monitor.
Oh, I love this TikTok.
It's gonna be.
Where is it?
It's gonna be everywhere now.
Oh, we just added like an hour worth of work.
I'm gonna buy a whole new monitor today
because. Sorry, boo.
Gonna be busy tonight.
So, you know, talking to my team,
it's what makes you stand out?
What is your brand?
Who are you?
That's yours.
Who are you?
And, you know, and they all have their own little thing.
They all have their own, and I'm like, cool.
I'm gonna do everything I can to support what you are,
who you are, what you want to do,
the events you wanna put on,
you know, this year that you wanna reach.
I'm gonna help put money behind that
because I believe in you.
It's not just about my logo.
Yeah, the logo's gonna be on the sign.
Absolutely it is.
Same way as the Cage Cult Show was the Cage Cult Show,
but again, it was the community.
It was just a name.
There's gotta be a moniker.
There's gotta be.
Something to tie us all together.
Something, yeah, something.
But, you know, it's going in and going,
look, I'm on our listing signs.
There's some people that like, it's just the brokers,
or just the broker, or just the leader, or just whatever.
I'm like.
Dude, I'm gonna give you the template of the sign
because we're gonna be compliant
because I'm paying your fines.
We're gonna be compliant, but put your picture on.
Right, put it in the world wide.
Let me see something.
Let us see you.
I would rather have 10 agents that are top producers
than just me being a top producer, or just.
Right.
You know what I mean?
I want 10 different agents out there
because quite frankly, that's good for me.
Right.
That's good for the brand.
That's good for all of us.
You know what I mean?
It's good for life.
And logos, you know, it's crazy.
I think about logos all the time.
And this is something I heard probably last year
that stuck with me so hard is, you know,
you are a human being, number one, what are you being?
You know, what is it that you're being?
You know, and the other fact,
the other thing that I heard that kind of hit me hard was
when it comes to logos, like, you are your logo.
Like, you can have the coolest company in the world,
biggest company on earth
with this cool logo that they have, right?
But at the end of the day, like, you are your logo.
So the KH Collective has this badass logo.
But the fact that you want your people's face out there,
you want them to be their own brand, huge,
because that's, in this market, that's what's working
and that's what's helping people.
You know, I talk to people all the time,
they're so reserved about it, like,
oh, I don't want to do that because I have pink hair,
or I don't want to do it because of my tattoos,
or, you know, I'm worried about what people
are going to think of me if I'm not dressed up all the time.
I found a team for you if you have pink hair and tattoos.
It's not about that anymore.
The whole, like, oh, I want to use the word tapestry.
Oh, wow.
Tapestry of our industry, it is changing.
You watch what's working on, you know, social media.
I don't know if you followed him recently at all,
but there's a guy that has sort of fallen here in Tampa,
he kind of, you know, rip off and duplicate,
we use that all the time, from someone up in Texas,
Brad the Rulter in Texas, you know, Tampa Turf.
He started copying it here,
and he's doing these hilarious video walkthroughs
that are completely off the wall, not for everybody,
you know, it's just hilarious.
We would do this to their house.
It's just, it's so different the way
that he's marketing himself,
and I personally have watched him within,
like, I want to say it's been, like, maybe two weeks,
I took a screenshot, like, with the first three videos
that he did of the profile,
and he was only at a couple thousand people that were following.
He's over 15,000 followers in less than two weeks.
But he's doing something different,
and you're going to see comments that are like,
oh, I can't believe you would do this.
But his brokerage is fully supportive,
and it's so cool to see them like,
listen, do your thing, man, if this is your thing,
do what works for you.
I think it's when people put themselves
in those little cookie cutters,
and they try to mold to whatever, you know,
they think they're supposed to do,
they get burnt out real quick.
Because it's not them.
They don't feel like themselves,
they don't feel comfortable, you know,
and then, you know, to your comment about the outfits,
then a lot of people go down the path
of, like, spending all this money on new wardrobes
and new this, just to find out, like,
this doesn't feel right.
And your people will call you out for it, you know,
they will.
People who really know you are going to be like,
what the hell, are you, that's not you.
What are you doing?
That's the last thing you want.
In any business, this is so universal.
You know, I'm helping my buddy here with this,
you know, this company here, Evolving Vitality,
it's like, you are your business,
your face, your voice, the person behind the interaction.
You know, we talked about my little pin quote
that I wrote down, it's like, I wrote it.
You wrote it?
I wrote it.
You wrote it when you willed him?
When did you write these things?
I don't know why I wrote it.
Oh, why did I say it like that?
What?
Yeah, I mean, like, you know, did they buy the pin
or did they buy what the pin produces?
You know, like, are you buying the pin because,
oh, what a pretty pin, or do you buy your pins
because you like the way it writes?
You like the ink that comes out.
It's the end result that you're really looking for.
Pins to friends.
I mean, she bought all the markers,
it's gonna be sort of my little markers.
We haven't talked about.
Oh boy.
Oh no.
Oh boy.
You know, but I love this topic because it just,
you know, it's hard to do for some, but I swear to you,
as soon as you rip off the band-aid,
you stop worrying about what people are gonna think
about you, you're gonna be shocked
to see what the outcome is.
Well, I do look like a typical real estate person.
Like, people will stop me in the grocery store
and be like, you're in real estate.
I'm like, oh, I gave it away.
No.
Oh.
It was a bad joke, it was an ink tag.
Oh, yeah.
Definitely bad.
Oh, the name tags.
Trash.
Whoa.
Stop it.
I give off it.
So I have to do something a little bit different,
like, because I do already look like this.
Like, I don't have tattoos and I don't have pink hair,
but I have nothing against those things.
I like those things.
And if I could ever find something that I really wanted,
I would get a tattoo of it.
That's the hard part for me.
But for a real estate, you know, okay, I'm a goofball.
Like, I am silly, goofy, whatever.
