Flourishing Into Your Full Holistic Potential with Susanna Medrano

Transcript

[Mattias]
Welcome back to the RAI agent. We are here with Susanna Medrano. Susanna, thank you so much for joining us.

[Susanna Medrano]
It’s absolutely a pleasure. Mattias, thank you for the invite.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about who you are. Give us a elevator pitch about what you do in the real estate world.

[Susanna Medrano]
Sure. So, you know, I started off as a real estate agent back in 2013. And in the last 10-12 years, I have elevated, you know, grown through the ranks.

I am now a partner with my brokerage and the national sales and leadership coach for our entire network. And, you know, I owe it all to taking a chance in this very hard real estate profession that, you know, if you had asked me prior as a person who was a nonprofit social worker, you know, to, you know, leave making $35,000 a year and to an unknown 1099 type of person, you know, I took the plunge and it changed my life in so many ways that I can’t even begin to tell you.

[Mattias]
Yeah, well, I mean, I came from a similar world. It wasn’t necessarily nonprofit, but doing therapeutic treatment in schools. So, you know, Medicaid funded and that kind of stuff often as well.

So, I get the shift. Was it something that you had in your bones and your DNA you feel like once you got there and you realized or did you really have to take a big leap of faith?

[Susanna Medrano]
Well, for me, I like people. I like helping people. So that was already very, very from the humanistic approach already natural to me.

What I had to learn was sales skills and, you know, coming from a government liberal arts type of degree sales didn’t come naturally as you can see behind me. I mean, this just started with one book and it grew into an obsession throughout my career just based on, you know, once you start a career in your mid 30s, it’s hard to go back to school and go through the whole thing, right? So, you know, I owe it to a lot of the items behind me that I could lean on and it helped elevate me not only as an agent, but as a leader and as a coach.

[Mattias]
That’s fascinating, because I think a lot of times people just assume they can’t get into sales if they’re not naturally that way. So, I mean, can we lean into that a little bit more like yourself more introverted? I mean, what are the things that you had to break through to kind of get into this world?

[Susanna Medrano]
You know, I always was or I would say I’m a closeted introvert. Because like, it put me in a room, apparently I’m the loudest one. And I, for me, it’s always about having fun and always connecting with people.

But like, I do like to be in my quiet zone, you know, I do like to be a more of a quiet person. So, I mean, for me, it was just having conversations on the phone. And, you know, finding out the the nature of where meeting that person where they are, whether it was a buyer or a seller, or and now, you know, whether it’s a struggling agent that doesn’t have a pipeline, right?

It’s, it’s just literally talking to someone and being 100% in that conversation and not allowing yourself to be in another place.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah. And I think like you were talking about the helping people correlation between both careers, I think it’s such a good if you’re in it for the money. I mean, yes, it’s kind of it is more profitable, for sure.

Can be. But if you’re if you’re passionate, if what really gets you up in the morning is the money, it’s going to run out. And I think it does.

You’re not gonna you’re not gonna have the patience, you’re not going to have the ability to handle all the stress that comes along with this world. So that’s such a great, you know, why, if you will, like the why you get up and do what you do. And also, I think I think that’s also a key to success because people feel that they feel that you’re not there just for the paycheck that you’re there, you’re generally wanting to help them make the best move they can.

[Susanna Medrano]
Well, based on trust. Yeah, you can’t do anything if people don’t trust you. And if you don’t trust that person, I mean, whether it’s a consumer, whether it’s an agent, whether it’s another eight, another leader, you know, it’s like, if there’s no trust, there’s no point in moving forward.

[Mattias]
Yeah, well, so talk to me about how you got started and kind of what your first year looked like.

[Susanna Medrano]
Sure. So when I first got started, I, well, the the nature of it, it was in the summer of 2013. I was at a gala on a free ticket for kids in the court system.

And I was having like a mid 30 life crisis. And one of my very good friends was the auctioneer at the at the specific event. And me being the closet introvert, you know, I’m talking to judges like just, you know, work in the room, free scotch, why not?

