Key Takeaways
- Authenticity Drives Success: Embracing individuality and focusing on genuine connections helps professionals build meaningful relationships and stand out in the competitive market.
- The Power of Niches: Identifying a clear target audience and tailoring experiences to their needs can transform a business and foster long-term loyalty.
- The Experience Economy: Success now depends on creating personalized, memorable experiences rather than offering basic services or goods.
The REI Agent with Chris Abazis
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A Platinum Perspective: Redefining Relationships in Real Estate
On this episode of The REI Agent Podcast, Mattias and Erica dive deep into the art of authentic living and meaningful business with guest Chris Abazis.
Known for his vibrant personality and extensive real estate expertise, Chris opens up about his unconventional journey and offers invaluable insights into personal and professional growth.
From embracing the platinum rule to cultivating meaningful connections, this episode inspires listeners to rethink how they approach both business and life.
Mattias and Erica kick off the conversation with a discussion about the “platinum rule”—treating others how they wish to be treated.
As Erica noted, “This idea goes beyond business; it transforms relationships in all aspects of life.”
The hosts seamlessly connected this philosophy to real estate, showing how understanding clients’ unique needs can drive success.
From Punk Rock to Real Estate Powerhouse
Chris’s journey into real estate was anything but traditional.
A self-proclaimed “punk rock kid,” he never imagined trading in band rehearsals for business meetings.
“I used to laugh at the idea of wearing a suit and tie, but life had other plans for me,” he shared with a grin.
What started as a way to explore investment opportunities during a rough patch turned into a thriving career.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Chris opened up about the challenges he faced, including moments of doubt and major setbacks.
“I’ve lost everything more than once, but those experiences shaped who I am today.”
His story is a powerful reminder that resilience and adaptability are key to long-term success.
Building Niches, Building Dreams
One of the standout lessons Chris emphasized was the importance of finding a niche.
He recounted how agents like “Sarasota Sandy” thrive by focusing on a specific clientele.
“When you identify who you serve and what makes you unique, you’re no longer just another agent—you’re the go-to expert.”
This advice struck a chord with Mattias, who reflected on how understanding his audience has been instrumental in his own success.
Whether you’re an agent targeting first-time buyers or a business owner catering to a local community, clarity about your niche can unlock new opportunities.
The Experience Economy: Elevating Client Relationships
Chris also highlighted the transition from service-based interactions to experience-driven connections.
“We’re in an experience economy now. People want more than transactions; they want memorable, meaningful interactions,” he explained.
He encouraged listeners to think beyond typical real estate milestones and focus on delivering personalized experiences that clients will cherish.
For Erica, this concept resonated on a personal level.
As a licensed therapist, she drew parallels between creating fulfilling client relationships and fostering deeper connections in everyday life.
Her takeaway: prioritize quality over quantity, whether it’s in family life, business, or social media content.
Authenticity as the Ultimate Strategy
A recurring theme throughout the episode was the power of authenticity.
Chris encouraged listeners to embrace their quirks and individuality, noting, “You don’t need to fit the mold to succeed. Be yourself, and the right people will gravitate toward you.”
His candidness inspired both Mattias and Erica to share their own experiences of navigating imposter syndrome and finding balance in their careers.
Fueling Success with Purpose and Passion
The conversation wrapped with a reflection on purpose-driven leadership.
Chris, who now dedicates much of his time to coaching and speaking engagements, shared how helping small business owners has become his greatest source of fulfillment.
“Success is not just about what you achieve; it’s about the lives you impact along the way,” he said.
Mattias and Erica echoed this sentiment, emphasizing how staying true to one’s values can lead to a more rewarding journey.
“Real estate isn’t just about transactions—it’s about transformation,” Mattias remarked.
Discover Your Potential: Lessons to Take Forward
Chris’s journey, peppered with challenges, triumphs, and hard-earned wisdom, serves as an inspirational guide for anyone striving to succeed in real estate or life.
His call to action is clear: embrace your uniqueness, focus on building genuine relationships, and never stop learning.
For those ready to elevate their game, this episode of The REI Agent Podcast offers not just advice but a roadmap for thriving with authenticity and purpose.
As Chris said, “The secret to a fruitful life is leaving space for spontaneity and saying yes to the right things at the right time.”
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting your real estate journey, this conversation is packed with actionable insights and motivational takeaways that will leave you inspired to chase your dreams.
Stay tuned for more inspiring stories on The REI Agent podcast, your go-to source for insights, inspiration, and strategies from top agents and investors who are living their best lives through real estate.
For more content and episodes, visit reiagent.com.
Contact Chris Abazis
Mentioned References
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. We had a great conversation with Chris, and we’ll get into that here in a moment. One of the topics we discussed and one of the things that we wanted to talk a little bit more about was essentially the platinum rule, which most people have heard of the golden rule, which is do unto others as you would have them do to you.
Did I get it?
[Erica]
Nailed it.
[Mattias]
But really, I think what we’re finding, I think there’s been a lot of books written kind of around this topic, but what we really should be striving towards is to do to others they would want, how they want to be treated. You should focus on that, which I know that, for example, love languages for our marriages is one of the popular things here recently. I don’t know how recent that book is, but it feels like that’s been a more recent trend to understand what it is that you want and how I can express my love to you that you feel it and vice versa.
Yeah. And I think that’s definitely something that is important to consider as well with your business. He talked about really going into a niche and understanding who you are selling to and understanding your niche and then giving them information, giving them social media content, giving them marketing that really edifies them, things that just speak to them because often we are just putting out things that don’t really give them any value.
Sure, it gets us out there. It says, Hey, look at me. I’m successful, whatever, but it doesn’t really actually speak to them.
And I think that this is a parallel to, and just having good relationships in your house. So, yeah, I mean, so my love language would be like words of affirmation primarily, right?
[Erica]
Which is the one that I’m the worst at.
[Mattias]
We are a happy married couple.
[Erica]
I think my natural way of loving people is acts of service.
[Mattias]
Which is your love language, right?
[Erica]
Right. But what I’m saying is it’s not the way you receive love necessarily. And so it takes a lot of intentionality for me to remember to tell you the things that I appreciate about you.
[Mattias]
Yeah. And I think that it also is something that acts of service is also something that I don’t always do naturally. I think I could definitely do better than that.
I know that, for example, bringing you coffee in the morning is really big. It’s a great start to the day. That’s really something I should work at trying to do every morning.
[Erica]
I like that.
[Mattias]
See, it works. But one of the things that we had talked about too is your kids and showing up for them and how do they feel that they are loved? And the immediate thing that came to my mind is I had this realization with one of our kids is that they like to, every once in a while, get in my face and annoy me.
