From Struggle to Becoming “The Jersey Guy” Who Changed Social Media for Agents with Ed Stulak

Transcript

[Mattias]
Welcome to the REI Agent, a holistic approach to life through real estate. I’m Mattias, an agent and investor.

[Erica]
And I’m Erica, a licensed therapist.

[Mattias]
Join us as we interview guests that also strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing.

[Erica]
Tune in every week for interviews with real estate agents and investors.

[Mattias]
Ready to level up?

[Erica]
Let’s do it.

[Mattias]
Welcome back to the REI Agent. It’s Mattias. I am tired.

We have been, my son, my two-year-old, has been not sleeping well for the past two nights. He has required his dad. It has been, you know, a challenge.

My wife is still, Erica, our lovely co-host, is still not here because she’s still recovering from meniscus surgery. And she can’t really go into his room. The first time, well, actually, last night as well, he was really upset that it wasn’t mom and just really wanted mom.

And mom has been the default. Mom is, I mean, if you watch the show and you see her on here, you can probably get the vibe that she just is going to be the preferred person always. Right?

I don’t stand a chance. But the kids are super attached to her. And I’ve had my moments with kids.

I build momentum. And then it’s, you know, something happens to get really busy with real estate, whatever. And, you know, by far the preferred parent goes back to Erica, which, you know, I see that as a little bit of a sacrifice that I have to make.

And it’s also a bit of a burden for her, for sure. And I don’t take that lightly. I really appreciate that she is able to be that person for them.

And I know that she also loves it, but it is challenging at times. It is hard to be the preferred parent. And for me, it is also sad sometimes that I don’t have that.

And it just really goes to show with my son, who now is getting really attached to me, that it’s just kind of anything you put work into, anything you show attention to grows. It just is kind of a universal law. And, you know, it makes me realize how important that intentionality of spending time with my family, spending time with my kids, spending quality time without my phone, undistracted time, taking them out for an overnighter, which I’m trying to do that once a quarter if possible, is just so important for that long-term bond.

It’s something that I don’t want to look back on and miss. But, you know, it was challenging the past couple nights without him sleeping very well. It is the spring market here where I’m at.

And so I’ve been very busy. I’ve been trying to delegate and systemize as much as I can to get all the different listing preparations that I’ve been doing to get houses ready on the market kind of organized because dates and those kind of things don’t just stick in my brain very well. I need to kind of relook at a place often and set a time up that I do that or else they kind of just float out there and I forget them and then usually don’t miss deadlines because I will, you know, eventually check.

But with this new system and this many listings that I have kind of in the pipeline, it has been a bit more of a challenge than normal. Normally, you know, you get a couple listings at the same time maybe every once in a while and that’s great. But, you know, I’m kind of balancing around eight listings at the same time in some different form or fashion and trying to make sure that no balls are dropped with multiple, like, you know, getting touch-up paint, getting repairs done, getting, you know, obviously the photography, the staging, all that kind of stuff.

All those pieces of the puzzle, making sure they all are functioning smoothly is something that takes organization and intentionality as well. So it’s been a bit of a challenge. I have gotten less than six hours of sleep the past two nights.

Not the worst, but not fun. It’s been also disconnected with, you know, multiple trips to see my cute son. Luckily, he’s cute because it’s easier to forgive him when it’s frustrating at times.

I got a message from my client saying, you sent me an email at 4.15 this morning. What was going on? I was like, well, I had a lot to do.

My son got me up at 3.40 and by the time, like, four rolled around, I just was like, I’m going to start trying to work. And it’s not the best combo because I don’t think he could sleep as well when I’m over there on my phone trying to send emails. And so it was kind of like a, I don’t know, it made things worse kind of all around.

But I felt like I needed to get some things rolling. So I ended up getting a whole listing live this morning as well as, you know, following up with some home inspection stuff and just kind of getting the ball rolling on a lot of different things. So it’s been a fun week.

It’s been fun. Spring, again, is here. It’s fun.

I often think about real estate as kind of like farming. You know, you kind of have different seasons of the business and you kind of forget how busy things can be at times. Or when you do eventually get slower again, you can kind of, you know, take a while and then you get stir crazy and you want to start building things and doing new things because you have more time on your hands.

So it’s just a, you know, it’s a fun business. I don’t know if that’s true for every market. If that’s more of a seasonal thing, if you’re in Florida, does that ever change?

Are you maybe busier in the winter? I would guess that might be the case. But that’s the reality for me.

So anyway, we had Ed Stulak. He told me a really good way of remembering his name. And if anybody ever thinks of a way for people to remember how to say Mattias, please tell me because I have not had a catchy thing that kind of gets people to be like, oh, yeah, that’s how you say it.

That’s easy. I can remember that from now on. And even though, you know, people will talk to each other multiple times and we’ll have that moment of, yeah, no, Mattias is fine.

I don’t care. I wish I don’t. It’s often forgotten.

So if anybody can think of a really good catchy way of how to say Mattias, please let me know. But anyway, Ed was on the show, a really fun guest. He is an expert in a lot of different things.