When I do regular videos, people will be like, are you okay?
Yeah, are you okay?
I know.
Point twice if you're in trouble.
I know, right?
Brittany, Brittany, Brittany, let us know.
Chill out with the knives now.
Something's wrong there.
I have to be myself, which is goofy and silly,
but like, people, once they get to know me,
just like they get to know you, they're like,
oh, she's actually smart.
She actually understands this business
and knows what she's doing.
I mean, I have a master's degree and people look at me
like I just graduated high school
and just kind of like, I'm gonna begin real estate.
Like, no, I have a lot of things that go to me.
So I have to just make sure whatever I'm doing,
I just stay doing it naturally for me.
And I think that's very hard for people to let go
of that business side of, okay, I'm a professional.
Like, I have to wear this.
I do wear blazers all the time,
but people think they have to wear it.
Who was the last time you wore a blazer?
I do not wear blazers.
I'm gonna buy you fancy one with tattoo on it.
I do have a, what's that soft velvet.
Velvet, velvet.
The purple one?
The black one.
Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I have that.
It's your fancy.
That's what I do with my expressed jeans
and my cool Vans and I put that on.
These are cool.
Can you see these?
That's my dress up.
These are my dress shoes.
Yeah, my dress up.
So, yeah, but if you just change something to change it,
then you're off-ramps.
You're not you.
You gotta be you.
And again, I think it's like,
if, I think I said the F word once twice today already.
But this is an issue.
On air.
If somebody has a problem with what you're doing,
fuck them.
It doesn't matter what they think.
It doesn't matter.
Cheers. Cheers to that.
Cheers to that.
All the way across.
Your vibe is your tribe.
I literally, Melvin that was in my books,
literally about to say that.
My wife who is a yoga instructor says that all the time.
We have a chocolate.
That is, dude, come on.
See?
It's a thing.
Am I doing this on the internet with you guys now?
Cause I'm there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm probably gonna close now.
Seriously, seriously.
I do it here every time.
But no, I think it's huge.
I think for those of you that are kind of
on this path of figuring it out,
I think a lot of you that would listen to this,
I think you've already had this go through your head
several times like,
oh man, this is not me.
Like, what am I doing?
And then you feel like you have to do it
because of your industry,
or you have to do it because of your brokerage.
You have to do it because of some other reason.
You're justifying the reason why
you have to do something, right?
I think, and this is a mindset shift
that I think a lot of people need to do,
is just realizing that you have the,
because of what you do for a living now,
you now have the opportunity to do things
that other people don't have the opportunity to do.
You know, and that is be yourself.
That is have fun with your videos
and your reels that you create,
or have fun with your walkthroughs.
Have fun with your clients, you know?
Get them involved.
You know, one of the videos I shared yesterday
in one of my training classes
was Kyle Toomey on Instagram.
You guys can find him.
He does some good content,
and his new thing he's doing is including the clients
on their own listing walkthrough.
And it's super cute because, you know,
he's got the husband and the wife,
and she's doing something in one room,
and the kids are playing in the other room.
They're all dancing.
And he just kind of blows through the rooms,
and it gets them involved.
It gets them to feel a part of something too.
But on the receiving end of it,
like you feel connected.
You're like, wow, that's so cool.
That's a family like my family.
You know, that's a human being like me.
You know, that guy is just having fun with what he does.
And I think too much of us are going into our businesses,
whether it's real estate or not,
with this super hardcore, you know,
cut it like straight edge mindset of like,
oh, I gotta be clean cut
because this other company is doing that,
or this other company is doing it like this.
I don't care what the other companies are doing
because you aren't the other company.
If you wanted to be like the other company,
just stop what you're doing, save the money,
and join the other company.
I mean, let's be real.
Get in line.
There's more agents in the state of Florida
than there are listings.
Okay?
So what are you doing?
What are you doing to stand out from that crowd?
And it doesn't mean you're gonna win every listing.
It doesn't mean you're gonna win every buyer over.
And that's fine.
That's okay.
But you gotta get an at-bat.
If you're not getting at-bats, you're in the lineup.
And you're just sitting there.
You're just on the bench.
You gotta get an at-bat.
And with there being thousands and thousands
and thousands and thousands of agents.
That was thousands.
Thousands.
Thousands and thousands.
You have got to make your mark.
You've gotta stand out.
And quite frankly, I don't care if it's good or bad.
I don't care.
Controversy creates cash, baby.
I was gonna say, what was the thing we wrote down?
Yeah, so my favorite author.
That's a podcast title.
Maybe that should be.
Kind of, yeah.
So Eric Bischoff.
It's maybe three of you will know who Eric Bischoff is.
Eric Bischoff was the, he rose to fame
as the executive vice president
of World Championship wrestling.
Back in the night,
I remember it was mid to late 90s.
Wrestling was five million, 12 million a week watching.
It was crazy.
Coming back, actually, it's doing pretty well now.
I'll follow like I did then.
But Eric Bischoff took your company
that was never making money,
did some different things,
created some controversy in those things,
and then turned this coming around
and almost took down the WWF at the time,
which was a huge thing.
Eric wrote a book called Controversy Creates Cash.
And so I read that book.
When this was a long time ago,
when I was on the air,
I actually used a lot of that book in my radio stuff.
And it is, it's my favorite book.
It's fun, it's light, it's deep, it's sad, it's scary.
It's all these different things about his journey there.
And actually, he just wrote another book called Grateful,
which I just read last week, which is really-
I like the progression of that.
Oh, it's incredible.
I just got goosebumps.
I love it.
I got a chance to meet him and invite him during,
he's a great guy.
But it's true, controversy creates cash.
Now, we're not just talking about going out
and Justin Cage is at $30 a month,
you smash the front window out.
Controversial, I don't think.
Show me the money.
Yeah, exactly.
But there is ways for me, look, I get who I am.
