920: Overcoming Adversity for Millions in Annual Sales with Elliot Hoyte

Aaron Amuchastegui: Real Estate rockstars this is Aaron Amuchastegui. Today I have such a treat for you guys. I get to listen to and you guys get to listen to me interview Eliot Hoyt. I just got to chat to Elliot for just a couple of minutes. One of the most exciting fun things for me that you guys have heard is, Elliott has been a longtime avid listener of the podcast. Today gets to be this exciting time where we get to talk about what he does now. There were times he got to listen to the podcast and learn and now he’s going to be here to try to help share his story with you guys.

There’s gonna be so much to his story. He’s an ex D-I football player, originally from England. He played as a lineman, and Porsche brand ambassador, all sorts of different things that you’ve done that led you to real estate and lots of ups and downs, like some rock bottom and coming back to success. I am so excited to get going with this. Elliot, thanks for joining us. How are you?

Eliot: Thanks for having me on, man. It’s surreal to be here, but hey.

Aaron: Yes, you have earned it, man. I said there’s nothing that I get more excited about than having people turn from listeners into guests. There’s so much for us to dig into but really at the beginning, I wanted to just give you some time to tell us your story. I think the listeners won’t be disappointed getting to hear how you got here and the process. How did you get from England to Boise? How did you go from all these different industries to real estate? Let’s have at it, man, tell us how you got here.

Eliot: I’ll skip the boring parts of the birth and the childhood, for the most part. I’m from a small town called Tavistock in England. It’s about half an hour north of Plymouth, which is a nice bigger city, and about three hours southwest of London. I was born and raised in England, I didn’t move to America until I was 18. I grew up in England never really thought about real estate as an option in my entire life because in England, things are done a little bit differently. I always wanted to be an athlete. I played rugby most of my childhood and started playing football in England as a club sport when I was about 16.

Long story short, back in my rugby days, this American high school team came over on a rugby tour of England. They had one particular guy playing for this high school team, his name is Chase Baker. I hung out with him a lot when he was in Tavistock and when he was playing because my dad was asked to guest coach this American team. I lost contact with him for a couple of years.

I started playing football, like I said, when I was 16, it was a club sport. In high school watching ESPN, I was watching this team called Boise State with a blue field and I was like, “Wait, hang a second. That’s Chase that I met all those years ago.” At the time I was just graduating high school stacking groceries and playing club football. Reached out to Chase and saw him on Facebook.

I was, “Hey Chase, you remember me?” He was, “Hey, man. I remember you. How are you doing?” I was like, “Good.” He’s like, “How big are you now?” I said, “I’m pretty big now. He said, “Can you play football.” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Can you can I see your film?” I sent my film on to Chase and Chase shared it with the coaches at Boise State. I came out to summer camp in 2011 at the age of 18. Coach Chris Peterson offered me a scholarship on the second day.

That’s how I got to America. It was on the back of playing football. I played four years for Boise State, won a fiesta bowl and achieved a bunch of stuff, went on to become a Porsche brand ambassador for two years after college right after I graduated, and then stumbled into real estate by accident at a chance encounter with the CEO of our brokerage who also played football at Boise State. He’s about 10 years older than me, his name is Roy.

Aaron: Before you jump to after that. What years did you play football at Boise State?

Eliot: I played from 2012 to 2016.

Aaron: I’m an Oregon Duck, it’s so hard. Man, I have had our moments of the Ducks playing football against Boise State. Yes, Boise is super unique. They’ve got the bright blue field. They have taken away our big moments a couple of times out there. Definitely one of the rivals so I had to figure out if you were on those teams at that time, and you sure were. Back to your story. Go ahead, sorry.

Eliot: Yes, where was I? I graduated college. I wasn’t going to be playing football anymore and I was a Porsche brand ambassador for two years. Basically, I would help people design, buy, sell Porsches. Then you know two years into that job I was doing really well. I actually won a national award for that and reached the ceiling almost. I had a chance encounter with the CEO of a brokerage, Mr. and Nick. Nick played football Boise State as well. A little bit older than me.

