The Calculated Journey That Transforms Everything with Luciano D’Iorio

Transcript

[Mattias]
Welcome back to the REI Agent. We are here with Luciano D’Iorio. Thank you so much for joining us.

Luchi, right? Luchi, you go by Luchi.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
People call me Luch. Yeah, some people call me Luch. Thanks.

Thanks, Mattias. Thanks for having me.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, I’m excited to talk to you. You are coming out of, if anybody’s watching this, it’s not New York City, it’s Montreal.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
That’s right. Sometimes, Montreal is used as a set for movies, for New York-based movies, and it happens in Montreal.

[Mattias]
I didn’t know that, but that was my first thought when I saw you’ve got this cool brick building in the background, and yeah, it’s a cool backdrop. But just real quick, I did drive through or close to Montreal last year for The Eclipse. I actually ended up over in a small little town called, oh my goodness, I’m blanking on the name now, but we had to go a little bit fast.

It was in the French-speaking quarters as well, but we caught the Magog. Are you familiar with Magog?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Magog, yeah. Yeah, Magog. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. So not too far from Montreal.

[Mattias]
No.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
It was a great time. Are you an Eclipse chaser?

[Mattias]
So I went about, the one before it that came close to us, I went with just some friends, had a great time. It was really just a surreal moment, and I was like, you know what? Next time one comes close by, I want to try to make sure my kids see it.

And so we actually went to Rochester, New York, and we were ready. We had a cool little Airbnb on the water, about ready to watch it, and it was forecasted to be completely cloud-covered. So we looked for the next closest place that we could go that would, yeah, not have the cloud coverage, and also where we went had a nice park, so that was another perk.

And so we just drove, got up at like 2 a.m., drove straight there. It’s like eight hours. We hung out and watched it.

It was amazing. It was a lot of fun, and then we drove straight back. And so we got like 24 hours of just like, you know, driving non-stop and being able to enjoy Canada a little bit.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Good for you. Well, it was great. I actually attended an Eclipse party, an Eclipse party, and then the Eclipse itself was on the main campus of McGill University, which is my alma mater, and where I spent a lot of time as a volunteer.

So it was just great to be on the on the campus in downtown Montreal, and you just see this, you know, cover of the Eclipse. And one of my friends, well, clients who’s become a friend, is an Eclipse chaser and like super excited about chasing Eclipse and basically got a bunch of glasses made for, I don’t know, 100,000 school kids or something like that, like really, really cool stuff.

[Mattias]
Yeah, I mean, especially this coming through something like your own area, your own home, backyard.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Exactly.

[Mattias]
You want to make sure that people are able to experience it. And we have dreams of living in Spain in the future, and there is one coming through next year. So we’ve thought about scoping out Spain and chasing the next Eclipse, because why not?

If you’ve experienced it, it is a magical thing. We probably wouldn’t just go to a place just because of an Eclipse like Australia or whatever, but it would be a nice, you know, side benefit if you’re there and want to explore the area anyway.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Absolutely. Maybe we should do some graphs on like, you know, real estate values and Eclipses, if there’s a correlation or if this is a good segue into real estate.

[Mattias]
But yeah, so you are a real estate broker out of Montreal. Tell us about how you got into real estate.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
So very early on, just right out of university, as I was completing my bachelor’s degree, I came across a company that was doing, you know, full service brokerage firm that had just started up. They had broken away from a larger international brokerage firm. And there was four people, four partners that said, you know, we want to start our own boutique firm, full service in Montreal.

And they started in May of 1998. They interviewed me in October of 1998. And January 4th or January 5th was my first day, 1999.

So I always joke and say I was the fifth wheel in the gang. But it was nice because it was a small organization. It was a small boutique firm.

And really, I learned so much from those guys. I was 23 years old, all seasoned partners, all of whom had a different, you know, different skills and different skill sets. And I learned from each and every one of them.

And I’m still grateful to them today, 26 years later. So started off with this group of four partners. Then 18 years later, I was asked to run a multinational brokerage firm, full service firm.

And I did that for four years. And right in the middle of the pandemic, 2021, I started my own brokerage firm here in Montreal that is also connected and affiliated with a national brand, which I’m a partner of, and I’m building across Canada. So not only am I owning the agency here in Montreal and basically covers all of Quebec, but I also am an owner and partner in the business across Canada.

