The Path To Luxury Real Estate Sales • Paul Salazar

Paul Salazar with Hilton & Hyland Beverly Hills goes back to the beginning of his journey in real estate. Paul describes how he transitioned from working with his mom to selling luxury real estate. Next, Paul discusses how he built his business by cold calling expired listings and how he perfected his skills to get properties sold in record time. Paul also talks about cold calling, door knocking and sending handwritten letter to clients and how these activities helped him build relationships with developers. Last, Paul discusses the the major differences between working with a smaller property size compared to ultra-high-net-worth side. If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Paul Salazar can be reached at 310.492.0737 and paul@paulsalazargroup.com . This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss . Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00 Have you ever wondered how Realtors transition into luxury sales? Well, we’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide, and your host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top 1% producer and luxury real estate agent, Paul Salazar before we get to Paul, well, it’s the holiday season. So I’m just going to ask for a gift. And don’t worry, though it’s it’s I’m actually going to ask for two gifts. The first is to check out what our sponsors are offering, please, please support our sponsors, we vet them, we only bring to you really high quality services and products that Realtors could use, please support our sponsors, because they’re the reason we can keep making these shows. And the second thing we’ll ask for the second gift you can give us is really simple one won’t cost you anything just tell another agent about the show, especially for 2023 Is it going to be a tough year, we know it’s going to be a tough year. Let’s make it as least tough. Now that’s there’s a better way to say that. Let’s make it as comfortable as possible. By introducing as many people as you can to our show. Our whole intention is really to help you grow your business. And the more people we can reach we really believe the more people we can help so help us fulfill our mission by reaching as many agents as possible in 2023 and let them know about keeping it real. And guys, that’s all I got. Let’s get to the main event, my interview with Paul Salazar. Today on the show, our guest is Paul Salazar with the Paul Salazar group of Hilton and island in Beverly Hills. Let me tell you a little bit more about Paul. Now with over 600 million in total real estate sales in over 200 satisfied clients served. Paul Salazar is a real estate veteran with a years of invaluable experience. He has partnered with one of the top luxury firms in the world Hilton and Hyland, Beverly Hills, Paul has had a string of 20 plus million dollar properties sold under his belt, making him a true standout in this highly competitive and fast paced industry. Paul’s an expert in rebranding and relaunching properties that have been lingering on the market. He also works with developers to build luxury spec properties all throughout Los Angeles. Please learn more about Paul two places want you to go visit his website, which is Paul Salazar group. And that’s Paul Pauls a Laz ar group.com and also find him on Instagram. It’s also Paul Salazar group will have links to both of those in the show notes so you don’t have to type it in. So please go visit Paul and Paul, welcome to the show. Paul Salazar 4:20 Wow, that was a great, quite the intro there. Well, it’s so funny. I was feeling weird hearing all that stuff. Yeah. All right. D.J. Paris 4:29 It is it is weird. I had somebody recently interview me, which very rarely happens. And they went through, you know, list of things like I was just mentioning you and I was like, Well, I don’t I don’t like to hear that at all. Like, just doesn’t sound right. Paul Salazar 4:42 I know it feels weird. I mean, it’s great, but also feels weird. D.J. Paris 4:46 Well, I would love to talk about all of how you got into luxury. But also let’s start at the very beginning of your real estate sort of journey. How did you get into real estate and why Paul Salazar 5:00 Okay, so let’s start from college, right? Because I will, let’s start from like, like my culture. I’m, I’m Colombian, and almost everybody in my, in my family, they have their own business that are there. They’re entrepreneurs, my dad, my brothers, my cousins, aunts, uncles, right? So it’s kind of in our blood to have her own thing. Not to have a boss not to be told what to do. Right. So that’s one. Two is that in college, I finished college on a study abroad program called Semester at Sea. And that was my last semester of college. I finished that. And then, you know, I went into the real world, and I was like, What am I going to do? Like, I just finished traveling the world with a bunch of college kids having a blast, drinking, partying, you know, traveling, literally circumnavigating the entire globe. And I was pretty depressed. I, you know, I gotta tell you, I was not I was not in a good place. I was working with my dad. He has his own business, but I knew I didn’t want to be in his business. But I also knew I didn’t want to have like a regular nine to five job, right, like so. Like, so like, what am I going to do? Right? I don’t really have any capital to like, start a business. My mom was in real estate. Century 21 beachside in Rancho Cucamonga, which is where I went to high school, and which is where I live while I was commuting back and forth to college at UC Riverside. So I would say about three months after Semester at Sea. You know, I was, you know, I had a few, a few interviews with some regular nine to five jobs. And it just, it just wasn’t clicking for me, you know, and then, you know, my mom came into my room I like I vividly remember this day. And she’s like, you know, she used to call me up. Bobbito. So she’s like, Bobbito Why don’t you you know, you know, come sell real estate with me. And this isn’t Oh, six. Right. So the market is still on fire. She’s D.J. Paris 6:52 like, the perfect time to get in. Oh, six. Yeah, yeah. She’s Paul Salazar 6:54 doing really well. Like she’s traveling. She’s, she’s, you know, selling a bunch of real estate. I’m like, You know what, that sounds good. You know, I was like, all right. I was like, Yeah, sure. You know, that’s let’s, let’s do it. You know. And so that’s, that’s how I started to get into real estate is selling real estate in Rancho Cucamonga first century. 21. beachside. D.J. Paris 7:15 Wow. And you came in at such an interesting time, I actually bought my first condo in 2006. And upon retrospect, maybe, maybe not the ideal time for me to have bought a condo, of course, none of us really knew that back then. It wasn’t like the writing was so obviously on the wall, of course. But But So you started kind of towards the end of the of that boom? And what was it like, you know, starting off in into in 2006. Paul Salazar 7:43 You know, I, I’m very grateful that I got at least a year of decent market under my belt, you know, of like, doing transactions with my mom, as I’m learning the business. Right. I also helped enhance her business as well, because, you know, I had a business background and in college, right, which helped a little bit, let’s be honest, you know, you don’t really learn a lot in college, at least, it’s specific to real estate. But, you know, I think I was able to use what I learned in college, to help her grow her business. And so we, we created the Salazar team, it was team Salazar, that was the name of our team was me and her and we had a, like, a part time assistant. And, you know, again, I’m very grateful, I didn’t start in Oh, eight, because I probably wouldn’t have made it, and I probably wouldn’t have still be in the business. So it’ll it allowed me to stay in the business to, to have some money saved up for the, you know, for the rainy days of you know, you know, 2008 through 2012. Right. So, you know, again, very, very grateful for it, but at the same time, I was selling very small properties, you know, $200,000 properties 300,000 Every once in a while, will will bring a $500,000 property, and I was really excited about that, you know, but it was it was great, you know, I’m, again, very, very grateful for that for the opportunity that my mom gave me. D.J. Paris 9:07 Yeah, it’s, it’s a