He’s a realtor. He’s also into social media and kind of content creation. So has a book, is a speaker, really good resource if you’re looking to get better at that social media game.

So without further ado, we have Ed Stulak. Welcome back to the REI Agent. I’m here with Ed Stulak.

Did I get it right? Hell yeah. Lack the stew.

That’s what he told me. That’s a great way to remember it. I wish I had a better way of people remembering Mattias.

I have not found a good like meme kind of thing to say that sticks to people’s head. But, you know, as somebody once told me when I introduced myself, that we all have our burdens. But anyway, Ed, thanks so much for joining us.

Where are you coming at it from today, Ed? Jersey. I’m a Jersey boy.

Okay. Awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. So do you sell in New York City as well? Are you in the suburbs of New York City or?

[Ed Stulak]
Nope, just New Jersey. So I’m about 45 minutes away from New York City. So we personally don’t deal with the New York City sales, but we do work with a lot of New York City residents that come over to Jersey.

[Mattias]
Sure. I interviewed somebody else that was right across the river and said that it is very different real estate. And so she has chosen just to stay in Jersey.

[Ed Stulak]
Oh, yeah. Very different zoos over there.

[Mattias]
I can imagine.

[Ed Stulak]
Ed, tell us a little bit about how you got into real estate. About 10 or so years ago, back in 2016, for the context, I guess, of who I am, the quick background. I love suits.

I’m usually in a suit. I’m in a hoodie today. I’ve been running around doing errands and all that.

But I’m usually in a suit. And so 10 years ago, it actually started at a suit store where I was getting my, you know, so it’s just a suit just because I love them. And there was a guy that was kind of browsing through the racks.

So I came up to him. I was with my mom at the time, and mom and I were like, hey, can you help us out with getting the size for him? And the guy dressed up from head to toe, dapper, just like this nice charcoal suit, just looking good from head to toe.

He says, oh, no, I don’t work here. And we’re like, oh, so sorry. He’s like, no, no, that’s OK.

Like, I can help out anyway. We’re like, cool, thanks. Anyway, he ended up being a realtor.

His name is Ed. And yeah, we hit it off that day, as you can probably imagine, both of us having become a denominator of the same name, also the same style. He said, how about you come to my office sometime?

You seem like you’re, you know, into the vibe of entrepreneurship and all that. Maybe you can hear something that can, you know, tickle you in the right way. Maybe you can get into real estate.

So I did. And here we are. That’s how I got into the business.

[Mattias]
Oh, that’s awesome. Wow, what a coincidence. I mean, that’s amazing that, I mean, had you thought about it before?

Like, had you considered real estate? It sounds like you were considering entrepreneurship.

[Ed Stulak]
Very little bit, you know, just it’s been one of those things. I don’t know if anyone really, like, strives to say, oh, I’m going to be a realtor one day. But to me, it was, I wasn’t doing well in school.

I wasn’t doing well in other curriculum activities. I am a hockey player of 24 years. As you can see, I got the Ducks hat on, you know, I’m a big, big hockey guy.

And I wasn’t doing well. So I was open to anything new. And for me to realize real estate was that open door of liberty that I could have, you know, only heard about on TV and all this.

I’m like, oh, wow, I can have free schedule and flexible and this and that. And I can dress the part. I can make good money.

I can learn about the business of real estate, which I’m going to get into anyway. One day, everyone does somehow, whether they’re buying, selling, renting, whatever it is, like, somehow I’m going to get into it. So why not now?

And so I got into it, you know, for that reason. Plus, I didn’t need too much schooling for it. And I’m not a school guy.

So I’m not really good when it comes to studying and all that. But it only took me seven times to pass my real estate exam, if I can.

[Mattias]
So lucky number seven.

[Ed Stulak]
Oh, I’m sure lucky.

[Mattias]
Oh, man. But I wonder if that’s a pretty big common denominator. I wonder if there is a lot of, like, what the statistic would be for people, not just real estate, but in kind of being entrepreneurial in general.

If the statistic is higher, if you give big inventory to everybody that is an entrepreneur, like, were you good at school? Did you enjoy school? And I wonder if it’s over 50%, if it’s, you know, they’re like, no, it wasn’t for me.

And it’s the same for me. I mean, like, I did fine overall. But my heart was never into it.

I kind of was like, why is this person telling me to do this busy work? It doesn’t seem applicable. It’s like, this is just pointless.

It was always in the back of my head. So I had low motivation to do anything. And then I don’t know about you, but I feel like I had really high motivation when I was like, okay, this is something that I could, like, you know, explore all sorts of different ways of making this work for me.

I’m going to do my best and get after it with real estate. Was that the same for you then when you got started?

[Ed Stulak]
Yeah, essentially. Again, there was no book of, like, a GPS. Like, here’s the map for you to get from point A to point B.

It’s kind of like you’ve got to figure it out on your own. Some people are thrown into the deep end and they figure it out and some drown. So you’ve got to figure it out if you want to survive.

I was ready to drown year three of real estate. I was like, just screw it. Take the life vest away from me.

I’m good. I’m done. I can’t anymore.