So it’s, yeah, it is, it’s, you know what, it’s exciting because it’s always something that I wanted to do. And when I was at that smaller firm, I guess, at the beginning of my career, that was always my dream. And for some reason, we just, at one point, we just weren’t able to bring it nationally.

And so now I’m part of something that’s national from Vancouver, all the way to Montreal and with partners and affiliations, really across North America in the US and also across the globe. We’ve got contacts in many countries around the world. If our clients need, you know, if our clients need help in London, I know who to call.

If our clients need help in Milan, I know who to call. And I think that’s exciting for me.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that’s really cool. In your journey, before you got into the management stuff or ownership or broker, etc, when you were more direct to service to clients buying and selling, did you go through any, like growth as far as did you get a team ever at one point? Or did you did you have admin, that kind of stuff before you took on kind of the broker role, or management role?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah, you know, interesting. As I look, as I look at my career, I would say that I never really had a team, but rather the team was the whole office. So in my first roles, you know, those early years, those, I’ll call it the 18 years.

Everybody in the shop was kind of part of my team. So what I would do is, as an example, let’s say a broker was more experienced in retail, and I had a retail client, and I would never try to do something alone, I would always, you know, piggyback and encourage someone else in the office. So you’d look at my trade record sheets at the end of the day, or at the end of the year, and you’d see that I’ve actually collaborated with many brokers within my brokerage shop.

So I never thought of like building a team, because I saw the whole office as the team.

[Mattias]
Oh, that’s cool.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah.

[Mattias]
Yeah, that’s cool. And did you just kind of naturally feel like managing that brokerage was the next step for you? Were you ready to move outside of, and how active were you with like your day-to-day clients at that time?

Did you kind of move fully into just kind of managing or?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah, so there was one year where I was trying to be more of a manager than a broker, and I realized two things. I’m a broker. At the end of the day, I’m a broker at the heart of hearts.

And secondly is that, you know, we were too small to have somebody like me full-time, right? And it’s just not enough money. And in fact, that year there was in 2008, and I also had some issues at the personal level, but I felt I had spent way too much time trying to manage and forgetting about my clients, and I paid for it because I had to dip into my savings, and that wasn’t fun.

So, you know, in the U.S., I’m forgetting what the equivalent is, but in Canada, we call them RRSPs. So, it’s your retirement savings plan. So, it’s your K, is it K?

[Mattias]
Yeah, I mean, it was different. A lot of real estate agents don’t really have much retirement that they save for. So, like there could be 401k.

401k. Thank you.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Thank you. I was looking at it. So, you know, I had to start dipping into my RRSPs, my 401k, to just keep the lights on, keep the lights on at home, keep the lights on.

And so, so, you know, and that was, but I don’t blame it on my management style. I don’t blame it on my partners. I just blame it on, first of all, the economy wasn’t that great.

2008, I think we had the death of pets.com and all that other stuff, right, that was going on, or the financial crisis, I think actually was in 2008. But I think that, you know, there’s a fine balance when you’re managing a shop, we were becoming the biggest of the small agencies. And that’s not a great place to be.

When you’re the biggest of the small and the smallest of the big, there’s a fine line there where you have to start investing into the company, and you have to start investing in people that are going to run the place on a full time basis. So, that’s been my experience. But I, you know, I love it.

I enjoy it. I think that I naturally gravitate to just wanting to make things better or be more efficient. So, I naturally gravitate towards these situations.

Sometimes I wonder why, but yeah.

[Mattias]
Okay, that’s cool. And we talked a little bit off air about the kind of the importance of kind of maintaining yourself and you’re trying to keep that holistic approach to life with real estate. So, tell us a little bit about what you have found to be important for you as you have gone through these different seasons.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah, absolutely. I think that there’s no, you know, look, there’s no magic formula. There’s no, also, it’s not a straight line, right?

I think it’s a journey. And so, I could tell you, and I’m happy to share this with your listeners is, you know, at one point in 2019, I had reached 300 pounds. And I was trying to figure out, like, how, why did I, you know, what happened?

How come that happened? And I was then guided by, you know, a great coach, a great nutritionist, coach nutritionist friend, who basically got me on the right track. And I lost 100 pounds that year.