really good opportunity to be able to work with somebody who’s who’s established who’s successful. And also you get to learn, you know, so I imagine your mom was was, I imagine a pretty, pretty great mentor to you. Paul Salazar 9:23 She was, you know, and we, we’ve always had a really great relationship. And I was living, you know, so my parents were divorced already. So it was just me and her in the house. So, again, if you’re starting real estate, and you have like a bunch of bills and debt, it’s really hard because it’s, it takes about three to six months, maybe a year to get you know, get get going. So living at home really allowed me to I had very, very little bills, you know, maybe the 1000 bucks, maybe $2,000 a month, which is nothing right? And retrospect you know, so if I closed one big deal, big been you know, 300,000 dollars or something like that I would I would keep 5000 bucks and I would have enough money for like three months. And that’s what I would do. I would save up the money and I knew I had enough money to last me another six months. And then I just kept on growing that, that that nest egg to a year to two years and that just kind of kept on going from there. D.J. Paris 10:17 Wow. And at what point did you decide to to make a shift from from working with your mom or working in Rancho Cucamonga? And then you know, making the shift to? To where you are now. Paul Salazar 10:29 Yeah, so. So, you know, the crash happened at the end of oh seven and oh eight, right, I started selling some short sales. And that’s what kind of kept me kind of going is just selling short sells, right? And my mom always pushed me she’s like, Bobby, though you can always sell, you know, luxury properties. Like why don’t you go out there and to like Beverly Hills and like start selling some luxury properties. And to me, I always had doubts, you know, like, my mindset wasn’t there. Like I was like, I don’t think I could do that. I don’t know anybody there. I don’t know the market there. I don’t have any connections. And even though we live only an hour away, but I could be from Ohio, it’d be the same thing. You know, like another universe almost. Yeah, completely different universe. And I had no connections like I literally knew nobody that lived in that in that area. My whole family was in Rancho where Pasadena or in this area. Right. So at the time, my girlfriend lived in Brentwood, which is like West. Sure. I still live on the west side. Right. And so I was commuting back and forth, right. And my mom had gone to Colombia in 2000 at the beginning of 2009, or actually, or 2008, or something like that. And she had met her now husband, right? So it was a perfect transition. She’s like, she had called me and she was on vacation for like a month in Colombia. And she’s like, Hey, I want to let you know that I met some guy and like, my heart drops, like we met some guy, you know, Columbia. And she’s like, Yeah, I met some guy in Colombia. And, you know, of course, being the son. And you know, she’s been divorced. I was very protective. Sure. I was, like, I don’t know about this mom. She’s like, Yeah, we’re gonna get like, think about getting married. I’m like, you just met the guy like a month ago, you know? So but it ended up working out. Right. So since I was commuting back and forth, my mom had now planned to move to Colombia to go live with her now husband. It was a perfect transition for me to be like, you know, what, let me move to LA Let me try it out. You know, give it a shot. I had saved enough money for about six months of, of living in LA, right. So so my plan was I moved to LA to downtown LA. So which is kind of like, not in Beverly Hills or not in the west side where I live. But kind of like a like a, like a middle ground because like all my friends and family still live in Rancho right. So I didn’t want to be too far away from them as well. So I moved to downtown LA with with my best friend from college. And we got a place together. And I didn’t have a job. I moved to LA without having a job. And I said, I said to myself, do I want to start selling real estate? It’s gonna take me a while to get going. I don’t have a budget to market myself. I don’t know anybody. I don’t know. Any of the markets. I don’t know any of the areas. I don’t know anything about the motor. Right? So I was starting from scratch. I knew how to I had a closed at that time, probably about 30 deals 30 or 40 deals with my mom over the last couple of years for the last three years. So I knew about the transaction, right. But I didn’t know about the players. I didn’t know about how to sell luxury real estate, which is completely different than selling a house that’s worth, you know, two or $300,000. So, so she moved to Columbia in 2009. I moved to downtown LA. And I said you know what, what I should do is I should probably work underneath a top agent, right? So I emailed my resume to about, you know, 10,000 agents, I downloaded all the emails smart. All the emails from the MLS, in had emailed, and that was emailed every single person, right. I got I got a bunch of interviews, I got about 17 interviews, you know, and my last interview was a call with Chad Rogers, who was at the time on Million Dollar Listing. Yeah, on Bravo. He was one of the original cast members. And he was working at Hilton and Hyland. And when I do my research, I’m like, this is the best firm in LA one of the best firms in the world. Like I really want to be at this firm, you know, and I had gotten no calls from anybody at Hilton. And the last call I got was from chat. He called me he left a message and he’s like, Yeah, I’m on Million Dollar Listing. I’m like, I have no idea who you are. I don’t watch that show. Right, which he actually liked. Right. So yeah, sure. Yeah. D.J. Paris 14:42 Because you weren’t you didn’t want to hang out with him because he was on TV. Paul Salazar 14:46 Exactly. Exactly. So So I called him up. We had an interview and it was a match. It was perfect. So and and you know I you know I have to give a lot of you know of attitude and a lot of credit to Chad for giving me the opportunity to be working under him because he was selling big properties, you know, you know, you know, 1518 2021 22 23,020 $3 million properties. So because of him, I was able to get into the luxury market. And I stayed with him for a long time, for about 10 years, I should have left earlier. And I think the reason why I didn’t leave is because again, my mindset wasn’t there, I didn’t feel that I, I can, I could, I could sell real estate on my own, you know. So Chad really taught me how to how to deal with these high net worth individuals, how to deal with business managers, how to deal with how to deal with lawyers, how the transaction works, how to list properties in this in these areas, you know, and his, his community was Malibu colony. And if you’re not familiar with Malibu colony, it’s it’s only 120 houses right on the beach in Malibu. It’s a gated community, Sting lives there. Jason Stata. Pamela Anderson. I mean, so many celebrities call this place home. And his his his family owned a house there. So he grew up in this in this community. So most of the deals that we that we did were in this community. So I really got to know all the big players from from working with him. You know, the only thing the only downside with working with Chad is that he already had a network, right? Yeah. So he wasn’t really out there prospecting, like I do nowadays. Sure. So I really didn’t learn the business side of real estate. Through chat. I just learned how to how to talk to people that are lawyers or CEOs or billionaires, right? I learned how to communicate with these kinds of people, because he would, he would give me a deal. Like, he would say, Hey, Paul, this is my listing. And I will take it on from there. Like I did most of the work, I really helped him run his business. And we did well together. And we did well together. And I think, I think after after 10 years, I think what, what, what helped me make that transition from, you know, the mindset was just like I get, I just didn’t feel, I guess worthy enough, or I didn’t feel I had the capability of going on my own. Like, I feel like I needed somebody to help me out. You know. And so I started to listen to like to like some podcasts and, and Tom ferries podcasts really kind of resonated with me. Sure, I really love to hear what he had to say. And I started to