And then just an opportunity of a lifetime came around, knocking on the door. And I said yes to it. And I love real estate now again.

[Mattias]
What was that opportunity?

[Ed Stulak]
I got a message on Instagram from this one real estate agent saying that she has a possible referral for me. Maybe I know someone that can help out with it. And so I said, sure, what is it?

And she said, it’s in a town called Somerville, New Jersey. And it’s this project. I don’t know if you can meet me there.

I can tell you about it. I’m like, sure, no problem. At the time, I was saying yes to everything.

I’m just like, I need something here. So I said, yes, let me figure it out. And so we get to this site.

And it’s this four-story apartment complex. And they were bringing me there to interview me about leasing it all. We have heavy residential leases here in New Jersey.

And so I’m a guy that was just selling little condos for $250,000, maybe a single family home here and there for $600,000. But an apartment complex? Sure, I know what I’m doing.

How can I help, right? And so I said yes to it. And it was 180 units.

And I had to do that in a matter of 11 or so months. I rented it all out. Initially, it was just myself.

But that forced me to grow a team. So this is my team, Orvis Group. I grew the team to about 14 agents.

And they were all just helping me with every day, Monday through Sunday, at the leasing office, renting out the units, doing tours, and doing this, and doing that, and running around. And it was so much where it pushed me and forced me to grow a team and grow my business. So if it wasn’t for that message on Instagram that I got from this agent, big shout out.

Her name is Bela. I always give her love and the shout out because she helped me change my life for the better. So I am very appreciative of that opportunity.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that’s awesome. I think there’s often a three, five-year hump. You have to get past as well.

So I don’t know about the rest of your business. I mean, you were probably very focused on this huge opportunity. That’s amazing.

But I feel like often, you do feel like you’re kind of spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere for a good amount of time. And it depends on the market. When I started, it was slow.

So it was really slowly growing my business. And after three years, I felt like I got a little bit of traction. After five, I felt like I jumped a little bit more.

[Ed Stulak]
So you got to stick with it. You got to stay with it, right? Must, must.

You never know what opportunity is coming next. You never know who’s watching you, who’s listening, who heard of you, and who knows who as well. So I always consider that.

Just be out there as best as you can. Listen, this is why, shameless plug, but this is why I wrote a book called Expose Yourself.

[Mattias]
OK.

[Ed Stulak]
You know, get out there. Don’t wait for it to come your way. Like, go and expose yourself online.

Get out there to the masses. Do it the right way. And people like the agent reaching out to me, that could happen.

You just never know who’s watching and who’s going to reach out.

[Mattias]
So were you doing a lot of posts on social media at the time?

[Ed Stulak]
Oh, yeah, for sure. Still, every single day. You got to be posting.

You got to be posting the right stuff. You got to be posting engaging things, relevant subjects, things that will make someone uniquely curious to know and watch from beginning to end as to why are you doing this or what is this about. And you have to hold them.

It’s got to be sticky information, sticky posts, sticky content. And without that, you’re just like everyone else, just posting and hoping. You can’t be posting and hoping anymore in today’s world.

You got to be posting with intention, posting things that will make someone turn their head and say, huh, right, that’s where you got to really get creative with it. So that’s what I’ve been doing over the years. And that’s what I was doing before I got into real estate, was helping some influencers and some minor celebrities here and there with their social media, their content creation.

And it was a fun time, but I wasn’t making the money that I wanted to. I wasn’t getting the traction that I was hoping for in life. So I had to pivot.

I had to pivot a little bit. But all those things that I learned while working for these influencers, I learned so much valuable info that most people don’t know. You know, the average person that is on social media doesn’t necessarily know how to utilize these platforms like Instagram and today TikTok and YouTube.

And I learned all that stuff. So I implemented it in real estate just to see if it works, because if it did, then I have something here and I can teach others that potentially. And if I don’t, well, then it’s OK.

It’s what it is. But I implemented and it got me really good results. That’s why I wrote the book, because obviously the stuff works and people are reaching out to me saying, can you teach us this?

Can you come on our podcast? Can you come and speak on stage to our people? I was just in Europe maybe three weeks ago speaking over there for a Remax brokerage out there.

You know, I’m going to Vancouver this Sunday, so I’m excited for this. You know, this is the life that I’ve now been fortunate enough to create because of the knowledge that I learned in the beginning and now implementing it in real estate. So that’s I’m going to stop babbling.

[Mattias]
No, you know, that’s awesome. I was going to ask some follow up questions so that the book, is it primarily about social media and kind of how to make that sticky content? Or is it is it more than that?

I mean, a bit more than that.

[Ed Stulak]
Yeah, it’s just figuring out ways to get creative online more than just creating content. I’m getting I’m talking creative ways to be reaching out to people, creative ways to be getting exposure other than just saying, oh, let me pay some Facebook advertiser to go ahead and create me some ads, some sponsored sponsorship, sponsored ads and all that stuff. I want more than that.

So I’ve come up with ways to get organic followers, get organic engagement, create that type of content to even get that type of engagement and so on and so forth. You know, because then it’s well, now you have followers because I showed you. But what do you do with them once you have them and how do you hold them and how do you make sure they buy into your brand and how do they buy into you and so on and so forth?