And it might be an age thing. I’m not sure exactly if that’ll be something that they’ll grow out of. But they like to get in my face, do things that will frustrate me.
And when I’m really stressed out in work mode and all that stuff, it’s really hard to see through and not just get frustrated. But when I’m in a good place, and I’m going to say it here, I’m not always in a good place, I can sense, I can realize, okay, they want to engage with me. They want to interact with me.
And so if I just turn it around and just start tickling them and wrestling with them, that’s exactly what they want. And it just makes it a lot of fun. It takes that moment of frustration into a really playful, fun thing that I enjoy as well then too.
But it’s really hard when I’m not in the right mind space to understand what they’re asking for, basically.
[Erica]
Yeah. And they have not asked to, or they have not learned to ask for it in an appropriate way yet either. And they know that one way to get your attention very quickly is to mess with your technology.
And that gets your attention real fast.
[Mattias]
We have a lock in this room. Nobody’s allowed in here. Yeah.
Yeah.
[Erica]
Each of our kids seems to feel loved in a very different way because another one of our kids just loves to be cuddled and held, which that one is a little bit harder for me because I’m not somebody who sits very often because I’m often up doing a lot of things, but they just want to be on someone’s lap or held on the couch. And so that takes some… I have to think and stop and think about needing to just stop what I’m doing, even though it’s not done and sitting and holding them for a while.
[Mattias]
Yeah. Actually, this morning, they were not moving very fast and trying to hide and avoid getting into the car to go to school, doing everything they can to basically delay the process. And I saw it.
We’ve had this. We’ve done this dance many times. And I told them, hey, look, this is going to end with me getting really frustrated because we’re late and we’re trying to move and we’re trying to do things.
And then you’re going to end up getting really frustrated and you’re going to get really sad. Can we just turn this around and try to work together to get to what we have to do? Well, that didn’t happen.
And it ended up happening that she was in tears. I was frustrated. And when we were in the car, we just took a moment.
We both collected ourselves, honestly. And then I just talked to her about it. I just said, hey, this is what I saw happening.
Can we realize that when we’re going down this path, we have to go to school? We can’t not do this. So that’s not really an option.
Can we work together? I don’t know if she got any of that. But the point of all I was trying to just say is that I knew then that she needed to be held and be comforted in that way.
And so I carried her into the school. And she just snuggled up on me. And after just the short walk, after we got that cuddling whatever done, she was just her normal self.
And she was able to reset. It took a little bit of time alone to kind of suck her thumb and get comforted. And then that together was important.
And meanwhile, the youngest was just kind of trudging along by himself without a care in the world. Oh, and he was doing vocal exercises too on the way. And that was funny.
I spent the morning showing the kids some vocal exercises and doing scales, which they found very amusing today. But I got a feeling that that’s not going to be amusing if I do it every morning. Yeah, so that’s kind of the theme I wanted to talk about a little bit.
It’s important to think about what the other person wants. And that’s hard. It’s not easy to always be able to be in that mind space.
[Erica]
Yeah. Well, yesterday at dinner, I forget which child it was, but one of them said for the first time, I think, oh, they’re your favorite.
[Mattias]
Oh, I did hear that.
[Erica]
I hadn’t heard that. And I was actually surprised it took this long for that comment to come out. Because we were talking a little bit about equity is not equality and how just different people need different things and not everybody always gets the exact same thing.
And so it’s a tough balance. I was also called the worst human being in our family last night by one of the kids. Same one that needed the cuddles.
So she must have just been going through something.
[Mattias]
Well, they always get jealous too because our other daughter was homesick for a couple of days. So I think that sometimes comes out in this behavior if they’re jealous. But I said, why don’t you tell her that dad can come in and finish bedtime?
And I’m sure she’d be like, no, no, no. You stay, please. Because that is always the default.
Mom is better than dad. But what can I do?
[Erica]
I don’t know. It’s tough. It’s hard too to remember how each person receives love too.
Because everybody’s different. There’s five of us in our family and then we have an anxious dog. And so taking care of everybody and making sure everybody feels loved and valued, it just takes some extra work.
You’ve got to be on your game.
[Mattias]
It’s a full-time job. You’ve always got to be on.
[Erica]
And you can’t just take care of your kids. You’ve got to take care of your spouse too.
[Mattias]
And your dog.
[Erica]
And your dog.
[Mattias]
Give him his Prozac or whatever he takes. Anyway, we have a really great guest here. Chris is currently out of Florida but has had a big career of training agents, being an agent, training agents, being now a coach for agents and other business owners.
Chris was a lot of fun to talk to. He’s an authentic, genuine person. And I am afraid to say his last name but I do say it correctly as soon as the real interview with him comes on.
So I’m just going to say Chris. Enjoy this conversation with Chris. Welcome back to the REI Agent.
We are here with Chris Abazis. Chris, thanks so much for joining us. I got it right.
You did. Great being here.
[Chris Abazis]
Thanks, Mattias.
[Mattias]
Hey, hey, hey. We both got names right. Let’s go.
This is also a good start.
[Chris Abazis]
That’s right.
[Mattias]
Chris, your career has evolved over the years. But tell us a little bit. Let’s get started with kind of the origin story.
How did you get into real estate?
[Chris Abazis]
I was going to school in Manhattan from Long Island and they shut down our student housing. We had to move to Queens. And I was always interested in real estate as an investment vehicle.
I never kind of fancied myself a salesperson but I understood it as an investment. And we moved to Queens and hired a real estate agent. I think I paid him $3,000 to find us a place.
He showed us two places in one building. At the same time, I was put on academic probation with college. So I said, maybe I’ll get my real estate license until I figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Right around 9-11 happened. Oh, wow. So it was like, I mean, the market was kind of going crazy.
I got licensed and I was really good at it. I was a rookie of the year working mostly with buyers. The interest rates were so low at the time at 7%.
I don’t know if you remember. There’s a big buying frenzy. Everyone could get a loan.
It was the rise of that subprime market. Then my third year, I learned how to list. That was kind of my first six-figure year.
And I was 24 and all my friends were graduating from college with master’s in business and not able to find jobs and stuff. So I said, I guess I’m going to do this when I grow up. I guess this is what I’m doing.
And I bought my first house. Then I got into leadership in 2009, out of sales and into leadership. The opportunity presented itself in 2007, but I didn’t take it.
Most people having real estate businesses don’t want to get into that world. But in 2009, in the down market, I did it. My job was to recruit, develop, and train and fill up a 6,000-square-foot office.