listen to him. You know, he’s like, he was talking about cold calling. And I was like, I’ve never cold called in my, you know, at this time, I think I was in the business for about 13 years. And I had never cold called once in my entire career. D.J. Paris 17:37 And and probably didn’t want to either. You’re probably like, I don’t want to have to do that. Yeah, Paul Salazar 17:41 yeah, exactly. I it’s like it was really scary for me. And at that time, when I was working with Chad, I was his assistant. And then after a couple years, it was like a hybrid model. And we also actually had an assistant, so it was me, him and we had an assistant. So he would give me deals, I would hold his open houses, I would get deals through the through that I would get deals now through some like friendships that I had in LA. So I kind of started to grow my business, but I didn’t really grow it that that big. That’s why I was also scared to leave him. So I didn’t really have or big, you know, a big source of business. Because I would also get like a, like a small percentage of his business as well. But if I left him, I wouldn’t be getting that anymore. Right. So that’s how I started. You know, it’s it was a long, it was a long journey with Chad, I learned a lot I should have left earlier, like probably after five years, but I didn’t. And after, you know, listening to tom toms podcast for about three months, I joined his coaching program. And after that, I started cold calling. I got a couple of my own listings, and then I left chat right after that. D.J. Paris 18:44 Wow, I accent so I have a few questions I want to go actually. Thank you. That is really incredible story. And there’s more to the story. I know, I want to go back to just this really smart idea that in all the episodes we’ve done, I don’t think anyone has ever suggested and it was a really good idea. Be there. So obviously teams are or whether or not you want to be a solo practitioner or a team. Having a mentor, regardless, is a great idea for so many listeners. So Paul did something very creative and something that literally anybody can do, which is he got he will in your case you scraped a list off the mls of realtor emails. You can also buy these lists, they’re really not that expensive, but a couple 100 bucks, maybe for your local area. And then he just fired out 10,000 emails and that is absolutely doable. So if anyone out there is listening, that is essentially how Paul got to into luxury property he invested in reaching out to everyone in his local area and got 17 interviews and I mean it’s it is it is remarkable. I was just talking to one of the very top producers here in Chicago yesterday and I was asking her how often and she’s a solo practitioner And she does about 160 million a year just herself alone. And yeah, she, she’s amazing. And she I was like, how often do people email Realtors email, you asking for mentorship coaching? She’s like, Oh, no. And she’s super nice and very sweet. She’s like, almost never. So it’s one of those things that I guess sometimes we think maybe those people are getting inundated. And maybe they are, but maybe they’re not right. And so I just wanted to honor you for sort of being creative in that step. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. Now. That’s what US recruiters do we get those lists. Yeah, we want to recruit realtors. So recruiters do this all the time. But individual agents unless unless it’s like, oh, I have I have a listing. And I want to, I want to email every realtor to let them know about it. That’s another reason why sometimes people do it. But as far as like to find a mentor or a partner, boy, what a smart idea. So again, I just wanted to step on that a little bit, because I think it was a really, really smart play. The other thing, too, I want to talk about so many of our listeners, and I’ve obviously you know people who are your peers are probably like, how do you get into luxury? Well, you just told the story of how you got introduced to that world. But then there’s that whole step of like, I didn’t grew up in Malibu, I didn’t I don’t I didn’t grow up in this gated community of 120 homes where everybody knows me because those are my neighbors. And that’s what I grew up with. And, and yes, you were introduced to that world, but then it is this pretty big shift of like, I’m going to cut the cord and try to build my own business. And you said, looking back, you know, maybe you stayed longer than then you needed to. But that does require a massive mind shift change to say, okay, I can I can survive and thrive in that world, even though that isn’t my background, and it isn’t necessarily what I what I’ve known my whole life. So I’m curious on what you learned with Tom ferries coaching program, which everybody who listens probably knows who Tom Ferry is if not, he’s he’s an He’s incredible. His dad Mike ferry is kind of a famous guy in the, in the, in the coaching movement. Brian Buffini is another guy. So it’s usually Mike ferry, Brian Buffini and Tom Ferry are kind of like the three biggest names, and all three of them have have really great stuff to offer, Tom Ferry has kind of kind of having his moment the last like 10 years, he’s kind of been the guy who’s everyone’s kind of paying attention to but what did you learn from from Tom’s coaching? You know, coaching partners about how to shift your mindset. Paul Salazar 22:30 I mean, so much, right. I mean, there are so many different tips that that that he kind of suggested, you know, affirmations, some books, right. But I think for me, I think the biggest shift was, at the time, you know, I was, I was single, and I had just started dating this girl, who’s now my girlfriend, and she’s an entrepreneur, you know, and she was out there, you know, you know, just like putting yourself out there, you know, and I wasn’t doing that. And so she, she really kind of inspired me to be like, you know, I can do more, right? Like I can, I can do more with myself, like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t need somebody else to help me. I can do it on my own. You know, and it’s, I think, I don’t know, if there was one thing, I think was just kind of listening to his podcast, and all actually, the interviews just like this, this kind of interview that like Tom would do, and the interviews that that that you do, DJ are so important, because they allow the listeners to get inspired to hear the stories, because to me, those stories really helped me be like, Wow, that person did it. That person did it. And now, I started to say, why can I do it? You know, so those stories really helped me out. And when I was with Chad, I wasn’t really into the business. Like I was more traveling, I was partying. So I wasn’t really focused on my career, I was really more focused on just having a good time, to be honest. So and, you know, since I had a girlfriend, I had more time to kind of focus on my career, instead of, you know, traveling and doing all these other things, right. But I think hearing the stories was really the most important thing for me, in kind of shifting the mindset, right, because I heard all these stories of all these other amazing agents that started from nothing, or they, you know, didn’t have anything or it, there was, you know, everybody has their own story, right. And some stories, I can’t relate to as much as, as other stories, right. So like, like, I may relate to certain people, but I may not relate to other people, right? Sure. But But But listening to those interviews was my favorite thing. And to this day, I still love to hear those interviews because I learned so much about what these people do, how they grew their business, and I always take one or two things, and I implement that in my business. D.J. Paris 24:47 I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast. Do you know which CRM is used by me More than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort, do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, well, boy, that’s exactly our goal on this show. So glad that that worked for you. Because, you know, it’s funny, I was thinking like, oh, it would be really fun to have chat on the show. And it probably wouldn’t, I’m sure he’s, he would be excellent. But the moment people hear oh, like if I say, how’d you get into luxuries? Like, well, but you know, I grew up in this area that, you know, that’s immediately when a lot of our listeners would