And I create this kind of like a maybe like a step by step tutorial of how to get followers, how to hold them, how to convert some of them. So they’re not always all going to convert. But there are some sort of scientific strategies you can get into.

And so that’s where I have fun with it about Google reviews. We talk about everything. I talk about haters.

We get haters all the time. Some people just fight fire with fire. But no, you can kill people with kindness.

And there’s a beauty in that too, you know, so showcasing how to kill people with kindness here online as well. So that’s a big factor because once you start growing, it could be a wildfire sometimes. You never know.

You might post that one video and it can get a million views overnight and you wake up to 500 messages. Now what? Are you going to just ignore it too much or are you going to take advantage of it?

Right? And opposite and stuff like that.

[Mattias]
No, it’s fascinating. Would you give us a little teaser or an idea of how to make something sticky? Let’s say a reel for something that applies to most realtors.

I think that I’ve definitely seen people attempt social posts and I don’t think I’ve rarely seen it be sticky. And I know what you’re talking about. But give us an example if you don’t mind.

[Ed Stulak]
Yeah. So the first example that just comes to my mind, you know, I see this guy that made a post recently and he got me to the very end and it was so good. And it’s so good to the point where I saved it as an idea because I’m going to do it.

And essentially what it was is he was just like, it was a camera angle from someone else, right? Just filming on their phone. And he was filming these two random people.

It almost looked like a Snapchat video was filmed. And he was filming this girl and guy and they pretty much hugged. She got in the car and his shoelace was, she closed the door and his shoelace was stuck in the door.

And she went off and he was like, yo, yo, yo. And she booked it. And then he fell on the ground and then she started driving away.

And then essentially it was just like a camera angle of him on the ground being dragged. But he was singing a song. And I’m like, wow, did you catch my attention?

Boys, you know, cause I’m watching this. I’m like, all right, girl and guy hugging. Cool.

Oh, it’s stuck in the door. Oh my gosh. She’s going, oh, what’s going to happen?

He’s going to fall. He fell. He fell.

And now I’m in and I’m like, wow, you got me. That’s a good visual hook. So things like that or, or getting you or, you know, like it’s stuff that catches your attention for the first few seconds.

Cause that’s the golden nugget today is you need that first few seconds of clutching, grabbing worthiness of someone to say, oh, I got to watch. And then they watch all the way till the very end. Hopefully, you know, that’s, that’s the best part.

So I would say visual hooks are so important nowadays because 10 years ago there was, you know, you were one of 10 content creators, you know, it’s like, okay, well, if I create something, it’ll be good because people don’t see this. People don’t see videos from, from influencers or people for that matter, or business owners like us. But now today it’s nine out of 10, eight people are posting content.

So now you’ve got to compete against eight others to make sure that you are looking best out of them all. Why should you watch this person versus why should you watch me? Well, mine is better because this, you know, so if you’re not working on that today of good visual hooks, your quality camera, like, right.

Like we have nice cameras here, like podcast cameras, or maybe is it just your phone or are you using microphones? Like what are, what is it that you’re using to really make your content stand out even more? Make it sound right, make it more audible, make it prettier, sexier, right?

Like how, what are you doing to make that all? And if you’re not, that’s okay. But just know you’re getting crushed by others.

So adapt to the new norm, you know, you’re just going to be falling behind. So that’s why I decided to write a book, create a course and teach like, Hey, here’s how you can do it. How you can beat your competition, you know, stay on top of the market, make people know who, who is the go-to person, salesperson, you know?

[Mattias]
Yeah. Yeah. And I’m sure there’s ways to make it applicable to the local areas.

I mean, you can do content about the, the, the local market or, you know, some other local things that would get people to look at it. Because I mean, viral’s great. But if you’re making a video that’s viral and, you know, a bunch of people in a totally different market see it, I mean, that’s cool.

But you know, it’s maybe you’ll get a referral out of it maybe, but it won’t really promote your brand. So I mean, is there a balance there? Do you want to have things that just kind of hit everybody and then also things that are kind of more specific?

[Ed Stulak]
Yeah. If you’re asking me, Ed Stulak is going to tell you one thing, you know, someone else can tell you another. So for the listener, it all depends on what it is that your brand is about.

If it’s, if your business is local and that’s all you want to focus on, then maybe extending out to the, to the nation, to the world isn’t as important for you. So maybe you don’t have to create viral content. All you have to do is create relevant viral content, local niche worthy content.

So for example, you can go ahead and create, you know, like my four favorite places in this world for top, I don’t know, states or countries in this world that are the best to buy real estate in. I am now reaching out to the masses as opposed to saying, here’s four reasons why not to move to Somerville, New Jersey. Oh, why don’t I want to know why?

Right. And now that person that’s local is going to be very curious. Why wouldn’t I want to move to Somerville, New Jersey?

Why not? So that’s the very niche content that’s not going to get millions of views, but it’ll get, you know, 487 right ones.

[Mattias]
The right ones. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. And that makes sense. And it’s, uh, yeah, it’s different approach.