Right. And so so then he approached me and he’s like, Susanna, I really think you should try sales and specifically real estate. Like I just became this buyer agent team lead over here.

And, you know, I think you’d be a good fit. And, you know, ordinarily, when someone says something like that to you, or even to me at that time, I was like, but I but I actually took it to heart and quit my job within 30 days got licensed, went and jumped ship into this unknown world. And within the first year, just doing the framework and being consistent.

I think that’s, that’s where a lot of people fail in real estate is the consistency. I helped 45 families and, you know, ended up selling close to $12 million of real estate in Austin at the time, the price point was about 375. Okay, now it’s a completely different monster now, but I had a lot of volume and I had a lot I got a lot of experience in my first year to where for me, I really learned that consistency does create certainty, especially I mean, being in the real estate world, you can ask an outsider, the reason why a lot of people don’t get into it is because of that unknown, right?

Just that it’s like that big ocean. But there is, there is some certainty if you build the right habits and do it every day. And I think that’s where a lot of people end up failing is because they do not hold themselves accountable to that.

What can you describe some of those habits that you that you would it was picking up the phone and making 40 making 40 contacts a week, 40 brand new conversations a week. And knowing that I had to at least book at least between three to five appointments minimum. So sometimes one week, it would take me 100 120 dials, right?

Sometimes I’d have to flavor in some open houses in the middle of that. Most of the time, like especially in this market, you’re looking at north of 200, maybe 300 dials now, but regardless, it’s staying consistent to that specific framework. And I’m going to I’m going to tell you, Mattias, like I was able to help probably about between four up to six families a month after 90 days of just living that.

[Mattias]
That’s I mean, so how long did it take until you first got an appointment or a closing from? Because I mean, like, it feels like you’re, you’re beating your head against the wall when you Oh, yeah.

[Susanna Medrano]
And it’s an unknown and it’s scary.

[Mattias]
And it’s not fun.

[Susanna Medrano]
It’s an emotional like wild ride. It’s because some days it’s like you get something but then other days it’s not but the consistency is what what allows you so okay, I got licensed at the end of September of 2013. And I had three closings in December.

And then I had like three or four in January. And then it just kind of like started to like the big the big ocean wave from that. So as you can see, like October, November was hardest year fourth quarter, as they say, but while everybody else around me was not making dials, I was making the dials and I was meeting people.

And what I recognize is even if it’s a fourth quarter, when you have when you’re taking buyers, or you’re going to listings at the end of the year, people are motivated. And so you have to you have to stay consistent with them and and meet them where they are. And then it just became it just became the consistent thing that I built in to my schedule.

And I think that’s another thing is regardless on what field you’re in, you know, when you enter into an environment such as real estate, that for the most part, isn’t a 40 hour a week job, right? It’s not an eight to five, you have to make sure that you’re carving out direct income producing activities every day.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Well, what, um, where were you finding these numbers? Were you going through the telephone book?

[Susanna Medrano]
You know, I was blessed to be part of a brokerage that that was the that was their one thing is that they do provide opportunities last week, you know, I know there’s different types of models out there. But in my in my case, which I’ve only been in this one model, I’m not gone elsewhere, right? It’s based on just that motif is just that’s where I believe we’ve been able to help a lot of agents scale is just being able to provide that layer that usually is very difficult when you’re getting started in real estate.

[Mattias]
Yeah. And if somebody is looking to start this and a bit lost, there’s there’s definitely some services, you can buy some lists that kind of thing.

[Susanna Medrano]
Absolutely.

[Mattias]
You could target neighborhoods, if you want.

[Susanna Medrano]
door, not I mean, all of it. I’ve done it all.

[Mattias]
So, so and that could be a powerful strategy. Like there’s not around me, but a lot of areas, there would be like huge subdivisions where there’s, you know, a lot of doors that you could try to become the expert of. And if you’re farming that, you could try to get a list of the numbers, you could email postcards, if that takes a little bit of money.

[Susanna Medrano]
It does.