[Mattias]
Wow.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
So, I went from 300 pounds to 200 pounds. And I felt great. And it just changed my whole life.

Pandemic hit, and I started taking on some weight again. And, and now today, I guess we’re at 2025. I’ve taken on, you know, I’m not at 300.

And I’m not at 200. But I’m working on, on, on getting myself back towards a healthier lifestyle. Because I think, you know, life happens.

And there’s some people that are emotional leaders, there’s some people that are, you know, they get into all kinds of other things. For me, it was about, you know, eating, and not eating healthy. So, I’m readjusting myself.

And I’m also giving myself goals. As an example, I’m, I’m looking at doing a half marathon in March of next year. And so that’s, to me, that’s like, when I when I’m reaching for that extra cookie, or I’m reaching, I’m reaching for something that I know is not good for me.

I think that’s, that’s what helps me going. And I know the struggle that brokers have, as you know, as real estate agents, we go through highs and lows emotionally. And anybody who doesn’t go through that, I mean, I don’t know if they’re telling us the truth or not.

Because we it’s just because we like the highs, right? We like the I think most brokers like the chase, they like the, the thrill, the thrill of the chase, or the thrill of like completing a deal. And sometimes you’re working on transactions where they don’t go so well, or they explode or implode on you.

And people take it out in different ways. And I think that we need to recognize that as as brokers. And also, if you’re a manager of an agency, I think it’s so important that you do offer programs to help your brokers health wise, you know, if it’s if it’s giving them a gym membership, if it’s, if it’s having a gym accessible in the building where your office is, or even in your own offices, allowing for, you know, healthy breaks.

And because I think that that old school mentality of like, you’ve got to work 70 hours a week and, you know, drive, drive, drive. I think that it’s, it makes for unhealthy environments.

[Mattias]
Yeah, I totally agree. And it’s it’s, you know, at the end of the day, what’s the point? Yeah.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
You know, I always look at the I always I always laugh and I try to remind myself every day. And I know that I’m not, you know, I’m not perfect on this. But when you get on a plane, they tell you put the mask on yourself first before trying to help others.

And I think we’re in a business where we’re trying to find solutions for people. We’re always trying to solve other people’s problems. And so I think it’s natural for us to like, not necessarily worry about our own problems, but worry about everybody else’s problems.

But it’s hard if you’re not if you don’t put the mask on yourself first. And like, I’m really making an effort right now. I’m working out like five days a week, I’m eating healthier, and I feel better.

And I feel better, which allows me to help my clients better. I’m not feeling sluggish.

[Mattias]
I’m not not feeling tired, you know, and yeah, you know, so 100% you know, there’s there’s a supplement I take every once in a while that is meant for stress relief. And I you know, I don’t take it very often. But like, you know, it’s got stuff in it, like probably ashwagandha and valerian root and all this stuff.

And it’s it’s a the reason I bring it up is because there’s times where I feel like I and I know I’m really stressed out. And when I take it, I realize how much more I can focus when I when I relieve that stress a little bit. And I think I think exercise and you know, having a clean diet and stuff is definitely very, very helpful to to having that battle of stress like to combat that.

And oftentimes, we want to do things that really just make it worse to if we’re feeling stressed out, we want to, you know, just grab something easy to eat, feel us make us feel sluggish, grab a, you know, drink something when you get home, drink, drink some alcohol, whatever, which is probably a day day worse,

[Luciano D’Iorio]
you know, and our society like is built around like, you know, our fatty foods, sugary foods, like, if you’re having a birthday, we celebrate with a birthday cake, you don’t celebrate with birthday kale, nobody has birthday kale, right?

You have a birthday cake, which is sugar, which is, you know, like all the good tasting stuff in the world, but everything in moderation, right. And so I think that, you know, recognizing that and knowing because it does, it does make you sluggish. And I have, I’ll admit this to you that and maybe I hopefully my mom is not gonna listen to the show.

But you know, as a as a as a Canadian of Italian heritage, I’m less on the pastas these days. And so don’t tell her. Yeah, no, no, we won’t say it.

But so you know, just because for me, I just I have to I have to scale down. So I have to share. I have to let let go of that for you.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, I, you know, I think it’s it is interesting. I think I like to look at it a little bit like we need to kind of bring ourselves back to, you know, maybe where we evolved from, if you will, like, so where, you know, like, go back to like, what was life like when you were a caveman? Or when we were cavemen?