I ran into Nick and Nick was, “Hey, man, I heard you’re killing it selling those cars.” I was like, “Yes, it’s going pretty well.” He said to me, “Yes, but what about selling real estate?” I thought about it, it was a cool idea but I never really thought it’d be something I could do. Anyway, a couple of weeks passed, and I mulled a bit. “What, just give it a go, I have nothing to lose.” Real estate gives you a much bigger ceiling because if you’re your own boss, you can make it whatever you want. That appealed to me.

I got my license in July 2018. I jumped into headfirst. It was rough, the first seven or eight months I had nothing. I really wasn’t getting any traction holding open houses every three or four days a week, and then finally got a breakthrough in 2019. March 2019, was when I actually got my first buyer who also was listing too, and then just rolled from there. It’s been crazy. It’s only actually been 17 months since really going into business, if you want to call it that. It’s been a roller coaster.

Eliot: 2018 before that success in 2019, I remember vividly December was rolling around. I was down to my last $17. I had no money. I put everything I had to, all my savings out, and put into marketing myself in real estate. It was falling to the wayside. I remember the end of December, my yearly dues are coming up. I have 17 bucks and I signed up for Uber.

I was driving Uber in December of 2018 to try and get the money to pay for my dues to keep going for another year.

I remember listening to Real Estate Rockstars driving around, rock bottom. I mean rock bottom, I had no money, no hope, but I was like, “You know what? Just keep trundling along.” I managed to make it to March somehow. Here we are almost two years on now.

Aaron: You were practicing as an agent, working hard. You said you were doing like three or four open houses a week. How long did it take before you got– You said like 17 months before you start getting any traction?

Eliot: It was seven to eight months before, I think so. I got my license in July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March. Almost 8 solid months, I didn’t have a single deal in the eight months. Most people will quit but I’m too stubborn for that.

Aaron: I think it’s important to share that. We get so many rockstars on here. Sometimes we get to interview these people that are 30, under-30. And they’ve had their license for a year and they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which is great and it’s possible and people have that they’ve got lots of things we can learn, but a more common story in real estate is, “Hey, this is hard. I’m working really hard. I’m knocking on the doors. I’m doing this stuff and it’s just not happening.” I remember when I was restarting my flipping business back in like 2014, and the same thing, I went from making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to signing up to be an Uber driver, to going, “Hey, I’ll put my house on Airbnb. I’ll become an Uber driver, I’ll do all these,” just to do whatever it takes.

What I love about that story is that could have been a time to say, “You know what, I don’t have the money to renew my dues. It’s time for me to do something else. Instead of giving up with that, you said, “Hey, I’m going to become an Uber driver so I can pay my real estate dues, so I can start to do this instead,” and then make that traction. Did you have a moment when it clicked that you thought, “All right, now it’s working”? Was it like, hey, your funnel was now just finally reaping the benefits, or did something change at that point?

Again, the thing I love is you’re listening to Real Estate Rockstars, you’re hearing all these tips, you’re hearing all these things. Hopefully, that helped keep you motivated that you said, “Hey, I can I can do this if I just stick with it.” Did anything major happen that helped that trigger? Did it feel like it was a day and night change?

Elliot: I don’t know, I don’t think there was a particular trigger. I was doing everything the right way, believe it or not. I was learning from others. The way I’ve always looked at this business is there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, there’s always someone that’s either been in the same situation as you or there’s something you can take from someone else’s story to help apply to you.

I didn’t have the perfect model because no one does have the perfect model. I just think it was just a case of compounded interest, when the floodgates opened, they opened. I was doing the same stuff, I was doing open houses as much as I could, I was talking to people, having those sit-down coffees, having those conversations, that kind of stuff with the right people. Because I was consistent doing that for eight months, then it opened up.

I think a little bit of it is chance sometimes. There is definitely a lot of chance in real estate, you stumble upon certain stuff, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because that really rough period has made me grateful for the things I have now. If I had it easy– I’m not saying anyone could do this, but within reason anyone could have a great fast start and get out and make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you don’t appreciate it in my opinion as much if you’re going through the struggle.

Much like an athlete, I’ve gone through struggles physically or whatever it be on the field, it translates to real life. I didn’t put my life together I don’t think until December when I was doing .One night, I remember just thinking to myself, this is just football basically, but in real life, you’ve just got to keep grinding. It’s the fourth quarter and you’ve got to find a way to get it done.