[Mattias]
But it is effective, then you could also door knock to to try to really concentrate on on something.

[Susanna Medrano]
So that you know, it’s another nugget to Mattias is going to new construction, David subdivisions and meeting the sales counselors there and having them take you on a tour. Because I’m going to tell you a lot of the times those individuals that are sitting in these model homes are exceptional at how to show these different types of products that are brand new, right. And so I did a lot of that I did a lot of spending time going and seeing, you know, how they were showing and then it then I would kind of take a little bit of those nuggets and try to elevate my game on how I was presenting myself to clients.

[Mattias]
Sure. And how about your existing sphere that you already like you, you would have had a network of friends, family, maybe absolutely professionals that you were in where you also I’m a realist, you know, normally, when when people get into real estate, everybody, everybody knows a realtor.

[Susanna Medrano]
Everybody knows a realtor. It’s like it’s like it’s like seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? Like everybody knows a realtor.

So it wasn’t until probably my second or third year when they started to see me prosper. Yeah, consistently. That’s basically when I started opening myself up more to my sphere, I basically took full advantage of just working on the things that were being provided to me in my in my early in my early days.

[Mattias]
Yeah. And I think what you’re outlying, there’s there’s maybe some different methodologies to doing it. But ultimately, yeah, spending, you have like a checklist, you have a certain things you have to get done each day.

And showing up consistently to do those things that you know, can provide, you know, some sort of income in the future is where you get that. Yeah, that feeling of stability, because if you show up all those you have things you’re working on, you’re progressing things forward, that will result in income down the line. But you do have to push through like, because I mean, I think, like you said that you had a couple months where, you know, I probably saw some momentum, but like, I mean, were you were you calling for weeks before you really feel like, like, how much of uncertainty did you have while you were making these phone calls like to that you had to get through until you actually saw some sort of result?

[Susanna Medrano]
Well, in the first in the first, like couple of months, like to be able to just let’s just say the first 90 days for me, I was treating it like an eight to five job until I got that momentum. And then from there, then it was about just hitting certain metrics that do indicate a having a little bit more of a pre, you know, a predictive type of revenue for me. So then, you know, what would take me eight hours, or, you know, 10 hours in a week, you know, I was able to kind of segment that out into like one to two hour call blocks.

And then that is what it was, you just leave everything on field and you move on and do other tasks. But that you grow into that, right? I think what happens is a lot of people think, okay, one hour, I’m only going to spend one hour, no, you, you have to, you have to go all out and go with full Ghana’s in order to like get something to happen.

[Mattias]
Yeah, at least for that first closing, it takes a massive, mass amount of effort often. So would you then suggest most people if they’re thinking about getting into the business, go all in so they can do this kind of activity? Or do you think it’s possible to to kind of build your business slowly while you do another job?

[Susanna Medrano]
So I’m going to probably say something that a lot of people don’t want to hear, I think it is something that you have to go all in. And what I would advise is to have at least at least a 30 to 60 day, a little bit of financing, like safety net, to be able to be able to lean in to be able to go full time because I didn’t, you know, and there’s enough ramen, I can tell you that the ramen and the 99 cent, you know, jack in the box tacos. And, you know, after leaving my job, luckily, I had a friend who was in the barbecue business and had like a trailer out in the wineries outside of Austin.

So I was like cutting up brisket for gas money, right. So if I do it all over again, I would have I would have been a little bit more strategic in having a little bit of a savings, so that I would not be so like, feeling defeated or terrified in those first early months, but it ended up I ended up doing okay, because I, you know, I, it worked in my benefit, but I would think for a lot of people right now, that’s probably not the way that you’d want to go.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that can be stressful. And especially if there’s, you know, depending on your situation, what kind of expenses you have, if you have a spouse that earns money, if you have kids that are depending on you, there’s there’s a lot of different factors that can that can play and also just kind of your goal. I think there are people that are able to be pretty focused on building the business.

But there is like you had your back was against the wall, you were going to have or you’re going to sink with what?

[Susanna Medrano]
Yeah, it’s exactly. And I came out okay on it. You know, I came out okay on it.