be like, Oh, okay, well, I didn’t I didn’t grow up in an environment like that. So yes, easy, easy for that guy. And of course, it isn’t necessarily easy if just because you grew up in that environment, but it is not as relatable, right. And so I love to present you that you sort of infiltrated in a good way and sort of went, Oh, I belong here I can I can thrive in this environment, and just learning how to communicate and maybe with people who are in that ultra high net worth space, and understanding their needs, understanding what the goals of people like that, who I imagine there’s people that you have clients that probably have whole teams of people that you have to meet with financial people, accountants, attorneys, agents, whoever it might be. It’s not I imagine it’s not just usually like one single buyer, and one seller, and then the agents on either side. So what would you say? So So anyway, just to continue on in your story. So So you, you decided you got the courage to kind of go off on on your own cut the cord? And then, you know, did you feel at that point that you had made enough headway into your your sphere of influence, that you were able to sort of survive that Paul Salazar 27:48 way? You know, I, again, I think I’ve always had enough money to survive six or 12 months. And I think that’s an important thing for agents to hear. Right? And I don’t have any kids, right? I don’t have any kids yet. So it’s easier for me to grow that like nest egg, right, just for me. But, you know, for anybody else, that everybody knows how much they need every single month, to be able to say, you know, what, if I’m going to go into a new business or to a new venture, I have this much time to actually excel before I’m like, you know, broke. Right. So I’ve always been comfortable in that regards, where, you know, I could have again, I could have left, you know, five years before leaving chat, you know, because I had that money. I just didn’t have the courage right. So for me it was luckily, the coach I had was very inspiring to her name is Mary Jett. She is now the head of all coaches at Tom Ferry. She is an amazing person. She is like, she’s just like a mom, you know. And she was coaching junk ramen, who was like one of the top agents in the in the nation. She was coaching Gary Gould, who sold the the Playboy Mansion who was at at Hilton and Hyland and Gary was actually the one who recommended me to marry Jeff, you know. So I, again, very grateful to Gary Gould, who’s now a coal banker, because I called him and said, Hey, Gary, I know that you’re coaching with Tom Ferry. And when I’m doing you know, all my research is like, yeah, you know, call my coach Mary Jess, I called Mary jet. She was coaching like 75 people, right? And she’s like, Hey, you know, why don’t I send you, you know, three or four recommendations here at the Tom Ferry coaching network that that may be able to assist you. I talked to those coaches, but I didn’t have the same connection that I had with with Mary jet, you know, so So I call them married yet again. I say, hey, Mary, I know you’re busy. I know you have a lot of clients. I’m very coachable. I am, I am ready to go. And please coach me because I know that you have, you know what it takes to help me grow my business. And she said, You know what, Paul, let’s do it. And so again, so, so grateful. For Mary, because she actually really inspired me to leave chat. She, she, she didn’t push me, she inspired me. That’s the that’s, that’s the difference. I did it on my own. She was actually shocked. After two months of being coached by her, I left chat. And then three months later, I hired my first assistant. D.J. Paris 30:17 Wow. Yeah, you know, so what I’m really hearing is she gave you the courage to bet on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s funny too, because betting on yourself is a very scary endeavor, even for the most confident person because it also could, could not go well. And, and in your case, you know, you really have to commit and you did, and, and you made it work. So, so you left, you found the courage to do that. Your coach, of course helped you, you know, change your mindset to this, like, you can do this, but also, I’m not gonna push you to do it, it’s a decision you have to make on your own and whether you do it or not, I’m still your coach. And, and you did it. And, and then and then how did things, you know, blossom from there? Paul Salazar 31:06 Well, so, again, I didn’t have a network, even though I’d been in LA for a long time. You know, I think my network was really outside of LA, you know, I had a small network in LA from, you know, just kind of meeting people, you know, going out and whatnot. But I really didn’t I I’m not really a networker. You know, that’s not how I get my business. Right. And a lot of people in LA that are successful, actually are good networkers. But that’s not me. I don’t like to go out at night. And like smoothies, that’s not my thing. So when I was, you know, listening to how other agents, you know, grow their business, you know, cold calling expireds was a great way to grow the business. So I started, I started cold calling expireds, you know, and it was, that was so hard for me to start doing that. And I actually started cold calling expireds I think before I hired Mary Jo at the Tom Ferry organization. And then I hired her, but I basically started cold calling expireds every single day. And I was horrible at it. And I was so I was so nervous getting on the phone. Like, it was, like, traumatizing for me. I was like, and my girlfriend is like, why, you know, what’s like, what’s going on? And she’s also a coach herself, you know, so she was kind of coaching me through this whole process. But again, it just like the mindset, like I just wasn’t there. And I didn’t have I guess I didn’t have the confidence yet to really cold call these people. And when you’re cold calling, you know, you know, 2345 and plus million dollar houses. They’re getting calls from everybody in there, everybody. I mean, like people from like, like, an hour away are calling them. It’s nuts. D.J. Paris 32:44 So you were only calling luxury expireds? Or were you Okay, so So you somehow subscribed? Did you subscribe to a service that gives you those leads? Or did you just find them in the MLS as they would expire? Paul Salazar 32:55 So at the time, I was using red X, I’m now using Vulcan. But at that time, I was using red X. And I think it was like a filter of doing like, only houses over a million dollars. So I was like, listen, anything in LA right now, right? Anything over a million dollars is like a like a, like a teardown, you know, yeah. So it’s like, I like the word luxury. It’s like, I don’t even know what that means anymore. Because I hear it here in LA is a $2 million property, like a luxury property. Because it’s like a three bedroom, two bath 1200 square foot house in an OK neighborhood. It’s insane. Right? So so with that being said, you know, I started I started cold calling expireds. D.J. Paris 33:32 And by the way, I want to pause here for a second because because for those of you that have never I feel like that art of calling for sale by owners calling expired listings isn’t as popular anymore. Well, first of all people, you know, look, most people don’t like making cold calls, and calling for sale by owners or expireds. This particular will say just expired. It’s expired. It’s particularly difficult because it was on the market, probably with another realtor. It didn’t go well it didn’t property didn’t transact. And so you may you may be calling somebody who now hates realtors or hates the previous realtor or and as you said, it’s also because it’s a luxury property, at least by the price. It is now you know very attractive to everyone who buys these leads, which is a lot of agents. So you’re right people from an hour away. Sure. I’ll drive in for a $2 million property of course. So now the owner is getting bombarded with you’re probably not the first phone call even of the day. What do you call them? So So can you just talk a little bit about what those calls were like, just because I love the fact that you started calling fizz bows and, and or sorry, expired listings. And were able to you know, still still build a luxury practice out of it. Paul Salazar 34:46 Yeah, I mean, I I knew that like, that was really the only way that I wanted to do things because I’m not an I’m