I did it. Over the next six years, I’d recruited over 1,000 agents, recruited, trained, and coached them and launched the two other offices. I had ownership in three different offices.
I just fell in love with people development, helping agents build their businesses, have better lives. I started my company, Dreamkey Consulting, to do that. I was doing it on the side.
I started to speak and coach agents. Then I kind of got out of office leadership and just started doing that full-time. Here I am.
I created a job for myself, I guess. I just kind of travel around, get to talk to people, have high-level conversations all day. That’s how I built my business.
Also, you know, getting into real estate investing and things like that. I kind of got my hand on a lot of stuff. That’s pretty much a short story of how I ended up where I am.
[Erica]
Yeah, that is a great synopsis. You flowed right through that.
[Chris Abazis]
I have that conversation a lot.
[Erica]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet you do. I was also curious, too, if you go back to where you were talking about you were in college on academic probation and got your real estate license, can you walk us through, too, what was happening on the life side of things as you moved through the career progression that you just mentioned?
[Chris Abazis]
That was interesting. I love to learn stuff, but I wasn’t much of a student. It’s funny how in my adult life when we started to want to learn things.
In college, I always said I was an intro class major. I took everything from political science to anthropology, psychology, sociology, film and media, and I was really kind of attracted to all these things. I’m like, what the heck am I going to do with all this?
I didn’t know until later that it was going to kind of be super helpful for me to have all these things now in my life. I was in punk rock bands when I was a kid, and I had lyrics that said I’d rather die than wear a suit and tie, and here I was in my early 20s with a suit and tie on looking in the mirror laughing at myself, man, what are you doing? But my socks didn’t match, so I was still punk rock.
It was kind of interesting. I really fell in love with helping people, and I kind of was like, oh, salespeople, salespeople, but I kind of approached it in a way of, man, I’m helping people that thought they could never own a house own a house. At the time, nobody wanted to work with first-time home buyers, and I really loved working with them.
They were like me, and it was fun. Then kind of getting into listings, it was like, oh, all the listing agents are the same, and then I was a little bit more lighthearted. I was professional.
I was an expert. I knew what I was doing. I checked all the boxes for a top agent, but I was nice to people, and I wasn’t pushy.
I talked to people like they were humans, which ended up helping me when I had my office to recruit agents. Thank goodness I was nice to everybody, right? And that’s, I mean, personally, it was just kind of feeling my way around a dark room.
It wasn’t until I got into learning stuff and reading books and leadership training that I started being more on purpose about planning my life and designing that the way I wanted it. Otherwise, it was just kind of happening to me. I was just always like, well, I guess this is what I’m going to do.
You have to be, I think, learning early in life, and I try to teach my kids this. You know, every time you’re saying yes to something, you’re saying no to something else, and you’ve got to be careful. If you don’t have a plan, somebody else might plan your life for you.
You might not like where you end up. I don’t know if you guys experienced this, but when I was in college and when I was young, just kind of seeing all these people older than me that were in jobs that they hated, in relationships that they didn’t enjoy, that they no longer enjoyed, and they were like, whose life am I living? What am I doing?
So I just didn’t want to kind of follow that path, and then I wanted to share that same experience with all the other business owners I came in contact with, real estate agents and everybody. Listen, you don’t have to be forced to live this life you don’t want.
[Mattias]
I identify with so much of what you just said. I also went into punk music in high school, played some music as well, and I’ve often said, man, my high school self would be so ashamed of me. I mean, I’m not where I sit right now, but it’s kind of that independent spirit, I think, that is probably what drew us both to real estate, and I think it’s being your own boss, and so in some ways, we’re kind of the man that we were trying to stick it to is kind of who we became, but at the same time, we’re also free to kind of pursue what we want, and that’s ultimately at least what I was pursuing, or how that energy got channeled into something productive like being in real estate.
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah, I think now we’re disrupting it from internally, right? Because you kind of get there, and you’re like, the world needs people like us in this world, and I think that’s who runs the world. I think when you get older, you realize we come from this education system where we’re just kind of passive followers, and we’re sitting in alphabetical order, and everybody learned how to do this, and if you’re not good at something, let’s give you extra help there to bring you up to being average rather than focusing on strengths and what makes us different, and I think that’s when people figure that out and find a world where they can be authentic and live in that with freedom and freedom of personal expression and all that stuff.
That’s when life is really delicious, right? Absolutely. Here we are.
[Erica]
Mm-hmm. That reminds me, just this week, Mattias went to some kind of a meeting. You have to tell me which one this was, but you had to give a speech impromptu, and you were saying everybody else was in blazers, but I was dressed kind of like I normally dress, just in your business casual, but you liked that.
You ended up saying, I was glad that I was able to just speak and say what I wanted to say, and I could wear what I normally wear, and I didn’t have to put on a front.
[Mattias]
That’s awesome. Yeah, I feel like not having to necessarily, like looking good, like not being a slob necessarily, but having your own kind of flavor to what you’re wearing, what you’re doing, and kind of who you are, being true to it, and then backing up that you belong here by you get to get up and give a little speech because you’re the president of the association that was hosting an event, and so that’s where that all came from, but yeah, at first, it was kind of like, well, I’m definitely underdressed when I looked around the room. I was like, you know what? I don’t want to be that person in the blazer that is just kind of matching what everybody else is doing.
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah, and I think it’s when you get to a certain level, and when you’re like that disruptor, people start to look to you, and that’s when you’re setting trends, and then the next meeting you go to, somebody’s going to be wearing a t-shirt with a blazer or something, so it’s funny. I mean, I’ll wear this very shirt at a speaking engagement. That’s my thing.
I always say it’s in my bio on my slides. I’m like, I wear t-shirts with suits, so I wear jeans with a t-shirt that says something funnier and a jacket, and people dig it, but there was a time in my career when I was really young. I mean, 21 years old, and I wore a suit and tie, and I started getting custom suits and cufflinks, and I looked the part, man, but when you got into a conversation with me, that’s where the difference-maker was, but then look at Steve Jobs.
Nobody ever says, hey, that guy wears a black t-shirt everywhere he goes. He’s Steve Jobs. He doesn’t need to roll up with his Armani suit, does he?
[Mattias]
No, no, absolutely not, and that’s true, and I think that’s also true for me. When I started real estate, I definitely dressed the nines, and I was like 24, 25. I forget exactly how old I was, but yeah, when I started, I was young, not as young as you, but you have to kind of feel like you got to show up and feel like you could be worth the thousands of dollars you’re going to get paid to help this person in the biggest transaction of their lives, so yeah, I definitely went through that phase too, but it is.