Like, and and do we, you know, it was sugar so abundant at the time? Was it easy to get all these carbs? Was it?

You know, did we easily get these calories, like by sitting down and driving through a drive through? Or did we have to like run really hard? Did we survive through hot extremes and cold extremes?

And I think all those things are important to kind of we have to self impose them onto ourselves, because we are in a society that is basically tried to solve all the all the pain, all the all the suffering, all that stuff is supposed to make it everything easy. And that’s like the dream is that we just want everything to be like, nice and easy. But in reality, we’re a lot happier able to think more when we have exerted ourselves physically, when we have eaten what our body actually needs, not what it craves.

And it Yeah, it makes a big difference.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Exactly. And it goes in and it ties into mental health, it ties into some of the other stuff that as brokers, honestly, I mean, we are very unique. I think I think I can say that with certainty that brokers, we’re, we’re a breathe apart.

You know, we go through the ups and downs, we’re working on basically, we’re transactional. So if we don’t make a transaction, you know, we eat what we kill, as they say, you know, you’re hunting gathering every single day, and you’re looking for a job every single day as a broker. And so the stress of that, the bills still come in this, the bills still come in and no life’s responsibilities still come in.

And of course, you know, everybody wants a shiny car, or the or the bigger home or the more stuff in their home. And so, you know, there’s the pressures around us. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, when you realize, especially when you have people in your family that, you know, are, are not so lucky, and they’re not they’re having a hard time with their health, you realize like, at the end of the day, it really is just health.

If you’re not healthy, what’s the point? So I’ll also I’ll do a 30,000 square foot lease for office space, and you know, make x amount of dollars. I’m not healthy.

So what? Yeah, I won’t even be able to go pick up the check.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yep. If if you’re, you know, on your deathbed, you know, for something unforeseen, like what really matters? Yeah.

Is it caring about that? Or are you gonna be wishing you spent more time with your family?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
You know, so it’s Yeah, and I don’t want to be I don’t want to be morbid about I mean, look, I think we’re in a beautiful business, a beautiful industry where it allows us to be flexible with our schedules. I was speaking to you this afternoon. I mean, yeah, but he’s looking at my clock, nobody know, I don’t have to punch in anywhere.

And I think it’s beautiful. And I think that being able to have a flexible schedule, you know, one of the things I one of the reasons why I got into this business is I wanted to give back to the community. And I wanted to be involved in the community.

And the one of the few industries that allows you to do that is this one, because you set your schedule. So if, if the local, you know, if the local food bank needs my help in the middle of the day, because they’re there, they’ve got a, you know, baskets, food baskets to prepare at two o’clock in the afternoon, I can I can do that I can, I can skip away and do that. And then I know that, you know, my business or my, my work is still going to be there.

And it’s not like I’m punching a clock or anything. And just, and I think it’s important to I think that’s part of, yeah, you know, a holistic life is also just knowing how privileged we are as brokers, like, I’m a commercial and corporate real estate broker. So you know, we’re doing like some large transactions.

And those transactions, I mean, we’re very, I’m grateful for that. So it we also have to give back and using our time and our knowledge and our resources. And also, quite frankly, our connections and just connecting those dots and helping, helping our local community.

So it’s, it’s all goes hand in hand, I think.

[Mattias]
Yeah, I agree. It’s awesome. And to your point, I think we are unique, and we are cut from a different cloth.

And that environment of you’re always hunting the next deal, whatever, is kind of addicting as well. And so that’s, that’s where like, yes, I set my own schedule, I can choose what 18 hours a day I want to work comes into play. But to your point, like we have the ability.

And that’s why I think this, this show, I like to talk about it a lot is just being intentional, and really figuring out what you want out of life, figuring out not letting life happen to you, not just being addicted to the next deal. And, you know, trying to find that, that I don’t know about if balance is the right word, but like just trying to be intentional about, you know, giving back to your community, like you said, that’s important to you, that’s really good to do, and make time for and family, health, all that stuff.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I just wanted to think, I just want to mention that, you know, sometimes I have young brokers come to me and say, you know, I’d like I see that I see your CV, and you’ve been involved in so many different things, and on so many different boards and not for profits, like I want to get involved in not for profits. So I look at them, I say, Well, what are you passionate about?