Aaron: That is not the first time I’ve heard the comparison of sports and athletics. I was a wrestler in high school and, man, I was a scrawny really small kid. That was a sport that took just this crazy amount of drive and you keep going no matter what when you want to give up. The thing that helped me a lot in life, there’s a sign behind you right now it says “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” That is such a summary of your story of just keep going. Keep going, push through, tough times don’t last, tough people do.

Right now, we have this bizarre Coronavirus epidemic, whatever you want to call what’s going on. We have people held in quarantine, we have others that aren’t. We have some businesses that are closing down, we have others that are thriving. This is a very, very strange time, but something to remind all the listeners out there, just like Elliott had this big rough patch. Right now a lot of us are having a crazy rough patch in our world, but tough times don’t last, tough people do, and being able to rise.

What are some of the things that being an athlete– I mean, we gave one of the examples. Do you have any other examples of how being an athlete helped prepare you for life in real estate, anything like that?

Elliot: I could turn this into a 12-hour podcast, so I’ll try and keep it as on point as possible. I think in life for me, some of the stuff we used to do physically for training and practice outside of the game because a lot of people don’t realize, when you watch college football, maybe you see less. The time you spend when you watch the game, that’s less than 0.1% of the time you’re actually a student-athlete and going through a go-through.

Everyone sees the glitz and glamour, but the hard work you have to put in behind the scenes much like as an agent is the same way. We have to deal with stuff behind the scenes that no one gets to see. It has to be okay to do the work and understand that not everyone is going to understand that that’s just one facet of what we do. That’s how I saw the translation because I realized there’s a lot of work I’d have to do that no one would ever see before they see the success and more specifically to the things I did as an athlete and as a division one football player.

Physically, I pushed myself to the absolute limits, and mentally sometimes too. During training camp, you go through tour days and you have to check into meetings, you have to be mentally alert the whole time. Whenever I have a hard patch myself, I go back to what I went through with football, say, “Okay, I have this inspection contingency I need to get through,” or “I have this negotiation.” If I could physically push myself through the things I had to do with football, this is a breeze. That’s how I apply that side of stuff.

The other thing that I think anyone can apply to their life is I always talk with my clients or talk to my clients about managing their expectations. If you can manage your clients’ expectations, no matter who they are, whether they’re an investor or if it’s a family buying a house, selling a house, if you manage their expectations, there cannot be excuses because everyone knew upfront what to expect.

It’s the same with athletics. With football, we have a playbook we have to adhere to, and you have to do your role within that play and within that team. We know we’re going into a game that we have this expectation of us to achieve a certain job or outcome. Same with our clients, same with our business, know the expectations and manage them, and that’s what helps you be successful.

Aaron: Like you said, there’s so many comparisons that are out there. What about selling Porsches? Is it easier to sell a million-dollar house or a Porsche? Was there anything from that business? Was there skills that translated or is it a completely different animal?

Elliot: I think there’s a Venn diagram, and it almost overlaps perfectly between people that sell a million-dollar house and people that buy and sell Porsches. I can talk a little bit about both of those. There’s definitely crossover because I think if anything, it sounds somewhat crazy. In a macro view, selling and helping people buy and sell houses is somewhat easier than a luxury vehicle, because, at the end of the day, a home is a necessity whereas a luxury vehicle, it’s a nice thing to have.

I learned. I cut my teeth negotiating and helping some of the most affluent and intelligent individuals in my town that made the transition to real estate relatively simple as far as negotiation expectations go because I’ve dealt with people that were smart, and knew what they were doing, and was savvy. I think service-wise, I learned a lot. When someone’s buying a vehicle that’s six figures, there’s a certain level of service and treatment that’s expected.

I tried to transfer how do I treat these people that are picking up their dream vehicle? How do I treat them when I’m in real estate now and someone’s buying or selling a house? This is the biggest purchase or sale in most people’s lives from a residential standpoint. The same thing with someone buying a luxury vehicle, how can I make them feel special? What can I do and how can I treat them?