[Erica]
So, Chris, I found your list of discernment questions that you often use to make a decision, and I was looking through those, and it was a post that you had made recently, and you were talking about giving it to your daughter too and helping her work through some decisions maybe about college or as she goes into college, and I was just curious how often you pull out that list just on the day-to-day.
[Chris Abazis]
You know, these kind of, it’s funny because these are some things you just do by accident, and once in a while, when you have to tell somebody else about it or teach it, that’s the first time that you kind of get them on paper, so this is something that I was talking to one of my clients, and I just was like, hey, here’s how I make decisions. Here’s my filtering questions, and we went through it, and he’s like, wow, that’s really good stuff. You should write this stuff down.
He’s a playwright, so very different industries, and so then I just wrote them down, and when I wrote them down, I shared them with my, I was talking to my daughter. She just started college in Orlando, and I shared, I was like, hey, this is very helpful for someone today, and I think they’d be helpful for you, and it just kept popping up after I did it, so it’s kind of like what you focus on expands, but how often am I doing that? I’m using a version of one of those questions probably on a daily basis, and even if you don’t pay attention to them, these are kind of just things that are always running in my subconscious, filtering in the background, like is this in alignment with who I am and what I’m doing, and am I contributing to the world?
I mean, even something so small as to make a social media post. In a world where attention is kind of the new drug of choice, everyone’s screaming, look at me and look at what I’m doing, but particularly, that’s what I like about you guys is you guys are putting stuff out there that’s valuable to the people that are watching it, not just kind of screaming, look at me, which is rare. I guess we could say it’s like the minority, and even with that stuff, is this who I am?
Am I contributing? Am I making a difference? And that’s just always running in the background, so how often am I pulling out the list of those six questions and using all of them?
It’s probably rare, but in some version of them, all the time, it’s just constantly how I approach things.
[Erica]
I printed them out because I’d like to use them with my conversations with clients in session, too, because even recently, a big conversation has been holiday stress and the pressure of feeling joyful during the holidays when really there is a lot of pressure to attend all these social events and go to the school stuff and bring everybody food, and then there’s also a lot of grief usually around the holidays, and so a lot of our conversations have focused on, are the decisions you’re making and the things you’re saying yes to this season, are they aligned with your values and what’s important to your family and what’s going to bring you the most joy and quality time together? And so your questions are perfect, so I might borrow those, if that’s okay with you?
[Chris Abazis]
Of course, I put them out there. They’re available to everybody. That’s what I do.
So yeah, I’m glad you got value from them. That makes it worth it, putting it out there, just if you get value from it yourself and share it with your clients, it’s awesome.
[Erica]
Yeah, yeah, very great.
[Chris Abazis]
It’s sad to hear about the holidays and people that are stressed out about it, right? It’s like, you know, you run into those people that, huh, all this stuff, they make it so, that’s a terrible thing, you know? It should be filled with joy, but that’s a personal decision, I guess, too, right?
[Erica]
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It’s tough to figure out what it is that actually helps you feel joy because there’s things that I think the world around us creates that say it’s going to create joy and then people do them and they’re like, well, now I just feel stressed. You’ve got to figure it out.
[Mattias]
Yep, consumerism.
[Erica]
Yeah.
[Mattias]
One of the things you said there about making content, doing things that are valuable to the audience as opposed to just look at me, I think I see a lot of agents doing the look at me kind of posts all the time and that’s really all they know how to do. Do you have any suggestions for people that are looking to make content that, I mean, I think that is definitely an area that can be hard and I think it is usually the go-to, like, you know, under contract, just sold, pictures of your clients at the closing table, which they probably don’t want to have that picture taken.
[Chris Abazis]
I would say that’s a low-hanging fruit and it’s really easy to do that stuff and there’s so much training out there and I’m not a social media person, but I mean, I do it, but it’s not something I could focus more on it, but I think my advice, I was just on the road, where was I? I was in Chicago, I taught Get Niche or Die Trying, where I talk about niching down, actually making your world bigger by really figuring out who your client is, who are you serving and it’s like we have, like Sarasota Sandy on the west coast of Florida, she’s real clear on who her clients are. She’s like C-level executives from the northeast, they buy in these four different communities, they like red wine, they like golf, they like boating and yachting, so she blogs and she puts videos out there that are super specific to that clientele and that happened for her by accident.
Now, if that’s not going to happen for an agent by accident, I have an exercise and I could share like a worksheet on identifying your niche and it starts with, first, who you are, what’s unique about me, what am I uniquely able to bring out to the world and what am I in a great position to be able to teach someone else how to do and what I’m doing and it’s like, starting from there, starting from that place, you’ll figure out who you are, what I’m offering, being real clear about that and you’ll start attracting the people that are meant to work with you and we’re in an experience economy now. It’s like it used to be, there was goods and then services. When you’re competing with goods and raw materials, it’s just who’s the cheapest, right?
Supply and demand, getting it out there to market. Now, we’re in services, it’s like, okay, we’re customizing a good that now becomes a service. Many people in the real estate industry will say, we’re in the service industry but now there’s a higher level and even after quarantine happened, we’re seeing all these retail stores go under, all these things happen, what’s opening up?
Experiential places, comedy clubs, acts-earning places, restaurants, things to go out there and do. It’s an experience economy and people will pay, will want to work with you because the experiences you provide above anything else. That’s where I’m trying to arrive at with the people that I work with is, what experience are you creating for people?
You can stay at the Holiday Inn or you can stay at the Ritz-Carlton, it’s a different experience and people that are paying the Ritz-Carlton, what they’re paying for and what they’re loyal to is that experience. That’s what I would tell people, really figure that out and then put content out that’s relevant to them. Look, I’m glad you’re doing an open house in San Diego but that’s not relevant to me at all.
It’s cool to see it and stuff but I think a lot of agents are just in this cycle of, I won this award, I have this listing, I have this open house. Make it fun. I’m light hearted.
I like humor and comedy so I’ll put things out there that are funny and silly and some people think I’m ridiculous and that’s okay but that’s not the person I’m meant to work with. Look, if you’re all about the numbers and the data and you’re really good at that, put that stuff out there and you’re going to attract the people that appreciate that. If you’re not good at it, don’t try to do the stuff you’re not good at and just go out there, be yourself, figure out who your client is and then make stuff that’s going to edify them directly.
That’s the biggest thing I think most business people are missing.
[Mattias]
No, I love that. It’s really, again, if you keep it in mind, focusing on who you are serving, focus on what they want, focus on what gives them value and what you’re talking about is really more clearly defining who that is. It makes a ton of sense and again, I don’t think that people actually care that you got a house under contract and the person, whoever you’re targeting unless, I don’t really know who, what demographic of people actually appreciate that or really care.