But for I think for a lot of other individuals, especially in this specific market, I would advise having a little bit of a safety a little bit of an essay.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, where did your I was gonna go down a rabbit hole to talk about Austin’s markets. Let’s, let’s go.

Let’s go to your next phase. As you as you got established, like, did you? Where did you go?

Did you did you build a team? You said you’re now in the coaching world as well. So tell me about how you progressed your business.

[Susanna Medrano]
So how I progressed is, you know, I started having a lot of early success on, you know, helping buyers helping listing agents. And so, and being in a team environment, it was naturally for people to start to gravitate towards me just for advice. And, you know, usually salespeople can be very competitive, you know, depending on different things.

But coming from my background, I was a little bit more collaborative. And so I think my bosses started noticing, hey, there’s something there that she’s actually willing to take time out of her day to coach. And so then from there, it, you know, there an opportunity opened up for me to actually lead the help lead the Austin team for about four years.

And I had a lot of success kind of taking from what I learned as an agent, and then learning and putting that all into leadership and it being all based on trust, right? You can’t, you can’t get people to do things if they don’t trust you, especially in what would be kind of a higher risk type of environment when it comes to sales. And so I leaned all on that and, and being able to build relationships with my with my with my agents, and and help them prosper.

And then another opportunity after that opened up to where I now share a lot of just being kind of in that in that fishbowl for four years, and now help coach not only leaders, but also agents and sales managers and different areas of real estate. So all of it started with me just, you know, taking up taking a plunge about 1213 years ago. Yeah.

[Mattias]
Yeah, it’s definitely is a plunge. Did you ever read Rich Dad Poor Dad? Did that help you get in there?

The what? Did you ever read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad?

[Susanna Medrano]
Of course. It’s Yeah, I mean, yeah, for sure. I mean, that one was it was a critical one.

Extreme ownership was a big one for me that really helped me learn. I mean, I could go on. I mean, in 2018 here, let me tell you this fun fact, Mattias, I did a dare with my broker for New Year’s Eve resolution, I said I would read 52 books in 52 weeks, and, and did so and so from that it’s now years later has become an obsession of like biographies or Westerns or like whatever the year’s theme is.

So I don’t even know what this coming year is gonna bring for me when it comes to the books.

[Mattias]
Yeah. That’s amazing. Did you get into the investing spaces as well?

In this journey? Did you invest in RealFit?

[Susanna Medrano]
As far as like investing other and just in my personal home. That’s been the actual shelf life of that what I have what I have taken from the real estate industry is investing in others as far as the actual person as far as the actual agent or leader that’s sitting in front of me. That’s my, my path.

Yeah, that’s been my path.

[Mattias]
Sure. I love it. So and so that’s the role you’re in now then.

So yeah, I am. Yeah, no, it’s a I think there’s people need to the beauty of real estate and people think that people tell me a lot is like, you know, you can kind of make it what you want. And in the beginning, you know, I would joke, you know, I can choose what 18 hours a day I wanted to work.

And but I think there is the ability there. I have interviewed people that have been very strict about things like nine to five, I work nine to five, that’s when I respond, that’s when and they’re, you know, in their position, they’re doing sales or listing. And so they’re not running buyers around when they when it meets their schedule.

But there is that ability within this world to be able to, you know, make it what you want. You know, the ability of I don’t know if people some people are just happy with a certain amount of sales volume, once they have that they kind of stop for the take a long vacation. I mean, there’s, it’s, I don’t think there’s, I think I think this world is a lot of like, you know, we should we should be thinking about what we want out of life.

And we should be focused on that as well. And not just be like, if you’re competitive, and what really drives you to be the number one agent, you know, that that’s great, good for you. But if you have other priorities as well, I think that’s, you know, not wrong, you shouldn’t feel bad about that.

[Susanna Medrano]
Exactly. You know, there’s that whole that whole take on words like KPI key performance indicator, but then now there’s a whole nuance on keeping people inspired, especially those that you know, that are your teammates or people that you’re collaborating with. So I do agree.