People don’t remember necessarily what you say but they remember how you make them feel. How can I make this experience as good and as fun, as enjoyable for my clients as I can when a transfer is over?

Aaron: People remember how they feel.

Aaron: One of the stories that you told Curtis was you keep like a warm hot lead list. I don’t know if it was Christmas last year that you did this big gifting to anybody that was a potential. When you talk about they remember how you made them feel, can you tell us about that a little bit?

Elliot: Yes. I have a hot and warm lead list. I hate calling people leads because I feel like it detracts from the people behind the name.

Aaron: I get it it’s hard.

Elliot: Yes I have a hot and a warm list. A hotlist is basically anyone that’s eminent whether they’re an investor or someone that’s buying a primary residence or a secondary. I have a hotlist of people that are ready to make a transaction, make an offer, make a sale list in the next week or so, essentially. Maybe that much. The warm list are people that either I had conversations with about transacting real estate in the near future, or you’re on the warm list if I think you’re going to do something you don’t know yet. There’s a lot of people you know at this stage. You see the signs when somebody ready to purchase or sell a house long before they realize when there’s changes and circumstances.

That list I carry that list it’s always rolling and evolving. Every quarter and every couple of months I send out meaningful thoughtful gifts or things that are helpful to these potential clients all clients to keep top of mind and to bring something genuine and helpful with their lives, because they do remember those things. Like I said they remember how you make them feel.

For example, we just last week send out coolers little lunch tote coolers with my name on them my branding. It had a little treat inside a $10 gift card to go pickup some ice cream at one of the local ice cream shops. It’s just saying, “Hey thinking of you it’s getting hot keep your drinks cool grab an ice cream on me.” It’s got nothing to do with real estate essentially nothing really to do with real estate but it’s something that’s thoughtful that people will remember.

Aaron: That is so great and now I can’t get it out of my head too the idea of calling people leads instead of partners or potentials or things like that. Really it’s such a relationship business. You’re top of mind with that your reaching out to people and then it just ends up balancing out. Now that you’ve gotten through– Now you’re a successful agent. How many deals are you going to do this year? How many deals did you do last year?

Elliot: Last year I had 30 transaction sites for $9.3 million and year one average price was I think it was 3.30. This year we’re looking at a 54 sites for anywhere between $18-$23 million.

Aaron: That is freaking awesome. $18-$23 million how many– You say, “We” who is we how many people are we?

Elliot: I say we, I have an assistant her name is Chalice and she is about as important to me as I am to myself, because without her I really can’t get a lot done. It takes– It does take a joint effort when you get to that kind of level of production to give good client care. I would say we because it’s two of us and we spend a lot of time together. I do all of the actual transaction-related stuff. She’s behind the scenes keeping– She’s the glue that keeps stuff together.

Aaron: Everybody listening to that it took seven to eight months to even actually get a transaction get anything happening where he realizes this was maybe the business that was going to work for him. Now the volume that he’s hitting with just an assistant with just a helper and being able to– Now she’s obviously a great assistant, right? A team of two being able to do that much volume is awesome. Right now Boise is a supersaturated market and by saturated means there’s a lot of agents out there. There is a lot of people out there hustling trying to get business. What are some of the ways that you set yourself apart from that, from all the other agents.

Elliot: Other than the aforementioned stuff and those thoughtful gifts. It sounds not silly I get asked a lot by other agents what makes you successful. It sounds redundant, but being a good agent- and it sounds super silly but at the core it really makes sense. I’ve always heard these saying, “Your next transaction lies in the transaction you’re in right now because referral is massive in our business.” The things I do different I just try to be a good agent. I try and communicate well with other agents. That’s one thing I noticed when I first got in the business. Unfortunately, I think there’s just over 7,000 agents in our market which is a huge number.

I found that communication was a really weak point on average with most agents. Upfront, I’m a communications major in college. It’s really not hard to be communicative properly and efficiently. If being communicative with other agents and clients is really, really important. The other thing is being knowledgeable. I feel I have this mindset of being a sponge. You have to treat your brain like a sponge. Be around people that you want to be like or that do a good job already and ask questions.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I feel many agents and many people in life feel that asking questions and trying to learn new stuff is a sign of weakness. It’s not every time you get a question answered that you had a question for that’s one more thing in the memory bank. That’s one more tool in your toolbox you can apply and use in the next transaction to better serve your client.