And I know there's people in this market who like,
oh, that's Justin Cage.
He said blah, blah, blah for years and years.
And so there could be some controversy on that.
But again, like we're saying, now they see what I'm doing.
They see the education, they see the entertainment,
they see all that stuff.
But you still have to press it.
When I said, it was funny when I started doing the videos.
And actually I own Melvin a lot because
as I was on a former team and doing some other stuff,
like I can't say enough about the source group,
they were fantastic.
I just untied my shoes, I picked my foot up,
so enjoy that.
There it is.
Enjoy that, I'm not tying.
We're not tied down.
Not tied, you can't tie me down.
I felt like I wasn't doing,
I wasn't embracing the things I should be embracing
because like I said, I was trying to get away
with some certain things and, you know,
Melvin actually really helped me.
He's like, dude, you know,
you should be doing this video.
And it was a lot of technical stuff
because I had been doing some videos,
but he's like, well, think about this, think about this,
think about this.
And I'm like, okay, I start implementing other things,
write down to put captions on.
I don't fucking know, I don't, yeah, okay, captions.
Right?
You know?
Do one thing today, add captions to all your videos.
What's that? It's not everything.
Everything.
And CapCut is amazing.
Go get CapCut, get Pro, it's great.
Not sponsored by the way.
Yeah, not sponsored at all.
True.
But, you know, going out and creating those new things.
And I remember the first time I said,
fuck in one of my videos.
And I'm like, well, because I can't say it on the air.
I could never say it on the air.
And how I never did.
Yeah, let us say, how'd you get away?
It's insane.
How'd you even talk?
Very terrible.
That would be so stressful for me.
But I was like, and I beeped it out the first time.
And I'm like, I don't think so.
Yeah.
I'm like, I don't think so.
Because if our experience is that bad,
then we're not gonna work together.
The interaction's gonna be, yeah,
the interaction's gonna be rough.
Because let me be honest with you,
and you guys in the industry, and you in the industry,
how many times you've called another agent,
or a lender, or a title company,
or whatever the case may be,
and they drop the first buck, and you're like, oh yes.
So excited.
I can do it.
You're my people.
There's statistics around that.
There's a book that I read, Chris Smith's,
The Conversion Code.
And there's statistics around
if you were to drop a profanity
within the first X amount of seconds of the phone call,
the phone call goes better.
The guard goes down.
For most.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
The phone call goes on.
You're not saying you just immediately, hey.
You don't get a lead from Zillie.
Hey, what the fuck is going on?
I see you love this freaking house.
Like, no, we're not.
Taking notes.
Yeah.
Don't do that.
You know, but if it's, you know,
you feel out your person.
You feel out your people.
When you're in a, you can tell
within the first couple seconds of any phone call
kind of the direction that you're allowed to go,
and that you're not allowed to go.
And if that's something that you don't feel or get,
one, you might need some training on like, calls.
I think I have a little one-up on a lot of people
because I worked like almost 15 years
in call center environments.
You know, so I got a lot of training on how to call,
how to talk, and how to do those things, you know.
But if you're not picking up on those verbal cues,
you might need a little help there
and figuring out how to like read people through the phone.
It's very different than facial expressions.
I mean, when you're with somebody real life,
it's very easy to tell like their emotion.
You know, but over the phone, it's the tone,
it's the infliction, it's the way that you're safe.
How do you know when you're in the phone?
How quick?
Oh, that's true.
Real quick, you gotta make a connection.
You get two seconds.
Really?
Make the connection.
I had, last week,
I had a random internet lead from Canada.
And you know, I called, you know, and I was like,
hey, and she goes, uh, uh.
And I was like, hey, you're on my website.
She goes, oh no.
She goes, I put my number, didn't I?
And I go, oh no, you put your number.
I go, damn, I hate it when that happens, right?
I hate it when I do that to myself.
When they're being honest, that sucks.
And she starts laughing and now she's in my sphere
and she's looking for Anchorage to move on to.
So, and it went from Canada to here.
And it was one of those things where it was,
had I not broken that, had I not saved that call,
she's gone.
But that's so naturally you.
Right.
To just lean into like the, oh no.
Oh no, I can't believe I'm calling you,
how terrible, calling from my website
where you put your number.
Right.
Terrible.
Right.
That's, I mean, that's such a cool technique,
you know, to use.
Even if it's, even if you don't have that level of like,
you know, let's say level of personality,
I don't even know what other word to use,
but if you feel like you're not there yet,
be, I mean, be intelligent.
Is there levels to personality?
I'm sure there are.
You can probably, you know, like dial it back.
Dial it back.
So there has to be some levels.
Oh, there is levels, it's true, decibel levels.
I've heard that before.
Full volume.
Don't dial it back.
Don't dial it back with us.
Shoot.
Amp it up.
Full volume.
But no, I mean, like to his point,
making that connection at the beginning is huge.
You know, one thing I challenge a lot of my people to do is,
especially if you're paying for leads,
or maybe you're not paying for them,
your broker is just paying for them,
whomever, your lender is paying for them,
and dish them back out to you to build some value
and to build some relationship there.
Play off of the emotion.
If you don't know, if you have nothing else
that you could play off of,
play off of the home that they sent you.
You know, keep it simple.
Hey, I see that you were interested in XYZ Street
and St. Pete, Florida, you know,
tell me why that's the one that you're so in love with.
Like, why is that the one you picked out of every home?
And then let them do the rest for you.
I was just showing that house the other day.
It's a nice house.
Right, build the connection.
Blue my skirt up.
Build the connection on whatever you can build
a connection with, but don't start forcing sales
down their throat.
You know, like, oh, I'm so and so,
and I'm a real stage, and now you can help me.
They know you're a real stage,
and that's probably why they submitted the request.
I mean, like, a lot of people are approaching these things
with like no common sense, I feel like.