I do think a lot of the real estate profession is probably split 5050 on that, you know?

[Mattias]
Yeah. And I think it’s easy, especially in this world to compare yourself to others. And if you’re not forming as much as somebody else, you may feel that you’re not doing enough or something.

[Susanna Medrano]
Sure.

[Mattias]
I don’t think you need to focus on it. And so you know, speaking, speaking of KPIs, or setting goals, and you know, we’re in the fourth quarter of this year. What areas do you think people should focus on as they plan, like, aside from just their sales?

Like, is there other things that you suggest your agents focus on? When they’re planning for the next year?

[Susanna Medrano]
You know, in addition to just, you know, having a healthy pipeline, there is something about having the healthy mindset. This year 2025 has been a really brutal year for real estate agents, regardless, it doesn’t matter what state what city you’re in, in this in the country, right. And so I think in addition to that, I’m also been really helping them just really understand like, what do they really truly want?

Like what, you know, we have team numbers, everybody has metrics and stuff. But at the end of the day, too, it’s about asking what the agent actually wants. And then us stepping aside and being able to help lead them into that path.

That might be a little bit different from what we may be. But at the end of the day, we owe that to that person.

[Mattias]
Yeah, because I mean, if you’re, if you’re not happy, if you’re burnt out, if you’re, you know, stressed, and you’re not going to be effective at work. So there’s a there’s a lot to it. And I really liked kind of trying to choose three areas of focus in general.

So for me, you know, family, family, health, and, you know, business is kind of, it’s for me, it’s natural to kind of focus too much on the business. We’ll be dreaming about the 16 steps ahead of that, of course. But and then also the health isn’t too bad.

I got into the cult of CrossFit. And so I’m obsessed with that aspect, but but eating and the other aspects of it as well, of health that, you know, are good to focus on. But but little things like, you know, being intentional with trying to have a certain amount of time with your kids that you are undistracted or that kind of thing.

And if you if you set that as an intention, if you set that as like something you even track, it is something that you can see a big difference in, like, you’d notice it and you may not realize that, okay, I thought I’m around my kids all the time. So I thought I was, you know, with them. But was that really because I was answering emails or whatever on my phone?

And it present as Yeah, as present. So I think it’s great to take some time and this, you know, when we’re in this planning season, usually, it’s a little slower business wise, time to, to think through about, you know, what we really want out of life. And, and, you know, business is certainly part of it.

But you know, others, there’s definitely other factors.

[Susanna Medrano]
Definitely is, you know, it’s always about, you know, I’ve always been a family and family, family first, that should always be the first thing that you block in your calendar. And then everything else works around that the second component would be now. Now, you know, with just like you said that you started this, this CrossFit, I’m going to be doing my first Spartan race nice in March, coming from kind of the camp gladiator world.

So I mean, there, I think in order for us to show up and be present to our people, like we also have to be taking care of ourselves.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Susanna Medrano]
Whether it’s customer clients, agents, or leaders or co workers, like you also you have to take care of yourself.

[Mattias]
Yeah. I want to I love the the gym class kind of tribe thing that as an opportunity to, to a be healthy physically. And you’ll be more motivated, I think, to be healthy physically in that kind of environment.

But you build that community, you build a second space, that I think is important or third space.

[Susanna Medrano]
It’s crucial. It’s crucial. Like I was a part of a 510am group in Austin for many, many years.

And it’s like, most people will be like, wait, you get up at 440am to meet this group for an hour at 510. I’m like, I absolutely do three, four times a week. It’s addicting.

And you know, now I’m based in Austin, but now I don’t live in Austin, another five hours away. And I will tell you, we still get together, even though we’re not working out together, it creates, like you said, it creates like this second family of things. And I love it.

[Mattias]
It’s like, I think it partly has to do with that you you it’s almost like trauma bond. And it makes you like bonded with more. But, but it’s also I think, a life hack, like if you’re, you know, in a new area, and you don’t have a community, I think that is an amazing place to get business.