I mean, you’re not trying to, maybe most realtors wouldn’t be trying to like, you know, monetize, uh, their, their YouTube or, you know, anything like that. So they’re probably going to be focused more on trying to get leads from, you know, more hyper local specific things.

[Ed Stulak]
So the content that I would, again, if you’re asking me the content I create, I have no problem to make it mass worthy. And I want everyone to know the name, right? I want people to know I’m the Jersey guy.

[Mattias]
Sure.

[Ed Stulak]
Because the referrals come in that way. Month, I received a referral from Detroit, Tennessee, Kansas, and that’s, that’s all I can come up with at the moment. But like there’s, there’s people out of state that are reaching out and saying at your Jersey, do you service this area?

If I don’t, at least I know someone that does someone on my team does someone in my network does someone in some shape or form. I know just make me the Jersey guy, you know, so that is how I am taking inbound traffic and funneling it to wherever I want it to funnel to. You know, some people are just like, Nope, I just want to serve this one town, this one County, this one area.

And I’m good with it. Don’t, don’t give me anything else. It’s not wrong.

It’s their way of business. My business is referrals everywhere. Give me them, you know?

[Mattias]
Sure. That makes sense. I miss a lot of sense.

So how are you spending your time now? I mean, so you were running a team, you said it’s 16 people.

[Ed Stulak]
At the moment we’re six. So I reduced it.

[Mattias]
Okay. So are you doing direct sales and leasing at the moment as well? Or are you focused more on other things?

[Ed Stulak]
I have my VIP clients now that I choose. So people reach out to me still, and I, I’m very appreciative of it. And most of them, I will still say yes to, I still work with clients.

I have a listing right now, you know, nice Edgewater home right across the river from New York city. So you have a nice, pretty view from a rooftop looking at the city for $1.45 million. You know, like I have that and I’m still working on it.

I still have my 600,000 buyers. You know, I still have my $2,300 renters because they’re clients that I want for life. And they will get my attention because I know no one works like me.

I have created my team behind me. One of them being my right hand, my assistant, my operations manager. She is a 2.0 of me. If I’m ever out and about speaking or doing or traveling, and I need a client that needs to be taken care of right now and there, and then she is my go-to. She’s there. She’s on top of them.

She’s going to help them create an offer, showings, inspections. So we still have that. That’s why I’ve built up the name in the first place.

So I don’t want to strive away from it. So to answer your question, absolutely still selling real estate. Last year I had about 77 units rented and sold.

So altogether, you know, it’s keeping me afloat for sure. Business wise. And I don’t want to necessarily slow it down.

I want to improve it and make it better. I want to work smarter, not harder. And that’s what the right people, the right systems, the right back end and things of that sort.

So over the next few years, there’s going to be definitely a bit of a gradual evolution, but for the better clients will be taken care of better. My lifestyle will be taken care of better mentally, physically, emotionally, everything financially, right? That’s essentially what we all strive to do.

Right. At least from what I understand, there’s no one agent that says, I want to sell real estate until I’m 97 years old. Not it.

No one wants to work until they’re 97 years old. We eventually all want to get some sort of, get out of it in some shape or form. You know, Jeff Bezos is in the back end saying, Hey, let me box up those boxes and ship them out to Illinois.

He’s not there anymore. Maybe in the beginning he was, but now at this point, no, he’s got a staff. He’s got people on the top of his hierarchy.

He knows who to reach out to. He’s got his 5, 10, 15, 20 people that he reaches out to because they all have their own departments. He’s created that.

I think every good entrepreneur should create something similar to it. So that’s where I’m at.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that’s awesome. Actually, why don’t we get into that a little bit deeper? I mean, can you talk, walk me through a little bit how that team was formed?

I know that it sounded like it was like just necessity. We got too much with that apartment at the beginning, but tell me a little bit about like the first hires. Like, I mean, were you tackling certain things?

Did you need admin? I mean, walk me through that a little bit.

[Ed Stulak]
Yeah, solid question. I don’t talk about it every day because the team was formed out of necessity, not out of desire. I always say that because that’s the truth.

So in the beginning, anyone with a license, I’m like, we’ll go here. So the agreement that I had with the developers was that they needed me on site Monday through Sunday. We had specific hours that we agreed on, but Monday through Sunday.

And in the beginning, I was on a team once before in my real estate career. So I’m like, yeah, I can do this myself. Three months later, I realized, no, I can’t.

So I was there every single day. It was so, so much time spent over there. And I couldn’t enjoy my Sundays off.

I remember I couldn’t hang out with my family. Sundays are my family days. I remember I just could not hang out with them.

And then one Sunday, I said, you know what? Screw it. I’ll stay home.

I’ll relax. Let me enjoy one day off, please. And I come into the office the next morning, Monday morning, and I see a little post-it note stuck to my computer.

And it said, hey, you missed yesterday. Don’t let it happen again. And my heart dropped.

I was biting my nails. I was saying, if I do this again, I’m going to lose the biggest opportunity of my life, my career. I cannot afford to do this.