Aaron: It’s funny we’ve had a couple people come on the podcast and talk about that. Some of it actually is simple, yes, be a really good agent. Life is long and sometime people forget that. I’ve done transactions with agents that I say afterward, “Blacklist that agent I’m never going to work with them again. I’m never going to do that again.” The same thing happens with customers and clients. Remembering, it’s really easy to be short-minded. Get the money now get the deal now or whatever but being that long-minded of realizing, hey, it’s going to turn into their friends.

There’s also the different things that can happen that get to lead there. I’m glad that you mentioned that because it’s an important reminder for everybody out there. That the transaction that you’re in right now is going to help you in that transaction later. It could potentially get you a lot more deals; or the way that you act with this client, with this agent, with this anybody, could potentially kill a ton of future deals. If you’re just better if you’re just your best and better then that gets to add up. Do you still send notes every day?

Aaron: Yes, I’m a big hand-written kind of guy, hand-written notes. I need to do better I’m all about integrity and being honest and accountable and I need to do better at sending them. I try to send at least one a day. Whenever I have interaction almost always with someone whether it’s new or it’s a rekindled interaction. I send either the thank you card or something that’s hand-written that says, “Hey I was thinking about you great conversation” refer back to something we spoke about.

I feel hand-written cards or notes are impactful because we’re so busy in today’s world and we’re so used to sending text and using our cell phones to communicate, it’s almost like hand-writing a note is a lost art. Not only does it show that you care about someone but it gives you time to reflect too. It’s that gratitude thing when you’re grateful for talking to people and grateful for the interactions. It comes back to you it’s wholesome thing.

Aaron: People out there listening right now, the ideas were trying to set ourselves apart not only in business but also just in experiences. We have a lot more time on our hands than we normally do. We’re not driving as many places. Sending people a note. It’s not only good for them, but like Elliot mentioned it’s good for yourself. It’s this meditation gratitude thing. Whenever we– Keeping a gratitude list is the thing that all the masterminds tell you all the public speakers tell you. Always be grateful. It’s even more important to be grateful when times are really strange.

We’re living in a really strange time and so I love that idea of more hand-written notes because it combines both of those things. It’s a gift people think about you and it helps you with gratitude. How are you getting new clients now? Do you have a niche do you have something special that you focus on to get people in? Or is it all word of mouth now from people?

Elliot: That’s an interesting topic. I feel we’re told as agents from a lot of different sources, get a niche, get a niche, get a niche, find out what you want to do. That’s great for some people but I feel one of the dangers with that is if you become known as the person that only does that, If that source of lead or source of business dries up or changes. It can be quite hard to pivot at that.

It sounds super corny and cheesy but when people say, “What’s your niche?” I say, “People.” It sounds crazy but it’s true because if you want a referral business you need to be a people person. One of my mentors who I still speak to on a pretty regular basis is our broker. His name is Matt Baucher. He’s normally I know his number in the top three producing agents. Matt always talks about being a rock star and treat your clients a certain way and the referral business comes.

With that being said, you can’t really pick and choose necessarily what price point or what things you buy and sell. What I will say is it’s only year two and the majority of my business is referral. It’s two places referral and then Instagram has been a massive source of business for me. It’s not even necessarily intentional either. I’m quite a genuine and open person in Instagram and I try and relate it back to work when I can. I often have people send me a DM and ask me questions about real estate or keep in touch with me that way.

Last year I had five or six transactions that originated from Instagram alone. It was somewhat unintentional just me being consistent in posting stories. Just interacting with people and try to use that as a tool.

Aaron: Social media when you tell people I mean when you’re a real estate agent you tell everybody you’re an agent. The more they get to see you and see that you’re an agent, then people by chance go, “I actually need an agent. Let me see who’s–” Again that top of mind type thing. Usually at this part of the podcast. I say if you were a new agent what would you tell yourself? What advice would you give to a new agent?