Like if you’re moving to another new city, or any just on friends, like, I mean, I think it’s more that I think it’s a great network to tap into. And you get really close with those people.

[Susanna Medrano]
I think for me, I was burning out, I was crispy, like KFC, like in just with a lot of things happening in my early climb of even leadership, and the first thing to go is your health. And so I wasn’t taking care of myself. And then on a dare, I did this little 12 week free little CG thing.

And then it just took off as far as I did not know how much of an impact that could make with someone until I started doing it. And like my agents could tell if I didn’t go to a workout. And if I did, like there was a true difference of that.

So I have a lot of a lot of thanks to our those types of coaches, right? That do allow us to trauma bond and make us better people.

[Mattias]
I think I think like, honestly, the the addicting part of it is the least addicting part of it is the actual physical benefits.

[Susanna Medrano]
Right? No, I agree.

[Mattias]
I think all the other parts are like almost when you get into it, and really, yeah, get into that world. We should we should talk a little bit about the Austin market. Now I’ve been I get the pleasure of interviewing people all over the country.

And so I get glimpses of people’s mindsets about the future. And I think there were some markets that were concerning or people were more concerned about the future of the markets. And Austin being one of them Austin saw a huge growth right through the pandemic.

So there was definitely price reductions or price corrections happening. I’m curious how that is now what what what your thoughts are on the on the condition?

[Susanna Medrano]
You know, I think we’re on the I think we’re on the tail end of it. It has been it has been a really tough two years and running, you know, with inventory and with pricing corrections, right that after after the pandemic, everybody, of course, thought their house was worth a million dollars. And you know, people were paying a lot of money for that with the low interest rate.

And now with the correction, you know, I think buyers have been a little bit more reserved that has created for things to to be outside of what would be a normal absorption rate in different pockets, right. But what I am seeing now is I am seeing buyers actually take the effort and take the initiative of actually going through the pre approval process and actually moving a little bit further in the direction of making offers than they’ve had in quite some time. At the beginning of the year had been in it was kind of a little slow on that.

But we are, at least from from the perspective of what I’ve been noticing in Austin, and all the way up until San Antonio, there is a there is starting to be a little bit more movement now. And also, I think, you know, listing agents are pricing accurately to begin with. And so it’s avoiding just that unnecessary negative friction of what was what has been happening this year.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that is so important. I think, you know, that’s one of the ways I’ve described the market conditions for the past few months here. We’re on a in the east coast of Virginia, a little bit south of DC.

And we’ve, you know, I think we have right now currently just under 1% growth and price in the sales price, we haven’t really seen a dip, but it’s definitely slowed. And I think I think the way one of the thing I describe it is, it’s like people just there’s no forgiveness for an overpricing. And there was before and now there just really isn’t.

And it’s not that it was, you know, you’re gonna really hurt yourself if you do that. And so pricing it right is such a key thing to get it sold quickly. But to your point to like, I mean, just to even if buyers are struggling to have interest that they’re apathetic towards the market, they’re not going to be excited about an overpriced house.

[Susanna Medrano]
And, you know, there is been that just that slow climb, I think, just on with with regards to just the absorption rate, right? Like, when you’re, you’re exactly right, like with pricing, you got to price it accurately. But even 90 days ago, if a home is still sitting, there has to be another pricing correction.

And so you have to maintain crucial, difficult conversations with the people that hired you. But all of that has to be based on trust. If they don’t trust you, they will not listen to you.

And I think that is what’s been an interesting component of really trying to like level up our agents on, you know, being able to have those conversations and not shying away from it. Because even though they might get upset, or, you know, all those different things, they’ll get over it. Because at the end of the day, they trust your assessment, they view you as a professional, if they don’t view you as a professional, then you’re wasting everybody’s time.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Are there some strategies or suggestions you’d have for people to build that trust in a listing scenario?

[Susanna Medrano]
Honestly, I think it you have to be direct. And you have to you have to be able to shoot someone straight based on what it is, you know, and sometimes with the market, people are going to want and it’s okay, to some degree, but it’s like being up front about it. Okay, I understand you think it’s this, we can try it your way for a little bit.