not a networker. That’s not my thing. I’m not going out at nighttime and going to events, right? So I like to be home during the week. So it’s either open houses door knocking or expireds. And I still don’t have the courage to go door knocking yet. So I started with expireds. Right? That was the that was my first step into building my confidence into doing scary things. And a book that I like to read. That really inspired me was Miracle Morning. Oh, yeah. How Elrod Yeah, yes, exactly. Great book. So highly recommend it for any for any listeners. So me and my girlfriend started doing that. So we were still waking up early, you know, 545 alarm, getting up at five, you know, meditation journal workouts. There’s a couple other things there. I forgot what what they are. But But doing that every single morning, and then that really propels you to a very successful day, you know, so I started doing that, but by making the calls was was really tough, you know? Sure. The good thing is that I, I knew the market. So that was what I knew the market, which is really important. And number two, I was at a great brokerage, Hilton Island, and we only have one office and only 150 agents. So it was only really, in my office is only one other agent that that does expired calls. So if if I’m calling Hey, it’s Paul Salazar, a Hilton and Hyland, I kind of know, not everybody, but most people will know that, that that brand name, and they’ll they’ll say, You know what, there’s only a few agents at that at that brokerage. It’s a very, very popular brokerage here in the area for High Tech High End residential. And so they, they, they gave me a little bit more respect, right. That’s nice. Yeah. So, so that definitely helped me out, okay. But at the end of the day, it’s you just have to know how, you know, you obviously have to have a script that you that you internalized, you have to know it from, you know, you have to just understand the script, there’s only going to be a few different objections. And they have to know how to handle it. And more importantly, it’s the it’s your tonality. Yeah, that’s what I learned is tonality is so important, right. And everybody’s different. I’m really good with a certain demographic, ladies that are like 60 Plus, you know, I just, yeah, that was my sweet spot. So that was my first listing. And, and, you know, it was a, it was a, it was a $2.1 million listing. And they had interviewed the other agent in my office who was like the king of expireds, in in LA, who does a ton of expireds. And I actually beat him, I beat him to the listing, which is great. And, and the way I did it, it was just like, I was just personable, and I in what I started to create after that was, how do I become the best listing agent in LA? What do I have to do to become the best listing agent in LA? So that was really my, my mindset going forward is? How do I create? You know, a great listing, right, so what does that involve? And how do I also, so my next prospect, how I just transformed this property, sold it for record price, you know, you know, you know, shortly that Mark is on the market for six months, I sold it in a weekend, you know, so I started to, to, to create those marketing pieces, to help me get the next listing and the next listing and the next listing, and I started just to just really hone in on my listing skills, and my negotiation skills and my sales skills to really go from expired to sold, you know, and I have, I have, like, you know, like 15 now of case studies of these houses that were once on the market, I transformed them, and I was able to get them sold. D.J. Paris 38:47 You know, that’s, that’s such a great approach, this idea of sort of what we would maybe call story selling this idea of, hey, let me tell you about this previous thing, versus, here’s why I’m the best choice, which I’m sure you do have that as part of your pitch as well of like, here’s what I’m going to do for you, here’s the XY and Z of what I’m going to do. But let me tell you about this last property I just worked on, here’s what I did to that, here’s the results. And you know, you’re sort of sharing that, that whole journey to somebody and that’s a very powerful approach that I suspect a lot of agents don’t think that way. It’s more like hey, if you look at my reputation, if you look at what I what I do in general, I’m a big deal, you know, without saying I’m a big deal, whereas you’re telling very specific stories of previous experiences you have and that is it’s a very unique approach actually, I think that’s that’s quite quite smart and obviously, is started resonating with these with these expireds and honestly, Paul Salazar 39:45 like, because of expireds like that’s what helped me grow my business like it’s because of expireds because you know, from there, you hold open houses you find buyers from there you go door, knock the neighborhood from there, you start just started Little by little start building your business. And you know, like, again, I think 60% of my business right now is still expired still new business because I don’t have enough old business to get repeat clients. I don’t I don’t I don’t have the the like the luxury of being like, Hey, Paul, you sold my property two years ago, I want to buy something like I rarely get those calls maybe two or three times a year. Obviously, as I grow my business, I’m getting more and more of those calls. But I still cannot rely on that I still rely on circle dialing on door knocking on sending mailers on calling expireds and doing open houses. D.J. Paris 40:37 Let’s talk about door knocking, because so few of our guests on, I’ve had a few guests that have that have talked about door knocking I suspect more more have done it, maybe just don’t talk about it. But that is also, I think, a very courageous thing to do. And it’s very difficult. So as you you know, tell us your approach for door knocking just, you know, are you are you door knocking in neighborhoods where you just or you’re currently selling a property or just sold a property? Oh, by the way, I just, you know, I helped your neighbor down the street, just wanted to introduce myself that kind of thing, or how did you go about doing that? Paul Salazar 41:11 Well, I have a geo form, right. So here here in Venice, in the in the west side of Venice Beach, I have like a you know, like a 500 You know, home, you know, community that I’m constantly working on. Right? So that’s, that’s how I started door knocking, right. And again, this is all from Tom Ferry Mary jet, saying, Hey, you have to have a, you have to have four lead pillars. One is you know, for so when I first started coaching with them, it was geo farm expireds open houses, and then my past clients, which is very, very little, right. So so, you know, door knocking to me is the most effective way of prospecting, hands down. Wow, it can’t be more effective than calling expireds more it’s it just takes a lot of time and effort and energy. And that’s why people don’t do it. Because it’s like, you have to go out there you have to have like a marketing piece. You have to go and doorknob. It’s like it’s a lot of time and effort. You know, cold calling is a little bit easier. You’re at home, you could be in your PJs, you could just you know, get out of bed and do it right. But when your door knocking, you have to you know, I gotta say we got to look good. I look presentable. I gotta I gotta understand the market in this little area. But, you know, I’ve, from one of my door knocking deals is actually doing COVID. Right, where I couldn’t actually door knock, but I was still passing out flyers. And if somebody was out in the front of the door, I was, you know, like, if they’re out in the yard, I would talk to them. So funny story is like, I I wanted to start, I wanted to get into selling new developments. Because Santiago Araunah, who was one of the biggest agents in the nation, he’s here in Brentwood. Actually, you know, he actually interviewed me when I first came to LA and Oh, nine, he didn’t hire me. But he’s a great agent, you know, like, he like I always look up to him, because he’s kind of like me, like, he’s a, you know, Latin guy like me, he came from nothing. And he’s built an amazing business. I mean, he’s, he’s a freaking baller, right? But he, he built his business on door knocking. And, and he found a lot of tear downs. And he was able to sell those to developers. And then the developer