IAM694- Author Shows Readers How to Succeed in Real Estate

Dan Rochon is a real estate agent and entrepreneur who recently wrote the book, “Real Estate Evolution” which is The Ten Step Guide to C.P.I. (Consistent and Predictable Income) for Real Estate Agents. Dan wrote this book because he has sold real estate since 2007 and has developed an immense amount of experience. During his journey, he has witnessed hundreds (and maybe thousands) of agents fail in this business — which he firmly believes is a shame. In “Real Estate Evolution,” Dan shows readers the exact steps that he has used as a real estate agent, to sell one to 15 homes every month for the past 129 consecutive months. You may get a copy of his book on Amazon or by visiting www.TheRealEstateEvolution.com

Dan was also the guest of episode #IAM103 – https://iamceo.co/2018/11/08/iam103-top-producing-real-estate-agent-provides-solutions-for-dc-area-clients/

• CEO Hack: Time blocking
• CEO Nugget: You are worthy to achieve anything that you intend to achieve and you are worthy to help others achieve what they want to achieve
• CEO Defined: Creating energy, engaging talent, and owning the results

Website: https://www.greetingsvirginia.com/

https://www.therealestateevolution.com/

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:30.19] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dan Rochon of the real estate evolution dot com. Dan, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.00] – Dan Rochon

Thank you. Hello, Gresham.

[00:00:42.00] – Gresham Harkless

Great to have you on, Dan. And, before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Dan so you can learn more about him and all the awesome things that he's doing. Dan is a real estate agent and entrepreneur who recently wrote the book, The Real Estate Evolution, which is the ten-step guide to CPI, consistent and predictable income for real estate agents. Dan wrote this book because he has sold real estate real estate since he thousand seven and has developed an immense amount of experience. During his journey, he has witnessed hundreds and maybe thousands of agents fail in this business, which he firmly believes is a shame. In Real Estate Evolution, Dan shows readers the exact steps that he has used as a real estate agent to sell one to fifteen homes every month for the past one hundred and twenty-nine consecutive months. Dan has also been a guest on our podcast, specifically episode 01:03. Dan, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:35.00] – Dan Rochon
I am. And 01:03 is my favorite of all time.

[00:01:38.20] – Gresham Harkless

Here you go. It better be. So to so to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about, how you guys started. Could you take us through, you know, your CEO story? What led you to get started with your business and all the awesome things you're doing?

[00:01:51.50] – Dan Rochon

I'm happy, happy to do so. So thanks again, Gresham. So, as you mentioned, I'm a real estate agent, and I have, a lot of experience in in doing so. I got my real estate license in two thousand seven. And before real estate sales, I was working as a professional waiter. And, you know, I had a vision for my future at the time one where I wanted to make a significant difference for other people. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a business owner, yet I wasn't able to see the way. I, you know, went to business fairs. I went to, you know, lunches with owners. I did about everything I could possibly do to be able to find a way to be able to either start a business or buy a business. And then, ultimately, I realized that I was not gonna be able to get a bank or a relative or a friend to loan me a quarter million to half a million dollars to start up to, you know, for a start-up.

Mhmm. So I realized that I could get into real estate sales as a business and with around two thousand dollars and a sixty-hour curriculum, I could go ahead and start, start that journey. And I wanted to be able to, you know, as I mentioned, live a better life. I wanna make a difference for others. And, you know, at the time before I got started, I was really struggling with, just being stuck in a box of waiting tables that you know, I was around thirty-two years old at the time, and I did not have a vision for myself to be a fifty-year-old waiter. And so that's what got me started in real estate sales. So Awesome. Yeah. So thank you. And so through the journey, I was, you know, had a rough start. You know, the first six months were challenging.

I didn't remember going into my broker, Karen's office, and sharing with her the struggles that I was having. I remember she's like it was about about four or five months into the journey. I remember she she took her spectacles down, and she appeared to at me over her, glasses after I told her everything that I had done to intend to get business. She's like, Dan, you're on the right track. I remember saying, if I'm on the right track, Karen, why am I about to pay my mortgage with my credit card? You know? It's like, this ain't gonna work. So, anyway, she gave me some great advice, which was mostly to say do less.

You know? Because at the time, I was doing, like twenty-five different things to tend to get business. And she coached me to do one to three, and I did. And so by two thousand nine, I was able to be fortunate enough to have success in real estate sales, and I bought the brokerage that I was working with. That's you know, that was within a year and a half of that conversation. So I was grateful for that. And then I owned the brokerage for ten years, and, you know, I struggled with that many times because I was chasing two rabbits. I was doing my own personal sales business and also running a really large real estate brokerage simultaneously, you know, and other activities as well.