And that’s when I made my first hire. And I reached out to this one realtor, a buddy of mine, and I said, I need help. I have never hired an assistant before.

I’ve never done that. I never thought I would be in this position before. You know, what do you advise?

Like, have you hired someone for this? Of course I have. I’m going to show you.

And then he showed me. And essentially, I hired his daughter to do some stuff. And she wasn’t a realtor at the time.

She just kind of knew some paperwork. And so I remember shaking her hand at the office saying, welcome to the team. And I get a phone call four seconds later.

After shaking her hand, saying, welcome to the team. I get a phone call from an applicant to that building. And she says, hey, are we still good with the application?

And I said, yes, we’re just processing it. Why? What’s up?

I thought it was just a regular, like, checkup call. She says, OK, good. I was just curious because of the fire.

Fire? I’m like, no, what do you mean? She says, oh, well, there’s just a fire there.

I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure we’re still good. I said, let me call you back.

I call my supervisor at the building. His name is Angelo. I say, Angelo, what’s going on?

He says, Ed, I don’t have time. Hangs up. I tell my new assistant that I literally just hired seconds ago.

I said, hey, I’m going to, I got to run. I got to go to the building. I don’t know what’s happening.

I’m on the way there. I’m 40 minutes away at the time. And I see black smoke from about two miles away.

And I say, no effing way. This is this. Fast forward, I get to the site.

It’s my building. And there are seven fire trucks outside. People standing, newscasts, everyone’s broadcasting.

The mayor of the town is there. Everyone is freaking out. And I am looking at this.

Like I just made a hire though. Like I needed help. What do I do?

I don’t know what to do. And so that day I realized I cannot do everything myself. There’s no way in hell.

Um, and that was, yeah, I just replaying that in my head and just saying it. It was a wild day, but as you can see, it was necessity. Yeah.

Desire. I wasn’t in a position to say I’m going to grow a team because I want to know. Right.

That you have so much going on. And if you do not prioritize and delegate, your life is going to start to crumble. And so will your business.

Your clients will be neglected. Your science will be dissatisfied. Your service is going to be a disservice very soon.

So you need to make sure you’re getting your poop in a group. So I’m like, okay, got it. Moving on.

So at that point I hired her. Eventually let her go. Got another person.

Let him go. Got another person. Let them go.

And then eventually I started kind of just growing and firing fast because I realized who was worth the time and who was a waste of time. And at that point as well, when I’m moving at a hundred miles per hour, I cannot have someone moving at 18 miles an hour in front of me because I’m going to just hurdle right over them and crush them. And so I need people that were moving at 110 miles per hour, you know, and I think, I think it was 50 Cent that once said, I never went to Harvard, but the people that worked for me did.

That’s great.

[Mattias]
I love that. And in hindsight, if you were to prepare for this opportunity, had the grace, the ability to, you know, think through and know what you would actually need, which, you know, how would you, but what would you, what would have been your first hire? What would you have looked for?

And how would you tell they were a good fit?

[Ed Stulak]
Knowing what I know now, the interview process has to be much more thorough. And one thing that I don’t think I will change though, is the gut feeling and my emotional feeling when I speak with the person that I’m interviewing. And if I sense a sort of hesitation, a sense of potential distrust, if I sense that this isn’t going to be a good potential friendship, like, would I be friends with this person?

I don’t think we will work out in the long run. And there are some people that I still go off of having a good feeling and it’s not the best, don’t get me wrong. I need to see their work ethic just because they could be a good friend or I’m emotionally feeling well with them doesn’t mean that they’re going to be a good work ethical person in my sense of what I need them to be.

They could be very low on that scale. So I know that there’s things like a disc test, which I have not done. I don’t do.

It’s not something that I think I need to personally, but that’s how my brain is wired. Someone, some entrepreneur out here listening to this is probably going to be like, you’re crazy. This is the only way to hire people.

And that’s okay. That’s fine. Everyone’s got their own system.

There’s no right way or wrong way. There’s so many ways to skin a cat. There’s so many ways to get to the number four, two times two, two plus two, five minus one.

There’s so many ways to get to your point. You got to find it. That works best for you.

My best way right now is like if I vibe with you, if I think you’re good and I can be very upfront with you and you take on constructive criticism, well, you can also constructively criticize me because I am a leader. Yes, but I don’t know everything. I think our president of my company real, he says, be the Sherpa, not the mountain.

I want to be the Sherpa. Let me guide you. Let me help you.

If I don’t know something, I will find out how to, if you can help me with something, that’s great. Let’s do this together. So I’m not going to be that guy that’s a dictator and says, this is how things will be done.

That’s not how I vibe. And there are some people that really work with that well. And some people that are like, no, I need, I need a system.

I need structure. And okay, again, there’s no right way. So hopefully that answers the question.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, it totally makes sense. It totally makes sense. And I guess then have you ever differentiated your roles and your team like now, or, you know, ever since that, that apartment building into being, you know, more focused on sales, more focused on lease, more, more focused on, you know, sorry, listings or versus buyers any kind of structure like that, that you do.