I’m going to put a little different twist on it this time. The part of your story is just pushing so hard for seven months and hitting rock bottom. I bet there are hundreds and thousands of people out there listening right now that are five, six, seven months into this. Maybe a couple months into this thinking it’s not for me. They’re pushing they’re having a really tough time. Based on your experience you got through that tough time you kept going. You were able to go back to your other experiences. What would you be telling those people? What advice would you give the people that need to break through the wall that are just wanting to give up. What were some things that helped you along the way?

Elliot: That’s a really good question. It’s really good question. It’s really tough because I felt there’s not necessarily an answer that can work for everyone. For me personally, I can only speak personally, so I can only give you advice based on my mindset. Hopefully, it rubs off at some people. When you commit to do something, I was always told by my parents, and my dad in particular, “You need to finish it.”

My mindset was going into this career and even towards when it hit rock bottom is I refuse and I always refuse to let myself talk myself out of doing something or to allow myself to quit. If I’m going to fail at this, it’s going to be because of my circumstances. There’s absolutely way that it’s going to be me forgiving myself. It’s another saying, I’m one of those guys who was always taught sayings, but that the pain of regret and the pain of quitting because you decided to is a lot stronger than the pain of having to stop because you literally can’t do anymore. I feel like as people, we talk ourselves out of a situation more often than we actually get put out pf the situation because you can no longer do it.

I think it’s keeping that positive more than anything. I know it’s hard to do that when you hit bottom, but I hope my story’s enough for people to realize if you’re consistent and you stick to a plan and you do it over and over again, you cannot be denied. You just cannot be denied in the end. Someway, somehow, you cannot be denied if you do stuff consistently and to it the right way.

Aaron: The pain of looking back on giving up is worse than the pain the moment you gave up. I like that. I do Ironman races and sprints and all sorts of things. I’ve heard that a lot from the people that quit in the marathon on mile 17 because of how bad they hurt. Then later, the regret that they have is so much stronger than the pain they were feeling at the time. That is so hard when you’re in the moment to actually understand that. When you’re feeling the pain, the brain wants to talk us out of things. It’s just about–

I’ve seen a couple people with a mantra. Remember tomorrow. Just remember tomorrow. Think about tomorrow as you’re going through this. Not right now because just tomorrow, you can go through, “How am I going to feel if I stop? How am I going to feel if I keep going all through that?” I think that could be remembered next month, remembered next year. Just keep going through that part. What’s your favorite part about real estate? Go ahead.

Elliot: I’m going to add one thing to that, and this is something I learned in my football days. Our seniors each year before camp or during camp would sit and address the team. It’s our open chance to talk about anything, and impart wisdom like we’re doing now onto the younger players. I was a freshman. This one guy called Wright who’s actually a pretty successful artist now. He said, “The days and weeks go slow, but the months and years go fast.” That’s the most profound thing I have ever heard to this day. Basically what he’s saying is what you just said.

We look back at stuff and we realize how either insignificant or how it didn’t really last that long. Whatever the pain we went through, whatever suffering we went through didn’t really last long in the grand scheme of things because the days and weeks go slow but the months and years go fast. If you can get through the next day, you can get through the next week, and it turns into year and months pretty quick. Anyway, that’s my world view.

Aaron: Life is full of moments. We all have these substantial moments where something happened and we pushed through, and it became that thing that got us there. I think right now, again, it’s a time when so many people are crushing it in their businesses and it’s a time when so many people aren’t. When so many people are just having a really tough time adjusting to whatever this new normal is for however long it’s going to last. That one foot in front of the other, that one day at a time, the remember tomorrow.

One of the other things that you said there is you made a commitment to yourself of, “Hey. I’m going to give it this long. I’m going to do it for this long.” When I first quit my job to go become an entrepreneur, I had six weeks of savings. It was the same thing. I gave myself a few months of time and said, “Hey. I’ve got at least enough for a few months, and so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to try this for at least a few months before I have to give up, and before I have to try something else. Make that deal with yourself. Make that contract for what you’re going to do next.