[Chris Abazis]
It’s other agents. You’re flossing for other agents. You’re saying, look what I’m doing.
They’re like, Mattias is busy again.
[Mattias]
They don’t even like it.
[Chris Abazis]
There’s a comedian, Tom Papa. He said, social media is just everybody showing you how great their life is through a filter to make you feel crappy about yours, but they’re not showing you. They’re saying, look at us by the Eiffel Tower.
They’re not showing you when dad had some bad food and he was on the toilet bowl for a couple of days. They’re not showing you that. That’s what it is.
I see people actually going through, when I’m in groups of people and I see them looking at people’s social media and they’re like, look at this one, look at that one. I’m like, these are friends of yours. Why are you so angry at them because they’re on vacation?
Oh, she got another listing again. Why don’t you go get some listings? Why are you mad?
Just be happy for people.
[Mattias]
Yeah. That’s a good example of something that people do want would be listed. You can just list it because you are A, marketing your property that you are trying to sell and B, your people that are on your social media are probably curious about new houses and want to check them out.
[Chris Abazis]
My strategy for new listings, I love for a new listing, instead of throwing a post out there, do a paid ad, choose your target market, expose it to only people looking in the area of that demographic. Do something fun. Do a fun video around it with a lead capture mechanism like a lead magnet.
Build your database and drip on them. That’s more effective for a real estate salesperson than just throwing it out there and saying, come to my open house, look what I listed. Evidence of success is good.
It’s like a just listed postcard. I used to do those in the neighborhood. If you can figure out how to just get it in front of people, that will be valuable.
Like on Facebook, I used to teach a class on setting up lists. People didn’t know you could set up lists. You could almost use it as a CRM and just, I want to post this just to these people or just to these people.
There’s ways you can do it but it’s a crowded space, isn’t it? You really got to pan for gold to really find the good stuff. Yeah.
[Mattias]
I’m curious about your, when you were in the recruiting phase, now were teams a thing at this time at all or?
[Chris Abazis]
So I built my office with teams because the agents, I was really, there was agents that hit a ceiling. Good agents, they either didn’t have a team and they were ready to start hiring people or there were small brokerages or agents with teams that were kind of dysfunctional. So that’s how I kind of built my company and I learned all about team structure and organizational structure and how to do this stuff and was able to help agents grow their teams into businesses.
And that was kind of my bread and butter for recruiting, which then actually became a majority of my coaching clients in real estate. But yeah, teams were just starting to be a thing and I was with the KW offices. So those KW offices were really kind of pushing team stuff.
I’d come from a Remax and Remax, they fostered teams too, but they kind of didn’t have this stuff. They were just kind of like, hey, go build teams, but they didn’t teach you how to do it really at the time. And so that was kind of a big thing in the market that was super valuable as far as education is concerned because what do you tell a top agent that knows everything?
I know everything. It’s like you can. So I don’t need to make any more money or do any more business, but you work in 70 hours a week, you want to do it in 30, we’ve got a way for you to do that.
And that was a big thing for me because it’s just kind of, I always say I’m a leverage coach, system tools and people, just let’s figure out how to do it, which like you guys have figured out now. You said, we’re getting to the point where you just got to show up. We look at our calendar, we show up and record.
And that’s awesome. It’s a big deal. And I think people are just trying to do too much, especially that entrepreneurial spirit.
You think nobody can do it like you can do it. We know it’s not true.
[Mattias]
Yeah, there’s multiple angles there. I think that there are definitely the people that cannot let go of the control of having to do everything themselves. And then there’s just also the fear of hiring somebody, I’m going to have to pay them, that things get slow sometimes.
There’s a lot of different areas.
[Chris Abazis]
A lot of responsibility. There’s also a lot of opportunity for you to help someone change it. Somebody once told me that if I was capable of building an empire, I had a social responsibility to do it because I can create opportunities for other people.
And I think we’ve all met that Uber driver or that Starbucks barista that had a great idea that we’re like, man, you’d be a great salesperson. You’ve got a great idea for a new technology or something. There’s so much out there that we’ll never hear about.
So many inventions, so many great music, so much art. We’ll never hear about it because people just never go for it. And so there’s that thing too.
I had agents say, hey, what was your goal? And they’re like, oh, someday I want to own a restaurant. Oh, awesome.
I’m going to help you have the best real estate business possible. And my goal is to get you to be able to be a restaurant owner because that’s your dream and maybe we’ll invest in it together. And that was kind of counterintuitive for most people in the recruiting game that didn’t want people to leave them.
I wanted to be the vehicle that helped people build their dream and it worked out for me in the long run. So I even had staff members that I gave to agent teams, like a receptionist that had a growth opportunity with an agent’s team to be their COO or their admin. And one particular, I’m thinking she’s still there and every year she sends me a card and a gift and thanks.
Thank you for changing my life. And I’m like, well, that’s why we do it. Yeah, it is.
That’s why we do it. But a lot of people around me were, oh, you should be a little bit more greedy, a little bit more shrewd. Only if you were this, only if you were that.
And I’m like, no, I’m kind of okay with just doing things the way that I am. And I have a low economic drive, but the economics come with everything else. So now the proof is in the pudding here, because I always said, I sleep well at night, I love what I do and everything’s good.
[Erica]
Yeah, it’s so nice to have a cheerleader like you because it feels scary to step away from a W2 with benefits. And that can feel hard to do on your own, but if you have somebody behind you encouraging you to do that, man, that would make such a difference. It was tough for me to leave my W2 and start my own private practice.
And I did it because I was drowning, trying to do a full-time job with two kids.
[Chris Abazis]
Well, at what point did you, did you do them both at the same time? And at what point did you kind of pull the plug on that W2?
[Erica]
Well, it was mid COVID, so it was 2020. And that was part of what forced me into it. And no, I stopped my W2, it was a Monday to Friday job, very inflexible hours, because it was sessions with clients from nine to five and had two little kids.
And it was August, I think it was in June that I was like, I just can’t do this. I have to do a part-time work, especially with the real estate hours being evenings and weekends, mostly. And so end of August, I left my job, beginning of September, I started it, I started my private practice.
And I remember giving myself like a couple of months to build up my caseload, but I had been working in the community long enough that it took two weeks and I was full with a wait list and have been ever since.
[Chris Abazis]
That’s awesome.
[Erica]
So it ended up fine, but the anxiety leading up to it, I’m like, what if this doesn’t work out? What if, all the questions, you know.