built a 20 3040 $50 million house, and now he’s selling those houses, right. So that’s another great way of getting the luxury space, if you’re in an area where there’s a lot of tear downs and development opportunities, right, is to start, you know, door knocking those houses, finding those sellers, finding the the developers, which is super easy, right. So that was one of my first development deals a few years ago, was during COVID. Walking around in my geo farm, I knew I picked this geo farm because it had a lot of tear down potential. And a tear down is going to be three deals, three sides, right? You rep the seller who’s selling the development opportunity, you rep the developer, and then you rep the developer one, they sell it in a good chance that you get a lead out of it, or a buyer and you double ended so there’s possibly 244 sides and one one deal there. Right? So there’s a really, you know, really, you know, good chance that you can make some good money on these on these tear downs. So anyway, so I was doing walking, I met the the the older couple that were super sweet. They knew nothing about real estate at all. Their father just had passed away. So it was it was a trust sell. They had a they had to pay no capital gains. So it was perfect for them. They were going to cash out. I found a great developer that I now have sold multiple deals to. And you know, and that’s how I kind of started right now selling brand new developments was was just by door knocking these houses. D.J. Paris 44:41 And this idea of cold calling developers not to hey, I want to rep your next project which of course every realtor would want that too. But you’re saying hey, I’ve got a deal for you essentially not not a deal. I’ve got a transaction possibly for you. Not a deal isn’t like I’ve got special offer for you. But I’ve got this property that that you might be interested in Mr. And Mrs. Developer. I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. I don’t know why that has never been talked about that is a brilliant approach to giving providing value to a developer, to which they’re like, hey, this guy’s great. He’s given us business. We’re gonna use them for, you know, maybe other things we’re doing. Paul Salazar 45:22 Yeah, for sure. And I think, my pitch to these, the sellers that own these tear downs, and there’s not all properties are going to be considered tear downs, you know, sure. I always look out for my clients, no matter what I always look out, like, if I was them, what would I do? Right? There’s some houses that you can slap some paint on, it changed some countertops. And we’ll talk about that a little bit later on. Because I also specialize in like, re, like refurbishing a house, you know, redoing a house, and selling it to an end user, right? But But there’s certain houses that you can’t do that it’s either too small, or it needs too much work. And it’s a perfect teardown, right, like the developer is going to pay more than an end user, right? So so what my pitches to these to the sellers is that I’m going to create an offering memorandum and an OM right. And that’s not really used for for residential brokers, they don’t really understand what that means that that’s for for like commercial agents, you know, that’s our industrial buildings, or office and retail or, you know, other kind of commercial, real estate. So what I do is that I create it with my team, like a 1520, page, PDF, and it outlines, right, this is what we’re selling. This is what you know, what we’re asking, you know, this is, you know, what the what the land, you know, price per square foot, because we don’t look at price per square foot for the house, we look at the price per square foot for the land, we sell them comps of other other land cells that are similar to this in the area. We also saw on comps of what a new development will sell for in the area, we also show them what they can build, per the under built report, which is a company here in the area that can tell me how big of a house I can build on it. And then I email it to developers. And then they’ll say, give me a call. I said, give me a call. And now they they trust me even more, because I created this great marketing piece that took me three hours. And they trust me like this guy’s the real deal, right? And so I start calling these developers, I said, Hey, and it’s so easy to find developers. So there’s no excuse for anybody not to find developer, all you do is you go on the MLS, you find out all the new developments that are sold. You look at public records, you saw who sold them. If it’s an LLC, you look up the LLC, you look at the manager, you find them online, they have a website, you give them a call, it literally takes five minutes, right? Yeah, it’s super, super easy. So that’s how it started. And I luckily sold it to a great developer who I have a great relationship now. And now I’ve already sold them a few other properties that are now being built. And that house, I sold it originally teardown for 1.6 million, so I double that. And then we sold it two months ago for 4.2 million. And, and we put a big sign in front of the house as as they were building it, you know, as they were building the whole house a huge sign a massive sign with a QR code to like a website. And I got I got a buyer lead that I sold another house for 3.1 million, I got other leads that I’m working on right now. So it’s like, every single listing should give you two or three deals. At the minimum one deal. And if you really know how to maximize it, two or three deals. So that’s why I really focus on on on getting listings. D.J. Paris 48:35 How many other agents do you know who prospect developers with with opportunities like that you put together? I’m curious if that’s a common practice. And if it is, I’m curious on how putting together that 1520 page PDF with literally step by step of like, here’s all the work we’ve done, here’s the options for what you can do mister missus developer. And here’s what we think, you know, estimated profit might might be how common is that? Are you like the only guy really doing that? Is that your sort of secret sauce? Or do you feel like other people are putting together similar packages? Paul Salazar 49:12 I was it’s not a secret anymore. But But I don’t think anyone else is doing it. You know, again, I really pride myself in being detail oriented. And creating really nice marketing pieces like that. That’s my thing. Like I I really want to have a nice brand. So if you go to my, to my website, it’s very clean. If you look at my at my Instagram profile, I try it’s getting better and better. Right? It’s not easy to like have a nice, clean, bold and sophisticated look. But that’s that’s what we’re trying to build here. But I don’t know anybody else that’s that’s doing that. There are a lot of agents that sell a lot of developments and they’re there and they’re doing this right. And the other way of getting these deals is by sending letters So like, I would drive around a whole area with my assistant, and I will pick out, tear down, tear down, we write the address, we put it on an Excel file. And now we send handwritten envelopes. And we send them a letter, I just close it. I’m actually under contract on a deal right now from a letter that I sent three months ago, and they call me Hey, I got your letter, do you still have that buyer? I’m like, Yes, I do. I put the deal together. And now we’re under contract for another development deal. Right? So not only door knocking, or cold calling these these tear downs, but also sending letters works. D.J. Paris 50:30 I love that you’re doing all of the things that you would assume a luxury agent probably doesn’t have to do, right? Most luxury agents I know are not calling fizz Bo’s expireds, they’re not cold calling developers. They’re not writing, you know, letters. Or maybe they are and maybe they’re just not telling us on our show. But I appreciate that, that you weren’t born into this sort of luxury business, you really built it, you bootstrapped it and and you you saved up enough money so that you could you could explore that. And, and I just go i Those are the best stories, I think, the so let’s talk about because again, so many of our agents are like, okay, I can start doing some of those things. But everybody wants to be a luxury agent. You know, what, what’s the major difference you found? Because you do 20 plus million dollar properties as