Like, I don’t know, like, okay, so if you’re going to get involved with a not for profit, just because you want something to pad your CV, then you’re taking this all wrong, your, your approach is not the right approach, your approach should be, I care about dogs, or I care about, you know, children’s, like some some sort of a cause, whatever that cause is. And it doesn’t have to be like the most altruistic cause you can think of. But it just what is your cause?

What do you want to do as in that time that you have to give to the community, then then do it, but you have to be passionate about it, because you’ll be sniffed out right away, man. We’ve had, I’ve been on boards where people have come and gone, and you’re looking at me like, yeah, okay, this person just needs to pad their CV. And if you want to do that, fine, I’ll write you a letter saying that you’ve been on our board, like, please, but don’t, don’t disturb us.

We actually have work to do.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Do you all have Habitat for Humanity?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
We do. We do. It’s a great, it’s a great organization.

Yeah.

[Mattias]
I think that’s a really cool one for for agents to help out with because you really don’t need any experience. You can go there and have never swung a hammer before, and they’ll find something for you to do. And I think it’s a cool rewarding.

Oftentimes, you’re working alongside, you know, something that the person that’s going to be owning the house, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re volunteering as well. And it’s, you know, obviously, it’s housing related. So if you do want to kind of, you know, improve your appearance or whatever, you can also then share some stuff on social media about how you’re giving back to the community with housing related stuff.

Yeah, but it’s a great organization.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
But you have to, but you have to, you know, to your point that you have to like what you’re doing, right? Because yeah, that cold morning where you’re, you’re asked to go on a job site and you don’t feel like going and it’s raining and it’s cold and like, you know, the windows are not up yet on the site and you’re wearing construction boots and you’ve never worn construction boots in your life. And if you’re not passionate about what you’re about to be doing, you know, you’re in the wrong place.

[Mattias]
Definitely. Definitely. And it’s cool.

You can, you know, if you do get into that, to see the project go from, you know, where it started to, to, you know, somebody actually moving into it. And so like, if you are going to explore that, it’s probably good to try to see it through a little bit from start to finish. That’s probably where you get the most reward for your efforts to really see somebody and hear the stories about people that, you know, their lives have completely changed because they are now able to own a home.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Absolutely. Or going to a food kit, a food bank, like a food kitchen, soup kitchen, where you’re serving people and no one is asked any questions. So these, these, in my particular case, it was, it was all men lined up for, you know, for, for an hour to come into the soup kitchen and only to realize that some of the men were like, you know, well-dressed and you kind of look, look around and you’re like, well, you know, you know, you’re kind of, you have your judgment hat on and you’re like, well, how come this guy’s better dressed than I am? Or why is he in the line?

And then, you know, you get the guys from the organization telling you because he’s part of the working, he’s part of the working poor. This guy’s just trying to get out of this situation, but he needs, he needs a break and he needs to, he needs a soup kitchen tonight because he doesn’t have any money for food. And, and no, and just seeing that, right?

Like I said, we, we are so blessed in what we’re doing for a living.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, it’s very true. It’s very true. I’m curious if you, when you’re dealing with newer agents and stuff, if, how do you give any specific advice to them about weathering some of the storms?

Like, I think, you know, there’s a lot of stress and, and big pro or some of the problems that we see them go through seem like small problems now. Right. But like, you know, you know what it’s like, you know, like every time there’s a new thing that comes up, it’s like, you know, do you, do you have any like good advice for people that are going through something like that where they, you know, have a big problem and it seems like, yeah, just the world’s falling apart.

Their first deal falls through or something like that.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
I think that, I think that younger brokers should absolutely have mentors and, and, you know, and this whole thing of working remotely, it concerns me because it’s very difficult to reach out to someone in a remote situation. I think that when you’re in an office and there’s people that you can just go and pick their brain and say, Hey, man, I just got off the phone. I lost this deal.

Can you help me? Can you, can you, can you guide me through it? And it’s not necessarily natural for people to, you know, pick up the phone after a bad call and, and, and reach out to their mentor if they’re not in the office.

So I think that it’s important that offices have a mix of people that can interact. And the water cooler talk, I guess is what we’ll call it. It’s just being there to guide, to guide these younger brokers, because we’ve all been through it.