[Chris Abazis]
Nobody doesn’t, nobody ever that you talk to, nobody’s ever like so sure that ends up there. Everyone’s got that story where they had some concerns, some anxiety and what ifs and imposter syndrome and fear of failure and fear of success and all that stuff. Nobody’s exempt from it.
I mean, I think that’s, people need to share those stories more often. There’s so many people out there on stages like, you know, I’m a billionaire real estate investor and you could be too if you just buy my $400 program. And it’s like nobody talks about, nobody talks about too often the little bit of a battle it is.
And you know, even it’s, listen, you see bands and musicians up there, you see people on stage or actors and actresses, oh, it looks so easy where they were, but you know, you weren’t living in a basement apartment eating ramen noodles, sticking with it, knowing that this thing’s going to work out for me. And I think we’ve all, all in the business world, we’ve all been there at some degree. And I mean, I’ve built, I’ve had it big and lost everything a couple of different times.
And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s rough. You know, I’m candid about those stories and people are like, people are like, oh, how did you get a car repossessed? How did you get, you’re a CEO of a company.
How’d you get a car repossessed? How’d you get an eviction notice and stuff? And I’m like, well, things happen.
And especially when you’re committed to building a business and how many times in life do we, you know, get offered some kind of easy button that we have to say no to? I mean, I’m getting recruited all the time for these leadership positions that sound real good, right? It’s like hitting the easy button, you get like a, man, that’ll sound good, but it’ll be good for a year.
And then I’ll be, and it’ll be annoyed and I’ll be, I’ll feel unfulfilled and I’ll want to start all over again. So stay in the course and say no to those things. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s important.
[Mattias]
Chris, what do you, how do you feel about agents getting started? Do you think that it’s better to burn the fleet and just jump right in? Or like you kind of mentioned doing both for a while with Erica and that’s the approach I took.
I did, I did a full-time job in real estate for a few years before I jumped in.
[Chris Abazis]
I mean, I was lucky. I was, I was a DJ at the time. And so I nights and like night weekends, I could work and, you know, make a decent amount of money, like people in the service industry, you know, like bartenders and servers and things like that.
But is there a way to do it? I’ve hired people that have worked really well. I mean, I’ve hired everybody from police officers about to retire to school teachers and said, Hey, I want to do real estate part-time.
So creating a goal around that I think is important. So if you say, okay, well, I want to have my full-time job. Okay.
Well, do you have, would you like to go full-time in real estate? Is that your goal? Yes, I would.
Well, what needs to happen in order for you to go full-time? And it’s some people it’s like, if I can have $10,000 in the bank, or if I do one transaction, or if I do 10 transactions, they’ll have some kind of target that’s hittable. And now you can reverse engineer that and figure that out.
Well, how much time can you dedicate to real estate? What’s your business going to look like? And what’s the fastest way to get you to those transactions?
And it’s different for everybody. And some people do it real well in transition out. Some people I’ve known stay with a part-time business and do two transactions a year forever.
And some people pull the plug and jump right in. One kid I hired, he worked for the cable company, and he made about $110,000 a year. And he’s a Chinese immigrant.
And he said, he’s called me chief. He’s like, chief, do you think I can make $100,000 this year in real estate in my first year? And I said, Michael, you can do it.
My rookie of the year usually does about 60 or 70, and then they’ll do 100 their second year. And he’s like, what do I need to do? He’s like, I’m quitting my job.
He’s like, I’m going to do exactly what you need to do. And we started off, well, if you talk to 10 people a day, that’s a good start. And he’s like, what if I talk to 20?
And he started to take listings. And I said, listings is the name of the game. And I would always put him in the office meeting and say, Michael, tell everyone how you got this listing.
He’d be like, well, I was so lucky. There was a big snowstorm, and I couldn’t get in contact with this FSBO. So I figured I would go to the house, and they would be home.
And I’m like, wait a second. You were lucky, but you went to the house during a snowstorm. That’s not lucky.
If you were watching Netflix, eating popcorn on your couch, and they knocked on your door by accident and gave you a listing, that’s lucky. But he was always doing the things. And I think people that stay in the activities will have the success.
And I think part of that kind of moving towards pleasure and away from pain, when you create pain in your life, usually actions we take now is to avoid some kind of future pain. I mean, sometimes you see that rock bottom, and someone springs into action. But in coaching, we try to tap you into the possibility of a future pain, because you got money saved up.
You’re making money now. You can relax. But what if that goes away?
And what do you need to do now in order for that to happen? And we know real estate is very cyclical. But I mean, I like it when I see someone committed to joining.
And I think nowadays, we’re seeing more and more kids come out of college that are choosing it as an actual career choice, a viable career choice, where I think when I got into it, it was like, people are like, well, I can’t get a regular job, so I might as well sell real estate. I drive a yellow cab and I sell real estate on the side. But I think if it was like a regular business where you had to take out a loan, like if it cost $50,000 to get into real estate, you had to do a business plan and go to a bank and get a loan, and you had to take that money, invest in some coaching and training, and invest in some lead generation activities, and then you just did the activities, I think everybody would be good.
It’s a good business. But I think because it’s so much flexibility, some people just don’t show up. They don’t do the activities that they need to do.
And it sounds simple. If I find a person that needs a house and the person that has a house and I put them together, yay. I make 10 grand, whatever it is.
But when you get in there, there’s other agents and there’s other nuances and it’s not as easy and every other person has a real estate license. And it’s just, I think it’s whatever someone, everyone’s different. And some people, I know people that didn’t hire part-time agents.
And I said, I’m going to hire them. However, it’s going to kind of be with that caveat. You got to do some stuff, but there’s a plan for everybody.
If you’ve got 10 hours a week to dedicate to it, you can do it. You can build a business.
[Mattias]
Yeah, I think that was the clear thing. It’s like if you have that safety net of your full-time job, you can always fall back on. If you’re holding it for that purpose, I think that’s a very different thing than if you are simply a means to an end.
Because when I was going for this career, I wanted to, that was all I wanted. I wanted to get into, be a full-time agent. We were paying off student loans.
That was kind of the reason for getting a side hustle at first that I wanted to make it into a career, but also a reason not to just quit the job right away. But yeah, I mean, I was up every morning at five. I worked at a high school and got done at like 2.33. So I was able to do afternoon showings and weekends and summers. So it worked really well for me overall at that initial phase. Were you on a team or you just got into it yourself? I got into it myself.
I had a little bit of kind of a top agent that nurtured me more so later on when I really kind of got into it more full-time. It was just me and myself, but a good company that really trained well and was supportive.
