Al Capone, Integrity, and Real Estate

Our Guest: Billy Nunez

Join us on Fathom Live this Wednesday as we wrap up the year with some inspiration and a positive outlook with Fathom Director of Culture, Billy Nunez.

Wednesday, December 15th @ 1:30 PM Central Time.

Transcript:

0:00:00.8 Jeff: Hey hey, everybody, we are live for a Christmas special edition of Fathom Live… And we’re laughing, because we already thought we were live for like five minutes… And we were…

0:00:12.5 Billy Nunez: And it was a great show!

0:00:15.8 Jeff: Oh, it was incredible. I mean, I think of all the shows that we’ve ever done on Fathom Live, the last five minutes have to be…

[laughter]

0:00:22.7 Jeff: Top three, possibly? And you missed it.

0:00:25.4 BN: Yeah, it’s over. [laughter]

0:00:28.7 Jeff: So, here we are, are we live? Could somebody just comment and say something? I mean, let us know that you are watching, because that would be helpful to our understanding here. It’s a Christmas, it’s a special edition, we didn’t know it was gonna be this special, where we were gonna like, you know, stream to nowhere for five minutes. But anyways, here we are. I have with me, Billy Nunez, our very own director of culture, you can talk a little bit about what that is and maybe tell us everything else that you do, Billy, so thanks for having… Thanks for coming on the show today.

0:01:05.2 BN: Oh my goodness, Jeff. That was fun. Yeah, Billy Nunez lived here in Florida…

0:01:10.9 Jeff: Was it? Was it fun? I don’t know, I feel a lot of anxiety and stress over that.

0:01:11.0 Jeff: [chuckle] Was it fun?

0:01:14.6 Jeff: Sorry, go ahead. I interrupted.

0:01:16.1 BN: No, it’s alright, man. I’m Billy Nunez, I’m Fathom’s director of culture. I’m also Fathom’s, Florida state broker. Started with Fathom about eight years ago, I was the Austin district director, and then helped with Houston, helped with [0:01:31.4] ____ and then history of Florida until Mark and I talked, and the opportunity arose for me to move back to Florida and open the state, so that’s what I’ve done. And we’ve been in Florida about seven years, or six and a half, seven years at Fathom. So, excited to be with Jeff.

0:01:49.0 Jeff: Awesome, alright, so a lot of hats that you’re wearing. I’m just gonna take five seconds here and make sure that we’re actually streaming this time, because it’s been a little bit dicey here. We are live on YouTube, and we have some folks watching over there. Let me check the Facebook stream here and see what’s happening there. So hang tight, take a moment, grab a cup of hot chocolate and we’ll see if we can get this working over on Facebook.

0:02:27.7 BN: Or if you’re in Florida, iced chocolate.

0:02:30.2 Jeff: That’s right. You know what? It’s like 75 degrees in Texas today, so I had a sweater on, I was gonna be all cozy and then I was burning up from the weather here, so… Yep, we’re not pulling into Facebook for some reason. So, well, we are live on YouTube, so I don’t know if folks can be directed over there or not. So, just hang tight as we… As we get this thing up and running.

[pause]

0:03:53.6 Jeff: Alright, we are still working on some technical stuff. We’ve got a couple more people watching us on YouTube. We’re trying to do stuff over on Facebook so that we can monitor some comments over there, but… ‘Cause we’ve got some great Christmas trivia for you here today. If not, you know what? We’ll just record this and have a good conversation. We’ll just pretend it’s just you and me, just hanging out, and then…

0:04:18.3 BN: [chuckle] That’s great.

0:04:20.6 Jeff: And then… I guess somebody’s gonna get a lot of gift cards over on YouTube if they… If they’re the only person watching. Anyhow…

0:04:29.3 BN: And one of ’em is Angie.

0:04:33.7 Jeff: Yeah, and I think another one’s me, so… But there is another person beyond that watching as well, so we’ll see what happens with this. It’s just been one of those weeks here, so… Anyhow, Billy, again… So Director of Culture, District Director, State broker, real estate agent, worship leader at a church, pastoral work. You’ve done a ton of stuff, so as far as a little bit about you, I understand that you were sort of a big deal back in the day when it comes to the contemporary…

0:05:19.2 BN: Oh, no.

0:05:21.2 Jeff: The contemporary Christian music scene.

0:05:23.7 BN: Well, it wasn’t a big deal. But I did do… Ah, whatever.

0:05:31.0 Jeff: Tell us about this.

0:05:33.4 BN: Well, I was going to… I was working on my master’s degree at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, and at the time, I was a youth pastor at a church there in Arlington, Texas, and there was a guy there that… He owned a Volvo dealership in town, and he wanted… He asked me if I’d wanna make an album, and so we formed a band and made an album, and it was a lot of fun. We recorded it in Dallas at Goodnight Audio. Actually, Stevie Nicks’ drummer was the drummer on the album. We got in the category of Newcomer of the Year for the Dove Awards or something, and we didn’t end up being the final nominations, but we were there and it was pretty cool, but I quit. I just… It was just a lot of traveling and a lot of stuff that I thought, “You know, that’s not… ” I had a brand new baby, Angie and I had only been married a few years, so I thought it’d be best that I, at that time, not go on the road, if you will. And we were okay.

0:06:31.4 Jeff: Can I show the album cover?

0:06:36.0 BN: Why not? It doesn’t even… Whatever.

0:06:38.4 Jeff: There it is, there it is. That looks like pretty serious stuff. You went to a studio and shot this.