And, I finally realized I had to make a Sophie's Choice about a year and a half ago, and, I knew I was gonna have to either, you know, choose to do my own sales business or choose to be the brokerage owner. And, frankly, the brokerage owner wasn't paying me nearly as much as my sales were, so I sold the brokerage. And then, at that point, I knew I needed a mentor to say, okay. I'm gonna restart where you know, my business. I'm gonna restart my journey. And knew I needed a mentor, so I looked through to say, okay.

Who where is that mentor who is the very best person I know in real estate sales? And, I gave him a call. He said, come out, fly out, see me. I out and saw him, and he, said, Dan, I will coach you. I will mentor you based on one condition, and that is that you take the knowledge that you know in regards to how to have a consistent predictable income. Because at this point, I had sold, one to fifteen homes every single month for a hundred twenty-nine consecutive months. And so he told me he said, Dan, I want you to document that, and that's where Real Estate Evolution, the ten-step guide to CPI, was born.

[00:05:49.50] – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate you for expanding on the story because I think so many times, you know, people, you know, don't see the actual steps it takes to get to where you're at now. And I think that as we kinda even talked about, you know, before we hopped on, how powerful it is that kind of, I guess, law of attraction and being able to have a vision and seek the vision even if it's not necessarily right in alignment with what you're doing at that time, but the power that it has within, obviously, seeing that vision and then, you know, rolling up sleeves and doing the work that needs to be done as well too.

[00:06:20.19] – Dan Rochon

I mean, if, I think if any business owner says that it's an easy journey, I think and sometimes you'll hear business owners share that with you because, you know, because and I'm not being, you know, derogatory towards them or anything. It's just that as business owners, we have to have an optimistic viewpoint. We have to believe that we can conquer the world. We have to believe that we can design our own lives. And as a result of that, sometimes we're overly optimistic and I've been that way many times during my journey. I was reading a letter earlier today that I wrote myself.

About twice a year, I write myself a letter for the future. And, I wrote I was just happy to find it, in my closet earlier today, and it was a letter letter I wrote to myself in two thousand thirteen to my future self. And so that's a practice that I do twice a year, you know, to, you know, know, say say, hey, future self. Here's, you know, here's what the great things are that you achieved, etcetera. And I remember looking at it, chuckling to myself, because this was five years ago that I wrote that letter to myself, chuckling to myself, say, well, hell, I was pretty optimistic. I think that that quality actually helps CEOs and business leaders.

[00:07:28.69] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And I think that you're right where, you know, you can't ignore kind of, like, the ups and downs of running a business and, you know, the trials and tribulations. But at the same time, the people that I think can make it through have that optimistic nature. They do sometimes see the light at the end of the tunnel when nobody else can even see any light at any point or place in the tunnel. So you kinda have to have that perspective and continue to do the work as well too. So, I know you touched a little bit on your book and all the awesome things that you do and packed into the book. Can you take us through a little bit more about what we can find there and anything additional you do to kind of, as a promise you made to your mentor that you can that you have done to help provide that value?

[00:08:11.00] – Dan Rochon

So the book is it is a, a book that's geared Real Estate Evolution is a book that's geared towards real estate agents, yet it's a business book, and it's a personal development book. Any business owner could lead could read through it. Any CEO could read through it, and they could be able to gain nuggets that would allow them to have certainty in their business. They could you know, readers, they're able to develop personally. They're able to learn how to manage your schedule that, you know, allows for them to spend dedicated time in their business or in other areas that are important to them.

And so I go through ten steps in the book starting with flourish, and that's really a large section of the book. It's about maybe almost a quarter of the book. And the section on floors is really in regards to who you who you're going to be, to be able to take ultimate responsibility for your life, to be able to understand how to match your communication such as, you know, communication is more about listening, you know, active listening, asking adept questions, and being in rapport with somebody more so than what some people may think is communication is just speaking the words such as I'm speaking right now.

It is a much deeper, journey in there. And in the in the floor section, I also talk about, you know, understanding why people do what they do and there's a thing called Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And at the bottom of that is talking about, basically, physiological needs such as water, air, food, and reproduction. And then the top need that humans need is self-actualization. So when you can focus on being the very best version of yourself, so if, listeners, you know, just Google Maslow's higher hierarchy, m a s l o v, hierarchy of needs, and you'll see what I'm talking about. And if you can understand that the highest level, of of human needs is one that's gonna drive you through all others.

And the higher that you can focus on in regards to why you're doing what you're doing, then the easier that the show is going to show up. So that's some examples of some of the things that I talk about, flourishing and personal development. And then I talk about looking for leads, which is, you know, a basic concept that all business owners have gotta, understand. If you think that you're a chiropractor, a doctor, or whoever you know, whatever your business is, you're the first somebody that's who's seeking business. Because if you don't have, you know, people coming in your doors, it doesn't matter how good of a chiropractor you are.