But at the end of the day, these are the steps. This is the tiers, tier segments about how we’re going to get it to where I’m recommending as the licensed professional. And if we can agree on that strategy, I’ll go to work for you today.

But if I’m up front, if we’re not going to meet, you know, as if they’re not going to trust me as their advisor to begin with, then they’re it’s not going to work.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Susanna Medrano]
So even sometimes having to walk away from business, Mattias, like, even though that’s been hard, but it’s like, it’s a disservice to them. And it’s a disservice to us by trying to get something on the market that’s never going to sell because they’re not being very, you know, realistic on what it’s going to take, you know, and yeah, Yeah, one of the things that I’ve found to be really helpful.

[Mattias]
A while back, I picked up a really complicated spreadsheet that does analysis. And it is it is hard to explain, it is hard to understand, even if you do explain it well to somebody. And honestly, that that works.

[Susanna Medrano]
Most, most absorption rate calculators have like, it’s like, it has to be something that’s like three different things talking to each other to pull out something, right?

[Mattias]
I mean, it has to, like, Yeah, it’s, you can you just, you know, obviously, you find the comps that are the closest. And then this spreadsheet does, you know, factors in the, you know, all the different aspects above grade, below grade, finish, unfinished, number of bedrooms, number of baths, years built, even appreciation. And it has, you know, amounts that it adjusts by then you have an average.

So all this stuff, which then you can try to explain, but you know, you can see their eyes just kind of go and cross eyed. And, and at the end of the day, I think it really, it’s, it’s not, it’s, you make some subjective movements in the pricing, but there are going to be some things like, you know, like, you know, your kitchens renovated, there’s is not like, you know, we need to make some adjustments there. Most part, the bulk of what is happening is not subjective, it’s objective of what the spreadsheet is, you’re just typing it in, and it’s spitting out this number.

And so I think you can come at it then as like, this is not my opinion. This is just what the numbers, this is what the data is saying.

[Susanna Medrano]
Numbers don’t lie, data doesn’t lie.

[Mattias]
And if they think that they can find better comps, sure, I’ll use them, let’s put them in. But at the end, yeah, so I think that’s been one way that when then if we are having that conversation, this is you think that we should go higher, you think that we should start yet is what you think it will sell for. I can say, you know, in my experience, my confidence is very high in this, that this this is spitting out, we can try your way.

But you know, we need to have a plan to get closer.

[Susanna Medrano]
And it’s not just about pulling comps anymore, like you have something that’s, like elaborate, we have to, we also designed our own little calculation thing. And just like you said, we can spit in the numbers in their eyes or be like that. But it’s data, like it doesn’t lie.

And either you agree with it, or you don’t. And if you don’t, let’s have a conversation about it and see if we can actually meet and agree on the path. But if we can’t agree on the path with what I’m telling you, then it’s probably not going to work.

[Mattias]
Right? Yep. And I think if you don’t come with that kind of those kind of tools and that kind of expertise, then to them, it just feels like you just don’t like our house or like you don’t believe in the house, like so many other people need more in this house.

And that’s going to get it sold for more, which straight. So yeah, no, I’m sure we could have a lot of other discussion.

[Susanna Medrano]
Oh, you and I could you and I could talk three hours right now.

[Mattias]
But I do I do want to move it into the golden nugget phase. What golden nuggets you bring for us today?

[Susanna Medrano]
You know, just based on just even the title of your podcast, like I think the golden nugget that I would like to bring to you and of course, to all of your your listeners is that real estate can be the most holistic career if you let it and what I mean by that is that, you know, real estate forces you to grow from the I mean, you could you heard my story on the early end, like I had to learn phone skills, like all these different kinds of things, right. And so the more that you are open into growing as a person, the more you grow into the business.

And I think that’s, it’s a very interesting phenomena, like, you know, even recognizing if you if you think of even my journey, your journey, like we all started working out to for some reason, right? Because we needed that specific growth. And I think real estate, if you lean into it, and you do it right, and you’re disciplined about it, it can lead you into living a life that is very holistic.