[Chris Abazis]
That’s important. That’s good. And look at you now, you’re doing it.
And you guys invest now. You invest as well. You give some investor tips and stuff, which is good because people don’t know these things, the general public.
[Erica]
I do feel like you have to be very self-motivated, especially in the real estate business because it’s so individualized in some ways and you have to keep pushing yourself and doing new things and doing things differently. And I think just as humans, we tend to like to be comfortable and we don’t love pain or discomfort, but growth also can’t happen when you’re comfortable. And so it does take a willingness to keep pushing yourself into places that don’t feel great at first, knowing that it’s going to feel good at some point.
[Chris Abazis]
It’s interesting. Jim Rohn says that content and ambition are kind of opposed and that people that are content are rarely ambitious. So people that are content are rarely content.
But if we can figure out a way to experience both of those things at the same time, that’s kind of the sweet spot of life. So I’ve dedicated my life to that. How can I be really happy with where I am and really excited about where I’m going enough so that I’m appreciating the moment, being present, but also kind of looking to stretch?
And I think life’s been a series of counterbalances and sometimes you’re super content and complacent and just kind of like, hey, I’m good with where I am. And sometimes you’re just in growth mode. Okay, just to kind of lean into that, lean into those nuances because people make themselves feel bad about things.
Oh man, it’s the middle of the afternoon and I’m playing golf or I’m watching TV or I’m out on the boat drinking margaritas and I should be, they should all over themselves, right? Or people are working from eight in the morning to nine at night and they’re saying, man, I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m missing my kids’ games and I’m not having dinner with my family and all that stuff.
People are just so rough on themselves. Rather than leaning in and understanding that life is a series of counterbalances, we’re in business for ourselves so we have the ability to do that.
[Erica]
Yeah, totally.
[Chris Abazis]
Just got to watch it. Got to pay attention.
[Mattias]
Yeah, I think that’s probably a more accurate thing is life balance isn’t necessarily always balanced at all times. It’s kind of keeping track of what you want out of life and how you can kind of achieve that balance whether it might be, yeah, you might have to lean into the work a little bit harder. Certainly at the beginning of real estate, you’re really going to be in the grind phase when you’re getting things rolling.
Was that ever a part of your training? Is that part of your coaching, the life balance, making sure you’re not, the high divorce rate, the missing kids, sporting events like you just mentioned? Is that ever part of that conversation?
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah, it’s something I’m learning constantly and one of the biggest things people struggle with in all industries, even people that are not business related, is kind of that time management thing as someone always pops up. What are some strategies, what are some actual strategies on how to manage time better and what are the graphs where it needs it and some techniques around that and then also the emotional element of kind of just being okay with giving yourself permission to be okay with what’s happening, what’s actually happening and understanding what you do have control over and what you don’t. One of the first things I do with people is I separate them into two aspects and say, okay, well, here’s you, the business, here’s you, the personal.
Tell me about your business. What are the things that drive your business and are you passing or failing in the things that drive your business and what are you doing in your business that you don’t want to do anymore and let’s get leveraged there and all that kind of stuff. It’s funny because when you get into the personal conversation, tell me about your family, your spouse or your significant other, your kids.
What do you like doing? How about your friends? How do you get into each thing?
How does this kid know that you love them? How does this one know that you love them? How does this one?
You think about specific things and are you hitting that button and is it meaningful for them? Sometimes it’s the first time people actually sit down and say, man, I never thought of that before. I never thought about that just if I go out there and kick a soccer ball around my kid that it’s going to be the best day of their life that they ever had.
Just paying attention to those things in each of our business because we can get so lost and kind of cluttered with all this stuff, the whirlwind and distracted. A lot of people are like my girlfriend. She used to be kind of like anti-coaching.
She’s like, everyone’s a coach now. Everyone’s trying to help everybody else. All the people that I know are life coach have screwed up lives.
I’m like, well, they probably got their stuff together and now they want to share it with people. Then after seeing what she does and I brought her to stuff, she’s like, man, I see how this works. A lot of it’s just kind of getting you to focus on that stuff, just your blind spots and just help me think in a different direction.
That’s kind of woven in the ongoing relationship that’s kind of woven into it. I think that’s what keeps people around more than strategy or all the other stuff. Look, you can talk about strategies and executing and all that stuff, but a lot of it’s just kind of hitting the reset button, refocusing and okay, yeah, that’s right.
I am on the right path and I’m enjoying the journey along the way. Helping you enjoy it when you’re going through that stretch and that pain. I think it’s an important thing and I think we all need it in our lives.
[Erica]
I love that life coaches are out there, too, because those are questions that most people probably don’t have asked of them in their normal conversations. Love that that’s a part of it, too. I wanted to know what is it that’s feeling fulfilling for you right now and what you’re doing?
[Chris Abazis]
I would say small business owners, much of them doing under a million in revenue. There’s not really a lot of people for those people and I realize that. Everybody wants to work with the – I got friends, work with the super rich people and make a ton of money.
They’ll pay you four times as much for the same thing. I’m really appreciating just helping a restaurant owner build a database or a personal injury attorney put together a marketing plan and an image and stuff like that. It’s fun to work with these different kinds of businesses where they had no clue because real estate, we’ve got a lot of resources at our disposal.
We can go and sign up for 50 different CRMs for less than $100 a month and we can have all this stuff available to us and all this training and all these things because we’re such a big industry, but then the small mom and pop doesn’t have a lot of that stuff. That’s been real rewarding for me. And I love getting – I mean, being back into live speaking engagements.
I mean, I love Zoom stuff. It’s fine. Learning in your underwear, I call it, but getting out there like September.
I had three conventions in September. It was great. I was in Illinois and Wisconsin and Michigan and I love being up there when it’s warm.
It’s good. I don’t want to go in the winter, but getting out there live again on the road, it’s so good. When somebody tells you, it’s like, hey, they send you a message or they wait for you afterwards and they tell you, you really said this thing and it’s going to change the way I think about stuff.
And when you hear about something that makes a difference, that’s really super rewarding for me. And it’s just being able to make an impact in that way. And I like it.
I like working with the big guys, but I like working with the little guys. It’s almost more rewarding when you help somebody that’s a little kick into the next stage.
[Mattias]
I love that. I remember reading about positive psychology and one of the ways to get a really good rush of positive feeling, positive emotion would be to go to that person that was fundamental to you, that changed your life and just maybe write them a letter and read it to them in person if you can. And I would imagine that would also then change that person’s day, that person’s month, that person’s year, because that’s just such a thing that people don’t do very often.