And that's a true truism for all business owners we have to find business, we have to lead generate, and then we have to learn how to convert those leads, to focus on conversion. And then I go through, you know, other steps of specifically with, you know, the real estate, and I  finish with, talking about how to build a team, so how to build an organization and, you know, attracting the right people to you, building a bench, finding the right people, knowing the trade, you know, the track record records of success. And then I talk about profit because, ultimately, a business, has to be profitable.

Because if you're not profitable, then, you know, you're out of business and, you know, then you go back to waiting tables if it was for me or whatever the case may be. And then the last thing I talk about in the book is what I call evolution. And this, again, is relevant to all business owners because what we've all experienced and are experiencing is commoditization, and commoditization means that in the absence of value, a consumer is gonna go to the lowest, price or the absence of a perceived value.

So many of us are experiencing commoditization, which means that we have to, communicate our value at a much higher level than what we've ever had to before. And then technology, big data, and artificial intelligence. And those are the four biggies that I talk about in the evolution section of the book that have, already impacted almost every industry in the world.

[00:12:02.79] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for yourself or your business, or your book. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:12:12.10] – Dan Rochon

When I was thinking about secret sauce, it's really about it doesn't matter how good of care you give to a client, what your knowledge is, what the problems are that you, that you move out of the way, how hard you work, how many hours you work. None of that matters if you're not communicating with them excessively. And so that's something that that it's a it's a, one of the visions of my company is to exceed expectations.

[00:12:36.20] – Gresham Harkless

That makes so much sense. I appreciate. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:12:48.89] – Dan Rochon

One CEO hack that I would suggest is time blocking. And it's as simple as that. It's about habits. Successful business owners, successful people, successful athletes, and successful authors. We all understand that we only have so much time in our lives. And at some point in your life, for some people, time becomes the biggest commodity that we have, you know, even more so than money, for example.

[00:13:18.89] – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quotes, and unquote CEOs on the show. So, Dan, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:29.60] – Dan Rochon

I have a very short definition of being a CEO. The CEO's role is to create energy, to engage talent, and to own the result.

[00:13:39.20] – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome content and information and things that you're working on well.

[00:13:54.89] – Dan Rochon

Thank you. If I were to share one nugget from the book that I would want, and I state this in the book, is if there's one thing that that we talk about that any business leader, any sales professional, anybody and we all are persuading somebody at some level, whether it's our wife, our daughter, our dog, it's to get into rapport. And so if you wanna get hired more often, which means that you're gonna, you know, stop riding that roller coaster of sales, then you're gonna have to learn how to develop rapport quickly. And that means that you're gonna be in sync with others. And when you're in rapport, you're gonna discover how you can find the right clients, how you can find the right staff, the right partners, the right people to work with. And the rapport is not necessarily liking people. It is being alike. It's like being in sync. So if you can imagine, like, a dance partner, don't imagine me dancing

[00:14:44.20] – Gresham Harkless

That'll be a very bad example. Right?

[00:14:46.20] – Dan Rochon

If you can imagine a dance partner that is flawless or maybe like a figure skater, you know, pair a couple that are are just flowing together and understand their energy is gonna move in sync, That is what really truly rapport is. And you know you're on rapport when you can physically feel it. And so that would be the one nugget that I would share that, if, if if you wanna, you know, have business success, I think you should study how to get in a report quickly and, and their specific, you know, I would call them hacks that I go through, the book Real Estate Evolution that will show readers how to be able to get and develop in that report quickly.

[00:15:24.60] – Gresham Harkless

That makes so much sense. And people that wanna, to get a copy of the book, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:15:29.20] – Dan Rochon

Is on Amazon. It is on Audible. It is on Kindle. Real Estate Evolution, and, also, readers can or listeners can go to w w w dot the real estate evolution dot com.

[00:15:43.29] – Gresham Harkless

Thank you so much, Dan. We will have those links and information in the show notes as well too just to make it easier, for everybody to follow with you and all the awesome things you're doing. And, of course, get a copy of the book. But I appreciate that reminder as well too because, you know, building a rapport, you know, is is a is a huge thing and it's definitely something that, you know, has certain, things that you can do to help increase the likelihood of your talent or your skill around it just like a muscle. And I think that even if you wanna dance or you wanna be better at business and drive home more sales, building rapport is a great way to do that. So I appreciate you reminding us of that.

[00:16:15.10] – Dan Rochon

I'll stick with business rather than dancing.

[00:16:17.50] – Gresham Harkless

There we go. Awesome day. Well, have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:21.60] – Dan Rochon

Thank you.

[00:16:22.70] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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