I still go through it. I had last week, I had something implode on me and you got to, you know, kind of dust yourself off and like, okay, like next, like, let’s go. So teaching, then you, sometimes you do have to teach that, that grit, you know, we call it the grit that, that you have to tell people to keep going because in a world of like, everything is instant gratification and everything is like, it looks so, so pizzazzy, right?

You know, like everything is like, you know, yeah, exactly. You know, like, so everything looks like it’s, it’s all easy and simple, but you know, you speak to those people and they’ll tell you like, it’s not, it’s not simple and it’s not easy. And so I think just being there for brokers and giving them the advice of like, look, you’re going to call 10 people.

You’re going to have one person that maybe wants to speak to you. So then you call a hundred people and that’s 10 people of those 10 people that speak to you. Maybe one is going to turn into a transaction, which you got to keep going.

You got to keep going and just being present. You know, I laugh sometimes because it’s like, yeah, we give marks for participation. We give marks for just showing up.

Right. And really like, I don’t want to say it’s 50%, but a lot of it is just showing up and being in the office with your colleagues and sharing stories and war stories and battles and showing battle wounds. Like here, look at, look at my, look at my wound today.

Like, and I think it’s important that we talk about it. And look, it goes into the mental health thing too, because if you’re alone at home and you’re dealing with, with like a rejection of a transaction or something just fell apart, it’s a lonely road.

[Mattias]
Absolutely. And, and even, you know, even if you’re married, whatever, have a significant other and they’re not in the business, they don’t usually really understand how it, what’s actually happening, what you’re going through. So it is really good to have that, that camaraderie.

And I think it’s, I think it’s super valuable to also, when, when a new person is selecting a brokerage to, to kind of look for a culture as well. That should be a big part of what they’re looking for. Because yeah, it could be, it could be lonely.

It could be that your broker is virtual and, and, you know, really there’s they’re, they’re based out of the city two hours away and you’re, you know, you don’t really have an office to go to. And that’s a hard place to start your business.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Well, then find, you know, then I’d say my advice to those people, Mattias is find yourself some mentors in the business world, not necessarily brokers, because sometimes it’s just you’re, you’re, if you’re in a small community, you may be just the only broker or so on. But just surround yourself with, with entrepreneurs, because really that’s where we are. And, and, and those entrepreneurs, I mean, they’ll tell you all, how many stories do we hear?

They started in their garage or, you know, all of those stories, I think it’s just reading those stories, knowing those people. I’ve had some great mentors in my career and I’m so grateful for them. Some of them, unfortunately have passed away, but you know, we, now I’m becoming that the mentor, right.

And, and, and, and I’m happy to do it, but I still have mentors today.

[Mattias]
Yeah. It’s so important. I think surrounding yourself intentionally with people.

So people that are ahead of you, a place you want to be a mentor, colleagues, and then, you know, people that you can help. I think it’s, it’s good to have a good mix and, and to also just weed out the people that are just negative and draw you down, bring you down. I think it’s good to have.

The Maggie Nellies. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

I’m curious if you have a golden nugget for our listeners. I’ve got, I’ve got three. I don’t know.

You want one? No, let’s go. Three is great.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Solve problems, be of service. So not just to get the deal and, and look for opportunities in less obvious places. I’d say those are, those are the, those are the nuggets that I’ve always tried to live by in, in my 26 years in this business.

We’re problem solvers, right? People come to us with, might not be such a big problem for, for most, but it’s a problem for the person that’s coming to you. And so it’s a matter of solving it and solving it in a way that you’re of service to people.

Cause if you’re, if you’re not of service, then, you know, you’re, you’re just like everybody else, right? You gotta, you gotta be of service and it’s gotta be, and I know it’s cliche, right? And it’s, I’m always careful, but there’s one book that I really enjoyed reading and I’m an avid reader.

And so I’ve got plenty of books that I like, but this one book is the gold, the new gold standard. And it’s the, and it’s basically the story of the Ritz Carlton and the, and the service level that they give to their guests. And, and notice I called them guests and not clients because that’s how they feel when somebody comes into a Ritz Carlton hotel, they’re a guest, they’re not a client.

And I think that living with that idea that, you know, these people that are coming to you, these companies that are coming to you, looking for you to solve their problem, you have to be of service to them. And the rest follows, the rest follows.