0:06:47.4 BN: Yeah, it was big time money at the time. I mean, the guy who came for it… Yeah.

0:06:53.6 Jeff: What’s really the messaging on this picture here, going on?

0:06:58.4 BN: [chuckle] None of those are Angie, and so that was one of the problems.

0:07:02.2 Jeff: Yeah. Yeah, I would say so. Looks like a lot of interesting stuff, heart fire going on there, I saw.

0:07:09.8 BN: Yeah, heart fire, open your eyes. We had a concert, we actually did a concert in Texas Stadium back in the day when it was the… Dallas Cowboys were there. We were one of three bands that did a big event there. So we were one of the bands on stage, and we performed a big thing at Wet ‘n Wild there in Arlington, we were the feature band there too, but… You may not be able to see it, but I have this big huge “Jesus Saves” belt buckle on, for cowboy belt buckle. It’s just gross. It’s like whatever. It’s a little bit over the top.

0:07:40.0 Jeff: And you still do music stuff?

0:07:42.7 BN: Yeah, yeah, my wife and I go down… Angie and I go down to the Florida Keys every weekend, and we’re actually… We used to live down there. I used to run a program down there for a non-profit that rescues people out of human trafficking and domestic violence. So I ran that program in the Keys, and my wife was the director of the homeless shelter in Key West. So we have a lot of relationship, so we run [0:08:05.6] ____ down in Big Pine Key, which is about 40 minutes north of Key West. We lived in Key West for years, and we’re associate pastors, where we do some music, and then we mentor the young adults there on… Every weekend, we drive three hours down and three hours back every weekend.

0:08:23.3 Jeff: Very good. Awesome. So as Director of Culture, just to actually get into today’s topic, finally here… Well, first, let’s delay it one more. By the way, we announced in the previous try at this live show here that Dan Brunner won last week’s show, worth up to 200 bucks either in a yard sign package, GoSocial Agent listing or a photo listing package. So congratulations, Dan. I think you might be a two-time winner, if I remember correctly. So, get to commenting. But also today, we’ve got some Christmas trivia, so as I ask the trivia question, if you can answer it first, and we will be monitoring who’s first as best we can, at least who we deem first from our perspective here, then you will get a $15 Gift Card towards the marketing swag or you can use it anywhere on the marketing store that you want. So first question is, and you can use Google on this one. So this one, you may wanna Google, I’m just gonna warn you. How many presents in total were given in the 12 days of Christmas? How many presents total were given in the 12 days of Christmas? It’s not 12. I’ll just give you that. [chuckle] Okay? So if you guess 12, you’re not right. That was my first instinct, then I was like, “Wait a minute.” So Bill, do you wanna just hurl out a guess?

0:09:43.8 BN: I would venture to say 10. I’m going below 12.

0:09:48.9 Jeff: Well, you got the… First day, you got partridge in a pear tree, and then two turtle doves, then three, so it’s gonna work its way all the way up to 12.

0:09:55.1 BN: Oh, total. Oh, yeah.

0:09:56.7 Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the song. Yeah.

0:10:00.4 BN: Yeah, so let’s go with 17.

0:10:04.0 Jeff: 17. Alright, alright. [chuckle] Alright. So go ahead and throw out your… That doesn’t even seem possible, but I’m gonna say whatever this trivia says it is, so you can throw it out, so we’ll see who has the best guess there. So as director of culture, why is culture so important at the various levels of a company?

0:10:30.6 BN: Jeff, it’s interesting, because I think as I’ve worked with agents through the years, they don’t realize how important it is to build a proper foundation for their business. Agents begin to work on leads, they begin to try to farm, they begin all kinds of things. It’s like in real estate. If you don’t have a good foundation underneath the house or the structure you’re building, then you’re gonna end up with problems. I remember reading years ago a statement that caught my attention, and it said… A matter of fact, before I tell you the statement, let me tell you why the statement means a lot, because I think if I illustrate it, it will mean more. We all know about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Matter of fact, Jeff, you’ll like this, I used to think it was the Leaning Tower of pizza, because it’s…

0:11:13.7 Jeff: We all did. We all did. Let’s be honest.

0:11:17.0 BN: So… [chuckle] Yes. So it’s the Leaning Tower Pisa. And if you Google where is it located, they’re gonna tell you Pisa. But anyway, listen, it’s got a 3.99 degree lean. And when you research it, you discover that many engineers believe that there was selfish ambition involved in laying the foundation. They wanted to do it so quickly and get it done and make the most money. And so there was some selfish ambition involved. They also say that if it gets to a 5.44 tilt, it’s gonna fall. Well, the phrase that I read that kinda made me think of that was, “Ambition often outstrips reason when it comes to building.” And I think sometimes, real estate agents, we… Our ambition overcome the reason, overcome the reasoning, if you will, about why we’re doing things, and what we should do. So laying a proper foundation, I think is huge. It’s like if you get structural failure in the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it’s gonna fall. And I’m telling you, you can have a great real estate business for a few years, but if the structure isn’t right, if the foundation isn’t right, it’s gonna end up being a kind of a not a good story for you.

0:12:32.3 Jeff: Very good. Great analogy. So as you’re trying to promote culture within Fathom, how does an agent do this as an individual, maybe then as a team, and then perhaps even kind of among their district? What are the things that you would be encouraging agents to do?