I mean, I’m a product of it. And what I would also say about that is your business, whether you know, within real estate will grow at the speed of this too, like you have to trust in this, and this has to stay very, very, very strong. Because you know, all the objection things that you get faced with, or setbacks or all the challenges, those are only minor.

But when you look at yourself in the mirror, you could still say that you were the badass that actually got through the day. And so that’s definitely one thing that I would, I would share with you is, you know, every time I leveled up, whether it was from being an agent to a leader to now a coach, you know, it wasn’t because of some book or some tactic, right? It was because I wanted to be a better version of myself.

And I needed I did the things that it required in order for me to level up. And so I just want to encourage everybody that’s listening today is that real estate forces you to grow, you got to grow with it, though, if you don’t, it won’t work for you.

[Mattias]
Yeah. And that points to that extreme ownership concept, the book you’re talking about, right? I mean, like, if you really make excuses, you know, and there’s valid excuses, I just talked to some, I just interviewed somebody who was their whole life since like 10, they were 100% dedicated to being a professional basketball player.

They were was, they were doing it professionally in Europe. And they had a career ending injury. And if you want to talk about being able to play I can’t even imagine, I can’t even imagine, like, like everything, they did everything that they possibly could to do this.

And then they had an injury that took them out. And that’s not necessary. I don’t know, maybe they could figure out why that was their fault.

Maybe somebody could break that down. But like, that’s, that’s an example of how you could really, like, allow yourself to be the victim. But then they turned that this discipline, this, you know, extreme focus on on what they learned to in their pursuit of being a professional basketball player into being an agent, and then they became super successful in it.

And the point Yeah, the point being is like, even if you feel like you have that kind of circumstance where like, you can be the victim, you feel like you’re just being the victim, it doesn’t help, you just got to move on and turn and turn that because ultimately, you’re going to get out of life what you put in.

[Susanna Medrano]
Yeah, that kind of ties into Tim Grover’s relentless, right? Have you read that one?

[Mattias]
I haven’t read that one. Is that your book?

[Susanna Medrano]
No, my book is actually Simon Sinek’s leaders eat last.

[Mattias]
Okay.

[Susanna Medrano]
Have you ever heard of Simon Sinek? The start with why? Okay, this one, this one was a game changer for me in 2019.

And I do occasionally will read parts of it whenever I’m needing a little boost. You explained why some teams will thrive, some people will thrive and why people sometimes fall apart. And it’s all based on human behavior and why people trust why people shut down why they go the extra mile.

And when you as a leader, and I think we’re also leaders of customers, whether you’re if you’re not formally a leader, right? If you’re a leader of a customer client, you’re the leader of them. I think what it does is it the book does a really good job of explaining what is called a circle of safety, and the certain elements that go into that to be able to help inspire people to trust you.

And then, of course, it goes into the components on the outside of what doesn’t lead to trust. But I mean, honestly, you know, it really did change my view on how simple it is to to move the needle when it comes to human human relationships and human building of relationships.

[Mattias]
Okay, that’s that’s a new one. I’m It’s a great one.

[Susanna Medrano]
And they even have a little he has a little counterpart on how to how to coach millennials.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, I feel like Simon’s one of those people and Alex Ramosi that I could probably, you know, talk about, I don’t know, the the soil, the minerals in a soil sample and make it super interesting.

[Susanna Medrano]
Oh, I know. He has a book about that. And one of the chapters I can’t make.

I’m not making that up. Like, their books actually has about soil samples. And it was in Germany.

[Mattias]
Yeah, they just are brilliant minds that can really think critically about stuff. But so then what about if anybody wants to follow you on social media, or look you up on a website? What can I find you?

[Susanna Medrano]
Sure. So you can find me on Facebook, Susanna Medrano. It’s spelled with two N’s.

And then also an Instagram, I do check Instagram, same thing, @SusannaMedrano. You can find me on LinkedIn.