[Ed Stulak]
Definitely restructured the system now. So that 2.0 of me that I mentioned before, my, my right hand, her name is Miriam. You know, Miriam is my right hand now in so many aspects.

And she is essentially a 2.0 of me with my real estate business. So if it’s a showing, that’s got to be done. If it’s a listing, it’s got to be paperwork.

It’s got to be an inspection. It’s got to be something. It’s usually her that she does this for me.

Now, if I cannot my point to this is that I’ve now crafted her to becoming a 2.0 of me at the building. So she is now there at all times. She has essentially taken over as a, let’s call it leasing manager where I’m now supervisor of her and the staff that we have there.

So now that that is, that is good, that is taken care of. And I know that I can breathe well during the week, working on other aspects, working on the book, working on traveling, working on my speaking, working on my backend office, working on the clients that I do have, like the Edgewater home that I have listed at the moment, these clients that necessarily aren’t reaching out to a person like her, they’re reaching out to me, they want me. So if they want me, I don’t want to delegate them to someone else.

So that’s where I’ve restructured my business today is something that I can delegate. I’m absolutely going to do so. And if there isn’t, I’m going to do it myself because no one’s going to do it the way I would do it.

[Mattias]
So yeah, that’s why it makes sense. And I mean, I think what a valuable thing to give your clients. I think often people don’t really understand how on the go realtors can be and how that is very difficult to get back to people, texts, messages, or emails.

If you don’t have a structured, and you should build this in. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to say that you can’t overcome this at all.

But some days you’re just kind of point A to point B constantly the whole day. And then somebody is wondering why you haven’t responded to their email that they sent you at 9 a.m. and you’ve been just kind of in the car the whole time. So I think it’s nice to be able to give people that service where you have somebody that can be more readily available.

[Ed Stulak]
Sure. But also got to be up front with these clients. You don’t want to deceive them with information just to make it sound like you know what you’re doing and then you mess up somewhere down the road.

So up front, I will tell clients that you are getting me and this other person. If you don’t call me or if you call me and I don’t answer, please know that you have someone else. And if they don’t answer, we will get back to you.

You can text us, you can email us, you can do this, you can do that. When the time comes for inspections or showings, you’re going to get both of us. It’s not just me.

When I tell them this is how I operate, this is my business. Chick-fil-A, we cannot get mad at them for being closed on Sunday. Though we drive by and we’re like, damn, I can go for a chicken.

Everyone else is open, but Chick-fil-A isn’t. No, at this point, they’ve set the expectation and we know Sundays are closed and we respect that. We get it.

So that’s how you got to build out your business as well. Can’t just tell them, no, I’m open 24-7. You can call me Monday morning at 3 a.m. You’re going to blow eventually one day. So you’ve got to be careful with how you set expectations. Set them properly.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Now, a really good quote from a recent podcast was focusing on setting expectations and communicating clearly. It’s not just for real estate business.

I mean, it’s for everything. It works so well with your significant others, with your kids, with everybody you interact with. I mean, I think if you handle those things well, then it just makes everything smooth.

[Ed Stulak]
Definitely does, yeah.

[Mattias]
But Ed, I got to ask, do you have a golden nugget that you can share for our listeners?

[Ed Stulak]
Heck yeah. So my golden nugget. Ready?

Yep. Some listeners might think this is wild, but that’s okay. I’m going to combat it anyway, because it works.

It’s going to be a social media nugget. All right. So on Instagram, there is an option to DM people as we know.

We can DM followers. We can DM people that are engaging with our stuff. We can DM friends, colleagues, partners, and people we don’t even know.

We’ve never engaged with. We can literally DM anyone on Instagram pretty much for the most part. My golden nugget is I encourage you to find someone in your area, in a town that you live in, service.

And I encourage you to reach out to them, engage with them, be proactive, knock on their door virtually on their profile and send them a DM and say something like, hey, my name is Ed. I just stumbled upon your page. I see you’re a local.

As am I. I was seeing your content and just listen. It’s so cool to see that you have a shop or you have a bakery or you have a business or you, I don’t know, you walk your dog in the park.

I don’t know. It’s just cool to know that, you know, from a local to a local, like if there’s anything I can ever do, I’m here. I don’t know what that could be, but I’m here.

So good to meet you. Chat soon. And let that be a video message.

Okay. Wild thought because people are like, why the hell would I video message a random person? Well, my combat to that is why the hell are we door knocking?

Why the hell are we cold calling? Why are we texting random people? We don’t even know you’re already doing it.

You’re already doing it. So if you are going to come up with a rebuttal and saying that’s weird, Ed, well, I’m going to say you’re weird for door knocking on a random door on a Sunday morning when someone’s in their robe answering the door. That’s weirder.

So, but hey, we still do it because it’s part of the business. That’s a good point. So my golden nugget is don’t, don’t wait for business to come to you.

Go out there, expose yourself.

[Mattias]
Speaking about a bathrobe. That’s great. That’s a really good point.

I mean, like, yeah, it’s not, it’s, it’s going to be better received. Likely. I’m sure there’s still people that would get annoyed or something, but you know, probably better received than door knocking or cold calling.

So really, really cool. Good point.