0:12:55.6 BN: I think it’s… It goes back to the simple, If you’re gonna talk the talk, you’ve gotta walk the walk. And I remember when I first interviewed about eight years ago with Josh and with Marco and then our state broker JR Russell, when I interviewed them in Dallas, and we were talking about me coming on as the Austin District Director, there was something that caught my attention, Jeff, that I’ll never forget. I’ve heard so many spiels, because I had been with a number of real estate companies before, and you hear the good… It’s a good motive and they mean well, but sometimes, it just wasn’t panning out like I thought, and it should. And yet, when I talked to Josh and heard his heart, something about him and the passion behind what he was saying told me that he wasn’t just gonna talk this talk, he was literally walking this walk. And that made all the difference. It’s like when you pull… Like in the Wizard of Oz, when you pull the curtain back and you find the wizard back there doing all the mechanisms, it was cool to know that when the curtain is pulled back, that what you find in the structure of who we are as a company, that the talk is walked out.

0:14:07.5 BN: Well, that being said, I think it’s huge. When it comes to a team leader, when it comes to a team member, that team leader especially needs to set that tone so that those team members, they see it, because as you know, a lot is caught more than taught. So those team members, they can see that team leader. Agent, the same thing. Their clients are looking at them, they’re watching them. It’s not just what they say, it’s what they do. So their clients are looking at them. And so, walking that walk is huge.

0:14:41.9 Jeff: Right. And I think people see through it really fast. And we’ve talked about that before, just… If you’re gonna promote yourself as some sort of agent with integrity and honesty, or “people first.” You hear that kinda stuff all the time, and it’s like you can tell within a few minutes that that person’s not on your side, so…

0:15:03.5 BN: It’s so true, Jeff. Yeah, very true. One of the things I wanna mention real quick is, because we’re commissioned based, obviously, we all know we’re out there, we’re trying, we’re beating the bushes, we’re really trying to make that commission, and if we’re not careful, we might have a bad month or two, and all of a sudden, the next deal’s about to close, and you think, “Oh no, should I cut this corner, should I not cut that corner?” That’s where the foundation is so important, that’s when the rubber meets the road, if you will, that we do the right thing in that moment, and it’ll all pan out, it’ll all work out, and it’s really how to build a proper future for your business.

0:15:38.5 Jeff: So you’ll be happy to know that somehow in the… Maybe it’s Facebook’s new Metaverse thing that’s going on here. I’m kidding. But somehow, we’re live on Facebook. I don’t know how this happened. So if you’re watching, just say hi to us, because we’ve been delayed from getting over on Facebook somehow, but we just showed up. I don’t know how long we’ve been live over here, so welcome. I think it’s time for… Well, I’m gonna give the answer to the last Christmas trivia thing. And I don’t even agree with it. I think this trivia is bunk. I think somebody put this together so they could get people on their website and downloading stuff, which is not integrity, and it’s not a good culture. But…

0:16:24.1 BN: Go figure.

0:16:24.8 Jeff: It’s from christmassphere.com. So, actually, I shouldn’t say that. Now you’re gonna go look up all the answers. Okay. So don’t. Have integrity, for goodness sake. We’re talking about culture today. Okay. This is what it says. How many presents in total were given in the 12 Days of Christmas? And this is what it says, it says 364.

0:16:46.5 BN: Wow.

0:16:47.1 Jeff: Which is not mathematically… It doesn’t make sense, ’cause on the 12th day, you had 12 lords a-leaping, then 11 ladies dancing, then 10 pipers piping, then nine drummers drumming, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming. Right? And if you go down from there, there’s not even 100. [chuckle] So, somebody do the math.

0:17:06.9 BN: Go figure out what…

0:17:08.4 Jeff: But whoever answered that, if you answered 364, please explain how you got to that. Alright, so here’s the next question and what we’re doing, if you’re watching, we’re giving away $15 gift cards to the marketing store for swag, for whatever you wanna spend it on over there. So, get ready, get your fingers ready. This one is really easy. “Name the famous Christmas ballet. Name the famous Christmas ballet.” It says, “Depending… ” Somebody said, “Depends on how many people they give it to.” Well, it says, “My true love gave to me.”

[laughter]

0:17:45.8 Jeff: I don’t… Alright. We already have the correct answer. It is The Nutcracker and I’ll wait for the official verdict from our scorekeeper. Oh, somebody said, “Swan Lake.” Well, that’s part of The Nutcracker. Marcia Martin, you get $15 bucks towards a gift… This is fun. Let’s just do one more ’cause we got a bunch here and we started late. Okay, this one’s new to me because this wasn’t a tradition that I kept growing up. “How many candles should go on an Advent wreath? How many candles should go on an Advent wreath?” We’ll wait for the answers to come in. Yes, we got a lot of Nutcracker answers from the previous one. We’ll wait for that to come in.

0:18:38.1 BN: I was way off, Jeff. I said 17.

0:18:41.3 Jeff: Well, yeah, you were off anyways. [chuckle]

0:18:43.1 BN: Yeah. We were real flustered anyway in the beginning of it, so it didn’t matter.

0:18:46.6 Jeff: Yeah. It’s gotta be… If you do light the 12 on down, it’s gotta be somewhere around 70 or something like that.

0:18:52.6 BN: Gotta be. Gotta be. It’s real estate math.

0:18:55.6 Jeff: Oh, somebody said 24 candles on an Advent wreath. I don’t think this is true. I think whoever is making this stuff up is wrong.