And they're like, hey, I just want to let you know
that I am the real street that will be working your lead.
Do you know why?
Because you're walking into, again,
you're walking into a brokerage,
who gives you your script, and they teach the script.
And they do call, ring, rings on the script,
and you do the script, and you do the script,
and you do the script, and I want to be very clear about it.
There's good points to be made by the script.
Correct.
There's great points.
If you don't know what you're doing,
you need a script at least to start.
You need a script to start.
But it's on me then, as a team leader,
to go to my team, and if I give them a script,
because again, we always stress.
Evolve, you have to evolve.
Evolve.
Oh yeah.
I don't want to hear the script.
I want to hear the points of the script.
Right.
Give me my points.
Bingo.
You know, this was always a thing when I was on the air.
It's like, you know, we're going to sit there
and talk for four hours.
I'm not writing out four hours of material.
You write a couple bullet points, and you do the job.
Right.
We have bullet points in our little beautiful book over here.
Our little notebook.
Right, you know.
It's getting famous.
Write a couple bullet points.
My book.
And do the deal.
And that's it.
And again, once you do that, then you're authentic.
And people see through the bullshit,
and they're going to find the person who's authentic.
They do.
I think people are getting better
at seeing through the bullshit,
because there is so much of it.
There's so much of it.
And right now, I mean, to your point,
that's a really good point you just made,
is we're at the part where people now,
you know, regardless of the industry,
they realize that social media is a powerful tool.
You know, so a lot of people are doing it now.
You know, people who don't even know
what they're doing are doing it, right?
So again, to your point is,
what makes you different from everybody else?
You.
You know, the same goes with this whole AI world
that we live in.
I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't use AI
on my everyday life.
It has changed my life.
It's changed the trajectory of how I work.
Big words today.
Oh, trajectory, tapestry, and a dash of it?
It is tapestry, tapestry.
It's a dash of it.
Yeah, that's going to be the title of the podcast.
It just blows out.
That's going to be the title, Unabashedly Authentic.
Ooh.
Boom.
I love that.
You know, but like.
You sit with genius and you just have to just be all.
It's it.
It's the beard.
It's coming like it's just.
Oh no sir, you're being stoned.
Is it your beard or your beard?
Not me.
That beautiful beard you got going on there.
Yeah, I just got a fresh fade.
Yeah.
I remember when I get to get anything.
Fresh fade.
Just going around like that.
Hey listen.
You got a freshly shaved head.
I mean, I guess that's cool.
Keep it shiny.
I remember Homer Simpson with like four hairs.
Yeah.
Homer Simpson.
Right.
I can't.
This is so much fun.
I'll do it for the next one.
Remember having that guy grow it out for a couple of days?
Just grow it out.
Or like can we braid your beard and just have it like.
It would be first time.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like you just got fresh off a cruise.
My cousin in West Palm has this and I braid it.
I braid it.
We put little beads in it.
He's it.
As long as we do like the intro music, it's going to be like frozen.
Ooh.
Oh yes.
I'm going to hit Nicky times.
I'm going to start talking about my language.
I'm hidden Nicky.
Oh, I don't even know where it's.
We're not going to try to find out where it's hidden.
I did want to.
There was a couple things we talked about.
Controversy.
Oh, boy.
He's got a Mickey tattoo.
Oh, boy.
No, I mean, I think.
Of course.
Oh, Lord.
No, I think.
Listen, y'all, like seriously.
I think if any of you are afraid to be, you know,
the person that you are in the business that you've run,
I think that's a huge issue personally.
I think that's going to be something you need to do some explore
and some self, you know, figure yourself out.
You know what I mean?
And a quote that I wrote down from last week's podcast,
I'll probably butcher it, you know,
but essentially what it boils down to is if you're still working on yourself
in any way, anyway, you are not the person that you want to be.
So people use this excuse all the time, like, I'm not who I want to be yet.
Or I'm not where I want to be yet.
I don't look like I want to look at for my videos or excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse.
You're we're always constantly working on ourselves.
And if you're not, I don't think I don't think you're going to ever grow.
You know, so you're never exactly who you want to be ever.
Right. No one knows.
No, they don't care.
They don't care.
Plus, they don't see it.
They don't see it.
Like, I don't like my voice.
Somebody said yesterday, we're talking about.
I hear that all the time.
I go, I did radio for 25 years and I don't like my voice.
Correct. So like, I don't want to hear it.
We don't. Your voice sounds different to me.
It sounds different to her. It sounds different to you.
It doesn't matter. Apparently they're very docile tones, though.
I like them.
Smooth operator.
Calling.
I'm Sade Alde.
Sade Alde. Sade Alde.
That's the title. Sade Alde.
Oh, my gosh.
That should be a that should be like a shandy.
It should be a shandy. Sade Alde shandy.
It should be a shandy at Three Daughters Ruin.
St. Petersburg.
This guy calls it home.
It's huge. It's huge.
I mean, cool spot, too, for like corporate events and anything you need.
We're not calling it corporate.
Yeah, no, definitely not corporate.
No HR. No HR involved.
Oh, God.
Could you imagine?
Shut down.
No, but I I I don't even know.
I could go for days on this.
I'm just trying to reel myself in.
Would you like a bullet point?
Throw me a bullet point.
Would you like one?
OK, so this one I like because it's we're talking about what is a brand.
One of your comments on your Nonsense Notes was what is not a brand?
Oh, what is not a brand?
What is not a brand?
Put my thing down, flip it and reverse it.
You're flipping it and playing me up.
Shut my mouth.
Uh, you going to make your logo before you know who you are?
Oh, are you all writing notes?
Deep. Chantel. Chantel's writing notes.
Chantel's writing notes.
She wrote notes for the last one.
Stop thinking logo before you know who you are.
My logo, which is right here.
Right there. Melvin.
Right there. Move it over.
Move it over. Up there.