[Mattias]
I love it. You don’t want to just have commissioned breath, right?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
You know what? You’ve spotted a mile away. Like think about the times when you’re in a situation where you’re a purchaser of a service or a product and you feel that, yeah, this person is just selling me.

I don’t trust this person. I don’t, I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t think they’re telling me the truth.

The list goes on. Right. And I think it’s just most times, you know, we always say we’ve got two ears and one mouth.

In this position, we have to use our ears to understand what the client wants, what they’re looking for and what their problem is so that we can solve it. Hard to give a prescription if you don’t even know what the problem is.

[Mattias]
Right. Now, well said. So is that the book then that you would recommend to read or do you have another one?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah, I have plenty. So I would say yes. I would say if you’re looking for some nuggets on, you know, customer service and how it’s done well and people that do it well, I would say that it’s the new gold standard.

It’s by Joseph Michelli and it’s about the Ritz-Carlton hotel experience. And I don’t own shares just as a full transparency. I don’t own shares in the Ritz-Carlton.

But I do enjoy, you know, if ever I’m in a situation where I can splurge for their experience, you can see the difference. But a hotel is a hotel, right? It’s still a bed, right?

You can go to the Best Western or you can go to the Ritz-Carlton. So Ritz-Carlton had to figure out how do we keep people loyal and how do we keep people coming back, right? And wanting to spend X amount of dollars with us versus going to the Best Western.

You’ll still get a good night’s sleep at the Best Western, I’m pretty sure.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, totally. You’re right. And it’s kind of like one of the archetypes for businesses is like kind of, is it the magician?

I think it’s like the Disney world kind of, it’s all about the experience. It’s all about. And I think that’s definitely something that people can find ways of doing in this business where you can make big deals, big celebrations, throw a party for your clients after they close and invite all their friends.

I mean, there’s all sorts of ways you can really enhance this experience and make it really feel like, yeah, this magical process. And so that’s, yeah, I love it. I haven’t read that one.

I’ll have to check it out.

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Yeah. And you know what, to the point of Disney too, that I’ve read many books on the Disney experience too. It’s same spirit, right?

But there’s so many good books out there and there’s so many good examples in North American business of people that are just doing it right and that put the clients, they really do put the clients first and they’re not just saying it. I think of my own Disney experience when I went there with my family. I mean, it truly is, your wallet just opens for some reason, this wallet that’s usually closed and you have to convince me to open it at Disney world.

It just magically, and you feel good about it. It’s like, here, take my money, please. But it’s experiences to your point.

It’s just, it’s offering experiences. And I think we’re in the service business and if we can’t offer a good experience to our clients, then we’re going to see it in our bottom line. But if when we offer a great experience, and you know what I mean by that, I just want to say this, it’s just going the extra mile, clients flying into the city, go pick them up at the airport.

Don’t make them get into a cab or don’t get it or don’t even, I mean, maybe if you can send them a limo service, fine. But if you can be there, no, but get, whisk them into the city and make sure that they’re taken care of and you show them all the right places and you take them out to give people experiences. That’s what they remember.

They don’t remember, it’s not the price at the end of the day.

[Mattias]
Yeah, I love it. That’s great. If anybody’s interested in following you on social media, or do you have any websites that you want to give out?

[Luciano D’Iorio]
Sure, sure. So I’m very active on social media, especially on Instagram and LinkedIn. On Instagram, I’m @LuchDlorio.

So that’s L-U-C-H-D-I-O-R-I-O. That’s just like a play on my first name, which is Luciano, but it’s Luch Dlorio. And I also, I interview local entrepreneurs, because I want to highlight them.

I also highlight different places in my city in Montreal that I love. And then I’m very active on LinkedIn as well. And I share some of those stories of just local entrepreneurs that are doing amazing things.

We know their brands, like in Montreal, a lot of people know the brands, they just don’t know the people behind it. And I’m trying to highlight those people.

[Mattias]
I love it. Luch, thanks so much for joining us today. It’s been a really fun conversation.

Thank you.

[Erica]
Thanks for listening to the REI Agent.

[Mattias]
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week.

[Erica]
Visit reiagent.com for more content.

[Mattias]
Until next time, keep building the life you want.

[Erica]
All content in this show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.