[laughter]

0:19:06.6 Jeff: So look it up, Google it. How many candles on an Advent wreath? So there’s 24 days leading up to Christmas, so I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on, but a lot of answers coming in there. Okay. So we’ll move on here. Fathom lays out our guiding principles as far as culture and I think they’re very helpful and every single one of our agents who joins gets that when they join. They actually get a printed copy of that. I hope you keep it, I hope you kinda look at that and take it seriously. But if you were to pick out a guiding principle or two that you find to be very pertinent to the real estate agent in their day-to-day business, what would you say is important there?

0:19:54.0 Jeff: The first one that comes to mind, Jeff, in reference to building the real estate, it goes back to the foundation we’re talking about is integrity. Integrity is our third one, I believe it is, and it’s so important to abide by integrity in all that you do. Some agents will come to me and they say, “Well, what do you mean by that?” Or, “Can you illustrate it?” I guess we have time, I can tell a story of this.

0:20:18.4 Jeff: Yeah.

0:20:19.6 BN: The way I illustrate this is tell a story of two guys from Chicago, two Chicago natives. To introduce the first guy, I gotta mention the name that I think everybody listening is gonna know, his name is Al Capone. He’s pretty famous and a bootlegger, swindler, Al Capone and they just couldn’t catch him on anything, Jeff. They tried to nail him, they tried to arrest him, they tried to find a charge against him, but he kept getting off. And one of the reasons he kept getting off of these crimes was because he had a phenomenal lawyer and this is the guy I wanna mention first. The lawyer’s name, and this is so Al Capone-like, the lawyer’s name was Easy Eddie. And every time I wanna say that, I smile, or every time I say it because it’s like I wanna throw out the raspy voice and my shoulders, “Easy Eddie.” That’s his name.

0:21:13.5 Jeff: How you doing?

0:21:13.6 BN: It just fits.

0:21:14.6 Jeff: Yeah.

0:21:15.6 BN: How you doing?

0:21:16.1 Jeff: How you doing?

0:21:16.3 BN: Easy Eddie. Exactly. But Easy Eddie was his lawyer, Al Capone loved him. He kept getting off, everything Capone did he got off. Capone loved him so much, he bought Easy Eddie an entire city block in Chicago and anything Easy Eddie wanted, Easy Eddie got. Well, something happened in Easy Eddie’s life, he had a kid. And when he had this child, he decided, “You know what? Maybe things ought to change a bit. Maybe I should be a better example.” So what he did is he actually went to the DA and he made a deal and he turned Capone in. That’s how they finally got Capone. Within the next 12 months, Easy Eddie lost his life, which you know what? If you’re gonna turn Capone in, that’s probably gonna happen.

0:21:58.6 Jeff: Somebody said… Somebody knows a little bit of the story. They said he died a nasty death.

0:22:04.1 BN: Yeah, it was on the streets of Chicago. It was not a good death. It wasn’t a… I don’t think any death is fun. It was certainly not a fun death. [chuckle] So that’s what happened to Easy Eddie and that’s one of the guys, a Chicago native I wanna talk about. But when it comes to integrity, let me talk about a second one because this one… First one, Easy Eddie, you can see the foundation was not a good foundation. So the integrity wasn’t what it should be, so I think the faulty foundation finally caught up with him, obviously. So here’s the second story of another Chicago native. His name is Lieutenant Butch O’Hare. He’s a World War II fighter pilot. He is in the South Pacific. His squadron takes off from their fleet of ships and they’re going on a mission and he realizes when he gets in the air that they had not filled up his plane with gas.

0:22:56.4 BN: So the commander of the fleet tells him to turn around and come back. They didn’t wanna lose him, they didn’t wanna lose the plane. So on the way back to the fleet of ships, he actually intercepts a squadron of nine enemy bombers that the fleet had not picked up and he sees them coming toward the fleet of ships. So singlehandedly, he shoots down five of those nine enemy bombers.

0:23:21.6 Jeff: Oh my goodness, wow.

0:23:22.4 BN: Yeah. He risked his life, everything. He was able to land safely. Now, sad to say, I think it was September 19th, 1943, they ended up losing his plane, never found him, so he lost his life. He was actually the first naval recipient of the Medal of Honor. And the cool thing is a destroyer was named after him as well, the O’Hare, but I think about four years later, like 1949, the Chicago O’Hare Airport was named after him. So that’s another Chicago native that actually has a good foundation, a good integrity, but the way those two stories coincided… Lieutenant Butch O’Hare, his dad, his name was Edward J. O’Hare, who was Easy Eddie so Lieutenant Butch O’Hare’s son was Easy Eddie so…

0:24:14.5 Jeff: That is fantastic.

0:24:17.1 BN: Yeah, two stories of two different foundations and I think it illustrates for us the importance of having integrity in all that we do especially in real estate.

0:24:26.8 Jeff: So the O’Hare airport is named after Easy Eddie’s son-in-law.

0:24:31.6 BN: His son, yeah.

0:24:32.3 Jeff: So his son?

0:24:32.9 BN: Actual son, yeah, yeah. The actual child that Easy Eddie said, “I’m gonna turn Capone in, in order to be a better example for this boy,” yeah, and that’s what happened to Butch O’Hare, yeah. Ain’t that crazy?