I'm putting I'm going to put some I'm going to find a really good picture of you.
It is just going to be your head as a cut out sticker.
Find one with him in a polo shirt.
My logo is every bit of my adult life and career.
It's the rockfingers. It's the font.
It is 100% what you think if you knew Jesse Cage.
It's a thousand percent what you think that, right?
So a lot of people go out and it's like I'm going to I'm going to be a real estate agent and I got a brand.
So they hear it. You don't know.
I have to make a brand.
So you go on Etsy or wherever you get.
Canva. Canva.
Everybody does the Canva.
Real estate.
You know it's the you know okay cool I got a you know.
The little house with the windows.
It's going to hurt.
Yeah. They don't want to go there even.
It's going to hurt because you all have it.
It's the house and it maybe gets into your name a little bit.
Like it's this thing I'm like guys it's the same thing.
That's not a brand.
Nope.
It's a generic logo that says you sell houses but it doesn't tell me who you are.
And what a huge miss.
Go back if you're just for some reason starting at.
Right.
Three hours and.
Seven full minutes and three years later.
You know go back and see why but that's not that's not a brand.
And people are like are you a brand?
What's your brand?
Here's my logo.
Absolutely not.
Tell me about you.
You are your brand.
The human being the person.
Yes.
Your logo goes on your marketing.
But your branding is more.
It's you.
It's what you give off.
It's what's out there for people to consume.
Like that's your brand.
And that's when people say oh that's so on brand for that person that's so on brand.
We're not talking about your logo.
We're talking about oh that was so something that person or that company.
Would do.
Yeah.
100 percent.
That's exactly what it is.
That's crazy.
I hope you all are taking notes for real because I know a lot of I know a handful of you all that have had these conversations with me recently about logos and branding.
And you know I just I urge you to step outside the box that you put yourself in and just watch what happens.
You know you will search.
Yeah seriously.
Listen I do want a TV show.
You know segue.
I want to do.
I want to do a home improvement.
Home alone.
Home improvement.
Yeah.
Home improvement.
No I just want like you know a group of LGBT allies veterans just you know building houses and fixing things and showing the whole real estate process like more than just the HGTV like fixer upper.
Yeah.
I fixed your house like no I want to see the whole thing.
I want to see what happens on the other side and this side and how they get to the table.
I don't know it's a thought it's a dream to have a lot of those.
Deal.
Yeah you'll be the you know the real estate office that we use exclusively.
I mean kind of goes hand in hand with you know Marshall and the USF bulls thing.
Similar.
You know.
I don't know that I would.
Some things.
Be careful.
Put them away those are dangerous.
I'm back to the red book.
So let me ask you this before we get to the red book you know if you if you let's just put you in a scenario real quick I think in my head I was thinking this earlier if you were to have a new agent that came to you right and you vibe but then you like them like oh yeah I definitely hire them you know and then let's say.
In that interaction you got a certain vibe and then they kind of don't match that later on like what would you do to coach them into like hey man like let's let loose let yourself go like be yourself like what what tips would you give someone either in that situation or just someone who knows that they are quirky and they're this and they're that and they're just afraid to let that shine.
You can tell it's not happening for him what are you gonna do.
Yeah okay so.
With anybody on my team new or whatever the case may be we're all about being together we're all about you know every this is not just for three hours by the way but every Friday at four thirty as long as you're not doing money making activities as much as I.
As much as I can demand you do something at four thirty we need your office right on the streets right three hours right on the other side of our rear and I need to know that so it's an easy thing for me to do in that type of situation if I see something happening on my part that's not you or this is not working for whatever reason.
It's easy to wait for a moment so radio I was taught to listen right the art of listening is gone.
I'm not the next thing you're going to say it's always always you know you will miss so much good bad and different you miss so much because I'm like oh shit I've got something I'm gonna oh yeah I'm gonna say some of that point so in radio I got a single thing you'll listen and see what happens and then you can reply appropriately and sometimes it's fun to listen because people will just talk themselves into corners and then you get your own argument with somebody just shut up for a sec yeah let them talk themselves into a corner.
That's my favorite because you know you're saying one thing and then another thing and another thing and nothing matches up so when I'm with our people I sit down listen to what they're saying to me watch how they're interacting with other people and go sorry.
That's your moment yeah you see how you talked about bartender right that's who you are so why when you're doing fucking ring rings are you you sound like a robot this is who you are so true so just be you.
You know what just came to mind that I don't know this came like this is in the depths of my brain I don't know like I was like you did you touch me that's what it was it was when I was in like my private school there was this there was this I went to Baptist private school for half my life.
I don't know if you ever heard this song this little light of mine remember that song this song gonna let it shine this little light of mine and let it shine let it shine don't dull your own light don't put out your own candle you know I think I'm guilty because I put out my candle for I mean hell I put my candle out for 22 years.
Let me tell you it takes a toll on you mentally you may not think it but it will take a toll on you mentally it wasn't until about three and a half four weeks ago when I got my blood test and everything done through my buddy who owns this evolving vitality he explained to me we were in the military together he is just a beautiful human being man and him and one of my other good buddies I deployed with started this company they're talking to me about just health and you know in my head I'm thinking I'm healthy I'm fine I'm not really I don't have any ailments and I'm doing all right I don't get sick.