Then really putting forth the effort. I also liked really liked, Elliot, when you talked at the beginning. The first seven months, you were doing everything you were supposed to do. You were putting forth all of the effort and doing everything. Then it wasn’t even like all of a sudden something clicked and worked better. You just finally got to reap the rewards. You didn’t change anything. It was just you kept doing the process. The way that real estate works a lot of the time is you keep doing the process, and it’s going to come from the most random places.

As I said, there’s chance and luck that you’re in the right place and you meet the right person. That stuff happens. I’ll tell you what, that chance and luck is increased and improved. It just happened to be that that open house, you get three leads. The other 15 open houses, you got none. There’s some chance and luck that it was so good that day. If you weren’t there every single time, every single week, putting forth the effort, you don’t give chance a chance to work.

What are you the most excited about over this next year with real estate, with your career? What are you doing next?

Elliot: There’s so much. I feel like I’m at this fork in the road with my career because I can take it one of many different ways. I’ve had the fortune to help at different price points. A lot of price points, it’s been a struggle. It’s been rewarding to get them into a house or get the house sold or the upper echelon. Right now, I’m currently in a $1.6 million transaction. The other side is it’s really fun to do the high-end stuff. Then I’ve also worked a lot with investors. The investors, with the flipping or if it’s being long-term holds, rentals, that stuff, it’s been enjoyable, too.

I think the biggest thing I’m looking forward to is I need to make a decision probably in the next couple of months, maybe weeks here, how my business is going to look. I think that’s going to involve bringing on more people. Not just casting that wider, but to be able to give better service to my clients. I’m excited to see in a year’s time from now what my “team” looks like and how we would structure that. I like to lead people. I like to be a leader, so I’m excited to get back to my athlete days and have a team again maybe soon.

See how I can help others to be the best version of themselves.

Aaron: That is an exciting time. One of the coolest things that you just said, too, is it’s about being able to provide better service. If you grow your team with the intent that you’re going to be providing better service to your clients, to your people, that everybody’s experience is better, that has to pay off. So many people say, “I want to grow my team so I can grow my revenue and grow this.”

If that focus gets to be so I can provide better service, the rest of that stuff will happen, but it’s just a mindset thing. If the focus is we’re going to make people’s lives better, then money follows as we get to do that. You’re out in Boise. You’re going to continue building up that business and finding some other ways to grow your team and lead a team and get to use some of that other stuff. If people want to reach out to you, Elliot, if they have questions, if they want to send you referrals, what’s the best way for them to find you and get to talk to you?

Elliot: It depends on your age. It depends on your use of social media. I’m a big Instagram guy, so that’s one. My Instagram is @E-L-L-I-O-T_H-O-Y-T-E.com. If you’re listening, give me a follow. I’ll follow you back. Then other than that, probably email. I try and get back to my emails. I love to help people. I love having conversations. Everyone loves a referral, but it’s also nice to help people out. My email is the best way to get at me other than Instagram. That’s my first name and my last name. That’s

Aaron: Elliot@elliothoyte.com. Elliot, I think we said it at the beginning, I love it when people get to come on and say, “Hey. I was a listener, and now I get to come provide value.” Something that made today’s even more special for me is that you were a long time listener during a really, really rough part of your life, right? A rough part of your career. It gets me really emotional and excited that we got to come on and share that part of it.

I know that you’re not alone in that. Those listeners are some of the ones that this stuff is for. We get hundreds and thousands of listeners. This is the biggest real estate agent podcast around. I’ll tell you what, when we get to touch the people that really need to be touched, they really need something, they really need a pick me up and some of that motivation. Today was really special.

Listeners, if you’re out there and it resonated, I never ask people to share it, to forward the podcast around, to go tell people about the podcast. We grow plenty. This is one of those special podcasts that if you get something out of it, I would beg you to copy it and put it on your social media. Put it on Facebook or email it to some friends or even just text it to a couple of people to say, “Hey. This is one you should go listen to.” We don’t ask often for people to go share the podcast, like I said, because it grows, but this is a message that I think a lot of people need to hear right now, and I would really appreciate it if you guys go share it.

Elliot, I’m going to go follow you on Instagram, man. I’m sure we will continue some conversations on there. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad we got to interview, and I’m sure we’ll talk again soon. Thanks for coming on.

Elliot: Thanks for your time I appreciate it.