0:24:46.0 Jeff: It is, a great story and I was wondering… And I don’t know if any of the agents watching would have any testimony of this but I was just curious if… It made me think how many agents out there have had an opportunity to cut a corner or to… Did I lose you, Billy? I think I lost Billy there, hopefully we’ll get him back here, but I’m just wondering how many agents out there have had the opportunity to say… To cut a corner and instead of doing that, they used integrity and… Obviously, doing right is good and sleeping well at night is good and having a clear conscience is good but I’ve just wondered how many times agents have…

0:25:29.3 Jeff: Again, you could have cut a corner or done something that was dishonest that you thought nobody would know but then it turned out it really made a difference, doing the right thing made a difference in your business so if you have any of those testimonies, I’d love to hear you share those in the comments. Speaking of comments, we did get a right answer. According to our, whatever, internet search Christmas Trivia that I pulled up here… How many candles should go on an Advent Wreath? Dianna Dickens Gunning got it correct with four, four candles go out on an Advent Wreath so congratulations there, you get a $15 gift card. Wow, so one of our earlier winners, Marcia, said the house that he stayed in, Jacks sold a couple of years ago. Oh, in Jacksonville.

0:26:16.0 BN: Really?

0:26:20.0 Jeff: Yeah.

0:26:21.0 BN: Wow.

0:26:25.3 Jeff: So interesting, interesting history there. Alright, here’s another Christmas trivia again, it’ll get you a $15 gift card if you’re the first to answer it, feel free to Google if you want to. Well, I’m gonna… Okay, this one should be pretty easy for you, this has been around for… Well, I’m gonna ask part one, part two. I’m gonna ask two of them so if you get either of these first then you’ll get a $15 gift card. The first part is, in what year was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens published? In what year was it published? So there’s an A, B, C, D choice here but you can figure it out with the internet or maybe you just know. Also, second part to that, what is the name of Scrooge’s dead business partner? What is the name of Scrooge’s dead business partner?

0:27:19.9 Jeff: So if you can get either of those, then you’ll get a $15 gift card so I’m sure somebody will knock it out here. Just kinda going back to the guiding principles, integrity is one of them, it’s one of our top ones, I think just above love which we consider to be kind of the… Sort of canopy over all of these things, that if you treat people the way you wanna be treated and care about them, all that other stuff kind of flows from that. But any other guiding principles that you would point to and wanna highlight today?

0:27:54.5 BN: Yeah, Jeff, let me go ahead and mention love since you brought that up. I think it’s really important to consider it because I remember when Josh first wrote these guiding principles, when I saw love, I was like, “Huh,” and the first thing that came to mind was that song, “What’s love got to do with it… ” It’s like whatever, I just couldn’t put my… I couldn’t wrap my brain around it, and then I began to realize that it’s interesting because in English, we use the word love in so many different ways, and depending on the context of where we use it, you determine what we’re saying by it. For instance, some of those that are watching might know my wife Angie and Angie’s a Miami district director, we’ve been married 40 years this past summer, yeah.

0:28:39.5 BN: And let me tell you that I love Angie and I could say I love her and you understand in the context what I’m talking about. Now, that being said, this boy’s from San Antonio, Texas so I also love Taco Tuesday. Now, hopefully I love Angie a bit more or a lot more than I love Taco Tuesday. The truth is Taco Tuesday’s a close second. No, [laughter] I’m kidding, it’s not. [laughter] But I will tell you, it all depends on the context in English. In other languages, though, Jeff, you know this as a matter of fact because it’s… In Greek, there’s a number of words for love, one of them is the word Agape which probably a lot of our… Those watching are familiar with. You see it on plaques, necklaces, whatever. It’s that kind of intimate love between a relationship like Angie and I, but then there’s another word that those watching probably know, they just may not know that they know, and it’s the Greek word Phileo.

0:29:39.4 BN: Phileo is more of a brotherly, sisterly love, like a BFF kind of a thing. Well, if you take Phileo and then you couple it with another Greek word Adolphus and you put them together, you get a compound Greek word that many are familiar with, and it’s Philadelphia, which is the city of brotherly love.

0:30:01.5 Jeff: Yeah.

0:30:04.7 BN: When I grabbed that in my head, I thought, “That’s what Josh is talking about.” He’s talking about us having brotherly love for one another, and like you said earlier, that you really put the needs of others before you, and obviously Jeff in real estate, you know how important that is. Whatever that client wants, that’s more important than what the agent wants, and as team leaders and as district directors or as leaders in an organization, we need to love those under us so much that our ceiling becomes their floor. They go higher, they do better, and we see them grow and that’s what should really give us pleasure so I think love is a… That’s why Josh put it first… It’s that important.

0:30:44.1 Jeff: Very good, thank you for sharing that. And I think you’ve kinda outlined some of that in a little bit more detail on one of our Fathom Life Blog posts, so if you guys wanna check that out?

0:30:52.6 BN: Yes.

0:30:54.2 Jeff: And for those of you are like team leaders or whatever, watching, and you wanna have kinda maybe some culture moment in your meetings, that would be a great thing to pull into that and just to read that. We got two correct answers, one from Teresa Graham. She said Marley as in Jacob Marley. That is correct. And then Diana Gunning also, once again with the quick fingers here for trivia, she has 1943 and then she said, I better know this. So I don’t know why that’s the case. I mean, I guess shame on us, if I didn’t know that. So, good for you.

0:31:33.5 BN: I didn’t know them either… [chuckle]

0:31:38.2 Jeff: I’m gonna read one short testimony here from one of our agents that commented and I thought it was good. Winona actually, one of our district directors…

0:31:46.6 BN: Yep.