Often you know but just get checked just get checked because you never know you're burning the candles at both ends and you know it's crazy when you take the time to look inward and let yourself go because I could have sat there and been like the rest of my family and like I'm good man I'm totally okay nothing's wrong with me you know I'm seventy five to seventy eight years old according to my blood work right you know and that's because of high stress levels and with bonkers to me is I don't feel like I'm stressed because the way that my brain the way that I function
is I relate it back to things that happen when I grew up things that happen in my past life things that I went through before coming out coming out whatever the case may be and I go oh my job's not that stressful like this is not that bad I need this I need to chill out like this isn't stressful at all but I was told you know what your stress levels have been so high for so long that your body is now adjusted to that level of stress and that's your new norm that's why you don't feel the difference I don't feel it mentally or emotionally a lot of times but physically it's
taken a toll you know so I'm telling you guys right now you know if you're playing this you know I like to call it the chameleon you know if you're just the chameleon and you just want to mold and adapt to everybody that's fine but be conscious of what you're doing if you're doing something like that and you're like oh god this feels weird is this I'm totally not vibing with this person or this is not really what I'm doing but I'm just gonna do it anyway you got to be conscious of that you got to shut it down because over time that will build up and that will create the stress
levels that you probably don't even know you have and it's gonna start causing issues mentally emotionally in your relationship in your business I mean in the business is huge because I've worked with so many brokers and it's crazy how quick the agents can pick up on something's off here something's not right you know it's one thing to wear on your sleeve but what are you doing what are you doing to adjust what are you doing to adapt and evolve and become the person that you really know that you should be regardless of what the outcome is going to be with your business like it's going
to end the way it's supposed to if you do the right thing I think sometimes it's just give yourself grace grace that's good word good word we take so much to heart so much personal and we have to do just this this is this and we have this regiment and all this other shit going on that we forget that we are human beings love affection shit outside of work you know when shit goes bad but we have all had
deals that go bad of course whether it's your fault or not and sometimes it is your fault sometimes it is sometimes it is yeah and then in those moments those are learning moments and you give yourself some grace as soon as you give yourself some grace then you can start feeling a little bit better about yourself yeah okay look I am human but I'm a perfectionist of perfectionists I want everything to be perfect I just do I want every client to feel exactly the same perfect I want every client to feel loved and we give so much of ourselves so much that sometimes
you have to remember you do have the ability to give yourself grace and that is okay yes you know and you were saying if you're in a situation that you don't like or you're not messing with somebody you have every right every single part of your being knows what you're supposed to do it doesn't matter what somebody else thinks you're supposed to do do it take the risk
figure it out it doesn't mean it's not going to be messy it doesn't mean that there's not going to be you know a backlash for every action there's a reaction so know that things are going to happen but at the same time you've got to be unabashedly you yes see you and that means you're in charge of yourself and whatever you is just be you if you is tattoos you is you is if you is if that's what you if that's what you is if that's what you is that's who you is you know it's
learned to the grocery store and somebody asked him like I really wanna know like did anyone actually close a deal From someone that they met at a grocery store with their Rap try gone like maybe they had a high but he
It does, it does.
It puts you in this box that I'm a realtor.
Ding!
And it's like, oh, okay, that's great.
But it'll be the same as me saying, did the guy holding the repent sign on the side of the road ever save anybody?
I don't know.
I think, that's what you want to do, good for you.
But I don't know, what is the effective?
In my mind, what's the rate of return on that?
What's the rate of return?
Rate of return on that?
I don't know.
How many souls have you saved?
How many souls?
Oh, Murakanda, your soul is mine.
But my thing is, get over here.
Get over here.
But I just, you know, again, the name tag, what am I going to do?
I'm going to be like, I'm going to put this over here.
I'm going to be real nice about this.
You're a name tag, I'm like, no, trust me, lady.
I like it, I like it.
Like, you know, like, I'm going to lean in and see, oh, okay, cool.
I'm going to nail it a fair way.
Right, the writing is the best part anyway.
I don't know, man.
What are you?
I'm like, great excuse.
I'm like.
Right.
I was reading your name tag.
I was reading your, oh, your real thing.
Oh, Sasha.
I really think you nailed it though with the box thing.
Like, don't put yourself in a dang box, you know?
And this is personal opinion, you know, for me personally, when it comes to your social media and things that you're doing,
I don't know why I get irritated in this.
Obviously, this is not genuine specifically.
So if you have this, it is what it is.
But I think it irritates me when someone's Instagram name is like, so-and-so, realtor.
So-and-so, realtor.
Or realtor this person or realtor with your name.
I don't know.
To me, like, before I even get to know that human being, I just, I mean, you're a real estate partner for life, right?
Me, yeah.
But I don't know, it's very different when you're a real estate partner for life.
Like, that stands for something bigger.
But I don't know, I feel like when you're like, hey, realtor, you know, John Smith, is your Instagram name, you know?
Jesse Cage, man.
Jesse Cage.
Well, then.
Oh, no, that's perfect.
That's not the username.
No, that's a search.
That's a search.
That's search optimization.
So, at Jesse Cage.
When you see mine, like, right, when you see mine, when you see Jesse's Instagram, right, mine's just at Melvin Ray.
It's been like that since forever.
That's my Xbox gamer tag.
I mean, that's been my name forever.
Ray is my middle name.
You know, I can go in there and change it, put Melvin Ray mortgage guy.
Like, I don't know.
To me, that feels like you're already selling to me and I don't really want to know you.
But it's different.
Like, I have Melvin Ray Bermudez and then next to my name, I have Fairway Mortgage, right?
Underneath.
Like, yeah.
So, that is like, that's search optimization.
For those that wonder, you know, Google typically can only, typically it's querying either your username,
or your real full name.
So, I did that.
So, someone types in Melvin Mortgage.
Melvin.
Whoa.
Yeah, listen.
We are just.
I am queer.
You're querying it.
Let's be queer.
Let's be queer about it.
Let's be queer.
Queer.
So, querying is the next podcast.
We'll get more questions.
Yes.
I like that.
It's actually quite queer.
Querying.
We should do a live one day.
That'd be fun.
People want to be in the audience when we do these.
So, I think we should.
Yeah.
We can do that.
We can make that happen.
I'll be in the audience, certainly.
But, no, I mean, like, I don't know.
For me personally, I think that's always as soon as I see an Instagram account like that, I'm like, oh, God, they're going to try to sell to me.