well. What’s the major difference between working with you know, a seller of a, you know, let’s say a million dollar property or, you know, in LA, of course, the like you said, everything’s kind of, or at least in the area you service is kind of a million dollars, even the smallest properties? What’s the difference between working on the smaller property side to the ultra high net worth side? Are the are the needs? And the goals basically the same? Or is it is it kind of a different world? Paul Salazar 51:51 I mean, I think at the core, it’s the same thing, somebody wants to find a home. Right? So so in that, in that respect, there’s there’s going to be an emotional attachment to selling real estate, either in high end, or in a lower price point, right? Sure. I think the only difference is, is that when you’re selling real estate here, a lot of the times they have a business manager, who can make things very difficult a lawyer, writer. And so they have, by the D.J. Paris 52:20 way, are not emotionally involved in the property that a buyer or a seller might be there emotionally involved in keeping their their position, which their position is, is to very thoroughly review the financial component of this transaction, which I’m assuming is a big deal be so you not only have to win over the emotional side of the buyer or seller, but you also have to win over sort of the more empirical part, the objective part of dealing with now this team, which those are, those are two different very different masters to serve, I imagine. Paul Salazar 52:51 Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think most of the people that I service here in LA, not everybody, but most of them are just sophisticated. And they, they, they’re, they’re educated. And they’re they’re business owners, they’re very smart people, right? So they may know, they may know about the property more than you do. Like, you know, if you’re showing them property, they may have done all the research. So you have to be prepared a lot more than I was prepared. When I was working in Rancho Cucamonga. I’m not saying you don’t have to be prepared selling real estate in a smaller price point. But all I’m saying is that over here, I feel like you have to be more prepared, because they are going to ask you tough questions. And they and they’re going to expect that you know that they they’re going to expect the you know, the market, they you know, the players that you know about the house, all that stuff. So I think that’s the biggest difference. And then the other thing is, is when you’re listing a property, I feel that, you know, I spend easily, you know, five to $6,000 per listing, before it’s even on the market. You know, we’re spending, you know, a grant that two grand on a photographer, same for a videographer or floor plan, I do everything like we do Instagram ads, or the YouTube ads, we do Google ads for our listings, we want to be the best of the best, right? And that’s how I this is, this is my plan to get to the next level. Like I really want to start growing my business to the next level. I’m not there yet. And I have a long way to go. But I know that if I keep doing this, I will get there because people are going to start noticing that I really take care of you. I’m going to look out for you. And I’m going to get you top dollar or I will get you the best price if I’m repping you as a buyer’s agent. D.J. Paris 54:42 Yeah, it’s so funny to hear you hear somebody say I’ve sold 600 million in real estate. I’m not quite there yet. I’m just just but that’s that’s the motor that you have that keeps you going 600 million is is just where you’re at today. It isn’t necessarily where you want to be tomorrow. But it’s So funny to hear that that, really, it seems like your your entire career has been so much of put the blinders on do the hard things that are maybe a little scary and uncomfortable, but are healthy, and things that other agents aren’t willing to do like door knocking. I mean, gosh, I would bet less than 1% of agents have ever door knock, or made a cold call, quite honestly. You know, I don’t I don’t think people leave and do that as much anymore. And yet, here’s here’s somebody, you know, like you who who still does it. And, and that is, um, you would think a luxury agent wouldn’t be going door to door, you know, we sort of have our own, you know, misconceptions about what that even means. But it is one of those rare arts, you know, this door knocking and letter writing that, you know, people really appreciate if done the right way. It’s it’s absolutely a lost art and is obviously been part of the secret. Not secret, but part of the reason for your, for your ascent. And so let’s let’s talk about, you know, I’m sure there’s people that reach out to you that goes, I want to break into the luxury market. What What are your thoughts on that? I see, I always think most agents shouldn’t aspire to that unless they want to up their game, like you were saying, now dealing with buyers and sellers who maybe are a bit more sophisticated, maybe are just more business focused, like you said, a lot of business owners, a lot of people who have been successful in their careers, and just have a level of sophistication that, you know, maybe people at lower price points, you know, just don’t have or aren’t as interested in. And so, you know, you do have to appeal to that sort of those qualities of these of these more sophisticated buyers and sellers. You know, what would your advice be to somebody that says, I want to sell $20 million homes just like you Paul Salazar 56:51 I you know, what, I think people glamorize because of what’s on TV sell Sharon said and Million Dollar Listing and they think it’s just like, so easy. When you go into a luxury market, the competition is at a different level. This is why I have to up my game. Like, the only reason why I’m doing is because when I lose a listing, I I’m like, Alright, why did I lose that listing? What can I do better? Now I’m adding another piece to my arsenal, little by little right. So, you know, being part of the Tom Ferry organization, I see people in much smaller markets selling $500,000 houses that they’re making 10 times more than me, you know, so I think for an agent, you got to think about is it about is it about the glamour of selling luxury real estate or is about the money because you can make a you can make more money selling $500,000 houses with, you know, obviously more units than selling luxury property and selling just, you know, five or you know, or 10 listings or sales per year, D.J. Paris 57:53 you know, not having to spend 5000 plus per listing the market. Paul Salazar 57:57 Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I again, like if your dream, like, for me, my dream was never to sell luxury real estate like that. I never, you know, got into real estate to be in Beverly Hills, it just kind of fell into my lap, right? My mom kind of pushed me my girlfriend was living here. I got the, you know, I got the assistant position with with Chad Hilton and Hyland, so everything kind of, you know, kind of just, you know, like, like, the road kind of led me there. Right? But it wasn’t like, I was like, I want to sell, you know, 20 monopolistic so that that now I do, right. But But before that, you know, it wasn’t really a big deal for those agents that really, really want to get into luxury real estate because they they love those kinds of houses, they want to work with those kinds of people. That’s great. You should you should do it. I think joining a team is obviously I think, you know, having a mentor joining a team should be the first thing you do 100% You have to learn about how you know what it takes to be a player, learn the players learn the area, learn the markets, who are the buyers who are the sellers, right. And then after that create a plan. You know, how am I going to get you know, open houses is a great way of finding buyers right. You know, cold calling door knocking I mean, there’s so many stories out there. Santiago Irana door knock Brentwood for years. He’s killing it. You know, the guys on Bhandar listing, you know, Parnes, you know, the Bonsu brothers, they also door knock and Bel Air. So there’s so many stories of people that are not even from LA. And they want to do luxury real estate but they but they grinded their way in. You know, you gotta grind your way and it’s super, super competitive. So if you got