0:31:47.1 Jeff: In Texas said I had a listing that a gas leak, have the option to have the option ended and the seller was thinking it was the buyer’s problem. I had to make her understand, the right thing to do is to do the repairs, and also the buyer could terminate; seller did the repair and the buyer as agent was very appreciative. And I think that’s… To go in to love again, the concept of loving somebody is sort of a contrast between giving and taking, right?

0:32:13.9 BN: Yeah.

0:32:15.9 Jeff: People that don’t love take, you take, take, take. It’s always about what can I get out of a bargain, or what can I get out of this relationship, or what can I get out of maybe a professional relationship with a client?

0:32:27.8 BN: Yep.

0:32:28.1 Jeff: What can I get out of them? And that’s the entire opposite of love. I mean love by its very nature is giving…

0:32:31.6 BN: Yes.

0:32:35.3 Jeff: And a great season to remember that in here this December.

0:32:41.6 BN: Boy, that is so true, Jeff.

0:32:42.3 Jeff: They’re giving that clients… Having a conversation with them, saying, hey, we don’t need to try to get everything out of this. Let’s try to do the right thing and establish a good relationship with people because just from a business standpoint too, you start taking from people. Well, you’ve started a new culture and that culture is taking and then people are gonna start taking from you and…

0:33:08.5 BN: Exactly.

0:33:10.1 Jeff: So, I’m gonna read another trivia…

0:33:11.6 BN: You know Jeff that’s…

0:33:14.2 Jeff: Yeah, go ahead.

0:33:15.7 BN: That’s a really… Well, you just made a really good point because I tell agents all the time that it’s… You know, when people choose a real estate agent, they’re actually choosing the agent, they’re not choosing Fathom. So, these agents and all of us are our own walking billboard, people are looking at us and it’s the integrity that we could talk about Fathoms integrity all day. But these clients are wanting to know about your integrity, about my integrity. So, I think that’s a huge thing. And obviously, Jeff, referrals are such a massive part of our business, so in order for referrals to keep, for us to keep seeding, it’s like you know, we talk down on the Florida Keys where there’s are a lot of fishing and stuff, we talk about chumming the hole.

0:33:57.9 BN: So you know, you go out fishing and you just pour a bunch of chum in the water and it attracts fish, and then you can throw out the bait with the hook. Well, integrity and living by integrity, love and living by love and the other guiding principles. It’s really just chumming the hole, it attracts people to the agent because of the solidity of that agent’s personality and desire to serve that client, and then there in lies the bait and the hook and you get the clients.

0:34:27.3 Jeff: Awesome, I love that, chumming the hole. That sounds… I like that, I think we lost Billy again. He just hopped off there. Well, in the meantime, until he calls back, I have another trivia question, and this one… Well, I don’t know if… I don’t know if you’ll get it right away or not, you can Google it again if necessary. So here’s our next question. Oh, by the way, before I ask the question, Billy, you’ve done a lot in real estate, you’ve helped a lot of clients, and you’ve also helped a lot of agents with their business, so when I get done with this question, I was just gonna ask you what are things… Just this is kind of apart from culture a little bit, but I’m sure it would play into it.

0:35:07.8 Jeff: What would you say are the top two things that you would give advice to on any agent trying to bring that business from the few transactions, maybe five to 10 transactions up to the 15 to 20 transactions a year? So, before I ask you that though, I’m gonna get… I’m gonna throw out two more trivia questions. This one’s interesting, the most popular toy in 1980 was actually designed by a Professor of Architecture in Budapest to teach his students about spatial awareness. What was it called? The most popular toy of 1980 was actually designed by Professor of Architecture in Budapest to teach his students about spatial awareness. What is it called? What is it called? Because, it’s still around today. So interesting question…

0:35:53.8 BN: Oh, my goodness!

0:35:56.0 Jeff: So we’ll see… And I keep forgetting to give you a shot at these, I mean, I’m sure you would know…

0:35:58.9 BN: Oh, wait no.

0:36:00.0 Jeff: Every single one of them, right on the… Right off the bat.

0:36:05.0 BN: Listen, I could have won every single time, I’m just kind of deferring ’cause honestly I have no idea. [chuckle] I don’t know, that one I was thinking, what Lincoln Logs, I have no clue.

0:36:15.3 Jeff: Well, that would, so yeah. Well, somebody just threw out Lego.

0:36:18.6 BN: Well, yeah, there you go.

0:36:20.0 Jeff: I’m not gonna give the answer away yet, I’m not gonna give the answer away yet.

0:36:23.6 BN: Yeah.

0:36:25.0 Jeff: Alright… Let me throw out one more here, just so we have a couple of the trivia for people to go after. If you were born on Christmas Day, what’s your star sign? If you’re born on…

0:36:38.7 BN: Oh, my goodness!

0:36:39.0 Jeff: Christmas Day, what’s your star sign? Again, I don’t know any of this stuff.

0:36:43.4 BN: Well, there’s a star involved with Christmas. So, there you go.

0:36:48.8 Jeff: So, anyways, maybe give at least one…

0:36:49.6 BN: Yep.

0:36:50.0 Jeff: Of your top two for advice for agents trying to increase your business.

0:36:55.7 BN: When agents talk to me about this, one of the first things I tell them… And it’s interesting Jeff, because this one seems so easy. But it really isn’t, and you have to work on it, and I think it’s to become a good listener. That’s one of the top things I tell them, because what happens is, again, it’s similar to what I said earlier about chumming the hole. You’ve gotta really be a good listener, because you want to hear what that client needs, you want to understand and ask them a lot of questions. Something we’re learning… And we have a Fathom book club that some of the leaders are a part of, and one of the things we learned is this little statement of, stay curious longer.