They're going to try to buy it.
So, yeah.
There's just this negative annotation for me personally, and I don't think I'm the only one that feels that way.
You know?
So, I think it's very important to have your name somewhere in your username, for sure.
Your name?
You know?
But.
You know, like.
You are who you are.
You got to think of how people are going to look for you, too.
You know what I mean?
So, a lot of people do these nicknames.
You know, you have a Jeep.
I use this joke all the time, but it's like, you know, Jeep Lover 27.
Cute, but like, I don't know who you are.
And then, Jeep Lover 27 typically puts their real name as some nickname, too.
So, like, when you go to find them on Instagram, you can't ever find this person.
And if you think people aren't trying to find you a picture, a video, some sort of like tangible something for the person they're about to spend the most money they've ever spent with in their life, you are mistaken.
You know?
And I, you know, this is not to be rude, but I know a lot of my old school realtors who've been doing this for 20, 40, 30, you know, whatever, how many years, right?
They use that as a crutch and it drives me up a wall.
I've been doing this for 40 years.
I've never needed it.
Well, that's great.
40 years ago, things were a lot different than now.
You know, what you didn't need then.
That's a cute art code.
Yeah.
Like, you know what?
What worked then does not work now.
You know what I mean?
So, again, I was very strategic in picking my shirt today for.
For a reason, because I do feel like you do need to evolve.
You know, if you are not evolving, if you're not constantly growing, if you're not constantly adapting and overcoming, you know, you're going to get left in the dust.
You're going to wonder why so many people are doing better than you.
I get this a lot of times from people.
How come the young guys are doing so well?
I'm like, well, look at them.
A lot of them are just out there networking, socializing, making friends, making relationships.
They're not going about it.
The old school method of like cold calling and hoping you answer and hoping you get connected.
Like, no, let me take you out to lunch.
Let's go.
Let's go walk around.
Let's go do this place.
Let's go.
Whatever.
Let's go do life together.
Let's, you know, let's share experiences.
You know, for those of you that want to ease your way into this and you feel like, oh, man, you're speaking to my heart.
You know, start photos.
Start.
I just want people to make some money off that stuff.
You know, but like, take your social media, take your Instagram, start sharing those life moments.
Start sharing those experiences.
A lot of that stuff you can share in a story disappears in 24 hours, but it still gets it out there.
You know, one thing we talk about all the time in our coachings is, you know, it's I have to make a conscious effort to watch someone's story.
I can't get mad that I sat through the five hundred things that they put on their story because I chose to do that because I'm not interested in that human being.
Another thing I took from a podcast in the last couple of weeks is, you know, human beings are most interested and intrigued by other human beings.
So, like, putting those elements into your social, putting those elements of your real life into your stuff is huge.
And someone just yesterday told me this and, you know, I wanted to just deep dive into it.
I'm like, why do you feel that way?
But you probably heard this too, like, oh, I don't really have a life.
Bullshit. You have a life.
Everybody has a life. You're putting yourself in a box.
You're putting yourself away because you think your life is not interesting enough.
This particular person I know has a life, beautiful human being.
They have a Rottweiler just like mine.
When I found out they had a dog like mine and that was it for me, I was like, oh, we got to hang out with dogs.
You know, like that is a life.
You may not look at it that way, but you need to change the way that you think what you're doing on a day to day basis.
That is your life. What you're doing with your family.
If your family is your life, if your kids are your life, that's your life.
You have a life. People are going to relate to that.
When you hold that stuff back and all you're putting out there is the beautifully curated content that makes you look like you have a perfect family.
We all have those friends. We watch on social media like that. That is not that's not true.
They were just about to get divorced yesterday.
Now they're the happiest family on earth, taking family photos with Santa.
Like we know from behind the scenes, right?
But like you're mistaken if you think people aren't always looking.
They're always watching Mike Wazowski.
Always. Always watching Mike Wazowski. Always watching.
Is that a realtor? Who's that?
That should be a shirt for social media.
But no, I mean like let go. Let it go. Let it go. I'm hitting you with the Disney today.
Like let it go. Let it go.
No, like just let it go.
Also, if you feel you don't have a life, that's a problem.
That is a problem. That is a problem.
Like we should probably address that first versus like how you're going to show your life on social media.
But like if you're working so hard that you're not taking time for yourself or your family or your life.
Huge. Huge.
You have nothing to relate to people.
I mean people can't relate to you over real estate alone.
They have to relate to all these other pieces.
And that's something maybe spend some time doing that because we talked about we want some actionable items to talk about today.
So spend some time.
What's something in your life that you can really feel comfortable sharing with everybody else?
Like what is it?
I was telling you, I was telling KJ this morning, you know, one of my one of my favorite brokers I've ever worked with in my life.
He's just an amazing human being altogether.
You know, I'm helping him out with his social media and getting some things spun up.
And you know, he shared some personal stuff last night for the first time, sent me a text and you know, pictures of hey, is this like what do you think about this?
And I see it. I go immediately.
Wait, I didn't know you had goats like you have a farm.
Like, you know, that's the stuff that people want to connect with.
Like me personally, I've known this person for a very long time and I never knew those pieces about his life because it was never shared.
You know what I mean?
And a lot of people are scared to share those moments because they're like, well, what if you don't like that I have a farm?
What if people don't like that?
What if people don't like that I'm out doing this?
You know, and to that, you know, my you know, yeah.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm all like, yeah, no, seriously, you know, really, that's that's really what it boils down to.
You know, I think, you know, I don't want to keep you guys.
We'll wrap it up here shortly, but I don't know, I could go for days on this.
But you know, one thing, there are more episodes.
You know, for me, I had a place to go with this and I really wanted it.
I was going to ask you a question.
Now my brain just.
We were talking about.
So yeah, there's a lot of you never knew about goats.
You didn't know about the goats.
Goats.
I showed you a goat.