So I’m glad that you get to hear that back and I can see why that would be so rewarding for you to help people and really change their lives.
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah. I mean, that’s a cool thing. And it’s so funny too when somebody reaches out to you like on social media, I don’t know if this happens to you guys, then you’re chatting with them, you’re talking back to them and they’re like, oh, this is really you.
And I’m like, yeah. I’m just Chris from the block. I see your videos and I saw you from stage and then I’m like, oh no, that’s really me.
I’m just really reading my stuff and getting back to my stuff. So I’m not Tony Robbins, but that’s what happens. It’s kind of a cool thing.
I mean, look, in a world of AI chatbots, it’s nice to talk to humans sometimes, right?
[Erica]
Yes, it is. Yes, it is.
[Mattias]
Totally. Chris, I do have to ask, my question that I always ask, is there a book that you found fundamental to you in development or one that you’re really enjoying right now, one that you think people should read?
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah. I mean, there’s so many. I mean, I would say like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, kind of like the Bible of life and business.
And then there were ones like The Go Giver and Strengths Finder and things like that all through the years, The Dream Manager. But right now, I was reading a book called The Gap in the Game and I think it’s probably a lesser known one. And I think it’s really pertinent to kind of where we’re at now, The Gap in the Game.
It’s kind of focusing because we come from a culture where we focus on the lack and the goals we didn’t hit and the things we didn’t do and don’t have rather than what we have accomplished. And it’s all about mindset around focusing on that gain instead of the gap and the lack that we have in our life. And I think it’s kind of almost as a society of this explosion with social media and everybody in your face on like, look, we have all these influencers that are making millions of dollars from being on vacation all the time.
And like, why aren’t we doing that? So instead of appreciating what you do have. So I think I would say The Gap in the Game right now is a big one.
And my first book will be out soon is Spontaneous AF. There’s some bad words in there, but I did a book writing challenge in November and started writing a book. And I had all this data I’ve been collecting for the past eight years and I always laugh and say, man, it only took me eight years to write a book on spontaneity.
So yeah, I mean, I got 106 pages or something now just talking to publishers and figuring out what I want to do there. But that’s kind of exciting because it just ended up being like a non-business thing. It’s almost like it’s going to be applicable for everybody.
We’re going to do a blog and a podcast and a clothing line and all kinds of fun stuff. So that’d be fun if you guys can be part of it. It’s how spontaneity kind of makes your life rich and fulfilled just by being spontaneous and kind of planning for it and leaving space for the spontaneous to recur and not being impulsive.
I can be both of those things. But that’s really what’s given me kind of a fruitful life and being able to say yes in the moment to the correct things.
[Erica]
I love it. That’s really fun. I’ll have to look for that.
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah, I’ll get you guys one when it comes. It’ll be a good time. You know what, come see me in Virginia when I’m up there.
Let me see where I’m going to be. I can figure out where it’s going to be and then we’ll know where it is.
[Mattias]
Yeah, maybe we’re close by.
[Chris Abazis]
It’s a big state. This is going to be for the Realtor. It’s going to be for the Realtor organization there for leadership.
[Mattias]
Oh, okay. For the state. Yeah, I think so.
March 6th. Here it is. That’s something that I’ve considered doing, going through that leadership track.
That’s a cool thing.
[Chris Abazis]
Did you do anything? Do you get involved with the Realtor organization there at all?
[Mattias]
Yeah, so I was supposed to be done this year. I was the immediate past president last year and then we had somebody quit the industry that was going to be president. So instead of rushing somebody up the leadership track, I stayed on and kind of did it another year.
But yeah, that’s going to do an end, which would allow me to do that leadership course.
[Chris Abazis]
It’s a thankless job, isn’t it? So Charlottesville, this is going to be Boris Head Resort in Charlottesville, Virginia. That’s a cool place.
[Erica]
That’s a great resort. That’s about 45 minutes.
[Chris Abazis]
I’ve never been there. I’m going to be in St. Pete in the middle of a reggae festival. I’m going to hop on a plane to Virginia and fly back to the reggae festival.
It’s basically the same vibe. Yeah, man. It’s basically the same vibe.
I’ll have some pictures for people. People always think I’m kidding when I say these things and I’ll tell people things and they’re like, oh my God, you really? I’m like, I wasn’t kidding.
I wasn’t kidding. That’s what happened. But it’ll be a good time.
Is that by you guys, Charlottesville? Yeah.
[Erica]
Yeah, it’s like the next big city beside. It’s about a 45 minute drive. Oh, cool.
[Mattias]
Yeah, we go to that resort for Christmas where we did last year or the year before?
[Erica]
Yeah, we did it last year. We should do it again. They put up lots of fun lights.
[Chris Abazis]
Lots of beautiful lights and kind of a walking trail you can go through. Yeah, I know Richmond was beautiful. When I went there, I did a training for a group, Liz Moore and Associates.
They had a very nice team up there, a couple offices. They did this beautiful country club, man. It was really nice.
They had lunch for everybody. It’s just something they do for their agents. I’m like, this is a cool thing.
They had a very good culture. I like real estate companies that have really good culture where the people are just nice people and everyone likes each other and everyone contributes and helps each other. That’s across the board.
It doesn’t matter which company you’re at. It matters the people that are at that company. You can have that wherever you are.
[Mattias]
I 100% agree. Yeah. Where would be a good place to reach out to you?
Do you have a website? Do you have an Instagram? Where are you accessible?
[Chris Abazis]
So I have my chrisabazis.com, which is like my link tree, so to speak. I don’t use link tree. In my CRM, I just built this page.
It’s got my Instagram, my Facebook, my LinkedIn, my YouTube, my TikTok, what else? Websites. I’m a partner in a video production company that’s there, too.
I mean, that would be the place if anybody wants to reach out. Yeah, we’ll put it in the show notes. Yeah.
It’s funny because sometimes maybe I’ll be at that place in Virginia and somebody will say oh, I saw you with Mattias and Erica. And I’ll be like, oh, really? That’s cool.
So that’s fun that’s happened. But I’m doing the interviewing a lot, so it’s really fun to be on this side of it. It’s hard for me not to get into and want to ask you guys questions, so I’m going to do it.
I do a podcast one time, but I really appreciate what you guys are doing. You get invited to a lot of these things, and sometimes they’re not always… When I go through my questions, sometimes it’s always this is not going to be the right thing for me.
So you guys are doing good things, and I appreciate what you’re doing. Thanks so much, Chris.
[Erica]
Yeah. Thank you for coming and talking with us.
[Chris Abazis]
Yeah, really. My pleasure.
[Mattias]
It was a great conversation.
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