he got what it takes, and you’re in your competitive and you’re willing to grind, then go ahead and do it. Why not? I mean, anybody can do it. I did it. And everybody, you know, a lot of other people did it too. D.J. Paris 59:50 Well, I think that’s really such an inspiring message. If we sort of look back at your entire career. Yes, there were opportunities that allowed you to get introduced to different types of audiences that you now work with. But nothing was handed to you at all. You You made your own luck by doing the things that maybe other agents wouldn’t be willing to do, even from starting, you know, with sending out 10,000 emails to other agents. And by the way, not being a guy who’s a self promoter, right, that is something you would think maybe a self promoter or schmoozer would want to do, because it’s a good networking sort of exercise. You were just like, I need to find a mentor here. And and so you earnestly send out all these messages. And then you know, everything, you continue to do things like that, throughout your entire career and continue to do it today. It’s not like oh, now it’s just, I just get calls all day from developers and from luxury, you know, buyers and sellers. You’re still drumming up all this business on your own. And I think that’s just a great a great place to sort of wrap up for today because it is like, it’s like reminds me of that old. This ancient, I think it’s a Zen saying I can’t remember exactly where it comes from. So I apologize if I’m getting this wrong, but but the expression is a good one, which is Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood carry water. You just gotta keep keep doing the, you know, the hard things. Because that’s what keeps everything going. It’s not like you, you don’t feel like you’ve arrived, so to speak, because you’re still doing the same exact things. And that’s oddly, but but also absolutely makes sense of why your continued to be successful. And who knows, maybe one day it’ll all just come come into you without without that much effort. But it’s working for you. And it’s a great reminder of just practicing the fundamentals and consistently applying those just the same way. We built our podcast here. It wasn’t any one interview that got us, you know, it Yeah, it’s just just consistency and talking to people like yourself, and what you what you shared was really super inspiring today. So I hope, I don’t even hope I know our audience has received a tremendous amount of benefit for any agents out there who might be might have clients that are moving to, you know, to the more exclusive areas of LA in the suburbs, and are looking, you know, maybe they don’t service that particular area, maybe they’re in a different state, but they have clients who maybe have second, third, fourth homes, and they maybe want to partner with a top agent like yourself, or if there’s anyone who is in the Beverly Hills and surrounding areas who’s a buyer or seller investor developer or renter who wants to work with you directly, you know, what’s the best way that one of our listeners could reach out to you Paul Salazar 1:02:43 call me text me email me Instagram, it like I, I check all those things. So like my cell phone 310-387-1976 Call me shoot me a text, email Paul at Paul Salazar group.com. Instagram at Paul Sallows our group, so very easy to get in touch with me. I’ve actually, you know, been, you know, I’ve had people reach out to me to ask for advice. I always you know, you know, give them a you know, a few minutes of my time to because I listen, I respect that, you know, I was there at one point. And I respect people that like, go out there and reach out and like, you know, want to ask for advice. I’ve actually given like, there’s a kid in high school that sent me a long email saying, He wants me to mentor him, I brought him to my open house. Now he helps me out with things. It’s like it when you put yourself out there, the world is gonna give you gifts, you know, and, and I think a lot of people don’t put themselves out there because it’s, it feels vulnerable. You got to get uncomfortable, you got to be durable. And the more vulnerable you get, the more uncomfortable you get, the more difficult things you do, the more you start to feel like empowered by yourself like, well, I can do that. You know, I think that’s probably my biggest tip for any listener here is just start doing small things every single day, that are that are difficult, you know, taking a cold shower in the morning, waking up early, working out in the morning, making a you know, one cold call door knocking one door, you know, going out and just meeting somebody striking up a conversation, and you start to realize that wow, why am I even worried about that? Why was I scared about that, you know, there’s that we just have these these these fears? Because you know, we have this it’s a human condition, right? Sure. But but once you get over this, then you start to get more empowered and you start to do more and more difficult things like I still have a lot of things that I want to do that are that are difficult, that I’m still you know, getting to little by little D.J. Paris 1:04:44 cold showers is such a great example of a small thing that any anybody can try. And it is shockingly difficult. It’s more difficult than you think it’s going to be thinking about it now. It’s actually two times harder than what you’re even thinking And if you can, if you I want everybody to try this tomorrow and it’s not because having a cold shower in and of itself is anything, it’s it’s the idea of it. And people say there’s some health benefits whatever that that may or may not be. But what there definitely is a benefit is you if you can make it 30 seconds, 60 seconds and complete it you will feel as much jubilation as if you just ran a marathon because it is that difficult. And that is an easy win. It’s not an easy win. It’s a very difficult win. If you can do that daily. I promise. Just do it. Try it once tomorrow try to make it 10 seconds on ice cold all the way to cold. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s tough. It’s I did it for about a year, I need to get back into it. I did it many years ago, took me months to find the courage to do it. Months and months and months. It sounds silly. I know I’m just talking about this one specific thing. But it’s a something that you will again, you will feel unbelievable. As you walk out of that show, you’ll be like, I just did something crazy art. And you’re right then other things, which maybe aren’t quite as difficult. Don’t seem as bad as as they did before. So oh my gosh, what a great thing. So do hard things, people that are healthy, do hard things that are healthy. And Paul, what a great, great place to wrap up. So everyone go please, Paul’s a wonderful guy, reach out to him if you need some assistance. Also, if you have clients that are moving to the Southern California, talk to Paul, he wants he wants to chat with you. And he certainly is a great realtor to have in your in your database. And Paul, on behalf of our audience, thank you so much for coming on our show. We this is such a such a pleasure to have you. And if I fiber make it out to to LA I haven’t been there in many years, I need to come back. I want to say hi to you in person. And yeah, and see you in action dinner. That would be fun. And on behalf of Paul and myself, we want to thank everyone for making it to the end of the episode. Please do us to do us one favor. This hasn’t been an amazing episode, I want everybody to think of one other realtor that needs to hear what Paul had to say. And just send them a link to our either this episode or our website, which is keeping it real pod.com You will help somebody by sending this to some struggling agent in your office. Or maybe you know another agent from a different office that you know that could use, you know, this sort of this sort of past sort of pep talk from somebody who started with really no major help and built this incredible career and is really just getting started. And it’ll be inspiring to to everybody else. He’ll be actually helping people do that. And you’re helping us as well. So please send a link to this episode. Other than that, Paul, I am so excited to continue to watch your journey. And thank you so much for being on the podcast and we’ll see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Paul. Thank you, Jay. Appreciate it.