0:37:34.6 BN: And so, if you can stay curious longer with that client, ask more questions, get exactly what they need and then serve them diligently through the entire transaction, all the way going the extra mile, which actually [0:37:48.6] ____ is another guiding principle. But serving them all the way through to the closing and then beyond, what happens is they remember you, and that’s when the referrals start coming in, that’s when they’re gonna mention you. I mean, I read a story…

0:38:04.0 BN: It was a pie chart that NARS sent out about why clients choose agents, and it amazed me to find out that in regards to choosing them because of the brokerage, I think it was under 3%. When I added up the portions of the pie that dealt with that specific agent, it was like 69 point something. Almost 70% of the reason a client chose a real estate agent is because of that agent. So it’s so important for that agent to understand that whole concept of listening well, paying attention to what is said, and then serving them through the entire transaction to closing and beyond. Jeff, when a track star is running… When you’re out on a race and you see the tape in front of you, you don’t run to the tape and stop. You actually run… You break through that tape, and you run further, and then you start slowing down. So if agents could understand there’s even the beyond the closing service, and communication, and then serving, I think it bodes well for all of them.

0:39:12.6 Jeff: Awesome. Great advice all the way through there. I’m gonna ask you one more here, and then I’ve got a couple of more Christmas trivia, and then we’ll close out with that. And again, thank you for being able to navigate all these technical issues here today.

0:39:30.2 BN: My pleasure.

0:39:33.0 Jeff: So, for the question about the toy, the most popular toy in the 1980s, Teresa Graham got it again, and that toy is in fact, the Rubik’s Cube. The Rubik’s Cube.

0:39:43.5 BN: Wow.

0:39:45.7 Jeff: Billy, you didn’t even… Alright. I didn’t give you a chance to answer again. Okay, so…

0:39:51.7 BN: Well, I’m sorry.

0:39:52.7 Jeff: This one, this is… For me, it’s obscure. But if you’re born on Christmas Day, what’s your star sign?

0:40:00.2 BN: Josh, I have no clue. [laughter] I have no clue.

0:40:05.0 Jeff: Yeah. Okay. Me neither, but somebody… A couple of people, several people got it right, I’m guessing… If you got it right, and you just honest-to-goodness did not Google it, I would love to know, ’cause that’s just… It’s impressive.

0:40:17.7 BN: Unless that’s their star… Unless it’s their sign. Then they would know.

0:40:22.1 Jeff: Where’s Aaron from North Carolina? Aaron Peeler, right?

0:40:28.6 BN: Peeler, Aaron Peeler?

0:40:28.7 Jeff: Yeah, he said he’s full of useless trivia. So, I’m not sure if he’s watching or not, but he should be. This is his moment.

0:40:34.8 BN: That’s hilarious.

0:40:37.0 Jeff: But the star sign is Capricorn. Capricorn, if I’m saying that correctly. Alright, couple more here. This one’s pretty obvious, I’ll just say that. What country has the tradition of filling children’s clogs with candy and treats on December 5th? What country has the tradition of filling children’s clogs with candy and treats on December 5th? That’s one. I’m gonna grab one other here, and…

0:41:10.3 BN: Is the word clog kind of a hint, Jeff?

0:41:13.3 Jeff: Could be.

0:41:14.7 BN: [chuckle] Could be.

0:41:22.8 Jeff: Wow, I’m not gonna… This one’s asking me to read French. I’m not gonna even try that.

[laughter]

0:41:29.7 Jeff: Now talk about a Grinch here. Which US President banned Christmas trees from the White House?

0:41:39.3 BN: Oh my goodness.

0:41:41.4 Jeff: Which US President banned Christmas trees from the White House? I’ll throw one out… One other one out there, because it’s also another presidential question. Which president was the first to decorate the White House Christmas tree and set things right?

0:41:55.2 BN: Nice. Get it back in order. [chuckle] Hey, by the way Jeff, you may not know this, but do you know that Santa actually has a phobia? And his phobia is he’s really honestly afraid to go down chimneys? They call it clause-trophobia. [chuckle]

0:42:16.4 Jeff: That’s pretty good. That’s a good dad joke right there.

0:42:20.7 BN: Yeah, thank you very much…

0:42:21.0 Jeff: [chuckle] Alright, let me ask you one more question here, and this will be the last one. So an agent is new into a community, and I’m asking you this because you’ve moved a few times and have had to kind of establish yourself as an agent, as well as you seem like somebody who would get to know people around you pretty quickly. So, for those agents that might be struggling to make those initial connections in their area, do you have any words of advice for them?

0:42:53.5 BN: Yeah. I can tell you that we moved to the Florida Keys with that… And that’s what we started with Fathom, down in the South Florida area. And we were living down on those islands, Jeff, and it’s very… As you can imagine, it can be cliquish at times, because people have lived there for years and years, and you’re a newcomer coming in. I really think the best way is to get involved in community activities, to get involved in community groups. It was our local church. We found a church down there. We got involved. We were blessed, because our church actually has four services. It’s kind of large, and we were able to make connections that way, and it literally is such a blessing to us when church members engage Angie or myself. We actually have a church blessing. So 20% of our commission, we could rebate back to them or whatever, so whatever we wanna do to bless them. So I think it’s literally looking at the various clubs, the various organizations, getting yourself out there, and not talk about real estate all the time.