Holy shit.
There's goats.
Let it go.
That was a bad joke.
Oh, no.
This is us.
What's really great is like people are probably going to see the transition of us like holding back at the beginning and not holding back.
You know, episode four.
I know.
So yeah, we're going to we're going to wrap it up.
But you know, I think we have some stuff to give away.
Do you want to give us some give away stuff?
I'm sorry.
I'm trying to think of my thought.
I really want to get my thought out there.
Metacognition is hard.
It is.
It's very tough.
I don't know what word you said.
I had to throw in a big word.
You guys said big word.
What did you say?
Metacognition.
I did.
Is that part of like the ability to understand that you're thinking?
Oh, wow.
You know, humans and a few other species have it, but not everybody.
And right now, the logo, the more you know, oh, no, really testing my editing skills.
My editing, my editing to the extreme.
No, but I mean, to close it out, I think, you know, there's a lot of power in being authentically who you are or whatever that is.
You know, if that is curse words, that is tattoos, that is, you know, certain brands, certain colors, certain look, be the look that you want to be, you know, be the person that you need.
Now know that you want to be in and just let it go.
Work towards being that work towards being that.
Yeah, you know, that every day at the end of the day, you're going to get so much more quality interaction and engagement out of being that person.
And not only that, the quality of your life will go up.
The mental your mental state will change.
I mean, a lot of the things that stress you out will no longer stress you out because you're just like, this is me.
Take it or leave it.
You know what I mean? It was crazy as most of them won't leave it.
They're going to take it because everybody else is out there being fake and putting on the show, putting on the filters, putting on the fake, you know, backgrounds and the fake this and the fake that.
They're doing the fake money thing with the fake cars and the fake houses.
You know, that's people can see right through that nowadays.
And if you can be the opposite of that, your business will definitely grow.
Are you going to show me spinning in here in the Jeep?
Probably.
We're going to make you redo that.
Like, while you are peeling in.
I don't even know if this is your flavor, but for some reason when I think of you, you know what track comes to mind?
Coating Cambria.
Yes, absolutely.
We're going to have to wait and find out.
We can put that as the opening intro.
I heard bandos from like the river.
Not bandos from the river.
It doesn't feel like them.
That's hilarious.
I was like, I don't get that vibe from Jetty Hill.
But no, we do have some giveaways.
I don't remember my thoughts, so we'll save that for another day.
But yeah, we're going to be kind of pick this hack.
It's cool.
Yeah, we know we've got some stuff, y'all.
We got some stuff.
We'll probably put a gift card in a hat.
Yeah, we're going to have some giveaways.
We're going to do that.
Like we always do on our Instagram, we'll make sure to be announced at for everyone.
We're actually recording the winner from the Levin Brewery.
I can't say the freaking word.
Brewing.
It's not brewery.
I'm trying to say it sometimes.
We're out of your league.
I'm a brewery.
Business is brewing.
But yeah, we'll take care of the giveaways.
We're super excited.
It's our first special guest.
Again, we're going to get better as we go along with this.
I hope you guys took something from this.
There's somebody.
We appreciate Jesse.
And I love being a part of everything that he's done.
I love seeing how he's grown in this industry, which is absolutely insane in such a short amount of time.
And I think the sky's the limit from here.
If you guys can adapt those ideas, adapt, just kind of lean into who you are, what you're about more.
With the understanding you may scare some people away with anything.
But you're going to gain so much more.
If I could make a guarantee logo, that's what I would do.
Because you can definitely...
Or your money back.
You don't need any money to do that.
No, there's no money.
Just let go.
Let go and let your freak flag fly.
Wow, I'm still one more five.
Let your freak flag fly.
Flag. Fly.
And if I may.
If you're doing videos, you're doing things, and you're just curious, and you want somebody to take a look at,
do add Jesse Cage on Instagram.
I would be more than happy to look and be like, yeah, that's cool, or I'll tell you, it sucks.
But you know what? It's not going to suck. It's you.
You. Not going to suck. It's you.
Call me. My cell phone.
727-742-9694.
That's my personal number.
Any questions, comments, concerns?
No concerns.
Whatever. Watch. For you OCD people, it's me.
I have my shoe right there.
There it is. Shoe is tied.
It also brought me back to when I was in middle school.
LimeWire days.
Napster.
Did he say middle school?
On that note.
So good.
You're really good. Thank you guys for having me.
Yeah, I appreciate you.
I love drinking and talking.
Me too.
More to come next episode.
We're working on securing a location for that, so stay tuned.
But it's going to be a lot of fun. We're working on some new content, new ideas to talk about.
We'd love to hear from you guys. So if you want to shoot us a message, DM at re underscore brue on Instagram.
Everything will be in the show notes for you guys.
Jesse's Instagram. Everything we talk about. We'll always make sure that it's notated in there.
But we'd love to hear from you guys on topics that maybe you want to discuss or maybe some controversial things that people have told you to try or not to try that you don't know what to do.
KJ and I are here to help as well. If you have any questions, want to get into this, don't even know where to start.
Even if it's as simple as I don't even know how to use Instagram. I just made an Instagram account.
Whatever. Get with us. Let us know. We can hook you up and make sure that you're well taken care of.
We'd love to be a part of your journey.
And in the same sense, let people be a part of your journey. Stop holding back.
Let people take the journey with you, whether that journey is through your business, whether that journey is your weight loss goals, whether that journey is through your health accomplishments.
Let people be a part of your journey because that will build such better reports of stronger relationships because they have something out of relate back to.
So don't hold your journey back and hide it.
And don't just stay. Don't disappear and then just one day pop up and look like a different human being. That's what's going on.
Yeah, what happened to you? Let them be a part of your journey.
So with that, you guys have anything else? Good. We love you all.
I don't do like the Hadouken thing. Like just a flame ball. Like it's going to like the.
No, perfect. And.