[Ed Stulak]
Wouldn’t it be cool if you got a video message from a random person that said, Hey, I saw you guys already. I put agent podcast. I saw everything you guys are doing.

I heard the latest podcast with this person, John, it was such a good show. I learned so much. I just wanted to reach out and say, it was, thank you so much for providing this to, to your community.

Nothing in there was copy and pastable. That was not a video message that could be sent to the masses. That was to you and to you and your staff only.

So if it’s personable like that, people will open up and be open to receiving that and be receptive of the information and the video of the message that you just sent them. Some people will ignore it. Some people will just say, nah, you know, whatever, which is unfortunate because that could be an opportunity that you don’t know about.

And that’s about to open up, but versus a message that I’m sure you get, which I’ve gotten those messages to before that says, Hey bro, um, I got this cool routine for entrepreneurs that are successful. And like, if you want to really shape up your life and like, we’ll have a six pack like me, like, you know, like that is copy and pastable. So don’t do that.

Don’t, if you’re going to do it that way, don’t even save yourself time. Go do an app instead. But if you send a video message to someone, make it personable, say their name, say their location, say something about their profile, say something without it being weird, but say something like, Hey, I acknowledge you and I’m giving you love right now.

And if you need anything like I’m here from a local to a local, from a professional to a professional, from a podcaster to a podcaster, I’m here.

[Mattias]
Yeah. And I, you know, I love that too. Like the example you gave, um, didn’t have anything like salesy in it.

Um, and I think that that could probably also do wonders even if, even if you’re not offering anything like just that compliment or whatever, like that you were talking about, I could see somebody looking into you like, Oh, that, who is this person? What are they doing? And, and, you know, and then, you know, they, they stick in your, they might follow you, right?

Like you might get like stuck in there and there be sticky to them, right. In their brain. And then think about you when they are thinking about real estate.

Um, that’s awesome. That’s a great golden nugget. Thank you.

Uh, moving on to the book question, Ed, uh, I know we, we can get your information about your book again here in a second, but do you have another book that you’ve read?

[Ed Stulak]
I’m not going to be that guy that says, Oh, Michael is the best. No, don’t worry. It’s not for everyone.

That’s okay. But my personal favorite outside of my own is, is either it’s a tie. I’m between two.

Okay. How to win friends and influence people. Or Tim Ferriss’s four hour work week.

Okay. And both of those have shapeshifted me into who I am today. And I definitely am who I am because of them for sure.

Um, from how to win friends, influence people. I learned one thing and that was to show genuine interest and just be interested in people, show them the spotlight, give them the spotlight, give them the microphone here. Talk about yourself.

Tell me about you. Tell me where you’re from. Tell me why you love what you do.

And people, Oh my God, they, they love this. They love that feeling. It’s like you’re in a, in an audience full of 500 people.

And the speaker on stage that has the spotlight says for one second, I don’t want the spotlight. I’m going to give it to that girl over there for a second. You tell us, speak up, speak up to us.

Who are you? Boy, does that person feel better all of a sudden? Like, wow, 500 people, all eyes on me now.

And it’s a similar feeling when you show genuine interest. And then the other book for our work week, it’s what I learned from there is, um, that it’s just the art of delegation, to be very honest with you. It’s not that he works four hours a work week or sorry.

It’s not that he works four hours a week. It’s more so the philosophy of work less, work smarter and not harder for the rest of your life. And if you can delegate some tasks in your life, you don’t have to do it all.

You don’t have to go ahead and pull out the phone and film yourself and edit it and then do the music and then do the production and then do the lighting and then do the editing and then post it and then create the caption. And then it’s a process if you want to do it. If you don’t, you don’t have to pay someone else to do it.

Spend $30 on someone else to go ahead and edit that video for you that you just filmed for 14 minutes and go make money somewhere else and then spend 30 on them so you can take care of that, but go make money elsewhere. And so that’s essentially what I learned from that book is that you don’t have to do everything yourself. Accounting?

Never was with my account last night. He threw too many numbers at me and not one of them stuck to me. This is not my source.

This is not my skill set. So I’m going to have you do that. You’re good at that.

I’m good at this. So I’m going to do that.

[Mattias]
No, totally. Those are both awesome books. I think that’s such a key thing for realtors to hear is I think a lot of people are feeling stuck having to do everything kind of themselves and feel like they have to be a marketer.

They have to wear all the different hats, an accountant, all that stuff. And yeah, freeing yourself up, figuring out what it is that brings you the most money and energy in your business. That should be your sweet spot.

And figuring out how to delegate things that are the opposite of that is definitely key. So those are awesome. Ed, where can people find you?

Where can they buy your book? Where are you most active? Instagram for sure.

[Ed Stulak]
So E-D-S-T-U-L-A-K and on Amazon. You can get the book on Amazon now. So you can just type in expose yourself.

You can giggle the title and then you can buy it. It’s a sticky title. That’s perfect.

[Mattias]
That’s awesome, Ed. Thanks so much for being on. It’s been a lot of fun talking to you.

[Ed Stulak]
Thank you. Likewise. So fun.