0:43:55.2 BN: Just simply be you. Introduce yourself because, remember, people fall in love with you because they want to engage you as a person in real estate. It’s not so much your real estate knowledge they’re after. They wanna know if you communicate well. Can you serve them well? That’s what they’re after. So I think getting involved in those communities and meeting people as fast as you can. That’s what I would suggest.

0:44:22.7 Jeff: Alright. We’re gonna finish out… Thank you. We’re gonna finish out our Christmas trivia here, and then we will say sayonara until the New Years. And by the way, I’m excited about our New Year’s show as well. We’re gonna be doing stuff surrounding setting up proper business systems so that you’re ready to go for 2021. So we’re gonna be doing that in January, and we’ll have some downloads available for that as well. So if you’re the type to make New Year’s resolutions or to try to start with a clean slate and really look at… Really kind of examine all of the systems and everything that you use for your business, tune in for the January show. It’s gonna be really helpful for that. So, Billy, what country has the tradition of filling their children’s clogs?

0:45:19.2 BN: Clogs. [laughter]

0:45:19.9 Jeff: With candy on December 5th?

0:45:22.8 BN: I was gonna say Sweden. I don’t know why, but I just kinda threw that one out there.

0:45:26.7 Jeff: It’s a good guess… It’s a good guess.

0:45:29.4 BN: Okay. Holland. [laughter]

0:45:30.8 Jeff: Holland. Yeah, the Netherlands.

0:45:34.1 BN: Netherlands.

0:45:34.7 Jeff: Netherlands. Yes, it’s the Netherlands. And let’s see here, Justin Livingston got that correct for the Netherlands. Also, who banned the tree… The Christmas tree from the White House?

0:45:49.6 BN: Oh, yikes. I have no idea. It wouldn’t be… Is it somebody really, really back there? Or…

0:46:00.6 Jeff: Well, it would kind of have to be, because the modern media, they would just…

0:46:05.0 BN: Destroy. Yeah.

0:46:05.8 Jeff: You wouldn’t be… Yeah, yeah. Your presidency would be over at that point if…

0:46:09.3 BN: I will go for Thomas Jefferson.

0:46:10.5 Jeff: What’s that?

0:46:10.8 BN: Thomas Jeff… Thomas Jefferson. I’m just gonna go with that.

0:46:13.7 Jeff: Not a bad guess. So it was actually Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt, which he seems like a very festive kind of person, but he banned the… According to this, this might all be just garbage, guys, but somebody got it right. So that would have been Justin Roy got that one first. And then the last one was, who first decorated the White House Christmas tree? Which president first decorated the White House Christmas tree? It looks like Billy has frozen here, which… It’s December. But he froze with such a nice smile on his face, so that works out. Who was the president that first decorated the Christmas tree? And it looks like Justin got it first again, unless I’m not seeing this correctly… Hi, Billy. Welcome back. And he’s gone again just like that, just like Santa, just… [chuckle] You don’t even know he was there.

0:47:25.3 BN: I keep getting knocked off, my bad. [laughter] Something’s happened, and I keep getting knocked off. [laughter]

0:47:29.5 Jeff: Yeah. When you…

0:47:29.9 BN: It’s the elf on the shelf. It’s the elf on the shelf. That’s what the problem is.

0:47:35.0 Jeff: When you froze, you had such a nice smile on your face, which you normally do…

[chuckle]

0:47:38.6 Jeff: But it was like the… I was talking to you, thinking that you were just still smiling at me.

0:47:45.4 BN: [laughter] That’s what I’m gonna do. I’m just gonna free…

0:47:48.7 Jeff: Billy?

0:47:49.1 BN: I’m kidding.

0:47:49.7 Jeff: Billy, are you there? [laughter] Alright, the first person to decorate a… First President to decorate the Christmas tree?

0:47:58.4 BN: Decorate the Christmas tree. Let’s go with Thomas Jefferson. [laughter]

0:48:01.9 Jeff: Thomas Jefferson again.

0:48:04.2 BN: Yes.

0:48:05.4 Jeff: No, it was actually in the past… The last century.

0:48:08.6 BN: Oh, okay.

0:48:08.8 Jeff: I give you one more guess.

0:48:10.7 BN: Gerald Ford.

0:48:12.7 Jeff: Wrong, but you’re closer.

0:48:15.5 BN: Okay.

0:48:15.7 Jeff: The first President to decorate a Christmas tree was FDR. And it looks like, once again, Justin Livingston got that correct, so congratulations.

0:48:24.7 BN: Good job, Justin.

0:48:25.8 Jeff: Few of you won a couple of gift cards. Thank you for everybody that participated. This was fun. And go out and do some good real estate business. I hope you have a great Christmas and holiday season as well as New Years, and hug your family. Enjoy yourself out there. Any last words, Billy?

0:48:45.3 BN: Just how I appreciate everyone that’s watching. And Jeff, you do such a great job too. On behalf of us out here that do listen and watch, thank you so much. This is a really help… This is such a help to all of us, and we probably don’t know all of the effort that goes on behind the scenes, so thank you for everything that goes on behind the scenes to bring this about.

0:49:05.4 Jeff: Thank you, thank you. Alright, Well, Merry Christmas to you, and we’ll see you all in the new year. Bye. So long.

0:49:12.7 BN: Bye, guys.